Liz in Town

Daughter Elizabeth left the snow in Chicago just in time to experience snow in Charlotte -- in town for a week's vacation. We enjoyed a Sunday afternoon hanging out together: Dan, Jen, Ellen, and Arianna from Columbia; Anna and me from Charlotte; and the guest of honor, Liz, from Chicago.

Making smoothies:



Bunny ears and chocolate bunnies from Liz's store's Easter promotion:



Learning to play race-car games on Liz's iPhone:



Ears on the aunts, chocolate on the nieces' faces:



Never a dull moment with auntie Anna:



The third generation to play with these blocks and wooden men:





Just us girls:



The group:

New Safari Web Browser Is FAST!

UPDATE: While it's fast and cool, the Safari 4 browser has crashed a couple of times already, once freezing the entire Mac. (That's the nature of beta releases.) Doesn't appear to be ready for prime-time use. If Safari is your main browser I wouldn't download and install it since it overwrites 3.x.

News from Apple:

"Apple today announced Safari 4 public beta for Mac and Windows. With its new Nitro engine, Safari 4 runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. And it features many innovative new features that make browsing more intuitive and enjoyable, including Top Sites, Full History Search, Cover Flow, Tabs on Top, and still others. Safari 4 beta is available for immediate download for the Mac and PC."

This is the FASTEST browser I've ever seen. And the new "Top Sites" feature is amazing. Every time you open Safari, or open a new Tab, you're presented with graphic thumbnails of the sites you've visited most recently. Clicking on the one you want takes you to it immediately. (See screen shot from my computer above.) Download the Safari 4 BETA here . When you install it, it overwrites Safari 3, but saves all your past prefs, bookmarks, etc.

Five Best Sources for Organic Gardeners

There are lots of great vendors of organic gardening supplies, but the following five are the most comprehensive in terms of what they offer (seeds, starts, tools, amendments, books, etc.) and how well they explain their wares in their catalogs. Most organic gardeners have already ordered spring/summer seeds, but the catalogs from these suppliers are worth ordering anyway. Reading them provides a mini-education in organic gardening methods. You can go to their web sites to request their catalogs:

1. Johnny's Selected Seeds
2. Territorial Seed Company
3. Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply
4. Harmony Farm Supply & Nursery
5. Seeds of Change

Friends Old and New

My friend, Barry St. Clair, from years past in Atlanta, was through Charlotte last week. I met up with him and his associate, Strib Stribling, at EarthFare, and then brought them back to my house where they camped for the night. Barry is founder and head of Reach Out Youth Solutions, a far-flung international ministry to young people and the Christian leaders who minister to them. Barry also founded and pastored a church in Altanta which we attended for a few years (and, in his spare time, has cranked out 20-odd books for young people, their parents, and youth leaders). I haven't seen Barry for 15 (?) years, but have stayed connected with his ministry. Was great to reconnect for a brief visit.

Strib (l.) and Barry (r.):



Old pals:

Arianna Turned Six!

Went to Columbia, SC, on Saturday, February 14, for Arianna's sixth birthday party. It was a great event, as usual. Daniel and Jen never fail to create a fun time for kiddos and parents alike. A few snaps from the party; many of these pix turned out below quality in terms of lighting -- don't know why, but my apologies nonetheless: (more pix on my Flickr account page for viewing/downloading)

Friday afternoon, looking at leaves and pollen under the microscope:



Waiting to see something exciting:



Grandaddy's Happy Valentine Bears waiting to surprise the girls in the morning:



Saturday morning, to the toy store to pick out a birthday present:



The Valentine Bears made the trip as well:





Dad gets to assemble the jillion-piece Playmobile farm set:



All the party guests (about 15 for Arianna and a friend who held a joint party) made cool goodie bags . . .



And then played dress-up before sitting down for cupcakes:





Hey Aunt Anna!



Arianna whacked the head off the dolphin piñata:



A literal sugar rush:



Ruby, everybody's favorite baby:



Arianna counts her birthday cash:



The party and the dad winding down:



Proud parents still smiling after another birthday bash:

Variety In the Spices of Life

I am borrowing the following paragraphs without permission from the Jan-Mar 2005 health newsletter of Dr. Michael Greger, MD -- a plant-based MD who produces some creative DVD's summarizing latest health findings on an annual basis (proceeds going to charity). The paragraphs below are on the impact of the trace mineral boron on prostate cancer -- but I'm citing them for a different reason, to follow:

We've know that dietary boron intake likely strengthens one's bones and protects against arthritis, but its role in cancer prevention has remained a mystery. Epidemiological evidence over the last 4 years has shown that populations with high dietary intakes of boron did seem to have reduced prostate cancer risk, though. So to test the potential anticarcinogenic effect of this trace mineral, researchers at the University of California dripped varying concentrations of boron on human prostate cancer cells and found indeed that at boron levels achievable through dietary intake one could significantly retard the growth of prostate cancer cells.

Where is boron found? The best sources are nuts, fruits and vegetables. The most concentrated source of dietary boron on the planet seems to be flax seeds; the top five (according to USDA tests of 234 foods) are 1. flax seeds, 2. avocados, 3. peanuts, 4. prune juice, then 5. pecans. This is based on boron concentration by weight, though. Just because peanuts score higher than prune juice doesn't mean it's just as easy to drink a cup of peanut butter. Taking serving sizes into account, the most readily available source of boron is probably avocados.

Here's what I want to highlight: the fact that there is a heirarchy of foods containing the trace mineral boron, the top five being listed. Boron is a trace mineral, meaning it occurs naturally in healthy soil. If boron is in the soil, why don't all plants have an equal amount of it? Because different plants pick and choose the mineral and trace minerals that they uptake into their fruit.

Minerals/trace minerals are not found in plants (there are traces of minerals in plant seeds, absorbed from the host fruit) -- they are found in soil. Dr. Maynard Murray, author of Sea Energy Agriculture, said that the main purpose of plants and their fruit was to serve as a transfer vehicle to pull minerals out of the soil and deposit them in fruit which we then eat. The above example of boron shows that certain plants uptake that trace mineral in larger quantities than others (and likewise for other plants and their fruits).

Two implications:

1. Soils can become deficient in minerals/trace minerals. There is no way to know, when looking at a fruit or vegetable in the produce department of a grocery store (or at a farmer's market) what its mineral content is (plentiful or deficient). The minerals in the produce are a function of the mineral content of the soil it was grown in. Thus, it pays to buy the food that you believe was grown in the best soil possible -- the soil that is continually being enriched with natural processes such as compost, plant rotation, natural soil amendments, rest, worms and other soil life, and cover crops. Louis Bromfield of Malabar Farm spoke of the ongoing mineral extraction this way: Minerals are constantly "walking" off your land in the form of animal flesh and bones (grasses eaten by grazing animals) and foods harvested for human consumption. If you don't return the minerals to the land, the soil will become so worn out (mineral deficient) that what is grown on it will be totally unfit for human or animal consumption. (That is, it will be deficient in minerals.) Conventional (non-organic) farmers usually restore fewer than a half-dozen minerals to their land each year: N (nitrogen), P (phosphorous) K (potassium), calcium (in the form of lime), and a few others. These are important, but none of these are trace minerals (like boron) -- those that make up the remaining 90+ elements on the Periodic Table of Elements. Organic farmers' practices result, over time, in restoring a broader range of elements through the incorporation of cover crops (green manure), manures, and compost. It's another reason to eat foods grown by organic growers.

2. It's better to eat a small amount of LOTS of different plants than a large amount of a few. We all have our favorite plant foods, but since different plants extract different minerals/trace minerals from the soil in different quantities, we will get the greatest vareity of minerals by eating the widest variety of plant foods possible. We need to view the plant world as a giant buffet and sample as widely as possible. Sadly, grocery stores carry a VERY limited number of plant foods compared to what is available in nature -- another good reason to shop farmers markets where you are likely to find varieties not carried in the grocery store. All one need do is view pictures of a native, open-air market in a South American city to see foods that appear unfamiliar to us:

Vegan Kids

Short (3 minutes) video at WebMD.com that is helpful -- an interview with a vegan mom who is a registered dietician and raising a vegan daughter. Shows that it can be done healthily. The pictures of daughter Saige remind me of how Ellen and Arianna have eaten as young children. You'll have to go here to watch the video since it can't be embedded.

Human/Non-Human Behavior, Part 2

Stephen, in a comment on my original post about the work of Dr. Temple Grandin, rightly raised the issue of her participation in the animal slaughter industry as a consultant and designer of animal-handling systems. (She has been roundly criticized, compared to a pedophile who constructs a way to sexually abuse children by first rendering them unconscious so they don't experience the trauma.) I offered a brief response to his query in a follow-up comment (see Comments), and added an addendum to the original post clarifying the apparent contradiction between her appreciation for and study of animals and her participation in a system that devalues them.

As I continued to read Animals in Transition, I came across a passage in which she discusses why she is not a vegetarian even though she would prefer to be. I'll cite that passage here to allow Dr. Grandin to speak for herself on the issue of consuming animals as food vis-a-vis the pain animals experience. This is a complex issue made more simple for me based on using the Bible to shape my worldview. But for those with different worldviews (e.g., an evolutionary worldview, to which Dr. Grandin seems to subscribe), the issue is more complex.

The following section is in a chapter that discusses "pain and suffering:" (Words inserted in brackets are mine, to explain something she has covered in earlier sections of the book.)

If I had my druthers humans would have evolved to be plant eaters, so we wouldn't have to kill other animals for food. But we didn't, and I don't see the human race converting to vegetarianism anytime soon. I've tried to eat vegetarian myself, and I haven't been able to manage it physically. I get the same feeling you get with hypoglycemia; I get dizzy and light-headed, and I can't think straight. My mother is exactly the same way, and a lot of people with processing problems [e.g., autism] have told me they have this reaction, too, so I've always wondered if there's a connection. If there's something different about your sensory processing, is there something different about your metabolism, too?

There could be. It's possible that a brain difference could also involve a metabolic difference, because the same genes can do different things in different parts of the body. A gene that contributed to autism might contribute to a metabolic difference, or any other kind of difference. Parents have always said that their autistic children have lots of physical problems, too, usually involving the gut, and mainstream researchers haven't paid a lot of attention to this.

So until someone proves otherwise I'm operating from the hypothesis that at least some people are genetically built so that they have to have meat to function. Even if that's not so, the fact that humans evolved as both plant and meat eaters means that the vast majority of human beings are going to continue to eat both. Humans are animals, too, and we do what our animal natures tell us to do.

That means we're going to continue to have feedlots and slaughterhouses, so the question is: what should a humane feedlot and slaughterhouse be like?

Everyone concerned with animal welfare has the basic answer to that: the animal shouldn't suffer. He should feel as little pain as possible, and he should die as quicklyl as possible.

But although the principle is obvious, putting it into operation isn't, because it's hard to know how much pain an animal feels. It's hard to know how much pain a person feels when you get right down to it, but at least a person can tell you in plain language that he feels horrible. An animal can't do that. (Animals in Translation, pp. 179-180)

She continues with a fascinating overview of research on the difference between pain and suffering in both humans and non-human animals.

The thoughts I had after reading this section:

1. Her feeling that she "needs" meat based on her body type is common. The "eat according to your body type" school of thought is not new, saying that some people have to have animal protein to be healthy. My worldview says that's not true—that God designed the human body constitutionally to exist on plant-based food (Genesis 1:29). I think many people who have negative physical reactions to getting off animal foods are experiencing cleansing reactions that would disappear in time if they would stick with a gradual transition long enough. (Let me say, however, that I cannot compete with Dr. Grandin on the connection between sensory and metabolic processes that she mentions. She is the scientist, not me. My convictions are based purely on what I believe God designed to be normal for every person.)

2. Her views and practices are purely evolutionary: Man is an animal who evolved to eat both plants and animals, therefore we should continue in that pattern. She doesn't address the negative health implications of eating animal foods, only the evolutionary ones.

3. I have always been confused about why evolutionists have moral compunctions about pain and suffering. If the "ought" and "ought not" factors are purely evolutionary, then there is no higher moral authority to answer to when it comes to inflicting pain. Therefore, why should we care whether the animals we have evolved to eat suffer in the process or not? Lions don't seek out kindler and gentler ways to dispatch zebras before eating them. They just eat them without a thought for the zebra's pain and suffering. The fact that Dr. Grandin cares about making death less painful for animals is confusing to me and evidence that she recognizes an "ought" factor in her life that she can't really explain. (I also don't understand why it's not okay for evolutionist humans who eat animals to eat other humans. If we are no different from other predators, why can't we eat whomever we choose?) I'm assuming that evolutionists such as Dr. Grandin would cite evolving community norms as the source of what we "ought" and "ought not" do with regard to anything regarding human and non-human animals. (Daniel, from your philosophy studies perhaps you can offer a comment on the presence of the "ought" factor and how philosophers have defined its source in an evolutionary worldview.)

4. As a biblicist, I have to be willing to own all the implications of my convictions. My plant-based diet, my moral compunctions about mitigating pain, my respect for animal life—they all are rooted in Scripture. Dr. Grandin is totally transparent about her evolutionary position. She would like to be a vegetarian but doesn't believe her evolutionary views (and the way the body has evolved) require it. I respect the honest wrestling she has done to work out a consistent worldview. I'm not sure Christians have been as diligent in applying their professed adherence to Scripture with the way they live vis-a-vis animals.

So -- I'll stop there. I felt it necessary to allow Dr. Grandin to speak for herself on the matter of vegetarianism and why she does what she does. But her view also presents some complications (contradictions?) that I have noted. Your comments are welcome.

Ride It Like You Stole It

A common saying among bike racers is, "Ride it like you stole it." When Lance Armstrong's time trial bike was stolen at the Tour of California, then recovered and returned, the Astana and Trek mechanics rebuilt it with a new message for the rider:



In case you can't read it, the message on the chain stay says, "Lance—Ride This One Like YOU Stole It." Signed, The Trek ProjectOne Team.

Understanding Human and Non-Human Behavior

Dr. Temple Grandin (PhD in Animal Science) is autistic. Because of her autism she has become a leading authority in helping those who raise and work with animals understand how animals think since autistic humans and animals think so much alike—in pictures rather than words. The author of a half-dozen books, she is also a leading authority on helping autistic children and adults live productively in the "normal" world. Like many autistic people, she is obviously brilliant and sees the world (and especially animals) in ways that "normal" people can't.

I have been captivated by Animals in Translation—Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. She (along with her co-author Catherine Johnson, PhD in neuropsychiatry) present page after page of fascinating research and insights into the human-animal relationship.

I had to stop and share the following short section from Animals in Translation. She has been talking about "hormones of love"—the familiar ones like testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, and another less familiar one called oxytocin, more prominent in female animals and humans, but in males as well. Remember when reading this quote: oxytocin is a "hormone of love"—of relational warmth. She says,

A dog's oxytocin levels rise when his owner pets him, and petting his dog raises the owner's oxytocin, too. I'm sure that's one reason why so many people have dogs in the first place. I don't think anyone has researched this yet, but I expect we'll find that dogs make humans into nicer people and better parents. Oxytocin is definitely important in humans. When women have babies their oxytocin levels shoot up right before the birth, and research shows that those high levels spark maternal warmth and care. Oxytocin produces caring "maternal" behavior in men, too. So for parents, owning and petting a dog is probably like getting a "good parent" shot every day. Dogs are probably good for marriages for the same reason.

Science as well as the practical implications. Fascinating stuff. This interestes me because of the consideration I've given of late to the lack of a "theology of animals" among those who were given responsibility by God for caring for them—primarily those who profess to know God. The secular community has done a much better job trying to describe and implement a "theology" (a science) of animals than Christendom has done, and to define the mutually-beneficial relationship that should exist between humans and non-human animals.

I also have (and love the title of) her latest book dealing with animals: Animals Make Us Human—Creating the Best Life for Animals. I was caused to think recently that perhaps one of the primary purposes of animals in creation is to help humans discover who they are. Just as we discover much about ourselves as we measure how others react to us, so maybe we discover things about ourselves as we relate to animals that we would otherwise never know. I don't know what she is going to say about how "animals make us human" but I'm looking forward to finding out.

On the page for this book at Amazon there is a short video of Dr. Grandin talking about this book and some of her views on animals. She is a totally unique person in light of her autism—"normal" yet so different. You'll enjoy watching the video.

ADDENDUM: Someone raised a question about my support for the work of someone who has designed animal-handling systems for the meat packing industry. I should have clarified Temple Grandin's work in this area. She is a scientist who is regularly employed as a consultant to the animal packinghouse industry, designing handling systems that result in better treatment for animals and more efficient operation. Even though her work contributes to the death of countless animals who are killed for human consumption, they are at least treated better because of her expertise. I am not reading her books in support of how she applies her knowledge of animals and humans, but because of how I can (hopefully) apply it. Sorry for not including this information in the original post.

Dance Like No One's Watching

Thanks to Dave for sending this hilarious link.

Check out this guy at a break at a Celtics basketball game -- a Bon Jovi song starts playing over the P.A. system and when he realizes he's on the Jumbotron screen (I take that back -- I don't know if he realizes he's on the Jumbo or not; if not, all the better -- he's dancin' for the sheer pleasure of it!), he breaks into full-on Bon Jovi. Then the crowd gets into it and the camera stays on him throughout the whole song. Unbelievable. Somewhere along the way, this guy lost all inhibitions that the rest of us labor under daily. More power to him. (P.S. -- Anybody remember the Prayer for Cleansing days when young Dave displayed a similar amount of stage presence? No wonder he liked this video. Probably an expression of his great-grandfather Blackburn's stage genes, no?)

Look What's Coming

My, oh my -- hi-def video is coming to the web (and to blogs). My friend, Paul Stack, pointed me to this sample hi-def video shot with a $600 Canon hand-held hi-def video camera. The quality between this and the YouTube video down below is obvious. The only problem is that many computers don't have the horsepower to play these hi-def videos smoothly -- my computer barely does.

To play this clip, move your cursor over the screen to make the buttons appear:


Video Postcards from Canon HV30 from Moua Lee on Vimeo.

Vegan Soul Kitchen

Vegan Soul Kitchen is a new vegan cookbook by Bryant Terry based primarily on African-American culture. See the write-up here. Alice Waters (founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA) says, "Bryant Terry knows that good food should be an everyday right and not a privilege. This book is full of easy, tasty, seasonal recipes that also happen to be vegan and affordable!" It's available for pre-order at Amazon.

Stay Current, Be Entertained

David Pogue is the technology columnist for The New York Times -- funny, smart, and creative (and multi-talented). He creates a weekly video tech update for MSNBC that is available as a free weekly podcast. All you have to do to sign up is open iTunes, then go to this link which takes you to the iTunes podcast "store." In the top part of the window click on "Subscribe" and you're done. You'll receive Pogue's weekly tech video -- you just have to open iTunes to watch it, or catch up on back issues if you get behind. It's an entertaining way to keep up with new tech developments weekly.

Here's a sample of the video he did when the new 3G iPhone came out last year:



And you can go to the Times website to view the most recent one where he explains Twitter -- just posted today.

The Sad Lives of Factory-Farm Chickens

For a fact sheet concerning factory-farmed chickens and battery cages, go here.

More on the Peeler-Man

The post previous to this one was about Joe Ades, salesman extraordinaire ("He could talk a starving dog off a meat truck," says one article), who passed away last week after a lifetime as a street-vendor. Street vendor? Don't feel badly for him. He dressed in thousand-dollar suits and lived in a Park Avenue apartment, and said, "Never underestimate small amounts of money over 60 years."

As usual, Priscilla went into her super-sleuth mode and found the Swiss company that makes the veggie peelers Joe Ades sold, and I found this outlet for them on the Internet. For such a well-spoken product, there are surprisingly few places to buy one.

Here's another video that ran on the NBC Today show a few years ago about Mr. Ades (thanks, Prisc!):

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I'd Have Bought One in a Heartbeat

I'd read about this guy before -- Joe Ades, an institution on the streets of New York City. He was a master salesman, selling Swiss-made vegetable peelers for $5 each. He apparently passed away this week. I'm sorry I didn't get one of his veggie peelers:

Interesting and Amazing

(Borrowed with thanks from http://www.friends.hosted.pl/redrim/Reading_Test.jpg)

Writing Good ;-)

Pardon my intentional grammatical mistake in the title -- it should be "writing well." "Good Writing" would have been correct (adjective modifying a noun), but "Writing Good" is incorrect (adjectives can't modify verbs; adverbs ["well"] modify verbs).

That grammatical error hopefully grabbed your attention for the point of this post: a lesson in writing well from Michael Masterson, a hugely successful copywriter (as cited by Bob Bly in his recent email newsletter). Masterson says writing is made stronger by focusing on "the power of one:"

•One big idea
•One appropriate emotion
•One purpose
•One audience

"The more ideas, emotions, objectives, and different types of readers you try to cover and reach out to in your copy, the more watered down and weaker it becomes."

Masterson also says, "Great writing is good thinking expressed as cleanly as possible." (From an AWAI tele-seminar, 1/8/08.) I have long thought that great writers ought to be called "great thinkers" instead, since nothing gets put down on paper that doesn't originate first in the mind. Granted, writing helps to refine thinking by slowing down the process, and re-writing creates re-thinking, which is helpful. But still, writing begins as thinking, so poor writing (whether grammatical mechanics or the realm of ideas) is a sign of poor thinking. And surely that has something to do with the quality of "thinking" to which we expose ourselves and our children. Minds that are continually exposed to "great thoughts" must surely stand a better chance of having great thoughts of their own. (That's a generalization, to which history offers exceptions -- deprived people who nonetheless produce great thoughts with little training or prompting.)

We were taught the "Big Idea" principle in seminary, applied to sermon preparation, but it applies equally to any kind of writing. My writing doesn't always measure up, obviously, but it's good to be reminded of what makes good writing better.

What Will People Buy?

Bob Bly is one of America's top copywriters, earning three-quarters of a million dollars annually with his words. In a recent newsletter he cited a finding from the Early to Rise Internet Marketing Conference (2008) concerning what people will buy on the Internet (as researched by entrepreneurs Brock Felt and Buck Rizvi). They group Internet purchases (marketing-driven purchases) into four categories:

1. Products that alleviate the prospect's pain.
2. Products that solve a problem.
3. Products that give or enable pleasure.
4. Products that prevent a problem or condition.

#1 and #2 are the easiest to sell because people will spend money to alleviate pain or solve a problem.
#3 will sell, but pleasure is less demanding than pain/problems, so they rank third.
#4 is the most difficult product to sell because -- (here's the point of this post) -- as health marketers have long known, people will buy cure but not prevention.

The implications of that italicized finding are huge, not just for marketing, but for the state of how short-sighted we are in general. We would rather live the way we want, then spend money immediately to make the pain or problem our lifestyle created go away, than take the long view and spend money on prevention. That philosophy underlies the entire healthcare system in America (though prevention is gaining more credibility as America's corporate health continues to decline).

We Are What We Eat (The Movie)

Aaron Lucich is a young guy who set out in 2005 to find a sustainable food system, and he is making a movie about his quest. At present, the movie consists of segments -- lots of interviews with a Who's Who in sustainble/organic agriculture efforts (farmers, PhD's, M.D.'s, etc.) -- not yet compiled into the finished piece. (And the segments I have watched are extremely well done.)

The web site for We Are What We Eat (the working title of the movie) is here. (There is little there at present.) The video segments posted there don't seem to play as well as they do when viewing them on his Facebook site. They can't be embedded on blogs or other web sites at present, so you'll have to view them in situ.

I STRONGLY encourage you to set aside 20 minutes to watch one of the segments: The unaminous voices of the individuals featured is overwhelming. What saddens me so is that we don't have people like these experts setting agriculture/environmental/medical policy in Washington. The men and women in this clip are so knowledgeable -- they have spend their professional lives studying the earth, farming it, and connecting soil with health. They have not only a scientific basis for what they say but an intuitive sense that our current ways of living are unsustainable. This segment begins with Charles Walters (founder of ACRES USA), one of the patriarchs of the eco-ag movement -- and maybe one of the smartest people alive. If you watch the video segment I recommend below, be sure to stay for the final 4-5 minutes where the interviewees are identified. It's great to put names, faces, and voices with some of the legends of the eco-ag movement.

The segment I'm recommending is here on Lucich's web site (though I couldn't get it to play). It plays easily on his Facebook site here. I'm a member of Facebook so I gained access to the video easily -- I don't know if you have to have a Facebook account to see this video or not, but it would be worth establishing one just to see the video. If you are active on Facebook, while at the video site become a "Fan" of Lucich's site to add to the momentum for the movie he is developing.

JUST ADDED: I found a <3 minute version of the video I'm recommending above on YouTube. PLEASE watch the longer 20 minute version -- but this short will give you a taste:

Joel Salatin

Everybody who cares about sustainable food supplies needs to know who Joel Salatin is. He is the owner of Polyface Farm ("farm of many faces") in Swoope, Virginia. He is an author, a brillianly creative farmer, a political rebel, and a committed Christian. He has revolutionized animal farming for small-scale sustainable farmers by his creative approaches to pasture rotation. He makes a very healthy living selling beef, poultry, pork, and rabbits off his farm. He will not ship meat anywhere, selling only to those in his surrounding counties. He has written numerous books, sharing his ideas for others to use. And ACRES USA uses Polyface Farm annually as a hands-on field-day site so Joel can lecture on and demonstrate his methods. (They charge $400-$500 an hour for guided tours of the farm with Joel or his son, Daniel, leading the tour. Self-guided, walkabout tours are free -- and hundreds of people pass through the farm every week.) Author Michael Pollan has written extensively about Joel Salatin.



As a Christian, I wish I could talk with Joel sometime about his dual commitments to Scripture and the consumption of animals. (Though nobody treats animals more gently and humanely than he does.) I would also like to ask him if he recognizes any connection between his lifelong consumption of animal flesh and his prostate cancer. There is such a clear link in research literature between those two that it amazes me how a smart guy like Joel Salatin doesn't see the (alleged) connection. I hope he lives long and strong -- and wish he would bring the same brilliance to plant production that he applies to animal farming. (He gardens, but it's primarily for his own family's consumption and a minimal amount of on-farm sales to others. His main "cash crop" is animals.)

Finger Exercise

Doing the CoolIris video was a new thing, so I did another one of a little guitar piece I created for some daily fingering exercise. Don't blink or you'll miss it: (The guitar is a Kevin Ryan Mission Grand Concert made by Kevin Ryan. See his beautiful guitars here.)

CoolIris

I made this short video to demonstrate the browser plug-in called CoolIris that enables a new dimension of image viewing on web sites that have lots of pictures (shopping sites, photo storage sites, etc.). CoolIris works in Firefox, Flock, Internet Explorer, and Safari and can be downloaded here. (As with all YouTube videos, click directly in the screen below to go to YouTube for a slightly larger—and better, in this case—video.)

Movin' On Up! (Lizzie Moves to Chicago)

Here are a few pix from Elizabeth's and my trip to Chicago last weekend to take her furniture. I road to Atlanta with Gail and Anna to meet Liz at her Norcross apartment where we loaded the truck. Then Lizzie and I took off for Chicago to deliver her goods to the apartment she's been in for a month or so (with only clothes, toiletries, and her cat). We left Atlanta around 2:15 in the afternoon Saturday and got to her apartment around 2:00 a.m. Sunday. I flew home late Monday afternoon and was picked up at the airport by Anna.

Loading the truck in Atlanta:



Unloading the truck in Chicago -- note the snow. It got up to around 12-13 degrees during the day while we were unloading; a tad warmer the next day. They really know how to handle snow up there. The streets were perfectly clean with mounds of snow piled alongside the roads, and MOUNTAINS of snow piled up in shopping center and mall parking lots that look like they will probably finish melting in late July.



Liz's apartment complex is really nice. This is just a small portion of her building. There are 12 of these huge three-story buildings, all with European names, in the complex. Plus a really nice gym, pool, rec center with pool/ping pong, etc., and activities for residents every night of the week. The people in the office are really nice, the grounds and buildings are extremely well-kept, and a huge maintenance staff that fixes everything pronto. All the sidewalks are shoveled and the streets plowed immediately when it snows. She really loves the apartments -- easy to see why. (See the movie below for a quick look at her apt.)



We ate twice at the local Wholefoods -- Yay, Wholefoods! They had a HUGE and delicious food bar filled with amazing veggie dishes, hot and cold. So good!



And we took a spin through the local HUGE Ikea store. I wasn't allowed to take any pix of her store -- company policy -- but it is beautiful, about three times larger than the Perimeter store in Atlanta. She's done a great job getting the store and staff into shape.



The view from Liz's living room windows on the THIRD FLOOR. :-) Fortunately, we were able to use the elevator to move everything up except for her GINORMOUS L-shaped sofas. Those, we had to carry up by hand. I had prayed before we left Atlanta that God would provide someone to help us get the sofas up the stairs, and a really nice young Indian man who lived in the apartments saw us struggling in the door with the first sofa and asked if we needed some help. He helped us carry both sofas up to the third floor -- and wouldn't accept my offer to pay him for his troubles. He even asked us if we'd like to come down to his apartment and have something to eat with he and his wife. We needed to keep working, so declined, but he was a really nice guy. Liz is going to deliver a chocolate gift basket to their apartment this week.



HRH Trina, who condescended to sit in my lap by the second day:



And two pix of the lovely Liz, sitting on the infamous red sofas, the color of which conceals the blood (sweat and tears) we spilled on them wrestling them to the third floor:





And here is a short video tour of the inside of the apartment.(Click in the center of the video if you want to be taken to YouTube for a slightly larger formatted version.)



It was a great trip -- safe and productive. Liz has a great place to live and a great job with a great company, so is well-suited for the next chapter of the Great Adventure known as Life.

She Knows What Will Make the Prez Fat

Here's a letter a schoolgirl wrote to President Obama (see the New York Times article here.) Yes, it will make him fatter, but it will also make him deader faster:

Flying in Norway

David sent this beautiful video of base jumpers in Norway using wing suits to skim the face of cliffs at 100 mph before opening their 'chutes. Amazing, and beautiful, video. (This is large-format video -- way better than YouTube, etc.)

Inauguration Panorama

See a cool 360-degree panorama of the inauguration platform and crowd in front of the capital.

Funniest Line of the Inauguration

I kept the NBC broadcast on during most of the inauguration events yesterday, which consisted of Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Lester Holt, and David Gregory at "the desk." After the swearing-in ceremony was over, the president and a couple hundred dignitaries retreated to a traditional lunch in the Capital. After that lunch, the Obamas rode in their limousine back to the White House to "freshen up" before going to the viewing stand to watch the parade.

It was Brian Williams' comment after the luncheon that cracked me up, along with his buddies on the NBC desk: (you have to know that President Obama is a private smoker who is trying to quit to understand Williams' comment)

It was after the Capital luncheon and the Obamas were back in the limousine, leaving for the White House. The television cameras focused on the President through the window of the limousine, where he was obviously chewing a piece of gum -- and the camera held that shot long enough for the post-lunch gum-chewing to be obvious.

Brian Williams (who demonstrates a wicked sense of humor when he is away from the "Nightly News" anchor desk), noting the gum-chewing, said, "I'll bet the president is jonesing* for a piece of Nicorette about now." (*jonesing: slang for withdrawal or craving) Obama was no doubt feeling the pain, having been in the public eye since early that morning without a fix.

You could hear the other men at the desk cracking up -- David Gregory even tried to save the moment by adding, "Or a piece of Dentyne." Wrong and too late -- the joke was out of the studio -- and it was a funny one. They immediately moved the conversation to other things, but it was a funny moment.

Congrats to the Prez for trying to kick the habit. It seems odd that he won't allow himself to be photographed smoking -- most people probably don't know about it. Let's hope he makes it.

Horns in the House Band

When Chicago and Blood, Sweat, and Tears added horns to rock in the late 1960's, I never looked back. The groundwork had been laid by the horns in the Motown Sound, but horns added to rock? Chicago IX (1975) is still the album I would take to a desert island if I could only take one -- and "Make Me Smile" remains my favorite rock song of all time. (Mark Spitz, the pre-Phelps most-gold Olympic swimmer, used to train in the pool with "Make Me Smile" thumping in his underwater headphones. It's why he won gold!)

This morning at Elevation Church in Charlotte I thought I was back at the University of Alabama where I saw Chicago in concert for the first (the only) time -- there were horns in the house band. Admittedly, a small start -- two saxaphones -- and only for one song. But what a sound! I've said before in this blog that Elevation's music/worship band(s) is the best I've EVER seen. There are several house bands that rotate between the three church campuses on Sunday morning, and none is better than the others. They are all polished, practiced, and performance-oriented. Unlike a lot of church bands, there is NOTHING tentative about these bands. From the get-go, they know exactly what they're doing and they don't hold back. (Unfortunately, the weekly video of the services on the church's web site only includes the sermon, not the music, so you'll have to attend in person to get thumped -- and you will get thumped. The bass player's Ampeg stack was taller than he was.)

As good as the music was today, the sermon was the focal point. I first learned about Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9) from a carpet cleaner with a sixth grade education from Cleveland, TN, named Milton Green (now in heaven). It's one of the most powerful stories of redemption and grace in the whole Bible. And Steven Furtick did it justice this morning. I would encourage all to watch the sermon when it's posted online by Monday or Tuesday of this week. (When you go the Elevation Church homepage, click on the "Launch Full Media Player" button. The list of three sermons in the current "Come Home" series will show to the right, and today's sermon (don't know the actual name) will be the first in the list of three. It's one of the best sermons I've heard Steven preach.)

The Pleasures of Malabar

The last few weeks I've been reading books by Louis Bromfield, an American novelist who wrote in the 1930's-1950's. He wrote around 30 books, mostly novels (Pulitzer Prize for Early Autumn in 1926), but also books on farming and the rural life. It is the latter group I am collecting and reading.

Bromfield grew up in an Ohio farming family, studied agriculture for two years at Cornell, then transferred to Columbia to study journalism, but dropped out after a year to join the American army and fight in WW I. After decorated service he returned to New York, took a job as a reporter, and began writing novels. Almost all of his books, novels as well memoirs, were bestsellers in their day, a couple having been made into motion pictures.

He then lived in France, then India, for a decade before returning to Ohio -- his beloved Pleasant Valley region -- to live and write on the land. His novels had made him wealthy, and he bought three worn-out (contiguous) farms in Pleasant Valley, the region of his roots, in northern Ohio where he had grown up. He soon added a fourth farm, bringing his total holdings to a thousand acres.

He moved his family into the most suitable of the four farmsteads and began rebuilding the house and buildings and establishing a plan to renovate and restore the farms to what they could be. He named his main farm "Malabar" after a region on the southwest coast of India where he lived for a time, and it exists today as an historical agricultural site in Ohio, open to the public.

Bromfield and his family lived out their years at Malabar where he developed an international reputation for advances in sustainable agriculture. When he returned to Ohio after being away for several decades (and after being exposed to French intensive gardening techniques for sustaining the land) he was shocked at how the lush, mineral-rich Ohio farmland had been ravaged by poor, unsustainable practices. He seems to have had an intuitive sense of how to re-enrich the land so that it would hold rainfall and produce nutritious food for humans and animals.

He wrote a series of books about life at Malabar Farm -- these are the books I am collecting and reading. And I have to say, I have never had such pleasure in reading as I have had in these volumes. I think Bromfield must have lived at a genius level of intelligence. It seems that most of what he touched turned to gold -- and not by his own account only. Thousands of visitors from around the world streamed to Malabar Farm during its glory years of operation to learn Bromfield's secrets of farming. Not only is he a beautiful writer, but his descriptions of everyday life at Malabar Farm are both instructive, philosophical, and delightful all at the same time.

I have read Pleasant Valley (1943), am almost finished with Malabar Farm (1947), and have waiting The Farm (1933), From My Experience (1955), and The Heritage—A Daughter's Memories of Louis Bromfield (1962), written by his daugher Ellen who established a Malabar-like farm in Brazil. I believe there may be one or two more that he wrote about Malabar, but I have yet to track them down. Some of these books are available in paperback only so I've slowly tracked down used hardbacks for a few dollars here and there. What a treasure these books are!

How, one might ask, could someone write a half-dozen books about life on a farm without repeating himself over and over? Therein lies Bromfield's genius as a writer -- or as a thinker. First, life at Malabar was a constant crossroads of activity. The "big house" was always filled with visitors coming and going (common people as well as dignitaries and luminaries and government officials -- Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married at Malabar in 1945). The stories of keeping fields, animals, springs and ponds, buildings on four farms, employees, and food crops all humming harmoniously along makes for page-turning reading. Yet it is his love for the land and the natural processes that underlie the point of all his storytelling. The books almost read like novels, yet history attests to the reality of what he described.

Second, his prose is beautifully descriptive and thoughtful. He surely must be ranked with the likes of today's Wendell Berry, Gene Logsdon, and Lynn Miller for his combination of literary skill and passion for the indispensable task of developing and sustaining agricultural systems that will continue to fulfill humanity's need for biological fuel as well as for soulish satisfaction.

And third, there was never a dull moment over the two decades in which he ran Malabar. He was continually experimenting and developing new techniques, hosting new and different guests, and having new adventures and experiences. The richness of his memoirs of daily life stand in STARK contrast to the shallow posts that pass as descriptions of life in the Facebook/Twitter era ("I'm having lunch now."). I never tire of reading about life at Malabar, so rich and diverse were the days he describes.

Bromfield was the kind of person who attracted others and who (apparently) commanded respect because of his successes at Malabar. Within a few years the farms he purchased were gully-free and resplendent with grains and grasses on which livestock grazed and with food crops that sustained Bromfield's family, permanent and part-time employees, and the perpetual house-full of visitors. The 18 springs on the four farms flowed strong and clear again because the land was soaking up water after years of being parched and barren -- like parking lots off which the rain drains. The ponds on the farm teemed with life and were a constant laboratory for the cycles of biology and botany on which all of nature depends.

I could go on and on about these books and the life they describe. They have been the latest source of stimulation and inspiration for thinking that "the faster we go, the behinder we get" in our modern culture and economy. I don't see anything around me in my metropolitan environment that moves me like what I have read about in Bromfield's books. I know -- I'm probably idealizing something that was human to the core and therefore was probably replete with problems -- i.e., Bromfield the man and Malabar the experience. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless. And trying to store up as many images and lessons as I can.

You may not want to track down and purchase these books, but look in your local library for the titles I've mentioned. Given that one of his novels won a Pulitzer and others were turned into movies, I'm sure they must be worth a read as well. Perhaps you'll find "Bromfield, Louis" in your library's catalog.

A professional photographer named Ted White, in conjunction with the Malabar Farm Foundation, offers beautiful pictures of Malabar for sale on his web site. You can view the pictures starting on this page -- then click on "Next Page" at the bottom of each page to view more pix. Well worth the time.

(For pure pleasure of this sort, but from a less agricultural and more modern perspective, I would also recommend Michael Korda's Country Matters—The Pleasure and Tribulation of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country Farmhouse (2001). Korda was (is still?) the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, the venerable New York City publisher. He writes beautifully and hilariously as he tells the story of his and his wife's establishing a new home in an old, upstate New York rural homestead.)

Online Farmers Market

Three young 20-somethings start an online Farmers Market for local, hard-to-fine, artisan food products. Read the NYT article here

What's Good for the Doctor

A good friend in another city was monitoring some potentially risky blood markers during 2008 which, absent improvement, could have led to some serious invasive treatment. Without telling his primary doctor, he switched to a vegan diet a few months ago and also visited a naturopathic doctor where he received some "snake oils" (my friend's words; he doesn't use those words disparagingly -- he just doesn't know why they work -- and they did seem to work).

He reported this week that his blood tests were much improved, to the delight of his doctor. My friend then told the doc that he had switched to a vegan diet, visited the naturopath, etc. While his doctor wouldn't assign any correlation between the much improved blood markers and my friend's diet change and alternative treatments, the doc did say this: "I've been a vegetarian for 40 years. Vegetarian and vegan diets are definitely healthier." The doc had never made inquiry into my friend's diet or recommended he switch to a "definitely healthier" lifestyle.

Question: Why wouldn't a doctor recommend to his own patient the same lifestyle protocols he himself had been following for 40 years? Even if he didn't think it would help a particular condition, as the old saying goes, "It couldn't hurt."

It's amazing how constricted the AMA crowd is when it comes to making recommendations outside the mainstream medical practices. This is similar to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic being asked by his fellow doctors to treat their heart conditions with his plant-based therapies, but those same doctors won't recommend that their own heart patients adopt Esselstyn's protocols. The real reason may be found in the words of one of Dr. Esselstyn's fellow Cleveland Clinic cardiologists: "I billed five million dollars last year." As "Deep Throat" told Bob Woodward in All the President's Men, "Follow the money."

Kudos to my friend for taking charge of his own healthcare and being willing to go outside the mainstream for help. Live long, bro'. (Job 5:26)

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Aggregation Without Aggravation

Alltop.com is a new information and news aggregation site ("a magazine rack of popular topics") from the fertile brain of Guy Kawasaki and friends, formerly the chief Apple evangelist and now a venture capitalist. Look at the the clean homepage for an overview, but here is the page that aggregates news for "vegan" just as an example of what it does -- and the topics are almost limitless. (I couldn't believe how many "vegan" web sites Alltop aggregates -- sites I've never seen or heard of. I can only assume that depth and breadth of aggregation exists in all the topics it covers.) The news feeds are updated automatically. Roll your cursor over the headlines to get a pop-up summary of the article, etc. You can also create your own RSS feeds from most of the sites listed. Play around with it and you'll get the idea. (This page explains more about the concept.) Worth bookmarking along with other favorite news/search sites.

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Post-Biblical America

USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan reported something telling in her column today. It has to do with Tim Tebow, the Heisman-winning quarterback of the BCS national champion Florida Gators. All America saw the "John 3:16" he had printed on his eye-black during the game. But apparently a lot of people had no idea what it meant. Brennan reported that for a while during the game, "John 3:16" was the most-looked-up item on Google. It's been said for several decades, and is apparently proved, that America is a post-Christian nation. Or at least no longer biblically literate. Who can argue with Google?
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Tweeting from the Bike

Ah, technology -- Lance Armstrong is in Australia training for the upcoming Tour Down Under race. While on a training ride earlier today -- note in the picture he's riding with no hands, sending the picture he just took along with a Tweet (Twitter message) -- he uploaded a request to the "Twitterati" (those who follow his Twitter account) asking their opinion on whether the Team Astana bikes should have yellow or black handlebar hoods (currently yellow as in the pic). Hundreds of bikers around the world responded within minutes with their opinion. We might as well eliminate the words "distance" and "time" from the lexicon -- they seem to have been trumped by technology.

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Best Mac Browser

I've posted this before -- but a reminder: If you use a Mac, you should take a look at using Flock as your web browser of choice. It recently was given an Eddy Award by the editors of MacUser magazine -- meaning it's the best new browser for the Mac platform.

Flock runs on the Firefox 3.0 engine, so if you currently use Firefox you will lose nothing by switching to Flock (all the Firefox extensions and add-ons run seamlessly on Flock) -- and gain much more. What you will gain is a browser designed to connect you with all the social networking portals and platforms you use. I've been using Flock for nearly a year and feel like I'm just scratching the surface on its ability to keep me connected (i.e., "waste my time on the Internet").

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Made in (Everywhere but) America

This is not a political observation (from me, at least) -- just a snapshot of our times:

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6 am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA ) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA ), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO ) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN ) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) filled it with gas (FROM SAUDI ARABIA) and continued his search for a good paying job. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his computer (MADE IN MALAYSIA), Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL), poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE ) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA ), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA.
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