Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Everyone knows by now that war in Iran is curbing the flow of oil around the world. But oil isn't just a gasoline and jet fuel story, of course. It's also a crucial feedstock for a bunch of petrochemicals, including the building blocks of a variety of plastics. And we're already...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Everyone knows by now that war in Iran is curbing the flow of oil around the world. But oil isn't just a gasoline and jet fuel story, of course. It's also a crucial feedstock for a bunch of petrochemicals, including the building blocks of a variety of plastics. And we're already seeing polyethylene prices start to surge, with some producers in Asia declaring force majeure and curbing their output. So how much of the world's petrochemicals supply is now in danger? And what does it mean for the future of plastics and packaging, which is basically in everything nowadays? On this episode, we're joined by Philip Geurts, chemicals and oil analyst at BloombergNEF, to walk us through the numbers.
Five-times Ashes winner has since had a varied coaching career and believes the red ball is still fundamental to the modern player It’s a sunny spring afternoon, a new season looms, and just a short stroll down the road from Knowle & Dorridge Cricket Club, Ian Bell is in his local stressing the importance of County Championship runs. One of the purest Test batters England has produced this century...
Five-times Ashes winner has since had a varied coaching career and believes the red ball is still fundamental to the modern player It’s a sunny spring afternoon, a new season looms, and just a short stroll down the road from Knowle & Dorridge Cricket Club, Ian Bell is in his local stressing the importance of County Championship runs. One of the purest Test batters England has produced this century, Bell is also about to fly to the Indian Premier League for a spell of coaching. Not that the two are necessarily a contradiction. Bell is excited to be joining Delhi Capitals as their new assistant coach before the IPL that starts on Saturday – a significant opportunity in his second career. But as much as T20 has transformed the sport, Bell insists that time batting against the red ball is still fundamental to the modern player. Continue reading...
Plus: swift ascents up the pyramid, Steve Palmer’s maverick set of shirts and an infamous 2004 Olympic penalty Mail us with your questions and answers “During a rather animated discussion at the pub recently, the topic of footballers ‘retiring from international football’ came up,” says Edd Crick. “We were reminiscing about the days when footballers simply stopped being picked for international ga...
Plus: swift ascents up the pyramid, Steve Palmer’s maverick set of shirts and an infamous 2004 Olympic penalty Mail us with your questions and answers “During a rather animated discussion at the pub recently, the topic of footballers ‘retiring from international football’ came up,” says Edd Crick. “We were reminiscing about the days when footballers simply stopped being picked for international games, so who was the first to come out and declare their retirement this way?” We assumed this was a fairly modern development, but it goes back at least as far as the 1950s. Let’s look at the leading answers in reverse chronological order, starting with one of the stars of Italia 90. “ Roger Milla is arguably responsible for popularising the concept of international retirement (not to mention elaborate goal celebrations) by famously unretiring at the request of the Cameroon president Paul Biya to play in the 1990 World Cup,” writes Tom Reed. “Milla had formally retired from playing for Cameroon at a jubilee event following victory in the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations.” Continue reading...
Head coach has been preparing for playoff against Turkey in hospital and sees job as ‘duty to Romanian football’ Mircea Lucescu is fighting for one last World Cup while at the same time battling his own body. He has lived through thousands of games as a player and manager but these could be the hardest of them all: two playoff games to take Romania to their first World Cup in 28 years. Lucescu is ...
Head coach has been preparing for playoff against Turkey in hospital and sees job as ‘duty to Romanian football’ Mircea Lucescu is fighting for one last World Cup while at the same time battling his own body. He has lived through thousands of games as a player and manager but these could be the hardest of them all: two playoff games to take Romania to their first World Cup in 28 years. Lucescu is 80 years old now and has not been well – but he has lost none of his energy, nor love for the game. Since December he has been admitted to hospital on three occasions but here he is, with an espresso in front of him, discussing his long career, the playoff semi‑final against Turkey on Thursday and Ukraine, a place he used to call home. He does not, however, want to disclose the exact nature of his illness for fear that it will become the focus over the next few weeks. Continue reading...
DeepL, a global AI product and research company, today reveals results from an independent benchmark study evaluating the quality and stability of real-time AI-translation and captions for meetings across widely used collaboration platforms; Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
DeepL, a global AI product and research company, today reveals results from an independent benchmark study evaluating the quality and stability of real-time AI-translation and captions for meetings across widely used collaboration platforms; Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
2026年3月24日,OpenAI宣布关停Sora。 这是OpenAI在ChatGPT之后推出的第一款独立应用,正式上线仅六个月。同一天,迪士尼宣布终止与OpenAI的10亿美元投资及角色授权协议,双方从未完成资金交割。 据外媒报道,OpenAICEO Sam Altman(山姆·奥特曼)在内部会议上告诉员工,关闭Sora是为了“将资源释放给下一代AI模型”。Altman同时宣布将个人工作重心转向...
2026年3月24日,OpenAI宣布关停Sora。 这是OpenAI在ChatGPT之后推出的第一款独立应用,正式上线仅六个月。同一天,迪士尼宣布终止与OpenAI的10亿美元投资及角色授权协议,双方从未完成资金交割。 据外媒报道,OpenAICEO Sam Altman(山姆·奥特曼)在内部会议上告诉员工,关闭Sora是为了“将资源释放给下一代AI模型”。Altman同时宣布将个人工作重心转向专注于融资和算力基础设施建设。OpenAI内部代号为“Spud”的新模型已完成初步开发。 Sora不是一款失败产品。2025年9月上线后,它在十天内下载量突破一百万,一度登顶App Store免费榜,这个速度甚至超过了ChatGPT。但根据移动分析机构Appfigures的数据,Sora的下载量在2025年11月达到约333万次的峰值后迅速回落,到2026年2月已降至约113万次。整个生命周期内,应用内购收入仅约210万美元。 关停Sora本身不是最重要的事。重要的是,这标志着OpenAI正式承认:过去一年“什么都做”的策略失败了。而这个认错,来得并不算早。 01 “副本任务”太多,主线迷失了 2025年是OpenAI产品线最膨胀的一年。视频生成模型Sora、AI浏览器Atlas、与Jony Ive合作的硬件设备、ChatGPT的电商功能,Altman曾把这种策略比作“在OpenAI内部押注一系列创业公司”(betting on a series of startups)。 这套逻辑在当时也有合理性。ChatGPT坐拥9亿周活跃用户,OpenAI似乎有资格在多个方向同时出击,巩固“AI时代定义者”的地位。但内部的实际体感完全不同,多位现任和前任员工反映, 过多的并行项目导致战略方向模糊,算力资源在团队之间频繁调拨 。组织架构也愈发混乱,比 如Sora团队被放在研究部门下面,但它实际上在负责公司最受关注的产品之一。 2026年3月16日,应用业务CEO Fidji Simo在全员会议上定义了新方向。外媒报道了会议记录,Simo说:“We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests.”(“我们不能因为被副本任务分心而错过这个时刻。”)她进一步说:“We really have to nail ...
Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein, chairman of LGT Group, says geopolitical dynamics "have accelerated a lot over the last five years." He speaks at the Bloomberg Family Office Summit in Hong Kong. (Source: Bloomberg)
Prince Max von und zu Liechtenstein, chairman of LGT Group, says geopolitical dynamics "have accelerated a lot over the last five years." He speaks at the Bloomberg Family Office Summit in Hong Kong. (Source: Bloomberg)
Erdene Resource Development press release ( ERDCF ): FY Revenue of $31M, including silver by-product in 2025. Net loss stood at $8.18M vs. $8.25M in 2024 Exploration expenses rose to $2.45M vs. $1.85M YoY, and administrative costs declined to $4.00M vs. $5.04M YoY. More on Erdene Resource Development Corporation Financial information for Erdene Resource Development Corporation
Erdene Resource Development press release ( ERDCF ): FY Revenue of $31M, including silver by-product in 2025. Net loss stood at $8.18M vs. $8.25M in 2024 Exploration expenses rose to $2.45M vs. $1.85M YoY, and administrative costs declined to $4.00M vs. $5.04M YoY. More on Erdene Resource Development Corporation Financial information for Erdene Resource Development Corporation