Reading archive 2025-01-02

How much protein do you really need?: And other questions about protein, answered.

The 6 grossest spots in your home, and how to clean them: Pro tips for combating E. coli, dust, pink slime and other nasties around your house.

The chief justice takes a swipe at JD Vance: The vice president-elect has repeatedly suggested that government officials may defy court orders.

Cybertruck explodes in front of Las Vegas Trump hotel, killing driver: The FBI said it is working to determine whether the explosion of the Tesla Cybertruck, which was filled with large firework mortars and gas canisters, was an act of terrorism.

More children are getting kidney stones. Experts think it’s their diet.: It’s a diagnosis more commonly associated with older adults.

10 policies Republicans could use to pay for new tax cuts: Extending the expiring 2017 tax cuts could add $5 trillion to the national debt; Trump and GOP lawmakers are considering these policies to offset that cost.

Mother stabbed while holding toddler dies of injuries weeks later: Iman Gaye, 26, died at a hospital Monday morning of injuries she sustained earlier in December, police said.

Va. man had largest homemade bomb stockpile in FBI history, prosecutors say: An informant said Brad K. Spafford used photographs of President Joe Biden for target practice.

New laws in DMV bring changes to health care, speeding fines, construction: Laws passed in 2024 also deal with electric vehicle charging stations, opioid addiction treatment and reducing bird hazards on newly constructed buildings.

Sheriff says Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas was probably a suicide: The man inside the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday was believed to be an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army.

This new diet could help save the planet and your health. Here’s how it works.: You can eat healthier and shrink your carbon footprint with these recipes and dietary guidelines, which don’t require you to ditch meat or sacrifice flavor.

Static stretching is unlikely to improve strength and performance: It may, however, increase range of motion, which is key for many athletes.

The Case for Finding Common Ground With RFK: A pro-vaccine doctor argues that the left should engage with Americans skeptical of public-health rules. - "And what I think is really important to recognize is: Really until the pandemic, a lot of what Kennedy talks about—the idea that government and Big Pharma are in cahoots with one another, and that we’re overprescribing medications to ourselves, especially to our kids; the idea that we’re poisoning the environment with toxins; the idea that food companies are tempting kids with high-sugar, high-fructose, dyed products that then are contributing to a childhood-obesity epidemic—all of those things, I think, coded as liberal critiques of the medical establishment until very recently.

...

"So I don’t think the Democrats should be doing anything different at the mandate level. And that’s a place where I really differ from, say, Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, who’s been tweeting in support of RFK with this kind of, like, bizarre zeal and who I think has sort of overstepped where he maybe wants to be. I think he wants to sort of express some understanding of where the folks of Colorado are, where there’s a really growing, pervasive anti-vax sentiment. That’s actually not—it’s bad public policy. It’s a recipe for disease outbreak.

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"There’s, you know, sort of famously: In 2021, there was a really controversial, high-profile case of approval for a drug for Alzheimer’s that had just been shown not to work, basically. And Alzheimer’s—very common disease, incredibly devastating to families. People are desperate to believe that there is something that they can do for folks. We don’t really have good treatments right now. This was the sort of treatment that had received a lot of hype in advance.

"The data was just not supportive of the idea that it was effective. And, in fact, it did obviously cause harm in some small number of patients. It got pushed through the FDA approval process anyway, largely, in part, due to pressure from the Alzheimer’s Association, which was receiving money from the drug company. That is a perfect-storm setup for an RFK-type critique. And it’s true. And at the time, I wrote an op-ed criticizing that process. So that’s a place where he and I totally agree.

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"So I think one of the major millennial failures is the invention and then rollout of small plates to, like, every yuppie restaurant in every city in the country—which is like: You go. You sit down. There’s, like, this menu of items that are all very expensive and very tiny, and they’re supposed to be for sharing, but they’re not big enough to share. And then the waiter comes and, like, does this whole explanation, like, Have you ever been here before? Let me explain to you how the menu works. Things at the top are small, and things at the bottom are bigger. And then the menu proceeds from, like, $18 for four anchovies to, like, eventually you get to, like, a whole fish. You know what I mean?"