Category Archives: Futurism

That's seriously messed up.Not Funny

In what may be the least funny dad joke in history, one UK father is getting backlash online for tricking his family into thinking Russia launched a nuclear bomb attack. According to a report published in the New York Postthis morning, the 32-year old convinced his family they were going to die because of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

It went brilliantly. Beyond expectations, the father told the news service SWNS, as quoted by the Post.

His fiancs brother posted a two-minute clip of the prank on Twitter, which shows the family watching a fake nuclear bomb alert on TV. Its designed to look like a real BBC news segment, with alarming red background. In the clip the mans fianc gets distressed, clapping a hand over her mouth. A young child playing in pajamas tries to get his soon-to-be-stepmothers attention with a pillow, but cant distract her from the fear.

Twitter users were quick to give their thoughts on the vicious prank, including a few folks who felt the joke was inconsiderate to their own loved ones.

Yeah because my family in Ukraine would find this hilarious right now while their home has been obliterated, their small children now have no home and friends/colleagues have been found dead. Get a grip, one user said under the original clip.

To be fair, the Post reports that the mans fianc took the joke in stride after initially being upset.

Hes lucky to still be alive, trust me, she told SWNS. He nearly gave me a heart attack. Ive watched it over and over because I keep laughing at myself. Ill try and get him back with a prank but I dont think anything can top him creating World War Three.

Lets hope the couples ongoing prank war doesnt actually instigate real global conflict.

More on the real nuclear crisis: Authorities Furious That Russia Attacked Nuclear Plant

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Dad Criticized for "Pranking" Family Into Thinking They Were Going to Die in Nuclear War - Futurism

Emotional whiplash and utter honesty is what TBD, a Neo-Futurist-inspired performance group, promises its audience.

Since 2015, TBD has held a quarterly mainstage show along with occasional special events like open mics or speed dating games. Each show boasts a series of short plays written by the performers. The twist? The plays are performed in a random order that changes with each show. Each play is assigned a number, and then the audience selects the order with notecards.

This creates what TBD calls emotional whiplash. Communication senior Bennett Petersen said the plays range from chaotic screaming and sprinkling toy bed bugs onto the audience from the balcony to processing deep emotional experiences.

Its going to be something that youve probably never seen before, said Lola Bod, a Communication freshman and TBD ensemble member. It was something that I had never seen before until I saw TBD. And therell be a lot of things that are unexpected. Therell be a lot of spectacle.

TBD will perform TBD Presents: Portrait of a Student Group on Fire 10 p.m. Friday, and 7 p.m. and 10 p.m Saturday in Fisk Hall 217.

All TBD plays are nonfiction and non-illusory, meaning there is no traditional acting.

The single rule we hold ourselves to is that at no point on that stage are we lying, Petersen said. We are always playing ourselves. We are always putting ourselves in that moment in that space.

The tenant allows TBD to write stories with messages they want to express and also reflect the communitys needs.

Communication senior and ensemble member Rick Hilscher, a member of the group since his freshman year, noticed TBD plays became increasingly absurd after the pandemic likely as a way to take a break from the world.

Its like a living newspaper, so that every single play we write and every single thing we share is a reflection of the modern times and what our and what Northwestern students at this time are thinking about, Hilscher said.

Bod said the unconventional formatting and topics are like a breath of fresh air compared to fully staged productions.

Bienen and Communication freshman Mya Vandegrift said TBD transformed her writing and has brought her out of her comfort zone in both the silly and serious works.

Its just constant creativity, Vandegrift said. Its like being a kid again. I hope (the audience) appreciates the chaos and also the really personal quiet moments.

The team of 15 members has formed a close-knit environment with one another, but also with the NU community. TBD frequently gets the audience involved with interactive plays, something that blurs the line between audience and performers according to Hilscher.

Though TBD shows are far from standard theatre, they have the audience hooked. In fact, Bod and Petersen decided to join after watching a TBD performance for the first time.

Youre getting sort of the full spectrum of human emotion and the human truth, in such a short period of time, Hilscher said. That can be a little disorienting, but in a way that I think our audience enjoys, and its a big reason why people keep coming back.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Lola Bods name and misstated the dates of the performances. The Daily regrets the errors.

Email: [emailprotected]Twitter: @karapeeler

Related Stories: TBD performance group brings neo-futurism to the present through short plays Student theater troupe explores neo-futurism, grows presence on campus Arts Alliance strives to create accessible theatre

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Neo-Futurist performance group TBD tells the truth in unique ways - Daily Northwestern

Well, that's pretty grim.Felicity Ate

A huge cargo ship full of Bentleys and Porches thats been burning in the Atlantic has finally succumbed to the depths.

AsThe New York Times reports, the cargo ship named Felicity Ace, which was carrying about 4,000 luxury cars made by Volkswagen Group destined for Rhode Island when it began to burn in the North Atlantic in mid-February, has finally sank after just under two weeks of being on fire.

With the sinking of these high-end vehicles, which the Russell Group risk analysis firm estimated at being worth about $400 million in total, comes concerns for the environment of the Azores, the archipelago off the coast of Portugal about 250 miles from where the ship sank. The area is covered in coral reefs, and is home to multiple species of whales as well as dolphins and sharks, all of which could be at risk from the sudden dump of harmful pollutants.

Not only does the ship itself hold millions of liters of heavy oil that burned for weeks, as the environmentalist group Oceana told the Times, but the lithium-ion batteries inside the electric vehicles on board also likely made the blaze much worse.

Known for being highly flammable, it remains unclear how much of a role the batteries played in the fire, though in an interview withReuters after it began, the captain of the port on the Azorean island of Faial said the batteries were keeping the fire alive. The flames from infernos as hot as those resulting from ignited lithium-ion often cant be put out with regular water, which was part of why efforts to extinguish the blaze took so long.

ThePortuguese Navy confirmed in a statement that the Felicity Ace sank after attempts to tow it ashore. Previous reporting indicated that the ships crew had been safely evacuated, so there do not appear to have been any human casualties.

It will take a lengthy forensic investigation to determine what caused the fire, how much money the companies and consumers involved lost and, perhaps more importantly, how harmful this blaze will be for the nearby environment.

READ MORE:After Burning for Days, a Ship Carrying Thousands of Luxury Cars Sinks [The New York Times]

More boat fire:Huge Oil Tanker Explodes Off Coast of Africa

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Remember That Giant Burning Ship of Luxury Cars? It Just Sank - Futurism

Amazon has taken its biggest step into the world of sustainable goods with the launch of Amazon Aware, a collection of clothing, beauty, bed & bath, and household products designed by an in-house team. Theyre dedicated to using recycled or sustainable materials without sacrificing quality or over inflating their price.

Each item created under this label is made with sustainable materials, organic ingredients, or its production is carbon neutral. In some cases, items can fit multiple criteria. A great example of this is, the Amazon Aware Daily Body Wash, which is vegan, never tested on animals during development, and formulated without fragrances. The Amazon Aware Hand Towels are made using organic cotton yarn thats been certified as such using the Global Organic Textile Standards. These towels have also been certified as Made in Green by Oeko-Tex, and carbon neutral by ClimatePartner. These are staples you can use every day, so its great to have a sustainable option thats easily accessible.

To be clear: Amazon isnt casually stamping new products as Amazon Aware without any oversight; each item in this collection has been certified by third-party organizations. The exact certification varies depending on the items category. For example, pieces from the Amazon Aware apparel lines will meet the Organic Content Standard 100, Global Recycled Standard, or High Index Materials Seal, whereas toiletries may be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. These standards were developed independently, with no input from Amazon. Individual product pages will go further into depth about how or why that item has earned its certification, and clarify how it judges claims of carbon neutrality.

The launch of Amazon Aware is a follow up to the companys Climate Pledge Friendly initiative, which was launched last year. This program was designed to highlight companies designing sustainably made products, or using more efficient packaging. The Climate Pledge Friendly badge isnt itself a certification, its a signifier that an item has been certified by a third-party organization including Fairtrade, Cradle To Cradle, Green Seal, and Ecologo to be more sustainably made than alternatives.

It makes sense that Amazon would use the same principles it established when designing the Climate Friendly Pledge program to apply to products it makes. In fact, some of Amazons recent technology, like its Echo Speaker (4th Gen), have earned the Climate Pledge Friendly badge after being certified by the organization The Carbon Trust to use less CO2 each year. In that case, the Echo can enter a low power state that requires less energy than previous Echo speakers when its not actively in use.

A big part of what makes Amazon Aware so impressive is the volume of items available at launch. There are 104 products across all four categories, with a majority of them falling under the clothing umbrella. Amazon is committed to adding more products (or introducing new categories) in the future, but has not announced any plans on when that will happen.

The main purpose of Amazon Aware is to give shoppers even more sustainable options when searching for staples, but Amazon has also taken steps to address other inequities you may experience when shopping.In the case of apparel, that means offering a wide array of sizes. A pair of mens cropped jeans is available in sizes ranging from 28W x 30L to 42W x 34L, while its Womens Fit and Flare Dress is available in sizes ranging from XX-Small to 7X-Large. Importantly, the price for those items ($44.90 and $39.90 respectively) is the same regardless of the size you choose. From the start, Amazon Aware products are designed to be accessible to everyone. This continues the work Amazon has done with clothing released under its Amazon Essentials brand, which also includes the same emphasis on offering a range of size options.

Amazons focus on accessible pricing is present on all of the products launching under its Amazon Aware branding. All of its beauty products, from vegan body wash to face moisturizer formulated with natural ingredients like avocado and sunflower oil, cost less than $20. Apparel starts at $18.90 for a 100 percent organic cotton T-shirt and tops out at $59 for a 100 percent recycled polyester Sherpa jacket.

Yes, its easy to find products in these categories that cost a lot less, but theyll almost certainly lack the certifications that Amazons alternatives have earned. The point is to give shoppers a more environmentally friendly alternative on the staples they rely on most often while continuing to offer the traditional benefits of shopping on Amazon, like fast shipping and competitive pricing.

We wont know how successful Amazon Aware is for at least a couple of months, but the programs launch signals the online retail giants growing commitment to sustainability. Notably, the companys dominance in the world of e-commerce may encourage its competitors to focus on making attainably-priced sustainable goods to stay competitive.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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The Launch of Amazon Aware Is Making Sustainability More Accessible - Futurism

Who wants to be spied on at work!?Big Brother

The labor movement has finally made its way to Apple. According to the Washington Post, retail employees at the tech giant are beginning to quietly unionize, in part because hourly wages have remained stagnant while Apples profit margins soar.

Two store locations are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board(NLRB) and a half dozen more are in earlier stages, said employees who spoke to WaPo on the condition of anonymity (full disclosure: this reporter spent several years working at several Apple retail locations). One particularly telling detail, according to WaPo: suspicious of snooping by Apple, many organizers have switched to Android phones to avoid any potential spying.

Thatmight sound alarmist, but in 2021 Apple fired an employee named Ashley Gjvikwho alleged sexual harassment, environmental concerns and surveillance at the company.

The megacorporation has an internal culture of surveillance, intimidation, and alienation, she wrote. Employees are closely monitored and our data hoarded in the name of secrecy and quality.

And in 2011, Wired reported that Apple employees allegedly posed as fake police officers during an apartment raid in order to recover an iPhone prototype.

Of course, its not clear whether Apple is actually spying on organizers iPhones and if it got caught doing so, it would likely get in huge trouble with regulators.

In any case, lets hope not. Employees have the right to organize, and they should be able to do so without the fear of corporate surveillance.

More on creepy overreaches: Facebook Reveals Plan to Plaster AR Ads Over All of Reality

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Apple Employees Are Unionizing and They're Using Android Phones to Keep Apple From Spying on Them - Futurism

"Take a box of rotten eggs with you and lets throw them en masse at Jeffs superyacht."Good Eggs

Tesla CEO Elon Musk isnt the only one who likes to take aim at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Residents in the Dutch city of Rotterdam are planning to christen Bezos new superyacht which is being built near the city the only way they see fit: by hurling rotten eggs at it.

Nearly 5,000 people have RSVPd to the event on Facebook at the time of reporting,and more than 16,000 have marked themselves as interested.

Calling all Rotterdammers, the events description reads, take a box of rotten eggs with you and lets throw them en masse at Jeffs superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam.

The trouble seems to largely stem from Bezos demands that the Hef, the nickname for the historic Koningshavenbrug bridge in Rotterdam, be disassembled and then reassembled so that his $485 million boat can be taken out to sea. The mayor of the city says its the only route to the sea, according to Agence France-Presse.

Bezos has agreed to help foot the bill for temporarily disassembling the 145-year-old bridge, which provides just 131 feet of clearance, according to Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond. But thats apparently not enough for the Blue Origin CEOs critics.

Normally, its the other way around, Pablo Strrmann, Rotterdam resident and organizer of the Facebook event, told The NL Times. If your ship doesnt fit under a bridge, you make it smaller but when you happen to be the richest person on Earth, you just ask a municipality to dismantle a monument. Thats ridiculous.

More on Bezos boat: Jeff Bezos Demands That Historic Bridge Be Taken Apart So That His Superyacht Can Pass Through

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Thousands of People Say They're Going to Throw Eggs at Jeff Bezos' Superyacht - Futurism

There are apparently some drug researchers who hate fun and think that microdosing psychedelics has no benefits.

A new study, published in theAddiction Biology journal, claims that there are no cognitive or performance-ehancing effects in participants who took small amounts commonly known as microdoses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Researchers at the University of Chicago who, its perhaps worth noting, got funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Health conducted a double-blind controlled study with one group that actually took acid and one that took a placebo at three or four-day intervals.

Respondents reported feeling a drug effect from the active dosages, which, as one Twitter user noted, appeared to be slightly above the average microdose. Though the study admitted that repeatedly taking such low doses were safe for healthy volunteers, they neverthelessfound that the practiced produced negligible changes in mood or cognition.

This study, to be clear, isnt very surprising if addiction researchers are looking narrowly into whether or not microdosing is dangerous and/or beneficial, theyre not likely to find anything compelling in either direction.

While microdosing acid and psilocybin mushrooms have become hugely popular over the last decade, the fact remains that psychedelic drugs have traditionally been used either for spiritual or existential experiences or, of course, tohave some fun.If they increase productivity or creativity at work, thatd be great, but there are a lot of other valid reasons to pop a tab.

This finding may suggest that LSD doesnt hack your brain into being more productive, in other words, but at least its safe.

READ MORE:Repeated low doses of LSD in healthy adults: A placebo-controlled, doseresponse study [Addiction Biology]

More on microdosing:Silicon Valley CEO Fired for Microdosing LSD at Work

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Microdosing Acid Doesn't Have Any Benefits, Say Scientists With No Sense of Fun - Futurism

That just sounds awful.Zoom In

In a Zoom call with ad agencies on Thursday, Meta outlined the way mixed reality, or MR, can be used to sell products according to a Reuters report. The publication interviewed an agency executive who attended the first roundtable discussion Meta has held with advertisers.

Advertisers are also looking for detail on how the effectiveness of ads in the metaverse will be measured, and will be asking what did I get for my money?' the executive told Reuters.

MR is really the marriage of the real world and either virtual or augmented reality. Games like Pokmon Go qualify as augmented reality because they allow players to imagine the magical creatures in normal surroundings with the use of a smart phone. Virtual reality headsets obviously immerse users in a digital world, but Meta, formerly called Facebook, wants virtual content to interact with real world objects.

For example, companies might be able to plaster ads on real life objects, allow users to virtually try on clothes or interact with sellable products in other digital ways. But according to Reuters,Meta was short on details about how the tech will actually work or how agencies will be able to sell stuff with it.

Its a little grim how badly advertisers want to capture everyones attention, and it seems theyll go to increasingly extreme lengths to get it. Just last week the previously bankrupted MoviePass app announced its return, and it features eye-track tech that rewards you for watching ads in their entirety. Thats after the same MoviePass CEO started using the tech back in 2019 for a different startup.

In 2021, ad agency Marketing Insider Group published a report stating that digital ads just dont work anymore, and that even after slashing ad budgets some giant companies didnt see a decline in sales. Its surely part of the reason agencies are scrambling to come up with new ideas, no matter how invasive. At least with Meta its possible consumers just wont buy an MR headset, and thus avoid extra ads plastered into their lives.

More on scary ads: Grindr Slammed With Huge Fine for Spying on Users

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Facebook Reveals Plan to Plaster AR Ads Over All of Reality - Futurism

"Economist brain is a devastating affliction."Land Rush

Its currently not allowed for any one country to lay claim to property in outer space, but thats not stopping one economic think tank from pushing for lunar property sales.

In a paper titled Space Invaders: Property Rights on the Moon published by the Adam Smith Institute (or ASI, named for the British philosopher known for claiming that free markets are guided by an invisible hand), economist Rebecca Lowe argues that the Moon should be split up among the nations of Earth, which would then rent or sell them to boost the economy.

The eyebrow-raising premise earned widespread mockery online.

Lowe acknowledges that the ownership of space propertyis currently outlawed by long-standing international treaty, a reference to the United Nations Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967.

But thats too old school for Lowe, who argues in the paper that as commercial space travel becomes more common, so too should lunar real estate. She goes even further, arguing against an approach based on international consensus like the one that created the OST, instead offering an individualistic approach.

The idea would be to portion the Moon off in a scheme that sounds a lot like the Berlin Conference that split up the African continent among European nations in 1884. Each government would figure out how to make the sale of their plot of moon land fair, via what Lowe mused could involve tenders, shareholder schemes, other market mechanisms, lotteries, or various types of state-determined allocation.

It remains a bit hazy who, exactly, would be in charge of portioning off lunar property rights, though Lowe does admit dozens of pages of property theory later that the scheme is built on individual nations [competing] against each other for plots of land on the Moon.

The scheme does make some sort of abstract sense, though it takes very little critical thinking to recognize that if the global community actually decided to do something like this, it would almost certainly result in conflict.And thats without getting into the fact that we barely have any understanding of which parts of the Moon, if any, would actually be valuable.

There may well come a time when we have to figure out who gets to own the Moon. But until then, lets hope some smarter people come up with better schemes than this one.

READ MORE:Space Invaders: Property Rights on the Moon [The Adam Smith Institute]

More on the Moon: Ridiculous Analysis Claims You Could Build a House on the Moon for $60 Million

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Economist Mocked for Proposing That We Sell the Moon - Futurism

"Like, how is this legal?"Of Mice and Munger

Billionaire Charlie Munger has no problem with college students not seeing the sun for days. He describes his windowless dorms as being a mouse trap and believes the design will be copied all over the country, according to a new CNN Business report following one of Mungers annual business calls on Wednesday.

Munger, who has no formal architectural training, donated $110 million in 2013 to his alma mater the University of Michigan to help fund a $185 million dorm building, according to previous CNN reporting. The Munger Graduate Residence Hall houses about 600 graduate students in 6 to 7 bedroom apartments and,notably, he insisted that most of the single-occupancy rooms not have windows.

In fact, public policy graduate student Luiza Macedo says she didnt see the sun for an entire week while on COVID-19 lockdown, isolated in her room.

That was probably the low point of my experience here. It was being stuck in my room, Macedo told CNN. Like, how is this legal? How are they doing this to us?

Even though Mungers architect quit the project before the building was finished, Munger stood by the eccentric request in that 2021 report, and brought it up again in an annual sales call this week. He says he hopes more windowless dorms will be built soon.

I do expect this dorm will be copied I expect this to spread all over the country, Munger, who is known as billionaire Warren Buffets right hand man, told CNN in 2021. Its a better mouse trap.

Munger sounds like a weird guy. He wants his miserable college dorms copied even though, in his literal own words, he is ready to die very shortly. He also seemingly defended Chinas one-child population policy this week, saying that the communist government there helped reduce its population problem.

Its not really clear why a 98-year-old who doesnt think he has much time left is so invested in Chinas population, never mind promoting depressing windowless caves for young people.

Munger, who also hates crypto and the blockchain with a passion, has been calling the shots for Warren Buffets giant conglomerate for decades, so maybe he still doesnt get that you cant take it with you when you go. Or maybe hes just trying to squeeze every red cent out of the world that he can before its too late although, of course, college students will be forced to live in his buildings long after hes gone.

More on rich folks shenanigans: Billionaire Space Tourist Buys Three More SpaceX Launches in Shocking Display of Wealth

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98-Year-Old Billionaire Says It's Fine to Pack Young People in Windowless Rooms Like Rats - Futurism