Science & Technology
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What the jet stream and climate change had to do with the hottest summer on record − remember all those heat domes?
Summer 2024 was officially the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest on record. In the United States, fierce heat waves seemed to hit somewhere almost every day.
Phoenix reached 100 degrees for more than 100 days straight. The 2024 Olympic Games started in the midst of a long-running heat wave in Europe that included the three hottest days ...Read more
He's training the world's next microchip leaders. Here's why he worries
Burn Lin knows the ins and outs of the tiny chips that power your phones, cars and gaming consoles, and he knows there aren't enough workers to keep up with skyrocketing demand.
The electrical engineer started his career at IBM in 1970, but eventually returned to his roots in Taiwan where his work helped turn the island democracy into the chip-...Read more
Tech review: Fender x Teufel speakers look and sound great
If you know anything about music, you’ve heard of Fender, the maker of guitars and amplifiers.
The Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster electric guitars have been revered since the 1950s, and their amplifiers are known for their pure sound, even after decades of use.
Fender has partnered with German speaker manufacturer Teufel (pronounced "toy...Read more
Hackers have stolen your personal information in a data breach. Now what?
I almost threw away the mailing I got in mid-July from MNGI Digestive Health. I couldn’t remember ever patronizing the place. Must be more junk mail.
Then I remembered I’d recently written about MNGI and another Twin Cities medical firm, Consulting Radiologists. They had both been hacked, together exposing personal data of over 1 million ...Read more
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Silent Hill 2 and other hot fall 2024 games
It’s been a staccato summer in the world of video games, with a few highlight releases amid more layoffs in an industry that’s already seen more than 11,000 jobs cut this year.
However, the fall slate of releases is an impressive one. Here are six games that seem worthwhile in their own right and may help turn the tide for the industry.
...Read more
Jim Rossman: You should be using a password manager
A reader named Nancy wrote to me this week.
“Can you please explain how password managers work and the different options? I have a Windows PC and an Apple iPad and iPhone. Do I have to use the same browser on all devices? Or do I have to have a separate app to store passwords? How do they work with all of the different apps I need to log...Read more
‘Monster Hunter Now’ launches Season 3 featuring cooking, the Heavy Bowgun and Magnamalo
“Monster Hunter Now” continues to improve each season, and in the latest chapter, out now, Niantic’s mobile game features one additional weapon, two big improvements and several new monsters with a few of them temporarily going away.
In Season 3: Curse of the Wandering Flames, players will get their hands on the Heavy Bowgun, another ...Read more
Gadgets: Cordless vacuum
The Proscenic P11 Lite 6-in-1 multi-function vacuum is a top-of-the-line ergonomically designed cordless vacuum.
The lightweight (2.9 pounds) and easy-to-handle cordless vacuum includes three specialized brushes: a floor brush, a 2-in-1 dusting brush, and a crevice tool. Along with the adjustable telescopic pipe, it can be used in six ...Read more
Gen Z: Will they finally solve the plastic crisis?
WOODSIDE, Calif. — Generation Z has been heralded by some as the “sustainability” generation — more likely to pay a premium for eco-friendly products and more likely to make purchase decisions that incorporate their personal, social and environmental values.
Some studies indicate they’ve scored off the charts when it comes to their ...Read more
SpaceX pushes booster recovery limits with satellite launch
SpaceX pushed one of its most-used boosters to its limits with a launch Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
A Falcon 9 rocket using a booster for the 22nd time managed a successful recovery landing even though it was used to fly its payload, a pair of the European Commission’s Galileo L13 satellites, to a medium-Earth orbit. The ...Read more
The 10 most common types of litter found on California's beaches
Every September, evening temperatures begin to chill, high school football games kick off, pumpkins sprout in farm fields and tens of thousands of people flock to California’s beaches, lakes, rivers and streams to pick up litter as part of the state’s largest annual volunteer event, California Coastal Cleanup Day.
The goal is to beautify ...Read more
A computer on your face? Snap and others still trying to make AR glasses a reality
In its relentless search for ways to weave digital products into people's lives, Big Tech has achieved some big wins. Smart phones are ubiquitous. Apple Watch users talk to their wrists. Artificial intelligence-powered assistants are everywhere.
But convincing people to wear computers on their faces has been a dud. So far, at least.
Augmented...Read more
Instagram rolls out restrictive new privacy settings for teenagers
Instagram is changing the default privacy settings for many U.S. teenagers, part of an effort to keep them safer and give parents more control over how their kids interact online.
The new settings will make teen accounts private by default, limit who those users can send private messages to, and put teens in the “most restrictive” tier when...Read more
Lost in translation: What spirituality and Einstein’s theory of time have to do with misunderstandings about climate change
As a child growing up in the early 1990s, I remember learning in school about the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels traps heat near the Earth’s surface, like the glass of a greenhouse. I imagined myself on the playground, roasting inside a humid hothouse.
Fast forward 30 years, and the terms have ...Read more
FAA wants to fine SpaceX more than $600,000 for Space Coast launch site violations
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday it is seeking more than $600,000 in fines against SpaceX for violating licenses from its Space Coast launch sites.
In a press release, the FAA detailed its proposed civil penalties for a June 18, 2023 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 and a July 28, ...Read more
SpaceX to push booster recovery limits with satellite launch attempt today
SpaceX is looking to push one of its most used boosters to its limits with a launch Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral.
A Falcon 9 rocket flying a booster for a record-tying 22nd time will try and make a recovery landing even though it’s being used to fly its payload, the European Commission’s Galileo L13 satellite, to a medium-Earth orbit...Read more
Are tiny black holes zipping through our solar system? Scientists hope to find out.
LOS ANGELES — A mind-bending hypothesis is gaining traction among scientists: The universe may be teeming with microscopic black holes the size of an atom, but with the mass of a city-sized asteroid.
Created just a split second after the Big Bang, these hypothetical black holes would whip quietly through the solar system roughly once every ...Read more
Google to invest in satellites and AI to better detect wildfires
LOS ANGELES — Amid an outbreak of recent wildfires in California, Google announced a commitment to spend $13 million to improve satellite imaging to help track and detect wildfires, starting as early as next year.
FireSat, a constellation of more than 50 satellites, will be able to detect wildfires as small as the size of a classroom, about ...Read more
Count salmon. Get paid. Expect grizzlies
HAINES, Alaska — In the middle of the fast-flowing Chilkoot River, an Alaska state employee sits on a small perch over a narrow, fence-like structure and stares down into the rush of water.
Eagles look on from the trees overhead as the river thunders around boulders nearby. The worker’s back is turned to a female grizzly bear creeping up ...Read more
Orca baby born to Washington's L pod
An orca has been born to the southern residents: L128, calf of a first-time, 31-year-old mom, L90.
The baby is tiny, with clear fetal folds, making it probably about 3 days old. It was seen for the first time on Sunday, said Michael Weiss, research director for the Center for Whale Research, which confirmed the birth on Monday.
Mom and baby ...Read more
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