Kayaking on Keuka Lake in Upstate New York

Race for biofuels heats up in Africa - Many could starve if greed overpowers rational planning

• IPCC prepares for review results
  A 12-member review panel tasked with providing an assessment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change processes is scheduled to deliver its report to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri today. The IPCC came under fierce criticism after leaked e-mails and apparent errors provided climate-change deniers ammunition to challenge the panel's conclusions on climate change in its 2007 assessment. IPCC officials hope to use the assessment to help define ways to update the panel's process for gathering and delivering information.BBC (8/29)

• Race for biofuels heats up in Africa
  The drive to produce crops such as sugar cane and palm oil that can be converted into biofuels is spurring land grabs across Africa that may contribute to food shortages and deforestation, Friends of the Earth says in a new report. Foreign companies have already purchased more than 19,000 square miles of land in 11 countries and in some cases local residents have been forcibly removed from their homes, the group said. Biofuel proponents believe production would be a boon for Africa, providing economic opportunities and helping to battle climate change.AlertNet.org/Reuters (8/30)

Vegan "Life Alive" Restaurant to Open Soon in Central Square, Cambridge, MA

194 Middle Street, Lowell, MA 01852 Call us at 978-453-1311 We found a gorgeous location right in the heart of Central Square Cambridge! 765 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE will be the home of our second Life Alive! Soft opening scheduled for August 2010! We are located in the beautiful historic arts district in downtown Lowell. Right across from the Quilt Museum. We are finally coming to... Central Square Cambridge! 765 MASS AVE will be the home of our second Life Alive! Soft opening scheduled for August 2010! Stay tuned for specials and updates on our new space... Copyright 2008 Life Alive. All rights reserved. | Terms | Designed by Oasis Webwide

Global Human Population EDGES towards 6.9 Billion Humans

Population Clocks

U.S. 310,065,823
World 6,864,229,783
18:48 UTC (EST+5) Aug 23, 2010

Population Finder

"Most blondes aren't!" - Maynard S. Clark

"Most blondes aren't!" - Maynard S. Clark

We've seen a proliferation of hair coloring methods, and it's shocking sometimes how many ethnicities and races are "sporting themselves off'" (a Bushism, if we've ever heard one) as blondes, or rather, as "blondes".

Again, "Most blondes aren't!"

Credit Maynard S. Clark with that one.

Impact of Vegetarians and Vegans United for Global Harmony

http://www.kiva.org/community?queryString=vegan&search=Search&category=all&sortBy=overallLoanCount

Of which http://www.kiva.org/team/happy_veggie has lent $71K

Location:	Global
Category:	Common Interest
Team URL:	http://www.kiva.org/team/happy_veggie
We loan because:	To support vegetarian and vegan entrepreneurs in underserved areas of the world, and to help businesses conscious of the non-human animal species. To promote compassion, and to raise the awareness of speciesm across the globe.
About us:	Vegetarians and vegans acting to promote global harmony. Hoping to establish a formidable presence for the animals on Kiva.
Team Since:	Sep 1, 2008

Impact of Vegetarians and Vegans United for Global Harmony

Statistic Name	Vegetarians and Vegans United for Global Harmony
Number of Team Members	347
Number of Loans	2376
Number of Loans per Member	6.8
Total Amount Loaned	$71,200

Making animals stand in line before arbitrary whims and caprices is despicable

Some argue that the study of history shows patterns by which human culture has developed and is likely to develop in the future. In that sense, veganism and animal liberation may be 'next on the social agenda' - "the next logical step after other inequalities" are corrected. Then a long list of social 'adjustments' is given which, in their scenario, need to come first - or rather, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. It essentially means that, first differences of one's birth condition (gender, geographic and social conditioning, wealth, etc.), then behavioral preferences that are freely chosen (this could become nearly anything the human imaginations can contrive), THEN, at long last, after all 6.8+ billion humans get to poke around and delay the MOST basic justice considerations for nonhumans, we concede that, "OK, nothing left to do but let 'em 'get theirs'."

I have a problem with that selfish mode of thinking, and I'm not even sure it's merely selfish.

To my mode of approaching the collage of persons nature brings forward in natural history, it's just irrational to be "writing a blank check" to everything possible the human imagination can contrive while the MOST basic issues of justice and decency are systematically ignored.

What's MORE 'unequal' (or, if we're relevant, more unFAIR) than abusing and killing animals for food?

I don't see that bears any INHERENT relationship to other social movements that those advocates want to put FIRST (though Peter Singer and lots of others - mostly consequentialists or would-be 'utilitarians' - say "Yeah, go ahead! Put EVERYTHING else ahead of decency with the animals!").

For the animals, what matters is the long wait for decent treatment, not some social claims to entitlements by one subgroup from another.

The things you mention are social agreements among humans.

The first right, I think, is one's right to not be killed or abused. In my way of thinking, that's a bodily claim NOT to be caused to suffer, not a social claim to entitlements.

One can be vegan without adopting animals or giving money on their behalf, but one cannot be an ETHICAL vegan abolitionist and speak FOR abusing them.

One can be a consequentialist and (reluctantly) 'allow' SOME of the abuse if the liberation is on its way, but none of these other social movements seems to do anything EXCEPT DISTRACT the vision from liberating animals from abuse and murder. Ask any of the beneficiaries of these other social movements if they're willing to put aside the arbitrary social behaviors dear to THEM that cost animals their lives - loose and reckless living (vivisection), leather flauting (murder of animals), meat-eating (murder of animals), etc.

That's MY $00.02.

Surely we can start by going vegan at a dietary level and clothing ourselves with decent non-animal attire that didn't enslave and murder a nonhuman person. We can bicker about the doing of medical science and medical research, but toxicology is pretty much ready to replace everything (or nearly everything) we've ever used animals for testing product safety.

As far as Peter Singer's viewpoint: lots of folks could accept that without giving any 'rights' to animals, and that's pretty much how he stars out in Animal Liberation (1975) - not believing in ANY person's rights (as a consequentialist or utilitarian). He sees 'rights' as a social construct that is a tool for helping to make things a little better, progressively, for more and more persons.

But in terms of our 'naive empirical' day-to-day experience, just ask how much real PROGRESS we're making in abolishing the abuse and exploitation of animals.

The numbers of animals used worldwide for exploitative purposes has risen, as have the numbers of animals used worldwide for INDEFENSIBLE exploitative purposes (recreational 'fun food' is NO excuse for murdering someone!).

Making animals stand in line before arbitrary whims and caprices is despicable.

The most basic entitlements to decency should be globally built into every social development program and project, as greening and making safe the energy systems of the planet.

Anything LESS is not truly progressive.

Pre-Vegan Dinner Prayer

Every 2nd and 4th Friday evening, I enjoy a vegan dinner with friends at the Greater Boston Buddhist Cultural Center in Cambridge, at an event called "Dinner with Dharma".  Before the vegan buffet is served and enjoyed among friends, we recite this meditative prayer:

Pre-Vegan Dinner Prayer

Meditation/Prayer Recited Before Eating

May palms be joined together in every world expressing kindness, compassion, joy, and giving.

May all beings find security in friendship, peace, and loving care.

May calm and mindful practice seed patience and deep equanimity.

May we give rise to spacious hearts and humble thoughts of gratitude.

Ci bei xi she bian fa jie. 

Xi fu jie yuan li ren tian. 

Chan jing jie heng ping deng ren. 

Chan quei gan an da yuan xi.

I would like a clear translation of the Chinese, which I think is Simplified Chinese.  Chinese Buddhist nuns run GBBCC.

Pre-Vegan Dinner Prayer

Every 2nd and 4th Friday evening, I enjoy a vegan dinner with friends at the Greater Boston Buddhist Cultural Center in Cambridge, at an event called "Dinner with Dharma". Before the vegan buffet is served and enjoyed among friends, we recite this meditative prayer:

Pre-Vegan Dinner Prayer

Meditation/Prayer Recited Before Eating

May palms be joined together in every world expressing kindness, compassion, joy, and giving.

May all beings find security in friendship, peace, and loving care.

May calm and mindful practice seed patience and deep equanimity.

May we give rise to spacious hearts and humble thoughts of gratitude.

Ci bei xi she bian fa jie.

Xi fu jie yuan li ren tian.

Chan jing jie heng ping deng ren.

Chan quei gan an da yuan xi.

I would like a clear translation of the Chinese, which I think is Simplified Chinese. Chinese Buddhist nuns run GBBCC.

A nicer way to say 'HELLO' to another person

A nicer way to say 'HELLO' to another person

The worst thing that has happened to me today...

I had almost forgotten that today is Friday the 13th. I noted that just before I went to sleep last night around 11 pm, then promptly forgot it until just about now.

No triskaidekaphobia here, I guess. I learned the word way back around 1st grade when I was about 6 and have remembered it ever since; my memory seems pretty good, but I plumb forgot that today is supposed to be unlucky.

I didn't realize that others may have kept that one item more strongly in their memories. I woke up a little late. My landlady was notably quick to rush out of the way. One of my most friendly neighbors didn't want to say her usually long 'hellos' in the morning as I go past, walking on my way to work. It would be superstitious of me to chalk that all up to Friday the 13th, so I won't, but denying or not recognizing something doesn't make it false or nonexistent.

I don't know what you call my seeming nonrecognition of Friday, the 13th. Avoidance, maybe?

Well, on with my work. Gladly, my grad school course's final exam is NEXT Week, on the 17th. No problemo!

And tonight's LUCKY Chinese vegan dinner ... Yep!

All very lucky!

I was wondering WHY my Asian neighbor was wearing bright RED last night. Entirely UNLIKE her. Usually she wears darks and/or pastels.

Oranges, anyone!?!?

Please note that I DID NOT purchase pears this morning at Haymarket.

Does Chelsea Clinton Have a Vegan "Agenda"? [Oh, don't we wish she had!!!]

Chelsea Clinton and the Vegan "Agenda"

Getty Images

With all the over-the-top coverage of Chelsea Clinton's not-quite-vegan wedding, the part that I find most interesting is the public reaction to the idea of a vegan wedding. I think that instead of asking whether vegans should impose our diets on our wedding guests, we should be asking whether omnivores should impose their diets on the rest of us. Read more.

Read Doris Lin's Animal Rights Blog at About.com - http://animalrights.about.com

http://animalrights.about.com/b/2010/08/12/chelsea-clinton-and-the-vegan-agenda.htm?nl=1

Designing Incentives for Online Question and Answer Forums

Anyone who has posted questions to online forums like LinkedIn and Yahoo! Answers could be interested in this paper: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~shailij/papers/qa-ec.pdf

Title: Designing Incentives for Online Question and Answer Forums

Authors: Shaili Jain

Chen, Yiling

Parkes, David C.

ID: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4340771

Shaili Jain

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

shailij@eecs.harvard.edu

Yiling Chen

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

yiling@eecs.harvard.edu

David C. Parkes

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

parkes@eecs.harvard.edu

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we provide a simple game-theoretic model of an online question and answer forum. We focus on factual questions in which user responses aggregate while a question remains open. Each user has a unique piece of information and can decide when to report this information. The asker prefers to receive information sooner rather than later, and will stop the process when satisfied with the cumulative value of the posted information. We consider two distinct cases: a complements case, in which each successive piece of information is worth more to the asker than the previous one; and a substitutes case, in which each successive piece of information is worth less than the previous one. A best-answer scoring rule is adopted to model Yahoo! Answers, and is effective for substitutes information, where it

isolates an equilibrium in which all users respond in the first round. But we find that this rule is ineffective for complements information, isolating instead an equilibrium in which all users respond in the final round. In addressing this, we demonstrate that an approval-voting scoring rule and a proportional-share scoring rule can enable the most efficient equilibrium with complements information, under certain conditions, by providing incentives for early respon-

ders as well as the user who submits the final answer.

3 new publications from Charles Lindsay Nunn at Harvard

Title: Comparative Chewing Efficiency in Mammalian Herbivores

Authors: Nunn, Charles Lindsay

Fritz, Julia

Hummel, J�rgen

Kienzle, Ellen

Arnold, Christian

Clauss, Marcus

ID: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4340768

Title: Primate Sleep in Phylogenetic Perspective

Authors: Nunn, Charles Lindsay

McNamara, Patrick

Capellini, Isabella

Preston, Brian T.

Barton, Robert A.

ID: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4340687

Title: Rapid Evolution of Social Learning

Authors: Nunn, Charles Lindsay

Franz, M

ID: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4340688

controversiology

A term first used on the Internet by the Neuroskeptic blogger

Searching for a "Long View": Jain Diet (and ANY modern OR traditional diet) can be vegan

I'd see NO strategic OR person problems with being more restrictive in one's diet, as long as one has a scientific (both wholistic AND reductionistic?) view of nutrition AND ensures that s/he consumes adequate nutrients, however they are delivered to the body.

My working idea (developed several decades ago) would be "food columns" or nutrient delivery systems in foods, perhaps supplemented by concentrated substances (perhaps not).

Those whose worldview emphasizes (for whatever reason/s and in whatever way/s) a 'natural' diet may wish to ATTEMPT to avoid consuming 'concentrated substances' (nutritional supplements); however, the historical experience of various vegetarian and vegan communities in the late 20th and now early 21st centuries seems to indicate a shift TOWARDS nutritional supplementation that matches the LEVELS in the GENERAL (nonvegetarian) populations that rely on nutritional supplementation.

Rationalizing, explaining, and/or defending any choice to 'supplement' may relate to one's worldview.

In the West, many demonstrably 'religious' persons "compartmentalize" their "quote quote" "religion" into something they 'do' rather than as a whole way of being.

I find that disingenuous, but that's common practice. Hopefully, self-respecting Jains won't "compartmentalize", but hey: I'm not one to criticize. As in politics, I'm an "independent" (and in Western religious terms, as in the UK and Europe, that's called "nonsubscribing").

Does 'nature' make vegan diets for humans feasible, practical, sustainable? I think that the ample historical evidence (particularly of the many different "Asian" populations) is that it seems to be a means of sustaining people PRETTY well. I do think "anthropologically" about how and why many Indian peoples might have Incorporated symbiosis with dairy cows into their nutritional patterns (feeding themselves through the dairy fluids of cared for cows), but I'm not sure that human life has been all that civil MOST of the time.

I suspect that human differences give rise to partial civilization, but that 'synthesis' of many different human elements CAN become historically sustainable IF lots of mental energy (by thinkers and leaders) works to intentionally BUILD a 'social synthesis' that works for the broad and overwhelming majority.

I think vegan diets CAN do that, and that vegan diets CAN do that better than other diets IF we also count the explosion of human population and the ecological impacts of animal agriculture. But that kind of broad picture, "long view" (long-term historical view) of human nutrition seems relatively rare. More often, immediate "decisions" are sought in terms of self-evident REASONS for "giving up dairy" and "going meatless" or "staying veg" - perhaps doing a disservice to the "long view" that (in my opinion) makes the abolition of ALL animal agriculture (for all reasons) highly desirable - not only because of the personhood of the 'farmed' animals, but also because of future "distributed" "personhoods" (going forward in time/history). We respect personhood far better if we commit ourselves to future well-being than if we only count the "extant" persons living today.

That's MY $00.02 (two cents worth).

ScienceDirect Search Alert: vegan

1.

Green eating The New Scientist, Volume 207, Issue 2772, 7 August 2010, Page 24 Amanda Baker

2.

The compliance of medical staff for the routine administration of iron in the 1st year to their children Clinical Nutrition, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 5 August 2010 Gabi Haran, Lisa Rubin, Ron Shaoul

3.

Recreating semi-natural grasslands: A comparison of four methods Ecological Engineering, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 31 July 2010 Knut Rydgren, Nordbakken J�rn-Frode, Austad Ingvild, Auestad Inger, Heegaard Einar

4.

Distribution of saproxylic beetles in a recently burnt landscape of the northern boreal forest of Qu�bec Forest Ecology and Management, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 31 July 2010 Yan Boulanger, Luc Sirois, Christian H�bert

5.

Why did I eat that? Perspectives on food decision making and dietary restraint Journal of Consumer Psychology, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 31 July 2010 Melissa G. Bublitz, Laura A. Peracchio, Lauren G. Block

Gifted students should be given freedom to grow [How Free Our Faculty Are!]

Educator: Gifted students should be given freedom to grow
Gifted-education specialist Tamara Fisher unintentionally altered the growth of a tree in her front yard by attempting to guide its development. In this blog post, Fisher urges educators to avoid doing the same thing with their students, particularly top achievers. Teachers should provide careful guidance to all students, she writes, but allow them to grow freely without limits to their growth. Education Week/Unwrapping the Gifted blog (8/4)