A spectacular total solar eclipse will coincide with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 12-13. But will you be able to spot shooting stars in the false twilight of totality?
Perseids appear as Earth plows through the stream of debris shed by comet Swift-Tuttle. Up to 100 shooting stars may be seen each hour around its peak under ideal dark skies, as particles from the ancient comet…
General Catalyst leads $1.1B round into 2-month-old River AI
August 12, 2026
River AI, an AI startup founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has secured $1.1 billion in funding in a seed/Series A round led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC, with participation from Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Y Combinator, and Temasek.
(AMP PBC is an AI-focused investment…
An unreleased Anthropic model made progress on one of math’s biggest unsolved problems
August 12, 2026
For more than 150 years, the Riemann hypothesis has stood as one of the major unsolved problems in mathematics, a long-running mystery about the distribution of prime numbers. There is currently a $1 million bounty for a working general proof of the hypothesis, which remains…
Spotify will label ‘AI Persona’ profiles and exclude their music from recommendations
August 12, 2026
Spotify will begin labeling AI-generated artists with “AI Persona” profile tags and ban their music from its editorial and algorithmic recommendations, the company announced on Tuesday.
In mid-September, Spotify users will see “AI Persona” badges appear on some artists’ profiles that signal the artist’s identity is AI-generated, instead of representing a real…
Getting your teen a back-to-school e-bike? Don’t forget this cool-looking protective gear
August 12, 2026
Back-to-school season often means shopping for backpacks, notebooks, and maybe even a new ride. For a growing number of families, that ride is an electric bike.
And I’m all for it. Giving teenagers the freedom to get themselves to school, sports practice, or a friend’s…
Volvo is expected to reenter the segment with an all-new sedan, but it may not be as electric as expected.
Is Volvo launching an electric sedan?
After pulling the S90 and V60 Cross Country, Volvo will no longer offer sedans or wagons in the US, leaving its lineup consisting…
Archer Aviation is buying three of Boeing’s aerospace subsidiaries: autonomous air-taxi developer Wisk Aero, military drone maker Insitu, and airspace-software firm SkyGrid. The deal also hands Boeing a stake in Archer.
Investors loved it. Archer (ACHR) stock jumped more than 20% on Monday, and the acquisition instantly turns a pre-revenue eVTOL startup into a company with a profitable defense…
MANILA, Philippines — A senior Pentagon official pushed back against reports that the U.S. military’s stockpiles and capabilities are strained following Operation Epic Fury, while reaffirming Washington’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific amid China’s increasingly…
Pentagon gives industry 21 days to submit plans for ‘significantly faster’ weapons production
August 12, 2026
Recent combat with Iran has put pressure on U.S. munitions stockpiles as the Pentagon pushes defense companies to accelerate production and delivery of critical weapons.
Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg told defense-industry leaders in an Aug. 5 memo that they have 21…
Lockheed Martin on Monday announced the launch of Strigo, a new line of modular missile and sensor hardware, along with a dedicated product center designed to get weapons into the field faster. The line covers radio-frequency sensors, missile datalinks and missile seeker technologies, all built on a common baseline architecture.
The company said the shared architecture allows Strigo hardware to…
