Sen.se has a small smart temperature monitor called ThermoPeanut (it does kind of resemble a peanut) that can be stuck just about anywhere to keep track of the area’s temperatures. Inside of the fridge is one example, if you’re particularly concerned about the temp getting too high; you could stick one in your bedroom or the basement, behind your electronics … Continue reading
The 3Doodler PRO has made its debut at IFA 2016, and it brings with it the promise of 3D-drawing on the professional level. Who would benefit from drawing in 3D? Architects and engineers of various sorts are two big groups the 3Doodler PRO targets — rather than sketching ideas onto a sheet of paper or designing them in 3D on … Continue reading
New York commuters are bracing for the 18 month closure of the L train that will disrupt the daily commute of 225,000 people. Scheduled to shut down in 2019, the artery between Manhattan and Brooklyn will be undergoing repairs for damage done by Hurr…
Apple has vowed to remove from the App Store any programs that no longer work, don’t follow current review guidelines or are simply outdated. Starting September 7th, Apple will review and remove apps that crash on launch, and the company will contact…
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals atTheWirecutter.com.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends atThe Wirecutter. N…
This story first appeared on Ecosystem Marketplace.
By Will Tucker
What’s small, green, famously healthy, and deceptively destructive? An avocado, believe it or not. The benign-looking fruit has captured worldwide attention in recent weeks after revelations that America’s insatiable taste for guacamole is prompting farmers to chop forests in central Mexico – and funding narcoterrorism in the process.
After initially disputing the reports, Mexican avocado growers have resolved to make their operations more sustainable – but how? After all, the problem begins with foreign demand, and it extends beyond avocados, as Bolivian chef Kamilla Seidler pointed out at the Aspen Ideas Fest in Colorado, where she described the “Quinoa Effect” that has driven the price of a kilogram of the fashionable grain from $1 to $11 in La Paz – a boon to growers (or, more often, middlemen) but a bust for working class Bolivians who rely on quinoa as a staple food.
Source: Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
The solution, it turns out, won’t come in the form of a silver bullet or tidy quick fix. But the necessary ingredients are within reach: consumer self-awareness; lessons learned in the beef, soy, and timber trades; new financing mechanisms enshrined in the Paris Climate Agreement; and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit blended with some time-tested lessons from forests and the communities who have sustainably managed them for centuries.
America’s love affair with the avocado dates back well beyond the quinoa boom – and while it began within U.S. borders, it was Mexican imports that allowed that relationship to flourish. Avocado consumption has doubled in the past 10 years and is nearly four times higher than in the mid-1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The average American consumed nearly seven pounds of avocados in 2015, compared with less than two per year prior to 2000.
Americans could “buy local”, but that won’t make a dent because California is the only US state that produces avocados on a large enough scale to matter, and its thirsty orchards face challenges of their own.
They can also substitute, according to Brazilian chef Paulo Machado, an expert on Latin American cuisine and member of the sustainable food initiative Cumari: From Rainforest to Table. He cites a fruity reinterpretation of guacamole that uses a fraction of the avocado typically found in the dish. The recipe, which Machado inherited several years ago from a Mexican friend during a period of runaway avocado prices in Brazil, substitutes mango, peach, and the savory texture of papaya to fill out the rest of the body.
Source: USDA Economic Research
And at the grocery store, consumers can also mitigate some of the environmental and social costs of Michoacán’s avocados by purchasing only those that are certified organic. Admittedly, organic certification has its shortcomings – for example, it doesn’t explicitly address deforestation – but locals point out that organic methods can address certain other negative consequences of avocado farming tied to public health, soil quality, and biodiversity.
Suppliers can also lift a page from the larger soy, palm, and beef sectors, which have embraced products that are certified as “sustainable,” but such certification efforts aren’t easy to set up.
Another part of the solution emerged at the Paris climate talks, where companies like Unilever and Marks & Spencer pledged to source raw materials from states and countries that can prove they’ve slashed deforestation, regardless of which commodities are causing it. To overcome start-up costs, they embraced a program known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), which was embedded in the Paris Agreement and aims to slow deforestation by tapping carbon finance to promote sustainable agriculture.
Although often characterized as “paying people to not chop trees,” the acronym covers a diverse array of mechanisms that divert finance into activities designed to save forests – from actively patrolling them to helping farmers become more efficient in managing the land they have to jump-starting certification programs. Donors have committed nearly $6 billion to 10 key tropical forest countries – including Mexico – to fund REDD+ readiness efforts aimed at boosting the capacity of governments to more effectively manage their forests, with an eye toward achieving long-term sustainability.
“REDD+ donors are interested in providing the incentive for governments to prioritize what is, in many ways, in their long-term interest anyway: conserving their forests by directing intensified agricultural production to areas already degraded or under cultivation,” says Brian Schaap, a Senior Associate with Forest Trends.
In its climate action plan, Mexico explicitly mentioned using REDD+ to promote sustainable agriculture in agrarian and forest collectives known as ejidos, which are legally owned by communities and account for roughly 70 percent of the country’s forested land.
But while REDD+ can help finance sustainable forest management, it’s not a panacea that can protect against the effects of consumer demand, says Naomi Basik Treanor, Program Manager for Forest Trends’ Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance initiative.
“Sure, it’d be great if countries stepped up enforcement efforts and got rid of laws that contradict each other, and if consumers changed their spending habits,” she hypothesizes, “but a real solution would be demand-side policy that ensures only legally and sustainably sourced products make their way into consumer markets.”
These kinds of policies already apply to timber imports in the U.S., EU, and Australia, and some conservation groups are lobbying for similar laws to promote responsible agricultural supply chains.
Source: Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
“We want to focus on deforestation, but it’s only part of the problem,” says Nacho Simón, a Michoacán-based agricultural advisor with the group GAIA who teaches organic farming methods through workshops and courses across Latin America. He expresses concern over the long-term impact of herbicide residues in Michoacán’s porous volcanic soil, and cites high rates of anencephaly and leukemia in two of the state’s major avocado zones. Organic farms, which forego industrial herbicides in favor of natural inputs, account for only a small fraction of avocado cultivation in Michoacán – 7,000 to 8,000 of 130,000 total hectares, according to Simón.
And while Michoacán’s organic avocado orchards are reducing the volume of chemicals exposed to local groundwater, many are failing to achieve another one of GAIA’s tenets: biodiversity. As high avocado prices make monoculture increasingly lucrative, Simón says it’s been a challenge to persuade even organic farmers to continue cultivating a variety of crops – to promote beneficial biodiversity and, in the process, grow food for their families. In addition to the thousands of hectares of forests that have been cut down and converted to avocado orchards in the last 15 years, Simón says a growing numbers of farmers are switching from maize to avocado for export. He marvels at the paradox of having to buy conventional produce from Walmart because your land is devoted entirely to growing organic avocados. This, Simón says, perfectly illustrates la fiebre de aguacate – the avocado fever - that has taken hold of Michoacán’s agrarian sector.
One creative way to connect small farmers with distant markets is through tools like Putting Amazon Indigenous Producers on the Map, an interactive map developed by the Coordinating Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin (COICA), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), EcoDecisión, and Forest Trends with support from USAID.
Chris Meyer, Senior Manager of Amazon Forest Policy at EDF, says 150 producers have been mapped so far, with more additions coming every month. The new initiative has already helped connect the Uncommon Cacao group with Peruvian cooperative Kemito Ene, whose indigenous farmers are poised to earn up to 20 percent more income as a result of the agreement. Advocates say this is the kind of incentive that can help local communities continue practicing agriculture in a responsible, sustainable way, protecting surrounding forests in the process.
“There are a number of coffee and cacao producers and associations who have certifications that are ensuring sustainable production,” Meyer pointed out in an email. One prominent example is Runa, an ethical producer of a tea-like beverage derived from guayasa, which sources the Amazonian leaf from a co-operative of small, sustainable producers. Guayasa is a shade-grown shrub planted in biologically diverse “agroforestry” plots, alongside bananas and other crops, that thrives in a comfortable symbiosis with existing forests, rather than at their expense. Meyer concedes that guayasa doesn’t suffer from the same demand pull as avocado; still, Runa’s growing success suggests that consumers are hungry for “superfood” products that are sustainable – not just healthy.
See how initiatives like Cumari: From Rainforest to Table are trying to drum up extra recognition – and income – for Latin America’s forest stewards:
As for the interactive map, Meyer hopes it will help multiple actors – from consumers to restaurateurs to distributors – connect with sustainably produced Amazon ingredients. Another project taking the work out of identifying responsible small producers is Canopy Bridge, the non-profit whose website hosts the Amazon map. But its sourcing network includes sustainable producers located well north of the Amazon, including central Mexico, opening the door for avocado growers looking to stand out from the crowd by virtue of their environmentally friendly farming practices.
Back in Michoacán, the organic farming advocate Simón agreed that demand is the primary culprit.
“The biggest pressure is economic,” he says. “Because of the very high prices avocados bring, of course people are going crazy over them.”
Simon didn’t mince words when asked about new commitments from APEAM, the Mexican trade association, to double down on their reforestation initiative and work with the government and state university to develop limits on future expansion.
“It’s all purely political; this is political posturing,” he says. “If they had had the will to [take these steps], they would have done it 10 years ago.”
To date, Simon says the group’s reforestation efforts have been geared more toward publicity than meaningfully restoring carbon stocks.
“You’ll see 1,000 saplings planted along city streets, and meanwhile in the hills, where nobody sees, 10,000 enormous pines get felled,” he says. “It’s pure garbage.”
And then there are the notorious Mexican drug cartels, who, through a combination of extortion and violence, compel avocado farmers to maximize production.
“Not only do [these criminal enterprises] offer incentives to local communities that exceed those of their normal, legal income streams, but evidence from other countries shows they may exert considerable pressure on those who either refuse involvement with the trade or deny gangs their cut of the profits,” says Basik Treanor.
One Michoacán farmer, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, reported last week that an engineer working with avocado farmers was murdered just days prior, and says killings and kidnappings are a daily occurrence.
“Here, people live in a situation of terror,” he says.
While the slow wheels of policy and business practice turn, it’s up to consumers to make thoughtful and informed decisions – whether at the grocery store or at their favorite Tex-Mex chain. For now, the safest bet is to go easy on the guacamole. Michoacán’s forests will thank you for it.
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If we’re lucky, we spend somewhere around a third of our lives asleep.
“I just find it crazy,” dancer and choreographer Eliza Larson told The Huffington Post. “We have these complete other lives that we live while we’re sleeping and yet we can’t even remember them, or we remember them in different pieces.”
Thinking about sleep led the Portland, Oregon–based dancer to create “In Circadia” ― a five-section dance inspired by the stages of the sleep cycle.
“I’m not a scientist or a sleep researcher,” Larson said. “But I was inspired by the structure of the sleep cycle ― the brain waves and the different characteristics of each stage ― and used that to create the work.”
When complete, the piece is expected to be nearly an hour in length. And each section will abstractly mirror the various sleep stages, from falling asleep to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, Larson explained.
Larson and five other dancers previewed one section of the piece last month at a performance in Portland. And the premiere of the full piece is being planned for February.
Larson said she chose sleep as her inspiration for this project because sleep is something everyone does and everyone can relate to.
“It’s so natural and we take it for granted until something goes wrong, like insomnia or narcolepsy,” she said. Typically Larson said she doesn’t have too much trouble sleeping, but she has experienced temporary bouts of insomnia.
“When it does happen, it’s ― oh, god, it’s so awful,” she said. “I will be watching myself fall asleep and think it’s happening, it’s finally happening. But then witnessing myself falling asleep wakes me back up. And it’s this perpetual cycle.”
There’s this back and forth between familiar and unfamiliar territories.
Eliza Larson, dancer and choreographer
While “In Circadia” explores the phenomenon of experiencing insomnia through dance, it also explores the dream state.
“There’s something really pleasurable and hopeful for me about being in the dream state, where you continue to meet with people who aren’t around anymore or where you can fly ― all of these things that aren’t possible in real life,” she said.
“I wanted to explore that shared emotional state that we all inhabit,” she said. “You don’t get to choose what you’re dreaming about, but it’s influenced by our personal histories, past experiences and your daily life.”
The choreography is about translating those paradigms into dance, Larson said.
The movement itself oscillates back and forth between the known and the unknown ― some parts are completely choreographed and other parts are partially improvised. “There’s this back and forth between familiar and unfamiliar territories of the performers and also for the audience.”
Whether or not the work will help her audience sleep isn’t necessarily the goal, Larson said. But she did mention that she hasn’t struggled with insomnia herself since working on the piece ― and she’s also much more aware of her own dreams.
Watch a preview of the work below from last month’s performance.
Sarah DiGiulio is The Huffington Post’s sleep reporter. You can contact her at sarah.digiulio@huffingtonpost.com.
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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick said his socks depicting police officers as pigs are part of a personal protest against “rogue cops” who endanger their well-intentioned colleagues and the community.
Photos of Kaepernick wearing the socks surfaced Thursday, insulting law enforcement, stirring controversy and vaulting the quarterback back into the news. Kaepernick had another front-page moment last week, when he decided to exercise his First Amendment rights and protest the national anthem during a preseason game.
But are Kaepernick’s socks worse ― or even on the same level ― as an NFL team with a racist name?
“Redskins” is a disparaging term used for Native Americans. Washington, D.C.’s, NFL team has been under pressure to change the team’s name and logo to something less offensive for years. Studies have shown that the team’s mascot may encourage racial hostility toward Native Americans.
Native Americans are killed by police at high rates relative to their numbers. They make up around 0.8 percent of the U.S. population. But they account for 1.9 percent of people killed by police, according to an analysis by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
Kaepernick responded to criticism of his socks in an Instagram post on Thursday.
“I wore these socks, in the past, because the rogue cops that are allowed to hold positions in police departments, not only put the community in danger, but also put the cops that have the right intentions in danger by creating an environment of tension and mistrust,” he wrote.
The focus on Kaepernick’s socks ― just like the focus on whether his national anthem comments offended veterans ― is a diversion from the fact that the quarterback is calling attention to systemic injustices faced by all people of color in America.
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Delightfully strange and elegantly mysterious, the work of Christophe Piallat sucks you into another world. When entering a Piallat-decorated atmosphere, one may feel a few different things: You may believe that you have traveled deeper into outer space than any human before. You may begin to feel that you took an alternative route and wound up inside of a geode or a diamond crusted cave. You also may realize that you are in Pasadena, California, inside of an old See’s Candies store attached to a record shop that was taken over and replaced with a mesmerizing art exhibition.
If you are experiencing the latter, you have wound up in a good place. You are now at Christophe Piallat’s ongoing, evolving exhibition, What Lies Inside, Stays Inside. What Lies Inside, Stays Inside is Piallat’s first exhibition in Los Angeles, where he currently lives. Right off the bat, Piallat knew he wanted to use a storefront with a big display window, rather than a typical gallery. The show’s title plays on this a bit, embodying the idea of a facade and exterior, as well as creating a memo for viewers in regard to Piallat’s installation structure.
“My work reshapes light and the infrastructure spatially considers a 360 degree frame of reference. Whether it’s foil, paper or plastic, the exterior of my installations is what a viewer sees. What’s inside, you will never see. Much of that is where the title comes from. The underlying notion of a facade is the other side of things. It’s a reflection on what we see of people in contrast to what we should see, what’s underneath.”
Piallat works with common household materials, such as aluminum foil (which he obviously buys at Costco), butcher paper, plastic, wood and lights. Some of the magic comes from the way light is reordered and bounced from piece to piece, creating this mystical realm. However, the technical side of magic shines when it’s realized that these bold structures are made from the most typical materials that can often be found in the trash or the cupboards of most homes. The result of his effort is towering, organic artwork that’s mysterious in a very welcoming sense, like each piece encourages the viewer to get as close as possible without breaking the universal rule of touching art. What Lies Inside, Stays Inside is an evolving exhibition. Piallat modifies the exhibition slowly each day, resulting in a show that can be seen differently every time you pass it. Adjustments include but are not limited to, a chrome mannequin, tentacle-like scarves of lights and plastic and a manipulated shelving unit. Because of such a successful opening night and reception, Piallat extended the exhibition to run until October 25th, rather than mid-summer. The inside of the space next to Canterbury Records holds a mesmerizing display of unlimited creativity. But it’s the idea of a corner storefront that makes viewing What Lies Inside, Stays Inside an experience that begins the moment you see the window display, even from feet away.
While What Lies Inside, Stays Inside continues to morph and remain a focus, Piallat is also preparing for the fall Lumina Light Festival in Cascais, Portugal.
“I look at myself almost as a professional athlete training for the Olympics. I have 10 days to build five huge installations with paper and light, inside a Cathedral. And I need to sharpen my skills and get my body in shape and be able to adapt to any engineering situation, any creative situation. This is a way to train for that and also have a gallery with a running show. I love the idea of it constantly evolving and I love when people walk in from the street and express their curiosity as to what is happening right in the middle of Pasadena. They say, ‘What are u doing? What is this?’ and I love the conversations that start that way. When they step inside, their curiosity takes on a whole new shape. I’m always looking forward to that.”
You can learn more about Christophe Piallat and What Lies Inside, Stays Inside by visiting his website christophepiallat.com.
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Photo: Ópera Lucia di Lammermoor © Teatro del Bicentenario – Fotografía Arturo Lavín
A tremendous love and admiration for Italian music and opera is one of the lesser-publicized aspects of the Mexican culture. Each year there are productions across Mexico and the well-informed audiences tend to respond with great enthusiasm. So, it is no surprise that you would find a world-class opera production like Lucia di Lammermoor being performed at a theatre in Central Mexico.
The rich tradition of opera in Mexico is due in part to appearances by such legendary singers as Maria Callas, who sang at the lovely Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in the early 1950’s. The opera career of the Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo is inextricably tied to Mexico, as his parents brought him there when he was quite young and exposed him to music during his youth. In what is generally considered to be his operatic debut, he sang the minor role of Borsa in Verdi’s Rigoletto on September 23rd, 1959 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. His stellar international career took off from that modest beginning with appearances at the preeminent theatres world-wide, including in Mexico. Domingo first interpreted the role of Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca in a 1961 performance in Mexico City [1] .
While the capital city figures prominently in the Arts, there are diverse venues for opera in Mexico, including the relatively new Teatro del Bicentenario in Central Mexico. The theatre was established on the occasion of Mexico’s Bicentennial in 2010 and has consistently offered high-quality theatre, dance, music and opera productions since its inception. The Director, Alonso Escalante came to the Teatro del Bicentenario on the heels of a stellar career as the Director at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. His artistic vision integrates perfectly with the conceptual underpinnings of the theatre as a beacon for the arts in Central Mexico. In an interview, he articulated that it is not just a matter of presenting high quality productions, but it is also important to strike a careful balance between the traditional and the contemporary in order to appeal to a wider audience.
Every year they have presented opera productions, especially Italian operas, with an ensemble cast featuring both local Mexican as well as international artists. The list of works includes Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Puccini’s La bohème, and Verdi’s La Traviata, among others. Earlier this year they opened the 2016 opera season with a production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
Photo courtesy of Teatro del Bicentenario
The brand new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor just closed. It featured Spanish soprano María José Moreno and Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas in the lead roles. Ramon Vargas had his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York when he substituted for Luciano Pavarotti in the role of Edgar, which he has continued to interpret often. These protagonists were joined by José Adan Perez(Enrico), the Mexican Baritone who performs frequently in the United States, along with the Bass José Luis Reynoso (Raimondo Bidebent), Tenors Edgar Villaba (Lord Arthur Bucklaw) and Gilberto Amaro (Normanno), and Mezzo-soprano Melissa Reuter (Alisa). The Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro del Bicentenario was under the musical direction of the Serbian director Srba Dinic.
Later this year in November the theatre will present Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Besides the regular schedule of events, the Teatro del Bicentenario participates in the Cervantino Festival, dedicated to the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, which has grown steadily in popularity over the years and is now a well-established phenomenon involving artists from around the world. This year, there are several Italian music events including the Intermezzo Don Chisciotte by Giovanni Battista Martini and the Sabat Mater by Gioacchino Rossini on the program for the festival.
As part of any visit to Mexico that includes a stop-over in the lovely state of Guanajuato, it appears there will be plenty of opportunity to catch some great productions of Italian classical music and opera.
[1] Domingo 1983, p. 322
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