Some Links

Some links of things I've been reading on the web:

Laika Magazine, http://www.laikamagazine.com/

"... You could say it’s a quarterly vegan lifestyle magazine. Or you could say it is simply a clear assertion that a full, vibrant, exciting, interesting and satisfying life can be had — without ever having to inflict harm on another. This is not a hypothetical notion. This is the reality. And LAIKA MAGAZINE is a reflection of this undeniable reality. It is the place where compassion and innovation intersect. Ground-breaking thinkers and doers, visionary fashion and beauty, inventive food, transformative travel experiences, stories of courageous activists and the animals they defend — are all told with uncompromising dedication and presented in a visually dynamic way. It is new and yet also familiar… familiar, because it shows what we’ve known about ourselves all along: our capacity for kindness is infinite. Thank you for being a part of this journey."

Vegan Chau, http://www.veganchao.com/
So cute, Asian, and lives here in NY!  I feel like she's my cooler-than-me kid sister. She not only talks food, but also beauty, fashion, and overall lifestyle!  I have her new posts emailed to me automatically.

"I started my vegan adventure on November 8, 2006, when I was about to turn 18 and my mother couldn’t force me to eat injustice any longer. That night was one of the most memorable of my life… since there was almost nothing to eat in my fridge! Since then, I have vowed not to go hungry and stock my fridge with plenty of veg-friendly options. Mom helps out now too!"

Vegan Fast Food Restaurant Options, http://urbantastebuds.com/43-vegan-chain-restaurant-menus-every-vegan-needs-know/ 
I'm not a huge fan of fast food, but sometimes when you're hongray you just feel desperate and that's where this list could come in handy.

SKIN!

Caveat Lecter--tests prove book is definitely bound in human skin http://t.co/BX2Bhsea4x @HoughtonLib pic.twitter.com/bzMrzb9Sak
— The Harvard Library (@HarvardLibrary) June 4, 2014

BREAKING NEWS: Harvard University Experts have confirmed that one of their library books is bound in human skin.

Creepy? YES! Is it creepy that tons of other everyday objects are made out of dead animal skin? YES!!!!

Sometimes when I look at a purse or a leather chair or something, I just get weirded out, especially when it is extra-leathery-textured, or it looks like you can see what part of the animal it came from.  It's weird to think about my skin up against corpse skin.  It blows my mind that companies continue to market leather as a "luxury" item, when really it's just archaic.  People made stuff out of leather hundreds of years ago because there was nothing else around, today it is a luxury to have alternatives! The worst is car manufacturers who put leather seats in their cars because it gets super hot when you parke in the sun, and then even after the car cools off you get sweaty and stick to the seat... EW EW EW EW EEEWWWWW!!  Same goes for airline seats.

Take a dead animal, soak its skin in super toxic chemicals, and then put it as close to your body as possible. Or carry your belongings around in it. Or wrap your feet up in it.  What a weird world.

Some Recreational Reading, Sci Fi Edition

Photo via http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

My husband I were talking about extra-terrestrial intelligence, and I wondered aloud why we put so much effort into looking as far as human and technologically possible for signs of intelligent life, while we hesitate to acknowledge that the animals we share the Earth with are intelligent and sensitive creatures.  I have actually had conversations with philosophy professors about whether or not my dog has feelings (duh! PS it's been proven)!   

  

Anyway, I have often heard joke, "If G_d didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?" Well, here's a fictional account of an alien discussion about.... us!  My husband read it a long time ago and thought it was appropriate to the topic, it could explain why we have get to get a response from any of the signals we've been sending out into the universe.  

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT by Terry Bisson 

"They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"Meat. They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."
"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."
"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."
"No brain?"
"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."
"So ... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."
"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal!  Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"
"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."
"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"
"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."
"We're supposed to talk to meat."
"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."
"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
"Officially or unofficially?"
"Both."
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."
"That's it."
"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"
"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."
"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."
"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."
"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"
"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."
"They always come around."
"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."