Just when you thought the circular deals couldn’t get any more circular, OpenAI has invested in CEO Sam Altman’s brain computer interface startup Merge Labs.  Merge Labs, which defines itself as a “research lab” dedicated to “bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability,” came out of stealth on Thursday with an undisclosed seed round. A source familiar with the matter confirmed previous reports that OpenAI wrote the largest single check in Merge Labs’s $250 million seed round at a $850 million valuation. “Our individual experience of the world arises from billions of active neurons,” reads a statement from Merge Labs.

YouTube is now home to the “largest digital library of Sesame Street content” with the arrival of over a hundred older, “classic” episodes of the show, as first announced last year. YouTube’s collection of Sesame Street episodes spans the series’ history, as the announcement for the streaming launch mentions: “More than 100 full Sesame Street episodes from previous seasons are now available on YouTube and the YouTube Kids app for the first time. This includes episodes from recent seasons as well as some of the most beloved moments from Sesame Street history that fans have been waiting for.”

Running along Brazil's coastline, the Atlantic Forest supports an extraordinary range of life, including hundreds of species of birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and fishes. Much of that richness has been lost. Human development has reduced the forest to roughly one third of its original size. As people move deeper into once intact habitats, wildlife is pushed out, and mosquitoes that once fed on many different animals appear to be shifting their attention toward humans, according to a study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. "Here we show that the mosquito species we captured in remnants of the Atlantic Forest have a clear preference for feeding on humans," said senior author Dr.

30. Maze featuring Frankie Beverly – Live in New Orleans (1981) Already stars in Black America, Maze became the ultimate if-you-know-you-know band among British fans of underground soul thanks to Live in New Orleans. It perfectly encapsulated their appeal: smooth but not slick, an awesomely tight band making breezily relaxed music, one fantastic song after another. 29. Hawkwind – Space Ritual (1973) Live albums can often seem like an afterthought, a nice addendum rather than a pivotal part of a band’s career. But Space Ritual is the best way to experience Hawkwind’s unique melding of psych, proto-punk, electronics, motorik krautrock-like repetition: advertised with the fabulous line “88 minutes of brain damage”, it’s immersive, hypnotic and awesome.

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.

Verizon is offering customers a $20 account credit following a massive outage that brought down service across the US on Wednesday. In an update on X, Verizon says you’ll receive a text message when the credit is available, which you can redeem by logging into the myVerizon app and accepting it. “Yesterday, we did not meet the standard of excellence you expect and that we expect of ourselves,” Verizon writes. “This credit isn’t meant to make up for what happened. No credit really can.” Verizon adds that the $20 credit should cover “multiple days of service.”

As part of its 25th birthday celebration, the Wikimedia Foundation announced a series of new partnerships with AI tech companies that are now customers of its commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. Developed by the foundation, Wikimedia Enterprise allows large-scale reuse and distribution of Wikipedia content, as well as content from other Wikimedia projects. In addition to the previously announced partnership with Google in 2022, the organization shared publicly for the first time that it has formed other partnerships with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, and Perplexity over the past year.

Quantum physics shows that particles do not behave like solid objects with fixed locations. Instead, they act more like waves, which means their exact position in space cannot be precisely known. Even so, in many everyday situations, scientists can still describe particles in a familiar, classical way. They picture them as tiny objects moving through space with a specific speed. This approach works well when explaining how electricity flows through metals. Physicists often describe electric current as electrons speeding through a material, pushed or redirected by electromagnetic forces as they move.

This week Sky announced that it will be remaking Stieg Larsson’s 2005 novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as an eight-part television series. So far, all we know is that it will be set in the present day and will be written by Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna. What we don’t know is who will play Lisbeth Salander, the aforementioned girl with the dragon tattoo. And this will be a big deal, because previous screen adaptations of Larsson’s books have made stars of whoever was cast as Salander. In 2009’s Swedish adaptation, she was played by Noomi Rapace, who was nominated for a Bafta.

The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome now has a price and is already up for preorder. The dedicated black-and-white camera, based on the standard GR IV with a fixed 28mmm-equivalent lens, will cost $2,199.95 — a $700 premium over the GR IV. Ricoh first announced the GR IV Monochrome was being made back in October, and it was due for launch in the spring. But it’s apparently coming in mid-February, with retailers like B&H Photo already taking orders. The GR IV Monochrome is a rare breed, offering a compact camera with a large APS-C sensor that lacks a color filter — only capturing black and white.

The tech world’s deepfake pornography problem is now bigger than just X. In a letter to the leaders of X, Meta, Alphabet, Snap, Reddit and TikTok, several U.S. senators are asking the companies to provide proof that they have “robust protections and policies” in place, and to explain how they plan to curb the rise of sexualized deepfakes on their platforms.

The Problem With Convenience Wardley is looking at Derek Chisora as a possible first defense. Tyson Fury called him out after announcing his return. Those are names that sell tickets and make sense for a spring date. Itauma was supposed to fight Jermaine Franklin on January 24, but an injury pushed that back to March 28. Warren is working fast. Oleksandr Usyk holds the Ring Magazine title and the other three major belts. A fight with Usyk seems unlikely for Itauma right now. That leaves Wardley as the only realistic target for a quick title shot.

A large long-term study has found that statins, a widely used class of cholesterol-lowering medications, significantly reduce the risk of death and serious heart-related problems in adults with type 2 diabetes. Importantly, these benefits were seen even in people who were considered to have a low chance of developing heart disease within the next 10 years. This challenges a long-standing debate over whether preventive statin treatment is worthwhile for patients who appear to be at lower cardiovascular risk. Statins are commonly prescribed to lower LDL cholesterol, what many people know as bad cholesterol.

The best deal that I’ve seen on The Matrix: 4 Film Deja Vú Collection containing the four main films on 4K Blu-ray discs is $34.99. After missing out on that price around Cyber Monday, I’ve been waiting patiently for it to return. I can wait no longer to rewatch the 1999 classic, so Walmart’s $44.99 price suffices. It’s not a bad deal at roughly $11 per movie, considering the collection regularly shoots up in the $70 range outside of a sale. The collection contains The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded…

Berlin-based Parloa has raised $350 million in Series D funding from existing investors, valuing the six-year-old customer service AI startup at $3 billion. The round comes just eight months after the company raised $120 million at a $1 billion valuation. The new round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from returning backers including EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Durable Capital, and Mosaic Ventures.

What Six Fights Tell You Cruz has looked sharp in limited exposure. His Cuban foundation shows in how he moves and controls distance. Bozy Ennis claims he hasn’t tried to rebuild Cruz’s style, just add to it. That sounds reasonable until you remember he hasn’t been tested by anyone who could exploit gaps in that approach. Muratalla brings a different problem. He’s not a polished boxer, but he applies pressure and forces fighters to work in close. If Cruz can keep him at range and box off the back foot, this could go cleanly.

Why didn’t you insist on a “must kiss Denzel” scene in your two Equalizer films? nivlek47Well, if you go back to the first Equalizer, he comes to my character seeking permission to do his “equalizing”. I’d been his boss and trained him, so kissing him would be highly inappropriate. However, if somebody is looking to see me kiss Mr Washington, please whisper that into his ear.

Usyk is 38 now. He knocked out Dubois twice. He beat Fury and Joshua in succession. The Wilder fight gets mentioned as a possibility, which tells you how thin heavyweight has become when a shot fighter with four losses in six years is considered a logical next step for an undisputed champion. #2 Naoya Inoue fought four times in 2025. The fourth was a decision over David Picasso that set up a fight with Junto Nakatani. Nobody fights that often anymore at this level, and if Inoue beats Nakatani, the No.

Random access memory, or RAM, is in just about every piece of technology we use. But it’s also the technology that AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta are using to power the servers in their massive data centers. Now, the world’s biggest memory makers — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — are taking advantage of a surge in demand, shifting their resources away from consumer-focused products and toward more lucrative deals with AI companies. The result is a severe shortage in RAM for consumer products, which is not only contributing to price hikes on the…

Chemicals used as replacements for bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging may have concerning effects on human ovarian cells, according to researchers at McGill University. In a new study, scientists analyzed several substances commonly found in price stickers attached to packaged meat, fish, cheese, and fresh produce. Their experiments revealed early warning signs of possible toxicity linked to these chemicals.

Though House of the Dragon tells a different story than Game of Thrones, there are enough tonal similarities to make the spinoff feel more like a remix of its predecessor than a show with its own distinct voice. That’s part of what made it a little hard to get excited when HBO first announced that it was producing yet another Game of Thrones prequel focused on digging into the annals of Westeros’ bloody history. But unlike House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes a unique and very refreshing approach to fleshing out the details of George R.R.

Ethereal Exploration Guild, an Indian space tech better known as EtherealX, has climbed 5.5x in valuation to $80.5 million after its latest funding round. The startup is developing a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable and is readying engine hot-fire tests ahead of its first technology demonstration flight, planned for 2027. The Bengaluru-based company confirms that it closed an oversubscribed $20.5 million Series A round led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, as TechCrunch reported earlier. Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund, and Riceberg Ventures also participated, EtherealX said.

A research team from the University of Liverpool has reported new evidence suggesting that sharp increases in blood sugar following meals may raise the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The findings point to after-meal glucose levels as a potential factor in long-term brain health. For years, studies have shown that conditions such as hyperglycemia, diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus, and insulin resistance are linked to poorer brain health.

WhatsApp is allowing AI providers to continue offering their chatbots to users with Brazilian phone numbers, days after the country’s competition regulator ordered the company to suspend its new policy that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from being offered on the app via its business API. Under the new policy, the company is providing a 90-day grace period starting January 15 to developers and AI providers, mandating them to cease responding to user queries on the chat app, and notify users that their chatbots won’t work on WhatsApp. Now, Meta told developers that they don’t have to notify users with Brazilian phone numbers (with code +55) of any changes or cease offering their services, per a notice to AI providers seen by TechCrunch.

The WeChat channel 纽约移民记事网Documented (or the New York Immigrant Chronicle) is part newsfeed and part public service. The channel, run by the nonprofit newsroom Documented NYC, is filled with local news for Chinese speakers in New York: stories about healthcare and immigration arrests, but also information on local events like toy giveaways, places where families can get free groceries, and affordable housing lottery listings. Followers can also contact reporters directly — to send them tips, of course, but followers also turn to Documented for essential questions: Where can I find free English classes?