…then comment: http://www.acsh.org/publications/priorities/0804/agriculture.html

Romantic notions about the environment and technology are harmful, for their implementation can lower quality of life and worsen the problems implementation was meant to solve.

In recent years, the ideas espoused by some environmental and conservation groups have had adverse effects on agriculture, food supplies, and human health in developing countries. The difficulties these organizations create originate in their antiscience, antitechnology worldview. They deluge us with figures on soil loss, pesticide-related deaths, and alleged failed attempts at using pesticides to reduce infestation — but their figures are too often unverifiable.

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In the 1970s, “small-is-beautiful,” “back-to-nature” types told us that we could sustain resources only if they were “renewable.” Two decades later, the “nonrenewable” resources we allegedly were exhausting are generally abundant and often available at historically low real prices — while the “renewable” biological resources, such as rain forests, are in danger.

Organic agriculture does not pass the first test of sustainability: It cannot sustain the existing population of the world. Actions that undercut agronomy — the science of field-crop production — are detriments to the poor and to the environment. Such actions lead to the bringing of marginal lands into cultivation.

The sustainability of agricultural techniques is an important, valid concern, but such concerns do not legitimize technological and sociocultural regression.

How about some music?

• Are you a betting (wo)man? Even if you are, I bet you’re nothing compared to this guy.
• 14-year old arrested for “Redneck Club” Initiation. This reminds me of a classmate in HS who received life without parole for killing two people and their unborn baby. He bragged about it…and there were implications it had to do with some Chicago gang initiation ritual. In the end, though, I think they “concluded” he was mentally ill.
• You might be a Big Beautiful Woman (or man), but are you fat enough to manage this? Then again, why would you WANT to?
• First South Park, then the newspaper:Toronto Metro “Tube Talk” writer (forgot his name) has redeemed himself, though I still find his biting sarcasm needlessly excessive: “DEAD HORSE, MEET STICK, PART TWELVE: Queer Eye For The Straight Guy will be get . . . wait for it . . . Queer Eye For The Straight Girl, according to an E! Online report. That’s right, some sorry passel of female schlubs out there are due to be scornfully made over by a group of voracious but sexually unspecified bitches. That’s right — as of this writing, the producers at Bravo are still unsure about whether the makeover gurus will be male homosexualists or female sapphists. Which bets the question — does anyone creave style advice from a beflanneled, crop-haired disel dyke? Not that I’m accusing the show of trading in sexual stereotypes.”
  

— お誕生日おめでとう！

Check out the HTML source for http://www.ishkur.com/.

I rest my case.

Here’s something I actually enjoyed reading in the aforementioned Toronto Metro (available online for the next two weeks in PDF format) — though I actually haven’t watched the show since Season 2, and don’t know if the conclusion is valid or not. Not behind an lj-cut tag because, well, I believe this deserves greater exposure.

Reproduced here without written permission. Download a copy of the freely-available source material (March 23rd issue) if this bothers you.

Sex and stupidity
Character Carrie losing herself at series’ end

  Squeak! Squeal! Hop! Clap-clap-clappity-clap!

  And with that particular display of glee, Carrie Bradshaw and the people who write her began the betrayal of a character viewers have come to love over the past six years.

  In the penultimate episode of Sex And The City, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie ventured to Paris to join her sexy, older artist sugar daddy, Alexsandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) for the opening of his new show and an unspecified length of time thereafter.

  Arriving in Paris, Carrie is so overwhelmed with glee that she goes through the whole little-girl excited routine/Snoopy dance of joy. However, as we soon learn, all is not well in Carrie-land, because — oh, the horror! — people in France speak, you know, French.

  After making a good argument in the prior episode, during a fight with Miranda, that, yes, sometimes chucking your career and following your heart is the right thing to do as long as you do it with your eyes wide open and ready to face the consequences, the characters of Carrie does a turn-around and asks viewers to lend their sympathy as she changes her mind. After just one week of suffering abroad.

  This character, who has preached for years that women can take control of their lives, be strong and independent while wearing stilettos and push-up bras, go to bed with whomever they please, have exciting careers and grit their teeth, pull themselves together and take it like a (wo)man when they have to pay the steep price of heartache, childlessness, sickness, loneliness and grief; Carrie reverts to a sulking little girl.

  She’s upset at the language barrier. She’s upset her friends are far away. And, most tellingly, she’s upset that her guy has a grown-up life with grown-up responsibilities that include, oh perish the thought, work, which keeps him away from reading her mind to suss out what she wants done for her.

  When Carrie loses a necklace and Alexsandr gifts her with a diamond replacement, her sulking stops for about 45 seconds, but when (interesting and, it appears, friendly) acquaintances of Alexsandr appear, the broody mood strikes again.

  Look at me! Look at me! I’m dressed in Dior. I’m showered in gifts. I have excellent sex on a regular basis. And I’m soooo depressed. The city of friggin’ lights is at my Manolo’ed feet, but I, a seemingly intelligent woman in my late 30s, am incapable of putting it to any use. Because, contrary to what I’ve told you and shown you throughout the show, I AM A HELPLESS GIRL IN NEED OF RESCUING.

  Unless you’ve been boarding under a boulder for the last month, you’ll know that rescue isn’t far away. The Big man on the Big white horse is on his way.

  Carrie, wake up, redeem yourself and spare us a stupid ending for a smart girl.

The article is tagged only as “Torstar New Service.” I’d like to buy the author a drink of their choice. And maybe have a good night out on the town together. :)

I’m starting to read newspapers critically again. Here’s some interesting tidbits, and my reactions to them, from the Toronto Star owned free newspaper Toronto Metro (available online for the next two weeks in PDF format):

All excerpts reproduced here without written permission. Download a copy of the freely-available source material if this bothers you.

SPEECHLESS: Tween “It Girl” Hilary Duff has, according to tvguide.com, backed out of a CBS comedy series because the script was lousy.

  OK, I’ll run that by you again: “Singer/actress” Hilary Duff, star of Cadet Kelly and Cheaper By The Dozen, has walked away from a TV sitcom because the script wasn’t up to scratch.

  OK, one more time. A 16-year-old starlet whose principal audience is years from voting age has turned down a major network series because the script stank like a sack of squid lying in the sun. That sound you hear? Oh, that’s the hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen. The sudden heat? That’s the gate of hell pouring out a river of fire, because the Apocalypse has arrived, people.

Sounds to me like someone’s career is growing up, and she (or her agent) is realizing she needs some steady income. I’d reject a script, too, if my goal was to try and get a sure-fire multi-year TV series deal.

OY VEY: NBC has announced a one-hour special airing on May 12th — the height of sweeps week — featuring Gerry McCambridge, a “mentalist” apparently discovered by NBC president Jeff Zucker at a party in the Hamptons five years ago.

  McCambridge’s audiences “have included Friends stars Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Courteney Cox Arquette . . . Larry David, Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Muhammad Ali and Matt Lauer,” a press release reports.

  The show’s apparently called The Mentalist, but I have a better suggestion: The Big Deal Celebrity Bar Mitzvah Entertainer.

I don’t think this could get any more anti-semitic without a swastika bulleting off the news item. Yes, the Hamptons are traditionally a getaway place for NYC-area people of Jewish descent. And things like “mentalists” in eras gone by in nightclubs in the Hamptons were often entertainers specializing in Jewish-branded humour. But I think this journalist has decided to take things one step too far. There’s no evidence that he exclusively entertains for Jewish audiences, as evidenced by his audience listing. And only a party is mentioned; nowhere does it say that this guy specializes in Hamptons parties — just entertaining celebrities. Sure, being “a mentalist” is probably half-baked humour (anyone else thinking John Edward, recipient of the BDIU award?) In light of the anti-Semitic hate crime that occurred in Toronto over the weekend, and the increase in violent activity in the Mid-East, I am perhaps more attuned to religious and racial discrimination than usual. However ,the editorial staff of the Toronto Metro would have done better to separate out what’s a likely valid prediction (this guy’s show is going to stink to high heaven) from the red herring (he’s going to suck because he caters to unsophisticated Jewish Bar Mitzvah audiences.)

Think you’re good at video games? Did you use to go to the arcades?

Try this quiz on for size. Tricky!!!

Sociopath defined.

A friendly PSA from your LJ friend . :)

Interesting take on modern media coverage from an Iranian friend of a friend.

And you people wonder why I don’t bother watching live TV anymore?