Aotearoa / New Zealand

Clinical trials are underway for a neural implant to monitor brain pressure in those living with hydrocephalus.

The condition causes fluid to build up in the brain which, if untreated, can be fatal.

Patients can be born with hydrocephalus or develop it later in life.

It is typically treated with a small tube, called a shunt, implanted under the skin which drains fluid from the brain into the stomach.

However, shunts had a 50 percent chance of failure in the first two years.

To tackle this, researchers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Kitea Health developed an implant to measure pressure in the brain using an external, wireless wand.

The implant is only two by three millimetres, and weighs 0.3 of a gram.

Clinical trials in adults are about 50 percent complete, and trials on children have begun.

It is a world first, the smallest brain implant ever developed, as well as the first implantable medical device developed in New Zealand.

When Northland ear specialist Marg Hunt was driving to work on Thursday morning, she was not surprised to hear on the radio that there were hundreds of ACC claims relating to cockroaches in ears over the past five years.

"I was laughing because I was thinking 'oh gosh, you know, that's bread and butter for me'," Hunt, who has been in the ear-cleaning field for 40 years, said.

That same morning she removed a pesky mosquito lodged in a person's ear canal.

"It's mainly flying bugs [like moths and mosquitos]. I've only seen a cockroach [in ears] a couple of times actually."

If you have ever been paranoid about getting a bug in your ear, you may want to close your ears now: According to Hunt, it is mostly a coincidence when it happens and it is often while we are asleep.

"When the person's asleep, the cockroach is looking for something warm and dark to hide in.

"But flying bugs at night ... just happen to egress into the ear and flutter and cause all sorts of irritation for the person.

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Why do people think racism works like noise cancelling?

If you're racist the "other way", it doesn't cancel out the initial racism, it just creates more racism.

Sam Neill might describe the article as follows:

Ah, what a fascinating tale! Imagine this, if you will: in the quiet of 19th-century New Zealand, amidst the sheep paddocks and rolling hills, a gentleman by the name of Samuel Butler pens a prophetic letter. The year is 1863, and he warns of a danger not from invading armies or natural disasters, but from machines.

Now, Butler was no ordinary farmer. With an intellect as sharp as the Canterbury wind, he saw in the Industrial Revolution a glimpse of the future—a future where machines could evolve, much like Darwin’s finches, into entities surpassing their creators. Writing under the pseudonym "Cellarius," he likened this mechanical evolution to humanity's domestication of animals, suggesting that one day, the tables might turn. We, the creators, could become subservient to our creations.

Butler's letter, aptly titled "Darwin among the Machines," is chillingly prescient. He imagined a world where machines grew more sophisticated, more autonomous, and potentially more dominant. And though his era’s most advanced devices were little more than mechanical calculators, Butler extrapolated with eerie accuracy to a future where artificial intelligence might challenge humanity’s supremacy.

Fast-forward to today, and the echoes of Butler’s concerns are unmistakable. From OpenAI’s GPT-4 to debates in legislative halls, the question of how to control our technological progeny remains as pressing as ever. Butler’s call for a dramatic rollback of machine progress might seem extreme—he proposed nothing less than the destruction of all machines—but his fundamental warning about humanity’s growing dependence on them rings true.

Ultimately, Butler’s legacy isn’t just his prescient fear of machine dominance but his reflection on humanity’s relationship with progress. His voice, carried through the ages, reminds us to tread carefully as we march toward an uncertain future. A Canterbury sheep farmer warning of AI takeover? Remarkable, isn’t it? And perhaps, just perhaps, a tale worth heeding.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/17144386

Well well well

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

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I wonder if this was planned right from the start that they would be back for more?

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

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It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
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Naltrexone works by reducing cravings and the pleasurable effects of alcohol. All the person has to do is take a pill daily. The person doesn't need to change any other behaviors or quit cold turkey. It just makes people want alcohol less.

The person doesn't need to be a total train wreck to get help. It has been prescribed for "hazardous drinking", which affects about 670,000 of us. Talk to your GP for more info.

https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/datasheet/n/naltrexonetab.pdf

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

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Merry Christmas, everyone!

Wishing you a day full of joy, good food, and great company. Hope you’re all making the most of the holiday season. Take care and have an awesome day!

So, we're preventing Kiwis from fishing here to protect declining fish stocks, yet commercial fishing is still allowed to operate in the same area?

Around the world, people are being encouraged to travel by foot, bike or public transport rather than by car. The reasons are many and varied: to mitigate climate change, pollution, traffic congestion and infrastructure costs, and to improve health and wellbeing.

But in New Zealand, despite efforts by governments, councils and individuals, sustained increases in the use of alternative modes of transport remain elusive.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/50252669

Last weeks thread here

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This could mean taxpayers would compensate corporations if exploration is unsuccessful. Resources Minister Shane Jones has stressed that no decision has been made yet, but the government accepts commercial exploration for new gas resources is unlikely without state support.

However, subsidising fossil fuel activities seems contrary to New Zealand’s recent international commitment to phase out incentives for the industry. It is also difficult to square with the government’s climate strategy to make clean energy abundant and affordable for everyone, announced last week as part of the second Emissions Reduction Plan for 2026–30.

Helping corporations potentially exploit new fossil fuel resources, thereby adding greenhouse gas emissions, may also be contrary to the government’s obligations under international human rights law.

New Zealand's oldest man and former prisoner of war James "Jim" Easton has celebrated another lap around the sun, hitting the grand old age of 108 this week.

When asked what he enjoyed most about his Army service, Easton replied: "Trying to get out!"

Many of Easton's friends suffered terrible nightmares, but he managed to develop a clever technique to prevent them.

"Whenever I felt one coming on I'd dream of nude women. That took it away immediately," he told the Herald after his 106th birthday.

In 2022, Easton was believed to be the first New Zealander to receive a birthday card from two monarchs: one from King Charles III for his 106th, and one from Queen Elizabeth II for his 100th.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23139121

A teenager appears to be lucky to be alive although he remained stuck after climbing a power pylon in Christchurch on Friday evening.

Just Perfect Detailing owner Josh Phillips was nearby as emergency services arrived and believes the teenage boy climbed the pole before grabbing the live wires.

"He's sweating, and he's got quite bad burns, there's red all over him. His shorts have disintegrated literally, and there were burned bits of fabric underneath the power line he climbed. His arms and legs are charred, and he's complaining he can't feel his legs and that he's cold."

This happened last night, but the article doesn't seem to have been updated (as of posting) this morning with any resolution.