An Interactive Link

An interesting interactive map at the New York Times.

Food Arithmetic

Quality ingredients,
plus clever name,
equalsgastrointestinal aftermath

Same product,
plus same picture,
plus new color scheme,
equals new clever name.

Do I have to beat you over the head with it?

Production cost,
minus living wage,
minus reasonable benefits
equals low overhead/cheap "food".

Darwin Intelligently Re-Designed

Today on campus a bunch of people were passing out free copies of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species. At first I thought they were from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group who has locally sponsored advertisements on the sides of Metro city busses. The ads feature a cartoon of Santa Claus saying "Yes Virginia! There is no God." see HERE.
Anyway I decided to ask these Darwin peddlers who the hell they were.
I was given the runaround and had to be very blunt.
"What organization do you represent?"
"We represent ourselves."
"That's not an organization, what is your organization?"
etc, etc.
Turns out they are a christian evangelical organization. (Although the guy I talked to denied they were religious, he proudly declared that they were christian.)
The copies of Origin?, they had a foreword by an evangelical minister. I later heard while walking by some more of these people (on campus in swarms like fleas on a rat) peddling their snake oil:
"We're just trying to give people both points of view, because y'know, Darwin said that if his theory was proved wrong he would back down."

I must say, I am really impressed by the evenhanded and fair way in which these people are trying to approach the issue of evolution. Presenting both points of view because there is so much uncertainty about evolution and creationism. Both are totally legitimate theories backed up by vast amounts of research and evidence. It's really hard to tell.
Even Charles Darwin wasn't sure, afterall he studied theology and was a christian but published his book despite a great moral struggle over the fact that it contradicted his faith.
So good on you evangelists whose organization I forgot, thanks for giving us all a firm anchor in nonsense through outright deceit and misapropriation of a book and author of which you clearly have almost zero knowledge.
And good on me for not losing my blinkers and stabbing a fool.

Thinking as Cultural Toxin

"Perhaps the thing most evident of all is how new and varied become the problems we must ponder when we face the economics of affluence of the [culture] in which we live.

It is easy to see why the conventional wisdom resists so stoutly any change. It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought."

Adapted from "The Dependence Effect" which appears in The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, Houghton Mifflin, 1958

Snack

Tut

This are my halloween costume OK? Quit asking.

New Carbon Offsets

You may be familiar with the concept of Carbon Offsets. They're basically opportunities for greenhouse gas emitters, (manufacturing, mining etc) to buy indulgences in order to keep emitting. Essentially they invest money in carbon sinks like green technology (which seems oxymoronic), tree planting projects and the like to "offset" their emissions.
It's a major part of the European Carbon trading program which has been somewhat successful in reducing emissions there. Additionally it's on the table for a similar carbon trading plan that is slowly circulating in the US.

In a recent story on NPR they interviewed a guy about beetles that bury dead animals and lay their eggs on the carcass. They also mentioned a novel idea for disposing of human remains; hydrogen-freezing, shattering and composting the fragments of corpse.
I'd like this to be added to the list of possible carbon offset investments please.
Also, vasectomies and tubal ligations should be added as well.
However, these last two come on a sliding scale. They are worth dramatically less for each child you have already had up to 3, beyond which you get no credit for getting snipped. And,each year it is worth less as you become less likely to have kids.
Wind farm? Check. Shattered corpse? Check.

Real Change Cover

This should come out next Wednesday, I don't know if they'll use the green and yellow title. See also Crownz.

A Couple of; What The Fuck's With's

What the fuck's with people and their big ass strollers?
This is not a new problem and I am not the first person to rant about it but goddamn it, it is highly fucking relevant. I know that not a damn person who owns a big stroller will ever read this, but that is OK.
I have no doubt that it is merely a byproduct of oblivious consumerism that anyone would ever buy a giant stroller. Only in extreme circumstances could anyone ever possibly think that there was some kind of advantage, child rearing or otherwise, in owning an SUV stroller.
DO NOT TELL ME there is a good reason for owning a big ass stroller. There is NO REASON that a regular one won't do. Not even a double regular one. BULLSHIT! GET OUT OF OUR FUCKING WAY! I swear to Dog I will yell at the next spandex slow ass condo-whore who takes up the whole fucking sidewalk or grocery aisle with her condo-stroller and skim-latte. I may even slash the tires on the fucking stroller. This stroller costs 700 dollars and you are AN EXTRAVAGANT VAPID NARCISSIST. The only reason to buy one of those things is to prove that you can or to show that your in-laws can. In both cases you SUCK. YOUR BABY IS NOT SPECIAL AND DOES NOT ENTITLE YOU TO SPECIAL TREATMENT.
Shit, now I want to get into a fight with a baby daddy.

Where in the hell did the whole "I don't know how to cook" thing come from?
OK, let me backtrack a minute, I know where it came from. But it MAKES ME FUCKING WEEP none the less. It is perfectly reasonable to not have the knowledge of how to prepare certain types of food. Particularly if one has never made them before, this happens to me all the time.
I have ten plus years of working as a professional cook so I am biased. Additionally, I have written extensively on on the intentional dependency promoted by commercial food interests in their attempt to promote easy food.
Yes, I know, everything points to microwaves.
FUNDAMENTALLY one of the most important things in this culture is to train people how to cook/prepare their own food, because it promotes awareness in the ingredients and how they are produced. Nothing encourages peoples concern for their own well being more than a healthy meal produced sustainably in their/our own back yard. These are the things that temper my temper when someone buys a bunch of fresh fish and then asks, "how do I cook this?"
Really, you bought it without knowing what to do with it? Fair enough, this is my opportunity to go to work. These are the moments I should be looking for.
I can work with this, I am uniquely disposed to work with this, in fact those of us in my fish department are really adept at this dilemma. I'm just surprised and shocked when people buy the fish first, and then ask how to prepare it. So I guess in a way I embrace this WTF moment as an opportunity to change society because I can maybe teach people how to be more self sufficient and healthy.
That's a good way to end a bitter bitter rant.

Look; I'm Busy and Things Happen

I'd first like to apologize for whatever disappointment I may have cause a few sad souls out there who might have been deceived into thinking I would have something to say on a regular basis on this blog. I am pretty distracted by my everyday happenings and the things I am studying in school on a day to day basis. (not to mention the other blog) Nevertheless this is hardly an attempt to excuse myself from my present lack of public thought. As much as I would like to receive feedback from the public, I rarely do, so forgive me if I allow myself to beg off on the intellectual vacuum excuse.
Despite the lack of dialogue I should never let myself fall silent. It is my firmly held belief that regardless of objective resistance one should remain respectfully vocal.I hate to sound like a radical mouthpiece here but silence really is complacence.
Society is pushed towards elusive perfection only when all it's constituents express their desires and needs. (even if I may not agree with those needs) So I'll try harder.

Crownz

Racism, Art & Marketing

If racism is incidental in art and humor does that make it tolerable? For example, the drawing above is a double joke about cheap delivery food and low quality food giving you the shits. They guy only has a sombrero and mustache because burrito's are nominally Mexican food. What makes us laugh, the burrito emergency, or the guy? If it's just the poop then is it even racism? Am I trying to get myself of the hook?


What happens when the artwork is supposed to make us recoil? This piece by R. Crumb is I believe quite intentionally racist in order to confront us whitey's with our own perceptions of race and social hierarchy. Yes, it's racist, but it uses that to illuminate racism. It might remain a little unsettling though since it is about African Americans but drawn by a white man.

This is a little different though, being as it is a first person account.




This is just racist because it uses a stereotype as its sales pitch. I've often heard the refrain that stereotypes aren't totally wrong because they have a historical basis in fact. While I agree with the premises, I disagree with the conclusion of this argument.
While at some point in time a feature or characteristic may have been particular to an individual or a group of individuals, a stereotype assumes that that feature is universal to all persons who can conveniently be categorized as that group. Additionally the characteristic is frequently exaggerated in the extreme and supposed to be a defining feature of that group. And finally stereotyping often ignores the socio-cultural and economic circumstances in which the feature materialized, different speech patterns for example doesn't reflect a lack of intelligence, rather it underlines the disparity in educational opportunities between groups in the same economic hierarchy.
So next time somebody tries that line with you, tell 'em it doesn't hold water.

Saint Bronson Ascends to Valhalla

Finally done, well there might be a few more tweaks, but it's done. Considering that my first St. Bronson related post was way back at the end of March, that makes this about a six month project. To see the progression from the beginning, click on St. Bronson.

Mr. T and the First Lady

I've visited the Mr. T Wikipedia page several times but this picture was new when I visited today. It is awesome. Nancy Reagan sitting on Santa T's lap. What's that she has in her hand, why it's a Mr. T doll of course. Although I suppose it should properly be called an action figure.

Scourge

An attempt to capture the essence of cool.

Academic Arrogance

One of the younger students in my last philosophy course was getting frustrated by the debate/dialogue in class one day and I overheard her say to one of her friends during the break:
"This is stupid, all we ever due is argue, and talk about how other people argue about politics. That's why I'm going to be a biologist, science is facts and you can't argue about facts."

My Statistics TA last quarter had us do an experiment with histograms in which we recorded the dates on a bagful of pennies and played around with the data. When she was describing the experiment to the other TA he said: "You're going to give them pennies? Playing games is for kids, this is statistics, it's easy and we don't need to play games."

City Work

Everywhere I've ever seen city workers on the job, From New Mexico to New York there are always at least two guys standing and "supervising" for every guy actually performing labor.
In general most of these guys are big and the majority are white. Think stereotypical construction worker, union member type. When I think of it, conservative, patriotic bigot is what comes to mind. (I know, it's not that simple but it's what instantly comes to mind before I start to analyse)
So what I saw yesterday was particularly awesome to me because it captured the changing face of modern American culture:
4 city employees working at an intersection to fix the stoplight. Three of them were indeed white guys, bright orange vests and hardhats &c. They were indeed standing around watching the fourth guy work. The fourth was a skinny black guy sitting on a bucket with a laptop reprogramming the stoplight.

Mixed Blessings

Story for Real Change News. I prefer the blank one because I think the story will fill in the "blanks" so to speak.

Social Progress

Mixed Bag Rant

I've known for a while that cellphones are a two-way street. For probably 6 years now I've had in mind a comic strip (things get done quickly around here) in which a filthy ragged sociopath appears to be talking to himself while walking down the street but he is actually trading stocks over his bluetooth, while a well dressed and groomed fellow appears to be having a casual conversation but is actually totally nuts and talking to invisible people.

But it really hit home today at work in one of the rudest days I have ever experienced. I'm not sure if it was that Seattle wasn't expecting so much sun this weekend and everyone's brains were a little overcooked or what. Anyway, customers were short, not sweet, and demanding. But then there were the cellphones.

I'm sure this has been elaborated on by other more astute and timely social critics than I, however, let this be a further intoxicated haymaker swung at the chin of pop-culture.

Cellphones are simultaneously the bane and the boon of my generation (when I was 18 pagers were still the best you could hope for). Here we are a mere 11 years later and there are well worn dictionary terms for chronic cell phoners.
I digress. My hatred stems from the social side effects of cell usage, and the adverse undermining of the buddhist "be here now" effect.
Allow me to elaborate.

Cellphones are great because they do in fact shorten the bounce time for important communications. Business, family, etc. Most importantly they can increase the possibilities for global social justice & solidarity. What this means is that someone in Tehran can upload a video of a pro-democracy protester getting murdered (or a slew of Chicago commuters can do the same for an American citizen who happens to be black) and the rest of the world can know about it and react, and say something, and demand change or see what is wrong and how the world must change for the better.

At the same time however it distances us from our immediate surroundings. The obvious example is the phoning driver, and it would be a waste of time to elaborate my disdain for people who drive and talk/text. Behind the wheel you are responsible for other people's lives.
But there is a more intimate foundational rot. One that begins with the interpersonal relationship. I myself use a cellphone to talk to friends all the time, occasionally even my housemates who are a mere 30 stairs away.
But the cellphone is an unfortunate way to cut yourself off from the people immediately surrounding you, and that for a person who is not anywhere near you. On a cellphone, you sacrifice the fleeting contact with passersby and other people which builds human solidarity and community. This is evidenced in the rudeness of people who yell into their earpieces in public, or can barely squeeze out a few curt words to the barista or cashier at the store. People who wander around in circles apparently babbling at nothing.
People who go out with their friends and then stand outside talking to someone on the phone. Those of you whose phones loudly ring and ring and ring and ring yet you don't answer. Whether you looked at the number or not, you don't care. The people around you don't matter, they are not important. Fuck them, they're stupid assholes with bad taste, dumb friends, unglamorous jobs and you cannot possibly learn anything from them because you know everything.

Speaking from experience, let me tell you something. You (we) couldn't be more wrong. Think just briefly about all the things you know about, the things you are an expert at. Your degrees, certificates, experiences, trials and tribulations where did you earn them? Think about all the things that you have found or find interesting but haven't been able to study, and then think about all the things you haven't ever considered interesting or important to know about. Who does know them, and how do you know they even exist? And now consider how many people are alive right now. How many live in your city? How many right next to you?
You and I are not alone and we do not and cannot exist in isolation. Everything you know you learned from somewhere and your interpretations of what you experience you learned from someone else, and your next teacher or student is right next to you.

Don't stop using your cellphone, please, it's useful. Still, please don't forget us, the rest of the world. We need you, we want you, we like you, and we make a lot better team together than we do apart.