When we think of Neanderthals, we usually picture a crude, boorish, big boned, uncivilized man weilding a giant club. When humans who co-existed with Neanderthals came across one of them, they saw something else: a thirst trap. Come on. The receding hairline. The thick unibrow. The aggressive table manners. You know you want this! OK, this is starting to sound a little too much like my Tinder profile. And I am writing this from a room my family calls a Man Cave. Maybe I'm part Neanderthal. Plenty of humans still have faint traces of Neanderthal DNA. Our more advanced ability to analyze the human (etc) genome has made it clear why. "A pair of new studies sheds light on a pivotal but mysterious chapter of the human origin story, revealing that modern humans and Neanderthals had babies together for an extended period, peaking 47,000 years ago — leaving genetic fingerprints in modern-day people." WaPo: (Gift Article): Scientists pinpoint when humans had babies with Neanderthals. An anthropologist explains: "It paints a different story than this rare encounter. Whenever you ran into a Neanderthal, it was okay to have a baby with a Neanderthal." (Compare that to now when most people won't even make out with a person from a different political party.)

+ When Neanderthals interbred with ancient humans: Research clarifies timeline of human evolution. "'Human history is not just a story of success. We actually went extinct several times." (This actually gives me hope for the next four years...)

2

Drone Be or Not to Be

Multiple' drones have reportedly entered the airspace of a New Jersey naval station. Apparently, such drone invasions are not rare, especially in the Garden State. Some of the mysterious drone sightings have been later identified as small aircraft. But, as we've seen around the world, we are deep into the age of drone surveillance and warfare. And as Jared Keller explains in Wired, we don't exactly have a system to deal with it. Why the US Military Can't Just Shoot Down the Mystery Drones. "US military officials also indicated to reporters that the types of counter-drone capabilities the Pentagon may be able to bring to bear for domestic defense may be limited to non-kinetic 'soft kill' means like RF and GPS signal jamming and other relatively low-tech interception techniques like nets and 'string streamers' due to legal constraints on the US military’s ability to engage with drones over American soil."

3

Fast Download Times at Ridgemont High

Two things stand out in the latest Pew report on how (and how much) teens use technology these days. First, YouTube is huge. Really huge. And second, teens are online pretty much all the time. Here's an interesting look at Teens, Social Media and Technology in 2024. It will be interesting to see how much AI skews these numbers over the next few years.

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: I'm going to assign you a couple of feel good shows. First, the second season of Shrinking on AppleTV is out. The show really has nothing to do with actual psychotherapy and there's a little quality hiccup at the start of season two, but overall, it's a really fun show with a stellar cast that includes Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams. It's sort of Ted Lasso meets therapy. And second, Somebody Somewhere on Max is the story of group of outsiders who find friendship and meaning (and humor) in Kansas.

+ What to Read: I noticed The Wedding People by Alison Espach won the reader's choice award at Goodreads. So I downloaded it onto my Kindle and I'm digging it so far.

+ What to Play: Colin Jost is the host of Pop Culture Jeopardyon Prime. It's like regular Jeopardy but with teams, a few un-needed game twists, and a little more chatter and humor. Somehow, my teens watched this with me and we're now on to the real Jeopardy. So the pop culture version can be viewed as a gateway drug.

5

Extra, Extra

Make Iron Lungs Great Again? You might want to mask up before reading this next lede from the NYT (Gift Article): "The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine." Related: Six Childhood Scourges We’ve Forgotten About, Thanks to Vaccines. Let's not appoint health officials who are nostalgic for the old scourges. While were on the appointee topic: Trump’s Middle East Adviser Pick Is a Small-Time Truck Salesman. I guess it's refreshing that Boulos is not a billionaire (even though he's claimed to be). He's also Tiffany Trump's father-in-law.

+ Canary in a Cold Brine: "Scientists have been piecing together what happened to the birds, along with other species in the northeast Pacific that suddenly died or disappeared. It became clear that the culprit was an record-breaking marine heat wave, a mass of warm water that would come to be known as the Blob." Ocean Heat Wiped Out Half These Seabirds Around Alaska.

+ Resistance is Futile: "For decades, Iran poured money and military aid into Syria, backing the Assad regime in its ambition to confront Israel. Now many Iranians are openly asking why." (It's actually pretty incredible just how openly they're asking questions about their leaders and the collapsing axis of resistance. Syria may not be the last domino in this crazy post-Oct 7 era.) NYT (Gift Article): The Syrian Upheaval Has Iranian Leaders Reeling, Too.

+ Lucky Penny? Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway chokehold, will join Trump's suite at the Army/Navy football game.

+ Woke AF: "Short sleepers cruise by on four to six hours a night and don’t seem to suffer ill effects. Turns out they’re genetically built to require less sleep than the rest of us." The ones who need little sleep.

+ Country Club: Post-election Elon Musk is so wealthy that he now has to be compared to whole countries instead of individual people. Only 55 Countries Now Have More Household Wealth Than Elon Musk’s $447 Billion.

+ Florida Mandible: "An invasive predator that can grow up to 20ft, weigh over 100kg and devour prey six times its size – it is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. That’s what residents of southern Florida have been struggling with for the past few decades, with the rapid growth of the Burmese python population in the Everglades." The Burmese python problem: how 20ft predators are wreaking havoc on the Everglades.

6

Feel Good Friday

"The time on the clock: 10.04 seconds, faster than any other 16-year-old in history. No wonder the video of this track meet for Australian teenagers went instantly viral. It was impossible to watch him and not be reminded of Usain Bolt—even according to Usain Bolt. 'He looks like young me.'" Australian sprinter Gout Gout—it rhymes with ‘Bout Bout’—is breaking records and drawing comparisons to the eight-time Olympic champion.

+ This drug is the 'breakthrough of the year' — and it could mean the end of the HIV epidemic.

+ Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich published his first story for the newspaper since returning home from Russia.

+ Swifties took 353,000 Uber rides on their way to the Eras Tour — and tipped their drivers eight times the average.

+ Hundreds of bookstore staffers receive holiday bonuses from author James Patterson. (Sadly for my local bookstore staffers, I offered them a profit sharing deal on my book sales.)

+ East Bay engineer dedicates himself to cleaning up the Bay Area.

+ The Final Moments of Gukesh Winning World Championship. Trust me. (The crowd reaction is not unlike that of my proofer RD when I come up with a good headline.)

+ A lot of year-end news image collections can be a little harsh. Not this one. Hopeful Images From 2024. I really can't believe my beagle dressed like Steve Jobs didn't make the list.