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Scientists Discover More Than 1,000 Fish Nests Hiding Beneath Antarctica's Ice
"Critical evidence of unique, structured breeding habitats."
Crystal Coast Star Party connects telescopes, dark skies and NASA science
HARKERS ISLAND, N.C. — The Crystal Coast Stargazers’ annual Star Party returned in April, giving visitors a chance to look through telescopes, learn about dark
FDA advisers support easing restrictions on six peptides. Here’s what those drugs are and what happens next
Peptides have become one of the hottest trends in wellness, with promises like faster muscle recovery and healthier aging. And six of these compounds cleared a major hurdle last week, when an advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration voted in favor of making them available through compounding pharmacies.
‘To play God’: Cuba’s healthcare system collapses under US pressure
As the Trump administration tightens US sanctions, Cuba's healthcare sector struggles with fuel and supply shortages.
Even GB News cringes as Reform turns dementia patients into a political football
Honest Bob was rattled at the idea of joining cross-party talks on social care. Why bother behaving as a serious opposition?
Global: Extreme heat exposes deadly collision of climate change, corporate greed and political failure as rights burn
Extreme heat is not just a weather event. This heat is political.
Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8 early pre-order numbers reveal the most boring plot twist
Be honest: did you really think something else was gonna happen?
Christmas in July entertainment
We’re The Boerne Star! Local yesterday, today and tomorrow. Your resource for news and information
The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think
A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment
An honest look inside the "Science: A New Golden Age" report
Scientists are livid over the OSTP director's official report to the President. Will it lead to a new golden age for US science, or end it?
Ex-Trump health official shocked by Fauci’s ‘unabashed narcissism’ from diaries
A former Trump health official on Tuesday slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci over his recently-released journal entries. “I’d like to see honesty and transparency and I’d like Tony to come clean…
Mikal Bridges Gets Brutally Honest About Performance Last Season
Mikal Bridges isn't satisfied.
Kentucky governor demands 'honesty' on McConnell's health
Kentucky governor demands 'honesty' on McConnell's health
My spouse is spending all our money
Therapist Jordan Alam answers a question from a reader: "My spouse is spending money needlessly and depleting our nest egg. What should I do?"
I asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity what they really think of each other — and their responses revealed their biggest strengths (and weaknesses)
Each chatbot proved to be as honest as possible
Politics Unplugged Podcast: Recapping the primary with Chuck Coughlin
Independent consultant Chuck Coughlin gives us a brutally honest breakdown of the primary elections and why some of the candidates shouldn’t have run in the first place. Then Dennis and Colin talk about the current state of the Suns.
U.Va. Health becomes first health system in Virginia to offer new melanoma treatment
U.Va. Health interventional radiologist Dr. Daniel Sheeran and U.Va. Health Cardiac Anesthesiologist Dr. Paul Gallo helped bring the treatment to U.Va. Health.
PFL Washington: Jean vs. Rodriguez live results, highlights
Keep up with live results and highlights from PFL Washington, which features Thad Jean vs. Ernesto Rodriguez for the vacant welterweight title.
These are the most dishonest countries in the world, according to science
After handing in more than 17,000 lost wallets in 40 countries, scientists tracked how many actually made their way back to their owners
Tech firm Fever produces live shows worldwide, with local consequences
Unwrapping the complex puzzle of Fever, the company behind a nesting doll of live performances in Seattle and around the world.
Ex-NFL Coach Provides Honest Assessment of Ravens’ Lamar Jackson
There have been different opinions on Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson of late, but everyone knows he’s among the best players in the NFL.Last year was an outlier for Jackson since he dealt with so many injuries during the season. That affected his play on the field, finishing with a 63.6% completion percentage for 2,549 […] The post Ex-NFL Coach Provides Honest Assessment of Ravens’ Lamar Jackson appeared first on HEAVY.
Eagles Get Brutal Label Ahead of 2026 NFL Season
I don't think the Philadelphia Eagles are overrated heading into next season, and honestly, it almost feels like this team is being overlooked a bit.
Nestlé to sell half of waters business in $3.4B deal
Peranel, which will house brands such as S.Pellegrino and Source Perrier, will be a fully independent company and have full flexibility to “pursue growth opportunities.”
Lysol Maker Reckitt to Offload Sanctions-Hit Russian Hygiene Business
The deal with Russia’s Arnest Management—which manufactures cosmetics and household goods—is expected to complete during the second half of 2026.
Georgia: Journalist jailed and comedian attacked for political satire
Reacting to the 14-day jailing of journalist Vakho Sanaia over his satirical Facebook posts and a reported assault on comedian Onise Okriashvili following a smear campaign in pro-government media prompted by a joke he had made, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Deputy Regional Director, said: “Beating up and imprisoning government critics […]
Nestle to raise €3 billion from spin off of its water business
Nestle said on Thursday it expects to raise around €3 billion ($3.43 billion) from spinning off its water business into a 50-50 joint venture with U.S. investment firm Platinum Equity.
Nestle to Offload Half of Waters Business in Joint Venture With Platinum Equity
The Swiss company agreed with Platinum Equity to create a joint venture and sell a 50% stake in its Waters and Beverages unit.
Nestle nears sale of water business stake at close to €5 billion valuation, FT reports
Private equity firm Platinum Equity is nearing a deal to acquire about a 50% stake in Nestle's European water business in a transaction that would value the joint venture at almost €5 billion ($5.71 billion), the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The greenest goodbye: Human composting and the science of becoming soil
In 2020, Recompose was the first U.S. company to develop the technology needed for the commercial composting of human bodies, disrupting a funeral industry that had been largely unchanged for decades. Now 14 states have legalized the climate-friendly practice and more than a dozen others are considering it. Additional startups have launched to offer a greener goodbye and all are looking to scale.
Appeals court revives radiologist’s lawsuit over his public support for youth trans-care ban
“Today’s decision affirms that speaking honestly to our elected representatives is not misconduct—it is a constitutional right," Wyoming radiologist Eric Cubin, MD, said.
Former Bayern Munich prospect on his way to Sporting CP?
Nestory Irankunda could be on the move.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman Drops Honest Quote After Possible Final Home Start
Kevin Gausman addressed the possibility that he just made his final home start with the Blue Jays before the trade deadline. The post Toronto Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman Drops Honest Quote After Possible Final Home Start appeared first on HEAVY.
Less invasive anesthesia strategies during TAVR linked to a key benefit
Long-term TAVR outcomes were comparable. When tracking 30-day data, however, researchers found that hospital readmission was much less common for patients treated with regional anesthesia or moderate sedation.
Michigan GOP chair says he might support ban on DTE, Consumers giving
It's possible the Michigan Legislature will get the chance to place a competing measure on the November ballot.
Egypt: Release dozens detained over Gen Z online group calling for political change
The Egyptian authorities must release dozens of people detained for their association with a Gen Z online group calling for political change and publishing content critical of the government, Amnesty International said today. Since late May, officers from the National Security Agency (NSA) arrested at least 50 people, including nine women, for being part of the “Gen Z002” group on the social media platform, Discord, which called in October 2025 for toppling President Abdel […]
Bill Gates heads to Africa's cleanest country to learn about its health success story and discuss its $50 million plan
One of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates, is heading to Rwanda to get a glimpse of the progress the Eastern African country has made regarding its health sector
Sankey: SEC breakaway talk over college bill 'honest conversations'
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he continues to have conversations with Congressional leaders about the Protect College Sports Act but stopped short of saying whether all their suggested changes need to be implemented for the conference to support it.
"Honestly, it’s still getting worse" - Valve Steam Machine engineer says component prices are still rising, potentially paving the way for a price increase
The memory crisis is not showing signs of abating, according to people whose job it is to price-out every component that goes into Valve's hardware.
Rookie Hannes Steinbach Gets Honest on Role With Hornets
Charlotte Hornets rookie big man Hannes Steinbach shared what he will bring to the team in his rookie season.
Hegseth’s testosterone mandate carries risks, raises questions
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth kicked a hornet’s nest with his move this week to test troops’ testosterone levels. Hegseth argues the effort, to become part of the military’s periodic health …
New Stanton, business owner clash over surge of public records requests
The public records requests began in earnest in January, arriving a few times a month afterward. The handwritten filings sought New Stanton records under the state’s Right-to-Know Law. The borough received seven requests in April and about twice as many in May, according to records obtained by the Trib. Submissions
We treat steady eye contact as proof of honesty, but the science is messier: it can signal dominance as much as sincerity, and liars often hold your gaze more, not less
Ask almost anyone how to spot a liar and you will get a version of the same answer. Watch the eyes. A dishonest person cannot hold your gaze. The idea is
Every Team Has an Edge: EA SPORTS™ NHL® 27 Overhauls All 32 Arena Atmospheres and Presentation for Total Immersion
Powered by Real-World NHL EDGE™ Data and Unique Team Playbooks, NHL® 27 Releases September 11 with Generational Talent Macklin Celebrini Gracing the Cover Watch the Reveal Trailer HERE Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today unveiled EA SPORTS™ NHL 27 , launching September 11, 2026 on PlayStation®5 and Xbox Series X|S. EA SPORTS™ NHL® 27 brings all 32 NHL arenas to life with authentic atmospheres: presentation that reflects each team’s identity, a new commentary team, a new dynamic crowd system, and a new modernized broadcast package. Alongside new social and competitive mode Connected Franchise, this year marks one of the most significant upgrades in franchise history. Generational talent and San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini headlines the Standard and Deluxe Edition covers, ushering in a new era of the EA SPORTS™ NHL franchise. NHL 27 Deluxe Edition Cover “Seeing the Shark Tank brought to life like that is honestly unreal,” said Macklin Celebrini, NHL 27 cover athlete. “The
EU Top Court Backs Amnesty for Catalan Independence Leaders
The European Union’s top court ruled in favor of a Spanish law granting amnesty to Catalan politicians who held a referendum for the region’s independence in 2017, handing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a political boost.
NFL Coach Drops Honest Admission on Chargers' Justin Herbert
Despite prolific playmaking and elite physical tools, rival coordinators question the star quarterback’s maturity and operational mastery as he fights to secure his first playoff victory.
The ’Gay’ Attacks on Lindsey Graham Are All About Politics
Was Lindsey Graham gay? As the author of a book about the history of gay Washington, D.C., it’s a question I’ve been asked frequently for years, and even more so since his sudden death last weekend. The South Carolina Republican’s lifelong confirmed bachelorhood, vocal intonation, and Southern dandy demeanor (if not sartorial choices) prompted many to conclude that he was, as they say in that part of the country, “light in his loafers.” Graham’s repeated attestations to the contrary had zero effect on those invested in the narrative that he was. Only about the matter of J. Edgar Hoover’s rumored cross-dressing (for which there is much circumstantial but no direct evidence) am I questioned more. Whenever I’ve been asked to speculate upon Graham’s sexuality—and speculate was all that I or anyone else could do—I always answered the question honestly. While my personal sense is that Graham was probably gay, as a journalist and a historian I cannot rely on my intuition to make factual assertions. (Gaydar hasn’t yet been scientifically perfected.) Given the absence of any known female or male romantic interests, Graham may very well have been a heterosexual unlucky in love. He might also have been asexual. Barring the highly unlikely postmortem emergence of a personal diary or some other unassailable evidence attesting to Graham’s innermost yearnings, we will never know the answer. As is depressingly the case these days when a public figure dies, a chorus of voices reveled in Graham’s passing, many of them making light of his presumed homosexuality.
The States Try to Topple WarnerMount…Thus Begins the Local Antitrust Era
(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.) Well, it looks like it’s time for another strategy column. Can I finally avoid writing about M&A? No, it seems I cannot. Admittedly, I’m a week early with this column, since I usually put it out every other week. But this news couldn’t wait. This will make three “Most Important Stories” in a row with a merger or acquisition as its centerpiece. First, Roku-Fox (an acquisition), then Comcast-NBCUniversal (a divestment!), and now the State AGs and the WGA’s lawsuits against Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery (antitrust). M&A is usually the “most important” topic any given week, simply because a giant company merging or breaking up (or preventing those outcomes) can have the biggest impact on the streaming board. If you think about these companies as players in a game, changing the number of players is one of the biggest changes you can make. I shouldn’t really complain, either, since this lawsuit is very good news for customers and suppliers (econ speak for talent, workers and indie studios in Hollywood). So let me answer some questions about this potential trial, along with (shudder) making some heavily caveated predictions. I’ll also look at whether Hollywood must consolidate, whether or not the states can win, trouble at X-Box, Netflix’s YouTube binge, and more. Plus, I have five images that visualize this merger and the harm, including three brand new data looks you’ve never seen before. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Can The States and the WGA Stop Hollywood’s Consolidation (Crisis)? If every other newsletter and news outlet is writing about the same story, I try to avoid writing about it as well, but I can’t ignore a story this consequential. The story of the last year was the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery, and this development potentially extends that saga into 2027. As I tried to figure out my angle, I realized, like my last column, I’m again faced with a series of questions. These questions, though, are much more forward-looking. Will the states win? Will the WGA win? If so, what happens to Warner Bros. Discovery? Either way, will this chill the market for future mergers? So you know what that means: predictions. About the future, no less, the hardest thing to predict.1 Just remember: nothing here comes with a guarantee. And the more confident someone is in their predictions, the less you should trust them. This situation is incredibly fluid, nuanced, uncertain and tenuous. So let’s try to explain what may happen. Question: Why File this Lawsuit? I’ll admit, a few months back, I was fairly pessimistic about the fate of this lawsuit. Rumors had started bubbling up that the state Attorneys General (in particular California) wanted to settle with either some minor divestments (usually CNN) or behavioral remedies. And that tracked for me: the states usually settle lawsuits, like the recent John Deere right-to-repair suit. Yet, they plan to fight this. (As they did the LiveNation-Ticketmaster monopolization trial and the Nexstar-Tegna merger.) Honestly, that also makes a ton of sense. Frankly, this move is just good politics for these State AGs. Most are still running for higher and higher office in blue states—some folks have emphasized that only Democratic AGs joined this suit, but given the Ellison/Trump ties, and fears of retribution, that tracks—and a high profile case like this will help them move up the electoral ladder, especially since Paramount and its leadership (the Ellisons, father and heir) have sided with the other side of the political aisle. That makes them unsympathetic to Democratic voters and Hollywood workers in particular. Why did this lawsuit happen? In addition to the very real concerns about industry consolidation, this is why. That said, I don’t think we would have seen this lawsuit for Netflix and Warner Bros., simply because they’re more sympathetic and aligned with Democrats. But those consolidation concerns are real. The “town”—meaning Hollywood and such—really is seeing the damage of mergers on this industry. That’s why the WGA also filed its own lawsuit in defense of workers as well. (Wildcard: What about Europe? Will they try to stop the deal, too? There have been some rumors out of the UK they may try to fight the deal, and UK enforcers just stopped a Getty Images-Shutterstock tie up, so there is precedence. This argument could go either way, though. On one hand, the EU doesn’t need to step in, cause they states are handling it. On the other hand, this could make the EU’s case easier. Just imagine if both sides coordinated. I’ll simply say, “We’ll see!”) Question: Will The State AGs or the WGA Win? Can the state AGs play David to Paramount-Skydance’s Goliath here? That’s really the whole thing, isn’t it? If you know this result, you could make a lot of money. When things are uncertain, it’s tempting to shrug and say, “Eh” meaning it’s a 50/50 proposition. I wouldn’t, though. When in doubt, you should expect that the merging parties succeed. AT&T did successfully buy Warner Bros., after all, and Disney bought Fox without any challenges. Many judges are extremely sympathetic to mergers, and I’d bet the state AGs get a judge who will allow the merger. (Even Obama-appointed judges often allow mergers.) As I understand it, we’ll see two main attacks. First, theatrical films. The AGs are arguing that, when it comes to share of box office and the number of both “wide releases” and blockbuster (or “tentpole”) films, the merging parties will have over 27% market share. Now, the Supreme Court once ruled from on high that any merger that exceeds 30% is presumptively illegal, but that’s guidance, not an ironclad bar. Still, the states will have to argue that this is close to having too much power, and with that power, this will likely further worsen the theater/studio splits in particular. Indeed, as Matthew Stoller pointed out, “just five studios are responsible for 95% of all blockbusters; if this merger goes through, then Paramount and Disney will control 60% of that.” So yes, movie studios will be very concentrated after this merger. Want me to visualize some of that? Well, here’s the share of films that grossed over $200 million at the domestic box office since 2022. (Note: this isn’t all films released in over 3,000 screens, but it is a good look at market power.) First, here are the 43 films by studio: Notice all the blue (Disney), orange (Universal), and purple (Warner Bros)? Yeah, those studios are powerful, and this combines Paramount with one of them. Here’s the look by studio and share of the films that grossed over $200 million: Now, if you look at that and also think, “Huh, should we break up Disney?” I’m with you. I’ve seen some folks poo-poo this idea that this is a real category, but it is! For an upcoming article, I’ve been pulling data on the share of top 100 films at the box office as a share of total box office, and it’s massive. Here’s the chart: (This analysis looks at The-Number’s top 100 films and total domestic box office each year.) To be clear, tentpoles make up 80.7% of the box office each year, so I do think it’s a genuine market. (To be clear, films grossing over $50 million make up 80% of the domestic box office, and films grossing over $100 million make up 64.1%.) I mean, the top 100 films at the box office make up 95% of each year’s grosses. Worse, the combined studios will likely cut output to flex that market power. Everyone can just look at what happened to Disney and Fox to see the precedent. (With fewer films, the remaining theaters have to give more for those few films that remain.) Here’s an image I’ve used a lot, the share of wide-release films from Disney and Fox over time: The AGs will also argue that this consolidation will also impact the cable industry. In this case, the consolidation is actually worse, but that environment is…complicated. Paramount will argue that the cable industry is shrinking. That said, predictions that cable will “go to zero” also don’t look very well supported by the data, as the declines are shrinking, meaning “cable” or “vMVPDs” will likely stabilize at some point. Can the state Attorneys General win on those two main arguments? I honestly don’t know. Again, I’d bet no, since history in general supports that, but it depends on the judge/jury and how they interpret the arguments. Notably, Paramount won’t face accusations about monopoly power in other areas, like streaming, news, sports rights, or vertical integration. I tend to disagree with leaving out sports rights, but I also see the appeal for a simpler case. The states also aren’t really pushing novel theories about labor harm either, which should help. (By the way, Sean McNulty at The Ankler wrote a great run through of potential options, and Capitol Forum also wrote a great paper on theatrical consolidation. Both these pieces predated the lawsuit. Matthew Stoller is also out with his analysis of the pros and cons of the case too.) In some ways, the WGA’s case is even stronger. Quoting Sean McNulty’s summary: “The WGA is citing WARNAMOUNT as crossing a 30% market share in multiple sectors, a number that the Supreme Court has precedent for deeming “presumptively anticompetitive” in a market. According to the WGA numbers, WARNAMOUNT would have represented: - 35% of film writing jobs between 2021 and 2024 - 36% of TV writing projects between 2022 and 2025 - 38% of overall deals between 2021 and 2024” Notably, antitrust enforcers did win recently in the Penguin-Simon & Schuster merger by focusing on labor impact, so don’t count this thinking out. (Wildcard: Will the states try to get a jury trial? Most likely no, they’ll let a judge handle it. If I’m them, though, I’d try to put this in front of a jury. Juries tend to understand monopoly power in a more realistic way than judges faced with legions of economists.) Question: What if They Win? What if They Lose?
Sold-out Henry Cho show boosts Bloomington Center for Performing Arts
The Bloomington Center for Performing Arts sold out over 1,100 tickets for comedian Henry Cho's July 12 performance, part of his The Empty Nest Tour, demonstrating the city's growing interest in arts ...
When will Jacob Misiorowski pitch nest for the Milwaukee Brewers?
Jacob Misiorowski won't appear in the All-Star Game or the first series after the break for the Brewers, but there isn't cause for alarm.
CJ McCollum Shares Honest Thoughts on Knicks Winning NBA Championship
The Hawks guard credits the Knicks for figuring things out during their title run, but believes Atlanta proved it belongs among the East's best.
Bryce Harper Makes Honest Statement About Yankees Star Aaron Judge
Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge are two of the most notable stars in all of baseball.Both players are 2026 MLB All-Stars, but Judge has been out with an injury since May 31.At his recent media availability on Monday, Harper made an honest statement about Judge (h/t SNY Yankees).Reporter: “What’s one player in MLB history you’d […] The post Bryce Harper Makes Honest Statement About Yankees Star Aaron Judge appeared first on HEAVY.
Arkansas’ tick season appears worse than usual, state public health veterinarian says
Data from the Centers for Disease Control indicate 2026 is a bad year for the tick bite-avoidant nationwide. The same is shaping up to be true in Arkansas.
Political parties and hard truths
On Monday I received a very nice but somewhat shocking email from a reader. I wasn't shocked because I got an email, but because the reader assumed I'm a Republican. To use his words, an "old school Republican quite capable of honesty and common decency." My gosh, what a nice thing to say, but I digress.
They're Building Half A Bridge to Save Science...
Today’s post is about science: what you can do now to protect it from unprecedented threats, and how your action is the first half of a long-term program that Congress must take up next. Let me start with describing the embryonic state of science advocacy. There are many well-meaning organizations: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Research!America, and subject-specific organizations such as the Society for Neuroscience and the American Physical Society. Their general approach is to emphasize the common good: the remarkable value that science and innovation have provided to all Americans. However, these organizations are offering an incomplete solution. Before I start, a preliminary: If you already know about the threat, go ahead and weigh in with OMB at this link. Ideas about what to say come from Research!America and the American Physical Society. You have until Monday, July 13 at 11:59pm Eastern. Then come back here and read the rest of this post. Finally, get in touch with whoever is likely to be your next member of Congress in 2027. The threat: An end to merit-based science… The onslaught of attacks on science is accelerating. It’s not just cuts to grants, which was the last battle. That battle is not done yet, but there is a new and worse threat. Now comes a proposed public rule from the Office of Management and Budget. The rule would take decision-making power over grants away from experts and put it into the hands of political appointees. Former NIH official Elizabeth Ginexi wrote an excellent summary of what OMB is trying to do, which is codify the executive branch’s ability to award or terminate grants, for arbitrary cause or no stated cause. Since World War II, a necessary step in scientific grant-making has been consideration of scientific merit. This approach has made America into a dominant scientific superpower, the envy of the world. Of course, political considerations do come into the mix. The proposed rule tilts the balance dramatically away from merit. …but why? Many people have difficulty comprehending why Russell Vought and OMB would want to damage science in this way. If you’re a working scientist, you are likely to be particularly uncomprehending. Who would hurt an activity so self-evidently good? The answer is: this is part of the program to replace the rule of law with a personalist regime. OMB Director Russell Vought, a Christian nationalist, would like to implement what legal scholars call a “unitary executive,” and what I would call a dictatorship. Or if you like, a personalist authoritarian regime. I am a working scientist. This rule will debilitate my research. It may chill the speech of scientists for speaking freely in the public sphere. It is a form of personalizing power and decision-making within the executive branch. In short, it sacrifices science in the service of tyranny. To Russell Vought, a decrease in the quality of science might be an acceptable cost. He might even consider it an added benefit to weaken a pillar of soft U.S. power based on knowledge and skepticism. The professional societies are building half a bridge The nonprofits are asking you to make public comment. Public comment is like building the first half of a bridge. Before implementation, OMB is compelled by law to have a period of public comment. Rules have to be consistent with the law and the Constitution. They express the federal government’s stance toward how those laws will be implemented. When a presidential administration works in good faith, these public comments are used to inform their eventual action, and sometimes mitigate it. The comment period reflects our First Amendment right to petition our government. The executive branch is then supposed to take those comments into account - completing the bridge between us, the people, and our government. Project 2025 seeks to take away the second half of the bridge. We have to replace it. The first half of the bridge Organizations like AAAS, Research!America, and SfN are partly right. You should certainly comment. Their core model is earnest: if enough of us make noise, then we will achieve change. This idealistic point of view is offered in good faith. That point of view is also currently bullshit. The fundamental reason is that the federal rulemaking process has two parts: There has to be a period of public comment. OMB makes the final rule…but is free to disregard public comment. Oops. That’s a loophole. However, not all is lost. Congress can complete the bridge Congress has enormous power. That power suggests a roadmap for how to proceed. This lawless administration is still going to issue that rule. Nonetheless, your comments still play an essential role. Here are two steps you can take. Step 1: Send your comment to your Representative and Senator. Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, many of them support science. Whatever you wrote as public comment in the Federal Register, also send it to your member of Congress. You can include information about jobs in your district or state by looking at Joshua Weitz’s ScienceMatters interactive map. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give your town, zip code, or state, then deliver your message. Step 2: Politicize the hell out of science. You heard me, politicize it as an issue. We hear a lot from the old scientific establishment about science being nonpartisan. This is obsolete, sentimental thinking. Under normal conditions, it was true. But we can no longer make that assumption. We can keep on pretending, but we’re putting science at risk. There is a way forward. Rules are subordinate to the law…and Congress makes laws. Therefore Congress can step in. In this fall’s election, it is likely that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives. That puts at least one chamber of Congress in the hands of Democrats. They are far more inclined than the current Congress to investigate and legislate. This opens a path to undoing the damage. It also creates a permission structure for pro-science Republicans to find a way back from the brink. We have to encourage them. In the House, every district is up every two years. In your district, contact both of the major party candidates. If your state has a Senate race, contact those candidates too. Specifically mention the proposed OMB rule. Ask for two things: For this year’s appropriations process in August and September, ask that amendments be added to stop the implementation of the new rule. Those amendments should support peer-reviewed science and stop political interference. Looking ahead to next year, ask the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator to work to hold hearings in 2027 on the importance and benefits of peer-reviewed science for health and prosperity. What hearings and amendments will accomplish Congress can use its investigatory power to summon heads of agencies and the director of the OMB. That will allow fact-finding regarding the consequences of this rule. Congress can override the rule through the appropriations process. They can write into statute a requirement to follow peer review and best scientific practices. In this way, Congress can stop the attacks on science. Postscript: Moving forward Now I have a request for you, to help me. As many of you know, I ran for Congress in order to save democracy and science. Although I did not win, that battle continues by other means. I met and heard from thousands of supporters both here in New Jersey and nationally. I learned that pro-science, pro-democracy activists have the potential to become a much greater force. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be building ways to harness that energy. I will be announcing those plans soon. In the meantime, an important step is to wind down the Congressional campaign, which has a few remaining bills to pay. Please help me retire that last debt.
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