SpaceX revenue jumps 92% but stock tumbles as investors weigh AI spending | CNN Business

August 5, 2026August 4, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company blew past expectations. But it continued to burn through cash in pursuit of CEO Elon Musk’s vision for an AI-powered, Mars-colonizing future, putting investors on edge and sending SpaceX shares down in late trading.

The newly public satellite, space, and AI behemoth brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in the April-June quarter, which SpaceX said was up 92% from the same period in 2025. But the company remained unprofitable, losing $541 million in the second quarter, following a $4.3 billion loss in the first three months of the year.

Mortgage rates climb to highest level in a year | CNN Business

August 5, 2026August 4, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Five months into the war in Iran, rising oil prices and stubborn inflation are driving mortgage rates to the highest level in a year.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.66% this week, the highest since July of last year, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 6.58% last week, marking the biggest one-week jump in mortgage rates in 10 weeks.

Just a few months ago, mortgage rates dipped below 6% for the first time in years, fueling hopes that lower borrowing costs would revive the sluggish housing market.

‘We are not giving up yet’: Private mission to rescue NASA’s Swift telescope is spinning out of control, and engineers are racing to fix it | Live Science

August 3, 2026August 2, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A private mission to rescue an ailing NASA space telescope may now need a rescue of its own. The LINK spacecraft — designed by private company Katalyst Space to boost the orbit of NASA’s ageing Swift Observatory — is reportedly spinning unexpectedly in the weeks after its launch, so much so that stabilizing the spacecraft will likely delay the telescope rescue.

Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft launched July 3 from a mid-air Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket mounted aboard a modified Lockheed Martin L-1011 airliner. The spacecraft lifted off after less than a year of development, on a mission to catch NASA’s nearly 22-year-old Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory before the telescope falls back to Earth.

Total eclipse, shooting stars, and the Milky Way: Why Aug. 12 could be the greatest single day and night for skywatching for years | Live Science

August 3, 2026August 2, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Skywatchers across North America and Europe should mark Wednesday, Aug. 12 on their calendars. From a daytime solar eclipse to the peak of the Perseid meteor shower beneath a moonless sky, the date offers an exceptionally rare combination of celestial events within a 24-hour period. Add brilliant Venus and the glowing band of the Milky Way after sunset, and the result is a full day of astronomy that could become one of the standout skywatching opportunities of the year.

The first spectacle arrives during daylight as the moon partially covers the sun across Alaska, eastern Canada and parts of the northeastern U.S. A dramatic total solar eclipse will be visible along a narrow path stretching across eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain — and that’s where eclipse chasers will be. However, about 779 million people in North America, Europe and North Africa will see at least a 10% partial eclipse, according to Time and Date.

A Business Owner’s Guide to Venmo | Business News Daily

July 30, 2026July 29, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Venmo makes it easy to split a check with a friend or even pay back your roommate for your share of the rent. But Venmo isn’t just a peer-to-peer payment app; it’s a major part of the B2C world as well. In fact, PayPal Holdings Inc., which owns Venmo, has made the platform an acceptable payment method on nearly every mobile site where PayPal is accepted.

If your small business is looking for an alternative to PayPal, it’s worth examining what Venmo can add to your company. Below, we break down everything you need to know about Venmo, from how it works to frequently asked questions

Business Banking Services Your Bank Should Offer | Business News Daily

July 30, 2026July 29, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Choosing the best bank for your business is similar to hiring the best job candidate. Your bank must have the right attributes and abilities to help you, the business owner, reach your goals and move your business forward.

When opening a small business bank account, some helpful add-on services may entice you. However, while some features may be included at no extra charge as part of a bank’s business services, others come with additional fees.

We’ll explain the business banking services you may need and share tips for choosing the right banking partner to help you grow your business.

How to Work the Night Shift And Stay Healthy | LifeHack

July 29, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In my early twenties, I loved the night shift. It was great to be able to sleep all day and stay up all night, plus the added bonus of there being less traffic during commutes and no lines at Starbucks.

Roughly 20% of the full-time workforce in the United States is involved in some form of shift work. While a few true night owls might prefer this schedule, working the night shift can be challenging for some people.

So if you’re wondering how to work the night shift and stay healthy, there are several tips and tricks for doing so. While it can be really difficult to stay on top of it, it does not mean that it’s impossible.

Bedtime Procrastination: Why You Do It And How To Break It | LifeHack

July 29, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Do you remember those childhood nights when you wished to stay up late like your parents did? The allure of one more game with your favorite toys, another episode of the cartoon you loved, would often necessitate a grown-up escort to your bedroom. It’s funny to think about it, but our habitual delaying of bedtime seemed to start early.

As we’ve grown older, this bedtime procrastination hasn’t ceased. In fact, it’s escalated. Can you relate to this? Plopped on the couch, eyes half-closed, one part of your brain screams that you should be sleeping, but the other part is whispering just one more episode, one more chapter, one more level on that game. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Ever pondered why we knowingly indulge in this habit? Why do we continue to delay sleep, particularly when we’re fully aware of its importance, especially during late-night hours?

Can this startup cool NYC’s sweltering subway stations? | Fast Company

July 24, 2026July 23, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

On a hot summer day in New York City, walking into a subway station can feel like descending into a sauna, improbably even hotter and muggier than the air outside. Unlike more modern subway stations around the world, New York’s century-old stations lack air conditioning—with staircases open to the outside air, AC would be inefficient and ineffective. And while you can blissfully cool off on the air-conditioned trains, they’re also making the problem worse: Cooling the cars means constantly pumping hot air into the tunnels and stations.

At the East Broadway station on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is launching a pilot to test a potential new solution. Tucked into arches in the ceiling and hidden behind grates, a radiant cooling system will passively pull heat from the air to cool the station with minimal energy use. In the future, the same type of system could send the heat that’s captured to nearby buildings to heat hot water, saving even more energy.

Inside PepsiCo’s digital twin revolution | Fast Company

July 24, 2026July 23, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Reconfiguring a factory used to mean shutting it down, making costly bets, and hoping the design worked in the real world. PepsiCo found a way around that. Rather than rely on engineering blueprints to solve the problem, the company used a specialized laser to scan the facility and create a digital representation that was accurate to within a millimeter. It then used this 3D model to simulate the current manufacturing process and identify production bottlenecks. This exercise gave engineers a blank canvas to experiment with new layouts that would help expand and speed up production—all before touching a single machine.

“What you’re trying to do is optimize every part of the space, from the hardware and the software to how people navigate through the space,” says Athina Kanioura, PepsiCo’s CEO, Latin America, and global chief strategy and transformation officer. “We’re taking every data point within the design of the physical infrastructure to create millions and millions of simulations to design the perfect building.”