Six Secrets is now The Brief: Spy agencies brief people in power. We brief you. Each week we’ll bring you one story that matters, plus a few that don’t!
Your Brief for May 23, 2024: Workout in The Louvre, a life-saving button, a potential cancer breakthrough and more!
News
A Potential Cancer Breakthrough
A recent discovery in cancer research, that proteins may be involved at the earliest stages of cancer, could enable cancer detection more than seven years earlier than possible and provide new treatment options for patients!
Scientists at Oxford University, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Nature Communications, conducted a study on blood samples from over 44,000 people in the UK Biobank, 4,900 of whom later had a cancer diagnosis. By comparing the blood proteins of people who had subsequently been diagnosed with cancer with those who had not, the team was able to identify 618 proteins linked to 19 different types of cancer. They also discovered 107 proteins associated with cancers diagnosed seven years after the blood sample was collected, and 182 strongly related to a diagnosis within three years.
Travel
Workout In The Louvre
The iconic Louvre Museum in Paris has transformed into the world's most magical gym for one month only, opening its doors for early morning yoga sessions, discos, and exercise circuits. Those lucky enough to score tickets to the opportunity get to stretch out in front of the Venus De Milo, run races towards the Great Sphinx of Tanis, dance in the Salle des Caryatides, and do yoga in the Cour Marly! In anticipation of the Olympics in Paris this summer a series of Olympic-themed events have been organized by galleries and museums across the country, and the Louvre did not disappoint. The classes last till the end of May and take place daily, an hour before the museum opens, offering sixty people the opportunity to have a truly unique private tour of the Louvre while working up a sweat and moving to music!
True Spies
Beneath The Orange Rain
The year is 1971, and deep in the marshy mangrove forests of East Pakistan, a crack team of Bangladeshi commandos move silently through the Ganges Delta.Backed by the recently-formed Indian secret service, they’re on a mission that will strike a crippling blow against their enemies. A mission that could help decide the future of a nation. The plan? To cut off the water access of West Pakistan into Bangladesh.
Despite being armed with submachine guns, the men are under strict orders to avoid confrontation at all costs. The covert mission itself is part of a wider plot; to expel Pakistani forces from Bangladesh and end a brutal genocide. If they can succeed in cutting off the Pakistani navy's access to Bangladesh it would deal a crippling blow to the enemies campaign.
Within spitting distance of their target, the Chittagong port, the group of commandos lie silent under the cover of the mangroves. The men freeze as a Pakistani military patrol stops on the path just feet away. Terrified to move a muscle; they're all too aware that if captured it would likely mean death. What’s to come of the mission?
Join authors and screenwriters Anusha Nandakumar and Sandeep Saket in this week’s podcast selection ‘Beneath the Orange Rain’ to reveal the details of this daring sabotage operation in the lead-up to the Third Indo-Pakistani War.
Could you tell the difference between a microscopic image and a telescopic one?... A mouse’s eye or Saturn's north pole?
Visualization scientist Kim Arcand, working for the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, has composed a stunning visual essay and quiz titled Micro Macro, which reveals the uncanny visual symmetry that exists in the universe.
In her work, Arcand discusses the difficulties of judging or perceiving scale, particularly in science images. Micro Macro compares “size doppelgangers” and explores “the true scale of science” by comparing “images of both the large and the very small”, within which “we can find patterns, identify color… and examine texture”. The similarities make the images remarkably hard to distinguish so prepare to be pleasantly challenged figuring out what is what.
Try your luck deciphering the imageshere, from tiny organisms to black holes!
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Spy Objects
A Life-Saving Button
How can a button save your life? It depends who your tailor is…
In the Second World, Nazi Germany maintained a staggering 1,000 prisoner of war (POW) camps, and POWs behind German lines sometimes endured unspeakable horrors. When the war broke out, British Intelligence had to think outside of the box… What were the practical challenges faced by captured troops and how might they circumvent them? They realized they needed to devise clever ways to hide maps and compasses on RAF pilots so that in the event of capture and escape, they could find their way out of enemy lines. But how do you hide such objects and deceive German soldiers? With a brass button just twenty-three millimeters in diameter!
On initial glance it looks like every other button, however, turning the face will cause the front and back to detach leaving behind a rotating compass with glow-in-the-dark dots pointing North and South. Paired with a map concealed in the heel of a military boot and with any luck an escape is afoot!
British Intelligence designed many crafty devices during the war with the help of MI9 resident wizard of escape and evasion devices, Christopher William Clayton Hutton. The former RAF pilot turned film publicist joined MI9 in 1940, working to create these brilliant tools. Listen to military history expert Lunette Nusbacher's take on this ingenious piece of covert pathfinding technology in this week's Spy Objects selection.
As AI companies compete to acquire quality data, questions arise over what's fair use and what's not. This year, OpenAI has made several deals with international publishers which enable the company to access data that can help develop its generative AI chatbot technology. Just last week the company finalized a deal with Reddit, providing access to content from the platform and sending Reddit shares up by 15%!
OpenAI faces multiple lawsuits and accusations over data and rights breaches from publishers and public figures alike. The New York Times, as well as several other media companies, have resisted selling their data for the development of AI and have instead sued because their content was previously mined without consent.
We may soon see more restrictions protecting content creators and public figures as AI technology rapidly evolves. Making headlines this week, actress Scarlett Johansson expressed her anger with OpenAI for supposedly using her voice in their new chatbot without permission. The actress stated she had previously turned down a request by the company. In 2013 Johansson voiced an AI virtual assistant in Spike Jonze's film, Her.
History
The Ace Of Spades
How can an ace end your life?
The ace of spades played a surprising role in Britain; not only esteemed for its often high playing value, it also served the purpose of taxing game companies. Gambling tax has always generated large income for the state and today it is not the player who is taxed on their winnings but the gambling companies who are charged 15% on all earnings. So what’s with the ace?
Between the years 1588 and 1960, the ace card was used as a means of ensuring duty was paid on any deck of cards manufactured in Britain. Makers would not produce their ace, instead, they would supply the tax office with the paper they used to make their product and the cards would be printed for them. Card manufacturers would then have to buy back the aces, in turn paying the tax. The printing process involved engraved plates that were expensive, hard to come by, and featured elaborate designs which made the cards difficult to forge…well so they hoped.
In 1805, one not-so-fortunate card-maker was found guilty of forging his aces. His name was Richard Harding, a licensed manufacturer of cards with multiple shops around London, and he raised eyebrows in the tax office by rarely making demands for prints. John Hockey, an investigator, was put on the case and proceeded to buy cards from Harding’s shops to check their validity. After purchasing 90 separate decks he noted not a single one had a genuine ace of spades! Harding was not paying his tax and on the 21st of September, 1805, he was found guilty on trial and two months later paid the ultimate price and was put to death; a serious warning to any potential offenders.
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