government

Today the newest incarnation of the United States Space Force logo was revealed by Donald Trump. This logo should look familiar. It would very much appear to be a reincarnation of its former self - not to mention a clear reminder of the origins and controversy over the original. And yes, that does very much look like the Star Trek Starfleet Command insignia, largely because all of these symbols are designed to mimic one another - for real.

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Today US Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams released the first major report on smoking cessation in 30 years. The first (of two, total) made by the office was released three decades ago. Here in 2020, Adams said, "Today, I'm calling on healthcare professionals, health systems, employers, insurers, public health professionals, and policy makers to take action to put an end to the staggering—and completely preventable—human and financial tolls that smoking takes on our country."

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This week a new text message scam became enough of an issue that FedEx itself needed to send an alert to news stations. As police warnings began to appear on social networks like Twitter, early reports sparked interest from the team at FedEx that monitors shipping service abuse. This system resulted in the following warning.

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Fortnite joined the ranks of official esports league play, sanctioned by the NFHS and CIFSS in association with the group PlayVS. The NFHS is the National Federation of State High School Associations, the nonprofit organization that writes the rules of competition for "most high school sports and activities" inside the United States. California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section is the athletic and educational association that governs high school athletics in Southern California - or MOST of SoCal.

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Huawei held an event in January 2020 in London to tell developers about their strategy for a post-Google smart device ecosystem. Dr. Jaime Gonzalo, Huawei's Europe-based vice president of consumer services, spoke at this special event, suggesting that they'd be building an app ecosystem that's far less focused on "spam" notifications than are Apple and Google.

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Here's another story for the "everybody hates loot boxes" file: Claire Murdoch, the mental health director of the UK's National Health Service, has issued a statement in which she warns that loot boxes in video games are potentially "setting kids up for addiction." Murdoch's statement, in which she also calls for video game companies to ban loot boxes from games that are sold to children, echoes that of some other governments around the world, some of which are taking an increasingly skeptical position on loot boxes in video games.

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A software update released today addresses a historic report was made by the National Security Agency (NSA) to Microsoft about Windows OS. The situation is historic due to the history of the groups - this is the very first time that the United States NSA has reported a security vulnerability they've found in Windows OS to Microsoft. This is the first such report made to Microsoft by the NSA in the history of the NSA.

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Beginning on March 1st, new Android users in Europe will be greeted by something new when opening Chrome for the first time. Instead of simply seeing the Google search bar, they'll be asked to make one of four search providers their default for Chrome. Google today revealed which search engines will appear alongside its own, and each country will have its own selection.

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This week NASA loaded their first Artemis mission Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket Core Stage onboard the Pegasus barge in New Orleans. This stage of the hardware needed for Artemis was loaded onboard the barge on January 8th with plans to deliver to NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. This ferry journey mimics that of the NASA Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Only weeks after the US Navy passed a similar rule, the United States Army has banned its members from using China-owned TikTok on their government-issued smartphones. The reason, according to an Army spokesperson, is that officials consider TikTok a 'cyber threat,' mirroring concerns expressed by government officials who called for a national security review of the app.

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Earlier this month, the United States Air Force tested new technology as part of a real-time mission to defeat a cruise missile threat -- a simulated one, that is. The exercise took place across three full days and involved the USAF's Advanced Battle Management System, which was tested as part of a larger concept called Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). The USAF described JADC2 as a concept that instantly receives and acts upon 'vast' data sets from land, sea, air, cyber and space with support for all branches of the military.

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On December 20, 2019, US President Donald Trump signed legislation to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Part of this amendment package included raising the federal minimum age of sale of tobacco product from 18 to 21 years in the United States. Some states have raised the tobacco purchase age minimum to 21 as far back as January 1st, 2016 (that was Hawaii), and the last state to raise the age in 2019 was New York (effective as of November 13, 2019).

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