What a week! I’ve been looking at leafy greens and berries longingly while also reminding myself they could be the enemy. I’ve been wearing a mask when I go outside to help with the awful burning and smell from those Canadian wildfires. And I’ve been erecting barriers to try and protect my container herbs and vegetables from the pair of groundhogs that have moved in under my deck
I guess it just goes to show you never know how things will unfold
Wherever you are, I hope you are finding ways to stay cool and safe
Changing Times
We’ve been springing forward and falling back for as long as I can remember. But the current semiannual time change is a relatively recent invention (through the Uniform Time Act of 1966), as is the concept of time zones (a coordinated effort led by the major railroad companies in 1883).
On July 14, seemingly out of nowhere, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Sunshine Potection Act to do away with the semiannual clock change in favor of permanent daylight saving time
Writing for The Washington Post, Anna Liss-Roy and Dan Diamond note: “The legislation has been championed in both the House and Senate by bipartisan members disproportionately from Southern and coastal states, who argue it would allow Americans to enjoy more outdoor afternoon and evening activities during the winter. It also has drawn support from golf course operators, who say the extra hour of daylight in the evenings would notably boost their business.”
The only problem is that the daylight isn’t permanent, and it’s not something we can control. The length of daylight changes throughout the year as the Earth revolves around the Sun
And the rotations of the planets in the solar system isn’t the only cycle that repeats itself. In 1973, Congress passed a law for permanent daylight saving time for a trial period that was cut short because of public outcry. One concern then was that children would be starting school before the sun came up
Kevin Birth, a professor of anthropology at Queens College whose research focuses on cultural concepts of time, told PBS that if the U.S. tries to change the time again, that time zones would also need to change. That’s because the time zones in the Lower 48 cover so much ground that sunrise hits at different times in each time zone
What’s more—and what so many folks seem to ignore—are the very real health implications of permanent daylight saving time. Research suggests that the early morning during standard time is critical for maintaining our circadian rhythms. Chronic circadian misalignment has been associated with sleep loss and long-term increased risks of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mood disorders and even some types of cancer
At the beginning of this decade, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said that if any changes should be made to the clock, it would be to remove daylight saving time altogether
“The U.S. should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time,” says the position statement. “Current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.”
Read more about the health effects of daylight saving time here
Weight-loss Drugs
If it feels like you can’t remember a time before injectable or oral pills for weight-loss, you’re not alone. Although Wegovy, Zepbound and Ozempic only received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for weight-loss a few years ago, they have completely upended the landscape. Some sectors, such as restaurants and food manufacturers, are facing a reckoning. J.P.Morgan estimates the growing use of the medications could eliminate $30 to $55 billion in annual sales for the food and beverage industry as soon as 2030. R
A recent Gallup poll found that 11% of Americans were currently taking GLP-1 medications for weight-loss, up from 3% in 2024
“This validates what I think we’re all seeing in practice, that it’s really dramatically changing how care is happening,” said Dr. Scott Hagan, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington who studies obesity, to The New York Times
The data showed that the obesity rate in the U.S. has fallen to 36.4% from a peak of 39.9% in 2022. Rates of diabetes diagnoses, for which these GLP-1 receptor agonists were first developed to help with, have stabilized
There are plenty of other conditions that GLP-1 medicines might help with, including reducing the risk of dementia, stroke and heart failure. But they come with rare, but serious adverse effects, such as kidney problems and osteoporosis, that shouldn’t be ignored
Compounding this issue are compounded versions of weight-loss medications, which are cheaper but aren’t FDA approved, and the fact that more employers are planning to stop covering GLP-1s for weight-loss. Starting July 1, Medicare is covering certain GLP-1 drugs for eligible patients under the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program
All of this is to say the topic is complicated, and opinions can be swayed by how positively or negatively affected the parties are. But these drugs aren’t going anywhere
J.P.Morgan predicts that approximately 25 million Americans will be on GLP-1 treatment by 2030. That demand is smashing records for the pharmaceutical manufacturers. Eli Lilly, maker of Zepbound, became the first pharmaceutical company to be worth more than $1 trillion, joining the likes of NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon
Read more here
An Adventurous Capybara
I love capybaras. They have large bodies and tiny ears, a friendly disposition and possess a monk-like level of zen. Don’t believe me? Watch this adorable video. Or this video
When I heard that a young capybara named Samba has been on the lam since March, I quickly became emotionally invested. (Perhaps another part of me was thinking I’ve barely recovered from Gracie the giraffe being found last month!)
Samba and her sister, Tango, arrived at the Marwell Zoo in the United Kingdom on March 16. A day later, they both escaped. Tango was quickly found, but Samba remains at large. There have been confirmed Samba sightings. Caretakers have used thermal drones, humane traps and a sniffer dog to try and capture Samba but to no avail
Local residents have, understandably, become enamored with the adventurous rodent. Primary school children have written poems and made missing posters
The latest development is that the zoo has welcomed a new male capybara, Ripple, to offer companionship to Tango while they continue to look for Samba. As of December 2025, the Marwell Zoo didn’t have any capybaras. Capybaras are highly social creatures, so presumably the caretakers were worried about Tango being lonely. To paraphrase Chandler Bing, “Could capybaras *be* any cuter?”
Read more about how this adventurous capybara has run away with our hearts here
