Lavish books to get lost in

Arts & Culture, Books

The latest coffee-table tomes all celebrate exuberance. Kicking things off is the story of the London seven-storey superstore Biba, with an introduction by its co-founder, Barbara Hulanicki. A little more weighty — literally and metaphorically — is the 24-tome edition of Freud’s works. Plus, there’s the latest visual extravaganza of chintz across the centuries and the transcendent photography of two pioneering female photographers.Welcome to Big Biba: Inside the Most Beautiful Store in the Worldby Steven Thomas and Alwyn W Turner, ACC Art Books, £22Founded by the fashion illustrator Barbara Hulanicki and her ad-executive husband Stephen Fitz-Simon, Biba began as a mail-order fashion business, its first success a pink gingham frock. The couple went on to reinvent fashion (couture styles at low prices) and shopping (dim lighting and loud music). The Biba revolution reached its peak in 1973 when it took over Derry & Toms department store on Kensington High Street in London, and this book details the creation of that seven-storey palace where everything was Biba branded. The aesthetic inspirations were golden-age cinema and art nouveau, the vibe playful naughtiness — in the lingerie department, bras and pants were strewn across a massive bed. Fresh fish was sold from a barge to a soundtrack of seagulls and the Rainbow Room restaurant served Biba red wine at 75p a half litre. In its heyday Biba was the second most popular tourist attraction in the capital after the Tower of London, but financial difficulties meant it had to close in 1975. Now all we have is this book of marabou-fringed nostalgia.Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream Inby Magdalene Keaney, NPG Books, £35Julia Margaret Cameron and Francesca Woodman were pioneering female photographers, separated by time and social context and yet joined by the resonances between their works, as explored in this gorgeous, richly textured book published to accompany an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London this year. Cameron was born in 1815 and didn’t start taking photographs until she was 48; Woodman was born in 1958, printing her first photograph at 13 and taking her own life at 22. Both had short careers but both have become hugely influential. Their works engage with femininity, mythology, angelic beings, women in nature and narrative imagery. Cameron’s photographs are dreamily unfocused and unretouched — sometimes her fingerprints are visible — whereas Woodman rubbed the surfaces of her photos, wrote and drew on them. She said photographs can “offer images as an alternative to everyday life”, while Cameron wanted to capture a “transcendent beauty”. The book also contains essays and sketch books.AdvertisementRevised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund FreudOriginal translation by James Strachey. Revised, supplemented and edited by Mark Solms, Rowman & Littlefield, £1,500Tell me about your mother. Or perhaps your coffee table … Is it big enough to handle this magisterial offering: 24 books comprising all the psychological works by the inventor of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud? The Standard Edition was first published in English 60 years ago and contains all our old favourites, including “The Interpretation of Dreams” and “Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious”. This edition has been meticulously revised over three decades by the psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist Mark Solms, with the project taking three decades. It includes 56 new items, including a previously missing paper on the transference of neuroses, a letter to Einstein and a letter concerning homosexuality. There is also an extensive bibliography and revised indexing. The books are beautifully presented, with gold-stamped linen covers and midnight-blue endpapers. The Book of Printed Fabricsby Aziza Gril-Mariotte, Taschen, £150The Musée de L’Impression sur Étoffes in Mulhouse is dedicated to the history of printed fabrics, from their first arrival in Europe from India in the 16th century to the present day. There are more than 50,000 textile samples in the museum, only 900 of which have made it into this handsome double volume, a visual feast presented in a fancy slip jacket with a monkey motif, weighing in at a hefty 6.2kg. The first volume explores the popularity of cotton fabrics imported from India, with their colourful floral motifs, and the development of the techniques to create similar fabrics in Europe. The second volume kicks off with cashmere, which, when it was introduced, was so expensive that only the Empress Joséphine and other ladies of the court could afford to wear it (although soon enough paisley knockoffs were being produced). Learned essays are provided by a former director of the museum, and there are archive images of people wearing printed fabrics as well as luxurious interiors in which everything has been upholstered in chintz. But the real joy of this book is the pages and pages of gorgeous, delicate, flamboyantly decorated fabrics.

Book Review – Agents Mulder and Scully Return to Paranormal Investigations Once Again In “The X-Files: Perihelion”

Arts & Culture, Books

Over the summer, Disney Books and Hyperion Avenue publishing released a new novel entitled The X-Files: Perihelion, which continues the story of the popular 1990s science-fiction television series. Laughing Place was provided with a review copy back at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, and I finally got around to reading it this past week. Below are my (mostly spoiler-free) thoughts on this book.

First, the title– the word “perihelion” refers to the point at which an astronomical object’s orbit (the Earth, for example) is closest to the sun. How that relates to this adventure for FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Katherine Scully isn’t revealed until the final page of this novel, and I actually found that moment to be fairly satisfying as metaphors go. Next, the author– The X-Files: Perihelion is written by Claudia Gray, who has penned some of my favorite recent Star Wars books including Bloodline and The High Republic – Into the Dark. So no issues there, and when this novel was announced I honestly couldn’t think of a better person to take up the reins of one of my all-time-favorite pop-culture franchises. But our first problem arises when I try to get across when exactly Perihelion takes place– early chapters of the book place this story a few weeks after the events of The X-Files season 11 (the second of the reboot seasons), which would set it somewhere around mid-2018. But later chapters include very specific media allusions– including one to Star Wars: Andor, which wasn’t even publicly announced until the summer of 2019 and did not receive an official title until late 2020– let alone not being released until the fall of 2022. Anachronistic references aside, I have a sneaking suspicion that Gray initially intended to set this novel in the present, and then either decided to or was encouraged to push it back closer to season 11 for reasons of Mulder and Scully’s respective ages.

I won’t go into the reasons why their ages matter so much, but suffice it to say that I wish Gray or her editor would have caught the jarring contradictions caused by the time-shift, of which there are others. They’re not terribly important beyond being fodder for nitpicking, but they do speak to a larger sense of uneasiness I felt while reading Perihelion. I don’t want to go into too many plot details here, so in broad strokes I’ll say that the narrative involves our two protagonists being re-drafted back into the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate two new X-Files cases: one involving a serial killer targeting pregnant women who also apparently has the paranormal ability to affect electrical currents, and the other concerning a hitman who can teleport in a puff of smoke, much like Nightcrawler from the X-Men. And that’s not only a connection that I drew myself– Gray points out the Nightcrawler comparison in dialogue between Mulder and Scully, I suppose in an effort to hang a lampshade on the similarity. This leads me to my other major gripe about Perihelion– it just veers way too far into the X-Men direction, even beyond the Nightcrawler stuff. As the agents begin to follow the clues left behind in these murders and track their two separate suspects, they start to uncover a conspiracy that ties (uh oh) into the ever-more-convoluted mythology that unraveled over the course of 11 television seasons and two theatrical movies.

That, I think, is this novel’s ultimate failing. In trying, once again, to bring everything from The X-Files’ past together in a way that makes any kind of sense, Gray’s usually-compelling writing becomes bogged down in way, way too much history that these characters have shared together since 1993. The series was always a blend of standalone “monster of the week”-type episodes and serialized installments (usually around network sweeps) that furthered the mythology, and I was a big proponent of both until creator Chris Carter and his writing staff seemingly lost the thread of the latter. Nowadays I think it would probably just be better to set stories about Mulder and Scully in the mid-90s and have them chase monsters again every once in a while… it’s just so much simpler that way. But to her credit, Gray puts in a good effort here to boil things down. She gives us a new villain (again, with ties to the fearsome, shadowy Syndicate that we loved to hate back in the old days) and a new purpose to our heroes’ quest– going too far into this aspect of the book would reveal my X-Men complaint from above. Sometimes it does feel like X-Files fan-fiction, which made much more sense to me when I read the author’s acknowledgements at the end and the revelation of how she got her start writing Newsnet stories about Mulder and Scully in the 90s. She even self-inserts as a new informant character called only Avatar– get it?– who fills in for the deceased Deep Throat, Mr. X., Marita Covarrubias, etc., each of whom previously served as the lead characters’ guide on the show.

That’s the other thing I really appreciated about Gray’s obvious dedication to The X-Files: almost every supporting or recurring character from years past gets a shout-out somewhere in this book, up to and including the Lone Gunmen, who died in season 9 but admiringly remain in Mulder and Scully’s thoughts all these years later. Also haunting their memories is their son William, who was killed off (or was he?) at the end of season 11… but it’s those last few seasons’ worth of plot twists– both from the original run and the reboot years, that muddy the waters here and end up making everything overly convoluted… and that’s putting it mildly. Again, Gray does her best to tie it all together, but ends up doing so in a way that eventually comes close to shattering the very foundation of The X-Files’ premise. She’s great at capturing these characters’ voices (the agents’ mind-screen musings and ponderous journal entries are particularly on-point), but things become so outlandish– even for this franchise– for Mulder and (especially) Scully by the final handful of chapters that I started questioning the way they were reacting to these extreme situations as individuals. I don’t necessarily think that any of this is Gray’s fault– it’s probably more symptomatic of a series that was run into the ground by the FOX network continuing to renew it long past its prime. And that’s why in my estimation, I can really only see The X-Files successfully continuing by returning to its high-concept, one-mystery-at-a-time roots rather than digger even deeper into the global conspiracy that began to break our collective brains more than three decades ago. At this point it’s a quagmire from which there is no escape.

The X-Files: Perihelion is available now wherever books are sold.

Eureka Unveils the J15 Pro Ultra at IFA 2024 – Featuring the Industry’s First Self-Cleaning Base Station and Active Detangling Technology

Technology

BERLIN, Sept. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Just a week after unveiling the E20 Plus, Eureka has made waves at IFA 2024 with the launch of its flagship robot vacuum of 2024, the Eureka J15 Pro Ultra. Equipped with the industry’s first self-cleaning base station and active detangling technology, 16,200 Pa powerful suction, and exceptional edge cleaning performance, the Eureka J15 Pro Ultra is set to make cleaning much easier.
Eureka J15 Pro Ultra

Industry’s First Self-Cleaning Base Station

The Eureka J15 Pro Ultra stands out by featuring the industry’s first self-cleaning base station. In the past, while the base station could clean the robot, the tray of the base was often neglected, allowing dirt to accumulate and reducing the effectiveness of mop cleaning. The Eureka J15 Pro Ultra ingeniously includes a tray scraper, a debris collection area, and a separate tray debris collecting channel inside the base station. After each mop cleaning, a built-in scraper removes debris from the cleaning tray and pushes it to the collection area. Once there, the debris will be dried thoroughly and collected into the dust bag during the next cleaning cycle, making manual cleaning a thing of the past.

Industry’s First Active Detangling Technology

Beyond its self-cleaning capabilities, the J15 Pro Ultra introduces Eureka’s exclusive FlexiRazorTM technology. This feature addresses one of robot vacuum users’ most common frustrations: hair tangling. FlexiRazorTM employs high-density blades that vibrate 400 times per minute, cutting the hair with a 4 mm amplitude. According to SGS certifications, this ensures that hair tangling is reduced by up to 99%*, allowing users to enjoy a hassle-free cleaning experience without the need for frequent manual maintenance.

*The data provided is based on tests conducted by SGS Lab, and actual performance may vary.

Powerful Suction Meets Exceptional Edge Cleaning

Performance is at the heart of the Eureka J15 Pro Ultra, which is most evident in its suction power. Boasting an impressive 16,200 Pa vacuum suction, the J15 Pro Ultra achieves a household debris removal rate of 99%*

*The data provided is based on tests conducted by Eureka Lab and actual performance may vary.

Additionally, the J15 Pro Ultra is equipped with the ScrubExtend mop extension technology. Traditional robot vacuums often struggle with cleaning close to walls and furniture edges, leaving dirt and debris behind. The ScrubExtend system extends the mop when the vacuum detects corners or obstacles, ensuring that even the hardest-to-reach areas receive a thorough clean. The technology’s effectiveness has been validated by TÜV Rheinland, which confirmed a 98.95%* edge coverage rate and an edge extension distance of just 1.36 mm.

*The data provided is based on tests conducted by TÜV Rheinland and actual performance may vary.

Price and Availability:

The Eureka J15 Pro Ultra will be available in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain starting in late September 2024. Following its European release, the J15 Pro Ultra is scheduled to launch in the United States in November 2024.

About Eureka

Founded in 1909 in Detroit, Michigan, USA, Eureka® offers a full line of vacuum cleaners, including uprights, canisters, sticks, handhelds, cordless, and robot vacuum cleaners. For over 100 years, Eureka continues to innovate and bring to market new and exciting products, making it a household name in North America and all around the world. For more information, visit www.eureka.com.

U.K. Ambassador: British-American Partnership Deepening on AI, Critical Technologies

Technology

As economic and security issues become increasingly intertwined, the United Kingdom is stepping up collaboration with the U.S. on artificial intelligence and other critical technologies, the British envoy to Washington said Thursday in Atlanta. During a World Affairs Council of Atlanta keynote breakfast briefing, Ambassador Karen Pierce said AI might end up being as consequential for the world as nuclear technology was in the 1950s. “But of course, in the 1950s, nobody on a sofa and a laptop, thankfully, could make an atomic bomb. But now we do need to look at this afresh. I don’t think there are many precedents for what we now have to get to,” she said. @media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}@media ( min-width: 970px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}
Their joint approach on AI is emblematic of how the partners are “creating common frameworks for the new challenges of the 21st century,” the ambassador said. Setting global ethical standards and ensuring the West’s pre-eminence over China and other authoritarian regimes when it comes to military applications is imperative, she said, emphasizing the critical role of the private sector will play in addressing the threats and capitalizing on opportunities of a technology often viewed as somewhere between disruptive and transformative.The U.K. is opening the first U.S. office of its AI Safety Institute in San Francisco, welcoming participation from American tech companies that will shape the sector’s future. “Clearly, at a time when anyone with a spare room … can contribute to the development of AI, it’s not going to work just to have government-imposed regulation.”As with many global issues, the U.K. is aiming to support U.S. leadership in the sector while asserting its own strengths as what she called the “third largest AI sector in the world” behind the U.S. and China. @media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}@media ( min-width: 970px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 100px;}}
“As (the U.S. goes) out, as you have leadership in the world, we see our job as supporting that, but also burden-sharing,” Ms. Pierce said, noting that the U.K. is the “only one of America’s allies who can do a smaller version of what America does across the world.”But she also acknowledged that the rich world should understand valid fears around emerging technology espoused by the “new kids on the block” — rapidly developing countries with large populations and strong economies that are already questioning the fitness of the Western-led order to govern a modern, multipolar world. “I think we also underestimate how difficult it is for some countries to get to grips with the enormity of something like AI from a governmental public policy perspective,” she said. The United Nations, she added, could become an inclusive venue for instituting new standards. AI is just one sector in which transatlantic cooperation has become more vital, Ms. Pierce said, with the U.K. taking trade issues into its own hands since Brexit was enacted in 2020, freeing up the country to pursue its own policies.@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 90px;}}@media ( min-width: 970px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 100px;}}
While awaiting friendlier talks with the U.S. on a bilateral trade agreement, the U.K. has signed six state-level pacts focused on acute industries or initiatives, such as wind energy in North Carolina and automotive and life sciences in South Carolina. On security and defense, the U.S. and U.K. have worked hand in hand on Ukraine, and while they’ve diverged on the embargo of certain arms sales to Israel amid the war in Gaza, Ms. Pierce said the latter issue is more about the countries’ respective obligations under international humanitarian law than fundamental disagreements with the Biden administration how to effect a ceasefire. “We want to ceasefire as soon as possible. We want the hostages out. We are very ready to support America in any way we can. I think Secretary (Antony) Blinken has been doing astounding work, good work, to try and get that ceasefire and get the hostages out. And we need much more aid to go into Gaza,” Ms. Pierce said in an interview with council President Rickey Bevington. She also addressed AUKUS, the three-year-old agreement on the sharing of nuclear submarine (not weapons, she stressed) technology among the U.S., U.K. and Australia, is another example of unprecedented cooperation by allies to address new geopolitical challenges.“It’s a groundbreaking trilateral attempt to bring more security and stability to the Indo-Pacific. It will consist eventually of a brand new design for a submarine that will be built in Australia, with help from America and from Britain, with our nuclear specialists,” Ms. Pierce said. She characterized the deal as the first time allies have shared such sensitive tech since the 1950s and framed it as a response to the threat posed by China. That country, she said, has been engaged in economic coercion with Australia and other parties in the region, as well as expanding its influence and ramping up aggressive actions in the South China Sea. The British Navy last year sent a carrier strike group through the Taiwan Strait to support the U.S. efforts to uphold the right to freedom of navigation in international waters, she added.  In the spirit of AUKUS, the U.S. last month lifted certain export controls and restrictions on technology transfer for British and Australian companies in its International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, a step reciprocated by these countries’ respective bodies. “It sounds like a very small step, but it’s actually taken us decades to negotiate, and if you have a business in that area, it will be transformative,” Ms. Pierce said. On China, she said, the U.S. and U.K. align on security issues and human rights, especially in the case of China’s oppression of its Uighur minority group. Where the allies diverge slightly is on the trade side, where the U.S. has pushed measures like tariffs aiming to rectify Chinese “overcapacity” in industries like steel and electric vehicles. The U.S. frames these issues in national security terms, but some trading partners have seen them as unnecessarily broad and protectionist.“We probably have a more participatory relationship with China in terms of investment, in terms of trade,” Ms. Pierce said. “And we don’t always agree with where America would draw the line, but we would share your concerns about Chinese investment in critical infrastructure.”While they don’t always share the same views at the World Trade Organization, the U.K. appreciates the broader framework espoused by the U.S. when it comes to China — contest and compete where necessary but cooperate where possible.Ms. Pierce, who has worked in her four years in Washington under three different leaders including Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s new Labour government, said the vaunted “Special Relationship” doesn’t preclude disagreements, but constant dialogue ensures it’s “very rare that any single issue disrupts it.”That’s partially because the two sides have such a strong economic partnership to match their historical amity. About $2.5 trillion invested bilaterally over time supports some 2.7 million jobs across both countries, according to the White House, which in June 2023 announced a new partnership with the U.K. that included a focus critical technologies like quantum computing, synthetic biology, semiconductors, and, of course, artificial intelligence. —Learn more about the World Affairs Council of Atlanta and become a member here. Contact the British Consulate General in Atlanta here or learn more about doing business with the U.K. from the British-American Business Council of Georgia.

US university Georgia Tech to end China partnerships following concerns over military ties

Technology

WASHINGTON: Georgia Tech is ending its research and educational partnerships in the Chinese cities of Tianjin and Shenzhen, the US university said on Friday (Sep 6), following scrutiny from Congress over its collaboration with entities allegedly linked to China’s military.In May, the House of Representatives’ select committee on China wrote a letter to Georgia Tech asking for details on its research with China’s northeastern Tianjin University on cutting-edge semiconductor technologies.

The Chinese school and its affiliates were added in 2020 to the US Commerce Department’s export restrictions list for actions contrary to US national security, including trade secret theft and research collaboration to advance China’s military.

Spokesperson Abbigail Tumpey told Reuters in an email that Georgia Tech has been assessing its posture in China since Tianjin University was added to the entity list.

“Tianjin University has had ample time to correct the situation. To date, Tianjin University remains on the Entity List, making Georgia Tech’s participation with Tianjin University, and subsequently Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute (GTSI), no longer tenable,” Tumpey said.

Georgia Tech, a top-tier US engineering school and major recipient of defence department funding, said in an accompanying statement it would discontinue its participation in the Shenzhen institute, but that the approximately 300 students currently in programmes there would have the opportunity to fulfil their degree requirements.

In January, Georgia Tech touted that its researchers based in Atlanta and at the Tianjin International Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems had created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from the nanomaterial graphene. It said this could lead to a “paradigm shift” in electronics and yield faster computing.

Louisiana Tech announces Summer 2024 honor roll

Technology

Louisiana Tech University has announced the names of students on its Summer Quarter 2024 President’s and Dean’s honor lists. Students whose names are followed by an asterisk earned recognition as members of the president’s honor list. That distinction signifies achievement of at least a 3.8 academic grade point average on a minimum of nine semester…

Disney halts ‘The Graveyard Book’ as best-selling author of children’s books faces multiple sexual assault accusations

Arts & Culture, Books

Due to the recent series of sexual assault accusations against award-winning author Neil Gaiman, Disney has pushed pause on the development on a forthcoming film adaptation of his 2008 book title “The Graveyard Book.”According to IndieWire, the film, directed by Marc Forster, hasn’t been stopped completely but “multiple factors, including the allegations, contributed to putting it on hold.”The project was in deep development up until this point, but no cast has yet to be attached.The accusations against Gaiman, to which he denied, stem from a string of accusers who came forward against the author. Among the accusers was Scarlett, who accused the author of sexually assaulting her in New Zealand in February 2022, while she was working as his child’s nanny.Another accuser, identified as K, accused Gaiman of forcing her to have rough sex with him, which was not always consensual, and she “neither wanted nor enjoyed.” K said this happened after meeting Gaiman at a Florida book signing in 2003. K was 18 at the time, according to the U.K.-based Tortoise Media.In August, three more women came forward to accuse Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse, per Tortoise Media. Of the two women’s claims, one said they signed a non-disclosure agreement after her experience with Gaiman. A third woman, who goes by the name Claire, spoke out about her experience with Gaiman, accusing him of sexual misconduct.So far, Gaiman has denied all accusations against him and said he was “disturbed” by the allegations.Gaiman’s previous work has been adapted in Hollywood for film and TV, including “The Sandman,” “American Gods,” “Coraline,” and “Good Omens.”

School Monitoring Software Sacrifices Student Privacy for Unproven Promises of Safety

EFF, Technology

Imagine your search terms, key-strokes, private chats and photographs are being monitored every time they are sent. Millions of students across the country don’t have to imagine this deep surveillance of their most private communications: it’s a reality that comes with their school districts’ decision to install AI-powered monitoring software such as Gaggle and GoGuardian…

Georgia Tech to end China partnerships following concerns over military ties

Technology

By Michael MartinaWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Georgia Tech is ending its research and educational partnerships in the Chinese cities of Tianjin and Shenzhen, the U.S. university said on Friday, following scrutiny from Congress over its collaboration with entities allegedly linked to China’s military.In May, the House of Representatives’ select committee on China wrote a letter to Georgia Tech asking for details on its research with China’s northeastern Tianjin University on cutting-edge semiconductor technologies.The Chinese school and its affiliates were added in 2020 to the U.S. Commerce Department’s export restrictions list for actions contrary to U.S. national security, including trade secret theft and research collaboration to advance China’s military.Spokesperson Abbigail Tumpey told Reuters in an email that Georgia Tech has been assessing its posture in China since Tianjin University was added to the entity list.”Tianjin University has had ample time to correct the situation. To date, Tianjin University remains on the Entity List, making Georgia Tech’s participation with Tianjin University, and subsequently Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute (GTSI), no longer tenable,” Tumpey said.Georgia Tech, a top tier U.S. engineering school and major recipient of Defense Department funding, said in an accompanying statement it would discontinue its participation in the Shenzhen institute, but that the approximately 300 students currently in programs there would have the opportunity to fulfill their degree requirements.In January, Georgia Tech touted that its researchers based in Atlanta and at the Tianjin International Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems had created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from the nanomaterial graphene. It said this could lead to a “paradigm shift” in electronics and yield faster computing.The U.S. and China, intense geopolitical and scientific rivals, both view semiconductors as a strategic industry with civilian and military uses, including quantum computing and advanced weapons systems.In its May letter, the select committee noted the Tianjin research center is affiliated with a Chinese company with subsidiaries that supply China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).A Georgia Tech scientist who led the Tianjin project has defended the research, saying all the results were available to the public and that the collaboration had passed extensive legal reviews.China’s embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.”It shouldn’t have taken a congressional investigation to spur Georgia Tech to end its partnership with a blacklisted Chinese entity,” said U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, who had joined the select committee on its letter.”Nonetheless, we’re glad that Georgia Tech has made the right call and we hope other universities follow its lead,” Foxx said in an email.U.S. agencies and Congress have stepped up scrutiny of China’s state-sponsored influence and technology transfers at American colleges and universities, concerned that Beijing uses open and federally funded research environments in the U.S. to circumvent export controls and other national security laws.The U.S. Justice Department under President Joe Biden’s administration ended a program from former President Donald Trump’s administration called the China Initiative intended to combat Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft. Critics had said that program spurred racial profiling against Asian Americans and chilled scientific research.(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by David Gregorio)