Ariela and I went down to the Municipal Fortress of Justice (courthouse) this morning, and met with a judge. Why, might you ask? To get our names changed of course! Armed with our birth certificates, proof of publication affidavit, and a little coffee, we have officially, legally become Karl & Ariela Haro von Mogel. Read More…

I don’t often have the time to continue my Monday Madness posts as of late. but today I heard something so jaw-droppingly Maddening I just had to put it online. (via Pharyngula) The head of one of the largest organizations of people in the world, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) non-governmental land-owning organizations on the planet, that governs its organization from within heavily gilded halls, has just spoken out about the evils of Opulence. It’s time for some Monday Madness.

Read More…

Today marks the day that the Large Hadron Collider has finally switched on and is running its first tests. Sending subatomic particles around in circles to smash them into one another, ah, the exciting life of physicists! They are looking to test String Theory, settle a $100 bet between physicists, oh yeah, and look into the nature of the Universe immediately after the Big Bang. Heavy stuff.

But, some people didn’t want it to happen. First, you have the people who bring up the cost of the project. Then you have the people that thought that the Collider must be stopped because its going to gobble up the Earth by making a black hole. Now, I read, someone else has chimed in and believes that these particle physicists must be stopped because…. Read More…

While I was in the process of applying for graduate school, in late 2006, I was chasing down a letter of recommendation from my former boss, and somehow, the conversation turned to a book he was asked to proof-read. That book, a year and a half later, was to be published as Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming and the Future of Food, by Pamela Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak. Pamela Ronald is a rice geneticist and genetic engineer, the chair of the plant genomics program at UC Davis, now also the Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Research Institute in Emeryville. (She is also a former professor of mine.) The second author, Raoul, is an organic farmer, who runs the UC Davis Student Farm’s Market Garden, a stone’s throw from where I used to garden in Davis.

When I first heard about it in production, I couldn’t wait to read this book, because I knew what it would be about, an idea that both Pam and Raoul have promoted and embody in their lives. You see, Pam and Raoul are married, and they think Organic Agriculture and Genetic Engineering should be, too. Read More…

My counterpart has just written a scathing sociological critique of Whole Foods market. What do you get when you combine exoticized yet bland ‘ethnic’ food, expensive produce, and subliminal messages in a supermarket?

Whole Foods and other health food stores totally sell stuff that exoticize and commcercialize other people’s cultures. For instance, I saw a box of Zen Flakes. Zen Flakes. Really now.

I’ve got my own criticisms (and kudos) for Whole Paycheck which I might as well post soon, but for now, check this out.