humane biology

Check out this site for alternatives to animal dissection for educational purposes.

The person behind Frogs are Cool lives in Vancouver and has been busy encouraging BC schools to develop written policies (& communicate them to the students) which permit opting out of dissection for biology courses.

The educational alternatives range from CD-Roms, to online dissections, to plastic models. Check out the site for lots of links - including many free resources such as Animal Learn .

Maybe don't send more money?

Lessons from the tsunami

Too much of a good thing?
Lessons for aid workers in Haiti from the 2004 tsunami

Like the tsunami, the earthquake has produced an outpouring of generosity amounting to $1 billion so far.

The experience of the tsunami suggests that agencies will not be able to spend it. Nine months on [after the tsunami], governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had disbursed just 39% of the money they had promised to spend. A French NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), stopped emergency fund-raising, saying it did not need more. It was criticised for this, but in retrospect was justified. As the tsunami evaluation put it, “allocation and programming…were driven by the extent of public and media interest, and by the unprecedented funding available, rather than by assessment and need.” This seems to be happening in Haiti, too; MSF has again asked people to switch donations to its general fund.

Good bye Kate McGarrigle

Canadian folk and roots music singer Kate McGarrigle, best known for her work with her sister, Anna, as the McGarrigle Sisters, has died at age 63.

My favourite song of the McGarrrigle Sisters: Lullaby for a Doll

Awww - pound dog goes to help in Haiti

"this is the first earthquake work for Zak, who was once rescued himself — from a dog pound in Abbotsford."

Full Story

Good luck to Zak and handler.

Let me rant for a moment

Once again, there is some toxic thing wrong with crap from China. News of this current outrage (cadmium in child's trinkets ) was posted on a homeschooling board I frequent, & here was my response (so that those of you who don't waste spend valuable time on that board can be privy to my rants too. Complete with spelling errors! I cannot spell "jewelry".)

"I wish I could get my ire up over this but I'm out of energy on this issue. It's been like this for YEARS - lots of countries have done testing, there's an outcry, politicians look serious on tv & insist changes are coming to consumer protection and THEN? Nothing changes. AND consumers keep buying the crap. Toys, jewellry, pet food, baby formula, vitamins - over and over and over.

This is why I try really, really hard to avoid buying anything from China. What really bugs me is stainless steel - it's getting almost impossible to buy kitchen stainless steel items which are made anywhere except China. Well, color me cynical, but I don't believe it's all 18/8 & if I can at all avoid it, I refuse to buy it.

Time to speak with our $'s.

Oh and yeah, it would be really nice if the gov't actually put some power into the FDA etc. But the big business pressures battle it every step of the way (oh, no! we don't want government interference! We'll self-police! We're ethical capitalists!),& at the end the consumer is the one who suffers."

So yeah. That's it. Stop buying this crap already. If it's Made in China, think 10 times about whether you really really need it or whether you can find another alternative - yes, even if it costs a bit more. It's not going to change until WE change.