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Fans Are Furious Over Jay-Z’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Decision, and the Backlash Is Growing
The Super Bowl halftime show is supposed to be one of the biggest entertainment events of the year, but the latest discussion surrounding Jay-Z has already sparked plenty of controversy. Fans are making their opinions known, and not everyone is happy with the direction of the halftime performance. Jay-Z, through his partnership with the NFL…
Many women have never discussed heart health with a clinician, and most report multiple symptoms
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, and the risk rises during the menopause years. But an international study has revealed that only half of women know this. Many have never talked about ...
Seattle businesses cite safety, taxes as top concerns, new survey finds
Nearly half of the Seattle businesses surveyed said they have seriously considered moving operations, jobs or investment out of the city, according to a new sur
Do drivers convince themselves that speeding is OK? AAA explores
A recent survey of drivers found nearly half believe going a little bit over the speed limit isn’t really “speeding.”
Americans Are Open to AI in Healthcare, but Want Humans Making Final Calls
Americans are generally open to AI handling administrative and medical tasks, but they largely don’t want AI operating without human oversight. About half (47%) say AI will make the relationship between patients and their doctors worse, compared with 10% who say it will make it better.
Experts Warn of Wider Spread as Ebola Outbreak Reaches Plateau
NEW YORK (AP) — The Ebola outbreak in Congo passed a grim milestone this week — 10,000 confirmed cases — and spurred questions about whether health authorities are losing their ability to contain it. Nearly half the infected people in this outbreak have died, and some experts say there are reasons ...
Many Texans must choose between healthcare and food
More than half of Texans worry about paying for food while keeping health insurance, writes columnist Chris Tomlinson.
Only about half of social science findings held up when retested, major replication project finds
Psychology’s replication problems drew wide attention after 2015. A new study in Nature suggests the challenge is not unique to psychology: across economics, education, business, sociology, and political science, success rates were similar.
Fatigued Devils Fall 5-2 to Avalanche
In what is likely the most difficult situation they’ll face this season, the Devils couldn’t overcome an elite opponent on the second half of a back-to-back out west.
Lebron Helps 76ers Improve To 4-1
The Philadelphia 76ers overcame a second half collapse to defeat the Indiana Pacers 114-109 on Wednesday night, improving their record to 4-1 to begin the 2026-27 NBA season. Tyrese Maxey led the way with 27 points, while LeBron James delivered an all around performance to help Philadelphia secure an important road victory. Maxey was outstanding…
Second Half Collapse Highlights Washington Wizards Loss vs. Cavs
The Washington Wizards were outscored by 20 points in the second half, falling by ten on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers
Lobotka injury: Napoli star stretchered off in tears
Napoli midfielder Stanislav Lobotka suffered a suspected ankle injury in the first half of a Serie A match against Monza and was stretchered off in tears.Napoli star Lobotka suffered a suspected ankle...
F1 publishes first Social Impact Report; key student scholarship renewed
Over half a million young people benefitted from F1 initiatives in 2025
MiAsia Symone on the latest entertainment headlines
Jay-Z has officially been announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer and fans have things to say. Plus retired NBA standout, Paul Pierce is rumored to be struggling financially.
Home Depot wants your AI agent to show some ID first
Home Depot's chief information officer told Business Insider the retailer needs AI agents to self-identity and verify they're acting on your behalf.
Agitating for attention, Trump and Bill Maher go at it again
Bill Maher has railed on Trump only half as much as his late-night peers, leaning into various MAGA grievances about the “woke” left and forging a fair-weather friendship with the second-term president.
Karl-Anthony Towns responds to Mike Brown’s Knicks halftime challenge in a huge way
Knicks coach Mike Brown called out Karl-Anthony Towns.
North Carolina Struggles During First Half vs. Charlotte
It may be the preseason, but North Carolina isn’t giving its fans much reason for optimism. The Tar Heels are trailing 36-33 at halftime during their final preseason contest against Charlotte. UNC trailed by as many as 15 points on Tuesday before rallying back to a three-point deficit. North Carolina Struggles Early As previously mentioned, […] The post North Carolina Struggles During First Half vs. Charlotte appeared first on HEAVY.
Survey shows high percentage of Seattle businesses have considered moving out of Emerald City
Around half of Seattle businesses report that are considering moving or shrinking, blaming a business environment that they say is getting worse and don’t believe it looks like it will get better, according to a survey from the Downtown Seattle Association and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
Animals Starves while the Kardashians Miss the Charts Again
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we get going, I’d like to offer congratulations to Jonathan Funke, whose suggestion “midflicks” won the poll for what I should call straight-to-streaming films which aren’t big or cinematic enough to go to theaters but seem too expensive for a TV movie. It’s so useful a term, I just used it last week! Now I just need to add this term to my data dictionary! Okay, on to this week’s issue. We’re starting out looking at Netflix/Ben Affleck’s latest crime thriller, Animals. I’ll also look at Disclosure Day heading to Peacock (it did better than you’d remember in theaters...) and a new movie based on toys. Plus, a long-time streaming flop returns for its eighth season...will it finally chart? (No.) Will anyone at Disney care? Probably not. All that, plus another look at new shows landing on streaming on 1-Oct from Reelgood, what streamer hasn’t had a film make the Luminate charts since August, Reacher’s long run on the charts, M_onster: The Lizzie Borden Story’s_ short run, the top shows in 2026 according to Samba TV, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. And I mean that last part: putting this week’s issue together, I assembled OVER 25 images, most of which are bespoke looks I made just for this report. Really, publishing articles like this takes the work of writing two articles: one is the narrative and the other is making charts/graphs. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the week of October 5th to October 11th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Film - Netflix’s Latest Star-Studded Thriller Goes For Glory The tempting angle for anyone writing about streaming film this month, like yours truly, is to ask, “Is this why Dan Lin lost his job at Netflix?” Take Animals, the Ben Affleck-starring-and-directing, Artists Equity-produced crime thriller that opened on 9-Oct. (Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson are also in it.) If it did really well, then one could argue that Lin has another success on his resume. If it underperformed, then it’s another example of a Netflix underperformance this year. So where did Animals fall? Kinda in the middle, but that means it’s more “not a hit” than “big hit”. On Nielsen, it opened to 12.0 million hours, and here’s how that stacks up for 2026 films so far this year: Obviously, that’s not great. It’s both under my 15 million opening bar for “fine” for a Netflix film and 20 million bar for “great” opening. It did a bit better on Samba TV, getting to first place. That’s very, very good, though again, looking at the Nielsen data, it probably means that it was a light week overall. Luminate’s data is a bit closer to Samba TV’s, tied for 17th all time for single weeks since May of 2024: To top it off, no one seemed to like it. It has a 33 on Metacritic and only a 5.7 on IMDb. Both of these numbers could have been impacted by the stories about Affleck’s comments about using AI to make the film. Given the controversy, the film might not have been as bad as the ratings suggest, but it’s also not a bullish sign. All to say…yeah, on net this film isn’t a point in Dan Lin’s favor. At this point, Netflix’s slide has been long enough—going on since February—that I’m almost tempted to lower the bar for what a “hit” is on streaming. Post-February of 2026 or so, it seems like straight-to-streaming films just haven’t hit the same heights as they did from 2022 to 2025. Before we head onto the “Quick Hits” for film, I want to shout out a fellow newsletter whose articles I’ve been loving this year, LA Material, a new LA-based news outlet. For just a highlight of my favorite articles since July... I loved this article on Ghost Town, a group on Venice that clears homeless encampments. As a Los Angeleno, obviously I adore their articles on LA parking issues. Their article on illegal parking tickets got the City Council to address the issue! Also check out their article on people parking in medians. Check out their deep dive on what went wrong with the LA Jazz Festival and how it fell apart, or what’s wrong with USC’s finances. Finally, they wrote up a voter guide on voter guides for the LA General Election. So meta! In search of a city? L.A. Material is an independent news outlet covering the people, politics, culture and glorious chaos shaping Los Angeles. L.A. Material brings you intel on the city you can’t get anywhere else. From exploring how Reddit short stories became Hollywood’s hottest commodity to reporting on the survival jobs keeping entertainment workers afloat. And answering, once and for all, why the AMC Burbank escalator is always broken. Through their newsletters, podcast, videos, events, and member community, L.A. Material is designed to help Angelenos connect to Los Angeles and each other. Sign up now for the free weekday newsletter. Quick Notes on Film Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, came to Peacock on 9-Oct, and I’ll admit that, after pulling its stats, I did a pinch of a double take. As I wrote throughout my deep, deep, deep dive on summer box office/Obsession/Backrooms/IP/superheroes, oftentimes the film media discusses films as “flops” or “misses” or “hits” without clarifying what they specifically mean. Since Disclosure Day didn’t make $250 million in the US or $500 million globally, it was definitely a disappointment by Spielbergian standards, who is the highest-grossing director of all time, and arguably even more ahead in adjusted grosses. But it did make $245 million globally on a $115 million budget, so it isn’t as big of a miss as I remember. That’s still probably not enough to break even in the theatrical window, when you factor in marketing costs…but it’s close. And it grossed a lot more even in the US than some titles with about ten times more coverage. Anyways, lots of preamble to say this one only did 4.5 million hours according to Nielsen, so it did make the charts, but on the low end. Here’s how it stacks up to other Peacock titles: Apple TV (née +) followed up their “success for them” Mayday with Matchbox The Movie. This one doesn’t look like a success even for them, but at least it’s not a miss. Apple/Skydance clearly tried to take advantage of the success of Barbie at the box office—let’s greenlight all the toy properties!!!—but of course, this didn’t make it to theaters. And it stars John Cena, who, as I argued earlier this summer, NEEDS to get his movies back in theaters. Anyways, this one has mixed-to-bad numbers. It missed the Samba TV and Nielsen charts in its first week, but did make Luminate with 7.1 million hours. That’s just enough to not be an outright miss, and about half what Mayday did earlier this summer. Speaking of Apple Studio’s Mayday, it ended up lasting five weeks on Luminate, which isn’t bad for Apple TV. On Nielsen, it had a three-week run, racking up 13.5 million hours total. Again, like Matchbox, the issue is the budget; I doubt that this viewership earned enough to justify that budget. Also, to be clear, neither of these films are “midflicks”; both should have gone to theaters. Toy Story 5 is not hanging around on the streaming charts on Disney+, so it’s not as leggy as either Zootopia 2 or Moana 2, and definitely not in the same class as Encanto. (It did make all the money at the box office, so Disney is going to be fine…) The Breadwinner on Netflix (from Sony) is down to 3.9 million hours in its third week. It only lasted for one week on the Samba TV charts. Netflix’s Doing Life had a smaller-than-normal binge release curve bounce, only going to 7.1 million hours from 6.0 to start, but it made Samba TV at fifth place in its second week. The Netflix documentary, The Widower: Til’ Death Do Us Part, also had a small binge release curve bounce to 6.5 million hours, but did make a second week on Samba TV. Meanwhile, Netflix’s Unabomber fell off after two weeks on Nielsen—which is not great at all—and Demon Slayer fell off after just one week. Over on Luminate, the two smaller titles The Swan: Behind the Mirror and Kill. Bury. Print both fell out of the Luminate top ten charts. The story of library film at the first of the month is the arrival of the Ice Age films on Netflix. Now, here’s a small example of optimizing your library that even Netflix could do better. Say you want to rent/license a new film series from Disney**.** A streamer could pay a big paycheck and then drop each Ice Age film on the exact same day of the month, the fourth of October. That’s one choice. In contrast, the streamer could have released each film one week apart, and make each one a mini-event for folks watching Ice Age films. Or even roll them out monthly. Netflix opted for the former strategy, and as a result, only three of the films made the Nielsen charts this week. The “Miss of the Week” goes to Tubi’s YA-ish horror film_, R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2_, which didn’t even make the Luminate charts like Tubi films usually do, or, should I say, “used to”? Tubi films, most of which are straight-to-streaming, used to reliably make the Luminate film charts (which only covers straight-to-streaming films), but a Tubi film hasn’t made it since August. The first Pumpkinhead got 1.4 million hours last year according to Luminate. As I wrote about this film before, it seems to be a bit muddled in terms of age: too scary for young kids but probably not scary enough for older kids. Speaking of Luminate, Netflix’s latest doc about a comic (expect more docs about comedians all month), Who Is Martin Mull?, flopped, getting just 200K and 700K hours according to Luminate. Three other film/special misses belonged to Hulu, including a standup special, Jamie Foxx: Take Care of Yourself, Neon’s latest horror film, Hokum, which made $17 million in the US, and a Family Guy Halloween special. (That last one was only 22 minutes, so it’s not a surprise it missed.) Finally, another Netflix standup special missed the charts, Mojo Brookzz: I Know You Lying missed too. I can confirm last week’s misses, most notably Paramount+’s Jackass: Best and Last, MUBI’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and HBO Max’s Evil Dead Burn. Television - I Can’t Visualize Nothing: The Kardashians Story Normally, in the mini-dive essays that open the Streaming Ratings Report, I focus on shows that do well or, at the very least, make the charts. Why? Because as I’ve said time and again, I can’t visualize nothing like, say, the Kardashians’ TV shows. Here’s the TV debuts chart for this week with a missing spot for The Kardashians, whose eighth season just landed on Hulu:
Fans Angry with Lack of Messaging from Florida State
Florida State football has been losers for two and half seasons. The fans have had enough.
Employer-provided insurance: How to pick a health plan for 2027
Nearly half of Texans have insurance through an employer. Here are some tips to navigating open enrollment season
Nearly half of AAPI women lack a reproductive health provider, survey finds
A survey of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women and gender-expansive people found nearly half of respondents don’t have a reproductive healthcare provider and more than half don’t know how far they would need to travel for abortion care.
Once a condo building, this Gold Coast tower just sold for $67M
The sale comes amid a surge in Chicago-area apartment deals, with transaction volume up 91% in the first half of the year.
Apple’s latest AirTag is the cheapest it’s ever been
8BitDo’s NES-inspired keyboard is also half off.
Republicans Boost Independent's State Senate Bid
With no candidate of their own in the race, the GOP is making a late intervention on behalf of former member Nicole Kalloch.
Jay-Z picks himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show
The man who has helped produce the Super Bowl halftime show is stepping into the spotlight: Jay-Z will headline the show himself.
Jay-Z picks himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Southern California
Jay-Z will be the featured performer for the halftime festivities on Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
2027 Super Bowl halftime show performer is officially announced
This year's NFL championship will take place Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium.
Congo’s Ebola outbreak tops 10,000 cases as authorities race to slow the spread in African countries
It is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history and nearly half of the people confirmed to have the virus have died, according to data from Congo’s Ministry of Health.
How NY hospital mergers increase health care prices for patients
Half of New York's hospitals underwent at least one merger between 2009 and 2024, according to a study by the Community Service Society of New York.
Payton Pritchard Leads Celtics to Dominant Win Over Bulls
The Boston Celtics delivered one of their most impressive performances of the young season Monday night, defeating the Chicago Bulls 134-99 at TD Garden. Behind a spectacular performance from Payton Pritchard and another strong showing from Jayson Tatum, Boston pulled away in the second half to secure a convincing 35 point victory. The win improved…
Jay-Z Bravely Chooses Himself To Headline The 2027 Super Bowl LXI Half-Time Show
In an act of supreme nobility and humility, rap mogul Jay-Z has been selected to perform at the 2027 Super Bowl LXI Half-Time show, marking his first time headlining the ...
Frager shines in Nebraska men's basketball exhibition win over Kansas State
GRAND ISLAND — It may have been an exhibition game, but a lot of buzz surrounded Nebraska and Kansas State’s matchup at the BigIron Events Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, Monday night. The voice of Husker men’s basketball, Kent Pavelka, announced pregame that he will be retiring after this season, and a student from each school called the game together to support the Greg Sharpe Sports Broadcasting Scholarship Fund. After acknowledging Pavelka’s announcement and Sharpe’s legacy, Nebraska fans watched the Huskers win 88-84 against the Wildcats in a game that included 80 3-point attempts and four lead changes. Sophomore forward Braden Frager led the way with 28 points and scored eight in the final five minutes of the first half to secure a 5-point Nebraska lead heading into halftime. He shot 9-for-19 from the field and tallied a team-high 10 rebounds as well.
Jay-Z picks himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Southern California
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation announced the news Monday night. NFL
Jay-Z picks himself to headline Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
NFL-Jay-Z to headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show
LOS ANGELES, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Jay-Z will headline the 2027 Super Bowl halftime show in February, the National Football League announced on Monday.
Jay-Z said he’ll just do the Super Bowl Halftime Show himself
By Lisa Respers France, CNN (CNN) — The NFL didn’t have to look far for next year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performer. Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, who has served in an advisory role to the NFL through his company Roc Nation since 2019, announced he will perform at the Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show in
Jay Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in 2027
Jay-Z has been announced as the Super Bowl LXI halftime show performer, capping a banner year by doing something few artists have: choosing himself to headline one of the world's biggest stages for the first time ever.
Jay-Z to headline Super Bowl LXI halftime show at SoFi Stadium, NFL announces
Jay-Z's Roc Nation has had a deal with the NFL since 2019 to produce the Super Bowl halftime show.
Super Bowl 2027: Jay-Z will headline halftime show
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium on Valentine's Day.
Jay-Z picks himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Southern California
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California | Newsradio 1140 WRVA
Jay-Z picks himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Southern California
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Southern California
The man who has helped produce the Super Bowl halftime show is stepping into the spotlight: Jay-Z will headline the show himself | Talk 1370
Jay-Z picks himself to headline the Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Southern California
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Jay-Z Announced as 2027 Super Bowl Halftime Show Performer
It will be the eighth Super Bowl halftime show produced by Roc Nation, the entertainment and sports company founded by the rapper and businessman.
Super Bowl 2027 halftime show headliner revealed
Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl 2027 halftime show, with the rapper set to lead the biggest music event of the year at the NFL’s big game.
Britain Covey leaves Monday vs. Cowboys with knee injury
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver/kick returner Britain Covey left the Week 7 game in the first half due to a knee injury, and he has been ruled out.
JYP Entertainment soars 10% on reports of tender offer plan to buy up to half of firm
South Korean pop music agency JYP Entertainment's KRX:035900 shares jumped 10% on Tuesday after Korean media reported Japan's Nexroc Group and related firm SVCV Inc were planning to announce a tender offer to buy up to a 50% stake in the company.The 50% stake is worth about 700 billion won ($528.04…
Bolsonaro effectively concedes in Brazil after Trump suggests he won’t help
Trump says the presidential election looked “rigged” but did not say he planned to intervene on behalf of the right-wing politician.
Trump has made transactional promises in roughly half of states holding key Senate contests
President Donald Trump kicked off his general election push by making voters a highly controversial offer. Now he’s gone quite a bit further — and more localized — with his quid pro quos.
Survey: More Than Half of Women in States with Abortion Bans Wouldn’t Know Where to Get an Abortion if They Needed One, Up Since 2024
More than half (53%) of reproductive-age women living in states with abortion-provision bans say they would not know where to go or where to find information if they needed an abortion, up from 43% in 2024, according to a new KFF survey.
2026 Internet Invitational episode 1 spoilers: Round 1 teams revealed
Half of the 64-player field will be eliminated at the end of the 2026 Internet Invitational's first episode.
Halide’s Duo update just knocked an item off my camera wish list.
Halide III just got its iPhone Duo update with re-worked controls for the new screen formats and a feature that Apple’s native camera app left out: a waist-level viewfinder. When you use the phone in its L-shaped pose the image preview will appear on the top portion of the screen. I was hoping I’d be able to move the preview to the lower half of the screen and use it like a classic Hasselblad camera. It’s a nerdy little detail, but Halide is made by nerds, for nerds, and I appreciate that. [Link: Halide for Duo: Electric Boogaluo | https://www.lux.camera/halide-for-duo/ | Lux — iPhone camera apps, camera reviews and more]
Oppo Find X10 Pro Max Review: The Incredible Triple 200MP Cameras Are Only Half the Story
It's more like a camera that is also a phone than a phone with a camera.
6 citizens sue Trump, saying media ban deprives them of news as audience stakeholders
A new lawsuit against President Donald Trump's media ban stakes a claim for the public itself. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six ordinary citizens. It argues that Trump's
Cherokee Federal company awarded contract to strengthen US Navy fleet readiness
Cherokee Nation Government Solutions, a Cherokee Federal company, has been awarded a $99.3 million, five-and-a-half-year contract through a competitive small business set-aside under the SeaPort-NxG contract vehicle.
What happened to Meghan Markle’s dad Thomas Markle? Child pornography scandal explained
The Duchess of Sussex’s half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. has accused their father of possessing a “huge stash” of child pornography.
📈 Monday data: The bottleneck isn’t intelligence
In the AI Investment Brief today: CapEx updates and lease commitment breakdowns Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark recently said in a speech at the IMF that the singularity has begun: For many years, researchers and science fiction authors have forecast a future in which AI systems drastically increase the pace of overall scientific and technical progress, making things move so quickly that it is hard for humans to keep up. They call this the singularity. I believe that this year we have gained convincing evidence that it has now begun. This follows Anthropic’s claim that in August, 26% of its AI R&D was led by Claude, with a human supervising its work. In October, OpenAI posted 719 math manuscripts1 made by its internal model. Math and coding are two fields where a research loop can close without leaving the desk. But can the loop close in the rest of science? Subscribe The loop is real The idea is not new. Mathematician Irving John Good, who had worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, argued that a machine smarter than us “could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind.” The Gödel machine, a self-improving computer that can rewrite its own code better than its prior, was first proposed in 2003. In 2025, researchers at Sakana AI and the University of British Columbia set out to show that this was possible. Their agents iteratively improved their own code through a feedback loop, resulting in gains of 30 pp on SWE-bench and more than 15 pp on Polyglot, testing coding skills beyond Python. The idea has since been tested in other labs. A Gemini-powered agent called AlphaEvolve found a faster matrix multiplication kernel used for training Gemini, speeding up the kernel by 23% and cutting Gemini’s training time by 1%. In China, MiniMax reported that its M2.7 model worked on improving its own agent’s harness, skills, sampling and memory. Over 100 rounds of rewriting led to a 30% gain, per its internal evaluations. In each case, what was being rewritten was not the model itself but everything around it. Is it better than human work? In September this year, in what seemed like a milestone, an AI-built agent proved as good at improving other AI agents as a human-built one. It did that in what appeared to be half the steps. But the result was inconclusive: the differences between runs were greater than the difference between the AI- and human-built agent results. Nonetheless, this is increasing the chatter around recursive self-improvement (RSI) in AI. Google’s Sundar Pichai said that “you have RSI loops along with AI researchers in various aspects of model development.” Sakana AI published a paper on RSI through multi-agent collaboration, finding that after two cycles its system scored 1.2–1.6x better per output token than the base model across four research benchmarks. Ramez Naam challenges that view. He splits AI self-improvement into five overlapping types. The first four describe how autonomous the AI is; so far, only types 1 and 2 have been observed. The fifth type describes accelerating returns, and he notes that greater autonomy doesn’t guarantee a takeoff scenario. Instead, each round of self-improvement would need to deliver at least as much as the last. The results from Sakana, AlphaEvolve and MiniMax above might look like type 3 or type 4 autonomy. But in each case, the AI wasn’t updating its own weights directly, only the ancillary parts — the harness, the memory. And where Claude leads its own R&D, for now a human still supervises.
“Breaking Bad” star RJ Mitte’s sister pays tribute to late brother: ‘I just lost my other half’
Lacianne Carriere shared photos and videos from her brother’s life on Instagram.
Exclusive: Health tech PE megadeals surge as deal volume drops
The average health care buyout size jumped to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2026.
At this Columbus school, getting to know students starts at their door
Rough half of Horizon Science Academy high school's students are immigrants. Teachers are required to make eight home visits a year.
Xavier Worthy locked down in Week 7 loss
Xavier Worthy caught half of his six targets for a measly 11 yards during the team's 20-3 defeat against the Seahawks.
The Rise of Independent Voters Is Reshaping American Politics
In this Fulcrum Roundtable discussion, Jeremy Gruber of Open Primaries explains why voters are leaving the major parties, how closed primaries limit participation, and what reforms could expand representation for nearly half the country.
High school sports roundup for Oct. 23-24, 2026
Friday, Oct. 23 Football Meadowdale defeated Lynnwood 48-0 The Meadowdale Mavericks jumped out to a 41-0 halftime lead en route to a 48-0 shutout win over the Lynnwood Royals. The […]
🎥 Drama galore as LAFC and Galaxy finish level
There were major fireworks in Los Angeles as the city's two bitter rivals, LAFC and LA Galaxy finished level in a crucial MLS showdown. The Galaxy had a two-goal lead in the second half and looked w...
Holland Taylor says ‘Two and a Half Men’ ‘never paid me very well,’ even after 4 Emmy noms
Holland Taylor is looking back on her 12-season run on ‘Two and a Half Men,’ during which time, she claims she never got a raise: ‘I loved a lot about that show, but they were not full of courtesies.’
Early voting underway in Michigan
Early voting began Saturday, Oct. 24 in Michigan. County officials say the first day of early voting went well and more than half of mail-in ballots have already been returned.
Bengals Shut out in Disastrous First Half vs Ravens
The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a first half they’d like to forget. Cincy trails the Baltimore Ravens 13-0 in Baltimore.The story has been the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense which has been struggling against this Ravens offense.The Ravens got off to a hot start as Zay Flowers took a 48-yard pass to the house from backup […] The post Bengals Shut out in Disastrous First Half vs Ravens appeared first on HEAVY.
Here's how Bengals' second half vs Ravens made NFL history
The Cincinnati Bengals became just the 10th team in NFL history to get shut out in the first half and then score 35 points or more in the second half.
Here's how Bengals' second half vs Ravens made NFL history
The Cincinnati Bengals became just the 10th team in NFL history to get shut out in the first half and then score 35 points or more in the second half.
Ravens surrender 35 unanswered points in stunning loss to Bengals
Baltimore squandered a 13-0 halftime lead as Joe Burrow threw four touchdown passes and Cincinnati handed the Ravens a 35-13 defeat
How Nathan Fielder's cringe-comedy career led him to Elizabeth Holmes
Spoiler alert! We're discussing the themes and structure of the Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" and touching on a surprising aspect of its second half, so turn away if you want to go in completely cold.
Stateliner Pride on Display: Phillipsburg Band and Alumni Unite at Halftime
Phillipsburg’s Stateliner band and alumni joined for a halftime performance celebrating school tradition, pride and community at Friday’s football game.
World's Fastest Lawnmower Company Is Officially Going Out Of Business
Dixie Chopper made the world's raddest lawnmowers for almost half a century, but its story is now coming to an end.
US employer health insurance premiums exceed $28,000 for family coverage in 2026
US employer health insurance premiums rose 5% in 2026, exceeding $28,000 for family coverage, while nearly half of working-age adults lack adequate coverage
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Netflix’s Leadership Shake Up…Explained
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Well, I had a simple article planned for this week. Called “Whoa, I Missed It!”, I’d take a gander at a few important-but-under-the-radar stories I didn’t cover while I wrote about all things “Skydance. (Formerly known as “the saga of Netflix trying to buy Warner Bros., but not Discovery, then Paramount-Skydance bought all of Warner Bros. Discovery”.) Alas, that article will have to wait. Netflix made news. Ironically, my “Whoa, I Missed It!” article would have mostly been about “content” strategy decisions, which is also what today’s article is about. But instead of the entire industry, this article will only cover Netflix’s decision to upend their film and TV content teams. Just that! So that’s the full topic of the day. I’m going to tackle the issue in the opposite direction of the way “stuff” flows: uphill. We’ll start at film, then move onto TV, and then onto the CEOs themselves, and the strategy questions that still remain. But we start with the numbers driving this. Let’s dive in. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Netflix Upends Their Corporate Hierarchy I’ve got a lot of thoughts, but we’ll start with the most common response to yesterday’s article. Let’s Talk Stock Price More than one person, responding to what I published two days ago, pointed out that, well, actually, the thing driving Netflix’s actions is this: In short, stock price! Even if Netflix isn’t obsessed with their own share price—they probably are, but, for the record, my strategic advice to every CEO is to absolutely ignore stock prices, which will, ironically, probably help the stock price long-term—most everyone thinks they are. By the way, I prefer market capitalization to stock prices, because it’s a more apples-to-apples way to compare companies: But there’s an even better way to look at it, and it kinda casts some doubt on the entire push here: price-to-earnings. I have a long list of articles that I wish I had written, and chief among them is an article titled, “Am I Still a Netflix ‘Bear’?” meaning someone who thinks Netflix’s stock is overvalued. As of last summer, Netflix had solved their biggest problem—which for me (circa 2019) was the lack of free cash flow—but their stock was CRAZY overvalued. That’s this chart here: Why did Netflix’s stock price increase to a price-to-earnings ratio of 50 last summer? What financial metric changed so quickly? Nothing. Given that, historically, mature entertainment companies average 10 to 20, with 16 being the average, that increase made little sense. Netflix’s stock swoon these last eight or so months wasn’t irrational; the stock price rise last year was. So if you want a really hot Netflix take, here it is: Netflix’s stock price has been going down because the financial industry recovered its senses, not because of any strategic mistake. Yes, that would imply that cleaning house may have been a mistake. That’s why the charts yesterday are so important, because they show that Netflix did have a strategic problem (a lack of hits) and that’s what they moved to address. (One could also argue the industry drastically overrated Netflix’s growth prospects, but that’s a financial industry problem, not a Netflix strategy problem per se. Some growth estimates are just crazy. *cough* AI *cough*) Now, the last time Netflix’s stock price crashed—circa 2022—it gave them an opening. I’d argue Netflix insiders knew they needed to expand post-COVID-19 crisis, adding advertising, cracking down on password sharing, and dabbling in sports. But if they had done that when their stock price was high, it would give folks a reason to second guess their strategy. (Arguably, last year, when Netflix pursued the Warner Bros. merger, it gave the industry a chance to review their business.) Instead, after the 2022 fall, they had the opening to make strategic changes. We may see Netflix pivot again following this latest slide. For example, the “binge versus weekly” conversation is alive and well again. Same for expanding into theaters even more. And adding both linear channels and streaming bundles. And maybe more either social, user-generated, vertical, or creator content. But the first shift came with who is making the content calls. A Message from Our Sponsor Last winter Pulp Fiction was on Netflix. For those same 90 days, it was also free, with ads, on Pluto TV and the Roku Channel. That is not a glitch, and it is not rare. The title has run on 20 different US streaming services since 2019, across 80 separate windows, and for more than 600 of those days it sat on a paid subscription service and a free ad-supported one at the same time. Almost nobody can see this, because when a title leaves a service, the record that it was ever there tends to leave with it. Reelgood keeps that record, dated to the day rather than the month: 4MM+ movie, show and episode titles across 300+ services globally, with timestamped arrivals, departures and moves across SVOD, AVOD, TVOD and vMVPD. Licensing teams price against every prior window. Rights teams check what a licensee actually delivered, and when. Pick a title you think you know: data.reelgood.com/title-availability Film - Dan Lin Want to know why I don’t opine on individual film or TV executives, especially new hires? Dan Lin. As I always caution, it’s really, really, really tough to predict which executives will succeed in new roles and which won’t. The successful head of co-production/finance partner, Rideback, Lin was considered for the head of DC Studios job before taking the job as the head of Netflix. By all accounts at the time, this was a smart hire. (That’s my read of the news coverage anyways.) But now that Netflix has fired Dan Lin, we got a slew of news stories about how he was doing a terrible job. In sports media, Bryan Curtis, new Substack writer/podcaster from The Ringer, calls this the “now you tell us” story, when you only hear the bad news after a star athlete leaves a sports team. In this case, now they tell us that Dan Lin was bad with talent after he got kicked out the door. So was Dan Lin a flop? It’s actually tough to say. While film moves faster than TV, even two years isn’t really enough time to evaluate a person’s output. The new head hasn’t really taken control. As Emily Horgan noted, it takes much longer than two years to produce animated films, so yeah, it’s definitely too early to judge in that domain. As for live-action films, I just published an article by Brandon Katz called “Netflix’s Summer of Bummer”, but I’d point out Netflix had a bad summer two years ago too. Arguably, their best summer came from KPop Demon Hunters last year and Happy Gilmore 2, the latter of which I saw credited to Lin. Then, the stories came out that Dan Lin clashed with talent, both Ben Affleck and Greta Gerwig, classic “now they tell us” factoids to explain his firing. This may have been true, but also should have been expected given that he was given the mandate to bring budgets back in check, especially after Rebel Moon. So if he made folks upset, well, that’s what he was hired to do! But also, he was described as “well-liked” at his hiring! In that case, I’m a bit sympathetic to Lin, since he may have been undercut by senior leadership, as often happens. Basically, a CEO hires a subordinate to be their “bad cop” and keep budgets in check, but then when talent complains, the CEO ends up undercutting them. That’s how I think you end up with a Narnia movie as expensive as any of the other flops, along with a film executive the town no longer likes. As a result, I think that Netflix is now executing a classic “hire the opposite” move by hiring Peter Rice. This phrase comes from my experience following football and basketball coaching decisions, where teams generally hire the opposite of who they just had. If you have an offense-minded head coach, hire the defensive guy. Or in college football, if you have a strong recruiter, then you pivot to an “X’s and Os” type of guy. Or in pro basketball, if you have a very analytically minded coach, you hire the player-friendly guy. I see that here. After dropping Scott Stuber—arguably a talent-friendly executive with lax budget control—Netflix hired the business guy to keep costs in check. Now Netflix is pivoting back to Peter Rice and presumably a more talent-friendly regime. (Disney, by the way, has done this twice: hiring business guys to succeed talent-friendly Bob Iger. It didn’t work out last time.) When it comes to Peter Rice…we’ll see! Maybe he works out, but maybe he doesn’t. I’d actually say the biggest problem is that Netflix still hasn’t solved its “IP Problem”, in that they don’t own much IP, so they just have a lower hit rate. The new executive won’t solve that. (Though buying Lionsgate would help.) Share “Content” - Bela Bajaria I almost published yesterday’s article after this column, but ended up flipping the order, because it told the story so well. So if you want the data for why Netflix is looking at TV to fix their problems, it’s in that article, this graph in particular: I know I just wrote that it’s often hard to judge executives, but Bajaria ran TV for six years and film for three and a half more. That’s more than enough to judge hit rates, and Netflix needs more hits. That’s the story. Since 2023, Netflix hasn’t had as many hit shows as it used to, and many of its previous power house TV shows have ended their runs (Stranger Things most of all). Also, many shows from 2020 to 2022 probably pre-dated Bajaria’s tenure. (That said, one thing may have been outside of Bajaria’s control, which I explain below.) Let’s lump some content strategy thoughts about Netflix and TV into one place: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Why I partially blame Squid Game for Netflix’s latest troubles… What is “the football trap”... Why it might not be the TV shows or films’ fault at all… What change I don’t think Netflix will make... How Bela Bajaria evolved Netflix’s TV strategy in smart ways… Whose departure likely submarined Bajaria’s final few years… One sneaky explanation for Netflix’s content struggles... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.
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