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Cape Fear Valley Health cuts nearly 200 positions
Cape Fear Valley Health is eliminating approximately 200 positions as it faces declining federal reimbursements and rising healthcare costs.
Bills’ Josh Allen continues dominating “best current NFL QB” debates
In a league full of elite talent, the better question is how much being the best really matters.
Judge rules for UNC in lawsuit from fired business professor
A federal judge has ruled against a former University of North Carolina business professor who sued the school for retaliation and racial discrimination after his contract was not renewed in 2024.
New Scientist recommends an unsettling deep dive into forensic science
Esteemed forensic anthropologist Sue Black gives a candid insight into the UK criminal justice system and how it really works in her book An Expert Witness, finds Linda Geddes
Ocelli Among 29 Indiana Derby Nominations
Nominations are in for the 32nd running of the Grade 3 $300,000 Indiana Derby set to run Saturday, July 11 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. A total of 29 names are on the nomination list headed by third-place finisher Ocelli in this year’s Kentucky Derby. Seven starters from the first leg of the Triple ...
'Legally Blonde' prequel 'Elle' is soulless and senseless
In the seminal 2001 comedy "Legally Blonde," our young fair-haired heroine Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is a kind-hearted yet naive valley girl who trades beach days for study sessions as
The Case for Performance-First Management
What began as a crisis-driven response to the Covid pandemic laid the foundation for today’s dominant management paradigm: people-first management. But today’s business demands a different approach, as performance and productivity have replaced engagement and retention atop the CEO agenda. Performance-first management represents a gentle shift toward an approach where managers empower their teams to deliver high-impact results within a complex and evolving reality. It keeps people at the center, but reorients the manager’s role around enabling performance, not just supporting satisfaction. Gartner research shows that managers who shift toward a performance-first approach are up to 21% more likely to deliver the business results that are expected of them. And employees who say that their managers are performance-first report higher overall satisfaction with their employee experience.
University of Phoenix to launch three-year Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice Administration for experienced professionals
/PRNewswire/ -- University of Phoenix announces today that it has received approval from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), hlcommission.org, to launch its...
Lawmakers must put women’s health, dignity and lives ahead of politics
Each year since the fall of Roe, the Louisiana Legislature has advanced increasingly aggressive versions of the state's abortion ban, often under the guise of targeting bad actors.
Lawmakers must put women’s health, dignity and lives ahead of politics
Each year since the fall of Roe, the Louisiana Legislature has advanced increasingly aggressive versions of the state's abortion ban, often under the guise of targeting bad actors.
Trump administration ends $1.2M in federal grants for Wisconsin teen health programs
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services notified funding recipients on Saturday that the federal government had abruptly terminated a $1.2 million annual Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant, according to a letter shared with Wisconsin Public Radio.
Wimbledon Day 2 Upsets, Featuring Ben Shelton, Elina Svitolina
There were several big upsets on Day 2 of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, as Ben Shelton, Elina Svitolina, and Donna Vekić were all eliminated as the thrilling first-round action continued. Seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams was also beaten on her return to the Wimbledon stage, bowing out in the first round against Maya Joint.
Phil Weiser defeats Michael Bennet in Colorado’s Democratic gubernatorial primary
Attorney General Phil Weiser took an early lead over three-term U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado’s Democratic gubernatorial primary and held onto it, defeating the state’s longest-serving senator in more than 50 years to win a nomination that’s likely to land him in the governor’s office. Weiser led Bennet 55% to 45% just before 8 […]
What 124 Future Business Leaders Really Think About AI and Work
Insights from 124 career assessments written by UMD-Smith graduate students show 98% expect artificial intelligence to transform, not eliminate, their careers. The analysis also found AI raises performance expectations while increasing demand for strategic thinking, AI literacy, ethical judgment and critical evaluation of AI-generated work.
Getty Images Plans to End Shutterstock Deal After U.K. Imposes Conditions
Getty Images plans to terminate its merger agreement with Shutterstock after a U.K. regulator said the latter company must sell its editorial business in order for the merger to be approved.
Trump nominates acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to permanent role
President Donald Trump nominated acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to keep the role permanently. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, touting his experience during his first and second terms in the Labor Department. “Throughout his career, Keith has proven his dedication to delivering strong results for the Hardworking People of our Country, and I […]
‘Minions & Monsters’ scores series-best reviews for Illumination’s animated franchise: ‘Weird, willful popular entertainment’
The latest installment drops the Minions down in Old Hollywood with cameos from Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin.
The Supreme Court’s New 6–3 Elections Case Was Not Nearly as Bad as Expected
As disastrous Supreme Court election cases go, Tuesday’s decision in NSRC v. FEC doesn’t make the list of complete abominations.
Fly Phishing: How Business Aviation Can Fight AI-Supercharged Cybertheft
AI is making cybercriminals faster, smarter and harder to detect. Learn how business aviation operators can recognize emerging threats, defend against sophisticated phishing attacks and protect their aircraft, data and organizations.
Recent Research on How Experiencing Racial Discrimination Impacts Health
This brief provides an overview of the relationship between racial discrimination and health and highlights research examining mechanisms underlying health outcomes linked to experiences of racial discrimination, including biological changes, chronic stress, mental health, substance use, pregnancy-related outcomes, and sleep.
These NFL power couples dominate the field, entertainment world
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift could be wed as soon as this week. Here are other partnerships between NFL and celebrity stars.
Band Together to Take Down Criminals and Earn Bounty Hunter Bonuses
Bring dangerous criminals across the frontier to heel and earn 3X RDO$, XP, and Role XP dragging in Regular Bounties, and 3X RDO$, XP, and Gold hauling in Legendary and Infamous Bounties.
Supreme Court rules against trans athletes in case over sports participation
The court ruled Tuesday that Idaho and Virginia did not discriminate against runner Lindsay Hecox or high school shot-putter Becky Pepper-Jackson in barring them from playing on teams that align with their gender identity.
Trump nominates acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to be permanent chief
Lori Chavez-DeRemer stepped down in April amid abuse-of-power allegations
EDITORIAL: Bennet, Hick play politics with the judiciary
Facing spirited challenges from the left — in the final hours of races each thought would be a walk in the park — Colorado’s two Democratic U.S. senators are doing what comes naturally to politicians. Pandering. How else to explain their opposition, reported Sunday, to the pending nomination of respected and rock-solid U.S. District Judge […]
Floodwaters, oil and health fears in South Sudan
Flooding has submerged oil wells in Unity State since 2021, fueling contamination fears among war-displaced communities, though scientific evidence remains limited.
How Trump chose a former Oklahoma state trooper to lead ICE — and handed Markwayne Mullin a win
After an occasionally rocky start in his new post, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin won an internal debate when President Donald Trump announced he was nominating Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement, five sources familiar with the dynamic told CNN.
Radiology providers must pay $7M, modify policies after breast cancer miss
Radiologist Henry C. Lusane, MD, with Acumen Medical Imaging, interpreted the scans, reporting the mass as benign, a mistake later leading to a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Encina Private Credit Provides $90MM First Out Tranche for Healthcare Business
Encina Private Credit (EPC) served as the administrative and collateral agent on a senior secured credit facility supporting a dividend recap and refinance
Brewers End Mini-Drought With 5-3 Win vs. Reds
Late-inning home runs from Milwaukee Brewers' Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz erased a three-run deficit, sparking a resilient offensive surge and dominant relief performance to stifle the Cincinnati Reds' divisional hopes.
Trump taps Keith Sonderling, a longtime ally of business, for Labor Secretary
President Trump nominated acting secretary Keith Sonderling to permanently lead the Labor Department after months of turmoil. Business leaders who backed his candidacy say he has already been steering policy and personnel decisions.
Netflix and Superheroes Are Having a Rough Stretch on Streaming....
(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.) I have a quick prediction before we start today’s article: You might see this data in future news articles. Not my specific charts or analysis, but the core trend I’ve been monitoring—Netflix is having a lackluster Q2—will become inescapable. Often, folks want to know “What does the data say?” Well, that’s what it says. I haven’t seen this analysis hit the trades really yet, but I have a feeling some other outlets are going to start making this case soon. Remember, you read it here first. You probably have read about the problems facing superhero films at the box office this weekend. Well, this week, I explore whether superheroes are dying on TV as well! And the data says: definitely maybe! We have a lot to cover in today’s Streaming Ratings Report, which covers the two weeks of 18-May and 25-May. Today, I’m just looking at TV, like Netflix’s disappointing Q2, superhero shows underwhelming, a few TV shows dropping off the charts, The Pitt finally ending its epic run on the viewership charts (and whether “view counts” change its status as one of the biggest shows of all time), all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Tomorrow, I’ve got a great rundown of the film side of things. 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, Showlabs, TV Time trend 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 May 18th to May 31st, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Netflix’s Q2 Slump Continues Having analyzed streaming ratings for going on half a decade, I have learned to trust my gut, but I’m always relieved when I can find actual data to back it up. For example, after a string of very popular shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Lincoln Lawyer and The Night Agent came out, week after week, in January and February, my gut wondered if Netflix had enough new and returning TV shows to sustain them throughout the year. Since then, Netflix’s post-March slate of shows has not impressed me. This week seemed to feature a potential new hit, but then, like a classic Duffer Bros. TV show, there was a twist. I speak of The Boroughs, Netflix’s latest (and last) Duffer Bros. produced show. The pitch is “Stranger Things with older actors”. And it topped the Nielsen charts: With just two weeks of viewership, The Boroughs would have been a top 25 debut show last year: But here’s the twist: Netflix has already cancelled The Boroughs! What happened? Likely a few things. First, the show didn’t do as well globally as it did in the US. As What’s on Netflix showed, it lagged behind several other shows that got cancelled. Second, its completion rate was likely low; after an initial burst of interest, it quickly dropped off on the Samba TV and Luminate charts. Third, the Duffer Bros. left Netflix for Paramount, and that may have factored into Netflix’s decision here. (Though I tend to believe that if a show is doing well, Netflix would have kept greenlighting seasons.) Still, just because I can explain why Netflix may have cancelled this show doesn’t mean I’m justifying it. In particular, as I’ve noted before, Netflix is losing a lot of their bigger shows as they reach their natural ends, and they need to replace those shows. This show had the hallmarks of a big new genre show, and it’s their biggest hit of the last few months (in the US at least), but now it’s done. Netflix’s other show this week—The Four Seasons, the second season of the “hit” show from last year—definitely disappointed. Its sophomore season had about half the viewership of the first, only 12.7 million hours. It also only had a two week run on Samba TV, and its numbers were all down on Luminate too. In other words, even with two successes, the Q2 slump for Netflix looks real: I could add to the list of disappointments: Both Lord of the Files and Man on Fire had short runs on the Nielsen charts. Running Point’s sophomore season also opened to about half its viewership, similar to The Four Seasons. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s second season—see below—didn’t even make any of the three viewership charts I track, unlike the first season. Netflix is absolutely having a dismal second three months of 2026. If this Nielsen data is any indication, and I think it is, I think this will show up in Netflix’s engagement report, and maybe even their financial outcomes. And the rest of June doesn’t look much better. We have two hit shows coming back—Sweet Magnolias, one of their quietest big shows, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a big hit for them in 2024—but the other big swings are limited series crime thrillers i.e. no future season potential. Like I said above, sometimes when I uncover a juicy nugget like this, other outlets end up writing very similar articles mimicking the data without credit. We’ll see if that happens this time! Share Television - The State of Superhero Shows on Streaming When I first heard the pitch for Spider-Noir—a Sony TV show on Prime Video that binge-released eight episodes first on MGM+ then on Prime Video two days later—I had my doubts. It’s a live-action Spider-Man show set in the 1930s, starring Nicholas Cage, based on a cameo of a character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. No, seriously, that’s the pitch. That could either go terrifically well or horribly wrong. Great because, Spider-Man. He’s the biggest superhero we have. I’ve seen tracking numbers that put the new _Spider-Man: Brand New Da_y as the blockbuster of the year and initial pre-sales back that up. And yet this Spider-Noir pitch feels very esoteric. (Also, the eight-episode binge release feels very “Amazon copying Netflix” again.) So what’s the data say? And what does this say about the future of superhero shows?
Reviews clear Telescope Health of fraud allegations; officials encourage Jacksonville residents to use HealthLink JAX
Multiple reviews have found no evidence of fraud, criminal wrongdoing or misuse of taxpayer dollars by Telescope Health, ending months of scrutiny over the Jacksonville company that operates the city’s HealthLink JAX program for uninsured residents.
Rocket Lab expands satellite business with Iridium deal
Yahoo Finance Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian joins Market Domination to discuss Rocket Labs' (RKLB) deal to purchase Iridium Communications (IRDM), how the deal expands its satellite capabilities, and whether it strengthens the company's position against SpaceX (SPCX).
Atlanta Hawks celebrate graduating third cohort of women business leaders
The Georgia woman’s leadership empowerment program, which is celebrating the completion of its third cohort, brings in early-career women from typically male-dominated industries in Atlanta for mentorship and professional development.
Healthcare AI's next big leap: Removing friction from clinical workflows
Rather than just adding more applications, one CMIO says, organizations should focus on using automation and intelligence to eliminate unnecessary steps, reduce clinician burden and streamline care delivery.
Expert: Tennessee Redistricting Plan Driven by Politics, Not Race
An expert defends Tennessee's congressional redistricting plan, arguing racial consequences stem from partisan aims, not racial discrimination.
Supreme Court rejects Trump's push to toss $5M verdict in E. Jean Carroll case
The decision comes about two years after the court granted Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Colorado's state primary
Democratic voters in Colorado will decide in a state primary which of two well-known statewide officeholders to nominate to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
Winning Before Kickoff: The science behind success at the 2026 FIFA World Cup
The World Cup is usually remembered for what happens after the whistle: the impossible assist, the heroic save, the deflection that turns a nation’s hope into heartbreak. But in 2026, some of the most important contests may be decided before kickoff, in training rooms, recovery suites, flight schedules, hydration plans, and cooling protocols. Science cannot eliminate soccer’s glorious unpredictability, but it can help teams survive it.
Evans Has Reportedly Been 'Unguardable' at 49ers Practice
The future Hall of Famer is stunning teammates in San Francisco, dominating red zone drills and exceeding high expectations as he anchors a loaded arsenal for Brock Purdy.
Baker Mayfield Drops Clear Message on Kyler Murray
As Kyler Murray seeks a fresh start in Minnesota, former teammate Baker Mayfield defends the polarizing quarterback, predicting a dominant resurgence fueled by a much-needed change of scenery.
Efzimfotase alfa demonstrated improvements in bone health in treatment-naïve pediatric patients with hypophosphatasia achieving median difference of 1.67 vs placebo in RGI-C Score at week 25 in MULBERRY Phase III trial
Positive results from the MULBERRY Phase III trial showed that efzimfotase alfa (ALXN1850), an investigational enzyme replacement therapy, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in bone health in children (2 to
Ann Blyth, teen star of 'Mildred Pierce,' dead at 98
LOS ANGELES — Ann Blyth, a versatile Hollywood star who received an Oscar nomination at 17 as Joan Crawford’s wayward daughter in “Mildred Pierce,” sang opposite Mario Lanza and Howard
Lyles to take charge of Ultimate Championship entertainment
Noah Lyles has been announced as an Ultimate Star for the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, taking place from September 11-13 in Budapest, Hungary.Lyles, the dominant US sprinter who has won consecutive 200m golds at the past four World Championships, is locked in to compete at the inaugural edition of the new global championship. Lyles has earned automatic qualification into both the 100m and 200m by virtue of his podium-topping performances in those disciplines at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, respectively.
What is extra time in the World Cup knockout stage? Complete rules explained
When a match ends in a draw in the single-elimination phase of a soccer tournament, an additional 30 minutes of play are required
Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Drops Blunt Message Amid Trade Rumors
The Boston Celtics have had a busy offseason, and not all of it has been on their terms. Trade speculation surrounding Jaylen Brown has dominated the discourse since the front office reportedly explored moving him as part of a pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo. That deal fell through. The noise did not.Brown has watched the narrative […] The post Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Drops Blunt Message Amid Trade Rumors appeared first on HEAVY.
Trump gets the complete domination he wanted in Louisiana
Rep. Julia Letlow, his preferred candidate, won the GOP runoff for his longtime rival Bill Cassidy’s Senate seat.
The Arts and Sciences of Judo: The New Edition Expands the Frontiers of Knowledge
The publication of Volume 6, Number 1 of "The Arts and Sciences of Judo" marks another important milestone in the development of judo research worldwide. As the International Judo Federation's interdisciplinary journal, under the supervision of Professor Sanda Čorak, it has become a recognised platform where science, education and the values of judo come together to deepen our understanding of the many dimensions of our sport. It also forms an integral part of the IJF Academy's mission to promote education, lifelong learning and the dissemination of knowledge throughout the global judo community.
Julia Letlow defeats John Fleming in GOP Senate runoff. Jamie Davis wins Democratic nod.
Letlow staved off a tough challenge from Treasurer John Fleming, while Davis overwhelmingly one his party’s nomination.
Scotland's elimination from World Cup confirmed
Scotland are out of the 2026 World Cup as they are unable to finish the group stage as one of the eight best third-placed teams.
Trump says he is nominating former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer as ICE director
Schroyer's nomination comes after former ICE director Todd Lyons resigned at the end of May. David Venturella, a former executive at a private prison operator, has been serving as the acting head of the agency.
Ann Blyth, Oscar nominee for 'Mildred Pierce,' dies at 98
LOS ANGELES — Ann Blyth, who was nominated for an Academy Award for playing the wicked, manipulative daughter in the 1945 noir melodrama "Mildred Pierce," has died at age 98.
Uruguay federation reportedly cancels charter flight after World Cup elimination
Trump says he’ll nominate former Oklahoma state trooper as ICE director
President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will nominate Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper and Marine, to be the next director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
PlayStation is pulling "previously purchased" digital movies from users' libraries
Sony has written to customers to advise that hundreds of "previously purchased" digital movies previously available via its online store will "be removed".
Angels fire g.m. Minasian
The Anaheim Angels fired general manager Perry Minasian on Friday
‘Unhealthy environment’: Arctic researcher Li Xueke leaves the US for Hong Kong
Li is among a growing cohort of US-based researchers moving to Asia as Donald Trump terminates grants for climate-related projects.
🗞 Today’s back pages: Baena downs Uruguay, the Dembélé show...
Spain’s victory over Uruguay dominates the sports newspaper headlines, but let’s take a look at how the main newspapers around the world are covering it.MARCAASMundo DeportivoSPORTL'EquipeSuperdep...
Trump-backed Letlow faces Fleming in Louisiana GOP Senate runoff
President Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. Senate in Louisiana is seeking to secure the GOP nomination and deliver another win for the president in his effort to replace Republicans who crossed him
World Cup 2026 Round of 32 tracker: Who’s qualified, who’s eliminated and who’s still alive
The political determinants of health
As a visiting fellow, health equity scholar Daniel Dawes integrated his work on the political determinants of health into Yale School of Nursing’s curriculum
The political determinants of health
As a visiting fellow, health equity scholar Daniel Dawes integrated his work on the political determinants of health into Yale School of Nursing’s curriculum
Live Results: Louisiana midterm primary runoffs
Louisiana Republicans will nominate a candidate for U.S. Senate in a primary runoff Saturday, six weeks after denying Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy a shot at a third term.
PlayStation Is Deleting Terminator 2 And 550 Other Movies
Movies like Rambo: First Blood, Bridget Jones' Diary and The Deer Hunter are all being unceremoniously removed
Why JD Vance is downplaying Richard Nixon’s corruption
It’s not every day that you see the would-be frontrunner for a major party’s presidential nomination extolling the virtues of Richard Nixon and downplaying his corruption.
After 80 Years, Mathematicians Give Famed ‘Erdős Method’ an Upgrade
Decades ago, Paul Erdős used randomness to illuminate the vast and weird world of networks. Now mathematicians are making his technique even more powerful.
PlayStation encourages Blu-ray adoption by deleting purchased movies from customer accounts
PlayStation encourages Blu-ray adoption by deleting purchased movies from customer accounts
Trump foe John Bolton is set to plead guilty. Here’s why the case didn’t fall apart
As several criminal investigations into President Donald Trump’s foes continue to flail, federal prosecutors are now ushering one of his biggest critics to a conviction.
Notre Dame 2026 Player Profile: Wide Receiver Devin Fitzgerald
As the son of an NFL legend, this physical Arizona standout is already flashing elite route-running and contested-catch skills after a dominant spring debut in South Bend.
Sweden: European Social Rights Committee calls for an end to Sweden’s two-tier healthcare system
Amnesty International welcomes a landmark decision by the European Committee of Social Rights finding that Sweden breached the right to health without discrimination.
Opinion | Don't apply politics to scientific research
Under recently proposed rules, federal grants could be terminated midstream for reasons having little to do with science or merit.
How an Iowa junior college became a sports giant
DMACC athletic programs are quietly dominating through coaching and player performance
Senate Indian Affairs Committee Advances Mark Cruz’s Nomination to Lead Indian Health Service
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, led a nomination hearing to consider Mr. Mark Cruz, of Oregon, to be Director of the Indian Health Service within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and expressed her intent to support his nomination. Representative Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a citizen […]
Ann Blyth, Oscar-nominated 'Mildred Pierce' actress, dies at 98
Ann Blyth, Golden Age Hollywood star and Oscar-nominated 'Mildred Pierce' actress, has died at 98.
Shohei Ohtani Earns Three Nominations for 2026 ESPYS
Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers has redefined what a two-way player can look like in the modern era of baseball. Ohtani is coming off a 2025 season in which he won his fourth MVP and second straight World Series championship. On Thursday, ESPN announced the nominations for the 2026 ESPYS awards.
Trump nominates Chris Klomp as HHS second-in-command
President Donald Trump on Thursday named Medicare director and former health care executive Chris Klomp to be deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
Mental health as both outcome and determinant in climate adaptation
Nature Climate Change - Mental health should not be viewed solely as a passive outcome of climate adaptation. Rather, it serves as a key determinant of cognitive capacity and shapes the...
Discovery Education Earns Five 2026 CODiE Award Nominations Spanning Math, Science, Digital Citizenship, and Immersive Learning
Discovery Education Earns Five 2026 CODiE Award Nominations Spanning Math, Science, Digital Citizenship, and Immersive Learning
Trump nominates new top deputy to RFK Jr.
Chris Klomp, a 45-year-old tech entrepreneur, gained the president's confidence when he negotiated price cuts with drug companies.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
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