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With the moon looming ever larger, the Artemis II astronauts raced to set a new distance record Monday from Earth on a lunar fly-around promising magnificent views of the far side never seen before by eye. The six-hour flyby is the highlight of NASA’s first return to the moon since the Apollo era with three Americans and one Canadian — a step toward landing boot prints near the moon’s south pole in just two years. A prize — and bragging rights — awaits Artemis II. Less than an hour before kicking off the fly-around and intense lunar observations, the four astronauts were set to become the most distant humans in history, surpassing the distance record of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) set by Apollo 13 in April 1970. Mission Control expected Artemis II to surpass that record by more than 4,100 miles (6,600 kilometers). Artemis II is using the same maneuver that Apollo 13 did after its “Houston, we’ve had a problem” oxygen tank explosion wiped out any hope of a moon landing. Known as a free-return lunar trajectory, this no-stopping-to-land route takes advantage of Earth and the moon’s gravity, reducing the need for fuel. It’s a celestial figure-eight that will put the astronauts on course for home, once they emerge from behind the moon Monday evening. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen were on track to pass as close as 4,070 miles (6,550 kilometers) to the moon, as their Orion capsule whips past it, hangs a U-turn and then heads back toward Earth. It will take them four days to get back, with a splashdown in the Pacific concluding their test flight on Friday. Wiseman and his crew spent years studying lunar geography to prepare for the big event, adding solar eclipses to their repertoire during the past few weeks. By launching last Wednesday, they ensured themselves of a total solar eclipse from their vantage point behind the moon, courtesy of the cosmos. Topping their science target list: Orientale Basin, a sprawling impact basin with three concentric rings, the outermost of which stretches nearly 600 miles (950 kilometers) across. Other sightseeing goals: the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites from 1969 and 1971, respectively, as well as fringes of the south polar region, the preferred locale for future touchdowns. Farther afield, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn — not to mention Earth — will be visible. Their moon mentor, NASA geologist Kelsey Young, expects thousands of pictures. “People all over the world connect with the moon. This is something that every single person on this planet can understand and connect with,” she said on the eve of the flyby, wearing eclipse earrings. Artemis II is NASA’s first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth. The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon’s south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028. While Artemis II may be taking Apollo 13’s path, it’s most reminiscent of Apollo 8 and humanity’s first lunar visitors who orbited the moon on Christmas Eve 1968 and read from the Book of Genesis. Glover said flying to the moon during Christianity’s Holy Week brought home for him “the beauty of creation.” Earth is an oasis amid “a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe” where humanity exists as one, he observed over the weekend. “This is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we’ve got to get through this together,” Glover said, clasping hands with his crewmates. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. —Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer View the full article

Creating an effective plan outline involves a structured approach that starts with defining your vision and objectives. You’ll need to assess your current position to understand where you stand and what gaps exist. Establishing measurable metrics is essential for tracking progress. Incorporating a continuous improvement process helps guarantee your plan remains relevant over time. Engaging your team in collaborative sessions nurtures creativity and adaptability. By following these steps, you’ll set a strong foundation for success. Nevertheless, knowing how to implement these strategies effectively can be challenging. Key Takeaways Define your vision and objectives using the SMART framework to ensure clarity and alignment with organizational goals. Assess your current position by gathering data, conducting SWOT analysis, and reviewing past performance metrics. Establish measurable metrics that reflect your objectives, ensuring they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Incorporate a continuous improvement process by regularly reviewing performance metrics and documenting lessons learned for future planning. Engage your team in collaborative sessions to foster creativity, gather diverse input, and enhance communication throughout the planning process. Define Your Vision and Objectives Defining your vision and objectives is crucial for effective planning, as it sets a clear direction for your team. Start by aligning your vision statement with your organization’s goals and values. This guarantees everyone understands the cohesive direction of the planning process. Involve your team in creating this vision to incorporate diverse perspectives and promote a sense of ownership. Next, apply the SMART framework to set objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This improves clarity and focus. Develop a preliminary plan document using a project outline format, which serves as a roadmap for future actions. A project outline format sample can help visualize roles and objectives, assuring every team member knows their contributions to the larger vision. Assess Your Current Position To effectively assess your organization’s current position, it’s vital to gather and analyze relevant data that provides insight into both internal and external factors. Conducting a SWOT analysis helps identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, offering a thorough view of your situation. Moreover, gathering feedback from employees through surveys or focus groups can reveal internal perceptions and highlight areas needing improvement. Analyzing market trends and competitor performance is fundamental for grasping external influences on your strategic direction. Reviewing past performance metrics, such as sales figures and customer satisfaction ratings, helps gauge where you currently stand. Finally, utilizing data analytics tools improves your comprehension of customer behavior, providing a clearer picture of your current market position. Establish Measurable Metrics Establishing measurable metrics plays a crucial role in tracking your organization’s progress and evaluating the success of your strategic plan. To effectively create these metrics, use the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This approach helps define what success looks like and how it’ll be measured. Your metrics should align closely with your objectives, ensuring each one reflects a particular aspect of your plan’s goals. Here’s a simple table to guide you: Metric Type Example Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Increase sales by 15% by Q4 Completion Rate 80% of projects on time Customer Satisfaction 90% satisfaction score Employee Engagement 75% participation in surveys Regularly review and adjust these metrics based on feedback to stay aligned with your evolving needs. Incorporate a Continuous Improvement Process Building on the establishment of measurable metrics, incorporating a continuous improvement process can greatly boost your strategic plan’s effectiveness. Regularly assess performance metrics to pinpoint areas needing improvement, ensuring your strategies align with organizational goals. Utilize feedback loops like agile retrospectives and quarterly business reviews (QBRs) to gather insights from stakeholders, which inform necessary adjustments. Establish clear milestones for evaluations—weekly or monthly—to monitor progress and adapt your plan as needed, cultivating a culture of responsiveness. Tools like Mural or Confluence can improve collaboration and transparency, allowing teams to track updates and share insights effectively. Finally, document lessons learned during retrospectives to create a structured approach for integrating improvements in future planning cycles, ensuring ongoing evolution of your strategic initiatives. Engage Your Team in Collaborative Sessions Engaging your team in collaborative sessions not just boosts creativity but furthermore cultivates a sense of ownership over the project. By adopting brainstorming techniques like mind mapping or round-robin discussions, you encourage diverse input, leading to innovative ideas. Regular sessions are vital for continuous feedback and adaptability, allowing your team to refine plans based on real-time insights. Implement collaborative tools like Mural or FigJam to visualize ideas, ensuring everyone contributes effectively, regardless of location. Open communication is fundamental; creating a safe environment nurtures team cohesion, enhancing overall project outcomes. Technique Benefits Tools Brainstorming Generates innovative ideas Mural, FigJam Regular Sessions Continuous feedback Google Meet Open Communication Nurtures team cohesion Slack Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 5 Steps to Writing an Outline? To write an outline, start by defining your purpose; knowing your goal will shape your content. Next, list your main ideas, brainstorming key concepts relevant to your topic. Organize these ideas logically, choosing an order that improves clarity. Then, develop supporting details for each main idea, providing evidence or examples. Finally, review and revise your outline, ensuring all ideas are connected and clearly presented before finalizing it. What Are the 5 Steps to Making a Plan? To make a plan, start by evaluating your current situation and gathering necessary information. Next, define clear goals using the SMART criteria to guarantee they’re achievable. Then, develop actionable strategies, outlining the steps needed to reach your goals as you consider resources and obstacles. After that, implement the plan by communicating it to stakeholders and assigning responsibilities. Finally, regularly evaluate and revise your plan based on feedback and performance metrics to keep it relevant. How Do You Write a 5 Step Plan? To write a 5-step plan, start by defining your goal clearly. Make sure it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Next, break down the goal into five actionable steps, each building on the previous one. Assign tasks to individuals or teams, clarifying their responsibilities. Establish a timeline with deadlines for each step, allowing for some buffer time. Finally, regularly review and adjust your plan based on progress and feedback to stay aligned with your objective. What Are the 5 Steps of an Action Plan? To create an effective action plan, start by defining clear, SMART goals. Next, list and prioritize tasks needed to achieve these goals, breaking them into manageable steps. Allocate resources and assign team members responsible for each task. Set specific deadlines and milestones to track progress. Finally, monitor your progress through regular check-ins, evaluating the plan’s effectiveness and making necessary adjustments to guarantee you stay on track toward achieving your objectives. Conclusion Creating an effective plan outline requires careful attention to each step. By defining your vision and objectives, evaluating your current situation, establishing measurable metrics, incorporating a continuous improvement process, and engaging your team, you can develop a robust framework for success. Regular evaluations will help you adapt to changing circumstances and refine your approach. In the end, a structured planning process improves collaboration and drives your organization toward achieving its goals effectively and efficiently. Image via Google Gemini This article, "How to Create an Effective Plan Outline in 5 Steps" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Creating an effective plan outline involves a structured approach that starts with defining your vision and objectives. You’ll need to assess your current position to understand where you stand and what gaps exist. Establishing measurable metrics is essential for tracking progress. Incorporating a continuous improvement process helps guarantee your plan remains relevant over time. Engaging your team in collaborative sessions nurtures creativity and adaptability. By following these steps, you’ll set a strong foundation for success. Nevertheless, knowing how to implement these strategies effectively can be challenging. Key Takeaways Define your vision and objectives using the SMART framework to ensure clarity and alignment with organizational goals. Assess your current position by gathering data, conducting SWOT analysis, and reviewing past performance metrics. Establish measurable metrics that reflect your objectives, ensuring they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Incorporate a continuous improvement process by regularly reviewing performance metrics and documenting lessons learned for future planning. Engage your team in collaborative sessions to foster creativity, gather diverse input, and enhance communication throughout the planning process. Define Your Vision and Objectives Defining your vision and objectives is crucial for effective planning, as it sets a clear direction for your team. Start by aligning your vision statement with your organization’s goals and values. This guarantees everyone understands the cohesive direction of the planning process. Involve your team in creating this vision to incorporate diverse perspectives and promote a sense of ownership. Next, apply the SMART framework to set objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This improves clarity and focus. Develop a preliminary plan document using a project outline format, which serves as a roadmap for future actions. A project outline format sample can help visualize roles and objectives, assuring every team member knows their contributions to the larger vision. Assess Your Current Position To effectively assess your organization’s current position, it’s vital to gather and analyze relevant data that provides insight into both internal and external factors. Conducting a SWOT analysis helps identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, offering a thorough view of your situation. Moreover, gathering feedback from employees through surveys or focus groups can reveal internal perceptions and highlight areas needing improvement. Analyzing market trends and competitor performance is fundamental for grasping external influences on your strategic direction. Reviewing past performance metrics, such as sales figures and customer satisfaction ratings, helps gauge where you currently stand. Finally, utilizing data analytics tools improves your comprehension of customer behavior, providing a clearer picture of your current market position. Establish Measurable Metrics Establishing measurable metrics plays a crucial role in tracking your organization’s progress and evaluating the success of your strategic plan. To effectively create these metrics, use the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This approach helps define what success looks like and how it’ll be measured. Your metrics should align closely with your objectives, ensuring each one reflects a particular aspect of your plan’s goals. Here’s a simple table to guide you: Metric Type Example Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Increase sales by 15% by Q4 Completion Rate 80% of projects on time Customer Satisfaction 90% satisfaction score Employee Engagement 75% participation in surveys Regularly review and adjust these metrics based on feedback to stay aligned with your evolving needs. Incorporate a Continuous Improvement Process Building on the establishment of measurable metrics, incorporating a continuous improvement process can greatly boost your strategic plan’s effectiveness. Regularly assess performance metrics to pinpoint areas needing improvement, ensuring your strategies align with organizational goals. Utilize feedback loops like agile retrospectives and quarterly business reviews (QBRs) to gather insights from stakeholders, which inform necessary adjustments. Establish clear milestones for evaluations—weekly or monthly—to monitor progress and adapt your plan as needed, cultivating a culture of responsiveness. Tools like Mural or Confluence can improve collaboration and transparency, allowing teams to track updates and share insights effectively. Finally, document lessons learned during retrospectives to create a structured approach for integrating improvements in future planning cycles, ensuring ongoing evolution of your strategic initiatives. Engage Your Team in Collaborative Sessions Engaging your team in collaborative sessions not just boosts creativity but furthermore cultivates a sense of ownership over the project. By adopting brainstorming techniques like mind mapping or round-robin discussions, you encourage diverse input, leading to innovative ideas. Regular sessions are vital for continuous feedback and adaptability, allowing your team to refine plans based on real-time insights. Implement collaborative tools like Mural or FigJam to visualize ideas, ensuring everyone contributes effectively, regardless of location. Open communication is fundamental; creating a safe environment nurtures team cohesion, enhancing overall project outcomes. Technique Benefits Tools Brainstorming Generates innovative ideas Mural, FigJam Regular Sessions Continuous feedback Google Meet Open Communication Nurtures team cohesion Slack Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 5 Steps to Writing an Outline? To write an outline, start by defining your purpose; knowing your goal will shape your content. Next, list your main ideas, brainstorming key concepts relevant to your topic. Organize these ideas logically, choosing an order that improves clarity. Then, develop supporting details for each main idea, providing evidence or examples. Finally, review and revise your outline, ensuring all ideas are connected and clearly presented before finalizing it. What Are the 5 Steps to Making a Plan? To make a plan, start by evaluating your current situation and gathering necessary information. Next, define clear goals using the SMART criteria to guarantee they’re achievable. Then, develop actionable strategies, outlining the steps needed to reach your goals as you consider resources and obstacles. After that, implement the plan by communicating it to stakeholders and assigning responsibilities. Finally, regularly evaluate and revise your plan based on feedback and performance metrics to keep it relevant. How Do You Write a 5 Step Plan? To write a 5-step plan, start by defining your goal clearly. Make sure it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Next, break down the goal into five actionable steps, each building on the previous one. Assign tasks to individuals or teams, clarifying their responsibilities. Establish a timeline with deadlines for each step, allowing for some buffer time. Finally, regularly review and adjust your plan based on progress and feedback to stay aligned with your objective. What Are the 5 Steps of an Action Plan? To create an effective action plan, start by defining clear, SMART goals. Next, list and prioritize tasks needed to achieve these goals, breaking them into manageable steps. Allocate resources and assign team members responsible for each task. Set specific deadlines and milestones to track progress. Finally, monitor your progress through regular check-ins, evaluating the plan’s effectiveness and making necessary adjustments to guarantee you stay on track toward achieving your objectives. Conclusion Creating an effective plan outline requires careful attention to each step. By defining your vision and objectives, evaluating your current situation, establishing measurable metrics, incorporating a continuous improvement process, and engaging your team, you can develop a robust framework for success. Regular evaluations will help you adapt to changing circumstances and refine your approach. In the end, a structured planning process improves collaboration and drives your organization toward achieving its goals effectively and efficiently. Image via Google Gemini This article, "How to Create an Effective Plan Outline in 5 Steps" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Iran and the United States received a draft proposal late Sunday calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, two Mideast officials speaking condition of anonymity told The Associated Press. The proposal comes from Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators hoping the 45-day window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire. Iran and the U.S. have not responded to the proposal, which was sent to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, the officials said. The head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed Monday in an attack targeting him, Iranian state media said. The Israeli military later confirmed the airstrike that killed Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi took place in Iran’s capital Tehran. Strikes on cities across Iran have killed more people Monday, while in Israel’s Haifa victims were found dead in rubble following an attack. U.S. President Donald The President on Sunday stepped up his threat to hit Iran’s critical infrastructure hard if the country’s government doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday deadline. The President punctuated his threat with profanity in a social media post, saying Tuesday will be “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.” The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes from the United Nations and international law experts. —Associated Press View the full article

Robert Reich has been warning people about the dangers of inequality for decades, in all sorts of different ways. He’s interacted directly with politicians as a member of three different presidential administrations, most notably as Bill Clinton’s labor secretary. He’s taught thousands of college students at Harvard, Brandeis, and UC Berkeley. He’s written 18 books. And for 11 years, he has run Inequality Media, a nonprofit dedicated to informing the public about income and wealth disparity, among other imbalances of power in our society. Inequality Media now has 15 million followers across all its social media channels. At a time when Americans are increasingly paying attention to issues of affordability and rising extreme wealth—even outright blaming billionaires for making society less fair—Reich’s content is striking a chord. Reich and Inequality Media executive director Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse came on the Most Innovative Companies podcast to talk about how they reach such a wide audience, the importance of experimentation, and the power of educating people about these issues. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. What was the original spark for Inequality Media, and why were short-form videos the right fit for that kind of work? Robert Reich: Well, sometime around 2013 or ’14, my son, Sam Reich, said, “Dad, I think you have written a lot of very good books and people like your books, but if you want to reach my generation, it’s not through books. It’s through social media.” And I didn’t fully understand even the meaning of the word social media, but he was very kind and he explained a lot to me. And it seemed like we needed to have some sort of social media company to produce videos. His point—and I think he’s absolutely right—is that videos do something that the written word doesn’t do. And this is particularly true of young people who are very acutely aware of what happens visually. They pick up very, very subtle details in terms of visual media, but they are not, as my generation was, readers. And Heather, how did you get involved? Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse: I got involved because Bob, as I call him, Professor Reich, emailed me and said, “Hey, I’m doing a new thing. Do you want to talk about it?” He and a fellow named Jake Kornbluth had gotten together and made a feature-length documentary, and they said, “Okay, let’s make videos. We’ve done it long-form. We can do it short-form.” And so I came in and said, “Let’s figure out internet video, specifically social video. What are these first three seconds people care about?” To have this organization change over 11 years, we couldn’t have predicted it. We are social video first, but we’ve expanded into podcasts, we’ve expanded into feature films, we’ve expanded into doing some radio. We’re trying to create more ripples and say the same thing in many ways. A nesting dolls approach—put it in different formats, the same messages. You talk about all types of inequality—economic inequality, racial inequality—but democracy is really core to this message, too. Why is that an important focus of this conversation, especially from the beginning? RR: Because one of the most really unfortunate aspects of the degree of inequality—of income and wealth inequality the United States is now suffering from—is that it has found its way into American politics through everything from campaign contributions to public relations undertaken by very wealthy people, to other ways in which really great wealth is translated into great political power. You can’t separate wealth and power. I mean, arguably, wealth is not a zero-sum game. It is certainly possible for some people to become extraordinarily wealthy without the necessity that other people become poor or don’t have adequate resources. But power is a zero-sum game. That is, if few people have it, that means that other people don’t. And this is really what the great jurist Louis Brandeis was getting at when he was reputed to have said in the late 1920s: America faces a choice. We can either have great wealth in the hands of a few people, or we can have a democracy, but we cannot have both. In your political positions, you spoke to policymakers or people with some sort of political power. And then as a professor, you spoke to students. But now you’re really speaking to the internet, to the everyday Americans. Why is it worth talking to these people about these issues, especially when some people can feel that they’re a little bit powerless to change things? RR: Well, they are not powerless. The point is, that is where the power is, or should be. The only way of breaking through elite domination of our politics and our economy is by empowering average people to become more politically active and to understand the relationship between politics and economics, to understand why they have a huge stake in changing the rules of the game in their own favor, in ways that enable them to have a fair shot at making it. We are not a news organization as such, but the news constantly every day is in front of people. That’s what most people talk about. But the news that is in front of them is also symptomatic of deeper structural issues, changes in the political economy, changes in the rules of the game. Why is it, for example, that a president can essentially initiate a war on his own without Congress, without our allies, without enunciating to the American people why we are going to war, and then have such an extraordinary negative impact on oil prices, on what the cost of living is for actual people, in the span of days? That needs to be explained to people because a lot of them are wondering about it. It’s underneath the surface of the news, but it does require some explication. And that explication gives us an opportunity to explain to people the structure of both the economy and our political system and the ways in which they are inextricably wed together. The other point here: This is nonpartisan in the sense that we are not touting the Democrats, we are not pro-Republican, but we are pro-average working people. This is something that’s very, very important because average working people are the ones who are bearing the costs of a system that is no longer in their hands. They are bearing the costs of political decisions that are helping enrich those who are already rich and are making it harder and harder for those who are not rich to get ahead. That’s the story of America at this particular point in time. That’s the underlying anger that we are dealing with in this country. Are there any particular tactics for reaching new audiences who may not be aware of these issues or agree with your personal politics—to still break through and educate them? RR: It’s a combination of a variety of experiments. Empirical experimentation is really at the heart of it, because we try to be very agile. We are continuously trying new things. Success can be an enemy because success makes it harder to change. Success makes it easier for everybody inside an organization to say, “Well, we did it this way. Let’s just keep doing it this way.” So what we are blessed with is a group of people who are not bound by success, who want to continuously find ways in which social media can be used in new effective modes. And there are a lot of people that follow us, and I don’t mean follow us in the sense of following, just tuning in. There are a lot of organizations, not-for-profits, there are a lot of social media groups that I’ve noticed use techniques that we develop because they’re so effective, and that’s great. We don’t try to stop anybody from using these techniques. In fact, quite the opposite. We develop new techniques, and we want the world to use them. I notice you do a lot of joint posts with other accounts, other nonprofits, other similar organizations, which seems like a great way to reach new people and new audiences. HKL: We love a collab post on Instagram, and thanks go to these companies who are making it easier for us to do that. But yeah, we work with a lot of different people. We have different experts come in. We lean on different organizations to surface data in interesting ways that we can use. But in terms of persuading people, every platform is different, right? If you have a bunch of people following you, on average, they’re probably going to skew in a certain direction because they follow you and they interpret your content in a certain way. But the good thing about the internet, and the way we can play around with digital media, is that you can test your content with people who don’t follow you, right? And you can try and get it out in new ways. And so that’s what we try to do. We try to say, “Oh, did that message hit with, I don’t know, self-proclaimed independents?” And you can see how the content does. And then you can try and get it out beyond your specific followers. But it takes time and thought. And it’s so fun to see some of the qualitative feedback when we do tests and they don’t know who Professor Reich is. They don’t say, “Oh, he was with the Clinton administration, so therefore I have thoughts about him.” They say things like, “Wow, that presenter was really compelling.” Or, “Who’s the actor? I really heard what he said about the minimum wage.” You’ve got to be savvy about it. You can’t just do one post and hope that a full range of America is processing it because they’re not, for a lot of reasons. Can all of these issues of inequality be solved by messaging? Is it just a point of first making sure that people are aware and understand what’s going on? RR: I think it is fundamentally a matter of explaining to people what they already observe and feel in terms of the political economy around themselves. People are very acutely aware, for example, of prices. They know exactly what’s happening at the gas pump. Every time they fill up their gas tanks, they see precisely what’s happening. They’re very aware of their jobs. They’re very aware of their incomes. They’re aware of the cost of childcare, the cost of eldercare. People are immersed in this world, but what they lack very often is an understanding of why. What’s happening has to do with the institutions of our society—everything from the Federal Reserve, all the way through how state governments are operating and how income taxes versus sales taxes are working. But it goes fundamentally to questions of power. Who has the power? How do they exercise that power? How can they be made more accountable with regard to the power that they are exercising, both in the public sector and in the private sector? HKL: Our mission is to educate and engage. So we don’t write public policy. We’re not writing the new, latest wealth tax that someone’s doing. That’s not our role. Our role—and we’ve owned it from the beginning—is educating and engaging. And then people can feel empowered to request different things of their elected officials. They can go out and sign petitions. They can run for office themselves. They can be the leaders that we need and that many of them actually want to be. So much needs to be done to solve or lessen inequality and the gaps here. And so much of it is systemic and policy-related. But I think messaging is key, and that’s our role. In The Last Class documentary, Robert, you say a true leader helps people overcome cynicism. These issues that you’re talking about can make people a little bit cynical about the state of the world. How do you veer away from cynicism and toward hope? And do you have hope about all this? RR: I certainly have hope, and I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I were not hopeful. But I think there’s a difference between [cynicism and] skepticism, which is appropriate. I think people do need to be skeptical when they hear the news, when they view social media, when they’re engaged with all of the ways in which facts and news and lies travel at an accelerating speed. I think it is very important for all of us to understand that hopelessness is a dead end. That’s the end of the road: We can’t reform our system, we can’t change our democracy, we can’t make the economy work for most of us, we can’t create a society that most of us value and most of us would like to be a member of, if we lose hope. If we become so cynical that we basically say to ourselves, “It’s not worth even trying”—that’s something that I think is in the background of what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to give people levers, ideas, to not only empower them through understanding what’s actually happening, but also to empower them through a sense of what they can do as ordinary Americans. View the full article

Few things are more stressful when flying than a security screening line that is far longer than expected. In recent weeks, due to the partial federal government shutdown that left Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers without pay, travelers at major airports encountered wait times of up to four hours to clear security. (As of April 2, these bottlenecks have largely eased.) During "normal" times, it's easier to determine how early you actually need to arrive, but if you want to find the sweet spot between spending pointless hours at the airport and missing your flight, you should keep an eye on current security wait times, which are available across multiple apps and websites. A reminder, of course, that times are subject to change quickly. The MyTSA app uses real-time information on wait timesTSA has its own app for iOS and Android that provides estimated wait times for airport security lines. MyTSA uses real-time information (when available) along with historical data, so you can see current estimates as well as standard wait times by day of the week and hour of the day. The app also shows open PreCheck lanes and FAA delays. You can add your most-traveled airports to the main dashboard. Note that during shutdowns, MyTSA may not be updated as frequently, so you should consider a backup and note current recommendations for airport arrival times. United's app now has wait times for its U.S. hubsUnited Airlines recently added security wait times to its iOS and Android app, but only for its U.S. hubs: Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) Denver International Airport (DEN) Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) The app shows wait times for both standard security lanes and PreCheck. United says that these estimates are updated throughout the day based on data collected by the airline. Anyone can use the app, as United's hubs see plenty of traffic from other airlines, but it won't be helpful for those traveling through other airports. Delta allows you to see some TSA wait times on its websiteDelta's app doesn't have a security wait time feature built in, but Delta customers can see current wait times at Delta hubs on the airline's website. The following airports are supported: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) LaGuardia Airport (LGA) Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) Current wait times are provided for specific checkpoints at each airport, including standard and PreCheck lanes—data appear to be pulled from individual airport websites. For SLC, Delta also has estimated hourly wait times, which show the highest traffic typically occurring between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. as well as 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Some airport websites will list wait times on their sitesSome larger airports list current or estimated wait times on their own websites, so you can search the name of your airport plus "security wait times" to get information about specific checkpoints and lanes. Smaller airports typically don't have this real-time data, so you're better off using the MyTSA app. These third-party TSA trackers can help determine wait timesThere are numerous websites that combine historical data, information published by airports and federal agencies, and crowdsourced estimates to show approximate TSA wait times. Community submissions may be especially helpful during government shutdowns, when TSA isn't reporting live wait times. A few options include Qsensor (which shows smaller local and international airports), TSA Wait Times, AirlineAirport, and USA Today's TSA tracker. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera has dropped to $29.99 on Woot, down from its listed $99.99. It currently sells for $44.99 on Amazon, and price trackers show it hasn’t dipped this low before. Shipping is free if you have Prime; otherwise, it adds $6 to your total. The deal is expected to run for five days or until stock runs out. Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera Wired plug-in outdoor camera with 2K resolution $29.99 at Woot $99.99 Save $70.00 Get Deal Get Deal $29.99 at Woot $99.99 Save $70.00 This is a wired outdoor camera with a 2K resolution and a 130-degree field of view. The headline feature is its mechanical pan-and-tilt system, which can rotate 360 degrees and tilt 180 degrees. In practice, that means you can cover an entire yard or driveway without installing multiple cameras. Video quality holds up well in daylight, with good detail and accurate colors. At night, it switches between color night vision and infrared black-and-white, depending on lighting. It also includes a spotlight, a siren, and two-way audio, so you can speak to someone on your property or trigger an alarm. The motion detection of this camera is backed by AI that can identify people, vehicles, animals, and packages, and it sends alerts with short descriptions of what’s happening instead of a generic “motion detected” ping. Most of the smarter features, including recorded video history and detailed alerts, require an Arlo Secure Plus subscription (billed annually at $17.99 after a six-month free trial). Without it, you’re limited to live viewing and basic notifications, and there’s no local storage option to fall back on. The camera also needs to stay plugged in, which limits placement compared to battery-powered models. Still, it supports Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings, and the app is responsive when panning, tilting, or pulling up a live feed. It also earned an “excellent” review from PCMag for packing features usually found on more expensive cameras into a relatively affordable outdoor model. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $224.00 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.99 (List Price $349.00) Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ 128GB Wi-Fi 11" Tablet (Gray) — $209.99 (List Price $249.99) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $329.00 (List Price $399.00) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $248.00 (List Price $399.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

In all the worthy discussions around the promise and peril of AI, we may be overlooking one of its most powerful use cases: solving urgent global health crises. Few problems illustrate this better than antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics underpin modern medicine, enabling procedures like C-sections and organ transplants and ensuring that patients can safely receive treatments such as chemotherapy. But the bacteria they target are constantly evolving. Over time, many have developed resistance to the drugs we rely on—turning once-routine infections into life-threatening conditions. The scale of the problem is staggering. A landmark global analysis published in The Lancet estimates that antibiotic-resistant infections—known as superbugs—could directly cause more than 39 million deaths between now and 2050, with resistant bacteria contributing to more than 8 million deaths per year by mid-century if current trends continue. In 2019 alone, antibiotic resistance was responsible for 1.2 million deaths globally, exceeding the toll of AIDS-related illnesses and malaria that year. At the same time, the pipeline for new antibiotics has been shrinking for decades. Traditional drug discovery is slow, expensive, and notoriously inefficient. Scientists must test thousands, or even millions, of chemical compounds to identify just a few viable candidates, according to our internal research. A PROBLEM FOR AI This is exactly the kind of problem AI is built to tackle. Antibiotic discovery represents an ideal use case for artificial intelligence that can serve as a paradigm for AI drug discovery more broadly. Instead of testing molecules manually, AI models can analyze vast chemical libraries to predict and even design compounds which are most likely to kill bacteria, dramatically narrowing the field before a single experiment begins. The result is faster and better research. Across the emerging field of AI-native drug discovery, there is growing consensus that machine learning can reduce the timeline of the early discovery phase—covering hit identification, hit-to-lead optimization, and lead optimization—by 50% to 75%, in our experience. That means moving from a promising molecule to a preclinical drug candidate in a fraction of the traditional pace. But speed is only part of the story. AI dramatically expands the chemical universe scientists can explore. This is particularly important in antibiotic discovery, where many existing drug scaffolds are already vulnerable to well-understood bacterial resistance mechanisms. To stay ahead, researchers must identify entirely new scaffolds and mechanisms of action. INCREASE SHOTS ON GOAL Traditional discovery methods limit researchers to relatively small collections of molecules that can realistically be synthesized and screened in the lab. AI models, by contrast, can explore tens to hundreds of millions of potential compounds in silico—computer modeling. It can then prioritize the most promising candidates for synthesis and experimental testing, helping surface entirely new chemical structures that researchers might not have otherwise considered. In other words, AI increases the number and quality of “shots on goal.” Crucially, this technology exists to amplify human intelligence—learning from and augmenting the insight and judgment of scientists. At organizations like ours, Phare Bio, and across the broader biotech ecosystem, AI is being used as a collaborative tool. Machine learning models generate hypotheses, prioritize molecules, and analyze patterns in biological data. Researchers then validate those predictions in the lab, refine the models, and guide the next iteration of discovery. This partnership between human and machine intelligence is already reshaping multiple areas of drug development. Some companies focus on small molecule chemistry, using AI to reduce the number of compounds that must be synthesized and tested. Others are designing entirely new biologic medicines, such as antibodies, where machine learning can accelerate the traditionally slow process of antibody discovery. Still others apply AI to simulate protein dynamics, helping researchers understand how molecules interact with dynamic biological targets. These approaches may differ technically, but they share a common goal: finding better drugs, faster. LOWER THE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY BARRIER Perhaps most importantly, AI is lowering the barriers to entry for scientific discovery. Historically, antibiotic research required enormous infrastructure: large pharmaceutical companies, massive screening libraries, and expensive laboratory pipelines. Today, powerful AI models and open datasets allow smaller teams, such as academic labs, nonprofits, and startups, to compete in the race to find new antibiotics. That democratization matters. Antibiotic resistance is a global problem that requires a global response. For all the hope surrounding artificial intelligence, its greatest impact may ultimately come from helping humanity solve problems that once seemed intractable. Antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious biological threats we face. But it is also a challenge uniquely suited to the strengths of AI: pattern recognition, massive-scale exploration, and rapid iteration. If we continue building smarter models, pairing them with human expertise, and applying them to the urgent challenges of global health, AI could help unlock an entirely new generation of antibiotics. Akhila Kosaraju, MD, is CEO and cofounder of Phare Bio. View the full article

For years companies have been operating as though working parents with young children are the center of the work-life balance issue. Taking care of little kids is intense, to be sure. But the truth is the real work-life crisis isn’t at that point in their lives. It’s coming in five, ten, or fifteen years. This is the Caregiving Cliff, the time when the highest paid, most tenured, or most worthy of promotion start cracking under the pressure of taking care of kids, aging parents, and their own health needs. The moment when peak earning meets peak caregiving Recently, I spoke with a 47-year-old who had just turned down a promotion. She loved her job and wanted the promotion more than anything. But at that moment in her life, she could not see how she could do it. Her teenage son was battling depression, her father was beginning chemotherapy, and her work calendar was already unbearable. A promotion meant more travel, longer hours, and a level of focus she didn’t think she had the capacity to handle. So, she passed. This woman is exactly the kind of employee companies say they want to retain. And she is exactly the kind they are about to lose. Nearly one in four American adults is now a caregiver for someone 18 or older, according to the AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving. This is hitting midlife workers at a time when their teens are dealing with social drama, academic pressure, and college applications. And for many women, perimenopause is starting to wreak havoc. This is also the moment when seasoned employees are expected to step into bigger roles, lead, scale, and mentor. Your job expects peak performance at the exact time it feels like life is at its most unmanageable. Why companies are solving the wrong problem For decades companies have competed for talent by offering benefits focused on new parenthood, like parental leave, backup childcare, and lactation rooms. All great and absolutely necessary. But these perks become less and less helpful for employees as they age or who come onboard midlife. And flexibility in the workplace is often considered a phase rather than a permanent need. Employees are expected to outgrow it as their children get older. But caregiving doesn’t end, it just becomes more complex. As a result, employees feeling the crunch may start to downshift. They stop taking on extra projects, avoid business travel, and turn down leadership opportunities. Or they leave for a job that offers flexibility without a penalty. Suddenly, companies are faced with a retention crisis and have no idea why their best employees have left. This is a leadership issue too This isn’t just a retention problem. Employees in their 40s and 50s are the most experienced on the teams, often the best managers, and should be the future leaders of the company. When that talent is driven out because the benefits package only supports new parents with young children, businesses lose their leadership pipeline. And unlike new employees, they are harder to replace. What companies need to do Some companies are starting to realize that caregiving doesn’t end after the toddler years, it just gets less visible and more complicated. To retain their best employees, employers will need to: Expand the definition of caregiving to include elderly parents (with zero judgement). Create flexible options that don’t kill career trajectories A human resources department that can offer a plan and guidance (not just a downloadable PDF). Talking about the realities of midlife health (especially women’s health) like the workforce epidemic it actually is. A mindset shift is critical. It’s time we start preparing for the caregiving needs of every employee because the future of work isn’t getting younger. It’s getting more chaotic. View the full article

Today, April 6, 2026, is Easter Monday. It’s the final part of the long Easter Weekend, which runs from Good Friday through today. In several countries around the world, including Canada and Australia, Easter Monday is a public holiday. But what about here in America, and what stores and institutions are closed for the day? Here’s what you need to know. Is Easter Monday a national holiday? No. Although Easter Monday is observed as a national holiday in dozens of countries worldwide, it is not a national holiday in the United States. This means that federal agencies—at least those not affected by the ongoing partial government shutdown—will operate as usual today. For the next federally recognized national holiday in the United States, you’ll need to wait until Memorial Day on Monday, May 25. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2026 has 11 federal holidays, the most recent one being Washington’s Birthday on February 16. Is Easter Monday a state holiday? While Good Friday was recognized as a state holiday in several states in 2026, no U.S. state recognizes Easter Monday as a state holiday. This means all state-run institutions, such as DMVs, should be open and operating as usual today. Is the stock market open on Easter Monday? Yes, America’s major stock markets are open today. While America’s stock markets set their own holidays, which don’t always align with federal holidays (as is the case with Good Friday), none have chosen to treat Easter Monday as a holiday. This means both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq will be open today. However, keep in mind that other stock markets around the world may be closed if they are located in one of the numerous countries that observe Easter Monday as a national holiday. Are banks open on Easter Monday? Yes, most banks will be operating as normal on Easter Monday. This includes all of America’s major national banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank. Are ATMs open on Easter Monday? ATMs will be operating as normal. However, note that after the long Easter Weekend, some may have run out of cash and not yet been replenished. Is the post office open on Easter Monday? Yes, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is a federal agency, and so it is operating today. That means all USPS branches that are normally open should be open today. Is mail delivered on Easter Monday? Yes. The United States Postal Service will deliver mail as usual today. Are FedEx and UPS operating on Easter Monday? Yes, both UPS and FedEx are operating as normal today. Are schools open on Easter Monday? Most public schools should be open today, as Easter Monday is not a federal or state holiday. However, the caveat here is that Easter Monday may overlap with some schools’ spring break, in which case those schools would be shut today. As for private schools, many Christian or Catholic ones will also be operating as normal. However, it is best to contact your school directly to confirm their schedule. Are restaurants open on Easter Monday? You can expect most fast food and restaurant chains to be open today, including popular chains like Burger King, Chipotle, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and more. Are retail stores open on Easter Monday? Yes. For all intents and purposes, Easter Monday is just another business day for retailers, with no big-box retail locations expected to be closed. So you can expect your local Best Buy, Costco, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart, and more to be open. Are pharmacies open on Easter Monday? Yes, most major chain pharmacies will be open today, including CVS and Walgreens. Are grocery stores open on Easter Monday? As with big-box retailers, you can expect most grocery store chains to be open today. This includes major chains like Aldi, Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and more. View the full article

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. I can’t keep up with all the news that interests me. So I’m exploring new ways to get concise, curated updates. Today I’m sharing three new tools I like. Huxe: Personalized audio shows drawn from your interests, calendar, and email. Google CC: A morning summary of your email inbox. Yutori Scouts: AI agents that monitor your fave topics and deliver reports. Read on for examples of how each works, and how to make the most of them. Huxe: Personalized Audio Updates Huxe is a personalized audio app. Whenever I open it, I hear a custom podcast it generates on the spot based on my interests, calendar, and email. It greets me with what’s important on my calendar and in my inbox. Then the little radio show made for me shares news and feature stories on topics I’m interested in—from AI and tech to teaching and classical music. Huxe was co-founded in September by Raiza Martin, who left Google after leading the vision and development of NotebookLM, my favorite AI tool. To set up the Huxe app, I picked from a list of categories and added some keywords for topics, teams, and tech that interest me. I also gave it permission to access my Google Calendar and Gmail. (Connecting those accounts is optional.) Huxe is free for now, on iOS or Android. Follow Huxe on LinkedIn, where they post interesting updates. In addition to a new “for you” audio update generated anytime I open the app, Huxe also has a “Discover” tab for listening to audio shows curated from online content. Examples of ones I like: Product Drops highlights notable new tech, referencing posts on Product Hunt, the best hub online for new launches. Actually Useful has mini case studies about when AI is demonstrably helpful. The Tennis Daily gives me interesting updates during the Australian Open. Design your own briefing Start by pressing the “+” button at the bottom right of the interface. On the “Research” tab, type in a prompt like “What are the latest breast cancer research developments?” or “Newest snack trends in Tokyo?” Alternatively, hit the “Use Sources” tab and add a list of specific sites you like, X handles, RSS feeds, or subreddits. Ideas to try Create a personalized learning show with your favorite blogs, newsletter writers, or subreddits you follow. You can add an instruction to give the show a particular focus, tone, or style. Make a guilty pleasure show for stressful days. It can be as niche as you want—it’s just for you. No one has to know what’s in it, though you can choose to share it. Add a list of topics that amuse you, from hobbies to food, pet, or sport trends. Or pick guilty pleasures like favorite TV shows, snacks, or singers. Example: In 60 seconds I curated my own show, called Reddit’s Daily Glow, that’s based on a few subreddits with inspiring news and interesting facts. I used to listen only to podcasts or audiobooks on my commute, but now I mix in these personalized audio updates, depending on my mood. Customize your briefings Use the “Join” button while listening to anything to inject a live question into the show. Like the interactive audio feature in NotebookLM, it prompts the AI to respond to your query before returning to the audio briefing. In the “Settings” tab, choose two voices you prefer from 19 options. Features I hope will be added: I’d like to be able to rewind and jump around more easily in the briefings. Down the road I’d love to pull in podcast, YouTube, and newsletter subscriptions as source material, and get Huxe updates by email or WhatsApp. I’d also love to use Huxe as a curator to create my own shows, mixing in my own voice and content. Alternative: I like Mailbrew for creating curated email digests from my favorite newsletters, blogs, subreddits, YouTubers, and more. Read my guide (for paid Wonder Tools subscribers) for more on why I like it and how I use it. Another alternative for a quick news overview is Upstract. But that’s basically the entire internet on one page, which I find overwhelming. Google CC: A Personalized Daily Email Update I’m testing a new Google “AI productivity agent.” CC is basically a personalized briefing that Gmail now sends me daily. It’s based on new Gmail messages and what’s in my Calendar. What’s useful about it It saves me from missing out. It surfaces messages I might otherwise overlook. Examples so far: a library message about a reserved book ready for pickup, and a volunteering sign-up deadline. It links directly to key messages. You can click on any briefing item to open the relevant Gmail message. I can reply to customize future briefings. I replied to a briefing asking for Substack-related email updates I might have missed, and it gave me these useful nuggets. Yutori Scouts: Get Customized Reports Get updates on whatever interests you with Yutori Scouts. Create a detailed query, and a team of AI agents will scour the web to keep you up to date. Specify news, shopping, or professional passions, or get updates on particular products, companies, or opportunities. Set your preferred frequency to daily, weekly, or when new info arises. It’s like a more powerful, AI-enhanced version of Google Alerts, which just searches for keywords. Here’s more on how Yutori’s AI agents work. How I’m using it To get an inspiring daily story from Reddit. Here’s a recent example. To see which AI startups are trending on Product Hunt. (You can remix public queries, which serve as useful templates.) To keep up with new AI policies in higher ed. I set up a weekly digest to stay up to date for my job at the City University of New York. Here’s a recent update. More examples of what Scouts can monitor Niche clothing trends in Tokyo TikTok U.S. daily trends Highly rated new movies available to stream Pricing: Free for one active query; $15 per month for 10 scouts on various topics with up to hourly monitoring. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. View the full article

For too long, design has been too focused on how things look. That makes sense when products are competing for attention. Form becomes a way to stand out, a signal of taste, a shortcut to desire. But it’s fleeting. A shopper may feel good at checkout, then realize later that the product doesn’t actually enhance her life. That’s a failure. Most products don’t fail because they look bad. They fail because they don’t hold up in real life. They’re hard to open, awkward to carry, confusing to use, fine in ideal conditions but frustrating everywhere else. As a society, we’ve been designing for the moment of purchase, not the reality of use, and not for the long term. Real life is not ideal. Hands are full. Attention is split. Bodies change. Needs shift. What works in a studio or a showroom often breaks down in daily routines. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER PURCHASE? Features that can be marketed in a headline or a surface impression matter, but they are incomplete. What matters just as much is what happens after purchase. Does the product reduce effort or add to it? Does it adapt to real conditions? Does it continue to work as life changes? These questions determine whether a product becomes part of someone’s life or something they quietly abandon. In homes everywhere, there are small examples of this gap. A chair that looks right but becomes uncomfortable over time, or is difficult to stand up from. A sauté pan that causes strain while plating. These are not dramatic failures, but they are everyday ones. Each friction point requires adjustment and extra attention, shaping how people feel about a product and the brand behind it. At the same time, the opposite mistake shows up just as often. Some products are designed so narrowly around function that they lose any sense of humanity. This is especially visible in categories that claim to prioritize usability, where the result can feel institutional or mechanical. They solve for performance but ignore how people want to feel using them. That is also a failure. People don’t separate how something works from how it makes them feel. The best products integrate purpose and personality. OBSERVE, DON’T JUST LISTEN Part of the reason this persists is that companies rely heavily on what customers say they want. That input is valuable, but it has limits. People tend to describe improvements to what they already know, but rarely entirely new ways something could work. If design only follows those signals, it reinforces the current model instead of challenging it. That is why designers focus on observing behavior, not just listening to requests. Real insight comes from watching how people actually live, where they struggle, adapt, and compensate. Designing for those realities often leads to solutions that feel obvious in hindsight but would have been difficult to articulate in advance. NEXT PHASE: UNDERSTANDING We are at an inflection point. The next phase of design is not about more expression, but more understanding. The value of a product is not in how it looks on a shelf, but in how it performs across the small, repeated moments that make up a day. Those ordinary moments are easy to overlook, but they are where products succeed or fail. A handle that supports different ways of holding it, an interface that makes its function clear at a glance, a form that guides use without explanation. These are not dramatic innovations, but they make a product easier to live with. When design solves for those moments, something changes. Products become easier to use, require less effort, and create less friction. They feel considered and increase in value over time. That shift is subtle, but powerful. When something works the way it should, people stop thinking about the object and focus on what they are trying to do. That is the real goal. The best products are not the ones that demand attention, but the ones that remove the need for it. THE IMPLICATIONS OF TRUST When a brand consistently delivers that experience, people begin to trust it and return to it, not just because of how it looks, but because of how it performs over time. That is where emotional connection is built. This has clear business implications. Products that work across a wider range of conditions are used more often, replaced less frequently, and build stronger loyalty. In saturated categories, this kind of performance becomes a meaningful advantage. It also requires a different mindset. Design cannot be treated as a final layer applied to a finished idea. It has to be embedded from the beginning, shaped by how people actually live. That means paying attention to variation, not just averages, and to edge conditions, not just ideal ones. Not ignoring customers, but recognizing that what people say and what they need are not always the same. The role of design is to close that gap, introducing solutions that feel natural once experienced, even if they were not requested in advance. The future of design will be defined by how well products work, how well they last, and how naturally they fit into real life. That is the problem worth solving. Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design. View the full article

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Americans are buying second-hand electric vehicles even as the market for new vehicles slumpsView the full article

If your small business sees clients and customers by appointment, scheduling becomes your lifeblood. So it may surprise you to learn that 72.83% of U.S. small businesses still primarily use email to set appointments. Never mind the fact that more sophisticated options like Zoho Bookings offer a way to drastically improve scheduling for small businesses of all kinds. “Despite the growth of scheduling tools, legacy methods continue to dominate across SMBs,” explains a new survey created by the Zoho Bookings team. “Email threads and phone calls remain the default, even as more efficient alternatives become increasingly accessible.” Say Goodbye to Email Scheduling Imagine you run a barber shop in Brooklyn, New York. You’ve mastered 360 waves, drop fades, taper afros, twists, locks and more. Your clients and customers love your work. But you still manage your appointments by email. Yikes! Or imagine you run an insurance agency in Bridgeport, Connecticut. You might meet with clients at the local coffee shop, at your office, or online. Now imagine scheduling all these appointments with email threads and then trying to jot them all down in your calendar. You will have to hope nothing falls through the cracks. Who wants to live like this? Stop the Drain of Back and Forth Concern over scheduling through email goes beyond worry over missed appointments. Though that problem certainly exists. It also happens to be the greatest drain on a small business’s most valuable resource: time. According to the Zoho Bookings survey, 46.1% of respondents said the back-and-forth involved in more traditional scheduling like email ends up being a huge waste of hours. Consider a life coach in Tucson, Arizona who meets with most of her clients one on one online – since many are spread throughout the world. Using email for appointments seemed workable in the beginning. But with more clients every month, our hypothetical life coach finds her time more and more taken up by scheduling. An incoming email from a new lead results in lots of back and forth trying to settle on a date for a first session. Existing clients need to occasionally reschedule too resulting in even more emails. Multiply this over a larger and larger number of customers. Soon our life coach lacks time to prepare for new sessions. She also lacks adequate time to create videos, blog posts and other content — another important part of the service she provides. Look At Other Ways Scheduling Inefficiencies Create Challenges First, 34.65% of respondents say they see increased no shows due to scheduling problems, according to the survey. A periodontist in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania may see a drop in patients keeping their appointments. Perhaps confirmations remain lost in email threads causing confusion. Another 31.98% of respondents say double bookings and other conflicts result from these issues. Meanwhile, 23.62% of respondents report uneven team schedules as a result. Consider running a beauty salon in Detroit, Michigan. You schedule an extra beautician to handle two clients who never materialize. Another 21.65% of respondents to the survey say these challenges also lead to inefficient resource management. Perhaps an accountant in Portland, Oregon spends a few hours preparing a report for a client who doesn’t show due to scheduling confusion. That same client won’t pay you for a meeting he never attended. So 16.93% of respondents say late payments also remain related challenges. Another 9.45% of respondents listed increased administrative costs as a result of scheduling challenges. Learn How Much Inefficient Scheduling Costs You How much time does scheduling actually take up? Remember, this represents time you can’t use to get other things done in your business. First, about half of respondents – 46.46% – estimate they spend more than an hour to get a single appointment scheduled. This may include back and forth in email or on the phone to finalize an appointment and get it on the calendar. Meanwhile, 28.35% estimate it takes 1 to 6 hours to finalize and schedule an appointment, 13.78% think it’s 6 to 12 hours, 7.27% estimate 12 to 24 hours, and 1.97% say more than a day. A minuscule 1.18% say they just don’t know. Needless to say, it makes little difference how long you believe scheduling takes you. As the number of clients increases the time taken up in scheduling grows exponentially. “The gap between how often businesses schedule and how efficiently they do it is where automation can deliver significant operational benefits, especially for SMBs with lean teams, by reducing time spent on coordination and freeing resources for core activities,” the Zoho Bookings survey report explains. Add Effortless Flow to Your Scheduling Process Fortunately, automation in the form of scheduling software like Zoho Bookings offers another option. Zoho Bookings allows you to set up your hours and availability. Then customers or clients simply schedule the appointments that work for them. Forget back and forth emails. Watch your schedule fill up while you spend your valuable time doing something else in your business. Don’t Pick Up The Phone The phone seems even more old school than email. Yet 57.1% of small businesses in the U.S, still use it to schedule appointments with clients, according to the Zoho Bookings survey. Booking appointments with clients by phone and then entering them into your calendar may seem perfectly workable for some. (And, this may also depend on the number of these calls you need to take or make.) But imagine being an ophthalmologist in Raleigh, North Carolina. Your reception desk needs to make calls to remind patients of annual checkups. Or they need to handle a flurry or incoming calls when you send out your annual appointment reminders. This decreases the time they can spend fielding more important calls from patients. These end up being questions that require real humans to answer. They include medical questions, billing questions, or questions about the practice and the services you provide. Look for Digital Solutions Replacing email and phone with appointment scheduling software resolves many of these problems. In fact, scheduling software ranks third as the most used scheduling solution for U.S. small businesses. With 33.65% of organizations in the U.S. using software for scheduling, this option ranks far above calendar app invites and website forms. But it also ranks far above a number of other low tech and high tech solutions like pen and paper, spreadsheets, walk-ins or chatbots. “Manual scheduling carries a hidden cost,” the survey observes. “It surfaces as wasted hours, missed appointments, and customers who move on because booking was too complicated.” And the problems that arise seem magnified in small businesses where fewer employees mean not as many people to take up the slack. “For SMBs where a single person often handles sales, operations, and customer service, these friction points hit harder than they do at larger organizations,” the survey authors explain. Add A Virtual Meeting Component Choose a scheduling software that enables virtual meetings as well. Earlier we looked at a life coach with clients scattered all over the world. Such a business certainly requires virtual meetings for any interactive exchange. But Zoho Bookings’ survey found most of your competitors provide a combination of both. According to the survey, 21.26% of businesses reported offering exclusively in person service while 15.75% said they were exclusively virtual. But 62.99% of respondents said they offered a hybrid of virtual and in person options for clients. Give Clients a Choice of Meeting Format Imagine you work as a therapist in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Though you have clients in Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood and Encino, some prefer not to drive what can sometimes be as much as 20 minutes for an in person session. Or imagine you run a financial planning practice in somewhere like Billings, Montana. Clients in neighboring Lockwood, Huntley or Columbus might need to drive anywhere from 15 minutes to almost an hour to reach your office. While clients in Bozeman might drive over two hours. In either scenario, some might consider the trip worthwhile for an in person meeting. Others will not. So offering both virtual and in-person meetings seems a good idea to keep all your clients happy. “The hybrid approach is now the norm,” Zoho reports. “With nearly 63% of businesses offering both formats, meeting flexibility has moved from being a nice extra to something customers simply expect.” Integrating Zoho Bookings with Zoho Meeting allows you to offer virtual appointments from the scheduling application itself. This allows you to automate the bookings while also offering flexibility to clients about whether appointments are held in person or virtually. Watch Your Customer Service Improve Some small business owners may worry that using scheduling software takes away from the personal attention they give clients. That worry only increases when you throw AI into the equation. Take the AI scheduling now available from Zoho Bookings. In fact, 51.2% of respondents to the Zoho Bookings survey indicated they were concerned AI would eliminate the personal touch from their customer relationships. None-the-less 58.7% of respondents report being comfortable with AI handling scheduling for their business. Take Advantage of AI in Appointment Scheduling Despite this apparent comfort with AI-assisted scheduling, few respondents have actually implemented it. Only 20.8% of those surveyed currently use AI-assisted scheduling. While an incredible 79.92% do not. Given the incredible advantage automated scheduling with AI-tools offers, early adopters can expect to leave competitors using email or phone far behind. And given that 58.7% of respondents can already see the value here even though some have not yet adopted it, your business may want to get ahead of the pack. Automaton Improves Customer Satisfaction Despite concerns, there seems to be little cause to worry about how scheduling automation will impact customer experience. In the same survey, 56.8% of small business owners who use scheduling software said it directly improved their customer service. This makes sense when you think about it. Would you rather phone your doctor and leave a message because the front desk is too busy with existing calls? Or would it be better to pop onto your doctor’s scheduling software and choose from available options that fit your schedule? The first option will result in waiting for someone to call back within the next business day and at that time help you set up an appointment. And if you miss that call you can play phone tag with the office over the next few hours or days until you finally connect. Which scenario would you feel gave you as a patient the best service? Coordinate Your Internal Team Scheduling Finally, scheduling software offers a great potential to streamline internal scheduling as well. According to the Zoho Bookings Survey, internal scheduling at many small businesses continues to be a mishmash. Imagine you run an online marketing agency or software company. You need to meet with a client on a global campaign or a customer interested in implementing your software. You employ in the first case a global team of copywriters, designers and marketing specialists. In the second you have developers, engineers and IT support. How do you efficiently set up a meeting for all these people and your clients? Nearly half, 51.6%, of small businesses surveyed say they use messaging apps or email. But in either case, you can easily imagine how back and forth could take time. And agreed upon dates could easily be lost in chat or email threads. Another 48% of respondents acknowledged using a shared calendar dashboard. But 43.3% reported checking team availability manually and 17.32% said they routed scheduling through the front desk. For many of these businesses, considerable overlap exists as they use a mix of techniques when trying to put team meetings together. These small businesses could obviously do better. Final Thoughts If your small business hasn’t switched to scheduling software, it’s time to make a change. Using email for scheduling creates back and forth that drains away time you could be using on other parts of your business. It also allows appointment confirmations to be lost in email threads creating confusion and possible missed appointments. Making appointments by phone ties up staff who could be fielding more important calls. It also creates delays when leaving messages that may not be answered until the next day. Using scheduling software increases efficiency by allowing customers to schedule appointments based on your availability. Also nearly 57% of respondents to a recent survey say scheduling software directly improves customer service. To get started with scheduling software in your small business, visit Zoho Bookings. Or contact the Zoho sales team. This article, "Zoho Bookings Survey Shows Small Businesses Still Struggle with Scheduling" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If your small business sees clients and customers by appointment, scheduling becomes your lifeblood. So it may surprise you to learn that 72.83% of U.S. small businesses still primarily use email to set appointments. Never mind the fact that more sophisticated options like Zoho Bookings offer a way to drastically improve scheduling for small businesses of all kinds. “Despite the growth of scheduling tools, legacy methods continue to dominate across SMBs,” explains a new survey created by the Zoho Bookings team. “Email threads and phone calls remain the default, even as more efficient alternatives become increasingly accessible.” Say Goodbye to Email Scheduling Imagine you run a barber shop in Brooklyn, New York. You’ve mastered 360 waves, drop fades, taper afros, twists, locks and more. Your clients and customers love your work. But you still manage your appointments by email. Yikes! Or imagine you run an insurance agency in Bridgeport, Connecticut. You might meet with clients at the local coffee shop, at your office, or online. Now imagine scheduling all these appointments with email threads and then trying to jot them all down in your calendar. You will have to hope nothing falls through the cracks. Who wants to live like this? Stop the Drain of Back and Forth Concern over scheduling through email goes beyond worry over missed appointments. Though that problem certainly exists. It also happens to be the greatest drain on a small business’s most valuable resource: time. According to the Zoho Bookings survey, 46.1% of respondents said the back-and-forth involved in more traditional scheduling like email ends up being a huge waste of hours. Consider a life coach in Tucson, Arizona who meets with most of her clients one on one online – since many are spread throughout the world. Using email for appointments seemed workable in the beginning. But with more clients every month, our hypothetical life coach finds her time more and more taken up by scheduling. An incoming email from a new lead results in lots of back and forth trying to settle on a date for a first session. Existing clients need to occasionally reschedule too resulting in even more emails. Multiply this over a larger and larger number of customers. Soon our life coach lacks time to prepare for new sessions. She also lacks adequate time to create videos, blog posts and other content — another important part of the service she provides. Look At Other Ways Scheduling Inefficiencies Create Challenges First, 34.65% of respondents say they see increased no shows due to scheduling problems, according to the survey. A periodontist in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania may see a drop in patients keeping their appointments. Perhaps confirmations remain lost in email threads causing confusion. Another 31.98% of respondents say double bookings and other conflicts result from these issues. Meanwhile, 23.62% of respondents report uneven team schedules as a result. Consider running a beauty salon in Detroit, Michigan. You schedule an extra beautician to handle two clients who never materialize. Another 21.65% of respondents to the survey say these challenges also lead to inefficient resource management. Perhaps an accountant in Portland, Oregon spends a few hours preparing a report for a client who doesn’t show due to scheduling confusion. That same client won’t pay you for a meeting he never attended. So 16.93% of respondents say late payments also remain related challenges. Another 9.45% of respondents listed increased administrative costs as a result of scheduling challenges. Learn How Much Inefficient Scheduling Costs You How much time does scheduling actually take up? Remember, this represents time you can’t use to get other things done in your business. First, about half of respondents – 46.46% – estimate they spend more than an hour to get a single appointment scheduled. This may include back and forth in email or on the phone to finalize an appointment and get it on the calendar. Meanwhile, 28.35% estimate it takes 1 to 6 hours to finalize and schedule an appointment, 13.78% think it’s 6 to 12 hours, 7.27% estimate 12 to 24 hours, and 1.97% say more than a day. A minuscule 1.18% say they just don’t know. Needless to say, it makes little difference how long you believe scheduling takes you. As the number of clients increases the time taken up in scheduling grows exponentially. “The gap between how often businesses schedule and how efficiently they do it is where automation can deliver significant operational benefits, especially for SMBs with lean teams, by reducing time spent on coordination and freeing resources for core activities,” the Zoho Bookings survey report explains. Add Effortless Flow to Your Scheduling Process Fortunately, automation in the form of scheduling software like Zoho Bookings offers another option. Zoho Bookings allows you to set up your hours and availability. Then customers or clients simply schedule the appointments that work for them. Forget back and forth emails. Watch your schedule fill up while you spend your valuable time doing something else in your business. Don’t Pick Up The Phone The phone seems even more old school than email. Yet 57.1% of small businesses in the U.S, still use it to schedule appointments with clients, according to the Zoho Bookings survey. Booking appointments with clients by phone and then entering them into your calendar may seem perfectly workable for some. (And, this may also depend on the number of these calls you need to take or make.) But imagine being an ophthalmologist in Raleigh, North Carolina. Your reception desk needs to make calls to remind patients of annual checkups. Or they need to handle a flurry or incoming calls when you send out your annual appointment reminders. This decreases the time they can spend fielding more important calls from patients. These end up being questions that require real humans to answer. They include medical questions, billing questions, or questions about the practice and the services you provide. Look for Digital Solutions Replacing email and phone with appointment scheduling software resolves many of these problems. In fact, scheduling software ranks third as the most used scheduling solution for U.S. small businesses. With 33.65% of organizations in the U.S. using software for scheduling, this option ranks far above calendar app invites and website forms. But it also ranks far above a number of other low tech and high tech solutions like pen and paper, spreadsheets, walk-ins or chatbots. “Manual scheduling carries a hidden cost,” the survey observes. “It surfaces as wasted hours, missed appointments, and customers who move on because booking was too complicated.” And the problems that arise seem magnified in small businesses where fewer employees mean not as many people to take up the slack. “For SMBs where a single person often handles sales, operations, and customer service, these friction points hit harder than they do at larger organizations,” the survey authors explain. Add A Virtual Meeting Component Choose a scheduling software that enables virtual meetings as well. Earlier we looked at a life coach with clients scattered all over the world. Such a business certainly requires virtual meetings for any interactive exchange. But Zoho Bookings’ survey found most of your competitors provide a combination of both. According to the survey, 21.26% of businesses reported offering exclusively in person service while 15.75% said they were exclusively virtual. But 62.99% of respondents said they offered a hybrid of virtual and in person options for clients. Give Clients a Choice of Meeting Format Imagine you work as a therapist in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Though you have clients in Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood and Encino, some prefer not to drive what can sometimes be as much as 20 minutes for an in person session. Or imagine you run a financial planning practice in somewhere like Billings, Montana. Clients in neighboring Lockwood, Huntley or Columbus might need to drive anywhere from 15 minutes to almost an hour to reach your office. While clients in Bozeman might drive over two hours. In either scenario, some might consider the trip worthwhile for an in person meeting. Others will not. So offering both virtual and in-person meetings seems a good idea to keep all your clients happy. “The hybrid approach is now the norm,” Zoho reports. “With nearly 63% of businesses offering both formats, meeting flexibility has moved from being a nice extra to something customers simply expect.” Integrating Zoho Bookings with Zoho Meeting allows you to offer virtual appointments from the scheduling application itself. This allows you to automate the bookings while also offering flexibility to clients about whether appointments are held in person or virtually. Watch Your Customer Service Improve Some small business owners may worry that using scheduling software takes away from the personal attention they give clients. That worry only increases when you throw AI into the equation. Take the AI scheduling now available from Zoho Bookings. In fact, 51.2% of respondents to the Zoho Bookings survey indicated they were concerned AI would eliminate the personal touch from their customer relationships. None-the-less 58.7% of respondents report being comfortable with AI handling scheduling for their business. Take Advantage of AI in Appointment Scheduling Despite this apparent comfort with AI-assisted scheduling, few respondents have actually implemented it. Only 20.8% of those surveyed currently use AI-assisted scheduling. While an incredible 79.92% do not. Given the incredible advantage automated scheduling with AI-tools offers, early adopters can expect to leave competitors using email or phone far behind. And given that 58.7% of respondents can already see the value here even though some have not yet adopted it, your business may want to get ahead of the pack. Automaton Improves Customer Satisfaction Despite concerns, there seems to be little cause to worry about how scheduling automation will impact customer experience. In the same survey, 56.8% of small business owners who use scheduling software said it directly improved their customer service. This makes sense when you think about it. Would you rather phone your doctor and leave a message because the front desk is too busy with existing calls? Or would it be better to pop onto your doctor’s scheduling software and choose from available options that fit your schedule? The first option will result in waiting for someone to call back within the next business day and at that time help you set up an appointment. And if you miss that call you can play phone tag with the office over the next few hours or days until you finally connect. Which scenario would you feel gave you as a patient the best service? Coordinate Your Internal Team Scheduling Finally, scheduling software offers a great potential to streamline internal scheduling as well. According to the Zoho Bookings Survey, internal scheduling at many small businesses continues to be a mishmash. Imagine you run an online marketing agency or software company. You need to meet with a client on a global campaign or a customer interested in implementing your software. You employ in the first case a global team of copywriters, designers and marketing specialists. In the second you have developers, engineers and IT support. How do you efficiently set up a meeting for all these people and your clients? Nearly half, 51.6%, of small businesses surveyed say they use messaging apps or email. But in either case, you can easily imagine how back and forth could take time. And agreed upon dates could easily be lost in chat or email threads. Another 48% of respondents acknowledged using a shared calendar dashboard. But 43.3% reported checking team availability manually and 17.32% said they routed scheduling through the front desk. For many of these businesses, considerable overlap exists as they use a mix of techniques when trying to put team meetings together. These small businesses could obviously do better. Final Thoughts If your small business hasn’t switched to scheduling software, it’s time to make a change. Using email for scheduling creates back and forth that drains away time you could be using on other parts of your business. It also allows appointment confirmations to be lost in email threads creating confusion and possible missed appointments. Making appointments by phone ties up staff who could be fielding more important calls. It also creates delays when leaving messages that may not be answered until the next day. Using scheduling software increases efficiency by allowing customers to schedule appointments based on your availability. Also nearly 57% of respondents to a recent survey say scheduling software directly improves customer service. To get started with scheduling software in your small business, visit Zoho Bookings. Or contact the Zoho sales team. This article, "Zoho Bookings Survey Shows Small Businesses Still Struggle with Scheduling" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

As the threat of drone attacks grows, the federal government is turning this summer into a proving ground for U.S. efforts to shore up aerial defenses at events like the World Cup. It may also serve as a launchpad for defense tech firms hoping to sell systems designed to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles. “Out of the World Cup, you’ll see the baseline for what law enforcement and critical infrastructure sites will then buy at scale,” says Jon Gruen, CEO of Fortem Technologies, which signed a multimillion-dollar deal to provide artificial intelligence systems, radar, and drone interdiction technology to U.S. cities hosting the tournament. “You’re going to see how it worked, and see how it all fits together.” A run of mega-events over the next few years, including this summer’s World Cup, expected to draw roughly 5 million international visitors for matches and fan zone parties, the nation’s 250th birthday, and the 2028 Olympics, has elevated drone defense as a national priority. It has also raised alarms among civil liberties groups about expanding law enforcement surveillance capabilities. Drones are increasingly being used for asymmetric warfare, says Michael Robbins, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International. One of the most notable examples is the Ukrainian Spiderweb attack, which secretly positioned remote-operated drones to devastate part of Russia’s bomber fleet. “What’s different about the World Cup is the scale,” says Robbins. “It’s 11 Super Bowls at once.” Robbins has been engaged in drone defense since 2018, when a high-profile drone intrusion at Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom shut down airspace for two days and caused significant economic damage. In the United States, the federal government was slower to respond; for years, only a small number of federal officials were trained to take down drones. “We don’t have the training, we don’t have the equipment, and we don’t have the number of personnel that are skilled in mitigation technology and the use of mitigation technology, particularly the application of that technology in really highly dense radio frequency environments or urban environments,” says G.B. Jones, chief safety and security officer for the FIFA World Cup 2026, in November. That is now changing quickly. In December, the Safer Skies Act was signed into law, authorizing state and local authorities to disable dangerous drones and directing the FBI and other agencies to train them. The FBI’s Hazardous Devices School in Huntsville, Alabama, now runs a three-week training program for law enforcement focused on drone mitigation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also announced $500 million in special grants for drone defense, known as Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems programs, with half of the funding fast-tracked to help World Cup host cities invest in new technology. The Department of Homeland Security will spend an additional $115 million on drone defenses for the tournament. In January, officials from host cities and federal agencies gathered in Colorado Springs to run drone attack simulations ahead of this summer. Take Los Angeles, a future Olympic host and the city set to host Team USA’s first World Cup match on June 12. On February 24, Los Angeles Police Department officials approved a $9.8 million federal grant to protect the city from drone attacks. When asked about its plans for spending the Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems grant funds, or strategy around drone defense, a department spokesperson says the department was unable to provide any details to Fast Company, and “as a matter of policy, we do not publicly discuss tactical strategies, threat assessments, or protective plans related to major events,” the statement noted. However, in a recent California Post piece, a larger strategy was outlined: the department would install two dozen radio frequency sensors across the city to detect drones, as well as mobile drone mitigation stations, including installations at LAPD headquarters and the Mt. Lee Communications tower right behind the Hollywood sign. Robbins says that drone defenses for events like the World Cup would typically work as follows, depending on the type of technology being utilized. For UAVs operated with radio frequencies, defending against attacks might utilize low-altitude radar or optical sensing to identify threats, and then jamming of radio frequencies to disable the drone, causing it to fall out of the sky. There’s even tech that allows law enforcement to take over rogue drones and then steer and land them at pre-designated safe spaces; that’s technology LAPD plans to lean on for their own defense, per the Post. The more challenging scenario, and the one that really worries security officials, is drones flying dark–using AI to autonomously hit targets without being steered or controlled by someone else. This tends to require a kinetic option, says Robbins. That means guns, lasers, high-powered microwave weapons, even other armed drones that can take out threats in the sky by ramming them or tossing nets. Fortem, which was recently awarded a contract from the Department of Homeland Security for their DroneHunter tech, fields AI-controlled drones that use nets to disable and snatch enemy drones out of the sky. This technology, which is autonomous, will be on display at every World Cup game this summer, says Gruen; the firm just staged an interdiction test, where five autonomously programmed drones were intercepted by Fortem radar and interceptors. However cities decide to invest in their defense–Robbins surmises every city will follow a different strategy based on their unique needs–it’s raising significant civil liberty concerns. Many activists and local officials have also expressed fear that increased drone technology can also be used on local communities, or as part of the federal government’s deportation dragnet. At a hearing of the Los Angeles Police Commission on February 10, speakers expressed alarm at the city’s growing drone fleet, and its potential to surveil citizens. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU, says the threat of drone attacks is real, so he’s not de facto against spending money on defending from drone attacks. What he’s more concerned about, which he outlines in a recent white paper, is an increasing pattern of “drones for us, not you” by the government. By empowering more law enforcement groups to take down drones, it may crowd out the ability of everyday citizens to use drones, as well as perhaps lead to drones flown by journalists and advocates seeking to document abuses of power being disrupted. He’s advocating for narrow and precisely defined rules precisely spelling out when law enforcement can and cannot take down drones, and also transparency around how the government is using drones, to curtail overbroad surveillance. The federal government had previously issued flight restrictions over protests in Ferguson in 2014, and earlier this year, issued flight restrictions above DHS vehicle caravans, ostensibly banning drones from filming their activities. “Two things can be true,” Stanley says. “There are times and places where it makes complete sense to ban drones. And, the threat of drones can be exaggerated to ban drones due to the desire of law enforcement not to be filmed.” Robbins believes the nation has been slow to put the proper regulations in place to defend against this threat, but the right actions have been taken. Taken together with the military’s rapid pace of drone defense investments, this new wave of training and deployment will bolster defense tech firms like Axon, despite the recent federal shutdown, which delayed federal funding earmarked for World Cup safety and security. At a time of war and rising threats, drone defense has become a much bigger priority. “It’ll take a herculean effort to be ready,” he says. “But now, it’s being taken seriously.” View the full article

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Jim Collins, coauthor of Built to Last and author of Good to Great, didn’t set out to write another management book. His new work, What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative, is a deeply researched meditation on how individuals navigate life’s transitions, from a wide range of human endeavors including arts, sports, media, and politics. But in researching and writing What to Make of a Life, a process that took 12 years, Collins found himself returning to—and evolving—one of his most famous concepts. Good to Great introduced the “First Who, Then What” principle, the notion that executives who led the most remarkable corporate transformations didn’t start with a vision or a strategy. They started with people. “The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there,” he wrote. “No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it.” Collins’s What to Make of a Life research suggests that people are still important, but so is the role they play. Put another way: You need the right people on the bus, “but what I really came to see through this study is that it’s much more about the seats,” Collins tells Modern CEO. All the right shine Collins shares a new concept he calls “encodings”—the constellation of capabilities that reside within each of us. When an individual’s encodings are brightest, he describes them as being “in frame.” John Glenn, for example, was in frame during his run as a successful fighter pilot and astronaut. But Glenn also had periods of his life when he was less successful. He was a middling college student and an unremarkable corporate executive before moving fully back into frame as a U.S. senator. “He’s still the same person,” Collins says. “What’s changing is the frame of his life, and whether that frame is capturing a big, bright set of encodings.” Katharine Graham had similar moments being in and relatively out of frame, with some of her brightest coming when she was CEO of The Washington Post Co. and tested by her decisions to publish the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scoops. Singer Robert Plant was “running around the Midlands with John Bonham in pursuit of music gigs,” Collins writes, while his parents tried to convince him to become an accountant. He came into frame when he teamed up with Jimmy Page to form Led Zeppelin. Find the right frame Collins says leaders should recognize that team members have different encodings, and to get them to succeed may require changing their responsibilities or frame. It’s a lesson Collins has learned personally. “I used to spend a lot of time feeling frustrated with what people are not,” he says. “I began to look at all the people in my life and on my team very differently. [Rather than] try to turn them into something they’re not, [try to] shift the frame—the seat they sit in—so that when they’re in that seat, they’re like John Glenn flying fighter jets. They’re like Jimmy Page playing guitar.” Leaders, in turn, can understand and embrace their capabilities and lead by putting themselves in the right frame or seat. Collins defines leadership as “the art of getting people to want to do what must be done.” “The key is not to look out into the world and say, ‘What do other great leaders do?’” Collins says. “The key is to say, ‘What are my leadership encodings that allow me, in my own idiosyncratic way, to exercise the art of getting people to want to do what must be done?’” Crack your encoding What are your encodings as a leader? How do you get people to do what must be done? Send your reflections to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I’ll publish the best examples in a future newsletter. Read more: The best of Jim Collins Good to Great for entrepreneurs Is the economy just built to flip? Walmart: Bigger, better, faster Revisiting Beyond Entrepreneurship View the full article

Proposal for 45-day ceasefire reported to have been shared by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey ahead of The President deadlineView the full article

Economics, security and domestic politics all point the Starmer government towards BrusselsView the full article

JPMorgan chief raises alarm on weakening lending standards in annual shareholder letterView the full article

When Estefania Angel started working as an executive assistant at a large tech company a few months ago, she noticed something counterintuitive: while her company’s job was to help other enterprises set up AI to streamline their in-house tasks, her company didn’t use those systems internally itself. Using AI apps in Slack, Outlook, and Google to track various assignments and ping colleagues, Angel got the attention of her superiors. One even asked Angel to teach her how to use AI at work. “We started tracking a whole project that she was doing,” says Angel, who works as an executive assistant (EA) with EA service company Viva Talent, streamlining the project’s workflow. That was just the first step. Ultimately, through Angel’s use of AI to make a variety of office tasks increasingly efficient, more and more of her colleagues began adopting those AI-driven processes until it became the company norm. It wasn’t company executives driving AI adoption—but rather lower-ranking, self-taught employees who helped AI use cases trickle upward. This bottom-up AI adoption tracks with wider trends: Last year, McKinsey found that “the biggest barrier to scaling [AI] is not employees—who are ready—but leaders, who are not steering fast enough.” McKinsey researchers surveyed 3,613 employees and 238 C-level executives and learned that the latter seriously underestimate how much the former use AI. C-suite executives, for example, believed 4% of employees used gen AI for at least 30% of their work, when employees’ self-reported percentage was three times higher. While EAs can be big drivers of AI filtering up to executives because of their proximity, sources speaking with Fast Company noted how recruiters, data workers, individual contributor (IC) coders, project coordinators, and even valets have sparked widespread AI adoption across their organizations. Executives are largely not the ones on the frontlines of AI at work. Employees engaged in day-to-day tasks are steering their companies’ AI adoption—from the bottom up. “A wild game changer” At human resources software company Justworks in New York, one IC recently started using an AI agent that investigates the company’s code repositories for potential bugs. Once it finds a likely problem, it reports back to another AI agent, which does some QA testing and, if it detects a bug, opens a request for a fix. That IC ended up “largely automating like 80% of the on-call process for his team,” says Justworks senior engineering manager Ryan Taylor. It’s been a “wild game changer,” Taylor adds—what began as “just an experiment” by the IC is now something his team is working on rolling out more widely across the company. Cortney Hickey, executive operations director at automation software company Zapier, says she and her colleagues “have been influencing our execs in many ways” on AI, like in designing how decisions move across the organization: For example, Zapier’s recruiting team “has done a lot with AI that’s also trickled up,” including how the company generates pre-meeting briefs. Chris Morrison, who started as a valet at the upscale grocery chain Erewhon in Los Angeles in 2017, ultimately ended up developing AI systems that now aggregate the entire company’s data. Good at his valet job, he shortly got promoted to driving the company’s CEO, who “slowly started to realize that I was good at computers,” Morrison says. Having had on-the-ground experience at many of Erewhon’s stores, Morrison started driving less and working more with the CEO’s EA to set up pipelines and databases for Erewhon, using AI to automate and streamline tasks based on his knowledge of the company’s operations. These pipelines spread outward to colleagues and upward to superiors. Today, Morrison is a business analyst and AI lead at Erewhon. Boots on the ground It’s only natural for AI functions to move bottom-up at a company, because workers know their domains more intimately than the people who oversee them. At Justworks, Taylor has seen “a lot of AI initiatives come from low-cost, quick-iteration experimentations,” he says. It’s simple to play around with AI to see how it can make your workday easier, and when something succeeds, other people at the office tend to notice and even start using it themselves. “In these support or operations roles, you just spot the friction,” says Zapier’s Hickey. When she and her colleagues do, they’ll start piloting AI solutions. “Eventually, you test it with an exec, and they’re like, ‘I want more of this.’” Jodie Mears, a UK-based EA at infrastructure software development company Bentley Systems, mentors EAs around the world. She’s been hearing, however, that a lot of her mentees’ executives don’t want them to use AI. “They feel like it’s cheating,” Mears says, rather than streamlining. Still, she says it’s best practice not to hide your AI use as an employee. Employees “will battle between not wanting to admit that they used AI or an automation to make their role faster in fear of downplaying or downgrading their traditional duties,” Mears says. Though some fear that employees bringing on AI to take over some of their job functions represents an existential danger to their role, it might in fact make them more valuable. They become the “translation layer between the tools and how [they] work with leadership,” Hickey says. As Fineas Tatar, co-founder of Viva Talent, puts it, “My EA teaches me new things all the time. Especially when it comes to anything AI-related.” For instance, he says his EA has helped him reduce his meeting prep time from 30 minutes to just two through AI agent-created pre-meeting briefs. “Let me have a piece of that” Even though so many AI-assisted workflows originate below the C-suite, executives and managers can participate productively in employees’ AI iterations. Toward the start of this year, Justworks higher-ups noticed employees eagerly adopting AI, and decided to foster that process by giving them small budgets to spend on their trials with AI products. “Company leaders start with enablement, being like, ‘This is an industry thing. We need you to be leaning in on this. Here’s a budget,’” Taylor says. Leaders noticed that these developments were worth funding, “but the actual implementation and change has to very much come from the ICs and boots on the ground.” By March, Justworks was hosting an internal hackathon in which employees were encouraged to “do whatever you want, but you’ve got to build it using AI,” says Taylor, resulting in some useful implementations, such as the ability to extract specific, uniform information from a number of differently formatted documents (like a bunch of CVs). Similarly, Zapier hosted a company-wide hackathon where employees were encouraged to take a week to build with AI and then share their work. “Execs have an important role of empowering, but I don’t think they are necessarily the ones providing the foundational ways of working,” Hickey says. For Mears, higher-level encouragement about her use of AI has come in the form of praise and approving nods. Workers also share their AI innovations in a dedicated chat. “The prompts that get shared are really quite invigorating,” Mears says. Team members inspire and adopt each other’s AI implementations. And with nearly every AI tool she’s used, she’s found her executive asking, “Show me what you did to free up your time. Create one of those for me.” “You don’t have to be a particular IT whiz to use this,” she adds. “I think that’s the biggest revelation that trickles up to the C-suite: ‘Wow, my EA is doing that. Let me have a piece of that.’” View the full article

Swedish retailer H&M is breaking into Milan Design Week with a new collection in collaboration with the award-winning interior designer Kelly Wearstler. Wearstler’s high-profile work, including the interiors of the Proper Hotels, and for celebrity clients like Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani, has earned her A-list status in the industry. Now, with a first-of-its-kind collection, H&M is bringing Wearstler’s high-end designs to Main Street. “The constraints were very real. Everything had to work within specific production and shipping parameters. But that actually became a creative driver,” Wearstler tells Fast Company over email. “Working at this scale pushed me to distill my ideas—how to create something artisanal and expressive, but also accessible and adaptable to different ways of living.” The 29-item collection of furniture, decorative objects, and textiles that includes a modular sofa, marble serving tray, and carved-wood vase, marks H&M’s first large-scale furniture and small-objects collaboration with a designer. Wearstler, who wanted the pieces to feel collectible, focused on flexibility and modularity to make each object adapt to daily life. “A chair can become a sofa, smaller tables can expand into larger ones. It’s about creating a system that evolves with the user,” she says. Debuting in Milan Wearstler and H&M’s Milan debut will take over the 17th-century baroque palace the Palazzo Acerbi—a historic venue usually closed to the public—from April 21 to 26. The palazzo’s opulent interior of frescoes and colonnades is set to contrast with Wearstler’s contemporary designs in an installation produced by Studio Boum. “With this milestone we want to make an impact on customers and the design industry alike in a new way. When we discovered the venue—the Palazzo Acerbi—everything fell into place,” Evelina Kravaev-Söderberg, H&M Home head of design and creative, said in a press release. The installation “unfolds as an immersive, choreographed journey through the senses,” the press release said. “Each room reveals a distinct dimension of this multifaceted experience, elevating every sense into a sacred act that guides visitors toward presence and connection.” While better known for her interior design, Wearstler has created furniture and objects prior to the collab with H&M, including high-end sculptural marble seating and a “sensual” piano made of birchwood. But thanks to H&M, her design ethos will be available at more affordable prices, ranging from $28 to $805, ready for buyers to make their own. “I’ve always believed that exceptional design shouldn’t be confined to luxury,” Wearstler says. “The modular furniture is something I love for how interactive it is. It invites people to engage, to reconfigure, to make it their own. That adaptability, combined with a sense of surprise, is really at the heart of the collection.” The collection will be available starting September 3 in select H&M stores and online in 40 countries. View the full article

It’s so easy to cheat now. Using generative AI, anyone can get a free meal or product. They can even get free money by scamming the government itself. And, like radiologists have just discovered, they can even cheat doctors and insurance companies by using AI-generated X-rays. According to a new study published by the Radiological Society of North America, most experts can’t distinguish fake fractures from the real thing now. Undetectable insurance fraud is one click away. It’s just the last of a growing list of low-hanging fruit, zero-cost scams made possible with the power of AI. And it’s only going to get worse. Fake x-rays The Radiological Society of North America’s study subjected 17 global medical specialists from six different countries, some boasting up to 40 years of field experience, to a visual test involving 264 X-rays—half authentic and half synthetic creations created by AI tools like ChatGPT and Stanford’s open-source RoentGen model. When left entirely in the dark about the presence of these artificial images, the physicians only managed to correctly identify the synthetic X-rays 41% of the time. Even after receiving explicit warnings that fakes were hidden in the batch, their average success rate limped up to 75%, ranging between a dismal 58% and a respectable but imperfect 92%. A doctor’s decades of hands-on experience offered little statistical advantage in catching the deception, the study says, though musculoskeletal experts performed marginally better than their peers. To make matters worse, the large language models responsible for birthing this digital chicanery—including GPT-4o, GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Meta’s Llama 4 Maverick—fared no better as automated detectives, scoring accuracy rates between 57% and 85%. “Our study demonstrates that these deepfake X-rays are realistic enough to deceive radiologists, the most highly trained medical image specialists, even when they were aware that AI-generated images were present,” noted lead author Dr. Mickael Tordjman. “This creates a high-stakes vulnerability for fraudulent litigation if, for example, a fabricated fracture could be indistinguishable from a real one. There is also a significant cybersecurity risk if hackers were to gain access to a hospital’s network and inject synthetic images to manipulate patient diagnoses or cause widespread clinical chaos by undermining the fundamental reliability of the digital medical record.” According to Tordjman, AI-generated medical images often look too perfect, with bones that are “overly smooth, spines unnaturally straight, lungs overly symmetrical, blood vessel patterns excessively uniform, and fractures that appear unusually clean and consistent, often limited to one side of the bone.” But that’s just yesterday’s crop of tools. Like AI-generated video, AI will make these X-rays absolutely perfect and undetectable soon. It’s the nature of the ever evolving AI beast. To fight this, experts are demanding invisible watermarks and cryptographic signatures directly linked to the technician capturing the scan, effectively acting like a mathematical seal of authenticity that proves a human body was actually in the room. Shallowfakes and raw deals Fraudulent x-rays are a serious example of the more quotidian truth-bending that’s already happening. Take the rise of shallowfakes, which are surface-level digital illusions that require minimal effort to produce maximum financial deceit. Ordinary consumers are using generative AI to visually alter their food deliveries into unappetizing disasters. It takes one click to digitally manipulate the interior of a hamburger or a piece of chicken so it appears raw, tricking algorithms and customer service reps into approving instantaneous refunds. “The trend is real and growing,” observed generative AI fraud specialist Alberto Palomar to Spanish newspaper El Confidencial. “AI is putting it within the reach of anyone who has no idea about technology to take this trickery to all levels.” While Uber Eats passes these fraudulent financial hits directly onto the unsuspecting restaurants, DoorDash maintains a strict corporate line, warning users that “trying to game the system with a fake image might seem clever at the moment, but it’s not worth a permanent ban over a $20 order.” The human collateral damage in this digital swindle lands squarely on the gig workers delivering the food. When a customer successfully fakes a damaged or undercooked meal, the driver is penalized with bad ratings or permanent deactivation, says Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project. “The biggest complaint that deliveristas have is how the apps are aggressively punishing them for things that are out of their control,” she points out. Her organization was tracking roughly 1,500 active deactivation cases. But it’s more complicated than that. Drivers are also weaponizing the technology to fake deliveries they simply steal. Austin-based DoorDash customer Byrne Hobart watched his Dasher accept the order, instantly mark it as complete, and upload an AI-generated porch photograph with the driver there. The company refunded his poke bowl and noted, “After quickly investigating this incident, our team permanently removed the Dasher’s account and ensured the customer was made whole.” The million dollar paper trail Meanwhile, the epidemic of micro-fraud is morphing into a macroeconomic catastrophe for the global insurance sector, mutating minor vehicular scrapes and broken smartphones into massive corporate liabilities. In the United States, “20-30% of insurance claims may now include altered images, fabricated documents, or synthetic medical reports”, claims Shift Technology, a technology company that provides AI agents to automate claims. In the UK, insurance company Allianz reported a 300% spike in the use of AI to alter documents, photos, and videos in customers claims from 2022 to 2023. It will only get worse, says global insurance data analytics company Verisk: “One in three consumers would consider digitally altering an insurance claim image or document to strengthen their case—and that number rises to 55% of Generation Z.” In Spain, insurer AXA says it processes up to 30,000 claim-related documents a day, making it harder to spot synthetic tampering at scale. Arturo López-Linares, Claims Director at AXA Spain, outlined the terrifying breadth of the efforts. “It is an alarming trend. Documents have always been falsified, all our lives. The problem now is the ease with which you can do it and that these tools are within everyone’s reach,” he warned. “You can ask the AI to put a scratch on your car or modify a repairman’s invoice. It is impossible to catch it with the naked eye, so you also need to use technology to identify it.” While acknowledging the digital cheating pool sits at just over 2% of the population, the math is unforgiving, says López-Linares: “We have gone from identifying only 3% of fraud cases with digital methods a few years ago to 30% currently… but it already accounts for millions of euros, and AI is playing a fundamental role.” The problem with all this is that it is impossible to catch. Sure, you can analyze a digital photograph’s metadata—the hidden strings of code functioning like algorithmic fingerprints that log geolocation, device specs, and timestamp data—but since metadata can be effortlessly spoofed, that barrier is gone. Some say the ultimate defense relies on advanced image analysis software, but as the X-ray study has demonstrated, that’s also hard and will soon be impossible. Future generations of AI will The President any forensic countermeasures we develop. Plus, the cost of these measures, which will be expensive to implement and run in server farms, effectively prices small and medium enterprises out of their own survival. “This is what happens to many companies, processing returns or investing to catch fraud costs them more than assuming the cost of it,” Palomar concluded. Perhaps now that AI is starting to dent the economy, the corporations and governments’ bottom line, the pressure will be high enough to push for mandatory truth-certification solutions that will benefit all of us. View the full article