Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🤔 How ancient Roman concrete could impact tomorrow’s climate
• 🐔 Why Chick-fil-A is getting into entertainment
• 🥊 College students vs. defense contractors

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.91-minute read (1,308 words).

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“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”

–Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Nowadays, all roads may not lead to Rome. But they could soon all be built using newly discovered techniques that first appeared in the ancient city.

Researchers are aiming to unravel the secrets of ancient Roman concrete – which has consistently survived for millennia in harsh environments – and integrate them into the modern version, in a bid to improve its climate impact and durability.

Background: Modern concrete, developed in England in the 19th century, is the second-most-used substance in the world behind water, and the world’s most popular building material by far, with its ton-for-ton usage coming in 2x higher than steel, wood, plastics, and aluminum combined.

• The material is cheap, strong, and standardized – but also much less resilient than the Roman concrete of old.
• Over the course of decades, modern concrete typically develops cracks that can eventually destroy the material by letting in water.

But with the Roman version of concrete, cracks and water make the material stronger. That’s due to visible white chunks within the limestone, called “clasts,” which scientists previously believed were unintentional products of poor craftsmanship.

However, according to research by MIT chemist Dr. Admir Masic and others, the ancient Romans intentionally built the clasts (made of calcium) into their concrete to help seal any cracks and make the concrete self-healing.

How it works:

• As cracks form, water seeps in and dissolves the calcium clasts in the lime, which then form into solid calcium carbonate – essentially creating new rock that fills in the old cracks.
• In field tests involving modern analogues of ancient Roman concrete, researchers found that creating cracks in the material and submerging it in water for nearly a year actually causes the structure to become 2x-3x stronger.

💥 The potential impact: Scientists investigating ancient Roman practices are aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of the concrete industry, which is responsible for ~8% of global CO2 emissions. Researchers say adding self-healing properties to modern concrete would reduce overall demand and bring down emissions.

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⌚ Patek Philippe launched its first new collection of watches since 1999. The luxury watchmaker says the three models in its new Cubitus line incorporate a bevy of next-gen technologies that led the company to file for six new patents. Patek Philippe’s latest collection comes as luxury watch prices have fallen significantly on the secondhand market in recent months, after seeing a pandemic-era surge fueled by strong demand.

🗳️ New polling shows a deadlocked presidential race across key swing states. A new Washington Post-Schar School survey of seven battleground states found Harris holds a slight 49%-48% advantage over Trump among likely voters. The survey also found US voters trusted Trump over Harris on the economy and immigration, while the opposite was true for crime, abortion, and climate change.

🏌️ Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new “tech-infused” golf league will debut in January. The new Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) is an indoor golf league that combines elements of Top Golf, esports, and traditional golf. The league will host events in a first-of-its-kind venue where golfers will drive balls into a 3,400-square-foot screen until they get within 50 yards of the “hole,” before switching to an artificial green. The first matchup will premiere on ESPN and ESPN+ on January 7.

Chick-fil-A yesterday announced it’s launching an entertainment app featuring a slate of original animated shows, scripted podcasts, games, recipes, and e-books aimed at families with children under 12. The app, named Chick-fil-A Play, is available for pre-download on all devices before it officially launches on November 18.

The chicken sandwich → entertainment app pipeline

Chick-fil-A was founded on the idea that customer experience comes first, former chief marketing executive Steve Robinson told Fast Company in an interview last year.

But in an era where customers are increasingly forgoing in-restaurant experiences for drive-thru lanes and delivery, the idea is for the app to be “an extension of our in-restaurant signature hospitality and generosity.”

Between the lines: The chicken chain’s customer research found a connection between consuming content and mealtimes. And since the Play app’s content is designed for kids 12-and-under, it gives Chick-fil-A a way to connect with young’uns without advertising directly to them, and in-the-process foster goodwill from parents.

Big picture: Ultimately, the company’s goal for the app isn’t to make money from subscriptions or ads – it’s to stay top of mind and get consumers to eat mor chikin. Since 2019, Chick-fil-A has been the third-biggest US restaurant chain by sales, trailing only Starbucks and McDonald’s (with many fewer locations than either). Revenue last year reached ~$7.9 billion.

🍽️📺 Elsewhere… Starbucks and Chuck E. Cheese are also working to pump out original content in a bid to stay top of mind and drive more sales.

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"We are building from scratch, we had no reference whatsoever.”

With $17,000 and a bit of sweat equity, a team of four college students went toe-to-toe against some of the biggest defense contractors in the world – and came out on top.

In an antidrone technology competition held by the Canadian military earlier this year that featured Boeing, Italian defense giant Lombardo, and US conglomerate Teledyne, the University of Toronto engineering students took second place (out of 15 entrants) after designing a system with modified car speakers that uses soundwaves to disrupt drones’ navigation systems, sending them veering off course or crashing to the ground.

• The contest’s winner was a laser weapon from AIM Defence, a small Australian company.

🚁🔫 The students’ next step? Commercializing their tech under the company name Prandtl Dynamics (after Ludwig Prandtl, the German aerospace pioneer). But this could pose some challenges. Only two seed-capital investments, worth a total of $14.2 million, were made globally in defense startups last year, according to PitchBook.

• ☝️ The earliest known animal to show evidence of an asymmetrical body is a pancake-shaped creature that roamed the ocean floor like a "small marine Roomba vacuum" some 555 million years ago.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Cornbread Hemp

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: -0.2%; Dow: -0.8%; Nasdaq: +0.3%). | 📊 The S&P is expected to post 3% returns over the next 10 years, according to Goldman Sachs analysts; that’s compared with 13% in the last decade, and a long-term average of 11%.
• 🐭 Disney will announce a successor to CEO Bob Iger in early 2026, the company said in a statement; former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will take over as chairman in January. | 🍏 Tim Cook on why Apple’s huge bets will pay off.
• ⚖️ Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and others sue AI search-engine startup Perplexity, claiming its chatbot violates copyright law.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 The WNBA players association opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement; the move raises the prospect of a work stoppage if a new deal isn’t reached with the WNBA by the end of next season.
• 📖 The posthumous memoir of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in an Arctic penal colony earlier this year, becomes available today.
• ⚖️ Alcon Entertainment, a Hollywood production company, is suing Elon Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros. Discovery over alleged AI-enhanced copyright infringement; the companies are accused of impermissibly using images from the film Blade Runner 2049 to promote Tesla’s robotaxi concept.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Commons

• 💼🇩🇪 A four-day workweek experiment in Germany found 73% of the 45 participating companies are prepared to make four-day workweeks permanent or extend the experiment.
• 😋 Humanity’s love of carbohydrates may predate our existence as a distinct species, going back hundreds of thousands of years, per a new study published in Science.
• 🚀 The US Space Force awarded $733 million worth of launch contracts to SpaceX, who beat out United Launch Alliance. | 👂🎧 Apple's AirPods Pro 2 will soon work as a hearing aid. Here's what it's like.

*From our partners: 🌎🛒 Discover sustainable brands – earn rewards… Commons rewards you for thousands of everyday sustainable purchases. The app also gives personalized guidance to track/reduce your carbon footprint. Get the Commons app free here.

MISCELLANEOUS

• ✈️ All versions of the F-35 aircraft have failed to meet minimum combat readiness rates for six straight years, per a congressional watchdog agency; that’s despite the US military spending $12 billion, or ~21% of its aircraft budget, on the F-35 program.
• 🇲🇩🗳️ Moldova residents voted in favor of joining the EU by a razor-thin majority (50.4% to 49.6%) in a non-binding national referendum.
• ⚖️ The Central Park Five filed a defamation lawsuit against former President Trump over his remarks at the last month’s presidential debate. | 📝 The Biden admin proposed a rule to expand access to contraceptive products, including requiring health insurance companies to cover recommended over-the-counter birth control.

CLICKBAIT

• 🐶🐱 The 10 Most Popular Pet Names of 2024.

🧬🐺 Stat of the Day: Someone call Ben Stiller, because history could soon be coming back to life. Texas-based startup Colossal Biosciences last week issued a press release saying it has successfully sequenced ~99.9% of the genome of the extinct thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, with just 45 gaps left to close in the coming months. Colossal also revealed its scientists were able to isolate long strands of RNA molecules from a 110-year-old thylacine skull that was skinned and preserved in ethanol. The startup says the breakthroughs represent key steps towards its goal of editing the genome of the thylacine’s closest living relative – a small marsupial called the fat-tailed dunnart – to bring the animal back from extinction.

🤔 Did You Know? A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), and WALL-E (2008) were all brainstormed by four Pixar executives over a single 1994 lunch.

📰 Worth a Read: One man's journey from state prison to a revered San Francisco restaurant → (SFGATE)

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 🤖💬 39% of Americans believe their treatment of AI chatbots “will one day be taken into account somehow.”
• 🧓💰 The amount the average American believes they need to save for retirement has increased from $951K in 2020 to $1.46M this year.
• 🧑‍💼 48% of US college seniors in the Class of 2025 say they want to serve as a company executive some day.
• 🏰 24% of Americans who traveled to a Disney theme park have taken on debt to do so.
• 🍔🍟 78% of American consumers view fast food as a “luxury,” per a recent LendingTree survey.

Yesterday, we covered how many Americans see the economy as the biggest issue heading into the 2024 election – largely because a middle-class lifestyle is increasingly becoming unattainable, per Bloomberg analysts.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): In your opinion, what, if anything, should be done to make a US middle-class lifestyle more affordable?

• “Reform the tax code, pass legislation to prohibit excessive corporate campaign contributions, either implement ranked choice voting or electoral college reform, implement strict Supreme Court ethics standards with sanctions for violations, raise the minimum wage, and implement quality child care and public education for all. I believe these systemic changes are needed to sustain and grow the middle class.”
• “Make the upper class and the corporations pay their full share of taxes - eliminate the loopholes and tax evasion tactics.”
• “No one talks about the fact that private equity and corporate money are significant contributors to the rapid rise in home prices. These companies are actively competing in the housing market, driving up the price of new listings. In our area, these companies have become significant players buying ‘vacation homes.’”

Click here to read more of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note: Some responses may be slightly edited for clarity/length; Sample size: We received 408 longform responses.

🐋 It's not AI-generated: You're looking at the Beluga airbus, an oddly shaped cargo plane that's been in service for close to two decades. The plane mainly transports aircraft parts between Airbus’ manufacturing facilities across Europe.

• Airbus recently launched an updated version of the Beluga (👆), replacing the original fleet – which is now powering a standalone freight airline.

🤔 Hmmm: Why is it so hard for clothing resale platforms to make money?

🏈 Slow-mo: Wake Forest’s mesh offense can be mesmerizing.

📖 Read: How an amateur Irish historian discovered a long-lost story by Dracula author Bram Stoker.

🎮 Learn: About the world’s first video game (hint: it’s not Pong – though it is similar).

🧠 Ponder: Danny Healey is a Boston sports fanatic (we won’t hold that against him) fascinated with all things sports media, and a wholesome guy who shares thoughtful happenings in his life and the world around us.*

💻🏖️ Work/travel balance: Remote Year is your path to access curated trips for remote workers and digital nomads.*

*A message from our partners.

🩸 Trivia: What do you call the liquid component of blood?

🎭 True or False? Michael J. Fox’s middle name is Andrew.

🤔 Riddle Me This… If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you haven't got me. What am I?

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🩸 Trivia: Plasma

🎭 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: A secret