Government
How NASA Testing Changed US Food Inspection Forever
In the early 20th century, public outcry following Upton Sinclair's led to stricter food safety protocols. NASA took them a step further. In 1906, in response to public outcry that came after Upton Sinclair's detailed the revolting conditions in Chicago's meatpacking plants, the US government passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act. The legislation created what would become known as the Food Safety and Inspection Service, a force of federal employees who would spend their days in stockyards and packing plants, checking livestock for disease both before and after their slaughter. They did their work organoleptically--with their eyes, noses, and hands--an approach soon dubbed "poke and sniff."
'Limit overshoot, peak, decline': A new global goal for climate change?
The signing of the Paris Agreement by 200 countries in 2015 was a rare moment of global unity, and the euphoria was real. To cheers and tears, the international climate treaty was approved by nearly every country in the world. Fundamental to the agreement was a commitment to keeping temperatures from rising beyond 1.5C (2.7F) above the pre-industrial levels of the mid 19th-century. But 11 years on, it is evident that the Earth is soon going to exceed that threshold because of the continued record burning of fossil fuels. A report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya - called Limiting Overshoot - has found that even under the most optimistic scenario, the Earth will heat up by 1.8C (3.2F) above pre-industrial levels.
How to stream safely while traveling outside the US
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At least two people dead after Russian strikes on Kyiv
At least two people have been killed after Russia resumed airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Tuesday, officials said. The attack came after both countries agreed to halt strikes on each other's capitals for three days while US Donald Trump's top envoys visited Moscow and Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he expected the war to continue into the winter, following talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner - their first visit to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion. Air raid alerts warned civilians to seek shelter as Russian forces launched drone strikes on Kyiv early on Tuesday, authorities said. A series of explosions across Ukraine's capital overnight killed two people and injured ten others, the city's state emergency service said on Telegram.
US police fear Meta smart glasses could be used to secretly record them
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a speech, as a giant image of Ray-Ban smart glasses appears on screen, in Menlo Park, California, on 27 September 2023. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a speech, as a giant image of Ray-Ban smart glasses appears on screen, in Menlo Park, California, on 27 September 2023. Exclusive: Documents show officers from Maine to California worry Meta's camera-equipped glasses will be used either to secretly record them or aid acts of terrorism In January, the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit sent out a memo warning police officers about a new potential "security and counterintelligence" threat: Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The memo directed officers to "conduct thorough inspections of all eyewear permitted within inmate cells" and cautioned that people who have been arrested could use these glasses, equipped with small cameras and microphones, to record inside police facilities. The memo cited two examples of such videos posted on social media.
Gen AI Tools Are Now Being Used to Push 'Slop Jihad'
Gen AI Tools Are Now Being Used to Push'Slop Jihad' A new generation of Islamic terror supporters are using AI to spread'Slop Jihad' to new audiences on TikTok. Over a decade ago, the Islamic State released a disturbing video that depicted its members lowering men locked in a cage into a swimming pool and drowning them. Today, that video has been reproduced as a SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon depicting fish in orange jumpsuits inside the cage, as SpongeBob lowers the cage into the water while Squidward films the scene. The video, shared on TikTok, is part of what a new report from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD) calls "Slop Jihad," a trend where young supporters of Islamic terror groups like ISIS and al-Qaida appear to use generative AI tools to create fan edits, cartoons, and memes designed radicalize a new generation of online backing. This shift "signals a fundamental transformation in the aesthetics of jihadist propaganda online," concludes the report, which was shared exclusively with WIRED. "The principal concern is the growing volume and diversity of material," says Adam Hadley, executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, a UN-backed counter terrorism organization that has also written a report about the Slop Jihad trend.
Exclusive: Obscure Committee Set To Be at Center of Trump Fight if Democrats Win House
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UK pupils rank highly again in international reading, maths and science tests
UK pupils have performed well again in international science, reading and maths tests sat every three years by hundreds of thousands of teenagers around the world. The UK's performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) remained steady, ranking below the highest-performing countries like Singapore, Estonia and parts of China, but ahead of the US, Australia and other major European nations. But the Pisa report also warned of a worldwide decline in teenagers' reading skills. England's schools minister, Georgia Gould, said the government wanted to build on the positive results and go further so all young people leave school with strong literacy and numeracy. The Pisa tests, run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), assess teenagers on their ability to solve problems, think critically and communicate, before asking them a wider range of questions about their education in a questionnaire.
Russia strikes Kyiv as three-day pause during US envoy visits ends
Is the war entering a new phase? Russia has struck Kyiv after a three-day pause in attacks on the Ukrainian and Russian capitals expired, following a visit by two US envoys that yielded no tangible progress towards peace. Two residential buildings were damaged by Russian air raids early on Tuesday, city officials in Kyiv said. Drones hit buildings in the capital city as well as in the Boryspil and Fastiv districts on the outskirts of Kyiv, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. An air raid alert, published by the Kyiv city military administration, urged residents to take shelter due to the threat of an "enemy" drone attack.