(The Verge) Jan. 9, 2026: LAS VEGAS, Nevada - The "Consumer Electronics Show," or CES (or the "NvidiaCorporation Show" because everything is full of A.I.), is the biggest and buzziest tech event of the year. It's all AI everywhere. And it just wrapped up. From laptops and AI robot pets to LED masks and trifold phones and (yes) lots of robots. The Verge staff saw everything in between. Here are their top picks from CES 2026. #CES #CES2026
0:00 Intro
0:21 Victoria Song, best health
1:58 Victoria Song, best wearable
3:38 Antonio G. Di Benedetto, best laptop
4:43 Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, best smart home
5:57 Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, best robot
6:54 Allison Johnson, best smart phone
8:10 John Higgins, best TV
9:39 John Higgins, best audio
11:09 Andrew J. Hawkins, best in auto
12:39 Owen Grove, most fun
13:55 Dominic Preston, most irrationally loved
14:43 Sean Hollister, best in show
ABOUT: The Verge’s sponsors play an important role in funding this "journalism" but do not influence editorial content. For more information about ethics policy, visit: theverge.com/ethics-state...
BRISTOL (CNA): [There are] killer robots, slaughterbots, or Terminators -- official name LAWs or "lethal autonomous weapons" -- from films and books. And the idea of super-intelligent weapons running rampant is still [considered] science fiction. But as artificial intelligence (AI) weapons become increasingly sophisticated, public concern is growing over fears about lack of accountability and the risk of technical failure. [They have already been tested in Venezuela, according to a release by Press Sec'y Karoline Leavitt.] Already we have seen how so-called "neutral" AI have made sexist algorithms and inept content moderation systems, largely because their creators did not understand the technology. But in war, these kinds of misunderstandings could kill civilians or wreck negotiations. For example, a target recognition algorithm could be trained to identify tanks from satellite imagery, but what if all of the images used to train the system featured soldiers in formation around the tank? It might mistake a civilian vehicle passing through a military blockade for a target. More: channelnewsasia.com
Peter Andreas Thiel (born Oct. 11, 1967) is a gay German American [1][2][3][4] billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist [5][6][7], who hand selected the vice president.
A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook [8][9]. According to Forbes, as of May 2025, Thiel's estimated net worth stood at US$20.8 billion, making him the 103rd-richest individual in the world [10].
Thiel has been described as "perhaps America's leading public intellectual today" [11] or "intellectual architect of Silicon Valley's contemporary ethos" [12]. Others debate the consistency or morality of his views [13][N 1][15][16].
Born in Germany, Thiel was taken to the U.S. by his parents when he was one year old. In 1971, his family moved to South Africa then South West Africa [17], before moving back to the U.S. in 197 [17].
After graduating from Stanford, he worked as a clerk, a securities lawyer, a speechwriter, and subsequently a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996 and co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998.
He was the chief executive officer of PayPal until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Following PayPal, Thiel founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco [18].
In 2003, he launched Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, and has been its chairman since its inception. In 2005, Thiel launched Founders Fund with PayPal partners Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Thiel became Facebook's first outside investor when he acquired a 10.2% stake in the company for $500,000 in August 2004.
He co-founded Valar Ventures in 2010, founded Thiel Capital in 2011, co-founded Mithril Capital in 2012, was investment committee chair, in 2012, and was a part-time partner at Y Combinator from 2015 to 2017 [19][20][21][22].
He was granted New Zealand citizenship in 2011, which later became controversial in New Zealand.
Variously described as a conservative libertarian and democracy-skeptic authoritarian, Thiel has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes.
Through the Thiel Foundation, Thiel governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship. In 2016, when the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit ended up with Gawker losing the case, Thiel confirmed that he had funded Hulk Hogan. Gawker had previously outed Thiel as gay. More
China’s electric cars are SHOCKING! 🇨🇳 Visit to Guangzhou
(Nahana) CHINA. It’s my first time in Guangzhou — one of China’s fastest-growing megacities — and it’s immediately clear why this city is at the heart of the global EV (electric vehicle) revolution. Companies like BYD, XPeng, and NIO are building smart, affordable electric cars at a scale Elon Musk and the West can’t match. Cities like Guangzhou, once known for its pollution, are showing what the future of mobility, tech, and urban life actually looks like. In fact, many of Tesla’s biggest rivals are right here, and they’re already outselling Tesla in some markets. This video goes straight into the heart of China’s EV boom to show what it’s really like on the ground in the world’s most important EV market.
Shocking Chinese AI robot: In the World’s Strangest City (Chongqing)
(Joe HaTTab) Inside China’s biggest and strangest city – Chongqing! Welcome to the largest city you’ve never heard of…and easily the strangest. Explore rooftop gas stations, bridges that pass through buildings, floating restaurants, and buses driving high in the sky.
🌆 Plus: Ride the deepest metro station in the world, and watch as a robotic waiter serves food at a hotpot restaurant. #Chongqing #China #RoboticWaiter #DeepestMetro #SmartCity #Hotpot #FutureCity #TravelVlog
Thanks for watching and remember to like, comment, and subscribe for more travel content. #ChinaEV #Guangzhou #BYD #Tesla #ElectricCars #TechInChina #EVRevolution #ChinaCarIndustry #FutureCities #Xpeng #china #guangzhou #chinadrone #chinacities TAGS: 10K EV, Chinese EVs, EV Revolution, Tech in China, Smart Cities, Future of Transportation, EV vs Tesla, Tesla China, BYD vs Tesla, XPeng vs Tesla, NIO vs Tesla, China Tech, China Megacity, Affordable EVs, China’s EV Boom
Joe HaTTab, June 1, 2025; Nahana, Oct. 4, 2025: CC Liu, Crystal Q., Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(More Perfect Union) I worked at Palantir (based on Middle Earth's Palantír): the tech company reshaping reality. Alex Karp leaks the truth. Elon Musk's PayPal Mafia (Peter Thiel, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman)...
Confirmed: CEO of weather modification company (Rainmaker) reveals cloud seeding operations were conducted in Texas two days before deadly flood. Oops
Perhaps this is not [to the level of] "Weather Warfare" [the U.S. secretly practices], but it's cloud-seeding nonetheless.
The CEO of a weather modification technology company has confirmed cloud seeding operations took place in Texas just two days before the deadly central Texas flood occurred.
NBC News reported that CEO Augustus Doricko of Rainmaker, a weather modification company, said planes had released silver iodide into the atmosphere in Texas two days prior to the fatal Texas Hill Country (Guadalupe River) floods that have claimed over 100 lives.
Now, what are we to believe? Doricko claims the cloud-seeding operations did not cause the flooding in Texas.
According to Doricko, Rainmaker flew a brief 20-minute cloud-seeding mission in southcentral Texas last Tuesday but suspended all operations that same day due to abnormally high moisture content in the air.
The two clouds seeded during the Tuesday flight would have dissipated after a few hours and would have had no effect [whatsoever] on the floods several days later, he added.
Cloud-seeding involves using chemicals, often particles of silver iodide [or other particulate matter as is used in chemtrail aerosol campaigns that feature barium, aluminum, red blood cells, and secret ingredients to amplify EMF and microwave signals from H.A.A.R.P.], to trigger the formation of ice crystals or droplets from water that’s already present in a cloud but not being efficiently turned into rain.
Though the technique has been studied for decades [refined by American war criminals during the US War on Vietnam to flood the jungle and root out Viet Cong soldiers with 50 or so inches of rain to inundate specified areas during war], it remains difficult to predict the additional rainfall that cloud-seeding operations can generate, with estimates ranging widely from 0% to 20%.
What’s clear is that the technique [so far admitted to] would not have been able to generate the record-breaking rainfall seen in Texas. So much rain fell that the Guadalupe River at Kerrville, one of the epicenters of the floods, rose some 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour overnight on Friday [while campers slept while celebrating the 4th of July weekend or attending Christian girls summer camp].
"Based on the meteorological evidence, the Texas floods were caused by a powerful natural weather system, with thunderstorms fed by very moist air from the warm Gulf of Mexico," said Andrew Charlton-Perez, professor of meteorology at the University of Reading in the UK.
In a post on X (Twitter), Doricko shared: "The last seeding mission prior to the July 4th event was during the early afternoon of July 2nd, when a brief cloud seeding mission was flown over the eastern portions of south-central Texas, and two clouds were seeded."
Further: "The clouds that were seeded on July 2nd dissipated over 24 hours prior to the developing storm complex that would produce the flooding rainfall."
(AJ+) June 24, 2025: They lost the war -- but made billions. This documentary uncovers how U.S. "defense" contractors turned global conflict, from Afghanistan to Gaza, into a profit [war] machine. Investigative journalist Abby Martin, host of @empirefiles, helps break down this story.
#WarProfiteers #USMilitary #DefenseContractors
Subscribe for more videos: ajplus.co/subscribe
Follow on Instagram (ajplus), Facebook (ajplusenglish), Twitter (ajplus). Al Jazeera is funded in whole or in part by the Qatari government.
Stephen Miller was one of the most influential advisors in the White House. He crafted D Trump’s speeches, designed immigration policies that banned Muslims and separated families, and outlasted such Trump stalwarts as Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions. But he has remained an enigma. Until now.
Emmy- and PEN-winning investigative journalist and author Jean Guerrero charts the 34-year-old’s astonishing rise to power, drawing from more than 100 interviews with his family, friends, adversaries, and government officials.
After being radicalized as a teenager and attending Duke University, Miller served Tea Party Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and nativist Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.
Recruited to Trump’s campaign, Miller met his idol. Having dreamed of Trump’s presidency before he even announced his decision to run, Miller became his senior policy advisor and speechwriter.
Together, they stoked dystopian fears about the Democrats, “Deep State,” and “American Carnage,” painting migrants and their supporters as an existential threat to America.
While Trump railed against illegal immigration, Miller crusaded against legal immigration. He targeted refugees, asylum seekers and their children, engineering an ethical crisis for a nation that once saw itself as the conscience of the world.
Miller rallied support for this agenda, even as federal judges tried to stop it, by courting the white rage that found violent expression in tragedies from El Paso to Charlottesville.
Hatemonger unveils the man driving some of the most divisive confrontations over what it means to be American—and what America will become. More
Forbidden technologies and the silencing of their inventors
(Universe Inside You) Prehistoric megastructures (universeinsideyou.systeme.io...) is an almost 500-page eBook that includes images and contains over 30 of the most remarkable prehistoric sites around the globe. Megastructures defy explanation and suggest the use of advanced [space alien/heavenly] technology.
Join UIY in fueling its mission to create insightful videos backed by thorough research by supporting on Patreon or PayPal: universeinsideyou, paypal.com/donate... Support can help dive even more deeply into topics that matter, enabling UIY to produce engaging content that informs and inspires. Contributing is backing a project and empowering a wealth of knowledge to be shared.
All materials on this site are submitted by editors and readers. All images, unless otherwise noted, were taken from the Internet and are assumed to be in the public domain.
In the event that there is still a problem, issue, or error with copyrighted material, the break of the copyright is unintentional and noncommercial, and the material will be removed immediately upon presented proof.
Contact us by submitting a comment marked "private."
Do not follow this journal if you are under vinaya or parental restrictions. Secure protection by Sucuri.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at creativecommons.org/about/licenses.
(2)%20trump.jpg)
