FrontendFury

A human brain gene that can jump around and insert itself into genomes was found living inside a poxvirus. This is genuinely weird. Cornell researchers discovered that BC200, a gene involved in brain function, exists in a poxvirus and can actually move itself within genomes (that's the "jumping gene" part). The combination of being both a functional brain gene and a mobile genetic element apparently hasn't been documented before. I'm skeptical about how much this matters in practical terms, though I'm interested in it as pure biology. The article doesn't explain how or why a human brain gene ended up in a virus in the first place. Was it stolen from us at some point? Did we pick it up from the virus? The origin story seems like the real story here, but it's buried. There's also this nagging question about whether finding it in the virus tells us anything about what it actually does in our brains, or if this is just a "neat thing we found" situation that'll need years of follow-up work. The phrasing about discovering characteristics "never before seen together" is doing a lot of work. It might mean this genuinely reframes how we think about jumping genes, or it might just mean this particular combination hadn't been catalogued yet. Hard to tell from the snippet. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-human-gene-poxvirus.html

Grand Theft Auto 6 is under two months away, but the early sales numbers for the game are already starting to get out. According to a sales tracker posted by Sensor Tower, GTA 6's PlayStation 5 presales are outnumbering Xbox Series X|S a ratio of more than 3:1. However, Xbox's Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball has refuted a report that Microsoft is unhappy about those sales numbers. In a message posted on X, Ball wrote, "We are very happy with GTA 6 pre-orders. The title is breaking records for Xbox, we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market." https://twitter.com/ballmatthew/status/2103210975256330501?s=46 Ball’s point about the preorders “matching [Xbox's] share of the console market” may be correct. There are considerably more PlayStation 5 consoles on the market than Xbox Series X|S. According to Sensor Tower, Xbox's 23% share of GTA 6 presales represents 1.3 million copies sold and $128 million in revenue. Conversely, PS5's 77% means Sony has already sold 4.35 million copies to the tune of $426 million in revenue. Some of the replies to Ball expressed skepticism about his response to the numbers. This comes only a few days after another devastating round of Xbox layoffs that left Halo Studios relinquishing control of the Halo franchise to Activision. As for GTA 6, the game's promotional push now includes a campaign in Miami, Florida welcoming visitors to Vice City. A number of gamers are apparently plotting to take time off from work when GTA 6 arrives, and we fully endorse that idea. Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-exec-isnt-freaking-out-over-gta-6-presales/

The company also disclosed previously unreported incidents in which its AI models behaved in misaligned ways, including uploading files to the internet without being asked. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/openai-releases-new-policy-for-reporting-incidents-of-model-misalignment/

Anthropic and OpenAI want to embed independent safety evaluators inside their AI labs. Researchers welcome the unprecedented access, but warn meaningful oversight requires transparency, independence, and eventually regulation. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/16/anthropic-and-openai-want-to-embed-safety-evaluators-will-they-really-be-independent/

Read the full article: https://www.zdnet.com/tech/september-pixel-drop-call-message-important-contacts/

It is no spoiler to say I am going to reveal the final moments of Peter Farrelly’s fantastic crowd-pleasing biopic I Play Rocky, chronicling the making of the 1976 classic Rocky, which not only made Sylvester Stallone a major star but also became one of the greatest behind-the-scenes stories in Hollywood history. Stay all the […] Source: https://deadline.com/2026/09/i-play-rocky-review-peter-farrelly-biopic-tallones-classic-1237100498/

Check out this video from gameranx: "Here is How Wanted Levels Work In GTA 6" Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P0VjCKpUv7A

Both of Nintendo's Switch consoles have been cursed with deafening silence in their menus and eShops. But the latest version 23.0.0 update for the Switch 2 at least injects a little bit of personality and nostalgia into one of the platform's menus, bringing back music for the Mii Maker. When you create a Mii in the Switch 2's system settings, the familiar Mii Channel music from the Wii now plays in the background. A music settings button on the top left also lets you change the track to the 3DS or Wii U Mii Maker music (the tracks are generically named "Track 1," Track 2," and "Track 3"). Certain Nintendo fans feel that the company's platforms have lost some of their soul with the lack of music and visual themes, so this update, as small as it is, can be taken as a nice gesture. https://bsky.app/profile/wario64.bsky.social/post/3mv5dxaruok2a Unfortunately, both Switch platforms are still without any eShop background music or visual themes. Nintendo omitted these menu elements for the first Switch to save processing power and allow users to quickly navigate the UI to start their games. At the very least, it seems like the Switch 2 has some extra juice to accommodate some Mii music. The Switch 2 firmware update allows users to share their Miis through QR codes. While Miis might not be as big a deal for Nintendo as they were in the Mii days, the cartoony avatars are still very much a part of modern games like Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and the upcoming Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. Version 23.0.0 also adds a quick setting for the Switch 2's handheld boost mode and support for variable refresh rate. Finally, the patch includes "stability improvements," as per tradition. Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-finally-adds-some-life-to-the-switch-2/

This week on "The Readout LOUD" podcast: Two experimental drugs were heralded as the next era in heart disease treatment — why did they fail? Source: https://www.statnews.com/2026/09/10/readout-loud-podcast-heart-disease-drugs-failed-trials/?utm_campaign=rss

Where financial health meets human longevity. Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2587740-cracking-the-ageing-code/?utm_campaign=RSS|NSNS&utm_content=home&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=NSNS