I took BART to Oakland today to get my camera fixed. I don't know why I even live in San Francisco if I'm bitching about the weather all the time. Oakland is SO much nicer. As long as I was there and was on my road bike, I went on a short little ride, riding along the "foothills" of the Oakland Hills and around Piedmont and back downtown. 15 miles maybe. It is so much more pleasant to ride around in Oakland than San Francisco. Aside from the weather being nicer, it's just more laid back, less hectic motor traffic, less frenetic a vibe. I want to say less assholes, but 15 miles through the nice areas (deep pockets if they hit me) is hardly a gauge of non-asshole-dom. If I don't get my act together to leave San Francisco by the end of the month, maybe I'll squat somewhere and then find a place in Oakland.

I missed the protest against the biotech conference in San Francisco, but not because I was riding around in Oakland. Apparently the action and the arrests all occured while I was still asleep *groan*. The anti-war protests have lost a lot of its focus, but I do feel strongly enough against biotech to go to protests.

It's trippy, though, because the participants in the biotech industry really feel that they are doing good, and that the protestors are misguided. They can point to concrete things which might benefit humankind. But the protesting is about a rampant, unchecked, uncritical industry which is all about profit. Profit first, helping people is good, but profit first. And if other people are hurt, as seen and unseen costs, in the process, damn them. Basically, both sides see each other as misguided and naive, and the party that profits the most is the corporations, who manage to stay above the fray.

It's the same old corporate story from day one, emphasizing the benefits to humankind and society, while downplaying the downsides. Sure there will be benefits that come out of biotech research, but there will also be adverse effects. Sure there are benefits to having an automobile in every garage, but we're choking our planet. But no one mentioned that when they started selling cars, and so no one considered it. Computers are great. Using a typewriter, an office worker can complete 8 forms per day. Using a computer, 8 forms can be completed in a fraction of that time. But instead of creating more leisure time for workers, a promised benefit, workers now have to complete 50 forms per day, and there are rewards if you complete more than that. Run, rat, run!

Biotech just seems like such an unknown monster to me. To me it's screwy right down to what it says about our values. Like our society's obsession with biological life and health, rather than true quality of life. Meaning. Whenever a news segment talks about new research indicating this or that to lengthen life, it just makes me sick. People eat this up, too. They have to put more of this or more of that into their bodies to reduce the risk of this or that disease or to live longer. The focus is just off.

Look at all the pharmaceutical commercials on the airwaves. Who knows if drugging ourselves should be the first solution for a perceived problem, but the commercials are making sure drugging ourselves is the first thing we think of. And it's making sure we think we have a problem. And with the state of healthcare in this country, who the hell can afford these drugs? Hell, people are buying them.