A passenger on board the Iona said she had "the worst Christmas" of her life.
P&O Cruises
A cruise passenger had "the worst Christmas Day" of her life on board P&O Cruises' Iona.
She tweeted that her party that included seven children had to queue for two hours for dinner.
Another Iona passenger said the "Christmas party spirit" had gone when she was eventually seated.
A cruise passenger said she'd had "the worst Christmas day" ever after she and her party were forced to queue for two hours to have dinner.
The passenger, named Claire, tweeted P&O Cruises about her experience on the Iona: "The worst Christmas Day of my life, was given a 8.15pm booking although have 7 children with us and then a 2 hour wait in a queue."
Her comments were first reported by The Times of London.
Margaret Hardcastle, another passenger on the Iona, told Insider that restaurant reservations "played no bearing in what we were given."
After arriving for an 8:15 p.m. booking, she "soon realized that this queue, of several hundred people possibly, was just to get into the Horizon buffet."
By the time Hardcastle was seated, she said "the Christmas party spirit had gone for everybody. People were tired, bored, hungry, keen to get fed." Dinner was "okay," but some Christmas touches were missing, she added.
After posting a video on social media, Hardcastle was offered a table in the ship's top "fine dining" restaurant for New Year's Eve. "My anticipated repeated fiasco has been averted," she told Insider.
A spokesperson for P&O Cruises told Insider: "We are so sorry for those guests affected by an isolated IT issue on Iona which caused a delay to dining for a proportion of guests on Christmas Day. This service was certainly not up to our usual high standards and we wholeheartedly apologise."
"We are doing everything possible to ensure our guests have a wonderful holiday for the rest of their time on board this cruise and enjoy all the activities, entertainment and celebrations."
The Iona is the biggest cruise liner ever built for the UK market, with more than 30 restaurants and bars and a capacity of 5,200 passengers, according to the website cruisecritic, which said it has the "feel of a lively but classy floating resort".
The ship is due back in Southampton, England on Monday after sailing to the Canary Islands, Portugal and Spain.
The problems come after passengers on another P&O cruise ship, the Arvia, said Christmas Day was an "absolute disaster," with some waiting until 11 p.m. to have dinner.
A retired software developer moved to a tiny home community and is now mortgage-free.
EJ Runyon bought a "Hobbit"-style home for $30,000 and says it's now worth about $50,000.
The owners of the community said about 70% of its residents are single women over 45.
In a field outside Knoxville, Tennessee, a fast-growing community is accommodating residents in their own homes for as little as $20,000.
A retired software developer told Insider how she went mortgage-free by leaving her traditional home behind to move into a "Hobbit"-style dwelling where most residents are single women over the age of 45.
'Family from 170 total strangers'
EJ Runyon, an author, moved to the community after living in New Mexico and New Hampshire when she realized she could afford to buy a home outright.
The 65-year-old spent $25,000 on a bespoke "Hobbit"-style home in 2020, and another $10,000 on renovations and three years of ground rent to live in the community. The home was designed by Incredible Tiny Homes, which made some adjustments to the property at Runyon's request.
The home is a wooden structure with a circular door reminiscent of those in the fictional Shire. The interior is 160 square feet and there's also an elevated 36 square foot sleeping area accessible by ladder.
She has since had the property appraised by an insurer, which said it was now worth more than $50,000. But the financial windfall pales in comparison to other benefits Runyon has reaped from living tiny.
Runyon says she "wasn't a hugger" before she moved to the enclave. But after setting up a support group for tiny home residents before moving to Tennessee, she has found intimacy easier.
Runyon will go for breakfast with other residents on Sundays, while there are four libraries in the area. She says other helped her get over the loss of a friend last July.
The village also hosts pot luck dinners and are designing a section to play the game horseshoe.
"I'm just amazed at the level of family you can find from 170 total strangers," Runyon said.
Runyon is one of several residents able to go largely debt-free by living in low-cost dwellings made by Incredible Tiny Homes. Residents pay $200 per month for a lot in the village.
The story echoes "Nomadland", the film based on older Americans who lived nomadic lifestyles in vans or RVs after losing jobs or houses.
Tiny home community "The Beach" is outside Knoxville, Tennessee.
Tiny House Giant Journey
With housing costs soaring as mortgage rates rise to their highest level since 2006, Americans are finding new ways to settle down. Many have opted to live in vans, while one person told Insider how she had decided to sell her van to mainly live out of her car.
This tiny home village, though, lets people stay put and build connections while scaling back their expenses.
Incredible Tiny Homes
Randy Jones, the owner of Incredible Tiny Homes, began building a tiny home community which has grown into a thriving village of more than 170 people. He now makes hundreds of tiny homes a year.
The community has become a hit with retirees. Jones estimates about 70% of the residents are single women over the age of 45. Some are widows, others are divorced.
"The ones that we've talked to are mainly alone either in an apartment or a big house that they couldn't maintain. Now, they have their tiny house," said Amanda Hayes, who runs the community with Jones.
"They're going to the stores together. They're going on hikes together, they're going to each other's houses. They needed this community and they crave it so much."
I know now how that Air Canada passenger must have felt after flying British Airways from Heathrow to Basel, Switzerland on December 20. My partner and I had one large checked-in suitcase and two cabin bags.
Having previously reported on passengers' woes, I was wary when asked to check in my carry-on bag as well.
However, the agents were very convincing and kept saying it'd get to Basel no matter what. "We promise it will, otherwise you can sue," one joked.
They wanted me to check the bag because my flight was "full." After asking several times if my bag would make it on the plane, I gave in.
We boarded almost an hour late but landed just 10 minutes behind schedule and then made our way to the luggage carousel.
It was then that a text message appeared on my phone: "We are sorry to report that 1 checked bag/s did not reach your flight today. Please go to the airport baggage desk for more info." It also contained a reference number for the claim the airline had already opened for me.
I spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out exactly which bag was missing. It was, of course, my carry-on containing all my clothes, underwear, jacket, and other essential items worth about $1,000 all up.
After we got picked up at the airport, we went to a store to get some new socks and underwear. The following day we went shopping to get some shirts and trousers at a cost of more than $400.
A spokesperson for British Airways told Insider: "We always do everything we can to reunite our customers with their delayed baggage as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused."
The airline has told me it would reimburse me for the purchases and add 25,000 Avios (frequent flyer) points to my account.
I appreciate how busy it gets over the holiday season and that airlines must deal with thousands of these problems every day. However, I underestimated just how stressful it is if your luggage goes missing.
I was annoyed at myself for not trusting my instincts – and there was still room left in the overhead bins when we boarded the flight.
Twitter has reportedly stopped paying rent at some offices, including its headquarters in San Francisco.
Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Bathrooms at Twitter's San Francisco HQ are dirty amid a lack of janitors, per the New York Times.
Some staff are bringing their own toilet paper from home as the office has been left in disorder.
Twitter failed to negotiate a new contract with a janitorial company after they went on strike.
Some Twitter employees are bringing their own toilet paper to work after the company cut back on janitorial services, the New York Times reported.
The company's San Francisco headquarters have been left with dirty bathrooms and the office is in disarray, per the publication. The stench of leftover takeout food and body odor is present throughout the premises, four current and former employees told The Times.
It comes after Twitter's janitors took strike action earlier this month. One union blamed the strike on unfair labor practices. The company didn't negotiate a new contract with Flagship, the janitorial company that employs them, according to unions.
Twitter also stopped paying rent for the office in Seattle, The Times reported, which cited two people familiar with the matter. The company reportedly stopped paying rent at other offices in recent weeks, including its headquarters in San Francisco. To cut costs, the company is trying to renegotiate the terms of its agreements or exit them altogether, per the report.
Elon Musk has attempted to save around $500 million in costs unrelated to labor, the Times reported, citing an internal document. The Boring Company's CEO Steve Davis, who reportedly slept at Twitter's headquarters with his partner and newborn baby, is supervising the cost-cutting exercise. He is being assisted by Jared Birchall, the head of Musk's family office, per the Times.
Some Twitter managers have been advised to take a "zero-based budgeting" approach to minimize spending, according to the cost-savings document seen by The Times.
Twitter launched a fire sale earlier this month after putting several office items up for auction in an attempt to recoup costs. Bidding for items including iMac monitors, office chairs, and refrigerators will begin on January 17.
Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
Tech experts say employees laid off by startups and small firms are also in demand by recruiters.
AndreyPopov/Getty Images
Tech workers laid off by startups don't generally get as much support as those from giants like Meta and Twitter.
Tech experts told Insider that workers from startups are just as valuable as those from big tech firms.
They explained three reasons why tech talent from startups are in high-demand with companies.
Tech firms have laid off thousands of employees this year to brace for the upcoming recession.
Over 150,000 tech workers have been laid off in 2022, according to the latest data, with Meta and Amazon laying off over 10,000 employees last month.
Many of big tech's former employees have since taken to social media to share their experiences of being laid off in viral posts, and have been inundated with job offers. After one former contract recruiter at Meta, Stephanie Washington, shared a post about being laid off on LinkedIn and got over five million views, she received interview offers from Lyft, Amazon, and TikTok.
But employees laid off by startups are not so lucky. Hundreds of startups and small to mid-sized companies have also let go of staff including firms like SwyftX, Bybit, Polly, and DataRails.
One recruiter Adam Karpiak said in a LinkedIn post: "Absolutely hate how laid off folks only seem to get help when it's a company that people know.
"Don't get me wrong, I feel for everyone, but I can't imagine being laid off and not getting much social love bc no one knows where they worked and their layoff didn't make the news."
Nikita Gupta, a technical recruiter and founder of job search company Careerflow, told Insider that recruiters feel "more confidence" in hiring people from big tech firms because they have already cleared a "grilling" application process before.
But she emphasized that workers laid off by startups also have relevant skills and qualifications that can help them land roles.
Gupta and another expert offered three reasons why employees from startups are in high demand with companies.
1. Employees at startups have more expansive experiences
David Richards, CEO of software firm WANdisco, said he prefers to hire startup employees because they already have "a wide variety of skills."
"The thing is about a really big company is that often you're a small cog in a very big process and it's almost like you're a piece on the production line," Richards explained adding that a "great brand name" isn't enough to get hired.
He said if he had the option to choose between a laid-off employee from Twitter and an employee laid off by a less well-known firm with the same credentials, he'd likely choose the latter.
"[At big tech firms] the scope of your job is so narrow that you don't get exposure to the wide variety of things that you do in a small company for example, in a small company, if I don't build this feature the company might go out of business. But at Twitter, if I don't build this feature, nobody cares."
Richards asked: "How many people at Meta have been for a beer after work with the CEO? Zero."
Workers at startups have more access to senior management like the CEO which means "your proximity to the strategy of the business is much closer than it is in a larger company where you don't really understand why decisions are being made, or what the objectives of the business are."
2. It's about brand impact
Gupta said that employees who have done impactful work at their companies are the most valuable hires.
In interviews, candidates who emphasize the useful contributions they made to a company like increasing profitability or other amazing work are much more valuable than those who say "I was working in XYZ tech company and I was not making any impact."
"I don't think brand matters at all," she said. "If that small startup person has a good network and good connections and the person has made an impact, then no one can stop that person."
3. Big tech employees are overwhelmed with offers
Often big tech employees who have been laid off and gone viral on social media are overwhelmed with messages and offers, so reaching out as a recruiter has little impact.
"Even if I leave a message there, even if I reach out to the person, they might already have a job," Gupta said.
Gupta said she wouldn't "rely" on a big tech employee for a role, but instead continue her sourcing and outreach to other candidates.
"If I'm getting a candidate from a smaller company or a startup and I'm filling my role by those candidates, it would be good for me because the goal is to fill the role with a quality candidate," she said. "So for me it does not matter whether they're coming from Google or they're coming from a smaller firm."
On Sept 9, 2022, the probes had been traveling for 45 years.
This is what Voyager 1 saw on its approach to Jupiter.
A time-lapse Voyager 1 took as it approached Jupiter in 1979.
NASA/JPL
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 reached Jupiter in 1979. They took about 50,000 pictures of the planet in total, which greatly exceeded the quality of the pictures scientists took from Earth, according to NASA.
The pictures taught scientists important facts about the planet's atmosphere, magnetic forces, and geology that would have been difficult to decipher otherwise.
The probes discovered two new moons orbiting Jupiter: Thebe and Metis....
Jupiter and two of its moons, as seen by the Voyager probes.
NASA/JPL
...as well as a thin ring around Jupiter.
A false-color image of Jupiter's ring, discovered by the Voyager probes.
Voyager 1's biggest discovery was volcanic activity at the surface of Io, one of Jupiter's moons.
A picture taken by the Voyager probes uncovered volcanoes at the surface of Io.
NASA/JPL
Next stop: Saturn
NASA used three Voyager 2 images — taken through ultraviolet, violet and green filters — to make this photograph.
NASA/JPL
In 1980 and 1981, the probes reached Saturn. The flyby gave scientists unprecedented insight into the planet's ring structure, atmosphere, and moons.
Voyager taught scientists about the detail of Saturn's rings.
A Voyager probe took this false-color image of Saturn's rings on August 23, 1981.
NASA
Voyager captured Enceladus, Saturn's moon, in unprecedented detail.
Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, as seen by Voyager.
NASA/JPL
This picture, taken as the probe flew away, provided a unique view of the planet.
Voyager 1 looked back to Saturn on November 16, 1980, to give this unique perspective on its rings, partially covered in shadow.
NASA/JPL
By 1986, Voyager 2 had made it to Uranus
Voyager 2 captured these images, in true color (left) and false-color (right) of Neptune in 1986.
NASA/JPL
Voyager 1 continued straight on and would not come across another planet on its journey out of the solar system.
But Voyager 2 kept on its exploration of our nearest planets, passing within 50,600 miles of Uranus in January 1986.
Its pictures of Uranus' largest moons also uncovered 11 previously unseen moons.
The Voyager probes' pictures of Miranda, Uranus' moon, revealed its complicated geological past.
NASA/JPL
Here is a picture of a Miranda, Uranus's sixth-biggest moon.
Voyager 2 was the first spacecraft to observe Neptune from a close distance.
Neptune, seen in false color by Voyager 2 in 1989. Here, the red or white coloring means that sunlight is passing through a methane-rich atmosphere.
NASA/JPL
In 1989, 12 years after its launch, Voyager 2 passed within 3,000 miles of Neptune.
A picture shows the blue Neptune in full.
Neptune, as seen by Voyager 2 in 1989.
NASA/JPL
A picture shows Triton's rough surface.
Triton, as seen by Voyager 2 in 1989.
NASA/JPL
It captured Triton, Neptune's moon in unprecedented detail.
Another shows Triton's southern hemisphere.
Neptune, as seen by Voyager 2 in 1989.
NASA/JPL
It captured Neptune's rings.
Neptune's rings.
NASA/JPL
Here, Voyager saw the crescent shape of Neptune's south pole as it departed.
Neptune, as seen by Voyager 2 in 1989.
NASA/JPL
Voyager 2 would never take pictures again. Since it wouldn't come across another planet on its ongoing journey, NASA switched off its cameras after its flyby of Neptune to conserve energy for other instruments.
Voyager took 60 images of the solar system from about 4 billion miles away.
Voyager 1 provided the solar system's portrait in 1990.
NASA/JPL
As its last photographic hurrah, Voyager 1 took 60 images of the solar system from 4 billion miles away in 1990.
It gave us the Earth's most distant self-portrait, dubbed the "pale blue dot."
This is the Earth, seen from 4 billion miles away.
NASA
This is likely to remain the longest-range selfie in the history of humankind for some time: a portrait of the Earth from 4 billion miles away.
Beyond the solar system
This artist's concept shows the general locations of NASA's two Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 (top) has sailed beyond our solar bubble into interstellar space, the space between stars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Though the probes are no longer sending pictures, they haven't stopped sending crucial information about space.
Even after their instruments are switched off, the probes' mission continues.
A collage shows the two sides of NASA's golden record, which is onboard the Voyager probes.
NASA/Insider
Now NASA is planning to switch more off the probes' instruments with the hope of extending their life to the 2030s.
But even after all instruments become quiet, the probes will still drift off carrying the golden record, which could provide crucial information about humanity should intelligent extraterrestrial life exist and should it come across the probes.
This article was originally published on June 6, 2022.
Russia has lost Europe as a key buyer of its energy after the Ukraine war.
Getty Images
Russia's Gazprom saw its exports to key foreign markets shrink 46% this year, per Bloomberg.
Gas output is forecast to fall to 412.6 billion cubic meters this year, marking a 20% drop from 2021.
Exports fell after Russian gas flows to Europe got squeezed this year amid the fallout from the Ukraine war.
Russian energy giant Gazprom saw its exports to key markets fall this year to its lowest level since the start of the century as the Kremlin cut flows to Europe, according to Bloomberg.
Gazprom delivered 100.9 billion cubic meters of gas to countries outside the ex-Soviet Union, CEO Alexey Miller said Wednesday in the company's Telegram channel, per the outlet. That marks a 46% drop from 2021.
The firm's gas production declined to 412.6 billion cubic meters this year, Miller added. That represents an annual drop of almost 20% and the lowest level since at least 2008, per state media.
Russian energy exports to Europe, one of its biggest buyers, slumped this year as Moscow cut gas flows in retaliation to the economic sanctions slapped on the country after it invaded Ukraine.
It curbed supplies to the EU via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline in August, prompting many European leaders to accuse Moscow of weaponizing energy to create an economic crisis.
But in a turn of events, Russia's deputy prime minister Alexander Novak told TASS news agency this week that Moscow is prepared to resume some gas flows to Europe.
As Russia loses out on its key European market, it's been diverting large volumes of fuel to buyers in India and China. In 2020, Gazprom sent 4.1 billion cubic meters of gas to China, then 11 billion in 2021. And next year, that figure is expected to double.
Venture capitalists shared what they're expecting from the electric-vehicle industry in 2023.
Dünzl\ullstein bild via Getty Images
2023 is set to bring even more momentum to the electric-car industry than 2022 did.
Insider asked six venture capitalists what they expect to see in 2023.
They said to look out for a battery bonanza.
The electric-vehicle industry gained a lot of momentum in 2022: Car companies are spending more than $515 billion to pivot from gas engines to electric ones, and that requires a whole lot of battery, charging, supply-chain, and manufacturing know-how.
Even with challenges — and some executives' losing faith in the EV biz — the industry can't turn back on its ambitions. To get a sense of what to expect out of the industry in 2023, Insider surveyed six venture capitalists who monitor the many big companies, startups, sectors, and trends brewing in the world of EVs. Here's what they think.
Redwood Materials, a recycling startup, plans to break ground on its second plant in the first quarter of 2023.
Redwood Materials
A battery bonanza and a reworking of supply chains
Venture capitalists think the EV push — especially in the US — can only see more success with improvements in battery supply chains and manufacturing. It's no surprise this is the area they expect to see grow the most in 2023.
Stakeholders, car buyers, policymakers, and more can anticipate all sorts of opportunities in batteries, particularly as the industry reinvents the way it has long been doing things.
"What's going to be relevant both in '23 and probably for the next seven to 10 years is how do we reshore — or just shore, period — our EV and overall battery supply chains?" said Aidan Madigan-Curtis, a partner at Eclipse Ventures. "There's a lot of pressure on these supply chains to figure out how we do things efficiently."
"One of the areas that we're most interested in exploring is on the mineral discovery side," she said, adding that she also anticipates raw-materials processing and production of battery cells to gain momentum. "Pack manufacturing is where we see the biggest opportunity right now."
"Expect to see higher-energy-density, faster-charging batteries, and pack-level innovations get more traction," Rajesh Swaminathan, a partner at Khosla Ventures, told Insider.
One VC thinks the industry could be at a tipping point with charging infrastructure.
Robert Knopes/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
"The infrastructure capital is coming in," said Brian Walsh, the head of Wind Ventures. "It's an indication that the risk of deploying EV-charging infrastructure has reached a point where it's no longer risk capital" — or otherwise risky.
While it's been difficult to determine where exactly to install charging stations, as more people buy and drive EVs, companies have more insight into where charging would be most beneficial.
"The second wave is happening now, and it's going to correct or address a lot of the shortcomings" of existing infrastructure, Walsh said. "We can also now predict, as the Amazon fleet, for example, grows, where they will have to have charging hubs."
People gather around Faraday Future's FF91 electric car at CES in 2017. Five years later, the company has experienced all sorts of challenges.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
A shakeout is still to come
Chris Stallman, a partner at Fontinalis, predicted that more automaker commitments, government support, and public interest will continue to bolster the EV transition in 2023. Stallman is confident in the industry, even with a shakeout possible.
"Customers and investors are becoming more discerning, and automakers, dealers, consumers are coalescing around what they truly want and need," Stallman told Insider.
Keep an eye out for companies that simply won't be able to make it. "The reality is that it is unlikely that every company will succeed, but some will certainly do so," Stallman said.
Alexei Andreev, a managing director at AutoTech Ventures, said a shakeout could come in the battery industry, where hundreds of startups are racing to compete with giants.
"It's a question of capital formation and investment decisions. If I'm LG, if I'm Samsung, if I'm SK or BYD or Panasonic, they do what they know the best," Andreev told Insider in the fall. "But as a startup, I have no chance to compete with those established players.
"My take is it will be a miracle if even one of them will make it," Andreev added.
The autonomous-vehicle industry took several hits in 2022, but General Motors is still optimistic about Cruise.
But Robert Ravanshenas, a partner at Maven Ventures, said he expects municipalities to start capitalizing on what AVs can offer for cities next year. He predicted self-driving consumer transportation will pick up next year, following on big advances in 2022 by the likes of Waymo and Cruise.
"As a result, all pieces of the transportation supply chain," he added, "will begin developing second-order technologies that enhance the experience within autonomous vehicles."
GoodLeap enlists celebrities and entrepreneurs to help make electrifying your home cool.
The NFL Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez and the actor Shailene Woodley are on the 10-member council.
GoodLeap is the largest financier of residential solar loans in the US, with 28% of the market.
Tony Gonzalez calls himself a "deathbed thinker."
The former NFL tight end and Pro Football Hall of Famer told Insider he often reflected on whether, in life's final moments, he'd be proud of his choices.
The tendency led him to join a star-studded advisory council at GoodLeap, a fintech company that's financed more than $19 billion in residential solar and green-home retrofits since 2018.
Its 10-member council is stacked with Hollywood celebs like Edward Norton and Shailene Woodley and business veterans including former General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt who are tasked with raising the profile of a mundane climate solution: electrifying your home.
Homes account for about 15% of US greenhouse-gas emissions because so many use fossil fuels for light, heat, air conditioning, and cooking, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These emissions have generally been on the rise for two decades.
Gonzalez, who's also invested in plant-based-food companies like Beyond Meat, told Insider the climate crisis was the most important issue of his — and his children's — lifetime.
He invested in GoodLeap following a chance meeting with the company's founder and CEO, Hayes Barnard, who was named to Forbes' billionaire list for the first time in November because of his company's growth. GoodLeap is the top provider of residential solar loans, with a 28% share of the market.
Gonzalez said the company hit the mark in three ways: saving people money on their utility bills, creating jobs, and benefiting the planet. He is featured in GoodLeap ads promoting workers who install solar panels, calling them "warriors of light."
The ad campaign and advisory council was dreamed up by Barnard, who told Insider it's part of a broader effort to educate the labor force and homeowners about the benefits of decarbonizing where they live. He acknowledged that unlike owning a sleek electric car, it's difficult to make installing solar panels or replacing an HVAC system cool. But if people knew that it could save them money amid rising energy prices or provide a stable career path, they might get excited, Barnard said.
The solar-installation field is growing faster on average than any other occupation, with job openings expected to jump 27% by 2031, the Labor Department reported. The median wage is nearly $48,000. The growth is buoyed by new tax breaks and rebates under the Inflation Reduction Act for homeowners who install green technology like solar panels, home-battery systems, or electric appliances.
A new model for solar loans
Solar installers are among the 40,000 contractors using GoodLeap's app, which allows homeowners to apply for a low-interest fixed-rate loan with no money down to finance green upgrades. The loans are bundled and sold off to banks and other financial institutions, just like mortgages. Homeowners can claim green tax credits to reduce their federal tax bill, as well as use the savings in their energy bills toward monthly loan payments. The default rate is less than 1%, Barnard said.
One solar installer that GoodLeap worked with, Pink Energy, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in October and is under investigation by at least nine attorneys general over customer complaints about power systems that didn't work as promised. The officials asked GoodLeap to suspend the loans of affected customers until the investigation was complete. Jesse Comart, a spokesperson for GoodLeap, said the company vetted all its contractors to ensure they met high standards and that it's working with customers influenced by Pink Energy's issues.
GoodLeap's model is different from Barnard's first foray into the solar industry. He founded Paramount Solar, which was acquired in 2013 by SolarCity, where Barnard became chief revenue officer. The companies leased solar systems to customers through tax-equity financing, in which investors funded projects in exchange for the tax credits.
"It was too complicated," Barnard said. "We needed a very simple way for consumers to own the system. They should get the tax credit."
Barnard left SolarCity after it was acquired by Elon Musk's Tesla in 2016 and founded GoodLeap, formerly known as Loanpal. By then, banks no longer considered residential solar so risky, Barnard said, and GoodLeap's model made it easier for less-wealthy homeowners to install solar power or other renewable-energy upgrades.
GoodLeap provides loans to customers with credit scores as low as 600, and in its two largest markets, California and Florida, about one-third of its customers were considered low income based on the definition used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Comart said.
Expanding access for less-affluent communities was important to Stephen DeBerry, the founder of the social-impact fund Bronze Investments and a member of GoodLeap's advisory council. The clean-energy transition will be a huge inflection point in the global economy, and he doesn't want it to exacerbate the inequality he's witnessed his whole life, from the South Side of Chicago to East Palo Alto, California.
"Part of my work has always been making sure folks who typically are unconsidered are considered," DeBerry told Insider. "I'm also a venture capitalist, and you can get paid to fix the problem. So my job is to make sure people understand that."
But even with negative undertones, this year was pivotal for the industry's $515 billion push to leave the internal-combustion engine behind.
It was the year the industry (and other stakeholders) figured out how to make electric cars actually work.
"There were some slowdowns in the industry — certainly not with regards to EV sales but a lot of waiting for vehicle delivery, supply-chain issues, EV charging stations," Stacy Noblet, the vice president of transportation electrification at the advisory firm ICF, said. "A lot of people in the industry were taking a step back and using what might have been a lull in the action to really assess what kinks need to be worked out for the longer-term success."
Here's a look at what made 2022 so important for the EV space — and why 2023 and beyond will likely be even more significant.
Momentum this year showed the EV space just what it needed in terms of charging.
Robert Knopes/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Plugging in
As auto companies promised more out of their EV businesses this year, the problems around charging all these plug-in cars continued to come to light.
Before this year, EV adoption hadn't been widespread enough to largely expose the influence of subpar charging infrastructure. Plus, a majority of existing EV drivers own Teslas, which maintains its proprietary nationwide Supercharger network.
That led to industry collaborations and mergers and acquisitions in charging this year. Automakers started to take the matter into their own hands. And fortunately, the industry got a massive boost from the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including $7.5 billion for EV-charging build-out.
For the most part, the business has yet to see those dollars spent in a meaningful way — so charging will continue to be a hurdle for widespread EV adoption.
But momentum this year showed the space just what it needed in terms of charging to make this all happen.
This year, automakers like Rivian, GM, and Ford started addressing the lithium shortage.
Lithium Americas
Batteries
The industry saw this year start and end with the battery-supply crisis, which isn't going away anytime soon.
All this battery talk made the industry realize just how critical the battery space would be for a successful EV transition — and how a functioning, newly thought-out supply chain was the way to make EVs work. The question remains whether the industry will be able to tackle the issues in time.
Startups struggled with getting the manufacturing for their flagship vehicles up and running.
Rivian
Production
For all automakers, the battles that accompany all-new EV production came to light in 2022 as the industry pushed to ramp up its EV output.
Startups, especially, struggled with getting the manufacturing for their flagship vehicles up and running. Between industrywide supply-chain constraints, logistics hurdles, and the expense necessary to run massive factories to churn out EVs for the very first time, startups were hit hard.
As a result, the business got a taste of the importance of getting production going if it wanted to accelerate EV adoption — though many think the industry has already invested too much to turn back.
"Governments are investing heavy money and tax subsidies in this space," Christian Magoon, the CEO of the investment firm Amplify ETFs, said. "Corporations are embracing the model rollout and the new features and benefits that continue to happen on the EV side. And the companies that are mining and processing metals have more work than they know what to do with.
Dogs who are fed home-cooked and human-grade meals poop less, scientists found.
It's a practical benefit but is also more costly and time-consuming than feeding them kibble.
It's not clear whether human-grade food is better for dogs' health, experts said.
Using human-grade food makes your dog poop less. But it may not be better for their health.
A 2021 study followed the poop output of 12 dogs fed "fresh" dog food (from the FreshPet brand), classic dog food ( from Blue Buffalo), or "human-grade" beef or chicken dog food (JustFoodForDogs) for 28 days.
The study found that the dogs pooped around half as much when eating fresh and human-grade food — a drop of 50% to 70%. They also had to eat less food to maintain the same weight.
Though this has an obvious practical benefit — less poop to pick up — experts said it's not clear how that affects the health of the dogs.
"If you want a smaller poop when they go down the Manhattan sidewalk, feeding a home-prepared type of diet is definitely a better option for low stool volume," Joseph Wakshlag, professor of clinical nutrition at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, told Insider.
But outside of that, the effects are unclear, he said.
Wakshlag says the study was just one of a dozen looking at the effect of home-cooked meals on dog nutrition. None so far have definitively shown that kibble or canned food is worse for the dog's health or lifespan, he said.
"The only thing we know is that digestibility is better. That just means I get more nutrition from what I'm putting in than what's coming out," he said.
"Is that better? Is your dog gonna live longer? Is your dog not gonna get a certain disease? We don't know that," he said.
A woman holds a dog in a park
Oscar Wong/Getty Images
The risk with feeding your pooch a home-cooked meal is also that you might not strike the right balance of protein and vitamins for your pet, which is different from the nutritional needs of humans, Wakshlag said.
Kibble, on the flip side, has been specially designed to concentrate all the protein and vitamins your pet needs in a small portion.
It's true that kibble and canned food have to be treated to extend their shelf life. In the process, molecules that could be bad for your dog's health appear in the food.
But they are in very small quantities — comparable to the effect of barbecue-grilling a steak, which also adds unhealthy particles, Wakshlag said.
Feeding your dog high-quality or home-cooked meals can also be expensive and time-consuming, Wakshlag noted.
"Home cooking requires time commitments and the right balance. It can be done — it's just, as I say to people: you don't like spending $120 on a bag of dog food, a high-end therapeutic food, or whatever, so you're gonna cook. It's still gonna cost you $4 a day to feed your dog," said Wakshlag.
Kelly Swanson, professor of animal and nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois and lead author on the study, told Insider in an email that owners should also be wary of labels.
"The 'natural,' 'organic,' and 'human-grade' terms all refer to the source of ingredients. While those ingredients may be of high quality (e.g., nutrient-dense; highly digestible), it does not guarantee that the diet will be," he said.
"The formulation (how ingredients are used together to make a complete and balanced diet), nutrient concentrations (e.g., what protein, fat, and fiber levels), and amount and type of processing (e.g., extrusion; retorting/canning; pasteurization; baking) of the diet are also very important factors," said Swanson.
Donald Trump said he never asked Ivanka and Jared Kushner to join his 2024 campaign.
He said he told them not to be part of it because people would be "too mean and nasty."
Recent reports have suggested that the pair are distancing themselves from Trump's politics.
Former President Donald Trump said he told his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner to not be a part of his 2024 presidential campaign, following speculation that the pair are distancing themselves from him.
"Contrary to Fake News reporting, I never asked Jared or Ivanka to be part of the 2024 Campaign for President," Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he founded, on Monday.
"In fact, specifically asked them not to do it - too mean and nasty with the Fake & Corrupt News and having to deal with some absolutely horrendous SleazeBags in the world of politics, and beyond."
Trump's daughter and son-in-law were some of his closest advisers during his presidency and both his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
However, the pair have stepped back from Trump's political career since he lost the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection took place.
They have also distanced themselves from the former president's baseless election fraud claims.
"I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family," she said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I do not plan to be involved in politics."
A recent profile of Trump in New York Magazine also reported that Kushner had refused to help his father-in-law after his controversial dinner with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, both of whom have made antisemitic comments.
Elon Musk says Twitter users will be able to switch off new Twitter view counts.
AP
Elon Musk says Twitter users will be able to switch off new view counts.
View counts appear next to retweets and likes on tweets.
They rolled out on December 22 and immediately generated complaints from users.
Elon Musk says Twitter users will be able to switch off new view counts, days after the social-media platform introduced the feature.
Responding to a user complaining about the new feature's "messy" look, Musk said on December 24 that Twitter planned to "tidy up the esthetics" and "add a setting to turn it off."
Musk originally announced Twitter had started rolling out the new feature on December 22. Similar to a count already in place for video, the new view counts display the number of times a tweet has been seen alongside the number of likes, comments, and retweets.
Some Twitter users have been complaining about the new feature, with one describing it as "useless" and "distracting."
The feature originally got support from Jack Dorsey, Twitter's cofounder and former CEO. In early December, Dorsey called the planned feature a "much better metric."
Twitter did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the view count feature made outside working hours.
Musk has overseen the introduction of several new Twitter features since he purchased the platform in late October, including Twitter's new paid subscription model. Rollouts haven't always gone smoothly.
Twitter Blue hit a roadblock in November when the platform was flooded with users impersonating public figures and brands almost immediately after it launched. The company was forced to pause the subscription service and find another way to mark out official accounts.
Paola Andrea Fernández de Soto Abdul-Rahim holds her son, Jakob Kamil Guziak, inside their Edmonton house.
Kyler Zeleny
UCLA researchers are restarting a study to give a gene therapy to kids with an ultra-rare disease.
While the one-time therapy is safe and effective, the drug industry has been uninterested.
The treatment is complex and costly, and the number of patients with SCID is tiny, limiting profits.
Researchers are now restarting a clinical trial to treat children with a severe immune disorder, giving hope to patients with a disease that drug companies have largely abandoned.
Donald Kohn, a longtime UCLA professor and researcher, is leading development of the one-time gene-therapy treatment.
His team, along with other researchers, published results last year after treating 50 patients who have a type of severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, called ADA-SCID. All 50 kids were still alive at least two years after treatment, and over 95% required no additional treatment.
Despite the success, a tiny biotech company gave up on Kohn's therapy, returning the license to him earlier this year after failing to apply for regulatory approval. The result is that at least 28 children with SCID are now on a waitlist hoping to access the treatment.
Without gene therapy, doctors treat kids with SCID using enzyme-replacement therapies, if they are ineligible for bone-marrow transplants. Despite the availability of enzyme therapy, roughly one in five children with ADA-SCID dies before turning 20.
'Buying time'
Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration gave its OK for Kohn to restart his study, Kohn told Insider. David Jensen, an independent journalist for The California Stem Cell Report, first reported on the news.
In an email to Insider, Kohn said he expects to be able to treat between three and six patients with his current funding. Kohn hopes UCLA's institutional-review board will sign off on his research plans in January, allowing him to start enrolling patients. He hopes to treat the first patient by March and an additional patient every two to three months.
"Right now, we are buying time," Paola Andrea Fernández de Soto Abdul-Rahim, the mother of a child with ADA-SCID, told Insider in May. "We cannot wait forever."
Insider followed up with her to discuss the news that Kohn is restarting his study. She said that she doesn't know when doctors can treat her son, but hopes he can get the opportunity some time in 2023.
An uncertain future for rare-disease treatments
Despite the positive update, much remains unclear about the future of Kohn's treatment and gene therapies for rare diseases overall. Drug companies have shown little interest in the treatments because the complexity of the treatments and tiny number of eligible patients limit potential profits.
Kohn said UCLA and University College London, which control the intellectual property for this therapy, are talking with several commercial-stage gene-therapy companies about licensing the therapy out.
Drug companies have deprioritized or shelved gene-therapy programs to treat a range of rare diseases, including Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, MPS, Batten disease, chronic granulomatous disease, Rett syndrome, and Fabry disease. One expert previously dubbed this deprioritization and shelving "the Great Abandonment" in a conversation with Insider.
Some researchers have started discussing nonprofit models that could make these therapies accessible, but much of that work remains in the early stages. Kohn added that his team plans to have discussions to see if they can make this therapy available in a non-commercial, academic setting as well.
Despite founding a company that prides itself on prioritizing employee wellbeing and sustainability over profits, Chouinard grew up scrimping and saving during his career as a professional rock climber.
Chouinard lived an unusual lifestyle in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, in part because the nature of living in the wilderness as a climber and in beach shacks as a surfer deprived him of modern comforts, and in part because of a desire to save money, especially during the early days of Patagonia.
Here are some of his wackiest budget tactics during the earlier years of his life, as recounted in his 2005 autobiography "Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman."
As a young adult, Chouinard had to adapt his life to the great outdoors so that he would get the best opportunities for climbing and surfing. For example, in 1957, Chouinard and his friends lived in a hut on the beach in San Blas, Mexico, for a month, eating fish and tropical fruit, and using candles from the local church to wax their surfboards, he wrote.
He also got gas money "by diving into trash cans and redeeming soda pop bottles" in the late 1950s. "One time I found an entire freezer load of partially frozen meat," he added.
Before founding Patagonia, Chouinard made a living selling climbing equipment from the back of his car. "The profits were slim, though," he wrote. "For weeks at a time I'd live on fifty cents to a dollar a day."
One year he and a friend bought a couple of cases of damaged cans of cat food in San Francisco and took those out to the Rockies for the summer, where their diet consisted of oatmeal, potatoes, ground squirrel, blue grouse, and porcupines they killed with an ice ax, he said.
It wasn't just food that he saved money on.
When traveling with his friends in the late 1950s, "we were always sick from the bad water and couldn't afford medicine," he said. He said that they would take charcoal from the campfire, mix it with a half cup of salt in a glass of water, and drink the mixture so that they would vomit. Over time he gradually gained natural "immunity" to poor-quality water, he claimed
Even as his business grew, Chouinard continued to minimize both personal and business costs.
In 1966, Chouinard set up a base for his equipment business, Chouinard Equipment, in a rented tin boiler room of an abandoned packing company slaughterhouse in California. The company's first retail store was in an "ugly tin shed" decorated with old wood, he wrote.
Chouinard had some unorthodox living arrangements, too.
"I slept two hundred days a year or more in my old army-surplus sleeping bag," he wrote. "I didn't buy a tent until I was almost forty, preferring to sleep under boulders and the low-hanging branches of an alpine fir."
In the early 1970s, he and his wife lived in a beach shack for half the year and spent the summer months in the back of an old van until his wife converted the basement under their retail store into a makeshift apartment.
Even now, Chouinard still wears old clothes, drives a rundown Subaru, and has two modest homes in California and Wyoming, The New York Times reported. He doesn't even own a computer or cellphone, according to the publication.
Ford is aiming is to build 150,000 F-150 Lightnings a year at its revamped Dearborn, Michigan factory, double its initial target.
Nora Naughton
Ford is aiming to build 150,000 F-150 Lightnings a year at its revamped factory.
The EV assembly line is more spacious and less cluttered than the typical car factory.
Ford is rushing to fill 200,000 reservations for the F-150 Lightning.
Ford is already cranking out all-electric F-150 Lightnings on three shifts at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan as the company continues expansion work at the factory.
Ford added the new production shift in November at the same time it completed two large additions to the Dearborn, Michigan factory. It increased square-footage by some 300,000 square feet, plant manager Corey Williams told reporters earlier this month.
Ford's aim is to build 150,000 F-150 Lightnings a year at the factory, double its initial production target. The car company upped its production targets after it had to cap reservations for the truck at 200,000 late last year.
Through November, Ford had sold 13,258 F-150 Lightning trucks.
At the production launch of the Lightning this spring, CEO Jim Farley said he wants to overtake Tesla as the number one seller of electric cars in the US.
The Lightning is a key part of Ford's stated global EV sales target of 600,000 vehicles by the end of next year. The expansions at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center are just part of a $30 billion shift toward electric vehicles. Earlier this year, Ford restructured its business to place more focus on its electric division, now called Ford Model e.
To see just how Ford is building that future, Insider toured the F-150 plant. Here's what we saw.
An automated assembly line
Partially built F-150 Lightning cabs move on automated pallets down the assembly line at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan.
Nora Naughton
Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Plant is equipped with automated pallets that move partially built F-150 Lightnings from station to station on the assembly line.
Timed assembly stations
Factory worker installs parts on the F-150 Lightning assembly line.
Nora Naughton
The F-150 Lightning stops at each human-staffed assembly station, where a timer lets employees know how long they have to install their assigned parts before the truck needs to move on. Ford is trying to increase output at the factory to fill the 200,000 reservations it received for the all-electric truck.
Robots work alongside humans
Robots work on an electric F-150 Lightning.
Nora Naughton
Another automated pallet on the assembly line stops with the undercarriage of an F-150 Lightning at a station manned by robots, which are programmed to complete some precise work on the vehicle. It will move next to a human-staffed station where other work will be performed and checks will be made.
From robot to human
An assembly worker takes over after a robot did work on an F-150 Lightning.
Nora Naughton
An assembly worker takes over after this partially built F-150 Lightning stopped at a robot-manned station. The workers can move freely between stations and around the vehicle as it moves down the assembly line. The automated pallet it's carried on senses when a person or other vehicle crosses its path and comes to a stop.
Less clutter
A partially built F-150 Lightning is suspended next to some of the automated pallets that move the vehicle around the factory.
Nora Naughton
Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is less cluttered than the average vehicle assembly factory, illustrating how much less complexity is built into an EV. The United Auto Workers union, which represents Ford's assembly workers, has warned for years that EVs will require fewer jobs than their gas-powered counterparts.
Active worksite
An expansion of Ford's REVC is still under construction while the existing assembly line continues work.
Nora Naughton
At the end of the existing assembly line, an expansion has already been erected and the interior is under construction. Inside this addition, work on a new mechanism to carry vehicles above the the assembly line is already underway. Here, Ford can validate this new technology while the existing line continues to crank out trucks.
Charging up
Completed F-150 Lightnings fill up at charging banks in Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
Nora Naughton
Completed F-150 Lightnings fill up at charging banks in Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
End of the line
A completed F-150 Lightning reaches the end of the assembly line at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
Nora Naughton
A completed F-150 Lightning reaches the end of the assembly line at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
Finished product
A completed F-150 Lightning awaits charging.
Nora Naughton
A completed F-150 Lightning awaits charging and other inspections after completing its journey on the assembly line at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
