According to Northwestern University’s Roger Schank, the Internet is the greatest invention of the past two millennia. He says it will do away with, among other things, shopping malls and newspapers. “Life (and human interaction) in fifty years will be so different we will hardly recognize the social structures that will evolve,” he writes on-line (“What Is the Most Important Invention in the Past Two Thousand Years?” at www.edge.org/ documents/Invention.html). “I don’t know if we will be happier, but we will be better informed.” Well, that’s all I wanted.
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“Never before in the history of the world has such a rapid and large-scale revolution occurred in a nation’s food supply,” writes Peter Montague of genetic engineering in “Rachel’s Environment & Health Weekly” (February 11). “Today Pillsbury food products are made from genetically engineered crops. Other foods that are now genetically engineered include [ingredients of] Crisco; Kraft salad dressings; Nestle’s chocolate; Green Giant harvest burgers; Parkay margarine; Isomil and ProSobee infant formulas; and Wesson vegetable oils. Fritos, Doritos, Tostitos and Ruffles Chips–and french fried potatoes sold by McDonald’s–are genetically engineered. By next year, if Monsanto’s plans develop on schedule–and there is no reason to think they won’t–100% of the U.S. soybean crop will be genetically engineered. Eighty percent of all the vegetable oils in American foods are derived from soybeans, so most foods that contain vegetable oils will contain genetically engineered components by next year or the year after.”
Gulp your food. “Don’t nurse your coffee or pick at that doughnut throughout the morning,” advises the Chicago-based Academy of General Dentistry in “Dental-notes” (February). “When you eat your doughnut quickly, it limits the exposure time to the sugar bacteria attack.”
