Category: Water Cooler

Farming In The City – A Chicken Story

I was listening to this story about a family, living in the city, having to get rid of there chickens because the neighbor didn’t like it.  I realized that many people don’t want the added noise or possibly smell chickens, goats, or any farm animal near them.  I understand that.

Even though I understand it, I don’t agree.  We live in the city and sure it is not customary to have farm animals.  But we put up with noise from cars, trains, and others.  While we should seek to minimize those noise or all possible noise pollution.  I see raising or maintaining a small farm as something we should all tolerate, even if it is a slight disturbance to us.

Keeping our food close and local, helps the environment in many ways.  Chickens for example, would happily eat certain types of kitchen left overs.  That means less waste to the garbage dump while the family spend less for their grocery, even if it is the cost of eggs and occasionally for meat.

Either way, I think our distaste for the farm like, which we happily consume.  Puts more control of our foods in the hands of greedy corporations that raise thousands of animals in close proximity and thus causes all kind of food related health problems.  Problems, we then expect the governement to fix for us.

Let’s play a more active role in our food production.  Allow, even if you don’t encourage, your neightbors to have a chicken or two, or a goat, or a rooster if they so please.  Those animals will add some noise to your life, but is that really so bad?  I don’t think anyone has gotten sick from animal noises.

May be I am biased because I grew up with chickens, pigs, goats, cows, horses, etc. either on the property or close by.  So I am used to it.  But even if you haven’t, I am willing to bet, people have gotten used to a lot worst in city living.  Not only the noise of the city, but the anonymity of people around you, the hustling and bustling, and other sources of stress.   Who knows, may be some farm animal noise might reduce your stress or talk to that distant part of you when farm animals was crucial to our survival.

Split Brain, The War Within

Okay, so I am being a bit sensational with the title, but not by much.  Consider this, have you ever said I am of “two minds” or “part of me wants to, but another part doesn’t”?  If so, then you are experience the conflict of the many part of your brain competing for control of your action.

I experience something like this almost every day.    Often, I eat not because I am hungry, but because it is time to eat.  Having been eating three times a day as a kid, I still like doing so.  But when I am about to eat, there is this voice/feeling that hey, you are not hungry, don’t eat.  But then another part of me is like, never mine, let’s eat anyway.  So I have always wondered about who is saying don’t eat and who is dismissing that messenger?  This seems to give rise to this idea of me and the other sub-me engaged in decision making.

Another example, this one is from the book “Incognito: The secret lives of the brain” by “Dr. David Eagleman”.   We were told something in secret; we are keeping confidence and want to do that.  But we also want to spill the beans.  The part that wants to spill, knows that keeping secrets is not healthy for us.  So we are always having this tug of war between the part that wants to talk and the part that wants to keep secrets.

What is really cool about listening to the author talk about this is that I often wondered why we said things like I am still deciding or I have to think about it.  It is as if we are waiting for the competing parts to submit their arguments for or against some course of actions.  And then we vote on one.  Listen to the author discuss this here.

Flying The Not So Friendly Skies

Certain things go well together; apple-pie and ice-cream, rice and peas, and even Baseball and hotdogs.  But cramped airplane seats and insensitive passengers is not one of them.  Apparently a flight from Dulles International Airport had to return to the airport being escorted by two US Air Force F-16 fighter jets.

All because someone reclined their seat just after takeoff and the person behind them, hit them in the head.  Which, in turn, caused a fight to break out including yet another passenger and the flight attendant.   On top of the melee and having to the pilot turn the plane around.  The flight was delayed until the next day.

Depending on where I was going, I might have not stressed about being going back to the airport.  But being delayed another day might have really ticked me off.   I hope the two idiots who stated it weren’t allowed to fly the next day.

 

Apple Wants To Approve Free Giveaways

Yes, you read that correctly.  Apple, the company behind iPod, iPad, iArm (not a real product, yet), iPhone, etc.  Has issued a doc stating that anyone wishing to give a free iPads for example, in lots of 250 or more.  Must get approval from Apple.  Image that?

Assume I wanted to buy every student in my old high school an iPad.  That is more than 250 students.  I will need to contact Apple first, even though I am paying for the devices and in noway using a discount from Apple.

Fortunately, I am a nut case and don’t support Apple by using any of its products.  I found this story here:

Apple Nixes iPad Giveaways

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 01, @07:34PM
from the too-good-for-free dept.
KingSkippus writes “According to a story at CNN, Apple has begun enforcing third party promotion guidelines (PDF) that, among other things, restricts organizations from giving away iPads, using the word ‘free’ to describe any Apple products in a prominent manner, or promoting giveaways of iPod Touches in lots of less than 250 and with Apple’s explicit approval.”

AIDS – Is There Finally A Way To Curb The Spread?

Here is this bit of tantalizing bit of news: “U.S. Mulls Implications Of Early Use Of HIV Drugs To Stop AIDS Spread’. Not that is tantalizing, won’t you say?

Finally, it looks like there is a way to get a handle of the AIDS epidemic.  The idea being, that early clinical trials have shown that people with AIDS, if given some new drug while their immune system is still good.  Will not spread the virus to another person.

So the obvious thing to do is, give this new cocktail or whatever it is, to everyone (almost) who currently has AIDS.  That way, they won’t (the reasonably healthy ones, won’t infect others.  They by stopping the spread, or drastically reducing the spread.  I guess with some more testing and debates, we shall see.