The CIA World Factbook occupies a special place in the memories of elder Millennials like me. It was an enormous compendium of essential facts about every country around the world, carefully collected from across the federal government. This felt especially precious when the World Factbook went online in 1997 (it had previously been a classified internal publication printed on paper, then a declassified print resource), a time when the internet still felt new and unsettled. Unlike many other pages on the World Wide Web, it was reliable enough that you could even get away with citing it in schoolwork. And there was a special thrill in the idea that the CIA, a famously secretive organization, was the one providing it to you. Memories are now the only place the World Factbook resides. In a post online yesterday, the agency noted that the site 'has sunset,' though it provided no explanation for why. (The agency did not immediately reply to my inquiry about why, nor has it replied to other outlets.) The Associated Press noted that the move 'follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don't advance the agency's core missions.'...

Whether you're a scientist brainstorming research ideas or a CEO hoping to automate a task in human resources or finance, you'll find that artificial intelligence tools are becoming the assistants you didn't know you needed. In particular, many professionals are tapping into the talents of semi-autonomous software systems called AI agents, which can call on AI at specific points to solve problems and complete tasks.AI agents are particularly effective when they use large language models (LLMs) because those systems are powerful, efficient, and adaptable. One way to program such technology is by describing in code what you want your system to do (the 'workflow'), including when it should use an LLM. If you were a software company trying to revamp your old codebase to use a more modern programming language for better optimizations and safety, you might build a system that uses an LLM to translate the codebase one file at a time, testing each file as you go.But what happens when LLMs make mistakes' You'll want the agent to backtrack to make another attempt, incorporating lessons it learned from previous mistakes. Coding this up can take as much effort as implementing the original agent; if your system for translating a codebase contained thousands of lines of code, then you'd be making thousands of lines of code changes or additions to support the logic for backtracking when LLMs make mistakes....

The Department of Homeland Security's Facebook account recently posted a recruiting notice for ICE under the banner 'WE'LL HAVE OUR HOME AGAIN''the title of a white-nationalist anthem by the Pine Tree Riots ('By blood or sweat, we'll get there yet'). The Department of Labor recently posted a video montage referencing American battle scenes under the tagline 'One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American''a slogan close to the Nazi-era Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer. Many of these posts borrow overtly from Christianity. In December, the DHS and White House accounts shared Christmas-themed posts celebrating mass deportations and encouraging self-deportation. One featured videos of armed agents performing night raids, with a caption quoting Matthew 5:9 in black-letter type: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.' Macho displays and transgressive memes mark a significant shift in how the federal government sees and promotes its mission'and sanctions state violence. It may be tempting to see this change as an organic or bottom-up phenomenon, as if federal agencies are appealing to Proud Boys to lure more ICE recruits. But the reality is that this transformation is the culmination of years of work by niche groups of conservative intellectuals who have long rejected America's liberal traditions'and now dominate the halls of power....

Crew-12 is expected to head to the International Space Station next week, while the highly anticipated Artemis II mission ' which will bring humans around the moon for the first time since the 1960s ' was delayed until March. With the newest iPhones and Android devices at hand, the crew will be able to be a bit more spontaneous with image and video gathering, meaning that for those of us back home, these upcoming trips to space could end up being some of NASA's most well-documented journeys yet. Imagine how cool (or cringe-worthy) it will be if astronauts turn themselves into TikTok stars in zero gravity, or if they take ultra-wide-angle selfies in the spacecraft. For those working in government bureaucracy, it's equally exciting, apparently, that NASA approved this rule change pretty quickly. 'Just as important, we challenged long-standing processes and qualified modern hardware for spaceflight on an expedited timeline,' Isaacman wrote. 'That operational urgency will serve NASA well as we pursue the highest-value science and research in orbit and on the lunar surface.'...