Top Gear to restart in January, Richard Hammond doing great.

Categories: BJ
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Over the past few weeks I have been researching the “organic movement” in the US, mainly as a way to find the truth behind the much lauded health and environmental benefits of organic farming and organic food. Some of it makes sense, while most of it flys in the face of a logical global perspective.

We live in a rich society. We have the luxury of choice. We can choose to purchase “organic” foods, which in this context are foods that do not have a production method involving: chemicals (pesticides, sewage level fertilizers, hormones, anti-biotics), genetic alteration, or preservatives. Within the context of food inside the US, I have to admit that if you can guaranteee the production methods of the food you purchase, you should choose the method with the least risk. For many consumers this involves purchasing organic food from Whole Foods. Can you trust them? Can you personally guarantee you’re getting what you pay for? According to this boycott, you can’t. My suggestion is if you are concerned with the food you take into your body then find a food co-op, farmer’s market, direct to consumer farm, or grow the food yourself. Each one of these involves knowing the grower. The alternative is trusting for-profit corporations to tell the truth or obey the spirit of organic foods rather than find loopholes to verify certification. Organic certification is not a safe method to guarantee the origin of your food. There is something to be said about truly caring about your food.

I do have a specific problem with the organic movement. It firmly ignores the dietary needs of the third world. My suggestion is googling something called the Green Revolution. This will never alleviate the socioeconomic issues of the third world but it will make it possible for the world to eat. My other suggestion is looking up information on Norman Borlaug, whose genetic research and crop production methods have been estimated to have saved the lives of a BILLION people, not a million, but a BILLION. He recieved the Nobel Peace prize in 1970 for his work. There are arguments that the food production fails to resolve the disparity in wealth that allows people to starve in the first place, but without his research socioeconomic reform would be meaningless as many third world countries wouldn’t even be able to feed those within their own borders. His research made India a food exporter rather than a food importer.

The EU can get snooty, the US organic movement can cry all they want, but at the end of the day you would have to sacrifice human lives if you wished to eliminate all Genetically Modified food from the market. There is little evidence that GM food is harmful, in and of itself, to the human body. From insect resistant corn, to dwarf wheat that doesn’t collapse under its own weight, the biggest drawbacks to genetically modified food is the pesticides used in conjunction with pesticide resistant GM crops. The additional risk of species cross contamination being the other drawback, although this has little affect on humanities health and more to do with our tastebuds.

Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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I found some extra time and decided a preview was in order. Go to the Private Downloads section for a surprise.

Categories: BJ, Entertainment
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My dad asked me about Guitar Hero after reading my post a few days ago. To ensure that he buys a copy i have to include this video.

Just a note. For those that don’t watch Top Gear, Jessica (this song) is the opening theme for Top Gear.

Categories: BJ, Entertainment
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…didn’t make any sense.

heh

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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There’s a distinct difference between a lie and the truth unless you’re referring to humor. I previously mentioned a laughing fit and headache brought about by playing a game of “loaded questions” with friends, and ultimately the humor found in both heather’s and my answers were in the predictably silly responses. Sarcasm interpreted as sincerity and sardonic self referencing idiom jump out and sort of covered our comments that night. There’s a problem with that. I enjoy self-deprecating humor but garner more laughs with friends while being unequivocally ruthless towards others. Maybe its a throwback to high-school, where being “alpha” whatever was accomplished through force and heavy handed ostracizing or outright public lambasting of your subject. I rolled with it, and given the subtext inherent to the name I’m known by, became rather skilled at verbal defense and offense. Words ceased hurting a long time ago, at least in the context of locker room banter and high-school style teasing.

Loaded questions does have an underlying psychology to it. Sometimes there’s a theme of answers attributed to you that seems to misinterpret your image of yourself. In Heather’s case, her theme seemed to be a sort of raucous self deprecation that contrasted itself with her outer demeanor (Sort of like a bunny that eats people). In my case, tongue-in-cheek style humor seemed to rule my answers, with the caveat being that they couldn’t be subtle in any way, shape, or form.

The point to all this is that true humor is grey. It’s the insult that makes you laugh and the horrifying experience that someone lives through only to know they’re happy to be alive. I enjoy time with friends but after a game of loaded questions and evagelizing Dragonforce as an epic band, I have to let them know that it’s a joke. Dragonforce is a joke. They are a tongue-in-cheek take on the “epic” power metal band. I like them cause they’re fun. I also have to happily note that I still think the funniest answer of the night was “Hubba Blow-Tep.”

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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I’ve had a headache for the last 4 days. Not the worst headache in the world but a definite dull throbbing that seems to have occured due to extreme laughter while hanging out with friends in Oklahoma. I can’t complain about the origins of the pain, but it does put a damper on my spirits nonetheless.

I have to complain a little. I’m addicted to Guitar Hero. With the imminent release of Guitar Hero 2 I can’t convince myself to go buy Guitar Hero 1. Thanks guys, you’ve saved me from World of Warcraft and thrown me into the dastardly jaws of Guitar Hero.

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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I’ve decided to add a Jeremy Clarkson category in the blog posts. I had previously mentioned that there was a lack of an RSS feed for his writings on the various sites/papers he writes for. Therefore, I’m going to try and consolidate his writings for the Times, Top Gear, and The Sun into an RSS feed, hence, the category.

Note that his writings for the Sun are only served online in a limited fashion, as such there are still some bases left to cover. Otherwise I’ll try to consolidate his writings from here on out.

Categories: BJ
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I think that’s about all I have to say about that. I regularly play videogames. On any given week you could find a few videogames taking up my spare time. With the recent procurement of a DS, I’ve played through a few great platform games: New Super Mario Bros, Sonic Rush, Castlevania:Aria of Sorrow. Next on my list to tackle are: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Two recent games tore me away from my DS. Okami and GTR2. Okami is awesome. I’m willing to put it in my top 10 of he last 5 years. More near the top than the bottom. Not that I have a formal top ten, but if I did, it would be up there on the highest echelons of awesome, right next to totally sweet. Zelda + Calligraphy + Weird Japanese mythology = Okami. I’m also not talking about that cheesy Zelda for the CD-i but Wind Waker/Ocarina of Time awesomeness. I have less to say about GTR2 that doesn’t involve streams of cursing due to its difficulty.

I have a distinct problem. I have some sort of weird aversion to “digital assists” in racing games. This causes more spinning out than is normally necessary, hence, cursing. Ths could be easily avoided by turning auto “*****” control on where “*****” is everything. What racing sims like this need is a “make me look cool” button where I can both drift, and race fast, while talking to my wife about her day and generally being awesome, but sadly, the furious spinning of both my nifty logitech steering wheel and my on screen car breaks everything down enough for me to cry. Yet, I have to conclude that the game is absolutely amazing. It feels somehow lighter and less connected to the road than say, GT4, but I have a feeling that the perspective and force feedback has more to do with that than any lack of physics model.

In short, buy okami.

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Entertainment
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I suppose I should actually post something new that isn’t a regurgitation of an article concerning the members of Top Gear. Although I have to admit, the lack of a decent RSS feed for those items is of great enough concern for me to continue to post Clarkson’s writings.

It has been fun having Spencer in town. It probably isn’t as fun for him, being away from his wife and all, but its still nice to talk politics, play videogames, and talk about being Dad’s with a friend I’ve known for more than half my life. I can sum up our political views pretty quickly. S = Spencer, B = BJ.

• Ethanol: B=Not sustainable; S=Can Work, Government in Bed with Corn Growers.
• Iraq: B=Bush Dumb; S=Bush Dumb.
• Guns: B=Like ‘em, equalizer, education better than ban; S=Guns bad, ban/heavy control good
• Islam: B=Can’t change from outside, Current US Policy Dumb; S=Misunderstood, Current US Policy Dumb
• Video Games: B=Fun to play, not more influence to violence than other media; S=Fun to play, more influence to violence than other media.
• Poor: B=Gov’t role too large in caring for poor; S=Gov’t doesn’t do enough
• Form of Gov’t: B=Libertarian Lite, retain public works, justice system, patent reform; S=Small Gov’t Dem/Green Party (registered Rep.)
• Clinton: B=Good presidency, Weasel; S=Good presidency, Weasel
• Bush: B=Has vision, Horrible horrible vision inconsistent with reality; S=Has vision, Horrible horrible vision inconsistent with reality

That sums up most of our discussion over the last couple of days. His daughter is adorable. She can be very bold or very shy depending on her mood. Her action ranges from hesitance to ask a question to a declaration of action in the face of overwhelming odds.

Sophia has been furiously trying to will herself into movement. This usually involves rolling back and forth while forceing an outstretched palm to whatever the object of her desire might be at that moment; this then progresses to a few well placed screeches to let that object know that it doesn’t seem to be listening to her will. As if to complain to either the world or one of her parents she then begins a series of yelp to let us know that all is not well on the blanket of her world (which happens to be a blanket).

Another curious phenomenon has cropped up. Sophia just loves being tossed lightly into the air. I have also found that eating her ribs or neck elicits cackles and just the sort of hilarity that makes a father grin from ear to ear.

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Sophia
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