Creating quantum computers powerful enough to solve important real-world problems is very challenging - and some experts believe them to be decades away. Microsoft says this timetable can now be sped up because of the "transformative" progress it has made in developing the new chip involving a "topological conductor", based on a new material it has produced. The firm believes its topoconductor has the potential to be as revolutionary as the semiconductor was in the history of computing.
The 150 figure was not evidence of fraud but rather the result of a weird quirk of the Social Security Administration’s benefits system, which was largely written in COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language that undergirds SSA’s databases as well as systems from many other US government agencies. COBOL is rarely used today, and as such, Musk’s cadre of young engineers may well be unfamiliar with it. Because COBOL does not have a date type, some implementations rely instead on a system whereby all dates are coded to a reference point. The most commonly used is May 20, 1875, as this was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre. These systems default to the reference point when a birth date is missing or incomplete, meaning all of those entries in 2025 would show an age of 150.
San Francisco’s first high-profile startup flop of the artificial intelligence era is now complete… Humane, which made wearable, AI-embedded pins, is shutting down the devices it had sold and pawning off its software, patents and employees to Palo Alto tech giant HP Inc… Humane’s FAQ page says that buyers will only receive a refund if their pin shipped on or after Nov. 15. There is no trade-in plan, and no replacements are offered. Once the devices stop working, the company wrote, “We encourage you to recycle your Ai Pin through an e-waste recycling program.”
But the path to launch wasn’t quite so smooth as he made it sound. Before NotebookLM launched, staffers working on it in the company’s Google Labs experimental unit clashed with their counterparts at Workspace, which runs Google’s group of productivity apps such as Gmail and Docs, according to four people with knowledge of the situation. Workspace employees argued that the product would conflict with their plans for existing apps like Google Docs, the people said, and Workspace employees even tried to shut NotebookLM down, according to one of the people. In the end, leaders of both teams stuck with NotebookLM, and it launched as a stand-alone website, although it has since been added as a service in Workspace. Since its release, three members of the small team that built NotebookLM have left Google to launch a startup together.
Functionally, YouTube may not be the new television so much as its next evolution. Formally, they’re converging. Even though digital-native influencers like YouTube talent (and TikTok talent, for that matter) have struggled to break into Hollywood despite huge numbers of fans, the ethos of the platform – the incentive structure of more eyeballs, the ring light glare, the maximalist aesthetic for maximum viewership – dovetails with evolving Hollywood logic. As one MrBeast director told Time: “These algorithms are poisonous to humanity. They prioritize addictive, isolated experiences over ethical social design, all just for ads. It’s not MrBeast I have a problem with. It’s platforms which encourage someone like me to study a retention graph so I can make the next video more addicting.” In other words, value-neutral entertainment over art. Content as a means to an end.
“What the Woke Right fundamentally don’t understand as they make their bid for power now, and why they’ll lose,” Lindsay wrote last week on X, “is that none of us want more ideological crazy stuff. We don’t want another freaking movement. We want to go back to our lives.” The obligation to call people aliens or unlearn the name of a body of water appears every bit as petty as the prohibition on describing boring things as “lame.” More than that, it amounts to a politics of brute domination, a forced and demoralizing expression of subservience that only a genuine fanatic could abide.
Psychologists define meaning as the feeling that one’s life is significant, coherent, and purposeful, says Constantine Sedikides, a psychologist at the University of Southampton, in the U.K. And many times, our actions during a challenging time meet this definition—they are significant, coherent, and purposeful. Turning points in our lives usually provide fodder for nostalgia—and they are rarely drama-free… The memories of relationships forged during periods of hardship can cast even extreme experiences in a positive light. In his book Tribe, Sebastian Junger describes a cab driver in Sarajevo speaking proudly of his experience during the country’s recent war, when “he’d been in a special unit that slipped through the enemy lines to help other besieged enclaves.” The war, though horrific, had created “a social bond that many people sorely miss,” Junger writes. “Disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations.”
A phrase that Michaels uses often is “the high end of smart,” and he likes to say, “If I’m the smartest person in the room, I’m in the wrong room.” But he harbors no illusions that his cultivated nonchalance is taken at face value. One talent agent routinely tells clients auditioning for Michaels to remember that he is the real star of the show. He is the alpha in most of his employees’ lives. To those people, and to the wider comedy world, he is a mysterious object of obsession. Conversations about him are peppered with comparisons: he is Obi-Wan Kenobi (Tracy Morgan), the Great and Powerful Oz (David Spade, Kate McKinnon), Charles Foster Kane (Jason Sudeikis), a cult leader (Victoria Jackson), Tom Ripley (Bill Hader). “There’s so many people who, their whole lives, have been trying to figure him out,” Hader told me.
Sister Mary Thomas noted that the condemned women don’t get to keep the harvest. The fruits and vegetables—three hundred pounds last year—serve the prison. What moved the sister was that the inmates continue to do the work, regardless of who benefits. “That’s part of the abandonment,” she said. “You can choose to abandon yourself in an unjust situation. Because the act itself is a beautiful act, they let go of the injustice and continue doing it.” The prisoners were exuberant that morning, dancing among the rows as they showed off the bounty to the nuns. Birdsong filled the air, along with the crack of gunshots from the practice range, as the condemned women waited for the State of Texas to kill them, one by one.
"It's impressive how dependent we've become on these devices," says Kate Bubacz, head of visuals for Rest of World. "It's easy in everyday-to-day life not to notice it." The images from the contest are a reflection of these changes, which are simultaneously promising and threatening
Rest of World’s Second Place Prize (Photographer: Saumya Khandelwal, India)
Rest of World’s First Place Prize (Credit: Grace Yoon, USA)
Lorne Michaels' 50 years of staying relevant in comedy is such a great feat. That’s harder than staying married in Hollywood. Also, that "If I’m the smartest guy in the room, I’m in the wrong room” mindset is why SNL alumni are everywhere, while other shows fade into trivia questions. Great piece, Tom.
Lorne Michaels' 50 years of staying relevant in comedy is such a great feat. That’s harder than staying married in Hollywood. Also, that "If I’m the smartest guy in the room, I’m in the wrong room” mindset is why SNL alumni are everywhere, while other shows fade into trivia questions. Great piece, Tom.