I hope you guys had a Happy Thanksgiving! For the second year, we smoked our holiday turkey and it was amazing. Thanks to the smoke, I have jars of smokey turkey stock made from the carcass that’s just fabulous for cooking.
It’s Thursday, and I’m back on the air with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: Twitter doesn’t pay employees or vendors, Rolls-Royce and easyJet announce new engine, and BlockFi files for bankruptcy. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.
AFTER FAILING TO PAY SUPPLIERS, TWITTER FAILS TO PAY EMPLOYEES
Here’s the deal. Twitter CAN make money. It’s made some, and it can be profitable. After firing half, then most, and rehiring some, Twitter has failed to pay some of its European staff members in Germany and other countries. This news comes after Musk-led Twitter failed to pay some of its vendors and contractors in a bid to cut costs. Many believe the payment failures are due to a rapid cutting of operations staff versus the company being insolvent. Right now, current and former Twitter employees are complaining they haven’t been reimbursed for personal expenses incurred on company time. Hopefully, this is just restructuring pains and don’t point to long term problems. This news comes as Apple has threatened to withhold Twitter from the App Store due to content moderation issues, and Musk complaining about Apple’s 30% cut from in-app purchasing fees.
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST, BLOCKFI LATEST CRYPTO TO FILE BANKRUPTCY
Cryptocurrency lending firm, BlockFi, filed bankruptcy in New Jersey court yesterday. The company was one of the first cryptocurrency lending platforms issuing loans to users in cryptocurrencies. BlockFi listed over 100,000 creditors it owed money to, including the recently imploded FTX where it owed $275 million. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy stating that the reorganization will help it build value for its existing customers and creditors.
FIRST TEST RUN OF HYDROGEN JET ENGINE A SUCCESS
Yesterday, Rolls-Royce and easyJet announced they’ve successfully a hydrogen-powered jet engine. The companies announced the engine is the first run of a modern aero engine powered by hydrogen. Aerospace companies are working hard on building engines powered by cleaner fuels like hydrogen because it’s harder to create electric planes than electric cars. Hydrogen engines produce water vapor when fuel is burned instead of carbon dioxide. The challenges with hydrogen fuel engines is that currently hydrogen fuel is expensive produces and 4 times as much hydrogen is needed to produce the same level of output. A Boeing 747 would need 1 million liters of hydrogen fuel compared to 250,000 liters of jet fuel. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Thanks for reading and for listening, have a great weekend.