>Cheap water filtration is getting us to the >point where you have to look really hard to find >polluted water systems in North America and >Europe...and the rest of the world is catching >up.
HUH?!?! Come to Iowa and take a nice tasty drink of Atrazine, Roundup, hog lot run off and industrial pollutants and tell me how clean the water is. My parents had the water tested recently and it is worse than it's ever been. Full of microorganisms and leftover farm chemicals. Oh, and BTW, they've been farming most of the surrounding 203 acres organic for the last 10 years, so it's not a localized problem. The testing was done by the Iowa State Farm Extension Office and they recommended that children under 4 and older people NOT drink the water. Scary stuff.
>the Green Revolution in agriculture and the >plummeting price of food means that the Great >Plains aren't getting chewed up by clueless >undereducated farmers as they were in the 1930s
No, now we are blessed with huge corporate farms that don't care a lick about the environment. The large hog operations are ruining the state's water, soil and air. The corporate farms are using unsustainable farming practices that are rapidly depleting the last of the topsoil. Those "clueless undereducated farmers" from the 1930's (like my grandfather) CARED about the land. Sure, they made some mistakes, but they learned from those mistakes and moved to more sustainable practices because the family farm was more than their income, it was THEIR land, it was THEIR life and they expected it to be passed on, and viable for generations. Do you think the big guys see it that way? Or do they just see land to be exploited and a few more family farms to lean on and buy out when they've drained the ground they have?
And while we are at it, let's take a look at that cheap food. Low quality, tainted with pesticides, and lower in nutrition.
I'm all for advancing agricultural technology (as is my father, and his father, and his....), but corporate farms dumping basically untested chemicals in the environment (and my food) and pillaging the land is NOT progress!
Think of that the next time you sit down for diner.
>Evolution is centred around death , and organisms >killing each other to allow their own genes to >survive. It's like saying "I think war to control >the population" is good. Evolution is not a >beautiful thing to be involved in. If there is a >god then it is a non-benevolent one.
In Pagan times there was a belief in a deity that was both creator and destroyer (I think Astarte was one name for her) and life was seen as the cycle of birth and death. By your definition evolution may be a nasty thing for an individual, but in the grander scheme of things, it is quite beautiful and elegant. Think of the evolution of the patterns of DNA and see the growing beauty in what those simple building blocks can create given enough time.
The real evolutionary opportunity for an individual comes in their mental evolution as they go through life and what influence they have on the lives of others. Memes? I think Dawkins may be on to something there....
Ok I can't resist: This idea that God is some big nice guy in the sky that rewards you for going through the "right" motions and punish you horribly for doing the "wrong" things is pretty silly to me. I believe that there is something there, but I don't think that he/she/it communicates with us in as direct form as a book, or booming voices from the sky. Nature, in all it's complexity is the real communication.
High school was definitely a low point in my life. Nearly 10 years later I think I am finally understanding the greater picture.
Several things set me apart from the killers in this latest tragedy:
First off, I had a small, but close group of friends that I could turn to and know that they would understand what I was going through because they were dealing with the same crap.
Second, I had a family that was there for me. Sure we had our share of problems, and I was just as alienated from my parents as anyone, but still they were there when I needed them too.
And finally, I had computers, science and tech. This was basically before the net, before online gaming, etc. But computers and tech gave me a channel for the anger and frustration that built up all day at school being taunted, ridiculed, beat up, etc.
So what kept me from snapping like them? What made me different? Connection to others, and an outlet for my emotions. Ask those involved in the net, in online gaming, in the latest morphing of subcultures in the world, and you will find that this is exactly the same thing they find online and in their fellow geeks. These are solutions, not problems!
How to communicate this to the generally clueless masses is another question entirely.
Slashdot Mirror
>Cheap water filtration is getting us to the
>point where you have to look really hard to find
>polluted water systems in North America and
>Europe...and the rest of the world is catching
>up.
HUH?!?! Come to Iowa and take a nice tasty drink of Atrazine, Roundup, hog lot run off and industrial pollutants and tell me how clean the water is. My parents had the water tested recently and it is worse than it's ever been. Full of microorganisms and leftover farm chemicals. Oh, and BTW, they've been farming most of the surrounding 203 acres organic for the last 10 years, so it's not a localized problem. The testing was done by the Iowa State Farm Extension Office and they recommended that children under 4 and older people NOT drink the water. Scary stuff.
>the Green Revolution in agriculture and the
>plummeting price of food means that the Great
>Plains aren't getting chewed up by clueless
>undereducated farmers as they were in the 1930s
No, now we are blessed with huge corporate farms that don't care a lick about the environment. The large hog operations are ruining the state's water, soil and air. The corporate farms are using unsustainable farming practices that are rapidly depleting the last of the topsoil. Those "clueless undereducated farmers" from the 1930's (like my grandfather) CARED about the land. Sure, they made some mistakes, but they learned from those mistakes and moved to more sustainable practices because the family farm was more than their income, it was THEIR land, it was THEIR life and they expected it to be passed on, and viable for generations. Do you think the big guys see it that way? Or do they just see land to be exploited and a few more family farms to lean on and buy out when they've drained the ground they have?
And while we are at it, let's take a look at that cheap food. Low quality, tainted with pesticides, and lower in nutrition.
I'm all for advancing agricultural technology (as is my father, and his father, and his....), but corporate farms dumping basically untested chemicals in the environment (and my food) and pillaging the land is NOT progress!
Think of that the next time you sit down for diner.
>Evolution is centred around death , and organisms
>killing each other to allow their own genes to
>survive. It's like saying "I think war to control
>the population" is good. Evolution is not a
>beautiful thing to be involved in. If there is a
>god then it is a non-benevolent one.
In Pagan times there was a belief in a deity that was both creator and destroyer (I think Astarte was one name for her) and life was seen as the cycle of birth and death. By your definition evolution may be a nasty thing for an individual, but in the grander scheme of things, it is quite beautiful and elegant. Think of the evolution of the patterns of DNA and see the growing beauty in what those simple building blocks can create given enough time.
The real evolutionary opportunity for an individual comes in their mental evolution as they go through life and what influence they have on the lives of others. Memes? I think Dawkins may be on to something there....
Ok I can't resist: This idea that God is some big nice guy in the sky that rewards you for going through the "right" motions and punish you horribly for doing the "wrong" things is pretty silly to me. I believe that there is something there, but I don't think that he/she/it communicates with us in as direct form as a book, or booming voices from the sky. Nature, in all it's complexity is the real communication.
My $.02
High school was definitely a low point in my life. Nearly 10 years later I think I am finally understanding the greater picture.
Several things set me apart from the killers in this latest tragedy:
First off, I had a small, but close group of friends that I could turn to and know that they would understand what I was going through because they were dealing with the same crap.
Second, I had a family that was there for me. Sure we had our share of problems, and I was just as alienated from my parents as anyone, but still they were there when I needed them too.
And finally, I had computers, science and tech. This was basically before the net, before online gaming, etc. But computers and tech gave me a channel for the anger and frustration that built up all day at school being taunted, ridiculed, beat up, etc.
So what kept me from snapping like them? What made me different? Connection to others, and an outlet for my emotions. Ask those involved in the net, in online gaming, in the latest morphing of subcultures in the world, and you will find that this is exactly the same thing they find online and in their fellow geeks. These are solutions, not problems!
How to communicate this to the generally clueless masses is another question entirely.