‘A bird has been liberated after months of speculation that it might be an asset for the Chinese Communist Party….’ (via Gizmodo )
Pigeon Suspected of Being Chinese Spy Released From Captivity
Daily Archives: 3 Feb 24
Explore the Surface of Mars in Spectacular 4K Resolution
‘…high definition footage captured by NASA’s three Mars rovers – Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. The footage (also contributed by JPL-Cal tech, MSSS, Cornell University and ASU) was stitched together by Elder Fox Documentaries, creating what they call the most life like experience of being on Mars….’ (Open Culture)
As someone who has done his share of traveling around western US landscapes but who is not geologically sophisticated, what struck me about this was not how otherworldly it felt to travel around Mars but, to the contrary, how familiar it seemed. In a way there is something comforting about that. As a science fiction reader, I used to feel that many attempts to describe extraterrestrial landscapes felt disappointingly lame and prosaic (off the top of my head, think of Arthur C. Clarke’s “A Walk in the Dark”), but that turns out to be just right. Actually, the skies of these scenes felt much more alien than the terrain.
Time to name cancers by genetics, not organ of origin, expert says
‘Naming cancers solely by the organs they originate in is getting a bit old, according to Fabrice André, a medical oncologist at Gustave Roussy in France and the president-elect of the European Society of Medical Oncology. Instead, André hopes to push for a new naming system that emphasizes the molecular characteristics of a cancer, regardless of its tissue of origin.
That’s because, in the last several decades, science has uncovered the ways genetic alterations can drive the growth and development of cancers — and how those alterations can be targeted with medicines to melt tumors away. In many cases, these mutations aren’t limited to cancers of a single organ, nor do all cancers from an organ share the same mutations. Two patients may both have breast cancer, but if one is a triple-negative cancer and another is packed with HER2 proteins, the treatment will look very different, André said. That can cause confusion for patients….’ (StatNews)
Why Tim Cook Is Going All In on the Apple Vision Pro
Columnist Nick Bolton wants to have a unique take on Apple Vision Pro, so he essentially likens it to crack cocaine:
‘I know deep down that the Apple Vision Pro is too immersive, and yet all I want to do is see the world through it. “I’m sure the technology is terrific. I still think and hope it fails,” one Silicon Valley investor said to me. “Apple feels more and more like a tech fentanyl dealer that poses as a rehab provider.” Harsh words, but he feels what we all feel, a slave to our smartphone, and he’s seen this play before and he knows what the first act is like, and the second act, and he knows how it ends….’ ( via Vanity Fair )
