2025 Energy Challenge🚀
This Week in Review☕️: Uber begins self-driving taxis | Dry January is underway after an excessive festive period | Sugary drinks found to cause death | What were the most searched topics on Google |
Happy 2025 everyone!🥂 This is our 1st weekly issue post the New year!
Cheers to another 12 months of pretending that 'New Year, New Me' isn't just an annual subscription to an impossible gym routine and a diet that lasts until you see the first chocolate chip cookie 🍪
Meanwhile, we plan on upgrading your inbox from boring to fabulous this year. Buckle up for puns, memes, and the occasional dad joke 👌
More importantly- THANKS a bajillion for being here! 🫶🏻 You guys are the real MVPS and we are so, SO grateful! 🙌🏻 🙌🏻
Quick Bites:
Recap 🌎 : Today is one of our favorite work days of the year, Google Year in Search day!
What were the memorable events people looked for in 2024? What were the defining moments we will remember? Let’s take a look at the big names and stories that led the way:
From the viral Olympic Chocolate Muffins to Taylor Swift mania to a Porn Star Martini obsession and more, check out the lists!
News:
💡US Election
💡Excessive heat
💡Paris Olympics
💡Hurricane Milton
💡Typhoon No. 10
💡Iran Rafah
💡Crowd Strike
💡Trump shot
💡Menendez brothers
💡Monkeypox
People:
💡Donald Trump
💡Catherine, Princess of Wales
💡Kamala Harris
💡Imane Khelif
💡Joe Biden
💡Mike Tyson
💡JD Vance
💡Lamine Yamal
💡Simone Biles
💡Diddy
Movies:
💡Inside Out 2
💡Deadpool & Wolverine
💡Saltburn
💡Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
💡Dune: Part II
💡It Ends with Us
💡Oppenheimer
💡Kung Fu Panda 4
💡Alien: Romulus
💡Terrifier 3
Food & Drink:
💡Tanghulu
💡Tini's Mac and Cheese
💡Mango Pickle
💡Dubai Chocolate Bar
💡Dense Bean Salad
💡Chia Water
💡Sleepy Girl
💡Lemon Balm
💡Viral Cucumber Salad
Our Thoughts💡: And now what you all have been waiting for..
Our personal predictions for 2024:
☀️ 2025 to surpass 2024 as the hottest year on record
📱 TikTok to be permanently banned
🇺🇸 Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson runs for Mayor
💰 Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS hits a $10 billion valuation
🦞 Faux Lobster Bisque as lab-grown lobster becomes a thing
🍪 Food inspired by pop culture- think Dune-themed spice cookies or Barbie-inspired pink pasta
💡X goes back to being called Twitter
❌ Jay Z gets cancelled
🧠 Our mental illness becomes a SUPER mental illness
💻 A 2-day work week
💍 Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet get engaged
🕺Biden breaks a hip
👶 Rihanna launches Baby clothing line
☁️ Digital Detoxes become cool
🍔 KFC GETS A MICHELIN STAR
Alcohol 🍺 : Dry January is underway.
After the excesses of the festive period, nearly one-third of Americans are expected to give up, or at least cut down on, alcohol this month.
💡A 100% valid reason for breaking Dry January:
There are fewer calories in a glass of prosecco than there are in a banana 🍌
All of our high school friends rang in the new year with their babies and hubbies.. Meanwhile, we just ripped a Budweiser, got bamboozled and texted everyone on our contact list 🙄
PS. Pushing thru a nuclear hangover and pretending you’re fine so bae can’t torment you in the future for having 20 tequila shots is one of the most underrated skills a person can have.
It’s pure gut instinct, you can’t learn it. Either you got it or you don’t
In addition, almost 1 in 3 men in the UK are gearing up for an alcohol-free January in 2025, as new research from Alcohol Change UK suggests a shift in focus to their fitness, mental health and finances.
Dudes a week into Dry January💡: 7 days without booze and we are already operating at a cognitive level previously unknown to mankind. We are like the feen from Limitless. We are bending spoons with our mind between work emails. By the 21st of January we will face God and TRIUMPH
One contributing factor for less alcohol consumption is people leaning towards a healthier lifestyle. This means fitness, better nutrition and.. (you guessed it) not getting turnt on a Tuesday.
Another factor is the variety of non-alcoholic drinks available today. You’re no longer limited to beer, wine, or liquor.
There are now markets for cider, kombucha, flavored seltzers and premixed mocktails
Moreover, a recent survey found that Generation Z drank less than any other adult age group in 2024.
According to Bloomberg, Gen Z is shaping up to the most sober generation in US history.
The older generations are still drinking more, which likely explains why spending on alcohol is still rising.
Our Thoughts💡:
Doing Dry January in that we're only drinking Sauv Blanc and Pinot Grigios 🥰
Health 🥤 : Sugary drinks may increase your risk of death, CNN reports.
"This is a public health crisis, requiring urgent action."
The study, published on Monday analyzed global data on sugar-sweetened beverages consumed around the world.
Decided we need to eat something healthy so we made a delicious omelette this morning.
We seasoned the eggs with sugar, chocolate, oil and threw in a little flour for texture.
Here is the end result 👇🏻🥰
Key Highlights, reported by CNN:
💡Researches concluded that sugary drinks are responsible for "more than 330,000 annual deaths from diabetes and cardiovascular disease."
💡The problem is particularly serious in Latin America and the Caribbean
💡It is also a pressing concern in sub-Saharan Africa, which also had the most cases of type 2 diabetes from sugary drinks
Sugar-drinks are worse for you than desserts. Here's why:
💡Sugar sweetened beverages have “empty calories”. They are basically fast-acting carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream and raise blood sugar quickly.
💡“Liquid sugars are absorbed more rapidly in the digestive system since they do not require the same breakdown processes as solid foods [..] Solid sugars are often part of foods that contain other nutrients like fiber, proteins, and fats.”
-Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral student told CNN.
💡Those nutrients slow digestion, meaning there is a more slow release of sugar into the bloodstream, Janzi said.
Our Thoughts💡: Umm we're on that diet where we cut out all sugar all carbs and all happiness 😭
Automotive 🚘 : Uber gets ready for robotaxis.
Uber and Lyft are preparing for the rise of robotaxis, as they are now sealing partnerships with self-driving firms, The Wall Street Journal reports.
As part of the deal, apps like Uberwill get a cut of robotaxi bookings; robotaxis will get access to millions of potential customers.
Key Highlights, reported by WSJ:
💡Uber is preparing to bring driverless taxis to your door with new app features
💡These new features will allow customers to use their phones to open trunks and blow horns
💡Uber and Lyft have agreed to maintain these driverless fleets. They are finding locations to store these cars
💡“This level of nitty-gritty, it takes years to build,” said Andrew Macdonald, Uber’s senior vice president of mobility. “It’s not something you can do by flipping a switch.”
💡Human-driven cabs aren’t going away anytime soon. The future will be a combination of regular taxis and driverless cars.
💡Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said: It might take a decade before half of Uber’s US trips are on self-driving cars.
💡Even then, the technology might not work in densely populated cities like New York or under some weather conditions: “No one’s saying ‘let’s go send some of these cars to Boston in the middle of winter. What happens when all of these sensors get covered in snow?”
💡The ride-hailing giants are reacting to growing signs that driverless technology may finally be ready to spread beyond a few experimental markets
💡Tesla plans to start producing its Cybercab before 2027 and Amazon is testing its Zoox autonomous vehicles.
💡Meanwhile, General Motors recently paused on developing its own self-driving Cruise cars
Quicker Bites:
Major winter storm slams the US.
Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau to step down.
UPS adds healthcare to deliveries.
The first person to have a severe case of Bird flu in the US has died.
Alabama nursing student wins Miss America 2025.
Demi Moore takes home her 1st Golden Globe for film ‘The Substance’.