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A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

South Carolina ranks highest among all U.S. states in future potential demand for commercial real estate. That is the finding of a new index from the National Association of Realtors, which aims to be a crystal ball for commercial real estate investors. It uses factors in local economies to indicate future demand. 

The index looks at more than 300 metropolitan markets, with separate measures for the office, industrial, retail and multifamily sectors, and measures the economic conditions of each region. The Realtors use government data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau for population and migration, which it says informs the rankings.

For the office sector, specifically, the index looks at growth in professional and business services employment. For industrial, it's manufacturing, transportation and warehousing employment growth. For retail, the NAR measures growth in retail trade as well as leisure and hospitality employment. In the multifamily sector, it incorporates population growth and net migration, both domestic and international. All of that gets combined into a single index. 

"It doesn't say, 'OK, go there and just buy property,' but it says … where the data shows that the momentum is building, the demand is building," said Nadia Evangelou, principal economist and director of real estate research at NAR. 

It also compares these markets to 2022, the peak of the pandemic migration boom. Raleigh, North Carolina, is the only major U.S. market that is stronger today than it was then, according to the index. Formerly superhot markets like Austin, Miami and Naples, Florida, have all declined markedly since 2022. 

The strongest metropolitan market in the index is St. George, Utah, with the strongest office employment growth in the nation. 

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"It also has very strong population growth and in-migration, and its industrial demand is above average," Evangelou said. "So St. George, for example, is the No. 1, because one industry happened to have a good year, so there is a broader momentum over there."

While other indices focus on the largest metropolitan markets, Evangelou said small and mid-sized markets could provide some of the best opportunities for investors. She cited Fayetteville, Arkansas; Huntsville, Alabama; and Spartanburg, South Carolina. Fayetteville is seeing broad-based growth, while Huntsville has one of the strongest multifamily scores in the nation, she said.

The index also breaks down where each of the four sectors is seeing the strongest demand. For example, Salem, Oregon, and Fairbanks, Alaska, are ranked highest for industrial.

"When we take a look at New York, San Francisco and the big coastal markets, we see that the large markets are still generally weaker than the fast-growing Sunbelt and smaller markets in this index," said Evangelou.  %!s()

That said, Larson did have some themes and types of characters he’d often return to. Dinosaurs, for example, were a big one as Larson would depict them doing normal human things like eating breakfast cereal (with a free kid inside) or smoking cigarettes (the real reason they became extinct, according to Larson). He also liked to explore the domesticity of prehistoric life through cavemen and to lampoon historical figures and moments.

But if one recurring theme of Larson’s The Far Side is a standout, it’s his cows. Over the 15 years he was doing The Far Side, Larson created 4,337 different comics and he returned to cows again and again as a source of humor. He’d depict them doing normal human things or villainous things behind the backs of humans (especially farmers). In an interview with The New York Times, Larson once explained his cow fixations, saying, ''I've always thought the word cow was funny,'' he said. ''And cows are sort of tragic figures. Cows blur the line between tragedy and humor.''

Here, I took a shot at finding the 10 funniest-ever The Far Side comics about cows, though with so many to choose from, there's definitely some room for debate.

10

A big realization

Image: Gary Larson

From October 16, 1981. The beauty of Larson’s The Far Side is that jokes could be very thoughtful and subtle, whereas others could be more basic, silly, and understandable by children. This one, with a cow realizing she’s been eating grass, is a fairly straightforward gag anyone can enjoy.

9

No one wants to hear that

Image: Gary Larson

This next cow gag, from July 8, 1982, is a bit more subtle and probably a bit dated too. Back in the day, travelers would need places to sleep and if the farmer didn’t want them or trust them in the house, the person would be sent to the barn instead (or, at least, that’s what happened in movies). This Far Side comic is a simple, yet pretty hilarious role reversal.

8

A very famous comic

Image: Gary Larson

This comic is one of the most famous strips in the history of The Far Side, but not because the joke is profoundly funny. If anything, it may be seen as an abject failure, given how the public responded to it.

Running on October 28, 1982, a comic with the caption “Cow tools” simply depicted a cow behind a table, along with some crude-looking instruments on the table. The newspapers running The Far Side ended up getting lots of letters from confused readers complaining that they didn’t understand what the joke was. Many assumed the joke was something subtle or scientific, as many of Larson’s jokes were. The response was so loud and so swift that Larson issued a press release the very next day explaining that the joke wasn’t complicated at all.

“The cartoon was intended to be an exercise in silliness,” wrote Larson. “While I have never met a cow who could make tools, I felt sure that if I did, they (the tools) would lack something in sophistication and resemble the sorry specimens shown in this cartoon. I regret that my fondness for cows, combined with an overactive imagination, may have carried me beyond what is comprehensible to the average Far Side reader”

In other words, the joke was simply “cows are bad at making tools,” proving that people were really overthinking it.

7

Cow gossip

Image: Gary Larson

From July 29, 1987 is yet another cow vs. human role reversal. There was an old expression where someone might say that a bad-smelling house smelled like a barn. So a cow insult must be a barn that smells like a house.

6

For indoor cows

Image: Gary Larson

This panel, from September 25, 1986, is simply a wonderful sight gag, impossible to overthink. I love the delight on the face of the woman bragging about her plastic cow ball and that the reaction of the other woman doesn’t even need to be seen to sell the joke. That’s the beauty of Larson’s humor, much of it is just punchline, without need for a setup or a reaction.

5

Two of Larson’s favorites

Image: Gary Larson

Aside from cows, dinosaurs were a frequent muse of Larson’s. He combined both of these passions on this panel from February 16, 1983, which depicted dinosaurs as cows, or cows as dinosaurs, depending upon how you look at it.

Interestingly, one of Larson’s dinosaur strips ended up making official dinosaur history. In his comic from May 27, 1982, he featured a class full of cavemen being taught by a caveman professor. The professor caveman was pointing at the pointy structure on the end of a Stegosaurus’ tail and the captain said “Now, this end is called the thagomizer… after the late Thag Simmons.”

The Far Side was so popular and this joke so beloved that, over time, “thagomizer” became the official name for the spiky tail structure on Stegosaurus and other related dinosaurs. Prior to that, the structure had no name.

4

Sneaky cows

Image: Gary Larson

Occasionally, Larson would break his single-panel format for a more traditional joke with a setup and punchline, like this strip from January 6, 1984, featuring cows standing upright when cars aren’t looking. This was not the norm for The Far Side, but the beauty of the strip was its versatile format, whereas most comic strips stuck to a strict structure with a regular cast of characters.

3

A valuable lesson

Image: Gary Larson

From January 22, 1983, the cow lesson is a wonderful example of a simple, yet hilarious Far Side comic which is more about just how stupid people are.

2

Proper line etiquette

Image: Gary Larson

While The Far Side could be smart and silly, sometimes it was also really dark in its humor, like this one from May 13, 1983. You never saw these kinds of jokes in The Family Circus.

1

Really sneaky cows

Image: Gary Larson

From February 12, 1986. This is another great example of how dark Larson could be, while also being very silly. This might just be Larson’s funniest-ever cow strip. %!s()

But even now, at the age of 39, that is not enough for the Serb.

"I cannot say I feel content with what I have and who I am," he says in a new Amazon documentary.

"I am always looking to be more - better, faster, stronger. Oftentimes I feel I am imprisoning myself."

He says later in the documentary: "I'm the number one doubter. I'm trying to prove myself wrong more than anybody else."

Djokovic is level with Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam singles titles in history, having won his 24th trophy at the 2023 US Open.

He has reached at least the semi-finals at six of the past seven Grand Slams and in January became the oldest man in history to reach the Australian Open final.

"He definitely has mixed feelings about his retirement," his wife, Jelena, says.

"'He carries that burden that he's never enough. No matter how much he does, it will never be enough.

"Tennis is a fulfilling place for him - a place where he feels worthy."

The documentary shows footage of a young Djokovic being interviewed on television. Asked how he feels about tennis, he calls it a "responsibility".

"My goal in tennis is to become a champion," he says.

Djokovic's career, from his style of play to his attitude on court, has been shaped by his childhood experiences in a way that few other players can possibly relate.

Born in Belgrade, Djokovic was a young child during the Nato bombings of the Serbian capital between March and June 1999.

He recalls running from his building - which did not have a bomb shelter - to another for safety. On the way, he tripped, and his unaware family continued running. Djokovic turned to look at his building and watched a plane drop two bombs on a nearby hospital.

"Pretty much every day, for years, we had to wait in line for bread and milk," Djokovic told BBC 5 Live in July.

"These are defining moments, something I want to portray as a building block for me as a player and a person.

"There is no regret or resentment. In contrary, it's appreciation and gratitude. Everything in life happens as a reason."

In an expensive and often elitist sport, the young Djokovic was an outsider. Djokovic speaks about his father borrowing money from "wrong people" to fund his early tennis career.

When he broke through, he disrupted the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal rivalry that had come to engross fans. More emotive and more vocal than the pair on court, Djokovic was not universally beloved by fans.

"I had to suppress a lot of emotions which, later on, surfaced on the court," he told BBC 5 Live.

"On the court, that's where I felt safe and comfortable. It was a familiar ground.

"Tennis is much more than a game and competition. It is defining ground for who I am as a person."

Every Djokovic loss at a Grand Slam is followed by questions about his retirement. However his 2026 US Open campaign pans out, Djokovic will be ready for familiar talk about his future in tennis.

Long-time rivals Federer and Nadal ended their careers in 2022 and 2024 respectively, having struggled with injuries in their latter years.

Djokovic has limited his schedule in recent years, playing very few tournaments outside of the Grand Slams.

After losing to Sinner at Wimbledon last year, Djokovic said he was competing at the latter stages of Slams with the "tank half-empty".

However, Djokovic says he does not have "the expiry date of my career" in mind.

"Why would I talk about retirement when I still keep proving to myself that I can still win?" he says in the documentary.

"As long as I have the drive, the passion, but most of all, as long as I feel like I can be one of the best players in the world, I want to keep going."

Winning a long-awaited Olympic gold medal in Paris in 2024 was the pinnacle of Djokovic's career, and he is still aiming for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

"It seems a long way out. I feel like I can make it," he added.

"I would like to end with the Serbian flag on my shoulders.

"It would be a nice way to wrap up something I'm very proud of." %!s()

As organizations rush to adopt it, a larger leadership challenge is emerging, one less about implementation and more about governance, accountability and control.​

Traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) frameworks were designed for an era in which technology followed predictable, human-led rules. AI systems are fundamentally different. They learn, adapt, automate decision-making and increasingly act with limited human oversight. That changes the responsibility equation entirely.​

The gap between AI adoption and governance is hard to ignore. About one-third of organizations have mature AI governance practices in place today. Today’s organizations need to embrace “AI social responsibility” (AI-SR), reframing AI deployment beyond a technical initiative as a leadership and societal obligation.​

AI systems can easily be misused or deployed without visibility, making responsibility more than just a compliance concern. It becomes a defining factor of trust, resilience and business continuity.​

The Rise Of Responsible AI Decision Making

Recent developments in powerful models like Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.4-Cyber show that capability now ships with the brakes attached. Both models are deliberately gated. Mythos held back from broad release, and GPT-5.4-Cyber restricted to identity-verified defenders through OpenAI’s Trusted Access for Cyber program. When the frontier itself limits who can use its most capable systems, “limit access to certain capabilities” stops being a slogan and becomes an operating decision.​

Organizations are realizing that innovation without guardrails can damage their operations and reputation, forcing hard tradeoffs. Some may slow deployment, limit capabilities or introduce stricter controls, even as the market favors speed and expansion. These decisions define how a company approaches responsible innovation.​

The recent Claude Code source-code exposure reinforces the point. In late March 2026, a packaging error bundled a source-map file into a public npm release, exposing roughly 500,000 lines of the tool’s code, which Anthropic attributed to human error rather than a breach. Even organizations that build their reputation on governance and safety are not immune to risk. Governance is not a one-time policy change; it demands continuous accountability across the entire lifecycle, from development to everyday use, and the failures that matter most are often mundane, not exotic.​

Organizations need to position themselves beyond aspirational slogans around “ethical AI” and ask more difficult questions. Are we willing to delay deployment until the right safeguards are in place? Are we able to limit access to certain capabilities? Can we invest in oversight infrastructure even if it slows productivity gains?​​

AI In Cyber Amplifies Both Defense And Risk

Few industries show the dual nature of AI more clearly than cybersecurity. AI has proven itself at threat detection, workflow automation and operational efficiency, letting security teams process vast data, identify patterns and respond to incidents faster than ever.​

Without careful oversight and visibility, AI introduces new risks. As AI spreads across business functions, visibility often declines: Security teams may not know which systems are touching sensitive data or where vulnerabilities sit.​

Agent sprawl is the sharpest version of this problem, and it is where I spend a lot of my time. Every AI agent an organization stands up is a new non-human identity, one that authenticates, holds permissions and generates machine-to-machine traffic that no person is watching in real time. They multiply faster than the old inventory of users and servers ever did, and they talk to each other and to sensitive systems on their own schedule. Most security programs still cannot answer basic questions about them: how many agents are running, what each one can reach and which ones are behaving differently this week than last.

You cannot govern what you cannot see, and right now the fastest-growing population on the enterprise network is largely invisible. That gap, not the models themselves, is where the near-term risk concentrates.

While AI has proven its value at organizing and processing information, it struggles with contextual judgment. That gap turns dangerous when organizations assume automation alone is enough to manage risk. Reaching for productivity without visibility into how these systems are actually used, they create new attack surfaces without meaning to.​

Those exposures lead to data leakage, privacy violations and eroded trust in the brands people rely on. As AI integrates deeper into these systems, organizations have to treat data stewardship as both a regulatory requirement and a piece of CSR, recognizing that AI adoption expands that responsibility rather than shrinking it.

Technology Alone Doesn’t Solve The Responsibility Gap

The same AI systems deployed to lift productivity or strengthen security can be repurposed for harm if safeguards aren’t in place from the start. This places responsibility on leadership and legal teams, as well as developers, long before the first model ships.​​

Responsible AI spans ethical foresight, accountability across functions and design that treat safety as a first-class requirement alongside innovation. Ethics cannot run as a separate initiative. It has to be connected to product development, security and business strategy, and integrated across the entire AI life cycle.​

No matter how advanced AI has become, it can’t replace human judgment. Determining whether to trust AI—and when to question it—will always be a human responsibility, requiring consistent education that reinforces responsible decision making across every level of the enterprise.​

When executives pair responsible AI use with efficiency and innovation, organizations build cultures where governance is a business imperative rather than an obstacle. Humans aren’t removed from the loop in AI-driven enterprises; they are critical to setting the boundaries where AI can and cannot operate.​

Responsibility Is A Strategic Advantage

Embracing AI-SR earns trust and produces innovation aligned with business values, but only when leaders play an active role in how AI systems are developed, governed and used. Success will not be determined by who deploys the most advanced AI systems, but by who oversees and uses them most responsibly.​

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The Eastern Central Atlantic (ECA) has long been considered data-poor when it comes to sharks and rays, although substantial shark fisheries have been operating in West Africa for decades and there is mounting evidence that fishing pressure is reshaping marine ecosystems there. Over several years, researchers tagged tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) to understand where they go, how they use the habitat, and what that might mean for their survival. They found that some tiger sharks stayed close to home; out of the individuals tracked, most remained within Cabo Verde’s waters, frequenting the same coastal areas near islands like Boavista, Sal, and Maio. And the level of residency shown by these tagged individuals suggests these islands are not just pitstops in some sort of long roadtrip, but habitats that are used repeatedly over time by all lifestages — juveniles, subadults, and adults were all present.

But that’s where the similarities stopped. Some individuals traveled far beyond the archipelago with one female, in particular, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil, spending time in coastal waters near Salvador before turning around and making the journey back. Having been initially tagged in near Boavista, her track covered nearly 11,185 miles (18,000 kilometers) in total. It is the second-longest movement ever recorded for a tiger shark and the first documented round-trip trans-Atlantic journey for the species.

So, why would a shark make such a long trek, linking two continents? The study did not reveal any concrete answers, so nothing can be said for certain. But there are theories! For example, this journey could be tied to feeding opportunities, mating behavior, or shifts in prey availability. After all, coastal Brazil hosts both abundant prey, like sea turtles, and known tiger shark mating grounds. But there’s a catch to this… similar resources exist in Cabo Verde. Why would one individual think what’s local is enough while another crosses an ocean? While as a species they may fall under the label of “tiger shark,” that doesn’t mean they are interchangeable units. Each one is an individual making different decisions, potentially based on past experience, environmental cues, or physiological needs. Variation between individuals, even within the same species, is increasingly recognized as a key part of how animals interact with their environment.

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Of course, this has implications for the conservation of the species. We cannot assume that protecting one place will protect this species, as their wide-ranging movements expose them to threats that do not respect boundaries. Even within Cabo Verde, risks are present; both small-scale and industrial fishing operations overlap with areas where sharks spend significant time. As fishing pressure increases, the likelihood of encounters rises. The study documented sharks caught in fisheries, including one individual that had been finned while still alive. And for the long-distance travelers? The danger multiplies as protection ebbs and flows depending where in the world they are.

Tiger sharks are apex predators. They help regulate prey populations and influence the behavior of other species, which in turn shapes entire ecosystems. And if tiger sharks are moving between the eastern and western Atlantic, then not only are populations more linked than we thought but possibly environments. If so, that might mean that declines in one region could ripple across the ocean. Both for the tiger shark population but also the health of the habitats they frequent and call home. It seems that Cabo Verde may function as a hub, a place where sharks feed, grow, and perhaps reproduce before dispersing. Protecting such hubs could have effects far beyond their geographic boundaries. But that only works if we recognize them in time.

So much remains unknown. Only a dozen sharks were tracked with satellite tags and several provided limited data. And yet, even within this small sample, the range of behaviors was immense. It makes you wonder what we are still missing! More than one-third of shark and ray species are currently threatened with extinction. For highly migratory species like tiger sharks, the challenge is not just reducing fishing pressure in one place but coordinating conservation across entire regions. %!s()