SPEED 6 - ENVIRONMENT - GENETIC ENGINEERING

Its Raining
Raining hard
Roof is leaking everywhere
drops falling on the ceiling fan
spraying water all over
tup tup tup music of the leak
Electricity playing hide and seek

This is not Hiku
This is happening to me
I am not a poet.

The title of this post is genetic engineering and I am talking about my leaking roof.
Ah! here's a story for you

LADY IN A MALL

Hi
Hi
what ?
The lady turns around and finds no one
she is in a shopping mall picking up apples, she is alone.

Hi, would you please take me home'

Who is this ? The lady is scared now
The voice seems to come from the stack of apples.

A salesman rushes to her
May I help you m'aam ?

I heard some voices here but there's no one around

' Would you please take me home ?

'Hey shut up! says the salesman, Oh ! these are GM (Genetically modified) apples m'aam these apples have human genes in them, some of them talk

'Wow a talking apple ?

'Yes maam'
Now she can spot the talking apple.

Would you please take us home ?

yes dear sure I will

would you please pick up the apples with yellow patch

Why yellow patch ?

We are all Catholic apples, do you believe in God ?

Oh! Oh yes yes I dooo !!

If you eat us you'll go to heaven

What ? No way ! I have no plans to go to heaven, not in another fifty years, Oh dear ! I'll take the green ones then

the green ones are terrorist apples, they cause constipation and embarassing explosions in your stomach

Hey shut up ! says the salesman 'Not all green apples are terrorists m'aam You can try these M'aam, very high protein content with pig's genes in them

Sorry I am Jewish!

A lady crosses them with yellow apples in both her hands

are they good ?

Oh yes the 2nd lady says, this is my second buy, amazing they are, now my entire family can dance and we have started speaking flawless spanish.

I'd rather have french, I always wanted to speak french, the first lady says ' do you have them ?

Yes we have them but, we made a mistake of putting french genes apples with the english ones they started hitting each other All we have is pulp and a few damaged ones.


Valentine apples ? what are these ?

We are withdrawing them m'aam

why, what's wrong with these ?

There were some side effects

side effects ? like what ? what side effects ?

One man ate them and climbed on to President Hillary Clinton's balcony in Park Ridge and started singing a love song in the middle of the night.

old man ?

yes 95, Other one started stalking Alison Krauss,

how old was he ?

Eight

Eighty ?

No Eight, both are in police custody m'aam. We are sending these apples back to the lab, we'll re introduce them with reduced romantic content,
in another incident a man eloped with a female gorilla from the zoo, cops are still looking for him.



What ? 200 dollars for an apple ? what AARE these ?

These are zen apples m'aam

why are they so expensive ?

You get wisdom eating them M'aam, we are withdrawing these too

why ? whats wrong with them ?

People got too wise, right here in this mall four guys ate them, they did not pay, they robbed us instead and robbed the bank opposite. they are still at large.,

Just got a call from our Seattle outlet m'aam, there has been an accident, we got orders to withdraw them immediately.

What happened ?

A man ate zen apple, sought enlightenment, went out,
it was raining like always in Seattle, he stretched his arms out towards the sky and screamed 'enlighten me'

So ?

He lit up, he got enlightened alright

Then ?

Lightning struck him.

was he an American ?

No m'aam he was a Mexican

there you are! bad english got him ! he sought enlightningment perhaps.

Will you reintroduce these apples with reduced wisdom ?

No M'aam, They will no longer be available, government does not want people to get too wise, They will be made available only to our elected politicians to get better ideas of robbing you M'aam.

Oh! such a huge pile of crates, what are these ?

They are still under experiment M'aam, they are Ashcroft apples, we are going to try them on the prisoners.

Thats very sad, why prisoners ?

On the contrary m'aam, Ashcroft apples makes them saints, when they come out of prison they will be law abiding citizens. And if successful, those will be the only apples available in future all over the country. All Americans citizens will become saints. Our aim is to control the society with the help of genetically modified food, no crimes, every one minds his own business no anti war protests, and we can invade any country we want.



EOS - End of Story



Pollution or Global warming doesn't scare me
the following two statements scare me to death.

"Under current United States government regulations, companies that are doing field-testing of genetically engineered organisms need not inform the public of what genes have been added to the organisms they are testing. They can be declared trade secrets"



"Some of the most powerful multinational chemical, pharmaceutical and agricultural corporations have staked their financial futures on genetic engineering. Enormous amounts of money are already involved, and the United States government is currently bullying the rest of the world into rapid acceptance of corporate demands concerning genetic engineering research and marketing"

The tomato that you are eating is an animal. The reports about human and animal genes introduced in vegetables and fruits are true

Asians and Africans have already become guinea pigs for developed countries as GM foods were tried on us, We have already eaten them.

Under trade secrecy law, you will never know what you are eating. You may think you are eating an apple, you may be eating a human or a pig. They are out there already !!

Blunt knife
Wildpic

SPEED 5 - ENVIRONMENT - SITTING ON THE FENCE

If you are a vegetarian you are violating the laws of nature.

I don't believe I am writing this. More than half my friends are vegetarians.
By being a vegetarian we are not helping the nature one bit.

If all the citizens of this world turn vegetarians, we'll have an environmental disaster on our hands.
This is how the philosophy ruined us.






Man is a carnivorous animal. We are programmed by nature. Our system is designed for it.

No one has proved that vegetarians lead a healthier life or live longer. Actually we are hurting the nature more by being vegetarians.






Thanks to the gurus swamis babas and bhagwaans who are selling wisdom for dollars, misguiding millions of gullible followers. I have never heard of these crooks going to Sudan Somalia Ethiopia or Rwanda. Thanks to them again the vegetarians are on the rise.





There are some species who multiply faster than other animals, Like rats, rabbits, sheep goats pigs, deers. If their growth is unchecked, we'll have a disaster on our hands.
This is where the carnivorous animals, which includes us humans, come in to the picture to balance the nature.





Native Americans were living in accordance with the laws of the nature. They were doing fine until civilisation invaded them.

Yellowstone was declared a National park some where in the beginning of 20th century. Native Americans were driven out, forbidden from entering and hunting elks. Their lands were taken away and they were shot by the park rangers if they were found in the park or hunting.
It was not a sin to kill Native Americans. But it was a sin to hunt elks. Within 20 years Yellowstone forest disappeared as elks multiplied and the population grew to massive proportions. The park rangers were given orders to shoot them. Thousands of elks were shot and killed. They had to do it to save the forest and allow it to grow again.

This was the idea of our early environmentalists. Plain stupidity, Invading the Native Americans with stupid values. Making them ' Civilised '






If deers or goats are protected they will wipe off the entire forest within a year, they multiply so fast.








Cities are warmer, farm lands are warmer. Forests make the tropical regions cooler. In most cases forests were not destroyed to build cities, but they were destroyed to free land for cultivation. Incredibly large forest areas were destroyed for coffee and tea plantations. Whenever I have a cup of coffee I am contributing to global warming. Massive areas are used up for vineyards in Europe.






We are demanding just too much out of the land, leading to land degradation.






We are talking about the future of this sweet child. What do we do ? Stop farming ? Stop growing food ? stop having coffee tea ? Can we stop industries from functioning ? Are we ready to shut down the power plants ? Are we ready to give up some comforts ?
We have to start somewhere.






There are no easy solutions. There are millions of farmers in India who live below the poverty line. They will be affected more. Poverty is an environmental issue.

Things are not getting any better, Eventually, we will have to make some fundamental changes in our fast paced life style. Speed has to come down.







Farming, cultivation could be the major factors in global warming, if human influence is proved. But one thing is sure, we humans have gone completely out of line and out of place. It will take hundreds of years for us to get back into the groove.







Nature is not punishing us for our sins, instead, it has adapted itself to human stupidity.







Found this delicate butterfly in a badly maintained bus just above the hot engine, inhaling diesel fumes. I was in the front seat watching it, It did not make any attempt to escape, It traveled with me for 55 kilometers.


The offenders say that global warming is a hoax, it doesn't exist
The defenders say the we the humans are the cause of it.


I don't need any reports or scientific data, I personally observe and feel that it is getting warmer every year.
But abrupt climatic change is nothing new to this planet, nothing to do with global warming.
Claims of damage have been greatly exaggerated by the environmentalists.

On local issues the environmentalists have contributed a great deal. Now I see waste treatment plants in many factories I have visited.






Most of our atmosphere is nitrogen, rest is oxygen and a little argon, whats left is CO2 just a tiny bit, negligible, for which the environmentalists are screaming their lungs out.
They are actually barking at a wrong tree.

United States may be the biggest polluter in the world, but that is not the only contributing factor in global warming, and the US government still refuses to sign the kyoto treaty for this reason thus isolating itself from rest of the world. This is plain arrogance.






Since 40 years the environmentalists have gone on a tree planting spree. Thousands and thousands of trees have been planted all over the world. Artificial forests have been created.
Has it made any difference ?
Not one bit. It is getting warmer every day.







The term 'global warming' was first introduced by the American scientists in 1988. The environmentalists latched on to it.
But I am not sure of the causes, It could be natural or could be man made. Land abuse could be a major factor.

I am just sitting on the fence. Just as confused as others, No one seems to be doing anything right, and I have absolutely no clue about the sea level rise.

I'll write about the problems of artificial forests in my next post and some solutions, 2 more posts to go in this environmental series, I am still thinking.
Writing this post has not been a pleasant experience for me

BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC

EID MUBAARAK

Season of festivities and holidays.
Today is Eid. Eid-ul-fitr marking the end of fasting during the holy month of RAMZAAN
Celeberated today in most of the countries, here in Chennai it is tomorrow.
Wish every one a happy and peaceful Eid-ul-fitr.

BLUNT KNIFE
WILDPIC

HAPPY DIWALI

Deepam sketch by Nancy

Today is Diwali, festival of lights, I wish all my friends and every one out there all the joy and health all the peace and prosperity in the world

Today I complete one year of blogging and I am still in square one. Just a little improvement, I know how to give links without any knowledge of HTML, I know how to copy paste. I don't search for letter R or P on the key board any more.

What ? R was here last night where did it go ?

Now I know that all the letters are fixed and they don't switch places.

' I saw B at the top yesterday why has it gone to the bottom row today ?'

I used to scream that these guys have given me a keyboard without letters Y and E, I had to search for them. Thats pretty good improvement I think.
I still type with two fingers though. Sometimes with one finger when I am eating or having coffee or when I am lazy which is almost all the time.

I'll continue with the environmental series after Diwali, want to relax and have fun for a couple of days with my friends. No thinking for 2 days, My mind is always on a holiday anyway.

Blunt Knife
Wildpic

TECHNOLOGY

4 in the morning
This happened a few minutes ago.

We are having a guest, we do not know him that well. He is my brother -in-law's friend. (sister's husband's friend)
4 in the morning and I am up, checking my mail, just after replying to Ruth's comment. Went inside to have some coffee. My sister is in the kitchen cooking, this is the month of Ramzan.

The guest is sleeping in the hall fully covered in white sheet. I am pouring my black coffee out of the flask, my sister keeps 24 hours supply for me.

I did not want to wake up the guest by switching the light on. There was just enough light coming from the kitchen as I poured coffee. I am very fond of pouring coffee on the table, I keep doing it all the time. I am half blind. I could see the outlines of my steel mug. And the coffee was going into the mug this time.

This is the situation
4 in the morning, Its dark and I am pouring coffee, my sister in the kitchen, the guest sleeping fully covered in a white sheet looking like a dead body.

Suddenly the guest shouts 'yes good morning' the tone was not pleasant

I was startled, half the coffee went to the table, I did not reply
but my sister rushed out of the kitchen

She replied to him in a pleasant tone ' good morning brother can I get you something ? Tea or coffee ?

Still lying on the bed, fully covered, he yells.

' are you a fool ? waking me up in the middle of the night, do you know what time it is ?'

I could see my sister's face turn red with anger, She was in a state of shock, she was holding a large spoon in her hand, frying something smelling good.

I knew what was happening as I was standing closer to the guest pouring my coffee. I saw a faint glow under the sheet the guest was covering. He muttered something and went back to sleep without looking at us.

I told my sister in sign language that he was talking on the phone.
I did not hear any ring tone. Perhaps it was in silent or vibrator mode.

He told us later when he woke up that his wife had called him. He was not aware of my sister's confusion

SPEED 4 - ENVIRONMENT - THE OTHER SIDE

This is not a contradictory post, I am just presenting other side of the coin. in other words, it is a contradictory post.





What ever abuse the earth has undergone from past 500 years is hardly, hardly a few seconds for this 4.5 billion year old planet.
It has healed itself without any help. Nature does not need our help. (I'll write about this in my next post)

This does not mean we go about abusing plundering and polluting for another 500 years.





Many species have gone extinct without human intervention in the past. Giant reptiles for instance, long before humans came, 65 million years ago. A fact overlooked by the environmentalists.

Global warming is not a recent phenomenon. We are not even sure the present one is man made.

Natural disasters like hurricanes, cyclones, tornados earthquakes, famines, floods tsunamis have caused more damage than humans ever did. We are utterly powerless to stop them from happening. They are not new to us. They have been reported in holy scriptures. Famines, rivers going dry are reported in holy scriptures as well.
The environmentalists don't want to talk about this.





Even after making this planet completely and totally free of pollution, making it greener, even after all the citizens of the world become sworn and card holding environmentalists, there is absolutely no guarentee that our planet will behave well. But still we have to do our bit.





William Shakespeare died at a very very old and ripe age of 52.

With all the pollution and the CFCs and a gaping hole in the ozone layer, today the life expectancy is much higher. People in their eighties and nineties are very common, not a rare sight.





Sitting on a wooden chair and sleeping on a wooden cot, I have no right to say stop plundering the earth, stop chopping the trees. The environmentalists make us feel so guilty.
It is the environmentalists against you and me. They are the self styled protectors of the nature and we are the plunderers. They point their finger at you.

YOU THE PLUNDERERRRR !

They have the sympathy and they have the media on their side. (And they have the money, lots of it )
The media will not take the chances of speaking otherwise.
They are afraid that they'll be branded as the enemy of nature or enemy of the planet.

Please show me one person who does not love nature.
Please show me one person who wants to destroy the earth.

The Environmentalists have done a good job making us aware from past 40 years. Thank you, but you are talking too loud.









The sky is not falling, not yet. Things are not THAT grim as made out to be. Most delicate creatures still find the planet hospitable.

Bangalore is one of the most polluted cities of India. You'll find butterflys fluttering all over the city.














We are still enjoying the bounties of nature. We are thankful, we are grateful that mother earth is still giving us, feeding us.

No one in his right mind would bite the hand that feeds us.
And We still enjoy watching the wonders of nature. And Nature never ceases to amaze us.





Visiting blogs of Suresh, Ruth, Patty, Lorraine, Sandy Chinna Aamir Cindy gives me hope when I see their lovely pictures of vibrant and colourful nature, inspiring creativity and imagination which makes the world even more beautiful to live.








If at all we face extinction, it is the environmentalists who will lead us towards it.
Over zealous environmentalists will drown us in the sea of extinction.
More on this subject in my next post.





Its time to wake up and we have woken up. We cannot afford to relax from now on. Things can go worse if abusing and hurting the earth continues. The speed of progress needs to be reduced before things come to a grinding halt.

The history of madness of past 50 years (making money by waging wars and dropping bombs Killing innocent people and their own soldiers) will have a disastrous impact in the future.

If we want peace and harmony all over the world, We have to undo the economic system that has created poverty and hunger.





In a noisy and chaotic atmosphere this man is enjoying a peaceful sleep which is denied to those who have created him.

BLUNT KNIFE
WILD PIC

SPEED - 2003

This is the New year greeting I made for my friends for 2003-2004

SPEED3 - ENVIRONMENT - THE ABUSE

Laos was bombarded with 2 million tons of explosives by the American Airforce. Yes you read it right TWO MILLION TONS, Completely destroying the countryside and 53% of rain forest. You can guess the loss of civilian life mostly women and children. "it was the most appalling episode of lawless cruelty in American history." I am not talking about that
I am talking about the pounding the earth got.





Just imagine the impact of explosives continuously for nine years. One third of the explosives failed to go off and are still lying there. What ever vegetation left was destroyed by spraying of herbicides like Agent orange. After more than 40 years, children are still dying or losing their limbs stepping on the land mines. Ironically it is the scientists of MIT who are working towards clearing the land mines and other explosives. This comes after two massive earth shattering explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then came Viet Nam and other wars. Bombs, the explosions, got more and more powerful. Not to mention the countless nuclear testing by the super powers, and not so super powers, like Pakistan and my own country, where people are dying of poverty and starvation every day.

This is Pokhran railway station, on the way to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, the site of Indian nuclear test. I asked the locals there, what they thought about it. People said, there was a lot of activity. Locals were told that they are going to explode the rocks hundreds of feet below. Water would come gushing out and they would have a lake there.

Poor water starved ignorant people were too happy and waited for the day. The guy said nothing happened, just an earth shattering explosion, the government cheated and lied, there was no water no lake. Next day they came to know that it was some kind of a test. They still have to walk miles to get a pot of water. Well, this woman seems to be happy.

Thousands of ships sail, trains weighing millions of tons crawl on the surface of earth at any given time. It is not the weight of the metal, it is the energy that we have created pounding the earth.

Mother earth takes it all. Spinning quietly for 4.5 billion years non stop. If it goes a second slower we will be charred to death, a second faster would throw us all in to the space. Stars are colliding every day, stars are burning themselves out in other galaxies. we seem to be so sure that it will not happen to us.

Since 1945, there have been more than 2000 nuclear tests all over the world. France conducted nearly 200, away from its shores, in French Polynesia, Algeria, and England conducted in Australia and south pacific. How very convenient! Very clever, I just don't believe their audacity and arrogance. Explosions got more and more powerful. More than 2000 nuclear explosions!

Mother Earth took all the pain with a smile,

It heals itself, we are too small, way too small to damage, save or repair the planet.

It keeps giving us, it keeps feeding us.

I watch the kittens, they play with mama cat, jump on it, play with mama's tail, bite its ears, mama cat just lies still and takes it all. When the kitten bites a bit too hard, mama warns first, then it gives a thump on the kitten's head.

We have recived warnings already and we are waiting for that thump.

This is some speed !

Its been too painful to write, need some rest, have to lie down still. I am aware that I am not still, I am moving with mother earth.

Blunt Knife

Wildpic

SPEED 2 - ENVIRONMENT - THE DEMAND

This page takes ages to load, I have no patience myself, sorry. Seven or eight years ago when I got the internet, first thing I wanted was a picture of Enya. I tired and tried. After many half downloads and many disconnections, got one full picture, Took
nearly half a day of efforts. Today if the picture doesn't appear in four or five seconds I click on something else. I have no patience





I keep upgrading my system, I check my mail every five minutes. I feel something seriously wrong with me. I go out, travel, in to the wilderness, no technology, no checking mail for days.

To get back home I take a train from some town, If I have time I go to some browsing centre and check my mail after a week or ten days. If the system is slow I get restless, impatient. I am back to square one.





Something has happened to me in the past seven or eight years. I have no patience. I have lost it. I got used to some speed. This is my misery. My own making, no one is responsible for it. Nothing to do with the environment, nothing to do with pollution, nothing to do with global warming.





Just imagine the collective demand for speed. We are going faster and faster. Speed gets in to our system. We don't accept anything less.

What is happening here is we are damaging ourselves more than we are damaging the planet. It takes 36 days for our body to come back to normal state of functioning after a jetlag. We are not supposed to go faster than a camel.







Believe me I have received countless forwards warning me about the ill effects of complete dependance on mobiles.

Some good news, Like our body the planet also has the capacity to heal itself.

I'll continue in my next post. I want to deal with this issue slowly and carefully.
I'll keep this template for a while, do you like it ?
My love to all of you

Blunt Knife
Wild Pic