Author: KnowledgeHippo

Those early studies “raised both the potential of what we could learn from dogs, but also that we would need larger sample sizes to do it really well,” said Elinor Karlsson, a geneticist at the UMass Chan School of Medicine and the Broad Institute. And so, researchers began creating large citizen science projects, seeking DNA samples and data from dogs across the United States.Pet owners rose to the challenge. The Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, which began recruiting in 2012, is tracking more than 3,000 dogs in an effort to identify genetic and environmental risk factors for cancer, which is particularly…

John Waters’ 1998 film “Pecker” ends with an unlikely crowd carousing in a dingy basement bar/spontaneous photo gallery in Baltimore. Stripper and a loud-mouthed, enthusiastic art collector dance on tables as he watches a talking icon of the Virgin Mary. It’s a happy, chaotic and naughty party open to anyone with a sense of humor, just the way the director likes it.Mr. Waters, 78, gained a cult following in the 1970s with delightfully shocking films like “Multiple Maniacs,” “Female Trouble” and, of course, the raunchy “Pink Flamingos” before breaking through with “Hairspray,” the 1988.Since then, Mr. Waters has built a…

For many, France feels like a very different place on Monday.Results from the first round of parliamentary elections held on Sunday revealed a country deeply divided, with a rising far-right winning record numbers of votes and the near-collapse of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.”The far right at the door of power,” said the front page of the daily Le Parisien, the morning after the first half of snap elections called by Mr Macron.”Twelve million of our fellow citizens voted for a far-right party that is clearly racist and anti-republican,” the leftist newspaper Libération said in an article, referring to Marine…

An artificial intelligence platform named Ed was supposed to be an “educational friend” for half a million students in Los Angeles Public Schools. In typed conversations, Ed would direct students to academic and mental health resources, or tell parents if their children had attended class that day and provide the latest test scores. Ed could even detect and respond to emotions such as hostility, happiness and sadness.Alberto Carvalho, the district superintendent, spoke of Ed in bold words. In an April speech promoting the software, he promised it would “democratize” and “transform education.” Responding to AI skeptics, he asked: “Why not…

Boeing announced Monday that it has agreed to buy a major supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, ending a nearly two-decade experiment in outsourcing the production of key components for its commercial planes, including the fuselage of the 737 Max and parts of the 767, 777 and 787 .By buying Spirit, Boeing hopes to curb the quality problems that have plagued the supplier in recent years. While it already has significant influence over Spirit, Boeing will be more easily able to monitor and change manufacturing practices with full ownership of the business. Boeing has taken internal steps to improve quality, too, after a…

When Meta introduced a subscription option last year that would allow users in the European Union to pay for an ad-free experience on Instagram and Facebook, it was intended to fix regulatory issues the company was facing in the region.Instead, the plan created new legal headaches.On Monday, European Union regulators said Meta’s subscription, which costs up to €12.99 a month, amounted to a “pay or consent” system that required users to choose between paying a fee or of delivering more personal data to Meta to use for targeted advertising. .Meta introduced the subscription last year as a way to deal…

Ann Lurie, a self-proclaimed hippie who became one of Chicago’s most famous philanthropists, in one case giving more than $100 million to a hospital where she once worked as a pediatric nurse, died Monday. It was 79.Her death was announced in a statement by Northwestern University, to which Ms. Lurie, a trustee, had donated more than $60 million. The statement did not say where he died or specify the cause.An only child raised in Miami by a single mother, Ms. Lurie protested the Vietnam War while in college and planned to join the Peace Corps after graduation. In interviews, she…

Beryl developed into a record-breaking Category 4 hurricane on Sunday – the earliest a storm has ever reached such intensity – as forecasters warned it would continue to rapidly intensify as it moved west towards the Caribbean Sea.Before Beryl, the first Category 4 hurricane on record was Hurricane Dennis on July 8, 2005.The first hurricane of the 2024 season, Beryl, is expected to bring “life-threatening winds and storm surge” to the Windward Islands, southeast of Puerto Rico and north of Venezuela, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.By Sunday afternoon, sustained winds reached 130 mph, forecasters said, making it an “extremely…

The University of Southern California has announced it has canceled plans for a commencement speech by this year’s valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, who is Muslim. The school said the decision stemmed from security concerns based on emails and other electronic communications warning of a plan to disrupt commencement, including at least one targeting Ms. Tabassum. “Over the past few days, the debate over the choice of our valedictorian has taken on a troubling tenor,” said Andrew T. Guzman, the professor, who added that he had made the final decision to choose Ms. Tabassum. “The intensity of emotion, fueled both by social…

Soma Golden Behr, a longtime editor at The New York Times who was a centrifuge of story ideas—they flew out of her in all directions—and whose journalistic passions were poverty, race and class, led to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting. died Sunday in Manhattan. It was 84.Her death, in Mount Sinai Hospital’s palliative care unit, came after breast cancer spread to other organs, said her husband, William A. Behr.Ms. Golden Bear, whose degree in economics from Radcliffe led to a lifelong interest in issues surrounding inequality, was instrumental in overseeing several major series for The Times that examined class and race differences.…