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Tuesday • January 9, 2024
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If, less than two weeks into January, you’re seeing your 2024 goals already slipping away, don’t lose hope. You can still achieve everything you want to, even if you’re getting off to a slow start, writes Allison Aubrey for NPR’s Morning Edition. Her recommendations include refining your goals, bringing friends into the fold to help you, and Nice News’ personal favorite, aiming for optimism. “There’s a strong link between optimism and healthy behaviors,” Aubrey explains. “Optimistic individuals tend to have goals and the confidence to reach them.” Read the full list of tips and revisit our article on how to build good habits this year.
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Culture
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| Predictions From the Past: What People in 1924 Thought 2024 Would Be Like |
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spawns/ iStock
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What do you think the world will be like in 100 years? The people of 1924 certainly had some thoughts — many surprisingly prescient, and many hilariously wrong. USA Today recently rounded up a selection of 2024 predictions from a century ago, including several regarding the state of transportation.
Real estate mogul Joseph P. Day thought daily commutes to the office might be done via plane, while Swedish architect Ben Bjorkson rather accurately predicted how roadways might take over U.S. cities. “In the city of a hundred years from now, I see three-deck roads, speedways through the heart of town, skyscrapers with entrances for automobiles as high as 15 stories, monorail expresses to the suburbs replacing streetcars and motor-omnibuses, ever-moving sidewalks, and underground freight carriers which will go in all directions,” he said.
Others — like paleontologist E.L. Furlong, who thought horses would be extinct in the wild by 2024 — were thankfully wrong. But perhaps most eerily, British scientist Archibald M. Low seemed to anticipate both the internet and the rise of working from home in his book Wireless Possibilities. He wrote that future societies would be able to sign checks “by the rapid transmission of motion,” trace criminals, and conduct business remotely.
“What a help to the man who objects to a large city! Why could he not conduct his business from his house in comfort instead of having his spats washed every week in order to maintain his financial reputation?” Low said.
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Innovation
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| This Bionic Hand Is the First That Can Be Configured With an App |
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| Aether Biomedical/ Instagram |
Advancements in prosthetic technology have led to new bionic limbs that are more lifelike and functional than ever, and there’s one that some patients say stands above the rest: the Zeus.
Developed by the Poland-based company Aether Biomedical, Zeus’ creators say it’s the strongest on the market, with a max lift of 77 pounds and 12 customizable grips. And it’s also the first that can be configured via a smartphone app, saving users trips to the doctor for minor adjustments.
“The amount of mental taxation that a user has to put in to use these devices has decreased a lot with our product,” Aether CEO Dhruv Agrawal told CNBC. “And I think that is really key to ensuring that these devices don’t sit in a boardroom, but are actually used by patients.”
Andrew Hitz, a 61-year-old farmer in Texas, tried various prosthetic hands before finding the Zeus, which he said was like a “ray of bright sunshine.” Hitz, now an ambassador for Aether, said he can now even pick up eggs from his chicken coop without cracking them. “If I would have tried that with my other two, it would have smushed all over the place, egg everywhere,” he said. “So that just blew my mind when I went up to the chicken coop, and I did not crush that egg.”
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Science
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| Viking Age Dentistry Was “Surprisingly Advanced,” Study Finds |
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| Yoichi Ishizuka/ University of Gothenburg |
Many might think of dentistry as a modern practice, but it’s actually among the oldest medical professions, dating back to around 7000 B.C. Indeed, researchers at the University of Gothenburg recently discovered that the Vikings of Västergötland, Sweden, demonstrated “surprisingly advanced dentistry.”
“There were several signs that the Vikings had modified their teeth, including evidence of using toothpicks, filing front teeth, and even dental treatment of teeth with infections,” dentist and lead study author Carolina Bertilsson said in a press release.
While analyzing 3,293 teeth from 171 individuals who lived in the Viking Age, Bertilsson’s team found evidence of various dental procedures, including molars with filed holes. This “sophisticated” operation was likely done to alleviate toothaches caused by infection.
“This is very exciting to see, and not unlike the dental treatments we carry out today when we drill into infected teeth,” Bertilsson added. “The Vikings seem to have had knowledge about teeth, but we don’t know whether they did these procedures themselves or had help.”
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In Other News
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Inspiring Stories
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Help for home
Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani and his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are donating $1 million to the victims of the recent earthquakes in Japan. Said Ohtani: “I would like to thank those who have joined in the recovery effort, and my hope is that we continue to come together to support those whose lives have been upended.”
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New beginnings
Opal Lee, deemed the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” is reclaiming the land where a racist mob burned down her family’s Fort Worth, Texas, home in 1939. See a rendering of what her future house will look like.
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Post Of The Day
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@NBCSWarriors
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Arizona teen Tonatiuh “T” Ramirez, who has special needs, made headlines in November for his buzzer-beater half-court shot during a high school basketball game. Weeks later, that shot landed him a meeting with his hero, Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry, at an NBA game. Curry invited T to warm up with him on the court, shared some life advice, and gifted him with some signed swag. In a recent NBC News piece looking back on the day, T said he was smiling “the whole time.” Click above to hear Curry reflect on the special moment. (Photo Credit: Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images)
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Quote of the Day
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| “The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do.”
- Amelia Earhart
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