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Utah joins FTC in lawsuit accusing Hims & Hers of sharing sensitive health information

Utah has joined the Federal Trade Commission and California in a lawsuit accusing telehealth company Hims & Hers of sharing consumers’ sensitive health informat

Jul 30 • 9:55 PM EDT • Health • kutv.com

Trump says he may temporarily pull Blanche's attorney general nomination

Sens. Tillis and Cornyn want assurances from Blanche about the controversial settlement between the DOJ and Trump, which Blanche has said is dead

Jul 30 • 4:51 PM EDT • Politics • baynews9.com

Sphere Entertainment’s (NYSE:SPHR) Q2 CY2026 Sales Beat Estimates, Stock Soars

Content production and distribution company Sphere Entertainment (NYSE:SPHR) reported Q2 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 11% year on year to $313.6 million. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.62 per share was 55.6% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Jul 30 • 3:08 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Scientists Unearth Mechanism That Helps Plants “Feel Full”

NYU researchers determine how plants sense nitrogen sufficiency—and what this means for addressing global challenges related to fertilizers

Jul 30 • 12:05 PM EDT • Science • nyu.edu

Origami-inspired sensor could continuously monitor our vital signs

A tiny sensor that unfolds within the body could continuously monitor our heart activity and breathing after showing promise in rats

Jul 30 • 10:01 AM EDT • Health • newscientist.com

Compared to Estimates, Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Q2 Earnings: A Look at Key Metrics

Although the revenue and EPS for Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) give a sense of how its business performed in the quarter ended June 2026, it might be worth considering how some key metrics compare with Wall Street estimates and the year-ago numbers.

Jul 30 • 9:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift

This edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 The Trump regime is trying to usher in a “Golden Age in Science” where scientific research is run like a Trump family business, artificial intelligence is all that matters, profit is everything, and expertise is for chumps. Or at least that’s the vision emerging from a new 123-page “Report to the President” from Michael Kratsios, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In a normal administration, you could probably skip over learning about a science policy document — but this is no normal administration, and this is no normal science policy document. Instead, it’s Trump’s attempt to end the actual golden age of science that was kicked off in 1945 with the publication of '“The Endless Frontier” by Vannevar Bush. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) [ Harmeet Dhillon demonstrates danger of posting through it ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Liz Dye · Jul 29 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Bush, at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s request, laid out a vision of federal support for science that centered on funding universities to do basic research, saying that as long as those institutions were “vigorous and healthy and their scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in Government, in industry, or elsewhere.” Kratsios’s report is supposed to be the successor to Bush’s, and even apes the format, but this isn’t really a document about science policy. It’s one about ending science research as we know it in favor of shoveling cash at big tech companies. While it might be temping to wave this away as an aspirational policy document, Trump has already begun to shift billions in research funds to AI projects and has taken a hatchet to science funding across the board. He’s teed up the shift Kratsios proposes here, and since neither Congress nor the Supreme Court seem inclined to stop him from doing whatever he wants with taxpayer money, it isn’t doomering or hyperbole to say we are staring down the barrel of a world where the only “science” the government intends to support is for-profit tech and defense advancements. Science for dummies Part of how you can tell this isn’t a document about science is that you are immediately faced with an absolute wall of business-speak of the worst sort. Did you know we must “tightly couple our science and technology enterprises to ensure that groundbreaking ideas invented in the United States are rapidly prototyped, tested, manufactured, and scaled domestically”? You do now! That tone isn’t surprising, because Kratsios has no background in science or research. He has a bachelor’s in political science and spent most of his career working for Peter Thiel at Thiel Capital. After a stint in the first Trump administration as Chief Technology Officer, where he also did not do any science, Kratsios was tasked in 2020 with overseeing the Pentagon’s research budget for a brief time, a position that, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “carries a great deal of power in terms of dictating investment allocations.” He spent the Biden years at Scale AI as “head of strategy,” which you will also note is neither a science nor a research job. But Scale AI has contracts with the Department of Defense and, as the Washington Post wrote in 2023, “has been aggressively pitching itself as the company that will help the US military in its existential battle with China.” And now you have the necessary background for our new golden age, which is going to be a golden age of taking money away from scientists and universities and giving it to companies like Scale AI. A note from Aaron: Working with brilliant contributors like Lisa takes resources. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, please become one to support our work. 👇 Subscribe In a genuinely galling move, Katsios spends a lot of time slamming universities because of “administrative burdens on researchers” and the “well-documented inefficiencies” in academia, the message being that those damn universities waste the time of amazing researchers with paperwork. Except it’s the administration that is attempting to impose inefficient, unnecessary burdens on those researchers with a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would require senior political appointees to approve every science grant and ensure it aligns with Trump’s personal priorities. Researchers would also have to seek prior government approval to attend conferences or publicize their research. And political appointees could terminate any grant at any time if they feel like it. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) [ The murder of expertise ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) Lisa Needham · Jun 11 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) But when it comes to AI, we’re going to “restore permissionless innovation.” The report proposes to give lucky ducky innovators a pile of cash up front for grants lasting five years or longer, saying “awards should be fully-funded in year one, with all resources earmarked upfront, to minimize administrative burdens and reduce pressure for researchers to generate intermediate results to secure continued funding.” Yeah, wouldn’t want to have to make the Very Special Tech Bros show results or get money parceled out year by year like the plebes at universities. The report also proposes that we should have “fast grants” with “simplified applications requiring just a few pages of writing” because that is definitely how science works, just writing a bit off the dome and getting some cash. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) [ Tech elites are turning AI into ChatGPTrump ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Paul Waldman · July 29, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Oh, and we should have prizes and challenges, where multiple teams compete. The proposed prizes include incentives like “advance procurement commitments,” which means the federal government agrees to buy whatever is being developed. There’s also “regulatory fast-tracking,” making sure all those great AI thingies don’t have to wait too long to be unleashed on a market. These aren’t incentives to do science. These are incentives to develop things with tax dollars that you can then sell to the government for more tax dollars. In the suggestion that might be the most unhinged, the most very opposite of how both government and research work, our new age will include “golden tickets.” That’s where an individual reviewer in an agency — yes, just one person — can “recommend unconventional proposals that may not pass consensus-driven review panels” because somehow this will “surface valuable ideas too divisive for committees and attract higher quality reviewers by empowering them to exercise independent scientific judgment.” Yes, that’s saying that a random person in an agency should be able to shovel money at some idea even if it can’t pass a review panel, and that the opportunity to do so will attract better employees because apparently all the best minds in science are chomping at the bit to be allowed to unilaterally fund AI research based on their personal vibes. But that isn’t at all how actual science works, and actual scientists aren’t unhappy about review panels. They work collaboratively, not siloed in some secret race to create the next AI chatbot. A 2020 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research examined whether peer review panels succeed in helping agencies predict which research ideas will best advance science. Peer review was better at finding “diamond in the rough” applicants than a single government program official. How about that. Trump always wants a taste It’s painfully clear that what Katsios is trying to do here is turn the whole of government science research and funding into the sort of “move fast and break things” paradigm that is the hallmark of big tech. That method works to line the pockets of tech executives, but it isn’t science. There’s a reason the government funds different kinds of research than private tech companies do. What Katsios either fails to understand or deliberately ignores is that the federal government is the main funder of basic research precisely because it can take a long time for it to bear fruit and is not intended to be profitable as such. “Basic” here does not mean rudimentary or simple, but rather research that is designed to advance scientific knowledge instead of achieving a specific outcome or product. Big tech companies don’t widely fund that sort of research, because it doesn’t make them money. Industry dollars account for only about 20 percent of basic research funding, while the government contributes around 60 percent. Big tech companies and startups do, however, rely on and benefit from that basic research. A 2019 study found that 35 percent of all patents obtained by venture-backed startups from 1976 to 2016 cited federally supported research. Basic research funded by the NIH contributed to every single drug the FDA approved from 2010 to 2016. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) [ The Saudi nuclear farce and governance by whim and meme ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Noah Berlatsky · Jul 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Unlike inventing the next ChatGPT, actual science is slow and iterative. Government funding of research that, on its face, would not appear to lead to any big new invention is actually what underpins those big new inventions. If the government hadn’t funded research into desert lizard venom, we wouldn’t know about semaglutide, and we wouldn’t have Ozempic. If research scientists hadn’t studied how bees optimize nectar foraging within a colony, we wouldn’t have the algorithm that assigns internet traffic across computer servers. The report assiduously ignores that a symbiotic, profitable relationship between the federal government, universities, and private companies already exists. Each federal research dollar generates about $1.50 to $3.00 in long-term economic benefits. The $36 billion the government awarded in NIH research funding in fiscal year 2025 generated $94 billion in new economic activity. Trump’s proposed new golden age is intended to strip those billions from universities, resulting in the dismantling of departments and the shuttering of labs. But Katsios has a plan for that: Universities should just become trade schools to churn out no-show STEM degrees! “Require universities and community colleges to embed practical technical training and externships into STEM curricula. Let hands-on experience and industry credentials count toward degrees.” It’s quite the feat to, on the one hand, strip schools of funding for scientific research while simultaneously demanding to control what is taught and, oh, also, colleges need to give degrees to employees at big tech companies just for being employees at big tech companies. The new golden age would also exacerbate the brain drain Trump’s policies have already caused. Nature found that in the first quarter of 2025, US scientists submitted 32 percent more job applications abroad than in 2024. A March 2025 poll by Nature of roughly 1,600 scientists found that over 1,200 said they were considering leaving the country. Europe is investing $565 million to make it a “magnet for researchers” and provide funding for scientists who relocate. The new golden age is also about embedding Trump’s xenophobia into the fabric of American science. The report complains of an “over-reliance on foreign students” that “creates a security challenge our institutions are ill-equipped to address” and that a “reliance on foreign talent sidelines American students.” This is, to put it mildly, nonsense. International students pay far higher tuition and often receive no financial aid. Their tuition dollars are what make it possible for American students to get financial aid. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy and supported over 378,000 jobs. Those 1.1 million international students accounted for only six percent of the total number of students in higher education that year, but were such an economic engine that for every three international students, one job was created or supported. It’s impossible not to wonder whether part of Trump’s loathing for universities and their leading role in scientific research is that there is no way for him to corrupt the process and make money off it in the same way he can by giving millions and billions to Silicon Valley types who, in turn, give him millions in cash. There’s no way for his children to invest in universities that the government then gives no-bid contracts to, fattening the family’s bottom line, which is pretty much the Trump sons’ current venture capital practice. Trump and Katsios’s view of science is narrow, cramped, and wrong. We’re not in a crisis, we’re not a failed state. We’ve been a science superpower for decades, and the only thing that threatens that is Donald Trump. Tech bros are already living high off the hog in this administration. They don’t need any more of our tax dollars. Hopefully this new golden age never comes to pass. Thanks for reading Public Notice. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share We’ll be back with more tomorrow. If you appreciate today’s PN, please do your part to keep us free by signing up for a paid subscription. 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 Thanks for reading, and for your support.

Jul 30 • 8:12 AM EDT • Science • publicnotice.co

The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to know

The US has unveiled what officials claim is the most radical overhaul of the public R&D system in a generation, which if implemented could have significant implications for transatlantic research collaboration. Science: A New Golden Age derides universities as “legacy institutions” and instead wants to prioritise funding on technological challenges, new research labs and funding that follows individual scientists, rather than being linked to their institutions. “Too much of our research enterprise has come to serve itself rather than the scientists within it,” writes Michael Kratsios, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the only named author of the report. “Federal funding agencies should support a broader range of performers.” But some critics argue that the strategy is a smokescreen, using genuine problems in academia as an excuse to further weaken US universities, which US vice-president JD Vance has labelled “the enemy..”Even as it talks of a “golden age” for science, the White House has proposed halving the 2027 budget of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and has put forward double-digit cuts for other funding bodies, such as the National Institutes for Health. It asked for similarly steep savings in 2026, but Congress stopped them going through. Science: A New Golden Age says success will be measured by the extent to which scientists are “free” to pursue the most “vital questions,,” painting academia as currently hidebound by bureaucracy, sluggishness and consensual conservatism. And yet the Trump administration is simultaneously planning new rules that will hand political appointees unprecedented powers to screen and cancel grants. The report has pretentions to be the successor to Science: The Endless Frontier, the seminal 1945 document in which presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush set out the case for post-war government funding of basic research, helping to spur the creation of funders such as the NSF. Even the title page font is the same. But it remains unclear if the latest report will leave anything like as lasting a legacy.Here, Science|Business explains some of the biggest proposed changes in Science: A New Golden Age, and how Europeans think it might change the landscape of their biggest science partner.Universities under fireA key target of the report are US universities, which it repeatedly suggests are outmoded as research institutions. It criticises the NSF for channelling resources “overwhelmingly to a single type of performer, the university-based, principal investigator-led research group..” Universities “extract” money from researchers’ grants to support “growing administrative bloat,” alongside legitimate uses. The Trump administration has been trying to cut the overhead costs in federal research grants that flow to universities. Instead, new institutions are being built. In May, the NSF announced it would spend $1.5 billion on two new so-called X-Labs, focused on scientific instrumentation and quantum systems. The idea is that they fill a niche in the landscape, tackling problems that are too big for a university lab, but too early stage for private start-up funding. Parallel with Europe?This shift to new research organisations parallels moves in Europe to set up new innovation agencies, such as Germany’s Sprind, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, and the EU’s European Innovation Council. The Dutch and French governments are looking to set up their own entities too. There’s now an emerging consensus, evident in a number of new strategies, that public R&D needs to be shaken up, Charles McIvor, an economist at the OECD, has written in response to Kratsios’s plans. “What stands out for me across these strategies [in the US, Germany, South Korea and Japan] is that governments are realising that the old ways of delivering STI [science, technology and innovation] programming no longer works,” he said in a LinkedIn post. Metascience wins?The document is, at least on the face of it, also a big win for some policy thinkers in the US who want far more experimentation with new forms of research grant and institution.It name-checks a litany of new public R&D ideas, from focused research organisations and advance market commitments to “golden tickets,” which allow grant reviewers the power to hand applicants money without requiring the consensus of other review panellists.Related articlesEuropean researchers sound the alarm that Trump rule changes will hit cooperationFocused research organisations: what are they, and how do you set them up? NIH turmoil risks reciprocal EU-US access to health research funding In addition, every federal research funding agency should set up a metascience unit, the strategy says, “with authority to run controlled experiments on review and funding mechanisms.” The UK has already set one up, the strategy points out. This mirrors recommendations to the European Commission. In 2024, a report led by former Portuguese science minister Manuel Heitor also advised the EU to set up an “experimental unit” to test out new methods of funding research. So far, however, Brussels hasn’t put forward any plans to do so. Bypass universitiesBut there’s a worry that the Trump administration is using the metascience movement to justify an overhaul of public R&D that punishes universities, which it sees as centres of political resistance. Last year, it threatened to cut Harvard University’s federal funding unless it hired and admitted a “critical mass” of new faculty and students to create “viewpoint diversity” across campus. It’s also attempted to strip academics of funding for working on politically forbidden areas, like LGBTIQ people’s health.The new strategy appears to be a “move to bypass the power of universities full stop and allow funders and political bureaucracies to handpick the projects and people who will execute them,” said Jean-Claude Burgelman, a former senior official in the Commission’s research directorate, on LinkedIn.The EU’s science counsellor in Washington, Florent Bernard, wrote that the plans risk diverting public research funding so that it “solely serves private interests.” “Who, if not independent universities, will do research that demonstrates the impact of tobacco on lung cancer or the role of human activities in our current climate crisis?” he wrote.Should we take it seriously?“I would view the overall document as a bad faith argument,” said Cole Donovan, director of science policy at the campaigning group Stand Up for Science, and a former OSTP official. “I don’t see the project itself as something that can be isolated from the broader attack on the system.” He thinks the argument that academia has become dysfunctional and in need of radical reform is being deployed as part of a “PR argument” to legitimate moves against US scientists. The strategy presents ideas like metascience units as new, whereas there were moves to set them up at the NSF during the previous administration of Joe Biden, Donovan said. The other caveat here is that the OSTP has limited power to carry out any of these recommendations. While Kratsios has issued a memo to research agencies telling them to implement the recommendations in the report, he doesn’t have direct budgetary control. “As a former OSTPer myself, this does not seem like a document that is realistic,” said Donovan.

Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature

Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.

Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • iai.tv

Mary Means Business: Starkville PetSense slated to close

Starting in Starkville with some tough news for local pet owners: PetSense on Highway 12 is slated to close.

Jul 30 • 7:59 AM EDT • Business • cdispatch.com

Nvidia GPUs see yet another price hike of up to 30 percent, as the generative AI hardware crisis worsens

In response Samsung announced another price increase across DRAM as the personal computing nightmare deepens.

Jul 30 • 7:37 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Ransomware attack on medical billing company results in data on 1.3M leaked to dark web

The data trove from Medical Computer Business Services includes sensitive patient care information. A hacker group called PEAR had claimed credit for the attack, which occurred in 2025.

Jul 30 • 5:28 AM EDT • Health • healthexec.com

Sensodyne maker Haleon posts higher second-quarter organic revenue growth

British consumer ​health company Haleon ‌reported second-quarter organic ​sales ​growth of 3.1% ⁠on ​Thursday, in ​line with market expectations, driven ​by ​strong demand for ‌its ⁠oral health products and accelerating ​growth ​in ⁠North America, ​its largest ​market.

Jul 30 • 2:11 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com

Can you eat lettuce safely during the cyclospora outbreak? Advice from an infectious disease expert

Rather than avoiding fresh produce, adopting a few sensible food safety practices can help you significantly reduce your risk of getting sick while continuing to enjoy the many health benefits and flavor perks of salads and fresh veggies.

Jul 29 • 5:11 PM EDT • Health • pbs.org

Hegseth offers soldiers testosterone and FDA loosens safety warnings. Is the science there?

Last week, the Pentagon posted a video on X announcing they will be mandating testosterone screening for troops in the military aged 30 and above. If they test low, they will be offered voluntary testosterone replacement therapy. This episode is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Youtube. At the same time, FDA has announced it […]

Jul 29 • 5:03 PM EDT • Science • cancerletter.com

Japan PM's political doom loop worsens her fight with markets

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is fighting a losing battle in the polls, making a retreat from promised tax cuts more difficult and denying her officials the political backup ​they need to talk down yen and bond market bears.

Jul 29 • 3:02 AM EDT • Politics • reuters.com

Caesars Entertainment’s (NASDAQ:CZR) Q2 CY2026 Sales Top Estimates

Hotel and casino entertainment company Caesars Entertainment NASDAQ:CZR reported Q2 CY2026 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 3% year on year to $2.99 billion. Its GAAP loss of $0.30 per share was significantly below analysts’ consensus estimates.Caesars Entertainment…

Jul 28 • 4:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • tradingview.com

Big Ten, SEC are on the clock as new college athletics bill is circulated - Live Updates

Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell want a Senate floor vote as soon as next week.

Jul 28 • 4:31 PM EDT • Sports • politico.com

SEC’s New Targeting Rule A Win For Common Sense

SEC Media Days 2026 was, as usual, a lot of sizzle and very little steak. But one announcement was significant enough that it merits further consideration. The league announced that beginning in 2026 a player’s first targeting ejection of the season will no longer carry an automatic suspension into the next game. The player is […]

Jul 28 • 3:12 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

How Being an Involved Grandparent Improves Physical and Mental Health

The grandparenting role can provide a sense of purpose and improve physical and mental health

Jul 28 • 2:09 PM EDT • Health • wsj.com

Audio tapes appear to show Biden discussing sensitive information with memoir ghostwriter

In the sessions, Biden discusses a range of matters, shares notes from his vice presidency and appears to confirm to Zwonitzer that he retained some classified material.

Jul 28 • 1:01 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Secretary of state warns about scam email impersonating state business registry

Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas is warning businesses across the state about a phishing email impersonating the Connecticut Business Registry, designed to steal sensitive information. Thomas said the “malicious email” appears to come from the Connecticut Business Registry and includes a DottedSign link prompting recipients to view and sign a digital document. The link can trick users into revealing…

Jul 28 • 11:38 AM EDT • Business • nbcconnecticut.com

Biden interviews with ghostwriter reveal him discussing sensitive information

About three hours of audio and 117 pages of transcripts were released by the conservative Oversight Project

Jul 28 • 8:58 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Biden interviews with ghostwriter reveal him discussing sensitive information

About three hours of audio and 117 pages of transcripts were released by the conservative Oversight Project

Jul 28 • 8:58 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Claude chats exposed in Google searches – another endorsement of Apple privacy

We’ve long cautioned against disclosing sensitive personal data in AI chatbot sessions, given that most companies use these as training...

Jul 28 • 8:16 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com

Leaks Point to Return of 4GB GPUs as AI Flash Memory Crisis Worsens

Welcome back to 2022.

Jul 28 • 8:16 AM EDT • Technology • digitalfoundry.net

Washington Wizards Free Agent Player Profile: Russell Westbrook

With still one roster spot to fill, we take a look at whether veteran Russell Westbrook is a sensible fit for the Washington Wizards in 2026-27

Jul 28 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Mental health help for those affected by Seattle Center mass shooting

In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Seattle Center, people may be feeling a range of emotions that are testing their mental health and sense of safety.

Jul 27 • 9:19 PM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com

Scientists create an “electron lighthouse” with laser light

Scientists have created an “electron lighthouse” that uses laser light to launch and steer electrons through a semiconductor without an applied electrical field. The quantum effect could eventually improve optical sensors, communications, imaging, and information storage.

Jul 27 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Twisted laser light can tell mirror-image molecules apart

Scientists have created twisted laser beams that interact differently with right-handed and left-handed molecules, revealing their identity through the fragments they produce. The approach could provide a faster, simpler, and more sensitive way to analyze important molecules used in chemistry and pharmaceuticals.

Jul 27 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Stretchable antenna keeps wearable health sensors in tune with human health

Wearable health monitors are designed to move with the body. But for many devices, movement creates a problem: The more a person bends, stretches, reaches or runs, the harder it can be for the device ...

Jul 27 • 12:00 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com

Oregon Ducks' 2026 Position Preview: Running Backs

Sophomore sensations Jordon Davison and Dierre Hill headline a lethal backfield as Dan Lanning’s squad looks to dominate the ground game following a consensus top-ten preseason ranking.

Jul 27 • 10:46 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Marquette faculty receive National Science Foundation grant for a smart hyperspectral imaging system

Dr. Majeed Hayat is the principal investigator on a grant worth nearly $600,000 to develop novel improvements to provide efficient sensing and processing for hyperspectral imaging.

Jul 27 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • today.marquette.edu

New Global CARE-AI Framework Sets Standard for Responsible AI in Health Education and Care

An international team of researchers, clinicians, educators, ethicists, and patient partners has developed and validated the Health CARE-AI (Contextual, Accountable, Responsible, and Equitable Artificial Intelligence) Framework. Published in JMIR Medical Education, the landmark study provides an actionable, consensus-backed roadmap for the responsible integration of AI across the health care learning and practice continuum.

Jul 27 • 9:45 AM EDT • Health • newswise.com

Scientists decipher how T cells sense enemies—such as cancer—at point of contact

Every encounter between a T cell and a potential target—especially when that target is a developing tumor—begins with a rapid series of molecular decisions. Within seconds, the immune cell must determine ...

Jul 27 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • medicalxpress.com

Washington’s Sensitive Secret: How Many U.S. Missiles Are Left Five Months into Iran War? | WSJ Politics Newsletter for July 27

Plus, Darline Graham gets on-the-job training in the Senate, and more House Democrats sour on aid to Israel

Jul 27 • 6:59 AM EDT • Politics • wsj.com

Claude AI Shared Chats Reportedly Exposed in Google Search Results

Anthropic’s Claude share links appeared in public search results, raising fresh privacy concerns for users who shared sensitive conversations.

Jul 26 • 1:05 PM EDT • Technology • cybersecuritynews.com

AI might be watching you, but here are some ways you can watch AI — in movies and on TV

As AI takes over the world in the metaphorical sense — for now, at least — it’s the perfect time to turn to the movies and TV shows that have shown AI actually taking over the world, and more. From “...

Jul 26 • 12:24 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

A single dose reversed autism-like symptoms in adult mice within hours

Even mild inflammation during pregnancy led mouse offspring to develop persistent brain overactivity, sensory sensitivity, repetitive behaviors, and increased seizure risk. Remarkably, one dose of rapamycin improved nearly all of these problems within about two hours. The benefits were temporary, but they suggest that adult brain circuits may remain far more adaptable than previously believed.

Jul 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

A daily fiber supplement reduced knee arthritis pain and improved strength

A prebiotic fiber supplement reduced knee osteoarthritis pain while also improving grip strength and pain sensitivity in a six-week trial. The results hint at a fascinating gut-muscle-pain connection and suggest that a simple daily supplement may be easier to maintain than digital physiotherapy.

Jul 24 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Saint Louis University relaunches geospatial initiative with bold mission

Faculty and students will come together to address societal challenges using Geo A-I, quantum sensing technologies, geospatial sciences, and more

Jul 24 • 10:59 AM EDT • Science • spectrumlocalnews.com

Asking Eric: I found out they used my photo for this AI nonsense

How do I not come off like I’m sitting in my cave judging them?

Jul 24 • 5:33 AM EDT • Technology • mercurynews.com

Food science student finds a sweeter path to her Ph.D.

Julia Adornetto found her calling in the science of sensory evaluation, overcoming setbacks with the help of faculty mentors and scholarships.

Jul 23 • 3:24 PM EDT • Science • news.vt.edu

One ESPN Cowboys Super Bowl Take That Finally Makes Sense

Jul 23 • 12:36 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Would going Independent make sense for Florida State?

With the month of July filled with conference media days, as the ACC wrapped up in Charlotte last week and the SEC begins in Tampa this week, conference expansion and realignment has once again taken center stage. On Monday, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger released an article, available here, updating where Congress stands on passing the […]

Jul 23 • 5:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Sophie Cunningham says it’s ‘common sense’ to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports

In an ESPN article, the Indiana Fever guard said that girls and women "shouldn't have to go against biological men."

Jul 22 • 9:45 PM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com

With Saudi Deal, Trump Loosens Nuclear Standards for One Close Ally

Nuclear experts say it throws fuel on the smoldering fire of atomic proliferation, creating a destabilizing situation that could raise the risk of nuclear war.

Jul 22 • 7:05 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

Halo composer says Washington needs fewer career politicians

Marty O'Donnell says independent voters are embracing 'common sense' after years of what he calls left-wing 'nonsense'

Jul 22 • 2:54 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

White House wants to shift billions of dollars of research funding away from ‘slow consensus peer review’ and into individual scientists and AI

Moving funding to individual scientists and AI could undermine US scientific credibility at home and abroad.

Jul 22 • 10:34 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

Inside the "We Buy Houses" Business

Have you ever gotten a text asking if you'd sell your house? Or maybe someone called out of the blue wanting to buy a property you didn't even know was connected to your name. In this episode of Entrepreneurial Shades of Gray, Dani and Chelsey sit down with Rhen Bartlett, CEO of Heartland Buys, to answer the questions so many homeowners have. How do these companies find you? Why do they target certain properties? And when does selling directly to a home buyer actually make sense? From inherited homes and rental properties to fixer-uppers and probate, Rhen pulls back the curtain on an industry most people know very little about. He also shares red flags to watch for and practical advice to help homeowners make informed decisions when they're approached about selling.

Jul 22 • 8:10 AM EDT • Business • fox10tv.com

Rice spinout company receives Small Business Innovation Research award

LumiStrain, a Rice spinout commercializing a Strain Sensing Smart Skin (S4) for structural testing and health monitoring, has received a $1.55 million award through the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research Fast-Track program.

Jul 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • news.rice.edu

America’s decades-old bipartisan consensus on Israel has been shattered

The Democratic establishment has faced growing pressure to change its stance on Israel. It has finally begun to do so.

Jul 22 • 5:45 AM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com

Michigan Auto Engineer Marries Progressivism and Business Sense

Don Ufford is running in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District Democratic primary next month against two fellow progressives.

Jul 22 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • prospect.org

Virginia hemp businesses to file court injunction to stop new restrictions on CBD products

“We just need time to sort through that, so there’s not this devastating ripple effect that impacts not only business owners and their employees but all the vendors that work with them,” said Barbara Biddle, owner of District Hemp in Northern Virginia.

Jul 22 • 2:02 AM EDT • Business • richmondbizsense.com

It’s time for consensus on science’s place in government

The latest shake-up of UK science policy oversight brings uncertainty to a sector that needs stability to succeed

Jul 21 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • chemistryworld.com

Apple loses bid to overturn $634 million Masimo patent verdict

Apple’s requests to overturn a $634 million patent verdict and secure a new trial in its long-running legal battle with Masimo were denied.

Jul 21 • 6:19 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com

Apple's $634M payment to Masimo now set in stone after Judge tosses appeal

The Masimo trial ultimately failed to get a permanent ban on Apple Watch sales or use of the blood oxygen sensor, but the final verdict will have Apple pay $634M to Masimo's new owner Danaher after the appeal was rejected.

Jul 21 • 5:23 PM EDT • Technology • appleinsider.com

Why have political double standards gotten worse?

Are double standards becoming the norm in American politics? In this episode of “Make It Make Sense,” Carine Hajjar and Brad Palumbo, an independent journalist and YouTube creator, break down the growing fractures on both the left and the right. They discuss recent Senate races involving Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed; the controversy surrounding Ken Paxton in Texas; and how media echo chambers, viral clips and conspiracy theories are pushing the country further apart.

Jul 21 • 3:35 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

Instagram will let users endlessly swap the audio on old posts

Recent features make sense for creators — not so much average users

Jul 21 • 12:15 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Why Trump and Mamdani might both welcome a fight over Netanyahu

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings may be sliding, but one political super sense is as sharp as ever: picking a fight with an adversary he casts as the entire Democratic Party.

Jul 21 • 12:01 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Dimitri de Vreeze helped build DSM’s materials business. Then he had to sell it

After more than three decades at science-based firm DSM, Dimitri de Vreeze faced what he calls the hardest decision of his career: selling the materials business where he had grown up professionally. In this episode of "Executive Decisions," the DSM-Firmenich CEO reflects on why the decision made strategic sense, even as it felt deeply personal, and how it shaped his view that success is not a finish line.

Jul 21 • 12:00 AM EDT • Business • cnbc.com

Experts agree at landmark event that simulation should be built into health system

On 15 June 2026, over 80 representatives from simulation societies, ministries of health, hospitals, universities, international organizations, professional associations and industry partners met at the WHO Academy in Lyon for a joint event of WHO and the Society for Simulation in Europe (SESAM). Together they tackled a pressing question: how can simulation move from isolated initiatives to systematic integration within health systems? The consensus was clear: simulation is no longer a niche educational tool. Beyond training, it strengthens health systems by improving quality of care, patient safety, workforce preparedness, team performance and organizational resilience.Participants agreed the evidence for simulation’s value no longer needs to be demonstrated, but that implementation remains fragmented and too often dependent on individual local champions. Bridging that gap, they said, means both generating further evidence and raising awareness among decision-makers.Discussions pointed to a shared path forward. To achieve scale and lasting impact, simulation must be embedded in national policies, workforce development plans, education systems and financing mechanisms. No institution can do this alone; stronger collaboration between governments, health institutions, academia, professional societies, international organizations and industry partners will be essential.“At the WHO Academy, we see simulation not simply as a training methodology but as a strategic tool for capacity-building, workforce readiness and stronger health systems,” said Dr Bart Janssens, Unit Head, Health Learning and Capacity Building. “This event is not only about discussion; it is about moving from ideas to action.”As health systems worldwide face workforce shortages, growing complexity of care and rapidly evolving competency needs, participants concluded that the question is no longer “Why simulation?” but rather how to scale it, how to sustain it, and how to ensure it becomes an integral part of stronger health systems.Looking aheadThe event marked the beginning of a collaborative effort rather than the end of a conversation. Over the coming weeks, WHO and SESAM will consolidate the discussions, recommendations and priorities that emerged, with a joint WHO–SESAM report to be published soon.

Jul 20 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int

Gardening is linked to a longer life. Here’s how it helps your body.

Even a few sessions a week can provide moderate exercise, sensory stimulation, stress relief, and a stronger sense of purpose.

Jul 20 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • nationalgeographic.com

UFC Freedom 250 Fails to Knock Out The Ratings

(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.) If UFC fans wanted one image to say, “Hey, Paramount+ is crushing it with their UFC rights deal,” I could provide that image. Here it is: (Reminder: this is my creation of the Nielsen Top 30, since Nielsen doesn’t combine the lists or include sports. I take all three lists and combine them. Some streaming TV shows probably have higher ratings than many of the films on this list.) Look at that! UFC Freedom 250 is number one! It topped the Nielsen “Top 30” list for shows and films that made the top ten the week of 15-June. So if you’re a UFC fan or supporter of Paramount+, that’s the good news for you this week. This program topped the ratings charts for one week. Everything else is bad news, or at least a huge caveat to that story, which I’ll explain today in the first part of this week’s Streaming Ratings Report—for the weeks of 8-June and 15-June—which is a double issue since I’ve been writing on a bunch of topics recently. UFC Freedom 250 is one of the biggest streaming events of the year, and super relevant to Paramount+’s strategy, so it merited its own article. Let’s dive in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of June 8th to June 21st 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Check Out My Interview on UFC 250 at MMA Draw After you read this article, if you want even more thoughts on UFC and Paramount-Skydance/Paramount+, I did a written interview with MMA Draw. They asked me to answer some questions about UFC Freedom 250, and I was happy to chat with them. Find it here: [ The MMA Draw Newsletter Did Paramount really overpay for the UFC? What the data tells us so far If you know the history of American television, you also know that combat sports is often a leading indicator of the future… Read more a day ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold ](https://www.themmadraw.com/p/did-paramount-really-overpay-for?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) I never thought I’d need a combat sports newsletter in my life, but the good folks at MMA Draw publish an excellent one on UFC, MMA, pro wrestling, boxing and more, analyzing both the sports themselves and the politics, economics and antitrust issues that impact them. Check the article and their newsletter out! Paramount+ Has Its Best Sporting Event of All Time…But Was It Worth It? Before we look at the UFC Freedom 250 data in particular, let’s talk about what we can’t say. Namely, let’s start with the lack of comparisons. First off, I’d love to put a chart out comparing this fight to past UFC fights on Paramount+…but we don’t have the data. This is the first time we’ve gotten Nielsen data about a Paramount+ UFC fight. As far as I can tell, Paramount provided data for the first fight, but it was a proprietary datecdote (saying it had “an average minute audience” of 5 million “views”) and then, for two fights, we got the linear viewership numbers when they aired on CBS, but no streaming data. Everything else was crickets. We also can’t compare this fight to other fights/combat sports on streaming, in particular the MMA and boxing, because Netflix also didn’t use Nielsen to track those events, opting for TVision and VideoAmp, respectively. (This isn’t Paramount’s fault, but does still suck.) We also can’t compare to UFC’s fights that used to be on ESPN+, since we don’t have any data for that, plus Disney+ didn’t have marquee fights. The comparisons would not be apples-to-apples. Can we compare to past Pay-Per-View fights? Absolutely not. The comparisons would absolutely NOT be apples-to-apples. That didn’t stop Paramount+, though, who bragged that their UFC events have reached drastically more people than past PPV fights. Duh. Sorry, but I gotta make this point again. A basic tenet of economics is that the cheaper something becomes, the more people consume or buy it. That’s Econ 101. (Sometimes pundits call things “Econ 101” that are actually like Econ 210 or even PhD-level economics, but no, this is really like first or second class basic economics.) Yet I still see one analytics firm consistently say that more people watch films on streaming than PVOD proves streaming which means that the streaming window is more valuable than the PVOD window. No, it’s not! Same thing here. Pay-Per-View events back in the day could be really, really, really expensive! So whole groups of people pitched in to buy them. That increased the perceived value of, say, the Mike Tyson fight. Or a UFC numbered event. So yes, the fact that Paramount+ makes numbered UFC fights essentially “free” if you’re already a Paramount+ member means consumption will go up. Obviously. Same for Netflix and their boxing matches. They’re talking about fights that used to cost consumers, in some cases, $50 in 1996…which is over $100 in today’s dollars. Over 1.6 million people paid that to watch the Tyson-Holyfield fight! Again, streaming is essentially “free”. Or $10 to $20, depending on what streamer we’re talking about and what tier you’re on. No wonder more people are “watching”. (Plus, Nielsen’s out-of-home viewing also helps these numbers.) UFC Freedom 250 Did Well…But I Have A Lot of Worries So what can we compare the fights to? Well, the good news is Nielsen put out that the fight averaged 7.0 million viewers for UFC Freedom 250, which is a solid number for a fight. We also know the length, at roughly 4 and a half hours. (I saw different run times, but this seems to be the consensus considering it started at 8 pm, had a delay and then finished after midnight on the East Coast. If you assume a shorter run time, then yes, the total hours viewed would go down.) That means I have the two numbers needed to add this to my Nielsen database. And then…I can compare this viewership to the NFL: And, uh, not great. But also within striking distance, mainly because the runtime for this event was so long. I’d also add that this event had viewership equal to a regular season NFL game on streaming, but if anything, it was more comparable to an NFL playoff or Super Bowl-esque event. And you can compare viewership to the top football games on broadcast, cable and streaming, and it’s not impressive at all: We can also compare it to other sports that week, including the NBA Finals and start of the World Cup: Again, not great. The NBA generated roughly four times as many average viewers each game for its NBA Finals. The World Cup has similarly big numbers. Also, that’s just a tiny fraction of the 25 most watched sporting events each week. The NBA, NHL and FIFA World Cup had many, many more games racking up hours. We could also compare this to other streaming programs to get an idea of “is this a good investment?” and here is how it ranks compared to other top Paramount+ programs: The worry here? Well, unlike scripted programming, which has rewatchability, older fights/sporting events have very little library value. Very, very few people are rewatching these fights, especially years from now. Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers. Then, in their quarterly earnings report, they only ended up with 700K subs. Not great! They claimed they dropped lower-value international subscribers, but that’s why I tend to discount subscriber additions when they’re leaked to the press.1 I expect we may see a bump again for UFC Freedom 250, but I’d caution using subscriber growth so soon after these events to judge the success, since new subs with high churn (see Peacock) aren’t great either. Also, analysts often want to attribute all subscriber growth to their favorite/pet show, and that just doesn’t make sense. The biggest caveat for UFC Freedom 250 and Paramount’s very first UFC marquee event is that these could be high watermarks for the sport. UFC Freedom 250 had an incredible amount of earned media coverage compared to most UFC fights. I mean, it had wall-to-wall national news coverage in the lead up to the event. (The first fight also had a lot of promotion from Paramount since it was first.) Other fights could reach this bar—say the Conor McGregor return to the Octagon—but they’ll be fewer and far between. Was This Deal Worth It? All to ask: is this Paramount deal worth it? In this case, I think the UFC Freedom 250 numbers are more distracting than helpful. This fight did well and compares well to other top sporting events. But we know that the first marquee event was at least a third smaller, if Paramount’s own data is to be believed. And it’s likely the other fights are much, much, much smaller. And then you get to the paycheck that Paramount-Skydance paid. FIFA’s World Cup cost about the same for Fox, but clearly generated multiples more total viewership. (Though it’s only every four years.) The NBA is much more expensive, but until the playoffs, they likely didn’t pay for itself. Even still, Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video likely overpaid. So, in that context, the NBA may be an overpay that makes the UFC look not so bad. But two overpays don’t make an underpay, to paraphrase the old cliché about wrongs and rights. And looking at UFC Freedom 250 as the likely ceiling of MMA on Paramount+, Paramount-Skydance likely paid too much. Share 1 I would love regular reports on subscriber additions by programs, but as is, it’s mostly leaked or rumored in haphazard ways.

Jul 20 • 6:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Garmin CIRQA leaks in four colors with outdated sensor

Shortly before the launch of the Garmin CIRQA, leaked images reveal not only the design but also all four colors and even the sensor module. Garmin appears to be using a slightly older sensor to keep costs down.

Jul 20 • 6:00 PM EDT • Technology • notebookcheck.net

MTG pounces on Hegseth, claiming US troop casualties 'fuel' his 'bloodlust for a senseless war'

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused War Secretary Pete Hegseth of "bloodlust" in response to a post Hegseth issued about fallen U.S. service members.

Jul 20 • 10:20 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

City Council Business Meeting on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 9:00 a.m.

The Palm Coast City Council meets regularly to discuss and vote on official City business. These meetings are open to the public, and Palm Coast residents are strongly encouraged to attend. An increase in public engagement helps to build a stronger sense of community, increase valuable discussions, and decrease division.

Jul 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • palmcoast.gov

I Tried a Sensory Float Pod to Quiet My Mind—and It Was One of the Best Things I’ve Done For Myself in Years

After a four-day solo darkness retreat helped quiet my anxiety, I began seeking other wellness practices. Here’s what I learned.

Jul 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • travelandleisure.com

AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) Reports Upbeat Q2 CY2026, Stock Jumps 15.2%

Theater company AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) reported Q2 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 14.2% year on year to $1.60 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.14 per share was significantly above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Jul 20 • 7:19 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Dover soccer pub sees boost in business from World Cup

Business has been booming over the past five weeks at the June Cork Pub, a soccer pub in Dover. The pub welcomed back its regular soccer fans and drew in new fans because of the global sensation that is the World Cup.

Jul 19 • 10:48 PM EDT • Business • wmur.com

Yankees potential trade target: Yennier Cano

Could the big righty from Baltimore make sense for the Yankees?

Jul 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Dazzling Dozen: Red Sox Can't Stop Winning

Boston is on one of those streaks that simply ceases to make total sense.

Jul 18 • 8:06 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

"There has to be a reason for people to buy an Xbox": Making sense of Microsoft's messy return to console exclusivity

The Saturday Read | Senior leaders across Xbox detail why the platform is returning to console exclusivity, and explain why Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are only the beginning

Jul 18 • 8:56 AM EDT • Technology • gamesradar.com

It’s time to retire ‘rigged system’ populism

Populist theatrics, divorced from the prosaic work of consensus-building and problem-solving, degenerate into political escapism.

Jul 17 • 11:00 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

No. 2 WR Monshun Sales commits to Indiana over Texas

The Horns missed out on the consensus five-star prospect to the home-state Hoosiers.

Jul 17 • 12:42 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

AI Made Up a Science Term — Now It’s in Dozens of Papers

A scanning mistake and a translation error created scientific nonsense that AI models learned to repeat.

Jul 17 • 6:16 AM EDT • Science • zmescience.com

Science behind ‘corn sweat’ and how it worsens the current heat wave

Experts say corn sweat is making an already brutal heat stretch feel even more humid across South Dakota.

Jul 16 • 8:43 PM EDT • Science • dakotanewsnow.com

Is This the End of the Endless Frontier?

“Our country needs a new consensus on how to support science,” write Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

Jul 16 • 3:48 PM EDT • Science • time.com

Why bringing back Alvin Kamara made sense for the Saints

Jul 16 • 3:36 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

U.S. and U.K. soldiers participate in Armed Forces Entertainment All-Star Soccer Tour

U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to V Corps subordinate units, Scottish soldiers from the U.K. army and professional soccer players touring with the Armed Forces Entertainment Heat Wave Summer Series, pose for a group photo after completing the scrimmage game during the All-Star Soccer Tour clinic at Tapa Army Base, Estonia, July 9, 2026. The AFE summer programming brings world-class entertainers, athletes, and performers overseas to connect with service members stationed around the globe. By providing unique opportunities for Soldiers to engage with professional talent, build morale, and share memorable experiences away from the mission, the program strengthens the resilience, camaraderie and sense of community that are essential to the military. V Corps is the U.S. Army's only forward-deployed corps, serving as the senior tactical headquarters for Army forces in Eastern Europe to deter conflict and provide combat-ready forces alongside our NATO allies. V Corps is operationalizing and expanding the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative with Allies, rapidly integrating emerging technologies into training and tactical plans. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Aaron Kaczur, 196th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

Jul 16 • 4:08 AM EDT • Entertainment • dvidshub.net

Belkin launches new 10,000mAh 45W power bank that doubles as a motion-sensing night light

Belkin launches a 10,000mAh power bank with 45W charging, built-in USB-C cable, motion-sensing LED night light, digital display, and SOS mode.

Jul 15 • 7:46 PM EDT • Technology • gizmochina.com

The ’Gay’ Attacks on Lindsey Graham Are All About Politics

Was Lindsey Graham gay? As the author of a book about the history of gay Washington, D.C., it’s a question I’ve been asked frequently for years, and even more so since his sudden death last weekend. The South Carolina Republican’s lifelong confirmed bachelorhood, vocal intonation, and Southern dandy demeanor (if not sartorial choices) prompted many to conclude that he was, as they say in that part of the country, “light in his loafers.” Graham’s repeated attestations to the contrary had zero effect on those invested in the narrative that he was. Only about the matter of J. Edgar Hoover’s rumored cross-dressing (for which there is much circumstantial but no direct evidence) am I questioned more. Whenever I’ve been asked to speculate upon Graham’s sexuality—and speculate was all that I or anyone else could do—I always answered the question honestly. While my personal sense is that Graham was probably gay, as a journalist and a historian I cannot rely on my intuition to make factual assertions. (Gaydar hasn’t yet been scientifically perfected.) Given the absence of any known female or male romantic interests, Graham may very well have been a heterosexual unlucky in love. He might also have been asexual. Barring the highly unlikely postmortem emergence of a personal diary or some other unassailable evidence attesting to Graham’s innermost yearnings, we will never know the answer. As is depressingly the case these days when a public figure dies, a chorus of voices reveled in Graham’s passing, many of them making light of his presumed homosexuality.

Jul 15 • 7:30 PM EDT • Politics • thefp.com

CrashStealer Malware Impersonates Apple Tool to Steal Mac Passwords and Crypto

Mac users should watch out for macOS malware called CrashStealer, according to Jamf Threat Labs. The malware impersonates Apple's crash reporting framework, and it's meant to steal all kinds of sensitive information. CrashStealer collects browser data, password manager data, cryptocurrency wallet extensions, and keychain data, and Jamf first noticed it circulating in a fake Apple-notarized app called Werkbit.

Jul 15 • 7:14 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

When Surveillance Becomes Science: The Data the FDA Should Not Trust - Petrie-Flom Center

In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned a data broker called X-Mode Social from selling sensitive location data, charging that the company sold precise phone location data that could be used to track visits to reproductive health clinics, addiction treatment centers, and other sensitive sites.

Jul 15 • 4:58 PM EDT • Science • petrieflom.law.harvard.edu

Google's AI search features pose 'unacceptable risk' to children, new report finds

Common Sense Media found that across more than 2,600 test interactions, Google’s two built-in AI search functions routinely failed to recognize risky and harmful behavior.

Jul 15 • 5:00 AM EDT • Technology • pbs.org

Colorado receives $5.8 million in federal weatherization assistance grants

Colorado has received nearly $6 million in federal funds through the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program after U.S. senators expressed worries about potential delays. In May, U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Susan Collins, R-ME, issued a letter urging Energy Secretary Chris Wright to release nearly $360 million in WAP funds […]

Jul 14 • 7:22 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com