Local And Organic Is Not Sustainable

To feed the world's people you need industrial agriculture. It is a matter of scale.

Must reading for people who think the local food movement will solve all of our agricultural problems.

MJ: Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008

Consider what it would take to make our farm system entirely organic. The only reason industrial organic agriculture can get away with replenishing its soils with manure or by planting nitrogen-fixing cover crops is that the industry is so tiny—making up less than 3 percent of the US food supply (and just 5.3 percent even in gung-ho green cultures like Austria's). If we wanted to rid the world of synthetic fertilizer use—and assuming dietary habits remain constant—the extra land we'd need for cover crops or forage (to feed the animals to make the manure) would more than double, possibly triple, the current area of farmland, according to Vaclav Smil, an environmental scientist at the University of Manitoba. Such an expansion, Smil notes, "would require complete elimination of all tropical rainforests, conversion of a large part of tropical and subtropical grasslands to cropland, and the return of a substantial share of the labor force to field farming—making this clearly only a theoretical notion."

The Palins

I feel bad for the family. But choices have consequences.

MSNBC: Bristol Palin and fiancé split

Are the conservatives who lauded the choices made by Bristol in interviews during the Republican Presidential Convention still happy with her decisions now I wonder?

MJ: Sarah Palin: More Earmark Hypocrisy

Using Gasified Wood In Your Truck

A neighbor of mine runs their truck on wood in the summer months.

For a how-to See MEN: Mother's Woodburning Truck: After 1,500 miles of free-fuel driving, we found that you can run a truck using firewood for fuel. This article includes detailed diagrams, photographs and how the wood/gas generator was constructed.

Rescuing Huskies

A husky can be a great dog but do not get one unless you can give it one hour of exercise every day, and a lot more at least once a week. Although I have never been a fan of pure breed dogs and like the husky-shepherd mix best of all.

But it is sad when people buy a puppy expecting one thing and then are confronted by reality.

See: AdoptAHusky.com

Via MLive: Too many Siberian huskies end up in shelters

I will confess that for years, I have harbored a secret fantasy about owning a Siberian husky. Granted, I'm a romantic. I love their look, their spirit, their sense of adventure. I figured owning one would bring out my Jack London rather than my Elmer Fudd.

But the fact that I don't have one is finally OK. My visit with the Michigan Dog Drivers Association last weekend affirmed what I also secretly knew. Anyone can wish for one. But it takes a special person to own one and do it well.

Reminds Me Of "Those Who Write The History Books..."

Funny but true at BalloonJuice.com: The Thin Line Between Socialism and Capitalist Nirvana

The 2010 proposed rate of 39.60% = socialism.
The 2002-2008 rates of 35.00% = capitalist nirvana.
The 39.6% rate of the 1990’s = socialism.

Vinegar - There Really Is Nothing It Cannot Do

PhysOrg: Cleansing toxic waste -- with vinegar

The research team, led by Dr Doug Stewart from the School of Civil Engineering and Dr Ian Burke from the School of Earth and Environment, has discovered that adding dilute acetic acid (vinegar) to the affected site stimulates the growth of naturally-occurring bacteria by providing an attractive food source. In turn, these bacteria then cleanse the affected area by altering the chemical make-up of the chromium compounds to make them harmless.

Orange Juice Is Packed With Orange Flavors

Alissa Hamilton is promoting her book Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

Boston.com has an interview: Q&A with Alissa Hamilton

IDEAS: What isn't straightforward about orange juice?

HAMILTON: It's a heavily processed product. It's heavily engineered as well. In the process of pasteurizing, juice is heated and stripped of oxygen, a process called deaeration, so it doesn't oxidize. Then it's put in huge storage tanks where it can be kept for upwards of a year. It gets stripped of flavor-providing chemicals, which are volatile. When it's ready for packaging, companies such as Tropicana hire flavor companies such as Firmenich to engineer flavor packs to make it taste fresh. People think not-from-concentrate is a fresher product, but it also sits in storage for quite a long time.

Via BoingBoing

Too Many Cars

A bunch of pictures of unsold cars sitting in lots around the world at Ritholtz: Unsold Cars Around the World



At some point these cars will be deeply discounted in order to be sold. At that point what happens to a person with a slightly used car? Who is going to buy a used car if there are new cars available at the same price? Eventually there will be a collapse in vehicle values and many people are going to find they owe more for their car than it is worth. Just like their house. And when energy prices start to rise again people will have more credit card debt than assets.

More images at Getty.

We Condemn In Others What We Fear Most About Ourselves

Via BB: Red states consume more porn?

According to a new Harvard Business School study, eight of the top ten states in terms of online porn consumption were ones where McCain won in the presidential election. Professor Benjamin Edelman analyzed anonymised credit cards receipts from a large online porn company. Based on their limited data, the largest consumer is Utah.

Commuter Bikes

MetaEfficient with a 2009 Commuter Bike Round-Up.

Not on their list is a bicycles I would consider for commuting duty too. Schwinn's electric assist bicycles.

Emprically Showing Conservatives Do Not Support Liberty

First, a study by George Mason University professor Daniel Klein: Conservative Magazines and the Presumption of Liberty: A Content Analysis on Sex, Gambling, and Drugs

Conservatives say they are for small government and individual liberty, but a content analysis of leading conservative magazines shows that most have preponderantly failed to take pro-liberty positions on sex, gambling, and drugs. Besides many anti-liberty commissions, the magazines may be criticized for anti-liberty omission—that is, failing to oppose anti-liberty policies.

This reminds me of a conversation I heard between two older gentleman last week. Within a span of a few minutes they complained about the United States moving towards "socialism" and they wanted Adjustable Rate Mortgages outlawed.

Or another person I know who will only vote Republican because he doesn't want to pay high taxes. Yet he has also said people who send spam faxes to fax machines should be severely punished and he wants the State to care for his autistic son when he turns 18.

There Will Be Gardening

The possibility of a garden on the White House lawn is getting closer to reality.

Via TH: White House Farm Coming Soon

I believe that by this summer there will be a garden – another garden, a vegetable garden – on the White House lawn...I believe the Obamas are committed to that. It’s a big idea, and its gonna happen. During the campaign, going around shaking peoples’ hands, he never got sick once. He was eating well, and it could have to do with having an organic chef with him. This is someone who 'gets' nutrition.

I, We, Two

BBC: 'Oldest English words' identified

Neko Case. Blast Off.

She seems like the reluctant star who is about to take off with the latest album coming out March 3rd.

Paste: 17 Things I Love, By Neko Case
Her numbers 1 through 5 would be on my list too, but not in the same order.

NYT Mag: Wild Thing

For the last five years, Case has lived in a middle-class, one-story-house neighborhood of Tucson, not far from the city’s center. But this spring she’ll move to an old farm she bought and is now renovating in northern Vermont. “I want to get away from the social vampires in Tucson,” she says. “The people who have no lives of their own and meet me and know who I am and feel entitled to say negative things. I have good friends here, especially in the bands” like Calexico and Giant Sand. Members of these bands and others have often appeared on her CDs. “But a lot of it is just like high school. And I like forests and all the wildlife up in Vermont.” It’s hard to imagine what these acts of social vampirism might consist of, but she prefers to leave them unspecified. She also asks that the Vermont town’s name not be mentioned. “I’ve had stalkers,” she says. Alexandria, Tacoma, Vancouver, Chicago, Tucson and, next, Vermont. Case hopes that her new community will prove to be her permanent home. You wonder.

One of many reviews: Neko Case spins alt-country tunes into "Cyclone"

MJ: Ramblin' Woman Neko Case

Just Like Vinegar?

In that it is a miracle cleaner and sanitizer. It is electrolyzed saltwater. See LAT: Simple elixir called a 'miracle liquid'

Overcoming Ice Challenges

NYT with a blog post regarding one of the biggest challenges to offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes - ice. See: Freshwater Wind Farms for the Great Lakes?

Lima Is Still In The Top 10

When you grow up it will be much easier to live in Lima, OH than elsewhere. As Lima has been one of the most affordable housing markets for about the last 20 years. I don't think that is such a good thing.

See Lifehacker: The 10 Most and Least Affordable Cities in the US

Ten Most Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000
1. Lansing-East Lansing, MI
2. Sandusky, OH
3. Lima, OH
4. Springfield, OH
5. Bay City, MI
6. Battle Creek, MI
7. Canton-Massillon, OH
8. Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI
9. Utica-Rome, NY
10. Binghamton, NY

The "When I Grow Up I Want To Live In Lima" song by Mr. Fioretti:

When I grow up I want to live in Lima
Maybe get there on a big jet liner
Take me an hour or maybe two
Either way I'll get there to you
We'll all pile into a conversion van
Drive on down to the House of Hunan
When we get there we'll see what they've got
Change our minds and go to the China Wok

When we get bored we'll blow up BP
When we get hungry we'll go to Kewpee

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah
[repeat]

A Wish That All Presidents Were Graduate School Lecturers

Professor-President Obama is demonstrating that the best leadership works in the classroom as well as the boardroom and as well in the political realm.

See Bob Herbert in the NYT: Obama Riding the Wave

He said that the fact that he’d been rebuffed so far in his quest for bipartisanship would not stop him from reaching out for Republican support.

“Going forward,” he said, “each and every time we’ve got an initiative, I’m going to go to both Democrats and Republicans and I’m going to say, ‘Here’s my best argument for why we need to do this. I want to listen to your counterarguments. If you’ve got better ideas, present them. We will incorporate them into any plans that we make, and we are willing to compromise on certain issues that are important to one side or the other in order to get stuff done.’ ”...

...But beyond his specific policies (and whether one supports them or not), Mr. Obama is emerging as the very model of the type of person one would want in high public office. He is intelligent, mature, thoughtful, calm in the face of crises and, if the nation is lucky, maybe even wise.

Feeding Elk Since 1912

Elk feedlots in Wyoming are extremely contentious. On one hand elk herds bring tourists and hunters to Wyoming, on the other hand, they destroy forest diversity. Good thing they have a good-natured guy like Brandon to administer the program.

See NYT: Debate Rages Over Elk Feeding

The Jackson herd, now tens of thousands of animals strong, became the foundation for a resurgent elk population. After the federal government stepped in to run the feeding system in 1912, a self-reinforcing loop of tourism, hunting, ranching and politics emerged. Having lots of elk in one place where humans would feed them, year in and year out, gradually became a goal in itself, shrouded with complex motives and enshrined by time.

“Habit became tradition; tradition became culture,” said Bruce Smith, who served for 22 years as senior biologist at the National Elk Refuge here, operated by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service.

Now a new and tightening circle of challenges is closing in on the elk and the human system that has sustained them, forcing a debate over the science, emotion and economics of protecting these magnificent animals and the landscape they inhabit. At the center is a critical question: Did human kindness backfire, setting the elk up for disaster?

When To Go To The Veternarian?

You can decide by checking symptoms at Vet Help Direct.

Via Mashable.