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Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS

AI startup funding hit a record in the LA area last quarter. Here's who got the most money

The Bay Area has long held the title for attracting the most venture capital funding in the nation, and that naturally includes the hot market for artificial intelligence startups. After all, San Francisco is home to some of the most prominent AI players, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

But the Greater L.A. area is growing its presence in this ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA's Crew-8 astronauts don't reveal hospitalization details, but discuss strain of Earth return

ORLANDO, Fla. — Details were not revealed about who and why one of the three NASA astronauts of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission had to be hospitalized after their return to Earth last month, but all three discussed Friday the slow recovery each faces after spending more than 235 days in space.

“I know there may be some interest in our post-flight...Read more

Skinny Antarctic penguin appears on Australia beach. 'Never in my wildest thoughts'

A malnourished emperor penguin appeared on a beach in Australia, thousands of miles from its home in Antarctica. Wildlife experts rescued the bird and took it to a rehabilitation center.

A beachgoer at “a popular tourist beach in Denmark, Western Australia,” noticed the out-of-place emperor penguin on Friday, Nov. 1 and alerted wildlife ...Read more

New greenhouse gas projections show Colorado moving in right direction to reduce pollution

DENVER — Colorado is projected to fall short of its benchmarks for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next five years, but a new look at progress shows that, like a person trying to lose weight for a class reunion, the state has shaved off a few more pounds than expected even if it won’t shed it all before the deadline.

Colorado’s ...Read more

Disaster survivors want to rebuild safer, more sustainable homes, but cost misperceptions often stand in the way

As Florida and the Southeast begin recovering from 2024’s destructive hurricanes, many people are asking: How can we rebuild sustainably and in a way that avoids the same damage, costs and trauma in future storms?

There are proven ways to strengthen homes that pay off in the long run, such as installing hurricane straps to tie down ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Reintroduced Colorado wolf likely died after fight with another wolf, federal wildlife officials say

DENVER — One of Colorado’s reintroduced wolves likely died of wounds it suffered during a fight with another wolf, federal officials announced Thursday.

The wolf also had a healed gunshot wound on one of its hind legs, according to a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed the wolf’s death...Read more

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Emissions from private jets are skyrocketing. Monitoring them is about to get much harder

Carbon dioxide emissions from private jets have increased by 46% in the last five years, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

The researchers analyzed over 26,000 airplanes and 18 million trips — representing most private flights between 2019 and 2023 — and found that more than ...Read more

Handout/TNS/TNS

After 2 scrubs, SpaceX knocks out Cape Canaveral launch

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX managed Thursday to get off a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral after scrubbing the launch twice earlier in the week.

A Falcon 9 carrying 23 of the internet satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:19 p.m. EST under cloudy skies.

Weather, though, was not a concern...Read more

After 2 scrubs, SpaceX will try again Thursday for Cape Canaveral launch

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX will try again Thursday to get off a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral after scrubbing the launch on Monday and Wednesday.

A Falcon 9 carrying 23 of the internet satellites is aiming for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a four-hour window Thursday that opens at 3:13 p....Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Climate change identified as main driver of worsening drought in the Western United States

LOS ANGELES — Humanity’s heating of the planet, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, has become the main driver of worsening droughts in California and the American West, according to new research.

A team of UCLA and NOAA scientists found that while droughts in the last century were caused ...Read more

Microplastics promote cloud formation, with likely effects on weather and climate

Clouds form when water vapor – an invisible gas in the atmosphere – sticks to tiny floating particles, such as dust, and turns into liquid water droplets or ice crystals. In a newly published study, we show that microplastic particles can have the same effects, producing ice crystals at temperatures 5 to 10 degrees Celsius (9 to 18 ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Allen J. Schaben

Despite its name, downtown LA's South Park is park-poor. That could change

LOS ANGELES — In downtown Los Angeles, parking lots are often placeholders, eventually giving rise to future development, but in the district known as South Park, one parking lot might just stay low.

Surrounded by residential towers, this ordinary patch of asphalt at 11th Street and South Grand Avenue, smaller than an ice-skating rink, may ...Read more

US Fish and Wildlife Service/Getty Images/Getty Images North America/TNS

Biden administration sets stage for minimal second lease sale in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Biden administration on Wednesday issued a final environmental review for a second lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The administration also identified a preferred alternative for the sale that would offer 400,000 acres in the refuge’s coastal plane, the minimum acreage required by Congress for the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Invasive fruit fly species puts parts of Southern California's Orange County under quarantine

LOS ANGELES — The cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove have been placed under quarantine Wednesday in light of an uninvited and unwelcome visitor: the oriental fruit fly, an invasive pest that attacks over 230 crops including fruits, nuts and vegetables.

The order by the California Department of Food and Agriculture bars fruit from within the...Read more

Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

This SAP industry center uses artificial intelligence to streamline manufacturing

When Hurricane Helene damaged western North Carolina in September, filling medical facilities with people who couldn’t be cared for at home, Jim Polk, a tech executive at Exela Pharmaceutical Sciences in Lenoir, North Carolina, got a call from the Atrium Health hospital group in flooded Asheville. Could his company make intravenous saline bags...Read more

Bay Area loses hundreds more tech jobs as region's cutbacks persist

Fresh waves of layoffs are poised to eliminate the jobs of several hundred tech workers in the Bay Area, a disquieting series of setbacks that suggest the wobbly sector’s staffing reductions have yet to run their course.

The current cutbacks for the Bay Area tech industry are slated to eliminate more than 400 jobs, according to this news ...Read more

Handout/Astrum/TNS

Gadgets: High-tech passport cover

Satechi's new Vegan-Leather Passport Cover with Find My technology allows it to be located with Apple's tracking system.

The pocket-sized case (5.6 by 4.2 by 0.7 inches, 3.7 ounces) has a slot for a passport, four credit cards and room for a boarding pass. But the technology inside makes the Satechi Passport Cover stand out, especially when ...Read more

Striking Distance Studios/TNS

Missing spooky season? Here are more video games to sate your appetite for horror

Although spooky season is over, the scares don’t have to stop. Players will find plenty of horror in video games year-round. In fact, some of the best titles this year have been horror games. Here’s a quick look at recent releases that have murder, mayhem and monsters.

“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” — After a disappointing outing last ...Read more

PRESS KIT/TNS

Silent Hill 2 review: Bloober Team’s fantastic remake of a masterpiece

“There was a hole here. It’s gone now.”

The meaning of the words, a blood-red message spray-painted on a covered window in a deserted bar, has long been debated by fans of Konami’s 2001 seminal psychological survival horror game Silent Hill 2. More than two decades later, we’re no closer to understanding those unnerving words, but ...Read more

Handout/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Take control of your photos with RAW

This week a friend and photo enthusiast asked a question, “I know a person who knows more about photography than me, and he says I might want to look into shooting RAW photos. I asked him why and I didn’t really understand his answer. What are RAW photos, and should I be taking them?”

To understand RAW, you also need to understand JPEG....Read more