Science & Technology

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Gadgets: Holiday lights

A recent post by Enbrighten told people to say goodbye to their boring outdoor holiday lighting, and honestly, that couldn’t be more true.

Enbrighten Modern Cafe LED Lights bring your space to life with a stunning array of colors and lighting modes, perfect for every holiday and celebration. Built for year-round use, they feature weather-...Read more

Handout/MCHOSE/TNS

Review: MCHOSE x Unbox Therapy UT98 keyboard an option for work and play

One of the big divides among keyboard enthusiasts is the number pad, that 18-key piece of plastic lurking at the end of a full keyboard. Those who value desk space reject it and opt for a smaller layout like a 75% keyboard or a tenkeyless. Others can’t live without the numpad because it’s essential for work and other programs.

The 98% ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Can you convert your old photos and negatives to digital at home?

This week I heard from a reader, “I have a ton of old photos, negatives (both 35mm and medium format 120/220mm), 16mm movie film, slides, camcorder video and a few VHS cassettes that I need to convert to digital. I know there are phone apps that advertise their ability to quickly and easily convert all but movies and video, as well as ...Read more

Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

A broken pipeline -- Costing us our next generation of scientists

Science has always relied on young innovators to drive progress. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, still PhD students, founded Google. More recently, in 2020 and 2021, Kizzmekia Corbett, then a senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Vaccine Research Center, led a team of scientists in developing the COVID-19 ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Lawmakers give a thumbs down on expanding offshore drilling in California

SAN DIEGO — A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the state and federal levels spoke out Tuesday against plans by the Trump administration for new offshore drilling in the Golden State, including parcels in Southern California and San Diego.

“There’s very little support for drilling on our coastline,” California Assembly member Laurie ...Read more

AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US-China tension fuels decoupling in tech research, study shows

U.S.-China collaboration in technology research has fallen steadily to the lowest in 20 years, a shift an Australian think tank warns could reshape global innovation vital to security and economic growth.

Only a quarter of China’s collaborations involve American researchers, down from over half a decade ago, according to the Australian ...Read more

Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

NYC judge: OpenAI must turn over communication with lawyers about deleted databases

A federal judge ruled that OpenAI needs to turn over all its internal communications with lawyers about why it deleted two massive troves of pirated books from a notorious “shadow library” that the tech company is accused of using to train ChatGPT.

Manhattan Federal Court Magistrate Judge Ona Wang ruled Monday that the tech giant’s ...Read more

Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post/TNS

Can Coloradans coexist better with beavers? State wildlife officials craft plan to manage industrious rodents.

DENVER – Depending on who’s talking, beavers can be any of the following: unsung ecological heroes, nuisance rodents bent on wreaking havoc, cute creatures brimming with charisma — or a hunting target.

Now it’s Colorado wildlife officials’ task to create a statewide management plan that acknowledges all the roles beavers play in the ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Drought killer: California storms fill reservoirs, build up Sierra snowpack

LOS ANGELES — A string of early season storms that drenched Californians last week lifted much of the state out of drought and significantly reduced the risk of wildfires, experts say.

It’s been the wettest November on record for Southland cities such as Van Nuys and San Luis Obispo. Santa Barbara has received an eye-popping 9.5 inches of ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA cuts missions for Boeing Starliner contract, next flight will have no crew

The next trip to space for Boeing’s beleaguered Starliner spacecraft won’t have a crew on board after NASA announced changes to the commercial crew contract that also slashes the total number of missions to the International Space Station.

NASA on Monday announced the update to the 2014 contract that originally called for six operational ...Read more

Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Judge rules that Florida's bear hunt will go on next month

A judge in Tallahassee rejected today a plea from a Central Florida bear advocacy group to halt the state’s planned bear hunt.

Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey ruled against Bear Warriors United after more than two hours of testimony and arguments from the Seminole County group’s lawyer, Thomas Crapps, and lawyers for the Florida Fish & ...Read more

Matt Leclercq/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS

Horse virus EHV-1 outbreak spreads to eight Texas counties. Two horses have died

The number of confirmed cases of EHV-1, the deadly horse virus, has grown to 17 across eight Texas counties, authorities said Monday. Two horses have died.

The counties affected are Bell, Hood, Wise, Erath, Wharton, Fort Bend, McLennan and Montgomery, according Equine Diseases Communication Center.

The outbreak was first detected last week ...Read more

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images North America/TNS

US rejection of climate science is a call to action for the rest of the world

If there was any doubt that the current U.S. administration is the world’s greatest threat to action on climate change, President Donald Trump removed it on Sept. 23 when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly and called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and a threat promoted by “stupid people.”

He ...Read more

Anchorage rewrites wildfire protection plan for the first time since 2007

In the face of a changing climate, an updated planning tool will act as Anchorage's guide to preparing for and living with an increased wildfire risk.

Higher temperatures and longer, drier summers are becoming standard across much of the Lower 48 and in Alaska, said Stephanie Dufek of the Anchorage Fire Department. Over the last two decades, ...Read more

A decade after Paris, climate diplomacy is about saving itself

Two weeks of frenzied negotiations over the planet’s faltering fight against climate change had come down to this: a pre-dawn battle over shifting away from fossil fuels.

The European Union, the U.K. and other nations had drawn a red line on the second-to-last day of COP30 in Brazil, insisting they would walk away rather than accept a deal ...Read more

Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

1st Starship launch on Space Coast could come mid-2026, Space Force official says

ORLANDO, Fla. — While SpaceX continues to test its Starship and Super Heavy rocket in Texas, Space Force officials in Florida are preparing for a first launch as early as mid-2026.

SpaceX is awaiting the completion of a pair of environmental impact statements for its plans to launch from both Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A and ...Read more

Pablo Porciuncula/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

COP30 climate summit reaches deal that leaves many nations unhappy

Almost 200 nations gathered in Brazil for the United Nations’ annual climate summit capped two weeks of fraught negotiations with an agreement Saturday on new efforts to help guide their transition away from the fossil fuels driving global warming.

However, the accord dodged an explicit mention of the oil, gas and coal responsible for driving...Read more

COP30 climate summit reaches deal that leaves many nations unhappy

Almost 200 nations gathered in Brazil for the United Nations’ annual climate summit capped two weeks of fraught negotiations with an agreement Saturday on new efforts to help guide their transition away from the fossil fuels driving global warming.

However, the accord dodged an explicit mention of the oil, gas and coal responsible for driving...Read more

Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune/TNS

Tiny fee on Minneapolis carbon pollution won't do much for the climate

MINNEAPOLIS — When Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley began pursuing a carbon fee in 2022, she saw it as a promising way to cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and raise revenue for climate-related projects.

Wonsley succeeded in passing the carbon fee last year, making Minneapolis the only major city in the Midwest to do so. ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Don't expect AI to disrupt Google's monopoly on search

In a recent episode of the podcast "Acquired," venture capitalists and hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal argued that the horrible roll-out of Google’s Bard AI chatbot in February 2023 — which led the company’s stock to drop 8% in a day — was a blessing in disguise. That’s because two years later, after a U.S. federal judge ruled ...Read more