What to do with the bodies? Two thoughts...

A recent NPR story covers the unearthing of what may have been a gladiator burial ground... in England! Evidence? Skeletal remains exhibit bite wounds from large predators, decapitations, and other dramatic injuries. Indications also, from the bone density, that these were extremely muscular men (like the proto-human woman mentioned yesterday). Listen here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127542467

In a more contemporary consideration (not specific to gladiators!), how 'bout this for an option? Is this "civilized"?

http://naturalburial.org/index.php

Stephen Colbert Satire

When I saw Allison's Jon Stewart clip, I had to post a Stephen Colbert clip. While discussing the self defeating tendencies of opposing environmentalists, I was reminded of this clip. It's a little long, but well worth it. If you have 10 minutes to spare in between reading, this clip is sure to make you laugh while giving you another modern example of environmentalist vs. environmentalist.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Science Catfight - Joe Bastardi vs. Brenda Ekwurzel
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

No Impact Man

The discussion of Joseph Knowles on Monday made me think of the year that Colin Beavan spent gradually trying to eliminate his environmental impact by giving up what many people view as necessities and conveniences of modern life. Although he didn't forgo clothing and return to the wilderness, he did make drastic lifestyle changes as the year progressed in order to have a non-existent carbon footprint while living in New York City with his wife and young daughter. Perhaps his journey can be viewed as a more modern form of primitivism?

He gives a detailed account of the year in his book, No Impact Man, but his blog contains many of the steps that he took (some that are easy for most people to implement in their own lives, others not so much), as well as other interesting information on current environmental issues. Every few months he organizes a "No Impact Week," where people can try to implement his year long program over the course of a week.

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

How long solving environmental issues might take

In light of how long society has been dealing with environmental issues, as we learned with Pan's Travail, here's a look at how long it has taken (and might take) to solve one of our biggest environmental issues. A clip for Jon Stewart Fans. The whole episode is great, but the clip I'm talking about begins at 6 minutes and 50 seconds.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-june-16-2010-louis-c-k-

please ignore the commercials before the clip

The Kinks - Apeman promo film - full length

as promised, the original music video for The Kinks's Apeman. Enjoy.

Welcome to Nature and Culture, Summer College Edition

Hi everyone,
you should have received invites from "blogger invites" via email. Just follow the instructions for signing up. thanks, and look forward to your posts and discussions!

Jim

ps. any alums from the spring semester want to stay on the blog, just email me and I'll put you back on. thanks. -jt

Saw this wall-painting in Gorumara National Park, North Bengal, India. I thought that this was another manifestation of the man vs wild, 'man should stay away from nature' ethos. India, for one, can hardly afford to pay homage to the wilderness ethic; even the most famous, secure tiger reserves and national park have large populations of indigenous people residing in the core, 'inviolate' areas. Hardly ideal conditions for propagating a wilderness area.

Suicide University

Here is a movie that I made for my Alternative Term Paper. It deals with the darker side of Cornell and it’s reputation for being a Suicide School. With the campus environment as the back drop, my short film delivers a raw visual experience that is intended to disturb you as well as inspire you to think differently about Ithaca, Cornell, and the surrounding environment. Enjoy!

Perception of Beauty: The Cylon Take

Alright, I'm going to go a little nerdy here:

Battlestar Galactica.

I have been a ardent fan since it's creation (I'm talking about the new T.V. show here), and recently watched an episode that pertains greatly to today's lecture.

So for those of you who don't know the workings of the show, there are humans who are being chased around the universe by cylons. Cylons were machines created by man, rebelled, and over eons of time evolved into humanoids in order to deliver the final blow to the surviving human population.

Anyways, at one point in the show a cylon laments at the loss of his machine being:

Brother Cavil: In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova?
Ellen Tigh: No.
Brother Cavil: No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air.
Ellen Tigh: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.
Brother Cavil: I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!

Just thought this was relevant--how the cylon (Brother Cavil) could perceive so much more in machine form, and how his humanity was limiting his perception.

Interesting how the beauty we see, our reality, is only a fraction of the scientific reality around us.

What if we could see x-rays, or feel the cosmic wind?

What would we perceive as beauty then?

Can a rose hold a flame to the magnetic fluctuations of the sun?

--Food for thought

The Silent Scream, incase you were interested.

I am a fan of media and counter cultures, and when you combine the two you usually get a really interesting result. Here is the Silent Scream part 1. I was surprised to find that it was not as bad as "Tails from the Crypt". It was worse, If you watch the whole thing you'll see why.

-peace

the use of film --> "The Meatrix"

I actually saw this in an anthropology class on food and cuisine. We've been discussing industrial food production and the treatment of Livestock.

Popular cultural references in argument: argumentum ad popculturem?

http://www.themeatrix.com/

Nature as morally contested terrain

Here's an article on today's CNN newsfeed, about the fight over offshore wind farms near Cape Cod:

Nine-year wind farm fight splits Cape Cod

By Wayne Drash, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to decide on fate of nation's first offshore wind farm
• Site is in Nantucket Sound, one of America's most iconic bodies of water
• Opponents concerned about historic preservation, safety
• Advocates say project is a must to move country forward

Falmouth, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The Rev. William Eddy stands at the bow of his 53-foot sailboat nestled in the postcard setting of Cape Cod.

A lifelong resident of the Cape and islands, Eddy built his staysail schooner by hand, and on this day, he's using it as his pulpit. A perfect storm, he says, has been brewing over the past decade among residents driven to hysterics by the idea of building the nation's first offshore wind farm in the middle of Nantucket Sound.

Eddy loves everything about the Cape: the iconic shingled homes, the Norman Rockwell small towns and the pristine beauty of the sea. Most of all, the Episcopal priest loves the magnificent winds.

And he thinks it's a moral imperative to harness those winds. He's told his congregation just that -- and watched some walk out on his sermon. "Father, we all would've stayed if you had just preached about Darfur," one member told him.

Eddy is unbowed. "It's a no-brainer," he said of the wind farm. "I keep on wondering what's going to happen down there in Washington: Are they going to crucify this project on a cross of coal? Or are they going to stand up for what they've said they're going to stand up for?"

For those whose views differ from Eddy's -- including, apparently, some of his flock -- the pristine beauty he extols is the point. Nantucket Sound, they say, is an iconic symbol of America, not an industrial park. Might as well plop a bunch of wind turbines in the middle of the Grand Canyon, they say.

"It's an area that absolutely should be off-limits," said Audra Parker, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Wind farms produce roughly 2 percent of the nation's energy, all from land-based facilities in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and a few other states. Locations offshore are considered optimal because the winds are stronger and more consistent.

Read the rest of the article at http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/20/cape.cod.wind.farm/index.html?hpt=C1

Never too late to change paper topics.

Nickelodeons: Child Corrupters?

In 1907, an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune denounced nickelodeons, early 20th century neighborhood film theaters, as "firetraps and tawdry corrupters of children." The newspaper seems to have a point in that, perhaps, these early theaters initiated what would later be known as childhood television addiction. One of the pictures show in class today underscores the Tribune's criticism. The child in the picture seemed to be stupified and even brainwashed by the film being shown. Are nickelodeons simply precursors for modern television entertainment that often serves as an addiction to bored youth? It seems so. However, to call them "tawdry corrupters" seems to be an assertion that exaggerates the truth unfairly.

Sunday morning math quiz

(1) How many 5's are in a ten dollar bill? Gotta keep an open ear & be careful what people ask for.
Two tens for a five clip
(2) 25/5 = 14
(3) 2X2 = 5 !?
(4) 1 + 1 = 0
Have fun!
-ALI

With Groucho

You never know what you're going to get...except for tears in your eyes and giggle pains in your side. Montage from Duck Soup, including hat gag and mirror clip.
Best of Groucho Things aren't always what they seem Street corner hat gag
I never was a Monty kinda gal. This, this does it for me!


Psst..Hey Aiden Ya find the darndest things while milling over term paper ideas. I've chosen the significance of the feather - from flying dino to quill pen... to star in 1994 box office hit along side Tom Hanks as a 'floater'. (Still working on the time line and details its got some kinks.) Anyhow, I came across this timeless clip from Horse Feathers. If you have 9mins this is part 1 - but at least watch this clip of Groucho singing! Good luck with your search.

I'm curious

What have people chosen for their term paper topics?

This is me avoiding doing reading for mine. :)
Aesthetics in urban management and land use policy... I'm reading a lot of Edmund Burke and Thoreau. Gotta get that Romantic Background.
- Aiden

Book Titles: Short & Sweet or Longwinded & Drawnout

I discourage anyone from 'judging a book by its cover', but sometimes ya just can't help it!

Is it just me? or has anyone else noticed that book titles have become exceedingly longer and longer? While many famous (and some not so famous) books have consisted of ONE WORD titles , there are a handful of book titles I came across that have unnecessarily long, ridiculously extensive, and downright superfluous titles.

Literary Addict shows many books with long(ish) titles. But when you're sitting in your dorm on a Saturday night searching book titles (as probably only me would do) what better site than Guinness Book of World Records to locate the longest title ever!? Guinness gives the award to Davide Ciliberti who wrote a book that consists of 1,433 characters long (290 words).

Well, apparently Guinness hasn't heard of Nigel Tomm. He wrote a book with a title consisting of a whopping 670 words!! Just one character shy of 4,000! Is this phenomenal or what!?

Again, maybe it's just me, but if anyone can top Tomm's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious book title...please help put my mind at ease!

Thanx - ALI

Jim Carrey and Environmentalism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8tfuBIutLI

Tourism and Environment

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/endangered-vacations-47060902?src=syn&dom=yah_buzz&mag=tdg&ha=1&kw=ist

This kind of reminded me of how people visited Niagara when it was dry.

The attraction of dare devils

Here's the followup to the discussion of daredevils and Niagara Falls . . . You Tube's "Viral Video Film School," on how to make dare devil videos.

Kids, don't try this at home.

The Bambi Sublime

This painting is amazing! Observing it closely, I was able to relate the "Bambi theme" with the idea of the sublime. It falls into the Hudson River School category as well, with the craggy tree barks as the framing, the body of water in the middle ground, and a majestic view in the distance. The deer are seen prancing through the dry woods. This painting has an element of unconventional beauty. Nature, in the scene, is serene but also a bit mysterious. It leaves me wondering: what story could be told about this painting? I suppose it's simply up to individual interpretation.

-Robin Simpson

J. M. W. Turner's Snowstorm

Read what Kenneth Clark has to say about Turner's Snowstorm:

"MY FIRST EMOTION is sharpened by amazement. There is nothing else remotely like it in European art, except, of course, other pictures by Turner, and I can understand why, until recently, critics brought up in the classical tradition were unwilling to accept such a freak. Not only is the subject exceptional, but the whole rhythmic organization is outside the accepted modulus of European landscape painting. We have been brought up to expect inside a frame a certain degree of balance and stability. But in Turner's Snowstorm nothing comes to rest. The swathes of snow and water swing about in a wholly unpredictable manner, and their impetus is deflected by contrary movements of spray and mysterious striations of light. To look at them for long is an uncomfortable, even an exhausting, experience."

Read more of Clark's essay at artchive.com .

Every Road Trip Is Educational!

So Becki and I were on our way back to school yesterday...little did we know that we would be seeing first hand a landmark mentioned in class! So pictured is the Delaware Water Gap! This was the best I could snap through the window of a moving car, but this is one of the bridges across the Delaware Water Gap that was pictured in George Inness' painting "Delaware Water Gap." We got excited and our two friends in the car thought we were crazy, but we didn't care. So next time you're on a road trip, keep your eyes open for a chance to say "Hey! I learned about that in Nature and Culture!"

The solution to overpopulation?

Just ran across this item.


Apparently every U.S. citizen could fit into an area the size of New Hampshire if we all wanted to live at the population density found in Brooklyn, NY. As the graphic says, the rest of the U.S. could be our greenbelt, and "we'd all be neighbors."

You can click on the graphic to enlarge.

See it Really is NEVER too late

I just came across a great website seems like interview with Cronon & others speaking about..well...Chicago, of course among other places. But anyone interested should check it out. Seems there is great stuff in there- I'll have to revisit at a later date! PBS

Random?

I don't know if anyone maybe skipped over this in the The Trouble with Bambi reading, but I'd like to draw attention to its hilarity. I just reread the article while studying...

"...actor Kiefer Sutherland told Playboy that Bambi was the first film he ever saw and, he said, 'it's still the film with which I compare everything.... It taught me about—I guess on a broad scale—sexuality. I was in love with Thumper's girlfriend from the time I was seven until I was ten. She's got all that eye shadow on and she's looking real good.'"

The article then continues with Bambi's impact on American culture. Random?

It's never too late!

Its never to late... to have a review session. Yep, the 2006 class had a twitter-pattered review session. Don't be an obligatory puny student! Any one who wants to review, speak up!
Don't be a Sponge Bob!!

Molly Maguires and Sherlock Holmes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Valley_of_Fear
This is the link to the description of the last Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear. The clip from Molly Maguires that we watched in class today reminded me of this story, and the article mentions that the story is loosely based of the Molly Maguires happenings.
Of particular interest in the start of the story is the way the coal mining districts are portrayed. Though I do not remember the exact words or description, the author paints a picture of utmost gloom, misery and tyranny. It is clear that he wants to convey what a horrifying place the mining district was...

Man versus Wild: the Starrucca Viaduct

text from the Catskill Archive, originally from—"Between the Ocean and the Lakes--The Story of the ERIE"—by Edward Harold Mott--1899:

"The Starrucca Viaduct was at the time it was built the greatest work of railroad bridge masonry in the United States, and is to-day a conspicuous example of that branch of engineering science, even among the stupendous feats of modern bridge construction. The viaduct is 1,200 feet long, 110 feet high, and has eighteen arches with spans of fifty feet each. It was wisely constructed for a double track, and was made thirty feet wide on top. The cost of the structure was $320,000, the most expensive railroad bridge in the world at that time."

Illustration circa 1848.

George Inness--the Complete Works

The works of George Inness are found online at http://www.georgeinness.org/ . Scans of 199 of his paintings can be found there. Inness made his home for many years in Montclair, New Jersey, and many of his paintings can still be seen there at the Montclair Art Museum.

Pompton Junction

Native American Reverence

Flute music and Drum beats

-Ali

Brought Back By Popular Neglect

Just for the record Shepard Krech does refer back to the Crying Indian at the end of his book. In the last paragraph of his epilogue he refers to a second advertisement about the original advertisement that was brought back "by Popular Neglect". It kind of makes me wonder about the first one, what if they used a Crying Cowboy? Would things have changed? Would Keep America Beautiful want it brought back "by Popular demand" instead?

-peace

Aborigines debate nuclear plan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8546690.stm

Nothing new under the sun...

- Aiden

Oscars, Dave Chappelle, and Indians

This video is very interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU

I had no idea this happened, a friend showed me recently. Anyways, I thought that this was a good example of how before the idea of the "Noble Savage" became popular, there was just the image of the "Savage".

Also, this video shows what Marlon Brando and Sacheen Littlefoot were talking about in the savage depiction of Indians in films from around that time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hJFi7SRH7Q

You should watch these videos--pretty good stuff.

And for a laugh, check out Dave Chappelle's comedic sketch on Indians today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teq8-3Xitxc

The first minute and a half are the best.

All relevant, I hope, and all found while procrastinating for the Ecological Indian paper....

Nature's Metropolis...

I was reading the Prologue this afternoon and the conversation on the relation between the "City' and 'Country' with regards to literature really struck a chord. It reminded me particularly of "The Great Gatsby" and the contrast between the pastoral midwest and the disconnected old money/new money New York. I just thought I would share. I'm starting to realize that you really can connect everything to 'Nature and Culture'.

A book I highly recommend:

I encourage anyone interested in reading "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors" by John Z. DeLorean. And YES for all you Marty Mcfly lovers...he's was the owner of the company that produced the beloved 'fly-winged time machine'!!

The book chronicles his rise-to-the-top through Pontiac and Chrysler, but the internal struggle of ethics he had. Being paid millions didn't set well with him because it meant disregarding the customer base and allowing 'dinosaur' business execs to make all the decisions from a round table, on a top floor of a high rise.

He's an inspiration to me because in the face of big biz, he stood up for the little guy and didn't back down, ultimately sacrificing for those who deserved the loudest voices but couldn't being heard. The transformations throughout the auto industry have always been in favor of the CEO's and investors, not to mention the oil industries so comfortably hammocked in their pockets.
So here's a series of books by him- Clear Day is 5th down:
http://www.dmcnews.com/biblio.html

Go Green, Buy a Vehicle!

The idea of going "Green", and buying an Audi A3 TDI clean deisel is crazy. Whats next, the nuclear powerd hocky mom mobile? The link below explains some of the contraversy brought about by the add campain that Audi produced this year for the superbowl. After making this comercial they went about making a series of "public service" announcements that not only pissed off Treehugger but also the American Chemistry Council's plastics division. according to USA TODAY the ads both poked fun at Environmentalists and missrepresented the amazingness of plastic. What a shame for plastics sake. This tradition of reenventing the wheel is just sickening. Has anyone ever seen the movie "Who Killed the Electic Car?", it's about the murder of the electric car to make way for the Hummer. -Peace


http://www.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/02/audis-green-police-ad-stirs-controversy/1

Super Bowl "Green Police" advertisement

The Fire-Goat Co-op

Reading about the 'fire-y' methods of ecosystemic control employed by the native Americans in North America reminded me of a similar, interesting example; that of the use of fire by farmers in India and their ensuing social/business interactions with goat-herding nomads.
My family comes from a small village in the Konkan area of coastal western India, and we traditionally have a growing season of 4 months coinciding with the monsoon. Paddy is the staple crop. After the rice is harvested in September, the land is allowed to lie fallow till April-May. However, right after the crop is harvested, the fields are burned in controlled fires to clear any remains of the rice stalks on the ground or any weeds that might have lodged themselves in the field. The ash is later used as a natural fertilizer. However, as in the case of North American Indians, the farmers in the Konkan are aware that a profusion of (in this case, unwanted) grasses and shrubs begin to shoot up soon after the fires. The farmers deal with this by making a 'contract' with the dhangars, a nomadic tribe of goat- and sheep-herders. The farmers allow the dhangars to live and trespass on their fields and lands, in return for which the goats and sheep of the tribe graze on the succulent new grasses. This means that the unwanted weeds and grasses are controlled without any expense to the farmer, while the dhangars are able to perpetuate their herds. It is a win-win situation for everyone.

History and Posterity

In reading for another class I stumbled on this quote:

"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." - Edward Burke (1729 - 1797)

If we take this to be true, then where does the Western world sit? Where did the New World sit when it considered itself "without a history?" There could be no thought of future generations, because they wouldn't give a damn about the current one. Burke saw the acceptance of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" of economics and the Revolutionary War in his time. Things were changing quite rapidly. Could Burke have foreseen that half a century after his death the world's population would begin to grow exponentially? That we would start degrading the environment at such a high rate as to nearly ensure its total collapse? I'd say he saw our collapse, at least. Jared Diamond anyone?

- Aiden

The Course of Empire

"The Course of Empire" by Thomas Cole was a magnificent illustration of the ongoing cycle of mankind vs. nature throughout history. Although human beings may progress to the pinnacle of success, nature will always be one step ahead. Nature has a way of replenishing itself whenever it deems necessary, and Cole's painting dramatically depicts this fact.

-Robin Simpson

Panoramas: Close Enough to Nature?

It seems to me that panoramas appealed to the "civilized" masses of the nineteenth century because it provided people with a "safe" way to experience nature. Individuals sought to remain in their comfort zone while at the same time getting just "close enough" to the unknown wilderness. Their goal was use pieces of painted canvas to satisfy their desire to tune in with the unknown wilderness, rather than just experiencing firsthand interaction with the "outside world."

-Robin Simpson

Banvard's Folly

The wikipedia article about John Banvard discusses the popularity of his Mississippi panorama and describes how wealthy he became by exhibiting it here in this country and abroad.

After his European travels he built an enormous mansion on Long Island:

On his return his invested part of the fortune he had made in 60 acres overlooking Cold Spring Harbor on the North Shore of Long Island, where in 1852-55, in competition with P. T. Barnum's palace "Iranistan" in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he proceeded to design and have built a baronial residence from its eastern shore, which, it was given out, was intended to resemble Windsor Castle; he named the place Glenada, the glen of his daughter Ada, but the locals called it "Banvard's Folly".^[1] After his death it became a fashionable resort hotel, The Glenada.

Anyway. Never too early . . . the wiki article on panoramic painting goes into a fair amount of detail on the Romantics' criticism of such "mass" or "pop" culture. Great topic.

Man ranks in at #20 greatest villain of all time

I found this list of the Top 100 Heroes and Villains when I looked up Bambi online last week. Man ranks higher on the list for villains than Freddy Krueger, the Joker, and the Terminator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI's_100_Years…100_Heroes_and_Villains

Temple Grandin events next week

As promised, here is the info for the Temple Grandin events. Wednesday's lecture, as it turns out, is free. The movie on Thursday does cost some money (I forgot how much but I think it's something like $6)

Temple Grandin -- a scientist, innovator, professor, renowned animal welfare activist, much-in-demand veteran of the speaking circuit and one of the most accomplished and well-known adults with autism -- presents her final lecture as Cornell's Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor, "Animal Behavior and Welfare," Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m., Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. On Feb. 25 at 7 p.m., Willard Straight Theatre, Grandin and producer Scott Ferguson '82 present a new biopic from HBO, starring Claire Danes, which chronicles Grandin's life through the '60s and '70s. Information: http://cinema.cornell.edu.

Temple Grandin and animal agriculture

Hi gang,
as luck would have it, the following op-ed piece just appeared in today's New York Times.

Interesting in light of the points made in class this morning about Temple Grandin and the humane treatment of beef cattle. What do you all think? Is genetically-altered livestock a solution to the moral controversy over animal husbandry and/or meat eating?

February 19, 2010

Op-Ed Contributor

Not Grass-Fed, but at Least Pain-Free

By ADAM SHRIVER

St. Louis

IN the 35 years since Peter Singer’s book “Animal Liberation” was published, jump-starting the animal rights movement in the United States, the number of animals used in cosmetics testing and scientific research has dropped significantly, and the number of dogs and cats killed in shelters has fallen by more than half. Nevertheless, because the amount of red meat that Americans eat per capita has held steady at more than 100 pounds a year as the population has increased, more animals than ever suffer from injuries and stress on factory farms.

Veal calves and gestating sows are so confined as to suffer painful bone and joint problems. The unnatural high-grain diets provided in feedlots cause severe gastric distress in many animals. And faulty or improperly used stun guns cause the painful deaths of thousands of cows and pigs a year.

We are most likely stuck with factory farms, given that they produce most of the beef and pork Americans consume. But it is still possible to reduce the animals’ discomfort — through neuroscience. Recent advances suggest it may soon be possible to genetically engineer livestock so that they suffer much less.

This prospect stems from a new understanding of how mammals sense pain. The brain, it turns out, has two separate pathways for perceiving pain: a sensory pathway that registers its location, quality (sharp, dull or burning, for example) and intensity, and a so-called affective pathway that senses the pain’s unpleasantness. This second pathway appears to be associated with activation of the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex, because people who have suffered damage to this part of the brain still feel pain but no longer find it unpleasant. (The same is true of people who are given morphine, because there are more receptors for opiates in the affective pain pathway than in the sensory pain pathway.)

Neuroscientists have found that by damaging a laboratory rat’s anterior cingulate cortex, or by injecting the rat with morphine, they can likewise block its affective perception of pain. The rat reacts to a heated cage floor by withdrawing its paws, but it doesn’t bother avoiding the places in its cage where it has learned the floor is likely to be heated up.

Recently, scientists have learned to genetically engineer animals so that they lack certain proteins that are important to the operation of the anterior cingulate cortex. Prof. Min Zhuo and his colleagues at the University of Toronto, for example, have bred mice lacking enzymes that operate in affective pain pathways. When these mice encounter a painful stimulus, they withdraw their paws normally, but they do not become hypersensitive to a subsequent painful stimulus, as ordinary mice do.

Prof. Zhou-Feng Chen and his colleagues here at Washington University have engineered mice so that they lack the gene for a peptide associated with the anterior cingulate gyrus. Like the animals given brain lesions, these mice are normally sensitive to heat and mechanical pain, but they do not avoid situations where they experience such pain.

Given the similarity among all mammals’ neural systems, it is likely that scientists could genetically engineer pigs and cows in the same way. Because the sensory dimension of the animals’ pain would be preserved, they would still be able to recognize and avoid, when possible, situations where they might be bruised or otherwise injured.

The people who consumed meat from such genetically engineered livestock would also be safe. Knockout animals have specific proteins removed, rather than new ones inserted, so there’s no reason to think that their meat would pose more health risks for humans than ordinary meat does.

If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. It would be far better than doing nothing at all.

Adam Shriver is a doctoral student in the philosophy-neuroscience-psychology program at Washington University.

Bambi in popular culture

Here's a video with music from the Sex Pistols. "Who Killed Bambi?" circa 1978. From their The Great Rock and Roll Swindle album. Enjoy.

Names, Death, and Elephants

Ok, so I was reading Walking by Thoreau, and I found one idea particularly interesting:

Why do we have names?

Thoreau gave an example of how we presume to know an individual when we know the species, as in deer. If we know what one deer looks like, acts like, we know any individual deer.

After reading this, I (by happenstance) came across two very interesting objects on the internet.

One was a psychology experiment, and I saw it very briefly, so I can't recall many of the details.

It asked you to think of an elephant. So I did. Then it asked you to think of another elephant. So I did. Then it asked you if you thought of the same elephant twice.

Uhhh...I thought. Well, I guess I did. I couldn't differentiate between the two elephants.

The other piece of internet I uncovered was a short film called "Forevers not so long" (http://foreversnotsolong.com/). It is a movie, 12 minutes long, that recounts the last 4 hours of a man's life. You should watch it.

In the end, he finds a girl, spends a "lifetime" with her. But what I found interesting was that he never got her name, and she never got his. In fact, she declined to learn his name.

Maybe Thoreau was right. Maybe in human society the individual has been promoted so much that we loose the collective whole, and that our individuality is worthless. What is important is our interaction with other examples of our species.

Names get in the way of living. They preoccupy us with needless constructs, and take away from our humanity.

I am not a human, for I am Michael, but the elephant is always an elephant.

ooooh the irony

Thought it was a little ironic that after tonight's showing of Bambi I was walking home and saw four deer grazing in the Ag quad.

Theresa :-)

Wildness vs Wilderness

"...In Wildness is the preservation of the world." (Wildness is referred to eight times, once capitalized.)
"Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness!" (Wilderness is referred to eight times, never capitalized.)

Both of these quotes come from Thoreau. This idea of Wildness vs. Wilderness was brought up today in my Ethics and the Environment class. Wildness is a state of being, I understand from the reading, and Wilderness is the place where Wildness is seen, or a derivation of Wildness. Is Wilderness, then, the thing that needs conserving? Or should we focus on society and becoming more Wild in our ways? Wildness may be the preservation of the world, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Wilderness is its haven.

My favorite talking sock

I love this guy and what a deep thinker eh!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpiIWMWWVco

The Orangutan and the Hound

came across this national geographic video. may or may not be all that related but still kind of funny and interesting

http://video.tiscali.it/canali/truveo/611_1234581161.html

-Rebecca

Of Maharajas and Man-eaters

Reading about the hunts of medieval Europe for class reminded me of the stories that my grandpa used to tell me about the various hunts and 'shikars' of the Indian maharajas and their British benefactors during the golden old days of the British Raj in India. India had seen various forms of hunting since old times; the Mughals particularly liked to hunt blackbuck and other gazelles using cheetahs (the Indian Cheetah, now extinct due to over-hunting in British times). Falconry was also an established practice, and hunting falcons were accorded special treatment, including their own attendants and a special diet. The British obviously liked to hunt; in India, they found a formidable adversary that the open plains of East Africa did not have- theRoyal bengal Tiger. Notorious for its strength, ferocity and cunning as well as its penchant for thick forest, the tiger soon became the center of almost all British hunting expeditions. The Indian Princes, or the Maharajas as they were known (and there were plenty of them to be sure) loved to hunt too. Hunting also allowed them a chance to socialize with the British elite, allowing them to cultivate fruitful contacts and curry favor. The tiger hunts in those days were big affairs, complete with elephants to drive the tiger out of the bushes to stone monuments about the nitty-gritties of the hunt and the measurements of the animal killed. These measurements are somewhat of a joke; every British Viceroy to have served in India has claimed to have killed a huge tiger and broken a record, and the means of achieving a record were many a time inaccurate, to say the least. The attendants of the British saheb, in order to keep him happy, would come up with ingenious ways to increase the length of the tiger; E.P. Gee, one of India's first and finest wildlifers and a British ex-pat who preferred to live on in India after the end of the Raj, reports that the measuring tape would even be made to take a tour of the inside of the tiger's nostril to add a few more inches to the 'nose' to 'tail' length. This led to physically impossible records, including one by a particular Viceroy, who is reported to have killed a tiger over 12 feet in length !!

Outdoor recreation in Bruegel

Nice discussion of Bruegel's Children's Games at http://www.artyfactory.com/perspective_drawing/perspective_14.htm , with closeups of some of the activities and analysis of what the artist is up to.


Lots of fun websites just on this painting, some with extreme closeups on more of the details, e.g., http://www.learn.columbia.edu/arthumanities/websites/bruegel/children/ .

great paper topic!!

Hunters in the Snow

let's try this--some commentary on the "stag with a crucifix" from William Carlos Williams's poem on Hunters in the Snow:



We live in the golden age of technology!