SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " loop " 330 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Broad Payer & Consumer Coalition Urges Congress to Close Loopholes in No Surprises Act That Inflate Health Costs
Two new issue briefs highlight the abuse of the appeals process by private equity and corporations, and also successful solutions at the state level that suggest a federal fix WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, as Congress comes back into session next week, a broad range of 67 consumer, labor, and employer organizations, led by the patient […]
Chicago apartment sales heat up with $99M Fulton Market deal
The sale is the latest in a string of high-dollar apartment deals in the Chicago area, following the $166 million trade of a South Loop tower two weeks ago.
First office-to-apartment conversion in city’s $250M push to remake the Loop opens
The redevelopment is the first of five projects to be completed in the city’s LaSalle Corridor Revitalization initiative, which launched in 2022 under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
PROJEKTIL | 10th anniversary & the future of immersive
The founders reflect on a decade of immersive storytelling, from artist collective to international touring studio
Curbing pay-to-play in Chicago politics
Close a loophole to limit political donations from city contractors. Also, data centers, ICE, right-to-die law and the Bears.
Plans presented for new White Sox ballpark
Justin Ishbia, the prospective owner of Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox, has revealed renderings for a proposed mixed-use district that would include a new ballpark for the team. The development, dubbed The Railyards, would be located in the South Loop neighbourhood of the city. It emerged earlier this year that Ishbia was in the
Indian health activists lodge concerns about food warning proposal in court
Indian activists spearheading calls for food labelling said a government proposal to have red warnings only when two concerning nutrients are high created an "industry-friendly loophole" disregarding public health, marking the first formal court objection to the plan.
Indian health activists lodge concerns about food warning proposal in court
By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Indian activists spearheading calls for food labelling said a government proposal to have red warnings only when two concerning nutrients are high created an "industry-friendly loophole" disregarding public...
Indian health activists lodge concerns about food warning proposal in court
By Aditya KalraIndian activists spearheading calls for food labelling said a government proposal to have red warnings only when two concerning nutrients are high created an "industry-friendly loophole" disregarding public health, marking the first formal court objection to the plan.India's proposal…
The core anti-Pangram constituency is phony writers
Welcome to The Closing Argument, our verdict on the news, plus everything The Argument published and appeared in this week. The Verdict, by Kelsey Piper A lot of people hate AI for drowning the internet in slop and displacing human creatives. You might think that these people would be thrilled by a program that can identify and flag AI-generated work. But many people who hate AI also hate Pangram, an impressively accurate AI detector that produces very few false positives, according to high-quality independent research. This loathing found its most recent expression in a bizarre Wired article that amplifies a wide range of false arguments from Pangram skeptics: that AI detectors are racist (they’re not) or ableist (they’re not)1 or don’t work (this one does)2. Rather than starting from the premise that it would be really valuable to have a working AI detector and scrutinizing Pangram to make sure it lives up to that promise, the article starts from the premise that Pangram obviously has bad vibes and sets out to discover why. (One answer: The CEO microwaved lunch during an interview!) Why aren’t writers who resent Pangram more eager to distinguish themselves from posters who are having ChatGPT ghostwrite all their work? There are a few different things at play, but I think one key dynamic is this: These are often the same people. A core constituency for arguments like Wired’s is “writers” who are using AI to write their posts but resent this fact being made public. They stand to lose from AI detectors because AI detectors call them out. Share When Substack announced a partnership with Pangram, a sizable fraction of the platform’s authors rose up in outrage. Some people had experience with other AI detectors that didn’t work, and some felt that AI writing ought to be encouraged — both of which are fair enough. But the fury was fueled by authors passionately insisting that Pangram kept wrongly accusing them on almost every post they published. Pangram can be wrong, especially on short passages. But in the overwhelming majority of cases where Pangram looked at a whole blog post rather than a single paragraph, the program correctly detected work as AI. Even if we can’t be 100% sure in any individual case, we can notice the trend in the aggregate. Wired quotes Sam Illingworth, a professor of critical AI literacy at Edinburgh Napier University, who said, “I don’t think [AI detectors] work. … I think that detectors are prejudiced against certain people.” This spring, he said that he used AI for research and editing; this summer he acknowledged that in addition to research and editing, he also uses it “now and then for a turn of phrase I keep.” Pangram informs us that most of his posts are 100% AI-written (some are mixed AI-and-human) and that 100% AI-written posts started appearing last year. The favorable interpretation is that, as someone whose recent work Pangram consistently mistakes for AI, Illingworth sees Pangram’s flaws firsthand. The unfavorable interpretation is that the tool’s credibility trades off against his own, because its account of who writes his posts is not consistent with his. Illingworth is not alone in insisting the detector does not work. “It’s a Monday night in late July, and I’m pasting my own Substack draft into an AI detector for the first time. Not because I’m worried. Because I’m curious. I wrote every word of it myself, the way I write everything, out loud in my head first, in a rhythm that still carries the accent of a language I learned to think in before I learned to write in this one,” begins one Substack post by an author indignant that Pangram flags her writing as AI. “That’s the part I had to sit with before I could write this.” If you, like me, have worked with AIs a lot, you won’t even need Pangram there. The author of that piece is AI. It is obviously AI! I checked 10 other posts on the blog, and they were also obviously AI! “I have spent 22 years as an award-winning author and essayist. And now this bullshit tool that learned from MY writing is going to accuse me of plagiarism,” popular Substack writer Carlyn Beccia wrote in an anti-Pangram post. “For the last and final time, AI DETECTORS DO NOT WORK.” Here’s what her writing sounded like in 2020: “Most success stories revolve around one person who believed enough in you to say — give it a try. We call these people muses, but they are so much more than that. They are the strong man giants whose shoulders we stand on so we can see the horizon. Throughout the editing process, I am sure my editor felt less like a giant of greatness and more like Atlas with the world on her shoulders.” Pangram says it was 100% human-written. (So were other articles of hers in 2020.) And here’s what it sounds like now: “And then there is the reshuffling, which sounds like paperwork until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork. The Trump regime recently moved special education oversight from the Education Department to HHS. That is not a minor bureaucratic transfer. It changes the frame.”3 Pangram says this is mostly AI. I am not convinced that Pangram is wrong. In my own experience, Pangram is very effective on long texts — if it marks a long essay as AI, the essay was either written by AI or deliberately written to sound like AI. On tweet-length or paragraph-length texts, it’s not perfectly reliable. It seems to work just as well for non-native English speakers as for native speakers. While I have seen dozens of claims of pre-2022 text returning a positive result on Pangram, I have tried repeatedly to corroborate those and have never once succeeded. To be clear, I’m absolutely not saying that complaining about Pangram suggests a writer is a cheat. There are plenty of other concerns. Most are mistakenly premised, such as the false claim that Pangram trains on work you put into it, but others are reasonable: It’s unreliable on sufficiently short text segments; it creates an internet witch-hunt mentality when there are defensible uses of AI; people who are open about their AI use are sometimes blamed, when the only people really doing something wrong are the ones who hide it; and it isn’t perfect, so a single positive result shouldn’t be taken as decisive proof of misconduct. I’m happy to concede that Pangram is imperfect and possible to over-rely on. If an author’s posts are mostly non-AI and one scans as partially AI, this could be a mistake. It’s also possible to defeat Pangram with intentional effort. If you think we need something more robust and more reliable, fine! But if you don’t like AI and don’t like Pangram, your attitude really ought to be that it’s a shame that our existing tools for AI detection are imperfect, and it’s important to invent better ones. If your stance is instead that AI is evil and so is looking for AI, then ultimately you’re contributing to the sloppification of the internet. You’re making it harder for people who write their own text to distinguish themselves, and providing cover for authors who are definitely not writing their own text. Subscribe Top stories this week, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs Commentators often worry that the decline of reading could mean the decline of liberal democracy — but deliberative governance actually predated widespread literacy. This week, Maibritt Henkel pointed out that many liberal cultures thrive on a culture of raucous, interactive debate, which can happen in-person as easily, if not more so, than in text. Read on, dear reader, to learn more. It may actually cheer you up: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) [ Reading won’t save liberalism ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) Maibritt Henkel · Sep 1 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) It used to be bad to downplay climate change (if we mean denying its reality). Today, it’s actually good to downplay climate change (if we mean keeping the issue out of political fights so we can make real progress). This counterintuitive view is called “climate hushing,” and contributor Alex Trembath argued that it’s the key to enacting good policy going forward. Get up to speed on the latest in climate politics: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) [ We won’t stop climate change by talking about it ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Alex Trembath · Sep 2 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing up for the forces of liberalism against Donald Trump’s assault on our closest ally. So, why is one prominent left-wing commenter attacking Carney? Columnist Matthew Yglesias explains: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) [ When "economic liberty" means central planning ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) Matthew Yglesias · Aug 31 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) 🌟Abundance Wins of the Week🌟 Shout out to my home state of California, whose legislature passed two housing bills this week. One requires a housing density minimum in transit-oriented areas of the state’s most transit-rich cities (Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, and Long Beach). Another bill closes two common loopholes used by third parties to delay housing projects, including an opportunity to challenge maps of a given lot created by the developer after a project has been approved. Shout out to our big-state rival, Texas, where pro-housing SB 785 took effect this week. The new state law requires municipalities to have at least one district permitted for manufactured housing without a special permit. This will promote zoning changes in 44% of municipalities. The company Fervo Energy signed a deal with Google for what is set to be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal facility, proving a technology can work at a scale that could be crucial to a decarbonized, energy-abundant economy. Share Worth watching… This week, forecasting legend Nate Silver joined Jerusalem, Matt, and Jeremiah on a crowded episode of the pod. It was a party. And speaking of parties, our round table debated the factional lines within the Democratic Party: Is it possible to be center-left and also anti-establishment? Watch or listen to find out: The Rio Grande Valley in Texas is one of the areas that swung hardest toward Trump in 2024, but musician Bobby Pulido is running to flip it back. Right now, The Argument/Split Ticket’s model has him running 1.1 points behind his Republican opponent in a district Trump won by 18 points. Tune in to find out how he differs from national Democrats and what he thinks he can to do win this seat. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders was among the first politicians to call for a ban on superintelligence. My guest this week, Andrea Miotti, has been lobbying to ban superintelligence for several years, most recently in the U.K., U.S., and Canada. I asked him how he gets legislators to take speculative risks seriously, and we dug into what plans might look like to actually pass a ban. Listen to learn more: What’s News with The Argument The Argument recommends, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs If we ever lose track of Justin Zuckerman, I’ll have the team split up and check all the movie theaters in the city. I’m shocked (and a little jealous) at how often he gets out to see good cinema. This week, he brings us It Ends, a “horror-ish movie,” which he described as a “Gen Z Waiting for Godot.” I was intrigued before he added that it was “funny, dark and existential” — at which point I was fully locked in. I guess I also had existential themes on the mind this week. One morning, a single line from a poem I read long ago just came to me: “Is death a stretch of time in which a life is just a flash?” The poem is called “From 20,000 Feet” by Heather McHugh. I suggest the version in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, which, by tradition, my best friend and I always bring backpacking, extra weight be damned. We’ll stay thematically dark for just one more rec from senior editor John Robert Thomason, whose upcoming trip to Baltimore reminded him to suggest Michael Clune’s memoir White Out (about being addicted to heroin in Baltimore in the 1990s). Ben Lerner’s blurb called it _“_Disturbing, brilliant, hilarious—it’s as if Proust had written Jesus’ Son.” John told me this “seems accurate, with the caveat that I’ve never read Proust.” I, personally, have also shelved Proust until retirement. At this point, I was a little concerned for the team since all of us tossed out such psychologically grim material — maybe we’re all down about the end of summer — but thankfully, at least a few of us were into more upbeat selections. Milan Singh recommended Made In’s 5-quart stainless clad saucier, suggesting he had some fun in the kitchen. Jeremiah Johnson asked if he could recommend yet more Carly Rae Jepsen. Once denied, he offered up Game Changer instead_,_ calling it “the most wildly creative game show, maybe in the entire history of the genre.” Eli Richman mentioned _Lucky, “_a B-tier show with an A-tier cast and an S-tier theme song.” I suppose he was recommending the song, Horns of a Bull. Still, despite these cheerier recs, I couldn’t help but be concerned that we were subconsciously worried about racing toward summer’s end — the end of swim trunks and splashing around. Then a message landed reminding me of the three-day weekend to come. A whole extra day for sunshine. One more swim in the lake. I was grateful this called to mind yet another line from a poem, one by Mary Oliver, the patron saint of every gorgeous summer day (and about whom a documentary is now out). Speaking to God in the poem “Thirst,” she wrote: grant me, in your mercy,a little more time. Love for the earthand love for you are having such a longconversation in my heart. We have merch! We have quarter-zips, keychains, hats, and stickers. Each one is a great conversation starter in its own way. Buy them here. Subscribe More to read: [ The Opening Argument ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite)[ Seeing like an elite ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) Kobe Yank-Jacobs · Sep 4 What do Americans hear when they watch Sen. Bernie Sanders or Vice President JD Vance rail against the elite? Are they thinking of right-wing tech billionaires? Imperious college professors? Liberal magazine writers? [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) [ The Weekly Scroll ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline)[ God is back on the timeline ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) Jeremiah Johnson · Sep 5 This week, we’re talking about Substack’s new religious debates, the continuing MAGA influencer scandal, how to retire from YouTube, and aura battles. [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) 1 This was a legitimate thing to worry about, but doesn’t seem to be a problem given the actual technology: Marijke Van Vlasselaer, Filip Van Droogenbroeck, and Bram Spruyt’s 2026 paper looks at whether Pangram is less accurate when evaluating the work of non-native speakers of English. It isn’t. That’s because Pangram isn’t really looking at how “unusual” a piece of writing is but whether it has the characteristic patterns of LLMs. The Wired article makes an odd gesture at a different Pangram-is-racist argument. There were several controversies this summer during which upcoming books were canceled after being discovered to be AI-written: “The three novels mentioned earlier — Shy Girl, Daggermouth, and Call Me, easily publishing’s biggest AI-detection scandals — were all written by writers of color.” But come on! As Zvi Mowshowitz put it: “They were not primarily written by people of color. They were primarily written by AIs.” That’s the whole problem! And as my colleague Jeremiah Johnson recently observed with respect to Cambridge’s Arday scandal, a community being unwilling to call out fraud if it’s perpetuated by people of color is not an anti-racist tendency; it is ultimately quite racist. 2 Many non-Pangram detectors don’t work, but many possible airplane designs also don’t work, and no one considers this a general argument against aviation; the thing that matters is whether any detection works. 3 The phrase “empires have always loved” mysteriously became all the rage in the last few years. See here, here, here, here and here. Before 2025, the only use of that phrase I have been able to find is a single Tweet. The logic of the sentence, too, is incoherent in an AI-characteristic way. “...sounds like paperwork, until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork”? Does remembering that make it sound less like paperwork? It’s a craft-ful sentence, but what is it actually saying??
The 10,000-step goal was never based on science: here's the number that actually matters, according to a major new study
You glance at your wrist, see 4,200 steps by mid-afternoon, and feel a pang of guilt because the magic number on your fitness tracker still reads so far away. That five-digit target – 10,000 steps – has become the unofficial finish line of daily wellness, the number we chase on treadmills, lunch-break loops, and weekend...
Ashley Hinson fought to save private equity’s favorite loophole
Now her campaign is being powered by Wall Street Cash.
Florida wants colleges out of politics, but its plan has a loophole
Florida wants public colleges out of politics. But a loophole in its neutrality plan could give administrators a new license to speak out.
The benefits of AI model ownership versus leasing
Reltio's Manish Sood discusses why companies should own AI loops instead of models, emphasizing proprietary data and continuous learning.
Legacy Entertainment | Beijing Haichang Ocean Park launch
The new attraction, designed by Legacy Entertainment and its subsidiary, The Aquarium Design Company, is the first new aquarium project in the city since 2000
Young Kalshi users have traded an estimated $3.9B on sports and parlay-type contracts this year, exposing a loophole that lets them bet before age 21
Critics warn prediction markets let 18-year-olds make sports wagers while bypassing state betting age limits.
El Niño Has Become a Doom Loop
Die-offs and floods have started already, a prelude to supercharged storms and droughts.
Metro 2039 Doesn’t Mess Around, and it Might Already Be My Favorite FPS in Years
In an age where single-player first-person shooters are slowly going extinct because they only make money for their publisher once while multiplayer live-service shooters vie for our time and attention on a daily basis (and often contain lots of bullsh*t, like microtransactions and/or drawn-out gameplay loops), Metro 2039’s single-player-only craftsmanship and attention to detail after my first few hours with it have me already prepared to call it my favorite first-person shooter in a long time.
Always tired and not sure why? You may need to close your ‘loops’
Procrastinating on some tasks may feel harmless, but the perpetual mental hum of unfinished business may cause more stress than you realize.
Always tired and not sure why? You may need to close your ‘loops’
Procrastinating on some tasks may feel harmless, but the perpetual mental hum of unfinished business may cause more stress than you realize.
HoverAir’s transforming modular drone has already been halted in the US
So much for HoverAir’s seeming loophole in the drone ban.
Does giving a camera wings dodge the FCC’s drone ban?
The HoverAir Versa found a loophole in the FCC’s drone ban. But it might not stick.
Doctors argue their role in the age of AI
Humans must remain in the loop, the AMA maintains.
KCC Entertainment Design
New brand marks Adventure World Entertainment's move into spaces designed for competition and shared experiences
Let's Play The Bloop
We take on Bloop by Mythicus, a Minecraft Marketplace horror add-on, and discover just how dangerous the ocean can be. Read our Let's Play as we explore the ocean, face terrifying monsters, and come face to face with the legendary Bloop.
Chicago officials investigating 2 suspicious fires at business in West Loop
The Chicago Fire Department is investigating two suspicious fires at a business that operates as a museum and a Mediterranean restaurant in the West Loop.
The Pandemic Decimated Chicago’s Famous Loop. Now, New Business Openings and $673 Million in Investment Are Fueling Its Recovery
A new report finds office vacancies are leveling off and businesses are filling empty storefronts.
D23 Expo 2026 Entertainment Showcase: All Disney Announcements (Live Updates)
We're live at 2026's D23, bringing you all the latest news and updates from Disney.
AI needs science’s search history
“Actually, that’s where the gold is,” said Alasdair Russell, my graduate school friend who leads a pre-clinical genome editing group at Cambridge. He was talking about the winding road of science that is omitted from published papers. “When you’re discussing how to do the experiment, and why this way is better than another way, and what does the data really mean? I know what it shows, but what does it mean?” At RAAIS 2026, he described how his group has begun logging the twisting path of discovery as it happens, recording the verbal and written exchanges that normally disappear. Ideas become nodes in a living graph: they branch when a meeting produces two plausible experiments, merge when separate lines of evidence converge, and go dark when someone quietly stops pursuing them. In his implementation, one agent scores novelty, while another tries to learn “how scientists think and how they navigate through a complex world of data,” so that high-potential nodes can trigger deeper investigation. As frontier AI labs deploy agents toward scientific discovery, giving AI authentic scientific taste remains a trillion-dollar dilemma. The bottleneck is that the record we have kept for centuries of science might be insufficient to get us there. The experiments that never make the paper Peter Medawar, 1960 Nobel laureate and “father of transplantation,” asked in 1963 whether the scientific paper was a fraud, and answered yes: the form of the paper misrepresents the thinking that produced it. Sixty years on, the diagnosis is unchanged. A paper presents a clean progression from hypothesis to result to conclusion. Lost along the way are the unconventional theories, the abandoned or unaffordable methods, and the underwhelming and inconclusive data. It reads like a browser history with every dead end deleted: the ten open tabs, the four rephrased queries, the wrong turn down a subforum. All scrubbed, leaving one clean path from question to answer as the canonical path. What has changed since then is that the discarded material is now worth something. No high-impact journal wants these artifacts, but raw trial and error is the most likely source of the training data required to develop scientific intuition, or what researchers call taste. Earlier attempts to capture the discards were motivated by scientific integrity. The Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine launched in 2002 to publish rigorous studies that disputed established models or exposed ineffective treatments. Its archive preserved negative conclusions after they had become papers, rather than the live alternatives and arguments that produced them. BioMed Central closed it in 2017, saying the mission had been served now that other journals publish null results. A less generous reading is that in fifteen years it published around 200 papers because almost nobody wants to read a negative result, let alone write one up when it will not count toward academic tenure. AI models are different. Even an uninteresting negative result can be useful, provided it is labeled. Earlier this year, Anthropic put a version of this to the test. The company pulled 129 decision points from real Claude Code sessions between January and March 2026, showed models the work up to a human detour, and asked what should happen next. Claude Mythos Preview beat the human choice 64% of the time, while Opus 4.5 managed 51%. The comparison was tilted toward the models because Anthropic deliberately chose moments where the human decision had room for improvement. On 127 further scenarios where the human action was already strong, the models improved on it only about 20% of the time. The study was possible because Anthropic’s researchers work inside a tool that logs by default. The reasoning, detours and outcome are produced in the same working environment. Biology has no equivalent. Its reasoning happens in hallways, at benches, in Slack threads and on whiteboards, while the outcome arrives weeks later somewhere else. The record has to emerge from the work itself. Ask scientists to reconstruct it afterwards and we’ll create another polished account. Subscribe A log is not a label Before any of this becomes training data, a negative result has to say what failed. The first paper published in the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine examined 234 negative studies across five leading medical journals. Only 30% discussed statistical power, and half clearly defined a primary outcome. Tell a model an experiment failed, without telling it whether the assay was underpowered, a reagent had degraded, or the hypothesis was simply wrong, and it will learn noise with confidence. Decision histories have a second missing label too. When a lab considers five experiments and runs one, only the chosen branch returns an outcome. The other four are experimental counterfactuals. Researchers call this the selective labels problem: the data reveal results only for the actions someone chose to take. Such a record can teach a model to imitate a lab’s taste, but it cannot establish that the taste was good. It also smuggles local constraints into general lessons. A lab that never ran cryo-EM because it did not own a microscope teaches a model that cryo-EM is rarely the right call. Alasdair’s nodes preserve the candidate set, which is the necessary first step. To be useful, each decision record needs six fields: The evidence available at that moment, and nothing that arrived later. The candidates considered, including the ones dismissed in a sentence. For each candidate: the expected result, the confidence attached to it, and the cost in time and money. The route chosen, and the reason. What happened next. How the evidence changed the scientist’s view. These must be timestamped before the outcome, because hindsight turns uncertainty into inevitability. Disagreement also has to survive. Averaging three scientists into one clean rationale reproduces exactly the information loss we are trying to fix. But there is an obvious failure mode here. Once decisions are logged and scored, people log for the record post-facto. Anyone who has watched an electronic lab notebook fill up with retrospective tidying knows how quickly a research tool becomes a compliance exercise. A record that costs a scientist ten minutes of honest reflection per decision is worth far more than one that costs an hour of performance. A publication initiative called Registered Reports offers a useful starting point. Here, researchers submit their rationale, methods and analysis plan for peer review before the data exist, and the journal commits in principle to publish if they follow the approved plan. Nature has now expanded the format across every field it covers. This approach to paper writing timestamps intent before the outcome, but it freezes one plan. A useful search history must also preserve how the plan changed, which alternatives were rejected, when, and on what evidence. Subscribe Run the runner-up Autonomous labs show what happens when decisions and outcomes are connected in a loop. Liverpool’s mobile robotic chemist ran 688 experiments over eight days in a ten-variable formulation space. A batched Bayesian search used each result to choose the next experiments and found photocatalyst mixtures six times more active than the starting formulations. Every completed experiment changed what the system did next. The robot optimized within a goal and search space that humans had already chosen. It did not decide which scientific question mattered. So what this work demonstrates is narrower, but still useful: a search history pays off when the options return standardized outcomes quickly. Open-ended biology is harder because branches can take weeks and the discarded alternatives may never be run. Some exploration therefore has to be bought. Where two branches are plausible and the stakes justify the cost, a lab should sometimes run the runner-up. Otherwise the record captures what today’s scientists usually chose and stays silent on what they systematically overlooked. A funder could ring-fence a small fraction of a grant for the branch not taken, provided that the decision record and the outcome are both deposited. That costs money, but so does having every lab rediscover the same abandoned path. Test whether taste transfers When it comes time to evaluate if our new AI system exhibits taste, the comparison should run across laboratories and fields. At selected decision points in a live research campaign, we should freeze the six fields: the evidence, the candidates, expected results, confidence, costs and the choice made. Experts then rank the options before the outcomes are known, and those outcomes are checked independently later. We could give models one of two diets - papers alone, or papers plus decision histories - and ask them to rank the next experiment on unfamiliar projects. Then, we score information gained per dollar and week, calibration, and how quickly weak branches are abandoned. If histories improve choices only inside the lab that produced them, they amount to useful organizational memory. If they improve choices on unfamiliar problems elsewhere, Alasdair’s group will have captured something science has never managed to write down: a transferable record of taste. Until that happens, a scientific search history is a promising record, not yet a training set.
Three districts that will answer key Colorado political questions
Colorado’s legislature used to be a place where neither party was dominant. Dozens of seats were competitive and House and Senate majorities switched regularly. From 2010 to 2020, the House was predominantly Democratic with one two-year assembly under Republicans. The Senate had two assemblies from 2015 to 2018 under Republicans. John Hickenlooper was governor and […]
RFK Jr. slated to unveil plan targeting loophole that allows chemicals in food supply
The practice known as “generally recognized as safe” allows companies to self-certify the safety of certain food chemicals or substances without strict government oversight.
Ford's fastest ever Mustang is so wide it had to use legal loophole to avoid being treated the same way as a truck
The 2025 Ford Mustang GTD is so wide that Ford had to rely on a legal loophole to get around an unusual US vehicle regulation
Incoming Inglewood Transit Connector project to displace more than a dozen businesses
The shopping center will be torn down for the Inglewood Transit Connector, a parking structure and bus loop that aim to make transit in the area more efficient.
The Top 10 New Cars We’re Most Excited for This Year (So Far)
Feeling left out of the loop in terms of new car reveals, announcements and launches this year? Don't worry, we got you covered.
The startup idea that convinced a UW computer science legend to leave Google after 27 years
Jeff Dean, who earned his computer science Ph.D. at the University of Washington, is leaving Google after 27 years and taking three of the company's top AI researchers with him. Their startup, Discovery Loop, aims to automate the scientific method itself, and Google is helping fund it.
‘I didn’t want this.’ Baton Rouge business owner stuck in regulatory loophole after crater left in driveway
No one has claimed responsibility for the damage left at Empire Roofing 18 months ago
Wishbone, pioneer restaurant of West Loop dining scene, is closing
The restaurant moved near Oprah's Harpo Studios long before the neighborhood became the hot spot it is today.
ATM stolen from business in downtown Chicago
An ATM was taken during a smash-and-grab burglary in Chicago's Loop early Friday morning.
9 things I learned caddying in a pro qualifier
Looping for a club pro was an eye-opening playing lesson in reverse.
Watchdog unleashes database to expose 'loopholes' as $5B in foreign cash floods US nonprofits
A new database tracks over $5 billion in foreign spending flowing into 523 politically active U.S. nonprofits not required to disclose donors.
New York advocates gearing up to push rape loophole proposal in new session
Legislation would prohibit the use of intoxication of the victim as a defense in sex crimes.
Japan PM's political doom loop worsens her fight with markets
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is fighting a losing battle in the polls, making a retreat from promised tax cuts more difficult and denying her officials the political backup they need to talk down yen and bond market bears.
Major $6M Jersey Shore container park nears opening with shops, dining and entertainment
A $6M shipping container park with food, retail, and community spaces is set to open this fall in Atlantic City's Orange Loop.
John Pardon Untangles the Theoretical Loops
The mathematics professor has won a prestigious Fields Medal for his work at the intersection of geometry, topology and physics.
Using AI To Find Loopholes In Legal Restrictions On AI-Powered Mental Health Chats
Some use AI to find loopholes around legal and safety restrictions on AI mental health chats. An AI Insider analysis and scoop.
Chicago fans pack West Loop business to watch Spain take down Argentina to become 2026 World Cup champions
Chicago fans pack West Loop business for 2026 World Cup finals watch party
Scientists used children’s ‘silly sprinklers’ to solve a physics problem Richard Feynman could not; the reverse version spins 50 times slower
If you’ve ever watched a “silly sprinkler” in action (those bright, looping contraptions that twist and spray water in wild patterns) you’ve probably just seen them as summer fun. But a group of mathematicians have turned these backyard toys into tools for solving a famous physics puzzle that stumped even Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman.
Scientists Solve The 40-Year Mystery of a Giant Structure Towering Over The Milky Way
Mind. Blown.
Apple Loop: iPhone 18 Pro Release Date, Lego iMac G3, New EU AirPods Rule
This week’s Apple headlines: iPhone 18 Pro Max specs, iPhone 18 Pro release date, iPad Mini updates, new EU regulations for AirPods and Apple Watch, a Lego iMac G3, and more...
Lubbock woman’s custom shoe business now selling internationally
Natalie Buxkemper, owner of The Sewing Studio on the South Loop, started Patchwork Kicks about a year ago.
Columbia Business School professors: What the Balogun red card can teach us about AI and judgment
VAR, or video assistant referee, has a lot to teach us about what "human in the loop" actually means in practice.
Scientists discovered the brain doesn't make decisions the way we thought
A new study suggests the brain begins making decisions much earlier than scientists previously thought. Researchers found that even primary sensory regions are influenced by higher brain areas through rapid feedback loops, rather than simply passing information forward. This more dynamic view of brain function could help engineers design future AI systems that think more like biological brains while using far less power.
They're Building Half A Bridge to Save Science...
Today’s post is about science: what you can do now to protect it from unprecedented threats, and how your action is the first half of a long-term program that Congress must take up next. Let me start with describing the embryonic state of science advocacy. There are many well-meaning organizations: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Research!America, and subject-specific organizations such as the Society for Neuroscience and the American Physical Society. Their general approach is to emphasize the common good: the remarkable value that science and innovation have provided to all Americans. However, these organizations are offering an incomplete solution. Before I start, a preliminary: If you already know about the threat, go ahead and weigh in with OMB at this link. Ideas about what to say come from Research!America and the American Physical Society. You have until Monday, July 13 at 11:59pm Eastern. Then come back here and read the rest of this post. Finally, get in touch with whoever is likely to be your next member of Congress in 2027. The threat: An end to merit-based science… The onslaught of attacks on science is accelerating. It’s not just cuts to grants, which was the last battle. That battle is not done yet, but there is a new and worse threat. Now comes a proposed public rule from the Office of Management and Budget. The rule would take decision-making power over grants away from experts and put it into the hands of political appointees. Former NIH official Elizabeth Ginexi wrote an excellent summary of what OMB is trying to do, which is codify the executive branch’s ability to award or terminate grants, for arbitrary cause or no stated cause. Since World War II, a necessary step in scientific grant-making has been consideration of scientific merit. This approach has made America into a dominant scientific superpower, the envy of the world. Of course, political considerations do come into the mix. The proposed rule tilts the balance dramatically away from merit. …but why? Many people have difficulty comprehending why Russell Vought and OMB would want to damage science in this way. If you’re a working scientist, you are likely to be particularly uncomprehending. Who would hurt an activity so self-evidently good? The answer is: this is part of the program to replace the rule of law with a personalist regime. OMB Director Russell Vought, a Christian nationalist, would like to implement what legal scholars call a “unitary executive,” and what I would call a dictatorship. Or if you like, a personalist authoritarian regime. I am a working scientist. This rule will debilitate my research. It may chill the speech of scientists for speaking freely in the public sphere. It is a form of personalizing power and decision-making within the executive branch. In short, it sacrifices science in the service of tyranny. To Russell Vought, a decrease in the quality of science might be an acceptable cost. He might even consider it an added benefit to weaken a pillar of soft U.S. power based on knowledge and skepticism. The professional societies are building half a bridge The nonprofits are asking you to make public comment. Public comment is like building the first half of a bridge. Before implementation, OMB is compelled by law to have a period of public comment. Rules have to be consistent with the law and the Constitution. They express the federal government’s stance toward how those laws will be implemented. When a presidential administration works in good faith, these public comments are used to inform their eventual action, and sometimes mitigate it. The comment period reflects our First Amendment right to petition our government. The executive branch is then supposed to take those comments into account - completing the bridge between us, the people, and our government. Project 2025 seeks to take away the second half of the bridge. We have to replace it. The first half of the bridge Organizations like AAAS, Research!America, and SfN are partly right. You should certainly comment. Their core model is earnest: if enough of us make noise, then we will achieve change. This idealistic point of view is offered in good faith. That point of view is also currently bullshit. The fundamental reason is that the federal rulemaking process has two parts: There has to be a period of public comment. OMB makes the final rule…but is free to disregard public comment. Oops. That’s a loophole. However, not all is lost. Congress can complete the bridge Congress has enormous power. That power suggests a roadmap for how to proceed. This lawless administration is still going to issue that rule. Nonetheless, your comments still play an essential role. Here are two steps you can take. Step 1: Send your comment to your Representative and Senator. Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, many of them support science. Whatever you wrote as public comment in the Federal Register, also send it to your member of Congress. You can include information about jobs in your district or state by looking at Joshua Weitz’s ScienceMatters interactive map. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give your town, zip code, or state, then deliver your message. Step 2: Politicize the hell out of science. You heard me, politicize it as an issue. We hear a lot from the old scientific establishment about science being nonpartisan. This is obsolete, sentimental thinking. Under normal conditions, it was true. But we can no longer make that assumption. We can keep on pretending, but we’re putting science at risk. There is a way forward. Rules are subordinate to the law…and Congress makes laws. Therefore Congress can step in. In this fall’s election, it is likely that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives. That puts at least one chamber of Congress in the hands of Democrats. They are far more inclined than the current Congress to investigate and legislate. This opens a path to undoing the damage. It also creates a permission structure for pro-science Republicans to find a way back from the brink. We have to encourage them. In the House, every district is up every two years. In your district, contact both of the major party candidates. If your state has a Senate race, contact those candidates too. Specifically mention the proposed OMB rule. Ask for two things: For this year’s appropriations process in August and September, ask that amendments be added to stop the implementation of the new rule. Those amendments should support peer-reviewed science and stop political interference. Looking ahead to next year, ask the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator to work to hold hearings in 2027 on the importance and benefits of peer-reviewed science for health and prosperity. What hearings and amendments will accomplish Congress can use its investigatory power to summon heads of agencies and the director of the OMB. That will allow fact-finding regarding the consequences of this rule. Congress can override the rule through the appropriations process. They can write into statute a requirement to follow peer review and best scientific practices. In this way, Congress can stop the attacks on science. Postscript: Moving forward Now I have a request for you, to help me. As many of you know, I ran for Congress in order to save democracy and science. Although I did not win, that battle continues by other means. I met and heard from thousands of supporters both here in New Jersey and nationally. I learned that pro-science, pro-democracy activists have the potential to become a much greater force. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be building ways to harness that energy. I will be announcing those plans soon. In the meantime, an important step is to wind down the Congressional campaign, which has a few remaining bills to pay. Please help me retire that last debt.
Porting DOOM To The Casio Loopy
Targeted towards refined female gamers unlike the savagery of the mainstream game consoles of the era, 1995’s Casio Loopy was a bit of an oddity of a game console. Despite being standard enou…
Campaign staffers keep trying to bet on races despite push to curb insider trading
Kalshi says it has blocked "dozens" of trades from campaign insiders, but experts say the company's approach leaves lots of potential loopholes. NPR has found at least one trade that slipped through.
Seven's first entertainment destination to open in Abha
Seven is investing SAR 50 billion ($13bn) in the development of 21 entertainment destinations
James Cameron Turned To Science To Prove The Door In Titanic Could Only Hold One Surviving Person
Since the release of "Titanic," fans have gone back and forth about the possibility of Jack being able to survive.
Lawmakers end multi-million-dollar hospital tax “loophole”
By Michelle Crouch Co-published with The Charlotte Ledger A little-noticed provision in the state budget that was approved last week aims to shut down a tax strategy used by at least one hospital system to exceed the state’s sales tax refund cap. The change would require nonprofit and public hospital systems to file a single […]
Xbox sale round-up July 7, 2026
New Xbox sales are now live, with big discounts on Atomic Heart, Dragon Ball FighterZ, DEATHLOOP, Dead Cells, Redfall, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 and more
Indie Dev Says Game Refunded 55,000 Times Via Steam Loophole
Valve's refund policy allows any game that's been played for under two hours to be immediately refunded
Construction to Begin on I-94 Business Loop Near Valley City
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NDDOT) – The North Dakota Department of Transportation is scheduled to begin a structure replacement project along the Interstate 94 Business Loop, east of Valley City, on Monday, July 6. Improvements include replacing the
Scientists discover the deep sleep circuit that builds muscle, burns fat, and boosts the brain
Researchers have identified the brain circuitry that links deep sleep with the release of growth hormone, revealing how the two regulate each other. The newly discovered feedback loop helps explain why poor sleep can interfere with growth, muscle repair, fat metabolism, and brain function. Understanding this system could pave the way for new therapies for sleep disorders and diseases tied to metabolism and the brain, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Apple Loop: iPhone 18 Pro Pre-Order Dates, New iPad Pro Details, iPhone 16e Special Offers
This week’s Apple headlines: iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders, Apple's significant data leak, iOS 27 dates, new iPad Pro and MacBook Pro details, refurbished iPhone 16e and more...
🌈 The political fatigue of doing feminist and queer research in anti-gender times
Anti-gender politics does not only attack rights. It attacks the knowledge that makes those rights intelligible. Massimo Prearo argues that anti-gender politics is an epistemic conflict as much as a political one. This conflict generates political fatigue among researchers engaged in feminist and queer work. We must address such fatigue through distance, care and collective reflection
Iowa's U.S. Senator Ernst holds final Small Business Expo
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says a bill she co-sponsored has closed loopholes in two federal programs that award military contracts to small businesses that are engaged in research and development and technology. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, is chair of the U-S Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. “We’re really proud that we […]
Why high earners are rushing to use this vacation-rental tax break
The Big Beautiful Bill made a tax loophole permanent for Airbnb investors. Here's how they're getting the IRS to fund their downpayments.
Colorado primary election results: Melat Kiros leads Dianne DeGette in congressional race
Here are the early, unofficial results as of 7 p.m. • In the 1st Congressional District, challenger Melat Kiros is leading U.S. Rep. Diane DeGette, 47%-45% • In the U.S. Senate race, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper is leading challenger Julie Gonzales, 51%-49% Colorado voters head to the polls today to pick primary winners that will […]
EDITORIAL: Bennet, Hick play politics with the judiciary
Facing spirited challenges from the left — in the final hours of races each thought would be a walk in the park — Colorado’s two Democratic U.S. senators are doing what comes naturally to politicians. Pandering. How else to explain their opposition, reported Sunday, to the pending nomination of respected and rock-solid U.S. District Judge […]
The strangest transfer story of 2026 starts with a loophole
By entering the portal as a track athlete, he unlocked a path most football players never consider.
The ERs that can turn patients away
The hospital operator Nutex enriched itself by exploiting loopholes in laws meant to protect patients, STAT found.
Apple Loop: iPhone 18 Pro Release Date, Hidden iOS 27 Features, iPhone Air 2 Details
This week’s Apple headlines: iPhone 18 Pro price and release date, hidden iOS 27 features, iPhone Air 2 specs, unexpected Mac and iPad price rises, how Apple wins AI and more...
Scientists catch classical space-time crystals moving like Majorana quasiparticles
A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through ...
GTA 6 'Vampire' Ferris Wheel Sparks Tech Expert Investigation
When Rockstar announced GTA 6 pre-orders would kick off on June 25, it did so with a short, looping video posted to the official website that offered a fresh look at Vice City. It’s meant to be viewed as you scroll down, a cool piece of GTA 6 media that sets the tone for your experience on the website. But this is GTA 6, and so everything is analyzed to within an inch of its life.
🌈 The conflictual politics of Pride events
Amid the rise of far-right and anti-gender movements, and given growing internal conflicts and divisions, many LGBTQAI+ people worry about the future of Pride events. But Francesca Romana Ammaturo reveals that throughout its history, Pride has reflected many different visions of activism and community
Reporter enjoys meal, entertainment at The Loop at Riverside Theatre
The Loop at Riverside Theatre is open 5-8 p.m. Thursdays, and 5-8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Forget prompts: 'Loop engineering' is all the rage now
Claude Code creator Boris Cherny says he doesn't "write the prompt anymore." Here's how loop engineering is changing coding.
Apple Explains Why watchOS 27 Drops Support for So Many Models
Apple today detailed why five Apple Watch models will miss out on watchOS 27 and the new Siri AI features that come with it. The Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, SE 2, and the original Apple Watch Ultra will not receive watchOS 27, and will only get basic security updates going forward. With the update, Apple is effectively dropping three years' worth of device support in a single software update, which is unprecedented for the product line.
Remembering the Emanuel 9 victims after a season of gun politics
In his latest commentary, Paul Hyde reflects on the 11th anniversary of the Mother Emanuel massacre, campaign ads, and the Charleston loophole.
Colorado primary for U.S. Senator: Candidates John Hickenlooper and Julie Gonzales
The race between U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and state Sen. Julie Gonzales has emerged as one of Colorado’s most intriguing Democratic primaries. Gonzales is running on a message of generational change, arguing that Democrats need a more aggressive approach and that a vote for Hickenlooper will just mean “more of the same.” Hickenlooper, a fixture […]
Ecsite 2026
Across three days of discussion and debate, museums and science centre professionals explored the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of public engagement with science
Law firm Sidley Austin to anchor new West Loop office skyscraper
The pending deal is a watershed moment for the downtown office market, which has not seen a new skyscraper break ground since work began on the 60-story Salesforce Tower Chicago skyscraper in April 2020.
Google Chrome is closing the loopholes that let old ad blockers keep working
No more workarounds for running uBlock Origin.
Google Chrome’s next update will mark the end of popular ad blockers
Google Chrome’s move to Manifest V3 for extensions is closing its final loophole and, with it, bringing the end of...
Huntington Bank expands office footprint, bucking Loop downsizing trend
The bank’s growing footprint stands out as a bright spot for downtown office landlords amid record-high vacancy.
Thermal Grizzly DeltaMate MPII supports AM5, AM4, LGA1851 and LGA1700, AM5 priced at $409
Thermal Grizzly has introduced its DeltaMate CPU Block MPII, a custom-loop CPU water block for AMD AM5 and Intel LGA1851 systems.
Recap of COURIER's Facts vs. Fiction: The Fight for Science in American Democracy
314 Action and COURIER Newsroom hosted a live virtual event on dismantling FEMA, threats to NCAR, and Democrats shaping the future of AI.
Google Pixel updates left phones useless, bootlooping for some – a fix is now in sight
Some Google Pixel phones have been hit with bootloop issues, but a fix is now available, sort of. For the...
Marinette mayor hosts podcast to keep locals in loop about projects
Mayor Steve Genisot joined Spectrum News 1’s “Your Local Leaders” segment to share about recent projects that contribute to the city’s economic output.
Materials lab in national program to develop wearable eye health system
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded up to $75.8 million to four research teams through its Ocular Laboratory for Analysis of Biomarkers program. Researchers from Penn State will develop biosensors for the Closed-Loop Sensing and Microdosing for Dry Eye and Systemic Disease Management (COSMIC) team led by Lacristat, a California-based ophthalmology company.