As reported in NBC News, leaders from the civil rights group sent a letter Thursday to the Shelby County Health Department and Memphis Light Gas and Water criticizing the organizations' 'lackadaisical approach to the operation of this dirty data center' and calling on them to 'issue an emergency order for xAI to stop operations completely' ' or if there's no order, to at least cite and stop the company from allegedly violating clean air laws. The letter expressed particular concerns around the gas turbines that xAI runs to power Colossus. The company has applied for a permit to continue operating 15 gas turbines at the facility, although the NAACP said authorities have 'allowed xAI to operate at least 35 gas turbines without any permitting' over the past year. City officials have previously said xAI did not need permits for the turbines' first year of use. Noting that the Colossus facility is located near South Memphis' Boxtown neighborhood, which the letter described as a 'historically Black community,' the NAACP said the location perpetuates 'the trend of industries adding pollution to communities who do not cause the problem.'...

This was the question Hashim Sarkis, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, posed to the graduating class at the school's Advanced Degree Ceremony at Kresge Auditorium on May 29. The response was enthusiastic applause and cheers from the 224 graduates from the departments of Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning, the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, and the Center for Real Estate. Following his welcome to an audience filled with family and friends of the graduates, Sarkis introduced the day's guest speaker, whom he cited as the 'perfect fit for this class.' Recognizing the 'international rainbow of graduates,' Sarkis welcomed Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and head of the Mary Robinson Foundation ' Climate Justice to the podium. Robinson, a lawyer by training, has had a wide-ranging career that began with elected positions in Ireland followed by leadership roles in global causes for justice, human rights, and climate change. Robinson laced her remarks with personal anecdotes from her career, from with earning a master's in law at nearby Harvard University in 1968 ' a year of political unrest in the United States ' to founding The Elders in 2007 with world leaders: former South African President Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter....

Why are so many Americans so eager to find alternatives'political, medical, vocational'to the status quo' By many measures, the 9-to-5 workplace, the medical industry, and other mainstays of American life seem to have served the country's population very well: The United States has the world's largest economy, and its population is far healthier and wealthier than it was before World War II. Yet in 2023, North Americans spent an average of $5,800 each on 'wellness' treatments whose efficacy has not always been backed by research. One in 13 Americans have participated in multilevel marketing, even though research has shown that 99 percent of them lose money in the process, and 30 percent supported a Cabinet position for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the leader of the movement to 'make America healthy again,' who has falsely claimed that vaccines cause autism. This state of affairs has animated several stories in The Atlantic's books section over the past two weeks, and all of them identify the same basic answer: The status quo is no longer working....

With Elon Musk and other leaders of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) purportedly on their way out, WIRED spoke with a fired DOGE staffer about his experience, how the group communicates, who appears to be in charge'and what might be coming next. Earlier this week, Sahil Lavingia published a blog post on his personal website detailing his 55-day stint within DOGE. Lavingia, who WIRED first identified as a member of DOGE at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is the CEO of Gumroad, a platform that helps creatives sell their work. In his post, Lavingia describes the kinds of projects he worked on at the VA and his overall impressions of working with DOGE. Lavingia described the DOGE operations as 'disorganized,' with little information sharing across different teams. This could all change soon, as Musk has spent the last few weeks saying that he is going to be largely leaving his DOGE duties behind. Two of his closest lieutenants, Steve Davis and Nicole Hollander, appear to be departing as well. Davis, who has worked with Musk for years, including at X and as the CEO of the Boring Company, has been integral to the day-to-day operations of DOGE....