All posts tagged: focused

Thinking Machines open sources first multimodal language model, Inkling, focused on low cost and ‘resistance to censorship’

Thinking Machines open sources first multimodal language model, Inkling, focused on low cost and ‘resistance to censorship’

Published by skeptic

Enterprises looking to move more of their agentic AI workloads to open weights models they can customize, control and run on-premises or in virtual private clouds have a strong new contender to consider. Today, Thinking Machines—the highly capitalized American AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati—released Inkling, its first major language model under an enterprise-friendly Apache 2.0 open source license, and it boasts high, if sub state-of-the-art, performance for open weights models on third-party benchmarks, specifically software engineering (77.6% on SWE-bench Verified, where it beats fellow U.S. open rival Nvidia Nemotron 3’s 71.9%) and voice understanding (91.4% on VoiceBench compared to 94.4% for Gemini 3.1 Pro on high reasoning effort). Another differentiator: Thinking Machines notes that Inkling was designed “to answer directly on topics that may be subject to censorship,” offering enterprises concerned about factual outputs, irrespective of controversy or sensitivity, a more trustworthy option. Coming in at 975 billion total parameters, Inkling is a natively multimodal, open-weights Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) system capable of reasoning across text, images, and audio. The weights are already …

People Have Been Fermenting Food for Millennia. Here’s Why More People Are Focused on Gut Health Now

People Have Been Fermenting Food for Millennia. Here’s Why More People Are Focused on Gut Health Now

Published by Sam Flores

Now, a generation- and culture-spanning way of preserving food is in the spotlight: fermentation. The federal government’s latest dietary guidelines specifically encourage Americans to eat more fermented food. The foods have been further popularized by followers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. And while other diet fads championed by MAHA have been questioned by health experts — like unproven claims about raw milk and seed oils — there’s some science behind the benefits of eating fermented foods. Fermented foods go back thousands of years in human history, to the days when we needed to keep food from spoiling but didn’t have refrigerators. Many cultures have traditional fermented foods: yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, South Indian idli and dosa. Dietitians and doctors say they’re a great addition to almost anyone’s diet, but they warn against new, mass-produced products. Not all fermented foods are made equal Fermentation is a process by which naturally occurring microbes including bacteria and yeast break down and preserve food. The foods are a hot research topic, though many …

Great American State Fair spends a day focused on faith on National Mall

Great American State Fair spends a day focused on faith on National Mall

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A week into the 16-day Great American State Fair, gospel music could be heard in one section of the National Mall and rodeo calls on the other. Bible verses were recited from one stage while songs like “Macho Man” played on the speakers elsewhere. People grabbed fans from the Museum of the Bible exhibit table while others drank beer at a Budweiser bar. “Faith, Values, and Inspiration” was the theme for Wednesday (July 1) at the fair, a project of Freedom 250, an organization that partnered with the White House to present a number of events to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. The overall fair had a patriotic vibe with a gigantic Ferris wheel, a model of a triumphal arch and pavilions that included areas representing the country’s states and territories. A separate “Faith and Family” pavilion that is open throughout the fair included booths from ministries and organizations known for their focus on scripture, evangelism or conservative viewpoints. Volunteers at the Museum of the Bible exhibit passed out …

Professor known for ‘torture memos’ will advise conspiracy probe focused on perceived Trump foes

Professor known for ‘torture memos’ will advise conspiracy probe focused on perceived Trump foes

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON — A conservative law professor known for his expansive views of presidential power and for decades-old memos that justified harsh interrogation techniques after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks says he will be advising a team of prosecutors investigating whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Trump. John Yoo confirmed in an email to the Associated Press on Monday that he would be assisting Joe diGenova, the former Justice Department prosecutor who was assigned in April to investigate whether officials, who over the last decade scrutinized Trump, participated in a criminal conspiracy against the Republican president. “He’s a lawyer. He’s going to be helping us,” DiGenova said in a brief telephone interview about Yoo. He did not elaborate. A law professor at UC Berkeley, Yoo was a senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration who served as a lead author of the “torture memos” that government officials used to justify using “enhanced interrogation” techniques on potential terrorism suspects. The Justice Department later rescinded the memos. In the years since, he’s …

Ask Ethan: How do space telescopes stay focused?

Ask Ethan: How do space telescopes stay focused?

Published by Jenni Sidey

In the era of space telescopes, we’re now used to clear, sharp images where everything is focused pristinely: reaching the theoretical maximum that’s possible based on the wavelength of light that’s begin observed and the diameter of the telescope’s primary mirror. First with Hubble (once the flaw in its primary mirror was corrected) and later with space telescopes such as Spitzer, GALEX, Herschel, and now JWST, the lack of an atmosphere to contend with means that all we need to do is make our optical systems as optimized as possible in the vacuum of space, and we’ll get those ideal images. Of course, that involves: keeping that telescope stable, keeping it pointed correctly, and keeping it focused correctly, even as the telescope moves, rotates, and deals with external influences like radiation from the Sun. How, then, do telescopes and telescope operators accomplish this? That’s what Jim Wilson wants to know, as he writes in to ask: “How do space telescopes focus and stay focused? For example, on an object close by or an object far …

The Quibble Campaigners Focused On Life’s Little Frustrations

The Quibble Campaigners Focused On Life’s Little Frustrations

Published by Sam Flores

6 min read1 hr Most political campaigns try to bring about major change. Now, two political insiders are trying to make life better by focusing on the small things. Ben Gartside investigates Ever got cross trying to key in details to a parking app? Nettled by endless cookie approvals? Mildly piqued by that redundant phone box? Quibble is here to help. Most political campaigns promise sweeping change. This one aims to remove pebbles from shoes, oil squeaky hinges and stop the dripping taps that bedevil service delivery. Founded by human rights campaigner Jonathan de Leyser and civil servant Abigail Bradshaw, the self-styled ‘nuisance lobbyists’ have both learned the hard way that banking small wins is better than fruitless hunts for big change. “In Britain and in the international community, progress can be very, very slow, but I think part of the experience of that is that you look for low-hanging fruit where you can,” says de Leyser.  “You look for minor things: you’re not going to get regime change in North Korea, but …

James Gunn says Jimmy Olsen HBO series is also focused on DC villain

James Gunn says Jimmy Olsen HBO series is also focused on DC villain

Published by Daniella Wilson

James Gunn has clarified that the previously announced HBO Max Jimmy Olsen show will also focus on the icon DC villain Gorilla Grodd. The Superman spin-off series, which was first announced in November last year, will see Skyler Gisondo reprise his role as the Daily Planet reporter Olsen. And now, Gunn has confirmed that the Flash villain Gorilla Grodd will co-lead the series alongside Olsen, while also revealing that production is set to kick off “soon”. He wrote in a post on Threads: “It’s both a Jimmy Olsen AND a Gorilla Grodd show. And it’s one of my favourite projects. We start filming soon.” In a separate post on Instagram, Gunn revealed that this approach had always been the plan. Responding to a fan asking it it was true that the Olsen show had been turned into a Grodd show, he said: “It didn’t become anything. It is what it’s always been, including pitching it as part of the package before I even started at DC.” Want to see this content? This page contains content …

Democrats aren’t focused on Trump impeachment ‘at this moment’

Democrats aren’t focused on Trump impeachment ‘at this moment’

Published by Sam Flores

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Washington on June 2, 2026. CNBC House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that Democrats are not focused on impeaching President Donald Trump if they regain a majority next Congress, at least “at this moment.” Jeffries, at the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Washington, told CNBC’s Emily Wilkins that Democrats will continue to hammer home affordability as they hope to flip the House in November’s midterm elections. Jeffries said the Trump administration has been “completely and totally out of control,” but was noncommittal when asked about the prospect of starting impeachment proceedings next year. “We haven’t ruled anything in; we haven’t ruled anything out,” the New York Democrat said. Read more CNBC politics coverage Trump, who was impeached twice in his first term, has repeatedly warned that Democrats would impeach him if they retake the House. But for Democrats, impeachment could be an exercise in futility if they don’t also win a healthy majority in the Senate, where Republicans are expected to …

I Started Making Tiny Crafts To Cope With Stress. After A Few Weeks, I Felt More Focused And Pain-Free Than I Had In Years.

I Started Making Tiny Crafts To Cope With Stress. After A Few Weeks, I Felt More Focused And Pain-Free Than I Had In Years.

Published by Jenni Sidey

Two summers ago, my living room was invaded by tiny furniture. Sofas and chairs crowded the mantel; desks and cabinets paraded across the bookshelves and windowsills. By the end of August, I had made enough furniture to fill a village’s worth of small houses. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had just started to heal myself after a life-altering traumatic brain injury (TBI) and accompanying PTSD. It turns out that in the midst of both Covid and the opioid crisis, with anxiety at an all-time high and medicine hard to come by, not to mention social isolation, getting creative with crafts is the best thing you can do for body and brain: In 2025, Better Homes and Gardens even announced that mini crafts were the hobby of the season.  I started making tiny crafts to cope with stress Photo from Author A surprising discovery about tiny crafts For me, it all began when my neighbor’s dog attacked and knocked me to the ground. My head hit a concrete step, and that was …