(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
(KTLA 5) Five people were injured after helicopter crashes in Huntington Beach (aka Surf City USA) on Oct. 11, 2025: Five people were hospitalized after a helicopter crashed along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach (aka Surf City, USA) on Saturday afternoon as it was employed by the local police. KTLA's Sara Welch reports.
Details: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/3-ho...
D. Copperfield; Mystic Knights; Dhr. Seven, Jen (Dharma Bud Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly
Who could fly, even with stage wires, across the great expanse of the smaller U.S. Grand Canyon or the far larger though far less famous Copper Canyon of Mexico? Not a trickster magician.
First we get still, then stillness sets in.
Wisdom Quarterly has always been interested in one magic feat above the others: the possibility of real yogic levitation. This is achievable through successful stillness (samadhi)meditation. But what does it take to still the mind, to still thought, to still the heart, to still emotions, memories, intrusive thoughts and feelings, loops, ruminating, planning, distractions, monkey mind frenzy, restlessness, sleepiness, laziness, lassitude, boredom, inattentiveness, ADHD, yearning, pining, speculating, skepticism, in brief, the many and varied manifestations of the Five Hindrances?
The goal is not control. It's not being controlled.
Those are the first five obstacles to even remaining on the cushion to begin to get still. Stillness temporarily purifies the mind/heart so that coherence can set in, when everything is in its place and doing its thing. That is the beginning of samma-samadhi, what we have for so long been misled to think means "right concentration." Unfortunately, in English, "concentration" seems like a doing, an intentional act, a strain, a holding of the breath, gritting of the teeth, a strong determination, and force... It may be. But this is not samadhi.Samadhi requires no hard doing, only allowing, accepting, awareness of what is (not embellishing, distorting, or departing the scene for some place more interesting or stimulating, more pleasant or profound). Be here now. It's so simple, it's impossible at the beginning. Just "be"? No, but LET IT BE. Allow. Exhale. Find contentment in this moment.
Right Concentration: Jhanas (L. Brasington)
Rest. It begins with calm, and calm begins with relaxation that is founded on simply letting things be just as they are and radically accepting them. Stay (rather than departing).
Mindfulness (sati) is wakefulness, bare (unembellished, undistorted) awareness of what is, whatever it is, vigilance (keeping a vigil), coming back again and again (if by habit the mind turns away in search of sensuality, anger/aversion, restless states, drowsiness, or skeptical disquietude).
Begin with quiet. If we are quiet on the inside, it will be easy to be quiet on the outside. Therefore, be quiet on the outside until the inside quietens. This will be the first step to the first absorption, being pulled into the object of meditation (the breath or whatever it is).
When there is no this-and-that but only that being with this (a nonduality between that meditation object over there and this meditator over here because of being so absorbed, so interested, so zesty for the sweet release of calm and bliss, piti (rapture). Stay with it. It gets better. Bliss increases. Then next bliss loses its charm, and calm is better. And next stillness is better. These first four stages are the ingredients of a solid foundation for learning to meditate.
And this is odd. We meditate to learn to meditate. That is, we let the natural happen -- this natural state of stilling and absorbing -- so that we can use that strength of mind to investigate two very important things, ultimate-materiality and ultimate-mentality. But that will come.
Practicing Jhanas (Snyder and Rasmussen)
For now, we must perform a lesser miracle, a mundane marvel, a magic that is no trick. It's time to levitate. The ancients knew how to do it. Non-Buddhist yogis knew how to do it. Catholic saints, sometimes not taking themselves too seriously, took themselves so lightly as to float, ascend, be raptured up. There are historical accounts of this in the West. Look them up.
We are going the way of the East, so it is more systematic. The secrets are buried in Buddhaghosa's manual of Buddhist meditation, The Path of Purification. It gives the instructions, not that they'll make much sense to the layperson, the nonpractitioner. Find a teacher who knows-and-sees. They exist. (Here's a list).
It will not even be possible to do anything in the first paragraph without morality, virtue, self-restraint. Immorality leads to disquietude, to worry, scruples, rumination, remorse, regret, repentance, fear and foreboding of what may come as a result. So take up virtue because, as the great musician Danny Elfman so aptly said so very long ago: "Peace of mind, peace of mind, hard to keep, hard to find, look ahead, look behind, looking for, peace of mind, peace of mind, can't relax, can't unwind, deep inside, secret mind" ("I'm Afraid" by the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo).
That is all for now.
What about the magician David Copperfield? You don't think he took up Buddhist meditation or the Ashtanga (Eight Limb) Yoga and actually learned to sit cross-legged and move through the air like a bird, do you?
I don't know how he did it. It looks completely fake, a trick of the camera, an early version of green screen technology, using filming methods made famous by David Blaine street magic.
What kind of "magic" was that?
If a sign of light comes, don't look. Let it be.
Because he was on the street, we assumed it was all filmed as performed on the street. But actually he was just filming real reactions to tricks. The tricks were enhanced later so that what we saw was assumed to be what the people on the street saw, which looked amazing. In fact, those people on the street were tricked with set up scenarios and magic helpers. They were illusions. But the real illusion is what we saw, people seemingly verifying on the street what we thought we were watching at home. For instance, he claims to levitate. From home, this is shown as coming up a foot or more off the ground. In real life, that is to say, on the street, he only came up an inch or two. And that he did by turning his body, having them stand at an angle, then tilting one foot, which from a particular angle looks like two feet leaving the ground. From another angle, it's clearly just one foot. He's supporting his weight totally on the other foot. It's laughable. But it freaked some people out because he's so weird, intense, and convincing. And something (a trick) happened that the people on the street react to -- not all of them -- but the very best reactions got put into his TV specials to vouch that he was "really" doing what he misled us to believe he was doing. Easy. Relatively easy. He's a very skilled deceiver, and that the stage magician's stock and trade. We're all in agreement with it. Ask Houdini. But that is not to say real magic doesn't exist. It does.
What technology exists in GC?
The nimitta, if it comes, is a "sign" of progress; elation ruins it
Binaural beats in headphones may advance progress by years
A millennial woman has admitted she is completely lost as to what members of Gen Z do for fun.
Ashley Tea, a millennial, recently took to TikTok to make the case that she thinks millennials had a “better time” than Gen Z in their 20s. “I genuinely think millennials got to have a way better time than Gen Z does,” her video began.
She then continued to give her reasoning. “I got to be an emo kid in 2005...I got to go clubbing when clubbing was the club...I was 21 years old when Indie Sleaze was going on, and I was very Indie Sleaze, and it was a very good time,” Tea said.
“You couldn’t go to the club during the pandemic? That sucks. Literally, like, my sympathies go out to you. But I have a question for the youth, like a genuine question.”
The TikToker then asked the generation what they do for fun, specifically mentioning the prime going out days like Friday or Saturday night, wondering where they would go:
“Do you go out? Do you go to a club, or do you go to shows, is it, like, only raves now?” she asked.
Tea pointed out how expensive going out can be now, as she noted that she would only go to places that were affordable for her.
“And everything is so expensive,” she continued, “I used to go to bars and restaurants because it was affordable. I worked in a restaurant, and I hung out in restaurants and bars and drank like crazy.”
She ends her video by once again asking the question: “What do you guys do? What do you do for fun??” directed at Gen Z.
Tea’s video went on to receive over one million views, with many Gen Zers leaving comments to answer her question. Some commenters explained that they had no fun at all, explaining how much money had been a factor.
“There are hardly any ‘third spaces’ anymore, free places to just exist together without expectations of spending money,” one commenter wrote.
Another commenter agreed, writing: “We aren’t having fun, we are just working. No weekend money.” More
Israel used its air force to bomb the rave (IDF militants and veterans partying with a very few civilian refuseniks) near Gaza by the kibbutzim spying on Palestinians and hosting their own security police forces to make sure no Palestinians entered Israel. Israel did it, killing their own soldiers and civilians in addition to anyone the Al Qassam Brigades' fighter attacked. Now Israel is BURYING the physical evidence of the burned-out cars and charred Israeli Jewish corpses they first tallied as 200 bodies, later found to be Palestinians Israel had fried from above. Israel attacked itself on October 7 along with Hamas fighter attacking, partly by overreacting with cowardly air force bombers rather than police and IDF troopers coming to fight rag tag Hamas volunteers.
Full chase: Suspect rams cars, steals van and truck during SoCal pursuit
(ABC7) Streamed live on Nov. 9, 2022. A man was arrested in the San Gabriel Valley after he led authorities on a dangerous chase in which he stole a van and a truck and hit several other cars on the road. Full story: abc7.com/chase-police-pursuit...
(MARCA) Ruptly is live from Los Angeles today (Monday, February 24, 2020) as over 20,000 fans arrive at the Staples Center for a planned tribute to NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, who lost their lives in a helicopter crash last month with seven others.
"The Celebration of Life for Kobe and Gianna Bryant" saw nearly 90,000 people apply for tickets, outstripping supply four-fold, and the L.A. Police Department has threatened strongly advised the public to avoid the downtown area as the memorial service takes place. Tributes have flooded in for Bryant from across the world since the January 26th helicopter crash, which also claimed the lives of six other passengers and one pilot, who seems to be at fault. An investigation into the crash has been launched by two federal government agencies, with focus expected to fall on bad weather, mechanical failure, or pilot error. Suscríbete al canal de Marca (bit.ly/2J0YIm6).
New video shows Kobe Bryant's helicopter before crash
CBS Los Angeles is on all Kobe Bryant news.
Federal investigators are looking at new clues about the final moments of the ill-fated helicopter flight that ended in tragedy for nine people, including former Lakers' basketball player Kobe Bryant. They say all the wreckage has been removed from the crash site and is being sent out of state for analysis.
Newly surfaced video taken before the crash appears to show the aircraft in mid-flight, before it crashed into the Calabasas hillside. Whether the copter crashed on that hillside or the next, it was doomed due to the way the pilot was speeding in blinding fog and descending at 184 MPH points out Kris Van Cleave, who reports on the ongoing investigation. CBS This Morning (Facebook).
There is a scientific theory that says that Egyptians descended from Martians who had once visited this planet
It was even before Christ that Greeks took a keen interest in the culture and history of people living on the banks of the Nile River. In 1848, one of numerous archaeological expeditions working in Egypt discovered strange hieroglyphs at the height of about ten meters [30 ft] right above the entrance to the Seti Temple in Abydos. The walls were covered with the strange signs that greatly puzzled researchers. The only thing the researchers realized at once was that they had discovered some images of strange mechanisms that nobody ever saw before.
It is still unknown what exactly an artist living about 3,000 years ago engraved on the walls. The archaeological expedition carefully copied the mysterious signs on the temple walls, and the hieroglyphs gave rise to endless disputes and heated debates among Egyptologists.
As a result, a majority of Egyptologists arrived at a conclusion that there were just four strange objects drawn in different variations. Unfortunately, researchers of the 19th century failed to understand what ancient Egyptians actually drew on the temple walls. Like any sensation the mysterious Abydos hieroglyphs were absolutely forgotten some time later.
In about 150 years, the respectable Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published several sensational photos taken in the Amon Ra Temple in Karnak. At that, the newspaper asked its readers whether they believed that ancient Egyptians knew about battle aviation. The question would have seriously puzzled readers under some different conditions. But the photos the newspaper published demonstrated the bas-reliefs of an ancient temple built under Seti I, who ruled 3,000 years ago.
And on the bas-reliefs an ancient artist engraved a battle helicopter with a distinct rotor and a tail unit. Nearby, the artist depicted several other aircrafts astonishingly resembling contemporary supersonic fighters and heavy strategic bombers!
After the sensational publication of the photos it became clear why Egyptologists of the 19th century could not tell what was depicted on the walls of the temple in Abydos. Indeed, the researchers did not know how helicopters and aircrafts look. More>>
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