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Contagion of conspiracy theories makes Ebola epidemic harder to contain
Distrust and violence flare in the central African nation as false claims spread that the outbreak — and the disease itself — is a hoax.
Politics Chat, May 26, 2026
A newsletter about the history behind today's politics.
Top ethical hacker Chompie warns AI tools could put her out of business
Chompie, one of the world's tops ethical hackers, says AI like Claude Mythos will make it harder for people like her to compete.
Forreston business owners worry school district decision divides small town
Koeller Forreston Hardware's owners call the change a small town shake-up.
J&J recalls certain heart pump controllers due to hardware issues
This is a Class I recall, according to the FDA. Care teams may need to send in their equipment so that specific hardware updates can be performed.
Denise Richards returns to “The” “Bold and the Beautiful” after 4-year hiatus: 'It feels like I never left'
The actress will reprise her role as Shauna Fulton in Thursday's episode of the soap.
Robotics, Science Underway as Cosmonauts Prep for Wednesday Spacewalk
Robotics controllers wrapped up a weekend of swapping scientific hardware packed inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft’s trunk for installation on the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the Expedition 74 crew is continuing its biotechnology and botany research while getting ready for a spacewalk scheduled for Wednesday, May 27.
Texas business leader torches California’s billionaire tax push: ‘We don’t punish hard work’
Texas business leader torches California’s billionaire tax push: ‘We don’t punish hard work’
Gabriela von zur Muehlen, chief policy officer for the Texas Association of Businesses, says high-tax states like California and New York are pushing wealth, jobs and investment toward Texas.
Fitbit Air review: Health tracking for the AI generation
The Fitbit Air is a serious rival to Whoop and other screenless wearable trackers thanks to its solid hardware, comprehensive software and competitive pricing.
Los Angeles Philharmonic names Daniel Harding its next music director
Daniel Harding, the versatile British conductor and Air France pilot who made his L.A. Phil debut in 1997 at 21, will become the orchestra's 12th music director.
Raise a glass: Ohio debuts Hard Cider Trail
Those 21 and older can pick up the Ohio Hard Cider Trail passport at more than a dozen participating cideries.
Galaxy S27 Pro Could Become Samsung’s Best Seller Next Year, As New Camera Details Show One Minute Difference With Galaxy S27 Ultra
A new rumor claims that the Galaxy S27 Pro will share nearly the same rear camera hardware as the Galaxy S27 Ultra
Donovan Mitchell demands that more people respect James Harden's greatness
Donovan Mitchell and James Harden might be eliminated now, but it seems they fully appreciate each other after only a few months of playing together.
‘We cannot afford it;’ Local small business announces closure
“This has been the hardest decision we have had to make since we opened our doors over a decade ago.”
Samsung’s latest Galaxy update changes how dark mode looks, but not for everyone
One UI 8.5 is rolling out after months in beta, but some have noticed in the past few days that...
From garage startup to community staple: Greener Good opens new ‘creative reuse hub’ in Arlington Heights
Amanda Moller can hardly believe the business she co-founded with her mom in her garage nearly seven years ago has grown tenfold. Now, Moller and her mother, Beth Parsons, have shifted their operation...
Meet DFP Spring Fellow, Nathan Englehart, Washington University in St. Louis -
Nathan Englehart (he/him/his) is a second year PhD student and Richard J. Walter PhD scholar at Washington University in St. Louis. Nathan’s current research focuses on gender and politics (with a focus on men and masculinity), [...]
Why interdisciplinary science is needed more than ever
Solving today’s complex problems requires teams of scientists from a range of disciplines
Territory Days gives small business owners a chance to grow dreams into careers
Small business owners at Territory Days say the annual festival is about more than sales. Vendors from across Colorado Springs say the event gives them a chance to grow their businesses, connect with customers and pursue long-term dreams of owning storefronts while showcasing years of hard work to thousands of visitors.
Trump’s emerging plan to end Iran war draws criticism from hard-line Republicans
President Donald Trump’s emerging deal to end the Iran war is drawing heavy criticism from some fellow Republicans who favor a harder line against the government in Tehran and fear a lost opportunity to finally rein in a longtime Mideast nemesis.
[[𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌!!NOW) Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez Live Ｓｔｒｅａｍｓ Sony Sports
Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez live: Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez look to seize control of thrilling Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez Live. Every team in the Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez Live has two wins apiece as we go into the final two game weeks. Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez Live Free will host Argentina at Richard Torrez’s Kings Park Stadium with the Springboks a single point ahead of Los Pumas in the standings and just one behind leaders Richard Torrez..
It’s ‘Going Down Baby’ as Nelly rides with Hard Rock Sept. 18
With more than two decades of shaping the sound of modern hip-hop while crossing into country, pop and beyond, three-time Grammy-winning artist Nelly is taking a ride from “St. Louie”
Republicans who have drawn a hard line on Iran pan Trump's emerging proposal to end the war
President Donald Trump’s emerging deal to end the Iran war is drawing heavy criticism from some fellow Republicans.
Republicans who have drawn a hard line on Iran pan Trump's emerging proposal to end the war
President Donald Trump’s emerging deal to end the Iran war is drawing heavy criticism from some fellow Republicans.
Richard Hightower sounds off on Bears' long snapper competition
Bears special teams coordinator discussed Chicago's long snapper competition between Luke Elkin and Beau Gardner.
Linux To Remove ISA Speech Synthesizer Driver That Likely Hasn't Been Used In Decades
Following the process of phasing out Intel 486 CPU support and other old hardware drivers that were dropped in the Linux 7.1 kernel cycle for reducing the kernel maintenance burden, the upcoming Linux 7.2 cycle is continuing the trend of phasing out some of the old hardware support that is very obsolete, likely having no users on the latest upstream kernels, and no one formally maintaining the obsolete drivers.
AI hallucinations are infiltrating expert work—and entering the permanent body of knowledge
Academic papers, popular books, and legal decisions are peppered with AI mistakes that are getting harder to clean up.
OnePlus OLED tablet leak points to global launch and high-end chipset
OnePlus may be preparing a new Android tablet for global markets. A fresh leak suggests it may feature an OLED display and high-end hardware. The tablet could be based on the Oppo Pad Mini, which launched in China earlier this year.
NBA player prop picks, odds: Three best 2026 NBA Playoffs prop bets for Knicks vs. Cavaliers, Game 3
SportsLine's model and team of experts have revealed top NBA props picks and NBA predictions for the NBA Playoffs on Saturday
Trump Is Setting His Sights on Restricting Legal Immigration
After a year focused on immigrants here illegally, the Trump administration is now making it harder for legal migrants to stay in the country. It is a risky pivot.
KNOCKOUT! Frank Sanchez destroys Richard Torrez Jr
It didn’t take Frank Sanchez long to knock out Richard Torrez Jr
What to know about sepsis: Life-threatening but hard to spot
Consider sepsis an invisible threat. It kills about 350,000 Americans a year and may cause nearly one-fifth of deaths globally. But you won’t find it on any “leading causes of death” lists.
My husband and I moved to a small town. Here's how we made friends.
My husband and I moved to a small town where we didn't know anyone. I thought it would be hard to make friends, but it took us no time at all.
Knicks vs. Cavaliers: Why Cleveland believes its 'process' can get team back in the East Finals
Cleveland, down 0-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals, projected confidence after shooting 25.7% from deep in Game 2
As Collins and Platner make their pitch to voters, sports become part of the game
It's hard to watch sports these days without campaign ads of all stripes taking up a lot of space.
Silverman Commentary: Positive Youth Mental Health Begins with Belonging
By Tami Silverman President & CEO of Indiana Youth Institute May 22, 2026 For years, conversations about youth mental health understandably have focused on crises. Rates of rising anxiety, depression, loneliness, and stress among young people have captured national attention. Families, schools, healthcare providers, and community organizations across Indiana continue working hard to respond to
Steam Controller Gets HID Remapper Support for 3rd-Party Compatibility
HID Remapper is an open-source, hardware-agnostic project that makes input devices remappable with a hardware USB adaptor that sits between the input device and the host device and converts inputs from the controller into a signal that is compatible with the host. According to a new May 20 update to...
'Getting harder to do': Southern Wisconsin boat rental business struggles with rising fuel costs
MADISON (WKOW) — Higher fuel prices are making it harder for one local boat rental business to keep water recreation affordable this Memorial Day weekend.
Richard Childress Racing reserving Kyle Busch's No. 8 until his 11-year-old son is 'ready to go NASCAR racing'
Robin Peguero endorses ‘real deal’ Richard Lamondin for SD 38
Peguero said Lamondin has shown ‘exactly the kind of leadership SD 38 needs in Tallahassee.’
Scientists discover thriving hard-substrate fauna in Oceania's deep sea
In the crushing darkness of the hadal zone—deep ocean trenches plunging 6,000 m to nearly 11,000 m—scientists have uncovered a hidden community. A study published in Science on May 14 reports the discovery ...
Nine incumbent candidates lost primary races Tuesday. Most were hardline conservatives
Nine Republican incumbents lost their primary races Tuesday in contests spanning the state of Idaho. In most cases, losses stemmed from seats held by hardline conservatives, according to unofficial election
Jacksonville community honors fallen hero with fundraiser for first responder mental health
He ran toward danger for a living. As a Marine, a firefighter and a lifeguard, Garrett Opper spent his life in service to others. But like so many who dedicate themselves to protecting their communities, the battles he fought on the inside were the hardest ones of all
Smartphones may soon be able to track hidden objects using LiDAR
Modern smartphones are packed with incredible technology, from high-resolution cameras and advanced graphics chips to AI processors. In premium models, this hardware includes LiDAR (light detection and ...
Trump vows to ‘work very hard’ to enact permanent daylight saving time
The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier Thursday passed the Sunshine Protection Act.
The Democrats’ Autopsy Isn’t Helpful. New Ideas Are
At long last, and after much scrutiny, the Democratic National Committee’s audit of the 2024 election cycle is out. And so are the knives. The nearly 200-page report landed with a thud, angering the party faithful just five months before an election that demands Democrats play error-free ball. While the DNC has oddly distanced itself from its own report, which hardly seems that revelatory or controversial, actual Democrats already seemed to be implementing some of the lessons.
Who’s Your Chief Entertainment Officer?
Gap is becoming one of the most interesting brand case studies in America right now. After taking a very public hit from the fallout of their Kanye partnership, the 57-year-old apparel company could have played it safe. Instead, it leaned harder into culture. There’s a lot marketers can learn from this moment. Under Richard Dickson, […]
Our Field Trip to Google I/O + A Sit-Down With Sundar Pichai + System Update
“This is the only recent gathering of a large number of people where mentions of A.I. did not produce a large chorus of boos.”
Political analyst Richard Czuba explains what brought down Mike Duggan’s independent governor bid
Political analyst Richard Czuba, founder of the Glengariff Group, said Mike Duggan faced an uphill battle from the start because of his independent status.
Knicks vs. Cavaliers score, live updates, how to watch Game 2: James Harden, Donovan Mitchell seek redemption after 4th quarter collapse, OT loss in Game 1
'It's hard work to make nothing': Small businesses struggle with declining profits as gas, shipping prices rise
Small business profitability slid 1.3% in April from a year earlier — the weakest reading in two years, according to an analysis from the Bank of America Institute.
Famitsu sales (5/11/26 - 5/17/26) - big Nintendo Switch 2 sales ahead of price increase
The latest Japanese hardware sales from Famitsu are as follows: Switch 2 – 217,922 Switch Lite – 8,303 Switch OLED – 7,804 PS5 Digital Edition – 6,902 Switch – 5,285 PS5 Pro – 1,747 PS5 – 594 Xbox Series X – 193 Xbox Series X Digital Edition – 191 Xbox Series S – 47 For comparison’s sake, here are the...
Portland businesses hit hard by tariffs await refunds months after Supreme Court ruling
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed by President Trump under a 50-year-old statute. We hear from two CEOs in Portland about the impact the tariffs have had on their small businesses and the refunds they have applied for and are hoping to get.
Standouts on and off field: 3 finalists for Indianapolis City Male Athlete of the Year
Bishop Chatard's Phoenix Boyer, Cathedral's Kyle Harden and Crispus Attucks' Corshawn Sartin finalists for City Male Athlete of Year for 2026.
Too young to drink, ready to destroy: How young punks Xcomm are crashing the hardcore scene
Homework can wait for L.A.'s hardcore upstart Xcomm, whose youngest member is 14, as it focuses on the release of its debut album, 'Time to Burn.'
Opinion | How Democrats Lost the Plot
We need leaders who tell us hard truths while insisting that the present state of our politics is not permanent.
Scientists improve knowledge on sea level rise—and confirm it has been accelerating since 1960
Sea level rise is a direct consequence of human-induced climate change: global warming. It is relentless and very hard to stop. It arises from human-induced warming and the consequential expansion of ...
Common asthma drug helps fight hard-to-treat cancers, including aggressive breast cancers, early study finds
Scientists found that blocking a protein best known for its role in asthma enhances cancer immunotherapy in preclinical models.
Scientists bring crop protection research to local science classes
As the world’s population continues to grow, farmers across the globe are working hard to feed more than 8 billion humans. Agriculture at that scale requires interventions, including herbicides and pesticides to keep crops healthy and free from disease and insect infestations. Chemical herbicides and pesticides were, and are, a common solution...
Hardest stretch on Broncos' schedule is easy to spot
The hardest stretch on the Broncos' 2026 schedule is easy to spot, and it could define the team's season.
Scientists discover why Alzheimer’s risk hits women so much harder
Women may be especially sensitive to the effects of common dementia risk factors, according to a new UC San Diego study of over 17,000 adults. Researchers say tailoring prevention strategies specifically for women could be key to reducing Alzheimer’s risk.
Iran war hits small business hard
Small business profits are sinking as entrepreneurs deal with a confluence of forces ranging from rising labor costs to higher energy prices.
The Knicks' MVP of their 22-point comeback in Game 1? James Harden
"There is no secret, we were attacking Harden."
Dodgers capitalize on gift to even series with Padres
The first two games this season between the teams with the two best records in the National League West have been close, hard-fought battles going down to the wire. After not scoring in the series opener, the Dodgers found just enough offense on Tuesday and capitalized on an absolute gift from the most dominant closer […]
Republicans Collins, Dooley Advance to Primary Runoff in Hopes of Facing US Senator Ossoff in November
By David Morgan May 19 (Reuters) - A hardline Republican congressman and a former college football coach who has never held elective office advanced to a runoff on Tuesday in Georgia's U.S. Senate Republican primary election, extending a messy intra-party battle to determine who will face ...
Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader
An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, U.S. officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and put him in power.
The Truth About the Entertainment Industry and Israel
It’s hard not to enjoy seeing someone speak actual truth to actual power in the entertainment industry. So when the celebrated Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes was asked by the Guardian...
LOAM ENTERTAINMENT'S 'BAD COUNSELORS' ARRIVES IN THEATRES NATIONWIDE JULY 23-27 FROM FATHOM ENTERTAINMENT
/PRNewswire/ -- When two hard-partying fraternity brothers pose as Christian camp counselors to work off court-ordered community service, the summer quickly...
Thick as Thieves Review
There's not a lot to it, but it’s hard to find much fault with these stealthy co-op heists.
LOAM ENTERTAINMENT'S 'BAD COUNSELORS' ARRIVES IN THEATRES NATIONWIDE JULY 23-27 FROM FATHOM ENTERTAINMENT
When two hard-partying fraternity brothers pose as Christian camp counselors to work off court-ordered community service, the summer quickly becomes more than either of them bargained for. Loam Entertainment's irreverent fish-out-of-water comedy BAD COUNSELORS arrives in theatres nationwide for a limited engagement July 23-27, 2026, distributed by Fathom Entertainment, the leading specialty distributor of content to theatrical partners worldwide.
Sights from Sports Business Awards: Tech
Check out some sights from Monday’s Sports Business Awards: Tech ceremony at the Hard Rock Hotel in N.Y.
Trump’s Social Media Posts: The Apocalyptic Style of U.S. Politics
Richard Hofstadter once described U.S. politics as periodically seized by “the paranoid style.” Now look at Trump's social‑media activities.
Out of this Prairieville family's hardest moment, a $1M company was born
What began as a deeply personal challenge for Jordanna and Louis Coleman has grown into a fast-scaling logistics business—one built not only on strategy and resilience, but on faith. LC Transport Services, founded in February 2022 and headquartered in Prairieville, started with a single truck, a home office and a determination to create stability for […]
It took 20 years and nearly $100,000 to pay off my student loans
I finally made the last payment on my student loans. It's been hard paying for a career I left years ago.
Game 48: Astros at Twins
After fracturing his ankle in batting practice, Carlos Correa does not make his big return, but he’ll be felt in spirit. We’ll have to settle for Christian Vazquez instead. Today was originally Simeon Woods Richardson’s turn through the rotation, but after a disastrous start to the season, manager Derek Shelton will go with rookie Kendry […]
Fund Drive Special Programming: Disinformation, Political Manipulation, Identity Politics, and the Growing threats facing American Democracy
Host Davey D welcomed Jamelle Bouie to Hard Knock Radio for an in depth conversation about disinformation, political manipulation, identity politics, and the growing threats facing American democracy. Bouie, one of the nation’s most prominent political commentators, is a columnist for The New York Times and is widely known for connecting current political events to … Continued
Kudos to Cheer Club, College of Business faculty, Cybersecurity team and more
Becky Cottrell, Ph.D., Department of Social Work, and Bridget Arend, Ph.D., School of Education Becky Cottrell from the Department of Social Work and Bridget Arend, Ph.D., from the School of Education co-authored an article recently published in an international journal. Read the article. Biff Baker, Ph.D., College of Business Biff Baker, Ph.D., received a Best in Track award from the Society for Advancement of Management for research examining bureaucratic inefficiencies within Section 8 subsidized housing programs. The study focuses on how administrative delays and communication breakdowns can create housing instability for families and discourage landlord participation. It also offers recommendations to improve accountability and trust in public housing systems. Brendan Fry, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics and Statistics Brendan Fry, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, co-authored the article “Modeling the Impact of Venous Collapsibility on Retinal Oxygenation,” published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. The interdisciplinary research brought together scholars from the University of Delaware, Indiana University Indianapolis, McGill University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Access the article. Bridget Arend, Ph.D., School of Education Bridget Arend, Ph.D., professor in the School of Education, co-published the book “Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning: A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and Enjoyable College Teaching, Second Edition” with James R. Davis. The book explores practical approaches to improving college teaching and student learning experiences. Buy the book. College of Business Faculty At the 2026 Western Decision Sciences Institute international conference, Sally Baalbaki-Yassine, Ph.D., Debora Gilliard, Ph.D., and David Lynn Hoffman, Ph.D., from the College of Business received the Best Case Study Paper Award for “Oreo: A Global Success Story in Brand Evolution and Market Leadership.” Lisa McVicker, Ph.D., and Apryl Brodersen, Ph.D., also had their paper, “Electronic Performance Monitoring: Employer Panacea or Legal Quagmire?” accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Leadership. Community Engagement Exchange Program Metropolitan State University of Denver was selected to host international Fellow Aleja Henao Espitia of Bogotá, Colombia through the Community Engagement Exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State. View Espitia's LinkedIn profile. David Varel, Ph.D., College of Letters, Arts and Sciences MSU Denver historian David Varel, Ph.D., has been awarded a 2026 ACLS Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. The fellowship program supports outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, and selected just 63 scholars from more than 2,000 applicants this year. Varel’s project, “The Black Chicago School: Academic Activism in the Age of American Apartheid,” explores the work of Black scholars who challenged scientific racism, built alternative institutions and helped lay the foundation for the modern civil rights movement. The fellowship provides up to $60,000 to support full-time research and writing. Learn more about the fellowship. MSU Denver Office of Financial Aid Team Several MSU Denver employees were recognized for leadership and service during the Colorado Association of Financial Aid Administrators (CAFAA) conference held in May in Crested Butte. Don Holtzen, interim associate director of systems, chaired the conference and was recognized for his service as CAFAA conference chair and technology chair during the 2025-26 term. Holtzen also received the Postsecondary Institution Professional of the Year award, which recognizes financial-aid professionals who have made significant contributions to their institutions and to CAFAA. Tori Pacheco, associate director of Student Services, helped design décor and facilitate the conference and was recognized for her service as CAFAA secretary during the 2025-26 term. Destiny Candelaria, call center coordinator, served on the conference planning committee and presented on One Stops during the event. Michael Nguyen, executive director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, assisted as a CAFAA board member and was recognized for serving as president-elect during the 2025-26 term. Richard Balbag, program assistant I, received the Distinguished Support Staff Member of the Year award, honoring staff members who have made exceptional contributions to their financial-aid offices. Military Friendly Recognition Military Friendly has awarded MSU Denver Gold Status as a military-friendly university and ranked the University No. 7 nationally for military spouses. The recognition reflects MSU Denver’s strong support systems for veterans and military spouses, including transfer credit assistance and retention-focused resources. As of 2026, 1,050 military-connected students are enrolled at the University, advancing institutional priorities around serving veterans and supporting student retention. MSU Denver Cheer Club The MSU Denver Cheer Club earned third place in the 4-Year College Small Coed Intermediate division at the USA Spirit Nationals. Celebrate the win on Instagram. MSU Denver Cybersecurity Team An MSU Denver cybersecurity team earned first place in the Strategist category at the 2026 CYBER RECon National Competition hosted at Fort Meade, Maryland, by U.S. Cyber Command. Led by Jeffrey London, Ph.D., and undergraduate student Matthew Bopp, the team competed against universities and law schools nationwide with its 30-page legal analysis on cybersecurity and free speech titled “Freedom of Speech and MDM: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation.” The paper also earned Bopp a personal invitation to apply to the University of Maryland School of Law. MSU Denver Debate Team MSU Denver Debate won the 2026 Sierra Sustainability Summit hosted at Yosemite National Park in April. Students Kat Conte and Simon Bernhard bested teams from George Washington University, Gallaudet University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the University of San Francisco and Tennessee Tech in the modified present-and-defend style competition. Their proposal recommended adapting Colorado’s Keep Colorado Wild Pass model to support California state parks facing budget constraints. Learn about the summit. MSU Denver Women’s Golf MSU Denver Women’s Golf was represented on the national stage this month as junior Neige Dunn competed as an individual at the NCAA West Regional. She became the first Roadrunner in 10 years to qualify for NCAA Regionals as an individual. Get the details.
Report: Suns will explore trading into draft's 1st round
The Phoenix Suns enter the 2026 NBA Draft with the 47th pick. A path to moving into the first round remains hard to see.
Gaming firm Inspired promotes Craig Wilson after CFO steps down
After CFO James Richardson steps down, Inspired promotes finance VP Craig Wilson to the role effective May 14, with a three‑month transition period.
Whoa! Netflix is Sending Narnia Heading to Theaters...What This Means for the Future of Film
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Here’s a funny thing about the debate over whether streamers should release their movies in theaters first: Both sides think the other side represents the “conventional wisdom”. If you’ve been reading me for any amount of time, or even just scanned my front page, you know I think movies make more money by having a robust theatrical window compared to going straight-to-streaming. I’ve published thousands of words on this topic. And for years, I felt like I was standing up to a wave of opposition. See, while the “put your films in theaters to make money” take was obvious at any point before 2019, post-streaming revolution, most of the trendy thinkers took the opposite point of view. Big names argued that Netflix putting their film straight-to-streaming (“S-to-S” from here on out) actually made more money. Netflix was “disrupting” theaters, just as they disrupted Blockbuster Video, and since innovation is always good, this too was a great idea. This thinking then leaked into the mainstream business outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. I read many articles whose take boiled down to “Netflix makes tons of money from S-to-S releases” and “theaters were in structural decline” anyways. Covid-19 shutting down theaters and the 2023 strikes shutting down film production seemingly justified this point of view, as the box office struggled to return to 2017-2019 heights. Yet I’ve also read folks arguing the opposite point: the conventional wisdom says to put films in theaters! From some writers’ points of view, “everyone” actually agrees/agreed with my “send your films to theaters” take—especially the stodgy traditional studios—and folks still didn’t understand Netflix’s genius. I feel like, for the last two years, many people have argued this point as if it’s conventional wisdom. You know what? I may have been wrong. At this point, the “S-to-S strategy makes money” might be the minority viewpoint. Especially with the news this month that Netflix will put at least one film—Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film The Magician’s Nephew—in theaters in 2027 for a full 49-day run is big news. So that’s the story of the week, but I’ll also explain why they’re making this move now and why Netflix may not completely embrace theaters, along with other topics, like how I don’t buy Disney’s “super app” strategy, the latest good news out of the unions, my take on the latest attacks against free speech, and a whole lot more. Let’s get started. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Netflix Goes to Theaters! Listen, I promise not to victory lap too hard today. As I just wrote, I’ve argued against sending films straight-to-streaming for—checks calendar—eight years now. Since 2018. Yikes. That’s a long time. And for years, others painted my thinking as “conventional” in that I was standing up for the status quo against trendy, cool disruption. And that’s not cool! But math is math, and I never could make the S-to-S numbers work. The only thing that ever enabled that model was Wall Street’s brief exuberance for it. It seems like the heads of Netflix now agree with me. (There were always rumors that former head of film for Netflix Scott Stuber argued internally for theatrical releases as well.) As they announced: “The Magician’s Nephew_—the first film in a Narnia series of films—will open on 12-Feb-2027, with a 49 day theatrical exclusive run.”_ I’m a little surprised at how little coverage this big change actually got. Credit to Bloomberg for leading with it and Matt Belloni’s The Town for highlighting it with the provocatively titled podcast “Hell Hath Frozen Over”. But after that? Instead of getting as much coverage as, say, the FCC’s latest egregious crackdown on free speech, this news story got crickets. But it’s massively more important for the future business of entertainment. So let’s start with the obvious question… Why Put Your Movies in Theaters? So…why should Netflix put (some!) of their movies in theaters? Well, I’ve already written that in a very, very, very long article from 2022: [ ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/the-data-is-in-theatrical-films-massively) [ The Data Is In: Theatrical Films Massively Outperform Straight-To-Streaming Films ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/the-data-is-in-theatrical-films-massively) Entertainment Strategy Guy · April 5, 2023 [ Read full story ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/the-data-is-in-theatrical-films-massively) To summarize, theatrical runs make much more money, especially blockbusters, because they earn more money per viewing,1 and that helps boost home entertainment sales. Theatrical films also perform as well or better than the streaming-only films. Now, partially this is driven by increased marketing for said films, but said marketing ultimately boosts the awareness of the movies and drives improved streaming and library performance as well. Again, I’ve made this case after reviewing the economic models and streaming data for years. Just last week, Emily Horgan also made the case for kids films! Yes, it is probably conventional wisdom, but that’s also because it’s true! I’d also argue we’ve seen a lot of data in the various studios’ behavior. As I’ve noted before, the more a studio needs to make money, the likelier they are to put films in theaters. As such, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount and Sony all send their major films to theaters. Even if they once made a big S-to-S push (*cough* Disney *cough*), they’ve since relented and returned to theaters. The tech companies don’t need to make money, per se, so it took them years to embrace theaters. Apple doesn’t need to make money because it doesn’t disclose their (likely) Quibi-sized losses each year. (They fear bad press more than losing money.) Amazon announced two years ago that they planned to make Amazon-MGM Studios/Prime Video profitable on its own, and guess what? Now they’re putting films in theaters. That leaves Netflix. They’re in between the “no need to make money at all” and the “desperately need to make money to offset linear TV declines”, so they had less pressure to put some films in theaters. Plus, for years, they were the sexy disruptor, and Wall Street rewarded them for that. (Honestly, they still do.) Yet, even Netflix likely saw the money they were leaving on the table (I’ve estimated it at an easy billion dollars before) so they changed their course. I heard one pundit argue that, because Netflix already makes so much money, they don’t need to make more money, which sort of goes against everything I’ve ever learned about business and economics. Again, to be super-nuanced, sending “films to theaters” does not mean EVERY film. TV movies have been a thing for decades. Lifetime films, Hallmark holiday films, Disney Channel Original Movies, and so on, don’t need theatrical runs. But films above a certain budget level (say $25 to 50 million) almost certainly need theaters to maximize their revenue. The Scenarios (with a Dose of Skepticism) Now time for some skepticism: it won’t surprise me at all if Netflix re-changes course. Specifically, Netflix announced that their Narnia film will go to theaters. And I’d bet anything we see KPop Demon Hunters 2: The Huntering2 also goes to theaters, cause it’s the surest hit outside of a Disney animated sequel right now. But how much does Netflix truly commit to theaters? They’ve already tried to emphasize that this is a one-off move. I see three broad scenarios:
AMC Reunites with Chris Hardwick for ‘I Think You’re Overthinking It’ Podcast
It "will look at all the ways our brains can spiral," says Hardwick.
New MatterChat Model Helps AI to ‘See’ the Language of Science
From writing emails to generating computer code, much of the artificial intelligence prevalent in our daily lives has succeeded by mastering one domain: text. However, this leaves a major blind spot in the physical sciences, where models depend on the high-resolution, three-dimensional data of the physical world, like the intricate lattice of atoms in a crystal. Delivering on the promise of using AI for science requires teaching these data-driven text models to seamlessly “talk to” physics-based models. Now, a new AI framework from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), called MatterChat, solves this problem by creating a specialized “bridge.” It connects the conversational power of a Large Language Model (LLM) with a physics-based AI that models “interatomic potentials”: the complex physical forces between atoms. The resulting system already significantly outperforms general-purpose AI tools like GPT-4 at predicting material properties, and the team hopes it can accelerate scientific discovery by serving as a robust research partner that provides grounded insights and generates step-by-step instructions for synthesizing novel materials. A paper describing this work was recently published in Nature Machine Intelligence. “Traditional simulations can provide the physical rigor required for materials science, yet their computational cost remains prohibitive for high-throughput screening. Conversely, while LLMs excel at rapid knowledge synthesis, they inherently lack the ‘structural vision’ to interpret materials directly from their underlying atomic coordinates,” said Yingheng Tang, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and lead author on the paper. “MatterChat was built to solve this dilemma, empowering LLMs with a structural ‘vision’ that allows researchers to leverage their full potential for solving complex, real-world materials challenges.” Empowering language models to solve complex challenges in materials science To build MatterChat, the Berkeley Lab team drew inspiration from technologies like Vision Question Answering (VQA) and Text-to-Image (T2I) generation. In these tasks, AI must translate high-level text concepts into visual images, or vice versa. Doing so requires developers to build tools that “bridge” two fundamentally different forms of data. The researchers adapted this concept to the physical sciences. With MatterChat, they created a “bridge model” that successfully connects an LLM’s general knowledge with the deep understanding of the atomic-scale world encoded in scientific interatomic potentials. Until now, researchers using LLMs to solve materials problems usually had to feed them raw data files as if they were just strings of text. It’s like asking an AI to understand a complex 3D engine based only on a parts list: the LLM can read the names, but it can’t “see” how the atoms fit together in space. MatterChat solves this by training a specialized AI bridge model, pre-trained on millions of crystal structures and an LLM, to align the LLM’s representation of the world with the interatomic potential’s representation of the world. The bridge model can translate physical insights into a format the LLM can actually understand. By giving the LLM these “scientific eyes”— a scientific “inductive bias” in the terminology of AI — the Berkeley Lab team has transformed it into a robust research tool capable of providing grounded scientific insights into complex materials challenges, such as predicting thermal stability or analyzing electronic band gaps. “We think of atoms as living in a physical space, but from a machine learning perspective, they are just vectors living in some very non-trivially structured manifold in a high-dimensional Euclidean space; and, of course, the same is true for the sentences and paragraphs that we use to express our ideas about those atoms,” said co-author Michael Mahoney, Berkeley Lab’s Scientific Data Division (SDD) AI Initiative Research Lead. “The bridge model basically gets those two structures to ‘talk with’ each other.” As a proof-of-concept of this general approach, the team trained their bridge model on a dataset curated by pairing nearly 143,000 stable atomic structures from the Materials Project with their corresponding physical properties. This training data was automatically assembled using the Materials Project’s API and deliberately enriched with properties fundamental to microelectronics design — like formation energy and bandgap — allowing MatterChat to learn the complex patterns connecting a material’s atomic blueprint to its functional performance. To validate their model, the researchers benchmarked MatterChat against a suite of other AI systems, from general-purpose LLMs to other specialized scientific AI methods. The results show that MatterChat consistently outperformed its competitors across a range of tasks. The model was more accurate in classifying material types and demonstrated superior precision in predicting numerical properties. For example, it excelled at predicting a material’s bandgap, a property critical for designing new electronics from high-capacity energy storage to next-generation computer chips. “Our design is significantly more efficient because we don’t have to build a massive AI model from the ground up,” said co-author Zhi (Jackie) Yao, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR. “Instead, we take two powerful, pre-trained models — a structural encoder for materials physics and an open-source LLM — and use them off-the-shelf. The only component we actually train is the lightweight ‘bridge model’ that translates between them. It’s the difference between building an entire car factory and simply designing a smart adapter that connects a world-class engine to a world-class navigation system. This approach is not only computationally efficient, but also makes the system modular, so we can easily upgrade components or adapt the bridge for other scientific domains in the future.” Crucially, this modular design highlights exactly how institutions like Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy are carving out a highly valuable niche in the booming AI landscape. Rather than competing with Silicon Valley tech giants to build ever-larger language models from scratch, the lab is focusing on the specialized connective tissue that makes commercial AI useful for hardcore science. Because the bridge model approach underlying MatterChat is forward-compatible, it is perfectly positioned to leverage these parallel tracks of innovation. As Mahoney pointed out, “We expect that industry will continue to develop improved LLMs, and we expect domain scientists and facilities will continue to generate new data. An important part of scientific machine learning is not simply to solve problems on today’s data, but instead to develop general methods that will be forward-compatible with orders of magnitude more data, whether from scientific domains or from LLMs.” According to Yao, the MatterChat project, which was initially developed and enhanced with funding from a Berkeley Lab Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) Program, will now expand its capabilities. In a collaboration with Fermilab, MatterChat is already contributing to a U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission project — called Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon (AXESS) — that aims to speed up the development of next-generation, high-speed, radiation-hardened detectors for challenging particle physics experiments by using advanced 3D integrated circuits (chiplets) and AI-driven data analysis. In addition to the LDRD support, the team also credits supercomputing resources at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at Berkeley Lab, with MatterChat’s success. “We are incredibly grateful to NERSC; this research simply would not have happened without access to the Perlmutter supercomputer through their AI for Science program,” said Tang. Wenbin Xu, a NERSC postdoctoral fellow at the time, was also a major co-author of the work, as was Benjamin Erichson, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s SDD, highlighting the benefits of AMCR-SDD collaboration on AI for science. ### 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.
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