Month: July 2024

Ridley Scott's epic 2000 historical drama Gladiator was a blockbuster hit that has become a classic over the ensuing two decades, thanks to powerful performances and spectacular special effects—especially in the gladiator arena. The director has long wanted to make a sequel, and we're finally getting Gladiator II later this year. Paramount Pictures just dropped the first trailer, and it promises to be just as much of a visual feast, as a new crop of power players (plus a couple of familiar faces) clash over the future of Rome.

(Spoilers for 2000's Gladiator below.)

For those who inexplicably haven't seen the original: Russell Crowe starred as Maximus, a Roman general who leads his army to victory against Germanic tribes on behalf of his emperor, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). The aging emperor wishes Maximus to succeed him and restore the Roman Republic, passing over his own son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Commodus secretly murders his father instead and proclaims himself emperor, executing Maximus' wife and son because Maximus would not acknowledge his rule. Commodus also harbors squicky incestuous longings for his sister, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), mother to Lucius (Spencer Treat Clark) and former lover of Maximus.

Enlarge / Ozempic is a GLP-1 drug for adults with type 2 diabetes. (credit: Getty | Steve Christo)

For patients with type 2 diabetes, taking one of the new GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, is associated with lower risks of developing 10 out of 13 obesity-associated cancers as compared with taking insulin, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

The study was retrospective, capturing data from over 1.6 million patients with type 2 diabetes but no history of obesity-associated cancers prior to the study period. Using electronic health records, researchers had follow-up data for up to 15 years after the patients started taking either a GLP-1 drug, insulin, or metformin between 2008 and 2015.

This type of study can't prove that the GLP-1 drugs caused the lower associated risks, but the results fit with some earlier findings. That includes results from one trial that found a 32 percent overall lower risk of obesity-associated cancers following bariatric surgery for weight loss.

Enlarge / Artist's impression of a squid jumping forth from an HP 200LX. (credit: Aurich Lawson / HP)

In 1994, Hewlett-Packard released a miracle machine: the HP 200LX pocket-size PC. In the depths of the device, among the MS-DOS productivity apps built into its fixed memory, there lurked a first-person maze game called Lair of Squid. Intrigued by the game, we tracked down its author, Andy Gryc, and probed into the title's mysterious undersea origins.

"If you ask my family, they’ll confirm that I’ve been obsessed with squid for a long time," Gryc told Ars Technica in an exclusive interview. "It’s admittedly very goofy—and that’s my fault—although I was inspired by Doom, which had come out relatively recently."

In Lair of Squid, you're trapped in an underwater labyrinth, seeking a way out while avoiding squid roaming the corridors. A collision with any cephalopod results in death. To progress through each stage and ascend to the surface, you locate the exit and provide a hidden, scrambled code word. The password is initially displayed as asterisks, with letters revealed as you encounter them within the maze.