Category Archives: Futurism

Spoilers abound for the shock ending of the first episode of the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That

A cardiologist has affirmed what every Sex and the City fan suspected after watching the end of the first episode of the reboot And Just Like That:Carrie Bradshaw just may have committed manslaughter on her husband.

To recap, Mr. Big,played by Chris Noth, dies of a heart attack at the end of the episode while Bradshaw,played by Sarah Jessica Parker, stares on in horror and does nothing for a conspicuous period of time.

In an interview with enterprising Vulture reporter Rachel Handler, Chicagos Rush University Medical Center cardiologist Daniel Lugersaid that it was a goddamn travesty that Bradshaw allowed her husband to die of a heart attack while she dramatically screamed and cried instead of, you know, calling 911.

For all the barely-concealed spoilers about the death in the finale which infamously happened after Mr. Big, ne John James Preston, took a spin on his Peloton stationary bike so far, there hasnt been much about the medical science behind what happened.

In theVulture interview, Luger said that some of the specifics of Mr. Bigs death, such as the characters penchant for cocktails, cigars, and big steaks in the aftermath of his canonical angioplasty during the shows original run, would likely be considered very unhealthy if a real-life patient did them. Indeed, the character is seen puffing away on a stogie prior to that final Peloton ride.

But others, such as the implication that the exercise he got from taking a ride on his Peloton catalyzed his coronary, seem about as fictitious as Bradshaws ability to survive in Manhattan on a columnists salary in the first seasons of Sex and the City.

Its not unrealistic that he would exercise and then have a heart attack, Luger toldVulture. Exercise slightly increases your risk of having a cardiac event, but we encourage all patients with coronary disease to exercise, because the risks of having an event are low and the benefits are much higher.

Peloton, as the interviewer noted, responded to the brouhaha over the play-acted death of a fictional character by noting that said character lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle and was at serious risk as he had a previous cardiac event in Season 6.

These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which often is a significant factor, were the likely cause of his death, the company said in a statement.Riding his Peloton bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event.

More shocking than Mr. Bigs death, however, was how Carrie responded to coming home to find her husband clearly ill but not yet dead: by wasting a ton of time on her usual melodramatics that should have been spent calling an ambulance from a nearby hospital to come to their fancy Fifth Avenue home.

If he was in the hospital or if EMS was at his side when that happened, they could absolutely shock him out of that rhythm, Luger told Vulture. Thats a very treatable problem in the hospital setting.

Letting Big die was absolutely Carries fault, the good doctor toldHandler.

This is a PSA: If you see somebody lose consciousness, the first thing you do is feel for a pulse, Luger added. If theres no pulse, you call EMS and start chest compressions without delay. You can definitely save peoples lives that way.

He didnt need to die, the cardiologist added. This is a goddamn travesty.

And just like that Carrie may have lost her chance to save her husband.

Read more: Ask a Cardiologist: Should Carrie Have Called 911? [Vulture]

More on Peloton memes:Peloton loses $1.5bn in value over dystopian, sexist exercise bike ad [The Guardian]

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Read the original here:
Doctor Horrified by That Pivotal Scene in "Sex and the City" Reboot - Futurism

"Its built to outlive us all."Apocalypse Cam

If or when human civilization collapses, what will remain? Maybe parts of some cities. Or the Statue of Liberty, a la Planet of the Apes. Overall, though, there might not be a lot of evidence left behind about what humanity accomplished or what resulted in its downfall.

One team of researchers wants to change that. Their solution? A massive, indestructible box thatll record scientific data to give future civilizations insight on how exactly humanity fell.

The project, dubbed Earths Black Box, will be an immense steel monolith installed in a remote location in Tasmania. Its akin to the black boxes that are designed to survive airplane crashes and provide investigators valuable data on what led to the disaster except on a planetary scale.

The project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Tasmania, marketing agency Clemenger BBDO, and creative agency The Glue Society.

The team is designing the box to record climate data such as atmospheric CO2 levels, sea temperatures, and energy consumption levels. Itll also gather contextual information like news headlines and social media posts.

The idea is if the Earth does crash as a result of climate change, this indestructible recording device will be there for whoevers left to learn from that, Jim Curtis, the executive creative director at Clemenger BBDO, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The box itself will be made from three-inch-thick steel and cantilevered off granite. Inside will be a system of Internet-connected storage drives powered by solar panels on the boxs roof.

Its built to outlive us all, Jonathan Kneebone, cofounder of the Glue Society, told ABC. If the worst does happen, just because the power grids go down, this thing will still be there.

The biggest issue for the team now is how to help future civilizations access the information it contains. After all, theyll just find a mysterious monolith out in the middle of nowhere and we know how that worked out for us already.

READ MORE: Earth is getting a black box to record our climate change actions, and its already started listening [Australia Broadcasting Corporation]

More on doomsday boxes: Oreo Built a Doomsday Vault to Protect Its Cookies from a Harmless Asteroid

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Read the original here:
Scientists Are Building a "Black Box" to Record the End of Civilization - Futurism

China has succeeded in literally changing the weather, a new study claims.

As the South China Morning Post reports, researchers say that during the Chinese Communist Partys centennial celebration over the summer, weather authorities successfully modified the weather above Beijing to clear the sky and reduce pollution for the tens of thousands gathered for a commemorative ceremony in Tiananmen Square.

They did so using cloud seeding technology, a long-studied but controversial process that involves shooting silver iodide particles into the clouds, with the idea of attracting water droplets to modify the weather.

The paper, by researchers at Chinas Tsinghua University, comes a year after reports that China was dramatically expanding its weather modification program to a test area of a whopping 5.5 million square miles by the year 2025. As Futurism noted last December, thats bigger than the entire country of India, and could end up raising serious issues with Chinas neighbors.

Though this isnt the first time China has used cloud-seeding technology its been dabbling since as early as the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics this appears to be both one of the most successful and also largest-scale tests conducted not just by the CCP, but in the world.

It was also not publicized, and part of the Tsinghua researchers paper focused on the evidence they found that cloud seeding had actually taken place, which included eyewitness reports of rockets being launched into the sky from the mountains outside of of Beijing before the July 1 centennial, and accounts of rocket debris after the fact.

According to theSCMP, there were a number of hurdles that weather officials had to jump to have successfully changed the weather. Pollution leading up to the CCP centennial was especially bad, the report noted, and it was Chinas wettest recorded summer as well. Nevertheless, reports indicated that Beijings pollution on July 1 went from moderate to good, and the mid-day rain did in fact appear to be artificial.

Though areas of the United States and other countries have tried to use cloud seeding technology to change the weather, professional China-worriers have expressed concern that the CCP may use it for nefarious military ends even though the US military has been trying to make it rain since at least 1967.

This successful and large-scale operation in Beijing does, however, raise important questions both about potential military usage of the tech. If one country is able to control its own weather, it could in theory do so elsewhere which is unwelcome news for anyone who isnt invested in forever wars.

Moreover, while cloud seeding is often touted as a potential solution for the megadroughts of the not-so-distant-future, the technology hasnt been successful for long enough to measure how it affects natural weather patterns, nevermind its impact on climate change.

For now, though, lets just marvel at the fact that it now seems possible to literally make it rain on command.

READ MORE: China modified the weather as Communist Party marked centenary in Beijing [South China Morning Post]

More on cloud seeding:A Bunch of US States Are Now Using Weather Modification Technology

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Read more here:
Scientists Say They Caught China Successfully Changing the Weather - Futurism

Switzerland is one of a handful of countries that supports physician-assisted suicide. However, one company wants to take the doctors out of the process and allow patients to kill themselves at the push of a button.

Exit International, a nonprofit dedicated to assisted suicide advocacy, has developed a 3D-printed suicide chamber dubbed Sarco, according the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). The capsule just recently cleared legal regulatory approval in Switzerland, and is set to launch in the country as soon as next year.

Sarco allowspatients to lay comfortably inside. When theyre ready to die, they press a button that fills the chamber with nitrogen gas, resulting in what the nonprofit says will be a painless death via oxygen deprivation with 30 seconds.

There is no panic, no choking feeling, Dr. Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, told the SBC.

The chamber can be transported to different locations, too, allowing patients to choose where they might want to die such as a beach, forest, or their own home.

While the thought of an honest-to-god suicide booth is fascinating in its own right and evokes numerous touchpoints in popular culture perhaps the most eyebrow-raising part is the companys goal of de-medicalizing the suicide process.

In order to obtain a medically assisted suicide in Switzerland, you currently need to have a doctor confirm your mental capacity and then prescribe you liquid sodium pentobarbital, a drug can kill you in two to five minutes.

However, Exit International wants to create an AI-powered online mental capacity test. If you pass, it gives you a code that allows you to access Sarco. Thats still in the conceptual stages, though.

We want to remove any kind of psychiatric review from the process and allow the individual to control the method themselves, Nitschke told the broadcaster.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are still incredibly controversial issues. While some might bristle at the Sarco suicide capsule, itll give folks a new option to go out on their own terms and, at the end of life, thats a compelling concept.

You can click herefor a list of resources from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Read more from the original source:
Assisted-Suicide Chamber Approved by Authorities in Switzerland - Futurism

Scientists have accidentally discovered that men spread COVID-19 more than women and children.

The Colorado-based study,CBS News reported, was intended to look into COVID transmission at performing arts events. But when measuring the number of aerosols emitted by its 75 participants, researchers found something surprising: the adult male subjects spewed way more particles than adult women or children.

And the explanation is likely simple. Adult men just tend to have larger lungs than women or children.

Adults tend to emit more particles than children, John Volckens, a mechanical engineering professor at Colorado State University, told CBS. The reason men tend to emit more particles is because we have bigger lungs.

He also added that people speaking or singing at higher volumes will spread more aerosols because the energy they exert to project their voices translates to more particles coming out of your body. In other words, loud guys are gonna be the ones spreading the most COVID.Quiet down, lads!

Overall, though, the takeaway was clear. The enclosed spaces where people are talking, singing, or shouting loudly are the sites of the highest rates of COVID transmission.

The CSU researchers also found that in particular, singing loudly does as the cases of choir superspreader events seemed to suggest emit more aerosol particles than just talking loudly.

Using lots of cool instruments in an aerosol testing chamber, researchers brought in singers, brass instrument players, and actors to measure aerosol emission. The next phase of the study will focus on which instruments are more likely to spread COVID-19 than others, researchers toldCBS.

Lest we forget the difficult path weve trod so far, let us have a moment of (ironic) silence for the monthsthat global and national health authorities spent ignoring the overwhelming research showing that COVID-19 is transmitted via aerosol droplets that float in the air, and especially so in poorly-ventilated indoor spaces.

Without that knowledge, we could never have gotten this incredible burn on the least-fair sex.

READ MORE: Study shows men spread COVID particles more than other populations[CBS News]

More on men and COVID:Catching Coronavirus Makes it Harder for Men to Have Kids

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

Original post:
Ugh, Men! Study Finds That Dudes Spread Way More COVID - Futurism

Image by Getty Images/Futurism

The South African scientist who was first to alert the world to the existence of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant believes that it likely emerged after running rampant through the body of an unvaccinated HIV-positive person.

AsThe Los Angeles Times reports, bioinformatician Tulio De Oliveira has long been on alert for new strains of COVID to begin spreading in South Africa, where a large percentage of the youth population has uncontrolled HIV and many are unvaccinated.

In June, a study conducted by De Oliveira and colleagues focused on a single South African HIV patient who kept testing positive for COVID for 216 days and in that amount of time, scientists detected a total of 13 unique mutations to the virus from her samples. Although the patient was hospitalized early after her initial positive test, she never became critically ill from the coronavirus, and when her antiretroviral medications were replaced about six months into the study, she both cleared her coronavirus infection and got her HIV under control within a few weeks.

Nevertheless, continued study of the patients biosamples revealed a total of 30 genetic changes, including some that could affect how well the virus responds to vaccines or treatments.

And now De Oliveira, who alerted the World Health Organization to the existence of the Omicron variant circulating in South Africa that has since been revealed to be in Europe and the United States, is seeing a similar pattern emerge with this variant.

Prior to the June study, virologists did not believe that people with HIV or AIDS would suffer outcomes any worse than other immunosuppressed people. Since De Oliveiras study, which was mostly overlooked in the West, research suggests that while people with HIV or AIDS are not at that much greater a risk for severe illness than other immunocompromised people, they may, in situations such as South Africas where many people have either undetected or uncontrolled HIV, be host to mutations and variants because the virus can survive longer in their bodies due to their suppressed immune systems.

When the initial research was released over the summer, De Oliveira expressed cautious optimism that these findings could be a golden opportunity to control the HIV epidemic and protect the world from variants.

Now it seems like that outlook was overly sunny, as the US and Europe respond to the rise of the Omicron variant by restricting travel from southern African nations in spite of it having circulated in Europe for weeks prior to De Oliveira raising the alarms to the WHO.

Many questions remain about the Omicron variant itself, much less its relationship to HIV. Though our track record thus far hasnt been great, hopefully De Oliveiras desire for further study on these dueling pandemics will result in advances for both.

READ MORE: Did a collision of COVID-19 and HIV forge the Omicron variant? [The Los Angeles Times]

More on the uselessness of flight bans: Flight bans wont stop Omicron [Popular Science]

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

See the article here:
A Disastrous Collision Between COVID and HIV May Have Caused the Omicron Variant - Futurism