Processed Foods and Food Packaging Already Contain Nanoparticles - Some of Which Could Be Harmful to Our Health

Our food supply is not nearly as safety-tested as we would like to believe. True, things are not as dire as they were in the early 20th century when Upton Sinclair's The Jungle exposed the filth of the meatpacking industry, leading to reforms that included the founding of an agency that would become the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

But there are still unsettling gaps in what we know about the food and food packaging that is already sitting on supermarket shelves.

Unbeknownst to just about everyone, nanoparticles made a quiet entrance into the nation's food supply at least a decade ago.

Nanoparticles are materials that are microscopic - significantly smaller than a red blood cell; and tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. These particles can help deliver nutrients, ensure longer freshness of food, act as thickening agents or enhance taste or flavor.

The problem is, scientists are still determining the health and environmental impact of these tiny particles, even as industry is forging ahead.

At: https://www.sott.net/article/254698-Eating-Nano-Nanotechnology-is-thriving-along-entire-food-chain

A partial list of popular processed snacks containing nanotitanium.

"FDA does not maintain a list of food products that contain nanomaterials," agency spokesperson Sebastian Cianci recently admitted, "so we cannot reliably answer this question."

The man who gave reggae its name and helped make it an international movement, Toots Hibbert, born Frederick Nathaniel Hibbert, has died at age 77.

Hibbert, one of the genre's founders and most beloved stars, was known for classics including “Pressure Drop,” “Monkey Man” and "Funky Kingston." He claimed to have named reggae on his song "Do The Reggay," which was released in 1968, according to the BBC.

The frontman of Toots & the Maytals, whose nickname "Toots" came from childhood, had been in a medically-induced coma at a hospital in Kingston since earlier this month.

He was admitted in intensive care after complaints of having breathing difficulties according to his publicist. It was revealed in local media that the singer was awaiting results from a COVID-19 test after showing symptoms.

At: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/09/12/toots-hibbert-one-reggaes-founders-has-died-77/5778258002/

Toots Hibbert, 1942-2020

he pleasures of a well-cooked meal or loving sexual intercourse are "divine" and have unjustly fallen victim to "overzealousness" on the part of the Church in the past, Pope Francis says in a book of interviews published Wednesday.

"Pleasure arrives directly from God, it is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor anything else, it is simply divine," Francis told Italian writer and gourmet Carlo Petrini.

"The Church has condemned inhuman, brutish, vulgar pleasure; but has on the other hand always accepted human, simple, moral pleasure," he added.

The Argentine-born Francis, 83, said that there was no place for an "overzealous morality" that denies pleasure, something he admitted existed in the Church in the past but insisted is "a wrong interpretation of the Christian message."

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/world/pleasures-of-food-and-sex-simply-divine-says-pope-francis.phtml

Pope Francis shares a meal in Bologna, Italy, earlier this year.

"The pleasure of eating is there to keep you healthy by eating, just like sexual pleasure is there to make love more beautiful and guarantee the perpetuation of the species," the pope said.

Global ratings agency S&P upgraded Argentina's long-term sovereign credit rating on Monday, pulling it out of default territory after the South American country successfully restructured over $100 billion in sovereign debt.

"This important step forward provides the opportunity for the government to articulate a broader plan to tackle various post-pandemic macroeconomic challenges," S&P said.

Argentina has over the last week restructured around $65 billion in foreign bonds and over $41 billion in foreign currency debt issued under local law - a big win for the country that has been mired in recession and default.

Argentina now has to turn its attentions to negotiating a new deal with the IMF to replace a failed $57 billion credit facility taken on by former President Mauricio Macri in 2018 (of which $45 billion was borrowed) and to hold talks with the Paris Club groups of lenders.

The nation is also facing its third straight year of recession with forecasts for a 12% contraction this year.

At: https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2020-09-07/s-p-raises-argentinas-long-term-foreign-currency-rating-to-ccc

Argentine President Alberto Fernández speaks during the opening of a new beer plant south of Buenos Aires - part of an ongoing recovery from the record contraction seen in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in March and April.

Fernández's refinancing efforts allowed S&P to lift its default rating on Argentine bonds a year after former President Mauricio Macri defaulted on some of the nation's $325 billion public debt - including peso-denominated debt, in a historic first for the debt-strapped nation.

Source: KHOU

Jacob Blake has spoken publicly for the first time since a Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer shot him seven times in the back, saying he's in constant pain from the shooting, which doctors fear will leave him paralyzed from the waist down.

In a video posted Saturday night on Twitter by his family's lawyer, Ben Crump, Blake said from his hospital bed that, "Twenty-four hours, every 24 hours it's pain, nothing but pain. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side-to-side, it hurts to eat."

Blake, a 29-year-old father of six, also said he has staples in his back and stomach.

"Your life, and not only just your life, your legs, something you need to move around and forward in life, can be taken from you like this," Blake said, snapping his fingers.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/nation-world/jacob-blake-twitter-video-from-hospital/507-48403543-7b84-47ed-84ea-e5abdda0876b

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Kenosha, WI, police shooting victim Jacob Blake: "Stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out there, man, because there's so much time that's been wasted."

Pope Francis held his first weekly general audience in public in six months on Wednesday, smiling and chatting with some of the crowd as they pressed forward to greet him.

The audience, at which the pope announced a day of prayer and fasting for Lebanon, was held in the San Damaso courtyard of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Nearly everyone among the audience of 500 or so wore masks and sat in seats arranged to ensure social distancing.

"After so many months, we resume our encounters face to face and not screen to screen, face to face, and this is beautiful," he said to applause at the start of the audience.

The pope last held an audience with a public crowd in early March.

At: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-all-smiles-at-first-public-audience-in-six-months-prays-for-lebanon/ar-BB18CI2y

Pope Francis prays for Lebanon during today's public audience at the Vatican's San Damaso courtyard - the first in six months.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday pledged to publish draft legislation for a new Scottish independence referendum, including the question and timing of the vote, before the country’s parliamentary election next year.

Sturgeon, who heads Edinburgh’s pro-independence devolved government, put on hold plans for a second referendum in March to concentrate on the coronavirus crisis.

However, the most sustained support for Scottish independence in the modern era has prompted nationalists to renew their push for another vote.

In a 2014 referendum on independence, Scots voted 55%-45% to stay in the United Kingdom.

At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-scotland-independence/scottish-nationalists-announce-plans-for-new-independence-referendum-idUSKBN25S5SX

Demonstrators march in support of Scottish independence in Glasgow in 2018.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged to publish draft legislation for a new Scottish independence referendum; an earlier one in 2014 failed by a wider than expected margin.