http://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/
I quote one selected paragraph (Hope the author won't mind)
I think I just surprised myself. I’m not a vegetarian. I’m not an animal rights activist. I’m not opposed to big farming on first principles. And yet by way of my epidemiological work I’ve apparently arrived at the conclusion factory farming *as we know it* must end.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Intolerance at a For-Profit Insurance Company
Dear Reader,
Please do not forget to read the after-thought below (written two years later).....
Last week Der Standard had a short article about the Wiener Linien, the public transport company,
doing a survey about eating in the metro.
As far as I can tell--with my mediocre German and not reading carefully--the little article
ended with reflections about how the pace of modern life, regrettably, forces us to eat fast food.
I posed the question to several middle-aged employees of an insurance company...
and they unanimously spoke in favor of banning food in the U-bahn.
The arguments?
One person said the food stank...
After another had said that people eat DURUM--a kind of "Turkish" food...
Another said the food was so greasy that you couldn't avoid making a mess....
Most interestingly, the gentleman who spoke out at length on the difficulty of eating
such food without making a mess does not ride the metro.
I wonder if he has ever eaten Durum?
I dared not say what I was thinking, and it was only later that I formulated a reaction...
These smug middle class people have no capacity to imagine someone else's life....
If people eat in the metro in the morning while they are on the way to work, I doubt
whether that is their preference.
I've even done it myself, and I would prefer a more leisurely life style.
In fact I ride the U-bahn regularly, and I've never gotten my clothes dirty because I sat
down on a seat spoiled with greasy food.
The claim--you have to make a mess if you eat such food--was apparently totally
a priori... and largely motivated by the excessive fastidiousness of the speaker...
Don't let them make my clothes dirty!
No mention of freedom of choice in the discussion...
No one spoke about the value of living in a society where there was freedom from interference
in one's personal life.....
all in all, a sad conversation, the sort of thing that makes me want to find another way to earn a living....
Re-reading this entry after two years....
i think I was a little hard on my students in what I've written.
At any rate, I am embarrassed by the thought that one of them could read this.
I do think that in this entry I make a fair point, but I also am bothered by the fact that they were basically pleasant people who were kind to me. My working conditions at the time were not good, but my students knew nothing of that...
However, what's hard is when you have the feeling that by saying what you really think,
no matter how diplomatically, you risk the chance of getting fired.
but, wait! back up! "no matter how diplomatically?" Here's the problem: a real conversation can't be filled with hedges and qualifications and beating around the bush....Or, perhaps some people live like that, but I can't regard it as ideal. Perhaps I could have been honest with my students, or more honest in general. Right now I can't say for sure, but, perhaps I should have said what I was thinking at the time....
Please do not forget to read the after-thought below (written two years later).....
Last week Der Standard had a short article about the Wiener Linien, the public transport company,
doing a survey about eating in the metro.
As far as I can tell--with my mediocre German and not reading carefully--the little article
ended with reflections about how the pace of modern life, regrettably, forces us to eat fast food.
I posed the question to several middle-aged employees of an insurance company...
and they unanimously spoke in favor of banning food in the U-bahn.
The arguments?
One person said the food stank...
After another had said that people eat DURUM--a kind of "Turkish" food...
Another said the food was so greasy that you couldn't avoid making a mess....
Most interestingly, the gentleman who spoke out at length on the difficulty of eating
such food without making a mess does not ride the metro.
I wonder if he has ever eaten Durum?
I dared not say what I was thinking, and it was only later that I formulated a reaction...
These smug middle class people have no capacity to imagine someone else's life....
If people eat in the metro in the morning while they are on the way to work, I doubt
whether that is their preference.
I've even done it myself, and I would prefer a more leisurely life style.
In fact I ride the U-bahn regularly, and I've never gotten my clothes dirty because I sat
down on a seat spoiled with greasy food.
The claim--you have to make a mess if you eat such food--was apparently totally
a priori... and largely motivated by the excessive fastidiousness of the speaker...
Don't let them make my clothes dirty!
No mention of freedom of choice in the discussion...
No one spoke about the value of living in a society where there was freedom from interference
in one's personal life.....
all in all, a sad conversation, the sort of thing that makes me want to find another way to earn a living....
Re-reading this entry after two years....
i think I was a little hard on my students in what I've written.
At any rate, I am embarrassed by the thought that one of them could read this.
I do think that in this entry I make a fair point, but I also am bothered by the fact that they were basically pleasant people who were kind to me. My working conditions at the time were not good, but my students knew nothing of that...
However, what's hard is when you have the feeling that by saying what you really think,
no matter how diplomatically, you risk the chance of getting fired.
but, wait! back up! "no matter how diplomatically?" Here's the problem: a real conversation can't be filled with hedges and qualifications and beating around the bush....Or, perhaps some people live like that, but I can't regard it as ideal. Perhaps I could have been honest with my students, or more honest in general. Right now I can't say for sure, but, perhaps I should have said what I was thinking at the time....
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wien Culture
I recently overheard two foreigners discussing Wien's culture.
"Such a cultural city!", they said.
That's why so many people read Heute, I guess....
A student once remarked that if so many people read it every day, then he
wanted to read it too....
Undoubtedly, there is such an instinct, the herd instinct or whatever you want to call it....
But the free daily newspaper "Heute" is hardly more than a mix of propaganda and advertising....
And it tells you something about the culture of Vienna if so many people read it....
What must it do to the mind? To read only short articles lacking in analysis or detail?
appealing above all to popular prejudices? Reinforcing and intensifying them?
When I see very young people reading Heute, I feel much the same as when I see the very
young smoking....
Yes, Vienna has a very high level of culture.
"Such a cultural city!", they said.
That's why so many people read Heute, I guess....
A student once remarked that if so many people read it every day, then he
wanted to read it too....
Undoubtedly, there is such an instinct, the herd instinct or whatever you want to call it....
But the free daily newspaper "Heute" is hardly more than a mix of propaganda and advertising....
And it tells you something about the culture of Vienna if so many people read it....
What must it do to the mind? To read only short articles lacking in analysis or detail?
appealing above all to popular prejudices? Reinforcing and intensifying them?
When I see very young people reading Heute, I feel much the same as when I see the very
young smoking....
Yes, Vienna has a very high level of culture.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Like Europe?
"And, so," she said," you like living in Europe?"
And, I, wishing to be agreeable to so agreeable a person--or because
it was the easiest answer?--said, "Oh, yes...."
But if the truth be told, it would be more accurate to say:
that today I see no other alternative--at least in the immediate present...
and, perhaps, I feel no longing to return to the Puritan land of capitalism...
But most truly, I had, once upon a time in the past, a long long time ago,
rather fanciful notions of what life would be like in Europe..
long ago when I did not know what I know now...
And, I, wishing to be agreeable to so agreeable a person--or because
it was the easiest answer?--said, "Oh, yes...."
But if the truth be told, it would be more accurate to say:
that today I see no other alternative--at least in the immediate present...
and, perhaps, I feel no longing to return to the Puritan land of capitalism...
But most truly, I had, once upon a time in the past, a long long time ago,
rather fanciful notions of what life would be like in Europe..
long ago when I did not know what I know now...
Sunday, April 12, 2009
people in real life don't fit in novels
A friend once wrote a novel which was never published.
And he was often faced with the question: but are you the hero?
Stupid question.
Graham Greene said it well:
"... one never knows enough about characters in real life to
put them into novels. "
(from his interview with the Paris Review)
And he was often faced with the question: but are you the hero?
Stupid question.
Graham Greene said it well:
"... one never knows enough about characters in real life to
put them into novels. "
(from his interview with the Paris Review)
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Petrzalka in Wien
It occurs to me that my building--built around 100 years ago--would
be so tall as those in Petrzalka
IF the technology had gotten so far.
So residents of Petrzalka are victims of technological progress!!!
housing for wage slaves
be so tall as those in Petrzalka
IF the technology had gotten so far.
So residents of Petrzalka are victims of technological progress!!!
housing for wage slaves
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
happy happy joy joy
Every day my being, my essence, my life
is WASTED
doing what I have to do in order to make a little money
Nobody is improved thereby
And, of course, someone unknown to me has the greatest share of the profits.
This is a meaningless, degrading existence.
Even worse, I can't see that those I teach have better lives than I do.
They are mostly opium eaters, sleeping the sleep of the ignorant.
they survive through frivolous consumption.
But this drudgery has a root cause
a system of organization
social and economic
the same one which has robbed so many of their savings and their homes.
It is not an accident or the result of the laws of nature.
Oh let's go to facebook and look at pretty pictures.....
is WASTED
doing what I have to do in order to make a little money
Nobody is improved thereby
And, of course, someone unknown to me has the greatest share of the profits.
This is a meaningless, degrading existence.
Even worse, I can't see that those I teach have better lives than I do.
They are mostly opium eaters, sleeping the sleep of the ignorant.
they survive through frivolous consumption.
But this drudgery has a root cause
a system of organization
social and economic
the same one which has robbed so many of their savings and their homes.
It is not an accident or the result of the laws of nature.
Oh let's go to facebook and look at pretty pictures.....
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