The wackiest headlines from the week as they would appear in a Classifieds section...

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HEALTH TRACKER AVAILABLE: After three years of keeping us all updated on Covid case counts, Johns Hopkins University will stop updating its Covid-19 tracking dashboard next month. The tracker was viewed 2.5+ billion times and cost $13 million to run. It’ll be remembered as the runner-up to Domino’s pizza tracker tech.

PART-TIME TENNIS PRO: Matija Pecotic, who works full-time in real estate in Croatia, defeated the former eighth-ranked tennis player in the world, Jack Sock, in Florida this week. Pecotic told news outlets that he had to leave his job early to play the match.

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ISO TRUST: In a survey of Americans from Gallup and the Knight Foundation, 50% of respondents indicated they believe that national news orgs intend to mislead, misinform, or persuade the public.

KETCHUP FOR THE PEOPLE: Kraft Heinz said it wouldn’t raise condiment- or fast meal prices despite higher costs. Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, on the other hand, said they’d raise prices in response to inflation.

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OUTDATED BARNEY MERCH: Mattel has resurrected the beloved purple-and-green dinosaur for appearances on TV, film, and YouTube. But his makeover hasn’t gone over well with OG Barney fans on social media.

REALLY BIG BOOTS: The latest drop from art collective MSCHF, Big Red Boots, has gone viral online and took over New York Fashion Week. They go for $350, but good luck snagging a pair.—MM

Here are some illuminating scientific discoveries from the week to help you live better and maybe even colonize Mars.

Solar power may be coming to the moon. Blue Origin claims it cracked the mystery of how to turn moon dust into solar panels—something scientists have been trying to do since astronauts first brought the stuff back to Earth. The company dropped the news with surprisingly little fanfare for a potentially major breakthrough, but if Bezos’s space force really is able to replicate the Earth-bound experiments it’s done so far on the moon, it would be a game changer. The company is reportedly trying to pitch its tech to NASA for building lunar infrastructure that could ultimately help get us to Mars.

See the Titanic like never before. To mark the 25th anniversary of James Cameron’s first big water movie’s release, scientists made public never-before-seen footage of the Titanic’s wreckage from when it was first discovered. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution captured the video back in 1986 with cameras onboard a submersible. The uncut video shows what was left of the ship inside and out, including one sad chandelier. We won’t tell if you play Celine Dion while watching it.

There’s a new way to screen for some cancers. Scientists in South Korea have developed a cheap way to detect pancreatic and prostate cancer—and all the patient has to do is pee on a strip. They say their sensor, which costs around eight cents, has a 99% success rate in identifying the urine of people with these cancers versus people without. And the team is experimenting further to try to extend it to more cancers, including colorectal and lung cancers.—AR

We’ve all noticed that chicken eggs cost as much as the Fabergé kind lately—OK, not quite, but the price of eggs has increased over 70% in the past year. At least part of the blame for the spike lies with the avian flu, which has been spreading from wild birds to poultry worldwide.

In the US, over 58 million farm birds have died in the past year as a result of the outbreak (a death toll that includes whole flocks that had to be culled if even one bird got infected). But it’s not just avian safety and omelette prices that have people concerned about the outbreak: There are also fears this bird flu could lead to the next human pandemic.

What’s new with the bird flu?

The A(H5N1) virus has been infecting poultry in Asia and other regions of the world since 1996, but the current outbreak is different in scope and intensity. Not only is the virus sweeping through new places, affecting Europe and the US more extensively than ever before, it’s also become endemic among some wild birds for the first time, per Reuters. More parts of the world are starting to see that it’s no longer a seasonal phenomenon, making poultry vulnerable to infection year-round.

With A(H5N1)’s current iteration, the term “bird flu” increasingly sounds like a misnomer: Scientists in the US have detected it in bears, foxes, raccoons, and other mammals. And a recent outbreak at a mink farm in Spain has shown that it’s now sometimes able to spread among mammals without any birds present.

Flu viruses are particularly inclined to mutate, and if an animal becomes infected with both a human flu and a bird flu, the two different strains can exchange bits of DNA (kind of like the virus version of a sitcom crossover), making it more adept at infecting new hosts.

This development—and humanity’s recent struggle with another high-risk pathogen—has many people wondering whether humans might be next.

So, how risky is it for humans?

Not very. Experts urge vigilance within the medical community, but you don’t have to relocate to an off-the-grid bunker in rural Wyoming just yet.

• Instances of human infection are exceedingly rare: There have been less than 10 cases globally since December 2021, according to the CDC (though the mortality rate tends to be high).
• At the moment, humans mostly contract the virus from infected animals, and farm workers are taking precautions when dealing with birds and livestock.

And in other reassuring news, you don’t need to worry about bird flu in your food—unless you enjoy eating raw eggs or poultry. Heating them to an internal temperature of 165˚F kills bacteria and viruses, A(H5N1) included, per the CDC.

While scientists aren’t immediately concerned about the bird flu setting off the next human pandemic, the situation is already making farming more unpredictable and threatens to render our fauna less diverse.

Looking ahead...A(H5N1) vaccines for birds do exist, but they’re traditionally unpopular due to import bans on vaccinated birds and their limited effectiveness against the ever-mutating virus. The recent outbreak has caused a change of heart in many governments that are testing jabs on birds.—SK

It’s a big world out there. In this section, we’ll teleport you to an interesting location—and hopefully give you travel ideas in the process.

When relationships end they leave behind not only emotional scars, but also physical objects that remind us of former partners.

Did you know that there’s a museum dedicated to those objects? It’s called the Museum of Broken Relationships, and it’s located in a former palace in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb. This monument to what could have been began as a temporary project in 2006, but after opening a permanent location several years later, it’s grown to become one of Croatia’s most popular tourist attractions, per the NYT.

It’s not difficult to see the appeal. The collection includes over 4,000 items sent anonymously by heartbroken people all over the world, about 70 of which are displayed at a time. The mementos are accompanied by descriptions from the sender providing context—but some, such as a book called I Can Make You Thin (a gift from an ex-fiancé), don’t really require an explanation.

If you’re eager to eavesdrop on strangers’ failed relationships but aren’t planning on traveling to Croatia, the museum opened a temporary exhibit this month in Indianapolis.

The Brew’s resident tastemaker, Jamie, compiles her favorite recs to help you live your best life.

Meal prep: Two variations on crispy rice: 1) gochujang cheesy rice balls and 2) tamari cured and confit yolks over crispy rice.

Productivity tip: #Monkmode is TikTok’s no-distractions productivity hack.

Workout: An explainer on cycle syncing, the viral trend of aligning your diet and exercise with your menstrual cycle.

Book club: The New Yorker released its Best Books of 2022 list this week.

Streaming binge: Goliath on Amazon Prime starring Billy Bob Thornton. (h/t Money with Katie)

Playlist: The Vault of Ambience for fantasy work/study vibes on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

Life hack: Post-Valentine’s Day dating advice from a behavioral scientist.

Tech tip: See how every Uber driver has rated you.

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Last Sunday we asked which part of your life you wish AI would take over and do for you. Our favorite responses:

1. “Watching the first couple episodes of a show to see if you like it or not.”—Katherine
2. “Give it the ability to respond to haters of your favorite sports team after a big loss. It will save both the naysayer and my conscience from vulgarity-filled vitriol.”—Jake from Harrisburg, PA (probably an Eagles fan)
3. “I recently lost my husband. It literally took us weeks to write the obituary. Reading this newsletter full of anecdotes about ChatGPT and my husband having been a technology guru, we finally fed the data points into ChatGPT for fun. It churned out at least four or five really good obituaries that we tweaked for the final task. This was a heavy burden that was made so much lighter by AI.”—Betsey from Texas

This week’s question

On Monday, a couple got married during halftime of a Dallas Mavericks game. For the happy duo, staring into each other’s eyes with the Jumbotron in their periphery must have been a dream. But not everyone’s love language is squeaky gym shoes. Where’s the least romantic place you can think of to get married?

Here’s Matty’s response to get the juices flowing: Onstage after curtain call for a high school production of Our Town.

Share your response here.