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Rising competition from local device makers puts pressure on Silicon Valley group’s business in ChinaView the full article

Complex will be bigger than Pentagon and include bombproof bunkers for leaders, say US intelligence officialsView the full article

Following a surge in popularity for Chinese AI app Deepseek and its free reasoning model this week, frequent OpenAI collaborator Microsoft is helping America’s AI leader drop the paywall on its own reasoning model, giving all Copilot users free access to OpenAI o1. Notice the distinct lack of a “Plus” or “Pro” after “Copilot.” You won’t need specialized hardware for this, nor will you need a ChatGPT or Copilot subscription. The news came via a LinkedIn post from Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, wherein the executive said Copilot’s “Think Deeper” feature is now “free and available for all users of Copilot.” Think Deeper began testing in October and essentially gives the chatbot more time (about 30 seconds) to consider your request before providing an answer. It doesn’t have access to the internet, so it can’t search for real-time information, but in turn, it can walk you through the steps it took to arrive at an answer, and will supposedly self-correct. The goal here is to make the AI better at handling complex topics and STEM-related prompts—for example, OpenAI says that o1 can solve 83% of problems on the International Mathematics Olympiad, while non-reasoning model GPT-4o can only solve 13%. To use Think Deeper in Copilot, simply click or tap the “Think Deeper” button while entering your prompt. If you don’t see it, it might take a little bit to roll out to you—I’m also in the same boat. Suleyman didn’t specify any limits to the new o1 model access, although I’d assume they’re the same as the free version of Copilot’s other limits, which means you might not have access during peak times. But it’s still a better deal than on ChatGPT’s own site, where limited o1 access costs $20 a month and unlimited access costs $200 a month. The sudden shift towards a free option for o1 can’t help but feel like a response to Deepseek’s R1, which that company claimed matched o1 on several metrics. But whatever decisions are being made behind the scenes at OpenAI and Microsoft, the timing couldn’t be better for users—Deepseek is already facing severe privacy issues, including chat logs that were left exposed for anyone to see. That said, Microsoft is still playing as many angles as it can here. While Microsoft services have yet to make Deepseek R1 immediately available to consumers, it’s already been integrated into Microsoft’s AI developer tools. View the full article

Beeline's product division, dubbed Beeline Labs, will be rolling out an AI-powered quality control product for mortgage lenders. View the full article

Anthony Obi never imagined the night of Jan. 7 would be the last time he’d step inside his safe haven. The Houston rapper, known professionally as Fat Tony, has lived in the Altadena neighborhood for a year and says he and his neighbors were prepared for heavy winds and perhaps a few days of power outages. “I totally expected, you know, maybe my windows are going to get damaged, and I’ll come back in like a day or two and just clean it up,” said the rapper. But residents like Obi woke up the following morning to news that thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods had been burned to ash, destroyed by flames that wiped out large areas of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Although the neighborhoods are on opposite ends of the county, they are known hubs for many of the city’s creative community, housing filmmakers, actors, musicians and artists of various mediums. “LA is not just rich, famous people who have giant mansions that were destroyed,” said visual artist Andrea Bowers, who is assisting artists recover. “So many members of our community lost everything, they lost all their artworks and their archives, that’s irreplaceable, a lifetime of labor and a lifetime of research.” “A lot of my collectors lost their homes,” said figurative and conceptual artist Salomón Huerta, who lost his Altadena home of three years to the Eaton Fire and worries the art scene in LA will downsize as a result of the wildfire. “Before the fire, I was in talks with certain collectors. And then, after the fire, they’re not in a good place to talk. I’m hoping that there’s support so that the art scene can still thrive. But it’s going to be tough.” Obi and Huerta lost not only personal treasures, business opportunities and homes but also vital equipment and professional archives, adding to their emotional burden. Huerta left behind slides and transparencies of past work that he had planned to digitize for an upcoming book. “Everything’s gone,” Obi said. “All of my stuff that is related to Fat Tony music that was in that house is gone, and it was the motherlode of it.” From aftermath of one fire, a support network is born Kathryn Andrews never imagined she’d experience another wildfire in her lifetime. The conceptual artist was forced to flee her Pacific Palisades neighborhood as smoke drew near, the second time in four years she’s had to escape a wildfire. She lost her Juniper Hills property to the 2020 Bobcat fire, which burned a large section of rural Los Angeles County. “I’ve already experienced one home being burned. I think you have a different focus after that. Maybe we become a little bit less attached to material things. And we began looking at a bigger long-term picture, thinking about, you know, how we live together in community, how we live in relation to the land and how we can work together to solve this,” she said. Andrews is the co-founder of relief effort Grief and Hope, which aims to support creatives financially as they enter the long road ahead and was founded alongside a group of gallery directors, art professionals and artists like Bowers, Ariel Pittman, Olivia Gauthier, and Julia V. Hendrickson. “Our primary goal is getting people triage money for just whatever the most emergent need is,” said Pittman. The fundraising effort began shortly after the fires broke out with a Go Fund Me seeking $500,000. They have now raised over $940,000 of their new $1 million goal via non-profit art space The Brick. As of Tuesday, Grief and Hope has received more than 450 inquiries, and Pittman says the funds will be evenly distributed to applicants. The deadline for artists to submit a needs survey has concluded, but the relief effort will continue fundraising until mid-March. Grief and Hope also has five different groups of volunteers providing peer-to-peer support, helping with medical needs, safety issues, and renter’s issues and collecting survey data to better serve their creative community. “These are people who already have made very long term commitments in their work, including the five of us, towards building community and building sustainability around artists and art workers in our city and beyond,” said Pittman. For Grief and Hope, creating a more sustainable future for artists throughout the city begins with affordable studio spaces and housing. Creative tools lost, and a long road ahead For photographer Joy Wong, losing her home of eight years meant losing the beauty of Altadena. She describes the overall area as “a pocket of heaven.” “I didn’t want to leave,” said Wong who safely evacuated with her husband and 2-year-old daughter. “We were just so in love with this house, and it wasn’t just my house. It was also my studio space.” Many, like Obi, Wong and Huerta, have started GoFundMe accounts. Meanwhile initiatives and relief efforts have popped up around Southern California ready to assist with clothing donations, art supplies, professional equipment for creatives and more. “I’m applying to everything,” said Obi, who needs to replace his instruments and recording equipment. Wong said she’s received much support from family, friends and colleagues. “I think I just have to kind of lean on the community and get back into shooting,” she said. “I got to get all my gear back, too. It’s going to be a long road, but it’ll be OK.” How some artists see L.A.’s arts scene can be reborn Superchief Gallery co-founder and director Bill Dunleavy said he believes that this is an opportunity to rebuild long-needed infrastructure for the arts throughout Los Angeles. “Quite a lot was lost and in the areas affected by the fire. And it’s going to affect rent prices and studio prices and art markets and everything else,” said Dunleavy. “I’ve been so impressed with the amount of compassion that people feel and the sense of duty people have felt to help with this. … I hope that continues into the coming years.” Creative director Celina Rodriguez said she hopes freelance artists and creatives continue to work and shoot production or projects throughout the city, rather than leaving because of the wildfires. “Having lost so many locations that we would shoot, typically in Malibu, Topanga, the Palisades, all throughout. We will have to absolutely come together and figure out how we can continue working in Los Angeles … and urging people to shoot productions here,” she said. Rodriguez and Dunleavy began collecting donations at the Downtown Los Angeles gallery and within 48 hours transformed it into a bustling donation center with over 150 volunteers. The duo are now working with displaced families to make sure their daily needs are being met. Dunleavy said the relief effort has only encouraged him to take this work beyond just the donation center and explore the possibilities of non-profit work for the community. “All of our wheels are turning now that we’ve seen the power that just self-organizing can have.” —Leslie Ambriz, Associated Press View the full article

The Long Island-based company, which is in the middle of a makeover, saw its stock price rise sharply after reporting a net loss that was less than what analysts expected. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are so many techniques you can use to help you declutter your home, but they all have the same end goal: reducing the volume of junk lying around your house and organizing what remains. Where these techniques differ is in their methodologies: Some are better suited to larger homes or larger volumes of stuff, for instance. Some are ruthless, while others leave some wiggle room for items you are hesitant to part with. Here are some of my favorite decluttering techniques, so you can find one that will help you downsize with minimal stress. Before you start decluttering, keep these questions in mindBelow, you'll find 17 great techniques, approaches, and methods, but basically all of them will require you to, at some point, assess your possessions one by one and determine whether you're going to keep it or not. No matter which technique you choose, you'll have to make individual decisions over and over again, so you need to have criteria in mind before you start (and while you're selecting the method you think will work best for you). Some of the approaches here come with questions baked in, like Marie Kondo and Peter Walsh's methods, which suggest, respectively, that you determine whether an item "sparks joy" or fits with the overall vision you have for your space. Others leave the question-asking to you, so I suggest ones like this: "When was the last time I used this?" This can help you determine if you even actually use the thing you're considering getting rid of. "Do I want the job of managing this item?" This helps you realistically frame the commitment and responsibility that holding onto something will demand of you. "Would I know I had this if I needed it?" This is useful for cleaning spaces like junk drawers, which are full of those items you make excuses to hold onto "just in case." For more ideas that can shape how you approach your decluttering no matter which method you choose, here's a list of my favorite eight criteria questions. Micro-decluttering, for going bit by bitThis technique is ideal for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the task facing them. It has been trending on cleaning blogs for some time, and while the phrase is novel, the idea is well-established: Instead of cleaning a whole room at once, choose small sections to tackle instead. So, instead of organizing the bathroom in a day, start with the medicine cabinet. The whole bedroom? No. The nightstands? Yes. The entire kitchen? Instead, start with the silverware drawers. Obviously, you’ll get around to all the other “micro” spaces within those rooms eventually, but focusing one a small section allows you to witness immediate results, revel in the feeling of accomplishment that brings, and consider whether you have the capacity to tackle another section right away. It's similar to the ski-slope method below, but even less regimented, since there are no rules about the order you need to clean in. You can dedicate a week to sprucing up small sections of one room, or you can switch from room to room every time you clean. The ski-slope method, for when you're overwhelmedAnita Yokota's ski-slope method was born from her experience as a licensed therapist and interior designer and is meant to help you declutter in a way that won't be overwhelming for you mentally. She outlines the method in her book Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm, suggesting you imagine your messy room like a ski slope, zig-zagging from section to section instead of working in a straight line. Rather than looking at the space as a whole (a huge mess you'll never be able to clean!), start in one corner or section and work from there: Clean, declutter, and organize. Move to the next side or section and do it again. Continue moving through the room, working from side to side. As you finish each section, you can pause for a break if you need to, then pick back up where you left off. The move-out method, for when you need some urgencyThis approach from Katie Holdefehr, author of Embrace Your Space and associate editorial director at Real Simple, will put a bit of a push behind your efforts, which can be helpful for people who struggle to find motivation to clean or declutter. When you use the move-out method, you act as if you're actually moving out of your home and into a new one, except the "new" home is actually the one you already have, just cleaner and better. Set a made-up move-out date for a few days from the present, then box up everything in one room the way you really would if you were moving, categorizing items into boxes based on their uses. Start asking yourself, "If I were moving, would I really want to bring this with me into my new space?" Imagine what your ideal home would look like and what would be in it, plus whether the item you're considering would be worth all the effort of packing, boxing, protecting, hauling, unpacking, and putting away in a real-life relocating situation. If it wouldn't be, get rid of it. Once everything is boxed up, clean the room thoroughly, making it new again, and unpack. Ideally, wait a few days to unpack, so you can get a sense of which things you actually miss or need while they're boxed away. When you unpack, feel free to declutter even more, getting rid of what you didn't even miss and prioritizing only what you want in your "new" home. Repeat in various rooms over time. One thing to keep in mind: The move-out date is important. That's what gives you the sense of urgency and push you need. Once you commit to it, don't push it off. Treat it as if you were really moving out and had no choice but to get packing. Project 333: For when the closet is out of handAdhere to the TikTok-famous Project 333, which comes from comes from Courtney Carver's Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really Is So Much More, if you want to pare down your wardrobe and create a "capsule wardrobe" of basic, mix-and-matchable pieces over time. Start by selecting 33 pieces of clothing, jewelry, and accessories (excluding underwear or sentimental, everyday-wear jewelry), then box everything else up for three months. At the end of that time, you'll have combined your 33 pieces to make outfits and will have a better sense of what you really need for daily wear and what you own that might be good for donating. For a similar approach, you can adapt the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, recognizing that you use about 20% of your stuff 80% of the time, whether that's the clothes you wear every day, the kitchen tools you use to make your most common meals, or anything else that you reach for the majority of the time. Once you start identifying the 80% of things you rarely use, it becomes pretty easy to give them the boot. The 12-12-12 method, for when you have a lot of stuffThis is one of the longer-term methods on the list and it calls on you to overhaul your lifestyle a bit. When you use the 12-12-12 method, you find 12 things to throw away, 12 things to donate, and 12 things to put away—every day. With 12 in each category every day, you're dealing with a number small enough to work with in an achievable way but big enough to make an impact on your clutter. Of course, you can move that number up or down slightly to accommodate your own needs, but the real idea here is that you get in the habit of identifying what you can get rid of and what needs to be organized and put away every day. The organizational triangle, for getting and staying declutteredAnother longer-term, lifestyle-altering approach is the use of the Organizational Triangle, a concept from by pro organizer Andrew Mellen, the man behind The Most Organized Man in America's Guide to Moving and Unstuff Your Life: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good. This three-tiered approach provides a simple process for maintaining a clutter-free home: Every item needs a home. Keep like with like. Use a "something in, something out" approach. By making sure you get into the habit of putting everything where it belongs (and getting rid of things that don't belong anywhere), storing everything with related items, and getting rid of one thing every time you bring something new in, you can not only get organized, but stay organized. The five-second rule, for making quick decisionsThe five-second rule is a trick you can use when you're decluttering to make fast decisions about what stays and what goes. It's a widely adaptable technique from organizational coach Mel Robbins, who advocates for it in her books. Basically, you should make major decisions in under five seconds, counting down five, four, three, two, one so your brain senses some urgency. At the end of the countdown, you have to make a choice—when you're decluttering, you'll decide whether to keep something and find a place for it or toss it or donate it. In your heart, you already know which items are useful and need to stick around. Instead of deliberating over the decision, make it fast and keep going so you don't lose momentum. If you're really stuck after five seconds, there are two questions you can ask yourself to illuminate the right choice: According to organizational gurus the Minimalists, you should ask yourself, "Could I replace this item for less than $20?" and "Could I replace it in less than 20 minutes?" If the answer to both is yes, that thing can go. The space you'll save by tossing it will be worth the $20 you may spend in the unlikely event you ever need it again. KonMari, for creating a happier homeArguably the most famous method on the list, Marie Kondo's KonMari method leaves a little room for the items you care about, even if they have fewer practical uses than others. Kondo's method of organizing follows a few simple steps designed to ensure “you will never again relapse to clutter.” Here’s what she calls for: Commit yourself to tidying up. Imagine your ideal lifestyle. Finish discarding first. Tidy by category and not by location. Follow the right order. Ask yourself if it sparks joy, and get rid of it if it doesn't. The Peter Walsh method, for building the home of your dreamsWalsh method is similar to Kondo's, but a little stricter. Compare her steps with his and spot the differences: Empty your space. Create a vision for the space and set an intention for it. Sort everything you removed into a “vision” pile and an “out-the-door” pile. Get rid of the “out-the-door pile” by donating or throwing everything away. Move everything from the “vision” pile back into the space. Fully emptying your space is more intense than just organizing it as-is, so choose this technique if you really need an overhaul. "Decluttering at the Speed of Life," for everyday maintenanceThe Decluttering at the Speed of Life method comes from Dana K. White, who has chronicled her “deslobification” journey on a blog since she began in 2009. She took notes of all her wins and failures as she sought to find a way to declutter without getting overwhelmed, keeping track of what worked and what didn’t—and ultimately published a book, Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff. To utilize her technique, select a small area, and do these five things: Start with trash, like receipts, wrappers, bags, anything that is broken, expired food or products, or anything you simply don’t need or use at all. Throw all that away. Do the easy stuff. Put everything out of place back where it belongs. Categorize “duh clutter,” or anything that could be donated. Keep a box on hand and toss anything worthy of donation into it. Ask yourself one or two decluttering questions. First, “If I needed this item, where would I look for it?” If you can instantly think of an answer, take the item where it belongs. If you can’t think of an answer, ask a follow-up: “If I needed this item, would it occur to me that I already had one?” Get rid of the thing if the answer is no. Finally, make it fit. Only keep what you have space for and organize those. Throw a packing party, for an objective approachAnother intense, room-clearing option is the "packing party," which also comes from the Minimalists. To throw a packing party, invite your friends over and have them help you pack everything in the room into boxes, as if you were moving, and label those boxes. For three weeks after that, live your life as normal, only pulling things out of the boxes if and as you need them. At the end of the three weeks, go through whatever you haven't needed and commit to throwing or donating most of it. This method helps you "move back in" to a cleaner space full of only the things you really need. Dymo LetraTag 200B Bluetooth Label Maker $34.94 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $38.90 Save $3.96 Shop Now Shop Now $34.94 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $38.90 Save $3.96 "365 Less Things," for long-haul declutteringColleen Madsen's unique 365 Less Things technique is a slow burn. It will take a year to complete, but at the end of that year, you'll be living in a cleaner, more organized space—and will have built up the habits that can keep it that way. All you do is commit to getting rid of one thing every day for a year. The goal here isn't instant progress, but incremental progress that you can learn from. Set a reminder in your phone for every day at a certain time and, when the alarm goes off, find one thing to get rid of. You can donate it, sell it, or throw it away, but it has to go. The beauty of this method is that while it takes time, the time is actually beneficial: Eventually, it'll become second nature to find and get rid of one thing in your home every day. Plus, decluttering so incrementally is a lot less overwhelming than other methods of home cleaning and organization, so it's perfect for if you're feeling too put-upon by the daunting task. The calendar method, for when you need structureAnother technique that is similar to 365 Less Things is the calendar method. This is a little faster and more structured, so it's ideal if you have a lot of things to throw out and want to get rid of them all relatively quickly, but haven't built up the habit of being able to do that yet. Start on the first of the month and get rid of one thing. On the second day, get rid of two. On the third, out go three. You see where I'm going with this. On the 30th, you'll get rid of 30 things. In a month with 31 days, you'll end up doing away with nearly 500 items. This works well because it slowly builds that decluttering muscle. On the first day, you might really struggle to part with one thing, but the more you do it, the easier it will get. Plus, as the days go on, you'll start noticing results, which will motivate you down the stretch. The before-and-after technique, for when you need motivationIf you're a more visual person, the Before and After approach from Becoming Minimalist is for you. Pick a small section of your home, like a countertop or junk drawer, and snap a picture of it. Then, clean it up. Just focus on the small area you photographed. Once you’re done, take a new picture and compare the two. Do this any time you have a few minutes to dedicate to a minor cleaning task, so the pics are right next to each other in your camera roll. When you can see the difference just by swiping between the two photos, you’ll feel motivated to keep going. Without the pictures, it can be hard to remember what the mess even looked like, so you won’t stay as motivated to clean or keep it clean. (If you need more motivation, here are my favorite tools to help you declutter and the best apps to help you keep your cleaning on track.) The 10/10 theory, for when you need clarity on an item's valueWhen you're decluttering, you'll inevitably pick up an item that you're really not sure if you should keep or toss. It may be a little sentimental or you may start playing the classic mind game of, "But what if I need this later?" That's where the 10/10 theory comes in. This is an exercise you complete before decluttering. Make a list of your 10 most expensive items. Then, make one of the 10 things you own that bring you the most joy. Keep going. Try a list of the 10 things you use the most, the 10 you use least, the 10 things you could never replace, or 10 things you could very easily replace, either in terms of speed or money. Once you start reframing how you think of the "value" of your possessions, you begin to see patterns about what is worth keeping and what really isn't. Doing this ahead of time and noticing what you place value on will help you when you get down to the nitty-gritty of actually decluttering. The chaos method, for when you need to declutter things you've already organizedThe so-called "chaos" method is perfect for helping you assess how much stuff you really have and if you even have the space to hold it all. It's perfect for anyone whose clutter and junk is at least semi-organized, put away somewhere out of sight. Pull it all out and dump it into a pile, which will be your "chaos." Then, sort, categorize, and declutter everything, moving through the pile one item at a time, until you have a bunch of smaller piles. Once you have your smaller piles and categories, you can see just how much volume is in each, then decide where they should go within the closet again. You can put them in the most logical, economical space (ideally a container!) and make that decision based on how much space they really need. It's easy to let junk pile up if it's out of sight and out of mind, but just because you have everything jammed into a closet or drawer doesn't mean it's really, truly organized. You have to haul it all out and see its real volume. Just make sure you do this in small increments. Don't do your entire bedroom at once, for instance, but go drawer by drawer, closet by closet, etc. The magic basket, for when you need a daily routineHalf the battle when you're decluttering comes from keeping the things you choose to keep more organized. Over the course of a day, you move your stuff around, use it, discard it, and don't always put it away again right away. Over time, this can cause some issues and mess up your whole home. One easy way to tackle the ever-present issue of clutter maintenance is to create a simple schedule. Use the "magic basket" technique: Every evening, go around your home with a basket and drop in anything that's out of place. Your home will look better right away, you'll achieve a feeling of accomplishment, and you'll sleep better, all without having to put anything away and overwhelm yourself. The next day, when you're feeling fresh, take the basket back around and put its contents where they belong. Do both steps every day to space out the amount of time you spend cleaning. You'll built a solid routine that will become a second-nature habit, plus not feel so overwhelmed by the volume of what you need to do, since it's split up. View the full article

Russell Vought, should he be confirmed by the full Senate, would join a short list of those able to lead the CFPB, as his predecessor Mick Mulvaney did, per the requirements of the Vacancies Act. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. It can get a bit confusing to decide between the standard iPad, the iPad Air, and the iPad Pro. For the most budget-friendlyoption, the iPad 10th gen is your best bet. For those looking for top-of-the-line specs, the iPad Pro is the way to go. If you're somewhere in between, that's where the iPad Air's sweet spot is. Right now, the latest 11-inch M2 Wifi iPad Air is $499 (originally $599), and the Wifi + Cellular version (if you don't want to rely on wifi) is $649 (originally $749)—for both models, those match their lowest-ever prices, according to price-tracking tools. Storage: 128GB, Camera: 12MP Front/Back, Wifi: Wi-Fi 6E, Security: Touch ID. iPad Air 11-inch (WiFi, M2) $569.05 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $599.00 Save $29.95 Get Deal Get Deal $569.05 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $599.00 Save $29.95 Storage: 128GB, Camera: 12MP Front/Back, Wifi: Wi-Fi 6E, Cell: 5G, Security: Touch ID. iPad Air 11-inch (WiFi + Cellular, M2) $649.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $749.00 Save $100.00 Get Deal Get Deal $649.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $749.00 Save $100.00 SEE -1 MORE Although $100 off doesn't sound like a ton for such an expensive item, it's still impressive given it is a flagship Apple product that came out less than a year ago. The M2 chip isn't new, but it is a powerful processor, especially for a tablet. The iPad Air gives you about 10 hours of juice depending on your use. You'll get Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, stereo speakers, Touch ID to log in, a 12MP wide-angle front camera, and a rear 12MP camera. There is no IP rating protection against the elements, though. This smaller 11-inch version has a 2,360 by 1,640-pixel resolution on its LCD screen with a 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. Some newer features include split-view screens, subject lift, and live text features. You can read more about the M2 iPad Air from PCMag's "excellent" review. A new addition for accessories on the iPad Air is being able to use the Pencil Pro, but it's still compatible with the more basic Apple Pencil (the Pencil Pro is worth the extra money, though). You might also consider the Magic Keyboard if you want to use it as a laptop. View the full article

The Army helicopter and regional American Airlines jet that collided over Washington are both workhorse aircraft that operate around the world on a daily basis. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the jet, a Bombardier CRJ700, officials said. Three service members were on a training flight on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. None are believed to have survived the Wednesday night collision, which caused both aircraft to plunge into the frigid Potomac River. What to know about the aircraft: Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk There are about 5,000 Black Hawks in use around the world, according to the aviation site FlightGlobal.com. The twin-engine, four-blade helicopter is manufactured by Sikorsky, a subsidiary of defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The aircraft involved in Wednesday’s collision was an Army version. There are other variants made for the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, and for specialized duty such as intelligence gathering. The Black Hawk made its debut in 1979. The helicopters have been involved in numerous U.S. military operations, including the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the invasions of Panama and Grenada. It is perhaps best known as the namesake aircraft in the 2001 war film “Black Hawk Down,” about a U.S. helicopter shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the civil war there. Others have crashed over the years on training missions. Bombardier CRJ700 The passenger jet was manufactured by Quebec, Canada-based conglomerate Bombardier Inc. The CRJ program was sold in June 2020 to the Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which no longer makes them but continues to produce parts. The twin-engine aircraft comes in several versions capable of seating between 68 and 78 passengers. It is a commonly used regional aircraft used for medium and shorter flights, with more than 900 produced since it was introduced in May 1999. Bombardier said in 2015 that the CRJ700 series accounted for 20% of all departure flights in North America, with about 200,000 flights per month. The plane in Wednesday’s crash was registered as N530EA and manufactured in 2010, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The jet was operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, PSA Airlines. —Curt Anderson, Associated Press View the full article

As part of a partnership agreement the two companies entered into, the Ramquest and E-closing platforms have shifted ownership for an undisclosed price. View the full article

Contract signings fell 5.5% to 74.2 in December, according to a National Association of Realtors index released Thursday. View the full article

Mortgage lenders still need to monetize mortgage servicing rights quickly amid the sluggish housing market, representing more opportunities for the firm. View the full article

Most video editing software works through re-encoding—essentially, uploading the file so it can be broken apart and stitched back together. This is necessary for advanced editing techniques but has some downsides. It's slow, for one thing, and the encoding process isn't lossless, meaning videos can look worse over time. This is a particularly vexing problem when all you want to do is cut a bit from the beginning or end of a file. Lossless Cut is an open source application for Linux, Windows, and Mac that can trim videos without the need for encoding. The changes to the original file are basically instantaneous and totally lossless. It's a great tool if all you ever do when editing video is remove the bits at the start or end that you don't want. It's also potentially a great companion tool for traditional editing software, as it makes it easier to cut clips to size before importing. To get started, open the application and drag a video file to the window—it will open immediately. Use the finger buttons, located to the left and right of the play button, to mark which parts of the video you'd like to remove from the beginning and the end. When you're ready press Export—you'll instantly have a shorter version of your video. Credit: Justin Pot There's also a button for rotating the video, and another for taking a screenshot. You can hit the Toggle advanced view button to see a few more options. My favorite is the ability to add both thumbnails and sound waves to the editing timeline, allowing you to be a little more precise with your cuts. The advanced view also lets you types times manually, instead of clicking. There's more here to play with, but not much, which is kind of the point: This is a very simple tool by design. In my testing, most of the videos I messed with worked without a hitch, though the officially support formats include MP4, MOV, WebM, Matroska, OGG and WAV files. Audio codecs supported include FLAC, MP3, Opus, PCM, Vorbis, and AAC. Supported video codecs include H264, AV1, Theora, VP8, VP9, and H265. LosslessCut is free if you download it from Github. Alternatively, you can buy it for $18.99 from the Mac App Store or for $19.99 from the Microsoft Store. Purchasing the app from the store supports the developer, though you can also donate directly if you'd rather not give a cut to Apple or Microsoft. Give it a try next time you're cutting your own videos back to just the good parts, or trimming downloaded YouTube videos to a friendlier size. View the full article

Nations Lending claims two former branch managers diverted business to CMG Financial before leaving to their new place of employment. View the full article

Former Barclays boss shared information on deals and clients with late sex offender, regulator claimsView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Have you ever switched gyms and tried to do your usual workout, only to find that the machines are a lot harder—or maybe a lot easier? Before you start questioning your strength or your training, you need to know something: you can’t trust the numbers on the weight stack, and you shouldn’t expect them to match from gym to gym or even machine to machine. What do the numbers on the weight stacks mean? When you’re looking at a cable machine, or any type of strength training machine with a stack of rectangular weights, there is probably a little sticker on each plate with a number. Sometimes those numbers are in pounds, and they represent the weight of the plate itself. If you were to take the 10 pound plate off the machine and weigh it, it would weigh 10 pounds. (Probably.) Sometimes they are in kilograms. If it doesn’t say which, there’s no easy way to know for sure. It also doesn’t really matter, for reasons I’ll explain below. And sometimes, plate stacks aren’t labeled with weights at all. You just know that if you’re strong enough to work with the plate labeled “5”, you’re stronger than if you could only use the machine at the “4” setting. How many pounds are you lifting? It’s not telling, and to be honest it doesn’t matter. Pulleys and levers change how heavy the weight feels Even when the numbers on the machine are accurate, they’re not really helpful. Let’s say there’s a cable stack where each plate is 10 pounds, and you can use 5 plates for a certain exercise. You are moving 50 pounds of iron. But are you really applying 50 pounds of force to move that iron? Not necessarily. As you may or may not remember from your school days, pulleys and levers can make it easier or harder to move a weight. If you’re doing a cable crossover on a LifeFitness Signature Series Dual Adjustable Pulley machine, the one below, you’re getting a 4:1 mechanical advantage. When you put the pin in the stack where it says 52.5 pounds, you may be lifting 52.5 pounds but you only need about 13 pounds of force to do that. Cable machines are simple enough that a company can publish their ratio, like LifeFitness did. (For some more examples: Rep’s Athena pulley system has a 2:1 ratio, so that 20 pounds feels like 10 pounds, whereas their lat pulldown has a 1:1 ratio, so 10 pounds feels like 10 pounds.) But when it comes to other types of machines, there may not be a simple answer. A given gym contraption may have a combination of pulleys, levers, and other devices, and they may provide different amounts of assistance depending on how you adjust the machine or what exercises you are doing. Machines have different designs (and maintenance schedules)With all of that in mind, you now know that the weight you feel like you’re moving is different from the weight labeled on the stack. But what does that tell us about comparing one machine to another? Machines can have different designs, especially if they are different models or come from different manufacturers. One gym might have a 4:1 cable machine, while another might have a similar machine with a 2:1 ratio. One gym’s leg press might be a horizontal style with a weight stack, while another is an angled leg press that you load with plates from the free weight section. You shouldn’t expect 200 pounds on one to feel like 200 pounds on the other. Even when two gyms have the exact same make and model of machine, one may be harder to move than the other. Maybe Gym A has an older machine that’s built up some rust, while Gym B has a newer model that was just oiled yesterday. How to track your progress when you train on different machinesNow that we know that every machine is different, and the labels don’t necessarily mean what they say, how are you supposed to handle that? Unfortunately, there’s no simple solution. If you alternate between two gyms, your best bet is to keep notes separately for each one. In your notebook or your strength training app, just track “leg press Planet Fitness” as separate from “leg press Crunch.” (Most apps will let you duplicate and edit the exercise entries.) If you drop into a variety of mystery gyms—maybe you travel a lot—try programming your workouts by RPE. Instead of doing four sets of 12 reps of 70 pounds, think of it as four sets of 12 reps at an 8-out-of-10 difficulty. That might be 70 pounds on the stack at one gym, 65 at another, and 72.5 at a third, but it doesn’t matter. You’ll still be getting a good workout at all three. View the full article

On Thursday, United Parcel Service (UPS) predicted downbeat 2025 revenue as it cut back service with its largest customer, Amazon, in order to focus on more profitable businesses. The decision will cut Amazon’s transported volumes by more than 50% by the second half of 2026. The unexpected announcement came with disappointing revenue results, with UPS failing to meet expectations for 2024. UPS’s Q4 revenue was $25.3 billion, slightly below the predicted $25.42 billion. This decision came at a time when UPS is struggling due to a decline in parcel demand following the e-commerce boom of the pandemic and an increase in shipments from discount online retailers such as Shein and Temu. UPS stock was down more than 14% as of Thursday afternoon, after falling during premarket trading. The decline was on track to break the current record for the stock’s worst day, which occurred in July 2024, as MarketWatch reports. Shares have lost half their value since 2022, though the company said that carrying less freight for Amazon will eventually boost its revenue per piece. “Amazon is our largest customer, but it’s not our most profitable customer,” CEO Carol Tomé told investors on a conference call Thursday. “Foundational changes” Amazon and its affiliates represented about 12% of UPS revenue in 2023, which is nearly all of its United States package business. The package carrier is hoping to gain volume from more profitable segments, such as healthcare-product shippers, small- and-medium-size businesses, and international markets. UPS expects revenue of about $89 billion for 2025, down from $91.1 billion in 2024. The parcel service has brought all of its UPS SurePost products in-house and will launch multiyear “efficiency reimagine” initiatives to drive about $1 billion in savings by rethinking its business design. The company aims to cut costs by closing buildings, reducing the size of its vehicle and aircraft fleets, and decreasing the size of its workforce. “We are making business and operational changes that, along with the foundational changes we’ve already made, will put us further down the path to becoming a more profitable, agile, and differentiated UPS that is growing in the best parts of the market,” said Tomé in the annual earnings report. In 2025, UPS expects average daily U.S volume to drop about 8.5% year-over-year while revenue per package is projected to increase by 6%. View the full article

President cites ‘moment of anguish’ after 67 people die after helicopter collides with commercial jetView the full article

There are a whole host of decluttering methods you can try, but no matter which one you choose, at some point, you'll you'll be faced with the difficult task of picking up and considering every single item in your space to determine whether it should stay or go. Ideally, you'll do this with a particular criteria in mind, and for a lot of people, that means following the KonMari principle of pondering whether the thing you're looking at "sparks joy." But that doesn't work for everybody, or every object. Maybe you're less sentimental, and more practical. Maybe you already did a round of decluttering and found that too many things "sparked joy," so you're still overladen with stuff. Maybe you just want to shake up your approach and find another way to weed through your belongings. Here are eight other questions you can ask yourself when gauging your feelings of joy isn't cutting it. "When was the last time I used this?"This is my favorite decluttering question. It doesn't come from any well-established method or a cleaning guru's book. It's just a sensible, straightforward inquiry that can reveal a lot about the utility of the items you own. I find it most useful in the kitchen, because I'm not much of a chef or baker, but I have a habit of buying things like cake molds "just in case" I ever suddenly get the urge to whip up a confection in the shape of a large bear . When you use this question, you have two options: First, you can consider it a general survey, to determine how often you really use certain items so you get a better sense of your own habits; you can use that to tailor a more structured decluttering plan after that. Or, you can be a little more strict, and set a definitive timeline to determines what stays and goes. For instance, you could set out to declutter a cupboard with the goal of donating or tossing anything you haven't used in three months. "Do I want the job of managing this item?"This question comes from Tessa Hughes, a decluttering pro who posts helpful tips on Instagram Reels. I like it because it functions similarly to Marie Kondo's infamous question about joy, but is a little more realistic. You're still considering the feeling you'll get from interacting with the item in the future, but instead of ruminating over whether it might bring you some happiness, you'll also consider whether it might bring you some dread or a feeling of being overwhelmed. It's easy to hold onto things with the optimistic hope they'll make you happy, but considering whether they'll be drain on your resources, space, or time—another "job" you have to oversee—can help you figure out if you really need to hold onto them. Owning and using things does take up mental energy, after all: You have to clean your stuff, you have to store it, you have to relocate it when you move. All of those involve responsibility and effort, and, frankly, some of your stuff just isn't worth it. "Is this item working or functioning as it should?"It seems obvious that you should get rid of things that are broken or damaged, but as someone who is constantly making vague promises to myself to get things fixed, I know it's not. Similarly to asking yourself whether you want the "job" of managing the item, be realistic about what fixing a broken item will actually entail. I finally accepted the reality that I will not, in fact, ever take my 15-year-old shoes to the cobbler to replace the broken sole on the right one, nor am I likely to seek out a replacement part for the busted SodaStream I inherited from a friend who was decluttering their own apartment. Recently, I put both in the trash. It felt good. "Does this contribute to the life I want?"This question is based on Peter Walsh's decluttering method, which is similar to—but not the same as—Kondo's. Instead of thinking about the "joy" an item gives you, you should think about whether it has a role in the vision you see for yourself and your space. To utilize Walsh's method, you first create a vision for a space in your home and set an intention for it. For instance, you might want to declutter and overhaul your home office, so you imagine how it would look and operate if it were at its most functional, and you were at your most functional working within it. Having a clear goal for the space and keeping that vision in mind will help you declutter, because every item you go over will either fit into that vision, or it won't. "Would I know I had this if I needed it?"The inspiration for this question is Dana K. White's "Decluttering at the Speed of Life" approach, which calls on you to ask yourself two questions: “If I needed this item, where would I look for it?” and, “If I needed this item, would it occur to me that I already had one?” Even if you're not following White's five-step method, simply asking yourself if you would even know if you had a particular thing if you needed it can be really illuminating when you're decluttering. It happens to me all the time: I'll find, say, a bottle opener or hex key stuffed in a junk drawer or other mysterious location, think to myself, "Wow, I didn't even know I had this," and then justify holding onto it even though I probably have more stashed somewhere. But if I take a minute to ask myself if I would even remember I had it a hex key in a junk drawer when I actually needed a hex key, the answer will usually be usually no, which makes it a lot easier to get rid of the thing without making excuses for keeping it. "Could I replace this if I needed to?"This question is a distilled version of the Minimalists' famous "20/20 rule." Those decluttering masters suggest asking yourself if you could replace a particular item for under $20 and in under 20 minutes if you discovered had to have it. This works best for smaller items and things you use infrequently. As the argument goes, there is no need to hold onto something you rarely, if ever, actually use on the off chance you need it again, especially if you can't even imagine a scenario in the near future that will call for it. It's much likelier you're just making excuses to not get rid of something, so tricking yourself with reassurance that you could easily obtain a replacement can help you break those bonds. "Do I have something that could replace this?"Another great question to ask when decluttering is whether you have another item that can serve the same purpose. I had a lot of success with this when clearing out my kitchen over the summer. As it turns out, I owned way too many pairs of scissors. They were all shapes and varieties, so I justified keeping them because they "did different things," but that wasn't really true. Simply put, they all cut things. I can only cut one thing at a time, so I can only use one at a time, which means I only need one. Another example I came across in my own decluttering journey: bottle openers. First, I can't remember the last time I drank a from bottle without a twist-off cap (see also: "When was the last time I used this?"), and second, my wine opener has a bottle opener attachment in the handle, so there's no need to hold onto the keychain and tchotchke versions littering my bar table. "Would someone else benefit more from owning this than I do?"This is the question I ask myself when I am considering donating or listing clothes or accessories for sale, but it works for all manner of items. When I'm feeling cautious about getting rid of, say, a nice bag, I think about how much I enjoyed using it, question whether I'll reach for it again soon, and, most importantly, imagine how happy another person might be to have it instead. Applying this line of thinking to possible donations is really important: It's easy to selfishly hold onto something "just in case" you need it or because you have a sentimental attachment to it, but imagining someone else benefitting from it can shake you out of that pretty fast. Clothes that no longer fit you or your kids, school supplies, old kitchen appliances, furniture, and things you have duplicates of could all serve someone else better. View the full article

This story was originally published by ProPublica. The icebreaker Aiviq is a gas guzzler with a troubled history. The ship was built to operate in the Arctic, but it has a type of propulsion system susceptible to failure in ice. Its waste and discharge systems weren’t designed to meet polar code, its helicopter pad is in the wrong place to launch rescue operations and its rear deck is easily swamped by big waves. On its maiden voyage to Alaska in 2012, the 360-foot vessel lost control of the Shell Oil drill rig it was towing, and Coast Guard helicopter crews braved a storm to pluck 18 men off the wildly lurching deck of the rig before it crashed into a rocky beach. An eventual Coast Guard investigation faulted bad decision-making by people in charge but also flagged problems with the Aiviq’s design. But for all this, the same Coast Guard bought the Aiviq for $125 million late last year. The United States urgently needs new icebreakers in an era when climate change is bringing increased traffic to the Arctic, including military patrols near U.S. waters by Russia and China. That the first of the revamped U.S. fleet is a secondhand vessel a top Coast Guard admiral once said “may, at best, marginally meet our requirements” is a sign of how long the country has tried and failed to build new ones. It’s also a sign of how much sway political donors can have over Congress. Edison Chouest, the Louisiana company that built the icebreaker, has contributed more than $7 million to state and national parties, to political action committees and super PACS, and to members of key House and Senate committees since 2012. Chouest spent most of that period looking to unload the vessel after Shell, its intended user, walked away. Members who received money from Chouest pressured the Coast Guard to rent or buy the Aiviq from the company. One U.S. representative from Alaska, where the ship will be stationed, told an admiral in a 2016 hearing that his service’s objections were “bullshit.” And there would be even tougher pressures to come. It’s now been a dozen years since the Aiviq set out on its first mission to Alaska, long enough for its troubles to fade from public memory. The ship, though owned and operated by Chouest, was part of Shell’s Arctic fleet, designed for a specific role: as a tugboat that could tow Shell’s 250-foot-tall polar drill rig, the Kulluk, around the coast of Alaska and help anchor it in the waters of the Far North. At its christening ceremony in Louisiana, attended by Shell executives, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, it was named after the Iñupiaq word for walrus. As a journalist, I’d been following the oil company’s multibillion-dollar play in the warming Arctic with interest. One June morning in 2012, I got word that Shell was on the move near my Seattle home, so I sped to a narrow point in Puget Sound with a good view of passing traffic. It was sunny, the water calm. The Aiviq bobbed past with Kulluk in tow. The icebreaker’s paint — blue at the time — was fresh, its hull shiny. It looked capable. The problems began once the Aiviq was out of view. A Coast Guard report said that while the ship towed the Kulluk northward through an Arctic storm, waves crashed over its rear deck and poured into interior spaces, which investigators determined may have caused it to list up to 20 degrees to one side. The water damaged cranes, heaters and firefighting equipment, and the vents to the fuel system were submerged. On its way back from Alaska’s Beaufort Sea two months later, the Aiviq suffered an electrical blackout, and one of its engines failed, necessitating a repair in Dutch Harbor in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Then the Aiviq and Kulluk set out on a wintertime voyage back to Seattle. The National Weather Service issued a gale warning predicting 15-foot seas and 40-knot winds. The sailors aboard the Aiviq and Kulluk exchanged worried messages. The cable with which the Aiviq was towing the Kulluk came free two days later when a shackle broke. The icebreaker’s captain made a U-turn in heavy swells to hook up an emergency tow line, and water again poured over its deck and into the fuel vents. The Aiviq’s four diesel engines soon began to fail, one after another. Although a Chouest engineer later testified that an unknown fuel additive must have caused the failures, Coast Guard investigators believe the likely cause was “fuel contamination by seawater.” They said the fuel system’s design, which they described as substandard, made contamination more likely. The Aiviq and Kulluk were reattached — but now, and for the next two days, adrift. Storms pushed them ever closer toward land. By the time the engines were repaired, it was too late. The Kulluk ran aground at an uninhabited island off Kodiak, Alaska, on New Year’s Eve. Shell’s Arctic dreams began to unravel. The oil company sold its drill rig off for scrap. (It did not respond to a request for comment.) And the Aiviq? A month after the accident, I visited Kodiak to report on what went wrong. I saw it anchored in the safety of a protected bay, an expensive, purpose-built ship now stripped of its purpose. Shell formally abandoned its Arctic efforts in 2015, after failing to find oil. The Aiviq eventually steamed back south. Chouest began looking around for someone to take the troubled icebreaker off its hands. The Coast Guard, which had criticized the ship’s role in the Kulluk accident, now became a potential customer. Traffic in the warming Arctic has surged as countries eye the region’s natural resources, and it will grow all the more if the storied Northwest Passage melts enough to become a viable route for freight in the decades ahead. The number of ships in the High North increased by 37% from 2013 to 2023. It’s the U.S. Coast Guard’s job to patrol these waters as part of an agreement with the Navy, projecting military strength while monitoring maritime traffic, enforcing fishing laws and rescuing vessels in distress. Although surface ice in the Arctic Ocean is shrinking on average, it can still form and move about the ocean unpredictably. A Coast Guard vessel needs to be able to cut through it to be a reliable presence. But the U.S. icebreaker fleet is deteriorating. The Coast Guard began raising alarms about the problem decades ago, starting with a study published in 1984. Russia, with its extensive northern coastline, now has over 40 large icebreakers, and more under construction. The United States has barely been able to keep two or three in service. An urgent Coast Guard report to Congress in 2010 highlighted what has become known as the “icebreaker gap”: If we didn’t quickly start building new ships, our existing icebreakers could go out of commission before replacements were ready. The study called for at least six new icebreakers. Subsequent Coast Guard analysis has called for eight or nine. To date, the United States has built zero. Congress dragged its feet for years on funding icebreaker construction. But the Coast Guard also slowed progress with overly optimistic timelines, fuzzy cost estimates and a tendency to keep fiddling with new designs, according to a 2023 Government Accountability Office report. More than a decade in, construction on the first of the new ships has finally just begun. The Coast Guard’s latest cost estimate is $1 billion per icebreaker, while the Congressional Budget Office last year put it at $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion. Icebreakers have “been the penultimate studied-to-death subject for 40 years,” said Lawson Brigham, a former Coast Guard heavy icebreaker commander who has a doctorate from Cambridge University and has researched polar shipping since the 1980s. The longer the Coast Guard failed to build the ships it did want, the more pressure it faced to settle for one it didn’t. Chouest seized the opportunity. The company invited Coast Guard officers to tour the Aiviq as early as 2016 and soon sent over a lease proposal. Canada rejected similar overtures that year. A middleman for Chouest promised Canadian lawmakers a “fast-track polar icebreaker” — the Aiviq — “at less than one-third of the price of the permanent replacement.” Also on offer were three smaller, Norwegian-built icebreakers. Canada bought those instead. The U.S. Coast Guard’s problem with the Aiviq, retired officers told ProPublica, was the ship’s design. Originally built for oil operations, it had a low, wet deck and a helipad near its bow, where it would be ill suited for launching rescue operations. Its direct-drive propulsion system was both less efficient and more likely to get jammed up in ice than the diesel-electric systems the Coast Guard used. “I mean, on paper it’s an icebreaker,” Adm. Paul Zukunft, the then-commandant of the Coast Guard, told Congress in 2017. “But it hasn’t demonstrated an ability to break ice.” (Years later, in 2022 and 2023, the Aiviq would make two successful icebreaking trips to Antarctica under contract with the Australian government.) The service estimated it would take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the Aiviq’s features to near-standard for a Coast Guard icebreaker. Even then, it wouldn’t be able to move forward through ice thicker than about 4.5 feet. The Coast Guard’s most immediate need was for heavy icebreakers, burlier ships that can handle missions in the Arctic as well as supply runs to the U.S. research station at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. So how would the U.S. Coast Guard use the Aiviq beyond flag-waving and general presence in the near Arctic? According to Brigham, the former icebreaker captain and polar-shipping expert, “No one that I know, no study that I’ve seen, no one I’ve talked to really knows.” But it wasn’t for the Coast Guard alone to turn down Chouest’s bargain offer. Members of Congress had their own ideas. The late U.S. Rep. Don Young represented Alaska, a state thousands of miles from Chouest’s home base in Louisiana. But as of 2016, when Chouest was looking to sell the Aiviq, Young had taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions from the company — so many donations in one year that he had once faced a congressional ethics investigation concerning Chouest money. (He was cleared.) Young became the most vocal of many congressional critics to publicly dress down the Coast Guard for resisting Chouest’s offering of the Aiviq. At a House hearing that July, he began grilling the Coast Guard’s second-in-command, Adm. Charles Michel, about a “privately owned ship” with a “tremendous capability of icebreaking power.” “I know you have the proposal on your desk,” he scolded Michel. “It is an automatic ‘no.’ Why?” “Sir,” the admiral said, “that vessel is not suitable for military service without substantial refit.” Michel’s response sparked derision from Young. “That is what I call,” Young muttered, “a bullshit answer.” Michel, now retired, declined to comment on his exchange with Young. According to the representative’s former chief of staff Alex Ortiz, Young’s frustration stemmed from the fact that the Coast Guard lacked the money to build an icebreaker from scratch but showed “an unwillingness to accept the realities of that.” Young and many other lawmakers also supported getting new icebreakers, but perfect had become the enemy of the good the Aiviq had to offer right away. “I genuinely don’t think that he was advocating for leasing the vessel just because of Chouest’s support,” Ortiz said. Chouest, Young’s benefactor, is based in Cut Off, Louisiana. It’s led by its founder’s billionaire son and has long provided ships for the oil and gas industry. At the time of the 2016 hearing, Chouest was relatively new to Coast Guard contracts. One of the company’s affiliates would later take over the contract to build new heavy icebreakers, in 2022, making Chouest the supplier of both a ship the Coast Guard desired and the one it resisted. Chouest did not respond to questions for this article. More than 95% of Chouest’s $7 million in political contributions since 2012 has gone to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money from family members, employees and corporate affiliates. But when it comes to lawmakers who oversee the Coast Guard, Democrats also have been major recipients. The late Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, head of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation for five years, received $94,700 in the decade before his 2019 death. Rep. John Garamendi of California, a longtime committee member, started taking Chouest donations in 2021 and has since received a total of $40,500. (Garamendi’s office acknowledged the recent donations but issued a statement saying he has for many years “pushed the Coast Guard to build icebreakers expeditiously, particularly given the aging fleet and the national security imperative.”) Alaska politicians are particular beneficiaries of Chouest’s largesse, second only to those from Louisiana. Chouest’s interests in the 49th state, beyond icebreakers, have included a 10-year contract to escort oil tankers through Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Federal Elections Commission records show that Young, before his death in 2022, collected a career total of almost $300,000 from the company. Sen. Dan Sullivan has taken in at least $31,500, Sen. Lisa Murkowski $84,400. The year after Young swore at the Coast Guard admiral in public, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter of California brought up the issue once more at a different House hearing featuring a different admiral, Zukunft. Hunter’s total from Chouest would be $58,800 before he pleaded guilty to stealing campaign funds and stepped down in 2020. “Icebreakers,” Hunter said. “Let’s talk icebreakers.” Hunter was backed up by Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, whose Chouest contributions now total $240,500. “Admiral, I think every time you’ve come before this committee, this issue has come up,” Graves said. “We need to see some substantial progress.” Weeks later at yet another hearing, Rep. John Carter of Texas, whose single biggest donor the previous election cycle was Edison Chouest at $33,700, pressed Zukunft again. “There’s this commercial ship that has been offered …” Carter began. In the end, the advocates for Chouest’s ship prevailed. The Alaskans played a particular role. In 2022, after Young’s death, Sullivan helped author the Don Young Coast Guard Authorization Act, which included an approval for the service to buy a “United States built available icebreaker.” Sullivan, who would later be praised for leading a revolt against his Senate colleague Tommy Tuberville’s blockade on promotions of military officers, also engaged in some quiet hardball. Until the country can complete a long-delayed near-Arctic port, icebreakers have been based in Seattle, where there are working shipyards and experienced contractors to do maintenance. But as a recent press release describes it, Sullivan “put a hold on certain USCG promotions until the Coast Guard produced a long promised study on the homeporting of an icebreaker in Alaska.” Last year, Sullivan, Murkowski and former Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska announced that Congress had finally appropriated $125 million for the Aiviq. The Coast Guard took possession of the ship last month. (Murkowski and Peltola, along with Hunter, Graves and Carter, did not respond to requests for comment.) In a statement to ProPublica, a Sullivan spokesperson wrote that the senator “has long advocated for the purchase of a commercially available icebreaker of the Coast Guard’s choosing but has never advocated for the purchase of the Aiviq specifically.” The way Congress wrote the specifications for a “United States built” icebreaker, however, ensured there was only one the Coast Guard could choose: the Aiviq. The icebreaker’s new home — based on the findings of the Coast Guard’s urgently completed port study — will be Alaska’s capital, Juneau. The city is facing what the Juneau Empire has called “a crisis-level housing shortage,” and it remains unclear how it will manage an influx of hundreds of sailors and family members. Juneau also lacks a shipyard. For repairs and upgrades, the Aiviq will have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles out of state. Former Coast Guard icebreaker captains were reluctant to criticize the purchase of the Aiviq when contacted by ProPublica, in part because it has taken impossibly long for the service to build the new heavy icebreakers it says it needs. “Is the Coast Guard getting the Aiviq a bad thing? No,” said Rear Adm. Jeff Garrett, a former captain of the Healy icebreaker. But “is it the ideal resource? No.” To reach the Arctic from Juneau, Garrett noted, the Aiviq will have to regularly cross the same storm-swept stretch of the Gulf of Alaska where it once lost the Kulluk. Lawson Brigham said he had questions about the Aiviq “since it’s our tax dollars at work,” but he granted that “it’s bringing some capability into the Coast Guard at a time when we’re awaiting whenever the shipbuilder can get the first ship out, which is still unknown.” Zukunft, who retired in 2018, stands by his past opposition to the Aiviq. “I remain unconvinced,” he wrote in response to questions from ProPublica, that it “meets the operational requirements and design of a polar icebreaker that have been thoroughly documented by the Coast Guard.” By acquiring the Aiviq, “the Coast Guard runs the risk that those requirements can be compromised.” In a statement, the Coast Guard described the purchase of the Aiviq as a “bridging strategy” and said the ship “will be capable of projecting U.S. sovereignty in the Arctic and conducting select Coast Guard missions.” The fuel vents that flooded during the Kulluk accident have since been raised, a Chouest engineer has testified. The Coast Guard did not respond to questions about the Aiviq’s fuel consumption or whether its waste systems will comply with polar code. It did not say whether its helicopter deck will be moved aft for safer search-and-rescue operations. It confirmed that there will be no changes to the propulsion system. “Initial modifications to the vessel will be minimal,” the statement reads. The Aiviq will be put into service more or less as is. Last month, an amateur photographer spotted the Aiviq at a Chouest-owned shipyard in Tampa, Florida, and posted images online. It had been repainted, its hull now a gleaming Coast Guard icebreaker red. New lettering revealed that the ship has been renamed the Storis, after a celebrated World War II vessel that patrolled for 60 years in the Bering Sea and beyond. From a distance, the icebreaker looked ready to serve. “The question is,” said Brigham, “What is this ship going to be used for? That’s been the question from Day 1. What the hell are we going to use it for?” —McKenzie Funk, ProPublica View the full article

Games can help entrepreneurs hone various skills. For example, some games give you access to resources that you must use wisely — similar to how you must manage resources in business. If you’re looking for a resource management game to sharpen your skills in this area, read on for a guide. What is a Resource Management Game? A resource management game is one where the player is given a finite amount of necessary items that they must allocate wisely. For example, How Resource Management Games Could Help You in Business Resource management games aren’t just for fun. Here are some ways they may support your business: Sharpen management skills: Business owners need to get creative when managing limited resources. Games help you think differently and turn this into a fun process. Help with budgeting: All business owners must stay on budget. This involves many of the same skills used in resource management games. Foster collaboration: Multi-player games can serve as a team-building exercise. Exercise your brain: Business owners often experience burnout from continuous decision-making. Resource management games challenge your intellect while offering a refreshing break from the demands of managing your business. Best Resource Management Games Resource games can sharpen your management skills, support your team, and provide a fun hobby. Here are some of the best management games for business owners. Prison Architect Prison Architect requires building and maintaining a maximum-security prison. In addition to containing inmates, this management game requires managing federal money and applying for grants to maximize resources and profit. Various challenges may arise throughout each level. So you need to constantly adapt. Prison Architect is available on Steam, Gog, Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation. Surviving Mars In Surviving Mars, you’re responsible for building a colony and surviving on Mars with limited resources. This not only requires managing what you do have but also requires resource gathering in an unfamiliar environment. This game may be especially appealing to space enthusiasts. But the concepts used to play are applicable to several areas of business and life. Play on Steam, Epic Games, Gog, Xbox, and PlayStation. Megapolis Megapolis is a city-building simulator that allows you to create your own urban environment. You will need to devise strategies for various aspects, including constructing buildings, establishing iconic landmarks, and supplying power to your community. Given the complexity of city building, multiple areas may demand your attention simultaneously, much like managing a business. This city building game is accessible on iOS, Android, and Steam. Read More: business strategy games Jurassic World Evolution Jurrasic World Evolution is a video game that allows you to oversee every facet of a Jurassic World theme park. You are responsible for planning attractions and addressing challenges as they come up. Being part of a well-known brand, the graphics and overall presentation of this game are more refined compared to many other strategic management games. Jurassic World Evolution is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam. Two Point Hospital Two Point Hospital is a strategy game that allows players to create and oversee their own hospital. You will design the layout, work to cure various illnesses, and handle your staff and resources. The game is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. Stardew Valley Stardew Valley is a game where you manage your own farm and learn to live off the land. You can customize nearly all aspects of your surroundings and even interact with other farmers to share resources or tips. It’s available on Steam, Gog, Humble Games, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. Train Valley Train Valley is a puzzle strategy game that involves managing the construction of railways and various locomotive resources. With a range of locations and different types of trains, this game is likely to attract both train enthusiasts and history buffs. It is available on Steam, Humble Games, and iOS. Read More: business simulation games Foundation Foundation is a medieval city-building game. You create your own monuments and can even interact and share resources with other players. It’s an entirely open world, so there’s a lot of room for creativity and personalization. But you must still manage finite resources when creating your world. Foundation is available to play on Steam. Planet Coaster Planet Coaster allows you to design and manage your own roller coaster theme park. As you progress, you can expand your park and cater to customers as they explore. The PC version can be found on Steam and Frontier, while the console version is available on Xbox and PlayStation. This provides a range of options to suit your preferred gaming style. Dungeon Keeper Dungeon Keeper is a strategy game that involves raiding underworld dungeons to acquire additional resources for defending your own fortress. The strategic elements of this game can inspire entrepreneurs to think creatively about sourcing resources they currently lack. It is available on iOS, Android, Amazon, and PC. Read More: best business board games Hay Day Hay Day is a mobile game where you build and manage your own farm. As one of the top farming games available, you grow crops, manage animals, and take trips into town to purchase supplies and speak with townsfolk. The purpose is to build a sustainable operation and keep your farm thriving through various challenges. You can even connect with other players on iOS and Android devices. Escape Simulator Escape Simulator is a virtual escape room team-building game that you can play solo or with others. In this game, you must use only the resources available in the room to discover a way to escape. With various levels designed to offer continuous challenges, you can adapt to different environments. This game is particularly beneficial for developing resource management and problem-solving skills within your team. You can currently find Escape Simulator on Steam. Business Board Game Business Board Game is a mobile strategy game that stands out as one of the best business board games available for your phone. It’s particularly enjoyable if you’re looking to engage with others in a competitive virtual setting. The goal is to amass as much money and property as you can from your fellow players. This mobile game is accessible on both iOS and Android devices. No Man’s Sky No Man’s Sky is a stunning game that allows you to explore an alien planet and different locations in outer space. Your objective is to collaborate with your team to construct bases throughout the universe. With hours of narrative content to enjoy at your own pace, it stands out as one of the most relaxing games available. You can play it on Steam, Microsoft, Xbox, and PlayStation. Transport Tycoon Transport Tycoon is a video game series where you set up transportation infrastructure around your own town. These tycoon games teach you how to think creatively and solve problems surrounding transportation management. But many of the concepts may also be relevant to managing businesses or other organizations. There are various levels with different problems to solve. So it’s ideal if you want to be constantly challenged. Read More: farming games Fiz – Brewery Management Game If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a brewery, Fiz – Brewery Management Game should be at the top of your list. Like other business simulation games, you’re responsible for creating a brand and product and managing your budget. But it all has a beer-related spin. This resource management game is available for Android devices. What is the best resource management game? The best resource management games may vary based on your preferences and the level of challenge you’re looking for. However, some top options include Megapolis, Stardew Valley, and Jurrasic World Evolution. To find the best management games for your preferences, browse the entire list above and try the ones that appeal to you, or watch game plays and review videos on YouTube for a closer look. Read More: relaxing games Image: Depositphotos This article, "Resource Management Games for Small Business Owners" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Games can help entrepreneurs hone various skills. For example, some games give you access to resources that you must use wisely — similar to how you must manage resources in business. If you’re looking for a resource management game to sharpen your skills in this area, read on for a guide. What is a Resource Management Game? A resource management game is one where the player is given a finite amount of necessary items that they must allocate wisely. For example, How Resource Management Games Could Help You in Business Resource management games aren’t just for fun. Here are some ways they may support your business: Sharpen management skills: Business owners need to get creative when managing limited resources. Games help you think differently and turn this into a fun process. Help with budgeting: All business owners must stay on budget. This involves many of the same skills used in resource management games. Foster collaboration: Multi-player games can serve as a team-building exercise. Exercise your brain: Business owners often experience burnout from continuous decision-making. Resource management games challenge your intellect while offering a refreshing break from the demands of managing your business. Best Resource Management Games Resource games can sharpen your management skills, support your team, and provide a fun hobby. Here are some of the best management games for business owners. Prison Architect Prison Architect requires building and maintaining a maximum-security prison. In addition to containing inmates, this management game requires managing federal money and applying for grants to maximize resources and profit. Various challenges may arise throughout each level. So you need to constantly adapt. Prison Architect is available on Steam, Gog, Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation. Surviving Mars In Surviving Mars, you’re responsible for building a colony and surviving on Mars with limited resources. This not only requires managing what you do have but also requires resource gathering in an unfamiliar environment. This game may be especially appealing to space enthusiasts. But the concepts used to play are applicable to several areas of business and life. Play on Steam, Epic Games, Gog, Xbox, and PlayStation. Megapolis Megapolis is a city-building simulator that allows you to create your own urban environment. You will need to devise strategies for various aspects, including constructing buildings, establishing iconic landmarks, and supplying power to your community. Given the complexity of city building, multiple areas may demand your attention simultaneously, much like managing a business. This city building game is accessible on iOS, Android, and Steam. Read More: business strategy games Jurassic World Evolution Jurrasic World Evolution is a video game that allows you to oversee every facet of a Jurassic World theme park. You are responsible for planning attractions and addressing challenges as they come up. Being part of a well-known brand, the graphics and overall presentation of this game are more refined compared to many other strategic management games. Jurassic World Evolution is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam. Two Point Hospital Two Point Hospital is a strategy game that allows players to create and oversee their own hospital. You will design the layout, work to cure various illnesses, and handle your staff and resources. The game is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. Stardew Valley Stardew Valley is a game where you manage your own farm and learn to live off the land. You can customize nearly all aspects of your surroundings and even interact with other farmers to share resources or tips. It’s available on Steam, Gog, Humble Games, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. Train Valley Train Valley is a puzzle strategy game that involves managing the construction of railways and various locomotive resources. With a range of locations and different types of trains, this game is likely to attract both train enthusiasts and history buffs. It is available on Steam, Humble Games, and iOS. Read More: business simulation games Foundation Foundation is a medieval city-building game. You create your own monuments and can even interact and share resources with other players. It’s an entirely open world, so there’s a lot of room for creativity and personalization. But you must still manage finite resources when creating your world. Foundation is available to play on Steam. Planet Coaster Planet Coaster allows you to design and manage your own roller coaster theme park. As you progress, you can expand your park and cater to customers as they explore. The PC version can be found on Steam and Frontier, while the console version is available on Xbox and PlayStation. This provides a range of options to suit your preferred gaming style. Dungeon Keeper Dungeon Keeper is a strategy game that involves raiding underworld dungeons to acquire additional resources for defending your own fortress. The strategic elements of this game can inspire entrepreneurs to think creatively about sourcing resources they currently lack. It is available on iOS, Android, Amazon, and PC. Read More: best business board games Hay Day Hay Day is a mobile game where you build and manage your own farm. As one of the top farming games available, you grow crops, manage animals, and take trips into town to purchase supplies and speak with townsfolk. The purpose is to build a sustainable operation and keep your farm thriving through various challenges. You can even connect with other players on iOS and Android devices. Escape Simulator Escape Simulator is a virtual escape room team-building game that you can play solo or with others. In this game, you must use only the resources available in the room to discover a way to escape. With various levels designed to offer continuous challenges, you can adapt to different environments. This game is particularly beneficial for developing resource management and problem-solving skills within your team. You can currently find Escape Simulator on Steam. Business Board Game Business Board Game is a mobile strategy game that stands out as one of the best business board games available for your phone. It’s particularly enjoyable if you’re looking to engage with others in a competitive virtual setting. The goal is to amass as much money and property as you can from your fellow players. This mobile game is accessible on both iOS and Android devices. No Man’s Sky No Man’s Sky is a stunning game that allows you to explore an alien planet and different locations in outer space. Your objective is to collaborate with your team to construct bases throughout the universe. With hours of narrative content to enjoy at your own pace, it stands out as one of the most relaxing games available. You can play it on Steam, Microsoft, Xbox, and PlayStation. Transport Tycoon Transport Tycoon is a video game series where you set up transportation infrastructure around your own town. These tycoon games teach you how to think creatively and solve problems surrounding transportation management. But many of the concepts may also be relevant to managing businesses or other organizations. There are various levels with different problems to solve. So it’s ideal if you want to be constantly challenged. Read More: farming games Fiz – Brewery Management Game If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a brewery, Fiz – Brewery Management Game should be at the top of your list. Like other business simulation games, you’re responsible for creating a brand and product and managing your budget. But it all has a beer-related spin. This resource management game is available for Android devices. What is the best resource management game? The best resource management games may vary based on your preferences and the level of challenge you’re looking for. However, some top options include Megapolis, Stardew Valley, and Jurrasic World Evolution. To find the best management games for your preferences, browse the entire list above and try the ones that appeal to you, or watch game plays and review videos on YouTube for a closer look. Read More: relaxing games Image: Depositphotos This article, "Resource Management Games for Small Business Owners" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Bullion surpasses October peak as traders stockpile in New YorkView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Bose is a recognized name in audio tech and has been making capable active noise-canceling (ANC) headphones since 2016, when the company launched the QuietComfort line of devices. Right now, you can pick up the Bose's QuietComfort headphones for $179, $170 off the original price of $349. This is the lowest price they've reached, according to price-tracking tools, making them a good bet if you're looking to get a high-performance pair of ANC headphones without spending a fortune. You can get them "unopened" (which is exactly what it sounds like) from Woot for the lowest price they've ever been. Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship. Bose QuietComfort ANC, Hi-Fi Audio, full EQ, 24-hour battery, multi-point connection, Aware Mode. $179.00 at Woot $349.00 Save $170.00 Get Deal Get Deal $179.00 at Woot $349.00 Save $170.00 Bose headphones are often found at the top of any roundup of the best headphones on the market and have been consistently praised for years. The Bose QuietComfort lineup in particular excels in comfort (hence the name) and ANC. If those are features you're after, these headphones are worth considering, especially at this price point. (If you're looking for earbuds, the ANC Bose QuietComfort Earbuds and open-ear Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are also at their lowest price right now.) Keep in mind that this is the lesser model in the current QuietComfort line; Bose released both the Bose QuietComfort and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra in 2023. The Ultras are more high-end and include extra functionality, but they retail for $250 more and aren't necessarily the best bet for every user—if you don't care about Bluetooth 5.3 versus 5.1, immersion mode (which allows you to hear the audio as if it is coming from different directions), or other extraneous features, you can save yourself some money and go with the basic Bose QuietComfort. These headphones can connect to multiple devices at once, so you can seamlessly transition from one device to the next. They also offer a transparency mode that lets you hear your surroundings while wearing them, a customizable EQ so you can listen to your music how you like it to sound, and an impressive 24 hours of battery life, according to PCMag's "excellent" review. Also worth noting: They have physical buttons rather than touch controls, which will be a plus or a minus, depending on your preferences. View the full article