Tim Belzer – Page 66

Ever heard of “Llady Gaga”? Universal files piracy suit over alleged knockoffs.

Universal Music Group yesterday sued a music firm that allegedly distributes pirated songs on popular streaming services under misspelled versions of popular artists’ names—such as “Kendrik Laamar,” “Arriana Gramde,” “Jutin Biber,” and “Llady Gaga.” The UMG Recordings lawsuit against the French company Believe and its US-based subsidiary, TuneCore, alleges that “Believe is fully aware that its business model is fueled by rampant piracy” and “turned a blind eye to the fact that its music catalog was rife with copyright infringing sound recordings.”

Believe is a publicly traded company with about 2,020 employees in over 50 countries and reported $518 million (474.1 million euros) in revenue in the first half of 2024. Believe says its “mission is to develop independent artists and labels in the digital world.”

UMG alleges that Believe achieved “dramatic growth and profitability in recent years by operating as a hub for the distribution of infringing copies of the world’s most popular copyrighted recordings.” Believe has licensing deals with online platforms “including TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram and hundreds of others,” the lawsuit said.

UMG alleged that Believe distributes songs on these services “with full knowledge that many of the clients of its distribution services are fraudsters regularly providing infringing copies of copyrighted recordings.” Believe enters into “distribution contracts with anyone willing to sign one of its basic form agreements,” and its “client list is overrun with fraudulent ‘artists’ and pirate record labels who rely on Believe and its distribution network to seed infringing copies of popular sound recordings throughout the digital music ecosystem,” the lawsuit said, continuing:

Believe makes little effort to hide its illegal actions. Indeed, the names of its “artists” and recordings are often minor variants on the names of Plaintiffs’ famous recording artists and the titles of their most successful works. For example, Believe has distributed infringing tracks from infringers who call themselves “Kendrik Laamar” (a reference to Kendrick Lamar); “Arriana Gramde” (a reference to Ariana Grande); “Jutin Biber” (a reference to Justin Bieber); and “Llady Gaga” (a reference to Lady Gaga). Often, Believe distributes overtly infringing versions of original tracks by famous artists with notations that they are “sped up” or “remixed.”

The Rihanna song “S&M” was distributed as a remix by Believe under the name “Rihamna,” the lawsuit said. In other cases, names associated with allegedly infringing tracks were very different from the real artists’ names. The lawsuit said Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Billie Eilish’s “TV” were both distributed in sped-up form under the name “INDRAGERSN.”

Ever heard of “Llady Gaga”? Universal files piracy suit over alleged knockoffs. Read More »

Driving the biggest, least-efficient electric car: The Hummer EV SUV

car review, Cars, Hummer EV SUV / Tim Belzer / November 5, 2024

GMC’s Hummers have always been divisive. After getting hold of the rights to a civilian version of the US military vehicle in 1999, the company set about designing new, smaller vehicles to create an entire range. The ungainly H2 and H3 followed, both SUVs playing to the sensibilities of a country grappling with its warlike nature. By 2010, the Hummer brand was dead and laid dormant until someone had the bright idea to revive it for the electric vehicle generation. We drove the pickup version of that new Hummer in 2022, now it’s time for the $104,650 Hummer EV SUV.

I’ll admit I was worried that the Hummer EV wasn’t going to fit in my parking space. This is an extremely large vehicle, one that’s classified as a class 3 medium-duty truck—hence the yellow lights atop the roof. In fact, at 196.8 inches (5,000 mm) long, it’s actually slightly shorter than the pickup version, although that length doesn’t count the big spare tire hanging off the back.

Its 86.5-inch (2,196 mm) width just about fit between the lines, although it was a tight squeeze to try to open a door and climb up into the Hummer if my neighbor was parked as well. And climb up you do—there’s 10.2 inches (259 mm) of ground clearance even in the suspension’s normal setting, and the overall height is a towering 77.8 inches (1,976 mm). There is an entry mode that drops the car on its air springs by a couple of inches, but only if you remember to engage the feature when you park.

The curb weight is equally excessive at 9,063 lbs (4,119 kg)—at more than four metric tons, you’d need a commercial driver’s license to get behind the wheel of a Hummer EV in many other countries. Almost a third of that mass is the ginormous 217.7 kWh battery pack. Such over-provisioning means that despite the high drag coefficient of 0.5 and a frontal area that makes barn doors look skinny, the Hummer EV SUV has an EPA range estimate of 314 miles (503 km) on a single charge. In fact, the actual range indicated by our test car was 358 miles on a full charge, based on GM’s own testing. (As a class 3 truck, the Hummer doesn’t actually fit into the EPA’s tests properly.)

Driving the biggest, least-efficient electric car: The Hummer EV SUV Read More »

New Zemeckis film used AI to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright

AI, AI image generator, Biz & IT, de-aging, Deepfakes, face replacement, films, generative ai, Here film, image synthesis, machine learning, Metaphysic, Robert Zemeckis, Robin Wright, Runway, Special Effects, Tom Hanks, video synthesis / Tim Belzer / November 4, 2024

On Friday, TriStar Pictures released Here, a $50 million Robert Zemeckis-directed film that used real time generative AI face transformation techniques to portray actors Tom Hanks and Robin Wright across a 60-year span, marking one of Hollywood’s first full-length features built around AI-powered visual effects.

The film adapts a 2014 graphic novel set primarily in a New Jersey living room across multiple time periods. Rather than cast different actors for various ages, the production used AI to modify Hanks’ and Wright’s appearances throughout.

The de-aging technology comes from Metaphysic, a visual effects company that creates real time face swapping and aging effects. During filming, the crew watched two monitors simultaneously: one showing the actors’ actual appearances and another displaying them at whatever age the scene required.

Here – Official Trailer (HD)

Metaphysic developed the facial modification system by training custom machine-learning models on frames of Hanks’ and Wright’s previous films. This included a large dataset of facial movements, skin textures, and appearances under varied lighting conditions and camera angles. The resulting models can generate instant face transformations without the months of manual post-production work traditional CGI requires.

Unlike previous aging effects that relied on frame-by-frame manipulation, Metaphysic’s approach generates transformations instantly by analyzing facial landmarks and mapping them to trained age variations.

“You couldn’t have made this movie three years ago,” Zemeckis told The New York Times in a detailed feature about the film. Traditional visual effects for this level of face modification would reportedly require hundreds of artists and a substantially larger budget closer to standard Marvel movie costs.

This isn’t the first film that has used AI techniques to de-age actors. ILM’s approach to de-aging Harrison Ford in 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny used a proprietary system called Flux with infrared cameras to capture facial data during filming, then old images of Ford to de-age him in post-production. By contrast, Metaphysic’s AI models process transformations without additional hardware and show results during filming.

New Zemeckis film used AI to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Read More »

Elon Musk turns X’s block button into a “glorified mute button”

elon musk x, Policy, x blocking / Tim Belzer / November 4, 2024

X, formerly Twitter, is now letting blocked users see posts made by the people who blocked them.

“We’re starting to launch the block function update,” X’s engineering team wrote yesterday. X previously said that after the change, “If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage (like, reply, repost, etc.).”

To justify the change, X said the block functionality could previously be “used by users to share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked.” The change will allow people who are blocked “to see if such behavior occurs… allowing for greater transparency,” X said.

X owner Elon Musk argued last year that “blocking public posts makes no sense. It needs to be deprecated in favor of a stronger form of mute.”

There were many angry responses to the change, both yesterday and previously, when X said it would be coming soon. While some users may only use blocking to avoid seeing accounts that are annoying, some X users said the policy could be harmful for people who use blocking as a safety measure.

The new policy could help stalkers and other bad actors, some said. Blocked accounts could view, screenshot, and share content posted by the person who blocked them, some people pointed out. The block button is now “a glorified mute button,” one user said.

Blocked users can view and search for posts

Before the change, X’s support page on blocking accounts said blocked accounts cannot “view your posts when logged in on X (unless they report you, and your posts mention them,” “find your posts in search when logged in on X,” or “view a Moment you’ve created when logged in on X.”

Elon Musk turns X’s block button into a “glorified mute button” Read More »

Here are 3 science-backed strategies to rein in election anxiety

2024 election, anxieities, anxiety, health, Mental Health, Security, syndication / Tim Belzer / November 3, 2024

In this scenario, I encourage my patients to move past that initial thought of how awful it will be and instead consider exactly how they will respond to the inauguration, the next day, week, month, and so on.

Cognitive flexibility allows you to explore how you will cope, even in the face of a negative outcome, helping you feel a bit less out of control. If you’re experiencing a lot of anxiety about the election, try thinking through what you’d do if the undesirable candidate takes office—thoughts like “I’ll donate to causes that are important to me” and “I’ll attend protests.”

Choose your actions with intention

Another tool for managing your anxiety is to consider whether your behaviors are affecting how you feel.

Remember, for instance, the goal of 24-hour news networks is to increase ratings. It’s in their interest to keep you riveted to your screens by making it seem like important announcements are imminent. As a result, it may feel difficult to disconnect and take part in your usual self-care behavior.

Try telling yourself, “If something happens, someone will text me,” and go for a walk or, better yet, to bed. Keeping up with healthy habits can help reduce your vulnerability to uncontrolled anxiety.

Post-Election Day, you may continue to feel drawn to the news and motivated to show up—whether that means donating, volunteering, or protesting—for a variety of causes you think will be affected by the election results. Many people describe feeling guilty if they say no or disengage, leading them to overcommit and wind up overwhelmed.

If this sounds like you, try reminding yourself that taking a break from politics to cook, engage with your family or friends, get some work done, or go to the gym does not mean you don’t care. In fact, keeping up with the activities that fuel you will give you the energy to contribute to important causes more meaningfully.

Shannon Sauer-Zavala, Associate Professor of Psychology & Licensed Clinical Psychologist, University of Kentucky. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Here are 3 science-backed strategies to rein in election anxiety Read More »

Dystopika is a beautiful cyberpunk city builder without the ugly details

city builders, cyberpunk, dystopia, dystopian, dystopika, gaming / Tim Belzer / November 2, 2024

Some of my favorite games deny me the thing I think I want most. Elden Ring refuses to provide manageable save files (and I paid for it). Balatro withholds the final math on each hand played (and its developer suggests avoiding calculators). And the modern X-COM games force me to realize just how much a 98 percent chance to hit is not the same as 100 percent.

Dystopika (Steam, Windows) is a city builder in maybe the strictest definition of that two-word descriptor, because it steadfastly refuses to distract you with non-building details. The game is described by its single developer, Matt Marshall, as having “No goals, no management, just creativity and dark cozy vibes.” Dystopika does very little to explain how you should play it, because there’s no optimal path for doing so. Your only job is to enjoy yourself, poking and prodding at a dark cyberpunk cityscape, making things that look interesting, pretty, grim, or however you like. It might seem restrictive, but it feels very freeing.

Dystopika launch video.

The game’s interface is a small rail on the left side of the screen. Select “Building” and a random shape attaches to your cursor. You can right-click to change it, but you can’t pick one. Place it, and then optionally place the cursor near its top to change its height. Making one building taller will raise smaller buildings nearby. Reaching certain heights, or densities, or something (it’s not explained) will “unlock” certain new buildings, landmarks, and decorations.

Screen showing a tall, T-shaped building,, with — Hooray! I’ve unlocked the headquarters for a megacorp with a very ominous name! (Please appreciate my efforts at public transit.) Credit: Kevin Purdy

You do get to pick out “Props,” like roads and trams and giant billboards and hologram objects and flying carports, but the game is similarly non-committal on what you should do with them, or most anything. You put things down, or delete them, expand them, connect them, and try things out until you like how it looks.

Dystopika is a beautiful cyberpunk city builder without the ugly details Read More »

US Space Force warns of “mind-boggling” build-up of Chinese capabilities

china, Space, syndication, US Space Force / Tim Belzer / November 2, 2024

Both Russia and China have tested satellites with capabilities that include grappling hooks to pull other satellites out of orbit and “kinetic kill vehicles” that can target satellites and long-range ballistic missiles in space.

In May, a senior US defense department official told a House Armed Services Committee hearing that Russia was developing an “indiscriminate” nuclear weapon designed to be sent into space, while in September, China made a third secretive test of an unmanned space plane that could be used to disrupt satellites.

The US is far ahead of its European allies in developing military space capabilities, but it wanted to “lay the foundations” for the continent’s space forces, Saltzman said. Last year UK Air Marshal Paul Godfrey was appointed to oversee allied partnerships with NATO with the US Space Force—one of the first times that a high-ranking allied pilot had joined the US military.

But Saltzman warned against a rush to build up space forces across the continent.

“It is resource-intensive to separate out and stand up a new service. Even … in America where we think we have more resources, we underestimated what it was going to take,” he said.

The US Space Force, which monitors more than 46,000 objects in orbit, has about 10,000 personnel but is the smallest department of the US military. Its officers are known as “guardians.”

The costs of building up space defense capabilities mean the US is heavily reliant on private companies, raising concerns about the power of billionaires in a sector where regulation remains minimal.

SpaceX, led by prominent Trump backer Elon Musk, is increasingly working with US military and intelligence through its Starshield arm, which is developing low Earth orbit satellites that track missiles and support intelligence gathering.

This month, SpaceX was awarded a $734 million contract to provide space launch services for US defense and intelligence agencies.

Despite concerns about Musk’s erratic behavior and reports that the billionaire has had regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saltzman said he had no concerns about US government collaboration with SpaceX.

“I’m very comfortable that they’ll execute those [contracts] exactly the way they’re designed. All of the dealings I’ve had with SpaceX have been very professional,” he said.

Additional reporting by Kathrin Hille in Taipei.

US Space Force warns of “mind-boggling” build-up of Chinese capabilities Read More »

As North Korean troops march toward Ukraine, does a Russian quid pro quo reach space?

ICBM, military space, North Korea, russia, Science, Security, Space, Ukraine / Tim Belzer / November 2, 2024

Earlier this week, North Korea apparently completed a successful test of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, lofting it nearly 4,800 miles into space before the projectile fell back to Earth.

This solid-fueled, multi-stage missile, named the Hwasong-19, is a new tool in North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated arsenal of weapons. It has enough range—perhaps as much as 9,320 miles (15,000 kilometers), according to Japan’s government—to strike targets anywhere in the United States.

The test flight of the Hwasong-19 on Thursday was North Korea’s first test of a long-range missile in nearly a year, coming as North Korea deploys some 10,000 troops inside Russia just days before the US presidential election. US officials condemned the missile launch as a “provocative and destabilizing” action in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

The budding partnership between Russia and North Korea has evolved for several years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on multiple occasions, most recently in Pyongyang in June. Last September, the North Korean dictator visited Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s newest launch base, where the leaders inspected hardware for Russia’s Angara rocket.

In this photo distributed by North Korean state media, a Hwasong-19 missile fires out of a launch tube somewhere in North Korea on October 31, 2024. Credit: KCNA

The visit to Vostochny fueled speculation that Russia might provide missile and space technology to North Korea in exchange for Kim’s assistance in the fight against Ukraine. This week, South Korea’s defense minister said his government has identified several areas where North Korea likely seeks help from Russia.

“In exchange for their deployment, North Korea is very likely to ask for technology transfers in diverse areas, including the technologies relating to tactical nuclear weapons technologies related to their advancement of ICBMs, also those regarding reconnaissance satellites and those regarding SSBNs [ballistic missile submarines] as well,” said Kim Yong-hyun, South Korea’s top military official, on a visit to Washington.

As North Korean troops march toward Ukraine, does a Russian quid pro quo reach space? Read More »

Thousands of hacked TP-Link routers used in years-long account takeover attacks

Biz & IT, botnets, microsoft, password spraying, Security, tp-link / Tim Belzer / November 2, 2024

Hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government are using a botnet of thousands of routers, cameras, and other Internet-connected devices to perform highly evasive password spray attacks against users of Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, the company warned Thursday.

The malicious network, made up almost entirely of TP-Link routers, was first documented in October 2023 by a researcher who named it Botnet-7777. The geographically dispersed collection of more than 16,000 compromised devices at its peak got its name because it exposes its malicious malware on port 7777.

Account compromise at scale

In July and again in August of this year, security researchers from Serbia and Team Cymru reported the botnet was still operational. All three reports said that Botnet-7777 was being used to skillfully perform password spraying, a form of attack that sends large numbers of login attempts from many different IP addresses. Because each individual device limits the login attempts, the carefully coordinated account-takeover campaign is hard to detect by the targeted service.

On Thursday, Microsoft reported that CovertNetwork-1658—the name Microsoft uses to track the botnet—is being used by multiple Chinese threat actors in an attempt to compromise targeted Azure accounts. The company said the attacks are “highly evasive” because the botnet—now estimated at about 8,000 strong on average—takes pains to conceal the malicious activity.

“Any threat actor using the CovertNetwork-1658 infrastructure could conduct password spraying campaigns at a larger scale and greatly increase the likelihood of successful credential compromise and initial access to multiple organizations in a short amount of time,” Microsoft officials wrote. “This scale, combined with quick operational turnover of compromised credentials between CovertNetwork-1658 and Chinese threat actors, allows for the potential of account compromises across multiple sectors and geographic regions.

Some of the characteristics that make detection difficult are:

The use of compromised SOHO IP addresses
The use of a rotating set of IP addresses at any given time. The threat actors had thousands of available IP addresses at their disposal. The average uptime for a CovertNetwork-1658 node is approximately 90 days.
The low-volume password spray process; for example, monitoring for multiple failed sign-in attempts from one IP address or to one account will not detect this activity.

Thousands of hacked TP-Link routers used in years-long account takeover attacks Read More »

Starlink enters National Radio Quiet Zone—but reportedly cut off access for some

national radio quiet zone, Policy, starlink / Tim Belzer / November 1, 2024

Starlink offered to 99.5% of zone, but locals say Roam product was disabled.

Starlink satellite dish. Credit: Starlink

Starlink’s home Internet service has come to the National Radio Quiet Zone after a multi-year engineering project that had the goal of minimizing interference with radio telescopes. Starlink operator SpaceX began “a one-year assessment period to offer residential satellite Internet service to 99.5% of residents within the NRQZ starting October 25,” the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory announced last week.

“The vast majority of people within the areas of Virginia and West Virginia collectively known as the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) can now receive high speed satellite Internet service,” the announcement said. “The newly available service is the result of a nearly three-year collaborative engineering effort between the US National Science Foundation (NSF), SpaceX, and the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO), which operates the NSF Green Bank Observatory (NSF GBO) in West Virginia within the NRQZ.”

There’s a controversy over the 0.5 percent of residents who aren’t included and are said to be newly blocked from using the Starlink Roam service. Starlink markets Roam as a service for people to use while traveling, not as a fixed home Internet service.

The Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management last week issued a press release saying that “customers with the RV/Roam packages had been using Starlink for approximately two years throughout 100% of the NRQZ. Now, the 0.5% have lost coverage after having it for two years. This means that a large section of southeastern Pendleton County and an even larger section of northern Pocahontas will NOT be able to utilize Starlink.”

PCMag wrote that “Starlink is now live in 42 of the 46 cell areas around the Green Bank Observatory’s telescopes.” Pendleton County Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Gillespie told Ars today that Roam coverage was cut off in the remaining four cell areas.

“After the agreement, we all lost effective use within the four cells,” Gillespie told Ars in an email. Gillespie’s press release said that, “in many cases, Starlink was the only Internet provider option residents and emergency responders had. This is unacceptable.”

“The dark ages of communications systems”

Gillespie was quoted as saying in a WBOY article that the restrictions are “keeping a portion of Pendleton and Pocahontas counties in the dark ages of communications systems.”

We contacted SpaceX and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory about any limits imposed on Roam today and will update this article if we get any response.

Residents of the 13,000-square-mile National Radio Quiet Zone have limited Internet access due to restrictions on radio transmissions first put in place in 1958. In addition to scientific research at Green Bank in Pocahontas County, the National Radio Quiet Zone includes a National Security Agency facility at Sugar Grove Station in Pendleton County.

SpaceX and the NRAO collaborated on testing over the past few years and presumably concluded that the service could only be provided without interference in 99.5 percent of the zone. Chris De Pree, the NRAO deputy spectrum manager, said in the organization’s announcement that “working closely with SpaceX over the past three years has enabled NRAO and SpaceX to better understand each other’s systems and how to actively coexist in this part of the spectrum.”

In that time, “scientists and engineers performed multiple tests and analyses to determine the best way to maximize satellite internet service without hindering the missions within the NRQZ,” the announcement said. During the one-year assessment period for Starlink’s home Internet service, “scientists and engineers will monitor for interference issues and work to resolve them without interrupting Internet service.”

Starlink steers beams away from telescopes

Starlink said in August that it worked with the NRAO “to enable Starlink satellites to avoid transmissions into the line-of-sight of radio telescopes, leveraging our advanced phased array antenna technology to dynamically steer beams away from telescopes.”

Starlink published a summary noting that “direct transmissions from satellites towards the eye of radio telescopes may pose a significant risk of interference to astronomical research.” The technique for steering beams away from telescopes is “made possible by a real-time data sharing framework between radio astronomy observatories and Starlink that provides the Starlink network with a telescope’s planned observation schedule, including the telescope’s pointing direction (aka ‘boresight’) and its observed frequency band. With this information, the Starlink network can ensure that satellites passing near the boresight of a telescope dynamically redirect their beams away from the telescope.”

The redirection happens “in milliseconds” and “protects the telescope’s observations while ensuring Starlink service remains uninterrupted for customers near the telescope.” Starlink is also using the technology with NRAO’s Very Large Array in New Mexico.

Counties want quiet-zone rules scrapped

The quiet-zone rules should be scrapped, a number of local officials say. The Pendleton County press release said that 10 West Virginia counties and one Virginia county “have formally expressed their need for change regarding the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) through Resolutions and Letters of Support.” These counties have a combined 262,296 residents, the press release said.

“We do not seek the closure of these federal entities but rather their commitment to identifying and funding viable solutions that would enable our communication systems to operate effectively, similar to those in the majority of America,” Gillespie said in the press release.

Gillespie told Ars that local communities are hampered by “archaic 1950’s regulations. We are being left behind when it comes to the modern advancements in public safety and personal communications.” He said that “absent some relief in a timely fashion, we will explore taking our plight to the FCC seeking waivers.”

The Pendleton County Commission resolution approved in September called for dissolution of the quiet zone or “total waivers of any NRQZ restrictions imposed on Public Safety Radio Frequency Bands currently in use, as well as all the commercial cellular/wireless Bands, and commercial satellite Internet providers, such as Starlink.”

The county resolution said the quiet zone is effectively “an ever-growing unfunded federal mandate on our county emergency services/911 operation wherein it causes us to spend large amounts of funding building a larger number of tower sites than would be needed absent the NRQZ restrictions.” The restrictions have greatly diminished access to the AT&T FirstNet public safety network and other networks used by first responders and residents, the resolution said.

The Pocahontas County Commission issued a resolution in September calling for total waivers of restrictions imposed on public safety spectrum, or federal funding to offset costs associated with developing public safety communications systems under “the unique burden of NRQZ regulations.”

Limited fiber and cellular access

Starlink service wouldn’t be as necessary for home Internet access if the area had universal access to fiber broadband. Recent government grants could help, as one funded project is designed to subsidize Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks Telephone’s installation of fiber lines in Pocahontas and Pendleton counties.

Ideally, residents would have access to both fiber home Internet and strong cellular networks. But the NRAO still warns that cellular signals could threaten its scientific research.

“Optical fiber as a broadband solution is far better than service from space or via wireless or cellular links, which are less reliable and have the potential to undo much of the coordination work that has happened in the National Radio Quiet Zone over many decades,” Sheldon Wasik, Zone Regulatory Services Coordinator for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, said in March 2024.

Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.

Starlink enters National Radio Quiet Zone—but reportedly cut off access for some Read More »

Beware pirates and booby traps in new Skeleton Crew trailer

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, LucasFilms, star wars, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, streaming television, Trailers / Tim Belzer / November 1, 2024

Jude Law stars as Force-user Jod Na Nawood in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

It’s no secret that the new spinoff series, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, was inspired by the 1985 film The Goonies. Executive Producer Kathleen Kennedy (who co-produced The Goonies) has publicly confirmed as much. The latest trailer really leans into that influence: The series feels like something not created specifically for kids, but rather telling a story that just happens to be about kids going on an adventure.

As previously reported, the eight-episode standalone series is set in the same timeframe as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. Per the official premise:

Skeleton Crew follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy, crossing paths with the likes of Jod Na Nawood, the mysterious character played by [Jude] Law. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.

Jude Law leads the cast as the quick-witted and charming (per Law) “Force-user” Jod Na Nawood. Ravi Cabot-Conyers plays Wim, Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Fern, Kyriana Kratter plays KB, and Robert Timothy Smith plays Neil. Nick Frost will voice a droid named SM 33, the first mate of a spaceship called the Onyx Cylinder. The cast also includes Fred Tatasciore as Brutus, Jaleel White as Gunther, Mike Estes as Pax, Marti Matulis as Vane, and Dale Soules as Chaelt. Tunde Adebimpe and Kerry Condon will appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

Beware pirates and booby traps in new Skeleton Crew trailer Read More »

A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones

dentistry, health, healthcare, implants, syndication / Tim Belzer / November 1, 2024

It turns out you may not have needed those implants after all.

Becky Carroll was missing a few teeth, others were stained or crooked. Ashamed, she smiled with lips pressed closed. Her dentist offered to fix most of her teeth with root canals and crowns, Carroll said, but she was wary of traveling a long road of dental work.

Then Carroll saw a TV commercial for another path: ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers. The company advertises that it can give patients “a new smile in as little as one day” by surgically replacing teeth instead of fixing them.

So Carroll saved and borrowed for the surgery, she said. In an interview and a lawsuit, Carroll said that at a ClearChoice clinic in New Jersey in 2021, she agreed to pay $31,000 to replace all her natural upper teeth with pearly white prosthetic ones. What came next, Carroll said, was “like a horror movie.”

Carroll alleged that her anesthesia wore off during implant surgery, so she became conscious as her teeth were removed and titanium screws were twisted into her jawbone. Afterward, Carroll’s prosthetic teeth were so misaligned that she was largely unable to chew for more than two years until she could afford corrective surgery at another clinic, according to a sworn deposition from her lawsuit.

ClearChoice has denied Carroll’s claims of malpractice and negligence in court filings and did not respond to requests for comment on the ongoing case.

“I thought implants would be easier, and all at once, so you didn’t have to keep going back to the dentist,” Carroll, 52, said in an interview. “But I should have asked more questions … like, Can they save these teeth?”

Dental implants have been used for more than half a century to surgically replace missing or damaged teeth with artificial duplicates, often with picture-perfect results. While implant dentistry was once the domain of a small group of highly trained dentists and specialists, tens of thousands of dental providers now offer the surgery and place millions of implants each year in the US.

Amid this booming industry, some implant experts worry that many dentists are losing sight of dentistry’s fundamental goal of preserving natural teeth and have become too willing to remove teeth to make room for expensive implants, according to a months-long investigation by KFF Health News and CBS News. In interviews, 10 experts said they had each given second opinions to multiple patients who had been recommended for mouths full of implants that the experts ultimately determined were not necessary. Separately, lawsuits filed across the country have alleged that implant patients like Carroll have experienced painful complications that have required corrective surgery, while other lawsuits alleged dentists at some implant clinics have persuaded, pressured, or forced patients to remove teeth unnecessarily.

The experts warn that implants, for a single tooth or an entire mouth, expose patients to costs and surgery complications, plus a new risk of future dental problems with fewer treatment options because their natural teeth are forever gone.

“There are many cases where teeth, they’re perfectly fine, and they’re being removed unnecessarily,” said William Giannobile, dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. “I really hate to say it, but many of them are doing it because these procedures, from a monetary standpoint, they’re much more beneficial to the practitioner.”

Giannobile and nine other experts say they are combating a false public perception that implants are more durable and longer-lasting than natural teeth, which some believe stems in part from advertising on TV and social media. Implants require upkeep, and although they can’t get cavities, studies have shown that patients can be susceptible to infections in the gums and bone around their implants.

“Just because somebody can afford implants doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re a good candidate,” said George Mandelaris, a Chicago-area periodontist and member of the American Academy of Periodontology Board of Trustees. “When an implant has infection, or when an implant has bone loss, an implant dies a much quicker death than do teeth.”

In its simplest form, implant surgery involves extracting a single tooth and replacing it with a metal post that is screwed into the jaw and then affixed with a prosthetic tooth commonly made of porcelain, also known as a crown. Patients can also use “full-arch” or “All-on-4” implants to replace all their upper or lower teeth—or all their teeth.

For this story, KFF Health News and CBS News sought interviews with large dental chains whose clinics offer implant surgery—ClearChoice, Aspen Dental, Affordable Care, and Dental Care Alliance—each of which declined to be interviewed or did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Association of Dental Support Organizations, which represents these companies and others like them, also declined an interview request.

ClearChoice, which specializes in full-arch implants, did not answer more than two dozen questions submitted in writing. In an emailed statement, the company said full-arch implants “have become a well-accepted standard of care for patients with severe tooth loss and teeth with poor prognosis.”

“The use of full-arch restorations reflects the evolution of modern dentistry, offering patients a solution that restores their ability to eat, speak, and live comfortably—far beyond what traditional dentures can provide,” the company said.

Carroll said she regrets not letting her dentist try to fix her teeth and rushing to ClearChoice for implants.

“Because it was a nightmare,” she said.

“They are not teeth”

Dental implant surgery can be a godsend for patients with unsalvageable teeth. Several experts said implants can be so transformative that their invention should have contended for a Nobel Prize. And yet, these experts still worry that implants are overused, because it is generally better for patients to have their natural teeth.

Paul Rosen, a Pennsylvania periodontist who said he has worked with implants for more than three decades, said many patients believe a “fallacy” that implants are “bulletproof.”

“You can’t just have an implant placed and go off riding into the sunset,” Rosen said. “In many instances, they need more care than teeth because they are not teeth.”

Generally, a single implant costs a few thousand dollars while full-arch implants cost tens of thousands. Neither procedure is well covered by dental insurance, so many clinics partner with credit companies that offer loans for implant surgeries. At ClearChoice, for example, loans can be as large as $65,000 paid off over 10 years, according to the company’s website.

Despite the price, implants are more popular than ever. Sales increased by more than 6 percent on average each year since 2010, culminating in more than 3.7 million implants sold in the US in 2022, according to a 2023 report produced by iData Research, a health care market research firm.

Some worry implant dentistry has gone too far. In 10 interviews, dentists and dental specialists with expertise in implants said they had witnessed the overuse of implants firsthand. Each expert said they’d examined multiple patients in recent years who were recommended for full-arch implants by other dentists despite their teeth being treatable with conventional dentistry.

Giannobile, the Harvard dean, said he had given second opinions to “dozens” of patients who were recommended for implants they did not need.

“I see many of these patients now that are coming in and saying, ‘I’ve been seen, and they are telling me to get my entire dentition—all of my teeth—extracted.’ And then I’ll take a look at them and say that we can preserve most of your teeth,” Giannobile said.

Tim Kosinski, who is a representative of the Academy of General Dentistry and said he has placed more than 19,000 implants, said he examines as many as five patients a month who have been recommended for full-arch implants that he deems unnecessary.

“There is a push in the profession to remove teeth that could be saved,” Kosinski said. “But the public isn’t aware.”

Luiz Gonzaga, a periodontist and prosthodontist at the University of Florida, said he, too, had turned away patients who wanted most or all their teeth extracted. Gonzaga said some had received implant recommendations that he considered “an atrocity.”

“You don’t go to the hospital and tell them ‘I broke my finger a couple of times. This is bothering me. Can you please cut my finger off?’ No one will do that,” Gonzaga said. “Why would I extract your tooth because you need a root canal?”

Jaime Lozada, director of an elite dental implant residency program at Loma Linda University, said he’d not only witnessed an increase in dentists extracting “perfectly healthy teeth” but also treated a rash of patients with mouths full of ill-fitting implants that had to be surgically replaced.

Lozada said in August that he’d treated seven such patients in just three months.

“When individuals just make a decision of extracting teeth to make it simple and make money quick, so to speak, that’s where I have a problem,” Lozada said. “And it happens quite often.”

When full-arch implants fail, patients sometimes don’t have enough jawbone left to anchor another set. These patients have little choice but to get implants that reach into cheekbones, said Sohail Saghezchi, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the University of California-San Francisco.

“It’s kind of like a last resort,” Saghezchi said. “If those fail, you don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“It was horrendous dentistry”

Most of the experts interviewed for this article said their rising alarm corresponded with big changes in the availability of dental implants. Implants are now offered by more than 70,000 dental providers nationwide, two-thirds of whom are general dentists, according to the iData Research report.

Dentists are not required to learn how to place implants in dental school, nor are they required to complete implant training before performing the surgery in nearly all states. This year, Oregon started requiring dentists to complete 56 hours of hands-on training before placing any implants. Stephen Prisby, executive director of the Oregon Board of Dentistry, said the requirement—the first and only of its kind in the US—was a response to dozens of investigations in the state into botched surgeries and other implant failures, split evenly between general dentists and specialists.

“I was frankly stunned at how bad some of these dentists were practicing,” Prisby said. “It was horrendous dentistry.”

Many dental clinics that offer implants have consolidated into chains owned by private equity firms that have bought out much of implant dentistry. In health care, private equity investment is sometimes criticized for overtreatment and prioritizing short-term profit over patients.

Private equity firms have spent about $5 billion in recent years to buy large dental chains that offer implants at hundreds of clinics owned by individual dentists and dental specialists. ClearChoice was bought for an estimated $1.1 billion in 2020 by Aspen Dental, which is owned by three private equity firms, according to PitchBook, a research firm focused on the private equity industry. Private equity firms also bought Affordable Care, whose largest clinic brand is Affordable Dentures & Implants, for an estimated $2.7 billion in 2021, according to PitchBook. And the private equity wing of the Abu Dhabi government bought Dental Care Alliance, which offers implants at many of its affiliated clinics, for an estimated $1 billion in 2022, according to PitchBook.

ClearChoice and Aspen Dental each said in email statements that the companies’ private equity owners “do not have influence or control over treatment recommendations.” Both companies said dentists or dental specialists make all clinical decisions.

Private equity deals involving dental practices increased ninefold from 2011 to 2021, according to an American Dental Association study published in August. The study also said investors showed an interest in oral surgery, possibly because of the “high prices” of implants.

“Some argue this is a negative thing,” said Marko Vujicic, vice president of the association’s Health Policy Institute, who co-authored the study. “On the other hand, some would argue that involvement of private equity and outside capital brings economies of scale, it brings efficiency.”

Edwin Zinman, a San Francisco dental malpractice attorney and former periodontist who has filed hundreds of dental lawsuits over four decades, said he believed many of the worst fears about private equity owners had already come true in implant dentistry.

“They’ve sold a lot of [implants], and some of it unnecessarily, and too often done negligently, without having the dentists who are doing it have the necessary training and experience,” Zinman said. “It’s for five simple letters: M-O-N-E-Y.”

Hundreds of implant clinics with no specialists

For this article, journalists from KFF Health News and CBS News analyzed the webpages for more than 1,000 clinics in the nation’s largest private equity-owned dental chains, all of which offer some implants. The analysis found that more than 70 percent of those clinics listed only general dentists on their websites and did not appear to employ the specialists—oral surgeons, periodontists, or prosthodontists—who traditionally have more training with implants.

Affordable Dentures & Implants listed specialists at fewer than 5 percent of its more than 400 clinics, according to the analysis. The rest were staffed by general dentists, most of whom did not list credentialing from implant training organizations, according to the analysis.

ClearChoice, on the other hand, employs at least one oral surgeon or prosthodontist at each of its more than 100 centers, according to the analysis. But its new parent company, Aspen Dental, which offers implants in many of its more than 1,100 clinics, does not list any specialists at many of those locations.

Not everyone is worried about private equity in implant dentistry. In interviews arranged by the American Academy of Implant Dentistry, which trains dentists to use implants, two other implant experts did not express concerns about private equity firms.

Brian Jackson, a former academy president and implant specialist in New York, said he believed dentists are too ethical and patients are too smart to be pressured by private equity owners “who will never see a patient.”

Jumoke Adedoyin, a chief clinical officer for Affordable Care, who has placed implants at an Affordable Dentures & Implants clinic in the Atlanta suburbs for 15 years, said she had never felt pressure from above to sell implants.

“I’ve actually felt more pressure sometimes from patients who have gone around and been told they need to take their teeth out,” she said. “They come in and, honestly, taking a look at them, maybe they don’t need to take all their teeth out.”

Still, lawsuits filed across the country have alleged that dentists at implant clinics have extracted patients’ teeth unnecessarily.

For example, in Texas, a patient alleged in a 2020 lawsuit that an Affordable Care dentist removed “every single tooth from her mouth when such was not necessary,” then stuffed her mouth with gauze and left her waiting in the lobby as he and his staff left for lunch. In Maryland, a patient alleged in a 2021 lawsuit that ClearChoice “convinced” her to extract “eight healthy upper teeth,” by “greatly downplay[ing] the risks.” In Florida, a patient alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that ClearChoice provided her with no other treatment options before extracting all her teeth, “which was totally unnecessary.”

ClearChoice and Affordable Care denied wrongdoing in their respective lawsuits, then privately settled out of court with each patient. ClearChoice and Affordable Care did not respond to requests for comment submitted to the companies or attorneys. Lawyers for all three plaintiffs declined to comment on these lawsuits or did not respond to requests for comment.

Fred Goldberg, a Maryland dental malpractice attorney who said he has represented at least six clients who sued ClearChoice, said each of his clients agreed to get implants after meeting with a salesperson—not a dentist.

“Every client I’ve had who has gone to ClearChoice has started off meeting a salesperson and actually signing up to get their financing through ClearChoice before they ever meet with a dentist,” Goldberg said. “You meet with a salesperson who sells you on what they like to present as the best choice, which is almost always that they’re going to take out all your natural teeth.”

Becky Carroll, the ClearChoice patient from New Jersey, told a similar story.

Carroll said in her lawsuit that she met first with a ClearChoice salesperson referred to as a “patient education consultant.” In an interview, Carroll said the salesperson encouraged her to borrow money from family members for the surgery and it was not until after she agreed to a loan and passed a credit check that a ClearChoice dentist peered into her mouth.

“It seems way backwards,” Carroll said. “They just want to know you’re approved before you get to talk to a dentist.”

CBS News producer Nicole Keller contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared on KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

A new dental scam is to pull healthy teeth to sell you expensive fake ones Read More »

Author name: Tim Belzer