30 Sep 2010
Food Is the New Pharma

Just what we don't need ...

Nestlé, one of the world's most successful packaged-food companies, is planning to pioneer a new industry to bridge the ever-narrowing gap between food and medicine. The company announced it would invest about $500 million in a new venture called "Nestlé Health Science" to develop foods and supplements designed to help prevent diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease.

(link) [Time]

via Ebony's Pearls

06:53 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link

21 Sep 2010
Party Out of Bounds

If I hear the "Tea Party" called "libertarian" one more time, I think I'm gonna puke. The vast majority of their candidates are at best hypocrites and at worst outright con men..

Take Joe Miller, darling of the Alaska Tea Party movement:

Alaska's Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller, who has railed against wasteful federal spending and pledged to abandon earmarks, received some $7,200 in farm subsidies on land he owned in Kansas.

Spot the hypocrite! Taxing me to subsidize somebody else is bad. Taxing somebody else to subsidize me is good policy! Spending is bad, unless of course it's spending on me!

Choke...

A bit more subtle is the case of Pat Toomy, one of the founders of the Club for Growth. The growth this club's all about is their own, and they're not afraid or unwilling to use the State to get their way. The story of Toomy and corporate taxes illustrates this perfectly:

After two days spent trying to hide his position on eliminating taxes for Wall Street banks and Big Oil, Congressman Toomey will not deny his support for zero corporate taxes, even at the expense of Pennsylvania’s working families.

Of course, this blog by his opponent in the Senate race in Pennsylvania thinks this is just awful! But ya know, I agree with Pat! There shouldn't be any corporate taxes! I know, as an anarchist, I can't really support taxation theft on anybody, but corporations shouldn't even exist: they're mere creatures of the State, designed to let the wealthy hide their liability behind some imaginary veil.

So, Pat, how about a deal? We eliminate corporate taxes by eliminating corporations. Of course, that would make you fully liable for your actions in the marketplace... no deal, eh? I thought not.

And there's the con artist: all in favor of those interventions by the State that support his positions, all against anything that smacks of actually having to pay his protection money.

Think about these guys constant harping to privatize Social Security - qui bono? They aren't talking about eliminating Social Security taxes, oh no. You'll just have to payse your moneys into their private mutual slush funds instead of an ostensibly public treasury. They'll manage it for you, taking a piece of the action in the process. When things go up. You'll be left holding the bag when things move the other way. Which is why many of my coworkers now refer to their retirement accounts as "201K's".

Politics is naught but the art of government, and government is nothing but raw, naked power applied for the benefit of those wielding it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that those who seek political office, despite their protestations of wanting to do good for the common folk, are hypocrites and con artists - what other kind of person would want the job?

Update: Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone agrees with my assessment of the Tea Party movement...

Update: More Tea Party Hilarity.

23:22 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

18 Sep 2010
New US Embassy Adopts Defenses From Middle Ages

What goes around comes around ... I wonder if there's a portcullis?

A US embassy is expected to extend the welcoming hand of democracy—while maintaining a 30-meter zone of blast protection. Such was the challenge facing KieranTimberlake when the architectural firm entered a State Department competition to design a new embassy on the banks of the Thames in London. Its winning plan, to be built by 2017, is part ultramodern masterpiece—sleek solar panels, a facade made of energy-conserving fluoropolymer “pillows,” spiraling green spaces—and part 11th-century castle. West Point professor Clifford J. Rogers, an expert in medieval military history, walks us through some features that the Normans would find quite normal.

(link) [Wired]

07:53 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

15 Sep 2010
The Sheep Are Dancing

Lorraine has been really getting into blogging on Dances with Ewes. Lots of sheep photos and tales from our farm, and a plethora of good sheep links. If you've not been there for a while, by all means check it out!

19:37 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

13 Sep 2010
Guess What, You Don’t Own That Software You Bought

Unbelievable - it's getting to the point where you don't own anything. Hopefully this will not survive the inevitable appeal, but if it does, they may have finally killed that golden egg laying goose.

A federal appeals court said Friday that software makers can use shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses to forbid the transfer or resale of their wares, an apparent gutting of the so-called first-sale doctrine.

(link) [Wired- Threat Level]

17:29 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

12 Sep 2010
Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love

Greed knows no bounds...

A growing number of developers and builders have been quietly slipping “resale fee” covenants into sales agreements of newly built homes in some subdivisions. In the Dupaix contract, the clause was in a separate 13-page document — called the declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions — that wasn’t even included in the closing papers and did not require a signature.

(link) [New York Times]

19:59 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

11 Sep 2010
The Sweet Smell of Rain

Got about half an inch overnight - the most rain we've had in better than a month. The smell is wonderful .... and it's still cloudy. The NWS promises more on the way, which will be a huge relief for our pasture (and our yard).

09:26 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

09 Sep 2010
Farmer's 24 hour milk filling station a hit

Bet those Germans are dropping like flies from drinking that poison - over here, we know raw milk needs to be regulated out of existence, for our own good, of course.

A German dairy farmer has come up with a novel way to drum up new business -- he opened a "milk filling station."

(link) [Reuters]

via Ebony's Pearls

18:55 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

08 Sep 2010
Pestiferous Kat

PK, the pestiferous cat...

This is PK, our Decorative (and pestiferous) Cat. She's not Functional at all - Moonbeam's the mouser. PK's job is to be, well, decorative. And she's good at it, as you can see. But things were not always thus ...

She started life in the barn - her mother disappeared shortly after she was born in 2007. She was the wildest barn cat of the bunch (and we had a bunch...). Nobody could get close to her, much less pick her up. Until she nibbled on a offering to Freyja during our wedding ceremony - a kinswoman fetched her off the harrow. We're not ones to ignore an omen like that, and she's not been outdoors since that day.

Literally. While Moonbeam is wont to escape at the slightest opportunity (and bother birds, but that's another story), PK won't even let herself be easily carried out of the house: the cat carrier is a rockin' when we try!

So that's PK's tale. She's still pretty shy around strangers, but not with us. She's not spoiled, either, despite the crocheted "cat mat" she's resting on...

22:29 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

06 Sep 2010
The Web Is Dead

Sure it is...

Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.

(link) [Wired]

09:31 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

03 Sep 2010
GCC - 'We make free software affordable'

Fascinating history of the most widely used compiler suite.

GCC and GNU Emacs are the two facets of the GNU operating system that have probably done more than any other to take GNU and free software from idealistic concept to a utilitarian reality.

(link) [The H Open Source]

22:17 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

02 Sep 2010
Blame Factory Farms for Salmonella Outbreak?

Brown EggsThe only real reason CBS got the link for this sordid tale is that this is the only story I've run across in the MSM that's more fact than bunk - they at least seem to have a inkling about the real cause.

"We have very cheap food in this country. It's hard to argue against it, and I won't," says Nestle. "We have made cheap food a value rather than value good food."

I have read how the eggs were contaminated by sick chickens - theoretically possible, I suppose, but highly unlikely. These eggs were almost certainly contaminated from being filthy in the first place and not adequately washed. Probably in cold water, which will actually drive the bacteria into the egg.

I heard a radio interview with one of the "farmers" at the egg factory, expressing amazement that eggs and shit came out the same chute in the chicken.

I've heard numerous folks swearing to go vegetarian to avoid food poisoning - enjoy your spinach!

I got a big kick out of this CNN article, which features a photo of "easter" eggs. These are laid by Aracuna or Americana hens, and are not used in commercial egg production. These are farm eggs, and almost certainly salmonella free, illustrating a story about food poisoning.

Our egg sales have gone through the roof since this story broke - suddenly folks don't think $3/doz. is too expensive anymore. Imagine that.

What this has really hammered home to me is our society's incredible level of ignorance about food - where is comes from, how it's produced and even how to prepare and eat it. And this is one area where ignorance is decidedly not bliss. It can be deadly.

The clue phone is ringing - I wonder if we'll ever get it?

In the midst of the largest salmonella scare we've seen in years, people are staying away from Caesar salad and examining their egg cartons for suspicious numbers and dates. At the same time, they're wondering whom to blame.

(link) [CBS News]

21:51 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link