News

Zoom background wall Look—it doesn’t really matter what the background of your room looks like when you’re on a Zoom meeting. These days, something as small as a perfect piece of statement art here or a new throw blanket there are pretty trivial. But if you have a big presentation, an important meeting, or a cable news interview...

Russian mcdonalds logo Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, McDonald’s sold its Russian business to a regional franchisee with a caveat: He could serve the same food, but he couldn’t use McDonald’s iconic branding to do it. McDonald’s called this “the process of ‘de-Arching.'” Now, from a report by the state-run TASS news agency, we have a first look...

Best ads of 2021 Well, here we are at the end of the year. That means it’s time for another Best Of list, wrapping up 12 months of advertising and marketing into a snappy little package. Now, when we say “ads,” we’re not just talking about commercials. In fact, just one of our top five could even be...

The science someone mind If you’ve ever tried to change someone’s mind but found they were completely unwilling to budge in their thinking, it can help to understand how the brain works. Changing your mind—or someone else’s—is a complex process done through assimilation or accommodation, says David McRaney, author of How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief,...

Brain fog after eating I’m a nutritional psychiatrist, and to me, the phrase “you are what you eat” takes on a whole new meaning. As I’ve written in Fast Company, what we eat indelibly impacts our cognitive performance and work efficiency. But I encourage everyone to take diet mindfulness one step further, examining how we eat. The concept...

Robotic aipowered ship retracing mayflower has Some 400 years after the original Mayflower sailed across the  Atlantic Ocean, its unmanned robotic descendant has completed the first transatlantic crossing solely on its own decision-making. After seven years of planning and 40 days at sea, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS400) finally pulled into Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 5 after...

What is the darkest shade of black Vantablack took the world by storm for being the blackest black known to humankind. Its carbon nanotube surface—a nano-scale forest of billions of tiny carbon trees—absorbs up to 99.964% of light striking it. To witness such a dark material in person is beyond striking: It literally looks like a hole in...

Lets you play people There is no graceful way to tell someone to stop talking in most situations. Award shows, however, do not have that problem. When that wrap-it-up overture starts swelling while you’re still on stage, it means it’s time to thank your mom and your spouse and call it a night. And it works, too. Even...

New jersey governor race tracker Tuesday’s plethora of elections saw its fair share of surprises, upsets, and landmark victories—especially as people of color made strides in historic firsts across the country (Michelle Wu as the first Asian American mayor of Boston and Ed Gainey as the first Black mayor of Pittsburgh, among others). But the races aren’t over...

Twitter what's happening If you’ve been on Twitter this morning, you’ve probably seen the trending hashtags #TwitterMigration, #RIPTwitter, and #TwitterIsOverParty. The overall gist of the people posting these hashtags seems to be a fear of Twitter’s imminent collapse. Here’s what to know about the event that is fueling that fear. What’s happened? On Thursday, Twitter abruptly shut its...