Good morning. In this edition:

• 💼 Slow holiday job market
• 💬 Group chats with ChatGPT
• 🤐 Banned words on social media

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.76-minute read (999 words).

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"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"

–William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

The winter holidays are known for chaotic shopping. But this year, the tougher competition might be on the other side of the register, as many seasonal workers across the US line up for jobs that aren’t showing up in the same numbers.

Searches for holiday jobs are up 27%, but actual job postings have risen only 2.7%, according to recent data from job site Indeed.

• Overall, retailers are projected to hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers in 2025, down sharply from 442,000 last year, per the National Retail Federation.
• A separate estimate from Challenger, Gray & Christmas projects that holiday staffing will drop to its lowest level in over a decade.

For shoppers, it could mean longer lines and slower checkouts. For job seekers, it means more competition for fewer roles.

Driving the trend…A combination of economic factors—including the recent federal gov’t shutdown, tariffs, and other business uncertainties—means retailers are more likely to tread carefully when it comes to seasonal hiring, instead of ramping up.

• It’s also part of a larger shift that began after the pandemic.
• Some retailers started hiring earlier in the year to avoid last-minute staffing shortages, leaving fewer traditional seasonal roles available when the holidays roll around.

Big picture: Even with holiday hiring looking softer this year, the broader US job market is still in decent shape, according to the latest gov’t data. The delayed September jobs report showed steady job gains and relatively low unemployment, though wages continue to rise slower than inflation. Separate data published last week found the overall US unemployment population grew to a four-year high, even though layoffs didn’t rise sharply during the shutdown.

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America’s crash-test dummies are getting a female-focused makeover, and it’s more than any new outfit or hairstyle could accomplish.

Last week, the Transportation Department officially unveiled the THOR‑05F, a first-of-its-kind female crash-test dummy designed to show how vehicle accidents really affect women.

Why it’s a big deal

For nearly 50 years, car safety testing in the U.S. has relied almost entirely on a 5′9″, 170-lb male model, with the so-called “female” dummy just representing a scaled-down version of the male model—missing key differences in anatomy and injury risk.

• As a result, traditional dummies fail to capture how pelvis, spinal, and chest injuries differ between men and women, leaving half the population underprotected.
• Women are 73% more likely to be seriously injured and 17% more likely to be killed in car crashes than men.

Enter the THOR‑05F, the first crash-test dummy built from real female anatomy. It features a flexible spine to mimic natural slouching, 150 sensors to track detailed biomechanical responses, and realistic pelvic and chest geometry. This allows engineers to see how impacts affect women in ways the old dummies never could.

Looking ahead…Recent legislation introduced in Congress seeks to establish new requirements that THOR‑05F dummies be adopted by federal car safety tests, as well as the auto industry nationwide.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US markets rose across the board yesterday, led by tech and AI stocks (S&P: +1.5% | Dow +0.4% | Nasdaq: +2.7%); it follows last week’s market dip amid fears of an AI bubble.
• 🏘️ DOJ to settle lawsuit against RealPage that had accused the apartment-pricing company of allowing landlords to illegally coordinate rental-price increases.
• 🤖 Amazon announces plans to invest up to $50 billion on AI and supercomputing infrastructure to support US government agencies. | OpenAI unveils new ChatGPT tool called “shopping research” that generates detailed, in-depth shopping guides.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders tapped to start on Sunday, even after former starter Dillon Gabriel returns from injury; Sanders last weekend became the first Browns QB to win his first career start since 1995.
• 📰 Publisher of Daily Mail strikes $654 million deal to buy fellow UK publication The Daily Telegraph from an Abu Dhabi-backed venture.
• 🏀 Dallas Wings earn #1 overall pick in WNBA draft for second straight year; Wings finished last this season despite breakout performance from Rookie of the Year and #1-pick Paige Bueckers.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💉🧠 Semaglutide, the main ingredient in GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, isn’t better than a placebo at reducing Alzheimer’s disease progression, per two late-stage clinical trials of Novo Nordisk treatments; drugmaker’s shares fall ~9% on the news.
• 📲 Meta allegedly shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, per unredacted lawsuit filed by US school districts. | OpenAI launches group chats with ChatGPT.
• 🦁 New type of lion roar recently discovered by scientists who used AI to analyze 3,000+ recordings of African lions.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🧑‍⚖️ Federal judge dismisses criminal charges brought by Trump admin against former FBI Director James Comey and New York AG Letitia James, ruling the prosecutor who brought them was unlawfully appointed; the DOJ had brought charges against Comey and James after President Trump publicly called for their prosecution.
• ✍️ President Trump signs executive order calling for a “Genesis Mission” that aims to federal scientific resources in an effort to boost artificial intelligence R&D and reduce Americans' growing energy costs.
• 🏛️ Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is under Pentagon investigation after appearing in a video with other Democratic lawmakers calling on military service members to disobey “illegal orders.”

☝️ Instacart data shared with Axios reveals the most uniquely popular Thanksgiving pies in each US state, AKA the type of pie that residents enjoy most compared to the national average.

🤔 Did you know? Acorns were a worldwide staple of human nutrition for thousands of years. Acorn flour was still used in China and Japan into the 19th century, while acorn jelly and acorn noodles are still part of Korean cuisine.

📰 Worth a read: AI is coming for the world of competitive Excel

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• These tiny dogs can pull 100x their weight
• The secret list of words you can’t say on social media
• Is human writing headed for extinction?

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Yesterday we covered how massive hype around AI has helped power US stock markets to new all-time highs, but some investors are growing increasingly concerned that the hype may have developed into an AI bubble.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, is the US economy in the middle of an AI bubble?

• Yes: 61%
• No: 25%
• Unsure/other: 14%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 874 votes and 76 longform responses.

❓ Trivia: Which mountain is considered the tallest in the world when measured from its base on the ocean floor to its summit?

🎓 True or false?…Solar flares can disrupt radio communications on Earth.

🤔 Riddle me this: I can hold memories but have no brain, break easily but never bleed. What am I?

🌸 Oakland artist Sydney Jones is turning break-ins into something beautiful. The artist uses shards of glass from broken car windows to create spherical glass jewelry, helping beautify her community and prevent landfill overflow.

❓ Trivia: The Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea; when measured from its underwater base, it’s taller than Mount Everest.

🎓 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: A photograph

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