Vox Sentences: It turns out flossing is still a scientific mystery

Donald Trump gives no quarter to Paul Ryan, John McCain, the New York Times, or babies.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

"¯\_(ツ)_/¯" –Donald Trump

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• Traditionally, the presidential nominating conventions are followed by a few slow news weeks. Tradition, meet Mr. Donald Trump.

• The past 24 hours alone have been a microcosm of the Trump campaign: He's (knowingly or not) threatened democratic norms by suggesting months in advance that if Hillary Clinton wins in November it'll mean the election was "rigged"...

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• ...he's done his best to break the modern Republican Party (this time refusing to endorse Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in his primary — using the same words that Ryan did before Ryan endorsed Trump — and praising Ryan's primary opponent)...

  [Washington Post / Philip Rucker]

• ...he's trolled the media like it's his job, saying that New York Times reporters "don't write good"...

  [Huffington Post / Charlotte Klein]

• ...and he's done things that are simply ridiculous but are covered as if they're outrageous because he's Donald Trump, like kicking a baby out of his rally for crying.

  [NPR / Meg Anderson]

• It seems as if Trump might finally have crossed a line. A sitting Republican congressman (albeit one who's not running for reelection in November) has said he's voting for Hillary Clinton, citing Trump's feud with the parents of fallen soldier Humayun Khan.

  [Syracuse.com / Rep. Richard Hanna]

• President Obama said Tuesday that Trump was "unfit to serve," and that, if elected, he wouldn't be able to "function as president."

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• French President François Hollande also weighed in Tuesday, saying that Trump's "excesses make you want to retch, even in the United States" (which presumably has a higher vomit threshold than France).

  [AFP ]

• These are extraordinary actions. For any candidate other than Trump, they'd be wildly inappropriate. But with some reporters openly questioning Trump's mental health, this seems like nothing so much as an immune system reaction from the body politic.

  [Toronto Star / Daniel Dale]

"¯\_(ツ)_/¯" –Scientists

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• For years, the federal government has told Americans to floss to prevent tooth decay. It turns out there really isn't scientific evidence that flossing works for that.

  [Vox / Brian Resnick]

• This discovery comes thanks to the Associated Press, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request with government agencies last year about the scientific evidence for flossing, only to find out there wasn't much.

  [AP / Jeff Donn]

• The best available analysis, from the Cochrane Collaboration, suggests there's weak evidence that flossing reduces plaque. But there simply weren't enough studies available that tracked flossing over more than three months to figure out the impact on long-term tooth decay.

  [Cochrane Collaboration / Dario Sambunjak et al.]

• Even the American Academy of Periodontology agreed, in response to the AP's revelation, that the evidence is weak.

  [American Academy of Periodontology]

• This doesn't mean flossing isn't a good thing (and you definitely shouldn't change your hygiene habits based on the headlines of news articles!). Just because there isn't evidence that flossing prevents tooth decay doesn't mean there isn't.

  [Vox / Julia Belluz ]

• Besides, flossing does reduce gum swelling and gingivitis.

  [NYT / Catherine Saint Louis]

"¯\_(ツ)_/¯ or maybe you should be forced to work in the fields" –the president of Venezuela

Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

• As Venezuela's slide into ungovernability continues, the country is now accepting food and medicine directly as payment for oil debts from Jamaica.

  [CNN Money / Patrick Gillespie]

• Nicolás Maduro has issued an order enabling the conscription of Venezuelans to do up to 60 days of forced labor on farms in an attempt to generate enough food.

  [Miami Herald / Glenn Garvin]

• It's not clear how enforceable Maduro's order will be. The wildly unpopular president often issues decrees that just kind of sit there.

  [CNN / Patrick Gillespie, Rafael Romo, and Osmary Hernandez ]

• The military has tightened its control over the food supply and ports, but it's not clear if it's a last-ditch effort to shore up Maduro's power — or a partial coup over a president too weak to defend himself.

  [FT / Andres Schipani]

• The country's border with Colombia is closed to Venezuelans; during a temporary opening in the border last month, 35,000 Venezuelans crossed in a desperate search for food.

  [NPR / Lulu Garcia-Navarro]

• Maduro has rejected several offers from international groups for aid.

  [New York / Jesse Singal]

• Perhaps the most accurate (if horrifying) measure of how desperate the government is: It spent $45 million over the past few years to sponsor a mediocre Formula 1 driver. This year, it couldn't even come up with the money for that.

  [The Atlantic / Moises Naim and Francisco Toro]

MISCELLANEOUS

In 2003, Joan Langbord found 10 rare 1933 gold coins worth a combined $100 million in a family safe-deposit box. The federal government confiscated them — and the reason why is fascinating. [Washington Post / Ben Guarino]

• No athlete has ever used genetic engineering as a doping method. The Olympics are going to be testing for it anyway.

  [Wired / Eric Niiler]

• Duverger's law — the reason third parties can't win American elections — explained.

  [Washington Post / Amanda Skuldt]

• At the Ranch, celebrities pay $4,100 to be woken up at 5:30 in the morning, get dragged on four-hour hikes, and receive no more than six almonds on the trail.

  [NY Mag / Allie Jones]

• China's straddling bus, which can go OVER existing traffic, has been advertised for years. Now a working model finally exists.

  [CityLab / Linda Poon]

VERBATIM

"Well, I never threw up over the Japanese Prime Minister. You know that, right?" [Michael Dukakis to Slate / Isaac Chotiner]

• "The Mashco Piro are already talking to us, in a sense, but it’s just one way so far — they’re coming out and killing people."

  [Glenn Shepard to New Yorker / Jon Lee Anderson]

• "Amir Khan, a 23-year-old student at a local community college, has born uneasy witness to young men as the gatekeepers of Harvard social life. He drives a cab at night, and regularly picks up profoundly inebriated women from outside final clubs. 'You give them power and they think that everyone has to kneel down to them,' Mr. Khan said of the club members."

  [NYT / Sarah Maslin Nir]

• "Unlike crustaceans, insects seem to have no pain-related behaviors. If an insect’s leg is damaged, for example, it does not groom or try to protect the limb afterward. Even in extreme cases, insects show no evidence of pain."

  [Washington Post / Tamar Stelling]

• "NASA is not coming up with any serious solutions for sex in space."

  [Fusion / Elmo Keep]

WATCH THIS

Let’s face it — American breakfast is really dessert [YouTube / Gina Barton and Julia Belluz]

Jim Heimann Collection / Getty Images

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