Bored Into Your Brains

Microplastics, The End of Search

It may finally be time to amend Mr. McGuire's famous advice to Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate: "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word... microplastics." It turns out microplastics are on everyone's minds these days. And in their minds. How much plastic is in your brain? According to some recent research, about seven grams. That's how much it takes to make a disposable plastic spoon—although, in 2025, it feels a hell of lot more like a fork. "Some of the researchers’ other findings have also prompted widespread concern. In the study, the brains of people with dementia had far more microplastics than the brains of people without it. In papers last year, the researchers showed that microplastics were present in human testes and placentas. Other scientists have also documented them in blood, semen, breast milk and even a baby’s first stool." NYT(Gift Article): What Are Microplastics Doing to Our Bodies? This Lab Is Racing to Find Out. "It’s not yet clear what effect this amount of plastic has on human health, but it’s enough to cause alarm." As Matthew Campen, a toxicologist, explains: "'I don’t think I’ve talked to a single person who’s said: ‘Fantastic! Love to know that there’s all that plastic in my brain.'" (Of course, he hasn't talked to RFK Jr yet...)

2

ScareBNB

"The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory on Monday night, lifting a restraining order that had prevented the mass deportation of migrants to an El Salvador prison under an 18th-century wartime law. By a 5–4 vote on the shadow docket, the justices crushed the migrants’ sweeping class action in D.C. and forced them to proceed with narrower suits through more hostile courts in Texas." Mark Joseph Stern: The Supreme Court’s New 5–4 Bailout for Trump Couldn’t Be More Ominous.

+ "For one man, it happened when he stepped out of a Chicago pizza shop after an afternoon of job hunting. For a 10-year-old girl and her siblings, it began at a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as their family rushed to the hospital. For a man in Virginia, it started with immigration agents surrounding his truck, guns in hand. All those people are U.S. citizens who were detained, deported or otherwise swept up in immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration’s intensifying crackdown." WaPo: As Trump cracks down on immigration, U.S. citizens are among those snared.

+ Lawyer for U-M protester (and an American citizen) detained at airport after spring break trip with family.

+ Harvard, UCLA, Stanford among schools across US reporting student visa revocations.

+ US expected a big travel year, but overseas visitors — angered by Trump — are heading elsewhere. (Anger and fear are not great vacation selling points. At this point, most international visitors would feel safer checking into a White Lotus resort.)

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Checking Your 401(EKG)

For a few hours this morning, the stock market was soaring on the perception that trade deals could be made quickly. That rebound has lost its steam at the moment (in part because of more threats of increased tariffs). But volatility is the name of the game when no one understands the logic behind the moves being made.

+ "The trade war between the world's two biggest economies shows no signs of slowing down - Beijing has vowed to 'fight to the end' hours after US President Donald Trump threatened to nearly double the tariffs on China." (Meanwhile, Apple's stock has fallen so far so fast that Tim Cook might need a refund on his $1m inauguration check to cover living expenses.)

+ Beijing calls Vance 'ignorant' over 'Chinese peasants' remark. (Maybe calling Vance ignorant is a way to find some common ground.)

+ WSJ (Gift Article): Howard Lutnick’s Strategy Flummoxes Business Leaders and White House Aides. "Some executives have come away from meetings with the commerce secretary confused and exasperated." (Confused and exasperated is how I feel on a good day.)

+ In other destabilizing financial news: Trump admin tells prosecutors to ease up on crypto enforcement. (And you can bet your bottom memecoin why...)

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Dude, Where's My Internet

AI results are increasingly dominating web search (in the cases when people are still searching and not simply asking ChatGPT). That change will completely remake the internet experience. And that is really bad news for sites that depending on search traffic. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Google AI Search Shift Leaves Website Makers Feeling ‘Betrayed.'

+ This will probably provide little solace to website owners: You Can Now Catch Pokémon on Google.

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Extra, Extra

Throwing Grade Shade: "There was once a time when America’s lowest-performing students were improving just as much as the country’s top students. Despite their low scores, these students at the bottom made slow but steady gains on national tests for much of the 2000s. It was one sign that the U.S. education system was working, perhaps not spectacularly, but at least enough to help struggling students keep pace with the gains of the most privileged and successful. Today, the country’s lowest-scoring students are in free fall." NYT (Gift Article): The Pandemic Is Not the Only Reason U.S. Students Are Losing Ground. (You don't need to have high test scores to understand that this will only increase our already massive income inequality.)

+ Work the Room: "Thousands of working people in New York City now live in shelters, unable to afford apartments despite holding down jobs that pay them $50,000 or more." NYT (Gift Article): They Work All Day and Go Home to Shelters.

+ Hoop Dreams: Florida stuns Houston with late rally to win third men's NCAA basketball championship. In the end, this March had very little madness.

+ Can You Hear Me Now: The Verge: How an unused nuclear power plant became home to a world-class acoustics lab.

+ Bully Pulpit: "Bull riding has been called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports, and the short bursts of gladiator-style peril feel divinely optimized for the attention economy—as evidenced by the short clips on the league’s YouTube channel with titles like 'Godzilla Throws Mason Taylor to the Ground Like a Wet Paper Towel.' The hind hooves of a bull can deliver a force about 30 times as powerful as a straight punch in Olympic boxing, and about 1 in 15 rides ends in injury." GQ: Can Cowboy Fever Make Bull Riding the Next UFC?

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Bottom of the News

I know, I know. So much bad news. So let's end on a positive. Madonna and Elton John make peace after decades-long strained relationship. (What can I say, it's not easy finding a positive these days...)