March 16, 2022

Shortly after Elon Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to a fight, a Russian politician called the billionaire meme lord "effeminate." Musk clearly took this jab to heart, as he has since changed his Twitter name to "Elona Musk." We're reaching the part of the 2022 storyline where even Hollywood would ask for a re-write.

Hunting down rats in New York City can be a full-time job. Literally. Find out why in today's Wrap – let's ride.

― Key Stories

Daylight Saving Forever?
Overview

• The US Senate unanimously passed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent throughout the US. During DST, the sun rises and sets later. The US has been observing DST since Sunday
• The House and President Biden still need to approve the proposal; it's unclear if they will do so
• If passed, the law will take effect in November 2023. Federal Law currently lets states opt out of DST, but does not let them observe it year-round
• 2 states do opt out: Hawaii and Arizona. Germany and the US pioneered Daylight Saving Time to conserve fuel during World War 1

Elite Sleeper Game

• A new study has found that about 3% of people are “genetically wired” to need less sleep than most
• Researchers at the University of California San Francisco found that mice with mutations in 2 genes do not suffer psychological or neurological damage from insufficient sleep
• Up to 5% of people have the mutations, allowing them to thrive on less than 6 hours of sleep a night. Researchers think “elite sleepers” have lower risk of dementia and other sleep-deprivation-linked diseases
• Doctors recommend 7-8 hours of sleep nightly

Eiffel Tower Hits a Growth Spurt

• A new digital radio antenna was attached to the Eiffel Tower, causing its height to grow 6 meters (20 feet)
• The tower is now 330 meters (1,083 feet) tall
• The Eiffel Tower has broadcast radio signals for 100+ years, and its height has varied depending on the antenna. The installation of the new antenna took fewer than 10 minutes
• The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest building from 1889, when it surpassed the Washington Monument, until the completion of New York City's Chrysler Building in 1929

Zelensky: Unlikely Ukraine Joins NATO
Overview

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country is unlikely to join NATO – a crucial Russian demand formerly rejected by Ukraine
• “For years we heard about the apparently open door [to joining NATO], but [we must now face the reality that] we will not enter there, and these are truths and must be acknowledged,” he said Tuesday
• An additional update on the war: Russian troops are currently laying siege to Mariupol, Ukraine's 11th-largest city and a major port. They are also on the edge of Kyiv, the capital and largest city
• President Biden allocated $14B in aid for Ukraine on Tuesday

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Popcorn

Culture & Sports 

• Year of the poodle: Labs remain America's most popular dog breed, but poodles climbed into the top 5 for the first time since 1997
• Kyrie headline, but this one on the court: Kyrie Irving dropped 60 points on the Orlando Magic, tying the NBA single-game high this year
• Ain't nothin' but a film premiere: Elvis, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, will premiere at Cannes and hit theaters on June 24

• AMC Theatres buys a $28M stake in a.... gold & silver mining company? AMC is diversifying with a 22% stake in a Nevada-based miner
• Yes, more plz: Oil prices are down 27% from their recent high, ending the day at $96.44 a barrel. They were at $130 last week
• One pad thai, hold the gas prices: DoorDash is offering a gas rewards program for its drivers, but promising not to make customers pay more

• Denmark is mulling a plan that would ban the sale of cigarettes and other nicotine products to anyone born after 2010
• City that never stops skating: Roller-skating will replace ice-skating at the iconic Rockefeller Center in NYC for the first time since 1940
• I'm gonna steal a 100 on Rotten Tomatoes: Nicolas Cage's new comedy is getting rave reviews from critics!
• 30M people are under lockdown in China due to a recent spike in Covid cases, perhaps the worst since the start of the pandemic

― Roca Wrap

A Newsletter Exclusive

Vigilantes are training their dogs to hunt, the mayor is promising poison buckets, toxic traps are being set in the streets: New York City is at war with rats. 

Rats have lived in New York since arriving from Europe in the 1700s, yet they’ve never been more present than today: The city reported 24,366 rat complaints in 2021, 50% more than in 2020, over double the 2010 figure, and the most on record. Each official rat complaint suggests multiple more sightings.

Rat sightings had been increasing for years, and the pandemic accelerated the trend. When lockdowns closed restaurants and offices, rats scattered for food. They found the answer in the excess waste being generated by people stuck at home. At the same time, sanitation department budget cuts led to increased trash buildup.

With traffic and construction frozen, the rats spread freely and increasingly moved during the daytime. When New York came back to life, outdoor dining generated an abundance of food. A wet and warm summer helped them, too. Today, there are an estimated 2M rats in NYC – 1 for every 4 residents.

The rat surge comes despite the city spending $32M annually on rodent control since 2017. That strategy involved using everything from dry ice and poison to toxic mint-scented bags. “All of these devices and items are unsuccessful,” claims the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams.

Adams, who says NYC’s rat problem is at a “crisis level,” advocates the bucket trap: Rats enter the device in search of food, then fall into an alcohol and vinegar solution that drowns them. The devices can hold up to 80 rats, and Adams says they are “humane.” Yet he also admits that especially large rats – ”king rats” – may be too tough for the device to kill.

Many residents aren’t waiting for the government to act: Amid a surge in rat sightings among diners, staff are outfitting their restaurants with a range of rat-killing devices. Some of these traps contain poisonous food; others contain suffocating toxic fumes.

Since 1995, Rats, an anti-rat vigilante group, has searched high-rat-activity areas and used trained dogs to hunt the rodents. The group, which catches dozens or hundreds of rats a night, is controversial: While city officials have given it awards, PETA has blasted it. “Rats are simply trying to eke out an existence like other New Yorkers, and setting dogs on them is depraved and illegal,” the group said.

For Mayor Adams, the problem is personal: In an interview, he described rats attacking his neighbors’ baby when he was a kid.

“And sometimes people don't understand the significant diminishment of quality of life when you're dealing with rats,” he said. “You never lose sight of that. And it really impacts the quality of life of everyday people when you have a rat-infested building or a block”

Now is his chance to win the war on rats. 

 Games

1. ORFOT OPOLS
2. IINARS RABN
3. HEYON CENUBSH FO TOAS
4. PLAEP KASJC

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