Extra, Extra
When You Were Young: “And as the diagnoses of celebrities and public figures like Kate Middleton, Chadwick Boseman, Dwyane Wade, and Olivia Munn bring mass attention to the issue, scientists are racing to answer a question on the minds of many outside the medical profession: Why is cancer, historically a disease of old age, increasingly striking people in the primes of their lives?” Time: The Race to Explain Why More Young Adults Are Getting Cancer.
+ America Worst? “The U.S.-led global response to HIV has been so effective that AIDS wards of people wasting away are a vision of the past. Now health experts, patients and others fear those days could return if the Trump administration doesn’t reverse course or no other global power steps into the void, and fast.” AP: This is what happens to the body when HIV drugs are stopped for millions of people. This is a great American global health story on the verge of turning very bad.
+ Hostage Stories: “The 16 Israeli hostages freed in recent weeks after being held in Gazan tunnels and homes for more than a year have begun to provide accounts to their families of being beaten, chained, burned and violently interrogated.” This is another key political factor as the precarious ceasefire holds on. WaPo: Freed Israeli hostages tell families of torture while held by Hamas.
+ AI Do: “In 2021, the BBC reported that some 90 percent of marriages in India are still arranged, a triumph of tradition over change. At the same time, technology has been enacting changes in the practice of that tradition. The driving principle is still intelligence. Only now it’s artificial.” Matchmakers in India Now Have Competition: AI. (I tried one of these AI matching services and it suggested that I marry my Macbook Air.)
+ Artistic License: “Scoring a fake ID has been a rite of passage for generations of underage New Yorkers eager to join the bar scene. Often this meant handing over cash for some laminated product slapped together by amateurs in a dorm room or head shop. But constant upgrades to license designs mean that shoddy fakes no longer cut it, and a new breed of counterfeiters is serving the underage drinking market. Their products, which can reap millions for them, include holograms, bar codes and laser engraving.” NYT: A New Generation of ‘Unbeatable’ Fake IDs Is Bedeviling Bouncers.
+ Splash Cash Brother: Nice guys finish last? Hell no. Steph Curry is number 2 on this year’s list of the highest paid athletes.
+ REMember: “If you ask him, Michael Shannon will tell you he doesn’t entirely approve of the turn his career has taken. At the age of 50, the prolific actor, twice nominated for an Academy Award, finds himself the singer in an R.E.M. cover band. And loving every minute of it, much to his dismay.” Vanity Fair: Michael Shannon’s Latest Role: Touring in an R.E.M. Cover Band. (And they’re pretty good!)
