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My fiancée and I live with my parents in a NYC apartment to save money
My parents live in a rent-controlled NYC apartment, so my fiancée and I moved in. We were able to save enough money to open an art gallery.
Screenwriters union and Hollywood studios reach four-year tentative agreement
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The screenwriters union and Hollywood studios reached a surprise four-year tentative agreement after roughly three weeks of negotiation.
Shroud of Turin, claimed to be Jesus' burial cloth, contaminated with carrot and red coral DNA
An analysis of samples taken from the Shroud of Turin, the cloth thought by some to have been wrapped around Jesus, reveals a rich tapestry of animal and plant DNA. But what does it mean?
New York Jets Flight Connections 04/05/26
Happy Easter Sunday, Jets fans! Below are your links for the day. Brian Costello – What Jets might do at quarterback in 2026 NFL Draft Rich Cimini – With Sabres playoff berth, Jets own longest active playoff drought Andrew Crane – Jets now by themselves for longest-active playoff drought with Sabres clinching berth after 14 […]
Who are the kings being crowned here in Colorado?
Though most of us celebrate “No Kings Day” on July 4, the Trump-deranged got a head start last weekend with rallies around the state. Attendees bravely fought oppression by blocking traffic for people with jobs. Rally-goers demanded freedom from tyranny, many right after voting to ban all but beige house paint at their HOA meetings. […]
What Sea Creatures Reveal About How Fast People Age
By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay ReporterSUNDAY, April 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) — This is no ordinary fish story. Researchers who videotaped every moment in the lives of 81 African turquoise killfish gleaned intriguing insights into the aging process that may also apply to humans. Though killfish ...
Vanderbilt Medical Center's financial malpractice
While shaving staff to save money, Vanderbilt exposes its hypocrisy through multi-year, multimillion-dollar-deals with local pro sports teams.
Trump loses across courts in bruising week of immigration and legal setbacks
Trump suffered an onslaught of court losses this last week on immigration, Jan. 6 liability and the White House ballroom.
A nonpartisan California news site draws worldwide audience
Jack Kavanagh's website, Rough & Tumble, has a worldwide audience despite — or perhaps because of — its lack of flash, commentary and snark. It's a well-respected compendium of politics and policy.
Sports Illustrated is attempting a rebound after layoffs
One of the most respected brand names in journalism is now generating revenue through streaming TV, branded events, ticket services, and international editions.
Bruce Springsteen ‘heartbroken’ by ex-bandmate’s death: ‘May she rest with angels’
He shared his thoughts on social media.
He quit tech and started homesteading. AI brought him back online.
Ryan Courtnage quit the tech company he cofounded and bought 22 acres of land in Creston, British Columbia.
How a custom $84,962 tiny home became a luxury Airbnb
Sakura Kishiro, 26, bought a 400-square-foot tiny home and designed "every square inch." It became a popular vacation rental — and a source of income.
Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey makes grand return to CT visiting two arenas with brand-new acts
The legendary circus continues its 21st century makeover featuring 65 performers, from aerialists to acrobats to trick cyclists to people who dive through hoops.
One way to live longer: Win the genetic lottery
We may have less control over how long we live than previously thought.
No experience needed? Novices, newcomers dominate field in SC’s open coastal seat in US Congress.
SC’s 1st Congressional District race is packed with outsiders — just five candidates have ever held elected office. Mark Sanford’s surprise entry is reshaping an already crowded primary and making the path tougher for lesser-known hopefuls.
A Grip on Sports: A Hall of Fame weekend has unfolded in Spokane, though neither NCAA men's semifinal games reached that level
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh, yes. Celebrating an incredible spring weekend with the thought basketball rocks. And “Roundball Rocks” as the soundtrack.
The founder of a $2.5 million AI-powered legal business started work at her DA’s office at just 12 years old
Logan Brown, the founder of AI-powered law firm Soxton, lived out her “Legally Blonde” dreams through hometown court hearings as a preteen and attending Harvard Law School.
‘Nothing prepares you’: The invisible lives of carers in the UK
Thrust into the isolated world of caring, a daughter learns how other sole carers cope, some under immense strain.
Double Take -- Sisco: America needs universal health care
Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2010, millions of people were able to purchase health insurance. For many of these folks, though, making the monthly payments has
Sports Highlights for April 8, 2026
Sean Xiao: Sean Xiao, a sophomore on the Lakeridge boys tennis team, is already proving himself as a No. 1 singles player in 2026. Through three matches at the start […]
Sports Highlights for April 8, 2026
Sean Xiao: Sean Xiao, a sophomore on the Lakeridge boys tennis team, is already proving himself as a No. 1 singles player in 2026. Through three matches at the start […]
Sports Highlights for April 8, 2026
Sean Xiao: Sean Xiao, a sophomore on the Lakeridge boys tennis team, is already proving himself as a No. 1 singles player in 2026. Through three matches at the start […]
Business Bulletin: WalkerHughes acquires; Midas develops; jP supports; TWM partners
Catch up on local acquisitions, donations, partnerships and projects.
Why Fenerbahce turned to Europe’s youngest sporting director to break their title drought
Devin Ozek is only 30 but, having played his part in Bayer Leverkusen's rise, swapped Germany for the pressure-cooker of Istanbul football
Commentary: When stars’ plastic surgery is played for your entertainment
Often when I’m scrolling through Instagram, hypnotized by the stream of videos, an actress’ face will cut through the noise. This isn’t a typical clip from a press junket or red carpet. Instead, it will feature side-by-side images of the star, one younger and one more recent. Then a content creator – perhaps a doctor or an aesthetician, sometimes wearing scrubs – will walk me through what cosmetic procedures they think the actress has had. (It’s much rarer that men get this kind of analysis.)
Mars dust storms are sparking electricity and rewriting the planet’s chemistry
Mars may look like a quiet, dusty world, but it’s actually buzzing with hidden electrical activity. Powerful dust storms and swirling dust devils generate static electricity strong enough to spark faint glowing discharges across the planet, triggering chemical reactions that reshape its surface and atmosphere. Scientists have now shown that these tiny lightning-like events can create a surprising mix of chemicals—including chlorine compounds and carbonates—and even leave behind distinct isotopic “fingerprints.”
SWLA mother honors son’s memory through custom business
Amber Mims’ son Kashton Mims drowned on Aug. 1 of last year.
I watched The Godfather again at 64 and cried — not because the movie changed, but because I finally understood that the films we watched in our twenties weren’t just entertainment, they were instruction manuals for masculinity, family, and honor that shaped every major decision I ever made
Last week, I found myself alone in my living room, remote in hand, scrolling through streaming options when The Godfather appeared on screen. It had been years since I’d watched it. Decades, really. Something made me click play, and three hours later, I was sitting there with tears streaming down my face. Not because Sonny […]
Gun sales at Academy Sports questioned in new report
Straw purchasers often supply guns to criminals through the firearms black market.
GoFundMe raising money for family after Eau Claire business owner killed in crash
Her husband and their three daughters survived.
New mentorship training aims to boost student mental health support at South Dakota Mines
South Dakota Mines launched a state-funded pilot to expand Peer2Peer mentorship through fraternities and sororities, training students to support peers’ mental health.
'Diff'rent Strokes' star Todd Bridges files for divorce from wife after 3 years of marriage
'Diff'rent Strokes' star Todd Bridges has filed for divorce from his wife, Bettijo B. Hirschi, after three years of marriage.
Georgia 4-star OT commit Kelsey Adams returns to LSU
Georgia picked up a big early commitment from Atlanta Langston Hughes four-star offensive tackle Kelsey Adams back in October. He remains committed to the Bulldogs, but he’s also not closing the door on his recruitment. Adams is out visiting other programs this spring and he’s in Baton Rouge to give LSU another look this weekend. […]
Letters to Sports: Dodgers off to a roller-coaster start
Readers of the Los Angeles Times Sports section give their thoughts on the Dodgers, MVP candidates, UCLA basketball and more.
Trump’s Victory Rhetoric Undercut by Downed US Jet in Iran War
The downing of a US aircraft and the dayslong search for a missing crew member has pierced the aura of invincibility that President Donald Trump has sought to project as he tries to stave off the increasing political risks of the Iran war he started five weeks ago alongside Israel.
Giannis Antetokounmpo says he is healthy enough to play, rips Bucks as league starts investigation
The 10 Best Bluetooth Speakers For Outdoor Use
Not all Bluetooth speakers are created equal, and when it comes to outdoor use, you'll want yours to be rugged and reliable enough to take the party outside.
Lander students win divisions, receive special accolades at 2026 Sceince Fair in Laramie
(Laramie, WY) – Several Lander students made an impact at the Wyoming State Science Fair in March, held at the University of Wyoming, where there were approximately 130 student competitors from across the state who had qualified during the regional science fairs. County 10 caught up with Lander advisor Sam Hartpence, who oversaw students Carson […]
Dear Abby | Brother's beliefs are incompatible with sister's reality
Dear Abby: My son is getting married next year. He and his future wife are extremely religious. My daughter (his sister) is also engaged -- to a wonderful woman. Because
I thought I'd always use Chrome, until I tried this lightweight alternative
Everything feels faster on this minimal browser
Album Review: 6WA by BigXthaPlug & 600 Entertainment
BigXthaPlug spent eight months in Nashville making a country-rap album that debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, put “All the Way” with Bailey Zimmerman at No. 4 on the Hot 100, got him a Rolling Stone cover, and filled arenas with Jelly Roll. And then he came back to Dallas, rounded up four of his signees, and made a gangsta-rap record with N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton on the cover. 6WA is the second group release from 600 Entertainment, named after the 600 block of Meadowridge Street in Ferris, Texas, where BigX and his people grew up. The whole thing is loaded with West Coast samples. From N.W.A.’s “8Ball,” Eazy-E’s “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” and “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” Ice-T’s “6 in the Mornin’,” Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” and more. BigX is staking his name on the lineup he built—Rosama, MurdaGang PB, Yung Hood, KevanGotBandz, KaineMusic—and claiming a lineage from 1,400 miles away while insisting Dallas is its own thing. A million dollars in cash, split and handed straight to his mother. That’s the first place BigX goes on “From the Bottom.” He’d probably still be in the streets if he didn’t have his son and daughter. He only started rapping to make life better for Carter. Couldn’t start his car back then, now people get starstruck at Starbucks, and he throws the whole field away in one sentence: “How you think we competin’? You on the same bag, I just made me some millions off country.” Goyard bags off a Nashville payday, and he wants you to know exactly how far he’s come from everybody else. “Safe to Say” does something similar but looser. It’s a straight Ice Cube “It Was a Good Day” flip, and BigX nails it. Wakes up, checks both phones, nobody’s locked up, kid accounts look good. Gets pulled over, only catches a warning. Pulls up on the squad to liquor, ladies, and haze. Rosama takes the second verse and matches him. Wakes up to his girl cleaning his cuticles, twins playing peekaboo, pays off his car, calls a cousin, sees the opps and they don’t trip. Lawyer calls, he beat his case. Rosama is the strongest voice in the 600 camp after BigX, and “Life of a Gangster” is why. Third person, riding low, blacked-out windows, snub-nose revolver. A character who chose sticking people up over selling dope. “Quick eraser like a number-two pencil.” He never breaks character, and his delivery drops lower and slower than anything he does on the group cuts, like he’s telling you something at a cookout that he probably shouldn’t. Then on “Long Live Fre$h” he’s a completely different rapper. “Short-bus diamonds, these bitches retarded,” wide-body Durango he can’t even park. That kind of range matters on a group record. MurdaGang PB’s best verse is on the title track. Feds at his door at 6 AM, cameras busted, flushing dope, ram truck putting everybody on the floor. Yung Hood on “The Hottest” just lays out four reasons to keep hustling. Who wants to be broke, women cost money, you need bail, and home has to be straight. It’s funnier and more honest than most rappers get when they’re trying to explain why they sell drugs. KevanGotBandz on “Ain’t Never Slowin’ Down” talks about his father getting caught on the dope while he’s sitting on $300K somewhere in the hills, which is a specific kind of guilt that doesn’t usually make it onto crew tapes. KaineMusic, the newest signee, takes the back half of “Who Dunnit” and introduces herself in third person—“Took flight just to show these hoes how to perform”—but it’s too short to know if she can hold a full song. The flex tracks fill the middle of the LP and mostly run together. “I Go” is Rosama and PB trading brands, guns, and food punchlines. Rosama’s “anemic, my iron tucked low in this shirt” is a slick gun bar, PB fires back with “.223 with a clip ‘bout as big as a toddler” and “I go Burger King, stay with that whopper.” Quick, funny sometimes, but it’s all shopping lists. “Dopeman” is a chant. “6ixer Party” brings Snoop Dogg, who does exactly what you’d expect Snoop Dogg to do. BigX contributes the night’s wildest overshare: “She say she brought a friend too, well, I’m tryna put sausage on her dental.” These songs move fast and don’t overstay, but three or four of them could trade verses and nobody would catch it. Midway through, The D.O.C. shows up for a spoken-word interlude. Tracy Curry. West Dallas native, former N.W.A affiliate, co-writer on a lot of the records getting sampled on this very album. He thanks BigX for the tribute and then gets direct: “This your time, this DFW time. You need to do it like we do it down here.” Leave bread crumbs so everybody behind you can eat. Keep God in your life. It’s fatherly and generous, and it does raise the question of whether 6WA follows that advice. The album borrows heavy. The cover art, the Eazy-E samples, “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted” opening with a direct “Boyz-N-The-Hood” lift, Yung Hood rapping “Flag on my left side, Crip until I die.” But the stuff that actually stays with you is Dallas. BigX talking about Pleasant Grove, Rosama calling himself a country boy, PB recounting a raid that could’ve been last Tuesday. The record smells most like itself when it smells like Ferris, Texas, and least like Compton. BigX on “The Hottest” says his father was the first person he knew who had chickens. Not the way rappers usually wave at the drug trade. He means his actual father, his actual family. On “600 Degrees,” Rosama compares his chopper’s stutter to a speech disorder, PB claims he still has the block on his back even after leaving the city. BigX closes that one saying he used to spin and smack, and now the plaques are platinum. Thirty-two minutes was right for this. Nobody overstays, Tony Coles and Rance and Charley Cooks keep the production punchy, and BigX gives his signees real room instead of crowding every song. 6WA doesn’t reinvent anything. Five rappers, good beats, short clock. Most of what they say you’ve heard before. Some of it—the million to his mother, the cuticles and peekaboo, the four reasons to hustle—you won’t forget. Solid (★★★½☆) Favorite Track(s): “Safe to Say,” “From the Bottom,” “The Hottest” Subscribe
A retired grandpa thought he was in good health — until he fainted during a bike ride
John Cantrell was enjoying his retirement until an unexpected condition forced him to choose between two kinds of heart surgery.
Scientists discover hidden gut signals that could detect cancer early
A new study reveals that gut bacteria and metabolites may hold the key to detecting serious digestive diseases earlier and more easily. Using AI, scientists found that biomarkers linked to one condition can often predict others, showing these diseases are more interconnected than previously thought. This cross-disease insight could lead to faster diagnoses without invasive procedures.
Tom Pohlad to lead Twins business operations throughout 2026 season
Twins owner Tom Pohlad initially considered hiring a president of business operations after Derek Falvey resigned in January.
AWS Engineer Reports PostgreSQL Performance Halved By Linux 7.0, But A Fix May Not Be Easy
An Amazon/AWS engineer raised the alarms on Friday over the current Linux 7.0 development kernel leading to the throughput for the PostgreSQL database server being around half that of prior kernel versions
Fossils from China show complex life evolved millions of years earlier than once thought
Newfound fossils from China suggest that complex animals were around millions of years earlier than thought, among them possibly our vertebrate ancestors.
Julia Letlow faces more questions about past DEI comments in Louisiana Senate campaign
Can U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy raise enough questions about U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s conservative credentials?
Woman saves money living in a 50-foot narrowboat she bought for $40K
Dottie Turnbull left her one-bedroom cottage and bought a narrowboat for about $40,000. Five years later, she says it saves her money every month.
Jennie Garth and Daughter Lola Volunteer in L.A. Ahead of Easter Weekend, Plus Jaafar Jackson, Zendaya and More
Jennie Garth and Daughter Lola volunteer in L.A. ahead of Easter Weekend, Plus Jaafar Jackson, Zendaya and More. From Los Angeles to New York City, and everywhere in between, see what your favorite stars are up to.
Parker Roberts inspires Sporting Jax women's soccer with ACL recovery
In fewer than seven months, Sporting Jax women's soccer midfielder Parker Roberts has fought through a torn ACL to return to action.
Are allergies genetic?
Although babies born from parents with allergies are also more likely to have them, there are a number of outside factors that affect whether and how someone develops allergies.
Pigeon Town Steppers bring a pastel party to New Orleans Easter. 'It still gives me butterflies.'
The second line parade route changes, but always goes through Pigeon Town, Gert Town and Hollygrove.
Students found a star from the dawn of the universe drifting into the Milky Way
A group of undergraduate students stumbled into a cosmic time capsule—one of the oldest stars ever discovered—while combing through massive astronomy datasets. What began as a class project quickly turned into a breakthrough when they spotted an extraordinarily “pristine” star made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, hinting it formed near the dawn of the universe.
Annual Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce Business Expo planned for Thursday
Roughly 120 exhibitors and more than 1,000 attendees are expected for the expo at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
Sources: NBA investigating Bucks after Giannis says he's healthy
The NBA is investigating the Bucks' handling of Giannis Antetokounmpo, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania, after the star forward told reporters Friday that he is being held out despite being healthy enough to play.
Thieves smash through 8-liner business wall to reach ATM after deputies' raid.
The owner of an 8-liner game room is out of luck—and apparently out a lot of money. Her business has been hit twice: Bexar County deputies shut it down last week, and then last night thieves struck. The owner tells our Pachatta Pope she didn't think she was doing anything illegal.
Arts and entertainment throughout the region
A listing of arts and entertainment events throughout the region.
Kentucky Science Center offering day camps for kids during Spring Break
The Kentucky Science Center is offering day camps for students in Pre-K through 5th grade.
Game room owner says she thought business was legal following BCSO raid
Carrie Gutierrez said she was transparent from the start about her business, and said she believed it was a legal operation.
Rising energy costs squeeze Rochester-area businesses, forcing tough decisions
Owners point to a combination of rising expenses, including utilities, insurance, taxes and the cost of goods as key drivers behind the financial pressure.
These overlooked brain cells may control fear and PTSD
Astrocytes, once thought to be mere brain “support cells,” are now revealed to be key players in fear memory. Researchers found they actively help form, recall, and weaken fear responses by interacting with neurons in real time. Changing astrocyte activity directly altered how strong fear memories became. This breakthrough could lead to entirely new treatments for anxiety-related disorders.
MXene breakthrough boosts conductivity 160x with perfect atomic order
A new breakthrough is transforming MXenes—ultra-thin, high-tech materials—into something far more powerful and precise. Researchers have developed a cleaner, more controlled way to build these materials using molten salts and iodine, eliminating the messy chemical processes that once left their surfaces disordered. The result is a perfectly arranged atomic structure that lets electrons flow with remarkable ease, boosting conductivity by up to 160 times.
Meteor impacts may have sparked life on Earth, scientists say
Asteroid impacts may have helped kick-start life on Earth by creating hot, chemical-rich environments ideal for early biology. These impact-generated hydrothermal systems could have lasted thousands of years—long enough for life’s building blocks to form. Scientists now think these environments may have been common on early Earth, making them a strong candidate for where life began. The idea could also guide the search for life on other worlds.
Genius RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Player Makes Longest Rollercoaster Ever Built, Manipulates Guests Into Staying Just Happy Enough to Ride It for 1.947 x 10²²⁷ Years
A RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 superfan has created what is believed to be the longest rollercoaster ever built in the game — and it’s so long that even a googol can’t be used to describe how many years it takes to ride it.
Small Business Cybersecurity Training Program Scales Nationwide
The national Small Business Development Center is taking a program that was started in Delaware and offering it through its full 1,200-center network across the country.
Scientists Have Made French Fry Breakthrough
Researchers have developed a method of making french fries that results in a healthier bite without sacrificing crispiness.
Katherine Schwarzenegger sparks backlash with Chris Pratt dollhouse video
Katherine Schwarzenegger posted a video of husband Chris Pratt building a dollhouse for their daughters. Then the comments rolled in.
DI Sports picks | No. 3 Illinois’ Final Four matchup with No. 2 UConn
The waiting game is coming to an end for No. 3 Illinois as it prepares for its first Final Four appearance in 21 years on Saturday in a revenge game against No. 2 UConn. After two physical, hard-fought wins last week over the No. 2 Houston Cougars and the No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes, the expectations...
Is there enough supply of cannabis in New York to meet the demand?
New York’s legal cannabis market continues to grow, surpassing $3 billion in total reported retail sales. As demand grows, so must supply.
NFL execs have ‘conflicting’ thoughts on 49ers offseason
How did others around the NFL view the 49ers offseason?
California cracks down on luxury car buyers evading taxes through 'Montana Loophole'
California targets wealthy luxury car owners and dealers using the Montana loophole to avoid sales tax, launching audits to recover millions in revenue.
William Staggers on music, creativity, and Staggers Music Entertainment
William Staggers joins us to share his story of writing and arranging his own songs, building a creative space for other artists, and the work he is doing through Staggers Music Entertainment to in…
Ozzie Guillén, who led White Sox to World Series win, brought to tears after hearing team will retire his number
Shohei Ohtani Ends Home Run Drought
Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run of the season on Friday, a three-run blast off of Washington Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas.
New research suggests the microplastics health risk may not be as bad as we thought
However, that's definitely not to say microplastics aren't still a big problem, study authors warn.
Former U.S. ambassador speaks about Iran at UMaine
Nicholas Burns, who served as ambassador to China, NATO and Greece, shared his thoughts on the Trump presidency, U.S. relations with China and the war in Iran: “When you conduct a war, the whole reputation and future of the country is on the line."
Cavaliers Deep Dive, Lakers Lose Luka + Sky Trade Thoughts
Warhammer 40K: Apocalypse Rules Aim To Make Playing Big Games Easier
Getting all your miniature on the tabletop is tough enough. Now 40k Apocalypse rules should help speed up the fun of actually playing!
Brian Nathan pivots from upset win to governing sprint as potential rematch with Josie Tomkow looms
Nathan said the importance of representing roughly half a million constituents is not lost on him.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
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