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

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ISO NURSE SHARK: A female stingray in Charlotte is pregnant, but here’s the drama—there are no males in her North Carolina aquarium. She’s got a lot of explaining to do.

PRO CORNHOLER: Two Colorado high-school seniors became the first students ever to receive scholarships to play Division I collegiate cornhole. The pair, both five-star recruits, will attend Winthrop University and spend the rest of their lives trying to explain their cheap college tuition to everyone they meet.

Personal

FOUND—HITCHHIKING MAGGOTS: A Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit had to turn around after two hours because maggots began raining down on passengers from an overhead bin. The crawlers hitched a ride on a rotting fish someone had in their carry-on but eventually had to pay for a real seat.

ISO COUSINS: Cousins are disappearing in Canada as the size of families shrinks, a new study showed. In 2095, the average Canadian 15-year-old girl will have 3.6 living cousins, down from 15.3 in 1950. Researchers fear kids will miss out on important developmental stages without those relatives, like learning to make fart sounds during funerals.

For sale

MIXTAPES: Cassette tapes are cool again in Japan, which means they will be at every Urban Outfitters in the US in about five years.

SOME GUY’S SKIN: A Swiss art collector paid seven figures for the tattooed skin right off an Austrian performance artist’s back. The collector will just have photos until the artist dies, when he’ll be able to acquire the actual skin.—MM

Here are some illuminating scientific discoveries from the week to help you live better and maybe even befriend a tiger (please don’t).

Would you eat meat rice? South Korean researchers who combined animal cells with rice grains say the product can help combat food insecurity and climate change. The hybrid beef-rice—which has higher nutritional content than regular rice thanks to the addition of bovine muscle and fat cells—is said to taste nuttier and feel harder than its conventional counterpart. There’s only 7% more protein per 100-gram serving (about the same as adding one gram of brisket to your plate), but meat rice can still supplement meals in food-insecure areas, the researchers say. Growing cultured beef is also better for the environment than raising cattle.

Google will track our methane emissions from space. In partnership with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, Google will use its AI and computing capabilities to create a map of the planet’s big methane emitters based on data from the satellite MethaneSAT, which launches next month. Google will cross-reference the satellite’s methane detection with the locations of oil and gas infrastructure to determine the types of equipment that leak the greenhouse gas. The data will be available later this year on the Google Earth Engine platform, which is free to researchers, nonprofits, and news media.

Big cats can recognize voices they’ve heard before. The infamously gentle reunion between Christian the lion and his former human owners feels a little less unbelievable now that new research shows big cats can tell familiar people apart from strangers by their voices. A study of lions, leopards, cheetahs, and tigers raised either by their mothers or by humans found that the cats’ responses were faster, more acute (e.g., both ears moving vs. just one twitching), and longer when they heard the voice of someone known to them. And domesticity didn’t seem to have anything to do with it—the researchers say any big cat can learn who’s taking care of them after enough interaction.—ML

In the 19th century, Luddites smashed up automatic looms to protest the new technology. Last weekend, people at a San Francisco Lunar New Year celebration seemed to have the same idea—but with more firepower. A mob incinerated an autonomous vehicle (AV) operated by Alphabet subsidiary Waymo after it rolled into a crowded intersection.

After one person jumped on the hood and smashed the windshield of the driverless—and passengerless—Jaguar I-PACE crossover, others began breaking windows and spray-painting the body. The car was eventually set ablaze with fireworks.

Though the mob’s motivation is unknown, the attack felt like a comeuppance: Over the past few years, SF has been a major testing hub for AVs, along with Phoenix and Austin. The hundreds of driverless taxis zipping around the city’s hills annoy residents almost as much as out-of-towners who call it San Fran. AVs have been filmed causing traffic jams and blocking emergency vehicles on numerous occasions. One has even been at the center of a very serious accident.

The roadblocks have cast doubt on the near-term prospect of a future where getting chauffeured around by AI is mainstream. So, buckle in while we explore the state of the AV industry and what it might take to stop it from inspiring rage.

Industry stuck in a rut

One major setback for a driverless future came in October, when a Cruise AV, operated by GM, struck a woman who was thrown into its path after getting hit by a human driver in San Francisco. Instead of stopping immediately, the Cruise AV dragged the pedestrian 20 feet as it tried to pull over to the side of the road. The woman sustained serious injuries.

California and federal officials are investigating the company, which has been in crisis ever since an investigation by an outside law firm that Cruise hired found that the incident was the result of multiple technical failures. Cruise admitted that it improperly failed to disclose all the details to regulators. The company recalled its entire fleet of 950 AVs, paused all testing countrywide, and sacked top executives. California’s DMV has suspended Cruise’s permit to test AVs on public roads.

But it’s not just about Cruise:

• Waymo recalled 444 self-driving cars this week after two of its AVs in Arizona bumped the same towed vehicle minutes apart.
• A handful of Chinese companies, including Didi, have recently stopped testing their AVs in California. While friction between the US and China could be to blame, George Washington University Engineering professor John Helveston told Business Insider that Didi’s exit might have to do with the harsher regulatory environment following the Cruise accident.

Experts say that the biggest issues with current AVs occur when they run into unusual situations that might be a no-brainer for a person. It’s likely a human driver would’ve stopped the car to check on a pedestrian they just hit before trying to pull over, while many SF Uber drivers would’ve probably used common sense and avoided the chaos of the Lunar New Year festivities.

Is it just an image problem?

The industry’s problems are its own doing, according to the Verge’s transportation editor, Andrew J. Hawkins. He blames the current loss of public trust on years of overpromising by some industry executives (ahem, Elon) that we’ll all be cruising around in the backseat while our cars drive themselves in the near future. Hawkins believes a lack of regulation allowed some companies to rush into testing AVs, which ultimately undermined the public’s confidence in the tech.

Meanwhile, some say we should remember that while the spate of high-profile AV fails is disconcerting, humans behind the wheel can spell even more trouble—especially since they’re not always attentive or sober. Ars Technica reporter Timothy B. Lee, who analyzed Cruise and Waymo crash reports, claims that Waymo AVs already appear safer than human drivers, though he says more research is needed.

While Lee notes that both companies’ driverless cars sometimes struggle to avoid hitting inanimate objects and Cruise’s AVs need to be better at navigating intersections, they’ve mostly been involved in minor accidents. He argues that given AVs’ potential to become “much safer” than human drivers, ending testing on city streets “could easily cost more lives than it saves.”

But the public’s perception of AVs doesn’t always match the cars’ safety record: A study published in Transportation Research in 2021 found that autonomous vehicles will have to be much less likely, “potentially unrealistically,” to crash than human drivers for passengers to trust them.

Most people probably have time to get used to the idea…a recent report by S&P Global Mobility predicts that a car “that can go anywhere and do everything a human driver can” will not arrive before at least 2035, while in the meantime, AVs will only be operated in designated areas or as an aid for human drivers.—SK

Cook: Decadent pasta with cauliflower. Don’t skimp on the cheesy breadcrumbs.

Soften: Struggling to spread cold butter on your toast? Try keeping it at room temp like they do in France.

Watch: Bottoms can best be described as a modern take on the ’80s high-school comedy. Lucky for you, it’s now streaming.

Listen: If you need another reason to expense a standing desk…this podcast explores how the human body adapts to technology.

Art rec: David Shrigley’s Zodiac prints.

Read: Does private equity have to cost you your soul? Former PE employee Carrie Sun weighs the question in her new memoir.

Wanna merge accounting with AI? From manual entry to elevated analysis, transform the future of accounting.

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.

There’s no hotel more relevant during Presidents Day weekend than the Beekman Arms, the self-proclaimed oldest inn in the US, famous for providing shelter to real American presidents (George Washington, Bill Clinton) and actors who have portrayed them in film and TV (Jack Nicholson, Beau Bridges).

“The Beek,” as locals call it, opened in 1766 in New York’s Hudson Valley and has counted many presidents and would-be presidents among its list of famous guests over the years.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt wrapped up his campaigns for governor and president with speeches on the inn’s front porch.
• George Washington really did sleep there. During the Revolutionary War, he stayed at the Beek along with Philip Schuyler, Benedict Arnold, and Alexander Hamilton.
• Bill Clinton and Benjamin Harrison have also been there, along with VPs Al Gore, Aaron Burr, Levi Morton, and Nelson Rockefeller.

You can leave with some history, too. If stealing towels from the room isn’t your thing, the hotel’s antique market is located in a two-story barn behind the building and hosts about 30 dealers ready to sell you some historic knickknacks. There are vintage paintings, books, and furniture for people who want to take home something more interesting than the hotel shampoo bottles.—DL

Last week, we asked you to share the worst gift you’ve ever received on Valentine’s Day. Here are our favorite answers:

• “Senior year in college, my then-boyfriend gave me candy and flowers. When it was delivered, he didn’t have enough money to cover the cost and I paid for my ‘gift.’”—Erin from Boston, MA
• “I had only been dating this guy for a few weeks and he gave me an expensive ENGAGEMENT RING on Valentine’s Day. He said he wasn’t proposing but wanted me to wear it and pretend we were engaged. We broke up shortly after that incident.”—Jen from Pennsylvania
• “My boyfriend gave me a gift certificate to see his dentist for teeth whitening and a dental exam.”—Heather from Provo, Utah
• “My husband bought me an ax. It was a nice one, but I suggested in the future I’d prefer not to get weapons for Valentine’s Day.”—Amy from Midlothian, VA

This week’s prompt

A personal finance writer shared how she lost $50,000 in an elaborate scam, and now we are never answering our phones again.

Tell us your own scam story here.

*Source: https://www.finder.com/unused-gym-memberships

**Facet Wealth, Inc. (“Facet”) is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. This is not an offer to sell securities or the solicitation of an offer to purchase securities. This is not investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Based on a study conducted by Facet in April 2023. A statistically valid sample of members following Facet’s current planning process demonstrated that more than half of these members, defined here as a majority, achieved value greater than their planning fee. This value was shown to reoccur on an annual basis. Assumptions included average expenses and fees, using retirement tax savings, portfolio expenses and tax loss harvesting as value drivers using Facet’s investment services, and discounting value to align with the acceptance of Facet recommendations. Facet assesses clients an annual flat fee for service based on the complexity of planning needs. There is no separate or additional fee for investment management. This is not a guarantee or prediction of actual results for any member and results may vary by member. Some value like tax loss harvesting may vary year to year. Offer ends February 29, 2024.