The Switch 2 is getting a new Virtual Console (kind of)

Hamster Corp.’s new “Console Archives” does what Nintendon’t.  In 2018, we lamented as Nintendo officially replaced the Virtual Console—its long-running line of downloadable classic games on the Wii and Wii U—with time-limited access to a set of games through a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Now, Hamster Corporation is…

Watch Kanzi the bonobo pretend to have a tea party

“Kanzi is able to generate an idea of this pretend object and at the same time know it’s not real.” Little kids hosting make-believe tea parties is a fixture of childhood playtime and long presumed to be exclusively a human ability. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University presented evidence in…

This black hole “burps” with Death Star energy

Dubbed “Jetty McJetface,” the tidal disruption event’s energy keeps getting brighter and should peak in 2027. Back in 2022, astronomers were puzzled by a so-called “tidal disruption event” (TDE), dubbed AT2018hyz, that had faded when it was first noticed three years earlier, only to unexpectedly reanimate and burp out…

Tesla slipped behind VW in European EV sales last year

​Electric vehicle sales increased by 29% in 2025, even as overall sales grew 2.2%.  Electric vehicle enthusiasts are probably right to feel a little disheartened about the state of the United States’ transition to EVs. But they should take heart that our region is an outlier. The other side…

Increase of AI bots on the Internet sparks arms race

Publishers are rolling out more aggressive defenses.  The viral virtual assistant OpenClaw—formerly known as Moltbot, and before that Clawdbot—is a symbol of a broader revolution underway that could fundamentally alter how the Internet functions. Instead of a place primarily inhabited by humans, the web may very soon be dominated…