For something as simple as setting a timer, the built-in apps on our computers can be awfully fiddly.
Usually you have to open a Clock app first, then navigate to a separate tab for timers. After that you have to hit another button to create the timer, and only then can you finally set the time. You might even have to wade through a messy list of all the previous timers youve created.
Fortunately, theres a faster way when time is of the essence. Even better, its full of powerful features that dont detract from its up-front simplicity and delightfulness.
This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!
A plain but powerful desktop timer
The next time you find yourself with a timer-needing task, you can skip past all the cruft of your built-in Clock app by just opening your favorite web browser and visiting the appropriately named E.ggtimer.
E.ggtimer is a free web-based app for setting quick timers with simple keyboard commands.
Setting a timer takes just a few seconds.
To set up a basic timer, try typing 5 minutes or 5m into the box on the e.ggtimer landing page. This also works with other units of time, so you can type 3h48m15s for a timer that runs for three hours, 48 minutes, and 15 seconds. When time expires, the site will play a tone andwith your permissiondeliver a push notification to your device.
E.ggtimer’s interface is both easy to use and packed with interesting extras.
To speed things up further, just include the time directly in URL. For instance, entering e.ggtimer.com/5m into your address bar will bypass the setup page and set a five-minute timer immediately. You can even bookmark your most-used timers for faster access in the future.
I was chatting with my fellow Cool Tools writer JR Raphael about this, and he asked a valid question: Why use E.ggtimer instead of, say, Google Searchs built-in timer tool? To this I offer a few answers:
E.ggtimer supports more time formats. In addition to the hour-minute-second format I mentioned earlier, E.ggtimer lets you input absolute times such as 4:56 pm or August 10 2025 3pm. It can also count down to holidays such as Mothers Day or New Years.
E.ggtimer works offline. If youre using Chrome, click the little download icon in the top-right of the address bar to install E.ggtimers Progressive Web App. Now you can launch a freestanding version of the site that works without an internet connection.
E.ggtimer supports the Pomodoro method. Beyond just individual timers, you can also set up sequences of consecutive timers. Try typing 25m/5m/25m for a pair of 25-minute work sessions broken up by a five-minute break.
E.ggtimer is more fun. Beyond the basic black text on white background, the site offers a bunch of themes, including a digital clock, dot matrix, andmy personal favoriteone that looks like the Windows Blue Screen of Death.
E.ggtimer’s amusing take on the classic Blue Screen of Death.
This only scratches the surface of whats possible. Check out the sites Help and Settings page for even more possibilities, such as adding labels to your timers and tweaking things like the default alarm sound.
One quick caveat: While E.ggtimer technically works in any browser on any device, Ive found that its alerts dont come through on mobile devices unless your screen is on and the site is open, so youre better off using it on desktop browsers only. Too bad, because the built-in Clock apps on our phones are just as fiddly as their desktop counterparts.
E.ggtimer is entirely web-based, though you can download it as a Progressive Web App if you would like.
It is free to use and doesnt include any ads (unless you select the Ugly theme which has fake ads on the page).
E.ggtimer doesnt ask for any personal information to use the service.
Treat yourself to all sorts of geeky goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
For hardcore retro-tech fans and Steve Jobs groupies, a treasure trove of vintage Apple devices, ultraexclusive memorabilia, and forgotten tech has just been collected into one websiteand it’s all for sale.
The collection of items, titled Steve Jobs and the Apple Revolution, is currently being sold by RR Auction, and will remain live until August 21. Its one of the companys 12 annual speciality auctions, which focus on specific subjects like space exploration, the Olympics, and animation.
“Created over a decade ago, this signature auction tells Apple’s full arcfrom garage-built Apple-1 to world-changing innovations, says Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at the Boston-based auction house. We source directly from early engineers, employees, and elite collectors, often bringing items to market for the first time. It’s Apple’s history told through the objects that made it possible.
From Apple-1 to the iPod
RR Auctions Apple-centric collection comes as interest in retro tech is taking off, especially among younger generations. Recently Sega, Commodore Corp., and Fujifilm have all released new products that buy into the demand for vintage-tech aesthetics. Retro gaming is also riding high on a Gen Z-fueled resurgence.
[Screenshot: RR Auction]
RR Auctions Apple collection, though, is composed of true vintage items, some of which are one of a kind. A particular highlight is the fully functional Apple-1 computerthe first Apple device ever builtsigned by cocreator Steve Wozniak and early Apple employee Daniel Kottke. According to an analysis by eBay, only about 200 Apple-1 devices were ever built, with just 82 believed to still exist. In 2022, eBay sold an Apple-1 for $340,100 at auction.
Livingston points to one specific check in the collection, signed on March 28, 1976, as another standout object: “Check No. 6written four days before Apple’s founding, signed ‘steven jobs,’ listing all three cofoundersreads like Apple’s birth certificate, he says.
[Screenshot: RR Auction]
Other items of note include a rare Lisa computer, released in January 1983, with its custom Twiggy floppy drives intact; a prototype iPod with a red logic board; a factory-sealed 4GB iPhone; and an assortment of vintage Apple-branded merch. Together, they track Apple’s evolution from startup to giant, Livingston says.
[Screenshot: RR Auction]
So far, Livingston adds, interest in the collection has been “extraordinary,” ranging from veteran collectors to first-time bidders. With more than a week left for incoming bids, the Apple-1 computer has already surpassed the 100,000 threshold, while many other items have top bids in the tens of thousands.
These aren’t just nostalgic artifacts; they’re cultural touchstones, Livingston says. The strongest interest comes from seasoned tech collectors and younger successful entrepreneurs who see these as physical chapters of a story still shaping the world.
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
To identify which metro areas might offer buyers the most opportunity right now, ResiClub analyzed the share of homes on Zillow with a price cut.
Of course, just because a home listed for sale gets a price cut doesnt guarantee that comps in that area are falling. After all, there will always be some sellers who overshoot their market. Even during the height of the Pandemic Housing Boom in June 2021, 11.4% of homes for sale that month saw a price cut.
The way to interpret this data is to compare it over time. If the percentage of homes with a price cut in a given area decreases noticeably (particularly, beyond the normal seasonal swing), it suggests the market has tightened and sellers have gained relative leverage. Conversely, if the percentage increases noticeably (again, beyond the normal seasonal swing), it suggests the market has cooled and buyers have gained relative leverage.
The national share of U.S. homes with a price cut is further confirmation that the housing market has been shifting, relatively speaking, toward buyers ever since mortgage rates spiked and the Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out:
June 2018 > 18.1%
June 2019 > 20.1%
June 2020 > 14.8%
June 2021 > 11.4%
June 2022 > 17.2%
June 2023 > 19.1%
June 2024 > 23.5%
June 2025 > 25.6%
Click here to view a searchable/sortable table with data for more than 900 metropolitan and micro-area housing markets.
If youre a ResiClub readerespecially a ResiClub PRO memberneither the softening nor the bifurcation should surprise you.
As ResiClub has well documented, many housing markets in the Northeast and Midwest have thus far had a milder and slower softening, while many areas in pandemic boom areas in the Mountain West and Sunbelt have seen a faster and greater softening in the post-boom market.
To help you better view the story, weve created a map showing the share of homes that saw a price cut in June for every year since 2018.
Below is June 2025
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Below is June 2024
Below is June 2023
Below is June 2022
Below is June 2021
Below is June 2020
Below is June 2019
Below is June 2018
According to Zillow: Share of listings with a price cut: The number of unique properties with a list price at the end of the month thats less than the list price at the beginning of the month, divided by the number of unique properties with an active listing at some point during the month.
The delivery app DoorDash and the Alphabet-owned drone company Wing are bringing mall food court favorites to select doorsteps as they expand their drone delivery program.
The companies recently announced that they were partnering with GoTo Foods, the parent company behind shopping mall brands like Auntie Anne’s, Jamba, and Schlotzsky’s, to deliver orders by drone to select areas in Frisco, Fort Worth, and Plano, Texas.
It’s DoorDash’s latest push into delivery by air after announcing in March it would launch a drone delivery pilot program with Wing for select Wendy’s items in Christiansburg, Virginia, and also a sign that the company sees more room for growth. DoorDash said it began offering drone delivery for Papa Johns and The Brass Tap during limited hours of operation in parts of Little Elm and Frisco, Texas, in June, and now its partnership with GoTo Foods takes that pilot program further.
“As we continue scaling our drone operations, we remain focused on building a world-class logistics platform that enables partners like Wing to integrate seamlessly into our ecosystem; provides a smooth, reliable delivery experience for merchants; and offers consumers fast and affordable access to brands they love,” DoorDash’s drone program head Harrison Shih said in a statement.
For now, drone delivery is limited to just a 4-mile radius of participating locations, but for those who live in the radius, DoorDash promises delivery within minutes of ordering.
The company has leaned into robotic delivery outside of drones with Coco, a delivery robot it began testing earlier this year in Los Angeles and Chicago. And in May, it bought the British delivery app Deliveroo for $3.9 billion. DoorDash reported more than $3 billion in quarterly revenue in the most recent quarter, up nearly 25% from the same time last year, according to PitchBook data.
For GoTo Foods, the partnership with DoorDash is a chance to take its brand out of the shopping mall and to reinvent it for a new generation at a time when malls are changing. Thanks to drones, food court pretzels could be more easily accessible to “high-growth suburban areas” that are “well beyond traditional mall locations,” the two companies said in a press release.
You used to go to the mall. The mall now comes to you.
Sarah thought she’d nailed it. Three rounds of interviews for her dream marketing role, glowing feedback from the hiring manager, and a reassuring “we’ll be in touch soon.” So when the rejection email landed in her inbox two weeks latera generic “we’ve decided to move forward with another candidate”it felt like a gut punch.
If youve had a similar experience taking job rejection more personally than youd like, youre not alone. Youre also very human. In fact, research has found that 78% of professionals say job rejection negatively impacts their confidence for weeks or even months afterward.
But as normal as it is to feel knocked down, were also capable of using rejection to clarify our direction, refine our value, and accelerate the outcomes (and ideal roles) we wantnot to let it define us. This isnt about building thicker skin. Its about building smarter systems and more empowered thinking. Here are six straightforward strategies to do that.
1. Use the 24-hour rule.
Youre human, not a robot. Its okay not to feel great when a rejection email lands in your inbox. Emotions may not always be rational, but theyre still real. So cut yourself some slack and give yourself permission to feel disappointed without immediately trying to “fix” it or bounce back.
Set a timer for 24 hours, acknowledge the sting, then deliberately shift into learning mode. This prevents both endless rumination and what psychologists call “emotional bypassing”jumping straight to positivity without processing the real emotions.
2. Separate the ‘no’ from your self-worth.
This rejection isn’t a referendum on your value as a person or professional: it’s simply a mismatch, not a verdict. Research has shown that people with a growth mindsetwho ask What can this teach me? instead of Whats wrong with me?are more likely to bounce back from setbacks, stay motivated, and take constructive action.
When Marcus, a software engineer, didnt get the senior developer role he wanted, he initially spiraled into self-doubt. But when he shifted from “I’m not good enough,” to “What skills do I need to develop?” he used the feedback to land an even better position six months later.
You do yourself a disservice when you let the subjective evaluation others place on you depreciate the value you place on yourself. That Tom Brady was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft is proof that sometimes those tasked with assessing others’ future potential have absolutely no idea.
3. Ask for feedbackeven if you don’t get it.
The simple act of requesting constructive feedback signals a growth mindset and helps you reflect more objectively on the experience. Even when companies dont respond (and many wont), the process of asking forces you to think strategically about your performance and what you might do differently next time.
4. Reframe it as redirection, not rejection.
Jenny, a finance executive, felt incredibly disappointed when she didnt get a controller position at a startup. Six months later, when that company folded, she realized the rejection had actually protected her from a career disaster.
Sometimes a “no” is actually steering you away from a situation that wouldnt have served you well. Research from Glassdoor shows that 65% of people who stay in roles that werent their first choice report lower job satisfaction within two years.
5. Dont personalize systemic issues.
Sometimes hiring decisions come down to budget, internal politics, timing, or internal candidates being preferredfactors that have nothing to do with your qualifications. Other times, personal preferences, unconscious judgments, or stereotypes bias hiring decisions. According to research from SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), 48% of HR managers admitted that biases affect the candidates they hire. Many hiring decisions are influenced by factors completely outside a candidates control.
Avoid interpreting rejection as anything more than a decision someone madea decision shaped by a whole array of factors and biasesthat simply wasnt the one you wanted them to make. You cant control those variables, but you can control your response.
6. Track your progress, not just your wins
Top performers dont avoid rejectionthey risk it regularly and treat it as no more than a hidden curriculum, mining any insights for their next opportunity. Create a system that tracks not only your wins, but also your courage: interviews taken, skills built, connections made, insights gained. Maybe you realized you need to clarify your value proposition. Maybe you discovered a role or industry isnt for you. These are all progress markers. These are all victories worth celebrating.
Its not rejection itself that holds future potential hostage, but the emotions of unworthiness it triggers. The irony is that by avoiding rejection, we often reject ourselveslong before anyone else has the chance.
So whether youre starting out or starting over, the biggest setback isnt being told no. Its letting it stop you from showing up again. Just imagine the possibilities if you moved forward knowing that rejection is simply part of your individualized growth plan. Let rejection refine your clarity, not shrink your courage.
Keep putting yourself forward. Keep learning. Your next opportunity may just need the version of you that rejection helped shape.
The federal spending law passed in early July 2025, often called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, significantly reduces federal funding for efforts to create renewable or sustainable types of fuel that can power aircraft over long distances while decreasing the damage aviation does to the global climate.
Aviation contributed about 2.5% of global carbon emissions in 2023. Its particularly hard to reduce emissions from planes because there are few alternatives for large, portable quantities of energy-dense fuel. Electric batteries with enough energy to power an international flight, for instance, would be much larger and heavier than airplane fuel tanks.
One potential solution, which I work on as an aerospace engineer, is a category of fuel called sustainable aviation fuel. Unlike conventional jet fuel, which is refined from petroleum, sustainable aviation fuels are produced from renewable and waste resources such as used cooking oil, agricultural leftovers, algae, sewage, and trash. But they are similar enough to conventional jet fuels that they work in existing aircraft tanks and engines without any major modifications.
Prior to Donald Trumps second term as president, the U.S. government had set some bold targets: by 2030, producing 3 billion gallons of this type of fuel every year, and by 2050, producing enough to fuel every U.S. commercial jet flight. But theres a long journey ahead.
A range of source materials
The earliest efforts to create sustainable aviation fuels relied on food cropsturning corn into ethanol or soybean oil into biodiesel. The raw materials were readily available, but growing them competed with food production.
The next generation of biofuels are using nonfood sources such as algae, or agricultural waste such as manure or stalks from harvested corn. These dont compete with food supplies. If processed efficiently, they also have the potential to emit less carbon: Algae absorb carbon dioxide during their growth, and using agricultural waste avoids its decomposition, which would release greenhouse gases.
But these biofuels are harder to produce and more expensive, in part because the technologies are new, and in part because there are not yet logistics systems in place to collect, transport, and process large quantities of source material.
Some researchers are working to create biofuels with the help of genetically modified bacteria that convert specific raw materials into biofuel. In one method, algae are grown to produce sugars or oils, which are then fed to engineered bacteria that turn them into usable fuels, such as ethanol, butanol,, or alkanes. In another effort, photosynthetic microbes such as cyanobacteria are modified to directly convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into fuel.
All of these approachesand others being explored as wellaim to create sustainable, carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuels. Exciting as it sounds, most of this technology is still locked away in labs, not available in airports.
Blends are being tested
At present, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration allows airlines to fuel their aircraft with blends of up to 50% sustainable aviation fuel mixed with conventional jet fuel. The exact percentage depends on how the fuel was made, which relates to how chemically and physically similar it is to petroleum-based jet fuel, and therefore how well it will work in existing aircraft tanks, pipes, and engines.
There are two major hurdles to wider adoption: cost and supply. Sustainable fuels are much more expensive than traditional jet fuel, with cost differences varying by process and raw material. For instance, the raw price of Jet-A, the most common petroleum-based aviation fuel, had a wholesale price averaging $2.34 per gallon in 2024, but one type of sustainable fuel wholesaled at about $5.20 per gallon that year.
The federal budget enacted in July 2025 reduces government subsidies, effectively raising the cost of making these fuels.
In part because of cost, sustainable fuel is produced only in small quantities: In 2025, global production is expected to be about 2 million metric tons of the fuel, which is less than 1% of the worldwide demand for aviation fuel. There is international pressure to increase demand: Starting in January 2025, all jet fuel supplied at airports in the European Union must include at least 2% sustainable fuel, with minimum percentages increasing over time.
Planes can use these fuels
Companies such as General Electric and Rolls-Royce have shown that the jet engines they manufacture can run perfectly on sustainable fuels.
However, sustainable aviation fuels can have slightly different density and energy content from standard jetfuel. That means the aircrafts weight distribution and flight range could change.
And other parts of the aircraft also have to be compatible, such as those that store, pump, and maintain the balance of the fuel. That includes valves, pipes, and rubber seals. As a visiting professor at Boeing in the summer of 2024, I learned that it and other aircraft manufacturers are working closely with their suppliers to ensure sustainable aviation fuels can be safely and reliably integrated into every part of the aircraft.
Those finer details are why headlines you may have seen about flights that burn 100% sustainable aviation fuel are not quite the full story. Usually, the fuel on those flights contains a small amount of conventional jet fuel or special additives. Thats because sustainable fuels lack some of the aromatic chemical compounds found in fossil-based fuels that are required to maintain proper seals throughout the aircrafts fuel system.
Good promise, with work ahead
While many details remain, sustainable aviation fuels offer a promising way to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel without reinventing or redesigning entire airplanes. These fuels can significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft in use today, helping reduce the severity of climate change.
The work will take research and investment from governments, manufacturers, and airlines around the world, whether or not the U.S. is involved. But one day, the fuel powering your flight could be much greener than it is now.
Li Qiao is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Effective planning before you go on vacation can make your time off more relaxing and enjoyable. Unsurprisingly, research reveals that vacations are beneficial for your mental and physical well-being and most employees return more creative and productive. However, to maximize your chances of having a restful vacation, its helpful to have a game plan in place to make sure your responsibilities are covered when youre gone and youre setting yourself up for an easy return. To truly relax, professionals need thoughtful preparation, which helps them offload details from working memory and relax, says Anita Williams Woolley, professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh.
Here’s what experts suggest.
Determine your goals
Take the time to delve into both short-term goals and long-term objectives youre responsible for managing. Woolley suggests these action points regarding work goals to address before signing off for your PTO.
Clarify and prioritize immediate tasks to complete before you leavebe realistic about what you can get done.
Confirm what your team should handle (or ignore) during your absence.
Outline your return plan, including contingencies in case of delays.
Create an alignment plan
Before your absence, create a plan to help your team handle your responsibilities while youre gone. Woolley advises including strategies for obstacles or issues that may arise while youre away. Heres what she recommends:
Clearly assign responsibilities. One suggestion is a vacation task list, where your specific duties are divided up among other team members. Make sure everyone understands what they are responsible for.
Agree on which issues are urgent and warrant contacting you, empowering your team to handle everything else.
Identify critical risks and provide explicit guidance on how to handle emergencies without you.
Notify your team
Be sure to let your colleagues and clients know when you will be out of your office. Woolley says:
Be proactive. Alert your team youre going to be on vacation instead of a colleague or client receiving a bounce-back email announcing youre out of the office.
Inform everyone who needs to know about your absence.
Select a trusted “gatekeeper whos someone who decides when to contact you and serves as a central reference for others.
The day before your vacation
Although youre excited for your break, be sure to wrap up any loose ends. Annie Rosencrans, people and culture director at HiBob in New York, provides these tips:
Send final follow-up emails, close out minor tasks, and tie up easy wins.
Avoid pushing nonurgent new work to others right before you leave, and instead table them for when you get back.
Cancel, decline, or reschedule meetings on the calendar for your time away.
Set up your out of office (OOO) messages on email, Slack, and other communication platforms.
Set yourself up for an easy return
Establishing a plan before you leave for vacation can reduce pre-trip anxiety and ensure that you and your team are set up for success during your time away, says Rosencrans.
A structured plan gives employees time to transition both practically and emotionally out of work mode, she continues. When executed well, this approach creates clarity, accountability, and space to truly disconnect. It also offers teammates confidence that nothing will fall through the cracks in your absence.
Woolley at Carnegie Mellon advises organizing your workspace and priorities ahead of time, ensuring your goals guide your first days back, rather than an overflowing inbox. She recommends setting yourself up for an easier return: “Park on a downhill slope.
Be assured, with some mindful planning, you can enjoy your vacation with less anxiety. Rosencrans asserts how time off isnt just a perk, it’s a performance strategy. The more intentionally we approach it, the better we protect well-being and long-term productivity, she explains. And no one should feel guilty for unplugging. If we normalize structured, respectful pre-vacation planning, we make space for real rest and thats something every employee deserves.
When Piyush Gupta took over as the CEO of DBS Bank in Singapore in 2009, he said DBS needed to think of itself not as a bank, but as a technology company providing banking services. Gupta challenged his entire workforce to raise their innovation game.
Gupta and his team invested significantly in technology, restructured to improve collaboration, and, most critically, drove a series of cultural interventions to encourage innovation friendly behaviors. Over the next 15 years DBS Bank transformed from an under performer in its local market to the best performing bank in the world. How did Gupta and other leaders who look to foster innovation do it?
As a researcher, advisor, (DBS was a consulting client of mine from 2017 to 2019), executive, and now teacher, I have spent 25 years practicing and studying disruptive change. Here are some essential takeaways for nurturing disruptive teams.
Recognize the importance of teamwork
Innovation stories typically celebrate charismatic leaders like Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos. That sometimes leaves leaders thinking they have to carry the reins of disruption, or need to find a lone genius to drive disruption.
Innovation isnt the job of the few. Its highly dependent on teamwork. For example, in the 1960s, Procter & Gamble launched Pampers disposable diapers, which went on to become the first brand in P&Gs storied history to cross $10 billion in revenue. Vic Mills (a decorated scientist) chartered a team led by Bob Duncan (whose grandfather played a key part in the development of Tide laundry detergent) that included researchers like Harry Tecklenburg, who went on to have a 30-year career at P&G and wrote a wonderful retrospective about the launch of Pampers in 1990.
The job of the leader isnt to be charismatic and do the work alone, it is to create conditions that enable teams to do disruptive work.
Embrace uncertainty
One key to success is to recognize that disruption is predictably unpredictable. Julia Childs 1961 book Mastering the Art of French Cooking enabled a broader population to enjoy French dishes. Her pioneering cooking shows on television further brought cooking to the masses. Her story echoes every disruptive journey I have studied. Most notably, success required overcoming false starts, fumbles, and failures. She started working on Mastering the Art (with coauthors Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle) in 1951. The goal was to publish the book in 1953. It took an extra eight years, two publisher switches, and one stinging rejection in 1959 that almost killed the project.
While you cant predict the specific path a disruptive innovation will follow, you can predict there will be twists and turns along the way. That means that leaders need to make sure that their environments accept and encourage the kind of intelligent failure that accompanies disruptive success.
Celebrate failure
Disruptions predictable unpredictability also means leaders need to make sure that their environments accept and encourage the kind of intelligent failure that accompanies disruptive success. One technique that can help is to have a formal ceremony to celebrate failure. Thats what Finnish gaming company Supercell does. Every time a team successfully launches a new game, everyone gets together, and cracks open a beer. Every time a team admits defeat and decides to shut down a project, everyone gets together and pops a bottle of champagne. The reward for the failure is greater than the reward for success.
Saying cheers to failure has two clear benefits. First, it shows that a good, not bad, thing has happened, encouraging other teams to continue to push frontiers. Second, it shows that the effort is finished.
Many organizations suffer from what I call zombie projects. The walking undead. Projects that everyone knows will not move the needle but they shuffle and linger on, sucking all of the life out of the organization. Zombies exist because failure carries such a stigma that organizations avoid killing projects. Saying cheers to failure stops zombies from ever spawning and allows teams to move onto the next projectwhich might actually be the disruptive innovation for which your company has been searching.
Accept risk
Pursuing disruption is risky. The first reference to gunpowder appears in the book The Kinship of the Three in 142 CE. Its development over the centuries involved alchemists, blacksmiths, peasants, gunners, philosophers, and scientists. There were farmers and fighters experimenting with different uses. There were leaders allocating time and money and directing work. As one historian noted, success required the work of daredevils, visionaries, madmen, many of whom found not fortune but disfiguring burns and death.
The burns are more metaphorical todaydoubts from colleagues, the pain of a hypothesis proved wrong, the discomfort that always accompanies doing something newbut they still sting. Doing new things is hard. Having things not work out as expected is painful. Disruptive innovators question the status quo. Some people inside organizations love it, some are indifferent to it, some actively seek to subvert or sabotage it. Disruption casts a shadow.
When you see someone in your organization who is pushing disruption, encourage them. Celebrate their courage, and tell them how much you appreciate their work. Its a small thing, but big things come from a collection of small things.
There are many regional terms for a submarine-shaped sandwich. One of them is hero.
On Monday, as President Trump ordered 800 National Guard troops to descend upon the streets of Washington, D.C., plenty of social media users were using that termnot to describe such a sandwich, but the man who wielded it.
A viral video taken in D.C. over the weekend shows a man in a jaunty pink button-up and north-of-the-knee white shorts confronting heavily armed federal officers. He appears at first bouncing in and out of a slight crouch, his head swaying from side to side, looking spectacularly undaunted by the agents all around him. Its unclear what he is saying, though a longer video shows the man ranting about fascism moments before the confrontation, so its easy to imagine what he may have been saying.
Soon enough, the man pulls back his arm to reveal, incredibly, an as-yet unglimpsed footlong Subway sub. He hurls the enormous sandwich at one of the officers, right in the chest, before breaking into a flat run. The video ends with the extremely confident, questionably athletic man seeming to evade capture, though subsequent photos suggest he was later apprehended.
The federal takeover of D.C. is something Trump had been threatening since at least August 5, after a former member of DOGEEd Big Balls Coristinewas beaten up by two 15-year olds in an attempted carjacking. If D.C. doesnt get its act together, and quickly, the president wrote on Truth Social following the attack, We will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that theyre not going to get away with it anymore.
Considering hed previously dispatched National Guard troops to Los Angeles just two months ago, it was clear this was no idle threat. Sure enough, Trump eventually sent agents from the DEA, FBI, and ATF into the city late last week, ahead of Mondays press conference announcing a deployment of the National Guard and his taking control of the Metropolitan police department, putting its 3,100 officers under his direct command for at least 30 days.
For much of Monday, social media users shared surreal footage of DEA officers in tactical gear patrolling the leafy walkway of the National Mall as joggers jogged by. It served as a counterpoint to the doomsday dirge on conservative media, with one GOP senator after another talking about how unsafe and scary they find Washington, D.C. The emerging footage seemed to instead reflect data collected by the Metropolitan police department showing that violent crime in the city last year was down 35% from 2023, and at its lowest level in over 30 years.
And that was before Bluesky and Reddit got a better look at some of that violent criminal elementin the form of assault with a hoagie. Thats when the jokes and memes began.
guys its really not funny that the fbi agent took a footlong to the chest. stop laughing. its NOT FUNNY that an fbi agent in head to toe tactical gear tried to chase the guy who hucked a sandwich straight at his bulletproof vest but couldnt outrun him— rax levon honkers king (@raxkingisdead.bsky.social) 2025-08-11T23:20:39.021Z
Oh no! Is the sub all right?— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T00:21:47.876Z
Most social media users werent necessarily cheering for the battery of police officers, but rather admiring the assailants fearlessness and laughing at his choice of projectile. Beaning an authority figure with a footlong sub, after all, seems more like a means of conveying disrespect and creating a spectacle than inflicting injury.
In any case, whether because the man gave voice to their own lack of respect toward the deployed feds, or just because it gave them a much-needed laugh, users on Bluesky and Reddit quickly elevated Footlong Guy to folk hero statusa sort of non-homocidal Luigi Mangione, or way-less violent Waymo-destoyer.
to every generation is born a folk hero who will perfectly channel the will of the people. his weapon will be harmless, even laughable, like say for example a shoe, or a footlong sub,— alix e. harrow (@alixeharrow.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T00:35:35.213Z
The AI search startup Perplexity has tendered an unsolicited offer to buy Googles Chrome browser for $34.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The bid comes as the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to require Google to sell off Chrome to end an ongoing antitrust case. But its questionable that a startup valued at half that amount on paper ($18 billion) can afford to buy Chrome; and Google, of course, almost certainly has no intention of selling itat least not yet. (Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.)
A federal court in Washington, D.C., decided last year that Google holds a monopoly in the internet search and advertising markets and is now considering a Department of Justice demand that the search giant sell off its Chrome browser. Google called the DOJ proposal wildly overbroad and part of a radical interventionist agenda (language that could draw some negative attention from the Trump administration).
Perplexity testified in that same case last spring, at which time it expressed a desire to buy Chrome. OpenAI also testified, and its ChatGPT product lead, Nick Turley, testified that his company would be interested in buying Chrome if the court required Google to sell.
Indeed, owning the Chrome browser would immediately catapult Perplexity from being a long shot for winning, placing, or showing in the internet search wars, to being a real contender.
In theory, Perplexity could use the Chrome browser in the same way Google doesas a widely popular front door to its AI-powered search engine.
“A clever publicity play”
With Chrome, Google fused the ideas of web browsing and web search into one thing that could be done in one place.
Chrome changed the browsers URL to act as a search bar, too (the omnibox, as it’s called). A huge portion of Google searches come from Chrome, and Google makes the lions share of its revenues from showing ads around search results. Google can place ads more effectively because of its access to all kinds of user browsing behavior in Chrome.
Perplexitys bid is very likely something less than a serious strategic gambit.
“This is a clever publicity play by the startup, but no one should take this stunt seriously,” says Neil Chilson, former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission and current head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute.
Chilson adds that the bid will have no bearing on the remedies that Judge Amit Mehta is currently considering in the antitrust case.
Perplexity is talking like it has every intention of buying Chrome. “Multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full, so we have a wide range of options,” the company said in a statement to Fast Company on Tuesday. “We are confident in our ability to close quickly.” Interestingly, Perplexity says it commits “never to stealthily replace the default search engine of Chrome (Google).”
Perplexity is good at what it does, but still small
Perplexity employs some very talented AI engineers, its answer engine product works surprisingly well by most accounts (including mine), and the company has been agile about releasing new products that augment its core service. (It recently released its own browser called Comet.)
But in the face of Google Search, Perplexity is still small-fry. It serves only a fraction of internet searches and sends only a fraction of the product search referrals that go to brand websites.
Perplexity looks more like a company to be acquired, not like an acquirer.
Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reportedly held talks to acquire Perplexity earlier this year, but an agreement couldnt be reached. It’s likely that other suitors have approached the startup.
And yet the existing rules of market dominance in tech could be shifting under everyones feetbecause of generative AI.
During this seminal period in the potentially transformative technology (when the next Googles and Apples may be being decided), optics matter. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas seems to have a keen sense of this. He knows he needs to keep his companys name in the conversation with other up-and-comers, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as the so-called AI revolution unfolds. Hes done an admirable job of itas evidenced by his many podcasts, public appearances, and viral tweets.
So Perplexitys Chrome bid may come out of the same playbook. Its about posturing.
For a company of Perplexitys stature to convince consumers that it could really be the heir to Googles search throne, it may want to puff itself up to appear to belong in (roughly) the same weight class as the incumbent. Putting in an offer to buy a key piece of Googles business may serve that end.
