Kids Can Get CTE, And Other Facts
Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: The struggles of a young man with CTE, the barbarism of Seal Team 6 and right way to raise a plant.
Even The Young Can Get CTE
It's safe to assume that everyone grew up with a Zac Easter. Easter was that hard-hitting football player who coaches loved to champion and players wanted to be. Maybe he was your friend. Maybe he was in your Algebra II class. Maybe he was your brother.
This is a fact that is hard to escape when reading Reid Forgrave's profile of Easter slowly losing his mind to CTE. Most of us assume that CTE is something only professionals deal with, a brain disorder borne from hard-won years on the professional gridiron. And yet, it happened to Easter. His decision to end his life feels almost inevitable and unfair — the only option he was left with just because he tried to play through the pain.
Easter's story is one that will leave you asking questions with no simple answers. How does one enjoy a sport that has clear, devastating risks? How do we even begin to change the attitudes — the virtues of toughness and silent struggle amongst men — that shape the sport and our culture?
[GQ]
You Can Buy A Plant And Not Kill It
Now, more than ever, do you need a friend. And a plant is perhaps about as good a friend as you could hope for.
You can chat with your plant. You can care for your plant. You can take pictures of your plant and share it with your friends. You can get excited for your plant when it sprouts new growth. Worry about your plant when it starts to droop, and then breathe a welcome sigh of relief when it recovers days later. If you're frustrated you can take a moment and just admire your plant — that while you struggle and grind it out, it too is there with you trying to thrive and grow.
So here is a guide to get started with befriending a plant. Because if the nascent days of 2017 are any indication, you're going to need as many friends as you can get.
[Digg]
Seal Team 6 Made War Hell
Forgive the understatement but: Criticizing things done in combat is not simple. Indeed, there are rules. But if acts of war can warp even the psyche of Seal Team 6, arguably the most potent force inside the world's most powerful army, then maybe we're dealing with something larger than dysfunction within the US military.
This is the implied tone of Matthew Cole's sprawling investigation of misconduct within Seal Team 6. Within it are stories of shameful acts of mutilation, comically machismo chest-beating and multiple failed attempts to curb our nation's elite warriors from acting like schoolyard bullies equipped with assault rifles and the best military training on the planet.
It sounds obvious, but the only true solution seems to be avoid situations where one feels the urge to avenge the death of another.
Paving A Road Looks So Simple
One of the best things about 'Civilization V' is watching your workers slowly construct a road. Turn after turn, a perfect asphalt ribbon chases an imperfect dirt path until it finally makes contact with a city.
Here, in Australia's Shire of Moora, is a road-paving crew that managed to capture that feeling of building a road in 'Civ V.' Maybe it's because it's shot from a drone, giving the video a very video game-like top-down view. Maybe it's because the road is so perfectly straight. Or maybe it's because it's sped-up, again, emulating a video game's ability to speed-up slow, arduous tasks.
If anything, it's a reminder that there are still jobs out there which, after a day of hard work, you can look back and literally see how far you've come.
[Digg]
Previously on What We Learned This Week
Gen X And Millennials Do Not Get Along
Facebook Knows More About You Than You Think
Cheat Codes Don't Exist Anymore
For more Internet distillations like this, check out our back catalog of Digg Roundups. And for more stuff from Digg, check out our Originals archive.
