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Neuralink's Brain Implant, Music Revenue Surge, Shakespeare's Secret
Just reporting the facts.
Centrist Chronicle
March 25, 2024
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Yesterday, brain-computer interface innovator Neuralink unveiled a video demonstrating a quadriplegic patient engaging in an online chess game purely through thought, facilitated by one of its advanced implants. The footage highlights 29-year-old Nolan Arbaugh, who became quadriplegic following a 2015 diving mishap. In January, Arbaugh participated in Neuralink's pioneering human implant experiment.
Elon Musk's brainchild, Neuralink, established in 2016, specializes in creating discrete, wireless brain implants aimed at empowering individuals with severe mobility limitations stemming from neurological conditions. The implantation process, performed by a specialized robot, involves embedding a small transponder within the cranial vault. The initiative received the green light from the Food and Drug Administration for human trials in May.
Beyond aiding those with mobility impairments, Neuralink aspires to extend the technology to healthy individuals, enabling direct human-computer integration. However, the company has attracted criticism for its primate experiments, which have led to the euthanasia of several subjects.
In 2023, the global music industry experienced its ninth successive year of growth, with an increase in recorded music revenues observed across all geographical locations and nearly every format, as reported by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) Global Music Report 2024.
Revenues surged to $28.6 billion, marking an ascent of just over 10% compared to the prior year and representing the second-largest growth rate ever recorded, following only the 18.5% surge in 2021.
The revenue figure for 2023 is the most substantial since 1999 — the year the IFPI began to track global music revenues, which at that time amounted to $22.2 billion. This milestone comes after the industry faced challenges like piracy and dwindling physical sales, which led to a low of $13 billion in 2014.
A University of Bristol researcher has made a significant discovery while examining digital versions of a very rare 17th-century Italian religious manuscript. The academic found that a document once believed to be authored by William Shakespeare's father is actually the work of his lesser-known sister, Joan.
This religious manuscript, a commitment to experiencing a devout Catholic demise, was crafted during a period in England when Catholicism was severely condemned. Discovered by a bricklayer concealed within the Shakespeare family home's rafters in Stratford-upon-Avon around 1770, the tract was initially inspected and described by two early scholars of Shakespeare and subsequently misplaced. These experts had assumed the document was linked to Shakespeare's father, John, suggesting he was a clandestine Catholic during the perilous times of Elizabethan England, a period marked by severe repercussions for such beliefs. Later academics speculated that the manuscript was a counterfeit, aimed at portraying John Shakespeare as a devout Catholic from that era.