💬 Quoted… “It was a lost valley of cities. It’s incredible.”

• It turns out, Percy Fawcett from The Lost City of Z was onto something. Scientists using lidar recently discovered a cluster of ancient, lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that had flourished for about a millenia. The five large settlements and 10 smaller ones – connected by roads and intertwined with the agricultural landscapes and river drainages across 116 square miles – were built and occupied by the Kilamope and Upano peoples from about 500 B.C. to between 300 A.D. and 600 A.D., with the size of the population still tbd. Many scientists previously assumed that no ancient groups had built large settlements in the rainforest – but, much like a breakdancer, this discovery turns that on its head. The core area of one of the uncovered settlements is as large as Egypt's Giza Plateau or the main avenue of Teotihuacan in Mexico, NBC reports.

💼💻 Stat of the Day: Remote workers are 31% less likely to get promoted than their in-person counterparts, according to a new analysis of 2 million workers conducted by Live Data Technologies.

🤔 Did You Know?... The Rubik’s Cube turns 50 in 2024. And, like most 50-year-olds these days, it’s still a force to be reckoned with (#dadstrength). The cube claims 42% market share in the brain teaser category, and sales – which clocked in at ~$75 million in 2022 – are still growing.

📰 Worth a Read: The forensic scientist who uses bugs to solve murders → (Smithsonian Magazine)