Babies Serve A Valuable Purpose
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55 responses to “Babies Serve A Valuable Purpose”
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First!
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If I were in Texas next week, I would go to hear this woman speak. She likens the behavioral reactions of cattle to her autistic experience and if you have ever worked cattle, or horses, you instinctively know she is right.
I was researching her and found Grandin was profiled in the Chronicle yesterday.
Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works — sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.
Because she could see the pathway that cattle and other animals took to slaughter, she could tell what might cause them unnecessary stress. In so doing, she has worked with agribusiness and fast-food companies to improve the lives of millions upon millions of animals. Given the unlikelihood that the world will turn vegan any time soon, this is serious work.
She continues to advocate for practical benefits to livestock. At present, she is trying to improve breeding practices in cattle, chickens and mice. “If you over-select for certain traits, you will wreck the animal,” she says. “How about moderation?”
Temple Grandin will be at the Autism Super Conference in Spring and Sugarland next Friday. Link above has the details.
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You burn some mesquite
And when the coals get hot
You bunk up some meat
And you throw it on a pot.
While some chile pods and garlic
And comino and stuff
Then you add a little salt
Till there’s just enough
You can throw in some onions
To make it smell good
You can even add tomatoes
If you feel like you should
But if you know beans about chili
You know that chili has no beansIf you know beans about chili
You know it didn’t come from Mexico
Chili was God’s gift to Texas
(Or maybe it came from down below)
And chili doesn’t go with macaroni
And dammed Yankee’s don’t go with chili queens;
And if you know beans about chili
You know that chili has no beansLyrics to If You Know Beans About Chili,
You Know That Chili Has No Beansby Ken Finlay, singer, songwriter,
and owner of Cheatham Street Warehouse
(a music hall in San Marcos), written in 1976.I got to know Ken along about the time he wrote this song. I had just moved to Lockhart and used to hangout at Cheatham Street where all the girls were and some ranch hand named George would play (no cover) with his Ace In the Hole Band – never to be heard from again.
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Good morning Hamsters. Overcast and 51 with harbingers of weather changes all around.
Saw yesterday’s article in the Chron but didn’t get around to reading it. And of course online entry into the Chron depends on being a subscriber either to the online version or the dead tree version. Great way to expand your readership there. Surely all the advertisers a overjoyed with this decision. 🙁
Regarding Temple Grandin’s views about moderation in breeding, she’s right on. For examples of single trait breeding mania, first things that come to mind is what happened to the pug dogs that now have smashed in faces with attendant breathing problems as a result.
Or Quarter horses crippled with feet way too small to hold up massive bodies as a result of the insanity among many for small feet that seems to continue at least in those who value conformation judging above athletic ability. Spits. Reminds me of bound feet in Chinese courtiers. A horse so afflicted is lucky to reach age 4 before breaking down. And then what?
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#4 Adee
Bravo. I get infuriated with animal breeders everywhere and the morally and mentally corrupted “experts” who encourage the physical distortion of animals for some stupid ideal percolated in their dark little minds.
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Designing for beauty, not practicality, is the domain of the geneticist, not necessarily the animal lovers with common sense.
Or, alternatively, the plastic surgeon.
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Found in my in box this morning. I’ve cleaned it up a bit so Hammy’s Grammy can slow her rotation. Since my paternal grandpa came from Sicily, I like this.
ITALIAN ARITHMETIC
An Italian workman wants a job, but the foreman won’t hire him until he passes a little math test.. ‘Here’s your first question,’ the foreman said. ‘Without using numbers, represent the number 9.’
‘Withouta numbers?’ the Italian says, ‘Datsa easy.’ and he proceeds to draw three trees.
‘What’s this?’ the boss asks.
‘Ave you gota no brain? Tree and tree and tree makes a nine,’ says the Italian.
‘Fair enough,’ says the boss. ‘Here’s your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.’
The Italian stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree . ‘Ere you go.’
The boss scratches his head and says, ‘How on earth do you get that to represent 99?’ ‘
‘Eacha of da trees is a dirty now. So, it’s dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Datsa a 99.’
The boss is getting worried that he’s going to actually have to hire this Italian, so he says, ‘All right, last question.Same rules again, but represent the number 100.’
The Italian stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, ‘Ere you go. One hundred.’
The boss looks at the attempt. ‘You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!’
The Italian leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, ‘A little doga come along and poopa by eacha tree. So now you gota dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, data makea one hundred. So, whenna I start?
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#7 TT: Q:What is bigotry?
A: It’sa what a you find ina Italian forest
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#2 Texpat
I saw Temple Grandin’s story on a tv show maybe 15 years ago and it left quite an impression on me. The empathy she felt with beef cattle, and wanting to make their last walk from the cattle truck into the slaughter house as stress-free as possible, was inspiring to me. -
Just days after a delegation that included two top Brotherhood leaders was hosted at the State Department, the organization released an official statement calling on its supporters to “prepare” for jihad, according to an independent translation of the statement first posted on Tuesday.
The statement also was issued just two days before a major terror attack Thursday in Egypt’s lawless Sinai region that killed at least 25.
“It is incumbent upon everyone to be aware that we are in the process of a new phase, where we summon what is latent in our strength, where we recall the meanings of jihad and prepare ourselves, our wives, our sons, our daughters, and whoever marched on our path to a long, uncompromising jihad, and during this stage we ask for martyrdom,” it states.
This administration has ’em standing in line to dish out the humiliation.
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Romney says he’s out, won’t run for 2016. Yay!
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#12
Good
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Prolly polled in Texpats neighborhood.
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Jebby doing his happy snoopy dance ’bout now.
An interesting and totally unscientific poll at AoSHQ started befor that announcement. Two things I found interesting there was the amount of distance between the #2 man and the rest of the field #3 and below, and the amount of distance between #2 & #1.
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2 Texpat
Excellent. Everything she says was taught to me by my father-in-law.
Solid walls are so important in working /crowding pens. He never had a solid final crowding gate into the chute. So, I bought a gate and took it to the shop and welded galvanized sheeting over it. Worked wonderfully. Never had another animal try to turn around after that.
And being quiet. And making no fast moves.
I had someone ask me to help them work cows but I refused. I knew they were idiots that whooped, hollered, and grabbed a hot shot at the first sign of a balky cow.
Fools. -
This explains a few things, and its mighty danged interesting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday picked up the backing of the Republican Party of Texas’ chairman, who is stepping down from his role to take a position as a national senior adviser to the Kentucky Republican’s presidential campaign-in-waiting.
In doing so, Steve Munisteri bypassed two Texans who are also likely to seek the Republican nomination: Sen. Ted Cruz and former Gov. Rick Perry. Munisteri has known Paul for 34 years, dating back to when Paul’s father represented Texas in Congress, and counts Paul as a friend.
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Birkenstock Land is in mourning.
Texpat will be out of the loop for a while. He’ll be okay. 🙂
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15 Sarge
Scientific or not that’s an interesting poll result. -
Dartmouth College Banning Possession and Consumption of Hard Liquor
So what and yeah…….. okay. What everrrrrrrrr
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#16 – Brother I vividly recall being out there with Yall before Your FIL passed (and must have been prior to you fabbing the ‘skin’ for that chute)………..I will NEVER forget one critter doing a very energetic U-Turn in the squeeze chute – I thought those nails were going to fly out of that wood and get shot all the way to Sealy!!
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#12 What she said, “Iron Mary”; Former GOP nominee Romney will not run for president in ’16.
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Shannon says:
JANUARY 30, 2015 AT 10:25 AM
15 Sarge
Scientific or not that’s an interesting poll result.Yeah, although Ace has been pushing Walker in the past coupla weeks.
I’m still nervous about him. Those terd nozzles up there were digging around with supeona power for a long time in their witch hunt and I think they might have found some things that, while not prosecutable, might make for some “macaca” moments should he become the candidate.
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squawkbox says:
JANUARY 30, 2015 AT 10:23 AM
Birkenstock Land is in mourning.Texpat will be out of the loop for a while. He’ll be okay. 🙂
I saw that this morning. I thought it had happened about 20 years ago.
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#24
LOL
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Those evil white guys (again). Occupy the Syllabus
We have major concerns about social theory courses in which white men are the only authors assigned. These courses pretend that a minuscule fraction of humanity — economically privileged white males from five imperial countries (England, France, Germany, Italy and the United States) — are the only people to produce valid knowledge about the world. This is absurd. The white male syllabus excludes all knowledge produced outside this standardized canon, silencing the perspectives of the other 99 percent of humanity. …
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Turning plant matter into liquid fuel or electricity is so inefficient that the approach is unlikely ever to supply a substantial fraction of global energy demand, the report found. It added that continuing to pursue this strategy — which has already led to billions of dollars of investment — is likely to use up vast tracts of fertile land that could be devoted to helping feed the world’s growing population. […]
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Laura Ingraham is speculating about what Mitt means regarding working to promote someone who is not currently nationally all that well known but who would be an ideal conservative candidate. She says that means it isn’t Jeb for sure, and I agree. Mitt has large personal reserves and a big network from his decades in business. Maybe not the Koch brothers, but certainly not puny. His help could make a huge difference.
He wishes to promote someone in the next generation of Republican candidates. Smart move, Mitt. Stay tuned.
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#11 texpat
The Taliban is not a terrorist organization.Whether chocolate jesus and his minions actually believe this or are using it to excuse the recent revelation that one of the 5 “unlawful enemy combatants” released from Guantanamo in exchange for the deserter is making contact with his friends back in Afghanistan (or both) is unclear.
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The core of the problem is clear: the growing cost of the entitlement state. As the Congressional Budget Office warned earlier this week, over the next decade, “spending will grow faster than the economy for Social Security; the major health care programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and subsidies offered through insurance exchanges; and net interest costs.” Tax revenues will stay essentially flat at around 18 percent of GDP, while spending, driven by entitlements, will rise to more than 22 percent of GDP. Longer-term projections indicate the cost of entitlements and interest on the debt will continue to rise in the decades after that.
I remember when Republicans used to talk about such things .
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16 Shannon
I was thinking a lot about Fred while I was researching this subject.
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14 Squawk
Everyone should scroll all the way down through every question in the poll.
It’s insane and I was laughing out loud. Talk about cognitive dissonance.
How important is global warming ? Really important.
Should we do something about it now ? Oh, yes.
How much will it affect you in the future if we do nothing ? Not at all.
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Okay, took a double take on this Drudge headline:
WEEKEND: NFL officials will hold balls before Super Bowl…
Did they ask Hillary for any tips on this task? She’s the expert, I believe.
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Texpat
#32I read the whole thing. The fix was in fer shure.
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After Zero, Hillary may look like a savior and a saint. And, since I’ve already broken the habit of listening to Presidential addresses, I won’t have to make any changes in my listening and viewing habits. Probably won’t last long enough to see how the country finally ends anyway.
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Now don’t get all maudlin on us, EG.
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#35 El Gordo
Mharper42 is right. Maudlin is such a downer.
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#32 Texpat
The farther I read into that absurd poll the more I envisioned it being taken in Colorado or Washington State in some sort of opium den joint late at night after Happy Hour.
Gad. -
It is so easy for anyone with a video camera to survey on any campus with astonishing results. You can get today’s college kids to sign a petition that urges Obammy to use his executive dictat to repeal the Bill of Rights.
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I know I should remember Rod McKuen, and the name sounds familiar, but I’m just drawing a blank. The first thing that popped into my mind was this literary masterpiece.
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Adee says:
JANUARY 30, 2015 AT 10:52 AM
Laura Ingraham is speculating about what Mitt means regarding working to promote someone who is not currently nationally all that well known but who would be an ideal conservative candidate. She says that means it isn’t Jeb for sure, and I agree. Mitt has large personal reserves and a big network from his decades in business. Maybe not the Koch brothers, but certainly not puny. His help could make a huge difference.He wishes to promote someone in the next generation of Republican candidates. Smart move, Mitt. Stay tuned.
At first I thought that part about “not currently nationally all that well known but who would be an ideal conservative candidate” might mean he’d do something smart like endorse Walker or Cruz.
But nope, Romney will be Romney, won’t he?
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Hamous says:
JANUARY 30, 2015 AT 2:48 PM
I know I should remember Rod McKuen, and the name sounds familiar, but I’m just drawing a blank. The first thing that popped into my mind was this literary masterpiece.My only memory of Rod McKuen is seeing him on Merv Griffin one afternoon.
I’ll just leave things there—-
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Woke up to this song this morning. I’d never heard it before. Pretty sweet.
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Here Hamous. A taste of Rod McKuen. You only thought you hated Pete Seager.
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Woke up to this song this morning. I’d never heard it before. Pretty sweet.
Just morning? Sheesh I used to wake up to those guys all hours of the day. 🙂
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#44 Figured I’d try and stir up the collectivist crowd over there.
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I finally got a chance to participate in a dog rescue for my favorite group, Emma Cleft Palate Chihuahua in Ft Worth. They needed someone in Houston to pick up a chihuahua with neurological disorder at a Harris County shelter. I volunteered to do it even before finding that by some miracle it was only 7 miles from the house. The poor little 5-mo old puppy was abandoned somewhere in a plastic tub, and only found by accident. Lucky to be alive. I’ve had her in a cardboard box with old towels since about 2 pm, and hand her off at 7 to a woman driving north on I-45 tonight. At some place, she hands off to another driver who delivers the doglet to FW.
I’ve been following the Emma group for about 2 yrs now and they have rehabbed small dogs in much worse condition than this one.
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Fiddy
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So the SandBagger of 2012, who didn’t really want to win anyway, decided not to run in 2016. Probably because he wouldn’t of wanted to win in 2016 either.
Mittens is not runner, he’s a fill in the blank.
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Quitter
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Yea for mharper42 for helping with the dog rescue.
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Romnuts cracked me up with his magnanimous quitting to “give others a chance”. Whadduh bunch of crappola. His wife put the kabosh on his residential aspirations. Along with his old big money donors abandoning his dingy.
Wifey prolly does not want to see the checking account fall below a billion.
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When it comes to Rmoney, I really can’t understand the depth of his shallowness in running in 2012. If he would have only been 1/2 as vigorous against JugEars as he was against his fellow Rs, he would be in the oval office today. Then when his son tells all that he really didn’t want to be elected, why the $#%^^ did he run in the first fargin place other than to get his ego stroked. If he needs his ego stroked that badly and will cause the country to suffer so much just to get it done, it makes him a narcissist beyond JugEars. His depth of character is paper thin by this reckoning. That he would even make hints at it again tells me that he is one sick pup, perhaps his wife did get to him and he is now in therapy.
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