July 30, 2025
(Undark) – In parts of Europe, nursing homes use physical restraints on residents, citing safety. But experts warn of harm. In Italy, Spain, and Portugal, the use of sheets, belts, bed rails, and other devices that limit freedom — known … Read More
July 28, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – If humanity’s existence were threatened by plague, nuclear war or environmental catastrophe, people would surely demand action. But what if the threat came from our own, passive acceptance of decline? This is not some theoretical curiosity: … Read More
July 18, 2025
(SF Gate) – The living nightmare of Tonya Walker’s disappearance and death is part of an alleged pattern of wrongdoing by a multibillion-dollar health care company that operates dozens of hospitals across California. Dignity Health has been accused of “callous, reckless, … Read More
July 14, 2025
(Wired) – Millions of people are accessing harmful AI “nudify” websites. New analysis says the sites are making millions and rely on tech from US companies. For years, so-called “nudify” apps and websites have mushroomed online, allowing people to create … Read More
July 4, 2025
(Ars Technica) – The release of Google’s Veo 3 video generator in May represented a disconcerting leap in AI video quality. While many of the viral AI videos we’ve seen are harmless fun, the model’s pixel-perfect output can also be … Read More
June 30, 2025
(Wired) – Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding. A WIRED investigation into 911 calls from 10 of the nation’s largest immigration … Read More
June 27, 2025
(The Guardian) – The US supreme court has ruled that a key provision of “Obamacare”, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, is constitutional. The case challenged how members of an obscure but vital healthcare committee are appointed. The committee, … Read More
June 27, 2025
(Rest of World) – Content moderators say they’re exposed to graphic violence, psychological trauma, and union-busting tactics, and now a larger movement is brewing. Yavuz is at the forefront of an international movement to demand better recognition, rewards, and working … Read More
June 20, 2025
(CNET) – Pope Leo XIV, who took over leadership of the Catholic Church in May, is revealing one area that he’ll be focusing on: artificial intelligence. The Pope has called for tech companies to develop a “superior ethical criterion” against which … Read More
June 20, 2025
(Los Angeles Times) – Across the region, once-busy parks, shops and businesses have emptied as undocumented residents and their families hole up at home in fear. As rumors of immigration arrests have swirled around clinics and hospitals, many patients are … Read More
June 19, 2025
(Aeon) – Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being Instead, pundits and policymakers are applying the word ‘loneliness’ to address a real and growing … Read More
June 18, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – Gioia says she has informed a family court of this and many other instances in which her ex has used or appeared to use technology to stalk her, but so far this hasn’t helped her get … Read More
June 18, 2025
(Plough) – Tom Andrew started out as a pediatrician but became a forensic pathologist, initially serving the City of New York before being appointed Chief Medical Examiner for the State of New Hampshire. When he had been serving in this … Read More
June 12, 2025
(The Telegraph) – Flush and bone rituals proposed as a new, ‘gentler’ funerary method People could soon be able to choose to be boiled and flushed down the drain instead of cremated or buried. A consultation on funerary methods by … Read More
June 11, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – The Dutch city thought it could break a decade-long trend of implementing discriminatory algorithms. Its failure raises the question: can these programs ever be fair? Amsterdam indeed thought it was on the right track. City officials … Read More
June 6, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – This week, I’ve been thinking about the powerful connection between mind and body. Some new research suggests that people with heart conditions have better outcomes when they are more hopeful and optimistic. Hopelessness, on the other … Read More
June 6, 2025
(Care) – Dr Philip Nitschke, inventor of the Sarco suicide pod, has unveiled plans for a controversial new device: an implantable ‘kill switch’ that would allow people diagnosed with dementia to end their lives at a later stage, regardless of … Read More
June 6, 2025
(The Spectator) – The hospice movement is one of the great achievements of post-war Britain. Inspired by the doctor Cicely Saunders, who in effect founded the field of palliative care, it has united cutting-edge research with a profound understanding of … Read More
June 5, 2025
(Economist) – Of all the medical challenges that scientists have faced, Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, has been one of the trickiest. Between 1995 and 2021 private money spent on Alzheimer’s research came to $42.5bn, but more than 140 … Read More
June 5, 2025
(Ms.) – In 28 states, if you’re pregnant, the government can ignore your end-of-life wishes—no matter what you’ve written. Reproductive freedom advocates filed a lawsuit, Vernon v. Kobach, on May 29 challenging the constitutionality of a Kansas law that automatically invalidates a person’s end-of-life treatment … Read More
June 5, 2025
(MIT Tech Review) — Brian Armstrong, the billionaire CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, says he’s ready to fund a US startup focused on gene-editing human embryos. If he goes forward, it would be the first major commercial investment in … Read More
June 2, 2025
(New York Times) — When Canada’s first MAID law, Bill C-14, passed in 2016, it was reserved for those who were over 18, eligible for health care and mentally competent to consent to death. They needed to have a “serious … Read More
June 2, 2025
(People) — A Harvard employee accused of stealing body parts from a morgue at the university and selling them for a profit entered a guilty plea to a federal charge of interstate transport of human remains this week. Cedric Lodge, … Read More
June 2, 2025
(Daily Mail) — A controversial amendment allowing assisted suicide is making its way through the Illinois state legislature as representatives snuck the measure into a bill on sanitary food preparation. Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, a Democrat representing Evanston, … Read More
May 29, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – We tried to direct an AI film with Veo and Runway. The tools are magic. The process is madness. Welcome to the premiere of “My Robot & Me.” Please silence your phones, chew your popcorn quietly … Read More
