OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI.

On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision.

"Breakups are… tough."

It's the opening lines of an interlude toward the end of DOOMED! Called "It Happens in Every Universe." It's also basically the thesis of the entire record. It's no grand revelation, but it's a well-trodden subject that Open Mike Eagle manages to mine for artistic gold.

Eagle's subject matter is usually personal, and his productions tinged with nostalgia. But DOOMED! is his most intimate album yet. A lot of that is due to the production from Kenny Segal. The two have traveled in the same orbit and worked together before, but this is the first full-length album release from the two.

These are some of Segal's most co …

Read the full story at The Verge.

On Friday, Amazon customers received an email alerting them to an update to the site's terms and conditions. Most notably, it stated that disputes would now be resolved through arbitration and said users agree to a class action waiver.

Amazon framed this as a "fast and efficient" way to resolve issues, but it notably would prevent customers from seeking the involvement of a judge or jury in most circumstances. Customers can still take Amazon to small claims court in certain circumstances, though payouts are often limited to a few thousand dollars.

The relevant sections of Amazon's legal policies page now read:

YOU AND WE AGREE THAT ANY …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Andrew Egger and Catherine Rampell discuss Sen. Bill Cassidy’s criticism of vaccine policy after his vote to confirm RFK Jr., questions surrounding Mitch McConnell’s prolonged absence, growing support for price controls in the GOP, the political fallout from Trump’s tariffs, and the Navy’s potential multibillion-dollar warship redesign to suit the president’s aesthetic preferences.

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The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East visited the USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday as the aircraft carrier’s exhausted crew nears the end of a nearly nine-month deployment marked by reports of deteriorating living conditions and mental health concerns.

Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, spent several hours aboard the Lincoln meeting with sailors and Marines during a 10-day tour of the region. It was the only ship Cooper visited during the trip.

The visit comes as scrutiny grows over conditions aboard the carrier, which left San Diego in November and has now been deployed for more than 260 days. The Lincoln has gone more than 200 days without a port call while supporting U.S. operations in the war with Iran.

Families have reported food shortages, problems with drinking water, broken showers and laundry facilities and growing psychological strain among the roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard. Reports of sailors attempting to go overboard have further raised concerns about the crew’s mental health. The Navy has acknowledged mental health cases but disputed reports that the ship is experiencing a broader crisis.

The administration has largely dismissed the criticism.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said reports about conditions aboard the Lincoln have been misrepresented. President Donald Trump went further Friday, telling reporters that the carrier’s record-setting stretch at sea was “not nearly long enough.”

Families of deployed sailors have pushed back, accusing Trump and Hegseth of dismissing what their loved ones have experienced aboard the ship.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine Corps veteran, blamed the administration Sunday for what he called a “true lack of leadership.”

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC’s “This Week” that morale aboard the Lincoln has improved since sailors learned they will finally be coming home.

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Relief, however, comes with a strategic cost.

The USS George Washington, the Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, is being pulled from the western Pacific and sent toward the Middle East to replace the Lincoln. The move will temporarily leave the western Pacific without a U.S. aircraft carrier even as China increases military activity in the region.

The Lincoln’s return date has not yet been announced.

The post USS Lincoln sailors endured 260 days. Trump says that’s “not nearly long enough” appeared first on Salon.com.

For some artists, controversy could end up proving to be beneficial. With a devoted enough fanbase and talent, the bad publicity might not negatively affect them. However, for many, it can radically alter the trajectory of their lives. For Ryan Adams, it’s currently making him hit rock bottom.

In a since-deleted post on Instagram captured by The Sun and The Daily Beast, the North Carolina rocker announced that his European tour had to be cancelled. He shared that he was “wildly sick” and was even having to sell some of his most prized possessions due to being broke. Ultimately, Adams felt like he had simply run out of options, as life kept him in the gutter.

While he may not be going on tour any time soon, Ryan Adams did vow to continue making music for his fans. “I’m broke and sick and tired and defeated but my heart is blasting with hope and love and riff optimism,” he shared.

“I appreciate anybody who can give these treasured things a new life. I’m proud that I did this. That I remain transparent. This business is vile and full of snakes. But I’m proud to call it and man up to this. I’ll keep making records as long as I can afford to. Now I’m going to go sit in the sunlight with my cats and cry because I need to and I’m not sure how many more times I can hit this wall. When is it enough?”

Ryan Adams Cancels His European Tour Amidst a Sea of Controversy

Adams is best known for his debut album Heartbreaker in 2000. However, in 2019, several women, including indie rock darling Phoebe Bridgers and Adams’ ex-wife Mandy Moore, came forward with harassment allegations. In a report from the New York Times, they recalled how Ryan Adams offered to help artists with their careers before attempting to pursue them romantically.

When they would deny his advances, he allegedly retaliated, harassing them on social media and in personal texts. Moreover, they claimed he hindered their careers in a variety of different ways. Initially, Ryan Adams denied all of the claims before eventually pleading for forgiveness.

“There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I’ve mistreated people throughout my life and career. All I can say is that I’m sorry. It’s that simple,” the musician wrote in a statement. “This period of isolation and reflection made me realize that I needed to make significant changes in my life.”

(Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)

The post Controversial Rock Star Cancels Tour After Revealing He’s ‘Broke and Sick’ and Selling off Prized Possessions appeared first on VICE.

Attorney General Rob Bonta’s antitrust crusade is smothering the Golden State’s signature industry.

Eight new Fortnite Sprites are being added when Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 launches on August 20. The new Sprites were revealed in the official Fortnite Override trailer, including Sonic, Tails, Klombo, and several other fan-favorite characters. Here is every new Fortnite Sprite confirmed for next season so far.

All 8 New Fortnite Sprites Coming on August 20

Eight new Fortnite Sprites are coming to the game in the major August 20 update. The Sprites were revealed today in the official Fortnite Override trailer. So far, the new Chapter 7 Season 4 Sprites includes Sonic, Tails, Klombo and more.

There is even a new Sprite based on a Victory Crown, as well as several other fan-favorite Fortnite characters. For your convenience, here is the complete list of new Fortnite Sprites confirmed for Chapter 7 Season 4 so far:

Complete List of Fortnite Override Sprites Confirmed So Far

• Sonic Sprite – Lets you use Sonic’s Spin Dash and boosts your sprinting speed.
• Tails Sprite – Lets you hover through the air.
• Jazz Jackrabbit Sprite – Power TBA.
• Klombo Sprite – Power TBA.
• Bushranger Sprite – Power TBA.
• Killswitch Sprite – Power TBA.
• Victory Crown Sprite – Power TBA.
• Battle Pass Skin Sprite – Power TBA.

Fortnite Override Sprites First Look

As mentioned above, we still don’t know what most of the new Chapter 7 Season 4 Sprites actually do. Based on the preview we got of them in the trailer, however, we can determine that the Sonic Sprite lets you run fast, while the Tails Sprite allows you to hover through the air. And well, that’s kind of obvious.

Although their abilities haven’t been fully revealed yet, we do have our first look at what the new Fortnite Override Sprites look like.

Sonic Sprite

Tails Sprite

Jazz Jackrabbit Sprite

Klombo Sprite

Bushranger Sprite

Killswitch Sprite

Victory Crown Sprite

Battle Pass Skin Sprite

Epic Games will likely reveal the remaining Sprite abilities before Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 launches on August 20. Either way, Sonic’s Spin Dash and Tails’ hovering ability already show that Override Sprites will offer more unique powers than the ones currently available in the game.

The post 8 New Fortnite Sprites Revealed for Chapter 7 Season 4 appeared first on VICE.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., offered a blunt assessment Sunday of President Donald Trump‘s new childhood vaccine policy: It could mean more shots, more doctor’s visits, higher costs and more sick children.

“If it wasn’t so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing at a comment like that,” Cassidy, a physician and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Cassidy was responding to Trump’s assertion that “nothing bad can happen” from his administration’s plan to overhaul the childhood vaccination schedule.

Cassidy also warned that requiring families to return repeatedly increases the chance children will miss doses, leaving them — and others — vulnerable to preventable illnesses.

“If you’re pro-life, you should be pro-vaccine,” Cassidy said.

The Louisiana Republican pointed to a recent case involving a pregnant woman who contracted a vaccine-preventable illness after exposure to an unvaccinated person and subsequently lost her pregnancy. Cassidy noted that immunity can decline during pregnancy, making community vaccination particularly important for protecting pregnant women.

“That is being pro-life,” he said.

In addition, Cassidy argued that the changes could turn two MMR shots into six individual injections — while requiring additional trips to the doctor’s office.

Trump has called for separating the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into individual shots and spacing out childhood vaccinations across additional medical visits, despite opposition from major medical organizations.

“Instead of mom or dad missing work twice,” Cassidy said, parents could have to “miss work or take vacation or personal leave six times.” More office visits would also increase costs for insurers and potentially premiums, he argued.

“This is working backwards on affordability,” Cassidy said.

The physician also warned that requiring families to return repeatedly increases the chance children will miss doses, leaving them vulnerable to preventable illnesses.

Trump has called the combined MMR vaccine potentially “lethal” and compared administering multiple vaccines to a “nuclear weapon.” Tapper reminded Cassidy that the senator previously called for someone to challenge “crazy stupid things” that undermine confidence in immunization and asked whether Trump’s statements qualified.

“Yeah, that’s a crazy stupid thing,” Cassidy replied.

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Cassidy’s criticism carries additional political weight because he provided a crucial Republican vote to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic. Cassidy initially expressed concerns before supporting Kennedy after receiving assurances about vaccine policy, which he has since accused Kennedy of breaking.

Tapper pressed Cassidy on whether Kennedy’s history should have been warning enough.

Cassidy declined to revisit his vote, instead arguing that Trump’s policy will “decrease immunization rates” while being “less convenient and costing families more.”

The post Sen. Cassidy: “If you’re pro-life, you should be pro-vaccine” appeared first on Salon.com.

The BTS Army rides for their favorite artists unlike any other working in popular music today. K-Pop fans in general are deeply devoted to their favorite groups and singers, mobilizing to shut down any of their biggest critics. However, there’s a reason they’ve compared themselves to the military and not just some generic name for a fanbase. So you could imagine their disappointment when two members of the group met and took a picture with Chris Brown.

During one of the stops on his massive R&B tour with Usher, Brown shared a moment with J-Hope and Namjoon of BTS. Given the group’s stylistic influences, it makes sense that they might align with an R&B legend.

However, due to numerous allegations and run-ins with the law, fans were disturbed. They couldn’t envision their favorite artists aligning with someone who has a history of allegations involving domestic violence and sexual assault.

One fan highlighted the head of the group, Kim Namjoon, in particular. They expressed their frustrations about how the leader would make such a decision without thinking of their audience. “Honestly I expected better but most of all i’m very disappointed in Namjoon,” they wrote on X. “Like you’re their leader and supposed to set an example. But I’m also not shocked because his words and actions haven’t been matching lately.”

BTS Disappoints Fans Online After Taking Picture with Chris Brown

Additionally, another fan shrugged, arguing that this is why it’s impossible to “separate art from the artist.” “This is exactly why disgusting men keep thriving and getting away with crimes,” they tweeted. “’I have no moral compass. No ethics. Zero concern for victims. I want to make an atrocious man more rich and void of consequences.’”

While BTS fans may be particularly incensed that they’re taking pictures with Chris Brown, the R&B star has bigger visions. He and his manager are eyeballing one of the biggest stages an artist could perform: the Super Bowl. “I think it’s safe to say… they need me!” Brown exclaimed after Bad Bunny’s performance in February 2026.

Meanwhile, his manager Anthony “Ant” Wilson told Billboard that it’s an inevitability that he graces the stage. “I also think the Super Bowl would be a great place for him. I believe it will happen,” Wilson shared.

As for BTS, they may not abstain from taking pictures with Chris Brown. But they did withdraw themselves from the 2027 Grammys. The band cited the institution’s new category for ‘Best Asian Pop Performance’ as their primary reason. “We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” they told their fans. “We thank Army and everyone who has always stood by us.”

(Photo by Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images)

The post K-Pop Fans Outraged With BTS Members Who Attended Chris Brown Concert: ‘Honestly I Expected Better’ appeared first on VICE.

Epic Games has officially released the Fortnite Override trailer, revealing all of the gaming crossovers coming to the battle royale in Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4. Here is every collab confirmed so for the major August 20 update, including which characters are in the Battle Pass and which cosmetics are expected to be released in the Item Shop.

Fortnite Override Trailer Reveals Chapter 7 Season 4 Collabs

After months of anticipation, Epic Games has finally released the Fortnite Override trailer and key art, showcasing what players can expect from the next season. The promotional video confirms every major gaming crossover that will be featured in the August 20 update, including Sonic, Persona 5, Mega Man, and more.

However, Epic also finally confirmed that the long-rumored Kingdom Hearts Fortnite collab is real. In the official key art, we can see the Fortnite Sora skin and Keyblade pickaxe in action. The trailer also featured some additional surprises as well, such as Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon.

For your convenience, here is the complete list of every Fortnite Override collab confirmed for Chapter 7 Season 4, along with how each cosmetic can be obtained:

All Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 Collabs – Complete List

Collab	Character or Cosmetic	How to Get	Release Date
Sonic the Hedgehog	Sonic Skin	Battle Pass	August 20
Sonic the Hedgehog	Dr. Eggman Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Sonic the Hedgehog	Shadow Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Sonic the Hedgehog	Rush Sidekick	Item Shop	TBA
Sonic the Hedgehog	Tails Glider	Item Shop	TBA
Kingdom Hearts	Sora Skin + Keyblade Pickaxe	Item Shop	TBA
Mega Man	Mega Man Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Pac-Man	Sidekick	Item Shop	TBA
Persona 5	Joker Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Persona 5	Morgana (Backbling or Sidekick)	Item Shop	TBA
Spyro the Dragon	Spyro Sidekick	Item Shop	TBA
Crash Bandicoot	Crash Bandicoot Skin	Item Shop	TBA
99 Nights in the Forest	The Deer Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Tetris	Tetris Skin	Battle Pass	August 20
Screamer	Hiroshi Jackson Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Street Fighter	Returning Skins	Item Shop	TBA
The Witcher	Geralt Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Tomb Raider	Lara Croft Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Halo	Master Chief Skin	Item Shop	TBA
Honkai: Star Rail	Blade and Kafka Skins	Item Shop	TBA

The Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 Battle Pass will be available as soon as the Override update launches on August 20. However, the Item Shop skins are expected to be released gradually throughout the season, so players may have to wait a little longer for certain crossovers.

Epic Games should reveal additional details about each collaboration closer to its Item Shop release date. We will update this guide as soon as the prices, bundles, and complete cosmetic lineups are confirmed.

The post Fortnite Override Trailer Confirms All Chapter 7 Season 4 Collabs appeared first on VICE.

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Back in 2007, long before the MasterClass franchise was a thing, Jane Espenson, one of television’s most respected and imaginative writers, wrote an essay/tutorial for The New Republic that breaks down the embraceable genre formula she calls the Chosen One.

It’s a catchy idea that explains why figures like Peter Parker, Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter have a lasting hold on their fans in ways that other heroes don’t.

Although each occupies a distinctly separate universe, Espenson says they all fit the same pattern. “They’re living a life, sometimes a fine one, often a troubled one, but certainly one governed by ordinary rules, when suddenly the curtain is pulled back and a whole new world, or a new set of rules of this world, is revealed,” she said. “And what’s more — and this is the important part — in that new world, they are something special.”

Once I read that simple recipe, it changed the way I thought about every kind of genre fiction, including superhero tales like HBO’s “Lanterns.”

The Green Lanterns don’t neatly fit into the Chosen One mold, you see. And that may explain why they seem to be less popular than other DC heroes.

I can imagine diehard Green Lantern fans firing up their rebuttals as they read this. After all, the very nature of how Green Lanterns obtain their superhuman abilities involves cosmically empowered rings choosing their wearers. Once the selected become official members of the Green Lantern Corps, they can wield their rings to create astronomical constructs. The top members of the Lantern Corps are only limited by their imagination.

But mainstream culture’s best-known Green Lanterns aren’t orphans or troubled. Hal Jordan and John Stewart are both military men. John is also an architect. They aren’t living drab or depressing lives when the Guardians of the Universe activate them — they’re faring pretty well, all things considered.

Hal and John also stand apart from other test pilots, Marines and field experts in ways that make them not merely suitable choices for superheroic duty but worthy of it. This, I think, is the difference between Espenson’s Chosen Ones and heroes like the Green Lantern. Hal, John and the rest must work to be worthy of their power.

 

Worthiness is a tougher bar to clear than being chosen for greatness. The Chosen Ones Espenson cites are part of a destiny ordained either by their bloodline or some greater lineage. What makes a Chosen One common in their society marks them as extraordinary once they cross the threshold into the fantastic.  

And some heroes are Chosen at random. That radioactive spider that transformed Peter Parker into Spider-Man could have bitten the class moron just as easily. The tornado that transported Dorothy Gale from dusty Kansas to vibrant Oz might have swept up the village idiot instead.

The idea that anyone can suddenly be endowed with superhuman specialness simply by being in the right place at the right time is a little like daydreaming about winning the lottery. So it’s entirely understandable if most of us aren’t into the labor aspect of the Lanterns’ audition process.

If the box office is a fair, measurable indicator of how the public feels about these superhero archetypes, guess what? Espenson’s theory still holds: Chosen One stories still rule.

Looking at a BoxOfficeMojo.com ranking of all the Marvel feature films to date, the only solo act to appear twice in the “Avengers” dominated top five is Spider-Man, by way of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

Meanwhile, the introduction of the Worthiest of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in “Captain America: The First Avenger” ranks #52 on a very long list.

About that. Two caveats, and they’re big ones, have to do with the quality of certain heroes’ movie introductions and America’s longstanding genuflection before elites.

Mainstream culture’s relatively lower esteem for the Green Lantern is absolutely related to cartoonish interpretations of his power in live-action depictions. Comic book versions of the Green Lantern toss around the power of the cosmos. When Lantern Corps members unite their rings’ powers, they can move planets. That has never been adequately portrayed in theatrical features.

In animated renditions streaming on HBO Max, the Green Lantern fares much better. Avid “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” viewers recognize John Stewart as being held in equal esteem to the Big Three (i.e., Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman), especially in a crisis.

In the most recent “Superman” and 2011’s “Green Lantern” starring Ryan Reynolds, the way that Guy Gardner and Reynolds’ Hal Jordan toss around cartoonish CGI bubbles or massive green mallets falls short of conveying the Lantern Corps’ two-fisted punch of willpower and vision.

Also, not all heroes neatly fit into the Chosen vs. Worthy popularity equation. Superman, Wonder Woman and Thor were born to greatness. America’s most-loved fictional titans, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, have bottomless wealth to fund their vigilante adventures, making them especially mesmerizing to an audience raised on rags-to-riches fables.

To a man and woman, they made themselves Earth’s protectors because they have the means and muscle to take on the job. And once Stark Industries and Wayne Enterprises bankroll their respective super-squads’ fortified headquarters, they attract the universe’s talent. By their nature, Earth’s Green Lanterns are a natural fit to serve the Justice League’s governing inner circle. They’re also the only leaders who answer to other bosses. (Boo.)

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But what some perceive as a negative makes the Green Lantern legend appealing to others, especially those driven to ascend through ambition and hard work.

HBO’s “Lanterns” is the first series to explore how that idea unfurls in a society that functions like our own — that is, one in which all things aren’t equal, and superheroes have a reputation for doing as much harm as good.

Maybe “Lanterns” can inspire us with its portrayal of worthiness. But it may take more than one good show to turn the tide of the Green Lantern’s reputation. Much as we respect that with great power comes great responsibility, it’s a lot dreamier to imagine what we could do with all that might if it were simply handed to us.

“Lanterns” premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16 on HBO and HBO Max.

 

The post Here’s why we like some superheroes more than others appeared first on Salon.com.

When Asian people celebrate — birthdays, graduations, retirement, whatever — there’s likely to be a layer cake featuring fresh strawberries and light, fluffy whipped cream. Such cakes are stalwarts at Asian bakeries, which churn them out daily. But truth be told, the cakes are rather tasteless because they are mass produced with unripe, sturdy fruit. The whipped cream doesn’t taste like much and neither does the cake itself. I’ve been disappointed too many times by these perfect looking cakes. So I bake my own.

Gearing up for my mom’s 92nd birthday luncheon, I dreamt of baking her a pandan cake. My initial thoughts went to a favorite pandan chiffon cake recipe (🆓 on my website). It’s showstopper green and fragrant from the alluring vanilla-coconut flavor of pandan leaf (screwpine, lá dứa in Vietnamese). Baked in an angel food cake mold, pandan chiffon cake is casual. I needed easy-ish celebratory sparkle, a cake I could bake after a day of work and one that would hold up to an 8-hour roadtrip to my mom’s house. 💖

In the end, I tweaked Shilpa Uskokovic’s strawberry roll cake recipe in a recent issue of Bon Appetit. My creation was a pandan-strawberry cake filled with a coconutty whipped cream. We had twelve adults and two toddlers and when it came time for dessert, I presented the cake. Viola!

My sister Tasha gasped. “You made that?” she said. She’d eaten lots of strawberry and cream cakes with me when we lived near Monterey Park in the 1990s.

Everyone loved the cake, though Linh, my avid baker sister, said, “The cream is delicious but I’d like more cake.” I agreed. You didn’t taste enough pandan. Plus the cake was strangely salty. (Linh had baked a Sicilian orange cake for my mom so our cakes shared the plates.)

Driving home, I sketched out a new recipe for a thicker cake in my head. It took two more bakes before I arrived at the versatile recipe I’m sharing with you today.

Along the way, test cakes went to the neighbors. One neighbor shared a big piece with their grieving best friend who’d just lost her mother to a long battle with breast cancer. The friend ate the biggest piece, I was told.

As I aimed for a thicker cake, I realized that you can’t roll it because the cake cracks and breaks. You can’t see it in the cake on the left but there’s a fissure that kept getting bigger as the cake sat. The neighbors didn’t mind, though!

I tinkered with the batter again and the cake broke during rolling. What to do?

I patched up the cake and pivoted to building a rectangular layer cake. Rory said it looked much fancier than the roll cake. They’re the same cake! 😆 😆 I gifted cake #4 to a different neighbor, who’d just finished an arduous week on a construction project. He couldn’t believe I had baked it and as you see (in his text above), he was so happy.

What began as an Asian celebration cake turned out to be a happiness cake for everyone. Along the way, I made different flavored cakes — pandan, matcha, citrus, and vanilla. I also made two kinds of whipped cream: vanilla and coconut. And yes, I also crafted roll and layer cakes. There were so many wondrous possibilities.

For all those reasons, this is my Strawberry and Cream Dream Cake recipe!

Below you’ll find a versatile, useful package of information containing.

• The Pandan-Strawberry and Cream Cake recipe that you can make as a roll cake or as a layer cake (in full text and downloable PDF), with vanilla whipped cream or a coconutty whipped cream!

• Three (3) cake variations for Matcha-Strawberry and Cream Layer Cake, Citrusy Strawberry and Cream Layer Cake, and Vanilla-Strawberry and Cream Layer Cake

• Pointers for choosing flavorful berries, natural pandan shortcuts, and making fluffy, stable whipped cream that holds up for days

• A video tips for making billowy cake batter

• Make ahead timing tips so you won’t get cranky

I’m not a skilled cake baker but I mastered this one enough to impress my jaded family and neighbors. It took me a few tries to get here but you’ll make a knockout cake on your first time out because I’ve eliminated a lot of the vagaries.

Bring this dreamy strawberry and cream cake into your dessert rotation.

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Cory Weinberg, Jemima McEvoy, Jessica E. Lessin, and Stephanie Palazzolo, writing for the paywalled-without-gift-links The Information:

As Amodei has hopscotched the globe to preach about the potential and risks of AI — from New Delhi to Davos to Sun Valley — Clark has almost always been near his side. Several people who know the couple describe Clark as Amodei’s emotional ballast, someone he has sought counsel from during the turbulence of Anthropic’s growth and clashes with Washington over the future of AI.

Clark may well be the most consequential person within Anthropic’s orbit who doesn’t have a formal role at the startup. You might even call her the first lady of Anthropic. [...]

And before Female Algorithm Technologies, Clark tried her hand at building a pornographic film company, Eddice, that planned to make movies with high-production values and female protagonists. She also hoped it would have online shopping capabilities. In 2011, she tried to raise money for Eddice from Jeffrey Epstein, who’d pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution three years earlier, according to emails made public as part of the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice earlier this year. She emailed Epstein the script for the first of a series of films they hoped to make (title: “American Girl in Paris”).

“We thought you and the ladies might enjoy,” Clark wrote. She then appended a winking warning: “A little nsfw,” an acronym for “not safe for work.” Epstein didn’t invest.

While enormous attention has fallen on AI and the people behind the companies developing it, Clark has largely flown under the radar.

James Padolsey, on the Claude-text-watermarking-to-comply-with-an-EU-regulation imbroglio:

The same thought that led to this law could have applied to calculators at the time of their inception, had their outputs revealed themselves through artefacts. Thankfully, a sum borne of the brain is treated no differently from one produced by a calculator. Likewise with spellcheckers. To make assistance suspect only once the tool becomes capable enough to compose a whole sentence is not a principled boundary. It is a moral premium placed on difficulty itself.

Anthropic has nevertheless chosen a blanket, model-level implementation that appears broader than the law’s minimum requirement. That may be convenient compliance engineering, but it discards distinctions the law expressly attempted to preserve. The result is a signal broad enough to implicate harmless and assistive use, yet fragile enough to be removed by a motivated person through substantial recomposition. It risks concentrating suspicion on ordinary and assistive users while remaining weakest against deliberate deception.

Padolsey is the creator of Declaude, a delightfully simple web app that allows you to “Paste in AI-flavored text and get the same content back as plain prose”. Declaude’s original purpose is cleaning the cutesy Claude personality stink from text (whether it was created by Claude or any other LLM), but, if Anthropic persists in its stated plan to begin adulterating all text Claude generates, Declaude will also serve as a copy-paste single-extra-step way to eliminates those marks. Declaude is interesting and useful already, but goes to show how ill-considered this EU regulation is.

Padolsey also wrote and programmed a splendid interactive essay that explains and illustrated how the “watermarking” scheme Anthropic is adopting (and Google Gemini has already adopted) works.

The Wall Street Journal (gift link):

To help alleviate the supply crunch, Apple is looking to Chinese manufacturers.

“The Trump administration is not in favor of that,” Lutnick said in an interview after touring an Apple manufacturing facility in Houston. There have to be “other solutions to the memory issue, but it’s not great American companies using Chinese memory.”

Asked if he has relayed that message to Apple, Lutnick said “plainly.”

But:

U.S. government rules require American companies to secure a license before sharing product information with CXMT and YMTC. The Chinese chip makers would need such information if they were to make customized chips for Apple. But Apple is free to buy off-the-shelf parts from the companies, and to negotiate prices with them.

Apple’s chief operating officer, Sabih Khan, declined to confirm that Apple was testing Chinese memory chips in an interview Thursday. But he said that given the magnitude of the supply shortage, “we have to look at all options,” including working with existing suppliers to increase U.S. production.

Anwendung des Monats, was ist das? Nun, Sie haben einen Commodore 64 oder einen C 128 und versuchen diesen irgendwie sinnvoll einzusetzen. Unter einer sinnvollen Anwendung versteht die b4'er-Redaktion alles, was beispielsweise Programme im häuslichen Bereich bewirken. Es kann sich dabei um die Berechnung der Benzinkosten für Ihren Wagen handeln, um ein eigenes Textverarbeitungsprogramm gehen, sich um die Verwaltung Ihrer Tiefkühltruhe drehen oder ein...

XCancel:

XCancel is an instance of Nitter.

Nitter is a free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy and performance. The source is available on GitHub at https://github.com/zedeus/nitter [...]

Using an instance of Nitter (hosted on a VPS for example), you can browse Twitter without JavaScript while retaining your privacy. In addition to respecting your privacy, Nitter is on average around 15 times lighter than Twitter, and in most cases serves pages faster (eg. timelines load 2-4× faster).

I personally don’t care for Elon Musk’s X-rebranded Twitter. I also realize that some of you outright despise it, and, worse, that under Musk, they make it difficult to view content if you’re not signed into an account or if you have JavaScript disabled. So, sometimes, when I link to posts or threads on Twitter/X, I include a link to the same content at XCancel.

XCancel isn’t perfect, alas. Just this week I linked to a tweet from Google Design that contained an animation of an Android app that they were inexplicably proud to show off. The XCancel cache of that tweet only showed it as animated to some people. Others just saw a static image. I don’t know why. That’s XCancel’s problem, not mine.

Also, it’s tiresome and repetitive to include an extra link to XCancel every time I link to a tweet on Twitter/X. If you would prefer to view x.com links on xcancel.com, you should automate the redirection. If you use Safari, XCancel Redirect is a free extension that claims to do just what you think it does. (I haven’t tried it.) Or you can use a general-purpose redirect extension. RedirectWeb is a good one that I can recommend. Also, Jeff Johnson’s excellent StopTheMadness — an extension I rely on for multiple purposes and frequently recommend. With StopTheMadness, you can redirect all x.com URLs to xcancel.com with the following rules (you need the leading and trailing slashes in the pattern to tell STM that it’s a regex pattern, not a plain text string):

Pattern: /https?://(www[.])?x[.]com/
Replacement: https://xcancel.com
Enabled on platforms: All

I understand not wanting to visit Twitter/X. But if you feel that way, I do sympathize, but that’s your decision, and you should use tools to redirect Twitter/X links automatically. And if you’re wondering why I don’t just refuse to link to anything on Twitter/X, that just isn’t practical. I wish it weren’t so, but many people, including senior Apple executives, and many organizations post interesting content exclusively to Twitter/X. If something posted to Twitter/X is also available elsewhere, I link to the elsewhere version. But if it’s exclusively available on Twitter/X and interesting, I link to the original.

My linking to original content on Twitter/X does not perpetuate Twitter/X’s relative popularity. Original content appearing exclusively on Twitter/X does.

Belgium authorities were awaiting crucial air support Sunday to help battle the largest wildfire in the country’s modern history, which has been ablaze since Friday.

More than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel worked through the night in the High Fens nature reserve near the German border to stop the spread of the wildfire, which has scorched 3,000 hectares.

Firefighters said they are relying heavily on aircraft Sunday to bring the blaze under control, with reinforcements arriving from several European countries.

Belgian federal police helicopters and Dutch aircraft were already operating Sunday morning, repeatedly collecting water from a nearby lake. Additional helicopters from the Czech Republic and Sweden were expected to join later in the day after Belgium activated the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism. Germany and Norway could also provide aerial support, European Commissioner for preparedness and crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, told AFP.

“Thank you to our European partners for the assistance they are providing,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever wrote on X.

Europe has been battling wildfires throughout a summer marked by repeated heatwaves and drought, with blazes forcing thousands to evacuate in Croatia, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. Firefighters in France on Sunday continued battling several wildfires, including one that was nearing the Belgian border.

Belgium’s wildfires are tearing through fragile peatlands and pine forests in the High Fens, which were devastated by wildfires during a similar period of heat and drought in 1911. It is Belgium’s largest wildfire since then. No homes have been damaged so far, but residents of two villages have been evacuated and authorities say the fire remains out of control.