Monday, August 3, 2009

Back to the Beginning

Anyone who has talked with me for any extended time knows that I have a bit preoccupation with the subject of population.

During my formative years, I was exposed to a several interesting philosophies in that vein. In high school I had my first run in with Thomas Malthus. Later he would be joined and updated by Daniel Quinn and his novels Ishmael and The Story of B.

The effect these books had on my world view was immense, to say the least. The notion that population is directly proportional to food availability sounds straight forward. But argue with anyone about the subject and you will see, how with great alacrity, it will be asserted that human will is the determinate factor in population growth.

Anyways, I am rambling. Here is a PSA from England, that I found interesting. At some point we will have to have this conversation. Because like most problems, when you notice it is finally an issue, it is far to late.

I could go on about this for hours, and have on many occasions.

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Also in honor of over a year of blogging I will endeavor to bring back some of the old and weekly blog posts, Word of the Week, Dick Move of the Day (which may be renamed the "Popped Collar Award"), fashion and food commentary/recipes, and a new help segment (because I really dig the show) Ask a Spy.

-Cheers

4 comments:

Dr. X-Tina said...

The reason why everyone could live in Texas is because once the world started to descend on the Lone Star State they'd be shot. Such over simplification is of great concern, similar to the commercials about HFCS stating how it is nature, comes from corn, and is good in moderation - things science does not have a solid answer to yet.

RomanX said...

Yeah, it absolute overlooks what the repercussions of that many people occupying that area simultaneously would entail.

It absolutely ignores basic ecology. Every piece of land has a carrying capacity.

tyler said...

on the other hand, the science doesn't have an answer saying that high fructose corn syrup is bad either.

chemically, it's not that different from sugar produced from sugarcane or beets. i'm interested to see when the granola crowd begins to realize this. maybe we as humans should just stick to small amounts of fructose in fresh fruits and vegetables.

this is a matter of semantics, but i believe those commercials said not that it is good in moderation, but that it is not bad for you in moderation.

Dr. X-Tina said...

The major problem is that HFCS is so pervasive in our food supply, it is difficult to consume it in moderation. Since HFCS is not on the food label discerning moderation is almost impossible, let alone the fact that the American public thinks moderation is an enigma. Finally, there is significant evidence, actually from a lab at UIUC, demonstrating that consumption of HFCS alters one's ability to sense sweetness, dampening the sweet taste of fructose from fresh fruit.