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The Hill
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
America isn't prepared for a strike against our nuclear weapons
If we are to believe the reports of the Pentagon, the U.S. has now deprived Iran of its ability to produce nuclear weapons. This was accomplished, remarkably enough, by a single raid involving a tiny number of U.S. bombers, without the element of surprise and — perhaps most astoundingly of all — without using our own nuclear weapons. There were no civilian casualties. If the U.S. is ever the victim of a disarming strike, we will not get off so lightly. Eight months ago, I wrote on the emphatic opinion of Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) of the House Armed Services Committee, and other experts, that the U.S. is now highly vulnerable to a nuclear surprise attack. Bacon, a former Air Force brigadier general, had the actual job of giving the order to retaliate in case of a nuclear attack. Such an attack, if successful, would prevent any U.S. retaliation, leaving our enemies a free hand to use their own nuclear weapons to destroy the U.S. Although the U.S. possesses thousands of nuclear weapons dispersed all around the world, they are all reliant on a single point of failure: the nuclear command, control and communications system. In order to be effective, the system must guard against two catastrophic possibilities: first, that the U.S. will be disarmed by a nuclear surprise attack, and second, that a false warning — a sensory illusion or a phantom on a computer screen — might start an accidental war. To avert these dangers, the U.S. relies on a small fleet of command aircraft that have all the equipment required to command U.S. nuclear forces in the event of war. The idea is that the aircraft will take off when they receive a warning of an incoming attack, and transmit the order to retaliate only if and when nuclear weapons actually reach U.S. soil. This operation is called Looking Glass, and the system whereby the aircraft take off and command U.S. forces from the air is known as the 'ground alert.' Unfortunately, technology has completely overtaken this ground alert system. Modern hypersonic and submarine-launched missiles are capable of striking the U.S. in less than the 15 minutes it takes for the command aircraft to take off and escape their bases. This fact alone is sufficient to render the existing system obsolete. Even more concerning, the recent surprise attacks against Russia and Iran (both of which made use of cheap, home-made drones to achieve perfect surprise) raise the possibility of neutralizing the command aircraft by previously unforeseen or unconventional means — and with no warning at all. As many others have rightly pointed out, the recent pattern of small drones overflying sensitive U.S. military bases suggests it would be entirely possible to use the methods of Israel and Ukraine on a far grander scale against our air forces. But what others have missed is the true extent of the danger posed by such an attack. The command aircraft, the very cornerstones of all U.S. military power, are at risk of sudden destruction. In other words, it may well be possible to disarm and destroy the U.S. with approximately 20 plastic quadcopters. Perhaps the greatest danger to command aircraft is posed by the emergence of space-based nuclear weapons, such as those now being fielded by Russia. Such weapons may be launched into orbit months or years ahead of time, disguised as ordinary satellites, and then simultaneously brought down upon their targets. At this point, the reader may wonder how the U.S. government could possibly have been so complacent as to allow such an existential threat to arise, while simultaneously expending large sums of precious defense dollars on controversial items like the Littoral Combat Ship and the M10 Booker. But not only does a solution exist, but it existed and was implemented successfully for 30 straight years before the present system even began. In fact, the solution is very simple: If no form of reliable command post can be kept safe enough on the ground, then a sufficient number of aircraft must always be in the air, 24/7. This system, called an 'airborne alert' is largely immune to surprise attack, because an aircraft that is already in the air is vastly more difficult to find and destroy than an aircraft parked on the ground. Between 1961, when the command aircraft were first introduced, and the end of the Cold War in 1990, when the airborne alert was downgraded to the current ground alert, a Looking Glass command aircraft was always in the air somewhere above the Continental U.S. So why was the airborne alert — a purely defensive operation that made America far more secure than it is today, while threatening no other nation — terminated? Astounding as it may seem, no reasonable answer has been proposed to this question. In the grand scheme of American defense, the savings gained by switching from airborne to ground alert were inconsequential. In 1985, for instance, with the airborne alert in full swing, the cost of the entire command and control system amounted to less than 1 percent of the annual defense budget. This already miniscule cost was only slightly reduced by the downgrade from airborne to ground alert: around 20 aircraft are still needed to maintain the ground alert today, compared to the 50 which were needed before. This state of affairs is as irrational as it is dangerous. There is no effective backup to the ground alert system; none of the countless other items on the Pentagon's budget, however well justified, will be of any value if it should fail. Today, approximately 90 percent of the defense budget is spent on non-nuclear forces, all of which would be instantly wiped out or otherwise crippled by a full-scale nuclear surprise attack. And the roughly 10 percent of the budget that is being spent on nuclear weapons will be wasted if none of these weapons can receive the order to fire. For a moment, think back to June 2023, when a five-man recreational submarine imploded at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. There followed a tidal wave of criticism of the submarine's designers, who failed to follow standard procedure, provoking vastly more media interest than any of the alarm bells that have been ringing over the state of America's nuclear deterrence system. If history must record that the U.S. paid less regard to its ultimate defense than responsible engineers habitually pay to the construction of tourist submarines, then it is likely as not we will suffer much the same fate as the unfortunate crew of the Titan: sudden, unwarned and unavoidable destruction. Ben Ollerenshaw is a defense journalist who has written for various outlets including RealClearDefense and the National Interest, specializing in nuclear weapons policy. He can be contacted at benollerenshaw2@
Metro
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster PS5 review - the horrors of AI
One of the best PC games of the 90s has been remastered for consoles, as Nightdive Studios gives the sci-fi horror sandbox a well-deserved makeover. Ken Levine is an influential, but increasingly forgotten, figure in video games. Starting his career working on Thief: The Dark Project at Looking Glass, he went on to co-found Irrational Games, which made System Shock 2, before leading development of the BioShock franchise. As CVs go, his is not short of highlights, and while the immersive sim genre he helped invent never quite found mainstream appeal, players who enjoy it can be almost fanatical about it. Levine is set to return with the upcoming game Judas, but meanwhile remaster masters Nightdive Studios have been working on keeping his System Shock legacy alive, with a full remake of the first title in 2023. That stopped short of the more ambitious reboot they'd intended in their Kickstarter campaign, but its generally warm reception was enough to ensure the sequel would get similar treatment. System Shock 2 was originally released in 1999, and while Nightdive's aspirations for its 25th anniversary edition once again had to be scaled back – and released a year late – it is finally here. As such, it provides a fascinating window into gameplay that helped shape the current generation, not to mention Half-Life 2, which came out five years later and most certainly owes it more than a nod. Set 42 years after the events of System Shock, you're a solider aboard the UNN starship Von Braun, waking from hyper sleep to find the place overrun by zombie-like human-parasite hybrids, deranged psionic lab monkeys, and killer robots. Your job is to figure out what happened and try and make your way through the carnage to survive. Once again, you find yourself pitted against corrupt AI, SHODAN, but this time you also have to contend with the Von Braun's rogue computer, Xerxes, and in a foreshadowing of BioShock's structure, a single human survivor, Dr Janice Polito, whose disembodied voice issues instructions and rewards from afar. Her vocal delivery is wonderfully cynical, calmly dismissing the ghosts of the recently deceased crew members you occasionally see, as 'self-hypnotic defects', telling you not to let them distract you from the tasks she's assigned you. It's a compelling set-up and prepares the stage for a game where every single word counts. The audio logs that deliver the majority of the game's lore also contain essential tips and passwords to open doors. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. It means you're always paying close attention to everything that's going on, which helps emphasise the profoundly unsettling atmosphere. Along with the noises and occasional explosions of the decaying UNN Von Braun, the game's fast drum and bass theme music is so jarring it adds to an overriding sense of wrongness. You'll also find the hybrids who continually try and kill you apologising as they do so. 'Sorry', they say, and 'Run', as they lay into you with guns and iron bars. Just as alarming are the lab monkeys, their lurid purple brains exposed through their trepanned skulls, multitudes of whom you'll need to beat to death with a spanner. The more you notice, the more disquieting it is. It makes Nightdive's choice to add four-player co-op with cross-play pretty baffling. For a game so dependent on its sense of creeping dread and the need to dwell on occasionally subtle clues in its environments, adding the knockabout fun that automatically occurs when two or more people get together in a first person shooter seems antithetical. When you're laughing it up with friends, the Von Braun becomes a playground rather than the intended retro-futuristic haunted house. It does help offset the difficulty though, which has in no way been dumbed down from the original. Fights are frequent and often deadly, ammo and medical supplies are scarce, and the packets of crisps and soft drinks you find only heal a single hit point. It's just as well every section of the ship has its own regeneration room, where you respawn after dying, and once you unlock the key to surgical tables that heal you free of charge, you discover things aren't quite as brutal as they initially appear. What really impresses though, are the systems that make up its sandbox. For example, another new addition is your choice of career background, which influences the stats your character has at the start of the game. They provide the foundation for quite different builds, from the gun-toting marine to the physically weak psionic-focus of the OSA. Although inadvisable for a first play through, once you work out which psi powers work best, by the mid-game some of them can become comically over-powered. The downside of the latter approach is that you'll regularly have to navigate the game's over-engineered menus. Finding and selecting a new psionic power is a faff when you're standing in an empty room. In combat, since menus don't pause the action, it's a shortcut to getting yourself battered to death by mutants. Its insistence on mapping the stand-still-and-lean-around-corners button to the one most first person games use to sprint, is similarly inhumane. More Trending Graphically, and in keeping with its status as a remaster rather than a remake, things have been polished instead of reinvented. Cut scenes are much sharper looking, as are enemies, guns and scenery, but they all still have the unmistakable low-poly blockiness of the late 1990s. The most important thing though, is that what made the game such a landmark in the first place is still entirely present. That includes its labyrinthine level design. You eventually discover that sections generously loop back on themselves, creating shortcuts after long and gruelling periods of exploration, and that you can safely dump spare inventory items in the lift that acts as a bridge between those vast floors. That doesn't prevent each new area you discover from feeling genuinely intimidating though. Despite moments of mechanical clunkiness, and the occasional odd design decision, System Shock's 25th Anniversary Remaster is a reminder of how much sophistication was possible even with pre-millennial technology. It's still utterly engrossing to play, and with so many different possibilities to experiment with, invites multiple playthroughs. This is a sensitively made and bug free remaster that should delight devotees of the 90s original and curious newcomers alike. In Short: A meticulous and polished remaster of the classic sci-fi survival horror, which retains the original's atmosphere and complexity while adding new mod cons, most of which enhance the experience. Pros: Level design that feels fresh and refined even today. Wonderfully dark ambience and environmental storytelling. Systems that allow for an inspiring variety of character builds. Cons: Very difficult compared to most modern games. Four-player co-op is fun but annihilates all hint of atmosphere. Menus remain a headache to navigate. Score: 8/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £23.99Publisher: Nightdive StudiosDeveloper: Nightdive Studios (original: Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games)Release Date: Out now (PC), 10th July 2025 (consoles) Age Rating: 16 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: The 10 best summer video games to play if you're missing the heatwave MORE: Halo team promises 'official scoop' on series' future later this year MORE: Fans call Steam Summer Sale 2025 'mid' but there's a reason it seems so bad
Forbes
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Brandy' Singer-Songwriter Elliot Lurie Talks Enduring Popularity Of Proto-Yacht Rock Hit More Than 50 Years Later: ‘Good, Tight Storytelling'
Fifty-three years ago today, a New Jersey-based band called Looking Glass debuted its first and self-titled studio album. The second track on the LP told the story of a heartbroken barmaid pining after a sailor who refused to give up his nomadically maritime lifestyle for her. That song, of course, was 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)", a primordial yacht rock hit that quickly shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1972. 'I guess a romantic tragedy is a good way to describe it,' Looking Glass founder, songwriter, and frontman, Elliot Lurie tells me over Zoom. 'From the sailor's point-of-view, it's about a guy who really does love a woman but can't get tied down … I think it's a really good, really short story. The challenge of telling an entire story with a beginning middle and end — and two characters you can relate to in a musical setting that lasts three minutes — I think that's pretty good, tight storytelling." While some artists come to revile their most popular compositions after a few decades of playing them non-stop in front of crowds, Lurie says his fondness for 'Brandy' has never waned in the last half century. In fact, he even named his publishing company 'Braided Chain Music' after the piece of Spanish jewelry the sailor gifted to Brandy. 'It's my one really big hit and if anybody comes out to see me, that's what they want to hear. I'm perfectly happy to play it for them,' he says. "I always enjoy doing it. I mean, people love it.' Lurie later adds: 'I always get emails and notes on social media saying, 'I was in the Navy in 1972 when it came out. Everybody played it all the time and we loved it.' I get a lot of that from people who are associated with the Navy or shipping or sailing.' Filmmaker James Gunn isn't a salty sea dog, but he loved the song so much, that he made it a crucial part of both the screenplay and soundtrack in his Marvel Studios sequel: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Lurie, who 'loved the way that all the '70s music was used' in the first movie, admits he disappointed that his retro chart-topper was not included in Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) initial 'Awesome Mix Vol. 1' tape. 'I was a little bit upset that they hadn't used 'Brandy,'" he shares. 'I said, 'I had a great '70s song, why didn't they use it?' And then about a year later, I got an email from my publisher saying that they wanted to use it in the second movie. I was thrilled. Then I started to see the script pages they sent me and it was fantastic because not only was it used as the opening song in the movie, but they discuss the lyrics [later] In particular, the lyrics are ruminated on by Quill's long-lost father, Ego (Kurt Russell), a living planet and god-like being who empathizes with the sailor in the story, owing to the fact that he's visited countless worlds and fallen in love, but never stayed to put down roots. Well, proverbial roots, anyway. 'When my wife and I saw the clip of that before they released the movie, our mouths were hanging open,' Lurie remembers. 'We were like, 'What?!' There's a line in the movie where [Ego] calls it 'Perhaps Earth's greatest composition.' My wife and I heard that and went, 'Whoa!'' Lurie wrote the song shortly after graduating from Rutgers University with a degree in sociology, which 'left lot of time for rehearsing,' he quips. 'We played all the fraternity parties and all the local bars. Those were our main gigs.' Before going out into the real world to find jobs, however, he and his three bandmates — two of whom were also Rutgers graduates — rented 'a big old farmhouse' in Glen Garden, New Jersey, in which to write, practice, and record demos. 'We would occasionally drive up the Jersey Turnpike and try to get a record deal in New York City,' Lurie adds. Their big break ultimately came in the form of producer Clive Davis, who signed them up at Epic Records, a subset of Columbia Records. Lurie crafted 'Brandy' with an acoustic guitar in one of the farmhouse's upstairs bedrooms, relying on his usual method of experimenting with guitar chords 'until I get a couple of chords that go together that I'm kind of liking. And while I'm doing that, I'll sing nonsense lyrics over the music," he explains. The name of the titular character, meanwhile, was inspired by a high school girlfriend he'd had named Randye. 'I was just singing her name along with some other things. And when the song started to come together, I said, 'Well, I can't use Randye, because that could either be a male or female name, and if it's going to be a bartender, she should be Brandy.' So that's where the name came from and then the story continued to evolve from there.' He subsequently brought the song downstairs to hone it further with the rest of the rest of the group, though 'the final recording that you hear on the radio was a little different than the way we worked it up in the living room,' he reveals. 'We added the background vocals and the groove to it and all. But then in the production of the final record, we added a horn section, opened up a lot more background vocals, and mixed it six or seven times before we got the version we wanted. So it went through quite a few changes, but the song basically stayed the same." Davis knew the song would be a hit, but the band, not wanting to be mistaken as a pop-focused group, decided to release the bluesy, rock and roll-inspired "Don't It Make You Feel Good" as a single first. 'It didn't do a thing,' Lurie says of the highly underrated track. 'So then they released 'Brandy,' and that made a big difference.' The song began to pick up traction after being played on the radio in the Washington, D.C. and a handful of other American cities. After calling the band into a meeting the executives at Epic proclaimed, 'Your record is going to go to Number One. It's going to sell a million copies,' Lurie recalls. 'And we asked, 'How do you know that?' They said, 'Listen, we do this for a living, and we can tell you that if it's getting the kind of reaction it's getting in that city and a couple of others, it's going all the way.'' He modestly continues: 'I don't consider myself a great singer, but my tone is kind of distinctive, and it worked very well on the radio — especially back then on the AM radio, it cut real well. And also, the production on the record is interesting. When you listen to some other slick pop records from that era, the production on 'Brandy' is a little different [by comparison]. It sounds a little bit garage band-y, it sounds a little bit pop. It's kind different-sounding than some of the other records from the era. That may be part of the reason why it's hung in there.' 'Brandy" continued to gain momentum until it was ubiquitous on AM stations that summer. The public loved it while the guys of Looking Glass understandably felt a little burnt out. 'We had worked on it for so long, that we wound up changing the station when it came on, because we were sick of it at that time,' Lurie confesses. In the decades since its release, 'Brandy' has been deemed an early example of yacht rock, a form of soft rock that didn't become a prevalent genre until later in the decade. Lurie, on the other hand, thinks it falls more into the pop category, but has 'no problem" if others want to consider it a yacht rock antecedent, particularly because its story centers around nautical exploits. 'Sometimes I'm surprised that it's included [in that genre],' he says. 'I guess it has to do with the lyrics [but] it's a little early for yacht rock. It came out in 1972 and most yacht rock stuff is from the late '70s and early '80s. Also, most of the great yacht rock singers are high tenors like Daryl Hall and Michael McDonald. I'm a baritone. So it's little different than a lot of yacht rock songs, but I'm happy to be on the list.' Starting in the 1980s, Lurie left the recording side of the industry when he became head of the music department at 20th Century Fox (now branded as 20th Century Studios under Disney's ownership). For close to three decades, he worked on such high-profile projects as 9½ Weeks, Die Hard, Home Alone, and the Lizzie McGuire television series (for which he wrote the main theme). 'I hadn't really played or sung in 25 years. When I retired from that, I got back into performing, and I'm still doing it fairly regularly," he says. "It's very cool to have been able to have those two separate careers and then come back to the writing and performing.' The musician concludes our interview by mentioning the fact that his self-titled solo album (released in 1975, two years after Looking Glass's second and final record: Subway Serenade), is now available to stream via Spotify after years of being unavailable to the public. 'The solo album didn't sell anything, but it used some of the great session musicians in LA, many of whom were in that yacht rock documentary,' he finishes. 'So I'm going to plug the Elliot Lurie solo album from 1975 which, after 50 years, is finally available again — and includes some really, really great yacht rock session players from LA." Information on Lurie's live shows can be found on his official website
Vancouver Sun
20-05-2025
- Health
- Vancouver Sun
'Thoughts of food consume everything:' Why eating disorders are rising, and what to do about it
The 11:11 tattoo on Kristyne Agabob's left wrist is inspired by numerology and represents a new beginning. 'It's a number that assures you that you're on the right path,' she said. 'It's a constant reminder of how far I've come and the possibilities.' Agabob, 34, got the body art several years into her recovery, after she was hospitalized and diagnosed with a life-altering eating disorder. When she entered puberty at age 12, her body had grown larger. Her doctor recommended she attend a weight-loss program. The humiliating and destructive experience sent her on a 15-year journey of starving and binging in a futile effort to achieve society's expectations of the 'right' size. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'The thoughts of food and body consumed everything,' said Agabob. 'It made it really difficult to enjoy anything in life.' Her weight swung wildly. When she would drop dozens of pounds over a short period of time, everyone celebrated her slimness. No one asked if she was OK. Despite having a university degree and a successful career, she didn't recognize she was sick until, at age 28, suffering from malnourishment, she was admitted to Vancouver General Hospital. 'It wasn't until I was hospitalized that I even realized that I had an eating disorder,' said Agabob, who now works for Looking Glass , an eating disorders organization. 'It was like a light-bulb moment.' Experts are raising the alarm about eating disorders because the number of hospitalizations has risen, death rates are stark, and the condition disproportionately affects young people and members of the 2SLGTBQIA+ community. A national survey of 3,200 Canadians conducted in July 2024 for the charity Mental Health Research Canada, with funding from Health Canada, found nearly one-third of people in this country have thoughts or behaviours that put them at high risk for developing an eating disorder. These include dieting or restrictive eating. The survey found six per cent of Canadians have diagnosed eating disorders, a group of mental illnesses that affect the way people eat and how they feel about their bodies. The Canadian Mental Health Association says the three main types of eating disorders are: • Anorexia : When people think their bodies are much bigger than they actually are, and try to lose weight by eating little, refusing to eat or exercising too much. This can lead to problems with the heart, bones and fertility. Roughly one-in-10 people with anorexia die from health problems or suicide. • Bulimia : When people consume a lot of food in a short period of time, but then typically become scared of gaining weight so purge the food or intentionally vomit. It can be harder to tell if people have bulimia as their weight may not fluctuate as much as with anorexia. • Binge-eating or compulsive overeating : When people eat copious amounts of food during a single sitting, and are unable to stop even though they may feel guilty or depressed about it afterwards. Unlike bulimia, people with this condition don't purge the food. Anorexia and bulimia are most common among women, while binge eating affects all genders equally. These disorders typically start in the teen and young adult years, according to the CMHA. Someone with a diagnosed eating disorder typically struggles with physical and mental health, which can impact their work, schooling and relationships. But, experts say, eating disorders don't get the same public attention as other mental illnesses, or the same amount of funding for research and treatment. And that needs to urgently change to save lives, argues Lisa Brooks, executive director of Looking Glass , a Vancouver non-profit that provides treatment and support for people who struggle with their relationship with food. 'There's such a pervasive misunderstanding in the community, and by many health-care professionals, that eating disorders only impact young, skinny, Caucasian females,' said Brooks. 'There's so much going on in the world that is impacting people's mental health that eating disorders are certainly increasing.' This became even more stark when COVID-19 restrictions isolated people in their homes. The number of clients using the Looking Glass in-person peer support program tripled from 72 in 2019 to 207 in 2024, and online peer support doubled over that period from 150 to nearly 300. In response to the dire need for help during the pandemic, Looking Glass began offering counselling in 2021, starting with 15 clients. That jumped to 255 people by last year. Increasingly, social media, movies and TV have created 'unattainable' goals for girls to be slim, and for boys to be muscular. 'In our world, dieting, restricting, over-exercising is really praised,' said Margaret Noel, a registered clinical counsellor who specializes in eating disorders. 'And then things can fall under the cracks if we don't identify it very early on.' Noel, who has a private counselling practice in Vancouver and also works for Looking Glass, has had clients certified under the Mental Health Act and put on a feeding tube in the hospital to save their lives. Their fears include gaining weight, being found unattractive or being unloved. Her clients, whether they restrict food or binge-eat, all feel shame. Loved ones, she suggested, should treat them with compassion: rather than talk about food or weight, question why they're struggling. Noel, 30, is speaking from a personal place: While a varsity long-distance runner at university, she developed an eating disorder. 'The belief that the thinner you are, the faster you'll run, was common,' she said. Noel's every thought was consumed by what she was putting in her mouth until she could break the cycle. But it wasn't easy. 'The numbers are rising in terms of people that have eating disorders, and I would say there's a huge need for resources and clinicians that are trained in the field,' Noel said. Brooks agrees B.C. needs more community-based programs like Looking Glass, more treatment offered by health authorities, and more spaces in the specialized eating disorders programs at B.C. Children's and St. Paul's hospitals. 'Because eating disorders are life-threatening mental health conditions, you can't recover without access to care. And less than 50 per cent of people can access the care they need,' said Brooks. That is due to cost, waiting lists, eligibility rules and a scarcity of health-care workers trained in eating disorders. 'With early access to specialized treatment and support, recovery from an eating disorder is possible, and it is transformative,' added Brooks, who has a daughter who struggled with an eating disorder. Federal government research into autism gets more than 50 times the funding compared with the money given for eating disorders research, despite medical statistics showing eating-disorder diagnoses are higher than for autism, Brooks said. Looking Glass served more than 1,000 clients in 2024. One-quarter identified as 2SLGTBQIA+, and there were also disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people and those from racialized communities. Sixty per cent of clients were ages 14 to 29. The Canadian Paediatric Society estimates five per cent of Canadian children have eating disorders, 'potentially life-threatening illnesses that typically have their onset during adolescence,' it said in a position statement released last June. Diagnosis can often be delayed, in particular for people who don't fit the eating-disorder stereotype: males, racial or sexual minorities, prepubescent children and people of above average weight. The paediatric society statement included advice to help family doctors and other health providers make earlier diagnoses. That includes screening children for eating disorders as part of routine checkups and assessing those who have unexplained weight change. 'You can be very critically ill because you are purging or binging or restricting. But if your body still looks larger, doctors don't do the investigations that would tell them that your electrolytes, your cardiac functioning is being impacted,' Brooks said. In B.C., a 2023 survey by the McCreary Centre Society found 14 per cent of children and teens in this province had vomited on purpose after eating, nearly doubling the rate from a decade earlier. Nationally, the Canadian Mental Health Association says 40 per cent of nine-year-old girls have dieted to lose weight, regardless of how much they weigh. 'We're constantly told that thinner is better,' the CMHA website says. 'Some people go to extremes to lose weight.' Hospitalizations for eating disorders increased by two-thirds during COVID, with girls ages 12 to 17 accounting for the majority of those new admissions, according to a 2024 study by a group of Canadian medical academics, including several affiliated with the University of B.C. The number of females admitted to hospital for an eating disorder remained stagnant at roughly four in every 10,000 people in the years before the pandemic, but that jumped to seven per 10,000 between 2020 and 2022, and fell slightly by 2023. The rate for males rose slowly between 2017 and 2023, but never climbed above one per 10,000 people. Brooks believes even more people are suffering but going undiagnosed because of society's misunderstanding about the condition. 'So many people think that it's a choice, or it's a diet gone wrong, and if you just ate more or just ate less, that you'd be fine,' she said. But they're not fine. For people hospitalized with anorexia, their risk of dying is five times higher than the general population, a 2020 academic study on mortality rates in eating disorders found. The death risk is two times higher for people with bulimia. In fact, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental-health and addictions diagnoses, outside of toxic drug poisonings, according to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre, run by the University Health Network in Toronto. B.C. has health authority programs that can help, but they have strict eligibility criteria and long waiting lists, and can be difficult to access for people without a family doctor, Brooks said. So her organization is trying to fill those gaps. The 25-year-old agency has partnered with the Provincial Health Services Authority to run a residential treatment facility. PHSA provides clinical support, including nutritionists, counsellors, doctors and nurses, while Looking Glass oversees the building and runs supplemental programming, such as yoga classes, community outings and healthy living guidance. In a separate location, the non-profit offers outpatient peer support programs for people struggling with disordered eating (regardless of whether they have an official diagnosis), low-cost counselling, and public outreach through school presentations and other initiatives. While two-thirds of Looking Glass clients live in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health authority regions, the rest seek virtual help from Vancouver Island, the Interior and Northern B.C. Four out of every five clients said they had difficulty finding help for their eating disorders, citing cost, lack of specialists or programs, waiting lists, location or stigma. Looking Glass clients also lived with depression, relationship issues, trauma, abuse, self-harm, and mental-health and alcohol or drug abuse. That's because it's common, Brooks said, for people with disordered eating to have another mental illness. Looking Glass , which has seven full-time staff plus additional counsellors like Noel and practicum students, receives some government funding, but relies on private donations — and as the need for services has intensified, so too has the need for more donor support, Brooks said. Worried families and other members of society need to be better educated, Brooks said, about trigger words that can encourage someone to develop an unhealthy relationship with food and their bodies. 'They should be having neutral conversations about food in their homes, so there's no 'good' foods and 'bad' foods or 'cheat' days,' she said. And avoid any talk about skipping meals. The National Eating Disorder Information Centre has resources online for families, including a help line. Agabob echoes the need for more public knowledge, as society often assumes someone struggling with an eating disorder is emaciated. She didn't fit the stereotypical image of the too-skinny person, which is why it didn't occur even to herself that she was at risk. 'I just thought this is what people in larger bodies ate to manage themselves,' said Agabob, who started as a peer support volunteer with Looking Glass four years ago and is now the community engagement and fundraising coordinator. As a teenager, she got into a pattern of restricting what she ate, but her growing teenage body needed nutrients so the starving girl would then binge. Racked by guilt, she would then purge. 'It became a very tumultuous situation of eating one way in public and a different way in private,' she said. 'It wasn't sustainable, of course. So as I got older, it got worse.' Her weight consumed her every thought in university and, in hindsight, she's amazed she completed her degree. Her career as an education manager for a large corporation meant a lot of travel, and throughout that time her body increasingly didn't 'feel right.' 'Biologically, your body is going to start to deteriorate if you're not nourishing it,' she said. After her hospitalization and diagnosis, Agabob said it was hard to get help: She tried several therapists before finding one she could work with; searched for a nutritionist with knowledge about eating disorders; and didn't know Looking Glass existed. She has advice for people who may be struggling with food: Trust yourself if you think something is wrong, even if you don't have a stereotypical body type. And confide in someone, because eating disorders 'thrive in isolation.' It's also important, she said, for people to understand that treatment regimes will be different for many people, depending on the type of disorder they have and the additional mental-health challenges they're facing. 'More diversity and more inclusivity in eating disorder spaces is incredibly important for people to see themselves in this illness,' she said. While changing her behaviour wasn't easy and took time, Agabob stresses she was able to recover once she understood her diagnosis. 'One of my favourite things about recovery is you have all these opportunities that you didn't even really realize existed because your brain was so full of thoughts of food and calories and body. L ife actually seems so much more exciting, which is really great,' she said. Today, Agabob has a healthy relationship with food. She doesn't obsess about counting the calories on labels. She doesn't check restaurant menus in advance to determine the fat content of meals. 'I do intuitively eat. I don't follow any diets, obviously. I just do what feels good,' she said. '(Before) I couldn't let my body be the way it needed to be. So now I feel like I can do that, and I'm at a balanced place in my life.' lculbert@
Fox News
08-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
See true-to-life 3D visuals without headsets or glasses
You can now gather around a screen and see digital objects come to life in true three dimensions; no headsets, no glasses, just your eyes and a shared experience with others. That's exactly what the new, 27-inch light-field display from Looking Glass offers. This innovative technology is transforming how we interact with 3D visuals, making immersive experiences more natural and accessible for businesses, educators and creators alike. The Looking Glass 27 uses light-field display technology, which projects multiple perspectives of an object simultaneously. This allows for "Super Multi View" experiences, where everyone around the screen can see a slightly different angle, just like in the real world. It's a step beyond traditional 3D displays, offering richer depth cues and a more natural viewing experience. The display can showcase single images, 3D videos or interactive applications, and it's flexible enough to handle everything from quick model previews to fully interactive group experiences. Shawn Frayne, Looking Glass' CEO and co-founder, describes this release as a "breakthrough moment for 3D." The new 27-inch display is the company's most advanced yet, combining major hardware and software advances to cut costs and dramatically reduce the computing power needed to run complex 3D content. The display sits at just an inch thick but packs a punch with 5K resolution (5,120 x 2,880 pixels) at 60 Hz, delivering up to 16 inches of virtual depth and 8-bit color. The result? Real-time 3D visuals that look and feel like they're actually present in the room. But what really sets this display apart is its ability to create a shared 3D experience. Unlike traditional VR or AR setups that require each participant to wear a headset, the Looking Glass 27 can project up to 100 unique perspectives across a 53-degree viewing cone. This means a team can gather around a single screen and see the same digital object from different angles, just as they would with a real-world prototype or artifact. Looking Glass has made it easier than ever for developers and enterprises to build, test and deploy 3D applications. Content creation starts on a computer running Unity, but the finished product can be deployed on an iPad, which also powers the display and serves as its interface. This approach reduces system costs by about 35% compared to previous models and makes deployment far more flexible. The display also supports Blender, Unreal Engine, WebXR and Looking Glass' own Studio and Bridge tools, making it compatible with a wide range of 3D workflows. The display is designed for versatility. It can sit on a desk or be mounted on a wall, and it's available in both portrait and landscape configurations (though you'll need to pick one when ordering). The software ecosystem allows for quick creation of 3D apps using Unity templates, and content can be managed just like any other iOS application, streamlining updates and deployment. While the $10,000 price tag (or $8,000 if you pre-order before April 30) puts the Looking Glass 27 out of reach for most consumers, its target audience is clear: businesses, research institutions, museums, education settings, medical training centers and even retail or entertainment venues. Imagine medical students exploring a virtual anatomy lesson together or design teams collaborating on a 3D prototype without the hassle of headsets. The display's ability to render depth, texture, translucency and lighting effects as they appear in real life makes it a powerful tool for any field that benefits from visualizing complex, spatial information. The Looking Glass 27-inch light-field display isn't just about seeing 3D; it's about sharing, collaborating and making digital ideas feel as tangible as the real world. While the price means it's not for everyone just yet, the technology is a clear sign that immersive, headset-free 3D is on the cusp of becoming a mainstream tool for innovators everywhere. If you've ever wanted to just look at a screen and see your digital creations spring to life, Looking Glass is making that dream a reality, no headsets required. What would you create or explore if you could share true 3D visuals with your team, no headsets or glasses needed? Let us know by writing us at For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Follow Kurt on his social channels: Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions: New from Kurt: Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
