Good Morning. Two dead, 11,234 sick in one state. The lettuce outbreak found its first fatalities. the ultimate camping checklist, the Blue Zones myth, and SpaceX's upcoming moon crash (forwarded this email? Join 523k readers).
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TOP STORY TODAY
First Two Lettuce Deaths
Michigan health officials confirmed two deaths connected to the national cyclosporiasis outbreak yesterday, the first in the United States. Both individuals had significant underlying health conditions, and both became ill before the July 17 recall.
The CDC has logged 6,707 lab-confirmed cases since May 1 and is tracking more than 11,500 additional reports across dozens of states. Michigan alone accounts for 11,234 cases and 193 hospitalizations, making it the hardest-hit state.
The parasite spreads through contaminated food and water, not person to person. Iceberg lettuce from central Mexico was recalled in July. The typical season ends in late August, and Michigan officials say their case counts appear to be declining.
Smoke Turns West
Fifty large uncontained wildfires are burning across the Pacific Northwest. Three of them merged into the Spokane Complex over the weekend, destroying roughly 700 structures and forcing about 65,000 people from their homes in Washington's second-largest city.
The fires have burned more than 8,000 acres at zero percent containment. No deaths or injuries have been reported, and crews cleared more than 200 missing person reports by Monday. Cooler temperatures are expected to help this week.
Winds that pushed smoke east for weeks are reversing. Air quality is forecast to reach unhealthy levels in Portland, Eugene, Bend, and Salem, with degraded conditions expected in Seattle, Boise, and Salt Lake City through Wednesday.
The Romance Recession
Partnership rates among 25-to-34-year-olds fell sharply between 1980 and 2022, dropping almost 10 points for college graduates and more than 20 points for those without a degree. The gap by education is the part most people miss.
Dating volume collapsed alongside it. Sixty-nine percent of single adults told YouGov they rarely or never go on dates. Between 2000 and 2018, the share of 25-to-34-year-olds reporting no sex in the past year nearly doubled.
The apps are not absorbing the demand. Match Group's paying users fell 5 percent, Tinder's dropped 8 percent, and 78 percent of users report burnout. People still want partnership. They are finding fewer paths to it.
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Checklist for taking the kids camping
Last week, 23 percent of our readers voted for this free guide.
You get about ten summers with a kid who thinks a tent is a castle. After that they want their friends. Take Them Camping Before They Stop Asking…
Camping is not about the gear. It is about your kids watching you solve problems with your hands, in the dark, in the rain, with no screen to hide behind. That is what they keep.
Two rules.
Go close the first time. Twenty minutes from home means leaving at midnight is an option, not a failure.
And give every kid one job that matters. Kindling, water, tent stakes. Competence beats comfort.
The packing list changes completely by age. A three-year-old needs different things than a twelve-year-old.
The Blue Zones were never real
An Oxford demographer named Saul Justin Newman spent close to a decade auditing the data behind the world's famous longevity hotspots. What he found: almost nobody in these places verifiably reaches 100, and some may live shorter lives than average.
The pattern he uncovered is pension fraud and missing birth records. When Okinawa's records burned in the war, ages became self-reported. When Italy and Costa Rica cleaned up their registries, the supercentenarians disappeared.
The Blue Zones aren't alone. Six more things you (probably) believe:
The food pyramid. USDA's own nutrition director put vegetables at the base and 2 to 4 grain servings. It shipped with 6 to 11. What happened
Fat, not sugar. The sugar industry paid three Harvard scientists about $50,000 in today's money to publish it. 1967. The documents
10,000 steps. A 1965 Japanese pedometer was named the 10,000-step meter. It was a product name. The real number
Eight glasses of water. A 1945 board said 2.5 liters total. The next sentence said most comes from food. That sentence got dropped. The paper trail
The marshmallow test. Replicated with 900 kids instead of 90. Most of the effect was family income, not willpower. The replication
Exercise burns your calories off. Hadza hunter-gatherers walk all day and burn about what sedentary Americans do. Duke on why
TRENDING
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▲ Aaron Rodgers returns for a final season after Steelers hired McCarthy, the coach he clashed with in Green Bay
▲ FIFA president seeks White House help as officials revolt over his collapsed plan to sell World Cup rights
▲ Dead SpaceX stage hits the moon tomorrow at 2:35am, and East Coast telescopes get the best view
▲ At least 37 Americans arrested this year protesting data centers, including a teacher who clapped at a meeting
▲ FBI supervisor confessed to stealing about $1 million in crypto from a suspect's accounts, then got charged
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Fun Links
London’s first dry month in 150 years [Blog]
5 truths from the UFO Pentagon reports [List]
Where to visit a 90s style Pizza Hut [Blog]
Scorsese looks back on Raging Bull [Blog]
How to properly stock a bar cart [Blog]
States ranked by number of serial killers [List]
An interactive map of global castles [Map]
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