1875 A multitude of topics

Isn't it strange that after I signed up for Holidailies, which tells me I absolutely must, have to, need to write a blog each day, I dried up. I guess I don't like the thought that it might be work.

I took a lot of notes today, but nothing really appealed. For instance, did you know that guano (bird or bat poop) has 54% protein and only 1% fat, compared to a Big Mac that is 23% protein and 33% fat. I think we do better using it as fertilizer and thus getting those benefits indirectly. Maybe Fear Factor could use this. BioEd I checked a site that sells it for fertilizer, and there is a difference between bat guano and bird guano-- bat guano is high ntrogen and marine sea bird guano is high phosphorus.
Best Quality Available. "Organic Guano Fertilizers add a complexity and fullness to the flavors of any produce."

Also I noticed an item that only 9% of the U.S. public believes the pharmaceutical industry is honest. I wonder what percentage is willing to give up their zocor or prozac, or coumadin, or tamoxifin or any of the other wonder drugs that are making our lives better and fattening our 401K and 403B and pension plans? Bat guano!

Also, the coffee plant Coffea canephora is almost a perfect gene-for-gene match for the tomato plant, Solanum lycopersicum. Coffee bean pizza, anyone? Actually, I'm not too surprised. The human genome sequence is almost 99.9% exactly the same in all people. It's that little .1% where all our differences and diseases occur. God, the designer is also a recycler. If it works, don't mess with it.

I started working on the topic, "unintended consequences," after reading that polio epidemics began because of health improvements in sanitation, like the flush toilet and toilet paper. I'd been noting some as I went along, but then tried the google search, "unintended consequences" + [topic like wind power]. I spent so much time reading the articles, I didn't get my blog finished. Virtually every technological advance and environmental proposal has unintended consequences that change lives. So maybe tomorrow.

For instance, you probably know about the potato famine in Ireland. But before that the introduction of the potato as a family food source made the Irish peasants the best fed in Europe and the population skyrocketed. When the blight killed the potato crop it sent 1.5 million Irish to the other countries, mostly Australia and the USA, and killed another million through starvation. Unintended consequences of introducing better nutrition.