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Results for " Plex " 1,527 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

From Tariffs to Broken Supply Chains, Small Business Owners under Siege

Punishing U.S. tariff policies have fractured once-reliable supply chains, pushing vulnerable small businesses to retrench in an increasingly complex economic environment, entrepreneurs and advocates told the National Press Foundation’s Local Business Fellowship program. The widespread uncertainty has shriveled profit margins, forced layoffs and has small business owners seeking new manufacturers in remote corners of the...Read More

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Oct 13 • 2:35 PM EDT • Business • nationalpress.org
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Edison's Entertainment Complex Male Athlete Of The Month: Nicholson Makes Eight Straight Carries Count For Edwardsville

Edwardsville running back Jehki Nicholson earns Athlete of the Month after eight straight carries and a touchdown against Granite City.

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Oct 13 • 12:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • riverbender.com
Senator Liz Boldon Denounces Health Insurance Plans, Speaker Demuth, Governor Walz and Minnesota Department of Commerce for Failure to Protect Home Care Nursing Coverage

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — In late 2025, several insurance companies informed Minnesota families that they would be imposing coverage limits on home care nursing services – in-home care for children with complex medical needs and disabilities. Despite a 2010 state law mandating that these services “shall be covered” by health plans for families also enrolled

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Oct 13 • 11:31 AM EDT • Health • senatedfl.mn
NASA Science, Cargo Launch on 35th SpaceX Resupply Mission to Station

NASA’s SpaceX 35th commercial resupply mission lifted off at 6:33 a.m. EDT Tuesday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral

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Oct 13 • 7:12 AM EDT • Science • nasa.gov
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8 Must-Read Literary Science Fiction Books

These literary science fiction books with stunning prose and complex characters will give you a new perspective on what it means to be human.

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Oct 13 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • bookriot.com
Belleville developers unveil plans for second half of sports, business complex

“There’s some hotels interested, especially with the playing fields,” he said. “That will draw quite a crowd to Belleville.”

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Oct 13 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • bnd.com
MetroTrans 2026 to Convene in Guangzhou this November

GUANGZHOU, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 13 October 2026 - MetroTrans 2026 will take place from November 9 to 11 at Area D of the Canton Fair Complex in

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Oct 13 • 5:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com
Junior Caminero Injury Update Isn’t Good News for Rays

There’s one player the Tampa Bay Rays can’t afford to lose in any circumstance: Junior Caminero. And in the top of the ninth inning of Game 1 of the ALCS, Caminero ran into his teammate Jonny Deluca chasing a foul ball. He was injured, and the whole complexion of the series may have changed. Caminero […] The post Junior Caminero Injury Update Isn’t Good News for Rays appeared first on HEAVY.

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Oct 13 • 1:46 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Joe Manganiello: Sofía Vergara Ridiculed Him Over Dog During Health Scare

In his memoir 'Bloodlines,' the actor says his then-wife refused to hug him, and mocked him for the chihuahua that helped him at a time when he was dealing with a seven-year illness.

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Oct 12 • 8:12 PM EDT • Health • yahoo.com
Scientists uncover a hidden map of the brain with 539 distinct regions

Scientists have uncovered a hidden layer of organization in the brain by creating the first detailed 3D map of its lipids, the fatty molecules essential for brain structure and communication. By analyzing millions of measurements from mouse brains, researchers identified 539 distinct chemical zones, revealing patterns and boundaries that traditional brain maps have missed. Surprisingly, even white matter, once thought to be relatively uniform, contains a complex patchwork of chemically distinct regions.

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Oct 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Art of Science 2026: Discovery in full colour

WEHI’s Art of Science exhibition returns in 2026 with a vibrant collection of images and moving works that reveal the beauty, complexity and ingenuity behind medical research.

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Oct 12 • 7:32 PM EDT • Science • wehi.edu.au
Seminole Science Students Build Complex Robots Ahead of Local Tournaments

Seminole County's best source of news since 1908. This local newspaper covers Sanford, Lake Mary, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Oviedo, Casselberry, Geneva and parts of Volusia County such as Deltona, DeBary and Osteen.

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Oct 12 • 6:41 PM EDT • Science • mysanfordherald.com
Nailah Howze Talks Turning Her Photography Into A Business

Credit Karma and Complex present 'The First of the Month,' an editorial series highlighting turning your passions into profit. First up, L.A. based photographer Nailah Howze, who learned that sometime...

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Oct 12 • 5:17 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
‘Play On!’ hits all the right notes

The English Renaissance meets the Harlem Renaissance in “Play On!,” a sparkling show that marries a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night” with the music of Duke Ellington. Conceived by Sheldon Epps, who also directed the original 1996-97 production (first in San Diego, then on Broadway), the show is getting a marvelous revival under his direction to open Chicago Shakespeare Theater's 40th anniversary season.While the title “Play On!” refers to the famous quote about music being the food of love and thus to the dozens of Ellington songs—among them “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good),” “Solitude” and “I’m Beginning to See the Light”—incorporated into the plot, one of the highlights for me is the clever way Cheryl L. West's book reworks the story. Apparently, it's also been updated for this outing, among other things to give the women more agency. In the big opening number (there's a six-piece, horn-heavy onstage band), aspiring songwriter Vy (Hailee Kaleem Wright) is the one to “Take the 'A' Train” to “Drop Me Off in Harlem.” She wants to meet the famous Duke (Edred Utomi) — Ellington, not Orsino, that is — and she seeks the help of Jester (an engaging James Harkness) to find out how. When Jester tells her in no uncertain terms that the music industry is a man's world, she disguises herself as Vy-Man and persuades the Duke to listen to one of her songs. He's suffering from a creative block because he's pining for Lady Liv (Krystal Joy Brown), queen of the Cotton Club, and convinces Vy-Man to bring the Lady the song as if the Duke had written it, promising to reward her with employment. Vy reluctantly complies, and the predictable complications ensue. Lady Liv is attracted to Vy-Man, while Vy is attracted to the Duke and he to Vy, though it disturbs him because he thinks she's a man. The fallout when the deception comes to light bodes ill—at least for a while.Here's where West's book cannily diverges from Shakespeare. Vy's twin brother Sebastian really is dead, so West devises another love interest for Lady Liv basically by rehabilitating the Malvolio character, here named Rev (Alan H. Green), the Lady's uptight, self-important manager. His unrequited love for her is magically transformed after he gets his comeuppance (minus the torture) from Miss Mary (Alanna Lovely), her honey Sweets (James Earl Jones II) and Jester, the stand-in for Sir Toby, who has romantic problems of his own with a woman named CC (Kaylah Janssen). In other words, Rev gets the girl — and also a show-stopping yellow zoot suit from costume designer An-Lin Dauber. All the costumes are dandy, though those for the men have more pizzazz than the women's day dresses. The bilevel, slanted scenic design by Beowulf Boritt brings 1930s Harlem to life in a slightly expressionistic way with the help of Adam Honoré's lighting and Ray Nardelli's sound design. Edgar Godineaux's choreography adds to the period feel, though there could be even more of it.Most of all, the leads have splendid voices, and the performances are terrific. Green's Rev and Harkness's Jester get my vote for comedy chops, and Brown's Lady Liv probably will stay with me the longest for her complexity and big blues number, “I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues.”

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Oct 12 • 3:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • hpherald.com
Meta launches Muse Wonder series to rival Anthropic, OpenAI models

Meta unveils new AI models, Muse Wonder and Wonder Full, designed for complex tasks. It says it has caught up to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.

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Oct 12 • 2:46 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Edison\'s Entertainment Complex Male Athletes Of The Month: EHS Trap Team Shines With Multiple Perfect Scores In 2026 Fall Season

EDWARDSVILLE — A perfect round of 25 targets has become a recurring milestone for Edwardsville High School Trap Club members this fall as they compete

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Oct 12 • 12:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • riverbender.com
CMF’s First Speakers Look Like Milk Cartons and Have Swappable Buttons

The CMF S and M are shilling for the dairy industrial complex.

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Oct 12 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • gizmodo.com
What will Skydance do with the industry’s most complex sports rights portfolio?

With the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger now complete, forming Skydance, many in the sports media world are watching and wondering what happens to the combined entity’s sports rights. Certainly, this seems like a good time to examine what the folks at Skydance Global Sports Group (now to be called SGSG forevermore) are, and…

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Oct 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Murray PC approves plans for Intermountain Health cancer center tower

The Murray Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit so Intermountain Health can build a cancer center at its hospital complex.

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Oct 12 • 6:01 AM EDT • Health • buildingsaltlake.com
Service providers address mental health in homeless

(COLORADO SPRINGS)–Mental health struggles, substance use, and homelessness often compound one another, creating complex challenges for individuals seeking stability. Service providers in Col…

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Oct 11 • 9:54 PM EDT • Health • fox21news.com
Shakira and Gerard Piqué Appear in Court Over Their Sons' Flight Schedules

The singer and her ex appeared in court over how their sons travel between Miami and Spain.

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Oct 11 • 8:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Plies Defends Trans People: ‘What Have They Done to Y’all?’

A comment about children and drag shows turned into a tense online exchange.

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Oct 11 • 7:09 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Diddy Lands a $477K Court Bill After His Peacock Doc Suit Collapsed

That huge figure is less than half of what NBCUniversal, Peacock, and Ample Entertainment wanted.

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Oct 11 • 7:05 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Rethinking the Rules of Wellness

Ezekiel Emanuel opens up about his new book, Eat Your Ice Cream, and his fury at the wellness industrial complex.

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Oct 11 • 7:02 PM EDT • Health • chicagohealthonline.com
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Step Out for Birthday Date Night

Go inside Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's date night celebrating his birthday.

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Oct 11 • 1:21 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Nailah Howze Talks Turning Her Photography Into A Business

The Los Angeles native talks about her love for photography and the money moves she's making to turn her passion into a business.

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Oct 11 • 1:06 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Michael B. Jordan Wears Fear of God at CultureCon 2026

The Oscar-winning actor was honored with the Legacy in Motion award at the New York event.

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Oct 11 • 11:12 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Kylie Jenner Stars in Hulu’s 'Bachelorette Weekend'

The reality star takes on her first major scripted role as a bride whose closest friends become suspects after a deadly getaway.

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Oct 11 • 10:32 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Scientists may have found a clue to why octopuses are so smart

A University of Vienna study suggests the way octopus DNA is folded inside cells may have helped these animals evolve their remarkably complex brains.

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Oct 10 • 4:05 PM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
Drake Jokingly Reacts to Bruno Mars Enlisting Karol G for New Video

The 6 god recently joined Karol G as a surprise guest at her Houston tour stop.

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Oct 10 • 9:46 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Top Dawg Entertainment Wins Appeal Against Doxxing Claims by Sexual Assault Accusers

Top Dawg Entertainment won an appeal dismissing doxxing claims brought by two women who accused the label's executives of ...

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Oct 9 • 4:53 PM EDT • Entertainment • complex.com
Planned Downtown Brooklyn entertainment hub promises Instagram moments and a refuge for rainy days

United American Land Principal Albert Laboz recently unveiled renderings of BKX and discussed his vision for the 440,000-square-foot entertainment complex he is building at 422 Fulton St.

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Oct 9 • 1:35 PM EDT • Entertainment • crainsnewyork.com
Get used to multi-party politics, it’s here to stay

The prime minister’s promise on electoral reform could entrench the complex fights between five, even six parties

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Oct 9 • 12:50 PM EDT • Politics • ft.com
Health District plans new campus in downtown Fort Collins for services

The Health District is planning a move to downtown Fort Collins after purchasing two buildings there.

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Oct 9 • 7:02 AM EDT • Health • coloradoan.com
USDA awards $16.2mn to upgrade MSU plant science greenhouses

A major USDA NIFA grant will help Michigan State University complete the modernisation of its Plant Science Research Greenhouse Complex

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Oct 9 • 4:18 AM EDT • Science • fruitnet.com
Steering complex rhythms

Nature Computational Science - A recent study reports a property-first computational strategy, identifying coordinated parameter changes that can tune several features of a complex oscillator at...

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Oct 8 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • nature.com
Genesis Mission: SYNAPS-I Brings Agentic AI to Experimental Workflows

With support from ALCF computing resources and AI services, the SYNAPS-I team demonstrated a new agentic AI platform that uses natural-language instructions to automate complex experimental workflows as part of the DOE Genesis Mission. Oct. 8, 2026 — Science has increasingly used artificial intelligence (AI) as a kind of microscope — sorting data, analyzing images […]

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Oct 8 • 2:34 PM EDT • Science • hpcwire.com
Author Barbara Kingsolver returns with new novel ‘Partita’

Barbara Kingsolver's new novel, “Partita,” explores the repercussions of a life-changing love affair and the complex realities of the musician’s life.

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Oct 8 • 1:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com
New Lakeview Park sports complex planned for Franklin County

A new Lakeview Park baseball and softball complex aims to bring youth leagues, tournaments and more visitors to Franklin County.

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Oct 8 • 12:44 PM EDT • Sports • spectrumnews1.com
Business Briefs: Oct. 9, 2026

Bank collecting donations to support veterans SHELBURNE FALLS — Greenfield Cooperative Bank invites the community to its Shelburne Falls branch to contribute to a household essentials collection drive supporting veterans through Project New Hope Inc. The drive is offered in partnership with the Northeast Chapter of American Daughters of Conservation and the Massachusetts Bowhunters Association. […]

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Oct 8 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • recorder.com
Google Cloud Gives Business Focus to Modernization

Google Cloud is simplifying enterprise modernization with an AI-driven, end-to-end approach that can shrink complex business-case processes from weeks to minutes.

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Oct 8 • 7:30 AM EDT • Business • cloudwars.com
Study finds simulation game helps students grasp complex health economics concepts

In Phillip Zane's classroom, students weigh an invitation to jump out of an airplane. The skydiving lesson and jump are free, and the exercise assumes there is zero risk of death. But an injury could ...

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Oct 8 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • phys.org
Hilo bowling alley, entertainment complex plan moves forward

Hilo could once again have a bowling alley.

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Oct 8 • 6:03 AM EDT • Entertainment • staradvertiser.com
The Math Singularity Is Here, and Science May Be Next

OpenAI has released an extraordinary body of mathematical work produced by an unreleased frontier model: 722 manuscripts spanning 372 research families across fields including number theory, complexity theory, and mathematical physics. Each result required, on average, the equivalent of roughly three hours of ChatGPT Pro reasoning. A New Era of Discovery We may be witnessing the beginnings of a “math singularity”: a point at which machine-generated discovery accelerates beyond humanity’s ability to independently reproduce, verify, or fully absorb it. If frontier models can generate hundreds of meaningful results in the time it takes a human researcher to investigate one, the constraint will no longer be producing new mathematics. It will be our capacity to validate, interpret, and integrate it. This does not make mathematicians obsolete. It changes their role. They may increasingly serve as guides, critics, and meaning-makers. Increasingly, they will decide which questions matter, determining which results can be trusted, and explaining why they are important. Mathematical insight may become abundant, while human judgment becomes more valuable than ever. Mathematics May Be Only the Beginning Every scientific discipline could eventually experience a similar acceleration. AI systems could generate and test hypotheses, connect findings across specialized fields, and explore possibilities at a scale no human research community could match. In medicine, imagine models identifying overlooked disease mechanisms, designing drugs and clinical trials, personalizing treatments, or discovering cures in months rather than decades. In materials science, AI could help create better batteries and cleaner industrial processes. In climate science, it could accelerate advances in energy, forecasting, and carbon removal. In biology, it could uncover relationships hidden across enormous genomic and molecular datasets. The result would not simply be faster research. It could expand the frontier of what is scientifically possible. The New Bottleneck Scientific discovery, however, is not the same as scientific progress. A medical breakthrough must still survive laboratory testing, clinical trials, regulatory scrutiny, manufacturing constraints, and real-world deployment. As machine-generated ideas multiply, the bottleneck may shift from producing breakthroughs to validating them safely and translating them into practice. We may soon have more hypotheses than laboratories can test, more drugs than clinical trials can evaluate, and more mathematical results than experts can review. That imbalance will require better systems for automated verification, reproducible research, prioritization, peer review, and collaboration between AI and domain experts. The importance of OpenAI’s work is not merely the number of manuscripts produced. It offers a glimpse of a world in which intelligence can explore thousands of intellectual paths in parallel. If ideas cease to be scarce, humanity’s defining challenge will be deciding which are true, which matter, and how to turn them into progress. The math singularity is not the end of human inquiry. It is the beginning of a new kind—one in which machines expand the frontier of knowledge and humans decide where it should lead. Subscribe Share Leave a comment

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Oct 8 • 4:22 AM EDT • Science • douglevin.substack.com
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How Machines and Magnets Taught Science a New Way to Explain the World

A new historical analysis argues that cognitive science and statistical physics independently converged on a shared simulative methodology, the synthetic method, as the only viable path to understanding complex systems.

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Oct 8 • 12:43 AM EDT • Science • bioengineer.org
‘What happens inside these walls matters’: Hinds Community College leaders mark opening of new Health Sciences Complex

The college broke ground on the project two years ago.

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Oct 7 • 6:57 PM EDT • Health • wlbt.com
Who Won August and September: Original Films or Franchises?

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) I just heard someone say that if you’re reading a pundit or data analyst, and they don’t tell you that they got anything wrong, they’re not a pundit but an “influencer”. I agree with that. You have to tell your audience when you get things wrong, or they won’t (or shouldn’t) trust you as much. Today, we’ve got another edition of “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong”. In general, I’m patting myself on the back (and patting very hard) about a few things like IP at the box office, LIV golf, horror films, crowdfunding movies, superheroes, and old people going to the theaters. That said, I also made a couple of data mistakes on the streaming bubble popping and HBO’s datecdotes, so I’m not perfect. But first, I need your feedback... Subscribe Follow-Ups: What Should We Call Mid-Budget Movies Which Aren’t Cinematic Enough for Theaters But Are Too Expensive to Make Money on Streaming? After I asked for feedback on what we should call straight-to-streaming films that are too big to pencil out on streaming but not really big enough to resonate in theaters, I got some great suggestions from you all, including... “Moldilocks” from John Aboud “Little Big Indie” from Travis Frick1 “Midflicks” from Jonathan Funke. “Extra-Medium” from Jona Nwuke. (Read the explanation in the footnote.) Between these and Brandon Katz—who suggested “Bermuda Budget Triangle”, “The Platform Gap” and “The Distribution Deadzone”—we’ve got some excellent suggestions. And they’re better than my suggestion, the “Streaming Budget Dead Zone”, so let’s take a poll! The winning entry becomes the new term. Loading... RIGHT: LIV Golf is Fully Bankrupt…Is Anyone Else Next? A few years ago, I was always a bit perplexed at all the articles I’d read praising LIV Golf and their strategy to disrupt the PGA. LIV Golf, a brand new professional golf league, offered PGA stars ten times what they made on the PGA Tour to join their new league. And folks praised this strategy for its initial “success” in that a lot of big names did indeed leave the PGA. Yeah, of course the players came over. LIV Golf paid them so, so, so much more! But LIV Golf hadn’t discovered a way to increase potential revenue. So think about this in basic business terms… They paid much more in costs… …but had no real way to increase revenue. That’s not a strategy! That’s deficit financing. It won’t work unless you bankrupt the competition (and then turn around and pay those same golfers much, much less). It’s not a sustainable strategy and only lasts as long as the company/person/nation backing it decides they’re cool with losing money. For LIV Golf, that meant Middle East oil wealth, in particular Saudi Arabian money. Clearly, the current Iran War has hurt Middle East finances, so they need to trim their more exorbitant spending. And LIV Golf was part of that trimming. This should be a major warning for others. TGL’s parent company, TMRW Sports, just got a $1 billion valuation, despite TGL’s (the indoor golf league) horrible TV viewership of less than half a million viewers per match. Unrivaled, the women’s basketball league, just secured a $650 valuation, despite its horrible TV viewership and a new rival (Project B) entering the scene next year. To relate this to streaming, Hollywood should ask which streamers may have wealthy patrons funding their losses. (Let’s be clear: Google, Amazon and Apple.) Could those patrons lose their appetite? For Amazon, probably not. But Apple has a new boss, so maybe! WRONG: My Analysis of the Streaming Bubble Was Missing a Week I’m going to be congratulating myself a lot today, but I make mistakes too, like this data goof. When I last compiled the data on the decline in TV shows, I was missing one week at the end of June. If you look at the first image, you can see that one week was mislabelled as “July”. Mainly, this image got updated to show a 27% decline, not 29%: This change doesn’t really impact the overall analysis, but it is two percent better. By the way, through the third quarter, the decline increased and it’s now a 30% decrease since 2022. (I’ll write/visualize this in an upcoming article.) But I want you to trust me and my data. Especially these days, when many people are using LLMs that I know are inserting faulty data into their charts, I want to keep earning my audience’s faith. So that’s the accurate data. RIGHT: IP Remains Very, Very Popular In July, I wrote a giant (and I mean giant) article on Backrooms, Obsession, and the box office, going over what we know, what we don’t know about what works in theaters, looking at YouTubers, IP, the horror genre, comic book movies, and a whole lot more. The month of August really tested a lot of my theses and, being honest, mostly supported my arguments. Let’s start with IP. Looking at 8-Aug (the weekend after Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out) to 18-Sep (the weekend that Resident Evil came out, which I think provides a nice bookend to this time period), there were seven films based on pre-existing IP: Resident Evil (2026) ($126 million) Practical Magic 2 ($65 million) _Insidious: Out of the Furthe_r ($65 million) Coyote Vs. Acme ($59 million) Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie ($53 million) Tony ($15 million) Super Troopers 3 ($7 million) Compare those to the notable original films from the past month—I actually could have included more movies, but here are just thirteen, bringing us to an even twenty films—including.... The End of Oak Street ($54 million) Buddy ($26 million) Mutiny ($15 million) By Any Means ($15 million) The Dog Stars ($14 million) Runner ($14 million) One Night Only ($11 million) Hope ($8 million) Spa Weekend ($7 million) The Uprising ($6 million) Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma ($6 million) Onslaught ($3 million) Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man ($2.8 million) Here’s that in chart form: Five of the top six films in this time period were all based on IP. I made a big chart of films that grossed over $200 million at the box office before Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey hit theaters. Let’s update that chart! By the way, if you want to see how I categorized each film—so another bar chart—here it is: I know that many of my fellow critics/pundits/analysts dislike films based on IP and how Hollywood is making so many of them. And I’m sympathetic to this point of view. As I’ve written many, many times before, you need a balance between existing franchises, new IP, and original films. And Hollywood clearly needs to make more films like Resident Evil (a well-made film from a visionary director) and fewer Practical Magic 2’s (which didn’t get critical or customer buzz). But at some point, critics and pundits need to contend with what audiences are telling them: Movie-goers aren’t showing up to original films. Audiences are speaking with their dollars, telling you they want more IP and franchises. You can try to convince studio heads to make fewer IP-based films and franchises, but the data and numbers aren’t there. Instead, critics need to work harder to convince audiences to show up for original films. Aim your ire/concern at the average person, not studio heads.2 Because they’re just making the films that audiences are telling them to make. WRONG: Original Horror Films Didn’t Break Out I’ll be honest, even though I wrote an article casting some skepticism on the horror genre in July, if you asked me to make a prediction, I would have predicted that, in August, a new, original horror film would have blown up. No, seriously, I just assumed that Obsession and Backrooms presaged a change in audience behavior. But none of the buzzy new original horror films from August—Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Onslaught (not an action film in spite of the ads), The End of Oak Street, Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man, or _Buddy—_broke out. To be clear, exactly one of those films (Buddy) had good “ROI”, but again—I try to be specific in my language—none were “popular” in any broad sense of the word. None of them will be “saving” movies theaters like Backrooms or _Obsession_helped save the summer. The new Insidious film and Resident Evil, both based on IP, were far and away the biggest horror films since July. (We’ll see if this changes in October/Halloween season.) RIGHT: Stay Skeptical about Crowdfunding... I’ve long been skeptical about crowd-investing platforms as one of Hollywood’s saviors, mainly because there’s so much hype/buzz. People need to stay more skeptical about more things, explaining both the potential upside but also the downsides. In particular, the media often hypes crowdfunding at the start and never checks in on the actual results after they’ve come in later. And August gave us our first update! _Ice Cream Man—_directed by Eli Roth—grossed $6 million off of a $5.5 million budget. This is a production of The Horror Section, which was one of the first “crowd investing” studios with 2,400 investors, which means that 2,400 investors probably lost money. They certainly aren’t getting as great of returns as if they had just invested their dollars in the stock market. Hopefully Stiletto (Tagline: “Someone’s Going to Make it Rain Blood!”) does better next month. WRONG: Another Data Goof Here’s another data error. When the first episode of House of the Dragon came out, HBO put out that it had 21.5 million viewers in the first three days, and I read that to mean in the US…but no, it was global. So my US-only datecdotes charts shouldn’t have included it. We never got US-only numbers for the first episode, but for the final episode, HBO put out that it had 11 million US viewers. (And that global dropped to 21 million viewers.) Here’s the updated chart (which I’ve since used in the Streaming Ratings Report): Still, this show is absolutely huge. RIGHT: Superhero Films Remain Very, Very Popular After Supergirl flopped, I read a few takes that “comic book movies are going the way of the Western”. Post-Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that take didn’t age well. To be fair, I have a very nuanced take on the superhero genre right now; it’s down right now, for a lot of reasons. But it’s not “dead”. Maybe _Spider-_Man is just a really popular character? I saw that take, and it’s a fair counter-argument. (But pundits arguing that superhero movies were dead should have mentioned this $1.5 billion counter-argument…) But is it just Spider-Man? The next Avengers film already has $50 million in pre-sales (and I was skeptical that that film would do well) and the Avengers: End Game re-release topped the box office two weekends ago (over three original films). And I wouldn’t bet against Batman or Superman. So maybe it’s just Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the Avengers. Oh, and Deadpool, of course. And Black Panther. And Wolverine. And probably the X-Men. Plus a well-made Wonder Woman or the Hulk film could break out. But that’s it! It’s just those ten characters/teams. Oh, what’s that? Lanterns is also doing well on HBO? (See previous section…) To be fair, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to the argument that more popular characters—like Spider-Man and Batman—anchor more popular films. In fact, I made that exact argument three years ago when I first wrote about the “Marvel-cession”. In many ways, you can blame The Guardians of the Galaxy for fooling Marvel Studios (and the rest of us) into believing that any character could pop. It turns out, the list of iconic characters is probably smaller than most people think. But it’s probably too early to say that superhero films and comic book movies are dead unless “death” means a slight decline over a longtime. RIGHT: Who Killed Theaters? Old People I get frustrated whenever I see headlines or analysis about how young people are “returning” to theaters. As I’ve detailed(for years), young people have always powered the US box office, despite narratives about “kids these days” and their “phones”. Really, what’s changed post-2020/pandemic is that old people aren’t going to the movies nearly as much. This summer, I saw a movie (from an older director) in a theater near a retirement community, and multiple older people at the theater were talking about how this was their first time seeing a movie in years. I dislike personal anecdotes, so YouGov can fill in the data, best summarized by this headline: “Who killed movie theaters? Not the youths”. According to them, 64% of people aged 18-29 have seen a movie in the last year, but only 30% of 65-and-older. 20% of 18-29 have seen a movie in theaters in the last week and 42% in the last month. Here’s the polling data: Most concerning? Many Americans (17%) think theaters are a worse or much worse experience than watching films at home. Slight WRONG: Hadestown Opens Big A live theater capture of the Broadway musical, Hadestown, made $20 million at the US box office, which begs the question: was I wrong to be skeptical about musicals a few years ago? Yes and no. On the one hand, $20 million is a far cry from being “popular”, so yeah, the genre isn’t that popular overall and Hadestown is one of the more popular musicals from recent years (i.e. the “Taylor Swift Data Fallacy” in action). On the other, I doubt filming this cost all that much, and I don’t think that they spent much on marketing, so this is a good source of ancillary revenue. Smaller Updates WRONG: As I mentioned in a Streaming Ratings Report, I underestimated the budget for Enola Holmes 3. It probably cost more like $50 million, if not more. But... I’m not sure that it really matters? At sub-10 million hours, prices have to come down to make this work. WRONG: Netflix is giving Ink a 27-day in theaters! To quote the kids/YouTubers these days, let’s go! Now I might actually have a chance to see Danny Boyle’s latest in theaters. I’d complained about this in a “Coming Soon” section, but I was heartened to read that Netflix is giving multiple films longer theatrical windows this year. RIGHT: Netflix is sending 4-5 films per year to theaters. Netflix is slowly but surely sending more and more films to theaters, as I cautiously predicted earlier this year. For now, it’s just three big films and a number of awards contenders, but still, this is great news. And they’ll be releasing box office grosses! Just this week, Ted Sarandos confirmed that KPop Demon Hunters 2 will come to theaters (and my guess is it performs in the box office top ten at a minimum). WRONG: Angel has 3 million subscribers! How do I know this? Well, they told Deadline, who reported it. I marked this as “wrong”, since they’ve doubled their subscribers in one year but, you know, they don’t really have a hit film to speak of and they’re still losing money. WRONG: Furious was only renewed for one more season. I accidentally wrote “two more seasons” in my latest “Renewals, Cancellations, Un-Orders and Removals Update”. RIGHT: House of David is ending with its third season. In July, Prime Video renewed House of David for a third season, as I just wrote in my latest “Renewals and Cancellations” report. Well, now it’s ending after that third season. Why? As I’ve been writing, its viewership wasn’t great. I got feedback that this show didn’t cost very much, but it cost enough that its limited viewership didn’t save it. WRONG: Adults was a Hulu original! So I missed Adults when it first came out last year; I saw that it aired on FX and just assumed that it was a linear-first program. Turns out, it aired three episodes on FX, but binge-released the rest of its episodes the next day on Hulu. Huh. So I should have covered it last year! But I just wrote about it. 1 “When I was a kid in the 90s, if you wore a t-shirt to school that wasn’t too big and also wasn’t too small, but somehow didn’t quite fit, we’d say you were wearing an “extra-medium” shirt.” 2 As always, a huge exception is Disney, which barely makes anything original anymore.

Proposed 324-unit apartment project at Sarasota cottages falls through

The project, known as 1899 Fruitville, called for a 324-unit apartment complex.

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Oct 7 • 6:26 PM EDT • Business • mysuncoast.com
Evening of Purpose helps fight complex disease

ROCKY MOUNTAIN MS CENTER Aurora News: The simplest way to describe Multiple Sclerosis is that it is a complex, unpredictable disease for which there is no cure. On a deeper dive, medical professionals will say it’s a cruel disease, one where the immune system attacks the central nervous system, affecting the brain, spinal cord and optic […]

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Oct 7 • 5:52 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Big Top Xtreme Entertainment Complex Will Open in Pine Bluff with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

After months of development and preparations, Pine Bluff’s Big Top Xtreme entertainment complex is preparing to celebrate its opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, October 14th at 10 a.m. Located at 2100 East Harding Avenue, the family entertainment destination brings a variety of attractions to […]

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Oct 7 • 4:59 PM EDT • Entertainment • deltaplexnews.com
The Culinary Director at a Unique California Restaurant Reveals the Key Ingredients Behind Its ‘Needle-in-a-Haystack’ Business Model

Deborah Mullin oversees a complex operation at Little Saint, the plant-based restaurant in Healdsburg, California.

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Oct 7 • 3:02 PM EDT • Business • entrepreneur.com
Chet Hanks explains himself after Eric André ComplexCon exchange

Chet Hanks explains why he confronted Eric André at ComplexCon in Los Angeles over the weekend. He accused the comic of 'trashing me to the media after I outshined him on his own show!!'

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Oct 7 • 2:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
1,000-mile-long cloud that forms and vanishes on Mars every day obeys 'exotic physics' never seen on Earth

New simulations suggest that the perplexing Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) repeatedly emerges in the Red Planet's skies thanks to a never-before-seen meteorological process.

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Oct 7 • 1:08 PM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Growing military cargo volumes raise commercial supply chain risks

Rising volumes of military cargo moving through freight forwarders, road haulers, port operators and shipping lines are creating complex safety, security, regulatory and political risks across…

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Oct 7 • 10:18 AM EDT • Business • businessinsurance.com
Film Festival Will Screen ‘Beyond The Duplex Planet’

The Woods Hole Film Festival’s Dinner & A Movie series continues on Saturday, October 17, with “Beyond The Duplex Planet,” a new feature documentary by Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated filmmaker Beth Harrington.

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Oct 7 • 9:18 AM EDT • Entertainment • capenews.net
Hinds Community College opens new health sciences complex

The complex cost $64 million and is 160,000 square feet.

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Oct 7 • 9:16 AM EDT • Health • wlbt.com
Kansas City Royals news: All (stadium) business in KC

Despite the Kansas City Royals leaving Truman Sports complex, could the area find new life?

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Oct 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • royalsreview.com
Kansas City Royals news: All (stadium) business in KC

Despite the Kansas City Royals leaving Truman Sports complex, could the area find new life?

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Oct 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • sports.yahoo.com
Eminem and Kid Rock Prioritize Friendship Over Politics on New Collab Track

The longtime friends have teamed up for a new track set to appear on Kid Rock's 13th studio album, 'Halfway to Jesus.'

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Oct 6 • 11:35 PM EDT • Politics • yahoo.com
IDC, The Business Value of Network Observability by Broadcom

Networks are growing in criticality and complexity. Network observability solutions and their suppliers are required to deliver on several key fronts to ensure networking success for IT organizations.

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Oct 6 • 2:30 PM EDT • Business • broadcom.com
Meet the former MMA fighter building his business in Prince William County

On Sept. 1, a retired mixed martial arts fighter strode into board chambers at the Prince William County government center complex in Woodbridge. This time, he was seeking a different kind of knockout.

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Oct 6 • 1:19 PM EDT • Business • wtop.com
Vitalize secures $31M to scale AI-powered operating system for hospital staffing and scheduling

Hospital staffing and scheduling is unglamorous, complex and tedious work, and Veeraj Shah, Vitalize CEO and co-founder, believes it's the most valuable healthcare task to tackle. | Vitalize positions its software as an "air traffic control" system for healthcare operations, helping health systems automate staffing, forecast demand, manage capacity and reduce reliance on overtime and agency labor.

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Oct 6 • 12:00 PM EDT • Health • fiercehealthcare.com
Two URI physics professors receive NSF awards to further study science behind black holes

KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 6, 2026 – Black holes and their complexity continue to fascinate astrophysics researchers around the world, including those at the University of Rhode Island. Researchers are drawn to how these massive, dense concentrations of energy affect their surroundings and want to learn more about how the universe as a whole was […]

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Oct 6 • 11:50 AM EDT • Science • uri.edu
Druski Shares Clip of Ye's HBO Pilot After Congrats Over 'TIME' Cover

"Thank you Kanye," Druski also said after Ye congratulated him for landing the 'TIME' cover.

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Oct 6 • 9:54 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Amwins launches MGA for complex liability risks

Amwins on Tuesday launched illumin Specialty, a managing general agency offering primary general liability and excess liability coverage for complex risks.

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Oct 6 • 8:30 AM EDT • Business • businessinsurance.com
Industry Insights: Q&A with Estée Lauder’s SVP of Global Clinical, Consumer Sciences on One-of-a-Kind Complexion Research

“A shade can be technically close to a person’s skin tone and still not look completely natural in every situation.”

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Oct 6 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • cosmeticsandtoiletries.com
Knowtion Health Names Steven Huddleston Chief Executive Officer

Knowtion Health, a healthcare company specializing in complex revenue recovery for providers, today named Steven Huddleston chief executive officer. Huddleston brings more than 25 years of experience in healthcare finance, strategy and revenue cycle leadership, including time spent as a health system finance executive. He has also built and led technology-enabled revenue cycle services companies, giving him a clear view of what health systems need from a partner.

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Oct 6 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com
Prince George’s Co. Council votes to advance billion-dollar entertainment venue project

The Prince George’s County Council voted 11-0 authorizing up to $215 million in special obligation bonds to help build the entertainment complex.

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Oct 5 • 7:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • wtop.com
Teaching students scientific-storytelling skills to inspire change

The senior capstone course ESCI 191 equips environmental-science majors with digital-storytelling skills to translate complex climate data into compelling narratives to immerse and engage the public.

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Oct 5 • 4:37 PM EDT • Science • news.ucsc.edu
Edison's Entertainment Complex Female Athlete Of Month: Jess Sever Has Made Important Contributions To Edwardsville Girls Flag Football Team

Edwardsville sophomore Jess Sever has five touchdowns as the undefeated Tigers girls flag football team advances in the IHSA postseason.

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Oct 5 • 3:20 PM EDT • Entertainment • riverbender.com
Supreme Court weighs local governments' climate lawsuits against oil, gas firms

Key justices appeared wary about the potential sweep of litigation, but torn over the complex legal interplay of federal and state laws raised by the case

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Oct 5 • 2:42 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Supreme Court weighs local governments' climate lawsuits against oil, gas firms

Key justices appeared wary about the potential sweep of litigation, but torn over the complex legal interplay of federal and state laws raised by the case

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Oct 5 • 2:42 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
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Googlebooks with Intel chipsets might have trouble with ‘complex’ Android apps

According to a statement from Google, Intel-based Googlebooks will apparently still struggle with some Android apps. When Android apps made...

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Oct 5 • 12:15 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
FSU data scientist receives NSF CAREER Award to develop AI model to analyze complex numerical data at scale

A Florida State University artificial intelligence and data scientist has earned one of the most prestigious early career faculty awards to develop a new

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Oct 5 • 11:12 AM EDT • Science • news.fsu.edu
Google Admits Some 'Complex' Android Apps Run Poorly On Intel Googlebooks

Android app compatibility on Googlebooks may not be as smooth as previously stated.

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Oct 5 • 8:38 AM EDT • Technology • engadget.com
Buck Motorsports Park & Entertainment Complex

The Buck Motorsports Park is a motorsports entertainment facility located in Quarryville (Buck), Pennsylvania.

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Oct 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • stadiumjourney.com
Scientists uncover recurrent patterns within chaotic quantum behavior

Many complex quantum systems rapidly lose the recognizable patterns of their initial states as their components interact. To describe patterns of regular and chaotic motion in specific systems, physicists ...

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Oct 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • phys.org
After success in Ascension with steel plant, Iberville Parish proposes its own industrial zone

Proposed industrial area would abut the RiverPlex MegaPark in Ascension, which has drawn billions in investment and pollution concerns

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Oct 5 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • nola.com
Rethinking discovery: how powerful screening tools are redefining the search for new medicines

In medicine discovery, identifying the right biological target has always been a critical and complex step. Today, the rise of powerful screening tools is fundamentally reshaping this process, creating a step-change in how we move from scientific hypotheses to transformative medicines. Advances in high-throughput screening, genomics and AI-driven analytics are enabling scientists to interrogate disease biology at unprecedented scale, bringing forward opportunities that were previously beyond reach.

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Oct 5 • 5:23 AM EDT • Science • ipsen.com
Entertainment complex with restaurants, bar, arcade coming to Nine Mile

A new complex with Southern Creole dining, an arcade, pub and a liquor store is coming to the Nine Mile area.

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Oct 5 • 5:04 AM EDT • Entertainment • pnj.com
Entertainment complex with restaurants, bar, arcade coming to Nine Mile

A new entertainment complex is coming soon to the growing Nine Mile area at 1420 W. Nine Mile Road offering upscale Southern Creole dining, immersive virtual reality gaming, draft beer and bourbon walls and more.

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Oct 5 • 5:04 AM EDT • Entertainment • miamiherald.com
2 confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease at Queens apartment complex prompt NYC Health Department probe

The city Department of Health is investigating an apartment building in Queens, following two confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease among the residents there.

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Oct 4 • 11:00 PM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
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Rapper Lucki alleged stabbed in bloody brawl outside ComplexCon

Video appears to show the rapper with a laceration below the jaw. At least four people were hurt in a knife attack, police said.

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Oct 4 • 9:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Rapper Lucki reportedly injured following confrontation at ComplexCon in L.A.

According to multiple sources, rapper Lucki was injured after a confrontation at ComplexCon, which is taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. TMZ reports that Lucki was involved in…

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Oct 4 • 1:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • ktla.com
Column: More than just a phase: The real science behind why teens feel everything so intensely

When a minor inconvenience feels like the end of the world, take a deep breath. Remember you’re navigating the complex reality of a growing mind.

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Oct 4 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • highschool.latimes.com
San Jose launches pilot program for mobile healthcare unit on downtown streets

The program hopes to help most vulnerable residents “with complex needs who too often cycle between the street, 911, emergency rooms and back again”

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Oct 4 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • mercurynews.com
Do animals experience schadenfreude?

Schadenfreude, ‪or pleasure at seeing another's pain, is a complex emotion. So can animals besides humans experience it?

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Oct 4 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Trump Promotes Data Centers at Rally With Republican Facing Heat on Them

The president defended the complexes, which have become a liability for Senator Jon Husted in a challenging midterm race.

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Oct 3 • 10:10 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Steelers Try Out Two Super Bowl Linebackers

The Pittsburgh Steelers tried out a pair of veteran linebackers at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on Friday, according to the […]

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Oct 2 • 9:28 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Steelers Host Former Bengals Edge Rusher for Visit

The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted veteran edge rusher Cam Sample for a free agent visit to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on […]

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Oct 2 • 7:23 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
On complex political issues, most Americans take shortcuts to simplicity

A core assumption in any democracy is that citizens with access to information will make reasoned decisions on political candidates and policy issues. But a new study by UC Berkeley social scientists ...

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Oct 2 • 4:40 PM EDT • Politics • phys.org
Timberfest Brings Two Days of Family Fun and Entertainment to Downtown Sheridan

The 42nd annual Timberfest is underway in downtown Sheridan, with two days of activities planned around the Grant County Courthouse Square Friday and Saturday. The annual Grant County festival began Friday, October 2nd, with arts and crafts vendors, amusement rides, a petting zoo and pony […]

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Oct 2 • 3:52 PM EDT • Entertainment • deltaplexnews.com
Part of Capitol complex in downtown Sacramento evacuated due to threat

California lawmakers are not currently in session, but construction crews and legislative employees were at the site.

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Oct 2 • 3:49 PM EDT • Politics • sacbee.com
Studying Science in an Anti-Scientific Time

This Chronicle Review Deep Cut was first published in 2025. By Julianne Werlin Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe The last two decades have not been kind to science studies. Already bruised and battered by the “science wars” of the 1990s, by the 2000s sociologists of science — who had long argued that science had to be understood in its human context — were encountering the funhouse-mirror version of their own views in right-wing critiques of climate scientists. It was enough to give some prominent scholars pause. “Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?” asked Bruno Latour, the most famous sociologist of science in the world, in 2003. “Should we apologize for having been wrong all along? Or should we rather bring the sword of criticism to criticism itself and do a bit of soul-searching here: What were we really after when we were so intent on showing the social construction of scientific facts?” In response, Latour proposed a change of method and attitude. Science studies, now chastened and contrite, would no longer seek to strip facts of their authority, but to enrich and enhance them. What this meant in practice was never fully clear. But his diagnosis of problems resonated, even if his solutions did not. Latour’s exercise in public hand-wringing signaled a shift in mood. By 2016, with the first election of Donald Trump, the idea that skepticism of science was a right-wing position, not a left-wing one, had become a commonplace, discussed eagerly in The New York Times. For liberals, vaccine denial during the Covid era and Trump’s second-term attacks on the funding of scientific research, covered extensively in these pages, added a new urgency to the defense of science on both practical and principled grounds. There was little appetite for a sociology or philosophy of science that emphasized the messiness and missteps of the scientific process rather than its integrity and triumphs. The distinguished historian of science Peter Dear’s new book, The World as We Know It: From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science (Princeton University Press, 2025), which seeks to tell the story of 18th- and 19th-century science for a general public, may seem comfortably remote from these bitter contests. In its 16 short chapters, Dear draws swift, sure sketches of major discoveries from Newton to Einstein, ably guiding the reader through debates on stellar nebulae, animal taxonomy, atomic chemistry, evolution, and other flashpoints in the history of science. But though a work of history, Dear’s book must still negotiate our polarized present. In a blurb on its back cover, the historian of biology Lynn K. Nyhart alludes to the “present moment, when scientific knowledge is being swamped by misinformation and its institutions are under siege.” Dear himself, in his conclusion, refers to the “yard signs” and “bumper stickers” that proclaim “Science Is Real.” One antidote to both anti-science propaganda and to reductive slogans in science’s defense is a robust history and philosophy of science: exactly what Dear’s scholarship has long offered. But his new book illustrates how difficult such work has become. Dear, an emeritus professor of history at Cornell University, is best known as a creative and philosophically minded historian of the Scientific Revolution. His edited volume The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument (1991) analyzed the rhetoric of Galileo’s thought experiments to brilliant effect. Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution (1995) was a major contribution to the analysis of scientific experiments in early modern Europe and beyond, while Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (2001), now in its third edition, remains one of the best overviews of the profound epistemological upheavals of 16th- and 17th-century science. But Dear has also ventured into later periods. Nearly two decades ago, in The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World (2006), he turned to the 18th and 19th centuries to sketch a history and theory of scientific knowledge. Aimed at a generalist audience, Dear’s simple prose belied serious philosophical ambitions. Science, Dear argued, has two aspects: “natural philosophy,” the quest to understand the true nature of the universe, and “instrumentality,” the applied skills and technologies that allow us to manipulate the world for human advantage. Both strands are ancient, but the innovation of the phenomenon we call “science” was to yoke them together. As Francis Bacon wrote, “Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known, the effect cannot be produced,” an insight typically abridged to “knowledge is power.” Or, in Bertrand Russell’s characteristically blunt phrase, science has two functions, “1. to enable us to know things, and 2., to enable us to do things.” So far, so conventional. But Dear took issue with this familiar story in one respect. Bacon’s formula implied that theory and practice could be fused in a single method. In fact, Dear argued, the quest to understand nature and the desire to manipulate it were coupled only loosely. They could come together, but they could also pull apart. Focusing on natural philosophy, the “knowing” half of the scientific circle, he used a series of case studies from cosmology, taxonomy, chemistry, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to show how theories changed over time, in dialogue with practice, but never reducible to it. Take the case of matter, the basic substrate of the physical world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists not only disagreed about what it was, but also about how well it could be known. In 1789, the chemist Antoine Lavoisier dismissed speculation about the atomic composition of chemicals as “discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature,” as he sought to orient chemistry away from philosophical abstraction and toward laboratory results. But in the 19th century, atoms returned with a vengeance in the atomic chemistry of John Dalton, who wanted to explain the underlying structure of nature. It was not just that Dalton and Lavoisier had a different set of experimental results, or even a different theory, Dear showed. What counted as an explanation had changed. In arguing that scientific theories depended on their intelligibility to human beings with complex arrays of beliefs and commitments, Dear was in sympathy with science studies. Key figures such as the sociologist Steven Shapin emphasized the importance of psychological mechanisms like trust in the formation and acceptance of scientific ideas. But in focusing on the scientific pursuit of knowledge, not its politics or economics, Dear resisted the more cynical perspective of some of his colleagues. The Intelligibility of Nature strikes a very different note than Shapin’s collection of a few years later, Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as If It Was Produced by People With Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority (2010), to name just one example. Walking a very fine line, Dear depicted science as driven at once by complex social dynamics and by the intellectual power of real discoveries. It was a testament not only to his own acumen but also to the vitality of the field that he was able to do so. Nearly two decades later, The World as We Know It returns to the questions broached in The Intelligibility of Nature. Like Dear’s earlier study, it begins with the Newtonian cosmos and ends with debates between Einstein and Bohr on quantum physics. Beyond its terminal figures, many of the same characters appear in both studies, including the naturalists John Ray and the Comte de Buffon; the chemists Étienne François Geoffroy, Antoine Lavoisier, and John Dalton; as well as Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday, among others. Its subject is nearly identical: As in The Intelligibility of Nature, The World as We Know It considers natural philosophy as opposed to instrumentality, here defined as the “desire to create a picture of what the world is really like — the world as God knows it — rather than simply having instrumental or operational control over it.” The two books also overlap in insights — and sometimes even in language. The reader who has learned in The Intelligibility of Nature that Buffon’s method of classifying animals “reflected his belief in the importance of the senses and empiricism in learning about nature (a doctrine associated with Newton and the philosopher John Locke)” will experience a sense of déjà vu on reading, in The World as We Know It, that the classification “reflects Buffon’s commitment to the epistemological stance of Newton and his philosophical underlaborer John Locke, who stressed the role of the senses in creating natural knowledge.” Later in the passage, we read that, “because of its stress on understanding the ways of life of animals in their environments, Buffon’s approach could almost be labeled (anachronistically) as ‘ecological.’” And again, “an anachronistic way of putting it would be to say that Buffon recommends an ecological mode of understanding.” Likewise, in The Intelligibility of Nature we read of Dalton that he was initially drawn to meteorology, and that: He did a bit of experimental work on these things, especially having to do with the water-holding capacity of gases, but his real interest lay in understanding what, at an underlying natural-philosophical level, was really going on physically.” Whereas, in The World as We Know It: He did experimental work on these things, especially concerning the water-holding capacity of gases — although not at a very refined level quantitatively — but he was continually trying to develop a theoretical conception of what was happening physically. The final full chapter of each book closes on the same resigned note. Intelligibility: These days, most serious work on the natural philosophical underpinnings and implications of quantum mechanics is performed not by physicists but by philosophers of science. Among scientific practitioners themselves, Bohr’s attempt to use instrumentality as sufficient grounds for a respectable science has met with a high degree of success. And again, in The World as We Know It: Bohr’s and Einstein’s concerns are now questions that are mostly discussed by philosophers of science rather than by physicists themselves. The marginalization of these sorts of questions amounts to the demise of natural philosophy, at least in physics, in the 20th century. Quantum mechanics “works,” and that’s good enough for most scientists who encounter it. Examples could be multiplied. When handling the same subject matter, some echoes are inevitable. Scholars should not feel that because they have written “Isaac Newton died in 1727” in one book, in the next they must describe him as perishing, expiring, or meeting his maker. But the repetitions of language and arguments (not to mention six reproduced images) threaded throughout The World as We Know It are more extensive than that. They should have been caught by Princeton University Press or its reviewers, and revised. Because the two books have so much in common, it is easy to see where they diverge. The World as We Know It is a less theoretical work than its predecessor. The sociology of knowledge that organized The Intelligibility of Nature has been reduced in scale and folded into readings and examples. The taut interplay between history and theory, which gave the earlier study so much interest, is there, but it is subtle. In the earlier book, the case studies demonstrated theoretical claims about the character and development of science. In the later work, each narrative of discovery is an end in itself. Insights emerge from the history, but they do not control the organization of the study. With the theory muted, it can be hard to understand the logic uniting Dear’s sprawling history of more than two centuries of scientific knowledge. The 16 brisk chapters cover an enormous amount of material. But the closer the volume edges to comprehensiveness, the more obvious the missing elements become. A chapter on “Institutions and Pedagogy,” describing the birth of the research university, illustrates the problem. Inserted roughly halfway through the book, the unnumbered chapter is designed as an “entr’acte,” in acknowledgement that it does not fit the study’s organization around scientific discoveries. Yet as Dear is well aware, no general history of the development of modern science can bracket its 19th-century institutionalization and professionalization. It was the 19th-century university, after all, that gave us the “scientist,” a term coined by the Cambridge philosopher William Whewell. Dear’s history of scientific discoveries implies a wider social and institutional history, but it remains largely subterranean, only occasionally extruded under the pressure of the narrative. It must be said that the balance is not all on the side of the earlier study. There are some advantages to the more historical, less theoretical organization of The World as We Know It. Dear’s accounts of paradigm shifts are remarkably lucid, no small accomplishment given that they span fields and centuries. He makes excellent use of the wealth of new scholarship on Darwin and his influences, to which he has himself contributed. It is satisfying to see puzzle pieces from Buffon’s natural history, Georges Cuvier’s animal taxonomy, Thomas Robert Malthus’s demography, and Charles Lyell’s geology recombined seamlessly in the Darwinian jigsaw. Likewise, Dear’s discussion of stellar nebulae, divided between chapters two and 15, shows vividly how Newton, Kant, Herschel, and Hubble reimagined insights and observations as they sought to discover whether the diffuse light that filtered through early telescopes was a glowing, gaseous substance or discrete but distant stars. Yet despite such pleasures, the book remains a more modest work than The Intelligibility of Nature. Dear has clearly not changed his views about the history of science. But in the two decades that have elapsed, the discipline and the world around it have changed, making it harder to write a sociologically and philosophically ambitious history of science for the general reader. That is a shame, because in the age of Silicon Valley and biotechnology, both the reciprocity and the tensions Dear identified between the epistemological and instrumental ambitions of science are more evident than ever. In recent years, some of the most exciting new books on the history of science in early modernity have focused precisely on this pressure point. Important studies such as Pamela H. Smith’s From Lived Experience to the Written Word (2022), James Poskett’s Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science (2022), and Vera Keller’s The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (2023) all shed new light on how early modern science negotiated the relationship between its instrumental and epistemological ambitions, or in Russell’s phrase, knowing and doing. There is every opportunity for a philosophically informed approach to draw new insights from this wealth of material. Dear, unfortunately, has not done so in The World as We Know It. But for future scholars of the history of science, his body of work over nearly four decades may provide just the model. Julianne Werlin is an associate professor of English at Duke University. Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe

Bishop’s computer science chair says AI is eliminating ‘grunt work’ and reshaping digital jobs

Dr. Russell Butler, chair of Bishop’s University’s Department of Computer Science, says artificial intelligence is increasingly taking over routine digital “grunt work,” changing the skills students and workers may need in the years ahead. Photo courtesy of Bishop’s University. Click here to read our platform! Get local news like this every morning. Subscribe free below. Subscribe Pulse Newsroom Artificial intelligence is already taking over some of the routine digital work once performed by entry-level employees, according to Bishop’s University Computer Science chair Dr. Russell Butler — a shift he believes will make expertise, judgement and the ability to evaluate AI-generated work increasingly important. Butler described the change as automation reaching what he calls the “bottom of the cognitive pyramid” during an interview with The Pulse about AI, university education and the future of digital work. His argument is not that humans are disappearing from the workplace. Instead, he sees their role changing as AI becomes capable of handling more of the repetitive tasks involved in computer-based work. “Everything’s converging on just AI basically doing all the grunt work,” Butler said. The bottom of the cognitive pyramid Butler is from Lennoxville, completed his undergraduate studies at Bishop’s and later earned his PhD at the Université de Sherbrooke. He joined Bishop’s in 2019 and now chairs its Department of Computer Science. He uses AI in research, teaching and other creative work, and said the technology is increasingly capable of handling routine digital tasks that once required substantial human time. “You’ve got the grunt work, like moving things around in Excel, doing basic programming tasks,” Butler said. “That’s like the bottom grunt work that the entry-level worker would have done two or three years ago.” Butler went further, saying in his view that much of this type of work has already been absorbed by AI tools. He connected that change to a shift he sees taking place in computer science, where entry-level roles have declined while experienced workers can use AI to increase what they can produce. “A senior developer now has access to essentially an unlimited amount of junior developers on demand,” Butler said. He was describing AI systems metaphorically, not literal employees. His point was that one experienced developer can now ask AI tools to produce code or other technical work that might previously have been assigned to more junior workers. That raises a broader question for universities and employers. If some of the simpler work traditionally given to newcomers can now be done by machines, how do people gain the experience needed to become senior workers themselves? Students doing work that once required years of programming Butler said he is already seeing the change inside his classroom. He created a Bishop’s course called CS208, Coding in Plain English, to show students — including those without traditional programming backgrounds — what they can accomplish using AI. Some come from disciplines such as psychology or neuroscience with no previous programming experience. “What I’m finding is that students who have zero programming experience, they come in from another discipline like psychology or neuroscience or something, they are now able to get up and running with real data sets,” Butler said. Butler’s own doctoral work involved neuroimaging, and he said he has assigned students work he considers comparable to the kinds of analysis he performed during his PhD. He described giving students a real dataset, an expected result and instructions to use AI to complete the analysis. Butler said those students have been able to carry out work at a level he associates with tasks he once performed after years of programming experience. That does not mean a student using AI instantly acquires the same knowledge as an experienced computer scientist. But Butler sees it as evidence that AI can dramatically lower the technical barrier between having a problem to solve and producing a working result. The role of the person using the system then changes. They need to know what to ask for, understand enough about the subject to judge the answer and take responsibility for what is ultimately produced. What about AI hallucinations? One persistent concern surrounding generative AI is hallucination — when a system produces information that sounds convincing but is false or unsupported. Butler said that problem has improved substantially in newer systems and is not as severe as it was with earlier models. He pointed in particular to newer AI systems’ ability to search the web, consult scientific databases and return source links rather than simply generating a citation from their internal model. Butler nevertheless said users should verify what AI produces. “You should verify,” he said while discussing citations generated with AI. His position is that hallucinations have become less common in the systems he uses, not that incorrect AI output is impossible. Human checking remains part of the process. Hours of work compressed Butler offered another example from his administrative work at Bishop’s. The university has been comparing CEGEP courses with first-year Bishop’s courses to determine where students may qualify for advanced standing. Traditionally, Butler said, that means reviewing two sets of course descriptions and manually matching one institution’s courses with another’s. As department chair, that could require hours of reading and comparison. He said AI can now be given both sets of material and asked to generate an initial mapping automatically. “It saves me hours and hours of work,” Butler said. Butler said the AI-generated mapping can also produce a better result than he would produce himself. He sees similar opportunities in businesses. A company may receive specifications, drawings, emails or other digital material from customers and then have employees convert that information into an internal format before anything can be manufactured or delivered. AI can increasingly perform parts of that intermediate processing. In Butler’s view, the employee does not necessarily disappear. Instead, the job becomes more about checking the result. “The human is still there,” he said. Judgement could become more valuable That change is central to Butler’s view of where digital work may be headed. If AI can produce a first draft, write basic code, compare documents or process large amounts of information, he argues that knowledge and judgement become increasingly important. “The real scarce resource going forward is going to be domain knowledge, expertise, and… credentials, authority, the ability to work with other people,” Butler said. He is therefore encouraging students not only to learn AI tools but also to broaden their education. He mentioned acting, fine art and photography as examples of courses that can help develop what he described as taste and intuition — the ability to recognize what is good, what is not and what should be changed. “And that’s the skill that they need now because the grunt work has been automated and now it’s about evaluating what the AI produces and telling it how to improve or expand the output,” Butler said. That does not remove the need for technical knowledge. Butler’s argument is that the emphasis may shift away from manually completing every step of a task and toward directing, checking and improving work produced with AI assistance. He also stressed that humans remain responsible for final decisions. “At the end of the day, the human has to make the final call,” Butler said, pointing to the question of accountability. Physical work may be different Butler draws a distinction between digital work and jobs requiring people to manipulate the physical world. He expects AI to continue advancing quickly in tasks performed almost entirely on computers. He is more cautious about claims that humanoid robots will soon be able to replace workers such as plumbers or electricians. Butler said those trades would not be replaced “anytime soon” in his view and described some current robotics demonstrations as overhyped. He described the situation as counterintuitive. “It’s almost like we solved the highest level first,” he said, contrasting advances in digital AI with the harder problem of building robots capable of operating reliably in the physical world. Butler’s argument is that some digital occupations could face automation sooner than trades requiring complex physical work. The wider AI shift in the Townships Butler’s comments come as local institutions are increasingly grappling with how AI should be used. The federal government recently announced up to $162 million over five years for 10,000 AI-related placements through Mitacs. The Université de Sherbrooke told The Pulse that the number of its collaborative research and innovation projects supported through Mitacs has approximately doubled since 2018-19, while the number of placements has approximately tripled. UdeS also said it already has projects involving both AI adoption and the application of AI to other fields. At Bishop’s, Butler said part of his role involves building the Computer Science department’s local presence, connecting students with regional partners and strengthening relationships with the Sherbrooke technology ecosystem. Those developments put universities in a difficult position. They have to prepare students to use the tools employers increasingly have available while also making sure graduates understand enough to recognize when those tools are wrong, incomplete or being applied to the wrong problem. The risk of losing human skills Butler does not see AI as risk-free. Later in the interview, he raised a separate concern: as AI becomes better at reading, writing, programming and other cognitive tasks, people could lose some of the underlying skills that historically helped produce new ideas. “The other danger is that we’re going to lose the human skills,” Butler said. He specifically mentioned reading and writing and argued that people could lose some of the lower-level understanding that contributes to breakthroughs. Butler said AI systems are based on existing human knowledge and argued that they become much more powerful when paired with a capable person. That tension runs through his view of the technology. AI can remove hours of routine work. It can allow beginners to perform tasks that once required substantial technical training. It can give experienced workers significant leverage. But the more capable the technology becomes, the more important it may be for people to develop the judgement needed to decide what should be done in the first place. For Butler, that is where education may have to change. Students still need to understand their field. They still need to know when something is wrong. And they still need to be able to make the final decision. But if AI increasingly handles the bottom of the cognitive pyramid, the value of a worker may depend less on how quickly they can perform the grunt work and more on whether they understand what the work is supposed to accomplish. Don’t miss the next story that affects your community. Join thousands of readers getting The Pulse every morning—plus breaking news alerts when it matters most. If you value this kind of local journalism, consider supporting it. Subscribe, share and like! Subscribe Share

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