Nuclear Crossroad: California Reactors Face Uncertain Future

Enlarge / But but I was just about to check out Tacoma. (credit: Getty Images) With Valve's Steam gaming platform approaching the US drinking age this year, more and more aging PC gamers may be considering what will happen to their vast digital game libraries after they die. Unfortunately, legally, your collection of hundreds of backlogged games will likely pass into the ether along with you someday. The issue of digital game inheritability gained renewed attention this week as a ResetEra poster quoted a Steam support response asking about transferring Steam account ownership via a last will and testament.

Enlarge / VideoCardz' leaked image of a ROG Ally X, seemingly having gone through the JPG blender a couple times. (credit: VideoCardz) Asus' ROG Ally was the first major-brand attempt to compete with Valve's Steam Deck. It was beefy and interesting, but it had three major flaws: It ran Windows on a little touchscreen, had unremarkable ergonomics, and its battery life was painful. The Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) Ally X, which has been announced and is due out June 2, seems to have had its specs leaked, and they indicate a fix for at least the battery life.

Enlarge / OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. (credit: JASON REDMOND / Contributor | AFP) Former and current OpenAI employees received a memo this week that the AI company hopes to end the most embarrassing scandal that Sam Altman has ever faced as OpenAI's CEO. The memo finally clarified for employees that OpenAI would not enforce a non-disparagement contract that employees since at least 2019 were pressured to sign within a week of termination or else risk losing their vested equity.

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches the NROL-146 mission from California this week. (credit: SpaceX) Welcome to Edition 6.45 of the Rocket Report! The most interesting news in launch this week, to me, is that Firefly is potentially up for sale. That makes two of the handful of US companies with operational rockets, Firefly and United Launch Alliance, actively on offer.

Colorado’s economy remains strong, with the state ranked 15th nationally in job growth the first few months of 2024, but persistent higher inflation and interest rates are taking a toll on small businesses and consumers. A quarterly business report released Thursday by the Colorado secretary of state’s office and the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business showed jobs grew by 1.8% in April, adding 51,800 more year over year.

Enlarge / Messier 78 is a nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust. (credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA et. al.) Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science.