Author: Money Mechanics

A dramatic diamond-shaped residence that serves up a feast for the eyes around every corner has just hit the market in Georgia for $799,000—complete with a jaw-dropping spiral staircase that appears to float in the air. The Tom Mozen-designed architectural marvel is nestled in the East Cobb woods in Marietta, GA, and features an array of eye-catching features, including a suspended spiral staircase, geometric windows, and wood-beamed ceilings. From the outside, the pointed property looks more like a living sculpture than it does a residential home, rising up from the surrounding woodland like an onyx gem. Yet for those who…

In-brief analysis April 30, 2026 Between the week ending March 20 and the week ending April 24, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a total of 17.5 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), according to data in our Weekly Petroleum Status Report. DOE released 7.1 million barrels in the week ending April 24, the most released since the week ending October 7, 2022. SPR stocks are currently 397.9 million barrels. The United States is in the process of releasing 172 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S.…

The selling in crude markets Friday is sharp and headline-driven, with changing hands at $101.90, down $3.19 or 3.04% on the session, while real-time data has the contract printing as low as $101.63 at -3.27%. is trading at $108.20, off $2.17 or 1.97%, and slid to $108.86 in late London trade compared with $114.38 at Thursday’s New York equity close. Murban Crude is down 3.70% to $104.00, WTI Midland is off 3.88% to $104.80, and gasoline futures are lower by 0.92% to $3.582 per gallon. The catalyst behind the sell-off is concrete: Iran has formally delivered a new proposal for…

Kerry Wan/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.The Samsung M9 combines the best of both a premium monitor and a smart TV, letting you run entertainment and productivity apps on the same desktop. And right now, when you order directly from Samsung, you can save $800 on the M9 smart monitor and get a 32-inch Odyssey G7 gaming monitor for free. Also: Samsung M9 smart monitor reviewThe Samsung M9 features an OLED panel for better color accuracy, enhanced detail, and sharper contrast. You’ll get HDR10+ support, 4K resolution, and a 165Hz maximum refresh rate for smooth motion in everything from…

Jessica Herrera would never have rented out her new-build home in Decatur, GA, by the hour if she had been able to get the permits on time.A developer by trade, she built a four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 3,500-square-foot home and planned to sell it upon completion. But the build took much longer than expected.“This should have taken six months to build, but it took a year and a half due to permits,” she says.Then she had to install a new septic system—an issue that hadn’t arisen when she originally purchased the land.All told, the extra time and the new septic system sent building…

Of all the novel energy companies out there — that is, companies working on not-so-mainstream ways of producing and storing power — Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) has had hands-down one of the most dominant performances on the market since last year. Just how dominant, you ask? How about this: Bloom Energy’s fuel cells have been deployed to over 1,200 facilities, including some of the biggest names in cloud computing, retail, and manufacturing, such as Equinix, Walmart, and Comcast. Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on a little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly,” providing…

The Met Gala is set to make a return to New York City on May 4, when some of the world’s biggest celebrities will descend upon the storied steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, turning the historic gallery into a star-studded catwalk.Among them will be this year’s lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who are joining an illustrious cast of 2026 Met Gala co-chairs: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and former Vogue editor Anna Wintour.The theme of this year’s event, “Costume Art,” which is coupled with a “Fashion Is…

AI dictation apps have come a long way in a short time. For years they were slow and inaccurate — unless you spoke with a particular accent and enunciated clearly. Advances in large language models (LLMs) and speech-to-text models have changed that, producing systems that can decipher speech more accurately while retaining enough context to format the text correctly. Developers have also built in features to automatically remove filler words, fix stumbles, and handle punctuation — outputting text that needs far fewer edits. With dozens of such apps now on the market, we’ve rounded up our picks for the best…

(By Oil & Gas 360) – Suriname has been one of the most talked-about emerging oil provinces in recent years, often mentioned alongside Guyana as part of the same transformational offshore basin. Early discoveries in Block 58, led by TotalEnergies and APA Corporation, confirmed a working petroleum system and pointed to hundreds of millions of barrels of recoverable resources, quickly putting the country on the map for global investors. But as the basin moves from discovery toward development, a more measured reality is beginning to take shape. The initial wave of optimism was driven by a string of successful wells, including…

(Image credit: Getty Images)For decades, people planning for retirement have been told they need to replace about 80% of their pre-retirement income. That number suggests the annual amount required to maintain your current lifestyle, based largely on the idea that some expenses will decrease in retirement.While it’s a useful rule of thumb, the 80% rule is flawed in that it assumes spending remains constant for 25 or 30 years. In reality, spending in retirement evolves.Most households move through distinct retirement phases: Higher spending in the early, active years, followed by a gradual tapering as life naturally slows. One practical way…