Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 372.

How things have changed. Think payments. As Jimmy Soni notes in his excellent 2022 book The Founders (a history of PayPal), “In the late 1990s, only 10 percent of all online commerce was conducted digitally – the vast majority of transactions still ended with a buyer sending a check by mail.” Imagine that. While online transactions were supposed to take place online, even those who’d taken the plunge into this all new way of commerce were still reliant on the U.S. postal system.

Welcome to Friday, dearest Wordlers! TGIF and all that jazz. What will you do with your weekend? Around here, people will be skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, building snow forts and shoveling. It’s a winter wonderland.

Could age now really just become a number? Dr. David Sinclair thinks so.

If you’ve ever wondered about the future of space travel and food, you’re not alone. Zero Gravity Corporation is a space entertainment and tourism company whose mission is to share the excitement and thrill of space travel with the curious public. This privately held company is the only one currently offering commercial opportunities to people interested in experiencing true “weightlessness” without going in to space.

After years of essentially being “free,” social media platforms are starting to offer subscription add-ons, including verified accounts and access to greater security. The moves are the latest effort by social media companies – including Facebook and Twitter – to monetize their massive user bases.