Alas, today's cover photo is not the sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road. "Escaping Burning Man" sounds more like the name of an indie artist or craft IPA than the weekend's top headline, but this is where we are in the simulation. Read more about 2023's best imitation of the Book of Exodus — if Moses had a shark-tooth necklace and obscure band fetish — below. Hope you had a great weekend, and RIP to Jimmy Buffett!

In today's edition:

• Escaping Burning Man

• RIP Buffett and Harwell

• The Pirate Ship

 🔑 Key Stories

Burning Mud

70,000+ people were trapped at the Burning Man festival over the weekend

• Burning Man is an annual music and art festival held in northwestern Nevada’s remote Black Rock Desert. This year, heavy rains turned the desert sand into thick mud, trapping 70,000+ people at the venue

• Organizers urged people to ration water, food, and fuel but said it wasn’t an emergency. A person died on Friday, but they said it was unrelated to the mud

• Attendees began leaving on Monday after roads out of the venue were reopened. Some sources said it took 8+ hours to leave the venue due to traffic jams

Dig Deeper

• Critics said Burning Man was unprepared and ill-equipped to handle heavy rains. Organizers pushed back, saying the situation was never an emergency. “This is not ending the Burning Man event,” its CEO said. “It just makes us stronger”

The Gate-Crashers

Chinese nationals posing as tourists have accessed US military bases up to 100 times over the past several years, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports

• There are 550+ domestic military bases across all US states, which people must show military IDs to enter

• Defense officials told the WSJ that Chinese nationals posing as tourists have tried to or actually have entered bases. Some have claimed to be lost or to have booked reservations at on-base hotels. Others were caught swimming near bases

• Officials say the people may be probing for weaknesses in US military base security

Dig Deeper

• The Defense Department, FBI, and other agencies reportedly held a meeting last year to discuss how to limit “gate-crashers,” or those who try to enter a base without credentials

• A Chinese official called claims that it was instructing Chinese nationals to access US bases “ill-intentioned fabrications” that stem from a “Cold War mentality”

Jimmy Buffett Dies

Jimmy Buffett, singer of “Margaritaville” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” died on Friday of cancer

• Buffett was born in Mississippi in 1946. He began his career as a street performer before becoming a successful musician

• In 1977, he released “Margaritaville,” his biggest hit. Subsequent songs made him a superstar, and he leveraged his brand into resorts, restaurants, and more. He is believed to have been worth around $1B

• His website announced that he passed away on Friday at age 76 due to Merkel cell cancer, a rare and deadly form of skin cancer. He had last performed this July in Rhode Island

Dig Deeper

• Buffett’s website said he had fought the disease for four years before succumbing to it at his Long Island home while surrounded by family. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, his three children, and one grandchild

Paxton Trial Begins

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial begins on Tuesday

• Paxton became Texas’ attorney general in 2015. That year, he was indicted for financial crimes. Those are still pending, and Paxton has been re-elected twice

• In 2020, Paxton’s aides accused him of accepting favors from a donor in exchange for helping the donor out of legal and financial trouble

• Texas’ House impeached Paxton 121-23 in May; his trial in Texas’ Senate begins on Tuesday. Paxton is a Trump ally, although Republicans pushed through the impeachment vote

Dig Deeper

• Paxton and his supporters have called the trial a witch hunt, and former President Trump has called those who voted to impeach him “RINOS” (“Republicans in Name Only”)

• State senators who will participate in the trial are forbidden to speak to the press, making it unclear how they stand. If 21 of 30 state senators vote to convict him, he will be removed from office; if not, he will stay

The Healthy Alternative to Sugary Sports Drinks

Sponsored by LMNT

Healthy hydration isn’t just about drinking water. It’s about water AND electrolytes

• It makes sense—you lose both water and sodium when you sweat. Both need to be replaced

• Most people only replace the water. Why? Because since the 1940s, we’ve been told to drink eight glasses of water per day, thirsty or not

• Drinking beyond thirst can be a bad idea. It dilutes blood electrolyte levels (especially sodium levels), which can lead to headaches, low energy, cramps, confusion, or worse

• The solution isn’t to stop drinking water, though. It’s to drink water plus electrolytes. That is where LMNT is great! Just mix it with water and it’s perfect for hydrating, be it after a workout or night out. It comes in great flavors and contains no sugar

• You can try it totally risk-free. If you don’t like it, they’ll give you your money back – no questions asked

Dig Deeper

• Right now LMNT is offering Roca Riders a FREE sample pack with any purchase. That’s eight single servings FREE with any LMNT order. This is a great way to try all eight flavors or share LMNT with a salty friend

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• RIP, All Star: Ex-Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell died of acute liver failure at 56. During his time with the band, they sold 10M+ albums and had two #1 singles, including “All Star”

• Julío down by the prison yard: Police arrested Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Julío Urias and charged him with felony domestic violence. He led all pitchers in ERA in 2022

• End of gender reveals? A pilot in Mexico died after his plane crashed during a gender reveal party. It released pink smoke as it flew over a couple near an “Oh baby” sign 

Wildcard

• S**t happens: A passenger’s diarrhea prompted a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Barcelona to make an emergency landing. It resulted in an eight-hour total delay

• For whom the bell tolls: A dog named Storm escaped from her yard and snuck into SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to watch a Metallica concert. Her owners later picked her up from a nearby shelter

• New monster just dropped: A Chinese woman claims to have recorded footage of a potential 50-foot-long sea monster in a remote lake. Authorities say local fish don’t exceed 3 feet in length

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

What are you most excited about this Fall?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

The NFL, NBA, and UFC have a piracy problem. Now, they want the government’s help.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) into law. The DMCA says that internet service providers (ISPs) should take down pirated content “expeditiously” once notified of it.

While DMCA takedown notices have become sports leagues’ primary anti-piracy tool, the law came before live streaming, and the term “expeditiously” lacks a concrete definition.

Four years after the DMCA took effect, MLB became the first major professional sports league to livestream a regular season game online. At that point, many still used dial-up Internet, and social media didn’t exist.

Live-streaming piracy has since evolved from dedicated websites to elaborate social media operations. On Reddit, it’s common for users to talk in code when discussing pirating sports streams.

“I would like to be able to watch without having to sail the seven seas,” a Cincinnati Reds fan wrote in a baseball community, asking if any better options exist than piracy. “Ahoy, maytee,” another responds, indicating that pirating is the best option.

One illegal streaming site’s owner told Yahoo Sports that he broadcasts ~500 games per day. When a reporter visited the site, he found functional feeds of second-division Guatemalan soccer, Polish women’s basketball, Canadian high school hockey, and college baseball.

Accessing these streams is notoriously common.

A 2017 Sport Industry Group survey found that 54% of people between ages 18 and 24 admitted to having watched illegal live sports streams. The availability of streams appears to have increased in recent years, as streaming demand and supply surged during the pandemic.

But the illegal streaming costs Big Sport billions, and the leagues have had enough.

Last week, the NFL, NBA, and UFC petitioned the government to revise the DMCA, demanding changes to US copyright law so that ISPs remove illegal live sporting events “instantaneously or near-instantaneously.”

Sports leagues’ media rights are their most valuable assets, generating revenue through multi-billion-dollar licensing deals and pay-per-view events. Amazon Prime Video is paying the NFL $1B annually for the rights to exclusively stream its Thursday Night Football games; YouTube is paying $2B annually for the rights to stream NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV.

The NBA currently makes $2.7B a year on its broadcast deals. When people watch illegal streams, it reduces the value of these deals.

When announcing their new demands, the NFL, NBA, and UFC said that pirated streams cost the global sports industry “up to $28B in potential additional revenue.”

Some internet companies take hours to remove pirated content while others take days. The leagues argue that range is insufficient: While it may be okay for a movie to be taken down days after a piracy notification is filed, live games should be removed immediately, they say.

The NFL, NBA, and UFC have also asked the government to consider requiring ISPs to verify the livestreams posted by users. They want “particular verification measures,” including blocking the ability to stream from newly created or low-engagement accounts.

The NFL, NBA, and UFC’s initiative mirrors a similar effort by the English Premier League, which has formed an internal task force to identify and eliminate unauthorized feeds as it prepares to sell future broadcast rights.

Are the days of illegal streaming numbered, or will the pirates always find a way?

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Should the Capybara become the mascot of Roca?
Yes: 85%
No: 15%

Yesterday's Question:

Just 20 Qs!

🧠 Final Thoughts

We hope you all had long weekends and that they were wonderful. While they say Labor Day is the end of summer, the 95º heat outside begs to differ. Hoping you all are somewhere more comfortable than Manhattan!

—Max and Max