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Astronaut touches down at Shepherdstown Public Library

Retired U.S. Air Force colonel and NASA astronaut Paul Lockhart drew about 150 children and adults to the Shepherdstown Public Library for an impromptu presentation about space travel and his

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Aug 9 • 12:54 PM EDT • Entertainment • journal-news.net
4 Web Browsers More Powerful Than Google Chrome

Google Chrome isn't the only option for power users. These browsers offer deeper customization, privacy tools, productivity features, and more.

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Aug 9 • 8:17 AM EDT • Technology • bgr.com
‘Your back’s against the wall’: How two Gen-Z founders bet everything on a Brooklyn laundromat

Their advisers said it was a mistake. Today, Brooklyn's Launderette is betting customer experience can redefine a "boring business."

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Aug 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • fortune.com
A restaurant made for and by its customers

The menu also offers hot dogs, an assortment of French fries including sweet potato along with classic wraps featuring. You’ll also find offerings of salads, sandwiches and soups on the menu and plenty of beer choices. Indoor and outdoor s…

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Aug 9 • 6:30 AM EDT • Business • chicoer.com
Smelling success: Kalispell local sees fragrance business take-off

Born and raised in Kalispell, Bungay said Montana Fragrance Co. draws from the many iconic places around his home in Northwest Montana — an idea embraced by local merchants and their customers who have quickly bought up bottles from store shelves.

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Aug 9 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • dailyinterlake.com
Cudahy business removes Flock camera over growing privacy concerns

More and more community members across southeastern Wisconsin are pushing back against Flock cameras. Eagle Sports Range in Cudahy removed its Flock cameras due to privacy concerns from customers.

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Aug 8 • 11:25 PM EDT • Business • fox6now.com
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Customers Are Getting More AI Than They Can Put To Work, Survey Finds

AI vendors are shipping capabilities at record speed, but customers aren’t keeping up. The real AI opportunity may depend on vendors and customers building together.

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Aug 8 • 8:44 PM EDT • Business • forbes.com
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Did Caviar just spill the beans on the iPhone Ultra and the iPhone 18 Pro design, specs and release date?

The luxury phone customizer has fresh new “insider” details pages alongside its now-live pre-orders for the phones. It’s not uncommon for Caviar to kick...

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Aug 8 • 7:31 PM EDT • Technology • gsmarena.com
5 Anker Accessories That Are Better Than Their Competitors

These Anker products earned top marks from reviewers and customers, while direct comparisons showed why they beat their closest rivals.

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Aug 8 • 4:17 PM EDT • Technology • bgr.com
American Airlines ends free business upgrades on select Hawaii routes

American Airlines is ending free economy-to-business-class upgrades for its most loyal customers on select long-haul domestic routes where the carrier offers three classes of service.

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Aug 8 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • staradvertiser.com
As regulations fade, electric truck adoption will hinge on business cases

Rather than plan around a national transition to zero-emission trucks, fleets are weighing total cost of ownership, operational feasibility and customer expectations.

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Aug 8 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • ttnews.com
Flutter Entertainment Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) reported second-quarter revenue growth of 3% as strong customer engagement around the FIFA World Cup and acquisitions helped offset customer-friendly U.S. sports results and higher taxes in the United Kingdom. The company also announced that Chief Executive Officer

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Aug 8 • 4:04 AM EDT • Entertainment • marketbeat.com
Flutter Entertainment Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) reported second-quarter revenue growth of 3% as strong customer engagement around the FIFA World Cup and acquisitions helped offset customer-friendly U.S. sports results and higher taxes in the United Kingdom. The company also announced that Chief Executive Officer

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Aug 8 • 4:03 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com
East Austin business owner impacted by construction

One East Austin business owner says construction near her restaurant is making it harder for customers to get to her business and its hurting sales.

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Aug 7 • 10:28 PM EDT • Business • fox7austin.com
Business Alum Builds a Marketplace for Cultural Style

Weddings, birthdays and celebrations often inspire people to wear attire that reflects their heritage and traditions. Through digital technologies, custom fashion — created to exact personal preferences and specifications — has provided an avenue for these occasions. But the growing field lacks standardization or best practices. Enter NOMAJI, the brainchild of Cal State Fullerton College of Business […]

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Aug 7 • 6:00 PM EDT • Business • news.fullerton.edu
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Black Wealth Crawl promotion designed to support independent businesses

Customers are encouraged to shop at participating Black-owned businesses from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, when purchases qualify shoppers for the chance to win $150 gift cards and other raffle prizes.

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Aug 7 • 2:00 PM EDT • Business • ibj.com
Roundup: CC’s drive-thru / Meta ordered to pay / ‘Basic business class’

Coffee in a hurry: CC’s Coffee House is opening its first drive-thru-only location at 319 W. Highway 30 in Gonzales on Aug. 8, offering a faster way for customers to enjoy coffee, breakfast and other menu favorites. The new store, located just off Interstate 10, will have a grand opening celebration Aug. 10-13 featuring daily […]

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Aug 7 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • businessreport.com
Heat impacting businesses across Texas

Businesses like Franklin Barbecue and Austin Ghost Tours have learned to make changes during the summer heat, both for customer and employee safety.

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Aug 7 • 10:42 AM EDT • Business • spectrumlocalnews.com
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Release Date, T-Mobile Free Phone Deals, Price

Fresh off its silver screen debut and record-breaking pre-order numbers, the buzzy new device is coming to T-Mobile customers at no cost. Here's how to claim the carrier's best phone deal to date.

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Aug 6 • 11:00 PM EDT • Technology • hollywoodreporter.com
Hello Local Business, Your AI Ads Are Costing You Customers

'Even if this was a genre popularised by human artists, it would still look like shit'

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Aug 6 • 7:44 PM EDT • Business • aftermath.site
Google working on AI-generated lockscreen clocks for Pixel

Besides customizable Quick Settings, Android Canary 2608 reveals work on AI-generated lockscreen clocks for Pixel phones.

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Aug 6 • 6:24 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
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Android Canary 2608 lets you customize Quick Settings layout on Pixel

Google today is rolling out Android Canary 2608 with the ability to customize the Quick Settings layout by...

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Aug 6 • 5:06 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
Community Leaders, Horse Industry, Business Community and More Praise Governor Moore Preakness Announcement

Community Leaders, Horse Industry, Business Community and More Praise Governor Moore Preakness Announcement

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Aug 6 • 4:50 PM EDT • Business • governor.maryland.gov
2025 Sustainability Report Highlights How Innovation Is Driving Business Growth

ADM's 2025 Corporate Sustainability Report showcases how teams across the company are advancing sustainability in ways that strengthen the business, support customers and farmers, and create long-term value.

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Aug 6 • 2:34 PM EDT • Business • adm.com
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Beyond IT: A Business Executive’s Playbook for Cyber Risk, Privacy Liability & AI Governance

Join NH Business Review for a candid, business-focused working session designed for executives accountable for protecting their organizations, customers, data, and reputations.

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Aug 6 • 1:04 PM EDT • Business • nhbr.com
Governor Moore Announces Kevin Sexton as Nominee for Chair of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission

Governor Moore Announces Kevin Sexton as Nominee for Chair of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission

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Aug 6 • 10:37 AM EDT • Health • governor.maryland.gov
The messy politics behind Google’s big AI shakeup

Google’s AI leadership changes may have come down to pressure to speed up products — and internal ethical conflicts.

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Aug 6 • 9:26 AM EDT • Politics • theverge.com
Wilson County teen turns summer hobby into custom banner business

Nashville News, Weather, and Sports

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Aug 6 • 6:36 AM EDT • Business • wkrn.com
Taste of the Town returns with expanded entertainment, new 8k and community focus

Taste of the Town will return to downtown Hopkinsville this weekend, bringing dozens of food vendors, live entertainment and a new community 8K to Founders Square as organizers look to

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Aug 6 • 1:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • kentuckynewera.com
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iOS 27 adds four new ways to customize your iPhone’s Lock Screen

iOS 27 adds four new Lock Screen customization options, including AI wallpapers and a movable clock. Here's how they work.

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Aug 5 • 1:34 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
Veteran Financier Nimi Natan Advises That You Should Never Fund a Business You Don’t Understand

After spending years operating businesses as well as financing them, the President & CEO of Gulf Coast Small Business Lending has learned that some of the most important signs whether a business will be successful in the long term are found in people, operations, customer relationships, and the day

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Aug 5 • 1:11 PM EDT • Business • usatoday.com
Texas Shows Strengths and Gaps in Multi-Metric Business Rankings

We are accustomed to Texas topping virtually every ranking relating to the economy—most major corporate locations and expansions, top CEO perceptions, highest investment, and many others.

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Aug 5 • 11:07 AM EDT • Business • texasborderbusiness.com
Anthropic confirms it's building an in-house chip team for Claude

The AI startup is hiring engineers to design custom chips for its Claude AI model, according to a job listing and a company statement.

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Aug 5 • 8:47 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
How the O.J. Simpson Trial Inspired My Career in Forensic Science

Inspired by a famous trial, a NIST researcher makes sure the science law enforcement relies on is accurate and thoroughly tested.

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Aug 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • nist.gov
Post-Primary Recap: The Electability Argument Falls Flat

Kingmaking isn’t what it used to be in Democratic politics.In Democratic primaries for governor of Kansas, Michigan’s 7th district, and Michigan’s open Senate seat, battle-tested and popular Democratic elected officials urged voters to select the candidates they said would be stronger general election choices. Instead, Democratic primary voters picked candidates who were more progressive, despite warnings that those nominees could tank the party’s chances of clawing back control of Congress.

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Aug 5 • 7:21 AM EDT • Politics • cookpolitical.com
UPS rolls out pickup upgrades for small business shippers

The enhancements give customers more control and information when using options like Smart Pickup, a UPS executive said.

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Aug 5 • 5:58 AM EDT • Business • supplychaindive.com
McDonald's says US sales slowed after value deal push fell short

CEO Chris Kempczinski says weak promotion of value deals and a pullback in digital deals led to a drop in visits from McDonald's loyal customers.

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Aug 4 • 5:20 PM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
T-Mobile announces "Nothing," allowing the purchase of a new phone for $0 down

T-Mobile announces a change in how new and existing customers finance their new phone purchases.

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Aug 4 • 5:01 PM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Cardiovascular imaging contrast agent recalled due to risk of contamination

The recall was announced after testing revealed the presence of potentially harmful particulate matter. Customers were urged to return any unused vials immediately.

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Aug 4 • 3:49 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com
She Spent Years at Uber Eats Watching Businesses Win and Lose Customers. Here's What She Says Most Get Wrong.

She says most businesses are solving the customer problem in the wrong order.

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Aug 4 • 12:48 PM EDT • Business • entrepreneur.com
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Microsoft delivered plenty of Windows 11 updates in July — and I'm highlighting the most important changes for your PC

Microsoft spent the second half of July improving Windows 11 with better customization, improved search, smoother updates, and long-requested Taskbar controls.

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Aug 4 • 12:30 PM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com
MrBeast Sales Slow, Angel Stock Falls, MUBI and Neon Look for Hits, and Will an NBA Franchise Set a Sales Record?

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) You probably remember egg prices spiking a few years ago. This led to a lot of debate between the pro-market/pro-competition/antitrust/Neo-Brandesian crowd and the center/center-right/center-left/abundance/libertarian crowd over the cause, whether it was the avian flu outbreak or whether industry consolidation led to price fixing, using avian flu as a convenient cover. Basel Musharbash wrote a whole investigation at BIG looking at it. Well, two years later, we have our answer: it was price fixing. The Justice Department found proof, via emails, of price fixing. Indeed, just the threat of an investigation brought prices down two years ago: I bring this up because at least half a dozen of my favorite political writers and pundits, who were skeptical about price fixing at the time, haven’t written any mea culpas on this issue. It’s really dispiriting and makes it much, much harder to trust their work on other issues. If you take a hard stand on an issue, then you get it wrong, you need to explain how and why you got it wrong. Or update your priors. This is how epistemological bubbles are formed! All of which is to say, it’s time for another installment of “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong”. Last issue, I mostly focused on the “wrong” side of the equation, so today’s is a bit more balanced, but with one big mea culpa (though I still stand by my original concerns). Let’s dive right in! Subscribe CORRECTION: UFC Didn’t Release Subscriber Data (But Seems to Have Bragged About It Internally) In my analysis of the viewership of UFC Freedom 250, I wrote... “Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers.” Well, that datecdote did not come from a PR rep, but from great reporting from James Faris at Business Insider. The actual quote was this: “Paramount’s flagship streaming service generated about a million new subscribers on the day of its first-ever UFC event, Paramount product chief Dane Glasgow told employees in a town hall on Tuesday morning, three staffers who attended the meeting told Business Insider.“ This wasn’t the biggest goof in the world; even Faris emphasized to me that this is more a “clarification” than a correction. Still, it sounds like, internally, the folks at Paramount were very happy about this result—and I’m guessing they were happy with this news getting out—even though the gains didn’t last through the quarter, dropping to 700K adds. RIGHT: MrBeast’s Struggles Continue... I’m very skeptical about MrBeast’s burgeoning media “empire” and, in particular, its $5 billion valuation, as I wrote earlier this year and last year. Sure enough, according to Business Insider, regarding its “booming” consumer products division_:_ “US sales volume grew 13% year-over-year in 2025, following a 33% leap the previous year, according to a presentation deck dated May 2026....A February 2025 investor deck viewed by Business Insider showed Feastables’ net revenue more than doubled in 2024 from 2023, to $215 million, and was forecast to grow 74% in 2025, to $375 million.” [Emphasis mine.] If you told investors that you projected 74% growth but delivered 13%,1 that’s not ideal. But it’s not just MrBeast. Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime had sales drop in half for their energy drinks. It’s one thing to build a successful entertainment company and an entirely different thing to succeed in the heavily-consolidated-but-also-very-competitive consumer packaged goods space! CPGs are dominated by a few firms with very wide moats compared to YouTube, which has few barriers to entry. These businesses require different skill sets and have completely different business environments. WRONG: Does the NBA Have an $8 Billion Bidder? Almost as soon as I published my article about the NBA’s finances, casting skepticism on NBA expansion, I saw this Front Office Sports headline: One group “claims to have already raised $8 billion” for the Vegas expansion team. I mean, wow. That’s just $2 billion less than what the Los Angeles Lakers were valued at when they were sold just last year. And they’re arguably the most popular team in the NBA. (Side note: the new owner is now under an investigation for fraud in how he went about financing the Lakers and the Dodgers purchases.) So much for the “dried up” language I used in that article. (This is why I usually stick to my “Entertainment Nuance Guy” tone in articles...) I went off old information—from April, when I read/heard about the NBA downplaying expansion efforts—instead of doing a quick double-check for new news. That said...if you read the article, the market for Seattle is “slow”, with just one reported bidder. So I wasn’t entirely off. This goof has annoyed me since I first published it, mainly because it undercut that article’s real point, which I stand by: NBA franchises are really overvalued right now. Now, I get why NBA teams are overvalued. When it comes to owning sports teams, it’s basically never wrong to assume that some rich person somewhere will care more about owning a team (or just being part of a group since they’re so expensive) than the actual financials. There are only so many teams to own, and opportunities to buy in preferred markets don’t come along very often. This explains why the teams sell for such high multiples (usually above a 10 to 12.5 revenue multiple, which is very high). You only need one person to overpay! Beyond the ultra-wealthy luxury good explanation, I worry NBA teams are becoming speculative assets. More and more private equity investors are buying into NBA teams. But the value, in owning a team, comes from selling it later, not any meaningful relationship to revenue or profit growth. In other words, the newer NBA owners are increasingly expecting someone later to buy their inflated asset. That’s not sound economics; that’s the “greater fool” theory at work.2 At some point, actually making money has to matter. Especially since revenue growth is now below the growth of the stock market. (And this matters because the NBA doesn’t have easy levers to pull to drastically lower their costs—half of their revenue has to go to players and then you actually have to run a team, including coaching, training, travel, media expenses, and more—or raise revenues aside from one-off expansions in America and overseas.) I just don’t see how investors make their money back buying NBA teams, except for selling at a higher price later on down the line. But if revenue/profit growth continues to slow, at some point, someone will be left holding the bag. RIGHT: Baseball and Basketball are about equally popular. Related to the above, I wanted to cite two quick pieces of evidence for one of my other theories: that the NBA and MLB are about as popular as each other, but the NBA gets much, much better media coverage. One YouGov survey has that fans prefer basketball to baseball by 52% to 48%, which I’m guessing is within the margin of error for that poll. That’s virtually even, meaning they’re about the same popularity. Over on NBC, a recent Red Sox-Yankees game averaged 4 million viewers, higher than Sunday Night Basketball’s average of 3.4 million on the same network. A Yankees-Dodgers game averaged 3.9 million two weeks ago. Not every game averages this much, but it shows you that baseball isn’t far off from basketball, depending on the matchup. Altogether, the NBA is just slightly more popular than baseball, but NBC is paying MLB a fraction of what they pay the NBA, a point I’ve made before. RIGHT: Angel, MUBI and Neon Updates... I’ve long been skeptical about many of Hollywood’s buzziest startups/smaller indie studios. It’s not that they don’t make great movies—films like Anora and Everything Everywhere All at Once are amazing—or that they’re not (rightfully) pushing the majors to make better films, but...they get a ton of hype, and that hype often doesn’t live up to the reality or difficulty in scaling up. Starting with MUBI, well, The Wall Street Journal wrote a feature on MUBI’s struggles last April, best summarized by the subheader “After Sequoia valued Mubi at $1 billion, a left-wing revolt sent the indie film company into a tailspin”. MUBI lost $7.3 million on $200 million in revenue in Q4 2025, but reportedly hit a record 1.7 million subscribers at the end of Q1. As for Neon, Department M purchased a “significant stake” in the company earlier this year. How much is that “stake” worth? According to Deadline, “No financial figures for the Neon-Department M deal were disclosed.” So...that’s not great! If it was a big valuation, we’d hear about. Also, I found this curious: “Both Neon and Department M already have separate partnerships with Qatar. The Qatar Film Committee has a slate deal in place with the former, and a biopic production pact with the latter.” Color me skeptical about much Middle Eastern investment dollars. See: LIV Golf. Finally, as for Angel (formerly Angel Studios), their stock very, very slightly popped last month after Young Washington ($20 million budget) which made $45 million in the US, but their stock is still way down from its opening. Smaller Updates RIGHT: The WGA should focus on antitrust concerns! I’ve been on this for years. Post-WGA/AMTPT deal in 2023, I wrote an article for the Ankler calling on the WGA to focus and organize against industry consolidation. Sure enough, the WGA filed a lawsuit against the Paramount-WBD merger, and people are organizing around this issue now. I wish this energy had coalesced earlier (specifically to lobby Washington much earlier), but better late than never! WRONG: Actually, the chip shortage might be due to market manipulation. In my last “Long Reads for the Long Summer” article, I shared an article about how LLMs are causing memory chip prices to spike, which will make all electronics more expensive. Well, turns out, three RAM manufacturers control 90% of the market, and now a private lawsuit accuses them of price-fixing. So yeah. WRONG/UPDATE: The Odyssey will hold! Two weeks ago, I wrote, “As of this moment, we haven’t had a super-blockbuster, though The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday could all cross the $500 million mark. (At this point, The Odyssey would need a very strong hold to get there.)” Well, it’s safe to say it’s going to have that hold! It only dropped 30% in weekend two and IMAX screenings are sold out all month. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also off to a great start. RIGHT: People are rushing to get shows out yearly. I’ve long been bullish on yearly, weekly-released shows, and Leslie Goldberg at The Ankler wrote about how many people in town are now listening. WRONG: Mark Carney reverses Canada’s stance on homegrown production. After writing about Canada installing domestic production quotas, Canada has backed off. WRONG: I don’t trust Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s online “views”. When I originally wrote about the latest Spider-Man film’s record-breaking trailer, I thought this was just YouTube views, but after watching this Corridor Crew video and doing more research, well, it’s all social views of the trailer globally. Really? That stat includes TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts views. Basically, I don’t trust it anymore. (This film will probably set record, but I trust the pre-sales data more.) RIGHT: Celebrity Production companies are still struggling. I’ve written about this for years, but the company that I didn’t track was Kevin Hart’s HartBeat, which was valued at $650 million but is struggling now and might just end soon, especially after Kevin Hart pulled his endorsement deals. And Bad Robot is moving to NYC. CORRECTION: SpongeBob is a “second run” title. In my 2025 recap article, I had _SpongeBob SquarePants_labelled as a “library” title, when it is still a “second run” show, with new episodes still coming out on Nickelodeon. CORRECTION: In my last “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong” update, I offered a correction from Doug Creutz and misspelled TD Cowen. Thanks, Grammarly! 1 Though he could have increased prices to make up for the gap, he couldn’t have increased them that much. 2 There’s a theory, which I think that Daryl Morey created and Bill Simmons popularized, that, to be successful building your team, you only need a handful of bad GMs in the league to take advantage of. To be clear, Daryl Morey’s theory was also for signing bad contracts, that you could always get out of bad contracts. Basically, there’s always someone who will make a bad trade. It’s not the same exact thing, but similar enough to the Greater Fool Theory that I really like it.

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Aug 4 • 11:55 AM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com
Buffalo: Ryan announces steps to improve public safety in Chippewa entertainment district

Mayor Sean Ryan announced the next phase of his administration's efforts to improve public safety in Buffalo's Chippewa entertainment district following several weeks of enhanced enforcement and evaluation.

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Aug 4 • 10:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • wnypapers.com
The Purple-State Problem

Most close readers of this column know that I see our nation’s political divisions as so great as to make the last line in the Pledge of Allegiance, that we are “one nation” and “indivisible,” hardly descriptive.While some states or congressional districts are characterized as red for Republicans or blue for Democrats, purple states or districts are thought of as fair fights where neither party has a distinct advantage. In those purple regions, it’s often thought that to win, a candidate must do well with voters near the ideological center.

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Aug 4 • 9:41 AM EDT • Politics • cookpolitical.com
T-Mobile Is Stretching Its Device Commitment to 3 Years with New Installment and “2.0” Phone Plans

The carrier is incrementing its plans to “2.0” versions and giving customers the option of paying off devices over 36 months.

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Aug 4 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • cnet.com
Google tests new features designed to make the Google Messages app easier to use

For the first time ever, the Google Messages attachment sheet icons can be customized and made to take up a full page.

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Aug 3 • 11:04 PM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
New Mexico Power Equipment emphasizes customer service, Stihl equipment repairs

Sean Gabriel, a Santa Fe native who moved around in his teens and 20s, said he’s used to launching and running businesses.

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Aug 3 • 9:00 PM EDT • Business • santafenewmexican.com
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Ernst Names Small Business of the Week, Present Company

Read the release on Sen. Ernst's website here. Throughout this Congress, Chair Ernst plans to recognize a small business in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties. RED OAK, Iowa – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, today announced her Small Business of the Week: Present Company of Audubon County. Throughout the 119th Congress, Chair Ernst plans to recognize a small business in each of Iowa's 99 counties. "Present Company has been the gift that keeps on giving to Audubon for more than three decades," said Chair Ernst. "From helping revitalize Main Street to supporting countless local events and charities, Telia Carter and her team continue to present the very best of Iowa's entrepreneurial spirit. Their commitment to exceptional service, unique products, and hometown values proves that investing in your community always comes back around." Founded in 1990 by Nancy Oleson, Present Company opened its doors in downtown Audubon as a home décor boutique. After more than three decades of serving southwest Iowa, ownership transitioned in 2022 to Telia Carter. Under her leadership, Present Company has continued its tradition of personalized customer service while adapting its inventory to meet the needs of customers from Audubon and the surrounding communities. Today, Present Company remains a downtown Audubon staple, offering a carefully curated selection of gifts, home décor, apparel, jewelry, and specialty items. The boutique has earned a reputation for unique merchandise, friendly service, and a welcoming atmosphere that reflects the character of small-town Iowa. Stay tuned as Chair Ernst continues to recognize outstanding Iowa small businesses with her Small Business of the Week award. ###

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Aug 3 • 5:56 PM EDT • Business • sbc.senate.gov
Amazon Cloud Chief Says Potential AI Business is ‘Just Massive’

Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud chief said customers are starting to shift from using the company’s services to train AI models to integrating them into their businesses — fueling demand for a process known as inference.

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Aug 3 • 12:24 PM EDT • Business • bloomberg.com
MBK-owned Lotte Card faces business suspension after data breach

South Korea's Lotte Card has been barred from signing up new customers for 1 1/2 months after a massive data breach that affected millions.

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Aug 3 • 10:36 AM EDT • Business • upi.com
Seasons are coming to Escape from Tarkov, with more customization and swathes of new gear

Escape from Tarkov is introducing seasonal characters and a fresh way to progress, and you can grab some free loot using our EFT promo code.

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Aug 3 • 9:24 AM EDT • Technology • pcgamesn.com
Debt Digest | Federal Debt is a Health Care Problem

Welcome David Ditch to the Debt Dispatch! We are pleased to announce a new regular contributor: David Ditch will be joining the Cato Institute as a Policy Analyst for Budget and Entitlement Policy later this week. David has more than a decade of experience in fiscal policy issues, with a particular focus on federal spending. He previously worked at the Senate Budget Committee, the Heritage Foundation, and the Economic Policy Innovation Center. David’s areas of expertise include appropriations, transportation, agriculture, federalism, grantmaking, and policy options for deficit reduction. Originally from the Rochester, N.Y. area, David has a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Rochester and a MA in Political Management from George Washington University. David currently lives in Arlington, VA. You may have enjoyed his earlier guest posts: CBO: New Highway Bill Has More Spending, Taxes, and Deficits Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to Federal Grants Highlight Problems of Big Government Here are this week’s reading links and fiscal facts: The federal debt is largely a health care problem. In a new report, the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation find that “In 2026, federal subsidies for health insurance, net of related payments to the government, are projected to equal $2.4 trillion, or 7.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In CBO and JCT’s projections, those subsidies grow by 65 percent, reaching $3.9 trillion, or 8.4 percent of GDP, in 2036. Subsidies for Medicare contribute most to that overall growth, increasing by $900 billion. Over the entire 2026–2036 period, federal subsidies for health insurance total $33.6 trillion.” Cato’s Michael Cannon emphasizes, “The long-term federal debt problem is a health care problem. […] Only two categories of federal outlays will grow faster than gross domestic product (GDP): health care subsidies and interest payments on the debt. The former is, therefore, the primary driver of the latter.” The bond market fears deficits, not the loss of tariff revenue. Responding to a New York Times essay claiming tariff revenue has grown too important for a future administration to unwind, Cato’s Kyle Handley argues: “Bond investors are not attached to customs duties as a line item revenue source. They care about the government’s overall fiscal position.” He continues, “tariff revenue is a side hustle. And the Trump administration has already promised to dole out the funds through schemes like tariff dividend rebates, farm subsidies, and pay-fors on tax cuts or other spending.” Furthermore, “tariff revenue is simply not large enough to transform the government’s fiscal trajectory.” Take net interest for example: it “reached $970 billion in fiscal year 2025, absorbing 18.5 percent of federal receipts. Customs duties accounted for only 3.7 percent of receipts—and that was before refunds (see Figure 2).” Handley concludes, “The real bond-market concern is a large and growing interest bill, persistent budget deficits, and a political system unwilling to bring spending and revenue into alignment.” Medicare’s spending growth is driven by more volume and utilization. A Congressional Research Service report finds that Medicare spending “grew at an average annual rate of 7.3%” from 1985 through 2025, and the trustees project health care expenditures will keep rising “faster than gross domestic product (GDP) in most future years.” Citing CBO, the report attributes Medicare’s projected 2026–2036 spending growth to “23% from higher enrollment, 31% from inflation, and 47% from the growth of inflation-adjusted spending per beneficiary. In other words**, the largest single driver of Medicare spending growth during the next decade is expected to be higher volume and intensity of health care services.”** Boccia and Thakur explain: “as the economy grows, Medicare spending tends to grow at least as fast—and often faster—because the program automatically pays the bill for more and more healthcare consumption by seniors, even as prices rise.” The Fed has little control over market interest rates. Cato’s Jai Kedia documents that the Fed has held its rate target steady since December, yet “nearly every rate Americans actually borrow at has climbed over the same stretch.” Kedia continues, “The Fed did nothing, and the cost of credit went up anyway. […] Markets spent these months repricing macroeconomic events such as sticky core inflation, a volatile energy market driven by the conflict in the Middle East, and global trade disrupted by tariffs, among others. None of that required a policy change to show up in borrowing costs because markets, not the FOMC, set prices.” He concludes, “Accurately priced borrowing rates will come from credible disinflation and disciplined budgets and from a Fed content to follow the economy rather than pretend it leads it.” Nearly half of US farm income comes from taxpayers. Former Reagan OMB director David Stockman notes that “in the most recently completed full year (FY 2025) farmer incomes in the US totaled $97.8 billion, but fully 42.7% or $41.8 billion of that amount came from taxpayers, not the marketplace. Nor is this some kind of one-year aberration. If we look at the most recent decade as a whole, total farm income posted at nearly $708 billion, but, as indicated, fully $322 billion or 45% of this came compliments of US taxpayers.” Cato’s Chris Edwards explains why so little of that income is market-earned: “Farmers are businesspeople, but the government shields them from just about every type of weather and market risk. Furthermore, just about every part of the agricultural industry is subsidized, including insurance, loans, marketing, research, export sales, and land improvements.” The Debt Dispatch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Aug 3 • 8:33 AM EDT • Health • debtdispatch.substack.com
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Good Communication Is Good Business by Geoffrey Losee

The following column was contributed by J.D. Fisher. Mixed-use communities are increasingly common. Restaurants, breweries, retail stores, entertainment venues, and professional offices often operate within walking distance of established neighborhoods. That proximity creates tremendous opportunity, but it also means that a business's decisions may affect more than just its customers. Many business owners understandably focus on obtaining the permits necessary to open their doors. However, municipal approval is rarely the end of the conversation. As a business evolves, whether by adding outdoor seating, live entertainment, extended operating hours, or other new amenities, the applicable zoning ordinance may require additional approvals or impose operational standards designed to balance commercial activity with nearby residential uses. From a business perspective, the question should not simply be, "Can we do this?" It should also be, "Have we communicated with everyone who may be affected?" Recent local news coverage highlighted how differing interpretations of a municipal ordinance can quickly become the subject of public hearings, legal arguments, and significant uncertainty for a business. While every situation turns on its own facts, one common theme emerged: practical solutions are more difficult to achieve if communication breaks down. Businesses can often reduce that risk by engaging early with the relevant stakeholders. That begins with municipal staff. Planning departments are oftentimes willing to discuss how an ordinance applies before substantial investments are made. Seeking clarification in advance may identify permitting requirements or operational limitations that can be addressed proactively rather than after enforcement action. Communication should not stop with local government. Nearby property owners and neighborhood representatives frequently appreciate being informed about proposed changes before they occur. A brief meeting, an informational email, or an invitation to discuss concerns can foster goodwill and reveal potential issues while there is still flexibility to adjust operations. That’s why such meetings often required for substantial projects and may be a good idea even if not required. Perhaps most importantly, businesses should view compliance as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Operational changes that seem minor from a business standpoint may have regulatory implications under local development ordinances. Periodically reviewing proposed changes with experienced land-use counsel or planning professionals can help identify issues before they become disputes. No ordinance can eliminate every conflict between commercial activity and residential expectations. Nor should every disagreement become a legal controversy. But businesses that invest in transparent, proactive communication place themselves in the strongest position to protect both their operations and their relationships within the community. In today's regulatory environment, good communication is more than good public relations, it is good risk management. If your business is planning to expand its operations, introduce a new use, or simply wants to better understand how local land development regulations apply, the attorneys at Rountree Losee LLP are available to help. Our land use and local government practice works with businesses throughout southeastern North Carolina to navigate municipal approval processes, identify potential issues before they become disputes, and keep projects moving forward with confidence. Read more at rountreelosee.com.

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Aug 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com
Producing Health: Capability, Capacity, and Competitive Discovery in the Health Economy

Health is not the same as healthcare; healthcare is not the same as health insurance. The endpoint is health.

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Aug 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • aspe.hhs.gov
EU Age Verification Project Mandates Hardware-Bound Attestation

The EU’s age verification project confirms hardware-bound attestation is mandatory, raising concerns over Linux, custom ROMs, and open-source access.

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Aug 2 • 9:43 AM EDT • Technology • linuxiac.com
Bike Check: Wes Lukens' Custom Frameworks 26/24" Mullet

Built to handle the abuse of an 11-year-old phenom, Neko Mulally shares the engineering tricks, reverse-engineered shock curves, and adjustable dropouts behind Frameworks'...

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Aug 1 • 1:26 PM EDT • Technology • pinkbike.com
San Francisco’s Hims & Hers sued over customer privacy, subscriptions

Federal and state regulators sued San Francisco-based Hims & Hers, alleging deceptive prescription billing, difficult cancellations and the improper sharing of sensitive health information.

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Jul 31 • 5:01 PM EDT • Health • sfchronicle.com
How Amazon became one of the world’s top chip companies in a decade

Amazon’s custom silicon business exceeded a $25 billion annual revenue run rate—here’s what that means for customers and the future of AI.

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Jul 31 • 3:55 PM EDT • Business • aboutamazon.com
Promises made, promises kept: Trucker of the Month Jeffrey Crise

Owner-operator Jeffrey Crise, who runs two-truck A&J Transport & Recovery out of the Baltimore area, prides himself punctuality and service -- with clear dedication to customers.

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Jul 31 • 1:10 PM EDT • Business • overdriveonline.com
FTC Sues Hims & Hers Over Health Privacy And Billing Practices

By Ellyn Vohnoutka HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, July 31, 2026 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued telehealth company Hims & Hers, alleging it shared consumers' private health information with advertising platforms and unknowingly charged some customers for ...

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Jul 31 • 10:24 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com
What Businesses Are Saying: Steady Overall With Pockets of Stress

Businesses reported durable demand from consumers and are keeping headcounts flat through the end of 2026. Pricing pressures continued, but with some pullback from low- and middle-income customers.

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Jul 31 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • richmondfed.org
Erie County Fair highlights new attractions, entertainment, food & family value for 186th event

The Erie County Fair is preparing to welcome guests back, Aug. 12-23, for its 186th year, bringing together agricultural traditions, family attractions, live entertainment, new food and beverage offerings, and affordable fun for all ages.

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Jul 31 • 7:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • wnypapers.com
Forvia sales fall less than expected, but China business declines

French car parts supplier Forvia reported ‌a smaller-than-expected drop in its half-year sales on Friday, even as an unfavourable customer ​mix weighed on its China business.

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Jul 31 • 1:27 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Fashion IPOs Became a Recipe for Disaster. Reformation Thinks Its Business Model Can Break the Curse

Reformation’s IPO shows investors may be willing to buy fashion again, but only if the story comes with profits, cash flow, and proof customers keep coming back.

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Jul 30 • 7:07 PM EDT • Business • inc.com
Haitian business owners embrace for impact of TPS expiration

Business owners in South Florida’s Haitian community say they’re facing a growing economic crisis as customers disappear and workers become increasingly difficult to find. NBC6’s Hatzel Vela reports

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Jul 30 • 6:21 PM EDT • Business • nbcmiami.com
Haitian businesses say fear over TPS changes is emptying stores and cutting jobs

Business owners in South Florida’s Haitian community say they’re facing a growing economic crisis as customers disappear and workers become increasingly difficult to find.

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Jul 30 • 5:21 PM EDT • Business • nbcmiami.com
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Apple revenue, profits beat expectations on iPhone, Mac sales

Apple on Thursday reported sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations, fueled by its customers snapping up iPhones and MacBooks amid ​price increases across the consumer electronics sector.

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Jul 30 • 4:31 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com
OpenAI cuts prices on smaller models as businesses scrutinize AI spend

OpenAI slashed prices of its low- and mid-tier AI models on Thursday, a move that may intensify competition in the industry as U.S. companies battle cheaper Chinese rivals for ​customers increasingly wary of the technology's ballooning costs.

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Jul 30 • 1:01 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Connections to STI & Health Services After Incarceration

Download a customizable, stigma-reducing resource that supports continuity of care and connects people to STI and health care services following incarceration.

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Jul 30 • 12:00 PM EDT • Health • astho.org
JetBlue’s Mint Makeover Reveals a Bigger Business Trend

JetBlue’s Mint refresh shows that winning today isn’t about attracting the most customers. It’s about creating a premium experience.

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Jul 30 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • inc.com
The restaurant business is changing beyond recognition

Blame technology, inflation and customers’ shifting habits

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Jul 30 • 9:02 AM EDT • Business • economist.com
Chrome for Android now lets you set a custom New Tab Page background

Like on desktop, Chrome for Android now lets you customize the New Tab Page with a background image or theme.

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Jul 30 • 8:30 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
Pediatricians and health officials are sidestepping Trump's CDC on vaccine advice

The Trump administration's upending of years of vaccine advice puts many pediatricians in a quandary. Some are steering patients away from the CDC to other authoritative websites, including their own.

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Jul 30 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • npr.org
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CVS Health® named Overall Winner and wins four gold awards at 2026 US Customer Experience Awards

CVS Health was named Overall Winner at the 2026 US Customer Experience Awards, earning four gold awards for excellence in customer experience.

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Jul 30 • 3:00 AM EDT • Health • cvshealth.com
Custom blood vessel grafts in minutes? Harvard engineers share vision of the future

Researchers have developed a new way to craft custom synthetic vascular grafts for patients in need of immediate care. The technique has shown early potential to be a game-changer for cardiovascular care.

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Jul 29 • 4:58 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com
Why Anthony Fauci might not be safe after pleading the Fifth

By now in American politics, we’ve become accustomed to high-profile figures pleading the Fifth to avoid answering questions they believe could be used to incriminate them. That includes President Donald Trump doing it more than 400 times in a civil case in 2022.

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Jul 29 • 2:08 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Confirmed: Influence Media Partners to acquire Anthem Entertainment catalogs for over USD $600M

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in Q4 2026.

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Jul 29 • 12:22 PM EDT • Entertainment • musicbusinessworldwide.com
Generate Autonomous Business Insights with AI Agent and MCP Servers

Learn how Amazon Bedrock AgentCore delivers autonomous, cross-system business intelligence through configuration rather than custom code. Using pre-built MCP server connectors, fine-grained access control, and persistent memory, enterprises can query multiple data sources with natural language while enforcing role-based boundaries automatically.

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Jul 29 • 11:34 AM EDT • Business • aws.amazon.com
After laying off Battlefield 6 devs, EA boss Andrew Wilson's bonus rose $8m to $38m last year, thanks to the game's success across "all milestones"

Andrew Wilson took home the staggering bonus, alongside his $1.3m base salary.

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Jul 29 • 5:14 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think

A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment

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Jul 29 • 4:23 AM EDT • Science • derspiegel.substack.com
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Beyond Content Creation: How Wizstar Helps Enterprises Scale AI Across Business

As AI adoption continues to expand across enterprises, businesses are seeking more efficient, intelligent, and scalable ways to create content and streamline operations. Addressing these evolving needs, Wizstar provides a comprehensive AI digital human solution covering AIGC video generation, real-time interactive avatars, and AI-powered live streaming. Designed for marketing, customer service, training, and live commerce, the platform helps organizations improve content production efficiency, e

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Jul 29 • 4:05 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Willy Street businesses impacted as protests block customer traffic

MADISON — Restaurants and shops along Willy Street have had to adjust how they operate as customer traffic has gone down following protests that erupted after a police shooting on

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Jul 28 • 7:14 PM EDT • Business • channel3000.com
Missouri megadonor Rex Sinquefield keeps his hand in federal politics

Sinquefield has continued his financial support for efforts to keep Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.

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Jul 28 • 4:30 PM EDT • Politics • columbiamissourian.com
Apple Upgrade: 20 Things to Know Before Leasing an iPhone, iPad, or Mac

Apple retired the iPhone Upgrade Program in favor of a new Apple Upgrade leasing option made available in partnership with Klarna. Apple Upgrade gives customers an option to get iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches at cheaper prices than before, but there are some things worth knowing about it. We've gathered up some smaller tidbits that you should be aware of before deciding to opt in. U.S.

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Jul 28 • 4:19 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Medtronic recalls thousands of cannulae due to risk of leaks

More than 50,000 devices are being recalled due to pinhole leaks associated with multiple risks. Customers should return any unused cannulae to Medtronic.

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Jul 28 • 4:02 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com
Apple to lease iPhones, other products to users through Klarna partnership

Apple Upgrade lets customers lease iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch devices through Klarna, then return, upgrade or purchase the product when the lease ends.

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Jul 28 • 1:58 PM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Apple to lease iPhones, other products to users through Klarna partnership

Apple Upgrade lets customers lease iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch devices through Klarna, then return, upgrade or purchase the product when the lease ends.

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Jul 28 • 1:58 PM EDT • Technology • foxbusiness.com
Evan Danyo '25 leverages tech, customer service in new business venture

Evan Danyo ’25 leverages tech, customer service in new business venture: Evan Danyo '25, a business administration and data analytics alum, is applying his love of numbers to

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Jul 28 • 1:38 PM EDT • Business • furman.edu
Jeff Bezos says this business is becoming Amazon’s next ‘pillar’

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says the company's custom AI chip business is poised to become its next "pillar," joining Marketplace, Prime, and AWS as one of Amazon's foundational businesses as the tech giant doubles down on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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Jul 28 • 12:33 PM EDT • Business • geekwire.com
All-New Apple Home Hub Reportedly Launching as Soon as October

Apple plans to release an all-new smart home hub at some point between October and early next year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple Home Hub (Concept) Siri AI is expected to be a core feature of the hub, which is designed to be placed in rooms throughout your house, such as a kitchen, living room, or bedroom. The report said the device will be available in tabletop and wall-mounted versions, with Apple apparently believing that many customers will buy more than one.

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Jul 28 • 12:31 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
This value predicts future quality of life. In Australia, it’s tanking

More than 600 scientists are sounding the alarm that our standard of living is under threat.

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Jul 28 • 10:01 AM EDT • Science • smh.com.au
Milliman Acquires Blue Water MSR Valuation, Hedging Business

Milliman has acquired Blue Water’s mortgage servicing rights valuation and hedging services from Apex Analytics Corp., extending a wave of mortgage industry investment beyond servicing portfolios themselves to the technology and expertise used to manage their value.The transaction adds Blue Water’s MSR hedging platform, customer base, trading professionals, and quantitative analytics team to Milliman’s mortgage solutions practice. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Jul 28 • 7:06 AM EDT • Business • nationalmortgageprofessional.com
'Skating on thin ice': Lincoln small business struggles to keep up with rising prices, less customers

"We're not closing the doors, but we're skating on thin ice when it comes to which bills to pay this week and which bills to pay next week," said owner Rian Hall.

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Jul 27 • 5:25 PM EDT • Business • klkntv.com
Ernst Names Small Business of the Week, Winn’s Pizza & Steakhouse and Winn & Sara’s Kitchen

Read the release on Sen. Ernst's website HERE. Throughout this Congress, Chair Ernst plans to recognize a small business in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties. RED OAK, Iowa – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, today announced her Small Business of the Week: Winn’s Pizza & Steakhouse and Winn & Sara’s Kitchen of Warren County. Throughout the 119th Congress, Chair Ernst plans to recognize a small business in each of Iowa's 99 counties. "Winn’s Pizza & Steakhouse has been an outstanding addition to the Indianola community," said Chair Ernst. "For 23 years, the Nguyen family has proudly served Iowans with their signature thin-crust pizzas and hand-cut steaks, building a loyal following through exceptional food and service. The Nguyen family’s dedication to their customers and community embodies the very best of Iowa’s entrepreneurial spirit." Founded in 2003 by Winn Nguyen, Winn’s Pizza & Steakhouse has become a beloved fixture in the Indianola community. In 2015, Winn expanded to Norwalk, bringing the business’ssignature hospitality and comfort food to even more Iowans. Most recently, the launch of Winn & Sara’s Kitchen in 2024 further strengthened the family’s connection to the community, earning widespread praise during its first three appearances at the Iowa State Fair. For over two decades, the Nguyen family has worked tirelessly to serve classic comfort food with a creative twist. Stay tuned as Chair Ernst continues to recognize outstanding Iowa small businesses with her Small Business of the Week award. ###

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Jul 27 • 5:22 PM EDT • Business • sbc.senate.gov
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Intel Just Secured a Huge Customer for Its Foundry Business

The tech company recently landed Fortinet as a customer of its foundry service.

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Jul 27 • 4:50 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Minneapolis starts Black Business Week with focus on investment, entrepreneurship

The kickoff comes as small businesses across the Twin Cities continue to navigate economic uncertainty. Some business owners have reported challenges tied to the recent increase in federal immigration enforcement activity, including fewer customers, staffing concerns and financial strain.

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Jul 27 • 3:25 PM EDT • Business • mprnews.org
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Your AI Strategy May Be Making Your Business Look Like Everyone Else's. Here's How to Ensure Customers Still Choose You.

As AI lowers the barriers to starting and scaling a business, creating a memorable brand and great customer experiences will become the ultimate competitive advantage.

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Jul 27 • 2:30 PM EDT • Business • entrepreneur.com
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FDA shares warning about stroke prevention device after injury

Customers should return these devices to the manufacturer, Boston Scientific, due to a risk of the tip separatng during use.

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Jul 27 • 12:49 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com
Governor Moore Announces Nearly $4 Million in NourishMD Grants to Expand Fresh Food Access in Food Deserts

Governor Moore Announces Nearly $4 Million in NourishMD Grants to Expand Fresh Food Access in Food Deserts

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Jul 27 • 10:13 AM EDT • Health • governor.maryland.gov
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Ex-Fallbrook Porsche resale business owner sentenced for wire fraud

A woman who defrauded customers of her Fallbrook-based Porsche restoration and resale business was sentenced Friday to one year and nine months in prison.

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Jul 27 • 9:35 AM EDT • Business • 10news.com
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