Ease of Producing Fentanyl & An Impossible Tale of Survival
An investigative team finds out how easy it is to import components for deadly drugs. Also, what would you do if you survived against impossible odds?
Featured Articles
We bought what’s needed to make millions of fentanyl pills–for $3,600
This startling investigation from Reuters reveals just how easy it is to access the building blocks for manufacturing fentanyl—a deadly opioid that has claimed countless lives. It is such a good example of investigative journalism, we must forgive it for being a very dry read - it’s by design. This piece uncovers the alarming ease with which dangerous chemicals can be bought that can then be used to manufacture deadly drugs.
Since 2015, the U.S. overdose death rate has doubled, reaching 32.6 per 100,000 people in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One factor driving the deadly toll: Fentanyl is far more potent than oxycodone and other prescription opioids. Another: It is a cinch to make.
Emma Carey: The skydiver who survived a 14,000-foot fall
A skydiving accident from 14,000 feet is a tale of survival that explores the complexities of recovery and resilience. As Emma navigates life in the aftermath of her fall, her journey becomes one of forgiveness, healing, and rediscovering joy. This excellent piece of writing from ESPN invites you to reflect on what it truly means to rise again after a life-altering event and the desire to finally move on from it.
Panic hits her. She realizes she's now in the middle of a situation that is such a nightmare that it has been a nightmare since the beginning of time – the feeling of falling, and falling, and falling. That's when most of us wake up. But this is real life for Emma.
Other Recommended Reading
Rebuilding the Maze
When a truck accident left a major California interchange in ruins, it was up to C.C. Myers to lead the charge in its rapid reconstruction. This article from Popular Mechanics takes you behind the scenes of an ambitious project that pushed the limits of engineering, showing how quick thinking and innovative solutions brought a vital route back to life just in time for Memorial Day weekend.
Myers was so confident he’d win the bid that he was in his office, dispatching his crew to the site before the victor was even announced. And by 3:30 p.m., he was at Caltrans headquarters, sitting at a table with Will Kempton to sign the contract in front of the news media. Myers turned to the assembled reporters and made a bold promise: He would have the I-580 open by Memorial Day weekend. “The people of the Bay Area have suffered enough,” he boomed.
Public Thinker: Infrastructure Tells Us That We Need One Another
In this interview, the author talks to Deb Chachra, and together, they explore the relationship between infrastructure and community, focusing on how our built environments can reflect our social values and structures.
There are people who were in the place you are now before you, and there will be people there in the future. It has nothing to do with your political affiliation. It has nothing to do with your national citizenship. It has nothing to do with whether you are visiting briefly or live there for your entire lifetime. It has everything to do with the fact that we are embodied creatures in a physical world. I’ve been referring to this relationship as “infrastructural citizenship,” because it captures the idea that we are in a sustained relationship with other people through these systems.
Looking for Long Covid: A Clash of Definition and Study Design
This article from Undark explores the research around long Covid: The long-term health impacts of COVID-19 infections remain a major public health concern, but the scientific community is still grappling with how best to define, measure, and address the phenomenon of long COVID.
It doesn’t make sense to conflate these conditions with long Covid, he said. Lumping everything together leads to a distorted view of long Covid, and it could complicate efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms and identify possible interventions. “You’re just going to be on a wild goose chase to find treatments,”. . .
