Recent notes, journal entries, and commentary
Ten years of iFixit repairability scores show a real upward trend, concentrated in laptops, smartphones, and e-readers — and it holds up after controlling for iFixit's rubric revisions. Includes appendices on the scoring rubric and the EU's new repairability label.
Prompted by a Detroit News media request, a closer look at why Michigan's No. 5 ranking in five-year business survival is close to meaningless on its own — and what the state's actual trend line, read against the national average, shows instead. Includes an interactive explorer of BLS survival-rate data by state.
Spoke with Michigan Public on why consumers shouldn't be scared off by manufacturers' warranty-voidance threats — the tactic is generally illegal under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a protection that remains underused because most consumers don't know it exists.
Notes on the "Freedom to Fix" memorandum and what it actually changes for emissions-system repair, warranty law, and the sustainability coalition behind the right-to-repair movement.
A busy week across the chemical use landscape — New Jersey's $2B PFAS settlement, an EPA rollback affecting 176 million Americans, Texas's suit against Shein, New York's chemical disclosure act, China's new hazardous chemicals law, and Bayer's glyphosate settlement.
On a new piece in The Conversation arguing that consumers are fighting for the right to repair while largely unaware of existing warranty protections — and why manufacturers with strong warranty programs, like Hyundai and Apple, use them to retain customers rather than treat them as sunk costs.