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Theres just something about a bubbly drink, warm weather, and a sunny patio. The Spritz is the perfect summer cocktail, so it makes sense that the holiday celebrating it takes place in the warmer months. To commemorate National Spritz Day today (Friday, August 1), lets mix one part history, one part variations of the cocktail, with a splash of ways to celebrate. How the Spritz came to be Before the Spritz became more formalized, it was born of necessity. The cocktail can trace its origins to the mid-19th century Veneto region. At the time, the floating city was ruled by Austrian soldiers who did not like how strong Italian wines were. They started to dilute it with a spritz of water. The genesis of a more complex cocktail had begun. Over time, the water would turn into sparkling and bitter liqueurs would also be added. A simple recipe At its core, the classic modern Spritz is made up of three parts sparkling or white wine, two parts of your choice of a bitter liqueur (amaro), and one part soda water. If you need a handy way to remember it, just count down from three. In 1919, brothers Luigi and Silvio Barbieri created Aperol, a bitter liqueur that would help popularize the cocktail. This adult beverage would really take off internationally in the 1950s. Variations on the theme The Aperol Spritz is probably the best known, but there are several options if you want to explore further. The Hugo Spritz utilizes an elderflower liqueur such as acqua santa or St-Germain instead of an amaro and hails from Northern Italy. Can you guess what the Campari Spritz uses? If you said Campari, youd be correct. The same principle applies to the Limoncello Spritz. For those choosing not to drink alcohol, turn to non-alcoholic liqueurs and wines. How to celebrate National Spritz Day The best way to celebrate this holiday is to find a rooftop bar or somewhere outdoors with an ocean breeze. Order a round for your friends and yap the night away. Be forewarned: Alcohol can bring on spontaneous dance parties. Here are some deals and discounts that will help your wallet. If you find yourself in New York City, Houston Hall is offering $10 Aperol Spritzes and $59 Aperol Spritz Towers. Plus at 7 p.m., brand ambassadors from Aperol will be on hand for fun freebies. West Coast friends can check out Punch Bowl Socials $10 custom creations. There are locations in San Diego, Rancho Cucamonga, and Sacramento as well as other venues across the country. A chain restaurant option is Carrabbas Italian Grill. Their Happy Hour menu offers an $8 Passion Pear Spritz all year long. So you can celebrate whenever you choose. However you imbibe today, make sure to say saluti!
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E-Commerce
Its an understatement to say that Reddit had an excellent second quarter. On Thursday, July 31, the social media company reported a boost in revenue from $281 million to $500 milliona 78% increase year-over-year (YOY). Its the companys fastest quarterly growth in three years and blew past the $425 million predicted by Wall Street, according to consensus estimates cited by Bloomberg. Its also the most significant jump since Reddit went public in March 2024, and investors are responding in spades. Reddits stock price (NYSE: RDDT) has jumped over 15% during after-hours and into premarket trading on Friday. The social media company can thank advertising, in large part. Second-quarter ad revenue increased by 84% YOY, hitting $465 million, Reddit reported. Notably, its daily active users also increased 21% YOY, to 110 million. Feeding the beast with human-powered knowledge Reddit is walking an interesting line between the benefits of AI and the desire among users for real human connections. It has rolled out features like Reddit Answers, an AI tool that summarizes conversations and posts. But Reddit also focuses on the importance of human-centric discussion. For people, conversation and connection are becoming more valuable and rare, Reddit cofounder and CEO Steve Huffman stated in a quarter-two earnings call. In a world increasingly dominated by algorithms and automation, the need for human voices has never been greater. Huffman cites a recent study that reportedly found 80% of users believe some questions can only be answered by humans as opposed to AI-generated summaries. But he follows it up by adding that for LLM and AI search engines, these conversations and the knowledge they create are essential for training. So is Reddits idea to focus on human conversation until it gives AI enough info to replace it? According to Huffman, not necessarily. In an automated world that depends on human knowledge, we view Reddit as one of the most important and differentiated data sources,” he stated. “We believe this validates what weve always thought, human conversation is not being replaced by AI, instead, its becoming more important.” He added: “AI doesnt invent knowledge, it learns from us, from real people, sharing real perspectives. You cant have artificial intelligence without actual intelligence.
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E-Commerce
OpenAI has removed a controversial opt-in feature that had led to some private chats appearing in Google search results, following reporting by Fast Company that found sensitive conversations were becoming publicly accessible. Earlier this week, Fast Company revealed that private ChatGPT conversationssome involving highly sensitive topics like drug use and sexual healthwere unexpectedly showing up in Google search results. The issue appeared to stem from arguably vague language in the apps Share feature, which included an option that may have misled users into making their chats publicly searchable. When users clicked Share, they were presented with an option to tick a box labeled Make this chat discoverable. Beneath that, in smaller, lighter text, was a caveat explaining that the chat could then appear in search engine results. Within hours of the backlash spreading on social media, OpenAI pulled the feature and began working to scrub exposed conversations from search results. Ultimately we think this feature introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to, so we’re removing the option, said Dane Stuckey, OpenAIs chief information security officer, in a post on X. We’re also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines. We just removed a feature from @ChatGPTapp that allowed users to make their conversations discoverable by search engines, such as Google. This was a short-lived experiment to help people discover useful conversations. This feature required users to opt-in, first by picking a chat pic.twitter.com/mGI3lF05Ua— DAN (@cryps1s) July 31, 2025 Stuckeys comments mark a reversal from the companys stance earlier this week, when it maintained that the features labeling was sufficiently clear. Rachel Tobac, a cybersecurity analyst and CEO of SocialProof Security, commended OpenAI for its prompt response once it became clear that users were unintentionally sharing sensitive content. We know that companies will make mistakes sometimes, they may implement a feature on a website that users dont understand and impact their privacy or security, she says. Its great to see swift and decisive action from the ChatGPT team here to shut that feature down and keep users privacy a top priority. In his post, OpenAI’s Stuckey characterized the feature as a short-lived experiment. But Carissa Veliz, an AI ethicist at the University of Oxford, says the implications of such experiments are troubling. Tech companies use the general population as guinea pigs, she says. They do something, they try it out on the population, and see if somebody complains.
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E-Commerce
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