Last weekend during its online QuakeCon event, Bethesda made the original game available for free via its launcher on PC. The promotion encouraged donations to charities like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Trevor Project, and of course gave PC gamers a reason to save a couple dollars by installing and activating the game in the company’s launcher.
Donations to eligible charities during the event topped $30,000, so now the company is making Quake II available for free during a 72-hour period (started at 12 PM ET on Wednesday, you do the math). To get the game, all you should need to do is log in to the software during the eligibility period, as explained here. And then check back next week on the 17th, because Quake III Arena will be available for free in the same manner, saving you $3 or the time of finding an old CD somewhere just to relive the old days of FPS action.
iOS 13.6 went out to Apple’s mobile devices last month with Apple News upgrades and a digital car key feature, and now a new iOS 13.6.1 update is available. It addresses issues with storage space and the new Exposure Notification framework, but it will also be appreciated by iPhone 11 owners who complained of a strange green tint that appeared on their devices.
Forum and Reddit posts indicated it would appear just after the device was unlocked, sometimes while using Night Shift or in a dark room. According to the update notes, Apple addressed a “thermal management issue” that could cause the green tint to appear. MacRumors had reported the issue cropped up after 13.4, and now it’s getting a fix before Apple rolls out iOS 14 to everyone’s phones and tablets.
The new API includes three access levels: basic (which is free), elevated and custom. Previously, Twitter’s API was separated into three different platforms, which required developers to transfer APIs as their product grew. Such transfer won’t be necessary under the new system, the blog post said.
Another new feature is three new product tracks. Most developers will use the standard track, Twitter said, including “those just getting started, building something for fun, for a good cause, and to learn or teach.” There are also academic research and business tracks.
The update is indeed a different approach from what Twitter’s done regarding third party developers in the past, like its 2018 move to end support for developer tools. Still unclear is whether developers will regain the ability to send push notifications and refresh users’ feeds. But Twitter seems committed to keeping the API friendlier to developers in the future — it’s even created two avenues for third-party developers to learn about what’s next for Twitter’s API: its Guide to the Future and public roadmap.
By adding an extra layer of context, Facebook is hoping to slow the spread of outdated or less credible information (official health organizations like the WHO are exempted from the notifications.) “The notification will help people understand the recency and source of the content before they share it,” Facebook writes in an update.
Despite its efforts to elevate content from authoritative sources, Facebook has struggled to tamp down viral misinformation about the pandemic. The company revealed Tuesday that it had removed 7 million posts about the coronavirus and added fact-checking labels to 98 million more.
Motorola will announce its next major device, which the company says will “flip the smartphone experience once again,” next month. Earlier today, the company sent out media invites asking journalists to set time aside on September 9th.
The teaser doesn’t provide too many hints about what we can expect, but between the included GIF and Motorola’s choice of words, it’s likely we’ll see the company announce a new version of its Razr foldable display phone.
For its latest big get, Netflix has snagged Sarah Cooper, the comedian who has perfected mocking President Donald Trump using his own words (via Variety). The company will start streaming Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine this fall. Netflix says the special will feature an array of guests taking part in short interviews and sketches led by Cooper. It will touch on topics like race, gender, class “and other light subjects.”
Helping Cooper bring the special to life is a talented crew that includes Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the New Black, Russian Doll) and Maya Rudolph (Big Hero 6, Vader Immortal). Lyonne will direct, with Rudolph serving as one of the executive producers on the special.
In-person competition is a no-go in many disciplines amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but speed cubers will be still able to battle opponents remotely in the Rubik’s Cube World Cup. Rubik’s has revealed the Connected Cube, which links to your phone or tablet and tracks your solve times and progress in real-time.
It’s more of a traditional cube than GoCube, which is largely a STEM-focused toy. Both use the same platform and can connect to the Rubik’s Arena community, which has almost 47,000 players. As such, amateur and professional cubers can take part in this year’s World Cup without having to travel, as long as they have a Connected Cube or GoCube. Qualifiers start August 15th and run through October 10th. The final takes place on November 7th.
“I also sought wisdom from Stoic philosophers who were big on differentiating between what is within our control and what isn’t,” he wrote. “I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded. So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.”
Still, he added that the Netflix show “has the potential to be good.” It just won’t be what he had in mind. But fear not Avatar fans, DiMartino says he’s not leaving the series’ universe, and he’s inspired by the recent fan response to the show and its follow-up series, The Legend of Korra. (And if you’re interested, I podcasted about all of Korrawhile it was airing.)
DiMartino and Konietzko’s departure might be a signal to other creators as well. Netflix may seem like a welcoming creative home away from traditional networks, but you can’t always trust it. If the creators of one of the world’s most popular shows couldn’t compromise with Netflix, what chance does a less powerful artist have?
Due to the pandemic, movies like Tom Hanks’ Greyhound have been forced to premiere on streaming services. Now, Broadway is taking note. Diana: A New Musical will premiere on Netflix ahead of its 2021 Broadway opening.
The musical about the late Princess Diana was scheduled to open on March 31st, but it was put on hiatus due to the pandemic. Now, it will be filmed without an audience in the Longacre Theatre and will appear on Netflix ahead of its Broadway opening, rescheduled for May 25th, 2021.
The formula, dubbed Sputnik-V in honor of the first satellite to reach space in 1957, was developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute. However, the Institute has not released any developmental or scientific data relating to the vaccine’s creation, nor has it undergone peer review, so all we have to go on is what the Russians have publicly announced. Without that data, the World Health Organization cannot evaluate the vaccine’s safety or efficacy, Jarbas Barbosa, the assistant director of the WHO’s regional branch, the Pan American Health Organization, explained to Al Jazeera.
Mikhail Japaridze via Getty Images
Russian health officials have already noted that medical workers, teachers and other front-line groups will be among the first to receive the treatment when production ramps up in September. Putin plans to have doses ready for the general public come January but they won’t be the only ones to receive it. “We’ve seen considerable interest in the Russian vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute abroad. Moreover, we have received preliminary applications for over 1 billion doses of the vaccine from 20 countries,” Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), told CNN on Tuesday. A number of US companies are reportedly interested as well.
Now, while Putin said that the formula has been “registered,” that really only means that it’s gone through a bureaucratic process within the Russian Health Ministry — akin to getting regulatory approval. What it has not completed is its Phase 3 clinical trial, a critical step in determining a drug’s safety for the general populace.
Rigorous, clinical trials got their start in the 18th century when physician James Lind conducted a study into the cause of scurvy amongst sailors on long distance voyages. These trials grew into their modern form in the 1920s and 1930s with the introduction of randomization, replication, and blocking. Today’s trials are typically conducted in a series of phases: Phase 0 involves around 10 – 15 people and is done to see the basic effects of the drug on the human body using very small doses of the formula. Phase 1 screens for safety with a group of around 20 – 80 people to ensure that the drug won’t immediately kill or incapacitate anyone. Phase 2 determines the most effective dosages of the drug and the proper dosage range.
Phase 3 trials allow drug developers to test the formula’s safety and efficacy, spot potential side effects or interactions with other common pharmaceuticals and compare it to existing treatments. They usually require months to complete, involve thousands to tens of thousands of people, and typically come before a drug gets registered. For example, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 Phase 3 trial, which began in July and which has just landed a major supply deal with the US government, will rely on as many as 30,000 volunteers.
“Although face coverings, physical distancing and proper isolation and quarantine of infected individuals and contacts can help us mitigate SARS-CoV-2 spread, we urgently need a safe and effective preventive vaccine to ultimately control this pandemic,” NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, said in a press release. “Results from early-stage clinical testing indicate the investigational mRNA-1273 vaccine is safe and immunogenic, supporting the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial. This scientifically rigorous, randomized, placebo-controlled trial is designed to determine if the vaccine can prevent COVID-19 and for how long such protection may last.”
Russia’s vaccine, on the other hand, is reportedly based on other members of the coronavirus family which can cause less severe colds and flus. Rather than wait for the results from tens of thousands of study cases, it appears that the Russians may have engaged in a form of intensive human challenge trial, starting with members of the research team themselves, then expanding to military service members and eventually the VIP cohort that Putin’s daughter was a part of.
Per the US National Library of Medicine, Sputnik-V’s Phase 1 and 2 trials involved a total of 76 people. Among the 38 who were administered either one or two doses of the actual vaccine, all produced antibodies. The effects of the vaccine were reportedly mild with elevated temperatures and headaches being the most reported symptoms.
“I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective,” Fauci told ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts this week, during the taping of an upcoming NatGeo keynote event. “I seriously doubt that they’ve done that.”
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images
Human challenge trials are much more direct than the multiphase trials described above. These “are trials in which participants are intentionally challenged (whether or not they have been vaccinated) with an infectious disease organism,” the WHO explains in its 2016 publication, Human Challenge Trials for Vaccine Development: regulatory considerations. “This challenge organism may be close to wild-type and pathogenic, adapted and/or attenuated from wild-type with less or no pathogenicity, or genetically modified in some manner.”
The very first vaccine ever developed was done through a human challenge trial in 1796 when English physician Edward Jenner deliberately infected his son with cowpox, which causes a mild reaction in humans, to protect the boy from its much deadlier cousin, smallpox. The tradition continues today with organizations like 1DaySooner advocating for coronavirus human challenge trials. It has already signed up more than 25,000 volunteers. However this method is not without its dangers, especially in the case of COVID-19.
“Human challenge studies are generally contemplated only when rescue with a lifesaving treatment or intervention is available should a vaccine candidate not protect a volunteer from the disease,” Michael Rosenblatt, Chief Medical Officer for Flagship Pioneering, argues in a June StatNews op-ed. “But there is no cure or treatment against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can be deployed with confidence, making viral challenges particularly risky and ethically questionable.”
He also points out that while vaccines for diseases like the measles and mumps are fully effective, some vaccines — especially for adults — can be only 70 to 80 percent effective and as little as nine percent. “Imagine, for a moment, that a vaccine candidate undergoing testing turns out to generate immunity in 80 percent of those who receive it. Then 20 percent will become infected with Covid-19,” he wrote.
Russia’s methodology has also drawn concern from the World Health Organization, which has requested that the Russian Federation adhere to international norms and regulations regarding vaccine development.
“It’s vital that we apply all public health measures that we know are working, and we need to continue to invest in and accelerate the development of safe and effective treatments and vaccines that will help us reduce disease transmission in the future,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said during a Tuesday press conference.
“We are in close contact with the Russian health authorities, and discussions are going on with respect to possible pre-qualification of the vaccine,” he continued. To date, the “WHO lists 25 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation and 139 in a pre-clinical evaluation.”
The world passed 20 million global infections this week so if we have any hope of getting back to a pre-pandemic normal, we’re going to need at least a couple of those vaccine candidates to prove effective.
