July 10, 2004
The Future of Food
How does one eliminate seed that becomes genetically-intertwined with one's own crops? Can multinational conglomerates push the world's 1.2+ billion subsistence farmers out of their traditional farming roles, and into poverty at the edge of ever-growing urban areas?
Deborah Koons Garcia's documentary The Future of Food addresses these issues, through a history of humanity's interaction with farming, and a thorough dressing-down of the large companies that are privatizing genes. And in protecting their patents, they are suing family farmers whose seed has become polluted with patented (and sometimes) experimental stock from these corporations, whose tactics are shamelessly profit-oriented ("buy the herbicide that kills everything! then buy the plant that is genetically resistant to the herbicide! and oh yes, we own the herbicide. And we own the seeds."); when subsequent generations of their patented corps mutate and are no longer uniformly pesticide- and herbicide-resistant, farmers end up using increasingly toxic sprays on their crops.
Nosireebob. One of many reasons I'm glad that farmer's markets are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, that markets and retailers are labelling foods (well, at least in the EU) ... but what about countries outside of the "First World"?
The film did not touch on many of the public-health problems raised by genetically-engineered foods: what of the addictive properties of corn syrup?
Sara invited me to the San Francisco premiere of the film. Hooray! Hearing her dulcet tones in the narration was a pleasant surprise.
July 09, 2004
And like that, *poof*, it's gone.
Beginning in October 2003, solar storms of unprecedented vigor have pummelled the Earth.
The solar eruptions were so powerful that billions of tons of electrified gas shot into space at speeds of up to five million miles per hour, the fastest ever measured from the Sun, scientists said. The blast waves from the series of explosions merged as they moved out, creating a front that is now moving toward the edge of the solar system at about 1.5 million miles per hour, they said.
I think they're responsible for the sudden disappearance of my Keychain and the almost concurrent iSync vaporization of my iPod.
July 08, 2004
It's all about the meta
This is not a blog entry. It's a test to demonstrate that I've finally fixed all of the CSS errors that have plagued the site. My problem? I was using @#$@#$ perl-style # comments, rather than C-style /* */
dad-gum-it. On the other hand, I got a biscuit:
I re-wrote the stylesheet so that I can apply CSS to other parts of my massive web property.
July 07, 2004
roads vs schools
Does California spend more on education (k-12) or on roads (highways, I suppose)? If six million U.S. workers commute via public transit each day, how many are in California? Which state has the highest per-capita commute via public transit?
July 06, 2004
The power of independent booking
After many years, I finally picked up (and read!) a copy of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler's essay on the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City.
I have enjoyed a membership at the musuem for several years -- one look at their unequalled collection of Hagop Sandaljian's microminiature sculptures convinced me! --
Although Josh carefully called 'round to a bevy of bookstores in Marin and San Francisco, he couldn't find a copy of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder on the day that he mentioned it (and a few years after our collective first visit to the museum and the nearby Indian take-away, also detailed in the book). It was again at Dutton's in Brentwood that a woman, eavesdropping on my conversation with a woman wearing a Mattress Factory t-shirt, mentioned the book. And they had a copy in stock, in the North ("Science") Room, along with a DVD of the museum's exhibits (which I haven't yet watched).
July 05, 2004
... and not a drop to drink
The Center for Land Use Intepretation in Los Angeles conducted a bus tour of the Owens Valley, subvertings its subtexts.
