Pilot of plane that crashed in Virginia was slumped over, Apple's new headset: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Pilot of plane that crashed in Virginia was slumped over
The pilot of the plane that crashed in Virginia Sunday was slumped over, according to officials. Plus, a major dam has been destroyed in Ukraine, amid talks of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, is retirement better in the U.S. or France?, USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub explains how genetic sequencing of tumors can help cancer patients, and USA TODAY Consumer Tech Reporter Brett Molina looks at Apple's new headset.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 6th of June 2023. Today, we're learning more about a private plane crash that prompted fighter jets over the Nation's Capital. Plus, is Ukraine's counter-offensive here? And we look at Apple's new augmented-reality headset.
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The pilot of a business jet that crashed in rural Virginia after flying over Washington appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive according to three US officials yesterday. The plane slammed into a mountain on Sunday, killing four people. The plane, bound for New York from Tennessee, took an erratic flight path, turning around over Long Island before flying directly over the Nation's Capital. That led the military to scramble fighter jets, causing a sonic boom over Washington. Remote terrain around the crash site has made for a tricky investigation, and an NTSB investigator said the wreckage is highly fragmented. The plane is not required to have a flight recorder.
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Ukraine's Army claimed to be gaining ground yesterday along a wide front in the Bakhmut area. That's amid Russian claims that the long-awaited Ukraine counter-offensive may be underway. Ukrainian officials have said they won't formally announce the start of the counter-offensive, but they acknowledged their forces were increasing offensive operations.
Meanwhile, a major dam and power plant were destroyed earlier today in a part of southern Ukraine controlled by Russia. The incident caused massive flooding that's put thousands of homes at risk. It was not immediately clear what caused the destruction, with both sides accusing the other of being responsible.
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Workers, students, activists and political opposition parties in France today will take part in nationwide strikes and demonstrations over the country's retirement system. That's after President Emmanuel Macron forced through a controversial plan to raise the country's retirement age from 62 to 64. A bill will be debated in France's Parliament on Thursday aimed at repealing Macron's reforms. So is retirement better in the US or France? USA TODAY World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard asks that question in a piece on usatoday.com. You can find a link in today's show notes.
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Genetic sequencing can lead to longer and better lives for many cancer patients, but experts say too many are missing out. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub has more. Thanks for hopping back on 5 Things, Karen.
Karen Weintraub:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So let's just start here. What are the reasons to genetically sequence a tumor?
Karen Weintraub:
So there are an increasing number of treatments that are targeted at certain mutations within certain tumors. So lung cancer, for instance, if you unfortunately are diagnosed with lung cancer, you should get your tumor sequenced to understand if you have one of a number of mutations that will mean that a certain drug will work for you and could buy you substantially more time.
Taylor Wilson:
So then why do some people not get their tumor sequenced, Karen?
Karen Weintraub:
Why does the American medical system not work perfectly? It's the usual answers, I think. Unfortunately, it's expensive. It requires effort on the part of a doctor, and if your doctor is seeing hundreds of other patients with a variety of tumors, they may not know that your tumor is one that it makes sense to sequence. That kind of thing.
Taylor Wilson:
And Karen, you write that in some cases it makes sense to sequence the patient themselves in addition to or instead of the tumor. Can you explain that for our listeners?
Karen Weintraub:
Right. So there are certain mutations. A lot of people have heard of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Angelina Jolie famously had a mutation in one of them and got a double mastectomy because of that. So the idea is if you have one of these mutations, your likelihood of getting cancer is much higher, and you may want to take action ahead of time or at least be on the lookout for these cancers. So knowing your own genetics can inform those kinds of treatments.
Taylor Wilson:
The benefits of gene sequencing for tumors can vary greatly based on factors, including race and location, as you write, Karen. What can you tell us about that?
Karen Weintraub:
Again, it's the usual suspects. People who are white, urban and wealthy tend to have more advantages and more access to treatments. The academic medical centers usually routinely test the genetics of both the tumors and/or the patients, whereas if you live in a rural area, if you don't have access to health insurance, you're much less likely to get access to that kind of care.
Taylor Wilson:
USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub. Thanks as always.
Karen Weintraub:
Thanks.
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Taylor Wilson:
Apple has unveiled a headset that'll combine augmented and virtual reality, but will the steep price tag turn people away? I spoke with USA TODAY Consumer Tech Reporter Brett Molina to learn more. Brett, thanks for hopping on 5 Things.
Brett Molina:
Totally. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Brett, there have been rumors about this for a while. So what are some of the device's main features?
Brett Molina:
As you mentioned, it's a mixed-reality headset, so it combines both augmented reality and virtual reality. For listeners that don't know the difference between the two, virtual reality is the one where you put on the headset and you feel like you're fully immersed in this other world. You'll look around with the headset on and you'll feel like you're on a different planet or wherever it is you might be.
With augmented reality, it's more you can see things appear in your current environment. So Pokemon Go, for example, or you might see apps where you buy furniture and you're trying to figure out where it fits in your room, so you pull up your camera and you can put a virtual couch in the side of your room. That's augmented reality.
This headset's interesting because it does both, so you can have the fully immersive experience if you want it, but then they also had apps that were working more on an AR level, where the apps were basically posted, It felt like, in your room, but you could also see what was happening in the background as well. They had one clip where someone was on an app and they happened to see their kid run by and they could still see their kid run by. They kicked a soccer ball. They kicked it back. But they're still in the app too. So it's a very, very interesting device, and I'm going to be really curious to see how mainstream consumers think about it once we get closer to launching, which is expected early next year.
Taylor Wilson:
And, Brett, folks were very excited about this and then a little bit less excited once the price tag was announced. What, about $3,500? Who is this for, Brett?
Brett Molina:
It's going to be a really niche product, definitely, because that price tag is very high. It is not meant, honestly, for a mainstream consumer. I think it is going to be a handful of people that buy it: obviously, people with a lot of money to burn on a $3,500 headset. So I think that's what we're going to see immediately.
What's going to be interesting is how this headset evolves over the next two, three to five years. VR has been a very exciting technology, but it has had a couple different hurdles with it. One of them is it is a very isolating experience. You can still be social on VR if, say, you're using an app within the product, but say you're at a friend's house and you're using VR; it's really tough to be social in that kind of context. And they've tried to solve for that with certain features like eyesight, where people can actually see your eyes when you're wearing the headset so that they know if you're using it or not using it and can know to interact with you in a certain way.
But how do the experiences with VR and AR evolve over the next few years? I think that's going to be the bigger thing to look for. The price now is going to be out of reach for so many people, and it's been like this with iPhone, iPad, every device that Apple makes. It's not necessarily the hardware. It's the software. So once we see those apps and services that come about from this headset, then we'll know for sure whether it catches on.
Taylor Wilson:
USA TODAY Consumer Tech Reporter Brett Molina, always with some good info from the world of tech for us. Thanks so much, Brett.
Brett Molina:
Thanks so much.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like this show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wayward pilot found slumped over, Apple's Vision Pro: 5 Things podcast
