Category Archives: Life as I find it

California’s Chemophobic Political Science

Without chemicals life would be damned hard. Alcohol is a chemical, for crying out loud, and without it, many of us find life damned hard. Oh sure, there are other important chemicals too, I suppose. Salt is a chemical and sort of important. Water is a chemical; it’s useful in making beer and wine. OxygenContinue reading “California’s Chemophobic Political Science”

Industrial Chemicals and the Cancer Epidemic

The Sierra Club mulls the question, “Why are so many people getting cancer?” And then, without evidence, answers itself (like homeless guy on the corner), “One reason may be the legal release of millions of pounds of cancer-causing chemicals into our air and waterways.” Similarly, Rachel Carson asserted that “more American school children die ofContinue reading “Industrial Chemicals and the Cancer Epidemic”

How do experts determine the safe level of a chemical?

Ames points out that our test for carcinogenicity of feeding animals near-fatal doses of the chemical is flawed because, “High doses can cause chronic wounding of tissues, cell death, and consequent chronic cell division of neighboring cells, which would otherwise not divide.”

Look for the Non-GMO Seal of Approval on the Package; it’s Your Sign of Assurance That You are Getting Lower Nutrition at a Higher Price.

Many [people, even those with digital watches,] were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake coming down from the trees in the first place, and some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no-one should ever have left the oceans. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide toContinue reading “Look for the Non-GMO Seal of Approval on the Package; it’s Your Sign of Assurance That You are Getting Lower Nutrition at a Higher Price.”

Water is Free, Isn’t It?

“If people can’t trade water, then they just keep doing the same things that they’ve been doing.” – Reed Watson, executive director of the Property Environment Research Center (PERC) I live in California. You may have heard that it is in a major drought. At the end of the winter in 2015, the snowpack whichContinue reading “Water is Free, Isn’t It?”

What made you change your mind?

I’ve been pondering this lately, what makes you change your mind? Is it data? A well told story? Did you research and test hypotheses or something else? What eventually got you to accept that a view you held was not right? A paper published in Science called When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmissionContinue reading “What made you change your mind?”

What Campbell’s Got Right and Wrong in Their GMO Label Announcement

Campbell’s announcement coincided with the new U.S. government’s eating guidelines; “Campbell Announces Support for Mandatory GMO Labeling.” “Genetic engineering,” California’s legislative analyst wrote in 2012, “is the process of changing the genetic material of a living organism to produce some desired change in that organisms characteristics.” In other words, GE is not an ingredient, likeContinue reading “What Campbell’s Got Right and Wrong in Their GMO Label Announcement”

7 Million Versus Shell, really?

This is a WTF moment for me. Greenpeace UK is protesting Shell drilling for oil in the arctic, and they say nearly seven million people agree with them. Fine. I get that. What boggles me is the irony of the message their photo conveys, which is “We cannot survive without oil.” Around 7 million #PeopleVsShell,Continue reading “7 Million Versus Shell, really?”

The World is…

Over at the Serial Monography site, Jeff Benson (yes, the name is no coincidence) looks for an authentic experience: he wants a Flat White coffee like he had when he discovered it in Bali. He tries one at his local Starbucks… …by the time I had finished drinking it at home, my enthusiasm had dissolved…Because although StarbucksContinue reading “The World is…”