weekend reading: feeding crows, willie’s guitar, gmo grist

RENDERED A SHUT-IN or thereabouts by winter, I confess to conspicuous consumption: I eat a lot, and gobble up media, too—on topics as diverse as our world food supply and Willie Nelson’s trusty guitar. Recent fodder, both heavy and lighter fare:

MY WILLIE NELSON fandom is no secret. This video tale (above) of a guitar with “a little more Django in it” that has been his sidekick since 1969 was a hit with me. Great vintage footage of Willie, who will be 82 in April, and a close look at Trigger—worse for wear, but still distinctly resonant.

BUTTONS, earrings and beads are just some of the gifts crows have offered an 8-year-old Seattle girl who feeds them. That’s Gabi Mann and friends in the video above, but do get the full story via the BBC, including a look at the flown-in treasure collection.

THIS Foodtank post chides “National Geographic” for lumping the question of GMO safety with climate change as examples of proof-positive issues that science-doubters nevertheless insist on doubting.

I claim no ESP; I don’t know the answer about whether we can feed the world without GMOs. But I do feel certain that the safety issue isn’t settled yet, so I like to keep reading both sides of the conversation, and want to see proper, unbiased research done (not just the kind funded by the chemical giants). I was glad to follow the links in the Foodtank piece, including one to Cornell, which received $5.6 million last year from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “depolarize the charged debate around agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified organisms,” hmmmmm.

WHAT’S THE TRUE cost of nitrogen fertilizer, when you take into