Saturday, August 23
At A Glance
Bookkeeping
> 55: Most rollercoasters ridden in one week, achieved by this adrenaline junkie.
> 29 minutes, 3 seconds: How long a Croatian freediver held his breath underwater, beating the last world record by nearly five minutes and about doubling the time managed by bottlenose dolphins.
Browse
> Twin giant panda cubs, Leni and Lotti, celebrate their first birthday.
> Photos show 2,000-year-old artifacts from sunken Egyptian city.
> Ketchup was once prescribed as a remedy for diarrhea.
> The cost of five years of daycare today.
> The rise of the "coolcation."
> ... and destinations where tourists outnumber locals.
Listen
> Why parents are opting out of public schools.
> Australia has its own Area 51.
Watch
> Can saunas make you live longer?
> Professional chefs blind taste test 27 salsas.
> ... and why seedless fruits are a disaster in the making.
Long Read
> How everything we do is authenticated, stored, and scored.
> America is setting its mouth on fire.
> These 14 empty nesters are reimagining their lives.
Most Clicked This Week: The controversial rise of grandma showers.
Historybook: Actor River Phoenix born (1970); Salad Bowl strike begins; largest farmworker strike in US history (1970); Kobe Bryant born (1978); 12-time Olympic swimming medalist Natalie Coughlin born (1982); India becomes fourth country to successfully land on the moon (2023).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> The 2025 college football season kicks off tomorrow with a limited slate of Week 0 games, including No. 17 Kansas State taking on No. 22 Iowa State (12 pm ET, ESPN) from Dublin, Ireland (More)
> Rapper Lil Nas X is arrested and hospitalized after walking in Los Angeles in only underwear, allegedly punching an officer twice in the face (More)
> The 2025 US Open tennis championships begin this weekend in New York City (More) | See complete women's bracket (More) | ... and men's bracket (More)
Science & Technology
> CT scans and 3D mapping of an ancient child's bones discovered in modern-day Israel suggest humans and Neanderthals interacted 100,000 years earlier than previously believed (More)
> Giraffe genetic data reveals Africa is home to four distinct species, not just one as long assumed; new taxonomy will enable more nuanced understandings of population threats and targeted conservation efforts (More)
> Light pollution is interfering with songbirds' biological clocks, causing them to chirp an average of 50 minutes longer per day—18 minutes earlier in the morning and 32 minutes later in the evening (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq -0.3%) ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's annual policy speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, today (More) | Why do stock markets matter? (More)
> US existing home sales rise 2% month over month in July; median home price of $422,400 is up 0.2% from a year ago, representing smallest annual increase since June 2023 but still the highest median home price for any July on record (More) | How do mortgages work? (1440 Topics)
> Cracker Barrel shares close down 7% following pushback on its new simplified logo—part of a larger brand refresh (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Supreme Court clears the Trump administration to cut $783M in National Institutes of Health grants linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives while a lawsuit over the cuts continues (More) | California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signs legislation sending redrawn congressional map to voters for approval (More)
> Erik Menendez is denied parole 36 years after murdering his parents in Los Angeles, will next be eligible in three years; brother Lyle goes before the parole board today (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> Influential evangelical leader James Dobson dies at age 89; the conservative activist served as an adviser to President Donald Trump and former presidents including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush (More)
Our Old House
An Archaeology Student Found a Medieval Gold Artifact During Her First Dig
Just an hour and a half into her first ever excavation, an American archaeology student has struck gold in Britain. Dating back to the ninth century, the small, ornate artifact she unearthed may have had a ceremonial purpose.
Florida-native Yara Souza, an undergraduate at Newcastle University in northern England, was digging alongside other students at Redesdale in Northumberland when she discovered the gold piece. According to a statement from the university, the 1.5-inch piece has a decorative finial at one end, and it appears to be from Britain’s early medieval period.
“I couldn’t believe I’d found something so quickly into my first ever excavation,” Souza says in the statement. “It was actually quite overwhelming.”
The dig’s location in Redesdale, a valley in Northumberland National Park, is near Dere Street, which was once a “major Roman road,” per the statement. Britain was part of the western Roman Empire for more than 350 years, from 43 C.E. until the early fifth century, when the declining empire fell. Roman soldiers laid Dere Street, also known as the “Great North Road,” between 79 and 81 C.E. They used it to colonize northern Britain: The path runs from modern-day York, England, to Firth of Forth, Scotland, which is today an over 200-mile drive.
Friday, August 22
Headlines
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Meta reportedly freezes its AI hiring. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Facebook and Instagram parent company is ending its AI spending spree (for now) and putting a hold on hiring for its artificial intelligence division. Meta has invested untold billions in waging a talent war over the industry’s top AI minds as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s quest to develop “superintelligence,” or smarter-than-human intelligence. Earlier this year, Meta spent $14 billion for a stake in Scale AI to secure the services of its co-founder, Alexandr Wang. But analysts and investors are beginning to worry about the sky-high spending. Meta downplayed the hiring freeze as “basic organizational planning.”—AERobert Reich
How to stop him
Friends,
I’m writing to you from Houston, Texas, where I’m flogging Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America to every Texan who might be interested. So far I think I’ve sold two copies.
Just kidding. Last night, in fact, I met hundreds of Texans who seemed interested.
Texas wasn’t always the bastion of right-wing extremism it seems today. Remember Ann Richards? She was the progressive firebrand governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. I recall her keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta when she said of then-President George H.W. Bush, “Poor George, he can’t help it — he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
Today, the progressive torch is being carried in Texas by people like Beto O’Rourke, Rep. Greg Casar (from Texas’s 35th congressional district), and State Rep. Nicole Collier.
At A Glance
New Beatles demos, documentary footage coming this fall.
Award-winning photographs of the night sky.
Remember Sears' DIY houses?
See previous designs of famous websites.
Find the best burger in every state.
... and each state's most popular baby name 25 years ago.
Highest places in the world to get drinks.
The latest dating trend is Shrekking.
Clickbait: Cuddly, huggable carnivorous bats.
Historybook: First Geneva Convention held (1864); American poet Dorothy Parker born (1893); Cadillac Motor Co. founded (1902); Althea Gibson is first African American to compete in a US national tennis tournament (1950); Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton is murdered (1989).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> The 2025 PGA Tour Championship kicks off today for the FedEx Cup title and $10M top prize (More) | ... and Tiger Woods to chair committee to look at major structural changes to the PGA Tour (More)
> ESPN's new app, which will include livestreams of all 12 of the network's channels, launches today at $29.99/month (More) | ... and the streaming service will host its first WWE event Sept. 20, ahead of the scheduled 2026 launch (More)
> Former boxing champ Julio César Chávez Jr. deported over alleged ties to Mexican drug cartels (More) | YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul to face WBA world champ Gervonta Davis on Netflix Nov. 14 (More)
Science & Technology
> Google debuts line of Pixel smartphones that use Google's artificial intelligence assistant, Gemini, to let users complete multiple tasks simultaneously (More)
> Study shows triple-negative breast cancer cells feed on nearby fat cells, prompting researchers to develop a treatment that blocks the aggressive cancer’s access to fat; the approach may also work against other cancers (More) | Why it's so hard to cure cancer (More)
> Never-before-seen supernova—or exploding star—confirms massive stars have several onion-like layers and an innermost iron core (More) | IBM and NASA release an advanced open-source AI model for predicting solar weather (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow +0.0%, Nasdaq -0.7%) (More) | Federal Reserve meeting minutes from July show most officials agree it's too early to lower interest rates (More) | President Donald Trump calls for resignation of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook amid accusations of mortgage fraud (More)
> Pop Mart shares close up 12% after the Labubu maker sees net profit rise nearly 400% in first six months of 2025, hints at mini-Labubu dolls (More) | What are Labubus and why are they so popular? (More)
> Sony to raise prices of PlayStation 5 game consoles in the US by $50 starting today, citing challenges of current economic environment (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> At least 600 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers receive final termination notices (More) | Office of the Director of National Intelligence to cut annual budget by over $700M, trimming workforce by up to 40% (More) | Texas House passes GOP redistricting plan; Senate vote expected today (More)
> Hurricane Erin is forecast to cause large swells, life-threatening rip currents, and damaging winds along the US East Coast into Friday; the storm has already spurred dozens of water rescues and beach closures (More) | Why there's a "dirty side" of a hurricane (More)
> Third federal judge denies Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, citing contents of DOJ's sealed files far exceed the transcripts in question (More)
On Being a Father
My daughter was born in 1972 while I was still in the Navy and stationed at Norfolk, VA. I was on leave, when she was born but had to return that same day. Four months later, I was honorably discharged and two months later, I enrolled in college while I was working full time.
Even though I received the GI Bill, I still worked full time which left me with very little time to be with my daughter. Two years later, I graduated and immediately became employed with a company that had me working over 60 hours a week.
Guess what?
I had very little time to spend with my daughter.
My daughter was a freshman in college, when her mother and I got a divorce. I set up a Trust Fund before the divorce that would pay for four years of college plus give her $10,000 when she graduated.
My daughter and I stay in touch with each other regularly, until about 7 years ago, when all of sudden she quit communicating with me, offering no explanation. I reached out several times but she did not respond.
My parents were not touchy-feely parents and never emotionally supportive of me, and I acquired those same behaviors. While I was not as strict on my daughter as my parents had been on me, I still was not emotionally supportive, nor was I there very much while she was growing up.
I have no idea if that is what contributed to her desire to quit communicating but I am sure it had something to do with it.
If you are a new father and reading this, please learn from my lesson and be there for your children as often as you can otherwise you might regret it like me.



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