Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

At Marietta City Schools in Georgia, a school district that serves approximately 8,500 students, vaping has grown into “the biggest issue” school administrators and teachers are facing, superintendent Grant Rivera told ABC News.School staff aren’t the only ones concerned. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Surgeon General called youth vaping an ongoing “epidemic” and released a Youth Vaping Resource Guide Monday to raise awareness about the issue.Fifty-six percent of U.S. parents also say that smoking and vaping are a big problem for children and teens in the country, according to an August poll from C.S.…

Venture investors are pouring money into Israeli cybersecurity startups. The latest is Vega, a company coming out of stealth mode that has landed $65 million in funding to take on some of the biggest incumbents in security.The funding round, led by Accel with participation from Cyberstarts, Redpoint, and CRV, values Vega at $400 million.The funding comes as Google is trying to close its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, another Israeli-founded security firm, in what could be one of the largest cybersecurity deals ever.Vega’s cofounder and CEO, Shay Sandler, knows the comparison is inevitable.”It’s quite humbling to say that it’s similar,”…

While many robotics companies are building human-sized robots, or working to automate entire factories, MicroFactory is instead trying to think big by building small.   San Francisco-based MicroFactory built a general-purpose, tabletop manufacturing kit that’s about the size of my Siberian Husky’s dog crate. This compact factory includes two robotic arms and can be trained by human demonstration, as well as through AI.   “General purpose robots are good, but it’s not necessary [to] be humanoid,” said Igor Kulakov, the co-founder and CEO of MicroFactory, in an interview with TechCrunch. “We decided to design robots from scratch that will still be general…

On Tuesday, Google announced a new open protocol for purchases initiated by AI agents — automated software programs that can shop and make decisions on behalf of users — with backing from more than 60 merchants and financial institutions. Called the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), the system is meant to be interoperable between AI platforms, payment systems and vendors, providing a traceable paper trail for each transaction. In a post announcing the protocol, Google executives emphasized their commitment to openness. “We are committed to evolving this protocol in an open, collaborative process, including through standards bodies, and  invite the entire…

Carson Wentz finally gets to throw to Justin Jefferson five years and five teams later.J.J. McCarthy’s ankle injury opens the door for the Wentz-to-Jefferson combination that Philadelphia Eagles fans desperately wanted to see in 2020. Now, it’ll happen for the Minnesota Vikings.Several other teams could be turning to backup quarterbacks in Week 3.The Bengals (2-0) won’t have Joe Burrow for a few months because of a toe injury, so Jake Browning will start against Wentz and the Vikings (1-1). Browning led Cincinnati to a comeback win over Jacksonville after Burrow went down early in the game.Jayden Daniels has a knee…

Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers was a runaway choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year after one of the best debut seasons in league history.Bueckers received 70 of the 72 votes from sports writers and broadcasters in balloting announced by the league on Tuesday. The other two went to Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron.Bueckers, who in a whirlwind week last spring went from leading UConn to its 12th national championship to being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick, was a bright spot on a team that tied the Chicago Sky with a league-worst 10-34 record. The AP Rookie of…

Y Combinator-alum Rulebase is betting that the next wave of automation in financial services won’t be about flashy AI interfaces, but the unglamorous back-office tasks like compliance. The startup, founded by Gideon Ebose and Chidi Williams, two Nigerian engineers who met in London, just raised a $2.1 million pre-seed round led by Bowery Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Commerce Ventures, Transpose Platform VC, alongside several angels. Financial services firms spend enormous amounts of effort on support tickets, resolving disputes, ensuring quality assurance, and regulatory compliance. Rulebase’s software, which it calls an agent coworker, replaces much of the manual grunt…

Y Combinator-alum Rulebase is betting that the next wave of automation in financial services won’t be about flashy AI interfaces but rather the unglamorous back-office tasks like compliance. The startup, founded in 2024 by Gideon Ebose and Chidi Williams, two Nigerian engineers who met in London, just raised a $2.1 million pre-seed round led by Bowery Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Commerce Ventures, Transpose Platform VC, and several angels. Financial services firms spend enormous amounts of effort on support tickets, resolving disputes, ensuring quality assurance, and regulatory compliance. Rulebase’s software, which it calls an agent co-worker, replaces much of…

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court temporarily put on hold proposed new social studies standards for K-12 public school students that include conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The state’s high court issued a temporary stay on Monday while a lawsuit challenging the new standards is being litigated. The court’s order directs the State Department of Education to keep the previous social studies standards in place while the case is being decided.At the direction of state Superintendent Ryan Walters, the standards were revised to include new language about the 2020 election and that the source of the COVID-19…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amy Ma, who is in her 30s and from New Jersey. The following has been edited for length and clarity.Getting laid off broke my heart.In May 2023, I got called into a meeting with a HR representative who told me I was losing my data scientist job at the company where I’d worked since February 2022. I couldn’t stop myself from crying.I was five months pregnant, so felt I couldn’t immediately get back into the job market.When I started looking for jobs again a month after giving birth, joining a job-seekers’…