Author: admin
After multiple delays, rocket repairs, and a restructuring of the program to return to the moon, the Artemis II mission is ready for liftoff. If there are no problems, four astronauts will inaugurate NASA’s new lunar campaign on Wednesday, more than 50 years after the Apollo era.The Artemis II crew will not descend to the moon; that won’t happen until Artemis IV. But their capsule will fly 6,000 to 9,000 kilometers over the surface of the hidden side of Earth’s satellite, circle it, and make the return trip home. The main objective of the mission is to demonstrate that the…
The tequila category has never been more crowded. Over 700 new entrants have launched since 2019, celebrity-owned brands have flooded the market, and consumer preferences are shifting faster than ever.In this episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Matt Britton sits down with Roberto Ramirez Laverde, global senior vice president of Patrón Tequila at Bacardi. Roberto shares how Patrón built and protected its position in the super premium tequila category by staying true to quality, transparency, and craft. They discuss the Pursuit of Greatness campaign, the creative partnership with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, and how Gen Z is reshaping consumption habits…
Pete Martin remembers raising a $5 million seed round at a $25 million post-money valuation for his AI-powered cybersecurity company Realm way back in 2024, aka, like a thousand “AI years” ago. That valuation seemed high for that amount at the time, he recalled. But today, “it’s pretty typical” to see a $10 million seed round at a $40 million to $45 million post-money valuation, he said, especially if you are an AI company. Actually, that type of thing happens only if you are an AI company, as investors are showing little interest in anything else. At the most recent…
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential race wasn’t just a prelude to mass deportations and geopolitical chaos. The MAGA faithful also saw it as the final, definitive rebuke of “woke” ideology.By that point, the term had been fully wrested from its origins. As it emerged from African-American vernacular English in the context of civil rights movements, “woke” described a state of active engagement with these social issues. Then, during the Black Lives Matter protests against racialized police brutality that began in the 2010s, the idiom came to denote an awareness of systemic injustice—and was more broadly adopted by liberal…
After recent controversy surrounding The Trade Desk, competitors are jumping at the chance to capture dollars from the platform’s potential defectors with new bids for advertiser business.Two weeks ago, the French advertising giant Publicis advised its clients to stop transacting on The Trade Desk, the largest independent demand-side platform (DSP) on the market, after it failed an audit of its fees and media spend. Publicis claimed, in a memo leaked to ADWEEK, that the platform “improperly applied their DSP fee to other fees” and automatically opted the holding company and some of its clients into fee-based offerings without authorization. Although…
Sometimes an apparently good idea, a big raise from a big-name VC, and a sea of well-connected angel investors is not enough. Less than a year after launching, Yupp.ai is closing its business, co-founders Pankaj Gupta and Gilad Mishne announced on Tuesday. Yupp offered a crowdsourced AI model-picking service. It allowed consumers to test and compare results from a supply of 800 AI models for free, including the state-of-the-art ones from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic. Yupp would return multiple replies from the prompt request, including information or images, and users would offer feedback on which models worked best for them and…
I was in middle school when I set up the personal Gmail account I still use today. Luckily, my still-developing brain picked a bland, straightforward option. At the time, I had no clue that this account would become so central to my digital identity years later.Not as happy with your choice, UnicornLover69? Google just dropped a major update for Gmail users in the US who want to try something new. You can finally change your Gmail address. Hallelujah. Google calls this your “account username,” but don’t let that confuse you. The company is referring to your email address.The process of…
TikTok has quietly added a secret emoji game that you can access in your DMs. The goal of the game is simple: use your finger to bounce as high as you can by hopping across alligators. Avoid the skeleton alligators, and be careful — broken alligators disappear after just one landing, so you need to quickly bounce to the one above. If you guide your jump to a floating emoji, you’ll get a speed boost that helps you climb faster. The same happens when you land on an alligator with a propeller on it. If you fail to land on…
Tired of the stale, fetid air looming over your apartment like a cloud? Check out the Coway Airmega Mighty, an already wallet-friendly home air purifier that’s even cheaper right now as part of the Amazon Big Spring Sale. It’s currently marked down to just $154, a $76 discount from its typical price, but you’ll want to move quickly if you’re interested, as the deal is only available for a limited time.CowayAirmega Mighty AP-1512HHDespite its low price tag and squat stature, the Airmega Mighty is capable of cleaning a substantial amount of space. At full bore, it can handle a 361-square-foot…
Creators are increasingly becoming a bigger part of brands’ game plans for sports, but when it comes to connecting with fans, companies should throw the old playbooks out the window.Showcasing the new wave of sports creators, former NFL superstar Cam Newton teamed up with Detavio Samuels, CEO of Revolt/Offscript Worldwide, for a presentation at the 2026 IAB NewFronts last week, positioning himself to advertisers as a viable athlete-turned-creator for brands to invest in.“I’m Cam Newton, a kid from Atlanta, Georgia,” Newton told ADWEEK. “I’m learning day by day, the weight of my voice is so impactful to the community that…
Amazon’s latest upgrade to Alexa+, its next-generation AI assistant, allows you to order food from popular delivery services Uber Eats and Grubhub in a conversational manner, just as if you were chatting with a waiter at a restaurant or placing an order at a drive-thru, according to Amazon. The aim of this new Alexa+ feature is to create a more natural and interactive ordering experience. Starting today, users can begin requesting a cuisine, explore menu options, ask questions, and customize their meal all within a single conversation. If users change their mind halfway through, want to add a dessert, or…
Last year, just before the Fourth of July holiday, the US Space Force officially took ownership of a new operating system for the GPS navigation network, raising hopes that one of the military’s most troubled space programs might finally bear fruit.The GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, is designed for command and control of the military’s constellation of more than 30 GPS satellites. It consists of software to handle new signals and jam-resistant capabilities of the latest generation of GPS satellites, GPS III, which started launching in 2018. The ground segment also includes two master control stations and upgrades…
Redfin wants to remind people that home is more than a place; it’s a community. To do so, the real estate company is listing a unique open house: Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.While not actually for sale, the arena — home of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers — is a marketing activation within its campaign “Own the Dream,” which focuses on building community and strengthening neighborhoods. It includes its Super Bowl 60 ad, “America Needs Neighbors Like You,” which features an emotional rendition of Fred Rogers’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” sung by Lady Gaga.The open house is meant to bring…
Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide have launched robotaxi operations without a human safety operator in Dubai as part of a broader expansion in the Middle East. Riders can now book the vehicles through Uber’s app, with operations in commercial and industrial districts like Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai Investment Park Second, and Jabal Ali Industrial First, as well as suburban areas and the maritime trading hub Al Hamriya Port. The service is operated locally by Tawasul, a mobility and fleet operator in the United Arab Emirates. The companies first introduced robotaxis to Dubai in December under a pilot program, but…
“Right when your adrenaline hits, it kind of boosts the release of sugar stores from your liver, and then you get a crash,” Akkerman says. “And if you haven’t eaten anything, you can get hypoglycemic, which can make you really shaky on top of everything else.”The solution, says Akkerman, is to have a little complex carbohydrates and proteins. This might be anything from granola to peanut butter toast. The extra energy from the food will stop your body from crashing out mid-morning.This, I learned from Akkerman, is the root of my mid-morning shakes. It wasn’t the caffeine. It was adrenaline…
Yahoo is building out a range of new AI-powered tools within its demand-side platform, or DSP, for mid-market, performance-focused advertisers. These include automated options for activating and managing media designed to make the DSP more accessible and easy to use for all kinds of advertisers.The development signals an expansion beyond Yahoo DSP’s core business, which has historically serviced enterprise advertisers facilitating ad buys for brands like Kroger, Arby’s, and Planet Fitness. The new tools could help the platform extend its market penetration, attracting a wider variety of advertisers, such as ecomm platforms and direct-to-consumer brands. “AI is enabling us to better…