đ 2025 is off to a great start: Virginiaâs Metro Richmond Zoo is letting the public vote on a name for its newest member â a pygmy hippo born on Dec. 9. After receiving 52.8k votes, the contest has entered a runoff to decide between Poppy and Hammie Mae. Regardless of her name, the sweet creature will unfortunately be raised in the shadow of an even bigger icon: Moo Deng.
đ§ On the pod:The surprising reason a shared âgirlfriendâ doll was not a successful business endeavor.
NEWS FLASH
đ Whoops: A passengerless Waymo robotaxi taking a right turn in West Hollywood, California, struck a Serve Robotics delivery bot as it backed up to navigate a curb. Waymo confirmed to TechCrunch that its Waymo Driver system identified the bot as an inanimate object, applied hard braking, and struck the bot at 4 mph. Both vehicles stayed for about a minute, then departed without any damage. As autonomous vehicle use increases in cities, itâs unclear what will happen and who will be liable if such crashes occur⌠but weâre probably gonna find out.
đď¸ Public domain update: Several properties enter the public domain in 2025, including Disneyâs Silly Symphony and The Skeleton Dance, William Faulknerâs The Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingwayâs A Farewell to Arms, Agatha Christieâs Seven Dials Mystery, âSinginâ in the Rain,â and Popeye. As with Winnie the Pooh, which entered the public domain in 2022, there are at least two Popeye horror movies in the works, including one called Popeye the Slayer Man.
đĽ Some of the biggest news you mightâve missed? The results of the second annual Pop-Tarts Bowl. At an Iowa State University and University of Miami football game, three mascots â Hot Fudge Sundae, Wild Berry, and Cinnamon Roll â competed to win over fans. The Cinnamon Roll Pop-Tart ultimately won, chosen by Iowa Stateâs quarterback, and was lowered into a giant toaster. Last yearâs winner, Frosted Strawberry, was also resurrected from its toasty fate. A real fever dream.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
A Boeing 737-800 plane carrying 181 people crashed Sunday at an airport in South Korea, killing 179 people. The crash comes nearly a year after a panel blew off a 737 Max mid-flight, igniting concerns over Boeingâs safety.
A power outagehit Puerto Rico on New Yearâs Eve, leaving 1.3m+ people in the dark. The outage was likely caused by an underground power line failure.
Venezuela fined TikTok$10m for viral challenges that killed three children and injured dozens of people. Judges ruled that the app should be held accountable for its âlack of timely controlâ and that the fine will go toward a compensation fund for victims.
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An in-office roller coaster may sound like a bad idea, but at least itâs a fun one
Donât you just hate it when youâre in the middle of a presentation and a co-worker distractingly whisks past the conference room on a roller coaster?
This is not your life, but itâs actually relatable for employees of Swedenâs The Great Exhibition, which unveiled the worldâs first office roller coaster.
Yes, really.
Thereâs an actual functioning roller coaster inside an actual professional workspace â itâs ~200 feet long, 10 feet tall, named âThe Frontal Lobe,â and dripping with âWTF is wrong with these people?â
Seriously, what were they thinking?
Well, first, itâs a marketing move: We fell for it and now you know The Great Exhibition is a creative studio, recently rebranded from PJADAD, known for its work serving Swedish brand royalty (Volvo, Ikea).
But the mini amusement park running through its Stockholm office may be more than a stunt, perFast Company.
Studio co-founder Petter Kukacka acknowledged that âeven if there are a lot of cons⌠there is one big pro: That it is fun.â
Itâs meant to be a visual metaphor of the studioâs stated purpose: unpredictable, emotionally resonant experiences.
It was a labor-intensive metaphor: The bright red ride, constructed from four tons of steel over a year, cost ~$150k.
Perhaps most interesting, thoughâŚ
⌠The project arguably goes deeper: Kukacka posits the ridiculousness of the roller coaster runs counter to the AI revolution.
A wave of soulless, predictable AI-generated content âwill make the world a more dull place,â he told Fast Company, and thatâs hard to argue.
The Frontal Lobe then makes sense by making no sense at all â itâs not something a computer would ever do.
It boils down to this: Whimsy is human, creative expression is harmless, and this ainât the worldâs first office absurdity (hello, break room ball pit and multistory slides).
So go off, Swedes. Especially since we arenât the ones whoâll be developing crushing headaches from hearing that thing rattle past our desks all day, every day.
Lessons from leaders: 12 of the most insightful, provocative, or downright useful tips from execs at Spotify, Liquid Death, and more.
A new year can mean hunting for a new job:Hereâs how to ace that pesky interview question, âWhat makes you unique?â
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Price of a single egg. But rest assured, while we canât tell you how much egg prices are going to fluctuate in 2025, this one is an outlier.
For starters, itâs an unusual shape â spherical, not oval. It was discovered in a Scottish grocery store, then purchased at auction for ~$187 by a British man who had admittedly had a few drinks. He donated it to an auction supporting the Iuventas Foundation, a youth charity, where it sold for ~$250.
AROUND THE WEB
đ On this day: In 1890, Alice Sanger became the first female White House staffer under President Benjamin Harrison amid a growing movement for womenâs suffrage.
đŚ Thatâs cool: Yutaka Yamaguchi makes armor, jet packs, and other cool gear⌠out of cardboard.
