Magazine Posts

Consuming a healthy diet throughout the life-course helps to prevent malnutrition in all its forms as well as a range of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and conditions. However, increased production of processed foods, rapid urbanization and changing lifestyles have led to a shift in dietary patterns. People are now consuming more foods high in energy, fats, free sugars and salt/sodium, and many people do not eat enough fruit, vegetables and other dietary fibre such as whole grains. More

The angle Earth’s axis is tilted with respect to Earth’s orbital plane is known as obliquity and it significantly influences earth's climate, its weather patterns, and the natural rhythms of life. The Earth’s axis is currently tilted 23.4 degrees, or about half way between its extremes, and this angle is very slowly decreasing in a cycle that spans about 41,000 years.
Obliquity is why Earth has seasons. Over the last million years, it has varied between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees with respect to Earth’s orbital plane. More at NASA  

There are only two moments each year when the Sun lies directly above Earth’s equator. These moments are the equinoxes, when, at any location, the lengths of day and night are roughly equal. The March equinox happens sometime between March 19 and 21. The September equinox occurs sometime between September 21 and 24.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the March equinox marks the beginning of Spring and the September equinox the beginning of Fall. The reverse takes place in the Southern Hemisphere.

On September 18, 2024, 124 of the 181 member states voted in favor of the measure. The United States, alongside 13 other nations, voted against the resolution, that sets a 12-month time frame to end Israel’s "illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza".  More at The Intercept➜

"Grace Fischer survived the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School by staying quiet and huddled, as her first grade teacher softly read “The Nutcracker.”...Then she spent the rest of her childhood watching mostly from the sidelines as dozens of similar shootings shattered other schools across the country." More at NBC News ➜

"Is the adage “calories in, calories out” true? The short answer is yes, but the full story is more nuanced....."From the moment food touches your tongue to the time it leaves your body, your digestive system and gut microbiome work to extract its nutrients. Enzymes in your mouth, stomach and small intestine break down food for absorption, while microbes in your large intestine digest the leftovers. More at The Conversation ➜

“I remember when we had over 1,000 dairy farms in this county. Now we have less than 40,” Orr, an agriculture adviser for Greene County, Tennessee, told me with a tinge of sadness. More at The Conversation ➜

"While most love songs are inspired by the joys and heartaches of romantic relationships, love between friends can be just as intense and complicated. Many people struggle to make and maintain friendships, and a falling-out with a close friend can be as painful as a breakup with a partner." More at The Conversation ➜

"In the last 10 years, Herasimtschuk has photographed forests across the Pacific Northwest, documenting the inhabitants of these last remaining old-growth ecosystems. From salamanders and salmon to bears and mountain lions, his images illustrate not only the beauty of the forests and their creatures but the symbiotic relationships which are vital to the forests’ health and the planet’s welfare" More at NPR ➜

Bruno Catalano is a French Sicilian artist born in Morocco in 1960. When he was 15, he left his homeland and arrived in Marseille. At the age of twenty, he became a sea traveler, working on boats. In 1990, He started working in sculptures. In 2004, a casting accident created a gap in his work and the artist decided to make this "tear" a central element of his sculptures. You can now find his work all over the world, some in permanent locations and some as part of temporary exhibits in different cities.
His "incomplete" sculptures of men and women, luggage in hand, moving ahead in unknown directions, have been interpreted by many as traveling humans carrying their "baggage" and showing the "emptiness" left by whatever they left behind, as they moved on their life journey. More

"Susan Horton had been a stay-at-home mom for almost 20 years, and now—pregnant with her fifth child—she felt a hard-won confidence in herself as a mother......Then she ate a salad from Costco". More at Reveal ➜

Astronomers exploring the faraway universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s most powerful telescope, have found a class of galaxies that challenges even the most skillful creatures in mimicry – like the mimic octopus. This creature can impersonate other marine animals to avoid predators. Need to be a flatfish? No problem. A sea snake? Easy......   More at The Conversation➜