Science & Technology
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Flood-damaged Nepal wants help from the global climate Loss and Damage Fund – but it’s waiting, along with 118 other countries
As it faces the enormous task of rebuilding from a deadly flood that tore through communities in the Himalayas, Nepal is seeking compensation from the international Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage – meaning from countries that are major contributors to climate change, which it blames for the disaster.
Nepal Foreign Minister ...Read more
Meta glasses captured and shared intimate images without users' consent, lawsuit claims
As Meta prepares to release new wearables, privacy fears surrounding its artificial intelligence glasses have triggered fresh lawsuits against the social media giant.
More than 70 people who bought, used or were recorded with Meta's smart glasses have sued the social media giant, claiming their intimate and sensitive images were exposed to ...Read more
How existential fears are shaping the debate over AI
The current round of panic over artificial intelligence is based on the conviction that the technology has slipped out of human control to do its own bidding in several recent incidents. To some disillusioned AI researchers — and some senior employees at leading AI companies — this is an early sign of a true threat to human civilization. But...Read more
As Microsoft charts AI spending, Wall Street and workers keep watch
Microsoft has rarely seen a wipeout like it.
At one point this summer, the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant saw its stock price plummet 35% from its all-time high.
The company wasn’t on the ropes financially. In fact, Microsoft was more profitable than ever, with a growing cloud computing business that propelled the company to earn $133 ...Read more
NASA, SpaceX target early October launch as Crew-13 head into quarantine
Central Florida astronaut Luke Delaney is getting closer to his first spaceflight as he and his three Crew-13 crewmates entered quarantine Thursday night targeting a Space Coast launch in early October.
Delaney, 47, who grew up in Volusia County and attended both DeLand and Deltona high schools, was chosen as a member of the 2021 class of ...Read more
Iran war pushes diesel – the economy’s lifeblood – to record high prices, with no relief on the horizon
Diesel fuel prices in the U.S. continue to break all-time records, hitting $6.28 a gallon as a national average on Sept. 14, 2026, and they aren’t likely to come down anytime soon. Because diesel is the fuel for freight transportation, farming and construction – and is related to a key heating fuel – the effects are set to spread across...Read more
Trump revokes Obama-era order that served as framework for Chesapeake Bay restoration
BALTIMORE — President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week revoking an order that has mandated states and municipalities to contribute to improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay for 17 years, claiming the order allowed for unnecessary taxes, according to a White House news release.
The Obama-era executive order from 2009 ...Read more
For the first time, scientists link heavy snow to groundwater in California
LOS ANGELES — For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between the snow that falls on California’s mountains and the groundwater that lies beneath Central Valley farmlands.
Analyzing two decades of measurements from NASA satellites, the researchers discovered that after a snowy winter in the Sierra Nevada, the melting snow ...Read more
At an old steel site in Pittsburgh, bacteria evolved to survive – and eat – industrial pollution
Across Appalachia and the Rust Belt region, including throughout the city of Pittsburgh, former industrial sites are being transformed into new neighborhoods, research centers and technology hubs.
But another transformation has been taking place beneath them for decades.
Brownfields are former industrial or commercial sites. ...Read more
Osprey chicks are starving at the Jersey Shore, study says
An icon of Jersey Shore waterways is in peril, according to a Stockton University study.
The osprey, a raptor that feeds primarily on fish, was reclassified from “threatened” to “stable” by New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Fish and Wildlife agency, but a recent study by Atlantic County University, whose mascot ...Read more
Editorial: Power down regulations to power up debate
A major change by the Trump administration will reduce future power prices around the country. Unfortunately, it took a unilateral act of the executive branch rather than an act of Congress.
On Monday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced sweeping changes to the U.S. power sector. The agency is rolling back greenhouse gas requirements on ...Read more
Ducks kept dying near a Chicago harbor. Wildlife officials suspect botulism.
CHICAGO — In the soft shimmer of the water near DuSable Harbor, several Canada geese and a double-crested cormorant foraged among aquatic plants, the former nibbling on the feather-like leaves and the latter diving time and again for fish. By the docks and boats, an American black duck preened itself.
Near the geese, a dead bird floated next ...Read more
Leaked emails reveal industry plan to kill California's plastic and recycling laws
When California’s groundbreaking law on single-use plastic passed in 2022 to address the growing scourge of plastic pollution, it had broad political support. There was the state Chamber of Commerce, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a powerful ocean advocate and Californians Against Waste.
But now as the law’s deadlines and requirements finally ...Read more
Feds must declare critical habitat for endangered Sierra Nevada fox, judge rules
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge in Sacramento has ordered the Trump administration to designate critical habitat for the Sierra Nevada red fox, a species so rare it was erroneously thought to be locally extinct.
The bushy-tailed foxes, which once were plentiful at high elevations in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains of California ...Read more
Lake Mead's sacrifice to prop up Lake Powell shown in poor outlook
LAS VEGAS — The ramifications of propping up Lake Powell at Lake Mead’s expense are on full display in the federal government’s latest numbers for the two reservoirs along the Colorado River.
While Lake Mead may keep plunging until it’s firmly below 1,000 feet in elevation or close to it in summer 2028, Lake Powell is projected to ...Read more
New order by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis aims to protect bees and other pollinators from climate change, habitat loss
DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at protecting bees and other critical pollinators as they face compounding threats from climate change, habitat loss and pesticides.
“Pollinators touch everything we love about Colorado,” Polis said shortly before signing the order during a news conference at ...Read more
New evidence shows that you are only slightly hotter than a T. rex
LOS ANGELES — If you've been to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, you've probably been wowed by the fossilized remains of Thomas, the formidable 34-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex dominating the Dinosaur Hall.
More than 66 million years after Thomas' death around the age of 17, the animal is continuing to contribute to science's ...Read more
Tech review: Ultenic U18 stacks up nicely against its more expensive competition
Most every household has a vacuum — many have more than one.
Our main vacuum is a Dyson DC07 I bought refurbished in 2008. That upright vacuum has been the mainstay in our house and it still performs flawlessly.
My job reviewing gadgets has brought more than a few other vacuums into our home. Not many earn a permanent spot in the hall closet...Read more
Small fusion reactors compete to generate reliable, safe electricity
While progress begins on small, modular nuclear fission reactors across the United States for electric generation, others are betting on fusion, the still-experimental fusing of lightweight atoms that powered Tony Stark’s fictional Iron Man suit.
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group is investing in a Bill Gates-backed U.S. nuclear firm, ...Read more
Gates Foundation commits $1 billion to improving global AI access
As debate rages over how to respond to the growing power of artificial intelligence, Bill Gates is throwing a billion dollars and some words of wisdom at the problem.
The Microsoft founder and one of the world’s biggest philanthropists warns that artificial intelligence could be either a “great equalizer” or a force that widens the world�...Read more
Popular Stories
- Iran war pushes diesel – the economy’s lifeblood – to record high prices, with no relief on the horizon
- At an old steel site in Pittsburgh, bacteria evolved to survive – and eat – industrial pollution
- For the first time, scientists link heavy snow to groundwater in California
- Trump revokes Obama-era order that served as framework for Chesapeake Bay restoration
- Osprey chicks are starving at the Jersey Shore, study says
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