Birmingham

The price of admission for New York’s cultural elite The Met Gala remains the crown jewel of the New York social calendar, but the 2026 iteration trade-off between art and patronage has never felt more stark. This year, the controversy centered on Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who underwrote the event with a $10 million donation. While the gala raised a record $42 million for the Met Costume Institute, the presence of the Amazon founder as a co-chair sparked protests both outside the museum and across digital platforms. Activist groups like Everyone Hates Elon targeted the event, highlighting the widening gap between the city's extreme wealth and its affordability crisis. Anna Wintour, the longtime architect of the gala, has always relied on deep-pocketed donors to fund the museum’s specialized wings. Historically, these patrons included the Koch family and the Sacklers, figures who brought their own share of public ire. However, the Bezos partnership represents a new era where tech titan capital is the primary engine for high-society preservation. While celebrities like Bad Bunny and Zendaya dominated the visual narrative, the underlying financial structure suggests that cultural institutions are increasingly tethered to a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals. School phone bans fail the test of academic performance For years, educators have heralded the removal of mobile devices from classrooms as a panacea for declining test scores and rising anxiety. A massive new study covering 40,000 schools between 2019 and 2026 suggests these hopes were largely misplaced. While strict bans successfully reduced device usage during school hours, they resulted in nearly zero impact on academic achievement or perceptions of bullying. Most shockingly, the first year of implementation saw student suspensions jump by 16%. Researchers from Stanford University and Duke University posit that the suspension spike likely stems from two factors: direct defiance of the new rules and the removal of phones as a coping mechanism for social conflict. Despite the lack of data supporting better grades, 41% of teens actually support the bans, acknowledging their own struggles with digital distraction. Companies like Yonder, which manufactures magnetic phone pouches, have seen business explode, selling 10 million units in 2024 alone as schools double down on the policy despite the ambiguous results. Colorado faces a tech exodus over AI regulation The "Silicon Mountain" dream is showing signs of fatigue as Colorado struggles with a mass departure of public companies. Between 2019 and 2025, the state lost 98 public companies and over 13,600 jobs, with many fleeing to more business-friendly climates like Texas. At the heart of the current friction is a restrictive AI consumer protection bill. The legislation requires developers of high-risk systems to disclose algorithmic specifics—a demand that led Palantir to relocate its headquarters to Miami earlier this year. Critics argue that Colorado is mirroring the regulatory path of California, prioritizing oversight at the cost of innovation. However, Governor Jared Polis maintains a different outlook, noting that the state is still home to 21 unicorns and that more firms are entering than leaving. The tension highlights a growing national trend: tech companies are no longer bound by traditional hubs and will aggressively migrate to avoid local legislative friction and rising costs of living. Dot-com relics find a second life in the server room The current AI boom is performing a miracle of corporate resurrection for names once synonymous with the 2000 market crash. Cisco Systems, Intel, and Dell are experiencing a massive resurgence as the demand for physical infrastructure—data centers and server racks—reaches record highs. Cisco Systems is now valued higher than its dot-com peak, proving that while software grabs the headlines, the plumbing of the internet remains a lucrative necessity. Perhaps the most surprising pivot comes from BlackBerry. Long dead in the smartphone market, the company has transformed into a safety software powerhouse through its QNX unit. This software now powers 275 million vehicles, handling everything from collision warnings to adaptive cruise control. This "middle-age excellence" suggests that the AI revolution isn't just about new startups; it's about the old-guard hardware companies that survived the first bubble and are now the only ones capable of building the foundation for the second.