Stephan: My wife and I haven't been to a restaurant in months, and you probably haven't been either. And I like restaurants. And you probably do too. So what is going to happen to them in the future? Here is one possible scenario.
A business model that seemed marginal before the coronavirus pandemic now looks like the future of restaurants. Illustration James Clapham/The New Yorker
Last fall, walking down Mission Street, in San Francisco, I noticed a new addition to an otherwise unremarkable parking lot at the base of Bernal Heights Hill: a large, white trailer, about the size of three parking spaces, plastered with a banner that read “food pick up here.” On one side was a list of restaurant brands with names and logos that seemed algorithmically generated: WokTalk, Burger Bytes, Fork and Ladle, Umami, American Eclectic Burger, Wings & Things. The trailer was hooked up to a generator, which was positioned behind two portable toilets; it occupied parking spots once reserved for Maven, an hourly-car-rental startup, funded by General Motors and marketed to gig-economy workers. (G.M. shut down Maven in April.) Through a small window cut into the side, I could see two men moving around what appeared to be a kitchen. The generator hummed; the air carried the comforting smell of fryer oil; the toilets […]
Stephan: In the early 1970s two friends of mine, Christopher Bird, and Peter Tompkins, after interviewing several people interested in biodynamic gardening who, in turn, led them to several scientists wrote first an article in Harpers Magazine and, then, a book, The Secret Life of Plants, that created an international sensation. The idea that plants have consciousness was considered my materialist scientists the worse kind of woo-woo thinking. Conferences were held deriding the idea, papers were written, and derogatory interviews filled the media, even as the book became a bigger and bigger best seller. It changed Chris' and Peter's lives forever.
I had another friend Alan Chadwick, the leading biodynamist of his day whose gardens remain world famous, who was also a kind of remote viewer who specialized in plants, who told me that what Secret Life of Plants was saying was true. Plants not only had consciousness individually, but they they and all life were part of a matrix of consciousness. Then the Gaia Hypothesis emerged, that hinted at this nonlocal consciousness network without quite saying it.
Now, years later, it turns out the materialists were wrong; there is indeed a matrix of consciousness. Here is some of the recent plant research supporting that concept.
‘You need to imagine a plant as a huge brain’ … the plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso. Credit: Alessandro Moggi
I had hoped to interview the plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso at his laboratory at the University of Florence. I picture it as a botanical utopia: a place where flora is respected for its awareness and intelligence; where sensitive mimosa plants can demonstrate their long memories; and where humans are invited to learn how to be a better species by observing the behaviour of our verdant fellow organisms.
But because we are both on lockdown, we Skype from our homes. Instead of meeting his clever plants, I make do with admiring a pile of cannonball-like pods from an aquatic species, on the bookshelves behind him. “They’re used for propagation,” he says. “I am always collecting seeds.”
Before Mancuso’s lab started work in 2005, plant neurobiology was largely seen as a laughable concept. “We were interested in problems that were, until that moment, just related to animals, like intelligence and even behaviour,” he says. At the time, it was “almost forbidden” to talk about behaviour in plants. […]
Stephan: I have been telling my readers for 20 years that if you want to support good health for yourself and your family, go through your home and garden supplies and eliminate all toxins and poisons, which means most of the things you see in stores and on television. The toxin load carried by most Americans in their bodies is gobsmacking, and can be the source of a whole spectrum of diseases and illnesses.
So what to replace them with? Try these.
There have never been more choices when it comes to organic, natural, or eco-friendly cleaning products. Knowing which products are certified organic and which ones are just a safer alternative to traditional cleaners is often confusing. And how do you know which ones can really get the job done?
That’s where we come in. To help you choose the safest and most effective nontoxic cleaning products, we’ve put together recommendations of 13 products that fit the bill.
Because the market for USDA certified organic cleaning products is relatively small and some options can be on the pricier side, we’ve also included a few noncertified safer alternatives worthy of consideration.
How We Chose
To curate our list of top-rated cleaning products, we considered many criteria. Some key elements include:
The types of ingredients in a product. We took a careful look at the ingredients used in each product to make sure they were safe, nontoxic, and naturally derived. We avoided products with ingredients that have the potential to negatively impact the health of your family or the environment.
Top choices from reputable environmental organizations. Groups like […]
Stephan: This is getting almost no American media coverage, other than a few short pieces such as this one from CNN, but I see this latest incursion of the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) as a big geopolitical deal. When you read this little piece see it in the context of Trump's withdrawing thousands of troops from NATO, and his complete unconcern when briefed back in March that Putin was offering bounties for Americans killed in Afghanistan. Trump is basically committing treason because he is obligated in some way to Putin.
But that is only one level of what is happening. This is not being done for Americans, this is Putin showing countries currently allied with the U.S.: You can't rely on the fact that the Americans will protect you. Look at what I am doing on America's borders; what I am doing in Afghanistan; and what that buffoon in the White House is doing with NATO. America is weak, and led by weak people, while I am strong and smart. America doesn't scare me.
Russian aircraft
US F-22 fighter jets intercepted four Russian Tu-142 reconnaissance aircraft Saturday entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), NORAD said in a statement.Saturday’s intercept follows similar encounters earlier this month in which US F-22 jets intercepted Russian nuclear-capable bombers near Alaska on three separate occasions. The last previous one was Wednesday when US F-22 fighter jets intercepted two Russian IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft entering the Alaskan Zone late Wednesday.NORAD also said the Russian aircraft came within 65 nautical miles south of the Alaskan Aleutian island chain and loitered in the ADIZ for nearly eight hours. It added the Russians remained in international airspace and at no time entered US or Canadian sovereign airspace.”This year alone, NORAD forces have identified and intercepted Russian military aircraft including bombers, fighters, and maritime patrol aircraft on ten separate occasions when they have flown into the ADIZ,” said NORAD commander Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy.
Stephan: I am increasingly convinced that Trump thinks he is going to lose and completely in character, as both a bully and a coward, has decided to take vengeance on the country for not re-electing him.
If you have been reading SR you know he is putting the most vile people into office he can while he still has power, so that they can wreak havoc on America. Here is yet another example of the kind of scumbags he is nominating, knowing the Republican Senate, made up of quislings and led by Mitch McConnell, a man without conscience only personal avarice, dare not oppose him.
In this photo from Oct. 11, 2019, William Perry Pendley speaks at a conference for journalists in Fort Collins, Colorado.
President Donald Trump will formally nominated William Perry Pendley, a self-proclaimed “sagebrush rebel” with extreme anti-environmental views and a long history of advocating for the sale of federal lands in the West, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management.
Pendley was tapped last July for a senior policy position at BLM, an agency of the Department of the Interior, and quickly elevated to acting chief. The backdoor appointment put him in charge of overseeing 245 million acres of public land — more than 10% of the entire U.S. landmass — and 700 million subsurface mineral acres. It also enraged environmentalists and sparked fears of a public lands sell-off.
Pendley, a native of Wyoming, is the former longtime president of Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative nonprofit that has pushed for the government to sell off millions of federal acres. He’s written several books about Western land issues, including one titled “Sagebrush Rebel,” a […]
