Long time since I posted anything here.
I made a big change in how I eat.
I watched the Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead movie in September, but couldn't justify dumping $400 on a good juicer and the added $15/day in food that would be needed to keep up that program.
Then I saw Forks Over Knives on November 4th and figured I could do that. So I didn't eat any more animal products starting November 5th and don't really feel that I miss anything.
What really makes sure I won't go back to eating animal products was my recent viewing of Earthlings. I can't believe I ignored how most of the food I ate came to be on my plate. It's disgusting seeing seeing what people will do to turn animals into food, clothing, etc.
If you really have the guts to look at what goes into the planet's use of animals for food, I suggest you give Earthlings a watch. It's on Youtube. I don't think you'll look at a Quarter Pounder the same way, ever again. Or a pair of leather shoes. Or a fish stick.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
June Bugs In May
The June Bugs arrived in Gaytons, Memramcook, NB on the evening of the 24th of May. I have no idea what day the Mayflies showed up.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Lost
I watched the first few minutes of the pilot episode of Lost. That's it. It didn't really look like something I wanted to see.
If I ever get sick and stuck in bed for a few weeks, I'll probably download the whole thing and watch it then.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Ass Backwards
I somehow got sidetracked while looking for information on a topic and ended up on the Wikipedia page for the Ford Model T.
What's amazing is that this car was first sold for a price of $850 in 1909. By 1913, only four years later, the price actually dropped to $550. In 1915 it dropped to $440. By the time the 1920s rolled around, you could buy a Model T for $290.
Why can't a North American automaker do that again today? Design a basic vehicle. One that doesn't have any frills. Then make the same car, year after year, getting better at making the car and making it cost less. Heck, there's really no reason to get too fancy.
The only innovation really needed would be to ensure that it's a flex fuel vehicle. Something that can run on ethanol or methanol, just in case these fuels make a big splash in our motoring world. No radio, no air conditioning, no heated seats, no dvd player or GPS navigation....just plain old basic transportation. If people want all the extras, they can buy them and bolt them on later.
Sure, all the automotive press would bash such an initiative, but countering that crap with a big "Shut The Hell Up" campaign might just work.
Gimme a basic, bare bones car and a basic, bare bones pickup that keeps getting cheaper to buy every year for the next 2 decades.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
9 a.m. and 4.6 degreees
I think it's gonna be a warm one today. Bright sunshine for the first time in many, many days.
Which means I might have to break out the clippers, since I told my nephew that he has to wait till it's 12 degrees before I give him a buzz cut.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should
When I was a kid, I had this yard stick that I got from the county fair. With that yard stick, I could finally reach up and hit the ceiling in my bedroom. The dropped ceiling was made of insulated panels, the kind you find in offices all over the place. It's very fragile, but does the job nicely when it just hangs there. I was about 6 or 7 yrs old and without thinking, I used that yard stick to poke holes all over that dropped ceiling. I obviously wasn't thinking clearly at the time and was more impressed with this new found capability to finally reach the height of the ceiling than I was concerned with the damage I'd do by whacking it with this fancy reach extender. It's one of my first memories of learning that "Just Because I Can, Doesn't Mean I Should".
When I was in my 20s, I could chug a mug of beer in about 3 seconds. I figured out that I could just let the beer pour down into my gut instead of going through the motions of making the muscles meant for swallowing do the job for me. This is one of those examples of a skill being acquired that probably shouldn't be practiced. Just because I could, doesn't mean I should.
Or, how about being in a nice, sporty car and tearing down the highway at 200 km/h? The car's perfectly capable of reaching those speeds, the road is wide and clear enough...but really, just because I can, doesn't mean I should. There are other people on the road, a moose could stumble out of the woods...the chance, however small, that I could wreck the car and injure others and myself is the reason I don't go tearing around the province at 200 km/h.
There's a now commonly used technology that's being used that fits the description of "Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should. It's the electro-shock weapon known as the TASER. With it, you can incapacitate an opponent by discharging an electric current to a person's body, which short circuits the victim's nervous system. The short circuiting of the nervous system causes involuntary muscle contractions. While this is happening, the victim can't choose how their body moves, they can't run away, they can't throw a punch, they can't kick, they can't stand up.
Ordinarily, this would seem to be a great tool for incapacitating a belligerent foe. Poof, you pull a trigger and turn a problem into a nice package waiting for confinement. It would seem to be an ideal means of eliminating a significant amount of risk to any law enforcement official.
Of course, what you're doing is electrocuting a person. Remember those old movies where they have a person tied to a chair, and electrodes are placed on various parts of the body by an evil villain? The villain then hits a switch and the prisoner shakes, rattles and rolls in pain. The idea is to torture the victim in order to get them to comply with the villain's orders.
Now our law enforcement officers routinely torture suspects. They arrive on the scene and find someone who is currently unwilling to be detained and the first instinct is to torture the victim by electrocution in order to get them to comply. It's easier, quicker, and very effective. Like cattle being led to slaughter, the use of torture by electrocution makes it significantly easier to change someone's mind from that of being opposed to a situation to doing whatever the law enforcement officer requests.
Are you making the mistake of sitting in the good seats when you've only paid for a cheap seat at a baseball game? You will either calm down or suffer the torture of electrocution.
Did you ask a VIP an embarrassing question? Shut up or you'll be tortured by electrocution.
Did you go 50 mph in a 45 mph zone? You're in for a torturously shocking experience.
Sometimes you can be tortured by electrocution for apparently passing a sobriety test. This is a good one to watch, since there's a guy, flat on his face on the ground, hands behind his back. There are half a dozen police officers there as well, but one of the police officers has this nifty little electrical torture tool that he just can't resist using on a suspect that doesn't appear to be trying to fight, run away, or otherwise prevent his being taken into custody.
Everyone knows what a pain in the neck a 14 yr old girl can be. What's the best way to get them to pay attention? Shoot a taser at her head, have the taser dart penetrate their skull and require hospitalization and 14 vicious looking staples to put Humpty back together again.
Some police officers seem to have a lack of confidence with the ability to detain the elderly. This 74 yr old great grandmother was obviously too much of a physical match for the officer that pulled her over for speeding in a construction zone. What other choice did he have than to torture her by electrocution?
Make sure you don't fall off a bridge and break your back. You might get tased 19 times.
I think this particular video shows that some police discriminate against people who are a little slow to produce their license and proof of insurance. Punishment....torture by electrocution.
There's one nasty side effect of torture by electrocution. It doesn't happen all the time, but it appears to be statistically significant enough to warrant serious concern. People are dying due to their interactions with tasers.
A man who landed at an international airport in Vancouver apparently was "misplaced". Since he spoke no English, and no one spoke Polish, he couldn't find out where he was supposed to go after landing. After 9 hours of confusion, the guy started getting a little bit upset. The police were called. Half a dozen officers decided that they didn't have the physical capability to take the man into custody, so they used the torturous electrocution device on him repeatedly. As a result of the tortuous electrocution, Mr. Dzeikanski died on the spot.
I could link to dozens of other taser induced death videos. However, dying from taser use isn't really the point. The point is that cruel and unusual punishment is something that folks in the States are constitutionally protected against. Most other countries also have laws that protect their citizens from cruel and unusual punishment. Torture is cruel and unusual punishment. Using a taser on a person is torture by electrocution.
It's that plain and simple. Just because you can make a device that can be used to inflict torturous electrocution on someone doesn't mean you should. And just because they're available, doesn't mean that the police forces have to buy them. And just because an officer has one on their belt doesn't mean that it needs to get used.
Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should.
When I was in my 20s, I could chug a mug of beer in about 3 seconds. I figured out that I could just let the beer pour down into my gut instead of going through the motions of making the muscles meant for swallowing do the job for me. This is one of those examples of a skill being acquired that probably shouldn't be practiced. Just because I could, doesn't mean I should.
Or, how about being in a nice, sporty car and tearing down the highway at 200 km/h? The car's perfectly capable of reaching those speeds, the road is wide and clear enough...but really, just because I can, doesn't mean I should. There are other people on the road, a moose could stumble out of the woods...the chance, however small, that I could wreck the car and injure others and myself is the reason I don't go tearing around the province at 200 km/h.
There's a now commonly used technology that's being used that fits the description of "Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should. It's the electro-shock weapon known as the TASER. With it, you can incapacitate an opponent by discharging an electric current to a person's body, which short circuits the victim's nervous system. The short circuiting of the nervous system causes involuntary muscle contractions. While this is happening, the victim can't choose how their body moves, they can't run away, they can't throw a punch, they can't kick, they can't stand up.
Ordinarily, this would seem to be a great tool for incapacitating a belligerent foe. Poof, you pull a trigger and turn a problem into a nice package waiting for confinement. It would seem to be an ideal means of eliminating a significant amount of risk to any law enforcement official.
Of course, what you're doing is electrocuting a person. Remember those old movies where they have a person tied to a chair, and electrodes are placed on various parts of the body by an evil villain? The villain then hits a switch and the prisoner shakes, rattles and rolls in pain. The idea is to torture the victim in order to get them to comply with the villain's orders.
Now our law enforcement officers routinely torture suspects. They arrive on the scene and find someone who is currently unwilling to be detained and the first instinct is to torture the victim by electrocution in order to get them to comply. It's easier, quicker, and very effective. Like cattle being led to slaughter, the use of torture by electrocution makes it significantly easier to change someone's mind from that of being opposed to a situation to doing whatever the law enforcement officer requests.
Are you making the mistake of sitting in the good seats when you've only paid for a cheap seat at a baseball game? You will either calm down or suffer the torture of electrocution.
Did you ask a VIP an embarrassing question? Shut up or you'll be tortured by electrocution.
Did you go 50 mph in a 45 mph zone? You're in for a torturously shocking experience.
Sometimes you can be tortured by electrocution for apparently passing a sobriety test. This is a good one to watch, since there's a guy, flat on his face on the ground, hands behind his back. There are half a dozen police officers there as well, but one of the police officers has this nifty little electrical torture tool that he just can't resist using on a suspect that doesn't appear to be trying to fight, run away, or otherwise prevent his being taken into custody.
Everyone knows what a pain in the neck a 14 yr old girl can be. What's the best way to get them to pay attention? Shoot a taser at her head, have the taser dart penetrate their skull and require hospitalization and 14 vicious looking staples to put Humpty back together again.
Some police officers seem to have a lack of confidence with the ability to detain the elderly. This 74 yr old great grandmother was obviously too much of a physical match for the officer that pulled her over for speeding in a construction zone. What other choice did he have than to torture her by electrocution?
Make sure you don't fall off a bridge and break your back. You might get tased 19 times.
I think this particular video shows that some police discriminate against people who are a little slow to produce their license and proof of insurance. Punishment....torture by electrocution.
There's one nasty side effect of torture by electrocution. It doesn't happen all the time, but it appears to be statistically significant enough to warrant serious concern. People are dying due to their interactions with tasers.
A man who landed at an international airport in Vancouver apparently was "misplaced". Since he spoke no English, and no one spoke Polish, he couldn't find out where he was supposed to go after landing. After 9 hours of confusion, the guy started getting a little bit upset. The police were called. Half a dozen officers decided that they didn't have the physical capability to take the man into custody, so they used the torturous electrocution device on him repeatedly. As a result of the tortuous electrocution, Mr. Dzeikanski died on the spot.
I could link to dozens of other taser induced death videos. However, dying from taser use isn't really the point. The point is that cruel and unusual punishment is something that folks in the States are constitutionally protected against. Most other countries also have laws that protect their citizens from cruel and unusual punishment. Torture is cruel and unusual punishment. Using a taser on a person is torture by electrocution.
It's that plain and simple. Just because you can make a device that can be used to inflict torturous electrocution on someone doesn't mean you should. And just because they're available, doesn't mean that the police forces have to buy them. And just because an officer has one on their belt doesn't mean that it needs to get used.
Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Enviropig?
Now I don't know much about handling farm waste. I'm just looking at this from another angle, the problem of peak phosphorous.
The folks at the University of Guelph seem to have engineered a genetic strain of pigs that absorb phosphorous instead of peeing it out into the waste stream. It's done by a modification to the gene that controls the salivary gland. With the modification, the salivary glands of Enviropig will secrete phytase. The Phytase will make the consumed phosphorous digestible, which means it will end up in the meat and bones instead of the pee.
It seems to me that the problem isn't with the contents of the pig pee, but with the quantity of the pig pee. Instead of the phosphorous ending up in a place that can control, extract and possibly reuse the phosphorous as a much in demand fertilizer, the Enviropig will simply push the problem of phosphorous recover down the road a bit to the butcher and the consumer. Once the element makes it that far away from the farm, it will be much more difficult to recover and put to better use.
From my chair, it looks like the wrong problem is being solved.
The folks at the University of Guelph seem to have engineered a genetic strain of pigs that absorb phosphorous instead of peeing it out into the waste stream. It's done by a modification to the gene that controls the salivary gland. With the modification, the salivary glands of Enviropig will secrete phytase. The Phytase will make the consumed phosphorous digestible, which means it will end up in the meat and bones instead of the pee.
It seems to me that the problem isn't with the contents of the pig pee, but with the quantity of the pig pee. Instead of the phosphorous ending up in a place that can control, extract and possibly reuse the phosphorous as a much in demand fertilizer, the Enviropig will simply push the problem of phosphorous recover down the road a bit to the butcher and the consumer. Once the element makes it that far away from the farm, it will be much more difficult to recover and put to better use.
From my chair, it looks like the wrong problem is being solved.
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