Yup. It's bleedingly obvious isn't it?

TEDTalks turned 2 this week and released a top 10 list.

I think the numbers speak for themselves. This entry is my attempt to scream loudly into the void called the internet....yet again. 150 years of literally scraping together rights for females (kind of)worldwide has led to so very few women that have ideas worth sharing.

But at least the top idea worth sharing is from one remarkable woman that I posted right here a few months ago. I have recollected her talk for months now - alone and with friends.

Is gender analysis a worthy pursuit 'in this day and age'?

Until the ultimate basic necessity of life,caregiving, is recognized as an idea worth talking about then I, personally, think so. On the planet at this very moment most women are too busy caregiving to even watch TEDTalks let alone contribute to them.

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TEDTalks speakers: Gender breakdown for all speakers (source)



TEDTalks speakers: Gender breakdown for speakers in the Entertainment Theme



TEDTalks speakers: Gender breakdown for speakers in the Technology Theme



TEDTalks speakers: Gender breakdown for speakers in the Design Theme


Heads of state or government: Gender breakdown for 192 UN countries and 2 independent states (source)


Worldwide population (2008 Estimate): Gender breakdown (source)

April is always a busy time for me. I have projects to mark. Exams to concoct. Panicky statistics students to soothe. Exams to mark.

And this year there's the garden :)

The weather earlier this week was up to 15 degrees celsius. So out came the shovel. After about 1/2 an hour I waffled. This was challenging me physically and I feared slinking back into overwhelming helplessness. I went back to the safety of my kitchen and took a long drink of water. I contemplated the realism of what I was undertaking. Between the last slurp of my water and my short walk back to my abandoned shovel something else was planted....my own inner resolve to just try my best. I parcelled out my garden in my head and asked myself if I could just dig a small enough patch for the onion and garlic bulbs. Some of the bulbs were from the remnants of my garden of 2 years ago and some from my fridge - purchased last year but never planted -they will keep for two years I was told when I purchased them.

In about 4 hours work (2 hours each day it was warm) I managed to turn over and weed about 1/5 of my small 'farm' in my backyard. The yard was completely neglected last year so there is a lot of clearing out of old weeds and roots.

And here are a few of my babies in their freshly turned earth :)




All of this planting of onions had me hankering for a taste of 'fresh' spring onions. So I headed out to the local grocery store and got me some. This dip is very simple and absolutely delicious with the cucumbers, organic baby spinach and organic blue corn chips I had with it.

I can't wait to make it with REALLY fresh and completely local spring onions ;) Perhaps those cucumbers and spinach seeds will make it out there too. The perfect locavore-ish lunch!


Hemp Seed Butter, Green Onion, and Garlic Dip
The ingredients are given per serving. Adjust accordingly - you can make extra and keep it in the fridge.
2 - 3 Tbsp hemp nut butter $22.00/kg MB ManitobaHarvest
1 minced clove organic garlic $11.15/kg ON Karma
1 finely chopped spring onion, green part only $0.59/bunch USA local grocery store
Hot chili pepper/cayenne to taste
Sea salt to taste $1.06/kg ? Karma
splash of organic cider vinegar (Filsinger's ) $2.90/L ON Karma

In the last week I've discovered twitter.

Actually, truth be told, in the last week I made a point to learn a bit about twitter....micro-blogging being the new wave and all.

One of the really neat things about twitter....one that makes facebook like, uh, so yesterday....is the ability to receive live feeds about any topic you choose.

So yesterday I plugged in 'track organic' into my gtalk twitter feed and sat in amazement as the live tweets rolled in (and still are....organic is a hot topic on twitter...and elsewhere).

This was a twitter I received on the organic track tonight:

The world has officially ended. You can get spray organic pancake batter. Like spray cheese. Except it's pancakes. And organic. wtf?via this twitter user who is someone I do not know or follow on Twitter

Curious comment isn't it? Don't you want to know more?

Well I did, so I highlighted 'spray organic pancake batter', right-clicked, and searched.

Here was the first hit (just hover your mouse to see their oh-so-catchy name....or click through to see their 'splashy' page.....omfg).

Hey it must be good for you if it's organic right? The name alone should send you running and screaming. Or blasting out some real food from your kitchen :)

Has the world officially ended?

The word organic is a bit of a joke if it can be plopped into a spray can(!) that has been inserted with 'food'. Organic food no less. I wonder what kind of inert gases blast this stuff out. Oops. I should say organic inert gases.

And please remember that pancake mix is something that could be made with just a few raw ingredients and a hand mixer in about 10 minutes.

As my friend Doug used to say...in the 1990s...."You know, you just wait and see, just one of these days they just might get a man on the moon."

And for those that are not aware of this 'line'.....it is a spoof from the conspiracy theory that claims that man landing on the moon was in fact orchestrated by the new medium of television in the 1960s....that the whole moon landing occurred in a TV studio rather than on the moon (wiki has a fascinating entry on this).

Indeed Doug, indeed.

Maybe they'll take some of the organic pancake spray up there with em too eh?

I don't know about you but I think that this link has made my twitter explorations worthy for sure.

To find out that another [random] human being on this planet regards organic spray pancake batter as much of a perversion as I do is somewhat comforting.

The natural laws of food have been disregarded for near a century now - or more?

Perhaps this is what happened to the people of Teotihuacán. We're more certain about the people on Easter Island.