Refrigeration Without the Refrigerator

I read about a device that a young British woman purportedly recently invented. There was a link to it on a favourite French language blog of mine. You basically stick a metal cylinder inside another sort of cylinder, fill the gap between them with sand and wet that sand, and the water's evaporation (from the sun) keeps the inside cylinder cold enough to hold perishables for several days. All you need to do to keep it going is add more water to the sand. You can read the original piece about it in the Daily Mail here.

The thing is that this is far from being some revolutionary invention. Zeer pots have been around for a while and use the same passive cooling process using two pots. I looked for them here on the amazing AfriGadget website (you wanna talk about innovation and sustainability -- check them out) but couldn't find them. Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian teacher, has been credited with their invention on numerous websites.

Oprah Wins PETA's Person of the Year Award

Sure, she did a show on puppy mills, became a strict vegetarian for a heartbeat and dedicated a show to her dead dog. Her actions also reminded everybody of the double-standard by which most people live: Some animals are our beloved friends, while other animals are our tasty food. The fact that Oprah can get a pat on the back from an animal welfarist organization like PETA for purportedly being a powerful voice for animals as she continues to eat them is no surprise. All this award does is drill home that PETA thinks it's OK to be a hypocrite.

Wanna Smell Like a Fast Food Restaurant?

I was just getting caught up in Ecorazzi stories over lunch, when I stumbled upon this one about Burger King marketing a meat-scented body spray. No, seriously. The Ecorazzi story includes a link to where you can order it (and you should check out the user comments after following that link if you want to get a good idea of how disgusting the stuff truly is). Blech.

Veggie-Bashing by a Pseudo-Journalist in the Jackson Sun

In an article titled "Views shouldn't oppress others" in the Jackson Sun, Angelia Stinnet (who?) uses a supposed encounter with a stereotypical "militant" vegetarian as an excuse to perpetuate myths and misinformation, as well as a fair amount of good ol' general derision, towards those who refuse to eat sentient creatures. If not for our living in the digital age, I'd suggest that whoever received her copy at press time must have had to dab the dribbles of venom off of it. She provides no context for this meeting, leaving me thinking that it was more fictional and hypothetical than anything -- a prop to deliver her ultimate message that people come first.

Let's just run through some of the words she uses to make it clear what her opinion is of the token vegetarian she claims to have met: militant, zealous, angry, righteous and superior. She basically has a message running through the whole piece that makes it clear that she wants to portray the vegetarian she met as a hateful know-it-all seeking to "oppress" other humans by insisting that they share her beliefs about not eating animals.

Dripping with sarcasm, Stinnet mentions that she didn't bother to waste her time informing the vegetarian about two studies (whose sources she neglects to cite) that she seems to think undermine any possible arguments that could be made for vegetarianism. Not that she ever elaborates upon anything really said by her token veg -- she's too busy vilifying her. Stinnet first refers to "recent research" indicating "that insufficient meat protein causes brain shrinkage in humans". I'm guessing that she had a vague recollection of some anti-vegetarian rant she read at some point that mentioned an article that appeared in the Times of India last September about an Oxford study that focused on a sample of around 100 people aged 61-87 and concluded that B-12 deficiency may lead to brain atrophy (i.e. not lack of animal-based protein, as Stinnet claims).

The Times of India article made the incorrect assumption that this Oxford study somehow proved that vegetarians and vegans are at higher risk of brain shrinkage, since the "best" sources of B12 are supposedly found in animal products. Ignoring the fact that vegetarians (albeit not vegans) do consume these animal products the Times article cites are all-important, how about taking a look at an actual medical publication's article about the study? The article in Medical News Today makes no correlation between vegetarianism / veganism and B12 deficiency, and, actually quotes one of the study's researchers as mentioning fortified cereals as a good source of B12. The article also specifies that B12 deficiency is an inherent problem with older people (remember -- the study's participants were aged 61-87) and that the study was in fact called "Vitamin B12 status and rate of brain volume loss in community-dwelling elderly". Furthermore, research has shown that high levels of the amino acid homocysteine (found in animal protein) leads to brain atrophy and is linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

The other study Stinnet mentions has to do with longterm high protein dieters losing more weight and purportedly having "better overall health". I'm guessing she's perhaps talking about the Diogenes project, which has been discussed in the news in recent months and which concerns fighting obesity (and which is sponsored by everyone from Coca-Cola to Kraft and Unilever). Oodles of research has shown over the years that we consume too much animal protein (along with cholesterol) anyway, and that this consumption causes all kinds of problems like cancer and heart disease. As well, there's far more than enough protein to be had in animal-free sources.

So Stinnet is talking out her -- er -- ear, basically. She wraps up her article by again presenting her token vegetarian's rage and wrong-headedness by perpetuating that ol' stereotype that people who care about animal suffering don't care about the suffering of human animals. She writes

"It crossed my mind that she might not believe in violence against animals, but would surely send meat-eating folks to the guillotine or, at least, instantly deprive the entire human race of meat without consideration of the consequences."

What horror, "to deprive the entire human race of meat"! She accuses the young vegetarian woman of proselytizing and uses terms like "self-promoting" to describe her ('cause in trying to prevent or relieve animal suffering, you're obviously a self-absorbed egotistical chump?). After making all of these shaky leaps and associations, Stinnet waxes philosophical some more and makes it clear that all of her blathering up to that point was merely to provide a blanket of context against which she can contrast what she feels is the true life of virtue. She writes:

"The simplest truth seems that an opinion is never wrong and each of us has a right to express our views, but we are wrong when we lose sight of kindness in our effort to enforce our subjective ideals and virtues."

So an opinion is never wrong? But it is wrong to "lose sight of kindness in our effort to enforce our subjective ideals and virtues"? This sure sounds pretty. I mean, after paragraphs of anti-vegetarian snickering, she's now bringing it all home to her message about kindness? So what she's saying is that a good vegetarian or vegan shuts the hell up? My favourite part of her final ramblings, though is when she writes

"I have come to an understanding that personal virtues are only righteous if others are not oppressed or abused and when others are left with autonomy and without injury or judgement."

And this... this is where she makes it most evident that she really doesn't have any idea of why it is so many people actually refrain from eating animals and why these same people want so desperately for other people to understand these reasons and to stop eating animals themselves. She cites people like Ghandi (a strict ethical vegetarian) and Martin Luther King, Jr. as being stellar examples of "martyrs" for their causes (i.e. helping others free themselves from oppression and abuse). But who'll stand up for the non-human animals? How can you speak of autonomy and injury while bashing part of a movement dedicated to ending animal suffering and enslavement? And how can you lecture someone about not judging, when in doing so, you're passing judgment on 'em, yourself? Stinnet's problem is that her "others" are hairless and walk on two feet. There are not others outside of this -- the rest are things.

Why Buy Organic? Apples and Pears

According to the Environmental Working Group, apples are ranked second highest in terms of foods that carry the highest pesticide loads. Pears are ranked tenth. I've done some reading up on apples over the past few weeks and have come to the conclusion that unless getting them from a local farmer who doesn't use pesticides and whose word can be trusted, they should always be purchased from sources that are certified organic. Pears should, as well. In fact, much of what I found out about apples applies to pears, as well.

The Environmental Working Group's tests a while back found that 91% of the conventionally-grown apples it tested had pesticide residue. Most apples were contaminated with more than one pesticide and in their samples, they found up to 36 different pesticide residues. Most apples were contaminated by 1-3 different chemicals. These pesticides included substances that are known animal carcinogens, that cause birth defects, that cause neurological damage or affect the immune system and that interfere with hormones and the reproductive system. The three most common were Diphenylamine (DPA), Thiabendazole and Azinphos-methyl. Diphenylamine is a fungicide that inhibits common apple scald. Thiabendazole is a fungicide used to control mold, rot, blight, etc. and which is usually applied post-harvest. Azinphos-methyl is an insecticide. Read the test results here.

Washing apples will remove some of the surface residue, but not all. Additionally, the problem with apples is that many of the pesticides used are systemic, which means that they're absorbed into the fruit. Keep in mind when purchasing apples (or any other organic produce) that if they're located near non-organic apples and any spraying goes on around them that there may be contamination from the non-organic apples. So? So when it comes to buying apples and pears, splurge. Spend the extra little bit and opt for the organic.

Why Buy Organic?

Once a week (or at least once every couple of weeks), I want to highlight certain foods that you should indeed go out of your way to buy organic, either because they're customarily genetically modified or they're grown using pesticides and tend to end up with a lot of residue. I figured that I'd use this to educate myself, as well, so that when I do my own shopping, I'll know where to best spend my organic dollars. My eventual goal is to create my own little shopper's guide to haul with me to the stores. I'll start with foods that I eat most often or that other vegans might find ending up on their own plates more often than not. I should have my first post on this over the next 24 hours. All feedback and questions will be much appreciated.

Huffington Post's Marion Nestle Interview on Organic Standards and Certification

During the holidays, Huffington Post featured a short interview by Kerry Trueman with food expert Dr. Marion Nestle about the USDA's organic standards. The interview kicks off with a reference to the recent story in the news about the company in California that managed to sell fertilizer that wasn't organic to up to a third of California's organic farmers for five years. It seems that a whistleblower told the state's Department of Food and Agriculture about it as early as 2004, but the state didn't take the product off the market until three years later, in 2007. Furthermore, state officials didn't come out and reveal its knowledge that this had been going on until a year and a half later, after the company had received a mere slap on the wrist for "mislabeling" their product.

Dr. Nestle talks about how the entire organics industry is based on trust and the integrity of the inspection process, and of how the "beyond organics industry" (which focuses on consuming locally and knowing who exactly is growing your food instead of relying on certification) is still entirely based on trust. She also comments that we have no real way of knowing how widespread cheating either is or isn't in the organics industry, regardless of certification. Business is business, after all, and as the organics industry becomes more and more lucrative, profit and not integrity will hold more and more weight.

Vegan Recipes in the News

The Loyola University Examiner published what sounds like an amazing soup from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes with Fantastic Flavours from Home and Around the World (aka Vegan Planet). It's Thai Style Coconut Soup.

Yesterday, the New York Times' website featured a recipe for a vegan variation of kufteh (aka kibbeh) that sounds simple and yummy. The recipe has Aleppo pepper listed as optional. I've never used it, myself. Anyone else?

The Miami Herald also offered up a treat (albeit just before the holidays) that was vegan by chance. It's Senegalese Black-Eyed Pea Salad (Salatu Niebe). It's from Brooklyn Chef and Restaurateur Pierre Thiam's book Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal.

I hope to try the kufteh over the next few days and will post results if I get the chance.

Even the Oil Companies Need Bailouts?

At least in Russia, where it seems that Gazprom is on the skids. It's interesting to ponder a bit. With oil prices at record lows and with companies not seeing it worthwhile to explore for new fields, is it so hard to believe that oil companies in say the US might eventually ask for handouts? Late night speculation brought to you courtesy of a post-Xmas party homemade cookie sugar high? Maybe not.

According to this LA Times article about oil shale:

In recent weeks, the industry was included in the $700-billion government bailout package with investment and tax incentives to help oil shale producers build refineries and other expensive infrastructure.

Is there any big business at this point without its hand in the pot?

La Strada

Vegaquarian?

In a heated anti-vegetarian discussion on some forum in the world wide interwebs, someone brought up the term "vegaquarian" as the latest trendy label for someone who eats fish, but doesn't eat mammals. The person in question referred to himself as a vegetarian who eats fish and added that he likes the label "vegaquarian", which is purportedly becoming more commonplace. It's already in the Urban Dictionary. So what does that make an antiquarian, I wonder?

Cat Got Your Wallet?

Here's a half hour long documentary that appeared on CBC about how your vet's taking you to the cleaners with 100-450% mark-ups on medications you purchase in Canada. I'm guessing that it's the same old, same old in the United States. A friend over who blogs over yonder stumbled upon it. According to the documentary, in the UK, vets are required to post what they're actually charged for common medications in their lobbies. They're also required to tell companion animal caregivers that these caregivers can obtain the very same medications at their pharmacy with a prescription from the vet (which is something you can do in Canada, as well, although good luck finding a vet who'll let you deal directly with a pharmacy and lose out on the price mark-up).

Sharon Astyk's Depletion and Abundance

I recently treated myself (all self-Santa like) to a copy of Sharon Astyk's recently published book Depletion and Abundance. I've been following her blog for over a year now and had been looking forward to getting my paws on a copy. I was wondering if anyone reading this has either read the Astyk book or (better!) is in the middle of reading it? If so, I'd be interested in discussing some of it over the next few weeks. I'm only 30 pages in, at this point, but am already liking what she has to say about the devaluation of work that's been deemed part of the private sphere -- work that until very recently was defined as "women's work" that was completed in and around the home, and that mostly revolved around one's family. I hope to get through the rest of it over the next week and a half while on vacation.

I'd picked up an additional copy of it for an old-fashioned doomer friend, hoping to be able to discuss it with him, but he's discounted the relevance of a woman's voice in the Peak Oil awareness / preparation movement, asserting that the Trinity of Heinberg, Ruppert and Savinar hold all of the answers that he -- or anyone -- should need.


(Listening to: Charles Mingus' Self-Portrait in Three Colors)

On Being Sussed Out

“When a man thinks he is reading the character of another, he is often unconsciously betraying his own; and this is especially the case with those persons whose knowledge of the world is of such sort that it results in extreme distrust of men.”

--Joseph Farrell

Locked Out of Indoor Cage, Two Baboons Die at Moncton, NB Zoo

Just in time for Xmas:

Tragedy has hit the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton after two baboons died of hypothermia when they were accidentally locked out of their indoor home.

Bruce Dougan, the zoo's general manager, said an experienced zookeeper forgot to allow the animals back into their home after it was cleaned and new food was spread out on Monday night.

"And for some reason she forgot to let them back in, she forgot to open the door to let them back in," Dougan said.

Dougan said the animals spent the night outside and died of hypothermia.

"The female had already perished and the male was in dire straits. We called the vet in right away and unfortunately he died shortly thereafter," Dougan said.

Staff at the zoo are "very distraught" over the accident, he said, but none more so than the zookeeper involved.

Environment Canada data shows the temperature ranged from –9.1 C at 8 p.m. Monday to –2 at 8 a.m. At 2 a.m., the wind chill, in heavy, blowing snow, made it feel like –16.

Dougan said the two olive baboons were medium-sized primates, weighing roughly 10 kilograms. Although these animals are used to spending their days outside, Dougan said the night that they spent outdoors was just too cold for them to survive.

"That night was very, very cold," he said.

"Baboons are hearty animals. They spend all their days outside in the winter — they enjoyed being outside in the winter."

Dougan said nothing like this has ever happened before at the zoo.

Read the rest here on CBC's website. Here's the Magnetic Hill Zoo's website.