McDonald’s was having a rough 2024. An E. coli outbreak made it worse | CNN Business

February 11, 2025February 10, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Visits to McDonald’s plunged because of an E. coli outbreak last fall — and so did its profits.

Fourth-quarter sales at McDonald’s locations open for at least one year fell 1.4% in the United States, a reversal compared to the same time period a year prior when sales rose 4.3%. The rough quarter only compounded with the rest of a tough 2024, with McDonald’s value perception slipping among its cash-conscious customers, many of whom ended up eating elsewhere.

“Our performance in 2024 did not meet our expectations,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said on a call with analysts Monday. “It was a big year, and at times it felt like McDonald’s was part of almost every major news story, reflecting the reach and visibility of our brand.”

Trump instructs Treasury to halt penny production | CNN Business

February 11, 2025February 10, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he has instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt the production of pennies, citing the high cost of producing one cent.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” Trump said in a post to social media as he returned to Washington from the Super Bowl.

The penny has been under fire for years, with the movement to eliminate the penny picking up steam last month after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency posted on X calling attention to the high cost of producing the single-cent coin.

Ford lost $5 billion on its EV business in 2024—and things could get worse this year | Fast Company

February 6, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ford Motor on Wednesday projected up to $5.5 billion in losses on its electric vehicle and software operations this year, a loss similar to last year and a sign of the severe difficulties in cutting costs on battery-powered models.

The automaker forecast overall profitability for 2025, but even that was lower than in 2024. For the fourth quarter, it reported a net profit of $1.8 billion, up from a loss of $500 million in the year-ago quarter as pension-related costs weighed on results.

The company’s shares were down nearly 5% in after-hours trading

Nevada dairy cows have been infected with a new strain of bird flu | Fast Company

February 6, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that’s different from the version that has spread in U.S. herds since last year, Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday.

The detection indicates that distinct forms of the virus known as Type A H5N1 have spilled over from wild birds into cattle at least twice. Experts said it raises new questions about wider spread and the difficulty of controlling infections in animals and the people who work closely with them.

February is ‘a month of bright planets,’ NASA says in new skywatching update | Digital Trends

February 3, 2025February 2, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The moon has “many engagements” with the planets in February, NASA said in its monthly update on what to look out for in the night sky.

Throughout February, so long as clear nights prevail, you’ll be able to see the moon in the night sky along with many of our solar system’s planets.

The easiest to spot is Venus, looking brilliant in the west after sunset. “February is a month for love, so what better time to spotlight Venus, which is associated with the Roman goddess of love?” NASA said in its latest skywatching video (above).

Facebook owner Meta to pay $25m to settle Trump lawsuit over ban | BBC News

January 30, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

US President Donald Trump has signed a legal settlement that will see Facebook and Instagram owner Meta pay out roughly $25m (£20m).

Trump sued the social media giant and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2021 over the suspension of his accounts after the 6 January Capitol riots that year.

In July 2024, Meta lifted the final restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the lead up to US presidential elections.

The settlement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

US economic growth slows despite consumers spending more | BBC News

January 30, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Economic growth in the US slowed at the end of last year, as trade and investment declined and the country was hit by hurricanes and labor strikes.

The economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.3% between October and December, down from 3.1% in the three months before, according to the US Commerce Department.

The pace, fuelled by solid growth in consumer spending, was nevertheless weaker than economists had forecast.

The figures come amid heightened uncertainty about the path for the world’s largest economy, as US President Donald Trump calls for a policy shake-up.

Apple fixes zero-day flaw affecting all devices | TechCrunch

January 29, 2025January 28, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple released the latest updates for its iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems on Monday, which included switching on Apple Intelligence by default for newer devices.

As part of this batch of software updates, Apple also released several patches fixing security bugs, including a zero-day bug that “may have been actively exploited” — meaning hackers were using it to compromise devices — against users with iPhones running software older than iOS 17.2, which was released in December 2023.

The bug was found in Core Media, the media engine that powers a range of Apple devices, and is now fixed across its product line, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple TVs, Apple Watches, and its mixed-reality headset, Vision Pro. Apple said hackers could have “elevated privileges” by exploiting a memory corruption bug, which would have allowed broader access to a device’s data.

DeepSeek triggered a wild, baseless rally for some Chinese stocks | TechCrunch

January 29, 2025January 28, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Chinese AI company DeepSeek made global headlines for helping spark a massive sell-off in U.S. tech stocks on Monday, with Nvidia dropping almost 20%.

In China, the hype around DeepSeek has sent shares of some public companies with supposed ties to it soaring. The problem: There’s no evidence these companies ever invested in or cooperated with DeepSeek to begin with.

Rumored DeepSeek investors Huajin Capital and Zhejiang Orient popped by 10% on Monday, while a research company called Sublime China Information jumped 20% for supposedly cooperating with DeepSeek on its AI models.

Uber CEO: Autonomous Vehicles Will Take Over Drivers Soon | Entrepreneur

January 28, 2025January 27, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Rideshare driving was the most-searched side hustle last year, garnering nearly 31,000 monthly Google searches, per a Creative Fabrica study. More than seven million people drive or deliver with Uber alone every month.

However, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview on Friday that driving for Uber is only a safe gig for the next decade. After that, autonomous vehicles, or cars that drive themselves, will take over the same routes humans drive today.

“You fast forward 15, 20 years, I think that the autonomous driver is going to be a better driver than the human driver,” Khosrowshahi told the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern at WSJ Journal House Davos. “They will have trained on lifetimes of driving that no person can, they’re not going to be distracted.”