Weekly Picks – May 12, 2024

Credits (left to right): Julia Nimke; Estelle Caswell / Grist; Mark Harvey / 3 Quarks Daily; Herron Stock LLC

A lighter set of reads this week. I had little time to dwell on too many longer pieces as I transported myself around the Lower Mainland for work and leisure. I hope you enjoy learning about parasites or taking strolls through idyllic Italy without any mention of the mafia or political frays.

This week’s collection:

Introductory excerpts quoted below. For full text (and context) or video, please view the original piece.

A supplementary collection from the past week, not quoted below but linked here for those interested, on the ongoing student protests seeking an end to an apartheid state and a genocide perpetrated via collective punishment. These pieces focus on American campuses but are relevant to movements happening worldwide.

1. The Creatures that Control the Natural World

“When Chelsea Wood was a child, she would often collect Periwinkle snails on the shores of Long Island.

“I used to pluck them off the rocks and put them in buckets and keep them as pets and then re-release them,” Wood said. “And I knew that species really well.”

It wasn’t until years later that Wood learned that those snails were teeming with parasites.

“In some populations, 100 percent of them are infected, and 50 percent of their biomass is parasite,” Wood said. “So the snails that I had in my bucket as a child were not really snails. They were basically trematode [parasites] that had commandeered snail bodies for their own ends. And that blew my mind.”

Wood, now a parasite ecologist at the University of Washington, sometimes refers to parasites as “puppet masters,” and in many cases, it’s not an exaggeration. Some can mind-control their hosts, for example, causing mice to seek out the smell of cat pee. Others can shape-shift their hosts, physically changing them to look like food. And their ripple effects can reshape entire landscapes.

For centuries, people have thought of parasites as nature’s villains. They often infect people and livestock. In fact, parasites are by definition bad for their hosts, but today, more scientists are starting to think about parasites as forces for good.”

2. Sicily Sold Homes for One Euro. This Is What Happened Next.

“Oh yes, I think to myself. I could live here.

I’m not the only person to arrive at that revelation. In fact, I had come to Sicily to investigate a program that has attracted thousands with the same notion. A program that allows people, although they may not have the financial wherewithal to go full-bore Tuscan-villa-with-frescoed-ceilings-and-private-vineyard, to nevertheless live a different version of the dream. A program that promises them a house for a single euro.

Since the 19th century, large numbers of villagers in the poorer parts of Italy have migrated to more prosperous regions and countries. The migration continues; in some places, populations have shrunk so dramatically that there are no longer enough patients to keep the local doctor in business, or enough children to fill the school. Young people who moved away to study or work didn’t want to return, and when their parents died, the family homes stood empty, sometimes for decades. Around 2010, the village of Salemi in western Sicily was one of the first towns to come up with an idea: What if you could fill them again by offering the properties for sale at a ridiculously low price?

I wasn’t in the market for a house, one euro or otherwise. But I wanted to know if the program worked. Though the rumors I’d heard about driving in Sicily gave me pause—highways that suddenly turn into rutted cow paths; drivers whose chosen passing method involves achieving the closest possible proximity to the fender of the car in front of them—I decided to set out in a rental car through villages in various stages of implementing the initiative. Were once-sepulchral towns reinvigorated by newcomers eager to put down roots? Were the new residents integrating into small-town life, or was an influx of new blood bringing unintended side effects? And did a town that drew enough newcomers lose the qualities that had attracted said newcomers in the first place?”

3. Snake Oils, Vitamins, And Self-Help

“On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with self-help. I think one of the most glorious and heartening visions in the world is that of an extremely overweight man or woman jogging down the side of the road in athletic clothing and running shoes. When I see such a person, I say a little atheist prayer hoping that a year from now they have succeeded with their fitness regime and are gliding down the Boston Marathon, fifty pounds lighter. You never know how they decided to buy a pair of running shoes and begin what has to be an uncomfortable start toward fitness. But if it was a popular book or inspirational YouTube video that nudged them in that direction, then glory be!

The same goes with alcoholics and drug addicts. Chances are, millions are bucked up by a bit of self-help advice from a recovering addict or alcoholic, an inspirational quote they read, and even certain supplements to help their bodies heal from abuse.

But so much of what’s sold as life-changing does little more than eat at a person’s finances in little $25 increments of shiny books and shiny bottles. Sometimes the robberies are bigger—thousands of dollars in the form of fancy seminars, retreats, or involved online classes. There are thousands of versions of snake oil, and there will always be people lining up for some version of it.

. . .

Every year Americans spend in the neighborhood of $35 billion on them. And their benefits are dubious. In an editorial titled Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, doctors from Johns Hopkins and other medical schools cast real shade on the vitamin and supplement industry. Reviewing 27 studies that involved more than 400,000 participants, the doctors concluded that there was no evident benefit from multivitamins, paired vitamins, or single vitamins in preventing all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease or cancer. They further concluded from reviewing extensive studies that vitamins don’t help with cognitive decline in older adults. Try to remember that next time you’re at the pharmacy.

Most vitamins are harmless, if expensive, but there is some fairly conclusive evidence that taking beta carotene, vitamin E, and high doses of vitamin A can shorten your life.

Tens of millions of Americans dedicated to questionable health regimens spend on average more than $500 per year on vitamins and supplements that go in and out without doing any good.”

From the archives, an investigative piece this side of the border on ‘natural’ health products:

4. If You Build It, Will They Come?

“Interstate 35 through Austin, Texas, is the most congested stretch of road in the fastest-growing city in one of the sprawliest states in the country.

Yet the Texas Department of Transportation’s plan to expand the highway starting this year faces opposition from a well-organized contingent of local activists. They argue that the expansion will fail to reduce congestion because it will only coax more drivers onto the road — an effect known in urban and transportation policy circles as “induced demand.”

The opponents of the expansion are mostly a speck of blue in a red state, where the vast majority of people are not conflicted about car-dependent lifestyles. And the activists have failed to stop the project, pending a last-ditch lawsuit. But they are part of a nationwide movement aiming to limit highway construction that has gained strength in recent years.

The controversy extends well beyond the question of whether highway expansion reduces congestion — it’s part of a low-level culture war over how cities should form and grow. On one side are urbanists who favor denser cities, public transportation, and walkable neighborhoods. On the other side are — well, on these matters there is not really another side. It’s sort of a one-sided war. No one actively opposes walkable neighborhoods or reliable transit. No one thinks it would be terrible if the United States had beautiful, charming cities like Venice.

But there is a war over priorities. Urbanists see their vision as fundamentally at odds with highway expansion, which they consider a threat to safety, tranquility, and the health of the globe. Meanwhile, the proponents of the I-35 expansion are generally business and government leaders who see expanding highways as a straightforward necessity for accommodating traffic in a growing city. They, too, appreciate walkability and beauty in theory, but do not see cities like Austin becoming Venice anytime soon, and thus fear that the invocation of those concepts is little more than an excuse for stopping needed highway expansions.

They tend to be “people in business who are excited about regional growth,” said Paige Ellis, a former mayor pro tempore of Austin, who successfully advanced a city council resolution calling for a pause to construction on the upcoming expansion project. They are people who want to see development and construction, Ellis told me in a video chat, and see opposition to highway expansion as the work of the “Austin hippie who wants cleaner air.”

The reason that congestion receives so much attention in this war is because it is where the model of car-oriented development is vulnerable. No one likes sitting in traffic.”