‘Human-brained’ monkeys

SCIENTISTS have been warned that their latest experiments may accidently produce monkeys with brains more human than animal.
In cutting-edge experiments, scientists have injected human brain cells into monkey fetuses to study the effects. Critics argue that if these fetuses are allowed to develop into self-aware subjects, science will be thrown into an ethical nightmare.
An eminent committee of American scientists will call for restrictions into the research, saying the outcome of such studies cannot be predicted and may in fact produce subjects with a ‘super-animal’ intelligence.
The high-powered committee of animal behaviourists, lawyers, philosophers, bio-ethicists and neuro-scientists was established four years ago to examine the growing numbers of human/monkey experiments.

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Monkeys Make Bad Pets

Despite the fact that I love monkeys, and have said several times that I want one, I know that monkeys aren’t good pets, something that’s come up in the news lately.
They’re too intelligent and social to live with people and not with other monkeys, and they become bored and tend to overgroom and self-injure. So the best monkeys to keep around the house are the plush kind.

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New Monkey Species Discovered

Yeah! Scientists discover a new species of monkey in Africa. The BBC story includes a picture of the new guy, called the Highland Mangabey.

“This exciting discovery demonstrates once again how little we know about our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates,” said Russell Mittermeier, chairman of the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN-The World Conservation Union’s Species Survival Commission.

“A large, striking monkey in a country of considerable wildlife research over the last century has been hidden right under our noses.”

In other monkey news, Tokyo, Japan is pursuing a renegade monkey on the loose in the streets of the city.

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Surgery details and information

I go in for surgery at 5:30 a.m. this Friday at Methodist Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. 1701 N. Senate Blvd. Indianapolis, IN 46206. 1-800-248-1199 is the toll-free number to call for information.

If you want to see me in the hospital before surgery, please come at 5:30. If you are visiting while I’m in surgery, you will need to go to the main information desk to find out details of where I am. The operating room and surgery waiting areas are on the second floor of the A building. Parking garage 1 is the closest parking area.

Surgery starts at 7:30 and should take about 4 hours. After surgery I will be moved to the Cardiovascular Critical Care Unit (CVCC), which is on the second and third floors of the same building, building A. Family members may be in one of two waiting rooms — 317-923-0171 or 317-923-0170. Or you can try to call Stephanie on her cell.

Visiting hours while I’m in the CVCC are: 9:30-11:30 a.m., 12:30-3:00 p.m., 4:30-6:30 p.m., and 8:30-11:00 p.m. While I’m in the CVCC, I can receive cards and mylar balloons. Flowers, planters, or latex balloons aren’t allowed on the unit.

After a couple days, I should be moved out of the critical care unit to a regular room, where I’ll be for a couple more days. I should have more visiting hours there and be able to see people. If you want to come visit me, call the information number to find out where I am and what my visiting hours are. Or you can send me monkeys. 🙂

Stephanie will be sending some e-mail updates letting family and friends know how I am. She’ll also be posting to my Web site, so watch this spot for more information.

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Poor Henry

A young gibbon monkey named Henry in a zoo in Minnesota is going to a new home because his parents have rejected him. The zoo has found him a surrogate mom in a zoo in Nashville, who will hopefully teach him socialization skills. Currently Henry’s only friend is a pillow named Fuzzy, that he holds onto for comfort.
You know, if that doesn’t work out in Nashville, I’ll take him.

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Monkeys In the News: Monkey Jail

The Chicago Tribune ran a fantastic article about a state pen in Punjab, India. The inmates are lifetime offenders, mostly nabbed for stealing, assault, and vandalism. Even the murderers are safe from capital punishment though. That’s because in India, it’s forbidden to kill monkeys.

The thief threatened children with bricks and ripped the buttons off shirts. He stole tomatoes from one home and snatched bread from another. Down the street, he briefly fled with a differential equations book and beat a calculator with his fist. He was one bad monkey. And last week he was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, inmate No. 13 at the country’s only known monkey jail, where very bad monkeys are sent to live out their remaining years.

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