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Republicans try to defy history with convention in Dallas
President Donald Trump and party leaders believe that by talking about all the good things that have happened over the last two years, they can boost GOP energy nationwide.
OPINION: A mental health crisis should end in treatment, not death
The death of Jayden Stephenson shows what can happen when Ohio's civil commitment process isn't used as intended.
TV was the only guide through the horror and chaos of 9/11
Everything changed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and we all watched it happen, live on TV.
What's happening in local business
Massimo’s Pizzeria in Towne Square Shopping Center has announced it will open Monday, Sept. 14. For more information, visit “Massimo’s Pizzeria” on Facebook.
Viewpoint: Unlocking Europe’s wildfire data
Europe is already investing in the science, technology and infrastructure needed to understand, prevent and fight wildfires. Copernicus provides satellite-based Earth observation and environmental information, while the European Forest Fire Information System provides information on fire danger and forest fires across Europe. Weather and climate systems add forecasts of heat, drought, wind and humidity; historical fire databases show where fires have occurred; and researchers generate increasingly detailed knowledge about fuels, fire behaviour, forecasting, modelling and risk management. Meanwhile, new European research projects are adding digital twins and other tools to this growing ecosystem.However, these data do not necessarily sit together, nor are they necessarily described, structured or governed in ways that allow them to be used together. Much of the information is public, but some is commercially held. Some is sensitive. Some is subject to legal, security or operational restrictions. Even when data can be legally accessed, different systems may use different formats, terminology and rules.Europe therefore faces an unusual paradox: we have vast amounts of relevant information to respond to the wildfire challenge, but not the means to bring it together. For example, a wildfire researcher or emergency service might need to ask whether a particular combination of vegetation, drought, wind and topography has historically been associated with rapid fire spread. The relevant information may exist in several institutions, using different systems and subject to different conditions of access.The challenge is to conduct an authorised analysis that interacts with these sources, combines the results and respects the rules imposed by each data custodian.An important part of the answer can be found in the Fair principles, the idea that data should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Developed more than a decade ago, these principles have become a central reference point for modern data stewardship, making it easier for people and machines to find data, understand what it means and determine whether it can be reused.Readability by machines is essential, since AI systems will be key to meeting the data challenge. Bring analysis to the dataThe proposition is not to give an AI system unrestricted access to sensitive databases. Quite the opposite. The goal is to make it possible for approved algorithms to go to the data, rather than requiring sensitive data or large datasets to be copied to wherever the analysis happens.Imagine an analysis asking a series of questions of different data stations. At one station it might examine weather and climate data; at another, historical fire records; at another, experimental measurements of fire behaviour. The algorithm does not need to download everything. It can operate within the environment permitted by each data custodian and return only the results that the rules allow to leave.This is sometimes described as data visiting, and related approaches already exist in areas such as federated analysis and federated learning.Sensitive data should therefore not be treated as a free-for-all for machines. This requires appropriate governance at multiple levels. Access needs to be authenticated and authorised. The purpose of an analysis should be defined. The code or model being run should be controlled. Data custodians should be able to specify what can be queried and what results can leave their environment. Activities should be auditable and human oversight should remain where the consequences require it.In other words, the objective is not to trust AI with the data. It is to design systems in which AI never has more access than it needs.As open as possible, as closed as necessaryFair data should also not be confused with open data. Some wildfire data should be openly available. Other information may legitimately need to remain restricted because it concerns critical infrastructure, security, commercial interests, privacy or operational capabilities. The principle should be: as open as possible, as closed as necessary.The important point is that restricted data should not automatically become unusable data. If machines can discover what information exists, understand its meaning, establish where it came from and determine the conditions under which it can be used, authorised analyses can potentially be carried out without the underlying data ever leaving the environment in which it is protected.Restricted data can still be Fair and machine-actionable.This is also an important question of data sovereignty. European institutions should not have to surrender control of their data to a handful of technology platforms in order to benefit from AI. Nor does Europe need to start again by building one giant repository for every piece of wildfire information. The better approach is to connect what already exists.This is the principle behind emerging approaches such as Tryangle, developed through the Leiden Initiative for Fair and Equitable Science. Rather than creating another centralised data warehouse, the approach seeks to provide an interoperable layer through which approved algorithms can visit distributed data sources while respecting the rules of their custodians.In this way, a data station can remain where it is. Its custodians can retain control. Existing databases and applications do not have to be abandoned. What changes is their ability to communicate with other systems through common, machine-readable descriptions, access rules and interoperability mechanisms.But approaches like this need data that meets the Fair principles. Only then can an interoperable ecosystem safely begin to turn fragmented information into collective intelligence.Data infrastructure is wildfire infrastructureThe implications of this approach are entirely practical. Firefighters could gain better intelligence about local and evolving risks. Land managers could test prevention strategies using more comprehensive information about fuels, weather and past fires. Researchers could compare evidence across ecosystems without repeatedly moving huge datasets between institutions. Smaller regions and resource-constrained teams could access analytical capabilities without having to build large data infrastructures themselves.Europe is already investing heavily in satellites, databases, research programmes, forecasting systems and scientific expertise. The question is whether we will connect those investments well enough to turn them into actionable intelligence.That requires policymakers and funders to treat data infrastructure as seriously as physical infrastructure. Data generated or supported through European public funding should be Fair, verifiable and machine actionable by design, wherever legally and ethically possible.Related articlesData Corner: Europe’s burning need for wildfire mitigation researchClimate monitoring must remain a global enterprise, experts sayIn practice, that means funding not only the production of data, but also the infrastructure that makes data usable across systems: metadata, provenance, interoperability, access mechanisms and governance. Where data must remain restricted, we should ensure that it can still be securely discovered, verified and used for authorised analysis.Initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud offer an existing framework through which these principles can be put into practice. What is needed now is to accelerate implementation and make them a standard part of how Europe funds and builds research and innovation systems.We do not need another generation of disconnected databases. The data is already there. The opportunity is to make it work together, securely, responsibly and quickly enough to help prevent the next fire, rather than simply document the last one.Jean-Claude Burgelman is professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and editor-in-chief at Frontiers Policy Lab. For more than 20 years he held leading roles in research and innovation policy at the European Commission.
GRI “Your Wondrous Works” Conference Presents Science To Buttress the Bible
Adventist scientists gathered for the Geoscience Research Institute conference and tension again emerged between science and the Adventist understanding of creation. What happens when the search for evidence to support Adventism’s understanding remains inconclusive?
Never Forget: Advocates question pace of hiring for 9/11 survivor health program
A promise to fix staffing shortages in a program for 9/11 survivors is being questioned this week. Advocates say rehiring positions cut in 2025 is not happening fast enough for those who are sick and applying for the World Trade Center Health Program.
Why Trump’s Republican Midterm ‘Convention’ Isn’t a Real Convention
No nominations or formal party business will be happening, as they would at a traditional presidential convention. But the made-for-TV speeches will look much the same.
16 Seattle-area author events happening this fall
From national book tours to conversations with local authors, take note of these upcoming bibliophile events in the Seattle area.
Is 'Practical Magic 2' worth watching? The sequel took 28 years to happen — and critics say the reunion is complicated.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as the Owens sisters alongside Joey King and Maisie Williams in the witchy cult classic's long-awaited sequel.
Why conservatives have shifted on Israel
The political formation of young conservatives is increasingly happening on the internet.
Nintendo Direct September 2026 Live Report: All the Announcements as They Happen
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct, we have a brand new Nintendo Direct — and IGN will be reporting all the news live right here.
America Is In Pain. Flagler Health Is Transforming Clinics On The Front Lines
Hinge Health put MSK care on the digital-health map. Flagler's $50M Series B reflects a different bet: use AI to transform the specialty clinics where care still happens
Wheeling pet care business halts van service after dog’s death
Waggles Pet Resort intends to “evaluate steps to help prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again,” the company announced in a prepared statement.
5 fun events happening in Madison this week, Sept. 10-16 🎤🧶🍺
This week around Madison, see SNL's Kam Patterson, check out the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, celebrate Oktoberfest at Working Draft and more.
A rare thing in American politics may happen in Rhode Island on Wednesday
Gov. Dan McKee barely beat Helena Foulkes in 2022. For Wednesday’s rematch, the former CVS executive has outraised him and appears well positioned to win.
Schumer and Jeffries opposed a Brooklyn power play. It happened anyway.
The Brooklyn party chair rewrote the rules ahead of a leadership vote despite objections from the nation’s two most powerful Democrats, and some in the party are wondering if they could do more to stop her.
When will Baleba make his Man Utd debut?
Manchester United made the signing of Carlos Baleba a pretty big deal by parading him onto the pitch before last month's Premier League victory over Ipswich. Man Utd made midfield recruitment a summer priority, so what happens now? On the early evidence, it will be either Kobbie Mainoo or Youri Tielemans, with either Tielemans or Bruno Fernandes in the number 10 role.
How the Latest CFP Expansion News Impacts North Dakota State
North Dakota State and fellow top Group of Six teams are awaiting what happens with the potential College Football Playoff expansion. The post How the Latest CFP Expansion News Impacts North Dakota State appeared first on HEAVY.
Insider Connects Connor Hellebuyck to Carolina Hurricanes
A trade has not materialized for Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He made it clear he wants to be moved out of the organization.It’s been two weeks for Hellebuyck and his camp to see a trade come through. However, nothing has happened to this point.A few of his Jets teammates were asked about it before […] The post Insider Connects Connor Hellebuyck to Carolina Hurricanes appeared first on HEAVY.
What Will Life Science Orgs Do When The AI Bill Comes Through?
AI is transforming clinical development, but what happens when usage costs spike? Jon Newton explains how to govern it before the bill lands.
Vallejo’s Empress Theatre amps up entertainment offerings, dining
“The idea is simple: there should be something happening often enough that people throughout Vallejo, Solano County, and the greater Bay Area can make the Empress part of their regular week,” says the Empress Threatre.
Why Are So Many Parked Cars Catching On Fire?
When I was about nine years old, I was riding in the back of my family’s old ’68 Volkswagen Beetle when the car started to lose power and slow down. My mom, who was driving at the time, began to pull over to the side of the road, and at that moment I looked behind […]
Driver crashes through Bradenton business on Cortez Road, police say
Bradenton police said the crash happened Sunday afternoon.
Trump Tells Weird Lie About Where He Was on 9/11
At an event honoring first responders, Trump claimed he was carried away from Ground Zero by firefighters, which didn’t happen.
These Companies Made the Inc. Best in Business List. Here’s What Happened Next
Award winners share how they capitalized on the momentum from their Best in Business recognition.
12NewsNow
12News is the local news leader in Southeast Texas. See news happening? Call us at (409) 838-1212 or email us at 12News@12NewsNow.com 12News: Expect More.
‘Science at the Fifty-Third Degree’ humanizes research advancements through conversation
Episodes highlight the collaborative nature of science, and expand accessibility of discoveries happening at the university.
In 12 years, Triangle man missed only 1 health insurance payment. He lost coverage
A mistake setting up autopay proved costly for this Morrisville family. Here’s what happened — and how you can avoid it.
988 Day: What to know about Oklahoma's mental health lifeline
On 988 Day, a crisis services expert explains what happens when you call, text or chat with the 988 Mental Health Lifeline and why you don't have to be in immediate crisis to reach out.
Allison Janney can’t believe what happens on ‘The Diplomat’ season 4: ‘It gave me chills’
‘The Diplomat’ isn’t slowing down in season 4. If anything, star Allison Janney tells EW ‘it ramps up’ even more.
Why electronic signatures are turning the business world upside down right now - Futura-Sciences
How electronic signatures actually work It’s true: electronic signatures save heaps of time. But – and this is a pretty big but – the level of legal protection in the event of a dispute depends entirely on the method you choose. So, how does the magic happen? Let’s start with...
'It just can't be happening'
Everton fan Sarah Halpen has criticised the club's hierarchy for being "reactive" rather than "proactive" in the summer transfer window. The Toffees' business, which saw a £40m deal for forward Folarin Balogun collapse late on deadline day, has left manager David Moyes with just 18 senior outfield players until the next transfer window which opens on Friday, 1 January.
Politics we can agree on: Small wins show the positive impact of government
This week I’d like to shine a light on some of the under-the-radar happenings in DC that we should all agree are positive steps forward.
“It’s normal” Kessie breaks silence on snubbing Juventus for Atalanta
Franck Kessie was widely expected to move to Juventus this summer as a free agent, and he tried his best to make the transfer happen. The midfielder waited patiently for Juve to offload some players a...
Europe has plans for cancer and heart disease – lung health is still waiting
Getting respiratory care right could help patients, ease hospital pressure and cut emissions all at once – but Europe still lacks a plan to make it happen
Pereira expects UFC rematch with Gane to happen
UFC star Alex Pereira insists the fight that makes the most sense for him is a rematch against Ciryl Gane.
Phoenix family says call for mental health help ended in deadly police shooting
A Phoenix family says their call to police for help during their son’s mental health crisis ended with him being shot and killed by officers. Phoenix police say 20-year-old Jonathan Marquez Delgado was armed with a knife and ran toward officers. There are different accounts of what happened Sunday morning.
Phoenix family says call for mental health help ended in deadly police shooting
A Phoenix family says their call to police for help during their son’s mental health crisis ended with him being shot and killed by officers. Phoenix police say 20-year-old Jonathan Marquez Delgado was armed with a knife and ran toward officers. There are different accounts of what happened Sunday morning.
When Scientists Become Commercial Influencers
Peer review in reputable journals gives scientific claims an authority that commercial speech rarely enjoys. But what happens when scientists carry that halo of authority out of the laboratory and into the marketplace, publicly attacking products while enjoying protections their manufacturers do not?
California Wants $7.5 Billion for Science. My Generation Will Inherit
A STUDENT’S VIEW - California may ask voters to authorize billions for scientific research after federal funding cuts. Young Californians have a particular stake in what happens next. California is c
Why cleaning up after Burning Man is 'awesome business' for this Nevadan
Burning Man is all about "Leave No Trace." But what happens to the tons of trash once it leaves the playa?
Burning Man explores solutions to massive energy consumption, waste
Burning Man is all about 'Leave No Trace,' but what happens to the tons of trash once it leaves the playa?
Zac Taylor Updates Tee Higgins, Ja'Marr Chase's Health Trajectory Ahead of Week 1 Battle Against Tampa Bay
Trying to make it happen this week.
Does Harry Shum Jr.’s role on ‘DWTS’ hint at his future on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’?
Harry Shum Jr. has starred on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ since season 19 in 2022 — so what happens to Blue now that the actor is on ‘DWTS’?
Why Anthony Edwards Could Be Ready for an MVP Season
The ballot skipped him last spring for a reason that had little to do with his game, and the roster around him was rebuilt in a way that could keep it from happening again.
Cravings ‘like heroin withdrawal’: what happens when weight-loss drugs don’t work?
GLP-1 medications have been a gamechanger in the fight against obesity. But for a minority of patients, their impact is negligible. Why?
Why is far-right AfD’s state victory significant and what might happen next in German politics?
Aftershocks of party’s win in Saxony-Anhalt will ripple across Germany, with two more state elections this month
What Happens to Your Mental Health When You Take Omega-3s
Dietitians share how this anti-inflammatory nutrient impacts depression and brain health.
Prof Elizabeth Streicher unravels the science behind drug-resistant TB
Prof Elizabeth Streicher of the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics delivered her inaugural lecture on Tuesday 1 September 2026. Her research focuses on the transmission and spread of Tuberculosis (TB). Knowing where TB transmission is happening can help to stop it from spreading. Prof Elizabeth Streicher of the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences delivered her inaugural lecture on Tuesday 1 September 2026. The title of her lecture was Decoding tuberculosis: the evolution of technology, epidemiology and the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome. Streicher explained to Corporate Communication and Marketing how molecular epidemiology (using genetic information to track how and why diseases spread through populations) has improved our understanding of where drug-resistant TB comes from, how it spreads and how drug resistance evolves within and between populations. Tell us more about your research and why you became interested in this specific field. Overall, our research group studies the genome (complete set of DNA instructions found in a cell) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) disease. Various regions of the genome are interrogated to study different aspects of the disease. My main focus has been on the epidemiology of tuberculosis – how the bacteria’s genome changes over time and what this tells us about the transmission and spread of the disease. How would you describe the relevance of your work? If we understand how the bacteria that cause TB change and spread, it can assist in combating TB globally. How has molecular epidemiology helped improve our understanding of drug-resistant TB? Molecular epidemiology was very important in drug-resistant TB as it was originally believed that bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics would be less fit and not be able to transmit. But it was shown that they can transmit, and therefore have to be monitored to identify hotspots of transmission and outbreaks, etc. Can you tell us briefly about the spoligotyping technique and its advantages for studying drug-resistant TB? Spoligotyping (a molecular technique used to identify and track specific strains of TB bacteria) does not detect drug resistance, but since the technique is relatively quick to do, it can be very useful in real-time situations, e.g. to monitor outbreaks of drug resistance. Why are interrupting transmission chains and identifying genomic hotspots important for controlling the spread of TB? Knowing where TB transmission is happening can assist in allocating resources to those areas to stop future transmission and spread of TB. Higher education can be challenging. What keeps you motivated when things get tough? Students – how they are so passionate and dedicated to learning and contributing to research and society as a whole. What aspects of your work do you enjoy the most? Again, the students and colleagues! But also the fact that it is continuously changing and thereby we are learning and expanding our knowledge. In the end, I know that we contribute to a better society in our small way. Tell us something exciting about yourself that people would not expect. Even though I love hiking (day and multi-day hikes) and being outside, I really do not like camping! How do you spend your free time? I love hiking (wellbeing in nature) and like to watch most sports. ©Higher Education Media Services. Subscribe
What's happening in Pensacola? See what's new, what's next, in food, business, traffic
Check out our roundup of the new businesses, major ribbon cuttings, and upcoming projects that could impact your family, neighborhood and commute.
What events are happening in the South Bend area from Sept. 7 to 13?
From the Blueberry Festival to Murder at the Morris, here is your guide to South Bend events for Sept. 7 to 13.
Capello: Why Roma can challenge Inter for Serie A title
Fabio Capello feels Roma can pose a strong challenge to Inter for the 2026-27 Serie A title: ‘When you have quality players in the final third, anything can happen.’Inter and Roma are the only two...
Scientists reconstructed a Wyoming forest from 56-million-year-old fossil leaves; it lost about 60% of its canopy during ancient warming and took more than 100,000 years to recover
Deep in the rock record of Wyoming, a layer of fossil leaves tells a quiet but powerful story about what happens to forests when the planet warms rapidly. About 56 million years ago, during a spike in global temperatures known as the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a lush subtropical forest that once covered the region lost roughly 60 percent of its canopy.
We’re travelling around Queensland and the water in this tiny outback town smells rather strange — but the science of what’s happening 500 metres beneath our feet is fascinating
We’re travelling around Queensland at the moment, and one of the things I love about travelling this way is that you never quite know what is going to
COUNTDOWN: 12 days to West Seattle Wine Walk. Here are the winery/business matchups!
You might call it the first big event of fall in The Junction, though it'll be a few days before the official arrival of autumn: The next West Seattle Wine Walk is happening Friday, September 18, and if you don't have your ticket(s) yet, you might not want to wait much longer, as it often sells out. Here are the 30+ winery/business pairings ...
The core anti-Pangram constituency is phony writers
Welcome to The Closing Argument, our verdict on the news, plus everything The Argument published and appeared in this week. The Verdict, by Kelsey Piper A lot of people hate AI for drowning the internet in slop and displacing human creatives. You might think that these people would be thrilled by a program that can identify and flag AI-generated work. But many people who hate AI also hate Pangram, an impressively accurate AI detector that produces very few false positives, according to high-quality independent research. This loathing found its most recent expression in a bizarre Wired article that amplifies a wide range of false arguments from Pangram skeptics: that AI detectors are racist (they’re not) or ableist (they’re not)1 or don’t work (this one does)2. Rather than starting from the premise that it would be really valuable to have a working AI detector and scrutinizing Pangram to make sure it lives up to that promise, the article starts from the premise that Pangram obviously has bad vibes and sets out to discover why. (One answer: The CEO microwaved lunch during an interview!) Why aren’t writers who resent Pangram more eager to distinguish themselves from posters who are having ChatGPT ghostwrite all their work? There are a few different things at play, but I think one key dynamic is this: These are often the same people. A core constituency for arguments like Wired’s is “writers” who are using AI to write their posts but resent this fact being made public. They stand to lose from AI detectors because AI detectors call them out. Share When Substack announced a partnership with Pangram, a sizable fraction of the platform’s authors rose up in outrage. Some people had experience with other AI detectors that didn’t work, and some felt that AI writing ought to be encouraged — both of which are fair enough. But the fury was fueled by authors passionately insisting that Pangram kept wrongly accusing them on almost every post they published. Pangram can be wrong, especially on short passages. But in the overwhelming majority of cases where Pangram looked at a whole blog post rather than a single paragraph, the program correctly detected work as AI. Even if we can’t be 100% sure in any individual case, we can notice the trend in the aggregate. Wired quotes Sam Illingworth, a professor of critical AI literacy at Edinburgh Napier University, who said, “I don’t think [AI detectors] work. … I think that detectors are prejudiced against certain people.” This spring, he said that he used AI for research and editing; this summer he acknowledged that in addition to research and editing, he also uses it “now and then for a turn of phrase I keep.” Pangram informs us that most of his posts are 100% AI-written (some are mixed AI-and-human) and that 100% AI-written posts started appearing last year. The favorable interpretation is that, as someone whose recent work Pangram consistently mistakes for AI, Illingworth sees Pangram’s flaws firsthand. The unfavorable interpretation is that the tool’s credibility trades off against his own, because its account of who writes his posts is not consistent with his. Illingworth is not alone in insisting the detector does not work. “It’s a Monday night in late July, and I’m pasting my own Substack draft into an AI detector for the first time. Not because I’m worried. Because I’m curious. I wrote every word of it myself, the way I write everything, out loud in my head first, in a rhythm that still carries the accent of a language I learned to think in before I learned to write in this one,” begins one Substack post by an author indignant that Pangram flags her writing as AI. “That’s the part I had to sit with before I could write this.” If you, like me, have worked with AIs a lot, you won’t even need Pangram there. The author of that piece is AI. It is obviously AI! I checked 10 other posts on the blog, and they were also obviously AI! “I have spent 22 years as an award-winning author and essayist. And now this bullshit tool that learned from MY writing is going to accuse me of plagiarism,” popular Substack writer Carlyn Beccia wrote in an anti-Pangram post. “For the last and final time, AI DETECTORS DO NOT WORK.” Here’s what her writing sounded like in 2020: “Most success stories revolve around one person who believed enough in you to say — give it a try. We call these people muses, but they are so much more than that. They are the strong man giants whose shoulders we stand on so we can see the horizon. Throughout the editing process, I am sure my editor felt less like a giant of greatness and more like Atlas with the world on her shoulders.” Pangram says it was 100% human-written. (So were other articles of hers in 2020.) And here’s what it sounds like now: “And then there is the reshuffling, which sounds like paperwork until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork. The Trump regime recently moved special education oversight from the Education Department to HHS. That is not a minor bureaucratic transfer. It changes the frame.”3 Pangram says this is mostly AI. I am not convinced that Pangram is wrong. In my own experience, Pangram is very effective on long texts — if it marks a long essay as AI, the essay was either written by AI or deliberately written to sound like AI. On tweet-length or paragraph-length texts, it’s not perfectly reliable. It seems to work just as well for non-native English speakers as for native speakers. While I have seen dozens of claims of pre-2022 text returning a positive result on Pangram, I have tried repeatedly to corroborate those and have never once succeeded. To be clear, I’m absolutely not saying that complaining about Pangram suggests a writer is a cheat. There are plenty of other concerns. Most are mistakenly premised, such as the false claim that Pangram trains on work you put into it, but others are reasonable: It’s unreliable on sufficiently short text segments; it creates an internet witch-hunt mentality when there are defensible uses of AI; people who are open about their AI use are sometimes blamed, when the only people really doing something wrong are the ones who hide it; and it isn’t perfect, so a single positive result shouldn’t be taken as decisive proof of misconduct. I’m happy to concede that Pangram is imperfect and possible to over-rely on. If an author’s posts are mostly non-AI and one scans as partially AI, this could be a mistake. It’s also possible to defeat Pangram with intentional effort. If you think we need something more robust and more reliable, fine! But if you don’t like AI and don’t like Pangram, your attitude really ought to be that it’s a shame that our existing tools for AI detection are imperfect, and it’s important to invent better ones. If your stance is instead that AI is evil and so is looking for AI, then ultimately you’re contributing to the sloppification of the internet. You’re making it harder for people who write their own text to distinguish themselves, and providing cover for authors who are definitely not writing their own text. Subscribe Top stories this week, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs Commentators often worry that the decline of reading could mean the decline of liberal democracy — but deliberative governance actually predated widespread literacy. This week, Maibritt Henkel pointed out that many liberal cultures thrive on a culture of raucous, interactive debate, which can happen in-person as easily, if not more so, than in text. Read on, dear reader, to learn more. It may actually cheer you up: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) [ Reading won’t save liberalism ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) Maibritt Henkel · Sep 1 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) It used to be bad to downplay climate change (if we mean denying its reality). Today, it’s actually good to downplay climate change (if we mean keeping the issue out of political fights so we can make real progress). This counterintuitive view is called “climate hushing,” and contributor Alex Trembath argued that it’s the key to enacting good policy going forward. Get up to speed on the latest in climate politics: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) [ We won’t stop climate change by talking about it ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Alex Trembath · Sep 2 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing up for the forces of liberalism against Donald Trump’s assault on our closest ally. So, why is one prominent left-wing commenter attacking Carney? Columnist Matthew Yglesias explains: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) [ When "economic liberty" means central planning ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) Matthew Yglesias · Aug 31 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) 🌟Abundance Wins of the Week🌟 Shout out to my home state of California, whose legislature passed two housing bills this week. One requires a housing density minimum in transit-oriented areas of the state’s most transit-rich cities (Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, and Long Beach). Another bill closes two common loopholes used by third parties to delay housing projects, including an opportunity to challenge maps of a given lot created by the developer after a project has been approved. Shout out to our big-state rival, Texas, where pro-housing SB 785 took effect this week. The new state law requires municipalities to have at least one district permitted for manufactured housing without a special permit. This will promote zoning changes in 44% of municipalities. The company Fervo Energy signed a deal with Google for what is set to be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal facility, proving a technology can work at a scale that could be crucial to a decarbonized, energy-abundant economy. Share Worth watching… This week, forecasting legend Nate Silver joined Jerusalem, Matt, and Jeremiah on a crowded episode of the pod. It was a party. And speaking of parties, our round table debated the factional lines within the Democratic Party: Is it possible to be center-left and also anti-establishment? Watch or listen to find out: The Rio Grande Valley in Texas is one of the areas that swung hardest toward Trump in 2024, but musician Bobby Pulido is running to flip it back. Right now, The Argument/Split Ticket’s model has him running 1.1 points behind his Republican opponent in a district Trump won by 18 points. Tune in to find out how he differs from national Democrats and what he thinks he can to do win this seat. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders was among the first politicians to call for a ban on superintelligence. My guest this week, Andrea Miotti, has been lobbying to ban superintelligence for several years, most recently in the U.K., U.S., and Canada. I asked him how he gets legislators to take speculative risks seriously, and we dug into what plans might look like to actually pass a ban. Listen to learn more: What’s News with The Argument The Argument recommends, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs If we ever lose track of Justin Zuckerman, I’ll have the team split up and check all the movie theaters in the city. I’m shocked (and a little jealous) at how often he gets out to see good cinema. This week, he brings us It Ends, a “horror-ish movie,” which he described as a “Gen Z Waiting for Godot.” I was intrigued before he added that it was “funny, dark and existential” — at which point I was fully locked in. I guess I also had existential themes on the mind this week. One morning, a single line from a poem I read long ago just came to me: “Is death a stretch of time in which a life is just a flash?” The poem is called “From 20,000 Feet” by Heather McHugh. I suggest the version in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, which, by tradition, my best friend and I always bring backpacking, extra weight be damned. We’ll stay thematically dark for just one more rec from senior editor John Robert Thomason, whose upcoming trip to Baltimore reminded him to suggest Michael Clune’s memoir White Out (about being addicted to heroin in Baltimore in the 1990s). Ben Lerner’s blurb called it _“_Disturbing, brilliant, hilarious—it’s as if Proust had written Jesus’ Son.” John told me this “seems accurate, with the caveat that I’ve never read Proust.” I, personally, have also shelved Proust until retirement. At this point, I was a little concerned for the team since all of us tossed out such psychologically grim material — maybe we’re all down about the end of summer — but thankfully, at least a few of us were into more upbeat selections. Milan Singh recommended Made In’s 5-quart stainless clad saucier, suggesting he had some fun in the kitchen. Jeremiah Johnson asked if he could recommend yet more Carly Rae Jepsen. Once denied, he offered up Game Changer instead_,_ calling it “the most wildly creative game show, maybe in the entire history of the genre.” Eli Richman mentioned _Lucky, “_a B-tier show with an A-tier cast and an S-tier theme song.” I suppose he was recommending the song, Horns of a Bull. Still, despite these cheerier recs, I couldn’t help but be concerned that we were subconsciously worried about racing toward summer’s end — the end of swim trunks and splashing around. Then a message landed reminding me of the three-day weekend to come. A whole extra day for sunshine. One more swim in the lake. I was grateful this called to mind yet another line from a poem, one by Mary Oliver, the patron saint of every gorgeous summer day (and about whom a documentary is now out). Speaking to God in the poem “Thirst,” she wrote: grant me, in your mercy,a little more time. Love for the earthand love for you are having such a longconversation in my heart. We have merch! We have quarter-zips, keychains, hats, and stickers. Each one is a great conversation starter in its own way. Buy them here. Subscribe More to read: [ The Opening Argument ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite)[ Seeing like an elite ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) Kobe Yank-Jacobs · Sep 4 What do Americans hear when they watch Sen. Bernie Sanders or Vice President JD Vance rail against the elite? Are they thinking of right-wing tech billionaires? Imperious college professors? Liberal magazine writers? [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) [ The Weekly Scroll ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline)[ God is back on the timeline ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) Jeremiah Johnson · Sep 5 This week, we’re talking about Substack’s new religious debates, the continuing MAGA influencer scandal, how to retire from YouTube, and aura battles. [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) 1 This was a legitimate thing to worry about, but doesn’t seem to be a problem given the actual technology: Marijke Van Vlasselaer, Filip Van Droogenbroeck, and Bram Spruyt’s 2026 paper looks at whether Pangram is less accurate when evaluating the work of non-native speakers of English. It isn’t. That’s because Pangram isn’t really looking at how “unusual” a piece of writing is but whether it has the characteristic patterns of LLMs. The Wired article makes an odd gesture at a different Pangram-is-racist argument. There were several controversies this summer during which upcoming books were canceled after being discovered to be AI-written: “The three novels mentioned earlier — Shy Girl, Daggermouth, and Call Me, easily publishing’s biggest AI-detection scandals — were all written by writers of color.” But come on! As Zvi Mowshowitz put it: “They were not primarily written by people of color. They were primarily written by AIs.” That’s the whole problem! And as my colleague Jeremiah Johnson recently observed with respect to Cambridge’s Arday scandal, a community being unwilling to call out fraud if it’s perpetuated by people of color is not an anti-racist tendency; it is ultimately quite racist. 2 Many non-Pangram detectors don’t work, but many possible airplane designs also don’t work, and no one considers this a general argument against aviation; the thing that matters is whether any detection works. 3 The phrase “empires have always loved” mysteriously became all the rage in the last few years. See here, here, here, here and here. Before 2025, the only use of that phrase I have been able to find is a single Tweet. The logic of the sentence, too, is incoherent in an AI-characteristic way. “...sounds like paperwork, until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork”? Does remembering that make it sound less like paperwork? It’s a craft-ful sentence, but what is it actually saying??
4 reasons Chargers could take step back and miss playoffs
If these four things happen to the Chargers, they won’t sniff the playoffs.
Nabil Fekir’s Side Of The Liverpool Transfer That Never Happened
Eight years on from one of the most dramatic transfer collapses of the modern era, the story behind Nabil Fekir's failed move to Liverpool remains one of the most talked-about sagas of the Klopp era.
OSU president wants Columbus to be the ‘startup capital of the Midwest’
“I want investors all over the country to feel like they'll be missing out on opportunities if they're not keeping an eye on what's happening at Ohio State.”
The Big Ten Just Stole a Win From Western Michigan
I still can’t believe what happened at the end of Michigan-Western Michigan . Western Michigan got screwed. There’s really no other way I can describe watching that ending. The Broncos went into the Big House as massive underdogs, held No. 16 Michigan to seven points for essentially the entire game and took a 12-7 lead…
Australia’s humpback whales were acting weird. What happened next surprised scientists.
A citizen science project uncovers a new humpback whale calving ground around the Great Barrier Reef.
Australia’s humpback whales were acting weird. What happened next surprised scientists.
A citizen science project uncovers a new humpback whale calving ground around the Great Barrier Reef.
ASU sports schedule. Volleyball returns home for Big 12 ring ceremony
Here are the Arizona State sports happening the week of Sept. 6-12.
Moiese gallery and gift business celebrates 50 years
A kiddie pool with gently floating ducks in Scottish Highlander costumes, and a big sign over the door that says Happy 50 Years gave a clue that something was happening at Lonesome Heritage Farms at Wagon Wheel Gift and Gallery in Moiese.
Scientists altered the air around a Wisconsin forest for 11 years; extra CO₂ drove 39% more productivity, but ozone reversed part of the gain
What happens when young forest communities spend more than a decade growing in air with unusually high levels of carbon dioxide and ozone? Scientists in Wisconsin set out to find the answer by changing the atmosphere around these communities and tracking how the trees responded over 11 years.
"Old Person Smell" Is Real, And Science Will Dictate Whether It Happens To You
"That smell is an actual biological phenomenon."
Book Review: The Messy Business of Making Science Happen
Roberta Kwok’s “Lost in Curiosity” makes the case for luck and hard work over eureka moments in advancing science.
Can science explain what happens to us after we die?
A quantum physicist discusses the idea that quantum theory relates to consciousness and how it could exist independently of the brain.
Orioles vs Red Sox discussion
The Orioles desperately need to stop their skid, and get hot real quick. It’s up to Chris Bassitt to make that happen tonight.
Five Specific Predictions For Michigan vs. Western Michigan
Michigan is going to beat Western Michigan, but by how much? What will it look like? What exactly will happen?
Reactions: “Where Dortmund play, there’s always drama!”
Managing Director for Sport Lars Ricken (in the mixed zone): “Wherever Dortmund play, things happen! It was the same against Hamburg. After it went to 2:0, you couldn’t necessarily expect that any...
Mario Kart 8 Refuses to Let the Switch 2 Rule Nintendo
So what happens to Mario Kart World?
Stamford businesses rebuild after 2025 Bedford Street fire
A year after Stamford's worst downtown fire in years, here's what happened to the businesses.
Metaplanet’s Business Head Phil Geiger Departs to Pursue New Bitcoin Ventures
A major leadership departure has happened in Metaplanet. Phil Geiger, who served as Head of Business Development at the leading Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet, has announced his departure from the company as he takes on new roles across the Bitcoin ecosystem. Geiger shared the update on LinkedIn, saying he had “wrapped up” his time
Pop culture happenings: September
It was 50 years ago when Kermit and gang put on a show, 40 years ago when Oprah made daytime talk personal, and 25 years ago when 9/11 made it hard to find much...
A Science Fair Judge on Projects Doomed by October
Fifteen years of judging a regional science fair from the retired end of an engineering career has taught me that most projects are decided before any experiment runs. The doom happens in October…
Happening now! Tune in to 28/22 Sports Night
(WBRE/WYOU) — Don’t miss Sports Night hosted by the 28/22’s sports team every night at 8:00 p.m. Join Zach Grady, Connor Coar, and Ricky Turner as the break down sports news of the day. Then, tune back in at 11:00 p.m for insights and coverage of local High School Football games this season. Download the […]
Gainesville’s The Streatery enters soft opening mode with new businesses opening
$4.5-million construction started in April.
15 discouraging hours with Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and 10 brilliant ones with He Who Watches
In the last few weeks, while playing some video games that I might review, I emailed two cries for help. I sent the first to a rep for Capcom, confessing that the company’s samurai game Onimusha Way of the Sword (out today for PC and console) was crushing me. “Feels like I’m playing ‘hard’ mode, not ‘normal,’” I wrote. “And I don’t want to have to knock it down to “story”. I’m exploring, trying to level my gear, but these two-phase boss fights with no mid-fight checkpoints are brutal.” I wagered I was only about halfway through the game, if that. I wasn’t sure I could keep up with the steepening difficulty curve. Was I missing something? Then, on Monday, I took some photos of some puzzles that were baffling me in the mind-bending He Who Watches (out now on PC), wrote out lengthy descriptions of how I’d been trying to solve them and asked Bobby Vanden, the game’s solo developer, for a nudge in the right direction. I told Vanden I’d spent hours on these puzzles. “I’m stuck in triplicate,” I told him. Could he tell me if the solutions I was attempting were even on the right track? I didn’t mention that the puzzles—coupled with major time pressures from other work—were stressing me out so much that playing the game was giving me headaches. This double dose of panic was unusual. I’m used to managing a workload full of reporting and reviewing, used to a crowded schedule and the need to stay calm amid the bustle. But I was stressed about these games. No one was forcing me to review them, nor even play them. I’d simply found them interesting enough to start, hoped they’d be interesting enough to write about and I’d sunk hours into them assuming I’d made the right call. Suddenly, however, I felt trapped. I was emailing for a way out. Above: This guy took me about an hour to beat. The feedback I got from Capcom confirmed my fears. They didn’t say it, but I will: Onimusha Way of the Sword is not for me. It’s a brutally hard game in need of a normal difficulty level. It’s a game that spikes so severely during its abundant boss fights—yet offers such flawed ways to improve when outside of them—that it feels like a bait-and-switch. In the new Onimusha, you play as famed samurai Musashi Miyamoto, aided by a magical soul-absorbing gauntlet that is possessed by a lady who offers advice. (Way of the Sword is a continuation of Capcom’s long-dormant Onimusha series, but that set-up had me wondering if the company was cribbing from their ill-fated Bionic Commando reboot; read about “wife-arm” when you get a chance). Way of the Sword is partially set in 17th century Kyoto, an explorable city where Miyamoto can fight demons, help civilians and eventually rescue ghostly dogs. The city evolves over time, with new mini adventures and obtainable loot on offer, all feeding into systems that promise to upgrade your gear and sword-fighting skills. Upgrades, however, are so incremental as to be imperceptible, causing the exploration of Kyoto to feel like inconsequential busywork. From that hub, players can go on linear missions into forests and old temples, where they will encounter many of the game’s tough bosses. Combat in Way of the Sword is akin to many modern melee games. Players are asked to mix attacks with dodges and parries. They’re encouraged to deplete an enemy’s stamina bar in order to do greater damage to its health bar. The old Onimusha games’ signature move was the issen, a counter-attack so sudden it’s all but pre-emptive. You strike just as they begin to strike toward you, beating them to the cut. By definition, the issen is a high risk move, leaving you wide open to pain. It feels risky in the game, especially against bosses, who can maul you in just a few blows. A game might train you to perform an issen well by offering a variety of lesser enemies who are not as tough as the boss but get close. Or it might offer a toehold against bosses by saving or checkpointing the player’s progress when a boss’ first health bar has been destroyed and before the second health bar appears. It might offer the less skilled player a chance to over-level their character, should the player simply commit to playing through its optional sidequests. Way of the Sword does none of this. Fighting its trivially easy grunt enemies and then its ferociously adept bosses is like playing a game of chess where I’ve got a rook, while the opposing side is all pawns and five queens. Bosses simply don’t checkpoint. You may be able to clear a boss’ first phase without taking much damage. Good for you. Do it again, every time you fail the second phase. As for the the central Kyoto hub, I kept pace with all of its added side activities and never felt like I was overpowered. Bosses could still easily buckle me. The new Onimusha, I concluded, is just too discouraging to keep playing. The advice I got from Capcom had been well-intentioned. They reminded me of the game’s various systems. They alerted me to an optional assist that flashes recommended button inputs (basically: counter this move; dodge that move). It was a little helpful. So was dropping down to “story mode,” which I tried last night. Story mode turns on those button prompts by default. It makes countering and dodging way too easy, nearly automatic. I don’t consider myself a master of action games like these, but I’ve cleared the likes of God of War, Stellar Blade, Star Wars Jedi and others of sub-Sekiro difficulty and had a fun time doing so. Not here. Not yet. Unless they patch Onimusha: Way of the Sword and add a middle difficulty or just checkpoint the damn bosses when they’re between health bars, my streak of loving Capcom games released in 2026 will likely end at two. It’s a shame, because I was having a good time finding those ghostly dogs. And then there’s He Who Watches, a phenomenal first person puzzle game with Portal vibes, except instead of a portal gun you’ve got a magical bow that shoots one arrow that can activate switches or be used to drag blocks. The twist is an actual twist: you can also walk on walls and the ceiling, reorienting gravity as you do, thereby placing blocks onto those other surfaces. Walking on walls and ceilings to solve problems is really the best thing. Would that I could in reality. He Who Watches consists of locked-room challenges, each brief enough to only require about a minute to actually solving, though it will take five, 10, eventually 30 minutes to figure out said solutions. They are not obvious! It’s a game of layered mechanics and shocking solutions. For example, see if you can follow this: You can drag a block to a wall. Then you can walk on the wall, which now feels like the floor, and drag that block across the wall. Later, back on the floor, you might realize you can look up. The block is still on the wall, stuck to it. You can shoot your magic arrow to its underside. Doing so creates a tether, so that you can yank the block off the wall and carry it, as if it were a balloon, into the spot where you need it to be to solve the puzzle. Here, watch Vanden explain some of the game’s basics in this launch trailer: As with any great puzzle game, the solutions to He Who Watches’ puzzles elicit relief and amazement. Oh my god, that worked! I didn’t even think that could be possible! Learning to solve the game’s puzzles feels like learning magic. But, oh, does the game get hard. Its Steam reviews, mostly glowing, are full of players remarking how quickly He Who Watches made them sweat. Wrote one: “loving this one already although my brain is hurting!” Wrote another: “As you get further in the game it feels like you need an IQ level of at least 120+.” Vanden has shown some mercy. Each locked room puzzle includes an optional junior version of the puzzle, meant to teach you. Difficulty nevertheless ramps severely. By the time I was emailing Vanden for help, I was struggling to even clear one of the hint puzzles. When I messaged him, my stress was exacerbated by strange things I’d found in the game’s various hubs: suspicious passageways, odd blocks and some intriguing locked doors. These were hints of secrets, I realized, yet I sensed I needed to play further into the game to understand them. I was stuck, but I wanted to see the rest. Vanden offered to give me the exact solutions, to solve those three puzzles for me, but first he gave four nudges. Three were for the specific puzzles, but his best hint was for all and ultimately proved to be a terrific life lesson: go back a bit, he suggested. Do the puzzles right before those. They were teaching you something. Focus on what their lesson was. Don’t rush, in other words. Recognize what you’ve accomplished. Build off of that. I did so. I absorbed the lessons. I saw those three tough puzzles in a new light. I solved one the night after he wrote back, another the morning after. I left a third for another time. I didn’t need it and I wanted to plunge deeper into the game, closer to the moment when I was sure I could start unlocking those secret doors. My head stopped hurting, too. He Who Watches feels special. It’s got more challenges, and I’m undeterred. It’s also nice that its puzzles don’t have a surprise second health bar. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: In brief… 🎮 Ilari Kuittinen, co-founder of Helsinki-based Housemarque (Super Stardust HD, Resogun, Returnal) has stepped down from his studio, after a 31-year run, saying he’s “ taking a rare and well-deserved breather.” Sony purchased Housemarque in 2021, and the studio released its newest game, Saros, earlier this year. Trend-watch: Sony-owned Insomniac saw its founder Ted Price retire in early 2025, after a 30-year run. Sony-owned Sucker Punch saw its co-founder Brian Fleming step down in late 2025, after a 28-year run. 👀 Savvy Games Group chief Brian Ward is stepping down from the Saudi-government-backed games conglomerate, Bloomberg reports. No word on a long-term successor yet, nor if this augurs any closer integration between Savvy and Electronic Arts. EA was purchased by a consortium led by Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, in early August. 💿 Square Enix has denied a Japanese media report that the company was planning to go private. In very different Square Enix news, the company revealed that the physical version of Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, the April 2027 finale of its radical remakes of FFVII, will include just one disc in its case, requiring a download for the rest. The first two FFVII remakes in the trilogy shipped on two discs apiece. While Square hasn’t commented on the reason why, a feature here in Game File last month broke down the processes and costs for physical games. The expense of a second disc comes out of the game publisher’s cut of each copy. Square could be saving in excess of a dollar a copy with this move. 🟥 Grand Theft Auto IV’s 26-minute ’‘extended look” gameplay showcase that premiered on Netflix last week—and was exclusive to the platform for six hours—drew 31.1 million views in its first four days, the streamer announced. (Netflix calculates views as total viewed hours divided by runtime; excludes replays). Compared to YouTube: The version that later premiered on Rockstar Games’ YouTube channel is sitting at 22.6 million views after seven days (YouTube’s more liberal counting system tallies anyone who viewed even just the first few second.) Compared to other Netflix mega-events: Last year, Stranger Things season 5’s first four episodes, which debuted together, drew a record 59.6 million views in their first few days on Netflix. For more of a live event type of comparison, in 2024, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match drew 65 million concurrent streams as it happened; Netflix didn’t release live numbers for the GTA premiere. ☁️ Microsoft is changing the way it charges for cloud gaming, from an all-you-can-play offer for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, to caps for the subscription’s tiers (15 hours per month at the Ultimate tier), with the option to buy more hours in bulk beyond that. The company also said it will sell batches of cloud gaming time to non-Game Pass subscribers, details TBA. Microsoft does not release figures for cloud game usage, but said its changes would impact 4% of Game Pass subscribers. That implies a small portion of its subscribers exceed the 15-hour monthly mark. Cloud gaming offers the promise of playing games without the need for console or PC hardware, as the graphics, sound and controls are all transmitted via a streaming connection. Microsoft notes that its cloud gaming service can be used for a range of things, including Xbox One players using it to play newer-gen Xbox Series games via streaming; and people playing games via streaming, sans any console, “in markets where consoles are less available or affordable.” (That latter use case could even be relevant in Xbox’s home market soon, as console prices keep rising.) Take Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick recently told investors he expects game-streaming tech, which has been only lightly adopted by gamers for over a decade, to be widely used within three years. 🇺🇸 The Trump administration has published multiple agenda-driven web video games to the White House’s website. One called Build The Wall partially clones Tetris as it asks players to build a wall to stop a “zombie border siege.” While actual Tetris involves clearing lines and basically not building a wall, the Trump-backed game omits the line-clearing aspect (and omits the fun as well). On Instagram, Tetris’ official license holders reacted by stating: “At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them. To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community. P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall.’ P.P.S.: We take copyright infringement very seriously.” Item 3: The week ahead: Tuesday, September 8 Game releases: Mewgenics (consoles; already out on PC) is an engrossing tactical combat game (with cats). It is getting its console port right after the release of a Star Wars tactics game and ahead of the late September launch of a Fire Emblem–a bumper crop for the genre. Wanderburg (PC) is an auto-shooting game like Vampire Survivors, but you’re a castle on wheels Event: Nintendo airs a 30-minute Nintendo Direct (10am ET) focused on The Legend of Zelda’s 40th Anniversary. A full unveiling of the upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is expected. Will they also show footage from next year’s live action movie? Tease the next big 3D Zelda? Add Link to Mario Kart World? Shadow-drop a new Tingle game? Wednesday, September 9 Event: Nintendo again! On this day, they’re planning to air a 45-minute Nintendo Direct (10am ET) focused on games heading to Switch 2 this winter. Followed by about an hour of gameplay demoed by the company’s Treehouse team. The September Nintendo Directs are always some of the year’s biggest. The 2025 edition included announcements of several major 2026 Switch/Switch 2 games: Pokémon Pokopia, Mario Tennis Fever, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave. Plus the return of the Virtual Boy. Friday, September 11 Game release: EA Sports NHL 27 (PlayStation, Xbox) is a hockey game. There are so few that an indie studio that had been making wacky sci-fi first-person shooters just announced that, hey, we’re going to fill a void and make a hockey game for PC.
Series Preview – St. Louis Cardinals visit the Colorado Rockies
21 games left. Can it happen?
One year later, Salem Health now owns Santiam Hospital. How did it happen?
Salem Health and Santiam Hospital began combining their hospitals and clinics this week over a year after hospital leaders decided to pursue the merger. Here’s how it happened.
Plain Language as Scientific Accountability: How to Communicate Science Beyond Academic Audiences
This joint UW/Fred Hutch—Penn CFAR session brings the two CFARs together in conversation around how we communicate science beyond academic audiences. This session will present examples of technical language from HIV cure, prevention, and treatment research and ask what happens when the people most affected by the science cannot easily understand what researchers are saying. […]
Watch Mornings with Fox Business Online
Watch Mornings with Fox Business online on Fox News. Follow hosts to follow the most current breaking news and to stay up-to-date on what is happening around you.
The Political Recap: Will Virginia ban Flock cameras?
Here’s your weekly roundup of what happened in Virginia politics on The Political Recap.
Nicole Kidman & Sandra Bullock on Reuniting for 'Practical Magic 2' & the Fans Who Made It Happen
Is Bill Belichick Going to Make it to New England Homecoming Against UConn?
The Huskies' Nov. 7 matchup against North Carolina is one of the marquee points of the schedule, but will the matchup happen as its intended to?
What to know before attending this year’s Farm Science Review
Harvest is quickly approaching! It is incredible seeing what can happen with a more favorable than usual spring. However, while there is still some time, have you considered visiting the Farm Science Review? It’s a great way to connect leading industry professionals, learn from the experts, and see the latest and greatest innovations in agriculture.
12 actors who got replaced in movie sequels — and what they had to say about it
Not every actor makes it to the sequel. EW breaks down 12 major movie recastings, why they happened, and who stepped into the role.
Sony's PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90
Sony’s PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90 Sony won’t license disc pressing to anyone else, Microsoft does, and a former PlayStation boss thinks that’s the whole problem. When Sony DADC chief Dietmar Tanzer spoke with an Austrian broadcaster in July about PlayStation disc production at the Thalgau plant, a number of press outlets misunderstood the report, writing that production would fall to a tenth of current levels. It won’t. Sony DADC confirmed to Game this week that the figure is a 10 percent decline, not a decline to 10 percent. “To clarify and avoid any misleading information: in that statement Dietmar anticipated an overall product volume decline by 10 percent, not a decline down to 10 percent,” a spokesperson with Sony DADC told Game. That figure covers 2028. Tanzer didn’t put a number on the years after, and the spokesperson declined to comment further. What we do know is that on July 1, PlayStation announced that physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028 and that the transition has no impact on games that have already released in disc format or will be releasing in disc format prior to that month. “So, there will be reorders going to the market after January 2028,” the Sony DADC spokesperson said. “For details around that I would ask you to liaise with the PR team from PlayStation, as we can’t speak or comment on their behalf.” PlayStation officials did not respond to questions about reorders or other disc-related matters. But I did recently speak with Shawn Layden, Game Industry Strategic Advisor and former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, who called a future without physical PlayStation discs “depressing, but solvable.” then added, “I think.” The chief hurdle to third-party manufacturing of collector’s editions or any other version of a PlayStation game disc is that Sony owns the proprietary process to press those discs, Layden said. “And unless they decide or determine a way to license that to some of these bespoke disc manufacturers, there’s no way to make it happen,” he said. Layden was careful to add that he understands the concept but doesn’t have “line of sight on the particulars.” “Depressing but solvable, I think.” — Shawn Layden Microsoft already licenses replication to outside plants. Xbox discs are pressed by manufacturers Microsoft certifies as Authorized Replicators, a term defined in its publisher agreements, with the approved list set at the company’s sole discretion and Microsoft retaining the right to halt manufacture. The structure is still in place today: publishers select an Authorized Replicator in Partner Center and submit a bill of materials created with a Microsoft representative. Sony, by contrast, presses PlayStation discs through Sony DADC, its own manufacturing subsidiary. No one I spoke with said they were in discussions with Sony about doing that, and PlayStation hasn’t responded to questions about whether it would be open to a licensing deal. There is an obvious reason Sony might not want to. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed it out on the day of the announcement: it’s a platform-led decision, he wrote, designed to cut costs, eliminate the resale market, and drive all revenue through the PlayStation Store. The math is not subtle. On a $70 third-party game sold through the PlayStation Store, Sony keeps $21. Sold at retail, Ahmad says, it earns about half that. Licensing disc replication to an outside manufacturer might not be worth it. And even if it were, it seems unlikely that such a deal would come from boutique companies like iam8bit, which sells collector’s editions of video games. “We would absolutely love to find a way forward to continue making physical PlayStation games,” said Jon Gibson, co-owner and co-creative director of the company. “We are big believers in giving humans the option to truly own media. If we can play a role in helping make that a reality for the future of PlayStation games, count iam8bit in!” If it were to happen, it would most likely be with a company like Conectiv Supply Chain Solutions, a Memphis-based manufacturer of optical discs and vinyl records that also runs third-party logistics, fulfillment and distribution for packaged media. The company, which was formed in 2025 when Los Angeles private equity firm Variant Equity Advisors purchased Vantiva’s Supply Chain Solutions division, traces its lineage back to Technicolor. When it sold the division, Vantiva described the business as having served video game creators for more than 25 years. Conectiv is also buying, not shrinking. Last month it acquired SDS, the distributor for Universal and Warner Bros. home entertainment, consolidating those studios’ packaged-media pipeline from pressing plant to retail shelf. I reached out to Conectiv and its CEO, but haven’t heard back. Layden pointed to music and books in our discussion about the ongoing value of physical media. “No one ever saw the comeback of cassette tape,” he said. “And vinyl didn’t so much come back. The flame went down, the fire’s dying, but the ember was always there, and it just kind of came back. Much like the book business. We thought we’d all be on Kindles right now. “I believe that physical media is crucial and important. One of the things that makes us gamers, one of the core game mechanics, going back to the beginning of time, is collecting stuff. “Did you get all the diamonds in Crash Bandicoot? Did you get all the stars in Mario? And we like to collect our games. And we have a game shelf. And we put all our boxes up there. And if you’re super hardcore, when you buy a game, you buy two copies, right? One stays in the shrink wrap, and you play the other one. What happens to that important cultural part of the gaming world? You know, we buy the steelbook and the three-disc Final Fantasy set and the figurine and, you know, you can’t download any of that. “What happens to that?” And Layden believes it shouldn’t have been a revenue question for PlayStation. “This was a core thing to the experience of our most devoted fans,” he said. “Yeah, it’s fan service. Why would we take that away? Well, we can’t afford to. It’s already 120 bucks, you know, limited edition special purchase onyx box version of whatever, and those sell at a higher rate than the box selling at $69.99 does. So yeah, the market has said they will continue to buy them. You’re just saying you just don’t want to make them anymore.” Layden said he was recently talking with someone about these sorts of business decisions and how they’re made. Too often, he said, it’s all about the financials and nothing else. “OK, we can do this and save this much money, or we can invest this to look at that outcome, or we can do this and have this happen over there, or move this team to Sri Lanka,” he said. “But each one of those, someone also has to have a ledger there saying, ‘OK, what is the brand impact from that move?’ “Iif you can’t resell it, do you really own it?” — Shawn Layden “If we do that, dollars and cents work out. I get it. That’s just math. But what’s the brand impact? Are people going to say, ‘Good move, you guys?’ Or are they going to say, ‘We hate you guys. Quit doing that.’ And sometimes they say, ‘We hate you.’ Then you take a note and say, OK, how much of that can we live with? How much ‘we hate you’ is OK. And when does it go over the line? “I see a lot of companies making decisions which, objectively speaking, I don’t know what the dollar end of that was for you, Mr. Company, but your brand value just dropped 30 percent. So I hope it was worth it.” Of course, shifting to a digital-only model for games raises other issues beyond simply wanting to collect. The biggest is ownership. Layden pointed out that once you go to a streaming-only or download-only model, it’s just a digital footprint on a hard drive. “What does ownership mean anymore?” he said. “It’s a genuine question. Well, in fact, it’s not even a question anymore. It’s like you are shifting the model from ownership to accessibility. “And what’s always been true, which people forget, is you’ve never been able to sell your iTunes library. And you can’t sell your PlayStation download library. So if you can’t resell it, do you really own it?” The touching tribute found in the credits for Star Wars Zero Company. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Interview and Hands-On with a Minoan Masterpiece Star Wars Zero Company hands-on: Attack Astromechs, permadeath, and delightfully fatal Rube Goldberg tactics Control Resonant opens up as you get stronger — and as characters start trusting you
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