Author: KnowledgeHippo

Virginia Foxx, the Republican congresswoman from North Carolina, has spent the last few months challenging elite schools.As chairman of the House Education Committee, he oversaw a tense hearing in December that prompted the resignations of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. He has led an investigation into half a dozen institutions over their handling of allegations of anti-Semitism. He has subpoenaed internal documents and called Jewish students to testify.On Wednesday, he will preside over another hearing, this time with Columbia University officials.The plagiarism is part of a Republican campaign against what they see as double standards at…

Allegations of possible payments to secure votes. Allegations of misuse of funds by top diplomats. A potential job offer to tempt a candidate out of a race.These are not the antics of a corrupt election in an unstable country. Rather, these are efforts in the seemingly polite salons of a United Nations-affiliated agency to influence decisions related to the initiation of seabed mining for metals used in electric vehicles.It’s all part of an ugly battle over who will be the next leader of the International Seabed Authority, which controls mining in international waters worldwide.The fraud charges underscore the controversial nature…

Sitting near a window inside Boston’s Four Seasons Hotel, overlooking a duck pond in the city’s Public Garden, Ray Kurzweil held a sheet of paper showing the steady increase in the amount of raw computer power that a dollar could buy in last 85 years.A neon-green line rose steadily up the page, climbing like fireworks into the night sky.That diagonal line, he said, showed why humanity was just 20 years away from the Singularity, a long-hypothetical moment when humans would merge with artificial intelligence and grow with millions of times more computing power than biological humans now provide. the brain.”If…

Twenty-two years ago, Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive of Formula 1, described Silverstone as “a country fair masquerading as a world event”.The home of the British Grand Prix has changed dramatically over two decades. In February, a 10-year contract was signed with Formula 1 that will see the race on the calendar until 2034.”By the end of these 10 years, I want Silverstone to be recognized as the global home of motor racing, not just the home of British motorsport,” said Stuart Pringle, chief executive of Silverstone, in an interview in March.Silverstone has diversified its activities. It’s not just…

“Hey man, how are you?” said a man wearing a Boba Fett outfit as he bent over the bed of a young boy in a hospital gown.It was a Sunday afternoon in the emergency room at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where Dr. Alex Arroyo, the hospital’s director of pediatric emergency medicine, often wears one of 20 suits when visiting patients. His favorite is Boba Fett, the famous bounty hunter from the “Star Wars” movies.”I love what I do, but it sure is hot in there!” said Dr. Arroyo, 48, who has worked at the hospital since 2006. He began…

Severe turbulence on an Air Europa flight to Uruguay from Spain on Monday injured more than a dozen passengers, officials said, leaving several with neck and skull fractures, in at least the second case of serious injuries from turbulence worldwide in two months.Flight UX045 made an emergency landing early Monday in the Brazilian coastal city of Natal after experiencing turbulence more than four hours after taking off from Madrid, according to flight data.Some passengers hit their heads during the commotion, causing head, neck and chest injuries, according to Brazilian public health officials. Thirty-six passengers were treated for injuries and 23…

Voters headed to a polling station in Portsmouth, a town along England’s south coast known for its naval base and historic dockyard, on Thursday morning to a warm welcome from poll workers.Elderly couples walked hand-in-hand into the local church, which had been temporarily set up with ballot boxes, along with parents with children in prams and young adults jogging on their way to work.One by one, they weighed in on the future of the nation in a vote that opinion polls suggested could end 14 years of Conservative-led government.”I just want to see change,” said Sam Argha, 36, who was…

Whenever a politician mentions “Judeo-Christian values,” I find it’s generally followed by something troubling.Last month brought two glaring incidents. In both cases, Republican officials have introduced state laws that formalize the principles of the Christian nationalist movement—in the words of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (AD 2019), “doing everything we can to restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation ».On June 19, Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed legislation requiring public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, a practice ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1980. A rich endorsement came via Donald Trump, who shouted: “I LOVE THE…

The European Union took the next step Thursday toward levying new tariffs on Chinese electric cars, telling automakers to get guarantees from banks that they will be able to pay the taxes to be finalized in October.The move was expected. The bloc had said on June 12 that it would impose additional tariffs of 17 to 38 percent on electric vehicles imported from China. A European Union investigation had found what officials in Brussels describe as unfair subsidies from the Chinese government to electric car makers.The Chinese government has denied subsidizing the industry. Beijing claims that the low prices for…

Early last year, a hacker gained access to the internal messaging systems of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and stole details about the design of the company’s AI technologies.The hacker extracted details from discussions on an online forum where employees talked about OpenAI’s latest technologies, according to two people familiar with the incident, but did not get into the systems where the company houses and builds its artificial intelligence.OpenAI executives disclosed the incident to employees during a board meeting at the company’s San Francisco offices in April 2023, according to the two people, who discussed sensitive company information on condition…