Making the Case for the Genetically Modified Human
Biodiversity, Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 31, 2012
If we fail to change trajectory, then perhaps we should be re-engineering the root cause of our problem — ourselves?
It’s true that I’m well known for attacking the GMO industry, its industry financed scientists and their thus-incentivised reductionist ’science’. I’ve expressed many times that GMOs are a "solution looking for a problem". We know that GMOs are really only a bid to deal with symptoms of agricultural mismanagement, so they can perpetuate and capitalise on the temporarily highly profitable root cause (i.e. monocultures) of those symptoms. Without monocultures we would not need the many products that keep many an industry alive and many of us in employment (heavy machinery, oil, gasoline, pesticides, fertilisers, GMO seeds and the chemicals they require, etc.), but, with the present paradigm seemingly so entrenched, with our citizens and economic systems being painfully slow to change trajectory (with the industrial agriculture model still rapidly spreading its tentacles across the world’s landscapes), and it threatening our very survival as we begin to head deep into the peak oil era, I’ve had something of an epiphany….
Let me explain.
Comments (15)Get Into Farming (video)
Alternatives to Political Systems, Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 9, 2012
The upsidedownness of our world really gets to me. The people doing the most critical work (like producing food and clothing) get paid the least, and the people busy producing crap we don’t really need at all get paid much more, and by an order of magnitude. Worse, the people who produce nothing at all, but just shift numbers around on a screen, capitalising on the work of the afore-mentioned two groups, get paid exponentially more again.
Warning: Don’t play if you don’t appreciate bad language!
Somewhere along the line we’ve lost perspective. We’ve lost our sense of wonder, our recognition of the ‘magic’ of the world we live in — that all the best things in life are actually free — instead overlaying an entirely human intervention called ‘the economy’, or ‘the system’:
Comments (37)Bonus Features
Comedy Break, Economics — by Marc Roberts March 29, 2012
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Garden Needs
Comedy Break, Society — by Marc Roberts March 26, 2012
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Imaginary Friends
Comedy Break, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by George Monbiot January 30, 2012
The weather forecasters used by the Daily Mail and other papers don’t appear to exist.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
The talented line-up of weather forecasters at ‘Positive Weather Solutions’
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Earlier this month, I questioned the credentials of the alternative weather forecasters being used by the Daily Mail, the Express, the Telegraph and the Sun. I suggested that their qualifications were inadequate, their methods inscrutable and their results unreliable. I highlighted the work of two of these companies: Exacta Weather and Positive Weather Solutions (PWS).
Now the story has become more interesting: do the people from Positive Weather Solutions, making its forecasts and quoted in news articles, exist?
Comments (0)One Application Beauty Solution
Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 12, 2012
We don’t normally get into personal beauty products on this site, but I thought this product presentation on what to buy so you can feel good about yourself — with the bonus feature of making everyone else feel inferior compared to you — might be just the thing for some. As you’ll see, you can easily bypass the ‘traditional’, burdensome personal beauty methods of outdoor fresh-air exercise, organic food, clean water and guilt-free sleep with only one application.
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Compliments of This Time of Year to All
Comedy Break, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 2, 2012
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I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to our friends and readers, but it is difficult in today’s world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on advice I wish to say the following:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer solstice holiday practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious / secular persuasions and / or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all….
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that Australia is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the culture, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee….
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her / him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
Reasons to Be Fearful
Alternatives to Political Systems, Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, Society — by Marc Roberts November 7, 2011
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Fear of state reaction is keeping the numbers down. Without it there might be millions.
Comments (3)A Design for Life
Alternatives to Political Systems, Comedy Break, Consumerism, Economics, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 28, 2011
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If I wasn’t so used to such oxymoronic statements, I’d have already fallen off my chair after reading the below quote — in either hysterical laughter, or hysterical despair.
I am pleased to stand before you this morning and confirm that Europe is closer to resolving its financial and economic crisis and to getting back on a path of growth,” Mr Barroso said. — BBC
How can you resolve a financial crisis whilst getting straight back onto the path that put you there in the first place? It sounds like flogging a dead horse to me…. Dozens and dozens of cities are facing the frustrated occupy movement (see here and here), and yet despite the domino effect of growing unrest, the current president of the stuck-together-with-duct-tape European Union can’t see that the "path to growth" is and always will be a highway to hell.
Comments (7)Crashing Wall Street
Comedy Break, Economics, Society — by Marc Roberts October 1, 2011
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What with the ongoing occupation of New York’s financial district, and City traders coming out from under their gilded rocks in full candour (see below) — Frank thought it about time to break out the D-locks and superglue again.
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Inputs and Outputs
Comedy Break, GMOs — by Marc Roberts September 27, 2011
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How Not to Milk a Cow
Comedy Break, Livestock — by Ecofilms August 13, 2011
Sometimes things don’t go according to plan…. This is an Elisabeth Fekonia blooper from her excellent DVD on Home Cheese-Making and All Things Dairy. Used with permission from Elisabeth.
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Clicktivist
Comedy Break — by Marc Roberts August 1, 2011
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Brave Old World
Comedy Break, Economics — by Marc Roberts July 14, 2011
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Every silver lining has a cloud.
Comments (1)Irony
Comedy Break, Society — by Marc Roberts July 9, 2011
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This is a retread, prompted by this.
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