Tootfinder

Trump claims he wants to lower housing costs,
but his allies in the House just axed a bipartisan bill that UNANIMOUSLY passed the Senate to do just that.
If Republicans keep blocking legislation to cut housing costs,
Democrats will pass it ourselves when we take back Congress.
https://bsky.…

Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov)
Trump claims he wants to lower housing costs, but his allies in the House just axed a bipartisan bill that UNANIMOUSLY passed the Senate to do just that. If Republicans keep blocking legislation to cut housing costs, Democrats will pass it ourselves when we take back Congress.

'Only so long' before Trump's tariff costs hit consumers, businesses warn (Daniel Desrochers/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/08/trumps-tariff-costs-consumers-00679261
http://www.memeorandum.com/251208/p5#a251208p5

Raiders must pursue potential OL coach at all costs https://raiderswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/raiders/2026/02/05/raiders-must-pursue-potential-ol-coach-at-all-costs/88524639007/

Did you know that there’s a streaming movie and TV show app that costs nothing and has no ads, just need to log in with your library card (if you don’t have one you can probably get one instantly online from your local library).
Available in tons of countries as well.
https://www.kanopy.com/

Anthropic rolls out a fast mode for Claude Opus 4.6 in research preview, saying it offers the same model quality 2.5 times faster but costs six times more (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)
https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/7/claude-fast-mode/

Invariant Price of Anarchy: a Metric for Welfarist Traffic Control
Ilia Shilov, Mingjia He, Heinrich H. Nax, Emilio Frazzoli, Gioele Zardini, Saverio Bolognani
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05843 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.05843 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.05843
arXiv:2512.05843v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The Price of Anarchy (PoA) is a standard metric for quantifying inefficiency in socio-technical systems, widely used to guide policies like traffic tolling. Conventional PoA analysis relies on exact numerical costs. However, in many settings, costs represent agents' preferences and may be defined only up to possibly arbitrary scaling and shifting, representing informational and modeling ambiguities. We observe that while such transformations preserve equilibrium and optimal outcomes, they change the PoA value. To resolve this issue, we rely on results from Social Choice Theory and define the Invariant PoA. By connecting admissible transformations to degrees of comparability of agents' costs, we derive the specific social welfare functions which ensure that efficiency evaluations do not depend on arbitrary rescalings or translations of individual costs. Case studies on a toy example and the Zurich network demonstrate that identical tolling strategies can lead to substantially different efficiency estimates depending on the assumed comparability. Our framework thus demonstrates that explicit axiomatic foundations are necessary in order to define efficiency metrics and to appropriately guide policy in large-scale infrastructure design robustly and effectively.
toXiv_bot_toot

The automotive industry’s big bet on a rapid adoption of electric vehicles — in the United States —continues to unwind.
Today, Stellantis, which owns brands like Jeep and Dodge, as well as Fiat, Peugeot, and others,
announced that it has “reset” its business to adapt to lower EV sales, which comes with a rather painful $26.2 billion (€22.2 billion) write-down.
It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was more bullish on electrification.
Even the US had relatively ambitiou…

Stellantis swallows $26 billion costs as it rethinks its EV strategy
The automaker follows Ford and GM in writing down huge sums after betting wrong.

WBD CEO David Zaslav, criticized for cutting costs, scrapping movies, and laying off thousands, may end up having the last laugh thanks to the Netflix-WBD deal (Joe Flint/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/david-zaslav-netflix-warner-deal-8b2…

"‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate?"
#Climate #ClimateChange #AI

Ravens' Loop: Knew kick was no-good on contact https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47510931/tyler-loop-missed-field-goal-vs-steelers-costs-ravens-afc-north-title-ends-baltimore-season

“The key reason, the ECIU says, lies in how British households use smart meters and flexible electricity tariffs. While petrol prices are broadly similar in both countries, UK electric car drivers can charge their cars overnight using cheap, surplus electricity at rates as low as 7p per kWh.”
https://www.

It’s cheaper to run an EV in the UK than it is in Germany
British electric car drivers are saving £540 more on running costs than their German counterparts

Guardian repeats story that Venezuela's oil production low due to corruption and lack of investment.
Actually, the Maracaibo basin is beyond peak extraction so costs rising. And Orinoco oil is heavy, tarry, and hard to get (deep under the rainforest).
Of course the blockade is also part of the reason, and maybe flight of technical staff.
Oil prices fall after Trump says Venezuela will send up to 50m barrels to US | Oil | The Guardian

Light pollution could worsen allergy seasons, new study suggests https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/light-pollution-could-worsen-allergy-seasons-new-study-suggests/

Light pollution could worsen allergy seasons, new study suggests
Light pollution may do more than disrupt wildlife: new research finds it can extend pollen seasons, increasing allergy risks and public health costs.

Yes, I will be there -The Muni Now, Muni Forever folks have an excellent proposal that improves on the Mayor's proposal, lowering costs for all but the very wealthiest and the largest, most expensive office buildings compared to what the Mayor wants to do. AND it raises more money. Why won't #MayorLurie adopt it?

Yes, I will be there -The Muni Now, Muni Forever folks have an excellent proposal that improves on the Mayor's proposal, lowering costs for all but the very wealthiest and the largest, most expensive office buildings compared to what the Mayor wants to do. AND it raises more money. Why won't #MayorLurie adopt it?

As Bitcoin prices continue to plummet and electricity costs climb,
it’s become tough out there for a crypto miner.
The hash price index, which is used to determine how much revenue miners can make by mining crypto,
reached its lowest point on record this week, according to mining services company Luxor Technology.
According to Coindesk, the average cost to mine one Bitcoin is currently around $87,000
— far higher than its current going rate,
making it an e…

Miners are being squeezed as bitcoin’s $70,000 price fails to cover $87,000 production costs
Bitcoin is now approximately 20% below its estimated average production cost, historically a feature of a bear market.

well in the UK duty on wine varies according to the alcohol percentage, so £2.44 if it is 11%, up to £3.32 if it 15%.
So given other costs the amount actually paid to the vineyard for cheap plonk can be derisory.
I do have to differ slightly about your seeming rejection of the possibility of good white wines, though agree with Tom that finding a good Chardonnay takes care, especially on my budget.
Disclaimer: I have no no wine diploma, but my dad was the Wine and Spirit Manag…

WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition offer, saying the bid still has "significant" risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer (Lucas Manfredi/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/deal

Warner Bros. Discovery Rejects Paramount's Amended $30 Per Share Bid Over 'Insufficient Value' and 'Lack of Certainty'
The board says the revised $108.4 billion bid continues to offer "significant costs, risks and uncertainties" compared to its $83 billion deal with Netflix.

You Want Microservices, But Do You Really Need Them?
https://www.docker.com/blog/do-you-really-need-microservices/

"Scientists Make Clean Hydrogen from Dirty Water Using Simple Acid Treatment"
#Hydrogen #Energy
https://hap…

Scientists Make Clean Hydrogen from Dirty Water Using Simple Acid Treatment | Happy Eco News
Scientists produce clean hydrogen from dirty water by acidifying treated wastewater, cutting treatment costs by 47%. The Princeton University breakthrough makes green hydrogen more affordable and sustainable.

An MPA report forecasts total screen revenue across Asia Pacific rising from $171B in 2025 to $196B by 2030; premium VOD is expected to rise by $12.5B to $52B (Patrick Brzeski/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Study: Asia-Pacific Video Revenue to Reach $196 Billion by 2030, Driven by Streaming and Social
The report says AI is reshaping workflows across Asia’s content ecosystem, lowering costs and speeding delivery — advantages that increasingly accrue to the largest streaming and video platforms.

The Swedish energy regulator has approved standardised definitions for flexibility products. This makes it easier for suppliers and aggregators to optimise customer devices for local grid needs. The more flexibility offered through these market mechanisms, the lower the costs for all energy system users.

Ei godkänner marknadsprodukter för flexibilitetstjänster
Energimarknadsinspektionen (Ei) godkände i december 2025 ansökningar om specifikationer för flexibilitets­tjänster och standardiserade marknads­produkter. Besluten innebär att de elnätsföretag som ansökt har möjlighet att använda gemensamma och harmoniserade produkter vid marknadsmässiga köp av flexibilitet – något som skapar tydlighet och bidrar till transparenta villkor för branschens aktörer.

This is a good introduction to the problem of reducing energy return on investment. How it works and what implications it has.
What Are the Broader Economic Implications of Low EROI? − Question https://energy.sustainability-director

What Are the Broader Economic Implications of Low EROI? → Question
Declining energy surplus mandates higher capital reinvestment, increasing systemic costs, resource competition, and reducing funds for social programs and societal complexity. → Question

Samsung says it expects memory chip supply shortages to raise prices across the electronics industry, including potentially among its own consumer products (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-07/samsung…

2. “The US has too much power, nobody can possibly stand up to them” − I don’t know, dude, maybe ask to copy Canada’s notes? I am not asking for magic here; I’m just asking people to try.
3. “But standing up to a fascist US is too expensive for us” − Believe me, whatever it costs us all now (inside •and• outside the US), it will cost even more later.

The most useless piece of information I can give you today is that a Tom Ford jockstrap as worn by @hudsonwilliamsofficial in Wonderland costs $70. The average cotton stretch jockstrap NOT designed by Tom Ford is about $18 at online retailers depending on material and composition

WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition bid, saying that it still has "significant" risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer (Lucas Manfredi/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/deal

Warner Bros. Discovery Rejects Paramount's Amended $30 Per Share Bid Over 'Insufficient Value' and 'Lack of Certainty'
The board says the revised $108.4 billion bid continues to offer "significant costs, risks and uncertainties" compared to its $83 billion deal with Netflix.

Have made these kinds of commands with Puppet Resource layer - but just “require ‘puppet’” can take a second let alone all the other startup costs.
Seeing the same pattern but very fast is a whole different experience. Long way to go but feeling pretty good.
(First slow run is of course yum update)
https://

Shyster Dale Vince is still peddling misinformation about heat pumps.
Factcheck: What it really costs to heat a home in the UK with a heat pump - Carbon Brief https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-it-really-costs-to-heat-a-home-in-th…

Factcheck: What it really costs to heat a home in the UK with a heat pump - Carbon Brief
This factcheck explains how heat pumps can cut bills, what the latest data shows about potential savings

Es ist nun wieder Anfang des Monats und das heißt neue Rechnungen für die Server! Wir haben diverse Ausgaben und Moderationsarbeit nimmt leider viel Zeit, weswegen wir uns über eine kleine Unterstützung sehr freuen würden! :boost_requested:
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MastodonDE's profile - Liberapay
You can find a complete and detailed explanation of our maintenance costs here: English German

The fossil fuel era is ending faster than you think.
Startups like 247Solar are combining concentrating solar power with heat-storing batteries that deliver 24/7 electricity—even when the sun isn't shining. Their systems can slash carbon emissions by 95% and cut energy costs by 25% or more.
The best part? Businesses can upgrade with zero upfront costs through Energy-as-a-Service.

Energy Storage Exists, & It's Coming For Your Fossil Fuels - CleanTechnica
With an assist from energy storage, concentrating solar power gets a reboot for commercial and industrial applications.

🌽 The environmental costs of corn: should the US change how it grows its dominant crop?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/03/environment-corn-farming-trump-administration

The environmental costs of corn: should the US change how it grows its dominant crop?
Amid concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration has abolished climate-friendly farming incentives

How much does it cost to run an electric car in Germany compared to a petrol or diesel car?
With home charging, it is moderately cheaper to run than a diesel car. With regular public charging, charging costs are similar to fuel costs. However, charging costs are higher with public fast charging.
#EV

Putin's friends in the EU.
https://kyivindependent.com/hungary-takes-eu-to-court-over-russian-energy-ban/

Hungary takes EU to court over Russian energy ban
"Without Russian oil and gas, our energy security cannot be guaranteed, nor can low energy costs be maintained for Hungarian families," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

Eating This Plant-Based Christmas Dinner Could Cut Your Costs By Up To 50% #plantbased

Eating This Plant-Based Christmas Dinner Could Cut Your Costs By Up To 50%
A dietician says he can cut the cost of people’s main holiday meal by 50 percent if they try his plant-based menu for Christmas dinner

State warned costs will soar as Trump admin forces it to keep failing coal plant open - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-coal-2674843937/

Big Tech, business groups and the governor successfully gutted State Sen. Steve Padilla's attempt to protect consumers from the costs, emissions & unintended consequences of the AI data center frenzy. Big money wins again! https://

Big Tech blocked California data center legislation, leaving only a study requirement
Tools that power artificial intelligence devour energy. But attempts to shield regular Californians from footing the bill in 2025 ended with a law requiring regulators to write a report about the issue by 2027.

🙋‍♂️ What the fuck is wrong with you?
❓ Have you ever seen a bandwagon you didn’t want to jump on?
💩 Can you please be less shit? https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/115643458015221823

This is the best critique of SF's Family Zoning Plan I've seen, from Fernando Martí, who knows his stuff.
“Zoning is not the primary constraint to construction today — not in SF where it costs $800,000 or more to build a unit of housing. Nor is environmental review or planning approvals. If these were the constraints to production, then we wouldn’t have tens of thousands of already approved market-rate units unable to get construction financing”

In the comparison of foundation models costs are important, especially for companies that want a good businesscase for their AI usage. Kimi K2 Thinking looks like a winner if you look at the price vs performance ratio.
https://artificialanalysis.ai/

“Meat assaults” on buggies: Russia is trying at all costs to show something on the battlefield: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/01/meat-assaults-on-buggies-russia.html

‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/03/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big…

Sources: Dell alerts customers to 15-20% price hikes as soon as mid-December amid surging DRAM costs; Lenovo says current quotes will expire in January 2026 (TrendForce)
https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/12/05

[Exclusive] Memory Crunch Hits PCs: Dell Hikes Prices 15-20% Mid-December, Lenovo from January 2026
Soaring AI-server memory demand is driving DRAM prices sharply higher—and now PC and notebook makers are feeling the squeeze. Industry sources reveale...

"Send It Away, or Put It On Display? How librarians and research computing staff can collaborate across language barriers"
#RDM

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice strike again! https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-employees-open-letter-artificial-intelligence-layoffs/?emci=8691…

Amazon Workers Issue Warning About Company’s ‘All-Costs-Justified’ Approach to AI Development
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice says that over 1,000 workers have signed a petition raising “serious concerns” about the company’s “aggressive rollout” of artificial intelligence tools.

I found this an interesting view on the AI scraping and Hoovering everything disease.
This view focuses on the overhead and costs that such hoovering places on our packet carrying infrastructure.
"The hiQ Decision Legalized Infrastructure Theft - We Need a Federal Fix"
https://

The hiQ Decision Legalized Infrastructure Theft - We Need a Federal Fix
The hiQ ruling erased legal protections against commercial scraping, leaving infrastructure providers to absorb escalating costs. Without federal action defining data misappropriation, a free-rider AI economy could undermine open networks, investment, and long-term data integrity.

Realized I could take a faster train that leaves 30 mins later and costs $38 instead of $61, and arrives only 20mins later. Changed it at the station at the very last minute; no line, no hassle. I love #trains, can you imagine trying to do that with a plane flight?
#amtrak

New Token-Oriented Object Notation (#TOON) Hopes to Cut #LLM #Costs by Reducing Token Consumption

"Met Office: A review of the UK’s climate in 2025"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate #ClimateChange…

Factcheck: What it really costs to heat a home in the UK with a heat pump - Carbon Brief
This factcheck explains how heat pumps can cut bills, what the latest data shows about potential savings

The National Archives Updates Service Fees https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/the-national-archives-updates-service-fees/

The National Archives Updates Service Fees - The National Archives
From 2 February 2026, The National Archives will increase fees for some services as we bring charges in line with current delivery costs. This is the first increase since 2019. The changes affect fees for document copies, research and search services, and authentication, and also introduce a new fee for accessing recently transferred historic Ministry […]

Nvidia launches the Vera Rubin platform, saying it will offer dramatic reductions in inference and training costs compared to Blackwell, across six new chips (Stevie Bonifield/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/855412/nvidia-launches-ve…

Nvidia launches Vera Rubin AI computing platform at CES 2026
Nvidia launched its new Vera Rubin computing architecture today at CES 2026, claiming it delivers more computing power at a lower cost than Blackwell.

The $59 million price tag for
"Operation Midway Blitz"
A Tribune analysis of the Trump administration's Chicago-area immigration crackdown
provides one of the first examinations of Operation Midway Blitz’s financial impact on the federal government.
The back-of-the-envelope estimate is a conservative analysis of the full costs.
Federal officials are not eager to address the fiscal cost of
"Operation Midway Blitz"
-- the months…

Went to the dentist after admittedly too many years.
Currently depressed about costs of treatment I’ll require. Even with very good dental insurance it’s thousands of dollars.
How do people afford to live in this country, seriously. The thought of savings has been an impossible dream for my husband and I - whenever we save a bit, something like this pops up and poof there it all goes.
No insightful commentary here, I’m just depressed and venting.

I strongly endorse the first part of what @tarheel said here: make plastic more expensive. Bake its human and environmental costs into the price of the products that use it.
I’m not optimistic about that happening under anything like current political conditions, but still important to note what a good idea that would be if we did it.
https://mstdn.io/@tarheel/115651260261673168

RE: https://mastodon.social/@burger_jaap/116020184681893969
Local tenders for public EV charging are key to reducing charging costs for EV drivers who rely on these on-street charging options. In the Netherlands, these networks typically cost 0.29 € pe…

Anthropic details how it used 16 parallel Claude Opus 4.6 agents to build a Rust-based 100,000-line C compiler, incurring ~$20K in API costs over 2,000 sessions (Anthropic)
https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-c-compiler

Building a C compiler with a team of parallel Claudes
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

"How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down"
#Spain #SolarPower #Energy

How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down | The Optimist Daily
Spain’s community energy movement is transforming rooftops into renewable hubs, lowering bills, and helping families escape fuel poverty.

Here we have 2 ways #HisOrangeHighness is hurting people. First, the increased cost of energy to residents in the #MISO area Second, the degraded air quality, leading to health problems (and all the costs related to that)
And yet he talks about lowering the cost of energy & supports MA…

Here we have 2 ways #HisOrangeHighness is hurting people. First, the increased cost of energy to residents in the #MISO area Second, the degraded air quality, leading to health problems (and all the costs related to that)
And yet he talks about lowering the cost of energy & supports MA…

💺 Electric cars won't fix sitting: The health costs of designing cities around cars
#health

Electric cars won't fix sitting: The health costs of designing cities around cars
Commuters feel this in their bones—time spent in traffic is bad for your health.

Even though they are essential workers,
#paid #care #jobs are
not “good jobs” – that is:
they generally pay low wages and don’t have benefits such as access to healthcare, paid sick days, paid leave, union protections or reti…

‘Healthcare catastrophe’: GOP lets ACA subsidies expire as millions face soaring costs - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/gop-healthcare-2674841239/

Amazon MGM Studio plans to develop new AI tools via its "AI Studio" to speed TV and film production and cut costs, in collaboration with AWS and LLM providers (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/amazon-…

Es ist nun wieder Ende des Monats und das heißt neue Rechnungen für die Server! Wir haben diverse Ausgaben und Moderationsarbeit nimmt leider viel Zeit, weswegen wir uns über eine kleine Unterstützung sehr freuen würden! :boost_requested:
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One might ask: Why is the US sending ICE agents to Italy and the Winter Olympics?
It seems an odd concept for the US to forcefully deport people from Italy.
It seems an even more odd concept to understand why the Italian government, a government of a sovereign nation, would allow another country to openly kidnap people in Italy.
And we US taxpayers are footing the costs for this cruelty.
"Milan protesters call for U.S. ICE agents to leave Italy as Winter Games ap…

Managed charging of EVs (called 'smart charging' in Europe) could save California $5 - 18 billion on distribution grid upgrades by 2040. Increased electrification (transport, buildings) offsets increased infrastructure costs by -0.2-4.5¢/kWh for all.
https://www.

There are many, many kinds of faux insurance products out there.
There’s short-term plans.
But more importantly, there’s also a thing called
❌ "healthcare sharing ministries",
which many people are critical of because they pose as insurance products,
when they’re really not there.
They promise a network of doctors and that you can access that network,
but often they don’t cover drugs.
Those doctors may or may not really participa…

Over 20M Americans Set to Lose Healthcare Coverage Jan. 1 After Congress Goes on Recess
Tens of millions of Americans are set to see their health insurance costs soar when subsidies under the Affordable Care Act expire at the end of this year. Health insurance premiums are expected to more than double or even triple for some 20 million people, pricing many out of healthcare coverage entirely. “We’ve done nothing as a country to control healthcare costs,” says Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and member of N…

Oklahoma is crashing the green hydrogen party with some serious innovation.
Startup Tobe Energy just landed $1.8M for their membrane-free electrolysis system that could slash production costs by up to 75%. Their secret? LED technology that simplifies the process and cuts waste heat.
With strong renewables and business-friendly policies, Oklahoma is positioning itself as a major player in the energy transition.

Green Hydrogen Startup Has A Message For Texas: Hold My Beer
The Oklahoma startup Tobe Energy aims to cut the cost of green hydrogen with a membrane-free, stainless steel, drop-in system.

Heating Costs Expected to Rise 9.2% This Winter (Ivan Penn/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/business/energy-environment/winter-heating-costs-increase.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9U8.tp5D.XSaPh0PKHLzT&smid=url-share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251217/p7#a251217p7

A look at the informal economy of rogue streaming box resellers, who sell hardware that offers free access to sports games, cable TV, and streaming services (Janko Roettgers/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/streaming/873416/piracy-streaming-boxes

Everyone is stealing TV
Rogue streaming boxes like SuperBox and vSeeBox are flooding the United States. They are being embraced by consumers fed up with ever-increasing subscription costs.

Amazon MGM Studio plans to develop new AI tools via its "AI Studio" to speed TV and film production and cut costs, in collaboration with AWS and LLM providers (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/amazon-…

Japan faces bottlenecks in data center construction due to labor shortages and more; DC Byte says Japan's capacity has tripled to 6.8 GW in the past five years (Tsubasa Suruga/Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/techn

Bottlenecks in data center construction threaten Japan's AI ambitions
Labor shortages, rising costs and outdated building processes delay construction

Senate panel to question car safety improvements that are ‘making vehicles too costly’ | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/senate-committee-vehicle-safety-costs-b2872613.html

#Agrivoltaics is the practice of purposefully shading agricultural crop lands with solar panels
in order to enjoy the dual benefits of solar electricity and increased food production.
A new study I
co-authored with my colleague, Uzair Jamil, found that
👍 partial shading to benefit crop production even works when the solar panels do not.
This has interesting policy ramific…

How shading crops with solar panels can improve farming, lower food costs and reduce emissions
Canada can meet its carbon emission reduction targets, make food cheap again and open up a gigantic trade surplus with the U.S. by shading farm crops with solar panels.

A look at the informal economy of rogue streaming box resellers, who sell hardware that offers free access to sports games, cable TV, and streaming services (Janko Roettgers/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/streaming/873416/piracy-streaming-boxes

Everyone is stealing TV
Rogue streaming boxes like SuperBox and vSeeBox are flooding the United States. They are being embraced by consumers fed up with ever-increasing subscription costs.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution plans to cut around 50 positions, or ~15% of its workforce, with about half of them in the newsroom, as it seeks to cut costs (J. Scott Trubey/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/02/the-a

AJC is eliminating news and operations jobs, shifting resources to growth
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tuesday it will lay off staffers in the newsroom and other segments of the business.

Global smartphone shipments in 2026 are set to shrink 2.1% due to rising memory costs, led by Chinese OEMs; DRAM price surges are set to raise costs by 10%-15% (Counterpoint Research)
https://counterpointresearch.com/en/in

Bernie Sanders: Medicare-for-all would not resemble Britain’s NHS
Medicare-for-all is not a government-run, British-style National Health Service system.
It is a government-funded universal insurance program.
Medicare-for-all would simply expand Medicare
— a program that has worked extremely well for more than six decades
— to cover every American, eliminate premiums and out-of-pocket costs,
give people the freedom to choose their doctors,
and ens…

Bernie Sanders: Medicare-for-all would not resemble Britain’s NHS
Readers respond to Post articles and commentary.

A profile of Obsidian, a game studio Microsoft acquired in 2018, as it seeks to expedite game development and reduce costs after releasing three titles in 2025 (Jason Schreier/Bloomberg)

MAN Trucks and EDF in France have launched an electric truck package that guarantees price parity with the diesel equivalent. Smart charging plays a key role in reducing energy costs by 30–50%.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jaapburger_

Is a battery-electric truck achieving cost parity with a diesel truck possible? Yes, that's the guarantee offered by MAN Truck & Bus France in a new package together with EDF. Smart charging plays a… | Jaap Burger
Is a battery-electric truck achieving cost parity with a diesel truck possible? Yes, that's the guarantee offered by MAN Truck & Bus France in a new package together with EDF. Smart charging plays a key role in this. Under the Energy Savings Certificates (CEE) scheme, EDF pays a bonus of up to 25% of the vehicle's price. Changes to the taxation system allow the price difference to a diesel truck to be depreciated more quickly. These changes, along with several other mechanisms, bring costs dow…

Sources: in talks with WBD, Netflix said a combination of its streaming service with HBO Max would benefit consumers by lowering the cost of a bundled offering (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-tel

"How climate-friendly is your local supermarket? New study ranks Europe’s biggest chains"
#Supermarkets #Food

Europe’s most climate-friendly supermarket revealed - see full list
Experts have urged European supermarkets to transition towards plant-rich foods to cut emissions and lower costs.

Amazon launches its Trainium3 AI chip, claiming it is 4x faster than the previous gen and can reduce AI training and operating costs by ~50% vs. equivalent GPUs (Robbie Whelan/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/amazons-custom-chips-pose-a…

Disney reports Q1 operating profit down 9% YoY to $4.6B, weighed down by high movie production costs and a 15-day YouTube TV carriage dispute that cost $110M (Brooks Barnes/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/business/disney-profit-wilts-movies-t…

Disney’s Profit Wilts, Pulled Down by Movies and TV
Per-share quarterly profit declined 7 percent from a year earlier despite revenue growth from the company’s streaming and cruise businesses.

When you're a kid, you want to talk about things without your parents, teachers, principals, or (some of) your peers or siblings listening in.
You want to plan things without these people listening in, because they might try and stop you from doing them, or punish you if you succeed.
So, it's worth figuring out how to use new technologies, because the existing ones are riddled with censorship and surveillance back-doors ("parental controls") that can be deployed …

Republican messaging, after intentionally jacking up people’s health insurance costs to insane levels,
has shifted towards “uhhhh we hate insurance companies now, why are they so mean to you.”
Voters across the board are smart enough to see through that

Brookfield is launching a cloud company called Radiant and a new $10B AI fund, and plans to acquire up to $100B in land, data centers, and power assets for AI (Miles Kruppa/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/brookfield-start-cloud-b…

Brookfield to Start Cloud Business to Lower Cost of AI
Private-equity firm Brookfield is starting its own cloud business, going up against tech giants like Amazon by arguing it can bring down the costs of developing AI. The firm, which has long invested in infrastructure and energy, is becoming the first major investment firm to try to lease chips ...

How food delivery is reshaping US mealtimes, as some users spend thousands; NRA data shows nearly 75% of 2024 restaurant orders were not eaten in a restaurant (Priya Krishna/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/d…

How DoorDash and Other Food Delivery Apps Are Reshaping Mealtime in the U.S.
Almost three of every four restaurant orders in the U.S. weren’t eaten in a restaurant, according to recent data. We spoke to readers who are devoted to delivery but question the costs.

A new investment thesis has spread through global markets at the start of 2026, as trading strategies long built on the primacy of the United States now opt for a new approach:
Sell America.
The sentiment started to take hold in financial circles after the shock of sky-high tariffs sent stocks and bonds into a tailspin last April,
but it has taken off recently as the Trump administration has pursued policies like attacks on the Federal Reserve’s independence and threats of …

Sell America Is the New Trade on Wall Street
Investors are increasingly souring on the United States, as illustrated by the declining dollar, the stalled stock market and rising government borrowing costs.

Sources: Databricks is raising $5B and expects sales to grow 55% this year, putting its post-money valuation at $134B, as AI costs squeeze gross profit margins (Cory Weinberg/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/datab…

Databricks Boosts Sales Forecast, Driving Valuation to $134 Billion
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi has been more vocal than other Silicon Valley executives about the dangers of an AI bubble. His company’s new $5 billion round of fundraising, at a higher valuation than ever, epitomizes the risks and rewards of the boom: While sales are growing faster than forecast, AI ...

Analysts and manufacturers expect smartphone, PC, and consumer electronics prices to rise by as much as 20% in 2026, as AI demand drives up memory chip costs (Song Jung-a/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/1f471189-2277-4d5d-822b-78eba6060755

Trump administration orders to keep an ageing, unneeded Michigan
coal-fired power plant online
has cost ratepayers from across the US midwest about $113m so far,
according to estimates from the plant’s operator and regulators.
Still, the US energy department last week ordered the plant to remain open for another 90 days.

Proponents of a cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve in December gained a powerful backer on Friday,
when a top official said the central bank had scope to lower borrowing costs “in the near term.”
John C. Williams is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a close ally of Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair.
He emphasized in a speech that he was more concerned about the labor market weakening
than that rising inflation because of Trump’s tariffs wou…

Top Fed Official Boosts Odds of a December Rate Cut
John C. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the central bank had scope to lower borrowing costs “in the near term.”

Donald Trump launched another attack against Federal Reserve chair #Jerome #Powell on Monday, calling the central banker a “fool” and once again suggesting he would like to fire him.
“I mean, Biden reappointed him. It’s too bad. You would have thought he wouldn’t have done that,” Trump said, without any acknowledgmen…

Investigation: in 22 US states, Uber approves drivers with many types of convictions, such as violent felonies, that are over seven years old to keep costs low (Emily Steel/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/business/uber-background-chec…

Uber Cleared Violent Felons to Drive. Passengers Accused Them of Rape.
The ride-hailing giant’s background check process was intended to speed drivers onto its network while keeping costs down, internal documents show.

Apple reports Q1 revenue up 16% YoY to $143.76B, vs. $138.48B est., net income up 16% to $42.1B, and China net sales up 38% to $25.53B (Kif Leswing/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/29/apple-aapl-earnings-report-q1-2026.html

Apple set to report earnings: iPhone growth, AI, memory costs will be in focus in first quarter
Apple's fiscal first quarter ended in December and the company has already signaled last year it's expecting a big earnings report.

Apple expects Q2 revenue to grow 13% to 16% YoY, vs. 10% est.; it's currently constrained by iPhone processor supply and expects memory costs to rise after Q2 (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/apple-sales-p…

Dow plans to cut 4,500 staff to save costs and will rely on AI to boost productivity, resulting in $1.1B to $1.5B in charges; it currently employs ~34,000 staff (Rob Curran/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/earnings/dow-<…

Framework says it is raising DDR5 RAM prices to charge $10 per GB, after a price hike earlier in December due to "substantially higher costs" amid the AI boom (Emma Roth/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/850376/framework-ram-memory-ddr5-price-hikes…

Framework announces another memory price hike — and it likely won’t be its last
Framework is adjusting the price of its DDR5 RAM modules once again, as it will now charge $10 per GB for its 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB variations.