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As the Eaton Fire spread on January 7, curators at the Gamble House—an Arts and Crafts-era residence in Pasadena by the architecture firm Greene and Greene, which Back to the Future fans might recognize as Doc Brown’s mansion—kept refreshing evacuation maps and checking in with each other on a group text: Would the fires reach the house? They expected high winds, based on forecasts the night before, but not the fast-moving wildfires raging in neighboring Altadena. As the evacuation zone inched closer and the house entered the warning zone the morning of January 8, Jennifer Trotoux, director of collections and interpretation at the Gamble House, feared that the structu…

AI’s explosive growth depends on a backbone of vast energy-hungry, water intensive data centers, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in resources. The challenge—and opportunity—of the moment is ensuring this infrastructure scales without hollowing out long-term value. Across the U.S., states are racing to attract data center facilities with lucrative incentives. The promise is economic growth and prestige. The reality is more complicated: hidden costs borne by communities, power grids, and ecosystems. As a venture capitalist focused on hardtech and sustainability, I see this tension as both risk and opportunity. The future of AI will belong to those who reconc…

A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday while approaching the Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington. The aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River, and multiple people were killed. The crash occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Here are some things to know about the collision: The crash The midair crash happened around 9 p.m. when a regional jet at the end of a flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter on a training exercise, according to the Federal Aviati…

Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday, online privacy groups Fight for the Future and the Algorithmic Justice League are reiterating a call for the NFL to put an end to the use of facial recognition in football stadiums, where the groups say the technology is used to authenticate employees, vendors, and authorized media. “That means that anyone who is going into a stadium to work on any football game has to go through a facial recognition system just in order to get to their job, which is a complete invasion of people’s privacy,” says Caitlin Seeley George, campaigns and managing director at Fight for the Future. The group has launched a petition demanding the NFL put an end…

How is it that no matter how much you intend to get to bed earlier, you never do? And morning mercilessly comes at the same time no matter how little sleep you’ve gotten. If you struggle with the evening slide where you stay up too late to get things done, or to have some “me” time, you’re not alone. It’s a common issue that I see with my time management coaching clients. Here are three of the strategies that I’ve found most effective to stop the evening slide, get to bed on time, and still get everything done. Keep the Dominos Up Getting to bed late is often the final block in a chain effect that began much earlier in the day. So to beat the evening slide,…

Efforts to hollow out the federal workforce by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have resulted in a dramatic rise in layoff announcements. The latest monthly data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that employers in the United States announced more than 172,000 layoffs during February, which was an increase of 245% from January and the highest monthly total since mid-2020, during the pandemic. Further, it was the highest number of layoffs for the month of February since 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, when more than 186,000 layoffs were announced. So far, through the first two mo…

Brothers Jake Paul and Logan Paul made social media announcements Tuesday that suggested their next fight will be against each other and aired on HBO Max. Calling it the “moment you’ve waited a decade for,” the posts featured a head-to-head shot of the brothers with a March 27 date and the HBO Max logo. Further details were not included in the posts. Jake Paul, 28, and Logan Paul, 29, are both YouTube stars who know how to create a buzz. Their exhibitions have drawn the interest of the biggest names in combat sports. Jake Paul defeated Mike Tyson in November in an eight-round unanimous decision. Logan Paul went the distance in an exhibition against Floyd Mayweathe…

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Typing isn’t always the best way to get your thoughts down. Sometimes talking through an idea leads to better clarity. New AI tools can reliably transform those spoken thoughts into clean, organized text. I’ve spent months experimenting with voice AI tools—first on my phone, and now on my laptop. They’ve been helping me pull ideas from my brain onto paper. The tools below have become crucial to my workflow. Why voice AI beats traditional transcription Traditional transcription simply converts speech to text. Mod…

Even if you’re a regular Alexa user, there’s a good chance you haven’t discovered some of its most efficient features. Actually, strike that: There’s a good chance you’re only using your Alexa device to set timers and play music. But Alexa does so much more! Here are five commands to add to your vernacular that could save you tons of time with regular use. “Alexa, check traffic” Once you link your home and work addresses in the Alexa app, simply asking to check traffic will give the time between your home and office by default—always handy when you’re heading out the door. You also can ask for traffic conditions to a certain destination. Alexa just told…

It’s not just the tech industry that is facing layoffs in 2025. In recent weeks, a number of high-profile media and entertainment companies have seen job cuts. The most recent media giant to reportedly undergo layoffs is the Walt Disney Company. Here’s what you need to know about the layoffs affecting the media industry right now. ABC News and Disney Entertainment Networks cut jobs The Walt Disney Company company is getting ready to let go of about 6% of its employees who work in the company’s ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks units, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The layoffs will total about 200 employees and will reportedly…

Some “copycat” versions of popular weight-loss drugs will soon be restricted in the U.S. The change comes as a federal judge declined an injunction that would’ve allowed compounding pharmacies to keep making more affordable versions. In a Good Morning America segment, Dr. Tara Narula, ABC News chief medical correspondent, explained how compound-drug creation works to meet demand. “When a drug is in short supply, the FDA allows these compounding pharmacies to essentially create copycat drugs. But when the drug companies say, ‘we are able to meet the demand,’ then those compounding pharmacies can no longer sell those drugs,” Narula said. The U.S. Food and Drug Adm…

Human skills fall into three major buckets: physical, intellectual, and emotional. Of these, the last two are critical differentiators of talent across all knowledge economy jobs. When it comes to intellectual skills, such as learning ability, a century of scientific evidence reveals that this trait is the most consistent predictor of job performance and career success across all occupations. Why? Because it predicts how fast and well you can learn, reason, and solve problems, which basically matters in every job. That said, intellectual skills are clearly not enough to do well in your job or career. In fact, most jobs will also require you to understand, influenc…

A new startup is leaning on the power of recommendations to spread the word about indie films. Olyn offers a direct-to-consumer platform for film and video distribution, enabling filmmakers to retain up to 90% of their revenue. Billed as “Shopify for filmmakers,” Olyn removes the platform as a middleman, eliminating ads and algorithm-driven recommendations. This allows movies to shine based on their own merits and be monetized directly through viewership. Ana Maria Jipa, cofounder and CEO of Olyn, told TechCrunch that the filmmakers are responsible for the movie’s promotion, while Olyn handles the rest. “We provide all the tech that implies: from DRM, 4K streaming…

Tesla’s sales of its China-made electric vehicles dropped 49.2% in February from a year earlier to 30,688 cars, the lowest since August 2022, as the U.S. automaker faces pressure from Chinese rivals in a relentless smart EV price war. Tesla, which makes its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China, sold 93,926 Chinese-made vehicles worldwide in the first two months, down 28.7% year-on-year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). January-February sales were distorted by the Lunar New Year holiday shifting from February last year to late January this year and due to a partial suspension of Model Y production for upgrade work. Still, Chin…

In the classic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, there’s a moment when a band member demonstrates an amplifier that goes to 11—one louder than 10. While it’s a cheeky metaphor, I’ve often thought about how leadership can adopt a similar ethos, pushing beyond boundaries to foster exceptional teams. It’s definitely easier said than done. Yet one thing that really pushes us to 11 is moving from a set of individual leaders to a distributed leadership. But building a global team of self-starters isn’t just about ambition or delegation. It’s about cultivating a culture of teamwork that empowers independence, ownership, and creativity at every level. I’ve found the follow…

Dive into the exhilarating world of innovation with FC Explains, a video series that spotlights the game changers and visionaries from Fast Company’s prestigious Most Innovative Companies list. This annual ranking celebrates the trailblazers who are reshaping industries and cultures, pushing boundaries, and transforming the world. First up is Bluesky. View the full article

In another devastating blow to customers and employees of Joann Inc, the popular fabric and crafts retailer is moving to close a significant chunk of its brick-and-mortar locations as part of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 protection a second time last month, had initially said it would continue operating its approximately 800 stores as it restructured and sought a buyer. However, it told a court this week that it has now identified a number of underperforming locations during the bidding process that it wants to close as a way of cutting costs. “As the sale process progressed,…

Neom, the insane urban development project in Saudi Arabia, appears to be sinking faster than the giant holes they keep digging in the middle of nowhere. Increasing delays and soaring cost overruns have led to project cancellations and a general scaling back of the original vision. Now a Wall Street Journal report has uncovered an internal audit that reveals evidence of deliberate manipulation of finances by management to justify rising cost estimates to investors. The sense of impending disaster is even more shocking when you look at the only crazy structure that is now standing in Neom: an unbelievably giant palace. New satellite images obtained by Business Insider …

The return-to-office (RTO) push at companies such as Amazon and AT&T—which both required employees to be back in the office full-time this month—has been met with discontent and frustration from much of their workforces. Some Amazon employees have said they are looking for new jobs, if they haven’t left already, while people at both companies have reportedly struggled to even find an open desk. But other leaders are not letting the prospect of low morale or limited workspace derail their plans to return to the office full time in 2025. According to a memo obtained by Business Insider, the latest addition to the mix is Dell, which had already tested the waters with…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Los Angeles is our home and living laboratory. For four decades at RIOS, we’ve pioneered design that confronts complexity, believing that every urban challenge carries profound opportunities for transformation. The recent catastrophic fires aren’t just a crisis, but a critical inflection point for reimagining resilience. Our landscape practice, led by Katherine Harvey, has a…

Ever since DeepSeek burst onto the scene last month, there’s been no shortage of opinions about what the Chinese startup’s artificial intelligence accomplishments mean for America’s AI giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. However, there’s one company that’s usually been absent from any discussion of just how bad DeepSeek’s arrival is for many of America’s tech giants: Apple. Whenever a tech insider or analyst mentions Apple and DeepSeek together, its usually to suggest that the arrival of the Chinese LLM could be beneficial to the iPhone maker. Is that really the case? AI technology is moving so quickly (DeepSeek virtually appeared out of nowhere) th…

Some 10,000 grocery store workers across the greater Denver area went on strike Thursday, claiming unfair and illegal negotiating practices by King Soopers while their union has been negotiating a new contract with the store chain. Striking workers at 77 King Soopers stores in Denver and its suburbs, plus those in nearby Boulder and Louisville, Colorado, urged customers not to cross picket lines that began taking shape before dawn. “Stand together. Stay strong,” United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 President Kim Cordova wrote union members in a Monday letter announcing the strike. UFCW Local 7 members voted by 96% last week to authori…