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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1h

Tâtonnement at work.

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1h

Throwback to 25 years ago

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Hisham Zerriffi @hishamzerriffi.bsky.social · 3h

Calling Young Republicans the “youth wing“ of the party doesn’t capture how bad this is.

No excuse at any age but some might be tempted to chalk it up to age. Membership age for this org. is 18 to *40*. Some have jobs in government. We’re not talking abt high schoolers.

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 3h

“Epithets like “f----t,” “retarded” and “n--ga” appeared more than 251 times combined”

If you ever had any doubt that the youth wing of the GOP is fully radicalized and proudly racist these days:

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 3h

Ergo: cancer will cure erotica

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 3h

Sam Altman went from “AI will cure cancer" to "ChatGPT porn" in less than a month

ChatGPT boss predicts when AI could cure cancer

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
12:02 PM · Oct 14, 2025
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Iris Ceulemans @ceuliris.bsky.social · 4h

Vanaf januari 2026 prachtig #kot te huur in #Gent - dochter heeft dan 5 m stage in Antwerpen. 553 euro all in. Mogelijkheid contract verder te zetten. Eigen badkamer. Delen is lief

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 7h

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 10h

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 11h

Succes!

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Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.bsky.social · 11h

"🚗 During September, 88,800 new models from Chinese manufacturers entered the Western European new passenger car market, accounting for a record 8% market share and surpassing the 86,700 models from Korean manufacturers, translating to a 7.8% share of the 1.11 million total market."

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Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.bsky.social · 11h

"🇨🇳 🇰🇷 🇪🇺 Chinese new car volumes outpaced Korean models across Western Europe for the first time during September, according to exclusive @autoschmidt.bsky.social research"

#alwaysbecharging
www.linkedin.com/posts/matthi...

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 15h

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Emil Dimanchev @emildimanchev.bsky.social · 1d

This meme is our research to a T.

John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 1d

What should dashboards default to? LRMER for planning; SRMER for ops. Change my mind 👇 #EnergyTwitter #EVs #LCA #ModelingMonday @emildimanchev.bsky.social @jessedjenkins.com 12/

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Frédéric Moreau @goodclimate.bsky.social · 1d

The Maison Saint-Cyr, Brussels' favourite art-nouveau centrefold, is for sale.
www.rtbf.be/article/brux...

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

Restaurant van de Franse senaat, Jardin du Luxembourg

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

However, the tax benefits accruing to gasoline PHEVs are based on test cycle CO2 emissions, while the emissions in real driving conditions can be considerably higher. This raises the question whether the cost of the fiscal benefits going to gasoline PHEVs are worth the environmental benefits

laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

But, as the tax advantage enjoyed by employees who can use the company car for private purposes also depends on a car’s CO2 emissions, using the “extended cost of ownership” concept leads to a dramatic improvement in the relative position of gasoline PHEVs, even compared to electric cars. /

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

If we consider the cost of ownership after taxes from a strict accounting perspective, the fiscal treatment of company cars clearly benefits electric cars and gasoline PHEVs, as the deductibility of car costs in corporate taxation depends on the car’s CO2 emissions. /

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

The set of cars with the lowest pre-tax cost of ownership is still mostly composed of gasoline cars (and, to a lesser extent, of diesel cars). Gasoline PHEVs and electric cars have the highest pre-tax cost of ownership in most market segments, BUT /

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

Also, contrary to most studies, I do not look at just a few "representative " car models per powertrain, but I compare how the complete distribution of cost of ownership for car models sold in Belgium is affected. /

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

The key contribution of this paper is an “extended cost of ownership” indicator that takes into account that the benefit-in-kind enjoyed by employees who can use a company car for private purposes is taxed at a lower rate than wage income. /

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

The Belgian tax code has already introduced incentives that promote the purchases of cars with low CO2 emissions. However, the integration of the specific tax advantages enjoyed by company cars is seldom considered in a cost of ownership analysis./

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

Second, why the focus on company cars? In Belgium, company cars currently make up more than 50 % of new car sales but most are sold on to private households within three to four years and have important long-term impacts on the overall environmental performance of the Belgian car fleet. /

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

I am going to try to summarize the paper in case you don't have the time to read it from A to Z. First, why do cost of ownership studies matter? Well, the capital costs of electric vehicles remain a key barrier to their adoption, but one should also consider their lower running costs. /

laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 5d

My paper "Tax benefits for users of company cars: How do they affect the cost of ownership for the employer?" has been published on-line in European Transport Studies. It is available in free access. Work performed at the Federal Planning Bureau.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tax benefits for users of company cars: How do they affect the cost of ownership for the employer?

I present a cost of ownership (from the perspective of the employer) analysis of leased company cars sold in Belgium in 2023, both before and after ta…

www.sciencedirect.com

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laurentfranckx.bsky.social @laurentfranckx.bsky.social · 1d

I would definitely recommend "A Culture of Growth". "The Lever of Riches" is also non-technical but a more arduous read. I have also heard very good things about "The Gifts of Athena" but haven't read it myself.

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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 1d

Innovation is at the center of economic growth. Congratulations to three who’ve taught us so much.

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/econo...

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