Interesting Links for 09-07-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Anger from voice actors as NSFW mods use AI deepfakes to replicate their voices

(tags:Voice acting fraud ai )

2. New drug shows Alzheimer's Disease by 85%

(tags:alzheimers GoodNews )

3. Tiny functional cannon is super cute

(tags:weaponry cute video )

4. From the clinic to the street: the changing role of benzodiazepines in the Scottish overdose epidemic

(tags:drugs death Scotland )

5. Planned power reforms set to redraw map for British electricity bills

(tags:electricity uk )

6. Superrational - a satirical take of Homo economicus

(tags:economics satire funny )

Comments

[redbird]

That Alzheimer's drug link is a press release from 2019. I couldn't find anything really promising about that drug published in the last couple of years, unfortunately.

The results the company is claiming in that press release are at least comparable to the anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody drug that the United States has approved. That sounds better than it is, though--the monoclonal was approved based on a "surrogate endpoint," meaning that the lab results improved but the patients may or may not have.

Given the amount of fraud and wishful thinking in Alzheimer's research in the last 20 year, including some of the major papers on amyloid beta, a drug that targets something else sounds like a good idea, but they've had four years to publish a research paper about the claims in that press release.

[andrewducker]

Bugger, I hadn't noticed that. Thank you!

[agoodwinsmith]

Oh ... drat. Thank you.