Day: July 21, 2015

NASA satellite provides breathtaking new view of Earth

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Click to enlarge

NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has returned a breathtaking image of planet Earth from a distance of roughly one million miles from the homeworld. The image captures the full disk of our planet showing a stunning sunbathed vista of blue oceans and swirling clouds, with glimpses of the North and Central America land masses.

Thanks to the proliferation of Earth observation platforms coupled with the all-pervading reach of social media, images of our planet from space are easy to come by. However, most Earth imaging observatories are too close to the planet to capture a complete picture of the complex ecosystem that we call home…

DSCOVR…having reached its planned orbit in February, is capable of snapping regular high detail portraits of spaceship Earth from a staggering 1 million miles above its surface. This new image is a near perfect example of DSCOVR’s capabilities, displaying Earth hanging against the infinite blackness of space, granting a notion of the fragility of our planet, with a beauty to rival any image of Earth’s full disk taken to date…

The image was captured from the orbiter’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), which boasts the capacity to observe our planet with the use of 10 narrowband filters between the ultraviolet to near infrared spectrums. In this case, three separate images were combined to create a finished piece with near photographic-quality.

My new favorite Blue Marble photograph.

Fewer than 15% of US adults eat enough fruits and vegetables

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A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most adults in the US consume fewer fruits and vegetables than recommended by the federal government…According to the report, less than 15% of US citizens met their recommended fruit intake, and 8.9% met vegetable recommendations in 2013.

Adults who engage in less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each day should consume between 1.5 and two cups of fruit and two to three cups of vegetables daily, according to federal recommendations.

Fruit and vegetable intake was lowest in the south. In Tennessee, just 7.5% of citizens met the fruit intake recommendation, and in Mississippi, 5.5% of adults ate the recommended portion of vegetables. The highest percentages were in California, where 17.7% of adults consumed the recommended portion of fruit.

The study’s lead author, Latetia V Moore of the…CDC, said the low numbers were tied to socioeconomic factors, as well as convenience…“It has to do with convenience, affordability, palatability,” Moore said. “It’s making sure fruits and vegetables are conveniently priced and convenient to access.”

How about intellectual laziness?

Moore and the report’s co-authors studied data from the…survey of 373,580 people across all 50 states and Washington DC. The survey asked people about the frequency of their fruit and vegetable intake, and took personal characteristics such as ethnicity, age and income into account.

Researchers compared survey results with recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which measured intake by number of cups rather than frequency…

Fruit and vegetable intake can be tied to heart disease and stroke. The study was focused on American adults, but Moore said she is starting to see a shift toward incorporating healthier foods into children’s diets.

I don’t care what the motivation may be. Changing your diet, upgrading to thoughtful, up-to-date nutritional standards ain’t expensive or difficult. Costs increase if you try to move to a completely organic diet plus availability is more likely to be a problem in some communities. But, do some reading online, folks. There’s a great deal of commercially-produced fruit and veggies that haven’t any notable risk associated with “conventional” foodstuffs.

My experience is that many thoughtful market chains that carry both also take a great deal of care with the quality and safety of that so-called conventional food.