The Writer’s Guild of America and roughly 160,000 actors in Hollywood are on strike now, the former group started their strike in May and are now joined by the latter. The issues are, among other things, about protection from unauthorized usage of an actor’s features or likeness via AI and about protecting writers from being replaced by AIs or have their materials used for training of AIs. What a futuristic flair this strike has - protections from AI - it was bound to happen and it did happen, sooner than I expected though.
Taking a trip into space isn’t very far from the topic of striking against AI, it’s all really about technology and scientific advancement. I am talking about Chandrayaan-3, the spacecraft launched by India’s Space Agency on Friday, and that is currently in orbit around earth but will attempt a landing on the moon’s south pole next month. Here is the recording of the live stream from ISRO’s YouTube channel, so you can see it for yourself. I think it’s really, really cool and very exciting that India is making a move in the space game. Good luck India!!
Continuing on the sci-fi theme… But it’s actually another thing that just a few years ago was something people talked about as future possibilities that is now reality, or very very close anyway. As Eli Lilly, the company behind Mounjaro, the biggest competitor to the popular drug Ozempic (Novo Nordisk), buys the company Versanis for $1.9B, the development of weight loss drugs will likely take a huge leap forward. Soon that dream of mindless eating and a little pill before bed to stay slim might be real people!! Who’s excited?!
Moving on with the medical news of the week - as early as January 2024 an over the counter and prescription free birth control pill, Opill, will be available online and in grocery, convenience, and drugstores in the US. It’s roughly 50 years since the very first birth control pill was cleared for use, but since then it has been a prescription drug, leaving women unable to easily access a safe and effective birth control method. It’s about time it becomes freely available and I hope Canada and the rest of the world will follow suit.
Finally, I learned this week that it seems like humankind has pushed the planet into a new geological age - the Anthropocene. This was first proposed by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Price awarded chemist, over 20 years ago and have been widely recognized by scientists for a long time. But it is first now scientists argue that they have identified a geological site, in Ontario, Canada, that reflects this new epoch that started somewhere in between 1950 and 1954. I am not kidding - we are now living in the age of Anthropocene people!! Read more about this in Nature.
So this week we got a new epoch, India is heading to the moon, and there’s hope for better and more efficient medications, among other things. I think we can conclude this week was a good one!
Until next Sunday - stay safe!!
/Annalogue75
If you enjoy this little newsletter I am sure you would love one of my favorite sources! Tip News is a free daily news brief that gives you the perfect mix of easy to read, important to know, and fun to open newsletter. Try it out and see if you agree…