A few nice free business plan images I found:
The Religious Wrong
Image by judge_mental
Lincoln is infested with right-wing bible-bashing cults.
This one has nothing better to do than stand outside Barclays Bank taking turns berating busy shoppers about their sinful worldly existence.
Metaphysical discourse of any kind should be welcome in this age of bland humanism.
But surely we deserve something a little more up to date than Jesus With A Pitchfork?
Here's a city where people suffering from alleged madness and genuine desperation coming in one direction routinely lurch into the welcoming arms of concerned happy-clappers from the other, usually via some fluoridated pharmaceutical intervention of an SSRI nature. That'll sort them out.
There is something of a problem locally with demonic possession, hearing voices, yes, gabbling unintelligbly, yes. Social Services is holding a corporate review of the situation with a view to establishing a Demon Monitoring Unit with responsibility to the Dept of Xenolalia and Glossolalia at the Peter (As Chairman of the Health Authority I Put Fluoride In Them) Hodgkinson Psychiatric Unit.
Column hectares of Lincoln newspaper letters pages are devoted to dire warnings, complete with biblical quotes, of the influence of Harry Potter on children's desire to get involved in witchcraft.
There's no such thing as a white witch, they opine, evidently hoping for a revivial of popular assent to the existence of a few black ones upon whom they can vent their sexual frustrations.
A good slogan might be: "Down with thongs, in with tongs, out with their tongues." Poor Miss Rowling.
In the midst of this primitive superstitious timewasting, perhaps a sermon on string theory from the local philosophy society would make a nice change from this fantastical question-begging over what God says about you not believing in God.
Unfortunately it meets at the Bishop's Palace, part of the cathedral, suggesting that even the non-shouty metaphysicians have not progressed very much further than their anti-telephone brethren depicted here.
I suspect they chose that venue because the more "normal" godbotherers want to keep a shifty eye on any rival isms that might be taking hold, such is the competition for fee-paying disciples.
Paranoid? But then what is God but a big conspiracy theory?
Worse even, the Bishop's Palace do is actually a philosophy COURSE, where after a brief loss leader event you go and pay quite a large sum to listen to someone else's rather eggy philosophy.
This illustrates the fascinating thing about philosophy - that going on courses about it or even spending years on it at university is acceptable, even admirable behaviour for a human being to indulge in.
But actually HAVING a philosophy, or discussing "reality" or "existence" outside these confines, is a risky, oddball (and in a thudheaded provincial nuthouse like Lincoln even dangerous) thing to do.
At least with these street philosophy vendors you get a free show, and you can take your own eggs if you desire.
Over twenty years this group has dwindled from a peak of about nine, to four.
Due, I suspect, to the group's lack of a proper business plan and a well-defined market niche, the sinful shoppers have failed to flock to this particular version of what Jesus said.
Right wing or wrong, in a battle between mindless consumerism and mindless deism these are the losers.
If only the public wanted a saviour, instead of a saver.
But a few theologico-financial schisms away the Plymouth Brethren are thriving, a sort of inbred, Amish-style, our-children-are-not-mixing-with-the-Devil-yes-that's-you group with their very own computerless, telephoneless, televisionless, outsiderless and doubtless clueless "school".
Where the fruits of their irrepressibly naughty loins are educated about how great it is not finding out about things or meeting other people, except God and his chosen representatives.
Better hide the razor blades on the top shelf, maw.
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GeoTagged
Say NO! to monsanto! Pt. 13
Image by adriansalamandre
Everybody hates Monsanto and GM foods in general, but governments always have the last word.
But maybe mother nature already is on the counter-attack, please read on...
Amaranth vs. monsanto
United States, five thousand hectares of transgenic soybean crop had to be abandoned by farmers and fifty thousand more are seriously threatened. This is due to a so-called "weed" that has decided to oppose the giant Monsanto, known for being the largest predator on Earth. However, this mutant plant proliferates and defies Roundup, the glyphosate-based herbicide, which "no weed can resist".
When nature takes over.
In 2004, a farmer from Macon, Ga., a town about 130 miles from Atlanta, noticed that some shoots of pigweed (amaranth) resistant to Roundup where he watered his crops of soybeans.
The fields which fell "victim" to this invasion were planted with Roundup Ready seeds, which contains a gene for resistance to Roundup which "no weed can resist".
Since then, the situation has worsened and the phenomenon has spread to other states, South Carolina, and northern Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri. According to a group of scientists from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, a UK organization located at Winfrith in Dorset, there was a transfer of genes between the GM plant and some weeds such as pigweed. This finding contradicts the pre-emptive and over-optimistic assertions of GM defence advocates who claimed that hybridization between a genetically modified plant and an unmodified plant is simply "impossible".
For the British geneticist Brian Johnson, specializing in issues related to agriculture: "It only takes one successful crossing over millions of possibilities. Once it is created, the new plant has a huge selection advantage, and it multiplies quickly. The powerful herbicide used here, based on glyphosate and ammonium, has exerted enormous pressure on the plants, which further increased the speed of adaptation. Thus, a gene resistant to herbicides, it seems, gave birth to a hybrid plant after a jump between the seed that it is supposed to protect and amaranth, which has become impossible to remove.
The only solution is to pull weeds by hand, as we once did, but it is not always possible given the range of cultures. In addition, these herbs are very deeply rooted and difficult to pull 5,000 hectares have been simply abandoned.
Many farmers plan to abandon the GM plants and return to traditional agriculture, especially as the GM plants are more and more expensive and profitability is paramount for this kind of agriculture. Alan Rowland, producer and marketer of soybean seeds in Dudley, Mo., says no one asks him for seeds of Monsanto Roundup Ready anymore. This used to represent 80% of his business. Today, GM seeds have disappeared from its catalogue and the application of traditional seeds is increasing.
Already, 25 July 2005, The Guardian published an article by Paul Brown, who showed that modified genes of cereals had transited to wild plants, creating a "superseed" resistant to herbicides, a crossing "inconceivable" by scientists from the Ministry of Environment. Since 2008, U.S. agricultural media are reporting more and more cases of resistance and the Government of the United States has made significant budget cuts, which have forced the Ministry of Agriculture to reduce and stop some of its activities.
Diabolical or sacred plant?
It is ironic that this plant, seen as "diabolical" in the eyes of agriculture geneticists, is a plant sacred to the Incas. It is one of the oldest foods in the world. Each plant produced an average of 12,000 seeds per year, and the leaves are richer in protein than soy, contain vitamins A and C and minerals.
So this boomerang, thrown by nature back at Monsanto, not only neutralizes the predator, but installs a plant in places that can feed the world in times of famine. It supports most climates, from dryland areas to monsoon affected regions and tropical highlands, and has neither problems with insects nor diseases, so never needs chemicals.
Thus AMARANTH takes on the powerful Monsanto, as David opposed Goliath. Everybody knows how the fight ended, however unequal though! If these phenomena are reproduced in sufficient quantity, which seems programmed, Monsanto will soon have to put the key under the door. Aside from its employees, who will complain that this multi-national really dies?
Sylvie SIMON (Your Health) Translation: Adrian Kenyon
