In the kind of boring but important news bulletin that you'd typically hear at the beginning of, say, a James Bond movie, a mysterious group of wealthy shipping tycoons is buying up the oil supertankers. A Seoul-based firm has bought about 120 very large crude carriers over the past month or two, a position so large th...

? peanut butter ? A new study found that the most popular condiments among Americans were peanut butter (79 percent love or like), jam or jelly (76 percent), honey (76 percent), followed by ketchup, maple syrup, barbecue sauce and salsa (each 75 percent). A banner performance for tomatoes, great job. Among the more pop...

..it's not what you say..it's how you say it? A survey of Americans in relationships asks which topics were the most likely to be the subject of arguments. The key conclusion is that it's mainly about how we're talking to each other. All told, 36 percent said that they at least "sometimes" argue about tone of...

At OpenAI, alarm bells came from three different employees this week: A researcher quit after two years due to "deep reservations" about ChatGPT's new ad strategy, namely "a potential for manipulating users," she wrote in an essay for the New York Times. A top safety executive was fired after opposi...

New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that about one million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans last year, with 9.6 percent of balances at least 90 days past due. As of September, 3.3 million borrowers were between 31 and 270 days late on payment and 3.6 million were technically i...

The title of this is a song from Mercy Me but this devotional is from Adrian Rogers: A wise man looked back on his life and asked himself, "If I could do it all over again, what would I do differently with my family?" He said, "I would love my wife more in front of my children. I would laugh with my chil...

A new survey from the Pew Research Center found that 16 percent of Americans said they had directly paid for or given money to a news source by subscribing, donating or becoming a member in the past 12 months. Overall, just eight percent of respondents said they believed that individual Americans have a responsibility ...

It's curling's time to shine, as the Winter Olympics standout - chess on ice! - is once again hitting the airwaves. Its year-round fans hope to capitalize on the sport's prime time placement and grow membership in the 170 clubs across the United States, according to USA Curling. The governing body sees what's happened ...

Viewership for Bad Bunny's halftime show at Super Bowl LX came in at 135 million, according to initial reports from Apple yet to be confirmed by Nielsen. Were those figures to pan out, this puts Bad Bunny narrowly ahead of the viewership of the Kendrick Lamar halftime show in 2025 (which had 133.4 million tune-ins) to ...

Yum Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, plans to close 250 restaurants out of over 6,000 in the United States during the first half of the year, as Pizza Hut struggles to compete amid growing competition. Same-store sales dropped five percent last year, while over at archrival Domino's, same-store sales rose 2.7 percent. It'...

Professional athletes have an incentive to play in US states like Florida and Tennessee, and it's not for the proximity to Disney World or Dollywood. They are among the states without income taxes-meaning those huge contracts are worth even more there than in other states. For example: Mikko Rantanen spent the first 10...

Refrigeration typically requires the use of refrigerants, chemicals that can be dangerous for the environment if they were to escape. Researchers have been studying other alternative means of cooling, and some at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have published a paper in Nature describing the first elasto...

Jolly Rancher sales in 2024 hit $400 million, up 25 percent year over year, as demand for fruity flavors rose and confectioners tried to play up their non-chocolate offerings in light of high prices for cocoa. Hershey has also expanded the hard candy brand substantially, stretchig it into gummies, ropes, freeze-drie an...

Milk in the United States has transformed slowly but surely, and it's causing problem for the cheese and butter supply chains. In 2000, the average dairy cow made 670 pounds of fat in her milk per year, a level which today stands at 1,025 pounds of fat per year. That's a triumph of dairy science, but it's caused an ove...

The Kansas Institute of Tornado Dynamics is projecting an active 2026 tornado season in the Central Plains, projecting 1,450 to 1,600 tornadoes occurring in the United States. High-risk regions include Central Oklahoma, Eastern Kansas and Northern Texas. The forecast also includes a 22 percent higher chance of an EF3 o...

...dads are... With 393,812 vehicles sold last year, minivan sales were up 21%, compared to just 2% growth for car sales over all, according to research firm Edmunds. SUVs remain the most popular among people who want roomy cars, as minivans only account for 2.4% of the car market, Edmunds's director of innovation told...

Black and white was okay. Tube were great. Flat screen good enough... Television companies have quietly given up on pushing 8K televisions, in recognition that consumers generally seem to consider 4K televisions more than sufficient for their needs, and virtually no native 8K content is even made available. The first 8...

Have you heard of the "Sunday scaries"? It's a relatively new term that describes the stress many people experience on Sunday afternoons when they start thinking about everything they need to handle or accomplish once the work (or school) week begins. According to a recent poll, 49% of adults are burdened wit...

After three years of declining sales, toy sales were up globally by seven percent in dollar terms. Licensed toys were up 15 percent, rising to 37 percent of global toy sales. That rise was led by Pokémon, which is the top property in the world, followed by Hot Wheels, Barbie and Star Wars. All told, collectibles...

A new study out of the University of Michigan assessed the lifetime ownership costs of used vehicles bought in year three and driven until year 10, including insurance costs, repairs, maintenance and the value retained on the vehicle between purchase and sale. Overall, in the mid-sized SUV category, used electric vehic...