Tootfinder

Trump’s IRS chief reorganizes tax agency days before filing season
The Internal Revenue Service will reorganize its senior ranks
days before this year’s tax filing season opens
and try to use technology to become more efficient,
the Trump administration’s IRS leader Frank Bisignano told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

Administration officials named Bisignano the IRS’s chief executive,
a role that does not formally exist in the agency’s governing structur…

Trump’s IRS chief reorganizes tax agency days before filing season
The Trump administration’s IRS chief, Frank Bisignano, is reorganizing the tax agency ahead of the upcoming tax filing season.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is running into some serious issues while overhauling his financial services company, #Block.
Earlier this month, the company started laying off its staff as part of what Bloomberg characterized as an “efficiency push,”
potentially affecting up to ten percent of the company’s workforce.
It’s been a painful, drawn-out process that could drag on for weeks, sources to…

Jack Dorsey’s New Company Falling Apart as It Forces Employees to Use AI
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is running into some serious issues while overhauling his financial services company, Block.

Allow me to doubt the federal government's claim that "the planned reductions" at the Canadian Museum of History are really "intended to improve efficiency and provide greater long-term flexibility in fulfilling its mandate."
Response from Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages to Colin Coates, President of the Canadian Historical Association.

CHA Letter to Minister Marc Miller | Canadian Historical Association | Société historique du Canada
In light of recent news about federal cutbacks implicating history-focused organizations, CHA president Colin Coates has sent a letter to the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, the Hon. Marc Miller. The letter can be read here. Update: On March 18, 2026, Colin Coates received the following reply from Minister…

Perovskite solar cells just cleared a major hurdle toward commercialization.
Researchers developed a new two-dimensional interlayer that kept modules running at 95% efficiency after 5,000 hours of brutal light, heat, and UV exposure. The breakthrough uses neutral triazine molecules and co-crystal engineering that slots right into existing manufacturing lines.

Researchers achieve record perovskite solar module stability under light, heat, and UV stress
An international research team has developed a new two-dimensional perovskite interlayer based on a co-crystal engineering strategy for more robust perovskite films. It demonstrated improved performance in small area perovskite solar cells and, in a 48 cm2 module, contributed to retain 95% of initial efficiency after 5,000 h.

SEC filing: Oracle sets aside an additional $500M for restructuring, bringing FY total to $2.1B, as it prepares to cut jobs and hails efficiencies from AI tools (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/ce1c8fd9-5aae-4026-a883-aeba00b6e9e0

"New #words – 26 January 2026" @ Cambridge dictionaries:
"FOBO" 'abbreviation for “fear of becoming obsolete”', "vibe revenue" 'money or funding that an #AI company is given because people are excited about the potential of AI, rather than because the com…

“Crypto Cash Fusion Cell”
https://ofsi.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/28/ofsi-and-partners-clamp-down-on-the-abuse-of-cryptoassets/

OFSI and partners clamp down on the abuse of cryptoassets – Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation
Sanctions enablers are increasingly turning to cryptoassets to move and hide illicit funds, including those linked to sanctions evasion. But every transaction leaves a trace. By working together, UK agencies are following those traces to identify, investigate and disrupt criminal

TIL: DeHavilland Dash 8 aircraft have a much larger range than I thought. Just noticed an Air Canada Jazz flight from Vancouver to Winnipeg (JZA7110). That's about 1900km.
I look because turbo-props like the DH8 (aka Q400) are more fuel efficient and have lower CO2 emissions than jets. They also fly lower, generally around 20 - 25,000ft, so lessen the stratospheric pollution vs. 30-40,000ft.
#ClimateAction #CarbonEmissions #Flying #Bombardier #DeHavilland #Dash8 #flying

A minimal wake-vortex model explains formation flight of flapping birds
Olivia Pomerenk, Kenneth S. Breuer
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.22043 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.22043 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.22043
arXiv:2602.22043v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Collective patterns of motion emerge across biological taxa: insects swarm, fish school, and birds flock. In particular, large migratory birds form strikingly ordered V-shaped formations, which experiments and direct numerical simulations have demonstrated provide substantial energetic benefits during long-distance flight. However, the precise aerodynamic and morphological mechanisms underlying these benefits remain unclear. In this work, we develop a reduced-order model of the wake-vortex interactions between two flapping birds flying in tandem. The model retains essential unsteady flapping dynamics while remaining computationally tractable. By optimizing over a six-dimensional state space, which comprises the follower's three-dimensional relative position and three independent flapping parameters, we identify the energetically optimal leader-follower configuration of northern bald ibises. The predicted optimum agrees quantitatively with live-bird measurements. Because of its simplicity, the model allows for direct interrogation of the physical mechanisms responsible for this optimum. In particular, it isolates precisely how the follower's wing kinematics interact with the leader's wake to enhance aerodynamic efficiency. The model predicts an 11% reduction in total mechanical power for a follower in formation flight -- consistent with experimental estimates -- and shows that this saving arises from reductions in both induced and profile power, dominated by decreased profile power enabled primarily through reduced flapping amplitude and, secondarily, reduced upstroke flexion. These results provide a mechanistic explanation for the structure of V-formations and offer new insight into the aerodynamic principles governing collective flight.
toXiv_bot_toot

of course... it's actually much worse than just policy dredged up from the days of Paul Martin and Stephen Harper… it's a gigantic step backward at the behest of fossil fuel interests in order to keep people burning fossil fuels.
EV mandates should be 'sold’ as an affordability measure! Because they are!
No, I don't mean grants, I mean everyday use. Real impacts on your pocket book. How much money would you save if you *never* went to a gas station. Just think about that for second.
Then we can do the math.
My 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric just passed 251152km (palindrome!) yesterday and gets around 6km/kWh on average.
I pay about $0.13/kWh at home to charge so that's $0.02/km. That is $5,023.04 in total energy expenses so far.
Our 2012 Toyota Prius C is at 270,000km and gets about 5.5L/100km or 0.055L/km. At (a discounted) $1.25/L that’s $0.04/km or $10,800 in total energy expenses so far.
Per kilometre the EV is half the cost to 'fuel' than one of the most fuel efficient gas cars out there.
In general, why would *anyone* choose something that costs double to run!?
And yet, the government doesn't sell this as ‘affordability’ it sells it as 'environmental responsibility'.
Let's be honest, they do that because they *know* the environmental message is *less* motivating than money.
Now I said at the beginning, "imagine" never going to the gas station. Obviously that doesn't mean you're fueling for free... but there is another overlooked aspect to this.
Fueling your car is a day to day thing. It's one of the biggest pulls on people's bank accounts precisely because it is such a frequent cost.
Now imagine if that 'bill' was just rolled into your home electricity bill. Which you could do other things to reduce cost overall?
EVs are not just an environmental game changer, they are a financial one for the average person.
That is why oil companies are throwing absolutely everything they have at government (and also fomenting fascism) to keep their good times going, at our expense.
#CanPoli #CdnPoli #EV #ClimateChange #ClimateAction #Driving #Affordability