The thought of death is something many people are afraid of, so if there was a way to potentially live again in the future, it’s understandable some people would want to take it.
While being brought back from the dead years after your passing remains the domain of sci-fi movies, some people opted to be cryogenically frozen in real life in the hopes that they may be resurrected once technology catches up.
Cryonics, the freezing and preservation of human bodies in the hope of them being brought back to life in generations to come, first began in the late 1960s.
Procedures begin after the patient is clinically and legally pronounced dead, with cryoprotectants being used as early as minutes after the patient dies in order to try and protect against ice formation during cryopreservation to protect the organs and neural circuits.
The body is then cooled and placed into liquid nitrogen for storage, and according to Big Think, the patients are stored upside down with their head facing the floor in order to keep the brain at the coldest and most stable point.
While nobody has yet been successfully revived after being frozen, many people have chosen to take the chance that it may one day become possible in the distant future as science and technology evolve.
In the early stages, one of the largest operations specializing in cryonics was led by Robert Nelson, who was working out of a cemetery in Chatsworth, California.
He initially attempted to freeze patients on a bed of dry ice, but found it was not effective and moved on to using liquid nitrogen in the capsules instead.
Though he only had one capsule, he used it to store four patients, who were then lowered into an underground vault for storage.
However, one of the main issues with cryonics is the funding to store the bodies – and given that the patients are dead, eventually their payments are going to run out.
So, when Nelson stopped receiving money from the relatives of the patients involved, their bodies were ultimately thawed out.
And they’re not the only cryonics patients to have reached the same fate, as other facilities had faced issues with their equipment failing, leading to the bodies either not being preserved properly or thawing out and decomposing.
Of all the bodies that were frozen before 1973, only one remains preserved – that of Dr James Bedford, who was frozen in 1967 after dying at the age of 73.
Understandably, people were pretty horrified to discover the high rate of failure of the early cryonics patients, and shared their thoughts on Reddit.
One user wrote: “I didn’t notice my freezer had gone out until it started to get really smelly. I had to refreeze everything so I could get it into trash bags without throwing up. It had to have been multitudes worse when it was heads and bodies.”
Others added: “Early Adopter Tax is brutal,” and: “This just rings cosmic joke. Paying insane money to sign your life away and get tossed in a tube, believing one day you would awake in the future, and start a new life, only to have your body dumped because a company went out of business? Like f**k me that’s just sad.”
Another commented: “Imagine blowing all your savings on this, just to be treated like chicken breast with freezer burn…”
.jpg_dE5YOV?tr=w-1024,cr-0.0.1024.686&config=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)
Others took a more pragmatic approach, writing: “I mean, they went from dead to dead so it wasn’t like it mattered. And it was a waste of money on a ridiculous long-shot. But people play the lottery every day.
“It’s just humans being human. I’d love to live forever myself. Don’t see any promising tech coming online in my lifetime, though.”
Although cryonics is considered a pseudoscience with little chance of ever being successfully used to reanimate a dead body, people are still signing up to be frozen after their death.
In May, a man from Sydney became the first person in Australia to have his body cryogenically frozen, having spent $112,000 for the procedure in the hope of one day being brought back to life.
Featured image credit: Science Photo Library/Getty Images
Save
Hackers finally unlock man’s $3,000,000 Bitcoin wallet after he forgot the password for 11 years
By Asiya Ali
A team of hackers finally unlocked a $3 million Bitcoin wallet after a man forgot his password for 11 years.
Back in 2012, an anonymous owner lost access to his crypto wallet so he enlisted the help of electrical engineer Joe Grand, who goes by the handle “Kingpin” online, to hack into an encrypted file.
The anonymous owner’s cryptocurrency was protected by a 20-character password created by a generator called Roboform and stored in a file encrypted with a tool called TrueCrypt.
Unfortunately, he forgot the password to his wallet, which led to him worrying that someone would hack his computer and ultimately gain access to a file holding 43.6 BTC – which was worth a total of about $5,300 at the time.
“At [that] time, I was really paranoid with my security,” he said, according to Wired.
The owner asked the so-called Kingpin for assistance as he became renowned for helping another person recover access to over $2 million in cryptocurrency he thought he’d lost forever.
However, Grand turned his pleas down, stating that many people had contacted him to ask for help with recovering their lost treasure.
But it all worked out in the end as the hacker eventually gave in to the request and teamed up with his colleague Bruno to crack the code.
The electrical engineer published a video on YouTube explaining how he solved the man’s password, revealing that he used a tool developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA) to disassemble the password generator’s code.
Watch the video below:
Grand explained: “In a perfect world when you generate a password with a password generator, you expect to get a unique, random output each time that no one else has. [But] in this version of RoboForm, it was not the case.
“While RoboForm’s passwords appear to be randomly generated, they’re not. With the older versions of this software, if we can control the time, we can control the password,” he added.
The tech wizards were able to trick the system by using a date range between March 1 and April 20, 2013, to see when the password was created, Forbes reported.
When this didn’t work, they changed the time frame once again after acquiring more information from the wallet owner.
Eventually, they discovered that the man had generated a password, with no special letters, on May 15, 2013, at 4:10:40PM GMT.
Grand revealed in an email to WIRED that he and his partner were “ultimately lucky that [their] parameters and time range was right”.
“If either of those were wrong, we would have… continued to take guesses/shots in the date,” he continued. “It would have taken significantly longer to precompute all the possible passwords.”
Featured image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty
Save
People are only just finding out what happened to Tom from Myspace
By Asiya Ali
Fans have just found out what happened to Tom from Myspace after he sold the social media platform.
For many millennials, Myspace wasn’t just a communication platform, it was a cultural phenomenon and an iconic staple of early internet culture.
The app, which was launched in 2003, defined an era. It allowed users to share life updates, and pictures, connect over music, and craft digital identities.
.jpg_GReuwh?tr=w-1024,cr-0.0.1024.686&config=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)
One of the most memorable features on Myspace was the automatic friendship with Thomas Anderson, known to everyone as “Tom from Myspace”.
Like tech giants Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, Anderson emerged as a pioneer in the social networking sphere.
However in 2005 – which was two years after co-founding Myspace with Chris DeWolfe – Anderson decided to sell the platform to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for a whopping $580 million.
Following the sale, Anderson remained president of the network for a few years, until he essentially retired in 2009.
People are now wondering what happened to their first friend on the digital platform.
The now-53-year-old has kept a low profile since the sale of Myspace and is now enjoying his millions, choosing to pursue personal interests over further entrepreneurial endeavors in the tech industry.
He still has a presence on many social networks, including X (formerly Twitter). His bio on Musk’s platform states that he is: “Enjoying the good life / New Hobbies: Surfing, Architecture-Design, Photography, Golf.”
In addition to this, Anderson occasionally surfaces on the web, sharing rare Instagram posts about his landscape travel photography and life.
Back in April, he shared his first post in six years, which was a video of him golfing with friends. Before that, he posted a picture he took in Oahu, Hawaii, with the caption: “A few weeks ago I took a helicopter ride over this island I love so much. I’d done that several times before, but not right over the Ko’olau Range, and not during sunset.
“Wowzers! I was feeling so happy and grateful, thanks @magnum_helicopters for showing me something I’d never seen before and giving me one more reason to love this place!” he added.
According to The Mirror, the tech mogul – who is an advisor to a company that designed a Facebook app – once revealed in a 2014 interview that his interests change over time.
“If you knew me before Myspace, you’d probably thought I’d have been a scholar teaching philosophy in a university my whole life,” he said. “If you met me before college, you’d probably have thought I’d be a musician for my entire life. I like change.”
At one point Myspace was valued at $12 billion, but things changed abruptly in 2008 when Facebook launched and stole the crown as the next social network giant.
As the beloved platform began to decline, News Corp sold it to Specific Media for $35 million in 2011, per The Guardian.
The app, which was once the world’s hottest internet firm, still exists today, having a primary focus on music.
Featured image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty
Save
Mysterious ‘skyquakes’ causing loud booms leave scientists baffled: ‘We don’t have an answer’
By Asiya Ali
Scientists still have no answers for the cause of the ominous “skyquakes” that have been heard around the world.
From the US to Japan, people have reported hearing terrifying, loud banging noises that appear to be coming from the sky.
The unidentified boom noises have captured curiosity and concern for centuries, leaving residents and scientists confused by their sudden occurrence.
Listen to the mysterious “skyquakes” below:
According to Daily Mail, the first skyquakes were reported in 1811 after residents in New Madrid, Missouri, heard the terrifying sounds during a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. They documented it as “artillery-like sounds” before or during the quake hit.
Similar noises were also heard in Seneca Lakes, central New York state, by author James Fenimore Cooper.
He described the experience in his 1850 short story, The Lake Gun, writing: “It is a sound resembling the explosion of a heavy piece of artillery, that can be accounted for by none of the known laws of nature,” per the outlet.
“The report is deep, hollow, distant, and imposing. The lake seems to be speaking to the surrounding hills, which send back the echoes of its voice in accurate reply,” he added.
Scientists don’t need to look back hundreds of years to find examples of the bizarre sound as it was heard in 2001 in Spokane, Washington State, in 2014 in North Carolina, and at the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama In 2017.
Still, experts have yet to uncover the cause and origin. According to The New York Post, USGS said: “Many of the ‘boom stories’ remain a mystery.”
“We can deduce from observations and measurements in West Coast locations that at least some of the East Coast booms are associated with very small earthquakes,” they continued. “Small shallow earthquakes sometimes produce rumbling sounds or booms that can be heard by people who are very close to them.”
A team of investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cross-referenced ESTA’s data with articles to find out if the noises were caused by earthquakes.
“Generally speaking, we believe this is an atmospheric phenomenon – we don’t think it’s coming from seismic activity,” Eli Bird, a researcher, told Live Science at the time.
“We’re assuming it’s propagating through the atmosphere rather than the ground,” Bird added.
Back in 2017, the National Weather Service in Birmingham informed people that they couldn’t explain the noise.
“We do not see anything indicating large fire/smoke on radar or satellite; nothing on USGS indicating an earthquake,” the company wrote on X at the time. “We don’t have an answer, and can only hypothesize with you.”
This sentiment is still being relayed today.
Featured image credit: James Osmond / Getty
Save
People are stunned after watching simulation of what happens to your brain when you die
By Asiya Ali
Viewers have been left shocked after watching a simulation of what happens to your brain when you die.
Death marks the moment when your physical body and vital organs stop working to keep you alive.
Many of us think that after someone is pronounced deceased, it means that they are no longer conscious. However, medical outlets such as Cleveland Clinic have claimed that brain activity actually continues for several minutes after death.
One YouTuber, who goes by the handle Zack D. Films, has shared a video of a simulation of what happens to your most precious organ when you pass away.
“Right before you die your brain has a surge of activity causing a type of electrical wave,” the content creator begins. “These waves activate parts of the brain associated with memory and consciousness and this can continue for up to two minutes after death.
“Now, since there isn’t a biological reason for this to happen, some researchers believe that the brain is pre-planned to do this giving you a chance to recall memories one last time,” he added.
Watch the video below:
The clip has left many people stunned as they rushed to the comment section to share their reactions.
One user shared their interpretation, writing that it’s “sad” because it’s as if your brain is “trying to comfort you and itself before dying by using your best memories”.
Another described it as “beautiful,” explaining: “Your brain cares about you, so if you ever feel like nothing cares about you, always remember that you care about you and that someone matters.”
A third said the video is a reminder that we should strive to “cherish” those around us. “The ultimate goal in life should be building connections with them and good memories,” they added.
“I like the idea of these last few minutes being a feeling of total euphoria like you’ve never felt before in life, To comfort you during something so frightening,” someone beautifully penned.
Dr Rahul Jandial, a dual-trained neurosurgeon and neurobiologist, has examined this vital question.
Speaking on Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel Better, Live More podcast, he said: “How the brain dies is powerful and it really has affected me because there’s a measurement that shows something very dramatic.
“There are patients who are passing away… the stickers are on the heart, you have an EKG read,” he continued. “Typically we used to think of death as flatlining meaning that there’s no electrical signal coming from the heart.”
He said after official cardiac death, “the brain electricity’s not just going, there’s a massive explosion of activity, similar to dreaming brain waves, similar to expansive memory brain waves”.
“The first few minutes after our heart stops beating, where historically we’ve thought, this is the time of death, the brain is having its final moment, maybe its best moment,” he added.
Featured image credit: Roxana Wegner / Getty
Save
Grieving family shares iPhone feature you really should know about before you die
By Kim Novak
A grieving daughter is hoping to raise awareness of a little-known iPhone feature most people should make use of before they die.
Losing a loved one is difficult at the best of times, especially when that moment comes unexpectedly.
The grief can be worsened if you realize you also no longer have access to all the precious photos and memories contained within the deceased person’s phone.
Luckily, there’s a way to ensure all those precious memories don’t get lost forever – as long as you set up on feature while you’re still alive.
.jpg_fu0e0W?tr=w-1024,cr-0.0.1024.686&config=JTdCJTIyYWx0ZXJuYXRpdmVfdGV4dCUyMiUzQSUyMkdldHR5SW1hZ2VzLTE0MzAzMTcxNjElMjAoMykuanBnJTIyJTJDJTIyY2FwdGlvbiUyMiUzQSUyMkFjY2Vzc2luZyUyMHNvbWVvbmUncyUyMGxvY2tlZCUyMGlQaG9uZSUyMGFmdGVyJTIwdGhleSUyMGRpZSUyMGNhbiUyMGJlJTIwaW1wb3NzaWJsZSUyMHVubGVzcyUyMHRoZXkndmUlMjBlbmFibGVkJTIwb25lJTIwc3BlY2lmaWMlMjBmZWF0dXJlLiUyMENyZWRpdCUzQSUyMFRpbSUyMFJvYmJlcnRzJTJGR2V0dHklMjBJbWFnZXMlMjAlMjIlMkMlMjJjb29yZGluYXRlcyUyMiUzQSU3QiUyMmRlc2t0b3AlMjIlM0ElN0IlMjJsZWZ0JTIyJTNBMCUyQyUyMnRvcCUyMiUzQTAlMkMlMjJyaWdodCUyMiUzQTElMkMlMjJib3R0b20lMjIlM0EwLjY3JTdEJTJDJTIydGFibGV0JTIyJTNBJTdCJTIybGVmdCUyMiUzQW51bGwlMkMlMjJ0b3AlMjIlM0FudWxsJTJDJTIycmlnaHQlMjIlM0FudWxsJTJDJTIyYm90dG9tJTIyJTNBbnVsbCU3RCUyQyUyMm1vYmlsZSUyMiUzQSU3QiUyMmxlZnQlMjIlM0FudWxsJTJDJTIydG9wJTIyJTNBbnVsbCUyQyUyMnJpZ2h0JTIyJTNBbnVsbCUyQyUyMmJvdHRvbSUyMiUzQW51bGwlN0QlN0QlMkMlMjJ3aWR0aCUyMiUzQTIxMjAlMkMlMjJoZWlnaHQlMjIlM0ExNDE0JTJDJTIydXVpZCUyMiUzQSUyMmRlNjdhOTczLWE5MTgtNDdlNi04MTFhLTlkOWQ5OTNjMTU3OV9fd3AtY29udGVudCUyRnVwbG9hZHMlMkZHZXR0eUltYWdlcy0xNDMwMzE3MTYxKDMpLmpwZ19mdTBlMFclMjIlN0Q=)
Carrie Payne, from Queensland, Australia, found out the hard way that there is no way to gain access to a person’s phone after they have passed away unless a ‘Legacy Contact’ has been set up in advance.
After her late father, Bryan, died suddenly, she found she was unable to access his contacts to let friends know of his passing, or get to precious family photos he’d taken on his device.
Apple has a policy that means devices that are locked with a passcode, and therefore protected by passcode encryption, can’t be accessed without erasing the device.
The policy is strictly enforced, meaning the FBI even had to turn to an Australian security firm to gain access to the locked iPhone of a gunman following the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting.
Apple has also refused to create software to hack into phones, over fears it would be the “equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of (encrypted) locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes”.
Watch Carrie’s video below:
Carrie, who is an estate planning lawyer, told News.com.au that she’d never spoken to her dad about his phone before he died suddenly from an intracranial hemorrhage at the age of 68.
She revealed that she’d struggled to contact his friends and colleagues to tell them of Bryan’s death and funeral, adding: “We also then couldn’t use any of the family photos he may have had on there in his funeral service.”
Carrie shared a video on social media to raise awareness of the Legacy Contact function, which means you can set up a person who will be able to access your iCloud data in the event of your death.
As long as you are on iOS 15.2 or above on your iPhone or iPad, and macOS 12.1 on your Mac, you will be able to set up a Legacy Contact for your Apple ID.
This person will be granted access to the data stored in your Apple account after your death, including iCloud photos, contacts, calendars and messages, as well as voice memos, notes and files, and also apps you have downloaded.
Other data, such as payment information and passwords which are stored in your keychain would not be accessible, and movies, books, music and subscriptions you have bought with your Apple ID also will not be accessed.
You can choose anyone to be your Legacy Contact, even if they don’t have an Apple device or account, and more than one person can be nominated to have access.
However, at the moment it’s not possible to choose which types of data your Legacy Contact would have access to, and it’s not possible to exclude certain types of data such as access to messages.
Adding a Legacy Contact is easy to set up – simply go into your settings on your iPhone or iPad, tap your name, click through to ‘sign-in and security’ and then tap Legacy Contact.
It works similarly on a Mac, where you would click the Apple menu, system settings, Apple ID, then ‘sign-in and security’, and Legacy Contact.
Your legacy contact will be given an access key that they will need to use alongside your death certificate to get access to your account, with Apple stating that the Legacy Contact will have access to your data for three years from when the first legacy account request is approved.
After the three years has elapsed, the account will be permanently deleted.
Any Legacy Contact – if there is more than one – is able to make decision about your account data after your death, including permanently deleting it.
So it’s a good idea to pick a trusted friend or family member to have access – but bear in mind they’ll be able to see everything in your photos and messages before you do!
