SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " NEC " 4,848 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 26, 2026, puzzle No. 641
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
As Colorado votes, rural voter politics could influence key races
Rural doesn’t necessarily mean conservative, and the opinions of these 10 voters run the gamut.
‘It’s necessary, we need it’: Business owner welcomes increased Petersburg police presence after Father’s Day mass shooting
Petersburg police have announced a new public safety initiative to curb gun violence after several recent shootings, including a Father’s Day mass shooting in Old Towne that left five people injure…
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. 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: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
Heastie brushes off growing DSA influence, defeat of incumbents in Albany
Heastie sought to put the results into context while speaking with reporters at an unrelated event in Schenectady on Thursday.
The Big Summer Preview
See the new edition of Necromunda revealed, including miniatures, rules, and more.
Kawhi Leonard Seeks Extension – But Not With Current Team
Kawhi Leonard has one year left on his current contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. He’s eligible to sign an extension this summer, and sounds like he’s willing to do get that done. The one caveat: The Clippers aren’t necessarily the team he wants to sign with. Leonard, who turns 35 on June 29, ...
Local entrepreneurs, aspiring business owners gain connections, resources at 4th annual expo
Small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs convened in Downtown Memphis to make connections and grow Thursday morning at the 2026 Small Business Expo.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Inside the Oregon coast's hands-on marine science center
The Charleston Marine Life Center offers touch tanks, whale skeletons and hands-on exhibits while connecting visitors with marine science on the Oregon coast.
Morningside University breaks ground for new business building
On Thursday, June 25, Morningside University hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for Honeck Freymann Hall, the future home of the Rosen School of business.
Cheshire orchard closes after 75 years in business
A longtime Cheshire orchard has announced its closing for good. In a message shared with customers, the family that owns Drazen Orchards said it is now permanently closed and will not reopen for the foreseeable future. The orchard has been open since 1951. The Drazen family said the decision was difficult, citing rising operating costs, the physical demands of running…
Photos from inside the Cannes Lions party scene: Spotify, Yahoo, more
When the sun sets on the for the day, the Cannes Lions partygoers come out to play. Ad execs said the party scene brings clout and connections.
Psychedelic Science 2027 Speaker Submission Invites the Field to Bridge Promise and Practice
Psychedelic Science 2027 (PS27) convenes May 3–7, 2027, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver under the theme “Bridging Promise & Practice”PS27’s speaker submission is now open through Friday, September 18, with no planned extensionsPS27 welcomes proposals across science, therapy, policy, culture, industry, the humanities, spirituality, connected movements, and the wisdom traditions that have carried this work for generations DENVER, June 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Multidisciplinary
Health Union Launches 2027 Innovation Suite, Pairing Community Leadership with AI to Accelerate Patient and HCP Connections
/PRNewswire/ -- Health Union, the pioneer in online health communities operating 125+ condition-specific sites reaching over 50 million patients and 9.5...
Living with a cat: the mental health impact scientists are only now discovering - Futura-Sciences
A Surprising Connection Between Cats and Schizophrenia? An Australian study has revealed an unexpected link between cat ownership and the risk of developing schizophrenia. Researchers analyzed 17 studies conducted over 44 years, spanning 11 different countries. Their conclusion? Living with a cat could actually double your risk of developing schizophrenia-related...
Moody Center announces exhibition exploring math, science and tech rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems
Through a framing of North, Central and South America as interconnected regions, “Radiant Geometries: Vectors of Knowledge from the Indigenous Americas” brings together contemporary Indigenous and Latin American artists whose practices illuminate knowledge as a living technology, through which the mathematical, metaphysical and artistic realms converge.
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
Oakland Athletics Partners with Motion Sports
ROCHESTER, Mich. - Oakland University has announced a new partnership with Motion, the modern technology platform built for college athletic departments. The Golden Grizzlies will implement Motion across their athletic department, giving coaches, academic staff, and student-athletes a cleaner, more connected way to work.
America’s Friendship Recession Has Become a Startup Opportunity
A new “connection economy” is selling courses, clubs and confidence bootcamps to socially isolated adults, but scaling intimacy remains a challenge.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 25, 2026, puzzle No. 640
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Amherst Chamber of Commerce hosts annual Business Expo
The 5th annual Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Business Expo was held tonight in the Amherst area, providing a venue for businesses to connect with community members.
Hong Kong Science Fair marks five years of youth innovation
As the city’s flagship I&T education event returns, it continues to connect classroom learning with real-world invention and open doors to the international stage
Las Vegas woman accused of running illegal multi-million-dollar healthcare scheme in Pearland, prosecutors say
Marizel Yukee is accused of providing medically unnecessary allografts to patients while receiving kickbacks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Her case is one prosecutors are citing as part of a national crackdown on health care fraud.
Politics: What Donald Trump’s Defense Policy Means For Black Service Members
Black Americans serving in the U.S. military have long lived with a great contradiction. The country they’re fighting to protect is the same one that’s failed to serve and protect them.Despite this, Black Americans continue to enlist. There are over 350,000 Black active duty and select reserve members and more than 2.4 million Black veterans. That’s according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.This year, Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed the promotions of more than a dozen Black and female senior officers. He’s also dismissed several high-ranking Black and female officers, according to The Atlantic. This comes amid the second Trump administration’s aggressive rollback of programs and policies connected to diversity, equity and inclusion.Black military members have always battled discrimination. But for some, this is a step too far in the wrong direction. So, what does their future hold? And what does it mean for the U.S. military?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
New DNA study of Neanderthals bolsters suspicions of human-driven extinction
Analysis of 27 genomes reveals more diverse, better-connected populations and challenges the idea that genetic decline caused their disappearance
Lane County health centers plan cuts to address projected budget deficits
The Community Health Centers of Lane County announced plans to reduce expenses and restructure operations as it works to address projected budget deficits drive
Black Business Expo 2026 in Pensacola
Looking for meaningful connections, community engagement, and a chance to support local Black businesses? Join us for the Black Business Expo 2026, Sunday, June 28th, from 2 to 6 p.m. in the historic Belmont-DeVilliers District in Pensacola.
Akron Children's launches new mental health tool
The goal is to combine real human connection from trained well-being coaches with AI tools, the hospital said.
CC Biz Buzz: A busy business is not always a healthy one
Columbia College Business faculty member Gina Singleton writes about lessons of cash versus revenue.
The ‘tech neck’ time bomb: why 43 million young Americans could cripple U.S. health care within a generation
A spine surgeon warns that smartphone addiction is quietly deforming the spines of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Entertainment calendar
Please email entertainment listings to entertainment518@digitalfirstmedia.com. Wednesday, June 24, 2026 PROCTORS: 432 State Street, Schenectady. Chicago, 7:30 pm. www.atproctors.org. SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: 108 Avenue of The Pines,…
Helping people stay in treatment starts with the basics
SouthLight's Social Determinants of Health team helps patients connect to housing, transportation and other resources to support recovery.
Reproductive Health and Constitutionalism in Latin America: A Research Agenda
--Verónica Undurraga, Professor at the Faculty of Law, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez [Editor’s Note: This is one of our ICONnect columns. For more inf
Lakers Draft Pick Has Surprising Kobe Bryant Connection
The Los Angeles Lakers took wing, Cameron Carr, with the No. 24 overall selection, a player with a ton of upside and a strong reputation. The post Lakers Draft Pick Has Surprising Kobe Bryant Connection appeared first on LA Sports Report.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 24, 2026, puzzle No. 639
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Invasive ticks confirmed in Connecticut, pose health risks
Two invasive tick species, the Lone Star tick and the Asian longhorned tick, have been confirmed in Connecticut.
Bill Gates: Jeffrey Epstein used billionaire connections to get to me
Bill Gates told Congress that Jeffrey Epstein wormed his way into his life with "veiled threats" to disclose extramarital affairs.
New Science Education Resource Helps Youth Explore Agriculture in Their Local Communities and Globally
The new Agriculture! guide connects youth to agricultural systems in their communities and globally.
Capital Region individuals arrested in connection to nationwide healthcare fraud crackdown
Delta CEO Ed Bastian reveals what he says must happen for airline ticket prices to fall
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says ticket prices will drop when more supply enters the market, citing air traffic control congestion as a bottleneck.
Roku May Help Fox Avoid Aggregeddon
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Scrolling through links over the last week, I stumbled across this fun headline: Wow. Formula 1 (the sport, not the docu-series) is the perfect “dog not barking”. As a reminder, each week in my Streaming Ratings Report, I call out the shows that miss every viewership chart. I dub them “dogs not barking”—like the Sherlock Holmes mystery—because without any data, we forget they even exist. This is in contrast to something like, say, a film flop—cough The Mandalorian and Grogu cough—where even underperforming at the box office is widely discussed here, there and everywhere. In the US, Formula 1 is now in “no public viewership data, so not discussed” territory. After moving to Apple TV from its former home of ESPN, basically no one talks about it. Apple did publish an initial, unsourced, unsubstantiated, (dare I say unserious) datecdote claiming more folks are watching Formula 1 on Apple than ESPN, but we haven’t gotten any updates since. This stands in contrast to when the sport streamed on ESPN, and ESPN PR provided weekly viewership figures. Formula 1 was, at best, a niche sport in America—averaging 1.3 million viewers in the Big Data Plus era—but now it’s basically anonymous. (And yeah, after moving to Apple, I very, very, very much doubt its ratings increased.) Unfortunately, that story isn’t quite big enough to warrant a section in today’s “Most Important Story of the Week” column, but I wanted to call it out, because otherwise, no one else will! Certainly, no one will write articles about the silence/ratings decline, unlike when they wrote breathless articles connecting the rise in viewership to Netflix’s Drive to Survive, including Reuters just last month. (This is a topic I’ve tried to provide a moderate/nuanced/non-hyped take since 2022.) Anyway, on to this week’s issue. I was a bit worried I didn’t have a juicy topic, then the Murdochs went out and did their Murdoch thing: buying Roku. So that’s the story of the week, and it happens to touch on quite a few themes of the streaming wars and the disruption therein. I’ll cover that, plus why more consolidation in Hollywood media looks likely, more good news on the Hollywood labor front, whether we’ll see an uptick in production in Los Angeles, some Broadway and theme park news, cellphone prices going up in the third world (and possibly everywhere), and more. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Another Big Media & Entertainment Merger The story of the week is clearly Fox is buying Roku for $22 billion. I read a lot of good strategy takes on why Fox bought this streaming TV device maker—and I’ll have mine below—but what fascinates me more is how this deal connects to quite a few themes of the streaming wars, linking to everything from the pace of M&A to “aggregeddon” to Netflix’s recent M&A actions/inactions to the shift to advertising from pure play streaming and more. The only topic I can’t really connect it to is my old theory, “never bet against Rupert Murdoch” because he isn’t the one who did this deal; his son Lachlan inked it. (Do I think he provided advice, even at his 95 years of age? Sure.) That plus I have one additional piece of strategy for all entertainment players, inspired by this deal. So let’s dive into all those topics, starting with why I like this deal. Roku is a Great M&A Buy
Lead Maine petitions DHHS to adopt new Medicaid rules
Libby emphasized that neither initiative would cut benefits or eligibility for MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program that spends more than $1.4 billion a year and serves 400,000 Mainers.
Exclusive | Walmart, in Biggest Deal in Two Years, Buys Advertising Tech Firm
The retail giant is purchasing Vibe.co, a company that enables advertising through connected TVs.
Ken Paxton and James Talarico are neck and neck in U.S. Senate race, new poll finds
The vast majority of Republicans indicated they had moved on from the bitter GOP primary and now support Paxton. Talarico had commanding leads among independents and moderates.
Texas doctor charged in $89M fraud case as administration pushes health care crackdown
The Justice Department has charged a Texas doctor in an $89 million health care fraud scheme, accusing him of billing insurers for medically unnecessary cardiovascular screening tests.
Sportico Studio’s New Video Experience Debuts at Cannes Lions
Sportico this week launched Sportico Studio, a dedicated content and creative solutions offering for brands looking to engage the sports business community. The studio, featured on a new video page on Sportico’s homepage, will leverage Sportico‘s unique position at the center of the sports business ecosystem, connecting brands with influential decision-makers across leagues, teams, media, …
Texas doctor charged in $89M fraud case as administration pushes healthcare crackdown
The Justice Department says it has charged a Texas doctor in an $89 million healthcare fraud scheme, accusing him of billing insurers for medically unnecessary cardiovascular screening tests for college student-athletes and then rubber-stamping the res...
RBC AND CANUCKS SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT (CSE) ANNOUNCE MULTI-YEAR PARTNERSHIP; RBC LOGO TO BE FEATURED ON VANCOUVER CANUCKS HOME JERSEYS
RBC expands commitment to sports, entertainment and community by connecting CSE fans to enhanced experiences, including exclusive benefits for RBC clients
Walmart to Buy Vibe.co in Effort to Fuel TV Advertising Business
Walmart Inc. has agreed to acquire Vibe.co in an effort to expand its connected television advertising business, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
For democracy to survive, we must embrace our interdependence
Our mandate then was to gain independence. But in today’s hyperconnected world, it’s all about standing together.
The Cigna Group Foundation Invests $3 Million to Strengthen Youth Mental Health Through Nonprofits Across 10 States
22 nonprofits will expand access to youth mental health care and strengthen support for families and caregivers States: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey,...
Utilizing Toy Chest, Part III: How Ravensburger Connects Business Strategies with Philanthropy
Learn how Ravensburger North America, one of the world’s leading game and puzzle makers, partners with TTF’s Toy Chest to create meaningful impact for children in need and reinforce the company’s commitment to social responsibility.
From soil to gut: why your gut health depends on the world around you
On this World Microbiome Day, we explore the One Health perspective: the idea that human, animal, and environmental health are not separate concerns but expressions of the same interconnected system.
The best Prime Day Lego deals include 'Star Wars' ships, Disney villain cars, and more — top finds start at $28
Lego fans can save big during Amazon Prime Day, with deals on “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” Lego Technic, and Ninjago sets, plus builds inspired by Marvel, Disney, “Jurassic World,” Minecraft, Formula 1 racing, and more. We've rounded up Prime Day’s 17 best Lego deals, including several at their lowest prices ever
Free virtual event to connect thousands of teachers with University of Hawai‘i science research
Science educators around the world will get a front-row seat to groundbreaking research and innovation from the university and the company PocketLab during a free virtual unconference in July.
‘Monster Mia’ Set For Coordinated 2,700-Screen Halloween Release Across Europe
EXCLUSIVE: Monster Mia, which world premieres at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this week, is lining up a 2,700-screen Halloween-timed European rollout involving a myriad of indie di...
Small Business Resource Fair in Covington connects entrepreneurs with free support and training
By Abigail Wright NKyTribune staff writer Local entrepreneurs, aspiring business owners and students gathered on Monday at the Kenton County Public Library’s Covington branch for the 2026 Small Business Resource Fair, an event designed to connect the region’s business community with free resources, training and networking opportunities. Hosted by the Economic & Community Development Institute...
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 23, 2026, puzzle No. 638
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Shinnecock's U.S. Open crowd debacle shouldn't have surprised us
The crowds following Wyndham Clark's U.S.
Opinion | The I Ching, Leibniz and AI: how old China-West links shaped modern science
The connection between Chinese civilisation and Western scientific thinking is far deeper and more intricate than commonly understood.
Iran peace talks update; Uthmeier takes on 7-OH
Political Connections airs each weeknight at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News.
Long Island Fans Accused Of Being 'Stain' on Golf
The U.S. Open was not without controversy this year. Thousands of fans flocked to Shinnecock on Long Island, to watch Wyndham Clark take home his second major championship win. But Clark was on the receiving end of some nasty chants and remarks, as fans really wanted someone else to win. "New York ...
South Carolina small business summit connects owners with government resources
Local leaders gathered to enhance the small business pipeline and connect business owners with resources they might not know exist.
Start Building With 30+ Prime Day Lego Deals on Star Wars, Minecraft and Botanical Sets
Save some cash on popular Lego sets with these Prime Day steals. We've found something for everyone, from Marvel fans to car enthusiasts.
Baystate Health to enhance care with Oracle Health’s AI solutions
Baystate Health and Oracle Health are expanding their collaboration to launch an enterprise digital transformation, aiming to create a more connected and patient-centered care experience using AI-p…
CT Business Blend: June 22, 2026
Hartford Business Journal’s Greg Bordonaro and WTIC’s Brian Shactman explore the people, companies and trends shaping Connecticut’s business scene every Monday at 8:30 a.m. on WTIC 1080 AM.
I moved to be closer to my kids and grandkids. I ended up moving back.
Feliz Hebert moved to Connecticut to be near her kids and grandkids, but loneliness and boredom led her back to Cape Cod instead.
Monthly BAT Days Initiative Connects Residents to Free Health, Recovery and Support Services
On the second Wednesday of each month, these organizations come together at the Centers for Addiction and Mental Health Programs (CAMP) on Orange Blossom Trail to provide HIV and Hepatitis-C testing, connections to affordable or free primary care providers, mental health resources and case management services.
Baystate Health and Oracle Health Expand Strategic Collaboration to Create a Connected and Patient-Centered Care Experience
/PRNewswire/ -- Baystate Health, a not-for-profit, integrated health system in western Massachusetts, is expanding its strategic relationship with Oracle...
Health insurers are seeking rate hikes again. Here’s what to know
The Connecticut Insurance Department annually reviews requests by insurance companies to raise or lower rates on health coverage.
Science Saru's New 'Ghost In The Shell' Takes Shape In Annecy
At Annecy, the studio detailed its manga-inspired approach, handcrafted production pipeline, and rejection of GenAI tools.
Osaretin Osagie Named NE10 Sport Excellence Award Winner
Southern Connecticut State University men's track & field All-American Osaretin Osagie was named the 2026 Northeast 10 Conference Outdoor Track & Field Sport Excellence winner, as announced by the NE10 on Friday, June 19.
The top 10 nonprofit health systems by 2025 operating revenue
The 2025 fiscal year saw across-the-board performance improvements for the country’s 10 largest nonprofit health systems, if not necessarily an expansion of their business. | Operating performances may have improved across the board, but not all of the country's largest nonprofit health systems grew their businesses.
Can a Community Move Beyond the Systemic Fractures of Mental Health Care? "All Access hosted by Andy Garcia" Explores the Coordinated Response in Kansas
The educational segment, filming on June 23, 2026, features Mental Health America of South Central Kansas as it challenges the traditional boundaries of regional behavioral healthcare. Filmed on location across outpatient counseling spaces, children and family programs, adult support services, and residential environments supporting recovery, stability, and independence in Wichita, the feature captures how connected programs, community partnerships, and compassionate care create a functional saf
ESPN Fan House Opening As Engagement Hub For College Sports Fanatics
ESPN is bringing the fans home. The Disney-owned sports network has launched ESPN Fan House, a “fan-centric engagement hub” that will “connect fans more deeply with ESPN’s coverage of college sports, brands and moments” ahead of the 2026 season. The hub, powered by Flowcode, is being framed as an interactive space existing across live and …
Ukraine squeezes Russian stronghold with new drones, forcing fuel cuts
Kyiv's new mid-range drones are pounding the roads, fuel depots, and bridges connecting Crimea to Russia and the southern front lines.
Webtoon Productions, France’s OuiDo! Adapt ‘Lumine’ as Animated Series
The project will be introduced at this week’s Mifa, the market at France’s Annecy Animation Festival.
Half of London firms report skills gap amid AI boom
Of the just over 2,000 business leaders surveyed, half say their staff have the necessary skills.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 22, 2026, puzzle No. 637
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Tandy's Wales prepare for challenging summer of travel
Welsh domestic rugby might have finished at the end of May but there is very little rest for the Welsh national men's side this summer.
Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints, Answers for June 22 #637
Here's today's Connections: Sports Edition answer and hints for groups. These clues will help you solve The New York Times' popular puzzle game, Connections: Sports Edition, every day.
Scheffler praises Clark's resolve in gutsy US Open triumph
World number one Scottie Scheffler praised playing partner Wyndham Clark for defying New York hecklers as well as formidable Shinnecock to win his second US Open title on Sunday.Scheffler settled for a share of fourth after firing a one-over par 71 to finish on 280 while Clark edged fellow American Sam Burns by one stroke for the title.
What Would Faster Sequencing Mean for Your Research?
In this Teach Me In 10, Dr. Nick Scales, Technical Sequencing Specialist at Plasmidsaurus, discusses how Plasmidsaurus help researchers gain deeper biological insights while reducing common workflow bottlenecks.
Clark blocks out noise to stumble to US Open title
Wyndham Clark blocks out the noise of the fans to win a second US Open title at Shinnecock Hills.
2025-26 Anaheim Ducks: By the Numbers, Part 5
Recapping the 2025-26 season for Nathan Gaucher, Tim Washe, Nik Brouillard, Ross Johnston, Beckett Sennecke, Eric Nilson, Noah Warren, Nico Myatovic and Stian Solberg.
Bulloch County Health Department to host WIC Farmers Market this Tuesday & Wednesday
Eligible Georgia residents participating in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program will soon have more access to fresh, locally sourced fruits and vegetables through a series of farmers' markets hosted by the Southeast Health District. The market will be at the health department (1 W. Altman St.) on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, and Wednesday, June 24, 2026, from 9am-2pm each day.
I took 30-year-old son on a vacation to Hawaii; these were the rules
My 30-year-old son is independent and lives across the county, so I rarely get to connect with him. I thought a trip to Hawaii would be perfect.
SoKno Pride helps connect LGBTQ-owned businesses with new customers
While SoKno Pride celebrated the LGBTQ community, vendors and organizers said the event also helped local businesses reach new customers, expand their networks and strengthen support across East Te…
'House of the Dragon' Season 3 family tree: How the Targaryens, Velaryons, and Hightowers connect
Here's your refresher on Westeros' most incestuous family.
CT cannabis shops say state's strict rules on discounts hurt business
Retailers say Connecticut's cannabis advertising restrictions are stricter than those faced by many other businesses.
Pols & Politics: Boston Mayor Wu joins Scottish statue traffic cone prank: ‘A sense of joy everywhere’
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu admitted to joining in on a traditional Tartan Army prank by placing a traffic cone on a statue outside City Hall. Plus: US Attorney Leah Foley’s special necklace.
Connecticut Sports Betting Handle Hits a May High in 2026, but Revenue Falls to $15.6M
Connecticut took $187.3M in May 2026 sports bets, up 1.8% YoY, but revenue fell 13.6% to $15.6M as hold dropped to 8.31%. State tax was $2.14M at the 13.75% rate.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 21, 2026, puzzle No. 636
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
A single cobalt shock could trigger global EV battery supply chaos
The global cobalt supply chain is more interconnected—and more vulnerable—than previously thought, with disruptions capable of triggering far-reaching cascades across multiple countries and industries. Researchers warn that protecting battery supply chains will require system-wide coordination because critical bottlenecks can turn local shocks into global problems.
Android 17 woes continue with Pixel users losing 5G connectivity
Users say they found a fix, and it's relatively simple to do.
Businesses with ties to Jeffrey Epstein saw norms, share prices suffer
A new study found a link between connections to Epstein and C-suite misconduct.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 20, 2026, puzzle No. 635
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
World Cup contributing to major business boom for bars and restaurants across Connecticut
World Cup contributing to major business boom for bars and restaurants across Connecticut