Technologies

NASA astronauts harvest green chile on ISS, make space tacos

The space station crew finally got to chow down on a spicy, space-grown treat.

Take fajita beef. Add rehydrated tomatoes and artichokes. Put it all in a tortilla. Top with some Hatch chile you spent months growing. Do all of this while in orbit around Earth on the International Space Station. There you have it, the recipe for space tacos.

Astronauts on the ISS indulged in a special treat after harvesting peppers that have been growing on the ISS since July. The plants are from NuMex «Española Improved» seeds, a hybrid Hatch chile. Hatch refers to a town and region in New Mexico known for its peppers.

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur tweeted on Friday about tasting both red and green chile (the peppers turn red when they stay on the plant longer) and shared photos of the tacos she made, which she described as «my best space tacos yet.»

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The astronauts mixed in some serious science to go along with the snack. «The investigation involved microbial analysis to improve understanding of plant-microbe interactions in space and the crew’s assessment of flavor, texture, and nutrition of the first peppers grown in space,» NASA said in a statement.

Astronauts have grown lettuce and kale and Chinese cabbage in orbit. The space agency described the chile-fest as «one of the most complex plant experiments to date on station because of the long germination and growing times.»

The Plant Habitat-04 study on the ISS is one way NASA is looking ahead at keeping astronaut food interesting, engaging and nutritious for longer-term missions to the moon and Mars. The chile experiment is ongoing. The Crew-3 astronauts preparing to launch to the ISS this week will get to do a second harvest later in the month.

Back on Earth, New Mexicans typically prepare green chile by roasting the peppers over a flame and then peeling off the skin. Red chile is usually dried. The ISS crew didn’t have the luxury of roasting or drying, but fresh food of any kind is a treat for astronauts.

As a New Mexico resident, I was happy to learn the astronauts had an answer to our state question: «Red or green?» In space, it’s both.

Technologies

Wi-Fi Experts Reveal How Trump’s Budget Bill Could Slow Down Your Wi-Fi

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 18, #298

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 18, No. 298.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

The purple group for today’s Connections: Sports Edition might be a tough one. If you like baseball, have been paying attention to big games and know some famous sports names, then you’ll do just fine with the rest of the puzzle. Read on for more hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Check the score.

Green group hint: Defeated.

Blue group hint: A memorable name.

Purple group hint: Not DC, but the other one.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: MLB teams, on scoreboards.

Green group: Teams to lose their respective championships in 2025.

Blue group: Famous Jackies.

Purple group: Teams and players who shares nicknames with Marvel characters.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is MLB teams, on scoreboards. The four answers are LAD, MIL, PIT and TEX.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams to lose their respective championships in 2025. The four answers are Edmonton, Indiana, Kansas City and Notre Dame.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is famous Jackies. The four answers are Bradley, Joyner-Kersee, Robinson and Young.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams and players who shares nicknames with Marvel characters. The four answers are Iowa, Michigan, Pulisic and Ripken.

Technologies

How to Get Free Marvel Rivals Skins With the College Perks Program

The noble pursuit of a higher education can net you some free Marvel Rivals rewards. Here’s how.

You might be subsisting off ramen noodles and Red Bull, but that doesn’t mean you need to look broke while you’re playing your games. NetEase has introduced Marvel Rivalsperks for college and university students that let them wear some of the coolest in-game costumes for free.

All you need is a valid student email and the know-how to navigate the in-game menus. Linking your NetEase account with your college’s domain is a simple process that doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes. Most US schools should be on NetEase’s list, qualifying their students for the program, but keep reading to see how others can petition for their own skins.

The currently available college perk lets you get free loaner costumes and MVP animations, but there are no details about how the program will evolve in the future. This is a good way to earn some free loot outside of events, Twitch drops and other promotions.

Here’s all the information about how to join NetEase’s college perks program — and what skins you’ll be able to wear throughout Marvel Rivals Season 3.

What Marvel Rivals college perks are available right now?

The current Marvel Rivals college perk allows you to link your student email with your NetEase account to temporarily unlock 10 free costumes (and their associated MVP highlights) for use throughout Season 3.

Activating college perks right now will let you use the following skins until the end of the season:

Moon Knight Lunar General
Captain America Avengers: Infinity War
Spider-Man No Way Home
Invisible Woman Malice
Scarlet Witch Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The Thing Trench Coat
Jeff the Land Shark Incognito Dolphin
Thor Lord of Asgard
Cloak and Dagger Midnight Duo
Winter Soldier Blood Soldier

It’s unclear whether additional college perks will be available in the future, though it’s likely you’ll at least be able to unlock a rotating wardrobe of trial skins through the program during future Marvel Rivals seasonal updates.

How to unlock Marvel Rivals college perks

Accessing the college perks is fairly straightforward and doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes of your time, but it’s tucked away in a menu you probably don’t access all that often. Here’s a step-by-step guide to unlock college perks on your Marvel Rivals account:

Open Marvel Rivals and navigate to the main menu
Click the gear icon at the top right of the screen to open the game’s settings. The gear icon is located near your profile picture and player level.
Click the «community» button in the drop down menu.
Navigate to the third tab for college perks, then click the «details» button.
Enter your student email address and get a verification code.
Find the verification code in your college email and copy and paste it into the in-game text box beneath your student email.
Click the «verify» button.

That’s all there is to it — once you’re done with this process, you should have access to the Marvel Rivals college perks, and all 10 of the loaner costumes and MVP animations should be available for you to equip.

Detailed guide: Getting free Marvel Rivals skins and MVP animations through college perks

In order to activate Marvel Rivals college perks for your NetEase account, you’ll have to verify that you’re in possession of an active student email address for a supported academic institution.

To begin this process, you need to navigate the same in-game menus that allow you to link your Discord account and become a NetEase Gamer Premium member — you’ve likely poked around here in the past to claim a handful of free units, Marvel Rivals’ premium costume-buying currency.

When you’re in the main menu, click the gear icon at the top right of the screen. It’s one of the buttons next to your account picture and profile level. Then, click the Community button that appears on screen. Navigate to the College Perks tab and click the details button to start verifying your student email.

All you need to do is enter your student email address, request a verification code to be sent to your email and then input that verification code in-game. Voila — just like that, you’ll have access to college perks on your Marvel Rivals account.

If your email doesn’t work, it might be because it isn’t on the list of domains currently supported by the college perks program. You can see which school emails work here (PDF). If you go to school in the US, you shouldn’t have a problem signing up for the program — it’s on the list of countries that have generally accepted academic email domains.

Even still, if you’re having trouble registering and it looks like your college or university is missing from the list, you’re not completely out of luck. NetEase is having the Marvel Rivals support team field requests from students to add more domains to the program.

To send in a support request to get Marvel Rivals college perks for your school, click the customer support link under the in-game settings. If you provide your country, university name and student email domain, NetEase will work to ensure that your school is added to the program. The list of supported colleges and universities is updated weekly, so don’t fret if your verification doesn’t work right away.

If you’re interested in what other free skins you can (permanently) unlock in Marvel Rivals, we have a comprehensive free skin guide too.