Podcasts about nz vegan

Listen HERE***NOTE: I AM NO LONGER AFFILIATED WITH OR SUPPORT TAVSHere is the facebook post I wrote: "Anyone who thinks there is no moral difference between, say, driving a car or taking public transport in vehicles that to our dismay may contain animal by-products, and for example eating a piece of cow's milk cheese, obviously doesn't realise that animals are property and what we are trying to abolish is slavery.There is a *huge* difference between the two examples. As vegans, we are frustrated, horrified and dismayed when we learn that there are some things that we must use that against our will contain animal by products. Such as sidewalks or footpaths, plastics, car tyres etc. Huge difference.The difference is thus: those things, those industries, those products, are not products based upon animal slavery. They are simply not. It is perfectly conceivable to have cars, concrete, paint, plastics etc, without any animal by-products in them whatsoever. And we are going to abolish that too, you just wait.However, cow's milk cheese is a product entirely based upon, produced by and dependant on animal slavery, and slaughter. You will *never* have cow's milk cheese without exploiting cows. It is a *slave* industry.So while as vegans we are working towards eliminating as much harm to others as we can, such as living in a world that doesn't use plastic at all would be lovely, a world in which no vegetable or fruit is produced with nonhuman slaves' manure, and in which we develop alternatives to a lot of harmful products and practices while of course eliminating any animal by products in their making, the NUMBER ONE THING we must do now is ABOLISH SLAVERY. And you *don't* do that by making twisted, incorrect comparisons between products such as vehicles (nothing to do with animal slavery, and yes we hate that there are the products of exploitation in there against our will, and watch us abolish that too! - but those products are in no way dependant on animal slavery) and animal products that people eat, wear or use that are *intrinsically* and *unavoidably* from slavery.I hope that clears up this silliness so we can get on with being consistent in our advocacy and no more making excuses for "vegans" who deliberately and directly participate in slavery by reminding us that we can't levitate, build entire new vegan painted city buildings/homes on our own (yet) or avoid the use of transportation to our jobs.Hey - if you can levitate - more power to you I am jealous. If you own a vegan car I love you for it. If you live in a custom house that is completely vegan painted/no animal by-product containing plastics/computer and phone the same - more power to you that is where we *all* should be headed.But don't get it twisted, and please don't EVER EVER justify or defend slavery."Here is the link to Gary Francione's Videos:  http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/video/#.Uf4k_BZD38sPlease watch them all.  You can see the Animals As Property video directly here also: http://vimeo.com/4807775#at=0Read this book to inform yourself also (read ALL HIS BOOKS): http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/books/animals-property-and-the-law/#.Uf4lXhZD38sAnd of course the new book Eat Like You Care  Here is the official website: http://www.eatlikeyoucarebook.com  If you have something positive to say, please leave a review! Finally here are those GORGEOUS new street stalls I told you about:

Listen HEREHere is the link to the Vegan Printer: www.veganprinter.comHere is links to heaps of the articles and Facebook postings about The Vegan Society debacle:THE "VEGAN" SOCIETY WITHDRAWS "THERE, WE SAID IT. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE VEGAN." - Facebook post about the 'rebrand' and the changes they made after the first protest of the new TVS campaignhttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/moment-silence-donald-watson-founder-vegan-society/#.U-9o90sQcbShttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/vegan-society-ambassador-fiona-oakes-veganism-not-for-everyone-probably-not-many-people/#.U-9cK0sQcbShttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/manager-vegfestuk-tim-barford-many-people-get-ill-vegan-diet/#.U-9clEsQcbQhttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/cant-make-stuff-vegan-society-ambassador-fiona-oakes-says-promoting-veganism-moral-imperative-causes-damage-animals/#.U-9cF0sQcbQhttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/vegan-society-corporate-partners-sustainable-animal-agriculture/#.U-9cBEsQcbQhttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/brought-vegan-society-disrepute-insisted-vegan-society-vegan/#.U-9cb0sQcbQhttp://www.abolitionistapproach.com/vegan-society-decide/#.U-9cqEsQcbQPart 1 of the debate between Tim Barford and Gary Francione: http://www.goveganradio.com/2014/08/04/3-august-2014/Part 2 of the debate:  http://www.goveganradio.com/2014/08/13/10-august-2014/Facebook events page for the debate: https://www.facebook.com/events/809889079061401/This is the debate between Gary Francione and Erik Marcus: a MUST listen for any advocate:  http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/audio/#erik-marcus-20070225  There is also a pdf of the transcript the relevant part I was referring to is here: "...as far as what we say to people who don’t ... I’m not really interested in designing campaigns – I mean look, Erik, there are going to be people who disagree, they’re going to be people who aren’t interested at all. So shall I design my campaign and shall I target my efforts to the people that don’t care? You know, last night I saw this movie Amazing Grace, it wasn’t a perfect movie, but it was certainly, given the grand scheme of horrible movies these days, it was a worthwhile movie to see. It was about Wilbur Wilberforce, who actually with Richard Martin, Ithink this is accurate, that he started the RSPCA in England, but William Wilberforcewas also an abolitionist with respect to slavery. And it was very interesting, because he had to confront this very issue. That, at the time that he decided slavery should be abolished most people thought slavery shouldn’t be abolished, and yet, he didn’t propose that we ought to make slavery more humane. He took an abolitionist position continuously, and eventually he prevailed. So I’m not really interested in worrying about – yeah, are there some people out there that don’t care? You used the expression “gratuitous cruelty” I don’t even know what the hell that means, Erik. I really don’t even know what that means, gratuitous cruelty. What does that mean? We don’t need to eat animals at all. Nobody maintains – its 2007, nobody, not even the United States government maintains that we need to eat any animal products to be optimally healthy. Indeed an increasing number of mainstream healthcare people are telling us that eating animal products isn’t good for us. So, all suffering in connection with animals that we’re raising for food is gratuitous. So I don’t know what you mean when you say gratuitous cruelty. But, are there people who don’t care? Yes, Erik, there are people who don’t care, and there are a lot of people who do care. And what I’m interested in doing is reaching those people, and when I reach them, the last thing in the world I want to tell them is, “Hey look, you’re going to go from Abu Ghraib to a minimum security Connecticut prison if you buy cage-free eggs.” I’m not going to tell them that. I’m going to tell them if they care about this issue there’s one choice: go vegan. And you know what? Some people are going to turn off to that, and some people are going to turn on to that, and what I’m interested in is the people who turn on to it, because every person I turn on to it decreases demand. That’s what we’ve got to do, is decrease the demand. And the way you decrease demand is you get people to stop using these products altogether. You don’t do it by imposing opportunity costs that are so deminimist that producers can pass those costs along to consumers and not lose a cent of profit. Indeed, there is a huge markup. I don’t know if you’ve shopped at Whole Foods recently, but they’re making a lot of money. Those products are marked up tremendously. Those producers are making a tremendous profit. I don’t think that’s the solution. As a matter of fact, I’m sure it’s not."Here is my Facebook status I read out:  https://www.facebook.com/NZVegan/posts/541388332629761"Listening to the second part of the debate between Gary Francione and Tim Barford. So far we are at just the first question, re: having groups like "Part-Time Carnivore" attend Veg Fest. Tim is justifying this by saying cutting down to say 20% animal products is still going to have an immensely positive effect on the environment and human health, as well as decreasing by 80% the amount of animals used.Nobody is disputing that less harm is better. Nobody is disputing that or has ever disputed that. It is not an issue that is focused on in human rights campaigning against fundamental human rights abuses like rape (I mean, less rape is better right? So should we campaign for 'less rape'? NO!!! We should and do campaign for NO RAPE!)The main theme of Tim's position and of every single other welfarist I have debated myself in various places, is the same one. Their position is: if you advocate for veganism unequivocally, not only will people not even begin to think about these issues at all, and therefore because they won't even begin to think about them that means they will therefore never start to examine their animal use, leading them to start to cut down on their animal use anyway, of their own volition, based on these issues they are beginning to think about because they were talked to about veganism - not only will they not do that, but that they will completely and utterly, down to the last person, freak out, reject the entire thing entirely, and will make NO reductions and might even increase animal use out of some kind of perverse notion and will never, ever go vegan, or ever cut down, or ever have their consciousness awoken in the slightest bit about the immorality of animal use.This is their claim. Based on this erroneous belief, they claim we *have* to promote "meat free Mondays" or "part time Carnivore" or welfare 'reforms' or 'cutting down' etc and we cannot promote veganism unequivocally or hold veganism as the moral baseline. Otherwise, they claim, NO ONE will make ANY CHANGES. EVER. That's their position.Does that make sense to you? That doesn't make sense to me either." Thanks for listening

Listen HEREHere is the link to the Facebook thread: https://www.facebook.com/NZVegan/posts/532236813544913It has died down now so I wasn't as time consuming as I thought.  Good!  Because I plan to do this more often as it needs to be done, as a lot of new vegans get sucked into welfare which is a terrible thing to happen.  We need to expose new vegans to abolition as quickly as possible - if only at the very least to give them the option to see the alternative.  Rather than them not even knowing it exists, or them only being exposed to the deliberate distortions of abolition by the welfarist movement.Please read the following essay: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/the-four-problems-of-animal-welfare-in-a-nutshell/#.U9FdgFYQcbQPlease listen to the following debate (they talk a lot about the HSUS sow crate campaign in this debate so it's worth a listen and is relevant to this SAFE campaign which is focused on 'factory farmed pork'): http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/my-dinner-at-eriks-happy-meat-diner/

Listen HEREThings I mentioned: My podcast episode about being unequivocal: http://nzveganpodcast.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/nz-vegan-podcast-episode-57-key-word-is.htmlArticle I mentioned from the Abolitionist Approach website: Veganism: Just Another Way of Reducing Suffering or a Fundamental Principle of Justice & Nonviolence?The supremely important book I mentioned:  Introduction to Animal Rights - Your Child or the Dog?Here is an example of an article from The My Face is on Fire blog that is quick to analyse misrepresentations of veganism in mainstream media: http://my-face-is-on-fire.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/vegan-challenges.htmlMy website: www.nzvegan.com and the page I mentioned about sanctuaries and rescue orgs I link to: SanctuaryHere is the group in Brasil that I mentioned: GEFRAN (run by http://www.veganospelaabolicao.org)An example of the posters from the Abolitionist Approach facebook page with the motto: Go Vegan, Educate Others, Adopt/Foster: POSTERFinally the New Series: TIWISBD (Things I Wish I had Said But Didn't) that I spoke about on my NZ Vegan facebook page lol. I am sure I will be adding to this repertoire:  https://www.facebook.com/NZVegan/posts/371795796255683Here is the link to the Huffington Post article that I mentioned in the beginning(NOTE - I forgot to mention that it only addresses diet *sigh* oh and don't look at the "celebrity 'vegan'" slideshow - MFIoF could write a few articles about that alone):  Interest in Vegan Diets on the RiseThanks for listening. :)

Listen HEREHere is the quote I was trying to say on the show"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret MeadThis is the Gandhi quote I have on my 'cubicle' wall at work:"Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another." ~ GandhiHere are the posters I have on my cubicle wall at workHere is a link to the interview of Gary Francione by Erik Marcus: MP3 or listen on the Abolitionist Approach Audio page.Please read Gary Francione's booksHere is our Facebook Group that I talked about: Oz Vegan & NZ VeganHere is the link to Emmy James' new podcast that I mentioned: Activism and the Message We Want to Send

Listen HEREThis week I talk about some great local activism done by Sam, a NZ Vegan who is 13 years old, who blew me away with his new website, the first real website from New Zealand that gets to the truth of what dairy products really are, using a New Zealand perspective which is so important in our culture, and spreading the word about veganism in a very effective way!NZ Dairy CrueltyThanks Sam! I am very grateful, I can now recommend this site to local people to show them the truth right from their own backyard, and it is a fantastic resource for us who are spreading the word about this cause and to educate people about veganism.This week I talk a lot about my country as I am trying to bring the vegan abolition message to more people here, and I am looking forward to doing some grass roots activism with my abolitionist colleagues, and I am hoping to be prepared for anything, but I know we will learn as we go along.I hope to have more guests on the show soon!

LISTEN HEREThis week I have a very special guest over for dinner and cupcake making and podcasting - Emmy James from Peaceful Abolitionist and the Vegan For Life podcastEmmy is the very talented designer of our NZ Vegan logo and check out these wonderful designs she hand painted onto shirts and sweatshirts also. See also the photo of Clare who we mention who has helped us at the stall and is so much fun!Thanks for listening!

Listen HEREA Revolution of the Heart by Gary FrancioneSingle Issue Campaigns - Pruning Exploitation - by Dan Cudahy and Angel Flinn - the podcast version can be found here at Live Vegan's YouTube pageThe ever important debate between Erik Marcus and Gary FrancioneMy previous podcast on the "you don't care about the animals who are suffering now" accusation.Our NZ Vegan Facebook PageOur OZVegan & NZVegan Facebook groupThe No Kill Movement

Episode 47 My New Animal Rights PodcastWelcome to an extra short episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast. My intro was my latest mention on No Agenda, although Dvorak got my podcast wrong, I DO NOT own the NZ Vegan podcast :) I do enjoy telling people to search for "NZ Vegan" when they look for my podcast on iTunes, because searching for "NZ Vegan" shows up all the New Zealand Animal Rights podcasts. I almost uniformly love each and every one of the results.I just wanted to let everyone know, I've decided to do all future animal rights, and Vegan related episodes under a separate designation. This will make it easier to just listen to the episodes you are actually interested in, if you want to only hear me talk about NZ news or movies, or if you want to only hear vegan topics. Or, ideally you could subscribe to both!The name of my new podcast, chosen by my friend Sam Tucker, is Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals. I asked for help on Veganzchat, an email group, with a starting point of " living with animals ", asking for it to be improved upon. Sam kindly came up with Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals. I like it very much, although it is a long name. You can find that blog at Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.blogspot.com. I'm not sure how often I'll update each podcast, just when I feel like it most likely. To make up for this being a short episode, Im going to include some of my favourite outro clips. I have the autotuned Glorious Dawn, using clips of Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, an american church which has banned Pepsi, and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, on the iPhone before it were released.Just to make it clear, you can find Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals on iTunes, by searching for it by name, although it shows up just fine if you search for " jay wont dart ", both my podcasts will show. You can also find the blog at coexisting with nonhuman animals . blogspot.com.Thank you for listening.You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.comIf you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.I hope you check out Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals.Have a super happy day, bye.

Episode 45 Earthlings Hello and welcome to another fine episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast. This episode, I'll talk a tiny bit about Earthlings. I have two fairly long pieces of audio that will make up the majority of this episode. My intro is an old Australian news story of an animal who tried to escape from a zoo.Earthlings is a very important movie to me, I think it says almost all that needs to be said on the side of veganism. Earthlings shows basically all the ways animals are used in todays society. It has graphic footage, from well known animal welfare groups such as PETA, and is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, who is vegan. Instrumental music throughout the movie is performed by well known vegan musician Moby.This is a few minutes of audio from Earthlings.I first saw Earthlings because Elizabeth Collins, of NZ Vegan podcast told me to. I was lent the movie by an Invercargill SAFE member, who hadnt watched Earthlings because they had heard how graphic it is. Its true, Earthlings has a lot of violent imagery, but I think its our duty as human beings to see what we have done, and continue to do to the world. To talk a little bit about Earthlings, here is Elizabeth, in a clip she recorded literally MONTHS ago for me :)I'd like to thank Elizabeth for taking the time to add to this episode. Its taken me long enough to make this episode, but its finally done! You can find Elizabeth on iTunes by searching "NZ vegan", or at nzveganpodcast.blogspot.com as well as NZ Vegan Podcast on Twitter.Thank you for listening. My outro is a Seinfeld clip.You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.comIf you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.Have a super happy day, bye.

Episode 39Dog eating = Lamb beheading = Cat dissectionHello and welcome to Jay Wont darts podcast, where I cover shocking animal treatment worldwide, and that includes Nuclear Free, Gods Own, clean green New Zealand.My intro was from episode 100 of No Agenda.I'd been planing to talk about the topics of this episode for months, I've heard many stories of animal abuse that are all equally shocking, but I wanted to fit them together somehow. I've decided to do this episode now, because animal treatment has been in the New Zealand news. Just today, it was reported a Tongan man living in Auckland New Zealand had killed his dog. This has been on the mainstream news, and will be talked about for weeks to come. Also, a boys pet lamb had its head cut off, and he found it dead. This made national news. I would like to mention another shocking animal story, in America its apparently quite common to dissect cats, actual pussy cats, in high schools and universities. I cant imagine that happening in New Zealand, although its hard to imagine anyone cutting open cats.First the New Zealand stories.Lamb BeheadedThis story was reported on by a Taranaki newspaper, I dont know where exactly this happened, but its somewhere in Taranaki, New Zealand."Pet lamb beheaded in paddock A little boy went out to cuddle his pet lamb and found somebody had cut its head off."Who could do such a sadistic thing?" his mother Mandy Kalin is asking.The Dorset Horn ram lamb was about six months old and had been bottle-reared by the three children. Braith, aged 4 1/2 years, had claimed it for his own and named it Shaun (after the Wallace and Gromit character).On Tuesday evening Braith went out with his dad Jason to feed the animals on their lifestyle block near Eltham. Shaun wasn't running about on his chain."Dad, why has Shaun got no head?" Braith asked. "Why isn't he moving?"Shaun was dead and his head with its little horns was missing. They later concluded the head must have been wrapped in a towel taken from the clothesline, because there was no blood.Nobody was home during the afternoon and Shaun had no fear of humans.Mrs Kalin said she wanted the sick person responsible for the killing "to know that this was a little boy's pet and he made this horrible discovery himself"."I want that person to feel bad about the terrible thing he has done."The kids are petrified. It's not something we can hide from them, we've had to tell them what happened. The other sheep in the paddock, which was also on a chain, wasn't touched. If the lamb had been killed for the meat while they were grazing on the roadside, I could possibly understand it, but not this."It's not something a normal, straight person would ever do."Jason Kalin has told the police he suspects somebody with a grudge was responsible, but can't discuss the details. The police told him there have been no other such incidents in the area."Ok, I feel this story is awful, so do most people. My point is, whats the difference between this baby sheep, and all the other sheep killed in New Zealand every day? That a little boy loved this particular sheep, and that he doesnt cry about all the other sheep in New Zealand who are slaughtered, I dont see that as a big difference. Im not heartless to the child being upset, but to me, this sheep is just one out of many who are horribly killed everyday. This was reported on in mainstream New Zealand news, we can all agree killing a pet sheep is awful. But, these same newspapers will advertise butchers, often I see ads in The Southland Times featuring the latest cheap meat at local butcheries. Theres an ad on the Golden Oldies radio station thats on at work, it has the Beef + Lamb Theme song, that Im told used to be a T Rex song, "dum dum dum we love to boogie", you know what I mean. Now whenever I hear that song, I think of meat. On this particular radio ad, the voice over guy uses a real Southern Bloke voice, he talks "kinda like this mate, a real tough southern bloke, not like those jaffas in auckland mate, nah mate, hes a REAL man who eats meat and drinks speights beer!". The guy mentions the "bloody good meat prices, top quality, you pay, just less". Does anyone else hearing the ad notice the words "bloody" and "meat" the way I do? Its not a nice image, I dont want to buy something thats bloody, or meat. I know its just the kiwi slang, saying somethings "bloody" doesnt mean is dirty, its used like "damn", as in "damn good".Also, how are these prices so low, how can a farmer offer cheaper meat at the same quality? Id assume the easiest way would be to care less about the animals needs, not spend so much taking care of an animal, instead reduce your costs and pass it on to the consumer.This is why I dont agree with Animal Welfare, when the farmers are for Animal Welfare, you know its bad. When people who promote Animal Welfare eat animals themselves, its obvious its not going to eliminate people killing animals, is it? I dont know any Abolitionists who eat meat, so Animal Abolition must be a better, common sense position to take on these issues.Tongan Man cooks his pet dog to be eaten.I happened to hear about this through the TradeMe message board. I'll play a TVNZ news clip about the story.aww isnt that nice, instead of eating their unwanted animals, now they will dump them at animal shelters. Real progress being made.The story has been all over the internet, and I expect it to be bought up in newspapers nationwide in coming days, old media is always late to the party.Basically the issue is, its apparently not illegal what the man did, he killed the dog "humanely", im doing quote movements with my hands as I say that, "humanely", with a bonk on the head. The dog was then cooked outdoors. I've seen photos of the dog, and it doesnt look like it were cooked at all, it has a couple of patches on it, but its not singed black from head to tail, and it doesnt look like it was even gutted. People online are furious, I often go to the Trademe Message board to see what the nation is talking about. On the Trade Me Message Board, you mostly see right wing racist remarks, blaming the government for making everyone too "soft", "everything these days is too PC, all this politically correct bullshit, in my day we beat our kids for reading books and getting smart, and now we have this internet thing and the violent video games have made all the toddlers into Charles Mansons, its those weed smoking hippies in the Green party who are to blaaaaaaaaame". You can never expect a serious discussion on the message board, its an auction site, not a dedicated forum, there are few tools on the forum, and yet it is by far New Zealands most popular local site, and the place people go to talk about politics and whats happening.Im really impressed with the number of people who mention that dogs are no different than any other animal killed to be eaten. Its really made me feel like I have some support, like Im not the only one advocating leaving animals alone. Others have mentioned not eating any animals, but they dont get taken seriously. The other side blames all the Pacific Islanders and Asian people for eating dogs, and they cant seem to get it that when it comes to animals, all men are Nazis as Isaac Bashevis Singer said. I wish I could make them believe me when I say all animals are equal, all should have the right to live their lives, but they seem to deny any similarities. Some arguments I've seen are that "we dont do that in New Zealand", as if we are good people and people overseas who eat dogs are terrible. I dont understand how anyone can say things like that.I also have the SPCAs view on this event, listen to what they talk about, they clearly mention animal WELFARE, and mention how difficult it is to change the law, as it could make all animals un killable. What an awful world that would be, if it were illegal to kill cows and chickens and pigs and sheep and dogs......There we go, confirming animals are legally just peoples property, you own them, and can do anything you want to them. Yet another reason to reject animal welfare, and instead focus on creative vegan education, as the wise sage on NZ Vegan says. Researching this episode I've found other websites that talk about eating cats and dogs. Apparently its common to eat dogs in Tonga. I found one website that had a tourists account of eating dog. I'll read the full post , the website url will be in my notes."Kai Kule – Eating my first dog. October 13 2007Don’t come over for lunch, the dog we planned to eat has run off. We are looking for it.”Mau, the talking chief of the village has arranged for me to “Kai kuli” or eat dog. His cousin has been fattening one up and today was the day.Disappointed I ate lunch with my host family.It was a few hours later that Mau called back. “They found the dog!”My host mom, Sila bounced us over the unpaved road to Mau’s cousin in the four-wheel drive van. We could already smell roasting flesh rising from a hole dug in the back yard. A traditional Tongan umu, it’s fire fueled by coconut husks. All that remained were the coals and red-hot rocks heated by the fire.A heap of steaming intestines lay on a banana leaf before dogs and pigs devoured them. The hide was already gone, only patches of dark hair remain. A bag made fro a leave held the chopped up heart, which along with the head went into the umu.A layer of sticks supported another layer of leaves and an old carpet. Once the carpet covered the hole, one of the men shoveled dirt over it to complete the umu.After a short trip to the beach we returned to the house. The men opened the umu releasing the greasy smell of roast meat. Banana leaves tossed into the yard served a our picnic table as the sizzling carcass was picked up with sticks and dropped in our midst. A few quick hacks with a knife to dismember the dog, a few shakes of salt into piles on the leaves and we were ready to eat.A prayer in Tongan and everyone started to rip into the food with their bare hands. My host mother, Sila, announced that it was a “greasy dog”. I had just taught her the English word a few hours earlier.It took only a few minutes and the ribs lay bare. One of the men ripped open the leaf bag and we all reached in to try the pieces of heart.Grease covered my hands and face. Beneath my nails dog sat dog meat. No – there are no napkins here…This was a great chance to share a cultural experience with some of the men of the village. I now have Mau’s phone number and am comfortable sitting next to him at the Kava circle. I am learning to network in Tonga."Cat Dissection.This article was in the Miami Herald, you can find this story at Miami Herald.comA teen accused of killing 19 cats must be held for 48 hours as doctors conduct a psychological evaluation, a judge ruledAlleged cat mutilator Tyler Weinman is no stranger to feline anatomy -- he dissected the animals last year in class at Palmetto High.That revelation came Monday, the same day a judge ordered Weinman, 18, to stay in jail for 48 hours pending a psychiatric evaluation. He is accused of slaughtering 19 house cats across South Miami-Dade.Palmetto High anatomy teacher Lynn Evans, a self-described animal lover, said she was shocked to learning her quiet former student had been arrested and charged with cruelty to animals.''I don't know how we can bridge the gap between a controlled [classroom] situation, to what this disturbed young man has done,'' Evans said in an interview, adding that about 8,000 of her students have dissected cats during her 24 years of teaching anatomy.The investigation into the mutilated cats -- found strewn throughout South Miami-Dade -- has for weeks riveted South Florida, terrorized pet owners and sparked massive media attention.Weinman was charged Sunday with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, and 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body.Back at Palmetto High, students and staff were still stunned by Weinman's arrest.Anatomy ClassEvans, the anatomy teacher, said that dissecting dead cats -- the packaged corpses are distributed by biological supply companies -- is common because the animals have an internal body structure similar to humans.''Decades of people in the anatomy field have started with dissecting cats,'' she said.Investigators, still chasing leads that could net more arrests, were mum on whether Weinman's classroom training played a role in the teen's alleged crime spree. Prosecutors say they have a suspected motive, but cannot release details.''We are aware that he attended the anatomy class,'' said Von Zamft, who declined to comment further because of the ongoing probe."As I mentioned at the start of this episode, its apparently common in America to dissect cats in high school and university. PETA wrote an open letter to the principal of the boys school. I'll read part of PETA's letter.PETA's Open Letter RE Cat Killer"You may also be aware of the well-established link between animal abuse in adolescence and subsequent violent behavior toward humans. For example, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer attributed his fascination with murder and mutilation to classroom dissections. In the last interview before his death, televised on Dateline NBC, Dahmer stated, "In ninth grade, in biology class, we had the usual dissection of fetal pigs, and I took the remains of that [pig] home and kept the skeleton of it, and I just started branching out to dogs, cats." According to Dahmer, he enjoyed the excitement and power he experienced when cutting up animals and fantasized about cutting up a human body. This disturbing cycle of violence can be curtailed by instilling respect for animals in students at Palmetto High. A good place to start is to provide them with humane science lessons in place of lessons that teach students to treat animals as "objects" that can be used and abused at will. "In America, companies provide dead cats, sealed in bags, to dissection classes. Large companies do nothing but procure animals, and prepare them to be killed.I'll read from one companies websites, the Carolina company, links are in the notes."Why dissect a cat?Computer-assisted learning and the use of plastinated specimens can supplement dissection, but they cannot give a complete idea of what an organ or organ system is really like. Dissection is the best way for students to obtain knowledge of tissue characteristics, such as strength, composition, color, and texture and to understand the 3-dimensional relationships of organs and organ systems. One of the best specimens to use for exploring mammalian anatomy is the cat. It is large enough for its internal organs (which are much like our own) to be found easily and for its blood vessels to be traced, but not so large as to present special difficulty in storage and handling. Preserved cat specimens are also reasonably priced and readily available.How does Carolina obtain its cats?Animal shelters licensed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) supply us with euthanized cats that would otherwise be destined for the landfills were they not reutilized for science classrooms. The USDA, under the Animal Welfare Act, governs the procurement of animals. Carolina is proud to have an outstanding USDA inspection and compliance record, and we are committed to treating all animals in a humane manner."Did you like the words used? "reutilized" is a good one, as in cats had an original purpose, are worthless dead, but oh wait! look! Carolina dead cat company to the rescue! They REUSE dead cats, isnt that great? Very green, Carolina really cares for our environment, because we only have one mother earth you know! Cripes, what a load of trash! Theres no nice way to explain a bunch of kids hacking up kitty cats.I've heard reports from well known sources that many of these preserved cats are infact Mexican pet cats, that vans go about villages with a siren going off, alerting people to bring out cats to be sold. People will trap cats, knowing the van will be doing its rounds soon. These poor mexicans will sell cats for about a US dollar, and then companies that sell the preserved cats, will make much, much more than that. I've seen these preserved cats selling for about 50 US dollars, thats about 70 dollars NZ lets say. A lot of money really, there are some kits for a full classroom that are over 500 US dollars. Im told the cats are drowned, then are injected with preserving fluids, they are drained of blood and have resins injected into their ateries etc to make them more visible, easy for teachers to point out to students, as the cats are hacked at.Carolina has a website where you can buy cats, dogs, and fetal pigs. They sell preserved sheeps organs, although i didnt see any full preserved sheep for sale.Do you know what I find so odd about this? That Carolina is so open about what they do, as if this is totally normal, to be cutting up cats and dogs who were abandoned at animal shelters, left to die. They even have a Twitter account, shocking huh?http://twitter.com/CarolinaBioThey have over 50 people following them.In america, I'm told over 100,000 cats are dissected every year. Included in my notes are graphic pictures of how the cats are stored in bags, legs all stretched out as if in pain, and how they are cut up. I really hope you will look at these upsetting photos, because it really puts everything into perspective. Its all well and good talking about these problems, but I believe that these photos will really move you, its so obviously a cat in the photos, no different than all the other cats people have as pets. Looking at photos of animal abuse lets people decide for themselves whats happening, theres not any bias passed on by a story teller, instead you see the event frozen in time, as a photo.I hope you've listened all the way through this episode, I know its a difficult topic. I wish people would see that cats, dogs and other pets are no different than any other animal, as these stories appear in the mainstream media, I hope to promote veganism. So far, I've only been met with ridicule, with people telling me Im nuts for not eating meat, but I'll keep at it, it doesnt take that much effort to be heard online, and if just one person decides to become vegan because of me, then its truly worth my time.Thank you for listening.You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.comIf you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it. My outro is from No Agenda 117Have a super happy day, bye.Sources========Tongan man cooks doghttp://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/no-charges-man-barbecued-dog-2919419tv3 videohttp://www.3news.co.nz/SPCA-concerned-after-dog-eating-incident/tabid/572/articleID/116902/cat/41/Default.aspxeating dog in tongahttp://tongaadventure.blogspot.com/2007/10/kai-kule-eating-my-first-dog-oct-13.htmlCat Killerhttp://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/06/does_high_schoo.phpCat dissection photos etchttp://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Labs/Anatomy_&_Physiology/A&P201/Cat_Skinning/Cat_Skinning.htmCarolina dead cat supply company (my words)http://www.carolina.com/product/221481.dohttp://www.carolina.com/category/teacher+resources/dissection+activities+and+resources/cat+dissection.dohttp://www.carolina.com/product/455572.dohttp://bio.bd.psu.edu/cat/cat dissection factshttp://www.sniksnak.com/aavs3.htmlPETA letter, from PETACat Killer news stories from Miami Herald,

Episode 35Joys of human invention Hello, and thank you for joining me on another super special episode of Jay Wont dart's podcast.For episode 35 I'll talk about some , such as Alex, the artificial voice that comes with Apple's OSX. My intro was Underwear Goes Inside The Pants, a song by LazyboyI like alot of things, both living and not alive. I like birds, bees and blueberries, but also expensive technology, cars, computers and laser death rays. To reference a prior episode about the scary old hospital here, as I walked through the old ruins, its not quite like roman era marble blocks, all weathered away over the centuries, but it sure is awfully dated inside, I started to think about how cheap a lot of man made things are. Things are made to be disposable, things get outdated from how they look. Take buildings, in just 10 years a building will be seriously out of fashion really. I remember thinking Splash Palace, the fancy swimming pool here in Invercargill, it was amazingly modern, it had an expensive, and modern design, kind of swooping lines, like a split open shellfish really. Its in pastel colours too, very light red, green, maybe pink? Made in the late 90's I think, it looks kinda crappy now. The council cheaped out on a lot of the materials, to save money, I seem to remember it costing half what it initially was going to. Within the first year I think, tiles inside started to break off, coming off the walls altogether or chipping, the steam room caused storage areas behind it to rot, the wave pool was designed for kids, it has, well, wave generator machines that make artifical waves that go through the pool, that was useless to teach children how to swim in, because of its odd shape, I know, I was a swimming instructor for a couple years. During a bad storm, part of the roof over the wave pool ripped right off, it was held down with sand bags during repair. The problems dont stop there, the main pool was meant to not really need chemicals to keep the water clean, or they were to be very slight, so you wouldnt get red eyes, that filtering system never worked, so chlorine had to be dumped in, I need googles when I swim otherwise my eyes get all red and sore. Parts of the floor around the pools would get very slippery, made from tiles, and gritty cement, that felt like sandpaper really, you can grate your feet on it. The hydroslide never worked properly, it was completely made wrong, the tubing was from an old Invercargill pool, I loved that hydroslide, it was in North Invercargill, I didnt get to go often, when I did I loved the hydroslide. It was a big deal. The south Invercargill pool before Splash palace, on Connon Street by Pak n Save, it never had anything fancy like hydroslides. When the kinda dingy south invercargill, and ritzy north invercargill pools shut down, the hydroslide was to go at the new, single Invercargill pool. For some reason, they tubing never was right, and so the fancy recycled hydroslide was slow, very short and boring as hell. At first it was rough inside too, you could get deep marks from joins between tubes. I've seen some hydroslides where you need to have foam mats, like the awesome Nelson hydroslide. If you come off, you get scoured by the rough fiberglass.So, the hydroslide didnt work. The pool needed extra seating, that had to be bolted on to one side of the building years later, it cost a huge amount of money, and the main building had to be extended out over the pavement. A learners pool was eventually made, since the wave pool sucked big time for swimming lessons.Ok, well, my point is, this huge fancy man made building was so amazing when it opened, the opening ceremony was at night, it was on national tv, that lotto break between the big family movie on a Saturday night, about 7:30PM, where the lotto ticket numbers are announced live. I had to be in Dunedin , and watched on TV. It was a big deal, probably the best swimming pool in New Zealand! But, it was rushed through, money was saved wherever possible, and the thing started to fall apart quickly. Now, its dated looking, and I have bad memories about it. While Im picking on Splash Palace, I should probably mention when I first got to go, there were huge lines since it was new, I think we waited literally hours outside in the queue, you dont normally need to wait for ANYTHING in little old Invers. The sun was so hot, it had melted the new bitumen, fun word to say, the black tar kind of car park flooring, what roads are made from. So we got sticky tar all over our feet. Oh, and then theres that time I did the longest distance for school swimming, 1500 metres, the pool is 50 metres, split into two 25 metres lengths, so thats 30 laps there and back. I started off doing it with Chelsea in front of me, she decided not to do the full distance this time, and got out, I stopped too, to see what the problem was, I was told to carry on, so I did alone. It was weird not following someone anymore, the pool felt lonely, very quiet, and nothing to look at. It took me about an hour to do the total distance, I was going very slowly to save energy. I thought my friends would be watching from the side of the pool, cheering me on. So I had that kinda bravery in my head, like im going to get some respect for doing the 1500 Metres. When I actually had done the distance, I thought I had another two laps to go for some reason, I got smacked on the head with a kickboard, SLAP they go when they hit the water, I got hit on the head, bit my lip and hit the wall! It was the crazy old coach guy, telling me time to stop. He said something like "hmmngg good on ya lad hmmmmggaaach burhogh *COUGH*" as I stood up dazed from hitting the poolside with my smacked head. Turns out, my friends were kinda watching, and saying "hes going to stop this lap, no, this lap", placing bets about when I'd give up, not believing in me at all! Bastards! Whats worse, my two best equal friends had only done 50Metres each, thats 100 metres between the two of them! I could have done that when I were 2 years old! Scum!This has turned into quite the Splash Palace episode huh? Ok, so what I was saying before, the pool was all cool and new, it was shiny, and the best pool in the country, it was on national primetime television for an opening by the prime minister, I think. But, within a year or two, it was falling apart, and now ten years on, its kinda shitty looking. What I'm trying to say is, often man made things break down, or go out of fashion quickly. Splash Palace was falling apart after a year or two, cutting edge for 5 years maybe, ten years on it sucks. Compare this to a bird, at the old hospital when we were taking things away, I saw some dead birds inside the old abandoned hospital wards, a sparrow that looked like it was sleeping. Its feathers were all perfect, very clean looking. Perhaps it just starved to death, trapped inside after it climbed in through a leak hole in the roof. It was close to a window, it could have been flying straight into the glass until it killed itself for all I know. I hate when birds do that, its really upsetting. Its kind of like they are in a blender.But even with my gruesome thoughts about how it must have died, it was still so much nicer than all the things around it, this dead animal was so much prettier than any of the bedside cabinets, or the brown paper bags saying "patients belongings", or the metal bedpans old people have crapped in thousands of times. Looking at the pattern of its feathers, it was so perfectly beautiful, in a way that modern colour schemes, fads, fashions, just dont normally live up to. Using the Invercargill swimming pool again, it was dated within ten years, compared to Sparrows that have been the same for hundreds of years, maybe thousands, or even millions, and still look incredibly nice. They're not made out fancy colours like hummingbirds, they cant fly as well as a Dragonfly, and they dont quite have the same appeal as Blackbirds to me, but the dead Sparrow was so much nicer looking than the dead hospital. Just in front is the modern hospital, that was opened 5 years or so ago. Its also plagued with pastel colours, like Splash Palace, theres these painted rectangles on the sides, lavender, light green, light pink, a light blue, a purple I think. Its shitty looking! Absolute bullshit compared to the prettiness of a simple dead bird. Using only three colours, brown, grey and black, the sparrow was so much nicer than the hospital building, with all those awful bright/faded pastel fruit colours.So, I can understand that aspect to the manmade creation haters flying spittle braying, that most buildings that are slabs of concrete, thrown together by tradesmen, they dont last over time! They are ugly compared to natural animals, or even sand dunes, mountains, waves. I totally understand that.BUT, BUT, there are plenty of beautiful man made buildings too, things like Skyscrapers, many of those are just terrrific. My favourite that I can think of would be the Chrysler building, in New York. I like it better than the Empire State Building, The Empire State is taller and more well known, but its a more boring looking shape. The Chrysler looks thinner, its rounded at the top, with shiny steel ornamentation up to the spire. Coming off the building, on corners, are giant Eagles, based on a Chrysler car decoration at the time. The Chrysler Building was started in 1928, and finished in 1930. The Chrysler cars of the time are long gone really, and I dont like ANY american cars generally, but the building is still amazing to look at. To think, very soon Chrysler might be a forgotten name altogether, the way the American Car makers have been since the 1970's. I said to my dad recently, its funny that the only time that Americans made arguably good cars was in the 1950's, and 1960's. When the rest of the world had been at war, getting factories and millions of people blown up, and then struggling to rebuild. As soon as the Japanese and Germans had their shit together again, they kicked america firmly in the butt, I dont think theres ever been an american car as good as a German or Japanese car of the same age. If we think that american car companies got it all wrong in the 1970s, thats when America was all tangled up in Vietnam, while Japan had rebuilt and was designed cars American people wanted. Now in 2009, while America is at war in the middle east, their car companies are begging for more bailouts. Thats a good case for Pacifism if ever I heard one! About buildings, I dont like large crowds, I'm from a city of 50,000 people. If theres a single person at the supermarket counter ahead of me, I consider it a line. If I could have the house of my dreams, I'd actually choose to live underground, somewhat like a hobbit hole. Its apparently very good for the environment, heating costs are basically nothing, its stronger, hence the reason why people were meant to hide in bunkers during the cold war, and its not an eyesore, a grassy hill with a window or two on one side is not going to date that fast, and even if it does, Im sure I can update the window cheaper than most people would spend updating an entire building. To live underground, in a warm and very light home, I think thats great. You could have the entire "roof" of your house for a garden, everyone could have all the fruit trees they needed, there would be no concrete, it would be a paradise.I think a lot of the worlds problems must be caused by overpopulation. Reading from NPG.org, the Negative Population Growth organisation site, advocating smaller american families to reduce the number of people living in America, the worlds population was just 3 billion or less in 1950, we hit 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in the year I myself were born, 1987, 6 billion around 1999 and we will be at 7 billion around 20 13. There will be, according to NPG.org, 7 billion people in the world, in just 4 years. Four years, and remember, as I record this episode, 2009 is older rather than newer. We were at 3 billion in 1950, 50 years later, the year 2000 we were over 6 billion. We'd doubled in population in 50 years. In another 50 years, NPG.org says we will be at 9 billion. 100 years, 1950 to 2050, and we will have gone from under 3 billion to over 9 billion people. In that time, new oil wont have grown in useful amounts, the earth itself wont have expanded to make more livable space, the oceans havnt become deeper to provide more water....There must be an ideal number, a world population where we are not too hot, not too cold, but just right, so sayth Goldilocks. The website I used for my statistics said america would be better at 1950's numbers, about 150 million Americans instead of 300 million as today. So, lets say the entire world should be what it were in 1950, we would have half the number of people as today, just 3 billion, not six.I dont know about you, but I grew up just living with my mother, 2 people living in the house from what I can remember, I'd live with my dad for a weekend once every two weeks. My whole immediate family is 3 people, and most of the time I only lived with one at a time. I know my family wasnt causing the problem of overpopulation, all 3 of us. My dad grew up with 9 people in his immediate family, thats 3 times more than I had. My mother had 4 people living in her parents house, thats twice what I had. So, if the developed countries, if you count New Zealand as developed with our slow internet access , and Southlands rolled r'ssssssssss, are declining in family size, who is making up the bulk of population growth? Third world countries? China is trying to control its population, one child per family and all that, China will soon go from number one largest country with 1.3 billion, to second behind India, which is currently somewhere around 1 billion, from having less children, and thus less people. To control other third world countries, do we need more disease and famine? Thats awful, shocking to think about, I thought people were suffering and dying nonstop, especially in poor countries, and yet we've doubled in number worldwide in just 50 years. If I wanted to be crazy, I might say this current Swine Flu deal is an American conspiracy to wipe out people worldwide, I wont go into that though. So, if we say that with more people in the world, using more resources, making more pollution to achieve the same level of consumerism as America has had for decades, could that be the main cause of what makes things so bad today? I asked my friend Elizabeth , of NZ Vegan podcast about what she thought about modern life. Elizabeth has lived in New York, Americas largest city, and has many friends from all around the world, so I thought she would have some inspiring things to add to this episodeThank you to Elizabeth for being on my podcast, yo u can find NZ Vegan podcast on iTunes, just search for NZ Vegan and you will see the real, gen u whine NZ Vegan Podcast itself, as well as a few imitators, including some jerk with a Dragonfly for his podcast artwork.I'd like to talk about the power we have now that we have never had before. Computers have given so much freedom, for people to share and talk to each other no matter where they live, or what language they speak. Its given governments and "The Man" the ability to track us, but also more ways to get around the mainstream media too. If I dont like that veganism isnt mentioned on tv, theres no Channel 6, the vegan channel, at least in New Zealand, then I can make my own podcast and talk about it, nobody can block me, well, maybe The Great Firewall of China makes things harder for my Chinese listeners, BUT, even people living in China can somewhat easily get around their government as it tries to crack down on internet access. All it takes is one person to figure something out, and boom, everyone can be told how to do it easily, a program could be made by a very smart person, and a not so sophisticated person could be told "double click this, and you'll bypass the restriction". Adam Curry mentions people linking WIFI together, if all the phone lines went down, in theory at least, people could link all their laptops etc together through wireless connections, just one person with internet access could share it through their computer to others who can wirelessly connect to each other.I dont have a car, I dont smoke, I dont drink alcohol, I dont take drugs, I dont even eat meat. But, take away my computer? Um, thats my one vice, if you consider the greatest invention of mankind a bad thing to use on a daily basis. I always wanted an Apple computer, ever since the Principal at my primary school, St Josephs school on Eye street Invercargill got the school new iMac G3 computers. He was a mac user, and so got the school mac computers. I think each room had an iMac, and there were one or two iBook laptop computers. Some of the teachers hadnt grown up with computers and had to be taught how to use them. I remember the Principal had a top of the line iMac for himself, an iMac DV, the big difference you could tell was that it was not Bondi Blue, or Tangerine in colour, it was see through BLACK. Sure it had a good graphics card inside, but the things I noticed were that it was black, and had an Apple Pro Optical Mouse. I loved that mouse, it was the first Mouse I'd ever seen that used an optical tracking sensor instead of a rubber coated metal ball. I've now collected a few Apple Pro mice, I love the things. Growing up, its not really fair to demand a more expensive computer from your dad but as soon as I made some money of my own, I bought a secondhand PowerBook G4, the cute little 12 inch, and I love it. Its one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I'm recording this podcast on my second Apple computer, a PowerMac G5, and I cherish it every day. The first time I ever saw a G5 in the metal, its made from Aluminium, was in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, in the north island. I saw it as my dad drove the rental car, and screamed "stop!", it was in a MagnumMac store, where Apple computers are sold. I love all the things I can do with my computers, the information I can find, the things I can release for others worldwide to see, or listen to, its very liberating. My parents grew up in a mostly white country, now in New Zealand there are many more people of all different races, with different languages, different religions. New ideas, new ways of life. Being all one type of people breeds racism I think, people learn from rumours what other people in other countries are supposedly like, they get awful stereotypes. With the internet, or people immigrating to New Zealand , we can all learn from each other the truth. I dont think I've ever had a New Zealand European, otherwise known as "white", best friend. My closest friends are Maori, Pacific Islanders, Half Filipino/Dutch, Thai. My parents grew up only with people from the "Home nations", the british descended people who moved here a hundred years or so ago, there where Irish and Scottish people who had red hair, but basically everyone was fair skinned.I notice the older generations saying things I consider sexist, or racist, if I bring it up, they dont see it the way I do, and think I'm just complaining for the sake of complaining. They also say things wrong, my dad will say "marry" instead of "mah ree" , and doesnt believe we need to pronounce Maori place names the proper Maori way, but that the bastardised white new zealand way of saying them should stay. Known for many years as the Wanganui River, the river's name reverted to Whanganui in 1991, according with the wishes of local iwi, an iwi is sort of a Maori community. Theres recently been a huge debate about changing the name of the city of Wanganui to the correct Whanganui, just putting an 'h' in. The mayor and many of the locals are PISSED OFF about that, I think its the right thing to do. The river was admitted to be spelt wrong, and changed in 91, why not change the city name to be correct? The current, wrongly spelt, signs would be worth a lot, they would be collectable, it would be an interesting story for people living there to talk about to their future grandchildren. "I remember when we were allowed to say wanganui, now we have to say whunga bloody nui because of some bloody minority oooooh". I think the people who dont want to correct the name tend to be older and cant admit they are wrong, they grew up in a different time where white people could choose how other races spelt the words belonging to their own language. As the world becomes more global, as we move to other countries and grow fiber optic links, the world becomes smaller and more integrated.I'll now play a long Stephen Fry clip, he gave this talk in an Apple store, hes as big an Apple advocate as I am! I love basically everything Stephen Fry says and does. In the clip I'll play, he talks about computers liberating people, bringing us all together and how new inventions are always regarded as causing problems, and being bad for you.I love Stephen Fry, yes that was long, but I couldnt cut it down much more, it was from an hour long podcast, I'd love to have played the full hour long clip here.something that gets an unfairly bad reputation is Genetic Engineering. Am I glad we dont have GE food in New Zealand? Yes, I often think that normal consumers dont get benefits from GE food, its more to make it grow faster, and in larger amounts so large companies make money. There are some evil companies like Monsanto who are doing things to GE food to control people in third world nations. Thats far too big to get into in this episode. However, do I have anything against GE itself? No! Of course not! Fire must kill a million people, or more, worldwide each year. Do we ban fire? No, but we regulate it, and teach people how to be safe around it. Do we ban nuclear power plants etc? Dammit, in this crackpot country we do, oh, except for, lets say, X Rays that show how cancer is growing in people, the Nuclear Medicine that kills off the cancer, of the smoke alarms that protect us from another regulated technology, fire. Normal smoke alarms have a nuclear material inside, in a very tiny amount, on my fire alarm it says its "america-ium". Theres a story about a former Eagle Scout who got as many smoke alarms as he could, for the nuclear material, and tried to make a nuclear bomb, or nuclear power plant in a backyard shed, maybe you want to look that up on Google.That was a comment left by H dot Aiku, haiku, on the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs blog.I think GE can help people, sure, its not really any different than breeding dogs with long tails with each other so their puppies have long tails as well. People dont consider that "playing god", but its no different. Its selecting traits we want, so that future offspring have those. Using this on food tends to make it produce more, grow faster, etc. I'm not fond of GE food, I wouldnt eat it if I could choose, but I have nothing against genetic engineering itself.Its mentioned that GE food is needed to feed the world, that we need more food fullstop. Other reports are that we have enough food already, and its wasted. For example, if everyone were vegan, we would need so much less grain and plant food, as currently its fed to animals like cows, to produce big muscles, for big fat steaks. This process uses lots of food, to produce a relatively tiny amount of meat at the end.I saw an awesome comment on Slashdot that I'd like to use. The poster is QuantumG, I dont agree with him about other things, he dissed Macs and the iPhone, and so we are mortal enemies, but hes very right about how modern food is made .I'll read QuantumG's replies to samples from the book Fast Food Nation, which critcised, among many other more shocking things, how artificial flavours are used.Thank you to QuantumG for letting me use a comment he made on slashdot.I could go on forever, but I should end this episode soon.I would like to mention that I care about the environment, it should be looked after, I dont believe in child labour, or out of sight, out of mind policies such as letting China do all the worlds dirty work, while rich countries just get pretty plastic packets packed pefectly on supermarket shelves. I do have hope for the future, not a hundred thousand years from now, but the second after everyone in the world has listened to this episode of my podcast, I hope they will pick themselves up and say "wow, im going to make the world a better place". I believe there must be lots of easy ways to make the world a cleaner, greener place, to reduce pollution while still having a modern lifestyle. The world has never been perfect for everyone at the same time. There will always be people who clean the streets of dog poo, I dont expect President Obama to go door to door washing peoples dishes. I guess thats the class system alive and well, based on who has the most money. But, its not like we moved away from a better system, people moved from hand washing things to washing machines, because it was genuinely better. Could a new and better way of life than what I have come about? I have no doubt it will, and I'm prepared to change as soon as I can.Andy Warhol had a great quote about consumerism."What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it." I think thats marvellous to think about, no matter how rich you are, you cant drink a better can of coke. I know of purists who only drink coke out of those fancy glass coca cola bottles, but theres not many of them and they get the same product anyway. Wine and other drinks have price ranges, but not coca cola, it has a tremendous brand image, its one of the most well known brands worldwide, and yet is relatively dirt cheap, for everyone. "Quantity has a Quality all of its own", Josef Stalin.Consumerism can fund projects, like going into space. I think its fair to say that one day the earth will be "used up" in a sense, at least maybe we will need to import raw materials from other planets, its not any different to one nation importing resources from another country to me. Japan has bugger all natural resources, no oil or iron ore, but it imports metal that cost $1 to get out of the ground, paying $10 for that, and making it into a Japanese car, and selling it as a product for $100 for every piece of that $1 metal. We can be successful even if we dont have any more of the resources we need on this planet, or if we actually need new materials that were never here in the first place, maybe moon rocks cure cancer, who knows?I dont expect us to get to space in cotton space shuttles, running on sunflower seeds, but biodiesel has lots of potential. I just hope its not made from food crops.Heres a fun quote about space exploration and cost."Space is an unexplored frontier. The fate of the Space Shuttle Columbia reminds us that those who venture beyond the Earth confront real danger. The astronauts themselves have always been mindful of the hazards. I recall attending a lecture given, back in the 1960s, by John Glenn, the first American to go into orbit. A questioner asked him what went through his mind while he was crouched in the rocket nose-cone, awaiting blastoff. He wryly replied " I was thinking that the rocket had twenty thousand components, and each was made by the lowest bidder". Glenn survived to become a US senator, as well as an inspiration to elderly Americans when he ventured into space again, at age 77."Nuclear Power inspires me, basically how the power stations work is that nuclear fuel heats up water to make steam, the steam drives turbines which create electricity. Nuclear plants often seem to purify water, so thats an added bonus, and they always have excess heat, and steam, which is used in many places to heat houses, this is called "co generation". There are other ways to do this, like coal power stations also make the steam, its the same principle as nuclear, just less high tech, and clean! If you have ever wondered why New York has steam coming from manholes in the movies, its because New York has a steam network, steam rushes through pipes and is used both industrially and by people for heat and steam. I didnt know that myself until recently, and now maybe you have actually learnt something from my podcast :)I think that there are many things in the world I dont like, poka music, racists, beef flavoured instant noodles. There are many amazing things too though, things that make life now as good, if not better, than its ever been. We have so many new inventions that help us stay in contact with people overseas, to make new friends in different countries. Things we take for granted would have been taken for magic if we could go back in time and show them off. I dont believe in magic things happening, as Revolver Ocelot said in Metal Gear Solid 2 I was unsure how to end this episode with a positive song, its hard to find contemporary music that is upbeat, every generation has that really, in the 70s there were all the songs against the vietnam war etc. Happy modern music I could think of was all about consumerism, "I drinks de cognac in tha club and smacks my "female dog" in the eye", not very appropriate for my positive view of consumerism!Instead, I'll end with a clip about the distant future, the year 2000, from some fellow New Zealanders, the Flight of the Conchords with the song Robots.You can find the script for this episode, as well as downloads for every episode of Jay Wont darts podcast at jaywontdart.blogspot.comIf you want to contact me, even just to say you listened, send an email to jaywontdart@gmail.com, j a y w o n t d a r t @ gmail.com, I'd appreciate it.Have a super happy day, bye.Sources=======World Population figureshttp://www.npg.org/facts/world_pop_year.htmastronaut, lowest bidderhttp://www.firstscience.com/home/articles/space/men-in-space_1468.html