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It has been almost two years after the fact. Artificial life created in the lab. Craig Venter is pioneering a whole new field of engineering new life forms. He hopes to create one so we won't have to depend on dirty fossil fuels.
And if Venter has his way, the human race will be vegan by the middle of this century...
"It takes 10 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef, 15 liters of water to get one kilogram of beef, and those cows produce a lot of methane," another potent greenhouse gas, Venter observed. "Why not get rid of the cows?" The replacement: meat grown in a test tube from microbes thanks to synthetic biology.
As vegetarians and animal rights people, we are often posed hypothetical questions, such as, if you could choose between your dog or your child who would you save? Totally bizarre. Yet, one such question had me wondering. If I was left out in the wilderness, how would i survive? Many plants are poisonous and I'm a city guy! So I googled it, and I found some answers...
The Pretenders' singer/guitarist and staunch animal rights supporter Chrissie Hynde has been forced to close her vegetarian restaurant. According to The Associated Press, Hynde had to close shop due to the economic downturn. The eatery was located in her Akron, Ohio hometown.
Hynde posted a note on the VegiTerranean restaurant website on Sunday, saying that she and the staff had tried to keep the restaurant open but that the economic climate made it impossible. The restaurant was open for four years.
What a bum out. I'm a vegetarian and I am sure that it was a terrific joint. Perhaps if the economy experiences an uptick, Hynde will reopen it! It sucks when a cool eatery such as this has to close its doors.
Dalai Lama to receive Mahatma Gandhi peace prize in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG: The Dalai Lama will receive the Mahatma Gandhi peace prize, the legendary Indian leader's granddaughter Ela Gandhiannounced here today on Gandhi Jayanti and asked the South African government to grant a visa to the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit the country. The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation will be conferred on the 76-year-old Dalai Lama at the annual Satyagraha Awards to be held at the Durban City Hall next Sunday...
Reports say former heavy weight boxing champion Mike Tyson has gone vegetarian, and has reported positive changes about his body. He once bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday on a resolution urging restaurants, grocery stores and schools to observe no meat on Mondays.
Supervisor Sophie Maxwell has been a vegetarian for 35 years and would like to see more people move toward a vegetarian diet.
With that in mind, she introduced a resolution to declare Mondays in San Francisco as "Vegetarian Day."
"I think San Francisco is a food town. There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants and a lot of things that people can think about," said Maxwell. "Not only bring attention to, but think about the alternatives to meat."
Dixie Mahy, the president of the San Francisco Vegetarian Society said she thinks it's a great idea.
"All the statistics are on our side. And we can show you that a lot of the degenerative diseases are associated with a high fat, high meat, high dairy diet," said Mahy.
At Maxwell's urging, the supervisors also took up a resolution that commends local businesses that use cage-free eggs.
"VEGANS are to be protected against discrimination – just like gays and lesbians" - The Sun
Vegetarians and vegans should be protected by the belief strand of the equality bill, according to a code of practice published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission...
The President needed an expert on vegetarian food, so he called in a Scandinavian chef from New York City.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle hosted their first state dinner Tuesday night in honor of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Normally, the White House staff would dish up any dinner with no problem. But Singh is a vegetarian, and the Obamas needed a pro to put together a proper menu. That's where the Swiss chef Marcus Samuelsson comes in...
Islam explicitly permits the eating of some kinds of meat, but does not make it compulsory. There are several hadith that support a vegetarian lifestyle and recommend kindness to animals rather than eating them. "Masih (the messiah, Jesus) said, ‘Flesh eating flesh? How offensive an act!’"(Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (early fifth/early eleventh century), Mahadarat al-Udaba', 1:610.) According to Karen Armstrong, "The Koran does permit meat-eating, but it also encourages healthful foods (which, many Muslims conclude, does not include animal products). Given these traditions, many Shi'ite Muslims and the Islamic mystics, such as the Sufis, see vegetarianism as the Islamic ideal and choose this diet."
So, in the Qu'ran, Jesus is explicitly portrayed as a vegetarian, as he is in The Essene Gospel of Peace.
UPDATE: - My Muslim friend corrects me on this. The comment is not in the Qu'ran, but in a 'hadith' - which are separate holy texts also used by Islam.
"Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa.'They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,' Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female."
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