Archive for the ‘reflection’ Category
cattle clubs »
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
Delicious
Most people eat questionable meats processed by questionable means in factories of questionable cleanliness by underpaid (or illegal) workers with questionable hygiene practices. That’s not an issue if you can ignore bacteria in your spinach or poisonous tomatoes and milk. (Or, if you’re like me, you overcook everything to the texture of damp charcoal.)
But what if you want something that won’t have a tenuous link to your pending bout with cancer? Why don’t we promote quality goods over low-cost carcinogens shipped thousands of miles? Or give incentive not to house your-future-chicken-breast in a too-small cage slathered with avian infection?
Food industries have built their irresponsible practices on the assumptions that consumers can’t buy better for cheaper and oversight is easily skirted. Both are true because most of us are poor and stupid (not you readers, though). We may not be changing (fuck me why aren’t we changing?) but there are existing tools that could change things.
- Farmers (dairy, produce, poultry, etc.) get together using online groups/forums
- Pool their resources
- Create a website with member logins, small monthly dues for local consumers
- Run funding drives ($10 donation, get 10% off next order) and forums to keep members informed, announce specials
- Monthly dues go to feed/slaughter/shipping/misc costs (reduces cost per pound)
- Per-pound profit for farmers would (likely) be more than branding themselves under Cargill, Tyson or [insert megafood company]
They’d provide quality not because of an underfunded, understaffed government office (which would still provide “grades”) but to avoid the backlash if someone’s irked. (Think of the digi-bomb dropped by just a few moms that strapped their children into kiddy-packs.) Such things would kill membership and, subsequently, the cooperative.
To-market cost would shrink while establishing consumer loyalty and involvement. Cavernous consumer meccas like Costco or Sam’s Club already use the idea. Folk wouldn’t necessarily get sushi in Oklahoma or out-of-season fruit in Illinois but maybe they shouldn’t. (Our culture of convenient consumption leaves a lot to the imagination.)
Butchers would be in demand again, small shipping companies could form and all the jobs would be localized. Area crops would be more diverse to meet demand and thus less suseptable to disease-sparked mass failure. Members would get discount, quality meats while putting more into their community.
For those scared shitless of Jan20, 09, this doesn’t rely on government handouts or profit distribution. Farmers won’t be paid not to grow crops or to grow specific crops to help regulate pricing. (Sounds sort of socialist doesn’t it?) Growth is limited by how cost-effective and high-quality the product is.
And no worries, this will never happen. Well, unless there’s total infrastructure collapse, but that’s for posts over at SD&IF.
friday free for all »
Friday, November 21st, 2008
Only one today because (you’ll probably agree) it’s long in itself. That and I’m cold camping Saturday night and need to reserve energy so I don’t pull a Doogie Howser from “Snowbound.” (Tough reference but seriously, just knowing the low is twenty-four sent my balls AWOL.)
… Yesterday, after a tweet from @garrickvanburen I “typealyzed” my posts and tweets. Chasm is a “socializer,” which means (typos aside):
The social and opiniated [sic] type. They are especially attuned to the feelings of themselves and others. They tend to be very aware of the values of their peer-group and tend to see things as either right or wrong, good or bad. They tend to be traditional and value their friends and family the most.
The Socializers are down-to-earth, practical people and very keen on making sure everyone is alright. This quality makes them enjoy social work places. Since they enjoy beeing [sic] and keeping things neat and tidy, they often also enjoy working in such environments.
My tweets come up as a “mechanic:”
The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generelly [sic] prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.
The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.
I don’t know the algorithm that goes into something like this but I can agree with a few things: “social,” “attuned to the feelings of themselves,” “see things as… wrong,” “independent,” “masters,” and “working as… firefighters.”
Also, to prove (read: without proof) I don’t think much while writing (really should be obvious by now), here’s a graph (or something) of the parts of my brain that are active while typing to Chasm:
active parts of brain
last night, I witnessed history »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Last night, something unbelievable happened. It was a long time coming, what with all the progress we’ve made in the area over the last twenty years. It was historic, epic and it sent a tiny chill down my spine. But, what are we going to do with it?
The power of it is hard to grasp. So many possibilities come to mind. The future is always an unknown but this changes everything. Like movies made before 1990 depicting the future Back to the Future without internet, something like this changes everyone’s view of what’s to come.
The impact is hard to measure. History will tell whether the feeling right now will manifest itself into anything. There is so much to reflect on, so much to discuss, before anything really comes from it but I have to wonder the point of it all.
I mean, really, how the hell’s a “via hologram” interview useful? Via satellite isn’t enough? The delays are the same and the cost is exponentially higher. Really, it doesn’t even seem practical.
But who am I to say. It’s a giant leap forward into an unknown direction. Seeing it live will be something I tell my grandchildren.
Oh… and that happened. Which, I guess, is sort of important because of his being the most powerful man in the solar system and all. But that hologram… wow.
Aside: did you all watch the concession speech and the victory speech? Notice a difference?
To all you McCain supporters, my apologies on your disappointment but pay close attention. Those people, the ones that booed when President Elect Obama’s name was mentioned, that jeered and scoffed when McCain pledged to help, they are your people. Their disrespect and juvenile scorn is yours.
It’s on you to educate them, to explain to them and to unite with them. Since the seventies we have been a divided nation both politically and economically. It’s time to compromise, discuss and move forward. We can’t do that with your like-minded assholes bitching and griping.
If you truly believe McCain stood for change and that we need to make progress, you need to get them on board. That’s on you, on all of you, and I can only hope you succeed. Hint: Turn off Fox and Limbaugh.
patriotism, redefined »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
1. a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.
2. a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government. [via]
that we were born from discontent is national lore something about polluting a bay with tea; i don’t read good. that those that fought against british tyranny were terrorists is arguing semantics they won so they’re revolutionaries. that our national pride and freedom are based on our ability to speak our minds is taken for granted. that we can bitch and complain about how much lame we have to slog through on our way to work is unspoken.
maybe we should pay more attention as “patriotism” morphs into following the administration’s talking points without question or second thought. maybe we should pay more attention in general. maybe we should keep a close eye on those that presume to keep our best interests in mind.
why do something that takes so much time that could otherwise be devoted to “american idol” or following the latest celebrity scandal or keeping up with “boston legal” or being an irresponsible quasi-parent? because as soon as questioning the establishment goes from rhetorically scolded to socially accepted to mandated we are no longer the nation we keep telling ourselves we are.
we are constantly reminded by those taking our freedoms away that we are a free nation. while our power to control the government slips from our fingers government tells us how much control we have over government. as the defense budget increases, our phones are tapped, our prisoners lose the right to a fair trial and our poor, sick and elderly are ignored almost completely we are told incessantly how moral and just we are.
when we forfeit our right to yell through a megaphone, microphone or telephone or blog or email or tweet when we think something is bullshit, we mutate. we become a nation built on fear, assimilation and mob-induced silence. we give up our power to govern through representatives and to oppose those representatives’ decisions on our behalf.
compared to our forefathers, who sparked a revolution with tea and pamphlets and left us with a bill of rights and some constitutional wordings that left us with guns and the right to annoy everyone around us by bitching their ears off about how shitty the government is and protection from being oppressed, how patriotic are you? bill moyer, chuck hagel, jon stewart
compared to the new definition of patriotism, agreeing with any administrations’ policies because “they hafta know more den us, duh” and are always right because they’re the leaders and they can spy on us ’cause that neighbor i don’t talk to could be a terrorist, how patriotic are you? bill o’reilly, sean hannity… fuck it, fox news, john mccain, west virginia
this election has me all tweaked. everything else is boring and everyone wants to talk about everything else. so… i bitch about it in posts you lucky, lucky readers. tell all your friends how lucky and attractive you are. they’ll appreciate hate it.
chasm readers: a breakdance »
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
A breakdown with flairs, head-spins and a turtle freeze no big deal. Or, reader appreciation day.
Because I blog and tweet without being interesting, I constantly feel like I’m repeating myself redundantly. A comment from a friend renewed my curiosity in whom is reading. You readers are the smartest, sexiest and most adept subset of the nation obviously. I thought I’d discuss the threes of you.*
About 250 of you have visited about 1800 times. All but a few of you are in the US and more than half are from the Land of 10,000 12,000 Lakes, followed by the Badger State about 25% of you. I assume this is because my national appeal is -12.7% and I have nothing to say about either coast those narcissistic pricks, save ZFS!. There are also some of you in IL and AZ. politically topical!
For about 1.5 months a reader from Tampa stopped by almost daily. On May28 s/he made her/his last appearance. I guess I offended her/him. Or s/he moved to Tucson and read for another month. Weird.
More than half of you have been here more than nine times much appreciated. Your favorite posts are momentum + incline – friction =, r.i.p.*, erroneous digital sweetness and one board or two: the verdict respectively. I guess you love the Favre though that post is sort of odd now, have had random texts sent your way and enjoy reading about my harrowing experiences. Good to know.
Most of you know the URL already or come from my facebook profile note: the URL will likely change with the redesign; pay attention. Others came from Google reader, MySpace, Twitter though I’ve only had the link up for a short time there and the former dr. date makes a strong showing.
What I found most interesting was your incredible ability to speed read. I don’t know if the analytics engine factors in days where no one reads but, on average, you kids are here for 56 seconds. I’m trying to slim down the posts exemption: this one but have a tendency to get a little wordy. I’m impressed and thus proved right in having the most adept readers on the interweb.
Thanks for reading for whatever reason it is you read. For a humble and handsome blogger like myself, it’s flattering.
* I’ve been able to track since Jun07 but only care about the last 365.25 days so we’ll go from there.