February 11, 2010

Can Red Bull Make You Crazy?

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Maybe. According to a Canadian Journal of Psychiatry article the Red Bull we’re all pounding (with or without vodka) can trigger “pathological mood switches.” Yet we all need our fix to make it out there in the competitive world (see caffeine, Ritalin). We need our boob jobs (see: Carrie Prejean), our heel lifts (see: Tom Cruise, Nicolas Sarkozy), our “flaxseed oil” (see: Barry Bonds). And while we often point the performance-enhancing finger at athletes for their doping and steroid abuse, how about Mickey Rourke who walked away with an Oscar nod for his comeback performance in The Wrestler? When Men’s Journal asked him whether he roided up for the role he responded, “When I’m a wrestler, I behave like a wrestler.”

Today performance uppers are so much more than HGH. They’re cosmetic surgery to “stay competitive in the workplace,” they’re designer babies custom made down to their complexion, they’re brain fitness tools that will help you one day upload the contents of your brain to computers (Microsoft holds a patent for a device that would distribute “power and data to devices coupled to the human body,” a reverse Bluetooth!). They’re There are even defense-industry exoskeletons that make lifting 200 pounds feel like 20.

Do you know how much Viagra, steroids, and baseball have in common? How much more money tall people make than their shorter counterparts? How the military keeps our troops awake night after fighting night? Find out here, plus oodles more sourced stats and tidbits.

Plus: The Vatican, King Charles, and The Rolling Stones all weigh in on performance enhancement through the ages. Also, ever wonder how our heros, athletes winning Olympic gold and shattering records can have no shame? Excuses, excuses…

 

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This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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