Author: admin

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marc Maron drops the 1,686th and final episode of his “WTF” podcast Monday.The show began with the comic and actor mainly interviewing stand-up comedians. Maron would go on to talk to legends of music and Hollywood, and a sitting president.Here’s a look at seven essential episodes from the 16-year history of the pioneering longform interview podcast.Robin Williams “WTF” episode No. 67, April 26, 2010Fairly famous names had come on Maron’s podcast from its 2009 debut, but Robin Williams, the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner and luminary of the stand-up stage, was a huge get just seven…

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday tweeted a video of his company’s first deployed massive AI system — or AI “factory” as Nvidia likes to call them. He promised this is the “first of many” such Nvidia AI factories that will be deployed across Microsoft Azure’s global data centers to run OpenAI workloads. Each system is a cluster of more than 4,600 Nvidia GB300 rack computers sporting the much-in-demand Blackwell Ultra GPU chip and connected via Nvidia’s super-fast networking tech called InfiniBand. (Besides AI chips, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also had the foresight to corner the market on InfiniBand when…

The U.S. government shutdown continues to negatively impact travel as it moves into its second week, with both Republicans and Democrats continuing to point fingers at one another across the aisle.Now, a new video from the Trump administration being aired at airports across the U.S. shows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the ongoing work stoppage that continues to impact travel, mainly flights, as a result of air traffic controllers and TSA officers being forced to work without pay. “Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted…

Super.money, a financial service platform spun off last year by Walmart-owned Flipkart, has quietly partnered with payments infrastructure firm Juspay as it expands into direct-to-consumer (D2C) checkout and targets $100 million in annual revenue by 2026. The partnership comes as Juspay works to rebuild momentum after facing pushback from major payment companies earlier this year — a dispute that complicated its fundraising efforts. Last week, Super.money launched its D2C checkout product, Super.money Breeze, which promises merchants a one-click checkout experience and aims to speed up online purchases by removing one-time passwords and repeated logins. The company did not disclose any…

NEW YORK (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama is putting new force behind efforts to ensure girls overcome educational barriers in some of the world’s most economically disadvantaged areas.The Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance pledged Saturday to rally $2.5 million for dozens of grassroots groups who advance adolescent girls’ education by covering school-related costs, challenging patriarchal practices such as child marriage, counseling survivors of sexual abuse and providing other forms of support.“These groups are changing the way girls see themselves in their own communities and in our world, helping create the leaders we need for the brighter future we…

In a development born of the government shutdown, the SEC announced Thursday that companies can proceed with IPOs using an obscure automatic approval process, now with the added bonus of skipping pricing information entirely. What’s happening is that with 90% of SEC staff furloughed, startups can file their paperwork and have it automatically become effective after 20 days. This option always existed; firms just rarely use it because they prefer having SEC reviewers actually look at their disclosures before going public. The difference here is that the SEC won’t penalize companies for omitting pricing or “price-dependent information” during the shutdown,…

POTSDAM, Germany (AP) — Wolfgang Bivour, a renowned fungi expert in Germany, leads mushroom hunting tours near Potsdam. This activity, once a necessity after World War II, is seeing a revival. The pandemic and a growing interest in veganism and medicinal fungi have fueled this trend. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. Wolfgang Bivour 75, center, a mushroom hunting tour leader, instructs mushroom pickers on how to hunt mushrooms in a forest in Potsdam, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) Wolfgang Bivour 75, center, a mushroom hunting tour leader, instructs mushroom pickers on how…

by Lacey Pfalz Last updated: 11:30 AM ET, Fri October 10, 2025 Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that air traffic controllers who call in sick during the government shutdown might lose their jobs, despite having to work unpaid.The comment was aired live on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.” on Thursday, October 9, in which he called air traffic controllers who called in sick during the shutdown “problem children” and said, “If we have some on our staff that aren’t dedicated, we’re going to let them go. Again, I can’t have people not showing up to work.”  Calling most air traffic…

Famed roboticist and iRobot founder Rodney Brooks has sounded the alarm on a humanoid robot investment bubble. He’s not the only one. In a recent essay, Brooks calls out the billions of venture dollars being poured into humanoid robot companies like Figure. His take: Despite the amount of money being injected into the industry, humanoids won’t be able to learn dexterity — or the fine motor movements with hands — rendering them essentially useless. His take might surprise some, especially those VCs investing in the sector. But not the multiple robotics-focused VCs and AI scientists who have told TechCrunch in…

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Walking along the broad pedestrian street that runs along the base of Athens’ famed Acropolis Hill, visitors can now enjoy something not seen in decades: an unobstructed, scaffolding-free view of the Parthenon temple.The scaffolding set up along the 5th century B.C. temple’s western façade for conservation work about 20 years ago has been removed, allowing an uncluttered view of the UNESCO World Heritage site.The western side of the Parthenon affords the best street-level view, so the removal from that side, which was completed in late September, has been the most noticeable for visitors. But Culture Minister…