The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is not happy with Scholastic. They are asking everyone concerned to send a message: Stop the in-school SunnyD sugar spree. The problem stems from how SunnyD is said to raise funds by using social engineering tactics.

Sweetened by high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), an 8-ounce serving of SunnyD contains a whopping 20 grams of sugar. Its orange hue comes from Yellow #5 and Yellow #6, two artificial colors that contain known carcinogens and can cause allergies and hyperactivity in children. But that’s not stopping Scholastic from partnering with SunnyD to market beverages laden with HFCS to a captive audience of schoolchildren in preschool and elementary classrooms around the country. As part of the “SunnyD Book Spree,” students are asked to collect SunnyD labels and teachers are encouraged to throw SunnyD parties in their classrooms — in exchange for 20 free Scholastic books.

SunnyD could instead sell their product directly to consumers with a note that they will donate a portion of profit for books. This makes sense as a direct manufacturer-to-consumer relationship. However, a product relationship proxied through a captive audience of school children “ambassadors” is suspicious. A company can donate funds and materials directly if they choose this as their mission; children in a classroom should not be made to promote products as a kind of indenture.

It sounds to me as though SunnyD does not believe their product is able to sell on its own merits so they are trying to use pull sympathy for kids into the equation, or they just hope to get children hooked on their product. Either way they are using an attack path to exploit consumer vulnerabilities through social engineering tactics. It is not only bad for the health of the market but also the health of children.

The slow food movement, which prizes quality over quantities, has managed to help save the Pie Noir cow from extinction, as reported in Deutsche Welle:

“The milk was not paid for its quality, but for its quantity and the Frisian [breed of cow] produced most milk, so it was most interesting,” [Jacques Cochy, a modern-day Pie Noir breeder] said.

By the 1970s, the Brittany cows’ numbers had plummeted from the half-a-million of its heyday to a mere 350 specimens, and the breed was on the verge of extinction.

The article points out the Pie Noir not only produces the most flavor in its milk but also is easier to manage — less susceptible to environmental risks (happy in rugged pasture and easy to breed with a high birth-survival rate).

“But people didn’t want to see this when they chose to eliminate it,” said another Pie Noir breeder, Vincent Thebaud, who owns 15 of the cows. “The problem with modern society is, when we decide to get rid of something, we only talk about its defects.”

Thebaud is one of the farmers who benefited from a special protection program set up in 1976, the first dedicated to a breed of cattle in France.

Despite being hardy and flavorful, industrialization and a focus on improving quantity left the Pie Noir vulnerable. Regulation by France helped stimulate preservation until their qualities became valued by the market again.

More detail can be found on Ouest-France about the birth of the slow food movement in Italy and the “little or no corn diet” of the Pie Noir:

I have read about various ideas that are supposed to prevent chewing gum from sticking to sidewalks. I also have written about the damage costs and innovation related to gum removal (back in 2006).

The problem of chewing gum is a fascinating one. How much damage is really done? Who is liable? Manufacturers? Spitters? Who should pay for cleanup?

This new video by the BBC has to be the oddest angle I have seen on the subject: Artists can recycle chewing gum spots by turning them into a miniature street canvas for painting.

An artist is making the streets of London a little more colourful by painting miniature pictures on pieces of discarded chewing gum.

For the past six years, Ben Wilson has spent days on end scouring pavements for discarded gum that he can bring to life.

Mr Wilson has created more than 8,000 works of art this way – each one photographed and catalogued for his archive. A picture can take anything from two hours to three days to complete.

As well as producing his own compositions he takes commissions from members of the public. The Royal Society of Chemistry recently asked him to paint depictions of each of the 118 known elements.

His work has even made him a minor celebrity in South Korea after he appeared on television there.

BBC News spent a day on the streets with Mr Wilson to see how he creates his miniature masterpieces.

His work is very sincere and heartfelt imagery, very unlike Banksy’s infamous style. I wonder if this, like Banksy, will spawn imitators to the point where people will spit out even more gum to increase the size of their canvas. It can be a lot to chew on.

The Telegraph in Calcutta India explains why coconuts are chopped down in advance of a Presidential visit

The hardy coconut has made the hallowed list of VIP-unfriendly arsenal that was so far filled with shoes, bricks, pies, tomatoes and rotten eggs.

Coconut trees outside Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi used to stay and where Barack Obama will go this weekend, have been “disarmed” to avoid the possibility of the tough nuts falling on the head of some dignitary.

Sounds nuts to me. Additional measures include shutting down a popular kebab restaurant. Perhaps it might upset a dignitary’s digestion?