Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas A&M University professor who was fired last year after a controversy over a classroom video that showed a student objecting to a children’s literature lesson about gender identity sued the school on Wednesday, alleging the university violated her rights by bowing to political pressure calling for her ouster.Melissa McCoul was a senior lecturer in the English department with over a decade of teaching experience. Republican lawmakers, including Gov. Greg Abbott, had called for her termination after seeing the video, which showed a student questioning whether the class discussion last July was legal under President Donald…

Dominik Bindl/Getty Images 2026-02-04T18:08:50.855Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said he met with Jeffrey Epstein for fundraising purposes. Hoffman previously said his last meeting with Epstein was in 2015. Now he says there were six more meetings, from 2016 to 2018. Reid Hoffman says he had more meetings with Jeffrey Epstein…

Tinder is turning to a new AI-powered feature, Chemistry, to help it reduce so-called “swipe fatigue,” a growing problem among online dating users who are feeling burned out and are in search of better outcomes. Introduced last quarter, the Match-owned dating app said that Chemistry leverages AI to get to know users through questions and, with permission, accesses their Camera Roll on their phone to learn more about their interests and personality. On Match’s Q4 2026 earnings call, one analyst from Morgan Stanley asked for an update on the product’s success so far. Match CEO Spencer Rascoff noted that Chemistry…

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Preventive cholera vaccination programs will restart globally after they were halted for nearly four years due to a vaccine shortage, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.In a joint statement, WHO, vaccine alliance GAVI and the United Nations Children’s Fund said stocks of oral cholera vaccines in the global stockpile they manage had improved to nearly 70 million doses last year.The vaccines are distributed free to countries that need them, but they had to be used only in reaction to outbreaks rather than preventative campaigns after a shortage was announced in 2022 because of a…

Last year, Roblox launched an open-source AI model that could generate 3D objects on the platform, helping users quickly design digital items such as furniture, vehicles, and accessories. The company claims the tool, called Cube 3D, has so far helped users generate over 1.8 million 3D objects since it was rolled out last March. On Tuesday, the company launched the open beta for its anticipated 4D creation feature that lets creators make not just static 3D models, but fully functional and interactive objects. The feature has been in early access since November.  Roblox says 4D creation adds an important new…

College football’s February signing period is pretty much an afterthought for most schools nowadays, but it meant plenty to new Penn State coach Matt Campbell.Penn State signed only two high school recruits during the December signing period because the Nittany Lions hadn’t yet hired Campbell away from Iowa State. That left Campbell quite busy trying to put together a freshman class while also working the transfer portal and hiring his staff.“The last two months has been a whirlwind in a multitude of different ways,” Campbell said Wednesday.Penn State now has an incoming freshman class of 15 recruits, and most of…

Anthropic is taking a shot at OpenAI on the biggest stage possible.On Wednesday, Anthropic rolled out a glitzy ad campaign that will air nationally during Sunday’s Super Bowl, which implicitly centers on OpenAI’s plans to bring advertising to ChatGPT.”Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” the tag line reads.The declaration shows that Anthropic is willing to draw a line in the sand with its no-AI-ads-in-chatbots stance. But the move also means Anthropic is declining to pursue a potentially key revenue stream for Claude at a time when AI companies are spending more than ever in the AI race.With…

Voice AI company ElevenLabs said today it raised $500 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital, which was an investor in the startup’s last secondary round through a tender. Sequoia partner Andrew Reed is joining the company’s board. The startup is now valued at $11 billion, more than three times its valuation in its last round in January 2025. Earlier in the year, the Financial Times reported that the startup was looking to raise at that valuation. The company said that existing investor a16z quadrupled its investment amount, and Iconiq, which led the last round, tripled it.…

Recently, the German term “lüften” has been circulating on social media and trending on Google. The term refers to the practice of opening windows and doors to replace stale indoor air with outdoor air, a longtime practice in many European homes. Americans have dubbed it “house burping” in many videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.William Bahnfleth, a professor of architectural engineering at Penn State, has personal and professional experience with lüften. He spoke to The Conversation’s Pittsburgh Editor Cassandra Stone about the science behind it and how Pittsburgh homeowners can best navigate the “house burping” trend.What does “lüften” actually mean…

Medicare has launched a six-year pilot program that could eventually transform access to health care for some of the millions of people across the U.S. who rely on it for their health insurance coverage.Traditional Medicare is a government-administered insurance plan for people over 65 or with disabilities. About half of the 67 million Americans insured through Medicare have this coverage. The rest have Medicare Advantage plans administered by private companies.The pilot program, dubbed the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model, is an experimental program that began to affect people enrolled in traditional Medicare from six states in January 2026.During this…