Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Diet and Mad Cow
I started making changes to my diet recently for several reasons. First, I read the book "Mad Cowboy", parts of "Fast Food Nation", then read about the McDonalds Diet documentary, and had a few friends who gave up meat and went to a mostly Whole Foods diet a while ago who encouraged me.
From what I can tell so far:
The levels of mercury in the oceans that make it dangerous to eat large quantities of many types of wild fish.
Cows, which are naturally plant eaters, are fed rendered cow, pig, chicken bones and chicken poop, cats, dogs, birds, and fish. And apparently the same rendered material is fed to many farm fish, chickens, and pigs.
Chicken processing plants use a small quantity of fermadehyde to kill bacteria.
The oils and temperatures frequently used to cook french fries can produce cancer causing substances.
The amounts of processed sugar that most people consume can cause mood swings, stunted growth in children, and may be linked to obesity. More, sugar withdrawals can last for several weeks.
I'll add some links to information on all of this later.
After a month of omitting meat from my diet (100% red meat omission and 90% fish and chicken reduction) and walking an extra 2 miles each week, I have lost at least 5 lbs.
From what I can tell so far:
The levels of mercury in the oceans that make it dangerous to eat large quantities of many types of wild fish.
Cows, which are naturally plant eaters, are fed rendered cow, pig, chicken bones and chicken poop, cats, dogs, birds, and fish. And apparently the same rendered material is fed to many farm fish, chickens, and pigs.
Chicken processing plants use a small quantity of fermadehyde to kill bacteria.
The oils and temperatures frequently used to cook french fries can produce cancer causing substances.
The amounts of processed sugar that most people consume can cause mood swings, stunted growth in children, and may be linked to obesity. More, sugar withdrawals can last for several weeks.
I'll add some links to information on all of this later.
After a month of omitting meat from my diet (100% red meat omission and 90% fish and chicken reduction) and walking an extra 2 miles each week, I have lost at least 5 lbs.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Orbital Debris
More interesting news related to nuclear power, a satellite that has left radioactive coolant liquid in orbit. I love the comment at the end, if we get much more junk in orbit, we will likely hit a "runaway threshold" where collisions of small space junk will result in more and more bits of smaller space junk over the next 50 years.
I think the lunar lander had very thin skin in some places, not much thicker than a ziplock freezer bag or two, and I seem to remember reading about small space debris having already caused damage to shuttle missions. Just imagine a bolt hitting a windshield or an astronaut at over 1000 mph.
Before too long, I suspect that we will need to send orbital missions just to clean up the junk that we have left in orbit.
I think the lunar lander had very thin skin in some places, not much thicker than a ziplock freezer bag or two, and I seem to remember reading about small space debris having already caused damage to shuttle missions. Just imagine a bolt hitting a windshield or an astronaut at over 1000 mph.
Before too long, I suspect that we will need to send orbital missions just to clean up the junk that we have left in orbit.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Nuclear
To get this BLOG started, here are a few nice nuclear links:
A photo journal of travels through the "dead zone" around Chernobyl, a list of known and suspected nuclear accidents, Idaho's nuclear submarine that operates far from water, a good account of the first nuclear accident in this country, and what a great idea someone had to design a nuclear powered aircraft. Funny, I grew up just a couple hours away from Arco and didn't know about most of this until just recently.
Sigh, I just discovered this article about renewed interest in nuclear powered aircraft.
Don't get me wrong, I think that nuclear power can be a good thing, if managed correctly, but we need to exercise great caution with anything capable of producing devastation like that around Chernobyl. The Pebble Bed Reactor design might be okay if the implementations and management are sufficiently cautious.
A photo journal of travels through the "dead zone" around Chernobyl, a list of known and suspected nuclear accidents, Idaho's nuclear submarine that operates far from water, a good account of the first nuclear accident in this country, and what a great idea someone had to design a nuclear powered aircraft. Funny, I grew up just a couple hours away from Arco and didn't know about most of this until just recently.
Sigh, I just discovered this article about renewed interest in nuclear powered aircraft.
Don't get me wrong, I think that nuclear power can be a good thing, if managed correctly, but we need to exercise great caution with anything capable of producing devastation like that around Chernobyl. The Pebble Bed Reactor design might be okay if the implementations and management are sufficiently cautious.
