Yes I am sure some of you dear readers are upset that I am putting Jews on the same level as cattle; but it is quite the opposite in fact, I am putting cattle on the same level as humans.

Some claim the Bible gives us dominion over all the other animals, I say “Bullshit!”, the Bible is only an excuse for us to treat animals differently, and has been used as an excuse for too long. We have taken dominion over many species but if God had really “given us dominion” over all other animals, we probably would not have wolves, bears, sharks, or mosquitoes. It is time we took our head out of the Bible and started poking our noses into the slaughterhouse.

Is that how you would want to die? Being warehoused, fattened up, then pushed through a series of shoots until the end. No hope for escape, no hope for a “better life”. Is this dominion over animals, or is it abuse?

Let me go to an extreme, if aliens came down, showed us a book that said they had dominion over us, would we simply allow them to slaughter us in the same fashion?

The way we kill the animals is considered “humane” either they are stunned first, then their throat cut, or under kosher law they killed by slitting their throat. Sadly these humane slaughter laws do not apply to all animals, rabbits, fish, and poultry are not so lucky. It is the way we warehouse them that is also an issue. When dogs are raised in the same way we raise pigs it is called a puppy mill and the public demands it be shut down, yet pigs are as intelligent as dogs.

We do not have to give up meat, that is not what I am saying, but we can do amazing things if we just consume less. Remember the correct portion size of meat is only about the size of a deck of cards, not a 8 oz steak. Remember also that we do not need to eat meat at every meal, or every day. In some nations people consider themselves lucky if they get meat once a month.

Isn’t it about time that we saw ourselves as guardians of the planet rather than as Nazi leaders over other species, deciding which is useful to us, which is not?

My tips to you:

• Eat smaller portions of meat.
• Have some meatless meals.
• Have some meatless days.
• Buy organically raised meat.
• Select free range eggs rather than battery hen eggs.
• Respect that all animals want to live just as bad as you.
• Do not wear fur.
• Read: What do we owe nature.

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Usually when I say anything about projects like cloning or genetic modification some scientist will start sneering about my being afraid I will grow a second head if I eat produce from things that have been scientifically messed about with. This is not so, I am very happy to eat many GM crops and will be just as relaxed about eating meat from cloned animals if it becomes available. The question is not “is it safe to eat but is it necessary?

The first beef from cattle that have been cloned rather than bred conventionally will be hitting supermarket shelves in the U.S.A within the next few months. according to reports circulating now. It will be enormously costly which suggests in the current financial climate it will stay on the shelves. But why do we need highly paid scientists working in expensively equipped laboratories to do what cows and bulls have been happy to do for free since before humans stopped dragging our knuckles on the ground.

The cloning process eliminates the need for sexual intercourse, eggs are taken from females, all the genetic matter is removed and then the “voided” egg is fertilised from the nucleus of a cell taken from the ear of a prizewinning bull and implanted in the womb of a cow. The process may produce genetic carbon copies of animals that are the finest example of their species, but is it fair to female cattle? Come to that is it fair to males. The sex act cannot be replaced by having someone tickle your ear for a few seconds.

Inevitably this new arrival in the food chain with spark ethical protests and we will be asked by organisations of the right and left, “is it right to clone animals?”

Personally, I would not give a hoot if my dinner is cloned, a steak is a steak and we should remember the first animals ever farmed for food were snails and as they are hermaphrodites they clone themselves in a manner of speaking.

Archaeological evidence traces snail farming back to 10,500BC and in all that time the question of whether it is ethical to eat animals that have shagged themselves has never arisen. Whatever snails do to in the privacy of their shells is their own business.

I, myself would not eat snails but for aesthetic rather than ethical reasons. If I don’t like the look of something there is no way it is going in my mouth. This probably goes a long way towards explaining why I’m 100% straight.

Having said all that, it is quite unlikely I shall ever eat cloned beef. While in my view it is not unethical, it is bad for the planet and bad for the future of civilisation.

Prime quality beef from grain fed cattle has an enormous carbon footprint and is a huge drain on food stocks. About seven pounds of good quality grain is needed to produce one pound of edible meat. With a global food crunch, the fertilizer crunch and the water crunch lurking in the shadow of the credit crunch, to encourage eating of intensively produced meat eating looks like economic madness.

Then there is the case of handing even more control of the food supply to a few multinational corporations that are already far too powerful. As previously mentioned, cloning needs an expensive laboratory and highly trained staff. I recently read a description of how many scientists are involved in producing beef this way. Add up the cost of feeding them, keeping them in warm, comfortable sheds and providing enough electronic gadgets to keep them amused and cloning is totally unfeasible on economic grounds, the question of whether we are likely to grow two heads does not enter the argument.

Then there are political considerations. None of the things needed to start a clone farm are readily available to Farmer Palmer. Nor are the products of cloning likely to be able to thrive on rough pasture as their ancestors could back in our knuckle dragging days.

The question need to ask then is how much harm are we willing to do to the planet just so scientists can prove their ability to do in the laboratory what animals have been doing in the wild for millions of years without any fuss. Strangely, confusingly some might think although it is not confusing to those of us who study the control freak ways of the science worship cult, it is the same people who scream most loudly about  the harm CO2 emissions might be doing who are most strongly in favour of cloning.

When this was first posted elsewhere the first comment I had was from a “scientists” who patronisingly explained that my fears were unfounded and cloned been was perfectly safe to eat. As my first sentence says cloned beef is safe to eat that reply tells you nothing about cloned beef but a lot about scientists. Number one: They’re not very bright, even when attempting to distort and obfuscate they are more likely to shoot themselves in the foot that hit their target.

What we should be doing if we care about the environment is reprogramming our modern diet, leading people away from intensively farmed produce like beef and chicken and towards rabbit, venison, mutton and goat (all far less destructive grazers than cattle and better equipped to thrive on what they find growing wild) pheasant and partridge, pigeon and quail. The north American Bison would make an ideal substitute for beef farmers in the USA, evolution has equipped it to do well on the rough, fibrous grass of the plains. In Canada and Alaska, norther Scandinavia and Siberia Caribou have found a niche while Yak inhabit the plains of central and east Asia.

The solutions to our problems are stating us in the face.  Control freak scientists employed by corporate interests are determined not to let us see them however.

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Peccavimus
Ten for 10

Ungulates:

Animals equipped with hoofs are known as ungulates. Included in this category are different kinds of animals that have hoofs.  Ungulates are divided into two groups: even-toed and odd-toed. Some animals have solid hoofs, such as the horse; others, such as the cow have split or cloven hoofs.  People may not be aware  that ungulates walk on tiptoes, as their hoofs are like the nails of human beings. Horses and zebras are odd-toed ungulates. Imbedded in their hoofs are bones of three toes. Pigs, llamas, camels, deer, cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes, etc.  are known as even-toed ungulates. Their hoofs cover four toes.  Ungulates also include elephants, except that their toes are padded, with toenails growing on the front edges.  Ungulates are herbivorous, with the exception of the pig family.

Valuable Uses of Uranium:

When we usually mention the word uranium, it immediately brings to mind the words, “atom bomb,”  and nuclear energy.  Years ago, prior to the the production of atomic energy, uranium did not seem to be as significant as it is today. Yet it is important when we consider that it is used in the making of steel alloys (metal mixtures). What it does is that it strengthens steel  by increasing its hardness, and elasticity without making it brittle. It is also used to manufacture yellow-green and red fluorescent glass, glazes pottery, its solution was once used in medicine to kill germs, as well as in certain chemical processes for the manufacture of rubber.   

Fraternities  and Sororities:

As we all know fraternities and sororities are college students’ clubs. They are known as Greek-letter societies for the reason that their names are borrowed from words in the Greek language, such as Sigma Alpha Epsilon. There are those that consider fraternities and sororities to be Hellenic, meaning Greek.   

Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Deansgate, Manchester.

A large heavy looking ox viewed from the side. The sign is misleading as the pub was originally called The Oxnoble, a variety of potato. The potato was brought into Manchester by river near here so many customers were potato pickers in the early 19th century.

The bar once had a singing room, reserved or rented out for choir practice.

The Oxnoble used to have its own unique pub pastime, called Trial by Judge & Jury. Locals would form themselves into arresting officers, and turn the main lounge into a makeshift courthouse, where twelve drinkers would form a jury, and another would preside as the judge. Other drinkers could then present a friend on some minor misdemeanour, for trial, and if found guilty, the accused would have to be fined into buying drinks for his friends. The mock trials were never sinister or malicious, and crimes might include not wearing one’s best shoes on a Sunday. The event was seen as tremendous fun while it was run.

Sources – Derek Brumhead & Terry Wyke – A WALK ROUND CASTLEFIELD 1989 Manchester Polytechnic Press. And Frank Heaton – THE MANCHESTER VILLAGE – DEANSGATE REMEMBERED 1995 Neil Richardson Press

Arthur Chappell

Image via Wikipedia

In ancient India, to prove their capability to provide for a woman, men would bring a desirable woman’s father cattle as a gift. The more cattle they could give him without going poor themselves the more capable the man would be deemed to provide for his daughter. In ancient India cattle was used as currency. This is why herds of cattle were given to the father. Today, fathers do not own their daughters (although it still is customary and completely romantic to ask the father for permission) and therefore proof of capability to provide is not given to the fathers but rather the woman herself. Today, cattle is not used as currency and instead to represent the man’s capability they give the woman a diamond ring. The bigger the diamond, the more capability the man has to provide for the woman. So in essence it’s all about how much money you can afford to throw away. I hope you enjoyed this did you know event brought to you by: Fish Flakes-if you buy our cereal you really will be throwing money away ;D

This is a very dangerous step, and life of all human beings taking this milk   will be at a great risk. It is now a known fact that cloned and genetically modified animals also suffer greater health problems, increased mortality and a high number of still births.

The genetically modified cows will be very much like those cows which are injected with genetically engineered ‘bovine growth hormone’. It is very likely that these new “humanized” dairy cows will suffer from poor health while producing milk. The milk so produced will be nutritionally inferior and more likely to trigger an allergy or increase cancer risks in the children or adults who drink it.

In fact the food produced from these genetically modified cows is dangerous for humans because the insertion of foreign genes into DNA strands will remain there. It is feared that these foreign genes will hit the DNA strands in random spots, changing the way they are expressed (turned on and turned off) and creating proteins never before ingested by human beings. These novel proteins could prove dangerous for large segments of the human population who are allergic to them.

This is not the end. Environmentally also, this is very dangerous. The gene so entered in the dairy cattle may find its route in to the larger population of these animals and may adversely affect the biodiversity.

Genetically engineered animals may prove bane to human beings if these are created thoughtlessly, without taking in to account their impending impacts on human beings and the environment. Don’t you think, through his thoughtless actions man is digging his own grave.

Jay Vardhan Sihag

Sun City World School

Gurgaon, Haryana, India

Think again. This is what our chickens are like. They were born without beaks and without eyes. They never saw the sunlight and they were never able to eat real food. The food they were given were the by-products of their ancestors, newly slaughtered. These are genetically altered chickens which are made strictly for the mass consumption of chickens in a time where fast food is the way to go.

Imagine living like these cows. You were born and immediately taken away from your mother and put in a room where you were fed milk along with cow blood. When you were old enough you were taken to a line next to hundreds of cows hooked up to a machine that takes your milk 24/7, standing in your own waste and ultimately you were going to be slaughtered. 

Animal cruelty is not right. These disgusting conditions is what you and I consume on a regular basis. I was going to say more and make this article more lengthy, but after finding and watching that video I am utterly upset and do not want to write anymore regarding this subject.

Karamoja is one place that brings something unusual about Uganda in very many unique angles every time one attempts to understand this backward part of our country.Since Independence, very little has been done by the many successive governments to transform Karamoja with a developmental agenda. The people in this region are generally cattle keepers who also enjoy milking, herding along side raiding cattle from their neighboring communities. As a result the Karamojong are considered very bad neighbors and many Ugandans who don’t share a common boundary with them thank their gods for such a geographical blessing.

They are very fierce and kill other human beings without any qualms. The hallmark of social class here is cattle-the more heads of cattle you have, the more you are respected by a Karamojong. They have it in their heads that all cattle in the world belong to them and they have a legitimate right to own cattle from any where by any means available-it could be via theft, marriage, trade or a raid.

Recently the government of Uganda came up with some very ingenious ways of imparting Education to the Karamojong. I have this feeling that this is perhaps the  first of its kind as an education system that the world has ever seen.                

The Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) was therefore, designed to cater for night classes. It was proffered against the backdrop of a high pupil drop-out rate in formal primary schools. So the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA) in conjunction with Government of Uganda considered this to be the best education system for Karamoja region.

This system of Education allows the pupils to get on with their normal and highly cherished cultural ways of life during the day, like, looking after goats and cows, going for water, tending to the crops and other chores. When the sun goes down and the cows and goats have been locked up in the kraals, classes then begin at designated homesteads. Semi-educated young Karamojong drop-out living in the villages conduct lessons in arithmetic and other disciplines like reading and writing from 7pm to about 10 o’clock in the night.   

The success story of this kind of education system is that even the parents interested in literacy are allowed to  study together with their children. This preparatory kind of education has made tremendous success in an area where formal education has been shunned for years. A good number of children who excel from these kind of classes then graduate to formal schools and they continue with their education. Generally, the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) has been a big success story in this backward area of my country.

By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Metaphor Essay

This story is about a boy named Tim who lives in the time of the Revolutionary War. His father, Life, fought in the Seven-Years War for the British. Tim’s mother is named Susannah.  Tim has a brother, Sam, who is fighting for the Patriots in the Revolutionary War. They live in a town filled with mostly Tories, who are people loyal to the king, so it was a big deal when he left for the army. Tim wants to go with his father on the annual trip to Verplancks Point to sell beef and acquire goods for their family run tavern, but his father is resistant saying, “I don’t like taking you, Tim, but I have no choice. There’s nobody else to do it” (Life, page #91). In the course of their journey to Verplancks Point, Tim will change mentally from a boy to a man.

Tim is very excited about his journey to Verplancks Point because this is his first journey away from home and he’ll get to miss a few days of school. Life is concerned about Tim’s safety during the trip because of the traveling thieves called cow-boys, but Tim tells him, “I’m pretty brave, Father” (Tim, page #91).  Life strategically plans the departure from their home to leave in November because the closer it is to winter, the scarcer beef is and the higher the price you can get (Tim, page #90).  They readied the cows and set off for Verplancks Point.

    At the beginning of the journey, Tim is very proud of himself and enjoys showing off his manliness to the younger kids in town. As the journey goes on though, the weather turns colder and it becomes more and more difficult to maneuver the cows. While they were marching through the thick snow, they are stopped by a group of thieves called cow-boys. The cow-boys attempted to rob them of the cattle but a few horsemen rode up and chased the cow-boys off in the nick of time. Tim was scared watching the cow-boys hit his father. After that point, Tim and Life traveled with escorts for safety to Tim’s cousin’s house in North Salem, and then to Peekskill. Once they passed through Peekskill they got another escort and arrived at their final destination of Verplancks Point.

    They sold their cattle to a buyer in Verplancks Point and began their journey back home. On the beginning of their trip, they are having no problems other than the snow and intense wind. The hoped that the cow-boys wouldn’t be out and about searching for them, so just to be safe, Tim and Life set up a plan. Life would ride on ahead and make sure there weren’t any cow-boys. Then he would ride back to check in with Tim. They repeated this process multiple times. Tim was beginning to day dream and lost his sense of time when his father hadn’t returned. He then began to worry and made a choice that he would leave the oxen and wagon on the side of the road and run up ahead to look for Life.  Tim notice many tracks which led him to believe his father had been captured. Tim ran back to get the oxen and goods. He made the adult decision to bring the oxen and goods home because he knew his family could not survive without them. Once night fell, he was still pushing on until he found three cow-boys waiting for him. Tim bravely tricked them by telling them a fake story and they rode away. Tim carried on and at midnight, he was home!

    Over his journey, Tim changed mentally from a boy to a man because of all the experiences during the journey, and the increased responsibility he had with his father gone. Tim traveled from his home in Redding Ridge, all the way to Verplancks point while trudging through snow, pushing the oxen, and encountering the cow-boys – not just once, but twice! He began to notice the realities of life when his father was captured. Once he got home, it was only Tim and his mother to run the tavern, care for the animals, clean the house, and put food on the table. Along with his regular duties, he had to do his father’s jobs also. But unlike before the trip, Tim didn’t complain about his chores and duties that had to be done. During his journey, his personality had change from an immature boy, to a mature man!

If a giant spaceship lands
to rescue many fellowbeings,
dear Lord, let me be unperturbed
and just stand and stare
and take one long and last look
at Nature’s marvels everywhere.

The lovely colorful butterflies,
all my feathered friends,
the furry creatures around
and the not-so-furry ones,
the honeybees and the green grasshoppers
flitting so fearlessly.

The tall trees, their spreading branches
their leaves and flowers and fruits,
the silent springs, the flowing rivers,
the serenading waterfalls, the placid lakes,
the lush green meadows with the cattle grazing,
the purple hills and the lovely valleys.

The blue sky, the white wandering clouds,
sunrays peeping through the canopy of trees,
a multi-hued carpet of flowers in the park,
dewdrops on the petals of flowers and on leaves and
ripples in the pond created
by the softly blowing breeze.

Rain clouds arriving from far and near,
lightning striking as if in warning
and thunder clapping
to confirm the warning,
and a heavy downpour
falling forth like nectar.

Adding an ethereal glow
to the Earth on her last day
would be a rainbow to adorn
her before the appointed hour.
O Lord! Let me just keep watching this sight
until I can see no more.

Let my eyes feast
on all of this and more.
Let me happily bid goodbye
to all of Your creations,
to my near and dear ones,
to all my friends and foes.

Let me write this verse now
for I may not have time
on the day when the world
is about to come to an end.
Let me also secretly hope that
the end heralds a new and bold beginning.