https://paper.li/e-1437691924

Humanity has changed nature profoundly, but it may be only the beginning. Researcher Lauren Holt explores what the far future could bring for the planet’s organisms – and for us.

A very good presentation at RAADFest by Liz.

Equipped with only dining hall spoons, the clothes on their backs, and pure archaeological curiosity, undergraduates at Cambridge’s Newnham College in 1939 were given a crash course in field work when their professor, Dorothy Garrod, led them through the excavation of skeletal remains that had been unearthed on campus as a result of air-raid shelter preparations.

“[The dig was] definitely not up to today’s PPE [personal protective equipment] standards for sure,” Sam Leggett, a current doctoral student in archaeology at Newnham College, wrote in an email to Gizmodo. As rudimentary as the excavation may have been, he said, “I’ve recently been involved with radiocarbon dating these skeletons, and have undertaken stable isotope analysis on their teeth as part of my PhD, so Professor Garrod’s legacy definitely still lives on!”

Google has quietly announced that it will soon start automatically deleting user data. Here’s everything you need to know…

I’m not going to venture a guess as to what percentage of the population regularly cracks their necks, but I have to imagine it’s pretty high. A quick bend left and right is all it normally takes to produce the satisfying “pop,” and for most of us it seems like little more than a harmless habit.

Apparently that’s not the case, and the story of one 28-year-old Oklahoma man is a strong reminder that toying with one’s own spine can be a dangerous thing. A simple neck crack is all it took to turn Josh Hader’s life upside down, and he knew within moments that he had accidentally done some serious damage.

• When Uber goes public next week, some early investors in the ride-hailing company stand to make handsome profits.
• Jeff Bezos is among that group — his $3 million stake could be worth $400 million at IPO time.
• Ousted founder and CEO Travis Kalanick is expected to make nearly $9 billion from his 8.6 percent stake.

The rich keep getting richer. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, whose estimated net worth of $157 billion makes him the richest man in the world, is expected to haul in hundreds of millions of dollars from Uber’s anticipated initial public offering next week.

Your package could arrive one day sooner.

Indian authorities are evacuating nearly 1 million people along the country’s east coast ahead of a severe cyclone moving through the Bay of Bengal.