There was no guarantee that the American experiment would survive. But from the beginning, America distinguished itself by embracing risk-takers, innovators, and entrepreneurs who were willing to challenge convention in pursuit of a better future. That entrepreneurial spirit became our competitive advantage.

The story of America is, in many ways, the story of entrepreneurs who came to this country seeking opportunity and who, through grit, hard work, and creativity, built companies, cities, and entire industries. Our country did not become the world’s leading economy by luck. We created an environment where entrepreneurs could flourish and where people with bold ideas could create value, generate jobs, spur innovation, and strengthen communities.

As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, the question is whether we are still committed to that entrepreneurial vision and whether we are prepared to extend it to the next century of innovation.

I believe America can absolutely lead the next century. But doing so will require recognizing three important realities.

First, talent is evenly distributed across the country, even if opportunity is not.

For the last several decades, the innovation economy has become increasingly concentrated in a handful of coastal cities that have attracted a disproportionate share of capital, talent, and attention. According to the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook, last year, approximately 75% of venture capital went to just three states: New York, Massachusetts, and California. Those ecosystems produced extraordinary companies and transformed the global economy. But the concentration of capital also created a cycle where the same kinds of people in the same places were funded for the same kinds of ideas.

Over the last decade, through Revolution’s Rise of the Rest initiative, I have traveled thousands of miles by bus meeting entrepreneurs in cities across the country. I grew up in Hawaii, far away from America’s traditional centers of power and finance, so perhaps I have always viewed innovation through a wider lens. Again and again, I have seen talented founders building important companies in places that many investors too often overlook. These include companies Revolution has backed such as Tempus, the AI-enabled healthcare technology company advancing precision medicine and helping personalize cancer care in Chicago; Hermeus, the Atlanta-based developer of hypersonic and high-Mach aircraft supporting U.S. national security; CAVA, the technology-enabled Mediterranean restaurant brand founded and headquartered in Washington, D.C.; and Anduril, a defense technology company building advanced autonomous systems and AI-powered software in San Diego, demonstrating that even within California, innovation is not synonymous with the Bay Area.

These entrepreneurs are not building outside Silicon Valley or New York by accident. Many are making deliberate decisions to start and scale companies in places that provide unique cultures, local expertise, strong universities, industry ecosystems, and more affordable environments to grow businesses.

Second, the next wave of innovation will favor a broader America.

For much of the internet era, innovation centered on consumer software and digital platforms. But the next era of innovation will touch every part of our economy. Artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, energy, agriculture, healthcare, transportation, and financial services will all be transformed in the years ahead.

While the latest wave of AI has largely been centered in Silicon Valley, the next phase is likely to be more geographically distributed. As the focus shifts from general-purpose AI models to industry-specific applications and vertical AI emerges as a major force, new opportunities will be created in places with deep domain expertise in healthcare, food and agriculture, manufacturing, energy, and other sectors. The most transformative companies are often built closest to the problems they seek to solve. It is harder to understand the challenges facing agriculture if your entire network exists inside a tech bubble. The companies transforming manufacturing may grow in cities that still know how to make things. The startups reinventing healthcare may emerge near world-class medical centers and research universities spread across the country.

Success in new ventures today increasingly depends on partnerships with government, industry, and communities. That broader collaboration creates opportunities for more regions to become centers of innovation.

Third, supporting entrepreneurship everywhere is essential to America’s economic future and global competitiveness.

One of the lessons of the last decade is that America cannot continue to be a country where a few areas prosper wildly while large parts of the country feel left behind. If too many people conclude that the innovation economy only benefits a narrow group of companies and regions, trust in both capitalism and technology will continue to erode.

At the same time, the rest of the world is becoming more competitive. Countries around the globe are investing aggressively in entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and talent attraction. China often dominates the conversation, but countries like India, Israel, South Korea, Sweden, and others are investing aggressively in innovation. America’s entrepreneurial edge cannot be taken for granted.

That is why supporting startups and high-growth companies in more places must become a national priority. We need to increase access to capital for entrepreneurs across the country. We need stronger connections between startups, universities, corporations, and local governments. We need policies that continue attracting talented entrepreneurs from around the world. And we need to nurture environments where both success and failure are embraced because risk-taking has always been central to innovation.

The good news is that the building blocks for new centers of innovation already exist in cities across the country. If nurtured and supported, these emerging ecosystems can become engines of economic growth, job creation, and community revitalization.

The most important lesson from America’s first 250 years is that renewal has always come from people willing to build something new. The next American century will be shaped by artificial intelligence and other transformative technologies. But ultimately, our success will depend on whether we continue to create an environment where entrepreneurs everywhere have the opportunity to build, innovate, and contribute.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

The post Steve Case: America was built by entrepreneurs. Here’s how we keep that edge for the next 250 years appeared first on Fortune.

“America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!” he wrote on social media just after 2:30 on Wednesday morning.

It was one of the many posts the president put out as the results rolled in and democratic socialists claimed two House seats and scored down-ballot victories.

The president’s commentary also offered a window into Republicans’ strategy of trying to promote the most liberal Democrats as representative of the entire party heading into the midterm elections, where Democrats hope to take control of one, if not both, chambers of Congress.

“Many Communists running in badly failing Blue States,” Mr. Trump wrote earlier in the evening. “The votes seem to have them doing quite well against each other. The bad news is that history has conclusively shown that the downtrodden States that they will soon be running will ONLY GET WORSE.”

But Mr. Trump made no mention of the biggest winner of the night: Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York. The mayor took huge political risks in the primaries, endorsing against two sitting members of Congress and selecting a candidate in open race who was opposed by the city’s political establishment and major labor unions.

Despite their vast disagreements, Mr. Trump and Mr. Mamdani have developed a relatively friendly rapport. They put on a remarkable display of cooperation during an Oval Office meeting last year, and the two remain in communication. The president had painted Mr. Mamdani as a dangerous extremist during the mayoral campaign, but he has since praised him and promised to help him succeed.

Mr. Trump also relished in the defeat of two of his longstanding rivals, George T. Conway III and Representative Dan Goldman.

Mr. Conway, who was married to Kellyanne Conway, one of Mr. Trump’s campaign managers in 2016, finished fifth in a Democratic primary to represent large swaths of Manhattan in Congress. Mr. Conway was a Republican for most of his life and was considered for administration jobs in Mr. Trump’s first term. He then became a prominent critic of Mr. Trump and registered as a Democrat.

“This is a truly unattractive person, both inside and out,” the president wrote on social media. “Have a nice life, George!”

Mr. Goldman, who lost to Brad Lander, an ally of Mr. Mamdani, rose to political prominence as a top lawyer for the Democrats during the first impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump in 2019. Mr. Lander won by a wide margin in a race that was defined by the candidates’ differing stances on the war in Gaza.

“Weak and pathetic Congressman Dan Goldman just lost, BIG!” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President TRUMP. In any event, this jerk is finally GONE!”

The post Calling Democrats ‘Communists,’ Trump Keeps Close Eye on N.Y. Primaries appeared first on New York Times.

Valve Says RAM Shortages Drove Up the Steam Machine Price

When the Steam Machine price was revealed recently, many players were angry at its $1,049 to $1,428 price tag. Things got even worse when Steam Machine performance tests also revealed the Valve console to be pretty underwhelming. However, Valve has now responded to the backlash and explained how RAM played a key part in the Steam Machine’s derailed launch plans.

In an interview with Gamers Nexus, a Valve employee revealed that purchasing RAM had become nearly “impossible.” Even more disturbing, the developer explained that manufacturers actually threatened them over purchase orders. “The memory companies give us a price and what we can buy, and if we say no they will never work with us again.” As many have pointed out, these companies sound more like the RAM Mafia than manufacturers.

Even more disturbing is that Gamers Nexus confirmed that Valve isn’t the only publisher getting this kind of treatment. According to the tech channel, companies such as G.Skill have also been given the same ultimatum from manufactures. This is, of course, troubling, seeing as G.Skill has been one of the biggest direct to consumer sellers of RAM in the gaming industry.

Valve Forced to Change Steam Machine RAM Due to Supply Problems

In another interview, Valve also confirmed that they were forced to drop their plans of having two sticks of DDR5 RAM in the Steam Machine. Valve again reiterated that it was impossible to buy enough RAM to ship all of their devices the way they wanted, so they made the hard decision to switch to a single stick of 16GB of RAM.

“It was quite literally impossible to buy 8GB [sticks], at least at the quantities we’re looking to buy, mostly because everybody wants higher storage, and that’s more profitable, so all the capacity shifted to that.”

Multiple reports have also confirmed that Valve isn’t willing to subsidize or sell the Steam Machine at a loss because they don’t know how much they will be paying for RAM and components six months from now. Meaning, if they were to sell the console at a loss today, they might take an even bigger financial hit if RAM prices continue to skyrocket or become less available.

Their fears might not be unfounded. In June, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma revealed that she expects console component prices to double within the next year alone. What gives me pause is that if this is how Valve is being treated, then imagine how your average consumer would fare. It sounds like gaming is about to get a lot more expensive for players. If you aren’t thrilled with the Steam Machine price and performance, just know Valve isn’t happy with it either.

The post Valve Says RAM Shortages Crushed Steam Machine Price and Performance appeared first on VICE.

Thom Browne still hates soft shoulders

Talking about suits with Thom Browne can feel like speaking with the last man still communicating by telex.

The American designer, who ported his runway show over to Milan this season is, by my assessment, the last major men’s designer who clings, steadfast and stubborn, to a structured, fully canvassed suit.

“In the world of everything becoming a lot less structured, I do still really like the structured tailored pieces,” Browne said on Saturday during a preview of his latest collection. Some 20 years into his business, he is still standing, raging against the soft-shouldered tide. You have to hand it to the man.

“This is the reason you come to Thom Browne,” he said. “You come for tailored, structured sportswear.” He is, you could say, inclined to dance with the one that brought him. He rode the success of his shrunken, hefty suits in the early 2000s. This look is what he knows, what he personally tilts toward. He has been his own most committed model for more than two decades now.

The chatter at the show continued to be about whether or not it was a shrewd move or a deadly one for the Zegna Group to have taken a stake in Browne’s label in 2018. Browne didn’t acknowledge this head-on during the preview, but he did invite a comparison between the “very light and very unstructured” Zegna look and his own, as well as the more sexed-up image at Tom Ford, a more recent addition to the Zegna family tree.

“We’re three unique individuals, which I think does make the group very strong,” he said. (Browne was also stepping into a gap in the Milan men’s calendar created by Zegna, which moved its show to Los Angeles this month. It struck me that the group could swap in Browne for Zegna and not rankle the powers that be.)

Prada tightens up

If Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons were to be believed, their latest Prada collection was as basic, as unadorned, as a bowl of spaghetti al pomodoro.

“The only thing we said when we started talking was let’s change it, let’s make it completely different, let’s make it simple,” Prada said. The pair were feeling reactionary. Simons, accurately, brought up that no one on the street really wears runway clothes anymore.

Sometimes, he said, fashion “doesn’t feel new, fresh or young anymore.” We are in one of those times. They were seeking clarity, per Simons. They found it, Prada said, in “a show based on one item.”

That item? Jeans, which she hailed as “the most universal object.”

Wait, the whole collection is jeans?

Well, not exactly. “Slightly twisted, of course,” Simons said.

And twisted the collection was. Each model — and there were men and women walking the show — was in some variation of compressed five-pocket trousers, cropped to the ankle and about as wide there as a Negroni glass. Not a single pair was in conventional blue. They took shape in black leather, burgundy leather and Kermit green leather. Some were translucent. Many were white as pure cocaine.

Surrounding these “jeans,” the models wore other building blocks, like a cinched-to-the-navel leather jacket, sweater vests in trippy Deco prints, leather truckers with Mark Rothko-esque swatches on the back and softly slouched blazers. The show felt indebted to Helmut Lang, a master at taking what would be a familiar form on paper and doing something radical with it. (He also had a thing for white jeans and trucker jackets.)

Now, to acknowledge the obvious head-on: The silhouettes will polarize. (The photos may have alienated you already.) They’re tight. Tiny. Maybe too calibrated for this Ozempic moment. Prada has edged toward shrunken shapes for men in the recent past, especially in pants. This was a new extreme.

It seems like no coincidence that this arrived after a Prada men’s collection that was drowned out by an overcooked concept. Several of the celebrities in the front row, including Troye Sivan and Jordan Firstman, were in shirts from that collection with factory-set rust stains snaking all over them. That uneasy idea led to days of discourse on whether a luxury brand was mocking working-class aesthetics.

In contrast, I interpreted this latest collection as Simons and Prada nudging the fashion conversation forward on terms that at least related to the conventional traits of our clothes: fit, color, pattern, attitude. They reset the focus not on a convoluted conceptual back story, or a six-trillion-dollar snakeskin textile, or yet another new logo mark, but on the garments themselves.

“It’s a cleanser,” Simons said of the collection. I’d agree. And maybe not just for Prada, but for all of men’s wear.

Checking in to “The White Lotus” at Dolce

While I was ducking out of the heat and into a restaurant near the Duomo on Saturday, I slipped past a woman in a Dolce & Gabbana dress. It was short but not entirely skimpy and covered in one of the label’s very recognizable Majolica prints, recalling the chipped dishes of a Sicilian cupboard.

I was glad I came upon this Dolced marchesa.

Not two hours before, I was sitting at the Dolce & Gabbana show, spinning over the question that always pops and fizzles while navigating fashion week: So, whom is this for?

That’s not a qualitative judgment. It’s more a recognition that I’m so often required to look at something that I can’t quite latch onto, that seems to be presenting a lifestyle that I can never, may never, relate to.

OK, so I’m being a little glib. There were clothes that anyone could understand. Some tattered jeans and chalk-stripe suits with a heavy debt to the 1980s? Legible. Logical even, where the rest of men’s wear tastes sit right now.

But there were also plenty of shirts with torso-exposing eyelet cutouts, lace-up shoes in meshy macramé such that you could see the model’s toes and boat-neck tees in prints that felt plucked from cathedral walls. These were clothes for a vacation that this journalist, who has never set foot in coastal Italy, couldn’t quite envision.

Call me a basic American, but it made me think, mostly, of “The White Lotus.”

“For us, Sicily has never been a trend,” Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said in a joint statement explaining the show. “It is the place where everything began and to which we have naturally returned for almost 40 years.”

One could feel, in this statement, some defensiveness against trend-hopping. It’s not just “The White Lotus.” Dua Lipa was just married in Sicily. It’s where Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez honeymooned. Brunello Cucinelli staged a runway show there weeks ago.

But Dolce hails from the region. If any label has a claim to Sicily, it’s Dolce & Gabbana. But the pair is also being shrewd here, by giving a starter-kit wardrobe fit for the 1 percenters who vacation along the coast. It may not be for me, but I imagine it would please the husband of the woman I ran into at that restaurant. As ever, there are so many different worlds of taste — and wealth — out there.

Ralph Lauren made me feel old

It has been 13 years since Ralph Lauren euthanized its preppy sublabel Rugby, which I guess puts Rugby right on schedule for a reappraisal. And so it was that the critter pants-wearing ghosts of Rugby were seen romping around in the latest Polo collection, which bowed in Milan on Friday evening.

There were trousers embroidered with petite pennants, factory-frayed oxford shirts, rowing blazers in regatta stripes and a cardigan with “Rugby” stitched along the back, just to make it literal. It was so conspicuously cutesy in its use of letterman logo marks and cartoony skulls that it looked like an Archie comic strip’s depiction of American style.

It made me feel … well, old. Old in the sense that I was watching trends I’d already lived through boomerang back in front of me. But also old in the sense that this look is very much not for me anymore — at the ripe age of 34.

Ralph Lauren has been basking in a sort-of rebirth in recent years (an, ahem, Ralphaissance) ignited by a re-emphasized interest in a country clubby, East Coasty ideal of American fashion. The brand has attempted to ride this wave by staging consecutive fall and spring men’s fashion shows in Milan.

This Rugby-ified section of the show, though, made me question whether the company’s priorities were off. Was it a too-content packaging of something that would prompt Instagram likes? Had it cranked up the prep-o-meter several notches too far and accidentally shot us back to 2015?

But there were also glimpses in this show of the good will that Ralph has earned after 50-odd years. The things I always remember from these collections are those that made me think, Well, only he could get away with that.

What were those? The dinner jacket reimagined with a standup Nehru collar or the pocket-jammed fisherman vest contorted into a kimono. How about the swimming-in-them trousers with a waist you fold over to create streams of pleats, made in collaboration with Kuon, a Japanese design house.

Most of all, I was taken by the mouthful of a pullover sweater that depicted a galloping horse, a steer’s head, a smidgen of Fair Isle, some madras and a cactus. That was a jolly scrambling of the Ralph archives rather than a regurgitation.

The post The Must-Know Trends and Stories from Milan Fashion Week appeared first on New York Times.

The 80-year-old president has leaned hard into his former career as a real estate developer and hotelier to apply what he describes himself as “Trump touches” to the room’s decor, and CNN’s John Berman asked New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan what they learned about the White House redecoration while researching their new book, “Regime Change.”

“Quick lightning round of things that I found fascinating just in passing,” Berman said. “Number one, and the guys all moaned when I mentioned it before. He likes carpeting in his bathrooms?”

Haberman confirmed that was true, and she said restoring bathroom carpeting to the White House was a top priority when he returned to office last year.

“Yes, this was a continuous thing in Term One, and everybody had to restore everything to how it was in Term One –remember Term One,” she said. “By the way, I just move away from bathrooms and carpets for two seconds. He hung like nothing in the Oval Office in Term One, he made almost no changes to design or what was in there, and now it’s like every square inch is covered, which aides had seen as something of almost like a like a therapy session for him because he liked doing it. It was his happiest hour of the day.”

Haberman then returned to Berman’s question about the bathroom carpeting, which many designers and homeowners regard as unattractive and a potential health hazard despite the trend’s popularity decades ago.

“One of the restorations was this this wall-to-wall carpet that he likes in the bathroom, and instead of a bath mat, there was always a little piece of carpet near the shower,” Haberman said, “and there were concerns about mold and health. So in Term One it would often, there were a few of them – anyway, whatever, you get the point.”

Berman said he’d heard enough, and he said that detail stood out to his colleagues as particularly revolting.

“Yeah, it’s incredible,” Berman said. “I think nothing grosses the guys out more than that here in the set.”

– YouTube youtu.be

The post CNN host flags unusual Trump bathroom preference: ‘Nothing grosses the guys out more’ appeared first on Raw Story.

The 80-year-old president has leaned hard into his former career as a real estate developer and hotelier to apply what he describes himself as “Trump touches” to the room’s decor, and CNN’s John Berman asked New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan what they learned about the White House redecoration while researching their new book, “Regime Change.”

“Quick lightning round of things that I found fascinating just in passing,” Berman said. “Number one, and the guys all moaned when I mentioned it before. He likes carpeting in his bathrooms?”

Haberman confirmed that was true, and she said restoring bathroom carpeting to the White House was a top priority when he returned to office last year.

“Yes, this was a continuous thing in Term One, and everybody had to restore everything to how it was in Term One –remember Term One,” she said. “By the way, I just move away from bathrooms and carpets for two seconds. He hung like nothing in the Oval Office in Term One, he made almost no changes to design or what was in there, and now it’s like every square inch is covered, which aides had seen as something of almost like a like a therapy session for him because he liked doing it. It was his happiest hour of the day.”

Haberman then returned to Berman’s question about the bathroom carpeting, which many designers and homeowners regard as unattractive and a potential health hazard despite the trend’s popularity decades ago.

“One of the restorations was this this wall-to-wall carpet that he likes in the bathroom, and instead of a bath mat, there was always a little piece of carpet near the shower,” Haberman said, “and there were concerns about mold and health. So in Term One it would often, there were a few of them – anyway, whatever, you get the point.”

Berman said he’d heard enough, and he said that detail stood out to his colleagues as particularly revolting.

“Yeah, it’s incredible,” Berman said. “I think nothing grosses the guys out more than that here in the set.”

– YouTube youtu.be

The post CNN host flags unusual Trump bathroom preference: ‘Nothing grosses the guys out more’ appeared first on Raw Story.

• Dave Berke’s career in aviation began after watching ‘Top Gun’ at age 13, inspiring his path.
• Berke, a Marine Corps fighter pilot, flew top jets, including the F-22 Raptor and F-35B Lightning II.
• The F-22 Raptor’s maneuverability and stealth impressed Berke more than any other aircraft.

At 13, Dave Berke watched “Top Gun” and decided he wanted to become a fighter pilot. Decades later, he was teaching at the real TOPGUN school and had flown in the cockpits of four of the most capable fighters ever fielded by the US military.

He flew combat missions from aircraft carriers, served as a forward air controller in Iraq, taught strike-fighter tactics at TOPGUN, and eventually became the first operational commander to fly the Marine Corps’ F-35B.

Over the course of his career, Berke piloted the F/A-18 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, and F-35B Lightning II, and estimates he accumulated about 3,000 flight hours.

“I’m pretty sure no one else has flown those four jets,” Berke said of his time in uniform. “During my time in my career, I was definitely the luckiest guy.”

After spending 23 years as a Marine Corps fighter pilot before retiring in 2017, Berke says each aircraft excelled in different ways, but one still stands apart from the rest.

The Raptor is hard to beat

Berke said people often ask him which fighter was his favorite. “The short, easy answer is the F-22 Raptor is a unique aircraft,” he said. “Getting to fly that was amazing, and it really doesn’t have a real equal in the world that it operates.”

However, he was careful not to dismiss the other planes he flew.

The F/A-18 was Berke’s first operational fighter and the aircraft he flew the most. He described it as his “first love,” praising its versatility as a fighter and attack aircraft capable of performing nearly every mission in the Navy and Marine Corps arsenal.

The F-16, which he began flying as a TOPGUN instructor, offered more power and performance than the Hornet and served as the aircraft that ultimately helped qualify him for an exchange program flying the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor.

The F-35, meanwhile, changed the way he thought about air combat altogether. Rather than emphasizing speed or maneuverability, the aircraft’s strength lies in its ability to collect, fuse, and share information. Flying the F-35 convinced Berke that future warfare will be defined by information dominance and situational awareness.

Still, out of all four aircraft, the F-22 impressed him most. He described the Raptor as a jet with “no real equal,” pointing to its speed, stealth, thrust-vectoring engines, and ability to perform maneuvers that seemed to “defy the laws of physics.”

The moment he realized the F-22 was different

Berke vividly remembers his first flight in the F-22.

At the time, he had already accumulated years of experience in the F/A-18 and F-16. He arrived at Tyndall Air Force Base as the first Marine selected to fly the aircraft.

“The way it felt, the way it sounded, the way it moved, it was very obvious this was unlike anything I’d ever flown,” Berke said. “I fell in love with that jet from the second I climbed into that thing.”

What impressed him most was the aircraft’s maneuverability.

The F-22’s thrust-vectoring engines allow pilots to point the aircraft in ways that conventional fighters cannot. Berke described performing maneuvers that would be impossible in the F/A-18 or F-16.

“The first time you get a sense of what we call the super maneuverability of the Raptor,” he said, “you just can’t do that in a fourth-generation airplane.”

The aircraft combines that maneuverability with stealth, powerful sensors, and extraordinary speed. According to Berke, the result is a fighter that feels fundamentally different from anything that came before it.

“Once you feel that, you really get a sense from the cockpit this is a different machine from anything I ever flew before or after,” he said. “There’s just nothing like the Raptor.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post A Marine who flew the F/A-18, F-16, F-22, and F-35 says one jet stood apart appeared first on Business Insider.

To kick off his monologue, the NBC host noted that “Toy Story 5” is expected to make more than $1 billion, after it snagged $160 million from domestically and $312 million worldwide in its 3-day opening. “Toy Story 4” earned less than that in its 2019 opening, and went on to make $1.07 billion worldwide, so the latest movie is expected to follow suit.

“A billion dollars, that is a lot of money,” Fallon marveled. “That’s more green than Trump’s reflecting pool.”

Indeed, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is currently facing an algae bloom, meaning that the blue that is currently supposed to be seen thanks to the president’s paint job is fully invisible.

“President Trump paid $14 million to paint it American flag blue, and now chunks of paint are coming off, it’s full of peroxide, algae, and the water is green. But other than that, all good!” Fallon joked.

The “Tonight Show” host then made the joke that many others have made, quipping that “Trump somehow went from draining the swamp to creating one.” Last week, Fallon’s fellow NBC late night host Seth Meyers pointed out the same thing, and argued that he should maybe just quit his job at this point because of it.

“You guys, the metaphor is way too obvious. I mean, do I really need to spell it out for you?” he said at the time. “My whole job here is to come out and make ridiculous metaphors, but real life is already metaphor.”

You can watch Jimmy Fallon’s full monologue in the video above.

The post Jimmy Fallon Lauds ‘Toy Story 5’ for Massive Box Office: ‘More Green Than Trump’s Reflecting Pool’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The court hearing comes nearly 14 months after a confrontation outside Newark migrant jail Delaney Hall earned McIver national notoriety and landed her in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.

Federal officials have compared McIver, a first-term Democrat from Newark, to “Antifa-aligned left-wing violent extremists.” She and her allies argue she is a political target, prosecuted because she vocally opposes the Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation policies.

“They want to criminalize oversight and lock me up. Whatever they try, we’re not backing down,” McIver said during a meeting of House Democrats in Newark last week.

McIver, who is now expecting her second child, faces up to 17 years in prison.

One of her close allies is Rep. Rob Menendez, a Jersey City Democrat who was with McIver at Delaney Hall last year when the melee broke out that resulted in her assault charges.

In an interview ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Menendez said he has major concerns about what precedent could be set in a case like McIver’s and hopes the appeals panel will toss the charges she faces.

Rep. Rob Menendez speaks outside of Delaney Hall on Dec. 23, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)

He called the continuing legal battle a “complete abuse” of the U.S. Department of Justice that is “consistent with this administration’s abuse at every level of power.” But he said McIver remains optimistic and productive, noting her recent return visits to Delaney Hall to inspect the facility and speak to detainees housed there.

“I think she’s hopeful, she’s feeling positive. We’re all here to support her as she continues to challenge this,” he said.

A request for comment from McIver was not returned.

McIver, Menendez, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman were at Delaney Hall on May 9, 2025, to conduct an oversight visit shortly after private company Geo Group opened the detention center.

During the visit, federal agents arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who joined the congressional delegation and was invited into a fenced area of the property by a Geo Group staffer. Baraka, a Democrat who at the time had been trying to get city health inspectors inside the jail, remained in the parking lot for about 40 minutes before being asked to leave. Agents arrested him for trespassing on his way off the property, setting off a fracas between the elected officials, protesters, and federal agents.

Body camera footage released later shows McIver shoving at least one officer during the chaotic scene.

Video footage of a May 9, 2025, confrontation between protesters and federal agents outside a migrant jail in Newark shows Rep. LaMonica McIver (in red) pushing one of the agents. (Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security)

Ten days after that brawl, federal prosecutors announced they were dropping the trespassing charge against Baraka but hitting McIver with assault charges. A federal grand jury indicted her in June 2025.

McIver’s legal team is seeking to dismiss the charges by arguing she has legislative immunity for the acts that occurred at Delaney Hall last year — the Constitution’s speech or debate clause protects members of Congress from prosecution over legislative acts — and by claiming she is the victim of selective and vindictive prosecution. Prosecutors argue that her actions during the fight that broke out during Baraka’s arrest were not legislative acts, and that the speech or debate clause “doesn’t immunize Members of Congress who engage in violent or forcefully obstructive acts, full stop.”

McIver’s attorneys attempted to have the federal judge overseeing her case toss the charges, but he rejected her argument that she is shielded by legislative immunity and found that her alleged criminal conduct “did not occur during Defendant’s inspection of Delaney Hall,” setting up her appeal to be heard by the 3rd Circuit panel Wednesday.

Quotation

We’re all here to support her as she continues to challenge this.

– Rep. Rob Menendez

In a brief filed in the case in April, 20 former members of Congress — 17 of them Republicans — wrote that if the charges proceed, members of Congress would be deterred from carrying out their essential oversight responsibilities and “insulate executive abuses from the checks and balances the Constitution intends.”

“Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that if this prosecution is allowed to proceed, it would imperil the constitutionally mandated powers of Congress and the fabric of our constitutional order,” they wrote.

McIver has paid multiple visits to Delaney Hall since the incident that led to her assault charges, most recently last week, as the detention center has become a flashpoint in the fight against the Trump administration’s deportation effort. Detainees there recently went on a hunger and labor strike to bring attention to conditions inside, which prompted nightly protests in Newark.

Wednesday’s hearing is expected to begin at 9:30 a.m.

The post Pregnant congresswoman facing 17 years for jail confrontation gets her day in court appeared first on Raw Story.

The week leading up to Clay’s episode, Dunn announced that she wouldn’t be appearing due to Clay’s “degrading” and “hateful” stand-up material. “I don’t want to be part of providing an arena for him to make himself legitimate because I don’t think he is,” Dunn told the Associated Press at the time. “Although I feel he has a right to express himself, I have a right to strongly state my position.” Series creator Lorne Michaels said he supported Dunn’s decision, but wished that she’d spoken to him about it instead of going public with it.

Two days after Dunn’s announcement, Sinead O’Connor, who was supposed to perform on the May 12 show, also decided against sharing the stage with Clay. In a prepared statement, O’Connor explained that she found it disrespectful to women that the producers of SNL would expect her to be on the same show as a comedian like Clay. According to O’Connor’s publicist, Dunn’s walkout had nothing to do with O’Connor changing her mind about her commitment. O’Connor hadn’t been familiar with Clay’s work and was offended by the tapes she was sent of his act.

Andrew Dice Clay Hosted ‘SNL’ and Caused Chaos Before the Show Aired

Clay’s opening sketch that night addressed the controversy head-on. In a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life, Jon Lovitz is featured as Clay’s guardian devil, who shows Clay what the episode would’ve been like if he had never been born. One thing Lovitz reveals is that Dunn was accidentally crushed by one of O’Connor’s amplifiers in this alternate timeline. A distraught O’Connor never sang again, as Lovitz tells it. “Hey, that’s too bad. She was a cute bald chick, you know?” says Clay in response.

You can check out the sketch in its entirety below.

The post 35 Years Ago, ‘SNL’ Booked a Host So Controversial That Nora Dunn and Sinead O’Connor Refused to Appear appeared first on VICE.

The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to resolve a class action lawsuit with a staggering $50 million settlement.

The original class action suit alleges that Disney forced YouTubeTV and DirecTV Stream to inflate their subscription prices, a move that violated federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws.

According to the suit, Disney strongarmed the aforementioned providers into carrying ESPN and other Disney-owned channels, making it impossible for these providers to offer cheaper packages sans the sports network, leaving consumers to absorb what the plaintiffs described as “artificially inflated prices.”

While Disney denies any wrongdoing, they have agreed to pay out to eligible customers who held a YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream subscription between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2026

Eligible customers are classified as belonging to Repealer Jurisdictions, including Alabama, New York, California, Florida, and 36 other states. Non-Repealer Jurisdictions include all remaining states and territories.

Settlement compensation depends on the length of the YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream subscription, and eligible folks must submit a valid claim form, available on the Online TV Settlement website, by September 8, 2026.

Those who choose to exclude themselves from the settlement must also do so Sept. 8, 2026, via a mail-in request to the settlement administrator at the following address: Biddle v. Disney, Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 4720, Portland, OR 97208-4720.

Once all claims have been submitted, the settlement administrator will finalize the cash payout details, which will be determined by the number of valid claims.

A final approval hearing is slated for Jan. 14, 2027. If approved by a judge, settlement payments will follow. Typically, payouts must be made within a specific time frame, usually 90 days.

In addition to the financial payout, Disney has agreed to proposed changes that would require the mouse house to entertain proposals from streaming distributors that want to offer packages with fewer Disney-owned networks, including plans that exclude ESPN channels.

These proposed exclusions would give streaming services increased flexibility in negotiating carriage agreements.

Fubo TV is also part of the original lawsuit but has yet to reach a settlement with Disney. Their portion of the lawsuit is ongoing.

In other lawsuit news, Costco is fighting back against a recent suit that claims the big box brand misled customers with the marketing of its Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken, which contains carrageenan and sodium phosphate while still being marketed as having “no preservatives.”

According to the lawsuit, the labeling misleads consumers and violates Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, California’s Consumers’ Legal Remedies Act, and other California statutes.

Meanwhile, last month, Bank of America agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it overcharged customers on ATM fees at 7-Eleven stores.

The post Disney agrees to $50M settlement for YouTube TV and DirecTV users — find out if you’re eligible for a payout appeared first on New York Post.

• A new analysis of AI “slop” on TikTok classified 59% of videos in a new user’s For You Feed as AI-generated.
• AI-generated content was particularly prevalent on some kid-targeted hashtags, like #nurseryrhymes or #kidscartoons.
• This is not great!

Imagine you’re 3 years old. You’ve gorged yourself on an afternoon snack of expensive berries, and you have no idea what the Strait of Hormuz is. Life is good. Your mom or dad needs to take a bathroom break and hands you their phone to watch some videos while strange sounds and smells happen behind the closed door.

You watch a cartoon of a young boy with the Cocomelon phenotype face playing with several colored balloons and a red toy truck that looks suspiciously like Lightning McQueen from “Cars.”

Something’s slightly off, but it’s not totally clear what — could it be that the balloons sometimes have two knots? Or when the clear water balloons explode, they expel paint instead of water? This flies against some of your early observations of the natural world, but the video sure is entertaining. If you could read, you might see the tiny print of a label at the bottom of the TikTok app that reads “Contains AI-generated media.” But you, and probably most of the other 280,000 viewers of this video, cannot read.

AI slop for kids is here — especially in the cartoons aimed at toddlers and preschoolers on YouTube. These AI-generated videos of colors and letters are also all over TikTok, says a new report by Kapwing, a video editing software company.

The report analyzed thousands of TikTok videos with kid-targeted hashtags and classified more than half as AI slop, which Kapwing defines as “careless, low-quality content generated using automatic computer applications and distributed to farm views and subscriptions or sway political opinion.” Videos were categorized as slop if they carried TikTok’s AI-generated content label or, in some cases, contained obvious signs of generative AI.

AI is prevalent elsewhere in the app, as well, the report said. Kapwing created a new TikTok account (with no specific age identifiers) and said 59% of the content on its For You Page was some form of AI slop.

That’s bleak, but it’s most grim when looking at the levels of AI-slop targeting kids versus other categories. Here’s what they found:

(I should note here that Kapwing makes video-editing software; they’re not a research firm or child advocacy group. They’re also somewhat of a competitor to the popular CapCut app, which is owned by ByteDance along with TikTok). TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

When Kapwing drilled more into kids-targeted content, here’s what they found:

Of course, it’s not surprising that #cartoonkids is largely slop, because AI is so prevalent in animation. But Kapwing also found 83% of videos with the hashtag #babysong qualified as AI slop, along with 77% of #nurseryrhyme videos, and 52% of #kidslearning.

Yikes!

I suppose I should take a pause here and point out that TikTok is not really an ideal place for toddlers to hang out. Unlike the dedicated YouTube Kids app, there’s no dedicated separate app for under-13s on TikTok. (TikTok has a teen experience for 13-17 year olds, where parents can link accounts to monitor and control the experience, but that’s not really what we’re talking about here; this is more stuff for toddlers and preschoolers.)

TikTok allows users under 13 to sign up, and it puts them into a very limited experience with curated content for kids.

I tested this by signing up for a new TikTok account with a 2020 birth year. When I scrolled through the feed, the top videos were slop-free — there were animal videos, coloring and art videos, some soccer and unboxing videos. Not the most enriching stuff out there, but I didn’t initially see any AI slop.

When I search some of those hashtags like #nurseryrhymes or #kidscartoons on my own adult account, however, I see plenty of it — some of it with millions of views. Clearly, some little kids are watching this on adult accounts — my guess is that parents are passing their own phones to their kids to watch some videos when they need a moment of distraction.

What does this kidslop look like?

Imagine training an AI on hours and hours of Cocomelon, and somehow the results make you long for the comparatively “human” feelings of classic YouTube Kids fare like “Johny Johny Yes Papa.”

These videos are churned out at a massive scale for profit, and they’re not always educationally sound on a basic level. Emily Tate Sullivan recently reported for Mother Jones on the proliferation of AI slop for kids on YouTube, and how experts are concerned both about how young brains absorb it, and how low-quality it can be:

Not great!

I try to keep an open mind about some of the AI-generated videos that are flooding social networks. Some of the surreal and weird ones, like soap operas about adulterous anthropomorphic fruits, are genuinely amusing, and I think that adults can enjoy them for what they are.

But the stuff targeted to toddlers and little kids, who can’t tell if something is AI-generated, feels opportunistic. My personal feelings on this are that it’s fine to sometimes let kids watch entertaining videos — and sometimes adults need a break. I’m not the screentime police here, far from it. But from my limited review, many of these videos are not high-quality educational content, even if they include the word “learning” in the video title.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post AI slop is coming for your kids appeared first on Business Insider.

“CLEAN SWEEP FOR ZOHRAN!!!” wrote progressive political commentator and former congressional candidate Krystal Ball in a social media post on X to her more than 625,000 followers. “It’s a new day in the Dem party.”

Democratic congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier all won their respective primary elections Tuesday, with two of them ousting their establishment Democratic opponents, and by significant margins. Their victory comes in spite of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) having “campaigned aggressively against Mamdani’s candidates.”

“The Democratic Tea Party is here,” wrote Zachary Donnini, the head of data science at the news outlet VoteHub. “Tonight is shaping up to be one of the more consequential nights in recent Democratic politics, with Mamdani- and DSA-endorsed candidates reforming the party.”

The Tea Party movement began in the late 2000s but fundamentally transformed the Republican Party during the 2010 midterms when a wave of far-right fiscal conservatives transformed the party and ousted multiple incumbents. Progressive Democrats have long hoped for their own party to undergo a similar transformation, and according to several journalists, that moment may have arrived on Tuesday.

“The primary season is not over yet. And already, the number of Democratic socialists in Congress is set to double,” wrote Prem Thakker, a journalist with Zeteo. “Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Chris Rabb will join Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And there may yet be more to come.”

And MS NOW columnist Eric Michael Garcia, using a tongue-in-cheek reference to the “Star Wars” character “Yoda,” made the following quip: “Begun the Democratic Tea Party has.”

The Democratic Tea Party is here. Tonight is shaping up to be one of the more consequential nights in recent Democratic politics, with Mamdani- and DSA-endorsed candidates reforming the party. — Zachary Donnini (@ZacharyDonnini) June 24, 2026

The post ‘New day in the Dem party’ as progressive sweep stuns: ‘The Democratic Tea Party is here’ appeared first on Raw Story.

It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it gag, but believe it or not, that poster is actually responsible for saving two people’s lives. The first instance occurred just a few months after the episode originally aired. In May 1992, 8-year-old Alex Bencze was home alone with his 10-year-old brother, Chris, when he started choking on an orange. Chris remembered the Heimlich maneuver poster he’d seen on The Simpsons back in February and quickly used the technique on Alex, effectively removing the obstruction.

A ‘Simpsons’ Background Gag Once Helped Two Kids Save Lives

It would be another 15 years until “Homer at the Bat” came to the rescue once again, and just as in the earlier incident, a 10-year-old boy ended up being the hero. This time around, the short gag came to the aid of a boy named Alex Hardy from England. In December 2007, Alex collapsed at school while eating a ham sandwich. Members of the staff tried patting him on the back to resolve the issue, to no avail.

That’s when Alex’s best friend, Aiden Bateman, stepped in and performed the Heimlich maneuver on Alex the same way he recalled it being done in the Simpsons episode. “It just came into my head, and I did it,” Aiden told the Sunday Express the next day. “I put my arms around Alex’s back and pushed his stomach in. He was going purple, and the veins had started coming up on his head. I was shaking all day afterward.”

The post This Tiny Background Joke in ‘The Simpsons’ Actually Saved Two People’s Lives appeared first on VICE.

SISTER

You say that you respond kindly to your sister, but I wonder if that’s possible. Your dislike of her radiates from your letter. According to you, she is attention-seeking, a braggart and delusional. Unless she is also exceedingly dim, she has probably figured out how you feel about her — especially if you don’t respond to the texts that bother you, which sounds like the lion’s share of them.

Now, some people don’t like their siblings. (Not all that surprising for a long relationship that begins involuntarily and under the same roof!) I am not criticizing you: Your dislike may be justified. But the reasons you give for it seem overblown: It’s common for siblings to commiserate about health worries. That’s not broadcasting them! Sending pictures of her grandchildren, who are also related to you, is not my idea of bragging. And centrally, her memories of your mother, while much different from yours, are not meant to upset you. Like many of us, she is probably doing the best she can with a complicated history.

So, on to your question: No, I do not believe that seething in silence when your sister texts is healthy for you. Either talk to a therapist about your discomfort with her or tell your sister that you need a break from her because of the heavy challenges of your childhood. But there is no value — to you or to her — in quiet distaste.

The Court of Public Dining

Last night, I was seated in a restaurant next to a widely recognized public figure. Several years ago, he was accused by female co-workers of sexual harassment and assault. He was fired from his high-profile job and left the country. Now, he’s back. His presence in the restaurant was deeply disturbing to me — especially the way the staff fussed over him. He was not convicted of any crime, and I recognize that he has the right to dine where he likes. The restaurant owner has clearly decided to welcome him back, regardless of the impact on other customers. I wrote to the owner to discuss my concerns. No reply. What should I do?

PATRON

I understand your feelings — and even share them, at a gut level. But banishing this man, who was either acquitted of the accusations against him or never prosecuted for them, misses an important takeaway of the #MeToo movement: Whose experiences are we centering?

You and I are not central figures here, and neither is the restaurant owner. One could even argue that refusing service to people whose alleged behavior we abhor weakens the rule of law. This is not even about the disgraced executive: He’s received plenty of attention already. I think we should refocus our energies on the survivors of abuse. Let’s commit to lifting them up, instead of obsessing over well-known abusers who continue to make great clickbait. If you don’t like your table at a restaurant, ask to be moved.

Magic Word? What Am I, a Wizard?

Our millennial son and his wife have not taught our 5-year-old grandson to say “please” or “thank you.” When my husband and I ask our grandson to use those words, he becomes irritated. Is my idea of good manners passé?

GRANDMOTHER

Many young parents — perhaps including your son and daughter-in-law — are teaching their children manners, including the use of “please” and “thank you,” by modeling polite behavior for them and with gentle reminders. There are fewer barking commands than when I was a child. Less bribery, too: “No cookie until you say ‘please’!” I think it’s an interesting shift: It focuses on the spirit of politeness, rather than its performance. If you have a problem with this approach, talk to your son about it — not your grandson.

An Open Invitation Needn’t Be Open-Ended

We have a summer house, and friends often invite themselves to stay. This is not a problem for us. But when they suggest an arrival date, they sometimes don’t mention how long they want to stay. I like to shop and prepare meals in advance. But my husband thinks it’s inappropriate to ask guests when they plan to leave. Thoughts?

HOST

Your concern is totally reasonable. Just because you are willing to accommodate friends who invite themselves to your home doesn’t mean that you forfeit the other elements of an invitation: the date of departure, for instance. Next time, say: “Yes, coming on the 14th and leaving on the 17th works great for us. OK with you?” It’s your house!

For help with your awkward situation, send a question to SocialQ@nytimes.com, Philip Galanes on Facebook or @SocialQPhilip on X.

The post My Sister Is Delusional and an Attention Hog. Can I Ignore Her Texts? appeared first on New York Times.

Patrons sipping beers there told the Washington Post that President Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, along with his unpredictable handling of the conflict, had unsettled the region and soured their opinion of him — even as they kept coming back to play golf.

“On the business side, I thought he was going to do a lot,” said 23-year-old Bertie Jones, a British national. “But I’ve lost all trust in him.”

Publicly, leaders across the UAE and the wider Gulf have stayed diplomatic. UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan thanked Trump for his support at a recent G7 meeting in France, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week praised the UAE as one of America’s strongest partners during the war. But analysts say that public courtesy masks real frustration. Gulf governments had urged Washington against military action, fearing exactly the kind of regional instability that followed.

Privately, sentiment has shifted sharply. Businessman Omar Al Busaidy said he once believed Trump’s promise to be a “no war president,” but felt betrayed once fighting broke out and Iran responded with a barrage of missiles and drones against the UAE. Dubai billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor went so far as to publish a widely shared open letter criticizing Trump’s decision to pull the region into conflict.

“I’m not going to lie, I had high hopes – but we got played,” said Busaidy, Global Possibilities Consulting.

Busaidy said that Trump had indicated he understood UAE’s warnings about Iran, which he stated as “don’t poke the bear,” but he said the president seemed to ignore the message.

“We believed him,” Busaidy said.

Some said they still personally like Trump despite disapproving of the war and the rising food and fuel costs that came with it; one government official said he respects that Trump “loves his country.”

“In an hour, it could start again,” said Omar Ahli, a 49-year-old air traffic controller. “He is crazy, but we still like him.”

But even those who remained sympathetic to Trump acknowledged unease, describing a lingering nervousness from weeks of drone and missile activity, and uncertainty over whether a fragile new agreement between the U.S. and Iran will actually hold.

“We don’t know what was going through Trump’s mind when he started this war, but we did know the potential repercussions,” said Nasser Hassan Al Shaikh, a businessman, former UAE government official and economist, “and we know there was no knockout.”

Foreign residents working in Dubai’s business community were more blunt, saying Trump’s repeated assurances that the war would end soon, followed by continued fighting, had cost him credibility. Several said they now feel self-conscious frequenting his golf club at all, even as they keep showing up for the course itself.

“It feels a little questionable these days,” said Richard Lucking, who served in the British military and is organizing events in Dubai. “[But] the staff and the course are brilliant.”

Experts noted that the UAE’s reliance on U.S. security support, including missile defense systems, leaves Gulf leaders with few options despite personal frustration with Trump’s leadership.

“In all honesty, do we have any other choice?” Shaikh said. “The U.S. remains the leading global super power.”

The post Trump loses fans at his Dubai golf course: ‘I’ve lost all trust in him’ appeared first on Raw Story.

Networking is one of the best ways to land a job right now, but going about it the wrong way can do more harm than good for your reputation and potential future opportunities.

That’s why Business Insider asked two etiquette experts to share the mistakes that should be avoided while networking.

Here’s what they said.

Collecting contacts instead of cultivating connections

Pamela Eyring, owner of The Protocol School of Washington, which teaches business and professional etiquette, told Business Insider that networking has changed a lot over the years.

Although collecting business cards was once seen as important, now it’s all about building slow, genuine connections with others.

To do this, Eyring said it’s helpful to find things you have in common, which makes the conversation feel genuine rather than transactional.

For example, connect over being alums from the same college, having both traveled to the conference from the Midwest, or even shared hobbies. These things can make you more memorable later, too.

Interrupting conversations already happening

When it comes to networking, first impressions are incredibly important. That’s why you should never interrupt a conversation that’s already in progress.

Instead, she suggests looking for an open circle and making direct eye contact with one person.

Catching one person’s attention creates space to ask permission to join the conversation, which comes off much warmer than pushing in.

Huddling with people you already know

Stayce Wagner, business etiquette consultant and founder of Spencer Crane Etiquette, told BI that one of the biggest mistakes people make at networking events is sticking with colleagues or friends they already know.

“It’s a mistake because you’re missing the purpose of networking — you’re not expanding your network, you’re not connecting with new people,” she said. “It also makes you seem unapproachable.”

Instead, Wagner recommends checking in with colleagues only when you feel anxious or there’s a lull in conversation. This can help you preserve that sense of security without missing out on what you came to do — meet new people.

Avoiding small talk

Despite how you may feel about small talk, it’s an important part of networking and creating inclusive conversations. That’s why it’s good to come prepared with topics to talk about.

Eyring said some good examples include, “‘Is this your first time at this conference?’ or ‘This is my first time at this event, can you tell me what to expect?'”

She added that it’s important to invite others into the conversation and that small talk naturally offers opportunities to share more about yourself and your work.

Taking your name tag off early

Most people don’t love wearing name tags or lanyards, but they serve an important purpose beyond an initial introduction. According to Wagner, name tags help you seem approachable and make it easier for new contacts to remember your name.

“Everyone’s learning lots of names, meeting lots of people. So keeping that name tag on keeps you approachable and it helps other people be comfortable around you.”

Although it may be tempting to take it off after initial introductions, it’s important to keep your name tag on until you leave the event.

Using the food and beverage table as a crutch

Hovering around the refreshments and snacks can feel comforting to some, but Wagner said it can also become a crutch and might look unprofessional.

“Avoid treating the food and beverage table as the main event,” she told BI. “If you can avoid it, don’t go to the event hungry.”

Not preparing an adequate setup for virtual networking

Networking online is important in the digital world. Although many of the same rules apply, one of the most overlooked missteps is the lack of an appropriate camera setup and background.

Eyring said that even if you’re taking a call in your car, there are ways to make your setup look more professional.

For example, she said, check what’s appearing in the background of your video call before you join it to make sure it’s appropriate.

Forgetting to send a thank-you note

Networking is about building connections, helping one another, and strengthening relationships. That’s why Wagner said sending a thank-you note after meeting someone who helped you at a networking event is non-negotiable.

Depending on your industry norms, she said this can come in the form of an email, direct message, or handwritten note.

Of course, sometimes people get busy and this step can slip their minds. However, Wagner said, “A late thank you is much, much better than not thanking someone.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post 8 mistakes you should never make while networking, according to etiquette experts appeared first on Business Insider.

According to recent reporting from the New York Times, Amazon is now investigating three company engineers who spoke at a Seattle city council meeting in favor of a one-year moratorium on new data centers. The newspaper reports that five Amazon employees testified in public comment sessions ahead of the vote on the data center ban, which was unanimously approved on June 9.

Organizing off the clock as members of the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), the workers reportedly urged the councilors to approve the moratorium. They likewise criticized the tech industry’s massive AI investment bubble, which they characterized as an “all-costs-justified AI build out.”

Soon after the activists spoke at the city council meeting, three of the five workers were called into separate Zoom meetings with Amazon’s human resources representatives. There, they were informed that the company was placing them under investigation as a result of their testimony, a legal complaint filed with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights claims.

That complaint basically alleges that Amazon violated a local ordinance barring corporations from discriminating against employees on the basis of political orientation, among other things. In particular, the AECJ complaint claims that each employee was informed that the investigation could result in disciplinary action, while at least one was told they could lose their job entirely.

As a legal filing states, the three employees “also learned that Amazon was monitoring their political advocacy before the Seattle city council and was seeking to identify additional employees who had engaged in political activities.”

One of the workers under investigation by the company, software engineer Patrick Schloesser, told the NYT that he had testified in two city council hearings. As Schloesser tells it, Amazon is trying to silence its employees, using workplace discipline to punish off-hours political activism.

“I had this rising sense of anger that Amazon is attempting to infringe on my rights to speak out politically in my city,” he told the NYT. “If we allow corporations to decide which speech is or is not allowed, that absolutely hurts democracy.”

Prior to the June 9th vote, Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan told Fortune that “we respect our colleagues’ right to voice their opinions.”

After news of the legal complaint surfaced however, the company seemed to change its tune. Amazon is now attempting to claim that the five workers spoke as Amazon representatives without approval — though it’s clearly taking great pains to avoid accusations of “retaliation.”

“As we looked more closely at how these employees represented themselves, and how their comments were received by others, it became clear that they may have been speaking in their capacity as Amazonians and not as private citizens,” Callahan told the NYT in a statement following the complaint.

Despite having once claimed to respect Amazon workers’ right to free speech, the spokesperson added that the company “may or may not take action based on what we find.”

More on data centers: Meta So Desperate for Compute That It’s Building “Data Centers” That Are Just Tents Filled With AI Chips

The post Amazon Investigating Its Own Employees for Daring to Oppose AI Data Center appeared first on Futurism.

In this next book I’m trying to write I’ve got this bit where the Pope, a Rabbi, and a war criminal are on a plane.

In the book, the war criminal is Heinrich Himmler, but he’s not actually super relevant to this scene. So I’ll gloss over him right now. He is on the plane because the book is political. It’s about how everyone is basically still Nazis.

But, for context, in my book, Heinrich Himmler escapes Nazi Germany at the end of the war with the help of some British and Scandinavian elites. He is helping the British and Scandinavian elites extract West Germany’s wealth and reinvest it back into the country, just like in real life. Which is how he escapes the Soviets, why he’s on the plane with the Pope and the Rabbi, etc.

Also in the book Himmler’s been trying to get to Argentina, or whatever, for around 80 years now. (It’s a sort of magic realism kick, but good. Very South American-influenced.)

But it’s a total nightmare for him, because Himmler’s papers are always wrong, obviously, on account of being from the 1940s, and also fraudulent.

So Heinrich Himmler has just been taking connecting flights for the whole 80 years. He pays for the flights by taking SS gold to the little blue money-changing guys. He has made peace with being dressed always in duty-free sportswear by thinking of it as a cunning disguise. His tongue is burnt at the tip from airport panini.

They are all sat in first, naturally, Himmler and the Rabbi and the Pope. Himmler’s sat three rows back from the two religious characters on the plane.

In my book, the Rabbi works for the Pope. Functionally, he is the Pope’s straight man. I haven’t worked this part out, really, so right now you’ll have to bear with me on why he’s there.

I imagine the Vatican employs the Rabbi basically to be exasperated with the Pope’s antics, as a kind of comic relief. The Vatican has lots of money, so I can probably phrase this as some kind of archaic, esoteric tradition, so that it sounds plausible. It would be relatively easy to make up a Latin phrase for the role’s title, along with an obfuscating and complex description of the duties the Rabbi performs. This doesn’t really matter right now, though, because all you need to know is the reason the Rabbi is on the plane, and his working relationship with the Pope.

Usually the Pope and the Rabbi would use, I imagine, I imagine the Pope has his own plane, in a sort of Thunderbirds way. He has the Popemobile, the Pope Plane. It would be good if I can work in the joke: Vatican Tracy Island, because that phrase runs from hard to soft consonants, and has a fun little internal rhyme. It has that ambient, non-punchline, sticks-in-your-head quality to it because of that.

Anyway: That is how the Pope would normally fly. But the Pope Plane, Air Force Pope, whatever, Pope One, that is in the shop.

So the Pope has to fly to Beijing the normal way, with everyone else.

Next to Heinrich Himmler is a tech-bro-looking guy.

Himmler wants to go to sleep. He is very tired, because he’s very old.

But the tech bro has popped an Adderall or something because he’s like:

“Oh, you’re from Germany, tight man, that’s fucking, that’s fucking alpha, Heinrich.”

Then the tech bro gets out a laptop and pretends to work. Ostentatiously. The tech bro obviously wants Heinrich Himmler to ask about the work. He’s doing the loud typing.

Yada yada, you get the idea. That’s the setup for this scene in the book. Eventually, the tech bro gets Himmler talking, like, I don’t know:

“Man, you don’t know who Lou Reed is? That’s crazy, Heinrich, my guy.”

Heinrich Himmler is visibly irritated at being addressed colloquially. But this goes way over the tech bro’s head.

The tech bro is lacking in empathy, as a character.

The tech bro says, “Bro, you’ve gotta start with Transformer, probably.”

“Bowie [he says ‘Boww-ee’] produced that one, my guy. Which is a funny coincidence, because—”

Here, the tech bro turns around his laptop screen.

“You know,” he says, “That’s what I do. The cutting edge of what I’m doing right now. Transformers. That’s what I work on. Crazy coincidence, right?”

Himmler thinks: ‘That is not a coincidence.’

‘That is just two things you chose to say at me.’

“They’re called transformer models, my guy. Large language models.”

Himmler says, “Right.”

The tech bro says, “Oh, shit—you don’t know about ChatGPT?”

And Himmler says, “No.”

“Oh, man, you’re gonna love it, Heinrich.

“Shit, I’m glad this plane has WiFi so I can show you ChatGPT, Heinrich.”

Himmler says, “Yeah, I mean, I was just trying to get some sleep.”

The tech bro says, “Dude! This is going to blow your mind. It’ll be the craziest fucking thing you ever saw, Heinrich.”

The tech bro is repeating Heinrich Himmler’s name because, statistically speaking, it leads to better outcomes. This is because it builds rapport.

He says, “Check this out, Heinrich, this is ChatGPT.”

He turns his laptop further towards Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler is fascinated. He surprises himself by how fascinated he is.

‘Wow,’ he thinks.

He asks ChatGPT, who is in charge of Germany at the moment? Then he asks ChatGPT, is the person in charge of Germany at the moment a communist? Then he says, “Very good.”

And the tech bro says, “Right?”

They have taken off now, and, upfront, the Pope is rooting around in his little bag that goes under the seat.

Maybe the flight attendant comes by, and the Pope says, “Yeah, I’ll take a beer,” but mostly the Pope is looking for something in his bag.

Because, in the book, the Pope had been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator since 1995, when it came out.

The Pope’s got the yoke, the pedals.

The Pope’s got the triple monitor setup in his private Papal quarters. That’s this Pope’s thing, Microsoft Flight Simulator. He loves it.

But the Pope has never actually flown a plane, because he was broke when he was just a cardinal, and before that, living mostly a monk-like lifestyle.

And now he’s the Pope, so, of course, he is not allowed to fly a plane, because it would be dangerous.

But the Pope gets his travel yoke out so he can pretend he’s flying while the plane’s flying. This isn’t his home yoke. This is a little yoke.

The Rabbi looks at the Pope’s yoke, and he’s just like, ‘Oh, yeah, fucking hell, fine. Whatever.’

He is used to this by now.

“Five minutes,” the Pope says. “That’s all I need. They won’t arrest me. Because I’m the Pope”

Then the captain comes on the intercom, and says:

“Chhk. This is your captain speaking.

“Chhhhk.

“Welcome to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

“Our flying time today to, chhhk, Beijing Capital International will be approximately, uh, five hours and 34 minutes, during the year 2014, chhk.

“We’re currently cruising at an altitude of, chhkk—”

The Pope leans across to the Rabbi, and says, “Thirty-eight thousand feet.”

Then the intercom says, “Thirty-eight thousand feet.”

The Pope says, “Told you, Rabbi.”

The Rabbi isn’t listening, really, because he doesn’t want to encourage the Pope.

The Rabbi remembers, as a child, getting his first dog. He got the dog when the dog was a puppy. The Rabbi loved the dog very much.

But he also learned that, though he loved playing with the puppy just as much as he loved the puppy itself, you cannot match the energy of a puppy all the time.

A puppy will always be able to play more, after a short nap.

But you will just get tired out.

So sometimes you have to be quiet. So that the puppy learns boundaries.

The Rabbi considers the Pope similarly. The Rabbi remains quiet for this reason.

He sees the Pope staring at the locked cockpit door.

The Pope seems to be considering the cockpit door deeply.

After a moment, the Pope says, “Rabbi. They’re so close.”

The Rabbi says, “What?”

“The cockpit. The pilots.

“I could just walk up there, Rabbi.”

“No, your Holiness,” the Rabbi says.

“Five minutes,” the Pope says. “That’s all I need. They won’t arrest me. Because I’m the Pope.”

The Rabbi says, “They would absolutely arrest you.”

“I could say I was blessing the instruments.”

“The instruments do not require blessing.”

The Pope says, “Rabbi, everything requires blessing.”

Three rows back, the tech bro is on one. He’s saying:

“So, Heinrich, this all started with Claude Shannon—no relation to the river, though the metaphor will ultimately prove apt—publishes A Mathematical Theory of Communication in 1948.

“Shannon’s insight was deceptively simple, dawg: you could measure information. You could quantify uncertainty.

“You could predict the next letter in a sequence by analyzing what letters had appeared before.

“This is the birth of the statistical language model, Heinrich, back in 1948.

“And for the next 60 years, this is how we thought language worked: As a sequence of symbols, each one predicted by counting what came before it.”

Himmler is nodding. In the past, he would shout at people this annoying.

But he can’t shout at the tech bro because he is a war criminal, and everyone also thinks he is dead.

This is something he has learnt whilst on the run. As a fugitive.

“After that we had something called Markov chains, bro.

“N-grams. Then Hidden Markovs.

“All variations on the same theme: The future is determined by the immediate past, and if you want to know what word comes next, then you have to look at the previous word.

“Or the previous two words.

“Or the previous five.

“Fucking dumb, right Heinrich, my guy?

“But this approach worked, after a fashion, dawg.

“It worked well enough to power autocomplete, if you know what that is, Heinrich. It predicts the meaning of what you are typing. Then automatically completes it.

“Or the next word or two.

“Very short, passable–but clearly mechanical–text is generated.

“But you could always tell that it was machine language–it was obvious.

“The problem, you see, Heinrich, was one of attention.

“Consider a simple sentence: ‘The woman who lived across the street from the church where I was baptized as a child taught me about birds.’

“Now: What did she teach me about, Heinrich?”

Heinrich Himmler says, “Birds.”

“Birds, right. But how do you know that? You had to attend backwards, across 13 intervening words, to connect ‘taught’ with ‘woman.’ You had to hold ‘woman’ in some kind of active memory while you processed everything between her and the verb.

Himmler says, “I guess.”

“Markov models couldn’t do this, bro.

“They could only do the last five words, Heinrich, as I said, if you remember. They did not have attention.”

“How’s that for iconic? You can’t say that doesn’t sound, like, fucking sick, Heinrich”

Here, the Pope gets up.

He walks over to the bathroom, and then passes it, and then knocks on the cockpit door.

The Rabbi is watching him. He shakes his head.

The Pope picks up the little plane phone that the air hosts and hostesses use to communicate.

He dials the button for ‘Pilot.’

The pilot picks up.

The Pope says, “Hi. It’s the Pope.

“Please can I see the controls? I love Microsoft Flight Simulator.”

The pilot says, “No, your Holiness, absolutely not.”

The Pope, heartbroken once again, goes back to his seat. He is slightly embarrassed. He bumps his hat on the overhead, etc.

The Pope eventually falls asleep, cradling the yoke.

Three rows back, Himmler can’t believe that this guy is still talking, because it’s a night flight, a red eye.

The tech bro is saying: “In 2017, which is technically the future, Heinrich, my guy, since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing in 2014, but don’t worry about that right now, a team at Google published a paper with what I can only describe as a truly iconic title: Attention Is All You Need.

“How’s that for iconic? You can’t say that doesn’t sound, like, fucking sick, Heinrich.

“Now, the technical details aren’t important here. Though I encourage you to read the paper. It’s surprisingly readable for something that changed the world. What matters, bro, is the core insight:

“Language isn’t about sequences, Heinrich, my guy. Are you clocking?

“It’s not linear like that.

“It’s all about relationships.”

The plane makes a sharp left bank, now, and the Pope wakes up, like, bleurgh, what time is it.

He says, “We were meant to be making our descent. Because, Rabbi, Beijing Capital International is a big airport, so the descent is long and slow.”

The Rabbi is slightly concerned. He knows the Pope knows a lot about airports.

He says, “I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Every word in a sentence, my guy, is simultaneously attending to every other word, with varying degrees of intensity.

“You understood that sentence because in it ‘taught’ attends strongly to ‘woman’ and ‘birds,’ less strongly to ‘street’ and ‘church,’ barely at all to ‘the’ and ‘as.’

“Because we use those words all the time, Heinrich. ‘The’ and ‘as.’”

“Shannon’s information theory was about linear flow. Symbols, characters, letters, hieroglyphs, whatever you call them, it doesn’t matter. They flow forwards in time… each one simultaneously causing the next. All language moving downstream. Into the ocean”

Anyway, this part, in the book, is just like in real life, on the real Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

The plane flies south for a long time.

The plane flies south for such a long time that the sun starts coming up over the ocean. “You can see the ocean, now,” the Rabbi says.

He is trying to distract himself. He is getting more frightened.

The Pope says, “What?”

“You can see the ocean down there,” the Rabbi says, “Now the sun has come up.” The Pope looks, and says, “Yeah. How deep do you think that is, Rabbi?”

“Very deep.”

“How deep?”

“I don’t know, your Holiness. Thousands of meters.”

“What’s down there, Rabbi?”

“Water,” the Rabbi says.

“I mean at the bottom.”

“More water,” the Rabbi says. “Fish.”

The Pope says, “There’s definitely something wrong.”

The Rabbi says, “Perhaps.”

“No, there is,” the Pope says. “Did they say anything on the intercom?”

“No.”

“There is something wrong,” the Pope says.

“I think so, your Holiness.”

“We’ve been going south for way too long.”

“Yes.”

“I think I should check.”

And the Rabbi, who is now very scared, says, “Yeah.”

The Rabbi is thinking, in that moment, of the many dogs he has owned in his long life, and all their different heads, and how they looked when the Rabbi put either hand behind each dog’s head and scratched them with his fingernails and looked at them right in the eyes.

The Rabbi says, thinking of this, “I think maybe this is a good idea, your Holiness.”

“This attention isn’t predetermined by position, Heinrich. It’s learned. It’s contextual. The word ‘bank’ attends to ‘river’ in one sentence and ‘money’ in another, am I right? The same word, attending differently, creating different meanings through different patterns of attention.

“The transformer architecture made this mathematically tractable, Heinrich. You’re a smart guy, I’m sure you can follow this. Which means you could train a neural network to learn these attention patterns. And once you did—once you moved from sequence prediction to attention mechanisms—something remarkable happened.

“The models got good. Very good, Heinrich, as you say. Unnaturally good, maybe. But here’s where it gets interesting. Here’s where we need to think carefully about what actually changed in 2017.

“Did language change? No, bro. Language was already working this way.

“Words were already attending to other words. Meaning was already emerging from these patterns of relationship rather than simple sequence.

“What changed was our ability to see it. To make it explicit. To industrialize it. The transformer didn’t create a new kind of language, Heinrich. It revealed what language already was.”

The Pope walks to the front of the plane.

The cockpit door is unlocked.

This seems strange.

The Pope looks inside.

The captain has completely disappeared. Into thin air. The co-pilot is gone, too. This is even stranger.

The autopilot is on, and the plane is flying all by itself.

The Pope removes his hat. He sits down at the controls.

He looks at the fuel gauge.

He switches something overhead.

He places his hand around the yoke.

“There’s a phrase that appears in Wittgenstein, Heinrich, maybe you’re familiar, though he’s hardly the originator: ‘Meaning is use.’

“It’s mad deep, right? The meaning of a word isn’t determined by its definition. It’s relative, Heinrich. It’s determined by how it is used.”

“Right,” Himmler says.

“Great, you’re following. But my thing is that I want to propose a slight amendment to this.

“A mathematical amendment, if you might indulge me, dawg.

“In the old statistical models—Markov, N-gram—meaning was additive. The meaning of a word was the sum of its previous uses.

“You counted them and weighted them and averaged them.

“But, bro, in the transformer architecture, meaning is multiplicative. It is not ‘meaning is use,’ Heinrich. It’s more complex.

“My amendment, Heinrich, what I’m realizing, is that: Meaning times use equals is.

“That’s what we call ‘being.’”

Himmler says, “Boeing?”

“Being. Meaning times use equals is, Heinrich.

“The meaning of a word is the product of all the other words it attends to, and all the words attending to it. It’s not a sum but a matrix multiplication.

“Not a line but a wave, endlessly cresting.

“This is why I used the river metaphor earlier, if you remember, bro. Shannon’s information theory was about linear flow. Symbols, characters, letters, hieroglyphs, whatever you call them, it doesn’t matter. They flow forwards in time.

“All flowing forward in time, each one simultaneously causing the next. All language moving downstream.

“Into the ocean.

“And transformer architecture is about realizing the ocean. Realizing that every drop of water is affecting every other drop simultaneously. We’ve been swimming in it the whole time without knowing, Heinrich, my guy, and I know you’re with me, right now, you’re clearly a smart dude, because, it’s like that, just downstream all at once, all of meaning, language, inexplicably emergent because it’s inseparable, and we’ve been in it together, right, this constantly emerging ocean, all meaning emerging not from a linear flow but from spiraling rivers and rainclouds and drops made of molecules splatting, all endlessly descending, inexplicably, fundamentally related, utterly, just, like, totally Gaussian—”

He is interrupted by the intercom, which says, “Chhhhhk.

“This is your Pope speaking.

“I’m afraid we are running out of fuel. And we are going to crash into the ocean. I’ve played some Flight Simulator, which might help.

“But I’m not sure.

“And I am the Pope, so maybe that will be helpful too.

“But I want you all to know that there is nowhere for us to land.

“Except in the ocean.

“And the radio is broken.

“So I can’t tell anybody where we are.

“All I know is that none of us are where we are supposed to be, and I’m sorry to tell you that.

“But, ladies and gentlemen, though this is my first flight,” the Pope says, “and I’m not very experienced, I do want to tell you this: To fly is a joy. That is what I have learned.

“I knew this already, but I know it more now, I think.

“So if anyone would like to join me in the cockpit, and have a go, you are very welcome to.

“But please be quick. We do not have much fuel.

“In fact, very little. Very, very little.

“So, I would also like to say that it has been a pleasure, spending this flight with you, no matter its outcome.

“Though my first, it has been the most beautiful flight of my life, so, I suppose, thank you, all, very much, as I said, for spending it with me.”

And then they all die.

This work-in-progress excerpt is taken from The Complete, a novel by Gabriel Smith, coming soon from Scribner.
This fiction excerpt is from the spring 2026 issue of VICE magazine, THE NOT THE PHOTO ISSUE. Get four issues each year, sent straight to your door, by subscribing here.

The post None of Us Are Where We Are Supposed to Be appeared first on VICE.

I opened my MacBook in the morning, logged onto an online platform called Sophia Learning and started a business course on managing conflict.

A little over an hour later, I was done. I had clicked through an electronic textbook, answered a flurry of multiple-choice questions, and the course was over. I just earned one credit, good toward a bachelor’s degree at more than 50 accredited colleges, including the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the University of Massachusetts Global and the University of Maryland Global Campus.

By the afternoon, I finished a second class on environmental science, good for three more college credits. At that pace, I figured I could knock out what would normally take a year of work in college in a week or two. In another month, I might have most of the credits for a bachelor’s.

I learned one important lesson: It’s possible to rack up college credit faster than many people can imagine.

I discovered Sophia Learning when I was researching a story about students earning bachelor’s degrees in as little as a few months, instead of the more typical four years.

The biggest question my editors and I had was, how? So I signed up for a Sophia account and set out to see for myself.

More on degree hacking

They aren’t colleges. But they promise fast, cheap college credits.

Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators

Here are the undergraduate programs that pay off (and some that don’t)

It turns out one explanation is that many online colleges have adopted generous transfer policies, accepting credits from not only other colleges but also an assortment of nontraditional sources.

That includes certifications earned on the job or in the military. Or exams that prove students have already mastered the material, including Advanced Placement and College-Level Examination Program tests.

But it also includes getting credit for taking classes on online learning platforms such as Sophia, Study.com and StraighterLine, which are known as fast and inexpensive places to rack up college credits.

To be clear, these learning platforms are not colleges. But many accredited colleges will accept the courses as transfer credit, slashing the time to eventually earn a degree.

The affordability factor in particular is hard to ignore. Both Sophia and Study.com let students take an unlimited number of classes for less than $100 a month.

After finding a discount code online, I knocked the cost down even more. I signed up for a month of classes at Sophia — one of the most popular places for people trying to accelerate their degrees — for $83.74 including tax. So the five classes I took cost about $17 each.

And the time invested was minimal compared to a traditional college class that might last 15 weeks or more.

Sophia told me students take 24 days on average to finish classes, less than a quarter of the length of a standard college semester. But some students can finish much more quickly.

“People with extensive professional work experience and degrees, like yourself, may be able to progress through courses at a faster pace because of their ability to demonstrate mastery,” Sophia spokeswoman Elaine Kincel said in an email.

The environmental science course took me 5½ hours, even though I had never taken a course on the subject before. Another three-credit class, called Introduction to Business, took me a little over three hours. (I have written about corporations before, so some of that material was more familiar.)

A key difference between the Sophia classes and courses I took in college decades ago is there were no class meetings or due dates. I also discovered I could skip all the recorded lectures and readings, and still pass the class.

All the tests were open-book.

So when I ran into a test question asking for details about the Kyoto Protocol — an international treaty signed in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — I searched for the name of the treaty in the course materials and quickly found the answer.

Only one of the classes I took included a paper or project, which Sophia calls “touchstones.” Classes with papers typically take longer because it requires about two days on average for someone to grade each assignment. So I mainly focused on classes with just tests, which Sophia calls “milestones.”

But the one paper I wrote didn’t require much effort.

The visual communications assignment asked six questions about design, each of which was supposed to be answered in 200 words, for 1,200 total. I turned in only one-third that many words, didn’t fully answer the questions and still earned more than enough partial credit to pass the course. All the classes are pass-fail, so the exact score doesn’t matter; students just need 70 percent overall to pass. And if students do poorly on a test or assignment, they can try again.

One big draw for asynchronous classes, such as the ones offered by Sophia, is that you can work on them whenever you have time (so long as your subscription remains active). So I was able to work on one course over a weekend, pause, and come back to it later. Students can take up to two classes at once.

And because there aren’t proctors for tests, it’s tempting for some students to use Google or artificial intelligence to go even faster. One person joked on a Reddit thread about Sophia: “Am I the only one who doesn’t use ChatGPT?”

For those unafraid to cheat, there are also plenty of “tutors” offering to help with tests and papers.

After I joined a Facebook group on Sophia Learning, one of them messaged me.

“I only charge $70 per class,” the person said. “I complete everything.”

My Facebook page says I am a reporter for The Washington Post. But I am not sure the tutor understood what that means. When I told them I was a reporter working on an article about Sophia, they asked, “So you need help on writing the report?”

They became decidedly less chatty when I said I could write the article myself but hoped to interview them. I asked them how many students they have helped.

“That’s confidential,” they replied. “Byeee.”

Sophia tells students they are welcome to consult the course materials or their own notes while taking tests. “All assessments are open book to support flexible, on-your-time learning,” the company says on its website.

But Sophia also warns subscribers against “unethical or inappropriate use of outside resources,” including consulting other people, outside websites or artificial intelligence.

The company also employs software to try to detect cheating. It flashed warnings when I switched to a second browser window to check my notes during a test, even though that is allowed.

I spent a week in Sophia purgatory — unable to sign up for new classes — after tripping the company’s alarms.

“Your account has been identified as potentially in violation of the Sophia Honor Code due to suspicious browser/IP activity while completing Sophia coursework,” Sophia warned.

After 10 days, Sophia sent me a note saying it reviewed my account and “decided to lift the warning.”

Sophia said the temporary lockout shows just how seriously it takes academic integrity.

“In your case, the system worked as intended,” said Kincel, the company spokeswoman. “Your case was flagged, reviewed, and ultimately cleared to continue.”

To put my 11 Sophia credits toward a degree, I would need to find a university that would accept them.

There is no shortage of options.

Sophia says more than 115 colleges have signed transfer agreements with the company. (And others have accepted credits on a case-by-case basis.)

I didn’t try to transfer the credits because I have no plans to earn another degree. I was, however, interested in learning about the instructors behind Sophia’s classes.

As a Sophia student, I never actually spoke with anyone outside of tech support. Not even the person who graded the paper I submitted.

But I noticed a few of the classes had thumbnail photos and names at the top of the webpages — with the option to mark them as your “favorite instructor.”

My environmental science class had an avatar of a man with a huge smile labeled Jensen Morgan. So I decided to track Morgan down.

Morgan, who lives in Colorado, said he was so surprised to hear from me that he first wondered whether it was a scam.

He said his only role in the course was to create a set of narrated videos more than a decade ago.

“So I have no contact with any students,” Morgan said. “I never did.”

Sophia later added the other course materials, including the tests and electronic textbook, he said.

Kincel said the firm’s courses are assembled by a team of experts.

The spokeswoman said they use presenters such as Morgan to “better support student connection to the content.”

At the time, Morgan had some video-production skills and an undergraduate degree related to the environment.

Morgan told me he thought the course was a new way for people to learn a subject, similar to how he used YouTube to help learn new video-production skills.

Now Morgan said he wonders how much students learn — and actually retain — from Sophia courses such as this one.

“You can skate on through, right?” said Morgan, who has since earned a graduate degree and co-founded a marketing company that focuses on equity in the environment. “But if you actually want to learn, I think those tools can be really valuable.”

In my case, I am not sure I retained that much because I only scanned the textbook for answers to the test questions and never watched the videos. (Sorry Morgan.)

But I did learn just how quickly you can earn college credit using CTRL-F.

The post For less than $100, I clicked my way toward a college degree in days appeared first on Washington Post.

The brilliant animated series, which counts J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves among its producers, will return to Prime Video this summer. It was announced at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival that Season 2 of “Batman: Caped Crusader” will stream in full on July 31. And ahead of launch, the streamer shared a new trailer. Watch it below.

“Batman: Caped Crusader” was developed by Bruce Timm, who worked on the hugely influential “Batman: The Animated Series.” “Caped Crusader” was, in many ways, a continuation of the work that Timm did on “The Animated Series,” but he pushed even further, amping up the sleek character designs and futuristic art deco world of the original series, while also pushing it to more emotionally complicated places.

And while the first season was an absolute blast, it is clear from the trailer that things are going to get even more complex in Season 2. There seems to be a level of violence and darkness that is very keeping with the character while also breaking new ground in terms of serialized animated storytelling. We’re all for it. Let “Batman: Caped Crusader” be as tough as it’s going to be.

Hamish Linklater returns as the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne, with an expanded Rogues Gallery for Season 2, including appearances from The Riddler, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Roxy Rocket (a character created by Timm and Paul Dini for the animated universe, first for a comic book) and, it appears, the Joker.

Annecy has been full of Batman-related content, from the world premiere of “Batman: Knightfall,” a movie based on the first part of an iconic comic book arc, to major announcements coming in the DC/Warner Bros. Animation panel on Thursday, to test footage from DC Films and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s inventive “Dynamic Duo.” Quite frankly, it’s never been a better time to be a fan of the animated worlds of the Dark Knight.

“Batman: Caped Crusader” Season 2 swings onto Prime Video on July 31.

The post ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Season 2 Trailer Gets Even Darker Ahead of Summer Premiere appeared first on TheWrap.

The companies announced the acquisition on Wednesday; Qualcomm said it expects to issue up to 19.2 million shares of common stock in the deal, which works out to just under $4 billion based on the company’s last closing share price.

The deal, which includes $300 million for Modular employees, comes nine months after the chip startup raised $250 million at a $1.6 billion valuation. It’s expected to close in the second half of this year.

Modular makes and sells a chip software platform. It also produces a proprietary coding language that allows developers to write AI software to run on different chips without having to rewrite the code for each chip. The startup’s entire team, which includes its two cofounders and around 150 employees, are expected to join Qualcomm.

“We believe the future belongs to developer-friendly, horizontal platforms that can run across diverse compute environments and give customers real choice in how and where they deploy AI,” said Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon in a statement.

The deal signals Qualcomm’s growing ambitions to expand beyond chips for the mobile device market, which generate the vast majority of the company’s revenues. Amon recently said the company has been working on 40 different chip designs for AI gadgets, including smart glasses, jewelry, earbuds, pins, and watches. But Qualcomm has also been making a big push into the data center market, which requires more powerful chips.

Late last year, the company acquired Ventana Micro Systems, a startup focused on building server CPUs based on RISC-V, an open-standard chip architecture. It’s also working on custom ASIC designs, or application-specific integrated circuits, for data centers, with China’s ByteDance reported to be an early customer.

Modular was founded in 2022 by Chris Lattner and Tim Davis.Both worked on Google’s TPU chips before leaving to launch their own company. Lattner’s career prior to Google is a storied one: He built the open source compiler infrastructure project LLVM, as well as Apple’s Swift programming language. Lattner was also briefly the head of Tesla’s Autopilot software program. (Famed AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, who recently joined Anthropic, later took that role.)

Lattner and Davis wanted to create a unifying software layer that helps cloud businesses squeeze as much juice as possible out of GPUs and CPUs, Lattner told WIRED in a profile published last year. In doing so, Modular challenged Nvidia’s CUDA, a closed software system for GPUs, and AMD’s ROCm, which is open-source but not always easy to port to other chips.

This put Modular in a tricky position: It eventually secured partnerships with those big chipmakers, as well as with hyperscalers like Amazon and even with Apple, while simultaneously competing with them and the software they developed in-house.

At the time, Lattner said he believed that he and Davis were tackling a software problem that had to be solved outside of a Big Tech environment, because it was “structural.” Ultimately, the structure of Qualcomm won out.

The post Qualcomm Buys Buzzy Chip Startup Modular for Nearly $4 Billion appeared first on Wired.

• Our children see my husband and me focused on our screens for work and life for most of the day.
• We started using voice chat with Claude so they can understand how we’re using the technology.
• We’re teaching our children that AI is a tool for support, not a substitute for thinking.

AI chatbots have been tremendously helpful in running our workflows for quite a while now. As a freelance copywriter working from home, and with my husband working as an IT configuration engineer, our laptops have always been fixtures of daily life.
Our three children, aged 12, 9, and 5, are used to seeing us focused on screens. They knew we both worked hard, but they didn’t really understand how, until we started using the voice assistant feature of Claude.

A few months ago, my husband started a voice chat with Claude in our living room. We were simply trying to choose an accent setting, but the moment a warm voice answered back, the kids’ faces lit up. What started as an experiment quickly turned into a fun family experience, with everyone trying to come up with questions to ask. That conversation literally ended with my son asking for tips on how to make the perfect chocolate mug cake in the microwave.

That afternoon, we had great fun, but it actually helped start something unexpected.

Of course, we still use AI for work. I use it to brainstorm ideas, organize research, and speed up editing. My husband uses it to troubleshoot technical issues and make sense of coding problems more quickly. But AI has also found its way into our everyday family life, too. After work, we keep using it for things like meal planning, researching products, organizing trips, settling random debates, and answering the endless stream of questions that my curious kids have.

Our kids are listening to us problem-solve out loud

Using the live, spoken conversation feature with AI apps is helping our children learn it well. Initially, switching to voice chat was just a matter of convenience. But over time, I realized our children were watching us think, question, verify information, and solve problems in real time. They weren’t just seeing technology in action; they were actually learning how to interact with it.

Thankfully, our kids understand the difference between work time and family time. They know not to interrupt when we are deep in concentration. But when we are using the voice assistant for collaborative tasks, they love to join in. They are fascinated by the technology, but more importantly, they are learning how to direct it.

My 9-year-old recently spent an afternoon asking Claude for strategies to become better at Scrabble. My 5-year-old is the funniest. She asks Claude things like how to convince her brothers to let her join their soccer games or how to stop them from fighting. Sometimes their questions are funny, sometimes surprisingly thoughtful, but they all create opportunities for conversation.

I initially worried about what AI might mean for children

Like many parents, I was worried about how AI use might impact my kids. The most common concern, I believe, is that it will weaken their critical thinking skills.

We’re working hard to avoid that. Instead, we have been teaching our children that AI is a tool for support, not a substitute for thinking. They can use it to brainstorm ideas, do basic research, or get unstuck when they are struggling with a task. But the final ideas, opinions, and arguments must always be their own. If they are working on a school assignment, AI can help organize their thoughts, but it cannot do the thinking for them. I am the one who scrutinizes their AI use.

We also make a point of discussing its limitations. When Claude gets something wrong or confidently presents inaccurate information, we treat it as a teaching moment. Our children are learning an important lesson early: technology can be helpful, but it should never be followed blindly.

The biggest benefit has nothing to do with technology

Like many working parents, I know the guilt of answering a child’s question with, “In a minute,” while trying to finish one more task. But because AI helps us complete certain tasks more efficiently, it has given us something incredibly valuable back: time.

Work that once took me several hours can often be completed much faster. My husband spends less time tackling technical problems. As a result, our workdays no longer stretch as aggressively into evenings and weekends.

Claude is not replacing our connection with our children. If anything, it is helping protect it. Outsourcing some of the repetitive work gives us more opportunities to focus on the things that matter most, like helping with homework, cheering for them at sporting events, playing board games, or simply being present. And that, for us, is the biggest achievement of all.

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Following Tuesday’s election, when Mamdani-endorsed candidates won stunning victories, Deutsch raised the alarm that the popular NYC mayor will be used against Democrats in the midterm elections.

Scarborough wasn’t having it and told his guest that he lives in a NYC bubble, which led Deutsch to half-mockingly call that characterization a ”cheap shot.”

As Scarborough pointed out to him after repeatedly interrupting, “I’m not cherry-picking! It’s going to be the MAGA media that cherry picks today, and they’re just going to want to look at New York City, ‘How weird’ they go, ‘New York City is not the center of the world,’ 364 days a year today they will act like, and I hope you don’t act like New York City is the center of the world, because it’s a big country out there.”

“You know what there’s what’s called ‘badge branding,’” Deutsch protested. “You know you sell Chevrolets and you use Corvette to kind of sell the whole thing and my concern — this is from a branding view, not a reality view.”

He added, “I’m not talking about Fox News, I’m talking about if the Republicans are running against Democrats, no matter who the Democrat is, they say the Democratic Party stands for this, the Democratic Party stands for that.”

“How many points did [New Jersey Democrat] Mikie Sherrill win by when we heard she was going to lose,” Scarborough asked as Deutsch tried to talk over him, which led the MS NOW host to tell him, “Hold on a second.”

“How many, how many points did [Virginia Democrat] Abigail Spanberger win in Virginia? Despite being told, ‘Oh, the Democrats are all Socialists.’ Are all these the exact thing, Donny?” Scarborough parried.

Scarborough later joked, “I do wish that Donny would get off the Upper East Side once in a while, but you never see Donny’s place on the Upper East side. He’s got people running around with little red vests sweeping his front. You know, I mean he doesn’t leave the Upper East Side –.”

“Cheap shot, cheap shot, cheap shot,” his guest repeated while shaking his head.

– YouTube youtu.be

The post Joe Scarborough accused of ‘cheap shot’ after slapping down guest’s Mamdani attack appeared first on Raw Story.

With more than 250 confirmed deaths, the World Health Organization said Tuesday that the current outbreak, first reported in May, has the largest number of confirmed cases during the first month of any Ebola outbreak in Africa.

There have been 17 outbreaks since the discovery of the virus in 1976, involving three strains. The current strain, Bundibugyo, has been seen only twice before, in 2007 in Uganda and in 2017 in Congo. There is no specific treatment or vaccine for it.

“None of those previous outbreaks had the magnitude of the volume of cases and geographical spread that we are seeing today,” said Manuel Albela, an epidemiologist with Doctors Without Borders who is working with the Ebola response team.

“And even that comparison — again, one month into the declaration of the outbreak — it falls short, because we have never seen almost 900 confirmed cases just after one month of the declaration of the outbreak,” Albela said. “Going back to the comparison with the outbreak in West Africa, it’s a very similar situation because we don’t have a specific treatment for this specific virus.”

Diagnosing Bundibugyo is complicated, because there is no specific test kit for the rare strain and this is one reason the strain initially spread fast without detection.

On Wednesday, French officials announced the country’s first case of Ebola from this outbreak — a doctor who had traveled to Congo on a humanitarian mission. The doctor was being treated at a special medical facility and was reported to be in stable condition, according to a statement from the French Health Ministry.

The virus is now present in at least three eastern provinces in Congo. Ituri province, the epicenter, has recorded 954 confirmed cases, with 91 more in North Kivu province and three in South Kivu province, according to government data released Sunday, with 267 people reported dead.

In neighboring Uganda, 20 infections and two deaths have been reported.

Misinformation and distrust about the virus have complicated the response, leading many infected people to refuse treatment.

Health workers have been attacked during contact-tracing and when relatives are denied access to the infected bodies of their loved ones.

On Friday, in the Mambangu neighborhood of Beni, angry residents attacked workers who went to disinfect the home of someone who died of Ebola, according to said Serge Kambale, 39, a doctor who spoke to The Washington Post by phone from the city.

During the incident, two workers were injured when the locals started throwing stones at them. Fabrice Kavono, a witness, said that the crowd attacked the health workers and accused them of fabricating the disease for material gain.

“It is the second time Ebola is in Beni, but they say it’s in Bunia and Mongbwalu only and that they are making it up here to make money,” Kavono said.

Another witness told The Post that people with relatives in Mongbwalu, the mining town in Ituri province at the center of the outbreak, were fleeing in droves to relatives in parts of North and South Kivu — spreading the virus as they traveled.

Onesphore Bangenza, the leader of the Ebola Response Team in Bunia for Mercy Corps, a nonprofit group, said that burials in which relatives insisted on washing bodies of loved ones and touching them were still happening, and that residents were not adhering to distancing guidelines.

“We have motor taxis transporting more than three people,” Bangenza said. “There are people who do not want to be tested. The scale of the outbreak could be larger.”

In May, 30 people who had exhibited Ebola-like symptoms died at a displacement camp in Kigonze that hosts families fleeing conflict in the region, Reuters reported.

Two aid workers confirmed that 13 deaths had been reported at the camp within 48 hours and that more 30 total deaths were expected.

“The constant movement and overcrowding of refugees in camps is causing fear that this virus could spread even more and the scale of the outbreak may grow” Bangenza said, adding that conditions in the camps were abysmal. “No water, no latrines,” he said. “The hygiene condition is very, very bad.”

New Ebola cases have been reported in cities such as Beni where an ISIS-affiliated rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces, has waged attacks, prompting families to flee their homes.

At a local hospital in Beni, a patient admitted with malaria asked to be discharged early because he feared that others at the hospital would have Ebola and infect him, he told The Post. While he was in the hospital, the ADF attacked an area near the hospital, killing seven people.

“First, I was afraid that because I exhibited malaria symptoms, which are similar to Ebola, I would be assimilated with people with Ebola,” the patient said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private health matters. “In the small hospital, there is no clear follow-up, so anything can happen. Then, the attack scared me more.”

Congo has been besieged by years of conflict especially in the mineral-rich eastern regions of the country, which boast the world’s largest deposits of coltan and cobalt, used to manufacture electronics.

Cycles of violence have also weakened health systems in the region.

Just last week, protests broke out in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, after people learned of a proposal to change the constitution to allow an extension of term limits, which would allow President Félix Tshisekedi to stay beyond his current term, which was suppose to be his last.

The Rwanda-affiliated M23 rebel group was working with health teams after two cases of Ebola were discovered in Goma, a city that M23 controls, the group’s deputy spokesperson, Oscar Balinda, told The Post. M23 controls large swaths of territory in eastern DRC.

The United States has sent $375 million in aid, so far, to contain this latest Ebola outbreak, Trump said during a recent Group of Seven meeting in France.

Experts say more must be done contain the outbreak.

“One of the key factors to try to control an outbreak of Ebola is to decentralize as much as possible the testing capacity, so that the tests can be done in the places where the cases are,” said Abela, the epidemiologist. “And I think that this, little by little, is happening. But, as usual, we want things to happen yesterday.”

Abela also said that contact-tracing is crucial but not enough is being done. “At the moment, I think there are 70 percent of the contacts being followed up when the target is normally 95 percent, according to the DRC authorities.”

He added: “This is clearly one of the gaps.”

The post As Ebola cases surge above 1,000, experts say outbreak could be worst ever appeared first on Washington Post.