Author: Daniela

  • The Forgotten Genius Of Bayard Rustin

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    Originally posted on The Dish: by Brendan James https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFJDlzm5zDM Laura Williams welcomes more attention for a lesser-known hero of the Civil Rights Movement: He helped organize and participated in the first freedom ride, 1947’s “Journey of Reconciliation” (for which he and several other participants were jailed and put in a chain gang). In the 1950s, he…

  • Blind Dog Fetching Toy

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    Am I the only one this video made cry?  

  • Midcentury Map of American Folklore

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    This map, by social realist artist William Gropper, was created to showcase the diversity of national myths and folk stories and was distributed abroad through the U.S. Department of State starting in 1946. (You can see it up close by clicking on the image below to arrive at a zoomable version, or by navigating to…

  • Saudi Arabian Food Chain Contaminated with GM Ingredients

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    Yet another reason to distrust assurances from the purveyors of genetically modified food.  RT News provides information about the contamination of the Saudi Arabian food chain with GM ingredients: The Saudi Arabian food chain has been widely contaminated with GM ingredients, according to a new study. The findings include controversial StarLink maize banned for human…

  • Golden Rice: Spending Millions to Reinvent the Wheel

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    Beth Hoffman’s article in Forbes mirrors my sentiments exactly.  In response to a commenter, she asks: The question is – after 30 years of research, how much has actually been spent creating a product like Golden Rice? How many billions of vitamin A supplements could have been purchased and passed out already – saving the…

  • Solar Powered Sea Slugs

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    The Oxford University Press always has interesting articles, with odd little tidbits of information.  For instance here’s one on “crawling leaves” by Sonia Cruz: ‘Crawling leaves’ or ‘solar-powered sea slugs’ are common terms used to name some species of sacoglossan sea slugs capable of performing photosynthesis, a process usually associated with plants. These sea slugs…

  • Stunning Photos from NASA’s Sptizer Telescope

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    Wired celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Spitzer Star Telescope by sharing some of the extraordinary images it has produced: For 10 years, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has been helping scientists on Earth learn more about the mysterious objects hiding in our star-studded skies. On August 25, 2003, the telescope — carrying a relatively small, 0.85-meter beryllium…

  • For Your Entertainment

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    A dog playing fetch by himself:

  • Janmashtami Holds Special Place Among All Hindu Festivals

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    Sanchita Chowdhur posts about the special place Janmashtami holds among all Hindu festivals: Janmashtami or the birthday of Lord Krishna has a huge spiritual significance in Hinduism. As the legend goes, Lord Krishna was born in the darkness of night, inside a cell of a jail where His parents were locked up by his cruel…

  • Is extremism in defense of GM food a vice?

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    By Nathanael Johnson: Grist When a study came out in 2012 associating gruesomely lumpy rats with genetically modified food, critics trashed it so thoroughly that a group of researchers and advocates called foul. This went beyond legitimate scientific critique, they wrote. It was evidence that “those with a vested interest attempt to sow unreasonable doubt around inconvenient results.”More recently, a…