Re: *Of course* it's all about talent . . .
Ronn said: Gerson might feel even worse after Wednesday night's exit of the matronly Melinda Doolittle from American Idol. In today's music industry, Plain Janes need not apply. Michelle McManus, who won the original Pop Idol a few years ago, was obese at the time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_McManus On the other hand, her recording career rapidly disappeared after the victory, and I didn't think she was all that talented anyway. Rich ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: *Of course* it's all about talent . . .
In today's music industry, Plain Janes need not apply. Sex appeal was once considered a bonus for a woman; now it's practically a requirement. A few things are getting better now than they were in the past. If new music is crap, at least the videoclips are nice to watch in mute. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Re Cost of conservation
I wrote, and as usual thought of many things I ought to have written as well, once I got in the car phththt! : much snipped home decor. I will have to find sites on the growth of Home Depots etc., and the logging of rare hardwoods... Of course, there is a consumer-driven quest for sustainable wood products that IIRC is called Certified Forest Products (I'll have to check that); these are available at several of the home building suppliers (I'll have to look _that_ up too) , and there was decent checking of such materials (IIRC plywood, lumber and even hardwood flooring) before they could be stamped/branded CFP. (well, actually it's the bacteria in their guts that produce methane and hydrogen sulfide gases etc) I used to know how much flatulence we humans produced, but I have long forgotten that! sigh Yet another thing to look up... ...wouldn't use up perfectly good people-grade grain either. So I'm not sure how I feel about using corn for ethanol; is there really an advantage from the carbon standpoint? And what about the increase in price for people-grade food that this is apparently already causing? I think I heard (NPR? Frontline?) that there's a negative impact from production of some biofuels as well...like cutting down rainforest to plant palm oil trees. If gas goes to $8/gal, I will have to significantly increase my fees OK, that was a little whiny; still, I think it's not fair to raise gasoline prices _that_ much, because really marginal folk who have to drive for work, or are forced to commute long distances b/c they can't afford to live near work (frex actually a problem in some ski resort areas, where companies are subsidizing housing for food service and cleaning personnel). I think those who drive gas-guzzlers, like luxury SUVs (what an oxymoron!) ought to pay a VAT-type penaly tax, rather than everyone subsidizing their fuel hogs. Debbi who will not get to much research today, as next lessons are in an hour Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mailp=graduation+giftscs=bz ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
An unWhining post ;)
Ooh, I think I've been sounding awfully...snippy. So here is a good news post. Yesterday I watched a huge black bear (estimate his shoulders came to my hip height!) meander through the paddock, scratching up the occasional beetle grub (I presume), and completely ignoring the neighbor's hysterical dog. Friday I planted up my flowerpots - and I'd bought the flowers only on Wednesday (usually they languish for a week or two in those tiny plastic pacs, some of them not surviving the wait). The hummingbirds are back, at least 4 or 5 coming to my feeder; while opening the greenhouse, I chanced upon a male (I presume) who was displaying over a little patch of bare ground, whirring and dancing in a right-to-left-back-again arc, then zooming up at a very steep angle (~80o spiral?), then ing and diving back down to the bare patch. I'm guessing it was to impress a ladybird or intimidate other males...? Monday last: CEZANNE AND I SOLO'D!!! We rode out on the trail ~ 45 min., with minimal spooking; she cantered and slowed on-command flawlessly. BOSEG Debbi Time To Google Now Maru Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Forests (was Cost of conservation)
On certified forest products and organizations (there are a number around the globe): This is a list of the top 5 woodbuyers, and it includes Home Depot, Lowes and IKEA, all participants in the FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] initiative/accreditation. http://www.rainforests.net/top5woodbuyers.htm For do-it-yerselfers: http://www.newdream.org/consumer/wood.php ...One online source for sustainable wood products is the Environmental Home Center. If eco furniture is your aim, The Green Guide recently published a product report on wood furniture that includes a long list of sources for FSC certified wood furniture, as well as alternatives such as bamboo and recycled/reclaimed wood... About sustainable forest use, with multiple links and articles: http://caudillweb.com/triplestandards/en/Topic20.aspx ...600 million people in the developing world depend upon forests for their livelihoods. Forest products is an immensely important sector of the global economy, accounting for an estimated 1% of world GDP and 3% of international merchandise trade. According to the UN FAO, the annual turnover of roundwood, sawnwood, panels, pulp and paper exceeds US$200 billion and demand is growing. [1] Global paper consumption alone has more than tripled over the past 30 years. [2] The forest products trade is intimately tied to the biggest environmental challenges facing the world. Illegal logging and deforestation can degrade valuable ecosystems, uproot native communities, put further pressure on endangered species, and fuel conflict and corruption. Forests provide essential environmental services such as watershed protection, biodiversity protections, and carbon sequestration. Non-governmental organizations have been crucial in raising public awareness around these issues over the last decade. Consequently, purchasers of forest products have sought assurances that the wood theyre buying comes from sustainably managed forests. One response has been the creation of third party certification systems for forest operations. With forest certification, an independent organization develops a standard of good forest management, and independent auditors issue certificates to forest operations that comply with those standards. This rise of certification led to the emergence of several different systems throughout the world. As a result, there is no single accepted forest management standard worldwide, and each system takes a somewhat different approach in defining standards for sustainable forest management. [3] Debbi Onto The Next Maru Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/222 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Digestion (was Cost of conservation)
This is a *very* long scholarly article overviewing microbial involvement in vertebrate animal digestion (hey, it includes data on whales and gorillas!): http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/78/2/393#SEC2_6 ...An enlarged colon is the principal site for microbial fermentation in many of the larger herbivorous mammals, such as the perissodactyls, elephants, wombats, sirenians (manatees and dugongs), orangutans, and gorillas (Fig. 7). Perissodactyls include the equids and white rhinos, which graze on grasses and forbs, and the tapirs and black rhinos, which are browsers (271). Some equids, such as the African and Asiatic asses, inhabit semiarid and arid environments. Elephants are found in the forests and steppes of Asia and Africa, where they graze on grasses and browse on shrubs and small trees and the bark of large trees (4)... ...A large compartmentalized or haustrated stomach is the principal site for microbial fermentation in the remainder of the large herbivores (Fig. 8). This includes most artiodactyls, and the sloths, macropod marsupials (kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos), and colobus and langur monkeys. The artiodactyls can be divided into the suborders Ruminantia (bovids, sheep, goats, giraffe, antelope, and deer), Tylopoda (new and old world camels), and Suiformes (hippos, peccaries, Malayan pig deer, and pigs). All but a few species of pigs are herbivores with an enlarged, compartmentalized stomach. The stomach of Ruminantia is divided into a large multicompartmental forestomach (reticulum, rumen, and omasum) and a secretory compartment (abomasum) that is similar to the entire stomach of most other vertebrates... (much further down) ...Much of our understanding of gut microbiology derives from early studies of the ruminant forestomach. During the first weeks after birth, the forestomach becomes colonized with Escherichia coli aerogenes and streptococci, which are joined by lactobacilli in the suckling animal (79). Weaning is followed by development of the extremely complex microbiota that are characteristic of adult animals (3, 142, 277). Culture counts give estimates of 1010 to 1011 of predominantly anaerobic bacteria per gram of fluid in rumen contents. Microscopic counts, which include organisms that are dead or require specific culture media, give higher numbers. Table 5 lists the principal bacterial species found in the rumen of sheep and cattle and their fermentative properties. Their interactions are discussed by Van Soest (269), but they collectively ferment carbohydrate into SCFA, utilize protein and other nitrogenous compounds for synthesis of microbial protein, synthesize B vitamins, hydrolyze lipids, and hydrogenate fatty acids... The table below this lists a number of rumen-living microbes and their products of fermentation; only 2 were methane-producers, but quantities were not given. ...The numbers of bacteria in the mammalian midgut are generally much lower than those in the rumen. Savage (235) reported that the human small intestine contained 104 to 106 viable, predominantly anaerobic organisms per gram of digesta. Rambaud (217) also reported counts of 105 bacteria/ml in the small intestinal contents of two-thirds of the human subjects. These were predominantly aerobes, but the number increased to 108/ml, with the appearance of enterobacteria and strict anaerobes in the ileum of one-third of the subjects. Mackie and Wilkins (175) found that the counts of anaerobic bacteria in grass-fed horses ranged from 106/g in the duodenum to 108/g in the ileum... Ah, diagram of carbohydrate fermentation in ruminants: (getting closer to the data I seek) http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/78/2/393/F11 BINGO! Rumen gases vary in both their rate of production and their composition with time after feeding (276). Carbon dioxide is derived from fermentation of carbohydrate and the neutralization of SCFA with HCO3 . Methane production is directly proportional to acetate production and inversely proportional to the production of propionate, but it also depends on other factors that affect the growth and replication of methanogenic organisms. It appears to be almost totally derived from reduction of formate, H2 , and CO2 , which accounts for the low concentrations of H2 in the rumen, except for the first few days of a fasting period. Nitrogen and O2 are added from swallowed air, and N2 can diffuse into the rumen from the blood as well. Oxygen is rapidly reduced by rumen microorganisms, and some of the CO2 is directly absorbed into the blood, but much of the CO2 and most of the CH4 produced in the rumen is removed by eructation. Kleiber (159) found that an adult cow on a diet of 5 kg hay lost 191 liters of CH4 through eructation and flatulence, which was equivalent to a 10% loss of their daily digestible energy intake. About 190 liters of methane/day/cow... Wow. Humans: Calloway (40) reviewed information on the composition of gasses in the large intestine of
Flatulence
I used to know how much flatulence we humans produced, but I have long forgotten that! sigh Yet another thing to look up... not sure about humans, but when i was in the land of the long white cloud (new zealand) i was told that the average bovine emitted up to a barrel a day. i think there are about 70 million sheep in the spring, compared to 4 million people. of course ruminants have four stomachs. termites are responsible for much more methane in our atmosphere; however, some of the mounds in australia tower over mere humans and form interesting spires. jlm Knowledge is Power Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Moore film attacks U.S. health care
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070519/en_nm/cannes_sicko_dc_1;_ylt=AksZn5YYuAQpYyfeUmrQJEsE1vAI http://tinyurl.com/39hxo7 Director Michael Moore says the U.S. health care system is driven by greed in his new documentary SiCKO, and asks of Americans in general, Where is our soul? He also said he could go to jail for taking a group of volunteers suffering ill health after helping in the September 11, 2001 rescue efforts on an unauthorized trip to Cuba, where they received exemplary treatment at virtually no cost. The controversial film maker is back in Cannes, where he won the film festival's highest honor in 2004 with his anti-Bush polemic Fahrenheit 9/11. In SiCKO he turns his attention to health, asking why 50 million Americans, 9 million of them children, live without cover, while those that are insured are often driven to poverty by spiraling costs or wrongly refused treatment at all. But the movie, which has taken Cannes by storm, goes further by portraying a country where the government is more interested in personal profit and protecting big business than caring for its citizens, many of whom cannot afford health insurance. I'm trying to explore bigger ideas and bigger issues, and in this case the bigger issue in this film is who are we as a people? Moore told reporters after a press screening. Why do we behave the way we behave? What has become of us? Where is our soul? SiCKO uses humor and tragic personal stories to get the point across, and had a packed audience variously laughing and in tears. There was loud applause at the end of the two-hour documentary, which is out of the main Cannes competition. Moore was asked by journalists why he painted such a rosy picture of other countries' health systems, including Britain, France, Canada and Cuba, and the implied criticism is likely to be raised again. But he defended his methods. I recognize that there are flaws in your system but that's not for me to correct, that's for you to correct, he told a Canadian reporter. RANGE OF EMOTIONS One section of the film explains how a U.S. man severed the tip of two fingers in an accident and was told he would have to pay $12,000 to re-attach the end of his ring finger, and $60,000 to re-attach that of his index finger. Being a hopeless romantic, Rick chose his ring finger, Moore quipped in a typically sardonic voiceover. It also follows a woman whose young daughter falls seriously ill but who said she was refused admission to a general hospital and instructed to go to a private one instead. By the time she got to the second hospital, it was too late to save the girl. One of the most controversial passages of the film, due to be released in the United States on June 29, compares health care in the United States to that which Islamic militant suspects receive at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. I think when Americans see this they are not going to focus on Cuba or Fidel Castro, Moore said, referring to the controversy surrounding his trip to Cuba, which has prompted a U.S. government investigation. They are going to say to themselves, 'You're telling me that the al Qaeda detainees are receiving better health care, the people that helped participate in the attacks of 9/11 are receiving better health care from us than those who went down to rescue those who suffered and died on 9/11? Moore added that he was taking the investigation seriously. I'm the one who's personally being investigated and I'm the one who's personally liable for potential fines or jail, so I don't take it lightly. xponent Moore Of The Same Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
U.S. health care
Why do we behave the way we behave? What has become of us? Where is our soul? DUMPED ON SKID ROW Hospitals drop homeless patients on the citys Skid Row, sometimes dressed in only a flimsy gown and without a wheel chair, even if they're not healthy enough to fend for themselves. Anderson Cooper reports on the practice known as hospital dumping. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13502.shtml Knowledge is Power You snooze, you lose. Get messages ASAP with AutoCheck in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_html.html ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
