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Life is full of bittersweet moments, such as when children leave a happy home to strike out on their own. Big Bear bald eaglets Sunny and Gizmo, the offspring of California’s internet-famous eagles Jackie and Shadow, are getting ready to do just that. And the eagle family’s one-million-plus social media followers can watch them fly from the nest for the first time. This act is known as fledging and can happen anytime between 10-14 weeks old. The official fledge window for the eaglets started on Tuesday, and fans who love watching the eagles on the live nest web camera operated by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) hope the eaglets take their sweet time. At last check on Wednesday afternoon, the live YouTube stream had more than 43,000 viewers. Lets take a look at how Sunny and Gizmo got here. A brief history of the Big Bear bald eaglets Back in January, Jackie laid a clutch of three eggs for the first time. This rare act was especially exciting because Jackie and Shadows eggs haven’t hatched for a couple of seasons. These three eggs went all the way, hatching on March 3, 4, and 8. Sadly, after a big winter storm, one of the chicks had passed away. FOBBV held a naming contest where anyone in the world could suggest a moniker. The names were then voted on by local third, fourth, and fifth graders. The names Sunny and Gizmo were chosen by the kids while the name Misty was given to the deceased chick by FOBBV to honor the late volunteer Kathi Misterly. Last month, the Sunny and Gizmo discovered how to flap their wings. Being the older sibling, Sunny even got some air before Gizmo. The mischievous youngster got Sunny back by winning a flapping battle in May. During the second week of May, Jackie and Shadow trusted Gizmo and Sunny enough to leave them home alone in the nest overnight. (They didnt throw a party.) It is only a matter of time now before these two former fluff balls go all the way. If you are a gambler, you can enter FOBBV’s contest and take a guess on when that might be. Simply fill out a form on the nonprofit’s website with the time and date that you think each eaglet will take wing. There is no money at stake, but you could win bragging rights and a cool certificate from the organization, so its totally worth it. How can I stream the bald eagle cam live? You can watch the action at the nest cam’s live YouTube link or via the embedded video below. Whats next for the Big Bear bald eaglets? After Sunny and Gizmo take their first flight, they will hang out around Big Bear Lake for a couple of months. They still have much to learn from their parents about being an adult, including how to hunt and fish. They may even return to the nest, but it will take some time to get their wing strength up to par, as the nest is a high flight up a Jeffrey pine tree. After they are a bit more confident, the world is their oyster. Since they dont have to worry about rent, bald eagles have a wide range, being seen in areas extending from British Columbia to Yellowstone to Baja California.
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The streaming service Max is officially reverting to its previous name, HBO Max, which is great news for people who never stopped calling it HBO Max in the first place. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced today that the streaming platform would be again called HBO Max this summer as part of a shift in strategy to focus on HBO programming and other premium content that distinguishes the streamer from its competitors. WBD first removed the name HBO Max in favor of the simplified Max in 2023, when it merged with Discovery+. After two years of testing it out, it seems viewers really just want more of the shows they like, not more of absolutely anything possible. Some viewers might’ve noticed the quiet rebrand of Max’s visual identity last month, with set its logo and UI in a neutral HBO-style black-and-white color scheme, and which turned out to be an Easter egg of where the platform was headed. The overhauled identity now has the addition a new “HBO Max” name and logo, which stacks the HBO and Max logos together into one. HBO/Max branding journey, 2019-present. [Images: Warner Bros. Discovery] “We will continue to focus on what makes us uniquenot everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families,” WBD president and CEO of streaming JB Perrette said in a statement. The company said returning to the HBO brand will “amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect” and comes as the streaming landscape grows increasingly crowded. WBD is planning a CNN streaming service to launch this fall, and Disney on Tuesday announced its own all-access ESPN streaming service, expected to launch around the same time. Meanwhile, Netflix is piloting features that could allow its user interface to better compete with video content on social media platforms like TikTok. All this competition means a clearly defined value proposition is increasingly important to winning consumers and owning part of the market. So with more options than ever for what to watch, WBD is going back to betting its library is what keeps consumers subscribed. As Perrette said, “our programming just hits different.” That positioning marks a big shift from when the streaming service originally added a massive quantity of Discovery+ content, including guilty pleasure unscripted shows, to its catalogue two years ago. Now, WBD has made the decision to let other streaming platforms fulfill viewers’ basic needs with quantity, and position HBO Max as the quality choice, with prestige shows like Succession, Game of Thrones, and The White Lotus alongside box-office movies, docuseries, and other top-performing, top-tier content. There’s some recognition that the switch to Max a few years ago led to real brand dilution that company now wants to correct, if you read between the lines of WBD executive statements. “The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. “Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.” Indeed, branding experts were flummoxed by HBO Max changing its name to Max when it happened, reasoning the streaming service had gotten rid of a valuable piece of brand equity. Going back to the old HBO Max name is an admission that’s the case. Warner Bros. Discovery did not reply to a request for comment by time of publication.
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High-performance computing, or HPC for short, might sound like something only scientists use in secret labs, but its actually one of the most important technologies in the world today. From predicting the weather to finding new medicines and even training artificial intelligence, high-performance computing systems help solve problems that are too hard or too big for regular computers. This technology has helped make huge discoveries in science and engineering over the past 40 years. But now, high-performance computing is at a turning point, and the choices the government, researchers and the technology industry make today could affect the future of innovation, national security and global leadership. High-performance computing systems are basically superpowerful computers made up of thousands or even millions of processors working together at the same time. They also use advanced memory and storage systems to move and save huge amounts of data quickly. With all this power, high-performance computing systems can run extremely detailed simulations and calculations. For example, they can simulate how a new drug interacts with the human body, or how a hurricane might move across the ocean. Theyre also used in fields such as automotive design, energy production and space exploration. Lately, high-performance computing has become even more important because of artificial intelligence. AI models, especially the ones used for things such as voice recognition and self-driving cars, require enormous amounts of computing power to train. High-performance computing systems are well suited for this job. As a result, AI and high-performance computing are now working closely together, pushing each other forward. Im a computer scientist with a long career working in high-performance computing. Ive observed that high-performance computing systems are under more pressure than ever, with higher demands on the systems for speed, data and energy. At the same time, I see that high-performance computing faces some serious technical problems. Technical challenges One big challenge for high-performance computing is the gap between how fast processors are and how well memory systems can keep up with the processors output. Imagine having a superfast car but being stuck in traffic it doesnt help to have speed if the road cant handle it. In the same way, high-performance computing processors often have to wait around because memory systems cant send data quickly enough. This makes the whole system less efficient. Another problem is energy use. Todays supercomputers use a huge amount of electricity, sometimes as much as a small town. Thats expensive and not very good for the environment. In the past, as computer parts got smaller, they also used less power. But that trend, called Dennard scaling, stopped in the mid-2000s. Now, making computers more powerful usually means they use more energy too. To fix this, researchers are looking for new ways to design both the hardware and the software of high-performance computing systems. Theres also a problem with the kinds of chips being made. The chip industry is mainly focused on AI, which works fine with lower-precision math like 16-bit or 8-bit numbers. But many scientific applications still need 64-bit precision to be accurate. The greater the bit count, the more digits to the right of the decimal point a chip can process, hence the greater precision. If chip companies stop making the parts that scientists need, then it could become harder to do important research. This report discusses how trends in semiconductor manufacturing and commercial priorities may diverge from the needs of the scientific computing community, and how a lack of tailored hardware could hinder progress in research. One solution might be to build custom chips for high-performance computing, but thats expensive and complicated. Still, researchers are exploring new designs, including chiplets small chips that can be combined like Lego bricks to make high-precision processors more affordable. A global race Globally, many countries are investing heavily in high-performance computing. Europe has the EuroHPC program, which is building supercomputers in places such as Finland and Italy. Their goal is to reduce dependence on foreign technology and take the lead in areas such as climate modeling and personalized medicine. Japan built the Fugaku supercomputer, which supports both academic research and industrial work. China has also made major advances, using homegrown technology to build some of the worlds fastest computers. All of these countries governments understand that high-performance computing is key to their national security, economic strength and scientific leadership. The United States, which has been a leader in high-performance computing for decades, recently completed the Department of Energys Exascale Computing Project. This project created computers that can perform a billion billion operations per second. Thats an incredible achievement. But even with that success, the U.S. still doesnt have a clear, long-term plan for what comes next. Other countries are moving quickly, and without a national strategy, the U.S. risks falling behind. I believe that a U.S. national strategy should include funding new machines and training for people to use them. It would also include partnerships with universities, national labs and private companies. Most importantly, the plan would focus not just on hardware but also on the software and algorithms that make high-performance computing useful. Hopeful signs One exciting area for the future is quantum computing. This is a completely new way of doing computation based on the laws of physics at the atomic level. Quantum computers could someday solve problems that are impossible for regular computers. But they are still in the early stages and are likely to complement rather than replace traditional high-performance computing systems. Thats why its important to keep investing in both kinds of computing. The good news is that some steps have already been taken. The CHIPS and Science Act, passed in 2022, provides funding to expand chip manufacturing in the U.S. It also created an office to help turn scientific research into real-world products. The task force Vision for American Science and Technology, launched on Feb. 25, 2025, and led by American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Sudip Parikh, aims to marshal nonprofits, academia and industry to help guide the governments decisions. Private companies are also spending billions of dollars on data centers and AI infrastructure. All of these are positive signs, but they dont fully solve the problem of how to support high-performance computing in the long run. In addition to short-term funding and infrastructure investments, this means: Long-term federal investment in high-performance computing R&D, including advanced hardware, software and energy-efficient architectures. Procurement and deployment of leadership-class computing systems at national labs and universities. Workforce development, including training in parallel programming, numerical methods and AI-HPC integration. Hardware road map alignment, ensuring commercial chip development remains compatible with the needs of scientific and engineering applications. Sustainable funding models that prevent boom-and-bust cycles tied to one-off milestones or geopolitical urgency. Public-private collaboration to bridge gaps between academic research, industry innovation and national security needs. High-performance computing is more than just fast computers. Its the foundation of scientific discovery, economic growth and national security. With other countries pushing forward, the U.S. is under pressure to come up with a clear, coordinated plan. That means investing in new hardware, developing smarter software, training a skilled workforce and building partnerships between government, industry and academia. If the U.S. does that, the country can make sure high-performance computing continues to power innovation for decades to come. Jack Dongarra is an emeritus professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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