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ENTERTAINMENT: Fiesta en SoMa celebrates Hispanic heritage

SoMa 501 is sponsoring Fiesta en SoMa: Rancho Bernice, “a special edition of SoMa After Dark,” according to the organization’s website.

Sep 30 • 6:15 PM EDT • Entertainment • arkansasonline.com

Ancient hydrogen spotted in the early universe could open a new way to study space's baffling expansion

After seven years of work, Canada's CHIME telescope has a measurement of dark energy from 2019. More detailed studies are planned to expand the research.

Sep 30 • 5:28 PM EDT • Science • livescience.com

Bruno Kramm, German Goth Musician Who Moonlighted in Politics, Dies at 58

When he wasn’t playing with the groundbreaking dark-wave band Das Ich, he was a prominent figure in his country’s fight for online free speech and digital privacy rights.

Sep 30 • 3:43 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

Windows 11 26H2 update has known issues. You might want to wait

Windows 11 26H2 has three known issues carried over from earlier versions. Here's why you might want to wait to update.

Sep 30 • 11:17 AM EDT • Technology • pcworld.com

Is 'Verity' worth watching? Anne Hathaway's dark new thriller divides critics.

Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett star in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling psychological thriller.

Sep 30 • 11:07 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Dark clouds appear over 'Xbox Cloud Gaming' as it retires apps on some TVs — and the reasons are poorly explained

Microsoft just emailed users of older Samsung TVs that the Xbox Cloud Gaming app is going to be killed off soon, but didn't really explain why.

Sep 30 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com

Globoplay Greenlights Adaptation of Raphael Montes’ ‘Uma Mulher no Escuro,’ From Banijay Entertainment’s A Fábrica Brazilian Banner (EXCLUSIVE)

Media and entertainment group Banijay Entertainment has greenlit an adaptation of Raphael Montes’s “Uma Mulher No Escuro” (“A Woman in the Dark”) for Globoplay. The project will be led by Banijay’s Br...

Sep 30 • 10:36 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

DarkIris Inc. Provides Business Update on Cine3.AI Global Expansion and Entertainment Technology Ecosystem

HONG KONG, Sept. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DarkIris Inc. (Nasdaq: DKI) (the “Company” or “DarkIris”), an innovative technology provider in the digital media and entertainment sector, today provided a business update highlighting recent progress in the development and global deployment of its flagship AI video production platform, Cine3.AI, as well as the Company’s North American expansion and interactive entertainment initiatives. Advancing Cine3.AI for the “Cinema 3.0” Era Following continue

Sep 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

CAS launches program for breakthroughs at science frontiers

The first batch of 10 projects under the program was unveiled at the media event, targeting research in fields such as the synthesis of new elements, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, microscopic measurement of chemical bonds and the creation of synthetic cells.

Sep 29 • 11:15 PM EDT • Science • chinadailyhk.com

New Evanston Art Center exhibit explores mental health, taboos

The lobby of the Evanston Art Center is full of secrets laid bare in its latest exhibit, “Whispers in the Dark.” The exhibition, which had its opening reception Sunday, features the work of seven creators using a variety of artistic mediums. The pieces examine mental health and taboo topics, often utilizing macabre imagery. When entering...

Sep 29 • 10:40 PM EDT • Health • dailynorthwestern.com

Dawn of War IV – Blood Ravens and Dark Angels team up in new trailer

Watch the new faction trailer now.

Sep 29 • 8:00 PM EDT • Technology • warhammer-community.com

UK business morale hits 17-month low, Lloyds says

British firms turned the least confident since April 2025 in September, according to ​a Lloyds survey on Wednesday that also ‌showed executives' view of the global economic outlook darkened as the Iran war pushes up costs.

Sep 29 • 7:02 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com

Why Diamondbacks Missed The Playoffs

I am an optimist. My definition of Diamondbacks success is reaching the playoffs. Today, my thoughts are making a rare walk through the dark side to address what kept the Diamondbacks from success. Let’s look at eleven reasons. My view is that 4 reasons had no negative impact, 3 reasons had low negative impact (perhaps […]

Sep 29 • 5:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

A political veto over NIH grants could leave East Palestine in the dark

The research that serves us is exactly the kind of work that could land on a veto list.

Sep 29 • 11:00 AM EDT • Politics • thehill.com

View Photos of the 2026 Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC

See the interior and exterior of the 2026 Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC from every angle.

Sep 29 • 6:00 AM EDT • Technology • caranddriver.com

The 795 HP Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC Is The Diabolical Reincarnation Of The Shelby GT500, But It Wasn't The Power That Surprised Me

The 795 HP Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC is the most ridiculous, most powerful car I've driven. Yet, the insane horsepower is not the crazy part

Sep 29 • 6:00 AM EDT • Technology • theautopian.com

Cubs BCB After Dark: Is Matthew Boyd the right call?

The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks if Matthew Boyd should have gotten the Game 1 start.

Sep 29 • 12:39 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Purple Row After Dark: It’s Purple Row’s October Madness!

Play ball!

Sep 28 • 10:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Can Montana ban ‘dark money’ in elections?

Hawaii, Oregon also take on corporate political spending

Sep 28 • 2:22 PM EDT • Politics • theweek.com

Smart Headlights Finally Trickle Down to Cars in the U.S.

Federal data shows that half of all traffic fatalities happen after dark, but only one-quarter of driving happens at night. So any help is welcome.

Sep 28 • 5:00 AM EDT • Technology • nytimes.com

Driftwood Oven serves pizza and dance club vibes with After Dark

Driftwood Oven in Lawrenceville becomes an unlikely (and tasty) nightclub destination during its monthly After Dark DJ dance/pizza party.

Sep 28 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • pghcitypaper.com

Into the darkness: A reminder on fatigue risk

Fatigue is more than a personal inconvenience; it’s a workplace safety risk that can impair judgment, slow reaction times, reduce situational awareness and increase the likelihood of errors.

Sep 28 • 2:02 AM EDT • Health • safetyandhealthmagazine.com

Park After Dark returns to Bays Mountain

KINGSPORT — Join Bays Mountain Park later this fall for a Halloween-themed night packed with spooky adventures, nighttime discoveries and plenty of family-friendly fun.

Sep 27 • 7:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • therogersvillereview.com

A ‘Big Problem’: Trump’s War With Iran Drags Down Republicans in Midterms

As their November picture darkens, and gas and diesel prices soar, some Republicans who backed the war for months are now changing their tune.

Sep 27 • 5:01 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

'Wild Horse Nine' review: Is John Malkovich at the center of a meta puzzle?

Martin McDonagh reteams with Sam Rockwell for another dark comedy about charismatic killers.

Sep 27 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

Intel Panther Lake Teardown, 18A, BSPD, GAAFET, SemiAnalysis STEEL

Panther Lake debuts the first commercial implementation of backside power delivery (BSPDN), introduces Intel’s first iteration of gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, and showcases their advanced packaging capabilities with its Foveros-S assembly. With Panther Lake, Intel’s manufacturing arc has shifted from nebulous roadmaps to shipped silicon, a significant milestone on their long road back to competitive semiconductor manufacturing. To evaluate the extent of Intel’s comeback, we tore down Panther Lake. The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Our teardown traces 18A from its four-sheet RibbonFETs (Intel’s marketing name for GAAFETs) and gate stacks through contacts, frontside and backside wiring, and the bonded carrier. We explain how these material and integration choices improve gate control and reduce resistance, while adding capacitance, thermal resistance, and process complexity. Our measurements put Panther Lake’s 18A compute logic and TSMC N3E GPU logic at similar logic density. However, 18A does not lead TSMC N3P, N2 or Samsung SF2 in peak density. Panther Lake’s CPU cores are incremental updates, and the high-end GPU still uses TSMC N3E. Panther Lake assembles one compute tile, one GPU tile, and one I/O tile atop a passive base tile using Intel’s Foveros-S advanced packaging. Both compute tile variants use Intel 18A. The Xe3 GPU options are a 4-core GT1 tile on Intel 3 and a larger 12-core GT2 tile on TSMC N3E. Both I/O tile variants use TSMC N6. [1], [2] Our analysis centers on the PTL-U compute tile, both the 4-core and 12-core GPU tiles, as well as the 12-lane I/O tile. In conventional chips, power and signal are routed through the same frontside metal stack towards the device frontend. Power rails consume scarce routing resources near the transistors, while tall via stacks carry VDD and VSS from the coarse upper wires to local rails. Backside power delivery (BSPD) moves the main power network behind the transistor layer, to the backside, separating it from frontside signal routing. We covered BSPD and its impacts in 2024. [3], [4], [5] Intel’s BSPD implementation, branded as “PowerVia”, routes power through dedicated backside metals to nano-TSVs, which connect those rails to local source/drain (S/D) contacts. Implementing that separation requires Intel to build the interconnect stacks from both sides of the wafer. The frontside comprises the M0-M14 signal stack, while the backside comprises the BM0-BM5 power stack. M0 and BM0 are closest to the transistors. The nano-TSVs connect the two sides, but Intel patterns and etches each via from the front after forming the contacts. A narrow via runs from the side of the contact deep into the silicon substrate. Intel then completes the frontside signal metal stack, bonds the wafer to a carrier, flips it and removes the original substrate until the buried via tips are exposed. The backside metal stack is then deposited directly on the revealed vias. The nano-TSV and backside-via profiles taper in opposite directions because Intel forms them from opposite sides of the wafer. The transistor structures form the FEOL. Local contacts and nano-TSVs connect them to the wiring. M0 begins the frontside interconnect stack. The silicon carrier remains attached above the frontside interconnects. It supports the device wafer during substrate removal and backside processing and remains part of the finished chip’s thermal path. PowerVia removes the main power distribution from the congested frontside metals, routing supply through shorter and wider backside wires. Its lateral landing still occupies area in the standard cell, so it recovers less cell area than a direct backside contact. [3] Nano-TSVs beside the logic devices carry VDD or VSS from the backside power network, while signal connections continue upward through the frontside metals. Backside Interconnects Samsung SF2 data is included for comparison to Panther Lake’s within this article. SF2 is the incumbent GAA foundry node but lacks BSPD, serving as a useful reference to evaluate 18A. A full teardown of Samsung’s S26 products, processed on SF2, will be shared soon.Nanosheet-cut EDS comparison. The PowerVia supply path runs from the backside Cu rails through Mo-lined W nano-TSVs to the local transistor contacts. In this cross section, the tapered connection spans roughly 150 nm from the contact level to BM0. The Ta liner confines Cu and promotes adhesion to the surrounding stack; the AlOₓ etch stop controls the next dielectric etch above the rail. Dielectric beneath the ribbons electrically separates the devices from the backside wiring and removes the conducting silicon body below the channel. [6] AlOₓ serves as an etchstop (ES), enabling endpointing and protecting the underlying layers. Low-volatility aluminum fluoride reaction products resist the fluorinated plasma, allowing a thin AlOₓ film to protect the metal while the surrounding low-k dielectric is removed. [6], [7]. While the BM0 and layers above the M1 lines show double AlOx layers, Our SMIC N+3 teardown showed single AlOₓ layers. SMIC uses a simpler local AlOₓ substack, while the remaining cap and etch sequence provide the required landing protection. So why double layers? The closely spaced AlOₓ doublets provide two protected endpoints in the etch sequence. Intel documents an AlOₓ/SiN/AlOₓ stack that explains the benefit. The main dielectric plasma etch stops on the first AlOₓ film; a selective wet clear opens that film; a second plasma etch removes the intermediate SiN and stops on the second AlOₓ film. The final wet clear exposes the metal landing surface. SiN is the intermediate dielectric in Intel’s published example. [8] The second stop protects the metal through a cap breakthrough. Wide openings can etch faster than narrow ones, and etch depth varies across the wafer. Metal under an early-clearing opening would otherwise be exposed while other openings still need more etching. Staged protection widens the process window and reduces metal erosion, corrosion and void formation. [8] TSMC documents AlN/AlOₓ/SiOC/AlOₓ above Cu, with AlN blocking Cu diffusion, and a simpler AlN/SiOC/AlOₓ variant that omits one AlOx film. [9] Levels with different opening sizes, aspect ratios, pattern densities and cap materials need different etch margins. A double AlOx stop is useful where another protected endpoint justifies the added processing. The extra film adds formation, selective opening and cleaning steps, plus another set of interfaces to control adhesion, moisture, and stress. These blanket films are opened through the existing via pattern, so each film does not require another lithography mask. AlOₓ adds parasitic capacitance when it replaces lower-k dielectric; two thin AlOₓ films can nevertheless contain less AlOₓ than one thick film. Total thickness, placement, and theintermediate dielectric determine the electrical cost. Deposition chemistry also changes AlOx permittivity and residual hydroxyl content, which can oxidize the underlying metal. [7], [8], [10], [11] The backside stack separates into relatively fine BM0-BM2 wiring near the devices and coarser BM3-BM5 power distribution. The largest pitch increase occurs between BM2 and BM3. BM0’s pitch closely matches the logic-row height, fitting local power delivery to the cell rows. Higher levels aggregate current through larger conductors: routing density becomes less important than low resistance and current capacity as the network approaches the package. This hierarchy provides wide power wiring for the power delivery network without consuming scarce frontside signal-routing resources. [3] The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Frontside Interconnects Intel 18A combines Mo-lined W contacts and nano-TSVs with a separate backside Cu power network. Samsung SF2 keeps power on the frontside, using Ti-based contact interfaces and Ta-based barriers and Co liners around Cu wiring. In 18A standard-cell rows, backside power rails supply the devices through nano-TSVs within the cells, freeing frontside routing resources. Samsung’s M0 accommodates both power and signal connections. From the device toward M0, the connection runs through a Ti-based S/D interface, W contact fill, a Mo-lined W via, and the Cu M0 wire. Mo supplies a conductive nucleation and adhesion layer for W, replacing the resistive TiN liner used in conventional W integration. This increases the effective conduction volume within the feature while retaining W fill and its established polishing, cleaning and etching processes. Intel’s Mo/W patent describes this integration tradeoff. The nano-TSV uses the same Mo-lined W construction in the backside supply path. [12] The move from TiN to Mo is an incremental change. While a full Co or Mo fill can also reduce the volume lost to liners in very small features, it requires new integration schemes that increase complexity and risk. Cu remains attractive for wider wires due to its low resistance. As wires and vias shrink, the diffusion barrier consumes an increasing fraction of their cross-section. [12], [12], [14] Intel uses Co/Ru liners at M0-M1, Co at M2-M4, and Nb at M5-M9. The lower-level liners help Cu adhere and reduce void formation during trench fills. Applied Materials’ Endura has new thermal control that facilitate wetting process, so the thin film continuity is good enough that good capillary pressure will drive Cu atoms to the via bottom without voiding. Intel’s choice to use Nb is particularly interesting. Intel’s Nb patent describes a conductive diffusion barrier intended to reduce the barrier’s contribution to resistance relative to conventional Ta-based barriers, particularly at via bottoms where all current crosses the barrier. The patent pairs Nb in coarser levels with the option of lower-cost PVD processing. [15], [16] The upper metal layers support thicker barriers formed through physical vapor deposition (PVD) despite its worse coverage and uniformity. Meanwhile, the lower metal layers require thinner barriers deposited through conformal atomic layer deposition (ALD). Co/Ru adds another material interface and requires controlled deposition and Cu fill. Changing liners and barriers by metal layer allows Intel to optimize interconnect resistance, process complexity, and reliability. [15, 16] RibbonFET, Intel’s name for its gate-all-around FETs (GAAFETs), replaces the FinFET’s vertical fins with four stacked horizontal silicon nanosheets, allowing the gate to surround the channel on every side. The path to GAAFET begins with the planar transistor. A planar MOSFET places the gate above the channel between its source and drain. Pairing an NMOS with a PMOS transistor creates a CMOS inverter, in which the NMOS pulls the output low for a high input, and the PMOS pulls it high for a low input. The gate must retain electrostatic control of the channel to ensure clean switching. As gate lengths shrank, the drain began to compete with the gate for that control, increasing off-state leakage. Electrostatic control was restored through an architectural evolution that raised the channel into a vertical fin and wrapping the gate around three sides. Called “FinFET”, this new architecture packed more effective channel width into a smaller footprint. Further scaling made it harder to maintain both drive current and leakage within smaller cells, and reintroduced the same problems planar MOSFETs faced. Nanosheet GAAFETs close the fourth side by replacing the vertical fin with a stack of horizontal nanosheets, each surrounded by the gate. The tighter electrostatic control suppresses leakage at shorter gate lengths while stacking adds effective channel width within the cell footprint. In a FinFET process, channel width changes in discrete steps as designers must add or remove whole fins. Nanosheet width can instead be adjusted continuously within the process’s design rules. Wider sheets increase drive current, while narrower sheets reduce capacitance at the cost of drive current. Intel 18A uses stacks of four nanosheets each and varies their widths across logic and SRAM. At the process level, adding more sheets to each stack increases effective channel width and drive current, but complicates fabrication. RibbonFET vs MBCFET Samsung began GAAFET production in 2022 with SF3E, following with SF3 and now SF2. Its ‘MBCFET’ provides a useful structural comparison with Intel’s first RibbonFET implementation. [17] STEEL is digging deeper into SF2, used in the Exynos 2600, and TSMC’s GAAFET N2, used in Apple’s A20 Pro, in upcoming newsletter articles. We’re throwing some teasers on X. Let’s compare Samsung SF2’s MBCFET with Intel 18A’s RibbonFET. Subscribe Even to the untrained eye, Intel’s extra nanosheet is obvious. Intel stacks four ribbons to Samsung’s three. Samsung’s sheets are much wider in these fields, so both sheet count and width matter to the available channel perimeter. Sheet width also changes which silicon surfaces carry current. On conventional (001) silicon, wide nanosheets emphasize the broad top and bottom surfaces, favoring electron transport; the larger sidewall contribution in a narrow sheet favors hole transport. Thinner sheets improve gate control but increase confinement and scattering. This makes width and thickness part of the NMOS/PMOS balance, alongside strain and threshold voltage. [18], [19] GAAFET designs like 18A use different work-function-metal (WFM) stacks for NMOS and PMOS. Around each ribbon, a thin SiOx interfacial layer separates the silicon channel from the HfOx high-k dielectric, with La providing dipole tuning and the WFM wrapping the dielectric. NMOS uses a TiAl-based stack, while PMOS uses TiN WFM. W fills the remaining gate trench, providing a lower-resistivity path where the work-function layers are no longer needed. In this field, the PMOS stacks leave room for W between ribbons, while the NMOS stacks occupy more of those gaps. A silicon-based dielectric marks the P/N boundary, allowing the PMOS and NMOS gates, sharing the same gate trench, to be processed sequentially. Fast logic paths, retention circuits, and SRAM need a family of threshold options. Changing threshold without substantially changing device dimensions, capacitance or fabrication complexity is valuable. FinFET processes typically use different work-function-metal stacks. In a four-ribbon GAA stack, the narrow sheet-to-sheet gap limits how much WFM can fit around each channel. La in the gate dielectric creates interfacial dipoles at the SiOx/HfOx boundary, shifting effective work function and tuning threshold voltage. This gives Intel another control alongside its NMOS and PMOS WFM stacks. Low-threshold devices improve critical-path drive; higher thresholds reduce leakage elsewhere. Dipole tuning is especially useful in GAA because it changes threshold without consuming the narrow intersheet gap with thicker WFM. Precise control of La incorporation, diffusion and interface quality has long been a challenge, limiting viability in high volume production but is now seen from every leading-edge foundry. Intel’s patent describes depositing a dipole-forming oxide above HfOx and annealing it toward the interfacial oxide before completing the work-function and fill metals. This separates threshold tuning from the space available for metal. Newer research addresses the thermal cost: imec’s 2026 dipole-middle research inserts the shifter between two HfOx depositions, shortening the diffusion path while protecting SiOx during patterning. [20], [21]Matched-cut EDS, Intel 18A (left) vs. Samsung SF2 (right). Intel retains raised source/drain epi beneath its contacts, while Samsung recesses W deep into the epi to form a V-shaped Ti-lined interface. The deeper contact increases metal-to-semiconductor area and shortens the current path from the lower sheets, reducing contact and spreading resistance. It also removes epi volume and brings the contact etch closer to the channel ends. Retaining more epi preserves the material available for strain transfer, especially from SiGe into PMOS. These geometries balance contact access against stress engineering and etch margin. [22], [23] Samsung stacks three sheets to Intel’s four ribbons, and both processes use sheet width to tune drive strength. In our Samsung cross-sections, widths range roughly from 19 to 30 nm in the NPU rows and 37 to 50 nm in the CU cell. The Samsung nanosheets taper, with the widest sheet at the bottom and the narrowest at the top. Both processes use HfOx gate dielectric and Ti-based work-function stacks, with Al in the NMOS stack. In the Samsung devices shown here, the dielectric and WFM occupy the intersheet gaps, leaving W above the top sheet. Intel’s PMOS stack leaves more room between ribbons, and W fills those gaps while the thicker NMOS stack leaves W mainly in the upper trench. Gate-stack EDS maps. The W between Intel’s PMOS ribbons provides a conductive path close to the lower gates. Where WFM fills the entire gap, the gate still surrounds the channel, but voltage reaches it through the more resistive work-function films. Thinner WFM and dipole tuning preserve room for low-resistivity fill; Mo and Ru are alternative fill metals being developed for further scaling. [24] A masked, sequential WFM flow explains the different gate heights and inter-nanosheet fill. The proposed sequence below shows how separate NMOS and PMOS work-function steps produce that geometry. Enabled by the BSPDN process, Intel replaces the dense-logic silicon subfin with dielectric, removing the parasitic conduction path below the ribbons and reducing substrate-related capacitance. A retained silicon body as in classical, non-SOI, planar and FinFET designs needs junction and punchthrough-stop engineering to suppress leakage. Dielectric isolation makes that leakage less sensitive to the subfin doping profile but adds removal and fill steps. It also weakens the direct thermal path through silicon, making the contacts, metal stacks and package more important for heat extraction. [24], [26] Fluorine is concentrated around selected Intel device structures in the maps. WF6 is a standard precursor for W nucleation and fill, while barrier films protect adjacent dielectrics from fluorine attack. Low-fluorine W processes reduce the residual-F burden. Chloride-based precursors avoid introducing F during W deposition, but require control of chlorine attack, nucleation and fill quality. The integration target is a continuous, low-resistance W path with a thin protective liner and minimal chemical damage to the surrounding stack. [20], [27], [28] The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. We measured cell height, gate pitch, metal geometry, and ribbon dimensions at the XTEM sites shown below. The tables group these dimensions by site and device polarity. Our “sheet cuts” cross the silicon channel and show the ribbons end-on. “gate cuts” run along the channel through successive gates. The 18A logic cell dimensions point to a five-track logic library while the N3E and Intel 3 cell dimensions evidence a seven-track logic library. The DDR-PHY uses wider M0 wires and much larger spacing than core logic. That trades routing density for lower wire resistance and weaker coupling between neighboring nets. The geometry suits the current delivery and coupling requirements of analog, clock, and I/O circuitry. PowerVia lets 18A combine a compact cell height with wider M0 geometry by moving the main power rails off the signal-routing tracks. That relaxes local wire scaling while preserving a small cell footprint. Cell height and gate pitch set the geometric density; pin access and routability determine how much of it a real block can use. [29] The biggest takeaway from our gate-pitch measurements is that Intel 18A compute logic and TSMC N3E GPU logic have similar density in the Bohr representative-cell model. The 18A example is 18.6% denser than the Intel 3 GPU example. Gate pitches are nearly identical across the three sites, so cell height drives most of the difference. The Bohr model combines a four-transistor NAND2 spanning three gate pitches and a 32-transistor scan flip-flop (SFF) spanning nineteen pitches, weighting their densities 60:40. The sensitivity column shows how independently changing cell height and gate pitch by ±1 nm changes the result. This compares representative cell geometries; whole-die density also depends on cell mix and placement. The 18A P-core gives M0 substantially more metal cross section than the N3E vector engine. Treating each profile as a trapezoid gives 2.63 times the area per line and 1.84 times the area after normalization by routing pitch. The larger section reduces the geometric contribution to line resistance and lowers current density for a given current. Taller and wider wires also add capacitance, so circuit delay depends on the balance of resistance and capacitance. The DDR-PHY has less metal area per routing width than the 18A core fields, while remaining above N3E. [30] Area = height × (top CD + bottom CD) / 2, including liners. Area/pitch normalizes by routing width. Taper is the symmetric sidewall angle from vertical, with the largest angle belonging to the DDR-PHY. Compute tile The measurements show how ribbon dimensions and gate-stack geometry vary across the compute tile and between NMOS and PMOS to balance channel drive, gate load and the space needed for the dielectric/WFM stack across logic, SRAM and the DDR-PHY. Width mainly changes available channel perimeter; thickness also changes electrostatic control and carrier confinement. Gate-stack thickness then determines the space left for low-resistivity fill P-core and LP E-core logic Both the P-core and LP E-core use multiple nanosheet widths. Widths are measured on high-magnification XTEMs while wider-field images demonstrate additional width choices within the LP E-core. Multiple widths are expected even within an LP E-core. Timing-critical paths, buffers and cells with different fanout need different drive strengths. The lower-magnification fields show this width diversity beyond the sites quantified in the table. L2 and L3 SRAM GAA gives SRAM designers another way to balance the pull-up (PU), pass-gate (PG), and pull-down (PD) transistors. FinFET bitcells set device strength through fin count while GAA adds nanosheet width as a sizing knob. In a 6T SRAM cell, a strong pull-down relative to the pass-gate limits read disturbance, while a strong pass-gate relative to the pull-up improves writability. During a write, the pass-gate and write driver pull the node storing “1” below the inverter trip point. During a read, the pull-down holds the node storing “0” low. Bias, threshold voltage, mismatch and assist circuitry set the remaining margin. FinFET high-current cells commonly use a PU:PG:PD fin-count pattern of 1:2:2, a device-sizing ratio rather than a current ratio. Ribbon width lets Intel balance SRAM strengths without adding whole fins. The L2 cell uses its narrowest ribbons for PU and widest for PD, improving writability and read stability respectively. Intel’s disclosed HCC operates without assist; its denser HDC uses negative-bitline write assist. Pulling the selected bitline briefly below ground increases pass-gate overdrive so it can overpower the pull-up at lower supply voltage. That buys density and low voltage writability at the cost of boosting circuitry, switching energy, and additional voltage stress that must be controlled. [31], [32] Four rectangular ribbons give the perimeter = 8 × (width + thickness), before corner rounding. PG/PU is 1.49 and PD/PG is 1.16. The L3 structures closely resemble L2 in layout and cell height. Fewer L3 nanosheet widths are tabulated because fewer high-magnification images were available. DDR PHY The DDR-PHY trades density for controlled analog behavior and reliable off-chip signaling. It contains drivers, receivers, delay circuits, and calibration logic that set drive strength, sampling time, and voltage margin. Repeated four-sheet devices with similar widths fit the use of regular transistor units for matching and programmable drive. Its wider local wiring provides room for current delivery and separation of sensitive signals, while consuming more area than a dense core-logic grid. The layout serves the memory channel’s electrical requirements as well as digital logic density. [33] The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Intel 3 GPU devices Vector engine logic Intel 3’s XVE logic uses two-fin PMOS and NMOS devices with power rails in M0. Its cell height and M0 pitch give a seven-track geometry, two tracks more than the 18A logic. One-fin groups also appear among the two-fin devices. Intel 3 L2 SRAM The Intel 3 L2 SRAM uses the familiar HCC sizing pattern: one PU fin, two PG fins, and two PD fins. N3E GPU devices Vector engine logic The N3E XVE field contains repeated two-fin devices with seven-track cell geometry. N3E remains a FinFET process, giving Panther Lake a direct FinFET-to-RibbonFET comparison. N3E L2 SRAM The N3E L2 SRAM uses the same PU:PG:PD fin-count pattern of 1:2:2. Panther Lake-U follows Lunar Lake’s floorplan quite closely. Both pair 4 P-cores with 4 LP E-cores and NPU, media and display engines in similar locations. Lunar Lake also uses Xe2, the direct predecessor to Panther Lake’s Xe3 GPU. This makes Lunar Lake the most direct basis for our comparisons. Arrow Lake differs in core count and uses the older Xe-LPG GPU architecture, so we only use it where it offers a more direct component-level comparison. Compute tile Panther Lake compute-tile floorplans remain sparse even months after launch. Intel 18A’s backside metal and dielectric stack must be removed without damaging the underlying structures before a clean transistor-level floorplan can be imaged. Most published die shots hide or heavily process the background, but we are quite proud of the die shot we achieved and are excited to show the work we have done. We measured the areas of the key components on the compute tile and compared them with their Lunar Lake predecessors on TSMC N3B. These help us to capture changes in block area and compare the two chips across process nodes and designs. Our total tile areas exclude the scribe-line area. The compute-plus-GPU subtotal below uses the PTL-U compute tile and GT1 GPU; it excludes the I/O tile and passive base. Individual block areas use the boundaries marked on the floorplans The compute-plus-GPU row is recomputed from the displayed PTL-U and GT1 areas. Component rows use their stated per-region counts and are not an additive partition of the whole tile. The P-core area remains almost unchanged between Lunar Lake and Panther Lake, despite L2 capacity increasing from 2.5 MiB to 3 MiB. Arrow Lake uses the same Lion Cove core as Lunar Lake but also has a 3 MiB L2. Cougar Cove fits 20% more L2 into the same P-core area. The larger private cache keeps more of each core’s working set close to its execution units, reducing access to shared L3 and DRAM. Extra capacity adds storage leakage and lookup energy, so designers balance it against avoided lower-level accesses. The shared P-core L3 cache also shrank by 14.8%. [2] Cougar Cove combines a similar footprint with Intel’s reported power-efficiency improvements. RibbonFET’s tighter channel control reduces leakage, while PowerVia reduces supply droop and allows tighter voltage guardbands. [1] Darkmont’s four-core LP E-core cluster is 5.0% smaller than Skymont’s on Lunar Lake, with most of the reduction in its L2 regions. The 1 MiB region shrank by 8.4% and the 1.5 MiB region by 14.9%. The tag arrays also use one fewer visible row. Tags identify which memory addresses the data array holds, so rearranging them changes the cache’s layout and wiring without requiring less data capacity. [2] The LP E-cores share one L2. This pools capacity and avoids duplicating all the cache machinery, but the four cores contend for its banks and bandwidth. Their separate cluster also keeps light work away from the performance cluster and its L3, allowing that larger domain to sleep. [1], [2] Cache area includes more than the storage cells. Tags identify each line, decoders select rows, sense amplifiers read the small bitline signal, and wires connect to the banks. Splitting an array into smaller sections shortens wordlines and bitlines, improving access speed, but duplicates peripheral circuits. Panther Lake’s smaller cache regions therefore reflect the complete memory implementation, including how much of each region is devoted to storage. [34] Unlike Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake, Panther Lake has no separate SoC tile. The NPU, LP E-cores, memory controllers, PHYs, media and display engines now share the compute tile. This removes an active die and keeps CPU memory traffic on one die. The cost is moving PHY and I/O-related circuitry onto 18A: drivers, receivers and analog circuits must still meet external voltage, loading and signal-integrity requirements, so their area does not shrink like dense digital logic. [1], [2] The biggest shrink comes from the NPU, which occupies 36.9% less area. NPU 5 consolidates the same total INT8 MAC count into half as many neural compute engines. Each of the three NCEs has a larger MAC array to make the complete NCE envelope 22.6% larger than an NPU 4 engine. Consolidation also halves the number of scratchpads and SHAVE DSPs, from 12 to 6. The MAC array handles matrix multiplication and convolution, while SHAVE executes vector and custom operations that fit the array poorly. [1], [2], [35] The paired floorplans identify each NCE envelope and its scratchpad, MAC, and SHAVE regions. Each measured MAC polygon is counted once per NCE in the area accounting below. The scratchpads store weights, activations, and intermediate results near the MAC arrays, allowing repeated use without fetching them again from DRAM. Halving their number delivers the largest measured area saving but leaves less local storage for the same total MAC count. Layers that no longer fit locally require smaller working tiles or more transfers of intermediate data. The benefit depends on keeping the enlarged arrays busy while managing that tighter storage budget. [36] NPU 5 also adds native FP8. Using half the operand width of FP16 reduces storage and transfer demand, helping workloads fit the smaller local memory budget. Lower precision and format-dependent range make scaling and model validation part of deployment. Hardware activation functions further reduce work that would otherwise occupy the programmable DSPs. [1], [2] Microsoft requires an NPU to deliver at least 40 TOPS for Copilot+ PCs. Both Lunar Lake and Panther Lake meet this threshold, but Panther Lake uses significantly less silicon. GPU tiles Panther Lake is Intel’s first product with Xe3, its latest GPU architecture. It offers two different GPU tiles: a smaller GT1 tile with 4 Xe3 cores on Intel 3 and a larger GT2 tile with 12 Xe3 cores on TSMC N3E. Panther Lake allows us to compare the same GPU architecture across both Intel 3 and TSMC N3E. Wildcat Lake adds a third Xe3 implementation on Intel 18A. A future newsletter will detail Xe3 and its implementation differences across all three process nodes. GT2 scales Xe3 to a different physical layout, with render slices arranged vertically instead of GT1’s horizontal arrangement. Slice placement sets the distances to shared cache banks and the D2D interface. Those wires consume area and add delay, so scaling the number of Xe cores also requires a new balance of cache placement, routing and timing. [1] What’s immediately obvious is that the GT2 tile on TSMC N3E has much smaller Xe cores than GT1. These block areas include logic, caches, and routing. An Xe core on the GT1 tile is ~69% larger than one on Lunar Lake, and ~55% larger than one on GT2. Intel 3 therefore uses substantially more area per Xe core. The block-area gap exceeds the measured logic and SRAM density gaps, bringing routing, timing targets, cell mix, and floorplan allocation into the comparison. The measured vector/matrix engine region is almost unchanged between Lunar Lake and Panther Lake’s GT2 tile. Xe3 retains eight 512-bit vector engines and eight 2048-bit XMX engines per core. Its gains also come from feeding those engines more effectively: more resident threads hide stalls, and variable register allocation lets shaders trade registers per thread against the number of threads kept active. [1] The shared L1/SLM capacity increased by 33% from 192 KiB to 256 KiB, while its area increased only 5%, raising effective density by 27%. L1 retains reused cache lines, while software-managed SLM lets a thread group share data locally. Both reduce traffic to more distant memory. Allocating more SLM per group can also limit how many groups reside on a core at once. [1], [37] The GT1 tile carries 4 MiB of L2 against 16 MiB on the GT2 tile. GT1 divides its L2 cache into four 1 MiB banks, while GT2 uses eight 2 MiB banks. Each bank contains 128 macros, but each N3E macro stores 16 KiB, twice the Intel 3 macro’s 8 KiB capacity. The N3E macro is only 54% larger while holding twice as many bits, giving it 30% higher density: ~23.7 Mbit/mm² versus 18.3 Mbit/mm². Including bank-level circuitry, the gap widens to ~16.9 Mbit/mm² on GT2 versus ~10.4 Mbit/mm² on GT1. GT2 gains density with its macros storing more bits per unit area, and those macros occupy more of each cache bank. Larger macros spread decoder and sense-amplifier overhead across more storage, while a more compact bank layout reduces the share spent on control and routing. The compromise is longer wordlines and bitlines that carry more capacitance. [34] I/O tile Panther Lake uses two I/O tile variants, both fabricated on TSMC N6. The smaller one provides 4 PCIe 5.0 and 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes and serves lower-tier systems as well as those without a discrete GPU, while the larger one adds 8 PCIe 5.0 lanes, bringing the total to 20 lanes, for discrete-GPU connectivity. Panther Lake SKUs with the larger 10- or 12-Xe GPUs use the smaller I/O tile. [38] The smaller I/O tile adds a PCIe 4.0 block and a Thunderbolt block to Lunar Lake’s I/O layout, providing four additional PCIe 4.0 lanes and another Thunderbolt 4 port. Its repeated N6 blocks retain nearly identical areas and layouts. Reusing these proven PHYs and controllers avoids porting and requalifying external interfaces on 18A, where faster digital logic offers less benefit to circuits constrained by the off-chip link. [38] SemiAnalysis’s teardown lab (STEEL) dives deep into the world’s advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. We’re hiring technical experts from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Panther Lake offers scalability and modularity through its disaggregated packaging that partition compute, GPU, and I/O silicon into separate tiles allowing for a suite of tile configurations. This partitioning makes the package part of Intel’s node economics as it determines how much leading-edge wafer area each product consumes, which functions can remain on other processes, and how much configuration freedom Intel can offer from a shared set of tiles. Furthermore, fabricating the compute and GPU tiles separately confines the new 18A process to the compute tile and allows graphics and I/O to use other, more established, and more cost-effective processes. For Panther Lake, the GPU and I/O tiles are assembled alongside the compute tile on a passive silicon base using Foveros-S. Intel’s current technology brief lists a nominal 36 µm pitch for Foveros-S. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) in the base connect the fine wiring above to the larger package connections below. The functional tiles sit side by side on that passive base in a 2.5D configuration. [39] Our cross-section through the compute and GPU tiles shows the package’s wiring hierarchy. Microbumps connect each active tile to the passive silicon base; its fine redistribution layer (RDL) carries the short, dense tile-to-tile links. TSVs carry connections through the base to the package substrate, which fans them out to the much coarser motherboard solder joints. The base supplies interconnect, while computation remains in the active tiles above it. [39] At the compute-tile edge, the higher-magnification inset shows a local microbump spacing of approximately 25.24 µm and a feature width of 12.33 µm. These local spacings are finer than Intel’s nominal Foveros-S value. The X-ray fields further confirm tighter neighboring bumps, consistent across every die-to-die area found on each tile. Additional X-ray analysis is offered after the paywall. Putting the memory controller beside the CPU removes the D2D transfer that CPU memory requests required in Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake. This avoids the extra transmitter, receiver, and link traversal, saving interface energy and latency. Panther Lake’s separate GPU still crosses a D2D link to reach DRAM, so its larger local caches also help contain package traffic. [1], [40] Smaller dies are less likely to contain a random fatal defect, and screening them before assembly prevents one bad tile from consuming a complete package of good silicon. Reuse also spreads design and qualification work across more products. Against those gains, Intel pays for the passive base, D2D circuits, extra bonding and test steps, and losses during assembly. Cost per working product across the portfolio captures the combined effect of wafer yield, reuse, test, and assembly. [29] Wildcat Lake packaging Intel launched Core Series 3, formerly Wildcat Lake, on 16 April 2026 for value mobile and edge systems. Wildcat Lake keeps 18A but removes the passive base and combines more functions on one die to simplify the package. The two products therefore reveal two distinct ways to commercialize the same leading-edge process. [41] Wildcat Lake’s 18A die combines up to two Cougar Cove P-cores, four Darkmont LP E-cores, two Xe3 cores and a smaller NPU. A separate platform-controller die supplies I/O, connected through UCIe, Intel’s first processor implementation of the standard. Consolidating graphics remove a tile boundary and the passive base, reducing assembly complexity for a modest-bandwidth value product. It also ties CPU and graphics scaling to the same die, giving up Panther Lake’s ability to swap in a much larger GPU. [42], [43] In July 2021, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger set out an ambitious process roadmap aimed at regaining performance leadership by 2025, later described as five nodes in four years. Five years and one CEO later, Intel’s comeback story is not as unambiguously positive as Pat may have hoped. [44], [45] Intel once set the pace for process technology, bringing high-k metal gate technology and FinFETs into volume production years ahead of the rest of the industry. Its 22 nm FinFET process reached consumers with Ivy Bridge in 2012. [46] Intel’s integrated device manufacturing (IDM) model allowed its architects and process engineers to co-optimize products and processes. Starting with Sandy Bridge, Intel dominated x86, while AMD struggled with Bulldozer. That lead faltered at 14 nm and broke at 10 nm. Intel targeted a massive 2.7× density increase, but the node arrived years late and required several revisions before it could support Intel’s full lineup. This delay forced Intel to stretch 14 nm across six generations, while TSMC moved ahead in process technology and AMD recovered in x86. By 2019, Intel was still shipping 14 nm across most of its product stack, with its 10 nm client ramp focused on Ice Lake mobile processors. Meanwhile, TSMC was shipping N7 and N7+, and AMD’s Zen 2 compute chiplets used N7 to raise core counts and improve efficiency. Intel’s process failures were central to its decline, but unsound business decisions furthered their downward slide. Product delays compounded product mistakes, pushing client, server, and FPGA roadmaps off schedule. Several attempts to enter AI (Nervana and Gaudi) and networking (Tofino) also failed to establish lasting businesses. Intel’s recovery has focused on consumer CPUs and advanced packaging. Tiger Lake, Alder Lake, Lunar Lake and now Panther Lake have restored Intel’s consumer roadmap. On the process side, Intel 4 shipped with Meteor Lake, Intel 3 with Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest, and Intel 18A with Panther Lake. Intel has also made advanced packaging part of its foundry offering. However, Intel is still playing catch-up in servers. Several Xeon generations arrived years late and trailed contemporary AMD and Arm server CPUs in performance, efficiency, and core count. The process roadmap is back, but Intel does not hold the same process-technology leadership position it held prior to 10 nm. The introduction of gate-all-around nanosheets and backside power delivery are two of the biggest changes to transistor integration in a decade. Intel took on both changes at once: 18A paired its first RibbonFET with PowerVia in Panther Lake. Panther Lake is a substantial manufacturing milestone. Our cross-sections show how RibbonFET and PowerVia reshape local contacts and wiring, while the floorplans show where architectural consolidation and process choices save area. A sustained competitive lead depends on product performance, cost, yield, and the next implementation. The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page.. 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Sep 26 • 9:36 AM EDT • Technology • newsletter.semianalysis.com

MWCConnection Reacts Results: Mountain West dark horse team.

Check out what the voters think.

Sep 26 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

6 Chicago businesses hit in Friday smash-and-grab burglary spree

Chicago police are investigating a string of smash-and-grab burglaries that took place on Friday morning on the city's South Side.

Sep 25 • 10:48 PM EDT • Business • nbcchicago.com

Preview & Prediction: Boston College Football vs Virginia Tech

It was a dark and stormy… afternoon at Alumni Stadium

Sep 25 • 1:45 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Best fragrances and scents to wear in fall 2026

This fall, popular fragrance trends will include dark and woodsy perfumes, warm spices like nutmeg and cardamom, and gourmands beyond pumpkin.

Sep 25 • 10:58 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

‘Roseanne’ star Michael Fishman says onscreen mom lashing out at him shows ‘darker side of my childhood’

‘Roseanne’ actor Michael Fishman reacted to Roseanne Barr lashing out at him over the sitcom revival’s cancellation, says her actions exemplify ‘darker side of my childhood.’

Sep 25 • 10:19 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Meet the Michigan climate candidate on Trump’s radar

Less than two months ago, William Lawrence was a relatively unknown progressive climate group co-founder and a dark-horse candidate for Congress running in a Trump district in the middle of Michigan.

Sep 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • michiganadvance.com

A Particle Accelerator Could Create Dark Matter From Empty Space

Let's GO!

Sep 25 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com

'If you do want to be a criminal, there is no better place to do it': Author Rose George dives into the dark depths of the fishing industry

Live Science spoke with Rose George, journalist and author of "Every Last Fish," about her book, which delves into the murky world of the fishing industry, the intelligence of the animals harvested, and the hurdles preventing sustainability in the oceans.

Sep 25 • 6:03 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com

Vox’s Unexplainable and Scientific American explore the mystery of dark matter and the limits of science

What if the universe’s biggest mystery has no answer?

Sep 25 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • scientificamerican.com

The Embryos That Don't Come From Eggs and Sperm

Human embryo models can provide a powerful window into the earliest stages of life. But how far should they go?

Sep 25 • 3:00 AM EDT • Science • undark.org

AI Presents Science with a ‘Ship of Theseus’ Problem

Opinion | AI can replace each part of the scientific process, leaving the enterprise recognizable but devoid of human judgment.

Sep 25 • 3:00 AM EDT • Science • undark.org

NBA dark-horse contenders? Raptors, Warriors among teams that could make unexpected run

Sep 24 • 1:03 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

‘Happy Valley’ Star Sarah Lancashire Leading Dark Netflix Series About A Modern-Day Witch Hunt

Netflix is teaming with Happy Valley star Sarah Lancashire, Abi Morgan and Sister on a dark thriller about a modern-day witch hunt, while the streamer has secured Bob Mortimer and Ricahrd Ayoade for i...

Sep 24 • 11:45 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Get messy with Mess Fest at Science Museum of Virginia

8News got a visit from a special guest who brought some special items about a Science After Dark event at the Science Museum of Virginia on Friday.

Sep 24 • 10:42 AM EDT • Science • wric.com

UT Health San Antonio ranks on Forbes list of ‘America’s Best Employers for Healthcare Professionals 2026’

UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center and health system of The University of Texas at San Antonio, has been named one of America’s Best Employers for Healthcare Professionals 2026 by Forbes, earning a place among just 250 healthcare organizations nationwide recognized for creating strong workplace environments for healthcare professionals. The national recognition, […]

Sep 24 • 10:18 AM EDT • Health • news.uthscsa.edu

Blue Light Doesn’t Actually Fry Your Eyes. The Real Problem Is Much Stranger.

A dark-room experiment reveals why blue blurs the world, and why darker eyes handle it better.

Sep 24 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com

Stellar Entertainment Launches Cosmo Vision to Speed Up IFE Compliance Screening

Stellar Entertainment has launched Cosmo Vision, an AI-assisted technology that can speed up IFE compliance screening by up to 75%.

Sep 24 • 7:36 AM EDT • Entertainment • apex.aero

Meta is trying VR glasses (again), this time with more IMAX

Meta's return to the VR glasses realm comes with a promising combination of light weight form factor and enhanced entertainment options.

Sep 23 • 7:47 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com

New dark money GOP group dominates Wisconsin political spending

A brand new group reported spending $13 million against Wisconsin Democrats in its first campaign finance report.

Sep 23 • 5:04 PM EDT • Politics • wpr.org

‘Home Improvement’ star Jonathan Taylor Thomas detained in L.A.

‘Home Improvement’ star Jonathan Taylor Thomas was detained in L.A. on Monday, Sept. 21.

Sep 23 • 4:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

The Franklin Institute is throwing an adults-only Halloween party after dark

Science After Hours: Fright Nite will feature horror-movie effects, planetarium dancing and rooftop stargazing Oct. 16, with food and drinks available for purchase.

Sep 23 • 2:41 PM EDT • Science • phillyvoice.com

Eckerd College launches graduate school pathway for public health with USF

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Sep 23 • 1:22 PM EDT • Health • eckerd.edu

Network Solutions Dark Web Monitoring alerts small businesses to domain-linked data exposure

Network Solutions Dark Web Monitoring alerts small businesses to domain-linked breach data and offers steps to reduce cyber risks.

Sep 23 • 9:40 AM EDT • Business • helpnetsecurity.com

Jim Crow was on the ash heap of history. Then came the Roberts court.

The disaster the justices have unleashed has its roots in one of the darkest periods of our past.

Sep 23 • 7:30 AM EDT • Politics • motherjones.com

Is 50 the new 60?

Subscribe TL;DR: Younger generations are showing signs of worse health compared to earlier-born cohorts at the same age This backward “drift” is showing up both in mortality risk and chronic disease Worsening trends in obesity and diabetes are the most consistent signals Taking the long view, we’ve made astonishing gains in health and life expectancy in the last century. Global average life expectancy has more than doubled from 32 years in 1900 to 73 years in 2024. (But don’t forget, there were still old people when life expectancy was 32). As people lived longer, they also generally lived healthier along the way. It turns out that avoiding things that can kill you early, like malnutrition and lots of childhood infections, also keeps you healthier later in life. In a classic 2004 paper, Finch and Crimmins proposed that cohorts of children who benefited from fewer early life infections had less lifetime exposure to inflammation and cardiovascular disease later in life, accelerating mortality improvements at older ages. Poor nutrition in the womb has also been linked to a higher risk of later chronic disease. The upshot is that improvements in childhood health can pay dividends many decades later. The combination of better living conditions (nutrition, sanitation) and medical advances (antibiotics, vaccines, blood pressure meds, etc) meant that people’s healthy lifespan generally expanded, even as they lived longer. Aging researchers call this best-case scenario “compression of morbidity”—meaning we delay the onset of disease and disability even faster than the years of life we are adding. During my 20+ year research career, we could generally bank on the idea that younger generations would not only live longer but also keep getting healthier along the way. “60 is the new 50” as they say… Enter “Generational Health Drift” Sadly, this expectation of steady progress may be changing. You’ve probably heard that US life expectancy gains have slowed to a crawl in the past couple of decades. Mortality improvements are also slowing (though less dramatically) in many other high-income countries (you can read more about that in a review paper I wrote here). Mortality is a very blunt health measure, but it is often a good barometer for the broader population health trends happening underneath. And we are now seeing that younger generations may be in worse health at similar ages compared to earlier born cohorts. My collaborator Prof. George Ploubidis at University College London coined this worsening health in more recently born cohorts “generational health drift.” “Generational health drift” is bad news on multiple fronts. Most obviously, we don’t want our health progress to go backward. But the timing is also bad, since our populations are aging. In demographic terms, “population aging” means that the proportion of the population at older ages (i.e >65 years) is increasing. Fun demography fact: Current population aging is not due to the recent declines in the birth rates making the news, but declines in fertility decades ago, after the “baby boom.” As baby boomers reach older ages, the smaller cohorts behind them mean the percentage of older adults will increase. For example, the share of the population age 65 and older in the US increased from 12.4% in 2004 to 18.0% in 2024. This story of population aging was written long ago. Many worry that population aging will put pressure on health care and pension systems. But if people reach older ages in better health than in years past, those fiscal pressures would be less dire than projected. Healthy older people can also continue to contribute to society in many valuable ways, including paid work, caregiving, community service….even high political office 🤷. On the flip side, if younger generations reach retirement age in worse health and with more disabling conditions, this could magnify the societal challenge of population aging. Evidence for worsening generational health A recent paper that I LOVED in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Leah Abrams and colleagues examined which birth cohorts (aka generations) were behind worsening US mortality. Behold the Lexis diagram (cue swooning demographers). Calendar time is on the x-axis, age on the y-axis. Birth cohorts can be followed over time as they age on the diagonal lines moving up and to the right. This figure plots the year-on-year % change in all-cause mortality at a given age. Green shading indicates mortality improvements over time, white is stagnation, and gray shading indicates worsening mortality. Following the diagonal line for those born in 1950, you can see a noticeable shift from green to gray that follows this cohort for most of their lives. This gray shading shows generally worsening mortality for the 1950 to 1959 birth cohorts compared to their predecessors across all ages. Concerningly for my GenX and elder millennial peeps, there was also a deterioration in mortality for birth cohorts born in the 1970s and 1980s, visible as dark gray areas at ages 30 to 45 during the 2010s. While some of these mortality changes reflect specific shocks such as the opioid epidemic, most deaths still occur from major causes of death such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. For cancer, the gray in the top left corner of the figure below reflects the legacies of smoking for older cohorts, followed by a period of green with improvements in cancer mortality as smoking rates declined. But the white/gray shading in the bottom right corner highlights a stagnation and reversal of the cancer trends, with cohorts born around 1970 to 1985 experiencing worsening cancer mortality. This deterioration was most noticeable for colon cancer mortality, possibly linked to obesity or dietary factors. Not just dying more, but less healthy along the way. A recent paper by Dr. Laura Gimeno of University College London (of which I am a co-author), found evidence that more recently born cohorts in Great Britain have stagnating or worsening health. A stylized picture of what“generational health drift” might look like: The review paper found: Rates of childhood overweight and obesity were highest among Gen Z. Rates of diabetes in the 40s almost doubled from 3.1% among the Baby Boomers to 5.9% in Generation X. Gen Z reported higher rates of poor mental health in adolescence compared to earlier-born groups. These UK results are consistent with studies showing worsening health across generations in the US as well. A 2021 US study found that more recently born cohorts had worse biological markers (like blood pressure and blood sugar) than earlier generations at the same age. A separate 2022 study of Americans aged 50 and over found that more recently born generations had a higher number of chronic diseases, with younger age of disease onset. A 2024 Lancet paper found that in the US, women born in 1945 had 33% obesity prevalence at age 50, rising to 48.2% for women born in 1970 turning 50. So what’s going on, and can we turn it around? We don’t have a definitive answer for what’s causing the deteriorating health of younger cohorts, but circumstantial evidence points to worsening trends in obesity and diabetes in both the US and UK. Remember that cohort trends reflect lagged effects of early environments, and younger generations have faced both earlier onset and more severe obesity across their lifetimes. Despite these very concerning trends, the future is not set in stone. We’ve reversed poor generational health trends before: drops in smoking are a major reason cancer and heart disease deaths fell so dramatically in recent decades. GLP-1 drugs may finally turn the tide against rising rates of obesity and diabetes, though it is still early days. But things could also get worse…for example from a return to higher levels of childhood infectious diseases that can have a lasting impact on health. See for example: [ ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) [ Don’t You Forget About Me(asles): The Virus That Erases Immune Memory ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) Jenn Dowd, PhD · March 24, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) Even as an optimist, emerging data on the “generational health drift” has my full attention. For most of my research career, we took it for granted that each generation would be healthier than the last. But if present trends continue, **50 could be the new 60….**and Gen Z celebrities will soon look older than Paul Rudd :). Stay well, Jenn Share the Health! If you found this post useful, please share it with a friend. Share

Sep 22 • 6:03 AM EDT • Health • jenndowd.substack.com

Businesses ‘frozen out’ of Trump’s tariff channel with China

The private sector is largely in the dark about the Trump administration's plans for a "Board of Trade" to oversee reductions on billions of dollars worth of duties.

Sep 22 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • politico.com

National Forensic Science Week highlights role of science in solving cases

Forensic scientists and investigators are being recognized this week for the role scientific evidence plays in criminal investigations...

Sep 21 • 9:52 AM EDT • Science • darkhorsepressnow.com

Science In Sport partners with Nike for its After Dark Tour

Science In Sport becomes Nike After Dark Tour's fuel and hydration partner, with race packs and a co-branded nutrition range for runners.

Sep 21 • 7:27 AM EDT • Science • stack3d.com

Science Advances celebrates 100 years of electron spin from quantum sensors to dark matter

Special issue reviews spin physics breakthroughs and future challenges across semiconductors, dark matter and quantum field theory

Sep 21 • 3:00 AM EDT • Science • dongascience.com

Hailey Bieber Unveils Her Darkest Hair Transformation in More Than a Decade

The dramatic change comes after Bieber told followers this summer that she was on a "hair health journey.".

Sep 20 • 10:10 PM EDT • Entertainment • kansascity.com

Chugiak student takes advocacy of darkness-related health issues to National Civics Bee

Elara Bradley, 13, won the state civics bee finals in June, punching her ticket to the National Civics Bee in Washington, D.C., next month.

Sep 20 • 5:19 PM EDT • Health • adn.com

Tennessee Democrat to propose bill to ban corporations from political spending

A Tennessee Democrat is set to push for new restrictions on corporate campaign spending, following the seminal steps of a movement to limit dark money in politics.

Sep 20 • 2:48 PM EDT • Politics • timesfreepress.com

Is the deluge of negative dark-money political ads in Ohio working? Editorial Board Roundtable

So what does our Editorial Board Roundtable make of this onslaught of negative ads? A sign that dark-money spending needs to be better regulated? Could it depress turnout or make governing harder for whoever does win?

Sep 20 • 5:48 AM EDT • Politics • cleveland.com

MLT’s new family-focused indoor entertainment complex open for business

Just in time for the rainy season, Monster Mini Golf opens its doors in Mountlake Terrace, across the street from the Grocery Outlet and Cinebarre. The 18-hole, glow-in-the-dark, mini golf […]

Sep 19 • 6:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • myedmondsnews.com

MLT’s new family-focused indoor entertainment complex open for business

Just in time for the rainy season, Monster Mini Golf opens its doors in Mountlake Terrace, across the street from the Grocery Outlet and Cinebarre. The 18-hole, glow-in-the-dark, mini golf […]

Sep 19 • 6:25 PM EDT • Business • myedmondsnews.com

Secrets of the universe: Scientists in South Dakota may have found dark matter

Dark matter is a mysterious, theoretical substance that NASA calls “the invisible glue that holds the universe together.” Inside an old gold mine deep in South Dakota’s Black Hills, researchers believe they’re close to moving from theory to proof.

Sep 19 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • mprnews.org

Why does blond hair tend to darken with age?

Some children have blond hair that darkens as they grow up. What causes this change?

Sep 19 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com

Webb Telescope may have uncovered ancient stars powered by dark matter

Dark stars are candidates for the first stars that formed in the Universe, 200 million years after the Big Bang, and powered by dark matter.

Sep 19 • 2:30 AM EDT • Science • skyatnightmagazine.com

Out of the Darkness, Into the Light

These words are emblazoned on the inside of the tunnel at the Stadium of Light, and have never reverberated more than now.

Sep 19 • 1:48 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is 30fps on Nintendo Switch 2

Some Nintendo Switch 2 owners have been disappointed to find out that LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is only 30fps on the Nintendo Switch 2. The latest LEGO game doesn’t feature a Performance…

Sep 18 • 9:40 AM EDT • Technology • mynintendonews.com

'Dark Matter' Season 2, episode 4: Why does Daniela leave?

"I think I need to go away."

Sep 18 • 3:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

Montana Ballot Measure Would Strike at Political ‘Dark Money’

A measure aimed at stemming the tide of corporate money in politics will be on the November ballot. Opponents say it violates a high court ruling.

Sep 17 • 6:09 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

New iPhone 18 Pro Models Will Have Day One Update

Customers receiving an iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, an Apple Watch Series 12, or an Apple Watch Ultra 4 tomorrow will need to install a software update right away. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max ship with iOS 27 variants with a 24A427 or 24A8428 version number. The launch version of iOS 27 is version 24A437, so if you're getting an iPhone 18 Pro, expect a software update during the setup process.

Sep 17 • 3:25 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

The “Dark Money” Myth: Don’t Confuse Issue Education with Political Speech

In a recent article covering the 2026 midterms, The New York Times sounded an all-too-familiar alarm, warning readers of a tidal wave of "dark money" supposedly washing over the election. The narrative is meant to incite outrage, painting a picture of shadowy figures “upending” and “manipulating” politicians, our political process and indeed democracy itself through secretive nonprofit organizations.

Sep 17 • 11:24 AM EDT • Politics • philanthropyroundtable.org

Viewpoint: Let's take dark money out of Montana politics

John Westenberg writes, I realize money will always play a role in politics. I’m convinced, however, that a huge step can be taken to make that money “honest”

Sep 17 • 10:34 AM EDT • Politics • missoulacurrent.com

The Champions League cloud that casts a long, dark shadow

More than a year on from one of their most embarrassing European exits, Celtic are struggling to escape from a groundhog day entirely of their own making. Amid buzz phrases like "learning lessons" and "wake-up calls" following last weekend's derby drubbing at Ibrox, an interesting yet awkward question emerges: have Celtic learned anything at all from last year's costly mistakes? Going out of the Champions League to Kairat Almaty cast a cloud over huge swathes of last season.

Sep 17 • 9:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Tennessee Democrat to propose bill to ban corporations from political spending

A Tennessee Democrat is set to push for new restrictions on corporate campaign spending, following the seminal steps of a movement to limit dark money in politics. State Sen. Charlane Oliver, a Nashville Democrat, said she plans to introduce a bill in January mirroring a move by Hawaii to ban corporations, unions and dark money […]

Sep 17 • 6:02 AM EDT • Politics • tennesseelookout.com

NASA’s New Horizons spots signs of liquid nitrogen flowing on Pluto

Scientists have found the first evidence that liquid may have flowed across Pluto’s surface in the recent past. Dark features on the enormous Sputnik Planitia glacier appear consistent with liquid nitrogen rising through cracks from deep beneath the ice. Computer models show that nitrogen could melt at the glacier’s base and travel upward like fluid through small conduits. The finding reveals that Pluto may be much more geologically active than its frozen appearance suggests.

Sep 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Co-founder Max Hodak joins the agenda lineup on Disrupt 2026

Hear why Science Corp CEO Max Hodak says the screen era is ending at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register before Sept 25 to save up to $200.

Sep 16 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • techcrunch.com

Deep in Trump country, a revolt against corporate money could reshape political spending

It taps into growing, bipartisan anger over the pervasiveness of so-called dark money in elections.

Sep 16 • 8:24 AM EDT • Politics • detroitnews.com

Singer Reimagined Keeps The GMT Hits Coming With The 1970 DualTrack

✓ Singer introduces the 1970 DualTrack in three variations ✓ Khaki green, Cobalt blue, and Dark Espresso brown ✓ CHF 23,000 (ex. VAT) ✓

Sep 16 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • fratellowatches.com

'The Visit' review: Money reshapes morality in the modern classic

Darko Tresnjak directs Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 'The Visit' at Pasadena Playhouse, starring Tony winner Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton.

Sep 16 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com

This Alexandria small business sells frights, thrills and imagination

The Long Dark House on King Street looks like an ordinary storefront, but inside it is filled with horror ... and horror books.

Sep 16 • 12:51 AM EDT • Business • wtop.com

BCB After Dark: Who is the third starter?

The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks who should get a Wild Card Series start.

Sep 15 • 11:07 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Dark Tower’ TV series still ‘very much on the table’ (exclusive)

Where does Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Dark Tower’ TV series stand? ‘The development process on it has been epic,’ he explains.

Sep 15 • 2:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

This bizarre creature walks upside down—scientists stunned by ocean discovery - Futura-Sciences

The Alien of the Abyss In the dark depths of the Pacific, a truly otherworldly fish has been filmed moving in a way never seen before. Those “legs” are actually fin rays, and its way of walking shatters everything we thought we knew about fish locomotion. Imagine a body covered...

Sep 15 • 1:30 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com

Science in Sport becomes Nike After Dark Tour nutrition partner

Science in Sport has announced a global partnership with Nike as the Official Performance Fuel & Hydration Partner of the Nike After Dark Tour.

Sep 15 • 9:57 AM EDT • Science • endurance.biz

Nightdive Studios Head Raises Hopes Of An Eternal Darkness Remaster

Eternal hope

Sep 15 • 8:30 AM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com

Has dark matter been found? Bay Area scientists analyze signal deep underground

A single unexplained particle interaction has Bay Area scientists investigating a tantalizing possibility: a direct detection of dark matter, the mysterious substance thought to make up most of the universe’s matter.

Sep 15 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • mercurynews.com

Is Eternal Darkness Getting a Remaster? Nightdive Studios Raises Hopes That the GameCube Classic Will Return

Hopes of an Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem remaster have been raised by an intriguing comment from Nightdive Studios.

Sep 15 • 6:40 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com

Scientists hunt for dark matter deep underground

A SLAC-led experiment more than a mile beneath a Canadian mine has begun collecting early scientific data ahead

Sep 15 • 3:30 AM EDT • Science • technology.org

SCIENCE IN SPORT NAMED OFFICIAL PERFORMANCE FUEL AND HYDRATION PARTNER FOR NIKE AFTER DARK TOUR

/PRNewswire/ -- US Statement "Science in Sport is the Official Performance Fuel & Hydration Partner of the Nike After Dark Tour, a series of seven iconic...

Sep 15 • 2:00 AM EDT • Science • prnewswire.com

Will Netflix’s Latest Horror Film Save Its Summer? And Introducing a New Data Source...

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) All month, I’ve been polling you, my readers, on how we think the summer’s biggest blockbusters will do when they eventually land on streaming, and I wanted to share the results. First up, how readers think The Odyssey will perform when it comes to Peacock... People are pretty bullish that The Odyssey will smash it for Peacock. I don’t know that it will have as much rewatchability as Wicked did for kids, but we’ll see. It is now Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time. One note: almost half of Christopher Nolan’s films weren’t available for streaming the week The Odyssey came to theaters, including some of his biggest films like Inception, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer and Insomnia. If you did want to watch the others, Prime Video had Memento and The Dark Knight trilogy, HBO Max only had The Dark Knight trilogy (even though Warner Bros. produced most of Nolan’s films), Hulu had The Prestige and Interstellar, and Paramount+ had Interstellar. So you needed at least two streaming subscriptions to catch the rest. Warner Bros. whiffed right here. I know they have long term licensing deals, but they should have tried to get as many Nolan films on HBO Max for launch as possible. Here are the results for Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The audience is a bit more mixed on this one, with everyone agreeing Spider-Man will swing to a big opening, but not necessarily elite or best all time. On to this week’s issue. Netflix continues searching for a hit straight-to-streaming summer film and Lioness and Ted Lasso allow me to look at the difference between a “hit” and a ‘hit for them”. All that, plus new YA/teen melodramas on Prime Video and Netflix, the House of the Dragon finale, USA Network claims a big opening, more big NFL ratings, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. But we start with a fun new data announcement. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of August 3rd to August 9th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe A New Data Source: Reelgood’s Data on Content Libraries Here’s a fun new treat for you. Reelgood—an online service and app that lets users track where shows or films are streaming—is providing data every month for the Streaming Ratings Report on the size of each streamer’s catalogue, along with the new shows and films for each streamer. Yay! Previously, I had pulled “new shows on streamers premiering on the first of the month”: While I liked that data cut, it was a big wonky since it didn’t show all of the new shows or movies that came to a streamer each month. Instead, I would have preferred something like this from Reelgood’s annual report: And now we have it! I’m going to feature Reelgood’s data monthly, showing both total catalogue size and new shows and films appearing on the charts. That’s going to make these two cool new charts. First, here’s the size of various streamers’ film catalogues… (By the way, Reelgood offered to make the charts for me, but I like doing that task by hand to understand the data better.) They also provided data back to last year. Here’s the number of films timeline: And here are the new films on each streamer for the month prior to Aug: As I get used to this data, I plan to keep tinkering with how I display it, but I’m excited to feature it monthly. Today, I’m sharing the film charts; next issue, I’m going to feature TV shows by streamer. Now, in full disclosure, Reelgood is a sponsor of this little-newsletter-that-could. But in my constant quest to figure out what streamer various shows and films are on, I was already a Reelgood user before this sponsorship. I go to their website all the time, and their data is very accurate on where shows are (or have been). Plus, I’ve been sharing their weekly top ten lists for years now, pre-sponsorship. For me, this is a great win-win, since I get to amplify a service I love, and I get a cool new data source to play with. Now, normally folks don’t usually mention their sponsors directly, but as I wrote before, as I start featuring ads in my newsletter, I plan to be extremely open about who is sponsoring my writing so you can trust what I write. Television - Two Big Returning Shows Look Set to Take Over The Charts One key question when it comes to judging streaming shows is whether a show is a “hit” or a “hit for them”. To be clear, the former means a show that’s one of the top shows on streaming, no questions asked. The latter means a show is one of the biggest, for a given streamer. That distinction makes a big difference! It’s really good to be one of the biggest shows on a streamer; it’s much better to be the biggest on streaming, despite the size of a streamer. Because, as we’ve seen now, nearly every streamer—while lacking the number of subscribers or usage of Netflix—can make hit TV shows: Paramount released Landman, whose first and second seasons were among the top two TV shows the year they came out. HBO Max’s The Pitt’s second season is the biggest show of the year so far. Love Island USA was the top show in 2025 for Peacock. And, crucially for today’s discussion: Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 2023, Ted Lasso was actually the top streaming show of the year according to Nielsen! So even Apple TV (formerly +) can make hit shows. It just doesn’t make them that often. And looking at the Nielsen charts this week, we have two prime candidates for this discussion: That’s right: Ted Lasso returned to Apple TV for its fourth season. Did it return in all its expected glory? Sure, though right now it’s still just a “hit for Apple TV”, but we’ll see how long it lasts on the charts. Its ten episodes are coming out weekly. (Smart choice, Apple!) Ted Lasso started out strong, actually making the Nielsen charts the week before new episodes dropped, which is a rare feat. (Shows like Stranger Things or Bridgerton have pulled that off. That’s terrific company to join!) On Nielsen, it opened to 14.4 million hours in its first week, and 16.6 million the week of 10-Aug. Here’s how that compares to previous seasons: Apple put out that this is their biggest TV launch through two days ever, and looking at the chart and Apple TV’s viewership history, I’d believe it. Here’s Apple’s top shows for season two and beyond: Other data tells a (mostly) similar story. Ted Lasso made Samba TV and it has elite IMDb scores, an insane 8.7 on 465K reviews. The only outlier is Luminate, where the latest season only had 7.4 million hours, and no other seasons made the top ten. As you’ll see below, that’s well below some other solid, but not spectacular shows like Sterling Point, Ride or Die or Furious. I’d be surprised if Ted Lasso isn’t bigger than those other shows, but it’s fine for different data sources to occasionally disagree. And while it’s sucky to bring this up, given that Warner Bros. produced this show, I do wonder how the streaming wars may have been different if Ted Lasso landed on HBO Max initially instead of Apple. I don’t think one show can make or break a streamer, but given HBO’s brand, it could have helped bring people to that streamer much earlier in its lifespan. (Though yeah, I don’t love calling out executives for passing on hit shows, since that’s just the nature of the job. Even the absolute best execs will pass on lots of successful shows. The key is not greenlighting the under-performers/misses.) The other show I’m thinking about in the “hit or hit for them” category is Lioness from Paramount+. Like Ted Lasso, its first season missed the charts, but it’s grown its audience since then. Here’s how season three opened: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How Lioness did on streaming... Two new melodramas for Netflix and Prime Video... Whether Netflix’s latest horror film saved its summer... Hulu’s Furious and Prime Video’s Ride or Die continuing their strong runs... The latest high profile showrunner to flop on streaming... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Next week, we’ve got a double issue—since the week of 17-Aug had very few notable new shows or films—so I’ll look at HBO’s Lanterns, Prime Video’s Reacher, Netflix’s Tires, Outer Banks (which posted up huge numbers four years ago), an Aussie romance, and another baseball event (that didn’t resonate). And a bunch of movies like the latest dramedy from an Adam Sandler daughter, Don’t Say Good Luck, Camp Rock 3 on Disney Channel and Disney+, Michael on Starz, and more. Later this month, we’ve got a ton of shows and films to analyze! Movies will be the big story, featuring a box office bomb (Supergirl on HBO Max) and an “underperformer” (The Mandalorian and Grogu on Disney+) contending with a bunch of star-studded straight-to-streaming films like Netflix’s The Whisper Man (Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan and De Niro!), Mayday on Apple TV+ (Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh!), The Runner (Gal Gadot) and The Last Sunrise (Eva Longoria and Maia Reficco) on Prime Video. Plus, a ton of TV shows have sophomore seasons coming out. Will The Gentleman put up big numbers on Netflix or suffer from a sophomore slump? Leanne and Beauty in Black on Netflix seem small, but they both might be bigger than you think. Hulu has a bunch of shows: a new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the first after all the controversy last year) and the second season of Chad Powers (from Peyton Manning’s production company and starring Glen Powell). This one flopped last year; can it score a touchdown this year? Same goes for FX’s Adults, which I didn’t track last year; will it hit this year? Peacock’s The Office spinoff, The Paper and Apple TV’s Dark Matter also return for second seasons. And Netflix has more Untold specials featuring Vince Young, Raygun (that horrible breakdancer) and Mr. T. Long term, Paramount+ is rebooting yet another franchise, Clueless, and I’m somewhat bullish on this new show. The talent attached (Alicia Silverstone) and creative Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (of The O.C. and Gossip Girl) also feel solid...if they make it funny like the original.

Sep 14 • 6:43 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Potential dark matter detection sparks hope in search for elusive substance

Finding dark matter would help to understand what the universe is made of. The LZ experiment may have made a breakthrough in detecting the invisible substance.

Sep 14 • 1:23 PM EDT • Science • cnn.com

Why do bars form in some spiral galaxies, but not in others?

Bars can form in any galaxy with ordered rotation; it is primarily the quantity of dark matter that controls whether a bar is present.

Sep 14 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • astronomy.com

Genealogy project reveals a dark side of Iowa history

What would you do if genealogy research revealed an ancestor was a crime boss? Iowa natives David and Rose Donovan turned their family discovery into a book exposing Des Moines' forgotten dark side: “The Nastiest Saloon in Iowa.”

Sep 14 • 6:26 AM EDT • Entertainment • thegazette.com

Did an international team of scientists get humanity's first glimpse of dark matter?

A Brown University physicist, one of the project's co-founders and lead researchers, filled us in.

Sep 14 • 5:01 AM EDT • Science • oceanstatemedia.org

No cities on the moon—there isn't enough water, scientists say

The discovery of water in dark craters at the moon's poles has sparked a "moon rush" to establish bases there, followed by villages, cities and heavy industry. How sustainable is this rush?

Sep 14 • 12:00 AM EDT • Science • phys.org

Researchers say they may have detected a dark matter particle for the first time

Members of the LUX-ZEPLIN project, including Texas scientists, say more data is needed. But the potential dark matter particle is a major breakthrough.

Sep 13 • 8:02 PM EDT • Science • tpr.org

Public health event to continue discussion of racial disparities in Douglas County birth outcomes

The health department is inviting the Douglas County community to continue an April conversation focused on racial disparities in local birth outcomes.

Sep 13 • 7:41 PM EDT • Health • lawrencekstimes.com

Pierce Brosnan breaks silence on rumored feud with “MobLand” costar Tom Hardy

The former 007 shut down speculation that he had an issue with the “Dark Knight Rises” star.

Sep 13 • 6:11 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Week 1 Colts vs. Ravens Game Thread

The Indianapolis Colts are at home to take on the Baltimore Ravens in week 1 of the 2026 season, kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. EST. Ladies and gentlemen, we have survived another offseason. The dark days are behind us and for many NFL fans week one will be the highlight of their football season. Right now fans […]

Sep 13 • 12:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com