The article says that the landing was delayed from 4.24pm to 6.24pm because they were troubleshooting their ranging laser which had last minute issues. The solve involved switching to an experimental NASA laser. I think it’s really impressive how they managed to do this in just two hours. Really exciting news!
Cybershoes are fun but limited. They have to be used whilst seated (and it came with a dedicated stool for this). Also game support is limited. There’s a list of supported games on the site, and I don’t think anything new has been added for several years. My guess is that it needs developers to write to its API, so it can’t serve as a drop-in replacement for any game with free locomotion. (If the Freeaim can support this, that’d be a good selling point.)
Having said that, I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment from using them to walk across the world in Skyrim VR. The movement required (rolling your feet back towards you) is different to walking but feels convincing enough when you’re in the game.
This reminds me of the scene in The Abyss where the rat is forced to breathe in oxygen-rich perfluorocarbons[1]. I think this idea of introducing oxygen through perfluorocarbons has been explored but not sure it’s made much headway in humans to date [2]. This paper seems like a clever idea to introduce the liquid anally where oxygen can diffuse through the linings,
and to also use same liquid (because of its viscosity) to scrub the intestines of mucus, to facilitate the oxygen diffusion process.
Research on perfluorocarbons in humans progressed into several inventions. Being immersed is not one, but increasing air transfer within the lungs using a spray, reducing the impact of the bends through an injection, or reducing incidence of traumatic brain injuries due to swelling is a third.
There's quite a large group of doctors out there researching them.
Cameron seems to make a big deal of "the rat really survived" (5 rats, in fact), glossing over the fact that the shocking animal cruelty was also real. It's rather hypocritical to pride yourself on the realism of the scene, while cutting all the parts where the rats defecate from panic.
I'd genuinely like to see some objective information about the scene and how it qualifies as animal abuse. The AHA pretty closely monitors scenes with animals and has since the 1940s [1] albeit the rules and regs it follows have continually been improved upon. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances, like the tiger nearly drowning in the "Life of Pi," but from what I can tell, they mostly get it right. After looking for a good amount of time, I'm yet to find a substantiated account of how the rat in "Abyss" was subject to abuse. I understand how the scene might feel but feelings don't equate to actual events.
"The American Humane Association rated this film "unacceptable" because of the rat that was submerged in oxygenated liquid in one scene."
From the same page:
"James Cameron later admitted that four rats had indeed gone through the procedure without problems; the fifth, however, suffered a cardiac arrest. Fortunately, Cameron was able to revive it through careful chest compressions, and later kept it as a pet."
From the article linked in the original comment:
"Supposedly, the only purpose for the cuts in the sequence was to avoid showing the rats defecating from panic."
And you need only watch the scene to see a rat in enormous distress. I'm not sure what more you want.
[0] The first Google result is an explanation from American Humane themselves that they "were told there were no animals in the film. Therefore, AHA was not aware of the scene involving the rat and was not on the set."
You better not know what else scientists do to rats. And please, don't even start on the argument that they do it for science and not for entertainment. Entertainment in the form of science fiction is crucial for inspiring new generations of scientists.
> You better not know what else scientists do to rats.
Most people know what scientists do to animals—there have been enough awareness campaigns over the years. Animal experiments are tolerated, and usually strictly regulated [1], because they can potentially improve the lives of people.
> Entertainment in the form of science fiction is crucial for inspiring new generations of scientists.
I don't see why that (if it is true at all) is a reason to abuse animals for movies. If you wanted, you could make 'inspiring' science fiction showing harm to animals by using special effects.
Simply not true. There are some rules to limit the amount of abuse or distress for some types on animal, but that doesn't prevent anywhere near all of it.
Why do I have to think of the Apes, Dogs, and cats with a plug in their skull, for neuroscience? What about the countless bunnies and dogs, used for 'dermatologically tested' label for cosmetics, wet wipes, whatever, by rubbing that stuff in their eyes?
I don't have the source but the navy tried something similar for allowing scuba divers to fill there lungs with oxygen rich liquid I don't think it was perfluorocarbons but the ended canceling the project because while they could oxygenated someone they were unable to exchange out carbon and ultimately the person they experimented on (yes human experiment) died from CO2 toxicity. Id be interested to see how long they can ventilate an animal like this
If I recall correctly, similar experiment have been tried lately, where the subject survive. (maybe because they were shorter than the navy's one)
However, the subjects stated afterward that they felt adequately oxygenated, but also were on the verge of panic due to the constant feeling of drowning induce by having your lungs filled with liquid.
None of them felt like they would be able to do any kind of productive task in this state.
Whenever I have a tiny bit of water “go down the wrong pipe” I think about how truly awful it must feel to drown. Just inhaling a teeny tiny amount of water is so uncomfortable and sometimes even scary even though you can still breath and you know everything will be perfectly fine. I can’t even imagine how awful that sensation must have been for the people involved in this experiment.
Peter Watts' Rifters series is premised on the development of this sort of technology for human use and goes into uncomfortable detail about the (false) feeling of drowning
Almost everything we know about all the ways diving can kill you comes from the US Navy's experimental diving unit. A lot of people died after they intentionally gave people the bends.
Why can't this be repurposed as a lung cleanse? I imagine that heavy smokers' lungs (or coal miners') could benefit from a wash and rinse, perhaps with some vibration assistance. With a medical team standing by to resuscitate.
I had the exact same though - this could make the suits a reality - providing that the traveller does not need to take large doses of morphine to deal with the pain or are dosed with amyl nitrite.
I bet you would be "gassy" for weeks on end - with a dangerous combination of both pure oxygen and methane - sounds like a party to me.
I'm guessing, with the reference to amyl nitrate, they are assuming that whatever is stuck up your ass to facilitate this breathing process, is going to hurt.
I've done it. Inflammation, sensitivity to bacterium, gut pain. The mucus regenerates but takes some time. I found that in my case diet cranberry juice and mastic gum helped until the mucus regenerated.
Some people with severe IBS get to experience this often. I am thankful to not be one of them.
The last I heard, this form of liquid breathing may have use for premature babies. The concept is that their lungs may better handle liquid than air, so long as they don't start breathing air. It would require a respirator that pumps liquid, a tricky practical problem.
That’s simply awful, I’m really sorry to hear that!
I spent a year as a stay at home dad (with our son who was 1 yr old at the time). The first few months were spent in Palo Alto, CA, and the rest in London, UK. We would go out to parks all over the place, and I never had any problems like this. Other parents always seemed happy to chat. I did expect problems since my son looks very different to me (fair skinned and blonde, whilst I’m a typical Pakistani Asian guy, brown skin, black hair - this kid inherited a lot of his looks from my wife). Often I’d get questioned by immigration officials when flying alone with him, and I’d have to take a letter from my wife attesting to our trip being known about and approved by her. But that was the only time it was an issue. I don’t think I would have lasted long if I encountered what you have, and I can’t imagine how you’ve dealt with it for as long as you have. If there’s anything I can do to support, please let me know.
Thanks for the kind words. We’ve moved to a more rural city where it doesn’t happen nearly as much anymore (eg less people at the parks in general), and we have a larger property now so the kids play in the yard mostly.
I use AppCleaner & usually it gives a prompt to move linked files after a application has been deleted. Orphaned files option needs to be enabled in setting.
Does anyone know how to find this site? I wanted to suggest that they include instructions on how to set up Tor Browser by default in their template, for people who don’t know that it’s possible to circumvent the content controls.
I’ve been a keen gamer since a kid. Now a dad, I’m in a similar position where I rarely have time to play. But I adore the Oculus Quest 2! I’ve just completed Resident Evil 4 (it took several weeks, but it’s the first time I’ve completed a AAA game in years). The immersion is amazing, I haven’t been this absorbed in a game in a long time. Fighting your way through a fully realised VR environment (massive castles, underground caverns etc) is something new to me. I found that most console games are too complex for me to get back into after a week or two away - the mental effort needed to remember the controls puts me off after a long day of work followed by looking after the kids - but RE4 VR doesn’t have this problem. It’s very intuitive - you grab weapons from different points on your body, reload with physical motions, and there’s only a few actions that map to button presses, so it’s made it easy to pick it up again after a break. I’m looking forward to seeing this platform develop. Bonus: I tell the kids they can’t use it till they’re teenagers, so whilst they hog the PS4 for Minecraft, the Quest is exclusively for my use. :)
>I’ve been a keen gamer since a kid. Now a dad, I’m in a similar position where I rarely have time to play. But I adore the Oculus Quest 2!
Same here. The Quest put the fun back in gaming for me. I tried some of the fancy new AAA PC games and I felt I just was not having as much fun as I did gaming as a kid since everything felt as the same-old rehashed recipes but with way fancier graphics and different stories, so I was just left yawning and bored quickly despite the realistic graphics and major hype.
But gaming in VR really makes me feel immersed and I finally feel like I'm having genuine fun like I'm a kid again. Why control a 1st/3rd person character on a screen, when you can be that characters and live the adventure yourself ?!.
Even though the graphics have a lot less polygons on the Quest, but since the art style of some games is designed from the get-go to be low-poly, it really fits well together. But somehow, some games on the Quest 2 really do look visually stunning, verging on modern console/PC fidelity, which is insane considering the underlying HW.
Mental health wise, it was a real life saver for me during the 2020 lockdowns as it allowed some quick escapism in new territories when everything was closed and my social circles broke up.
Not to mention, gaming in VR with 360 degrees of freedom is a lot healthier for your body and posture than gaming sitting at a desk/couch, especially if your day job also involves sitting at a desk for 8 hours.
As much as I despise Facebook/Meta, the Quest is a game changer which had a genuine positive impact on my life.
Yep, this is a thing. Friends who never played a game in their life were shooting and climbing after a few minutes in the Quest. I struggle with modern console controllers (while I am really good still with 80s joysticks; they are not alike in any way), on the Quest 2 I will redo a round after failing 10x because I did not fail due to the frustrating controls, which I have no patience or time to learn anyway, but I failed just because i was not fast enough. That improves gaming so much for me, I started to like modern gaming again after leaving it for some 20 years (I played retro games with joysticks though during that time).
I think that this does fill a genuine gap for people who can’t get out easily, or who find standard exercise to be boring.
I can’t run, my knees are too bad. I can’t to the gym easily, since it’s hard to find someone to care for my young kids (my other half works crazy lawyer hours). But I can do an hour of exercise before the kids wake up, and the Quest 2 is much more enjoyable than doing a set of regular exercises (though I do mix those in too). I get a good workout from doing a mix of shadow boxing with FitXR (or the Thrill of the Fight if I have enough space), Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, and it barely feels like exercise while I’m doing it. It’s been particularly helpful during the recent lockdowns.
I wouldn’t call it “augmented reality” - they’re projecting different track layouts onto the ground - but still a neat idea. Wonder if anyone has seen or tried anything else like this.
Second para is interesting reading. No further details given, but it’s written by someone who’s allegedly on the front lines of covid treatment, and it leaves me curious about whether there is a greater chance of an adverse effect to the vaccine amongst populations that have been heavily exposed to the virus already.
“Nevertheless, what I am currently struggling with is the failure to report the reality of the morbidity caused by our current vaccination program within the health service and staff population. The levels of sickness after vaccination is unprecedented and staff are getting very sick and some with neurological symptoms which is having a huge impact on the health service function. Even the young and healthy are off for days, some for weeks, and some requiring medical treatment. Whole teams are being taken out as they went to get vaccinated together.”
