Eating kangaroos could help fight global warming: scientist

SYDNEY (AFP) - - An offbeat suggestion that Australians should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep has been given a scientific stamp of approval by the government's top climate change adviser.

The belching and farting of millions of farm animals is a major contributor to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, Professor Ross Garnaut noted in a major report to the government on global warming.

Kangaroos, on the other hand, emit negligible amounts of methane gas.

If farmers were included in a system requiring industry to buy permits for the gas they produce, the cost of meat would rise and could lead to a change in eating habits, Garnaut said in the 600 page report released Wednesday.

"For most of Australia's human history -- around 60,000 years -- kangaroo was the main source of meat," he said.

"It could again become important. However, there are some significant barriers to this change, including livestock and farm management issues, consumer resistance and the gradual nature of change in food tastes."

Garnaut cited a study looking at the potential for kangaroos to replace sheep and cattle for meat production in Australia's rangelands, where kangaroos are already harvested.

The study concludes that by 2020, beef cattle and sheep numbers could be reduced by seven million and 36 million respectively, allowing for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million now to 240 million by 2020.

This would be more than enough to replace the lost lamb and beef production, and kangaroo meat would become more profitable than cattle and sheep as the price of emissions permits increased.

Garnaut's report said livestock, mainly cattle and sheep, are responsible for some 67 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite being the national animal and appearing on the Australian coat of arms, millions of kangaroos are slaughtered in the wild each year to control their numbers and much of the meat is used for pet food.

The idea of farming them for human consumption is controversial, but many health-conscious Australians already eat kangaroo meat.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels, it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal," says Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.
taken from: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081001/tap-australia-climate-food-kangaroos-off-5a1703c.html

Pretty funny huh! So Charles Wright identifies four media functions that affect receivers and I’m going to try to fit them all into this pretty.. STRANGE news article.

There is the Surveillance (information) the gathering and disseminating of information. Giving them the instrumental information they need to get through a day. So yes, from this online news article, we now know and important fact to get through the day! Eat the kangaroo meat, save the world! ( I can’t decide if I’m more amazed that people are receptive to the idea, or that scientists have actually thought of that idea in the first place.)

Then comes Correlation (analysis and evaluation) reporting facts, interpret news events and by analyzing social problems. This article has more or less given us a brief analysis of one of the reasons for global warming. I now know that cattle and sheep contribute to “67 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.”

Next, Cultural transmission (education and socialization of receivers) which reinforces social ideals and passes on cultural understandings from one generation to the next. The one and only connection I made was that I can’t imagine anyone of us, or you for that matter, eating kangaroo meat as a staple food! THINK OF baby ROO! AND mama KANGA! (if any of you remember pooh’s friends..)

Last but not least, Entertainment (enjoyment and gratification) which arouses our emotions.

I don’t know about you, but when I read this for the first time I definitely went from amusement to disgust and back to amusement and then to amazement and then to disgust… and I can keep on typing but I’m sure you get the circle of emotions I felt.

This piece of news would be what I call really offbeat news. I mean it probably sounds normal to aussies, but for me... still kinda queasy thinking about it.

anyway, after some time I got again to thinking, if we can eat chickens and cows and think of it as perfectly normal, what’s to stop us from eating kangaroos! Cows aren’t any less cute than kangaroos, and I think both animals have a mean kick.

But that’s beside the point.

My point would be that, I foresee a permanent fixture on our menus soon. Think roo and chips! Yum…

art and culture

Hey look! A mega (literally) sweet palace!
If you don’t recognize this, it’s actually an exhibition part of the Singapore Biennale ’08 which is on from now till the 16th of November. I read an article about a week ago that briefly mentioned how this pretty awesome structure was being invaded by army of ants, swarms of bees and what not. I really wanted to go take a look, but then I changed my mind because I was just too darn lazy. It got me thinking though, “how many people actually feel the same way I do about such artsy stuff?”

I did go for the 2006 one, went to explore around a bit, but I didn’t come away from it with a WOW feeling. It wasn’t that I didn’t admire the creativity and diligence of the artists, but it was more of an inability to fully appreciate their artwork.

Is it merely in our culture to ignore such events and their meaning? Of course I’m generalizing here, but how many people know that the Biennale is going on now? And out of that number, how many are actually intending on attending one or more exhibitions?

I was never brought for such things when I was younger, probably because Singapore then didn’t have as many such shows as they do now. Or perhaps, thinking of spending money on a show or exhibition was just too much.

How much can we blame our culture for our ignorance of such events?

In school, emphasis is placed on good grades for academic subjects, and art just isn’t one of them. I remember in Sec one, art and literature weren’t examinable subjects! I wasn’t horrified then because that means 2 less subjects to study, but now… WHOA, art is I suppose… understandable. But literature?

But on the bright side, we’re evolving! Schools are beginning to include more art programmes, art classes, teachers that actually specialize in art… lit is made compulsory for a lot of secondary schools etc etc.

Maybe the future generation will have more genuine interest in art events.
The idea of being hard working and career driven has been passed down the generations. Maybe it’s time to add so much more to our lives! (I’m not saying everyone is ignorant and fixated on their future wealth, but I’m GERNERALIZING. Meaning, there’s a lot of people out there who think in such a way that I would like to presume sim ub students don’t :D )

So, grab your little siblings or cousins or nieces, or nephews or just go kidnap some kids from kindergarten and let them experience the wonders of the world of art.

Let them grow into people who can be curious and who can question, and who can look at anything strange and foreign and just marvel at their beauty and realize how important such things are in our world.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Dear all, I watched a movie a couple of days ago.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Directed by the legendary Woody Allen, who brought to us shows such as Husbands and Wives and Match Point. It got rave reviews in Cannes, but a couple of mixed ones here and there. Woody Allen, I’m sure you realize by now, does make pretty great movies! Strange… but good all the same.

Let’s just put it simply that this show, is pretty much the anti-thesis of whatever we’ve learnt in our interpersonal relationships chapter. Ok, maybe not so drastic, but it jumps here, there, everywhere, and sometimes it’s so unconventional, there’s nothing to explain it.

So just to give a background to this film, Vicky (she’s about to be married, little bit boring) and Cristina (young, free, wild and happy) were asked by Juan Antonio (a rather hot artist) to spend the weekend with him, where the days would be filled with… debauchery. So the 2 girls accept, and off they go to Juan Antonio’s paradise island. Initially, Cristina was very willing to sleep with Juan Antonio, but a sickness allowed him to seduce Vicky instead. And by the weekend, Vicky succumbs to his charms. Feeling extremely guilty, she throws herself into her work, which inadvertently drives a wedge between the friendship between her and Cristina. Pretty… European if I may say. (Not that Europeans indulge in sex with strangers they just meet and offer them a threesome... I’m just stereotyping here. So…)

Anyway, Knapp’s model of relational development which, to quote our notes “[is] one of the most influential models of relationship”, is strangely relevant, but yet not so in this film. Woody Allen has absolutely created a film that has no intention of keeping its characters monogamous nor does it portray a future of a long term relationship. What this film does however, is emphasize on passion, lust, love (?), and sex. And all without drugs=)

Let’s see, in Knapp’s model, we have the initiating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating and bonding stages, which make up the coming together portion.

In this movie, we have the initiating between Vicky Cristina and Juan Antonio, but WAIT. So much for being cautious and safe. He just offered them his company for the weekend where he hopes to get all 3 of them together in bed. There goes the experimenting stage following that…. And the intensifying.. And the integrating… and the bonding…. And basically I’m not so sure how to classify the relationship between the 3 characters.

But hang on, in this film, the coming apart does pose even more difficult to compare. From Knapp, we have the differentiating, circumscribing, stagnating, avoiding and terminating stages. In this movie, we just basically have Juan Antonio’s CRAZY ex-wife Maria Elena, (played by Penelope Cruz, who in my opinion, is nuts in the first place for dating Tom Cruise).

I think Knapp’s model just takes away the nice dreamlike quality of developing a relationship. I mean, words words words. It even reduces a nice sacred ritual of joining 2 people together to 3 simple words. “Stage 5: Bonding”. Robotic much?

But I digress again... I did have a point there but it got mixed up in the words. So anyway, Cristina and Juan Antonio end up growing close together (while Vicky goes off to get married), and they even move in together! But crazy ex-wife comes back into the picture, and though initially disliking Cristina, they end up developing a liking for each other!

And here comes the more confusing part, Maria Elena (ex-wife), and Juan Antonio is still in love, but decides that Cristina was their missing link!
SO, instead of instead of the “coming apart” stages that most people would expect when the ex wife returns, we see an even better “coming together” between all 3 characters. Still with me?

Now however, while the 3 enjoy a summer of… getting along, Cristina soon realizes that she’s bored with the relationship between them and decides to skip all coming apart stages and just leave. Of course she didn’t think that Maria Elena would go crazy again with their link gone…

Meanwhile, Vicky, getting bored with her life, decides to let herself be seduced by Juan Antonio once again. But this time, the devastated Maria Elena intrudes upon them and starts firing her gun around. Vicky takes a wild shot to her hand, and suddenly decides that gun wielding ex wives are too much as compared to a relative stranger bedding her and her best friend and his ex wife all about the same time. Strange how some people think isn’t it?

Eventually, as said in Knapp’s model under terminating, the relationship ceased to exist and the parties all move on from it. Vicky goes back to her married life (never telling her husband about the events that have transpired), and Cristina remains, free and wild. Essentially, all the characters remain the same as how they started out in the movie...

(I have this sudden urge to start singing the circle of life)

But just to perk your interest, if I haven’t already, here’s a trailer for the movie. It’s open in cinemas!