thoughtcrumbs : january 2000

This is so going to fail

YouTube is coming to cellphones. But not all of YouTube, just a small library of videos that meet Verizon's "editorial and taste guidelines." (Read article.) And it requires a $15/month data subscription. YouTube's cofounder says it will bring YouTube to people who have cells but not computers. However, anyone who can afford a $65/month cell phone plan probably has a computer and probably already knows about the joys of YouTube. If you can't watch copyrighted episodes of Square One or crude experiments with PopRocks, what's the point?

When "organic" means inferior

One day I'll eat fish again. Probably. So, this morning's NYTimes article on wild vs. organic fish caught my eye.

Wild fish that swim in pristine waters cannot be certified organic because their environment isn't controlled. Farmed fish, swimming in small pens but eating organic pellets (made from other organic fish, often harvested non-sustainably), can be certified organic. Gourmands recognize the vast difference between wild and farmed King Salmon, so in this case, "organic" means inferior. (Superior only to non-organic farmed fish.)

The article completely omits the social connotations of organic certification. Many people buy organic because it means that the harvesting process has lower impact on the environment, and usually the food just tastes better. We're guilty of trucking food long distance, especially fish (thanks to Josh for the link). But even organic-minded consumers often prefer local produce, even if it's not organic.

So, calling farmed fish organic is just another example of our country's weird reliance on misleading labels. WalMart is now the world's #1 buyer of organic cotton. Perhaps it will soon be the #1 seller of organic seahorses, too.

We devotin' full time to floatin'

I've been working a lot lately on a final project for a course. So much that I dreamed about it last night. But instead of programming a client-side parser and machine learning algorithm, I was programming a Little Mermaid music video. Huh.

A film that stinks

A couple of nights ago some friends and I saw Fast Food Nation. Expecting a stylized documentary, I was completely surprised to see a boring drama embodying all of the issues Schlosser carefully documents in the book. I was left disappointed and somewhat nauseous -- not from the graphic slaughterhouse scenes, but from the social conditions of meatpacking workers, an effect I think the director intended to evoke. It's unfortunate that, as a film, it wasn't particularly interesting and was somewhat heavy handed (e.g. explaining fecal coliforms as "poop in the meat" for those who didn't get it, and that all of the Mexicans suffered predictably awful fates). But there were some great details, such as the fast food clerks entering customer demographics into their cash registers to be broadcast to corporate headquarters. And this weird kid who looked like Johnny Depp. And the suction-cup gun rack.

In general, though, I'd strongly recommend the book over the movie to people wanting to learn more about the social, environmental, and economic impact of the American food industry. Or at least watch the entertaining "Super Size Me" instead (including the DVD extra interview with Eric Schlosser). In the last two years I've read a bunch of food and social justice books (Omnivore's Dilemma, Heat, Fast Food Nation, Nickel and Dimed, Not Buying It, Calm Energy), and they really have affected my consumer footprint. I still go on Target runs and buy produce shipped from California, but I now buy less and choose local when possible. I worry about becoming preachy, but it's somewhat appalling to me that people continue to eat at fast food restaurants. It makes me wonder if there's anything I'm currently doing that is that ethically questionable.

Speaking of fecal coliforms--from Snarkland: "I am always saying [that] as fecal colorforms, as if you could stick them to a storyboard and move them around almost indefinitely."

Gobble gobble (the sound of boiling brussels sprouts)

Happy Thanksgiving. Today I'm thankful for the New York Times 100 Notable Books list, sunny skies, and catching up on friends' blogs. Like Michelle, who has admirably taken the NaNoWriMo plunge, and if her novel is anything like her blog, I intend to devour it like those brussels sprouts. She said recently:

"Just about four in the a.m. and I've reached my word count goal for Sunday. If you want to pull out the can of technicality whoop-ass or the 'well, actually' aside, feel free. Technically, it is actually Monday. I'm too tired to fight you. So tired, in fact, that I just wrote whoop-ass...twice now. My apologies for the language, and to the Language, while I'm at it."

And Margaret, who has great conversations with strangers in her semi-sketchy neighborhood. When one man's parting words were "You need a man wit you!", she thought:

"I couldn't really tell if he meant just for the walk home or in a larger sense. If the latter, then there's a good chance I rejected him rather rudely with my reaction. Because the suggestion to 'get a man,' as it turns out, is usually a lame application for the job."

Need to TiVo this conference

I'm in Banff for the ACM Computer-Supported Cooperative Work conference this week (pictures on Flickr). For being a small conference (a few hundred attendees), I'm bummed that the sessions on referential language and social networking are being held in parallel. How can I pick just one? And yesterday morning none of the sessions interested me. Somebody should start working on TiVo for conferences.