On Eating Animals

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and it made quite the impression, almost to the point that I wish I hadn't read it. I've always been weary of meat, specifically red, which will forever annoy my parents since I grew up on a cattle farm. Poultry and seafood have always been delicious, though. Most days I had a turkey sandwich for lunch and never tired of it. 


After reading this book, I haven't been able to eat any meat. I was knocked off my high horse when I read how terrible the poultry market of production is, specifically for chickens and turkeys. It's unbelievable what the animals and farmers go through to get food on the table.


Earlier in the summer, I bought a "The Joy of Cooking" book from the 1950s and noticed in many of the recipes how long was necessary back then to cook a chicken. It bordered on two hours for some recipes and I couldn't figure out why it now takes us less than 30 minutes to prepare chicken. One reason Eating Animals honed in on was the growing presence of antibiotics in the food we eat and how it's slowly eroding our immune systems, but we view it as convenience to make a quick meal. 


I know this book is extreme but Foer makes a lot of jaw dropping points that have very little to do with his opinion (he became a vegetarian while writing the book) on eating meat and everything to do with what the current production system is doing to our bodies and the environment. 


Regardless of your stance on the food industry, it's a book that will certainly surprise you.

Before And After.

     For the past year, my daily to do lists have generally looked like this:

     Today, this is what my list looked like. I almost felt silly writing it: 

Three cheers for unemployment and to do lists that are more than easy to handle!

Online Education.

A few days ago, one of my professors was talking about the future of higher education and how he believes it will be almost, if not entirely, virtual. At first, I thought he was being dramatic but he justified himself well.

In college, I took a few online courses. Since beginning graduate school, I've taken three courses that were exclusively offered online but were required for my degree. One, ironically, was a course on how to use a computer. Even in the classes that met face-to-face, we relied more on computers than each other. On more than one occasion, a classmate had to "skype in" to avoid getting an absence that would penalize her grade.

On Wednesday, I have two online exams due and they mark the end of my program. I won't necessarily have to see my classmates or professors again. While I thought my professor was odd, it seems that an increasing amount of coursework is done online. I was constantly required to use Twitter, Engrade, Blackboard, Google Docs, Ge.TT, and other various sources to complete and submit assignments. 

I've read a few articles on the issue and it seems very likely, especially considering the upkeep costs of running a university, that the future of higher education will be online. Here are some of the things I've read on the issue:

"The Future of College: How Online Education Is Changing Everything" (Distance Education)

"Colleges Should Stop Imitating Harvard" (CNN)

"Crossing state lines gets tougher for colleges, universities" (Independent Mail)

"The Future of Colleges: 9 Inevitable Changes" (The Chronicle of Higher Education at Georgia Southern University)

Those are just a few articles I found on the issue but what are your thoughts? Have you heard this before?

P.S. The "kissers" responded to the photo that made them famous.