A couple weeks back, Supreme Court watcher Steve Vladeck pointed out a fascinating “tell” by Justice Samuel Alito in dealing with stays that he will issue on shadow docket requests. If he is prone to agree with the underlying claim, he’ll issue an unbounded stay on a lower court’s ruling. If he is inclined to disagree with the underlying ruling, he issues a temporary stay with a short deadline before the stay is lifted. He noticed this in particular with the stay that Alito issued in response to the Fifth Circuit’s ruling blocking prescriptions of the abortion drug mifepristone without an in-person visit (an attempt to block the pills from being sent to the various Southern states covered by the Fifth Circuit). In that case, Alito had a short deadline before the stay would be lifted, in contrast to how he tends to treat such stays when he agrees with the result:
First, Justice Alito waited almost 48 hours to act—a period during which there was quite a lot of chaos across the country among doctors, pharmacists, and patients over whether and to what extent they were bound by Friday’s Fifth Circuit decision. 48 hours may not seem like a long time, but for comparison, in November, Alito issued an administrative stay in the Texas redistricting case just 68 minutes after Texas’s application for emergency relief was docketed by the Supreme Court (both of which happened after hours on a Friday night).
Second, and speaking of the Texas case, Alito’s administrative stays in the mifepristone case had something that his administrative stay in the Texas case didn’t—a deadline (next Monday at 5 p.m. ET). This follows a much broader pattern—in which Alito issues indefinite administrative stays in cases in which he appears to be sympathetic to the applicants, but imposes deadlines on the stays in cases in which he doesn’t. Before Monday, the last nine administrative stays in which Alito imposed deadlines were all cases in which at least one of the applicants had been the Biden administration. In contrast, Alito imposed no deadline in the Texas redistricting case; a potentially significant non-delegation case from 2024; and several other cases with … less … of an ideological valence.
To be sure, Alito isn’t the only justice to ever put a deadline on an administrative stay; Justices Gorsuch and Jackson have also each done it exactly once. And although the deadlines tend to create unnecessary tension and stress for both the parties and the Supreme Court’s press corps (who worry about what will happen if the deadline comes and goes with no action—which appeared to happen in the Texas SB4 immigration case in March 2024), they’re not especially significant beyond that. But it certainly seems like a petty way to treat parties differently based upon what you think of their claims.
Then, despite that short deadline (which, to be fair, was extended three days), the Supreme Court waited until 26 minutes past the deadline to issue its unexplained shadow docket ruling keeping the stay in place until after the rest of the proceedings play out (like a cert petition to the Supreme Court, and then a more complete ruling on the merits).
Advertisement
As a site that regularly calls out and complains about shadow docket rulings, and in particular unexplained shadow docket rulings, it’s unfortunate that the majority didn’t explain their reasoning — and equally unfortunate that Alito forced a rushed decision in the first place.
I know that the justices hate the term “shadow docket,” preferring either the “emergency” docket or the “interim” docket, but if they’re going to call it that they should really only use it for issues that are emergencies or for interim relief — the very limited number of scenarios where real unmitigated damage could be done in the interim until a thorough review has been conducted. But that’s just not the case most of the time. Relatedly, those rulings should have extremely narrow and limited precedential power. In theory that was the case until last year when some of the Justices (most notably, Justice Gorsuch) started whining about judges following actual full merits rulings as precedent, rather than magically applying unreasoned shadow docket decisions.
And while there is plenty of analysis elsewhere of the impact of last week’s late night ruling, I wanted to highlight the sheer hypocrisy* of Alito whining about the Justices not giving a reason for their stay. In his own dissent (which is likely why the ruling came out late, coming after Alito’s own needlessly imposed deadline), he starts off by complaining about the lack of any reasoning:
The Court’s unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable.
Given how often Alito has signed onto other “unreasoned” shadow docket rulings when he agreed with them, it’s worth calling out the brazenness of complaining about the very practice he’s helped normalize.
Advertisement
* I use the word “hypocrisy” here deliberately for two reasons. First, because it is incredibly hypocritical. Second, because Alito’s ruling had an embarrassing typo, in which he referred to the litigation involving the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine as the Alliance for Hypocritic Medicine. This typo was one of many that the Supreme Court had to issue corrections on the filing not once, but twice, before finally fixing this particular typo.
And while the Wall Street Journal can pretend that shadow docket critics don’t care about unexplained shadow docket rulings when they go in their favor, that’s bullshit. Unexplained SCOTUS rulings are bad no matter what. In an ideal world, Alito wouldn’t have imposed an artificially short deadline on the administrative stay, and the court would have given some explanation for its decision — rather than leaving us to read tea leaves from Alito and Thomas’s odd dissents.
First, Justice Thomas went full Comstock Act, arguing that all dispensation of mifepristone through the mail is illegal—never mind that the Department of Justice took a different position as recently as 2022. Putting aside the (well-documented) weaknesses of the Comstock Act arguments, Justice Thomas is simply wrong to argue that parties “cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes.” As the Trump cases have regularly illustrated, a party can be irreparably harmed (at least in view of a majority of the current Court—including Justice Thomas) by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to break the law. Justice Thomas also apparently saw no problem with the Fifth Circuit issuing nationwide relief under the APA—even though he joined a 2023 concurrence by Justice Gorsuch arguing that such universal vacaturs were likely not authorized by the APA. Needless to say, that inconsistency was … not addressed.
And then there’s Justice Alito’s dissent. Alito opened by claiming that “[w]hat is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs.” Of course, Dobbs insisted that it was returning the question of abortion to the states, whereas the Fifth Circuit ruling would’ve required in-person doctor visits on a nationwide basis. In any event, though, the FDA first got rid of the in-person doctor-visit requirement in 2021—before Dobbs was decided. So the “scheme to undermine Dobbs” began … before Dobbs.
Advertisement
There’s more at the link.
But at a time when the Supreme Court keeps telling us we shouldn’t believe that they make decisions on partisan grounds, it sure would help if they actually stopped doing things differently depending on the partisan valence of each case — something Alito seems to do quite regularly.
It really seems like we need serious reform of the Supreme Court. I’ve already argued that we should increase the number of Justices to 100 or more (to the point where no single Justice matters so much anymore), but any serious reform needs to contend with the abuses of the shadow docket, and making sure that it really is only used for emergency situations where an interim ruling is necessary for maintaining the status quo until a full briefing on the merits can occur.
Justice Alito appears to want to have two different sets of rules, depending on his feelings towards the parties. That’s the opposite of supposedly blind justice. If the court fears that its rulings are seen as illegitimate, then it should start by making sure Alito stops treating parties very differently depending on how aligned they are with his personal ideological beliefs.
Schiit Audio has spent the better part of a decade owning the $99 conversation in hi-fi, but until now, it refused to follow the herd into the dongle DAC trenches. That changes with the surprise debut of the Schiit Vestri at CanJam Singapore 2026, a compact USB DAC and headphone amp that finally gives long suffering fans what they’ve been asking for since the first smartphone killed the headphone jack. Took them long enough. Thor waited less time for Ragnarök.
Priced at $99, Vestri is not just another “me too” stick. It is Schiit doing what it does best, dropping into a crowded category late, undercutting expectations, and daring everyone else to explain their pricing. No screen, no nonsense, just a stealth LED interface beneath the surface, simple controls, and both 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs for those who have already gone balanced and are not going back.
Schiit Vestri: $99 Dongle DAC, Balanced Output, No Screen, Maximum Attitude
Schiit Audio has officially entered the dongle DAC and portable headphone amp category with Vestri, a $99 USB powered DAC and headphone amplifier that debuted at CanJam Singapore. Pre-orders are open now, with shipments scheduled to begin May 28.
Vestri includes both 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single ended headphone outputs, capacitive touch controls, Schiit’s Unison USB receiver, and the company’s Mesh D/A conversion platform, which combines a time and frequency domain optimized digital filter with an ES9018 delta sigma DAC.
“I joke when I say ‘Vestri is the only dongle that matters,” explained Jason Stoddard, Schiit’s Co-Founder. “Which is beyond cheeky, but in a field of 10,000 lookalike products all using the same off the shelf technology, it has a grain of truth.”
Advertisement
The balanced output delivers up to 400mW RMS into 32 ohms, 320mW into 50 ohms, and 120mW into 300 ohms. The single ended output provides up to 200mW RMS into 32 ohms, 150mW into 50 ohms, and 40mW into 300 ohms. That should make Vestri suitable for a very wide range of headphones and IEMs, although the absolute hardest to drive models will still want something larger and less pocket friendly — so it’s clearly not the only dongle that matters.
The design is classic Schiit mischief with actual engineering behind it. Vestri uses a seamless milled aluminum chassis with a glass front panel, but skips the OLED screen found on many portable DACs.
“No screens,” Stoddard said. “Screens burn in and are a wear item. We want to design for the next generation, not the next sale.”
Instead, Vestri uses individual LEDs embedded beneath the glass for its interface. Schiit says they are run conservatively for long life.
Advertisement
“It’s the eternal screen,” Stoddard joked. “If you don’t drop it in the sand or in your coffee, Vestri should last far past its warranty.” Duly noted. Not IPX7 rated apparently.
Controls include volume, Loudness, invert, and NOS modes, all accessible through capacitive touch buttons under the glass. Loudness contour is a useful feature at lower listening levels, while NOS mode gives users another playback option without turning the product into a settings circus.
Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Vestri is also made in the USA on Schiit Audio’s own SMD assembly line in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Advertisement
“We’ve been making products in the USA since we started in a garage 16 years ago,” Stoddard said. “No need to change anything for Vestri.”
Schiit Vestri Key Specs:
USB receiver: Schiit Unison USB
D/A conversion: Schiit Mesh with ES9018 delta sigma DAC
Supported formats: 16-bit/44.1 kHz to 32-bit/192 kHz
Outputs: 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single ended
Power output: up to 400mW RMS balanced, 200mW RMS single ended into 32 ohms
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz, ±0.05dB
THD: less than 0.0002%, 20Hz to 20kHz
SNR: greater than 118dB, A weighted
Output impedance: less than 0.5 ohms
Controls: volume, NOS, invert, Loudness
Display: no OLED screen, embedded LEDs under glass
Chassis: milled aluminum with glass front
Power: USB powered, 0.9W typical
Size: 2.4 x 1.4 x 0.44 inches
Weight: 4 oz
Made in: USA, Corpus Christi, Texas
Warranty: 2 years
The Bottom Line
At $99, Vestri lands in one of the most crowded categories in portable audio, but the combination of balanced output, Unison USB, Mesh conversion, touch controls, no screen, two year warranty, and USA manufacturing gives Schiit a very real point of difference. Sneaky Schiit, indeed.
What makes Vestri stand out is not just the price, it is the refusal to follow the usual template. No off the shelf reference design, no fragile OLED screen, and no anonymous tuning. Instead, Schiit leans on its own USB implementation, its own digital filter approach, and a balanced output stage that actually delivers meaningful power for a dongle at this price. The Loudness control is also a smart inclusion that most competitors ignore, especially for real world listening on the move.
What is missing is just as important. There is no app, no Bluetooth, no wireless anything, and no high resolution streaming integration. Codec chasing is not part of the story here. If you want LDAC, aptX Lossless, or a feature heavy interface, you will have to look elsewhere. Some users will also question the lack of a screen, even if Schiit makes a valid long term durability argument.
Do you know what could make the Vestri even more interesting? Running the 3.5mm output with a 3.5mm to RCA cable into the new Schiit Buf Tube Buffer, and then into a pair of active loudspeakers. Use your smartphone as your network player and insert some “warmth” into the speakers if they need it.
Advertisement
The competition is fierce and not exactly forgiving. Dongles from brands like FiiO, iFi Audio, Questyle, Shanling, and Hidizs dominate this space with feature rich designs, app support, and a wide range of DAC implementations. Many offer more bells and whistles, but few will match Vestri’s combination of balanced power, in house engineering, and made in USA production at this price.
This is for listeners who want a simple, durable, plug and play DAC and headphone amp that focuses on sound and power over features. If Schiit delivers on performance, Vestri is going to be a problem for a lot of very comfortable competitors.
The build is based around a Xiao ESP32-S3 board, which hosts the capable microcontroller and has all that useful wireless connectivity built in. It’s hooked up to a MAX30102 heart rate sensor to collect the wearer’s vital signs, as well as a 1.54″ LCD screen for displaying the fantastic Pip Boy themed interface. Power is courtesy of a small lithium-ion cell tucked in behind the display. A little copper tubing and brass hardware helps tie everything together, with the latter serving as capacitive touch points for controlling the device. A simple leather watch strap completes the build.
It’s a bit of a diversion from the classic Pip Boy design, in that it’s a small smartwatch instead of a chunky device that takes up most of the wearer’s forearm. However, this isn’t so bad in reality—it’s far more practical while still rocking those classic green-on-black graphics that we all love so much.
Google announced voice-based prompting for Docs, Keep, and Gmail at I/O 2026, letting users create documents, organise notes, and search their inboxes by speaking instead of typing. The features are powered by Gemini AI and roll out this summer for premium subscribers and Workspace business users.
The headline feature is Docs Live, which lets users create and edit documents entirely by speaking. In a demo, Google showed a user verbally instructing the tool to pull résumé details from Drive, layer in event logistics from an email thread, and sprinkle in a few humorous anecdotes, all in a single, unscripted stream of speech. The idea is that voice enables longer, more complex prompts than most people would bother typing out, and that current models are now good enough to follow along even when a speaker changes direction mid-sentence.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Advertisement
CEO Sundar Pichai framed the shift as inevitable, saying that users will soon create and edit documents using voice as a matter of course. It is a bold claim, but the technical groundwork is arguably already in place. Google recently launched a standalone dictation product called Rambler, built into its Gboard keyboard, which strips filler words and handles multilingual code-switching on the fly. Rambler shipped earlier this month for Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices.
Keep is getting a similar voice overhaul. Users will be able to dump a stream of unstructured thoughts, jumping from gift ideas to grocery lists to home renovation plans, and the AI will sort the transcription into separate, neatly organised notes. The concept is not new. Apps such as Voicenotes and AudioPen have offered voice-to-structured-text workflows for years, and desktop dictation tools like Wispr Flow, Monologue, and Aqua Voice have built loyal followings. What Google brings to the table is scale: Keep is already baked into the broader Workspace ecosystem, meaning voice notes can flow straight into Docs, Sheets, and the rest of the suite.
Gmail, meanwhile, is gaining what Google calls Gmail Live, a conversational voice interface for your inbox. Instead of typing search queries, you can ask Gmail to surface specific details, flight confirmation codes, Airbnb check-in instructions, or your child’s school schedule, and get spoken answers drawn from your messages. It is essentially an AI agent for your email, one that understands context well enough to handle multi-step requests.
The broader trend here is clear. Users are asking increasingly complex, multi-part questions of AI tools, and voice is simply a more natural interface for that kind of interaction than a text box. Google is not the only company to notice. Its own Cloud Next conference last month showcased a wave of agentic AI features across Workspace, and rivals from OpenAI to Apple are racing to embed voice-first AI into their own productivity stacks.
Advertisement
The new voice features will roll out this summer for Google AI Premium subscribers and Google Workspace business users. Whether talking to your documents catches on as a mainstream habit remains to be seen, but Google is clearly convinced that the keyboard’s monopoly on productivity is overdue for a challenge.
Long journeys highlight how quickly your phone can drain, with all those maps, images, and texts eating away at the battery like there’s no tomorrow. The INIU power bank, priced at $19.79 after coupon is automatically applied at checkout (was $33), comes to the rescue, packing 20,000mAh into a body measuring 2.8 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches and weighing only 11.1 ounces. Tuck it into a jacket pocket or side compartment, and it will sit quietly until you need it.
Its high-density cells are capable of packing a lot of power into such a small footprint without losing output quality. In general, a full charge will last your iPhone 16 up to four complete recharges or your Galaxy S23 up to three, but in practice, it all depends on screen brightness, apps, and so on, so don’t be surprised if it lasts you a full day of mixed stuff before needing a top-up.
Iconic LEGO Collection – The LEGO Speed Champions collection is full of iconic toy car models, including the Pagani Utopia (76915) and Porsche…
LEGO Ferrari Collectible – Features a LEGO Speed Champions collectible model car replica of the Ferrari 812 Competizione plus a driver minifigure with…
Race Driver Minifigure – The set includes a LEGO race driver minifigure to be placed behind the wheel of the race car toy for superfast action on the…
Recharging is a continuous 22.5 watts using PD & QC protocols so your phone charges up faster than with typical banks, which is good. One end is lined with three ports, two USB-C and one USB-A. Two or three devices can share the load, consuming up to 15 watts total. The bank also includes a short braided USB-C cable with a wrist band, eliminating the need to rummage through your luggage for extra cords or get held up at security.
Rather than an ambiguous battery indicator, the front boasts a handy LED display that shows you exactly what percentage is remaining. That way, you can quickly assess whether it will withstand another gadget or if it requires some TLC on its own. Recharging the bank takes about six hours with a regular wall adapter, which is quite fair. The 74-watt-hour rating is airline certified, so there’s no need for any further paperwork.
Hikers and festival-goers appreciate the built-in torch for late-night trips to the restroom or getting to your car in a parking lot. The outside case is durable enough for daily use, and the entire thing stays cool even when left on for extended periods of time.
Pennsylvania residents turned against Governor Shapiro after explosive backlash over the massive data center expansion across struggling local communities
Pennsylvania residents revolt against expanding hyperscale data center infrastructure projects statewide
Utility protections failed to calm growing public anger over development impacts
Former supporters of Governor Shapiro openly threatened political retaliation during heated public meetings
A furious backlash against data center expansion in the state has placed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro directly in the crosshairs of his own constituents.
During a tense recent two-hour town hall, roughly 20 speakers systematically dismantled the administration’s approach to infrastructure development.
The gathering revealed a deep fracture between state-level economic ambitions and the lived reality of local communities.
Latest Videos From
Advertisement
Utility protections fall short of public demands
Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission has taken concrete steps to shield residents from soaring electricity costs.
PECO, the electricity provider for Philadelphia and southeast Pennsylvania, now mandates that data center operators absorb the full expense of upgrading high-voltage lines and long-distance transmission infrastructure.
At the moment, smaller ratepayers are legally insulated from those particular capital costs.
Yet this regulatory firewall has done little to extinguish a broader wildfire of discontent spreading across the community.
Advertisement
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Representative Jamie Walsh traces the current influx directly to a 2021 law granting generous tax breaks to developers. That legislative decision opened a floodgate that critics now want to slam shut.
Senator Katie Muth is pushing a drastic countermeasure — a three-year moratorium on all new data center projects, which if passed, means Pennsylvania would join a growing list of smaller jurisdictions that have already imposed temporary bans.
Advertisement
Concrete harms outweigh corporate reassurances
The momentum behind such a pause reflects mounting alarm over irreversible changes to the physical landscape.
Hyperscalers now promise minimal environmental disruption, but communities are cataloging damage that has already been done.
Noise pollution complaints have multiplied, especially where massive cooling systems operate near homes and public infrastructure.
For many residents, industry pledges arrive far too late to rebuild shattered trust.
Kelly Donia, a registered Democrat from East Whiteland Township, articulated a visceral rejection that transcends partisan loyalty.
“He is losing his base,” she declared, vowing to personally derail the governor’s future political ambitions.
Advertisement
Jennifer Dusart of Mechanicsburg summarized the collective mood by insisting residents “have been bulldozed over.”
The sentiment that decisions are finalized before the public is informed has hardened opposition into outright hostility.
Governor Shapiro’s office insists that tax credits and faster permitting are conditional on strict transparency and community impact standards.
A spokesperson described the framework as a higher bar rather than a lowered one.
Advertisement
The political calculation seems clear — pursue the balance sheet boon without triggering a voter revolt.
However, the anger on display suggests that many Pennsylvanians have already concluded the governor is prioritizing corporate access over the long-term health of their towns.
When former supporters begin organizing against a leader with surgical precision, the margin for error disappears completely.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inside Climate News: A proposed merger of the largest utility in the country by market value, NextEra Energy, with the sixth-largest, Dominion, would create a megacompany at a time when data centers and rapid increases in electricity demand are reshaping the industry. The proposal, announced Monday morning and contingent on state and federal regulatory approval, would result in a company that leads in nearly every aspect of the US power and utility industry, including overall electricity generation, natural gas generation, and renewables. The $67 billion deal combines NextEra’s size and reach with Dominion’s positioning as the local utility for the world’s largest concentration of data centers in northern Virginia. But the results are likely bad for consumers and the environment, creating a company with enormous financial and political strength that will be difficult to effectively regulate, according to consumer advocates and analysts.
For perspective, only Exxon Mobil and Chevron would be larger based on market value among US-based energy companies. “Mergers are not about consumers; they’re about shareholders,” said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. “For the Dominion shareholders, they are selling their shares at a premium. The executives are getting massive payouts for facilitating this, assuming it all goes through, and obviously NextEra believes the transaction is going to add value to the company. Ratepayers are all an afterthought.” The deal makes financial sense for both companies, said Andrew Bischof, an equity analyst for Morningstar. “We view the transaction as allowing NextEra to accelerate its data center ambitions, which had trailed those of its regulated peers, by using Dominion’s expertise and relationships to expedite NextEra’s data center hub plans,” he said in a note to clients.
NextEra, based in Juno Beach, Florida, includes Florida Power & Light, the largest regulated electricity utility in the state, and NextEra Energy Resources, a wholesale electricity supplier that owns power plants across the nation. Dominion, based in Richmond, Virginia, includes regulated utilities serving much of Virginia, parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, and other assets across the country. The company would be called NextEra Energy, and NextEra CEO John W. Ketchum would serve in the same role after the deal closes. Robert M. Blue, Dominion’s CEO, would be the CEO for regulated utilities for the merged company. The parties said they expect regulatory approvals to take 12 to 18 months. NextEra shareholders would own 74.5 percent and Dominion shareholders would own 25.5 percent, respectively, of the combined company in the all-stock transaction. “We are bringing NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy together because scale matters more than ever — not for the sake of size, but because scale translates into capital and operating efficiencies,” Ketchum said in a statement.
Although the companies claim the deal would produce savings, including $2.25 billion in Dominion customer bill credits, former regulator Marissa Paslick Gillett said she was “flabbergasted by the tone deafness,” arguing that major utility mergers rarely deliver the promised “synergies” and often create “a behemoth” that is harder to regulate.
Advertisement
Others warned that a larger NextEra could use its political power “to the disadvantage of ratepayers,” while climate advocates said expanding methane gas plants to serve data centers would worsen pollution and leave vulnerable communities “at the short end of the stick.”
Security researcher Brian Krebs brings us the news that America’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has had a large store of plaintext passwords, SSH private keys, tokens, and “other sensitive CISA assets” exposed in a public GitHub repo since at least November 2025.
The now-offline public repo—named, somewhat aspirationally, “Private-CISA”—was brought to Krebs’ attention by GitGuardian’s Guillaume Valadon, who was alerted to the repo’s presence by GitGuardian’s public code scans. Krebs says that Valadon approached him after receiving no responses from the Private-CISA repo’s owner.
In an email to Krebs, Valadon claimed that the repo’s commit logs show that GitHub’s default protections against committing secrets—protections designed to protect unwitting or unskilled developers against exactly this kind of stupidness—had been disabled by the repo’s administrator.
Testing by Seralys founder Philippe Caturegli showed that this was not a joke or hoax and that he was able to use the credentials in the Private-CISA repo to gain access to multiple Amazon Web Services GovCloud accounts “at a high privilege level.”
Advertisement
Krebs notes that the repo appeared to be managed by Virginia-based Nightwing, a CISA contractor. Nightwing has so far not commented publicly, instead referring questions back to CISA.
The Washington Youth Aerospace team, from left: Nikhil Sirivara, Daniel Tadesse, Mikhail Antipin, Bao-Ky Tran, Antoine Vigneron and Anay Mediwala, pose with the rocket supplies vendor who found the motor the kids needed for a successful launch in Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy of Sudheer Sirivara)
A slow-moving delivery nearly grounded the hopes of some high-flying rocketry students from Bellevue, Wash., over the weekend. But a last-minute scramble and motor purchase saved the day and capped a strong showing for Washington state teams at the 2026 National Finals of the American Rocketry Challenge.
Washington Youth Aerospace, a Redmond, Wash.-based team made up of six ninth graders from Bellevue’s Interlake High School, finished second in the annual competition in The Plains, Va., on Saturday. The finals featured 100 teams from a record pool of 1,107 teams that competed in the overall challenge.
Washington was represented by 11 teams, including eight from the Eastside of the Seattle area. Four of those teams finished in the top 10.
The competition features middle and high school students who are tasked with designing, building, and launching model rockets. The goal is to inspire students to pursue careers in aerospace and STEM.
Washington Youth Aerospace earned $15,000 for the second-place finish — an impressive showing after the team was in danger of not even being able to launch its rocket.
Advertisement
Because of the hazardous nature of rocket motors, they had to be shipped via ground transportation from coast to coast.
“We mailed it about two and a half weeks back,” said Sudheer Sirivara, a parent advisor and chaperone for the team. “We were tracking it and somewhere it got lost in between for a week.”
The motors arrived in New Jersey on Thursday and on Friday they were tracked to Philadelphia. Sirivara and the team were frantically searching the Washington, D.C., area to find a motor that provided the specs the team had planned around. A vendor on site proved to be a hero just before the event on Saturday.
“He spent about 25 minutes searching for it, and deep in his truck was one box that had this one motor that we needed,” Sirivara said, adding that the team’s actual motors were finally delivered by the Postal Service — two days after the event concluded.
Advertisement
The Washington Youth Aerospace team, from left: Bao-Ky Tran, Nikhil Sirivara, Anay Mediwala, Daniel Tadesse, Mikhail Antipin, and Antoine Vigneron pose with Brendan Williams, in purple, their rocketry mentor from middle school. (Photo courtesy of Sudheer Sirivara)
The Washington Youth Aerospace team consists of students Mikhail Antipin, Anay Mediwala, Nikhil Sirivara, Daniel Tadesse, Bao-Ky Tran, and Antoine Vigneron.
Sirivara said their rocketry success started with good mentoring they received from teachers while they were at Bellevue’s Odle Middle School. An executive VP at Warner Bros. Discovery and a Microsoft veteran, he also credited the concentration of tech and engineering parents on the Eastside from companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others.
Good data collection doesn’t hurt either.
“You need to fire a lot of rockets to collect enough data to see how your rocket does in different wind conditions, weather conditions, temperatures,” Sirivara said.
In the finals, teams were scored on two launches. They needed to hit a target height of 730 feet for the first launch and 725 feet for the second. Rockets must stay airborne for between 36 and 39 seconds, and return to the ground safely with their unbroken cargo — an egg.
Advertisement
The Bishop’s School from La Jolla, Calif., took first place in the challenge and will represent the U.S. in the international finals — an event in which Bellevue’s Newport High School finished second just a few years ago.
Here are the final standings for Washington teams in the national finals:
2nd — Washington Youth Aerospace, Redmond
4th — Interlake High School (Team 1), Bellevue
6th — Newport High School (Team 2), Bellevue
7th — Odle Middle School, Bellevue
12th — Newport High School (Team 1), Bellevue
19th — Interlake High School (Team 2), Bellevue
33rd — Annie Wright Schools, Tacoma
38th — Tyee Middle School, Bellevue
69th — SmilingTree, Sammamish
89th — A Sustainable Future, Bellevue
89th — Colville High School, Colville
The challenge’s top 25 finishers receive an invitation to participate in NASA’s Student Launch initiative to continue their exploration of rocketry with high-powered rockets and challenging mission parameters.
Gemini Omni was announced at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, alongside a slew of agentic AI features, such as Gemini Spark and Universal Cart (check out more on our live blog). Gemini Omni is Google’s new AI content-generation tool that creates graphics and videos based on your prompts.
I hate to burst Google’s bubble, but we already have enough AI-content generation tools, including Google’s own Nano Banana 2, an AI image generator. OpenAI, Shutterstock and Canva also have AI video generation capabilities.
Advertisement
Gemini Omni Flash is now available, so you can create and edit videos in the Gemini app, Google Flow and YouTube Shorts. Output modalities, like images and audio, will be available later. Google gave an example at Google I/O of creating a claymation-style video about how protein is created.
Maybe Gemini Omni will be a cool way to teach my 5-year-old about science, but we all know this is just another tool for more AI slop.
Americans want tighter AI restrictions
CNET found that many of us are already tired of the futuristic content on our social media timelines. Earlier this year, CNET found that 51% of US adults believe we need better AI labels online, and 21% believe there should be a total ban on AI-generated content on social media. Only 11% say AI content is useful, informative or entertaining.
Despite over half of US adults wanting tighter AI content restrictions, AI is still getting past us. Most (94%) of US adults believe they see AI-generated or AI-altered content on social media. However, only 44% say they can confidently tell real content from AI-generated photos and videos.
Advertisement
Google appeared to reveal a solution to that problem at Google I/O.
Google is adding Content Credentials verification across its Gemini app to show whether the content was created with AI or a camera. It will also detect whether it’s been edited with AI. The SynthID detector is still available on the app to verify AI-generated content.
It sounds like Google is trying to please everyone while still pushing its agenda of shoving AI into every tool and software update possible.
Google wants to play on both sides of AI
Between Nano Banana Pro and Gemini Omni, that feels like a paradox. The same tech giant that provides the tools to create AI-generated content is also developing tools to verify it.
Advertisement
Gemini Omni is one of many examples of how Google’s developer showcase is out of touch with everyday consumers. There’s still hesitancy and mistrust toward AI, despite how helpful it can be in some use cases.
We don’t need another AI content generation tool. We need to understand how companies are protecting our data, not by hosting demo planning parties or by using smart glasses to turn crowds into cartoons.
Much weirder is voice editing in Google Docs, in a new feature called Docs Live. By describing with your voice what you want to write, an agent will dictate your words, generate text, pull in citations from the web, and aim to turn your stream-of-consciousness wishes into a coherent document.
For Gemini power users, Google is creating a new subscription tier, the AI Ultra plan, for $100 a month. It is also dropping the price of its top Gemini AI Ultra from $250 a month to $200.
Gemini Omni
Google announced Gemini Omni, an AI video generator, akin to Sora 2. That was OpenAI’s generator that let you deepfake yourself, but was eventually killed by the company.
Advertisement
Google’s approach is building out a far more realistic video generator that can incorporate real video and extrapolate all manner of AI-powered weirdness on top of that. Google is eager for you to turn Omni’s eye on yourself, putting your face front and center. As such, selfie videos can be modified to add different backgrounds, styles, or environments, making it appear that you are somewhere other than your actual location.
The feature was demoed on stage with a video of someone recording themselves walking through a metal sculpture. They then asked Omni to change the structure to look like it was made of bubbles. You can also add images and video of yourself from your camera roll and generate just about any variety of cinematic style. Google says Omni is capable of advanced animations and fun typography.
Google’s approach is focusing Omni on video creation first, though it says still image and text capabilities will be coming later. Eventually, Google says it wants to let Omni create any output with any input.
Read more about Omni in Reece Rogers’ story on WIRED. OmniFlash, a starter version of Omni, is available starting today for Google AI+ Pro and Ultra subscribers.
Advertisement
Gemini Spark
Gemini Spark is Google’s answer to OpenClaw, the viral AI powered helper bot that could be used to help with real life needs like buying groceries or researching vacation options (and occasionally causing you to wind up in a scam).
Spark can write emails or plan a block party and pull information from files in your Google Drive. It is meant to be a personal agent just for you, keeping up with your schedule so it knows the rhythms of your life, learns what major events are coming up, and can help manage long-term or recurring tasks for you.
Spark runs entirely on Google Cloud, which Google says means it can process background requests without having to leave your device on. For now Spark just works with other Google software, though not with the Chrome browser quite yet. Google says that is coming, along with third party support, later this summer.
To help you manage all of your online shopping, Google will start deploying an agentic-powered shopping experience. As you search for products, Google will show you listings that it hosts for products for sale at various retailers. You can also shop the old fashioned way, by going to various websites and perusing the listings there.
The big difference is that now, Google will offer a universal shopping cart. Just add the products you’re interested in as you surf, and Google’s agent will keep your wish list organized. It can alert you to price changes and tell you when there’s a newer version or a new color option available. While products are sitting in your cart, you can engage Gemini to ask for more details about your potential purchases, add other products to the cart, or try to find better deals at other retailers.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login