As Hunger Rises

Via In These Times:

As Hunger Rises, Chew on This

By Terry J. Allen

A diet of bread and water used to be emblematic of poverty. Now a global food crisis is transforming that meager meal into a luxury for much of the world.

The prices of the world’s three main grains — corn, rice and wheat — more than doubled last year. The causes include poor harvests linked to climate change, diversion of cropland to biofuels, population increases, rising meat consumption, emerging diseases and soaring fuel prices.

In a globalized economy, issues of food scarcity and inflation should be a matter not only of humanitarian concern, but also of national security. A food crisis is exploding.


Another vast diversion of world grain is animal products. One pound of meat requires up to 40 pounds of grain input. Not only does the earth have more mouths to feed every second, but more of them are chewing meat as rising living standards in China and India make it affordable. China’s per capita meat consumption jumped from 44 pounds in 1980 to 110 pounds today — still half the U.S. average. According to the Sierra Club, “America could feed most of Africa with the grains we feed to livestock.”

Please go take a closer look at the full article over at In These Times.

How to win the internetz

/b/ is the premordial soup -
and ceiling cat is its collective subconscious.

Dirty Tea Time

Repost from Vienna Metblogs

There’s a new event in town, or rather, a new movement - and it’s called Team Dirty Chai!


Well, kindest readership!
I have the honor to introduce to you what was brought to my ears - and lips - all the way from Los Angeles, CA (by Sean Bonner, to be accurate) last winter, and what changed my life by the means of my weekly habits and social interactions in the most joyful and enriching way possible - for a beverage, that is.

The dirty (soy) chai consists of the classic chai syrup (as to be found at your well-assorted coffee shop of trust), infused with hot (soy) milk (rumor has it, the soy makes it even more ‘muddy’; to me, it simply makes it more delicious: vegan, that is) and added with two shots of espresso - which makes it ‘dirty’.
And besides, being an addict, I should not forget to mention the excess of caffeine the dirtyness brings along with its super-awesome taste!


The Team Dirty Chai, also known as TDC, was founded back in calender week 07 in the year 2008 by Dave aka DaddyD (whom you will certainly know by the trail of his posts) and my most humble self, when twittering about running out of coffee in the still of the night. Although Dave - as so far everyone we’ve met - was rather bemused about the general idea of pouring coffee in one’s tea, after trying a dirty chai latte was proselytized immediately and finds himself now co-leading Team Dirty Chai, evangelizing our friends (from thereon to be called the TDC army) towards a better taste in caffeinated, muddy-liquid treats.


Our core team members include the following - as lovely as famous as down-to-the-dirty - folks: Kewagi, Angelol, Oneup, and Enkido, all of them admittedly geeks and/or nerds and/or ‘artists’ in some or the other way; but since the dirty chai meme spread rapidly amongst the Viennese Twitter league, the TDC army is still unstoppably growing, aiming to become the most notably alliance of 2008 a.d.

Read the full article on Metblogs, or visit the TDC appreciation group on Flickr!

From Hamburg With Love

(dates back to 23/03/08)

Though I love Hamburg for its haven and that very special smell in the air (part drunken sailor, part dead fish), there's one epic, EPIC fail about this city: no wifi. Like, no-fuckin-where. Or at least everyone 'saves' them with a password, which is simply ridiculous in my eyes.

Therefore, I - by far! - wasn't able to get as much work done as I scheduled for myself.
Of course, this is nothing I could only complain about, since I met so many friends these days I wouldn't have given myself the time to otherwise. Also, I spent hours and hours at the Endless Pain tattoo convention, as well as walking the streets of Hamburg now that it finally stopped raining, hailing and snowing.
Yay for real life social interaction & getting dirty ;)

Also, I kept connection to the outer world via Twitter, a service I wonder how I ever could live without before now... and which is also partly implemented to a kinda 'urban hacking' game I'm very proud to be able to introduce to you, kindest readership, today:

Urban Takeover, developed (or rather, still in the process of being fixed) by the 72dpi army, makes you tag your city by putting up stickers on the urban environment and thus 'claiming' these objects/spots/streets/hot chicks/whatever. For every claimed spot the player (or team) gets points; also, there's some bonus for photographs taken, weirdest objects & spots, highscores, etc.
I guess the best way to get an idea what it's all about is to check out their site, the flickr group or the twitter account - and, of course, get involved =)

In other news, I got myself a bunch of new music (as usual), which I'd - at least partially - would like to share with you as soon as I'm back in Vienna again. Promise.
Or, if I can ever get hold of these in a digitalized form:

DJ Da Cut - Ostinato
DJ Spooky vs. Dave Lombardo
Peeping Tom - s/t
Kostnice - Finsterfelden
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

Special thanks go to lovely & great video artist Kewagi and photographer Michi Inmann at this point, who drove my attention to Amy's album. Which goes perfectly along with a long late night of wine & cigarettes.

I'll be heading over to Berlin again at the end of the week & will report back from all the fun we'll most likely have there, the super-yummy food we may enjoy, and the re:publica.
Totally excited to meet some very gorgeous people there again!

Besides, it's only a couple of days until I get my next two tattoos - can't wait.
Yay for ink <3

A Dead Scene

Yesterday night I went to a show of the most awesome mathcore maniacs Dillinger Escape Plan (1.1/1.2b) - supported by hardcore doyens Poison the Well (2.1/2.2b) and the unbelievable jazzcore avantgardists Stolen Babies (3.1/3.2b/3.3) - and was simply blown away.

If ever they happen to crash into your town, go have a look.




DEP

Calculating Infinity
Irony Is a Dead Scene (feat. Mike Patton)


Stolen Babies

There Be Squabbles Ahead


Also, I want to introduce you to Urban Takeover - a super fun game developed by a bunch of amazing friends - which just recently had its alpha version launched ...


Go have a look at the instructions & be part of it!

Going Emo

I heart Mineral!

Originated in the mid-90ies from Austin, Texas, they had a heavy influence on subsequent emo and indie bands, especially during the late 1990ies in the Midwest of the States.
When they broke up in 1998, singer Christopher Simpson founded The Gloria Record, a band I can also warmly recommend to any emo-rock fan.


Check out their great music (which I upped on Mediafire as I promised, for your dearest convenience):

The power of failing (1997) + February (o my gosh, I love that song just so much) &
End Serenading (1998)


Take care!

Enlightened

Tonight I passed the Heldenplatz in Vienna, and this is what hit my eyes:


Unfortunately, I only found articles about the 80.000 candle-light installation in german (as to be seen here in Die Presse, for instance) - but I think it's incredibly beautiful as a sight itself!


In other news, I haven't found much sleep within the last weeks; nor did I find enough time to spend on all the things I'd love to get done.
But I'm looking forward to going to Hamburg and Berlin the next weeks, meeting some awesome friends and artists I haven't seen in a while, and return all recharged on rest and motivation again.

Also, my life is pretty much turned upside down.
Which doesn't sound like news at all. Maybe I should've adapted to that situation by now ;)