Back in the day, a secretive startup with a $180 million in funding meant we were in for a new photo sharing app or maybe a faster way to get pet supplies delivered to our front stoops. But the startup world has gotten more mature, and by mature, I mean old. And when you have hundreds of millions and aren't as young as you used to be, you tend to focus on the more vital things in life, or what the Bee Gees might refer to as, ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive. Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, you may end up benefiting from some of the efforts of companies like Retro Biosciences. Its goal: To add ten good years to your life. Ashlee Vance in Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Most Secretive Longevity Lab Finally Opens Its Doors. Retro isn't focused on any single silver bullet. The idea is to piece together a handful of solutions to add years to your life; including the latest rage: teaching an old cell new tricks. "The company of about 50 people has small teams shooting for breakthroughs in autophagy (the removal of damaged cells), the rejuvenation of blood plasma and three research programs tied to what the biotech industry calls partial cell reprogramming. Cell reprogramming is a process, proven out in numerous animal experiments, in which the cells of an older creature can be treated with a combination of proteins or molecules and turned into much younger cells."

2

Left to Your Own Devices

"In sum, students who spend more time staring at their phone do worse in school, distract other students around them, and feel worse about their life." That probably doesn't sound particularly surprising to anyone who's encountered a student and/or a phone. Derek Thompson in The Atlantic (Gift Article): It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber.

3

Read the Room

"Some attendees sat cross-legged with a book resting lapwise. Others were curled up on a sofa. Many adopted a modified 'The Thinker' position. One man read his book standing ramrod straight, like a marsh bird. Not once did a cellphone chime." In NYC, there's a new kind of party gaining popularity. And it's not much of a party at all. NYT(Gift Article): It’s My Party and I’ll Read If I Want To. "Reading Rhythms bills itself as a series of 'reading parties,' where guests read silently for an hour and chat with strangers about the books they brought." (This sounds like the perfect party if you swap TV watching for reading and replace the other guests with nobody.)

4

Raking it In

"A descendant of the Hermès luxury handbag empire is engulfed in a public battle with the charitable foundation he founded after reports that he planned to cut its funding and instead adopt his 51-year-old former gardener and bequeath him billions." There's probably a lot more to this story and you're likely to learn all about it from an upcoming Netflix limited series. Hermès billionaire plans to leave half of fortune to ex-gardener and cut ties with charity.

5

Extra, Extra

Red Skies at Night: "After weeks of intense earthquake activity, a volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland." In pictures: Volcano spews lava after erupting in Iceland. These epic volcanic images cap off a year in remarkable photos. NYT: 2023: The Year in Pictures.

+ Lane Mines: "In the last four weeks, Houthi militants have attacked or seized commercial ships 12 times and still hold 25 members of the MV Galaxy Leader hostage in Yemen ... The U.S. is still actively seeking member countries to join the mission, and increase the number of navies present and participating." Pentagon announces new international mission to counter attacks on commercial vessels in Red Sea. Here's the latest on Hamas and Israel from CNN, BBC, and Times of Israel.

+ Law of the Jungle: "Driven by economic crises, government repression and violence, migrants from China to Haiti decided to risk three days of deep mud, rushing rivers and bandits. Enterprising locals offered guides and porters, set up campsites and sold supplies to migrants, using color-coded wristbands to track who had paid for what. Enabled by social media and Colombian organized crime, more than 506,000 migrants — nearly two-thirds Venezuelans — had crossed the Darien jungle by mid-December, double the 248,000 who set a record the previous year. Before last year, the record was barely 30,000 in 2016." The jungle between Colombia and Panama becomes a highway for migrants from around the world.

+ Why Don't We Steal Away: "Big retail chains have been using claims about mob shoplifting to obscure why they’ve been closing stores in some neighborhoods. Target has attributed closings of stores in Seattle, New York and San Francisco to crime, although in some cases those neighborhoods have been shown to have lower shoplifting rates than locations left open. The real issue, in other words, may be that the retailer made a mistake in locating these stores and is trying to blame local residents, rather than its own executive decision-making." LA Times: How the retail lobby sold a $45-billion whopper about organized shoplifting.

+ Dropped Majors: "Marvel Studios has parted ways with Jonathan Majors — the actor cast to play Kang, the central antagonist in the Multiverse Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — after he was convicted on Dec. 18 of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and assault of Grace Jabbari, his ex-girlfriend."

+ Sports (Shifting) Center: "More than 92,000 fans filled the University of Nebraska’s football stadium to watch a women’s collegiate volleyball match, setting a global mark for the largest attendance at any women’s sporting event." That was just one example of why the year in sports could be fairly described as the year in women's sports. NYT (Gift Article): A Record-Breaking 2023 in Sports.

+ Shopping Haul: The mega retailers are racing to keep up with Amazon's delivery times, and that's good news for you if you're still shopping. (It's probably less good news for smaller retailers that seem to be falling further behind.) Retailers are improving their delivery speeds, meaning good news for late holiday shoppers.

6

Bottom of the News

"In a year as weird as this one, the only way to recap it is to break it down to its molecular level." The Ringer: The 84 Sentences That Explain 2023. "I love you, but you are not serious people."