27 May 2004
For Some, the Blogging Never Stops

As Gomer Pyle was wont to say, "Surprise!, Surprise!, Surprise!" - a major media player is saying "blogging has supplanted e-mail as a way to procrastinate at work", and blogs are mostly "something read by five second cousins and a dog".

They don't get it, and I really don't ever expect them to get it. I can only remind them of Ben Franklin's immortal words: "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the presses.", and bid them to watch out! They're not the only press in town, anymore.

Millions of the online journals called Web logs have been created, most to be neglected or abandoned. For certain devotees, though, blogging becomes an obsession.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Sixteen Reasons for Religion

Some interesting ideas on why people are attracted to religion. According to this academic, there are sixteen basic desires that lead people to become religious.

The desires are power, independence, curiosity, acceptance, order, saving, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, vengeance, romance, eating, physical exercise, and tranquility.

The study included mostly Christians, but came up with some interesting results nonetheless:

The study also showed that religious people valued honor more than non-religious people, which Reiss said suggests many people embrace religion to show loyalty to parents and ancestors.

Fascinating stuff. If we heathens are on our toes, we'll look long and hard at research like this, and do our utmost to understand the best way to attract folks to their own ancient folkways.

People are not drawn to religion just because of a fear of death or any other single reason, according to a new comprehensive, psychological theory of religion.

(link) [Ohio State University] via The Green Man

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

U.S. livestock industry hurt by devastating disease

Interesting ... my pastures are filled with tall fescue, and none of my cattle have this. In fact, I'd heard very little about it before this piece.

Given the figures on the loss makes me wonder exactly what kind of cattle are affected. Could our "rare breed" cows and multi-species approach (we run cattle, sheep, goats anc chickens across the same pastures, which is something of a rareity in itself) have some impact on keeping this fungus under control?

The standard remedy, proposed by the article, is to simply replace tall fescue, which is a very nutritious forage, with other grasses. I just wonder if good grazing management would work as well.

A disease caused by tall fescue, one of the most common cool-season pasture grasses in the U.S., is taking a costly toll on livestock, including both cattle and horses. Although devastating to animals, this disease is not harmful or transferable to humans. According to Craig Roberts, state forage specialist at the Department of Agronomy, University of Missouri, this disease, tall fescue toxicosis, is costing U.S. livestock producers more than $600 million each year. Tall fescue toxicosis is caused by a fungus that lives in tall fescue grass. When the fungus is not present, tall fescue is a highly-nutritional pasture grass.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link