Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Smartphones have been around long enough that, to the casual observer, their designs seem to have hit a plateau. And on a functional level, that’s more or less true — we’re all essentially holding the same six-inch-ish rectangle, aside from the occasional foldable exception. But the maturity and ubiquity of smartphones have sparked a new phenomenon: the return of trends in cycles, much like fashion. For example, most phones released in the past few years have flat sides, like the iPhone 4 from 2010. Five years ago, almost all those sides would have been curved. Flat edges aren’t a new invention — they’re just what’s trending again. But this year brings a surprisin…

Satellite-based disaster monitoring has been a slow and tedious process for decades. The process consists of capturing images, transmitting them back to Earth, and relying on human analysts to interpret the data. This often led to first responders receiving critical information, often too late to act effectively. But AI is now revolutionizing satellite operations in space, aiding real-time image processing and autonomous decision-making. NASA’s latest space venture focuses on AI-powered autonomous satellites that can operate without human oversight. In collaboration with Ireland-based satellite intelligence startup Ubotica, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has …

Rite Aid is plotting an immediate wind-down of operations at dozens of additional locations as it scrambles this week to sell off its pharmacy assets and retail operations to potential bidders. The drugstore chain, which last week sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time, has marked 68 locations in seven states for closure, meaning it wants to promptly start the process of going-out-of-business sales. The list was disclosed in a filing on Friday with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. Interested parties have until May 19 to object to the additional closings, according to the filing. Fast Company has reached out to R…

Earlier this week, Time published an explosive story about an American company that reportedly revived a long-extinct species, the dire wolf. To some, it’s a scientific miracle: Some 10,000 years after the species went extinct, the planet is once again home to three living dire wolf pups, brought about by the ingenuity of scientists at Colossal Biosciences. But let’s not mistake spectacle for substance. Yes, it’s cool that biotechnology can now create animals that resemble extinct species. Colossal is already eyeing its next acts—the woolly mammoth and the dodo. But beyond the buzz and the billion-dollar ambition, this project doesn’t offer real solutions to our plane…

Recently, after decades of paying high fees for the aging photo-sharing site Flickr, I finally moved all my images to Google Photos. It saved money and offered advanced features, like very accurate search results. But uploading years of pictures triggered the dreaded warning that I was approaching the storage limit of my Google account, which also holds Gmail, documents, spreadsheets, and other files. Cloud storage (be it Google Drive, iCloud, or Dropbox) is just one more in a growing list of subscriptions we all face, such as video and music streaming services, online magazines or newspapers, newsletters, Patreon sponsorship, and often just the right to keep using so…

In Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose, Martha Beck, PhD, writes that “anxiety always lies.” When I asked her why, she highlighted one of the book’s central teachings: When you seek the truth beneath your anxious thoughts, you discover that many of them aren’t real. This newfound awareness is transformative. It dismantles anxiety’s prevailing narrative that in order to be safe, you must live in fear. “So many people tell me: But, the world is in bad shape right now,” Beck shares. “I say: Yes, and doesn’t that require us to show up as our calmest, most committed, and competent selves?” “Anxiety does not do that, it just tells li…

Sometimes, you need to shake things up in your career. Maybe the job isn’t as fulfilling anymore. Maybe changing circumstances are pushing you toward a new path. Either way, figuring out what to do next can be a challenge. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is helping people explore their next steps—even when they’re unsure themselves. Chatbots like ChatGPT can offer some guidance, provided you know how to phrase your questions. But several companies have developed specialized tools that focus specifically on this issue. Google is leading the pack with its Career Dreamer. Described as “a playful way to explore career possibilities with AI,” it’s a tool that any…

Visit a celebrity’s Wikipedia page and there’s a good chance you’ll be greeted by a blurry, outdated, or unflattering photo. These images often look like they were snapped in passing at a public event—because, in many cases, they were. The reason? Wikipedia requires all images to be freely available for public use. Since professional photographers typically sell their work, high-quality portraits rarely make it onto the site. That’s bad news for celebrities, for whom this page is often their most-viewed online presence—and therefore the face they present to the world. Some photos are so notoriously bad, they’ve even earned a spot on a dedicated Instagram page. Ent…

After a rough start to 2025 due to the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, awards season in Hollywood is officially back in the swing of things. The fires, which broke out right after the Golden Globes, even caused some to question awards shows’ relevance in this time of crisis. Despite several delays, however, the Critics Choice Awards was held at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on February 7. The following day, the Producers Guild of America Awards (PGA) was held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles and the Directors Guild of America Awards (DGA) was presented at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The results from these three prestigious awards shows …

The chief executive of Primark, one of Europe’s biggest fast fashion retailers, has resigned after an investigation into his behavior toward a woman in a social environment. Paul Marchant, Primark’s CEO since 2009, has apologized to the individual involved and resigned with immediate effect, the company said Monday. Shares in Primark’s parent, Associated British Foods, fell 4.9% in early trading, compared with a 0.8% drop in Britain’s benchmark stock index. Marchant “acknowledged his error of judgement and accepts that his actions fell below the standards expected by the company,” Primark said in a statement. The retailer has 451 stores in 17 countries across …

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown in Japan 14 years ago. Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes. It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection—full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet. As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both h…

Morningside Park, a beloved neighborhood park in Miami with sweeping views of Biscayne Bay, will soon pilot an innovative approach to coastal resilience. BIOCAP tiles, a 3D-printed modular system designed to support marine life and reduce wave impact along urban seawalls, will be installed on the existing seawall there in spring 2025. BIOCAP stands for Biodiversity Improvement by Optimizing Coastal Adaptation and Performance. Developed by our team of architects and marine biologists at Florida International University, the uniquely textured prototype tiles are designed to test a new approach for helping cities such as Miami adapt to rising sea levels while simulta…

After nearly 40 years providing decor for countless birthdays across the United States, Party City is entering its final days of operations. And as the company’s last storefronts close their doors, competitors including Five Below and Dollar Tree are vying to move in for majorly discounted prices. Party City filed for bankruptcy twice—first in 2023 and again this past December—before ultimately announcing at the end of 2024 that it could not recover its losses and would be permanently shutting down its 800 locations. In a memo sent to employees at the time, the company listed February 28 as its last day of operations (though, since then, some Redditors have noted exte…

Japanese regulators on Tuesday accused U.S. tech giant Google of violating anti-monopoly laws, echoing similar moves in the U.S. and Europe. Google Japan said in a statement that it found the action “regrettable.” It said it has invested in Japan significantly to promote innovation as a technology leader. The Japan Fair Trade Commission’s “cease and desist order” says Google must stop the preinstallation of the Google search engine in Android smartphones, which it said in effect shuts out competition. It’s unclear if Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., based in Mountain View in the Silicon Valley, will take legal action to fight the order. In the U.S., a judge rule…

When the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena in January, Patricia Lopez-Gutierrez and her children had to flee from the house they’d been renting for a decade. Lopez-Gutierrez also lost work: She’s a housecleaner, and her clients lost their own homes in the fire. “I’ve been here for 18 years, and I really don’t want to leave this area,” she said through a translator. “My children and their schools are here. I’m trying to get more work so I don’t have to leave.” As she struggles to pay her bills—including at her rental house, which ended up surviving the fire but was so heavily damaged by smoke that she’s desperate to find a new place to live—she turned to St. Vince…

Booking travel has become a bit of a game—especially if you want to get the best possible prices and avoid getting ripped off. That’s because hotels and airlines have developed the lovely habit of futzing around endlessly with their rates. Depending on when, exactly, you go to book the room or flight you want, you might end up being charged way more than if you waited a few days or even hours for prices to drop. The problem is that it’s damn-near impossible to figure out the logic behind it and know the right time to buy. And who among us has the time or energy to stay on top of that and keep checking back at all hours with the hope of magically stumbling onto a m…

Since its launch in 2018, Olipop has been a bit of a Cinderella story in the oft-unforgiving beverage game. The prebiotic, fiber-laden soda designed to be healthier than the category classics is currently thriving: It just closed a $50 million Series C and announced a $1.85 billion valuation. Last year, it surpassed $400 million in revenue. Its reps cite it as the No. 1 nonalcoholic brand in dollar and unit growth, “outpacing legacy giants like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Red Bull.” It’s now sold in nearly 50,000 stores and is even outselling Coke at one major national retailer (though they won’t disclose which one, per that retailer’s regulations). Which is all to say…

Over the years, I’ve likely wasted thousands of dollars on forgotten subscriptions—and I’m not alone. A 2022 survey by research firm C+R found that 42% of Americans had paid for subscriptions they’d forgotten about. It’s easy to lose track, especially when payments are scattered across credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and app store accounts. Here’s how to track down and cancel those forgotten charges. Subscription management apps: Rocket Money, Hiatus, Trim Dedicated services are among the most effective tools for finding and canceling forgotten subscriptions—and potentially switching to cheaper or free alternatives. But they come with a trade-off: To work, t…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking to ResiClub in December, Jay Bray, CEO of mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper, told me that real estate would see a lot of mergers and acquisitions in 2025—and that Mr. Cooper was out shopping—as the industry continues to “grind” through the prolonged housing activity slump that started back in summer 2022. “You’ve seen consolidation already. If you think about this industry going forward, you’re going to need a balanced business model. You’re going to need the capability to invest in technology, to use everybody’s favorite two initials: AI,” Bray …

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out, the number of unsold completed U.S. new single-family homes has been rising. Here’s a look at the recent historical numbers for January: January 2018: 63,000 January 2019: 76,000 January 2020: 76,000 January 2021: 40,000 January 2022: 32,000 January 2023: 68,000 January 2024: 83,000 January 2025: 115,000 The January figure (115,000 unsold completed new homes) that recently published is the highest level since July 2009 (126,000). Let’s take a closer look at the data to bett…

The 2001 Tilda Swinton film The Deep End features a scene that has stuck with me for nearly 25 years, even though I’ve forgotten almost everything else about the movie. Swinton’s character is being blackmailed for $50,000 and is given 24 hours to come up with the cash. Although her character is shown to live a comfortable, upper-middle-class life, she spends a stressful day on the phone trying to find the money—and she misses the deadline. As a budding money nerd, I wondered what I would do in her situation. I had some go-to sources of cash for smaller financial emergencies, but there was a limit to how much I could gather quickly. The thing is, everyone has a lim…

David Brickley is something of a social marketing pioneer. In 2011, he founded STN Digital, a leading social-first digital marketing company in sports and entertainment. STN now has more than 50 employees and creates hundreds of pieces of content daily for partners like ESPN, Warner Bros., NBC Sports, Under Armour, the Philadelphia Phillies, and NBA star Jayson Tatum, among dozens of others. The company helped Elton John launch his TikTok. In 2023, digital sports viewership surpassed traditional television viewers for the first time. Forty-three percent of young adult sports fans follow their favorite league on social media, 54% follow their favorite athlete, and 32% …

Like clockwork, when my daughter turned 9, she started to show interest in nail polish, lip balm, and haircare. “Mommy, I think I need shampoo for my specific hair type,” she told me. I knew the day would come when my daughter would be lured in by beauty products, but I still found myself unprepared to respond. I feel a responsibility to help her navigate what will be a lifelong relationship with the beauty industrial complex. This means helping her decide what products are safe and appropriate to use. More importantly, though, it means helping her see beauty as a tool of self-care, rather than an external standard she must achieve. [Photo: Evereden] This is be…