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Ever wondered what happens when you add random household items to the same bowl every day for 100 days straight? Well, youre in luck. One TikTok account has made it their mission to find outso you dont have to. The anonymous account, known simply as Bowl of Danger, adds random stuff to a bowl each day until they get in danger. @bowlofdanger The experiment began in January with a dollop of sunscreen. Each day, something new entered the mix: sugar, whipped cream, deodorant, lit firecrackers, batteries, nail polish, vodka, a whole pizza, a Big Mac. Cant imagine how bad that reeks, someone wrote in the comments. I just unlocked a new facial expression, added a second. Another warned, No cuz I genuinely think were making a pandemic (check out day 25 at your own risk). For every person who scrolls past in horror, plenty are invested. Some of the most viral Bowl of Danger videos have racked up millions of views, with fans suggesting new items to add. As for Day 100? The video was taken down, but according to the comments, it involved a firecracker and an explosion. Since Bowl of Danger went viral, a number of copycat accounts have emerged. Theres The Danger Bowl, naturally, and Bowl of Livingan organic version of the original series. Mold is just a simple form of life, the creator says. I want to create something morelike a new species. If you prefer your bowl of rot with an educational edge, theres also Bowl of Science. While other bowls waste food or resources, we mix a bowl with things that only physically or chemically react, the creator said in one video, taking a swipe at the competition. Where you actually can learn from. A theory is also circulating that the different anonymous accounts may be run by the same person under different aliases. Warning: If youre considering making your own bowl at home, remember that mixing random stuff can have harmful, even deadly, side effects. (Ever heard of mustard gas?) But if you missed the first round, good news: Season 2 of Bowl of Danger just started.
Category:
E-Commerce
In 2008, the American dream of homeownership morphed into a nightmare that tanked the global economy. The culprit? A toxic mix of bad mortgages and casino mentality. Today, another financial time bomb is tickingand this one is fueled by rising seas, wildfires, and a lethal dose of denial. Climate change is quietly corroding the foundations of the U.S. housing market. From Floridas hurricane-battered coasts to Californias fire-razed suburbs, a crisis is brewing that could make the subprime mortgage collapse look like a warm-up act. The crisis will be triggered by home insurance. To get a mortgage, you need homeowners insurance. But in climate-vulnerable Sunbelt states like California and Florida, insurers are either fleeing or increasing premiums to eye-watering heights. In some areas, home insurance costs have doubled or tripled in just three years. In others, policies are vanishing altogether. Meanwhile, in a stunning irony, the top 16 U.S. insurance companies hold more than $500 billion in fossil fuel investmentscollecting premiums with one hand while funding the climate disasters that force them to pay out with the other. Homeowners on the hook Current homeowners and retirees are sitting ducks. Florida, Arizona, and Texas lure seniors with sun and tax breaks, but fixed incomes cant absorb climate chaos. In Arizona, home insurance premiums have surged by 62% since 2019 driven by wildfire risks. Texas has seen rates climb by 40% since 2015, as hurricanes and other climate-driven disasters batter the state. Imagine a retiree watching their insurance premium spike from $7,500 to $17,000 overnight. Florida retirees spend 34% of their average income on home insurance. (Nationally, retirees pay 8% of their income toward home insurance.) Their options are grim: Drain savings, sell, default, or, for those who own their homes outright, go bare, skipping insurance entirelya risky bet that leaves them one disaster from devastation. Multiply that by millions of people, and you get a fire sale of homes, crashing property values, and ghost towns of stranded assets. A 2023 study found that U.S. properties exposed to flood risk are overvalued by $121 billion to $237 billion. Local governments will feel the squeeze like never before. Florida funds schools, roads, and police forces via property taxes. Paradise, California, which was ravaged by wildfire in 2018, wiped out 90% of its property tax base and almost all its local revenue. What happens to a city when its tax base collapses? Detroit offers a cautionary tale here. The Motor Citys population plunged from a peak of about 1.8 million in the 1950s to barely 700,000 by 2010 as jobs vanished and residents fled. Detroit spiraled into the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Streetlights literally went dark; entire neighborhoods were abandoned. Unlike Detroits industrial decline, a future trigger would be natural calamitybut the end result (a city unable to pay its bills) could look eerily similar. Could Miami or New Orleans face a similar fate? Subprime mortgages are back And lets not forget the banks: Theyre sitting on trillions in mortgages tied to homes that could soon be uninsurable, unlivable, or underwater (literally). The 2008 subprime crash taught us that if homeowners default en masse, the contagion can spread through mortgage-backed securities and derivativesexcept this time, it’s not bad borrowers but uninhabitable land driving a similar chain reaction. In the 2000s, lenders treated subprime mortgages like an all-you-can-eat buffet, convinced home prices would only rise. Today, lenders cling to the fantasy that climate risk is manageable or priced in. Spoiler: Its not. Research from McKinsey reveals that even as insurance companies acknowledge climate risks, they haven’t meaningfully integrated these same risks into their investment strategies or mortgage underwriting practices. This cognitive dissonance mirrors the 2008 crisis, when rating agencies slapped AAA ratings on what were essentially junk securities. As storms intensify and wildfire seasons lengthen, mortgage defaults will surge. And guess whos holding the bag? Taxpayers, via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Just like in 2008, savvy mortgage originators are quietly dumping risky mortgages onto government-backed entities, making you, the taxpayer, the ultimate insurer of Americas climate delusion. Sprawling suburbs in floodplains, McMansions in fire corridors, and regulatory blind spots have created a Ponzi scheme of climate risk. Heres the kicker: Theres little chance climate risk will be containedto borrow Ben Bernankes famously off-the-mark reassurance about subprime. The financial contagion will spread rapidly across markets because climate-vulnerable mortgages, like subprime loans before them, have been bundled, securitized, and distributed throughout the global financial system. How to mitigate the disaster So, whats the fallout when this bubble bursts? Retirees forced out, cities bankrupted, banks bailed outits 2008 with a side of rising oceans. The lesson from subprime was simple: Denying reality doesnt erase risk; it just guarantees a harder crash. The looming crisis isnt a mystery, and neither are the solutions. We can take steps right now to defuse this climate housing bubble before it pops. First off, policymakers can require far greater transparency about climate risks. Homebuyers have the right to know if that bargain beachfront cottage is likely to floodyet shockingly, states like Florida (with some of the highest overvaluation) do not require sellers to disclose flood risk to buyers. Mandatory disclosure laws for flood, fire, and heat risks would inject some reality into pricing and steer some people out of harms way. Next, we need to end perverse incentives that encourage building and rebuilding in disaster zones. For decades, the federal governmentvia cheap flood insurance, disaster aid, and infrastructure spendinghas socialized climate risk, effectively footing the bill for risky development with taxpayer money. The National Flood Insurance Program, for example, historically charged below-market rates and racked up $20 billion in debt, requiring repeated bailouts. Its now moving toward risk-based pricing, which is painful for homeowners but absolutely necessary to signal where its safe (and not safe) to build. Similarly, officials could tighten zoning and building codes in high-risk areas, or even prohibit new construction in the most exposed floodplains and fire zones. (As one former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency bluntly suggested: Stop writing government-backed insurance for brand-new houses in flood zones). In parallel, banks and regulators must get serious about integrating climate risk into lending decisions. That could mean requiring robust insurance coverage (beyond the minimal standards) on mortgaged homes, adjusting loan-to-value ratios or loan terms in ultra-risky areas, and incorporating climate data into underwriting models when valuing mortgage portfolios. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in particular, should lead by not purchasing loans on obviously doomed properties. Why extend a 30-year mortgage on a house that may be underwater (literally) in 20? On the community level, we need to shore up climate resilience to protect home values: stronger levees and hardened grids, yes, but also difficult conversations about strategic retreat. In some places, the safest plan is to help people move now, rather than rebuild for the fifth time after a disaster. Policymakers can create funds for voluntary buyouts and relocations to get vulnerable families into safer housinga managed retreat thats humane and ahead of the curve. None of this is easy or cheap. But the alternativemaintaining our current courseis far more costly. The 2008 crash taught us that unheeded risk in housing markets can bring the entire economy to its knees. We have an opportunity today to prevent a replay, this time driven by climate rather than credit. It will require political courage, sober risk management from lenders, and, yes, higher costs up front in some cases. But proactively pricing in climate risk (and mitigating it where possible) is like preventive medicine. It might sting now, but it will save us from far greater pain down the road. The housing collapse of 08 wiped out $7 trillion in homeowner equity and ravaged communities; a climate-induced collapse could be even worse if we do nothing. Will policymakers and lenders act before Miami becomes Atlantis and Phoenix a blast furnace? Or will they keep chanting the same mantrahome prices only go upuntil the levees break, literally and financially? Times up. The waters rising. And this time, theres no bailout big enough.
Category:
E-Commerce
When Katie Hammel arrived at her companys offsite in Cabo San Lucas, she expected the usual formula: long meetings, awkward icebreakers, and a packed agenda that left little room to breathe. What she experienced instead was something differenta thoughtfully curated, empowering, and inclusive retreat. There was a little wrap-up at the end of each day, says Hammel, director of content at travel rewards booking platform Point.me. At first I thought it was going to be kind of corny, and I actually ended up really loving it. Hearing what surprised people, what they learnedit just really crystallized the day. Hammel, whos attended nine retreats while working at four different companies, has witnessed firsthand how offsites have evolved. Early retreats were like, Lets rent a cabin and figure it out. Now, theyre much more intentional. Its something you need to invest time and money and real deep thought into planning so that you can make the most of that time. As remote and hybrid work have become more permanent, companies are rethinking the role of retreats. What used to be a perk is now a necessity: a way to reinforce culture, rebuild trust, and create connection in the absence of daily in-office interactions. But simply gathering people in a room (or on a beach) isnt enough. Todays distributed teams require something more thoughtful, more inclusive, and more strategic. Designing With, Not For One of the biggest mistakes companies make when planning offsites is assuming that physical presence alone will foster connection. But as Stephanie Felix, a DEI leader and social impact strategist who has organized offsites across companies, explains. If the format isnt inclusive or meaningful, built with shared purpose in mind, it can actually deepen disconnection. Retreats often reflect outdated traditionsactivities designed in a pre-remote era that may no longer serve diverse, distributed teams. Planning, says Felix, needs to begin with intentionality, not logistics. Gathering isnt inherently inclusive, she says. It has to be designed that way. For Milton Rivera, global VP of the Experience Studio at Amex Global Business Travel, this starts with co-creation. Putting an emphasis on gathering employee or attendee input early in the planning process has greatly helped events to be much more relevant and engaging, he says. His team collects not only schedules and availability, but also pain points, accessibility needs, and emotional goalshelping clients map how attendees want to feel at each stage of an event. (Riveras team not only handles clients looking for team event planning help, but also manages his own remote team, with their own offsites, as well.) Its also a matter of resourcing: outsourcing logistics, hiring professionals, and avoiding the common pitfall of assigning retreat planning to someone who already has a full-time job. At The Corcoran Group, this kind of collaborative planning is already embedded in its retreat culture. Our events are carefully curated by our events team and shaped by insights from leaders across all departments, says Pamela Liebman, president and CEO at the real estate firm. We intentionally create space for conversations at all levels and encourage cross-functional participation. This includes having casual on-site gatherings where convos across teams can happen, as well as senior leadership-led open events that can get people talking, like exercise walks with the company president or morning meditations led by a team member. Basically, creating space for organic moments of interaction, says Liebman. That intentionality transforms offsites from top-down presentations to genuinely shared experiences. Understanding the WhyAnd Going Smaller If Needed Instead of asking Should we host an offsite? more teams are now asking Why are we hosting one? says Julie Noda, GM of Groups at Fora Travel. Retreats are becoming more intentional, inclusive, and purpose-driven, she says. Whether theyre focused on alignment, celebrating top performers, or helping employees recharge, the why behind a retreat shapes everythingfrom destination choice to daily schedule. Rather than hosting one massive, annual event, more companies are turning to smaller, regional gatherings throughout the year. Smaller, intimate retreats are increasingly common for remote teams, fostering better collaboration and deeper conversations, Noda adds. Teams are leaning into informal formats like fireside chats, rather than over-structured sessions. Every quarter, we host varying degrees of offsitessocial, educational, collaborative, says Rivera. We also host a larger annual event per region. But a critical element in all of this is to determine the expected outcomes of the event, the personas of the attendees, and the objectives. Liebman echoes that clarity of purpose. The goal has always been to connect and celebrate our brand, and while that hasnt changed, the how has, she says. In a more remote/hybrid environment, retreats have become even more important to reinforce our shared purpose. Riveras team uses a process called experience mapping to help both their internal teams and their clients understand what impact the retreat should have and what value it should deliver. The result? More tailored experiences that serve their specific goalswhether its aligning on strategy, deepening peer-to-peer bonds, or co-creating solutions. This level of intentionality has led many organizations to think smallertrimming attendance, focusing on meaningful moments, and allowing flexibility for personal circumstances, like caregiving or travel burdens. At Corcoran, we announce conference dates well in advance, and begin the first days events midday to support those balancing caregiving responsibilities or long-distance travel, Liebman says. Removing Financial Barriers As companies push for inclusivity, many are rethinking the financial side of offsites. While most employers now cover core expenses, how they do so matters more than everparticularly for newer employees, junior staff, or those without access to personal credit. Yes, we cover all major expenses, says Jaclyn Fu, CEO of the bra company Pepper, who oversees a remote-first team. We want the experience to be something the team can look forward to and wholeheartedly enjoy, without having to stress. Rivera adds that even well-intentioned policies can have unintended consequences. Policies that ask people to use personal funds upfront for business travel create a potential barrier, he says. They may not have access to a credit card or might not have the funds, which creates an unintentional barrier to attending the offsite and enjoying the benefits. Felix underscores that financial equity is often overlookedespecially when it comes to internal dynamics like dinners or group outings once at the retreat. When I was a manager, company policy dictated that I cover junior team members expenses on a personal card, she says. Its a problematic assumption that any individual manager, a relatively junior role, is always in the financial position to cover those costs. Team dinners can run hundreds of dollars. We need to be sure company policy is equitable. Making the Exceptions the Default The best retreat experiences today prioritize proactive inclusion. Instead of making accommodations for individuals, smart organizers now build accessibility and choice into the default experience. Oneof the things I really appreciate about my current company is that they take requestslike dietary restrictions or not drinking alcoholand make them standard, says Hammel. So instead of just having one mocktail, every drink has an equivalent mocktail. Its not like, Heres something for them. Its just, Heres something for everyone. That same thinking applies to food, schedules, and even accommodation arrangements. True inclusivity is invisible. Its not about creating separate options, but about making everyone feel seen without having to ask. At Corcorans events, inclusion extends to cultural and regional representation, too. Our network spans diverse markets, so we aim to reflect that in our programming, Liebman explains. At our conference in Scottsdale, for example, we opened with a performance by Mariachi Rubor, Arizonas international all-female mariachi band. True inclusion, she says, is about spotlighting local voices and tailoring content to highlight what makes a region [and our employees] special. Rethinking the Corporate Retreat Location Choosing the right destination has always mattered. But beyond cost and climate, companies are now also weighing sustainability, accessibility, and cultural relevance. Weve seen eco-friendly and socially responsible destinations becoming increasingly more popular, says Noda. This might include locally sourced food, carbon offsetting, service projects, or immersive cultural experiences. We try to choose cities where we have a strong team presenceNYC, Denver, and Austin, for example, adds Fu. We look for spaces that feel both energizing and accessible: a mix of creative inspiration, practical travel logistics, and comfort. Rivera also notes that diverse teams require venues that accommodate different travel needs, from sensory-friendly environments to direct flights. His company has developed a Global Venue Sourcing team for exactly this reason. Building in Down Time and Preventing Burnout One challenge with offsites is the temptation to over-program. For remote workers who rarely see each other, time feels precious. But not every moment needs to be filled. Theres so much pressure to make the most of every moment, says Hammel. I think companies pack it in a little too much. Even just 45 minutes to decompress before a social event would be so valuable. Designing for all personality typesespecially introvertsmeans allowing space to recharge. Quiet time isnt a waste; its a necessary part of creating connection that lasts beyond the event. Noda sees this understanding of accommodating different types of individuals at the planning level. The most progressive organizations are offering flexible engagement optionshigh-energy and low-energy activities, quiet spaces, hybrid participation tools, and agendas that leave space to breathe, she says. Inclusivity isnt just about food or access. Its how people engage. Including Those Who Stay Behind Not everyone can (or wants to) attend an offsite. Health issues, family obligations, and financial constraints still keep some employees home. That doesnt mean they should be excluded from the experience. In her most recent retreat, Hammels team did their best to include remote attendees, despite logistical challenges. Everything was outdoors, so we didnt have a lot of AV, she says. But we took photos of our exercises and wrote up little reports to share in Slack. Felix notes that in-person environments can also carry a different emotional toll, especially for employees from marginalized backgrounds. Theres compelling data showing that microaggressions increase in in-person environments, particularly for Black women and other women of color, she says. Remote work gave many people a reprieve. Theres more control, and often more accountability [when communicating remotely]. Therefore, making sure environments not only have structure in comms but also opportunities for feedback is so important. In planning retreats, companies need to think beyond who can attend, and design with inclusion in mind for those who stay back, too. The New Retreat: Less Perk, More Purpose Retreats used to be framed as perksfun escapes from routine. But as the nature of work changes, theyve become something far more meaningful: rare chances to build trust, reinforce shared purpose, and cultivate belonging across distance. Inclusion is about emotional safety, psychological comfort, and cultural sensitivity, not just physical presence, says Felix. Todays most successful retreats are grounded in intention. Retreats have become essential for building trust, empathy, and friendship. Its not just about alignment on strategy. Its about feeling like youre part of something meaningful, even when you work from different zip codes, says Fu.
Category:
E-Commerce
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