Technology companies are no longer viewed as distant, purely functional businesses. They sit at the center of entertainment, communication, and daily life, which naturally brings them closer to celebrity culture. The companies commonly grouped under the term FAANG, Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet), function not only as technology providers but also as cultural platforms.
The industry's attempts to educate consumers "[seem] to largely have gone unheard," Amy Mitchell, then Pew's director of journalism research (she now heads the Center for News, Technology, and Innovation) said in a briefing at the time. "There's really a disconnect there between the public's knowledge and understanding about the industry and how it's functioning, compared with what we see in headlines day in and day out about budget cuts and revenue declines."
You may find yourself living in a glass and steel yak-fur-lined penthouse. You may find yourself with six Premier League titles and a sport refashioned in your image. You may find yourself in front of a large advert board covered in words such as Experience Abu Dhabi, haunted by images of suffering, a scythe clanking gently at your shoulder. And you may say, well, how did I get here?
They meet whatever half-formed idea they already associate with the category, and that idea ends up doing a lot more work than the product itself. Someone hears "AI tool for business" and immediately imagines Hollywood robots or their boss replacing half the team. Someone hears "blockchain platform," and their mind jumps to a chart going straight down. A buyer sees a proptech product and wonders whether it'll complicate an already stressful process.
The headlines of 2025 painted a portrait of America in chaos, driven by the financial logic of America's media ecosystem. It's number one product isn't news, but fear. "NYC youth crime doubled since controversial state Raise the Age Law kicked in," exclaims one hysterical New York Post headline from September. "Business owners express frustration over crime surge in Federal Hill," reads a banner from FOX45 News, a local outlet in Baltimore.
"With any person, company, or concept, the general public really only has space in their head for one characteristic of it," says Palantir alum Marc Frankel, cofounder, board member, and former CEO of Manifest, which creates software and AI "bill of materials"-think ingredient labels for critical software. "Biden: old. AI: scary. Palantir: secretive." Frankel worked at Palantir from 2013 to 2018,
Relations between the US and Germany are increasingly tense. As German and European leaders determine how to respond to Donald Trump's tariff threats over Greenland, we're asking if world events affecting the everyday lives of Americans in Germany? While we'd like to believe that everyone is capable of making the distinction between a citizen of a certain country and the actions of their government, that's not always the case.
Unfortunately, hypnosis has a negative reputation among the general public, in large part because of how it's been portrayed by the movie and entertainment industry. Also, I was aware that in the late 19th century there were many false positive and negative claims about hypnosis that soured the public on the possibility that hypnosis could be helpful. I did not want to create or add to a 21st-century perception that hypnosis was quackery, and therefore chose to withhold telling about some of the most amazing events that I had encountered with my patients when I first wrote about hypnosis, because these stories might have been too hard to believe.
When Ally and I first met, she was 25 and fresh out of uni, and I was 47 and recently separated from my wife. I walked into work every day and saw this beautiful young woman with long dark hair and the most fantastic smile. Eventually I did the cheesy thing and wrote her a note telling her how I felt. I didn't expect to hear from her.
Over the past few months, we've seen a surge of skepticism around the phenomenon currently referred to as the "AI boom." The shift began when OpenAI released GPT-5 this summer to mixed reviews, mostly from casual users. We've since had months of breathless claims from pundits and influencers that the era of rapid AI advancement is ending, that AI scaling has hit the wall, and that the AI boom is just another tech bubble. These same voices overuse the phrase "AI slop" to disparage the remarkable images, documents, videos, and code that AI models produce at the touch of a button.
Hestermann's study sought to answer similar questions: "How is the perception of violence changing? How is the view of the suspects and their origins changing?" He describes different reactions he observed using the example of two attacks that took place in Munich and Mannheim in 2025: "Munich: A young Afghan man allegedly drives into a crowd, killing two people. Shortly afterwards in Mannheim: A German man also drives into a crowd, killing two random victims."
At the midway point of season three, Kate Wyler has gotten what she believes she's wanted for years: a professional life with more distance from Hal, and a personal life free of him. At last! This is the life! Fewer of the vexations of having to manage, run interference, or apologize for Hal, and none of the constant renegotiating of their relationship status. Public marriage, private divorce. Great! Or is it?
I think he's done a terrible job, Donald Trump said during his state visit to the UK last month, in his latest broadside at London's mayor, Sadiq Khan. Crime in London is through the roof. Trump's view is increasingly accepted wisdom in rightwing circles and is gaining traction more widely. Crime is even being blamed along with rising taxes for an apparent exodus of the super-rich from the UK.
Are we approaching a turning point in political violence, or is this simply another flashpoint in a long, uneven history of partisan conflict? Political scientists and commentators appear divided. Some warn of a spiraling wave of tit-for-tat violence, fueled by incendiary rhetoric and amplified by online echo chambers. Others emphasize that such acts are rare, often the work of lone actors rather than coordinated movements, and that the broader public overwhelmingly rejects violence as a political tool.
Samantha Mumba on spirituality, being headstrong and why she's not the woman you might think she is "I am a bit of a nutcase," says Samantha Mumba. "I'm not going to lie. If you could just go in my brain for an hour, that would be fun. There are all kinds of things in this head at any given time."
The intensely close but complex relationship between Britain and Ireland is one that a British ambassador to Ireland observed in a 1977 dispatch: the British "take the Irish for granted, whereas (the Irish) are obsessed with us. We don't remember the past and they cannot forget it." If we think a lot about that relationship, one might think that there would be no need for a book like Philip Stephens's These Divided Isles. Too often we don't think deeply about our relationship with Britain.
It often makes a big splash in the news when famous people are accused and/or convicted of multiple sexual offenses, especially when they are beloved or admired. The public is often shocked when people such as R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Josh Duggar, Sean "Diddy" Combs, and President Trump are accused by multiple people of sexual harm. Some of this shock is because of the image we have of a repeat sex offender: a monstrous, sick pervert who is without empathy, sadistically harming victim after victim.
San Franciscans say they now feel optimistic about the city's future despite years of negative news about empty downtown offices, widespread public drug use, rampant stolen-goods sales and other serious concerns.
From the launch of the campaign on July 23 through August 1, 63.7% of posts that mentioned American Eagle across TikTok and X combined were favorable, while 29.4% were unfavorable and 6.9% were neutral.
"Back in January or February, everyone was just like, 'What do we even do? This is crazy. Nothing makes sense,'" Mogler stated, frustrated with the mounting seed oil panic.
Yolo County officials request the state attorney general's involvement in investigating a fireworks explosion due to public concerns about conflicts of interest involving Sheriff's Office employees.
