Microplastics, Macroproblem | Who Is America? Lawsuit | Kerala Rescue

“To this day the Colosseum remains the world’s most concentrated killing ground, and it is estimated that between a quarter and half a million people had their lives abruptly ended in its arena, along with several million animals large and small, common and rare. Species became extinct in its service. Perhaps its most disturbing legacy, though, is what it says about human nature. Humans, if they are reassured that their behaviour is socially acceptable, are quite capable of enjoying the sign of others enduring a gruesome death in front of them, and of enjoying it again and again.” – Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale (A book we highly recommend reading)

Microplastics, Macroproblem: Chelsea Rochman is an ecologist at the University of Toronto. She’s dedicated her career to studying how plastics work their way into the food chain, from tiny plankton to fish larvae to fish, including fish we eat. Small plastic pieces called ‘microplastics’ are in the outflow from sewage treatment plants; they’re also in insects, worms, clams, and birds. They’re ingrained in the soil. Even more concerning, they’re found in drinking water, beer, and sea salt. Few large-scale definitive studies have been done on exactly how plastics get into animals. “We eat fish that eat plastic,” Rochman says. “Are there things that transfer to the tissue? Does the plastic itself transfer to the tissue? Do the chemicals associated with the plastic transfer to the tissue?”

Most plastic is inert and does not react chemically with other substances, which is one reason it’s been so successful. It’s durable and doesn’t degrade easily. Plastic comes in many forms, with a wide variety of chemical additives depending on how the plastic is used. Eventually, however, plastic does break down into small pieces, shedding chemicals like phthalates and bisphenol A. Plastic also attracts other chemicals that latch onto it in the water, including toxic industrial compounds like polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. In a sense, plastic becomes a chemical Trojan horse. Rochman’s experiments show that microplastic particles can sicken or kill larvae and fish. Many more in-depth studies are needed on what happens to plastic over decades, and what that means for human health.

Additional read: “Before You Flush Your Contact Lenses, You Might Want to Know This:
Flushing disposable contacts down the toilet or washing them down the drain may contribute to the problem of microplastic pollution, researchers said.” (NYT)

Rescue Attempts In Kerala: Over the past week the state of Kerala, on the southwestern Malabar coast of India, experienced the worst flooding from monsoon rains in almost a century. To reach stranded survivors, some without food and clean water for days, rescue teams are navigating through a filthy stew of six-foot deep river water and sewage that’s now become a cesspool of infection. (CNN)

Fowl Pay: Inflation is the term for rising prices, while deflation describes prices falling. Hyperinflation occurs when prices rise so wildly as to render the concept of inflation absurd, or when consumers need wheelbarrows full of money to buy everyday essentials. Let’s use Venezuela’s economy to illustrate. In a grocery store or meat market, to purchase a chicken that would cost $2.22 in the US, someone in Venezuela would have to pay 14 million, six hundred thousand bolivars. (Guardian)

Clean Your Plate: While it’s not likely that anyone who manages to buy a chicken in Venezuela will be throwing much of it away, elsewhere around the world food is being wasted in astronomical amounts. A new analysis warns that by 2030, unless urgent action is taken, 66 tons of food per second will be lost or thrown out. (Guardian)

Rolling Up: What are three Ds nobody should engage in? Drunk driving, drunk dialing and drugged driving. As Canada approaches legalizing recreational cannabis on October 17, new data from the country’s national statistics agency is warning about drugged driving and raising questions about the ability of law enforcement officials to detect impairment. Hey—April 20 happens once a year, but 4:20 has been happening every day. (WaPo)

A Joint Lite With Lime: Constellation Brands is the parent company of Corona beer, Robert Mondavi wine and Svedka vodka, and they’re not worried about ‘the three Ds’. In fact, Wednesday the company announced a $4 billion investment in Canopy Growth, a publicly traded Canadian cannabis producer. Now it needs a big stake in smartphones. (NYT)

Year Of The No Braggin: We all think of China as a huge economic powerhouse. The one to be compared to– the one that Trump wants to beat above all others. Americans are desperately ripping off the “Made in China” tags from their shirts and iPhones and gluing on “Born In The US OF A” bumper stickers. In the endless trade war, the US is screaming that they’re number 1 and China is screaming back, “Honestly, we’re just here for a good time.”

Beijing officials have been urging the country to take a more humble approach to discussing their trade capabilities. According to The Washington Post, “Editorials in the state-run People’s Daily cautioned against describing China’s accomplishments as ‘the world’s first’ or ‘number one in the world.’ This kind of braggadocio, writers argued, ‘could easily make people misunderstand or even misjudge” the country.’”

A Small Loan Of $20 Million: The jury in Paul Manafort’s tax fraud/money laundering trial hasn’t reached a verdict yet, but the feds are moving right ahead to complete the bank and tax fraud investigation of President Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen. At issue are more than $20 million in loans obtained by taxi businesses Cohen and his family own. Investigators are also examining whether Cohen violated campaign finance laws, or other laws involving the arrangement of financial deals to buy the silence of women who say they had affairs with Trump. Prosecutors could file charges by the end of August. (NYT)

– “What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention” More than anything else, trudging through the numbers on these various campaigns got me thinking about information pollution, and the sheer amount of space in our day that’s monetized. (Gizmodo)

– “In China, Salmon is Salmon, Even if It’s Trout” Oh, Romeo. A salmon by any other name would…be a rainbow trout…in China. (NYT)

– “Someone clever once said Women were not allowed Pockets” Hell hath no fury like a woman scammed. (Pudding)

– “Sacha Baron Cohen Pranked Me, Can I Sue? Yes. Win? Not So Much.” Monkey see, monkey do, monkey sue. (NYT)

– “PepsiCo Breaks Out The Bubbly With $3.2 Billion Deal For SodaStream: Food and beverage giant PepsiCo is buying Israeli fizzy drink-maker SodaStream for $3.2 billion.” (NPR)

– “After 60 Years, a Bank Robber Returns to the Crime Scene. This Time, Just for a Drink.: Boyne Lester Johnston, who was described in a 1958 wanted poster as a “neat dresser” and ‘champagne drinker,’ raised a glass 60 years later at the scene of his bank heist in Ottawa.” (NYT)

– “Cruise ship rescue: How to survive for 10 hours in the water: A British woman has survived for 10 hours in the sea off the coast of Croatia after falling from the back of a cruise ship.” (BBC)

– “Honeypot pornography lawyer pleads guilty: A US lawyer could be jailed for up to 10 years for helping to upload porn films to file-sharing sites and then sue people who downloaded them.” Oh, bother. (BBC)

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