Well, you perv, it's actully the magnetic (and supersonic) solar wind having intercourse with Earth's magnetic sphere.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Flying Carrots and 492,000 Bags of Ketchup
"when iceberg lettuce is imported to the UK from the USA by plane, the energy ratio is only 0.00786. In other words 127 calories of energy (aviation fuel) are needed to transport 1 calorie of lettuce across the Atlantic. If the energy consumed during lettuce cultivation, packaging, refrigeration, distribution in the UK and shopping by car was included, the energy needed would be even higher. Similarly, 97 calories of transport energy are needed to import 1 calorie of asparagus by plane from Chile, and 66 units of energy are consumed when flying 1 unit of carrot energy from South Africa.
Just how energy inefficient the food system is can be seen in the crazy case of the Swedish tomato ketchup. Researchers at the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology analysed the production of tomato ketchup (2). The study considered the production of inputs to agriculture, tomato cultivation and conversion to tomato paste (in Italy), the processing and packaging of the paste and other ingredients into tomato ketchup in Sweden and the retail and storage of the final product. All this involved more than 52 transport and process stages.
The aseptic bags used to package the tomato paste were produced in the Netherlands and transported to Italy to be filled, placed in steel barrels, and then moved to Sweden. The five layered, red bottles were either produced in the UK or Sweden with materials form Japan, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Denmark. The polypropylene (PP) screw-cap of the bottle and plug, made from low density polyethylene (LDPE), was produced in Denmark and transported to Sweden. Additionally, LDPE shrink-film and corrugated cardboard were used to distribute the final product. Labels, glue and ink were not included in the analysis."
Excerpt from
Why Our Food Is So Dependent on Oil
By Norman Church
From The Wilderness
Thursday 07 April 2005
"when iceberg lettuce is imported to the UK from the USA by plane, the energy ratio is only 0.00786. In other words 127 calories of energy (aviation fuel) are needed to transport 1 calorie of lettuce across the Atlantic. If the energy consumed during lettuce cultivation, packaging, refrigeration, distribution in the UK and shopping by car was included, the energy needed would be even higher. Similarly, 97 calories of transport energy are needed to import 1 calorie of asparagus by plane from Chile, and 66 units of energy are consumed when flying 1 unit of carrot energy from South Africa.
Just how energy inefficient the food system is can be seen in the crazy case of the Swedish tomato ketchup. Researchers at the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology analysed the production of tomato ketchup (2). The study considered the production of inputs to agriculture, tomato cultivation and conversion to tomato paste (in Italy), the processing and packaging of the paste and other ingredients into tomato ketchup in Sweden and the retail and storage of the final product. All this involved more than 52 transport and process stages.
The aseptic bags used to package the tomato paste were produced in the Netherlands and transported to Italy to be filled, placed in steel barrels, and then moved to Sweden. The five layered, red bottles were either produced in the UK or Sweden with materials form Japan, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Denmark. The polypropylene (PP) screw-cap of the bottle and plug, made from low density polyethylene (LDPE), was produced in Denmark and transported to Sweden. Additionally, LDPE shrink-film and corrugated cardboard were used to distribute the final product. Labels, glue and ink were not included in the analysis."
Excerpt from
Why Our Food Is So Dependent on Oil
By Norman Church
From The Wilderness
Thursday 07 April 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Transhuman is a term that refers to an intermediary form between the human and the posthuman.
Transhuman is a term that refers to an intermediary form between the human and the posthuman.
The etymology of the term "transhuman" goes back to philosopher F. M. Esfandiary who, while teaching new concepts of the human at New School University in 1966, introduced it as shorthand for "transitional human." Calling transhumans the "earliest manifestation of new evolutionary beings," FM argued that signs of transhumanity included protheses, plastic surgery, intensive use of telecommunications, a cosmopolitan outlook and a globetrotting lifestyle, androgyny, mediated reproduction (such as in vitro fertilisation), absence of religious beliefs, and a rejection of traditional family values.
Sounds like the people on this blog.
Eric is protheses; Mike is plastic surgery, Joe is telecommunications, Monica is a cosmopolitan outlook; Margaret is a globetrotting lifestyle; Matt Bright is androgyny; I'm mediated reproduction; Kim is absence of religious beliefs; and Matt Woo is a rejection of traditional family values
Cyborg Liberation Front
Inside the Movement for Posthuman Rights
Village Voice | August 5, 2003
by Erik Baard
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
Yeats's wish, expressed in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium," was a governing principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists, they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people who aren't necessarily human at all. A good many of these 160 thinkers aspire to immortality and omniscience through uploading human consciousness into ever evolving machines.
Aspiring to immortality... Idiots. Those Star Wars movies are not even science fiction anymore, but science fact. I used to love them because they were such high fantasy, now every little technological detail has already come true. I still don't believe it.
Bionic eye will let the blind see
Scientists have developed a non-invasive brain-computer interface
FDA Okays Another Brain-Stimulating Implant for the Masses
Inside the Movement for Posthuman Rights
Village Voice | August 5, 2003
by Erik Baard
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
Yeats's wish, expressed in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium," was a governing principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists, they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people who aren't necessarily human at all. A good many of these 160 thinkers aspire to immortality and omniscience through uploading human consciousness into ever evolving machines.
Aspiring to immortality... Idiots. Those Star Wars movies are not even science fiction anymore, but science fact. I used to love them because they were such high fantasy, now every little technological detail has already come true. I still don't believe it.
Bionic eye will let the blind see
Scientists have developed a non-invasive brain-computer interface
FDA Okays Another Brain-Stimulating Implant for the Masses
Monday, April 11, 2005
Is it strange that people get information about the NATALE'S by reading the Buisness Journal?
Lea had baby #2. The baby's name is Ben 2. She's not as important as the first baby because she's came after. That's not fair, but that's life. It took me 29 years to come to terms with that. And 6 of those years I was Lea 2.
Lea had baby #2. The baby's name is Ben 2. She's not as important as the first baby because she's came after. That's not fair, but that's life. It took me 29 years to come to terms with that. And 6 of those years I was Lea 2.
I wonder what is was like living in the seventies, when the average 25-year-old man in 1970 made $2 per hour more, adjusted for inflation, than in 2000?
And that is just income. Now with gas prices at about 2.25, the price of everything else is going up. Yet somehow we get by. I guess it is not all about the money after all.
And that is just income. Now with gas prices at about 2.25, the price of everything else is going up. Yet somehow we get by. I guess it is not all about the money after all.
Congrats to me on becoming an aunt for the 8th time on Friday.
Tyler Patrick Maher was born around 11 am
He was due to be induced on Sunday (yesterday) which was my mom's birthday-- but he couldn't hold out!
Happy Birthday today to my little brother Mitchell.
He is 14 today.
Speaking of neices and nephews... Mike didn't your sister have another baby? I think I read that in the Springfield Business Journal a few weeks ago?
Tyler Patrick Maher was born around 11 am
He was due to be induced on Sunday (yesterday) which was my mom's birthday-- but he couldn't hold out!
Happy Birthday today to my little brother Mitchell.
He is 14 today.
Speaking of neices and nephews... Mike didn't your sister have another baby? I think I read that in the Springfield Business Journal a few weeks ago?
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