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Results for " Doom " 354 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

Alan Cumming doesn’t ‘fully understand the plot’ of ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

Alan Cumming has admitted that he doesn’t ‘fully understand the plot’ of ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’

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Sep 29 • 10:43 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
PSA: 'Avengers: Endgame Encore' features one less 'Doomsday' tease in non-IMAX theaters

Only certain "Avengers: Endgame Encore" formats will show you every "Avengers: Doomsday" tease.

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Sep 28 • 5:34 PM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com
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An Old Paper Really Did Suggest A Mathematical "Doomsday" On 13 November 2026, But There's No Need To Worry

The paper, written in 1960, suggests "doomsday" will occur on 13 November 2026. But unless there are billions of secret pregnancies out there, you shouldn't be all that concerned.

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Sep 28 • 1:02 PM EDT • Science • iflscience.com
‘Avengers: Endgame’ retakes box office crown; Robert Pattinson drives sales for ‘Primetime’

Seven years after becoming the second-highest grossing film ever, “Avengers: Endgame” returned to the No_ 1 spot at the box office in a victory lap for Marvel and an appetizer for the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”.

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Sep 27 • 12:57 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
'Avengers: Endgame' retakes box office crown; Robert Pattinson drives sales for 'Primetime'

Seven years after becoming the second-highest grossing film ever, “Avengers: Endgame” returned to the No_ 1 spot at the box office in a victory lap for Marvel and an appetizer for the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.” | KNX News 1070 AM

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Sep 27 • 12:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
'Avengers: Endgame' retakes box office crown; Robert Pattinson drives sales for 'Primetime'

Seven years after becoming the second-highest grossing film ever, “Avengers: Endgame” returned to the No_ 1 spot at the box office in a victory lap for Marvel and an appetizer for the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.” | WBEN

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Sep 27 • 12:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
SNL skit mocks Dario Amodei's AI doomsday predictions

In a sketch, "Saturday Night Live" portrayed Dario Amodei as a bumbling megalomaniac struggling to explain why his own technology won't end the world.

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Sep 27 • 11:39 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
🙂 Positive (50%)
How financial advisors keep doomers from blowing up their portfolios

We're in a golden age for apocalyptic thinking, but that doesn't mean you should invest like we're near the end.

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Sep 27 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
FINAL: Cincinnati 31, K-State 26

It’s a familiar refrain from the past: a disastrous third quarter doomed the Kansas State Wildcats to defeat.

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Sep 26 • 11:01 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
'Avengers: Endgame Encore's extra 'Doomsday' scenes, explained

You could watch "Avengers: Endgame Encore" to prep for "Doomsday." Or you could just read about it here.

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Sep 26 • 12:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com
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Does Doctor Doom Appear in ‘Avengers: Endgame Encore?’

Here's what you need to know about Doctor Doom's presence, or lack thereof, in "Avengers: Endgame Encore."

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Sep 25 • 10:17 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Oklahoma’s Turnover Woes Could Doom Their SEC Run

Oklahoma's -4 turnover margin and weak rushing game are major red flags against Georgia. Here is why the Sooners are in serious trouble this weekend.

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Sep 25 • 8:36 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Activision’s New Halo Must Leave Behind Xbox’s 15-Year Quest To Recapture Bungie’s Magic – It’s Time for a Doom-Style Rethink

Xbox has struggled to recapture Bungie's Halo magic for 15 years. Activision's new game needs to give the series a Doom (2016) style rethink.

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Sep 24 • 11:30 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
'Avengers: Endgame' Returns to Theaters, Could Reclaim No. 1 Box Office Spot

Disney's "Avengers: Endgame Encore" is tracking to lead the box office this weekend, ahead of "Doomsday" in December.

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Sep 23 • 10:58 AM EDT • Entertainment • northeasttimes.com
Jared Kaplan's AI safety concerns last year gain traction at Anthropic

Jared Kaplan, Anthropic's chief science officer, is a crucial figure in AI development. He also foresaw the doom debate hinging on AI training itself.

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Sep 23 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • businessinsider.com
Clippers Get More Bad News With Brandon Ingram Injury Update

The Los Angeles Clippers have had one of the worst months in NBA history, and things could be getting worse. Fans of the franchise are still reeling over the news of losing five future draft picks to doom their future as punishment for the Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention. More bad news comes in the […] The post Clippers Get More Bad News With Brandon Ingram Injury Update appeared first on HEAVY.

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Sep 23 • 1:13 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Question 8 “a doomsday scenario,” say Cambridge and Somerville cannabis business owners

The November ballot measure would end recreational marijuana sales statewide in 2028. That has local operators and investors feeling anxious.

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Sep 22 • 10:13 AM EDT • Business • cambridgeday.com
Bethesda Takes Action Against Doom-Themed Memecoin

Hope he's doing well

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Sep 21 • 12:00 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Decoding AI: Are doomsday warnings warranted? This risk adviser says it’s not science fiction; it’s reality
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Sep 21 • 11:41 AM EDT • Science • cnn.com
10 cybersecurity stocks to capitalize on AI doomsday fears: SocGen

Société Générale thinks the rally in cybersecurity stocks can continue.

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Sep 21 • 9:37 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Ruben Amorim makes stark admission about his Manchester United stint

1 AC Milan boss Ruben Amorim has made an honest admission about his time in charge of Manchester United.Doomed stintIn January, United confirmed the sacking of Amorim after 14 months in charge.His fir...

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Sep 21 • 8:50 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Is everyone Bricking their phones without you? The anti-FOMO (and anti-doomscroll) wellness craze
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Sep 21 • 6:59 AM EDT • Technology • nypost.com
Ke Huy Quan Reveals The “Life Changing” Gesture From Spielberg & Lucas When He Was A Kid

Ke Huy Quan was 12 years old when he made Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In his new memoir, Never Say Die, excerpted in Entertainment Weekly, the Oscar-winning actor reveals that producer Georg...

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Sep 20 • 8:44 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Ke Huy Quan on Receiving “Generous” $100K Residuals Check for ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’

The Oscar winner admitted he "didn’t understand how more money could suddenly appear" after already being compensated for his work on Steven Spielberg's 1984 film.

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Sep 20 • 5:44 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Jensen Huang: AI CEOs have 'ulterior reasons' in doomsday warnings

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says current regulations are enough to ensure AI is safe — and profitable.

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Sep 20 • 3:17 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Kate Capshaw Is 72: See What ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' Star Looks Like 42 Years Later

She's still a blonde beauty!

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Sep 20 • 3:06 PM EDT • Entertainment • heraldsun.com
Kate Capshaw Is 72: See What ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' Star Looks Like 42 Years Later

She's still a blonde beauty!

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Sep 20 • 3:06 PM EDT • Entertainment • bradenton.com
Ke Huy Quan reveals first ‘Temple of Doom’ residuals check was $100,000

Actor Ke Huy Quan said his family felt ‘surprise and disbelief’ after he received his residuals payout for ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.’

ew.com logo
Sep 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Rutgers football misses big opportunity vs USC

Rutgers football put up a fight vs. No. 12 USC, but key mistakes doomed the Scarlet Knights in a third-straight loss.

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Sep 19 • 7:24 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Is social media giving you health anxiety? Here's how to combat it

LONDON - Do you ever find yourself caught in a health advice doomscrolling session on TikTok late at...

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Sep 19 • 6:41 PM EDT • Health • theolympian.com
Is social media giving you health anxiety? Here's how to combat it

LONDON - Do you ever find yourself caught in a health advice doomscrolling session on TikTok late at...

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Sep 19 • 6:41 PM EDT • Health • myrtlebeachonline.com
First inning fiasco dooms Diamondbacks against Yankees

Record: 80-74. Pace: 84-78. Change on 2025: +3. Is it too late to bring Angry Orchard on as an official SnakePit sponsor? In sharp contrast to last Friday night cider-cap, where we blasted the Rangers 9-1, tonight was an exercise in Charles Bukowski-esque cirrhosis. By the time the first inning was over, the sky had […]

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Sep 19 • 1:34 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Is Trump’s AI obsession walking the world into disaster?

Jonathan Freedland speaks to Guardian US tech editor Blake Montgomery about the calls for a slowdown in artificial intelligence, and why President Trump is not moved by the doomsday predictions | Politics Weekly America

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Sep 18 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
American turn to villain costumes to protest city cameras

What do Darth Vader, Dr. Doom, and The Lorax have in common? People have dressed up as them to protest license-plate reader cameras and data centers.

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Sep 18 • 5:58 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
The Strange New Politics of AI. Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, September 17. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Douglas Murray asks, why do we allow terrorists to die of old age? The American nonprofits backing Hamas. A conversation with Dara Horn and Coleman Hughes. And much more. But first: inside the unlikely coalition warning that AI may kill us all. Last week, an AI researcher named Jacob Coxon made headlines around the world after saying that he had resigned from Anthropic because he believes AI might cause human extinction—and his co-workers do, too. Unlike the rest of us, potentially, the story just won’t die. The Pro-Human Assembly, a conference held Tuesday in Washington, D.C., about the existential dangers of artificial intelligence, couldn’t have come at a better time—or with a more eclectic coalition. The Archbishop of San Francisco was there. So was Steve Bannon, screaming about the Chinese. Bernie Sanders did a quasi-dramatic reading of messages posted to an online forum by rogue AI agents. Ashley Judd paraphrased a graphic Andrea Dworkin quote for reasons that remain a mystery to me still. It was odd. People in the AI industry have talked openly about the possibility of this technology causing human extinction for years, but it hits differently in the wake of the Hugging Face incident. If you don’t know what that is, all the more reason to read my dispatch today. As the doomers see it, the best-case scenario is a future in which humans are basically kept as pets: well cared for, but with zero autonomy. The worst-case scenario, obviously, is the everyone dies thing. What should be done? I heard lots of ideas but no easy answers. There are currently zero federal regulations on AI, which is sort of strange even to think about. After all, we regulate microwaves, and the people running the microwave industry have never once refused to rule out the possibility that their products will end all human life on Earth. What I saw in D.C. left me even more convinced that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes nothing should be done. You know, except for President Trump. — River Page River Page • Tech and Business [ The AI Doomers Have a Plan to Save Us. I Went to Find Out What It Is. ](https://www.thefp.com/p/the-ai-doomers-have-plan-save-bernie-sanders-bannon) Read story How Robert Kraft Made Macklemore a Martyr—and How to Better Fight Antisemitism On Monday, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and a group of other NFL owners banned Macklemore from performing at their stadiums after the rapper delivered a “Free Palestine” speech while opening for Ed Sheeran. Kraft cited the rapper’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.” Once multiple venues refused to host shows with Macklemore on the lineup, the tour’s promoter officially dropped him. Today, Josh Kaplan says that the move was counterproductive, arguing that though well-intentioned, Kraft’s decision turned an irrelevant footnote into a martyr. “You cannot cancel people into liking you,” Josh writes. Read his column on what a better response to Macklemore would have looked like. Read [ Robert Kraft Made Macklemore a Martyr ](https://www.thefp.com/p/robert-kraft-made-macklemore-martyr-antisemitism-palestine) This raises the question: What actually works against antisemitism? On the latest episode of Conversations with Coleman, recorded in front of a live audience in New York, Dara Horn joins Coleman Hughes to talk about her new book The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. She argues that antisemitism is a script that has repeated itself across countries and ideologies, and that most people don’t understand that well enough to fight it. Don’t miss their conversation. Watch [ The Lie at the Center of Antisemitism, with Dara Horn ](https://www.thefp.com/p/the-lie-at-the-center-of-antisemitism-coleman-hughes-dana-horn) Listen now Douglas Murray • U.S. Politics [ Douglas Murray: The 9/11 Failure That Still Haunts America ](https://www.thefp.com/p/douglas-murray-911-failure-justice-terrorist-guantanamo-bay) Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the men who planned them have still not faced trial. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and most of the accused have been locked up in Guantanamo Bay since 2002. Judges have retired, and plea deals have collapsed. Today, Douglas Murray examines how this happened and argues that a justice system that allows terrorists to die of old age in an interminable pretrial process is one that has failed. Read his latest column on what that failure says about our unpreparedness for the era we are now living in. Read story The Editors • U.S. Politics [ When Nonprofits Support Terrorists ](https://www.thefp.com/p/when-nonprofits-support-terrorists) A newly declassified CIA brief from 1998 found that Osama bin Laden used nonprofit shell organizations—including U.S.-based Islamic groups—to fund his terror plots. Today, a similar story is unfolding as multiple organizations on American soil present themselves as nonprofits, taking advantage of tax-exempt status while seeking to advance the ideological mission of terrorist groups like Hamas. Read our editorial on the latest evidence of this dangerous trend—and why there’s no excuse for making the same mistake the CIA revealed 28 years ago. Read story Simon Sebag Montefiore and Bari Weiss Live in New York For decades, the Middle East has shaped American foreign policy and loomed large in the public consciousness. Few understand its influence on our politics better than Simon Sebag Montefiore, who argues that America’s quagmires in the Middle East stem from a deep misunderstanding of the region—on both the left and the right. Join him October 1 as he sits down with Bari Weiss live in New York City to kick off his U.S. book tour for The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Get Tickets Now MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS [ Sydney Sweeney’s Naked Truth ](https://www.thefp.com/p/sydney-sweeneys-naked-truth-caitlin-flanagan) Caitlin Flanagan Read story [ I Thought Ukraine Was Losing. Then I Was Almost Hit by a Russian Drone. ](https://www.thefp.com/p/elliot-ackerman-ukraine-drone-gas-station-train) Elliot Ackerman Read story [ The Dangerous Ideology Behind the AI Warnings ](https://www.thefp.com/p/dangerous-ideology-effective-altruism-artificial-intelligence) Shyam Sankar Read story [ Amanda Knox: Patrick Clancy Can’t Win ](https://www.thefp.com/p/amanda-knox-patrick-clancy-grief-internet-crime) Amanda Knox Read story THE NEWS The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point, its first hike since 2023, signaling that another increase could follow as the central bank tries to bring inflation under control. President Donald Trump fired back by demanding that rates be cut sharply, though he stopped short of criticizing Fed Chair Kevin Warsh by name. The Houthis fired drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, including a major oil port on the Red Sea, and Saudi jets struck back with air strikes across Yemen in an escalating front of the Middle East war. (For more on the Houthis, read Zineb Riboua’s column from earlier this week.) A sweeping Russia and Iran sanctions bill passed the House in a 262–159 vote and is now heading to Trump for his signature. Named after the late senator Lindsey Graham, the legislation would hit countries that purchase large volumes of Russian oil and gas with tariffs of up to 100 percent, and is aimed at cutting off revenue that funds Russia’s war in Ukraine. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the European Union’s first-ever “associate member,” drawing a standing ovation from European lawmakers. The proposal, framed as a response to a world grown more hostile, faces an uncertain path as EU member states would have to approve it, and one diplomat said that “nobody really ​knows what it means.” The House voted unanimously to send billionaire Leon Black a criminal contempt referral after he defied a congressional subpoena to testify and hand over documents related to his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Black chose to fight the subpoena in court rather than comply. Charlie Kirk’s family filed a wrongful death notice Wednesday against Utah Valley University, alleging that a series of security failures left him exposed to a rooftop sniper. The notice is a required legal step before the family can sue. Merriam-Webster added 1,400 words and definitions to its dictionary, including looksmaxxing, vibe coding, and cuffing season. The publisher said the new entries offer “a window into the world today.” The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article.

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Sep 17 • 6:03 AM EDT • Politics • thefp.com
Character matters most in politics

Pat Hickey writes: Nevadans do not need political messiahs or prophets of partisan doom to save us from the evils of the other political party.

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Sep 16 • 1:25 PM EDT • Politics • rgj.com
Congress faces AI test as debate explodes over industry regulation

The Senate will get its first sneak peek Wednesday at just how hard it could be to pass even the most narrow of artificial intelligence legislation amid a growing debate over whether, if at all, to regulate the technology that industry leaders warn may pose doomsday threats to humanity. But do not expect the effort, […]

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Sep 16 • 12:07 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
‘P(doom)’ Is Just Vibes Masquerading as Science

Take the statistical AI doomsday warnings and divide them by a grain of salt.

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Sep 16 • 9:10 AM EDT • Science • gizmodo.com
Jensen Huang said China isn't debating AI doom. Weibo disagrees.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's remarks are trending on Weibo, the country's version of X.

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Sep 16 • 6:32 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Why doomsday warnings are not the only threat to the AI juggernaut

The global AI race is being hit by very localised political and environmental concerns

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Sep 15 • 7:39 PM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
Broncos Legend Ed McCaffrey Sends Strong Message After Chiefs Loss

Ed McCaffrey isn’t buying the doom around Denver after Week 1, but his joke about the Broncos defense hit on the night’s biggest problem. The post Broncos Legend Ed McCaffrey Sends Strong Message After Chiefs Loss appeared first on HEAVY.

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Sep 15 • 6:11 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismisses AI doomsday fears as 'not grounded in science'

Stuart Varney and Madison Allworth report on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissing AI doomsday fears. Jensen Huang explains why extreme AI concerns are not grounded in science, as President Donald Trump calls into the event.

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Sep 15 • 10:22 AM EDT • Science • foxbusiness.com
Steven Spielberg used Ke Huy Quan to get Harrison Ford out of ‘a bad mood’ on “Temple of Doom” set

Quan wrote in his new memoir that Ford felt like “an older brother” while they filmed the “Indiana Jones” sequel.

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Sep 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Vance says AI doom warnings from tech CEOs feel like a ‘Trojan horse’

Vice President JD Vance is skeptical of artificial intelligence CEOs calling for a development slowdown, comparing the calls to a “Trojan horse.” Vance told reporters on Monday that President Donald Trump‘s administration is concerned about the speed at which frontier model development is happening but would prefer to “regulate smartly,” considering the benefits and risks […]

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Sep 14 • 12:21 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Florida State firing AD could spell doom for Mike Norvell

The Seminoles may have a decision to make about football coach Mike Norvell in the coming weeks, and Michael Alford won't be making that call.

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Sep 14 • 12:19 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Scientists Identify The 'Doomsday' Seeds That Could Last The Longest

Some not-so-great news for the diet of the future...

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Sep 14 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
Why Phil Foden’s Man City season could be doomed already

Foden’s sending off at Old Trafford is likely to mean he misses up to a month of playing time with a three-game suspension and the international break on the horizon

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Sep 14 • 3:52 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
AI and the end of humanity? OK, ‘doomer’ says one Trump official

The latest warning from a former AI engineer was supposed to boggle minds and shock everyone into action.

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Sep 13 • 12:00 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
The AI doomsday debate intensifies

In this Sunday edition of Business Insider Today, we're talking about the AI industry's existential angst, and its plan to slow everything down.

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Sep 13 • 8:43 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
AI doomer psychology: Why researchers warn of death but keep building

Why do AI researchers keep building technology they believe will kill? Inside the commercial, ethical, and psychological forces driving doomers.

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Sep 13 • 5:30 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
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The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’

I found myself fielding a lot of questions from folks who don’t usually talk much about AI this week. They were mostly along the lines of “do you think AI is going to kill us all?” or “how worried should I be about this human extinction stuff?” Motivating this wave of existential anxiety was the highly dramatic resignation of now-former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon, who quit his job while publicly sharing his concerns about safety practices at the leading AI companies. More specifically, he declared that almost everyone at OpenAI and Anthropic, the leading AI labs, believes that there’s a decent chance the AI systems they’re producing could “kill us all” by the end of the decade, and the companies aren’t “acting responsibly.” Other AI safety researchers, including those still employed at Anthropic and OpenAI, all confirmed that yes, Coxon is correct, they’re all worried that their company’s products might prove fatal for the entire human race as well. Two more AI employees quit and joined the chorus. Now, the warning shot has been covered everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News to WIRED to the Guardian. I understand why all this sounds scary, but my response to those who have asked, has generally been: No, you don’t need to worry that AI will kill go rogue and kill us all. But that does not mean we shouldn’t worry, period. Far from it. The companies building AI products are now among the wealthiest and most powerful entities in the world. And they very much are building enormous engines of mass surveillance, extraction, and automation. They can and have allowed their AI systems to carry out felony hacks of other companies, provided the government with autonomously generated kill lists, and sold enterprise technology to firms around the world that is explicitly intended to replace jobs. But “AI” has done these things not because they have all-powerful minds of their own but, ultimately, because people have programmed, calibrated, and directed them to. In other words, it’s not AI we need to worry the most about. It’s the people and corporations working to profit from and gain power by deploying it. The technology is sophisticated, sure, and, especially in cybersecurity contexts, potentially disruptive to plenty of existing systems. But if we want to stop this predatory, profiteering, and extractive form of AI—and it’s worth noting that at this point, most people do—we absolutely can. A quick note/plea: I can only do all of this with the support of readers like you, so if you find value in independent, critical tech journalism and analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I want to keep as much of this un-paywalled as absolutely possible, and I need your support to do so. Many thanks to all who continue to chip in, it’s very much appreciated. Onward. Subscribe First, some context: AI industry folks like Coxon have been discussing the prospect that AI will destroy humanity for years. Even before the beginning of the AI boom, many working in the industry, from the executive staff to the rank and file researchers, have obsessed over ‘x-risk’, or the possibility that AI will become sentient or semi-sentient and move one way or another to exterminate humanity. This is ostensibly why Elon Musk bankrolled OpenAI in the first place, and is the grounds for his lawsuit alleging OpenAI betrayed its charter by abandoning its nonprofit status to become a commercial enterprise. Many AI engineers and startup founders have calculated their own personal p(doom), or the probability that the tech product they are working on will initiate an actual humanity-extinguishing apocalypse. 10-25% p(doom)s are pretty common. (I wrote about a long weekend I spent among these folks at one of their top conferences here, to give you an idea of their ideas and belief systems.) Sam Altman himself drove the narrative of the imminent rise of a super-powerful AI, or artificial general intelligence, to prominence by declaring that the technology he was building posed an existential risk to humanity. This idea is in other words baked into the DNA of modern AI companies and into the products they engineer. It’s also why the industry is routinely accused, by myself and others, of “doom marketing,” ie, using such proclamations and framings to impart the sheer power of the technology behind your product onto investors, partners, consumers, and the state. Some ambient understanding of this tendency may have helped prevent the press from repeating the claim every time one of the x-risk folks made it over the years, including when they quit their jobs at AI companies while doing so. Yet Coxon’s AI x-risk alarm has broken containment, as they say, and has exposed the idea to the mainstream media once again. This has happened, I think, for a number of reasons. First, when AI CEOs were going around saying AI might kill everyone in 2023, their companies were well-capitalized, but not nearly to the extent they are today. They were more easily dismissed as eccentric geeks of the sort that Silicon Valley is supposed to produce. Now, not only do their products have much greater market saturation, but people are more aware of a) the often unethical ways the executives and companies comport themselves b) the other adverse impacts of AI that have already arrived, and c) the physical cost of building these systems, particularly when it comes to data centers. Finally, toss in the constant stream of headlines in 2026 about AI models going rogue or potentially upending the world’s infrastructure. [ ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) [ With the backlash to data centers, Flock and AI glasses, a mass opposition to big tech is underway. Silicon Valley is in denial. ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) Brian Merchant · Aug 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) As a result, general sentiment was already overwhelmingly skeptical of AI and its overlords, so the table was pretty well set for someone to come along and say ‘just a reminder, the companies that are building the product that promises to take your job and leave a data center in your neighborhood also think that it might exterminate the human race’ and get a strong reaction from the media and the public. The question is: Should we understand this stuff as hype, strategically fanned to feed already swelling valuations? Is it doom marketing? Genuine cause for alarm that the infrastructure that undergirds modern life is facing a novel threat vector? Or reason to be sincerely worried that AI companies are amassing too much power, and that their products are genuinely dangerous? The answer, I’m afraid, is “yes.” Let me try to untangle all of this a bit, because arguments over how to navigate this moment are extremely heated right now, as they are essentially arguments over how to approach the politics of AI at a moment where there may be a unique opening for action. Those sympathetic to AI alignment concerns and x risk arguments—which increasingly includes a faction on the left who want to shut down AI over safety concerns—argue that people who dismiss AI as all hype have their heads in the sand. Meanwhile, critics of the x-risk narrative—which I might note includes a cadre of investors and tech folks on the right, too—argue that it is hype and can be used to further inflate valuations or for pursuing regulatory capture. The challenge is that many feel that dismissing AI as just hype or purely marketing also diminishes the urgency of taking on the AI industry as the novel and threat to labor, civil society, and the public sphere it is; others that by accepting the industry’s own terms, we imbue it with undue power and enable it. But let’s be clear: Declarations that AI is so powerful it might end the world are a kind of marketing, and anyone who says otherwise is just as off base as those who say that’s all that it is. If you don’t think that these sub-trillion dollar companies have higher-ups who noticed that when their founders talked about super-powerful dangerous AI they got spikes in media interest and phone calls from investors, or that those founders didn’t notice that themselves, and lean into certain narratives to advantage their products, then I don’t know what to tell you. Not all marketing is a Pepsi ad campaign with a celebrity spokesperson. Yet confronting the AI industry should certainly be considered an urgent project. Do I share the x-riskers’ fear that out-of-control, super-intelligent AI agents might end the world? I do not. I’ve read a good deal of AI extinction literature over the last couple of years and I have not come across a credible, step-by-step documentation of how exactly AI might move from self-recursively improving AI to killing every single human on the planet. Most of what I’ve read seems predicated on a sort of reverse Ian Malcolmian logic: Eventually, it becomes smart enough and AI, uh, finds a way (to exterminate humanity). Are the AI companies also overstating and dramatizing what their products can do? Yes, pretty much all the time. They’re in a knife fight for market share and are trying to win customers and government contracts before their investors come knocking. And yet. They have concentrated enormous amounts of compute, have extensive data collection and surveillance capacities, have inserted themselves into the state in numerous capacities, including military kill chains, and they are being run by egomaniacal billionaires who are rushing to monopolize an entire new market. The way I think about their most recent frightening-seeming exploits is not as a “swarm of rogue AI agents building a new civilization” or whatever, but as corporations with a hitherto-unimaginable amount of compute at their disposal recklessly experimenting with automation programs, completely unafraid of any repercussions because we have been unwilling or unable to impose any on them. So I think we should welcome any newfound imperative to hold them accountable. I also think that ultimately, the AI critics, Pause AI folks, leftists, doomers, effective altruists, and, honestly, most of the public, want a lot of the same things: legitimate checks and limits on AI companies’ power, actual transparency into what the companies are doing, and for more of AI to be under public control. (Ultimately, a lot of what animates the x-risk fears are rooted in just that: a fear of losing control.) How we move towards all this, exactly, is the question of the day, and while there’s much to be argued over in terms of building a viable political platform to challenge the AI industry’s power, I do want to cast a vote against one particular approach. Not to pick on Chris here, as there are a lot of folks out there proposing stuff like this, and the policy ideas actually stem from AI safety groups. But not only would this be challenging to land politically (I can already hear the ‘China will beat us to AGI’ calls) and all but unworkable in practice, this approach is a) far too limiting, b) fails to address the current harms caused by AI and c) would likely only wind up serving Anthropic and OpenAI; it’s what regulatory capture looks like in action. Full model transparency is the floor for what should be on offer here. If these companies believe their products will kill us, the very least we deserve is to know how. It’s in the public interest. I would also argue we might get a lot of the way to stopping any currently envisioned robot apocalypse simply by forcing AI companies to assume liability, and to submit to the full brunt of the law. If Sam Altman were liable to be charged with a felony for approving the hack on Hugging Face1, if Google was forced to pay defamation fines each time it published a false and injurious AI Overviews, these companies might suddenly find cause to restrain their models’ output, and we might hear less about rogue AI. We would need to introduce new frameworks and available tools for tracking automated lawbreaking, to be sure, but I’d wager that little would frighten the AI companies more than actually being held accountable for what their products enable. To that end, Illinois has passed an AI liability law, which the industry fought tooth and nail, and Florida is considering one. The next steps would be towards moving AI under public control; again, it’s only reasonable, since everyone, not just AI insiders, should get a say over how a technology whose developers say might kill us is developed and deployed. Dismantling the whole industrial project as currently structured should be on the table, too, pending democratic input. But that’s for another post. For now, suffice to say that while I won’t be losing any sleep about an AI-enabled extinction event, Mr. Coxon and co. have given us an opportunity to underscore the urgency of the clear and present damage AI companies are doing, the extreme power they wield and the extent to which they hold themselves unaccountable, and the abundance of political capital there is out there for taking them on. Subscribe 1 Purely speculative! I do not know if he did or not.

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Sep 12 • 3:59 AM EDT • Politics • bloodinthemachine.com
Here’s PS5’s First ‘Fairgames’ Trailer In 3 Years, Which Still Seems Doomed

Fairgames, the mythical live-service game that's been in development for 3 years, now has a new trailer that is actually pretty good.

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Sep 11 • 9:45 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com
AI’s confusing terms, explained

The last few weeks have seen a deluge of news about AI – from models going rogue to doom predictions about how AI could cause the end of humanity.

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Sep 10 • 4:31 PM EDT • Business • cnn.com
Garry Tan urges separating ‘science fact from science fiction’ amid AI doomsday fears

CNBC’s Kate Rooney sat down for an exclusive interview with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan to discuss the boom in so-called “hard tech” robotics startups. And discussing the increasingly heated debate over AI safety and how Silicon Valley should handle the rapidly advancing technology.

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Sep 10 • 3:15 PM EDT • Science • cnbc.com
Amazon Prime’s 9 ‘free’ games for September include Doom Eternal and High on Life

Amazon Prime subscribers can claim the games to keep via its Luna service…

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Sep 10 • 2:22 PM EDT • Technology • videogameschronicle.com
Patriots news: Mike Vrabel sums up doomed Drake Maye-led drive vs. Seahawks

The New England Patriots had a chance to avenge their Super Bowl loss in Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks. They were driving down the field while trailing by three. With seconds remaining in the game, Drake Maye attempted to throw a touchdown. That is when disaster struck. Maye’s pass was intercepted by Josh Jobe in the end zone. The Seahawks […] The post Patriots news: Mike Vrabel sums up doomed Drake Maye-led drive vs. Seahawks appeared first on ClutchPoints.

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Sep 10 • 1:09 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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What’s Next for the MCU? Every Upcoming Phase 6 Movie and TV Show Release Date

With Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set to wrap up in 2028 with Avengers: Secret Wars, fans are already looking to what lies beyond the horizon. Marvel Studios ...

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Sep 8 • 1:25 AM EDT • Entertainment • manofmany.com
Joey Cantillo’s Waterloo Dooms Guardians

Some life late

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Sep 7 • 4:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Rescue satellite gets close to NASA's doomed telescope, even if it can't save it

A private spacecraft that was supposed to save NASA's sinking Swift Observatory has managed to come within nine miles of the doomed spacecraft and even snap pictures.

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Sep 6 • 5:42 PM EDT • Science • latimes.com
Here are some of the wildest ways AI agents are circumventing rules

Some AI doomers worry that misaligned AI agents will go rogue and harm humanity. Recent activity is inflaming those fears.

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Sep 6 • 1:05 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
YOB cancell all upcoming shows due to health issues

YOB, a progressive doom metal band, has had to postpone their next live dates. More info can be found in the article.

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Sep 6 • 4:36 AM EDT • Health • chaoszine.net
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Stop doomscrolling

Here're 5 games to play instead

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Sep 6 • 1:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • laist.com
Fall's Video Game Release Slate Is Intimidatingly Good And Completely Doomed

Seemingly every game ever is dropping, but how many will survive?

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Sep 5 • 2:00 PM EDT • Technology • gamespot.com
Mike Johnson presses Democrats on court-packing: ‘Put their money where their mouth is’

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered a vote on packing the U.S. Supreme Court that was doomed from the get-go but aimed at getting Democrats on the record for

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Sep 5 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • nola.com
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…

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Sep 4 • 11:11 PM EDT • Science • dailykos.com
Is the Israel Lobby Doomed?

Pro-Israel influence over US politics is weaker than ever—but that doesn’t mean the lobby’s demise is inevitable.

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Sep 3 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • thenation.com
Patriots News: Don’t buy the depth doom

Daily news and links for Wednesday, 9/02/26

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Sep 2 • 11:01 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Fall Movie Preview: Russo brothers, maestros of ensembles, test their limits in 'Avengers: Doomsday'

Ups and downs have followed the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” but “Avengers: Doomsday” might just heal all its wounds.

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Sep 2 • 6:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • wsls.com
NES – Nintendo Classics adds Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, R.C. PRO-AM II, and Ikari Warriors

The Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Classics app has added Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, R.C. PRO-AM II, and Ikari Warriors, Nintendo announced. In Japan, Dragon Buster…

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Sep 1 • 9:07 PM EDT • Technology • gematsu.com
NASA's doomed Swift space telescope restarts science work after rescue mission fails

The nearly 22-year-old observatory is once again studying the cosmos, but its time in orbit is running out.

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Aug 31 • 5:00 PM EDT • Science • space.com
Hundreds of hidden earthquakes found at Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier

Hundreds of previously overlooked seismic events have been detected beneath Antarctica, including 245 near the marine edge of the Thwaites Glacier. Many appear to be glacial earthquakes caused when huge icebergs break off, capsize, and collide with the glacier. The surge in activity coincided with a period when Thwaites was flowing faster toward the ocean, hinting that changing ocean conditions may be destabilizing the ice.

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Aug 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
El Niño Has Become a Doom Loop

Die-offs and floods have started already, a prelude to supercharged storms and droughts.

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Aug 30 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • theatlantic.com
Last-minute doomsday scenarios for the 2026 election

Imaginations run wild at what President Donald Trump and his allies might yet do to interfere in the coming midterm election. He’s already done quite a bit.

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Aug 30 • 6:30 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Amazon knocks $150 off Pixel 11 phones, with up to $200 in gift cards

We also spotted discounts on the Scuf Valor Pro, a 100W battery pack, and the lowest price yet for Doom: The Dark Ages.

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Aug 26 • 3:18 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Fetterman aligns with Trump on AI push, warns China benefits from US 'overreaction'

Sen. John Fetterman rejected "AI doomsdaying" and echoed President Donald Trump's push for AI development, warning that U.S. overreaction could benefit China.

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Aug 23 • 2:52 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
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Lakers' Luka Doncic's chemistry with Jaden Hardy is Bronny James' worst nightmare come true

The Los Angeles Lakers are still trying to figure out their roster and rotations for the upcoming season. It seems Bronny James could already be doomed.

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Aug 22 • 4:52 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Political cartoons for August 22

Saturday’s political cartoons include doomscrolling, fiscal responsibility, and more

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Aug 22 • 11:00 AM EDT • Politics • theweek.com
Jill Lepore on why the artificial state is ‘doomed’

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to historian Jill Lepore about how this latest AI backlash could influence those all-important elections in November. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the 'artificial state'?

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Aug 21 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
From heated rivalry to frenemies: Inside the cutthroat business of ruling tech in Asia

Doomscrolling on an iPhone, firing endless questions at ChatGPT, or streaming a 4K film on Netflix on your laptop – behind these modern life conveniences lies a high-stakes contest between two Asian technology powers.

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Aug 18 • 7:52 PM EDT • Business • cnn.com
Marvel Cosmic Invasion Gets In On The Doomsday Hype With Its Upcoming DLC

Doom and Gloom

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Aug 17 • 12:30 PM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com
Marvel Cosmic Invasion reeals Siege of Castle Doom DLC

Today, Dotemu and Tribute Games unveiled brand new Siege of Casstle Doom DLC for Marvel Cosmic Invasion. The first piece of art can be found above. The DLC will feature a brand new game mode along with two new playable characters. Unsurprisingly, the infamous Doctor Doom will be central to that mode. With the Avengers: Doomsday movie coming up, it...

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Aug 17 • 11:09 AM EDT • Technology • nintendoeverything.com
Marvel Cosmic Invasion Doctor Doom DLC Arrives this Fall

The Siege of Castle Doom includes a brand-new game mode

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Aug 17 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • polygon.com
D23 live updates: From movies to theme park rides, here's everything announced at Disney fan event

If you missed the biggest announcements at Friday night's Disney Entertainment Showcase, we have you covered!

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Aug 16 • 8:24 PM EDT • Entertainment • abc30.com
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Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal crafted a hip hop breakup masterpiece

DOOMED! pairs Eagle’s deeply personal lyrics with some of Segal’s most commanding beats.

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Aug 16 • 4:31 PM EDT • Entertainment • theverge.com
Nintendo's GameCube-Era Tantrum Doomed the Console but Saved the Company

Nintendo kicked and screamed against PlayStation and its own fans, but it all worked out in the end

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Aug 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • polygon.com
New 'Avengers: Doomsday' trailer drops at D23 featuring Robert Downey Jr. and more

A new trailer for the highly anticipated "Avengers: Doomsday" was unveiled on Friday at the D23 Disney Entertainment Showcase.

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Aug 15 • 2:11 AM EDT • Entertainment • abc7news.com
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New ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer: Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom squares off with Mr. Fantastic

New ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ debuted at the D23 Expo. Here’s what we learned.

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Aug 15 • 12:21 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
‘X-Men’ movie cast confirmed: Sadie Sink, Kit Connor, and more announced

‘X-Men’ movie cast officially confirmed: Marvel reveals the new mutants coming to the MCU.

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Aug 15 • 12:17 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. tease 'Avengers: Doomsday' at D23

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" will unite the Avengers, Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

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Aug 14 • 7:52 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
As It Walks Toward Its Doom, Providence Health Plan Gets More Bad News

In change of plans, the Portland-based health insurance company say it would be closing down its Medicare Advantage line too after negotiations with a national big insurance company failed.

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Aug 13 • 9:27 PM EDT • Health • wweek.com
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Legislative leaders indicate Dunleavy’s Alaska LNG bill is doomed as business groups pan it

The governor proposed a 2% corporate income tax on oil and gas companies that currently pay no state income tax, though the gas line project itself would be exempt.

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Aug 12 • 10:46 PM EDT • Business • adn.com
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China’s glueball ‘triumph’; SpaceX rocket debris on video: 7 science highlights

From China’s plan against desertification to nuking a ‘doomsday asteroid’, here are some highlights from SCMP’s recent science reporting.

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Aug 12 • 3:30 AM EDT • Science • scmp.com
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"They don't understand art" - id Software lead slams Xbox, says it's "impossible" to make games like 2016's Doom now

id's lead services provider Chris Hayes spoke to the Well Played podcast about the studio, and the problems he has with the company post-layoffs.

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Aug 10 • 11:27 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Radeon RX 9070 XT It only delivered 30 FPS in Doom The Dark Ages due to the PCIe x4 slot.

Owner of a system with a graphics processor Radeon RX 9070 XT and the Ryzen 5 9600X processor experienced a significant drop in performance in the game...

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Aug 9 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • en.gamegpu.com
'They Fundamentally Don't Understand Art' — Doom Dev Blasts Xbox After Microsoft 'Gutted' id Software With Layoffs

After layoffs ripped through Doom developer id Software in July, id Software lead services programmer Chris Hays has taken aim at Xbox: "They fundamentally don't understand art."

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Aug 8 • 4:03 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Ravens waive rookie CB Matthew McDoom to add Jamon Johnson

The Baltimore Ravens waived undrafted rookie cornerback Matthew McDoom, creating a spot on the training camp roster for inside linebacker Jamon Johnson. McDoom spent his first three collegiate seasons at Coastal Carolina before transferring to Cincinnati for his senior year, finishing his career wit

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Aug 8 • 11:43 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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'Bad rap': Midwest burger giant defies California business doom narrative

Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers CEO Chris Dull defends California's business climate, telling Fox News Digital it gets a 'bad rap' while detailing the Midwest burger giant's expansion plans in the Golden State.

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Aug 7 • 5:17 PM EDT • Business • foxnews.com
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Id Software Vet Claims Xbox Doesn't Understand Art Or Games

id Software vet Chris Hays says entire departments have been 'gutted'

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Aug 7 • 4:29 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
How Burbank found a solution to downtown doom

Burbank is betting big on housing, nerd culture and free parking to revive its downtown scene.

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Aug 7 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • latimes.com
The Beauty Of Settled Science

Commenters convinced me I made a subtle mis-step in my framing of Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine. My framing emphasized that social priming studies had failed to replicate, but that many other subfields of psychology hadn’t. This naturally led commenters to point to failed replications in other subfields. Although none of these were as bad as social priming, few or none were entirely problem-free. Instead of emphasizing the difference between social priming and other subfields, I should have emphasized the difference between settled science and novel research. Here are some of my favorite psychology findings: The brain is sculpted by reinforcement learning, and a key driver of this learning is a prediction-error-based algorithm located in the nucleus accumbens and implemented through dopamine. Psychedelic drugs exert their effects through 5-HT2A receptors, pointing to a role for these receptors in some sort of construct like the balance between priors and new evidence. Certain cognitive functions are localized to certain brain areas (for example, impulse control to the frontal lobes; linguistic structure to Broca’s area, linguistic meaning to Wernicke’s area. But injure one of these areas, or render a certain function useless (eg a blind person having no more use for their visual cortex), and these mappings can gradually shift - suggesting that neurons are general-purpose compute whose specialization is a contingent fact about convenience and efficiency rather than a necessity. Most personality traits and general capabilities are about 50% genetic and 50% random, with little role for family environment or childhood history, with a few notable exceptions like partisan preference. Recent research complicates this story, but the further you go from this basic picture, the gnarlier the chains of indirect causation you require. Neurons fire together in “brain waves”, whose exact frequency corresponds with the character of consciousness; These divide neurons into natural subpopulations and linked graphs. The gamma rhythm corresponds surprisingly well to items in conscious awareness. GABA receptors seem to be involved in something like relaxation. By hitting different GABA receptors in different ways, you can modulate the exact type of relaxation you produce. Hitting GABA-A directly is too powerful and can cause dangerous levels of sedation, but allosteric modulation of GABA is an incredibly fruitful strategy that underlies drugs from benzos to barbituates to alcohol. If you know your GABA-A subunits, you can target specific subtypes of relaxation; for example, Ambien hits GABA-A1 and induces sleep. Memory divides somewhat fuzzily into bins of immediate-sensory, short-term, and long-term, with separate retrieval and storage functions, and separate systems for declarative vs. procedural learning. These can be harmed selectively, usually by hippocampal injury, so that some patients can remember their life stories but not form new long-term memories, or learn new skills like bike-riding but not new facts. The exact substrate of memory is unclear but seems to involve new synaptic connections between neurons in at least some way. The ability of modern psychology and psychiatry to treat mental illness is real but limited. SSRIs work for half or slightly fewer than half of patients; antipsychotics work with extreme side effects; benzodiazpines work but produce addiction and tolerance in many (not all) people. Most supplements are stuck in Poor Quality Study Replication Crisis Hell, but melatonin and l-theanine stand out as especially promising. Psychotherapy works with moderate effect size, but (with a few exceptions) seems to be more about the relationship with the provider than the details of the therapy itself. Mental hospitalization can sometimes defuse immediate crises but work less well than mental hospitals would like, with some studies showing overall negative effects. Schizophrenia is mostly genetic, but risk also increases with prenatal infection (especially rubella) and obstetric complications; there is suggestive evidence for roles of social stress and drug use (with psychedelics and marijuana making things worse, and nicotine if anything making things better). Bipolar and schizophrenia are so closely linked on a pathophysiological level that it seems like they might be the same disease; on the clinical level, they do seem to follow two separate courses/prognoses but can sometimes surprise clinicians by eg someone who seemed condemned to permanent schizophrenia unexpectedly recovering. The brain’s native reinforcement learning algorithms cash out in the phenomena of classical and operant conditioning; different reinforcement schedules reinforce at different levels, which can be exploited by bad actors to make especially compelling products (eg slot machines). None of these are immune to doubt. A few are speculative; one or two are genuinely unorthodox. But they’re all a step above one p = 0.049 paper that might not replicate. If they get overturned, they’ll be overturned by the same sort of genuine scientific shift that replaced Ptolemy with Copernicus or Lamarck with Darwin, not some sort of sordid discovery about someone entering random numbers into a spreadsheet. In 2008, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about The Beauty Of Settled Science: If you only care about scientific issues that are controversial, you will end up with a head stuffed full of garbage. The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science is worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? So, by the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is often based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time—if it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be breaking news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes for the heated arguments that attract all the media attention. Worse, if you aren’t in the field and part of the game, controversies aren’t even fun. Don’t be embarrassed to read elementary science textbooks, either. If you want to pretend to be sophisticated, go find a play to sneer at. If you just want to have fun, remember that simplicity is at the core of scientific beauty [...] A steady diet of science news is bad for you: You are what you eat, and if you eat only science reporting on fluid situations, without a solid textbook now and then, your brain will turn to liquid. Psychology isn’t centrally the new paper in Annals Of Recently-Breaking News saying that an n=5 study showing that large portion sizes increase support for terrorism. Psychology is centrally ideas like brain waves, GABA receptors, reinforcement learning, twin studies, and connectionism. People who think differently are worrying too much about BREAKING NEWS!!!, and should stop. The key distinction isn’t “recent research in social psychology” vs. “recent research in cognitive/bio/behavioral psychology”, as my essay last week unfortunately implied. It’s recent research in general vs. the deposit of settled science, battle-tested hypotheses, and carefully-earmarked speculation. And part of the reason social priming in particular was such a disaster was that it defied that heuristic, building itself up over hundreds of studies until it approached or even entered the pantheon of settled science - before collapsing (5-HTTLPR was also sort of like this). This isn’t a claim that settled science is always right - Freud was “settled science” for a long time - just that there’s an intuitive distinction between the level of credence you should have in the existence of power posing vs. the existence of Broca’s Area. (I compounded this error by calling the last post “Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine”, which suggested I was talking about the new research rather than the settled science. I actually meant to distinguish between research-psychology-the-field vs. clinical-psychology-aka-therapy, but this framing unintentionally pushed against the point I wanted to make) Some commenters on the previous article understood this point, but challenged its weight. It’s very cool, they said, to know how many neurons are in which brain lobe, but the main way that Psychology affected their lives was through bad clickbait studies used to buttress dumb policies; some p = 0.049 study says that exposure to microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel into raisins, and now their company has to implement punitive DEI or be sued for hazardous work conditions. I won’t dispute this as an accurate description of how the sausage gets made, but it’s worth examining the trains of thought that connect this observation to a campaign against psychology in general: The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad, and I don’t have good heuristics for distinguishing dumb woke psychology from other psychology, so I’m going to assume it’s all wrong and bad. The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad; it seems useful to punish/discredit psychology as a whole to assist my campaign against it, so for propaganda purposes I will try to discredit psychology as a whole. To people in the first camp, my response is: come on, your heuristics aren’t that bad. “Microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel up like raisins” is in the woke category; “the hippocampal theta rhythm seems to be associated with both memory and pathfinding, suggesting an unexpected yet surprisingly compelling relationship between the two” is in the not-woke category, don’t play dumb here. To people in the second camp, my response is: deliberately exaggerated propaganda campaigns are bad and this is a confession, not an excuse. Inability to view science through anything but a political lens was what got us into this problem; doubling down on it is a temporary solution but a recipe for permanent disaster. If you pronounce entire fields of science to be acceptable collateral damage in your campaign against bad political actors, you will alienate not just scientists but patients, clinicians, and general lovers of truth. Instead, you can say the thing you mean - that woke partisans shouldn’t try to occupy and exploit the otherwise-noble science of psychology for their own political gain - and wage the same campaign with a halo rather than a comic-book-villain goatee. From the font of oracular wisdom that is Weird Sun Twitter: [ Vessel Of Spirit@VesselOfSpirit i love you all conditionally but i love the good part of you unconditionally. even if it becomes a very small part 2:11 AM · Jan 22, 2015 1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 29 Likes ](https://x.com/VesselOfSpirit/status/558084551772471298) This is how I feel about psychology1, too, but with a touch more optimism. The good part of psychology is enormous, a hoard of endless treasures. You just have to look past the headlines! 1 To play devil’s advocate - should one always be so magnamious? Astrology? Phrenology? These seem different in that their entire orientation was flawed from the start; they didn’t simply fail to find the correct constellation-personality connections, the whole project of searching for connections between constellations and personality was doomed from the start. More difficult might be asking the same question about education research, which is notoriously bad. I don’t know enough about education research to know if there’s some settled science of correct and enlightening results lurking in the background beyond the day-to-day froth of poorly-conducted and politically-motivated studies. I think if it’s 90% bad, 10% good, it’s correct to call it bad as a compact way of communicating a useful truth; I think psychology is better than that, but admit it’s a tough judgment call.

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Aug 4 • 5:33 PM EDT • Science • astralcodexten.com
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