One of the biggest surprises in the world of TVs is that the once-reigning champ of plasma displays, Panasonic, is stateside once more. For a minute, you could only get Panasonic sets outside the US, but this year, there are three Panasonic TVs for sale in North America, and the best one is already on sale for its lowest price yet:Right now, when you purchase the Panasonic 65-inch Z95A Series OLED TV, youll only end up paying $2,500. The full MSRP on this model is $3,200. Not only is this one of the best TV deals of the week, but its the sort of-TV homecoming weve all been waiting for! As our editor at large Caleb Denison said in his Z95A review: Stunning picture and shockingly good sound help make the Panasonic Z95A one of the top 5 TVs weve ever reviewed.Why you should buy the Panasonic Z95APlasma TVs were once the videophiles dream come true, and Panasonic stood at the summit of plasma stardom. And while the Z95A Series OLED may have a far thinner chassis than plasmas of yesteryear, this 2025 flagship is a brilliant homage to Panasonics 2010s heyday. Rocking a WOLED display with an MLA-enhanced sublayer, the Z95A delivers gorgeous colors and a near-infinite contrast ratio with perfect blacks.RelatedViewers will also be treated to an ultra-wide viewing angle, class-leading HDR support, and some very elevated SDR capabilities. We didnt think wed see the day when an OLED looked this good in a brightly lit room (though LGs long-standing Gallery Series has helped us prep for this moment). The Z95A has two HDMI 2.1 ports (four inputs total), as well as numerous gaming optimizations to give PS5 and Xbox gamers a fast-acting display to work with.Smart TV features are handled by Amazons Fire TV OS, which gives you access to numerous apps, including Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube. Youll also be able to use Alexa to search for movies and shows, switch inputs, and more.While we wish this TV would stay on sale forever, it likely wont be this price as soon as next week. Heck, maybe even tomorrow. So, if you like the idea of saving $700 on a Panasonic OLED in 2025, today might be your best chance. Oh, and before you go, you may also want to look through our lists of the best OLED TV deals and best 65-inch TV deals, too.Editors Recommendations

Now that CES 2025 is wrapping up, we have a solid idea of what home theater tech is on the horizon. And, like clockwork, many of the best sets of 2024 are already going on sale, likely to make way for the new fleet. One brand that made waves at this years CES was TCL, so it makes perfect sense that the companys 2024 flagship QLED dropped in price.Right now, if you purchase the TCL 65-inch QM8 Series (2024) at Walmart, youll only wind up paying $950. The full MSRP on this set is $1,400, and the $450 youll save can go toward one of the best soundbar deals of the week! Both Amazon and Best Buy are selling the 65-inch QM8 Series (2024) for a reduced price too, though the Walmart offer is $50 cheaper.Why you should buy the TCL 65-inch QM8 Series (2024)QLED TVs are renowned for bright-room performance, and the TCL QM8 Series takes illumination to the next level (and has been since 2023). With its densely-packed mini-LED backlight array, the QM8 maintains up to 5,000 local dimming zones, ensuring picture maladies like light bloom and poor greyscale presentation are left by the wayside. Throw in some class-leading HDR capabilities (the QM8 supports every HDR format) and TCLs AIPQ Pro-powered 4K upscaling, and prepare to be amazed by this QLEDs 5,000-nit peak brightness!RelatedMovie buffs and gamers are in great shape when it comes to motion clarity, too. Not only does the QM8 support up to a 144Hz native refresh rate, but the TV also supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro ALLM and includes an Auto Game Mode that automatically optimizes picture settings to cut down on input lag and improve response times.Other awesome features include apps, AirPlay, and other web-connected capabilities via the QM8s Google TV OS, and an Onkyo 2.1.2 audio system with a built-in subwoofer!Were not sure how long this markdown is going to stick around, but well likely see some ebb-and-flow activity until the new QM8 Series hits shelves later in 2025. That being said, it could be a while before the 2024 edition drops in price again. Purchase today and save $450 on the TCL 65-inch QM8 Series (2024). You may also want to check out our lists of the best TCL TV deals and best QLED TV deals for even more discounts on top sets!Editors Recommendations

The producers of the dark maple-syrup-heist comedy knew they had to tap into something authentic to make it work. Here, a behind-the-scenes look at their obsessive pursuit, plus the recipe for the sticky toffee pudding that fueled it.

The rivalry of Hannibal and Scipio, a visit to logo land, the most mysterious sense and more.

This ninth-century object at Oxfords Ashmolean Museum is a rare example of cloisonn enamel from the period, and connects us to the legendary figure who commissioned it: Alfred the Great.

Leaked memo verified Meta kills diversity programs, claiming DEI has become too charged Meta claims it will find other ways to hire employees from different backgrounds. Ashley Belanger Jan 10, 2025 3:17 pm | 22 Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreMeta has reportedly ended diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that influenced staff hiring and training, as well as vendor decisions, effective immediately.According to an internal memo viewed by Axios and verified by Ars, Meta's vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, told Meta employees that the shift was due to "legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing."It's another move by Meta that some view as part of the company's larger effort to align with the incoming Trump administration's politics. In December, Donald Trump promised to crack down on DEI initiatives at companies and on college campuses, The Guardian reported.Earlier this week, Meta cut its fact-checking program, which was introduced in 2016 after Trump's first election to prevent misinformation from spreading. In a statement announcing Meta's pivot to X's Community Notes-like approach to fact-checking, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that fact-checkers were "too politically biased" and "destroyed trust" on Meta platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.Trump has also long promised to renew his war on alleged social media censorship while in office. Meta faced backlash this week over leaked rule changes relaxing Meta's hate speech policies, The Intercept reported, which Zuckerberg said were "out of touch with mainstream discourse." Those changes included allowing anti-trans slurs previously banned, as well as permitting women to be called "property" and gay people to be called "mentally ill," Mashable reported. In a statement, GLAAD said that rolling back safety guardrails risked turning Meta platforms into "unsafe landscapes filled with dangerous hate speech, violence, harassment, and misinformation" and alleged that Meta appeared to be willing to "normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit."According to Gale's memo, the DEI programs were similarly outdated since "the Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI" and "the term 'DEI' has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others."Meta cuts DEI team, ends representation goalsMeta's culture shift, the memo said, required "five big DEI pullbacks," Axios reported.Those included cutting its DEI team and replacing equity and inclusion programs with programs "that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background."It also included ending representation goals for women and ethnic minorities, which Gale wrote "can create the impression that decisions are being made based on race or gender." As of 2022, only 37.1 percent of Meta's global employees were women, Statista reported in December, and some minority groups remain underrepresented, with 6.5 percent of employees identifying as Hispanic and 4.9 percent identifying as Black in 2022. Meta is also still facing a lawsuit it now hopes to force into arbitration over alleged retaliation and discrimination against female employees.Additionally, Meta plans to stop seeking diverse-owned businesses as suppliers, instead focusing on "supporting small and medium-sized businesses that power much of our economy," the memo said.And finally, Meta will change its hiring practices from using a "diverse slate approach" sourcing candidates with "different backgrounds" to instead seeking as-yet unknown "other ways to build an industry-leading workforce and leverage teams made up of world-class people from all types of backgrounds," the memo said.Meta declined to comment but confirmed to Ars that Axios' reporting on the memo is accurate.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 22 Comments

i respect and applaud the effort Strange, unique, and otherwise noteworthy PCs and PC accessories from CES 2025 Most of these experiments don't stick around for long, but who knows. Andrew Cunningham Jan 10, 2025 3:04 pm | 2 Acer's Nitro Blaze 11, which takes the "portable" out of "portable handheld gaming PC." Credit: Acer Acer's Nitro Blaze 11, which takes the "portable" out of "portable handheld gaming PC." Credit: Acer Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe Consumer Electronics Show is a reliable source of announcements about iterative updates to PCs and PC components. A few of those announcements are significant enough in some way that they break through all that noiseNvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs and their lofty promises about AI-generated frames did that this year, as did Dell's decision to kill multiple decades-old PC brands and replace them with a bland series of "Pro/Premium/Plus" tiers.But CES is also a place where PC companies and accessory makers get a little weird, taking some bigger (and occasionally questionable) swings alongside a big batch of more predictable incremental refreshes. As we've covered the show from afar this year, here are some of the more notable things we've seen.Put an E-Ink screen on it: Asus NUC 14 Pro AI+ The NUC 14 Pro AI+ finds a way to combine E-Ink, AI, and turn-of-the-millennium translucent plastic into a single device. Credit: Asus The strangest CES PCs are usually the ones that try to pull away from "a single screen attached to a keyboard" in some way. Sometimes, those PCs have a second screen stashed somewhere; sometimes, they have a screen that stretches; sometimes, they get rid of the keyboard part and extend the screen down where you expect that keyboard to be.Asus is currently the keeper of Intel's old NUC mini PC line, and this year it's updating the NUCs mostly by putting new processors in them. But the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI+ also decides to spice things up by adding a color E-Ink display on top, one with images that can display persistently even when the device is off.While other PCs with shoehorned-in E-Ink displays have at least tried to do something functionalolder laptops in Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus series could be used as E-Ink tablets when they were closedthe screen on the NUC 14 Pro AI+ seems strictly ornamental. Asus offers few details about how it works: "users can generate AI images through the built-in app, allowing them to create unique personal identification designs that continuously display content without being plugged in, consuming no power."All of Asus' product shots show the NUC with the same pattern of abstract triangles displayed on the top, so it's unclear whether users will have the option to use custom non-AI-generated images, or if they'll be able to use the screen to display any other kind of system information. It's unique, at least.Stretching out: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable Is this a weird stretched-out Photoshop of a laptop? No, it's just the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable! Credit: Lenovo We wrote about the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable already this week, so we won't dedicate a ton of extra space to it here. But its stretchable screen, which expands vertically from 14 inches to 16.7 inches, is an interesting riff on the "one laptop, multiple screens" idea. Some pictures of the laptop look vaguely Photoshopped, like someone grabbed the top of the screen and stretched it out.Other laptops have put a second screen beneath the hinge under a removable keyboard and a second screen that folds out horizontally. The new ThinkBook keeps the portrait orientation, but it has a traditional non-removable keyboard in the base. One day, maybe Lenovo will hit a ThinkBook Plus screen idea that it likes well enough to keep for more than a generation or two.A time for reflection: InWin Prism PC case The InWin Prism case has mirrored glass side panels, so you can see everything inside your PC and also everything outside your PC. Seeing what pre-built weirdness the PC companies can come up with is always fun, but I live for the PC case ideas that companies bring to CES. Maybe you're using weird materials like fabric or wood paneling. Maybe you're making a case that looks like a shark, or a giant shoe. I probably won't buy any of these things, but I sure do like looking at them.The most eye-catching entry into this genre from CES 2025 is from InWin, which has also given us hits like this case with addressable RGB lights all over its entire front panel. The InWin Prism midtower uses two-way mirror panels on its sidesif you've already got a PC filled with busy RGB lights, the Prism makes things look even busier by also reflecting everything in your room back at you.The pristine press shots of this one don't really do it justice; photos from Tom's Hardware of the case on the show floor do a better job of conveying just how chaotic this thing looks in person.Feeling exposed: MSI Project Zero X case MSI's Project Zero X concept case achieves a clean look by using back-connect motherboards. It's very glassy. Credit: MSI If the Prism is a PC case that looks a littletoo visible, MSI's Project Zero X is the opposite, with glass that wraps around the back, front, left side, and top of the case to show off everything inside to an even greater degree than most windowed cases.This is a follow-up to the original Project Zero concept case, which wasn't quite as glassy. The (relatively) unique thing about both cases is that they're designed around motherboards with all their various connectors on the back sideoften referred to as "back-connect" motherboards. The power plugs, fan and USB headers, power button, and everything else you need to plug cables into when you install a motherboard are all facing the opposite direction from your CPU socket, RAM slots, and PCI Express cards.The point is to make it easier to create clean, show-off-able builds without as much cable management hassle, which is why you'd combine it with a case that shows your motherboard off from every side but the back.A roommate for your gaming PC: MSI MEG MAESTRO 900L PZ The MSI MEG MAESTRO 900L PZ can fit a full-size E-ATX build and a mini ITX build into the same case at the same time? Because why not? Credit: MSI MSI also makes the cut for the MEG MAESTRO 900L PZ. This is a hulking monstrosity of a PC case that can, for some reason, fit an E-ATX motherboard, an ITX motherboard, and the power supplies, fans, and GPUs for both systems in the same case at the same time.Maybe it's a nice way to bring a spare or loaner system with you to a LAN party or an e-sports competition? But it looks and sounds like the kind of thing that requires team lifting to move around.Building a bigger Steam Deck Acer's Nitro Blaze 11, which takes the "portable" out of "portable handheld gaming PC." Credit: Acer Clones of Valve's handheld Steam Deck gaming PC have become a product category unto themselves, and companies like Asus and Lenovo are already a couple of generations deep into their own versions. One of Lenovo's is the first non-Steam Deck to officially run Steam OS, a sign that Valve could once again be ready to make a move against Windows.And when the PC companies see what they think of as a new market opportunity, the race for differentiation begins, with occasionally silly results.Enter the Acer Nitro Blaze 11, which looks like a mostly conventional handheld with Nintendo Switch-style detachable controllers but with a huge 11-inch screen (the OLED Steam Deck is 7.4 inches, and other Deck-alikes mostly land between seven and nine inches). At 2.3 pounds, the Blaze 11 pushes the boundaries of what can reasonably be considered "handheld." It also has a Switch-style kickstand for propping it up on a desk or table, which feels like an admission that you might not want to be holding the thing all the time.All of that said, "take a thing people already like and make it bigger/smaller" has been a fairly reliable path to success in PCs, phones, and other tech over the last couple of decades. Maybe an 11-inch "handheld" won't seem so weird a few years from now.A keyboard for writers The Wordrunner is "the first mechanical keyboard for writers," or at least it will be if its Kickstarter takes off. Credit: Freewrite This one's for all the writers out there who believe that they're just one equipment purchase away from having a perfect, productive, distraction-free writing setup.Freewrite is known primarily for its smart typewriters, keyboards that are attached to small monochrome LCD or E-Ink displays that promise to be "dedicated drafting tools" that "maximize your productivity.This year, they've unveiled a PC keyboard billed as "the first mechanical keyboard designed for writers." The Wordrunner has a function row of shortcut keys that will be useful to writers navigating their way through a document, plus a built-in timer and word counter for the times when you just need to pull words out of your brain and you can go back and edit them into cohesive thoughts later.I do enjoy a keyboard with extraneous knobs and doodads, which makes the mechanical "wordometer" particularly appealing to me. Unfortunately, as of this writing the Wordrunner is still in a primordial, pre-Kickstarter state of development. If you're interested, you can put down $1 now, so you can get early bird Kickstarter pricing in February, and you might get a keyboard at some point several months or years in the future. Freewrite is, at least, an established company with several products under its belt, so we wouldn't betoo worried about this project vanishing without a trace as so many Kickstarter efforts do.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 2 Comments

The hairs on tomato plants are actually tiny pest trapsJalaal Research Group/University of AmsterdamFor hungry insects, walking along a tomato stalk in search of a green meal can be like navigating a minefield.Jared Popowski at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands was trying to measure the mechanical properties of tomato plants in the lab. Then a tiny hair on one of the stalks started oozing liquid and it happened so quickly that his camera barely caught it. He had inadvertently triggered one of the plants pest-protection mechanisms.

A transmission electron micrograph of a section through pancreas tissue, showing cells that produce insulinSTEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/AlamyThe first human trial of insulin-producing cells that have been gene-edited to evade immune attack is a success so far. The cells have survived and produced insulin for a month after being injected into a 42-year-old man with type 1 diabetes early in December.As a precaution, only a small number of insulin-producing beta cells were injected into a forearm muscle in this initial test, so the man still needs insulin injections. It also remains to be seen how long the

EnvironmentThe herbicide glyphosate is helping farmers adopt more environmentally friendly practices, and resistant weeds will make this transition more difficult, experts say 10 January 2025 Italian ryegrass is a common weed in arable cropsJohn CussansWeeds resistant to the herbicide glyphosate have found been found in the UK for first time. The species in question, called Italian ryegrass, is very widespread in the UK, but specimens impervious to the chemical have only been found on one farm in Kent.Glyphosate has been helping farmers adopt more environmentally friendly farming practices known as regenerative agriculture, says John Cussans, a weed management expert at consultancy firm ADAS. His team confirmed that the plants were resistant in tests in a greenhouse.It may affect our ability to transition our farming system, says Cussans. Herbicide resistance to glyphosate is a very significant practical problem on a farm.AdvertisementIn the UK, farmers use glyphosate mainly to clear all plants in a field before planting seeds. This allows them to avoid ploughing, which damages soil health, increases erosion and reduces carbon storage.Minimising soil disturbance is one of the key planks of regenerative agriculture, along with crop rotation and maintaining ground cover.Glyphosate is relatively environmentally benign compared to other agrochemicals, says Helen Metcalfe at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK. It shows very little bioaccumulation and low toxicity. And it supports regenerative practices like minimum tillage, which is really great for soil health. It can actually have environmental benefits compared to some of the alternatives. Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterWeeds are a massive problem for farmers, says Paul Neve at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. We lose more crop yield to weeds than we do to insect pests and pathogens.Around the world, at least 56 weed species including Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) have evolved glyphosate resistance, and it has happened independently in hundreds of different places. Such weeds are a major problem for many farmers in the US and Argentina, where crops developed to be unaffected by glyphosate have been grown on a large scale for many years.But actually, given that the first case was 30 years ago, this hasnt exploded into a huge problem, says Neve.It is a big issue on individual farms where resistant weeds are present, says Neve, but weeds spread more slowly than, say, insecticide-resistant insect pests. Taking precautions such as cleaning farm equipment to get rid of any seeds can slow their spread.Farmers also need to adopt a range of weed control measures and not rely solely on glyphosate, says Metcalfe. We found that if farmers focus on weed control and implement all these alternatives to glyphosate, that it is possible for profits to start recovering after five to 10 years, she says.Cussanss team stepped up surveillance in the UK in 2018, testing more than 300 samples of Italian ryegrass. He thinks the resistant plants on the farm in Kent almost certainly evolved in situ, rather than being brought in from elsewhere.He also thinks the fact that resistance seems to have taken much longer to evolve in the UK than in other countries could be because farmers there dont grow crops genetically modified or conventionally bred to be resistant to glyphosate. With such crops, glyphosate can be applied to control weeds while crops are growing as well as before planting seeds.Topics: