Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matt Toohey, 42, the land manager at Forge Energy III in San Antonio, Texas. He has watched every episode of the television drama, Landman, which follows a fictional landman and is in production for its second season. It has been edited for length and clarity.I barely knew what being a landman meant when I became one after graduating law school in 2008, and I don’t think I was unique — there’s a general misunderstanding of what we do. When the show “Landman” came out last November, I watched every episode…

[ad_1] Across the globe, there has been a reframing of traditional markers of wealth. True wealth is no longer defined by material things, but rather by experiences with those who matter most, whether that’s exclusive access to a hot new restaurant or front-row tickets to a show you’ve been waiting to see for years.New Mastercard research reveals that today’s consumers are chasing purpose, passion, and moments that matter. According to Mastercard insights, two-thirds of consumers consider checking off bucket-list experiences, including travel, dining, and entertainment, a top priority. This trend is even more prominent among the higher-earning demographic, with 59%…

[ad_1] The internet is undergoing one of the most consequential transitions in its history, from a world dominated by search engines to one increasingly ruled by AI-powered answer engines.It’s an economic earthquake that threatens to obliterate the business model that’s underpinned the web for decades.While most tech companies have jumped on the AI bandwagon, one prominent CEO is sounding the alarm and actively proposing a fix: Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince.”These aren’t search engines anymore, they’re answer engines. The economics and rules are very different,” he told me in a recent interview. “We have to strike a new deal.”The problem A man…

[ad_1] Instagram wants to be more … social.The Meta-owned platform announced on Wednesday that it is rolling out three new features in an effort to help its users better connect with their friends.Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in a video posted to the app on Wednesday that the company wants “Instagram to be not just a lean-back experience that is just fun and entertaining, but also a participatory one.”One of Instagram’s new features aimed at helping people connect with their friends is a map where you can share your location. The map will show where you were last active…

[ad_1] Google on Wednesday launched its AI coding agent, Jules, out of beta, just over two months after its public preview debut in May. Powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro, Jules is an asynchronous, agent-based coding tool that integrates with GitHub, clones codebases into Google Cloud virtual machines, and uses AI to fix or update code while developers focus on other tasks. Google initially announced Jules as a Google Labs project in December and made it available to beta testers through a public preview at its I/O developer conference. Kathy Korevec, director of product at Google Labs, told TechCrunch that the…

[ad_1] A new startup, Lava Payments, aims to take on payment giants by building a solution for the modern web where AI agents now handle transactions for their customers. The idea came to founder Mitchell Jones after he left his earlier Y Combinator-backed fintech startup, Lendtable, as he began to experiment with AI. He saw the potential to build out a system that would make using AI and agent payments simpler and more developer-friendly. While experimenting with an AI app and trying to build what he thought was something simple, he realized he quickly spent more than $400 trying to…

[ad_1] Companies across many industries are implementing AI agents for internal use, automating a wide range of tasks. In the financial sector, AI agents are critical for fraud detection. They can analyze vast amounts of transaction data in real time. Meanwhile, sales organizations are using AI agents to gather data on potential customers. These AI sales agents can scour the web and social media for information. To be effective, these agents need to access the internet and find information from relevant sources, all while following company policies and mirroring how a human researcher would work. Connecting an agent directly to…

[ad_1] Lowe’s (LOW) recently broke out from a major consolidation period and presents a strong upside opportunity. With the anticipated Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and LOW’s targeted initiatives aimed at accelerating growth, the current levels provide a compelling entry point for investors to seek bullish exposure with an attractive risk-to-reward ratio. Trade timing The timing for bullish exposure in LOW is optimal, the stock has spent the last 5 months in a range between $210 and $230 consolidating. However, it just broke out above this trading range earlier this week while outperforming the S & P 500 . This…

[ad_1] Bank of America sees MP Materials as an “unmatched vehicle” for exposure to rare earths, significantly increasing its earnings estimates on the back of the miner’s recent deal with the Defense Department. The bank hiked its price target for MP ahead of the company’s second-quarter financial results Thursday. It now sees MP shares rising to $78, indicating about 14% upside from Tuesday’s close of $68.39. Its previous target stood at $42. MP shares have more than doubled since the Defense Department agreed on July 10 to buy a $400 million stake in the company, set a price floor for…

[ad_1] Driven Brands could be due for big gains ahead, according to JPMorgan. JPMorgan upgraded the automotive services stock to overweight from neutral in a Wednesday note, and raised its price target to $23 per share from $17. The firm’s forecast implies about 33% upside from Tuesday’s $17.33 close. The company owns oil change service Take 5, as well as other automotive services names such as Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting and Meineke Car Care Center. The firm on Tuesday reported better-than-expected second-quarter results , but shares are trading lower since it reiterated its full-year outlook. Analyst Christian Carlino…