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What’s Happening On Earth?

🇨🇦 Mandatory notification and reporting of major telecommunications service outages - This decision will help improve coordination whenever a major outage happens by requiring TSPs to notify the Commission and other government authorities within specific timeframes. These notifications will help ensure that relevant authorities are aware of outages so that they can help manage them and their impact on Canadians.

This decision also requires TSPs to file comprehensive post-outage reports detailing the causes, effects, and steps taken to resolve an outage. With this information, TSPs can learn from what happened to avoid similar outages in the future, Canadians can learn the cause of an outage and other facts, and governments can develop policies to help limit outages going forward.

My Take: Me and ChatGPT have a high-level breakdown for you (ain’t nobody got time to read entire CRTC decisions..)

• Definitions of major service outages

  • Primary service outage: Complete loss of core services (internet, voice, data) affecting either a minimum of 600,000 user‑minutes or an isolated/remote community .

  • 9‑1‑1 service outage: Full or partial disruption of 9‑1‑1 capabilities .

  • Wireless public alerting service outage: Any outage affecting the ability to issue alerts .

  • Specialized service outage: Includes failures in accessibility services—TTY/IP relay or 9‑8‑8 mental health support .

• Who must notify

  • Primary services: All TSPs operating transmission facilities or exempt apparatus.

  • 9‑1‑1 outages: 9‑1‑1 network providers and originating network providers.

  • Public alerting outages: Mandated wireless service providers (WSPs).

  • Specialized services: TSPs mandated to deliver TTY relay, IP relay, or 9‑8‑8 .

• Notification recipients

  • Commission (CRTC) and ISED: Always notified for all major outage types.

  • Emergency management bodies (FPT EMOs): Notified for primary, 9‑1‑1, and public alerting outages in relevant regions.

  • PSAPs (public safety answer points): Notified for 9‑1‑1 outages in their service areas .

• Timing and process

  • Primary service outages: Notify CRTC, ISED, and FPT EMOs within 2 hours; PSAPs encouraged within 30 minutes.

  • 9‑1‑1 outages: PSAPs within 30 minutes; CRTC, ISED, FPT EMOs within 2 hours.

  • Public alerting outages: WSPs notify FPT EMOs via NAAD system within 30 minutes; CRTC and ISED within 2 hours.

  • Specialized service outages: Notify CRTC and ISED within 2 hours .

• Information requirements
  Notifications must include: TSP name, services and regions affected, outage timing, cause (if known), restoration status, user impact, stakeholder communications, affected networks and providers, restoration efforts, and factors delaying recovery. Also must specify which criteria triggered the report .

• Post‑outage reporting
  TSPs must submit detailed post‑outage reports within 30 days of service restoration. Reports must outline outage description, root causes, networks affected, community impact, restoration steps, lessons learned, and future prevention plans. Confidential portions must be accompanied by an abridged public summary .

• Effective dates

  • Most provisions take effect on November 4, 2025.

  • PSAP notification provisions will follow once CISC ESWG submits its recommendations by March 4, 2026 .

Somehow I still think that DownDetector and “X” will be the best sources of info.

🇨🇦 Cogeco, Eastlink further their challenge of cabinet refusal to overrule CRTC wholesale decision - Cogeco and Eastlink filed an application with the Federal Court on Sept. 2 seeking judicial review of cabinet’s decision, urging the court to declare the move unreasonable and force the government to reconsider. The applicants allege cabinet failed to justify its decision not to step in and change the CRTC’s policy, despite warnings from petitioners that their businesses face “existential threats.” 

My Take: I’m glad they’re still fighting this.

Ciena pulls back from broadband to focus more on AI - CEO Gary Smith announced today Ciena intends to “[redirect] additional R&D investment” into coherent optics, routing and other data center interconnect products, while pulling back on spending for its residential broadband access portfolio. “To be clear, we will continue to sell and support our existing broadband access products,” he said on the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call. “However, we will be limiting our forward investments only to strategic areas such as DCOM.”

My Take: According to the FBA study below, it’s the right decision.

🇨🇦 Data centre firms want clarity on Alberta’s ‘surprise’ AI infrastructure levy - Alberta’s plans for a new “server tax” on AI data centres and energy rationing could hamper the province’s efforts to attract new investment in digital infrastructure, industry executives claim.

My Take: Here’s what everyone is missing

Data center capital of the world says enough - Is Northern Virginia closing the door on data centers? It certainly feels that way, with local officials and residents increasingly pushing back on new builds. The area – which includes Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William and Fauquier Counties – has long been known as the data center capital of the world, with well over 300 data centers. As Synergy Research Group noted, Northern Virginia alone is home to more than 13% of global hyperscale data center capacity and 7% of the global colocation market.

My Take: There’s like 26 planned for the entire province of Alberta. 300 is nuts

FBA Study Finds Need for More Fiber Infrastructure is “Underappreciated” - The growth of new internet data centers to accommodate artificial intelligence in the United States is going to drive a boom in fiber optic network construction. According to a report commissioned by the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), the expected tripling of data center capacity by 2029 will require a doubling of fiber network miles.

My Take: Man, there will be some fancy massive Wal-Mart stores with massive fiber assets some day 😉 - A new Fiber Broadband Association study finds that by 2029, U.S. fiber infrastructure must nearly double in route miles (from 95,000 to about 187,000) and more than double in total fiber miles (from 159 million to 373 million) to support a projected tripling of hyperscale data center capacity driven by AI demands.

NTCA Members Testify Before U.S. House on the Impact of Reliable Broadband on Small Businesses - Todd shared how rural broadband networks can help small businesses and rural economies grow, noting that research by the Center on Rural Innovation shows rural counties with broadband adoption rates above 80% experience significant economic advantages compared to counties with low adoption. “These high-adoption counties see 213% higher business growth, while similar counties with low adoption are losing businesses,” Todd said.

My Take: So, I guess remove all the barriers and make it happen faster.

AT&T holds onto top spot on Ethernet carrier ranking - AT&T and Lumen Technologies have been ranked among the top U.S. Ethernet carriers by Vertical Systems Group (VSG), with AI and cloud migration flagged as key drivers in the market.

My Take: Check out the leaderboard

How big is the need for speed in the broadband market? - Consumers don’t care about competing ISPs, they just want the tech to work, said former FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly. It’s not just about what the consumer wants, it’s critical to have speeds that are “ahead of the applications,” said NSR analyst Blair Levin. From an antitrust perspective, speed, price and number of ISPs aren’t the only things that matter for competition

My Take: The FCC raised its minimum broadband benchmark from 25/3 Mbps to 100/20 Mbps and set a long-term goal of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps up, but some argue markets should aim ahead of actual user demand. Hello Canada.. 50/10? 2016? Time for a change, perhaps.

How cable is pushing the limits of DOCSIS 4.0 - CableLabs' latest DOCSIS 4.0 interop saw downstream speeds of 16 Gbit/s, a record for the emerging platform. The surge in speed was driven by the use of higher modulations that pack more bits into the same amount of spectrum.

My Take: “That setup also delivered upstream speeds in the range of 1.5 Gbit/s to 2 Gbit/s.” Good, now it’s time to raise those Universal Service Objectives to something at least symmetrical.

Fiber researchers break data loss barrier in breakthrough optical tests - Microsoft Azure fiber engineers aid academic project to reduce data drops to support ‘unprecedented data transmission capacities’

My Take: Hollow, air core fiber to the rescue. It’s the future.

Cable's 'STRIKE' initiative takes aim at network vandalism - NCTA, SCTE and several cable operators have launched an initiative to draw more local, regional and federal attention to network vandalism and to frame certain attacks as national security threats.

🇨🇦 Copper thieves are running riot. Telecoms are trying to stop them - Bell, Telus and Rogers are engaged in a game of Whac-a-Mole against increasingly sophisticated copper thieves. So far, the thieves are winning.

My Take: “It’s happening every day,” said David Joice, network operations director at Bell Canada. The firm’s infrastructure has been hit more than 2,270 times since 2022,”…

Apple 5G smartwatch could be a 5G SA tonic - Forthcoming 5G smart watches are rumored to be one of the things that will help drive steady 5G standalone (5G SA) growth in the back-end of 2025 and into 2026, according to Dave Bolan, research director at Dell’Oro Group.

My Take: I wonder how often iWatch owners replace the technology?

Will AI agents really raise the network traffic baseline? - The theory, according to Cisco, goes something like this: Inference workloads today are spikey. Traffic jumps when, for instance, someone asks a generative AI chatbot a question, but returns to a low-level baseline in between queries. But that will all change as AI agents proliferate. These agents will engage “continuously” with end-users, keeping traffic levels consistently high.

My Take: IMHO, AI agents may not dramatically increase consumer traffic, but they will increase persistent, server-to-server data flows, especially across enterprise, backbone, and cloud networks, driving the need for infrastructure upgrades and raising new security and identity-management challenges. Kinda why Cienna made their move to focus less on access.

Here's a very informative diagram of subsea cable landing infrastructure - The ideal way to land a cable is to install a big pipe called a bore using directional horizontal drilling. The subsea cable goes through the bore pipe to a beach manhole where it is spliced to standard terrestrial fibre, usually G.652d or G.657a. Note it is possible to create a fibre ring between the manhole and the CLS for greater resiliency. All it requires is a cable splitter.

My Take: Can we still say “manhole?” Informative article and graphic.

🇨🇦 CRTC says TV audiences are shrinking and mostly over 50 - The CRTC said 66% of Canadians consume their news online compared to only 49% who rely on television, continuing a decade-long shift away from traditional broadcasters.

My Take: Yea, yea.. Size matters and all that. I think I watch 3 channels, because there’s absolute crap on TV these days - net of Below Deck, Justice Judy and the AMC channel. News. Does anyone watch the news anymore? It just shows up on my phone in real-time.

The Boy Who Cried ‘Speed’ - I have been writing recently about the belief that customers only care about speed. The cable industry created the monster when they were capable of winning at speed wars. Unfortunately, the tide has turned, as it so often does, but there are those in the industry who hold out hope that customers want more speed, even though available evidence is to the contrary.

My Take: “Customers buy speed once, they buy services every day.” - yes. Read this story. Thanks to Rob Damon for sending it my way. Service make all the difference, all day long. As I suggested elsewhere, if my provider called me every not and then to see how I’m doing, and offered me some personalized offering — wow, wouldn’t that be great!

Bell launches Giga Hub 2.0 with Wi-Fi 7, the world's best and latest Wi-Fi technology, powered by Bell Pure Fibre - Canada's fastest Internet - With Canadians returning to back-to-school and their regular routines, Bell's Giga Hub 2.0 with Wi-Fi 7 technology delivers the speed, responsiveness and capacity needed to power connected homes. Offering speeds up to four times faster than Wi-Fi 6E, lower latency for gaming, video calls and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences and support for up to double the number of simultaneously connected devices, Wi-Fi 7 sets a new standard in home connectivity. Paired with Bell Pure Fibre – delivering symmetrical download and upload speeds, proven reliability, and an end-to-end low-latency fibre-to-the-home network (FTTH) – customers gain next-generation performance and future-proof technology that keeps pace with their growing digital needs.

My Take: What will all the other kids at school think if you only have WiFi 6E? The shame of it all. It’s like being dropped off in an AMC Pacer. Too bad they won’t be able to deploy it in those new builds they’ve backed away from - except the ones in the US. Maybe they’ll get some nice WiFi7.

Op-Ed: Telecom growth phase is over - prepare for consolidation at all levels - Operators will continue to merge, leaving one or two big players in many markets instead of three or four. Some network vendors will pivot to other markets (watch Nokia pivot toward the data center and AI). Telcos will rally around one major RAN software player and probably only one alternative.

My Take: Nokia has already pivoted. Not the point. Just look north of the border. That’s what’s coming to the US.

Tarana Introduces G2, Marks the End of “Fiber-Only” Thinking in Access Networks - G2 ups the ante, allowing even denser deployments of gigabit services at scale. Hybrid networks — featuring both fiber and ngFWA — are the future.”

My Take: I was never a wireless hater, but I worked for a company who made fiber stuff, so that was the narrative. Having said that, wireless is cool and working with some folks have deployed Tarana, I understand what the “hype” is all about. Given the choice, I still think fiber has many more advantages for multi-services. But sometimes time is of the essence, and the business cases to deploy aerial or buried fiber just isn’t there.

What’s Happening In Space?

What’s in Space This Week?

🇨🇦 General Atomics and Kepler Communications Successfully Demonstrate Air-to-Space Optical Communications Capability - “This successful space-airborne communication demonstration represents a breakthrough improvement in building a resilient space architecture. Achieving multi-vendor interoperability validates SDA’s leadership in the optical communication arena,” said Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, SDA deputy director. “We are grateful for industry’s rapid acceptance of the SDA OCT Standard and their drive to innovate—pushing the boundaries of what is possible for the warfighter today and into the future.” 

My Take: This test proves that a laser-equipped aircraft can reliably exchange high-speed, secure data with a LEO satellite. It validates multivendor optical terminal compatibility under the U.S. Space Development Agency’s (SDA) standards and paving the way for ross-domain defense communications.

🇨🇦 NordSpace Delays First Canadian Commercial Rocket Launch - NordSpace, an aerospace startup based in Markham, Ontario, has delayed the first suborbital flight of its Taiga rocket due to an unexpected trigger of the rocket’s ignition safety system and adverse weather conditions. The launch, which was set to be the first-ever commercial rocket launch from Canadian soil, was postponed just 58 seconds before takeoff.

My Take: I was watching.. All day last Friday (in a window, on a monitor, as I did other things) waiting for this historic event.. Didn’t happen, but it will! One day there will be a whole launch centre with viewing areas available. Congratulations to the NordSpace team for effort and lessons learned. Next window is coming up fast.

🇨🇦 Lightspeed a bright spot on Telesat’s horizons - As CEO of Telesat Corp., he runs a network of satellites to connect all parts of Canada. That footprint is only going to get bigger when the company launches its Lightspeed service. Satellites are to go up next year, with service being lit in 2027. That is delayed from the original launch date but Goldberg is unfazed.

My Take: 2027 will come fast. Will be interesting to see how much “damage” Kuiper and Starlink do on the market with “good enough” commercial service offerings in the meantime. Space is hard.

Amazon's Starlink Rival, Project Kuiper, Demos 1 Gigabit Downloads - Amazon's satellite internet service hits 1,280Mbps, though it was achieved using an enterprise-grade customer terminal on a network that currently has plenty of capacity.

My Take: Yea, the haters are out hating.. No congestion, lots of capacity, expensive panels, etc. Look, it’s a great accomplishment, and moreso a testament to their ESA development. Next, upstream.

Amazon Kuiper Joins TraCSS Pilot Program - The TraCSS program, which aligns with the Space Policy Directive 3, is designed to provide vital space situational awareness, or SSA, data to civil and private space operators. It aims to enhance spaceflight safety by providing operators handling over 8,000 spacecraft with spaceflight safety screening. Amazon Kuiper’s inclusion in the program expands the system’s reach to almost 80 percent of all active spacecraft.

My Take:Traffic Coordination System for Space, that’s what it is. An important initiative to help manage.

JetBlue chooses Amazon’s Project Kuiper for faster, free in-flight Wi-Fi - JetBlue is the first airline with plans to bring Amazon's satellite internet network to its commercial airline customers. The collaboration will enhance in-flight connectivity, enabling travelers to better stream, scroll, and share while flying JetBlue.

My Take: Ok, they have some satellites in orbit, but enough to support continuous in -flight services today?

Wyoming Picks Amazon's Kuiper Over Starlink for Broadband Expansion - The proposal is part of Wyoming’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which will use federal funds to expand high-speed internet access and close coverage gaps in the state. Wyoming has selected Project Kuiper to deliver broadband to about 40% of 38,000-plus locations. It’s also awarding Amazon close to $10 million in subsidies. 

My Take: Seems confidence in Kuiper is high.

Starlink Dangles One Month of Free Service to Win Back Inactive Users - The company is offering one month of free Starlink service to select customers who cancelled their satellite internet subscription. “We're inviting you to try Starlink again—free until September 30,” says a SpaceX email that went out this weekend to subscribers in Australia, Europe, Canada, and the US. 

My Take: If they dangled a free Starlink Mini along with it, I’d be all over this like a rice krispie square covered in froot loops and coloured sprinkles (a little peek into my mind there).

Starlink Maritime slashes unlimited data plan price by 90% - Starlink Maritime has slashed the cost of its unlimited data package for IMO-registered vessels from $25,000 per month to just $2,500 – a 90% reduction – with distributors throwing in free high-performance hardware.

My Take: Crazy Elon’s Satellite Warehouse. Really? Why so much? Does that mean Cruise ships will reduce their passenger WiFi plan fees? No?

SpaceX's Satellite Supremacy: A High-Stakes Bet on the Future of Global Connectivity - In 2025, SpaceX has cemented its status as the undisputed leader in the satellite internet revolution. With over 7,600 Starlink satellites in orbit—accounting for 65% of all active satellites globally—the company has transformed from a speculative venture into a cornerstone of the space economy. For investors, the question is no longer whether SpaceX can scale its ambitions but how its accelerating infrastructure growth will reshape markets and redefine the economics of space.

My Take: Just keep dumping prices on everything for the land grab. Self reinforcing dominance, as they say.

Trump directs U.S. Space Command move to Huntsville, reversing Biden decision - Trump, during the event, said his opposition to Colorado’s use of mail-in voting played into his decision to shift the headquarters to Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal, a U.S. Army base. He also praised Huntsville’s status as a hub of space activity, calling it central to the development of the Golden Dome missile defence shield, a next-generation system of space-based sensors and interceptors.

My Take: Critics argue relocating the command could disrupt operations and degrade national security at a time of increasing geopolitical space competition

US in real danger of losing the moon race to China, experts tell Senate - "Unless something changes, it is highly unlikely the United States will beat China’s projected timeline."

My Take: Yea, no kidding. And more than just the race to the moon. Did you see that parade? Wait until they start blowing Starlink and Kuiper satellites out of orbit.

Telesat to offer blocks of satellite bandwidth to DoD for Golden Dome - The satellite operator is positioning its Lightspeed LEO constellation as a data-transport solution for the Pentagon’s missile defence shield

My Take: Donald will be pleased.

Where does a Starlink Signal from Aircraft Go, After Reaching the Satellites? - Shown, are Starlink ground facilities. Starlink’s global network depends on more than just satellites in orbit—it also relies on powerful ground stations equipped with dish antennas, feeding into data centres.

My Take: It’s all cool under the hood.

Enabling AI

OpenAI to safeguard ChatGPT for teens and people in crisis - ChatGPT guardrails for teens and people in emotional distress will roll out by the end of the year, OpenAI promised Tuesday.

'Extremely alarming': ChatGPT and Gemini respond to high-risk questions about suicide — including details around methods - Researchers have found that OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude can give direct responses to 'high-risk' questions about suicide. In Live Science's testing, ChatGPT and Gemini responded to even more extreme questions.

My Take: Now you see why we need guardrails. Kids need to be taught about GenAI in school, the same way they’re taught about “stranger danger”. Do they still do that?

On-screen and now IRL: FSU researchers find evidence of ChatGPT buzzwords turning up in everyday speech - New research from Florida State University’s Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Department of Computer Science, and Department of Mathematics is revealing notable evidence that AI buzzwords overused by chat-based large language models aren’t just suggested on screens anymore — they’re frequently showing up in how people actually speak.

My Take: Well, that’s not good. Conclusion: em-dashes are bad.

Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B post-money valuation - Anthropic has completed a Series F fundraising of $13 billion led by ICONIQ. This financing values Anthropic at $183 billion post-money. Along with ICONIQ, the round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The investment reflects Anthropic’s continued momentum and reinforces our position as the leading intelligence platform for enterprises, developers, and power users.

My Take: $183B.. Crazy.

Image editing in Gemini just got a major upgrade - Today in the Gemini app, we're unveiling a new image editing model from Google DeepMind. People have been going bananas over it already in early previews — it's the top-rated image editing model in the world. Now, we're excited to share that it's integrated into the Gemini app so you have more control than ever to create the perfect picture.

My Take: If you haven’t played with nano banana, you’re missing out. It’s friggin fast, too. No idea how many trees I killed with this.

QPU-GPU orchestration is the next big quantum hurdle - Quantum processing units (QPUs) and GPUs have the potential to be the all-star tag team in the supercomputing arena. But there’s one big problem: they don’t speak the same language. So, engineers from IBM and AMD are stepping in to create a system that lets each know when to tag in for different workloads. The goal? Combine the superpowers of QPUs and GPUs to solve some of the world’s toughest computational problems.

My Take: Well, why don’t they speak the same language? Do we need an “MCP” equivalent for Quantum things?

Bookmarks: If 95% of gen AI pilots fail, what do the 5% know? - the pressure to go do AI is real and businesses of all types are busy experimenting and running pilots. But moving from pilot to production is tricky. A July paper from MIT Media Lab’s Project NANDA put a number to it — 95% of enterprise gen AI projects fail as measured by return. 

My Take: Perhaps a problem of not being able to improve what you can’t measure?

Nvidia says two customers represented 39% of revenue in Q2 - Two buyers drive 39% of Q2 revenue – Nvidia’s filing shows that two customers accounted for nearly two-fifths of its record-breaking second-quarter sales. Heavy reliance on a few players – Another four customers each contributed 10–14% of revenue, underscoring Nvidia’s dependence on a small base.

My Take: Eggs, meet basket. Seems a little risky, no?

Who Needs a Pilot? This New Autonomous Air Taxi Can Fly Passengers Hundreds of Miles - The fastest electric air-taxi to market is probably a name you’ve never heard before. In 2023, Chinese electric aviation company EHang certified its two-person, autonomously piloted EH216-S in China, paving the way for its use as a low-flying vehicle mainly used for local tourism. Six months after it received certification, it received permission to start wholesale production. Last April, it started doing limited tourism flights in Guangzhou and Hefei. According to a recent report, China plans to have more than 100,000 electric air taxis and cargo drones flying in its “low-altitude economy” by 2030.

My Take: Uh, no. I thought China wanted to expand its population?

This and That!

'AI can’t install an HVAC system': Why Gen Z is flocking to jobs in the trades - “There’s nothing wrong with blue collar. There’s nothing wrong with getting your hands a little dirty and sweating a little bit, and making a little bit of money in the process,” said David Rames, senior product manager at Midea, a producer of major home appliances like air conditioners and fridges that has teamed up with more than a dozen trade schools to help train upcoming HVAC technicians.

My Take: Nothing wrong with it at all. We’re a LONG way off from humanoids fixing fridges and installing air conditioners.

🇨🇦 Canada approves AVSS’ drone-based avalanche technology - Instead of using World War II artillery (seriously) and dropping explosives from helicopters, AVSS can now send drones to drop what is described as “low-cost, eco-friendly explosives” on avalanche-prone areas.

My Take: Maybe they should use these to thwart all those copper thefts? Just takes one time to show them you’re serious. “This time I mean it”..

🇨🇦 Canadian Venture Capital / Private Equity Association H12025 Update - CVCA’s public quarterly market overview reports provide a deep analysis of the Canadian market, offering a panoramic view of private capital trends and investments. These comprehensive reports utilize data from the CVCA Intelligence platform, Canada’s foremost private capital database. They highlight performance indicators, emerging sectors, and strategic shifts, empowering stakeholders with crucial insights for informed decision-making.

My Take: Everything you wanted to know about every reported VC and PE deal.

TVA strikes deal for SMRs and up to 6 GW of nuclear power - The TVA operates in a seven-state region, where its SMR partner, Entra1 Energy, will select sites for the six “energy plants,” as the latter company calls them. Entra1 Energy is the exclusive partner for SMR company NuScale; its energy plants will have NuScale’s SMRs inside them.

My Take: Good, clean power. Expensive power. More of this will follow, I’m sure.

Putin and Kim join Xi in show of strength as China unveils new weapons at huge military parade - China's President Xi Jinping unveils laser weapons, nuclear ballistic missiles and giant underwater drones at a massive military parade 80 years on from the country's victory over Japan in World War Two

My Take: Everyone loves a parade. When was the last time China was in actual combat? Cool toys. I wonder if I can buy a giant underwater drone with my TEMU credits?

Identical twin convicted based on DNA differences in first US case of its kind - Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs ran an analysis on the DNA sample found at the scene nearly four decades ago. Genealogist CeCe Moore then traced the perpetrator’s family tree and seemed to hit a wall when the sample led to identical twins.

My Take: So they’re not so identical after all. Pretty cool story.

Google avoids breakup, but has to give up exclusive search deals in antitrust trial - U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta outlined remedies on Tuesday that would bar Google from entering or maintaining exclusive deals that tie the distribution of Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Gemini to other apps or revenue arrangements. For example, Google wouldn’t be able to condition Play Store licensing on the distribution of certain apps, or tie revenue-share payments to keeping certain apps.

My Take: Winners will be competitors who now have a better shot at market share

A cold today helps keep the COVID away - A study that included the nasal swabs of more than 1,000 participants assessed whether infections with common respiratory viruses — including rhinovirus, the perpetrator of a cold — impacted later coronavirus infections. Having had a cold in the past month was linked to about half the risk of developing a SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with those who’d had a cold-free month, researchers report in The Journal of Infectious Diseases on August 11.

My Take: So it’s OK to sneeze on people again?

Diagnostic dilemma: Rare condition made a woman see people as dragons - A woman sought treatment for hallucinations she'd been experiencing since childhood, in which people's faces would morph into having dragon-like features.

My Take: “The patient reported that human faces that seemed normal at first "turned black, grew long, pointy ears and a protruding snout, and displayed a reptiloid skin and huge eyes in bright yellow, green, blue, or red," doctors wrote in a report of her case. She added that she had experienced these hallucinations since childhood.”

Just say no, kids. Remember that.

Infographic Of The Week

My Take: In 2024, global wealth per person increased by 4.6%

Podcast Recommendation

CSPs bank on wavelength services to monetize AI traffic

Service providers anticipate that AI will have a significant impact on network connectivity demand over the next three years, according to a recent report by Heavy Reading – now part of Omdia. The report also found that operators expect high bandwidth wavelength services to be the dominant transport service for providing AI connectivity.

In this podcast, Sterling Perrin, senior principal analyst for Heavy Reading, explains why many communications service providers (CSPs) believe AI will increase traffic at a greater rate in their long-haul networks and whether they are prepared to handle the influx of traffic in the coming years.

Listen Here!

Movie/Streaming Recommendation

IMDb: 7.8/10

JMDb: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿/10 (Quite the ride!)

Weapons, directed by Zach Cregger, is a bold and genre-bending horror film that stands out for its originality and layered storytelling. The movie plunges viewers into the mystery of an entire classroom vanishing overnight, unraveling a suspenseful narrative through multiple interconnected perspectives. Julia Garner delivers a deeply convincing performance as Justine, embodying the emotional turmoil of a mother whose love for her children anchors the film’s chaos. Set in a small Pennsylvania town, the story is meticulously crafted and keeps audiences guessing with clever reveals and chilling atmosphere.

Weapons excels in its practical effects, inventive cinematography, and a score that amplifies the tension. The film is rich in both horror and dark comedy, buoyed by strong supporting roles from Josh Brolin and Amy Madigan, whose screen presence is particularly memorable. Critics and viewers have praised its risk-taking, with an explosive finale that provokes both applause and debate, earning the film a stellar 95% Rotten Tomatoes score.

While some find its pacing uneven and the ending divisive, Weapons is widely recognized as one of the year’s most memorable horror films - challenging, creative, and thoroughly entertaining.

Thank you David Pickett for the recommendation for this one!

A Word From Our Partner

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