SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY

Search headlines

Find the stories shaping the conversation.

Search mode
Refine results
Active filters Keyword All time

Results for " rising " 3,121 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

New York Giants Could Make Surprise RB Move

The New York Giants could make a surprising decision at running back before the start of the NFL season.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 25 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Kuwait Oil Company Signs US$ 16.0 Billion Infrastructure Partnership Involving Its Crude Oil Pipeline Network With a Consortium Comprising Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation ("KPC"), the state-owned corporation overseeing Kuwait's oil and gas sector, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, K...

businesswire.com logo
Jul 25 • 1:39 AM EDT • Business • businesswire.com
Rising health insurance costs force Bay Area small businesses into tough choices
cbsnews.com logo
Jul 24 • 11:00 PM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
Deep dive High-Signal Publisher
😐 Neutral (2%)
love
59%
wow
41%
Rising health insurance costs force Bay Area small businesses into tough choices
cbsnews.com logo
Jul 24 • 11:00 PM EDT • Business • cbsnews.com
Deep dive High-Signal Publisher
😐 Neutral (2%)
love
59%
wow
41%
New business numbers should be source of optimism

We know and share in the pain that fluctuating energy costs and gas prices and a decade of rising prices for groceries and other costs of living have inflicted on our nation and region. A Center Square article in Tuesday’s edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette offered some good news: The United States has seen nearly […]

sungazette.com logo
Jul 24 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • sungazette.com
GOP's freshman firebrand goes viral targeting 'utterly intellectually indefensible' DEI policies

Rep. Brandon Gill is the youngest House Republican and is lauded as a rising star within the party.

foxnews.com logo
Jul 24 • 6:37 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Embraer's backlog hits record $34.5 billion in the second quarter, rising 16%

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer said on ​Friday its firm ​order backlog hit a record ⁠of $34.5 billion at the end ​of the second quarter, ​up 16% from a year earlier.

reuters.com logo
Jul 24 • 5:45 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Ukraine hits Russia's largest online marketplace, hurting small businesses and bringing the war home

The Ukrainian attacks on the sprawling Russian warehouses produced stark images, with massive pillars of black smoke rising above fires that raged at facilities of Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer and its equivalent of Amazon.

pbs.org logo
Jul 24 • 11:33 AM EDT • Business • pbs.org
Nothing will reportedly stop selling in many global markets as latest phones struggle

According to a new report, Nothing will exit many global markets as its latest phone releases struggle amid the impacts of rising costs.

9to5google.com logo
Jul 24 • 10:25 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
After OnePlus, Nothing could be the next brand to leave multiple global markets

After OnePlus's exit, report claims Nothing could be next to leave 12 global markets and layoff 40% of its staff amid rising costs.

androidauthority.com logo
Jul 24 • 10:04 AM EDT • Technology • androidauthority.com
US Business Activity Picks Up on World Cup, July 4 Spending

US business activity expanded at the fastest pace in eight months as strong domestic demand for services offset cooling factory production, growing supply chain delays and rising costs.

bloomberg.com logo
Jul 24 • 9:45 AM EDT • Business • bloomberg.com
Democrats Finally Have a Pick to Take On Susan Collins. It Was a Long, Strange Trip to Get There.

This weekend’s convention is a surprisingly low-key end to a truly wild ride.

slate.com logo
Jul 24 • 5:40 AM EDT • Politics • slate.com
‘Arenas Are Becoming True Lifestyle Destinations’: Q’s With Marie Balsaqc, CEO Paris Entertainment Company

Paris Entertainment Company operates three landmark buildings in the Franch capital – Le Bataclan, adidas arena, and Accor Arena – comprising a total of more

news.pollstar.com logo
Jul 24 • 3:31 AM EDT • Entertainment • news.pollstar.com
Public defender proposes increase to 'expert witness' budget due to more mental evaluations

The Douglas County attorney and public defender highlight the growing role of mental health in court cases, with rising costs for evaluations and expert witnesses that are all funded by taxpayers.

ketv.com logo
Jul 23 • 11:37 PM EDT • Health • ketv.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (6%)
wow
100%
Secrets of birdsongs' 'spectacular diversity' revealed

A scientific study has revealed the acoustic secret that connects all birdsong - and it is surprisingly simple

bbc.com logo
Jul 23 • 7:55 PM EDT • Science • bbc.com
GOP Lawmakers Back Trump on Iran War

Just four House Republicans join Democrats in trying to rein in president’s war powers amid rising tensions, economic fears.

wsj.com logo
Jul 23 • 11:45 AM EDT • Politics • wsj.com
When It Comes to Fusion, Materials Matter

Fusion at high temperatures powers the sun and, if harnessed, could provide a potential source of energy here on Earth. But controlling fusion reactions has other benefits. The process also generates subatomic particles called neutrons that are used in a range of applications spanning medicine, research, and national security. Now, scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that the materials surrounding a fusion reaction can dramatically increase how often it occurs, particularly at low energies where fusion is rare. The study was published July 18 in Nature Communications. Their approach sets up a way to study and engineer nuclear reactions within solid materials, opening a new field of “materials-driven fusion.” Instead of designing materials just to survive the harsh conditions of fusion, researchers might be able to design materials that boost the reaction in specific conditions, similar to the way catalysts speed up chemical processes. “It gives you a new knob to turn that you didn’t have before,” said Arun Persaud, head of the Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology group in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division. “If we understand this effect better, it opens the door to engineering new materials that would affect the fusion rate under certain conditions. Someday future progress might enable more compact and efficient neutron generators, which have all kinds of applications, like cargo screening, planetary science, and medical therapy and imaging.” In the experiment, researchers used two different methods to pack deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen atoms that is often used in fusion, into thin foils of palladium and titanium. They then fired a beam of deuterium ions at the foils at different energies and measured how often fusion happened. Then they compared the rates from the different materials and methods with the “bare” fusion reaction (not in a material). The team found that fusion rates depended on how the deuterium was loaded into the metal foils. The biggest effect was at the lowest energies, below 2.5 kiloelectronvolts (keV), where theory predicts fusion rates drop off sharply. Instead, researchers found a surprising plateau: Some samples showed elevated fusion rates roughly a quintillion times higher than bare fusion reactions. (A quintillion is a 1 followed by 18 zeroes.) Researchers are not exactly sure why that’s happening, though they have some ideas and ways to test them. The electrons and defects within the material might partially shield repulsive electrostatic forces between deuterium nuclei, making it easier for them to get close together and fuse. Tuning the electronic structure, defects, and composition of materials could help make nuclear reactions happen more readily. “It comes down to better understanding the mechanism so that we can try to enhance it,” said corresponding author Jeremy Munday, a professor at UC Davis. “We’ve seen that we can increase fusion rates, but what is the limit? Can we bring it to lower temperatures or energies? There’s obviously a lot of interest and excitement about fusion, so if there’s something we can learn about the physics at these lower energy scales, maybe there’s something we can translate to other areas of nuclear science.” The team plans to explore a wider range of materials and continue probing the unexpected fusion plateau at lower energies. Their work establishes a reproducible experimental platform to study how solid materials influence nuclear reactions, creating a new area of research that links fusion science with materials science and chemistry. “The work shows conclusively that the material environment where fusion occurs at low temperatures is an active participant rather than a passive container,” said Cameron Geddes, director of ATAP. “That adds a new dimension to fusion research.” This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

newscenter.lbl.gov logo
Jul 23 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • newscenter.lbl.gov
China's Geely to make electric SUVs at Ford Spain plant, jointly develop model for Europe

Geely Auto will build two electric SUVs at Ford's factory in Spain and the two firms will jointly develop a new model, they said on Thursday, as rising Chinese automakers race to use traditional carmakers' underutilized factories and get ahead of European local-content rules.

reuters.com logo
Jul 23 • 5:34 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
As cost of youth sports grows, Congress eyes regulation of private equity

WASHINGTON – Federal lawmakers are weighing restrictions on private equity in youth sports as families face rising costs, mandatory travel expenses and added fees. Industry supporters argue private investment expands facilities and access.

cronkitenews.azpbs.org logo
Jul 22 • 8:33 PM EDT • Sports • cronkitenews.azpbs.org
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (2%)
ahah
52%
wow
25%
love
23%
Asia's rich swap sponsorships for stakes in sports as dealmaking hits record

Asian wealthy families and fund managers are increasingly moving beyond sponsorships and charity-linked sporting events to invest directly in sports assets, betting that growing audiences and rising media-rights ​fees will drive longer term returns.

reuters.com logo
Jul 22 • 8:03 PM EDT • Sports • reuters.com
Bears’ Loveland Lands on NFLPA’s “Rising Stars List”

Bears TE Colston Loveland named to NFLPA’s “Rising Stars List” @tjstarman has more here.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 22 • 6:20 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Rising healthcare costs are reshaping Ohio's midterm elections

A drop in Obamacare enrollees has raised concerns about healthcare costs.

spectrumnews1.com logo
Jul 22 • 5:00 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com
Answer for Rising Costs of Club Sports? Involvement inEducation-Based Sports in Schools

Back in May, a bill entitled “Let Kids Play Act” was introduced by several members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. The bill targets certain groups that, according to the sponsors of the bill, have priced kids and their families out of youth sports. Sponsors of the bill note that the cost […]

ripleynews.com logo
Jul 22 • 2:55 PM EDT • Sports • ripleynews.com
Patrick Kane reportedly walks away from Blackhawks over unexpected issue!

A surprising condition may have derailed Kane's emotional return to Chicago.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 22 • 12:18 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
'You sir, are the failure': Hegseth pressed by Democratic senator on Iran war plan

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced bipartisan scrutiny in the Senate on Tuesday as lawmakers pressed him to explain the rising costs of the war in Iran.

washingtonpost.com logo
Jul 22 • 11:48 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Will surge in German business bankruptcies hit growth?

Company insolvencies in Germany are rising sharply. Is this a sign of deeper economic weakness, or just a market correction that could ultimately benefit future growth?

dw.com logo
Jul 22 • 6:50 AM EDT • Business • dw.com
Flutter Entertainment Stock Falls as Rising Prediction Market Volumes Pressure Traditional Gambling

Flutter Entertainment stock drops nearly 4% as rising prediction market volumes from platforms like Kalshi pressure traditional sportsbooks.

tikr.com logo
Jul 22 • 5:49 AM EDT • Entertainment • tikr.com
Tower of small condos rising in Arts & Entertainment District

Construction has begun on a condominium in Downtown Miami’s Arts and Entertainment District. RSP Architects announced the groundbreaking of 14 ROC Miami, a 31-story residential tower in the growing neighborhood. Completion is due in 2028. The

miamitodaynews.com logo
Jul 22 • 3:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • miamitodaynews.com
‘Truly unprecedented’: Portland area health officials warn of rising measles cases

Health officials in Oregon and California are warning about an “unprecedented” shift in measles cases in the United States.

koin.com logo
Jul 21 • 9:25 PM EDT • Health • koin.com
Apple raises prices on some streaming services as licensing costs climb

Apple Music individual plans rise to $11.99 and family plans jump to $19.99 as the company cites rising licensing costs for the subscription hikes.

foxbusiness.com logo
Jul 21 • 3:53 PM EDT • Technology • foxbusiness.com
Roundup: LNG exports / Prairieville market / GLP-1 rivalry

Predicted to double: U.S. LNG exports are expected to nearly double by 2031, becoming the country’s second-largest net export industry and contributing an estimated $1.4 trillion to the economy. The growth is driven by abundant shale gas supplies, major Gulf Coast investments and rising global demand, with LNG exports projected to support hundreds of thousands […]

businessreport.com logo
Jul 21 • 3:30 PM EDT • Business • businessreport.com
'Double Helix’ artwork illuminates the beauty of science in motion

Near the main entrance of The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Health Science Center campus, a striking metallic “Double Helix” sculpture greets thousands of drivers each day as they make their way through the South Texas Medical Center — a metropolis of discovery, education, research and innovation. Rising skyward, the angled aluminum sculpture […]

news.uthscsa.edu logo
Jul 21 • 1:08 PM EDT • Science • news.uthscsa.edu
Cam Newton among ESPN layoffs after ‘First Take’ rise

Given his recent addition to the talent roster at ESPN and quick rise through the ranks at First Take, Cam Newton is one of the most surprising names to be let go in the latest round of layoffs at the company. Newton joins a list that includes NFL analyst Ryan Clark, MLB host and play-by-play man…

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 21 • 11:24 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (21%)
ahah
63%
wow
37%
Health officials urge food safety as cyclosporiasis cases rise in North Carolina

Cyclosporiasis, a parasitic illness that can cause diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms, is rising across North Carolina and the U.S., health officials say.

cleveland19.com logo
Jul 21 • 8:16 AM EDT • Health • cleveland19.com
Morocco’s Foreign-Born World Cup Squad and the Politics of Nationality

A national soccer squad comprising only foreign-born players is the latest example of Morocco’s centuries-long effort to define national identity beyond its borders.

worldpoliticsreview.com logo
Jul 21 • 8:09 AM EDT • Politics • worldpoliticsreview.com
China’s Chang’e-6 reveals why solar wind hits the Moon’s two sides differently

China’s Chang’e-6 samples have uncovered a surprising difference between the Moon’s two hemispheres. Solar wind particles penetrated deeper into the far-side soil because Earth’s magnetosphere slows the particles that reach the near side. Noble gases locked inside the lunar regolith preserved evidence of this uneven bombardment. These gases may even help scientists reconstruct the ancient history of Earth’s magnetic shield.

sciencedaily.com logo
Jul 21 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
In 2025, US scientists poured 16,500 gallons of lye and bright pink dye into the Gulf of Maine, the first federally approved attempt to reverse the ocean's rising acidity

On an August morning in 2025, a research vessel in the Gulf of Maine released 16,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide (lye) into the ocean while a plume of bright pink dye spread across the water's surface. To onlookers, the vivid pink patch looked alarming.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com logo
Jul 21 • 6:15 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Miami's cost of living now tops New York City's despite Florida's tax advantages

Rising property taxes, insurance premiums and 36% inflation since 2019 have pushed Miami's cost of living above New York City's for the first time on record.

foxbusiness.com logo
Jul 21 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Former Left 4 Dead Writer Pans PlayStation Backlash Over Physical Media

Unsurprisingly, there has been more than a little backlash following Sony's recent decision to end the production of physical games media in 2028. Much of that backlash has been met with questions from skeptics about the real-world success of physical media compared to digital, and even game...

techpowerup.com logo
Jul 20 • 11:32 PM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com
Monkeys are surprisingly good at geometry

They may understand shapes as well as your toddler.

popsci.com logo
Jul 20 • 3:00 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com
The surprising benefits of red light

Better skin, faster wound healing and reduced vision loss are on the cards

economist.com logo
Jul 20 • 1:45 PM EDT • Technology • economist.com
Syphilis infections a rising threat for Alaska newborns, health officials report

As adult cases of the sexually transmitted infection increase, 14 Alaska babies qwew born with syphilis in 2025, the most in recent years.

alaskabeacon.com logo
Jul 20 • 9:45 AM EDT • Health • alaskabeacon.com
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process

[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe

democracysos.substack.com logo
Jul 20 • 9:29 AM EDT • Science • democracysos.substack.com
"Honestly, it’s still getting worse" - Valve Steam Machine engineer says component prices are still rising, potentially paving the way for a price increase

The memory crisis is not showing signs of abating, according to people whose job it is to price-out every component that goes into Valve's hardware.

eurogamer.net logo
Jul 20 • 8:45 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Colorado Republicans will have to live with the consequences of their candidate of choice

Two surprising election results this year in Colorado and Maine’s 2026 primaries compel us to examine the role of voters. It’s usually regarded as impolite, if not insulting, to question the judgment of voters. Democratic theory often implies the collective conclusions they reach capture some ephemeral element of shared wisdom. This may be true when […]

coloradopolitics.com logo
Jul 20 • 3:00 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results, Delivering the Highest Quarterly Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA in Its 106-Year History

Demonstrates for all to see the significant operating leverage inherent in AMC’s business model at a time of rising revenues LEAWOOD,…...

investor.amctheatres.com logo
Jul 20 • 2:55 AM EDT • Entertainment • investor.amctheatres.com
Electric cars became cheaper in Germany despite rising average prices

Models of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) became more affordable in Germany ​between 2020 and 2025, data ‌from research organizations the International Council on Clean Transportation and Fraunhofer ISI showed.

reuters.com logo
Jul 19 • 10:05 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Water First, Coffee in Moderation: What to Drink for Better Cognitive Health

The single best beverage for cognitive health is surprisingly simple: water. While coffee has attracted growing scientific interest for its potential brain benefits, hydration remains the foundation of healthy brain function.

baptisthealth.net logo
Jul 19 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • baptisthealth.net
What scientists felt when approaching Egyptian mummies will truly shock you - Futura-Sciences

The Surprising Role of Scents in Ancient Egyptian Burial Rites In ancient Egypt, smell was far from a trivial detail: it was a crucial part of funerary rituals. Pleasant fragrances were linked to the gods and purity, while foul odors were a direct reminder of decay and death. For Egyptians,...

futura-sciences.com logo
Jul 19 • 7:00 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com
Citizen Scientists Helped Decipher How Harvestmen Became Oddly Devoted Dads

Paternal care is vanishingly rare in the animal kingdom, yet one spider relative pulls it off repeatedly across thousands of species. Unlocking why required a surprising shortcut that compressed decad...

yahoo.com logo
Jul 19 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
California Pizza Kitchen founder says California has become too difficult for entrepreneurs

California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield says he'd open in Florida over California today, citing rising labor costs and increased bureaucracy.

finance.yahoo.com logo
Jul 19 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Scientists found two powerful new ways to destroy forever chemicals

Scientists are testing two promising ways to destroy PFAS, the stubborn “forever chemicals” that can accumulate in water and resist normal treatment. One method uses collapsing vapor bubbles to generate extreme heat and reactive molecules, while the other uses cold plasma and rising gas bubbles to pull PFAS to the surface and break them apart.

sciencedaily.com logo
Jul 19 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Perspective: Abandoning business

For businesses in our industry and similar sectors, the recent primary results were an alarming wake-up call that many read as “get out of Dodge, now.” To say that the results in both the Democratic and Republican primaries were surprising and disturbing to many in the business community would be an understatement. On the Republican […]

gazette.com logo
Jul 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • gazette.com
Rising health insurance costs slam Mississippi

Mississippi's working poor have been hit with rising health insurance exchange costs and no Medicaid expansion, meaning they have less access to healthcare than most Americans.

mississippitoday.org logo
Jul 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • mississippitoday.org
Perspective: Abandoning business

For businesses in our industry and similar sectors, the recent primary results were an alarming wake-up call that many read as “get out of Dodge, now.” To say that the results in both the Democratic and Republican primaries were surprising and disturbing to many in the business community would be an understatement. On the Republican […]

denvergazette.com logo
Jul 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • denvergazette.com
Mason McCormick expected to play new position in 2026

The Steelers have a potential All-Pro center in Zach Frazier and two young rising offensive linemen in guard Mason McCormick and tackle Troy Fautanu.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 18 • 9:22 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (10%)
ahah
50%
wow
50%
Coffee may help the body fight stress and aging through a hidden cellular switch

Scientists may have uncovered one reason coffee is repeatedly associated with healthier aging and lower disease risk. Compounds in coffee appear to activate NR4A1, a receptor that helps protect cells from stress, inflammation, and damage. These protective effects disappeared when the receptor was removed, strengthening the connection. Surprisingly, plant-based compounds such as caffeic acid seemed far more active than caffeine itself.

sciencedaily.com logo
Jul 18 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Coffee may help the body fight stress and aging through a hidden cellular switch

Scientists may have uncovered one reason coffee is repeatedly associated with healthier aging and lower disease risk. Compounds in coffee appear to activate NR4A1, a receptor that helps protect cells from stress, inflammation, and damage. These protective effects disappeared when the receptor was removed, strengthening the connection. Surprisingly, plant-based compounds such as caffeic acid seemed far more active than caffeine itself.

sciencedaily.com logo
Jul 18 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • sciencedaily.com
5 Classic PS1 Games That Are Unplayable Today

Surprisingly, these five classic games for PS1 are not only no longer playable, but include some of the platform's biggest and most acclaimed titles.

svg.com logo
Jul 18 • 6:00 PM EDT • Technology • svg.com
Beware the unintended consequences of testosterone screening for military servicemembers

“I fear that the widespread rollout of testosterone screening may lead to some surprising and unintended consequences,” writes a urologist who studies testosterone.

statnews.com logo
Jul 18 • 5:21 PM EDT • Health • statnews.com
🙂 Positive (45%)
Where Was ‘The Odyssey’ Filmed? All About the Surprising Destinations Featured in Christopher Nolan’s Movie

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ was shot across five European countries. Here’s everything to know about where ‘The Odyssey’ movie was filmed.

people.com logo
Jul 18 • 9:27 AM EDT • Entertainment • people.com
Tom Cruise Reveals Surprising New Look In Trailer For Movie About An Eccentric Billionaire

Check out the movie star’s wild new role in the upcoming black comedy starring Jesse Plemons and Riz Ahmed.

huffpost.com logo
Jul 18 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • huffpost.com
Earth’s biggest volcanic event transformed an entire oceanic plate

Seismic waves have revealed that the oceanic plate beneath the Ontong Java Plateau was dramatically transformed by the colossal volcanic activity that created it more than 100 million years ago. Researchers found a complex structure of horizontal layers cut through by vast swarms of vertical magma channels, along with unusually slow seismic waves suggesting that deep-rising magma chemically altered the plate itself.

sciencedaily.com logo
Jul 18 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Steelers linked to surprising trade for former second-round pick

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been linked this offseason to a surprising trade for Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Walker Little.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 18 • 5:07 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (6%)
ahah
60%
wow
40%
Rising ozone, stagnant air compound health effects of heat
wral.com logo
Jul 17 • 10:33 PM EDT • Health • wral.com
Apple Increases Prices For Apple Music & Apple One Over "Rising Licensing Costs"

Apple is raising prices for its music streaming service, Apple Music, for subscribers in the U.S. and other countries.

deadline.com logo
Jul 17 • 6:52 PM EDT • Technology • deadline.com
Nix’s Numbers Stack Up Well Against Rest Of AFC West

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix does surprisingly well when you compare his numbers to the rest of the division.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 17 • 6:39 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Apple Music Hikes Subscription Prices, Citing Rising Licensing Fees

Apple is hiking the prices of Apple Music subscription plans -- the tech giant's first rate increases for the service since the fall of 2022, citing higher music licensing costs.

variety.com logo
Jul 17 • 2:04 PM EDT • Technology • variety.com
Did this scientist solve humanity’s biggest mystery? The surprising theory explained - Futura-Sciences

From behind the Iron Curtain Gánti was born in Vác, Hungary, on September 10, 1933. He grew up during World War II and the subsequent Soviet occupation. Though he trained as a chemical engineer and worked in industrial biochemistry, his lifelong obsession was a fundamental question: what actually defines something...

futura-sciences.com logo
Jul 17 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com
North Little Rock looks to enhance growing entertainment district with new downtown hotels

Two new hotels rising in downtown North Little Rock, the Tempo by Hilton and Aloft, will add just over 220 rooms within walking distance of Simmons Bank Arena, the newly opened North Little Rock Event Center and the Argenta Arts District.

arkansasonline.com logo
Jul 17 • 12:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • arkansasonline.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (15%)
wow
67%
ahah
33%
America’s Enterprising Spirit Is Booming After Decades-Long Slump

Hundreds of thousands of people are creating companies each year, ending a decades-long drought.

nytimes.com logo
Jul 17 • 10:47 AM EDT • Business • nytimes.com
Recruiting Roundup: Michigan looking to flip rising recruit committed elsewhere

Michigan Football is targeting a recruit committed elsewhere that plans on officially visiting for the Oklahoma game. That and more in today’s Recruiting Roundup:

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 17 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
"High-T Department": Hegseth approves testosterone screening in military

Hegseth says he is authorising hormone screening to ensure US troops "operate at your absolute best".

bbc.com logo
Jul 16 • 5:10 AM EDT • Health • bbc.com
‘Escaping Beijing’: Why some young Chinese are quitting the capital

A slowing economy and rising prices are making it harder for young Chinese to thrive in the city.

aljazeera.com logo
Jul 16 • 4:10 AM EDT • Business • aljazeera.com
Progressive uprising divides Democrats up and down Michigan's ballot

Amid voter frustration with the \

detroitnews.com logo
Jul 16 • 12:02 AM EDT • Politics • detroitnews.com
😐 Neutral (8%)
angry
50%
love
50%
2026 Open Championship odds, picks, date: Surprising predictions from golf model that's nailed 17 majors

Mike McClure's model has simulated the British Open 2026 10,000 times and revealed PGA best bets and picks for Royal Birkdale

cbssports.com logo
Jul 15 • 8:54 PM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com
Fort Bend County Fair announces 2026 entertainment lineup

The 90th celebration of the Fort Bend County Fair will showcase an exciting entertainment lineup featuring Texas legends, country favorites, and rising stars who will take the stage throughout …

katytimes.com logo
Jul 15 • 8:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • katytimes.com
The science of Alaska’s bees: What researchers are learning

For decades, scientists knew surprisingly little about Alaska’s native bees. Now, Alaskans working together to understand the bees that pollinate the North.

alaskabeacon.com logo
Jul 15 • 6:00 PM EDT • Science • alaskabeacon.com
Rep. Kim Schrier raises concerns over Enchantments, wildfire risk and health care costs

U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., said growing visitor numbers, reduced federal staffing and rising health care costs are among the issues weighing on residents

komonews.com logo
Jul 15 • 5:34 PM EDT • Health • komonews.com
Hochul's order of a data center moratorium draws mixed reactions from N.Y.

Community groups have pressed data center developers on issues such as water use, air quality and rising utility costs for nearby residents.

spectrumlocalnews.com logo
Jul 15 • 5:33 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Growing debt creates growing risks for American workers

The national debt is growing rapidly, and this trend could create serious challenges for future economic growth, job opportunities and wages, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation reports. As debt increases, the cost of paying interest on that debt takes up more government resources and can limit investments in areas that support economic growth. Rising debt […]

businessreport.com logo
Jul 15 • 3:23 PM EDT • Business • businessreport.com
😐 Neutral (11%)
love
63%
ahah
37%
Vanderbilt Health physicians treating more patients with tick bites this year

Six medically important tick species live in the state, and many Tennesseans encounter ticks in their own yard or neighborhood. Perhaps attributable to changing weather patterns and rising temperatures, Vanderbilt Health’s Emergency Medicine physicians around the region began treating patients with tick bites in March this year.

news.vumc.org logo
Jul 15 • 10:59 AM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org
DC Sports Reality Check: Tickets, streaming and betting — the rising cost of being a sports fan

In Part 3 of a five-day series on how D.C.-area sports fans follow their teams, Rob Woodfork explores fan reactions to tickets, streaming and betting.

wtop.com logo
Jul 15 • 6:28 AM EDT • Sports • wtop.com
Pennsylvania Republicans won on lowering prices. Then came the Iran war.

Two Republicans who unseated House Democrats in 2024 after promising to lower the cost of living are fighting to keep their seats amid rising prices.

washingtonpost.com logo
Jul 15 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Medicare releases 2027 physician fee schedule with ‘devastating’ cuts to radiologist payments

"These cuts ignore the burden that rising practice costs are placing on ... radiology practices and our healthcare system," one imaging society told Radiology Business.

radiologybusiness.com logo
Jul 15 • 3:16 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
LeBron James Teases Warriors Move With Surprising Golf Outing

LeBron James golfed with Draymond Green and Kevin Hart, sparking fresh rumors about a potential Warriors return before his free agency decision.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 15 • 12:37 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Older adults who followed popular diet saw surprising mental health benefit

Eating the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, fish and olive oil, may help keep the mind strong even into old age, according to new research.

foxnews.com logo
Jul 14 • 11:19 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
47 revelatory hours with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

To review this month’s supposed remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I must first correct the record. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced isn’t a game about pirates (and assassins) in the 18th century Caribbean. Sure, sure, that’s what the trailers would have you believe. They’ve go their clips of Edward Kenway swinging his swords and steering his pirate ship into cannon-blasting combat against British frigates. Is Resynced truly a pirate game? Of the 47 hours I spent playing Resynced over the past few weeks, I will admit I spent maybe 44 (?) of them collecting plunder with Blackbeard, drinking rum with Anne Bonny and debating the pros and cons of the lawless pirate-run settlement Nassau with Benjamin Hornigold. I may in fact have spent dozens of hours sailing to remote islands, reading treasure maps, opening messages left in bottles, sinking the odd Man o’ War with a well-timed broadside, collecting sea shanties for my crew, befriending a pet monkey, and hunting whales. I am nevertheless neither so Gullible nor so Narrow-Minded as to call the magnificent Resynced a “pirate remake.” Oh no. Forget any reviews of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced you may have read. Forget what you yourself may have played, if you’ve spent any time with the game since its launch. What Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is really about I’m here to give you the scoop (spoilers for Resynced’s Animus menu lore, which many players are probably not going to see): Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the new game whose development was led by Ubisoft Singapore, is set in the year 2096. It’s about a societal split, about revolution, about an old Assassin’s Creed adventure repurposed in the series’ distant future as propaganda or samizdat. It’s about the overheated future of 2096, essentially conquered by the series’ well-established nefarious Templar-run company Abstergo. (In this future, Abstergo is, among other things, remaking a 2013 pirate movie called Devils of the Caribbean, but this time in VR. The VR version will be backed by a marketing plan that involves AI influencers, a 10,000-avatar “metaverse premiere event” and that manufacturing of memes aimed at “50 million VR nodes.” See what I mean about Abstergo being evil?) Resynced is about a late 21st-century population mollified by the widespread use of Abstergo’s Animus devices which let people experience the lives of historical figures culled from “genetic memories.” It’s about an insurgent faction of Assassins. And it’s about a plan to wake the population into revolutionary fervor by showing them the memories of 18th century pirate Edward Kenway, who—as depicted in the original Black Flag and again in Resynced—gradually comes to an understanding about the Assassins of his day and their centuries old fight for freedom. Resynced is also about an AI developed within the late 21st-century Animus, called Ego. It has found a way to alter genetic memories, to create and show Animus users false ones. The game is about Ego’s efforts to tell the people experiencing Edward Kenway’s memories that Kenway was wrong, that fighting against order is folly, that we should crave a world where “compliance is rewarded with power.” Who are we in this game? We’re an unnamed Animus user in 2096 who experiences Kenway’s journey virtually. At four moments during Kenway’s exploits in the Caribbean our virtual jaunt can be interrupted for 10-15 minutes, as we explore Animus “rifts” where Ego explicitly tries to tell us how wrong Kenway was. None of this is what 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was about, of course. That was a different game, even if you also spent dozens of hours pirating as Kenway in that game, across missions and a map that’s been faithfully reintroduced and rebuilt for Resynced. The 2013 Black Flag was about you playing as an unnamed researcher newly hired in 2013 by Abstergo Entertainment, the video game development wing of the Templars’ evil-corp. In that game, you were assigned to use the Animus to dive into the genetic memories of Desmond Miles, a man who died in Assassin’s Creed III and who was descended from a long line of Assassins (and at least one Templar) whose adventures were featured across the prior AC games. In 2013’s Black Flag, your mission was to plumb the Edward Kenway experience for material that Abstergo could use in productions such as the motion picture Devils of the Caribbean, though the Templars had some ulterior motives for the assignment. Resynced is therefore not a remake of 2013’s Black Flag. It’s a sequel. It is a new game about a new exploration of Edward Kenway’s pirate/assassin journey, set 83 years after the framing sequences of the original game. Resynced provides a new narrative framework that, thanks to the concept of an AI that wants to alter historical memories, arrives with creative justification to tweak a now-classic 13-year old game. That makes Resynced, already a hot seller, a tantalizing hint of where Ubisoft could go with a line of Assassin’s Creed remakes. They could remake the first game, the Ezio games, even the recent ones set in ancient Egypt and Greece. And for each, they could not just modernize the graphics and controls but expand and alter their sequences of events to use them as reference points for a conflict set in the late 21st century, as rival factions try to weaponize historical memories. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, even when that work consists of ravings about Assassin’s Creed’s modern day plot, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe A story most players will probably miss If you didn’t know any of this, I’m not surprised. If you played the game and still didn’t catch it, I’m not a bit shocked. If Ubisoft has no plans to do more of this, I won’t fall down. Almost all of what I’ve described is optional and missable in Black Flag Resynced. I nearly missed it myself, as I planned for a breezy playthrough of an old Assassin’s Creed favorite. Instead, I found myself in a 40+ hour hunt for the “real” story, buried deeper in Resynced than any gold-filled chest. The story of 2096 is Resynced’s meta-story, told in two remote pockets of the game: 1) four optional playable “rifts” that players may find as they proceed through Resynced’s pirate fantasy , 2) in dozens of text files tucked three menus deep in the game’s barely-interactive Animus hub. Assassin’s Creed games have almost always had a meta-story about people in the 21st century (usually matching the game’s release year) and their connections to the main history portions you play. Those meta-stories have always been squeezed into the margins, though seldom as severely and as, uh, graphiaclly simple, as in recent games. Back in 2013, the modern-day exploits of you as an Abstergo Entertainment employee were prominent. They were portrayed via first-person portions that occasionally interrupted the third-person Kenway experience and could be explored for hours, complete with their own missions, side quests and puzzles. Resynced’s 2096 story—of Assassin “Watchers” vs. Abstergo/Tempar goons, of rogue AIs, of panicking scientists, of a woman wondering why her Animus-addicted husband is muttering about Mary Read (“What does he mean by Assassins?”), of a fight for the population’s hearts and minds via varying interpretations of Edward Kenway’s life choices—is mostly told through unlockable text files. The files are interesting. Offered via diary entries, intercepted chats and news reports, they present varied perspectives of a world in crisis. One set works as a narrative puzzle as it reveals the Rashomonic interpretations of a massacre, or was that a successful Assassin hit? Another favorite reveals the rising bitterness of a person who, through Edward Kenway’s journey, now shakes at the ignored evil around him. One surmises that Ubisoft is averse to putting the Assassin’s Creed’s meta-story in the way of more marketable pirate playgrounds and ninja/samurai epics. Instead, we get a better-than-nothing text-in-menus approach introduced in 2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In Shadows, players unlocked the meta-story text files largely via time-gated missions that called on the user to kill X number of enemy type Y, clear three enemy castles, re-win a three-phase fighting tournament, and other grinds. Time restrictions on accessing these missions and unlocking the files meant it could take players months to access the full story in-game. But even in the most hardcore Assassin’s Creed hangouts, the fanbase instead seemed to throw up their hands rather than grind to keep up. In Resynced, Ubisoft has shown some mercy, diminishing the amount of new text files that are tied to timed grinds. Now, most of the text-based 2096 lore are associated with “data file” collectibles that players can find in the world. That includes a batch of written entries that explain a historical link between the feudal Japan era in Shadows and the piracy adventures in Black Flag. Players who explore a lot will find dozens of data files, though the game does not appear to offer any in-game tracker for finding each one. You just need to keep looking for them. As of this writing, I have most of them, but not all. I can’t find any full guide for them online. And even Ubisoft’s optional $5 microtransaction that reveals lots of items in-game does not appear to reveal the locations of the text files (at least the official description omits them from its collectibles list). That’s not a huge bother, because tracking the data files down compelled me to re-explore the waves and islands of Black Flag. That was a thoroughly pleasant task to do for the first time in a dozen years. I expect many players, though, will be content to wait for the files to be reproduced in an online AC wiki somewhere, the easier to read on a web page. It may not seem enticing to play a video game in order to gradually unlock pages of text to read. Why not, you may ask, just read a book, where they put the pages in order? For one, they’ve not tucked this latest installment of Assassin’s Creed’s meta saga in a book. I also enjoy the unordered delivery, the dawning comprehension of a story about 2096’s desperate people and questionable tech, which I glimpsed first at its middle, then the end, then the front, then other moments in between1. I am also enamored with the idea of the Assassin’s Creed games I’ve previously played, including Black Flag, being repurposed for an information war. The ideas in Resynced’s meta-story, which builds off characters and ideas in Shadows’ chunks of text, are strong. The potential of where they could go with it is exciting. As for the pirate stuff? Looks great, controls pretty well, is fun to play and oh so speedy in terms of how much of a good time you can have with each sit-down. It never gets old to chase a new shanty page across a rooftop, bombard a fort with upgraded mortars or use a diving bell to explore sunken wrecks (hats off to the team at Ubisoft Barcelona that worked on the underwater portions in Resynced; that team is now facing layoffs, such is the misery of modern gaming and oft-troubled Ubisoft). New pirate missions in Resynced involving new ally characters are brief, dramatic and add more to Edward’s story, even if the gameplay perks they provide barely enhance the gameplay. A new denouement for high-class pirate Stede Bonnet is affecting; a new hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure is a welcome extra moment. A new epilogue to hunt down a pirate killer, on the other hand, over-complicates Kenway’s character. The ending credits remain my favorite of any game I’ve ever played. Black Flag provides great source material. The revisit is well-made and a great sign of what could be. It is offered in a different wrapper that hints at an opportunity for more interesting remakes to come, should Ubisoft choose to pursue such treasures—and as we brace to resist or comply with an Abstergo future. 1 The messages that Edward Kenway finds in bottles tell another out-of-order story, one about a man reckoning with the strange memories and voices he’s heard in his head since he was a boy. That tale was also in the 2013 game and develops into one of Black Flag’s most compelling character arcs. In Resynced, it has lost its climax, because the bottle story previously paid off in the halls of the first-person Abstergo Entertainment, which is exclusive to the older game. An altered resolution, written by the 2013 game’s lead writer is fine, doesn’t invalidate the 2013 version, but makes for an inferior final note.

gamefile.news logo
Jul 14 • 3:17 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Why the $9.99 price tag still rules retail

The $9.99 price point remains a powerful strategy because many consumers perceive products under $10 as noticeably more affordable than those priced at $10 or higher, even though the difference is only a penny, The Wall Street Journal reports. Companies are increasingly struggling to maintain these prices due to rising costs from inflation, fuel, tariffs […]

businessreport.com logo
Jul 14 • 3:15 PM EDT • Business • businessreport.com
Scientists Found Gold in the Most Ironic Place Possible

Geologists found what they call “invisible gold” hidden within a surprising mineral near undersea hydrothermal vents.

gizmodo.com logo
Jul 14 • 2:10 PM EDT • Science • gizmodo.com
2026 Open Championship odds, picks, date: Surprising predictions from golf model that's nailed 17 majors

Mike McClure's model has simulated the British Open 2026 10,000 times and revealed PGA best bets and picks for Royal Birkdale

cbssports.com logo
Jul 14 • 1:36 PM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com
Killings of three British politicians in a decade shine light on febrile political mood

For the third time in a little over a decade, British lawmakers stood up one-by-one in Parliament on Monday, paid tribute to a slain politician, and echoed each other’s fears about the rising tide of violence in politics.

cnn.com logo
Jul 14 • 11:41 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (0%)
ahah
41%
wow
32%
sad
27%
2026 Open Championship odds, picks, date: Surprising predictions from golf model that's nailed 17 majors

Mike McClure's model has simulated the British Open 2026 10,000 times and revealed PGA best bets for Royal Birkdale

cbssports.com logo
Jul 14 • 9:08 AM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com
These Angels Prospects Have ‘Graduated’ To Provide Results

The Los Angeles Angels have gotten surprising results from these former prospects.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Jul 14 • 8:34 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Downtown Hollywood is still waiting for its turnaround

Business owners say rising rents, a lack of foot traffic and permitting delays have kept downtown Hollywood from taking off.

axios.com logo
Jul 14 • 6:20 AM EDT • Business • axios.com
High-Signal Publisher
German retailers warn of worsening business conditions as costs rise

German retailers are facing worsening business conditions as rising energy, labour and ​purchasing costs squeeze profits while sales remain ‌weak, the German Retail Association (HDE) said on Tuesday, urging the government to act quickly.

reuters.com logo
Jul 14 • 4:34 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
AI data center boom meets rural reality in Edgecombe County

This low-wealth county is facing economic promises and residents’ concerns over fossil‑fuel power, water use and rising utility bills.

northcarolinahealthnews.org logo
Jul 14 • 4:30 AM EDT • Health • northcarolinahealthnews.org
2026 Open Championship odds, picks, date: Surprising predictions from golf model that's nailed 17 majors

Mike McClure's model has simulated the British Open 2026 10,000 times and revealed PGA best bets for Royal Birkdale

cbssports.com logo
Jul 13 • 7:54 PM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com
Satya Nadella has issued a shocking warning to companies using AI

In a surprising blog post on Monday, Microsoft CEO is warning enterprises of the dangers of using proprietary models like Anthropic's and OpenAI's.

techcrunch.com logo
Jul 13 • 4:59 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
The Cutthroat Smartphone Industry And DRAM Crisis Force A Player Out Of The U.S. Market, Giving Apple & Samsung Additional Room To Reap Profits

The brutality of the smartphone industry coupled with rising DRAM costs have forced one manufacturer out of the U.S. market

wccftech.com logo
Jul 13 • 4:15 PM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com