HEISENBERG EFFECT ON ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE

This study doesn't seem all that remarkable, other than the fact that a mental capacity previously thought to belong only to primates has been found in owls. But the lead is a cliche worth highlighting again:

"Owls just got a little wiser: Scientists say they've detected a link between sight and sound in the bird's brain, a phenomenon previously reported only in primates. This finding, published in the Jan. 19 issue of the journal Nature, also advances knowledge about how the brain is able to sort out incoming sensory information."

The opening sentence is (hopefully) meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it's the standard opening for just about every story like this, the "joke" being that animals we're observing "get wiser" upon our discovery of their innate intelligence. I wonder how many of the writers who use this trope are aware of how this "joke" actually resonates with humans' standard conception of animals - that they're some alternate type of being from us, halfway between subject and object. Since our say-so is what determines reality, in one sense owls don't have this capacity until a supreme, all-knowing human says so. What would Heisenberg say?

FARMER GOES VEGANIC, PROFITS

This is sort of a small-town story, but it's rare to see (relatively) mainstream press coverage of "veganic" farming: "There are 10,000 square feet of lettuce varieties, kale, chard, spinach, rosemary, radishes and watercress. All 72 varieties grown on Santa Cruz Farm are certified organic, and vegan in that they're fertilized with organic cottonseed meal and compost, and Mora-grown organic alfalfa. No animal products ever come in contact with Bustos' fruits and vegetables..." And though the original switchover initially led to more pests, Bustos says that "Through the process, we've become better growers ... and our net product per acre has gone way up." And to bring it back to that small town: "It's more than how much you pay," he said, "but how much you put into the sustainable model. Organic is important, but local should be your mantra."

WASHINGTON BANNING FOIE GRAS?

It would be nice if the Washington in that headline were our nation's capital, meaning a nationwide ban, but this is instead the state. Still, even proposed legislation shows that this issue continues to get traction in different locations as the indefensible practice is repeatedly brought to light.

"Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, has proposed a measure that would ban the process of harvesting bloated livers — known as foie gras, or “fatty liver” — and would ultimately remove the delicacy from state restaurants."

From the legislator: "Torturing an animal to make it tastier is not a proposition I support. There has to be some limitations on decadence when it comes to what we eat or what we do to animals." And the hoity-toity restaurateur, displaying that impeccable logic that distinguishes the defense of meat-eating: "It's probably not pleasant for the ducks, but it's probably not pleasant for a chicken to be slaughtered. I kind of feel like if we listen to these people, we’ll probably all be vegetarians." Exactly. So instead you keep your fingers in your ears, going "La la la la." Keep it up as long as you can, because you're gonna have to start listening sooner or later.

MLK AND VEGANISM: PERFECT TOGETHER

I know it's not the first time I've mentioned this, but it's timely, of course: Though Martin Luther King never went vegan himself, his wife and son have, and "believe that promoting animal rights is just the next 'logical extension' of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philosophy of non-violence." Make it a day off (meat) or a day on (ahimsa), but don't just sit there and wishing you had marched with the man way back when. Change starts with you.

ABUSED CAB HORSE GOES WILD

Everybody heard about the NYC cab horse who ran into a car in the middle of the city, causing mild tch-tching about this unnecessary and cruel industry. Most missed this brief follow-up in the Post:

CRASH-HANSOM OWNER STARVED HORSE The owner of the hansom cab involved in a life-threatening crash after its horse bolted has a history of abusing his animals, authorities said.
Lorenzo Riccobono, 52, is well known to animal-rights groups in Pennsylvania, where he rented horses to Amish farmers until selling his barn a few months ago.

RINGLING DITCHING TIGER ACTS?

Of course they're coming out swinging on the elephants issue, shamelessly putting propaganda in the elephants' mouths, but in the background, Ringling Bros. and
Barnum & Bailey circus seems to be phasing out the use of tigers, which would be big news.

"The three-ring format, gone. So, too, the tiger act. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus opened its national, two-year tour in Tampa on Wednesday night with its biggest format revision since the circus moved from playing under tents and into arenas half a century ago. The tiger act, a staple of the circus for years, was removed. Feld denied that protests from animal rights groups prompted the decision. Such organizations have turned almost every circus stop into an opportunity to protest, including the show's five-day run in Tampa. The groups say circus trainers mistreat animals when they teach them to perform in acts, a charge that Ringling Bros. denies. Tigers still have a role in the circus's
second touring unit, which played Tampa in 2005 and is now in the second half
of its two-year tour."

We'll watch to see how this plays out, but so far it's a good sign.

MCDONALD'S: MAD COW 'FIREWALL' NOT THERE

Here's something you don't see every day: America's biggest and most entrenched meat-based restaurant chain admitting - nay, complaining - that the government is screwing us over on beef safety. "Researchers and McDonald's Corp. (MCD) say the government isn't fully protecting animals or people from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as BSE, or mad-cow disease. Stronger steps are needed to keep infection from entering the food chain for cattle, the critics wrote in comments to the Food and Drug Administration.

ATKINS "FINALLY" PUT TO REST?

Study in the current JAMA: "Postmenopausal women who ate a diet low in fat and high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains didn't gain weight over an average of nearly eight years, reported researchers from the NIH's Women's Health Initiative. In a clinical trial to see whether a low-fat, fiber rich diet could prevent cardiovascular disease or breast or colorectal cancer in more than
48,000 post-menopausal women, those on the diet lost about 2.2 kg (4.8 lbs) in
the first year, and managed to keep the weight off better than women who
ate what they wanted."

That's all fine and good. But here's the laugh line: "The findings may finally put to rest the notion - propagated by popular diets such as the Atkins, Sugarbusters, and Zone plans - that carbohydrates are the root of all dietary evil." Yeah, I'll be over here holding my breath on that one...

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR

Over the next couple days I will be too busy to blog, and then for a little over a week I will be nowhere near a computer. I'll check back in with more meat-bashing goodness in 2006. Be safe and be great! See ya...

THOSE DANGEROUS GREENS

So it turns out spying on PETA is not just for Ringling anymore, as the ACLU establishes that the FBI has been tracking not just the loudmouth AR organization but other vegans and environmentalists. Of course this is not news to those of us who have been following the story, but now other people are noticing, and with the recent news that the president can spy on anyone anywhere for any reason without asking permission of anybody, it takes on a special resonance. Now, there are of course individuals in AR and environmentalism who stoop to terroristic tactics, and again, those should be loudly and clearly condemned at every opportunity by those of us who can think straight. But it's also clear that this level of surveillance is far beyond a natural response to those elements and represents the concern of the establishment that ideas of peace, justice and holism may catch on if nothing's done to stop it.

So I'm probably tarring myself as an undesirable for baldly wishing for something so anti-American, but I gotta say it:

Peace on Earth.

SHARON 'SLIPS ON THE ICE'

Ariel Sharon was released from the hospital yesterday after suffering a stroke over the weekend. While Meat Facts wishes him a speedy recovery, that may be undercut by the Israeli prime minister's massive appetite - and his stubbornness. This AP story depicts him as unfazed by doctors' insistence that he alter his eating habits. And what are these dangerous, high-risk habits? You guessed it: 'his favorite meal is "meat in every way,"' according to this story. The day before he had the stroke, his menu for one meal was:

HAMBURGERS

STEAK in chimichurri sauce

LAMB CHOPS

SHISH KABOB

SALADS

CHOCOLATE CAKE (2 servings)

Gee, other than the chocolate cake, sounds like a perfect Atkins meal. I guess it must be dangerous to mix different "food plans," huh?

VEGCAST HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA

A heapin' helpin' of holiday cheer on this Vegcast includes two music tracks, one from Kyle Vincent and the Summerfest kids and another from Bah and the Humbugs, plus a science fact and a remote report from San Jose. There's news about Erik's Diner and about the Vegcast promo on Adam Curry's podcast. Our featured interview is with Vegetarian Hall of Famer Richard Schwartz, who discusses why not only Judaism, but all religions, point the faithful to vegetarianism. Check it out, and have a happy holiday of your choice!

HOSPITAL CORNED BEEF KILLS PATIENT

Royal Adelaide Hospital patient Richard Formosa was receiving treatment for diabetes and was fed corned beef, which the Health Department's communicable disease control branch director, Rod Givney, has admitted was "a mistake" as he was in a "high-risk group." The corned beef was contaminated with listeria and it killed him. An inspection of the plant confirmed that the listeria came from the meat company itself, even as joint managing director Pat Conroy tried to evade responsibility by suggesting it was the hospital kitchen's fault.

The point is: BOZOS, why does anyone in a freakin' hospital need corned beef, or beef of any kind? What they need above all is nutritious, healhy food that will help them get the hell out of the hospital, not something they might hanker for that will kill them, later if not sooner. Hopefully this incident will wake up a few hospital administrators around the world to the irrational practice of regularly feeding meat to hospital patients.

ANOTHER DARK CHOCOLATE BENEFIT

"A few squares of dark chocolate every day may cut the risk of serious heart disease, a new study by a team from University Hospital in Zurich has shown. But chocolate lovers should be aware that only small daily quantities of high cocoa dark chocolate score health points. Milk and white chocolate don't offer much more than calories." Of course, mainstream journalists will again miss this distinction and proffer milk chocolate as part of the 'healthy' solution. Clearly, it ain't.

I'LL JUST SWITCH TO FISH XVIII

The Chicago Tribune has blown the mercury-contamination story wide open with a multipart series based on an in-depth investigation of several types of fish. Here's the lede to "Toxic risk on your plate":

In one of the nation's most comprehensive studies of mercury in commercial fish, testing by the newspaper showed that a variety of popular seafood was so tainted that federal regulators could confiscate the fish for violating food safety rules.

The testing also showed that mercury is more pervasive in fish than what the government has told the public, making it difficult for consumers to avoid the problem, no matter where they shop.

And the main story continues: "The Tribune's investigation reveals a decades-long pattern of the U.S. government knowingly allowing millions of Americans to eat seafood with unsafe levels of mercury."

In another story, "U.S. safety net in tatters," the Tribune lays the problem directly at the feet of industry cronyism (that sound familiar?): "Seafood shoppers are at risk for mercury exposure as regulators ignore their own experts, issue flawed warnings and set policies aiding industry."

You can read the whole thing here. Or you can simply take all the warnings those of us who have already been advising against the "nutritional bargain" of fish, and triple them.

JAPAN LIFTS BEEF BAN

After much wrangling and more than a year during which US officials insisted the lifting of the ban was just around the corner, Japan has lifted its 2-year-old ban on US beef.

Story on new US Mad Cow case that officials "forgot" to mention during negotiations in 5... 4... 3...

THE GREATEST NO-SHOW ON EARTH

Say what you will (and I have) about PETA and some of their hamhanded, and frankly misguided, campaigns - but there's one organization that makes them look not only angelic but completely on the ball. That's Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which not only infiltrated the organization with professional spies, but has shown such contempt for the courts in the lawsuit PETA subsequently filed that Ringling head Kenneth Feld has now been publicly chewed out by the judge for withholding crucial information in the case.

"A judge issued sanctions against the owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for filing late and incomplete documents in a lawsuit that claims that the owner had established a spy operation against animal-rights groups.

Based on the portions of the 30-page document revealed during Thursday's hearing, it appears to spell out the company's plan for dealing with circus protests by animal-rights groups. The plan calls for efforts to discredit PETA and other animal-rights groups and to seek ways to undermine PETA's status as a nonprofit organization.

Circuit Judge David Stitt said Feld should have turned over the documents long ago. He ordered Feld to turn over an unredacted copy of the documents by Monday and to turn over any other documents related to the company's Animal Issues Department."

LIKE A CRACK HOUSE, BUT WITH MORE FECES

Of course factory farms are a nightmare for animals, but remember how many human lives are also adversely affected by the animal exploitation (not to mention ecosystems, of course).

A lawyer for the neighbors group Centerville Cares, called Maple Leaf Dairy "the environmental equivalent of a neighborhood crack house." These aren't tree-hugging granola-cruncers who are complaining, they're the people who have to live with the crap (literally) from this runaway industry.

PODJACKING

Allison Geiger of ClubVeg forwarded this to me, and it was the first I'd heard of the phenomenon. But it seems seminal vegan podcaster Erik Marcus is a high-profile victim of a new practice of hijacking RSS feeds by seeding them in different directories with a go-between URL. The users don't notice the difference but the hijacker can, once the listener base is built up, extort the podcaster on the threat of closing down all the bogus subscriptions. Check it out, and if you have an RSS feed, make sure it's correctly represented in all the major directories.

DAD TAKES SON HUNTING, SHOOTS HIM

I don't have the stomach or the heart to do the round-up of hunting accidents that inevitably heralds the opening of the season, but let this one stand in for the barbarity of this entire enterprise:

The father of a 10-year-old killed in a hunting accident said the boy was shot as the two descended a hill and the elder man slipped. The shotgun he was carrying went off, striking the boy in the back.

The father, Raymond F. Libby Jr., asked his son, Raymond F. Libby III, if he was hit, and his answer "yes" would be the last word the father would hear him say.

While I grieve for the father, the boy's death is not just an outrageous travesty but an allegory for the practice of modern-day hunting: The son's life is outweighed by the importance of loyalty to archaic macho tradition - a tradition of killing, which, not surprisingly, often backfires on the killer in more ways than one. It is absolutely pathetic that this still goes on in a supposedly civilized America.