This was not created in Photoshop. This is a real photo of a real corn maze in Northwest Indiana.

Using special GPS-guided tractors, the folks at Exploration Acres planted the seeds for this 20-acre Stranger Things-themed corn maze earlier this year. Tim Fitzgerald, president and CEO of the farm, told WTHR, "This year, new technology allowed us to plant the maze design like an inkjet printer, dropping seeds into the precise design we imagined."

The team at Exploration Acres create a massive maize maze every year on their Lafayette (no, it's not in Hawkins, that's a fictional place) property and Fitzgerald says they were inspired to create a Stranger Things one after binge-watching the series.

The maze is open September 14 through October 28, 2018.

(Mashable)

image via Exploration Acres by Mark Seest Read the rest

If'n y'all got raised in the heartland, y'all know this here's corn maze cuttin' season! The good folks down to Dull's got one-a them newfangled drones to get all the goings on. Read the rest

Earlier today, I posted on the recent paper that claims to have found a link between eating genetically modified corn and the growth of tumors in rats. Short version: The research sucked. It's a terribly done study and it demonstrates why "peer reviewed" does not always mean "accurate".

But now, this story is getting worse. Turns out, the authors of the study (and their financial sponsor, The Sustainable Food Trust) manipulated the media to ensure that the first news stories published about the study would not be critical of its methods or results.

First, some background. When a journal is about to publish a study that they think will be big news, they usually offer the full study to reporters under an embargo system. The reporter gets to read the study, do their reporting, and write a story ... but they can't publish that story until a specific day at a specific time. If you're a daily or an online publication, there's a lot of pressure to have your story ready to go the moment the embargo lifts. Otherwise, you'll look like you weren't on the ball. There's a lot of problems with this system, but it's very common.

What's not common: Forcing journalists to sign non-disclosure agreements promising to not show the study they're reporting on to any independent researchers or outside experts. If you're trying to make sure your publication runs a story on the study right when the embargo lifts, but you can't show the study to any third-party experts before the embargo lifts, then the story you run is going to (inevitably) contain only information the authors of the study want you to talk about. Read the rest