31 Dec 2004
More Format Changes

Well, Google AdSense is gone from my blog. I made a whopping $1.17 in the six months it was here: at that rate, my estate would get a check for $100 in 50 or 60 years. Not worth the bandwidth ...

The other thing that just annoyed me to no end about it was the ads they place. Anytime I blogged some negative comment about PETA they'd place an ad for the group on my page. True, I could block it via their service, but I couldn't block sites I'd never heard of until they appeared. And as often as I blog on religious topics, I was getting too many ads from Christian wingnuts displaying here to ever manage to keep up my blacklist. So, away it goes...

00:00 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link

RIAA/MPAA Contractor Deploys Malicious Adware Trojans

Another reason to avoid Windows Media files, and closed source DRM in general.

Overpeer, the organization responsible for seeding many peer to peer networks with damaged, corrupt and fake files has now found a way of hiding spyware and adware inside Windows Media files by using a DRM loophole and is using this technique to further pollute p2p networks.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Stop Smoking?

I don't think this would work for me ...

via Pagan Prattle

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

How Did Animals Escape Tsunami?

Anyone who works with animals (wild or domestic) will tell you that this is true: they can sense a wide variety of conditions that we humans have managed to lock out of our sensory systems.

No wild animals were found dead along the Sri Lankan coastline, adding credence to the belief that beasts have a sixth sense that warns them of impending disasters.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

30 Dec 2004
A harvest of modern technology

As usual, some good stuff, some not so good. The downside that most folks don't see in large farms has little to do with the "rural lifestyle" or "declining values", and everything to do with sustainability and enviromental preservation.

Take the farm described in the article: it's expanded from 400 to 5000 acres in 30 years, and added a large confinement hog operation. This is possible only because of the cheapness of fossil fuels: when the oil price really spikes, the cost for nearly all of the inputs for this farm will increase. I'm not just talking about the deisel to run the tractors, I'm talking about the fertilizers (petrocehmical based) that allow yields that make such large scale operations possible. Not to mention the electricity for the hog barns: our henhouse get's a 250 watt heat lamp on the coldest days: I'd wager his hog barns take as much power as the city of Thorntown to run on any single day. Lights, heat, sludge and feed pumps - note that if his power goes down he can't even feed his hogs!

Enviromental protection? If you've ever seen (or smelled) the lagoon from a hog operation of this sort, you won't have to ask.

We've adopted every available technology for the farm, without asking if it's appropiate or viable over the long haul, without understanding that without a stable food supply our civilization itself could be at risk. But this is "agri-business" now - not farming. And it's a recipe for disaster. It's not a question of if, only of when.

Darkening skies and a light morning drizzle blanketed the fields while combines harvested corn and tractor-trailers hauled away this year's crop. Even though he knew what was coming, Brian Watkins hopped out of his pickup truck and stepped into his office to check the weather forecast on his computer.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

29 Dec 2004
Even drug dealers are giving up on the dollar

This will slide right past most people in the US as "footnote news", but in reality it's the tip of a very dangerous iceberg for the American economy. It's going to be very interesting to see if foreign currancies (the euro) begin to circulate in the underground economy here - so far they haven't, but that could be changing.

The dollar's decline against the euro shows no sign of ending. Clearly, currency traders have made a long-term judgment about the relative value of the currencies of the Old and New Worlds. That sounds bad enough. But now there are signs that we're losing some of the most devoted fans of the greenback: drug dealers, Russian oligarchs, and black-market traffickers of all kinds.

(link) [Slate]

via My Apple Menu

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Dec 2004
Cattle Video Stirs Kosher Meat Debate

I am sure as Hel no fan of PETA (I won't even link them here for fear of what Google's AdWords might place on my site as a result), but in this instance they seem to have uncovered some serious misdeeds.

Kosher slaughter is supposed to be as painless as possible to the animals: and the process used in Postville certainly doesn't meet that requirement.

In fact, any ritual slaughter is supposed to be painless: I know of no religion on earth that approves of it's sacrifical animals being tortured before death. When we Heathens do a animal sacrifice (and we still do, on rare occassions) we insure that the process is painless: if our safeguards should fail, and the animal should suffer, we consider that the offering has been rejected by the gods, and that "our luck has fled". A very bad omen.

As an aside to my readers who may not share my Heathen path, nearly all animal sacrifice done by the religions of the world that still practice it are done in the context of a ritual feast, or ritual slaughter for food. We do not waste the meat (or any part of the animal) in some sort of silly "burnt offering". A careful reading of the Bible will reveal that neither did the ancient Hebrews: small portions of the sacrifice were burnt, but the vast majority of the meat was shared by the temple priests.

Even in a non-religious context I personally insure that none of the animals we at Hammerstead Farms send to slaughter suffer needlessly. I stand on the kill floor and observe the entire process, insuring humane treatment. I have cared for each of them for anywhere from eight weeks to two years, and just because they're destined for the table does not mean that their last moments should be filled with terror and pain. To the contrary, they're giving their very lives that we may live: they should be treated with the utmost respect and deference.

Interestingly, I have read about this facility before, in a wonderful book entitled Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America by Stephen Bloom. The book went into little detail on the actual operations of the slaughterhouse, but delved into the effects of the physical movement of a group of Brooklyn Hasidic Jews to the heart of Iowa hog country. Fascinating stuff on it's own terms...

Los Angeles Times - The beef is produced according to ancient Jewish law: A trained rabbi makes a swift cut across each animal's neck with a long, sharp knife. The blood drains quickly from the meat. Orthodox rabbis supervise the process and certify the beef as kosher.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

South Asia Tsunami Tragedy

Sometimes words are worth a thousand pictures ...

Here are a selection of eyewitness accounts from people who have written in with their experiences of the devastation.

(link) [CNN]

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27 Dec 2004
Steinbeck's Hometown to Close Libraries

And it's not going to be alone:

Libraries nationwide are struggling. According to an April study by the Chicago-based American Library Association, libraries in 41 states absorbed more than $50 million in funding cuts in the past year. More than 1,100 libraries have reduced operating hours or cut staff.

Books, libraries and literacy have been the carriers of civilization for generations. Now we're replacing Shakespeare with "Fear Factor", and TS Eliot with Howard Stern: what does this forbode for our future? Not all change is bad, to be sure, but neither is all change good. Change is simply inevitable. And quite often very scary.

AP - So how would Steinbeck have reacted to the news that the cash-strapped city is closing its libraries in the spring?

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

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They Won't Stand on Common Ground

To those who labor under the delusion that we heathens can make common cause with the conservative Christian Right on issues where we both agree, I offer the following. Here's where they're at on a key issue for us:

Religious liberty, as the group defines it, includes lifting the Internal Revenue Service ban on churches participating in politics. And it includes cheering judges who display the Ten Commandments in public places and championing courts that uphold the right of schoolchildren to say "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The only way to work with these people is to surrender to them. And I, for one, have no plans in that direction at all.

Los Angeles Times - Among the droves of conservative Christian lobbyists arguing their points of view in Washington, one relatively little-known group has a simple formula for setting itself apart from the crowd: Don't give an inch.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

26 Dec 2004
More Snow

is expected tonight, but at least the temperature is above 0° F... it's been a very chilly weekend. Of course we had lot's of Yuletide goodies on a busy day with family - I'll try to get in a full report tomorrow, but now I'm going to dive into some of the new books gracing my shelves.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Dec 2004
Brrrr...

The cold air got here a bit early: it was -12° F (-24° C) when I went out to the barn lot this morning at 8 am. But nobody froze to death overnight, not even the chickens. The hens may not have enough sense to come in out of the rain, but they do have enough sense to stay in out of the cold.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Except for worship, prisons lack holidays

Asatru got a small mention in this article on holiday celebrations in prison. Better yet, we were described accurately (if succintly):

Worship services were held Tuesday for the Asatru Yuletide, the winter solstice for Asatru practitioners. Asatru is a neo-pagan or "earth religion" based on the ancient beliefs and gods of pre-Christian Scandinavia.

They even got Wicca right:

Also Tuesday, a service was scheduled for Wiccan inmates, who celebrate their Winter Solstice on Dec. 21. Wicca, often mistakenly equated with witchcraft, is a neo-pagan religion derived from multiple pre-Christian beliefs by a British civil servant in the 1930s.

It's always heartening when mainstream media reports don't categorize minority beliefs with racists, cults, human sacrifice and Satanism. We're often as thankful for what's not said about us as we are for what is.

At the Lompoc federal penitentiary, the week of Christmas is barely recognizable from any other week.

(link) [Santa Maria Times]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

23 Dec 2004
Finally...

The snow has finally started: the forecast has been predicting it since last night, and areas just to the south of us really got hammered earlier today.

I just got back in from a quick visit to my father in law next door, and the tracks I made when I left were covered by the time I returned - maybe five or ten minutes. The wind is out of the northeast (a strange and ominous direction for the wind at this location) and the revised forcast says 5" to 8" accumulated snow by morning.

There's no doubt we'll have a white Yuletide here ...

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Snow Day

Well, we actually got about 8" on the ground - I think. It's tough to tell because of the wind, which is blowing parts of the pasture bare and mounding huge (10 foot plus) drifts.

I guess the Ohio Valley (which is about 150 miles south of us) really got hit: I lived in Tell City, Indiana (just east of Evansville) during the last big storm there in February of 1993, and it was a real mess. They're not nearly as prepared for massive snowfalls as we nothern types are.

All of our critters were crammed into the two big stalls in the barn this morning, except Rasta (the llama). He was by his lonesome in the old chicken area - he's got a much larger "personal space" than the others, and I suppose he just felt too crowded. But I'll bet that when the temperature plummets tonight he'll lose a bit of that and clamber in with everybody else.

That's my real concern now: Kris stayed home today (no point in going to work when your work is driving and the roads are all closed) and when we went out for the morning feeding at 8 am the air temp was 16° F - it's now 10° F. The high temperature on Christmas Day is supposed to hit 8° F, and the low will bottom out at -8° F (which is -22° C for those of you living in sane countries which have fully adopted the metric system). None of this takes into account the wind chill factor, of course, and with the winds from the north west gusting to 30 mph that's a significant bit of cold.

The Arctic blast is supposed to break on Monday, and we'll be back up slightly above freezing. But until then, well, we're just going to try to stay warm.

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