Elections, nature's red flag, and AI art: your week ahead

… plus curiosities from the annals of color psychology and more

Welcome back to another edition of The Detour! My name is Kelly, and I’m the newsletter’s founding writer. With every issue of The Detour, I hope to deliver you an honest, dynamic, and engaging newsletter that cuts through the noise of the internet and sparks curiosity from all corners of the globe. Here’s what some of you are saying:

“The world needs thoughtful, ethical, and compassionate journalism.” — A fan of The Detour. // Source: Substack Analytics

If you've enjoyed reading The Detour, I would be so grateful if you supported it with a paid subscription. (Thank you to our paid subscribers who keep this newsletter independent and consistently running!) If there’s something you think I’m missing that could motivate your support of this work, I’m all ears. Please email me your thoughts, concerns, and ideas at kelly@frame.media and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

If you’ve loved what we’ve been up to in this corner of the internet, please consider giving our newsletter a shout-out to your friends and family:

Thank you for reading,

Kelly

---

Here’s what’s on deck:

👀 Beyond the U.S. presidential election, here’s what to look out for in the week ahead

🌏 The world’s fastest Appalachian Trail journey, an AI robot’s artistic gambit, and why “trees are the barometer of life”

🎨 Does this color cure anger?

Dying trees, a robot’s painting, Appalachian world records, and North Korea’s special forces. // Kelly Kimball for Frame

10,000 — The number of North Korean troops sent to eastern Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine, the Pentagon said Monday. South Korean intelligence officials told The Washington Post that Pyongyang sent their best troops from the North Korean Special Forces, including its elite “Storms Corps.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder at a Pentagon press briefing on Oct. 29. // Source: Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza, U.S. Department of Defense

"The fact that they [Russian officials] now need to outsource for foreign troops to help support their forces inside Russia indicates that there's some serious questions in terms of their ability to continue to sustain their personnel requirements," said Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder at a press conference Tuesday.

Russia’s cooperation with North Korea sparks fear among foreign policy experts that the nearly three-year conflict in Ukraine could widen into a broader East-versus-West standoff.

40 days, 18 hours, and five minutes — The amount of time it took 31-year-old Tara Dower to complete the 2,189-mile-long Appalachian Trail, beating the previous world record by 13 hours.

A screenshot of the Appalachian Trail map. // Source: Appalachian Trail Conservancy Interactive Map

The trail passes through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. (Phew!)

Here’s a snapshot of Dower’s rigorous schedule to beat the Appalachian trail world record — Dower amassed a total vertical gain of