- John Oliver Jokes He Doesn’t Need Movies Anymore Thanks to 17-Minute Viral Hamster Maze Video Hollywood Reporter
- ‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Talks SAG-AFTRA Strike Ending & Questions If He Needs Movies Anymore Deadline
- SAG-AFTRA strike ends: John Oliver jokes about ‘necessity of movies’ as he kicks off ‘Last Week Tonight’ MEAWW
- John Oliver Jokes He Doesn’t Need Movies Anymore Thanks to 17-Minute Viral Hamster Maze Video Yahoo Entertainment
- ‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Talks SAG-AFTRA Strike Ending & Questions If He Needs Movies Anymore Yahoo Entertainment
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Hamster
Delayed engagement of host defenses enables SARS-CoV-2 viremia and productive infection of distal organs in the hamster model of COVID-19 – Science
- Delayed engagement of host defenses enables SARS-CoV-2 viremia and productive infection of distal organs in the hamster model of COVID-19 Science
- Host nasopharyngeal transcriptome dataset of a SARS-CoV-2 positive Italian cohort | Scientific Data Nature.com
- Metformin shows promising antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 News-Medical.Net
- Designing a SARS-CoV-2 decoy National Institutes of Health (.gov)
- Waning cellular immune responses and predictive factors in maintaining cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 six months after BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination | Scientific Reports Nature.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
One surrendered Hong Kong hamster tests COVID positive as city lockdown grows
A man with personal protective equipment sits inside a vehicle in front of a temporarily closed pet shop after the government announced to euthanize around 2,000 hamsters in the city after finding evidence for the first time of possible animal-to-human transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Hong Kong, China, January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
HONG KONG, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Hong Kong authorities said on Sunday one hamster surrendered to authorities by pet owners had tested positive for COVID-19 and that over 2,200 hamsters had been culled as the city struggled to contain an outbreak.
On Tuesday, officials ordered the killing of hamsters from dozens of pet shops after tracing a coronavirus outbreak to a worker at a shop and asked people to surrender any bought on or after Dec. 22.
While a handful of hamsters had already tested positive for the virus, this latest case is the first involving a hamster in the care of a pet-owner that had tested positive.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Despite a public outcry against the hamster crackdown, authorities urged pet-owners to continue to hand over their tiny furry pets given burgeoning health risks.
“(The government) strongly advises members of the public again to surrender … as soon as possible their hamsters purchased in local pet shops on or after December 22, 2021 for humane dispatch,” the government said in a statement.
As at Jan. 22, a total of 2,512 animals, including 2,229 hamsters, had been “humanely dispatched” according to a government statement.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam earlier told reporters that she understood “pet owners are unhappy” with the killings, but said the biggest priority was to control the outbreak.
The government described the outcry as “irrational”.
Thousands of people have offered to adopt unwanted hamsters.
CONTAINMENT MEASURES
Some scientists and veterinary authorities have said there is no evidence that animals play a major role in human contagion with the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, officials have warned that COVID-19 infections could be growing exponentially in the congested residential area of Kwai Chung on the Kowloon peninsula, as a second building in the district with 2,000 residents was locked down on Saturday for five days.
More than 35,000 residents in over a dozen buildings in the area had to undergo compulsory COVID-19 tests, with Lam and other senior officials visiting the area on Sunday.
Sophia Chan, Hong Kong’s Health Secretary, told reporters on Sunday that the city’s strategy of containment would continue.
Some 140 confirmed cases were reported on Sunday, the highest daily number in the financial hub since July 25, 2020.
Lam urged people to avoid gatherings ahead of next week’s Lunar New Year holidays to try to contain the highly infectious Omicron variant.
The situation is testing Hong Kong’s “zero COVID-19” strategy focused on eliminating the disease, with schools and gyms already shut, restaurants closing at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) and air travel with many major hubs severed or severely disrupted.
Some companies have begun to enact contingency measures.
UBS Group AG (UBSG.S) said in a note to its Hong Kong staff reviewed by Reuters that it had “decided to move to work-from-home operations for all except a minimum number of staff who have essential tasks to be completed in the office” given the Omicorn outbreak.
A UBS spokesman declined to comment on the memo.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Twinnie Siu, Sumeet Chatterjee and Jessie Pang; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Hong Kong warns of worsening COVID outbreak as leader defends hamster cull
HONG KONG, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Saturday warned that COVID-19 infections could be growing exponentially in a congested residential area of the city and that overall cases had also spread due to an outbreak in pet hamsters.
Chief Executive Lam urged Hong Kong people to avoid gatherings ahead of next week’s Lunar New Year as officials grappled with an outbreak of the highly-infectious Omicron variant in Kwai Chung, north of the city’s Kowloon peninsula.
“We are worried that the exponential growth of cases that we have seen in other parts of the world is now happening in Kwai Chung,” Lam said.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
The situation is testing Hong Kong’s “zero COVID” strategy focused on eliminating the disease, with schools and gyms already shut, restaurants closing at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) and air travel with many major hubs severed or severely disrupted.
Speaking after meetings with health officials, Lam said that there was only a “slim chance” those city wide restrictions could be lifted on Feb. 4 as planned.
She said that a second Kwai Chung apartment block, home to more than 2,000 people, would be shut down for five days.
On Friday, officials shut down a first Kwai Chung building for five days after more than 20 cases were linked to it, with food delivered from outside three times a day and mass testing underway.
By Saturday, officials recorded some 105 cases in Kwai Chung, including confirmed and preliminary positive tests.
In total, some 16 buildings in the area would face various restrictions and compulsory testing, affecting some 35,000 residents, Lam added.
Local media reports on Saturday said that officials were considering tighter city-wide restrictions but none have yet been confirmed.
On Tuesday, officials ordered the killing of about 2,000 hamsters from dozens of pet shops after tracing a coronavirus outbreak to a worker at a shop, where 11 hamsters later tested positive for COVID-19.
Lam said that cases involving the Delta variant were also rising because of the hamster outbreak.
“I understand that pet owners are unhappy … the biggest public interest is to control the pandemic,” Lam said.
Thousands of people have offered to adopt unwanted hamsters amid a public outcry against the government and its pandemic advisers. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting By Greg Torode, Anne Marie Roantree and Jessie Pang; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Clelia Oziel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Crypto prices live – Hamster ‘Mr Goxx’ trading cryptocurrencies in rigged cage outperforms bitcoin and S&P 500
CHINA’S STATEMENT
The PBOC said it will “resolutely clamp down on virtual currency speculation, and related financial activities and misbehaviour in order to safeguard people’s properties and maintain economic, financial and social order”.
It said that trading of virtual currencies had become “widespread, disrupting economic and financial order, giving rise to money laundering, illegal fund-raising, fraud, pyramid schemes and other illegal and criminal activities.”
Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, and other cryptos cannot be traced by a country’s central bank, making them difficult to regulate.
The crypto crackdown opens the gates for China to introduce its own digital currency, which it is already working on and will allow the central government to monitor transactions.
No Joke, PlatinumGames Is Releasing Sol Cresta On The Nintendo Switch
Remember this time last year when PlatinumGames pranked everyone with the announcement of a new arcade shoot ’em up known as Sol Cresta? Well, now – a year later (believe it or not), it’s announced the same game really is happening and will be coming to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC at some point in 2021.
The announcement trailer featured above notes how the game is “now in development” – so stay tuned for more updates, like a release date. As we previously mentioned, this title is based on the ’80s side-scrolling shoot em’ ups Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta, and will apparently be the first entry in Hamster’s “Neo-Classic Arcade” series.
It’s worth pointing out Hamster retweeted the below tweet and filed a logo trademark for Sol Cresta last month.
Back in January, Hideki Kamiya told fans this particular announcement would be “smaller in scale” compared to the previous ones, but expected it to still be exciting. Noticeably, there’s also a new “2021” date on the PlatinumGames’ website. Fingers crossed it’s got something to do with Bayonetta 3.
Like the look of Sol Cresta? Can you believe it’s actually happening? Leave a comment down below.
‘Hamster ball’ robot could explore Moon caves
If people are going to stay on the Moon for long periods, they’ll need to consider resources below the surface — and a rather unusual robot might just help. The European Space Agency is backing work on DAEDALUS (Descent And Exploration in Deep Autonomy of Lunar Underground Structures), a “hamster ball” robot from Julius-Maximilians-University built to study lunar caves.
The 18.1-inch ball is meant to be lowered from a tether and use a combination of stereoscopic cameras and LiDAR to map underground spaces as it rolls around on its own. A radiation dosimeter and temperature sensors, meanwhile, gauge how hostile these caves are to human life. Extending arms both test lunar rocks and help clear obstacles.
The tether would be useful as a WiFi receiver while the robot works on its own.
DAEDALUS is one cave exploration concept under consideration at the ESA, and there are no guarantees it’ll reach the lunar surface. It could be a vital tool if it does become reality, though. Researchers could find relatively untouched material, including possible water ice. The right caves might even be suitable for Moon settlements, as they could shield against micrometeorites, radiation and extreme temperatures. Explorers might not need to build habitats as elaborate as would be necessary to live above ground.