Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🌐 Meta’s massive underseas cable
• ☠️ New research is challenging scientists’ understanding of death
• ✍️ LinkedIn + AI posts

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.73-minute read (1,257 words).

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"The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."

–Voltaire (1694-1778)

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp owner Meta, the second-biggest driver of internet traffic globally, is in the early stages of building a ~25,000 mile-long underseas cable that could cost as much as $10 billion, according to TechCrunch.

And if to this you said “mamma mia!” – your reaction is similar to that of subsea cable expert Sunil Tagare, who referred to the project as the “mother of all submarine cables.”

Why it matters: If completed, it would be Meta’s first fully owned underseas cable (the social giant is part owner in 16 others). Google is the only other big tech company to wholly own an underseas cable; it’s an owner or part-owner of 33.

The backbone of the internet

Underseas cables are fiber-optic cables laid on the ocean floor and used to transmit data between continents. Around 532 underseas cables totaling 900,000+ miles currently exist, spanning the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (see a map).

These cables power the global internet, carrying more than 95% of all the data that moves around the world. Their ability to transmit multiple terabits of data per second makes it the fastest and most reliable form of data transfer available – just one of these cables can handle millions of people watching videos or sending messages simultaneously without slowing down.

Why is Meta building its own? For the ability to prioritize its own traffic, which its investments in AI is expected to boost, as well as to avoid service interruptions stemming from geopolitical disputes.

• Several times in recent years, subsea cables have been taken down as collateral or direct damage from warfare. Iran-backed Houthi fighters are attempting to damage cables in the Red Sea, while a Chinese ship was recently accused of sabotaging a cable in European waters.
• Meta’s underseas cable route is designed to help the company “avoid areas of geopolitical tension,” a source close to the company told TechCrunch.

👀 Looking ahead… Meta is expected to talk more publicly about the project in early 2025.

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🦴 Scientists may have found a new member of the human family tree. The new human species, called Homo juluensis (or “big headed people”), had big heads, made stone tools, and hunted mostly horses in eastern Asia between 300,000–50,000 years ago, per a recent study published in Nature Communications. The study’s authors say Homo juluensis’ large skull and broad teeth justify its classification as a new species, which includes the mysterious early human group called the Denisovans.

🏥 Gaylord Focker will see you now. The number of men in the US with the job of nurse has nearly tripled from 2000-2023, rising from 140,000 to 400,000, per a new Wall Street Journal report. As a result, some ~14% of all US nurses are now men, up from about 9% roughly two decades ago. Analysts say the trend is largely due to male-dominated manufacturing jobs being moved overseas, replaced by automation, or phased out of the economy entirely in recent decades, leading men to find new occupations. Other occupations traditionally dominated by women are also gaining a larger share of men, including elementary and middle-school teachers and customer-service representatives, the WSJ reports.

🏘️ America’s biggest apartment owner is getting into modular housing. Greystar Real Estate Partners on Monday said it’s opening its first modular apartment complex in the US, complete with a gym, amphitheater, and bocce courts. Modular houses, the construction equivalent of making dishes at home to bring to a dinner party, are fully assembled in a factory, then transported to the final building site and stacked on top of each other like Legos. Proponents say this type of building – long relegated to a fringe part of the US market – is faster, uses fewer workers, and is cheaper than traditional methods. And its use is gaining steam: Global modular construction revenues are expected to grow from $180 billion in 2022 to as much as $1.1 trillion by 2040, per McKinsey.

A team of Yale researchers who succeeded in partially resuscitating a severed pig’s head have turned their sights on a new target: the human brain.

Background: The researchers first started experimenting with pigs’ brains back in 2019. Four hours after one pig died, scientists pumped a special drug cocktail called BrainEx into its brain – and something unusual started to happen.

• The cortex turned from gray to pink, brain cells restarted protein production, and neurons displayed signs of metabolic activity identical to living cells.
• Basic cellular functions, which were supposed to irreversibly conclude after blood flow to the brain stops, were restored.
• The pig’s brain wasn’t technically alive – but it also didn’t appear to be dead, either.

Now this technique is being applied to humans. The Yale team says their objective with human brains isn’t to bring back consciousness – in fact, they’ve developed methods “to make sure no electrical activity is occurring in an organized way that might reflect any kind of consciousness.” Instead, they aim to keep brains viable after death to test potential treatments for debilitating neurological diseases, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

More ado about death: A first-of-its-kind study published last fall found humans around the world show similar brain activity and report similar experiences after their hearts stopped beating, indicating consciousness and cognitive processes may occur when technically “dead.”

🤔☠️ Bottom line: For centuries, death has been defined by many professionals as either lacking heart or brain activity. But research is increasingly complicating this definition.

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• ☝️ You’re looking at some of the best science images from November, as selected by the journal Nature’s photo team.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Cornbread Hemp

• 📊 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.2%; Dow: -0.3%; Nasdaq: +1.0%). | 📈 Super Micro shares rose ~29% after a special committee found no evidence of financial misconduct; Ernst and Young resigned as the company's auditor in October after raising concerns.
• ✌️ Intel’s board ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger. | ✌️ Stellantis CEO Carlo Taveres unexpectedly resigned.
• 💰 Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package from 2018 will not be reinstated after a Delaware judge upheld her prior ruling on Monday. | 💎 De Beers, the world's biggest natural diamond producer, has cut diamond prices by 10+% across the board amid falling sales and the popularity of (cheaper and structurally identical) manmade diamonds.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎶🏆 Kendrick Lamar earned all five of the top spots in this week’s Billboard Hot 100, led by “Squabble Up” at #1; he unseats Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which had spent a record-tying 19 straight weeks at #1.
• 🏈🥊 Six ACC and Big Ten universities were fined by their conferences for fighting before or after rivalry football games on Saturday, including Michigan and Ohio State.
• 🕺 Elton John has lost his vision due to a severe eye infection.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with NoNetz

• 🏃 Americans aged 40+ could live 5.3 years longer, on average, if they become as physically active as the top 25% of their age group, per a recent study.
• 💩🦖 Fossilized dinosaur poop revealed how the reptiles’ opportunistic and flexible diets allowed them to dominate the planet ~200 million years ago.
• 🪐 The interior of Venus is dry, suggesting the planet never harbored the oceans of liquid water scientists currently consider necessary for life to begin, per a new analysis.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🇺🇸🇺🇦 The Biden administration announced a new $725 million military aid package for Ukraine.
• 🇦🇺📵 Australia officially banned children under 16 from using social media; it marks the world’s strictest such legislation.
• 🏛️ President-elect Trump has vowed to kill Biden’s climate law, Republicans say not so fast.

CLICKBAIT

• 🏘️ The 10 most expensive ZIP codes in the US – median home prices in No. 1 are almost $8 million.

🤖💼 Stat of the Day: That LinkedIn influencer in your feed writing thought pieces about how attending their niece’s baptism taught them to increase B2B sales may actually be a bot. More than 54% of longer LinkedIn posts recently published in English are most likely AI-generated, according to an analysis by AI detection startup Originality AI. The analysis encompassed ~8,800 public LinkedIn posts 100+ words long and published between January 2018–October 2024; the amount of AI content spiked 189% at the beginning of 2023 – coinciding with the release of ChatGPT.

🤔 Did You Know? California was widely depicted as an island in maps from the early 1600s to the mid-1700s, with the misconception stemming from a popular Spanish novel at the time that featured a mythical island named California.

📰 Worth a Read: The Technology for Autonomous Weapons Exists. What Now? → (Undark Magazine)

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

• 🍽️📉 A record-low 57% of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the federal gov’t to ensure the safety of America’s food supply, per Gallup.
• 💰 18.2% of actively managed investment funds whose primary benchmark is the S&P 500 managed to outperform the index last year, per Morningstar Direct.
• 🇳🇱 Euthanasia accounted for 5.4% of all deaths in the Netherlands last year (9,068 individual cases).
• 🏥 Cosmetic breast-reduction surgeries performed in the US have increased by 64% since 2019, per NY Times editor Stella Bugbee.
• 🔥 Canada's record wildfires last year produced more carbon emissions than the burning of fossil fuels in all but three major countries (China, the US, and India).

Yesterday, we covered how President-elect Trump warned BRICS member nations that he expects them to agree to not try to replace the US dollar as the leading global currency, or face retaliatory US tariffs of 100%.

❓ Our question to you: Which of the following best describes your opinion on Trump’s recent tariff proposals?

• I support both tariff plans: 26%
• I support tariffs on BRICS nations, but not Canada/Mexico/China: 12%
• I support tariffs on Canada/Mexico/China, but not BRICS nations: 9%
• I don’t support either tariff plan: 43%
• Other: 10%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 2,319 votes and 247 longform responses.

If you're on TikTok, odds are you've seen Spencer from SB Mowing. The viral social media star makes videos of him landscaping people's overgrown and neglected lawns for free.

• The landscaper recently found an injured cat while filming a video of himself working. He described the encounter with the injured animal as "meant to be."

🐈 Spencer brought the cat to a local animal shelter, then set up a GoFundMe account for the kitty's medical procedures. In less than a week, his followers raised ~$180,000 in funds and donations for the shelter.

+Note: This story first appeared in the Daily DONUT in July 2024. It was so sweet we had to share it again.

❓ Trivia: Who sang "I Want My MTV" on the Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing"?

🦈 True or False? Sharks don’t blink.

🤔 Riddle Me This: I have branches, but no fruit, trunk, or leaves. What am I?

Working your way towards those AirPods? The $100 gift card? Good news – prizes stack, so when you’re emailed to claim your prizes, you don’t have to wait! Hit reply for more info or with any questions🍩✌️.

❓ Trivia: Sting, he also helped write the song

🦈 T/F: False, they’re one of the only fish that blinks

🤔 Riddle: A bank