Risks. Chapter 20

The Risks of Empathy, a Novella

Chapter 20

Harry was on his knees with the side of his head down flat on the floor; he was looking under a pallet stacked with bags of cracked corn. He was talking to a small brown mouse. "Come on now. Get out of there. I need to move this corn into the barn."

He looked up and over his shoulder at Karen and said, "Hand me that rake behind the forklift seat."

She did but said, "Be careful Harry."

Harry used the handle to reach under the pallet and gently nudge the mouse. It ran out and under the next pallet. Harry smiled and got up. "That's about the tenth time I've flushed him. I think he is learning not to be too worried about me."

Karen sat down on one of the forklift's two work-polished tines and breathed a deep sigh.

"What was that for?" asked Harry. "You didn't think I was going to hurt the little guy did you?"

"Of course not. It's just that I've been thinking more about this whole situation. Mr. Selling says we might actually have to fight a real war. I just don't get it. What's wrong with people Harry? Why can't they see the truth? Why don't they care?"

Harry walked around and sat down on the other silver tine. He looked at Karen, seemed to think for a moment, and answered her sigh with one of his own. "Well. Do you want to hear my opinion on the subject?"

"Yes, of course."

"I think that there are four kinds of people in the world. There're those who see immediately that animals are people; I don't mean they're human of course, but some people seem to notice immediately that there's someone looking back at them when they look into a dog's or a cow's eyes. But people like that, people who are sensitive or open enough to see this on their own, well, they're rare. I doubt that many of the people around here are like that. Most of the people around here are in the second group.

"The second kind of person is someone who is shocked that they have been missing something that seems obvious once it's pointed out to them. Or, in this case, it's the kind of person who really is kind and has always been kind and at least a little charitable. These are people like you and me. Once we watched the TEs we realized that we'd just been wrong or had missed the fact that a dog really is a sort of a person. I think these are the kind of a people around here mostly. I think that most people are like this. We are shocked at first because we didn't really imagine that an animal was something very different from anything else we owned or ate like a shoe or a carrot.

"The third kind of person is someone who watches a TE and gets a little shock but is either too stupid or selfish or too something to care. I guess that these are the kind of people who never did really care too much about other people either. So when they learned that a horse was another person, they just said 'so what?'

"That's what I think."

"But you said you think that there are four kinds of people," said Karen.

"Yeah, I guess I did. The fourth group scares me so much that I don't like to think too much about them. Those are the people who didn't learn anything they didn't already know when they watched an animal TE."

"Like the first group?" asked Karen.

"Sort of," answered Harry. "But these people have never been willing to stop hurting or killing animals, even though they know that the animals are a lot like themselves. These are the scientists who have shocked dogs and monkeys so often that the animals have gone insane. These are the people who catch a child and hurt them just because they know how frightened they can make them. These are the people who grin at bullfights and rodeos, who like watching dogs fighting and dogs peeing on themselves in fear. These are the people who devise experiments to frighten baby animals. These are the people who make me worry that evil is very real and not just a name we use for describing coincidentally bad things.

"If there's a war for the animals, you can be sure that these people will be the ones who will be killing simply for the fun of it."

Karen stared at Harry for a while then looked up as a flock of birds wheeled free in the sky. A single tear coursed slowly down her cheek.

-----

The assassination was the big news, of course. On every screen, in every home, in every bar, the images were the same. The President and the Vice President were each giving a speech to commemorate the first fifty years of the American Lunar Colony. Critics were quick to point out that fifteen scientists barely counted as a colony, but the media and the propagandists said otherwise, so it was a colony. The President and the Vice President rarely appeared together in public due to security concerns, but the party wogs had been worried about the upcoming elections and the chance for a pure flag-waving spectacle was irresistible to them.

Three shots could be heard on the recording. The President appeared to be the first one hit and he went down - quickly covered by a pile of secret service agents. The Vice President provided a more spectacular image when his head exploded in an eruption of blood and pieces of, well, his head. The third shot seems to have missed altogether.

Rita was watching the news along with half a dozen others at the bar in Jim's Lounge. Secretary of State Rebecca McGuire was speaking:

"This was a cowardly act that strikes at the very roots of our democracy. I am sorry to say that we have lost two of our finest Americans today. But their deaths will not be in vain.

"Our intelligence agencies tell us that the assassins, and I can now tell you that there were four, have been captured. Our interrogation proves that they are part of a larger plot of revolution against our republic.

"These cowards are part of the same group that has been involved in the growing terrorism we are all too familiar with today.

"But I am committed to seeing our nation continue as a world leader in trade and commerce. Acts of terror, such as the recent attacks on so many of our finest institutions - our ranches, our meat packing plants, our biomedical laboratories, and now on the Presidency itself - will not stand unchallenged.

"In the interests of democracy and the American way of life I am left with no choice but to declare a state of martial law. This will be temporary and is needed only until the radical elements - that have acted with such vile contempt of our hallowed traditions - are brought to justice.

"You have my word that we will see our way through these dark times and emerge with renewed vigor and pride in this great country."

A newscaster then came on the screen and began announcing the local rules that were being put in place in support of the new War on Terrorism.

Rita spat on the floor.

Risks. Chapter 19

The Risks of Empathy, a Novella

Chapter 19

It was almost as much fun as the real Selling TEs, and it was definitely more exciting. Rita crouched behind the dumpster in dark damp alley. She had a large purse with her that had a distinct petroleum aroma. One of her friends from the bar was crouched next to her. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small brown flask. "Here."

Rita took the flask and indulged in a small sip. She usually tried to stay sober and sharp before a raid, but she didn't want to seem rude. "Let's go," she said.

Rita led the way up to the rear of the building and peeped in through the grime-clouded window. Her partner crowded next to her and together they took in the scene. Three people were hard at work cutting up chicken carcasses. Two barrels of plucked chickens stood in the center of the room and a pile of cut and wrapped pieces was growing on a cart nearby. As a chicken was cut up, wrapped in white paper, and tossed onto the cart, the worker grabbed another from the barrel and began dismembering it.

Rita whispered to her partner, "They keep moving these places, and we keep finding them." Rita reached into her bag and took out a wine bottle fitted with a cloth stopper.

"Take the hammer. When I say go, smash the window and then run like hell. I'll meet you back at the bar in about an hour. Don't lose the hammer." Rita reached into her pocket, pulled out her cigarette lighter, and lit the Molotov cocktail. "Go!"

-----

...being Earnie being Karen being Earnie being Karen ....

"Karen." Someone was shaking her shoulder and talking to her. She recognized Stan and was wholly back.

"Wow. That was weird as shit. How long were we connected?"

"About three hours. I thought it best to let you see just how impossible it is to break the loop."

When the connection had been established Karen's first fleeting impression had been of being Earnie followed almost immediately with the experience of him realizing he was her realizing she was him. It was like being in a hall of mirrors and seeing one's reflection disappear into infinity. There was nothing to get hold of, no thought had an end because it reverberated back and forth, no thought could be begun because none could finish. Subjectively, there had been no passage of time, just endless re-realizations that she was him realizing that he was her.

"It's a really hard problem," said Earnie. "Much harder than anything we've yet had to deal with. If the potential wasn't so high we might just can the whole damn thing."

"Have you tried it with more than just two people?" asked Karen.

"Like a ménage à trois," grinned Earnie. "No, but I don't see how it could hurt. What do you think Stan?"

-----

The entire ranch was aware that things had taken a decidedly difficult turn. The declared martial law was clear on a number of points. First, and foremost, anyone caught with a Selling TE was to be held and tried as a spy and terrorist. The government had fabricated some nonsense about the TEs being used by terrorist cells to communicate with each other. Second, Richard Selling had been named as the likely head of the revolutionary forces and had been moved to the top of the CIA's and the FBI's Most Wanted Lists. Third, anyone caught interfering with any animal based concern - including ranching, fur farming, biomedical research, rodeos, pet stores, restaurants serving meat, stores selling meat, trucks hauling animals to slaughter, packing houses, zoos, aquariums, and any other animal enterprise not specifically named - were to be held as a spy and tried as a terrorist.

Stan and Earnie were as unsettled as the rest of the ranch and told Karen to take a day or two off. Everyone seemed to want to get their hands dirty with the care of the animals. Somehow, taking care of their basic needs seemed to help settle people's anxiety. They all felt there was a storm just over the horizon and coming their way.

Calories, bias, and ethics

If you are one of the few people in the world who pay attention to both the industry’s claims and the actual results from experiments on animals, then you’ve likely already read something about a recent report from the NIH.

The story was covered in the New York Times and starts this way:

Severe Diet Doesn’t Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys
By GINA KOLATA
Published: August 29, 2012

For 25 years, the rhesus monkeys were kept semi-starved, lean and hungry. The males’ weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales at just 120 to 133 pounds. The hope was that if the monkeys lived longer, healthier lives by eating a lot less, then maybe people, their evolutionary cousins, would, too. Some scientists, anticipating such benefits, began severely restricting their own diets.

A 23-year study comparing calorie restricted rhesus monkeys, left, to normally-fed monkeys, has shown that calorie restriction may not increase one's lifespan.

The results of this major, long-awaited study, which began in 1987, are finally in. But it did not bring the vindication calorie restriction enthusiasts had anticipated. It turns out the skinny monkeys did not live any longer than those kept at more normal weights. Some lab test results improved, but only in monkeys put on the diet when they were old. The causes of death — cancer, heart disease — were the same in both the underfed and the normally fed monkeys.

The article goes on to point out the UW, Madison’s involvement in this research:

Like many other researchers on aging, he had expected an outcome similar to that of a 2009 study from the University of Wisconsin that concluded that caloric restriction did extend monkeys’ life spans.

But even that study had a question mark hanging over it. Its authors had disregarded about half of the deaths among the monkeys they studied, saying they were not related to aging. If they had included all of the deaths, there was no extension of life span in the Wisconsin study, either.

What you might not be aware of if you don’t read the Wisconsin State Journal is just how frequently the university has called attention to its research in this area. Media often swallows whole the reports that are so straightforwardly propaganda – written by spin-doctors whose only reason for writing about the university’s use of animals appears to be, well, propaganda – cultivating the public's misunderstanding and delusion that they themselves planted originally in misleading press releases.

Below, I’ve pasted in a few of the university’s releases over the years regarding its caloric restriction tax-payer-funded gravy train. The university’s spin seems at odds with the third party report in the NYT.

This is a good example of the problem of bias in science. Assuming that the UW, Madison scientists involved actually believed the things they said, their fiddling with the data they used to draw conclusions is the reason for blinding and double blinding in research design. Even knowing the risks of bias, it seems that many, maybe most scientists are unable to keep from seeing success when it simply isn’t there.

This seems to be a situation-based version of a universal human foible. We aren’t good, or even moderately fair judges of anything when the thing that we are trying to judge is something we are involved in more or less directly. We can’t accurately judge even our own morality when we are part of a system that condones and encourages our behavior.

This explains why people will commit atrocities when ordered to so. The work of people like Milgram, Zimbardo, Bandura, and many others has made it exquisitely clear that human endeavors that include opportunities for willfully hurting others will almost always do so unless their is vigorous third-party oversight. The harm done often has the energetic support and cooperation of nearly everyone in the system.

So researchers are unable to fairly draw conclusions from their own data and must blind themselves to many details behind the data if they are to have any hope of fairly judging their own results.

And people who experiment on animals and approve the experiments are also hopelessly biased and can see only pie when they look up at the sky.

The part of all this that is doubly depressing is the plain fact that most of the people who approve experiments on animals are supposed to know the inherent unavoidable bias they bring to their work. But when deciding whether to approve an experiment, they do nothing to avoid their blinding biases. They decide to approve someone’s invasive brain experiments on dogs or cats or monkeys not because there is any evidence that similar experiments have provided some benefit to human patients, but solely because the experiments come with a bucket of money for the institution or else the vivisectors whose experiment they are “considering” for approval, is well-known to them.

The failure to make any effort to avoid bias is unethical and dirties everyone involved.

Anyway, below are snippets from the university’s press releases touting the work that the NIH study now seems to refute.

University Communications
News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6/13/06

PHOTO EDITORS: High-resolution images are available at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/monkeyRC.html

CONTACT: Richard H. Weindruch (608) 263-3503, rhweindr@wisc.edu; Sterling Johnson (608) 256-1901, Ext. 11946, scj@medicine.wisc.edu

WISCONSIN DIET AND AGING STUDY GAINS $7.9 MILLION GRANT

MADISON - A pioneering long-term study of the links between diet and aging in monkeys will continue through 2011 with the help of a new $7.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

First initiated at the National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989, the study examines the effects of a reduced-calorie diet on the aging process and health of 76 rhesus monkeys. It is one of only two long-term studies of its kind, and during the course of 16 years has shown that a nutritious but reduced-calorie diet has multiple benefits for health and aging.

The project, according to Richard Weindruch, the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health professor who has led the research since 1994, is in a critical phase as the monkeys in the study are entering late middle age, which for rhesus macaques is their early to mid-20s. In captivity, rhesus monkeys can live up to 40 years.

Late middle age, Weindruch notes, is the time of life when a host of age-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cognitive deficits and arthritis, among other things, begin to manifest themselves. This is true, he says, for both monkeys and humans.

"This is a very interesting time in the study," says Weindruch, who also is an investigator at the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. Because the animals have reached this stage of life, "it's show time for dietary restriction."

At this point in the study, the disparities between the monkeys on a diet reduced in calories by 30 percent and those allowed to eat as much as they wish are clearly evident. "Most importantly, we're starting to see the separation of the survival curves," Weindruch says, noting that 90 percent of the animals who began the study on a reduced diet are still alive, while only 70 percent of the animals allowed to eat freely have survived to this stage.

Of those animals who have died, most have succumbed to the same age-related conditions that kill many humans with colon cancer claiming the most, and diabetes and heart disease also taking a high toll. Says Weindruch: "Whether these trends will continue, time will tell."

The idea that fewer calories can extend lifespan and improve health has a long experimental history. The notion has been tested in animal models ranging from spiders and mice to, more recently, fledgling studies in humans. But the rhesus macaques in the Wisconsin study, according to Weindruch, offer perhaps the best window into a phenomenon that is the only proven dietary way to extend lifespan. Rhesus macaques have much in common with humans, including a similar genetic makeup and susceptibility to many of the diseases and conditions that affect human health.

---


University Communications
News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 1999
CONTACT: Richard Weindruch, (608) 256-1901, Ext. 1642, rhweindr@facstaff.wisc.edu

((Editor's note: We've put together a news media resource web page at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/aging.html for organizations wishing to download high-resolution images to accompany this story.))

$6.75 MILLION TO EXTEND PRIMATE STUDIES OF DIET AND AGING

MADISON - A decade-long study of how diet affects the process of growing old, will continue and be expanded at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the help of $6.75 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Begun in 1989 at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center (WRPRC),
the study of rhesus macaques on controlled diets is one of only two such studies in the world. The research, according to Richard Weindruch, a UW-Madison Medical School professor and the lead scientist for the project, is intended to answer a central question of biology: Can aging be held at bay by cutting down on calories?

"Dietary restriction offers a powerful experimental strategy to explore mechanisms of aging because it is the only intervention which has repeatedly and strongly increased maximum life span and retarded the rate of aging in laboratory rodents," said Weindruch. "But the study of calorie restriction and aging in non-human primates is in its infancy, as compared to the body of work done in rodents."

The new grant will enable scientists to continue studies in rhesus macaques, a much-studied and long-lived animal whose genetic and physiological characteristics parallel those of humans. The work is being conducted in several groups of primates whose calorie intake for the past five to 10 years has been reduced by about 30 percent, as well as monkeys whose diets permit them to eat as much as they wish.

The study of rhesus monkeys builds on extensive research in rodents, spiders and other animals that shows life span can be significantly extended and the rate of aging slowed by maintaining a nutritious but restricted diet, according to Weindruch.

---

UW-Madison Home
News from UW-Madison

UW-Madison News Releases
University Communications
News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/9/09

PHOTO EDITORS: Images are available for download at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/monkeyDiet09.html

CONTACT: Richard Weindruch, 608-256-1901, ext. 11642, rhweindr@wisc.edu; Ricki Colman, 608-263-3544, rcolman@primate.wisc.edu; Sterling Johnson, 608-256-1901 ext. 11946, scj@medicine.wisc.edu

REDUCED DIET THWARTS AGING, DISEASE IN MONKEYS

MADISON - The bottom-line message from a decades-long study of monkeys on a restricted diet is simple: Consuming fewer calories leads to a longer, healthier life.

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University Communications
News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6/4/08

CONTACT: Tomas Prolla, (608) 265-5204, (608) 556-0175 (cell), taprolla@wisc.edu; Richard Weindruch (608) 256-1901 ext. 11642, (608) 556-0176 (cell), rhweindr@wisc.edu

AGENT IN RED WINE FOUND TO KEEP HEARTS YOUNG

MADISON - How, scientists wonder, do the French get away with a clean bill of heart health despite a diet loaded with saturated fats?

The answer to the so-called "French paradox" may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.

Writing this week (June 3) in the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers report that low doses of resveratrol in the diet of middle-aged mice has a widespread influence on the genetic levers of aging and may confer special protection on the heart.

Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the effects of what is known as caloric restriction - diets with 20-30 percent fewer calories than a typical diet - that in numerous studies has been shown to extend lifespan and blunt the effects of aging.

"This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode," says senior author Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medicine and a researcher at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. "At the same time, it plugs into the biology of caloric restriction."

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UW-Madison Home
News from UW-Madison

UW-Madison News Releases
University Communications
News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11/18/10

CONTACT: Tomas A. Prolla, 608-556-0175, taprolla@wisc.edu; John M. Denu, 608-265-1859, jmdenu@wisc.edu

SCIENTISTS FERRET OUT A KEY PATHWAY FOR AGING

MADISON - For decades, scientists have been searching for the fundamental biological secrets of how eating less extends lifespan.

It has been well documented in species ranging from spiders to monkeys that a diet with consistently fewer calories can dramatically slow the process of aging and improve health in old age. But how a reduced diet acts at the most basic level to influence metabolism and physiology to blunt the age-related decline of tissues and cells has remained, for the most part, a mystery.

Now, writing in the current online issue (Nov. 18) of the journal Cell, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and their colleagues describe a molecular pathway that is a key determinant of the aging process. The finding not only helps explain the cascade of events that contributes to aging, but also provides a rational basis for devising interventions, drugs that may retard aging and contribute to better health in old age.

"We're getting closer and closer to a good understanding of how caloric restriction works," says Tomas A. Prolla, a UW-Madison professor of genetics and a senior author of the new Cell study. "This study is the first direct proof for a mechanism underlying the anti-aging effects we observe under caloric restriction."

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University Communications
News releases

HOLD FOR 5 P.M. EASTERN TIME RELEASE OCTOBER 28, 2002

CONTACT: Tomas Prolla, (608) 265-5204, taprolla@facstaff.wisc.edu; Richard Weindruch, (608) 256-1901, Ext. 11642, rhweindr@.wisc.edu

NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: To download high-resolution photos that accompany this story, visit: http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/age.html

EVEN IN MIDDLE AGE, CUTTING CALORIES SLOWS AGING OF THE HEART

MADISON - To remain young at heart, eat less.

That, in short, is the message drawn from research published today, Oct. 28, by a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a research group led by UW-Madison genetics Professor Tomas A. Prolla, and Medical School Professor Richard Weindruch, reports the results of a study in which middle-aged mice, put on a calorie-restricted diet, exhibit signs of a remarkable uptick in heart health in old age.

"It looks like caloric restriction just retarded the whole aging process in the heart," said Prolla whose group employed powerful molecular techniques to study nearly 10,000 genes at work in the heart. The work represents the first global analysis of gene expression in the aging heart.

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 1999
CONTACT: Tomas A. Prolla (608) 265-5204, taprolla@facstaff.wisc.edu; Richard Weindruch (608) 256-1901, Ext. 1642, rhweindr@facstaff.wisc.edu

(NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: High-resolution images of Prolla and Weindruch are available for downloading at: http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/age.html )

STUDY DETAILS GENETIC BASIS OF AGING-- AND HOW IT MIGHT BE DELAYED

MADISON - Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have, for the first time, profiled specific genetic changes during the aging of experimental animals, a discovery that could aid work to extend life span and preserve health.

The work conducted with mice combines a powerful new genetic technique with dietary restriction, the only known way to delay the aging process. The research will be published Friday, Aug. 27, in the journal Science.

The study is a milestone in aging research, providing scientists with an intimate look at the ebb and flow of genetic activity with age, and the roles individual genes play in the process of growing old.

Moreover, it reveals how a low-calorie diet, the only known method of slowing aging in several animal species, works at the most basic level to extend life span and preserve health. Such knowledge, used in concert with new technologies capable of rapidly surveying the activity of thousands of genes at once, promises to accelerate the development of drugs that mimic the age-retarding effects of a low-calorie diet, according to the Wisconsin scientists.

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Risks. Chapter 18

The Risks of Empathy, a Novella

Chapter 18

The President sat in a small sitting room in the White House. A light tap at the door signaled that his guest had arrived. A Marine dressed in a crisply starched uniform let Secretary of State Rebecca McGuire into the room. He closed the door quietly behind her.

"Rebecca. Good evening. Thanks for coming. I hope I haven't caused you too much inconvenience at this late hour of the night."

"You said it was urgent, Mr. President. I came right away. Is there a problem?"

President John Adams was wearing a maroon terrycloth robe and light blue flannel pajamas. His slippers were broken down in the back and had obviously been a part of his nightly wardrobe for a number of years. He had a cup of tea next to him. His ready-for-bed rumpled appearance confused McGuire. She had expected to be escorted to the White House situation room in the basement.

"Sit down Rebecca," said the President motioning to the only other chair in the room and positioned intimately next to his own. "Would you like something to drink? Black oolong isn't it?"

"That would be nice Mr. President. Thanks for remembering." She had the correct impression that whatever Adams intended to discuss he was going to take his time with it. She wondered whether he was considering a shake up of the cabinet; there had been rumors.

Adams picked up the phone next to him and mentioned something about the tea. Almost immediately, a soft knock preceded the door opening. A woman dressed neatly in a dark blue dress came in carrying a small teapot and a cup and saucer on a silver tray. The tea was already steeping and the aroma wafted in behind her on the air current. She sat the tray on the small table between them. She left without saying a word.

"Rebecca," Adams began even as she was pouring the tea from the Wedgwood teapot into the matching small pink cup, "I asked you here because you said during our meeting with Richard Selling, that you had tried out the cow TE and thought that the animal TEs were a threat to national security. Do you remember saying that?"

"Of course Mr. President. That's one of the reasons we banned them."

"Yes, well, just between us. What did you really think of it?"

Patricia McGuire had her sights set on the Presidency itself. Her longing for power was the motivation behind everything she did. She rarely said anything without subjecting it to a calculus intended to measure the costs and benefits, the advantages and the risks associated with it. Her statements were closely measured reactions that she felt were the most politic. But sitting with Adams, him in his robe and pajamas, the tea and simple intimacy of the moment, McGuire was uncommonly frank and authentic.

"I don't know what the big deal was. I mean, of course a cow is thinking about something sometime. Why did that surprise anyone? I just don't see what it matters."

"Were you surprised by the similarity between the cow's concern for her calf and a mother's concern for her child?"

"Well, I've never had children, as you know, but my sister, Pam, has two daughters. I'm not that close to them, but I think she loves them a lot. At least she says she does. But, I wasn't that surprised, no. I mean, when you think about it, doesn't it just make sense that a mother is a mother and that she will be concerned for her offspring? So you used the cow TE? I thought we had decided that it was too much of a risk?"

"Betty just made me," chuckled Adams. "Didn't hurt me a bit. And yes, it did surprise me. What did you see as the risk?"

"Actually, sir, Wilkins and I were worried about the effect the animal TEs might have on you. We were worried that you would make a big deal over them and that, if you did, that the economy would be threatened by the major upheaval that would necessarily result if you overreacted. The effect on the world's economy could be disastrous."

"I see."

"Don't take it the wrong way Mr. President. Some people, like yourself, are just very softhearted."

President John Adams sat quietly. McGuire wondered whether he had fallen asleep. She began questioning her rare candor. She checked the teapot and drained it into her cup making a few more clinks of spoon against china than were necessary.

"I'm just thinking Rebecca. I don't see how we can't do something."

Secretary of State, Rebecca McGuire said guardedly, "You're probably right Mr. President," and began plotting her own quick ascendancy to the Presidency.

In Loving Memory of Nama

See http://www.ida-africa.org/index.php?page_id=12&newsletter_id=129

Nama when I met her, after many years of being chained in place:

ONPRC Pays $12,000 Fine

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Health & Science University paid a fine of nearly $12,000 following the deaths of five monkeys and the escape of nine others from the Oregon National Primate Research Center in 2009.

University officials said Tuesday that they agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and paid the fine on four violations earlier this year. A group opposed to animal testing called the fine "paltry."

More

Risks. Chapter 17

The Risks of Empathy, a Novella

Chapter 17

The tobacco and marijuana smoke was thick in Jim's Lounge. Business had picked up again after the ban on the Selling TE's took hold. The government versions seemed less real somehow, and no one liked the damned commercials that they had started inserting into them. Who wanted to hear about a sale on furniture when they were surfing Pipeline in Hawaii?

Rita sat in a booth with three other regulars. The conversation topics had been the same now for some time: revolution and animals.

"I heard that people are takin' animals out of labs. I heard that people are goin' right in to restaurants and delicatessens and shooting the people selling meat."

Heads shook in agreement. "I wish I had the guts to do that."

"Well, I heard that there're places out west where animals and people are livin' together and startin' their own countries."

"I don't know about that," said Rita. "It seems to me that the government would step right in if people was claiming they was starting a whole new country."

"Look, they ain't sayin' it, but they're sure as hell doin' it."

They all sat quietly for a moment letting the idea sink in.

"What I don't get is why there's no news about this." They all looked over at the vert-view mounted above the bar. A football game was on, but there had been no news about the animals or the underground revolution that everyone everywhere was talking about.

-----

Karen had never been in the main house. Everyone knew that Richard Selling came and went, but he was rarely seen. She walked up the stone steps to the large front porch and started to knock, but the door opened and a man she recognized instantly said, "Hi, you must be Karen. I'm Richard Selling."

Karen was only a little nonplussed by being greeted by Selling; her time at the Enzyme Institute had at least offered her enough experience with meeting famous people that she could now do so without appearing completely befuddled.

"Mr. Selling, I'm so honored to meet you. Nothing I can say can express the admiration I feel for all you have done."

Selling actually blushed and guffawed, "Why anyone in my shoes would have done the same. Now hush, or my head will simply swell too big for this door. Come on in. I'll take you down to the lab."

Selling led Karen through the house to a door that opened to reveal a second steel door behind it. Selling pushed a button next to the door and it slid open revealing the inside of an elevator.

"After you, Karen," he said, and stepped into the elevator with her. He pressed one of only four unlabeled buttons and the floor seemed to drop away. Karen realized that they were going deep underground.

Selling's basic survivalist notions had motivated him to equip the cabin with a keep buried deep within the rock. He had intended it as his retreat of last resort should the world take a particularly lunatic or anarchic turn. During the excavation they had broken through the ceiling of an immense underground cavern that he was still exploring. It had been the obvious place to set up Stan and Earnie's lab once they and their paradigm-shaking research became machinus non-gratis.

The elevator slowed and the doors slid open silently. Karen was unprepared for the magnitude of the expanse that opened before her and she let out a small gasp.

"It catches most visitors off guard," said Selling. "We were really lucky to have found this place. We still don't know how far it extends back into the mountains, but the engineers tell me that we could probably survive even a direct hit from a medium sized nuclear missile. The way things are going, we might have to put it to the test."

Karen took her eyes off the lit cavern and the dark shadows that suggested hidden rooms and corridors to look over at Selling to see whether he was speaking figuratively. The seriousness of his face suggested that he wasn't.

Metal walkways led off in a variety of directions from the elevator and along one of these came two decidedly disheveled men being followed by a large dog.

Karen recognized Earnie who walked up and said, "Hi Richard." He beamed, "Hello Karen, I'm so glad you came! These are my friends Ted and Stan."

Karen reached out and shook hands with Stan and told him what an honor it was to actually be meeting him. She look down at the dog and said, "Hello, Ted."

Ted cocked his head a little and looked over at Stan.

Stan said, "She's OK."

Ted walked up to Karen and sniffed her crotch. He sniffed her legs and let her scratch his neck. He wagged his tail. Earnie said, "Ted thinks you're OK too. Come see the lab. I'll show you what we are trying to do. Richard, are you coming?"

"No," said Selling. "I have some other things I have to take care of right now. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around Karen. Enjoy yourself. Take good care of her you guys, don't scramble her brain." He winked at Karen. "I'll see you later." And he walked off along one of the other metal walkways.

Stan and Ted led the way. Earnie walked with Karen and talked with her about their new project.

"We've been working for a couple of months trying to modify the transduction cells to synchronize with random and unspecified neural frequencies and unpredictable fluctuations of feedback."

"I have no idea what you just said," admitted Karen.

"I'm sorry. I talk to Stan too much. We've been trying to work out a device that will allow us to send and receive thoughts at the same time. Sort of a mental telephone. The problem has been an odd sort of feedback. If you and I were hooked up, I would be getting your thoughts while you were getting mine, but they would be the thought that you are getting my thoughts, so we end up in a sort of endless loop. See?"

"Hum, not really."

"Here we are," announced Stan. They stepped through a door and into a lab that seemed more like a TV repair shop than the modern labs that Karen had worked in at Enzyme. Pieces of electronic equipment, much of which Karen did not recognize, lay ill arranged on work benches and spread around the room. Ted walked over to a large over-upholstered chair in the corner covered in dog hair. It was obviously his standard post.

"The problem is hard to put into words, but the feedback problem is real. When Earnie and I hooked ourselves up we got stuck for about eight hours. If Ted hadn't gotten bored and started licking my face, I have no idea how long we would have been stuck. Want to try it?"

"Well..." began Karen with obviously hesitancy, but Earnie interrupted her.

"There won't be a problem. With Stan here to break the connection, we won't stay hung up. This is why we need another person. We were working with Ted, but it's hard to know whether the problems were with the theory and electronics or because he's a dog." Ted looked up at the mention of his name. "We know that he can experience human experiences, we've seen that, but this feedback problem is really sticky. We need another human. I promise you won't get hurt."

Karen wondered about the effects on Ted of experiencing a human's experience, but he seemed none the worse for it. She wondered about the effects of being 'hung up' with another mind, but Stan and Earnie seemed OK, or at least not too nuts. She let out a little laugh and said, "OK, I'm in. Hook me up."

Risks. Chapter 16

The Risks of Empathy, a Novella

Chapter 16

Since Karen's arrival at the ranch, she had been working in the rodent houses. She had continued her relationship with Ratty, the large black rat Sarah had introduced her to on that first day so many weeks ago.

Karen was lying on the grass among the rat buildings; the large rat was nuzzling through her hair and sticking his nose in her ear.

Karen laughed and tickled the rat on his side. She figured he was laughing in the high pitch that people could not hear. She sat up and the rat crawled into her lap and up the sleeve of her shirt. With her attention on the Ratty, she did not notice the young-looking man who walked up and sat down on the grass next to her without an invitation.

"Aren't you the woman from the lab?" he asked.

"That's right. Who are you?"

"I'm Earnie."

At the ranch, Stan and Earnie had become legends. Everyone knew that it was they who had invented TEs and who had first thought to find out what animals were thinking with the experience recordings.

"Stan and Earnie?"

"Yep. One of the famous guys," he answered. "Who's your friend?"

Ratty was sticking his head out of Karen's sleeve wiggling his nose and feelers trying to get a fix on the new voice. "This is my friend Ratty. Ratty, say hello to Earnie," and she held her arm over Earnie's lap.

Ratty turned around in Karen's sleeve, but finally stepped down and began sniffing out this new human.

"So, do you still like science?" asked Earnie as he gently stroked Ratty's paper-thin ears.

"You mean, do I hate science now after realizing the torture I was helping commit in the name of science?"

"Yeah, I guess that's what I mean."

"I love science. I just hate cruelty. Why?"

"Well, we could use some help in our lab, and I wanted to know whether you'd like to help us. We are working on something new."

"What is it?"

Earnie laughed, "It's hard to say exactly, but you won't be bored. You'll have to see for yourself. Listen I gotta go, if you want the job I'll tell Mr. Selling and he'll let security know. Come by the main house in the morning around nine. OK?"

Karen thought for a millisecond and said, "OK."

"Here's your friend back, and he set Ratty back into Karen's lap. As he walked away, he thought that she might be the prettiest girl he had ever seen.

Scientists Finally Conclude Nonhuman Animals Are Conscious Beings

Didn't we already know this? Yes we did
Published on August 10, 2012 by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal Emotions

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201208/scientists-finally-conclude-nonhuman-animals-are-conscious-beings

2,500 Beagles Slated For Vivisection Are Freed

Very cool.

http://www.pawnation.com/2012/07/27/2-500-beagles-slated-for-vivisection-are-freed/#page=1