Vegetarianism And Animal Miscegany

Thanks to Anju G. for sending us this story about a cannibalism chef ni Arizona. Read at your own peril. But, really, if we are going to eat meat, then it’s fairly hypocritical of us to get all queasy about eating human meat.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I want to be one. I think it’s ultimately healthier (all other things being equal) and more moral. What with the evils of factory farming and the negative ecological impact of the meat industry, it’s hard to argue against the good ethics of a vegetarian lifestyle. My problem is that I love the taste of meat, and that I do believe that there are some vital nutrients that we can only obtain from animal protein. So the path I currently take is one that resembles as much as possible the diet of our nomadic ancestors: maximum fibre (via leafy greens and nuts), sugar from fruits, minimal complex carbs from processed sources, and limited lean meat. In fact, I no longer prepare meat in my home, and only eat it when I go out. (Of course, this means I go out a lot more often that I used to!)

Here’s a story about a USC lecturer whose personal website contains “inappropriate” photos of her semi-naked self. Yes, the story includes a link to her website. And yes, the lecturer sounds like a dogmatic nutcase, given her over-the-top and simplistic political views. But the best part of this story, though, is the rational and correct response of USC administrators: no policies had been violated so they will not act to pressure her to take down the site. Good for them.

An interesting thing happened in Canada’s north: a hunter shot and killed what has been proven to be a natural polar-grizzly bear hybrid, the result of a male grizzly bear gettin’ it on with a female polar bear. Apparently, this has been observed in captivity before, resulting in fertile offspring. From what I was taught in highschool biology, this pretty much makes grizzlies and polar bears the same species.

Dig this comment on Rotten.com’s forum by a user named “misterjeff”:

“I wonder if all the lady grizzly bears are all pissedoff now that their fine-ass man bears are getting with white bears.”

Animal hybridization is a fascinating field. The most famous chimerae are the “liger” (a cross between a male lion and a female tiger) and the “tigon” (a cross between a female lion and a male tiger.) Interestingly, ligers are bigger than either tigers or lions, while tigons are smaller than both parents. This may be due to the fact that female lions transmit a growth-inhibiting gene and male lions transmit a growth-promoting gene.

Yet another fun science fact from Dr. Ray!