April 2015

It is more than just ‘low-cal, low-fat’

Information, Science, Sociology No Responses »

Apr 302015

There is a great number of people in the US, and even in other nations, those emulating everything American, who sincerely believe that low-fat or no fat, low cal or zero calories, and no-sugar-added food is healthy. This not so hard to corrobate fact may have to do with The Gospel of Food, where, on the one hand, consummers, either unknowingly or actually convinced by the daily barrage of commercial and experts appearing in TV morning shows, make sure that their grocery shopping meet the conditions stated above, even going to the other extreme, sometimes influenced, on the other hand, by the diet orthodoxy. The author doesn’t want to fall into the trap of “food perfectionism” neither the readers, in which an opposite stance, that of “nutritional imperialism”, pretends to be the solution to everything, from obesity to feeding the hungry, but according to certain official guidelines. This is not a simple black and white issue as pointing the finger to the fast-food industry. Chapter 7, for instance, asks what made America fat, and hints that it’s not just the fast food…

The gospel of food : everything you think you know about food is wrong. Barry Glassner. New York : Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

Related Website: Barry Glassner

I shop, therefore I exist…

Economy, Sociology No Responses »

Apr 302015

I’m sure this book is part of the reading material of some interesting course in many a college or university and it should also be required reading material for any wise consumer in this day and age. “We have come to operate in a world where the market and its logic have insinuated themselves into every area of our lives. (…) and it not just the case of “hip, hypergentrified Brooklynites succumbing to market psychology”, says the author, but people of all walks of life and income levels sucked into the wishful whirlwind of an unsustainable economic illusion of progress and wellbeing. Thoroughly researched, with a wide historic perspective, and full of insight, it makes some rethink their false sense of security in which corporations have become the authority figures. A great reading to understand contemporary history and how it came to be as it is now. [Note: there are at least two different covers of this book, depending on the date of release. The 2009 edition, with a definitely bland cover design, has a slightly different subtitle: “how the world became a corporation and how to take it back.” The 2011 edition, with the subtitle indicated below, includes “The Life Inc. guide to reclaiming the value you create.”]

Life inc. : how corporatism conquered the world, and how we can take it back. Douglas Rushkoff. New York: Random House, 2011.

Related Website: Rushkoff.

The wealth of a nation is also its knowledge

Information, Science No Responses »

Apr 242015

In a globalized economy, where nations are vying for science and innovation supremacy, the US can’t afford to think backwards courtesy of religious zealots and opportunist politicians. There is a chapter in this book with the title “The bloggers cannot save us” in which the author begins his reflection about the unsubstantiated information that circulates on the Internet, with a story about some “weblog awards” in different categories, among them, one for the “Best Science Blog”, a few years ago (this book was published back in 2009). In such popularity contest, the “winners” were an atheist and a former TV meteorologist, a skeptic of human-caused global warming. Apparently, blogs that discuss science in a more accurate and informed fashion have zero chance of winning popularity contests. This is but a sample of the state of scientific literacy in America, tainted with political and religious discourse, at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century.

Unscientific America : how scientific illiteracy threatens our future. Chris Mooney, Sheril Kirshenbaum. New York : Basic Books, 2009.

Related Website: Unscientific America.

Sharing the planet with our tiny, powerful and almost unknown neighbours

Anthropology, Insects No Responses »

Apr 032015

This is a witty, at times humorous, but always insightful journey into the world of insects, those, according to the author “really complicated creatures”. In a tour throughout the history of insects and the insects in history, the author, an anthropologist, presents in several chapters whose titles begin with each one of the letters of the alphabet, explorations and ruminations about insects in time and space. Air, beauty, Chernobyl, death, evolution, fever/dream, generosity… sex, temptation … yearnings, Zen and the art of Zzz’s. In all, a strange, somehow weird, as much as the subject, and engrossing book, but worth reading.

Insectopedia. Hugh Raffles. New York : Pantheon Books, 2012.

Is the US a developing country in the making?

Economy, Sociology No Responses »

Apr 032015

The contents of this book is not news, but rather a sobering well-researched and documented account of all the ills that trouble America 12 years into the new millennium. Who would’ve thought that the most powerful country in the world, the “greatest nation on Earth”, would arrive to the 21st century in such disarray. For all the ominous and disheartening facts laid out in four eloquent and eye-opening chapters, the author’s goal is to sound the alarm “so that we never do become Third World America“, closing, however, the book with an optimistic note in the form of chapter 5 since this is not a done deal. One cannot help but think, after having lived in this wonderful country for more than two decades, that in fact there is hope (I, for one, I am very hopeful).

Third World America : how our politicians are abandoning the middle class and betraying the American dream. Arianna Huffington. New York: Crown Publishers. 2011. [Note: there are at least two different covers of this book, depending on the date of release].

Related Website: Third World America, hosted by the Huffington Post, of which the author is co-founder.