Bowing to weeks of pressure from both sides of the aisle due to a botched rollout of healthcare.gov, President Obama announced yesterday that he would reverse course and allow insurance companies to keep individuals on canceled health insurance plans temporarily, The New York Times reported. The plans were originally canceled because they did not meet the standards required by the Affordable Care Act. Obama took the blame for the both the technical problems of the online marketplace and faulting on his promise to allow Americans to keep their current plans should they choose to. The announcement eased anxiety of Congressional Democrats who were worried that the floundering system would hurt them come midterm elections.
The lawyers of Abigail Fisher, the student suing the University of Texas at Austin for its affirmative action admissions policy, said the university had achieved its “critical mass” of minority students, The New York Times reported Wednesday. University lawyers defended their admissions policies that take into account race and denied that the university had reached its quota for minority students. The decision could can significantly affect the future of race-conscious admissions policies at public colleges and universities, but a prompt resolution is not expected. In response to the suggestion of instituting race-neutral alternative admissions policies, lawyers who represent black and Hispanic students objected that it would affect the university’s diversity.
“What Would I Say,” a website created by seven Princeton graduate students that generates Facebook statuses based on users’ past activity, has garnered over 1 million hits, the Daily Princetonian reported on Wednesday. The students created the site in 48 hours at Princeton’s HackPrinceton event. The site is currently generating a deficit since the site has no ads and server costs are being paid out-of-pocket. The creators decided to use Facebook because it offered a prize for the best integration of its website. “What Would I Say” uses the Markov chain, a famous system that can generate random sentences that are usually comprehendible from a pool of words on a sample document.
