Articles by Biodiversivist

Encyclopedia of Life off to a slow start

A couple of emails and an article in the latest issue of Science have roused me to post on the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) website. The site is not functional yet but has a whiz-bang demo (completely fake) put together by a company called AvenueA|Razorfish that is well worth checking out.

However, that was the only thing that impressed me about the site. The article in Science just inflamed my skepticism:

Educate yourself before going vegan

From the Associated Press:

A vegan couple were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.

I realize this is an extreme example, and these two were way out of the norm in their ignorance about vegan nutrition. I am not posting this to slam vegans. I'm just using it as an opportunity to give some unsolicited advice to any of you with children who are planning to go vegan: educate yourself thoroughly beforehand. Talk and listen to experienced, knowledgeable vegans first. Cross check what you learn against a licensed pediatrician to make sure you get enough non-meat protein in their diets to feed their rapidly growing, protein-hungry brains.

Update [2007-5-11 13:1:32 by biodiversivist]: My apologies all, for not looking into this story in greater depth. I've been too busy to check in on the blog and I see it has a pile of comments already. An infant can die of malnutrition even if fed large quantities of food that does not contain adequate nutrition, such as fruit juice, and that is what I mistakenly thought had happened in this case. I did not realize that the child had actually been fed small quantities in addition to being fed inadequate nutrition.

I overlooked the one short sentence in the entire article that should have clued me in: "The child died because he was not fed. Period." The headline and subtitle, both crafted to sensationalize and maximize readership sucked me in. This was a generic case of child abuse and veganism had little to do with it. I have added more to this article below the fold and I'm sorry I didn't get back to it sooner sparing several rants.

Biodiesel rage

From the Seattle PI:

More than 1,300 people -- some shouting "revolution" -- took over Fisher Pavilion at the Seattle Center on Sunday. Look what's happening out in the streets, they said: Biodiesel is coming of age. It's all the rage.

Part trade show, part strategy session, part cheerleading camp, the fifth annual NW Biodiesel Forum brought together biodiesel enthusiasts to learn about peak oil, alternative fuels, mass transit and, in a wrap-up discussion, "Biodiesel in the Northwest -- The Revolution Has Begun!"

Many of these enthusiasts are people who have purchased diesel vehicles so they can burn biodiesel in them and every last one of them has at least one bumper sticker to let you know it:

Plug-in aftermarket kits just around the corner?

Business Wire tells us that A123 (what a catchy name) just bought out Hymotion, the company it had been working with to develop a plug-in kit for the Prius. The kits may be available next year for about $10,000, allowing you to go about 30 miles on a four-hour charge.

Don't get too excited just yet. Putting one on your car will void the manufacturer's warranty and Hymotion presently plans to guarantee the kit for only two years, until they are confident it will last longer than that. At some point we enviros will need to step in to expose whatever environmental downsides are associated with nano technology, lithium mines, and the like. Get ready.