Ricardo J. Salvador

@cadwego.bsky.social

114

Posts

Running fixes your health, diet, and attitude. “O Tierra del Sol, suspiro por verte.” Advisor, Union of Concerned Scientists.

Posts Replies Media

“Many assume that joints, bones and muscles wear down over time like car parts. But body parts are biological. By doing exercise, they actually repair, renew and improve. Running improves your knees by improving the quality of the bone on either side of the knee joint.“ www.wsj.com/lifestyle/fi...

"Chile, Mexico, Brazil and dozens of other countries have worked to change food labeling. Labels can help people understand nutritional quality and change their purchasing habits. Ultimately, the goal of the labels is to improve nutrition and reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods."

Opinion | How to Help Americans Eat Less Junk Foodwww.nytimes.com It’s time to use warning labels to steer people away from food that’s bad for them.

“If you want vitamins to help you, you'd be much better off getting them directly from food. Taking a vitamin completely out of context and ramping up the dosage to a formulation that nature never really saw is not necessarily a good idea. Mortality is decreased by dietary patterns, not by pills.”

Why you should think twice before taking a daily multivitamin to ward off deathwww.latimes.com Long-term data from nearly 400,000 Americans suggests that multivitamins don’t reduce the risk of premature death.

Gabe Gruenwald was elite as a runner, more elite as a human who bravely confronted early death due to a rare cancer. Please join the community of us cancer survivors, runners, and supporters, to raise funds this Fall for research on adenoid cystic carcinoma. 💖 🏃🏿‍♂️🏃🏼‍♀️

Brave Like Gabe 5Krunsignup.com The Brave Like Gabe 5K is on Sunday September 1, 2024 to Saturday September 28, 2024. It includes the following events: Flagship Brave Like Gabe 5K, Pop-Up Brave Like Gabe 5Ks, and Virtual Brave Like ...

“It turns out that genomes are much weirder than scientists had expected.”

Scientists Find the Largest Known Genome Inside a Small Plantwww.nytimes.com A fern from a Pacific island carries 50 times as much DNA as humans do.

“Soon after its launch on this day in 1977, the Apple II became a giant hit for Apple. The year it debuted, it brought in $770,000 in revenue. That figure increased to $7.9 million the following year, and a massive $49 million the year after that.”

Today in Apple history: The revolutionary Apple II goes on salewww.cultofmac.com On June 5, 1977, the first Apple II went on sale. With great specs and breakthrough technology, it quickly became a legendary Apple computer.

“While voters were fiercely split on the issues at the heart of the race, many on both sides of the political divide were elated to have the chance to vote for a woman.”

Mexico elects leftist Claudia Sheinbaum as the first female president in its historywww.latimes.com Mexico election: Claudia Sheinbaum will be Mexico’s first female president, shattering gender barriers in a country with high rates of violence against women.

“Pushed by feminist activists, Mexico, over the past few decades, has adopted increasingly broad laws encouraging more representation of women in politics. Then, in 2019, it took the remarkable step of making gender parity in all three branches of government a constitutional requirement.”

Why Mexico May Elect a Female President Before the United Stateswww.nytimes.com Having a woman as president will be a milestone in a country where gender-based violence is so common. But how much will change remains unclear.

“I’m frustrated by the health impacts of ultra-processed foods not because I think people are making bad decisions by choosing to eat them, but because I suspect corporations don’t care how their products affect consumers.”

I went a week without ultra-processed foods. Here’s what I learnedwww.theguardian.com As I report more, I’ve stopped thinking of UPFs as food at all – and I suspect corporations don’t care how their products affect consumers

Latin America has had an easier time implementing front-of-package labels than the US because most countries’ constitutions there guarantee a right to health that supersedes commercial free speech. ‘There’s less emphasis on protecting corporate free speech, and more on protecting children.’

Latin America labels ultra-processed foods. Will the US follow?www.theguardian.com In 2010, Mexico led the way, followed by Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia

“Amayah is still on cloud nine because she beat an Olympian.”

Iowa superintendent and former Olympian bested in footrace by 5th-graderwww.npr.org Ian Roberts has competed in some of the most high-profile races in the world. But his biggest competition to date was a determined fifth-grader in jean shorts and Nike tennis shoes.

The bill is out of line with what our food system needs. We need to protect the most vulnerable among us, the workers who keep our country fed, and ensure small-scale, diverse and young farmers have equitable access to land, credit, and other vital resources. The House bill fails in these respects.

House Farm Bill Proposal Undermines Climate, Equitywww.ucsusa.org A House food and farm bill proposal fails farmers, workers, and consumers in almost every way, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Our evolutionary remnants tell us that we’re not so far from the little hairy things we once were, hanging out in the trees and nursing whole litters of young.”

Goose Bumps, Extra Nipples and Leftover Tails Remind Us of What We Once Werewww.scientificamerican.com Human’s evolutionary remnants show us the kinds of animals we used to be

Billionaires Lynda and Stewart Resnick, owners of the world's largest pistachio and almond grower, Fiji Water, Pom pomegranate juice and Justin wines, and Teleflora flower service, are suing to roll back legal protections for farmworkers.

Column: Inside the effort by two Beverly Hills billionaires to kill a state law protecting farmworkerswww.latimes.com The billionaire owners of Wonderful Co. — grower of almonds and pistachios — say a California farm labor law is unconstitutional.

“A pay-to-play food policy that prioritizes corporate profits is bad for the well-being of people and the environment. Lawmakers should center the needs of small and midsize farms, diverse farmers, food workers and farmworkers, consumers, and communities — not just the needs of giant corporations.”

Big lobbying groups spend $400M on farm bill: Reportthehill.com Pharmaceutical, manufacturing and big agriculture interests have spent more than $400 million lobbying Congress on a new farm bill, a new report has found. That’s more than four times the amount of…

This is an industry that regularly spends more money lobbying Congress than either Big Oil or defense contractors. Top spenders including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Crystal Sugar Company, the American Farm Bureau Federation and Koch Industries.

Cultivating Controlwww.ucsusa.org Between 2019 and 2023, "Big Ag" spent over half a billion dollars to influence food policies that are bad for people and the environment.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is seeking its next Director of the Food & Environment Program. See the details here.

Union of Concerned Scientists hiring Program Director in Washington, DC | LinkedInwww.linkedin.com Posted 4:52:36 PM. TERM: Full timeProgram or Department: Food & EnvironmentUnion of Concerned Scientists Remote/Hybrid…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

“A review of Stabenow’s proposal indicates her bill would improve coordination across the Department of Agriculture for food and farmworkers by reauthorizing and expanding the Farmworker Coordinator position and providing workers with support to withstand disruptions to the food and farm economy.”

Farm Bill Must Prioritize Sustainable Food Systemwww.ucsusa.org Competing proposals for a new food and farm bill proposed by the House and Senate must prioritize the climate and equity.

“Water pollution from Tyson, a Fortune 100 company and the world’s second largest meat producer, spread across 17 states but about half the contaminants were dumped into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.”

Revealed: Tyson Foods dumps millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into US rivers and lakeswww.theguardian.com Nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil and cyanide among the 371m lb of pollutants released by just 41 plants in five years

“But human cognition, Dennett emphasizes, still consists mainly of competence without comprehension.”

An Epitaph for Daniel Dennett, Philosopher of Consciousnesswww.scientificamerican.com Is consciousness nothing more than an illusion? That idea defined the work of Daniel Dennett (1942–2024)

"The Iowa Farmers Union and 18 other groups, including the National Farmers Union and the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote the Department of Justice and FTC, along with state officials, calling on them to halt Koch's purchase."

Farmers Call on FTC to Halt Iowa Fertilizer Plant Sale to Koch Industrieswww.dtnpf.com Iowa farmers oppose Netherlands-based Orascom Constructions Industries (OCI) selling a seven-year-old fertilizer plant on the Mississippi River near Wever, Iowa, in the state's southeast corner.

“Economics is often lambasted for being a pseudoscience, with dense mathematical formulae that belie its subjectivity and a poor track record of making accurate predictions. Complexity economics treats economies as systems akin to natural ecosystems or Earth’s climate.”

The man reinventing economics with chaos theory and complexity sciencewww.newscientist.com Traditional economics makes ludicrous assumptions and poor predictions. Now an alternative approach using big data and psychological insights is proving far more accurate

“Ibn Sina’s core criterion for personhood—reasoning from universals—closely resembles systematic compositional generalizability. This criterion could provide a potentially testable standard for personhood. In fact, so far, AI has failed this test in numerous studies.”

What Philosopher Ibn Sina Can Teach Us about AIwww.scientificamerican.com A philosopher who lived centuries before artificial intelligence might be able to help us understand the field's personhood questions

😂🤣 “Officials in San Francisco voiced their dismay with the plan immediately, arguing that it would confuse travelers, particularly those coming from out of the country and those who don’t speak English…”

Spat over airport name takes San Francisco-Oakland feud to new heightswww.theguardian.com California city sues neighbor after Oakland votes to rename airport to include ‘San Francisco Bay’, arguing consumers will be confused

👍🏽 ”It’s a way for people to meet and hang out that doesn’t involve alcohol. The concept has boomed since the pandemic – expect positive vibes, group photos, and a shared love of cafe culture. Anything that gets people running is good.”

‘When I wear this shirt, I feel part of a tribe’: how running club merch became a marker of coolwww.theguardian.com Casual running clubs that give members the chance to exercise and socialise are popping up all over the UK. And each one is developing a style of its own

Bluto couldn’t have “argued” this logical fallacy any better. “If you want to talk about health and wellness, and how we can make sure that all Floridians are healthy, you do that by making sure they have a good job. And in order to provide good jobs, we need to not put businesses out of business."

Florida joins Texas in banning local heat protections for outdoor workerswww.usatoday.com Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill barring local governments from requiring heat protection for outdoor workers, making Florida the second state to do so.

“The genetic instructions to make myelin were slipped into our vertebrate ancestor’s DNA by infection with a virus. Myelin is arguably the most significant advance in nervous systems that ever occurred in the animal kingdom.”

A Random Influx of DNA from a Virus Helped Vertebrates Become So Stunningly Successfulwww.scientificamerican.com Insertion of genetic material from a virus into the genome of a vertebrate ancestor enabled the lightning-quick electrical impulses that give animals with backbones their smarts

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Ricardo J. Salvador

New study claims that seaweeds have evolved multicellularity three different times. Moreover, many of the genes that enabled the transition were of viral origin. 🧪🌱🐋🧠🗃️🦋🦫 #Evobio

How seaweed became multicellularwww.sciencedaily.com A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed multicellularity ...

Sublime. The definitive rendition of the piece (and on *guitar*, not violin.) 🙌🏽

Petra Poláčková performs "Chaconne" from Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004, by J.S. Bachyoutu.be This CICGF performance video is made possible in part by support from viewers like you. To help further our work please consider donating at: https://www.gui...

“Such an organelle is an optimal adaptation of the microalgae to thrive in nitrogen-limited waters, and serves as another example of how ecology is the theater where evolution takes place.”

The nitroplast: A nitrogen-fixing organellewww.science.org A bacterial endosymbiont of marine algae evolved to an organelle