You might not be thinking about holiday cards and gifts justyet, but the U.S. Postal Service is. Earlier this month, the service revealed the cutoff dates for ensuring your messages reach their recipients by Hanukkah (Dec. 25-Jan. 2), Christmas (Dec. 25), and Kwanzaa (Dec. 26-Jan. 1). The recommendations include specific dates for domestic, international, and military mail, and note that sending from Alaska and Hawaii takes longer than from the contiguous U.S.
Seven lessons on loving and living, from the editor of The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column
Science
Social Distancing May Have Helped Early Civilizations Slow Disease Spread: Study
Serhat Cetinkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images
“Social distancing”was a phrase we heard a lot in 2020, but the public health concept dates much further back than the COVID-19 pandemic — potentially as far as around 6000 B.C. In a recent study, anthropologists studied the layouts of early civilizations, like Çatalhöyük, the world’s oldest farming village. They found the residents seemed to have intuitively evolved their living situations over time to separate into neighborhood clusters (reminiscent of quarantine pods) rather than densely packed villages. Intentionally or not, that prevented disease outbreaks from taking over the entire population. To prove this, the researchers ran millions of simulations of disease spread, some with neighborhood clusters and others with tightly packed communities. They found that if people stayed within their neighborhoods more, outbreaks of foodborne disease “would have significantly reduced,” according to R. Alexander Bentley, one of the study authors. Bentley added that ancient peoples “didn’t need to have consciously planned” this layout to help one another survive. “But they may well have, as human instinct is to avoid signs of contagious disease,” he wrote in The Conversation.
Together With Miso
Ending Tomorrow: Invest in This Sold-Out Kitchen Robot
When things sell out, that means business is going well. And wouldn’t you know, Miso just sold out their first run of the latest Flippy Fry Station — their new commercial kitchen robot — in only seven days. Why? The fast food industry is struggling to staff tough kitchen jobs like manning a deep fryer. Thanks to over 150,000 hours of real-kitchen experience with brands like Jack in the Box, Flippy Fry Station is Miso’s smallest, fastest, smartest deep-frying robot yet. And this sellout is just the start. White Castle announced interest in rolling out Flippy to 100 locations. With Flippy, human workers are free to do the jobs that matter, like making your customer experience as nice as possible. Invest in Miso before tomorrow’s midnight deadline.
Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Miso Robotics Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.misorobotics.com.
Culture
After Riding “Panda Express,” Bao Li and Qing Bao Settle in at DC’s National Zoo
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
On Tuesday, two important ambassadors from China landed in Washington, D.C., with a police escort, camera crews, and special handlers to welcome them. The high-profile globetrotters in question are 3-year-old giant pandas Qing Bao and Bao Li: the (adorable) faces of “panda diplomacy.” The bear pair traveled 8,000 miles aboard a FedEx cargo plane dubbed “The Panda Express” to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, where they’ll spend the next decade in a renovated habitat complete with shallow pools, climbing structures, and, of course, plenty of bamboo. “Our team has worked tirelessly to prepare for the pandas’ arrival, and we’re thrilled to welcome Bao Li and Qing Bao to Washington, D.C.,” said Brandie Smith, the zoo director, in a press release. Until this week, the zoo had been panda-less for nearly a year, making the new black-and-white residents all the more thrilling. Bao Li and Qing Bao, a male and female, respectively, are now getting acclimated to their new digs before making their public debut on Jan. 24. Get a peek at the duo arriving in D.C., and let the countdown begin!
Health
Wearable Device Aims to Prevent Accidents Among Manufacturing Workers
Lim Weixiang - Zeitgeist Photos/ iStock
We can all use a reminder to slow down, but for manual laborers and factory employees, taking a break when fatigued can be the difference between heading home healthy or getting hurt on the job. That’s why researchers developed a new wearable device that uses machine learning to watch out for signs of strain and tiredness among manufacturing workers — and, ideally, prevent accidents and injuries from happening. The device, created by a team at Northwestern University, has various sensors that get placed on the torso and arms to measure fatigue and physical health, per Popular Science. There are also two depth cameras and a webcam that analyze movement intensity, repetition, and diminished strength over time. The goal is to offer a “nuanced understanding of the subject’s physical state” in real-time, according to a study published this week. “The adoption of new technologies for real-time fatigue prediction holds the potential to revolutionize manufacturing by optimizing work schedules and implementing adaptive work/rest cycles, [while also] addressing the issue of a lack of deterministic biomarkers,” wrote the authors.
A climate change course will soon be mandatory for all students at the University of California, San Diego, the first major public college to implement such a rule.
Recycling among the stars: The European Space Agency is spending $130 million to tackle the growing amount of debris in orbit, or “space junk.”
Bringing power back to western North Carolina post-Hurricane Helene hasn’t been easy due to the floods and downed electrical lines. Despite the circumstances, two lineworkers recently raised their hands to restore power to a Veterans Hospital in Asheville. After trudging through more than a mile of difficult terrain, they completed their mission. “[Veterans] have given so much. So in our own way, we gave it back to them,” said Nathan Curlee, one of the workers.
Photo of the Day
Mohamed Elshahed/Anadolu via Getty Images
Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum opened its main galleries yesterday for a trial run with about 4,000 visitors, NBC News reports. More than a decade in the making, the institution is the size of 80 football fields, housing 12 halls with around 100,000 artifacts that span 700,000 years of history — “grand” indeed. Plus, it has this stunning view of the nearby pyramids of Giza. Take a look inside.
Pair Eyewear: 1 Pair of Glasses, Infinite Possibilities
Pair Eyewear is the glasses brand for fashion enthusiasts — the types that like to update their closets with the seasons and craft the perfect outfit for every occasion. You simply choose your base frame shape (starting at just $60), select your lenses, and then pick out any number of magnetic top frames so you can switch up your everyday style whenever you want.
