The Cool Down

Vietnamese engineer turns stream near his home into steady power source

A homemade hydroelectric plant built by a Vietnamese engineer relies on a turbine, a generator, piping, and brickwork to ...
The Cool Down

Congo residents sue over mine pollution as tests find school air at nearly 3 times WHO limit

Congo residents sue a copper and cobalt mine over pollution, after nearby school air tests found fine-particle levels close ...
The Cool Down

New York robot test raises safety concerns: 'You can't just blindly trust LLMs with robots'

A two-letter cue diverted the machine from an apple, illustrating how hidden instructions in artificial intelligence systems ...
The Cool Down

Sri Lanka minister says old solar rules made other consumers cover higher nighttime power costs

Sri Lanka says old rooftop solar rules left households without panels paying higher nighttime electricity costs amid changes ...
The Cool Down

Over 900,000 homes in West Virginia face nearly $1 billion in weather damage each year

West Virginia's 900,000 homes face nearly $1 billion in annual weather damage, raising costs and prompting homebuyers to look beyond a property's price.
The Cool Down

Puerto Rico plan would pay homeowners 7 to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour for surplus solar power

Homeowners in Puerto Rico could earn 7 to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour for surplus solar electricity under a proposal to lower ...
The Cool Down

Hawai'i seniors pay hundreds a month for tiny homes after state pulls out and support services vanish

Support services are absent at a Hawaii site with 31 rent-paying residents, including seniors and people with disabilities, ...
The Cool Down

New York co-op ruled out solar until a second assessment more than quadrupled its output estimate

Electricity is flowing from rooftop panels at a New York City co-op where a fresh assessment overturned an initially ...
The Cool Down

OpenAI courts celebrities as executive says actors below the top tier are 'not getting jobs'

Concerns about AI's threat to entertainment workers' livelihoods form the backdrop to OpenAI's celebrity outreach and push to ...
The Cool Down

Electric cars hit 32% of UK new-car sales, leaving petrol just 5.2 points ahead

UK battery electric vehicles reached 32% of new car registrations in October, leaving petrol just 5.2 percentage points ahead ...
The Cool Down

Space heaters need 3 feet of clearance — but an extension cord isn't a safe workaround

An extension cord may seem like an easy way to keep a space heater clear of flammable items, but it can introduce a serious ...
The Cool Down

Only 5% of people worldwide breathed air with 'good' ozone levels in 2026, report finds

In 2026, only one in 20 people worldwide breathed ground-level ozone at levels considered good by the World Health ...