A recent study in Scientific American addressed literacy rates in the United States. We are fortunate enough to have few people in this country who are profoundly illiterate–unable to read, for example, stop signs and other basic information. But a growing number of Americans are what Chris Clarke calls socially illiterate, able, for practical purposes, …
Monthly Archives: September 2006
Collateral Damage
Given that it’s the day for Friday Cat Blogging, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about a serious animal related topic: what happens to animals in war zones. As I hope my readers are aware, an alarming chunk of the world is at war right now–many parts of Africa are experiencing periods …
Friday Cat Blogging: Yawn
Mr. Bell is, like, so over this scene. [cat blogging]
Urban Foraging
What happens after the fall, when we are trapped in burned out cities, utterly disconnected from our rural sources of food, let alone the commercial agriculture supply chain which reaches, sometimes, for thousands of miles? What happens as we wander desperately through parks, trying to figure what’s edible and what’s not, longing for protein while …
Questionable Advertising
So I was reading Grand Rounds this week (it’s well worth a read, by the way, although extremely long), and one of the featured posts gave me food for thought. The post was about an advertisement for non-alcoholic beer, using a “pregnant” woman as the selling aid. The ad, at first glance, looks like a …
Driving Under the Influence
So, I was driving a car the other day (something already a bit unusual for me) and my phone rang (something that almost never happens). I happened to be in congested traffic, and I looked for a good spot to pull over, but by the time I had, the call had gone to voicemail. It …
Spinacia oleracea
On my fruitless quest for spinach on Saturday, I pondered the Escherichia coli outbreak tied to spinach, and the way in which we handle disease outbreaks in the United States. I also thought about industrial agriculture, and the ripple effect that occurs when we take plants and animals drastically away from their natural state. If …
Toxic Mail
I popped out to check the mail yesterday afternoon and returned with two very interesting letters, both from the Department of Toxic Substances Control, which uses a sun, mountain, and water as its logo. I wasn’t aware that any of these things were toxic, personally, but then again you learn something every day. The first …
The Terrorists Are Winning…
…when you can’t get a fucking spinach salad. Seriously. So I am aware that there is an ongoing issue of foodborne illness surrounding spinach, thanks to the insane farming practices Americans use that actually foster drug resistant microbes that kill us. I know that large amounts of spinach were pulled from the market, but I …
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
I stayed up late last night reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is quite a superb book. I would highly recommend that those of you who haven’t read it, do so–even if you don’t think of yourself as being very interested in food. (Although if you’re not into food, I’m not sure what you’re doing here.) …