In the age of video games, toys have faded in popularity as gadgets and screens become what children want. Teddy Ruxpin’s time has come and gone and the reign of Furby has passed, but Legos remain the eternal childhood toy.

Aside from their timeless quality, a reason that the iconic Danish toy has continued to grow in popularity is that the...Read more

This week a reader writes: I have a Mac desktop with two 1 terabyte external SSDs, one used for Time Machine backups and one for my daily files.

As I understand it, these drives have to be “ejected” before disconnecting them. I’ve found that after power outages (not often) I have to disconnect and reconnect the cables before the drives ...Read more

To say 2023 was a staccato year for the video game industry would be … generous. From the games themselves to the state of the industry, 2023 oscillated between soaring highs and humiliating lows.

The industry produced some truly phenomenal originals, sequels and remakes — we’ll get into those in a minute — but also dumped some true ...Read more

It's impossible to say what is the most versatile vacuum available, but the new Proscenic P11 Mopping 2-in-1 cordless vacuum has to be high on that list. With ease and the included accessories, it transforms back and forth from a vacuum to a mop.

The P11 is a stick vacuum loaded with features, including a lightweight and portable design for ...Read more

Climate change often feels like an insurmountable challenge: The whole planet must move away from fossil fuels and rethink how we live, eat and get around. But the path to net zero is not unlike a series of humanity-wide new year’s resolutions — to try a new way, to follow through on change, and to unlock a different and better permutation ...Read more

In 2019, Chicago software company ActiveCampaign decided to open an office in Europe to be closer to international clients. The fast-growing startup did more than half its business internationally, and a new satellite office in Sydney, Australia, was proving to be too far from European markets.

The customer experience automation company opened ...Read more

You have probably seen one of the many viral videos: Someone puts on a pair of normal-looking glasses, and they gasp, or break down in tears. Colorblind, for the first time they are seeing the range of contrasts in the fall foliage, or the true color of a loved one's eyes.

The technology behind those revelations? Berkeley-based company EnChroma...Read more

At long last, the final journey of the last space shuttle ever built, Endeavour, and its giant orange external tank are expected to begin this month — the capstone to a historic journey to an ambitious museum exhibit in Los Angeles.

It'll be a momentous occasion for the California Science Center, the state-run museum just south of downtown L...Read more

Changes have arrived to rooftop solar in Idaho, whether its proponents like it or not.

Idaho Power, on the heels of gaining approval to raise its base electricity rates, got the green light from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to overhaul its method of compensating households with rooftop solar panels for the excess energy they generate ...Read more

The big swells and high tides that battered the region for days have eased – but the aftermath and clean up since have kept crews busy along the coast.

Beaches across Southern California saw sea water push up past the sand, into parking lots and threatening beachfront buildings for several days in the last week. Several beaches suffered ...Read more

California’s statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack — the source of nearly one-third of the state’s water supply — is at its lowest level in a decade, a major turnaround from last year when huge storms ended a three-year drought and buried ski resorts in massive amounts of snow.

On Tuesday, the snowpack was just 25% of its historical average ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — California’s statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack — the source of nearly one-third of the state’s water supply — is at its lowest level in a decade, a major turnaround from last year when huge storms ended a three year-drought and buried ski resorts in massive amounts of snow.

On Tuesday, the snowpack was just 25% of ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — The multimillion dollar threat to the lower Connecticut River from the invasive aquatic weed hydrilla has attracted attention from around the country, as scientists work on ways to contain it.

Now, a group of engineering students from Northeastern University in Boston are developing a remote method of tracking its spread, a ...Read more

Coast redwoods — enormous, spectacular trees, some reaching nearly 400 feet, the tallest plants on the planet — thrive mostly in a narrow strip of land in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Most of them grow from southern Oregon down into Northern California, snugged up against the rugged Pacific coast.

They have grown by slowly ...Read more

India launched its first satellite on Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year.

The spacecraft, named X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, was propelled into an orbit of 350 kilometers from an island near India’s main spaceport of Sriharikota, off the southern state...Read more

BALTIMORE — The big astronomical event in 2024 is a Great North American Eclipse in April. In Maryland, the moon won't cover the sun during the eclipse, but it will come close.

Read on for viewing tips, as well as other skywatching highlights and key astronomical dates for the next 12 months. For most events, the best viewing will be from ...Read more

The jetliner was packed so tight that I couldn’t even work on my laptop. The tray table was too low and the seat in front too far back. The screen on the seat in front was too close for my eyes to focus on a movie. I’ve opened cans of sardines that seemed to have more room.

My partner, Rick, and I were among the 7.5 million estimated U.S. ...Read more

Before millions of Americans installed solar roofs, before towering wind turbines became a common sight in Midwestern skies, before electric car giant Tesla rolled out its first sedan, there was Icebreaker.

Small but seemingly unstoppable, the Cleveland clean energy project fought for 14 years to become the first offshore wind farm on the Great...Read more

DENVER — A growing herd of 250 bison, re-introduced at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge to help restore toxic wasteland to the native short-grass prairie, often descends through a floodplain to reach First Creek and cross to the northern half of the refuge.

But torrents of water spilling off the rapidly urbanizing parts of ...Read more