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Catherine Thorbecke: Chinese AI videos used to look fake. Now they look like money

Even six months ago, artificial intelligence-generated videos still betrayed themselves, with extra fingers, jerky limbs and uncanny facial expressions. While some of that persists, for the most part, we’ve entered an era where seeing is no longer believing.

It isn’t just the quality that has changed. In China, AI video is doing something ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Private equity's giant software bet has been upended by AI

Apollo Global Management’s John Zito left the audience of investors stunned.

Addressing a gathering in Toronto last fall, he said that the real threat for private capital markets wasn’t tariffs, inflation or a prolonged period of elevated interest rates. Rather, he said, “the real risk is — is software dead?”

Zito’s comments, being...Read more

Gyroor/TNS/TNS

Tech review: A fun way to scoot around town

My wife is quite happy for me to be the gadget hound in our family.

She’s a reluctant adopter of technology, but she’s quite happy when I introduce her to something she really loves.

Every so often she’ll stake a claim on something I’m reviewing after she sees me trying it out, which was exactly the case of my unboxing the Gyroor ...Read more

The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Los Angeles handles a massive amount of sewage and wastewater.  Dean Musgrove/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

Reclaiming water from contaminated brine can increase water supply and reduce environmental harm

The world is looking for more clean water. Intense storms and warmer weather have worsened droughts and reduced the amount of clean water underground and in rivers and lakes on the surface.

Under pressure to provide water for drinking and irrigation, people around the globe are trying to figure out how to save, conserve and reuse ...Read more

Handout/Tessan/TNS

Gadgets: Safe portable power

Safe portable charging isn’t optional; it’s essential. That is exactly what you get with BMX’s new SolidSafe portable power line featuring advanced magnetic solid-state battery packs built with safety at the core.

Inside each battery is what SolidSafe calls next-generation solid-state cells, not traditional lithium-ion batteries. ...Read more

Handout/Envision Entertainment/TNS

'Pioneers of Pagonia': A building game in 'The Settlers' mold

BERLIN — For many strategy fans, "The Settlers" is a true classic. One of the series' originators, Volker Wertich, has now presented his own creation with "Pioneers of Pagonia," a PC co-op game for up to four players that remains very close to "The Settlers."

At its core, "Pioneers of Pagonia" is a city-building game. Players start with a ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Hidden phone setting turns sister’s screen into a ‘photo negative’

My family is a great resource for my column topics.

Usually, I write about an issue brought to my attention by my mom or my mother-in-law, but this week it was my sister who called with a phone problem.

We’d talked earlier in the week and she told me her phone screen looked strange: the background was black and the text was white in some ...Read more

Sammy Fretwell/The State/TNS

SC agency chose not to protect rivers because of industry pressure, ex-official says

South Carolina’s environmental agency has known for years state that oversight of rivers is so weak that industrial-scale farms can suck rivers dry, but the department has done little to protect waterways from overuse because of political pressure, the department’s former water division chief says.

Mike Marcus, who retired as director of ...Read more

California Department of Fish and Wildlife/TNS

Gray wolf crosses into Nevada after breaking from California pack

A spotted gray wolf has left his California pack and trotted across Silver State lines, wildlife biologists say.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokeswoman Ashley Zeme said the wolf is in the north end of the Carson Range near Carson City. The wolf crossed into Nevada on Monday after heading east from Truckee, California, on the north end of ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA's Artemis II launch delayed until at least March after test run falls short

NASA’s test run of its Artemis II countdown ran into problems Monday at Kennedy Space Center, scrapping any chance of the moonbound mission launching this month.

Instead, the agency is targeting March as the earliest possible date for Artemis II, which will be the first crewed mission on the Orion spacecraft and the first time humans will fly...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Catalina Island's deer will be killed to restore its ecosystem

California wildlife officials have approved a plan to eradicate Catalina Island’s entire deer population as part of a broader effort to restore the island ecosystem, sparking fierce opposition from an unusual coalition of hunters and animal welfare advocates.

Per the plan conceived by the Catalina Island Conservancy, professional hunters will...Read more

SpaceX halts Falcon 9 missions after 2nd stage issue during most recent launch

SpaceX has halted launches for now of its Falcon 9 rockets after an issue from a Monday mission flown from California.

The Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base managed to get to space and deploy its payload, but the second stage had issues as it prepared for its normal deorbit burn.

“The vehicle then performed as designed to ...Read more

During winter storms, physical damage to wires and high demand for heating put pressure on the electrical grid. Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Data centers told to pitch in as storms and cold weather boost power demand

As Winter Storm Fern swept across the United States in late January 2026, bringing ice, snow and freezing temperatures, it left more than a million people without power, mostly in the Southeast.

Scrambling to meet higher than average demand, PJM, the nonprofit company that operates the grid serving much of the mid-Atlantic U.S., asked...Read more

Italy's Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium, which is hosting events for the 2026 Winter Olympics, needed snowmaking machines for the Italian National Championship Open on Dec. 23, 2025. Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images

Climate change threatens the Winter Olympics’ future – and even snowmaking has limits for saving the Games

Watching the Winter Olympics is an adrenaline rush as athletes fly down snow-covered ski slopes, luge tracks and over the ice at breakneck speeds and with grace.

When the first Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, all 16 events took place outdoors. The athletes relied on natural snow for ski runs and freezing ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA's Artemis II launch delayed until at least March after test run falls short

NASA’s test run of its Artemis II countdown ran into problems Monday at Kennedy Space Center that ultimately forced a decision to call off any chance to launch the moonbound mission this month.

“With the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal today, we are moving off the February launch window and targeting March for the earliest possible ...Read more

Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Democrats slam Trump administration's 'buying spree' involving Nevada mine

LAS VEGAS — The federal government’s decision to directly buy stakes in mining companies is largely without precedent in American history, and two mines with Nevada ties have been among the biggest beneficiaries.

But now, three high-ranking Democrats in Congress have questions.

“By privileging select corporations through direct ownership...Read more

John Moore/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's offshore wind ban blocked for 5th time by US judge

A U.S. judge ruled that a wind farm being developed by Orsted A/S off New York’s Long Island can resume work halted by the federal government, the fifth such court win for an industry President Donald Trump has sought to cripple.

The Sunrise Wind project, which was losing $2.5 million a day while it sat idle, would “be irreparably harmed”...Read more

Blue Origin/Blue Origin/TNS

In race with SpaceX, Blue Origin refocuses efforts on Artemis moon lander

SpaceX’s stranglehold as NASA’s choice for the historic moon landing planned for the Artemis III mission later this decade was loosened last year to allow competitor Blue Origin back into the conversation. Jeff Bezos’ company is now laser-focused on the opportunity.

On Friday, the company announced it would cease launches of its space ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Californian tech company to move headquarters to Florida

California quantum computing company D-Wave is moving its headquarters to Boca Raton, Florida, and opening a new research and development facility.

In an announcement last week, the Palo Alto company said its new office will be housed in the Boca Raton Innovation Campus before the end of this year. The 1.7-million-square-foot office facility, ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Swarm of earthquakes jolts California's San Ramon area. Biggest is 4.2

SAN RAMON, Calif. — An ongoing string of more than a dozen earthquakes in less than 90 minutes early Monday ended what had been some recent calm from recent weeks of shaking ground in the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The most violent of the 19 earthquakes measured by the U.S. Geological Survey was a magnitude 4.2 shaker ...Read more