Don't panic! All this humans-are-responsible-for-global-warming is complete puff.
It's just the last ice age passing away.
Happens all the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
Humans have a real problem with geological timescales and their sense of self importance. We'll all be extinct soon anyway. So relax, find something nice to cuddle up to, sit back and watch the show...
The biosphere probably creates billions of harmless 'new' (as in never-seen-before) self-replicating species/entities every day. The chances are vanishingly small this one would become life threatening if released into the wild.
As for the technology, what should we expect? It was only a matter of time before this happened. Big-Pharm & Big-Chem have been funding this kind of research for decades and it's led to really useful technology like um... GM. At the end of the day all we have to fear is the majority vote of their shareholders - our new overlords.
Saddly (and typically of a lot of Jews that I speak with) *your* suggested 'progress' is riddled with the kinds of action you supposedly deplore...
I quote... "Do you want real progress? Kill Arafat, destroy Palestinian terror groups..."
More killing, destruction, death & suffering.
Sorry but you don't get my vote Mr. Durrin. You're just as bad as Arafat, Sharon and all his henchmen. Like them I suspect that you barely qualify as a human.
Since you are Palestinian, tell us - what would it take for the Palestinian people to live in peace next door to the acknowledged state of Israel? Do you insist, as do many other Palestinians, that the Jews and Israel must be driven into the sea?
Not at all. In fact, I think that Isreal needs the Palestinians as much as the Palestinians need Isreal. Isreal needs a work force, a gene pool, a cultural shakeup and *peace*. The Palestinians need an economy, a security force, decent ocean frontage, an apology, some plain old human respect ans *peace*
As you ask, here's my wish list:
In line with UN resolutions, stop building settlements in the occupied territories.
Take down your "wall of hate".
Give back lands and properties (or make substantial reparations) to those 'displaced'.
Stop treating Palestinian Arabs, Palestinian Christians, Jewish moderates and anyone who dares to be critical of Isreal as subhumans and criminals.
Stop marginalising people, stealing their water, destroying their olive groves and orange plantations.
Stop being so paranoid. Poor 'lil Isreal. The whole world is starting to realise that it has a real reason to fear and hate you. You people will stop at nothing to get what you think is "rightfully yours" and I have a feeling that we will all suffer for the price.
Phew! I don't know what's 'real' to be honest but sifting through the claims and counter-claims there must be some truth.
I don't take much notice of Al-Jazeera, no. I prefer to read Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Friedman and Noam Chomsky and listen to some of the other independent voices. Voices that are not stifled by Corporate Media.
You might be one of those people who dismisses the accounts of independent journalists, aid workers and peace activists who were on the ground at the time of these human tragedies. Just because a British Territorial Army Officer supported claims that Isreal was right to deny a massacre does not mean that senseless and systematic killing did not happen.
What does seem to be happening though is that Isreal *is* commiting genocide and ethnic cleansing. Brutally repressing an entire population, torturing, murdering, raping, forcibly evicting people and destroying homes with the justification that it is their 'God Given Right (tm)".
When people run out of sensible justifications for things they make God responsible.
I mean, what would you do if 'Palestine' happened to you? My Dad was 6 when my family were driven from their homes by Zionist forces. Some of my great uncles were hung in the streets in front of their wives and children...
Given the circumstances I know that I'd resist to the bitter end and I suspect that you would too.
But I suspect that these words will fall on deaf ears.
If you want some facts about "Poor 'Lil Isreal (tm)"...
Israeli forces have killed an estimated 13,000 Palestinians since 1948. They forcibly evicted over 737,000 Palestinians from their homes and land. 503 Palestinian villages were entirely depopulated and destroyed?
503 villages.
Isreal and America are the only members of the UN who have consistently vetoed calls to ban torture.
Isreal has the largest stockpile and is the largest manufacturer of WMDs in the Middle East.
Isreal is in violation of half a dozen UN resolutions - again "God Given Right (tm)" http://www.poptel.org.uk/scgn/articles/0303 /page2b.htm
Please stop. Take off your blinkers and listen to the other voices that have been silently fearful in the shadow of Zionist influence for too long...
I know this guy in South London who from an early age ran 'clubs' and insisted that the DJs bring him copies of their play lists. He has over 350,000 12 inch singles that pretty much chart the entire dance era. Can you imagine browsing his collection. It fills the walls of three medium sized rooms!
America was the country that was the primary "sponsor" - in terms of weapons, training and funding - of Osama Bin Laden and his fighters during the 1980s.
American spokesman saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan in 1996.
America unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in December 2001.
America renounced the efforts to negotiate a verification process for the Biological Weapons Convention and brought an international conference on the matter to a halt in July 2001.
America unilaterally withdrew from the Kyoto treaty on global warming in March 2001.
America is the world's biggest polluter.
America prevented the United Nations from curbing the gun trade at a small arms conference in July 2001.
America is the world's largest exporter of arms.
America was responsible for a car bomb which killed 80 civilians in Beirut in 1985, in a botched assassination attempt, thereby making it the most lethal terrorist bombing in modern Middle East history.
American illegal bombing of Libya in 1986 was described by the UN Legal Committee as a "classic case" of terrorism.
Aside from Somalia, America is the only other country in the world to have refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
America is the only country in the West which still permits the execution of children (i.e. "persons under the age of 18").
America is the only G7 country to have refused to sign the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, forbidding the use of landmines.
Aside from China, America is the only other nuclear power to have refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
America rejected the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to terminate its "unlawful use of force" against Nicaragua in 1986, and then vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling on all states to observe international law.
America is the only G7 country to have voted against the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998.
America refuses to hand over a variety of indicted war criminals, terrorists and mass murderers - all residing within its borders - to Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti.
America has provided approximately $110 billion in aid to a country [Israel] which has maintained a 34-year occupation of land in defiance of international law.
America was the only other country to join with Israel in opposing a 1987 General Assembly resolution condemning international terrorism.
America refuses to fully pay its debts to the United Nations yet reserves its right to veto United Nations resolutions.
America was the only country that ratified the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide in 1988, *40* years after its passage at the United Nations.
America was accused by a UN-sponsored truth commission of providing "direct and indirect support" for "acts of genocide" against the Mayan Indians in Guatemala during the 1980s.
America was the driving force behind the economic embargo on Iraq - responsible for the death of over half a million Iraqi children and described by one of its own legislators as "genocide masquerading as policy".
America is the only country in the world to have dropped bombs on twenty other countries since 1945.
America is the only country in the world to have used all three types of "weapons of mass destruction" (chemical, biological and nuclear).
The reason that people in the region hate America
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 2, Informative
is because US foreign policy is so inconsistent.
On the one hand Bush condems WMDs and says that Hussein has to go because he is in violation of UN resolutions calling for his disarmament
but on the other hand
Bush does nothing about the UN resolutions that Isreal is in violation of and they sell Isreal WMDs...
How would you feel as a citizen of this regions countries at the news today (on the day of the "war") that Bush is giving Isreal ANOTHER US$ 10 Billion to bolster up their failing economy (ie buy more military products) ???
I sometimes suspect that these things happen to deliberately provoke a reaction so that the US can 'justify' overwhelming retaliation.
When will the US taxpayers wake up and realise that their money is being spent proping up represive regimes and formenting hatred, death and terror for the sake of a few infulential industrialists who have a stake in one country in the region? And that their taxes are being used to promote the very thing they smilingly claim they're fighting?
Here are some criticisms of the Hydrogen Economy...
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15239
Why are some of your characters Jews?
on
Ask Larry Niven
·
· Score: -1, Troll
I enjoyed Ringworld but I was sadly distracted by the 'Jewishness' or Jewish references in several of your short stories. Shame. My question to you Larry is this, why do you feel compelled to make some of the main characters in your stories Jews? Don't you feel that this might alienate a lot the audience who might be reading this type of material because they are weary of Jewish supremacy and want to escape trivial religious divisions?
Oh yes. I remember my father telling me about when he was a kid (6). He remembers the Isreali invasion forces killing people in their homes. Bombing, shooting and bulldozing. Against unarmed Men, women and children who were going about their business.
Countless Palestinians died among them members of my family. Some were hung in the street in front of their families.
Niiiiice !
This was the hand of God in action. The act of the Righteous Sons Of Isreal. Not much has changed except that the brutally repressed are finally finding a voice and are fighting back But "Poor Lil Isreal (tm)" doesn't like any dissent does it?
But hey, those were the glory days right? Back in 1948 when the Isrealis could get a way with it without inciting disgust from onlookers.
Oh and please, spare us the "Remember The Holocaust (tm)" bull. Isreal started this.
You know what. I salute the Intifada. It works. It will bring Isreal to it's knees. They already need *another* 20 Billion USD to deal with the problem. I'm surprised that US taxpayers put up with it.
It won't help though. You know why? The whole world knows that the Isreali policies stink. and the more they bleat about the Holocaust etc etc etc, the more they advertise to the world how hypocritical they are. And the world hates a hypocrite. Maybe *thats* why you people have had so much aggression to deal with over the years.
Oh and BTW, your message was perfect. It shows the kind of rabid Isreali indignation that underpins many in your society. I hope that the rest of the Isreali people have the courage to vote for someone else.
Increase The Peace ------------------
Re:Best watch out for the Palestinian militants...
on
First Israeli in Space
·
· Score: 0
I don't understand your stupid joke.
Or are you from the "poor lil' Isreal" crowd who's knee-jerk "anti-semite" bleating finds time to cast racial slurs on a people struggling to find some kind of dignity, recognition and hope in the face of the worlds most militarised, materialistic and blatantly self-serving forces?
Keep your racist crap to yourself. Or sign up for propaganda duties at the ministry of ethnic cleansing aka Isreal.
Fantastic photos. What a beautiful planet we live on. It would be great to see some shots of densely "humanised" places though, just to see how massively we have impacted the environment. Human structures all look grey from the sky. I guess it's the concrete.
One thing that did stand out was the following:
http://astroboy.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthasart/images/ ga rden_hires.jpg
Someone should let these farmers know that if they offset their irrigation circles just a little they'd be able to increase their land coverage. The picture clearly shows how wasteful commercial growing practises are. At times I suspect that commercial agri-techniques are geared to being as wasteful as possible. It's a seldom reported fact that organic, bio-intensive techniques can support an average human on about 200 square feet of land whereas commercial growers require several thousand times that much and they profoundly damage the environment with the introduction of harmfull pesticides and by denuding the local flora and fauna. I hate the way farmers maximise yields by torturing the Earth on government subsidies and then destroy the short term glut of produce to inflate market prices. It smells like a very dangerous short- termist conspiracy to sell more agri products to farmers (fertiliser, equipment and now GM).
How to stop the madness? Well, if you've got the time, organi-grow your own. Learn how to make fertilizer and become more self sufficient.
I'm a Systems Developer (so I know how much time work swallows up!) but I set aside a couple of hours at the weekend to cultivate a 200 sq ft patch of land in South London (UK). We have been very successful and have been richly rewared by a *surplus* of produce each year, to the extent that we give away about a third of it to neighbors and friends. We gather kitchen waste and go to the local organic markets to get the spoiling stuff to make our compost. It's very 'spiritually' rewarding and we eat fresh produce that hasn't been chilled, stored in warehouses for months on end or waxed to death and the local animals (butterflies, beetles, toads etc) aren't harmed by us "doing our human thing". But as importantly, we feel that we're just a bit more in control of our lives.
Here's a few books that we have found usefull. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN /158008233 5/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-6015171-4396631 http:/ /www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/158017027 7/qid=1039094477/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-6015171-4 396631 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0 75130426 3/ref=br_lf_b_h__0/202-6015171-4396631
Unshackle yourself a little, feel the sun on your back and eat wholesome food...
This is complete and utter tabloidian rubbish. You can't compare the process of evolution (success through random mutation) to a pre-built machine that is given explicit instructions to overcome a programmed obstacle.
Slashdot Mirror
*sracist*
Anyone time travelling backward would pass on lethal viral strains to all they came into contact with.
See! The shadows all point in different directions!
Wait... panoranic? oh.
Free Tibet
FAQ my orgasm?
Because a mechanical wrist watch (presumably with manual or autowind) does not need an electrical power source.
So when the batteries in the Mars lander are flat, you can still count down till you freeze to death...
Don't panic! All this humans-are-responsible-for-global-warming is complete puff.
It's just the last ice age passing away.
Happens all the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
Humans have a real problem with geological timescales and their sense of self importance. We'll all be extinct soon anyway. So relax, find something nice to cuddle up to, sit back and watch the show...
The biosphere probably creates billions of harmless 'new' (as in never-seen-before) self-replicating species/entities every day. The chances are vanishingly small this one would become life threatening if released into the wild.
As for the technology, what should we expect? It was only a matter of time before this happened. Big-Pharm & Big-Chem have been funding this kind of research for decades and it's led to really useful technology like um... GM. At the end of the day all we have to fear is the majority vote of their shareholders - our new overlords.
It looks like someone navel gazing !
.*.
..*
***
Longyawn ?
Why are you so aggressive?
Saddly (and typically of a lot of Jews that I speak with) *your* suggested 'progress' is riddled with the kinds of action you supposedly deplore...
I quote...
"Do you want real progress? Kill Arafat, destroy Palestinian terror groups..."
More killing, destruction, death & suffering.
Sorry but you don't get my vote Mr. Durrin. You're just as bad as Arafat, Sharon and all his henchmen. Like them I suspect that you barely qualify as a human.
Since you are Palestinian, tell us - what would it take for the Palestinian people to live in peace next door to the acknowledged state of Israel? Do you insist, as do many other Palestinians, that the Jews and Israel must be driven into the sea?
Not at all. In fact, I think that Isreal needs the Palestinians as much as the Palestinians need Isreal. Isreal needs a work force, a gene pool, a cultural shakeup and *peace*. The Palestinians need an economy, a security force, decent ocean frontage, an apology, some plain old human respect ans *peace*
As you ask, here's my wish list:
In line with UN resolutions, stop building settlements in the occupied territories.
Take down your "wall of hate".
Give back lands and properties (or make substantial reparations) to those 'displaced'.
Stop treating Palestinian Arabs, Palestinian Christians, Jewish moderates and anyone who dares to be critical of Isreal as subhumans and criminals.
Stop marginalising people, stealing their water, destroying their olive groves and orange plantations.
Stop being so paranoid. Poor 'lil Isreal. The whole world is starting to realise that it has a real reason to fear and hate you. You people will stop at nothing to get what you think is "rightfully yours" and I have a feeling that we will all suffer for the price.
Phew! I don't know what's 'real' to be honest but sifting through the claims and counter-claims there must be some truth.
3 /page2b .htm
I don't take much notice of Al-Jazeera, no. I prefer to read Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Friedman and Noam Chomsky and listen to some of the other independent voices. Voices that are not stifled by Corporate Media.
You might be one of those people who dismisses the accounts of independent journalists, aid workers and peace activists who were on the ground at the time of these human tragedies. Just because a British Territorial Army Officer supported claims that Isreal was right to deny a massacre does not mean that senseless and systematic killing did not happen.
What does seem to be happening though is that Isreal *is* commiting genocide and ethnic cleansing. Brutally repressing an entire population, torturing, murdering, raping, forcibly evicting people and destroying homes with the justification that it is their 'God Given Right (tm)".
When people run out of sensible justifications for things they make God responsible.
I mean, what would you do if 'Palestine' happened to you? My Dad was 6 when my family were driven from their homes by Zionist forces. Some of my great uncles were hung in the streets in front of their wives and children...
Given the circumstances I know that I'd resist to the bitter end and I suspect that you would too.
But I suspect that these words will fall on deaf ears.
If you want some facts about "Poor 'Lil Isreal (tm)"...
Israeli forces have killed an estimated 13,000 Palestinians since 1948. They forcibly evicted over 737,000 Palestinians from their homes and land. 503 Palestinian villages were entirely depopulated and destroyed?
503 villages.
Isreal and America are the only members of the UN who have consistently vetoed calls to ban torture.
Isreal has the largest stockpile and is the largest manufacturer of WMDs in the Middle East.
Isreal is in violation of half a dozen UN resolutions - again "God Given Right (tm)"
http://www.poptel.org.uk/scgn/articles/030
Please stop. Take off your blinkers and listen to the other voices that have been silently fearful in the shadow of Zionist influence for too long...
Israel regularly bulldozes homes and kills Palestinian mothers, fathers and children.
Isreali troops standby while pregnant mothers and new born children die at checkpoints.
Isreali troops have shot and killed countless children in Jenin. As well as raped mothers and dsughters and desecrated homes.
First examine your own ass for verbal outbursts before claiming the moral high ground.
I know this guy in South London who from an early age ran 'clubs' and insisted that the DJs bring him copies of their play lists. He has over 350,000 12 inch singles that pretty much chart the entire dance era. Can you imagine browsing his collection. It fills the walls of three medium sized rooms!
This is what American democracy looks like !
America was the country that was the primary "sponsor" - in terms of weapons, training and funding - of Osama Bin Laden and his fighters during the 1980s.
American spokesman saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan in 1996.
America unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in December 2001.
America renounced the efforts to negotiate a verification process for the Biological Weapons Convention and brought an international conference on the matter to a halt in July 2001.
America unilaterally withdrew from the Kyoto treaty on global warming in March 2001.
America is the world's biggest polluter.
America prevented the United Nations from curbing the gun trade at a small arms conference in July 2001.
America is the world's largest exporter of arms.
America was responsible for a car bomb which killed 80 civilians in Beirut in 1985, in a botched assassination attempt, thereby making it the most lethal terrorist bombing in modern Middle East history.
American illegal bombing of Libya in 1986 was described by the UN Legal Committee as a "classic case" of terrorism.
Aside from Somalia, America is the only other country in the world to have refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
America is the only country in the West which still permits the execution of children (i.e. "persons under the age of 18").
America is the only G7 country to have refused to sign the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, forbidding the use of landmines.
Aside from China, America is the only other nuclear power to have refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
America rejected the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to terminate its "unlawful use of force" against Nicaragua in 1986, and then vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling on all states to observe international law.
America is the only G7 country to have voted against the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998.
America refuses to hand over a variety of indicted war criminals, terrorists and mass murderers - all residing within its borders - to Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti.
America has provided approximately $110 billion in aid to a country [Israel] which has maintained a 34-year occupation of land in defiance of international law.
America was the only other country to join with Israel in opposing a 1987 General Assembly resolution condemning international terrorism.
America refuses to fully pay its debts to the United Nations yet reserves its right to veto United Nations resolutions.
America was the only country that ratified the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide in 1988, *40* years after its passage at the United Nations.
America was accused by a UN-sponsored truth commission of providing "direct and indirect support" for "acts of genocide" against the Mayan Indians in Guatemala during the 1980s.
America was the driving force behind the economic embargo on Iraq - responsible for the death of over half a million Iraqi children and described by one of its own legislators as "genocide masquerading as policy".
America is the only country in the world to have dropped bombs on twenty other countries since 1945.
America is the only country in the world to have used all three types of "weapons of mass destruction" (chemical, biological and nuclear).
is because US foreign policy is so inconsistent.
...
On the one hand Bush condems WMDs and says that Hussein has to go because he is in violation of UN resolutions calling for his disarmament
but on the other hand
Bush does nothing about the UN resolutions that Isreal is in violation of and they sell Isreal WMDs...
How would you feel as a citizen of this regions countries at the news today (on the day of the "war") that Bush is giving Isreal ANOTHER US$ 10 Billion to bolster up their failing economy (ie buy more military products) ???
I sometimes suspect that these things happen to deliberately provoke a reaction so that the US can 'justify' overwhelming retaliation.
When will the US taxpayers wake up and realise that their money is being spent proping up represive regimes and formenting hatred, death and terror for the sake of a few infulential industrialists who have a stake in one country in the region? And that their taxes are being used to promote the very thing they smilingly claim they're fighting?
Live by the sword, die by the sword
Here are some criticisms of the Hydrogen Economy...
9
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=1523
I enjoyed Ringworld but I was sadly distracted by the 'Jewishness' or Jewish references in several of your short stories. Shame. My question to you Larry is this, why do you feel compelled to make some of the main characters in your stories Jews? Don't you feel that this might alienate a lot the audience who might be reading this type of material because they are weary of Jewish supremacy and want to escape trivial religious divisions?
Be patient with yourself.
Heh heh heh.
Oh yes. I remember my father telling me about when he was a kid (6). He remembers the Isreali invasion forces killing people in their homes. Bombing, shooting and bulldozing. Against unarmed Men, women and children who were going about their business.
Countless Palestinians died among them members of my family. Some were hung in the street in front of their families.
Niiiiice !
This was the hand of God in action. The act of the Righteous Sons Of Isreal. Not much has changed except that the brutally repressed are finally finding a voice and are fighting back But "Poor Lil Isreal (tm)" doesn't like any dissent does it?
But hey, those were the glory days right? Back in 1948 when the Isrealis could get a way with it without inciting disgust from onlookers.
Oh and please, spare us the "Remember The Holocaust (tm)" bull. Isreal started this.
You know what. I salute the Intifada. It works. It will bring Isreal to it's knees. They already need *another* 20 Billion USD to deal with the problem. I'm surprised that US taxpayers put up with it.
It won't help though. You know why? The whole world knows that the Isreali policies stink. and the more they bleat about the Holocaust etc etc etc, the more they advertise to the world how hypocritical they are. And the world hates a hypocrite. Maybe *thats* why you people have had so much aggression to deal with over the years.
Oh and BTW, your message was perfect. It shows the kind of rabid Isreali indignation that underpins many in your society. I hope that the rest of the Isreali people have the courage to vote for someone else.
Increase The Peace
------------------
I don't understand your stupid joke.
Or are you from the "poor lil' Isreal" crowd who's knee-jerk "anti-semite" bleating finds time to cast racial slurs on a people struggling to find some kind of dignity, recognition and hope in the face of the worlds most militarised, materialistic and blatantly self-serving forces?
Keep your racist crap to yourself. Or sign up for propaganda duties at the ministry of ethnic cleansing aka Isreal.
Increase The Peace
------------------
Fantastic photos. What a beautiful planet we live on. It would be great to see some shots of densely "humanised" places though, just to see how massively we have impacted the environment. Human structures all look grey from the sky. I guess it's the concrete.
/ ga rden_hires.jpg
N /158008233 5/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-6015171-4396631/ /www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/158017027 7/qid=1039094477/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-6015171-4 3966310 75130426 3/ref=br_lf_b_h__0/202-6015171-4396631
One thing that did stand out was the following:
http://astroboy.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthasart/images
Someone should let these farmers know that if they offset their irrigation circles just a little they'd be able to increase their land coverage. The picture clearly shows how wasteful commercial growing practises are. At times I suspect that commercial agri-techniques are geared to being as wasteful as possible. It's a seldom reported fact that organic, bio-intensive techniques can support an average human on about 200 square feet of land whereas commercial growers require several thousand times that much and they profoundly damage the environment with the introduction of harmfull pesticides and by denuding the local flora and fauna. I hate the way farmers maximise yields by torturing the Earth on government subsidies and then destroy the short term glut of produce to inflate market prices. It smells like a very dangerous short- termist conspiracy to sell more agri products to farmers (fertiliser, equipment and now GM).
How to stop the madness? Well, if you've got the time, organi-grow your own. Learn how to make fertilizer and become more self sufficient.
I'm a Systems Developer (so I know how much time work swallows up!) but I set aside a couple of hours at the weekend to cultivate a 200 sq ft patch of land in South London (UK). We have been very successful and have been richly rewared by a *surplus* of produce each year, to the extent that we give away about a third of it to neighbors and friends. We gather kitchen waste and go to the local organic markets to get the spoiling stuff to make our compost. It's very 'spiritually' rewarding and we eat fresh produce that hasn't been chilled, stored in warehouses for months on end or waxed to death and the local animals (butterflies, beetles, toads etc) aren't harmed by us "doing our human thing". But as importantly, we feel that we're just a bit more in control of our lives.
Here's a few books that we have found usefull.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI
http:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/
Unshackle yourself a little, feel the sun on your back and eat wholesome food...
This is complete and utter tabloidian rubbish. You can't compare the process of evolution (success through random mutation) to a pre-built machine that is given explicit instructions to overcome a programmed obstacle.
Dear Duh,
Because moving "sidewalks" can't cross junctions without going over/under them.
And "subways" keep you dry in the rain.
Fascists.