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Dairy farmers have been giving hormones to dairy cows to produce more milk, and beef farmers have been giving to shorten the time to market for poultry. What we see as a result, are more and more children reaching puberty at younger ages and appearing older than they are...yes there is some creedence to the old joke "Your Honor, she looked eighteen!" Will a tearless onion mean we will eventually loose the ability to tear ourselves? I doubt it, but what ever change they make in the onion will eventually make a change in us.

Ok, having looked into this 1991 act it does look very relevant. In this address Bush takes credit for it, but perhaps that is just politics.

This page is pretty interesting, although it contains several obvious misunderstandings (understandable in a USDA statement about computer networks in 1991). It credits Gore as well as Bush. It is kind of quaint in that it has the whole "Japan and Europe are getting ahead" attitude that was the popular wisdom in the US during the last 80's and early 90's.

For an earlier look, see RFC 1167, authored by Vint Cerf. It's extremely impressive. It's not clear that he anticipated that ordinary people would actually use and do business on the Internet, but then, extrapolating from 1990 would not have suggested it.

But the artificially produced vitamin C is subtly different, and, in fact has measurable oxidizing and mutagenic effects (sorry, it's PDF. There are also newer and better studies if you search hard enough).

Similar results have been noted with artificial beta-carotene. The manufacturers are modifying the supplements now, but it gives an idea of how little we understand the nutrition processes.

Incidentally, artificial vitamin C first came under scrutiny in the mid-80's, when it was discovered that it did not prevent scurvy, but fruit-derived vitamin C did.

Lastly, it's pretty well known now that, while vitamins and minerals are very important, there are a lot of phytochemicals in the plant-based foods that are extremely important to health, and we only know what a fraction of them are. They can only load the supplements with what we already know about.

I like to call the Atkins diet the "make yourself sick diet" (someone elses quote, can't remember who - some registered dietitian) - If I remember correct, you survive off of ketones instead of glucose, which makes you somewhat ill and accordingly, you lose your appetite, eat less, and lose weight.

The best diet is one that you can stick to. I have lost ten pounds over 8 weeks without ever feeling hungry or giving up junk food. I did it by following the food guide, walking/cycling, and lifting weights.
Keep in mind, this is a net of ten pounds lost - I have gained muscle mass.

To anyone that wishes to lose weight or just eat healthy, check out the book "The American Dietetic Association's Complete Food and Nutrition Guide" - it dispels a lot of common myths (ie/ you must increase protein consumption to build muscle but not carbohydrate consumption) and is very informative.

If you just want the basics, check out Food Guide Canada or The USDA Food Pyramid for more info.

There are alternatives to these as well. I don't have any links handy, but there are pyramids for a Meditaranian (sp?) and vegetarian diets as well. A lot of vegetarians are actually in terrible health because they don't eat enough protein or are missing vitamins - if you wish to give up animal products, do make sure you read up on a healthy vegetarian diet!

A really good website is also at Ask a Dietitian - lots of good questions answered there. (Check out the icon if you bookmark it - a little penguin :)

Lastly, if you are interested in weightlifting, do it right! Use an abbreviated routine (no more than three lifting days per week) and stay away from the muscle comics and expensive supplements. I personally will eat an energy bar if I'm on the go, but wasting money on Myoplex is pointless when a chicken sandwich will work just as well.
Check out the misc.fitness.weights faq or the iron page at stumptuous.com for some good tips.

It appears to me that there was a little babyboom in the more-is-more 1980s, and those kids are coming of age. I wish there was a way to get credible census information in this kind of detail, but I'll bet $1 that there are more 18-25 year olds today than there have ever been in history.

I think it just seems like there are so many kids 18-25 these days because the ecomony took a dive and it's difficult for those inexperienced people to find jobs (especially techies).

http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/broadband.htm

http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/initiatives/index_ initiatives.htm#broadband

http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/broadband.htm

http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/initiatives/index_ initiatives.htm#broadband

Fortunately we don't really need to worry about it in the US any more, as less than 0.01% of pork is infected, it's killed in less than a minute at 140F, and if you're still worried, you can get irradiated pork -- it's dead, Jim.

The FDA guidelines are meant to keep the users of cheap thermometers absolutely safe, and to ensure we eat plenty of beef and chicken :)

Facts here

Most of this comparison in size goes back to economics. For some figures on sugar production and pricing check out this report [PDF format] from the USDA

The United States drinks a lot of soda for two reasons.

1.) Sugar is CHEEP in this hemisphere. Most of the world's sugar is produced in South, Central, and North America. The entire sugar production of the EU, for example, is outstriped by Brazil.

2.) The United States has a HUGE QUANTITY of money. We are the wealthiest nation on earth right now (but the EU will outstrip us soon... and political unity is closer than most people think). We can buy all that Western Hemisphere sugar with our huge cash reserves and save everyone a bundle on shipping.

Soda is fundamentaly cheeper here. Especialy in quantity (remember, when you buy a can of soda most of the cost is going into the Al which makes up the can)... and that matters for resturants which don't have to worry so much about packing materials.

The report mentioned above is dense and slow to load... but interesting nonetheless. I bet a karma whore could get a +5 interesting out of a decent world map of sugar production... I couldn't find one :-)

"Perhaps the only way to guarantee the freedom to use the network the way we want to is to own the network ourselves. "

This has been used historically both for municipal ownership of public utilities (electric mainly) and for co-operatives.

If you want ownership in the strictest sense a co-operative would be the way to go. See this report as a starter. This PDF article says some interesting stuff about telecomm and cable co-ops.

Find others in you service area who are interested. Organize public meetings. Incorporate. Show up for hearings. The next time the cable contract comes up for renewal, get your city council to consider a cooperative. "Raise less corn and more hell"

this reminds me of something else currently in development - edible foodwrap (made from fruit) instead of plastic.

usda.gov
freshangles.com

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/dec97/moth12 97.htm Popular-style article
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/factsh eets/fs-generic_lep.htm very technical, EPA-oriented
http://www.wcrl.ars.usda.gov/cec/papers/jce93-9.ht m Article about an insect population simulation program.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2174.html Using bt instead
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/rhgiles/Trevey/Gypsy.htm Vermont, long piece, "gyplure"
http://www.orst.edu/instruction/bi301/chemcont.htm Dr. Pat Muir's notes for a college class, short, readable. Excerpt:
"The advantages of pheromone use include the facts that they:

* are nontoxic
* are biodegradable
* can be used at low concentrations
* are highly species specific

Hazards or difficulties associated with their use include the facts that:

* resistance to pheromones could potentially evolve (although it would then be difficult for insects to find mates!)
* it is expensive and takes a long time to achieve commercial production."
More than you wanted to know about gypsy moths

In reading up about this I found that some of the same people who don't like pesticides also don't like Bt and pheromones. You wonder how they're going to like a deforested Pacific Northwest if those moths get loose up there.

P.S. URL for the meetup

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/dec97/moth12 97.htm Popular-style article
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/factsh eets/fs-generic_lep.htm very technical, EPA-oriented
http://www.wcrl.ars.usda.gov/cec/papers/jce93-9.ht m Article about an insect population simulation program.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2174.html Using bt instead
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/rhgiles/Trevey/Gypsy.htm Vermont, long piece, "gyplure"
http://www.orst.edu/instruction/bi301/chemcont.htm Dr. Pat Muir's notes for a college class, short, readable. Excerpt:
"The advantages of pheromone use include the facts that they:

* are nontoxic
* are biodegradable
* can be used at low concentrations
* are highly species specific

Hazards or difficulties associated with their use include the facts that:

* resistance to pheromones could potentially evolve (although it would then be difficult for insects to find mates!)
* it is expensive and takes a long time to achieve commercial production."
More than you wanted to know about gypsy moths

In reading up about this I found that some of the same people who don't like pesticides also don't like Bt and pheromones. You wonder how they're going to like a deforested Pacific Northwest if those moths get loose up there.

P.S. URL for the meetup

...do they make something like that?

Really, how is grapefruit juice supposed to do anything? It is just sugar water, not much different than soda except for the caffeine.

Grapefruit juice contains naringin which I believe is said to inhibit the breakdown of caffeine, thus giving you a longer buzz.

The link below goes into detail on grapefruit's chemical composition:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/phenolics/comp/grape fr.htm

1. If defined as "using a common standard" globalism falls short for the same reason that monoculture crops, or everybody using the same e-mail program falls short: any failure in the system is exported everywhere.

2. If defined as "free trade", it falls short because of the hidden costs that don't make it into the accountant's ledgers. For example, allowing international shipping on the Great Lakes seems like the obvious choice until you realize that trout are disappearing because of pests transported from foreign waters. From the Black Death of the middle ages, to the great flu epidemic of WWI, trade and travel has always brought these increased risks. These risks almost never appear on the balance sheet when free trade proponents make their arguments. The rational way to maintain the benefits of trade and ensure against such losses is to impose reasonable tarrifs. The proceeds of said tarrifs must be used to inspect imported goods, write regulations, etc. That is the only fair way to pay for such activities because the revenue collected will be proportional to trade. Pulling revenues out of the general fund won't work because the temptation to skimp on inspections is already too great. At the very least, import-export companies should pay into some sort of insurance fund to pay for ecological disasters and epidemics.

3. If defined as "world government" the problem is so painfully obvious that it almost lends credence to the conspiracy theorists who believe that globalism is a plot designed to start a world war and kill a few billion people. It's hard enough to keep Great Britain under one law. Can anyone seriously imagine bringing the entire world under one law without some serious butt-kicking? And for what? All because it looks so good on paper? And then when the government becomes evil where do you run? That brings us back to point 1--a monoculture government with no place for asylum seekers.

4. Some people have argued that "we have to expand free trade to help the economy". More painfully obvious fallacies. If we need to expand free trade to help the economy, then the economy is helpless because there is a finite world in which to expand.

5. If defined as "the UN" globalism is just a waste of time. Everybody has been marketed into believing that without the UN the world would sink into chaos. Bollox! Without the UN diplomats would continue to have ad-hoc meetings in times of crisis, and some left-leaning committees staffed by the wives of wealthy CEOs would no longer exist.

Yeah, George Soros thinks something is a great idea... whatever. These are the same kind of people who brought us Keynes and the "fine tuning" of the economy.

this has been going on for a while.

They have flesh eating flies in south america that swarm on cattle and people alike, inflicting painfull and diseased flesh wounds. They have been reducing their numbers using this irradiated fly technique for a while. The results have been good it seems.

The flies arent mutants, they're sterile. They still mate with the non-irradiated flies, but they don't produce offsprings, so they reduce the number of flies in the next generation without a whole bunch of pesticides getting in the food chain.

Here is some nuclear propaganda

Something like this has already been done, and very effectively with screworm .
You computer people for the most part don't understand biology, especially fiddlin' with it...which is funny cause you like to hack everything else?!?!

"The sterile flies with compete with the non-sterile flies for resources. So some sterile flies will die. This will leave a lot more than 2 sterile flies left."

That's not how it works. It works like this: The sterile flies compete for MATES, not resources. These boys are sterile, but still have all their natural instincts. Lots of mating takes place, but no fertilization. Satisfied but deceived she-flies lay eggs that will never hatch.

And, the way to tell if it'll never work, is to look at where it's been tried. This technique has worked very well over the last 40 or 50 years in screwworm eradication.

Not to the Isthmus of Panama. To the Isthmus of Tehuantepec--but later to Panama:

"The United States-Mexico Joint Commission was formed in 1972 between Mexico and the United States with the goal of eliminating the pest from Mexico and pushing the barrier to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, just north of Guatemala. A new sterile screwworm plant at Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico, was dedicated in 1976. With a production capacity of more than 500 million sterile flies per week, it replaced the former production plant in Mission, Texas, which was closed in January 1981. APHIS also is cooperating with Central American countries and Panama in efforts eradicate screwworms from those countries and establish and maintain a barrier of sterile flies at the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia.

As a result of these cooperative efforts, Mexico was officially declared free of screwworms in 1991, Belize and Guatemala in 1994, and El Salvador in 1995. In addition, Honduras is considered technically free, with no pest detections since January 1995. Currently, screwworm program officials are focusing their efforts on eradicating the pest from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. APHIS hopes to begin eradication activities in Panama, the final frontier of the program, in 1997. Eradication activities include regulation of cattle movement, wound treatment, and the release of sterile flies. To date, the program has been very successful."

Not just the USA. They're continuing the eradication all the way down to the Isthmus of Panama.

"With only 25 screwworm cases during 1990--none since July--Mexico is approaching the point where it can be declared free of this pest.
Eradication efforts continue to make progress in Belize and Guatemala."

And, in a very rare episode of international cooperation, in Libya. When these creatures attacked, a bunch of people realized it was time to put politics aside, and very surprisingly they did it.

"In response to an outbreak of screwworms in Libya, APHIS was able to obtain passage of legislation to permit cooperation with foreign
governments [meaning Qaddafi] ... to combat screwworm outbreaks by selling sterile flies produced by the U.S.-Mexico facility in southern Mexico."

Not just the USA. They're continuing the eradication all the way down to the Isthmus of Panama.

"With only 25 screwworm cases during 1990--none since July--Mexico is approaching the point where it can be declared free of this pest.
Eradication efforts continue to make progress in Belize and Guatemala."

And, in a very rare episode of international cooperation, in Libya. When these creatures attacked, a bunch of people realized it was time to put politics aside, and very surprisingly they did it.

"In response to an outbreak of screwworms in Libya, APHIS was able to obtain passage of legislation to permit cooperation with foreign
governments [meaning Qaddafi] ... to combat screwworm outbreaks by selling sterile flies produced by the U.S.-Mexico facility in southern Mexico."

Using precisely this method. See
This U.S. Department of Agriculture web page

Any geek worth his salt has read Neal Stephenson's description of "Fedland" in Snow Crash.

Any geek who's ever seen the work processes in place in the real government (either through knowing someone who works there, or by morbid curiosity and reading policy/procedure manuals that describe to government workers how to process forms filled out by the public, for instance) has realized that Neal Stephenson's imaginary "Fedland" wasn't an exaggeration.

Stephenson's Demented Imagination: Fedland

NEW TP POOL REGULATIONS I've been asked to distribute the new regulations regarding office pool displays. The enclosed memo is a new subchapter of the EBGOC Procedure Manual, replacing the old subchapter entitled PHYSICAL PLANT/CALIFORNIA/LOS ANGELES/BUILDINGS/OFFICE AREAS/PHYSICAL LAYOUT REGULATIONS/EMPLOYEE INPUT/GROUP ACTIVITIES. The old subchapter was a flat prohibition on the use of office space or time forr "pool" activities of any kindm whteher permanent (e.g., coffee pool) or one-time (e.g., birthday parties). This prohibition still applies, but a single, one-time exception has now been made for any office that wishes to pursue a joint bathroom-tissue strategy. [ ... ]

Random Excerpt From The Real Thing: Meat, Poultry, Egg Produce Labeling Review Process"

FSIS streamlined the system in a final rule issued on December 29, 1995, (60 FR 67444) that became effective July 1, 1996, by expanding the categories of products for which labeling can be approved generically by industry. For example, the rule allows Federal establishments to design and use labeling that conforms to the regulatory requirements for meat, poultry, and egg products that have standards of identity and composition defined in the regulations (9 CFR 319 and 381) or in the Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book.

There's one in every crowd, so here goes...
5.5 oz times 28.4 grams per oz is 156 grams. Pure fat, the highest calorie food available, has 9 calories per gram, so 156 grams times 9 calories per gram is 1406 calories maximum.

According to the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 Braised Pork brains have 138 calories per 100 grams or 215 calories in our 5.5 oz can.

Yeah, I know, the satirical art by Mom and Pop artist Mandy Warhole makes a better story, but someone has to standup for the pork producers.

Amazingly just last Saturday, I was discussing hog butchering with some of the old-timers and they said that they used to serve Pork Brains and Scrambled Eggs for lunch on Butchering Day. I'm not making this up...

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

I don't know if "critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture" was meant to sound sarcastic, but I don't seem to be the only one who read it that way, judging from a couple of comments here. I'd just like to point out that the Ag Dept does an awful lot of good. Aside from various projects that help keep rural America afloat, the Agriculture Department also runs the Forest Service, protects open space, keeps ag-related disease out of this country, provides low-cost foods for school lunches, and does all sorts of other nifty behind-the-scenes market-oriented stuff to help ensure that when you go to the store, the stuff you need is always there. And affordable. If the Ag Dept vanished, you'd notice.

Until very recently I was working in a Molecular Biology Lab at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Albany Ca. The agency does use Solaris to serve its e-mail, but almost everything else, from fileserving to administration uses NT

Some of the scientists (albiet very few) run *nix-boxes for their research. I had set up several Linux boxes to run bioinformatics software, and had to fight with the sys admin every step of the way! I was constantly tormented by computer guys chewing me out because they were afraid my computer was not as secure as others on their NT network. The sys admins there lived under the constant idea that Linux boxes are insecure because distributions come preloaded with a zillion unnecessary daemons (FINGER!? Telnetd?). I was burdened with the job of trying to prove to ignorant NT people that I had sufficiently locked down my Linux boxen, and that my computer was more secure than the other NT servers.

But why are you reading this? Go check out SmurfDot, slashdot with a Smurfs theme, or ThunderSlash, News for ThunderCat Nerds!

Ship livestock to the mined areas that have been diagnosed with BSE (no, not BSD). Let them roam free, and tell the inhabitants not to eat the gibs. This concept has made it into a game called Unexploded Cow.

And before anyone flies off the handle, I'm just kidding. :^)

An odd claim. According to USDA statistics, Oklahoma produced 37.8 million bushels of corn in 2000. That's almost $72 million worth of corn.

Therefore, http://travel.state.gov is my preferred "data-BSE", although CNN is fine for less enterprise-class data requirements. For "data-BSE" metadata, I'd suggest you consult the USDA.

http://www.usda.gov/rus/electric/

Many forms wouldn't.

True, but think of the cause of mad cow disease. That's believed to be a transmissible spongiform encephalopath, those types of pathogens are really difficult to destroy, and science does not yet fully understand how they function. They are thought to be proteins that self-replicate under the right conditions.

TSE's are relevant to the argument for the quarentine of rocks from mars because they cannot be disposed of through traditional means of disinfection. They resist heat, chemical antiseptics, and often continue to function after long dormant periods.

Just the sort of thing that would still be around after all other forms of life die.

Sounds like wasted food to me...

Effects.
We produce extra food to not be used ...
This costs us labor and fuel that could be applied to other more usefull projects.
This requires us to use land and fisheries that would not be needed and could otherwise be used or left wild.
For every X hours of farm work, X2 people are injured and X3 people are killed...

I once saw an article that indicated ~27% of the food produced in the US is wasted, think about it, we use a third more land, a third more fuel, maime and kill a third more people than needed to keep ourselves fed.

This has nothing to do with tree hugging, and everything to do with wasted lives and opportunity. And yes I do not stockpile food to let it go bad.

My fridge is usually empty at the end of the week, and I have a policy of not letting food sit unused for more than two weeks... It's called JIT (Just in Time) for the home.

TastesLikeHerringFlavoredChicken

kochsr says: Foot and mouth is not viral. It is a prion.

You must be thinking of Scrapie , which is a prion-caused TSE. Foot and Mouth disease *is* viral. It is caused by Picornaviridae, genus Aphthovirus. Read more at Vads Corner .

Actually, most irrigation techniques will result in a buildup of salts in the soil. Even freshwater contains some amount of dissolved salts, these slowly buildup in the soil over time as the some water evaporates from the surface.

Such is probably the fate of all civilizations that utilize heavy irrigation. Some think this may have led to the downfall of some early irrigation dependent civilizations.

Here is my best karma-whoring offering
for the goatse-phobic crowd go to:
http://www.ussl.ars.usda.gov/salinity.htm

...that we (citizens of the US) produce 25% of the world's climate affecting pollution!

I mean we DO produce 10-25% of the world's food....

:)

DO NOT waste space toadying to your chief bureaucrat at the expense of useful content.

For example, the top of the menu bar at NASA is a paean to NASA administrator Daniel Goldin: links to his bio, his welcome letter, his speeches. Click hot topics and the menu bar full of juicy Dan Goldin information is still there. In contrast, try to find out what's up with the NEAR mission to Eros. Go ahead-- I gave up.

This problem isn't isolated. Pick another site, say Department of Commerce. The "tribute link" to the chief bureaucrat is top-right, and you get a biography, speeches, op-eds, even "official photographs".

Here's the USDA site, where prime position is taken by a big picture of Secretary Glickman at the ribbon cutting for a new wing of the Dept. of Agriculture.

Gag.

DO NOT waste space toadying to your chief bureaucrat at the expense of useful content.

For example, the top of the menu bar at NASA is a paean to NASA administrator Daniel Goldin: links to his bio, his welcome letter, his speeches. Click hot topics and the menu bar full of juicy Dan Goldin information is still there. In contrast, try to find out what's up with the NEAR mission to Eros. Go ahead-- I gave up.

This problem isn't isolated. Pick another site, say Department of Commerce. The "tribute link" to the chief bureaucrat is top-right, and you get a biography, speeches, op-eds, even "official photographs".

Here's the USDA site, where prime position is taken by a big picture of Secretary Glickman at the ribbon cutting for a new wing of the Dept. of Agriculture.

Gag.

Once someone has gone as far as oral sex, vaginal sex ain't too far away.

...and pretty soon they're having anal sex with monkeys. I'm not sure what you're implying here, but if there are differences that your audience won't understand, it doesn't help to pretend they don't exist (e.g. Linux = Redhat).

Likewise, I would assume the percentage of crack or heroin users that have used pot as well is higher than the percentage of non-crack and non-heroin users.

If you were trying to say that most crack/heroin users have used pot, you are probably correct, but display a serious misunderstanding of the difference between correlation and causation.

A recent article in The Onion mentioned a study which showed that 90 percent of international terrorists didn't eat a balanced breakfast. While this is a satirical story, the numbers are quite beleivable. So if we are to believe your version of statistics, outlawing poorly balanced breakfasts would eliminate terrorism.

I'm sorry if I sound pissy, but I hate it when people use a poor understanding of statistics to justify bad policy.

The USDA reports tend to disagree with your FACTS.

Focusing on Kansas (since you brought it up):

Total number of farms in Kansas: 65,000
Total number of land in farms, in acres: 47,500,000
Average farm size, in acres: 731 acres
Source: Kansas Farm Facts 1999

Average selling price of irrigated land: $1,020/acre
Average selling price for non-irrigated land: $623/acre
Average selling price for all land: $659/acre
Source: Kansas Farm Facts, 1999
Where did you ever come up with your numbers?