Jim -- hang in there. Your dad is in good hands. And I ain't preaching.

Glad to hear that your father is doing better. If it's possible to feel good about a stroke you can say that having one in Orlando is better than having one anyplace else in the world. ORMC and Fla. Hospital both have advanced stroke units that are truly state of the art and national leaders in the area and there is so much new medicine in that venue that most of the scarey stuff that we grew up with is very past tense these days. Even so, the guy will definitely know that he got a wake up call. Take those high blood pressure pills guy! Just cause they can save your life these days doesn't mean that the ordeal won't scare the bejezus out of you and everyone who loves you.

In other news, Jim... you're not the only one with mechanical and computer related miseries. I've been thinking of maybe switching to smoke signals for the last few days. There has to be a better way. I wish that I could figure out a way to blame you.... hmmm.... maybe ... aaah, to hell with it.

There's a great link on that grumpy old du Toit about the green revolution that everybody should read. Really. Go read it.

The impact of high yield farming techniques has a lot of important connections with the dangerous "environmental" loonies who seem to populate the developed west's politics. It's so easy to see that high yield farming practices can save literally hundred of millions of lives... but just because that is true doesn't keep many so called enlightened and liberal westerners who live in the "fat zones" of the developed cultures to oppose or discourage the starving masses of Africa and Asia from praticing the more sophistocated brand of farming that made the West a bunch of fatties. They don't realize that what they're practicing is a sort of ad hoc racism and a brutal, deadly cynicism when they try to bar third world cultures and undeveloped nations from using these modern technologies.

This is important stuff. And like many good ideas... it hasn't gotten the kind of respect it deserves.

Bob

(By the way Orlando... we did a sweep this week and absolutely filled the pokey with VOPs. Man... we sure need a consequence unit!)