Shannon > Recent Status Updates

This system is designed to drive prices even lower, since handling farmers deficiency payments encourages them to produce as much corn as they possibly can, and then dump it all on the market no matter the price—a practice that inevitably pushes prices even lower. And as prices decline, the only way a farmer can keep his income from declining is by producing still more corn.

Vicious cycle : (

When you add together the natural gas in the fertilizer to the fossil fuels it takes to make the pesticides, drive the tractors, and harvest, dry, and transport the corn, you find that every bushel of industrial corn requires the equivalent of between a quarter and a third of a gallon of oil to grow it—or around fifty gallons of oil per acre of corn. (Some estimates are higher.)

That seems ... counterproductive.

Researchers who have compared the isotopes in the flesh or hair of North Americans to those in the same tissues of Mexicans report that it is now we in the North who are the true people of corn. Compared to us, Mexicans today consume a far more varied carbon diet: the animals they eat still eat grass; much of their protein comes from legumes, and they still sweeten their beverages with cane sugar.

Interesting!

Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pig ... increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature that the fish farmers are reengineering to tolerate corn. The eggs are made of corn. The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically spend their working lives indoors tethered to machines, eating corn.

So. Much. CORN.

Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with the other animals ...
What is most troubling, and sad, about industrial eating is how thoroughly it obscures all these relationships and connections. To go from the chicken to the Chicken McNugget is to leave this world in a journey of forgetting that could hardly be more costly, not only in terms of the animal's pain but in our pleasure, too.

Some philosophers have argued that the very open-endedness of human appetite is responsible for both our savagery and civility, since a creature that could conceive of eating anything (including, notably, other humans) stands in particular need of ethical rules, manners, and rituals. We are not only what we eat, but how we eat it, too.

One of the many challenges I've set for myself for 2013: read more non-fiction! SubCat and April are joining me on this endeavor.

This really reminds me of the TV show Reaper. (Yes, it was a CW show and it was canceled but it was totally underrated.) There are crazy similarities here though: the main characters' names are both Sam, they both have a Hispanic friend, they both work a crappy minimum wage job, then one raises the dead while the other sends souls back to hell. Hrm.

We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is.

I think this is the perfect length for erotica. Long enough to develop the story but not too long that things get boring or mechanical.

"I'm amazed you're allowing me into your room, Professor," I ventured. "Do you ever let anybody up here?"
"No," he confessed, returning to stand in front of me. "People might move things around and look at my stuff. They're agents of chaos, basically."

It's a bit disconcerting that I identify more with the guy in this one.

"Bad girl."
Oh holy fuck.
In the National Geographic movie of my twisted mind, the lion had just leaped on the gazelle, pinned it to the ground and mounted it from behind. Apparently, the devouring could wait. I should point out that these little flights of fancy on my part often involved extremely improbable animal pairings. I blamed cartoons.

Started this after finishing Mercy's GN, thinking I wanted to jump back into this world again. I just don't know if I like Anna or Charles of the ridiculously long hair. We'll see.

"Three DOAs? One arrest? That's not the way we do things, Oshiro. Perhaps you'd feel more at home if I transferred you to Chicago or Detroit."

Aww. Poor Detroit.

That's pretty accurate though. Except for the arrest part. Or cops responding.

As an example, here's Detroit, on New Year's Eve, 2012.

So far this is half urban fantasy with a female cop in present-day Tokyo, half historical novel with samurai, all centered around a cursed sword. Bein's Japan feels authentic, which is nice. I could do without the "neh"s at the end of peoples' sentences, but I appreciate the correct name order and that he explains Japanese words without it being cumbersome. Same with honorifics. So ... bonus points for that.

You guys ever try to play words from fantasy books or even video games in Words with Friends? It's so annoying! I just tried to play "Yut" and was told it was not a word. Damn you, Melina Marchetta. I shouldn't even remember that much from your book. You're ruining my game! I have also tried to play "geth" and random Korean words. WWF needs to expand their word library.

The cover is so badass, I really want this to be good!

Liked the majority of this, and I normally don't enjoy anthologies much.

I'm made of wax and very small.
I'll be your friend, not just a doll.
Keep me out of the sun and we'll be fine.
What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine.

Ok, that last line made things really creepy D:

Gah. Now who knows how long I have to wait for book six. : (

I put in a purchase request for this and my library bought it! I love being the first person to read a library book.

Dang it, I want more!

How exactly has a talking dog succeeded in getting me to ponder life fulfillment with a one-page comic?

Oh man, this is adorable and sad and funny and deep all at the same time. Kibuishi really knows how to tug my heartstrings.

Bah.

Well, isn't that just convenient. I really despise neat little bows.

So you got all dressed up, have been gone for months, and probably lost about 60 pounds, and you're upset that your husband you knew for what ... a few days? doesn't recognize you. Oh, and he's awful for appreciating the effort you put into your appearance by checking you out and then approving of what he sees. Awful, awful man. How dare he.

For some reason my brain keeps reading "asparagus" instead of "animagus." I have a feeling this is ruining any tension that would've been created.

"We must fear the asparagus!"