THE BIG STORY
Cartoon doctor NFTs promise "exclusive access" to celebrity physicians. But they can't legally give you medical advice. |
Look, I hated reading that headline as much as you. Here's what's going on: When MetaDocs launched in December, it claimed that a host of celebrity doctors such as "Dr. Pimple Popper" Sandra Lee and plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Brown would be available via DM or video chat to those who buy their NFTs of cartoon doctors. Founder Dr. Sina Joorabchi hopes MetaDocs will evolve into a full-fledged virtual clinic in the so-called metaverse, where patients can put on a haptic suit and be examined remotely by a physician in virtual reality. "We're working actively on a metaverse clinic; our team is coding that as we speak," Joorabchi said. However, MetaDocs is not actually licensed as a telemedicine service and doctors cannot legally make diagnoses, write prescriptions, or give personalized medical advice. It has removed Lee and at least eight other physicians from its roster, some because they had never agreed to participate, and others because they grew uncomfortable with the project. Many medical professionals have criticized MetaDocs and it begs the question, Why would someone pay hundreds of dollars for a cartoon so they could "ask a doctor anything" if they are not seeking some form of medical advice? But for early MetaDocs supporters, the injustices of the current healthcare system could be what's pushing them toward untested and unproven alternatives. Whether crypto can provide a solution to medical inequality is a gamble they might be willing to take. |
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STAYING ON TOP OF THIS Air raids in Ukraine, negotiations abroad |
- On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in-person to discuss a ceasefire. Ukrainian leaders have criticized this move, and express skepticism that it will result in peace, Politico reports.
- Mariupol's steel plant remains under control of Ukrainian forces. Soldiers and civilians face Russian tanks and air raids, with one fighter telling the New York Times, "They are trying to wipe us off the face of the earth."
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Alleged Capitol rioters are trying to shake off codefendants they think will look worse to a jury. A small but growing number of people hope to sever their cases from codefendants that they believe carry the baggage of more serious charges or damaging evidence of violence, or who would undermine their trial strategy. The NFT marketplace OpenSea has acquired Gem, a startup cofounded by a pseudonymous developer accused of sexual abuse. It's unclear whether developer Josh Thompson is still a majority Gem shareholder, or whether he stands to financially benefit from OpenSea's acquisition. Commuting to work can affect your health, for better or worse. But health experts say there are ways to manage the stress any type of commuting may bring. Prince Louis turned 4, and the royal family shared new photos to mark the occasion. Louis's birthday is a day after his great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth's birthday, April 21. To mark her 96th birthday, the royal family released a photo of the Queen with two Fell ponies named Bybeck Nightingale and Bybeck Katie.
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MUSKY BIG TECH Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion |
Twitter's board has accepted Elon Musk's offer to buy the influential social media network.The Tesla CEO will buy Twitter for about $44 billion, taking it private by purchasing shares for $54.20 in cash. In late March this year, Musk aired a litany of complaints about Twitter on Twitter — questioning the company's commitment to principles of free speech, the possibility of "de facto" bias in its algorithm, and the need for another such platform. At the time, Musk had secretly and controversially amassed a more than 5% stake, at which point he was required to disclose his holdings to the Security and Exchange Commission but didn't, according to Bloomberg. Musk's delay, the Washington Post reported, allowed him to earn $156 million by letting him continue to acquire Twitter shares for cheap. On April 4, 10 days after the disclosure deadline, Musk told the SEC that his stake stood at 9.5% — making him the company's biggest shareholder. Twitter then invited Musk to join the company's board of directors, only for him to reject their offer. By April 20, Musk laid out his plans on securing funding for purchasing Twitter, at which point the board started seriously negotiating the sale of the company, according to the New York Times.
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ADMIT IT, YOU'LL NEVER QUIT TWITTER We deserve this, fellow disgusting worms |
Well, it happened: Elon Musk has bought Twitter, for whatever reason. But like the dopiest moths to the shittiest flame, we can't tear ourselves away from it, writes Katie Notopoulos. If you've been on Twitter long enough, you've put up with countless iterations of crap. The parody account crazy of 2011-2012 (do you know @TheBronxZooCobra is still tweeting?), the gamergaters, the anime avatar trolls, the Nazis (both literal and figurative), the years of rampant and unchecked harassment and abuse, the "time for some game theory" guy, the 2016 heyday of Russian bots and manipulation, the endless reign of Chrissy Teigen clapbacks. Let's be honest with ourselves: We will never quit this idiot site. Elon Musk will have to strap my phone onto a rocket and fire it into space to get me to log off. See you all in Hell. |
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Existentially glitching and didn't share a new sign off yesterday! Coming to you with an apologetic hat in hand and two sign offs today: Sometimes it's not too late to act, and let go of embarrassing things that happened in the past that you cannot control! Alexa |
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