All posts tagged: fall

Never-Before-Published Harper Lee Stories Coming This Fall

Never-Before-Published Harper Lee Stories Coming This Fall

Published by skeptic

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Never-Before-Published Harper Lee Stories Coming This Fall Big book season just got bigger. A new collection of Harper Lee’s writing is coming on October 21. The Land of Sweet Forever will present eight previously unpublished short stories from Lee’s pre-Mockingbird career, along with eight pieces of nonfiction that were originally published between 1961 and 2006. The stories, which Lee tried and failed to have published before she hit the big time, were among the papers her executor discovered after her death in 2016. Set in both the American South, where Lee grew up, and New York City, where she worked as a young adult, the stories explore the themes that would later define To Kill a Mockingbird: “small town gossip and politics, tender and tense relationships between fathers and daughters, race relations.” Two of the stories reportedly offer …

Art Experts Question Report Claiming Fall Auctions Were Worst in 25 Years

Art Experts Question Report Claiming Fall Auctions Were Worst in 25 Years

Published by skeptic

In a new report reviewing last year’s fall auction season, veteran art market analysts Michael Moses and Jianping Mei have said it was “the worst overall financial performance” for the art market this century. However, several art market experts have contested that assessment, telling ARTnews that they think the report is flawed by “sample selection bias” and gives a narrow, unnuanced view of the art market. “For the first time this century, the mean of all individual returns was negative,” reads the report, titled “How Bad Was the Fall 2024 Auction Season? Hard to Believe, But Worse Than the Spring.” It claims “52 percent of the works sold produced a negative return.” This latest report, which Moses and Mei started sending out via email at the end of December, follows an analogous one released last year by the duo. It similarly declared that the spring 2024 auction season was the worst in nearly 25 years, saying it was “financially as bad as it gets.” For the spring report, the duo analyzed about 50,000 repeat sales …

Caterpillar Shares Fall On Recalibration To “Slightly Lower” Revenue Outlook

Caterpillar Shares Fall On Recalibration To “Slightly Lower” Revenue Outlook

Published by skeptic

Caterpillar reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share that exceeded the Bloomberg Consensus. However, the Texas-based company warned that 2025 revenue is forecasted to be “slightly lower” as demand concerns for heavy equipment weighed on shares in premarket trading. There are also destock headwinds and elevated inventories impacting dealers.  Here’s a snapshot of the fourth quarter results (courtesy of Bloomberg):   Adjusted EPS $5.14 vs. $5.23 y/y, estimate $5.05 (Bloomberg Consensus) Revenue $16.22 billion, -5% y/y, estimate $16.72 billion Financial segment revenue $883 million, +6% y/y, estimate $858.3 million Machinery, Energy & Transportation segment revenue $15.33 billion, -5.6% y/y, estimate $15.76 billion Adjusted operating income $2.96 billion, estimate $3.15 billion Machinery, Energy & Transportation segment operating income $2.94 billion, -5.4% y/y, estimate $3.11 billion Financial Products segment operating income $137 million, -27% y/y, estimate $199 million R&D expenses $519 million, -6.3% y/y, estimate $538.1 million Investor focus was not necessarily on fourth-quarter earnings. Instead, Caterpillar’s 2025 outlook, disclosed in a presentation, comes at a time when China’s recovery remains fragile, and President Donald Trump is potentially escalating tariff wars with top …

Don’t Fall For These 4 Fake New Year’s Deals

Don’t Fall For These 4 Fake New Year’s Deals

Published by skeptic

Happy New Year! 2025 is now upon us, and with it comes the promise of new beginnings and clean slates. However, with the jubilations comes a wave of scams aimed at targeting people wishing to turn over a new leaf. Selling Fake Weight Loss Pills and Machines You’ll notice a recurring theme as I cover each of these tips: they all target classic New Year’s resolutions and people wanting to change their lives. The first few months of a new year are flush with people trying to get themselves back on track, which makes them ideal for scammers to target. Many people use the new year as an opportunity to shed some pounds, so scammers introduce a wide range of healthcare products during the first few months. These go from health loss pills to machines that promise to help you lose weight without exercise. As reported by the UK Citizens Advice Bureau: Complaints made to Citizens Advice include one slimmer who was told they would lose three and half inches from their waist through sessions …

One Syrian refugee celebrates the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Ohio : NPR

One Syrian refugee celebrates the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Ohio : NPR

Published by Sam

Mohammed al-Refai Andrew Trumbull hide caption toggle caption Andrew Trumbull When Syria’s dictatorship fell in early December, a celebration broke out nearly 6,000 miles away in Toledo, Ohio. At the parking lot of a Kroger supermarket, families danced and sang to Syrian music. Women ululated, and men wrapped themselves in the flag of their home country. People leaned on their car horns, expressing their joy at the end of a regime that relied on brutality and terror as a means of governing Syria for more than half a century and waged a civil war that forced millions of people to become refugees. The first time I visited Toledo to meet Syrian refugees was nearly a decade ago, on my very first reporting trip as a host of All Things Considered. At the time, a 22-year-old named Mohammed al-Refai had just arrived in the city of 265,000. His situation was unusual. After his family fled Syria across the border to Jordan, Mohammed got a visa to come to the United States. His parents and siblings did …

Active investors in game devs could fall in 2025 | Pitchbook

Active investors in game devs could fall in 2025 | Pitchbook

Published by skeptic

The number of investors active in gaming will fall further as the sector remains underinvested relative to public market capitalization. And venture capital-backed content developers will struggle to siphon market share from incumbents, according to a report by Pitchbook. The number of active investors in game developers has fallen precipitously in the past year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Pitchbook, which monitors global venture capital investments. At the same time, another report from Pitchbook noted that Discord, the gaming communications platform, has a 93% chance of going public through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025. In 2021, the gaming boom was here. Pitchbook said 2,359 venture investors wrote checks backing publishers, developers & studios (up from 734 in 2020). By 2023, the number was halved to 1,142 investors, with 2024 pacing lower yet. “We expect more of the same in 2025, with a further pullback in the number of investors backing content developers, but the industry’s long-term trajectory means the sector is underinvested relative to the $187.7 billion spent on games …

The 10 Best Men’s Topcoats are Long and Layerable

The 10 Best Men’s Topcoats are Long and Layerable

Published by skeptic

We may only be at the beginning of winter, but if you haven’t broken out the big coat yet, consider yourself lucky. There are many varieties of big coat—puffers, ski coats, parkas—and while we’re into all of them, when we think about big coats, we think about topcoats. The men’s best topcoats are those you can fit any number of layers underneath. They tend to be long, and should, for the sake of the season, be fairly heavy. Your grandparents wore them, old Hollywood celebrities wore them, and we wear them today for the very same reasons: Whether you’re stepping out in a suit or your softest old hoodie and jeans, throwing on a topcoat over it all will keep you so much warmer, and help you walk a little taller. To help you layer up like history’s most advanced dressers, we’ve gathered up 10 of our favorites below. The Winter Topcoat Hit List American Trench Highlander Balmacaan American Trench The Highlander Balmacaan Made in New York from an impossibly handsome gun-check cloth from England’s …

Do your AirPods Pro fall out of your ears? This fix changed my life

Do your AirPods Pro fall out of your ears? This $20 fix changed my life

Published by skeptic

David Gewirtz/ZDNET Of all the computer gear I own, my AirPods Pro have been the least portable. No, that’s not a typo. Let me explain. I loved my first set of AirPods Pro, even after I dropped them into a cup of coffee. They’ve continued working for more than a year since then. I recently bought a pair of 2nd generation AirPods Pro over Black Friday weekend. (You can still save $80 on them if you’re interested.) Also: Why you should power off your phone once a week – according to the NSA My biggest reason for loving my AirPods Pro is because of how easily they automatically switch between my various devices. I have two Macs and an iPhone in our family room (which doubles as our work hub), and those AirPods Pro can be connected to any of my active devices in seconds. It’s great for productivity. I also love them because I can wear them (even without any tunes playing) to noise-cancel my little puppy’s constant licking. That’s a highly repetitive sound …

Don’t Fall For This “Sad Announcement” Phishing Scam

Don’t Fall For This “Sad Announcement” Phishing Scam

Published by skeptic

Key Takeaways Beware fake “sad announcement” phishing scams, which can come off as legitimate with touching quotes and real names. Delete the message and block the sender if you receive a “sad announcement” phishing email; contact loved ones mentioned to alert them to a potential scam. If you fell for the scam, inform the payment provider, cancel bank cards, and scan for malware to minimize financial and tech damage. Some phishing scams are easy to recognize, but you’ll have to try harder in other cases. One of the most sinister schemes circulating now relates to fake sad announcements; it’s vital that you know what to look out for. What Is the “Sad Announcement” Phishing Scam? The “sad announcement” phishing scam involves someone sending you a message saying they have bad news. Most of the time, this relates to them claiming one of your loved ones has passed away. These emails almost always finish off with a thought-provoking quote. You will also see a link included, which typically looks strange. While you can use websites to …