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‘we will shut all of europe down’
Summer’s officially over (unless you’re in the Southern hemisphere, you lucky duck), so I’m here to brighten up your inbox with a little Tuesday newsletter.
From vegan restaurants adding meat to the menu, to why everything on TV is so unrelatable right now, new scams by fake scientific journals, the drag of tracking all our hobbies via digital apps, and Italian dockworkers threatening to ‘shut down all of Europe’ for Gaza – there’s news in tech, culture, science, and politics on the menu.
Oh, and a great rec for the scatterbrain creative readers at the end! :3
Let’s get into ittttt!
📲 Tech
Can an AI doppelgänger help me do my job? – MIT technology review
The idea of a digital clone might sound scary, but tech gurus are working on building them to help with our productivity anyways. Tech start-up Delphi recently raised $16 million in funding with the goal of helping famous people create replicas that can speak with their fans in both chat and voice calls. But when James O’Donnell, a writer for MIT’s tech review, tested his digital clone, and found it wholly underwhelming. Although it looked like him, O’Donnell said his clone ‘acted overly enthusiastic about story pitches’ he’d ‘never pursue’ while being overly committal about meeting schedules. For celebs and influencers looking to use clones to simulate friendly conversations with fans, AI clones could be useful. For more practical and professional tasks? The technology still has a while to go.
No more Letterboxd! Why I quit hobby-tracking apps – dazed digital
Apps allow us to keep track of everything we love and enjoy, from tv shows and films we’re watching, books we’re reading, and run routes we complete at the weekend. But the social and publicly published element of these apps can add a layer of pressure that starts to make everything feel like an assignment. This is called tracking fatigue, and it’s super common among young people, who use apps like Letterboxd, Goodreads, and Strava. While keeping a log of all your hobbies can be fun, feeling as if you have to keep up with everyone else (and your high expectations of yourself) isn’t. This article is a reminder that it’s okay to just enjoy things for what they are, without performing them for yourself or your mates online.
🎶 Culture
Rising health concerns are causing more people to turn to a vegan diet, so why are tons of restaurants aimed at the plant-based community now adding meat to the menu? This broadening of options could be down to a number a factors. Firstly, there’s a protein craze taking place at present, with everyone from the medical community to fitness influencers promoting ultra-high protein diets as essential for all. Secondly, many restaurants have ended up having to offer meat dishes to keep a steady flow of customers (and money) flowing through their doors. But lastly, disinformation about the vegan diet is rife online, with many worrying that meat-alternatives on offer are worse for their health than real meat, seeing them as ‘ultra-processed’ despite containing fewer calories, less saturated fat, and more fibre per serving. For vegan restaurants, staying afloat isn’t just about making compromises for the sake of financial health, half the battle involves breaking through misconceptions about plant-based diets… and the first step is getting people into the door.
Opinion – nobody can relate to TV’s mega-rich – thred
Bored of the endless, unrelatable shows about the world’s one percent? You’re not alone. From Sex and the City reboots to the Real Housewives franchise and the Kardashians, it seems the only people television producers deem worth featuring are the most glamorous or mega-rich. Flo explains it best, so I’ll leave you with an excerpt from her piece. ‘It’s no secret that the vast majority of us are suffering through a cost of living crisis, whilst watching genocide and war unravel in various places worldwide. Tuning in to watch a group of women stroll around with Birkin bags and bemoan the minutiae of their million dollar New York apartment buildings may once have felt like fitting escapism, but it now leaves a sour taste in even the most sentimentalist mouths.’
🥵 Science
Extreme heat makes your body age faster – wired
A new study has revealed that extreme heat speeds up human’s biological ageing process more than smoking or drinking alcohol. The research, which monitored almost 25,000 people between 2008 and 2022 found that exposure to extreme heat can weaken bodily systems, which shows up in tests of people’s blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood function. Over time, this can increase the risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia. The results showed that the more extreme heat events people experienced, the faster their biological age accelerated relative to their chronological age. On average, among the cohort of people studied, being exposed to two years’ worth of heat waves added between eight and 12 days to a person’s biological age.
AI exposes 1,000+ fake science journals – science daily
After receiving swathes of suspicious e-mails claiming to contain new scientific research findings, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder assembled a team of computer scientists to investigate. To deal with the issue, the team of computer scientists developed a new AI platform that automatically seeks out suspicious journals. The team found that unverified scientific journals are being sent global researchers with the aim of convincing them to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to publish their research without proper vetting. The AI tool, which its creators insist should only be used as an initial screening process, flagged more than 1,400 publications as potentially problematic. Things that would raise the flag are: publishing an unusually high number of articles, including authors with a larger number of affiliations than more legitimate journals, and authors who cited their own research, rather than the research of other scientists, to an unusually high level. The new AI system isn’t publicly accessible yet, but the researchers hope to make it available to universities and publishing companies soon.
🌎 News
Israel starts calling up reservists for its military offensive in Gaza City – euronews
Israel has began mobilising tens of thousands of reservists as part of its plan to widen its operations in Gaza City, sparking opposition domestically and condemnation abroad. Several movements are organising to encourage reservists not to serve in Israel’s continued assault. The world’s leading authority on food crises declared that Gaza City was in the midst of a famine last month, so it’s difficult to understand how much more military power is really required, with no clear indication of how many soldiers will step up. Amidst these calls, malnutrition-related deaths have mounted in Gaza, with a total of 185 people dying of malnutrition in August. More than 63,633 Palestinians have been killed, and 160,914 others wounded in Israel’s genocide in Gaza since October 2023. The respected medical journal, The Lancet, estimates the figure to be significantly higher.
Italian dockworkers threaten to ‘shut down all of Europe’ if Gaza aid flotilla is blocked – novaramedia
Italian dockworkers have threatened to ‘shut down all of Europe’ and block all shipments to Israel if communication with the latest aid flotilla bound for Gaza is lost. Speaking at a procession in the port of Genoa on behalf of the Unione Sindacale di Base, a syndicate of various grassroots unions in Italy, one dockworker said: ‘If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades – even for just 20 minutes – we will shut down all of Europe. Our young women and men must come back without a scratch, and all this cargo, which belongs to the people and is going to the people, must reach its destination, down to the very last box. At least 13,000-14,000 containers leave this region every year for Israel. Not a single nail will leave anymore.’ The Global Sumud Flotilla expedition set sail from Barcelona yesterday, made up of around 20 vessels carrying delegates from at least 44 countries, with more ships departing from the port of Genoa.
