Come back birds, please?

Forget Hitchcock's The Birds.

The Mice or The Rats is far creepier, and actually taking place in my own home as we speak.

They are threatening my way of life!

I feel I'm in some kind of "your mother told you so" hell.

This can only mean war... Peaceful cohabitation will not be possible.

Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma

by Michael Pollan.

I'm an omnivore by [genetic] inheritance, and vegan by diet of my own choosing. Still, despite the potential for exclusion, I wanted to read this book, probably because of all the buzz it seemed to generate online. (I don't remember where specifically, but probably Salon* and Amazon).

The book certainly didn't disappoint; it totally surpassed my expectations. I thought it would be a simple rehashing of animal abuse cases involved in producing the meat and dairy we consume; news to some, but not me (there's a reason I became vegan).

But it was much more: Dubbing itself as a look at the journey of food from field to table, the book indeed does that, looking at traditional industrial agriculture, organic, and even hunter-gatherer.

Pollan reveals that traditional industrial agriculture - probably the source of most of our food - is based on corn. Forget everything you learned in third grade science (where the sun is the primary source of energy allowing the grass to grow which the animals then eat), because the reality is really different. Corn is grown in huge quantities (intermingling of government subsidies and corn's ability to grow in different environments) and then, because it is so cheap, put in just about everything we eat. Most animals we eat and get our milk from are fed corn as well, even though their digestive systems can't really handle it, and the majority are factory farmed, where they never get to see the light of day crowded together.

Even organic food, we learn, is divided into industrial organic and 'beyond organic.' Industrial organic mimics traditional industrial food, the difference being organic alternatives are used instead of traditional pesticides for crops and antibiotics for animals. For example factory farm chickens aren't given antibiotics, but extreme measures are taken to ensure that they don't contract infectious diseases - in such close quarters and without antibiotics there's a huge risk of infection outbreaks.

Beyond organic, or what we would assume all organic farming looks like, shows us a (rare agricultural example) where the energy depends on the sun and is grass(not corn)-based. Everything is a cycle, or a series of cycles, very much like what we learn in third grade science: sun nourishes grass, animals eat grass (and their manure fertilizes the soil), and humans eat animals. It's much more complex than that, but that is the basic idea, which adapts natural ecosystem to a farm.

Finally Pollan sets out on a mission to create a meal composed exclusively of his own hunting and gathering efforts, a meal where he not only knows where all his food comes from, but faces the ethical responsibility associated with consuming it.

Pollan succeeds in breaking down the science simply even for non-science folk like myself, always employing an engaging tone, and very often relating the information to himself. He also includes his own struggle to make sense of whether eating meat is ethical, and managed to make me rethink my own views. Although I don't know how much of this applies outside the US, it's definitely a fascinating account of where the empire's food comes from.

Also check out this funny and informative clip on Amazon where Michael Pollan discusses the book with Bill Maher.

* Check out a Salon interview with him here, and an excerpt from the book here.

Dog Outta Control

Some new photos of Daboor, trained dog extraordinaire (can't you tell from the photos?). Check out that photo of him where he looks rabid. And the last shot is an art piece: nails hammered into wood with black thread.

Ok, links time:

• If you're looking for a new religion, why not become a pastafarian? It's all about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (Thanks for the link M.)
• Article on Radiohead and carbon dioxide. (Thanks Y.A.)
• Finally, if you need to know all about world hunger and obesity, quiz yourself. (Thanks S.) Click for quiz on obesity.

Well happy eid to all where applicable. Enjoy your food.

Dog Drag

Look what the dog dragged in. No, really.

Reading: Miss Wyoming by Coupland.

Researching: graduate schools .. ekh

Young Daboor

That's young Daboor over there on the left. He stuck himself under the car today and was squealing for all he was worth, but emerged unscathed.

In other news, if you want to see cool cartoons, head on over to allenec's livejournal thingie.

Today I read this really great graphic novel called I Never Liked You: A Comic-Strip Narrative by Chester Brown. I guess graphic novels are not that easy to come by, but this was great, and I think in general graphic novels are great. I finished reading it in half an hour! So then I read it again immediately.
Also, if you're interested in independent media (and you should be), check out Meat Magazine, which is a self-billed "arts magazine," but it also has writing. I got the print version, which is intended to be the best of it's online stuff. You can also contribute to it if so inclined.

Finally, if you checked out Chris' blog today, you will know that 1) he is contemplating killing his blog, and 2) that he made an interesting remark about prison systems sucking. I commented on the post, and would just like to take the opportunity here to link to the blog I was unable to link to there: Jim Gilligan's blog post "Are prisons immoral? ... or is it just Americans?". The gyst of it is that in some nations, e.g. Finland, the penal system is approached quite differently. It's only a paragraph, so you might as well follow the link and see what the guy has to say.

Take care then.

the worms

It's initially shocking, but also really interesting.

Today I happened to glance at a bowl of dog food left neglected for a few days.

I saw little bits of pasta in the bowl along with other food.

I did a double-take when I saw the little bits of pasta moving around.

Worms... They look really cool actually. Like a scene from an animated movie.

The bowl was in the garage, away from soil, so how did the worms get there? And why on a specific day? I mean the food has been there for a while... so do the worms arrive at a certain stage of decomposing? Aren't they part of the decomposing process? Maybe it's a kind of worm party... they have to be fashionably late. They look pretty interesting the way they move... And some looked like they were getting it on, but who knows? Maybe they're just fighting to eat.

Closer inspection revealed the worms to be even more interesting than just the initial glance allowed. They seem to be segmented, and despite looking for eyes and not being able to tell, this site tells me they have none.

So yeah, in the picture the worms are the things that look like pasta, like I said. I really wish I had some video stuff to show, but limited resources prevent me from doing so.