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The global energy industry is under pressure to innovate. Energy companies need vetted, field-tested technologies that improve efficiency, enhance safety, and streamline operations. On the other side of the spectrum, early-stage startups developing new technologies struggle to access customers, test environments, and capital. These parallel challenges can slow crucial energy innovation, creating a commercialization gap. One approach to addressing this challenge has emerged in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a region with deep institutional knowledge and over a century of experience in energy operations. Rose Rock Bridge, a nonprofit based in Tulsa, is a pilot deployment studio that …

A normally quiet Atlanta neighborhood has suddenly found itself flooded with traffic early in the mornings. It’s not tourists. It’s not new neighbors. In fact, it’s not people at all, but an overwhelming amount of driverless cars. The cars are from robotaxi company Waymo, which has been operating in Atlanta since June of 2025. The company has a fleet of about 100 cars in the city—and when they’re not being called to provide rides, some of those Waymos have mysteriously decided to spend their free time circling a few residential streets. One of the neighborhood’s residents explained the situation to local news channel WSB-TV, saying that she and her neighbors first…

El Niño is “likely to emerge soon,” with an 82% chance of it forming between May and July, and with a 96% chance it will continue from December into February 2027, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center. The report, out Thursday, says while there is “still substantial uncertainty about El Niño’s peak strength” this hurricane season—and it’s too early to tell—the summer outlook does seem ripe for the possibility of creating “very strong” conditions later, as “the strongest El Niño events in the historical record are characterized by significant ocean-atmosphere coupling through the summer.” In addition, N…

A large Applebee’s franchisee that filed for Chapter 11 protection in March is seeking to close additional restaurants as it works its way through the bankruptcy process and sale of its assets, a new court filing reveals. NRPF Group Two, which operates roughly 50 Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar locations in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, has asked a federal court for permission to reject the leases on five additional properties. Most of the Applebee’s restaurants associated with the properties appeared to be still open this week, though a few were marked as temporarily closed on Google as of Wednesday. Atlanta-based NRPF Group Two said in the court filing …

Owners of some iPhones are in line to get cash payments of up to $95 from Apple after the company on Tuesday reached a $250 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit for false advertising of its artificial intelligence capabilities. Apple The Presidenteted new AI features for its virtual assistant Siri when it rolled out the iPhone 16 in 2024, part of new software updates that the company billed as “Apple Intelligence.” The company has been scrambling to keep up with tech rivals amid the AI boom but still hasn’t delivered on the Siri revamp two years later. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of U.S. consumers in the San Francisco federal court for the Northern District of…

Fake accounts have been around as long as social media. So when it was recently revealed that a “hot girl” MAGA personality named Emily Hart was actually a 22-year-old male medical student in India, it might have seemed a little mundane. Just another catfisher, another sock puppet, another scammer—the internet is full of them. Except this one had photos. And videos. And thousands of followers across multiple networks with some posts getting millions of views. Emily Hart was a full-on influencer, not just some anonymous egg. The person who created Emily confessed to Wired that while the account was active, he was making thousands of dollars every month from posting sof…

April was not a good month for the tech industry in terms of job losses. Last month, major firms—including Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Snap—all announced significant workforce reductions. But now, May is not shaping up to be any better. This week alone, news emerged that several major tech companies, including Cloudflare, PayPal, and Coinbase, are set to cut thousands of positions. And yes, you can blame AI for the job cuts—or at least the bosses are. Cloudflare cuts more than 1,100 jobs Yesterday, Cloudflare announced that it was laying off more than 1,100 workers across the globe. That equates to roughly about 20% of the company’s workforce. …

Wendy’s shares rose on Friday after the fast-food giant reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings, beating analyst estimates despite poor U.S. store performance, with U.S. same-restaurant sales falling 7.8%. That slow but steady growth reflects the burger chain’s effort to turn around sales by shedding low-performing American restaurants and improving menu quality. The plan comes amid an overall decline in fast-food store traffic, as American consumers grapple with higher prices and the cost of food and living soars. “We are in the early innings of our turnaround,” Ken Cook, Wendy’s CFO and interim CEO, told analysts on Friday’s earnings call. In the …

On May 11, media entrepreneur Byron Allen announced a deal to buy a majority stake in BuzzFeed—the millennial-favorite news site that closed its Pulitzer Prize-winning news division in 2023. Allen is swooping in as savior of the 20-year-old publication, which otherwise would have had to file for bankruptcy as a result of its shrinking revenue. Allen will replace founder Jonah Peretti as CEO of BuzzFeed; Peretti will become president of BuzzFeed AI. “Our vision is to build on the iconic foundation of BuzzFeed and HuffPost by expanding into free-streaming video, audio, and user-generated content,” Allen said in a statement announcing the deal. “As of this moment, wi…

Since 1946, the Festival de Cannes (a.k.a. the Cannes Film Festival) in France has been a beacon of cinematic excellence and cultural exchange. For those who love the Academy Awards, films such as Parasite and Anora debuted here first before taking home an Oscar. This year promises to continue this worthy legacy despite fewer American entries than normal. Here’s everything you need to know as the festivities kick off this week. How did the Cannes Film Festival begin? In July 1938, a Nazi propaganda film helped inspire Philippe Erlanger to create a new film festival. He was one of many who were displeased that Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia and Goffredo Alessandrin…

The country that gave the world ABBA punches far above its weight in global pop music. In early April, Zara Larsson was the fourth-biggest female artist on Spotify, behind Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean, and Raye. The month prior, Larsson had become the first Swedish artist to top the Billboard Global 200. Her fans were delighted. So were Swedes. Sweden’s music industry is a clear example of soft power. An army of Swedish songwriters and producers appear in the credits of pop hits. Max Martin has written more chart-toppers than anyone except Paul McCartney. The Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, and Robyn are household names. With a population of just 10.6 million people, Sw…

Yeti’s logo is simple: just its name written in an all-caps sans-serif font, placed within a rounded rectangle. But to speak to new consumers, they’re getting rid of the one element that gives it brand recognition. In a new campaign created in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy Portland, Yeti deleted the “Yeti” in its logo to make room for other four-letter words, like “Hike,” “Surf,” Golf,” “Fish,” “Hunt,” and “Snow.” They’re all written in the Yeti brand font, which closely resembles the bold grotesque sans serif Archivo Black. For the company, which was founded in 2006 and marks its 20th anniversary this year, it’s about broadening its reach. The word variat…

Cinemark is giving customers a break at the box office this summer. The movie chain that operates over 300 theaters in the U.S. just announced it’s offering a major deal on tickets as part of its Summer Movie Clubhouse program. The program, which kicks off on May 13, will bring a series of family-friendly films to 285 Cinemark theaters across the country. Showings will run from June 1 through August 6, but tickets are already available on Cinemark.com, in the app, and at participating box offices. The price for tickets? Just $1.75. “We continue to see that younger audiences treasure the shared, immersive experience of going to the movies, and Cinemark is thr…

You won’t want to miss a chance to look up tonight into the sky, in the early morning hours on Thursday, May 14. Before dawn, skywatchers are in for a treat with a rare sighting of the moon, Saturn, and Mars as they a form a gorgeous, cosmic triangle in May’s dark sky. Here’s everything to know about this unique skywatching event. What’s happening? The moon, Saturn, and Mars will form a cosmic triangle as the sun rises before dawn in the early hours of Thursday morning. The razor-thin moon will be in its waning crescent phase (day 27 of its 29.5 day cycle), and appear as a mere sliver in the sky, as only 8% will be lit up by the sun, according to Space.com.…

In early 2000, with their company on the brink of failure, Netflix founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph flew to Dallas to meet with Blockbuster executives. As the story is told, they offered to sell their company for $50 million and got laughed out of the room. Humiliated, but determined, they built a business that toppled the industry giant. That version is almost certainly not true, but it remains popular with pundits who like to tell it at fancy conferences. It gets told and retold because it reinforces how we like to imagine things. Everybody loves a good “David vs. Goliath” story, and the idea of wily young entrepreneurs outsmarting big corporate fat cats fi…

Wendy’s is feeling blue. Light blue, to be exact. In April, a new design concept accompanied the opening of the burger chain’s 100th store in the Philippines. In addition to its digital-first layout, the new Wendy’s boasts a light blue facade instead of a red one. The refreshed restaurants are now available to franchisees across the company’s international markets. Wendy’s tells Fast Company that locations are also open in Chile, England, and Scotland, but there are currently none in the U.S. The blue color scheme is part of an initiative Wendy’s is calling “Future Fresh” that could make one of the brand’s secondary colors more primary if adopted widely. On the co…

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems announced impressive quarterly earnings alongside nearly 4,000 job cuts. The dichotomy stemmed from the hardware and networking company’s embrace of a rapidly growing trend in tech: openly admitting that layoffs are due to AI adoption rather than poor performance. “The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told employees in a publicly shared email. “I’m confident Cisco will be one of those winners. This means making hard decisions—about where we invest,…

Today is an important day in the 2026 IPO landscape: Cerebras Systems Inc. is making its much-anticipated market debut. While not a household name like Nvidia, Intel, or TSMC, Cerebras is a chipmaker that is rapidly becoming a critical player in the AI semiconductor space. And investors will be casting a keen eye on how its stock performs in the early days of trading, looking for hints about how other, even more anticipated AI-related listings may play out later this year. Here’s what you need to know about Cerebras and its initial public offering: What is Cerebras Systems? Cerebras Systems is an AI semiconductor company headquartered in Sunnyvale, C…

Dozens of brands are using the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a chance to cash in on themed ads, products, and brand collaborations. But the home goods giant Lowe’s is doing something unique: debuting a 10-foot-tall inflatable of Lionel Messi for fans to put in their front yards. Lowe’s is running a series of activations for the world’s biggest soccer moment, all of which center on its limited-edition, $99 Messi inflatable, made in collaboration with Messi himself. The inflatable, which will start to pop up in a 20-foot version around several U.S. host cities in mid-May, will be available online to Lowe’s rewards members starting on May 18, followed by a limited release in se…