Food Fridays: Grand Adventure in Growing, Update

Happy Friday everyone!

I've been rather quiet about my Grand Adventure in Growing for far too long.

Let's start off with a dramatic story of near death. Rainstorms in London apparently are crazy. They happen quickly and heavily. I unfortunately had one trough of tomatoes directly under an eavestrough during one of these storms. By the time I got home from work, the trough had been flooded with water, the leaves looked droopy, and the plants looked generally sad. Luckily, after emptying the water, the plants survived.

The weather in London has warmed up a lot. It's reached over 30 degrees in the past week. I might find it uncomfortably hot, but my tomato plants are loving it.

All of my tomato plants have started blossoming, which is exciting.

As you can see, they bloom with small yellow flowers in small clusters. From the looks of it, I'll be getting about 20 tomatoes, but more blooms will grow hopefully.

Even more exciting was my discovery of tiny tomatoes this morning. I'm going to have to start fighting animals away from them.

Next, my herbs on the windowsill.

I have basil, thyme and cilantro. The basil and cilantro actually been growing too well. I've had to trim the cilantro because it was taking over the entire trough. Having fresh basil is also a great thing.

Last is my craziest idea.

I decided to grow some cucumbers and zucchinis in hanging bags. My roommate, Charlie, thought it wouldn't work. But, to my surprise, it has worked. I even see some small zucchini blossoms growing.

Overall, it seems that everything is going smoothly. I should hopefully have veggies next month.

Food Controversy: Eating cute things - Conclusion

This is a conclusion to an earlier post regarding Governor General Michaëlle Jean taking part in an Inuit community festival where she ate fresh seal meat.

Jacques Cousteau once said,

"The harp seal question is entirely emotional. We have to be logical. We have to aim our activity first to the endangered species. Those who are moved by the plight of the harp seal could also be moved by the plight of the pig - the way they are slaughtered is horrible." (Wenzel, 47)

Before I look at this logically, I'll put my emotions out there. I have clearly pointed out on my blog that I'm fine with the humane killing and eating of animals (see my rabbit if you haven't yet).*

On a logical level, seal hunting is fine with certain exceptions.

Yes, seal hunting is a problem if seals are being hunted solely for their pelts.

But targeting the Inuit who clearly use the rest of the seal, hence the eating of the meat with our Governor General, is wrong. Animal activists are essentially demonizing the Inuit as an entire race of people and as a historical Canadian culture.

So why are animal activists, like PETA, so rallied around the topic of seal hunting, and able to get large amounts of celebrities to speak out on the topic. Is it because it's easy to make the hunting of seals look bad?

On one side you have seals, considered to be a "cute" animal. While on the other side, you have men with clubs, or more accurately hakapiks.

It's easy to see how that simple binary opposition could be marketed to the masses. But, this is an entirely emotional argument.

PETA commonly goes too far by comparing the seal hunt to the beheading of Tim McLean, or linking it with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

My concern is that because of the amount of noise they can make and the emotional arguments that they use, PETA will succeed in demonizing a culture.

I, however, highly suggest reading this FAQ page by the CBC, which dispels common misconceptions about the seal hunt. I know that it is only one source of information, but it's the most thorough that I could find.

One such misconception is that baby seals, the ones with white coats, are killed. These young seals are used commonly in anti-sealing media because they are cute. But, as the FAQ points out, hunting of whitecoats is not allowed.

The only concern from my research that I would share is the argument that they are being overhunted. I, however, could not find sufficient evidence of this.

In conclusion, seal hunting is fine and should not be banned as it has been in the European Union.

Am I standing against animal activists, like PETA?

I think most issues need to have people firmly defending one side. If seals are still being hunted solely for their pelts, that should be changed.

But, PETA has gone too far on this issue. Demonizing the Inuit people, an aboriginal group of Canada that I believe has already been pushed to the fringes, is wrong. Instead of calling it a massacre, this is their culture.

*With exceptions to certain mammals, like dogs, horses, dolphins, etc.

Taking Note of Taking Notes - Part 2: Schoolhouse, Together, Scrivener

I seriously procrastinated this post, but here is the first three reviews of programs that I looked at. The rest will be in another blog post next weekend.

Schoolhouse by Logan Collins (free)

Schoolhouse is a note-taking application specifically designed for students. It is written by Logan Collins, a Comp Sci student at U of Kansas.

I remember trying Schoolhouse when I first started university. At the time, there were many bugs, which is why I moved to Evernote. I have returned to Schoolhouse, and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Pros:

• It's free.
  Free as in $0.00. Free as in beer.
• Specifically designed for students
  It has features that students would find useful beyond just note taking, for example assignment management (includes breaking assignments into smaller tasks), setting up deadlines, and grade tracking.

Cons:

• Only basic text editing
  You can make tables, but it really needs lists because that's how I usually take notes.
• Cannot search through all notes
  Can search through each note individually though.
• Slow update cycle
  One guy is working on this for free. It'll take him a while to bring out updates
• No syncing
  Not important for most people, but important for me.

Find out more at http://www.loganscollins.com/schoolhouse.

Together by Reinvented Software ($39 US)

Pros:

• Decent text editing
  Looks like and has the same features as TextEdit, but can also create links.
• Import different file types
  This is important for slides. I convert slides to PDF so I keep those organized with my notes.
• Lots of ways to organize items
  You can group items by tags, labels and groups. The more way to sort through your notes, the better.
• Syncs through MobileMe
  Once again, this feature is probably only useful for me because I need to sync and have MobileMe.
• Shelf
  Place a convenient tab on your screen where you can quickly organize, view and create notes.

Cons:

• Price
  It's not the cheapest note taking application, but not the most expensive.
• Does not highlight searched text
  This was fixed in an update.

Find out more at http://reinventedsoftware.com/together

Scrivener by Literature and Latte ($45.80 CAN at student discount)

Wow, Scrivener is definitely something different.

Pros:

• Visual note taking
  If you're a visual note taker, this one is for you. You have a virtual corkboard where you can pin cue cards to.
• It's nifty.
  I recommend checking it out just because it looks so cool.

Cons:

• Not really what I was looking for.
  It's designed for script writing, so I couldn't organize notes in a logical way for me.
• Price
  Most expensive of the six I'm reviewing.

Find out more at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html.

Conclusion

It's hard to compete with free, but I think Together is so far in the lead. Find out more in the next segment, which I promise will be released next week.

Food Controversy: Eating cute things, even the Governor General is doing it

I'm no stranger to food controversy. *Cough cough* rabbit. That, however, does not come close to the controversy around what our own Governor General did.

On a trip to Nunavut at the end of May, Governor General Michaëlle Jean attended an Inuit community festival where a fresh seal was slain and eaten. Michaëlle Jean apparently ate a part of the seal's raw heart.

Seal hunting itself is highly controversial with the European Union banning seal products, and many lobby groups working to end the seal hunt.

Before I write my opinion, I'd like people to have their say about this topic. While seals are not considered pets, they definitely fall under the category of "cute" animals. There are also some concerns surrounding how this affects Canada's appearance.

Let me know what you think about the seal hunt, and our Governor General's actions.

[Sources: CBC]