Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Die Antwoord Starring as Themselves in District 9 Director Neill Blomkamp's New Sci-Fi Movie

http://pitchfork.com/news/50490-die-antwoord-starring-as-themselves-in-district-9-director-neill-blomkamps-new-sci-fi-movie/

By Carrie Battan 



Die Antwoord, who have always sort of seemed like a sci-fi project, will reportedly be starring in a sci-fi film. According to South African publication Die Burger (via the Playlist), Yo-Landi Vi$$er and Ninja will play themselves in the lead roles of Chappie, a "sci-fi comedy" from Neill Blomkamp (the South African filmmaker behind District 9 and the upcoming Elysium).

Not many details about Chappie have been revealed yet, but Blomkamp told the Playlist last year that, "It's like fundamentally more simple story, a comedy, a heartfelt story, in a science fiction setting. And it's fucking hilarious... It's a smaller film, a more esoteric one."

Die Antwoord's Ninja also told Die Burger that the movie, which is tentatively scheduled to begin shooting in Johannesburg in September, has a budget of about $50 million. And: Die Antwoord's next album, Dark Force, will be out in February of 2014, apparently.

Yo-Landi Vi$$er was previously offered the role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but she turned it down.

Watch the duo's "I Fink U Freeky" video:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_%28film%29



Article about sci-fi comedy starring Die Antwoord:

http://screenrant.com/chappie-story-details-tetra-vaal-elysium-tv-spot-1

excerpt from this article:

"... Chappie will actually be based on one of Blomkamp’s earlier short films; the filmmaker himself confirmed as much, telling DoG that Chappie is “Basically based on Tetra Vaal.”

The Real Housewives of Benning Road

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/22909960/dc-based-spoof-the-real-housewives-of-benning-road-gaining-popularity-online#axzz2ZsczYQAU 

 DC News Weather Sports FOX 5 DC WTTG

Move over Orange County - a new wave of housewives from the D.C. region are taking over.
The D.C. based spoof on the 'Real Housewives' series is becoming an online hit - with thousands of views for each episode.
The man behind the "The Real Housewives of Benning Road," comedian Mike Brooks, joined us in studio with stars Luci Rae, Chantel Rollins, and Darryl Bradley.
The shows popularity has spread online with thousands of views on YouTube.
Some critics say the videos display a segment of D.C.’s community in a negative light and that it reinforces stereotypes.

http://youtu.be/SKdmx_cPyVI

 

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Alveda King: MLK’s niece says stop the ‘race-baiting’ with Zimmerman verdict

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/17/alveda-king-mlks-niece-says-stop-race-baiting-zimm/ 


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece expressed her dissatisfaction on Monday with the NAACP, saying it’s “race baiting” by calling for a federal civil rights investigation into George Zimmerman.
“It is not helpful to race-bait,” Dr. Alveda King said on “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV.



“[The] NAACP and all of the organizations … We need to wonder why they’re doing that, what kind of checks and money they’re getting behind the scenes to stir us up into racial anarchy.
“We should be speaking nonviolence, justice, peace and love as Trayvon’s parents are doing, by the way. So we need to ask why they’re race baiting, because they are.”
Zimmerman was found not guilty late Saturday night in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The acquittal gained worldwide attention and sparked nationwide protests for those who support the slain teen. The NAACP argues that Zimmerman violated Martin’s civil rights, by targeting him because he was black.
“There’s no black race, white race, yellow race and red race,” Ms. King continued. “The other thing is, Mr. Zimmerman is not a Caucasian. He’s a Hispanic. The media is somehow forgetting that, so [there are] all of these nuances, all of the race-baiting, all of the pain.”
“Stop thinking that this is a race thing between separate races,” she added. “This is all human beings here. If we’re still feeling that one part of our community is better than the other because of skin color, that’s got to change right now.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveda_King

Alveda Celeste King (born January 22, 1951)[4] is an American Christian minister,[5] conservative, pro-life activist, and author. She is a niece of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and daughter of the late civil rights activist Rev. A. D. William King, Sr. and his wife Naomi Barber King. She is the full-time Pastoral Associate of African-American Outreach for the Roman Catholic pro-life group, Priests for Life.[6] She once served as a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a conservative Washington, D.C. think-tank. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the founder of King for America.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Racial distinctions and crime statistics in the U.S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States

Characteristics of offender

(Note: According to the legal systems of the United States, Hispanic and/or Latin American persons are referred to as white.)

For 2011, law enforcement made approximately 12,400,000 arrests nationally.[15] Arrested offenders in the United States tend to be male,[16] over age 18,[17] and white.[18]


For violent crime by race in 2011, 59.4% of those arrested were white, 38.3% were black, and 2.2% were of other races.[18] For persons arrested for homicide in 2011, 49.7% were black, 48% were white, and 2.3% were of other races.[18] For persons arrested for rape in 2011, 65% were white, 32.9% were black, and 2.1% were of other races.[18] For property crime in 2011, 68.1% of arrested persons were white, 29.5% were black, and 2.4% were of other races.[18]

In 2011, law enforcement reported 6,222 bias-motivated incidents, known as hate crimes, for which 5,731 offenders were identified.[19] Of these, 59% were white, 20.9% were black, 7.1% were of various races, 1.4% were Asian or Pacific Islanders, 0.8% were Native American, and 10.8% were of unknown race.[19]

Classification of Hispanics

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States

 

The UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) classifies most Hispanics into the "white" category. The NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey) classifies some Hispanic criminals as "white" and some as "other race".

Hispanics

According to a 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2007 Latinos "accounted for 40% of all sentenced federal offenders-more than triple their share (13%) of the total U.S. adult population". This was an increase from 24% in 1991. 72% of the Latino offenders were not U.S. citizens. For Hispanic offenders sentenced in federal courts, 48% were immigration offenses and 37% drug offenses. One reason for the large increase in immigration offenses is that they exclusively fall under federal jurisdiction.[23]

Crime trends

Some studies had argued for smaller racial disparities in violent crime in recent times. However, a 2011 study which examined the racial disparities in violent crime and incarceration from 1980 and 2008 found little difference for black share of violent offending. Racial imbalances between arrest rates and sentencing have caused some to question the disparities. The authors argued that the prior studies had been confounded by not separating Hispanics from Whites. The number of Hispanic offenders has been increasing rapidly and have violence rates higher than that of Whites but lower than that of Blacks.[24] Another recent study in 2012 raises a different concern, showing that Hispanics and blacks receive considerably longer sentences for the same or lesser offenses per average than white offenders with equal or greater criminal records.[25][26]

Youth gangs

The "National Youth Gang Survey Analysis" (2009) state that of gang members, 49% are Hispanic/Latino, 35% are African-American/black, 9% are white, and 7% are other race/ethnicity.[27]

Prison data

According to the BJS non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 39.4% of the prison and jail population in 2009.[28] Hispanics (of all races) were 15.9% of those incarcerated in 2009.[28] Hispanics comprised 16.3% of the US population according to the 2010 US census.[29][30] According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2000 to 2008 the rate of prevalence of incarceration for blacks declined to 3,161 per 100,000 and the white rate slightly increase to 487 per 100,000.[31] In 2009 American Indians and Alaskan Natives were jailed, paroled, or on probation at 932 per 100,000, 25% higher than for non-Indians/Natives (747), up 5.6% that year and 12% higher than 2007.[32] However, crime in general declined during this time down to near 1970 levels, an 18% decrease from the previous decade.[33] (US Imprisonment Rates by Race, Age, and Gender, 2011) "In 2011, imprisonment rates among age and racial groups tended to increase through age 34 before declining (table 8). The imprisonment rates indicate that about 0.5% of all white males, more than 3.0% of all black males, and 1.2% of all Hispanic males were imprisoned in 2011. Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups. Slightly fewer than 3% of Hispanic males were imprisoned in each of the age cohorts between ages 25 and 39. "In 2011, blacks and Hispanics were imprisoned at higher rates than whites in all age groups for both male and female inmates. Among prisoners ages 18 to 19, black males were imprisoned at more than 9 times the rate of white males. In 2011, Hispanic and black male prisoners age 65 or older were imprisoned at rates between 3 and 5 times those of white males. Excluding the youngest and oldest age groups, black males were imprisoned at rates that ranged between 5 and 7 times the rates of white males. Among persons ages 20 to 24, black males were imprisoned at about 7 times that of white males. Among persons ages 60 to 64, the black male imprisonment rate was 5 times that of the white male imprisonment rate. In comparison, Hispanic males were imprisoned at 2 to 3 times the rate of white males in 2011. Black females were imprisoned at between 2 and 3 times the rate of white females, while Hispanic females were imprisoned at between 1 and 3 times the rate of white females."
Source: Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J., "Prisoners in 2011" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, Dec. 2012), NCJ239808, p. 8. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/p11.pdf

For men in their early thirties, African-Americans are more than twice as likely to have a prison record than whites. They are more than twice as likely to have been in prison (8.4 percent) than in the military (3.2 percent). African Americans are given longer federal sentences, even when factoring prior criminal records. African American jail sentences tend to be roughly 10% longer than white jail sentences for the same crimes.[34] According to the US Census Bureau as of the year 2000 there were 2,224,181 blacks enrolled in college.[35] In that same year there were only 610,300 black inmates in prison according to the Bureau of Justice.[36] 12.5 percent have a bachelor’s degree.[citation needed] The results are highly dependent on education. 30 percent of those without college education and nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts had prison records.[37]

White Hispanic and Latino Americans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans

In the United States, a White Hispanic or White Latino[17] is a citizen or resident who is racially white and of Hispanic descent. White American, itself an official U.S. racial category, refers to people "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa" who reside in the United States.[18]

Based on the definitions created by the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Census Bureau, the concepts of race and ethnicity are mutually independent, and respondents to the census and other Census Bureau surveys are asked to answer both questions. Hispanicity is independent of race, and constitutes an ethnicity category, as opposed to a racial category, the only one of which that is officially collated by the U.S. Census Bureau. For the Census Bureau, Ethnicity distinguishes between those who report ancestral origins in Spain or Hispanic America (Hispanic and Latino Americans), and those who do not (Non-Hispanic Americans).[19][20] The U.S. Census Bureau asks each resident to report the "race or races with which they most closely identify."[21]

White Americans are therefore divided between "White Hispanic" and "Non Hispanic White," the former consisting of White Americans who report Hispanophone ancestry (Spain and Hispanic Latin America), and the latter consisting of White Americans who do not report Hispanophone ancestry.
As of 2010, 50.5 million or 16.3% of Americans were ethnically Hispanic or Latino.[15] Of those, 26.7 million, or 53%, were White.

Cancer Cure Closer - 5-10 years

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-cancer--a-cure-just-got-closer-thanks-to-a-tiny-british-company--and-the-result-could-change-lives-of-millions-8707590.html 

Exclusive: Cancer - A cure just got closer thanks to a tiny British company - and the result could change lives of millions. 

A revolution is brewing on an English business park as scientists harness our natural-born killers – the T cells – to target malign tumours

Steve Connor 

A single-storey workshop on a nondescript business park in Oxfordshire is not the sort of place where you would expect scientific revolutions to take place. But behind the white-painted walls of this small start-up company, scientists are talking about the impossible – a potential cure for cancer.


For the past 20 years, the former academics who set up Immunocore have worked hard on realising their dream of developing a totally new approach to cancer treatment, and finally it looks as if their endeavours are beginning to pay off. In the past three weeks, the company has signed contracts with two of the biggest players in the pharmaceuticals industry which could lead to hundreds of millions of pounds flowing into the firm's unique research on cancer immunotherapy – using the body's own immune system to fight tumour cells.

Immunocore is probably the only company in the world that has developed a way of harnessing the power of the immune system's natural-born killer cells: the T-cells of the blood which nature has designed over millions of years of evolution to seek out and kill invading pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria. T-cells are not nearly as good at finding and killing cancer cells, but the hard-nosed executives of the drugs industry – who are notoriously cautious when it comes to investments – believe Immunocore may have found a way around this so that cancer patients in future are able to fend off their disease with their own immune defences.

"Immunotherapy is radically different," said Bent Jakobsen, the Danish-born chief scientific officer of Immunocore who started to study T-cells 20 years ago while working at the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. "It doesn't do away with the other cancer treatments by any means, but it adds something to the arsenal that has one unique feature – it may have the potency to actually cure cancer," Dr Jakobsen said.

It is this potency that has attracted the attention of Genentech in California, owned by the Swiss giant Roche, and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline. Both companies have independently signed deals with Immunocore that could result in up to half a billion pounds being invested in new cancer treatments based on its unique T-cell therapy.

It is no understatement to say that cancer immunotherapy, or immuno-oncology as it is technically called, represents a sea change in terms of cancer treatment. Cancer in the past has been largely treated by slicing (surgery), poisoning (chemotherapy) or burning (radiotherapy). All are burdened with the inherent problem of how to spare healthy tissue from irreparable damage while ensuring that every cancer cell is killed, deactivated or removed.

Now there is another approach based on the immune system, a complex web of cells, tissues and organs that constantly strive to keep the body free of disease, which almost certainly includes keeping cancerous cells in check.

For many years, scientists have realised that the immune system plays a key role in cancer prevention. There is ample evidence of this, not least from patients who are immune-suppressed in some way – they are more likely than other patients to develop cancer.

The immune system has two basic ways of fighting invading pathogens and the body's own cells that have gone awry. One involves the release of free-floating proteins, or antibodies, that lock on to an invader, triggering other immune cells to come in and sweep them away.

Many organisations have tried to develop anti-cancer treatments based on antibodies, with limited success, Dr Jakobsen said. Part of the problem is that antibodies are not really designed to recognise cells. What Immunocore has done is to build a therapy around the second arm of the immune system, known as cellular immunity, where T-cells seek out and destroy invading pathogens.

"There are a lot of companies working with antibodies but we are virtually the only company in the world that has managed to work with T-cells. It has taken 20 years and from that point we are unique," Dr Jakobsen said.

Immunocore has found a way of designing small protein molecules, which it calls ImmTACs, that effectively act as double-ended glue. At one end they stick to cancer cells, strongly and very specifically, leaving healthy cells untouched. At the other end they stick to T-cells.
The technology is based on the "T-cell receptor", the protein that sticks out of the surface of the T-cell and binds to its enemy target. Immunocore's ImmTACs are effectively independent T-cell receptors that are "bispecific", meaning they bind strongly to cancer cells at one end, and T-cells at the other – so introducing cancer cells to their nemesis.

"What we can do is to use that scaffold of the T-cell receptor to make something that is very good at recognising cancer even if it doesn't exist naturally," said Dr Jakobsen. "Although T-cells are not very keen at recognising cancer, we can force them to do so. The potential you have if you can engineer T-cell receptors is quite enormous. You can find any type of cell and any kind of target. This means the approach can in theory be used against any cancer, whether it is tumours of the prostate, breast, liver or the pancreas.

The key to the success of the technique is being able to distinguish between a cancer cell and a normal, healthy cell. Immunocore's drug does this by recognising small proteins or peptides that stick out from the surface membrane of cancer cells. All cells extrude peptides on their membranes and these peptides act like a shop window, telling scientists what is going on within the cell, and whether it is cancerous or not.

"All these little peptides tell you the story of the cell. The forest of them on the cell surface is a sort of display saying 'I am this kind of cell. This is my identity and this is everything going on inside me'," Dr Jakobsen explained.

Immunocore is building up a database of peptide targets on cancer cells in order to design T-cell receptors that can target them, leaving healthy cells alone and so minimising possible side effects – or that is the hope.

The first phase clinical trial of the company's therapy, carried out on a small number of patients in Britain and the United States with advanced melanoma, has shown that people can tolerate the drug reasonably well and preliminary results suggest there are "early signs of anti-tumour activity", the company said.

A danger with deploying T-cells against cancer is their potency. Yet it is this very potency that it is so exciting because it could lead to a cure for metastatic disease that has spread around the body, Dr Jakobsen said. "You can never make a single-mechanism drug that would come anywhere near a T-cell in terms of its potency.

"If you want to make an impact on cancer you need something that is incredibly potent – but when something goes wrong, it goes badly wrong. I think the honest truth about all cancer treatments is that no matter how much we test and do beforehand, it will continue to go wrong sometimes."

One infamous case of something going disastrously wrong was a clinical trial in 2006 at Northwick Park Hospital in London where scientists were testing a powerful immuno-regulatory drug on six volunteers. All suffered serious side effects caused by the overstimulation of their immune systems.
But Dr Jakobsen said the clinical trial of Immunocore's T-cell drug, as well as future trials, are inherently safe because they are based on incremental rises in dose. All indications suggest it will lead to the expected breakthrough.

He added: "All the pharma companies have come to the realisation that immunotherapy may hold the ultimate key to cancer; it is the missing link in cancer treatment that can give cures."
"They have seen this technology develop. It has come over the mountain top, if you like. With our melanoma trial they have seen it is safe – and it is working."

T-cell therapy
Using the body's immune system to fight cancer is one of the most promising areas of therapy, and could prove particularly helpful in the treatment of metastatic disease, when the cancer has spread from its original site.

The immune system is complex and is composed of many kinds of cells, proteins and chemical messengers that modulate how it works. Scientists are working on ways of exploiting the immune defences to recognise and eliminate cells that have become cancerous.
One of the most interesting examples is ipilimumab, a "monoclonal antibody" made by Bristol-Myers-Squib. It recognises and binds to a molecule, called CTLA-4, which is found on the T-cells of the immune system. CTLA-4 normally keeps T-cells from proliferating, but in the presence of ipilimumab, it becomes blocked, allowing T-cells to increase in numbers, so leading them to attack cancer cells.

Other drugs based on monoclonal antibodies are designed to attack tumours more directly. When they bind to a cancerous cell, it serves as a signal for other cells of the immune system to come in and sweep the cancer cells away.

The trouble is that cancer cells are notoriously mutational. Eliminating 99.9 per cent of cancer cells in a patient may be an improvement, but it still leaves 0.1 per cent that could "escape".
One hope of using T-cells, is that this possibility of escape is narrowed down, or even eliminated. Of course, these are still early days. This is only just beginning to go through the first clinical trials. It could take five or 10 years before we know whether or not they work.


Saturday, July 13, 2013

Racism for ratings


Questioning how the CBS show 'Big Brother' capitalizes on the hot button of racism, I searched the phrase 'big brother racism scripted' - yes, I question whether it's scripted, encouraged, or deliberately personality screened in order to produce a desired result. By linking the obsession over bullying with racism, we can yield a perfect example to showcase how white racism is alive and well, exactly in time to heat up the social climate during the Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman case, in time to roast Paula Deen, and whatever else can become a media sensation. Not to question whether 'white racism' exists (which is a whole other topic), but certainly to examine why it is being punched up in the media, and during a time when amnesty and universal care are on the table, and the President is pushing social agendas and leveraging hostility amongst classes and races. Note, gay issues - e.g. marriage/scouting - are typically linked with the same discrimination/bullying concern, but the White House passed the buck to let the states decide on gay marriage, unlike the handling of the Arizona/New Mexico laws.

 http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-big-brother-furor-cbs-reveals-a-double-standard-20130710,0,4071933.story

Excerpt from the article:

Though the offending comments on "Big Brother" were made during the show’s online feed, CBS aired them on Sunday’s broadcast. The controversy has given the show's sagging ratings a boost. "Big Brother" host Julie Chen, who is married to CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, said on her daytime show “The Talk” that she was personally “stung” and “hurt” by the "Big Brother" comments, comparing them to “bullying.”

Asked about the differing responses to potentially offending comments on its scripted and reality shows, CBS executives replied, "No comment."

 http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/07/07/big-brother-racist-houseguest-problem/

Excerpt from this article:

"Late Monday night, less than a week after CBS launched the 15th season of Big Brother with possibly its biggest, sexiest, most odious and outlandish collection of personalities yet, reports began to spread via social media that several contestants had been expressing racist, homophobic and misogynistic sentiments and language. (The bile and bigotry was viewed by super-fans who choose to watch the show’s live, uncensored Internet feed.) By Tuesday morning, media outlets were posting reports on the controversy, and a former BB contestant, Ragan Fox, called on CBS to use the footage on the network show ASAP. From his website: “‘Big Brother’ I LOVE you, but, if you really want to provide a groundbreaking twist, SHOW CBS VIEWERS HOW SOME STRAIGHT, WHITE PEOPLE talk about gays, Asian Americans, and African Americans…” (Emphasis all his.) "

Friday, July 12, 2013

Backstabbers clothing

Saw a guy at the gym wearing a 'Trust Issues' t-shirt, brilliant iconic design by Backstabbersclothing.

The designer apparently creates clothing that complements sneakers in time for their release.

Spoke to the owner of the line, James Murchison today. Great inspiration.

From the main site:
"Clothing for sneakerheads and pretty women everywhere. Something edgy, something different. We've all had friends we thought would have our backs til the end, but they only had it to stab us in it; Backstabbers. This is for those of us who still stand after they attempted to assassinate our character."

http://www.backstabbersclothing.com

http://backstabbersclothing.blogspot.com

http://www.backstabbersclothing.bigcartel.com

http://backstabbersclothing.tumblr.com





Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Volkswagen Concept Car Averages 262 MPG

from slashdot:

"The Volkswagen XL1 averages an amazing 262 mpg, and although it may never hit streets in the United States, the technology behind the car could impact future Volkswagen vehicles. The keys to the incredible mileage in the Volkswagen XL1 were reducing the weight of the vehicle and eliminating wind resistance. The XL1 only weighs 1,753 pounds — that's more than a thousand pounds lighter than the Toyota Prius, which weighs in at 2,921 pounds. The wheels on the Volkswagen XL1 are as thin as road bike's and wrapped in custom Michelin rubber. The XL1 chassis is a single piece of molded carbon-fiber, and has a drag coefficient of only 0.189 – similar to a bumblebee."
















Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Human head transplants now possible

Hey, wanna trade?

update here:
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/05/06/first-human-head-transplant-452240.html

Paper here

http://qz.com/99413/first-ever-human-head-transplant-is-now-possible-says-neuroscientist/



Technical barriers to grafting one person’s head onto another person’s body can now be overcome, says Dr. Sergio Canavero, a member of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group. In a recent paper, Canavero outlines a procedure modeled on successful head transplants which have been carried out in animals since 1970.
The one problem with these transplants was that scientists were unable to connect the animals’ spinal cords to their donor bodies, leaving them paralyzed below the point of transplant. But, says Canavero, recent advances in re-connecting spinal cords that are surgically severed mean that it should be technically feasible to do it in humans. (This is not the same as restoring nervous system function to quadriplegics or other victims of traumatic spinal cord injury.)
As Canavero notes in his paper:
“The greatest technical hurdle to [a head transplant] is of course the reconnection of the donor’s (D)’s and recipients (R)’s spinal cords. It is my contention that the technology only now exists for such linkage…. [S]everal up to now hopeless medical connections might benefit from such a procedure.”

It’s worked before, in animals

illustration of head transplant in monkey
Illustration of the first-ever head transplant in a monkey.White et al. 1971
The procedure Canavero outlines is very much like that used by Robert White, who successfully transplanted the head of a rhesus monkey onto the body of a second rhesus in 1970. First, both patients must be in the same operating theater. Then the head to be transplanted must be cooled to between 12°C and 15°C (54.6°F and 59°F). Moving quickly, surgeons must remove both heads at the same time, and re-connect the head to be preserved to the circulatory system of the donor body within one hour. During the reconnection procedure, the donor body must also be chilled, and total cardiac arrest must be induced.
Once the head is reconnected, the heart of the donor body can be re-started, and surgeons can proceed to the re-connections of other vital systems, including the spinal cord.

Connecting the spinal cord is the final barrier


Spinal cords have been re-connected in animals using a number of technologies, and with varying degrees of success.Oswald Steward, UC Irvine
Connection of a spinal cord from the head of one creature to the body of another has never been attempted even in animals, so Canavero’s paper must be taken as an exercise in speculation. However, the severing and re-connection of spinal cords in the same animal has met with limited success in the past. Just this week, scientists at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic were able to restore limited connectivity between the two severed halves of spinal cords in rats.
The re-connection of spinal cords can be accomplished through the encouragement of the body’s natural healing mechanisms, which are at work even in the severed spinal cord. But Canavero’s proposal is different: By cutting spinal cords with an ultra-sharp knife, and then mechanically connecting the spinal cord from one person’s head with another person’s body, a more complete (and immediate) connection could be accomplished. As he notes in his paper:
“It is this “clean cut” [which is] the key to spinal cord fusion, in that it allows proximally severed axons to be ‘fused’ with their distal counterparts. This fusion exploits so-called fusogens/sealants….[which] are able to immediately reconstitute (fuse/repair) cell membranes damaged by mechanical injury, independent of any known endogenous sealing mechanism.”
Canavero hypothesizes that plastics like polyethylene glycol (PEG) could be used to accomplish this fusing, citing previous research showing that, for example, in dogs PEG allowed the fusing of severed spinal cords.

Huge implications for some disorders, at a cost

Paraplegics with qualifying injuries (i.e., enough spinal cord left intact to allow for a head transplant) could in theory regain the full use of a (donor) body. Likewise, patients with muscular dystrophy could be given whole new lives. Aside from the enormous technical challenges a head transplant would present, another potential barrier is cost. Canavero estimates that the total cost of a head transplant would be at least €10 million euros ($13 million.)
The bioethics of such a procedure are also extremely controversial.