Life Inhale

You're Contaminated

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in? Not really. I leave you alone for a couple weeks only to find you're reading endless news about about Sydney Sweeney's jeans and genes? Or maybe you thought you'd be able to entice me back into the game with the news that Tik Tokkers believe they've found a cure for migraines in the McDonald's drive-thru: The McMigraine. While I was away, these and other stories quickly made it apparent that the internet wasn't going to edit itself. But even that predictable fact isn't what pulled me back in. I'm back because I needed a way to distract myself from the fact that I'm constantly absorbing plastics and other chemicals into my body. In what could have been the beginning of the end of American democracy, Bill Clinton once famously explained that while he tried marijuana, he didn't inhale. But you can't hold your breath forever. "Humans are permeable creatures, and we navigate the world like cleaner fish, filtering the waste of civilization partly by absorbing it." You're constantly absorbing bad stuff into your system, in a process that begins even before you're born. And it's not just humans. Plastic and other contaminants are everywhere. Humans have made their mark on the planet and now the planet is making its mark on us. David Wallace-Wells in the NYT (Gift Article): You Are Contaminated. "Plastic is now threaded through the flesh of fish, where it is interfering with reproduction, and the stalks of plants, where it is interfering with photosynthesis, and in much else we place upon our dinner plates and set about eating. There might be plastic in your saliva, and almost certainly in your blood. Plastic has been found in human hearts and kidneys and other organs, in the breast milk expressed by new mothers and on both sides of their placentas. And because plastic has been found in ovarian follicular fluid and testicular tissue and in the majority of sampled human sperm, it is already embedded in not just the yet-to-be-born but the yet-to-be-conceived. The penetration appears so complete that some researchers have begun to worry that their methods, too, are compromised by ambient contamination and plastic materials in the lab. Some have called for whole new protocols to systematically stress-test the findings of their colleagues, which seem on first blush simply impossible. But to trust their findings is to believe, for instance, that the buildup inside brain tissue has grown 50 percent in just eight years, and that, as of last year, there might be inside your skull the equivalent of a full plastic spoon — by weight perhaps one-fifth as much polymer as there is brainstem in there." (Speaking of spoons, I heard that Clinton also tried cocaine, but he didn't snort.)

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Left to Their Own Devices

"Two years ago, banning phones in schools seemed almost unthinkable. Now, thanks in part to parents’ organizing efforts, support for phone-free schools is rising quickly levels in a country that can’t seem to agree on much else." Time: Inside the Parent-Led Movement For Phone-Free Schools. The more difficult issue is how to get kids to spend less of their free time on the phone. They key might be to give them actual free time. The real world can still attract kids. They just want to experience it on their own once in a while. The Atlantic (Gift Article): What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones. "Children want to meet up in person, no screens or supervision. But because so many parents restrict their ability to socialize in the real world on their own, kids resort to the one thing that allows them to hang out with no adults hovering: their phones."

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Cliff Notes

These days, the degradation of democratic values seems like a slow slide. But sometimes, it looks more like it's being pushed off a cliff. For example, when hundreds of people were sent to an infamous Salvadoran prison with no due process. The orders were carried out. The move was defended. And the country moved on. But the detainees didn't. "Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to beat him if he didn’t kneel alongside other inmates and lick their backs." From ProPublica and The Texas Tribune: Now That They're Free. "Though happy to be home, they say the fact that they were released is proof of how senseless their detentions were."

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Hunger Pains

"By wresting control of aid distribution from the world organization, Israel hoped to cut Hamas off from one of its last remaining sources of power. But the policy has failed on its own terms. Hamas is no closer to surrendering or releasing hostages than before Israel embarked on its campaign of deprivation. A movement animated by theological fervor—and strengthened by the spectacle of civilian suffering—cannot be starved into submission. And now that the toll of hunger is becoming so clear, Israel has an obligation to reverse course as quickly as possible." Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Israel’s Last Chance.

+ It's worth noting that Hamas Wants Gaza to Starve. "Hamas actually wants a famine in Gaza. Producing mass death from hunger is the group’s final play, its last hope for ending the war in a way that advances its goals. Hamas has benefited from Israel’s decision to use food as a lever against the terror group, because the catastrophic conditions for civilians have generated an international outcry, which is worsening Israel’s global standing and forcing it to reverse course."

+ "It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel. End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering." Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to Trump to help end Gaza war.

+ Videos of Israeli hostages in Gaza increase pressure on Netanyahu for a ceasefire.

5

Extra, Extra

Nu'Merical: "The credibility of American statistics is foundational. It undergirds investor trust. It guides fiscal and monetary policy. It tells businesses when to hire, when to expand and when to hold. When those numbers are tainted or appear to be, the ripple effects are vast. Markets can lose faith in the data and in the country that produces it." George A. Akerlof, a Nobel-winning economist, on Trump's firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he didn't like the numbers. NYT (Gift Article): What to Do When the President Acts Like a 5-Year-Old?

+ Scientific Un-American: "The very best scientists are like elite basketball players: They come to America from all over the world so that they can spend their prime years working alongside top talent." That's been true for decades. As you can imagine, it's less true every day. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End.

+ Gerrychurl: "Gov. Greg Abbott informed Texas House Democrats late Sunday that he would attempt to have them removed from office if they do not return to Austin to pass the GOP’s proposed new congressional maps."

+ Access Granted: "A new disclosure shows how corporations and individuals, including many in the crypto business, wrote big checks while seeking favor from the president." Donor List Suggests Scale of Trump’s Pay-for-Access Operation.

+ 'Zempics or It Didn't Happen: Derek Thompson with an interesting overview of Ozempic, etc. If GLP-1 Drugs Are Good For Everything, Should We All Be on Them?

+ Code Red: "Farritor was an inquisitive, uncommonly talented and sometimes obsessive young man. He had opportunities. He had people who cared about him, and those people had ideas of what he might achieve. Their ideas had nothing to do with Washington. Maybe Farritor didn’t know that his decision to help the man he so admired try to slash government spending would mean disappearing from his own life, working secretively but appearing in court documents. That it would mean disappointing and angering some, thrilling others. That in trying to solve one problem, he would play a part in creating chaos and distress and fear. Those he knew would not always be spared. His community in Lincoln would be cleaved. Maybe, some in his hometown say, he didn’t know there would be consequences." Bloomberg (Gift Article): Doge-Pilled. Meanwhile, Tesla awards CEO Musk millions of shares valued at about $29 billion.

+ You Electrolyte Up My Life: What's the deal with electrolyte drinks — do you need them to stay hydrated? (Spoiler Alert: No.)

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Bottom of the News

Who's the top dog? Wave-riding canines compete in the World Dog Surfing Championships. Here are some more photos. (My beagles took home top prize for sunbathing in part of the kitchen that gets the most sunlight while I'm writing...)

+ Is there anything that can outsmart AI? Maybe Sudoku?