A FIVE-DAY COURSE of molnupiravir, the new medicine being hailed as a “huge advance” in the treatment of Covid-19, costs $17.74 to produce, according to a report (pdf) issued last week by drug pricing experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and King’s College Hospital in London. Merck is charging the U.S. government $712 for the same amount of medicine, or 40 times the price. (taxpayer funded mind you)
The Covid-19 treatment molnupiravir was developed using funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.
As already mentioned, the Saudi Arabian Government officially granted Sophia citizenship in 2017. She is the first and only robot to be an official citizen of a country. Her citizenship sparked some controversy, and not just from people who don’t think robots deserve rights. Rather, many people pointed out the contrast to women’s rights in the country.
The largest projects started in 2,013 when the US government and the European Commission launched ‘moonshot’ efforts to provide services to researchers that will help to crack the mammalian brain’s code. They each poured vast resources into large-scale systematic programmes with different goals. The US effort — which is estimated to cost US$6.6 billion up until 2027 — has focused on developing and applying new mapping technologies in its BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative (see ‘Big brain budgets’). The European Commission and its partner organizations have spent €607 million ($703 million) on the Human Brain Project (HBP), which is aimed mainly at creating simulations of the brain’s circuitry and using those models as a platform for experiments.
Scientists around the world are working together to catalogue and map cells in the brain. What have these huge projects revealed about how it works?
Comprehensive health, social services and economic well-being for american indian and alaska native elders — larry curley, executive director, national indian council on aging.
Elon Musk reiterated Tesla’s commitment to China, stating that the company will continue to invest in the country. Musk made his announcement at a pre-recorded question-and-answer session at China’s Cyberspace Administration’s Global Digital Conference. Musk has hailed the country that is vital to his electric vehicle company for the second time this month, calling it as a “global leader in digitalization.” As per Mr. Musk’s comments made during another pre-recorded webcast at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress less than two weeks earlier, Chinese automakers were the “most internationally competitive.” Musk was enthusiastic in his praise for the nation that is vital to Tesla’s electric vehicle business, and his remarks came as the company works to repair its image in China. Musk stated, “I have a lot of respect for the various Chinese automakers who are driving these (EV) technologies.” Musk stated Chinese carmakers are among the best at software, which he claims will “shape the future of the vehicle industry” during his three-minute speech. “My honest view is that China invests a lot of resources and efforts adopting the latest digital technologies in various areas, including the automotive industry,” Musk said in a recent video. China has become a global leader in digitalization in the vehicle industry.” “Tesla will continue to boost its investment and research and development efforts in China.” However, negative coverage of Tesla has also grown in China over the last year. In one high-profile case, a woman claiming to be a Tesla customer protested an apparent brake failure in her car at the Shanghai auto show in April. Tesla was accused of having an “arrogant and aggressive approach” in China, according to official media, after a video of the incident went viral on Chinese social media. But now, Tesla has been attempting to repair its image in China following a barrage of negative headlines. The corporation has been under governmental scrutiny for its privacy practises, as well as several recalls in China. Some state and military employees are apparently restricted from driving Tesla electric vehicles. Musk emphasized data protection in his speech and outlined the many types of data that are stored locally. “At Tesla, we’re pleased to see a bustle of fresh laws and regulations targeted at enhancing data handling,” Musk remarked. In the past, the corporation is said to have broken ground on a big Shanghai facility. According to Reports, Tesla sold 44,264 Made-in-China automobiles by August 2021. There were 31,379 for export, which marked an increase over July’s 32,968 made-in-China automobiles sold and June’s 33,155 units sold. Local EV firms like Xpeng Inc., Li Auto Inc., and Nio Inc. are also posing a threat to Tesla in China. Last month, shipments of China-made cars to domestic purchasers increased, and exports from the company’s Shanghai factory — largely to Europe — increased. As a result, Tesla’s overall China shipments increased 34% from July to 44,264 units in August. According to sources, Tesla momentarily suspended some tasks at its Shanghai factory last month due to a global shortfall of semiconductors. Because of a shortage of crucial chips, a portion of a production line at the China plant was shut down for nearly four days in August. Tesla created a data centre in China to contain all of the data generated by our businesses there, which include manufacturing, sales, service, and charging. All personally identifying information is kept secure in China and is never sent abroad. Data is only permitted for international transfer in very rare instances, such as spare parts orders from overseas.” Tesla is acting in response to new Chinese government regulations governing how carmakers with cameras and sensors collect and use data. Tesla also said in a statement that it was “glad to hold discussions with industry experts” regarding new data security requirements for automobiles in the country. “Data security in automobiles is critical. Tesla will make every effort to maintain data security by implementing automotive data security management.”
Efforts to study the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic have received help from a surprising source. A biologist in the United States has ‘excavated’ partial SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from the beginnings of the pandemic’s probable epicentre in Wuhan, China, that were deposited — but later removed — from a US government database.
The partial genome sequences address an evolutionary conundrum about the early genetic diversity of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, although scientists emphasize that they do not shed light on its origins. Nor is it fully clear why researchers at Wuhan University asked for the sequences to be removed from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA), a repository for raw sequencing data maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Partial SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early outbreaks in Wuhan were removed from a US government database by the scientists who deposited them.
Stimulating STEM Innovation & Securing U.S. High-Tech Economy — Kimberly A. Reed, Fmr President and Chairman Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Kimberly A. Reed just finished up a 2-year term as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM — https://www.exim.gov). She was the first woman to lead EXIM in the agency’s 87-year history, was the first recipient of EXIM’s highest honor, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Award, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 on a strong bi-partisan basis.
El Salvador has mined 0.00599179 bitcoin, or about $269, with power harnessed from a volcano.
President Nayib Bukele – who has banked his political future on a nationwide bitcoin experiment – tweeted early Friday morning that this is the country’s maiden voyage into volcano-powered bitcoin mining.
On Tuesday, the president posted a flashy 25-second teaser video, which includes shots of a government-branded shipping container full of bitcoin mining rigs, technicians installing and plugging in ASIC miners, as well as sweeping landscape aerials of an energy factory in the thick of a forest, bordering a volcano.
A geomagnetic storm is set to hit the Earth and may affect satellites and electricity grids. The US government’s space weather tracking body has warned the public about the possibility of a geomagnetic storm, which is different from a solar storm. The phenomenon is caused by the solar wind and it will likely spark an aurora.
After the solar storm, here comes the solar wind! Over the past couple of weeks, reports have detailed the devastating impact that solar storms or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can have on the Internet infrastructure on Earth. Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Sunday, that is, September 26. A geomagnetic storm is set to hit the Earth. The US government’s space weather tracking body has warned the public about the possibility of a of G1 or G2-level geomagnetic storm. Among some of its effects on Earth is that it is expected to light up the skies in the form of an aurora, aka Northern Lights, and perhaps affect infrastructure.
For the uninitiated, a geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere that occurs when there is an exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth. These storms result from variations in the solar wind that produces major changes in the currents, plasmas, and fields in Earth’s magnetosphere. According to SWPC, the largest storms that result from these conditions are associated with solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, is shot outwards and it get directed at Earth.
