Recent Posts
German tourists watched in amazement as this unfortunate sheep went sliding down a live wire, and came to a rest more than fifteen feet off the ground. He had apparently been grazing up on the hill, when his horn got caught on wire, and his struggles sent him skidding down the hill. Luckily, he managed to not catch the wire's current.
It took over an hour, and some seriously creative rope-rigging, but rescuers managed to get the sheep down and back on solid ground.
Don't worry, this story has a happy ending; once returned to his owner, the farmer let him loose to enjoy the lady-sheep pen as "a reward for his embarrassing predicament." Personally, I think those are some genes you might wanna keep out of the gene pool. I guess we all get one 'forget this ever happened' incident. I have cashed mine in on multiple occasions (it's all about leverage: blackmail).
[DailyMail] Ram-bo? Amazing Abseiling Sheep
This is a little more political than I generally care to go, so we'll start by saying don't email me, I do not care about your political ideals. I don't even care about my political ideals. I just don't care about politics at all, but I thought this was a clever statement. Anything but those god awful street corner sign holders. Do you understand that you yelling at me while I'm stopped at a red light does not make me suddenly think that you're opinions are obviously superior to everyone else's? Really, it just makes me think you're homeless and you want my quarters. I need those quarters. The soda machine at work won't take dollar bills anymore.
Anyway. Students in Texas that were part of the "Young Conservatives of Texas" club had a bake sale with some unusual prices. Based on the affirmative action policy, where different races receive different levels of federal support to attend college, they a price list to reflect your race. You can see these prices in the photo above.
The point of this bake sale they stated was to bring light to "the injustice of favoritism in academia". This is a statement they've received a lot of support on from their local state representatives.
And it's also a statement that I'm choosing not to comment on. Take it as you will.
I wanted to spend a little more time elaborating on the diet change I briefly covered in my last post. As I stated, I wanted to focus my food purchases to local providers. This type of diet has several different names, one of which is the 100-mile diet, implying of course that all food is grown and sold within 100-miles of the consumer. The map above shows my particular 100-mile radius.
I stated before that some staples would still need to be purchased from the store, but I'd be doing some research to find out just how much variety of food I could get in my area.
There are many reasons to buy local, but here are a few of the reasons that really spoke to me personally, and drove me to decide to entrust a part of my every day diet to my local farmers:
1. Nutritional Value
Most of our food is transported from three different states: Washington, California, and Florida. This means a large majority of our food has to travel over a thousand miles to get to our local supermarket. This means our food is in transit, off the vine, for seven to fourteen days before it ends up sitting in your grocery store for however many days before it's purchased. The longer it takes for your food to get to your table, the more vitamins it loses, and the less nutritious it is.
On the flip-side of that, produce at your local farmers market, or produce stands has generally been harvested in the last 24 hours, so it's far more nutritious, and will probably taste much better as well.
It's also important to discuss industrially grown produce. Industrially grown fruits and veggies are developed to produce the max out-put per acre. This is achieved through a variety of means including selective breeding, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides. Studies have shown that over the last several decades, our supermarket foods have declined in essential minerals and vitamins. Aside from that, I can guarantee that the taste of those supermarket greens will not have the same taste as locally grown products.
2. Environmental Responsibility
Like I mentioned before, your food generally has to travel a long way to get to your plate. That's a lot of emissions, and as a result a lot of environmental damage. It's important not to fall victim to the seductive "organic" label. It can feel good to buy organic, but if you take a look at where your organic foods are coming from, you'll probably find that it isn't too close to home. This means it most likely caused more damage to the environment just getting to you than damage it prevented by being "organic".
3. Keeping Money in the Community
Local eating, even if it's just having dinner at a locally owned restaurant or opting out of the chain-store coffee and grabbing your fix at a local shop, puts money back into your community. Every time you shop at store or restaurant that isn't locally owned, your allowing more money to leave your community. This has a lot of consequences. You're encouraging nutritionally deficient produce, and voting against your local farmers.
All in all, There are a lot of advantages to eating locally, and the health benefits are one of the most appealing aspects to me. I've also talked about growing a small garden myself using my soon-to-be worm bed to produce my own fertilizer. The worms are still being located (seriously, I've never heard of a worm shortage, but it's making my search for worms very difficult), but I've tried growing a few green onions in my window sill just to see if I could:
I apologize about the terrible quality of photo but LOOK AT THAT. I don't think I've grown anything since I was in kindergarten. All I did was save the bulbs of a few green onions I used to make soup about a week ago and stuck them in some soil in a cup. Add water, stick in the window sill and wah-la! Fresh veggies. Obviously that's not going to make a meal, but it goes to show that there are a lot of ways to eat local, whether it's at the farmers market or your own backyard (or bedroom window ;] .
Visit me at mediablotch.com
Meet Rachel Gilbert. She's a big Nascar fan, that got the amazing (is amazing the right word? I'd say mind numbingly boring, but I think I'm biased) opportunity to drive around the New Hampshire track a few times in the pace car. Did I mention she's 99? Yeah, the lady is 99. I'm not sure if I'm more concerned about her safety or the other two people in the car with her. Can she see over the steering wheel? Can she see at all? Who's idea was this
[ Click here to read more ]
This week the trash tirade continues, but the search for worm has still proven unsuccessful. I've been saving my kitchen scraps, so hopefully I will find some soon
[ Click here to read more ]
Anthony Garcia is a member of the gang Riviera-13 in L.A., Cali. Over the past four years he's been getting an elaborate piece tattoo'd on his chest. What's all this ink depicting? Just the murder he committed four years ago, along with a confession. No big deal
[ Click here to read more ]
There's constantly trends going on in the crazy world of apps that has successfully taken over our lives, and eyes. One of the most recent fads that I'm grasping to understand are the seemingly unappealing body dysmorphia apps. Essentially, you pay a dollar or two for whichever condition appeals (or disgusts?) you the most, add your photo and wah-la! You're disgusting (or more disgusting, as the case may have it
[ Click here to read more ]
I figured since I'm stuck inside today, and can't really work on too many projects I'd go over the progress that was made this week
[ Click here to read more ]
On Monday a lioness gave birth to six cubs, four of which were rare white cubs. It's estimated there are only 300 white lions world wide, six of which reside at the Belgrade Zoo in Serbia
[ Click here to read more ]
|
|
|
Add Comments
Read More
Comment by Anonymous
on Recipes from the next level for Cadbury Creme Eggs
Media Blotch
a prissy girl's guide to changing the world
I get to stock up all easter, and then wait till next year.
Those brownies looked friggin delish, btw.