The term organic has become so commonplace that we rarely consider what it means or what it symbolizes to the American consumer.
The term comes bearing a certain promise outlined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but have we wrongly translated organic from “grown without pesticides” to “more nutritious and delicious?”
If someone were to ask why you threw organic tomatoes into your basket at the store, you might respond that organic is safer for you and your family. If pressed, factors like taste, texture and nutrition might also pop up in the discussion. But is that even correct?
A 2016 Pew Research Center study discovered the main reason people buy organic is health (76%), but nearly one-third of respondents (32%) said that organic produce tastes better. A significant proportion (59%) of people, however, stated that organic and conventional food tastes about the same.
I recently had an in-car conversation with my nephew about WW II. He wanted to know what possessed Hitler to attack the Soviet Union. We ended up talking a little bit about geopolitics, and the role that oil & gas reserves played in Germany’s decision to turn against its ally. The conversation was very general, because I had few concrete facts or sources to give him. I promised that I would do some research and send him some links.
Upon my return home, I fired up google and started browsing around about geopolitics. I happened upon a Wikipedia article that discussed a book written by Aleksandr Dugin called “The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia”. What I discovered was both amazing and frightening. I strongly urge you to go and read the (relatively short) article in full.
“The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia” was written in 1997. Since then, it has risen to the rank of textbook for the Russian military’s “Academy of the General Staff”. It lays out a Nationalist, Eurasianist political ideology and strategy for Russia to rebuild its influence and rise to world dominance. The strategic objectives laid out in the book are clear and systematic. The main tactics to accomplish them are not military; rather,
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Two Useful Idiots are Accelerating Russia’s Geopolitical Strategy
As an average consumer, you probably have a vague awareness of the nutritional value of your animal proteins — fish being better than red meat, for example. The issue can be complicated, because all animal proteins have pros and cons, research can come up with conflicting results, and studies can surprise us. For example, research suggests that in terms of cholesterol alone, eating white meat chicken is as bad for you as eating beef.
Still, there’s a generally agreed upon hierarchy of nutritional value when it comes to animal protein and small shifts in your diet might have greater effects than you realize. In a study of the Danish population, researchers found that Danes could gain more than 7,000 years of healthy life annually if they ate the recommended quantity (12 ounces per week) of fish, while at the same time replacing red and processed meats in their diet.
“It’s important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all healthier diet or meat per se,” said Janese Laster, a physician nutrition specialist in the District. Also crucial? “There are differences in farming practices, so throughout the United States, each person is getting different risks and benefits from the meats.” Keeping that in mind, here are some conclusions that can be made about different categories of animal protein, starting with the good.
It was an open secret at Brentwood School, a $44,000-a-year private academy in Los Angeles with a roster of famous alumni, that science teacher Aimee Palmitessa flirted with male students.
She once posed with kids in her class wearing matching T-shirts that said “AP Chem 2014 has me … (Mg,Fe)₇Si₈O₂₂(OH)₂” — a reference to the symbols for the mineral cummingtonite. A former student recalled her making a suggestive joke next to the word “sex” on one of his tests. Another student talked to friends about having sex with her. That boy eventually transferred to another school — but Palmitessa continued teaching at the Brentwood high school.
In 2016, Palmitessa forged a relationship with a sophomore student in her honors chemistry class. She listened to him describe his shyness around girls. She defended him when he got in trouble for being at a party where students were filmed singing along to a rap song that included a racial slur. By the following year, she was welcoming visits from the student in her office almost every day.
Sean Rodriguez lined a home run leading off the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Philadelphia Phillies a 6-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.
Josh Bell hit a solo homer off Philadelphia closer Hector Neris to tie it at 5 in the ninth after Corey Dickerson hit a two-run shot against his former team in the eighth to give the Phillies a one-run lead.
But after stranding five runners in the ninth and 10th, the Phillies won it when Rodriguez went deep against Michael Feliz (2-4) for his fourth career walk-off homer. Rodriguez was in a 1-for-21 slump before he connected.
Young newlyweds were reportedly killed in a car cash while pulling out of a judge’s office where they had just wed.
“They hadn’t even been married for five minutes,” LaShawna Morgan, mother of the groom, told The Beaumont Enterprise.
Harley Morgan and Rhiannon Morgan were 19 and 20 respectively and were leaving a Justice of the Peace courtroom Friday afternoon in Orange County, Texas. As the couple pulled out of the parking lot and onto Texas 87 Highway, an oncoming Ford pickup, reportedly towing a trailer with a tractor, collided with their car. The driver of the pickup wasn’t injured, reports KFDM news.
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Texas newlyweds died a few minutes after they wed, when their car was hit by a truck. (Photo: Getty Images)
Domino Sugar’s Chalmette Refinery in Arabi, La., sits on the edge of the mighty Mississippi River, about five miles east by way of the river’s bend from the French Quarter, and less than a mile down from the Lower Ninth Ward, where Hurricane Katrina and the failed levees destroyed so many black lives. It is North America’s largest sugar refinery, making nearly two billion pounds of sugar and sugar products annually. Those ubiquitous four-pound yellow paper bags emblazoned with the company logo are produced here at a rate of 120 bags a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week during operating season.
The United States makes about nine million tons of sugar annually, ranking it sixth in global production. The United States sugar industry receives as much as $4 billion in annual subsidies in the form of price supports, guaranteed crop loans, tariffs and regulated imports of foreign sugar, which by some estimates is about half the price per pound of domestic sugar. Louisiana’s sugar-cane industry is by itself worth $3 billion, generating an estimated 16,400 jobs.
A vast majority of that domestic sugar stays in this country, with an additional two to three million tons imported each year. Americans consume as much as 77.1 pounds of sugar and related sweeteners per person per year, according to United States Department of Agriculture data. That’s nearly twice the limit the department recommends, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. tangie
For a day, at least, everyone was on their best behavior when the cameras were on, eager to present a show of bonhomie after so many previous meetings ended in discord.
But behind the scenes at the annual gathering of some of the world’s leading powers, President Trump still found himself at odds with his counterparts on Sunday over issues like trade, climate change, North Korea, Russia and Iran.
Ever so gingerly, as if determined not to rouse the American’s well-known temper, the other Group of 7 leaders sought to nudge him toward their views on the pressing issues of the day, or at least register their differences — while making sure to wrap them in a French crepe of flattery, as they know he prefers.
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Group of 7 leaders posing for a photo before a dinner Sunday at the summit in Biarritz, France.CreditCreditErin Schaff/The New York Times
President Trump stands to save millions of dollars annually in interest on outstanding loans on his hotels and resorts if the Federal Reserve lowers rates as he has been demanding, according to public filings and financial experts.
In the five years before he became president, Trump borrowed more than $360 million via four loans from Deutsche Bank for his hotels in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, as well his 643-room Doral golf resort in South Florida.
The payments on all four properties vary with interest rate changes, according to Trump’s official financial disclosures. That means he has already benefited from falling interest rates that were spurred in part by a cut the Federal Reserve announced in July, the first in more than a decade — and his payments could drop by millions of dollars more annually if the central bank grants Trump’s wish and further lowers short-term rates, experts said.
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President Trump chastised the Federal Reserve on April 5 and said the central bank should lower interest rates. (The Washington Post)
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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President Trump chastised the Federal Reserve on April 5 and said the central bank should lower interest rates. (The Washington Post)
