Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — There was a time, not that long ago really, when Joscelyn Roberson would combat the nerves that inevitably popped up before a major gymnastics meet by reminding herself of one very simple fact.“I could be like, ‘Oh no one’s watching me,’” the 19-year-old said with a laugh. “Like they’re watching Simone (Biles). They’re watching Jordan (Chiles). They’re watching Suni (Lee) and Jade (Carey). Like, they are not watching me.”Well, they are now.Biles, Lee, Carey and Carey are all on sabbatical from elite gymnastics, perhaps for good. And when Roberson salutes the judges during the first night…
AI startup Perplexity is powering a new AI-powered search engine on Truth Social, President Donald Trump’s social media platform. The search engine, dubbed Truth Search AI, is already available on the web version of Truth Social, with public Beta testing on its iOS and Android apps planned for “the near future.” Trump Media said in a press release that Perplexity’s tech provides “direct, contextually accurate answers with transparent citations” which will help Truth Social “exponentially increase the amount of information available” to users. Nonetheless, the social media platform maintains control over which sources of information the AI search engine draws…
Elad Gil isn’t just ahead of the curve — he practically lives there. Before most of the world had even asked ChatGPT its first question, Gil was writing early checks into companies like Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey. And that’s just a slice of the story. His track record includes seed or Series A investments in more than 30 unicorns and involvement with some of the most iconic names in tech — Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart, Notion, Figma, Flexport, Gitlab, and many more. This October, Gil takes the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco for a fireside chat…
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A plane belonging to an air ambulance service provider crashed in a residential area just outside Kenya’s capital on Thursday, killing at least six people, according to a local official and the aircraft’s owner.AMREF Flying Doctors said that the mid-size jet, a Cessna Citation XLS, took off from an airport in Nairobi and was heading to the territory of Somaliland when it crashed.The service provider didn’t provide the number of casualties or a possible cause, saying in a statement that it was “cooperating fully with relevant aviation authorities and emergency response teams to establish the facts…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is vowing to “fix” the federal program for compensating Americans injured by vaccines, opening the door to sweeping changes for a system long targeted by anti-vaccine activists.Health experts and lawyers say updates are needed to help clear a backlog of cases in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, created by Congress in 1986 as a no-fault payment system for presumed vaccine injuries.But they also worry Kennedy’s changes will reflect his history as a leader in the anti-vaccine movement, which has alternately called for abolishing the program or expanding it to cover unproven…
Jerome Adams, the U.S. Surgeon General under President Trump’s first term, criticized the Department of Health and Human Services’ move this week to cut funding for mRNA vaccine development.”I’ve tried to be objective & non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions – but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives,” Adams said in a post on X on Aug. 5.He added, “mRNA technology has uses that go far beyond vaccines… and the vaccine they helped develop in record time is credited with saving millions.”The HHS, now being led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in a release on Aug.…
LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Aaron Rodgers’ debut in Pittsburgh will have to wait.Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said the team’s new quarterback and most of its other high-profile starters won’t play when the club opens the preseason in Jacksonville on Saturday.T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Jonnu Smith, DK Metcalf and Jalen Ramsey are also among the group that will watch from the sideline.“They need less runway to take off, to be honest with you, because of their experience and where they’re at in their careers,” Tomlin said Thursday.Rodgers, who signed a one-year deal with the Steelers in early June, said Wednesday…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order requiring colleges to submit data to prove they do not consider race in admissions, according to a fact sheet shared by the White House ahead of the Thursday signing.In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of affirmative action in admissions but said colleges may still consider how race has shaped students’ lives if applicants share that information in their admissions essays. Trump’s Republican administration is accusing colleges of using personal statements and other proxies to consider race.The executive order is similar to parts of settlement agreements…
Over the past two centuries, vaccines have been critical for preventing infectious diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that vaccination prevents between 3 million and 5 million deaths annually from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, influenza, measles and, more recently, COVID-19.While there has long been broad scientific consensus that vaccines prevent or mitigate the spread of infections, there is new research suggesting that the therapeutic impact might go beyond the benefit of preventing infectious diseases.An April 2025 study published in the prominent journal Nature found tantalizing evidence that the herpes zoster – or shingles – vaccine could lower the risk of…
Enjoying the outdoors carries the danger of running into nature’s less-friendly side: toxic plants and animals.As toxicologists at the University of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Poison Center, we see many patients each year suffering from itchy rashes from poison ivy and stings from wasps or bees.Plants and animals deploy toxins most often in order to defend themselves. Learning how they do that and what happens when the human body is exposed to these substances can offer insights on how to prevent or manage these encounters with nature.The goal is not to scare people away from the outdoors, but to equip them…