How the Soda Tax Hits Home

Whether a tax on soda measurably improves health has been a hot debate for years, but a global public health organization is enlisting the aid of a young Mexican woman—an aspiring singer—to help humanize the challenges.

Verónica Patricia Ruizvera has battled with weight her whole life, and she’s not alone. Seventy percent of Mexican adults are overweight or obese—one of the highest numbers in the world. Her father has severe complications from diabetes, brought on by high blood sugar levels. In fact, diabetes affects 14 percent of the Mexican population.

As she slowly takes the stage in the video, "The Taste of Change," you can see her struggle, but you can also see her spark. “I don’t like getting tired at my age. It frustrates me. I’m 24 and I get so tired. I don’t want this. I want to go out, jump, run … Life right?”

Her fears and aspirations are woven into a story of how the world’s first large-scale soda tax, passed by the country in 2013, appears to be moving the needle towards reduced consumption and, public health officials say, fewer cases of diabetes.

In late 2014, a study by the University of North Carolina and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico (INSP) demonstrated a six percent reduction per capita of soda drinking in the country. It jumped to 12 percent at the end of that year. Simón Barquera, director of nutrition policy research at INSP, says the impact may be even higher as the 10-percent soda cost increase particularly affects the buying habits of heavy soda users, who tend to be in the lowest-income bracket.

For its part, the soda industry has opposed increased taxes, saying soda is a small part of daily calories and cosumers will only seek other calorific drinks. Of note, the Wall Street Journal reports Mexico’s soda consumption inched back up this summer as public health campaigns have quieted down. But the industry is under increasing pressure as cities like Philadelphia and countries like India, South Africa and the Philipines look to follow Mexico’s model.

But Ruizvera’s is not just the story of a tax, or an attack on soda. It’s the story of how many complex factors need to come together to change food habits.

“There are a lot of contributors to obesity and diabetes—not just soda—but it’s low-hanging fruit because there’s no other [nutritional] value,” says Mats Junek, regional director of the Americas at NCDFREE, an Australian-based group that advocates for solutions to non-communicable diseases.

The problem of obesity and related diseases may seem overwhelming. “But there are changes you can make," Junek says. "This inspires us to say we can actually reach for better."

measurably 可测地，某种程度上
aspiring 有抱负的
humanize 变得人性化
obese 肥胖
severe 严厉的，苛刻的
complication 复杂，并发症
diabetes 糖尿病
bring on 引发
takes the stage 成为受关注的焦点
frustrate 挫败
weave woven 编织
move the needle 明显地改变方针
demonstrate 论证
capita 人物，头，个体
bracket 括号，阶层
of note　值得注意的是
obesity 肥胖
low-hanging fruit  可轻易实现的目标
advocate 提倡
communicable 会传染的

Know Before You Go: Greenland

The world’s largest island may be the most overlooked destination in North America. Peeking down at the ice cap during so many transatlantic flights piqued my own curiosity and led to my first visit in late summer. I fell in love with the never ending mountains and gargantuan fjords, the rare purity of sea and sky, and the unfiltered Inuit culture, alive and flourishing in the 21st century.

I returned in deepest winter and found a shimmering world of white, where polar bears roam the horizon and nighttime glows with auroras. Still considered terra incognita by mainstream tourists, Greenland thrills adventure seekers who like laying first tracks in the snow. Here is what you need to know:

Pack: Dress warmly and stay dry, which means bring solid base layers, something woolly, and an outer shell to resist wind and water. Heavy insulated boots are a must, along with gloves, hats, and scarves. In summer, hope for the best but pack for the worst (think cold, wet, and windy), and don’t forget sunglasses and sunblock.

Sleep: Inuit hospitality and Scandinavian customs mean cozy, comfortable hotels. A parade of icebergs flows past the panoramic decks of Hotel Arctic, overlooking Ilulissat’s famous ice fjord (book a private igloo for intimate skylight views of the northern lights). Hotel Sisimiut makes a great base for year-round adventure activities, while Hotel Angmagssalik sets you right at the edge of the eternal ice sheet. For longer stays, check out Greenland’s spotless and affordable youth hostels.

Featured National Geographic Trip

Check Out Our Trips to North America
Eat: Fresh seafood and wild game set Greenland’s unique culinary scene. Must-tries are reindeer, musk ox, snow crab, and halibut. Whale meat (and blubber) are still common, along with tender native lamb dressed with arctic herbs. Get a taste for Greenland’s home-baked tradition at a kaffemik, where friends gather in a home for a smorgasbord of cakes and rich coffee.

Explore: Greenland favors supersize outdoor adventures such as dogsledding on ice and multiday kayak trips. Strap on snowshoes, straddle a snowmobile, or hop into a helicopter to gaze at the natural grandeur. Hunting, fishing, and camping trips are popular—organized hikes tend to focus on the southern and western coasts. For even greater isolation, visit the colossal coastline of East Greenland—an ideal spot for expedition cruising and glimpsing polar bears.

Buy: Greenlandic crafts reflect the beauty of Inuit design and life in the Arctic. Woolen fashion, bone jewelry, and local gold make one-of-a-kind keepsakes. Hand-knit beaded wrist warmers are popular, while carved tupilaq showcase ancient folklore. (Note that reindeer bone is legal for export, but only certain species of whale bone are and they must be accompanied by a CITES certificate.)

Ski: Cross-country or backcountry, Greenland has more snow and terrain than you can ski in a lifetime. Hut-to-hut tours offer a cozy refuge for the casual skier, while more intense adventurers can attempt a full transit across the ice sheet. Heli-skiing drops extreme skiers onto some of the remotest, fairy-tale peaks for that unmistakable rush of flying down virgin slopes.



overlook 鸟瞰，忽视
peek 偷看，一瞥
transatlantic 横断大西洋的
pique 是愤怒，使好奇
gargantuan 巨大的
fjord 峡湾
unfiltered 未过滤的
Inuit 因纽特
shimmer 闪闪发光
glow 燃烧，脸红
aurora 极光
terra incognita 未知领域
thrill 使激动
sunblock 防晒霜
cozy 舒适的
iceberg 冰山
panoramic 全景的
igloo 雪块砌成的圆顶小屋
intimate 亲密的，私人的
eternal 永久的
spotless 洁白的，无垢的
culinary 厨房的，料理的
halibut 大比目鱼
blubber 鲸油；哭诉
smorgasbord 自助餐
strap 用皮带捆
straddle 跨坐
grandeur 雄伟
colossal 巨大的
glimpse 瞥见
beaded 珠状的
showcase 玻璃柜台
folklore 民俗
remotest 遥远的

The Autumn Equinox Is Almost Here—What You Need to Know

As the midday sun begins to sink lower and nights get noticeably longer, it can only mean the reign of summer is coming to an end for the northern half of the world. The autumn equinox arrives at 10:21 a.m. ET (2:20 p.m. UTC) on September 22, officially marking the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

The word “equinox” comes from Latin and means “equal night,” referring to the roughly 12-hour day and night that occurs only on the two equinox days of the year.

This tidy split in our 24-hour day is linked to the reason Earth has seasons in the first place. The planet spins on an axis that is tilted 23.5 degrees with respect to its orbital plane. That means as Earth travels along its 365-day orbit, different hemispheres tilt closer to or farther from our sun’s warming rays.

An equinox is a geometrical alignment between the sun and Earth in which the sun appears positioned right above our planet’s equator. On these days, both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres experience roughly equal amounts of sunshine. It’s also only on the spring and autumn equinoxes that the sun rises due east and sets due west.

As we head toward December, the Northern Hemisphere will tilt farther away from the sun and receive its rays at a steeper angle, creating longer shadows and cooler conditions indicative of winter. Eventually, the sun will reach its lowest point in the midday sky, marking the December solstice.

Cultures around the world have historically celebrated the dates that represent the changing of the seasons. One notable example is an ancient Maya step pyramid known as El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Mexico. Exactly at sunset on the spring and autumn equinoxes, sunlight hits the building’s steep staircase at just the right angle to create an eerie snake-like shape that appears to slither along its length.

Other planets also have seasons and equinoxes, although on much more extreme scales. Mars has a very similar tilt to Earth’s and so experiences the same kinds of seasons, but its distance from the sun means that a Martian winter lasts a frigid 154 days.

However, the nightmare planet for anyone with seasonal affective disorder would have to be Uranus. Its axis is tipped nearly 90 degrees, meaning it essentially spins on its side during its 84-year orbit around the sun. This translates to mind-numbing winters that last a whopping 42 years.

For some planets, seasonal variations can even affect our views of these celestial objects. During a Saturn equinox, which rolls around every 15 Earth years, the sun shines edge-on to the planet’s famous rings, casting them in low shadows that can reveal their three-dimensional structure.

Here are some of the other exciting astronomical wonders in store for sky-watchers this week.

Saturn on Display. 
Saturn will be shining brightly in the low southwestern skies after dusk all week long. Look for the gas giant hovering about 20 degrees above your local horizon on any clear evening. For a beautiful contrast, check out the distinctly fainter star Antares, which will be sitting only six degrees south of Saturn. The brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, Antares has an orange-red hue that will seem to smolder next to Saturn’s creamy yellow color.

Moon in Taurus. 
Late night on September 20, the waning gibbous moon will be rising in the low eastern horizon, forming a pretty triangular formation with the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. The V-shaped Hyades, which will be located to the left of the moon, sits 150 light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest such star groupings. The Pleiades, which will be above the moon, is a much younger cluster that lies 440 light-years from Earth. Because the moon shines so brightly, try using binoculars to reveal some of the fainter stellar members in both clusters.

Deneb at Zenith. At the same time that we mark the autumn equinox, there will be a seasonal change in the stars that dominate the overhead evening skies. For observers in mid-northern latitudes like New York and London, look for the bright star Deneb to appear straight overhead, or at the sky’s zenith. Deneb, the most brilliant star in the constellation Cygnus, the swan, is a blue-white giant estimated to be 1,400 light-years away and 110 times as wide as our sun.

Clear skies!


equinox 昼夜平分，（春秋）分
split 划分，裂缝
in the first place  首先，从一开始，压根儿
spin 旋转，纺纱
tilt 倾斜
with respect to 关于，谈到
plane 平面
geometrical 几何的
alignment 直线
due 【方位】正（东南西北）
steep 险峻的，极度的
indicative 表示
solstice （夏冬）至，最高点
eerie 怪异的
slither 滑行
Martian 火星的
frigid 极冷的
Uranus 天王星
tip 倾斜
numbing 使麻木的
whopping 巨大的
celestial 天的
Saturn 土星
dimensional 维的，尺寸的
in store 储备着，将要发生
dusk 黄昏
hover 停止在空中
faint 微弱的
Antares 心大星
constellation 星座
Scorpius 天蝎座
hue 色调
smolder 文火
Taurus 金牛座
wane 衰弱
gibbous （月亮）凸圆的
clusters 群，集团
binoculars 双筒望远镜
stellar 星星的，星形的
Zenith 天顶
Cygnus 天鹅座

Our Historic Relationship With Alcohol: It’s Complicated

The European settlers’ drinking habits in the early days of the American Republic were pretty extensive. They topped out at around 4.15 beers a day or 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol per person per year in the 1830s. That’s pretty staggering when you realize that modern U.S. Dietary Guidelines suggests no more than one drink per day for women and two for men. So were we just a bunch of alcoholics?

Well, it’s much more complicated than that, says Washington, D.C.’s National Archives curator Bruce Bustard, who oversees Spirited Republic, an exhibit chronicling Americans and our love-hate relationship with alcohol from the first colonists up to the 21st century. “It sounds like people were staggering around all day, but that’s not true,” he says.

“In early America, drinking alcohol was an accepted part of everyday life at a time when water was suspect and life was hard … Men, women, and even children swallowed ‘a healthful dram’ with breakfast,” Bustard says.

There once was a wide acceptance—even an embracing—of alcohol. Troops that joined the Continental Army were rewarded with a ration of whiskey or some kind of beer, our first president had a rye whiskey distillery at his home in Mount Vernon (which opened to the public in 2007).  As part of a religious wave of perfectionism, coupled with witnessing the family and health havoc associated with too much alcohol could do, the fevers of Prohibition took hold around 1920. But alcohol didn’t disappear. Speakeasys popped up in major cities, moonshine distilleries grew in the countryside, and doctors even prescribed alcohol as medicine.

While today’s 2.3 gallon average of annual alcohol consumption pales in comparison to our forefathers, foremothers, and forechildren, that doesn’t mean we don’t draw inspiration from their cups. In fact, walking into any half-decent bar today and perusing the drinks menu means taking a virtual walk through history, as bartenders experiment with punches, tonics, and shrubs (not the ones in your backyard.)

And the hard stuff is coming back, too. The amount of rye whiskey produced has grown a whopping 536 percent since 2009, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. In part, they say, because “Americans are embracing the heritage of spirits products, and rye whiskey has a long heritage in the United States.”

“There are so many places that are making cocktails that are connected to our historic past,” says Derek Brown, spirits writer, D.C. bar owner, and the official spirits advisor to the National Archives.

In D.C., these throwbacks are not difficult to find: a moonshine list at Lincoln, sidecars served in apothecary bottles (acknowledging the cocktail’s original storage in decanters) at Dram & Grain, and apple toddies (to ease the common cold) at Copy Cat Co.

In an extreme example of this rooted inspiration, Brown created a cocktail with a historic basis as the “official cocktail” for the Spirited Republic exhibit. Working with archivist Trevor Plante, he found an order from General Washington to the troops at Valley Forge, where after a long under-supplied, and difficult winter, Washington declares that congress has agreed to outfit the troops, and in addition grants “A gill of rum or whiskey [per] Man to be Issued to the troops tomorrow.” Brown decided to blend those two traditional spirits—rum and rye whiskey—with a cherry bounce recipe used by Martha Washington (supplied from Mount Vernon’s distiller Steve Bashore), along with simple syrup, lemon juice, and soda water, to create the General’s Order Cocktail. 

This sort of hearkening back to the past is what makes drinking today so special. “This is the best time for drinking in all of history,” says Brown. “The 19th century was when most of the greatest cocktails ever invented were made. Today we have all those drinks and we have bartenders taking these into consideration and transforming them into something completely different. They have technology and ingredients that they didn’t have in the 19th century.”

We imbibe about one third as much as we did in our historic heyday. (In large part, Brown thinks, because we know more about the health impact of alcohol now than we did in 1830.) In a way, we can thank our ancestors for doing a lot of our drinking for us. Now we know what we’re working with, so we’re able to drink less, but we’re able to really make that drinking count as more informed, inspired, and innovate alcohol appreciators.

top out 达到高峰
staggering 难以置信的
alcoholic 酒鬼
curator （图书馆等的）馆长，监护人，管理者
oversee 监督
spirited 激烈的，精力充沛的
chronicle 记录；编年史
suspect 不可信的
dram 一口（酒）a dram
embracing 抱拥
ration 一定配给量，口粮
rye 黑麦
distillery 酿酒厂
perfectionism 完美主义
coupled with 结合
havoc 破坏
Prohibition 禁酒令
pop up 【口语】突然出现
speakeasy 地下酒店
moonshine 月光，空谈，私酒，妄想
peruse 精读
virtual 事实上的，虚像的 
bartender 酒保
tonic 软饮料，苏打水
shrub 果汁甜酒
whopping 大的；非常
throwback 倒退，返祖
apothecary 药店
decanter 玻璃水瓶
toddy 棕榈酒
archivist 记录保管人
outfit 供给；全套装备
gill 【单位】1/4pint
syrup 糖浆
hearken 倾听
ingredient 成分
imbibe 摄取

Seeing Our National Parks: What’s Old Is New—Again

At a time when images can be made as a passing thought with your mobile device, taking a moment, or many moments, to pause and truly see a place has become a rarer art form. A few years ago photographer Ian Ruhter decided to put a pause on his work in digital and commercial photography and reassess how he was making pictures. Since then, he’s been making wet plates--a photographic process that originated in the mid-19th century--using a historic and slow process. Traveling across the United States, Ruhter has slowed down to capture America’s parks and great outdoors, creating a dual vision-- at once of the present and past.

In celebration of the 2016 National Park Service centennial, we sat down with Ruhter to discuss his work and making wet plates in Yosemite National Park, one of America’s most majestic national treasures.

Of all the places you've made wet plates, Yosemite stands out as special to you and your work. What about this national park was so impactful to you?

I started to fall more in love with Yosemite after I learned about the works of Carleton Watkins, one of the first individuals to photograph the West. He spent a large portion of his career making wet plates in Yosemite. His images illustrated the beauty of the land and became the first significant photographic record of Yosemite. These images inspired politicians and others from around the nation to lobby to protect the park. After this, in 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant legislation that led to protecting the nation’s parks and paving the way for the national park concept.

Watkins was pushing the limits of photography and was on the forefront of art, science, exploration, and preservation with the making of his mammoth-size plates. I wanted to experience Yosemite like Watkins, pushing photography the way he did. My dream is to create the world’s largest wet-plate collodion image in this park.

On my first attempt I failed miserably. However, that gut-wrenching failure, I realized, was something that Watkins experienced over and over in life until the end. I believe now that’s the closest I will ever be to feeling what he felt.

Tell us about what brought you to create this kind of work. Why wet plates?

I had been working as a commercial and editorial photographer for many years when the digital image-taking process came along. I was forced to work exclusively in this medium if I wanted to keep the existing jobs and clients that I had. Many of these jobs and clients were also forcing my hand to start manipulating my own images. Overnight I was spending more time altering images. I felt like I was trying to keep up with the Joneses and not doing photography.

This led to a moral question: Does the altering of images contribute to the acceptance of human beings altering their own bodies to keep up with the demanding pressures of our society? As I was altering these images I realized that I was becoming part of this system. It became apparent that my photography was being used toward something very negative for humanity, and I didn’t want to be remembered for that.

I did quite a bit of soul searching. During my search I found the wet-plate collodion process. This process allows you to make direct positives either on glass (ambrotype) or metal (tintype) plates. It allows you to create your photograph inside the camera. Once you coat and sensitize your glass or metal plate with the collodion liquid film, you then make an exposure that’s from a few seconds to minutes. Once this exposure is made you immediately develop the image. What is on the plate will be on there forever. There is no way to manipulate these photographs. I fell in love with being able to tell the truth through my photography

The wet plate process is not quick. How has this slow process changed your experience of a place when photographing?

This process is so incredibly slow. I usually set up early in the morning and I'm putting everything away as the sun is going down. It allows me to really experience the location that I'm photographing. Being able to watch the light change and move across the land, bringing things in and out of focus and revealing things that you never knew were there.

What's unique about creating this type of work in Yosemite? What are the biggest challenges?

What is unique about making plates in Yosemite is they stand as a testament of time. I realized that I could reference a plate from 1865 and look at a plate I created in 2016 and see that very little has changed. It is an authentic image.

One of the biggest challenges while working with the wet plate process is that it takes an entire day to set up with the hopes of making one single image. The most challenging part of my process in Yosemite was trying to make plates that were significantly larger than what Watkins had created. He was an expert in this process and I had only, at the time, been doing this for one year. The challenge was also learning to be patient and realizing that these failures were part of the process. It took me two years to build up the courage to return to Yosemite and try again.

I remember while we were setting up to make our first image I literally felt like I was going to throw up, because I was so nervous. Once the plate was exposed and developed I watched the image clear in the fixer and I knew that I had successfully made my first wet-plate collodion image in Yosemite. I felt more proud of myself for having the courage to try again.

You've had to travel extensively, driving, to create your work. Has that travel experience impacted your work and way of approaching a place?

There is something to be said about traveling by automobile. The idea that you can change direction in a blink of an eye is a remarkable thing. It can also lead you down some roads where you begin to feel incredibly lost. The idea of losing your way in order to find what you're looking for is an incredible feeling.

Does making wet plates force you to see a place differently?

The process of making plates doesn’t necessarily allow me to see things differently. Because I have converted a giant truck into a camera I actually work inside of the camera. Seeing the world through a giant lens allows me to experience the world in a new way.

In light of the centennial of the National Park Service and all the time you've spent outdoors to create your work, what comes to mind thinking about all those experiences and your travel to these different places?

I am grateful that individuals dedicated their lives and made efforts to preserve these lands. These experiences have allowed me to see how important the preservation and access to these lands for generations to come truly are.

reassess 再评价，再估价
process 工艺流程
dual 双重的
centennial 百年的
majestic 雄大的，庄严的
treasure 宝物
lobby 为了支持或抵制某项特定目标游说
legislation 立法
mammoth 巨大的；猛犸
miserably 悲惨地
gut-wrenching 冲击的
ambrotype  （采用玻璃底片的） 旧式照相 an early type of photograph in which a glass negative appears positive when displayed on a black background
tintype  锡版照相法
positive 正片  
sensitize 敏感，感光
collodion 胶棉
manipulate 操纵，处理
testament 遗嘱，证明，誓约
authentic 真实的
throw up 放弃，匆忙建造