KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—The rocket NASA is preparing to send four astronauts on a trip around the Moon will emerge from its assembly building on Florida’s Space Coast early Saturday for a slow crawl to its seaside launch pad.

Riding atop one of NASA’s diesel-powered crawler transporters, the Space Launch System rocket and its mobile launch platform will exit the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center around 7:00 am EST (11:00 UTC). The massive tracked transporter, certified by Guinness as the world’s heaviest self-propelled vehicle, is expected to cover the four miles between the assembly building and Launch Complex 39B in about eight to 10 hours.

The rollout marks a major step for NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first human voyage to the vicinity of the Moon since the last Apollo lunar landing in December 1972. Artemis II will not land. Instead, a crew of four astronauts will travel around the far side of the Moon at a distance of several thousand miles, setting the record for the farthest humans have ever ventured from Earth.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Even low levels of common agricultural pesticides can stunt the long-term lifespan of fish, according to research led by Jason Rohr, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Signs of aging accelerated when fish were exposed to the chemicals, according to the study, published in Science, which could have implications for other organisms. […] The research found that fish from pesticide-affected lakes showed shortened telomeres, the caps at the end of chromosomes that are known as the biological clock for aging. When they shorten, it is a sign of cellular aging and a decline in the body’s regenerative capacity. The lake populations consisted of younger fish, indicating that the pesticides contributed to shortened lives. Laboratory experiments confirmed the findings and showed chronic low-dose exposure reduced fish survival and degraded telomeres. These effects were not seen with acute high-dose exposure.

Chemical analysis showed chlorpyrifos, which is banned in the UK and the EU but used in the US and China, was the only compound found in the fish tissues that was consistently associated with signs of aging. These included shortened telomeres and lipofuscin deposition — a buildup of insoluble proteins often described as cellular “junk”. The worrying aging effects occurred at concentrations below current US freshwater safety standards, Rohr said, suggesting the effects of chemicals and pesticides could be occurring at low levels over the long term. While short-term exposure to high doses did not appear to cause these aging issues — though it did cause high toxicity and death in fish — the researchers concluded that it was long-term exposure to low doses that drove the changes. The scientists added that reduced lifespan was particularly problematic because older fish often contribute disproportionately to reproduction, genetic diversity and population stability.

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Anna’s Archive has been hit with a U.S. federal court default judgment and permanent injunction over its scraping and distribution of OCLC’s WorldCat data, which occurred more than two years ago. According to the ruling, the shadow library must delete all copies of its WorldCat data and stop scraping, using, storing, or distributing the data. “It is expected that OCLC will use the injunction to motivate third-party intermediaries to take action against Anna’s Archive,” reports TorrentFreak. From the report: Yesterday, a federal court in Ohio issued a default judgment and permanent injunction against the site’s unidentified operator(s). This order was requested by OCLC, which owns the proprietary WorldCat database that was scraped and published by Anna’s Archive more than two years ago. OCLC initially demanded millions of dollars in damages but eventually dropped this request, focusing on taking the site down through an injunction that would also apply to intermediaries. “Anna’s Archive’s flagrantly illegal actions have damaged and continue to irreparably damage OCLC. As such, issuance of a permanent injunction is necessary to stop any further harm to OCLC,” the request read.

This pivot makes sense since Anna’s Archive did not respond to the lawsuit and would likely ignore all payment demands too. However, with the right type of court order, third-party services such as hosting companies and domain registrars might come along. The permanent injunction, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson yesterday, does not mention any third-party services by name. However, it is directed at all parties that are “in active concert and participation with” Anna’s Archive. Specifically, the site’s operator and these third parties are prohibited from scraping WorldCat data, storing or distributing the data on Anna’s Archive websites, and encouraging others to store, use or share this data. Additionally, the site has to delete all WorldCat data, which also includes all torrents.

Judge Watson denied the default judgment for ‘unjust enrichment’ and ‘tortious interference.’ However, he granted the order based on the ‘trespass to chattels’ and ‘breach of contract’ claims. The latter is particularly noteworthy, as the judge ruled that because Anna’s Archive is a ‘sophisticated party’ that scraped the site daily, it had constructive notice of the terms and entered into a ‘browsewrap’ agreement simply by using the service. While these nuances are important for legal experts, the result for Anna’s Archive is that it lost. And while there are no monetary damages, the permanent injunction can certainly have an impact. Further reading: Spotify Says ‘Anti-Copyright Extremists’ Scraped Its Library

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A recent Microsoft Patch Tuesday update has introduced a bug in Windows 11 23H2 that causes some PCs to refuse to shut down or hibernate, “no matter how many times you try,” reports The Register. From the report: In a notice on its Windows release health dashboard, Microsoft confirmed that some PCs running Windows 11 23H2 might fail to power down properly after installing the latest security updates. Instead of slipping into shutdown or hibernation, affected machines stay stubbornly awake, draining batteries and ignoring shutdown like they have a mind of their own and don’t want to experience temporary non-existence.

The bug appears to be tied to Secure Launch, a security feature that uses virtualization-based protections to ensure only trusted components load during boot. On systems with Secure Launch enabled, attempts to shut down, restart, or hibernate after applying the January patches may fail to complete. From the user’s perspective, everything looks normal — until the PC keeps running anyway, refusing to be denied life.

Microsoft says that entering the command “shutdown /s /t 0” at the command prompt will, in fact, force your PC to turn off, whether it wants to or not. “Until this issue is resolved, please ensure you save all your work, and shut down when you are done working on your device to avoid the device running out of power instead of hibernating,” Microsoft said.

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The Trump administration urged the largest electricity grid in the U.S. to make big tech companies pay for new power plants to support the surging electricity demand from AI and data centers. CNBC reports: Electricity prices have exploded in recent years on PJM Interconnection due in part to the data centers that tech companies are building to train and power artificial intelligence. The PJM grid serves more than 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. Its service area includes northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world.

The Trump administration and several states signed a pact that calls for tech companies to pay for new power plants built in PJM. Leading tech companies have agreed to fund $15 billion of new generation for the grid, according to an administration statement. The Trump administration and the states urged PJM to hold an emergency capacity auction to procure this power, according to the Department of Energy. PJM should also cap the amount that existing power plants can charge in the grid’s capacity market to protect ratepayers, according to the administration. “We have to get out from underneath this bureaucratic system that we have in the regional grid operators and we’ve got to allow markets to work,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at the White House. “One of the ways markets can work is to have the hyperscalers actually rapidly building power.”

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Last week, Nicholas Moore, 24, a resident of Springfield, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to repeatedly hacking into the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic document filing system. At the time, there were no details about the specifics of the hacking crimes Moore was admitting to. On Friday, a newly filled document — first spotted by Court Watch’s Seamus Hughes — revealed more details about Moore’s hacks. Per the filing, Moore hacked not only into the Supreme Court systems, but also the network of AmeriCorps, a government agency that runs stipend volunteer programs, and the systems of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides healthcare and welfare to military veterans.

Moore accessed those systems using stolen credentials of users who were authorized to access them. Once he gained access to those victims’ accounts, Moore accessed and stole their personal data and posted some online to his Instagram account: @ihackthegovernment. In the case of the Supreme Court victim, identified as GS, Moore posted their name and “current and past electronic filing records.” […] According to the court document, Moore faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000.

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Cloudflare has acquired the core team behind the open source JavaScript framework Astro, bringing its creators in-house while pledging to keep Astro fully open source. The New Stack reports: Astro is used by major brands like IKEA, Unilever, Visa and OpenAI to build fast, content-driven websites. Search engines prioritize fast-loading and clean pages, the Cloudflare statement noted. Websites that rely heavily on JavaScript for initial rendering often struggle to deliver the required speed, which hinders search rankings and customer conversions.

Pages on Astro serve up only the code needed to display a page in a browser. That’s in part because of its Island architecture, which it introduced in 2021. Astro’s Islands allow developers to create “islands” of interactive client-side components, while most of the page is generated statically in HTML. Server Islands extend the same architecture to the server.

Astro is also UI-agnostic, meaning that while it has its own independent engine, it allows developers to bring in components from React, Svelte, Vue and other frameworks. This makes Astro a preferred choice for building high-performance, content-driven websites optimized for speed, according to Cloudflare. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen an incredibly diverse range of developers and companies use Astro to build for the web,” said Astro’s former CTO, Fred Schott, in a post with Cloudflare senior product manager Brendan Irvine-Broque. “At Cloudflare, we use Astro, too — for our developer docs, website, landing pages and more.” They said that the acquisition will allow them to “double down” on making Astro the best framework for content-driven websites.

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Rackspace’s new pricing for its email hosting services is “devastating,” according to a partner that has been using Rackspace as its email provider since 1999.

In recent weeks, Rackspace updated its email hosting pricing. Its standard plan is now $10 per mailbox per month. Businesses can also pay for the Rackspace Email Plus add-on for an extra $2/mailbox/month (for “file storage, mobile sync, Office-compatible apps, and messaging”), and the Archiving add-on for an extra $6/mailbox/month (for unlimited storage).

As recently as November 2025, Rackspace charged $3/mailbox/month for its Standard plan, and an extra $1/mailbox/month for the Email Plus add-on, and an additional $3/mailbox/month for the Archival add-on, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

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As OpenAI scrambles to find new ways to monetize ChatGPT, it announced today that it’s introducing a new, cheaper subscription tier for its AI chatbot—but that it’s also adding ads to both that new tier and for free users.

ChatGPT Go was first launched in India in August, and later became available to 170 countries around the world, but today marks the first time it’s been available everywhere, including the United States. It marks a middle ground between the Free and Plus plans, coming in at $8/month vs. the Plus plan’s $20/month, and is arguably the first “affordable” ChatGPT subscription.

Credit: OpenAI

What you get is basically an expanded version of the Free tier, as it does not give you access to any new models or features, but does put a higher limit on messages, uploads, images, and memory. It also gives you unlimited access to ChatGPT’s new 5.2 model, as opposed to the limited usage that comes with the Free tier.

Essentially, it’s aimed at everyday users who just need a little bit more from the AI, but don’t necessarily want more power user-oriented features like advanced reasoning models or Sora video generation.

However, with that price cut over the Plus plan comes a double-edged sword. Announced alongside ChatGPT Go were ads, which OpenAI said it’s planning to start testing in the U.S. for the Free and Go tiers “in the coming weeks.” We’ve seen hints that ads would be coming to ChatGPT for a while, but now we know roughly what they’ll look like.

OpenAI says that ChatGPT ads will be clearly labeled, will show up below answers, and will focus on products that are relevant to whatever conversation you’re having. The company promises that ads won’t influence your answers and that your ChatGPT conversations will be kept private from advertisers, but that your ads will be personalized over time. However, you’ll be able to turn off ad personalization and clear the data used for it at any time.

Oddly enough, for this initial testing phase, OpenAI also says ads will only apply to users who are logged in, meaning that if you’re planning to use the Free tier anyway, you might be able to skirt them for now by just staying logged out. You’ll lose out on features like memory, but it might be worth it depending on your priorities. ChatGPT Go users will have no choice but to see ads, though.

Credit: OpenAI

Alongside the announcement, OpenAI posted a few examples of what ads would look like in the app, but nothing is final yet. Of note, ads will not run on accounts where the user either admits to being under 18, or the company predicts they are. Similarly, sensitive topics like health or politics should remain ad-free.

Both of today’s announcements point to ways AI is trying to become profitable in 2026, which has continually proven to be challenging for the companies operating these chatbots, despite heavy investment. Unsurprisingly, they rely on the same methods pre-AI companies have relied on for decades: Ads and subscriptions. But for now, OpenAI is making at least two promises it’s hoping will help the news go down more easily.

First, the company says it will “always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free.” That’s probably cold comfort to anyone who values their wallet. But second, and perhaps most surprising if true, is that OpenAI still says it’s not going to optimize for “time spent in ChatGPT” over “user trust and experience.” That’ll be a boon for usability, but less time spent in-app will mean serving fewer ads. I’m curious to see how long OpenAI will stick to that commitment, especially as monetary incentives push the company in the other direction.

Longtime Slashdot reader hackingbear shares a report from the Washington Times: Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff [back to 6.1%] on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to about 70,000 over five years. Prior to the 100% tariff, China exported about 41,000 vehicles to Canada in 2023. In exchange, China will reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%, he told reporters. Carney said China has become a more predictable partner to deal with than the U.S, the country’s neighbor and longtime ally.

[hackingbear writes: “After helping the U.S. arrest Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was later released without admitting guilty by the Biden administration after bickering with China, Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor.”] China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said.

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The Samsung Odyssey line is designed for gamers who want a blend of speed and immersion, and its consistently popular monitors are known for high refresh rates, low-input lag, and crisp visuals that perform more smoothly in a fast-paced world than a standard display. The 32″ Samsung Odyssey G50D S27DG50 is a flat, entry-level alternative to some of the line’s pricier curved monitors, and right now, it’s 42% off at $249.99 (down from $429.99).

32-inch Samsung Odyssey G50D S27DG50 Monitor

$249.99
at Amazon

$429.99
Save $180.00

$249.99
at Amazon

$429.99
Save $180.00

The 27-inch, 1440p display has wide viewing angles and is ideal for those who want ample screen space without stepping up to an ultra-wide monitor. It has a 180Hz max refresh rate and consistently low input lag, as well as FreeSync and G-SYNC VRR support to minimize screen tearing. That said, some reviews mention low contrast and a poor dimming system with blacks that can look gray in very dark rooms. While response time is fast, there can be a bit of motion blur that occurs with fast-moving objects, which is to be expected with this price range. 

Though the G5 is marketed primarily as a gaming monitor, it’s also versatile for everyday use thanks to its great color accuracy, effective glare reduction in well-lit rooms, and strong ergonomic adjustments. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly QHD gaming system with a high refresh rate, reliable brightness, and wide viewing angles, the 32″ Samsung Odyssey G50D S27DG50 monitor performs well and offers good value at $249.99. However, if you want a more feature-rich option or a monitor with deeper contrast and stronger HDR, it may be worth stepping up to a higher-end model from the Odyssey line, such as the Odyssey G9—but it will cost you significantly more. 

The user-generated video industry is worth over $4 billion, reflecting how tastes have evolved away from reading articles and watching television punditry and toward scrolling vertical video feeds and watching live streams. As a reader, a writer, and the editor of an article-driven tech site, the rise of user-generated video and streaming can be a tough reality to accept. But as a longtime fan of live streaming, a part of me is thrilled to see the media landscape begin to take it more seriously. For example: On Jan. 16, Bluesky announced the rollout of a feature that more seamlessly connects its users to live streams—a feature that may catch on more broadly.

The latest Bluesky update, v1.114, allows streamers to display their “Live Now” status directly on the social network, a feature previously launched to beta testers back in May 2025. Now widely available, the feature makes it easier to connect to social audiences across platforms: Users can click a Bluesky profile’s “Live Now” status and be directed straight to that profile’s associated Twitch stream. (The feature currently works only with Twitch, but is expected to expand to other live streaming platforms soon.)

“Live Now” arrives just as Bluesky saw an increase in users this week, following a major X outage and scrutiny of the platform’s ongoing deepfake porn problem. Regardless of what it could mean for Bluesky’s overall growth, I’m optimistic about any pro-discovery feature that can be adopted more broadly. I can imagine a future where more sites refer its users to live streaming platforms. Consider a Gmail avatar letting me know when a YouTuber is online, a Spotify artist page pointing me to a musician’s stream, or an article byline pointing me to a live video on Substack. I hope that the bridge between my social feed and live streams continues to get shorter.

How to enable the “Live Now” badge on Bluesky

To turn on the “Live Now” badge on your Bluesky avatar, click the three-dot menu on the top-right of your profile page on desktop or mobile. From the list of options, choose the “Go Live” option and paste a link to your Twitch profile page. The duration of your temporary “Live” badge is customizable, ranging from 5 minutes to 4 hours. Choose your preferred duration, and click “Go Live.”

Credit: Jordan Calhoun / Lifehacker

Credit: Jordan Calhoun / Lifehacker

Archaeologists recently found the wreck of an enormous medieval cargo ship lying on the seafloor off the Danish coast, and it reveals new details of medieval trade and life at sea.

Archaeologists discovered the shipwreck while surveying the seabed in preparation for a construction project for the city of Copenhagen, Denmark. It lay on its side, half-buried in the sand, 12 meters below the choppy surface of the Øresund, the straight that runs between Denmark and Sweden. By comparing the tree rings in the wreck’s wooden planks and timbers with rings from other, precisely dated tree samples, the archaeologists concluded that the ship had been built around 1410 CE.

The Skaelget 2 shipwreck, with a diver for scale.
Credit:
Viking Ship Museum

A medieval megaship

Svaelget 2, as archaeologists dubbed the wreck (its original name is long since lost to history), was a type of merchant ship called a cog: a wide, flat-bottomed, high-sided ship with an open cargo hold and a square sail on a single mast. A bigger, heavier, more advanced version of the Viking knarrs of centuries past, the cog was the high-tech supertanker of its day. It was built to carry bulky commodities from ports in the Netherlands, north around the coast of Denmark, and then south through the Øresund to trading ports on the Baltic Sea—but this one didn’t quite make it.

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Tracking symptoms of your menstrual cycle can be surprisingly effective at identifying when you’re likely to get pregnant. One of the best metrics to track is body temperature, which wearables can pick up on. The Natural Cycles app already works with your Apple Watch or Oura Ring, but now the company is launching its own smart band. 

As I noted in my CES fitness trends roundup, smart bands are having a moment. Whoop used to be the only major screenless tracking band out there, but we now have Amazfit, Polar, and may soon see Luna and Speediance fitness bands. Garmin has a sleep tracking band. And now, this band from Natural Cycles uses the same form factor for the simpler job of tracking temperature. 

What the Natural Cycles band does

Natural Cycles is a subscription-based app ($149.99/year) that uses temperature to estimate where you are in your monthly cycle. The concept is similar to other period-tracking apps, but the temperature data makes it a fertility awareness method, in contrast to the old fashioned “rhythm method” that was so error-prone. 

Temperature tracking isn’t unique to this app; I remember using the same idea many years ago when I was trying to get pregnant. I had to wake up at the same time every day and take my temperature first thing in the morning with a thermometer that had an extra decimal place of accuracy compared to standard drugstore thermometers. From there, I’d chart my temperature on graph paper, and when my temperature ticked up by about half a degree (and stayed there), I could pinpoint the day I had most likely ovulated.

Wearables track temperature data automatically, as you’ve noticed if you wear an Oura ring or another wearable with a temperature sensor. Natural Cycles already has partnerships with both Oura and Apple Watch. Whoop, for its part, can track temperature with its own band and provide ovulation estimates.

Natural Cycles previously offered a Bluetooth-enabled thermometer ($39.99) for people who don’t have an Oura ring or Apple Watch. Now, it’s introducing its own wearable band, in purple, with a sticker price of $129.99.

Most users will get it for less, though. Natural Cycles is including the band free with its  $149.99 annual subscription, and current members can add the band to their existing subscription at a 25% discount, making it $97.49. The company describes these as limited time offers. Anyone adding the band to a monthly membership would pay the full $129.99. 

Natural Cycles is a subscription, like Whoop, so after your first year of using the device ends, you’d still have to pay to renew your subscription. The device seems to be intended only for capturing nighttime temperature, so you wouldn’t need to wear it during the day. The downside is that it doesn’t capture fitness or other data, so it can’t replace a fitness tracker. 

If you want the most affordable device that does it all, consider an Apple Watch Series 8 ($178 refurbished) or newer, or an Apple Watch SE 3 ($239.99)—both of these have a temperature sensor and can work with Natural Cycles, but they are both more expensive than the Natural Cycles subscription itself.