$1 billion in romance scams

Nine days after going missing, 4-year-old German shepherd mix Athena rang her owner’s doorbell. It was Christmas Eve at 2:30 a.m. — a holiday miracle! The Green Cove Springs, Florida fam searched as far as Jacksonville and Saint Augustine.

New internet speed world record. That’s 4.5 million times faster than the average broadband connection. Some context: At that speed, it’d take one minute to download every single movie listed on IMDb. Speaking of … How do you know the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound? Because some people appear bright until they open their mouths.

Age of footprints found in Saudi Arabia. These are the oldest ones ever uncovered on the Arabian Peninsula. They turned up in a dried-up watering hole in the Nafud Desert, right next to animal tracks. The area was wetter back then, and early humans were likely taking a water break alongside other animals, like a prehistoric rest stop.

Collected by holiday apps compared to regular paid apps. The holidays are over, but those festive apps are still gifting your data to anyone willing to pay. Monopoly Go! is the worst offender. Here’s the full list. Ditch ‘em.

Works from this year will enter the public domain on Jan. 1. Included are Alfred Hitchcock’s “Blackmail,” along with “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets” and “Thimble Theater,” which features Popeye and Olive Oyl (and her brother, Castor Oyl). Public domain means they’re not protected by copyright, so anyone can use, copy, distribute or change them. Get ready for some weird Popeye videos, folks. Food for thought: Wouldn’t it be ironic if Popeyes’ chicken was fried in olive oil? 

The value of a one-square-mile parcel in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park that’s now protected from development. The state has considered selling the plot — a migration path for pronghorn and elk — to luxury developers. The nonprofit Grand Teton National Park Foundation raised about one-third of the cash; the rest is from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Of life gone for every cigarette smoked. Yikes! I still cannot believe there were ads in the 1940s that said, basically, cigarettes were good for you. A new study out of University College London found a pack of 20 cigarettes knocks 7 hours off a person’s life. Say you smoke 10 a day and quit on Jan. 1. By the end of the year, you’ve “earned back” 50 extra days. Now, that’s incredible motivation.