Patriots mailbag: Rookie pass catcher trending for significant role?  Boston Herald

The ‘Coolcation’ is Trending—Here’s Where You Should Go in Europe  National Geographic

’90s Nails Are Trending for Fall. Here Are 9 Styles to Try Now  Vogue

8 Players Trending Up & Down (2026 Fantasy Football)  FantasyPros

These 16 Trending Nail Colors for August Are Late Summer Perfection  byrdie.com

1. Everything announced at Made by Google today, including Pixel 11, Pixel Watch 4, and Pixel Tag  mashable.com
2. The Pixel 11 series: Your most personal Pixel yet  blog.google
3. Google’s new Pixel 11 puts Gemini at center of AI phone battle with Apple  CNBC
4. Google unveils latest Pixel phones with slimmer cameras and more AI features  ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos
5. Google reveals 2026 hardware lineup: Pixel 11, Pixel Watch 5, and Pixel Tag  arstechnica.com

1. Base iPhone 18 Tipped to Get These Two Pro-Level Upgrades  MacRumors
2. iPhone 18 could get two new Pro-level upgrades, per report  9to5Mac
3. Apple Skipping iPhone 18 Launch This Year  MacRumors
4. Apple Already Increased the Price of iPhones Up to $300. Their Price Hikes Might Be Just Starting.  Yahoo Finance
5. iPhone 18 Pro Event Tipped As Apple Shifts Key Release Schedule Date  Forbes

1. Apple TV just added a bunch of classic movies to stream for free  9to5Mac
2. Apple TV Gains Classic Movies Collection  MacRumors
3. You Can Now Watch Classic Movies Like The Martian, E.T. And Zodiac On Apple TV  Engadget
4. The Beloved Sports Comedy Is the Most-Watched Show on Apple TV+ This Week  IMDb
5. Watch classic movies for free with an Apple TV subscription  AppleInsider

1. After Microsoft threatened legal action, a security researcher publishes a new Windows zero-day bug  TechCrunch
2. Microsoft-vendetta hacker has a new zero day that gives system privileges on fully patched Windows  The Register
3. Disgruntled Researcher Discloses New Zero-Day in Windows Antivirus  PCMag
4. Vengeful researcher unfixes Microsoft’s fix: Defender abused to gain System privileges again  Cybernews
5. Researcher bypasses Microsoft Defender security patch, seizing control  csoonline.com

Ultrarare Nintendo Mario game cartridges discovered in Wisconsin  NBC NewsSee more headlines & perspectives on Google News

In a contrast of fire and ice, smoke from wildland fires mingled with several of the Cascade Range’s prominent, glaciated volcanoes in summer 2026. Astronauts on the International Space Station photographed the scene while orbiting over the U.S. West in late July and early August.

Mount Hood, Oregon’s tallest peak at 11,249 feet (3,429 meters), is pictured above, near a thick plume of smoke pouring from the Grasshopper fire. Thunderstorms passed over the forest in the preceding weeks, and a lightning strike on July 23 ignited the blaze pictured in this July 31 photo. The fire, burning east of the mountain, spread quickly north and east across Mount Hood National Forest amid hot, dry conditions, according to InciWeb.

As of August 12, it had burned nearly 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) and spread beyond national forest boundaries. Several communities in Wasco County were under “go now” evacuation orders, and the nearby town of Dufur was advised to prepare for immediate evacuation.

Roughly 100 miles to the north in Washington, Mount Rainier—the state’s tallest peak at 14,411 feet (4,392 meters)—was wreathed in smoke. No major fires burned nearby when this photo was taken on August 4. Instead, smoke drifted in from fires in central and eastern Washington, carried by winds blowing from the east due to a high-pressure system offshore. That day, the National Park Service reported that air quality in the park reached unhealthy levels due to elevated concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5).

Several days later, the Grand Park 2 fire was observed burning within park boundaries, about 3 miles north of the Sunrise Visitor Center. As of August 12, the fire had burned 223 acres (90 hectares) and was uncontained; the cause was yet undetermined.  

Above-normal fire potential was expected to persist across the Northwest through August, according to an outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center. Warm, dry weather—conditions influenced by El Niño—combined with cured fuels to set the stage for large, long-burning fires following lightning- or human-caused ignitions.

Astronaut photographs ISS075-E-1705 and ISS075-E-2221 were acquired on July 31, 2026, and August 4, 2026, respectively, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters. They are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 75 crew. The images have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

References & Resources

• InciWeb (2026, August 12) Grand Park 2 Fire. Accessed August 12, 2026.
• InciWeb (2026, August 11) Grasshopper Fire. Accessed August 12, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center’s Predictive Services (2026, August 1) National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook. Accessed August 12, 2026.
• OPB (2026, August 11) Fire growth near Mount Hood spurs fresh evacuations in Wasco, Clackamas counties. Accessed August 12, 2026.
• Washington Smoke Blog (2026, August 4) Smoke continues to build statewide, gradual improvement expected later this week. Accessed August 12, 2026.

The barren lunar landscape has some important resources, such as water and minerals like iron and titanium, but extracting and processing them will require special equipment. Where those resources can be found will dictate where to land and how to mine them. To help with that, Lunar Station Corp. is using a wealth of NASA data in multiple computer models.

“With 60 years of lunar data available to us, we help our clients understand the environmental factors for any given location on the Moon,” said Blair DeWitt, CEO of Lunar Station. Combining disparate data from different sensors used by NASA and other space agencies is a critical first step. One NASA resource the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company used to build terrain maps is the Ames Stereo Pipeline. The open-source code automatically processes images captured from satellites, robotic rovers, historical images, and more to create a 3D model revealing features such as rock placement and elevation.

But the availability of in-situ lunar water resources at any location is largely unknown, according to Gerry Sanders, in-situ resource utilization system capability lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. To begin to fill that gap, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was designed to crash its uppers stage into the Moon’s South Pole in 2009. The examination of the resulting plume revealed the presence of water ice.

Lunar Station is building on that work and more to help commercial space companies with mission planning, which includes scientific research for mining operations. The MoonHacker program uses proprietary geospatial analytics platform and advanced algorithms to fuse all the lunar data in NASA’s Planetary Data System to help identify indicators for shallow pits of lunar water.

“We can find sites for landing pads, for cultivating the best paths for roving, and inform our clients about communications. If you can’t see Earth at a given location like in the polar regions or the far side of the Moon, you have to come up with a relay strategy,” said DeWitt. “We can do this in part thanks to NASA data.”

In MoonHacker’s Radiation Simulator, an electronic version of a company’s rover or satellite, called a digital twin, can be subjected to the radiation en route or at the mission site to determine the protection required.

These innovations exemplify the purpose of NASA’s Technology Transfer program within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate, which uses space-based solutions to improve life on Earth. For 50 years, NASA has documented the everyday benefits of space technology through the agency’s Spinoff publication. 

A total solar eclipse is seen from San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. A total solar eclipse – the Moon passing between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun – swept across parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal. A partial eclipse was visible in parts of the U.S., most of Canada, much of Europe, and northwest Africa.

Relive the eclipse on NASA’s YouTube channel.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Imagine stepping into a machine that can make you feel like you’re flying a spacecraft, piloting a next generation air taxi, or landing on the Moon, all without leaving the ground. NASA’s Vertical Motion Simulator, the largest of its kind in the world, does exactly that. And now, with new upgrades, it’s more powerful and realistic than before.

The Vertical Motion Simulator, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, has shaped the future of aviation and spaceflight since 1979. It allows pilots and researchers to experience realistic aircraft motion due to its ability to travel 60 feet vertically and 40 feet horizontally, simulating vehicles ranging from helicopters to spacecraft with high accuracy.

New improvements are making the simulator even more powerful. One of the biggest changes is the switch from analog systems to modern digital technology. This upgrade includes a dome surrounding the simulator’s cockpit with advanced 4K projectors that create visuals with nearly 20/20 clarity, giving pilots clearer, sharper images and a larger field of view of the world outside the cockpit.

“The new dome configuration and improved systems can support far more aggressive mission tasks while giving pilots and crews a more realistic environment to work in,” said Diana Acosta, aerospace simulation research and development branch chief at NASA Ames. “It strengthens how teams coordinate, react, and manage challenging scenarios, exactly the kind of preparation we need for the missions coming next.”

The system also can automatically line up and color‑match images to integrate them into a simulated background, a process that used to take hours, or even days, to do by hand.

In the past, changing simulation configurations from lunar lander to air taxi required swapping out the cab, a large, heavy structure that was time‑consuming and complex to move. Instead of replacing an entire cab, teams can use lighter, removable inserts that include only the controls, seats, and panels needed to stand in for a specific vehicle. The inserts drastically reduce physical labor and cut the time needed to configure a simulation in half.

The upgrades to the Vertical Motion Simulator will enable tests of next-generation aircraft and spacecraft before they ever leave the ground, bringing us closer to safer skies, more efficient air travel, and successful human landings on the Moon and Mars.

Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider is joined by COO Rose Wang for a Disrupt Stage session on whether social media can start over and where Bluesky fits into that potential reboot. 

Is Anthropic's new watermarking system a travesty? Some have taken to social media to complain that it is.

Lee McIntire, an independent member of Fermi's board, has been hired as CEO, more than three months since the company fired co-founder Toby Neugebauer from the top post.

The Mission Robotic Vehicle is making the first attempt to attach a new thruster to an aging satellite.

"If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in," Twitch CPO Mike Minton said on a livestream responding to user feedback. "That's honestly the answer."