#shipping is 50 dollars to Chile

[fightoh]

Buying the seasons greetings in local stores is slightly cheaper than buying it online from Korea. Still expensive, but oh well.

[onereallygoodlambonastick]

*knee-up are now 30% per extra char, not 50%! cool graphics made by the glorious @marianjos

yup. would like to humbly present some offerings. due to issues. i draw mostly in pencil and ink with some digital options, you'll get something physical in the mail for what should be <5 dollar shipping fee if you're based in the "us" chile or brazil, everywhere else is case by case. i'll do a lot this run, ocs down sloppy style, furries, gummies for the generous, short comic spreads for ur ocs and otps, etc except what i will not do. mutuals get xtras n things wink come talk to me to find out!

if at all interested please dm or email me at ohhbde(at)gmail(dot)com, thank you!😐👍🏼💕

🍵add. info below for serious onlookers🍵

i'll also do +10$< for brush pen as an add-on, forgot to add it in

soy has a history of drawing for: orv, link click, shl/woh, ajin, drhdr, jojo, code geass, witch hat atelier. jjk is glaring rn

soy would also luv to draw more for: golden kamuy, neuro tantei, blue period, hxh, inuyasha, your ocs!

sliding scale prices are open to under-resourced folks, especially folks of color, who still want something nice. pm me

i'm opening nsfw comms sloppy style to charas that i don't know or care about so note that is the risk you’re running. i'd love to make your ocs bang if that's what you want to see from me !

ill work on sketch-ups after gathering specifics which will then be sent for approval, wherein you may make changes. once a sketch is finalized no more changes can be made.

your commission will be mailed to you, and if you requested a digital add-on, the file will be emailed to you.

i'll draw ya 2+ gummies if you tip me $5+, which i will donate on your behalf to a person/org of my choosing

refunds only in the case i neglect the entire commission.

in order to make my business a lil more sustainable, i’ll offer a separate one-time exclusive use fee, which is permanent/specific to one person - which was previously built into all my prev commissions, but now you must pay to reserve the commissioned work for personal use. this is so i didnt need to hike up my prices across the board to account for what is essentially one-time use of a drawing, and so i may have the viable option to make merch w it to help offset the cost of offering cheaper comms. if i ever do end up making merch from it, you can request one from me for free or production cost.

if you'd like to commission a one-time use fanart drawing, thats 60% of the flat amount total added on. If not, you can still get the same, actually lowered than before, flat pricing for fanart comms - just bear that in mind! this fee does not apply to non-fanart, which have had their prices modified to reflect this. thanks for your understanding.

[earaercircular]

This is how blue finance works in Latin America and the Caribbean

Climate change is hitting the region's seas. Blue finance can be a shield to protect them

A combination of climate change, overfishing and pollution is bringing the planet's vibrant oceans to the brink of collapse. The pain inflicted to the oceans by climate change is especially intense in Latin America and the Caribbean, where many economies and the livelihoods of millions of people are closely linked to the sea.

The sea represents 60% of the territory in 22 countries in the region, with a coast that extends for more than 70,000 km. In Latin America alone, 25% of the population lives in coastal areas, while almost 100% do so in the Caribbean.

The looming crisis facing the oceans will be a key point in the COP28 discussions taking place at the end of November in Dubai, where world leaders will seek to deploy an arsenal of initiatives to confront the challenge of climate change. One of the pillars of these efforts will likely be a nascent set of financial tools, including blue bonds and blue loans[1], which have already taken their first steps in the region and contain enormous potential in the battle against climate change.

These instruments raise funds for water-related projects, such as preserving access to clean water, wastewater treatment plants, plastic recycling, restoration of marine ecosystems, sustainable shipping, eco-tourism and offshore renewable energy.

Similarly, investments in sustainable salmon production in Chile represent an investment potential of $5 billion and could help increase sector income, boost exports and support local jobs, while preserving natural resources.

Some countries are already paving the way for the development of blue finance in the region. This is, for example, Ecuador, where Banco Internacional became the first bank in the region in 2022 to issue blue bonds. The issue, which had the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)[2], could be a benchmark in a country that is home to the largest small-scale artisanal fishing fleet in the southeastern Pacific Ocean and which also has enormous growth potential in the blue economy. The Ecuadorian fishing sector contributes around 1.5% of the country's Gross Domestic Product and 13% of its non-oil exports, and employs 108,000 people.

Since 2020, IFC has provided more than $1.3 billion in loans and blue bonds to financial institutions and private sector companies. In Colombia, one of the five most diverse nations on the planet, BBVA[3] became, with the support of IFC, the first financial entity in the country to issue blue bonds. This is a first tranche for 50 million dollars destined to finance projects for the construction of water and sewage treatment plants, preservation of the oceans and protection of lakes, moors and mangroves.

In the middle of last year, IFC granted a loan of $150 million to the Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo (SABESP)[4], one of the largest water and sanitation companies in the world. The impact of the loan is huge, as it will be used to finance investments focused on improving water quality and expanding wastewater collection and treatment in the poorest neighbourhoods of São Paulo.

Despite these cases, there are still many tasks to be accomplished for blue finance to take root in the region. It is key, for example, to develop duly defined taxonomies, certifications and standards so that blue finance becomes tools that meet its impact expectations. The Blue Finance Guidelines[5], a document developed by IFC that identifies eligibility criteria for blue projects, seeks precisely to translate the general principles of blue economy financing into guidelines for blue bond issuances and blue loans.

This story is not only an opportunity for growth, but also a commitment to the preservation of our environment. Investing in the blue economy, supported by strong financial institutions and regulations, can make a difference in preserving our oceans and fighting climate change.

According to an estimate by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the blue economy represents about 2.5% of global GDP. Likewise, its scope can provide a substantial change in problems such as the scarcity of fresh water or the use of renewable energy, thereby promoting a better quality of life for people who live linked to the sea.

Today, the blue economy has already confirmed its potential by generating palpable benefits in some cases such as the decarbonization of maritime transport in Brazil, support for sustainable tourism in Chile, the protection of marine biodiversity in the Eastern Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands, the restoration coralline in Belize and the preservation of species in the Mar del Plata in Argentina, to mention a few.

There is no sustainable horizon without private innovation

Efforts to combat climate change will not succeed without massive increases in private capital to developing economies, which account for more than 60% of global decarbonization investment needs. According to its annual report[6] (Building a Better Future), IFC committed a record global amount of $14.4 billion in climate finance by 2023. Starting July 1, 2023, 85% of all new IFC investments will be consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement, increasing to 100% on July 1, 2025, meaning it will include climate mitigation and adaptation. climate change in all investment decisions. Mere financing is not enough: innovation also plays a fundamental role, especially in protecting the planet's carbon reserves. In the field of blue finance, for example, IFC published a study[7] this year that detects opportunities to finance projects that contribute to safeguarding the carbon stored in the world's coastal ecosystems. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the safeguarding of so-called blue carbon - that which is stored in the form of biomass and sediments in coastal ecosystems - will be one of the main areas to explore in terms of blue finance in the years to come.

Source

Grupo Banco Mundial, Así funcionan las finanzas azules en América Latina y el Caribe, in:El Pais, 16-11-2023; https://elpais.com/america/termometro-social/2023-11-16/asi-funcionan-las-finanzas-azules-en-america-latina-y-el-caribe.html

[1] Blue bonds are debt issues that are intended to preserve and protect the oceans and their ecosystems. They seek, through the mobilization of public and private capital, to promote projects that have a favourable impact on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the blue economy. https://www.bbva.com/es/sostenibilidad/que-son-los-bonos-azules-y-por-que-son-importantes/

[2] The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States.

[3] Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Bilbao, Spain. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, and is present mainly in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, South America, Turkey, Italy and Romania

[4] Sabesp is a Brazilian water and waste management company owned by the state of São Paulo. It provides water and sewage services to residential, commercial and industrial users in São Paulo and in 363 of the 645 municipalities in São Paulo State, typically under 30-year concession contracts. It provides water to 26.7 million customers, or 60% of the population of the state. It is the largest water and waste management company in Latin América. It provides basic sanitation services, which include all phases (abstraction, treatment, processing, distribution) and the collection, treatment and reuse of sewage. The São Paulo Metropolitan Region and the Regional Systems accounted for 74.5% and 25.5% of the sales and services rendered during the year ended December 31, 2004 respectively. Sabesp also supplies water on a bulk basis to municipalities in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, in which it does not operate water systems to local operators.

[5] Blue Finance is an emerging area in Climate Finance with increased interest from investors, financial institutions, and issuers globally. It offers tremendous opportunities and helps address pressing challenges by contributing to economic growth, improved livelihood, and the health of marine ecosystems. The ocean economy is expected to double to $3 trillion by 2030, employing 40 million people, as compared to 2010. Innovative financing solutions are key to enhancing ocean and coastal preservation and increasing clean water resources, and Blue Finance has a huge potential to help realize these goals. This document identifies eligible blue project categories to guide IFC’s investments to support the blue economy, in line with the Green Bond Principles and Green Loan Principles. The market has been seeking guidance on project eligibility criteria, translating general Blue Economy Financing Principles, such as the Sustainable Blue Economy Principles and the Sustainable Ocean Principles, towards guidelines for blue bond issuances and blue lending. https://www.ifc.org/en/insights-reports/2022/guidelines-for-blue-finance

[6] In FY23, IFC committed a record $14.4 billion in climate finance, mobilizing $6.8 billion of additional capital alongside our own investment of $7.6 billion to help client countries address the climate crisis. This represented a record 46 percent of the total of long[6]term investments for our own account. Our work accelerates an inclusive transition by catalysing green growth, supporting private companies to decarbonize and manage risks, and supports societies adapting to a warmer planet. As a result, we help create markets and jobs so that countries continue to reduce poverty and improve living standards while increasing resilience and shifting to a low-carbon world.  https://www.ifc.org/en/insights-reports/annual-report/download

[7] Deep Blue: Opportunities for Blue Carbon Finance in Coastal Ecosystems. https://www.ifc.org/en/insights-reports/2023/blue-carbon-finance-in-coastal-ecosystems

[sweetbrokenthoughts]

in case you wonder why Chile is fighting, it is not for subway tickets only

one of the worst and most unequal educations in South America and one of the most expensive in the world.

Poor condition of the Chilea healthcare system.

Pension system crisis (US$200 monthly)

Miserable minimum wage (US$421,98 minimum)

Precarious jobs (45 weekly hours)

Police gate (US$46 million stolen by the official chilean police)

Salaries of political elite 33 times higher than the minimum wage.

Lots of collusions (toilet paper, chickens, shipping companies, industry pharmacy)

the ONLY country in the world where water is private, water rights are delivered in perpetuity and for free

that the families of the disappeared detainees still do not know where the bodies of their families are after the dictatorship (1973 - 1990)

the drought in Petorca

Chile is the most unequal country in the OECD

those over 80 have the highest suicide rate in the country.

Quintero youth must close the school year due to health problems after episodes of contamination

the sexual abuse of the church and the protection that the policy has given to the cases

The crisis of the National Service for Minors (Sename), a Chilean state agency responsible for the protection of the rights of minors and adolescents, in which children have been killed and others have been abused.

Evasion of contributions (Piñera and more)

To avoid the same amount of contributions as Piñera (the current president of Chile), the subway ticket must be evaded for 909 years.

University debt

Soquimich case

Increase of benzine/gas/petrol

Crisis of Quintero, Petorca and Puchuncaví

Mining, 61.4% is held by foreign capital. The rest is mostly concentrated in the Luksic group and CODELCO (private-state company)

Pesqueras, in Chile from the fishing law, 7 families became owners of the sea and its resources

Forestry, for the year 2017 exports amounted to $ 5.376 million dollars, among the Angelini and Matte groups collect 73.6%

Salmon farms, in Chile 800 tons of salmon are generated, of which 98% is for export and 50% belongs to the Norwegian company Marina Harvest

Minera Biolantanidos, the mining company of Gran Concepción intends to use 35,000 liters of water per hour, with this resource about 5,000 people would be supplied

Agroindustry, by 2017 the agricultural sector reached $ 10.697 million dollars, practically the entire industry is private

The President of the Senate of Chile has income (diet + allowances = 30 million pesos) higher than what the KING JUAN CARLOS of Spain receives.

The senators self-allocated 2 million pesos for "diffusion of activities in the field" indefinitely, and already had revenues of 15 million per month.

The AFPs pocket 3% of the remuneration for the mere fact of receiving the money. In investments when you win, they win and when you lose, you lose. The old system gives better pay. The military are not in the AFPs.

In Chile the economy has grown systematically and by paradox increases poverty, who gets the money?

The former Chilean presidents receive about 30 thousand dollars a month, they are earning more than the former US PRESIDENTS.

The Internal Revenue Service condoned more than 77 billion pesos (144 million dollars) to the Johnson's chain of stores, this is more than it cost to build the Costanera Center building and what does the SII do when they do not give a ticket in a neighborhood warehouse?

Private health in Chile is 3 times more expensive than in GERMANY.

and any Chilean can give you 20 more reasons because they are even more and that is what we are fighting for, to change everything. You should not believe what you see on television or what the government says, they are covering up deaths and missing people, seek the truth, because they are killing people and putting together scenes for television.

[therealpattern]

Under 24 hours left of The Way of Kings kickstarter!

The kickstarter has been so much fun and at this point there are almost 28 000 backers (So why is the most liked Cosmere post at like 1200 likes? Where are all of these people when I put out objectively funny content????)

All this to say If you are not one of the 28 000 (28 000 people cAn’T bE WrOnG), now is the time to either snag a 200$ copy, that includes all of the swag, OR get the digital art pack + new Stormlight novella e-book for 10$ OR get that plus the hardcover of the novella and all the awesome swag that has been unlocked (including chicken scout greatshell wrangler badge - it’s as awesome as it sounds, and some almost unlocked Roshar themed coasters) for 50$. This is the ONLY way to get the e-book, taking place right after Oathbringer, before the release of Rhythm of War. It’s also the only way to get The Way of Kings Prime physical copy, which looks beautiful (it’s the first version of The Way of Kings and is WAY different. Remember Kaladin? He is Merin now and he loves them shards). IF unlocked we will also get this as an audiobook! I need the audiobook. Pls support the project. This will also unlock my eternal gratitude which is worthless (roughly 0$ in dollars).

If you tried to back before but it didn’t ship to your country you might be in luck since shipping now includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, India, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates.

If you have any questions about anything related to the Kickstarter I have been following it obsessively and knows about as much as Brandon’s team - so feel free to ask me (I do however have an agenda, because I want people to buy it so I can get my audiobook fix so proceed with caution).

Thanks for reading my dissertation on The Way of Kings Kickstarter I love y’all

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/the-way-of-kings-10th-anniversary-leatherbound-edition?ref=user_menu

[disembodiedapparition]

Neoliberalism: explained

Neoliberalism is a concept that has largely shaped the world we live in today. First popularized in the 1980s by world leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, it was the successor to the Keynesian economic system that most developed nations had adopted post World War 2. However, for a system as influential as it is, there’s still a great deal of confusion about what it really stands for and whether it’s ideal for a strong economy or not.

Neoliberalism is a school of thought that believes that every human interaction is driven by greed. In other words, people’s actions, relationships, and choices are all motivated by what that person might gain economically from them. Neoliberalism argues that self-interest is the driving force for any economy and for human progress as a whole, and that it should be encouraged rather than treated as a vice. It also posits that the competition an individual may face while propelling their self-interests would only encourage them to work harder and produce a product or service that meets a much higher standard. Without adequate competition, people are less motivated to do the very best they can – their consumers simply have no alternative to buy from.

Although this particular school of thought is often referred to as “capitalism”, it’s important to remember that by definition, a capitalist system is simply a system that aims to acquire capital, or profit. Neoliberalism, the system that many developed countries still incorporate into their economic systems today, is a type of capitalism – it promotes economic gain by increasing market competition and advocating for more privatized industries over public (government owned) ones.

The term “neoliberalism” in today’s context can be a little confusing, especially since the word “liberal” is commonly associated with civil rights and social equality advocacy (the ideals that these movements revolve around actually support government run industries and propose a tilt of the current economic model towards socialism). However, the “liberalism” that the term originated from referred to economic liberation – that is, a transfer of economic power from the government to individuals. It was popularized in the 19th  century, and has dominated the global economy ever since.

After the Cold War, the people were largely turned off by capitalism. The economic crises and recessions of the 1920-30s were fresh in mind, and it was clear that a new system, that would prevent the economy from crashing periodically, had to be drawn up. Robert Dahl and Charles Lindblom concluded that “both socialism and capitalism [were] dead”, and the Keynesian economic system subsequently adopted a blend of the two – it recognized the importance of market competition and individual economic liberty, while also implementing policy interventions aimed to curb the inherent flaws in capitalism that so often resulted in financial breakdowns, depressions, or mass unemployment epidemics. This system soon began rising in popularity in previously neoliberal nations, and for good reason. Their economies were booming, and growing at consistent rates.

However, in the early 1970s, the Keynesian system started to see another recession coming its way. The reasons for this recession were external and had little to do with the economic model being followed, but the economic elites who previously profited off capitalism began panicking, worried that their wealth may be in danger. The elites understood that a compromise was necessary following the devastating impacts of the war, and they were willing to share their wealth with the masses. However, once they felt that this wealth was in danger, they began advocating reverting to the old capitalist system – marketed to the people as a new one called neoliberalism.

The idea posited by Keynesian economists that government regulation was necessary to keep big industries in check, avoid future economic breakdowns, and protect the interests of the environment, the society, and every individual was rebranded as an overextension of power and an attack on individual liberties. It’s also important to note that during this time, the anti- Vietnam war crowd was also resentful of the restrictions that were placed on behavior and thought, and the way that government mandated controls were being implemented all over the country. This greatly contributed to the rhetoric that government intervention was bad and needed to be shut down.

All of this was only talk, however, until neoliberal leaders like Thatcher and Reagan were elected into office. They each began reforming their respective governments – loosening regulations on industries, de-centralizing certain industries (like telecommunication or energy production), and cutting down taxes on the people, mainly the economic elites. By the time Reagan was out of office, the highest tax that an individual in the U.S could pay dropped from 70% to 28%. The rationale was that the wealthiest people in society, when taxed less by the government, would use their wealth to make larger investments that would, in turn, lead to astronomical economic growth which would benefit everyone. This proposed chain of events is often called the trickle- down economic theory, and is still referenced today (U.S. President Donald Trump used it to justify his tax cuts on the wealthy).

However, as Owen Zidar has recently shown in a research study published in the Journal of Political Economy, the assumption that the wealthy would use saved tax dollars to create jobs, foster economic growth, or bridge the gap between the rich and poor is a fallacy. Instead, he found that they are actually more likely to simply hoard their wealth. The U.S, which currently taxes its billionaires at a rate of 23% (while the average tax rate for the public is 28%), is one of the best examples of the massive wealth inequalities triggered by relying on trickle-down economics – as of 2013, the top 10% possessed 76% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% only possessed 1%. Back when the ultra-rich were taxed heavily, the government implemented welfare programs which sought to stabilize this gap, but neoliberal economic policies provided a way for the wealthy to keep national wealth all to themselves – which doesn’t promote economic growth at all.

Today, neoliberalism’s biggest advocates are right wing or conservative parties, although the term itself might indicate otherwise. However, not many openly identify with the label, as it’s gained a bad reputation because of leaders like Pinochet, the former President of Chile. Although Chile’s economy did much better than her Latin American counterparts and she experienced a sharp decrease in poverty levels, the rampant inequality that neoliberalism inevitably triggered led to a divide between the business/political elite and the people of Chile, sparking nationwide protests and a call for more public provisions and greater taxes on the wealthy. However, the ideas of unregulated industries, privatized businesses, and minimal government interference are still hugely popular. Countries like the U.S, which were founded on individualist over monarchial government systems, often claim that the free market capitalism that neoliberalism champions is one of the core values of the nation, and cannot be compromised on.

Not only has neoliberalism led to an increase in wealth and income inequality, but it has also stripped power away from governments and given it to powerful and wealthy multinational companies. For example, the way that governments were forced to immediately fold and bail the banks out in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, and the inability of governments to prevent social media platforms from infringing on the integrity of their own elections - or even force them to attempt to do so. Governments are becoming increasingly powerless in comparison to the ultra-rich. Ironically, even though neoliberal ideals acknowledge that the government still plays a small role in the economy, the nature of the system enables large corporations to accumulate enough wealth and power to influence the few decisions that the government actually gets to make. For example, a corporation that is essentially a pillar of the economy – providing millions of jobs and paying a large percent of the tax the government receives from its people – could threaten to relocate to a different country if they don’t comply with their demands.

Neoliberalism is a very unique system of organizing society. It’s played a massive role in shaping the world we live in today, and even though the label has been defamed, the ideas that propelled the revolution are still highly popular today. Today, political parties remain conflicted over whether Keynesian or Neoliberal economics are the best way to minimize adversity and maximize economic growth. David Harvey has classified neoliberalism as “a project to achieve the restoration of class power”, and unfortunately, this holds true. Decades of neoliberal reforms have stacked the odds increasingly in favor of the ultra-rich and the billionaires, and have dug the economic lower and middle classes further into poverty and debt. In addition, the idea has changed the way we think about the world, and invited us to view society as a market, where every interaction is made out of self-interest, and where economic gain is the only kind of gain you could ever hope to make in your lifetime.

“Neoliberalism is the flood that raises those who can afford ships and drowns those who cannot.”

[dmoreswiftie]

Yeah i mean i will ask for a credit so i can go to Taylor show in chile. And also never buy merch bc is expensive and is like 50 dollars for shipping also tax in the aduana and all that shit is insane but is the price i have to pay to see my girl live. And i wish i could have more money and not be a poor bitch bc i hate it.

[alilrudealilcute]

Preorders! What are they? How do they work? Why are they needed??

Hello everyone!  Now that I have a moment to breathe a little, I wanted to go into more detail about preorders and how they are SUPER helpful to small shop owners like myself!  I’ll try not to make this disgustingly long and just get to the what how and why’s.  --- What the HECK is a preorder?? A preorder is exactly what it sounds like. A preorder is an initial order of an item that helps FUND the full production of a product! You’ve probably at some point have participated in a preorder in some way shape or form from a major company. Maybe for a pair of shoes, makeup, dvd, cd--the list goes on!  By helping with purchasing a preorder you’re helping bring a concept or idea into reality.  --- How do they work??  At it’s core a preorder works just like a normal order. You’ll go to the store/site/listing that is provided and make a purchase as you normally would. In some cases (not all) stores provide other limited edition items or freebies to the preorder to help make it more worth it to the consumer.   HOWEVER-- a preorder is not an immediate thing. Once you place a preorder you are making a conscious decision to wait for the item to actually be made before receiving it.  Sometimes production can take a month or more before even being shipped to you; depending on the complexity of the item, issues arising, miscommunication (shitty manufacturers in general), or simply just making sure what your want is done the right way, because some of these factories will take advantage of you. Then of course is the waiting game for a small shop (me) to quality check, package and ship it out to you, which could be another week depending on the volume of orders.  Remember, the preorder is helping fund the making of the product. Let’s make an example:  let’s say I wanted to sell tote bags in my store. I talk with a manufacture and they said I have to make a MINIMUM order of 100 bags to place the order.

They sell each individual bag for $1 (this is all just an example--for the sake of simplicity). That means I need to pay $100 dollars for 100 bags PLUS the shipping of lets say $50. That’s $150 I need to pay upfront.  So to make this happen I decide to open a preorder on my shop. I’ll sell each preorder bag for $7.50, which means I need at least 20 people to buy the preorder to fully fund all 100 bags! [ 150/20=$7.50].  Now I can stock my store with the other 80 bags without taking a loss of profit on my part. Which takes me into my next part (I’m almost done guys!)  -- Why are preorders important (and why should I care)??  Preorders are so important for small shop owners like me. Its important to invest in your business, it’s true, but to constantly invest in ventures again and again but no one is actually buying your products is not only taxing and demoralizing but can become EXTREMELY expensive!  Preorders serves to help everyone out! You’re helping me fund art and merch to be sold in my shop and you’ll be able to buy the art and merch you request upon me in the first place. I know waiting stinks and nothing beats immediate gratification (every time a BTS album drops--- ooo chile the waiting to receive it is tortuous) but it really does help the artist community and small shop owners who want to do more for you and provide you with content you want!  I’m sorry this is so long-- I hope this answers any questions about preorders and shines some light onto the benefits. If you have any other questions or issues you can always DM me.  I hope to open more preorders to stock the store with more art and products. Thank you for your supports so far! <3 

[researchetcsblog]

Plastic Arupole Forecast For the Coming Years

The global plastic ampoule market is growing very fast indeed and this article will give you information on how it is going to do just that. In the world of cosmetics there are many different products to choose from and the plastic ampoule market is one of them. In the future it is estimated that the plastic ampoule market will expand at a CAGR of about xx% over the next 5 years, will touch xx million US dollars in 2021, and will expand from there. So why are they growing so fast? Let's have a look.

Well it is no secret that Europe is one of the fastest growing regions for plastic ampoule manufacturing. This growth is forecast to continue into the next few years as there are many countries in Europe that are starting to liberalize their laws on cosmetics and skin care. For example in the UK the "SMO" laws were introduced last year which allows for skin care companies to use the word SMO on their packaging without any restrictions. They were also able to increase the size of letters within the brand name to a maximum of two while the size of the bottle remains the same. Other European countries are following suit and some like Spain are even allowing the use of four numbers instead of two.

The plastic ampoule market is expanding into the North America as well. This is due to the large scale restructuring of the Canadian government which allows for much more globalization. The restructuring allows for the production to move closer to the U.S. and allows for the manufacture to be tax free in the U.S. There are many benefits to moving into the North America region including the lower cost of labor, transportation costs are reduced due to the larger number of container ships and the ability to tap into a larger global market.

As this trend continues apace, the need for accurate and up to date market research becomes ever more significant. Market research provides a wealth of information on the trends in the current market growth including trends in packaging and ingredients, demand, marketing, advertising, and distribution. It also gives an insight into the competitive landscape and the strength and weakness of brands. A strong competitive analysis will allow you to develop an effective marketing plan to increase sales and revenue. These reports can be easily purchased from online suppliers and vendors.

Plastic ampoule forecasts for the coming years are based on current and future trends including the current market size, industry growth and predictions for the future. The plastic ampoule manufacturers are seeing an increasing number of orders for these products as the demand increases and the supply remains constant. A plastic ampoule kit can be easily purchased from the market. The forecast shows that the industry is set to experience a steady growth in both sales and revenues.

This forecast is the third chapter in the "Snapshots in the Field" project. This report presents the overview and critical summary of the Snapshot in the Field survey data. The data reveals the current and future competitive situation of the plastic ampoule manufacturing sector.

The research team projects that the Plastic Ampoule market size will grow from XXX in 2020 to XXX by 2027, at an estimated CAGR of XX. The base year considered for the study is 2020, and the market size is projected from 2020 to 2027.

The prime objective of this report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facing with 10 major regions and 50 major countries. Deep researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the report. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the market in depth. The data and the information regarding the market are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the industry experts. The facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations. This enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much better.

By Market Players:

 Sanner

 James Alexander

 LF of America

 Bisio Progetti

 Shenzhen Bona Pharma Technology

 Pin Mao Plastic Industry

 Lameplast Group

 Catalent

 Discos

 Punto Pack

By Type

 Up to 2 ml

 3 ml to 5 ml

 5 ml to 7 ml

 8 ml & above

By Application

 Pharmaceuticals

 Chemical

 Veterinary

 Spa Products

 Dental

 Cosmetics & Beauty Aids

By Regions/Countries:

 North America

 United States

 Canada

 Mexico

East Asia

 China

 Japan

 South Korea

Europe

 Germany

 United Kingdom

 France

 Italy

 Russia

 Spain

 Netherlands

 Switzerland

 Poland

South Asia

 India

 Pakistan

 Bangladesh

Southeast Asia

 Indonesia

 Thailand

 Singapore

 Malaysia

 Philippines

 Vietnam

 Myanmar

Middle East

 Turkey

 Saudi Arabia

 Iran

 United Arab Emirates

 Israel

 Iraq

 Qatar

 Kuwait

 Oman

Africa

 Nigeria

 South Africa

 Egypt

 Algeria

 Morocoo

Oceania

 Australia

 New Zealand

South America

 Brazil

 Argentina

 Colombia

 Chile

 Venezuela

 Peru

 Puerto Rico

 Ecuador

Rest of the World

 Kazakhstan

Points Covered in The Report

 The points that are discussed within the report are the major market players that are involved in the market such as market players, raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, end users, traders, distributors and etc.

 The complete profile of the companies is mentioned. And the capacity, production, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, sales volume, sales revenue, consumption, growth rate, import, export, supply, future strategies, and the technological developments that they are making are also included within the report. This report analyzed 12 years data history and forecast.

 The growth factors of the market is discussed in detail wherein the different end users of the market are explained in detail.

 Data and information by market player, by region, by type, by application and etc, and custom research can be added according to specific requirements.

 The report contains the SWOT analysis of the market. Finally, the report contains the conclusion part where the opinions of the industrial experts are included.

Key Reasons to Purchase

 To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the global market and its commercial landscape.

 Assess the production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk.

 To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the market and its impact in the global market.

 Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations.

 To understand the future outlook and prospects for the market.

 Besides the standard structure reports, we also provide custom research according to specific requirements.

The report focuses on Global, Top 10 Regions and Top 50 Countries Market Size of Plastic Ampoule 2016-2021, and development forecast 2022-2027 including industries, major players/suppliers worldwide and market share by regions, with company and product introduction, position in the market including their market status and development trend by types and applications which will provide its price and profit status, and marketing status & market growth drivers and challenges, with base year as 2020.

Key Indicators Analysed

 Market Players & Competitor Analysis: The report covers the key players of the industry including Company Profile, Product Specifications, Production Capacity/Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin 2016-2021 & Sales by Product Types.

 Global and Regional Market Analysis: The report includes Global & Regional market status and outlook 2022-2027. Further the report provides break down details about each region & countries covered in the report. Identifying its production, consumption, import & export, sales volume & revenue forecast.

 Market Analysis by Product Type: The report covers majority Product Types in the Plastic Ampoule Industry, including its product specifcations by each key player, volume, sales by Volume and Value (M USD).

 Markat Analysis by Application Type: Based on the Plastic Ampoule Industry and its applications, the market is further sub-segmented into several major Application of its industry. It provides you with the market size, CAGR & forecast by each industry applications.

 Market Trends: Market key trends which include Increased Competition and Continuous Innovations.

 Opportunities and Drivers: Identifying the Growing Demands and New Technology

 Porters Five Force Analysis: The report will provide with the state of competition in industry depending on five basic forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and existing industry rivalry.

COVID-19 Impact

 Report covers Impact of Coronavirus COVID-19: Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost every country around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the Plastic Ampoule market in 2021. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor/outdoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future.

 Global Plastic Ampoule Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market report offers great insights of the market and consumer data and their interpretation through various figures and graphs. Report has embedded global market and regional market deep analysis through various research methodologies. The report also offers great competitor analysis of the industries and highlights the key aspect of their business like success stories, market development and growth rate.

Global Polyvinylidene Fluoride Powder Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Global Polystyrene Foam Tray Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Global Atomized Iron Powder Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Global Atomized Nickel Powder Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Contact us: https://www.reportmines.com/contact-us.php 

[clearhologrampainter]

The Ultimate Guide To Build Your Own Pool

A pool, swimming shower, swimming pool, rowing pool, or essentially pool is a structure intended to hold water to empower swimming or other relaxation exercises. Pools can be incorporated into the ground (in-ground

pools) or worked over the ground (as an unsupported development or as a component of a structure or other bigger structure), and might be found as an element on board sea liners and voyage ships. Pool kaufen In-ground pools are

most usually developed from materials, for example, solid, regular stone, metal, plastic, or fiberglass, and can be of a custom size and shape or worked to a normalized size, the biggest of which is the Olympic-size pool.

Numerous gyms, wellness focuses, and exclusive hangouts have pools utilized generally for exercise or diversion. It is regular for regions of each size to give pools to public use. Huge numbers of these metropolitan pools are

outside pools however indoor pools can likewise be found in structures, for example, relaxation focuses. Inns may have pools accessible for their visitors to use at their own relaxation. Pools as a component in inns are more

normal in traveler zones or close to assembly halls. Instructive offices, for example, secondary schools and colleges some of the time have pools for actual training classes, recreational exercises, relaxation, and serious sports,

for example, swimming crews. Hot tubs and spas are pools loaded up with water that is warmed and afterward utilized for unwinding or hydrotherapy. Uniquely planned pools are additionally utilized for jumping, water

sports, and exercise based recuperation, just as for the preparation of lifeguards and space explorers. Pools most normally utilize chlorinated water or salt water and might be warmed or unheated.

The "Incomparable Bath" at the site of Mohenjo-Daro in cutting edge Pakistan was in all probability the principal pool, burrowed during the third thousand years BC. This pool is 12 by 7 meters (39 by 23 feet), is fixed

with blocks, and was covered with a tar-based sealant.

Old Greeks and Romans fabricated fake pools for athletic preparing in the palaestras, for nautical games and for military activities. Roman rulers had private pools in which fish were likewise kept, consequently one of the

Latin words for a pool was piscina. The initially warmed pool was worked by Gaius Maecenas in his nurseries on the Esquiline Hill of Rome, likely at some point somewhere in the range of 38 and 8 BC.  Gaius Maecenas

was a well off magnificent counselor to Augustus and considered one of the main supporters of arts.

Old Sinhalese constructed sets of pools called "Kuttam Pokuna" in the realm of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka in the fourth century BC. They were embellished with trips of steps, punkalas or pots of plenitude, and parchment

design.

nineteenth century

Pools got mainstream in Britain during the nineteenth century. As right on time as 1837, six indoor pools with plunging loads up existed in London, England. The Maidstone Swimming Club in Maidstone, Kent is accepted

to be the most seasoned enduring swimming club in Britain. It was framed in 1844, in light of worries over drownings in the River Medway, particularly since would-be rescuers would regularly suffocate on the grounds that

they, at the end of the day, couldn't swim to security. The club used to swim in the River Medway, and would hold races, plunging rivalries and water polo matches. The South East Gazette July 1844 announced an

amphibian breakfast party: espresso and bread rolls were served on a skimming pontoon in the waterway. The espresso was kept hot over a fire; club individuals needed to float and drink espresso simultaneously. The last

swimmers figured out how to upset the pontoon, to the delight of 150 spectators.

The Amateur Swimming Association was established in 1869 in England, and the Oxford Swimming Club in 1909. The presence of indoor showers in the cobbled region of Merton Street may have convinced the less solid

of the oceanic detachment to join. Thus, bathers continuously became swimmers, and washing pools became swimming pools.. In 1939, Oxford made its first significant public indoor pool at Temple Cowley.

The advanced Olympic Games began in 1896 and included swimming races, after which the prominence of pools started to spread. In the US, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia clubhouse (1907) brags one the world's first

current over the ground pools. The main pool to go to the ocean on a sea liner was introduced on the White Star Line's Adriatic in 1906. The most seasoned known public pool in America, Underwood Pool, is situated in

Belmont, Massachusetts.

Interest in serious swimming developed after World War I. Guidelines improved and preparing got fundamental. Home pools got famous in the United States after World War II and the exposure given to swimming games

by Hollywood movies, for example, Esther Williams' Million Dollar Mermaid made a home pool an alluring superficial point of interest. Over 50 years after the fact, the home or private pool is a typical sight. Some little

countries appreciate a flourishing pool industry (e.g., New Zealand pop. 4,116,900 [Source NZ Census 7 March 2006] – holds the record in pools per capita with 65,000 home pools and 125,000 spa pools).

A two-story, white solid pool building made out of flat cubic volumes worked in 1959 at the Royal Roads Military College is on the Registry of Historic Places of Canada.

As per the Guinness World Records, the biggest pool on the planet is San Alfonso del Mar Seawater pool in Algarrobo, Chile. It is 1,013 m (3,323 ft) long and has a region of 8 ha (20 sections of land). At its most

profound, it is 3.5 m (11 ft) deep. It was finished in December 2006.

The biggest indoor wave pool in North America is at the West Edmonton Mall and the biggest indoor pool is at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in the Sonny Carter Training Facility at NASA JSC in Houston.

In 2014, the Y-40 pool at the Hotel Terme Millepini in Padua, Italy turned into the most profound indoor pool at 42.15 m (138.3 ft), confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records  The recreational jumping place

Nemo 33 close to Brussels, Belgium recently held the record (34.5 m (113 ft)) from May 2004 until the Y-40 was finished in June 2014.

The Fleishhacker Pool in San Francisco was the biggest warmed open air pool in the United States. Opened on 23 April 1925, it estimated 1,000 by 150 ft (300 by 50 m) and was enormous to the point that the lifeguards

required kayaks for watch. It was shut in 1971 because of low patronage.

In Europe, the biggest pool opened in 1934 in Elbląg (Poland), giving a water territory of 33,500 square meters (361,000 sq ft).

One of the biggest pools ever constructed was supposedly made in Moscow after the Palace of Soviets stayed uncompleted. The establishments of the royal residence were changed over into the Moskva Pool outside pool

after the cycle of de-Stalinisation. However, after the fall of socialism, Christ the Savior Cathedral was re-based on the site somewhere in the range of 1995 and 2000; the church building had initially been found there.

The most noteworthy pool is accepted to be in Yangbajain (Tibet, China). This retreat is situated at 4200 m AMSL and has two indoor pools and one outside pool, all loaded up with water from hot springs.

[ytlinkscom]

President Trump, You are Going To Have To Do The Unthinkable: Your Job

Welcome to a Late Show I'm Steve Colbert happy birthday everybody today is a big one because it is the 50th birthday the big 5 oh and I got to say earth is still looking good she's just getting hotter every year I mean even with the receding glaciers and put on a little water weight around the coastline and earth is having kind of a moment right now cause with people staying home the earth is turning wilder cleaner with reduce CO2 better air quality and animals roaming the city streets turns out the best present for Earth Day is the same as the best present for Mother's Day time away from her children just get all the unruly humans out of her hair so mother earth can sit in a bubble bath and watch Outlander now while human stay inside the world cities are getting reclaimed by the animals a Puma roamed the streets of Santiago Chile in India hungry monkeys have been entering homes and opening refrigerators to look for food and coyotes have been seen along Chicago's Michigan Avenue a coyote on Michigan Ave that's crazy usually what with the traffic they have to take Lakeshore drive so don't be surprised if you see a wild animal wandering into your normal environment oh God here's one now come here come here oh God is the wild snuggle spaniel he scavenging for smoke Jays oh who's reclaiming the earth from the humans you are art he loves Maine he loves this here bye no now you have to leave you can't just chew on the electrical cords out out go mush thanks Benny I might need a lint roller the chaotic the coyotes weren't the only wild animals doing their thing said was president trump who celebrated Earth Day by holding a tree planting ceremony or as he said we're doing something I love doing planting trees I've always loved it yes two things Donald Trump has definitely always loved manual labor and the thing we're fruit comes from trump finally got around to actually planting the tree here he is getting his exercise for the decade I've gotten a lot of practice at my press conferences every day I just dig that hole deeper and deeper and deeper trump also celebrated Earth Day by threatening to blow up chunks of the planet tweeting I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they're asked our ships at sea you read that right he's going to shoot down boats we must respond to Iran’s flying gunboats there just as dangerous as their flying carpets it's a whole new world a new fantastic point of view no what how's it go no no or where do you go don't you dare close your eyes what trump's responding to is video from the Navy showing that Iranian vessels harassed American warships in the Arabian Sea OK that's not good but why tweet about Iran now for that matter why in new ban on immigration no one can fly anyway right now you might as well ban mosh pits but I have a theory a theory I tell you about these random tweets trump's approval ratings are falling and 2/3 of Americans say he was too slow to respond to the virus disapproval of trump is spreading faster than than something whatever spreads really quickly if you're dumb enough to ignore it so he is desperate to change the subject and I’m not the only one who is noticed it House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this yesterday ignores his own responsibility and assigns blame instead of taking responsibility paying attention to science recognizing the word of the role of governance and all of this to get the job done for the American people and so he's engaged in distractions like immigration distractions like supporting people in the street they're all distractions away from the fact that known fact that he's a total failure when it comes to testing Mr. President you may want to get tested because that was one sick burn trump fired back with an official response to the speaker lookout flying around in gunboats run for your lives sincerely president Donald J trump CC Jaffar here's the thing trump's attempt to change the subject to immigration or to China or Iran or do anything is not going to work one Republican close to the White House told Politico that messaging alone cannot solve the political challenge the pandemic presents for trump OK how 'bout messaging and sitting on my enormous dampers keister cause I'm willing to do anything as long as it doesn't involve doing anything the unnamed Republican predicted if the testing does not get sorted out as soon as possible it will be another nail in an almost closed coffin well that's an unfortunate metaphor during a global pandemic plus if you want to get trump's attention I'd say it's a nail in an almost empty chicken bucket trump's normal tricks he uses to change the narrative aren't working because it's hard to come up with a more gripping narrative than stay inside or you might die you can tweet all you want but it's hard to capture people's hearts and minds when they're worried about their hearts and lungs you can't have bill Barr redact the virus or call Ukraine to get dirt on Hunter virus or get Mitch McConnell to have 50 one Republicans vote that there is no virus you can't even pay the virus $130,000 to stay quiet which is too bad because this virus is definitely spanking your *** so if you want to keep your job you're going to have to do the unthinkable your job you know make America great again trump held another one of his coronavirus distracted phones last night and he tried to put a positive spin on how things are going we continue to gain ground in the war against the unseen enemy and I see light at the end of the tunnel I rationally see a lot of life at the end of the tunnel and we're starting the process so the light is getting brighter and brighter every day the light is also making a really really fun train noise everybody keeps yelling Mr. President get off the tracks but I'm staying focused on that approaching light it's coming pretty fast whatever trump is seeing in that tunnel certain states like Georgia or ignoring the advice of experts and starting to reopen already so he and his team were asked about how exactly that supposed to work safely have hair salons in nail salons and tattoo parlors where people where where is this is in Georgia where where people have to inherently be close together so if there's a way that people can social distance and do those things then they can do those things I don't know how but people are very creative yes barbers and hair style is just need to be very creative like duct taping hair Clippers to a couple of yardsticks or just submerging all their customers in barricade Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin the nun also took some questions during the briefing about large companies accepting small business loans and trump jumped in with his own thoughts Mr. secretary are you going to request that those other companies obviously Shake Shack was not alone in being a big company that got money in this region that money or we could pay back the money and they shouldn't be taking it they almost only going to see that means you'll naturally engineering they started doing it in Spanish yeah Harvard you know the deal you don't get to take millions of dollars unless you also agree to take Jerrod swell Harvard responded to the president's attack saying that it had not received any funds through the PPP but had received funds through the cares act to provide assistance to students facing urgent financial needs due to COVID-19 OK that's a solid Fact Check sounds like somebody at Harvard went to Harvard her trump was also asked about how the pandemic is affecting workers at his own properties your Florida clubs have had to furlough have you thought about asking her family members workers on the payroll to help him into the federal is around you not allowed to have the golf courses open you can't have the clubs open you can't have anything to have a lot of different properties but again my children run them and I love my children and I wish them well I look forward to comparing my numbers to my children's numbers I think I'll do better that's an insane thing for a father to say Can you imagine someone saying anything like that on their deathbed children gather round I just want you to know that I love being better than all of you look at my numbers you're human garbage end scene one guy who super gung ho about risking other peoples lives is Texas lieutenant governor dan Patrick lieutenant governor went on the TV Monday to make the case for states reopening their economies and here's how... Read the full article

[gethealthy18-blog]

335: How the Food Industry Preys on Children & How to Fix It (With Dr. Mark Hyman)

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/335-how-the-food-industry-preys-on-children-how-to-fix-it-with-dr-mark-hyman/

335: How the Food Industry Preys on Children & How to Fix It (With Dr. Mark Hyman)

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This episode is brought to you by Wellnesse. That’s Wellnesse with an E on the end, which is my new personal care company that is dedicated to making safe and effective products from my family to your family. We started with toothpaste and hair care because these are the biggest offenders in most bathrooms, and we’re coming after the other personal care products as well. Did you know for instance that most shampoo contains harsh detergents that strip out the natural oils from the hair and leave it harder to manage over time and more dependent on extra products? We took a different approach, creating a nourishing hair food that gives your hair what it actually needs and doesn’t take away from its natural strength and beauty. In fact, it’s specifically designed to support your hair’s natural texture, natural color, and is safe for color-treated hair as well. Our shampoos contain herbs like nettle, which helps strengthen hair and reduce hair fall, leaving your hair and scalp healthier over time, and scented only with natural essential oils in a very delicate scent so that you don’t have to worry about the fragrance as well. Over time, your hair gets back to its stronger, healthier, shinier state without the need for parabens or silicone or SLS. You can check it out along with our whitening toothpaste and our full hair care bundles at wellnesse.com. An insider tip, grab an essentials bundle or try auto-ship and you will lock in a discount.

This podcast is sponsored by Four Sigmatic, my source for superfood mushroom products that are a big part of my daily routine. In fact, about 80% of the dirt under your feet is actually mycelium or mushrooms. And mushrooms have a wide variety of health benefits, everything from immune support, and improved sleep, and they’re also a great source of B vitamins, and vitamin D. Mushrooms are considered anti-inflammatory due to a compound called ergothioneine and are considered safe and beneficial to consume regularly. In my house, we often start the day with Four Sigmatic’s Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s Mane and Chaga. It tastes just like regular coffee without as much caffeine and no jitters. The Lion’s Mane and Chaga help with energy and focus, like I said, without the jitters, or the acidity of a lot of coffee. I sip other products of theirs throughout the day, like their Chaga or Cordyceps or Lion’s Mane Elixirs, and I often wind down at night with their Reishi Elixir or Reishi Cacao, and I notice a measurable difference in my sleep when I do that. As a listener of this podcast, you can save on all Four Sigmatic products by going to foursigmatic.com/wellnessmama and using the code “wellnessmama” to save 15%.

Katie: Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And this episode is with someone I have known and been friends with for a long time, who is doing incredible work in trying to change the future of health for our kids in the food culture in our country, especially in schools. I’m here with Dr. Mark Hyman, who is a practicing family physician and also an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of functional medicine. He is the founder and the director of the UltraWellness Center, the head of strategy and innovation at the Cleveland Clinic for functional medicine, a 13 times New York Times bestselling author, and all of his books will be linked in the show notes, and board president for clinical affairs for the Institute for Functional Medicine. He’s also the host of one of the leading health podcasts, “The Doctor’s Farmacy,” and a regular medical contributor to a lot of television shows and networks including “Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” and has been a co-host on “The Dr. Oz Show.” Today, we are talking specifically about how the food industry actively preys on our children both in advertising and media and in the school systems, and what we can do about it. Thankfully, we are seeing some positive changes, but Dr. Hyman has a lot of measures in the works to address some of the problems we’re still seeing. And he gives practical advice in this episode on what we can each do in our own homes, our own communities, and on a grassroots level to start to see wider change. It’s great episode so buckle up, and let’s join Dr. Mark Hyman.

Dr. Hyman, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

Dr. Hyman: Thanks for having me.

Katie: I’m so excited to chat with you again. Your other episode was so well received, I’ll make sure that’s linked in the show notes. If you guys haven’t heard it, it’s a must listen. And today we’re talking about a topic that is so near and dear to my heart, and I know to that of many people listening, which is the food industry and how they target children and specifically what we as parents and educators can do about it. So, to start broad, I know this is an area that also is a big concern to you, from what you’re seeing and all the work you do, how does the food industry prey on our kids?

Dr. Hyman: Well, it’s actually frightening. I’m 60 years old. And when I was a kid, there was that one kid in the class, Erica, who was a little overweight. And now it’s 40% of kids. When I was in medical school, there was no such thing as type two diabetes. It was called adult onset diabetes. Today we have kids as young as two or three years old having adult onset or type two diabetes, or have one in four teenage boys having pre-diabetes or type two diabetes. I mean, just kind of try to grok that fact. I mean, one in four teenagers have pre-diabetes or type two diabetes. So how did this happen? It happened because the food industry targets, maliciously targets children through all sorts of different marketing tactics, and infiltrates schools.

So, the first aspect is pervasive. It used to be bad through television advertising, and through happy meals and through insinuating cartoon characters into marketing and kids could identify name brand foods before they could barely walk and ask for them screaming from their parents from the grocery cart. But now we have far worse marketing, which is called stealth marketing, which, I mean it was a report by the Institute of Medicine before social media, talking about the threat to our children from marketing, and how 50 countries have restricted marketing to children, but not the United States. And then we saw the advent of social media, which is far worse and insidious because it doesn’t even seem like an ad. In fact, there were 5.4 billion Facebook ads last year for children on junk food. There are advert games that are free games that are embedded within the Facebook and other social media platforms that seem like these free games, but they’re actually embedded with all these stealth marketing for junk food and fast food. And it’s just so pervasive.

The good news is there are some companies that are unilaterally changing. And the first time I saw this was recently last week when Unilever decided they were going to limit any marketing of ice cream to children, which is a step. It’s certainly necessary to do a lot more. So, the marketing to children is targeted. It’s specific. They take even little two year olds and put them in MRI brain scanners and try to see which images most maximally stimulate their brain for enticement to buy the food, which is terrifying to me that they’re using neuroscience to target little children, and the government does nothing about it. The FTC should control the airwaves and marketing. But the food industry is so active in lobbying against any type of restrictions in marketing to children that this has never happened.

And, like I said, in many other countries, they’ve done this. In Chile, they’ve eliminated any cartoon characters from all the marketing stuff to kids. So, “Tony the Tiger,” is dead. “Toucan Sam” is no longer. They’ve eliminated any advertising and marketing in any media, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for anything targeted to children for junk food. And they’ve put in warning labels on the front of boxes. So, on your Frosted Flakes, there’s warning labels on the front of the box so kids will see it and everybody knows. So, there are countries that are doing this. But they deliberately prey on kids. They spend literally billions and billions and billions of dollars. Every average kid sees up to 10,000 ads on television, although now it’s on social media. And then there’s all this embedded stuff. Like on “American Idol,” you’ll see them drinking these large things with Coca Cola. I can guarantee you it’s probably water in those, but they pay for placement. At sports events, they’re having athletes, who are their idols, drink things that they would never actually drink, because it would inhibit their performance, like LeBron drinking Sprite. So, we see it’s pervasive in our culture. And the school thing I can talk about too, but I thought I’d take a breath.

Katie: Yeah, that makes so much sense. And, definitely, I’ve noticed that with TV ads, and then now with social media, and that’s something I limit with my kids. And I think you’re right, other countries are much more aware of this and some parents are really aware of this now and making an effort in their own homes and on the screens their kids are exposed to. And I think you’re right, the school thing is even more insidious and hard to believe. I think a lot of parents especially have trouble believing that there could be any kind of actual like lobbying or anything going on in our schools and that there could be any kind of ill intent there. But when we look at school meals objectively, what are we finding as far as what kids are actually eating in schools?

Dr. Hyman: Well, 50% of schools have name brand, fast food restaurant foods in the cafeteria. So, for example, it’s McDonald’s Monday, Taco Bell Tuesday, Wendy’s Wednesday and then 80% of contracts with soda companies. And there’s advertising placements in bathroom stalls and gymnasiums and chairs. I mean, literally, in kindergarten they have little Coca Cola red chairs. And they basically like to get their customers, hook them early, and keep them for life. And they are very good at it and they’re very successful at it and it’s why there’s been a real attempt to try to limit this in schools although the schools have no real budgets so they depend on these payments from big food companies. So, for example, Domino’s Pizza, based on these new guidelines for the school lunch decided they were going to create this smart slice pizza which is just a little bit dumbed down pizza with a little less fat, and a few vegetables on it. And it’s like a healthy pizza and they give $8 million in schools in Texas to do this. And it’s kind of a joke. It’s crossing both lines, Democrat and Republican. The former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar is from Minnesota and in that state Swanson is the biggest pizza school manufacturer. So, any kind of school lunch pizza comes from Swanson for the most part, which is in Minnesota, and that’s why she lobbied to get pizza to be considered a vegetable, which is ridiculous. But because tomato sauce is on the pizza, it’s considered a vegetable. And that’s why you see the potato lobby lobbying for french fries being a vegetable. So, the two most abundant food eaten in terms of vegetables in this country are french fries and ketchup or tomato sauce in pizza.

So, the schools are really hampered by the inability to get their budgets met without the big food companies, so it’s a little bit on the government. And also the school lunch guidelines have been watered down. The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act which Obama implemented was in a step forward in improving school nutrition and improving school nutrition guidelines. The Trump administration recently rolled that back because they said kids were not eating the healthy food and they put back the junk food. They mandate dairy. For example, you have to have milk with every single lunch with a kid or else you can’t get school lunch funding. And the evidence on milk is very weak. In fact, a recent editorial and review paper in the “New England Journal” by David Ludwig from Harvard questioned a lot of our assumptions about milk as a health food for kids and, in fact, how it may cause significant issues like type one diabetes, allergy, and digestive issues, autoimmune issues, and skim milk which was promoted because it’s low fat may lead to more weight gain and more osteoporosis later in life.

So, I think we really are bamboozled by the food industry, which has infiltrated our government policies and has driven schools to be giving kids foods that is one, not good for them, two, causing them to be obese and three, according to the CDC, significantly impairing their cognitive functions. So these kids’ academic performance, it’s not just the obesity, it’s their academic performance that’s suffering. And they have poor grades in school, they’re less able to pay attention, they have poor problem solving skills, they have more absenteeism, and it’s because the food they’re eating is essentially causing their brains not to work.

Katie: Wow, that’s really unbelievable. And for me, part of the reason I got into this health and wellness world to begin with was reading, when my first son was born, that for the first time in two centuries, his generation was going to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. And the article I read talked about the rise of cancer and heart disease and diabetes. But when I look at these statistics, it doesn’t even make mathematical sense that we’re seeing such a rapid rise in all of these conditions across the board in one generation. And I know you’ve written about this and talked about this, but we’re even seeing fatty liver disease in children from what I understand, which is completely unheard of. Can you explain what fatty liver disease is and why it’s so absurd that we’re seeing this in kids?

Dr. Hyman: Yeah. You know, fatty liver is something that was not that even common in America in general, except if you were an alcoholic. When I was in medical school, that’s what we saw. And then there’s this rise of fatty liver throughout the country where 90 million Americans have this condition called fatty liver which is sort of like fog around your liver essentially, it’s because we eat a lot of starch and carbohydrates. How do they get ducks to have fatty liver, they give them lots of corn and they force feed them starch, and that’s what we’ve done in this country. So, sugar, particularly high fructose corn syrup, because fructose is a bigger driver of fatty liver, causes this phenomenon in the liver where it accumulates fat. So, we think fat comes from fat, it doesn’t. Fat in your body comes from sugar and starch that you eat.

And so these kids drinking soda, the average kid has 34 teaspoons of sugar a day. That’s a lot of sugar. And one 15 ounce soda has, I’m sorry, 20 ounce soda has 15 teaspoons of sugar, so it’s like 2 20 ounce sodas a day, plus. And I think that is driving this phenomena called fatty liver which causes inflammation in the body, increases for heart disease, diabetes, and inflammation. In fact, there are kids that are teenagers that are on transplant lists, liver transplant lists, because they’re drinking soda and that is terrifying. Particularly the Hispanic community is much more susceptible to fatty liver because of their genetics, and it’s just a rampant problem that is threatening the future of our nation and the future generations.

Katie: Yeah, that is really scary and somewhat unbelievable. So, as parents, you mentioned that there are very few restrictions on what goes into schools and even in the marketing in the U.S. And I can see the huge problem with funding and schools needing funding obviously to operate. So, what can we as parents do, both individually to help our own kids and in the school system and in our communities as a whole, to start to try to reverse this problem?

Dr. Hyman: I think the first thing is, make your home a safe zone. Just make your home a safe zone. Most of us are able to control what’s in our home and if your kid gets into trouble outside, well, at least it’s less. So, teach your kids how to cook, buy real whole food in your home, have fun with them in the kitchen, make it a party. And kids love it. I started cooking with my kids as young as a year old and they would make a big mess, and yet they loved it. Now, my son’s a chef, my daughter cooks food and I think they’ve learned about nutrition at home. Family dinners are so key. Having family dinners where you cook and eat real whole food at home. And it doesn’t have to be fancy, it doesn’t have to take a long time, it doesn’t have to be expensive. And it’s really doable. I worked full time, I was a single parent, and I did cook real food at home. And there are simple ways to do it. I’ve written a bunch of cookbooks and there’s just a lot of ways to make it really easy, fun, and simple. So that’s the first thing.

And teach your kids, here’s how to read labels, here’s what these ingredients are, here’s why you shouldn’t have trans fat, here’s why you shouldn’t have foods with high fructose corn syrup. Let’s go on a treasure hunt and see what the labels show. So, there’s a lot of fun ways to do that.

And the next thing you can do is to work with your local schools. And there’s great examples of how parents have done this across the country. There’s groups like Conscious Kitchen that implement healthier school lunches in schools and help work with schools and school systems. There’s a group in Boston called My Way Cafe, which has really been an amazing model where they’ve taken schools that have deep fryers and microwaves, which is… Most of the kitchens in America, in schools, aren’t really kitchens. They’re basically reheating or deep frying factories, where they take food that’s made in another factory and reheat it or deep fry it, as opposed to cooking real food. And she showed how by putting kitchens in schools, you could get delicious meals made that were designed by top chefs that kids would love and eat, within the school budget for school lunches, and within the school nutrition guidelines and able to do it in a way that is reproducible. And so these kids eat better food, they do better in terms of academic performance, they’re happier, there’s less destructive behavior. And this is now being scaled up across Boston and all the city schools and she wants to do this throughout the country. So, there’s lots of ways you can do that.

But I think for you as a parent, the most important thing to do is be educated yourself, teach your kids at home, start early, and don’t get them hooked on junk. I saw this incredible little video, it was going around social media of a baby eating ice cream for the first time. And the baby had a bite of ice cream and you could see the eyes literally bug out of its head. And then it literally reached over and grab the ice cream and shove it in its face. And I think the image of that is very much like an addiction model where these kids literally get addicted to these foods. They’re designed to be addictive. They want more and more of them. They get hungry and hungrier. And it’s really a tragedy because we’ve created a generation of kids who don’t know how to cook, who can’t identify vegetables, who are addicted to junk food and soda and are threatening their life expectancy. And if a kid’s overweight, their life expectancy is 13 years less. I mean, that is horrible.

Katie: Yeah, that really, really is astounding. And like you said in the beginning, it’s completely unheard of that we’re seeing this in kids and especially at the rates that we are seeing this in kids. And I know that there have been many efforts throughout the years, different politicians, and even just people working within communities and nationwide trying to change the school lunch programs. Do you think that it’s actually possible and realistic at this point that we could create change that would fix some of these problems?

Dr. Hyman: Absolutely. I mean, I think that it’s got to happen. I’m working on a campaign called the Food Fix campaign, which is an educational lobby effort within Washington to actually help change our policies so we can move forward and have more intelligent policies and support change throughout our health care and food systems. So, implementing food as medicine as a principle throughout everything, including school lunches, health care, reforming dysfunctional government policies like SNAP and health care reimbursements for food as medicine, school lunches, food stamps, and then, of course, supporting the general agriculture. So, we’re really focused on a bigger strategy and a bigger campaign to help change the food system. And I think it has to happen. And it’s happening around the country. Schools are often controlled by local or state governments, and they actually have a lot of autonomy in doing this. So, I think that there’s models where this has been done, and I think they just need to be scaled up.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. I know we’ve seen other countries, especially in Europe, really start paying more attention and regulating. And there’s been a lot of news about how so many things are allowed in the U.S. that are not allowed there. And I’ve been recently formulating personal care products for my company Wellnesse and seeing that same thing. There are so many ingredients used in the U.S. that Europe has completely banned. Do you think we will ever see a shift in the overall culture where we’ll start to see more awareness at a nationwide level? Or is it really going to be up to us on a grassroots level to get these things changed?

Dr. Hyman: I think grassroots is always where it starts. And I think that if you look at the history of movements, they always start peripherally in communities with people who care about these issues and want to move forward. And if people really are doing this themselves, it’s driving the market. For example, breakfast cereal, most breakfast cereal has wheat in it. Most of that wheat is sprayed with glyphosate or Roundup or weed killer. And in Cheerios, there’s more weed killer than there is vitamin D or B12, which are added to the cereal, okay? So that’s why consumers are talking about this. They’re becoming aware of it. They don’t want this for their children. And that’s why Kellogg’s has committed to remove glyphosate from their cereal by 2025. That’s why General Mills has committed to a million acres of regenerative agriculture. It’s not out of self-interest, because they think it’s a good thing. It’s out of self-interest because they realize that people aren’t going to buy their cereal anymore unless they change it. So, I think there’s really an amazing change happening in the marketplace, but it’s really driven by us.

Then, of course, we do need to lobby with our local congressmen and senators and actually go meet them and talk to them. And you can get a whole parent group, if you want to go have these conversations. There’s a lot of ways to get involved. There’s a great guide online called foodpolicyaction.org, which you can see where your congressman and senator is rated and you can actually get an idea of what their voting record is based on their food and agricultural votes, and you can vote them out of office. And that happened with two congressmen and senators who were quite apparently hostile to doing anything to change food for the better in this country. And they were outed by a social media campaign. So that’s very, very good.

Katie: Wow. Yeah, absolutely. And I will say, to focus on the positive for a minute, even in the 13 years that I’ve been in the health and wellness world, it has changed for the better. And a lot more, what I would call actually truly healthy things are available in stores and certainly online than they used to be. And there’s so much more awareness now than there used to be. And I think you’re right. These companies may not respond to, like the rules or regulations, but they will respond to money. And so if we all vote with our dollars, like you’re saying, I think we will continue to see those kind of changes. I’d love to talk about the food stamp program a little bit as well, because I know this is another area where I’ve had friends and talked to people who have been on food stamps, and the options that are available to them are extremely limited and not very nutritious. And at the same time, when someone really needs those food stamps, they also just need food. So, how do you think we can start to address that problem as well?

Dr. Hyman: Well, I think that’s a real big issue. So, we have a program in this country called food stamps or SNAP, which has been around since ’64 when Johnson implemented it to help deal with food insecurity and hunger in America, which is a good thing. The problem is that unlike other food programs, like school lunches or women in fits and children’s programs, there are no nutrition guidelines within it. So, in other words, you can buy anything. You can buy soda, junk food. In fact, the food stamp program is the biggest program in the country. It’s one of the biggest bills, the Farm Bill which should be called the Food Bill is about $900 billion, about $735 billion is for food stamps or SNAP. And of that, 75% of that is for junk food and 10% or $7 billion is for soda, which is basically 30 billion servings a year.

The sad thing is, 46 million Americans are on SNAP, about 60 million are eligible and 1 in 4 SNAP recipients is a kid. And so what’s happened is that these communities are maliciously targeted by the food industry, by heavy duty advertising when the SNAP comes out for soda and other really poor quality foods. And there’s often access issues as well and food deserts and so forth. So, we really have a situation where our biggest government food program is actually causing the people who use that food to become sicker and fatter and die younger. And I think that really is a shame. And I think there’s a lot of groups that oppose changes to SNAP, for example, Feeding America and others, which are good intentioned in terms of addressing hunger, but they’re not recognizing the harmful effects of the food on these populations. And they actually are funded by the food industry. So, on the board of these social groups called Feeding America and others, there are big food and big ag companies wanting to preserve the status quo and not change the SNAP program to improve the quality of nutrition in there, which is really unfortunate and terrifying.

Katie: Yeah, you’re right. That absolutely is. And yeah, I think, to focus on the practical action points like we’ve been talking about, I think it’s extremely overwhelming when we just think about how big of a problem all of this is and what it would take to actually fix it completely across the board. But I think like with any problem, we can all do so much in our own homes, like you’ve talked about, and in our own communities. And I think if we start there, the problem seems much less overwhelming. And, of course, even in school systems, many of us have the ability to send food with our kids, or to vote even in the school system to not purchase those things. And we have the ability to help those in our own local communities. I know in our local area, there are community gardens, there are outreach groups that work on providing food to the hungry that is actually nutritious and making sure they can get access to fresh fruits and vegetables and clean sources of protein. And I think things like that are a great first step.

I know our first podcast, we really went into how foods are shaping this chronic disease epidemic that’s happening not just in the U.S. but in the world, but I want to talk about this because to me, this is such an important issue, and if we don’t make these changes, the statistics of what we’re facing is pretty dire. I know that you’ve talked about how our diet is now the number one cause of death in the world. And right now we have a panic about so many other health problems, and yet people are still over consuming sugar and drinking soda in large amounts. So, let’s talk about the long term effects of this and how our diet is truly one of the biggest causes of chronic disease right now.

Dr. Hyman: Yeah, well, people don’t understand this. I think chronic disease as a thing is sort of vague and people don’t get what’s really happening. And what has happened over the last 40 years since the sort of advent of the food pyramid and this incredible push for low fat foods and increased starch and sugar, the food companies responded by producing huge amounts of processed foods with low fat and tons of sugar and starch. And that led to this rise in obesity. So, when I graduated… Sorry, when I was born, there was 5% rate of obesity. When I graduated medical school, it was less than 20%, now it’s 42%. And every year it’s going up and up and up. And now we have 75% of Americans overweight. A few years ago it was 65%. And it’s not getting better. And this is driving a whole range of diseases we call chronic disease that affects 6 out of 10 Americans and 4 out of 10 have 2 or more of these, whether it’s heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, dementia, depression. These are all diseases that are caused in part by food.

In fact, the Global Burden of Disease study, which was a big study done in Europe, looking at the role of food and health found that ultra processed food which is essentially made from soy, wheat, and corn ingredients that are turned into lots of different size, shapes and colors of processed food, which is the raw materials from almost processed food, that people who consume those, it leads to 11 million deaths a year. Now, I think that’s an underestimate. That’s like a holocaust every year. I’m not eating enough good food and too much bad food. And it’s a totally preventable thing. So, imagine if there was 11 million people dying a year from coronavirus. We’ve got like three 3000 people who have died, which is terrible, but it’s nowhere near the 2,300 people that die every day in America, every day, from preventable heart disease alone. So, we haven’t really grappled with this overwhelming explosion of chronic disease in this country, we haven’t really recognized it, and we certainly haven’t connected it to food. And food is the biggest cause of death in the world today, period. It’s not smoking, it’s not infectious disease, nowhere close. Three quarters of all the deaths in the world are caused by chronic disease. And most of those are caused by food.

So, I think it’s really important for us to sort of take a step back and look at what we’re doing and look at the food, how we’re growing food, what we’re growing, and actually what’s going on. So, I think that’s really, really important for people to understand. And I think if we face this head on, we can start to change our policies to produce better food on the farms, that’s better for the environment, that’s better for the climate, that creates better food for humans, more profitable for farmers, and actually starts to move the chain of overeating in a positive direction.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it really is important to look at those numbers. That still always blows my mind when I hear numbers like 2,300 people a day, just from heart disease. And I think there’s so much kind of confusing information in this as well. And I’d love to just from your perspective as a doctor and someone who works in the trenches every day with this, get some general rules that we can use in our families, in our own food decisions of what constitutes, like you said, good food versus bad food because some of them like processed food, sugar, those are relatively obvious, but there’s so much information right now, people saying we should all be plant based for the sake of our hearts, for instance, or things like that. So, what are your general kind of food guidelines that you personally follow and that you would give to your patients?

Dr. Hyman: Yeah, that’s great. Well, I think I’ve been doing this for a long time and studying nutrition for 40 years and have seen all the trends come and go, whether it’s low fat, low carb, high fat, low fat, keto, paleo, vegan, vegetarian. I was a vegetarian for 10 years. And I think that it’s super confusing for people, which is why I wrote a book called, “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?” and another book called “Food: What the Heck Should I Cook?” to help you if you want to cook. And these books lay out the science of what we know. And it’s really quite simple. The truth is that most people who are trying to seek towards healthier diets, whether you’re paleo or vegan or keto, you actually have way more in common with each other than you do with a traditional standard American diet, which is 60% ultra processed food. So that’s just the beginning.

The principles are quite simple. It’s eat whole foods. So, if you can recognize it, know where it came from, and it’s basically what your great grandmother would have probably eaten, that’s a good start, right? That’s the first thing. So, eat whole foods. And then second is, eat a lot of plant foods, what we call a plant rich diet. And it doesn’t have to be all plant based but it should contain probably 70%, 80% plants, lots of non-starchy veggies, a little bit of fruits, lots of good fats, avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds, lots of those nuts and seeds which are helpful. Make sure if you’re eating beans, and you’re overweight, eat the low starchy beans, like lentils, for example or lupini beans. If you’re going to eat grains, stick with whole grains, not refined grains or flour. So, you can say, “Well, I’m having whole wheat flour,” that’s terrible. I would not do that, it’s just like sugar in your body. So, if you want to eat wheat berries, fine. But try other kinds of grains like black rice and buckwheat and quinoa and things that may have more protein and more nutrition.

If you’re going to eat animal protein, make sure it’s raised in a regenerative or sustainable way or organic way that is not causing harm to the environment or climate, that’s not using antibiotics and hormones and pesticides, and actually is creating benefit to the environment and climate through using methods that actually build soil called regenerative agriculture. And I think those are really simple principles. And then the last one is obviously, stay away from things that aren’t food, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, food additives, hormones, GMO foods. I think that’s something people don’t want to willfully eat. Nobody’s suggesting we should have more of those. Nobody would say, “Well, you should add a little pesticides to your salad,” like it’s a good plan. No, we should not be eating anything with that in it, if we can.

Starch and sugar are pretty harmful. I think people should really stay away from that as much as possible. And when I mean that I mean, refined flour and refined sugars of all kinds. So, I think that’s an important thing. They can be considered as an occasional treat but not as a staple. And then a lot of refined oils, probably we should be not eating. So, those are the basic principles. Dairy is a big question. I think, if we’re having dairy products like sheep or goat, or try to have more heirloom cow dairy, but it’s very hard to find and I think there’s some real problems with the monetization of our dairy industry, the homogenization, pasteurization, the breeding of cows that creates more inflammatory issues within their milk, which drives people into more inflammatory diseases. So, I think we really just have to look at what’s really possible through just a more sensible approach to diet that’s based on good science.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely agree. And I think such an important point that you made is that, if we focus on what we have in common instead of dividing ourselves amongst the little differences we disagree on, we will probably see change so much more quickly. Because even if it’s vegan versus paleo, for instance, we all agree that factory farms are not a good thing. We all agree that over spraying and mono crops are not good things. And if we united around those things, we would actually probably be able to affect change much more quickly. And I see this in the mom world so much, and that’s always my encouragement is, at the end of the day, we all want to leave a better world for our kids. And so if we could focus on the 90% we agree on we would get so much farther than if we argue about the little things we don’t agree on, whether it’s how long to breastfeed or how you should discipline your children, and we can make so many positive changes.

Dr. Hyman: Yeah, I mean, I basically jokingly came up with this concept called the pegan diet, which is really about making a joke about paleo and vegan, saying they have far more in common with each other than they have differences, right? They both agree that we should eat whole food. They both agree we should eat lots of vegetables. They both agree we should probably avoid dairy. They both agree we shouldn’t be eating a lot of chemicals and additives and we should be eating good fats. And the only difference is where you get your protein from, beans or grains or animal food, that’s it. And everything else is pretty much the same. So, there’s far more in common with each other than they have everything else and that’s why I sort of jokingly came up with the pegan diet concept as a way of poking fun at it, and just really funny.

Katie: Yeah, I agree. And that’s kind of a starting point I always mention as well, if you just need general rules, I think if we all just avoided the refined oils, sugar, and processed flours, that alone would probably do so much to reduce some of these trends that we’re seeing, and yet those are such a huge part of the American diet. And it boggles my mind when I hear things like pizza, and french fries, and ketchup are the most consumed vegetables. Like that alone is so, so telling of what we’re facing right now.

Dr. Hyman: Absolutely.

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Katie: So, to kind of move towards just community action steps and things… I know we’ve talked about things we can do in our own homes. Are there things parents can do that you’ve seen work to be involved at the school level or at the community level that actually can lead to policy change as well?

Dr. Hyman: There’s been a lot of efforts across the country that have really improved school lunches, and parents have been active in many of these things. And I think that we see that we can make a big difference. And I mentioned My Way Cafe in Boston, I mentioned the Conscious Kitchens. There’s a lot of groups that actually have done so much to show that it’s possible to actually get kids to eat healthy food that they’re not going to throw out, that’s going to be delicious, that they can do. So, I think there’s simple things that can be done. Parents can try to infuse salad bars in the schools. They’ve done this in the Cincinnati public schools, salad bar in schools. There’s groups that are partnering with local farms, farm to school programs which are great, which you can help advocate for. There’s ways to focus on these farm to school programs in a really great way. There’s school gardens that you can do at your school. So there’s the Edible Schoolyards from Alice Waters, Kids Gardening, Food Corps, Big Green, these are nonprofits that are all working towards helping kids actually learn how to grow food in their schools. There’s also cooking skills that can be brought in, you can have cooking classes, or something called Cook Shop and Common Threads, Recipe for Success that are all around the country doing really great things in schools. So there’s a lot of models out there. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

But I think if you’re not happy with your school lunches and your kids’ food, it’s important to make sure that you are an active parent and go in. And I think parents can do this collectively. And I think you can get a lot of models. Conscious Kitchens is a great group that actually teaches parents and schools how to actually get this done. There’s all sorts of great models like Wellness in the Schools, which is an alternative menu for New York City public schools that has fewer processed foods, more plant-based options, more fresh salads and dressings, no sugary drinks. So there’s a lot of ways to do this. And there’s a lot of models for how to do it.

Katie: I agree. And as a homeschooling mom, too, I think my encouragement would be, even as we should all be working towards these changes in the school systems that, like you said, it’s also very much possible and wonderful to start at home. And I’m a big fan of, especially this time of year, it’s a great time to start, everyone growing their own garden at home if they’re able, even if the school isn’t willing to have a garden or even if there isn’t a community garden, because then our kids are getting to see firsthand where food comes from and start to understand that and also makes them so much more likely to eat those foods. I’m a big fan of a course online called “Kids Cook Real Food” that walks kids through all of the basic cooking skills, but from a real food perspective, and I think that’s something that parents can easily implement at home. And if we give our kids these skills, I see it in my kids every day, they can cook an entire meal on their own. And then they are so excited to eat it because they put in that time, they understand where their food came from. And of all the life skills we can teach our kids, that’s such a valuable one. And one that so many people… Like I went to college with so many people who didn’t know how to cook at all.

Dr. Hyman: Absolutely, 100%. And I think that that is what’s really going on in this country, is the food industry has hijacked the American kitchen, has encouraged generations of Americans who don’t know how to cook to eat convenience foods. Convenience is king, you deserve a break today. Those are the messages we get. And cooking is a drudgery, that housework is a drudgery. And I think that, unfortunately, for busy parents and people that are working two jobs, it’s definitely hard but I know that it can be done. And I think that if we actually take back our kitchens by teaching our kids how to shop and cook and eat real food that’s delicious, it will set them up for life. It’s one of the most important things we can do as parents. And I think we shouldn’t be afraid to sort of learn ourselves to… I mean, there’s so many YouTube videos, for example, on how to cook. It’s not that hard. So, I think it’s super important for people to take ownership.

Katie: I absolutely agree. Are there any other resources, both ones you’ve created, or ones that you think are great online where you would point people and I can put links in the show notes to keep these things moving forward and to keep learning?

Dr. Hyman: Yeah, so I if you go to foodfixbook.com, I have a whole guide called the Food Fix Action Guide based on my book “Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet — One Bite at a Time.” And in that action guide, it’s really clear what you can do as a citizen, how you can be involved if you want in your political process, what businesses can do and what policies need to change. So, I think it’s really important for people to realize they have a lot that they can do, and should do to actually change the way our food system is run and to actually take advantage of what they can do in their own homes and communities to really transform their health and their family’s health.

Katie: Love it. I will make sure that is linked in the show notes and I’ll also link to our first episode which was also really, really helpful and practical. Another question I’d love to ask toward the end, is if there’s a book or a number of books besides your own that have really had a dramatic impact on your life in some way? If so, what they are and why?

Dr. Hyman: Oh, wow. I mean, sure. I mean, there’s a few books that I read that were really impactful. One was on Walden Pond by Henry Thoreau, which really had an impact on me as a teenager and shaped my way of thinking about how to sort of go for what you dream and live a life of meaning and purpose and connected to nature. And so that’s really been one of the essential things in my life that I’ve focused on, is how to sort of live in a way that’s got integrity and service and that’s connected to nature and just goes after your dream. So that’s been a very powerful one. I think another one I read when I was younger, a few books that sort of shaped my thinking about food and the food system is by Wendell Berry called “The Unsettling of America,” that had to do with this end of our farm community, the industrialization of our food. And he said, “We have a food system that pays very little attention to health and a health industry that pays very little attention to food,” so that speaks to that. And I think there’s other books that I read called, “The Soil and Health,” which was by Sir Albert Howard, which talked about… He was the father of organic agriculture and talked about the connection between the health of the soil and health of humans. He said, “The problem of health in soil, plant, animal, and man is just one great subject.” And I think that has been the guiding philosophy of my life and has helped me do the work I’ve done. So, really, it’s really these books that have helped me think about things quite differently.

Katie: I love that. I’ll make sure those are all linked. And I think that that quote is so important too about a health care system that doesn’t care about food and a food system that doesn’t care about health. And what I’ve realized in my own health journey is that the answer to that is each of us becoming our own biggest advocate for health both in our own lives and in our communities. And that doctors, especially people like you who understand both sides of that, can be such an asset in that but at the end of the day, we are each individually responsible for ourselves and for our family’s health. And we should partner with doctors and professionals who are able to help us, but we’re the ones making the daily choices, day in and day out, like we talked about today, with our kids’ lunches and with what we’re growing in our own yards, and cooking in our own homes. And that to me, that’s where the real change actually starts and the lasting change actually happens. And I know that you’ve said similar things, from the doctor’s perspective is that we do need to be active advocates as patients and not just expect to outsource this to our doctor. We have to take that personal responsibility and at home as well.

Dr. Hyman: Absolutely, I think we can’t wait for the government to fix it, although we do need to make them fix it. I think FDR said it very well. He said, “When someone came in and said, could you please change this or do this, he says, ‘Go out there and make me do it. Make it impossible for me not to do this because of the political pressure you’re going to put on me through your voices, your votes, your actions, petitions, whatever you can do.’” I mean, there’s a great example in my book “Food Fix,” about a woman named Vani Hari, who is a mother and an activist and decided she was going to go after bad ingredients in food that nobody was really going after. And so for example, Kraft macaroni and cheese in Europe has no artificial dyes or chemicals, where in America, the same company makes the food with artificial dyes and chemicals, and there’s no reason for that. And she basically embarrassed them out of them, and had them change it. And she did the same thing with all sorts of different companies like Subway, which put in a product called azodicarbonamide in its bread, which makes it nice and fluffy, but it’s banned in many countries. And she went there and pretended to eat her yoga mat, which is a yoga mat ingredient and embarrassed them to get it out and many other big companies got azodicarbonamide out of their food.

So there’s activism that we can do. And it’s something that is possible for each of us to be engaged when we feel discouraged, but I wouldn’t… I think mothers are probably the most important force in the universe. They care about their children and want them to be healthy. And so there’s a lot of activity that they can do to make a big difference.

Katie: I agree. And I said that since the beginning as well, that I think moms are the biggest potential force for good. And, again, if we can focus on the things we agree on, I think that we have the power to make a lot of these changes very, very quickly. And I also love that quote, about making them change it. I think, when we vote with our purchasing power, which we have as mothers, an extreme amount of purchasing power, that we really will start to see those changes. And I love that there are people like you really spearheading these efforts and talking about this on a national scale. And I’m just so appreciative of your work and with what you’ve shared today, and with all the projects that you have and the work to try to improve this.

Dr. Hyman: Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And I think your work is great. And I think we’re on the course to changes. I see massive, massive changes that are happening in the government, locally, at a state level. I mean, I literally just had dinner with our governor’s wife. And their state is really focused on improving nutrition, school lunches, changing farming. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of things that really inspire me.

Katie: Me too. And I think, yeah, as for all the work we still have to do, it’s encouraging to look back and see all the positive that’s happening. And just I appreciate all that you’re doing. Thank you for your time today and for sharing and for all the work that you do.

Dr. Hyman: Of course, thank you so much.

Katie: And thanks as always to all of you for listening and sharing your most valuable asset, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama” podcast.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/food-fix/

[newmarketresearch1]

Port Infrastructure Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2018–2026

Globalization has led to increased emphasis on international trade activities that has in turn led to substantial increase in spending for the development of transport facilities that include roads, railways, waterways, and airports. Among these, port infrastructure market is projected to witness highest gains through the forecast period (2017-2025), primarily owing to increasing proliferation of sea trade and major investments in infrastructural development in emerging economies of Asia Pacific and Middle East.

Request For Sample Copy of this Research Report : https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/638

Energy and container ports construction are expected to attract large demands though the forecast period

International trade was largely influenced by exponential rise in demand for container shipping, over the last 50 years, specifically owing to the streamlining of processes and reduction in costs achieved through standardized container shipments. This has led to unprecedented investment in construction of container hubs and upgrading of containerized cargo. Moreover, large scale projects for fuel handling, such as Saldanha Bay (South Africa) and new oil terminals in Mombasa (Kenya), are expected to find large demands with focus on specific fuel handling that includes oil, gas or coal.  According to International Energy Outlook, by U.S. Department of Energy, global consumption of natural gas is projected to reach 203 trillion cubic feet (tcf) by 2040, an increase of around 70% in comparison to 2012 stats. Growing requirement for fuels, prominently in emerging economies such as China, India, Mexico and Indonesia, will provide solid growth platform through the forecast period.

Effective waste management is a major challenge for players in the port infrastructure market

Vibrations and noise generated by cargo operations has an adverse effect on the people and the flora and fauna in the vicinity. Moreover, large volumes of waste are generated that include dredged materials, oily mixtures and garbage discharged from ships, and other solid and liquid wastes. These usually end up disposed of in the nearby area or sea, in turn polluting the environment. Requirement to reduce the environment impacts have led to several initiatives such as Clean Air Act Advisory Committee in the U.S. and Port of the Future agenda by European Commission. Growing concerns regarding the environmental impacts and requirement to set up efficient waste management is expected to present major growth challenge.

Construction of these facilities requires large space and workforce to build and manage smooth operations. This in turn leads to Socio cultural impacts that include village relocation and formation of slums in the vicinity that can negatively impact the growth prospects. However, owing to these factors, Greenfield project development will draw considerable attraction for port infrastructure market owing to lack of imposed constraints prior to projects. The concept elucidates construction on unused lands, to reduce the expenses on remodeling and demolishing of an existing structure.

Geopolitical issues existing in South Asia is projected to drive the port infrastructure market

Major economies in South Asia such as China, Japan, and India are increasingly investing in facilities to increase their influence in the Indian Ocean and gain access to resources and potential high growth markets in Middle East and Central Asia. For instance, development program of Sagar Mala project in India and deep sea Angola port in China will present potential growth platform for port infrastructure market in the region. However, presence of outdated and frequently congested docks in countries such as India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh has in turn led to increased trade activities in advanced shipping facilities of China and Japan. Increasing competition among countries with large coastlines, especially in Asia Pacific, to establish regional superiority is expected to create a highly lucrative growth environment for the global port infrastructure market.

Improving economic conditions in Latin America will help the participants gain strong foothold in the industry

According to Port Technology International journal in November 2014, an estimated total of US$ 28.7 billion investment were to be made in Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Colombia for port infrastructure market. Growing investments in Latin America to improve transportation, strengthen the commodity exports and fulfill the local consumer demands will present significant growth opportunity over the forecast period. The region is characterized by the presence of 92 anchorages and 15 terminals, a significant number of which need to be upgraded. This creates a high growth prospect for the port infrastructure market in the region.

Majority of the big-budget construction projects are lined up by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for annexation of shipping activities in the region. For instance, Fujairah Oil Terminal, Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (Abu Dhabi), Boubyan Island (Kuwait), and Sohar Industrial Port (Oman) are few of the major projects. GCC is likely to remain the key focus of port infrastructure market.

Some of contracting companies include ACS Group, Hyundai Engineering, Consolidated Engineering Construction Co, Bechtel, and Danube Ports Network Company. Along with the large number contracting players, industry competition is also characterized by the equipment manufacturers. Some of them include OAO Baltkran, Cargotech, C.V.S. SpA, Demag Cranes, Fantuzzi and Liebherr.

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[atlanticcanada]

Fast-expanding seafood giant joins Irvings, McCains as N.B. business royalty

FREDERICTON -- For the Irvings, it was Bouctouche. For the McCains, Florenceville.

Now, in tiny Black's Harbour, in between an Irving gas bar and the local Freshmart, is a small, two-storey brick building that is head office for New Brunswick's newest family-owned multinational.

Cooke Aquaculture Inc. is the world's largest independent seafood company, with billions of dollars in annual revenue, shipping one billion pounds of fresh seafood annually to 67 countries.

And it is about to get bigger. Founded 33 years ago, the firm is set to complete its latest acquisition, growing its global workforce to some 9,000 employees.

Cooke is in the final stages of buying one of the largest shrimp farming companies in Latin America, although exact details are being withheld until the deal is complete in the next few weeks.

"Cooke Aquaculture started in 1985 by Gifford Cooke and his two sons Michael and Glenn. They started with farming 5,000 salmon in a pen," said Joel Richardson, vice-president public relations for Cooke Aquaculture.

"That grew over the years through approximately 100 acquisitions since 1985 globally. We have now become the largest independent seafood company in the world. We are independently, family owned, right here, and Black's Harbour is our head office," he said.

Company revenues are expected to be $2.4 billion for 2018. Cooke operates 657 vessels and 25 processing facilities. It operates under a number of brands including True North Seafood Company, Icicle Seafoods and Wanchese Fish Company.

Last month, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce named Cooke Aquaculture Inc. its Top Private Business Growth Award winner in Canada for 2018.

Growth started quite naturally for the Cookes. Four years after opening their first salmon cage, they needed a supply of eggs and smolt, so they bought a hatchery.

The corporate website details the subsequent purchases, including feed plants, distributors, processing plants and other aquaculture and wild fish operations.

"We have farmed salmon operations in Chile, Scotland, Maine, Washington state and we also do sea bass and sea bream in Spain. We have wild cod operations in the United States and down in Latin America as well," Richardson said.

About 40 per cent of Cooke's seafood business is wild cod.

Despite the growth around the world, the company has kept its roots in rural New Brunswick and has about 2,000 employees here.

"Entrepreneurs and families in New Brunswick have a special connection to where we're from," said Richardson.

Observers liken them to dynasties like the Irvings and McCains, local family businesses that have made their mark on the North American stage.

Donald Savoie, an expert in economic development at the Universite de Moncton, said there's a common mindset to the family-run, resource businesses that have their roots in rural New Brunswick.

"When you start in natural resources you don't need much start-up capital. You don't need venture capital, you don't need the stock market. You need opportunities and an entrepreneur with a single-minded purpose," he said.

"Harrison and Wallace McCain, when they started, they had a handful of employees. Today they're in China, they're in Europe. Cooke has followed the same pattern. The Irvings started off in Bouctouche with two or three people working there. That's the pattern," he said.

However, Savoie said the rules of the playing field are changing and new environmental requirements, consultations with First Nations and other regulations are making it harder for companies to get a start in rural areas.

"It calls on government to look at rural development and to see how we can make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business in rural New Brunswick in the natural resources sector," he said. "New Brunswick remains largely rural. We are just crossing the line now at 50 per cent urban and rural. Ontario crossed that line 100 years ago."

But the aquaculture industry has faced its share of controversy.

In a report this year, federal environment commissioner Julie Gelfand warned of the disease risk that farmed fish pose to wild salmon, finding that Fisheries and Oceans Canada had not adequately balanced the industry's risks with its mandate to protect wild fish.

The report pointed to the under-studied effect of pesticides and the risk of salmon escapes, which can lead to genetic defects in wild populations.

Cooke Aquaculture itself has faced pushback on its operations in multiple jurisdictions, including Newfoundland and Labrador and Washington State after salmon escapes.

On Monday, Ottawa announced a new approach to the aquaculture sector, including creating a single comprehensive set of regulations to clarify how it is run in Canada.

The department is also ordering a study on alternative aquaculture technologies, developing a risk management framework and moving towards area-based management plans to take regional environmental concerns into account.

But Richardson said Cooke operates in "a safe and environmentally sustainable manner," and the public understands that fish escapes can occur if major storms cause damage to the pens.

"Our company follows global best practices and all government regulations by responding immediately following severe storms -- just like land-based farmers do," he said.

"We invest heavily in world class environmental monitoring and feeding systems, using the best technology and expertise from around the world."

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/2LcplUz

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IMAGINE YOU’RE PART of a great swelling crowd, one of 60,000 people who fill up the cauldron of noise and chaos that is a sold-out football stadium. For you and everyone around you, the game is an open-air gathering place, a chance to steam and scream and worry about nothing except the other team’s menacing D. To the security officials responsible for your safety, it is a constant source of worst-case-scenario planning. They install metal detectors; they enlist a kennel’s worth of bomb-sniffing dogs; they plant concrete pillars around the perimeter to keep out cars; they train personnel in the dark art of bag searching; they even obtain a temporary flight restriction from the FAA to keep all aircraft above 3,000 feet for a radius of 3 miles. They spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours to keep you safe, yet they know that none of it can stop a 3-pound off-the-shelf drone from flying in and dropping something on the crowd. Maybe it’s a toxic mist. Maybe it’s a bomb. Whatever it is, you’ll never see it coming, and because there is currently no legal way to bring down a drone with any accuracy or reliability, there’s nothing anyone can do but wait for it.

In the summer of 2015, Ross Lamm and Dave Romero watched just such a scenario unfold from within a skybox at a large university stadium. The head of security for the college, fearful of the damage drones could do, had decided to run a simulation of a drone attack inside his 60,000-­capacity football stadium. (The university asked that identifying details be withheld so as not to share its playbook with would-be attackers.) Campus officials launched a DJI quadcopter, a midsize, midpriced drone, and steered it toward the bleachers, pretending to spread nerve gas on the hundred students gathered below. As the drone looped lazily over the crowd, some of them pretended to vomit convulsively, some twitched spasmodically, some staggered like zombies and then collapsed. Emergency personnel rushed in, assessing the pretend damage and carrying pretend victims out to vans equipped as medical stations.

Up in a skybox, Lamm and Romero, cofounders of Black Sage Technologies, monitored the drone-tracking equipment they’ve spent the past few years developing. Almost immediately after the drone lifted off, Lamm and Romero’s radar detected it. Their AI-­powered software identified it as a drone (and not, say, a bird), and their tripod-­mounted cameras tracked it as it made its way over the crowd. As they heard the ominous buzzing overhead and watched the college kids pretend to die, Romero and Lamm allowed themselves a small measure of satisfaction—Black Sage’s tracking system worked, and in the event of an actual attack it could give authorities a few crucial extra minutes to mobilize. Mostly, though, Romero and Lamm felt alarmed, knowing all they could do was watch. “Holy shit,” Romero remembers thinking. “We can do everything but stop this catastrophic incident from occurring.”

Shaken and stirred, they returned to Black Sage’s headquarters in Boise, Idaho, and spent a year enhancing their system so that it can now not only track drones but also bring them safely to the ground using radio-frequency-jamming technology. There is only one small hitch: Like almost every drone-­interdiction technology in development, frequency jammers run afoul of several US laws, most of which were passed when people hadn’t dreamed of owning their own unmanned aircraft. Romero and Lamm’s solution to the mock terror in the stadium—a solution that they have shown can reliably counter the threats drones pose to targets as varied as prisons, airports, and ­arenas—is illegal here, which leaves the future of Black Sage’s technology, like the future of drones themselves, very much up in the air.

THE TWO INVENTORS met in 2013 through a mutual friend in Boise. Romero, 31, grew up on a 2,200-acre cattle ranch 50 miles south of the city, the prototypical boy-tinkerer making miracles out of scrap metal. He built lots of dune buggies, motorcycles, and other contraptions, most of which worked, one of which burst into flames. He taught himself computer programming on his family’s IBM 386. After graduating from college in 2007, he started a software company called Tsuvo that performed regression analysis—taking large data sets from disparate government agencies, some of which involved thousands of statistics, and distilling them into clean, color-coded graphics that even nonstatisticians could understand. This kind of massive data crunching and predictive analysis, useful to bureaucracies both here and abroad, led him to live for varying amounts of time in Chile, Palau, and finally, Thailand. It also introduced him to the power of machine-­learning algorithms, which helped make quick work of even the thorniest data sets.

Where Romero is an adrenaline fiend—ask about the mountain bike perched in his office and he’ll show you a photo of himself on the bike, halfway through a backflip—Lamm, 45, likes nothing more than sailing with his two sons on a quiet lake. He is deliberate and thoughtful, choosing his words carefully, not out of caution but from an engineer’s appreciation of what’s precise and what’s not. While earning a PhD concentrated on machine vision in the late ’90s, he developed an algorithm that enabled a tractor-­­mounted camera to tell the difference between cotton plants and weeds, allowing farmers to spray herbicide more accurately. In the aftermath of al Qaeda’s attack on the USS Cole in 2000 (an explosive-­laden speedboat crashed into the ship, killing 17 sailors), he helped a US Navy and Coast Guard contractor develop a robotic vision system that allowed ships to detect and quickly respond to speedboat attacks. (With your own vessel rocking and an enemy boat closing in fast, it’s surprisingly difficult to track ships on the water.) He also took part in constructing the warning system in Washington, DC, that locks onto commercial airplanes that drift into restricted airspace and beams an unmistakable red-red-green, red-red-green laser signal into the cockpit to alert the plane’s pilots to fly elsewhere. After more than a decade living and working in Napa Valley, California, he relocated to Boise in 2012, in part so his wife could move her winery there.

Lamm and Romero first crossed paths when their mutual friend asked for their help landing a government contract: The state of Idaho wanted to install a new warning system on a highway to prevent cars from crashing into animals after dark. The existing warning system flashed a light whenever a deer or an elk crossed the road, but because the signal would also light up whenever the wind sent leaves and branches tumbling across the pavement—which was often—drivers came to ignore the warning lights altogether. The highway developed one of the highest wildlife crash rates in the state, and when Romero was home from Thailand for a month visiting his family for Christmas, the friend invited him and Lamm to a brainstorming session at a coffee shop. Could some combination of Lamm’s expertise in robotic vision and ­Romero’s experience with machine learning help solve the highway problem? “After our friend introduced us, he hardly got a word in,” Romero says. “We got into this virtuous cycle of building on each other’s ideas.”

The pair got to work. Near the highway, they set up a Doppler radar (to detect moving objects) along with an infrared camera (for nighttime viewing) and routed the output to Romero, who had returned to Thailand for a few months to finish some work. To train his machine-learning algorithms to distinguish between animals and clutter, he would spend 45 minutes of his lunchtime each day (perfect for nocturnal sightings in Idaho) watching the infrared images and signaling yes or no as to whether they were wildlife. The system accumulated thousands of data points on the moving objects that crossed the camera’s field of view—speed, acceleration, direction—and once that data was correlated with Romero’s yes/no designations, the algorithm learned to recognize what probably was an animal and what probably wasn’t.

“It’s a beautiful algorithm that takes data from radar and enriches it with close probabilities,” Romero says. Rather than respond to a potential threat like a conventional alarm system—a so-called deterministic response, where almost any stimulus sets off a signal—their system would trigger a probabilistic response. They set the alarm to flash if it determined with a 70 percent probability that the moving object was an elk or a deer as opposed to, say, tumbleweed. False alarms plummeted, drivers began to trust the new system, and in the three months that they field-tested it during the winter of 2014, collisions dropped to zero.

Around the time that Romero and Lamm were focusing on preventing accidents on the ground, more and more people started worrying about crashes in the sky. Once the province of military developers, then of rich folks who could afford the technology, drones soared into the mainstream in 2013 when Chinese drone maker DJI introduced the Phantom, the first consumer-­priced unmanned aircraft system. It jump-started what Marke Gibson, the FAA’s drone expert and a former Air Force general, calls “the most fundamental change in aviation in our lifetime.” With hundreds of thousands of new aircraft navigating increasingly crowded airspace, Lamm and Romero noticed there were alarmingly few ways to keep track of the errant ones. What’s more, the radar tracking systems that did exist could rarely distinguish between large birds and drones, a problem similar to what they had encountered on the highway in Idaho. Seeing an opportunity to cash in on an emerging market, Romero and Lamm founded Black Sage in July of 2014 to adapt their wildlife-detection system to the new and more urgent problems posed by drones.

The adaptation wasn’t as simple as taking their existing radar and camera equipment and pointing it skyward, though: Romero and Lamm had to write new software to process the ever-­changing latitude, longitude, and altitude of an incoming target, all while taking into account the curvature of the Earth. Lamm wrote “slew-to-cue” algorithms so that whenever the radar picked up an incoming object, it would engage the camera, which then would track the object at a near-­continuous 30 times per second. Later he and Romero added an infrared camera to detect the differential heat patterns between drones and the surrounding air. They headed to the scrubby hills above Boise to train the software, aiming the camera and radar at drones as well as the birds riding the thermals and the waterfowl in the wetlands below. For the drones and the birds, the system would measure acceleration, speed, heading, cross-­section, surface area, whether the object had moving wings or propellers, and hundreds of other factors. “We didn’t have to know what makes these differences” between drones and other flying objects, Romero says. “The AI figured it out.”

By the summer of 2015 they had a system that could reliably detect an incoming drone about half a kilometer away, identify it, and stay locked on it regardless of evasive maneuvers. It was a breakthrough for them and a potential resource for anyone interested in keeping tabs on nearby drones. When the college security official invited Lamm and Romero to demo their system during the simulated nerve gas attack, he saw firsthand how the Black Sage system could track a drone. He also learned there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it.

YOU’D THINK SHOOTING one down would be the easiest way to do it. After all, in 2015 a guy in Kentucky, pissed off that a drone was hovering over his property, grabbed his shotgun and shot the damn thing out of the sky. Simple enough. But it threw him into a thicket of legal trouble that he couldn’t escape for months. Under FAA rules, drones are considered aircraft: It’s just as illegal to shoot at one as it is to shoot at a Piper Cub, if for no other reason than you can’t control where (or on what or whom) a falling drone will land. The government has taken steps to prevent people from doing dumb things with their drones: Last summer the FAA released licensing and registration rules to compel drone buyers to learn how to fly responsibly. Drone manufacturers have taken actions too, integrating no-fly zones into the aircrafts’ GPS systems. Both measures are easy to get around, though, which explains why the FAA receives more than 100 reports per month of drones flying near aircraft—more than triple the rate it was seeing in 2014. No one knows what would happen if a drone got sucked into a jet engine, although computer simulations at Virginia Tech suggest that it would rip apart the engine’s fan blades in less than 0.005 second.

The problem goes well beyond aircraft. The Pentagon, spurred by reports that ISIS is using drones for surveillance and bomb delivery, has requested $20 million for antidrone research. Recently the Federal Bureau of Prisons posted a request for information on how to equip penitentiaries with antidrone systems (the better to stop drones from dropping contraband into prison yards). “Every prison, every airport, every facility with sensitive equipment outdoors, stadiums, amusement parks, racetracks … everybody is now worried about drones,” says James Williams, an aviation specialist at the international law firm Dentons. In short, what used to be a two-dimensional security problem—stopping intruders at ground level—has now become a three-­dimensional one, as security breaches can come from above.

With US sales expected to ­triple over the next three years, drones are democratizing the air to an unprecedented degree, and Black Sage is only one of a handful of companies trying to solve the problem. One of the more promising, if flawed, systems in the works comes from British company OpenWorks Engineering, which has produced a bazooka-­like device called SkyWall 100 that physically captures a drone with a net; the system won a recent competition for drone defense in urban areas, but it’s not effective much beyond 100 meters. In Holland, police have experimented with using eagles to attack drones, but they ­haven’t figured out how to protect the birds’ feet from the spinning blades, and the raptors have to be trained for months. In the fall of 2015, in their own first attempt to counter a drone, Lamm and Romero rigged a ­couple of ultra-high-powered spotlights to one of their tripods. When a drone approached, radar would detect it, cameras would track it, and with the touch of a button, 12 million candlepower of light would blind the drone and disable its video and espionage capabilities. It worked well at night, but when they demo’d the system for a customer in the Middle East, the desert sun rendered the lights useless against attacking drones.

Shortly after the high-­wattage experiment, Romero went to an international security conference in Dubai in early 2016, where he met the owner of a company that makes radio jammers to protect armored vehicles in war zones. IEDs are often triggered by radio waves—via Wi-Fi or cell phone—and the company had produced a device that, mounted on a Humvee, broadcasted jamming signals at a broad range of frequencies in all directions. This got Romero and Lamm thinking about how frequency jamming could apply to their own efforts: Consumer drones are controlled through the public part of the radio spectrum (either 2.4 or 5.8 GHz). Blasting radio waves at those specific frequencies—jamming them—makes a drone deaf to its controller, which would cause the drone to return home or settle to the ground. A similar outcome would occur if you jammed the GPS frequency or what’s called the low-frequency L-band.

Frequency jamming is an elegant solution that doesn’t involve shotguns or trained animals, but it comes at a cost. Because these are public frequencies, jamming them disables other common electronic devices in the area, such as Wi-Fi, wireless home phones, and even garage door openers. Jamming GPS signals is even more dangerous—it can interfere with emergency responders and airplane-guidance systems. That is why jamming radio frequencies and GPS signals is illegal in the US. Still, Romero and Lamm thought that if they could jam only those frequency bands most commonly used in drone communication—and if they could limit their jamming to objects at which they have aimed their system—they could minimize the disruption to surrounding radio and GPS communications.

Since they couldn’t legally experiment near their headquarters in Boise, Romero flew to the Middle East to test out frequency jammers. After two and a half months of trial and error, Romero and Lamm created a new system that could bring down a drone with minimal impact on surrounding radio and GPS operations. Despite knowing that they couldn’t market it in their home country, Romero and Lamm pressed forward. “I know I’m going to regret saying this, but our thought process was, who cares about the States?” Lamm says. “We’ve got a $100 million customer in a hot, sandy place who doesn’t care about the FCC, and we have a solution they’ll love—so let’s do it.”

Lamm and Romero are understandably vague about where they test and sell their equipment overseas. There’s a spy-versus-spy element to the business, and you’re ahead of the game if your adversaries don’t know that you can counter their drone attack. A few times over several months, they called and updated me with their latest test results, and with each new dispatch they described various improvements and setbacks. Last summer I finally got a chance to see the Black Sage system for myself. On a remote hillside, I sat with Romero and Lamm inside a trailer set up as a command center. The drone-tracking gear consisted of two tripods: One held a cluster of eight Doppler radars resembling white iPads and, above them, the hi-def and infrared cameras; the other held the jammers—three white cylinders the size of paper towel tubes.

An assistant launched the quadcopter and flew it beyond eyesight, maybe a kilometer away. Moments after launch a white dot appeared on the radar-­connected monitor. A readout confirmed that the object was a drone. Instantly the cameras locked onto it; and when Lamm zoomed in with the hi-def camera, we could see the quadcopter’s body and rotors. Lamm and Romero shot commands back and forth like a pilot and copilot. “Buzzer on,” Romero hollered. Lamm flipped a switch. A jammer emitted a storm of radio waves, blocking the control signal and paralyzing the aircraft. “Buzzer off!” Romero commanded, and the drone resumed the attack. “Buzzer on,” and it froze again. This time they kept the jammer engaged, and the drone settled to the ground.

Since then Lamm and Romero have updated their system yet again. A recent version, tested for an Asian counterterrorism unit last September, established a zoned system with a series of potential responses. If a drone approached within a certain distance of a prohibited zone, the system would jam its Wi-Fi and sever its connection to its controller. If the drone kept coming, that would mean it had been programmed to attack, and at that point the system would jam its GPS frequencies. “With zero human intervention, our system detected and identified the drone and took it down to the ground,” Romero says. “At that point, it was handshakes, smiles, and a happy customer.”

Though the Black Sage jammer includes a narrow-beam antenna to minimize frequency disruptions in the surrounding area, Romero and Lamm concede that using the latest version of their system in a crowded urban area could cause hundreds of businesses to lose their Wi-Fi for up to 30 seconds. It’s not something Lamm would use casually, even if the FCC allowed it. “It all depends on the threat level,” he says. “If you see a drone headed for an airport right now,” it’d be worth the risk of knocking out the surrounding Wi-Fi.

It also depends on the environment. Lamm says he’d be comfortable using his system at an airport far from the city center or a stadium on the outskirts of town. Another good example, he says, is what Utah legislators had in mind last year when they passed a law that allows incident commanders at wildfires to use frequency jamming to neutralize any drones interfering with their work. The law is so new that it hasn’t been tested yet: Legal experts wonder what the FCC will do when an incident occurs, perhaps in the next fire season. (The FCC wouldn’t comment on Black Sage or the issue of frequency jamming.) Meanwhile, the FAA is hosting biweekly meetings with the FCC and other three-letter agencies to work out standards for what kind of antidrone systems can be developed and under what conditions they can be safely deployed. “The major issue is not just the technology, but the application of technology in a civil environment,” says Gibson, the FAA’s drone man. “We’ve never been in this position before; it’s the new frontier.”

Romero, Lamm, and others in their young industry hope that any new regulations will include a variance for emergency jamming. “I don’t think this is going to become real until we experience a catastrophe,” Romero says. Which would sound more cynical if he hadn’t witnessed a hundred kids pretending to die in a football stadium. Everyone then knew a drone was coming. The next time might be different.

[ericfruits]

Pensioners are an underrated and underserved market

“THERE’S NOTHING WRONG with bingo and chicken,” says Tom Kamber, before explaining why you won’t find either in the senior centre he runs in Manhattan. Instead, members of the Senior Planet Exploration Centre are given VR goggles and other digital gadgets to play with, though most head straight for a wall of computers to check their Facebook accounts or shop online. A group of 15 seniors, some in their 80s, clad in sportswear, huddle around their fitness coach. People come for classes on starting their own businesses, using smartphones, booking travel on the web and setting up online dating profiles. “We just demystify the technology and away they go,” explains Mr Kamber.

Businesses could learn from this. With longer lives, more free time and a lot of cash, older people clearly present a “silver dollar” opportunity. In America the over-50s will shortly account for 70% of disposable income, according to a forecast by Nielsen, a market-research organisation. Global spending by households headed by over-60s could amount to $15tn by 2020, twice as much as in 2010, predicts Euromonitor, another market-research outfit. Much of this will go on leisure.

Yet the market has failed to respond to this opportunity, even though it has been clear for a long time that the baby-boomers would start to retire in larger numbers, in better health and with more money to spend than any previous generation. They feel much younger than their parents did at their age, and most of them have no intention of quietly retreating from the world. “Retirement used to be a brief period between cruise ships and wheelchairs, with a bout of norovirus,” says Joe Coughlin, who runs the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now it has become a complete new stage of life, as long as childhood or mid-life, which boomers want to structure very differently; “yet we still offer my grandfather’s retirement.”

Over-60s adventure travel has become a booming business opportunity. In America more than 40% of adventure travellers are over 50, according to the Adventure Travel Trade Association. In Britain older travellers are the largest spenders in the industry, with the fastest growth in the 65-74 age group. Instead of comfortable cruises or bus tours, they demand action, from expeditions to the Arctic to cultural trips to Asia.

Jane Dettloff, a 73-year-old from Minnesota, has just returned from a two-week cycling tour in Chile. “The culture, the cuisine, the beaches and—oof—the Andes wine!” By day the 16 women, aged 61 to 87, pedalled, chatted and “felt like young girls again”. By night they enjoyed “wine-o’clock, without the whining about pills”. The travel company that organised the tour, VBT, does not explicitly bill itself as a specialist in senior travel, but offers subtle hints: “at your own pace”, “since 1971”, “good wine”. More than 90% of its customers are over 50.

Out of date

Another emerging market is dating. Whereas overall divorce rates are falling in some countries, including America, Australia and Britain, “silver splits” are soaring as new pensioners suddenly face the prospect of spending a lot more time with their partner. Americans over 60 are now getting divorced at twice the rate as they were in 1990, and Britons at three times the rate, write Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott in “The 100-Year Life”. More than a quarter of the members of Match.com, a popular dating website, are between 53 and 72, and that group is growing faster than any other.

Older people seem more concerned than younger ones about the risks of online dating, prompting the setting up of specialised sites such as Stitch, an online companionship site with 85,000 members. “There’s more fun to be had after 50,” proclaims its promotional video, adding that “it’s all very safe.” Older customers seem more willing to pay for online memberships than the young, provided they add value. Stitch screens members and organises social events, explains Andrew Dowling, the co-founder. “Most people want companionship, but dating does change with age.”

Jody, from New Jersey, was inspired by her nieces, who all use dating apps, and ended up at a Stitch “drinks and mingling” event in a trendy New York bar. It turned out to be ten women sipping Margaritas, laughing as they swapped experiences of disastrous online dates and debating whether they would be more likely to meet a man if they went in for predominantly male activities such as mountain biking or golf.

Women spend more on trying to find a companion than men, because in the higher age groups there are more of them (in the rich world they live an average of five years longer), and they are more likely to be single. In 2014 nearly three-quarters of American men over 65 were married and only one in ten was widowed; of women in the same age group, under half were married and one in three was widowed. In Europe, too, women over 65 are more than twice as likely as men to be living alone. This can be problematic if they lack adequate savings, but also opens up new demand for all sorts of things that hardly anyone would have imagined a generation ago.

One is different sorts of accommodation. With longer time horizons ahead of them, the younger old are spurning lonely granny flats and looking for something more convivial, closer to a bachelor pad. “Retired golden girl seeks two cosmopolitan, easy-going, positive people with a (wacky) sense of humour to share this lovely, charming property,” starts an ad on goldengirlsnetwork.com, a single-senior housemate-finding website.

But businesses that want to get into this new market of the younger old should note that they are fussy. They do not see themselves as old, and will respond badly to ads specifically targeted at older people (as Crest found when it launched a toothpaste for the 50+ age group). The over-50s are also intolerant of websites or gadgets that underdeliver, says Martin Lock of Silversurfers.com, the largest over-50s community in Britain: “If something doesn’t work, they’ll be the first to leave.”

Between now and 2030, most of the growth in consumption in the developed world’s cities will come from the over-60s, according to McKinsey, a consultancy. So this is the market to go for; but to provide the wherewithal, the financial industry will first have to reinvent itself.

This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "Don’t call us silver"

The new oldMore in this special report:

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