President Trump with Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration plans to accelerate its overhaul of federal research by supporting more individual scientists and the use of artificial intelligence rather than universities, its latest attempt to accelerate technological discovery to combat China.
In a new report and memo released Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy argues individual scientists can help the nation move faster to use AI in scientific research. The directives from the office will help shape a roughly $200 billion annual federal research and development budget across the government for the rest of President Trump’s second term.
The new guidance could further hurt large universities that rely on federal research funding. The administration hopes to give priority to programs such as fellowships and awards that give opportunities to individuals rather than colleges, it says in the report. Examples of model programs the White House says should be emulated include a prestigious National Science Foundation program for graduate students and a National Institutes of Health award for creative scientists.
Some universities would also potentially be hampered by a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would give political appointees more power over grants and align research with administration priorities.
“Over the last 20 or 30 years we’ve become very stagnant in believing we should keep funding the same research in the same way at the same institutions,” Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in an interview. He met with the leader of an Ivy League university Tuesday about the new approach and got a positive response, he said.
Excessive time spent on bureaucracy at government agencies and universities is another factor holding the U.S. back, the administration has argued. Under its plan, individual researchers at universities would receive funding directly, minimizing the direct involvement of universities. In many cases now, colleges receive funds.
Another focus is putting AI at the center of scientific research and instituting more aggressive national goals, such as recent pledges to deploy a powerful quantum computer by 2028 and have 10 new large nuclear reactors under construction by 2030 to boost electricity production.
The administration has attempted to bring together the Energy Department’s scientific expertise and supercomputers in a program called the Genesis Mission aimed at using AI to tackle research challenges by joining with the private sector and researchers.
“Agencies should fund research that uses AI as a new instrument of scientific discovery, not merely as a tool to augment existing capabilities,” Kratsios and OMB Director Russ Vought wrote in their memo about R&D funding priorities.
Skeptics have cautioned that AI models are prone to mistakes and overemphasizing the technology could restrict the types of studies researchers pursue.
Appeared in the July 22, 2026, print edition as ‘Tech Grants To Shift Away From Universities’.
Amrith Ramkumar is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Washington covering tech and crypto policy. He previously covered clean energy and was a Journal markets reporter in New York who wrote about special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, when SPAC mergers were a popular
Shireen Rizvi is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-wrote the book Real Skills for Real Life: A DBT Guide to Navigating Stress, Emotions, and Relationships.
Think about the last time you were distressed. How did you cope?
Did you lash out at someone? Drink alcohol? Pretend like it never happened?
There are healthier ways to deal with the pain. “Those behaviors are the result of not knowing how to tolerate what feels intolerable,” says Shireen Rizvi, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Montefiore Einstein Medical Center. “In those moments, we have to learn how to accept the distress and respond in a more effective way.”
She and co-author Jesse Finkelstein, a clinical psychologist, use engaging diagrams and illustrations to teach skills rooted in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a form of therapy that helps people manage difficult emotions. There’s a decision tree on how to use DBT skills to resolve conflict, for example, and an infographic on how to practice mindfulness.
DBT was first developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan in the 1980s to treat borderline personality disorder. Since then, many studies have shown that “DBT skills are helpful for lots of different people with many different types of problems,” write Rizvi and Finkelstein in their book — not just for those with complex mental health issues.
TIP: What to do when you’re so distressed you can’t think straight
Rizvi, a board-certified DBT therapist, shares a set of techniques from her book called TIP. The acronym stands for temperature, intense exercise, paced breathing and paired muscle relaxation.
You can use these four distinct skills in moments when you’re so distressed that you can’t think straight, she says. For example, if you get in a big fight with your partner, or if you’re dealing with a big life event like illness or death.
TIP can quickly bring down the level of emotional intensity from extreme to moderate. They can “help you go from, say, a 100 to an 80 on a scale from zero to 100,” Rizvi says. Then when you’re at an 80, you’ll have more clarity to do something else to help yourself.
How to do it: Fill a large kitchen bowl with cold water and ice, take a deep breath, and plunge your face, eyes and temples into the water while holding your breath. Stay there for as long as possible, Rizvi says.
Why it works: It triggers the mammalian dive reflex, which happens when mammals are submerged in cold water, Rizvi says. It increases the likelihood of survival by slowing down your heart rate and respiratory rate. “Those are things we also need [our bodies to do] when we are in high degrees of distress.”
Rizvi does not recommend this maneuver for those with a heart condition or those taking beta blockers. “A sudden decrease in heart rate could obviously be a problem,” she says. But if you don’t have those conditions, it’s worth a try.
I: Do some intense exercise
How to do it: Do anything that can get your heart rate up quickly, Rizvi says. Run up the stairs, do some jumping jacks or pushups. Sustain that movement for 30 seconds or longer.
Why it works: The idea behind this skill is “almost paradoxical,” she says. “In that moment of high agitation, you’re revving yourself up.” Then, when you stop the exercise, your heart rate decreases, making you feel calmer — and your endorphins kick in.
P: Try some paced breathing
How to do it: Make your exhale longer than your inhale, Rizvi says. Breathe in for a count of four, then breathe out for a count of six.
Why it works: When we’re distressed, we tend to breathe from our chest, “which is more like hyperventilating, the opposite of relaxing,” Rizvi says. Paced breathing can slow down your heart rate and lower emotional intensity.
How to do it: Go through your body, muscle group by muscle group, and tense the muscles as tight as you can — then release them. Breathe in as you clench your body. Then, as you breathe out, say or think of a word that you associate with relaxation, like “relax” or “calm,” as you unclench. That’s the “paired” part of the exercise, Rizvi says.
Why it works: “The idea is that if you tense your muscles as hard as you can, then relax, you get a greater sense of relaxation than if you just try to relax without tensing the muscle first,” she says.
Intense moments don’t last forever
One of the biggest things people get wrong about distress is that they have to get rid of the feeling right away or it will last forever, Rizvi says.
But it doesn’t, she says. “One thing we want people to learn is that whatever it is you’re feeling, no matter how intense, no matter how awful it feels in this moment, it will pass.”
The story was edited by Meghan Keane. The visual editor is CJ Riculan. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.
ChatGPT Health Will See You Now, and It’s a Big Step Forward for Medical Queries
After a tumultuous summer for my health, I put ChatGPT Health to the test.
By Katelyn Chedraoui, Reporter 2, Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators.… Read full bio
July 23, 2026, 1:40 pm ET, 4 min read
Adobe Stock
I unexpectedly spent a lot of time sick in hospitals and doctors’ offices this summer, so, as a reporter covering AI, I was well-prepared to stress-test the new version of ChatGPT Health.
ChatGPT Health is a specialized experience inside the chatbot, designed with solid privacy restrictions and safety guardrails to help answer a variety of health questions. It’s rolling out today in the US for free and paid personal ChatGPT accounts for folks over 18 on the web and iOS. It was first announced in January in beta.
I had my appendix removed earlier this summer, and a bevy of postoperative complications kept me feeling pretty miserable for several weeks. I’m feeling much better nowadays, thankfully, and I knew the bucketload of digital paperwork I’d racked up would be useful during my early access to the program.
As with any AI program, the more information you’re willing to give it, the better the results turn out. You can connect your Apple Health account to ChatGPT, as well as your electronic health record for many different providers. The idea is to have all your health info, from your doctor notes to data to info from your Apple Watch and Oura ring, all compiled inside ChatGPT. This could be helpful for people who have a lot of health records, like folks with chronic illnesses, or those who have their records spread out across hospitals and doctors’ offices.
OpenAI says it does not use your connected health information to train its foundation models or advertisements. You can request that your data be deleted, set a limited time window for which ChatGPT Health has access to your outside accounts and disconnect each account as needed. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Even so, there will certainly be instances when you don’t want to share your most sensitive data. Tech companies have a history of cooperating with law enforcement, and as some governments ramp up highly politicized healthcare policies criminalizing some procedures, like abortion and gender-affirming care, you may want to keep your most sensitive information offline. ChatGPT Health is not HIPAA-compliant, meaning you don’t have the kind of confidentiality you have with your doctor.
Setting up ChatGPT Health
I connected ChatGPT with one of my patient portals, selecting the provider from a list and signing into my account, going through the usual two-factor authentication process. I was then asked to select my current health conditions and medications from the options it gleaned from my electronic health record, as well as broadly indicate any family medical history.
Editor’s Note: The post featured image is from WP AI. –DrWeb
Abstract
Victoria M. Beatty, Dismantling White Supremacy: Modern Strategies for a Modernized Foe, 25 Berkeley Journal of Black Law & Policy 14 (2025) (512 footnotes). (Full Document)
Donald J. Trump was born June 14, 1946, to Frederick Trump, Sr. and Mary Trump. Fred was a multi-million dollar real estate developer, so the family lived in an upscale community in Queens, New York. Donald Trump joined his father’s business in 1968.3 He avoided the draft during the Vietnam War with a medical deferment due to a physician diagnosis of bones spurs. Donald Trump’s first big real estate deal came in 1976.5 He wanted to develop a Grand Hyatt Hotel, but he did not have the money to purchase the hotel nor the land. Instead, he used his father’s clout in the Democratic Party to convince New York City government officials to give him a 40-year tax break allowing him not to pay property taxes on the hotel. Because of his father, he was given an abatement valued at $400 million over 40 years. He used the abatement to outbid competitors and secure the deal.
When Donald Trump entered the casino business in 1990, the casino began to fail so his father saved him. Fred purchased more than $3 million in casino chips to infuse his son’s failing company with cash, the purchase was later deemed an illegal loan. Before his father died, Donald Trump received approximately $413 million from his father. Today, President Trump is the first United States President who was elected as a convicted felon on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to an adult film star. In 2023, he was found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and a $5 million judgment was awarded. He had no military or political experience prior to becoming the 45th President of the United States. When he ran for reelection and lost, he encouraged rioters who stormed the Capitol to overturn the election that resulted in the death of five people and, as of January 6, 2025, led to the arrest of 1,583 people.
In the first few days of his second term, his erratic tariff policies “suspended diplomatic ties, shaken markets and confounded entire industries.” In an attempt to eliminate government bureaucracy, he cut thousands of federal jobs and gutted USAID, the effects of which will lead to at least 23 million children across the globe losing access to education and 95 million people losing access to basic healthcare. A year after assuming the Presidency, Trump entered the U.S. in a war with Iran by killing 175 school children and staff at Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school. Trump initially blamed Iran for killing its own children until the findings of a U.S. military investigation revealed the missile belonged to the U.S., to which he admitted the U.S. hit the school by mistake. The damage inflicted by his incompetence, however horrific, pales in comparison to the incompetence of his administration.
On November 12, 2024, Trump nominated Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. During the nomination process, Hegseth’s former sister-in-law sent an affidavit to Senators alleging he physically abused his former wife and was an alcoholic. In 2007, Pete Hegseth became the executive director of Veterans for Freedom. By 2008, the organization was operating at a deficit of $700,000, having raised over $8.7 million in revenue but spending over $9 million. In 2010, a mere three years later, Veterans for Freedom reported less than $265,000 in revenue. He was fired in 2011.23 That same year Hegseth was appointed executive director of Concerned Veterans for America. By 2016 the organization reported revenue of $15.9 million and $16.4 million in expenses; he was forced to resign. In 2024, the New Yorker revealed a previously undisclosed “whistle-blower report” by Concerned Veterans for America employees accusing Hegseth of sexual misconduct and repeated incidents of public intoxication and at times needing to be carried out of the organization’s events.
Hegseth joined Fox News in June 2014 and became an official host of Fox & Friends Weekend January 2017. In that same year, a woman attending the Republican Women’s Convention claimed Hegseth, the convention’s keynote speaker, drugged her and sexually assaulted her. She filed a police report with Monterey Police Department. The Police Report recommended the case be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review. The Monterey County District Attorney’s office refused to press charges. When the victim and her husband threatened to sue in 2020, Hegseth secretly agreed to a financial settlement. In 2021, Hegseth was barred from participating in President Biden’s Inauguration because a military officer was alarmed by his tattoos of a Crusader’s cross and the motto “Deus Vult,” a medieval term coopted by white supremacists and far-right militants. The military officer alerted his superiors that Hegseth may be an ““insider threat.”
Hegseth was confirmed as Secretary of Defense on January 24, 2025, and now runs an organization that employs over 3 million individuals with an $857 billion budget. Once confirmed, he immediately appointed his younger brother Phil Hegseth, as senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department. Before assuming his position in the Department of Defense, Phil Hegseth ran a podcast production company and worked on social media podcasts.
In March 2025, The Atlantic reported a journalist was added to a Signal group chat where Hegseth shared top secret information on military operations. A month later he shared more confidential military operations on another Signal chat. House Republicans blocked efforts to open an official inquiry on Hegseth’s incompetent security breaches. As Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has no senior military, national security, or government experience and has the least overall military experience of any defense secretary in U.S. history.
When President Biden pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, triggering a Taliban takeover and a disastrous evacuation, Pete Hegseth during his Senate confirmation hearing blamed it on Biden’s “DEI hire.” He was referring to General Lloyd J. Austin III, the nation’s first Black Defense Secretary, who Hegseth has now replaced. Over the course of General Austin’s 41-year career, he served as the 12th commander of the United States Central Command, the 33rd Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq, Silver Star recipient, recipient of five Defense Distinguished Service Medals, a Legion of Merit recipient, and commanded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan at the one-, two-, three-, and four-star levels. Despite the General’s commendations, Hegseth, the most unexperienced Secretary of Defense this country has seen, testified to Congress that the General was hired for nothing more than his racial identity.
President Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Elon and his brother Kimball were both born in South Africa and emigrated to Canada in 1989 to avoid South Africa’s mandatory military service. The brothers then moved to California where they founded Zip2.43 Elon and Kimball received funding from their father to launch the company. The brothers sold the company to Compaq for $307 million. Following its sale, Musk founded Paypal, Space X, Open AI, and became CEO of Tesla Motors.
Over the last 20 years, Musk has reportedly received $38 billion from government loans, subsidies, and tax credits to sustain his companies. When Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy, Musk received a $465 million loan from the United States Energy Department and has collected $11.4 billion in regulatory credits. SpaceX has been granted at least $18 billion in federal contracts in the past decade.
DOGE’s stated goal was to reduce government spending and bureaucracy, improve the procurement process, and reform regulations. By November 2025, DOGE fired 271,000 federal workers and federal government spending was $248 billion higher than spending in November 2024.51 He dismantled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and cancelled nearly 2,300 government contracts. In April 2025, a whistleblower testified before Congress that after DOGE infiltrated the personnel records of the National Labor Relations Board, there were several log-in attempts from a Russian IP address. Congress refused to investigate the claims. Shortly after the accusation, Elon’s SpaceX was awarded $6 billion dollars. A month after receiving the grant, Musk left DOGE.
Trump orders Smithsonian to post warnings about ‘inaccurate’ US history
Editor’s Note: Read this crap Trump attempts to do now. Idiot. Post signs and warning about your thousands of lies, false statements, calling reporters names, attacking news media covering your sorry ass. –DrWeb
15 hours ago, By Max Matza
The Immokalee Statue of Liberty by Kat Rodriguez inside the Smithsonian American History Museum
President Donald Trump has ordered signs to be placed outside the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, to caution visitors about exhibits his administration views as “inaccurate”.
The order directs the Department of Interior to issue the warnings, and also to direct people about where they can find “accurate information regarding America’s history”.
The Trump administration has often accused the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest research museum, as well as other academic organisations of harboring an anti-American bias.
The Smithsonian did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
The order on Friday – titled Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution – accuses museum leadership of not doing enough to celebrate America’s founders on the country’s 250th anniversary of independence, which took place on 4 July.
It says the museum’s leadership team “views American history as a ‘prime tool’ to advance ideas of social justice and the radical transformation of our society”.
An accompanying White House statement also accused the museum of veering “toward extreme political activism, rooted in Marxism, to divide, dispirit, and discourage Americans”.
Democrats who oversee the Smithsonian condemned the order.
“This EO is a clear political overreach, driven by an ideological agenda to rewrite American history,” congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, ranking member of the House Administration Committee, wrote on X.
“Our Smithsonian institutions do not belong to the President, but to the American people and so does our nation’s history.”
The executive order comes just days after Smithsonian director Anthea Hartig was grilled by Republican lawmakers in two congressional hearings, where the museum was accused of being “infected by a woke ideology that seeped into public displays, educational materials and planning documents”.
Earlier this month, the White House Domestic Policy Council released a scathing report, claiming that the museum “erases our heritage”.
Trump has set out to radically reshape American culture, which he says has been contaminated by “woke” left-wing ideology.
He has signed several orders that are intended to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes from the federal government – some of which led to legal challenges.
In March, he issued a separate order against the Smithsonian, directing it to “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology”.
The Smithsonian is largely funded by the federal government. Its museums offer free entry to some 15 to 30 million visitors each year. It operates 21 museums in Washington, Virginia and New York.
They include the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, the National Zoo and more than a dozen others.
‘What is anti-American?’ – Museum visitors react to Trump’s Smithsonian order from March
Deer in front of full moon | Volodymyr Burdiak / Shutterstock
On July 20, 1969, humans took their first footsteps on the moon. Nine days later, a full moon appeared in the skies above our planet, though this time, many Earthlings were looking at it in a whole new way.
July’s full moon is commonly referred to as the Buck Moon, and in 2026, it occurs on July 29 at 10:30 a.m. EST. Long before the first moon landing, this moon was honored as a symbol of nature’s power, rebirth, and the gift of wisdom.
The Origins of the Name “Buck Moon”
Full moon in July, the Buck Moon | Soumyabrata Roy / Shutterstock
The name “Buck Moon” comes from Native American traditions, particularly those of Algonquin-speaking peoples. It refers to the fact that around the time of this moon, bucks—or male deer—tend to grow their new antlers. Bucks shed their antlers each winter and regrow them in summer, an annual process driven by changes in testosterone.
This moon is also known by a number of other names. It is sometimes referred to as the thunder moon because of the summer storms that tend to occur in July. Additional names include the Feather Molting Moon, which comes from the Cree people, and the Salmon Moon, a Tlingit name that references the time that salmon traditionally return to the rivers.
To the Anishinaabe, this moon is known as the Berry Moon, and to the Dakota it is known as the Moon When the Chokecherries are Ripe. Some European traditions, meanwhile, referred to it as the Hay Moon or the Herb Moon, due to the quantity of herbs generally available to them at this time.
Simultaneously, Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains celebrate the moon that falls in the Hindu lunar calendar month of Ashadha, which overlaps with June and July, with a holiday called Guru Purnima. This festival has slightly different meanings in different traditions.
In Hinduism, it is said to be the day that the god Shiva passed his knowledge down to another guru, or spiritual teacher, thus starting the tradition of gurus passing down spiritual wisdom through the ages. Buddhists, meanwhile, believe this day marks the date that the newly enlightened Buddha gave his first sermon. In general, Guru Purnima pays tribute to wisdom both inner and outer. It is considered an auspicious time for honoring teachers, meditating, and cultivating inner peace.
The Meaning of the Buck Moon
Buck moon behind a sailboat | Susan Marrah Photography / Shutterstock
Naturally, it’s easy to find symbolism and meaning in bucks’ process of regrowing their antlers, thus stepping into their more mature and powerful forms. Because of this moon’s association with this process of regeneration, many people have long associated this moon with renewal, strength, and commitment to goals and dreams.
The Buck Moon may be a chance to refocus, recommit to your goals, and embrace transformation. “Spiritually, this moon is tied to growth, culmination, and taking practical steps toward the life you’re building,” writes Rebecca Swanner for Pagan Grimoire. “Also, just as male deer’s antlers are nearly grown by this time of year, it’s a powerful moment to reflect on your progress and commit to your long-term vision.”
In general, July’s full moon seems to be associated with ripeness and expansion. From the berries blooming on bushes in the Northeast during this time to the thunderstorms rocking the skies and the salmon swarming the rivers of the north, July is a time when nature is still at the height of its power.
This could be a time of increased energy, strength, and initiative that can help you manifest your goals, or a time to cultivate these things. Increased focus and devotion may be available, making this a perfect time to gather with others, make plans, and commit or recommit to your dreams.
The Princeton University campus in Princeton, New Jersey, in 2024. (Ted Shaffrey/AP)
Anthropology is the study of humanity and its history — our behaviors, belief systems, biology, language — all the elements that make us who we are. With artificial intelligence platforms that can think for and seemingly relate to us, anthropology has become increasingly useful.
So it was with dismay that I read Megan McArdle’s July 20 column, “The interview that exposed academia’s cluelessness,” which was just the latest invective hurled at anthropological reasoning, higher education and, explicitly, me.
I spoke with the Chronicle of Higher Education about a recent paper that singled out anthropology, among a series of attacks on various academic disciplines, without offering much in the way of evidence. That interview was then excerpted by McArdle. She indicted scientific debate over gender and what she sees as our collective failure to “sell the value of higher education to the masses,” and defended using AI in research before concluding that the phrase “‘experts say’ no longer works.” She may be right on that last point. Those who write with derision may indeed drown out experts.
Reasserting trust in institutions and expertise is foundational to democracy. Debating and then setting standards for the appropriate use of AI in academic work is fundamental to truth. Accepting the discoveries made by geneticists and biological anthropologists is critical to public health, just as physicists are critical to bringing astronauts safely home.
In January, PEN America published a report chronicling the “full-blown ideological campaign” against higher education. It declared 2025 a year of “catastrophe.” McArdle’s column extends the streak.
Carolyn Rouse, Princeton, New Jersey, The writer is president of the American Anthropological Association
In my own professional experience as a social science academic, including as a reviewer of hundreds of books in the discipline, I’ve been continually astonished by the takeover of these fields by an alternative academic universe that bears little relation to the real world.
Numerous academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences now feature so-called critical studies. Making matters even worse, too many academic writings are filled with political jargon. Such is the problematic state of the profession that even academics who write clearly and critically on their own will refrain from criticizing their peers who overuse politically charged jargon, thereby leaving faulty theories and misuse of language unchallenged. It results in groupthink to the detriment of properly educating new generations of students to succeed in society by writing clearly, accurately and, most importantly, critically — in the best sense of the term.
Joshua Sinai, Potomac, The writer is a professor of practice in intelligence and global security studies at Capitol Technology University.
Megan McArdle reminded me of another critic of the ivory tower: Allan Bloom, author of the 1987 New York Times best seller “The Closing of the American Mind” and my adviser at the University of Chicago. Bloom loved to recount how he became anathema to the anthropology department by remarking this at one of their conferences: “Anthropologists are fascinated by the study of other cultures. In fact, the only people they aren’t interested in investigating are anthropologists.” The lack of self-awareness among America’s professorial class has only worsened since then, and McArdle put herself in good company by calling it out.
Michael P. Clarke, Kenosha, Wisconsin
I was a college faculty member long ago, and I have no quibbles with Megan McArdle’s dismembering of the inept interview of the president of the American Anthropological Association. Being correct and being a good debater are different intellectual attributes. McArdle’s piece calling out academics’ cluelessness could also serve well as a fill-in-the-blank format in which Republicans, Democrats, clergy, business titans and others could be substituted for “academics.”
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The following is an interview conducted by reference specialist Ryan Brubacher with Prints & Photographs Division Junior Fellow Ellie Harrison.
Ryan: Can you describe your background and how you came to this internship as part of the Junior Fellows Program (JFP)?
Ellie: I am currently pursuing dual master’s degrees in library science and art history at Indiana University Bloomington, where I also received my undergraduate degrees in art history and anthropology. I worked at the Indiana Historical Society before starting graduate school. At IU, I catalog artists’ books in my library’s technical services department, and I’m an assistant at our university archives. I had heard about the Junior Fellows Program from other students and decided to apply last fall. I was immediately drawn to the Prints and Photographs Division’s project with the poster collection, as I’m interested in design history and would like to work with visual materials in my future career. It has been wonderful to get hands-on experience with such an incredible collection of posters!
Ellie at her Prints & Photographs Division workspace. Photo by Prints & Photographs Division staff, 2026.
Ryan: Many people are familiar with some of our poster collections that have a large online presence like the WPA posters, but you were mostly engaged with posters with limited means of access. How did you look for and select the portions of the posters you wanted to dig into?
Ellie: Early on in the internship, I chose to work on a group of posters gifted by concert promoter Bill Graham, which sparked my interest due to my experience researching other American art from the middle of the twentieth century. Graham, along with Family Dog Productions, hired artists to create psychedelic posters for their San Francisco rock concerts in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To get a better sense of the collection, I first reviewed the few existing examples in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC). I also looked at reference materials; this group of posters has the benefit of being represented in the book “The Art of Rock” by Paul Grushkin, which features color images of each poster made for Graham and Family Dog. The layered patterns and psychedelic fonts, like those in this 1966 Wes Wilson poster, caught my eye:
Presented in San Francisco by Bill Graham, Captain Beefh[e]art & his Magic Band Chocolate Watch Band, The Great Pumpkin … Fillmore Auditorium. Poster by Wes Wilson, 1966. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.06471
For other projects, I utilized the card catalog or simply browsed the map cases where the posters are stored. For example, when selecting items for Display Day [an event where Junior Fellows from across the Library share their work], I knew that I wanted to include some 19th- century examples of Art Nouveau posters that had been influential to the 1960s psychedelic posters I was working with. Because I wanted to prioritize displaying items that hadn’t been digitized yet, I searched the card catalog using different access points, including country (Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, etc.), year, and artist. After making a list of the most promising posters, I went to look at them in the vaults and narrowed my selection from there.
This poster (below) for Bradley His Book was one of my favorites. It exemplifies Will Bradley’s distinctive woodblock print-inspired style and shares a close resemblance to one of Wes Wilson’s posters for The Byrds. A similar teardrop-shaped peacock feather pattern can also be seen in Wilson’s poster for Captain Beefheart, shown above.
Ryan:A question we are asked all the time in P&P is “what is your favorite”, and none of us has an easy time answering, but I’ll give you a similar prompt – what particular posters stood out to you, or captured your interest? Any favorite artists or categories or particular items?
Ellie: I really enjoyed looking at the posters sponsored by the Puerto Rican Division of Community Education. The posters all promote Puerto Rican social services and cultural traditions, but each artist presents the Division’s message with a unique perspective and style. I especially liked Antonio Maldonado’s posters and his use of vibrant colors. This one (below), designed by Isabel Bernal, reproduces a family photograph using silkscreen. I like how Bernal translates the personal into a poster designed for public appeal.
The creative letterforms used by artists of the early 19th century and 1960s alike also stood out to me. Some of their lettering is so warped and stylized that it becomes barely legible. These cases prompted me to think about the purpose of text on posters and how meaning can be communicated through the presentation, rather than objective definition, of words. This 1896 poster, which promotes a Dresden art establishment, utilizes ornate hand-lettering to show off the printing shop’s design abilities. (Although, I’m still not entirely sure what the artist was going for with the “K” design!)
Finally, I found an original Picasso poster for an exposition in Vallauris, France, while inventorying the original artwork posters. This was pretty fun to stumble across!
Ryan:I spent time early with you setting up projects and doing some training, but towards the end of the internship you were organizing your day independently around the couple ongoing tasks. Can you walk through a sort of typical day?
Ellie: In the morning, I’ll review my checklist to see what else I need to complete for each ongoing project. I then usually retrieve the materials I’ll be working with for the day and begin my main project of creating item records in a spreadsheet, referencing both the card catalog and the items themselves. Sometimes mornings will also include a JFP tour of another division in the library. In the afternoon, after a potential JFP Professional Development Series session, I will usually work on a smaller project for a little bit; for example, I’d add images to the Travel Posters Research Guide or inventory unprocessed materials like the original artwork posters. I will usually finish the day by creating more spreadsheet records and reviewing my progress with the projects.
Ryan: Do you recall any highlights of particular moments that were exciting or meaningful as you worked?
Ellie: I ran into some difficulties when deciding on how to best label the printmaking technique used for the psychedelic rock posters, but I think it turned out to be a valuable learning experience. I saw inconsistent terminology used to describe the posters in other museum collections that held the materials; some sources described the posters only as lithographs, but others said they were offset lithographs. Although not all posters were labeled with printers, Tea Lautrec Litho was a known offset lithography printing company that worked with Bill Graham’s artists, so it was likely that offset lithography was the primary method used for the posters. Even still, I took the opportunity to practice some close looking techniques to see if I could determine the difference between lithographs and offset lithographs using a loupe (small magnifier) and pocket microscope. It proved difficult to determine the visual differences between these similar techniques, so in most cases, I labeled the posters as offset lithographs based primarily on context clues. This experience helped me better understand the various methods involved in print identification and the challenges that come with the process.
Ryan: Any surprises? Good rabbit holes?
Ellie: It was really interesting to learn about some of the lesser-known poster artists in the psychedelic poster collection. Some were very young when they had their posters published; for example, Mari Tepper was only in her early 20s when she created her posters for Bill Graham, and Dottie Simmons was a teenager when Family Dog Productions published her poster. Even more prolific artists, like Wes Wilson and David Singer, often didn’t have formal artistic training before beginning their work as poster designers. Spending time with these concert posters gave me insight into the lives and artistic processes of their creators.
Ryan: Other things you are interested to share?
Ellie: The records I created for the psychedelic and Puerto Rican artist posters will eventually be made publicly searchable online! I think there is a lot of research potential in these posters, so I am excited that they will soon be more discoverable.
For much of U.S. history, newspaper journalism was the predominant medium by which people stayed informed. The new Newspaper Journalism Primary Source Set from the Library of Congress contains items that teachers and students can use to explore ideas related to constitutional foundations and debates on the scope of press freedoms, selected developments in and types of newspaper journalism, and the role, responsibility, and ethics of newspaper journalism.
The set includes 18 primary sources, many of which are historical newspapers from Chronicling America. In addition to newspapers that reflect how journalism has changed over time, teachers will also find photographs, political cartoons, draft legislation, a landmark Supreme Court decision, and an oral history interview with prominent newspaper journalists during the African American civil rights movement.
Manzanar free press (Manzanar, Calif.), March 20, 1943, (ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
The Newspaper Journalism Primary Source Set also includes a background essay with historical context, suggested teaching ideas, and links to additional resources. We hope that teachers and their students will enjoy using the set!
“Four Score and Seven Years Ago….” Lincoln’s Handwritten Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln posed for this photograph on Sunday, Nov. 8, 1863, 11 days before delivering his speech at Gettysburg. Photo: Alexander Gardner. Prints and Photographs Division.
“Four Score and Seven Years Ago….” Lincoln’s Handwritten Gettysburg Address
—This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. It also appears in the May/June issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, which is devoted to the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.
On Nov. 2, 1863, Gettysburg lawyer David Wills wrote to Abraham Lincoln, officially inviting the president to attend the dedication of a new military cemetery on Nov. 19 and provide “a few appropriate remarks” at the ceremony. Despite his heavy workload, Lincoln agreed to participate. In addition to honoring the fallen soldiers to be interred in this cemetery, the dedication ceremony would allow him to explain to their loved ones, and all Americans, why the cause of the union was worth fighting and dying for.
The first page of the Gettysburg Address, above, written by Abraham Lincoln in pen on Executive Mansion stationery. He wrote the second page (below) in pencil on ordinary paper. Manuscript Division.
Lincoln’s “few appropriate remarks” would later become famous as the Gettysburg Address and continue to resonate with people around the world.
For a document as iconic as the Gettysburg Address now is, many details about its creation and delivery have been lost to time or clouded by conflicting memories of witnesses. Lincoln began working on the address in Washington, drafting his opening lines in ink on Executive Mansion stationery.
Harkening back to the Declaration of Independence 87 years earlier (“four score and seven years ago”), Lincoln noted that the Revolutionary generation had founded a new nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal.’” That nation was now being torn apart by civil war, Lincoln continued, and the question of “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure” remained to be answered. But at that ceremony, they gathered to dedicate a burial ground honoring those who gave their lives so that the nation would survive.
Precisely when Lincoln wrote the second page of his address is not known. Perhaps it was part of an earlier draft? Perhaps he was inspired to alter the ending of his speech after touring a portion of the nearby battlefield on the morning of the ceremony?
Regardless, after penciling connecting words on the page of Executive Mansion stationery, Lincoln put pencil to a piece of ordinary writing paper to call for his audience, and all Americans, to honor those who had given their “last full measure of devotion” by dedicating themselves to completing the unfinished work of the war. He called for them to “highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Having completed his remarks, Lincoln may have folded the pages together, creating matching creases in the mismatched pieces of paper. The president then amended his address further during its delivery, invoking a higher power in “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom …”
The Library holds two copies of the Gettysburg Address, written in Lincoln’s own hand. When either is on display, visitors often linger and carefully read Lincoln’s words. Why do the roughly 270 words of the Gettysburg Address continue to resonate?
Each guest has their own answer, but in addition to the beauty of Lincoln’s language, his address reminds us of the ideals on which the United States was founded, the unfinished nature of the experiment and that each generation must dedicate itself anew to ensuring that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Blade Runner 2099 showrunner Silka Luisa drops intel on how the new series ties into the original films.
Get your exclusive first look at images from the Prime Video show.
The new iteration will also take elements from the book that started it all.
It’s got to be pretty daunting taking over the reins of one of the most important and influential science-fiction franchises in pop culture history, but Blade Runner 2099 showrunner Silka Luisa had two crucial mentors on her journey to the land of replicants.
The first was the writer behind Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, Michael Green. “He was a really important part of the development process,” says Luisa. “I came in with the pitch and basic concept for the show, the characters, and all of that, but Michael had been through writing 2049. He knew the world really well. He knew the pitfalls. He knew the strengths. He understood how to build out the kind of noir mystery for it. And so he was very helpful.”
The second person who shepherded her through the process? A guy by the name of Ridley Scott.
“What an incredible experience,” Luisa gushes of the original Blade Runnerdirector (who, like, Green, serves as an executive producer on the new series). “It’s once in a lifetime to have your hero sit down with you and tell you what it was like making your favorite movie.”
But it was more than just the legendary director sharing old war stories. “It was really important for Ridley to be a part of the development process,” Luisa notes. “Because both visually and in terms of story, there are mythological canon points in his film that we’re touching, and it was really important to both get his blessing and have his insight into what his original intentions were.”
Now, five years after the show was first announced, Blade Runner 2099 is finally coming to Prime Video, with a premiere date set for some point later this year.
Michelle Yeoh as Olwen and Hunter Schafer as Cora in ‘Blade Runner 2099’. Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
“I am so excited for people to see it,” she says smiling. “There is so much legacy with Blade Runner. Every person who touched the show in any way is a huge fan. Everyone was very well aware of the weight of what we were doing, and we did it with great care. And when you’re taking on something like this, you’re very thoughtful and deliberate about each step. That is why it has taken so long, because we wanted to make sure we got it right.”
And getting it right meant threading the needle in terms of paying homage to the past while also offering something new. “We stayed very true to the noir principles of Blade Runner. And there’s a mystery at the heart of the show that looks both forwards and backwards in terms of mythology that fans are gonna be very excited about.”
Luisa shared all the inside scoop with Entertainment Weekly on what to expect when it comes to the new story, the new characters, and the new look of Blade Runner 2099. And now, we share that scoop with you.
Hunter Schafer as Cora in ‘Blade Runner 2099’. Clay Enos/Prime Video
The setting
It will not shock any practitioner of simple arithmetic to learn that the events of Blade Runner 2099 take place 50 years after Blade Runner 2049. And Los Angeles has undergone a pretty big transformation.
“There’s been a replicant uprising that feels like it’s been bubbling up,” Lousia explains. “And between 2049 and 2099, that’s happened. So the war has happened and the humans have lost. Our worst fears imagined.”
Welcome to the new world order. “The replicants are now the power brokers of the city,” says the showrunner. “And humans are the second-class citizens.” (Bummer for us.)
And the story we will see on screen is not just informed and inspired by the two Blade Runner movies, but also by the novel on which the original film is based: Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Therein lies the main thread of the series. Notes Luisa: “The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant?”
“There’s a tone to his novel,” Luisa says. “There is a zaniness to it, but at the same time, he has really dark themes and circumstances. And I think the juxtaposition of this kind of bubblegum tone with these dark ideas was something I really gravitated toward.”
There was also another advantage of going back to the original source material.
“We did return to the book for a lot of the world building,” says Luisa. “Because it’s a TV show and you have so many more hours to fill, we have this great opportunity to actually build out the world, and to go to other places, and to build out parts of history and parts of the universe that I feel like fans have been really curious about and just haven’t gotten to see yet. And the book was really helpful in helping us guide us where we could do that.”
The story
If you were hoping to somehow see Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard and Ryan Gosling’s K stomping around on screen again, put those hopes to bed, as Luisa explains that Blade Runner 2099 will feature all new characters, and with good reason. “We are taking place so much in the future that obviously none of the same characters are around.”
Leading the new cast is Michelle Yeoh as a replicant Blade Runner named Olwen. “She is hunting down a group of missing rogue replicants,” explains Luisa. “She’s in the final days of her life, so she knows she has only days left to live because replicants know down to the day when they’re gonna die. It’s certain and it’s definitive.”
If the tale of a desperate replicant coming up against their expiration date sounds familiar, that is very much intentional.
“Her story is very much taking the Roy Batty story from the first film,” says Luisa of the iconic Rutger Hauer performance. Only this time, there is one major difference. “We’re telling it from the replicant’s point of view.”
And they plan to go deep on that vantage point. “We have the benefit of television where you have all of the hours that you could want to explore the nuances of this very relatable and human fear of not wanting to die,” notes Luisa. “There’s something about the idea that you’re not winding down when you die. You’re spiraling out. There’s a volatility, a danger, and a desperation to it, which I think Michelle really tapped into in her performance.”
The other key figure is Olwen’s partner, Cora, played by Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer. Instead of another replicant trying to blend in as a human, Cora is actually the opposite.
“Hunter is playing a human who is a fugitive and has spent her life running from Blade Runners,” explains the showrunner. “And now has to pretend to be one.”
But the act has worked almost too well.
“In this struggle to survive and just trying to live day-to-day, she’s actually lost her humanity,” Luisa says. “So she’s a human who has lost her humanity. And the question for the series is: Once you’ve lost her humanity, can you regain it?”
Olwen and Cora will be working together and investigating the missing rogue replicants — and this being Blade Runner, don’t expect any of the answers they find to be simple or expected.
The look
You could very easily make the case that Blade Runner is the most influential science-fiction movie of all time. At least when it comes to the look of the film. No other project has inspired such a wide, countless swatch of copycats.
With its rain-soaked alleys and neon signage, the original Blade Runner set the template for dystopian future-noir thrillers. The 2017 sequel was equally visually arresting with its orange radiated skies from acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins. So nailing the right visual story was just as important for Blade Runner 2099 as the words on the page.
For Luisa, that meant looking to both the past and the future.
“Ridley’s film, from a visual standpoint, was a key north star for us,” she explains. “We definitely leaned into the layered tactile look of Ridley’s film. There was the idea of everything on the inside is on the outside. All the components of inside of a building are now on the outside of the building. And we used that, which made sense in a post-war city. That’s a very practical way to have a city with these hodgepodge elements. So a car has a battery from an air conditioner, and you have to reuse parts.”
And while 2099 similarly reuses parts from the original Blade Runner style handbook, it also adds some fresh chapters of its own.
“Every film has really moved the visual look forward,” says the showrunner. “So Ridley’s was dark and rainy. Denis’ was cold and snowy.”
And for 2099? “We leaned into sunshine noir. You’re still very much in the Blade Runner world, but the show is about a birth. It’s about a birth of a city. It’s about a birth of a replicant era. These characters are discovering who they really are. And so the climate is hot, it’s sticky, it’s sunny. We’re on the coast a lot. We’re in Santa Monica a lot. So it’s like you’re seeing Ridley’s texture, but you’re seeing it in the sunshine noir filter.”
As for how much practical versus computer-generated effects they used to create their new world, Luisa says, “We’re very in-camera for most of the show. I think it just gives the world a believability. It’s better for the actors. They can move through spaces. It helps make a world that is very foreign feel very true. They can touch everything.”
There was one thing in particular Luisa was looking forward to touching on set: an actual Blade Runner spinner. It was imperative to the showrunner that they got the flying car first made famous in the original film right for their new incarnation.
“Paul Inglis had worked on 2049 [as supervising art director]. And it was so important to him to get the spinner right — to make sure it felt like it was an evolution, but it was still in concert with all the films. I think fans are gonna be really, really, really excited when they see it.
Luisa certainly was. So excited that she had her own personal fangirl moment.
“The day the spinner arrived on set for the first time was the one day I took a selfie,” she says.
But wait, it was even more awkward that than. “First, I started to, like, casually lean against it and take a quiet one,” she reveals, laughing off her failed attempt at subtlety, hoping nobody would notice. Eventually, she abandoned all shame. “And then I finally was, like, getting in there.”
Now she just hopes fans will likewise all be getting into Blade Runner 2099.
Our ultimate guide to Comic-Con 2026: Here’s everything we know
Comic-Con is back in San Diego. The Union-Tribune shares information on schedules, events and more.
.Sydney Shiotani of Los Angeles dressed in cosplay as Orin from Baldur’s Gate 3 at Comic-Con International on July 25, 2025 in San Diego, California. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Comic-Con International is back in San Diego this week, and all signs are pointing to major Hollywood moment MOVIES.
San Diegans can expect an explosion of activity around the San Diego Convention Center where the event takes place Wednesday through Sunday. A badge is required to get inside to see panels with titles such as “Mad Rewind: Talking About Mad TV,” “How to Build a Droid 101” and “The Future of Doctor Who.”
But outside the convention, activities representing various fandoms, brands and studios welcome anyone willing to wait in line for an exclusive opportunity.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has been covering the local event for years, bringing inside knowledge and up-close looks at the colorful convention to readers. Here’s all our coverage so far, with more updates coming throughout the week to sandiegouniontribune.com/tag/comic-con.
Wednesday at Comic-Con
Comic-Con International starts Wednesday, July 22, at the San Diego Convention Center with a preview night that helps attendees get badges early and avoid long lines the next day.
The main events on preview night are mainly taking place away from the convention center at the Marriott Marquis hotel with viewings of Star Trek episodes and cult classic movies.
Dan Stevens attends the AMC Global Media Upfront at Spring Studios on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Thursday at Comic-Con
The first official day of Comic-Con International starts on Thursday, July 23, with the star-studded cast of a new action film, a K-pop boy band and producers of two anticipated foreign films.
Hollywood is back in force with the cast of a new action thriller, “Onslaught,” starring Adria Arjona, coming off the Star Wars show “Andor”; Dan Stevens, known for “Downton Abbey” and dozens of projects; and Rebecca Hall, an actress known for numerous movies including the Godzilla vs. King Kong films.
The second day of Comic-Con International on Friday, July 24, will feature the casts and creators of HBO’s newest superhero show, as well as the stars of the new “Spaceballs” movie.
HBO’s return to Comic-Con, which had taken a few years off, comes courtesy of “Lanterns,” a new show based on the DC Comics character Green Lantern. The cast is expected to take the stage at Hall H, including Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre.
Marvel Studios will return to San Diego Comic-Con this year. Pictured: Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios during the opening ceremony for Avengers Campus inside Disney California Adventure in Anaheim in 2021 (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Saturday at Comic-Con
Comic-Con International’s biggest day on Saturday, July 25, will feature the return of the headline-grabbing Marvel Studios after a one-year absence.
Marvel Studios, producers of “Spider-Man,” “Avengers” and “Iron Man” films, will take over the convention’s biggest room, the 6,500-seat Hall H. The studio is famous for breathtaking announcements and bringing A-list actors to America’s Finest City.
Apple TV is also returning this year after taking several years off. Expect big stars for its Hall H panel that will feature casts from shows and films, “Dark Matter, “Silo”, “Mayday” and “Matchbox the Movie.”
The final day of Comic-Con International on Sunday, July 26, will conclude with activities for children and the return of the basketball-playing dog “Air Bud.”
Sunday is traditionally the day set aside for kids, and parents can expect plenty of events to keep the little ones entertained: the Children’s Film Festival, drawing classes and more. While occasional big panels take place on Sunday, this year is light on anything not related to children.
To help get your planning started, here’s a list of happenings from A to Z. The full convention calendar of events can be found online at comic-con.org.
This is a look at a range of Comic-Con features including Artists’ Alley, the Her Universe Fashion Show, author events and more.
Jessica Biel arrives at the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards. She’ll join the cast of “Matchbox The Movie” for a panel at Comic-Con. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Celebrity sightings to expect
For the celebrity-obsessed, Comic-Con is like Christmas in July — when Hollywood comes to town with a sleigh filled with celebrities.
The official day-by-day schedules released last week have given us a peek into what this year’s Comic-Con holds for us, with names ranging from John Cena and George Takei to Rebecca Romijn and Kate McKinnon.
Comic-Con-themed events will appear across the city, from interactive fan experiences and immersive pop-ups to live shows, contests and special activations. Whether you’re a dedicated fan without a badge or simply looking to soak up the atmosphere, these events offer plenty of ways to experience the excitement beyond the walls of the San Diego Convention Center.
Here’s what to know about transportation, road closures and parking as people from all over the U.S. and around the world arrive to attend the convention.
A bartender serves drinks while “Spongebob Squarepants” plays in the background at Comic-Con. (Serena Neumeyer / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Food and drink specials
The San Diego Convention Center has upped its game a bit in the food and drink department during Comic-Con in recent years, but for convention attendees looking for meals and cocktails outside the center, here are some of the specials available July 22-26 and beyond.
WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) – The U.S. Education Department said on Thursday it was removing several “disparate impact” regulations, which for decades have prohibited policies and practices with discriminatory impacts that are often unintended.
Sixty civil rights and education groups issued a statement on Thursday condemning the change, saying the regulations being removed were crucial to protect students from systemic discrimination based on race, color and national origin.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 opposing disparate impact regulations and asked federal agencies to not enforce them.
The move is part of a wider push by Trump against diversity initiatives, which he calls anti-merit and discriminatory against groups like white people and men.
Civil rights advocates have long condemned Trump’s actions, saying they are rolling back social progress and are removing practices aimed at helping marginalized groups like ethnic minorities, women and the LGBT community.
The Education Department said on Thursday disparate impact rules had prevented schools from clamping down on minority students who were disruptive and led educational institutions “to consider race and engage in racial balancing.”
“The left’s notion of ‘equity’ should never prevent teachers from keeping their classrooms and students safe. With these changes, schools will be empowered to address classroom issues without fearing the federal government will weaponize anti-discrimination laws,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement.
The dozens of rights groups protesting the move said the regulations were crucial to protecting against measures such as school closure and discipline policies that often appear neutral but tend to harm or set back Black, Native American, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander students.
“The disparate impact tool is designed to remove unjustified barriers in education and ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to learn and succeed,” the groups said.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sonali Paul)
Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose sold so well that its English translator William Weaver could add an extension onto his Tuscan villa, which he called the “Eco Chamber.” The Biblioteca Eco, or Eco Library, whose ribbon-cutting earlier this month you can see in the Italian news clip just above, may not be as wittily named, but it’s a much more ambitious project. It was opened this year, the tenth anniversary of the famed philosopher, semiotician, novelist, and critic’s death, at the University of Bologna, where he was a professor from 1971 to 2007. Housing more than 32,000 books from his personal library in Milan (previously featured here on Open Culture, and the subject of its own feature-length documentary), it stands as an explorable concrete representation of his capacious mind.
So capacious was that mind, in fact, that the Eco Library actually comprises several libraries, chiefly the Rare Book Library and the much-subdivided Working Library. In them, one encounters sections “dedicated to literary genres, comics and popular culture, works by and about Umberto Eco” — including more than 2,000 editions and translations of his own books — “ancient and medieval philosophy, the history of ideas, semiotics, translation and theories of language,” says the University of Bologna’s magazine Unibo.
There are “Italian, French, English-language, German, Central European, Slavic, Latin American and many other literatures,” including works of “detective fiction and science fiction, popular literature and the feuilleton.” As anyone who’s read Eco’s essay on Peanuts might imagine, “his comic book collection is also of great importance.”
Indeed, as any fan would expect, Eco’s namesake library reflects not just the vast sweep of his humanistic interests and knowledge, but also his playful sense of eccentricity, and even grotesquerie. According to the Fondazione Umberto Eco, most of the volumes it contains “are marked by a distinctive ex libris,” an adaptation of a sixteenth-century woodcut that depicts a donkey on a cornucopia-topped latrine. “The animal plays a small pipe, setting in motion a merry dance of a dozen cavorting monkeys.” The books themselves have been painstakingly arranged just as Eco shelved them, in accordance with the “good neighbor” principle of placing seemingly unrelated titles in close proximity in order to reveal unexpected intellectual connections between them. The volumes from Eco’s country house in Monte Cerignone will also be incorporated into the collection, but as the man himself knew, the best libraries, like the best minds, are never truly complete.
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletterBooks on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro.Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
Coffee and heart health: How many cups of caffeinated coffee are safe to drink each day?
Although the relationship between caffeine and cardiovascular health is complex, the latest research indicates consuming up to 5 cups of caffeinated coffee per day (up to 400 mg of caffeine/day) is safe for most adults and may be linked to cardiovascular health benefits in some individuals, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement.
close up of coffee cup Photo by Chevanon Photography on Pexels.com
Statement Highlights:
The latest research indicates that consuming up to 400 mg of caffeine/day (equivalent to up to 5, 8-ounce cups of caffeinated coffee per day) is generally safe for most adults and appears to be linked to a lower risk of several cardiovascular conditions, including heart failure, heart disease and stroke in some individuals.
However, higher amounts of caffeine, such as levels found in energy drinks including energy shots, may increase the risk of high blood pressure and/or irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia.
More research is needed to better understand caffeine’s impact on the body, how different sources of caffeine impact heart health and how its impact may vary among different people, according to the scientific statement.
Embargoed until 4:00 a.m. CT / 5:00 a.m. ET Monday, July 20, 2026
DALLAS, July 20, 2026 — Previous studies have found that caffeine is the world’s most popular stimulant and psychoactive substance, and coffee is the most common way people consume caffeine. The latest research supports the conclusion that for most adults, consuming up to 400 mg of caffeine/day (or up to 5, 8-ounce cups of caffeinated coffee per day) is safe and appears to be linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease for some individuals. However, higher doses of caffeine, such as levels found in energy drinks including energy shots, may cause cardiovascular harm, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement, “Caffeine and Cardiovascular Disease,” published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship peer-reviewed scientific journal Circulation.
“Caffeine consumed in coffee is a key part of daily life for millions of people, and in our review of the most recent research, for most adults, intake of up to 400 mg of caffeine/day, the equivalent of up to 5 cups of caffeinated coffee per day without added sugars or fillers, is safe and does not increase cardiovascular risk,” said Chair of the scientific statement volunteer writing group Gregory M. Marcus, M.D., M.A.S., FAHA, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and the associate chief of Cardiology for Research at the University of California, San Francisco Health. “However, high doses of caffeine, such as those found in energy drinks including energy shots, may have harmful effects on the heart and should be avoided.”
The statement authors note that studying the effects of caffeine on the cardiovascular system is challenging. Coffee is the main source of caffeine in most research studies, and the observed cardiovascular effects may be due to other compounds in coffee. For example, experimental studies suggest that the bioactive compounds in coffee may have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which may help explain some health benefits. It’s also difficult to separate the effects of caffeine from other ingredients usually added to coffee, such as milk, cream, flavored syrups and/or sugar. In addition, most studies on caffeine are observational, meaning they cannot prove cause and effect.
Although coffee is the main source of caffeine for most adults, tea, chocolate, soda and energy drinks, as well as over-the-counter and prescription medications, also contribute to overall caffeine intake. More research is needed about other products with caffeine in order to understand caffeine content and caffeine’s impact on cardiovascular health.
Caffeine and cardiovascular health: key things to know
Based on the results of the latest research studies reviewed, consuming up to 400 mg of caffeine per day, or no more than 3 to 5, 8-ounce cups of regular black caffeinated coffee per day (without sugars, sweeteners, flavors or added fillers), is considered safe for most adults. A regular brewed, non-specialty, caffeinated coffee typically contains 9.4-20.6 mg of caffeine per fluid ounce.
Consuming caffeinated coffee without added sugars, flavors or cream was linked to a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, heart failure and some irregular heart rhythms.
Randomized trials, the most rigorous and reliable type of study design, have shown that caffeine consumption in coffee is associated with a lower risk of atrial fibrillation but also a higher risk of premature ventricular contractions.
Adding sugar, flavored syrups, milk and/or cream to coffee likely reduces its potential health benefits, and more research is needed to understand the impact of these additives.
Higher caffeine intake, such as levels found in energy drinks including energy shots, was associated with cardiovascular harm, such as increased risk of high blood pressure and irregular heart rhythm. Energy drink shots may contain 40-69 mg of caffeine per fluid ounce, 3-4 times more caffeine than regular caffeinated coffee.
How does caffeine affect the body?
Caffeine consumed in coffee is metabolized by the liver and generally reaches peak concentration for most people within an hour. However, how quickly individuals process caffeine depends on their genetics, metabolism, age and past caffeine use. When more caffeinated coffee is consumed regularly, some people may develop a tolerance to higher levels of caffeine. Other people may feel stronger effects from the same amount of caffeine. Short-term effects of caffeine may include temporary increases in blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar and alertness. Some people may experience heart palpitations and/or sleep disruption.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming ubiquitous. Its integration is not just limited to our personal technology but now also includes library resources (see examples in “2026 Library Systems Briefing”). Meanwhile, vendors are constantly introducing new tools or integrations into existing products, and we must measure emerging AI platforms against our library’s tried-and-true resources to gauge which ones truly bring a new perspective or added value to our collections.
It’s an overwhelming time to vet and license library resources. To cut through the noise, I’ve narrowed down my queries for vendors to five questions to better understand how a new AI tool might enhance my library’s user experience.
1. What content is your tool trained on?
The future of generative AI models will heavily depend on whether the use of copyrighted content to train models violates copyright or falls under fair use. It will take years for the copyright-and-AI question to be decided, but if the courts ultimately rule that all content used to train models must be licensed, many existing models could become unusable.
While this unfolds in court, I am interested in ethical data acquisition by my vendors. AI tools typically follow one of three training approaches: training a full model, supplying a full model with a specific knowledge base, or training a small language model. Each approach to an AI model has its pros and cons. Large language models respond more predictably but aren’t trained as well for specific purposes, whereas small language models can focus on specific purposes but potentially sacrifice accuracy.
The vendor’s response to this question also provides insight into the ethics of their model. Ideally, all content should be properly licensed and clearly attributed. If user inputs or uploads are used for training, vendors should clearly notify users and warn them of the potential for copyright infringement. A vendor that is unwilling or unable to address how their model is trained and how they source model content is cause for concern.
2. What sets your tool apart from other vendors’ or from freely available models like ChatGPT?
While there are many capable generative AI tools on the market, there is a limit to the uniqueness and value that they can offer library users. This is especially true in a world of constantly shrinking budgets where content redundancy no longer makes sense for many libraries.
Whether you love or hate AI, there is an undeniable appeal in a general-purpose tool that can help with a range of everyday tasks. Kickstarting your research in ChatGPT is questionable from a copyright lens, but I guarantee that library users are already doing so. Well-trained models with sufficiently sized corpuses can already help users navigate research tasks, such as literature reviews. These tools may not have direct access to our licensed content, but they can help construct meaningful keyword searches, identify relevant databases, and summarize seminal research without specific content. When evaluating newly available AI resources, libraries must carefully consider the incremental benefits of a licensed tool and whether they outweigh the free functionality users can access elsewhere.
Fundamentally, a library-licensed model needs to bring true novelty to justify adoption. Resources that operate in limited environments, such as a model that can only return information about a single database, risk frustrating users when they are unable to answer their questions completely. Moreover, limited tools may devalue the library’s resources by conveying to patrons that library resources are less useful than free tools.
Patron privacy is a core value of librarianship. Users trust that resources provided by the library protect their best interests and that their data is safeguarded. Any adopted AI models or tools must reflect this trust.
From article…
Users are already overly comfortable sharing their personal information with AI models—regardless of whether or not those models are diligent about protecting it. Data privacy is rapidly evolving in a post-AI world, but users assume that most of their conversations will never see the light of day and will stay locked behind logins that they set themselves.
Patron privacy is a core value of librarianship. Users trust that resources provided by the library protect their best interests and that their data is safeguarded. Any adopted AI models or tools must reflect this trust. Our vendors must provide transparent guidelines on how user data is captured and used, especially if it is being used to retrain their tool. In a perfect world, user data is not captured by a model, remains anonymous, and cannot be used for training (i.e., a closed model). Otherwise, resources should clearly inform users of any saved data and its intended future use.
4. What do librarians and users need to know before engaging with your AI tool or platform?
There is always some level of onboarding for new library resources. Some teams will have the bandwidth to dive deep into each new tool, while some libraries may only have a few minutes to review it before they debut it for patrons. If you cannot arrange a trial for an AI platform, your conversation with the vendor is the best measurement of how painless adoption will be for your library.
Fundamentally, a library-licensed model needs to bring true novelty to justify adoption.
Stephen Colbert wishes his dog Benny a happy birthday. colbert / Instagram
In the final moments of the episode, however, Benny played one of the most important roles. In one clip, Colbert and McCartney, 84, pulled a giant light switch at the Ed Sullivan Theater, causing the building to shrink into a snow globe.
Viewers were then taken outside the theater at street level to see Benny come by to sniff the globe as the show’s theme song played in the background.
“Come on, Benny. Let’s go,” Colbert said as he ended the show for good.
CBS canceled The Late Show in July 2025, just days after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump. (Trump sued CBS’ 60 Minutes, accusing the show of deceptively editing an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.)
The network has since claimed that canceling The Late Show was “purely a financial decision” and “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Despite telling PEOPLE that he was initially in disbelief after hearing the news, Colbert emphasized that he looks back on the past decade with nothing but gratitude.
Ryan Teague Beckwith is a newsletter editor for MS NOW.
Democrats appear to be in a good position heading into November
They have the upper hand in the House races and are within reach of a Senate majority.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, left, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries during a news conference at the Capitol on Jan. 8, 2026.Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
If history is any guide, Democrats have the advantage in the fall midterm elections.
In recent decades, the president’s party has almost always lost congressional seats, especially in a second term. Republicans are now facing additional headwinds from President Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings and concerns about inflation.
But with four months until Election Day, it’s still too early to tell how favorable the environment will be for Democrats. A narrow House majority is one possibility, while a broader wave could also bring the Senate into play.
Most voters don’t begin paying close attention until after Labor Day, and major events can quickly reshape the political landscape. A sudden economic shift, an international crisis or scandal could all change the trajectory of the race. Already this week, allegations of sexual assault have roiled a key Senate race.
Another development has the potential to reshape the landscape: the Supreme Court ruling that political parties may coordinate more closely with candidates on campaign spending. The decision is expected to help both parties assert more control over the elections, but how that will affect individual races remains to be seen.
Still, many of the challenges facing Republicans are unlikely to disappear before November. Trump remains a polarizing figure, Congress has barely passed any major laws to brag about and there is little evidence that inflation or consumer prices will improve dramatically before voters cast their ballots. Even if Trump ends the war with Iran, helping steady oil markets, experts say it will take time for prices to drop to their prewar level.
Here’s where the races stand today, including Senate race rankings from MS NOW’s elections team.
The House: Democrats have the upper hand
Winning back the House is Democrats’ top objective. Control of the chamber would allow them to block most Republican legislation, conduct oversight hearings, issue subpoenas and investigate the Trump administration.
Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority, meaning Democrats need only a handful of wins to reclaim the speaker’s gavel.
Because of political polarization and aggressive redistricting in many states, there are only about three dozen genuinely competitive House districts nationwide. That means control of the chamber will likely be decided in a relatively small number of suburban swing districts in states such as New York, California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Nebraska.
Most recent polls show Democrats ahead on the generic congressional ballot by at least five points, which would mean a net gain of anywhere from 8 to 18 seats — more than enough to win control. But a recent Emerson College poll put Democrats with a 10-point lead among likely voters, which would mean they could pick up 15 to 25 seats for a more robust majority.
The bottom line: Democrats are in a much better position than the GOP, but it remains to be seen how big of a majority they could get.
The Senate: Democrats are close
For Democrats, control of the Senate as well would mean the ability to pass legislation through both chambers and slow or even block the confirmation of judicial nominees and executive branch appointments for the rest of Trump’s term.
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 advantage. To win control, Democrats must first defend their own vulnerable seats by re-electing Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia while holding open seats in Michigan and New Hampshire. Then they must flip four Republican-held seats.
Race ratings from MS NOW’s elections team currently give Democrats an edge in three key contests — North Carolina, Georgia and New Hampshire — all of which are rated Lean Democratic. If those ratings hold, Democrats would still need to win at least two more states from the following list:
Michigan: Rep. Haley Stevens and former public health official Abdul El-Sayed are running for the Democratic nomination to face presumptive Republican nominee Mike Rogers. Toss Up.
Maine: Graham Platner is facing incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. But Democratic support for Platner has dropped amid allegations of sexual assault, on top of other controversies. Toss Up.
Ohio: Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill JD Vance’s seat after he was elected vice president, is facing former Sen. Sherrod Brown. Toss Up.
Alaska: Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola will likely be among the top four candidates to advance after the state’s nonpartisan primary. Leans Republican.
Iowa: Rep. Ashley Hinson is facing Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek for an open seat in a state where Democrats haven’t won a Senate race since 2008. Leans Republican.
Unlike the House, where races tend to move in tandem, Senate races are much more dependent on the quality of individual candidates and the political dynamics within each state.
The bottom line: Democrats have a plausible path to a Senate majority, but virtually every competitive race remains unsettled.
This is a preview of MS NOW’s Project 47 Newsletter. As President Trump continues implementing his ambitious agenda, get expert analysis on the administration’s latest actions and how others are pushing back sent straight to your inbox every Tuesday. Sign up now.
On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As the nation commemorated its bicentennial in 1976, the semiquincentennial is being observed through a range of national, state, and local initiatives. In preparation for this milestone, Congress established the America250 Commission in 2016 to coordinate planning for the anniversary, with the Library of Congress serving as a partner agency in this effort. Since 2023, the Library has collected websites produced by the America250 Commission and other organizations documenting activities related to the commemoration.
This web archive provides a representative record of federal, state, and local semiquincentennial commissions, as well as websites from cultural and professional organizations. It also preserves digital content reflecting commemorations, historical interpretation, and community experiences across the United States.
Collection Period: September 28, 2023 to September 4, 2027.
Frequency of Collection: The majority of sites in the collection were added to crawl on a monthly or weekly basis, with some added to crawl once or quarterly.
Languages: Collection material in English and Spanish.
Acquisition Information: Sites were added incrementally to the project as they were identified.
While the odds of a U.S recession have fallen sharply in the last year, companies are still looking to set up shop in states with solid economies.
With states loudly touting their own economic strength, Economy is one of the most important categories in CNBC’s annual competitiveness study, America’s Top States for Business.
Several states stand out for their economic strength this year, based on factors including job growth, strong housing markets and healthy budgets with relatively lows levels of public debt.
Maybe the U.S. economy has dodged a bullet.
A little over a year ago around this time, more than half the economists responding to the CNBC Fed Survey predicted a recession within the next year. They were wrong, but that is not to say that the economy does not still face risks. Those risks include inflation, geopolitical tensions, and markets that many cautious investors believe are priced to perfection.
That helps explain why states continue to market themselves to businesses as the ideal places to weather an economic storm.
“Iowa is home to a diverse economy, driven by key industries of advanced manufacturing, biosciences and finance and insurance,” the state’s economic development website proclaims.
“Florida has one of the largest economies in the world, with key industries including aerospace, logistics, manufacturing and defense,” the state notes. “Its diverse economy supports innovation, supply chain growth and global trade.”
CNBC’s analysis of all 50 states’ economic development marketing pitches as part of this year’s America’s Top States for Business study finds economic factors are the second-most frequently mentioned attribute, behind infrastructure. As a result, under this year’s methodology, Economy is the second-most heavily weighted category for 2026, accounting for 16.6% of a state’s total score.
To score each state’s economy, we consider a variety of factors including economic growth, job growth and the number of major companies headquartered in the state. We also measure each state’s fiscal health including its budget situation, its long-term obligations and its debt ratings, as well as the health of the residential real estate market. We also consider the impact of tariffs, the potential impact of federal budget cuts, foreign direct investment, and small business survival rates.
While some states are flashing economic warning signs, these ten states have what it takes to power through whatever the U.S. economy throws their way.
10. Wisconsin
A general view of Custer Farms during a roundtable on agriculture with U.S. President Donald Trump on June 5, 2026 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Samuel Corum | Getty Images
Wisconsin has seen a surge of new business formations since the pandemic, according to a study released in May by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Researchers noted a 20.2% increase in new small businesses in the Badger State between 2020 and 2025. And those new businesses have staying power. According to data compiled for CNBC by research firm Construction Coverage, Wisconsin ranked No. 12 in an index of one-, two- and three-year new business survival rates. Wisconsin’s large agricultural economy, whose significant exposure to China clouded the state’s economic picture last year, benefited from the Supreme Court ruling in February invalidating many of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
2026 Economy score: 258 out of 415 points (Top States grade: B)
Real GDP (2025): $359.6 billion (+1.5%)
Debt Rating and outlook (Moody’s): Aa1, Stable
Share of state spending from federal funds: 26.8%
International goods trade (2025): $64 billion (13.6% of GDP)
Foreign direct investment (2024): $1.5 billion
Major corporate headquarters: Snap-On, Alliant Energy, Fiserv
Major corporate headquarters: Labcorp Holdings, Bank of America, Duke Energy
From Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures comes Dune: Part Three, bringing Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s epic trilogy to a breathtaking conclusion. Dune: Part Three is set nearly two decades after Paul Atreides seized control of the Imperium. Now a ruthless Emperor, Paul must face the consequences of his reign as old allies return, terrifying new threats emerge, and betrayal lurks in every shadow. Haunted by visions of Imperial collapse and the reappearance of his long-lost love, Paul is drawn into a sweeping conspiracy, with Chani at the heart of its unfolding mystery. As rebellion brews and enemies close in, Paul must confront the true cost of power and the fate of those he loves the most. The film stars Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, Isaach de Bankolé, with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling, with Anya Taylor-Joy, and Robert Pattinson, and Oscar winner Javier Bardem. Villeneuve directs from a screenplay by Villeneuve and Brian K. Vaughan, based on the novels written by Frank Herbert.
The film is produced by Oscar nominees Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Villeneuve and Tanya Lapointe, and Joe Caracciolo, and executive produced by Joshua Grode, Thomas Tull, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Richard P. Rubinstein, John Harrison and Jessica Derhammer. Joining Villeneuve behind the camera are Oscar-winning director of photography Linus Sandgren, Oscar-winning production designer Patrice Vermette, Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker, Oscar nominated costume designer Jacqueline West, Oscar-nominated casting director Francine Maisler, and Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer. Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Present A Legendary Pictures Production, A Film By Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Three, only in theaters and IMAX® across North America on December 18, 2026 and internationally beginning 16 December 2026. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and in China by Legendary East.
America’s first public university is also its flagship
Carolina’s history parallels that of the United States, and the University is a leading example of the good public institutions can produce.
Story by Brennan Doherty and video by John Roberts, University Communications and Marketing, Friday, June 5th, 2026
The 250-year history of the United States runs parallel to the history of UNC-Chapel Hill.
In the same year the nation declared its independence, North Carolina’s first constitution called for state-supported schools, including universities.
Carolina’s charter dates to 1789, the year the U.S. Constitution was signed and George Washington took the first presidential oath of office.
“You could study the history of UNC, and it’s like studying American history in a microcosm,” said Nicholas Graham, University archivist.
The birthplace of public higher education, Carolina opened its doors to students in 1795 and was the sole public university to award degrees in the 18th century.
But beyond being a historic first, Carolina has for centuries served as a leading model for all other universities across the nation in public service, research, innovation and affordability, illustrating how a public institution should support its home state and its people.
From preparing the nation’s top healthcare professionals and conducting groundbreaking research to producing business leaders, cultural and sporting icons and even a president, Carolina is at the heart of America.
The public good pursued by Tar Heels fuels North Carolina as well as the nation at large.
“That means being first in ways that matter beyond our own campus — opening doors for students, advancing discoveries that improve lives and serving the state whose name we bear,” said Chancellor Lee H. Roberts. “Carolina’s history is extraordinary, but its true measure is what that history makes possible for North Carolina and for the nation.”
Cadets in the U.S. Navy’s preflight training program training at Bowman Gray Memorial Pool. (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Preparing American heroes
When Graham thinks about Carolina’s biggest contributions to the U.S., his mind immediately goes to how the University helped the nation’s soldiers prepare for two world wars. During World War I, the University hosted the Student Army Training Corps, and during World War II, Carolina was one of just four universities nationwide to host the U.S. Navy’s intensive six-week preflight training program.
“Over the course of three years, more than 20,000 people came through Chapel Hill,” including future President George H.W. Bush and National Baseball Hall of Fame member Ted Williams, Graham said.
“That was a huge impact on campus, both the physical campus and all the services. It was a tremendous logistical effort for the University to be able to host that number of people and to be able to accommodate all the things they needed to do.”
Astronauts Ed White and Jim McDivitt training at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
Carolina also played a major role in helping the nation become a world leader in space exploration.
Before the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins spent 125-plus hours learning celestial navigation at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, the South’s oldest planetarium.
“The planetarium’s director, Tony Jenzano, proposed this to NASA, and then UNC astronomers designed the curriculum,” Graham said. “It was an idea that came out of Chapel Hill: that astronauts going into space really needed to learn how to navigate by the stars in case of equipment failure.”
In the 21st century, Carolina is still preparing astronauts like Zena Cardman ’10, ’14 (MA), commander of SpaceX Crew-11, who completed their mission in January 2026.
Cardman shows that Tar Heels continue a legacy of shaping the future.
Carolina’s research timeline spans a century of innovations, from the life-changing commercialization of calcium carbide in 1893 to lifesaving HIV discoveries.
In the sporting world, everybody knows Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm, but today’s greats like Erin Matson, Drake Maye and Chloe Humphrey continued to develop in Chapel Hill at the University of National Champions.
The online search world lost one of its pioneers, Roger Summit, on 7 June 2026
Roger Summit, founder of Dialog Information Services (aka Dialog), paved the way for automated, interactive information retrieval that defined online searching some 25 years before Google existed.
In his mid-90s and still in good health, Summit was hit by a car at The Forum, a retirement community in Cupertino, California, where he lived, and taken to Stanford Hospital. He did not survive the accident.
A Stanford University graduate (BA,MA, and PhD), he joined Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. in 1960 and began work on what would become Dialog in 1968, thanks to a contract from NASA. Other contracts followed, allowing Dialog to launch commercially in 1972. It was spun off into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed in 1982 with Summit as president. After several ownership changes, including Knight-Ridder, MAID, and ProQuest, it is now part of Clarivate.
He was interviewed by Susanne Bjørner and Stephanie C. Ardito in part 4 of “Online Before the Internet: Early Pioneers Tell Their Stories” in 2003. A full biography is on Wikipedia.
Summit was a long-time supporter of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) and was still active, participating on a panel discussion at the virtual AIIP symposium only a few months before his death.
He received many awards over his career, but was most proud of the 2019 IEEE Milestone Award for Dialog. The plaque can be seen at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The video of his acceptance speech is here.
He was also a talented musician, playing piano and trombone. A video of Geoffrey Sharpe and Summit playing a duet during Covid is here .
Choosing the name Dialog was prescient, reflecting his vision that effective search wasn’t a single query but an iterative conversation—a back-and-forth between searcher and system to clarify and refine a query, which is now embedded in the newest versions of AI searching. Summit built the foundation upon which today’s online search systems stands. His legacy endures in every search box we use today and in the community of information professionals he influenced. RIP Roger.
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When the Times reporter Ellen Barry’s father developed dementia after a fall, her family spent years trying to manage his erratic behavior and confusion. They struggled to convince him that he was home, he was safe, and he shouldn’t try to leave. The experience was exasperating and impossible to understand.
Today, Ellen tells the story of those years, and of how she discovered scientific research that helped explain everything her family had lived through — research that could potentially help to save precious memories from being lost forever.
On Today’s Episode
Ellen Barry, a mental health reporter for The New York Times
Background Reading
When My Father’s Canary Flew Away
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. Read original article: Read More
They may also have discussed ways to accelerate Samsung’s companywide AI transformation by applying generative AI across Samsung’s business operations …
[Charlie] Bailey [a librarian in South Philadelphia, PA] stands at the front of a library classroom that’s outfitted for children – the focal point is the vibrant rug he’s standing on, which reminds us that M is for “moon” and Z is for “zebra.” But the 20-odd adults in the room aren’t here to learn about the alphabet. They’re at a workshop called Avoiding AI, which, in this context does not stand for “apple” and “igloo.”
“I was inspired by the feeling of people’s frustration with AI tools being kind of forced onto them, and feeling like AI tools we didn’t ask for are suddenly everywhere in our lives,” Bailey told TechCrunch.
Bailey starts the hour-long workshop with an overview of how AI chatbots and other consumer AI tools work, explaining why people might want to use these products, and why they might opt to abstain. Then, he walks through all of the most popular tech platforms and devices, showing step-by-step instructions on the projector to guide people through turning off specific features.
“As a librarian, I think it’s important to see this as advancing digital literacy and helping people reclaim their autonomy over whether they want to use AI tools,” Bailey said. “It’s important, especially when it can be so difficult not to use them, and when the design seems to force adoption.”
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This Searchable Tool Is Helping Track Flock Surveillance Cameras in Your City
The Atlas of Surveillance database is the largest-ever repository of police surveillance technologies in the US.
By Tyler Lacoma, Editor / Home Security and Smart Home
Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations.… Read full bio
July 23, 2026, 9:25 pm ET, 3 min read
This website has become a go-to tool for accurate Flock monitoring. EFF
Recent coverage of Flock Safety, the fast‑growing US surveillance technology company, reveals how opposition to automated license plate readers is playing out at the local level.
These cancellations are in large part driven by public concern around a system designed to enable mass surveillance, which is susceptible to serious abuses, including biased policing and privacy violations.
To track such surveillance, journalists and researchers are increasingly turning to a free tool called the Atlas of Surveillance, a collaboration between the renowned digital privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reno. The site has become a go‑to source for mapping police technology — which also includes drones, facial-recognition cameras and body cameras — with a searchable database that’s often more dependable than alternatives.
With the Atlas of Surveillance tool, you enter a city, county, state, law enforcement agency or vendor in the US and select which technology you’re interested in tracking. You’ll get a list of details based on your search, including links to public records or news articles.
“We frequently run into situations where local councilpeople don’t even know that a certain tool is in use,” said Beryl Lipton, Electronic Frontier Foundation senior investigative researcher. “Learning about a technology we have logged in the Atlas of Surveillance is meant to help people have conversations [about] whether that tool is appropriate for local use, start asking questions, and advocate for standards around how their police can or can’t use this equipment.”
Surveilling surveillance
While other tools for tracking Flock cameras and similar surveillance systems exist, I prefer the EFF’s approach, which uses reliable crowdsourced data from specific volunteers, including University of Nevada students and staff, as well as experienced researchers. These volunteers use a variety of information, including government documents, press releases, news stories and confirmed social media posts, to create lists of exactly which surveillance technologies local police or sheriff departments are using, as well as when they were adopted.
Deflock, another popular crowdsourced app for reporting Flock camera locations, has an open-source design that leaves it vulnerable to false reports from people who only think they’re seeing a surveillance device. Self-reports are also becoming less reliable as surveillance cameras are being hidden in speed signsand cacti.
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Donald J. Trump was born June 14, 1946, to Frederick Trump, Sr. and Mary Trump. Fred was a multi-million dollar real estate developer, so the family lived in an upscale community in Queens, New York. Donald Trump joined his father’s business in 1968.3 He avoided the draft during the Vietnam War with a medical deferment due to a physician diagnosis of bones spurs. Donald Trump’s first big real estate deal came in 1976.5 He wanted to develop a Grand Hyatt Hotel, but he did not have the money to purchase the hotel nor the land. Instead, he used his father’s clout in the Democratic Party to convince New York City government officials to give him a 40-year tax break allowing him not to pay property taxes on the hotel. Because of his father, he was given an abatement valued at $400 million over 40 years. He used the abatement to outbid competitors and secure the deal.
By 
