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Science is Cool: Capillary Action
Kirsten Hibbard, the executive director of the Challenger Learning Center, is here to teach us about capillary action.
Scientists find a new critical point in supercooled water
X-ray experiments provide further evidence that water exists in two distinct phases
Cool nights, quiet frogs: The science behind spring peepers
Did you hear the spring peepers last week? Conditions outside wereperfect for them to reemerge after winter and kick off their nightly chorus.But this week, yo
Inconsistent Nationals face challenge in surging Braves
The Washington Nationals will try to cool off Michael Harris II and the surging Atlanta Braves when the teams open a four-game series on Monday night.
Feeling less than fresh? Upgrade your daily routine with these 28 editor-loved personal hygiene products
From beauty upgrades and cooling essentials to grooming must-haves, here are our favorite personal hygiene products we rely on to stay refreshed in the spring.
Rare Cooler Master GeForce RTX 5080 shows up at repair shop, turns out it wasn't even broken
Limited Cooler Master RTX 5080 sent for repair after PSU swap What do you do when you install new hardware and see a spark inside your PC? The last thing
12 Cool New Gadgets to Keep on Your Radar
Catching you up on the past week’s most notable product releases.
14 Cool Gadgets On Amazon That Can Solve Everyday Problems
Sometimes it's the little things in life that cause the most stress, but the right gadgets from Amazon can take those annoying tasks off your to-do list.
Dyson HushJet Mini Cool vs. Shark ChillPill — I tested both portable fans and this is the one I'd actually buy
Because staying cool is now a premium experience
USWNT beats Japan 3-0, displaying dominance after Tuesday’s loss
On a cool night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., the U.S. women’s national team didn’t just beat Japan, it looked like itself again. And at the very center of their 3-0 score was defender Kennedy Wesley. After a scoreless first half, Wesley set up Naomi Girma in the 47th minute, who calmly finished at the back post. Less than 10 minutes after the first goal, Wesley intercepted a pass and found Lindsey Heaps in midfield. Heaps slipped it to Rodman, who dribbled her defender
Iron Galaxy lays off employees as it reduces company size
Co-development and porting firm Iron Galaxy Studios is adopting 'a new posture to accept these current market conditions as permanent.'
SBI Sets Up Entertainment Fund with Cool Japan Fund
Tokyo, April 17 (Jiji Press)--SBI Holdings Inc. said Friday it has set up a fund with Cool Japan Fund Inc. to …
Why I’m embracing the latest uncool thing in gaming
‘Unc’ is meant to disparage older players who favour slow-paced shooters and epic narrative games, but the industry should make games for all generations
Schmaltz scores 2 goals as Mammoth defeat Jets 5-3
Nick Schmaltz scored twice as the Utah Mammoth beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Tuesday night and secured the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Schmaltz scored his first goal for the Mammoth 4:54 into the second period on the power-play, assisted by Mikhail Sergachev and Dylan Guenther. He added a power-play goal 7:16 into the third, assisted by Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller.
Stark County Community’s Choice Awards business spotlight: Quality Heating & Cooling
We’re in the final stretch! Ready to recognize your favorite local businesses? Submit your nominations for Stark County Community’s Choice Awards today.
The best sleepwear may be no sleepwear. Here’s what experts say
Sleeping too hot can ruin rest. Experts explain how cooler bedding, breathable fabrics or going naked may improve sleep and more.
Dyson's First-Ever Handheld Fan Is Here in Time for Summer Heat Waves
The 55-mph HushJet Mini Cool can help you beat the heat, even when you're on the move.
Dyson just announced its first-ever handheld fan, with a motor that spins up to 65,000 RPM
Dyson just revealed a handheld and portable fan called the HushJet Mini Cool. It launches in May.
Dyson's new HushJet Mini Cool portable fan is only $99
You read that right. A hundred bucks!
Science happens here! Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology invites public to free Open House Saturday, May 2, 2026
Dive into the world of marine science and explore cool tech at this open house you won't want to miss! Have you ever wondered what happens in that unique
Marathon's Top Players Are Begging Bungie To Do More About Cheaters
The scale of the issue is hard to pin down but the studio says its taking more steps to crack down
African frogs haven’t forgotten the ice ages. Scientists can tell by where they live.
Why are frogs diverse in some parts of Africa’s rainforests and less so in others? The patterns of cooling and glaciation during the last ice age would probably not have been your first answer or even your last-ditch guess, but it is, nonetheless, correct. “When the glaciers were at their maximum
Earth’s most powerful ocean current didn’t form the way we thought
A colossal ocean current encircling Antarctica—stronger than all the world’s rivers combined—played a far more complex role in shaping Earth’s climate than scientists once thought. New research shows it didn’t form just because ocean gateways opened, but required shifting continents and powerful winds to align. This shift helped pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, contributing to a major cooling event that transformed Earth into the ice-covered world we know today.
How Forests Start to Fail, One Leaf at a Time
In a Swiss forest lab, scientists tracked how beech and oak leaves cool themselves and pinpointed the moment heat and drought push them past their limits.
U.S. service sector cools in March, inflation heating up amid Iran war
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has boosted global oil prices by more than 50%
Iodised salt has become uncool but many of us need to eat more iodine
Iodine deficiency is on the rise among people in the UK, the US and Australia. A century ago this led to drops in IQ, height and thyroid health – and the modern fancy salt fad may be leading to a resurgence, says columnist Alice Klein
This “forbidden” exoplanet has an atmosphere scientists can’t explain
A strange “forbidden” planet spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope is turning planetary science on its head. TOI-5205 b, a Jupiter-sized world orbiting a small, cool star, has an atmosphere surprisingly poor in heavy elements—even less enriched than its own star, which defies current theories of how giant planets form.
Pocket-Sized E-Ink Gets A Firmware Upgrade
Not so long ago, e-ink devices were rare and fairly pricey. As they have become more common and cheaper, some cool form-factor devices have emerged that suffer from subpar software. [Concretedog] p…
Is The Tesla Diner A Flop? (Review)
It’s cool to hate the Tesla Diner. Not because it’s a failure (it’s not) but because Elon Musk is associated with it.
10 Wickedly Cool Carroll Shelby Cars That Made The Man A Legend
Carroll Shelby was an iconic figure in American automotive culture whose cars spoke for themselves. Here are 10 of coolest car he helped create.
9 Cool New Gadgets to Keep on Your Radar
Catching you up on the past week’s most notable product releases.
NASA Disappoints Artemis II Astronauts By Cutting Off Chappell Roan Wakeup Song
This is a lot cooler than Katy Perry going into space: NASA played Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” to wake up the astronauts on Artemis II this morning. However, mission control abruptly cut the audio after Roan sang “heels.” “We were all eagerly awaiting the chorus,” Commander Reid Wiseman joked. Artemis II launched on Wednesday…
Is GTA 6's Long Development The Result Of A Complete Engine Rebuild? It's Probably More Complicated Than That
Also: GTA V leaving Game Pass, a cool Manhunt mod, and the wildest GTA 6 rumor ever
A small-business bakery owner details how tariffs are taking a toll
Small-business owner Katrina Golden explains why she thinks sales have cooled and how tariffs are affecting her baking business.
Gophers become unexpected heroes after scientists introduce them to site of Mount St. Helens eruption
"We cannot ignore the interdependence of all things in nature."
Research roundup: 7 cool science stories we almost missed
Sperm gets lost in space; raccoons solve puzzles; the physics of folding a crepe; and more.
Heartbreaking: New game reveal that sounds legit cool actually just one big joke
April Fools', you got me again!
Swamp King: The Young Biologist Keeping Science Accessible on TikTok
His chameleon, Krome, is pretty cool, too.
Scientists stunned by 'unprecedented' behavior in king penguins: 'It's quite striking'
"For the moment the species is able to cope with this change, but till when?"
Cool Delaware things to do in April 2026
Whether you have an appetite for comedy, an art festival or cold drinks, we've got a menu of fun Delaware events you can munch on throughout April.
Scientists surprised by results after growing wildflowers under heaters: 'A sign of things to come'
"It's all happening so much faster than the projections would have said."
13 Cool Games We Just Saw At PAX East That Should Be On Your Radar
The Boston convention is lacking in big names, but it’s still got smaller indie standouts on the showfloor
Scientists Stunned: Colossal Eggs Discovered 3,500 Meters Beneath an Active Volcano
Beneath an active seafloor volcano off Vancouver Island, researchers have documented a congregation of giant eggs at roughly 3,500 meters, a discovery that reframes how life can flourish under extreme conditions. The eggs belong to the Pacific white skate, an elusive deep‑sea species adapted to cold, crushing pressure and perpetual darkness. What seemed an unlikely nursery is actually a geothermally warmed refuge, where subtle heat helps embryos survive a marathon incubation. The finding links volcanic energy to a quiet engine of biodiversity, turning a hostile landscape into an incubator. A living volcano, a hidden nursery The seamount long assumed dormant now exhales mineral‑rich, shimmering plumes, proof of hydrothermal life at depth. Expedition cameras swept across black basalt and pale bacterial mats, revealing vents that pulse with warmth. That warmth, though modest by human standards, alters the physics of development for cold‑adapted embryos. In a realm where metabolism creeps, even a few degrees can mean faster growth and higher survival. The volcano is not only active; it is ecologically formative, drafting a blueprint for a thriving oasis. Giant eggs and a skate built for the abyss The Pacific white skate, Bathyraja spinosissima, is built for the abyss: broad wings, armored spines, and a life history that trades speed for endurance. Females lay outsized, rectangular “mermaid’s purses,” often 46–50 centimeters long, packed with rich yolk to fuel years of growth. In the frigid deep, embryos can require around four years to hatch, a timeline that magnifies every energetic advantage. The scale is striking—large eggs, large adults, and a textbook case of deep‑sea gigantism. The volcano’s gentle heat may literally shave months or years from the wait. Why heat matters at the bottom of the sea Hydrothermal circulation delivers low‑level warmth without the turbulence that would scatter fragile egg‑cases. Slightly elevated temperatures accelerate enzyme kinetics, nudging development along while keeping embryos within a safe range. Mineral‑laden fluids likely shape local microbiomes, which, in turn, can influence biofilms on egg surfaces. The environment acts like a slow, steady incubator, countering the deep sea’s tyrannies of cold and scarcity. For a species with long maturation and few offspring, every incremental boost compounds across generations. An ecosystem sculpted by fire and water Seafloor volcanoes create steep environmental gradients, stitching together hot vents, cool eddies, and mineral gardens into mosaic habitats. Microbes harvest chemical energy, seeding food webs that support crustaceans, fishes, and skates. Cameras documented egg‑cases nestled among rocky ledges, near communities nourished by vent‑driven chemistry. These islands of productivity behave like deep‑sea oases, sustaining life far beyond the vent orifice’s flickering light. The nursery’s success underscores how geological forces engineer biological opportunity. “Finding a cradle of life tucked beneath a breathing volcano reminds us that the planet’s harshest places can be profoundly generous.” What the discovery could change The nursery reframes conservation priorities in regions where volcanism quietly underwrites reproduction. Protecting hydrothermal corridors could safeguard entire lifecycles, not just charismatic adults spotted during occasional surveys. It also sharpens questions about how climate‑driven shifts in ocean circulation might influence vent activity, temperature fields, and embryo survival. With methodical mapping, time‑series cameras, and environmental DNA, scientists can track whether nurseries remain stable or drift with geologic rhythms. Key implications include: Enhanced understanding of deep‑sea reproduction at hydrothermal sites. New conservation targets centered on geothermal nurseries. Comparative studies with other volcanic regions, from the Galápagos to rift zones. Biotechnological insights from organisms adapted to long, cold development. Better models of how seafloor heat shapes regional biodiversity. Methods behind the revelation Remotely operated vehicles threaded through chimney fields, gathering video, temperatures, and mineral signatures. High‑definition imagery captured the distinctive, horned egg cases, their edges dusted with fine volcanic silt. Geochemical profiles mapped how heat and chemicals disperse, outlining the “thermal lanes” where eggs most cluster. Combined, these datasets reveal a nursery organized by geothermal topography, with egg‑cases concentrated in pockets of gentle, sustained warmth. A fragile boon in a changing ocean Deep‑sea environments feel remote, yet they intersect with global pressures: mining proposals, cable routes, and shifting oxygen levels. The nursery’s resilience hinges on stable heat flow, intact substrates, and minimal disturbance from noise or sediment. Safeguarding such places is not just about protecting novelty; it preserves a slow, ancient strategy that lets large, long‑lived animals endure in the coldest reaches of the Pacific. Where geology and biology meet, the planet’s deep time still writes living stories. This volcano‑warmed nursery adds a vital chapter to that story, revealing how subtle thermal gifts can tip the scales toward life in the abyss. With each dive, researchers trace the contours of an unseen world, where fire feeds water, and water—against all odds—feeds the future.
11 Cool New Gadgets to Keep on Your Radar
Catching you up on the past week’s most notable product releases.
This hidden state of water could explain why life exists
Scientists have finally found a hidden “critical point” in supercooled water that explains why it behaves so strangely. At this point, two different liquid forms of water merge, triggering powerful fluctuations that affect water even at normal temperatures. The breakthrough was made possible by ultra-fast X-ray lasers that captured water before it froze. This discovery could reshape our understanding of water’s role in nature—and possibly even life itself.
Flathead Business Watercooler
Happenings related to business in the Flathead Valley
12 Cool New Apps That Will Upgrade Your Mac Experience In 2026
The Mac has a thriving developer community, with independents and large companies both introducing new and interesting apps for the platform in 2026.
Let’s take a look at the retro tech making a comeback
Boomboxes, instant cameras, and even landlines are making a comeback. Here are the coolest retro-inspired devices available.
Michigan cools off hot-shooting Alabama, outguns Crimson Tide into Elite 8
Alabama's high-octane offense kept things interesting for a half. But Michigan dominates both sides of the floor and ultimately took the game over.
Exclusive | KKR Scores One of Its Best Bets With Sale of Data-Center Cooling Business
CoolIT’s roughly 640 employees are each set to receive average payouts of $240,000.
Science happens here! Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology invites public to free Open House Saturday, May 2, 2026
Dive into the world of marine science and explore cool tech at this open house you won't want to miss! Have you ever wondered what happens in that unique
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
US Business Activity Growth Cools as Prices Rise on Iran War
Growth in US business activity slowed in March to an almost one-year low and prices paid for materials and other inputs picked up in the wake of the US-Israel war with Iran.
Eurozone, Asian Business Activity Slows as Iran War Ramps Up Uncertainty
The war has driven up energy prices and uncertainty, while a cooling of new orders points to longer-lasting harm if the conflict continues or escalates.
We disagreed on politics. We agreed on wine. That was enough.
At the Virginia Governor’s Cup Gala in Richmond earlier this month, a very dapper gentleman approached me and introduced himself. In his light-colored suit and bowtie, he looked very Southern in a classical sense, the sort of Virginia Gentleman you used to see south of the Rappahannock as recently as my college days. “I’m a longtime reader and fan of your writing, if not your politics,” he said. His comment was the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, simultaneously conveying praise and disapproval while establishing boundaries. Man, I wish we still discoursed like this instead of shouting bromides and insults to try and “own” our opponents with a funny meme and a furrowed brow. Subscribe “Well, we’ll always have wine to share together,” I said, and thanked him for his kind words. We clinked glasses, exchanged pleasantries about the delicious gold medal-winning wines being poured that evening, and went our separate ways. Our exchange reminded me that more unites us than divides us. Wine brings people together to share a meal and a few hours of joy despite our differences.1 That’s why I refer to the wine community — including readers and consumers — rather than the wine industry. Together, we are so much more than production, distribution and sales statistics. A few minutes later the evening’s awards ceremony began. Applause grew as the 12 winemakers who made the top-scoring wines for the Governor’s Case took the stage, including a loud cheer for Jonathan Wheeler of Trump Winery and his 2018 Blanc de Noir sparkling wine. All the winemakers on stage had reason to be proud, Wheeler perhaps more so. Trump Winery was the only winery to win six gold medals in the competition this year. (Wineries are limited to six entries.) Two of Wheeler’s ciders also won gold medals in a separate competition. When you cover the labels and take the sour taste of politics off your palate, the wines are pretty darn good.2 Then Gov. Abigail Spanberger, newly elected Democrat and Virginia’s first female governor, was introduced to great applause to announce which of the 12 wines had won the Governor’s Cup. She spoke for a few minutes about the importance of wine to Virginia’s economy and tourism and the international acclaim Virginia wine has received. Just two weeks earlier, she gave the Democrats’ response to Trump’s State of the Union speech, but this night wasn’t about politics. That didn’t stop several people in the crowd from speculating on the irony should she have to present the trophy to Trump Winery. In the end, Valley Road Vineyards was displayed on the screen behind Spanberger as the winning winery. Blue Bee Cidery in Richmond took top honors for that category. The crowd cheered a female governor presenting the state’s highest trophy to a female winemaker and then resumed the evening’s festivities, united by their mutual love of wine. A whiff of politics couldn’t dim the cheer of celebration and a community united by its love of wine. In Memoriam: Michel Rolland The global wine community lost a giant March 20, with the passing of Michel Rolland. He was 78. Rolland was the original “flying winemaker,” a globe-trotting consultant who helped Bordeaux regain its mojo in the 1970s and then shaped the rise of Napa Valley cult Cabernet as consultant to Simi, Harlan, Newton, Screaming Eagle, Araujo, Dalle Valle and other wineries. He was instrumental in Argentina’s rise to prominence and even had his own winery, Clos de los Siete, in a partnership with other wine families. Rolland’s career arc paralleled that of Robert Parker, the world’s most influential critic. Parker championed many of the wines Rolland consulted on, helping build his reputation and demand for his services. It also made him a target for Parker’s critics. As W. Blake Gray wrote on Wine-Searcher in his excellent tribute to Rolland: Rolland created the type of wines Parker loved: rich body, plenty of fruit, soft tannins. He sometimes faced the accusation of creating a generic international style of red wine, where the great wines he made in Argentina were indistinguishable from the great wines he made in France. Rolland chafed at that critique, as did many of his fans. He was credited with championing green harvesting and leaf pulling, as well as careful selection of grapes in the winery, practices we nearly universally think of today for high-quality winemaking. “Michel was an incredible innovator who changed how wine was made and how grapes were grown,” Napa Valley winemaker Aaron Pott wrote on Facebook. “His work has transformed the wine trade. He created new ways of looking at wine, tasting wine, evaluating ripeness and quality. … This was not just a man with a ‘style’ that he imposed on vineyards but a man that understood how to make great wine from great sites.” Rolland started his consulting company in 1973 in Libourne, in Bordeaux, with his wife, Dany. Both had graduated the year before from Bordeaux’s Institute d’Oenologie. The couple sold their majority share in the business in 2020, according to Wine Spectator. Over his career, Rolland reportedly worked with more than 100 wineries in 20 countries. He even made it to Virginia, where he consulted for Kluge Estate in the mid-2000s. (Kluge Estate is now Trump Winery.) Reader feedback, please! Last week, I did my first WineLine Live! with Dr. Laura Catena of Catena Zapata winery in Argentina. We enjoyed a fascinating discussion about her efforts to preserve the genetic heritage of old vineyards in Mendoza. I conceived of WineLine Live! for paid subscribers, as a thank you for your financial support. And while only a few people joined live, the video now has more views than I have paid subscribers, so I guess that’s pretty good. Even so, I’m considering opening future installments to anyone on Substack to reach a broader audience. So my questions to you: Should these be public? And what format do you prefer? Live gives a chat feature with the potential for viewers to interact with me and the guest, while a video post would just be that. Another alternative is a podcast, which would just be audio, without video of my chins. Please let me know in the comments. Leave a comment In the Glass A few wines I’ve enjoyed recently: Bonny Doon Vineyard Take Me to Your Liter, Le Cigare Volant, Red Wine of the Earth. 2023, Central Coast, CA. Blend of Grenache, Syrah Cinsaut and Petite Sirah. Delightful wine with expressive red fruit flavors, casual drinking. Doon lovers of a certain age will remember Randall Grahm’s Big House Red; this is more in that style than his original Le Cigare Volant, modeled after Chateauneuf du Pape. The liter bottle makes it an even better value. I see this online at about $15. Great value. Albert Bichot Bourgogne Pinot Noir Origines 2023. 13% - Textbook pinot noir and an excellent, affordable entry (regional) Burgundy. Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2025. $24 at Total Wine & More. Loma Larga Pinot Noir 2021 “Coastal Cool Climate Wine”, Valle de Casablanca, Chile. An older sample, showing beautifully. Spicy and fruit forward. I’m seeing widely varied pricing online, from $18-$32. At the lower end, it’s a terrific value. 13.5% Dr. Loosen Riesling Dry 2016, Mosel, Germany. Found this “in the stack.” And it stacked up well, shedding some of its youthful acidity for opulent Riesling character, including a hint of the mineral oil older Riesling often features. A great value, as I’m seeing it as low as $14 online. 12% abv. Red Tail Ridge Blau Franc Blend 2024, Sans Oak, Finger Lakes. 13.4% abv. The name is a neat portmanteau of Blaufrankisch and Cabernet Franc, thus Blau Franc. The blend is 50-50, no oak involved. The Blau dominates on the palate, with the spicy caraway seed (think New York deli rye bread). The Franc adds body. The result is juicy, energetic and joyful. Sokol Blosser Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir 2025, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon. This first rosé of 2025 was a welcome respite to our cold, snowy winter here in the Mid-Atlantic. Oh man, I needed this! Bright and energetic, exuberant even, it perks up the mood and goes down fast. 13%. Certified B Corp. Ingredient and nutrition labeling, and in a modest way that doesn’t occupy a lot of label space. (Since it’s not required, presumably there are no minimum font size requirements.) More wineries should follow this example. Dave McIntyre's WineLine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Thanks for reading Dave McIntyre's WineLine! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share 1 Some restraint may be required. 2 Especially the bubblies.
We are living in a period of political anti-intellectualism. But in pop culture, clever is the new cool
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Community's Choice Awards spotlight: Cool R Us
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Scientists from Northwestern, other institutions cool down chamber for groundbreaking dark matter search
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Xbox 360, PS3 And Nintendo Wii U Are "Officially Retro", Says GameStop
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Chinese scientists create world’s coldest alloy. It may surprise DARPA
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Birdwatching May Help Protect Your Brain From Age-Related Decline
We totally knew it was cool.
NVIDIA launches RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition, single-slot GPU with 32GB memory and 165W TDP
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Apple’s Smaller M5 Pro MacBook Pro Suffers From Severe Thermal Constraints, With Larger 16-Inch Model Being 30% Faster With Just 3 Extra Cores
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The Saga Of This Cheap Bentley Flying Spur Shows Off Just How Tough Volkswagen's W12 Can Be
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How Golden Entertainment (GDEN) Narrative Is Shifting As Analysts Reassess Risk And Reward
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M5 Max’s Fusion Architecture Allows For Better Sustained Performance While Running 8 Degrees Celsius Cooler Than M4 Max; Still Gets Uncomfortably Hot
The Fusion Architecture allows the M5 Max to maintain better thermals than the M4 Max while delivering better performance, as shown in the latest comparison
Samsung already nuked the only cool thing about the Galaxy S26’s AI
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CERN Science Gateway celebrates its 1000th science show
CERN Science Gateway has reached another milestone: the delivery of its 1000th science show! Since opening its doors in October 2023, Science Gateway has welcomed nearly 900 000 visitors of all ages to explore the fundamental questions of the Universe. Among its most popular activities are the science shows – dynamic, interactive demonstrations led by CERN guides and tailored to a broad audience of different age levels, including school groups, families and the general public. Designed to make complex scientific concepts accessible and entertaining, these live shows combine spectacular experiments, multimedia elements and audience participation. From the physics of particle collisions to the properties of superconductivity, electromagnetism and cryogenics, the science shows translate the research carried out at CERN into engaging visual experiences. Visitors might see superconductors levitate, follow particles through different detector layers or discover the beauty in phase transitions. Each demonstration is carefully crafted to spark curiosity while maintaining scientific accuracy. Members of the CERN community are of course warmly invited to visit CERN Science Gateway with their family or friends and attend one of the science shows. To register, please visit this page, and don’t forget to check the programme for the coming days. Become a CERN guide and run your own super-cool science show (and more)! To become a CERN guide, you can join the introduction course held every 3–4 weeks, which will give you an overview of what being a CERN guide entails. From there, further courses are available depending on what type of guide you would like to be. Because, of course, CERN guides are needed everywhere at CERN. If you imagine yourself as a more ‘traditional’ guide, you should know that there are currently more than ten exciting visit points in CERN’s visits portfolio, such as the Antimatter Factory, the ALICE experiment (surface), the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) control room, the ATLAS experiment (surface), the CERN Control Centre (CCC), the Data Centre, the LHCb experiment (surface), the Synchrocyclotron (SC), the SM18 test facility and the newly inaugurated Linac2 visit point. Indeed, CERN’s Visits Service and Visual Impact and Exhibitions Section recently collaborated on redesigning the Linac2 visit tour, which has just reopened to the public after several months of renovation work. The new tour offers visitors and guides alike an enriched, more immersive experience, designed to highlight the history and scientific significance of this major facility. So, fancy becoming one of the insiders? Join the introduction course, check the guides website or contact guides.manager@cern.ch. And remember, becoming a guide can benefit you, too.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s display looks different even with Privacy Display turned off [Gallery]
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Pre-midterms, GOP confronts cooling support from young men over Trump
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Phoenix Suns cool down Charlotte Hornets as postseason hunt continues
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KKR eyes multibillion-dollar sale of data center cooling company, FT reports
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5 Cool Things You Didn't Know Your Wi-Fi Router Can Do
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Apple's entry-level M5 SoC in the MacBook Air 13 only consumes 7-8 Watts in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate 3
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Galaxy S26 Ultra Teardown Gives Us A Closer Look At Samsung’s Efforts To Make Battery Replacements A Breeze, And To Cool Relevant Components Effectively
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You Uncool Performative Dorks Drove Up The Price Of Porsches And It's Ruining The Vibe
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M5 13-inch MacBook Air vs M5 14-inch MacBook Pro
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Cotton Days entertainment showcases family fun
COOLIDGE — The Coolidge Chamber of Commerce is celebrating the 44th annual Cotton Days this weekend at San Carlos Park with the help of some entertaining guests.
Minister dismisses Trump’s claim Starmer is ‘no Churchill’
James Murray says PM has approached Middle East crisis with a ‘cool head’ amid repeated criticism of UK’s position from US president
Top US health organizations sue EPA over decision affecting Americans' health and wallets: 'Reckless and legally untenable'
"Creates immediate uncertainty."
Research roundup: Six cool science stories we almost missed
Smart underwear measures farts, brain cells play Doom, and AI discovers rules of an ancient game.
Outraged business owners accuse officials of trying to 'sacrifice' part of US community: 'That's not happening'
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Oil price spike underscores risks of Trump's Iran strategy
President Donald Trump’s decision to topple the Iranian regime is threatening to torch an oil market his administration has been at pains to keep cool since he returned to office.
It Seems Like It Would Be Fun to Go to Mars. Well, No One Considers This Part.
Elon Musk says his obsession with the red planet is cooling.
Scientists issue warning after making grim Arctic discovery — here's what they found
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Albany woman says soaring utility bills force impossible choices between health and basic needs
Experts say extreme temperatures force heating and cooling systems to work harder and longer, meaning the more energy you use and higher bills.
An unlikely winning streak, ACC player of the year and a coach carousal update
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Did E! Entertainment's 2026 BAFTA Awards Airing Edit N-Word Moment?
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5 Cool Cars That Use Motorcycle Engine Power
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