David Lidsky's Blog, page 177

A prank about Home Depot charging for parking draws social media ire amid tariff fears

An ill-timed April Fools’ Day joke from a tool review website had customers up in arms, as stock markets crash and the economy looks increasingly dire.

Chalk it up to bad timing: Some Home Depot customers are furious after a recent April Fools’ Day prank from a tool review website suggested that the home improvement giant would start charging parking fees due to inflation.

How Trump calculated the new tariff rates and why they differ by country

What the president is actually imposing with tariffs is based on far more complicated math.

President Donald Trump promised tariffs that would raise U.S. import taxes high enough to mirror what others assess as trade penalties on American goods.

Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro could be the most important AI model so far this year

The new model scores significantly better than its competition in everything from hard math to long-context understanding.

Google released its new Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental AI model late last month, and it’s quickly stacked up top marks on a number of coding, math, and reasoning benchmark tests—making it a contender for the world’s best model right now.

Trump’s tariffs will hurt the entire auto industry—but especially EVs

And if Trump gets rid of the EV tax credit, there will be even less incentive for domestic EV manufacturing.

The Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on imported cars and auto parts is expected to disrupt the auto industry and raise car prices by thousands of dollars. Electric vehicles are at particular risk.

How to stay safe during extreme rainfall and flooding

Disaster preparation and good planning can help protect lives and property.

Extreme weather is dangerous weather, and that’s particularly true for the heavy rainfall events that experts say are becoming more frequent with climate change. The powerful storms can pose threats ranging from falling limbs to downed power lines to drowning.

Housing market power shift: 7 states where buyers are gaining leverage

ResiClub analyzed end of March 2025 housing inventory data just released from Realtor.com. Here’s what it shows.

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.

Chocolate recall: These Tony’s Chocolonely bars may contain small stones

The popular chocolate brand is recalling some Dark Almond Sea Salt and Everything bars sold across the United States.

Another day, another recall: On Tuesday, popular chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely recalled two of its flavors, Tony’s Dark Almond Sea Salt Bar and Everything Bar, following 12 reports from consumers who found small stones “not filtered during third-party almond harvesting and the almond processing process.”

Women dominate online influencing. So why are they paid less than men?

A new study reveals how oversaturation, perception, and industry labels are keeping women creators underpaid.

Influencing has a major pay gap, and it’s not what you might expect. 

Why federal employees are essential to earthquake safety in the U.S.

Earthquake preparation hinges in large part on the expertise of scientists and engineers in federal agencies who develop earthquake hazard models and building codes.

Earthquakes and the damage they cause are apolitical. Collectively, we either prepare for future earthquakes or the population eventually pays the price. The earthquakes that struck Myanmar on March 28, 2025, collapsing buildings and causing more than 2,700 deaths, were a sobering reminder of the risks and the need for preparation.

Here are 3 actually helpful graphics for understanding Trump’s tariffs

Confused by Trump’s tariffs charts? Us too.

In a showy speech at the White House yesterday, President Trump announced his most sweeping tariffs to date—and the news has sent the global economic order into chaos.