Jan 31 2008
Uncle Ben at
Hammerswing75
waxes literary on the subject of cows:
“Cows conspire in the fields,
But that’s alright cuz they’re just meals.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he wrote that for our unhappy PETA brethren (and sistren).
Jan 30 2008
Looking for a great snack idea? It probably won’t catch on here, but in China and east Asia, chicken feet have become quite the delicacy. So much so that some countries are finding it a lucrative market. (HT:
Turkish Daily News
)
Chicken feet now a source of cash
İZMİR – Turkish Daily News
Chicken feet are not generally considered as produce nor consumed in Turkey, but rather than throw them away, companies are making money by exporting them to Far Eastern countries. Turkey’s exports set a new record last year, rising to a total $105 billion last year, and $17 million of this amount came from chicken feet, mostly exported to China.
“Chicken feet are considered as waste in Turkey,” said the president of the Aegean Livestock Fishery Products Exporters’ Association, Sinan Kızıltan. “But now chicken farmers have the opportunity to export these products to Far Eastern countries.” If chicken feet are considered solely as waste and are not exported, disposal costs the producer, said Kızıltan, so it makes even more sense to export.
“By getting rid of our waste in this way, foreign currency is flowing into Turkey. Although we do not hear about anyone eating chicken feet, in China there is huge demand. They eat them like chips.”
CP Group, which started operating in Thailand in 1921 and established the first feed factory in İnegöl, Bursa in 1986, has been exporting chicken feet for the last seven years. Today CP Group has investments in 20 countries and staff numbering over 100,000. The company has a total revenue of $13 billion.
The number of chicken feet exporters in Turkey was very small, with only five or six companies involved, said the general district manager of the CP Standart Food Industry and Trade Inc., Bedri Girit, adding: “We were already aware of the Far East market when other firms discovered it not too long ago. There is a tough competition in the market where only a small number of firms can survive.”
Only the strong survive in the chicken feet industry.
Jan 30 2008
Michael Spencer at Internet Monk has a great article on the ongoing demise of evangelicalism. (This is a follow-on piece to Michael Patton’s the Entertainment Driven Church article at Reclaiming the Mind blog.)
Evangelicalism is over. Long live post-evangelicalism. (Whatever we are/it is.)
The is “the end” of evangelicalism, and it’s not dying with a whimper. Oh no. It’s going out with party hats and noise-makers. And Bratz dolls. And Barbie. And video games. And an elf. And the Word-faith message. And Starbucks.
The end of evangelicalism isn’t the deep vacuum of space. It’s the Borg ship. With pizza, a band and great commercials.
Is this Christianity? If you realize your answer no longer has any basis in reality, consider just being honest: No, it’s not.
<<>>
This isn’t about kickin’ worship bands or big screens. Take them, take them. I don’t care. What I want to know is if we recognize that the disease is overtaking the evangelical body, and the time has come to think like people upon whom an evangelical dark age has come? The barbarians aren’t at the gates. They are running the city. We can’t shut the gates. We have to find places to survive. We can debate how big the hole in the side of the ship is all we want. The fact is: this ship is going down.
Christ’s church will survive and triumph. But in America and the West, the entertainment driven “church” is going to dominate. For those who will not be absorbed, for whom resistance is not futile, there are choices to be made.
This is not an indictment of faith by any stretch, but a realization that western evangelicalism has come off the tracks in a dramatic and dangerous way.
As Michael Patton put it in an earlier piece ,
“If Joel Osteen, R.C. Sproul, Benny Hinn, Chuck Swindoll, Oral Roberts, J.P. Moreland, T.D. Jakes, Jimmy Carter, Billy Graham, Brian McLaren, Pat Robertson, and John Piper all distinguish themselves as evangelicals, then we must admit that the designation both means everything and nothing at the same time.”
Jan 30 2008
…and it looks mad! (Bonus geek points if you can identify the horta without googling.)
(HT: Hawai’i Volcano Observatory )
Jan 28 2008
(HT: Fox News ) An 11-year-old boy from Britain, who was partially deaf for nearly 10 years, was suddenly cured when a thick piece of cotton popped out of his ear, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear when he was just two-years-old.
Over the next nine years, he struggled to live a normal life as a young boy — but everything changed when he felt a sudden pop in his right ear while playing a game of pool with friends.
He put his finger in his ear and pulled out a tip of a cotton wool bud that had been wedged in his ear since he was a toddler.
“It was just incredible — his hearing returned to normal in an instant,” Barten’s dad said.
“I had always suspected Jerome had stuck something in his ear when he was little and that was causing the problem. But the doctors and hearing specialists said it was wax and he would probably grow out of it.”
“I am amazed they didn’t spot something as obvious as a cotton wool bud.”
Jerome is due to be examined by hearing experts later this week — and his dad is taking along the cotton wool bud as proof of his “miracle cure”.
“It was very strange at first to be able to hear everything,” said Barten.
“But now I’m getting used to it — it’s great that people don’t have to shout to me or that I don’t have to turn my head all the time.”
Jan 28 2008
“Even now, my soul is suffering, but I am aware that it is the life of the self which causes us pain; that which is dead does not suffer.” (Francois Fenelon)
Jan 28 2008
Hey, wasn’t the Captain parked around here somewhere?
It’s a shortcut, trust me.
Darn toll booths… Now I’m going to be late to the war.
(HT: Dark Roasted Blend )
Jan 27 2008
The rest of you may go about your business. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along…
Jan 25 2008
“Christianity was birthed in Galilee as a relationship. It spread to Greece and became a philosophy. It spread to Rome and became an empire. It spread to Britian and became a culture. It spread to America and became an enterprise.”
– Richard Halverson, former congressional chaplain
(HT: CharlieDean )
Jan 24 2008
This is the ‘You Are’ meme. Put
“[your name] is a”
in a Google search and list the results. Then do the same in Google Image Search and post the result.
One or more of these may actually be true. I’m not telling…
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