Thursday, October 30, 2008

Grass Fed, Poo Scavaging Chicken's Eggs Are Orange


From Michael Pollan in Omnivore:

"Apart from the high color of the egg yolks, these eggs looked pretty much like any other eggs, the chicken like chicken, but the fact that these animals in question had spent their lives outdoors on pastures rather than in a shed eating grain distinguised their flesh and eggs in important measurable ways. A growing body of scientific research indicates that pasture substantially changes the nutritional profile of chicken and eggs, as well as of beef and milk. [...]

Perhaps not surprisingly, the large quantities of beta-carotene, vitamin E, and folic acid present in green grass find their way into the flesh of the animals that eat that grass. (It's the carotenoids that give these egg yolks their carroty color.) That flesh will also have considerably less fat in it than the flesh of animals fed exclusively on grain- also no suprise, in light of what we know about diets high in carbohydrates. (And about exercise, something pastured animals actually get.) But all fats are not created equal- polyunsaturated fats are better for us than saturated ones, and certain unsaturated fats are better than others. As it turns out, the fats created in the flesh of grass eaters are the best kind for us to eat."

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Fall Day



To finish the day off, we went to a pumpkin patch on the way back to Santa Cruz, just off of the Hwy 1. It's this great little strawberry patch that has the BEST shortcake ever. It has an honor system for payment, and you go out into the fields and pick up your own pumpkins. It was hard to hold those two btw. 

Conservative Blogs

Want to read something to get your blood boiling? This article is about how Sara Palin will be the new Republican front-runner. When will these people get that politics shouldn't be about social issues like religion. The best part of this article is the comments below, for example: 

"Everyone of those blowhards is WRONG about her, you're spot on. Sarah's our girl, win or lose. And win or lose, we're going to turn the guns on the traitors, metaphoriclly speaking, of course"


Kidney Stones in Children



Well just another sign that our food system is fucked. This NYTimes article discusses how they've seen approximately a quadrupling in the number of cases of children with kidney stones. What are they caused by? Salt (and not drinking enough water- see -soda pop). What is one of the largest constituents of highly processed foods? Sodium (see -Salt). Just look on the back of anything that is a highly processed food like twinkies, microwave dinners, Doritos, any fast food, snacks, etc. Now compare that with the back of a tomato, potato, or oregano- oh wait, you don't need labels- they only have one ingredient, go figure...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Goat Farm






Liz, Matt, Wendy, and I visited the goat farm in Pescadero. I got some bomb ass eggs and a couple of tasty goat milk cheese treats. MMMmmm goodness. I will show you how bomb those eggs were in a couple of posts. 

Coit Tower - Evening




Friday, October 24, 2008

Diego Rivera Frescos - Coit Tower




Decartes and Dualism

Yesterday morning, I listened to this On Point about Renee Descartes, his philosophy, it's implications, the man, and what happened to his bones. Very interesting story. 

Anyway, I was musing and mulling this over and decided to write down a few notes about my thoughts on the whole Mind-Body dualism question:

I think >> I am

I sense >> I am
I sense >> I think >> I am

What does a mind think if born without senses? Does it?
Is this the epitome of a rationalization of existance? 
Is it possible that reality is seated at the interface of the mind and body? 

Generica in the 2000s?

Retail and the Coming Storm - On Point Podcast with Tom Ashbrook. 

I pretty much listen to three NPR shows everyday; On Point, Fresh Air, and Here and Now. They are all excellent shows, and I recommend them to everyone. Obviously this restructuring of our economy has been on everyones minds and lips as of late, this show I found particularly interesting. The discussion centered around the impending collapse of the retail Big Box stores around America. There have been a number of them disappearing already...and what the hell do we do with these Big Boxes of real estate shells left over in our communities? 

There were many suggestions presented here in this discussion; schools, community fitness centers, and the like. I personally think we should convert the parking lots into solar panel energy production (instead of centers of global warming due to the blacktop absorbing sunlight- grass reflects more), a huge wind turbine in the middle of the lot/store, the rooftop is perfectly flat and ideal for more panels. I wonder how much energy could one Walmart conversion provide? Enough to run the lights of the city? Enough to run the heating/cooling systems of businesses in the area during the peak daytime sunlight hours? I mean think about how MANY Big Box stores there are in our Great Country Generica! That's a lot of valuble real estate sitting idle, and lets not waste it on something as fleeting as making money... please.

Parrots Live in San Francisco





On Telegraph Hill...see the movie!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill





Liz and I went up to Telegraph Hill to check out Coit Tower, good times!

Alan Greenspan Has Honor

Greenspan Concedes Error in Regulatory View - NYTimes article

 A “state of shocked disbelief.” 

That's kinda how I feel about reality...

Thank you for owning up sir. I've always thought that this guy was smart, seemingly respectable, but after some stories I've been hearing, he kinda missed the ball on this whole debacle. At least he can admit when he is wrong- something I find very comendible. 

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Diego Rivera Mural in Coit Tower- Photosynth

Link

Three Blue Benches

Pics de Liz D.






These are from the special lady friend. She's gotten much better with the camera, props!

Last Weekend







I've been getting behind in my postings. Basically our internet sucks my balls as we are totally just grabbing whatever we can get in the air. Thank you wireless! Anyway, last weekend Ray, Fluff, and I went up on top of Bernal for the sunset. It was totally awesome and I love being up here. The bike ride up is a heart raising bonus in my opinion. Adonis has been settling in nicely but he is about ready for some outdoor adventures. 

Hummingbird in Action



Trying to take a picture of a hummingbird is hard work. They are too damn small and too damn fast for human cameras. These two pictures represent the best I have so far. Was thinking of a potential color on bw, using the bird and the red flowers for color...thoughts? 

Obama Slated to Win Virginia?!?


The folks at Pollster seem to think that Obama will win Virginia, first time since 1964, breaking a 44 year Republican stronghold streak (according to this great website). Is anyone else out there shocked by this? One year ago, I was still saying that the US isn't ready to elect an African American (or a woman b/c Hillary was still in it) as president. Yet now we are possibly looking at not only an African American president, but one who WON a state south of the Mason-Dixon line! Something that NO WHITE president-elect has done in over four decades. Go Obama!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Warren Buffet is Rad

Did you know that Warren Buffet contributes to the NYTimes Op-Ed? Link

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."
-Warren Buffet

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Sexy Graph

UPDATE: One thing that has been bugging me about this graph is the bottom line. That is an average of the number in the columns above. The problem is that it isn't a weighted average. A weighted average would be much more indicative of who is actually planning to cut more in taxes.  If you took these dollar amounts per income range, and then multipled that dollar amount by the number of people there are in that tax bracket (or even the percentage of people in that braket), then I think you'd find that Obama is going to come out ahead on the weighted average, instead of behind as shown on the bottom line of this table. 

Joe the Plummer

Anyone who listened to the debate last night knows about Joe the Plummer. He was an average dude to asked Obama a question about owning a business that makes more than $250,000. He represented the 'typical' American imagry invoked by John McCain in the debate last night. 

Here is the real story. 

UPDATE: 

The plot thickens!!! =)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

57 Bradford Kitchen Window Sunset-Pano

57 Bradford Kitchen Window Sunset- Photosynth

Title sums it up, here's the Photosynth Link

Another Soul Leaves

Monday, for the first time in over 20 years, I saw a person die. 

It was an older lady who was hit by a train. I do not know whether it was an intentional or accidental death, but I watched her perish. I turned to look at the train passing, only to notice that there was a person stuck to the front of the engine. I didn't understand what was happening, or why the person was there, it just didn't make any sense. Then, she was dragged under the front grill of the train. Her body, as she was dead by this time, proceeded to bounce from the railroad ties, to the bottom of the train, back to the tracks. The train was unable to stop until four cars had passed over her body. There was no movement. The paramedics arrived only a few short minutes later, and having looked her over, decided there was nothing more to do besides afford her as much dignity as one can find in death by covering the body with a tarp. 

Immediatly, I was struck at just how fleeting life can be. She, a living breathing being less than 0.25 seconds before I turned my head, was now gone. Forever. If it was suicide, then I hope that she is now in a better place than before. However, it reminded me that suicide is always a permanent solution to a temporary problem. No matter how permanent a problem feels, it really is only temporary. 

The imagry of a train taking down a human being is permanently burned into the retina of my inner eye. The juxtaposition of death against the people on the platform still living, was not lost on me. I found such a stark contrast between the termination of one life and the continuation of so many others.  One blub-a-lub at a time. How can we the living laugh and joke,  when a person, not 20 feet from me, just perished? We can, and will, because life goes on, and the sun will come back up over that mountain range in the east. We must continue to smile and laugh and enjoy the good, if only to be able to turn our backs on death- at least for a little while. 

Photos of Us by Ray



Ray Swaney's Art


Ray painted this little diddy on the side of the BioRide Suburban.





Ray is a great guy that I met at Burningman through Liz's friend Angie (who is Ray's girlfriend). I think that his work is remarkable, and very aestetically pleasing. I've been trying to get my hands on any piece of his that I can- and I've got a small collection started. If anyone is interested in his stuff, I'm probably going to try to get him started on a blog and take pictures to record all of his stuff. 

UPDATE: From Liz (Fluffy)- www.rayswaney.etsy.com is where you can buy some of his art. He has much more, support him so he can make more!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Flying Adonis


There will be more of these from different angles!