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October 10, 2004
mad cowboy - howard lyman
howard lyman, a former rancher and dairy farmer from montana writes in this book titled the mad cowboy about his journey to veganism. his insights into the livestock industry, agribusiness and its effects on humans and the environment is well illustrated with examples. he talks on the:-
use of pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics and ruminants
crossing over of diseases from animals to humans
presence of hormones, fertilizers in milk especially rBGH
death of family farms with the forced evolution to factory farms
overgrazing of western grasslands
animal wastes and their effects on the ecosystems
fad of diets including low carb and zone systems
overuse of underground aquifiers
interesting points in the book include:
how there are chemicals for every problem or situation for a rancher:- chemicals to take care of pests, to take care of flies, to take care of weeds, to increase milk production, to prevent the cow from getting tired doing so, to make the cow fat, to prevent dieases to the cow.....and since these are massive operations; there are given to all the animals regardless of their individual condition!!!
how the pro-lifers can be such voracious meat eaters..if they talk about saving human lives; how about animal lives especially the way they are killed?
how monsanto filed a suit against the state of vermont with regards to labelling of organic milk to distinguish it against genetically modified cow milk?
how much resources go into producing one pound of meat as in water, trees, natural gas, land and other resources?
the book starts off well but comes undone as it progress towards the end. i expected a more detail clear approach of the various facets to this industry and its biosphere rather than lecture on veganism.
being vegan already; this book didnt contain many surprises. however the author deserves kudos for his dharma towards environment and mankind.
Posted by ananth at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2004
morgan spurlock at the UW
morgan spurlock; the director of Super Size Me was here at the U oct 4th at 8:00pm. he spoke at the HUB (husky union building) and it was attended by alteast 400 or so; a mixed crowd but predominantly students.
he talked about why he picked McDonalds for the movie; being the industry leader; and a company with global influence. he said he has been attacked pretty hard by lobbyists and various other industry support groups including the center for competitive enterprise that has a challenge issued to prove the healthiness of eating McD :). he mentioned that there were quite a few coincidences with the movie release here and abroad. McD did away with supersizing, introduced salads, a free pedometer giveaway, collaborations with health fitness clubs..a CEO of theirs died of a heart attack and the replacement CEO had some form of cancer.
while on McCrack as he labelled it; he went through three main problems; having depression, sexual dysfunction and ADHD/ADD..and he was prescibed prozac, viagra and ritalin respectively. as he observed there is more money going into pill research/ pill prescription than in getting people to eat better.
he also joked about the shelf life of burgers and fries. he said they remained the same after about 4 to 5 weeks just sitting outside. he remarked that one single burger patty for the burger came from 1000 cows. it cost him $728 to eat in McDonalds for a month while the cost of producing the movie was $65,000 which has grossed $19 million so far.
he encouraged everyone to question what goes in their food, take the power away from such enterprises by voting with their fork and to make similar movies.
morgan has done fantastic raising the awareness across a wide spectrum of the population. with obesity being widely prevalent now; and with many considering gastric bypass or some kind of surgical techniques along with potential health problems with/without these at tax payers expense; this issue is very core and critical for the society. while morgan mentioned the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser; he however didnt stress on organic or antibiotic free beef. he still said he is a meat eater and will someday become vegan like his girlfriend. add a couple of sentences on this Morgan to your speaking engagements...
Posted by ananth at 06:03 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2004
the brothel bible - sisters of the heart
an interesting book titled the brothel bible: the cathouse experiences that i stumbled across at half price books in crossroads mall in bellevue.
brothels are legal in nevada and this person has written about the policies, procedures and her experience in one of the houses. a very interesting read, the author is very precise and doesnt go into too much detail..it is poorly written and has quite a few grammatical errors..
the author says at busy times; the women could attend to 12-20 clients a day. though she says they do use protection and visible inspection of their clients before the exercise. also insightful on how the women hid the tips from the shift managers and hostesses! rather than share this with them.
Posted by ananth at 02:47 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2004
mike shula - bama football
mike shula should be fired at the end of the season. watching bama play south carolina at home on saturday at 3:00pm local on tv was mind numbing and frustrating. the coach had a deer in headlights look through the second half and couldnt make adjustments to his team or qb's to make a decent attempt at playing the game. this page calls for coach shula to be let go at the end of season.
coach is an ex-quarterback. the way his qb's looked were pitful. there was no energy in the sidelines. no show of emotion or firing up his lads on offense. you just have to look at the other sidelines to look at coach holtz and see the fire. these players are 18 yr olds and the inner in your face motivation and energy works better.
the play selection was worse. if you qb's are getting blitzed all the time; design rollout plays or go shotgun or do trickeration but i didnt see any.
with 5 minutes left in the game; he designs three running plays. have you given up with this much time in the clock?
this follows his pattern from the arkansas game where he punted on 4th and 1 from the arkansas 40yrd line when the offense was going really well. this was in the 2nd or 3rd quarter..why mr.shula? why? you are on the road, you are behind 4 points ..why such a conservative call?
bonehead...
Posted by ananth at 02:31 AM | Comments (0)