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An anonymous reader shares a report: It turns out that when fewer cars spew exhaust as they drive along, air quality improves. That's the conclusion of a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health that looked at the effect of increased numbers of both EVs and plug-in hybrids on air pollution in California. The Golden State has by far the largest number of plug-in vehicles in the United States, and they've now reached significant numbers to have a positive impact on air quality. Between 2019 and 2023, for every 200 EVs or plug-in hybrids added, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels dropped 1.1%, according to the study, which used satellite data to track those levels through the unique way NO2 absorbs and reflects sunlight. NO2 can trigger asthma attacks, cause bronchitis, and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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10 Feb 2026 3:45am GMT

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10 Feb 2026 3:17am GMT

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10 Feb 2026 3:13am GMT

A new NBER working paper from researchers at the Federal Reserve, Northwestern's Kellogg School and Johns Hopkins finds that Kalshi -- the largest federally regulated prediction market in the U.S., overseen by the CFTC -- produces macroeconomic forecasts that match or beat those of professional forecasters and traditional financial instruments like fed funds futures. The study compared Kalshi-implied forecasts for the federal funds rate, CPI inflation and unemployment against the New York Fed's Survey of Market Expectations and Bloomberg consensus. Kalshi's modal forecast correctly predicted the federal funds rate on the day before every FOMC meeting since 2022, something neither the survey nor fed funds futures achieved. For headline CPI, Kalshi's median and mode produced a statistically significant improvement over Bloomberg consensus. Kalshi also fills a gap no other financial market covers: real-time probability distributions for GDP growth, core CPI, unemployment, and payrolls. The paper documented how these distributions shift in response to macro news -- positive CPI surprises moved the mean of the fed funds rate distribution four times more than negative ones. Trading volumes on the platform have grown to nearly 100 million contracts for a single FOMC meeting, supported by liquidity from Susquehanna, Citadel, and Two Sigma.

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10 Feb 2026 1:45am GMT

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10 Feb 2026 1:26am GMT

The Ayaneo Next II pushes past 3 pounds, 13 inches wide, and costs up to $4,300.

09 Feb 2026 10:51pm GMT

An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds has confirmed the next major kernel series as Linux 7.0, reports Linux news website 9to5Linux.com: "So there you have it, the Linux 6.x era has ended with today's Linux 6.19 kernel release, and a new one will begin with Linux 7.0, which is expected in mid-April 2026. The merge window for Linux 7.0 will open tomorrow, February 9th, and the first Release Candidate (RC) milestone is expected on February 22nd, 2026."

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09 Feb 2026 10:45pm GMT

SpaceMolt envisions a world where AI plays with itself and the humans just watch.

09 Feb 2026 9:09pm GMT

After a lengthy test, YouTube Music is making lyrics a premium feature.

09 Feb 2026 8:40pm GMT

Decman provides a declarative way to manage Arch Linux systems, ensuring installed packages and configuration match a defined state.

09 Feb 2026 4:30pm GMT

GNU Binutils 2.46 adds support for AMD Zen 6 processors and Arm v9.7, expanding toolchain readiness for upcoming CPU architectures.

09 Feb 2026 2:34pm GMT

Kdenlive 25.12.2 open-source video editor, is now available with new stability fixes, better monitor performance, and workflow improvements.

09 Feb 2026 1:34pm GMT