The big swims
It’s Free for ALL Friday!
Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (100% legal) hocus-pocus.
Has the Long Friendship of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Reached Its Final Act?
Growing tensions between the two billionaires, over issues both substantive and stylistic, have roiled the world of philanthropy.
In the summer of 1991, Mary Gates, the mother of the Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, convinced her workaholic 35-year-old son to spend the July 4 holiday at Hood Canal, a scenic, outdoorsy location about two hours from Seattle that had long been the family getaway.
The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, was among the guests. When Mrs. Gates tried to introduce her son to Mr. Buffett, however, he brushed her off, saying that he didn’t want to meet a “stockbroker.”
But the two men hit it off immediately, and have been close friends ever since. Once, recounting the story of their meeting to students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Mr. Gates called it an “unbelievable friendship.” Mr. Buffett quipped, “The moral of that is, listen to your mother.”
As the years progressed, certain aspects of Gates's behavior, including his stewardship of his foundation, have upset Mr. Buffett, according to four people with insight into their relationship. For more than a decade, Mr. Buffett — known for his love of lean and efficient operations free of bureaucracy — had been bothered by what he saw as the bloat and inflated operating costs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the entity started in 2000 by Mr. Gates and his former wife, which is now known as the Gates Foundation.
In 2023, Mr. Buffett, whose donations to the foundation supercharged its philanthropy for decades, decided that upon his death, the remainder of his fortune — worth more than $100 billion — wouldn’t continue to go to the organization.
It proved to be a telling sign."
‘Everything Is Collapsing’: Israeli Reservists Confront Toll of Protracted War
As Gaza conflict drags on, reservists are exhausted, constraining Israel’s options as it weighs war with Hezbollah
"A day after Hamas attacked Israel and sparked war on Oct. 7, Adi Hazan drove to a rally point in southern Israel and began what he thought would be one or two months of emergency military-reserve service.
Nearly 10 months later, the machine-gunner is still deployed—and the rest of his life is in shambles. His construction business is failing, he is sinking into debt, and his family relies on handouts from friends and charities. And he doesn’t see an end in sight.
“I don’t know what will happen,” said Hazan, 41, who first served in Gaza and now is in the West Bank, where Israel has funneled troops to clamp down on tensions exacerbated by the war. “No one knew this situation would continue for so long.”
A small nation with fewer than 10 million people, Israel relies heavily on reservists such as Hazan to keep its military functioning in times of crisis.
But now, with the war in Gaza heading into its 11th month, and long-running exchanges of fire with regional militias such as Hezbollah heating up, many of those fighters are close to a breaking point. Exhausted and in some cases demoralized, they are struggling to balance family and work with military service, while the economic toll from their absences mounts."
No, It’s Not Just a Trend: The Real Reasons Adult ADHD and Autism Diagnoses Are on the Rise
Getting the correct diagnosis can be a relief for many, regardless of the age it comes at.
Left right and centre, adults in their 30s, 40s, or even later are now being diagnosed with neurological conditions, namely autism and ADHD – things more typically associated with diagnoses in children.
Is it just a trend, or ‘fashionable’, as more cynical types insist? Or are there legitimate reasons why many grown adults are only now discovering they have mental and neurological issues?
For one, there are more adults these days. If just 1 per cent of the population experienced mental or neurological issues (which would be a massive underestimate), an expanding population mean that 1 per cent also expands accordingly.
If nothing else, finally having other people to relate to with similar experiences, who can recognise and empathise with your situation, can make a world of difference if you’ve never had such a thing before.
With Voting Under Attack, Arizona Schools Don’t Want to Be Polling Locations
As false information about elections continues to spread, many school leaders in Maricopa County have closed their doors to the democratic process.
For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, Arizona’s largest public school district isn’t opening its schools to voters as polling sites.
The reasons have been building for years, but the final straw for Mesa Public Schools officials came last November with a small, low-turnout election that became mired in misinformation and menace.
“It was very chaotic,” Assistant Superintendent Scott Thompson recalled. “It was overwhelming.”
Although voting was supposed to be done mostly by mail, mistrust led many voters to drive to the schools to fill out their ballots in person, causing traffic jams and confrontations. Voters confused school staff for election workers and harangued them. Some accused school staff of “disenfranchising voters” for hosting secure ballot drop boxes.
“I couldn’t imagine it in 2024,” Thompson said. “We just don’t know how to make it work.”
Local Girlbosses Lose Pyramid-Shaped Business Model
Rodan & Fields is the latest multi-level marketing company to pivot to an affiliate marketing business model. As of Sept. 1, Rodan & Fields sellers will only be able to make money based on commissions of the products they sell. If you read that and thought, Huh, isn’t that how business generally works? you would be right.
The change is a catastrophic one for a lot of current MLM top sellers, though, and also betrays the ghoulish truth at the center of these companies: When a company with a famously exploitative business model pivots to mimic the influencer economy, it’s not an ethical choice, but a way to adopt the latest vernacular of the unachievable entrepreneurial dream to sell their mediocre products.
MLMs, also known as direct marketing, network marketing, or pyramid selling, are businesses that sell products, but that are built primarily on the recruitment and retention of independent sales associates and the commissions on their sales.
I’m an Oncologist. Here’s What I Do to Reduce My Own Cancer Risk
A recent study estimated that 40 percent of new cancer diagnoses in U.S. adults were due to modifiable factors such as diet and lifestyle.
My family history of cancer is impressive, and not in a good way.
My mom has lung cancer, and both her brother and mother were diagnosed with leukemia. On my dad’s side of the family, his father had prostate cancer and mother had ovarian cancer. These are some of the reasons I decided to specialize in cancer when I became a doctor.
While in medical school, I also decided that — as much as possible — I would avoid behaviors that could increase my own risk of developing cancer, given the number of people in my family who had the diagnosis.
But it’s important to understand that not all cancers are associated with modifiable risk factors. A study from the American Cancer Society published in July estimated that, in 2019, 40 percent of new cancer diagnoses in adults aged 30 years and older in the United States were due to modifiable risk. In many cases, though, the risk of developing cancer can’t be reduced by changing our behavior: The diagnosis is more or less a random event.
Still, here are five steps I’ve taken to reduce my own risk.
1. Take sun protection seriously
2. Keep alcohol intake at a minimum
3. Don’t smoke
4. Exercise half an hour every day
5. Avoid sugary drinks, fast food and processed meats
At 17, She’s Already Conquered Some of the World’s Big Swims
In a tiny fishing village in Tahiti, Olympic surfers will ride the world-famous Teahupo'o swell and compete for gold, but at what cost—to the environment and community?
Close your eyes and imagine: You’re submerged in cold water. There’s darkness above you and beneath you. You’ve been swimming for hours, and you’ll be in the water for many more. Every 30 minutes, you receive a feed (liquid carbs that taste like strawberry lemonade) from your coach, who is closely following you on a nearby boat. The saltwater is making your face and lips swell. You’re tired. To make the time pass, you think about your friends.
But whatever you do, you do not stop swimming.
That is what Maya Merhige, 17, went through for 11 hours and 39 minutes this month as she swam roughly 23 miles across the English Channel, from England to France. The swim earned her the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, which also includes the 20.1-mile Catalina Channel in California and a 28.5-mile swim around the island of Manhattan."
What Buffett didn't say, & wouldn't say because he's a gentleman, is he became aware of Gate's detestable morals???
I've admired Buffett forever.
I have a story about Falcon, kind-of referred to in the story. But now a Falcon Rocket. My youngest grandson, turned 3 in March, became enamored by rocketships after my son, his dad, showed him some pics & YouTube views of some. He especially loved the Falcon Rocket. One day my DIL picked my grandson up from preschool & teacher took her aside & said he had been saying the "F" word all day, telling everyone his daddy taught it to him! DIL asked for an example... teacher said he was building rockets w/ Duplos & blocks, telling everyone "This is a F**n rocket!" ... seems like a 3 year old has trouble pronouncing "L's". 🤣 That night they helped him practice some "L" words... 🤣🤣💖🥰
It’s looking like Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott, Bezos’ ex, took Carnegie’s philosophy to heart insofar as their giving is concerned. As for being able to give everything away, it’s almost impossible to do unless they cash out and keep their billions from creating even more billions.
Maya Merhige’s story was fascinating. To make that decision at the age when most teens are beginning to look at boys and be in the In Crowd of choice, was one thing. But to decide on endurance swimming under some of the most challenging conditions possible was another all together. I can only wish her well and how she makes it into full adulthood safely.