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Tencia Benavidez, a Supernatural user who lives in New Mexico, started her VR workouts during the Covid pandemic. She has been a regular user in the five years since, calling the ability to work out in VR ideal, given that she lives in a rural area where it’s hard to get to a gym or work out outside during a brutal winter. She stuck with Supernatural because of the community and the eagerness of Supernatural’s coaches.“They seem like really authentic individuals that were not talking down to you,” Benavidez says. “There’s just something really special about those coaches.”Meta bought Supernatural…
Spotify raised prices for its subscription plan in the U.S. for the third time in three years, as it hiked the monthly plan from $11.99 per month to $12.99 per month. The company sent an email to its paid users notifying them of the new price, which is applicable from the next monthly billing cycle. Image Credits:Spotify “Occasional updates to pricing across our markets reflect the value that Spotify delivers, enabling us to continue offering the best possible experience and benefit artists,” the company said in a blog post. In November 2025, the Financial Times reported that the audio platform…
By applying computational engineering methods to model weight and gravitational forces acting on sauropod femurs, researchers found that these massive four-legged dinosaurs were generally able to stay upright while feeding, mating, and defending themselves. Sixty-six million years ago, two types of long-necked, four-legged dinosaurs had an edge over other sauropods because they could readily rise […]Science,Dinosaurs,Fossils,Paleontology,São Paulo Research Foundation,Sauropod#Giant #LongNecked #Dinosaurs #Stand #Upright #Scientists #Finally #Figured1768517144
I’m a picky person when it comes to mattresses. Of the hundreds I’ve tested over my career as a certified sleep coach and mattress tester, I have a short list of ones that have exceeded my expectations. At the top of my list is the Nolah Evolution, with the distinct honor of being the mattress I personally own. Given my job, that’s got to be like the equivalent of a Grammy or Emmy in the mattress world.Photograph: Julia ForbesRapidly approaching Presidents’ Day is one of the best mattress sales weekends of the year (and I do mean best—keep your eyes…
Five years from now, the world might start running short on copper, the critical mineral used in everything from data centers to electric vehicles. Absent any changes, the world could face a severe shortfall as early as 2040, with demand exceeding supply by as much as 25%. If copper seems expensive today, just wait a few years. Companies and investors have been pouring money into the sector as demand ramps up. AI minerals startup KoBold, for example, raised $537 million last year to exploit a copper deposit it found in Zambia. But with a little help from some microbes, today’s…
A new study challenges a decades-old assumption about the loss of Hawaiʻi’s native waterbirds. Challenging a half-century-old explanation for the loss of Hawaiʻi’s native birds, a new study from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa reports that there is no scientific evidence showing Indigenous People hunted waterbird species to extinction. Published in the journal Ecosphere, […]Biology,Biodiversity,Birds,Conservation,Ecology,University of Hawaii at Manoa,Wildlife Biology#Study #Debunks #50Year #Myth #Hawaiʻis #Native #Bird #Extinctions1768513494
If someone ever makes an HBO Max series about the AI industry, the events of this week will make quite the episode.On Wednesday, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, announced the company had rehired Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, cofounders of Mira Murati’s AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab. Zoph and Metz had left OpenAI in late 2024.We reported last night on two narratives forming around what led to the departures, and have since learned new information.A source with direct knowledge says that Thinking Machines leadership believed Zoph engaged in an incident of serious misconduct while at the company last year.…
The Trump administration signed a notable multi-billion-dollar trade deal with Taiwan that’s designed to help the United States boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Under the deal announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday, Taiwanese semiconductor and tech companies have agreed to make direct investments of $250 billion into the U.S. semiconductor industry. These investments will span across semiconductors, energy and AI “production and innovation,” according to a press release. Taiwan currently produces more than half of the world’s semiconductors. Taiwan will also supply an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees for additional investments from these semiconductors and tech enterprises,…
Deep-sea sediment layers show rare microbial wrinkle structures that formed in environments far beyond the reach of sunlight. Dr. Rowan Martindale, a paleoecologist and geobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, was hiking through Morocco’s Dadès Valley in the Central High Atlas Mountains when an unusual detail in the rocks made her stop. She […]Biology,Earth Science,Fossils,Geological Society of America,Geology,Paleontology#Shouldnt #Exist #Scientists #Find #Signs #Ancient #Life #Place1768509827
The more AI scales, the more governance matters. In 2026, successful CIOs will build guardrails into every intelligent system. This means moving away from retrofitting rules after the fact, and instead embedding governance by design – from the very beginning of deployment. That includes audit trails, escalation rules, and privacy protocols, all built into the user journey through intuitive, adaptable frameworks. Proper escalation and human-in-the-loop models will be essential, alongside data stewardship – knowing where data is stored, how it’s accessed, and ensuring privacy by design. Governance isn’t a drag on progress; it’s the foundation of trust. Low-code platforms are…
Elon Musk’s X has introduced new restrictions stopping people from editing and generating images of real people in bikinis or other “revealing clothing.” The change in policy on Wednesday night follows global outrage at Grok being used to generate thousands of harmful non-consensual “undressing” photos of women and sexualized images of apparent minors on X.However, while it appears that some safety measures have finally been introduced to Grok’s image generation on X, the standalone Grok app and website seem to still be able to generate “undress” style images and pornographic content, according to multiple tests by researchers, WIRED, and other…
Through an extension to its previous $50 million Series A round that closed in September, AI video generation startup Higgsfield has sold another $80 million worth of stock, bringing its total Series A to $130 million. The company says it has now hit a $1.3 billion valuation. Higgsfield offers a tool that allows consumers, creators, and social media teams to create and edit AI-generated videos. The company was founded by Alex Mashrabov, former head of Generative AI at Snap, who landed at the company after it bought his previous startup, AI Factory, in 2020 for $166 million. Mashrabov was a…
Invisible earthquakes are revealing a hidden tectonic puzzle beneath California’s most dangerous fault zone. By closely monitoring clusters of extremely small earthquakes, scientists are uncovering new details about a dangerous and complex region off Northern California. This area marks the meeting point of the San Andreas fault and the Cascadia subduction zone, a place capable […]Earth,Earthquakes,Seismology,Subduction Zones,Tectonic Plates,UC Davis#Scientists #Discover #Hidden #Earthquake #World #Beneath #Northern #California1768506164
When Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good last Wednesday morning in Minneapolis, the 37-year-old mother became one of at least 25 people killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shooting since 2015.In the days after Ross fired at Good multiple times from the front and side of Good’s car, visual investigations from outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post have reconstructed the event, which unfolded in a matter of seconds, combing through a series of videos that emerged from various angles. These present apparent contradictions between the narrative presented by the White House and…
As of Thursday, 92 million Iranians have been completely blocked from accessing the internet for more than a week, in what is now one of the longest nationwide internet shutdowns ever, according to experts. Last Thursday, Iran’s leadership blocked internet and phone access across the whole country in response to massive anti-government protests, which began at the end of last year and have prompted a brutal and deadly crackdown from authorities. As of this writing, Iranians have not been able to access the internet for more than 170 hours. The previous longest shutdowns in the country lasted around 163 hours…
A common belief is that compulsive behaviors trap people in a “habit loop” that takes over self-control. New research, however, suggests this explanation may be incomplete. For many years, compulsive behavior has been explained as people becoming trapped in a “habit loop” that takes over self-control. New research from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), […]Health,Addiction,Behavioral Science,Mental Health,Neuroscience,University of Technology Sydney#Compulsive #Behavior #Bad #Habit #Study #Finds1768502517