Food Preservation is Good

The world currently has an estimated 6,775,235,741 population, up from an estimated 3,031,720,298 population in 1960. A large measure of being able to feed this large population is food preservation.Think of how much additional food volume we would need if not for food preservation. Think of how many times you go to the grocery store to purchase bread. If the bread went moldy after a day or two instead of a week or more, how much moldy bread would you be throwing away?

As for food preservatives with fancy names that often get bashed. Think of how much energy it saves the world. Bacon can cost anywhere from $3.00 to $12 or more per pound. The $3/lb. bacon most likely uses preservatives that are not natural while the more expensive bacon probably uses a more traditional method during manufacture. The $3/lb bacon consumes less energy based on how long it takes to make compared to the more expensive bacon. If everyone was only allowed to consume the more expensive bacon, think of how many more bacon factories there would be needed. Each factory would consume energy and resources that could be saved with the continued use of chemical process and preservatives.

Food preservation isn’t just a question of should we or shouldn’t we be eating it. It’s more of a question of how do we feed over 6 billion people without it. I’m guessing the people trashing food preservation haven’t thought of it much in those terms.

ShareGuard 64-Bit

ShareGuard is a low cost shareware protection program. Using it provides a method of software protection. Unfortunately all of the DLL files were set up for 32-bit processors. Attempting to use the program on a 64-bit program will cause problems.

In order to get the program to run on a 64-bit platform these steps may be followed:

• First create your own ZSSGCRC32.DLL. The source code may be found on this website: http://www.vbdotnetforums.com/security/37515-get-crc-values-all-process.html The CRC32 checks to make sure the dll file of your program hasn’t been modified to subvert the software protection. Set the dll up to take a filename and then return the CRC32 value of if it.
• Next create a program to check to see if the software is approved. You can do this by converting the ZSSGLOCKOLE2.DLL Code from Pascal to your language of choice.
• In your program run the EXE files in process. This blog post has an example, but other sources may be found also on the internet.

The rest of the setup is as shown on the ShareGuard website.

It’s All Libya’s Fault

It seems whenever the United States gets involved in conflicts overseas some indicate the conflict is the United States fault. Well if the United States does get involved we can definitively call it Libya’s fault. For it was Libya (and the other Barbary Coast Countries) who helped form the United States’ military. For without the pirates based from these countries the United States may have ended up like Costa Rica, a country without a military.

This all happened in the late 1700’s when the United States did not have an active Navy. As frigates delivered their goods to Europe they were being attacked and taken over by pirates from these countries. In order to gain the return of the sailors and ships the Barbary Coast countries demanded tributes. The tributes were not an inconsequential amount of money, some sources indicated it was as much as 1/6 of the entire United States budget. Well after a while you get tired of paying tributes for safe passage. Especially when you go and negotiate and are told to pay larger and larger amounts. So in response the United States created Department of the Navy in 1798 to provide protection of shipping interests of the United States.

As part of this protection the ports and town harboring the pirates were attacked. Unfortunately the Barbary Coast countries continued the practice of piracy and the battles continued until a small group of Marines and mercenaries attacked and occupied the City of Derne. Eventually a treaty was signed and the conflict ended until a few years later when Algeria decided once again piracy was a good thing, especially when the United States was preoccupied with the War of 1812.

So if we do get involved in the conflict in Libya (which I don’t think we should) we can all be safe in knowing that it is all Libya’s fault.

What I find interesting is that countries of Europe didn’t protect their own neighboring seas from the attack of pirates in those days. It was each country for themselves. Even today we are faced with piracy issues, fortunately today countries are working together in an attempt to stymie them. But I think as the lessons of the First Barbary Coast War indicate, that the problem needs to be solved at the source.