I came across this great article, even tho the author still eats meat, he has had a change of heart in the treatment of farm animals. I just thought I would post it here today:

Times, July 31, 2008

YAMHILL, Ore.

In a world in which animal rights are gaining ground, barbecue season should make me feel guilty. My hunch is that in a century or two, our descendants will look back on our factory farms with uncomprehending revulsion. But in the meantime, I love a good burger.

This comes up because the most important election this November that you've never heard of is a referendum on animal rights in California, the vanguard state for social movements. Proposition 2 would ban factory farms from raising chickens, calves or hogs in small pens or cages.

Livestock rights are already enshrined in the law in Florida, Arizona, Colorado and here in Oregon, but California's referendum would go further and would be a major gain for the animal rights movement. And it's part of a broader trend. Burger King announced last year that it would give preference to suppliers that treat animals better, and when a hamburger empire expostulates tenderly about the living conditions of cattle, you know public attitudes are changing.

Harvard Law School now offers a course on animal rights. Spain's Parliament has taken a first step in granting rights to apes, and Austrian activists are campaigning to have a chimpanzee declared a person. Among philosophers, a sophisticated literature of animals rights has emerged.

I'm a farm boy who grew up here in the hills outside Yamhill, Ore., raising sheep for my F.F.A. and 4-H projects. At various times, my family also raised modest numbers of pigs, cattle, goats, chickens and geese, although they were never tightly confined.

Our cattle, sheep, chickens and goats certainly had individual personalities, but not such interesting ones that it bothered me that they might end up in a stew. Pigs were more troubling because of their unforgettable characters and obvious intelligence. To this day, when tucking into a pork chop, I always feel as if it is my intellectual equal.

Then there were the geese, the most admirable creatures I've ever met. We raised Chinese white geese, a common breed, and they have distinctive personalities. They mate for life and adhere to family values that would shame most of those who dine on them.

While one of our geese was sitting on her eggs, her gander would go out foraging for food—and if he found some delicacy, he would rush back to give it to his mate. Sometimes I would offer males a dish of corn to fatten them up—but it was impossible, for they would take it all home to their true loves.

Once a month or so, we would slaughter the geese. When I was 10 years old, my job was to lock the geese in the barn and then rush and grab one. Then I would take it out and hold it by its wings on the chopping block while my Dad or someone else swung the ax.

The 150 geese knew that something dreadful was happening and would cower in a far corner of the barn, and run away in terror as I approached. Then I would grab one and carry it away as it screeched and struggled in my arms.

Very often, one goose would bravely step away from the panicked flock and walk tremulously toward me. It would be the mate of the one I had caught, male or female, and it would step right up to me, protesting pitifully. It would be frightened out of its wits, but still determined to stand with and comfort its lover.

We eventually grew so impressed with our geese—they had virtually become family friends—that we gave the remaining ones to a local park. (Unfortunately, some entrepreneurial thief took advantage of their friendliness by kidnapping them all—just before the next Thanksgiving.)

So, yes, I eat meat (even, hesitantly, goose). But I draw the line at animals being raised in cruel conditions. The law punishes teenage boys who tie up and abuse a stray cat. So why allow industrialists to run factory farms that keep pigs almost all their lives in tiny pens that are barely bigger than they are?

Defining what is cruel is, of course, extraordinarily difficult. But penning pigs or veal calves so tightly that they cannot turn around seems to cross that line.

More broadly, the tide of history is moving toward the protection of animal rights, and the brutal conditions in which they are sometimes now raised will eventually be banned. Someday, vegetarianism may even be the norm.

Perhaps it seems like soggy sentimentality as well as hypocrisy to stand up for animal rights, particularly when I enjoy dining on these same animals. But my view was shaped by those days in the barn as a kid, scrambling after geese I gradually came to admire.

So I'll enjoy the barbecues this summer, but I'll also know that every hamburger patty has a back story, and that every tin of goose liver pâté could tell its own rich tale of love and loyalty.

Related Links

From The Oprah Winfrey Show Lisa Ling Reports: How We Treat the Animals We Eat

Love know no limits and true Friendships last a lifetime.....

I use this film in my Introduction to Anthropology class, it just has some extraordinary footage. Mike Richards, the cameraman, spent two years on this project! Here is one clip, where the chimps are filmed cooperatively hunting colobus monkeys. Wow.

There are four other clips available:

Closest links to man - the intro to the movie and the Tai chimps

Hard nuts to crack - the chimps cracking nuts with tools

Fall of Brutus - the confrontation between two dominant males that takes place over a bonanza of nuts

Eat them before they eat you - where chimps use tools to eat safari ants and a leaf sponge to drink water

Christophe Boesch has his extensive publications available for download at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. One recent publication is: Is Culture a Golden Barrier between Chimpanzees and Humans? where he argues that chimpanzees display a broad cultural repertoire, similar to humans. He wrote a 2001 piece for Scientific American on The Cultures of Chimpanzees. And if you want to know more about cooperative hunting, here's a 2002 Human Nature paper on that.

When you sidle up to the roots of a fallen Redwood, however, you feel tiny, because at its feet you ARE tiny. But if you're very still and you listen closely, you can hear the whisperings of an ancient giant who lived through epochs.

I have said before that for me, travelling is about gaining and changing perspectives. Why go anywhere if vicariously living through the window of my television is as fulfilling as actually being there? Because it is not. Imagination and longing, seeing through someone else's eyes, well, they're just not the same as actually going myself. In Australia, we watch Getaway and The Great Outdoors mentally adding places and experiences to our 'to go' and 'to do' lists. Yet, it is when we venture from home - on a day trip, a road trip, or a world trip - when we go somewhere else, that we invite a shift in perspective.

I just spent the better part of a week 'somewhere else' - two places where I had never been before: Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe. I went with Ben, and I have to thank him for taking me, and for being my ever intrepid travelling companion. It is such a joy to travel with him, not only because he is my best friend and I kinda like having him around. But also because I take as much pleasure in seeing his reaction to places as I do in experiencing my own.

And Yosemite in particular is a place where reactions are just as epic as the place.

I won't bore you with details of how we got there or where we stayed, just know this: The journey to the park took most of a day, but was a drive through vast and beautiful scenery and small, inconspicuous towns. The place we stayed was a Bed and Breakfast with a giant feather bed, and waffles in the mornings (yum). It offered a stunning view of the nearby mountains, and thoughtfully provided Adirondack (a word I love, but struggle to say) chairs on the deck, from which we watched the sunset while sipping wine and nibbling cheese. The driving and the staying were a big part of our trip, but the real star of the show was Yosemite itself.

We took great advice and on the first of our two full days, we started at the top. A road deep in the heart of the park, Glacier Point Road, leads to two spectacular lookouts, and the start of many hiking trails. Entering the park from the southern most entry, we wound up and up to the start of GP Road. Not far from the turn off we found ourselves on a rare straightway, and rarer still we were the only car in sight for a mile or two. Just ahead of us were three young bucks standing on the road. As we approached, they skittered away, but were curious enough about us to stay close by and watch us as we slowed up and watched them from the car. I looked in the rear view mirror to see a line of cars approaching and our moment was over, but for the minute or so we regarded them and they regarded us, the forest was still, and so were we. We were in the presence of great beauty. Oh, their eyes!

Further along the road we came to Washburn Point Lookout, and this was where I ran out of superlatives. I had been exclaiming "Oh my God", and "Stunning", and "Look at that!" for the better part of a day, but nothing had prepared me for the views from this lookout. We looked out at peaks named Half Dome, Grizzly Peak and Washington Column.

These mountains, these valleys, they were formed and shaped by a glacier. Like driftwood they are convoluted and erratic, yet smoothed and polished by the touches of wind, ice and water, over centuries. They have grey bald heads and thick carpets of gowns that stretch to the valley floor. That day the sky was so blue it almost hurt to look at it.  Oh yes, Yosemite was putting on a grand show.

We drove further to the end of GP Road, and came to a hub of activity. The dozens of people at Washburn Point exploded into hundreds at Glacier Point itself. There was a gift shop(!) and we dodged inappropriately attired tourists wearing thongs (flipflops) and tight jeans.  We jockeyed into positions at the lookout walls, and peered over - Ben with confidence and awe, and me with terror and awe.  A tiny heart-shaped car park sat nestled amongst trees.

And the river was a grey-blue snake rolling along the valley floor.

We maneuvered through throngs of grumpy children and cajoling parents, and decided against the 4 mile hike to the valley floor, because the estimated time to get back up was four hours.

Back in the car, we drove instead to the head of the Taft Point Trail. This lead us through a ferny gully

and musty woodlands, where we saw more deer, and we emerged at a rocky vantage point (Taft Point to be precise).  In the distance was a spindly guard rail, but Ben does not consider a sheer drop to a valley floor as imminently dangerous; in his mind he does not need the safety of a guard rail.  As I watched in horror, he crept closer and closer to the edge, and then perched on it as one might perch on a park bench if one was going to feed bread to some pigeons.


I walked away before I had a heart attack, and went to find cool things to photograph.

Sometime later with some coaxing and a vigorous internal dialogue, I got within a couple of feet of the grossly inadequate guard rail and peered into the abyss. It made me hyperventilate, but I did it. And yes, it was an amazing view - for the three seconds I saw it.  Did I feel all powerful?  No.  I could not stop the floodgate of thoughts about falling and suicide and why B.A.S.E. jumpers are so stupid. But I loved the brilliance of the blue sky, and from up there my view of it was uninterrupted. I loved my brief encounter with the crow, whose wings I heard flap before he settled in the bare branches above my head. "Whump," his wings whispered, then the cawing of that distinctive "AAArkkkk" echoed out across the valley.

A few more people came - not many - and we looked like colourful beetles dotting the giant bald head of the peak (and Taft Point is just a 'blip' when you see it on the map - a pimple when compared to El Capitan).

That afternoon, after a lunch of nuts, dried fruit and apples (a lunch we would not repeat again, as we are not chipmunks and it did not fill the void), we waited in line to catch the shuttle to Mariposa Grove, one of three groves of giant sequoias in Yosemite. The shuttle was necessitated by the copious amount of cars already up at the grove; the road was shut to more cars, and this wasn't even peak season. We squished onto the bus, fitting more people on than I would have believed beforehand. I even asked the driver if I could sit on his lap.  A flirtatious septuagenarian replied that of course I could! I thought this might be even more dangerous, so instead I was crushed into the dashboard by the four Polish people who insisted there was enough room on the bus for them too.

The ride was short, however, and before long, we were standing amongst giants.

Ahhh. The air was so rich with intoxicating smells, we could almost pluck them like berries from a bush. Redwoods smell a bit like pine trees, only deeper, and more 'heady'. Under that was the earthy mustiness from the wet forest floor, and the top note was smoky. There had been a prescribed burn not long before, and fallen sequoias were still smoldering.

We followed the small crowd, seeking out the path that would take us to Grizzly Giant, a 2700-year-old tree, who is 31 feet across at his base.

I say 'he' because when we finally saw him, he was like a gruff, but loving grandpa. Tall, obviously, but unlike many of the trees around him, his branches reached out. The usual tufts of green that seem to cling directly to the trunks of most redwoods, were extended on thick muscly arms. He was definitely the patriarch of the forest. We took photographs and got as close as we could - his base is protected by the wide girth of a fence.

The walk back to the shuttle bus was quieter, as most people had pressed on further into the forest to see more redwoods. We walked back past the Bachelor and his three lady friends, and on to the part of the forest where the burning had blackened the ground.

Fallen trunks cut into sections, lay like giant pieces of licorice. Smoke drifted up from thicker trunks, and in the late afternoon sun, the smoke became another character in the forest. The air here was as thick as the trunks, and I was torn between enjoying the smell of wood burning and wanting to breathe.

Just before we emerged from wooded paths into the car park, we stopped at the roots of a fallen tree, and took a couple of photos. How little I was in relation to a being that was old even when Jesus was born.

But I didn't feel small. I felt happy. I loved my first day in the park, and we drove back to our B+B, tired but filled with all we had seen, we looked forward to the next day when we would explore the valley floor by bicycle and by foot. The park ranger in the Yogi Bear hat waved us out of the park.

Later that evening, we would dine on (delicious) sushi in a nearby town, and watch Juno on dvd, but although we had a lovely evening, these are details are inconsequential when we'd had such an epic day...

Next time 'The Valley Floor', featuring bikes and hikes, squirrels, a bobcat, waterfalls and dry lakes, El Capitan, and a blue, blue sky.

Africa's climate goes from tropical to subarctic depending depending on the part and elevation in the continent.  Hal of Africa going north is most arid or deserted.

The pride of Africa is in rich biodiversity.  This means that Africa is very rich in plant and animal life. The largest combination of density of wild animals in the world is in this continent.  In Africa are found the large species of wild mammals such as tigers, lions, jaguars, giraffe, rhinoceros and elephants.  AS can be noticed, both large species of herbivores and carnivores can be found in one “range of freedom” found in Africa.

On a similar note, Africa is also rich in other natural resources like mineral deposits and diamonds.  But if we look at Africa today, many people are in hunger and extreme poverty.

Corruption is a major cause of the hardships being experienced by the African people.  Many richer countries of the world are reaching to Africa.  It is hoped that Africa heal – its people getting out poverty and its biodiversity protected and conserved.

For those fellow arachnophobes out there, BBC Breakfast was the show to avoid today (this time for more than just being a rubbish news programme).

It was covering the story of how exotic species of spider are finding their way onto our island and setting up home thanks to the milder weather we've been experiencing in recent years.

Quite without warning - at least to begin with - the BBC showed images of the tube web spider, false widow and other eight-legged creatures of doom now inhabiting our shores.

Be warned, this link to the story carries pictures and videos of spiders.

I can handle just about any bug, insect, flying thing, snakes, scorpions and other creatures. But I don't like spiders.

I'm also not a huge fan of family-friendly pubs either.

And according to the latest issue of the Good Pub Guide, other drinkers are starting to revolt against rowdy kids in their favourite (or even least favourite) watering hole.

Nine in 10 of the 5,000 establishments listed in the guide allow children, prompting some readers to call for a new "no children" logo to help them avoid playschool pubs.

And apparently a loophole in our animal welfare laws means it is now easier than ever to keep primates as household pets.

Tory MP for The Wrekin Mark Pritchard has won support from the RSPCA, which claims as many as 3,000 primates are being kept as pets in the UK, in calling for the loophole to be closed.

He wants ministers to outlaw the breeding, sale or keeping of primates for the domestic pet market.

Give me a moment.....*Recovering from chills created by the woman in the photo*.....okay. This pleasant looking person was recently bitten by a monkey in a University of Pittsburgh lab. First of all, I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me a normally very docile kitten attacked this woman simply because she gives off evil vibes. Second of all, the articles speaking of the "attack" are focusing on the lack of safety measures of course, rather than hitting the real issue on the head: monkeys and all other creatures should NOT be in a lab being tortured. Can anyone blame the monkey for lashing out? Would you not do the same if you were constantly poked and prodded meanwhile being forced to stay confined to a small space for the entirety of your life? I think anyone, any creature would.

The poor macaque that lashed out on this woman was named "Grabby" because he apparently was always grabbing anything within reach. Clearly "Grabby" was suffering mentally. "Grabby" along with his fellow imprisoned primates (at least 30 macaques) are being injected and tortured for the purpose of studying tuberculosis, dengue, influenza and avian flu. The macaques appear to be used mostly for the tuberculosis studies, so Boyle (the lab tech) was concerned about TB. Poor woman was concerned about contracting TB even though she readily supports the injecting of helpless creatures with that very ailment. I have absolutely no compassion for those contributing to the torture of these amazing creatures, whether they be what are considered lowly rabbits or human-like primates.

Apparently the University of Pittsburgh was given a $11.4 million to study tuberculosis by the Gates Foundation. Yes, Bill Gates. All the more reason for me to hate him, and I already did since Windows Vista is absolute crap! So contact the Gates Foundation and vent your frustrations! Be sure to let him know how crappy Vista is while you are at it too! (And to stop those piece of crap Mojave commercials, clearly tricking people into liking Vista is the only way they WILL like Vista!) You can also contact University of Pittsburgh by going to their contact page.

And before I go, here is a lovely tidbit by a U of Pitt professor:

"Why do we have to give drugs for six months to cure TB?" said JoAnne Flynn, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Pitt. "Why aren't the drugs capable of killing TB in two weeks? That was Bill Gates' question. It's a great question and seems like such a basic question, but we don't yet have an answer."

Hmm, sounds to me like the reason these monkeys are being tortured are for impatience, not for more effective drugs. The current drugs (and I am no expert in TB) appear to work, just not in a time frame deemed proper by people. Clearly, the drugs on the market DO work, therefore implying that these drugs can be manipulated to make them more effective....a task that could be done in a petri dish, not in a defenseless monkey. Although I suppose some would argue the monkey is not defenseless due to the "damage" Grabby was able to do to that woman up there, but if any one of us were in his situation we all would have done the same or worse. I don't know about you, but after reading that woman's sob story about her inability to possibly work in her field anymore brings a tear to my eye....now there is one less person unable to torture lab animals! Good job Grabby! Bravo! Now we just need all the monkeys, rabbits, rats, mice, cats, dogs etc. to rebel and give their lab techs what is coming to them!

ahhh...foster puppies!

here's osmia. named after a bee. i'm please to report she was adopted her first weekend being out of foster care!

...we think she is a chiweenie...

Again, Nanners is taking a few days off from the political stuff to enjoy the simpler things of life...here's such a video. Enjoy:

Thank you to everyone who prayed with me. God heard your prayers, and answered them positively. The previous link about my kitty is right here. Good night all!

May you walk with the LORD always, and when you cannot take another step, may He carry you the rest of the way until you can walk along side Him again.

Cross-posted @ Rosemary's Thoughts.

So if anyone is interested in visiting soon, here are the details:

55 Music Concourse Drive
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 379-8000

Photo credit: California Academy of Science (Opening Day) via flickr. Notice the green roof, it's suppose to have plants that are native to the area and helps with the green design of the building. Very cool!

Visit Free of Charge

There are numerous opportunities to visit the Academy free of charge, including:

• Wachovia Wednesdays: Third Wednesday of every month.
• Neighborhood Free Days: Open weekends for SF residents in each zip code.

Living plants include numerous trees - such as the Brazilian beautyleaf and West Indies mahogany, dozens of shrubs - including Theobrama cacao, the plant from which chocolate is made, and hundreds of flowering plants - from begonias and philodendrons to orchids and bromeliads."

3 Blank inside, cream colored recycled card stock 5" x 6.5" signed greeting cards. Cover features a reproduction of my painting/collage "Baby Giraffe" with a border around the image. Envelopes included.

Individual cards can be purchased for $e each, and any amount of 2 or more for $2 each, other card images may be mixed together as a set. 8.5 x 11" prints available for $12.

100% of the sale proceeds will be donated to Etsy for Charity (EFC) Charity of the Month.

Going fishing while pulling an all nighter is a mighty task. Great night and great following morning.

So of course it's time for this year's breast cancer walk and I just stumbled across this article from a section in PETA saying that alot of the Breast Cancer charites fund animal testing!! My bunny boys would bite me if they knew that! LOL. So needless to say this will be our last year doing the walk with this charity. Now I know if I was to donate to a BC charity I have a list of animal-testing-free ones! It just kinda stinks because it was a beginging of a family tradition (but in the same sense hopefully not too long since we want a cure but you get my drift). We'll just have to look for something else. Here is the link to the article http://living.peta.org/2008/contribute-to-cruelty-free-breast-cancer-charities

Its just amazing what turning Vegan opens your eyes too, it's goes so much farther than just food. WHen I first heard vegan I never thought of leather, gelatin (come on I would inhale smores like no tommorow and then to find out what they were made out of was just sickening), cosmetics, lotions, clothes, candles the list goes on...