On the High Seas

Opioids Everywhere, Marking D-Day, Girl Mossing?

My son just graduated from high school and is headed to college in the Fall. We haven't shopped for backpacks, binders, notebooks, dorm accessories, or pens and pencils. But like many parents, my wife and I have already ordered him a couple Narcan kits in case he or a classmate comes into contact with a heavy opioid dose. We're hardly alone in buying this now readily available product and repeatedly giving our kids the "no pills or powders" talk. The opioid overdose problem is widespread in America, from sea to shining sea—including the seas. "Since the opioid crisis hit the United States in the late 1990s, no community has been spared. First with prescription painkillers, then with heroin after tighter prescription rules pushed people dependent on opioids to underground markets, and more recently with illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its many analogues, the epidemic has killed roughly 800,000 people by overdose since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With fatalities averaging more than 80,000 a year for three years running, it is the nation’s leading cause of accidental death." C.J. Chivers in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): The Mayday Call: How One Death at Sea Transformed a Fishing Fleet. "On the water, pedigree and background checks mean little. Reputation is all. In this way, the vessels preserve a professional culture as old as human civilization and bring to shore immense amounts of healthful food, for which everyone is paid by the pound, not by the hour. Taken together, these circumstances pressure deckhands to work through fatigue, ailments and injuries. One means is via stimulants or painkillers, or both, making it no surprise that in the fentanyl era fishing crews suffer rates of fatal overdose up to five times that of the general population."

+ The Boston Globe (Gift Article): "A 2023 study by NPR found that 11 of the 20 largest school districts in the country stocked naloxone. Additionally, 33 states have laws that allow schools to store naloxone, highlighting the widespread recognition of its importance in addressing the overdose crisis among adolescents. However, many adolescents remain unfamiliar with naloxone and its proper usage."

+ Humans aren't the only ones impacted by drugs on (and in) the water. "From brown trout becoming “addicted” to methamphetamine to European perch losing their fear of predators due to depression medication, scientists warn that modern pharmaceutical and illegal drug pollution is becoming a growing threat to wildlife."

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Still Storming the Beach

NPR: Biden commemorates D-Day invasion's 80th anniversary, linking it to the Ukraine conflict. "'The autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked. We cannot let that happen.' Worldwide, he added, democracy is more at risk now than it has been at any other time since World War II ended." That risk is quite pronounced right here at home. But we're not alone.

+ AP: A year of elections in democracies around the world is revealing deep dissatisfaction among voters. To reverse the trend in November, we don't have to storm a beach. We just have to storm the ballot box.

+ D-Day: 10 things you might not know about the Normandy invasion.

+ A powerful moment as Zelensky greets WWII Vet in Normandy.

+ In pictures: Events commemorate 80th anniversary of D-Day.

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Fizz Fizz Plop Plop

We appear to be in a bubbles bubble. But a new generation is just saying no to fizz. "Dropping carbonation might bring younger consumers to the party. As Molson Coors Beverage Company conducted research on of-age Gen Z drinkers, the company discovered that 'bloating or feeling full was a real pain point.'" (When I was young we loved bloating!) Why Bubble-Free Booze is on the Rise.

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Time for a Sweet Surrender?

To keep my glucose monitor in check, I am a regular consumer of sugar-free products. But the more I read about sugar substitutes, the more I worry that they may exact a sweet revenge. WaPo (Gift Article): Sugar substitute xylitol linked to increased risk of heart attack, stroke. "The results challenge the popular understanding of sugar alcohols such as xylitol and erythritol as healthy, natural sugar alternatives. People view them as natural because our bodies produce them as part of our energy metabolism; however, our cells produce them at much lower levels. When these sugar alcohols are manufactured, they are industrially prepared, using bacteria or yeast that’s put through brewing and fermentation processes to create a chemical that tricks our taste buds."

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Extra, Extra

Covering the Spread: I'm not covering the daily ins and outs of the Hunter Biden trial, just like I never gave much coverage to the Hunter Biden laptop story. I don't see either as major news. But in some quarters, the Hunter trial is just about as big as the trial of a former president. And that coverage has an impact. WaPo: The link between the news Americans consume and the things they believe. "We should not be surprised, then, when we see that people who watch Fox News or consume conservative media that takes a similar approach to coverage have diverging assessments of the country — and of reality." In some ways, Trump and his allies being in legal trouble is becoming the ultimate dog bites man story. Trump ally Steve Bannon must surrender to prison by July 1 to start contempt sentence.

+ AI on the Prize: As hot as AI is among users, it's even hotter among stock pickers. And no stock represents the surge more than Nvidia. The company "produces top-of-the-line chips needed to train AI models and for other cutting edge tech." Revenues are ridiculous. Profit margins are enormous. And Nvidia just passed Apple as the world's second-most valuable company. The biggest company is Microsoft, in part because if its focus on AI.

+ Boo Who? "As the two men — both of whom were injured by rioters on Jan. 6 — were introduced, the House floor descended into chaos. According to Democratic lawmakers, several GOP lawmakers hissed and booed, with a number of Republicans walking out of the chamber in protest." We've gone completely insane. Several Pa. House Republicans boo officers who defended Capitol on Jan. 6. (I'm literally booing as I read this.)

+ Mountain Speak: "Leading figures in the worlds of international mountaineering and Nepali politics are weighing in on celebrity climber Nirmal 'Nims' Purja in the wake of bombshell allegations of sexual assault and harassment." (And a lot of them don't seem all that surprised by the allegations.) Climbers Weigh In on Nims Purja Following Sexual Abuse Allegations.

+ Blunt Force: Here's a pop quiz: Which state sells the most legal cannabis products? Chances are that Michigan isn't the place that came to mind. But the state once known for rolling cars off assembly lines is now known for rolling and selling more legal blunts than California. California dethroned as this state now sells more legal weed. California is not quite ready to cede its reputation for getting stoned. By a wide margin, most of the pot sold in California is illegal. And California still leads the country when it comes legal weed revenue (because everything is more expensive in California, causing some to believe you'd have to be high to come live here).

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Bottom of the News

"The pressure to succeed, to be a 'girlboss' at work, as well as the perfect girlfriend or wife or mother or daughter, takes its toll on women’s physical and emotional health. It’s no wonder, then, that women are moving from girlbossing to girl mossing." On TikTok and Instagram, people are “girl mossing”: lying on a forest floor, staring up at a leafy canopy or caressing moss.

+ "A hiker posted a video that showed the flow of water from Yuntai Mountain Waterfall - billed as China's tallest uninterrupted waterfall - was coming from a pipe built high into the rock face." Hiker finds pipe feeding China's tallest waterfall.