theatlantic:

Debunking the Health Claims of Genetically Modified Foods

On the basis of this research, they argue that a large body of scientific and other authoritative evidence demonstrates that most claims for benefits of GM foods are not true. On the contrary, they say, the evidence presented in their report indicates that GM crops:

• Are laboratory-made, using technology that is totally different from natural breeding methods, and pose different risks from non-GM crops
• Can be toxic, allergenic or less nutritious than their natural counterparts
• Are not adequately regulated to ensure safety
• Do not increase yield potential
• Do not reduce pesticide use but increase it

Read more. [Image: FikMik/Shutterstock]

theatlantic:

Farmers herd a flock of ducks along a street towards a pond as residents drive next to them in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, on June 17, 2012.

[Image: Reuters/China Daily]

theatlantic:

Introducing the Post-It Desk, a Piece of Furniture You’re Supposed to Draw On

When you’re a kid, surfaces are made to be doodled on. Walls are crayon-canvases; wooden tables seem naked without some colorful finger paint prettying them up. It takes a while — from parents’ perspective, a very long while — for us to learn to contain our decorational impulses. Creativity, we’re gradually conditioned to accept, is best confined to paper.

The lesson must be learned, but the learning is sort of sad nonetheless. And it’s why I love this desk: a giant Post-it note that exists to be mucked up by random writings and drawings. The work of Lisbon-based designer Miguel Mestre, the desk is so retro that it’s actually cutting-edge. 

Read more. [Image: Designtaxi]

condenasttraveler:

Norway’s Resplendent Rest Stops | Rondane National Park

Looks to me like the Republican-led “back to basics” movements of the 80s and 90s and 00s are major influences on this pervasive lack of planning and misunderstanding of complex situations. I would not be surprised to learn that very few of the people responsible for these fiascos have any significant training in music or the other performing arts.

theatlantic:

U.S. Military Admits Major Mistakes in Iraq and Afganistan

When President Obama announced in August 2010 the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq, he complimented the soldiers who had served there for completing “every mission they were given.” But some of military’s most senior officers, in a little-noticed report this spring, rendered a harsher account of their work that highlights repeated missteps and failures over the past decade, in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

There was a “failure to recognize, acknowledge and accurately define” the environment in which the conflicts occurred, leading to a “mismatch between forces, capabilities, missions, and goals,” says the assessment from the Pentagon’s Joint Staff. The efforts were marked by a “failure to adequately plan and resource strategic and operational” shifts from one phase of the conflicts to the next.

From the outset, U.S. forces were poorly prepared for peacekeeping and had not adequately planned for the unexpected. In the first half of the decade, “strategic leadership repeatedly failed,” and as a result, U.S. military training, policies, doctrine and equipment were ill-suited to the tasks that troops actually faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

beingblog:

“Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.”

—Anne Lamott from Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith.

Photo by Ross Griff. (Taken with Instagram)