A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.
This is among the conclusions of a study by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues, which has assessed the effects of beef production on global warming, water acidification and eutrophication, and energy consumption.
Music vibes as good as sex and food
7/23/2007
Listening to music releases the same “feelgood” chemicals as eating and having sex, researchers have found.The neuroscientist and former rock music producer Prof Daniel Levitin said music activates the brain area responsible for feeling pleasure, excitement and satisfaction.
A woman listening to music, music vibes as good as sex and food
Research shows that music has specific effects on the body’s physiologyProf Levitin, an associate professor of psychology at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada, suggests that understanding how different types of music affects the body can help people choose songs or bands that could help them achieve tasks or goals.
He found the brain of someone listening to music reacts in a similar way to that of a gambler when winning a bet, a skydiver about to leap out of a plane or someone who has just taken drugs.
Not much to say about this really. The numbers speak for themselves.
Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday. Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef.
Taking into account all the processes involved, they said, four average sized steaks generated greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 80.25lb of carbon dioxide. This also consumed 169 megajoules of energy.
That means that 2.2lb of beef is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions which have the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by an ordinary car travelling at 50 miles per hour for 155 miles, a journey lasting three hours. The amount of energy consumed would light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.
Chore Wars
7/20/2007
 This is very silly. A pseudo online roleplaying game where you increase your power (XP, or eXPerience) by doing household chores.
Recruit a party of adventurers from your household or office, and whenever one of you completes a chore, you can log it and claim XP.
What Torrent? I mean, What To Rent?
7/20/2007
I’ve been enjoying this free site that gives you movie recomendations based on a simple profile and your previous feedback. It slowly but surely is figuring out that just because I’m sophisticated and thenthitive and can’t stand holliwood schlock doesn’t necessarily mean I’m that I’m interested in horriblanous chick flicks either.
We need a new word for the ever increasingly intelligent-but-not-really algorithms (amazon suggestions, this site) that pervade the online world.
What to Rent! – Movie Rental Recommendations
(EDIT: Ok, it just gave me 3 Fellini movies in a row. I guess it has now put me in yet another category. No, really, it’s good, it’s good.)
“exposed himself in front of a female employee and chased her around the room yelling ‘Suck it, baby, suck it.’â€
Well, maybe not, but this pissed me off no end.
BOSTON (Reuters) – War and politics are largely ignored by American teenagers, according to a Harvard University study released on Tuesday, which found that 60 percent of them pay little attention to daily news.
Researchers interviewed 1,800 people between January and March and found that 28 percent of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 said they pay almost no attention to news every day. Another 32 percent said they pay only casual attention to one news source a day.
“News is not something that gets a lot of time or attention or interest from teens,” said Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Among people aged 18 to 30, the poll found 48 percent said they are inattentive to daily news. Only 23 percent of older Americans said they largely ignore news.
In general, soft stories about celebrities interest young people more than hard news stories like congressional votes or developments in Iraq.
One reason teenagers may pay less attention to news than older Americans is only one in 20 young people rely heavily on a daily newspaper, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of 2 percent to 3 percent.
Hey! Young america! Go fuck yourself! Wait, no, don’t bother – that’s being done for you. Here, I’ll tell you what: don’t go fuck yourself – instead sit around reading up on Britney Spears and Paris Hilton while everyone else in the whole wide world fucks you. The administration (who lie and steals from you), the corporations (who lie and steal from you) , the chinese(who feed you poison, lie about it, and steal your jobs) , even your own parents (who the fucking fuck do you think got us into this mess?) have and are fucking you. So, enjoy the moment, while it lasts.
Oh, whatever. Go fuck yourself, you little shits.
U.S. teenagers have little interest in news: study | U.S. | Reuters
Cow Time Management
7/10/2007
When left to their own devices, they organize their days into blocks of time roughly three hours long. They wake up at dawn, lying awake for the hour or so that it takes the light to change completely. Then they stand up, stretch, and have breakfast. On gray days, they sleep in for an extra hour. After eating for two or three hours, they go for a big drink of water.By mid-morning they are ready for some action. If one of the cows is in heat, activity centers around her. Otherwise, they try to find something else of interest. If I’m working around them, they offer to help. Putting in fenceposts, for instance, fascinates them. While I’m digging, they sniff each lump of earth as it comes out of the hole. When the hole is done, they think they need to inspect it, getting down on their knees and poking their heads as far into the hole as they can.