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DIXON, Calif. (AP) — The owner of a giant Northern California corn maze once crowned the world’s largest wants visitors to remember that there is fun in getting lost. “It is confusing. It’s exciting, and in a world of GPS and constant signage, you always know where you are, where you’re going,” said Taylor Cooley, owner of Cool Patch Pumpkins. “When you’re in the corn, everything looks the same until you pop up on a bridge and you’re like, ‘Oh wait, I’m all the way over here. I thought I was over there.’ ”Cooley’s pumpkin patch and corn maze along…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Chunk, a towering brown bear with a broken jaw, swept the competition Tuesday in the popular Fat Bear Week contest — his first win after narrowly finishing in second place three previous years.The annual online competition allows viewers to follow 12 bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve on live webcams and cast ballots in a bracket-style, single-elimination tournament that lasts a week. Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — beat out Bear 856, who doesn’t have a nickname, in the final bracket, according to totals posted on the organizers’ website.Chunk’s weight was estimated…

If the future of the internet looks like a constant stream of amusing videos generated by artificial intelligence, then OpenAI just placed its stake in an emerging market.The company behind ChatGPT released its new Sora social media app on Tuesday, an attempt to draw the attention of eyeballs currently staring at short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube or Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.The new iPhone app taps into the appeal of being able to make a video of yourself doing just about anything that can be imagined, in styles ranging from anime to highly realistic. But a scrolling flood of such videos…

PARIS (AP) — Inside the Centre Pompidou, Helen Mirren opened Stella McCartney ’s Paris Fashion Week show with a spoken rendition of The Beatles ’ “Come Together.” Less performance than manifesto, it set the tone for a Tuesday night collection framed around humanity, animals and the planet.McCartney has long been ahead of the curve in fashion’s sustainability push. This season she claimed her most conscious offering yet: 98% sustainable, 100% cruelty-free.“It’s about coming together — all humanity, all Mother Earth’s creatures — now more than ever,” the designer said backstage.No leather, no fur, no feathers, no exotic skins. Instead came…

Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO of Spotify, the streaming company he cofounded in 2006, and moving to executive chairman. In his place, Spotify’s current presidents Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström will be elevated to co-CEOs. The transition will take place on January 1, 2026. “I’ve spent twenty years, nearly my entire adult life, as Spotify’s CEO,” says Ek, 42. “I’m ready to go from a player to a coach.” Spotify has been quietly working on the transition for years. In 2023, Ek promoted Norström and Söderström to the roles of co-presidents to expand their power and provide them…

The expression “stay woke” started out as an affirmation for African Americans. In the past decade it has been used by some Republicans — and some Democrats — as a pejorative for people thought to be too “politically correct,” another term that took on negative connotations as it gained wider use. “Woke” has come up in cultural and political firestorms. Eight months into his second term, President Donald Trump pledged to review content at the Smithsonian Institution for being “WOKE” and where “everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was.” At the beginning of this year,…

NEW YORK (AP) — OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into a virtual merchant that can help sell goods for Etsy and Shopify as the artificial intelligence company looks for new revenue in online commerce. ChatGPT users can now buy directly from Etsy sellers while interacting with the chatbot and will soon be able to do the same with Shopify sellers.Competing with the likes of Amazon and Google for purchase fees from digital shopping could be a new source of money for OpenAI. The company hasn’t made a profit and has relied on investors to back the costs of building and running…

Venture capitalist Jim Breyer made his first billion from Facebook two decades ago when it was far from a sure thing. Now, with his two adult sons as partners and a family tragedy behind him, he’s got another big win and ambitions to reinvent healthcare. It’s the middle of August, and venture capitalist Jim Breyer has travelled from his home in Austin, Texas to his gated compound in Pebble Beach, California to catch some of the Monterey Car Week events, including the “world’s most prestigious car show,” Concours d’Elegance. Breyer enjoys admiring the sleek cars, but isn’t an avid collector–a…

Gardening tools are evolving to incorporate technology — including artificial intelligence — to help us keep plants healthier, avoid unpleasant tasks and even grow crops indoors over winter. And we can use them without losing the stress-relieving, analog benefits that nature provides.Here are just a few examples:MowingIf you don’t enjoy mowing the lawn, you can buy a robot that will do it for you. Many self-guided mowers, like the Segway Navimow, Husqvarna Automower, the Sunseeker X7 and others, will handle the task on a schedule, run quietly, then return to a charging station without human intervention (beyond setup). And many…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government starts phasing out paper checks for most programs on Tuesday.The change, which was initiated through an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March, will affect recipients of benefits including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and tax refunds.Trump’s Republican administration argues the shift of all payments and collections to electronic methods is designed to protect taxpayers from fraud and stolen checks, speed up processing and cut costs. But advocates fear that the shift will hurt marginalized Americans who lack access to digital services and may not even know this phase-out is coming.“A lot…