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  • GOLDEN RETRIEVER OFFERS TOYS TO THE BURGLAR! | Nash fails guard-dog school while San Diego owners watch the break-in from 30,000 feet

    GOLDEN RETRIEVER OFFERS TOYS TO THE BURGLAR! | Nash fails guard-dog school while San Diego owners watch the break-in from 30,000 feet

    A San Diego couple watched from an airplane as a burglar climbed into their Sherman Heights home — and their 4-year-old golden retriever, Nash, repeatedly brought the intruder toys to play with, City News Service reported via KESQ and Patch, citing NBC 7 San Diego and the Los Angeles Times.

    Dante Rowley and his fiancée Stephanie Calderon opened their Ring app as their flight took off and saw a ladder propped against a slightly open second-story window. The suspect, John Cline, 57, climbed inside, removed his shirt and shoes, ate yogurt, turkey, and cheese from the fridge, and took a nap — while Nash kept offering different toys. “Nash is not the greatest guard dog,” Rowley told NBC 7. “We thought that he was going to be barking at people, and he did the exact opposite.”

    From the plane, Rowley texted San Diego police and granted live camera access. Officers arrived within minutes, used a drone inside, and arrested Cline on suspicion of first-degree burglary. Nash greeted the cops with a toy, too. Rowley told the Los Angeles Times nothing was stolen and the home was largely undamaged beyond some fridge food and a broken outdoor flowerpot during the escape attempt.

    Sources: KESQ (City News Service); San Diego Patch; NBC News

  • CHATGPT CO-INVENTOR BUILDS AN AI THAT WON’T YAP! | TypeSafe’s Jev spits probabilities, not paragraphs — and developers are flooding the API

    CHATGPT CO-INVENTOR BUILDS AN AI THAT WON’T YAP! | TypeSafe’s Jev spits probabilities, not paragraphs — and developers are flooding the API

    TypeSafe AI — founded by former OpenAI researcher Diogo Almeida, who helped invent reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) — this week released Jev, a transformer-based model that is not a large language model, TechCrunch reported Friday. Instead of outputting text, Jev produces calibrated probabilities, or what the company calls “calibrated decisions.”

    Because users define outputs in advance, the company says Jev cannot hallucinate; it is also cheap and fast, with free output tokens and input tokens metered by the billion. Demand briefly overwhelmed the API. Vercel engineer Pranit Sharma said replacing OpenAI’s ChatGPT Luna 5.6 classifier with Jev for safety review of commands delivered results 5 to 18 times faster with greater accuracy. Bryo AI CTO Nikhil Mudholkar found Gemini slightly more accurate on email classification but 10 to 20 times more expensive, and prized Jev’s real probability scores for automation.

    Almeida left OpenAI after concluding language optimization was a poor fit for software automation. Jev is trained only on synthetic data via “reinforcement learning from calibrated decisions,” and the company positions it for workflow automation, agent jailbreak monitoring, and model routing — not as a frontier lab chasing AGI hype.

    Sources: TechCrunch

  • BUFFETT QUITS THE CHAIR — SON HOWARD TAKES THE GAVEL! | Father Time wins at Berkshire as the Oracle becomes chairman emeritus at 96

    BUFFETT QUITS THE CHAIR — SON HOWARD TAKES THE GAVEL! | Father Time wins at Berkshire as the Oracle becomes chairman emeritus at 96

    Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway after more than 60 years guiding the conglomerate, Berkshire said in a statement Friday, NBC News reported. Buffett was named chairman emeritus effective immediately, with his son Howard G. Buffett taking over as chairman.

    “As Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Buffett will remain a member of the Board of Directors and will continue to offer his valued judgment and perspective,” Berkshire said. The move comes just eight months after Buffett stepped down as CEO and was replaced by longtime lieutenant Greg Abel — at which point the company had said Buffett planned to keep the chairman title.

    “Father Time always wins,” Buffett, now 96, wrote Friday in a letter to shareholders. “He has, however, been generous with me.” He noted he has “served Berkshire since 1965” and became chairman in 1970. Even recently he remained an active investor: in July he told CNBC Berkshire had initiated an Alphabet stake now worth more than $27 billion — Berkshire’s fifth-largest holding — while Apple remains its largest, worth almost $80 billion as of Thursday.

    Sources: NBC News

  • SCIENTISTS NAME A BRAND-NEW WILD CAT — FIRST IN OVER A CENTURY! | Meet Leopardus tilcayo, a 3-pound cloud-forest tiger cat hiding in Bolivia’s Yungas

    SCIENTISTS NAME A BRAND-NEW WILD CAT — FIRST IN OVER A CENTURY! | Meet Leopardus tilcayo, a 3-pound cloud-forest tiger cat hiding in Bolivia’s Yungas

    A diminutive wild cat from Bolivia’s Yungas cloud forest has been formally named a new living species — the first time scientists have done that for a cat in more than a century — Reuters and The Hindu reported, citing a study published Thursday in Current Biology.

    Called tilcayo by local communities and given the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, the animal is part of the South American tiger-cat group. It measures about 18 inches (46 cm) long and weighs around 3 pounds (1.4 kg), smaller than a typical house cat, with light-brown fur and irregular rosettes. National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz and colleagues used genetic data from 38 cats across several countries, including museum specimens, and found tiger cats are five genetically distinct species — not one. Genetic analysis suggests the tilcayo lineage split from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago. The team also described a new Peruvian subspecies, Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo.

    Little is known about the cat’s lifestyle; rodent remains in scat and camera traps hint at a nocturnal diet. One live individual is a 10-year-old male at Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary after living with a local family. IUCN currently lists tiger cats as two vulnerable species; researchers say an upcoming review of the five lineages separately could find tilcayo endangered on its own as Yungas forests face deforestation, fire, agriculture, and mining.

    Sources: Reuters; The Hindu (Reuters); Al Jazeera; Current Biology

  • ANTHROPIC BUILDS A REAL BIOLOGY LAB — CLAUDE WANTS A ROBOT ARM! | Bay Area wet lab confirmed as the AI firm pushes rare-disease drug science beyond the simulation

    ANTHROPIC BUILDS A REAL BIOLOGY LAB — CLAUDE WANTS A ROBOT ARM! | Bay Area wet lab confirmed as the AI firm pushes rare-disease drug science beyond the simulation

    Anthropic has quietly set up a Bay Area wet lab for physical biology experiments as it expands its artificial-intelligence push into drug science, Reuters reported Friday in an exclusive, citing two people familiar with the matter and a confirmation from the company’s head of life sciences.

    Eric Kauderer-Abrams told Reuters the final test in biology “is still and will be for a while in real lab work,” and described Anthropic’s approach as typical of biotech — some work in its own facilities, some with external partners. A spokesperson later clarified the lab is not for drug discovery specifically. Sources said Anthropic wants Claude to direct robotic units through lab experiments with limited human intervention, while the company stresses human oversight remains essential for safety.

    The effort sits beside Anthropic’s stated aim to unlock treatments for rare and “undruggable” conditions the traditional industry may skip financially — including complex antibody designs — while stopping short of running clinical trials so it is not competing head-on with pharma customers. Life sciences is already one of its biggest investment areas by headcount; the firm launched Claude Science software, added Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board, and acquired Coefficient Bio to help build drug-development tools. The lab build arrives as Anthropic researchers warn about catastrophic AI risk and the company prepares f

  • PUTIN’S WAR VOTE OPENS — AS 350 UKRAINIAN DRONES HIT MOSCOW! | First State Duma ballot since the invasion, under a sky full of Kyiv’s answer

    PUTIN’S WAR VOTE OPENS — AS 350 UKRAINIAN DRONES HIT MOSCOW! | First State Duma ballot since the invasion, under a sky full of Kyiv’s answer

    Russians began voting Friday in a three-day parliamentary election for the 450-seat State Duma — the first since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — as Ukraine launched a massive drone barrage on the Russian capital and other regions, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported, citing AP and Reuters.

    President Vladimir Putin framed the tightly controlled vote as a barometer of support for the war. In a televised address he said casting a ballot would show that “millions of people stand behind our soldiers.” United Russia is widely expected to keep dominance; most anti-war candidates were barred, and the liberal Yabloko party — which wants a ceasefire — was ruled off the party list last month by the Supreme Court. Senior Yabloko figures have drawn long jail terms for war-related comments. Voting spans Russia’s 11 time zones through Sunday evening GMT, including balloting Moscow has organized in occupied parts of Ukraine.

    Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 350 Ukrainian drones targeted the capital Friday morning; most were destroyed at an outer defensive perimeter, with 64 shot down approaching the city. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces also hit the Yaroslavl oil refinery overnight and damaged aircraft at a Rostov military airfield. Russia reported strikes on a Nova Poshta logistics hub near Odesa and a cargo vessel at Chornomorsk, and a Russian drone attack injured five people, including three children, in the Kyiv region, officials said.

    Sources: Reuters; Al Jazeera (AP/Reuters)

  • THIS DOLPHIN CHASES FISH UNTIL THEY BARF — THEN EATS THE BARF! | Scientists say Bubbles invented a never-before-documented Great Barrier Reef hustle

    THIS DOLPHIN CHASES FISH UNTIL THEY BARF — THEN EATS THE BARF! | Scientists say Bubbles invented a never-before-documented Great Barrier Reef hustle

    A bottlenose dolphin nicknamed Bubbles at Australia’s Lady Elliot Island has been filmed chasing bigeye trevally until they vomit — then eating the regurgitated prey — in what researchers say is the first formal documentation of the behavior in dolphins, Discover Wildlife reported Thursday, citing a paper in Ecology and Evolution.

    PhD candidate Romney Edwards-Francis of the University of the Sunshine Coast caught the behavior while snorkeling for the Leaf to Reef Project after reef guide Pieter Demmers and marine biologist Jacinta Shackleton tipped her off. Shackleton has watched Bubbles do it repeatedly: chase the fish, wait for the spew, scarf it down, then click as if bragging. The paper logs 20 foraging records from June 2021 to October 2025; 11 ended with Bubbles eating the fish’s regurgitated meal.

    Scientists call it kleptoparasitism — stealing food from another animal. Frigatebirds pull a similar airborne stunt on noddies. The team figures forcing a reliable trevally school to surrender lunch is easier than hunting live prey on lean days. Whether other dolphins do the same remains unknown; underwater observations this specific are rare.

    Sources: Discover Wildlife; Ecology and Evolution (study)

  • SPACEX WANTS YOUR DEAD STARTUP’S DATA TO FEED ITS AI! | Informal talks on buying customer records from failed firms — same playbook as Google’s Spirit bid

    SPACEX WANTS YOUR DEAD STARTUP’S DATA TO FEED ITS AI! | Informal talks on buying customer records from failed firms — same playbook as Google’s Spirit bid

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX has held informal internal discussions about buying customer and operational information from troubled or defunct startups to train its artificial intelligence models more cheaply, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The talks are inside SpaceXAI — the company’s AI unit, formerly known as xAI — and may never produce a deal. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. The approach would echo Google’s reported bid to purchase business data from Spirit Airlines for AI training after the carrier wound down operations — a $10 million offer that drew privacy pushback from former employees.

    SpaceXAI has largely trained Grok on posts from social network X and on in-house “AI tutors.” Turning to outside customer databases would mark a shift as the firm races Anthropic and OpenAI for enterprise customers. Musk recently told SpaceX staff that Grok would also be trained on “the sum total of all SpaceX information,” including employees. Hiring for AI tutors was paused earlier this year; Starlink veteran Jack Garabedian now leads the data team after a leadership swap.

    Sources: Bloomberg; The Straits Times

  • SEC UNLOCKS TOKENIZED U.S. STOCKS — WALL STREET MEETS THE BLOCKCHAIN! | Five-year “Innovation Exemption” opens 24/7 share tokens — if companies don’t veto

    SEC UNLOCKS TOKENIZED U.S. STOCKS — WALL STREET MEETS THE BLOCKCHAIN! | Five-year “Innovation Exemption” opens 24/7 share tokens — if companies don’t veto

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday unveiled a five-year “Innovation Exemption” that lets trading platforms offer blockchain-based, or “tokenized,” versions of publicly traded U.S. stocks and other securities — a major step toward folding digital assets into traditional markets, Reuters and CNBC reported.

    Platforms that facilitate tokenized-stock trading get temporary relief from many of the rules that apply to exchanges like the Nasdaq and NYSE. Liquidity providers get a parallel five-year break from dealer registration. The SEC said the exemption is needed because platforms may otherwise face “substantial challenges” complying with federal securities laws without burdensome business-model changes.

    Key guardrails: stock tokens must give holders the same rights as traditional shares — including dividends and voting — and platforms must notify issuers and wait 30 days. If a company objects, the venue cannot list that tokenized stock. “Synthetic” tokens that only mimic stock exposure via derivatives are barred. SEC Chair Paul Atkins called the move a way to let responsible innovation take root while protecting investors. Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken and others already offer tokenized stocks overseas; the U.S. path opens after the Senate failed days earlier to advance Trump-backed crypto market-structure legislation known as the Clarity Act.

    Sources: Reuters; CNBC

  • TRUMP CALLS CANADA–EU HOOKUP “LAUGHABLE” — THEN THREATENS EUROPE WITH TARIFFS! | Carney welcomes “associate member” talk and says nobody dictates Canada’s friends

    TRUMP CALLS CANADA–EU HOOKUP “LAUGHABLE” — THEN THREATENS EUROPE WITH TARIFFS! | Carney welcomes “associate member” talk and says nobody dictates Canada’s friends

    U.S. President Donald Trump threatened “very serious tariffs” — or even stopping trade with Europe on many goods — if the European Union moves ahead with making Canada its first “associate member,” calling the idea “laughable,” Reuters and the BBC reported Thursday.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she wanted to work on “opening the door” for Canadian associate status, with closer ties on manufacturing, energy, and other sectors. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, welcomed that ambition, said Canada is not seeking full EU membership, and framed a deeper alliance as a response to a “geopolitical rupture” in which tariffs and financial tools are used for pressure. He told reporters afterward that nobody will dictate Canada’s language, culture, or whom it can strike agreements with — and that a stronger Canada would be a more effective partner for the United States. A Montreal summit at the end of October is meant to drill down details.

    Trump, speaking en route to an event in North Carolina, said if he sees a “hostile act” or “bad intention,” he will hit Europe hard; if the intention is good, “that’s fine.” Canadian Conservatives have already flagged worries about EU rules on taxes, laws, and immigration, while an Abacus Data survey cited by the BBC found about 80% of Canadians support deeper strategic co-operation with the EU.

    Sources: Reuters; BBC