Neanderthals may have used birch tar as more than just glue; it could have helped them ward off infection and even insect bites. People from several modern Indigenous cultures, including the Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada, use tar from birch bark to treat skin infections and keep wounds from festering. We know from several archaeological sites that Neanderthals also knew how to extract birch tar and th...
Neanderthals may have used birch tar as more than just glue; it could have helped them ward off infection and even insect bites. People from several modern Indigenous cultures, including the Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada, use tar from birch bark to treat skin infections and keep wounds from festering. We know from several archaeological sites that Neanderthals also knew how to extract birch tar and that they used it as an adhesive to haft weapons. A recent study tested distilled birch tar against the bacteria S. aureleus and E. coli and found that Neanderthals could easily have used the same material as medicine for their frequent injuries . This is the simplest step-by-step tutorial for making birch tar: find a tree, set some bark on fire, get messy hands. Credit: Tjaark Siemssen, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Medicine can be messy What we call "birch tar" in English has a lot of other names in multiple Indigenous languages, and it can range from an oily fluid to a brittle, almost solid tarry resin, depending on how long you heat it in the open air after extracting it from the bark. The Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada prefer the more fluid version, which they call maskwio'mi, for wound dressings and skin ointment. Read full article Comments
Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , down about 70% in the last six months, hit their lowest level in more than a year as investors cast doubt on the Trump administration’s efforts to sell more stock in the mortgage-finance giants to the public. The shares have been on a steep decline since mid-September, shortly after optimism peaked that a public offering for the agencies could come in 2025. T...
Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , down about 70% in the last six months, hit their lowest level in more than a year as investors cast doubt on the Trump administration’s efforts to sell more stock in the mortgage-finance giants to the public. The shares have been on a steep decline since mid-September, shortly after optimism peaked that a public offering for the agencies could come in 2025. That didn’t happen. A separate class of shares called preferred equity, which are largely owned by long-term institutional investors, have also declined. Freddie Mac perpetual shares are down about 23% in the past month, leaving them close to where they traded in the days after President Donald Trump ’s election win. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The agencies have been facing a “total unwind” due to fading clarity about plans for the companies, BTIG analyst Eric Hagen said. Plus, their shares tend to drop when yields on 10-year Treasuries — a benchmark for borrowing costs — rise, as they did on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke after the central bank held interest rates steady. “The stocks have actually become more inversely correlated to interest rates, mainly on the read-through that Trump could look to counter the impact of higher rates by exercising even more control” over the companies, Hagen said via email. Fannie and Freddie have been under Washington’s control since the Great Financial Crisis. In August, shares surged following reports that the White House had plans for an initial public offering that could value the enterprises at around $500 billion or more, and would involve selling 5% to 15% of their stock to raise about $30 billion. But few concrete details have emerged since, and the administration’s attention has seemingly shifted to other priorities, such as the war in Iran. Rising mortgage rates could also keep housing affordability a top issue,...
It has been a brutal past few months for fintech stocks, as some leaders in this space have been in free fall. Specifically, two of the most prominent and well-known fintechs -- Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ: UPST) and Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ: AFRM) -- have seen their stock prices fall roughly 36% year to date. The drops are not really based on business growth -- or lack thereof. In fact, in the most r...
It has been a brutal past few months for fintech stocks, as some leaders in this space have been in free fall. Specifically, two of the most prominent and well-known fintechs -- Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ: UPST) and Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ: AFRM) -- have seen their stock prices fall roughly 36% year to date. The drops are not really based on business growth -- or lack thereof. In fact, in the most recent quarter, Upstart, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to process loan requests, grew loan originations by 86%, increased revenue by 64%, and was profitable for the third straight quarter with $18.6 million in net income. Affirm, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) specialist , saw gross merchandise volume increase 36%, revenue spike 30%, and net income rise 61%, year over year. The issues for both of these stocks are more related to their high valuations, since both are trading at around 58 times earnings. And that's down from December price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios of 168 for Upstart and 107 for Affirm. Continue reading
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images News Listen below or on the go via Apple Podcasts and Spotify Fed holds rates steady as Middle East uncertainty clouds outlook. (0:16) Dot plot still pencils in one rate cut this year. (0:37) Powell will wait until investigation ‘ well and truly over .’ (1:20) The following is an abridged transcript: This is a special Fed edition of Wall Street Lunch Amid what one econom...
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images News Listen below or on the go via Apple Podcasts and Spotify Fed holds rates steady as Middle East uncertainty clouds outlook. (0:16) Dot plot still pencils in one rate cut this year. (0:37) Powell will wait until investigation ‘ well and truly over .’ (1:20) The following is an abridged transcript: This is a special Fed edition of Wall Street Lunch Amid what one economist calls a “central banker’s nightmare” of inflation and labor market risks, the Federal Reserve clearly thinks discretion is the better part of valor. In what one analyst described as “the least surprising decision ever,” the Fed held rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% . The policy statement was largely unchanged, aside from noting that developments in the Middle East are “uncertain.” That uncertainty extended to the new Summary of Economic Projections , which still penciled on rate cut this year. In fact, Fed Chairman Powell described the new dot plot as a case of Fed members just having to “write something down,” and given the limited view on the oil shock they’d have preferred to skip it altogether if they could. The biggest shift in the projections was higher inflation in 2026, with both headline and core PCE seen at 2.7%, still above the Fed’s 2% target. “Basically, these projections assume no real impact from the war - presumably because it’s too early to tell what those effects will be,” economist Dario Perkins said. During the press conference , Powell acknowledged the balancing act, saying it remains unclear whether inflation or labor market weakness poses the greater risk. Away from monetary policy, Powell said he has no intention of leaving the Fed until the Justice Department investigation is “well and truly over” and would serve as chairman pro-tem if Kevin Warsh’s nomination is delayed. He added he hasn’t decided to stay on as a Fed governor once the matter is resolved. Further highlights: Powell said oil producers are unlikely to boost output unless prices stay sha...
EquipmentShare.com Inc (Nasdaq: EQPT) (“EquipmentShare” or the “Company”) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 3
EquipmentShare.com Inc (Nasdaq: EQPT) (“EquipmentShare” or the “Company”) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 3
Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The AMD-Meta partnership My last analysis on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) stock was published on February 8. It served as a review for its FQ4 earnings and rated the stock a Hold. Since then, a key development that caught my attention is the deal it announced in late February with Meta Platforms ( META ). More details are quo...
Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The AMD-Meta partnership My last analysis on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) stock was published on February 8. It served as a review for its FQ4 earnings and rated the stock a Hold. Since then, a key development that caught my attention is the deal it announced in late February with Meta Platforms ( META ). More details are quoted below for readers not familiar with this development. As a further background, AMD also reached a similar deal (nearly identical idea as I see) with OpenAI ( OPENAI ) in October 2025. AMD news release , Feb. 24, 2026: AMD ( NASDAQ: AMD ) and Meta today announced a 6-gigawatt agreement to power Meta ’s next generation of AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs. Built on the AMD Helios rack-scale architecture announced at the 2025 Open Compute Project Global Summit, shipments to support the first gigawatt deployment are expected to begin in 2H 2026. AMD and Meta are deepening their collaboration to align their GPU and CPU silicon, systems and software roadmaps The deal certainly offers plenty of upsides for AMD. To start, the Meta deal increases AMD’s EPS potential considerably, with about ~$25 per share in my estimate by FY 2030 (and consensus estimates points to the same direction as shown below). Additionally, the deal could also offer further customer diversification for AMD and help expand its ASIC model deployment. However, given the magnitude of these deals, I become increasingly worried that AMD share valuation – which is quite elevated to start with - is no longer just a reflection of its engineering prowess and financial strength (which are strong my view). It has become increasingly a leveraged bet on the continued solvency and capital expenditure of firms like Meta and OpenAI, which I feel less confident about for reasons detailed next. Seeking Alpha AMD’s key customers in focus With these deals, Meta and OpenAI have become significa...
Antonio Bordunovi/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Nvidia ( NVDA ) has partnered with Qnity Electronics ( Q ) to engage in the research and development of advanced materials for semiconductors and advanced packaging technology for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Qnity shares had increased 3% during early post-market trading on Wednesday. The companies will utilize Nemotron...
Antonio Bordunovi/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Nvidia ( NVDA ) has partnered with Qnity Electronics ( Q ) to engage in the research and development of advanced materials for semiconductors and advanced packaging technology for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Qnity shares had increased 3% during early post-market trading on Wednesday. The companies will utilize Nemotron 3 Nano, ALCHEMI BMD NIM, LAMMPS Kokkos, and CUDA-X accelerated Abaqus for modeling and simulation technologies. "As AI workloads continue to grow in scale and complexity, the demand for advanced materials that deliver higher performance, quality, and reliability is increasing across the industry," said Qnity CEO Jon Kemp. Qnity is a pure-play materials and technology solutions provider for the semiconductor and electronics industry. The company was spun off from DuPont ( DD ) last year, and it went public in November 2025. "Open innovation means staying ahead of the curve, anticipating industry’s needs before they become requirements, and our job in R&D is to see around corners," said Randy King , Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer, Qnity. "Leveraging accelerated modeling allows us to compress development timelines and bring innovation for cutting-edge applications to market faster, while optimizing performance factors such as signal integrity, reliability, and manufacturability." More on Nvidia and Qnity Electronics Nvidia: History Says This Ends Badly NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Shareholder/Analyst Call Transcript Nvidia Uses GTC To Recast Itself For The Agentic AI Era China could be worth $25B or more in annual revenue to Nvidia: Wells Fargo Nvidia in spotlight as BofA reiterates Buy rating after analyst session at GTC