August 7, 2023

what we've been watching...

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Business

Freelancing isn’t Free (or maybe it is): Earlier this Summer, Disney+ released Stan Lee, a documentary paying tribute to the legendary creator behind much of the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, much of that story may be Disney propaganda in an effort to keep the Marvel copyright and forego paying the freelancers who worked with Lee. The estate of Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spiderman with Lee, is currently suing Disney to recover claims on his characters. The documentary, and much of the myth surrounding Lee, portrays him as the sole creator of many of comics’ most iconic characters, where in actuality, he was an editor and a collaborator. Jack Kirby’s estate also settled with Disney, so that Marvel would acknowledge that he was the co-creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, the X-Men, Black Panther, and many more, yet throughout Kirby’s life, he only received a freelancer’s income (no royalties).

Science Settles: One of our favorite books of the 2000s was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Author, Rebecca Skloot, tells the story of a poor Black woman from the South whose cancerous cervical cells revolutionized medicine. Unfortunately, Lacks’s cells were taken without her knowledge, and until last week her family had never been compensated. Her cells became known as HeLa, and were the first human cells to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes, which was vital for medical research. Her descendants announced that they finally reached a settlement with the biotechnology company that enriched itself off of her tissues.

Personalized Shopping: We’ve seen the Amazon palm scanners at Whole Foods, and thought those were too invasive, so we can’t imagine shopping at this AI powered supermarket in Japan. Fujitsu is combining AI and its camera technology to watch customer behaviors and gestures in-store to determine when to show customer service or promotions. So next time you pick up an item to check the price or squeeze a melon for freshness, be careful what Big Brother might recommend at check out.

Unexpected Hosts: Normally, Airbnb is in the news for unexpected fees or unexpected guests, but this week an unexpected host popped up. Gwyneth Paltrow will be listing her guest house in Montecito, CA for one lucky guest (for one night, we think) in order to make the “world feel a little less lonely.” While we’d love to raid Gwyneth’s wine room and pool, not sure we’d feel less depressed after we departed.

Technology

Unobtanium: The tech community moved on to a shiny new object this week, which may or may not revolutionize the way in which we transfer and obtain electricity. A group of South Korean scientists claim to have created a room temperature superconductor, called LK-99. This may remind you of the debates about cold fusion, or Unobtanium, the mythical metal found in Avatar. Essentially, if LK-99 is to be believed it would be the first compound to transfer electricity at room temperature without losing any energy (other superconducters have been found to transfer without losing energy but they have to be at super cold temperatures (or extremely high pressures) in order to do this, defeating the energy savings). So far, no one has been able to replicate the team’s results, and many experts are weary of the findings. If LK-99 is indeed what is claims and can be manufactured, the compound could revolutionize transportation (think magnetic floating trains), energy grids, quantum computing, and medical imaging.

Failure to Communicate: Voyager 2 is the second-most distant object ever built by humans in outer space (the first being Voyager 1), and signals take roughly 18 hours to travel the 20BN kilometers of distance that Voyager 2 has traveled away from Earth. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, and was only meant to last 5 years, but the satellite continues to beam back data to Earth (although its battery is expected to die out by 2026). A few weeks ago, unfortunately, scientists sent an erroneous signal to the craft which tilted its antenna 2%, and it was unable to communicate with mission scientists. Luckily, NASA’s Deep Space Network sent another signal, and the spacecraft realigned itself, and should be back to communicating about the unknowns of space outside of the solar system.

Taking Art with You: If you happen to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this summer, be on the lookout for works of art that you can scan with the Replica app. These works can then be taken into Roblox and worn as digital wearables. Only about 37 of the museum’s 1.5M objects are available for the new immersive AR experience, but we’d be happy to have our avatar climbing the virtual Met steps in van Gogh’s Straw Hat.

AI gets Creative: Getting stuck with your writing? AI has a tool for that. Google just released TextFX that is meant to help the creative process of musicians, writers and creatives in collaboration with Lupe Fiasco. The tool has a suite of 10 products to choose from: for instance, pick Alliteration and a topic, and the tool will give you a running list words all starting with the same letter for your chosen theme. Watch out, Lin Manuel!

Screentime: China has a history of surveillance and tech giants, and now the two are apparently in conflict over minors. China’s internet watchdog has rolled out new regulations to curb the amount of time that children spend on their smartphones. Children between the ages of 8 and 15 would only be allowed one hour a day, and internet devices would be off limits to minors between the hours of 10pm and 6am. While most parents would probably appreciate the excuse that the government has cracked down on screen time in order to prevent internet addiction, we’d probably land on the side of the libertarians in this battle.

Culture

Bass go Zoom: If ChatGPT could write a Europop anthem song of the summer, it would be hard to beat Kyle Gordon’s Planet of Bass. (Warning: once you listen, you’ll have an earworm.) Gordon is a comedian, and the song and video were meant to be a parody of “every European dance song in the 1990s.” Instead, it has gone viral, and the full release on Spotify has been moved up a week to August 15. The nonsensical lyrics, perfect casting and over the top costumes mimic the 1990s to perfection. Relive your late nights raving to The Real McCoy.

Gaming in the Past: We are not gamers, so we can’t quite understand the appeal of any video game, but Videoverse might get us to pick up a joystick. Videoverse is a new game in the form of a graphic novel set in the year 2003, where users navigate the communities of the early internet, and have to deal with teen relationships and the existential crisis of their favorite console being discontinued. If you wanted to relive your days on AOL instant messenger, hop on in.

Card Players: Mattel is on a role with Barbie reaching $1BN in the theaters, and now the toy company wants to stir up interest in another classic: UNO. Mattel is hiring a “Chief Uno Player” who will “play the new game, Uno Quatro, for four hours a day, four days a week.” So if you are itching for some card action of the non-Vegas variety, fill out an application on TikTok for your chance to go Wild.

Hungry? Here is a website devoted to rotating sandwiches and another to scanwiches.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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