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If you’re searching for a new snack that’s heavy on flavor but manages to skip the unhealthy additives, you’re in luck. There’s a new one called Ragerz from Good Eat’n, NBA star Chris Paul’s snack brand, in partnership with the WNBA’s Paige Bueckers. And it sounds like a slam dunk. For starters, the snack—which is a bit like a healthier take on Takis—is focused on delivering a fierce flavor without the junk. It comes in Chili Lime and Sweet Chili Crunch flavors that, Bueckers tells Fast Company, do not miss the mark (hoop?). The snack “isn’t asking people to give up flavor to feel better about what they’re eating,” she says, adding that with Ragerz, “you ca…

Layoffs have hit American workers hard in 2025, particularly in the government and tech sectors. Already this year, well over a million jobs have been lost due to layoffs—and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like a cessation of job cuts is on the horizon. Reports say that beverage and snack giant PepsiCo is the latest major American company getting ready to announce layoffs. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On Monday, PepsiCo (Nasdaq: PEP) issued a memorandum about its intention to enhance shareholder value in 2026. In the memo, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said that the planned initiatives were to accelerate “organic revenue growth, deliver recor…

The Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, may be visible in more than a dozen U.S. states Tuesday, December 9, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA). A full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to reach Earth early to midday on Tuesday, potentially causing periods of “strong” G3 geomagnetic storms (on a scale of G1 to G5). The aurora borealis is the result of a geomagnetic storm that occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material, reaches Earth and causes swaths of purple, blue, and green in the night sky. This year’s increased solar activity (and thus, …

Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery places CNN and its sister cable networks squarely back into what is likely to be an extended period of management limbo. There was some relief at CNN with last Friday’s announcement that Netflix was buying Warner’s studio and streaming businesses, since the cable network would not be a part of that deal. But that quickly changed on Monday with Paramount’s announced bid, which includes the cable assets that Netflix doesn’t want and, if successful, opens the possibility of a combined CNN and CBS News. The management uncertainty adds to what is already a challenging time at CNN, where there was no do…

High-power magnets undergird an enormous amount of modern society. From high-end audio speakers to electric vehicles, wind turbines, and fighter jets, they are a vital component in much of the technology we touch every day. To make them requires mining and refining rare earth elements—a supply chain largely controlled by China. Companies around the world are racing to find alternatives by using materials that are more abundant and cheaper to produce domestically. Minneapolis-based Niron Magnetics believes it has found a solution, claiming it can approach key aspects of rare earth magnet performance, using humble iron and nitrogen—albeit in an exotic formulation. Gener…

The economy has had a volatile year marked by ongoing headwinds and uncertainties. Persistent inflation, unpredictability around tariffs, and a stock market that many fear is in the midst of an AI-fueled bubble are among the factors impacting consumers’ spending power. But there is one event today that will hopefully deliver some much-needed certainty to the economy and broader markets: the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut announcement. Here’s what you need to know about a possible Fed rate cut today. What is the Fed rate cut announcement? The Federal Reserve is America’s central bank. One of its main responsibilities is setting the country’s interest rates.…

Mega billionaire Elon Musk, in a friendly interview with his aide and conservative influencer Katie Miller, said his efforts leading the Department of Government Efficiency were only “somewhat successful” and he would not do it over again. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who also owns the social media platform X, still broadly defended President Donald The President‘s controversial pop-up agency that Musk left in the spring before it shuttered officially last month. Yet Musk bemoaned how difficult it is to remake the federal government quickly, and he acknowledged how much his businesses suffered because of his DOGE work and its lack of popularity. “We were a little bit…

Human activity is driving climate change; that’s a fact that more than 99.9% of scientific papers agree on. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly removed that information from a webpage explaining climate change’s causes. It’s yet another move by the The President administration that downplays climate science. The President has previously called climate change a “hoax,” repealed numerous climate laws, and has bolstered the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which are the main cause of rising heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. An EPA page titled “Causes of Climate Change” once began by directly noting that “since the Industrial Revolu…

As data centers strain the power grid, utilities are scrambling to build new power plants. But a startup in California is one of a handful focusing on the problem from a different angle: building a network of batteries and solar panels at homes to relieve pressure on the grid more quickly. In some cases, thanks to state funding, low-income homeowners can get the systems installed at no cost, and then start saving on their electric bills and have access to backup power if the grid goes down. Others pay a subscription that’s lower than their previous electric bill. Then the startup, called Haven, manages the flow of power back to the grid. Why utilities see Haven’s …

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are taking Gemini Space Station Inc. into the prediction market space. The cryptocurrency exchange’s CEO and president, respectively, said on Thursday that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has granted a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license to a company affiliate called Gemini Titan, LLC. Gemini Titan will offer event contracts written as yes-or-no questions about future occurrences, essentially letting U.S. users gamble on the outcomes of everyday events. As examples, Gemini in its announcement provided the questions, “Will 1 bitcoin end this year higher than $200k?” and “Will Elon Musk’s X end up paying the f…

Today, investors are waking up to red on their screens as many tech and AI stocks are dropping in premarket trading. But why are shares in these companies falling? Much of it has to do with the cloud infrastructure company Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and its latest quarterly earnings results. Here’s what you need to know. Oracle’s Q2 2026 results send ORCL plunging Yesterday, Oracle reported financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2026. To say investors were disappointed in the results is an understatement, given how poorly ORCL shares are performing in premarket trading this morning. As of the time of this writing, ORCL shares are down over 12% as inve…

Some of the country’s most prestigious colleges are enrolling record numbers of low-income students — a growing admissions priority in the absence of affirmative action. America’s top campuses remain crowded with wealth, but some universities have accelerated efforts to reach a wider swath of the country, recruiting more in urban and rural areas and offering free tuition for students whose families are not among the highest earners. The strategy could lead to friction with the federal government. The The President administration, which has pulled funding from elite colleges over a range of grievances, has suggested it’s illegal to target needier students. College …

The heirs of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman are suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for wrongful death, alleging that the artificial intelligence chatbot intensified her son’s “paranoid delusions” and helped direct them at his mother before he killed her. Police said Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, a former tech industry worker, fatally beat and strangled his mother, Suzanne Adams, and killed himself in early August at the home where they both lived in Greenwich, Connecticut. The lawsuit filed by Adams’ estate on Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco alleges OpenAI “designed and distributed a defective product that validated a user’…

Today, investors are waking up to red on their screens as many tech and AI stocks are dropping in premarket trading. But why are shares in these companies falling? Much of it has to do with the cloud infrastructure company Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and its latest quarterly earnings results. Here’s what you need to know. Oracle’s Q2 2026 results send ORCL plunging Yesterday, Oracle reported financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2026. To say investors were disappointed in the results is an understatement, given how poorly ORCL shares are performing in premarket trading this morning. As of the time of this writing, ORCL shares are down over 12% as inve…

Imagine the scene: Your plane just landed late. You’ve barely got enough time to catch your connection, but first you’ve got to convince the other passengers to let you off before them. Good luck. Recently, though, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant flipped the script, according to Kathrin Peters. Peters, co-founder of consulting firm Withiii Leadership, says a recent flight taught her one of the best real-life lessons she’s ever seen in “generating instant connectivity.” After confirming the plane’s late arrival, the flight attendant asked passengers to raise their hand if they were ending their journey in Salt Lake City, the flight’s destination. After most …

Instacart just became the first company to offer an end-to-end integrated shopping experience with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s yet another signal that AI is about to upend the way we shop—and, maybe, the way we cook. The new partnership was announced by Instacart and OpenAI on December 8. To use the interface, ChatGPT users need to make an Instacart account and then surface Instacart within their chat thread using a prompt like, “Instacart, help me shop for apple pie ingredients.” From there, they can discuss recipes, ingredient swaps, and their preferred store with ChatGPT, which will help them order all of the items they need from Instacart without ever changing tabs or …

Lululemon might just be entering a new—and improved—era. On Thursday, December 11, the athleisure apparel company shared a mostly positive third-quarter earnings report and announced the departure of its CEO, Calvin McDonald. McDonald will leave Lululemon Athletica on January 31, after seven years in the post. He previously served as CEO of Sephora Americas. The last year has been one of underperformance for Lululemon. In October, the company’s controversial founder and largest independent shareholder, Chip Wilson, took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal criticizing Lululemon’s direction. While he didn’t go as far as to name McDonald, Wilson wrote, “…

Measles infections in America have hit their highest numbers in 33 years. In 2025, cases have topped 1,900, and that number is expected to rise due to an ongoing outbreak in South Carolina. Here’s what you need to know about America’s latest measles outbreak and why the upcoming period could spell troubling times with the disease. What’s happened? Earlier this week, the South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) announced 27 new cases of measles in the state since the previous Friday, raising the total number of active measles cases in the southeastern state to 111. Due to the outbreak, there are currently 254 people in quarantine, with another 16 in…

Multiple news reports this week said that President The President is expected to reclassify marijuana’s drug scheduling, which would lessen restrictions on its use and potentially allow companies that operate in the cannabis space to increase business. After the news broke, the stock prices of several cannabis industry companies skyrocketed. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On Thursday, multiple outlets reported that the The President administration is considering reclassifying marijuana from its current level as a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. The Washington Post was the first to report on the potential reclassification, citing six…

If the holiday hustle and bustle is stressing you out, the night sky is providing a perfect moment to pause and wonder at some majesty this weekend, as the Geminid meteor shower (Geminids) is set to peak. The Geminids are technically active annually—this year, from around December 1 through 21, and the action peaks on the evenings of the 12th and 13th. Let’s take a look at the science and history behind this cosmic phenomenon, before we dive into how best to view it. When was the Geminid meteor shower first discovered? These days, the Geminid meteor shower is considered by NASA to be “one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers.” The event s…

Your smartphone is only as good as the charge it holds. It doesn’t matter if you have the newest flagship iPhone or Android—when the device’s battery dies, all the bells and whistles don’t mean diddly. And manufacturers know it. For years, Apple and Google have managed to pack increasingly larger-capacity batteries into the phones they make. The larger the battery, the longer your phone can stay charged. But in recent years, both companies have also been turning to software features on their phones’ operating systems to help maximize battery life. Apple added several software-based battery maximization enhancements in iOS 26. Google has done the same with its popu…

In the tournament of pop culture—an arena increasingly obsessed with charts, data, and stat lines—Taylor Swift has, by most measures, already emerged the victor. In her nearly two decades in the public eye, she has become a billionaire by engineering one of the most dependable fan bases on the planet: a legion willing to buy every vinyl variant for her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, and generate such collective frenzy at her 149-date Eras Tour that it registered as seismic activity. Swift has become something like an institution, around whom various rituals and practices have formed, whether the exchanging of friendship bracelets or sharing easter eggs wi…

Since the tragic news broke that director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, have died, tributes have been pouring in. And amid the stories of kindness, compassion, and political action, one story stands out: How the couple’s chance first meeting altered the ending of the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally—possibly the most beloved romantic comedy of all time. Had the couple not met during filming, the movie’s memorable New Year’s Eve ending might’ve not been a part of the film at all. During production of the iconic rom-com in New York City, photographer Michele Singer Reiner (then Michele Singer) stopped by the set. According to a 1989 New York…

The value of cryptocurrency XRP continues to slide, dipping as low as $1.92 as of Monday morning. XRP—the native crypto token of the XRP Ledger, created by Ripple Labs—has seen its value hover around the $2 mark for roughly a month, and has been on a downward trend since late July, when values peaked at more than $3.50. Values remained elevated through most of the summer months, catalyzed by U.S. regulators dropping legal actions against Ripple Labs, which had stretched on for several years. Additionally and subsequently, XRP ETFs have hit exchanges, theoretically broadening XRP’s appeal and reach within the crypto space. That, it seems, should have increased demand …

An increasing number of companies are finding the much-promised financial gains of implementing artificial intelligence in the workplace have been slow to materialize. But that isn’t stopping many CEOs from spending even more on AI in the coming year. A new study from advisory firm Teneo finds that 68% of CEOs will increase their AI spending next year. A growing number, however, are aware that they need to start showing returns on that investment—and an important part of their job is convincing shareholders to remain patient. “As efforts shift from hype to execution, businesses are under pressure to show ROI from rising AI spend,” the company wrote. “Large-cap CEO…