Off-Planet Species, Part II of IV

This is Part II of an article.  Part I is here.

Because technology is such a key element in determining relative strength, and because the off-planet beings are visiting us, and not the other way around, it is likely that the off-planet culture which descends through our atmosphere will be more powerful than we are.  Thus, we must study examples from history, with an eye toward how the less powerful group handled the meeting.

Japan was closed to outsiders from around 1603 up until 1854.  Prior to the earlier date, Japan was well-disposed to foreign trade and Christian missionaries.  But one of the Shoguns began to fear native Christians would set up a fifth column for Spanish or Portuguese invaders.  So he expelled the foreigners and closed the borders.

While the American, Matthew Perry, was largely responsible for re-opening Japan, it was the Russians who inadvertently gave the Japanese the keys to modern technology.  "While continuing negotiations with the Japanese, Putiatin (a Russian) asked permission for his men to build a vessel to take (the ship-wrecked Japanese) home. Because [a Japanese leader] had lifted the restriction against building large ships, the Russian admiral’s request was granted. The Japanese watched intently and soon afterwards built an exact copy. The bold claim that the Japanese could quickly catch up technologically with the West was realized and demonstrated to devastating effect only fifty years later in the Straits of Tsushima, where virtually every ship of the Russian fleet was sunk or captured by Admiral Togo."

Source:  http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1800perryjapan.htm, Apr 28, 2011

In this example, Japan was well aware of both the advantages and risks of opening contacts with an alien culture.  Where they saw a power imbalance, they always worked to strengthen themselves.  Unfortunately, the friendly relationship with the West decayed into war on more than one occasion.

** End of Part II **

Pink Slime / Kiribati

Things that are on the tiny piece of The Mind which I call "my mind" today, Monday, March 12th, 2012.

1) Pink Slime

"Pink slime" is the term used for a mixture of bits of fatty meat scrap and connective tissue salvaged from slaughterhouse floors that is treated with ammonia hydroxide to remove pathogens like salmonella and E coli.

Formerly used only for pet food, pink slime is now used to feed ourselves and our children, often times mixed in with our ground beef.

How doth this offend me?  Let me count the ways...

70% of all ground beef consumed in the U.S. contains a portion of pink slime in it.  In my book, 70% is a darn large percentage.

I can't shake the image of a slaughterhouse -- cows getting killed, blood gushing everywhere, men in heavy black plastic aprons with sharp knives carving up the raw, red meat; workers putting aside the short-haired cowhides...

This image follows:  the day is done, and so begins the sweeping up (what kind of broom do they use?) of the bits of "meat and muscle" (no bone or hair mixed in?) and packing it into, what, Hefty bags?, and freezing it, and shipping it off to the Pink Slime Factory (which is actually called Beef Products, Inc.), where they mix it with an ammonia-based chemical (now the image of a Mr. Clean bottle fills my tiny part of The Mind, and I imagine opening it, and the pungent, searing smell of straight ammonia hits my nasal cavity, and I think, "we are eating this stuff??!?") -- and they squeeze the mixture out of big tubes (not imagination -- see photo above) and pack it and ship it off to the hamburger-makers.  Ugh!

Due to public outcry, fast food giants like McDonald's and Taco Bell have stopped using pink slime in their food.  But the federal government continues to allow its use in school food and has just authorized the purchase of ground beef which collectively contains an additional seven million pounds of pink slime for consumption by our nation's children.
If that isn't enough, how about the fact that our food producers have been using pink slime for ground beef and as a leavener in bread and cake products (In cakes?  Seriously?) since the 1990s, and this is the first I've heard about it...

I wonder what else I've missed, as a result of my immersion in re-runs of Cheers.  It's my own fault -- I don't blame anyone but myself.  I choose to take the easy way out.  To ignore the plethora of information available to me.  To refrain from writing letters to the USDA, FDA, NSA and dozens of other alphabet soup agencies.  To stay indoors, comfy and cozy and slowly being poisoned, rather than chain myself to a cow on the way to the slaughterhouse.

If we are getting slimed, we have no one to blame but ourselves...

2) President Anote Tong of Kiribati

So it turns out, there is a tiny archipelago nation in the Pacific Ocean named Kiribati.  And because its islands rise mere feet above sea level, it is in danger of becoming the first major victim of rising tides which may result from climate change.

The president of this nation of 103,000 people, Anote Tong, is preparing for the worst.  He is looking into buying a big chuck of Fiji.  6,000 acres to be exact.   Once he owns the land, if things get bad for Kiribati, he'll just move all 103,000 citizens to the new digs.

No joke.  This is for real.

I really liked the tone of the CBSNews.com article.  My feeling was that Tong is a good guy:  kind, rational, and caring about his people.  He is reviewing the facts, and calmly making plans to deal with whatever situation arises.

Here is a picture of him.  He even looks decent.

**********************

That's all I got right now.  Until the next blah blah tirade, make it a great day!

Citations (current as of March 12, 2012):

[1]  http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/08/10611274-pink-slime-panic-grows-online-are-we-overreacting

[2]  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57394296/island-nation-kiribati-considers-moving-populace/

[3] http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-usda-to-stop-using-pink-slime-in-school-food?utm_medium=email&utm_source=action_alert