OZY - Daily Dose

10 MUST READS TODAY

Monday
Oct 21, 2019

1	Fast Forward

Fast Forward

The Rise (and Rise) of Dodgy ‘Viagra’-Laced Energy Drinks

Uganda is grappling with a flood of uncertified drinks that lead to erections — even for those who just wanted an energy boost.

Stanley Mugisa consumed what he thought was a regular energy drink. But 20 minutes later, he had an unwanted erection that lasted three hours. The Kampala-based fruits businessman kept sweating, got a headache and ended up with high blood pressure for which he’s now taking treatment.

Mugisa isn’t alone. An industry of energy drinks laced with sildenafil citrate — the chemical composition best known by the brand name Viagra — is rapidly spreading in East and Southern Africa, with Uganda as Ground Zero. Faced with growing complaints of abnormal erections after taking energy drinks, Ugandan authorities are now testing these drinks and shutting down some factories where they’re being manufactured without certification. But the crackdown has been half-hearted and has only increased the focus on drinks that are seen by many men as a cheaper alternative to Viagra — a pill costs $4, while the drink costs roughly $1.50.

2	Provocateurs

Provocateurs

She Believes Trees Will Save Germany — If She Can Save the Trees

Julia Klöckner, Germany's minister of food and agriculture, has her own way of tackling climate change.

You could say Julia Klöckner drew the short straw — becoming Germany’s Minister for Agriculture in 2018, right as the impacts of climate change really started to decimate the nation’s iconic forests, which cover almost a third of the country.

And those impacts are no joke: From 2013 to 2017, there were seven wildfires in German forests. In 2018, there were 36 wildfires. That’s not the only extreme-weather related crisis: bark beetles, which thrive in warmer weather, are devouring spruce trees at alarming rates, and droughts and storms have done their share of damage. The forests are under serious threat. Klöckner’s thesis, therefore, is simple: Save the forests, and they’ll save Germany.

Flashback

The Vampires of New York City

19th-century New Yorkers drank blood straight from the slaughterhouse. And it’s not as archaic a practice as we like to think.

Every day in the 1870s, dozens of New Yorkers visited the city’s slaughterhouses, especially one on 34th street by the Hudson River, not for sides of beef for their dinner tables, but instead for cups of blood, collected straight from the necks of freshly slaughtered steers.

Rich and poor alike — but predominately women — they then drank it on the spot, straight and hot. These weren’t the era’s head-to-hoof foodies or thrill-seekers. They were mostly sickly folk who reportedly believed fresh blood contained a vital essence, which would fade if it rested too long, grew cold and congealed. The blood, they thought, could “nourish and sustain their own exhausted vitality,” as a writer for the New York Herald observed of the practice in 1877. Specifically, they believed blood had the power to treat everything from consumption to bone diseases to physical disabilities.

4	Immodest proposal

Victim of Ageism? Time to Change Your Attitude

You may be your own worst enemy when it comes to defying ageist stereotypes. It's time to change that.

Good Sh*t

Look Closer

What would you do if you were told to give up a significant portion of your livelihood to save the planet?

6	Fast Forward

Why the Yuan Might Have Lost Its Chance to Dethrone the Dollar

China's currency has in recent years appeared poised to rival the dollar in global trade. Now, that no longer appears certain.