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Sitting up straight may improve your mood and decision-making

A simple change in posture may subtly affect how people feel and make decisions. Participants who sat upright reported greater feelings of pride and took more successful risks in a virtual balloon game than those who hunched over. Most did not realize researchers had influenced their posture, helping rule out the possibility that they were merely responding to expectations. The results suggest workplace ergonomics could influence more than physical comfort.

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Aug 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
The Beauty Of Settled Science

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

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Aug 4 • 5:33 PM EDT • Science • astralcodexten.com
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GIGABYTE Reportedly Hikes GPU Pricing by Up to 40% in Japan

GIGABYTE is reportedly implementing a round of GPU price hikes ranging from 20% to 40%, depending on the model. According to Japanese hardware distributor CFD-BIZ, these price increases have been officially in effect since August 1st. While the specific GPU models affected by this pricing...

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Aug 4 • 2:31 PM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com
National Park Service says Trump's arch would adversely affect 37 historic sites

President Donald Trump proposed the 250-foot-tall arch last year to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary

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Aug 4 • 2:24 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
National Park Service says Trump's arch would adversely affect 37 historic sites

President Donald Trump proposed the 250-foot-tall arch last year to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary

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Aug 4 • 2:24 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
National Park Service says Trump's arch would adversely affect 37 historic sites

President Donald Trump proposed the 250-foot-tall arch last year to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary

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Aug 4 • 1:57 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Fidji Simo had to leave OpenAI. But she’s still building a business that could find cures to chronic diseases that affect women like her

ChronicleBio is using AI to improve clinical trials and find cures for diseases like POTS.

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Aug 4 • 12:59 PM EDT • Business • fortune.com
Samsung confirms Galaxy S26 Ultra’s red screen issue isn’t hardware-related

A few days ago, it was reported that some Galaxy S26 Ultra units had started experiencing a red screen issue. On affected devices, a rectangular area in the cen

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Aug 4 • 6:50 AM EDT • Technology • sammobile.com
Mental health can shape heart health outcomes

Research shows depression, anxiety and chronic stress can affect heart health. Discover the connection and how whole-person care can improve health outcomes.

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Aug 4 • 2:00 AM EDT • Health • cvshealth.com
Microplastics may be affecting cardiovascular health

Heart attack patients have more than cholesterol in their arteries

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Aug 4 • 2:00 AM EDT • Health • theweek.com
House Ethics Panel Finds Rep. Chuck Edwards Likely Violated Sexual Harassment Rules

The Ethics Committee called for the censure of Representative Chuck Edwards, Republican of North Carolina, who showered two female staffers with lavish gifts and affection.

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Aug 3 • 4:58 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Upcoming Science Cafe

BAR HARBOR—Join us for a fascinating Science Cafe with environmental toxicologist Nishad Jayasundara, Ph.D., as he explores how everyday contaminants and other stressors such as heat exposure may be quietly influencing kidney health. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects nearly 1 in 7 adults in the United States—and more than 840 million people worldwide. While factors like diet and genetics are well known, scientists are increasingly uncovering another important piece of the puzzle: environmental exposure. Drawing on his team’s research, Dr. Jayasundara, Maine INBRE alum as a College of the Atlantic undergraduate student and past MDI Bio Lab Visiting Scientist, will share how early-life exposure to environmental toxins can disrupt kidney development, and may affect kidney structure and function in adults. Blending cutting-edge research with real-world relevance, this Science Cafe will shed light on an important and often overlooked contributor to human health—and what it could mean for communities around the world. Monday, August 17, 2026 at 5 p.m.Hybrid event at Maren Auditorium and via Zoom Register Now What Are Science Cafes? MDI Bio Lab’s Science Cafes provide an informal introduction to ground-breaking biomedical research by its scientists, scholars from near and far and from local experts in other fields as well. Each Cafe lasts about one hour; the floor is open for questions and discussion. It can get lively and it’s always engaging. MDI Science Cafes are open to the public and free of charge. For more information, or to watch past events, visit our website. The MDI Science Cafe Series is brought to you by Cross Insurance. Subscribe Share Leave a comment

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Aug 3 • 2:56 PM EDT • Science • barharborstory.substack.com
GOP lawmaker's gifts, 'effusive affection' toward young staffers detailed in explosive ethics report

The House Ethics Committee recommends censure after an ethics probe found Chuck Edwards violated the code of conduct with two young female staffers.

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Aug 3 • 2:32 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
If Not AOC, Then Who?

What do we do if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decides not to run for president in 2028? It makes sense that many leftists are currently focused on calling on her to take the plunge. But the absence of a Plan B, or even much discussion about one, is worrisome. The US Left can’t afford to sit out the 2028 Democratic primary. Doing so in 2024 was a disaster: our abstention self-marginalized anti-billionaire politics from the national conversation and thereby gave space for Harris to pivot to the “center” (i.e. the policy preferences of corporate donors, establishment hacks, and AIPAC). Abstaining again in 2028 would be especially counterproductive since democratic socialists now have so much wind in our sails after our big electoral wins in NYC and across the country. It’s time to deepen our momentum, organization, and profile — not to retreat to the margins during America’s single most important political battle. Even more urgently, keeping Trump’s heir out of the White House may depend on whether leftists and the party’s unprecedentedly disenchanted base can force the Democrats in 2028 to take meaningful steps towards a very angry electorate and away from the corporate-consultant blob that has helped get us into this mess. If AOC (or Abdul El-Sayed) decides to run, we should enthusiastically go all in — DSA, fighting unions, progressive organizations, anybody who wants to see a better country and world. But, as far as I can tell from the outside, there’s a real chance that she doesn’t run. And we can’t just wait and see where she lands before discussing alternatives, since AOC’s decision might not come for quite a while, giving us little time to scramble at the last minute for an alternative. So we should start working now on getting a Plan B into motion, and recruiting a good candidate for the role. Here’s one idea. A Worker Candidate — Healthcare Not Warfare 2028 Run a union worker Leftists don’t need to always run experienced, well-known socialist politicians for high-profile contests. Lula, the current president of Brazil, began his political career as a metalworker militant who ran for governor of São Paulo in 1982. Especially in an era of institutional distrust, it’s possible to lean hard into making a virtue out of a working-class comrade’s distance from traditional politics. Experience abroad shows this clearly. Rachel Kéké — an immigrant hotel housekeeper — ran as the candidate of the leftist La France Insoumise for the National Assembly in 2022, defeating a former minister in the Macron government. The Belgian Workers’ Party in 2024 won its first Flemish seat in the European Parliament by running Rudi Kennes, a three-decade veteran of the Opel Antwerp auto factory. And the South Korean left in 2024 elected auto factory militant Yoon Jong-oh to the National Assembly. If a tiny French Trotskyist organization could make such a big splash in 2002 and 2007 by running a well-spoken postal worker cadre for office — the LCR’s Olivier Besancenot received about 1.5 million first-round votes — it’s not far-fetched to expect that a much larger organization like DSA, together with a broader coalition of the willing, could run this playbook to much greater effect. This is especially the case now that almost everything DSA does immediately becomes a national news story. We don’t need someone famous. We just need a charismatic, well-vetted comrade who works in a relatable working-class occupation — e.g. a nurse, or a worker in auto or construction, or at Amazon. Ideally, they have a compelling personal story or have been part of a significant strike or organizing campaign, but even those criteria don’t necessarily have to be deal-breakers. The main lesson of the Graham Platner fiasco isn’t that we should never run outsiders for office (the momentum he generated proves the exact opposite), but that they need proper vetting and roots in democratic membership organizations like DSA or a union. In any case, there are plenty of ways to signal working-class authenticity without resorting to Platner’s or Fetterman’s performative macho white dude affect. Better to have someone of any gender or race who is actually working class, with firm socialist politics, who can speak from experience about the day-to-day realities of trying to make it in America. There are surely at least a dozen such worker leaders in our movement nationwide; we just need to sit down and convince one that their personal sacrifice for the greater good (i.e. running for president) will be worth it. If we don’t have a frontrunner with a clear path to victory like AOC (or El-Sayed, were he to win Michigan), it’s better to embrace someone whose decision to run in itself tells an important story about US politics: workers have been iced out of our political system and are now fighting hard to break back in. The novelty factor, in itself, would generate press. And it would help democratic socialists signal to the American public that our movement’s defining characteristic is that we represent workers vs. bosses, not that we’re “the furthest left” force in American politics — a framework that suggests we’re extremists and that helps our opponents isolate us from non-college-educated voters by highlighting extremely minoritarian (and misguided) stances included in DSA’s platform like prison abolition. We don’t get many opportunities to speak to tens of millions of Americans; we need to use these opportunities to broaden our appeal beyond those already in our orbit. Run to polarize the 2028 primary and general election around “Medicare for All” and “End All Aid to Israel” Why should democratic socialists use our scarce time and volunteer energy to run in a race we’re unlikely to win? Running in the 2028 primary will not only recruit us scores of members (imagine having a DSA member intervening in eleven nationally televised primary debates!), but — more importantly — it has the potential to be a decisive leap forward towards an America that finally starts meeting the needs of working people instead of HMO and AIPAC billionaire donors. Polarizing litmus tests are good, actually — as long as they’re fought for around popular demands in a thoughtful and strategic way. Democratic socialists have an opportunity and responsibility to make the 2028 primary about two of the most widely and deeply felt issues of our moment: domestically, America’s unaffordable, family-breaking private healthcare system; internationally, America’s bankrolling of the genocidal Israeli government. A candidacy relentlessly demanding Medicare for All and No Aid to Israel would pose a sharp question to the American public, the Democratic Party, and other 2028 contenders: Why can’t working-class Americans afford their healthcare bills at the same time that our government is spending at least $3.8 billion yearly to fund an Israeli regime eager to keep dragging us and the world into more forever wars? Our candidate can agitate around a clear message: I’m running to give voice to all those working-class Americans who are struggling to get by. No matter what state you live in, who you voted for in 2024, or your background, it’s just plain common sense that we should make healthcare more affordable instead of spending billions to enable the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity. Every American who agrees with me when I say ‘Medicare for All — Not a Dime for Israel’ should make their voice heard through our campaign. Racking up a high number of votes for this agenda is a crucial way to show the Democratic Party and the country as a whole that we can’t keep supporting a life-destroying status quo in our healthcare system and in the Middle East. If we want to defeat Trump’s handpicked crony this coming November, we need to speak to ordinary people’s frustrations with the status quo — we can’t keep running the same tired establishment playbook and expecting a different result. For those highly engaged voters (or skeptical media pundits) who raise concerns about wasting votes, the candidate can take the time to explain why this isn’t the case: It's true I'm a long shot. But Zohran showed anything can happen — and voting for me is a pragmatic decision, not a wasted vote. In a heavily divided primary with a large number of candidates and a very discredited establishment, my campaign and the democratic socialist movement I’m part of are positioned to be the balance of power if we can get a large enough number of voters to loudly demand Healthcare Not Warfare. Since there’s a high chance no candidate will get to 50% in the 2028 primaries, the Democrats could very well be heading towards a brokered convention, where a disciplined, principled current committed to breaking from corporate donors can play an outsized role in making sure whoever ends up with the nomination raises the banner of single-payer healthcare and cutting aid to Israel. How exactly could running this sort of primary campaign be translated into actual leverage? The candidate replies: I’m aiming to win the nomination, but if I don’t achieve that goal, my delegates and I will pledge our support in the primary only for a candidate who agrees in the general election to call for ending US aid to Israel and establishing Medicare for All at home. These are both winning planks for November against the Republicans, and the only reason I can see that other candidates haven’t yet raised these is that they’re still more scared of the donor class than they are of the people. That needs to change. If Democratic leaders want young people, workers, and those sick of the status quo to show up in big numbers this November, they need to meet us halfway. In this way, whether or not we win the nomination, democratic socialists could still play a decisive role in 2028. The approach outlined here is similar to what radical left parties periodically do in parliamentary democracies like Denmark or Sweden when they find themselves as a junior partner electorally: they dictate to center-left allies what their terms would be for enabling, from the outside, the formation of a new government. Running a Healthcare Not Warfare candidate will make it significantly more likely that the 2028 Democratic candidate stands with ordinary people instead of donors on these two pivotal planks — a shift that will, in turn, make it easier to achieve the existentially important task of defeating MAGA’s heir in November. Look at how much popular traction the Uncommitted movement got with a similar strategy in 2024 with so little on-the-ground organization — surely we can go much further with a working-class candidate, a much bigger DSA, and a Democratic Party base that has turned against Israel, billionaires, and the hacks in the party who prop them up. Objections and Responses There are quite a few objections to this proposal, many of which are very reasonable. Let me briefly address each here. Socialists shouldn’t waste their scarce time and resources on a candidate unlikely to win. This is a good rule in general, but there are important exceptions, and presidential elections are the main one. There’s no other political contest that gets anything like this level of attention and engagement in the US, so if you want to be a serious force in nationwide politics, you basically can’t afford not to have a candidate. Far from being an overall drain on our resources, running a dynamic 2028 campaign would likely result in a major net increase in members and capacity. In that spirit, the very pragmatic Milwaukee sewer socialists — who mostly ran to win at home in Wisconsin — supported Eugene Debs’s propagandistic presidential campaigns, which they correctly saw as a crucial means of recruiting to the Socialist Party. And now that the (post-1972) Democratic Party gives more weight to voters than party operatives in determining its presidential nomination, it’s become feasible to run as a socialist in primaries without risking a split in the vote against the Republicans in November. We should just support Ro Khanna, who also supports M4A and ending aid to Israel. I like Ro Khanna and would enthusiastically vote and canvass for him for president were he to get the nomination. But there’s a real chance that Khanna’s bid for office doesn’t catch on; he lacks the grassroots organizational apparatus of DSA, and, because he’s not really of the Left or labor (despite his current very good positions), he’s unlikely to generate the type of buy-in and enthusiasm that a DSA candidate would. Moreover, Khanna would be running as an individual, not as someone emerging from and building an organized movement — his campaign would not likely focus on building sustained power from below, nor would it likely polarize the 2028 primary around M4A and Israel aid. Also, and not inconsequentially, the poor electoral results for Tom Steyer and Saikat Chakrabarti this spring suggest that there’s perhaps not much of a popular appetite in the Democrats’ base to support multi-millionaire class traitors. Much better, then, to run a democratic socialist worker. If by Super Tuesday it’s clear that our campaign has captured the main left lane in the primary, Khanna should drop out and endorse us; conversely, if he’s managed to capture this lane, DSA could at that point transform its Healthcare Not Warfare campaign into an independent campaign to elect Ro Khanna focused on winning (and holding him accountable to) those two critical planks. An openness to consolidating an anti-corporate candidate by Super Tuesday is a necessary component of the strategy I’m proposing, because otherwise we risk splitting the primary votes (per DNC rules, you need at least 15% to get any delegates to convention). We should convince Shawn Fain or Sara Nelson to run for president instead. I agree it’d be great if either ran for president, but my impression is that there’s basically no chance that will happen in 2028, because both are firmly focused on their union leadership duties (and, in the case of Fain, beating back a federal witch-hunt). This plan could have DSA end up endorsing a non-socialist, non-DSAer for president. That’s against our principles. It’s a myth, and bad politics, that socialists can’t ever support candidates who aren’t members of their organization and/or who don’t call themselves socialists. Bernie, after all, was not a DSAer. And socialists abroad regularly make tactical decisions about if and when supporting a non-socialist candidate makes sense from the standpoint of promoting working-class interests, defending democracy, and building a socialist current in the process. If your “principles” prevent you and DSA from helping achieve the momentous stride forward of having a Democratic candidate in 2028 run on Medicare for All and ending aid to Israel, those “principles” are not very good. In fact, they actively undermine the causes they’re aiming to support. We shouldn’t confuse principles (working-class independence) with tactics (the best way to advance this in a given context). In my recent article in Catalyst on Milwaukee sewer socialism (I’ve uploaded the full text here), I have a section showing how similarly rigid rules about endorsements had to be eventually discarded in the old Socialist Party nationwide after WWI because they tended to lead socialists towards a sectarian abstention from broader anti-corporate electoral insurgencies beyond their party’s control. For what it’s worth, Lenin’s current under Tsarism frequently backed bourgeois candidates in the second round of elections and Lenin himself advocated that British Communists support Labour Party candidates; for his part, Kautsky in 1912 defended the German Social Democracy’s electoral pact with the Progressives in the runoffs. If our predecessors could be that tactically flexible in an era before the limits of their underlying strategic assumptions about intransigent class politics in capitalist democracies were made clear, then there’s no need to insist on being more tactically rigid today, after a century’s worth of accumulated experience. As long as you maintain your own political profile and organization while engaging in broader coalitional efforts, there’s zero inherent contradiction with the principle of political independence. More specifically: DSA and allied organizations should enthusiastically back Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed if AOC declines to run and he throws his hat in the presidential ring. (I have no idea whether he’s even considering this path, but there’ll surely be chatter about it if he wins his Senate race this November.) Though he doesn’t call himself a socialist, El-Sayed is a principled Berniecrat, a consistent fighter for Palestine, and would have a clear path to victory. Using the “s” word is far less important than whether a campaign fights for the interests of working people at home and abroad — and whether actively participating in it can grow the organized working class and the Left. And the same holds true if a less anti-corporate candidate were, under pressure, to adopt our two Healthcare Not Warfare planks. Why focus only on M4A and ending US aid to Israel? There are so many other important issues to fight for! Obviously there are many pivotal issues beyond healthcare and Israel, and our candidate — and especially our organizations involved in the campaign — should be prepared to speak on all of these. But one of the crucial lessons of the Zohran campaign is that you have to relentlessly stay on message if you want to cut through the noise. CNN and Fox News will want to talk about DSA’s views on Venezuela and abolishing the police; we need to polarize the debate on the widely and deeply felt issues that are most favorable for growing the Left, isolating our opponents, and winning urgently needed changes. One recent poll found 63% of Americans support M4A, even after respondents were told it would raise taxes and eliminate most private insurance. Another found that 74% of Democrats opposed “providing additional economic and military support to Israel.” And focusing on two demands sets the campaign up to be able to leverage its mandate to make clear demands upon other candidates (which we can’t do if we run with a laundry list of demands). Talking about a Plan B is a distraction from the more urgent work of building a groundswell of calls on AOC to run. It’s good for DSAers, fightback unionists, and progressive organizations to try to convince AOC to run. This proposal is meant as an addendum to pushes to get AOC to run and to line DSA up for that eventuality, not as a substitute for those efforts. But I’m worried that, like in 2024, we might eventually find ourselves with no time to find a viable alternative unless we start now. DSA, with its abundant deliberative processes, moves slowly. The approach you’re suggesting seems risky. If a DSA candidate runs but doesn’t receive a lot of votes, it’ll undercut our current national momentum. This is a reasonable worry. All big initiatives always carry risks, and the path I’m advocating is certainly not free of these. That said, if a Healthcare Not Warfare campaign doesn’t catch on like we envisioned, it’s a pretty simple pivot in March 2028 to explain that in the future we really need our standard-bearers like AOC, or our growing bench of national electeds, to step up in presidential primaries. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the risk of my Plan B proposal is on the whole significantly less than the risk entailed by an AOC run. We should all back her if she runs, since she’d fire up the base, provide huge openings for organizing, have a real shot at defeating a Republican (especially given MAGA’s unpopularity), be a great standard-bearer for our issues, particularly M4A and ending aid to Israel, and be less willing than mainstream candidates to capitulate to any anti-democratic machinations from Trump and co. But it’s also true that AOC could lose, which would be a devastating setback to the country and the Left. Or she could win and find herself unable to pass much, if any, of her (and our) program, a demoralizing prospect. So if we’re willing to take these risks with AOC (and we should), it follows that we should be able to take lower-level risks if she doesn’t throw her hat in the ring. What’s Your Plan B? The US Left is facing its biggest opening for growth and influence since the 1930s. Initiatives that would have been impossible a few months ago are now potentially feasible. A President AOC is now easier to imagine, but if she ultimately assesses that the risks aren’t worth the potential reward in 2028, we can’t be left flat-footed. So even if you’re not convinced by the specifics of my Plan B, I hope you can at least agree that it’d be a disaster for us not to have one — and not to start getting a Plan B into motion. Hopefully other organizers and political currents will put forward their responses and alternative ideas ASAP. The stakes are too high to just wait and see. More As always, please share this article widely. This newsletter depends on all you lovely people to get the word out. Thank you! I uploaded the full text of my Catalyst article on Milwaukee sewer socialism here (it’s updated and 3x as long as the version published earlier on this substack). If you haven’t yet, please make sure to subscribe to Catalyst here; I read every issue front to back, highly recommend. 🌹🎵 Ivan Lins (arranged by Arthur Verocai) — “General da Banda” 🌹🎵

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Aug 3 • 12:50 PM EDT • Politics • laborpolitics.com
MBK-owned Lotte Card faces business suspension after data breach

South Korea's Lotte Card has been barred from signing up new customers for 1 1/2 months after a massive data breach that affected millions.

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Aug 3 • 10:36 AM EDT • Business • upi.com
Inside Kummer College: A conversation on entrepreneurship and impact

In this Q&A, Kummer College Dean Jim Sterling chats with Dr. Chevy Fang, associate professor of business and information technology at the Dennis and Janet Jaggi School of Business, to discuss the connections between research and practice, the role of family businesses to affect regional growth

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Aug 3 • 9:12 AM EDT • Business • news.mst.edu
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Good Communication Is Good Business by Geoffrey Losee

The following column was contributed by J.D. Fisher. Mixed-use communities are increasingly common. Restaurants, breweries, retail stores, entertainment venues, and professional offices often operate within walking distance of established neighborhoods. That proximity creates tremendous opportunity, but it also means that a business's decisions may affect more than just its customers. Many business owners understandably focus on obtaining the permits necessary to open their doors. However, municipal approval is rarely the end of the conversation. As a business evolves, whether by adding outdoor seating, live entertainment, extended operating hours, or other new amenities, the applicable zoning ordinance may require additional approvals or impose operational standards designed to balance commercial activity with nearby residential uses. From a business perspective, the question should not simply be, "Can we do this?" It should also be, "Have we communicated with everyone who may be affected?" Recent local news coverage highlighted how differing interpretations of a municipal ordinance can quickly become the subject of public hearings, legal arguments, and significant uncertainty for a business. While every situation turns on its own facts, one common theme emerged: practical solutions are more difficult to achieve if communication breaks down. Businesses can often reduce that risk by engaging early with the relevant stakeholders. That begins with municipal staff. Planning departments are oftentimes willing to discuss how an ordinance applies before substantial investments are made. Seeking clarification in advance may identify permitting requirements or operational limitations that can be addressed proactively rather than after enforcement action. Communication should not stop with local government. Nearby property owners and neighborhood representatives frequently appreciate being informed about proposed changes before they occur. A brief meeting, an informational email, or an invitation to discuss concerns can foster goodwill and reveal potential issues while there is still flexibility to adjust operations. That’s why such meetings often required for substantial projects and may be a good idea even if not required. Perhaps most importantly, businesses should view compliance as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Operational changes that seem minor from a business standpoint may have regulatory implications under local development ordinances. Periodically reviewing proposed changes with experienced land-use counsel or planning professionals can help identify issues before they become disputes. No ordinance can eliminate every conflict between commercial activity and residential expectations. Nor should every disagreement become a legal controversy. But businesses that invest in transparent, proactive communication place themselves in the strongest position to protect both their operations and their relationships within the community. In today's regulatory environment, good communication is more than good public relations, it is good risk management. If your business is planning to expand its operations, introduce a new use, or simply wants to better understand how local land development regulations apply, the attorneys at Rountree Losee LLP are available to help. Our land use and local government practice works with businesses throughout southeastern North Carolina to navigate municipal approval processes, identify potential issues before they become disputes, and keep projects moving forward with confidence. Read more at rountreelosee.com.

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Aug 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com
The global memory shortage hits the MacBook Air

The global memory chip shortage appears to be affecting the availability of Apple’s most popular Mac.

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Aug 2 • 5:33 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Marine Heatwaves Are Hiding Far More Heat Than Scientists Realized

The first study of its kind shows that ecosystems experience far more cumulative heat than standard measurements reveal. A marine heatwave may have an official beginning and end, but the warm water affecting an ecosystem often does not. Like a pot that continues absorbing heat over time, coastal waters can remain unusually warm for weeks

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Aug 2 • 11:46 AM EDT • Science • scitechdaily.com
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Sentara announces possible contract terminations with Anthem health insurance

That potential termination, which includes Medicare and Medicaid contracts, could affect close to 380,000 Anthem members in Virginia around the start of next year.

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Aug 2 • 11:41 AM EDT • Health • pilotonline.com
Low-cost healthcare provider in Tacoma shutters women’s health clinic

An earlier hit affecting a family medicine residency program is blamed in latest action.

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Aug 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • thenewstribune.com
Linux's market share in North America has breached 10% for the first time, says StatCounter

The start of something big, or is something else affecting the numbers?

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Aug 2 • 3:18 AM EDT • Technology • xda-developers.com
Sophie Cunningham says protests over transgender sports stance are not distracting Fever

Sophie Cunningham said rallies backing her stance on transgender participation in women’s sports have not affected the Fever’s focus as demonstrations continued on the road

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Aug 1 • 10:38 AM EDT • Sports • theguardian.com
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‘Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops

Growers in dismay after scorching weather and lack of rain affect yields, sending wholesale prices rocketing

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Aug 1 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • theguardian.com
Nearly 12 million bottles of Rohto eye drops over sterility concerns, FDA announces

Nearly 12 million bottles of Rohto Cooling Eye Drops face a Class II recall over lack of assurance of sterility, affecting eight product lines.

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Aug 1 • 4:21 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Diabetes Drug Used For More Than 60 Years Found to Unexpectedly Affect The Brain

A hidden pathway is emerging.

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Jul 31 • 9:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
Business impact fund available for those affected by Omaha Streetcar construction

An impact fund for businesses affected by the Omaha Streetcar construction is now taking applications.

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Jul 31 • 4:24 PM EDT • Business • wowt.com
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How can wildfire smoke affect your health? Respiratory Care faculty explain

Recent wildfire smoke has engulfed the Treasure Valley, bringing the Air Quality Index into the...

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Jul 31 • 1:34 PM EDT • Health • boisestate.edu
Scientists discover why poor sleep may harm some brains more

A gene involved in the brain’s overnight cleaning system may change how strongly poor sleep affects Alzheimer’s-related brain changes. The findings point toward more personalized prevention strategies based on both genetics and sleep habits.

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Jul 31 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
How Medicaid fraud could affect your tax dollars and health care

Local 12 WKRC-TV is the local station for breaking news, weather forecasts, traffic alerts, community news, Cincinnati Bengals, Reds and FC Cincinnati sports updates, and CBS programming for the Cincinnati , Ohio area, including Avondale, Blue Ash, Bond Hill, Camp Washington, Cheviot, Cleves, Colerain Township, Columbia-Tusculum, Corryville, Norwood, Delhi, East Price Hill, Golf Manor, Hyde Park, Lebanon, Loveland, Lower Price Hill, Madeira, Mariemont, Mount Adams, Mount Airy, Mount Healthy, Mount Lookout, Mount Washington, Oakley, Over-The-Rhine, Reading, Sedamsville, Sharonville, Springdale, St. Bernard, South Cumminsville, Symmes Township, Mason, Hamilton, Union Township, Walnut Hills, West Chester, Wyoming, West Price Hill, Westwood, Winton Hills, Alexandria, Bellevue, Covington, Crescent Springs, Erlanger, Fort Mitchell, Fort Thomas, Fort Wright, Florence, Hebron, Highland Heights, Newport, Southgate, Villa Hills, Walton, Aurora, Greendale, and Lawrenceburg.

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Jul 30 • 1:20 PM EDT • Health • local12.com
3 in 4 small business owners recently used their own credit card for business expenses

Bluevine reports that 75% of small business owners have used personal credit for expenses, highlighting gaps in financial knowledge that affect loan approvals.

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Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • kansascity.com
Tinder pauses AI tool after it gave some daters an unsolicited makeover

An in-app “Photo Enhance” tool altered some users’ appearances without their permission. Tinder told NBC News that the unintended changes affected a small number of users.

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Jul 29 • 3:04 PM EDT • Technology • nbcnews.com
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The power plant players unlocking the grid | Investors Lab

History is full of aha moments where an apparent failure was actually the breakthrough people didn't know they needed. Take champagne, discovered when French winemakers kept finding their bottles exploding under pressure. Or sticky notes, developed from a glue that was rejected by leadership at 3M for being too weak, but later redeployed for the purpose we all know and love. Nuclear fusion just experienced another of these serendipitous discoveries. For decades, it wasn't clear how the subatomic particles known as alpha particles would affect the turbulence that drains heat from a reactor's core, preventing the reactor from reaching self-sustaining fusion. Now, new simulations suggest that the particles help. The new research turns what was once viewed as a potential operational hindrance into a critical performance booster. SN's Emily Conover has the info blast.

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Jul 29 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencenews.org
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Lawmakers begin crafting aid package for businesses affected by wildfires

A Democrat and Republican from northeast Minnesota say they’ll be ready with a proposal if the Legislature convenes in a special session.

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Jul 29 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • startribune.com
Xbox outage shouldn’t have affected games on disc, Microsoft confirms

Very reassuring for the future of physical media.

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Jul 29 • 6:58 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Pennsylvania health insurance providers request steep rate increases for 2027

Health insurance providers in Pennsylvania have requested significant rate increases for 2027, with proposals affecting both individual and small group markets.

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Jul 28 • 6:09 PM EDT • Health • wgal.com
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Georgia Wellstar Health System cuts hundreds of jobs

Georgia's Wellstar Health System is cutting 761 jobs, amounting to about 2% of its workforce. Officials say the layoffs don't affect its frontline healthcare employees.

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Jul 28 • 4:59 PM EDT • Health • wabe.org
Escape Works Denver Reduces Ticket Prices to Make Entertainment More Affordable

As rising costs continue to affect household budgets across the country, EscapeWorks Denver is taking an unexpected approach:…

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Jul 28 • 2:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • 303magazine.com
Will DC hospitals have to give Trump, Konza Health your ER records?

A federal agency is reportedly demanding hospitals to turn over ER records of patients. Could it affect Washington DC-area patients?

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Jul 28 • 11:10 AM EDT • Health • usatoday.com
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New data suggests layoffs will affect 14,259 people by the end of 2026, up 78% from first forecast of the year

"The pace of layoffs is accelerating faster than our models initially predicted"

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Jul 28 • 9:44 AM EDT • Technology • gamesindustry.biz
Mental health help for those affected by Seattle Center mass shooting

In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Seattle Center, people may be feeling a range of emotions that are testing their mental health and sense of safety.

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Jul 27 • 9:19 PM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com
Apple's 2026 and 2027 Mac Roadmap: Every Model and When It Ships

A shortage of memory chips has impacted the entire computer market, affecting Macs and PCs alike. Apple and other companies have raised prices, but Apple is better positioned than its competitors. Machines like the Mac mini and the Mac Studio are in demand for on-device AI agent use, and Apple plans to take advantage by refreshing its Mac lineup across 2026 and 2027.

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Jul 27 • 6:48 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Update Now: iOS 26.6 and macOS Tahoe 26.6 Patch Hundreds of Security Flaws

Apple today released iOS 26.6, iPadOS 26.6, and macOS Tahoe 26.6, all of which have a long list of security fixes. iOS 26.6 and iPadOS 26.6 address almost 90 security vulnerabilities affecting everything from the App Store to the Neural Engine. Multiple kernel and WebKit vulnerabilities were fixed, along with problems affecting Wi-Fi, Siri, and the iPhone's image processing. Details on all of the fixes can be found in Apple's security support document.

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Jul 27 • 2:55 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
GLP-1s can affect how often some people need to take time off work, study finds

An analysis of employees in Denmark finds that diabetics taking Ozempic had fewer absences from work.

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Jul 27 • 2:11 PM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Dementia affecting younger persons strikes Hispanics more than previously thought, UT Health San Antonio-led study shows

Educational disparities contribute to diagnostic delays of frontotemporal dementia Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu SAN ANTONIO, July 27, 2026 – A form of dementia that strikes younger people is more common in Hispanics than previously thought, according to a new study led by researchers at UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of […]

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Jul 27 • 7:32 AM EDT • Health • news.uthscsa.edu
How financial stress can affect the brain over the long term

People who experienced persistent financial struggles were slower to process information and showed memory recall decline by middle age.

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Jul 27 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Toy company CEO shares how Trump's new round of tariffs could affect business

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Jay Foreman of toy importer Basic Fun! about President Trump's latest round of tariffs. The company has paid millions of dollars in import duties under Trump.

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Jul 27 • 4:40 AM EDT • Business • npr.org
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Rockstar clarifies which GTA 6 pre-order download codes are going to be region-locked, and how that is going to affect the game in your country

If you plan on pre-ordering GTA 6 on PlayStation 5 at retail, you should be very careful not to get a code that won't work with your account.

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Jul 27 • 4:23 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
‘Game-changing’ spit test could shrink years-long wait for diagnosis of condition that affects 190M women
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Jul 26 • 12:30 PM EDT • Health • nypost.com
Trauma and taboos: how Portugal takes care of migrants' mental health

Migration is increasingly essential to Portugal's economy, but the mental health of many new arrivals to the country is affected by the trauma of what they have left behind, long and arduous journeys,…

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Jul 26 • 8:59 AM EDT • Health • rfi.fr
ADHD looks different in women and poses unique health risks

For decades, ADHD was viewed as a childhood condition that mostly affected boys. Researchers now know ADHD manifests differently in girls, but many still go undiagnosed until adulthood.

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Jul 26 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • npr.org
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Boil-water advisory impacts Algiers businesses and recreation

A boil-water advisory in Algiers is affecting local businesses and recreation centers after water pressure dropped during maintenance at the Algiers water plant.

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Jul 25 • 7:07 PM EDT • Business • wdsu.com
A program helps Hill Country businesses rebuild all over again

After another round of destructive flooding, LiftFund is offering grants of up to $10,000 to affected small businesses and nonprofits.

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Jul 25 • 3:00 PM EDT • Business • sanantonioreport.org
Final Fantasy 7 Director Kept 'Open World Fatigue' in Mind as New Remake Chapter Promises 'Bigger' World Than Rebirth

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi has acknowledged the "open world fatigue" affecting the industry but says Square Enix was "very careful" to make sure fans would have "all the guidance they need" in the new remake chapter – even if it's bigger than the last.

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Jul 25 • 2:05 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
CBS affiliate changes impact NFL fans in multiple markets

NFL fans in several U.S. television markets will have to turn to a different channel to watch their games, as CBS and Nexstar announced major changes to the network affiliations of several local stations. The changes will affect fans in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Jackson, Mississippi; Bismarck, North Dakota; Birmingham, Alabama; Greenville, South Carolina; and Rapid…

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Jul 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Sex in space could be trickier than we think. Here's what science says about close encounters between astronauts | BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Sgnificant gaps exist in our understanding of how human reproduction might be affected by the conditions in space.

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Jul 25 • 5:51 AM EDT • Science • skyatnightmagazine.com
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WATCH: What Happened for Small Businesses During the 2026 Arizona Legislative Session?

Learn what happened in Phoenix during the 2026 legislative session and how it affects your small business.

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Jul 24 • 11:15 AM EDT • Business • nfib.com
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Ex-NFL Coach Provides Honest Assessment of Ravens’ Lamar Jackson

There have been different opinions on Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson of late, but everyone knows he’s among the best players in the NFL.Last year was an outlier for Jackson since he dealt with so many injuries during the season. That affected his play on the field, finishing with a 63.6% completion percentage for 2,549 […] The post Ex-NFL Coach Provides Honest Assessment of Ravens’ Lamar Jackson appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 24 • 9:44 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
NASA programs feel effects of workforce reductions

More than two dozen major NASA projects say they have been affected by the loss of a fifth of NASA’s civil servant workforce in the last year.

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Jul 23 • 5:31 PM EDT • Technology • spacenews.com
Microsoft 365 outage affects Teams, SharePoint and other services

Microsoft Teams and several Microsoft 365 services are experiencing an ongoing outage, with users reporting problems accessing Teams, SharePoint, Excel and the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

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Jul 23 • 11:34 AM EDT • Technology • bleepingcomputer.com
When It Comes to Fusion, Materials Matter

Fusion at high temperatures powers the sun and, if harnessed, could provide a potential source of energy here on Earth. But controlling fusion reactions has other benefits. The process also generates subatomic particles called neutrons that are used in a range of applications spanning medicine, research, and national security. Now, scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that the materials surrounding a fusion reaction can dramatically increase how often it occurs, particularly at low energies where fusion is rare. The study was published July 18 in Nature Communications. Their approach sets up a way to study and engineer nuclear reactions within solid materials, opening a new field of “materials-driven fusion.” Instead of designing materials just to survive the harsh conditions of fusion, researchers might be able to design materials that boost the reaction in specific conditions, similar to the way catalysts speed up chemical processes. “It gives you a new knob to turn that you didn’t have before,” said Arun Persaud, head of the Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology group in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division. “If we understand this effect better, it opens the door to engineering new materials that would affect the fusion rate under certain conditions. Someday future progress might enable more compact and efficient neutron generators, which have all kinds of applications, like cargo screening, planetary science, and medical therapy and imaging.” In the experiment, researchers used two different methods to pack deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen atoms that is often used in fusion, into thin foils of palladium and titanium. They then fired a beam of deuterium ions at the foils at different energies and measured how often fusion happened. Then they compared the rates from the different materials and methods with the “bare” fusion reaction (not in a material). The team found that fusion rates depended on how the deuterium was loaded into the metal foils. The biggest effect was at the lowest energies, below 2.5 kiloelectronvolts (keV), where theory predicts fusion rates drop off sharply. Instead, researchers found a surprising plateau: Some samples showed elevated fusion rates roughly a quintillion times higher than bare fusion reactions. (A quintillion is a 1 followed by 18 zeroes.) Researchers are not exactly sure why that’s happening, though they have some ideas and ways to test them. The electrons and defects within the material might partially shield repulsive electrostatic forces between deuterium nuclei, making it easier for them to get close together and fuse. Tuning the electronic structure, defects, and composition of materials could help make nuclear reactions happen more readily. “It comes down to better understanding the mechanism so that we can try to enhance it,” said corresponding author Jeremy Munday, a professor at UC Davis. “We’ve seen that we can increase fusion rates, but what is the limit? Can we bring it to lower temperatures or energies? There’s obviously a lot of interest and excitement about fusion, so if there’s something we can learn about the physics at these lower energy scales, maybe there’s something we can translate to other areas of nuclear science.” The team plans to explore a wider range of materials and continue probing the unexpected fusion plateau at lower energies. Their work establishes a reproducible experimental platform to study how solid materials influence nuclear reactions, creating a new area of research that links fusion science with materials science and chemistry. “The work shows conclusively that the material environment where fusion occurs at low temperatures is an active participant rather than a passive container,” said Cameron Geddes, director of ATAP. “That adds a new dimension to fusion research.” This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

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Jul 23 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • newscenter.lbl.gov
Firms Gain Advantage by Treating Hiring as a Business Decision

Businesses need both in-house and outside counsel who understand how employment decisions affect competitive advantage and help them build their talent strategy, says Stinson’s Dawn Valdivia.

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Jul 23 • 4:30 AM EDT • Business • news.bloomberglaw.com
EasyJet profits plunge 70% as fuel costs soar amid Iran war

Budget airline, which has two US investment firms vying to buy it, also affected by passengers booking later

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Jul 23 • 4:24 AM EDT • Business • theguardian.com
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Reduced rail service hitting trade, businesses warn

Business leaders say Sheffield to London train services are "critical", with trade already affected.

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Jul 23 • 4:14 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
What does Cincinnati's emergency declaration mean for residents, business owners?

Cincinnati is transitioning from emergency response to recovery after two rounds of flooding prompted the mayor to declare a state of emergency to provide financial relief to affected homeowners and businesses.

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Jul 22 • 5:17 PM EDT • Business • wlwt.com
Reducing muscle protein activity strengthens bone health, study suggests

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or "brittle bone disorder," is a connective tissue disorder that affects collagen, a protein that makes up much of the body's structure. There are more than 10 different ...

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Jul 22 • 3:00 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com
Government Contracting Surges, But Not for All

New report reveals federal small business contracting meets targets amid policy shifts. Discover mixed results and procurement changes affecting contractors.

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Jul 22 • 1:46 PM EDT • Business • legis1.com
Tim Tebow ESPN contract extension announced amid sweeping layoffs

Tim Tebow's multi-year contract extension with ESPN comes as the company experiences another round of layoffs, affecting several high-profile names.

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Jul 22 • 1:06 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
4 Common Medications That Can Mess With Your Gut Health

Some medications may disrupt the good bacteria in your gut, potentially affecting your digestive and overall health.

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Jul 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • health.com
St. Pete Beach parking: Business owners say higher rates drive customers away

Higher parking rates at St. Pete Beach are drawing criticism from local business owners who say the increased costs are keeping visitors away. One owner has launched an online petition urging city leaders to revisit the parking policy before more businesses are affected.

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Jul 21 • 10:57 PM EDT • Business • fox13news.com
Critical wp2shell WordPress flaws exploited to install webshells

Hackers are exploiting the "wp2shell" critical vulnerability suite (CVE-2026-63030 and CVE-2026-60137) affecting WordPress Core to deploy persistent webshells and install malicious plugins on affected servers.

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Jul 21 • 12:41 PM EDT • Technology • bleepingcomputer.com
Automated Neurofeedback: Rewiring the Future of Mental Health Care

Mental health and addiction disorders continue to rise across the United States, affecting veterans, adolescents, families, first responders, and entire communities. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly half of individuals with a substance use disorder also experience a co-occurring mental health condition. At the same time, healthcare systems are struggling with workforce ...

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Jul 21 • 11:06 AM EDT • Health • nu.edu
How the feds' healthcare grants could affect Idaho education: Three examples

Idaho has $186 million in federal rural grants to parcel out by the end of October. Workforce development is a “huge part” of the mix, Department of Health and Welfare Director Juliet Charron told EdNews in a recent interview.

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Jul 21 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • idahoednews.org
Health officials share tips as wildfire smoke affects Central Oregon

Wildfire smoke is affecting air quality in Central Oregon and may pose health risks to the public. Public health officials from Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties are encouraging residents and vi

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Jul 21 • 4:48 AM EDT • Health • deschutescounty.gov
Gainesville group discusses local politics, upcoming primary at brewery meeting

‘Gainesville Is for People’ reviewed a recent candidate forum and talked issues affecting the city

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Jul 21 • 1:51 AM EDT • Politics • wcjb.com
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Gainesville group discusses local politics, upcoming primary at brewery meeting

‘Gainesville Is for People’ reviewed a recent candidate forum and talked issues affecting the city

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Jul 20 • 10:09 PM EDT • Politics • wcjb.com
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Health response brings lifesaving care closer to thousands in Yemen

Thousands of people in some of Yemen's most conflict-affected communities are receiving lifesaving health care closer to home, thanks to funding from the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) through the Yemen Humanitarian Fund.

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Jul 20 • 3:32 PM EDT • Health • news.un.org
Broadcom’s AI Mix Shift: How AVGO’s Booming AI Chip Business Changes the Investment Thesis

The AI sell-off extended on Friday and affected stock markets around the world. Oil prices remained volatile amid the U.S.-Iran tensions. Chip stocks, in particular, took the largest hit after a poor week. There is skepticism that AI chip prices are too high and that demand for computer memory and processors would be unsustainable if […]

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Jul 20 • 1:11 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Summer Health Facts vs. Myths: Swimmer’s Ear, Ticks, More

Dr. Jen Caudle, family physician and associate professor at Rowan University, joins TODAY to separate fact from fiction on common summer health myths like Seasonal Affective Disorder, swimmer’s ear, mosquito bites and more.

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Jul 20 • 9:35 AM EDT • Health • today.com
Gears of War Designer Cliff Bleszinski Reveals Struggle With Alcoholism, Discusses the Failure of LawBreakers and Potential Return to Video Game Development

Video game developer Cliff Bleszinski has revealed his struggle with alcoholism and how it affected not just his work on Gears of War but contributed to the failure of hero shooter LawBreakers and his studio, Boss Key Productions.

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Jul 20 • 8:27 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Paris farmer sees business boost amid Kentucky cyclosporasis outbreak

A cyclosporasis outbreak affecting nearly 200 people across Kentucky, including more than a dozen combined cases in Fayette and Madison counties, is prompting some consumers to bypass major retailers and buy produce directly from local farms.

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Jul 19 • 11:26 PM EDT • Business • wkyt.com
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AI may predict harmful chemical exposures affecting human health

Artificial intelligence is rapidly improving scientists' ability to detect chemicals in the environment and human body.

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Jul 19 • 10:40 PM EDT • Health • news-medical.net
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What does resilience show about healthy aging after trauma?

A landmark study that started in 2021 to learn about wartime trauma among Vietnamese Americans has received an additional $13.3 in funding to delve deeper into how trauma affects aging and brain health.

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Jul 19 • 8:30 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com
How eczema and acne can affect your mental health

Scientists are uncovering a complex communication network linking the skin, immune system, and brain—one that could transform how chronic skin disease and mental health are treated.

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Jul 19 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • nationalgeographic.com
Health experts warn about uptick in the emergency room with poor air quality

Health experts in southeastern Wisconsin report a surge in emergency room visits for respiratory issues as wildfire smoke continues to affect air quality.

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Jul 19 • 7:57 PM EDT • Health • wisn.com
Fantasy Analyst Assesses Malik Nabers' Viability in 2026

Malik Nabers is on his way back from an injury, which could affect the New York Giants and fantasy football managers. Nabers was an elite wideout in his rookie season, setting a Giants single-season franchise record for catches (109).

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Jul 19 • 9:31 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Second person dies in Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Upper East Side

So far, 72 people have been affected by the outbreak, with 50 of them needing hospitalization. Nine remain hospitalized.

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Jul 19 • 9:08 AM EDT • Health • nydailynews.com
Does summer actually make your hair grow faster?

Probably not, but it might affect beard growth.

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Jul 19 • 8:05 AM EDT • Science • popsci.com
WordPress Core "wp2shell" RCE flaws get public exploits, patch now

Public exploits have been released for the critical "wp2shell" remote code execution vulnerabilities affecting WordPress Core, making it imperative that administrators patch their sites immediately.

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Jul 18 • 1:22 PM EDT • Technology • bleepingcomputer.com
Disco Elysium Dev ZA/UM Announces Layoffs Affecting Up to 32 Staff

Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has announced layoffs affecting up to 32 staff just two months after launching Zero Parades: For Dead Spies.

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Jul 18 • 12:52 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Louisiana restaurants, grocers respond to outbreak linked to contaminated lettuce

The food-borne parasitic outbreak that can cause extreme diarrhea and has affected several U.S. states, including Louisiana, is creating headaches for owners of local restaurants and supermarkets.

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Jul 18 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • nola.com
Abbott investigates two separate cyber incidents, says no operations affected

Abbott Laboratories is investigating two cyber incidents involving unauthorized access to ​some internal systems at its cancer diagnostics business and ‌its LabCentral portal, the company said on Friday, adding that its operations were not affected.

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Jul 17 • 7:02 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Taylor Farms pulls lettuce tied to cyclospora outbreak

Taylor Farms said it's removing iceberg lettuce from Mexico due to the cyclospora outbreak, which has affected at least 1,644 people across 34 states.

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Jul 17 • 3:25 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
How Wildfire Smoke Affects Your Health

NC State professor Jennifer Richmond-Bryant explains how wildfire smoke affects health, why risks vary and what communities can do to prepare.

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Jul 17 • 11:10 AM EDT • Health • cnr.ncsu.edu
Chinese scientists have bad news on having babies in space

Researchers use China’s Tianzhou spacecraft missions since 2017 to study how microgravity and space radiation can affect biology.

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Jul 16 • 7:30 PM EDT • Science • scmp.com
Wildfire smoke poses health risk to animals

Wildfire smoke can create health issues for pets the same way it affects people, according to a local veterinarian — particularly for animals with underlying conditions.

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Jul 16 • 7:05 PM EDT • Health • 13abc.com
Turbulent national politics come to Maine

Learn about the most important issues facing Massachusetts from the people in charge and the people most affected.

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Jul 16 • 3:02 PM EDT • Politics • wbur.org
Politics: What Changing Political Tides Mean For Gaza

Israel is expanding its command of Gaza and now controls almost 70 percent of the tiny enclave that’s home to more than two million people.More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas nearly a year ago. Some 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in total since Israel’s military offensive began after Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023. Meanwhile, dozens of aid groups have been barred from operating in Gaza.Almost every Gazan is dealing with hunger, with 77 percent of the population facing high levels of food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.So, what do these shifting lines of control mean for those in need? And how could changing political tides affect the situation?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.

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Jul 16 • 1:31 PM EDT • Politics • npr.org
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Trump's address may focus on the 2020 election. Here’s what to know about foreign interference, voting security

President Donald Trump is set to address the nation July 16 with an expected primetime focus on election integrity. Reports from intelligence experts show that the 2020 election was secure and foreign governments’ attempts at interference did not affect voting.

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Jul 16 • 1:30 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Trump officials want to make testosterone drugs easier to prescribe. Is that a good idea?

Officials under President Donald Trump want to make it easier for men to get a prescription for testosterone, the latest shift in a decades-long debate over the benefits and risks of replacing the hormone that affects sex drive, mood and other health factors.

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Jul 16 • 11:54 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
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