Going veg is a great way to halt global warming

AlterNet has recently published an article entitled, "Vegetarian is the New Prius", written by Kathy Freston. Although none of the information is new, I still recommend reading it.

I've been a vegetarian for around six years, and vegan since June. Mainly I chose this path for moral reasons; I feel that specieism (sp?) is just as wrong as any other form of prejudice. However, I knew that wasn't the only argument one could make for veganism. One of those other reasons is almost as important as the morality argument; our planet.

A paragraph from the AlterNet post sums it up nicely:

...the University of Chicago... noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, we have transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels -- and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide -- as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

I think a great resource for this wealth of information is Factoryfarming.com. Please take some time to read through it.

AlterNet's "Vegetarian Is The New Prius"

Bill O'Reily hates America and is a loon

Below is a video from YouTube containing a segment where Bill O'Reily interviews Jim Fetzer, part of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.



Unbelievably, there are people who are hailing this video as proof that the theories put forth by the 9/11 Truth Movement can't hold up. What the hell? If anything, the only thing this video proves is that the media won't cover the story because they're too busy brainwashing it's viewers. The reason Mr. Fetzer can't provide any evidence during this taping is because O'Reily didn't give him a chance to. He was much to busy yelling "You hate America" repeatedly.

At one point toward the end of the video, O'Reily says "Number one, you hate your country; and number two, you're a loon." I disagree. It is in fact Bill O'Reily who hates this country; he represents the American media. The American media that refuse to provide unbiased and important news stories to the citizens to whom it concerns. The American media that makes up stories, cover-up legitimate stories that disagree with their particular angle, and uses propaganda that could rival the best Orwellian world.

There's a very real reason so many people despise America. It's because this garbage is what they see; it's because powerful Americans deny reality; it's because powerful Americans don't give a damn about the common people. I'm ashamed of this country and everyone who runs it.

One frame can say it all

link

The Strokes' "Juicebox"

I've never been a big Strokes fan, but this song grew on me.

Daily Show vs. FOX News

Bush quotes of the day

"I think that the Vice President is a person reflecting a 'half-glass-full' mentality."

"All timetables embolden the enemy."

Heard here:
Crooks and Liars

Cigarette ban a good thing

Al Jazeera

France has outlawed smoking in public places like schools and hospitals. According to this article from Al Jezeera, "there has been no sign of any widespread revolt".

I don't have a problem with people smoking. In private. Personally, I don't give a damn if people want to do harmful things to their bodies. I just don't want those things to harm me as well. Secondhand smoke kills 53,800 people every year. So a law that reduced that number is just.

France isn't the first country to put this law into practice, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I doubt that America will follow anytime soon, but we can always hope.

"Patrick Leahy slams Gonzales"

From AlterNet

The video is a little long, but you won't regret it.

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts

Another winner from StumbleUpon.

This wonderful list covers 10 baffling historical artifacts that are completely shrouded in mystery. One of these, the "Dropa Stones", are particularly interesting since they allegedly tell of an alien species crash landing in the mountains of China. However, as this Wikipedia article states, "There is absolutely no precedent for a completely unknown language being successfully deciphered."

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts

So Cruel

I would never force my precious cats into this machine. It's disgusting how people can treat animals like objects.

Oops

I feel as though I've been neglecting this blog lately. So from this day forward I'll be posting at least once a day. And if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments.

I recently had to reboot my laptop, which actually was a bit more fun than I'd imagined. I had to do it once almost exactly one year ago because it crashed, but this time I did it just because my computer had begun pissing me off. Part of it was my fault; in an attempt to uninstall Windows Messenger I'd uninstalled all of the Windows components. The other part was that I was constantly getting error messages. So I backed up all my data and fixed it up. When it was done I had that feeling of owning a brand new shiny computer, despite the fingerprints on the screen. Best part: Before I rebooted, I had only 15 GB left; now, 40. I can't believe how much junk I'd had installed that I never used.

I've also decided to minimize my (online) life a little. It takes almost two hours every morning to check my email, read my blogs, and check various forums I'm a member of. I'm still subscribed to a lot of blogs, mainly because that's where I get all of my news from, but the number is down quite a bit. And I did the MySpace clean-out. You know, delete a bunch of people, unsubscribe for boring blogs, and resign from many, many groups.

If anyone knows of any other ways to minimize (and in the process enhance) my internet life, post freely in the comments.

The Mighty Ninja

Howstuffworks has a great article on Ninjas. It's not very long, but it is very good and insightful. It covers everything from the not-so-Hollywood beginnings to their weaponry and even to modern Ninja-infiltrated movies. Read the article here.

Prejudice Against Germany

I actually wrote this as a forum post, but I decided to repost it here.

I just finished a very good article in the August '06 issue of BBC History (I know, I'm a little behind, lol) about "the way in which football illuminates the historical development of Germany's relationship with England". Here's an excerpt:

"The Second World War ended over 60 years ago. And yet, despite the emphasis placed by the British and German governments upon the excellent state of their relationship - meeting at Berlin in February 2006 Tony Blair and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, reaffirmed the point - the two countries have yet to learn to live comfortably together at all levels of society. A substantial gap remains between a predominantly harmonious official bilateral relationship and a frequently hostile British media discourse focused upon a Germany that no longer exists. Certainly, football's role in mirroring, influencing and articulating British perceptions of Germany, at least at the popular and media level, should never be underestimated. In fact, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is currently exploiting such stereotyping in annual essay competitions organised for British university students on the subject of "But don't mention the war"."

I'd never really thought about it before, but there really is a certain prejudice surrounding Germany. When most people hear the word, they instantly think of Hitler and the Nazis. People never really consider that Germany is just like the European countries surrounding it.

I think part of the reason is that people like having a country that "they're better than", just like most people have someone that they compare themselves to, but I think the biggest problem surrounding such attitudes is a combination of bad educators, the media constantly bringing up Germany's Nazi past, and people being blind to their own ignorance.

What's next for Apple?

From Worth1000: Photoshop Apple's Next Invention!
Find it here.

The Clayman's Dancing Chicken

Completely pointless... but what the hell. The Clayman's Dancing Chicken

History Repeats Itself

Over at AlterNet, Barry Lando has written a piece called "Surging to Baghdad-The Blockbuster Remake", highlighting the similarities between America's occupation of Iraq with Britain's Mesopotamia. Read it here.

Scary

From AntiWar

Former UNSCOM Chief Weapons Inspector SCOTT RITTER: Look, we’re already overflying Iran with unmanned aerial vehicles, pilotless drones. On the ground, the CIA is recruiting Mojahedin-e-Khalq, recruiting Kurds, recruiting Azeris, who are operating inside Iran on behalf of the United States of America. And there is reason to believe that we’ve actually put uniformed members of the United States Armed Forces and American citizens operating as CIA paramilitaries inside Iranian territory to gather intelligence.

Now, when you violate the borders and the airspace of a sovereign nation with paramilitary and military forces, that’s an act of war. …So, when Americans say, “Ah, there’s not going to be a war in Iran,” there’s already a war in Iran. We’re at war with Iran. We’re just not in the declared conventional stage of the war. –Democracy Now! interview, Oct. 16, 2006

SCOTT RITTER: The bottom line is, within two days of our decision to initiate an attack on Iran, every single one of you is going to be feeling the consequences of that in your pocketbook. And it’s only going to get worse. This is not something that only I recognize. Ask [Senator] Dick Lugar what information he’s getting from big business, who are saying, “We can’t afford to go to war with Iran.”

SEYMOUR HERSH: Final question: given all this, are we going to do it?

SCOTT RITTER: Yes, we’re going to do it. –“Ethical Culture Society,” Oct. 2006

Godly Video Game

How will we keep up with production of corn?

In an article published yesterday, studies showed that "US factories producing ethanol fuel for cars may consume as much as half of the country's corn crop next year" for ethanol. Essentially, prices may rise because the corn will be harder to get due to the vast amount it takes to make ethanol.

After reading this article, one thought jumped to my mind. Factory farming consumes so much land, resources, and food. With the elimination of these cruel and barbaric practices, all the land previously consumed would be free for ethanol production and other eco-friendly ideas for the future.

Just one more reason to go vegan.

Well, I'm not surprised

Startling as it may sound, I seriously doubt anyone is really surprised by the news that Israel wants to attack Iran with "mini-nukes". These two posts will cover it better than I'll be able to:

From The Nether-World
From Another Day in the Empire

Most annoying Thank You card EVER

The Million Thank You Meter Card: It's exactly what the title implies; a million thank yous.

Tiny Creepy Babies

These "babies" are tiny enough to fit in a shell or your hand. But they're creepy! I came across this site with the help of StumbleUpon, and wanted to share it.

Camille Allen

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

With this quick game, you can test your knowledge of famous programming language inventors and serial killers. There's 10 questions, and with every answer, be it right or wrong, you'll learn a quick thing or two about the man in question. Give it a try.

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

By the way, I got 10/10! I don't know if I should be happy or scared that I know a serial killer when I see one.

Creepy Dolls

This contains some truly creepy (yet beautiful) dolls.

{Click on "Jessica's Dolls"}

Something to do when bored... and in a parking lot

Have you ever driven though a parking lot and saw someone parked in four spaces at once? Now you can vandalize their vehicles with I Park Like An Idiot stickers. $10 for 20 stickers, they're the size of bumper stickers, bright yellow so they're easy to spot, and, if regular bumper stickers are anything to go by, a pain in the bum to scrape off.

Those yellow "I support the troops" magnets

movie trailer

Freedom Ship

The Freedom Ship, which is currently only in the planning stages, is an entirely at-sea community, where you can live, shop, work, and play without ever setting foot on land.

According to the designers, this ship would be larger than the Queen Mary at 4,500 feet long and 750 feet wide. It would constantly be on the move, circling the world (see the map here). The top level is reserved for small aircraft that would transport people to and from the "floating city".

Lifted from their site, the objectives of the Freedom Ship are to:

• Provide a unique, traveling residential community, combining the amenities of a modern city with those of the finest resorts, in an attractive, stimulating, and secure environment.
• Create a vigorous commercial community whose privately owned and operated on board enterprises will sell their products and services worldwide.
• Establish the world's largest duty-free retail shopping mall and bring it to markets around the world with a steady and substantial stream of resident and visiting customers.
• Develop the standard in education (US grades K through 12) for the entire world.
• Provide the residents and crew with the finest healthcare facilities and plans possible.

View their site here.

Links of the day

Post of the day: Bitchasaurus' 'Short Clip on Scientology'
From Beau Bo D'Or: A wonderful life... for Blair?
From Boing Boing: How to disable your new, RFID-laden US Passport
From Crooks and Liars: AP Poll: Bush #1 Villain of 2006
From D-Notice: The costs of ID cards
From Didn't You Hear: God protects you while you sleep?
From Didn't You Hear: Amnesty uses staples
From Archaeology in Europe: Top 10 discoveries of 2006
From Robotzilla: Toshiba Drape Analog Clock Phone
From Londonist: Wanna bet?
From Reaction: 100 things we didn't know last year

Random Bush Joke

I found this in a saved file on my laptop. I don't remember where it came from, so if anyone's seen it before, please let me know where.

President Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy."

Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy."

Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy."

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. Shit, I could throw all of them out of the window and make 56 million people very happy."

Special Defects

This site is beautiful. You can choose a series of special effects and watch them unfold. Check it out here. BTW, the above screenshot is from "Explosions in the Sky".

Strange Statues Around the World

Thanks to StumbleUpon for this wonderful collection of interesting statues around the world:

LINK

Another game

Although this time it's not educational. But it's fun. It's called Tilt. The object of the game is to keep a weight in the air, and it's actually quite hard when you get to level 5 and up.
Update: I just reached level 11 and 2147 points. yay!

Best Typing Game Ever

Word Shoot is the ultimate typing game. There's four levels (Impossible really is impossible) to test your skills. Most typing games are so blah, but this actually is a game. Give it a try.

What to do with a nuclear plant after a meltdown

via Boing Boing

Leekspin

I don't get it. But I like it. The song's catchy.

Leekspin

Shame on Diesel

I'm sure all of you have seen a Diesel clothing ad somewhere. Their latest is a new low for them. Sadly, I haven't been able to find it online anywhere, but I'll do my best to describe it.

It involves two unnaturally skinny models surrounded by parrots in the middle of a street (the street looks as if it's somewhere in the Middle East - although I'm not sure if it's just a set). In the lower right-hand corner of the ad there's a small box with contains the words "GLOBAL WARMING READY".

I've got a problem with this ad. Diesel is making light of a very serious problem. Global warming will never be taken seriously if stuff like this continues.

Most scientists now agree that we've got about ten years to make a difference. We can't fix what we've done, but we can slow it down and even stop it from growing. But without seriousness, the masses won't acknowledge that global warming is a major danger to our civilization.

Tie Skirt

I'll admit that I'm not going to jump up and buy this since I'm assuming the ties are made of silk (I'm vegan). But it's creative and original, which is a little rare nowadays when everything is just a clone.

The skirt is from anezka handmade and the direct link to the skirt is here.

What are the chances of you dying?

From August 2006 National Geographic, who in turn got their information from National Safety Council, 2003 data

Total odds of dying, any cause: 1 in 1
Heart disease: 1 in 5
Cancer: 1 in 7
Stroke: 1 in 24
Motor vehicle accident: 1 in 84
Suicide: 1 in 119
Falling: 1 in 218
Firearm assault: 1 in 314
Pedestrian accident: 1 in 626
Drowning: 1 in 1,008
Motorcycle accident: 1 in 1,020
Fire or smoke: 1 in 1,113
Bicycling accident: 1 in 4,919
Air/space accident: 1 in 5,051
Accidental firearm discharge: 1 in 5,134
Accidental electrocution: 1 in 9,968
Alcohol poisoning: 1 in 10,048
Hot weather: 1 in 13,729
Hornet, wasp, or bee sting: 1 in 56, 789
Legal execution: 1 in 62,468
Lightning: 1 in 79,746
Earthquake: 1 in 117,127
Flood: 1 in 144,156
Fireworks discharge: 1 in 340,733

Lovely Idea for City Living

I saw this on Inhabitat, but because I procrastinate I haven't posted it on here yet.

Grass Wheel

Absolutely the coolest design I've seen in a while

I love design, especially when it involves household furniture, decor, or hardware. That's why the sink pictured below is beautiful:via Didn't You Hear...

600!!!!!

I've just got 600 views! How awesome is that!

A big thanks to anyone that reads this blog. I love ya :)

Have you ever seen a $310,000 phone?

From Neatorama:
The phone has "one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, two emerald eyes, and 439 rubies".

What do you do in five years when your phone is out of date and you want a new one?

Awesome

From the September/October issue of Sierra, the Sierra Club's magazine:

Greenie and the Greenback

Henry "Hank" Paulson, President Bush's new secretary of the Treasury, has been called "Wall Street's greenest titan." He's an advocate of mandatory curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions. As CEO of Goldman Sachs, he allocated $1 billion for investment in renewable energy and energy-saving projects. He's chair of the Nature Conservancy and loves birdwatching.

According to Wikipedia,

Paulson has been described as an avid nature lover.^[7] He has been a member of the Nature Conservancy for decades and is the organization's Board chairman and co-chair of its Asia-Pacific Council.^[4] In that capacity, Paulson worked with former President of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin to preserve the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan province. He donated US$100 million worth of his Goldman Sachs stock to a family foundation dedicated to conservation and environmental education.^[8]

Paulson is also on the Board of Directors of the Peregrine Fund; was the founding Chairman of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University in Beijing; and, previously served as chairman of the influential trade group, the Financial Services Forum.

Notable among the members of President Bush's cabinet, Paulson is a strong believer in the effect of human activity on global warming and advocates immediate action to decrease this effect. ^[9]

This is an awesome dude.

A world without the first admendment

Recently, something terribly frightening has been happening. Republicans want to remove our Freedom of Speech. At first I didn't pay much attention to Newt Gingrich, simply because he's a joke and I don't bother. But now there's more people talking about doing away with the First Amendment. Read Another Day in the Empire's post about Mike Gallagher for more information.

What's so scary is that until recently there was no one in the media that advocated for a removal of this right. Now there are people actually considering it. And people aren't that outraged about it.

Whenever I read an article like the one on Mike Gallagher, two things pass through my mind. One book and one movie. 1984, and the popular movie V for Vendetta.

Top 10 Ugliest Sneakers of 2006

Kineda has put together a list of the 10 ugliest sneakers from this past year. And they're not joking. Check it out here.

Across the Web, 21 December 2006

When Charity Shouldn’t Begin at Home from Common Dreams.

The Hidden Opportunity in Global Warming from AlterNet.

Colbert's word: The Draft [VIDEO] from AlterNet.

Rowling finds finishing final Potter book a nightmare from Yahoo!.

US Out Now from Antiwar.

The Star of Bethlehem from i-Science.

Rwanda seeks to join Commonwealth from BBC.

Triplets for woman with two wombs from BBC.

One in 20 Hispanics 'goes hungry' from BBC.

Avoid crappy plane seats with this site: seatguru.com from Boing Boing.

Baby put through airport x-ray from Boing Boing.

Two-headed fossil from Boing Boing.

Metalhead graffiti causes terror freakout from Boing Boing.

Aluna Tidal-Powered Clock from Inhabit.

Numbers

This is for all you number freaks. I didn't actually read through the whole thing (I'm not one of the previously mentioned "number freaks"), but what I did read of it was interesting.

What's Special About This Number?

Not quite how it seems

For the few remaining pro-Iraqi war people, when asked why we should be in Iraq and how the Iraqi people have benefited, they almost always bring up women's rights. However, in this article from Feministing, women may have less rights then they did before the invasion.

Iraqi Women Have Fewer Rights Than Ever

The French Could Have Killed Bin Laden

So what?

Not too long ago Americans were angry at Bill Clinton because he let Osama Bin Laden "go". Now it's the French. Are we going to have to start eating freedom fries again?

Seriously, what's the point of playing this little roundabout game? Saying, "You should have killed him" is not going to fix anything. You can't change the past.