meat is murder

i have a question to my vegetarian friends... and on that note, i have no vegetarian friends, so could you pass this link on to them so i could get their opinion. from this article it seems we may be only 10 years away from test-tube meat. that is meat that you would buy, cook and eat, that was grown in a laboratory rather than fed on a farm and slaughtered. this meat would be able to be adjusted to be healthier, have more of the good fats and less of the bad fats, and would decrease the need for grazing land and in the worst case, buildings cramped full of animals solely for business.

i saw this a report on this on CNNi before i saw the article. studies show that livestock produce nearly 18% of the greenhouse gases that might be affecting our climate. the entire fossil fuel industry (cars, power plants, etc) only produce 13%. that's right! cow farts are doing more damage to our environment than that gas-guzzling SUV you have. if we can culture healthier meat in the lab, we'd significantly reduce greenhouse emissions on a level not even fathomable by environmentalists trying to fight fossil fuel emissions.

so, the question is: vegetarians... would you begin eating meat? would you eat THIS meat? it's no longer "meat is murder"; it never had a face, as is the reasoning for some, AND it would be better for the environment to have people eat more lab-meat, thus making it more cost-effective. if not, what excuse would you have not to? dietitians typically don't say to completely remove red meat, but to limit it to like one serving a week, and as far as i know, there are no health risks associated with chicken at all (we're not talking salmonella here, though that would be significantly decreased since chicken factories that help spread that would be eliminated). would you eat lab-chicken? i'm just curious.

i would. i don't see a problem with it at all. healthier, better for the environment. seems to be pretty much a win-win as long as the cost isn't too much.

when is terrorism not, AND when it's your time, it's your time?

two articles i've come across lately that have piqued my interest enough to get me to read them. the first, here, has to do with how americans label terrorism. it is a sad and blatantly racist judgment made by the american people. in short, when is terrorism not? when it's done by a white christian, that's when, or at least, that can be strongly inferred when comparing the two recent cases in this article. please give it a read and let me know what you think.

and here is just a a strange coincidence straight out of "final destination". it's sad that after having missed a huge catastrophe, she probably felt like she got a new lease on life, only to find out each day has it's own dangers.

the alpha (and the omega)

in other news...

TheRing is finally paid off.

i hate rich pricks

i really hate rich pricks... not rich people, but rich pricks. maybe i kinda do hate rich people who are way overpaid for what they do, for example: david beckham (it's a game); A-Rod (it's a game); etc., but it's the rich pricks who inspired this post. it hearkens back to latrell sprewell's comment in 2004, when he was estimated to make $14.7 MILLION that year, of "Why would I want to help them win a title? They're not doing anything for me. I'm at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed." holy shiteballs batman, you're an asshole. still, what inspired this post is a headline on my google toolbar that just came up... "energy chiefs say oil price must rise to ensure supply".

WTF?! i didn't take microeconomics in college like most of the people in my major, but i do recall the very simple concept of "supply and demand". supply is high, price goes down, supply is low, price goes up. on the obverse, if the price is low, the demand goes UP, and if the price is high, the demand goes DOWN. please, correct me if i'm wrong. at the DAVOS economic summit or what-the-fukk-ever it is going on, the chiefs are saying the price must go up. i don't get this. then i see OPEC's comment... "Even with $50, we cannot have a decent income for our members." SERIOUSLY?! 6 months ago, it was 3 times that, and they were swimming in their money like scrooge mcduck in his money vault. the oil companies were making record profits and they are the middleman; think what the producers were pocketing! i can't believe they have the balls to say that. that's the only damn income they have. they MIGHT have a bit of tourism, but seriously, why the fukk would you want to go to a desert in the middle of nowhere on holiday except that it is where the money is? it's the cool place to go. they need us more than we need them. FUKK!!! i haven't even really paid for gas in 2 years due to being overseas all the time for work, and I'M pissed off at the arrogance of that statements. i HATE rich pricks!

i did it

so, normally, friday's are off, but we had a lube oil flush that the supervisor's wanted to make progress on, so jules and i had to come into work. we were able to leave site by around 2:15pm and booked it home to get to TheMech's pool ASAP for some leisure time and margaritas. many margaritas later, jules and i went home to make some dinner. we settled on fajitas and watched the end of 'saving private ryan'. after that, i got the brilliant idea to cut my hair. it was either shave or cut my hair, and surprisingly, people are kinda digging my beard. the photo here doesn't really do it justice (i'll get a more representative one later), but believe you me, it's short. i haven't NOT had hair on my neck in 14 years. it's... strange. it doesn't really know what it wants to do yet. jules is trying to train the part-in-the-middle out, we'll see what happens with it. so... let me know on the survey what you think.

drill oil now... FOR ME!!!

i try not to be political, but this was an accident. deadliest catch just ended on discovery+2, and i was flipping through my usual channels, and JUST as i was flipping past CNNi, GW popped up with a live press conference. i know it's stupid (and a personal analogy that won't be useful to anyone but the people working with me), but it's all finger-pointing. onsite, we let the client know where they are lacking in superivision, quality and safety. instead of telling us how they are going to fix it, they instead reply with parts shortages, incorrect parts, etc. in effect, no progress is being made, and it sucks. this is all i heard from the latest press conference. A LOT of people are unhappy with GW... his foreign policy, his domestic policy, his trademark flubs during "freetime" in his speeches. the fact that he is an oil-monger from an oil-monger family who was in bed with the bin ladens, and in his latest speech, he's asking us so nicely to (paraphrased) please, we need to drill for more oil, the po' folk really want it. he actually went as far as saying that every dollar spent on oil price hikes take away from money spent on americans putting food on the table. this is a case of causality. simple psychology. yes, the more gas costs the more food costs AND the less there is to spend on it... but why is the oil costing more. because you decided to wipe your ass with the constitution and "checks and balances" and decided to fukking attack a major oil-influencing country with no recovery plan, no plan for infrastructure development. this was a war plan written on his nap mat in crayon (revision made by snotty sleeves). instead, you blame the democrats for not wanting to put money in your pocket by drilling oil when oil is so expensive now because you wanted daddy to be proud of you.

i'm gettinf off track. i'm actually pissed, and i wasn't going to be pissed today, i was going to paint. thanks a fukking lot, GW. i don't know how this general commentary on our current imbecile president became a theoretical first-person "letter to the president", but it did. i gotta go. more non-political stuff later.

are we seriously that sensitive/retarded/blind?

i hate to add to the "blogosphere" uproar over rachael ray's dunkin' donuts commercial fiasco, but seriously, wtf is up with people nowadays. it's a fukking scarf. look at the difference in these two pictures.

this is a keffiyeh. this is a black & white headdress commonly worn by arab men. it has a "connotation" attached to terrorism, though that's as ignorant an attachment as being terrified of all "brown skin people" because they are terrorists.
this is a black & white scarf... A SCARF!!! with a different pattern!!! around her neck!!!

are we that xenophobic that we have to CREATE racism/fanatacism where it doesn't exist? do we hate that much, that we are twisting in our heads what we see into something that is big, bad, and scary? it's not there. get over it. if i was a part of the dunkin' donuts franchise, i'd say "fukk ya, it's a scarf, i ain't pulling the advert, so shut up and go buy some donuts from me". i might bankrupt the company, but i'd be a broke man who didn't pander to a small racist faction in the community and their small-minded stereotypes.

that's my rant... haven't done that in a while.

wtf, ohio!?

i was really hoping ohio would go my way and vote for obama. i still think he has a strong chance, and i do like him better than hillary, but winning ohio OR texas would've been a big hit to the clinton camp. i liked bill, but hillary, i just can't stomach. too bad. i haven't gotten my absentee ballot yet, and i haven't looked at the numbers. hopefully there is a windfall of absentee ballots that could push obama over the top? hah, wishful thinking gets me nowhere.

do you remember... AMERICAN GLADIATORS

i think i'm going to try to start a new segment that will be updated sporadically as something crazy hops into my head. and now, to start...

...AMERICAN GLADIATORS

ah the good ol' days with mike adamle and larry csonka in their elbow-patch overcoats or jumpsuits. 'twas a great show with the likes of nitro, gemini, malibu, zap, turbo, and storm.

do you remember getting your domino's pizza dinner and pepsi, gathering around the TV and watching average joes and janes competing against super-steroided muscle-beasts? no, just me? it had such classics as the gauntlet, powerball, joust, assault (with all the air-powered, no-aim-at-all guns), the human cannonball, and of course, the eliminator. i think my favorite was atlasphere. you have these competitors in hamster balls trying to get these potholes to score, and when you score, you get a cold CO2 blast right up your arse. good times. man, that was a great show. ah, and then there was the bungee cord game. the competitors had to jump from a pedestal with a bungee cord on them, bounce of the ground and spring up to get colored balls worth various points from a suspended pole, all the while gladiators are bouncing along trying to stop them.

anyways, this popped into my head a couple months ago when i saw a late-night re-run on ESPN classic. i was amped, stoked, revved... all of the above. just a few days ago, i saw a NEW commercial for american gladiators. THEY ARE BRINGING IT BACK!!! hell yeah. NBC is reviving the franchise, and it'll be hosted by hulk hogan and laila ali. i can't wait to see it. too bad i'll be in egypt, maybe i'll be able to catch it a time or two. somebody DVR the season for me.

for more info on the legend that was the original american gladiators, there's more on wikipedia... where else?

THEY'RE TRYING TO USE THE BACKDOOR!!!!

Penn & Teller Creationism Bullshit


not THAT backdoor, you pervs... oh, just me then? anyways, i think it's an amazing coincidence i ran into these two videos within the same relative timeframe. i've heard of the show called "bullshit", starring penn & teller. i may have even seen an episode or two at BTVJGJHo's house. this episode is about creationism and intelligent design. of course, since i'm on the side of P&T in this episode, i'd have to say, it's well organized, detailed, and thought out. of course, i'm a bit biased, but i HAVE done some formal debating (coincidentally with BTVJGJHo) and understand that you have to look at both sides of the argument critically in order to support your points and rebut to counter's points. i think this episode set a good foundation for that type of debate.

separately, i found a link to a CNN.com video about the anti-christian themes in the new movie "the golden compass". i think the movie looks good, i blogged about it many moons ago here. the president of the catholic league believes that this movie is trying to introduce children to atheism through a fantasy movie. they are afraid it's presenting christianity as a big, bad meanie society while promoting atheism as a free-thinking utopia, of sorts. this is what happens when grown-ups forget what it was like to be a kid. the kids are going to see witches, and fighting polar bears, monkeys, cats, and a cool story. that's pretty much it. the adults who, by this time in their lives, probably have their minds pretty much made up on this topic, might pick up some of the religious overtones, but that's a moot point.

anyways, i digress. the title of this post is such, because ironically, that paraphrase is used in both arguments, against creationism and ID in the "bullshit" episode, and against atheism in CNN.com report.

when will we ever grow up, er... i guess in this case, grow down?

seriously, islam? WTF?!

a lot of americans don't like muslims because they believe islam is a violent religion promoting violence toward non-muslims. that really is not the case. islam is burdened by religious fanatics (which every religion has) that make the headlines under the guise of jihad and martyrdom. that give islam a bad name, and that's not the reason it should have a bad name. on the other hand, THIS is why islam should have a bad name.

in america, and i'm guessing most civilized nations, you are a "victim" of rape, it's not your fault, you weren't asking for it. apparently, in saudi, that isn't the case. it's so sad, that a woman visiting an "unrelated" male friend can lead to her getting gang-raped, then getting 90 lashes for the meeting and 6 months in prison, and THEN when she let the media know how unfair this practice is because she has some sense, she gets 6 months added on to her sentence and 110 more lashes. this is SOOOO fukked up, it's almost beyond comprehension. apparently, there is no such thing as a victim in saudi. they even took her lawyer away, because they didn't like being embarrassed publicly. well, if your religious laws weren't so outdated and barbaric, there'd be nothing to be embarrassed about. i'm truly sickened by this, seeing as i'm going to be living in a muslim country in the next few months. granted, as far as i know, they aren't nearly as strict, i am starting to grow some concern. i might have to go off the radar on this blog in case they find it and hunt me down for my heretical zionist speech. i'm just so pissed right now, i have to go blow off some steam by... blah, counting, mapping, and photographing damaged turbine blades. that should bore me back to a safe level of calm.

hung...

i'm REALLY surprised that TheMom hasn't blogged about the phil spector trial verdict yet. this is like the only thing she's watched on TV for the past who-knows-how-long. she gets in the chats, on the forums, she IMs about it. now that it's over, i'm not sure what she is going to do. she'd be a horrible juror. so biased, in this case. she thought the guy was guilty a few days in. i can see her bullying the 2 standouts. hah. sorry, TheMom, that it didn't turn out the way you'd hoped. good luck finding something else to entertain you. try a book! love ya.

holy frickin' fine!!!

just perusing the news today, i saw that formula 1 has fined mclaren $100,000,000 for stealing ferrari technology! yeah, that's 100 MILLION DOLLARS! holy shit. that's got to be more than some COUNTRIES make in a year (i tried to look it up but since GDPs and GNPs are per capita, and i really don't know what any of those things mean, i couldn't really be numerically witty in this case). still that is just absolutely nuts. NASCAR sends fines of like $10k or $25k and docks 25 points. mclaren gets fined $100M and lost ALL their constructor's points for the year and can't get anymore the rest of the year.

F1 is definitely not afraid to hand out the smackdown. maybe the U.S. should take note. don't be afraid to hit 'em where it hurts. they already do with taxes, now do it to people who deserve it (i really don't know what i'm talking about again, i'm kinda tired).

completely non-sequitur... the love quote of the day in the left sidebar: "To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides." ---David Viscott

how cool is that? Rich|Championable... run with it, man, you're all about the love.

two of my posts linked now

if you take my post about my bot fly infection and add it to my brief post about my trip to belize and you get this guy's ordeal. i better keep an eye on myself, i got a few bites while down there.

joey "jaws" chestnut... american hero?

i'll be writing about the salt lake city trip soon, it's just tough, sorry, but i will.

until then, i'll keep you busy with some hilarity. some of the BTBz got together earlier in the week and we ended up kind of accidentally watching the 2007 nathan's hotdog eating contest. takeru "kobe" kobayashi was the favorite despite being "day-to-day" due to jaw arthritis and a removed wisdom tooth. his main competition, joey "jaws" chestnut, stood by his side as they competed against a slew of other competitive eaters from other specialties (boiled eggs, strawberry shortcake, french fries, etc). earlier in the year, chestnut had beaten kobe's record set last year at nathan's (54-1/2) by eating 59 in 12 minutes. in the end chestnut bested kobe and set a new nathan's and world record of 66 hot dogs to kobe's 63. 66 dogs in 12 minutes is like 1 every 11 seconds, bun and all, PLUS they drink water/juice/etc to wash it down. that is just insanity.

now that i'm done with that recap, here's the part i wanted to talk about... the announcers. announcing a hot dog eating competition has to be the kind of thing they give to interns and guys who are waiting to retire. i don't know, but i'm guessing there's not a lot of prestige to it. they informed us that if you have a "reversal of fortune" (you can probably guess what that is considering the massive amount of food ingested so quickly), you are disqualified. it's funny that had to come up with a euphemism for a bodily function that might occur during the competition.

still, the funniest was the commentary that the announcer was giving. here are a few of my favorites. keep in mind, the competition was on independence day.

• This would be the greatest moment in the history of American sports if Chestnut can bring the belt home to Coney Island


• He [Chestnut] may have indeed changed the course of this nation . . . Chestnut is a true American hero


• ... the entire free world is focused on these two men


• and my favorite... you google "hero" tomorrow ... "American hero", you're gonna get Abe Lincoln, possibly Neil Armstrong, Taylor Hicks, and then this man, of course, Joey Chestnut

i think this guy is confused, taylor hicks is an american IDOL, not hero, and likening a competitive hot dog eater to real american heroes like the men and women fighting for our armed forces is just abominable (that's for BTVJGJHo at the BTBz).

either way, that announcer certainly was entertaining.

week in reiview

sorry about the lack of updates, i've just kinda been running around like a chicken with my head off and for no apparent reason, i'm not really getting much done.

friday i was in columbus, went to a pretty cool bar called gatsby's that has ENTIRELY too many steps. bars should be as flat as possible, i mean, look at the clientèle. i was worried about tripping over the indoor steps but managed to navigate them perfectly. it was the steps outside that snagged me as we were leaving. i missed the step right outside the door an bit it. the band was packing up their guitars, and i landed on them. after a quick-witted "i was gonna halp you guys load those up, but they are WAY too heavy," i limped away to my friend's car. i haven't skinned my knees in probably 15 years, and i remember why. man, everytime you bend it, the scab cracks and you start anew.

anyways, saturday, we went to ComFest (community festival). i've never been, and it's pretty cool. lots of live music and bewbz. "BEWBZ?", you ask. yup, in columbus, it is legal for women to walk around topless (some thing about gender equality, since guys don't have to wear shirts...), and comfest seems to be a time for those daring enough to let 'em fly. there were some scary ones, but i think i actually saw more good than bad, which i wasn't expecting. there was also some good bodypainting going on. beer prices weren't too bad, all in all, a pretty cool experience i'd like to do again next year. only thing, i kinda wish we went earlier in the day. TheSteadman went down around 11AM for the gay pride parade, but me, JHo, and TheSteadman'sBrother didn't head down until about 6PM or so.

sunday, we gathered at JHo's and watched the race. wouldn't you know it, my rookie of the year choice, juan pablo montoya, whom i just took off my fantasy league, won the race.

came home monday, found out TheEJ was in town so i went and visited her up the street at her mom's and met her husdand. spent about 4 hours catching up and telling stories, it was good.

yesterday, i went shopping for something to wear to the wedding. jules says i should be used to it, but i'm usually IN the wedding, not attending. i know how to wear a tux (and occasional kilt). i think i got something decent enough. if not, i'll show it to her, and do some last minute shopping in SLC since i get in mid-morning the day before the ceremony.

today, i've been putting off packing, trying to round things up i need to take, watching wimbledon, and generally procrastinating. trying to prepare for the weekend is tough. my room has kinda turned to a shambles, maybe i'll try to tidy it up a bit.

tomorrow, i'm driving to columbus and staying with T since he's 10 minutes from the airport. the best flight i could get, schedule-wise, was out of columbus instead of pittsburgh, so i'm going up the night before, chilling, then getting up early to catch my flight.

friday through monday is going to be relationship-related with the wedding and such. i think it'll be a roller-coaster weekend ending similarly to the superman tragedy. i guess we'll see. i fly back to columbus on monday, then not sure if i'm going to crash there or drive home. i should hear from my manager's hopefully by then about my next project.

so, that's what i've been up to, and where i'm going. send good vibes my way in SLC, i'd appreciate it.

i just thought this was funny

yeah, it's kinda nerd-based, but i think everyone might be able to find a hint of humor in this short news story about a missing computer server. maybe i just need to get out and find out what REAL funny is.

tomorrow is my day off. if the weather holds, i've heard of a beach about 30 minutes away (yeah, a beach IN canada, i know) where a lot of site people are planning to go. apparently, there is a lot of good "scenery" there. i'll have to read up on it. maybe not a lot of sleep for me today. no one wants to take the day off (sunday is double time), but the customer makes us. i take advantage of it, but it's tough on nights, you mess up your schedule. anyways. maybe i'll drunk post. have done that in a while. THOSE are fun. later

i've done the unthinkable

i bought... golf clubs. when it was arranged that i'd be in columbus from wednesday to sunday, i got a call from T about golfing. i've been before, i'm so far from good, it actually IS funny, but i hate borrowing clubs. i'm afraid that i'll destroy one and owe someone so i'm really timid. ended up, JHo took me to dick's, i got a $200 starter box set, he bought $400 irons, and we were on our way. it was fun. the course wouldn't let us go all five together, so T, wasko, and wasko jr. went first and JHo was stuck with me. man i'm bad. inconsistent, but it was fun. now i'm on columbus and looking for some debauchery. sad thing is, looks like ohio is actually TRYING to push me away.

to the tune of "don't cry for me argentina" from "EVITA"

don't cry for me, you poor dancers
the truth is i'll NEVER leave you
and in my wild days, my mad existence
i'll keep on giving
don't keep your distance

i've lived in ohio all my life aside from work, and they come up with THISbrilliant idea. seriously, wtf. i know i joke around that it is helping pay for their education (and sometimes it really does), but come on, what harm is there? imposing a 6' distance ban means no lapdances, means the clubs will go out of business in a heartbeat.

Citizens for Community Values members did not return calls for comment. Earlier, group member Barry Sheets told a Senate committee that the restrictions are needed because of negative "secondary effects" of strip clubs such as high crime rates, declining property values and urban blight. He said the 6-foot rule is to protect strippers from being pawed by patrons and to prevent drug transactions between strippers and patrons.

i seriously doubt that the citizens for community values really care that the strippers are getting "pawed". most clubs have VERY strict rules against, that and the dancer can have the patron kicked out if he breaks those rules. and this seems to me, to be a freakonomics issue. they are saying that the clubs are contributing to high crime rates, and lowered property values, when in my GUESS, it's the exact opposite. these clubs are forced to open in those types of areas due to the NIMBY attitude of the locals. seriously, what i do with my money, and if it doesn't hurt anyone, is none of your business. what about all us introverted, socially-awkward fellas out there who can't talk to a girl. this might be our only chance. i certainly know when i'm single, they are like little havens reminding me that SOMEONE (acts like they) likes me. that they want to talk to me. it doesn't matter if they're only there for my money, i'm not deluded, but the conversation, the interaction is nice. almost practice if you will. granted going there won't help you with the ice-breaking of a girl, but i DO consider it practice of what to say AFTER the ice-breaking. there is a lot of talking between the dancer and the patron. i think a lot people really don't know the process, all they know is the strip club they see in the movies, smoky, trashy, but they don't see the interaction, the talking, laughing, joviality of the place. but i digress...

it just pisses me of when they try to regulate something that isn't harming anyone. wtf. i'm guessing after conferring with a BTB, that portion of the the citizens for community values (which ironically, are trying to impose STATE values rather than COMMUNITY values by going to the state legislature instead of the local government) group who initiated this ban are a collection of sexually frustrated bitties who are jealous that their husbands actually come home happy after spending some time at titty bars where they are getting some sort of affection, having a good time, living.

that's all i gotta say. i think you can all guess where i'm gonna be most of this weekend "pushing for legislature reform..." go out and do your part. you can see me at kahoot's and possibly other local establishments.

drugs... WOW

THIS is what my college days should've been like. i an afford it now. JVo, J-Rod... mid-life crisis anyone? let's go to STATE SCHOOL!!! hah, that is nuts, but i love stream of consciousness conversations. certain schizophrenics do that by the nature of their disease. some cool writings come of it at times.

btw 1: i updated the clock up to to my local time (so TheMom doesn't wake me up again), and updated the map at the right showing the plant i'm exiled at.

btw 2: before coming to work today, i got the buffet at the hotel (the groceries close too early for me to get anything on sunday). i only ate a bit and asked to get the rest as a "take-away". they did, and i had to sign a disclaimer form! hah, for some reason, i had to sign that whatever happens to the food or me after i leave the premises is my fault. strange. it WAS carved prime rib... maybe i just signed away my "mad cow disease" rights 50 years in the future, damn!