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11-12 IN SPAIN | OPEN THREAD
Welcome to The Daily Merengue! THESE ARE YOUR MODS: Ezek XI, Valyrian Steel, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho ENOUGH OF “MR NICE GUY” Over the past 2+ years, we’ve lost to much on the pitch that now, when i see our players looking as nonchalant as possible. It irritates me more than their inability to […]
Oracle and Buck Institute for Research on Aging Advance Federal Aging Research Initiative
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 23, 2026 — Oracle Health and Life Sciences Summit — Oracle and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging are collaborating to advance intelligence into age-related disease and support discoveries that can extend the healthy years of life. Buck will leverage Oracle Life Sciences Data Intelligence, which encompasses 122 million+ de-identified longitudinal […]
Gengelbach to step down as Bentonville chamber leader
Brandom Gengelbach will step down as president and CEO of the Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 31, three years after being hired to lead the business organization. No...
The First Ace Combat Game In Seven Years Is Playing For Keeps
The franchise's ambitions are bigger than ever in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
S&P Global Data Shows Fastest US Business Growth Since Post-COVID Reopening
U.S. business activity grew in September at the fastest rate for over five years, according to the S&P Global US Flash PMI released Wednesday (Sept.
Yolanda Brown pleads guilty to wire fraud after $207K theft from a Ken Welch political committee
The former political Treasurer admitted to a yearslong scheme involving roughly 20 clients and more than $1.4M.
Kansas becomes the latest headache for Republicans, with Democrats eyeing a ‘miracle’ in Senate race
Adam Hamilton is asking Kansans to take a leap of faith and do something that hasn’t been done in 94 years: send a Democrat to the US Senate.
Sarasota Memorial Invests in Future Healthcare Access for One of Southwest Florida’s Fastest-Growing Communities
Sept. 22, 2026 – With the four-county region expected to grow from approximately 1.2 million residents today to nearly 1.8 million over the next 25 years, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (SMH) is moving forward with plans to acquire approximately 120 acres in Manatee County’s fast-growing State Road 64 corridor. Located within Sarasota Memorial’s four-county […]
Original 'Star Trek' USS Enterprise heads to MIT after resurfacing on eBay
The 11-inch model was lost for 45 years.
Health Care Partnership outlines workforce progress
More local nursing graduates are staying in the region, according to officials offering an update on the progress of the New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership at a public forum last night. According to Jack Watson, dean of UNCW’s College of Health & Human Services, the number of UNCW nursing graduates choosing to remain in the area after graduation has climbed from 27% to the mid-40% range. The New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership aims to address the region’s healthcare worker shortage, with a key focus on nursing through strategic partnerships between UNCW, Cape Fear Community College (CFCC), New Hanover County Schools and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Foundation. "Each of the partners had pathway programs,” said Watson, “but they were almost at times done in a silo." One of the New Hanover Community Endowment's largest commitments to date, the collaborative received a $22.3 million grant in 2023, to be disbursed over three years, beginning in 2024. At the public forum, leadership addressed the nursing bottleneck created by the pandemic, and Laurie Whalin, president of the Novant Health Coastal Region, acknowledged that Novant Health had relied heavily on travel nurses during that period, with travel nurses making up about 47% of staff and nursing turnover at 35% at the height of the pandemic. "I can say we are in a tremendously different place today,” Whalin said at the forum. The number of travel nurses employed by the Novant Health Coastal Region has dropped to around 100 today, which Whalin says accounts for less than 4% of the workforce. Roughly two years into the grant term, major stakeholders in the collaboration pointed to various accomplishments tied to the initiative. According to Stephen Hill, vice president of talent development with the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, 250 more nurses live in New Hanover County in 2026 than in 2023. Whalin added that between 2021 and 2025, the Novant Health Coastal Region has hired close to 1,200 registered nurses. Additionally, according to Whalin, over the past two years, hiring and retention of nursing graduates from UNCW increased by 103%, while hiring and retention of nursing graduates from CFCC increased by 70%. Mandy Mills, director of career & technical education at New Hanover County Schools, pointed to the launch of its first Health Sciences Academy program, established across the county's four traditional high schools (Hoggard High School, Laney High School, Ashley High School and New Hanover High School), which started with 38 students last year. Mills also pointed to growth in the district’s Nursing Fundamentals course, which grew from 10 seats in 2023 to 50 in 2025-2026 and is now offered at all four traditional high schools. Watson emphasized the growing nursing class sizes and offered an update on the school’s accelerated nursing degree, which launched last year. Eleven students graduated in the first class, and all passed their boards on the first try, Watson said. This year’s class has 24 students. When the endowment announced its $22.3 million grant for the collaborative in 2023, UNCW and CFCC were each slated to receive the bulk of the funds, at about $10 million each. UNCW’s plans for the grant money included expanding its simulation lab, Watson said. He added that construction is expected to begin on the simulation lab this year and will likely extend through next year. According to Mary Ellen Naylor, dean of Health & Human Services at CFCC, the college has experienced growth in its associate degree nursing retention, rising from 59% in 2023 to 76% for the May 2026 class. CFCC used part of its endowment funding to support wraparound services, including a housing stipend, tuition assistance, exam assistance, emergency assistance, drop-in daycare and clinical and educational supplies. "We have very strong … students, but once they get into the program, there are competing priorities,” Naylor said. “They are working multiple jobs. They have children. They're single parents." According to Naylor, in 2026, 94% of students who used support services are still enrolled or have graduated. Addressing a question from an audience member about an approaching “enrollment cliff,” driven largely by dropping birth rates, Watson and Naylor said demand remains strong at both schools. “Right now … we do have more applicants than we have spots in our nursing program, and it is still a competitive process to get into,” Watson said. “I do not foresee that changing.” "(We've) doubled enrollment in our nursing programs over the last few years, but just as Dean Watson said, we still have very robust applicant pools, so it is still very competitive to get in,” Naylor said. "We have the applicant pool to support that, but again, it's not as easy as just saying, 'Okay … we're going to take another 90 students.' It's making sure all the resources and infrastructure that we need to educate the students outside the classroom is there as well." In response to a question about applying the collaborative model to other healthcare positions besides nursing, Sophie Dagenais, CEO and president of the endowment, said she sees the potential for the model to expand to other healthcare jobs and even other industries, but that the endowment hopes to learn from this model first. “This is a grant that is in year two of three years, and first we wanted to learn what is this going to demonstrate, what will we learn and then how may we scale it possibly,” she said. According to endowment spokesperson Amber Rogerson, funds for the program are set to expire after June 2027. “It's too early to discuss what happens after that,” wrote Rogerson in an email, “though we know the partners are considering the future, and some of the work supported by the grants is now built into their regular operations.”
Health Care Partnership outlines workforce progress
More local nursing graduates are staying in the region, according to officials offering an update on the progress of the New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership at a public forum last night. According to Jack Watson, dean of UNCW’s College of Health & Human Services, the number of UNCW nursing graduates choosing to remain in the area after graduation has climbed from 27% to the mid-40% range. The New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership aims to address the region’s healthcare worker shortage, with a key focus on nursing through strategic partnerships between UNCW, Cape Fear Community College (CFCC), New Hanover County Schools and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Foundation. "Each of the partners had pathway programs,” said Watson, “but they were almost at times done in a silo." One of the New Hanover Community Endowment's largest commitments to date, the collaborative received a $22.3 million grant in 2023, to be disbursed over three years, beginning in 2024. At the public forum, leadership addressed the nursing bottleneck created by the pandemic, and Laurie Whalin, president of the Novant Health Coastal Region, acknowledged that Novant Health had relied heavily on travel nurses during that period, with travel nurses making up about 47% of staff and nursing turnover at 35% at the height of the pandemic. "I can say we are in a tremendously different place today,” Whalin said at the forum. The number of travel nurses employed by the Novant Health Coastal Region has dropped to around 100 today, which Whalin says accounts for less than 4% of the workforce. Roughly two years into the grant term, major stakeholders in the collaboration pointed to various accomplishments tied to the initiative. According to Stephen Hill, vice president of talent development with the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, 250 more nurses live in New Hanover County in 2026 than in 2023. Whalin added that between 2021 and 2025, the Novant Health Coastal Region has hired close to 1,200 registered nurses. Additionally, according to Whalin, over the past two years, hiring and retention of nursing graduates from UNCW increased by 103%, while hiring and retention of nursing graduates from CFCC increased by 70%. Mandy Mills, director of career & technical education at New Hanover County Schools, pointed to the launch of its first Health Sciences Academy program, established across the county's four traditional high schools (Hoggard High School, Laney High School, Ashley High School and New Hanover High School), which started with 38 students last year. Mills also pointed to growth in the district’s Nursing Fundamentals course, which grew from 10 seats in 2023 to 50 in 2025-2026 and is now offered at all four traditional high schools. Watson emphasized the growing nursing class sizes and offered an update on the school’s accelerated nursing degree, which launched last year. Eleven students graduated in the first class, and all passed their boards on the first try, Watson said. This year’s class has 24 students. When the endowment announced its $22.3 million grant for the collaborative in 2023, UNCW and CFCC were each slated to receive the bulk of the funds, at about $10 million each. UNCW’s plans for the grant money included expanding its simulation lab, Watson said. He added that construction is expected to begin on the simulation lab this year and will likely extend through next year. According to Mary Ellen Naylor, dean of Health & Human Services at CFCC, the college has experienced growth in its associate degree nursing retention, rising from 59% in 2023 to 76% for the May 2026 class. CFCC used part of its endowment funding to support wraparound services, including a housing stipend, tuition assistance, exam assistance, emergency assistance, drop-in daycare and clinical and educational supplies. "We have very strong … students, but once they get into the program, there are competing priorities,” Naylor said. “They are working multiple jobs. They have children. They're single parents." According to Naylor, in 2026, 94% of students who used support services are still enrolled or have graduated. Addressing a question from an audience member about an approaching “enrollment cliff,” driven largely by dropping birth rates, Watson and Naylor said demand remains strong at both schools. “Right now … we do have more applicants than we have spots in our nursing program, and it is still a competitive process to get into,” Watson said. “I do not foresee that changing.” "(We've) doubled enrollment in our nursing programs over the last few years, but just as Dean Watson said, we still have very robust applicant pools, so it is still very competitive to get in,” Naylor said. "We have the applicant pool to support that, but again, it's not as easy as just saying, 'Okay … we're going to take another 90 students.' It's making sure all the resources and infrastructure that we need to educate the students outside the classroom is there as well." In response to a question about applying the collaborative model to other healthcare positions besides nursing, Sophie Dagenais, CEO and president of the endowment, said she sees the potential for the model to expand to other healthcare jobs and even other industries, but that the endowment hopes to learn from this model first. “This is a grant that is in year two of three years, and first we wanted to learn what is this going to demonstrate, what will we learn and then how may we scale it possibly,” she said. According to endowment spokesperson Amber Rogerson, funds for the program are set to expire after June 2027. “It's too early to discuss what happens after that,” wrote Rogerson in an email, “though we know the partners are considering the future, and some of the work supported by the grants is now built into their regular operations.”
Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years after being convicted of sexually assaulting ex-“Project Runway” staffer
The disgraced producer appeared in court on Sept. 23.
Every athlete who hosted Saturday Night Live: Full list of SNL's sports hosts, from Fran Tarkenton to Jalen Brunson
With 50-plus years in the books for SNL, here is an updated list of every athlete who has hosted the show.
Big Night Entertainment: Nightlife meets culinary innovation
From transforming a 1950’s-style diner to operating 20 casino restaurants, nightclubs, and more, 20 years later.
Madonna is the most-nominated artist at this year's VMAs. No one has ever made a comeback quite like this.
It's been 27 years since Madge won a VMA. That's likely to change on Sunday night.
Meet the hairy-legged, red-eyed sea spiders new to science
Two new sea spider species have been discovered in the Salish Sea by UBC researchers - the first described there in almost 100 years.
Colts’ Major Problem is ‘Real’
There’s a stat going around on social media that says the Indianapolis Colts have allowed the most yards through two games of an NFL season in 50 years. That’s not actually true, but it does make a valid point: The Colts are getting gashed. Whether the opposition decides to run the ball or throw it, […] The post Colts’ Major Problem is ‘Real’ appeared first on HEAVY.
Dragon Age Director Finally Says What Fans Have Been Thinking For Years: The Fade Needs To Go
Mark Darrah also shared what he'd change about the other games in the series
Maryland health inspector general audits find $42M in improper payments, report says
Maryland’s Office of Inspector General for Health (OIGH) has identified more than $42 million in improper or unrecovered payments over the last four years, acco
Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years for sexual assault after retrial
Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
New Study Illuminates Bats’ Murky Origins
The largest analysis of bat genomes and fossils suggests that the first bats emerged in Europe roughly 65 million years ago and that echolocation evolved early.
Lincoln brewery shuts down after more than a decade in business
Backswing Brewing Co. has closed its doors after serving customers in Nebraska for more than 10 years.
Justin Verlander Reveals Reason Behind Retirement Decision
In case you missed it, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander will make the last start of his illustrious career on Saturday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Recently, Verlander explained what went into the retirement decision and why he’s ultimately deciding to hang up the cleats at 43 years old. Saturday starter 🫡 pic.twitter.com/ZZW3f4CHAz — Detroit […] The post Justin Verlander Reveals Reason Behind Retirement Decision appeared first on HEAVY.
Historic Island Park mural reemerges 43 years after its Brattleboro unveiling
BRATTLEBORO — Forty-three years after its original unveiling, portions of a large mural depicting Brattleboro’s long-lost Island Park have emerged from storage at a moment when renewed public interest is
Lonely? Socially isolated? It may cost you 6 healthy years of life
The numbers paint a grim picture. Roughly half of all U.S. adults are lonely, according to a 2023 report, and nearly as many feel socially isolated. Though just as serious as other health risks, loneliness ...
Andy Murray set to face Rafa Nadal for first time in 10 years in Rafa Nadal Academy Slam
Andy Murray will take part in the 10-year anniversary celebrations of Rafa Nadals tennis academy; It will mean the pair meet on the court once again for the first time in 10 years; Murray is captaining a team, with Nadal skippering the other
The Mysterious Devil’s Arrows Stones Appeared in England 4,000 Years Ago. Scientists Just Learned Where They’re From.
Ice-flow models rule out natural transport, leaving prehistoric engineers as the only ones who could do it.
What happened to ‘The Love Boat’ cast? See the crew of the Pacific Princess 40 years later
That swirling theme music could mean only one thing: The Pacific Princess was pulling in with its appealing crew and oodles of celebrity guests. See the stars of ‘The Love Boat’ more than 40 years after the finale.
Reflections on 15 Years of the “Moneyball” movie
The 2011 movie brought sabermetrics to the mainstream, and changed baseball forever.
Why these company founders chose Detroit to scale their businesses
In the past two years, more than a dozen companies have chosen to establish their early-stage companies in the city.
Unitaid marks 20 years and asks that global health reform be driven by equitable access
Created in 2006 by Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom, Unitaid has spent two decades turning innovation into access for millions. As leaders debate the future of global health, it asks that reform be held to the same test.
Workforce tops business leaders’ growth concerns
About 2 in 5 business leaders who were polled during the Mississippi Business Alliance’s statewide tour stop Tuesday at the Lowndes County PACCAR plant said workforce availability is the issue most likely to limit their organization’s growth over the next two years.
‘It’s five broken brains’: The Groundlings’ long-running ‘Crazy Uncle Joe Show’ keeps saying 'Yes, and...'
For 25 years, “The Crazy Uncle Joe Show” has brought long-form improv, friendship and plenty of laughs to the L.A. comedy scene.
Mercy Health’s Urbana Hospital celebrates 75 years of service
Mercy Health’s Urbana Hospital is celebrating 75 years of service in Urbana and throughout Champaign County.
Trump’s midterm woes deepen amid worsened economic backdrop: CNN poll
With President Donald Trump at record unpopularity, Republicans are facing an even bleaker midterm political landscape than they did eight years ago, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds.
In its 80th year, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra embraces new shows and changing times
The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra has been part of Lancaster County's arts tapestry for 80 years, but its programming is far from dated.
Banijay Entertainment Heats Up Dating Slate with Temptations Under the Sun
Media and entertainment group, Banijay Entertainment, today announces it has acquired the global rights to French-Canadian dating format, Temptations Under the Sun. Expanding the group’s strategy-led reality-dating portfolio, the title is a spin-off of Canada’s longest-running reality romance show Occupation Double, which has aired for more than 20 years. Created by Productions J, the French […]
Euro zone business activity posts surprise upturn in September, PMI shows
Business activity across the euro zone accelerated this month at its fastest rate in over three years, confounding expectations for a slowdown, but firms faced a steeper rise in operating costs, a survey showed.
Former Spanish River XC coach Rick Rothman, through the years
Former Spanish River cross country coach Rick Rothman was honored Saturday as the course at South County Regional Park was named for him.
Health Partners Group Appoints Ruth Handcock as Chief Executive Officer
LONDON, September 23, 2026--Health Partners Group, the UK’s leading provider of high-quality occupational health and treatment services, today announced that Ruth Handcock will join as Chief Executive Officer, effective from 2nd November 2026. Andrew Noble, Co-Founder, who has served as CEO for the past ten years, will become Co-Chairman, working closely with Ruth, the senior leadership team and the Board.
30 years of Republican dominance of Ohio politics: The results
The Republican party of Ohio has dominated state government for the past thirty years. Let's look at the job they have done in managing the state. The results may shock you.
France private sector returns to growth at fastest rate in 25 months, PMI shows
France's private sector grew in September at its fastest pace in just over two years, driven by a rebound in services demand, a business survey showed on Wednesday.
Truro City progress after rare FA Cup victory
Truro City manager John Askey hopes his side can continue to progress in the FA Cup after their first win in the competition in five years.
Your weather app runs on satellites, supercomputers and a retired science teacher who walked to his rain gauge at 7 a.m. every day for 50 years
The forecast on your phone has a secret ingredient: 8,700 volunteers with a thermometer. Meet the Frenches, a family in Gouverneur, N.Y. Ray monitored the stats for 50 years before his son took over. The 11-year-old granddaughter is next.
Covington Business Council’s Pat Frew is helping ‘drive the bus’ on a healthy business climate
By Andy Furman NKyTribune staff writer The Cincinnati Chapter of the American Marketing Association earlier this year named him a Marketing Legend. Some 30 years ago he was told he was best suited to…
The Immigration Politics of a Felon’s Pardon
How far will New York Gov. Kathy Hochul go to keep immigrant criminals in this country? So far, she’ll even pardon a man convicted of an aggravated felony, if that’s what it takes to prevent the United States Supreme Court from setting a restrictionist precedent. Keisy Guerrero Mariano is a Dominican who spent two years
Coleman Health Services: Helping Ohioans thrive through whole-person care
For 48 years, Coleman Health Services has been helping Ohioans find hope, stability, and a path toward a healthier and more independent life. Founded in 1978 as a nonprofit community behavioral health organization in Portage County, Coleman has grown into a nationally recognized provider offering comprehensive behavioral health, residential, employment, crisis, and supportive services throughout […]
Wu-Tang Management Shares Business Advice, Life Lessons with Birmingham Youth
By Shauna Stuart | For the Birmingham Times The Wu-Tang Clan experience doesn’t stop at the stage. For more than 30 years, the legendary hip hop group has ensured its mantra “Wu-Tang is for the ch…
First New Wild Cat Species Identified in Over 100 Years Is An Adorably Tiny 'Tiger'
A once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
Burbank business owner says fraudulent Zelle transfers cost her $2k
The physical therapist, who has had a business account with Bank of America for 20 years, said the bank’s responses were unsatisfactory. Carolyn Johnson reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026.
Marlins Trailblazer Named to Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame
Joanne Renn-Barnes served the University as a coach and administrator for 25 years
Newly available reports show state owed millions by providers, local health agencies
The Office of Inspector General for Health did almost 1,400 audits and investigations over the last four years and found more than $42 million in improper or unrecovered payments -- but those reports have only recently been posted for public review.
Scientists Just Found Something Unexpected in the Pages of Medieval Books
Scientists recovered sheep pox DNA from medieval parchment, helping trace a devastating livestock disease back more than 3,700 years.
Seattle mayor tries to ‘right the ship’ in her first city budget
The city has faced consistently bleak revenue projections for years, and, as was the case last year, city spending continued to outpace revenue this year.
Huntsman Mental Health Institute Celebrates 40 Years of Clinical Care and Five Years of Transformative Growth
Celebrating 40 years of compassionate mental health care and five years as Huntsman Mental Health Institute, the organization reflects on its history, honors its pioneers, and advances a bold vision for the future.
Longtime Davie mayor gets challenge from political newcomer
The incumbent mayor of Davie has held the seat for more than 15 years but her opponent in November’s election is a newcomer who says she has fresh eyes.
We've Lost 12 Trillion Tons of Ice From Earth's Major Ice Sheets in Just 47 Years, Satellites Reveal
With no sign of stopping.
Lincoln brewery shuts down after more than a decade in business
Backswing Brewing Co. has closed the door after serving customers in Nebraska for more than 10 years.
Liverpool's transfer strategy facing biggest change in years
Liverpool are in a period of transition as a club, and more big changes are coming. Since last season ended, Arne Slot, Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes have all moved on from Anfield.As well as th...
Chip and Joanna Gaines Finally Sell Their Famous $2.7 Million Historic Waco Castle—Fully Furnished
The yearslong renovation and design project, which was featured on "Fixer Upper: The Castle," is ready for new residents.
Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital and Polk State College announce partnership with hospital’s $1 million historic gift
Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital today announced that it is gifting $1 million to Polk State College over five years. In recognition of the commitment, the Radiography Suite at the soon-to-open Polk State…
In 2022, scientists unveiled a wind-turbine material that could be recycled into gummy-bear ingredients. Four years later, where did the idea go?
A viral scientific breakthrough promised to solve wind energy's waste problem—but the gummy bears were never the real goal, and the hype outpaced what the lab could actually deliver.
Jeffrey Adams, an established restaurateur's first business, is closing after 14 years
Jeffrey Adams on Fourth, an upscale New American restaurant in downtown Winston-Salem, closes after 14 years due to financial challenges.
Howard County bus business acquired by Maryland firm
A Howard County bus charter firm owned by the same family for more than 75 years has been acquired by another Maryland company. Eyre Bus Service, which owns and operates 22 motor coaches from its Glenelg headquarters,
Orlando Health gives Polk State College $1 million toward new campus
Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital will donate $1 million over five years to the Polk State College Foundation.
Vera Rubin Observatory detects one of the smallest and faintest satellite galaxies ever seen — before the telescope's mission even began
Astronomers looking at Vera C. Rubin Observatory test data have discovered 'Aquarius IV', believed to be a brand new satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located 350,000 light-years away.
Michigan Chamber endorses John James for governor
The endorsement of James over Democrat Jocelyn Benson was not unexpected given the group’s history of supporting Republican gubernatorial candidates. But it came considerably earlier than four years ago.
Billy Bush returns to network TV with new gig 10 years after Donald Trump scandal
Bush will serve as a conservative contributor after weathering fallout amid his past scandal involving Trump and a hot mic.
Billy Bush returning to network TV 10 years after Donald Trump hot mic scandal
Billy Bush returning to network TV as a Fox News contributor 10 years after his scandal involving Donald Trump and a hot mic.
Minecraft Beat Itself After Nearly Two Billion Simulated Years
Minecraft is no stranger to simulations, but it turns out that under the right conditions, the game can beat itself if given billions of years.
‘Real World: San Diego’ Alum Robin Hibbard Shares Health Update After Substance Abuse Struggles
Real World: San Diego alum and former The Challenge star Robin Hibbard is sharing a hopeful health update after a years-long battle with substance abuse. Hibbard, 46, shared the update in the comments...
Haley Jones Joins Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment As Lit Manager
Haley Jones has joined Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment as lit manager after a little more than six and a half years at Artists First.
Super El Niño breaks record months before peak as scientists warn of worst season in 1,000 years
Apple Watch Series 10 vs. Series 12 Buyer's Guide: Should You Upgrade?
The Apple Watch Series 12 is now available, two years after the Series 10 introduced the current thinner design. But is it worth upgrading? While last year's Series 11 brought just four changes, the Series 12 is a much more substantial update, with a new chip, twice as much RAM, redesigned health sensors, exclusive health and audio features, tougher cover glass, 5G connectivity, and new case materials. The Series 12 starts at the same $399 price as the Series 10 did in 2024.
Rabbit Is Back, This Time With an AI Agent App
Two years after trying to sidestep mobile apps with dedicated AI hardware, Rabbit is launching OS3, a cross-platform agent that lives on the screens you already use.
Rayman Legends Retold Doesn’t Feel Like a Necessary Remake, But It’s Still a Good Time
Rayman Legends Retold isn't breaking any new ground – not visually and not gameplay-wise, not that it should be expected to since it's a remake, after all – but it is a clean remake chock-full of content both new and old at a pretty nice value. It might be of particular interest to the Switch 2 crowd that isn’t getting the GTA 6 meteor landing in their lives this Fall (particularly in light of a new 3D Mario platformer’s continued absence and Super Mario Bros. Wonder being a couple years old now), and/or to the younger crowd that hasn’t played the series before. Here’s hoping it leads to a brand-new Rayman adventure sooner rather than later.
After DUIs and health problems, I finally found a way to quit drinking
Katie Rosier began drinking at 12. She got sober 32 years later, after DUIs, serious health issues, and time in a homeless shelter.
Around 7,000 Years Ago, The Genetic Diversity Of Males Crashed: What The Hell Happened?
Did generations of violent inter-clan warfare nearly decimate the genetic diversity of males?
What CDC's new teen health survey shows, and what it skips
Teen suicide risk hit a 10-year low in 2025. Guns, sexual violence, and self-harm. Where are the 2025 data on transgender teens? Missing data changes public health policy. Teen suicide risk hit a 10-year low in 2025. CDC asked more than 10,000 high school students over 100 questions in spring 2025. Yesterday, it published a report covering a fraction of them. The report focsed on five areas: diet, physical activity, sleep, digital behaviors, and mental health, reflecting the priorities of the Make America Healthy Again movement. There was good news. Fewer teens seriously considered suicide in 2025 than in any survey year since 2015: 14%, down from 20% in 2023. Sadness fell. Underlying Conditions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Sports participation, which dipped to 49% in 2021, is back to its 2015 level of 58%. Daily PE fell from 27% to 20% in two years, while fewer students eat breakfast daily than a decade ago. Guns, sexual violence, and self-harm. The questionnaire is public, and it goes well beyond those five areas. Students answered questions about sexual violence, self-harm, and whether they got help when they felt sad or anxious. They said how quickly they could get a loaded gun. They reported whether food ran out at home and whether they felt close to people at school. There were questions about sexual identity, including whether they were transgender. The report did not publish any of the answers students gave to those questions. CDC posts the raw survey data online, so anyone can see what the report left out. The report doesn’t cover the health of sexual minority students. Among students who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, or another non-straight identity, persistent sadness fell from 66% to 57% between 2023 and 2025. Serious thoughts of suicide fell from 41% to 30%. Those drops were bigger than the ones among straight students, although the gap remains wide: 28% of straight students reported persistent sadness, about half the rate of LGBQ+ students. About 1 in 7 girls reported sexual violence in the past year. One in 6 students hurt themselves on purpose. Among students who needed help for sadness or anxiety, half rarely or never got it. And among students who had seriously considered suicide, 43% said they could get a loaded gun without an adult’s permission. One protective factor rose sharply. In 2023, 55% of students said they felt close to people at their school; in 2025, 63% did. CDC’s earlier research ties that kind of connection to better mental health. Where are the 2025 data on transgender teens? In 2023, CDC's national survey asked high school students, for the first time, whether they were transgender. Their answers are the only nationally representative data on transgender teens, and their mental health is by far the worst of any demographic. That year, 71% of transgender students reported persistent sadness, 54% seriously considered suicide, and 26% attempted it, compared with 38%, 18%, and 8% of cisgender students. But we don’t have 2025 data. The timing matters because students took the survey in spring 2025, as federal policy toward transgender youth shifted. On January 28th, an executive order directed agencies to end federal support for gender-affirming care for people under 19, and several hospitals paused that care within days. In February, the CDC said it would no longer process transgender identity data. Later in 2025, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and HHS ended the 988 Lifeline’s dedicated line for LGBTQ+ youth. Researchers disagree about how much state policy shapes trans teens’ mental health. A 2024 Trevor Project study estimated that anti-trans laws increased suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth. Critics dispute its methods and its estimates. The 2025 survey could have added national evidence to that fight. CDC collected the data but hasn’t publicly released it. Missing data changes public health policy. Surveillance works as a feedback loop. It can show officials whether their policies help or hurt. The CDC didn’t provide data on the students most exposed to transgender policy shifts. The report kept measures that frame health as personal choice, like fruit, breakfast, and sports. It left out measures that track policy, like gun access, mental healthcare, food at home, and school climate, all of which respond to what legislators and agencies decide. HHS did not respond to questions that I sent on September 21st.
Trump defends US interventions abroad ahead of 'big decision' on Iran: 'Settling years of unfinished business'
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Subscribe TL;DR: Younger generations are showing signs of worse health compared to earlier-born cohorts at the same age This backward “drift” is showing up both in mortality risk and chronic disease Worsening trends in obesity and diabetes are the most consistent signals Taking the long view, we’ve made astonishing gains in health and life expectancy in the last century. Global average life expectancy has more than doubled from 32 years in 1900 to 73 years in 2024. (But don’t forget, there were still old people when life expectancy was 32). As people lived longer, they also generally lived healthier along the way. It turns out that avoiding things that can kill you early, like malnutrition and lots of childhood infections, also keeps you healthier later in life. In a classic 2004 paper, Finch and Crimmins proposed that cohorts of children who benefited from fewer early life infections had less lifetime exposure to inflammation and cardiovascular disease later in life, accelerating mortality improvements at older ages. Poor nutrition in the womb has also been linked to a higher risk of later chronic disease. The upshot is that improvements in childhood health can pay dividends many decades later. The combination of better living conditions (nutrition, sanitation) and medical advances (antibiotics, vaccines, blood pressure meds, etc) meant that people’s healthy lifespan generally expanded, even as they lived longer. Aging researchers call this best-case scenario “compression of morbidity”—meaning we delay the onset of disease and disability even faster than the years of life we are adding. During my 20+ year research career, we could generally bank on the idea that younger generations would not only live longer but also keep getting healthier along the way. “60 is the new 50” as they say… Enter “Generational Health Drift” Sadly, this expectation of steady progress may be changing. You’ve probably heard that US life expectancy gains have slowed to a crawl in the past couple of decades. Mortality improvements are also slowing (though less dramatically) in many other high-income countries (you can read more about that in a review paper I wrote here). Mortality is a very blunt health measure, but it is often a good barometer for the broader population health trends happening underneath. And we are now seeing that younger generations may be in worse health at similar ages compared to earlier born cohorts. My collaborator Prof. George Ploubidis at University College London coined this worsening health in more recently born cohorts “generational health drift.” “Generational health drift” is bad news on multiple fronts. Most obviously, we don’t want our health progress to go backward. But the timing is also bad, since our populations are aging. In demographic terms, “population aging” means that the proportion of the population at older ages (i.e >65 years) is increasing. Fun demography fact: Current population aging is not due to the recent declines in the birth rates making the news, but declines in fertility decades ago, after the “baby boom.” As baby boomers reach older ages, the smaller cohorts behind them mean the percentage of older adults will increase. For example, the share of the population age 65 and older in the US increased from 12.4% in 2004 to 18.0% in 2024. This story of population aging was written long ago. Many worry that population aging will put pressure on health care and pension systems. But if people reach older ages in better health than in years past, those fiscal pressures would be less dire than projected. Healthy older people can also continue to contribute to society in many valuable ways, including paid work, caregiving, community service….even high political office 🤷. On the flip side, if younger generations reach retirement age in worse health and with more disabling conditions, this could magnify the societal challenge of population aging. Evidence for worsening generational health A recent paper that I LOVED in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Leah Abrams and colleagues examined which birth cohorts (aka generations) were behind worsening US mortality. Behold the Lexis diagram (cue swooning demographers). Calendar time is on the x-axis, age on the y-axis. Birth cohorts can be followed over time as they age on the diagonal lines moving up and to the right. This figure plots the year-on-year % change in all-cause mortality at a given age. Green shading indicates mortality improvements over time, white is stagnation, and gray shading indicates worsening mortality. Following the diagonal line for those born in 1950, you can see a noticeable shift from green to gray that follows this cohort for most of their lives. This gray shading shows generally worsening mortality for the 1950 to 1959 birth cohorts compared to their predecessors across all ages. Concerningly for my GenX and elder millennial peeps, there was also a deterioration in mortality for birth cohorts born in the 1970s and 1980s, visible as dark gray areas at ages 30 to 45 during the 2010s. While some of these mortality changes reflect specific shocks such as the opioid epidemic, most deaths still occur from major causes of death such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. For cancer, the gray in the top left corner of the figure below reflects the legacies of smoking for older cohorts, followed by a period of green with improvements in cancer mortality as smoking rates declined. But the white/gray shading in the bottom right corner highlights a stagnation and reversal of the cancer trends, with cohorts born around 1970 to 1985 experiencing worsening cancer mortality. This deterioration was most noticeable for colon cancer mortality, possibly linked to obesity or dietary factors. Not just dying more, but less healthy along the way. A recent paper by Dr. Laura Gimeno of University College London (of which I am a co-author), found evidence that more recently born cohorts in Great Britain have stagnating or worsening health. A stylized picture of what“generational health drift” might look like: The review paper found: Rates of childhood overweight and obesity were highest among Gen Z. Rates of diabetes in the 40s almost doubled from 3.1% among the Baby Boomers to 5.9% in Generation X. Gen Z reported higher rates of poor mental health in adolescence compared to earlier-born groups. These UK results are consistent with studies showing worsening health across generations in the US as well. A 2021 US study found that more recently born cohorts had worse biological markers (like blood pressure and blood sugar) than earlier generations at the same age. A separate 2022 study of Americans aged 50 and over found that more recently born generations had a higher number of chronic diseases, with younger age of disease onset. A 2024 Lancet paper found that in the US, women born in 1945 had 33% obesity prevalence at age 50, rising to 48.2% for women born in 1970 turning 50. So what’s going on, and can we turn it around? We don’t have a definitive answer for what’s causing the deteriorating health of younger cohorts, but circumstantial evidence points to worsening trends in obesity and diabetes in both the US and UK. Remember that cohort trends reflect lagged effects of early environments, and younger generations have faced both earlier onset and more severe obesity across their lifetimes. Despite these very concerning trends, the future is not set in stone. We’ve reversed poor generational health trends before: drops in smoking are a major reason cancer and heart disease deaths fell so dramatically in recent decades. GLP-1 drugs may finally turn the tide against rising rates of obesity and diabetes, though it is still early days. But things could also get worse…for example from a return to higher levels of childhood infectious diseases that can have a lasting impact on health. See for example: [ ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) [ Don’t You Forget About Me(asles): The Virus That Erases Immune Memory ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) Jenn Dowd, PhD · March 24, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://jenndowd.substack.com/p/dont-you-forget-about-measles-the) Even as an optimist, emerging data on the “generational health drift” has my full attention. For most of my research career, we took it for granted that each generation would be healthier than the last. But if present trends continue, **50 could be the new 60….**and Gen Z celebrities will soon look older than Paul Rudd :). Stay well, Jenn Share the Health! If you found this post useful, please share it with a friend. Share
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How lip-syncing to AI let Forced Entertainment ‘play the game of theatre’
Today we have a fascinating piece by long-time Forced Entertainment fan Ben Kulvichit, speaking to Tim Etchells about their latest show Cold Sweat, how they are integrating lip-sync and AI voices into their work, the question of ‘authenticity’ on stage, and how lip-sync has even opened the door for them to make “something a little bit like drama”. This piece is a paid partnership with the Southbank Centre, where you can see Cold Sweat next month – we’re very grateful to the Southbank Centre for their ongoing support for Exeunt. Holly Williams ‘It was immediately interesting and uncanny’ **By Ben Kulvichit** “Is the microphone on?” So goes one of the opening lines of Signal to Noise, delivered by a human performer lip-syncing to an AI-generated voice. The voice is American, cheery but sluggish, slowed down into a gelatinous drawl. It repeats ad infinitum in a farce of stuckness; an answer never materialises. I find myself asking the same question as I hop on a Google Meet call with Tim Etchells, the artistic director of Forced Entertainment. We spend five or ten minutes frowning at each other, muting and unmuting, me gesticulating in semaphore into my webcam, checking if I am coming through now, restarting the laptop. To Etchells, I appear exaggeratedly mouthing words, my voice missing. In this gloopy purgatory of broken communication, life imitates art imitates life imitates art. We try a Zoom instead. Forced Entertainment, the pioneering British theatre company who have been at the avant-garde of performance since the 1980s, turned an interesting artistic corner with Signal to Noise, created on the occasion of their 40th anniversary. The whole performance employed this lip-sync technique to AI voices; on the face of it a left-field move from a company whose identity has long been grounded in the earthy, immediate presences of its performers and its unassuming, low-tech approach to theatricality. The technique, however, turned out to provide the company with a “rich new seam” of artistic enquiry, and has now spawned a trilogy of works. The second instalment, Cold Sweat, plays at Sheffield Theatres, Southbank Centre, and Lancaster Arts in October, while the third part, Everything Must Go, has been touring in Europe and is slated to come to the UK in 2027. As is often the case with Forced Entertainment shows, the main conceit for this work didn’t arrive until quite late. They were “four or five weeks into rehearsals for Signal to Noise,” Etchells recalls, and getting nowhere. Away from rehearsals, he had been playing around with feeding “weird texts” to AI voices to see how they would cope with them – “basically for my own amusement” – and was compelled by the uniformly “serviceable, benign, good-natured” tone they would read in, no matter how poetic, fractured or experimental the writing. On a hunch, he brought some examples into rehearsals and the performers gave lip-syncing a go. “It was immediately interesting and uncanny,” he recalls, with the performers having to deal in the moment with the problem of mapping themselves onto another artificial ‘performer,’ which itself was dealing with the problem of a very human text. “Almost all the writing for these projects would be useless to us unless it was done in this way,” says Etchells. “We wouldn’t know what to do with it. It’s too poetic. It’s too fictional. It’s too tangled.” But exploring lip-syncing along to the text has opened “an enormous reservoir of ways of thinking about writing and performing.” Subscribe to Exeunt, and get two in-depth pieces on theatre a week, direct to your inbox Subscribe Forced Entertainment have long been sifting through the detritus of popular culture, from daytime TV to end-of-the-pier vaudeville, magic acts and clown shows, to find frameworks for their own unusual entertainments. Lip-syncing, then, makes sense for them to experiment with. As a mode of performance, it’s wired into popular consciousness through pop stars trying to convince stadium audiences of their liveness, or those same voices as channeled through the made-up lips of contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race, or movie dialogue spreading virally through the host bodies of TikTok users. For Etchells, lip-syncing is often about “approaching real voices and trying to take on their aura,” subsuming that original human presence into yours. “There’s a very basic, elemental sort of theatre magic to it, produced in this very easy way.” This broad approach resonates with instances of lip-syncing within contemporary performance, too. In works like Re-Member Me and Showmanism, performance artist Dickie Beau acts as a kind of spirit medium for archival recordings (this process of re-membering – as in, giving corporeal form to voices – relies on his masterfully precise actor’s technique), while Frankie Thompson is similarly possessed by a host of characters ranging from a nine-year-old Jacob Rees-Mogg to Cliff Richards, all of whom she finds compellingly nauseating, in the exorcism ritual that is her latest show, Horrible Things. What’s different about Forced Entertainment’s use of lip-syncing is that here, there is no original presence to be channeled. The performers are instead taking on what Etchells describes as “the voices of nobody,” or rather the “phantasmic, aggregated echoes” of the many many voices on whose data the AI has been trained, and which are now conjuring into existence words they never actually said. There is a sort of mournful, empty quality to these voices, having “washed up” far away from the people they originally belonged to, to find themselves in stranger’s mouths listing objects, wondering if anyone can hear them and glitching in interminable loops. There is a cold, sad anonymity to it all. Etchells remarks that occasionally the software company he used has notified him that particular people are withdrawing their voices from the platform, instructing him to cease use of those voices. Using these technologies in performance certainly brings up ethical questions around digital rights, consent, identity and ownership, although in the grand scheme of things, Etchells is fairly blasé about it: of all the purposes someone’s voice might be put to without their knowledge, “an avant-garde performance is probably the least of their worries.” [ ](https://exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/frankie-thompson-horrible-things-essay-mental-health-compulsive-behaviours-pleasance-courtyard-soho-theatre) [ Frankie Thompson: How I manage my own ‘horrible things’ at the Edinburgh Fringe ](https://exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/frankie-thompson-horrible-things-essay-mental-health-compulsive-behaviours-pleasance-courtyard-soho-theatre) Exeunt · Aug 25 [ Read full story ](https://exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/frankie-thompson-horrible-things-essay-mental-health-compulsive-behaviours-pleasance-courtyard-soho-theatre) For the performers, though, lip-syncing to these strange, artificial voices is an odd task, requiring them to bend their live, human presence into the shapes produced by machines. Politically, it mirrors processes that are already at play in the continued computational automation of human life. Etchells brings up James Bridle’s writings on new technologies as a reference point: one example Bridle gives is of “chaotic storage”, a logistics technique employed by Amazon fulfilment centres whereby items are stored not according to traditional methods of categorisation or alphabetisation, but in a way that an algorithm determines to produce the most efficient routes for ‘picking’ based on customer purchase patterns. This appears completely random and incomprehensible to humans, with paddling pools sitting next to USB sticks sitting next to blowtorches, and so for the warehouse workers, the process of picking items becomes completely reliant on technology which tells them where to go. Our world is increasingly being designed not with humans in mind, but rather machines. As Etchells puts it, “technology malforms the space, and then you end up having to live in it.” Initially, Forced Entertainment tried their best to live in the world of machines: “I was in the it’s-got-to-be-perfect school of lip-sync,” says Etchells. But with their aesthetic being so tied to the failing act, the slipping mask, the shoddy costume, “it’s no surprise really that that didn’t last.” Instead, the performers got to enjoy being late for a line, or playing games with each other, “stealing” each other’s voices. Etchells compares it to the principles of ventriloquism, in which a free-floating voice unattached to a body is fundamentally discomforting and “sort of traumatic”. That discomfort is equally as alluring to Forced Entertainment as the satisfaction of precision, the pretence of authenticity only interesting if shown to be a pretence. Lip-sync has also opened up new avenues for the company. Having been allergic all their lives to Plays-with-a-capital-P, with Cold Sweat Forced Entertainment find themselves approaching something a little bit like drama. Rather than the presentational arena of Signal to Noise’s open white stage, Cold Sweat places us more decisively in a “fictional locale”: what appears to be “the aftermath of some disastrous party or backyard drinking binge” where three figures – family members, or neighbours, perhaps – are the last ones standing. “It’s all quite acrimonious and accusatory, everyone’s talking over each other.” For Etchells, this more fictional mode is “a door that we’ve never been able to open. We’ve just never really gone there.” Perhaps it is the technique of lip-syncing, an extra buffer of mediation, that allows them to venture away from the here-and-now without feeling that they have to commit to the “psychological claptrap” that comes along with acting; to be able to “play the game of theatre, without getting one’s hands too dirty.” As I wonder how else the impulses behind Forced Entertainment’s work have changed over time, it occurs to me that over the last ten years of new creations, with the exception of If All Else Fails, the company’s performers haven’t ever spoken on stage: there were two shows without any language at all, Out of Order and Under Bright Light, and then this trilogy of lip-sync works. Etchells agrees it’s a shift away from earlier productions, that were so often about “the actual voices of the performers and their actual presences. We had a lot of money, in some ways, on an authentic approach to what it might mean to speak on the stage.” But this sense of authentic presence itself had a fakeness to it; these days, Etchells can’t stand that mode of being onstage where performers “are here to be cheeky and witty versions of themselves. I don’t want to be charmed.” Pulling back into a more anonymous space has resulted in works that feel slightly sharper-edged, more brutal in a way. “All of these shows are post-Brexit, post-Trump, post-truth, post-everything,” Etchells notes. Speech, charisma, authenticity – these things feel politically loaded, and perhaps warmth and openness just don’t feel like the right tools to reflect the world we’re living in. “It feels like the space is closing down, and we’re trying to deal with the fact that the system, the structure that you’re in, is more oppressive and more powerful. It probably always was, but I think we’re just more tuned to it now.” Yet even without their voices, the performers’ distinctive presences – ones that many audiences have followed around for years, if not decades – still, inevitably, shine through as they physically navigate whatever unending task the system of the piece has set for them. They’re still trying to keep up with the onslaught of text, still running about, changing costumes, moving stuff around. The human is always stuck in the teeth of the machine, jamming the smooth, frictionless cheeriness of the not-real, gesticulating silently, trying desperately to communicate. Cold Sweat is at Sheffield Theatres, 2 to 3 October; Southbank Centre, London, 9 to 10 October; Lancaster Arts, 14 October [ ](https://exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/exeunt-recommends-the-best-autumn-theatre-2026-lives-of-others-standard-of-living-our-friends-in-the-north-lanny-) [ Exeunt recommends... the best autumn theatre ](https://exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/exeunt-recommends-the-best-autumn-theatre-2026-lives-of-others-standard-of-living-our-friends-in-the-north-lanny-) Exeunt · Sep 16 [ Read full story ](https://exeuntmagazine.substack.com/p/exeunt-recommends-the-best-autumn-theatre-2026-lives-of-others-standard-of-living-our-friends-in-the-north-lanny-) This piece was paid for by the Southbank Centre. Such support helps Exeunt to keep publishing the most interesting writing, about the most exciting theatre. Interested in partnering with Exeunt? Visit our Advertise with Exeunt page, where you can get more information, download an advertising pack, and find our contact details.