Good morning. Today is Guinness World Records Day, but did you know the entire franchise started with a hunting-trip argument? In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver (managing director of Guinness Brewery) got into a debate over which game bird was the fastest in Europe. Realizing there was no definitive reference book to settle the world's pub arguments, he hired twin brothers to compile one. The first edition launched in 1955, and the rest is history.

In today’s edition, we’ll cover Ring’s pivot from doorbells to drones, skyrocketing school closures, why energy drinks are worse for you than previously thought, and much more.

— Chase Goepfert, Founder of NextGen News

Just when we were hoping for some relief from rising prices, new government data released this week showed inflation rose faster than expected last month.

According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices increased 0.4% in October. While that’s slower than September, the improvement wasn't exactly encouraging.

Higher costs for groceries, housing, and energy (sigh) were the main contributors:

That might give the Federal Reserve a bit of a headache… since it’s been trying to get inflation under control without slowing the economy too much. With prices continuing to rise faster than expected, it’s pretty much guaranteed the central bank will announce another interest rate hike during its next meeting.

What does that mean for you? Raising rates can help cool inflation by making borrowing more expensive, which means higher costs for things like mortgages, car loans, and business financing (see 101).

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Amazon wants to take home surveillance to new heights… literally. The company just unveiled the Ring Drone Cam, a tiny flying security camera designed to keep an extra eye on your home.

You might want to warn your pets first, but the $250 drone can fly from room to room, using 360-degree scans to show homeowners areas traditional security cameras might miss.

Thanks to its built-in AI system, the flying camera:

Users can even send it to investigate your dog chewing on your work shoes specific areas through the Ring app.

Ring isn’t stopping at drones: The company is also debuting the Rover Ring Cam, a $1,000 wheeled security robot meant to patrol offices, warehouses, and other commercial buildings.

I mean, if an internet-connected camera on a flying robot didn’t raise a few questions, then we’d be doomed. Amazon says the security devices were designed with privacy in mind:

Still, privacy advocates have raised concerns about giving tech giants more access to footage from inside homes and workplaces.

Those fears are pretty valid: In 2023, the FTC found that Ring employees had watched thousands of private recordings, including footage from customers' bedrooms and bathrooms. Plus, with the company's newest devices relying on cloud-based AI to navigate their surroundings, questions about who can access that footage aren't going away anytime soon.

🚢 The US just sank one of its most historic ships. The SS United States, once the fastest passenger ship in the world, was deliberately sunk off Florida's coast Wednesday night to become the world's largest artificial reef. The nearly 1,000-foot vessel famously crossed the Atlantic in just over three days in 1952, setting a speed record that still stands today. After decades of retirement, crews spent months removing hazardous materials and preparing the ship for its final voyage. It now rests upright about 180 feet beneath the Gulf of Mexico, where it will provide a new home for marine life and eventually become a major attraction for scuba divers.

🔭 Scientists found a new way black holes can form. Apparently not every star goes out with a bang. A new Caltech study suggests some massive stars may simply collapse directly into black holes without ever exploding, challenging the idea that dying stars typically end their lives in spectacular supernovae. After analyzing gravitational waves from 257 black hole mergers, researchers found that roughly 75% involved black holes about 10 times the mass of our Sun, along with a surprising shortage of heavier black holes, matching predictions for stars that collapse without exploding. While the findings aren't definitive proof, they suggest the universe may be filled with stars that simply vanish.

☕️ Why do humans learn to love coffee? Well, scientists may have just figured that out. Researchers at UC San Francisco discovered a hidden dopamine pathway connecting the gut and brain that helps us develop a taste for foods and drinks we initially dislike (so, beer?). In experiments with mice, they found that nutrients trigger a delayed dopamine response that teaches the brain to associate certain flavors with rewarding effects. Even stranger, researchers could make mice prefer flavors with no nutritional value simply by activating the pathway. Similar brain activity was also observed in humans, suggesting our taste preferences aren't just about flavor, but what our brains learn to expect afterward. The discovery could eventually help scientists find new ways to change food cravings and eating habits.

January is closer than it looks.

So instead of waiting to see how it plays out, we went looking for companies that don't need Washington to cooperate.

One is a gold royalty company with no debt, built for a weaker dollar. Another is a defense contractor whose backlog is already paid for by government budgets. There's a household-name staple people keep buying no matter what Washington does, and a regulated utility that has kept paying through every kind of market.

There's also a hospital operator positioned to gain if expanded health coverage comes back, plus two more names we're keeping inside the report.

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That midday energy drink might help you power through the rest of your afternoon, but researchers found growing evidence the caffeinated beverages lead to serious heart issues… especially in young people.

Researchers dug through thousands of reports submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), comparing products packed with caffeine and other stimulants to everyday foods and drinks without them. The ones that contained caffeine were:

What’s most concerning? Young adults, who are generally less likely to experience serious heart problems than older people, made up nearly half of the cardiovascular incidents involving stimulant products.

Why? Younger consumers may combine energy drinks or pre-workout supplements with intense exercise, alcohol, or other substances, sometimes without knowing they have underlying heart conditions. And with some products containing several times the caffeine of regular coffee, exceeding the recommended daily limit can be surprisingly easy (how much caffeine is too much?).

As schools across the country are already grappling with declining test scores and decreased funding, public schools are now closing at their fastest pace since the pandemic.

The number of public schools hasn't fallen nearly as quickly as the number of students attending them, leaving many districts paying to maintain buildings they no longer need:

Why the decline? Fewer children are being born, and more families are turning to homeschooling, charter schools, and private education. However, experts say the biggest factor is falling birth rates, which helped shrink the number of Americans under 18 by roughly 2.1 million between 2010 and 2025.

Closing schools could make the problem worse: Schools still have to pay transportation costs, severance payments, and maintenance for empty buildings, which can eat into savings. Closures may also push families out of the school system, taking even more enrollment-based funding with them.

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→ NASA's twin spacecraft successfully used Earth's gravity to slingshot themselves toward Mars, a brand new technique that could make future missions to the Red Planet more flexible.

→ A Royal Caribbean cruise ship pianist survived roughly nine hours treading water in the Pacific Ocean before two fishermen spotted him nearly 20 miles off the California coast.

→ Scientists developed a blood test that detects early warning signs of ovarian cancer with over 92% accuracy, a significant advancement considering the disease is usually only detected after it has already spread.

→ The FDA ordered new warning labels on popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy after finding they can rarely cause sudden, permanent vision loss.

→ Federal regulators are investigating Waymo after its self-driving taxis have continued to illegally pass stopped school buses, even after a software fix.

→ Why is almost everyone right-handed?

→ Is your cat meowing? You need to fix something.

→ Route 66 turned 100 this week. Explore its history.

→ Flag football is becoming an ever-more popular sport for girls.

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