⚾ Drama in Denver

Image: Matt Dirksen/Colorado Rockies

Pete "Re-Pete" Alonso hit 74 total home runs en route to winning his second straight Home Run Derby last night at Coors Field in Denver, CO, in an action-packed event that took full advantage of the thin atmosphere.

🚨 Quick backstory... In April, the MLB said it was moving the All-Star Game from Georgia to Denver due to Georgia’s new voting law.

📉 And the first half of the MLB season wasn't without its own drama... The league-wide batting average through the first two months stood at .236, the lowest it's been since 1968.

• In response, the MLB cracked down on pitchers' practice of using sticky substances to better spin the ball (causing it to move more). This was already technically illegal but often overlooked by umpires and league officials.

Since the MLB informed owners of its new 'sticky stuff' policy on June 3, pitchers' spin rates have dropped and the league-wide batting average has risen more than ten points.

👀 On the horizon...The All-Star Game is at 7:30 p.m. ET tonight.

🎁 DONUT Headline: Rare protests erupted across Cuba over the weekend in response to a range of factors.

Image: Miami Dade Fire Rescue

By now, you've probably heard a 12-story condo building suddenly collapsed last month in Surfside, FL. Nearly three weeks later, the cause is still unknown.

🤿 A deeper dive... Many experts have theories that stem from an engineer's 2018 report finding "major structural damage" in the building's pool deck area due to a concrete slab laid flat instead of sloped to drain water properly. (A brief overview, courtesy of Axios.)

Other notable theories include:

• Vibrations from construction next door: In 2019, one resident complained people working across the street on a new 18-story luxury condo complex were “digging too close to our property and we have concerns regarding the structure of our building.”
• Barrier island erosion: Surfside, like many of the populated areas in South Florida, is located on a barrier island – a strip of land with shifting sands that help absorb the impact of storm surges and hurricanes, but are also vulnerable to being washed away entirely over time. 
• Sinkhole: The geology of Florida - which sits on porous limestone that forms cavities filled with water that eventually collapse - makes it the sinkhole capital of the world. However, officials have said there is no evidence a sinkhole was responsible for the collapse.
• Sinking of land exacerbated by human activities: A 2020 report found the ground under Surfside is sinking, with Champlain Towers singled out specifically for its relatively high rate – though the professor in charge of the report said it's unlikely this in and of itself caused the collapse.

... and a few enterprising individuals are attempting to tie the condo collapse to the death of John McAfee.

👀 Looking ahead... Miami-Dade county's top prosecutor has indicated her office will wait for the results of a scientific investigation into the cause of the collapse - which she said "will take a long time" - before considering a criminal investigation.

• At least four federal agencies are on the scene, including FEMA, OSHA, the FBI, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
• Surfside city leaders have also hired Allyn Kilsheimer, a D.C.-based forensic investigator who worked at the Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks, to help piece together what he calls "a 13,000-piece puzzle.”

🍄 No Matter the Leather

Image: VTT

The production of conventional leather results in a substantial environmental burden, with an annual carbon footprint of 130M tons - the equivalent of CO2 emissions from 30M passenger vehicles.

Scientists at Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre said "challenge accepted," developing a skin-like material from mycelium (mushroom roots) with a similar feel and strength to traditional, animal-based leather.

• Unlike other vegan leather alternatives, this material does not require the use of toxic chemicals, and can instead be created from organic waste products in a bioreactor.
• Researchers at VTT first unveiled their invention back in 2019, but only recently announced a patent-pending technology allowing the fungi-based leather to be produced at an industrial scale (3.3 ft per minute).

Keep reading.

Images: CNN

Tia Wimbush and Susan Ellis have been long-time coworkers in the IT department at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Often passing each other in the halls with a cordial “Hello,” the two never dreamed they would one day team up to save their husbands’ lives.

• This time last year, Tia’s husband Rodney and Susan’s husband Lance were both suffering from kidney failure and only surviving thanks to dialysis.

While both men were put on the donor list in 2020, they knew it could take anywhere from 7 to 9 years before a recipient is matched with a donor.

Keep reading.

What is the most dangerous tree in the world? (Per Guinness World Records.)

A) Sycamore
B) Manicheel
C) Coconut
D) Milky mangrove

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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B) Manicheel

While its bright green colors and vaguely apple-looking fruit may seem welcoming, the manchineel tree - found in the Caribbean, South America, Central America, and southern Florida - is not one you want to spend any time around.

• Just inhaling the air near the tree can be hazardous to your health.
• Getting even trace amounts of its milky white sap on your skin will cause blistering — if it gets in your eyes, there’s a good chance of temporary blindness.
• Eating one of its tart-yet-sweet fruits can cause swelling of the throat and lymph nodes, blistering around the mouth, and intestinal issues.

Even the name reflects its danger – in Spanish-speaking countries, the tree is referred to as “la manzanilla de la muerte,” literally meaning “the little apple of death.”