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GETING KIDS READY FOR A
LOOOOOONG LIFE

Friday, February 24, 2023

In today’s newsletter, we learn how today's five year olds may live 100 years, figure out a billion-year-old volcanic mystery, explore the fearsome warship that once ruled the Mediterranean, encounter an animal that is fertile until it dies ... and think twice about ’liking’ a baby cheetah on Instagram

An outsized portrait of a 5-year-old girl

PHOTOGRAPH BY JR, REDUX

Experts don’t mince words: as many as half of today’s five year olds in the U.S. will live to 100. Are we ready?

That extended life isn’t just more years in pain, either. ”For the majority of today’s five year olds, 82 will be like 60 today,” gerontologist Sarah Harper tells us.

What will that mean? Three-day workweeks, intermittent career breaks, and active and creative later years? An embrace of a life’s purpose, slowing down, staying healthy, and spending time with the people who matter? Or something, particularly in less-fortunate lands, that is far less grand?

Read the full story here.

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A picture of a centenarian in the 1850s

COLLECTIONS OF MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

From 5 to 100: At top is a larger-than-life image of a 5-year-old Ukrainian girl named Valeriia on the border with Poland in 2022. Above, centenarian Conrad Heyer of Maine, seen in an 170-year-old daguerrotype, is credited as the earliest-born American to be photographed. When Heyer was born, the likelihood of reaching 100 for men was less than half a percent. Read more.

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

Dancing may help your brain

PHOTOGRAPH BY ED KASHI, VII/REDUX

How to take care of your aging brain. Hint: Tai chi, even dancing (pictured above)

A billion-year-old volcanic mystery along Lake Superior

A zoo break-in freed Flaco the Owl. Miraculously, Flaco is doing OK—and the world is cheering him on.

Are museums celebrating cultural heritage—or clinging to stolen treasure?

See the face of a 1,300-year-old man

Naked mole rats are fertile until they die

China, making headlines for its spy balloons, hid the discovery of this 800-year-old shipwreck for decades

Rest in ... compost? The rise of green funerals

These warriors were formidable—and female

When the Kremlin starved millions of Ukrainians to death

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

A picture of an ancient Greek warship

MIKE ANDREWS/BRIDGEMAN/ACI

Fast and dangerous: This type of ancient Greek warship, built to ram another vessel, once dominated the Mediterranean. The fearsome trireme propelled Athens to become a naval superpower, Nat Geo reports. (Pictured above, the Olympias, a reproduction of the ancient vessel.)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

A picture of rescued baby cheetahs

PHOTOGRAPH BY NICHOLE SOBECKI

Cute—and rescued: These five rescued cheetah cubs are corralled in a tent in front of a heater. Just six weeks old, they require feeding every few hours, Nat Geo Explorer Nichole Sobecki says. A nonprofit organization in Somaliland houses the region’s cheetahs confiscated from poachers and smugglers, Nat Geo reports.

DO INSTAGRAM ’LIKES’ PROMPT SMUGGLING?

LAST GLIMPSE

A depiction of the "Rainbow Bridge," inspired by a poem imagining a gentle afterlife for departed pets

PAINTING BY STELLA VIOLANO

The Rainbow Bridge mystery: A beloved poem has given comfort to generations of grieving pet owners, helping them imagine a new home in the afterlife for their forever friends. But who wrote the poem? Until recently, that was a mystery, but an academic sleuth tracked down the artist who wrote it at age 19. Who is she? (Above, a 2009 oil painting depicting the Rainbow Bridge.)

OVER THE RAINBOW

Today’s soundtrack: Crooked Tree, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

This newsletter has been curated and edited by Jen Tse and David Beard. Have feedback? Email [email protected]. Thanks for reading and may the force be with you this weekend!

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