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Brandon Hancock/NASA/TNS

NASA moves forward with Artemis II tanking test that could set up moonshot mission

NASA is set to begin fueling 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant on the Space Launch System rocket at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday as its moved ahead with a test countdown of the Artemis II mission.

A live stream of the rocket at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B began before 10 a.m. as teams, after getting the green light from Artemis launch ...Read more

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA Press/TNS

EPA's end to endangerment finding eases rules for carmakers

WASHINGTON — The EPA’s decision last week to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding establishing that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants harmful to public health will have immediate impacts on vehicle tailpipe emissions limits and start-stop technology incentives.

That finding, which required the agency to regulate the emissions as ...Read more

John Moore/Getty Images North America/TNS

Commentary: Is there a duty to save wild animals from natural suffering?

The internet occasionally erupts in horror at disturbing images of wildlife: deer with freakish black bubbles all over their faces and bodies, sore-ridden squirrels, horn-growing rabbits.

As a society, we tend to hold romanticized notions about life in the wild. We picture these rabbits nuzzling with their babies, these squirrels munching on ...Read more

VOIFO/VOIFO/TNS

Tech review: Two dash cam systems keep an eye on your trips

I love watching the evolution of gadgets.

I’ve been around long enough to remember a time before we had a lot of the gadgets we take for granted today, like smartphones or laptops and today’s topic, dash cams.

Today we are looking at two dash cams, the 4K A810S from 70mai and A329S from VIOFO.

Both offer 4K recording and tons of other ...Read more

Endangered Kenyan antelopes rescued after being stranded at Palm Beach airport

When Paul Reillo learned the endangered mountain bongo antelopes that he had cared for since birth were stranded in a cargo plane on an airport tarmac ahead of their journey to a new home in Kenya, he took matters into his own hands.

At 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 7, 2026, a chartered Boeing 767F carrying eight critically endangered mountain bongo ...Read more

An avalanche takes down the side of a mountain near Winter Park, Colo., in 2021.
              Colorado Avalanche Information Center via AP

Tahoe avalanche: What causes snow slopes to collapse? A physicist and skier explains, with tips for surviving

A deadly avalanche buried a group of backcountry skiers and guides near Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra Nevada as an intense storm brought heavy, wet snow to the region on Feb. 17, 2026. Six of the skiers were rescued, but eight others didn’t survive and another was missing. The region had been under an avalanche warning that was rated ...Read more

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images North America/TNS

Google Gemini, Apple add music-focused generative AI features

Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. are adding music-focused generative artificial intelligence features to their core consumer apps, underscoring how advanced AI tools are moving into mainstream use.

Google’s Gemini AI assistant can now create 30-second music tracks based on text, photos or video uploaded by users using Google DeepMind�...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

OpenAI blocked from using Cameo name for its AI video features

OpenAI has been temporarily blocked from using the word "Cameo" in a product that allows people to generate videos based on prompts amid a trademark dispute.

Last year, the celebrity video platform Cameo sued OpenAI, alleging that the San Francisco company infringed its trademark. People use Cameo to purchase personalized videos of celebrities ...Read more

Plugging in costs more these days. Devonyu/iStock / Getty Images Plus

How deregulation made electricity more expensive, not cheaper

American families are feeling the pinch of rising electricity prices. In the past five years alone, the generation portion of the standard service residential electric bill in Columbus, Ohio, has increased by 110%. This is one data point in a national trend.

Energy affordability is quickly shaping up to be a key election issue at all ...Read more

Gmbh bildundtonfabrik/dpa/TNS

Review: 'The Berlin Apartment' is a game about one flat packed with stories

BERLIN — The location where "The Berlin Apartment" is set is both fictional and real.

We see that in the large mural opposite the apartment. "Astronaut Cosmonaut" is a work of art that really exists, though in real life, you can find it on completely different buildings to the ones that players see in this game.

Nevertheless, the view from...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: I just want to hear the old Alexa

We use Amazon’s Echo device at my house, mainly for voice control of our smart home devices like lights.

Recently, Amazon introduced their new and improved Alexa service called Alexa+, which is designed to be more conversational and have expanded capabilities.

Alexa+ is included with certain new Echo devices and for Amazon Prime ...Read more

TNS

Gadgets: Great sound for anyone

At first glance, Fosi Audio’s ZH3 desktop HiFi DAC/headphone amp/preamp seems built for advanced users. To an extent, it is. Still, you don’t have to be an audiophile to want great sound. The ZH3 is designed to make premium listening accessible to all. It lets everyday listeners use advanced sound features without the usual complexity.

...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Commentary: Blending hydrogen into gas pipelines would enrich utilities and harm Californians

The people of Orange Cove in Fresno County could soon be an unwilling part of an experiment in dangerous, expensive utility boondoggles. And if California’s gas companies get their way, families statewide will be forced to pay higher energy bills, breathe more indoor air pollution and bear greater safety risks.

Southern California Gas Co. ...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Commentary: Don't let natural gas exports wreck the Gulf of California ecosystem

As the effects of climate change intensify, it has become standard practice for major corporations to pledge their support for environmental sustainability. This is as it should be, because genuine corporate engagement is essential to the success of our collective response — and it makes good business sense.

Sempra, one of California’s ...Read more

Morgan Watkins/KFF HEALTH NEWS/TNS

Louisville found PFAS in drinking water. The Trump administration wouldn't require any action

Every day, the Ohio River sends billions of gallons of water flowing past Louisville’s pumping station, where the Kentucky city’s utility sucks it up to turn it into tap water.

To ensure it tastes good and is safe to drink, a small team of scientists and technicians is constantly testing the water for pH, odors, heavy metals, and microbes. ...Read more

Paul W. Gillespie/Staff/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Small nuclear reactors move forward. Will Maryland catch up?

BALTIMORE — Small, possibly portable, nuclear reactors that can’t melt down are moving toward reality in the United States, with what may be the first two coming online or beginning construction this year.

The US Army just transported its first small reactor for testing, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is working on what ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Hundreds of young Chinook salmon found dead in Yuba River. What happened?

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of juvenile Chinook salmon were found dead in the lower Yuba River after a large water pipe burst at the New Colgate Powerhouse on Friday, according to a local conservation group.

Aaron Zettler-Mann, executive director of South Yuba River Citizens League, explained that flows on the lower Yuba River briefly ...Read more

Greenland's cryolite mine, essential for U.S. airplane production, was below sea level and vulnerable to Nazi sabotage. Reginald Wilcox, ca. 1941. Peary–MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College

In World War II’s dog-eat-dog struggle for resources, a Greenland mine launched a new world order

On April 9, 1940, Nazi tanks stormed into Denmark. A month later, they blitzed into Belgium, Holland and France. As Americans grew increasingly rattled by the spreading threat, a surprising place became crucial to U.S. national security: the vast, ice-capped island of Greenland.

The island, a colony of Denmark’s at the time, was ...Read more

Coffee wilt disease has spread widely in Africa. The first outbreak before the 1950s affected mainly central and western Africa (left map) while the second outbreak originated in central Africa and spread east (right map). Affected countries are colored by the decade the disease was first detected.
              Peck et al 2023/Plant Pathology, CC BY-SA

Coffee crops are dying from a fungus with species-jumping genes – researchers are ‘resurrecting’ their genomes to understand how and why

For anyone who relies on coffee to start their day, coffee wilt disease may be the most important disease you’ve never heard of. This fungal disease has repeatedly reshaped the global coffee supply over the past century, with consequences that reach from African farms to cafe counters worldwide.

Infection with the fungus Fusarium ...Read more

Mari Faiello/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Florida House passes bill to add transparency on conservation land decisions

The Florida House unanimously passed a bipartisan bill Tuesday that would shed more light on state conservation decisions after a series of recent public lands controversies gave little room for public input.

The measure, House Bill 441, would require a month’s notice when the state considers selling or trading conservation land. The bill ...Read more