• ☝️Mocha Mousse was named Pantone's Color of the Year for 2025; it's the first time since Pantone began revealing a color of the year 25 years ago that a shade of brown was chosen.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Tuft & Needle

• 📈 US markets fell across the board Thursday, after closing Wednesday at record highs (S&P: -0.2%; Dow: -0.6%; Nasdaq: -0.2%). | 💼 New jobless claims rose by 9,000 to reach 224,000 last week, above the 214,000 analysts were expecting.
• 💵 Dollar General is testing same-day delivery from ~75 stores; the company plans to eventually roll it out to thousands of locations.
• ✈️ Boeing's plea deal tied to two crashes of its 737 Max aircraft was rejected by a federal judge, who cited concerns the Justice Department’s DEI policies would affect the selection of an independent monitor.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 The Toronto Tempo will join the WNBA as the league’s 14th team starting in 2026.
• 🎭 Hollywood’s biggest winners and losers of 2024, from Joe Rogan to Kevin Costner.
• ⚾🤝 The Oakland Athletics reportedly signed pitcher Luis Severino to a three-year deal worth $67 million; it’s the largest contract in the notoriously frugal franchise’s history. | 🏈🎓 Bill Belichick, the former Patriots head coach who won an NFL-record six Super Bowls, reportedly interviewed for the University of North Carolina’s head coach vacancy.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Thousand Fell

• 💉🧠 Scientists developed temporary tattoos that can read human brainwaves; they could eventually replace clunky conventional wires.
• ⛽ The presence of lead in gasoline across the US – which was fully phased out in 1996 – is linked to 151 million excess mental disorder diagnoses in America, per a new study.
• 🦣 A mammoth discovery: Researchers presented the first direct evidence that Clovis people – a prehistoric culture in North America at the end of the Ice Age ~13,000 years ago – consumed meat from mammoths and other large animals.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• ⛪🚙 Pope Francis received a one-of-a-kind electric popemobile from Mercedes-Benz.
• 🏥 Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is reversing its controversial plan to stop paying for anesthesia care if a surgery or procedure goes beyond a particular time limit.
• 📲 FBI and CISA officials are recommending Americans use encrypted messaging apps – aka avoid texting between iPhone and Android – to ensure communications stay hidden from an ongoing Chinese hacking campaign.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔 52 random and intriguing facts learned in 2024.