Okay, I'll be completely honest. I honestly have a very difficult time finding any redeeming value to industrial agriculture. Every time I find something, there is always something that more than counteracts it. For instance, I suppose that it is a good thing that layer chickens in a northern Iowa egg factory aren't freezing to death in their climate controlled environment. I would think they hardly find it comfortable, however, as they live in tiny cages each with six other hens so crowded they can't even stretch their legs or extend their wings, cages stacked 8 feet high in rows 800 yards long, over a million birds per house. And live that way for their entire short lives. And I guess the same can be said for the controlled environment of a hog farrowing house. Until I think of the fact that a sow is so tightly penned that she can't turn around, and must live that way for her entire productive life. Oh, wait. There is the low cost of food. Until I think of how artificial that low cost is, as costs to the environment are externalized and left for future generations to clean up, with groundwater adulterated and fisheries destroyed all around the country. Not to mention it is built on crops subsidized with my tax dollars and grown almost entirely on oil, from fertilizer to pesticides to packaging to transport, every chicken or steak or pork chop figuratively coated in oil. And what about those crops themselves? Oil is a finite resource, and emerging economies like China and India are increasingly competing for their share of it. What happens when we have a long term shortage or demand outpaces supply? What happens to that cheap food then? It is a completely unsustainable system. Compare that to organic and sustainable agriculture (and I'm sorry but that is in fact what we are debating here). It has been the claim for a long time that it can't feed the world, when that is absolutely untrue. Fat cats just can't get rich off of it, that's all. Think of all the renewable inputs you use in a natural form of agriculture. Rather than depleting and killing the topsoil the way chemical agriculture does, the soil is nurtured and built upt, and left better than when you started. Small and medium size organic can feed the world, and there are multiple studies that prove it. In the long term, it is the only thing that can.

I heard of it last night, this morning there were tributes on the radio, and at noon during province-wide phone-in, several said that on meeting him, he was friendly and congenial, as we saw in his professional portrayal, and a humble, regular person, as well. One man said that at a trade show in Vancouver, he'd asked whether he could take a picture of their robot, and readily agreed not to use it for commercial purposes, plus spent a few minutes in their display quietly talking, with a bit of humour, as well, I think he said. One lady said that she was so impressed with Morph and Mindy that she named her daughter Mindy ... and considered Morph for her son, but eventually decided against that. It seems that he was scarcely ever miserable, irascible or mean in public, but maintained the black hole entirely for private consideration. One person with experience in the field, the resource guest, said that sometimes it seems that such issues often go along with great capabilities and creative talents, that extra channels of capabilities in such brains tend sometimes to be operational in the dark side, as well. What a tragedy ... that he, who brought so much fun and laughter to many, helping them see the bright side of life ... ... could not find such for himself. The story that I heard was that he'd jammed a belt between a door and its jamb in his bedroom ... and that there was a knife nearby, with blood, as well. What a great shame! Hopefully, this will help us take our mental health more seriously, on the one hand. And remove the stigma from it, as well. Illness is ... illness. ole joyful ... whose Mom, shortly after birth of final son, was in mental hospital, died there (of TB)

I love watching all kinds of movies over and over and over again... I catch something new, some nuance every time. Like Despicable Me. The girls are on the front porch. The first billion times I just watched and listened to the interaction between Gru and the oldest sister. LOVE it! So childlike, him, and her right reaction to it. One day, I suddenly noticed the . Such a delight! Or, you can stop and notice things like Toy Story toys on the ground in Boo's room in Monster's Inc. Loads of things. Usually, I don't catch it all the first time. Sometimes, I've seen the movie so much, I won't watch it with my eyes, only listen. You'd be surprised how much you don't hear. This post was edited by rob333 on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 15:32

Still with furs. I lived for a year in Canada (Ottawa) a cold country and very chilly city and someone gave me their very old fur coat. It was extremely heavy and rather moth eaten, probably less mouton and more dead cat. One day I walked into the city library and, though it was snowing as I left home, it was raining by the time I got there . . . and my goodness did that soggy coat pong. All eyes and noses followed me round the shelves until, in sheer embarrassment, I had to take it off and hide it behind a distant radiator where it steamed-off noxious vapours. When I returned to the UK the coat stayed behind. BTW Queen Elizabeth, was never Princess of Wales, just Duchess of York, as George VI went straight from D of Y to King. When Diana became Princess of Wales it was noted that the title hadn't been used since the time of the marriage of George V in 1890 something to Mary of Teck, always know as Old Queen Mary when I was a child. Also a fact I only became aware of recently, the title of Queen Mother was specially created for Queen Elizabeth on the death of George VI . . . probably much more than you (true US republicans all) needed to know. ;-)