The Food Industry is Freaking Out That Americans Are Thinking About Eating Healthier
The folks over at Scientific American have written a tongue-in-cheek article – from the perspective of the food industry — about how it is freaking out at the prospect of Americans becoming more discriminating about the food they eat:
(Image via AtlantaBlackStar.com)
Dear Consumers: A disturbing trend has come to our attention. You, the people, are thinking more about health, and you’re starting to do something about it. This cannot continue.
Sure, there’s always been talk of health in America. We often encourage it. The thing is, we only want you to think about and talk about health in a certain way—equating health with how you look, instead of outcomes like quality of life and reduced disease risk. Your superficial understanding of health has a great influence over your purchasing decisions, and we’re ready for it, whether you choose to go low-calorie, low-fat, gluten-free or inevitably give up and accept the fact that you can’t resist our Little Debbie snacks, potato chips and ice cream novelties.
Whatever the current health trend, we respond by developing and marketing new products. We can also show you how great some of our current products are and always have been. For example, when things were not looking so good for fat, our friends at Welch’s were able to point out that their chewy fruit snacks were a fat free option. Low fat! Healthy! Then the tide turned against carbohydrates. Our friends in meat and dairy were happy to show that their steaks, meats and cheeses were low-carb choices. Low carbs! Healthy!
[...]
Of course, we don’t necessarily want you to be unhealthy. It’s just that it’s so much more profitable to provide foods that happen to be unhealthy. We’ve been able to industrialize the food system so that we can produce massive amounts of the cheapest ingredients available, in the cheapest, most efficient way possible.
I can’t figure out what to cut and paste and what not to cut and paste. The whole article is really good. Read the rest of it here.
From the Department of Extreme Patience
Look at this incredible watch…carved by hand, out of wood!
At first glance, these delightful timepieces look like they could have been crafted by the very best Swiss manufacturers.
But they have instead been made by a humble carpenter with no watchmaking training whatsoever.
Ukrainian Valerii Danevych makes his functional wrist watches almost entirely out of wood, with the sole exception of a metal spring needed to propel the movement.
(Image Valerii Danevych via DailyMail.co.uk)
Imagine the patience (fed by passion I guess). Beautiful.
More info and images here.
Wolf Blitzer Brings Religion into Oklahoma Tornado Coverage
Un. Believable. Able. So inappropriate. So unprofessional:
Obama Wants to Close Gitmo? Why is He Asking for $450M to Keep it Open?
The Pentagon is asking Congress for more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close.
Obama talks the talk but he doesn’t walk the walk.
Beware the Government’s “Weather Weapon”
What happens when an insane person has a radio show:
(Image via Wikipedia)
Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones explained to his audience today how the government could have been behind the devastating May 20 tornado in Oklahoma.
On the May 21 edition of The Alex Jones Show, a caller asked Jones whether he was planning to cover how government technology may be behind a recent spate of sinkholes. After laying out how insurance companies use weather modification to avoid having to pay ski resorts for lack of snow, Jones said that “of course there’s weather weapon stuff going on — we had floods in Texas like fifteen years ago, killed thirty-something people in one night. Turned out it was the Air Force.”
Following a long tangent, Jones returned to the caller’s subject. While he explained that “natural tornadoes” do exist and that he’s not sure if a government ”weather weapon” was involved in the Oklahoma disaster, Jones warned nonetheless that the government “can create and steer groups of tornadoes.”
According to Jones, this possibility hinges on whether people spotted helicopters and small aircraft “in and around the clouds, spraying and doing things.” He added, “if you saw that, you better bet your bottom dollar they did this, but who knows if they did. You know, that’s the thing, we don’t know.”
Wow. Just wow.
Tornado Survivor Finds Dog While Being Interviewed on Television
A little bit of good news coming out of Moore, Oklahoma:
Zach Sobiech Died Today
Oh no. Heartbreaking news: 18-year-old Zach Sobiech, who I posted about in December, died today. Zach wrote and recorded a beautiful song I’ll never forget:
Godspeed Zach. Go up in the clouds. It’ll be a little nicer.
