Listics

Technorati Tags: David Weinberger, Veneta, Elroy Hirsch, Everything is Miscellaneous, Roget, I Ching, Norman Mailer, Linksys, Swingline, Promaster XtraPower, The Modern Library

I have two dogs and I was buying a large bag of Pal at Big W and standing in line at the check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

On impulse, I told her that no, I was starting The Pal Diet again although I probably shouldn’t because I’d ended up in the hospital last time, but that I’d lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IV’s in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Pal nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry — that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.

I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a guy who was behind her.

Horrified, she asked if I’d ended up in the hospital in that condition because I had been poisoned. I told her no, it was because I’d been sitting in the street licking my balls and a car hit me.

I thought one guy was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard as he staggered out the door.

Thanks to Henry for passing that one along.

Bayer!

Bayer AG is a massive German based chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufacturer. It has operations in most countries worldwide and had global sales for 2000 of nearly $30 billion.[1] Its operations are divided into four sectors: Health, Agriculture, Polymers (plastics, synthetic rubber) and Chemicals. It has recently acquired Aventis’ controversial cropscience business, making it a key player in the development, commercialisation and sale of GM crops. As a major player in 4 controversial sectors for over 125 years Bayer has a distinguished history of corporate crimes ranging from the manufacture and sale of controversial drugs (Heroin, Ciproxin and Baycol), the development of chemical warfare agents and poisons (Chlorine Gas, Zyklon B and VX), the use of forced labour during WW2, and numerous cases of poisoning, side-effects and environmental pollution connected to its chemical and pharmaceutical products. In December 2001, Multinational Monitor rated Bayer AG as one of their Top Ten Worst Companies of the year.[2]

Advanta!

Worldwide breeding, production, processing, conditioning, sales and distribution of seeds for major agricultural field-crops and amenity grasses [1].

The company’s areas of expertise include: plant breeding; research and development; tissue culture; DNA finger printing - molecular markers; genetic modification; Seed technology/processing; seed production; marketing and sales.

Dupont!

Since acquiring Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1999, DuPont has become the world’s largest seed company, with sales of more than $1.9 billion in 2000.[7] It sells hybrid seeds principally for the global production of corn and soybeans, and thus directly competes with other hybrid seed suppliers. DuPont’s Agriculture & Nutrition segment also provides crop protection chemicals. In addition, the segment provides soya based food ingredients and food safety equipment in competition with other major grain and food processors.[8]

Syngenta!

Syngenta is a powerful player in the introduction of GM crops both in the UK and globally. Despite being a ‘new’ company, Syngenta inherits the dubious legacies of both its parent companies, Novartis and AstraZeneca, promoters of GM technology and producers of hazardous chemicals. Syngenta was formed in December 1999 with the spin-off and merger of the agrochemical and seed division of Novartis (a Swiss lifesciences company formed in 1996 by the merger of two giant Swiss chemical/pharmaceutical companies Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz), and the agrochemicals and biotechnology research divisions of AstraZeneca (a British lifesciences company formed in 1999 by the acquisition of Astra AB, a Swedish pharmaceutical company, by Zeneca, a British chemicals and biotechnology company, formerly part of ICI). Astra Zeneca has retained its seed interests, a 50% stake in Advanta, a joint venture with Cosun.

Monsanto!

Monsanto has been by far the most prominent and controversial corporation promoting the introduction of biotechnology in agriculture. The company has a long and messy history of manufacturing hazardous chemicals. Their products have included chemical warfare agents (Agent Orange), industrial materials (PCBs), food additives (NutraSweet), agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. Monsanto was the first major agrochemical and pharmaceutical company to pursue the ‘life sciences’ concept. During the 1990s it shed many of its chemical concerns and embarked on a spending spree investing heavily in biotechnology research, and spending nearly $10 billion world wide acquiring seed companies.

Technorati Tags: bees, nutrasweet

I’ve had my mouth engaged about this since last winter, but my mind is only starting to catch up. Bee mites have been a problem for years so when I heard about Colony Collapse Disorder I conflated the two issues. The Varroa mite has been troubling bee keepers since the eighties, but the current rash of Colony Collapse Disorder was first reported in late 2006, according to The Economist.

My first hypothesis was market concentration of commercial hives. With only a few vendors supplying most of the bees in the country, it doesn’t take much to mess up the supply chain. But last night I had a conversation that was running toward Bayer and Gaucho. The implication was that the agrichem industry has so fucked up the environment that the bees don’t want to live here anymore. I can’t find a substantiating study, but I can look out my window and see brown fields where every weed is dead and the April rains are moistening sterile soil in preparation for a crop of “Round-up ready Soybeans.”

So I don’t have the answer right now, but all the -cides out there — herbicides and insecticides — point to a world that is increasingly unsafe for bees and other living things. Let’s keep our eyes open and be ready to shut down the bee killers when we figure out who they are.

Technorati Tags: apiaries, death by poison, bees knees

Ronni Bennett posted on the recent US Supreme Court decision that erodes progress that pro-choice advocates have made over the last forty years or so. She cross posted at BlogHer and two active and different discussion threads opened up on the topic. I felt welcome to comment at Ronni’s, but I don’t feel welcome at BlogHer. Too bad, because those gyno-centric discussions at BlogHer could sometimes use a little y-chromosomal leavening. Particularly in this matter of a woman’s right to choose, the echo of a male partner’s feelings would provide a dimension that’s missing from the discussions so far.

The BlogHer blog is behind a glass wall for me. It’s a place where men can link but they can’t touch. I don’t feel that in a nice way, like I do at Blogsisters. BlogHer reminds me of Ms. Coming out of the sixties, there was Ms. magazine. Ms. was a corporate media co-optation of the second wave of feminism that was bringing equal treatment of women center stage. I think BlogHer is like a little Ms. I think it will continue to be profitable for the women who own it. I don’t think it’s bounded condition will limit the expression of those who are welcome there. I think, in fact, that like Ms. magazine it will empower women, support them in their search for free expression. And help them find the best gyno-brands, like Virginia Slims.

I read a lot of blogs by women. One blog, by Mina, reflects a blogger that I think would be welcomed without question in the BlogHer community. Mina linked to me, and I followed the link back and read her work. I don’t know how long I’ll stay interested, but she seems like a nice person with a strong sense of herself. She reminds me of Danah Boyd, only with christ on the cross instead of the burning man thing.

Another is by Leslie, someone who may not be all that welcome at BlogHer. I will always read Leslie, even though she makes fun of me for my intemperate use of extraneous apostrophes. I love her work and it so transcends the BlogHer corporate community values bullshit that I am embarrassed to reference her in the same paragraph. See how red my face got? Embarrassed!

Unlike Leslie’s blog, where self-expression rules, BlogHer is a meta-creation, a place where the voices of the owners emerge mostly to create boundary conditions and to steer marketing intentions, a place that provides a little curtsey toward revenue generation for all, while serving as a potentially bottomless rice bowl for the big three.

In a little ironic twist, earlier this week Ronni felt the need to explain her own linking behavior. Ronni’s blog has emerged as a web publication with a solid foundation covering the elder beat. Ronni seems poised to monetize readership based on the quality of her work. This is great. It’s in the best traditions of independent journalism. Day after day Ronni’s integrity and clear vision shine out as a counterpoint to the compromises that inform the work of the mass audience builders like Scoble and the ladies of BlogHer. Ronni is one of several bloggers who remind me of Esther Roisman’s husband.

A month ago I found myself apologizing to Kathy Sierra for being a MeanKid. I have mixed feelings about that apology today. Kathy treated a couple of my friends in a miserable way, and the crush of public opinion that she generated with her accusations was out of proportion to those people’s real or perceived culpability. But Kathy had a sound personal reason for her obdurate behavior. The ladies at BlogHer, on the other hand, chose to engage in a way that so far has diminished us all. They’ve held up their own mass media code as a model for individuals, and they’ve been part of the clamor to erase all the shades of gray from the unfortunate situation that Kathy brought to our attention, and turn it into something black and white at the expense of some of their own best supporters.

So ladies, here’s what it is…

From Everything is Miscellaneous, (via a link out of Twitter)…

Media Revenge, David Weinberger’s promotion of Dave Winer’s idea about an individually tailored digg-like system for the news.

From J. Alva Scruggs, commenting here yesterday…

(Freeconference via Jason Z., at Democracy in Action, whose comments re. RSS also appeal to me).