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Scott Adams, the creator of the uber-popular and satirical comic strip Dilbert, has died. He passed away on January 13, after announcing his diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer last spring. He was 68. On Tuesday morning, the cartoonists former wife, Shelly Miles, shared the news of his death during a livestream on X. Miles read from a statement that Adams had prepared himself for the occasion. I had an amazing life, the statement said. I gave it everything I had. If you got any benefits from my work, I’m asking you to pay it forward as best you can. That is the legacy I want. Be useful. And please know I loved you all to the very end. Dilbert was created in 1989, and it broke new ground, offering a refreshing and pointed critique of white-collar work life. It became known for its ever-relatable digs about the drudgery of office culture and insufferable bosses, long preceding relatable movies and TV shows like Office Space and The Office, which featured similar dismal (and hilarious) views of work culture years later.In its heyday, the comic strip appeared in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide, with an estimated readership of more than 150 million. Adams’s strip amassed such popularity that he was named the 1997 recipient of the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award. That same year, Dilbert (the character) became the first fictional person to make Time magazine’s list of the most influential Americans.However, while Dilbert became one of the most popular cartoons of all time, Adams battled deep controversy in his later years. In 2023, hundreds of newspapers dropped the classic comic after Adams made racist comments on his podcast, saying that it no longer makes any sense as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore. He also described Black people as a “hate group.”Adams said his statements were taken out of context. Still, the incident, and its aftermath, effectively ended Dilbert‘s wide syndication in newspapers. Other comics weighed in, too. “He’s not being canceled. He’s experiencing the consequences of expressing his views,” Bill Holbrook, creator of the strip On the Fastrack, told The Associated Press at the time. “I am in full support of him saying anything he wants to, but then he has to own the consequences of saying them.”Regardless of Adamss troubling personal views and complicated legacy, Dilbert has played a large role in the conversation around work life. Experts say that his cartoons’ outspoken critiques of bosses and work life, which were perhaps ahead of their time, can’t be rolled back. Phil Lohmeyer, a cartoonist, animator, and middle school design teacher from Connecticut, tells Fast Company that hes confident the kind of office critiques made popular by Dilbert will live on because they are so universal. Dilbert wasn’t as much about the characters, even though the characters themselves became famous. It was more about the annoyance of middle management, he notes. Lohmeyer says that the idea truly resonated with office workers, who posted the comics in their cubicles in the 90s, or emailed them to coworkers. While younger generations might not be well-versed in Dilbert, the teacher still sees the ideas show up in his middle school classroom. The kids make fun of the rules, schedules, and more, he says. They use comic strip humor to question the system, kind of how Adams was doing years ago. While so much has changed in offices and classrooms alike, Lohmeyer says that feeling seen in your role will forever be relevant. Adams turned work issues into cartoon gags, making the previously invisible finally visible.
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E-Commerce
Iranian demonstrators’ ability to get details of bloody nationwide protests out to the world has been given a strong boost, with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service dropping its fees to allow more people to circumvent the Tehran government’s strongest attempt ever to prevent information from spilling outside its borders, activists said Wednesday. The move by the American aerospace company run by Elon Musk follows the complete shutdown of telecommunications and internet access to Iran’s 85 million people on Jan. 8, as protests expanded over the Islamic Republic’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency. SpaceX has not officially announced the decision and did not respond to a request for comment, but activists told The Associated Press that Starlink has been available for free to anyone in Iran with the receivers since Tuesday. Starlink has been crucial, said Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian whose nonprofit Net Freedom Pioneers has helped smuggle units into Iran, pointing to video that emerged Sunday showing rows of bodies at a forensic medical center near Tehran. That showed a few hundred bodies on the ground, that came out because of Starlink,” he said in an interview from Los Angeles. “I think that those videos from the center pretty much changed everyone’s understanding of what’s happening because they saw it with their own eyes. Since the outbreak of demonstrations Dec. 28, the death toll has risen to more than 2,500 people, primarily protesters but also security personnel, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Starlink is banned in Iran by telecommunication regulations, as the country never authorized the importation, sale, or use of the devices. Activists fear they could be accused of helping the U.S. or Israel by using Starlink and charged with espionage, which can carry the death penalty. Cat-and-mouse as authorities hunt for Starlink devices The first units were smuggled into Iran in 2022 during protests over the country’s mandatory headscarf law, after Musk got the Biden administration to exempt the Starlink service from Iran sanctions. Since then, more than 50,000 units are estimated to have been sneaked in, with people going to great lengths to conceal them, using virtual private networks while on the system to hide IP addresses and taking other precautions, said Ahmad Ahmadian, the executive director of Holistic Resilience, a Los Angeles-based organization that was responsible for getting some of the first Starlink units into Iran. Starlink is a global internet network that relies on some 10,000 satellites orbiting Earth. Subscribers need to have equipment, including an antenna that requires a line of sight to the satellite, so must be deployed in the open, where it could be spotted by authorities. Many Iranians disguise them as solar panels, Ahmadian said. After efforts to shut down communications during the 12-day war with Israel in June proved to be not terribly effective, Iranian security services have taken more extreme tactics now to jam Starlink’s radio signals and GPS systems, Ahmadian said in a phone interview. After Holistic Resilience passed on reports to SpaceX, Ahmadian said, the company pushed a firmware update that helped circumvent the new countermeasures. Security services also rely on informers to tell them who might be using Starlink, and search internet and social media traffic for signs it has been used. There have been reports they have raided apartments with satellite dishes. There has always been a cat-and-mouse game, said Ahmadian, who fled Iran in 2012 after serving time in prison for student activism. The government is using every tool in its toolbox. Still, Ahmadian noted that the government jamming attempts had only been effective in certain urban areas, suggesting that security services lack the resources to block Starlink more broadly. A free Starlink could increase the flow of information out of Iran Iran did begin to allow people to call out internationally on Tuesday via mobile phones, but calls from outside the country into Iran remain blocked. Compared to protests in 2019, when lesser measures by the government were able to effectively stifle information reaching the rest of the world for more than a week, Ahmadian said the proliferation of Starlink has made it impossible to prevent communications. He said the flow could increase now that the service has been made free. This time around they really shut it down, even fixed landlines were not working, he said. But despite this, the information was coming out, and it also shows how distributed this community of Starlink users is in the country. Musk has made Starlink free for use during several natural disasters, and Ukraine has relied heavily on the service since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It was initially funded by SpaceX and later through an American government contract. Musk had raised concerns over the power of such a system being in the hands of one person, after he refused to extend Ukraine’s Starlink coverage to support a planned Ukrainian counterattack in Russian-occupied Crimea. As a proponent of Starlink for Iran, Ahmadian said the Crimea decision was a wake-up call for him, but that he couldn’t see any reason why Musk might be inclined to act similarly in Iran. Looking at the political Elon, I think he would have more interest … in a free Iran as a new market, he said. Julia Voo, who heads the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Cyber Power and Future Conflict Program in Singapore, said there is a risk in becoming reliant on one company as a lifeline, as it creates a single point of failure, though currently there are no comparable alternatives. China has been exploring ways to hunt and destroy Starlink satellites, and Voo said the more effective Starlink proves itself at penetrating government-mandated terrestrial blackouts, the more states will be observing. It’s just going to result in more efforts to broaden controls over various ways of communication, for those in Iran and everywhere else watching, she said. David Rising, Associated Press Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
As Americans struggle with an affordability crisishigh inflation and an even higher cost of living, especially when it comes to housingBilt is launching three new, low interest credit cards with rates capped at 10% on new purchases for the first yearincluding a premium card offering with a $495 annual fee. The Bilt Card 2.0 series launches next month on February 7. “Between now and January 30, existing cardholders will be able to seamlessly transition and pre-order a new Bilt Card in their Bilt account or online,” according to a statement on the company’s website. There is clearly a need for affordability at this point in time more than ever, Bilt chief executive officer Ankur Jain said in an interview with Bloomberg. It felt like we should be the brand to do this. The move follows President Donald Trump’s call last Friday for a one year, 10% limit on credit card interest rates, saying he supported the Credit Card Competition Act, a bill that if passed by Congress, could provide more oversight on credit card companies. Here’s what to know. What are the advantages of Bilt cards? Bilt cards offer mortgage and rent payments rewards, unlike many credit cards that focus on, say, travel or merchandise points. What this means is Bilt customers earn rewards just for paying their rent and mortgage bills. However, the rewards are not solely limited to that. Customers also earn points on purchases at any one of Bilt’s 45,000 partners, including everything from Walgreens to Lyft to your local gym, according to the New York Times. What are the three new Bilt 2.0 cards? There are three new Bilt Card 2.0 credit cardsincluding a premium card offering with a $495 annual fee, called the Bilt Palladium card. All three cards earn 4% back in Bilt cash on spending, and allow customers to pay their rent and mortgage with no transaction fees. Here’s a breakdown of the three cards below: BILT BLUE CARD A no-annual fee card with flexible rewards $0 annual fee BILT OBSIDIAN CARD Card offers 3X points on dining or groceries, and offers Bilt Travel Hotel credits $95 annual fee BILT PALLADIUM CARD Premium card with high-value rewards and elevated benefits like annual Bilt Cash, Bilt Travel Hotel credits, and Priority Pass $495 annual fee
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E-Commerce
If youre sick of paying for subscription services, Tesla has some bad news for you. The EV maker announced Wednesday that going forward, its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software will only be available as a monthly subscription not a one-time payment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk broke the news on X, the social media platform he owns, noting that the shift will happen on February 14. FSD will only be available as a monthly subscription thereafter, Musk wrote, offering no details about how that change would affect the softwares pricing. While the price of access to Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode has fluctuated over time, the current one-time purchase price for the software is $8,000 or $99 paid as a monthly subscription. Tesla once charged as much as $15,000 for the technology, which promises to intelligently and accurately complete driving maneuvers for you, including steering, making lane changes and parking. The feature requires active driver supervision and doesnt make the vehicle autonomous, Tesla disclaims on the Full Self-Driving website. Teslas decision to flip to a subscription model for its self-driving software may not land well with some Tesla buyers, but its not a total surprise. In November, Teslas shareholders approved an eye-watering pay package for Musk that consolidates even more power at the company with the mercurial billionaire with the promise of a payout that could be worth $1 trillion. One of the pay package milestones Musk must hit to unlock the biggest executive payout in history? Boosting Teslas Full Self-Driving software to 10 million monthly active subscriptions before 2035. Much of Teslas future revolves around the future of its self-driving tech, but Musk has broken many promises about the software along the way. In California, the company is facing legal woes over deceptive marketing practices that suggested Teslas technology was autonomous, even as it required close supervision from a human driver at the wheel hence the softwares current nomenclature: Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Musk has also asserted that Teslas vehicles would be appreciating assets thanks to the self-driving software a claim not borne out by Teslas recent tanking used vehicle prices. Teslas competition heats up Depending on where you look, Teslas competition is either out ahead or catching up fast. Earlier this month, Chinese company BYD bumped Tesla from its top slot as the worlds bestselling electric vehicle maker. Tesla reported that it delivered 1.64 million EVs last year, a 9% dip from the year prior. In the last quarter of 2025, Tesla missed sales expectations, tallying 418,227 sales a decline connected to Trumps decision to kill the hefty U.S. tax credits designed to give Americans a break on qualifying EVs. Tesla, like Musk, has a lot of irons in the fire. The company is also investing aggressively into the robotaxi business, even as its self-driving tech faces scrutiny from federal regulators for reckless behavior. Tesla has a lot of catching up to do on that count, with Alphabets Waymo leading the push into autonomous taxi service across major U.S. cities like Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Teslas own robotaxi experiment has yet to impress, based on Fast Companys own firsthand experience. Unlike Waymos own properly self-driving taxis, Teslas robotaxis still come with a human supervisor an awkward compromise and a long way from Musks lofty promises of a fully autonomous near-future.
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E-Commerce
“I see a bunch of Americans drinking hot water with lemon and honey, eating congee, drinking hot pot, drinking more soup, eating Chinese vegetables,” one Chinese creator, Emma Peng, recently shared in a TikTok, currently with over 3 million views. “I just want to say that my culture can be your culture. Youre doing really good hydrating yourself. Im proud of you.” The becoming Chinese trend is currently everywhere on the app, and while the name might give pause, its mostly about adopting lifestyle habits rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. In the past month or so, Chinese creators have gone viral for espousing the benefits of common Chinese cultural practices,like drinking hot water, wearing house slippers, and trading cold salads and yogurt for hot congee and boiled apples during the colder months. The comment section, meanwhile, is full of Americans diligently taking notes. Another creator at the forefront of the trend is Chinese American TikToker Sherry Xiiruii. In one viral clip, with 1.4 million views, she announces: Tomorrow, youre turning Chinese. I know it sounds intimidating, but theres no point fighting it now you are the chosen one. Usually, when a trend involves adopting elements from, or becoming, another culture, it is met with cries of cultural appropriation. Some users have understandably expressed mixed feelings about the cultural practices they were once made fun of for now being repackaged and sold as a viral trend. However, in this case the response from Chinese creators is is overwhelmingly positive. Its perhaps unsurprising a trend rooted in self-improvement has gained traction in the first month of the New year, especially given many of the wellness tips and hacks that go viral online have existed for millennia in Ancient Eastern medicine. As one TikTok creator said: All I have to say is what took yall this long to catch on? Still, the appetite for Chinese culture is not limited to TikToks wellness algorithm. “You met me at a very chinese time in my life,” a viral X post from April 2025 reads, a nod to Fight Clubs iconic one-liner. Meanwhile, posts about chinesemaxxingwhich amounts to smoking cigarettes crouched low to the ground and donning toggle jacketsstarted cropping up online throughout 2025. As producer Minh Tran wrote in a recent Substack post titled My Year of Rest and Chinesemaxxing: Part of the reason these videos dont feel like outright mockery is because theres some kernel of truth and desire in the cosplay. Though things have always been made in China, we are increasingly making ourselves in the image of the Chinese. Here, he notes the Labubu mania of 2025. The collectible plush toys, made by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, were in many ways the standout trend of the year, tripling the companys profits and sparking a buying frenzy that spanned the globe. Or recall when for a brief momentit looked like the Chinese social media platform Rednote would replace TikTok, as users migrated from the platform and bid goodbye to their personal Chinese spy ahead of the potential ban (that never came) over national security concerns. Across tech and other industries, China is the U.S.s closest competitor and, in many ways, its greatest challenger. At a time where America is more divided than ever, and the country’s politics a source of national embarrassment for many, people are looking beyond the countrys borders for alternative ways of living. Given the current geopolitical context, the becoming Chinese trend is perhaps about more than sipping hot tea and house slippers. As Tran writes: The threat of the Chinese Century looms over us all.
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E-Commerce
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