Tuesday, April 18
Sunday, April 16
NYT: Capitalism on the Cob
Capitalism on the Cob
By DAN MITCHELL
Published: April 15, 2006
MICHAEL POLLAN'S new book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," describes a nation that is the victim of "a plague of corn." The No. 1 legal crop is "the perfect capitalist plant," he said on "Fresh Air" on NPR this week.
Michael Pollan on Fresh Air
Michael Pollan's interview with Truthdig.com
MichaelPollan.com
University of California, Berkeley's NewsCenter
About a third of Mr. Pollan's book is taken up with corn. It is the "keystone species" of the "industrial food chain" that feeds most of us, he said in an interview with Truthdig.com.
America, Mr. Pollan says, has "a national eating disorder." To describe it, the book traces the creation of four meals: one "industrial," two "organic," and one procured by the author himself as a "hunter-gatherer."
There are problems with each, but the industrial meal, not surprisingly, is the most troublesome. He traces it from an Iowa cornfield to its final form — fast food scarfed down in a moving car.
All along that journey, corn wreaks havoc. The overuse of nitrogen fertilizers leads to occasional "blue baby" alerts in Des Moines warning parents that nitrate-loaded tap water could render their babies' brains unable to receive oxygen. Those same fertilizers flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, where they seasonally create a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey that is dangerous to sea life.
By virtue of its being "paved over" with corn, Iowa is, in its way, the most developed state in the country, he told NPR. On the market, corn is cheap, Mr. Pollan points out. But the costs — to the environment, to the economy, and to the health care system — are enormous.
"We eat so much corn that, biologically speaking, most Americans are corn on two legs," Bonnie Azab Powell, a journalist, wrote on NewsCenter site of the University of California, Berkeley (berkeley.edu/news).
By DAN MITCHELL
Published: April 15, 2006
MICHAEL POLLAN'S new book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," describes a nation that is the victim of "a plague of corn." The No. 1 legal crop is "the perfect capitalist plant," he said on "Fresh Air" on NPR this week.
Michael Pollan on Fresh Air
Michael Pollan's interview with Truthdig.com
MichaelPollan.com
University of California, Berkeley's NewsCenter
About a third of Mr. Pollan's book is taken up with corn. It is the "keystone species" of the "industrial food chain" that feeds most of us, he said in an interview with Truthdig.com.
America, Mr. Pollan says, has "a national eating disorder." To describe it, the book traces the creation of four meals: one "industrial," two "organic," and one procured by the author himself as a "hunter-gatherer."
There are problems with each, but the industrial meal, not surprisingly, is the most troublesome. He traces it from an Iowa cornfield to its final form — fast food scarfed down in a moving car.
All along that journey, corn wreaks havoc. The overuse of nitrogen fertilizers leads to occasional "blue baby" alerts in Des Moines warning parents that nitrate-loaded tap water could render their babies' brains unable to receive oxygen. Those same fertilizers flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, where they seasonally create a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey that is dangerous to sea life.
By virtue of its being "paved over" with corn, Iowa is, in its way, the most developed state in the country, he told NPR. On the market, corn is cheap, Mr. Pollan points out. But the costs — to the environment, to the economy, and to the health care system — are enormous.
"We eat so much corn that, biologically speaking, most Americans are corn on two legs," Bonnie Azab Powell, a journalist, wrote on NewsCenter site of the University of California, Berkeley (berkeley.edu/news).
Saturday, April 15
Friday, April 14
Monday, April 10
Name in
Vain?
and, with delicious morbidity:
"(W)e're all bit players in the president's apocalyptic Passion play
and, with delicious morbidity:
"(W)e're all bit players in the president's apocalyptic Passion play
United States of Amnesia
'the average executives salary...was 170 times the average worker's earnings (2004)'
Monday, March 27
Thursday, March 23
Yakyu
Editorial
For the Love of Yakyu
Published: March 22, 2006
What a game! Daisuke Matsuzaka gave up a leadoff homer to Eduardo Paret, but then retired 12 of 15 batters, easily outpitching Ormari Romero and Vicyohandry Odelin. Michihiro Ogasawara drove in three runs while Kosuke Fukudome, Hitoshi Tamura and Toshiaki Imae drove in two each. Akinori Otsuka struck out Yulieski Gourriel in the ninth to end the game, and the winners threw their caps, gloves and Sadaharu Oh into the air.
The World Baseball Classic, which ended on Monday night with Japan's 10-6 victory over Cuba, should forever erase any idea that the United States has a monopoly on its national pastime. The United States team, covered in springtime rust and missing many star players, who had been sprinkled generously onto other countries' lineups, struggled before being finished off by Mexico. As Murray Chass of The Times noted, nearly a half-billion dollars' worth of major league talent was sidelined as the Cubans and Japanese fought for the closest thing baseball has to a genuine world title.
But this is nothing to be upset about. Japan has had baseball, which it calls yakyu, for essentially as long as we have. It arrived there in the 1870's and has put down deep roots in Asia, as the gritty performance of South Korea demonstrated. Béisbol has been a pan-American pastime for many generations, and such was the World Baseball Classic's broad appeal that Italy, Australia, the Netherlands and even South Africa showed up eager to play.
That baseball has not caught on among the French may only underscore the global superiority of a sport that has been a vibrant American export since the days of whale oil. Alexander Joy Cartwright, the father of modern baseball — with its nine innings, three outs, nine-man teams and rule against beaning the runner — must be smiling in his grave in Honolulu, which was the capital of a kingdom when he planted baseball there in the 1850's.
Baseball has suffered on its home turf lately, with the Barry Bonds steroid accusations exemplifying an atmosphere of cynicism and greed that has tainted the sport from the minors to the major leagues. With the supply of homegrown talent in decline, it's possible that baseball could someday become one of those activities, like manual labor and voting, that Americans tackle a lot less enthusiastically than foreigners do.
But enthusiasm is infectious, and the tournament could easily help Americans rediscover their own love of the game, simply by seeing it through the eyes of people from other lands.
For the Love of Yakyu
Published: March 22, 2006
What a game! Daisuke Matsuzaka gave up a leadoff homer to Eduardo Paret, but then retired 12 of 15 batters, easily outpitching Ormari Romero and Vicyohandry Odelin. Michihiro Ogasawara drove in three runs while Kosuke Fukudome, Hitoshi Tamura and Toshiaki Imae drove in two each. Akinori Otsuka struck out Yulieski Gourriel in the ninth to end the game, and the winners threw their caps, gloves and Sadaharu Oh into the air.
The World Baseball Classic, which ended on Monday night with Japan's 10-6 victory over Cuba, should forever erase any idea that the United States has a monopoly on its national pastime. The United States team, covered in springtime rust and missing many star players, who had been sprinkled generously onto other countries' lineups, struggled before being finished off by Mexico. As Murray Chass of The Times noted, nearly a half-billion dollars' worth of major league talent was sidelined as the Cubans and Japanese fought for the closest thing baseball has to a genuine world title.
But this is nothing to be upset about. Japan has had baseball, which it calls yakyu, for essentially as long as we have. It arrived there in the 1870's and has put down deep roots in Asia, as the gritty performance of South Korea demonstrated. Béisbol has been a pan-American pastime for many generations, and such was the World Baseball Classic's broad appeal that Italy, Australia, the Netherlands and even South Africa showed up eager to play.
That baseball has not caught on among the French may only underscore the global superiority of a sport that has been a vibrant American export since the days of whale oil. Alexander Joy Cartwright, the father of modern baseball — with its nine innings, three outs, nine-man teams and rule against beaning the runner — must be smiling in his grave in Honolulu, which was the capital of a kingdom when he planted baseball there in the 1850's.
Baseball has suffered on its home turf lately, with the Barry Bonds steroid accusations exemplifying an atmosphere of cynicism and greed that has tainted the sport from the minors to the major leagues. With the supply of homegrown talent in decline, it's possible that baseball could someday become one of those activities, like manual labor and voting, that Americans tackle a lot less enthusiastically than foreigners do.
But enthusiasm is infectious, and the tournament could easily help Americans rediscover their own love of the game, simply by seeing it through the eyes of people from other lands.
Saturday, March 18
Sunday, March 12
Damn Ye Comportment
PC has reached eden
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
- Herbert Alexander Simon
Thanks Sam
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
- Herbert Alexander Simon
Thanks Sam
Friday, March 10
Tuesday, March 7
Outsource This
Halloo? One big Nukular Family
Human Rights begin when you get a credit card and end when you open your mouth.
God is my Satellite
Monday, March 6
another blog reading
They do the math, or ABC's, as it were.
If we study hard enough, the cathode rays erosion of our memories might not win.
And pray...
Saturday, March 4
Free Speech
This comes by way of my friend Tom in Ohio:
Don't joke with god Maybe humor and religion don't mix
March 1, 2006 iranian.com
Mark Twain once said, "There is no humor in heaven". Twain believed humor was rooted in doubt, anxiety, sorrow, longing, and other human frailties. Since these are imperfections, he concluded they have no place in heaven.
Nothing funny in heaven?
I thought this was an interesting way to look at things, which led me to wonder if there is any humor in religion at all? In the Semitic, monotheistic religions that I know a little about, like Islam, Christianity and Judaism, humor is not exactly a pillar of faith. In fact, it is hardly ever mentioned:
The word laugh/laughter is mentioned only 9 times in the Holy Quran, 8 of them in the context of ridicule or mockery, as in: "Let them laugh a little: much will they weep" (009.082), or "Those in sin used to laugh at those who believed" (083.029). The Holy Bible is not that much different. The Old Testament, which consists of 24 Books, mentions laugh/laughter all of 32 times. In the New Testament, which consists of 27 Books, laugh/laughter is mentioned just 6 times. For example, in James 4:9 it says: Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. (By contrast, death/dead/slay/kill is mentioned 231 times in the Holy Quran, 1,017 times in the Old Testament, and 443 times in the New Testament.)
Could this be the reason why fundamentalists violently protested cartoons of Prophet Muhammad? Maybe humor and religion don't mix.
If you were really curious- and brave, you could even take this argument further by asking: Does God have a sense of humor? Again, you must revisit your own feelings towards Twain's theory that humor's source is imperfection. If you agree with him, then there is no escaping the conclusion that God, by virtue of being defined as perfect, does not have a sense of humor. In other words, being perfect, not knowing sorrow or anxiety, God can not appreciate or relate to humor. This is clearly in contradiction with what we know of God as All Knowing, All Compassionate, All Everything. How can the created know about something- humor, that the creator does not know anything about? This is akin to heresy, or "kofr".
Therefore, if you believe in God, find a way to disprove what Twain said, either by proving there is humor in heaven, or showing humor can mix with perfection.
Don't joke with god Maybe humor and religion don't mix
March 1, 2006 iranian.com
Mark Twain once said, "There is no humor in heaven". Twain believed humor was rooted in doubt, anxiety, sorrow, longing, and other human frailties. Since these are imperfections, he concluded they have no place in heaven.
Nothing funny in heaven?
I thought this was an interesting way to look at things, which led me to wonder if there is any humor in religion at all? In the Semitic, monotheistic religions that I know a little about, like Islam, Christianity and Judaism, humor is not exactly a pillar of faith. In fact, it is hardly ever mentioned:
The word laugh/laughter is mentioned only 9 times in the Holy Quran, 8 of them in the context of ridicule or mockery, as in: "Let them laugh a little: much will they weep" (009.082), or "Those in sin used to laugh at those who believed" (083.029). The Holy Bible is not that much different. The Old Testament, which consists of 24 Books, mentions laugh/laughter all of 32 times. In the New Testament, which consists of 27 Books, laugh/laughter is mentioned just 6 times. For example, in James 4:9 it says: Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. (By contrast, death/dead/slay/kill is mentioned 231 times in the Holy Quran, 1,017 times in the Old Testament, and 443 times in the New Testament.)
Could this be the reason why fundamentalists violently protested cartoons of Prophet Muhammad? Maybe humor and religion don't mix.
If you were really curious- and brave, you could even take this argument further by asking: Does God have a sense of humor? Again, you must revisit your own feelings towards Twain's theory that humor's source is imperfection. If you agree with him, then there is no escaping the conclusion that God, by virtue of being defined as perfect, does not have a sense of humor. In other words, being perfect, not knowing sorrow or anxiety, God can not appreciate or relate to humor. This is clearly in contradiction with what we know of God as All Knowing, All Compassionate, All Everything. How can the created know about something- humor, that the creator does not know anything about? This is akin to heresy, or "kofr".
Therefore, if you believe in God, find a way to disprove what Twain said, either by proving there is humor in heaven, or showing humor can mix with perfection.
Thursday, March 2
Wednesday, March 1
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