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There are some 48,000 barrels of Scotch whisky quietly aging in Martin Armstrong’s warehouses in southwestern Scotland. Last year, 17 of them became a problem.Mr. Armstrong normally deals with companies that buy hundreds of barrels at a time from distilleries, then pay him to store them as they age. In July, he started getting desperate calls from people who had bought just one or two barrels from an investment outfit called Cask Whisky Limited. They had been told that some of those barrels were stored in Mr. Armstrong’s warehouse.Cask Whisky had promised those investors sky-high returns. But when the company…

A good night’s sleep isn’t just about the number of hours you log. Getting quality sleep — the kind that leaves you feeling refreshed and ready for the day — is critical for a healthy brain.People with disturbed sleep, like insomnia or sleep apnea, have a higher risk of developing dementia than those with no sleep issues. Poor sleep can harm your brain in other ways, too. One study found that people in their 30s and 40s with heavily disrupted sleep (such as frequent awakenings or movements) were two to three times more likely to test lower in executive function,…

Many professional writers and artists dream of being chosen for a prestigious residency like Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., or MacDowell in Peterborough, N.H. But even amateurs can benefit from the intense concentration a residency allows. For them, select programs offer the opportunity to pay their own way for a few days or even weeks, sometimes at affordable rates, to create art.“A lot of people don’t realize that they can do residencies and not be someone who has chosen art as their career, or music or dance,” said Alicia Toldi, 34, an artist living in Paonia, Colo. Together with Carolina…

“Hi, My name is Gavin O’Connor, and I’m the director of “Accountant 2.” So this scene takes place deep into the second act of the movie. And we are at a bunkhouse. It’s a cowboy joint. And Chris, who’s played by Ben and Brax, who’s played by Jon Bernthal, are completely out of their element in this place. And Chris decides to get up and try to line dance after he’s mathematically figured out how to do the steps. Brax is thoroughly embarrassed at the beginning of this because he knows that his brother, per their history, is going to…

Casey Fiesler, an information science professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, learned late on Friday evening that one of the three grants she had been awarded by the National Science Foundation was being terminated.“It was a total surprise,” Dr. Fiesler said. “This is the one that I thought was totally safe.”The grant supported Dr. Fiesler’s research on building A.I. literacy. She received no official explanation for why the grant was being terminated more than a year ahead of its scheduled end. But Dr. Fiesler speculated that it had something to do with the word “misinformation” in the award’s abstract.Dr.…

Officials in the United States are urging Japan and South Korea to make a formal commitment within the next few weeks to a $44 billion natural gas project in Alaska.The effort, known as Alaska L.N.G., is a centerpiece of President Trump’s energy agenda, and aims to ship gas from northern Alaska in a liquefied form to nations in Asia. Its feasibility hinges on securing backing from the region, home to some of the world’s largest purchasers of liquefied natural gas.A group created by Mr. Trump that is advising him on domestic energy production, the National Energy Dominance Council, is seeking…

The question of whether to be polite to artificial intelligence may seem a moot point — it is artificial, after all.But Sam Altman, the chief executive of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, recently shed light on the cost of adding an extra “Please!” or “Thank you!” to chatbot prompts.Someone posted on X last week: “I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to their models.”The next day, Mr. Altman responded: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know.”First things first: Every single ask of a chatbot costs…

SAN FRANCISCO — Reeling from drug overdose deaths and scenes of people smoking fentanyl on sidewalks, San Francisco moved closer Thursday to adopting a “recovery first” drug policy that sets abstinence from illicit drugs as its primary goal, a proposal that has prompted heated debate in the city that pioneered harm reduction.Opponents of Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s proposal say its emphasis on stopping drug use alienates those who are not ready to quit, while proponents say the city has been far too permissive and making drug use safer does not help break the cycle of addiction.Dorsey, himself recovering from alcohol and…

As Elon Musk sought to reassure Wall Street analysts on Tuesday that he would soon scale back his work with the federal government, the strain of his situation was audible in his voice.The world’s richest man said that he would continue arguing that the Trump administration should lower tariffs it has imposed on countries across the world. But he acknowledged in a subdued voice that whether President Trump “will listen to my advice is up to him.”He was not quite chastened, but it was a different Mr. Musk than a couple months ago, when the billionaire, at the peak of…

President Trump and Elon Musk promised taxpayers big savings, maybe even a “DOGE dividend” check in their mailboxes, when the Department of Government Efficiency was let loose on the federal government. Now, as he prepares to step back from his presidential assignment to cut bureaucratic fat, Mr. Musk has said without providing details that DOGE is likely to save taxpayers only $150 billion.That is about 15 percent of the $1 trillion he pledged to save, less than 8 percent of the $2 trillion in savings he had originally promised and a fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government…