Deadwood; Season 3, Episode 5… The end of that fight scene was so gruesome I completely missed the dialog in the entire next scene and had to rewind.

This article by Michael Pollan begins with the observation that the poorest members of our society tend to be the fattest; a contradiction never seen before in human history. All indicators point to bad governance of food production policy. Essentially, US government subsidies, through the farm bill in particular, disproportionately go to producers of fat and sugar dense ingredients for processed foods rather than to fresh foods (i.e. vegetables other than corn, soy, and milk).

“…the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (a k a liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.”

But the frustrating angle here is that it is much easier (and would be much cheaper without the subsidies) to deliver the healthier whole foods.

“Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies… is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget.”

We eat very little processed foods in our house but I’ve been paying particular attention to food labels here in Australia. The first and most glaring difference with the US is the virtual absence of corn syrup, particularly the high-fructose variety; you will find it in some foods but it’s rare. It’s much more common to find plain ‘ol sugar ^[1][2]. Once again US policy, this time by way of import tarriffs, favors an over-processed (it’s essentially a chemical), unhealthy, and possibly dangerous product over perhaps the cheapest food ingredient in the world.

1. Yes, refined sugar is highly processed and not good for you either but it’s obviously better than the alternative.
2. Anyone else notice “Mexican Coke” becoming much more popular… at least in Texas? It’s made with sugar, not corn syrup like the US version.

Update 05-Nov-2007: More on this topic… First, an excellent article on the recent Farm Bill reform debacle in the US House.

“[The Farm Bill is] a horrible deal. It redistributes our taxes to millionaire farmers as well as to millionaire “farmers” like David Letterman, David Rockefeller and the owners of the Utah Jazz. It contributes to our obesity and illegal-immigration epidemics and to our water and energy shortages. It helps degrade rivers, deplete aquifers, eliminate grasslands, concentrate food-processing conglomerates and inundate our fast-food nation with high-fructose corn syrup.”

And the trailer for a new documentary, King Corn.

I think this is the best web page. I have ever seen. Before I found it, the only thing I knew about JSON was that it is considered an alternative to XML. I spent maybe three minutes browsing this page… mostly reviewing the syntax diagrams… and learned everything I need to know… for now. The fluff to content ratio is pretty damn close to 0.

Australians and New Zealanders offer two additions to this list, though they could just as easily be considered replacements for the Americano: (1) the short black and (2) the long black.

[via elrubendelmar.org]

The preferred version here in Australia is definitely the plain-ol’ latte… the skinny and soy varieties seem to be popular.

• I really want one of these. I bought a NSLU2 a few months ago and got it up and running with the Unslung Linux firmware but I haven’t had time to get it fully functional. This little guy looks like even more fun though!
• I’m teaching myself Python at the moment and find Dave Kuhlman’s page to be one of the best collections of beginner/novice info… if you already have a background in programming.
• I need to read this primer on Distributed Version Control a couple more times to be sure I fully understand it but at first glance it seems to be an extreme version of a developer isolation model. We attempted something like this on a past project and it failed miserably (mostly due to our inability to force timely sharing of changes… developers can be stubborn).
• … and finally, the obligatory xkcd reference.

As it turns out, all of the new pictures I used for this site’s header image were taken by Twyla. Such an ar-teest!

The alpaca^[1] is the funniest looking creature I think I have ever seen! Something about that face and all that fur is hilarious. We found these guys at the Royal Melbourne Show a few weekends ago.^[2] The Show is like a state fair back home: livestock shows, carnival games, rides, and junk food. Yes, they had corn dogs but no funnel cake.

Notes:
1. Pete uses the more familiar term “paca”.
2. Good thing, too, as apparently “there are no wild alpacas” to chance upon.

The day the music industry died - It’s been dying a slow death for years now; good riddance. As the value these large corporations provide to artists approaches zero, so should their compensation from the consumer. Especially for those of us who haven’t bought a cd in years, if this heralds a new way to fairly reimburse artists, bring it on. Now… off to google “Free Albums Galore!”