mojeaux131

Ah, so desu! I've been in a different country too long. I'm forgetting American nuance and colloquy. Like, "That's some pig!" from Charlotte's Web. Ah, right.... Sorry about that. Anyway, barrels, huh? Yeah, weird...

Please. There's no need to play semantic games here. I wasn't advocating a return to that system. I was refuting someone's claim that "food sucked" before agriculture. It was good enought to keep us alive for the majority of our existence. Mmkay? And man didn't create anything by himself. Man worked within nature to create all the wonderful crops and livestock we subsist on today. I'm not a hippie. That's true, evolution did cause warm-blooded animals like ourselves to crave sweet, energy-packed foods. But that craving evolved before twinkies could be bought by the dozen. And we have not yet evolved to counter such abundance in foods like that. So yes, twinkies do taste better. Go ahead and feed your kids twinkies. My kids who would've been eating carrots will enjoy poking their pudgy little tummies. Really? Care to elaborate on this? The food processing lobby and the surplus of corn in the United States in the postwar period and subsidies are responsible for international agricultural technology? Wow. I had no idea.

What are you talking about, the movement to ban DDT? I think what made lots of people die of starvation is their governments' forcing them to change from subsistence farming to producing cash crops in order to pay off loans from wealthier countries. What "sort of people" are you talking about? Explain.

The vegan lobby is nothing compared to the chemicals-in-our-food-are-totally-cool lobby. I'm not a vegan anyway. I love meat. E. coli exists mostly in intestines, not grass. The reason why feeding cows corn makes it more of a problem is because cows are naturally grass-eating ruminants. That's why they have rumens, so they can eat grass, not corn. Corn is grain that was cultivated in the Americas thousands of years ago. There are no cattle that are native to this hemisphere. Anyway, when cows eat corn, it changes the pH in their digestive tracts, making it more easy for the bacteria to survive than if they were eating what they were designed to eat. It also doesn't help matters that most of the beef that is eaten comes from CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations), where animals stand in their own feces much of the time. I say get those cows out in the open and let them eat grass, darn it. Why do you think we have to feed them so many antibiotics? If they were eating naturally and not standing in their own dung all the time, they wouldn't need antibiotics. We raised cattle just fine for millenia before we had corn and drugs to feed them. The only reason we started feeding them corn is because of its surplus, cheapness and its ability to get cows to slaughter weight faster than grass. That doesn't make it better, though. And pasteurized milk is a good thing. There's no need to lump multiple, supposed "hippie/vegan" arguments into the same position. No, but aren't seatbelts a GOOD thing? Shall we just pat those lobbyists on the back for a job well done? If we can expect to know if there's sugar in something, why can't we know if there's GM ingredients in it, too? Why would they want to obscure this? I'm not surprised at their lobbying efforts, but that doesn't make it right. Using little bits for bait and raising crops of fish on it are totally different. Do we want to see commercially-produced fish develop the same types of problems as cows? More pollution from CAFOs? More antibiotics? More superbug resistance to said antibiotics? Why can't fish just eat what they were designed to eat? People like fish partially because they contain those precious omega-3 fatty acids, right? Well if you start feeding them corn, you can wave bye-bye to that. What's wrong with catching fish naturally anyway? Should we approach food with more logic and less instinct? Ever smell something to see if it's gone bad? Hmmm. Unfortunately, it's true that organic foods are more expensive than conventional foods. But this is because the pricing doesn't take into account subsidies and other costs like pollution. There's a dead zone the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico because of fertilizer runoff from farms in the Midwest. I think we can change the system so foods that are produced more naturally at less cost to the environment (and more honestly, at less cost to people in general) cost less in the supermarket. A carrot should be cheaper than a twinkie. You don't seemed bothered by it. You seem like you're defending it right out of the starting gate. Why is it "illogical" to be bothered by it? Why isn't it logical instead? I think more people would healthier food if they could, but like satriela said, it's all about what's cheapest. Poor people on limited incomes will buy the cheapest calories they can. $5 will get you more food at a fast food joint than it will buy vegetables. So it's not sufficient just to suggest that people eat healthier. Food-related illnesses increase the further you move down the socioeconomic ladder. Poor people are much more likely to be obese and diabetic than wealthier people. That's not to say personal responsibility has no role to play, but for crying out loud, why does a carrot cost more than a twinkie? Why? Why does more complicated food like a combo meal cost less than some fruit? I'll tell you why. Misguided policy and subsidies. And corporate interests. (Disclaimer: I am not a hippy and will admit right now not all corporations are bad.)

Genetic modification by selective breeding over time is not the same as using electricity and microscopic flakes of gold to inject foreign DNA into cells. I see no problem with "natural" genetic modification, but using the latter technique oversteps natural means of evolution. I will try to read DeGregori, but it is not intellectually honest to label opposing opinions as "pseudo-science" and their advocates as "hippie scum". Food was good enough to sustain humankind for the vast majority of our time on this planet. Within the scope of human history, the time occupied by agriculture is a blink compared to the age of hunting and gathering. I think food sucks now because a twinkie costs less than a carrot. Only could boneheaded policies and subsidies render a naturally occuring object more expensive to the consumer than a modern day creation like the twinkie. Also, food sucks now because eating as cheaply as possible makes it more likely for one to get diabetes. I think it's sad.

I'm going to take a cue from woody_hawkeye here and create a new topic. What do y'all think about these issues? Not only GM foods, but American food policy in general. Besides the poll, here are some statements to get the ball rolling. E. coli wouldn't be an issue if cows weren't fed corn. The food lobby has fought proposals to label GM foods. There are people trying to engineer salmon to eat corn. (I'm serious) Anyone read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan?

Excellent...Museum sounds much nicer. By the way...45 now. MWA HA HA!! As much as I despise billboards, I do miss the Chik-Fil-A cow billboards. "Eat Mor Chikin"

Wow! It's not Whataburger or Tastyburger or Greatburger or even Goodburger. It's just some burger...Someburger. I love it. And it's a stand, too! Awesome. Thank you, Tiko. "Hey, um, welcome to Someburger." "Hi, do you have any recommendations or specials?" "Uh, we have um...some burgers, I guess." "Oh. Okay. I'll have a burger, then." "Okey-dokey. Thanks." (Coughs)

Too bad this wasn't around when I went bar-hopping in college.

Wait, wait, wait....there's an actual place called Someburger? Is it...is it good?

The best encouragement there could be for them to stop using billboards would be the emergence of another medium that is widely visible by many people on a daily basis. Where I live now, I scarcely see billboards off the highway (all the highways here are tollways), and I see lots of ads on trains and stations. Perhaps the decline of billboards in Houston will coincide with the proliferation of mass transit. One can hope, anyway. This Parking Garage-rank Haifer can hope.

Who, Don Lessem? His was the name I saw a lot when news of this project first broke.

The only player ever to win MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP all in the same season. Way to go, Hakeem the Dream, [Always on Top] Olajuwon. An excellent athlete, businessman and all-around awesome guy (he speaks at least 6 languages fluently, including French, Arabic and three Nigerian dialects). Plus, he went to U of H. This is neat too, if not a little old. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/realesta...juwon,%20Hakeem

Great photos, dhicks2000. I particularly enjoyed the one of the two big Kirby projects across the street from each other. The skate park will be sweet indeed. I'm not sure whether it's already been posted, but there are renderings available here: http://grindline.com/cgi-bin/view.pl?view=houston

May I remind you sir, this thread is about wine. Best cheap wine: a "handle" (glass gallon jug) of Rossi, HEB, $10.

After I move back to Texas and buy a home I plan on joining (or starting) a group dedicated to cutting back on invasive species of all kinds, focusing on species like Chinese tallow and kudzu. Also, if anyone on this forum hunts, feral swine (known colloquially as hogs are invasive (not to be confused with native peccaries). Get out there and do some good for Mother Nature. Wild pork is good fer ya. I know this thread is about Chinese tallow in particular, but invasive species are wreaking havoc all over the place. Here's an interesting article about it (if you can't access it, registration is free and without any ensuing solicitation). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/opinion/20grescoe.html This is interesting, too (if not a bit disturbing). http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=937 Sorry about the swerve off topic. Death to Chinese tallow.

Seeing that alligator makes me more interested in kayaking in the bayou. Great pics.

This was in the March 1st-7th issue of The Economist. Sorry about the quality. The only scanner I know of is a piece of junk at the high school that doesn't speak English and is hooked up to a 15 year old pc with no internet connection. So I just took a pic instead.

Nice post, Mr. Barnes. Not only should we not care, but most of the time they get it wrong, anyway. I used to get steamed reading negativity about Houston and Texas, but honestly, who cares? More for us.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome. I guess she had a thing for mutton chops.

Perhaps it does currently, but I was only quoting the article from the first post. In greater context: " Also nearing completion in front of the Waterway Lofts is a new koi garden, an Oriental inspired park that will feature two islands. That facility is expected to open within the next several weeks. "We are creating the largest pedestrian friendly environment in the Houston region," Leverett said. " http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/woo...ws/5644653.html Edit: I could've quoted it better, to be sure. My bad.

This is really neat! I remember seeing hot air balloons a lot when I was a kid in Katy. Airships are cooler, though. Speaking of which, wasn't the spire on the Empire State Building orginally conceived to facilitate dockings by airships?

I'm glad this is happening! It was nice to read about the "largest pedestrian-friendly" area in the Houston region. I hope this ethic spreads to the other side of the mall, though. During Christmastime I walked around Lake Woodlands Dr. with my brother to do some shopping (because parking was just insane) and I was surprised at how pedestrian-UNfriendly those streets around the mall and Best Buy were. The crossing signals were way too short in duration (out of sync with the allotted times for vehicle traffic) and it was nearly impossible to see the signals for oncoming traffic, which made the experience more exciting than I would've preferred.

Whoops. Thanks for the eye-opener. I guess this really demonstrates Wikipedia's fallibility, accessible though it may be. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_texas Perhaps he is not commonly credited as the first president of the republic because (at least Wikipedia says) he was Interim President, while Houston was the first elected president. Either way, I wasn't aware of this and I thank you for the correction. Also, I'm sad I didn't learn this in Texas History. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_G._Burnet

I'm pretty sure the first president of the Republic of Texas was a guy named Sam Houston.