I watched another food-focused documentary this past weeked called King Corn. It’s the story of two friends from Boston who decide to grow one acre of corn in Greene, Iowa and follow it from seed to plate. They quickly realize farming isn’t as romantic as they had thought, learning the sad irony that a farmer with 7,000 acres of corn can’t feed himself; the corn he grows is inedible and barely profitable. King Corn examines the pervasive nature of corn,especially genetically modified corn in the US economy and diet.
King Corn was written, photographed, produced, and directed by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, who drew huge inspiration from Michael Pollan. Pollan is featured in the film, along with other notable food writers and reseachers. I don’t think Cheney and Ellis are film students, and cinematically it shows at times, but they tell a very informative and enjoyable, if even a little upsetting, story of the most abundant grain in our country.
King Corn is available on DVD and slated to air on PBS stations across the country.
Recycle your unwanted desktop and notebook computers, printers, copiers, fax machines, VCRs, stereos and microwave ovens at no charge.
Because of their lead and mercury content, monitors of all sizes still have a $15 fee. The drop-off center is open Mon - Sat. More info at Recycle Ann Arbor.
This weekend I watched The Future of Food, a documentary about genetically modified/engineered foods. The synopsis from the film’s website describes it best:
…an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade…The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply…THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system.
I was completely fascinated by the film, and particularly disturbed by how many genes and organisms have now been patented - a thought that has lingered since watching. If you’re at all concerned about what you put on your table and in your body, I consider The Future of Food mandatory viewing.
We ran into an issue with a user who’s Exchange mailbox had grown to a size that was very large, too large in fact. We needed to find a way to shrink it and usually this means to archive a significant portion of the messages. But as we were about to find out, this wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought.
Outlook users have many options when it comes to managing email archives and even ExMerge can run fairly selective archive routines, but this person was an Entourage user. Those other programs all have one thing in common, they output in PST, of which Entourage cannot handle natively. Yes there were other options, I could export to PST and then import to Thunderbird and then export to mbox format and then import to Entourage. What I would have been left with is a heap of ugly plain text email that wasn’t easily searchable nor sortable. I could also try and just move everything manually using click/drag but the folder structure was too complex and there was just too much mail.
What I really needed for this user was a way to have their somewhat complex email structure replicated in their local Entourage folders. Then we could move messages that were older than say, 6 months, into those corresponding locations. After a short and frustrating effort to do this manually, I spent some more time looking for a script that could possibly automate the action. I didn’t find a script but what I did end up finding was a program called the Entourage Exchange Accounts Optimizer. I know, the name could use some work but the program is brilliant.
For just $15 It does exactly what I needed it to do. Replicates the Exchange folder structure onto the local machine, moves the email that is older than the date specified, and is able to be scheduled to run daily. Why MS decided to leave this out, I can only guess but this program is certainly the bee’s knees.
It seems like everyday were finding new opportunities to make use of a tool called Google Documents and Spreadsheets. Here’s a cool video that shows just how useful this tool can be.
The BBC covered this “slow art” project called Real Snail Mail at Bournemouth University in the UK which will be showcased in Los Angeles in August.
Basically, a tank of snails with RFID tags in their shells slide past one of two RFID transmitters. One delivers the email to the snail and then eventually when the snail makes it to the other side of the tank the email gets picked up and sent to the ‘net.
The decision to upgrade the radio and operating system on my phone - possibly voiding contract and warranty in the process - was premeditated. I had done preliminary research for a few weeks. Then I was reading and re-reading the major threads in the developer forums, studying the wikis for days before I decided to commit the act. Friday was my day off and I announced on Thursday, “…I’m gonna do it, dammit.” This is my experience flashing an HTC Titan.
In the middle of the intense four-week orientation, Zappos gives new employees a bribe to walk away from it all. If they accept “The Offer,” the company will pay them for the amount of time worked plus give them a $1000 bonus. Why is Zappos paying new hires to quit?
Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later.
Innovative thinking! How much does disengaged employee hurt our bottom lines?
Last week the AP reported on the “Crazy Rasberry Ants,” and I thought it was a belated April Fool’s Day joke. No way could tiny ants be attracted to industrial electronics…what biological need could gadgets possibly satisfy in these bugs?
I swear to you, it’s not a joke. It is a festering reality.
Scientists are still unclear of the motive, but there is speculation and real fear about the dangers of these buggers, especially as they spread through Houston, moving ever closer to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The Crazy Rasberry Ants have already ruined sewage pumps, gas meters, and fire alarm systems in Texas. The only upside is that they eat fire ants, which sting humans. But for a nerd like me, a species of ants rampantly F-ing up the electronic elements of modern civilization that we take for granted is a far worse sting.
King Corn was written, photographed, produced, and directed by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, who drew huge inspiration from Michael Pollan. Pollan is featured in the film, along with other notable food writers and reseachers. I don’t think Cheney and Ellis are film students, and cinematically it shows at times, but they tell a very informative and enjoyable, if even a little upsetting, story of the most abundant grain in our country.
