Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Leading the Stanley Cup Final 2-1, the Florida Panthers can move to the verge of a second consecutive championship if they beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 at home Thursday night. The Panthers were upbeat and relaxed at their final full practice before the potential swing game, with players downplaying the gravity of the situation.“I feel like every game’s so big during this time,” center Anton Lundell said Wednesday. “The stakes gets higher. Everybody wants to win. But we both know for both teams it’s a big game, and we want to be good.”They…

To get hired at Cursor, an AI coding assistant built by Anysphere, you can’t use AI in your interview.”We actually still interview people without allowing them to use AI, other than autocomplete, for first technical screens,” said Michael Truell, the cofounder and CEO of Anysphere, on an episode of Y Combinator’s podcast published Wednesday.”Programming without AI is still a really great time-boxed test for skill and intelligence,” Truell said, adding that those are core qualities he looks for in a teammate.There’s another reason behind the rule: fairness.”We’ve hired lots of people who are fantastic programmers who actually have no experience…

Defense tech company Voyager Technologies closed its first day of trading 82% higher than its initial public offering price.Voyager, which provides software for space and defense tech companies, priced its New York Stock Exchange debut at $31 per share on Tuesday. It offered 12.4 million shares and closed at $56.48 per share on Wednesday. Shares continued climbing after hours.Voyager plans to use the cash injection from the offering to fund investment in research and development programs and buy assets needed for growth, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. A portion of the proceeds may also be used to…

Ananda Lewis, a former MTV VJ, has died at the age of 52.Lakshmi Emory, whom Lewis once described as a “phenomenal sister” in a birthday message, shared news of her death in a June 11 Facebook post.“She’s free, and in His heavenly arms,” she wrote next to a black-and-white photo of Lewis. “Lord, rest her soul.”Emory did not share additional details, including Lewis’ cause of death.Lewis was an MTV staple in the late ‘90s, hosting “Total Request Live” and video countdown show “Hot Zone.” She also hosted her own talk show “The Ananda Lewis Show” in 2001.Lewis was diagnosed with…

Gun deaths among children have risen over a 13-year period in states with lax firearm laws, according to a new study published this week in JAMA Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed medical journal.Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho and Georgia were among the states that saw a jump in pediatric gun deaths after amending their firearms restrictions following a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that applied the Second Amendment to the states, researchers found.Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency room doctor at Massachusetts General Brigham Hospital and the study’s lead author, said he started the research after wondering why gun deaths among children were so high. Firearms are…

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Wednesday eight new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee, some of whom have been critics of shots — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.It comes just two days after Kennedy removed all 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), claiming the panel was plagued by conflicts of interest and was a “rubber stamp” for all vaccines.The ACIP makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines, and the CDC has the final say on whether or not…

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week.They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management.Kennedy’s decision to “retire” the previous 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was widely decried by doctors’ groups and public health organizations, who feared the advisers would be replaced by a group aligned with Kennedy’s desire to reassess — and…

When Apple unveiled Image Playground last year, the company touted it as a quick and easy way to generate personalized, original images with the help of Apple Intelligence. Upon launch, the app was met with skepticism, as some users were disappointed by its limitations and low-quality results. For example, one Reddit user was surprised to find that Image Playground kept generating an image of a hand with six fingers when prompted to create an “up close image of a hand.” In another instance, a user was unable to receive images of simple descriptions, such as “old man” or “flower.” Some…

Microsoft is preparing a version of its Copilot AI tool for the Pentagon.”For DoD environments, Microsoft 365 Copilot is expected to become available no earlier than summer 2025,” the company stated in a recent blog written for government customers. “Work is ongoing to ensure the offering meets the necessary security and compliance standards.”Copilot is Microsoft’s main generative AI offering. The company has developed several Copilot tools, which tap into AI models to automate various tasks and support human employees. The Copilot for Microsoft’s 365 service works across productivity software such as PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents.Microsoft has invested…

Los Angeles-based Coco Robotics, a startup building last-mile delivery robots, announced it raised $80 million on Wednesday. The funding round included angel investors Sam Altman and Max Altman, both returning investors, in addition to VC firms like Pelion Venture Partners and Offline Ventures, among others. This brings the company’s total funding to more than $120 million. The company last raised a $36 million Series A round in 2021. Coco’s zero-emissions robots can hold 90 liters’ worth of groceries or goods and have made more than 500,000 deliveries since they hit the streets in 2020, the company said. It says it…