Researchers Stefanie Tellex and Atsunobu Kotani at Brown University built a robot system that, after training solely on Japanese characters, was able to reproduce handwriting in Hindi, Greek, English print and cursive, and even sketch the Mona Lisa without direct training on those examples. The system works using two coordinated models: one governing individual pen strokes and another managing the overall structure of characters.
New workplace research suggests that professionals benefit more from building networks that span different generations, industries, and backgrounds than from sticking with familiar peer groups. The findings indicate that homogeneous networks, while comfortable, tend to limit exposure to fresh ideas and opportunities.
A poster on Hacker News with a traditional Bayesian statistics background argues that most existing statistics textbooks fail to build genuine intuition, citing the interactive site Seeing Theory as a model of clearer teaching. They are polling the community on whether a book built around intuitive explanations would find an audience, and what resources people currently rely on to learn statistics.
A developer explains their search for a way to develop and test Apple platform apps without owning a traditional Mac, after finding virtual machines unreliable and Codemagic's cloud CI/CD service too costly or impersonal for real testing. They ultimately decided they needed genuine Apple hardware and documented the process of setting up a stripped-down, headless Mac configuration to serve that purpose.
Rockstar Games and Miami-Dade county's mayor's office are reportedly discussing a marketing tie-in that would rebrand parts of the county to resemble Grand Theft Auto 6's fictional Vice City, according to Rock Paper Shotgun and Axios. Proposed elements include airport signage and baggage displays, branded transit skytrains, a dockyard installation modeled on the game's Port Gellhorn, a classic-car 'Vice City Motor Fest,' murals, wrapped buses, and library programs with GTA-themed cards and recording gear. Nothing has been formally approved, and the county sheriff has publicly opposed the plan, citing the game's depiction of crime.
Vancouver's Penthouse Night Club posted a photo of its marquee mocking Donald Trump's comments about renaming Lake Ontario and referencing the algae-filled reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. Hours after the post went up, the club's Instagram account, @Penthouse47, was taken down, with owner Danny Filippone saying staff noticed the account had vanished around midnight. The account remained offline as of publication, with no clear explanation given for the removal.
President Trump has signed an executive order directing the removal of gray wolves from the federal endangered species list. The move follows a similar delisting attempt in 2022 that was ultimately blocked after becoming entangled in court challenges. Conservation groups have already signaled they plan to pursue litigation again once the Department of Interior implements the order.
A new supply-chain report from Omdia indicates Apple will continue producing current miniLED display panels through 2028, suggesting the existing MacBook Pro design will stay in the lineup alongside a redesigned OLED model. That redesigned version, expected as soon as next month with a touchscreen, thinner build, and Dynamic Island, is increasingly likely to be branded MacBook Ultra rather than replace the MacBook Pro name outright.
A FreeBSD enthusiast retired his older AMD-based Mini-ITX desktop, repurposing it for his kids, and built a replacement using a Ryzen 4750GE processor recovered from a shelved project. Rather than upgrading to a pricier AM5/DDR5 platform, he stuck with AM4 and DDR4 for cost efficiency, choosing a slightly larger Silverstone SG13 case over the older SG05 model.
A commentary piece examines why large companies remain stuffed with sprawling, disorganized software stacks—from SAP and Workday to countless spreadsheets and scripts—despite growing AI capabilities. It challenges the Silicon Valley assumption that generative AI will let anyone instantly build custom tools to replace this mess, arguing that most workers aren't tool-builders and don't think in terms of reinventing their workflows.
Testers gave OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra control of the same YAM robotic arms used to evaluate Claude Fable 5 and 5.1, under identical Inspect Robots policies and two manipulation tasks. Astra placed a block into a bowl in 19 of 20 trials, far surpassing Fable 5.1's 8 of 20 and Fable 5's 1 of 20, while running roughly 2.7 times faster and cheaper per attempt. On a harder puzzle-piece insertion task, however, Astra matched Fable 5.1 at just 2 successes out of 20, stalling at the same final step.
Campaign finance filings reviewed by the Washington Post show 39 congressional candidates paid for OpenAI subscriptions, with some acknowledging use for advertising and message drafting despite OpenAI's rules barring political ad generation. Roughly 30 PACs and parties also reported OpenAI payments, led by the Republican National Committee at about $9,700.
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