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After officials released millions of pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, revelations in his emails and other files have led to the resignations of multiple corporate executives, new investigations into abuses by Epstein and potential accomplices, and even the arrest of the United Kingdoms former Prince Andrew. For those looking to research Epsteins vast correspondence and web of connections across industry, government, and academia, some of the most effective tools have been built not by federal investigators or big-name news organizations but by a scrappy team of volunteer developers. Starting with a website called Jmail, which made Epsteins publicly released emails searchable through an interface cheekily copied from Gmail, they have since built a set of web apps modeled after familiar sites like Google Drive, Wikipedia, Amazon, and YouTube. The goal: to turn messy PDFs and other files released in bulk by federal officials into something members of the publicincluding journalistscan more easily search and understand. Key to the projects speedy success is the technical talent of the team of around 15 named core contributors. But equally vital, they say, is the current wave of AI tools that helped them rapidly generate code and process huge troves of data. So not only do we have an app that we were able to make very quickly, we have data that can populate that app with real content, says Luke Igel, among the projects initial creators. Both those things had to come together; both of those were not possible a few years ago. Igel, an MIT grad who is cofounder and CEO of video software company Kino, says the inspiration for the project came after he and a friend were discussing an initial tranche of Epstein-related documents released by members of Congress in November. They were struck by the extent of Epsteins ties to political figures across party lines and around the world but questioned whether the public would be able to fully understand the story as the data was initially presented. Igel then reached out to Riley Walz, a developer and entrepreneur known for creative internet projects (including a recent parody of Apples Find My interface that tracked San Francisco parking enforcement officers) about collecting the emails in a Gmail-style interface. Thanks to AI development tools like Cursor and Anthropics Claude models, the pair was able to put together the first version of Jmail in just a few hours, Igel says. We cloned Gmail, except you’re logged in as Epstein and can see his emails, Walz announced in a viral X post in November. When the Department of Justice released an additional trove of files in December, spurred by the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress the previous month, a group of about 10 collaborators gathered at Igels San Francisco home and via video conference to build the next iteration of the software. The team also had help from a company called Reductoa maker of software that turns messy PDFs and other complex documents into structured datato parse the newly released files, which had become too complex for general-purpose AI tools to decipher reliably. A lot of these PDFs are scans of printouts or handwriting, says Adel Wu, who works on growth at Reducto. It was actually very messy. The companywhich is located in the same building as Kinohad already been considering doing something with the Epstein files and quickly decided to support the Jmail effort after hearing about it, says founding engineer Omar Alhait, noting, We very quickly went through all of the documents and parsed out all relevant email information from them. Reductos software helped accurately render redactions within the documents and even let the team extract complex information like Epsteins flight data, which was made available in a Google Flights-style interface called JFlights. Again, AIincluding Anthropics then-new Claude Opus 4.5 modelhelped the Jmail team rapidly develop new features and apps and merge thousands of code updates in a short time. So much of what I thought was core to software engineering is actually something that this model can help you with and help you blast through very quickly, Igel says. The teams investment in infrastructure let them quickly import, process, and share additional documents released just before Christmas, though the project drew even more attention after a massive DOJ release of millions of Epstein-related files on January 30. Handling that release required not only processing the new documentsAlhait says it took Reducto about three days to crunch through the databut also beefing up the projects infrastructure to handle an influx of traffic as public interest in the files continued to grow. Tons of people came to the house again, and this time we really just had to make it scale, Igel says. Everything broke. Tons of scaling issues we thought we had solved, with database outages and caching failing, came through again. With the help of AI tools, the team stabilized the site, which has now served more than 500 million page requests to more than 50 million unique visitors. The project has also expanded beyond Jmail and JFlights to include an AI guide to the files called Jemini, a video repository called JeffTube, a file repository known as JDrive, and even a searchable log of Epsteins Amazon orders called Jamazon. The team works to ensure information in the files is properly redacted to protect sensitive details, taking care to update the sites available materials to reflect any new redactions by federal officials. It’s very, very important to us to be as responsible as possible when surfacing information to the public, says Melissa Du, an AI research engineer who works on the project. We obviously don’t want to be over-redacting, but also the privacy of the victims is of utmost importance. Du, another MIT grad, says she became morbidly fascinated by the first set of files released on Jmail, including documents referencing MIT-linked academics such as former Media Lab director Joi Ito and professor emeritus Noam Chomsky. She has since worked on aspects of the project such as JDrive for data management and the Wikipedia-style Jwiki, which was first populated with write-ups of key Epstein-linked figures generated by AI and then carefully vetted before publication. Perhaps most striking about the project is that a small group of developers was able to do what major media organizations had done in organizing previous viral data repositories, like former intelligence contractor Edward Snowdens revelations about government surveillance or the offshore finance leaks known as the Panama Papers. The team has received about $32,000 in donations to cover various costs, along with donated technical services from Reducto, Kino, and cloud provider Vercel. But the core work has been carried out by developers with their own day jobs and startups. Though at times Igel wondered whether the project would be effectively scooped by big news organizations building their own Epstein data explorers, data from the Jmail project has actually been cited by news outlets including The Economist. The team has also been in touch with congressional staffers about passing on crowdsourced requests for release of potentially excessively redacted files. And additional features are being considered, including a Google Calendar-style interface to explore calendar data in the repository, says Igel, who notes that the underlying code from the project will also likely be released as open source in the future. Already the project stands as an example of whats possible for a talented team equipped with the latest in AI development and data processing tools. We’ve really relied on the new AI models, Du says. “And we’ve also just had a very high level of trust across the team.
Category:
E-Commerce
With uncertainty as the new norm, leaders are understandably searching for psychological anchors. Theyre looking for ideas that can steady people and sustain energy through change. One of those anchors is hope. Across corporate mission statements, fresh publications from thought leaders, and HR manifestos, corporations have elevated hope from a state of being to a strategic imperative. But what happens when an emotion becomes a business model? How to define hope in an organizational context Psychologically, hope is a cognitive and motivational state defined by three elements: agency (belief in your capacity to shape outcomes), pathways (the ability to identify routes toward goals), and goals themselves. Psychologist C.R. Snyder conducted research in the 1990s that reframed hope as a measurable construct. Snyder correlated the concept with performance, well-being, and perseverance. Hopes modern strategic allure has deep cultural roots. In ancient philosophy, hope oscillated between virtue and vice. The Greeks saw it as both a comfort and a trap. When they opened Pandoras box, hope was the last thing left inside, which they ambiguously positioned between salvation and delusion. By the 20th century, hope became a secular virtue central to progress and humanism. In psychology, post-war theorists viewed hope as a coping mechanism that could inoculate individuals and societies against despair. More recently, the positive psychology movement of the early 2000s further codified hope as a measurable, trainable mindset. Today, in a world shaped by disruptiontechnological, social, and ecologicalhope has reemerged as a leadership commodity. In the absence of predictability, its a currency of cohesion. The upside of hope at work In organizational life, hope can offer the following tangible benefits: Motivational fuel: Hope maintains focus on goals when there are distant or ambiguous outcomes. Resilience amplifier: Employees with strong hope scores typically recover faster from setbacks and see alternative routes when plans fail. Cultural glue: Hope-based narratives can create psychological safety. This allows people to see themselves as coauthors of a positive future rather than passive recipients of corporate fate. Innovation driver: Hope enables experimentation by reframing failure as learning, not loss. In these ways, hope can act as a psychological lubricant, reducing the friction caused by doubt, fatigue, and fear. So why does hope in a corporate setting leave a bad taste in my mouth? Hopes hidden downsides Hopes fierce glow can be blinding. When hope decouples from reality, it risks morphing into delusion or denial. This is particularly dangerous in workplace cultures that prize positivity over honesty. Untampered, hope can produce three organizational distortions: Deferred reality: Leaders may avoid confronting hard truths, preferring to hope things improve. This delays critical decisions about restructuring, investment, or strategic pivoting. Toxic positivity: Teams pressured to stay hopeful may feel unable to surface legitimate concerns or dissenting views. The result is conformity disguised as belief. Chronic stress and burnout: Sustaining high levels of hope in the face of repeated setbacks can exhaust employees, which produces emotional dissonance when ones lived experience doesnt match the optimistic messaging. In essence, hope without realism becomes institutionalized avoidance. Why hope isnt strategic The current corporate positioning of hope as a strategy often stems from crisis communication. During market downturns, layoffs, or rapid transformation, hope becomes both a message and a salve. Yet, when you wield hope as a rhetoric rather than a practice, it erodes trust. Employees can sense when a message from leadership is inconsistent with conditions on the ground. The gap between them declaring hope and observable action breeds cynicism. This is a core component of workplace burnout, and a form of psychological corrosion that is far more damaging than pessimism. The case for realistic optimism A more sustainable alternative is realistic optimisma mindset that balances hopeful vision with clear assessment. Martin Seligman, one of positive psychologys founders, described optimism as the expectation that good things can happen, while realism ensures those expectations align with evidence and constraints. Realistic optimism doesnt deny difficulty: it contextualizes it. Leaders who embody realistic optimism model three habits: Evidence-based hope: They openly acknowledge setbacks and uncertainties while identifying genuine paths forward. Transparent communication: They link belief with action by showing how theyre addressing challenges, not merely stating that things will get better. Adaptive goal-setting: They recalibrate expectations when circumstances change, preserving motivation through clarity rather than blind positivity. For example, a startup facing funding shortfalls might cultivate realistic optimism by acknowledging fiscal pressure while outlining tangible cost-saving measures and revised growth trajectories. Realistic optimism transforms hope from sentiment into discipline. It requires intellectual honesty, emotional agility, and the courage to engage with uncertainty without succumbing to fantasy. In cultivating this balance, leaders create cultures that are not only hopeful, but credible. A quick guide to leading with realistic optimism If youre a leader and you want to know how to go about leading in a way that combines optimism and reality, start with the following steps below: Start with the facts. Before inspiring your team, ensure the data supports your message. Sustainable morale begins with credibility. Name the challenge, then the path. Hope grows when people see a route forward, not just a reason to believe. Pair optimism with concrete steps. Model uncertainty tolerance. Encourage dialogue about whats unclear. When leaders admit they dont have all the answers, hope becomes collective rather than performative. In an era when believing in better has become a hollow corporate refrain, leaders who master realistic optimism stand apart. They demonstrate that the most enduring form of hope is not a declaration, but a practice. And its one that they build with clarity, accountability, and shared ownership of reality.
Category:
E-Commerce
Snapple might be gearing up for a long-awaited comeback by taking a page out of its 90s playbook. On February 18, Snapples parent company, Keurig Dr Pepper, announced that the beloved tea brand is unveiling a refreshed visual identity designed to return the Snapple brand to icon-status. The new look, which will roll out beginning this March, includes new graphics, a logo inspired by the brands 90s look, and an updated bottle design that hearkens back to its original glass packaging. At the same time, Keurig Dr Pepper told Fast Company that its reinvesting in marketing efforts for Snapple, including through an ongoing campaign focused on the drink’s hometown of New York City. For Snapple, the new look and marketing boost represent a return to form thats been a long time coming. After Snapples heyday in the 90scharacterized by its scrappy roots, funky packaging, and wacky ad strategythe brand has struggled to hold onto cultural relevance amidst a catastrophic sale, ownership changes, and several ill-advised rebrands. Now, its looking to tap back into the playful energy that once made it the beverage of choice for 90s kids. Current packaging (left) and 2026 refresh (right) [Image: Keurig Dr Pepper] Snapple’s rollercoaster of a brand history Snapple was founded in 1972 in Long Island, New York, by three friends. Their initial idea was for a company called Unadulterated Food Products, which would capitalize on a new wave of interest in better-for-you foods by selling fruit juices to health stores. One founder, Leaonrd Marsh, would later say of the venture that he knew as much about juice as about making an atom bomb. As The New York Times noted in Marshs 2013 obituary, the three men did wind up making a bomb of sorts: a batch of carbonated apple juice that accidentally fermented, shooting scores of bottle caps skyward. Thankfully, this happy accident sparked a transition from the name Unadulterated Food Products to Snapple, a portmanteau of snappy and apple. Snapples bottles were made from a rounded glass, featured bright colors and a slightly cursive logo, and emitted a satisfying snap sound when the cap released the beverages carbonation. Snapples original business model involved partnering with independent distributors to stock the beverage in smaller stores. The brand truly took off in the early 90s, when it began to enter the cultural zeitgeist through a series of zany, irreverent ads that emphasized its underdog status compared to big names like Coca Cola and Pepsi. Undoubtedly, though, its biggest asset was a spokesperson named Wendy Kaufman, who, after appearing in several ads, became a beloved representative known as Wendy the Snapple lady (see this spot and this spot of Kaufman answering fan questions). Between 1992 and 1994, sales jumped from $232 million to $774 million. Then, in 1994, Quaker Oats acquired Snapple in a $1.7 billion transaction that would go down in marketing textbooks as a prime example of how not to make a deal. Quaker swooped in, sanded down Snapples edgy personality, made its bottles bigger, relegated Kaufman to the back burner, and scrapped its independent distribution model, only to sell the company just three years later to Triarc Companies for $300 million. A brand disaster, indeed. A post-“Quakergate” challenge Since Quakergate, Snapple has been fighting an uphill battle to maintain cultural relevancea journey thats involved multiple rebrands and several ownership changes. Along the way, it has shed many of the brand assets that originally made it an outlier on grocery store shelves. In 2008, Snapple became part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group when Cadbury spun off its beverage business. Then, in 2018, Snapple joined Keurig Dr Pepper through a merger of Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Keurig Green Mountain. Between 2016 and 2017, Dr Pepper Snapple reported a 3% decline in the sale of Snapple products. According to Derek Dabrowski, SVP of brand marketing at Keurig Dr Pepper, Snapple has seen overall retail sales growth since the 2018 merger, but more recently that momentum slowed as shelf presence declined and marketing support eased. Undoubtedly, a not insignificant part of the brands struggles has emerged from the fact that Snapple has lost its quirk. The brand got refreshes in both 2008 and 2015, and in 2021 Keurig Dr Pepper gave it a full-on rebrand. Snapples new logo was ultra-modernized into a blue-and-white sans serif; its glass bottles were replaced with recycled plastic; and its charmingly kitschy graphics were swapped for more commercial imagery. The company also attempted to reach younger consumers with a new line called Snapple Elements, which ultimately fizzled out. Longtime fans of the brand bemoaned the changes,with many claiming that Snapple tasted better out of glass. Gone was the quintessential Snapple snap, replaced with a quotidian plastic sigh. Snapple’s vintage logo (top), current (middle), and 2026 refresh (bottom). [Image: Keurig Dr Pepper] A return to Snapple’s quirky form Now, it seems, Keurig Dr Pepper is realizing that its rebrand may have been a bit too hasty. Looking back, some of these efforts, especially chasing multiple trends at once, left the brand feeling a bit fragmented, Dabrowski says. Snapples upcoming brand refresh spans graphics, logo, packaging communication, and bottle design. The bottles illustrations will call back to earlier iterations of Snapple with bolder colors and a slightly more retro look. Flavor signalers like Real Tea and Real Juice will take center stage on the packaging, connecting to the brands origins as a healthy beverage. And the sans serif logo will be replaced with a modernized version of the Snapple logo that defined the brand in the 90s. The new Snapple logo isnt a carbon copy of the one from the late 80s and early 2000s, but its very intentionally inspired by that era, Dabrowski says. We brought back the iconic racetrack shape and heritage cues people recognize, then refined them to work better on todays shelveswith clearer readability, bolder color, and stronger flavor storytelling. Marketing to match Snapple has also been slowly tapping back into its irreverent advertising roots. Last fall, the brand launched a new campaign called Snapsolutely Refreshing with a media buy in its NYC hometown, including out-of-home placements across subways, street panels, office elevators and Times Square. It ran a one-day bodega takeover featuring free Snapple and branded merch. For a limited time, the brand even brought back glass Snapple bottles at a few retailers across the city. And the ad accompanying Snapsolutely Refreshing feels charmingly similar to something Snapple might have made in its 90s underdog glory days: A man in an NYC bodega is confronted by a series of slightly creepy, talking wellness culture beverages, like kombucha and probiotic soda, before ultimately choosing to sip a Snapple instead. Still, for diehard Snapple fans, a key question remains: Will the glass bottle ever make a real comeback? That remains a bit of a mystery. Dabrowski says that in September, Snapple will roll out a new plastic bottle that mimics the originals shape and embossed logo. And, when pressed, a spokesperson shared that the brand is continuing to test glass bottles and learn from consumer response. Whether Snapple ever gets its snap back remains to be seenbut, for now, the brand is at least looking (and sounding) a little more like itself.
Category:
E-Commerce
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