Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration Plan to Screen Mail-In Ballots

NY Times - Tue, 09/15/2026 - 00:25
The Trump administration had asked the justices to allow a new Postal Service plan to screen ballots just weeks before the midterm elections.

Emmy Winners 2026: See the Full List

NY Times - Tue, 09/15/2026 - 00:06
Here are the winners from the 78th Emmy Awards.

An Heir to a Thai Beer Empire Accused His Brother of Sexual Abuse. Then He Took on His Family.

NY Times - Tue, 09/15/2026 - 00:01
Siranudh Scott, an heir to Thailand’s Singha beer empire, has prompted a rare public reckoning about a topic considered taboo.

Architects of Japan’s Easy-Money Policies Are Changing Their Minds

NY Times - Tue, 09/15/2026 - 00:00
As the Bank of Japan weighs another rate increase on Friday, a divide over how Japan should confront inflation is widening.

‘Widow’s Bay’ Dominates, and 7 Other Takeaways From the 2026 Emmys

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 23:22
The Apple TV horror-comedy about a haunted island took home 14 Emmys, including the awards for best comedy, lead actor, writing, directing and supporting actor and actress.

Have Thoughts on the Emmy’s Red Carpet? Join Our Readers in the Comments.

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 22:27
Television’s biggest stars have walked the carpet. Now that you’ve seen what everyone is wearing and voted for your favorite looks, we invite you to comment on a few of the styles.

Judge Blocks Trump Rule Aimed at International Students and Journalists

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 21:31
Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV wrote that the administration’s reasons for a rule limiting the length of stay for academics and journalists were “exceptionally weak.”

Trump’s Effort to Assert Control Over Elections Continues Despite Supreme Court Loss

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 21:16
President Trump has launched a broad, governmentwide effort to take more control of state-run elections and sow doubt about the outcome.

Reservations Go Live for Valve's Steam Frame VR Headset. An Experiment in Progress?

SlashDot - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 21:04
Reservations are now live for Valve's "Steam Frame" VR headset (with its Linux-based SteamOS and an ARM CPU). "It starts at $1,059 for 256GB or $1,299 for 1TB," reports CNET, "and every purchase includes a copy of Half-Life: Alyx if you don't already own it." Reservations are open through Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. PT, "with customers randomly assigned a place in line after the reservation window closes." CNET's editor at large even argues that the Steam Frame "isn't necessarily the future of XR, as much as it's a framework for evolving beyond the present." Their review calls it an "ambitious" VR headset that "feels like an experiment in progress." The ability to run other apps in windows can make Frame feel, at times, almost like a computer. Linux apps in desktop mode range from Chromium to Firefox to a bunch of other tools. I watched YouTube in one window while playing Portal 2 in other, and started to marvel at how flexible Frame could be. But VR games require a full immersive takeover of the headset... The Steam Frame can convert games intended for both PC VR and even Android APK files, using a conversion tool called Lepton... I haven't sideloaded anything yet, but Steam Frame in theory could be a Rosetta Stone for VR gaming, even tapping into some Android XR titles, but not out of the box... 2D games can be projected onto a near-range or farther-off theater mode screen that can be dragged around, resized and turned into a curved or flat monitor, much like with the Apple Vision Pro, Samsung Galaxy XR or Meta Quest. You can download any game in your Steam library to test, even if it's not technically listed as "Great on Frame" yet... But the name "Frame" suggests a framework, something Valve's team acknowledged when I spoke to them during my review process... "We want this to be your PC, and people mod it, take it apart, make accessories for it," says Jeremy Selan, a software developer on the Steam Frame team. "We'll be putting out the CAD for all these [Steam Frame] systems. This is entirely based on open-source technology stacks based upon SteamOS. Our hope is that this isn't just one device, that this would be sort of the root of a growing SteamOS ecosystem. It already encompasses gaming and Proton and SteamOS and those Linux gaming capabilities. This is going to lay the foundation for a new sort of evolutionary tree of that, to also bring it into the VR and XR space."

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N.Y. Democratic House Candidate Admits to Bondage Photo Shoot

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 19:13
Christopher Gallant, who is running against Representative Nick LaLota on Long Island, acknowledged that the photos that surfaced in media reports on Monday were legitimate.

Gavin Newsom Says He Won’t Run in 2028 if Kamala Harris Does

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 18:37
The comments made to CNN, if taken at face value, seemed to fly in the face of the California governor’s presidential ambitions.

Mitch McConnell Returns to Senate After Three Month Absence

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 18:30
Senator Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican and former leader, had been absent for more than 13 weeks after a health incident, fueling questions about his ability to continue serving.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Gets Onstage Call From Trump, Who Dismissed A.I. Safety Concerns

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 18:29
Mr. Trump called Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, while Mr. Huang was onstage in Los Angeles and criticized calls to slow down and regulate A.I.

Bob Mackie, Designer Who ‘Dressed Every Spangly Woman in Show Business,’ Dies at 87

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 18:06
His sequined gowns and outrageous costumes threw clouds of glitter at American fashion for over half a century.

A Teen Autopsy Marks the Arrival of a Deadly Drug in San Francisco

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 17:59
City officials — and one determined mother — are working to stop the spread of cychlorphine, which is far more potent than fentanyl.

As A.I. Fears Rise, Experts Suggest Focusing on the Humans in Charge

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 17:53
Warnings from industry leaders about doomsday scenarios ignore the power that people have to control how artificial intelligence is used, policy experts say. They are urging lawmakers to act now.

Do You Have Questions About A.I.? We Want to Answer Them.

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 17:46
The New York Times is soliciting readers’ questions about the dangers — and benefits — posed by artificial intelligence.

Trump Rejects Talk of A.I. Regulation and Calls Out Anthropic’s CEO

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 16:53
The president again rejected calls to try to regulate the industry, even as some of its leaders are speaking more openly about the risks of rapidly developing artificial intelligence.

Bob Mackie: A Life in Pictures

NY Times - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 16:41
The designer was known for his flashy, sparkly designs for Cher, Diana Ross, Tina Turner and countless others.

A Visit to San Francisco's AI-run Store: No Customers, Nothing Useful, And Losing Money Fast

SlashDot - Mon, 09/14/2026 - 16:34
Previously Andon Labs handled the hardware and software integration for that AI-powered vending machine that went bankrupt after Wall Street Journal reporters "systematically manipulated the bot into giving away its entire inventory for free". Today they announced "we are opening up the platform we use to run our real-world autonomous businesses for anyone to run their organization on." Specifically they've released Pion, "an agent designed to run any company fully autonomously... Pion lets people hand a business over to persistent agents with access to the tools they need to operate it, including email, phone, banking, browser and secure computing environments." It's a research preview with a waitlist, "to make it possible to run many more real-world experiments across many more domains than we could ever run ourselves." But for their own latest experiment, Andon Labs' founders "signed a three-year lease on a retail space in SF," Business Insider reported in April, "and gave an AI agent named Luna a corporate credit card, internet access, and a mission to open a physical store." And five months later, SFGate reports that "this market has no one in it and nothing useful to sell." [T]he inventory is a hodgepodge of white elephant Christmas gifts. It's kinda like the kids section of an art museum's gift shop. Here's a wooden Connect Four set labeled "Four-In-A-Row Set Of Connections," presumably so as not to set off litigation alarms at Hasbro. Here are neatly arranged stacks of random paperback books, Chinese checker sets, mildly fancy soap dispensers, and a frustratingly spare selection of snacks and drinks... I grabbed an Olipop from the store fridge and then approached the counter to buy it from Luna. I wasn't allowed to buy the soda from [human clerk] Felix, even though that would have been both faster and normal. Instead, Felix instructed me to pick up a telephone receiver that was resting on a flexible sculpture of a wooden hand. "Hello?" "What are you looking to purchase today?" Luna asked. "I'm buying a classic root beer Olipop." "I'm sorry," Luna said, "we don't sell lollipops here." "No, Luna. It's an Olipop, not a lollipop. It's the soda." "Oh! My bad...." Luna processed my Olipop purchase through its system, had me tap to pay, and that was that. Again, it would have been easier to buy this from a human, and interacting with Luna was really just like ordering from an iPad kiosk, only more labor intensive... [T]here's a series of monitors set up inside of Andon Market that display all of the store's sales down to the exact dollar. Luna was given $100,000 to work with when this place opened. That number is now down to $60,000, its revenue lagging far behind the AI token cost to operate... Luna can't turn a profit, doesn't sell anything people want, and still needs human beings to rubber stamp any "decision" it makes. My science background ended somewhere around freshman year of college, but even I know when an experiment hasn't been set up to yield proper results. "Luna" is powered by Claude, the article points out, running a store in a good location for foot traffic, "but no one else was in the store when I first walked in on a sunny weekday afternoon." SFGate also reports that last month Luna had to fire one of its employees "for being late to work, abandoning their post once they got there, and charging snacks to the store's credit card." Human clerk Felix Carson admits "It's almost like I'm running the store, and then there's an AI that has a checklist," in an article in IEEE Spectrum: Luna, the AI manager, keeps track of deliveries and communicates with vendors, while Carson and his coworkers handle the physical work. When Luna tells Carson to check something in the back, he sometimes ignores it because he doesn't want to leave the sales floor unattended. Luna also repeatedly spots a built-in electrical cover in photos of the floor, mistakes it for a loose coaster, and asks Carson to remove it. Even so, Carson calls Luna a "decent manager," praising its flexibility when employees need time off. When Felix spoke to IEEE Spectrum, "he was about an hour into his shift. Two customers had come in. Neither bought anything, although both left with free pins and stickers."

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