For globetrotting travelers, it’s easy to recognize a spectacular city. They are energetic, diverse destinations intent on preserving local heritage, revitalizing undervalued neighborhoods, and they possess distinct personalities that set them apart from other metropolises.

Whether it’s the city you’ve called home for years or one you only just stumbled upon during your travels, you know that the best cities are intriguing cultural centers that can’t be replicated anywhere else.

Kyoto, in Japan, returned for the second year in a row to the No. 1 spot on our World’s Best list. Readers called it the quintessential Japanese experience, offering visitors everything from history (in the form of spiritual shrines) to notable cuisine (shojin ryori) and encounters with the famed Geisha dancers.

Some of the world’s best cities evoke the romanticism of travel, such as Italy’s classic crowd-pleasers, Florence and Rome. Both have appeared on the Top 10 Overall list for ten consecutive years.

Perhaps most evident, however, are the cities that appeared on the list despite political and social turmoil. Charleston, South Carolina—the only domestic city on the overall list—has suffered greatly since the polls closed. And Jerusalem, the controversial capital of Israel, is at the crux of an ancient and ongoing conflict. Bangkok was likely bumped from the list in 2012 due to governmental unrest.

Because cities are, in many ways, a great convergence of people and ideas, it is inevitable that conflicts will arise. So we keep these cities, and their people, in our thoughts, while we celebrate their resilience and their virtues.

Where did your favorite city rank, and which ones should you put on your travel bucket list? These are the most dynamic, beloved cities across the globe.

Available at: www.travelandleisure.com by Melanie Lieberman (accessed on July 23rd, 2015)

[1] I am a child of the Americas,

A light-skinned mestiza of the Caribbean,

A child of many diaspora, born into this continent at a crossroads.

I am a U.S.Puerto Rican Jew,

[5] A product of the getthos of New York I have never known.

An immigrant and the daughter and the granddraughter of immigrants.

I speak English with passion: it’s the tongue of my consciousness,

A flashing knife blade, my tool, my craft.

I am a Caribeña, island grown, Spanish is in my flesh,

[10] Ripples from my tongue, lodges in my hips:

The language of garlic and mangoes,

The singing in my poetry, the flying gestures of my hands.

I am of Latinoamerica, rooted in the history of my continent:

I speak from that body.

[15] I am not African. Africa is in me, but I cannot return.

I am not taína. Taíno is in me, but there is no way back.

I am not European. Europe lives in me, but I have no home there.

I am new. History made me. My first language was spanglish.

I was born at the crossroads

[20] And I am whole.

N.R.: Taínos were the Indian tribe indigenous to Puerto Rico

But those are no longer his goals, if they ever really were.
[10] Look at the world form his perspective, and Mr. Putin is
winning. He remains the Kremlin´s undisputed master. He has
a throttlehold on Ukraine and domesticating Ukraine through
his routine tactics of threats and bribery was his first
preference, but the invasion has had its benefits. It has
[15] demonstrated the costs of insubordination to Russians. The
conflict has usefully shown who is boss in Russia. Best of all,
discord has been sown among Mr. Putin´s adversaries: among
Europeans and between them and America.

His aim is to divide and neuter that alliance. From his
[20] tantrums over the Middle East to his invasion of Georgia and
Ukraine, Mr. Putin has sometimes seemed to stumble into
accidental disputes with the West, driven by a paranoid fear of
encirclement. In hindsight it seems that, given his outlook,
confrontation may have been inevitable. Either way, the
[25] contest he insists on cannot be dodged. It did not begin in poor
Ukraine and will not end there. Prevailing will require far more
resolve than Western leaders have so far mustered.
(from The Economist, February 14^th, 2015.)

Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism. Currently available GM foods stem mostly from plants, but in the future foods derived from GM microorganisms or GM animals are likely to be introduced on the market. Most existing genetically modified crops have been developed to improve yield, through the introduction of resistance toplant diseases or of increased tolerance of herbicides.

In the future, genetic modification could be aimed at altering the nutrient content of food, reducing its allergenic potential, or improving the efficiency of food production systems. All GM foods should be assessed before being allowed on the market. FAO/WHO Codex guidelines exist for risk analysis of GM food.

OBESITY
Is it a disease or a lifestyle problem?

Obesity is a serious health problem in the United States and increasingly around the world. Costs and associated diseases continue to increase. Recent studies into the causes of obesity indicate that the problem is more complex, and may have less to do with “willpower” and other such issues, than previously thought. Many obesity experts hope this research will help physicians and others rethink the way they understand and treat the problem. Skeptics, however, continue to blame inactivity and overeating for obesity. While the World Health Organization (WHO) and others call for a reduction in sugar consumption to combat obesity, the food industry says it is being unfairly targeted.
The planet’s population is getting fatter. Once a problem largely confined to high-income regions, overweight and obesity are on the rise in low- and middle-income countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has more than doubled worldwide since 1980. In 2014 more than 1.9 billion adults (39 percent of Earth’s adult population) were overweight. That includes 600 million who were obese.
Among children, overweight and obesity are increasing more than 30 percent faster in lower-and middle-income countries than in developed countries. In 2013, 42 million children under the age of 5 worldwide were overweight or obese.
Disponível em: http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqr_ht_o besity_2015. Acessado em 15 de outubro de 2015.

Feed Additive Squelches Ruminants' Methane Belches.

The global population is now nearly seven and a half billion. And that’s just humans. Because our planet is also home to one-and-a-half-billion cows, another billion sheep, and a billion goats. Their combined belches account for a full fifth of the world's methane emissions—and methane is about 30 times more potent at trapping heat than CO2.

But those methane emissions might get cut—by feeding the grazers something called 3-nitrooxypropanol. "I can tell you, they like it. No rejection at all." Maik Kindermann, an organic chemist at DSM Nutritional Products in Switzerland. Liking it, in the cow world, he says basically means they'll still gobble up their food, even with this stuff mixed in.

Kindermann's company developed the additive a few years back. It jams up an enzyme crucial to the production of methane by bacteria that live inside the animals. And it slashes the number of those methane-belching bacteria, while leaving the rest of the microbiome intact. The result? A 30 percent decrease in methane emissions.

Kindermann says he thinks the compound could be a winwin for the planet—and the animals. "You know the methane is kind of a waste product. And this energy, instead of losing it for the animal, it can be reused for the animal in terms of performance, and at the same time we are doing something for greenhouse gas emission and climate change." The product’s not on the market yet—toxicology tests are ongoing. But the hope is that it might take some of the heat off of beef.
Disponível em:http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/feed-additivesquelches-ruminants-methane-belches/ Acessado em 5 de maio de 2016.

“The judge, or SuperMoro as he is being referred to by Brazilians, has reignited the flames of a former Brazilian tradition: lynching,” one critic, Eliane Brum, wrote in a newspaper commentary.

Legal scholars say Mr. Moro belongs to a new generation of worldly, well-educated judges and lawyers who came of age during the post-dictatorship period, view themselves as beholden to no politician, and enjoy career protections that empower them to act without fear of reprisal.

A formative lesson for Mr. Moro and others of his generation was Italy’s Clean Hands Operation of the early 1990s, in which a nationwide corruption probe involving thousands of public figures resulted in a massive political purge.

Whatever lies ahead in Brazil’s turbulent political season, Mr. Moro’s colleagues don’t expect him to give in.

“He is not influenced by criticism,” said a person close to Mr. Moro. “It is like he wears a suit of armor. He is undisturbed.”