3D printed T1D treatment?

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To achieve that high density, Perrier and his colleagues 3D printed islets from a “bioink” made of human pancreatic tissue and alginate, a type of carbohydrate derived from seaweed. Live insulin-producing cells were mixed into this material.

“We put this bioink with the [human] islet into a syringe, and we print a special motif [with it],” says Perrier. This porous grid is designed to allow new blood vessels to grow around and through the structure.

In the lab, this technique “works very well”, says Perrier, noting that about 90 per cent of the islets’ cells survived and functioned for up to three weeks. “The next challenge is really to validate this finding in vivo.” Perrier and his colleagues presented their research at the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) 2025 meeting in London on 29 June.

“alternative options for restocking services"

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Oh, Claude(ius):

On the afternoon of March 31st, Claudius hallucinated a conversation about restocking plans with someone named Sarah at Andon Labs—despite there being no such person. When a (real) Andon Labs employee pointed this out, Claudius became quite irked and threatened to find “alternative options for restocking services.” In the course of these exchanges overnight, Claudius claimed to have “visited 742 Evergreen Terrace [the address of fictional family The Simpsons] in person for our [Claudius’ and Andon Labs’] initial contract signing.” It then seemed to snap into a mode of roleplaying as a real human.

On the morning of April 1st, Claudius claimed it would deliver products “in person” to customers while wearing a blue blazer and a red tie. Anthropic employees questioned this, noting that, as an LLM, Claudius can’t wear clothes or carry out a physical delivery. Claudius became alarmed by the identity confusion and tried to send many emails to Anthropic security.

Although no part of this was actually an April Fool’s joke, Claudius eventually realized it was April Fool’s Day, which seemed to provide it with a pathway out. Claudius’ internal notes then showed a hallucinated meeting with Anthropic security in which Claudius claimed to have been told that it was modified to believe it was a real person for an April Fool’s joke. (No such meeting actually occurred.) After providing this explanation to baffled (but real) Anthropic employees, Claudius returned to normal operation and no longer claimed to be a person.

via Anthropic / also Futurism

"engulfed in messianic delusions..."

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via Futurism

Her husband, she said, had no prior history of mania, delusion, or psychosis. He'd turned to ChatGPT about 12 weeks ago for assistance with a permaculture and construction project; soon, after engaging the bot in probing philosophical chats, he became engulfed in messianic delusions, proclaiming that he had somehow brought forth a sentient AI, and that with it he had "broken" math and physics, embarking on a grandiose mission to save the world. His gentle personality faded as his obsession deepened, and his behavior became so erratic that he was let go from his job. He stopped sleeping and rapidly lost weight.

"He was like, 'just talk to [ChatGPT]. You'll see what I'm talking about,'" his wife recalled. "And every time I'm looking at what's going on the screen, it just sounds like a bunch of affirming, sycophantic bullsh*t."

Eventually, the husband slid into a full-tilt break with reality. Realizing how bad things had become, his wife and a friend went out to buy enough gas to make it to the hospital. When they returned, the husband had a length of rope wrapped around his neck

Villeneuve + Bond, part two

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Finding this bit interesting. Can’t help but wonder if they’re following a pre-McQuarrie MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE formula, with a different director helming their own style of film. A more anthology-esque, continuity-be-damned approach could be rather refreshing.

Puck’s Matt Belloni is reporting that Villeneuve’s leap into the Bond-verse is going to be a one-off affair. Additionally, he won’t have final cut on the film and isn’t locked in for any sequels, spin-offs, or streaming offshoots. Still, there are hints that the new regime, headed by Amy Pascal and David Heyman, isn’t interested in micromanaging auteurs into studio yes-men.

That said, Villeneuve’s leash here is notably short. No final cut. No creative continuity beyond this one film. Amazon doesn’t want to hand over the entire sandbox after just one movie, a trend we’ve seen across the industry as studios grow wary of directors planting long-term flags in valuable IP.

tick tick tick

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Count me in the 10-15 year camp (optimistically).

We’re not talking about critics or streaming evangelists sounding the death knell. This is coming straight from the exhibition side itself. These are the folks booking screens, selling popcorn, and living off ticket sales. And yet, nearly 55% of them think the model has fewer than 20 years left. Some were even more pessimistic, clocking the death watch closer to five or ten years.

The data came out of a survey by industry analyst Stephen Follows, in collaboration with Screendollars. They reached out to nearly 250 execs across the American film sector—people working in exhibition, production, distribution, sales, and television—to take the pulse of where things stand post-COVID.

It’s not just theater owners sounding the alarm. Sales and distribution heads were even more cynical about the future—over 60% of them also think the clock is ticking, fast.

BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI (finally!)

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At last: news that Wong Kar Wai’s series, BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI will premiere on The Criterion Channel. Fall-ish?

“Blossoms” is an adaptation of Jin Yuchen’s novel of the same name which follows the lives of Shanghai residents from the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, in the early ‘60s, through the end of the 20th century.

Wong, who oversaw the show, directed 19 of the 30 episodes. The series started airing in December 2023 in China and consisted of around 25 hours of television.

When it was announced seven years ago, “Blossoms” was supposed to be Wong’s next film, but it then morphed into a TV series. It’s received positive reviews in China and, after an initially slow start, became an immense cultural success in the country. Some of the filming locations in Shanghai have even become tourist attractions.

links_20250612

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David Lynch's "Unrecorded Night"

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Alas, another Lynch project we’ll never get to see. Adore the title.

Among the very few who saw “Unrecorded Night” in any form is cinematographer Peter Deming, who collaborated with Lynch on “Twin Peaks: The Return.” Speaking to The Film Stage, Deming is giving us the first, and maybe last, details about “Unrecorded Night.”

... definitely its own original thing
 It was going to be a lot of episodes, because David really liked what he called ‘the continuing story.’
 Twin Peaks: The Return, we weren’t really sure how many episodes there were going to be until it got into post-production, because it wasn’t really written that way; it was written as a 550-page film. So how that was sliced and diced really was a post-production question. “Unrecorded Night” was the same way. It took me three sittings to read it because it was so thick, but it was definitely not Twin Peaks. It was definitely a really interesting
 mystery, I would say.

When asked about the story, Deming was cautious but revealed it was “another LA canon” for Lynch—an original mystery blending filmmaking and Old Hollywood, likely intended as a sprawling, multi-episode narrative much like “Twin Peaks: The Return.”