This year, I broke with tradition and actually made New Year's resolutions. Here are all two of them, in their fully resolved glory:1. Be a perfect gentleman.
I spent too much of 2009 lavishing attention on girls I simply had my eye on. Granted, it's natural for red-blooded males to do as much, but after a while I started to regret not spending more time with the people who more consistently made me happy, like good buds from college, my brother + sis-in-law + niece, or dogs. [Yes, they're people.] 2010 is the year that I settle down with a nice girl and spend more time being fulfilled. I'm off to a good start - I hosted my former girlfriend from my tiny village in Japan and showed her a wonderful time around San Diego, without an ounce of hanky-panky. It was classy and enjoyable in exactly the way I hoped for. 2. Eat less meat.
Thanks to Sir Paul, I was awakened to the Meat Free Monday campaign, which is encouraging people to simply eat less meat, not give it up entirely. Not only is this a convenient new diet path for me to try, but one day a week without meat is relatively painless (and a nice gateway into two or more days). Here are some good reasons why meat might kill us all:-CO2 emissions are huge: depending on estimates, somewhere around 15% (give or take 3%) of all world CO2 emission.
Here's where my grad studies come in: as Brazil, India and China go from poor countries to rich countries, the world demand for richer (both in calories and in monetary value) food will skyrocket. If you've heard the phrase that meat-eating Prius owners are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than vegetarian drivers of normal cars, well, it's true. Climate 'skeptics' are quick to admit that methane (from cows) has 25 times the greenhouse-gas properties of CO2 (thus effectively acknowledging climate change, no?) - so stop with all the cows. -If you thought producing biodiesel was bad for the world's food supply, consider how much basic grains go into livestock feed. It's a lot. Producing food for our sake would be more efficient and bring world food prices down. Africa would starve less, which would lead to less violence in that part of the world. -It's just healthier not to eat meat. Populations with lower meat intakes have fewer health problems and much longer life expectancies.-And, as aroon points out, we should be good to the animals. And there we have, from my book, the recipe for a solid 2010. Wish me luck.
I spent too much of 2009 lavishing attention on girls I simply had my eye on. Granted, it's natural for red-blooded males to do as much, but after a while I started to regret not spending more time with the people who more consistently made me happy, like good buds from college, my brother + sis-in-law + niece, or dogs. [Yes, they're people.] 2010 is the year that I settle down with a nice girl and spend more time being fulfilled. I'm off to a good start - I hosted my former girlfriend from my tiny village in Japan and showed her a wonderful time around San Diego, without an ounce of hanky-panky. It was classy and enjoyable in exactly the way I hoped for. 2. Eat less meat.
Thanks to Sir Paul, I was awakened to the Meat Free Monday campaign, which is encouraging people to simply eat less meat, not give it up entirely. Not only is this a convenient new diet path for me to try, but one day a week without meat is relatively painless (and a nice gateway into two or more days). Here are some good reasons why meat might kill us all:-CO2 emissions are huge: depending on estimates, somewhere around 15% (give or take 3%) of all world CO2 emission.
Here's where my grad studies come in: as Brazil, India and China go from poor countries to rich countries, the world demand for richer (both in calories and in monetary value) food will skyrocket. If you've heard the phrase that meat-eating Prius owners are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than vegetarian drivers of normal cars, well, it's true. Climate 'skeptics' are quick to admit that methane (from cows) has 25 times the greenhouse-gas properties of CO2 (thus effectively acknowledging climate change, no?) - so stop with all the cows. -If you thought producing biodiesel was bad for the world's food supply, consider how much basic grains go into livestock feed. It's a lot. Producing food for our sake would be more efficient and bring world food prices down. Africa would starve less, which would lead to less violence in that part of the world. -It's just healthier not to eat meat. Populations with lower meat intakes have fewer health problems and much longer life expectancies.-And, as aroon points out, we should be good to the animals. And there we have, from my book, the recipe for a solid 2010. Wish me luck.