How Faces Have Evolved and Other Fascinating News on the Web

6 minute read

1. Put Up Your Dukes

There has been a long-held theory that our strong jaws and facial bone structure evolved as a result of our diet. Now, scientists are pointing out “that vital facial features — the flattening of the face, the widening of the cheek bones — occurred at the same time our ancestors evolved hands that could make a fist.” In other words, we likely evolved to be better equipped to take a punch in the face (while social media and web comments prove that most of us are still deserving of one).

2. Reading, Writing, and Run For It

One student was killed this morning in a shooting at Reynolds High School in Oregon. A teacher was injured and the shooter is also reported to be dead. From the district’s superintendent: “This is a very tragic day, one that I had hoped would never, ever be part of my experience.”

+ And here’s a depressing map of the 74 school shootings since Newtown.

3. About That Training…

“When the battle got tough in the city of Mosul, the troops dropped their weapons and abandoned their posts, making it an easy prey for the terrorists.” Insurgents associated with Al Qaeda have gained complete control of Mosul, the effective capital of northern Iraq.

+ The Daily Beast: Why the terrorists are winning in Iraq — and how that could cost them everything.

+ Five American soldiers and two Afghans were killed by friendly fire after calling in airstrikes during a battle with the Taliban.

4. What’s Happening?

“Things that are being speculated upon as happening — we are not speculating. It’s happening.” That’s Kiribati President Anote Tong on his country that is probably only a couple decades away from being completely swallowed up by the rising sea. From The New Yorker: President Tong and his disappearing islands.

+ If we can’t get everyone to come to terms with the science behind climate change, can we at least agree that we need a new atlas?

5. Waxing Brazilian

“I’ve been here just shy of five years, and I still have PTSD from the last World Cup.” Brazilians aren’t the only ones racing to prepare for the start of the World Cup. So is Twitter.

+ If the prospect of the Twitter Fail Whale doesn’t frighten you, then maybe the Brazilian wandering spider will. “Not only is this beast the size of a dinner plate — it is also the most venomous spider in the world.”

+ One would assume that World Cup refs are selected according to merit. Not exactly.

+ For more, let’s check in with the World Cup predicting camels.

6. Helmet Head

“I would sit to drive (but would strive to take the train); I would sit when nature called. I would also sit to put my shoes on, I decided this morning after falling over trying to put on my shoes. I would lie down to sleep.” But aside from that, he would stand. After becoming convinced that it is bad for you, NY Mag’s Dan Kois decided to stop sitting, for a month.

+ Take some crowd-funding and about 80 lasers, and combine them with electrical engineering, computer engineering, and biomedical degrees; and toss in a driven founder who is damn near bald, and what do you get? Introducing the Theradome Laser Helmet.

7. Forever Oblivious?

Forever 21 just opened a new test store outside of Los Angeles. The store is called F21 and here are some of its prices: Jeans, seven dollars. Tank tops, $4.80. Camisoles, under two bucks. How can stuff be that cheap without workers in some other country paying a terrible price? The New Yorker’s Amy Merrick wonders why students (and others) aren’t fighting over Forever 21.

8. Off the Run

“You obviously are a man of some intelligence and resourcefulness for you to survive how you have, and elude law enforcement as you did … You perhaps ought to write a book. You’re going to have time…” So said the Judge Ted Stewart as he sentenced Utah’s Mountain Man to a decade in federal prison.

+ He “struggled to keep the alibis, aliases and lies straight. He grew a beard; he shaved. He gained weight; he dieted. Plastic surgery reconfigured his looks.” But now Emad Salem is ready to be himself again and tell all. And since he was the undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the terror cell behind the first WTC bombing, he probably has a lot to tell.

9. Killing You With Kindness

If you arrive at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with a gun or knife wound, the doctors there might purposely kill you. First, surgeons will replace your blood with freezing saltwater. Then they’ll go back to trying to save you. According to one trauma specialist: “If you told people we would be doing this a few years ago, they’d tell you to stop smoking whatever you’re smoking, because you’ve clearly lost your mind.” Of course, if you told people a few years ago that you could legally be smoking whatever you’re smoking, they probably wouldn’t believe that either. From the NYT: Killing a patient to save his life.

+ A Seattle anesthesiologist has been suspended for sending explicit selfies and sexting during surgery.

10. The Bottom of the News

Twitter cards now enable people to subscribe to NextDraft with a single click. If you have a fraction of a second to spare, please subscribe here and retweet this card to be forever loved by me (and your followers).

+ So, are we prepared to dismiss our preconceived notions of her as some sad gum-chewing has-been to make room for another interpretation? What if Britney has somehow become a feminist role model for single working mothers here and everywhere?” I’m not sure we’re prepared for that, but that doesn’t make this read on Britney’s residence in Las Vegas any less interesting.

+ “The latest evidence suggests that typefaces convey their own meanings and elicit their own emotions independent of the words they spell out.” Yes, it’s time to face the science of Comic Sans.

+ Nintendo announces a new 3D open world Legend of Zelda. In the NextDraft I customize for my wife and son, this was today’s top story.

+ The blasphemy of impersonating a Mister Softee truck. When I want to experience the cool, refreshing burst of frozen chemicals, only the original will do.

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