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Seniors: Dennis Ouellette, 80
Ontario Orchards owner not slowing down as he grows his farm market By Stefan Yablonski The seeds for Dennis Ouellette’s career path were sown when he was 6 years old — and he isn’t slowing down. “Since age 6, I grew up an agriculturalist. That is 72 years. Started out with a 37-acre farm when I bought it from my parents and built it up to almost 300 acres. Brought it back down to around 200 acres now,” he said. The location of his business was just a barn, a horse barn, he said. “In 1967, it officially became Ontario Orchards Farm Market. My wife [June] and I graduated [high school] in 1964 and three years later we became Ontario Orchards. We have been here more than 60 years,” he explained. “It is the same location. We have expanded over the years as the customers mentioned different things; we have expanded to bring in different products. “What keeps me going is I totally enjoy what I am doing. I enjoy the people that I work with. The customers are wonderful. Mostly, more important than anything, is my family — my wife, my daughters, grandchildren, son-in-law — we are still very much a family business I’m not going to retire just yet.” He also enjoys the changing seasons. “Ontario Orchards is a four-season business. There is always something new; more energy, more interest. Not only for the business but for my staff, the people that work here. Things keep changing, changing. We are always looking forward to something new and exciting,” he said. They work with quite a number of local farmers within the area and throughout the state, throughout the country and from around the world.” “We do have things from different countries around the world. But specifically, we are very excited about the local. We have an over 200-acre farm. We sell just about everything we raise on that farm right here at the farm market. For example, we press cider year-round. We make baked goods every day, year-round. We sell our apples 12 months a year.” “Today, there are so many products in Ontario Orchards that we never would have thought of in 1967,” he continued. “I attribute a lot of that to my daughters. I like the young blood and new energy. That is very crucial to a business, it keeps it vibrant.” What’s his favorite part of the job? “I don’t have a favorite part. I enjoy it all. I have a lot of intertest in other things,” he said. “I have staff that knows so much. I can go to the staff and say, ‘I don’t know what this is, you tell me what this is.’ They are so knowledgeable. It is impossible for one person to know everything in this place. In the summer, staff is about 60; in the winter about 20, 25.” He added that he plans on being around for several more years.
Samsung Confirms Bad Price News For Galaxy Phone Buyers
Samsung is raising prices for premium Galaxy phones that are months old. Bucking a long-held trend of smartphones dropping in price as they age.
“AI polls” are fake polls
A few weeks after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, I took the train up from London (where I was living at the time) to Oxford to attend a conference on polls and forecasts of the 2024 election. Most of the attendees were pollsters or academics, but I also watched presentations from Aaru and Electric Twin, two companies that do what is interchangeably called synthetic sampling, silicon sampling, or synthetic audiences. Stripped of startup jargon, that means they use large language models (LLMs) to simulate responses to public opinion polls by having AI agents take on the role of survey respondents. I had already heard of Aaru thanks to some articles with eye-catching headlines like “No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans” in the months leading up to Election Day. The founders were making some big, some might even say far-fetched claims, such as: “within two years, we will simulate the entire globe — from the way crops are grown in Ukraine to how that impacts production of oil in Iraq, trade through the strait of Malacca, and elections for the mayor of Baltimore.” When Semafor asked Aaru’s cofounders — Cameron Fink and Ned Koh — about my boss, they said “we respect all those who came before us.” Nate (as he so often does) shared his thoughts on Twitter: Fink and Koh were relatively good-natured about this back-and-forth when we spoke at Oxford. They even offered to mail me one of the t-shirts featuring Nate’s quote they apparently had made. I never took them up on the offer, which I now somewhat regret. These synthetic sampling companies fell off my radar for a while, but they do still exist. In fact, Aaru recently received a $1 billion valuation. Is what they’re doing anywhere close to the most important frontier in AI development? Not by a longshot, especially when Anthropic just developed a model so adept at exploiting software vulnerabilities that it’s only being released to 40 companies. Still, silicon sampling is increasingly finding its way into public polling. Axios reported in March that “a majority of people trust their own doctors and nurses” based on findings from Aaru — without mentioning that the “people” in that sentence were actually LLMs. Around the same time, the Public Sentiment Institute “boosted” their online sample of 373 real survey respondents with 114 AI agents.1 (Spoiler alert: even the co-founder of Electric Twin doesn’t think that’s a particularly defensible approach.) Polling companies like Qualtrics and Ipsos are also developing synthetic data panels. So, what should we make of these … “polls”? Let’s get one thing out of the way: whatever they are, they’re not polls in the way that term is usually defined. Subscribe You can’t replace polls with AI On one hand, using LLMs to essentially make up fake survey respondents sort of sounds like the dumbest idea ever, one that will at best imperfectly replicate real polls while introducing all sorts of biases. On the other hand, with LLMs improving at a remarkable, perhaps even alarming rate, maybe that means I’m a dinosaur at the ripe old age of 24 because I still want to rely on polls that talk to actual people. I’m not going to argue that synthetic samples are completely useless. In fact, as I’ll return to later, there is evidence that some techniques can replicate topline survey results quickly and cheaply. But the marketing from certain companies can be slightly optimistic. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” said Fink in 2024. We’re just 206 days away from the midterms, and based on the fact that I still have to collect a bunch of polls every day, I’d say he should have run that prediction by a sample of AI agents before the interview.2 To see why synthetic samples can’t replace polls, here’s a quick primer on how they work. The simplest version of these models involves taking a LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude), giving it a demographic profile (e.g., a white, college-educated woman who lives in Utah and makes $70k a year), and then asking it to respond to a survey question. You repeat that process a few thousand times using different demographic profiles and end up with a sample of synthetic survey responses. The actual models used by private companies are more sophisticated than this, usually because they incorporate more hypothesized demographic characteristics for each agent and provide them with extra information. Aaru, for example, feeds agents a diet of news and information they’d be likely to consume, while Electric Twin incorporates their customers’ proprietary data about the audience they’re trying to replicate. The way Ben Warner, the co-founder of Electric Twin, explained it to me was “we have a large amount of data on […] for instance, 5,000 people. Can we make an accurate prediction of how they would respond to another question?” Still, it should be obvious why synthetic samples can’t replace polls. Polling is fundamentally a data collection process. We might use surveys to make predictions by feeding them into election forecasts, but the main purpose of a poll isn’t prediction, it’s gathering new data about what people think and how they feel. Silicon sampling, on the other hand, produces no new data. It’s simply a model: you input LLM training data, demographic prompts, and a bunch of other information, and it spits out a prediction for what a poll would say. We love models here, but models aren’t polls. That difference is an important philosophical sticking point for most pollsters I talk to. “I think politics should stay away from [synthetic sampling], because we’re trying to […] represent the voice of the people,” said Natalie Jackson, a vice president at GQR Insights. Democratic pollster John Hagner told me: “I think I’m just incredibly skeptical of this idea. I don’t think it’s research. At that point, you’re asking the machine to tell you what you already believe.” Hagner has seen some presentations of early synthetic sampling experiments, but so far, “if it’s being used in a campaign, people are keeping it incredibly quiet.”3 But Eli, I hear you saying, aren’t polls themselves increasingly governed by modeling decisions? Indeed they are: pollsters’ choices on which sampling method to use, how to define their likely voter models, and how to weight their samples can and do lead to dramatic differences in the results they publish. Aaru even referenced these limitations in the methodology statement included with that maternal mortality “poll” — although I’m using the term “methodology statement” loosely here, because it doesn’t really explain how the model works at all. We can ignore the (frankly preposterous) implication that synthetic sampling isn’t subject to a separate set of biases. The important point is that there’s still a meaningful difference between using weighting and other statistical techniques on actual polling data and using a model to predict what a poll would say. The latter is far closer to election forecasts or techniques like MRP — potentially useful models, but not a replacement for polls.4 To be fair, other synthetic sampling companies are perfectly happy with the distinction between polls and models. Warner compared polling and synthetic sampling to different tools in a toolbox. “The mistake I think we make is we think that these new tools should either work in exactly the same way or somehow replace these old tools,” he said. “Rather than thinking of it as, okay, so we’ve always had the hammer, we’ve always had the screwdriver, now we’ve got a saw. But don’t use a saw to try [to] do the job of a hammer.” A quick comment from Nate Eli didn’t ask me for a comment — rather rude of him, don’t you think? But since I’m editing this story, I figured I’d add a few quick thoughts rather than putting words in his mouth. Beyond the frequently misleading marketing, what bothers me about the AI “poll” hype is that as AI tools make statistical inference cheaper and/or better (note that these are not synonyms) that actually increases the comparative value of collecting original data. You might be able to train a model to make a reasonable estimate of what some hard-to-reach poll respondent would say — say, a young Black man who voted for Trump. (Such a person checks a number of boxes for a voter who is usually hard to reach in surveys.) Indeed, this is closely related to what models like the Silver Bulletin forecast already do. They essentially smooth out the kinks in noisy survey data by making inferences based on past voting patterns or national polls or surveys of other states. But you don’t actually know what these voters think unless you’re reaching them directly. If there’s a shift in opinion among this subgroup, you’re not going to detect it. So if I were running a campaign, I’d invest more in going the extra mile to find a representative sample of those voters. And then I’d hire some smart quants — or Claude? — to figure out the implications for campaign strategy based on proprietary data that my competitors didn’t have access to. -Nate Silver Are these models any good? If synthetic surveys are just a new type of model, the next obvious question is whether the models are at least accurate. The answer very much depends on who you ask. On one end of the spectrum, you have the maximalist argument that synthetic sampling is more accurate than actual polls. “It’s an incredibly challenging problem to go to someone and say ‘hey, we’re going to be more accurate at predicting human behavior than you, even when you talk to your customers directly’,” Koh recently told CNBC. In his view, synthetic sampling isn’t a saw to polling’s hammer, it’s “magic.” There’s certainly evidence that synthetic samples can replicate certain survey toplines. But if Aaru does have any examples of their approach outperforming the polls, they’re keeping those to themselves.5 Aaru’s 2024 election model, for example, had Kamala Harris leading in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on November 4th. And although they’ve since taken down their forecast page, they gave Harris a 50.5 percent chance of winning the race on November 2nd.6 After the election, Fink told Semafor he was happy enough with those results because they were “within margin of error,” a term that is completely meaningless when applied to a “sample” of AI agents. And of course, Aaru says their models have improved since 2024, so supposedly now they’d be more accurate than the polls? Still, their stronger argument is on cost: “We are significantly faster and cheaper than traditional polling, and still more accurate,” said Fink. The first two claims are undeniably true, but the third brings us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Jackson and Hagner are skeptical that these models are reliable for anything beyond replicating common survey toplines. “I just […] don’t think the machines are what we want when we’re looking for nuanced views. My example on this is people in Arizona and Nevada in 2024 who voted for Trump and voted for expanding abortion in their states on ballot initiatives,” said Jackson. Hagner identified another issue. Maybe the synthetic respondents, like sycophantic LLMs, are inhuman in one important way: they’re too nice. “The reports that have come through at the meetings that I’ve been at are that the early experiments on this, they cannot get respondents to be as racist or sexist or, frankly, as negative as human respondents,” he said. Academic research mostly agrees on this point. While there are some papers that show promising results when using LLMs to replicate polling data, most show that LLMs suffer from various quirks like producing too few “don’t know” responses and can seriously overpredict the favorability of politicians like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. They also seem to struggle with too little variation between demographic subgroups, so the difference in predicted opinion between Democrats and Republicans, for example, is too small. When I asked Warner about these studies, his response to these papers was that just because academics can’t get synthetic sampling to work doesn’t mean that the technique doesn’t work in general. “Actually, the argument is, okay, yours does not [work]. That does not mean […] for this complex set of machinery, which uses a lot of investment, a lot of time, a lot of money, you can’t get it to work.” Cards on the table, I’m somewhat sympathetic to this argument because academics aren’t exactly great at making election forecasts. Usually, the people with skin in the game are the most accurate. Warner’s argument is that the approach Electric Twin takes — which includes, for example, making multiple predictions for each synthetic respondent using different models and prompts and subsequently averaging those to get a final prediction in a sort of ensemble forecast — produces better results than the simpler academic models. Warner shared a comparison between his method and the method from a recent academic paper with me, and Electric Twin was indeed able to get more accurate replication. But even still, he acknowledged that synthetic sampling “is not a crystal ball.” “If you asked me, do I think using other data sources will be more accurate than asking somebody who they will vote for, I would probably say no. But if you asked me ‘would your system be useful for our turnout modeling today?’ I would say yes.” For better or worse, it looks like the method is already getting more popular in the market research world. Most of the clients Aaru touts these days are businesses like EY and McDonald’s. And AI will probably begin to pop up in other parts of the political polling process. Pollsters are already using it to code open-ended survey responses, and some firms, like YouGov, are testing using LLMs to ask survey respondents questions. More worryingly, one danger to actual polls is that AI agents can be used to infiltrate online surveys. Most online polls use various checks to prevent that from happening, but there’s conflicting evidence on how effective those filters are and how prevalent AI agents currently are in online panels. If those agents ever become impossible to detect, it might spell the end of online polling, but the solution isn’t to replace all of your respondents with ChatGPT. Silver Bulletin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe 1 That particular poll obviously doesn’t meet Silver Bulletin standards for aggregation. But we exclude all Public Sentiment Institute polls from our averages because we classify them as an amateur polling firm. 2 You could argue that Fink meant the next presidential election, but (a) I’m also confident we’ll still have real polls in 2028 and (b) in that case he should have asked an LLM to define “general election.” 3 Quick caveat: that’s reporting from a Democratic pollster. It’s possible that Republicans are more willing to use AI in political campaigns. 4 Indeed, Silver Bulletin does not include “polls” produced by MRP in our forecasts or averages, and we think it’s extremely misleading when their practitioners describe them in a way that suggests original data had been collected among a large number of states or Congressional districts. 5 A recent report from Aaru and EY did show two examples of a synthetic estimate being closer than a survey to a real-world benchmark — but I’d take those findings with a grain of salt because the report reads more like an ad and didn’t involve any sort of prediction being made ahead of time. 6 For comparison, our odds for Harris on the same day were 48.2 percent.
Two simple eating habits linked to lower weight, study finds
A major study suggests that when you eat could play a key role in staying lean. People who fast longer overnight and start their day with an early breakfast were more likely to have a lower BMI years later. Scientists think this is because eating earlier aligns better with the body’s internal clock. But skipping breakfast as part of intermittent fasting didn’t offer the same advantage—and may even be tied to unhealthy habits.
Arts & Entertainment Calendar
Events coming up in the Greenville area offer music, arts, theater and family fun. Here is a sampling.
For aging US Supreme Court justices, the politics of retirement looms large
When Donald Trump was asked about the prospect of conservative Justices Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas retiring, the Republican president voiced his support for the U.S. Supreme Court's two oldest members to remain on the bench.
As Election Looms, Will Alito Retire, Giving Trump a New Supreme Court Pick?
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. is the subject of intense speculation about whether he will retire in the coming months and give President Trump a fourth nominee.
Samsung Confirms Upgrade Offer—Galaxy Users Must Now Decide
Millions of Samsung phones are vulnerable to attack — you must act now.
In praise of popular science
As a kid, I was enthusiastically and unreservedly in favor of a manned space program. Our destiny lay in the stars, I figured. Get people out there. We need Star Trek here and now. As I got older, I became rather disenchanted with the idea. Humans are expensive, fragile, and inefficient as space cargo. We could flood the solar system with 100 robotic probes for the price of any single manned mission and get back just as useful data. Besides, it turns out space travel is dangerous. Tusk is a reader-supported publication. To support this work, please become a paid subscriber. Subscribe When it came to the recent Artemis II mission, my cynical side didn’t really see the point. Flying around the Moon and back is literally something we did before I was born, and I once owned a Members Only jacket. Apollo 8 circled the Moon ten times and returned to Earth safely the same month that “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was released. What was the point of repeating a feat that far braver people once did with tin foil and slide rules? Yet I’ve surprised myself with how moving I’ve found the Artemis II mission to be. The photos have been stunning. The crew has been professional and engaging. There have been modest but important milestones — the farthest humans have travelled from Earth; the first woman, person of color, and non-American to leave low-Earth orbit; innovations in communication, and more. One thing that really stood out is that this is really NASA at its finest. Not that this is the most important mission they ever pulled off, but they did this in a competent way that celebrated the achievements and kept the crew and the science at the forefront of the project. This wasn’t some billionaire throwing celebrities or cars into orbit as a vanity project — this was a collective effort to send experts in to do a job and come home safely. We don’t see that sort of thing much these days. I’m guessing few people would describe many government agencies as inspiring, but this one counts for me. We’re living through a profoundly anti-science era, in which pathbreaking, lifesaving discoveries like mRNA vaccines are routinely downplayed or even vilified. As I’ve noted previously, this era is something like that of the Red Scare in the 1940s and 50s, in which “egghead” professors were portrayed as out of touch or even hostile to regular Americans. One of the things that helped break that spell was Sputnik — the Soviet communications satellite that demonstrated that the United States was falling behind in crucial scientific research and applications. Its launch triggered a new appreciation for American science and goaded the federal government into supporting research universities and labs. I’m not saying that Artemis is the equivalent of Sputnik, but it potentially reminds people that there’s some value to scientific endeavors and the human faces attached to them. Despite my love for the show “For All Mankind,” I’m far from convinced that there’s any real value to putting colonies on the Moon or Mars that would justify the capital investment and the massive health risks to the astronauts. But sending scientific good will ambassadors on a trip into space once in a while? Bring it. Share
2026-27 NFL Odds: 'It's a Good Time to Buy Low on Detroit'
Sammy P did some digging to figure out where some of the sharpest minds are putting their money in NFL futures.
How science is rewriting the rules of marine taxonomy, one seaweed at a time
Along the southern coastline, researchers dive deep to collect seaweed from kelp forests and rocky platforms, taking small samples and the location of each sample. Back in the lab, the specimens are preserved—some ...
Molotov cocktail thrown at Sam Altman's $27 million home
The San Francisco Police Department said a 20-year-old suspect is in custody and charges are pending. OpenAI praised the police's quick response.
80 Years of Excellence: 49ers Launch Reimagined Mobile App
Sourdough Sam AI guides fans through a redesigned app, offering personalized stats and stadium info. Celebrate 80 years with this groundbreaking digital experience.
Federal judge releases man after 2 immigration judges disobey order
A federal judge released a man from immigration detention on Thursday after two different immigration judges disobeyed his order in the same case. “At this point, the Court has granted Respondents two bites at the apple to prove detention of Petitioner was warranted,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher. “It will not allow […]
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 leaked renders show only one change coming this year
There's not much new with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and that's okay.
Samsung says it has a One UI 8.5 device plan for ‘later’
Samsung has announced that the company will release a One UI 8.5 device plan once the software is ready for rollout. However, there are a couple of things you should know about this new statement. This statement comes after a wide user-based criticism of Samsung’s new feature limitation to the Galaxy S26 series. Users alleged that the company […]
Pokémon Champions’ Most-Used Monsters Dominate First Tournament
The more things change the more they stay the same in competitive Pokémon
Galaxy Z Flip 8 renders leak for the first time, revealing its design
The renders of the Galaxy Z Flip 8 have been leaked for the first time, giving us our first look at its design.
Whole Hog Politics: Vance’s Hungarian gambit
[Watch Whole Hog Politics live: Join us today at 9 a.m. EDT at TheHill.com as Chris Stirewalt and host Bill Sammon break down this week’s political news and answer questions from a live online audi…
Scheffler, Rose to chase McIlroy with early Masters starts
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and England's Justin Rose were set for early starts chasing co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Sam Burns as Friday's second round of the Masters began at Augusta National.Burns, the 54-hole leader at last year's US Open, managed his lowest round in 13 at Augusta National despite the firm greens.
Q4 Rundown: Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) Vs Other Consumer Discretionary
Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) and the best and worst performers in the consumer discretionary - casino operator industry.
Government Comes After Costco, Walmart, and Sam’s Club’s Business Model
Congress should think long and hard before moving S. 4147 forward.
5 Android phones you should buy instead of the Samsung Galaxy A57
The Galaxy A57 is a really solid Android deal at just $550. But for some people, these five other phones might be better options.
Is a Big Album Dropping? You Might Want to Watch the Road.
A study found that traffic fatalities increased in the United States by nearly 15 percent on the same days as the biggest album releases.
Media Mention: Sam Franck Profiled in Greater Wilmington Business Journal
Real estate attorney Sam Franck is the subject of a feature profile in the April 2026 issue of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. The article, “Atto
Q4 Rundown: Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) Vs Other Consumer Discretionary
Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at ...
Business owners see growth in Little Rock’s Riverdale area
Multiple restaurant owners in Riverdale described the growth of more businesses popping up in their area. One of the owners was Fidel Samour, who owned Fidel and Co., Red Door and Loca Luna.
BREAKING: Belmont forward Sam Orme commits to Nebraska
Nebraska picked up its first portal addition in former Belmont forward Sam Orme, per On3. Orme spent the last two seasons with the Bruins, where he averaged 11.2 points per
Pixel 11 Series to See Big Display Upgrade
Industry sources have confirmed that Google’s upcoming Pixel 11 series will utilize Samsung’s new M16 OLED panels. These are the same panels expected to be used by Apple for its... #Google #Pixel11
Samsung quietly increased the price of two Galaxy Z Fold 7 models
Maybe you’re tired of hearing about memory price hikes and the potential of increased smartphone prices. Well, it’s starting to...
Sam Wilson banks nearly $23K in Q1, brings fundraising to $38K in Clearwater City Council bid
'This campaign is about bringing common sense back to Clearwater.'
Kiln: Double Fine Shares Their Favorite Pots as Open Beta Goes Live
Now’s your chance to sample Kiln before launch on April 23 during the Open Beta Throwdown on Steam – and Double Fine is here to help inspire your creations with some of their most-favorite pots! Pre-order Kiln today on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
Samsung reportedly launching Galaxy Z Fold 8, ‘Wide’ on July 22, S Pen might be back
A new report claims to reveal the launch date for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 and “Wide” foldable in July,...
Google Pixel 11 reportedly gets Samsung’s new flagship display ahead of iPhone
According to a new report, Google’s upcoming Pixel 11 series will be among the first – perhaps even the first...
Samsung is expanding AirDrop to these Galaxy devices, but only if you install this update
Samsung is officially expanding AirDrop over Quick Share support to more Galaxy devices, but it requires a specific software update...
Samsung expands One UI 8.5 beta to even more Galaxy phones
Samsung is expanding the One UI 8.5 Beta Program to even more Galaxy phones so that more users can test the new software version.
Samsung Continues Expanding One UI 8.5 Beta Program to More Galaxy Devices
Samsung is expanding the One UI 8.5 beta program to additional Galaxy devices. Following t
Amazon Pharmacy to Offer Eli Lilly and Company’s New GLP-1 Pill Foundayo via Same-Day Delivery
Amazon Pharmacy (NASDAQ: AMZN), a full-service digital pharmacy that offers fast medication delivery directly to customers' homes, now offers Eli Lilly and C...
'We Released a Game With Flaws for a Number of Reasons' — Samson Dev Promises Improvements Amid 'Mixed' Reception
The creative director of Samson has promised the team is "committed to the future" of the game despite launching to a 'Mixed' reception on Steam amid complaints about performance, gameplay, optimization, and more.
Entertainment briefs | Trio performs with Fortuna Concert Series
The Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre at Cal Poly Humboldt will present “Contemporary Music for Percussion” performed by the Cal Poly Humboldt Percussion Ensemble and “Samba of Bahia” performed by the World Percussion Group.
Galaxy S25 and S24 users get AirDrop and 3 new camera filters
With new One UI 8.5 Beta updates, Samsung has fresh perks for the users of Galaxy S25 and S24 series: AirDrop sharing and three new camera filters. Samsung just dropped One UI 8.5 Beta 9 and Beta 2 updates for the S25 and S24 series, respectively. Changelog of both updates carry exact the same content, […]
Most awaited fix for the Galaxy S25 Ultra coming with One UI 8.5
Samsung is doing great today. Samsung today released several new One UI 8.5 beta updates for Galaxy S25, S24, S23, and other Galaxy phones. The latest update brings many fixes. Talking about the fix, the Galaxy S25 users are waiting for one specific fix for their flagship device. If you have a Galaxy S25 Ultra […]
Second One UI 8.5 beta update for Galaxy S24 is out
Samsung has released the second beta version of One UI 8.5 (Android 16 QPR2) for the Galaxy S24 series. The update brings nine changes.
NVIDIA’s Upcoming N1 SoC For AI PC Laptops Spotted On Engineering Motherboard: 128 GB Memory, User Claims Launch Expected This Year
An engineering sample motherboard featuring NVIDIA's upcoming N1 SoC, which will power its AI PC laptops, has been spotted online.
Samsung could unveil Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 in London
Samsung will reportedly hold a Galaxy Unpacked event in London, UK, in July for the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8.
Do people really switch from iPhone to Android? Apple now wants Samsung's data to answer that
Apple has requested internal Samsung data about how people switch between iPhone and Android to show that its practices are not anti-competitive.
Iran’s Reality Shatters JD Vance’s Hungarian Fantasy
If what mattered most in the world was the political future of JD Vance, this would be a very good week. The US vice president gave a rousing speech in support of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a model leader for the global conservative right, while at the same time helping his boss toward the off-ramp from an unpopular war with Iran.
Your DNA has a secret “second code” that decides which genes get silenced
Not all parts of our genetic code are equal, even when they appear to say the same thing. Scientists have discovered that cells can detect less efficient genetic instructions and selectively silence them. A protein called DHX29 plays a key role in this process by identifying and suppressing weaker messages. This finding reveals a hidden layer of control in how genes are used.
Seahawks betting on Sam Darnold to take leap next season
Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider believes that quarterback Sam Darnold could take a big leap come the 2026 season.
Apple seeks records from Samsung in South Korea in antitrust case
Apple has moved to obtain internal Samsung data from South Korea in its ongoing antitrust fight with the DoJ over alleged monopoly practices.
You'll have one more chance to buy Samsung's pricey Galaxy Z TriFold this Friday
If you missed your chance to pay Samsung $2,900 for a phone, we have great news for you.
Oppo details most powerful phone camera system ever; compares it to iPhone 17 Pro
Oppo has finally revealed the Oppo Find X9 Ultra’s full, revolutionary camera system. With a massive light intake advantage over older Samsung phones with 10x zoom, and record-breaking 1x and 3x zoom camera, the Find X9 Ultra might just be the best camera phone of 2026 - potentially outclassing the likes of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Vivo X300 Ultra, iPhone 17 Pro, and Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samson Dev: DLSS 5 Needs Full Pipeline Integration & Broad Hardware Support to Be Viable
Samson dev Liquid Swords explains what DLSS 5 needs: pipeline integration, broad hardware support, and artistic control over character visuals
Google Pixel bests iPhone and Samsung in repairability name-and-shame report
A new report calls out the top smartphone makers in the US for their poor device repairability scores, but Google...
Samsung restocking Galaxy Z TriFold on April 10 in US stores and online
Samsung will restock the Galaxy Z TriFold, presumably for the final time, on April 10 in the US both online...
Sam Buchanan Signs With Buchwald & MGMT Entertainment
Sam Buchanan has signed with Buchwald and MGMT Entertainment for representation.
British Actor Sam Buchanan Signs With Buchwald & MGMT Entertainment
EXCLUSIVE: British actor Sam Buchanan has signed with Buchwald and MGMT Entertainment for representation. Buchanan’s credits include the BBC’s Just Act Normal and Angel Studio’s The Wayfinders. On the...
Restock Alert: Galaxy Z TriFold Returns This Friday
In two days, Galaxy Z TriFold returns. Surprising to some, as it was reported that Samsung was discontinuing this phone after stocking it online only one time, April 10 on... #Android #GalaxyZTriFold
New Yorkers Mostly Like What They See From Mamdani So Far
Residents gave Mamdani high marks on his leadership, but his approval rating is lower than Eric Adams’s was around the same period.
RPS Verdict: In its best moments, Samson is like a goon-battering GTA 4 roleplay mod, but in its worst it's horribly broken
Liquid Swords' Samson, a GTA-ish driveabrawler about a debt-ridded criminal is out, here's our verdict.
Will ceasefire in Iran lead to end of war?
‘Fundamental disagreements persist’ between US and Iran and, if unresolved, could result in the same ‘impasse’ as before conflict began
Apple very cautious about iPhone Ultra sales; Samsung wins concession
A new report suggests Apple is being extremely cautious in its expectations of demand for its most expensive ever smartphone,...
Galaxy S25 Ultra gets Ocean Mode update for your summer dives
Samsung’s Ocean Mode, originally made for coral reef mapping, is now rolling out to the Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 8.5 beta.
Horse Tracks: AFC West offseason expectations
The AFC West is changing this offseason, but the media narratives are all staying the same.
Men are bad at shopping, pay more for groceries, and miss deals
New data shows that men are terrible at finding deals when grocery shopping and end up paying more than women for the exact same basket of items.
Aetna Provider Survey Reveals Optimism and Opportunities to Simplify Health Care
Research findings from the inaugural Aetna Provider Survey, a quarterly study that polls a representative sample of the U.S. provider market to better understand their perceptions, opportunities, and challenges today and into the future.
Update, safeguard Colorado’s mail ballot with voter ID
By Chuck Broerman and Suzanne Taheri Coloradans often refer to our state as a leader for accessible and secure elections. We have led on all-mail ballots, automatic voter registration, and same-day registration, turning Colorado into a model for modern elections while also increasing turnout and lowering costs. But leadership also means staying ahead of the […]
5 Cheaper Android Tablet Alternatives To The iPad In 2026
Users looking for cheaper Android tablet alternatives to the iPad have plenty of sub-$300 options, from big names like Samsung to emerging brands like Xiaomi.
As decades-old Lehigh Valley business bids farewell, 19th-century barn on the move to Ohio
A longstanding, family-run business is set to end operations later this spring in Northampton County, but a historic structure on the same property will find new life in a nearby
The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science, and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes
Pantheon Review by Walter Cummins The image of Alfred Tennyson I’ve carried for decades goes back to the childhood card game of Authors that depicts him with a stately continence sharpened by a jutting black beard. He’s formidable, his aura superior. Holmes opens his biography of the youthful Tennyson by describing the similar formality of the imposing Tennyson statue at Trinty College Cambridge, sharing the honor with other Trinity greats, including Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Babington Macaulay. Holmes doesn’t want to chip away at that statue but rather reveal its inner youthful core of the man—tall, handsome, and talented but unformed, emerging from a disturbed family of addicted or insane male siblings and four unusual sisters struggling under a violent alcoholic clergyman father. Alfred was certainly statuesque, but would he end up a block of unformed stone like his equally promising brothers? He was youngest of three equally regarded Tennyson brothers at Cambridge, all bright, handsome, and talented, in fact Alfred regarded by some as less promising than his elders who also wrote poetry. Yet Alfred wrote one of his major poems, “The Kraken,” at twenty, revealing both his talent, his interest in geological forces, and the haunting creature that embodied his anxieties. While Holmes focuses on Tennyson of the 1830s and 1840s, he can’t tell his story without exploring his involvement with the Victorian intellectual upheaval. Tennyson was fascinated by new scientific perspectives, following the latest findings as soon as books and articles were published. He was especially taken with Charles Lyell’s deep studies of geology and the discovery of fossils and a timeline of the planet’s development that did much to question fundamental religious assumptions. The impact of these discoveries is reflected in Tennyson’s poetry and led to the crisis in belief he shared with so many contemporaries. He was especially taken by the cycles of destruction and renewal that informed the struggles he confronted in In Memoriam, Maud, and Idylls of the King. Tennyson was only one of the eventual major figures at Cambridge at the same time, young men just beginning to realize their potential. Charles Darwin was at Christ College, although there is no evidence that he and Tennyson even met as students or later in life. Yet evolution became significant in Tennyson’s thinking and the issues of his poetry. One of Tennyson’s best and most important Cambridge friends was Edward FitzGerald, who became the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and in their on and off relationship served as Tennyson’s harshest critic. FitzGerald was also a friend of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, the two of them partying in Paris as undergraduates. That connection led to a friendship between Thackeray and Tennyson. Others who came to play significant roles in Tennyson’s life were Thomas Carlyle, the Brownings, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Tennyson’s deepest friend at college was Arthur Hallam, who at twenty wrote a glowing review of Tennyson’s first poetry collection, travelled on European adventures with him, and fell in love with his sister Emily. Hallam was also regarded as one more very promising Cambridge student. His sudden death at twenty-two in Vienna from a stroke while travelling with his father devastated many friends, but perhaps Tennyson most of all. He did not write immediate poems of grief but took years to compile those collected in In Memoriam A.H.H., published in 1850, almost twenty years after Hallam’s death For all of Tennyson’s early poetic successes and successes, Holmes reveals him as an often troubled young man suffering periods of depression, fearing planetary upheaval, concerned about supporting himself, disappointed in romances, and worried that he would inherit the family’s mental illness tendencies. Yet despite his seeming withdrawals, he was always writing poetry that he kept private and would not let go, constantly revising. 1850 became a transformative year for Tennyson. He finally consented to publishing In Memoriam with a last-minute prologue that acknowledged God and perhaps convinced the religious Emily Sellwood to marry him after years of pursuit.. He opened up to Emily, revealing his struggles with fears of depression and “weird seizures.” The devastating event of that time was the stillborn death of his unnamed first son. It shook him, but Emily’s faith brought them closer and convinced him to believe in an afterlife. Two later sons survived. With the death of William Wordworth in April of 1950, Tennyson was named poet laureate at age forty-one, reluctantly accepting. It’s as if Tennyson’s life split in half in that year. He lived another forty years, now a recognized success, with the prestige of being an official poet writing patriotic verse, wealthy and revered, no longer the insecure young man seeking an outlet for his immense talent. He earned a place in the Authors deck, now dignified and in 1884 elevated to the peerage as Arthur, Lord Tennyson. Richard Holmes is the author of twenty previous books on the Romantics and Victorians, several of which received awards. The Boundless Deep was shortlisted for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He captures the complex vicissitudes of Tennyson’s youth, illustrated by frequent excerpts from the poetry, placing that life in the full context of the shattering discoveries that led to an upheaval of thought in the Victorian age.
Featured Grandstand Entertainment Announced For Second Weekend Of This Year’s Clay County Fair
(Spencer)– All-Star Monster Trucks, Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pull and Figure 8 races will be the featured grandstand entertainment for the second weekend of this year’s Clay County Fair. All-Star Monster Trucks will put on two shows Saturday, September 19th, with the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pull performing under the lights that same evening. Figure […]
New Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 leak reveals something unexpected
According a new report about the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, it may also be available in 4G/LTE connectivity option, alongside the 5G variant.
NFL mock draft: Arizona Cardinals take Rueben Bain 3rd overall
Sam Monson dropped his mock draft on his podcast. See who the Arizona Cardinals' pick is at third overall.
Blizzard reveals Overwatch hero Anran's new "fiery and fierce" look, following player backlash over 'same-face syndrome'
Following player complaints over Anran's "baby face", Overwatch developer Blizzard Entertainment has reworked her look.
Live Entertainment Platform Launches Culture Investment Program To Support African Talent
TMG will launch a global talent management division representing African and diaspora artists across various creative verticals.
Funky Monkey starts a new chapter after decades in same Magazine Street spot. Here’s why.
Funky Monkey’s new location is on the same street, on the same block and has the same square footage. So why’d the store move? Here’s the story.
Stable One UI 8.5 release dates leak for Galaxy S25 series
Galaxy S25 users are mentally prepared to receive the Stable One UI 8.5 update after two more Beta builds. Now, we’re hearing the potential release dates from a credible source who has a solid track record of Samsung leaks. According to TarunVats, Samsung may start Stable One UI 8.5 release on April 30. It is […]
Big Ten doing college sports better than anyone. They just win more
Big Ten is first conference since 2007 to have national champions in football and men's and women's basketball in the same year.
Samsung updates One UI software rollout roadmap
On March 6, Samsung shared its April 2026 software rollout roadmap. It’s important information for every Galaxy device user. The company has made some notable changes in this month’s roadmap, compared to March 2026. Current Models for Monthly Security Updates Samsung offers new security updates to premium Galaxy phones and foldables on a monthly basis. […]
Even in politics, honesty matters
If the words “honesty” and “politics” are used in the same sentence, many may laugh or even think the comparison is crazy and only appropriate in fantasyland.
STAT 4000 introduces students across Auburn to data science foundations
STAT 4000: Introduction to Data Science gives students across Auburn a hands-on foundation in data analysis, AI literacy and statistical reasoning. Taught by instructors in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, the course equips students to work confidently and critically with data in a wide range of fields.
A night of two national titles for U-M, as scientists and basketball players both triumph
On the same night that the U-M men's basketball team triumphed in the NCAA tournament, U-M cardiovascular researchers won a national tournament of science
Auraria Health Center offers same-day appointments and free services for faculty and staff
Same-day medical appointments and no-cost health services are available to faculty and staff members through the Health Center at Auraria, offering a convenient alternative to long wait times for primary care. The center offers a broad range of clinical services, including primary care, psychiatric support and telehealth appointments. Faculty and staff can also be seen for sick visits, including infections, […]
Sesame Workshop on What’s Shaping Children’s Entertainment
Gabriela Arenas, SVP, global consumer products, Sesame Workshop, discusses the company’s successful mission-driven licensing approach.
Samsung discontinuing its texting app, tells users to switch to Google Messages
Samsung is saying goodbye its namesake texting app.
New Yorker profile of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raises character questions
Sam Altman is one of the most powerful people in the world. Are we OK with that?
Gov. DeSantis says Samuel Alito writing opinion in case that will drive congressional redistricting
The outcome is allegedly beyond doubt, even as timing is a question mark.
Samsung’s Galaxy S27 ‘Pro’ could squeeze in between the Ultra and Plus phones
No S Pen, but it will have the Privacy Display.
Samsung's Music Studio speakers and two of its 2026 soundbars are available now
Samsung's home theater lineup this year includes two new speakers and four new soundbars.
Samsung to shut down Samsung Messages in July, urging users to switch to Google Messages
Samsung is saying goodbye its namesake texting app. According to an end of service announcement published on the tech giant’s U.S. support website, Samsung Messages will be discontinued in July.
Samsung discontinuing its texting app, tells users to switch to Google Messages
Samsung is saying goodbye its namesake texting app
Galaxy Z Fold ‘Wide’ will be easier to handle as One UI 9 leaks spout
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold “Wide” has been touched on in previous leaks, though recent One UI 9 screenshots add some...
YouTube’s copyright system strikes again.
Nvidia’s own DLSS 5 trailer was taken down from YouTube after an Italian TV channel — which reportedly used the footage in a segment about the upscaling tech — issued copyright takedown requests for videos using the same clips. The takedown requests impacted some creators using the footage as well. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/nvidia-copyright-takedown.png?quality=90&strip=all]
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Wide Fold has already won customers over
Samsung's new Galaxy Z Wide Fold isn't even out yet and people are clamoring to get their hands on it.
Nintendo announces limited-time Switch 2 offer with Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2
Nintendo just shared the news about a new Switch 2 offer which will save consumers a bit of cash when they pick up Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 with the console. The offer goes into effect starting on April 12, lasting through May 9. Those who purchase Nintendo Switch 2 at the same time as the physical...
Samsung follows Apple and turns your Galaxy S26 Ultra into a broadcast camera
Live sports might never look the same after this.
A New Era of Sports Broadcasting: Galaxy S26 Ultra Unlocks New Perspectives, Bringing Cameras Inside the A ...
Capturing new angles like never before, Galaxy S26 Ultra’s broadcast-ready capture transforms how skateboarding is filmed, experienced and delivered in real time
MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers and Yankees blah blah blah, let's talk about the Brewers and Pirates(?!)
Meanwhile, get your 'small sample size' and 'it's early yet' caveats out now, because we're done with them