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Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James quietly debuted a new logo for his signature shoe during last week’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers: a lowercase b (for Bronny) that features a 9 (for his jersey number) inside the letterform. The logo appeared on a bright pink pair of James’s father’s shoe, the LeBron Witness IX, but there was another logo on the shoe that was notable: a backwards Nike Swoosh. Since debuting in 1971, the Nike Swoosh has become one of the most iconic brand logos of all time. Still, Nike designers have occasionally had some fun with it by breaking brand guidelines and flipping the logo around. Though there’s no formal rule for who gets the backwards swoosh, throughout Nike history, the flipped logo has shown up on shoes worn by some of the strongest-willed players across sports and culture. [Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images] The history of Nike’s backwards swoosh The backwards Swoosh appeared first in 1994 on the Nike Air Darwin, the big, chunky, boot-like sneaker worn by Dennis Rodman, and the mark later reappeared on Rodman’s Nike Air Ndestrukt. The backwards logo made sense for an eccentric player like Rodman, who was known for his hairstyles and tattoos as much as for his skills on the court. Dennis Rodman, ca. 1995. [Photo: Focus on Sport/Getty Images] Rodman set the pattern for when Nike pulls out the backwards logo. It also appeared on the 1994 Nike Air Flare worn by tennis player Andre Agassi, another athlete at the top of his game who was recognized widely for his style and attitude. In the 2010s, the backwards logo appeared on the shoes of other superstars and made appearances in youth-oriented crossover collaborations. The backwards Swoosh appeared on James’s dad shoe, the 2012 Nike LeBron X, as well as on the Nike Kobe AD NXT in 2017, one year after Kobe Bryant retired. On Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 2019 Nike Freak shoes, the backwards Swoosh was iridescent and memorably set on the midsole to make them look like they’re from the future. The backwards logo on the PG 2, a 2018 collaboration with Playstation, was bright neon colors. Travis Scott has popularized the backwards Nike logo since 2019, when the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 became the first in a string of Nike shoes from the rapper to use the backwards mark. Though Rodman complained that Scott “copied” him, the pair made up in 2024 when Rodman appeared in an ad for a velvet brown color way of Scott’s Air Jordan 1 Low OG, which, yes, had a backwards logo. Other global brands with a simple, well-known logos like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have found creative ways to deconstruct or reinvent their logos by crushing them or turning them upside down, and Nike turned its Swoosh on the side in 2024 on women’s soccer jerseys to celebrate the growing popularity of the game. For such a valuable brand asset like the Swoosh, tweaking it signals a break from conventions. By debuting his signature Nike logo alongside the backwards mark, James joins a storied design tradition.
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E-Commerce
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy this week launched a new advisory council that could reshape American transportation in President Donald Trump’s aesthetic preferences. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s newly created Beautifying Transportation Infrastructure Council held its inaugural meeting February 2, and quickly outlined plans to make a highly influential mark on the look and design of U.S. transportation infrastructure. The council could impact an array of initiatives including interstate highways, bridges, transit hubs, and airports, and has been established to provide recommendations on the policies, designs, and funding priorities of the DOT. Though the council was created to serve an advisory role with no decision-making or funding authority, it currently has two major agenda items that could form the basis of a widespread makeover of American transportation infrastructure. The first is the oversight of a national conceptual design competition that is seeking innovative thinking around transportation infrastructure design. The second is the creation of a design guidebook that would set new aesthetic recommendations for the design and renovation of federally controlled transportation projects. Its tentative title: “Beauty and Transportation.” On the surface, these efforts seem open to a variety of design approaches, however the October announcement of the council states that the advisory effort will “align” directly with the aesthetic preferences laid out in Trump’s August 2025 executive order “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.” That order defines the traditional and classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome as the basis of a preferred architectural style for federal buildings. This aesthetic preference is likely to influence whatever comes out of the Beautifying Transportation Infrastructure Council. Its chair is Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, the Washington, D.C., nonprofit that champions classical architecture and which helped write Trump’s executive order to make traditional architecture the preferred style for federal buildings. “That order called for new federal buildings to be beautiful, uplifting, and admired by the common person. It reoriented architecture away from modernism toward the classical and traditional design that is so appreciated and often preferred by ordinary people,” Shubow said during his opening remarks at the council meeting. “This council, I believe, should not recommend that any particular style be mandated, but it should make clear that classical and traditional design are legitimate options.” Council guidelines The council has set additional guidelines to govern its work. Shubow noted that the Transportation Department has drafted five preliminary principles to help shape the council’s advice and the creation of its design guidebook. These include ideals that “transportation infrastructure should be designed to uplift and inspire the human spirit and lend prestige to the nation,” and that it “should foster a sense of place and inspire national and community pride in a way that builds upon the past.” The council’s members include architects, landscape architects, state transportation officials, engineers, and construction specialists. None were overtly dogmatic about design preferences, at least during this initial meeting. Shubow has cited projects like San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge and Cincinnati’s Union Terminal as exemplars of the kinds of designs the council might encourage. But council members also spent time talking about a wider range of aesthetic approaches to transportation design, including the importance of artistic lighting under bridges and the use of regionally appropriate wildflowers along highways. One member, Bryan Jones, mid-Atlantic division president of the engineering and construction firm HNTB, pointed to one of his firm’s recent projects, the swooping Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles, a decidedly modern structure. Official and unofficial timelines Timelines for the design competition and guidebook have not been set. The council will have its next public meeting in the summer, and will meet in private subcommittees in the meantime. As Trump engages in a range of rebuilding and construction efforts in Washington, D.C., the work of the council may already be starting, if unofficially. Duffy was on hand to kick off the council’s inaugural session, but had to leave early to go to the White House. He had another meeting with Trump to discuss the potential redesign of Dulles International Airport, “a beautiful project that he wants to look at,” to “revamp in a great way,” Duffy said.
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E-Commerce
As someone who has tried almost every workout class on the planet, there is nothing like SoulCycle, said TikTok creator Matt Trav in a video posted in early January. The average human being cannot understand what blowing out the candle during the soulful song can do to the human psyche. @mattatrav1 SoulCycle Renaissance 2026 you heard it here first original sound – Matt Trav Nearly 40,000 people who liked the video seem to agree. Absolutely nothing can beat NYC SoulCycle circa 2016, one commenter wrote. Literally like going to church, another added. Across social media platforms, that renaissance is already underway. Devotees have been sharing nostalgia-laced photos from years past, unearthing old merchandise, and swapping stories in comment sections. Some have been documenting their first-time experiences, while longtime riders welcome newcomers with open arms. View this post on Instagram Come with me to soulcycle as someone who was severely addicted . . . after a 6 year hiatus, one TikTok user wrote, adding, Soul cycle is back btw. Once at the center of the fitness zeitgeist in New York City, the 45-minute workout class was branded a cult during its 2010s heyday. Its clientele included a number of A-list celebrities, and its instructors became bona fide stars, building obsessive fan bases who followed them across the country for a chance to snag a front-row bike in one of their classes. At SoulCycle, we very quickly became the club you cant get into, and that has a lot of appeal to a lot of people, cofounder Ruth Zukerman said on the Wharton Business Daily podcast in 2019. The same exclusive culture that fueled its rise also helped drive its fall. How SoulCycle lost its soul, a 2020 Vox headline read. The next year, a New York Times article reported allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and fat-shaming by members of SoulCycles elite ring of master instructors. In 2022, the chain shuttered about 25% of its locations, a ripple effect from the COVID-19 pandemic. A decade after its peak, SoulCycle is back, and its return reflects the cultural moment. The revival coincides with a broader 2016 nostalgia takeover on social media. Alongside a renewed fascination with so-called millennial optimism, hyper-filtered, grainy throwback images have flooded feeds as millennials and older Gen Zers reminisce about the music, fashion, and even workouts of a decade ago. It was the era of Snapchat filters, skinny jeans, and SoulCycle. @tumblr goodbye 2025 hello 2016 #2016 #2016vibes #2016core #2016makeup #aesthetic Let me love you – High-intensity workouts have since fallen out of favor, replaced by reformer Pilates and hot girl walks. But as saunas and ice baths become the new social clubs, and wellness-focused Gen Zers trade alcohol-fueled nights out for early morning workouts, its no surprise that a candlelit class set to blasting music and bound by a cultlike sense of community is being embraced by a new generation. As one TikTok user suggested: Out of all the things to bring back from 2016, I vote to bring back SoulCycle.
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E-Commerce
Heat pumps can reduce carbon emissions associated with heating buildings, and many states have set aggressive targets to increase their use in the coming decades. But while heat pumps are often cheaper choices for new buildings, getting homeowners to install them in existing homes isnt so easy. Current energy prices, including the rising cost of electricity, mean that homeowners may experience higher heating bills by replacing their current heating systems with heat pumpsat least in some regions of the country. Heat pumps, which use electricity to move heat from the outside in, are used in only 14% of U.S. households. They are common primarily in warm southern states such as Florida where winter heating needs are relatively low. In the Northeast, where winters are colder and longer, only about 5% of households use a heat pump. In our new study, my coauthor Dan Schrag and I examined how heat pump adoption would change annual heating bills for the average-size household in each county across the U.S. We wanted to understand where heat pumps may already be cost-effective and where other factors may be preventing households from making the switch. Wide variation in home heating Across the U.S., people heat their homes with a range of fuels, mainly because of differences in climate, pricing, and infrastructure. In colder regionsnorthern states and states across the Rocky Mountainsmost people use natural gas or propane to provide reliable winter heating. In California, most households also use natural gas for heating. In warmer, southern states, including Florida and Texas, where electricity prices are cheaper, most households use electricity for heatingeither in electric furnaces, baseboard resistance heating, or to run heat pumps. In the Pacific Northwest, where electricity prices are low due to abundant hydropower, electricity is also a dominant heating fuel. The type of community also affects homes fuel choices. Homes in cities are more likely to use natural gas relative to rural areas, where natural gas distribution networks are not as well developed. In rural areas, homes are more likely to use heating oil and propane, which can be stored on property in tanks. Oil is also more commonly used in the Northeast, where properties are olderparticularly in New England, where a third of households still rely on oil for heating. Why heat pumps? Instead of generating heat by burning fuels such as natural gas that directly emit carbon, heat pumps use electricity to move heat from one place to another. Air-source heat pumps extract the heat of outside air, and ground-source heat pumps, sometimes called geothermal heat pumps, extract heat stored in the ground. Heat pump efficiency depends on the local climate: A heat pump operated in Florida will provide more heat per unit of electricity used than one in colder northern states such as Minnesota or Massachusetts. But they are highly efficient: An air-source heat pump can reduce household heating energy use by roughly 30% to 50% relative to existing fossil-based systems and up to 75% relative to inefficient electric systems such as baseboard heaters. Heat pumps can also reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, although that depends on how their electricity is generatedwhether from fossil fuels or cleaner energy, such as wind and solar. Heat pumps can lower heating bills We found that for households currently using oil, propane, or non-heat pump forms of electric heatingsuch as electric furnaces or baseboard resistive heatersinstalling a heat pump would reduce heating bills across all parts of the country. The amount a household can save on energy costs with a heat pump depends on region and heating type, averaging between $200 and $500 a year for the average-size household currently using propane or oil. However, savings can be significantly greater: We found the greatest opportunity for savings in households using inefficient forms of electric heating in northern regions. High electricity prices in the Northeast, for example, mean that heat pumps can save consumers up to $3,000 a year over what they would pay to heat with an electric furnace or to use baseboard heating. A challenge in converting homes using natural gas Unfortunately for the households that use natural gas in colder, northern regionsmaking up around half of the countrys annual heating needsinstalling a heat pump could raise their annual heating bills. Our analysis shows that bills could increase by as much as $1,200 per year in northern regions, where electricity costs are as much as five times greater than natural gas per kilowatt-hour. Even households that install ground-source heat pumps, the most efficient type of heat pump, would still see bill increases in regions with the highest electricity prices relative to natural gas. Installation costs In parts of the country where households would see their energy costs drop after installing a heat pump, the savings would eventually offset the up-front costs. But those costs can be significant and discourage people from buying. On average, it costs $17,000 to install an air-source heat pump and typically at least $30,000 to install a ground-source heat pump. Some homes may also need upgrades to their electrical systems, which can increase the total installation price even more, by tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, if costly service upgrades are required. In places where air conditioning is typical, homes may be able to offset some costs by using heat pumps to replace their air conditioning units as well as their heating systems. For instance, a new program in California aims to encourage homeowners who are installing central air conditioning or replacing broken AC systems to get energy-efficient heat pumps that provide both heating and cooling. Rising costs of electricity A main finding of our analysis was that the cost of electricity is key to encouraging people to install heat pumps. Electricity prices have risen sharply across the U.S. in recent years, driven by factors such as extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and increasing demand for electric power. New data center demand has added further pressure and raised questions about who bears these costs. Heat pump installations will also increase electricity demand on the grid: The full electrification of home heating across the country would increase peak electricity demand by about 70%. But heat pumpswhen used in concert with other technologies such as hot-water storagecan provide opportunities for grid balancing and be paired with discounted or time-of-use rate structures to reduce overall operating costs. In some states, regulators have ordered utilities to discount electricity costs for homes that use heat pumps. But ultimately, encouraging households to embrace heat pumps and broader economy-wide electrification, including electric vehicles, will require more than just technological fixes and a lot more electricityit will require lower power prices. Roxana Shafiee is an environmental fellow at the Center for the Environment at Harvard Universitys Harvard Kennedy School. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
AI isnt eliminating human work. Its redistributing human judgment, away from routine tasks and into the narrow zones where ambiguity is high, mistakes are costly, and trust actually matters. This shift helps explain a growing disconnect in the AI conversation. On one hand, models are improving at breathtaking speed. On the other, many ambitious AI deployments stall, scale more slowly than expected, or quietly revert to hybrid workflows. The issue isnt capability. Its trust. The trust gap most AI strategies overlook AI adoption doesnt hinge on whether a system can do a task. It hinges on whether humans are willing to rely on its output without checking it. That gap between performance and reliance, the trust gap, is what ultimately determines where AI replaces work, where it augments it, and where humans remain indispensable. Two factors shape that gap more than anything else: ambiguity and stakes. Ambiguity refers to how much interpretation, context, or judgment a task requires. Stakes refer to what happens if the system gets it wrong: financially, legally, reputationally, or ethically. When ambiguity is low and stakes are low, automation thrives. When both are high, humans must stay firmly in the loop. Most real-world work lives somewhere in between and thats where the future of labor is being renegotiated. A simple way to see where AI fits Think of work along two axes: how ambiguous it is, and how costly errors are. Low ambiguity, low stakes tasks, basic classification, simple tagging, routine routing, are rapidly becoming fully automated. This is where AI quietly replaces human labor, often without much controversy. Low ambiguity but high stakes tasks, such as compliance checks or identity verification, are typically automated but closely monitored. Humans verify, audit, and intervene when something looks off. High ambiguity, low stakes work: creative labeling, sentiment analysis, exploratory research, which tends to use AI as an assistant, with light human oversight. But the most important quadrant is high ambiguity and high stakes. These are the tasks where trust is hardest to earn: fraud edge cases, safety-critical moderation, medical or financial interpretation, and the data decisions that shape how AI models behave in the real world. Here, humans arent disappearing. Theyre becoming more targeted, more specialized, and more on demand. When the human edge actually disappears Interactive voice response systems refine the rule. The stakes were not low, IVR is literally the companys voice to its customers. But ambiguity was. Once synthetic voices became good enough, quality was easy to judge, variance was low, and the trust gap collapsed. That alone was sufficient for AI to take over. When trust keeps humans in the loop Translation followed a different trajectory. Translation is inherently ambiguous, as there are multiple ways to translate a sentence. As a result, machine translation rapidly absorbed casual, low-risk content such as TikTok videos. However, in high-stakes contexts, such as legal contracts, medical instructions, financial reporting, and global brand messaging, trust is never fully transferred to the machine. For these tasks, professional translators are still required to augment the AI’s initial output. Since AI now performs the bulk of the work, full-time translators have become rare. Instead, they increasingly operate within expert networks, deployed just-in-time to fine-tune and verify the process, thereby closing the trust gap. The same shift is now playing out in how data is prepared and validated for AI systems themselves. Early AI training relied on massive, full-time human labeling operations. Today, models increasingly handle routine evaluation. Human expertise is reserved for the most sensitive decisions, the ones that shape how AI behaves under pressure. What this means for the future of work The popular narrative frames AI as a replacement technology: machines versus humans. The reality inside organizations looks very different. AI is becoming the default for scale. Humans are becoming the exception handlers, the source of judgment when context is unclear, consequences are severe, or trust is on the line. This doesnt mean fewer humans overall. It means different human roles: less repetitive labor, more judgment deployed just in time. More experts working across many systems, fewer people locked into single, narrowly defined tasks. The organizations that succeed with AI wont be the ones that automate the most. Theyll be the ones that understand where not to automate, and that design workflows capable of pulling human judgment in at exactly the right moment, at exactly the right level. The future of work isnt humans versus machines. Its AI at scale, plus human judgment delivered through expert networks, not permanent roles. Translation and model validation show the pattern; white-collar work is next. And that, quietly, is what companies are discovering now.
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E-Commerce
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