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A US judicial body has revised an internal document to remove climate research. The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence is a document used by judges when they have to oversee cases involving complex scientific matters. The climate science chapter has now been deleted, so they'll be on their own with climate-related cases. This move came after a group of Republican state attorneys wrote a letter to complain about the chapter on climate change. The language in the document, which was authored by researchers from Columbia University, suggests that climate change is driven by the actions of humans. This was a no-go to those state attorneys, despite being an established fact. "Nothing is 'independent' or 'impartial' in issuing a document on behalf of Americas judges declaring that only one preferred view is 'within the boundaries of scientifically sound knowledge,'" the letter states. It's worth noting that the document is nearly 2,000 pages long and declares preferred views on numerous subjects, though the state attorneys only have an issue with the one. The Republicans also complained that the report called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change an "authoritative science body." The grounds for this complaint seem to derive from a short paper from a Canadian conservative think tank. US court agency pulls climate change from science advisory document https://t.co/2ornJlJN1X Ars Technica (@arstechnica) February 10, 2026 The letter's authors would not settle for any revisions, according to a report by Ars Technica. Rather, they demanded the entire chapter be removed. So it was removed and now judges can rule on climate cases using the tried and true method known as "vibes." Interestingly, the introduction of the document by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan still mentions the climate chapter. They had better break out some correction tape. The full text of the now-deleted chapter has been posted by RealClimate, if you want to give it a gander. More than 99.9 percent of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is real and caused by humans. It looks like some segments of society want a judicial system ruled by that remaining 0.01 percent.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-judicial-body-removes-climate-research-paper-after-complaints-from-republicans-164829295.html?src=rss
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Supermassive Games has announced a new release date for the next entry in the Dark Pictures Anthology series. Directive 8020 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam on May 12. The studio behind Until Dawn and The Quarry revealed the news with the help of a fresh trailer for the sci-fi survival horror game.The story focuses on the crew of a spaceship that has crash landed onto another world. The survivors have to contend with an alien lifeform that's hunting them and can mimic its prey (no prizes for guessing that Supermassive took inspiration from The Thing here). If these astronauts want to stay alive, though, they'll put the lives of everyone on a dying Earth at risk.As with Supermassive's previous games, Directive 8020 is largely driven by the narrative choices players make at key moments, such as whether to save a crewmate and put the character you're currently controlling at risk, or to abandon them. You might also have to pick between two seemingly identical versions of the same person and let one of them back into the crew. The game has segments in which you'll have to fight or stealthily avoid enemies as well.This time around, Supermassive is introducing a feature called Turning Points, through which you can go back to previous decisions and opt for another path (perhaps to see different endings more easily, keep certain characters alive or make sure you get all the achievements or trophies). A permadeath mode does away with that option for a more traditional survival horror experience. You can go it alone or get some friends to join you for five-player local co-op action the studio's games have long been good fodder for pass-the-controller couch co-op. Supermassive will add online multiplayer support down the line.The developer originally planned to release Directive 8020 in October 2025. However, Supermassive announced last July that it was delaying the game amid its latest round of layoffs.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/directive-8020-brings-sci-fi-survival-horror-to-ps5-xbox-series-xs-and-pc-on-may-12-163358560.html?src=rss
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Numerous major social platforms including Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap say they will submit to a new external grading process that scores social platforms on how well they protect adolescent mental health. The program comes from the Mental Health Coalitions Safe Online Standards (SOS) initiative, which comprises about two dozen standards covering areas like platform policy, functionality, governance and transparency, content oversight and more. The SOS initiative is led by Dr. Dan Reidenberg, Managing Director of the National Council for Suicide Prevention. In announcing these companies' participation, the Mental Health Coalition writes "SOS establishes clear, user-informed data for how social media, gaming, and digital platforms design products, protect users ages 1319, and address exposure to suicide and self-harm content. Participating companies will voluntarily submit documentation on their policies, tools, and product features, which will be evaluated by an independent panel of global experts." After evaluation, the platforms will be given one of three ratings. The highest achievable safety rating is "use carefully," which comes with a blue badge that compliant platforms can display. Despite being the highest rating, the requirements seem fairly run-of-the-mill. The description includes things like "reporting tools are accessible and easy to use," and "privacy, default and safety functions are clear and easy to set for parents." As for what actions the standards ask of the companies being rated, the "use carefully" rating says "platforms and filters help reduce exposure to harmful or inappropriate content." The other ratings include "partial protection" which is described in part as "some safety tools exist on the platforms, but can be hard to find or use," and "does not meet standards" which would be given if "filters and content moderation do not reliably block harmful or unsafe content." The Mental Health Coalition, founded in 2020, has mentioned Facebook and Meta as partners since the early days of the organization. In 2021 the organization said it would bring together "leading mental health experts partner with Facebook and Instagram to destigmatize mental health and connect people to resources" during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 the nonprofit published a case study with "support from Meta" that found "mental health content on social media can reduce stigma while increasing individuals likelihood to seek resources, therefore positively impacting mental health." In 2024, the MHC "in partnership with Meta" launched a campaign called the Time Well Spent Challenge. In it, the group urged parents to have meaningful conversations with teens about healthy social media use, focusing less on whether teens should be on these apps at all and more on keeping them on-platform in a time well spent way, from reduced screen time to using social media for good and reviewing their feeds together. That same year it partnered with Meta again to establish "Thrive," a program that allows tech companies to share data regarding materials that violate self-harm or suicide content guidelines. The Mental Health Coalition lists Meta as a "creative partner" on its website. Last year it was alleged that Meta buried internal data showing the ill effects of its products on users' mental health. The internal research, dubbed "Project Mercury," began in 2020. Since then the company has introduced some bare-minimum attempts at addressing mental health concerns, such as Instagram teen accounts. Meta is now on trial in California facing allegations over child harm from addictive products, the first in a series of upcoming lawsuits against the social media giant. Other companies participating in the rating program include Roblox, which has recently faced stiff accusations over the wellbeing of children on the platform, and Discord which has beefed up its age-verification processes in response to its own serious child endangerment concerns.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-tiktok-and-snap-are-participating-in-an-online-safety-ratings-system-162921333.html?src=rss
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