31 Jul 2004
Why kids drink soda pop

Uh, because they like it?

Ninety-six percent of respondents said that they liked or strongly like the taste of soft drinks. Those children who reported that they ''strongly liked'' the taste of soft drinks were 4.5 times more likely to drink soft drinks five or more times per week.

I'm going to apply for a grant to do a study to see if I can discover why people do useless studies to answer obvious questions.

Flavored, carbonated drinks have been around for about two hundred years. And their popularity continues to grow--overtaking more nutritious beverages among some age groups, especially children and adolescents. Researchers from the University of Minnesota surveyed 560 children ages 8 to 13 years old on how often they drank soft drinks and the factors that influence soft drink consumption.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Humor | 2 comments | permanent link

30 Jul 2004
Software offshoring: Big savings, quality concerns

Well, doh!

Companies can save thousands of dollars by outsourcing the development of custom-software projects to low-cost, offshore locations such as India and China, say researchers. In a new study, thye estimate the average annual decline in quality-adjusted price for software projects developed offshore is about 14 percent---or $56,000 per project. However, there are tradeoffs between the low prices customers enjoy and the potential for increased dissatisfaction due to greater uncertainties associated with distributed development.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

All My Chickens

Well, all the meat chickens, anyway, are in the freezers.

I went over to Kevyn's last night about 9:30 and we drank beer and caught roosters (65 of them - he decided to take them along today to cut down on the noise at his place) and then brought the trailer over here and rounded up my meat birds. What a hoot! One should never try to catch roosters when drinking - more beer went to the land wights than to the tastebuds...

We left at 5:30 this morning, and arrived at the processor at about 8. By 8:30 all the birds were unloaded, beheaded and drained - except one. 'Lucky' was a hen that got grabbed in the dark last night by mistake. She came home with us.

I have to say I was impressed with this place. It was run by the Amish, and was very, very clean and professional. The animals were treated with respect - no tossing birds around like footballs here - and the whole thing was very professional. The finished chickens were packed in vacuum sealed bags and chilled - not flash frozen (which is good - makes for a more tender bird). The countryside over there (central Illinois) was verdent, very Amish and very friendly.

My only complaint was the time it took - we didn't get through over there until 4 pm, and so it was 6:30 by the time we got home and got everything unloaded and stored. A very long day, mostly spent sitting in blazing hot parking lots, or driving around and looking over the farms.

We lost 80 birds to predators - only took 121 with me. That's an unacceptable loss rate, and we've just got to do better than that the next time. I was quite surprised that we'd lost so many - I figured maybe 30 were gone, or 50 max. It's tough to get an accurate count of that many free ranging chickens, however, without rounding them up and stressing them out, which we didn't want to do, so the number was a bit of a surprise.

I had half my birds cut - a lot of customers have no clue how to cut up a whole chicken, and that should help sales. It was only $0.40 more to have it done, so I figured we could afford to try it out.

I'm off to the sack - it's been a long day, and promises to be just as long tomorrow, as I have to go and fetch the beef from the plant in Terre Haute. The to the market and to sell steak and chicken. Hopefully lots of steak and chicken.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

U.S. mad cow testing criticized

It's been obvious to us small farmers for years that the USDA favors large agribusiness - if BSE has done anything for US agriculture it's forced this bias into the limelight.

One quote from a "meat industry" spokesperson in this piece really struck me:

Riley said widespread testing of young and otherwise healthy animals would be unscientific and largely pointless, and allowing private companies to test their own animals would be unprecedented.

What a crock of shit! I monitor my cattle's health every day: "testing" (by eye, ear and nose) for various infections and problems. If I want or need to I can buy all manner of test kits over the counter at my local co-op to help me diagnose nearly any cattle disease - except BSE!

What's unprecendented here is the length to which the corporate ag interests are willing to go to protect their faulty business model, including endangering the health of the American people and the indeed the survival of the beef cattle ranching in the US.

In countless barns, feedlots, slaughterhouses and packing plants around the United States -- the health of cattle has become a hot-button issue.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Research Sheds Light on Mad Cow

More mad cow news - and this is fascinating stuff. It seems to confirm the bizarre supposition that eating a folded protein (prion) causes proteins in the consumer to fold themselves, or at least modifies them genetically to be more easily folded spontaneously.

California scientists create the first synthetic rogue protein and use it to give mice a mad cow-like infection. The work has been hailed as 'a renaissance in prion research,' but it is unleashing controversy over the cause of the disease.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Jul 2004
Some Things Never Change

Chadd Wheat has a new column posted over at The Sitcom. Funny, subtle and slightly strange: all the things he evokes best.

He was helping clean out a grandparents house, and ran across some old family treasures. But he also encountered The Lebanon Reporter, circa 1970. Here's a teaser quote:

The Opinions page featured various editorials complaining about the President, the school board, and religion in Russia. Obviously some things never change.

Another refreshing thing about yesteryear: the television listings. No reality shows, except for sports. “I Love Lucy,” “Gilligan's Island,” “Wagon Train,” and “Andy Griffith”. There was no mention about “Who Wants to Marry My Midget Father's Chihuahua” on Fox. (In fact, there was no Fox network. Talk about refreshing.)

Funny stuff: give it a read!

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law?

I put this under my 'Copywrongs' category, but it could've just as easily gone under general political comment. If I had a category for 'police state' or 'Stalinist repression' I could've put it there, too.

This is part of a disturbing trend of using overly broad laws to prosecute people under completely inappropiate statutes. The Village Voice reported earlier on using the Patriot Act to go after druggies:

As part of North Carolina's own little war on terror, Watauga County DA Jerry Wilson focused on the state's antiterrorism laws to hammer people accused of producing methamphetamines. Ordinarily a meth producer might get six months, but under the new code, Wilson can send a convicted producer to jail for anywhere from 12 years to life. In the first case of this sort, Wilson is charging Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, on two counts of making a nuclear or chemical weapon in connection with the manufacture of methamphetamines. To get a connection between a nuke and meth, Wilson refers to the toxic nature of the chemicals involved in making the drug, noting that firemen and police officers responding to cases involving meth risk lung damage and other serious injury.

When the Patriot Act was passed, we were assured that it was only for combatting terrorism: this was obviously a lie. The camels nose is in the tent - how much further he goes is up to us.

The Stargate SG-1 Information Archive is reporting that the Feds filed charges against Adam McGaughey, creator of SG1Archive.com. The website is a fan site for the television show Stargate SG-1. The charges allege that Adam used the website to engage in Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services. Two interesting things about the charges are that they were apparently set in motion by a complaint by our friends at the MPAA and the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. Is copyright infringment now a terrorist act?"

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 2 comments | permanent link

On the Home Front

Man, the whole week is turning out to be as busy as last weekend! I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning out the meat chicken coop, in final preparation for taking them over to Central Illinois for processing tomorrow. Our chickens will be done this time in a USDA facility (or 'establishment', as they prefer to call them) and hence we can ship them interstate. That should help business considerably: I'll be sure to post sales details (or a pointer to them) here when we're ready to rock.

I also mucked out the machine shed, and took Blitzen (one of our Boer goats) to the vet. Skin problems seem to be endemic with him: Donnor (his twin brother) has had nary an infection, but this little guy seemingly gets them all the time.

The beef we had done over in Terre Haute is ready as well, and I'll be picking that up on my way back from the chickens. It's USDA inspected this time, too.

Tomorrow night, we take the grandkids to the country fair. That oughta be fun! But don't expect much profundity posted here tomorrow, I'll be on the road or on the Tilt-a-Whirl.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

26 Jul 2004
Spot the Pirate!

But wait! Who's ripping off what, here? There's one Russian product that's regarded universally as the best, and is equally universally copied and reproduced, sans license, of course, even by the US military.

Read the tale of the ubiquitous AK47.

The bazaar in this industrial city shows why Western companies regard Russia as a land of piracy.

(link) [The New York Times]

via Moore's Lore

00:00 /Copywrongs | 1 comment | permanent link

Ted Turner's Beef With Big Media

This was linked from several of my regular reads this weekend, and it is indeed a worthy rant. Even if from a very unlikely source.

At this late stage, media companies have grown so large and powerful, and their dominance has become so detrimental to the survival of small, emerging companies, that there remains only one alternative: bust up the big conglomerates.

(link) [Washington Monthly]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Guys and Size

Apparently, this has always been something of an 'issue' ... I just wonder if some of the untranslated runestones lying about the Scandinavian countryside are really ads for Viagra substitutes!

Research into medieval Icelandic gender and sexuality has found that even the heroes of Viking Age sagas were troubled by the thought that size really does matter.

(link) [ News-Medical.Net]

via Pagan Prattle

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

A new take on Ulysses S. Grant

Nice to see some objectivity finally seeping into the history books: Grant was an admirable figure, who was never personally involved in any corruption scandal. His errors were in his selection of associates, one which many of us frequently make. My favorite Grant quote:

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated.

Following his death in 1885, the reputation of Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War general and 18th president, went into a slow but steady tailspin.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Putin orders Stalingrad tribute

Hiding and/or rewriting history is a bad thing, no matter who's doing it. Stalin was famous for "reworking" documents to make it appear as though opponents never even existed: and his intellectual heritage was being extended by those who would expunge his name from the historical records. Glad to see that it's being set straight, at last.

The Russian president orders the old name of the city to be reinstated on a plaque marking the battle of Stalingrad.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

What a Busy Weekend

I do believe that this is the first time since I started blogging in 2003 that I've missed posting for three consecutive days without being on vacation or otherwise 'away from the office'. I've just been too damn busy!

Friday I spent the morning out cleaning out the chicken coop - again. There were only 8 loads of shit to the compost pile this time, and the weather was cooler, so it wasn't that bad. But it's still hard work: chicken shit is heavy stuff! Most of the afternoon was taken up at the computer, finishing up Hammerstead's sales brochure, then it was off the the farmer market at Trader's Point.

Kris got there about 5:30 pm, and then took a courier run to Kentucky for some extra cash. I loaded up everything from the market (including what Kevyn had brought down) to take the the market the next morning in Thorntown - he had another event down south that he had to attend.

I got home about 9, unloaded, did the chores, and finally had dinner about 10:30 - figured I'd read for a while unitl Kris got home but I fell asleep in my easy chair about 11! Which was a good thing, in hindsight, because Kris didn't get home until about 3:30 am!

Saturday morning we got up at 6:30 and headed for the market at Thorntown, where we stayed until noon. Then is was the 'admin' stuff - post office, bank, grocery store. Saturday evening was out Thing's Tide celebration at Ravenswood - the yearly business meeting for our kindred. Poor Kris missed it this year - she was too pooped to pop, and stayed home and slept. First one she'd missed in eleven years!

Sunday was more shopping - we got a different kind of hoe to try on the bull thistles, and also found some strong vinegar at a photo supply house to use as an organic herbicide. This is in violation of EPA rules, I might add: and I don't care if it is documented here. The USDA reccommends the stuff for organic farmers, but the EPA won't approve it because it's not commercially manufactured for use as a herbicide, and no one will manufacture it until it's commercially approved! I firmly believe now that 'government logic' is an oxymornon.

The weather has been rainy and cool - almost cold (sweatshits in July yesterday). Today is some more web work and then back the coop - the meat chickens are taking their first (and last) road trip Thursday - we've been thinking about a different arrangement for the next batch, as I'm not gonna go thru the 'barn as chicken coop' bit again!

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

23 Jul 2004
Microsoft Pockets Patent for Encouraging TV Viewing

The latest candidate for stupid patent of the year. Here's the abstract of US Patent # 6,766,524 - 'System and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs ' :

Described are methods and apparatus for encouraging viewers to pay attention to television programs, commercials in particular, by offering viewers some incentive to watch. In one embodiment, viewers are notified that they can receive frequent-flier miles for answering one or more simple questions at the conclusion of the commercial. To verify that the viewer paid attention to the commercial, the answer to the question may be based on the content of the commercial. A sponsor might ask, for example, that the viewer identify the name of the sponsor or the color of an announcer's shirt. A correct answer indicates that the viewer watched the commercial, and that the viewer is therefore entitled to some reward. For example, viewers who watch the commercial may be entered in a prize drawing, or may receive prize points, such as frequent-flier miles. In other embodiments, viewers may verify that they watched a given program by selecting an icon or pressing a button on a remote control.

Through its WebTV unit, Microsoft was awarded a patent Tuesday for a system and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs, such as offering viewers frequent-flier miles for identifying the name of a sponsor or the color of an announcer's shirt.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link