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☆ New York will ban gas stoves in new buildings in an effort to meet emissions reduction goals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

New York will ban gas stoves in new buildings as part of its new budget agreement. The GOP vilified similar propositions earlier this year, enlisting gas stoves into the culture wars. The ban on natural gas in new buildings will phase in at the end of 2025, and it will not apply to current gas stove owners, the Times reported. The Consumer Protection Safety Commission said in March it was seeking information as to the potential health risks of gas stove emissions in the home, including a potential link to childhood asthma. The budget deal also allows the New York Power Authority to manufacture and own wind and solar energy projects, the Times reported.

☆ Yasmeen Lari, ‘starchitect’ turned social engineer, wins one of architecture’s most coveted prizes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Nicole Mowbray | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Yasmeen Lari, widely recognised as Pakistan’s first female architect, has become the first woman since Zaha Hadid to win the prestigious Royal Gold Medal, awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Lari created the Zero Carbon Cultural Centre in 2011. The Pakistan State Oil Head Office in Karachi (shown here in 1984) was designed by Lari. RIBA President Simon Allford said, “Lari’s mission during her ‘second’ career has empowered the people of Pakistan through architecture, engaging users in design and production. “It’s about seeing how you can help build communities.”Top image: Yasmeen Lari at the Zero Carbon Women Center on Bamboo Stilts in Pakistan, 2011.

☆ Republicans want to ban banning gas ovens as part of their legislation to raise the debt ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republicans have finally put their demands for the debt ceiling in writing and released legislation. They also want to preserve consumers' access to gas stoves, a fiery issue for the right. When Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, told Bloomberg that the agency was contemplating banning gas stoves, uproar ensued. Ultimately, the CPSC said it wasn't looking to outright ban gas stoves, and instead wanted to look how to reduce potentially hazardous emissions from stoves. What remains to be seen, then, is if McCarthy has enough votes to pay the country's debts and hold onto gas stoves.

☆ Real-estate investor Anne Curry has built a 311-unit portfolio since obtaining her first rental property in 1997. She shares the no-money-down strategy she used to scale up— and how she eventually wor
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Anne Curry started her real-estate investing journey in 1997. She laid out for Insider in detail the method she used to scale up, starting with hard-money lenders. By the time they were ready to move out, the property had just about doubled in value to $124,000, Curry said. According to property tax documents viewed by Insider, she now owns a 59-unit property, a 30-unit property, an 14-unit property, and two 12-unit properties, as well as several smaller multifamily properties. Curry said the property was a good deal because big commercial real-estate investing firms weren't interested because it was considered affordable housing.

☆ This is what happened when 25 AI avatars were let loose in a virtual town
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Researchers let 25 AI avatars loose in a virtual town. "To be honest, I don't like Sam Moore," the AI Tom said. Jaime Sevilla, an AI researcher not involved in the study, told Insider the models behind the study could be applied to non-player characters in video games. After all, the AI agents in the study were prone to hallucinations — like failing to recall certain events — which he attributes to how the model was trained. While researchers concluded their AI agents displayed emergent human behaviors, Woolridge said "we need to be skeptical" and "question" what AI tells us at face value.

☆ Kyrgyz eco-activist's 'trashion' tackles a burning problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Kyrgyz artist and environmental activist Cholpon Alamanova poses for a picture in her workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 30, 2023. Alamanova and her team of more than 80 women use the Kyrgyz traditional patchwork sewing technique, kurak, in order to recycle the textile waste, usually burned in landfills, into colourful blankets, clothes and accessories. In doing so, her workshop has become part of a global "trashion" trend promoting the use of recycled, used, thrown-out and repurposed elements to create garments, jewellery and art. The task engenders a warming feeling that motivates her to keep doing it, says Alamanova, while helping to keep alive the tradition. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ I started making candles from a humble craft kit and grew it into a million-dollar business. Here are the steps I took to go from Etsy to Nordstrom.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Lola Christina Alao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tamara Mayne started making candles as gifts for her family with a store-bought candlemaking kit. I thought: Why not try and make some extra cash from selling candles on the side? I also started selling on Scoutmob — a now defunct website where buyers could discover independent makers, while still selling on Etsy and Squarespace. After a few weeks of just selling candles, I decided to pick up some freelance art-directing work to cover the bills. Our candles cost between $28 and $38 because of our increased overhead, when I first started selling them I was charging only $16.

☆ The Masters were caddied by only Black men for nearly 50 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Located just three miles from The Masters venue, the historically Black district lay adjacent to Augusta Country Club. Eventually, many would hop across Rae’s Creek to begin work at Augusta National. A “good bag” at Augusta National would pay up to $5, Maben said, offering $20 for a particularly lucrative day’s labor. The 1983 Masters saw the first White caddies walk the greens at the major, with just 19 Black caddies on the bag, Clayton said. This year, the Lucy Craft Laney Museum will put the legacy of Augusta’s Black caddies – quite literally – center stage.

Persons: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Willie Peterson caddied Nicklaus ’, Nathaniel “, ” Avery, Peterson –, –, Augusta, Nicklaus, Peterson, Augusta caddies, Leon Maben, Lucy, Lucy Craft Laney, Ward Clayton, “, ” Palmer, ” Clayton, …, Maben, Jerry ” Beard, caddie, Fuzzy Zoeller, John P, caddying, Willie “ Pappy ” Stokes, Stokes, Henry Picard, Ben Hogan, Hogan, Beard, Zoeller, Augusta “, Clayton, ” Maben, ” Beard, Heinz Kluetmeier, Tommy “, ” Bennett, Woods, scalding, John H, Stovepipe ” Gordon, Frank “, ” Stokes, Matthew “ Shorty Mac ” Palmer, Avery’s, Gordon, Gene Sarazen, Sarazen, Willie “, Perteet, Dwight D, Eisenhower, ”, ’, ‘, We’re, caddies, Jim Crow, Ron Townsend, Lee Elder, Elder, Andy Lyons, Townsend, ” Carl Jackson, Ben Crenshaw, Jackson, Crenshaw, “ Gentle Ben ”, Watson, Jamie Squire, Harvey Penick, ” Jackson, you’re, Andrew Redington, Avery, Palmer, Augusta caddies – Stokes, It’s Organizations: CNN, Augusta National, Bettmann, Getty, Augusta Country, Lucy Craft, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of, . Augusta National, ”, Augusta, ESPN, National, PGA, Augusta Country Club Locations: Georgia, Cedar Grove, Sand, Black, Augusta, caddies, Clayton, America, ”, Perteet

☆ ‘Retracing the Iron Curtain’ Review: The Border of Borders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Andrew Stuttaford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 2019, writer and historian Timothy Phillips embarked on a 3,000-mile trek along the route of Europe’s postwar dividing line—almost a third was on foot. The trip began in Norway’s far north and ended where Turkey and Azerbaijan meet, and in his engrossing “Retracing the Iron Curtain,” Mr. Phillips uses that journey to tell the story of this brutal “border of borders,” which in the early days after World War II reached much further than is typically recalled. And so Mr. Phillips shows up in Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, which was still being “liberated” by the Soviets when Churchill spoke of an Iron Curtain. The Soviets eventually left, with conditions—just as there were conditions when they handed back Porkkala, a Finnish peninsula a few miles west of Helsinki that for a decade or so had been an exclave of the Leningrad region. The Soviets departed abruptly, but when the Finns returned home, “it wasn’t so much a case of the coffee still steaming on the stove as of the smoke still rising from the wreckage.”

☆ I work in a naked spa. It's exhausting and so much fun – but every now and then we have to stop people from getting intimate.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Andy Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Felix Kühn manages the sauna at a "textile-free" spa in Berlin, Germany. "It's a very physical and exhausting job, but I have so much fun with it," says Kühn. I started at Vabali Spa Berlin in December 2014. I was working in a pizza shop and on the first day of my university geography studies in Berlin, I met a guy who told me they were looking for people to work at the sauna at Vabali Spa Berlin. It's a very physical and exhausting job, but I have so much fun with itI still do sauna infusions.

☆ Travelers who don't know how to go off the grid bring 7 suitcases and a microwave to stay in a yurt, according to owners of rustic Airbnbs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Travelers may crave a break from their phones, but going off the grid can prove difficult for some. Courtesy of the KernohansIn Missouri, Michael Loftis built an off-the-grid cabin for his family, but eventually moved them to a town nearby. Many guests are quick to ask Kernohan if bears or other wildlife are a threat to their stay. Courtesy of Michael LoftisTo add to the rustic mood of his cabin, Loftis has furnished it with antiques, including a clawfoot tub and a 1920s gas-powered cookstove. Thankfully, she was safe, but it reminded Loftis that many guests are unfamiliar with old-school appliances.

☆ Some Etsy sellers say they're shutting their stores until the platform clears up any risk of non-payment from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Etsy sellers have started putting their shops on "vacation mode" to lower the risk of non-payment. The e-commerce platform used the Silicon Valley Bank to process payments to their sellers. This new move from some Etsy sellers comes as Etsy reels from the fallout of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation dissolved Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a disastrous bank run. Silicon Valley Bank's collapse is the largest bank failure in the US since the 2008 financial crisis.

☆ A former Starbucks barista shares how she makes 5 popular drinks at home: 'It's easy and just as good'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Stefania Marzelia | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Home recipes inspired by Starbucks' most popular drinksI recommend purchasing a moka pot, which is a stove-top or electric coffee maker. Here are some of my favorite at-home recipes, inspired by popular Starbucks drinks (based on a 16-ounce cup size): 1. Add some ice and pour espresso over it. Pour milk in. Heat to desired temperature (I heat mine to 150 degrees) and pour into a coffee mug.

QADIS, Afghanistan — When the temperatures plunged far below freezing in Niaz Mohammad’s village last month, the father of three struggled to keep his family warm. One particularly cold night, he piled every stick and every shrub he had collected into their small wood stove. He scavenged for trash that might burn, covered the windows with plastic tarps and held his 2-month-old son close to his chest. Ice crept across the room: It covered the windows, then the walls, then the thick red blanket wrapped around Mr. Mohammad’s wailing son. “The cold took him,” Mr. Mohammad, 30, told visiting journalists for The New York Times, describing the details of that horrible night.

REUTERS/Lisi NiesnerLUCH, Ukraine, Feb 27 (Reuters) - For a Ukrainian village devastated by war, Cold War bunkers built to withstand a nuclear attack that never happened have proven a lifeline for residents who have spent much of the past year living in them. In April, with their village caught between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Gynzhul, her husband Dmytro and their son moved into a warehouse basement, just before their second-storey apartment was shelled. Ukrainian soldiers pushed the Russians south away from Luch last autumn and by early November had recaptured Kherson city. Gynzhul and the others in her bunker live off humanitarian aid and her 4,000 hryvnia ($109) per month salary from her administrative job in the village. Bunker resident Iryna Sichkar said her son was captured early in the war in Mariupol.

☆ This collection of minimalist homes with a California flair are built in a factory, trucked to their final location, and start at $1,680 per month — take a look inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Each Abodu has laminate flooring, with three different color options for buyers to choose from. The kitchen of a one-bedroom Abodu ADU in San Jose Courtesy of AboduThey also come with Bosch appliances including a dishwasher, refrigerator, oven, hood, and electric stove. Everything in this unit runs on electric. In the kitchen of this one-bedroom Abodu ADU in San Jose, the countertops are quartz and the cabinetry has a matte-black finish. The hanging lamps are an add-on called the hanging concrete pendant.

☆ Seeking a Studio in Downtown Brooklyn for Less Than $400,000: She Was Surprised by the Options
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The first time Jenn Leyva moved to New York, it was to start college at Columbia University. She took Zoom calls in a corner of the communal living room and made sure to always wash her dishes. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]She was pleasantly surprised by the options she found online: a handful of studios for less than $400,000, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, in the corner of the borough where leafy Brooklyn Heights meets Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. “Studios were cheap, because everyone was still working from home and wanted a one-bedroom with a separate sleeping space and work space,” Ms. Leyva said. “But my work space is in Manhattan.”She teamed up with Leora Blumberg Rubinstein, a realtor with Douglas Elliman, who approved of her strategy.

[1/4] A man sits outside after an earthquake in Antakya in Hatay province, Turkey, February 20, 2023. The fear that kept her awake at night for two weeks had now come true. "I will pick you up and we will leave," Havva told her daughter. On Tuesday, Reuters saw Havva with Mehmet and her two daughters just outside Antakya city centre, boarding a bus that would take them to Edirne free of charge. Murat Vural, a 47-year-old blacksmith, who was at the camp on Monday night, likened the earthquake to religious stories about Antakya.

☆ 6 ways shopping sites trick you into buying more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Danni Santana | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Online retailers use psychological tricks and tools to get consumers to make purchases. But we're shopping online now more than ever before, and these subtle nudges are starting to feel more widespread. Buy online, pick up in storeBuy online, pick up instore was all the rage during the pandemic. So much of how we shop and make purchase decisions is subconscious, he said, and while you may rationally know that scarcity is a marketing tactic, your subconscious doesn't. Tips for avoiding retailers' marketing tricksJust being aware of these marketing tactics isn't enough to protect you from them, Goldberg said.

☆ How Solo Stove turned backyard fire pits into a $400 million empire
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Sam Rega | Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow Solo Stove turned backyard fire pits into a $400 million empireThis is Solo Stove. Known for its smoke-free backyard fire pits and camping stoves, the brand was started in 2011 by brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan. It's grown from Kickstarter campaigns to a $2 billion valuation when it went public in 2021 as Solo Brands under CEO John Merris. That same year, it acquired outdoor brands, Chubbies, Oru Kayak and Isle while generating about $404 million in revenue. Here's how Solo Stove turned fire pits in a multi-million dollar empire.

☆ Turkish mother tries to survive for her children in earthquake-hit Hatay
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Bulent Usta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Parlakgun family return to their tent with mother Tulay pushing baby Salih in a shopping trolly through the destroyed streets in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey February 14, 2023. "He likes the shopping trolley. We are trying to get by like this," she said as she stroked 3-year old Salih and hugged her older son. With her sister and mother in Hatay Province in southern Turkey, the 38-year-old Parlakgun sits outside and cooks soup in the street on a stove. The first time she entered her house after the earthquake she looked for blankets for her children, she said.

Brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan didn't have to reinvent the wheel to build a $400 million company with a cult following. Their company, Grapevine, Texas-based Solo Brands, makes the Solo Stove — a backyard fire pit that the Jan brothers describe as a "virtually smokeless" campfire alternative. As of Tuesday morning, the company now has a $406.74 million market cap under the stewardship of CEO John Merris, who signed on in 2018 after meeting with the brothers. "I remember in that first conversation with them, Spencer and Jeff telling me that they had reinvented fire," Merris tells CNBC Make It. Then, the brothers sent Merris home with a Solo Stove — and the first time he tried it out on his Texas ranch, he was "absolutely blown away."

☆ I landed my dream job at Disney after growing up in a refugee camp. This is how I made it to Hollywood after a childhood interrupted by war
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Eboni Boykin-Patterson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

She says the road to get where she is was not typical — she grew up in refugee camps in Mozambique. I'm a production coordinator on "Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur." I was hired full-time when my placement was over, and had the opportunity to interview and move over to "Moon Girl." We lived in the refugee camps. Food and water were always a source of stress when living in the refugee camps.

☆ I tried 25 of Trader Joe's award-winning foods, and would buy at least 21 of them again
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Savanna Swain-Wilson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +42 min

I hit up my local Trader Joe's and bought as many award-winning foods as I could to see which ones deserved their hype. In other words, I agree with the many customers who have dubbed this their favorite Trader Joe's snack. As long as I live within reasonable driving distance of a Trader Joe's, I will continue to buy this loaf. Trader Joe's butter chicken with basmati rice is a satisfyingly spicy comfort meal for oneTrader Joe's butter chicken with basmati rice had a delicious sauce. Trader Joe's cheddar with caramelized onions offers a memorable balance of savory, salty, and sweetThe cheddar smelled like caramelized onions.

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☆ Amid Gas-Stove Debate, Some Makers Bet on Induction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( John Keilman | Photography David Walter Banks For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Some big stove makers are betting on an electromagnetic future, developing models that companies say can cook much faster than traditional gas and electric versions. Manufacturers of GE, Viking and other stove brands have been expanding their lineups of induction ranges and cooktops, electric appliances that use a magnetic field to heat pots and pans in what the companies bill as a speedy, precise and energy-efficient manner.

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