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Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Stuck in traffic? Google Maps has a smarter AI assistant for you

Drivers navigating traffic on their morning commutes will be able to do much more than just find directions and the nearest gas station on Google Maps.

In the coming weeks, Google will add its artificial intelligence-powered assistant Gemini into Google Maps, making it possible for drivers to get answers to more complex questions while they're ...Read more

ULA/ULA/TNS

SpaceX, ULA line up double launch night that would tie Space Coast record

ORLANDO, Fla. — While SpaceX has managed the lion’s share of launches this year, it’s set to be a team effort with United Launch Alliance as the two companies have lined up a pair of launches Wednesday that would tie the annual record for orbital missions from the Space Coast.

Both a SpaceX Falcon 9 and ULA Atlas V stand less than two ...Read more

Handout/INIU/TNS

Gadgets: Air duster makes itself invaluable

The Wolfbox MF100 Air Duster is one of those gadgets you don’t think you need — until you try it, and suddenly you wonder how you lived without it.

The MF100 Air Duster is an endless amount of compressed air packed into a handheld device. There are three adjustable speeds (slow, medium, high) to suit specific needs, ranging from light ...Read more

Nintendo/TNS

Review: ‘Pokemon Legends: Z-A’ is a refreshing ‘Yakuza’-inspired take on the franchise

In “Yakuza: Like a Dragon,” Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio poked fun of “Pokemon,” creating a spoof of the iconic scene in which Professor Oak asked the hero to choose a starting pocket monster before venturing out in the world. This “Sujimon” minigame nudged players to find all the different enemy types in the world and beat them all.

With...Read more

Jim Rossman/TNS/TNS

Jim Rossman: What should you do if you lose your phone?

I usually write about things that happen to others, but this week it was my turn to do something worth sharing.

I left my iPhone in the cart at the grocery store, and I didn’t realize it until I drove home.

I got that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

My wife and I share locations with each other, so I asked her to check my phone’s...Read more

Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

From more meat to less waste: How food companies use AI

At a Cargill slaughterhouse in Texas, AI-equipped cameras scan every cattle carcass and let workers know when they’re literally leaving too much meat on the bone.

Even a 1% improvement in yield could produce millions more pounds of meat a year thanks to artificial intelligence.

“I do believe it’s the most transformative technology or ...Read more

Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times/TNS

For Amazon, Microsoft and other Seattle tech firms, it's AI and anxiety

In little more than five months, Amazon and Microsoft have announced they're collectively cutting more than 29,000 roles.

Microsoft has let go more than 15,000 workers since May, and Amazon announced last week it was cutting 14,000 roles. Artificial intelligence has taken some of the blame for the layoffs, but not in an obvious way.

The ...Read more

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Inside the race to train AI robots how to act human in the real world

CHENNAI, India — Now that artificial intelligence has mastered almost everything we do online, it needs help learning how we physically move around in the real world.

A growing global army of trainers is helping it escape our computers and enter our living rooms, offices and factories by teaching it how we move.

In an industrial town in ...Read more

Blue Origin/TNS

Blue Origin eyes 2nd New Glenn launch with Mars-bound NASA satellites

ORLANDO, Fla. — Blue Origin’s heavy lift New Glenn became the first commercial rocket to make it to orbit on its first try back in January. Jeff Bezos’ company is looking to repeat the feat while also nailing a return landing of its booster, something that didn’t come to fruition the first go-around.

The NG-2 mission carrying a pair of ...Read more

Courtney Pedroza/The Seattle Times/TNS

WA spent a billion in tax breaks to help tech dominate. Was it worth it?

Three decades ago, a promising young industry was taking hold in Washington.

The technology sector was robust and growing fast. Microsoft had made the Pacific Northwest home, while newer companies flocked steadily to the region.

State lawmakers wanted to keep them coming. So in 1994, the Washington Legislature passed a pair of tax breaks ...Read more

Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Colorado Parks and Wildlife/TNS

As feds' new stance against Canadian-sourced wolves throws wrench in Colorado's plans, what's next?

The recent roadblock thrown in front of Colorado’s voter-mandated wolf reintroduction by the Trump administration may force state wildlife officials to find a new source of wolves, just months before the next planned releases this winter.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife had contracted again with Canada for wolves to bring to the state after ...Read more

Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

U. of Minn. researchers launch smoke-sensing drones that one day could fight wildfires

Plumes of smoke drifted up from a fire steadily taking over a 30-acre prairie at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, north of the Twin Cities. Amid the haze, five black drones zipped around.

More than 150 feet below the flying robots, research student Nikil Krishnakumar raised the controller in the air.

“It’s all autonomous now,” he ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd asks US Energy Department to order that coal plant stay open

DENVER — Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd has asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to issue an emergency order that the two units at the Comanche power plant keep operating because there’s a risk of an energy shortfall if the coal facility in Pueblo County is shut down when planned.

The Republican who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional ...Read more

SPACE X/TNS

SpaceX launch could bring overnight sonic boom to Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — If you need a reminder to turn your clocks back at 2 a.m. Sunday, maybe the boom you might hear less than an hour before could assist.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off on the Bandwagon-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting a 1:09 a.m. liftoff during 1-1:20 a.m. ...Read more

Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Los Angeles will nearly double recycled water for 500,000 residents

LOS ANGELES — In a plan that will reverberate more than 300 miles north at Mono Lake, Los Angeles city leaders have decided to nearly double the wastewater that will be transformed into drinking water at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys.

Instead of treating 25 million gallons per day as originally planned, the L.A. ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Plan to kill 450,000 owls pushes past major obstacle with Republicans both for and against

LOS ANGELES — A controversial plan to kill one owl species to save another cleared a major hurdle.

The full Senate on Wednesday struck down a GOP effort to prevent the cull of up to 450,000 barred owls in the Pacific Northwest over three decades, ending a saga that created strange political bedfellows.

It’s a major win for environmentalist...Read more

Handout/SpaceX/TNS

After NASA pressure, SpaceX promises speedier timeline for Starship moon lander

ORLANDO, Fla. — After acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy this month called out SpaceX for Starship delays, Elon Musk’s company has come back with an update defending its progress and offering a speedier plan to get astronauts back on the moon as part of the Artemis program.

“Starship continues to simultaneously be the fastest path to ...Read more

Queensland’s Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation/TNS

Babies of 'one of Australia's rarest mammals' born in wild at park for first time

In a protected forest of eastern Australia, one of the country’s “rarest mammals” wandered past a trail camera, its pouch bulging slightly from the baby tucked inside. Conservationists later looked at the photos and immediately recognized them as a “major” conservation milestone.

Conservationists began preparations at Powrunna State ...Read more

Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Can science and faith heal divisions, especially over vaccines? We have good news

We are a society in desperate need of healing; these days, we cannot even find agreement in diagnosis. Consider the issue of vaccination, which raises the specter of science in conflict with individual values and, particularly in some cases, with faith. Our society has long treated science and faith as competing narratives. What if we instead ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Senate passes measure to remove protections in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to cancel a Biden-era land-use plan that had boosted environmental protections for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a region that has drawn new interest from the oil industry in recent years.

A companion measure from Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich has yet to be considered in the ...Read more