Wednesday, October 7th, 2015

1

Don’t Bogart That Loophole

You've been duped, manipulated, and taken advantage of by big companies plenty of times before. But there's something about the case of Martin Shkreli -- better known as Pharma Bro -- that got you really riled up. Of course, part of it was that his company hiked the price of a prescription pill from $13.50 to more than seven hundred dollars per pill. But here's what should bother you even more than the fact that Pharma Bro would do something like that: The fact that he could do it. In The New Yorker, James Surowiecki takes on the drug profiteers and the loopholes that enable their habit. Consider this: The same pill we're making all the fuss about costs a buck a tablet in the U.K. When it comes to drugs, self-regulation doesn't work. (I could have told you that in the 90s.)

2

Total Hoser

In these times of California drought, our friends at Reveal decided to investigate whether anyone was still guzzling more than their fair share of H20. They found a few homeowners that were still hitting the water pipe pretty hard, including one that drained 11.8 million gallons of the state's precious water in a single year.

+ "As a dowser, she uses tools as simple as a stick to determine where to place a well." I know, I know, but seriously, it's getting dry out here.

3

Not Putin on the Brakes

Russia is helping Assad's forces attempt to regain control of key parts of Syria. The military assistance started by air, and now it's coming via sea as well. From WaPo: "The attack showcased Russia's advanced military capabilities and closer coordination with the governments of Iran and Iraq, whose airspace the missiles traversed before striking targets in Syria."

4

Milk of Amnesia

They told us to ease up on the whole milk because the fat was detrimental to our health. So we listened. And sales of whole milk plummeted over the years. But wait, "the idea that spurning saturated fat will, by itself, make people healthier has never been fully proven, and in recent years repeated clinical trials and large-scale observational studies have produced evidence to the contrary." In other words, whoops, they might have been wrong about that. But they're totally right this time (just try to ignore the details in the video that accompanies this piece.)

5

The 6K Walk

This Halloween might be the wrong year to go trick-or-treating as a parole officer as 6,000 federal prisoners are set to be released at the end of the month. The Marshall Project provides some background on what you need to know about the federal prison release.

6

DNA Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye

Three scientists will share this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry for research that "mapped and explained how the cell repairs its DNA in order to prevent errors occurring in genetic information." Put another way, they helped to explain how you manage to stay you. (This news alone will be enough to trigger a week's worth of high school chemistry class nightmares for me.)

7

Ear Piercings

As we increasingly use our voices to interact with our devices, the sounds they make will become more and more important. In The Verge, Adi Robertson takes a look at the meaning of sound from the early ringtones to the world of audio branding featured in Skype's new pings, bounces, and pops.

+ Is your digital dependence eroding your memory?

8

The Fun Run

It turns out it's not the endorphins that give you that feeling of runner's high. As the NYT's Gretchen Reynolds explains, it's something closer to the other kind of high: "Endocannabinoids are, essentially, internally produced marijuana, or cannabis. Cannabis contains cannabinoid molecules, which are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and attach there to receptors, producing a floaty, hey-dude high." (I would definitely run fifteen miles for that feeling. Unless I could find some other, easier way to achieve the same sensation...)

9

This Is Your Job on Roids

In 2020, The joint US-European Aida (which, as you undoubtedly know, is the Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment) will "send a small spacecraft to crash into the egg-shaped rock, known as Didymoon." What for? Target practice. From the Independent: Scientists to nudge asteroid off course as practice for protecting the Earth. (Hopefully they won't encounter too many political fights with Asteroid-deniers.)

10

Bottom of the News

Your Tesla is powered by the electric grid. If your electric grid runs on coal, then your Tesla runs on coal. Long story short: You should have bought the VW Diesel. This along with other insights can be found in my latest (and I would say most aggressive) installment of Just Admit It. You Already Ruined Hanukkah.

+ "People whose best-self concepts were activated felt better and were more resilient to stress, more resistant to disease and burnout, better at creative problem solving and performance under pressure, and formed stronger long-term relationships with their employer." So yes, you should be fishing for compliments.

+ Done with your flight? You might want to shred that boarding pass.

+ Buzzfeed on a guy in Montreal who creates campaign posters of himself, even though he's not running for anything.

+ At long last, caffeinated peanut butter.