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Controversial physician has doled out tens of thousands of scripts for both drugsStella Immanuel, MD, was the nation's top prescriber of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin over the past 2 years, a MedPage Today analysis of prescription data has found. In 2021, Immanuel wrote just over 69,000 prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine -- vastly above the average of 43 prescriptions in the database MedPage Today reviewed. Rheumatologists, who prescribe hydroxychloroquine for autoimmune diseases, wrote 561 hydroxychloroquine prescriptions, on average, that year. Immanuel also wrote almost 32,000 prescriptions for ivermectin in 2021, well above the average of 15. Although her prescribing declined in 2022, Immanuel...

There is power through the scrutiny of online informationAs medical students and future pediatricians, we recognize that childhood vaccines are one of the single greatest public health achievements of the 20thopens in a new tab or window and 21stopens in a new tab or window centuries. Yet, for one of us, a pregnant cousin announced over the Thanksgiving dinner table that she wasn't going to vaccinate her unborn child. No matter the facts, research, or wealth of medical education, this cousin was firm in her beliefs that there was a better, healthier way to protect her child than vaccination. Unfortunately,...

A Republican state senator in Florida has introduced a bill that, if passed, would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, his Cabinet or state legislators to register with the state. Sen. Jason Brodeur's bill, titled "Information Dissemination," would also require bloggers to disclose who's paying them for their posts about certain elected officials and how much. "If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register" with the appropriate office within five days of the post, the legislation says. It defines "elected state...

March 1 (UPI) -- The amount of helium in underground geological formations could satisfy thousands of years of global demand, researchers said in an article published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Like other essential commodities, there are supply-side concerns for helium as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. Sanctions and other restrictions mean supplies from Russia's Amur plant, expected to satisfy about 35% of global demand, are no longer available. Researchers from Oxford University, Durham University and the University of Toronto estimate helium is a $6 billion market. The element is used in everything from fiber optics...

Elon Musk is reportedly putting together a research team to combat what he has termed the “deadly” threat of woke artificial intelligence. Musk, 51, has contacted a select group of “artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks about forming a new research lab to develop an alternative to ChatGPT,” according to The Information.In December, the founder of Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX and other ventures warned about the potential risks in the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, which Musk tweeted as one example of “training AI to be woke.”The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie –...

[A] team of scientists argues that something called "organoid intelligence," or OI, powered by living human brain cells could one day outperform any artificial system, and do it far more efficiently. Organoids are three-dimensional clumps of biological tissue that scientists have been growing and experimenting with for years. Researchers...at Johns Hopkins University are working with brain organoids that could lead to the development of a "biocomputer" powered by human brain cells. "The hope is that some of the remarkable functionalities of the human brain can be realized as OI, such as its ability to take fast decisions based on incomplete...

Millions of LastPass users may be at risk after a major breach of the home computer of one of their top employees. This employee was only one of four people in the company with access to their corporate vault. The breach may have come through a home Plex media account, according to Ars Technica, and appears to have been perpetrated by the same hackers who breached LastPass security on a smaller scale last August. At about the same time, Plex’s security was also breached.

Bank of America is letting customers set up financing home electric vehicle charging stations alongside their car loans. While some states and smaller institutions offer EV charger financing, Bank of America is the first national bank to do so. The goal is to "help people 'go electric' by providing financing for this critical accessory," Fabien Thierry, BofA's head of consumer vehicle products, said in a statement Wednesday. According to JD Power, at-home charging stations can range from $300 to more than $1,300, plus installation. Bank of America will let customers bundle their EV and charger loans together, though ultimately the...

The Don Lemon-led CNN This Morning is set to end February with its lowest 25-to-54 age viewership since the show launched in November. CNN's ratings are on track to end its February viewership with the smallest audience in the 25-to-54 age demographic since June of 2014. The New York Post reports, "Under CNN boss Chris Licht, the network has slumped" and the Don Lemon-led CNN This Morning is set to end February with its lowest 25-to-54 age viewership since the show launched in November, after Lemon was ousted from his former primetime slot. In the first 24 days of February,...

The Remote Kiss device, created by the Changzhou Vocational Institute of Mechatronic Technology in China, allows users to share kisses over a long distance with use of a set of silicon lips and a smartphone app. Photo courtesy of Taobao Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A Chinese company is selling a remote kissing device designed to allow long-distance lovers to share their smooches via a cellphone app. The Remote Kiss device, created by the Changzhou Vocational Institute of Mechatronic Technology, uses a set of silicon lips to replicate the pressure, movement and temperature of a kiss that is then replicated by...

Handbrake has been the best hobby for this old geezer for many many years. At over 2200 videos and 1.5 Terra Bytes of data and growing, the hobby continues to amaze me. First of all, it's been cheap. You would think I would have used top of the line gaming computers - not at all. Our of 4 computers I use, 2 are used at $200 for one and a bit over $300 for the second. My third was a old used HP G4 deskpro for $400 and wait for it, the fourth I bought new, for $700 - my...

A Villager was arrested after a brawl ignited by the disconnection of a computer from the internet. Bryant Lynn Yarbrough, 74, of the Village of Sanibel was arrested after an altercation at about 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. A woman said she had been checking her email and printing tickets on Yarbrough’s computer when he became impatient and disconnected the computer from the internet. The woman responded by calling the native Texan, “an ass,” the report said. He grabbed her by the wrists and shoved her. The woman tried to call...

THIS IS VIDEO PLUS AUDIO ONLY NO TEXT In the video, several people have almost-normal conversations with a female robot that uses ChatGPT for its brain. She understands their speech and vice-versa. She gives quick, reasonable responses to questions. Some people will find this video creepy. The robot's moving eyes don't help. By the way, it's ChatGPT, not ChatGTP.

“Fat, Black people deserve to be main characters capable of anything.” As a young child growing up in Greenville, North Carolina, artist Alex Smith spent a lot of his time engrossed in the world of cartoons and comics, devouring works like Battle of the Planets, X-Men, and Doom Patrol. In college, Smith first encountered science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler and Samuel R. Delany, both of whom he admired because “they were Black and absolutely, phenomenally awesome.” “They both showed me that sci-fi could have literary quality, could be progressive and liberatory,” Smith added. “Just their ideas, world-building, and...

In a story that they could have predicted in their own work, a science fiction magazine has asked people to stop sending stories generated by artificial intelligence in the latest sign of apps like ChatGPT gaining prominence. Clarkesworld, an award-winning sci-fi and fantasy publication based out of New Jersey, has temporarily cut off all submissions because they've gotten too many written by AI. The irony is not lost on the magazine, which has a robot for a mascot. Publisher and editor-in-chief Neil Clarke cut everyone off on February 20 after he was able to tell that hundreds of stories were...

The company’s cloud unit has told employees that it will transition to a desk-sharing workspace in its five largest locations. Employees will be encouraged to alter the days in which they’re in the office, either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. Internal documents cite slow return to office patterns and the need for “real estate efficiency.” ... Some buildings will be vacated ... new seating arrangement a title: “Cloud Office Evolution” or “CLOE,” .. . The new workspace plan is not a temporary pilot ... laid off 11,000 employees in January. ... The move comes as Google downsizes its...

The Chicago mayoral election could be one of the most tightly-contested races in recent memory, and officials say that a large number of mail-in ballots could help to determine the final outcome. According to the Chicago Board of Elections, more than 200,000 mail-in ballot applications have been received so far during the election season, with just under 140,000 ballots still yet to be turned in as Election Day nears on Feb. 28. So when exactly will the CBOE be able to start counting those mail-in ballots? According to an update from a spokesperson for the CBOE, any mail-in ballots that...

Former CNN host Brian Stelter defended the media's coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story that was suppressed in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election. **SNIP** Krakauer surmised that the media was largely hesitant to put a spotlight on the laptop because of the "scars" from 2016 when so much coverage was dedicated to Hillary Clinton's email scandal, which played a major role in her ultimate defeat against Donald Trump. "It's one thing to try to tiptoe into the story and it's another to treat it as if it's this toxic material that completely spins the public in...

An activist shareholder is seeking to have climate change activist Al Gore removed from his long-standing position on Apple Inc.'s board of directors. Corporate ethics watchdog National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) filed an exempt solicitation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday that urged fellow Apple shareholders to vote against Gore as a director nominee at the tech giant's annual meeting, which is slated for March 10, arguing that the former U.S. vice president is not qualified for the role and that "his political activism poses to Apple a reputational risk that is not worth his limited...

More evidence on how social media works to promote Islamic radicalization — while suppressing its victims ... Facebook created over 100 pages for ISIS (Islamic State), as well as pages for other terror organizations, including the group behind the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., Al-Qaeda. ... Facebook has failed to catch Islamic State group and al-Shabab extremist content in posts aimed at East Africa as the region remains under threat from violent attacks. ... [Facebook] repeatedly failed to act on sensitive content including hate speech in many places around the world. Posts calling for violence and murder "in languages including...