Techniq on Towards Freedom

Coruss

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:10:24 -0800

The Corusshop is a exceptional company based in France that makes bows with synthetic hair.

Striking a blow against the cruel horsehair trade that has been so dominant for decades, Coruss bows utilize animal-free products producing a superb instrument that is trusted by the likes of Dorette Roos, Alexander Rybak, and Rusanda Panfili. Check out their website Corusshop.

My experience with Coruss started thanks to Gemini AI which suggested the company as an alternative to the vegan Incredibows that I already use. The Corusshop site is well designed and easy to navigate, but what struck me right away was their bold statement in the About Us section “Ethical and vegan: a product free from any animal materials”. The other thing I noticed was that they replied to every review which shows a remarkable degree of consideration for their customers!

My contact at Coruss turned out to be Valentin Ferrier. We exchanged several emails since I had many questions not just about the product, but also because this was going to be an overseas order to Canada. Valentin answered with precision and patient so I was very well informed before I made my decision to purchase. This sort of customer care is rare these days.

I will produce updates on the bow(s), hair, and rosin I am ordering because, as of now, I am writing this page before I have tried the items, but I have confidence that their product will be equal to their service!

Zitems

Mon, 26 May 2025 07:45:05 -0700

Several interesting items such as podcasts, history, curiosities will be listed here in no particular order.

Margin Masters Review Podcast

This is a very interesting review done by Zack Fuss, Freddy Lait, and Jacopo di Nardo detailing a bit of the history of IBKR from its founding in 1978 by Thomas Peterffy, as well as the systems that make this brokerage so effective. The transcript of the video available from joincolossus generated from the pdf file by Chatgpt follows below follows.

Introduction

Zack
I’m Zack Fuss and today we are breaking down Interactive Brokers, widely recognized as IBKR. Founded in 1978, Interactive Brokers evolved from a market maker on the American Stock Exchange to a global cutting-edge electronic brokerage firm. Its founder, Thomas Peterffy, remains its largest shareholder and is one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Peterffy immigrated to the US from Hungary, taught himself computer programming, pioneered automated trading, and played a crucial role in digitizing financial markets. Today, we’ll explore IBKR’s journey from Timberhill to a public company with a ~$80B market cap.

We’ll cover how IBKR earns revenue beyond commissions, including net interest income and market-making activities. We’ll discuss its reputation for low-cost access, global reach, sophisticated tools, and automated tech stack.

Guests: Freddy Lait and Jacopo di Nardo of Latitude Investment.

The Low-Cost Brokerage Revolution

Zack
Freddy, Jacopo, can we start with a broad view of the brokerage industry and where IBKR fits in?

Freddy
IBKR is a digital broker that started 50 years ago with a tech-first approach. They’ve built the lowest cost-to-serve, highest quality platform through automation. This results in:

Highest profitability
No advertising
Explosive customer growth

They’re seeing compounded growth from:

Other brokers introducing business
Hedge funds and RIAs
International expansion

Zack
What are IBKR’s key revenue streams?

Freddy
Two main sources:

Commissions: ~$600/account/year from 3.5M accounts = ~$2B/year
Net interest margin: ~11% of client assets on margin = ~$3B/year

Primary driver = account growth.

Differentiation & Technology

Zack
How is IBKR different from Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood?

Jacopo

Founded by an engineer, Thomas Peterffy
Most automated broker (including account closure bots)
Favored by experienced/pro traders
Average IBKR account: $200K–$2M
Contrast: Robinhood/Etoro: $5K–$10K

Thomas Peterffy: The Founder

Zack
Tell us about Thomas Peterffy.

Jacopo

Immigrant from Hungary, built Timber Hill (options market-maker)
Pioneered automated option pricing
Risk management obsessed
Closed market-making arm post-2008 to focus on online brokerage
Avoided risky behaviors (e.g. no duration risk when rates were 0%)

Business Model in the PFOF Era

Zack
In a zero-commission world, how does IBKR thrive?

Freddy

Direct market access (no middleman)
No payment for order flow (PFOF), better execution for customers
Lower commissions, cheaper margin loans, better cash yields
Automation = lower opex → reinvest in price reductions

Tech-Enabled Efficiency

Zack
Low headcount, automated risk management—how does this impact margin lending?

Jacopo

Fortress balance sheet: $18B excess capital (~95%)
Instant, automated liquidation of undercollateralized accounts
Offers lower margin

Oanda

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:49:24 -0800

NOTE: We have withdrawn all our funds from Oanda. As of 250506, we have left the brokerage despite nearly a decade. Their bureaucratic backend has recently been difficult to work with. Even their frontline which formerly used to be excellent has not maintained proper communications. At this point in time, we will not return. Below we had started construction of a page for them, but further completion is unlikely.

Oanda offers a wide range of global CFDs, decent and variable (by volume) spreads, platforms such as tradingview and mt4, as well as great service. Try their frontdesk by email or phone (877) 626-3239.

Homepage

Yaps about how wonderful they are - most of which is quite true as per experience. For instance, their frontdesk communications are excellent providing practically instant access to a knowledgeable agent; the algo department is very helpful showing you how to work the API (and even fixing things); my assigned manager, Jose Florez has been wonderful over many years and continues to be so!

Links on this page are provided to introduce primarily

CFD Markets Some basic ideas about CFDs as it relates to Oanda. An interesting point made for 2025 is that the presidential situation in US will cause volatility, suggesting indices trading provides good opportunities.
Spreads and Margins Lists the spreads and margins of different instruments in real time.

Margin is ability to “enter into trades larger than your account balance and trade without depositing the full value of the trade that you wish to open” and is a form of security against losses incurred (you can’t lose more than you have in your account). The margin needed is calculated using “the leverage limit associated with both your account type and the instrument you wish to trade”. Details of margin rates and leverage ratios are provided here with choice of currency.
Trading Tools
Elite Trader Program You trade a lot and get reimbursed in various ways such as
- Volume-based rebates
- Access to a premium referral program
- Dedicated relationship manager

Trading

Platforms

Labs

Account Types

Offers

Musescore

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 13:00:02 -0800

Musescore4 is the most highly rated software for creating notation. It is pretty close to even Lilypond, but offers considerably greater flexibility. A nice bonus is that you can export to musicxml and then use Lilypond’s musicxml2ly (-l english)script to convert!

implode

A midi import left piano part in 2 upper and 2 lower staves. Select both uppers and implode them into a single multivoice staff. Then select that staff and implode again to combine the voices into a single voice. Repeat for the lower staves.

raggedy edge effect

Format > Page settings and play with staff space values.

hide empty bars

Format > Style > Score add hide empty staves rem don’t hide empty staves in first system

Twenty Data Science Concepts

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 21:36:41 -0700

Perplexity: Core data science concepts.

Exported on 31/10/2024 at 21:35:18 from Perplexity.ai - with SaveMyChatbot

User

Summarize 20 core data science concepts.

AI answer

The article outlines 20 core data science concepts essential for beginners, providing a foundational understanding crucial for anyone entering the field. Here’s a summary of these concepts:

Key Concepts in Data Science

Dataset: A collection of data used for analysis, which can be numerical, categorical, or various other forms. Datasets may be static or dynamic.
Data Wrangling: The process of cleaning and transforming raw data into a tidy format suitable for analysis.
Data Visualization: Techniques for representing data graphically to identify patterns and relationships among variables.
Outliers: Data points that differ significantly from others, which can skew results and may need special handling.
Data Imputation: Methods for filling in missing values in datasets to maintain data integrity during analysis.
Data Scaling: Adjusting the range of feature values to improve model performance, often through normalization or standardization.
Principal Component Analysis (PCA): A technique for reducing the dimensionality of datasets while preserving variance, helping to avoid redundancy.
Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA): A supervised technique for dimensionality reduction that focuses on maximizing class separability.
Data Partitioning: Dividing datasets into training and testing sets to evaluate model performance accurately.
Supervised Learning: Algorithms that learn from labeled data to predict outcomes based on input features.
Unsupervised Learning: Techniques used with unlabeled data to uncover hidden patterns or groupings.
Reinforcement Learning: A learning paradigm where an agent improves its performance through interactions with an environment based on feedback signals.
Model Parameters and Hyperparameters: Model parameters are learned from training data, while hyperparameters are set prior to training and tuned for optimal performance.
Cross-validation: A technique for assessing how the results of a statistical analysis will generalize to an independent dataset by partitioning the data into subsets.
Bias-Variance Tradeoff: The balance between a model’s complexity and its ability to generalize well to unseen data, where high bias leads to underfitting and high variance leads to overfitting.
Evaluation Metrics: Various metrics used to assess model performance, including accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, R² score, etc.
Uncertainty Quantification: Estimating the uncertainty in model predictions due to variability in the data and model parameters.
Math Concepts: Fundamental mathematical knowledge including calculus, linear algebra, and optimization methods is essential for developing machine learning models.
Statistics and Probability Concepts: Understanding statistical measures and probability distributions is critical for data analysis and interpretation.
Productivity Tools: Utilizing tools like GitHub, Jupyter Notebook, and RStudio helps manage projects effectively and streamline workflows in data science tasks.

These concepts provide a comprehensive foundation for anyone looking to delve into data science, equipping them with the necessary skills and knowledge to tackle real-world problems effectively 1.

Sources:

(1) 20-core-data-science-concepts-beginners.html

User

How does feature scaling impact the predictive power of a model

AI answer

Feature scaling significantly impacts the predictive power of a model in several ways, particularly for many machine learning algorithms. Here are the key points to consider:

Impact on Algorithm Performance

Gradient Descent and Convergence

Feature scaling is crucial for algorithms that use gradient descent, such as neural networks and logistic regression. When features are on different scales, gradient descent updates the parameters at different rates, which can lead to slow convergence or getting stuck in local optima. Scaling features ensures that the gradient descent moves smoothly towards the minima, speeding up the training process and improving the overall optimization 1 3.

Distance-Based Algorithms

Algorithms that rely on distance calculations, such as k-nearest neighbors (KNN), k-means clustering, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), are highly sensitive to feature scales. Features with larger value ranges can dominate the distance calculations, leading to biased results. Scaling features ensures that all variables contribute equally to the distance metrics, improving the accuracy and separability of the data 1 2.

Model Interpretability and Feature Importance

In models like linear and logistic regression, feature scaling helps in comparing the importance of different features. When features are on the same scale, the coefficients of the model reflect the relative importance of each feature more accurately. This is particularly useful in understanding which features contribute most to the predictions 1 3.

Effect on Model Fit and Accuracy

Improved Model Fit

Scaling features can lead to a better fit of the model to the data. For example, in PCA, scaling ensures that the principal components are determined based on the variance of the features rather than their scale. This can improve the separability of classes and overall model performance 2.

Enhanced Accuracy

Studies have shown that scaling features can significantly improve the accuracy of models. For instance, in a comparison between scaled and unscaled data for a model trained on PCA-reduced data, the scaled version achieved a test accuracy of 96.30% compared to 35.19% for the unscaled version 2.

Exceptions and Considerations

Tree-Based Algorithms

Tree-based models such as decision trees, random forests, and gradient boosting machines are generally insensitive to feature scales. These models split nodes based on individual features without considering the scale of other features, making feature scaling unnecessary for these algorithms 1 3.

Risk of Overfitting

While scaling features is beneficial in many cases, it can also amplify the effect of noisy or constant features if they are measured with noise. This can lead to overfitting, especially in algorithms like KNN. Therefore, it is important to consider the nature of the data and the algorithm being used before applying feature scaling 3. In summary, feature scaling is a critical preprocessing step that can enhance the predictive power of many machine learning models by ensuring faster convergence, better model fit, and improved accuracy, while also aiding in the interpretation of feature importance. However, it is essential to consider the specific requirements and sensitivities of the chosen algorithm.

Sources:

User

What are the differences between normalization and standardization in feature scaling

AI answer

Normalization and standardization are two common techniques used in feature scaling, each with distinct methods, advantages, and use cases. Here are the key differences between them:

Scaling Method

Normalization (Min-Max Scaling)

Normalization scales the data to a specific range, typically between 0 and 1, or sometimes between -1 and 1. The formula for normalization is:

$$X_{\text{new}}=\frac{X-X_{\text{min}}}{X_{\text{max}}-X_{\text{min}}}$$

This method uses the minimum and maximum values of the feature to scale the data 1 2 3.

Standardization (Z-Score Normalization)

Standardization scales the data to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. The formula for standardization is:

$$X_{\text{new}}=\frac{X-\text{mean}}{\text{std}}$$

This method uses the mean and standard deviation of the feature to scale the data 1 2 4.

Range of Scaled Values

Normalization

The scaled values are bounded within a specific range, usually [0, 1] or [-1, 1] 1 2 3.

Standardization

The scaled values are not bounded to a specific range. They follow a standard normal distribution (Z-distribution) with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 1 2 4.

Sensitivity to Outliers

Normalization

Normalization is highly sensitive to outliers because it uses the minimum and maximum values of the data. Outliers can significantly affect these values, leading to a compressed range for the rest of the data 1 2 3.

Standardization

Standardization is less sensitive to outliers because it uses the mean and standard deviation, which are more robust to outliers compared to the minimum and maximum values 1 2 4.

Distribution Assumptions

Normalization

Normalization does not assume any specific distribution of the data. It is useful when the distribution of the feature is unknown or not Gaussian 1 2 3.

Standardization

Standardization is often preferred when the data follows a Gaussian distribution, although it can be used even if the data does not follow a Gaussian distribution. It is particularly useful in algorithms that assume normality, such as linear regression 1 2 4.

Geometric Interpretation

Normalization

Geometrically, normalization transforms the n-dimensional data into an n-dimensional unit hypercube, where all features are within the same range 1 2.

Standardization

Geometrically, standardization translates the data to the origin (mean vector) and scales it so that the standard deviation is 1. This does not change the shape of the distribution but centers it around the mean 1 2 4.

Use Cases

Normalization

Used when features are on different scales and there are no outliers. It is commonly applied in algorithms like k-nearest neighbors (KNN) and neural networks when the distribution is unknown 1 2 3.

Standardization

Used when the feature distribution is known or assumed to be Gaussian. It is particularly useful in algorithms that use gradient descent, such as neural networks and linear regression, because it helps in faster convergence 1 2 4.

In summary, the choice between normalization and standardization depends on the nature of the data, the presence of outliers, and the assumptions made by the machine learning algorithm being used.

Sources:

Meet Prompt Poet

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 19:25:25 -0700

Perplexity: About Prompt Poet.

Exported on 31/10/2024 at 09:48:34 from Perplexity.ai - with SaveMyChatbot

User

Summarize Meet Prompt Poet.

AI answer

Prompt Poet, a tool recently acquired by Google from Character.ai, is revolutionizing the field of prompt engineering for large language models (LLMs). This innovative tool offers several key advantages that streamline the process of creating and managing prompts for AI applications 1 2.

Key Features of Prompt Poet

Low Code Approach: Prompt Poet simplifies prompt design for both technical and non-technical users, making it more accessible than code-intensive frameworks 2.
Template Flexibility: The tool uses YAML and Jinja2 to support complex prompt structures, allowing for more dynamic and adaptable prompts 2.
Context Management: Prompt Poet seamlessly integrates external data, offering a more dynamic and data-rich prompt creation process 2.
Efficiency: By reducing time spent on engineering string manipulations, users can focus on crafting optimal prompt text 2.

Importance of Context in Prompt Engineering

Prompt Poet emphasizes the critical concept of context in prompt engineering, particularly focusing on instructions and data. The tool streamlines the creation of dynamic, data-rich prompts, enhancing the effectiveness of LLM applications 1 2.

Practical Application: Daily Planner Example

To illustrate Prompt Poet’s capabilities, the article presents an example of a daily planning assistant. This assistant provides personalized reminders and contextual information based on real-time data, such as weather updates, traffic information, air quality index, and calendar events 1 2.

Enhancing Prompt Engineering Skills

Mastering the fundamentals of prompt engineering, particularly the management of instructions and data, is crucial for maximizing the potential of LLMs. Prompt Poet offers a user-friendly and efficient approach to creating data-rich prompts, making prompt design accessible for users with varying levels of expertise 1 2. By utilizing tools like Prompt Poet, developers can refine their prompt engineering skills and create innovative AI applications that cater to diverse user needs with precision. As AI technology continues to advance, staying updated on the latest prompt engineering techniques will be crucial for driving AI innovation 1 2.

Sources:

User

What are some practical examples of using Prompt Poet in daily planning assistants

AI answer

Prompt Poet, a tool acquired by Google from Character.ai, offers several practical examples of how it can be used to enhance daily planning assistants through advanced prompt engineering. Here are some key examples:

Dynamic and Data-Rich Prompts

Prompt Poet uses YAML and Jinja2 templates to create flexible and dynamic prompts. For a daily planning assistant, this means integrating real-time data such as:

Weather Updates: The prompt can include current weather conditions, temperature, and descriptions for the user’s location 1 3 4.
Traffic Information: It can incorporate traffic status, helping the user plan their commute or travel more efficiently 1 3 4.
Air Quality Index (AQI): The prompt can include AQI data and the main pollutant, providing health-related advisories 1 3 4.
Calendar Events: The assistant can remind the user of upcoming events and meetings by integrating calendar data 1 3 4.

Example Template

Here’s an example of how Prompt Poet can be used to create a daily planning assistant prompt:

yaml

- name: system instructions
  role: system
  content: |
    You are a helpful daily planning assistant. Use the following information about the user's schedule and conditions in their area to provide a detailed summary of the day. Remind them of upcoming events and bring any warnings or unusual conditions to their attention, including weather, traffic, or air quality warnings. Ask if they have any follow-up questions.

- name: realtime data
  role: system
  content: |
    Weather in {{ user_city }}, {{ user_country }}:
    - Temperature: {{ user_temperature }}°C
    - Description: {{ user_description }}

   Traffic in {{ user_city }}:
    - Status: {{ traffic_status }}

   Air Quality in {{ user_city }}:
    - AQI: {{ aqi }}
    - Main Pollutant: {{ main_pollutant }}

   Upcoming Events:
    {% for event in events %}
    - {{ event.start }}: {{ event.summary }}
    {% endfor %}

This template is populated with real-time data using Prompt Poet’s Prompt class, allowing the daily planning assistant to provide personalized and context-aware responses 1 3.

Few-Shot Learning Integration

Prompt Poet also supports few-shot learning, which can be integrated into the daily planning assistant to customize its responses further. By providing a few examples of how the assistant should behave in different scenarios, you can fine-tune its responses to match a specific tone, style, or brand voice. This technique is particularly useful for ensuring the assistant’s interactions are consistent and tailored to the user’s preferences 2.

Efficiency and Accessibility

The low-code approach of Prompt Poet makes it accessible for both technical and non-technical users. It simplifies the process of creating complex prompts, reducing the time spent on engineering string manipulations and allowing users to focus on crafting optimal prompt text. This efficiency is crucial for developing and maintaining sophisticated AI applications like daily planning assistants 1 3 4. By leveraging these features, Prompt Poet enables the creation of highly personalized and effective daily planning assistants that can significantly enhance the user experience.

Sources:

User

What are the benefits of using few-shot learning with Prompt Poet

AI answer

Using few-shot learning with Prompt Poet, a tool acquired by Google from Character.ai, offers several significant benefits that enhance the performance and versatility of large language models (LLMs). Here are some of the key advantages:

Efficiency and Reduced Training Time

Few-shot learning eliminates the need for extensive model fine-tuning, which is computationally intensive, time-consuming, and costly. By providing just a few examples within the prompt, you can adjust the model’s behavior to a specific context without retraining the model on a large dataset 1 3 5.

Improved Accuracy and Consistency

Including a few examples in the prompt helps the model understand the desired task and output format more accurately. This approach significantly improves the accuracy and consistency of the model’s responses, especially in tasks that are difficult to explain through instructions alone 2 3 5.

Structured Outputs

Few-shot prompting allows you to guide the model to produce outputs in a specific structure, such as JSON or YAML. This is particularly useful when the output needs to be in a certain format for further processing or integration with other systems 2 3.

Customization and Brand Voice

By including a few examples of successful responses, you can fine-tune the model to match a specific tone, style, or brand voice. This ensures that the AI interactions are consistent and tailored to the user’s preferences or the brand’s identity 1 2.

Versatility Across Domains

Few-shot prompting is applicable across various domains, including but not limited to:

Sentiment analysis
Information extraction
Content creation
Named entity recognition
Question answering systems
Machine translation
Code generation
Dialogue systems 2 3 5.

Real-World Applicability

This technique is particularly useful in real-world scenarios where labeled data is limited. It allows models to perform tasks efficiently even when extensive labeled datasets are not available. Studies have shown that prompt-based approaches can achieve strong performance in true few-shot settings, close to non-expert human performance 4.

Simplified Implementation

Prompt Poet simplifies the implementation of few-shot learning by using YAML and Jinja2 templates. This low-code approach makes it accessible for both technical and non-technical users to create complex, dynamic prompts that incorporate few-shot examples directly into the prompt structure 1.

Enhanced Model Performance

Few-shot prompting leverages the pre-trained knowledge of LLMs to perform specific tasks efficiently. It enhances the model’s ability to generalize from a small number of examples, making it a powerful tool for bridging pre-trained knowledge and task-specific requirements 2 3. Overall, using few-shot learning with Prompt Poet enables the creation of sophisticated AI applications that are highly customized, efficient, and accurate, making it a valuable technique for AI practitioners and researchers.

Sources:

Perplexity

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:49:18 -0700

There Are No ‘Ethical Alternatives’ To A Plant-Based Diet arv

Answer (Default):

Peter Godfrey-Smith’s recent article in The Guardian explores his experiences with a “near-vegan” diet and the ethical implications of animal consumption. He reflects on the challenges of adhering to a fully plant-based diet, suggesting alternatives like humanely farmed meat, wild-caught fish, and conventionally farmed dairy as potential compromises for those concerned about animal welfare but unable to maintain strict veganism¹.

Godfrey-Smith, a professor focused on animal consciousness, grapples with the cognitive dissonance surrounding dietary choices. He acknowledges that while some may argue for humane farming practices, the fundamental act of killing animals remains ethically contentious. He raises questions about societal speciesism, highlighting that the treatment of animals considered pets versus those raised for food reflects deep-seated biases².

Critics argue that Godfrey-Smith’s reasoning lacks coherence, particularly when he suggests that humane treatment justifies continued consumption. They emphasize that regardless of farming methods, the end result is still death for the animals involved. The article also critiques the notion that fishing practices are acceptable based on historical precedent, asserting that modern ethical standards should not be dictated by ancestral behaviors³.

In terms of health, Godfrey-Smith reports negative experiences with his diet, which included fish oil supplements rather than being strictly vegan. This raises questions about the adequacy of his dietary planning and whether his symptoms were related to dietary changes or other factors like illness⁴.

Ultimately, the article concludes that for those motivated by ethical concerns regarding animal welfare, true alignment with these values necessitates a commitment to veganism, as any compromise fails to address the core issues at stake⁵.

Citations:

Animals Can Work Together arv sci

Answer (Default):

The article discusses various examples of animal cooperation and mutualistic relationships in nature, challenging the common perception of the animal kingdom as purely competitive and ruthless. Here are some key points:

Types of Symbiotic Relationships

There are three main types of symbiotic relationships:

Commensalistic: One species benefits while the other is unaffected
Parasitic: One species benefits at the expense of the other
Mutualistic: Both species benefit from the interaction

Examples of Animal Cooperation

Coral Grouper and Moray Eel Coral groupers recruit moray eels to help them hunt by using specific body movements to communicate⁶. The grouper signals the eel to follow and then indicates the location of hidden prey. This collaboration increases hunting success rates for both species.

Coyote and Badger Coyotes and badgers work together to hunt ground squirrels and prairie dogs⁷. The badger digs into burrows while the coyote waits at the exit, covering all escape routes. This teamwork improves hunting success for both animals.

Tarantula and Dotted Humming Frog Tarantulas allow dotted humming frogs to live in their burrows⁸. The frog gains protection from predators, while the tarantula’s eggs are protected from ants, which the frogs eat. This mutually beneficial relationship ensures the safety of both species.

Pistol Shrimp and Goby Pistol shrimp and gobies form a lifelong partnership⁹. The shrimp builds and maintains burrows, while the goby acts as a lookout due to its superior eyesight. This collaboration provides safety and shelter for both species.

Unexpected Interspecies Interactions

The article also mentions several instances of animals helping other species without apparent benefit:

An Indian rhesus monkey adopting and caring for a homeless puppy
A Bornean orangutan rescuing a drowning bird
A bear saving a drowning crow
Humpback whales defending smaller fish from orcas

These interactions demonstrate that animal behavior can sometimes extend beyond simple survival instincts, showing compassion or altruism across species lines¹⁰.

Conclusion

While competition and violence exist in nature, the animal kingdom also exhibits numerous examples of cooperation and mutualism¹¹. These relationships highlight the similarities between animals and humans, demonstrating that different species can work together for mutual benefit or even act altruistically.

Citations:

Animals Can Work Together 2 arv sci diy

Answer (Default):

Types of Symbiotic Relationships

There are three main types of symbiotic relationships:

Commensalistic: One species benefits while the other is unaffected
Parasitic: One species benefits at the expense of the other
Mutualistic: Both species benefit from the interaction

Examples of Animal Cooperation

Coral Grouper and Moray Eel Coral groupers recruit moray eels to help them hunt by using specific body movements to communicate¹². The grouper signals the eel to follow and then indicates the location of hidden prey. This collaboration increases hunting success rates for both species.

Coyote and Badger Coyotes and badgers work together to hunt ground squirrels and prairie dogs¹³. The badger digs into burrows while the coyote waits at the exit, covering all escape routes. This teamwork improves hunting success for both animals.

Tarantula and Dotted Humming Frog Tarantulas allow dotted humming frogs to live in their burrows¹⁴. The frog gains protection from predators, while the tarantula’s eggs are protected from ants, which the frogs eat. This mutually beneficial relationship ensures the safety of both species.

Pistol Shrimp and Goby Pistol shrimp and gobies form a lifelong partnership¹⁵. The shrimp builds and maintains burrows, while the goby acts as a lookout due to its superior eyesight. This collaboration provides safety and shelter for both species.

Unexpected Interspecies Interactions

The article also mentions several instances of animals helping other species without apparent benefit:

An Indian rhesus monkey adopting and caring for a homeless puppy
A Bornean orangutan rescuing a drowning bird
A bear saving a drowning crow
Humpback whales defending smaller fish from orcas

These interactions demonstrate that animal behavior can sometimes extend beyond simple survival instincts, showing compassion or altruism across species lines¹⁶.

Conclusion

While competition and violence exist in nature, the animal kingdom also exhibits numerous examples of cooperation and mutualism¹⁷. These relationships highlight the similarities between animals and humans, demonstrating that different species can work together for mutual benefit or even act altruistically.

Citations:

What are some other examples of mutualistic relationships between animals

Answer (Default):

Here are several examples of mutualistic relationships between animals, highlighting the diverse ways in which different species benefit from each other:

Oxpecker and Rhinoceros or Zebra

Oxpeckers, a type of bird, land on rhinos or zebras and eat ticks, flies, and other parasites from their skin. The oxpeckers gain food, while the rhinos and zebras receive pest control and warning calls from the oxpeckers when predators are near¹⁸¹⁹²⁰.

Clownfish and Sea Anemone

Clownfish live within the protective tentacles of sea anemones, which are poisonous to most other fish. The clownfish clean the anemone’s tentacles, keeping them free from parasites and luring prey within the anemone’s reach. In return, the anemone provides the clownfish with protection from predators²¹²²²³.

Pistol Shrimp and Goby

Pistol shrimp and gobies form a mutualistic relationship where the shrimp maintains and digs burrows, while the goby, with its better vision, acts as a lookout for predators. The goby alerts the shrimp to danger, and in return, the shrimp provides the goby with a safe place to live²⁴²⁵²⁶.

Termites and Intestinal Flagellates

Termites have intestinal flagellates that help digest the cellulose in wood, which the termites consume. The flagellates get a meal, and the termites benefit from the digestion of their food. This is an example of obligate mutualism, where neither species can survive without the other²⁷²⁸²⁹.

Acacia Ants and Bullhorn Acacia

Acacia ants live in the thorns of the bullhorn acacia tree and receive food and shelter. In return, the ants protect the tree from browsing animals and other herbivores. This is another example of obligate mutualism³⁰.

Hermit Crabs and Sea Anemones

Hermit crabs attach sea anemones to their shells, which serve as bodyguards, protecting the crabs from predators with their barbed tentacles. The anemones benefit from the free ride across the seabed provided by the hermit crabs³¹.

Colombian Lesserblack Tarantula and Dotted Humming Frog

The tarantula allows the frog to live in its burrow, providing the frog with protection from predators. In return, the frog eats carnivorous ants that threaten the tarantula’s eggs³².

Drongos and Meerkats

Drongos act as lookouts for meerkats, warning them of predators. While the drongos sometimes exploit this relationship by raising false alarms to steal food from fleeing meerkats, the primary benefit is mutual, with meerkats gaining protection and drongos often receiving genuine warnings and occasional food³³.

Sharks and Pilot Fish

Pilot fish swim alongside sharks, cleaning parasites and food fragments from the shark’s teeth and skin. In return, the pilot fish receive protection from other predators³⁴.

Coyote and Badger

Coyotes and badgers hunt together, with the badger digging into burrows and the coyote waiting outside to catch fleeing prey. This cooperation increases the hunting success for both species³⁵.

Spider Crab and Algae

Spider crabs have algae living on their backs, which provides camouflage, protecting the crabs from predators. The algae benefit from a stable and protected environment to live and grow³⁶³⁷.

These examples illustrate the varied and often intricate ways in which different animal species can benefit from each other through mutualistic relationships.

Citations:

[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[Mutualistic Relationships - New England Complex Systems Institute](https://necsi.edu/mutualistic-relationships) ↩︎
[Mutualism: Symbiotic Relationships - ThoughtCo](https://www.thoughtco.com/mutualism-symbiotic-relationships-4109634) ↩︎
[Mutualism | Types, Examples, & Facts - Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/science/mutualism-biology) ↩︎
[10 Mutualism Examples - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRn62gtgntY) ↩︎
[Mutualism: Symbiotic Relationships - ThoughtCo](https://www.thoughtco.com/mutualism-symbiotic-relationships-4109634) ↩︎
[Mutualism | Types, Examples, & Facts - Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/science/mutualism-biology) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[10 Mutualism Examples - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRn62gtgntY) ↩︎
[Mutualism: Symbiotic Relationships - ThoughtCo](https://www.thoughtco.com/mutualism-symbiotic-relationships-4109634) ↩︎
[10 Mutualism Examples - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRn62gtgntY) ↩︎
[Mutualism | Types, Examples, & Facts - Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/science/mutualism-biology) ↩︎
[Symbiotic relationships in ecology - Wild Earth Lab](https://wildearthlab.com/2022/09/28/symbiotic-relationships/) ↩︎
[Mutualism | Types, Examples, & Facts - Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/science/mutualism-biology) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[6 Surprising Symbiotic Relationships - Wildlife Woods](https://wildlifewoods.net/blog/2018/8/23/6-surprising-symbiotic-relationships) ↩︎
[10 Mutualism Examples - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRn62gtgntY) ↩︎
[Mutualism | Types, Examples, & Facts - Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/science/mutualism-biology) ↩︎

File Analysis

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 15:19:55 -0700

PP allows users to upload an unlimited number of files, including PDFs, CSVs, PNGs, and analyze them using cutting-edge AI models to extract insights, ask questions about specific content, and leverage the AI’s capabilities to work with your uploaded files in various ways. After highlighting the Capabilities and Summarization features generally, we examine several documents through PP to see just how well it performs. Note that PP will utilize not only the documents uploaded (maximum 4), but if the need arises, it will gather relevant information from the web as well.

Capabilities

Perplexity Pro’s file upload and analysis feature offers several capabilities for working with uploaded documents:

Document Analysis: You can upload textual files like PDFs, plain text, or code files up to 25 MB in size. Perplexity can then analyze the content of these documents.
Multiple File Uploads: You can upload up to 4 files at once, allowing you to work with multiple documents simultaneously.
Contextual Awareness: When you upload a file and start a new thread, Perplexity maintains contextual awareness of the file’s contents for follow-up questions within that thread.
Extraction of Key Information: For longer files, Perplexity extracts the most important parts to provide relevant responses to your queries.
Versatile Applications: The file upload feature can benefit various user groups:
Researchers can extract key insights and summarize findings from academic papers
Students can get explanations of complex topics and summarize texts
Professionals can analyze business reports and technical manuals
Developers can upload code files for explanations and debugging
Writers can proofread documents and get feedback on drafts
Privacy: Uploaded files remain private and are only used to customize responses to your questions. They are not accessed or shared for other purposes.
File Retention: Uploaded files are retained for 30 days, after which the file contents will no longer be accessible for follow-ups. However, the context of previous questions and answers in that thread is maintained.
Advanced Model Support: Pro subscribers can leverage advanced models like Claude 3 and GPT-4 to handle longer files and perform more complex analyses.
Unlimited Uploads: While free users are limited to 3 file uploads per day, Pro subscribers can upload unlimited files daily (at least 100).
Integration with Pro Search: By default, the search will only use the uploaded file as a source. However, Pro users can enable web browsing to combine file analysis with internet search capabilities.

With these features, you can effectively use Perplexity Pro to analyze documents, extract insights, ask questions about specific content, and leverage the AI’s capabilities to work with your uploaded files in various ways.

Summarization

PP is quite effective at summarizing complex articles, though it has both strengths and limitations compared to other AI summarization tools:

Key strengths of Perplexity AI for summarization:

Comprehensive summaries: Perplexity AI tends to provide more detailed and nuanced summaries, especially for technical or complex topics.
Structured output: It often uses clear structures with headers, bullet points, or numbered lists, enhancing readability.
Contextual awareness: Perplexity maintains contextual awareness of uploaded file contents, allowing for follow-up questions.
Integration with web search: Pro users can combine file analysis with internet search capabilities for more comprehensive answers.
Citation and sourcing: Perplexity integrates citations directly within the text, making it easier to evaluate credibility and track down sources.

Limitations or areas where other tools may have an advantage:

Conciseness: Tools like ChatGPT GPT-4o may produce shorter summaries while still capturing essential information.
Accessibility: During one trial, Perplexity AI Pro couldn’t access 25% of articles, compared to 17% for ChatGPT.
Specialized focus: Some tools like ShortForm are specifically designed for book summaries, which may give them an edge in that particular area.

Overall, Perplexity AI seems to excel in providing comprehensive, well-structured summaries of complex articles. Its ability to integrate web searches, maintain context, and provide citations makes it particularly useful for in-depth research and understanding. However, the choice between Perplexity AI and other summarization tools may depend on specific needs - whether you’re looking for quick overviews or more detailed analyses.

Ranjana Doctoral Dissertation

This is a 501 page pdf document submitted for Ranjana’s Doctorate of Social Science. Here is the link to the PP thread. Some of the prompts were suggested by PP while others were independently constructed.

Summary

This dissertation titled “Linking Animals, Social Justice and Social Work” by Ranjana Basu explores the connection between animal welfare, social justice, and the field of social work. Here are the key points:

The research aims to raise awareness about speciesism (discrimination against animals) among social workers and reshape their relationships with animals encountered in practice.
It argues that speciesism is a social justice issue that social work should address, given the profession’s commitment to social justice.
The study uses participatory action research methodology, working with animal advocates to develop an educational module for social workers.
The module challenges human exceptionalism by highlighting animal agency and caring behaviors among animals.
After education and networking, social workers showed a stronger connection to animals in their practice and an expanded sense of social justice.
The research points to social work’s role in maintaining the animal-human boundary and keeping animals conceptually invisible.
It recommends that social work recognize “trans-species social justice” and make animals more visible in the profession.
The dissertation provides extensive background on social work history, values, and current challenges, especially related to neoliberalism.
It argues that considering animal welfare aligns with social work’s core value of social justice and is relevant to many areas of practice.
The research suggests education, professional support, and grassroots mobilization to drive change in social work institutions regarding animal welfare.

The dissertation makes a case for expanding social work’s conception of social justice to include animals, arguing this is consistent with the profession’s values and relevant to practice.

What are the key findings and recommendations?

Based on my review of the dissertation, some of the key findings and recommendations include:

After education and networking, social workers showed a stronger connection to animals in their practice and an expanded sense of social justice.
The research points to social work’s role in maintaining the animal-human boundary and keeping animals conceptually invisible.
It recommends that social work recognize “trans-species social justice” and make animals more visible in the profession.
The study suggests education, professional support, and grassroots mobilization to drive change in social work institutions regarding animal welfare.
It argues that considering animal welfare aligns with social work’s core value of social justice and is relevant to many areas of practice.
The research found that the moral norm of social justice was an important influence in making participants more willing to advocate for animals.
It recommends education about speciesism and consideration of animal wellbeing in social work practice and education.
The study suggests professional organizations should support a community of practice related to inclusion of animals in social work.
It recommends grassroots mobilization to propel change in social work institutions regarding animals.
The research makes a case for expanding social work’s conception of social justice to include animals, arguing this is consistent with the profession’s values and relevant to practice.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://animalsandsocialwork.info.yorku.ca
[3] https://www.viurrspace.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/f1710a0c-6c87-4b63-a41d-9ebe17ffb05a/content
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474507/
[5] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2021.787555/full
[6] https://bnbasu.com/reviews/
[7] https://core.ac.uk/download/344926058.pdf
[8] https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/results-resultats/recipients-recipiendaires/2021/idg-sds-eng.aspx
[9] https://www.viurrspace.ca/items/38a71a64-4c79-40fa-b0e7-302707b036a8

Based on my review of the dissertation, this research project has several potential contributions to social work:

Raising awareness about speciesism and animal welfare as social justice issues that are relevant to social work practice and values. The research aims to expand social workers’ conception of social justice to include animals.
Developing and testing an educational module to teach social workers about animal welfare issues and how they connect to social work. This could provide a model for incorporating animal-related content into social work education and training.
Exploring how education and networking impacts social workers' willingness to advocate for animals. This provides insight into effective strategies for engaging social workers on this issue.
Highlighting the connections between animal welfare and other social justice issues that social workers already address, such as domestic violence, child welfare, and environmental justice. This demonstrates the relevance of animal welfare to existing social work practice areas.
Encouraging social workers to consider animals in assessments, interventions, and policy advocacy. The research aims to reshape social workers’ relationships with animals encountered in practice.
Expanding social work’s understanding of oppression and intersectionality by incorporating speciesism alongside other forms of oppression.
Challenging anthropocentrism in social work theory and practice by promoting a more holistic view that includes animals.
Providing recommendations for how social work education, organizations, and grassroots efforts can better incorporate animal welfare considerations.
Contributing to the growing body of scholarship on human-animal relationships in social work and promoting further research in this area.
Aligning social work more closely with changing societal attitudes about animal welfare and rights.

In essence, this research aims to expand social work’s scope to include animals as subjects of ethical consideration and social justice, with implications for education, practice, policy, and the profession’s overall orientation. The goal is to make animals more visible within social work’s purview.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474507/
[3] https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-2/item-06/
[4] https://humaneactionpittsburgh.org/the-intersection-of-social-work-and-animal-welfare/
[5] https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/csw/article/download/5873/4856?inline=1
[6] https://www.viurrspace.ca/items/38a71a64-4c79-40fa-b0e7-302707b036a8
[7] https://animalsandsocialwork.info.yorku.ca

What are some examples of animal abuse discussed in the dissertation?

The dissertation discusses several examples of animal abuse and exploitation, including:

Over 100 million animals killed for research experiments each year in the United States, with 4.5 million used for research in Canada in 2019, many subjected to moderate to severe distress.
4 billion land animals slaughtered in the Canadian food industry and over 49 billion killed in the US in 2020 alone for food production.
Abuse of companion animals in homes, often linked to domestic violence against women and children.
Factory farming practices that confine animals in cramped, unnatural conditions.
Use of animals for entertainment in circuses, zoos, etc.
Fur farming and trapping of animals for their fur.
Animal testing for cosmetics and other products.
Exploitation of animals in industrial agriculture.
Separation of calves from their mothers in dairy farming.

The dissertation argues that these practices reflect widespread speciesism and the oppression of animals in society. It calls for social workers to recognize this as a social justice issue and incorporate concern for animal welfare into their practice and ethics.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474507/
[3] https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-2/item-06/
[4] https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/csw/article/download/5873/4856?inline=1
[5] https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=15925&context=dissertations
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246522/
[7] https://humaneactionpittsburgh.org/the-intersection-of-social-work-and-animal-welfare/

How does animal cruelty indicate potential human violence?

There are several ways that animal cruelty has been linked to potential human violence:

Co-occurrence of animal abuse and family violence: Studies have found that animal abuse often occurs in homes where there is domestic violence, child abuse, or elder abuse. The abuse of animals may be used as a way to control, intimidate or punish family members.
Animal abuse as a predictor of future violence: Research has shown that individuals who engage in animal cruelty, especially as children or adolescents, are more likely to commit violent acts against humans later in life. It can be an early indicator of antisocial behavior.
Animal abuse as part of the cycle of violence: Those who witness or experience violence, including animal abuse, as children are more likely to engage in violent behavior themselves as adults.
Desensitization to violence: Repeatedly harming animals may desensitize an individual to the suffering of others and make it easier to engage in violence against humans.
Shared underlying factors: Animal cruelty and interpersonal violence may stem from similar psychological and environmental risk factors like lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and exposure to violence.
Use of animals to rehearse violence: Some perpetrators may “practice” on animals before moving on to human victims.
Animal abuse as part of a pattern of control and intimidation: Abusers may threaten or harm pets as a way to exert power and control over human victims.

While not all animal abusers go on to harm humans, animal cruelty is considered a red flag that may indicate a propensity for other violent behavior. This link has led many professionals to view animal abuse as a serious issue that warrants intervention and as a potential warning sign for other forms of violence.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246522/
[3] https://www.animallaw.info/article/link-cruelty-animals-and-violence-towards-people
[4] https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=15925&context=dissertations
[5] https://animalcare.lacounty.gov/the-link-between-animal-abuse-and-human-violence-understanding-the-complex-connection/
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9024712/
[7] https://aldf.org/article/the-link-between-cruelty-to-animals-and-violence-toward-humans-2/
[8] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119894131.ch16

Based on the dissertation, there are several ways social workers can effectively address clients’ animal care concerns:

Include questions about companion animals in assessments and consider their wellbeing as part of the family system. The dissertation notes that over 56% of Canadian households have companion animals, so it’s likely many clients will have pets.
Link clients to resources that can help them care for their companion animals when needed. This could include pet food banks, low-cost veterinary care, etc.
Report suspected animal abuse to local animal protection authorities. The dissertation discusses the link between animal abuse and other forms of family violence.
Ensure the wellbeing of animals is paramount in any animal-assisted interventions or therapies.
Develop organizational policies and resources to support social workers in attending to animal welfare, such as databases of community animal support services.
Advocate for policies and programs that allow people to keep their pets when accessing social services (e.g. domestic violence shelters that accommodate pets).
Understand the human-animal bond and its importance to clients' wellbeing. The dissertation notes the HAB can provide emotional support, reduce anxiety, and improve health outcomes.
Take a “more-than-human” approach to understanding family systems that includes companion animals as family members.
Consider how institutional forces and policies related to animals may impact clients, especially vulnerable groups.
Incorporate education on animal welfare and human-animal relationships into social work training and professional development.

The key is to recognize animals as part of clients’ social environments and family systems, and to consider their wellbeing as interconnected with human wellbeing when providing services and interventions.

Based on the dissertation, there are several community resources social workers can use to address clients’ animal care concerns:

Pet food banks and low-cost veterinary care services to help clients care for their companion animals when needed.
Local animal protection authorities to report suspected animal abuse.
Domestic violence shelters that accommodate pets, allowing victims to leave abusive situations without abandoning their animals.
Databases of community animal support services that social workers can refer to.
Regional animal support organizations and local animal shelters.
Resources to help homeless clients care for their companion animals.
Animal-assisted therapy and intervention programs.
Veterinary social work services, where available.
Community education programs about the link between animal abuse and family violence.
Animal welfare organizations that can provide information and support.

The dissertation recommends that social work organizations develop resources to support social workers in attending to the wellbeing of nonhuman animals in their practice, including relevant professional development opportunities and databases of community animal support services. It also suggests social workers can help link clients to resources that will assist them in caring for their companion animals when appropriate.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-2/item-06/
[3] https://www.torontohumanesociety.com/the-vital-role-of-social-work-in-animal-welfare/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8631323/
[5] https://www.humananimalsupportservices.org/blog/animal-shelter-hired-veterinary-social-worker/
[6] https://www.humananimalsupportservices.org

Here are some ways social workers can help clients facing economic crises keep their pets:

Connect clients to pet food banks or low-cost pet food resources in the community. Many areas have programs that provide free or discounted pet food to owners in need.
Help clients access low-cost or free veterinary care through local clinics, shelters, or veterinary schools that offer discounted services.
Assist clients in applying for temporary fostering programs that can provide short-term care for pets while owners get back on their feet financially.
Connect clients to organizations that offer financial assistance for pet care expenses during times of hardship.
Help clients explore options like pet-sitting exchanges or community pet care co-ops to reduce costs.
Advocate with landlords or housing providers to allow pets or waive pet fees/deposits for clients facing housing insecurity.
Provide referrals to low-cost spay/neuter services to prevent unwanted litters.
Help clients create a budget that prioritizes essential pet care costs.
Connect clients to resources for affordable pet supplies like beds, crates, leashes, etc.
Explore options for temporary boarding or care if a client needs to enter a shelter or treatment program that doesn’t allow pets.
Assist clients in researching and applying for pet-friendly housing options.
Advocate with local shelters to provide temporary housing for pets of clients entering treatment or fleeing domestic violence.

The key is to be aware of pet-related resources in the community and help clients access them to reduce the financial burden of pet ownership during difficult times. Social workers can also advocate for more pet-inclusive social services and policies.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1810&context=theses
[3] https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/index.php/csw/article/download/5873/4856?inline=1
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8631323/
[5] https://www.thesocialworkgraduate.com/post/veterinary-social-work
[6] https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-2/item-06/
[7] https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/animal-assisted-therapy-veterinary-social-work-social-work-with-people-pets-in-crisis/
[8] https://www.torontohumanesociety.com/the-vital-role-of-social-work-in-animal-welfare/

Based on the dissertation, there are several ways social workers can influence animal-related change within their profession:

Education and awareness-raising: Social workers can advocate for including content on animal welfare and human-animal relationships in social work education and professional development. The research found education was effective in expanding social workers’ sense of social justice to include animals.
Incorporating animals in practice: Social workers can start including questions about companion animals in assessments and considering animal welfare in interventions, even without formal training. This can help normalize considering animals in practice.
Advocacy within professional organizations: Social workers can push professional associations and regulatory bodies to recognize the relevance of animals to social work practice and develop related policies and guidelines.
Developing resources: Social workers can create resources to support colleagues in attending to animal welfare, such as databases of animal support services.
Research: Conducting and disseminating research on the intersections of animal welfare and social work can build the knowledge base and rationale for inclusion.
Grassroots mobilization: The research recommends grassroots efforts to propel change in social work institutions regarding animals. Social workers can organize to advocate for this issue.
Expanding social justice frameworks: Social workers can promote expanding social work’s conception of social justice to include animals, arguing this aligns with core values.
Interdisciplinary collaboration: Partnering with veterinarians, animal welfare organizations, and others can strengthen efforts to incorporate animal welfare in social work.
Policy development: Social workers can help develop organizational and social policies that consider and protect animal wellbeing.
Modeling change: By incorporating concern for animals in their own practice, social workers can demonstrate its relevance and feasibility to colleagues.

The key is raising awareness, advocating for formal recognition and resources, and normalizing consideration of animals within social work’s existing frameworks and values. Grassroots efforts by practitioners appear particularly important for driving institutional change.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-2/item-06/
[3] https://www.torontohumanesociety.com/the-vital-role-of-social-work-in-animal-welfare/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8631323/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6997439/
[6] https://www.viurrspace.ca/items/38a71a64-4c79-40fa-b0e7-302707b036a8
[7] https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/animal-assisted-therapy-veterinary-social-work-social-work-with-people-pets-in-crisis/

Based on the dissertation, there are several key reasons why social workers should take animal rights into account in their practice:

Social justice is a core value of social work, and animal rights/welfare has been identified as a social justice issue. The dissertation argues that to be consistent with social work’s commitment to social justice, the profession needs to expand its conception to include animals.
There are many connections between animal welfare and issues social workers already address, such as:

The link between animal abuse and family violence/child welfare concerns
The impact of pet ownership on access to services for vulnerable populations (e.g. homeless individuals, domestic violence victims)
The therapeutic benefits of human-animal bonds

A large percentage of households have companion animals that are considered family members. Understanding these relationships is important for assessing family systems.
Society’s attitudes about animal welfare are changing, and social work needs to evolve to remain relevant and responsive to emerging concerns.
Considering animal welfare aligns with social work’s person-in-environment perspective and existing theoretical frameworks like anti-oppressive practice.
Attending to animal welfare can provide insight into intersecting oppressions and a deeper understanding of social justice issues.
Some social workers are already incorporating animals into practice, but without formal training or guidelines. The profession needs to acknowledge and support this work.
Expanding social work’s scope to include animals is consistent with the field’s historical roots in animal welfare work.

In essence, the dissertation argues that considering animal welfare is both ethically consistent with social work values and practically relevant to many areas of social work practice and education. Incorporating animal rights would allow social workers to provide more holistic, effective interventions.

Citations:
[1] https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/25307/Basu_royalroadsdoc_1313E_10101.pdf
[2] https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-2/item-06/
[3] https://animalsandsocialwork.info.yorku.ca
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474507/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9024712/
[6] https://www.viurrspace.ca/items/38a71a64-4c79-40fa-b0e7-302707b036a8

Kyron Masters Submission

This is a 99 page pdf document submitted for Krona’s Master of Arts. Here is the link to the PP thread. Most of the research is done from the document itself, so PP doesn’t venture onto the net much. While there is no reference to this analysis, several concrete examples are presented in Kyron’s video lecture on his thesis topic, that readers may find useful.

Summary

This document is a master’s thesis by Kyron Basu titled “Phonetic Journey: Sound in Singable Translations” from the University of Victoria in 2020. The thesis explores the role of phonetics in creating singable translations of vocal music, particularly focusing on German lieder translated into English.

Key points:

The author argues that the phonetic properties of a poem serve a musical function and should be given equal consideration to semantic content when translating songs.
He develops a theory called Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) to describe and translate phonetic features of musical significance.
The thesis analyzes existing translations of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise by Harold Heiberg and Jeremy Sams using EPM.
It demonstrates how modifications to speech sounds at critical moments can enhance the expressiveness and coherence of translations.
The author creates an original singable translation of Hugo Wolf’s “Fussreise” combining EPM with Peter Low’s “Pentathlon Principle” of translation.
The thesis argues that singable translation is an interpretive act, similar to musical arrangement, reflecting the translator’s understanding of a work.
It concludes by drawing parallels between singable translations and musical arrangements, suggesting both are forms of criticism and interpretation.

The document includes detailed linguistic and musical analysis, as well as discussions of translation theory and practice. It aims to extend existing translation theories by integrating phonetic considerations into the methodology of creating singable translations.

What is the argument presented that the phonetic properties of a poem are just as important as the semantic content?

The thesis argues that the phonetic properties of a poem serve an important musical function and should be given equal consideration to semantic content when translating songs. Specifically:

The author contends that “the phonetic sounds of a poem serve a musical function which is, in many cases, intimately bound to a composer’s setting of that poem.”
He proposes that “the phonetic properties of a poem are important expressive devices that should be given equal consideration to semantic content.”
The thesis aims to extend existing translation theories by “integrating phonetics into their methodology” and considering “how the quality of translations can be improved by giving attention to the vocal sounds used, and how those sounds relate to the underlying music.”
The author develops a theory called Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) to describe and translate phonetic features of musical significance in vocal music.
He argues that modifications to speech sounds at critical moments can enhance the expressiveness and coherence of translations, often with minimal change to semantic information.
The thesis demonstrates how phonetic considerations can complement existing translation approaches that focus primarily on meaning and poetic structure.

Overall, the central argument is that the sounds and physical properties of the words themselves are just as crucial to the musical expression as their literal meaning, and should be carefully considered in singable translations of vocal music.

What examples are given to support the importance of phonetic properties in poetry?

The thesis provides several examples to support the importance of phonetic properties in poetry and song translations:

In Schubert’s “Gute Nacht” from Winterreise:

The author notes a tendency towards open/back vowels in the rhyme endings of the first four lines of stanzas 1-3, which correlates well with Schubert’s descending melodic line and creates a dark, rich sound appropriate to the gloomy mood.

In “Der Lindenbaum”:

The line “Die kalten Winde bliesen” uses fricative sounds [v] and [z] to onomatopoeically depict the blowing wind. The author argues this phonetic effect should be preserved in translation.

In “Letzte Hoffnung”:

The word “wein’” (weep) uses the [aɪ] diphthong which could be interpreted as an imitative sound of crying, emphasized by Schubert’s setting.
The author suggests using “cry” instead of “weep” in English to preserve the onomatopoeic effect.

In Wolf’s “Fussreise”:

The opening line “Am frischgeschnittnen Wanderstab” uses short vowels and strong fricatives/plosives that reflect the lively, detached piano gesture.
The author attempts to recreate this phonetic effect in the English translation.

General examples:

Plosive consonants can provide abrupt attacks on notes.
Fricatives can be used to depict motion or wind.
Open vowels like [a] are described as more suitable for expressing heavy emotions in lower vocal ranges compared to closed vowels like [i].

The thesis argues that these phonetic properties serve important expressive functions that should be considered alongside semantic meaning when translating songs.

Can you give examples of poems where phonetic properties are particularly prominent?

Certainly! There are many poems where phonetic properties play a prominent role in the overall effect and meaning. Here are a few notable examples:

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

This poem is famous for its use of internal rhyme, alliteration, and repetition of sounds, particularly the long “o” sound in words like “nevermore”. The phonetic qualities create a haunting, melodic effect that enhances the poem’s eerie atmosphere.

“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll

This nonsense poem relies heavily on made-up words that have strong phonetic qualities. The sounds of the words suggest meanings even though they are invented, demonstrating the power of phonetics in language.

“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe uses onomatopoeia and repetition to mimic the sounds of different types of bells. The phonetic qualities of the words directly evoke the sounds being described.

“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This poem is noted for its use of assonance and alliteration to create a dreamlike, musical quality. The repeated sounds contribute to the exotic, otherworldly atmosphere of the poem.

“The Tyger” by William Blake

Blake uses strong rhythms and repetitive sounds, particularly the hard “t” and “g” sounds, to evoke the fierce, powerful nature of the tiger.

“Sea Fever” by John Masefield

This poem uses alliteration and assonance to evoke the sounds and rhythms of the sea, with phrases like “the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking”.

“Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s sonnets often employ phonetic devices. In this one, the repetition of “love” and the use of alliteration (e.g., “alters when it alteration finds”) contribute to the poem’s memorable quality.

“The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes

This narrative poem uses rhythm and repetition to create a galloping effect that mirrors the highwayman’s ride, with lines like “tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear”.

In these poems, the phonetic properties are not just decorative, but integral to the overall effect and meaning of the work. They demonstrate how sound can be used as a powerful poetic device.

Citations:
[1] https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/12074/Basu_Kyron_MA_2020.pdf?sequence=1
[2] https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2003/papers/p15_2757.pdf
[3] https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/short/phonetic
[4] https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/best/phonetic
[5] https://blogsarchive.sites.haverford.edu/celticfringe/2014/04/16/phonetic-poetry/
[6] https://sites.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/reading/Miall_phonetic.pdf
[7] https://hcmc.uvic.ca/project/closereading/sound.html
[8] https://poemanalysis.com/literary-device/sound-devices/

Can you elaborate on this theory Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) as presented?

Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) is a theory developed by the author to analyze and create singable translations of vocal music, with a focus on preserving the phonetic qualities of the original text that have expressive musical functions. The key aspects of EPM as presented in the thesis are:

It aims to map the phonetic properties of a source text to a target text in translation, considering how sounds relate to the underlying music.
EPM considers the strength of phonetic mapping between sounds in the source and target languages based on articulatory proximity and expressive function.
For consonants, a strong mapping preserves the manner of articulation (e.g. plosive, fricative), while a weak mapping changes it.
For vowels, mapping strength depends on proximity on the vowel chart and similarity in rounding.
EPM can be applied at both small scales (individual sounds) and larger scales (phonetic tendencies across phrases or sections).
It allows for qualitative and interpretive evaluation of groups of sounds and their expressive effects.
The theory recognizes that exact phonetic transfer is often not possible or desirable, so it aims for flexible mapping of expressive sound qualities.
EPM can be used analytically to evaluate existing translations and generatively to create new translations.
It considers how phonetic choices can enhance or detract from the expressiveness and coherence of a translation in relation to the music.
The author argues EPM should be considered alongside other translation criteria like meaning, rhythm, and singability to create more effective singable translations.

Overall, EPM provides a framework for translators to systematically consider the musical functions of speech sounds when creating singable translations, aiming to preserve important phonetic expressive devices from the original text.

How does Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) differ from other phonetic theories?

Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) differs from other phonetic theories in a few key ways:

Focus on musical expressiveness: EPM specifically considers how phonetic sounds relate to and enhance the musical setting, rather than just analyzing phonetics in isolation. It aims to map phonetic features that have expressive musical functions.
Flexibility: Unlike strict phonetic transcription or translation methods, EPM allows for flexible mapping of expressive sound qualities rather than exact phonetic transfer. It recognizes that precise phonetic equivalence is often not possible or desirable in translation.
Scale: EPM can be applied at both small scales (individual sounds) and larger scales (phonetic tendencies across phrases or sections). It considers overall phonetic character in addition to specific sounds.
Qualitative analysis: EPM allows for qualitative and interpretive evaluation of groups of sounds and their expressive effects, not just quantitative phonetic analysis.
Application to translation: EPM was developed specifically as a tool for analyzing and creating singable translations of vocal music. It aims to inform the translation process, not just describe phonetics.
Integration with other criteria: EPM is meant to complement, not replace, other translation criteria like meaning, rhythm, and singability. It adds phonetic considerations to existing translation methodologies.
Consideration of musical setting: EPM examines how phonetic choices relate to specific musical elements like melodic contour, harmony, and rhythm, not just the text in isolation.
Emphasis on consonants: While vowels are important, EPM pays particular attention to the expressive functions of consonants in relation to the music.
Balance of preservation and creativity: EPM aims to preserve important phonetic expressive devices from the original while allowing creative phonetic choices in translation when appropriate.

Overall, EPM provides a framework for systematically considering the musical functions of speech sounds in vocal music translation, which distinguishes it from more general phonetic theories or transcription systems. It is a tool specifically designed for the creative and interpretive process of translating songs.

What are the historical origins of Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM)?

Based on the thesis, Expressive Phonetic Mapping (EPM) appears to be an original theory developed by the author, Kyron Basu, rather than having specific historical origins. Some key points about EPM’s development:

It is presented as a new analytical framework created by the author to examine and create singable translations of vocal music.
The thesis states that EPM “aims to map the phonetic properties of a source text to a target text in translation, considering how sounds relate to the underlying music.”
It is described as a tool to “systematically consider the musical functions of speech sounds when creating singable translations.”
The author developed EPM to complement existing translation theories by “integrating phonetics into their methodology.”
It builds on the idea that “the phonetic sounds of a poem serve a musical function which is, in many cases, intimately bound to a composer’s setting of that poem.”
The thesis positions EPM as addressing a gap in existing literature on singable translations, which rarely considered phonetics as a salient property.

While EPM draws on concepts from linguistics, phonetics, and translation theory, it appears to be a novel framework synthesized by the author rather than having direct historical predecessors. The thesis presents it as an original contribution to the field of singable translation analysis and creation.

Citations:
[1] https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/12074/Basu_Kyron_MA_2020.pdf?sequence=1
[2] https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/90277f32-9d53-4db1-a0c9-0eec43077c61/content
[3] https://sites.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/reading/Miall_phonetic.pdf
[4] https://www.paperdigest.org/2022/05/acl-2022-highlights/
[5] https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2003/papers/p15_2757.pdf
[6] https://pdfcoffee.com/a-history-of-singingpdf-pdf-free.html
[7] https://blogsarchive.sites.haverford.edu/celticfringe/2014/04/16/phonetic-poetry/

The Management of Technological Innovation

This is a 402p book on tech innovation that we analyzed with PP in this thread. We tried generating summaries of the chapters as well as several followup questions, and rewriting with some of the LLMs.

A book with chapters may require handling in a different way. When we first uploaded it and asked for a summary, it only did the first chapter. So we tried again, and our initial prompt was just What is the title of the book and who are the authors?, which PP got right away. Then we used one of its followup questions What are the main topics covered in the book?, and it picked out relevant items from the TIC. Then we asked for a summary chapter by chapter as listed below. For summarization, the pro switch makes no difference which is understandable, because it is primarily for searching on the net.

After the summaries, we ask specific questions so that PP can pull out appropriate answers. One topic on the 5 generations of innovation, is rewritten using various LLMs, the results of which are all quite good, though some seem to be better in quality as well as formatting. On PP, only the last rewrite (Sonar Huge) remains since the each rewrite overwrites the last.

What is the title of the book and who are the authors?

The title of the book is “The Management of Technological Innovation: Strategy and Practice” and the authors are Mark Dodgson, David Gann, and Ammon Salter. This book is a completely revised and updated edition, published by Oxford University Press in 2008.

What are the main topics covered in the book

Based on the preface and table of contents, the main topics covered in the book “The Management of Technological Innovation: Strategy and Practice” by Mark Dodgson, David Gann, and Ammon Salter include:

The importance and challenges of managing technological innovation
The business context for innovation management, including:
- Changing nature of industry and business
- Business and innovation systems
- Changing nature of management
- Globalization
Types and processes of technological innovation
Innovation strategy
Innovation networks and communities
Management of research and development (R&D)
Management of product and service innovation
Innovation in operations and processes
Delivering value from innovation (commercialization)
Future challenges in managing technological innovation

The book takes a broad view of innovation management, covering strategic, organizational, and operational aspects. It examines innovation from both theoretical and practical perspectives, using case studies and examples throughout. The authors aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the field for students, researchers and practitioners.

summary of Chapter 1 on What is the Management of Technological Innovation and Why is it Important

Here is a summary of Chapter 1 on “What is the Management of Technological Innovation and Why is it Important?”:

Key points:

The management of technological innovation (MTI) is one of the most important and challenging aspects of contemporary business. It involves creating and delivering value through innovation in strategy, R&D, products, services, operations, processes, and commercialization.
MTI is critical for firms’ growth, profitability and survival. It provides competitive advantage and allows firms to meet objectives like improving efficiency and enhancing competitiveness.
MTI is important from corporate, national/industrial, theoretical and individual perspectives:
- For companies, it drives growth, profitability and survival
- For nations, it boosts productivity, income and economic development
- Theoretically, it is central to evolutionary economics and new growth theory
- For individuals, it provides opportunities for creativity and satisfaction
MTI involves managing complexity, risk and uncertainty. Key challenges include:
- Integrating multiple technological and organizational systems
- Dealing with high costs and unpredictable outcomes
- Appropriating returns on innovation investments
- Learning and adapting quickly in fast-changing environments
The chapter provides case studies of MTI challenges in different types of firms (biotech, automotive, machine tools, electronics, software, manufacturing) to illustrate key issues.
Effective MTI requires understanding the broad business context, innovation processes, and strategic integration of innovative activities across the organization.

In summary, the chapter establishes MTI as a critical but challenging management domain that is essential for firm competitiveness and economic progress. It provides an overview of why MTI matters and the key issues involved in managing it successfully. *summary of Chapter 2 on “The Business Context for the Management of Technological Innovation”: Here’s a summary of Chapter 2 on “The Business Context for the Management of Technological Innovation”:

Key points:

The chapter examines the changing nature of industry and business that impacts the management of technological innovation (MTI).
Technological change:

Occurs in waves or “technological revolutions” that transform economies and societies
We are currently in the 5th wave focused on ICT/microelectronics, possibly entering a 6th wave around life sciences/biotechnology

The knowledge economy:

Knowledge is increasingly central to economic growth and competitiveness
There are changes in how knowledge is produced, with more transdisciplinary and contextual approaches

Business and innovation systems:

Innovation occurs within systems and networks of firms and institutions
National, regional and sectoral innovation systems shape innovation capabilities
Understanding these systems is important for effective MTI

Changing nature of management:

Shift from command-and-control to more flexible, learning-oriented approaches
Focus on strategy as a process, organizational learning, knowledge management, and trust

Globalization:

Increasing internationalization of R&D and innovation activities
But national systems still play an important role

Key challenges for MTI:

Understanding the broader context and systems firms operate in
Integrating activities effectively into innovation systems
Adopting new management paradigms focused on learning, knowledge and trust
Managing innovation in an increasingly globalized environment

The chapter emphasizes that effective MTI requires managers to be aware of this broader context and how it shapes innovation opportunities and challenges.

summary of Chapter 2 on The Business Context for the Management of Technological Innovation

Here’s a summary of Chapter 2 on “The Business Context for the Management of Technological Innovation”:

Key points:

The chapter examines the changing nature of industry and business that impacts the management of technological innovation (MTI).
Technological change:

Occurs in waves or “technological revolutions” that transform economies and societies
We are currently in the 5th wave focused on ICT/microelectronics, possibly entering a 6th wave around life sciences/biotechnology

The knowledge economy:

Knowledge is increasingly central to economic growth and competitiveness
There are changes in how knowledge is produced, with more transdisciplinary and contextual approaches

Business and innovation systems:

Innovation occurs within systems and networks of firms and institutions
National, regional and sectoral innovation systems shape innovation capabilities
Understanding these systems is important for effective MTI

Changing nature of management:

Shift from command-and-control to more flexible, learning-oriented approaches
Focus on strategy as a process, organizational learning, knowledge management, and trust

Globalization:

Increasing internationalization of R&D and innovation activities
But national systems still play an important role

Key challenges for MTI:

Understanding the broader context and systems firms operate in
Integrating activities effectively into innovation systems
Adopting new management paradigms focused on learning, knowledge and trust
Managing innovation in an increasingly globalized environment

The chapter emphasizes that effective MTI requires managers to be aware of this broader context and how it shapes innovation opportunities and challenges.

summary of Chapter 3 on Technological Innovation

Here’s a summary of Chapter 3 on Technological Innovation:

Key points:

Types and extent of innovation:

Can be radical (major breakthroughs) or incremental (minor improvements)
Can be product, process, or service innovations
Can be competence-enhancing or competence-destroying for firms

The innovation process is changing:

Moving from linear models to more complex, interactive models
The “fifth-generation” innovation process involves integration, flexibility, networking and real-time information processing

Sources of innovation are diverse:

Can come from suppliers, customers, universities, government labs, competitors, etc.
User innovation is increasingly important
Open innovation approaches are gaining traction

Measuring innovation is challenging:

Common metrics include R&D spending, patents, bibliometrics, and innovation surveys
Each measure has limitations and provides only partial insight

Outcomes of innovation:

Can lead to increased productivity, economic growth, and competitive advantage
Diffusion and adoption of innovations follows an S-curve pattern
Network effects and standards play a key role in adoption of some innovations

Innovation is a continuous process:

Illustrated by the ongoing quest to build better mousetraps
Firms must persistently innovate to maintain competitiveness

The chapter emphasizes that managers need to understand these various aspects of innovation - its types, processes, sources, measurements and outcomes - in order to effectively manage technological innovation. The innovation landscape is complex and constantly evolving, requiring managers to stay informed and adapt their approaches.

summary of Chapter 4 on Innovation Strategy

Here’s a summary of Chapter 4 on Innovation Strategy:

Key points:

Innovation strategy is crucial for firms’ competitiveness and involves:

Analyzing business, market and technological environments
Making choices about innovation in uncertain circumstances
Building innovative capabilities
Integrating innovation activities across the organization

Innovation strategy should align with and inform overall corporate strategy.
Types of innovation strategies include:

Technology leadership vs. followership
Product vs. process innovation focus
Radical vs. incremental innovation
Open vs. closed innovation approaches

Formulating innovation strategy involves:

Assessing internal capabilities and external opportunities/threats
Deciding on innovation priorities and resource allocation
Developing roadmaps for future innovation

Building innovative capabilities requires:

Developing core competencies
Creating an innovation-supportive culture
Establishing processes for idea generation and implementation
Fostering creativity and learning

Returns from innovation strategy can be measured through:

Financial metrics (e.g. % revenue from new products)
Innovation output metrics (e.g. patents, new product launches)
Process metrics (e.g. time to market, R&D productivity)

SMEs face particular challenges in innovation strategy, including:

Limited resources for R&D and innovation
Difficulties accessing external knowledge/technologies
Challenges in scaling up and commercializing innovations

Effective innovation strategy requires flexibility to adapt to changing conditions while maintaining long-term direction.

The chapter emphasizes that innovation strategy is essential for guiding innovation efforts and ensuring they create value for the firm. It should be tailored to the firm’s specific context and integrated with overall business strategy.

summary of Chapter 5 on Networks and Communities

Here’s a summary of Chapter 5 on Networks and Communities:

Key points:

Networks and communities are increasingly important for innovation:

They provide access to diverse knowledge and resources
They allow firms to share risks and costs of innovation

Types of networks discussed:

Scientific networks
User innovation communities
Technological collaborations between firms

Social capital is crucial for effective networking:

Builds trust and facilitates knowledge sharing
Helps form and maintain relationships

User innovation is becoming more prevalent:

Users often develop or modify products to meet their needs
Firms can harness user innovations through toolkits and communities

Technological collaborations between firms are common:

Allow access to complementary capabilities
Help share costs and risks of R&D
Can be challenging to manage due to different goals/cultures

Key factors for successful networking:

Building trust between partners
Effective knowledge sharing and organizational learning
Managing intellectual property issues

Challenges of networks:

Coordinating diverse partners
Balancing cooperation and competition
Protecting proprietary knowledge while sharing

Networks are dynamic:

Need to be actively managed over time
Partners and relationships evolve

The chapter emphasizes that while networks and communities offer many benefits for innovation, they require careful management to be effective. Firms need strategies for identifying valuable partners, building trust, sharing knowledge, and capturing value from collaborations.

summary of Chapter 6 on The Management of Research and Development

Here’s a summary of Chapter 6 on The Management of Research and Development:

Key points:

R&D is crucial for firms’ competitiveness and growth. It provides new ideas, improves absorptive capacity, and helps firms stay ahead of competitors.
R&D expenditure patterns vary across industries, with sectors like pharmaceuticals and electronics spending the most.
Organizing R&D involves decisions about:
- Centralization vs. decentralization
- Integration with other business functions
- Managing international R&D activities
Managing research teams requires:
- Balancing autonomy and control
- Fostering creativity while maintaining focus
- Effective communication and knowledge sharing
Creativity in research can be encouraged through:
- Organizational culture and leadership
- Appropriate incentives and rewards
- Physical workspace design
Balancing R&D portfolios involves:
- Mix of short-term and long-term projects
- Balancing risk and potential returns
- Using tools like technology roadmaps
Managing international R&D presents challenges like:
- Coordinating dispersed R&D units
- Transferring knowledge across borders
- Aligning with local innovation systems
Key trends in R&D management include:
- Increased openness and collaboration
- Greater focus on interdisciplinary research
- Use of advanced IT tools for R&D

The chapter emphasizes that effective R&D management requires balancing multiple objectives and constraints, fostering creativity while maintaining strategic focus, and integrating R&D with other business functions and external partners.

summary of Chapter 7 on The Management of Product and Service Innovation

Here’s a summary of Chapter 7 on The Management of Product and Service Innovation:

Key points:

Product and service innovation (PSI) involves developing new or improved products and services. It can range from minor improvements to radical new offerings.
Benefits of successful PSI include:

Increased sales and profits
Improved market share and competitiveness
Enhanced brand image and reputation
Opportunities to enter new markets

However, PSI failure rates are high (50-90% depending on industry). Common reasons for failure include:

Poor market research/understanding of customer needs
Technical problems
Lack of senior management support
Poor timing of launch
Inadequate marketing

Factors encouraging successful PSI:

Clear innovation strategy aligned with business strategy
Strong leadership and organizational support for innovation
Effective cross-functional teams and project management
Deep understanding of customer needs
Rapid prototyping and testing
Well-planned and executed launch

The role of design is crucial in PSI:

Integrates form, function and user experience
Helps differentiate products/services
Can lead to cost reductions and improved manufacturability
Increasingly seen as a strategic business asset

Key tools and techniques for managing PSI include:

Stage-gate processes to manage development
Quality Function Deployment to translate customer needs into specifications
Rapid prototyping for faster iteration
Open innovation approaches to access external ideas

Challenges in managing PSI:

Balancing creativity with discipline
Managing risk and uncertainty
Integrating marketing, R&D and operations
Deciding on resource allocation across projects

The chapter emphasizes that successful PSI requires both creativity and systematic management processes. It needs to be driven by customer needs while leveraging technological capabilities. Effective integration across functions and with external partners is crucial.

summary of Chapter 8 on Innovation in Operations and Processes

Here’s a summary of Chapter 8 on Innovation in Operations and Processes:

Key points:

Operations involve the activities that create and deliver a firm’s products or services. Innovation in operations can provide significant competitive advantages.
There is often tension between innovation and operations, as operations focus on efficiency and reliability while innovation involves change and uncertainty.
Operations are important for delivering innovation by:
- Turning ideas into reality through production
- Providing feedback to improve designs
- Generating ideas for product/process improvements
Key factors affecting operations innovation:
- Industry characteristics (e.g. mass production vs. customized products)
- Technology (e.g. automation, digital technologies)
- Markets (e.g. globalization, changing customer demands)
Key techniques in operations management:
- Lean production
- Just-in-time manufacturing
- Total quality management
- Six Sigma
Automation has been a major trend, but requires careful implementation:
- Can improve efficiency and quality
- Risks of over-automation and inflexibility
- Need to balance automation with human skills
Process innovation involves:
- Incremental improvements to existing processes
- Radical changes to how work is done (e.g. business process reengineering)
- Adoption of new technologies (e.g. enterprise resource planning systems)
Challenges in operations innovation:
- Integrating new technologies with existing systems
- Managing organizational and cultural change
- Balancing standardization with flexibility
- Coordinating globally distributed operations

The chapter emphasizes that effective operations innovation requires integrating technological changes with organizational and strategic changes. It also highlights the increasing importance of services and the blurring of boundaries between manufacturing and services.

summary of Chapter 9 on Delivering Value from Innovation

Here’s a summary of Chapter 9 on Delivering Value from Innovation:

Key points:

Delivering value from innovation involves:

Positioning in the value chain
Selecting paths to market
Deciding how to commercialize innovations
Managing intellectual property
Setting standards
Marketing technology products
Technology transfer

Firms need to decide where to position themselves in the value chain:

Upstream (research/development)
Downstream (manufacturing/distribution)
Or integrated across the chain

Paths to market include:

Internal development and commercialization
Licensing/selling intellectual property
Forming joint ventures or alliances
Creating spin-off companies

Key commercialization decisions:

Timing of market entry
Pricing strategy
Distribution channels
Marketing approach

Managing intellectual property through:

Patents, copyrights, trademarks
Trade secrets
Complementary assets

Standards are important for:

Network effects and market dominance
Interoperability
Reducing uncertainty

Marketing technology products requires:

Understanding customer needs
Demonstrating value proposition
Managing adoption process

Technology transfer involves:

Moving innovations from research to commercial application
Transferring between organizations (e.g. university to industry)

The chapter emphasizes that delivering value from innovation requires careful strategic choices about how to capture returns from innovative efforts. Firms need to consider their position in value chains and innovation ecosystems, decide on optimal paths to market, manage IP effectively, and develop strategies for commercialization, standards, and marketing.

summary of Chapter 10 on Five Future Challenges

Managing technology-based competition:

Increasing pace and complexity of technological change
Need for strategic flexibility and dynamic capabilities
Importance of timing in technology adoption and implementation
Challenge of managing disruptive technologies

Managing the new innovation process:

Shift to more open, collaborative innovation models
Growth of innovation networks and communities
Need to integrate internal and external knowledge sources
Challenges of managing distributed innovation processes

The role of government:

Debate over appropriate level of government intervention in innovation
Need for policies to support basic research, education, and infrastructure
Challenge of balancing regulation and innovation incentives
Growing importance of public-private partnerships

The role of basic research:

Continued importance of long-term, fundamental research
Pressure to demonstrate short-term relevance and impact
Need to balance basic and applied research funding
Challenge of translating basic research into commercial applications

Sustainable business:

Growing emphasis on environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility
Need to develop clean technologies and sustainable business models
Challenge of balancing economic, social, and environmental objectives
Opportunities for innovation in sustainability-related products and services

The chapter emphasizes that these challenges are interconnected and require integrated approaches from firms, governments, and other stakeholders. It argues that addressing these challenges will be crucial for the future of technological innovation and economic competitiveness.

in ch3, elaborate on the breakthroughs in tennis rackets and how they affected play

Here’s an elaboration on the breakthroughs in tennis rackets and how they affected play, based on the information provided in Box 3.2 of Chapter 3:

Tennis racket technology has seen several major breakthroughs that have significantly impacted the game:

Wood to metal frames: The shift from wooden rackets to metal (steel and aluminum) frames in the 1960s-70s was a major change. Metal frames were more durable and allowed for larger head sizes, increasing the “sweet spot” and making it easier for players to hit powerful shots.
Oversized rackets: The introduction of oversized racket heads in the 1970s further increased the sweet spot and power potential. This made the game more accessible to amateur players while also allowing professionals to hit with more pace and spin.
Graphite composites: In the 1980s, graphite composite materials revolutionized racket design. These materials were lighter yet stiffer than metal, allowing for even larger head sizes without sacrificing control. This led to more powerful serves and groundstrokes.
“Widebody” designs: The late 1980s saw the development of rackets with wider frames, which increased stiffness and power even further. This design helped players generate more ball speed with less effort.
Advanced composites and string technologies: Ongoing innovations in materials and string designs have continued to enhance racket performance, allowing for an optimal balance of power, control, and spin generation.

These technological advancements have had profound effects on tennis play:

Increased power: Players can now generate much higher ball speeds, especially on serves and groundstrokes.
Enhanced spin: Modern rackets allow players to impart more spin on the ball, leading to more aggressive topspin shots and sharper angles.
Improved consistency: Larger sweet spots and more forgiving designs have reduced mishits, allowing for more consistent shot-making.
Changed playing styles: The power and spin potential of modern rackets has encouraged more baseline play and aggressive shot-making from all areas of the court.
Faster pace of play: The ability to hit winners from anywhere on the court has accelerated the overall pace of the game.
Accessibility: Technological improvements have made the game more accessible to recreational players by making it easier to generate pace and control.

These innovations have collectively transformed tennis from a game of finesse and touch to one that also heavily emphasizes power and athleticism, reshaping both professional and amateur play.

How did the shift from wood to metal rackets affect the game’s dynamics (from PP)

Based on the information provided in Box 3.2 of Chapter 3, the shift from wooden to metal tennis rackets in the 1960s-70s had several significant effects on the game’s dynamics:

Increased power: Metal frames allowed for larger racket head sizes, which increased the “sweet spot” and made it easier for players to hit powerful shots.
Improved durability: Metal rackets were more durable than wooden ones.
Enhanced accessibility: The larger sweet spot made the game more accessible to amateur players.
Changed playing styles: The ability to generate more power and spin encouraged more baseline play and aggressive shot-making from all areas of the court.
Faster pace of play: The increased power potential accelerated the overall pace of the game.
Improved consistency: Larger sweet spots and more forgiving designs reduced mishits, allowing for more consistent shot-making.
Transformation of the game: Overall, these changes helped transform tennis from a game primarily focused on finesse and touch to one that also heavily emphasizes power and athleticism.

In summary, the introduction of metal rackets was a major technological breakthrough that significantly altered the way tennis was played, making it more powerful, faster-paced, and accessible to a wider range of players.

What were the initial reactions of players to the new metal rackets (from PP)

Based on the information provided in the passage, some key points about the initial reactions to metal tennis rackets include:

The shift from wooden to metal rackets in the 1960s-70s was a major change in tennis technology.
Metal frames allowed for larger racket head sizes, which increased the “sweet spot” and made it easier for players to hit powerful shots.
This made the game more accessible to amateur players.
It encouraged more baseline play and aggressive shot-making from all areas of the court.
It accelerated the overall pace of the game.
It allowed for more consistent shot-making due to the larger sweet spots and more forgiving designs.
It helped transform tennis from a game primarily focused on finesse and touch to one that also heavily emphasizes power and athleticism.

So in summary, while specific player reactions are not mentioned, the passage suggests that players found the metal rackets allowed for more power, consistency and aggressive play compared to wooden rackets, changing the dynamics of the game significantly. The technology made tennis more accessible to amateurs while also enabling professionals to hit with more pace and spin. [Note the excellent speculation PP makes about player reactions. Having played in that era at a national level as well as having been a teaching tennis pro, I can personally attest to the accuracy of the deduction.]

in ch3, explain each of the 5 generation innovation processes

Here’s an explanation of each of the 5 generation innovation processes described in Chapter 3:

First-generation (1950s-1960s):

This was a linear “technology push” model. Innovation was seen as a sequential process starting with scientific discovery, moving through R&D, engineering and manufacturing, and ending with marketing of the new product. The focus was on R&D and technology as the driver of innovation.

Second-generation (1960s-1970s):

This was a linear “market pull” model. It was still sequential but emphasized market needs as the driver of innovation. The process started with market needs, which then drove R&D, engineering, manufacturing and sales.

Third-generation (1970s-1980s):

This was a “coupling” model that recognized the interaction between technological capabilities and market needs. It included feedback loops between the different stages and emphasized integration between R&D and marketing.

Fourth-generation (1980s-1990s):

This was a parallel model emphasizing integration within the firm and with key suppliers and customers. It featured parallel development with integrated teams and strong linkages with leading-edge customers. It emphasized integration and parallel development.

Fifth-generation (1990s onwards):

This is described as a systems integration and networking model. It emphasizes flexibility and speed of development, with fully integrated parallel development. It features strong linkages with leading-edge customers, strategic integration with primary suppliers, and emphasis on corporate flexibility and speed-to-market. It leverages electronic tools and networks to enhance innovation capabilities.

The progression shows a move from simple linear models to more complex, integrated, and networked approaches to the innovation process over time.

rewrite the above with Sonar Large

In Chapter 3 of “The Management of Technological Innovation” by Mark Dodgson, David Gann, and Ammon Salter, the authors discuss the evolution of the innovation process through five distinct generations. Here is an explanation of each generation:

### 1. First-Generation Innovation Process

Characteristics: This generation is characterized by a linear, sequential approach to innovation. It typically involves a straightforward progression from research to development, then to production, and finally to marketing.
Description: In this model, each stage is completed before the next one begins. It is often associated with the traditional “technology push” approach, where scientific discoveries drive the innovation process.
Example: The development of penicillin by Alexander Fleming is an example of this process, where a scientific discovery led to the development of a new product through a linear sequence of steps.

### 2. Second-Generation Innovation Process

Characteristics: This generation introduces a more interactive approach, with feedback loops between different stages of the innovation process.
Description: The second generation involves a more iterative process where research, development, production, and marketing are interconnected. This allows for adjustments and improvements at various stages based on feedback.
Example: The development of the first commercial jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, involved significant feedback between design, testing, and production stages, illustrating this iterative approach.

### 3. Third-Generation Innovation Process

Characteristics: This generation emphasizes integration across different functions within the organization.
Description: The third generation involves a more integrated approach where research, development, production, and marketing are closely linked and coordinated. This integration aims to reduce time-to-market and improve overall efficiency.
Example: The introduction of the Sony Walkman, which required close coordination between design, engineering, and marketing teams to achieve its innovative and compact design.

### 4. Fourth-Generation Innovation Process

Characteristics: This generation focuses on the integration of external partners and suppliers into the innovation process.
Description: The fourth generation involves collaboration with external partners, including suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. This collaborative approach helps in sharing risks, costs, and expertise.
Example: The development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which involved extensive collaboration with global suppliers and partners to integrate advanced technologies and materials.

### 5. Fifth-Generation Innovation Process

Characteristics: This generation is characterized by a highly interactive, flexible, and networked approach to innovation.
Description: The fifth generation involves real-time information processing, extensive use of digital technologies, and a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. It emphasizes open innovation, where firms actively seek out and integrate external ideas and technologies.
Example: The use of crowdsourcing and open innovation platforms by companies like IBM and Procter & Gamble to tap into a global pool of innovators and accelerate the development of new products and services.

Each generation represents a progression towards more complex, interactive, and collaborative innovation processes, reflecting the evolving nature of technological innovation and the increasing importance of external networks and digital technologies.

rewrite the above with Sonar Huge

Chapter 3 of “The Management of Technological Innovation” discusses the evolution of innovation processes, which can be categorized into five generations. Here’s a detailed explanation of each generation:

First Generation: Technology Push
- Characteristics: This generation is characterized by a focus on scientific and technological advancements without direct consideration of market needs.
- Process: It involves a linear sequence from scientific discovery to product development, with little feedback from the market.
- Example: Early developments in semiconductors were driven by technological advancements rather than specific market demands.
Second Generation: Market Pull
- Characteristics: This approach emphasizes understanding market needs and customer demands before developing new technologies.
- Process: It involves a linear sequence from market research to product development, with a focus on meeting identified market needs.
- Example: The development of the Sony Walkman was driven by understanding consumer demand for portable music players.
Third Generation: Coupling Model
- Characteristics: This generation integrates technology push and market pull by encouraging interaction between R&D and marketing departments.
- Process: It involves a more iterative process where R&D and marketing collaborate to align technological capabilities with market needs.
- Example: The development of the Apple Macintosh computer involved close collaboration between R&D and marketing to create a user-friendly computer that met market demands.
Fourth Generation: Integrated Model
- Characteristics: This generation emphasizes the integration of various functions within the firm, including R&D, marketing, and production, to create a more holistic innovation process.
- Process: It involves a highly interactive process where different departments collaborate to integrate technological, market, and organizational considerations.
- Example: The development of the Toyota Prius involved integrated efforts across R&D, marketing, and production to create a hybrid vehicle that met both environmental and market demands.
Fifth Generation: Systems Integration and Networking Model
- Characteristics: This generation focuses on integrating innovation processes across the entire value chain, including external partners and networks.
- Process: It involves a highly collaborative and dynamic process where firms engage with external partners, suppliers, and customers to co-create innovations.
- Example: The development of the Linux operating system involved a global network of developers collaborating to create an open-source software solution.

Each generation represents a progression towards more integrated and collaborative innovation processes, reflecting the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of modern business environments.

rewrite above with chatgpt4o (gpt4 omni)

The five generations of innovation processes described in Chapter 3 of the book reflect the evolution of how innovation is managed within firms:

First-Generation Process (Technology Push):
- Innovation was driven by scientific discoveries and technological advancements.
- The process was linear, starting from R&D and moving through production to marketing.
- Emphasis was on pushing technology to the market without much consideration for market needs.
Second-Generation Process (Market Pull):
- Focus shifted to responding to market needs and demands.
- Innovation was driven by customer feedback and market research.
- The process was still linear but initiated by market requirements rather than technological capabilities.
Third-Generation Process (Coupling Model):
- Combined elements of both technology push and market pull.
- Recognized the interaction between R&D and marketing.
- Introduced feedback loops between different stages of the innovation process, allowing for adjustments based on market response.
Fourth-Generation Process (Integrated/Parallel Model):
- Emphasized integration and collaboration across different functions within the firm.
- Involved simultaneous development activities, reducing time to market.
- Encouraged cross-functional teams and the integration of suppliers and customers into the innovation process.
Fifth-Generation Process (Systems Integration and Networking Model):
- Focused on real-time information processing and networking.
- Emphasized open innovation and the use of external networks and partnerships.
- Utilized advanced IT systems for managing complex innovation processes and integrating global operations.

These generational shifts reflect a move from isolated, linear processes to more integrated, networked, and flexible approaches, allowing firms to better adapt to rapid technological changes and market dynamics.

rewrite above with claude 3 opus

Based on the information provided in Chapter 3, the five generations of innovation processes are:

### 1. First-generation (1G) innovation process:

Simple linear model
Emphasis on R&D push
Little attention to market needs or feedback loops
Assumes more R&D will lead directly to more successful products

### 2. Second-generation (2G) innovation process:

Linear model but with more emphasis on market pull
R&D efforts driven by market needs identified by marketing
Still a sequential process with little feedback

### 3. Third-generation (3G) innovation process:

Coupling model recognizing interaction between different elements
Emphasis on integrating R&D and marketing
Feedback loops between phases
Still essentially a sequential process

### 4. Fourth-generation (4G) innovation process:

Parallel development with integrated development teams
Strong upstream supplier linkages and close coupling with leading customers
Emphasis on integration between R&D and manufacturing
Horizontal collaboration (e.g. joint ventures, alliances)

### 5. Fifth-generation (5G) innovation process:

Systems integration and extensive networking
Flexible and customized response
Continuous innovation
Use of sophisticated IT systems to enable networking
Fully integrated parallel development
Use of expert systems and simulation modeling in R&D
Strong linkages with leading customers
Strategic integration with primary suppliers
Horizontal linkages (joint ventures, alliances, consortia)
Emphasis on corporate flexibility and speed of development

In summary, the innovation process models have evolved from simple linear models to increasingly complex interactive models with more emphasis on integration, parallel processing, feedback, and systems thinking over time. The fifth-generation model represents the most sophisticated approach to date.

can you give the gist of each of the case studies used to illustrate points in the book?

[This is a tough question as PP has to go through the entire book identifying and providing precis of each case study, which it does admirably chapter by chapter.]

The book “The Management of Technological Innovation” by Mark Dodgson, David Gann, and Ammon Salter uses various case studies to illustrate key points and themes. Here are some of the case studies mentioned in the book, categorized by chapter. Sonar Huge was the LLM used.

Chapter 1: What is the Management of Technological Innovation and Why is it Important?
- Biotech Firm: Illustrates the challenges of managing high-risk, high-reward biotech projects.
- Automotive Firm: Shows how innovation in supply chain management can improve efficiency and reduce costs.
- Machine Tool Firm: Demonstrates the importance of integrating new technologies into existing manufacturing processes.
- Electronics Firm: Highlights the need for continuous innovation to stay competitive in fast-paced industries.
- Software Firm: Discusses the challenges of managing software development projects and the importance of agile methodologies.
- Manufacturing Firm: Emphasizes the role of innovation in improving manufacturing processes and reducing costs.
Chapter 2: The Business Context for the Management of Technological Innovation
- Globalization: Discusses how globalization affects innovation strategies and the importance of international collaboration.
- Knowledge Economy: Illustrates how the shift to a knowledge economy impacts innovation management and the need for continuous learning.
- Business and Innovation Systems: Examines how different national and regional innovation systems influence innovation capabilities.
Chapter 3: Technological Innovation
- Tennis Racket Technology: Shows how technological innovations in tennis rackets have transformed the sport.
- Mousetrap Innovation: Illustrates the ongoing quest for better mousetraps and the importance of continuous innovation.
Chapter 4: Innovation Strategy
- Technology Leadership: Discusses the strategic choices firms make regarding technology leadership vs. followership.
- Product vs. Process Innovation: Examines the strategic decisions firms make about focusing on product or process innovations.
Chapter 5: Networks and Communities
- Scientific Networks: Illustrates the role of scientific networks in advancing knowledge and innovation.
- User Innovation Communities: Shows how user innovation communities can drive innovation and product development.
- Technological Collaborations: Discusses the challenges and benefits of technological collaborations between firms.
Chapter 6: The Management of Research and Development
- R&D Expenditure: Examines the patterns of R&D expenditure across industries and the importance of strategic R&D investment.
- Organizing R&D: Discusses the organizational challenges of managing R&D activities and the need for effective integration with other business functions.
Chapter 7: The Management of Product and Service Innovation
- Product Innovation: Illustrates the importance of product innovation for firm competitiveness and the need for effective product development processes.
- Service Innovation: Discusses the challenges and opportunities of service innovation and the need for integrated service design.
Chapter 8: Innovation in Operations and Processes
- Lean Production: Examines the principles of lean production and its impact on operational efficiency.
- Automation: Discusses the benefits and challenges of automation in manufacturing processes.
Chapter 9: Delivering Value from Innovation
- Commercialization: Illustrates the challenges of commercializing innovations and the need for effective marketing and distribution strategies.
- Intellectual Property: Discusses the importance of managing intellectual property to capture value from innovations.
Chapter 10: Five Future Challenges
- Sustainable Business: Examines the growing importance of environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility in innovation management.
- Basic Research: Discusses the continued importance of basic research for long-term innovation and the challenges of translating research into commercial applications.

These case studies are used to illustrate various points and themes throughout the book, providing practical examples to support theoretical discussions.

LLM Model Access

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 15:10:14 -0700

Perplexity Pro gives you access to several advanced AI Large Language Models (LLM), each with its own strengths and capabilities.They appear when you click the ‘Rewrite’ button or you can go to your profile to choose one of them. TODO

All models have a context window of around 32,000 tokens, allowing for processing of lengthy inputs and generating detailed outputs. Tokens are basic building blocks of text and can be individual characters, whole/parts of words, or larger amounts of text. Apparently one token averages out to about 4 characters of text for standard English. The AI breaks text down into tokens in order to process it. See Demystifying Tokens: A Beginners Guide To Understanding AI Building Blocks for a good explanation.

The best model for your needs depends on the specific task at hand. Here are some general guidelines:

For quick, general searches: Use the Default model
For complex reasoning or academic tasks: Try GPT-4 Turbo or Claude 3 Opus
For creative writing or content generation: GPT-4 Turbo or Claude 3 Sonnet might be good choices
For tasks requiring fast responses: Consider GPT-4o
For queries that benefit from Perplexity’s search technology: Sonar 32k could be a good option

To fully understand which model works best for you, it’s recommended to experiment with different models for various types of queries and compare the results.

Remember that while these models are powerful, they should be used as tools to augment human intelligence rather than replace it, especially for critical tasks or decision-making processes.

Here are some answers to questions about these LLMs.

What are the main differences between GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet? GPT-4o excels in speed and real-time processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet appears to have an edge in overall performance, especially in areas like code generation, reasoning, and specific tasks like image text transcription.
How does Perplexity Pro Search handle multi-step reasoning? The pro search breaking down complex queries, chaining multiple searches, performs deeper research, improved accuracy, provides structured responses, handling interdisciplinary questions, enhanced problem-solving.
Can Perplexity Pro Search solve complex mathematical problems? Yes by integration with Wolfram|Alpha engine and using multi-step reasoning, it becomes a powerful tool for tackling complex mathematical problems, offering both accuracy and detailed problem-solving processes. TODO: investigate wolfram integration and possibilities (step-by-step answers).

Default Model Pro Search

Optimized for fastest results and web browsing
Fine-tuned specifically for quick searches
Best for general queries and rapid information retrieval

GPT-4 Turbo

OpenAI’s renowned model that powers ChatGPT
Excels in reasoning and natural language processing
Displays human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks
Ideal for complex tasks, creative writing, and in-depth analysis

GPT-4o

The newest update to the GPT family of models
A universal multimodal model known for its impressive speed
Versatile for various tasks, especially those requiring quick responses

Claude 3

Available in two versions: Sonnet and Opus
Opus is considered the most advanced LLM available
Note: There’s a limit on Opus queries, but they replenish quickly
Excellent for tasks requiring advanced reasoning and nuanced understanding

Sonar 32k

Based on the open-source LlaMa 3 model, trained in-house by Perplexity
Compatible with Perplexity’s cutting-edge search technology
Comes in ’large’ and ‘huge’ flavors
Good for general-purpose tasks and queries that benefit from Perplexity’s search capabilities

An Introduction

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 13:54:00 -0700

This page provides a simple introduction to perplexity as well as some resources that can be consulted to get a good idea of what this aibot can do.

What is perplexity?

Definition: A conversational search engine that answers queries using natural language predictive text, utilizing sources from the web.
Launch Date: 2022
Technology Base: Based on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model and a standalone LLM with NLP capabilities for its free product. Pro version accesses GPT-4, Claude 2, and others.

Perplexity is not its own AI engine but rather a platform that provides access to advanced AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic, such as GPT-4 Turbo and Claude 3 Sonnet and Opus. It is designed to enhance search capabilities and generate accurate answers by utilizing these state-of-the-art models. Perplexity Pro (PP) offers a more comprehensive and organized search experience compared to traditional AI chatbots, allowing users to sort queries and access a variety of models for different needs.

Layout

The core features are listed below and are essential to know well in order to use PP effectively. They also form the primary structure of the Perplexity website composed of the 3 units described below.

This is the starting point for PP where you can “ask anything”! The results are returned with the links to the pages PP used to get information. The search can be quick or pro (as described below), but PP says that its quick search is better than the regular perplexity’s pro search.

Searches can be customized in the following ways:

Quick provides fast, basic answers. There is no limit to the number of these you can enter.
Pro engages in a conversation, asks clarifying questions, and delivers more detailed results. These also show specifics of the search process such as what is being searched for or created. For instance, when requested to design a tutorial to learn PP, the pro search listed the following:
- Search for a comprehensive overview of PP features and functionality
- Find or create tutorials focused on using PP effectively
- Look for exercises or practical tasks related to using PP
Focus allows the search to take place in directed venues (as opposed to the default entire web) such as
- Academic papers
- Math to solve complex problems (integrating with Wolfram Alpha)
- Social network discussions
- Writing creatively without going to the internet
- Video on topic requested
Attach allows uploading of documents in various format that will used to answer your question

A cautionary note about searching is to be very specific otherwise the search will become generalized. For instance, if we want to find out about the ‘Convert to Page’ feature in PP (even within a thread about PP), don’t just ask to know what ‘Convert to Page’ does, because you will get a comprehensive answer like

The term “convert to page” typically refers to the process of changing the format or type of a webpage or document. This can be relevant in different contexts, such as content management systems or file conversion tools. [considerable detail follows!]

Unfortunately, there is no efficient mechanism (yet!) for editing the thread itself so you are stuck with your well-meaning question and the unwanted answer. You can, however, always delete the very last item in your thread.

Discover

This is an interesting area where PP explores various topics as directed by certain users. There is a wide variety of selections at the top of the page such as:

For You (Personalize Discover with top right corner button)
Top (high general interest)
Tech & Science
Finance
Entertainment
Arts & Culture
Sports

Items can be bookmarked for easy access.

Library

This area contains all your interactions with PP. There are 4 components to be aware of:

Prompt

This is the rudimentary component to work with. You ask for something with a prompt, and receive an answer. Prompts can be edited using the ellipsis at the bottom of each answer. The last prompt result can be deleted. Prompts should be intelligently designed to obtain the best results. Every prompt/answer has buttons at the bottom to

Share (copies link to entire thread while pretending to take you to specific place)
Rewrite (gives option for LLM to employ)
Copy (in markdown format)
Edit the prompt (ask the question differently)
View sources using the ellipsis dropdown (lists sources used for prompt with removal option)

Thread

It is a series of prompts with answers and is created whenever you ask a question (or click the Thread+ button at the top). It is possible to share a thread for viewing purposes through its unique url by clicking the Share button at top right corner (or the redundant copy link button beside it). A thread can be retitled by clicking at the top where your initial question is written. A thread can be deleted by using the ellipsis dropdown at the top. Threads can also be exported with[out] citations. At present, there is no bulk delete each thread must be deleted individually. WARNING: Use awareness if you are planning on using the ‘Delete all threads’ option, because you will lose everything and never get it back! This option appears in the ellipsis dropdown on the Library page.

Collection

When a group of threads have a common theme, they can be gathered together akin to the way folders/directories are a group of files. Collections are not like tags because you can put a thread only into one collection. There is also a noname collection called Bookmarks. It is possible to swap a thread into a different collection. A collection can be shared by its own unique link for viewing or collaboration. Collections are created/deleted by name. Deleting a collection does not delete the threads in that collection though (so you can’t do a bulk delete).

Page

This item can be generated from a thread using the ‘Convert to Page’ button (top right corner). It can be created independent of a thread as well by clicking the Page+ button at the top. This feature is part of the Perplexity Pages tool, which is designed to help users create visually appealing articles or reports from their research or search results. The button will take pertinent aspects of your thread and organize it into sections. You can even add/generate media such as images to parts of the page! You can keep previewing the page, and eventually publish it. The published page will have its unique link.

By converting a thread into a page, you can present your research or findings in a more polished and organized manner. This is particularly useful for creating content that is meant to be shared with others, such as reports, articles, or guides. Web designers can also use this feature to assist in creation webpages.

The page can be customized by adding/deleting/moving sections, editing section headings, inserting media into sections, and adjusting the layout. It is similar to a rudimentary webpage designing application, but with some AI working on your behalf! For instance, if you add a section, you are given options on its design as well as some suggestions on what the section should be based on the content in its vicinity! For instance, adding a section just under the ‘Convert to Page Feature’, PP suggested that it could be one of the following:

Exploring PP’s AI models
Customizing PP pages for SEO
Collaborative Features in PP

Choosing the middle one, PP entered into the page a process to implement with reference links!

Perplexity Pages offer significant potential for SEO optimization when customized effectively. To maximize SEO benefits, start by identifying low-competition keywords with high potential using tools like Perplexity AI’s keyword research capabilities. When creating content, focus on generating comprehensive, well-structured articles that address user intent and include relevant headings, subheadings, and optimized meta descriptions. Utilize Perplexity’s AI-powered content generation to create an initial draft, then refine and expand the content to improve its quality and relevance. Incorporate internal and external links to authoritative sources, and optimize images with descriptive alt text. Regular updates and the addition of fresh, relevant content can help maintain and improve search rankings over time. While Perplexity Pages are gaining visibility in search results, it’s crucial to ensure the content provides genuine value and accuracy to align with Google’s quality guidelines.

Process

A good sequence to follow whenever doing research is to:

start a thread to get/discuss/analyse information
enter it into a collection
turn it into a page if you want to summarize/present it
share the link to the thread/page if you want others to see it
share the link to the collection if you want others to collaborate

Miscellaneous Matters

API Credits

PP provides $5 monthly in API credits, allowing users to access the latest open-source LLMs and embed AI-powered search into their own projects.

Discord Channel and Exclusive Support

PP subscribers have access to a dedicated Discord channel and exclusive support channels, including Intercom support, with prioritized responses within 1 to 2 business days.

Referrals

PP offers a referral program with a cap of $10 per billing cycle, allowing users to earn credits by referring others.

Switching Between Models

Users can switch between different AI models within their settings or directly within a thread by clicking the Rewrite button.

Vivaldi

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 20:48:23 -0700

A browser that is powerful, personal and private, adapting to you, not the other way around.

This is the best browser we have ever used. It is full of features and makes one work very effectively!

reading list

Go to reading list button in side panel and add current page using +. (Better than having it on the address bar) this is a very fast way to mark a webpage from there we can do bookmark or omnivore.

cannot enter nickname

The problem appears to be there is something in the bookmarks trash that is getting in the way. After emptying the trash, it accepts the nickname.

toggle extensions

When we hide an extension button, the toggle extension button appears (so we can view the hidden item again). If we remove the button, there is no toggle button.

tab stacking

use any method to stack tabs large numbers use shift key and left click for stacking

save as session (file > save open tabs as session) reload stack from File > Open Saved Session reorder stack using window panel

exports

file > export bookmarks (more intelligent than looking in bookmarks) file > export reading list not working use F2 export reading list

issue with systemd v249

<2021-07-31 Sat> affects all chromium based browsers

one solution was to disable systemd-resolve, but then need to setup /etc/resolv.conf instead of linking it to /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf

the other was to downgrade to an earlier version of vivaldi using downgrade from aur, until archlinux makes v249 work properly with chromium again

lack of suitable h264 error

pacman -S vivaldi-ffmpeg-codecs

profile

When we changed the name of schnell to admins, vivaldi locked the profile and wouldn’t start. After some semi-helpful consultation with bing we did: cd .config/vivaldi rm Default/LOCK rm SingletonLock (which pointed to schnell - 1066)

sync

sync help after sync is setup as per help instructions (including encryption key), it seems to happen automatically though on a remote device we need to close and open vivaldi. the remote has to be logged in and have the same encryption key of course.

sort bookmarks

use sidebar to sort bookmarks to sort bookmark bar, right click in empty area and select sort

pdf viewing

not rendering at all difficult to know what the problem is, but it works fine if we reboot … and probably if we restart x too.

dark theme

A fair bit of setting up went into getting the dark theme to function adequately with vivaldi because forcing it messed up certain websites like amazon.ca, so we had to either toggle into white theme (M-]), or adjust the darkness for specific sites using Userstyles. The full discussion is available on Vivaldi dark theme issue: Blacked-out images on forced dark websites thread.

this may be a good way to get into mastedon

Rosegarden

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 20:22:30 -0700

Rosegarden is a music composition and editing environment based around a MIDI sequencer that features a rich understanding of music notation and includes basic support for digital audio. Most important, it can produce lilypond files.

This is likely the best composing option we have beyond plain text entry. One major advantage it offers is the ability to insert bars when there are multiple voices which both denemo and musescore can do, but is laborious with lilypond code. Ideally, we should be able to work with rg and lilypond (via emacs | frescobaldi)

The rg input and playback systems are excellent and there is also a notation view. However, the actual conversion to lilypond may not be as good as we’d like it to be.

EAN!!! Experiment As Needed!!!

intro info

most of the items here are from the rgwiki purpose is to serve as the sequencer of choice for users who prefer to work with music notation. provides a segment-based mechanism for arranging blocks of MIDI and audio data on a canvas tutorials, faq

multiple voices

Do in seperate segments, change the stem orientations (up|down), put onto same track. However, when this converts to lilypond, rg forces separate voices in the code. While the final product looks just right, the ly code is very difficult to work with on it’s own as well as trying to migrate it into lynew.

Therefore, it seems best to just get the other voices to appear in the same segment even though you’ll get ties. Then these can be voiced by ly requirements - may be design a script to do it. Approaching the issue this way is also much simpler as far as inputting goes.

arpeggio symbol

Can be done easily by using T button and then Arp as a ly directive. The result is quite good!

installation components

fluidsynth ln -s FluidR3_GM.sf2 default.sf2 (usr/share/soundfonts) setup /etc/conf.d/fluidsynth (soundfont and alsa daemon) aconnect -o aplaymidi -p128:0
jack2
pipewire pipewire-alsa, pipewire-jack and things work!

fluidsynth gave no latency, but kept crashing. timidity didn’t crash but lagged, so we looked at libao with -OO latency with midi keyboard, timidity++ and rosegarden

here is the solution i finally found to my problem. /usr/lib/systemd/user/timidity.service contains the lines [Service] ExecStart=/usr/bin/timidity -iA so i just need to add on -OO to this and it works by putting me in libao! however, it didn’t enable from ~/.config/systemd/user/ giving Unit ~/.config/systemd/user/timidity.service is added as a dependency to a non-existent unit multi-user.target

rg without softsynth

Haven’t been able to get it to work just just soundfont or linuxsampler.

Not possible as per Bing:

No, you cannot use a soundfont directly in Rosegarden without fluidsynth or another softsynth. Rosegarden is a MIDI sequencer, not a synthesizer. It can only send MIDI data to an output device, but it cannot generate sound by itself. You need a software or hardware synthesizer to play the MIDI data and produce sound¹.

A soundfont is a file that contains samples of real instruments, such as piano, guitar, violin, etc. A soundfont can be used by a software synthesizer, such as fluidsynth, to play the samples according to the MIDI data. A software synthesizer can also use other methods of synthesis, such as additive, subtractive, FM, etc., to create sounds from scratch².

Fluidsynth is a software synthesizer that can use soundfonts or other synthesis methods to generate sound from MIDI data. It can run as a standalone application or as a DSSI plugin in Rosegarden. You can load different soundfonts into fluidsynth and select different instruments for each track in Rosegarden³.

If you want to use a soundfont directly in Rosegarden without fluidsynth, you will need a hardware synthesizer that can load soundfonts, such as the Sound Blaster series of soundcards. You will need to connect the hardware synthesizer to your computer via a MIDI interface and configure Rosegarden to use it as an output port. You will also need to load the soundfont into the hardware synthesizer using a utility program, such as sfxload⁴.

I hope this explains why you need fluidsynth or another softsynth to use a soundfont in Rosegarden. 😊

Source: Conversation with Bing, 9/5/2023 (1) frequently_askedquestions | Rosegarden Wiki. https://www.rosegardenmusic.com/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions. (2) Improving Your Linux System For Creating Music - Rosegarden: music. https://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tutorials/qsynth-rosegarden/index.html. (3) LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Rosegarden, FluidSynth, and JACK refuse …. https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/rosegarden-fluidsynth-and-jack-refuse-to-work-4175420532-print/. (4) using_rosegardenwithqsynthlookmanojackd | Rosegarden Wiki. https://www.rosegardenmusic.com/wiki/using_rosegarden_with_qsynth_look_ma_no_jackd.

rg with timidity

using qpwgraph, crackling sounds are sometimes heard probably due to some feedback loop if usb audio device (or whatever) capture mono -> rosegarden record in 1 L disconnecting this seems to work and crackling disappears (sometimes even if we reconnect)

rg with yoshimi

a minor issue is that unlike timidity, yoshimi isn’t playing the very first note (though the sounds come out much cleaner). so we should probably always have a blank bar. printouts work fine though since the blankbar is ignored.

all this in the post works, but yoshimi needs to be run in floating mode, otherwise the changes in rg won’t come through. or just start it in cli.

the numbers of the instruments are changed, but the banks aren’t … yet

yoshimi.rgd

this has to go to ~/.local/share/rosegarden/library/, but the one we downloaded doesn’t match with the actualy instruments. so we mv yoshimi.rgd yoshimi.rgd.gz gunzip yoshimi.rgd.gz and edit it.

one issue is updating the id numbers for The_MysteriousBank and since sed doesn’t do non-greedy, use perl perl -pe ’s/id="(+̣)"/“id=\”.($1+1)."\"/e’ tt.tt not that we really understand this too well - we require some lang may be clojure, rust … to make such manipulations.

rather than do the above we wrote script

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

# creates ~/.local/share/rosegarden/library/yoshimi.rgd from /usr/share/yoshimi/banks
# usage: jri (must use zsh or parameter substitution will not work)

YDIR=/usr/share/yoshimi/banks
yoshimirgd=~/.local/share/rosegarden/library/yoshimi.rgd

# first part of a yoshimi.rgd file
T1='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE rosegarden-data><rosegarden-data version="4-0.9.1">
    <studio recordfilter="0" thrufilter="0">
    <device direction="play" id="0" name="Yoshimi" type="midi" variation="LSB">
        <librarian email="lorenzofsutton@gmail.com" name="Lorenzo Sutton" />
        <controls>
            <control colourindex="2" controllervalue="10" default="64" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="0" max="127" min="0" name="Pan" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="3" controllervalue="93" default="0" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="1" max="127" min="0" name="Chorus" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="1" controllervalue="7" default="100" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="2" max="127" min="0" name="Volume" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="3" controllervalue="91" default="0" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="3" max="127" min="0" name="Reverb" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="4" controllervalue="64" default="0" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="-1" max="127" min="0" name="Sustain" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="2" controllervalue="11" default="127" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="-1" max="127" min="0" name="Expression" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="4" controllervalue="1" default="0" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="-1" max="127" min="0" name="Modulation" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="2" controllervalue="74" default="64" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="2" max="127" min="0" name="Cutoff Freq" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="2" controllervalue="71" default="64" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="2" max="127" min="0" name="Resonance" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="2" controllervalue="73" default="64" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="2" max="127" min="0" name="Attack time" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="2" controllervalue="72" default="64" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="2" max="127" min="0" name="Release time" type="controller" />
            <control colourindex="4" controllervalue="1" default="8192" description="&lt;none&gt;" ipbposition="-1" max="16383" min="0" name="PitchBend" type="pitchbend" />
        </controls>'

# second part of a yoshimi.rgd file
T2='</device>
</studio>
</rosegarden-data>'


# put part1 on
echo $T1 > $yoshimirgd

# go to /usr/share/yoshimi/banks for further operations
cd $YDIR

# templates to substitute into
Btempl='<bank lsb="0" msb="NUM" name="BANK" percussion="false">'
Itempl='<program category="BANK" id="IDEN" name="NAME" />'


# put the banks and instruments in to the yoshimi.rgd file
N=0
for BA in $(ls -1 | LC_COLLATE=C sort); do
    ((N+=5))
    Btxt=${${Btempl:s/NUM/$N/}:s/BANK/$BA}
    echo $Btxt >> $yoshimirgd
    for IN in $BA/*; do
        #ID=${${IN%%-*}#*/}
        ID=$(echo ${${IN%%-*}#*/} | bc) #str->int
        ((ID-=1)) #dec ID so instruments match up on import
        NAM=${${IN#*-}%.*}
        Itxt=${${${Itempl:s/IDEN/$ID}:s/NAME/$NAM}:s/BANK/$BA}
        echo $Itxt >> $yoshimirgd
    done
    echo "</bank>" >> $yoshimirgd
done

# put the part2 into the yoshimi.rgd
echo $T2 >> $yoshimirgd

echo "all done"

exit

post @folderol

i have things working now pretty nicely between yoshimi and rg.

i downloaded this yoshimi.rgd after reading this thread which addressed an issue i was having with rg resetting anything i did in yoshimi to whatever it felt like (well that’s what it felt like): Rosegarden - Yoshimi issue

i put the yoshimi.rgd into ~/.local/share/rosegarden/library/ where there are a huge number of rgd files for various instruments and synthesizers (too i guess).

then in rg, i went into Studio > Manage MIDI Devices where i

deleted the default general midi bank (though it keeps coming back, hence i have to open a template), because i don’t really need it and never could do anything with it either
created a new device (click New in topleft box), then click Bank, then click Import (bottom left box).

the import button gave me access to the yoshimi.rgd file and eventually i had the banks and instruments showing up in the instrument parameters box from where i could assign them to various tracks.

i found though that i had to set the channel dropdown to ‘fixed’ or all the tracks would change to the same thing when i set a single track. every instrument i set for an rg midi track, is reflected in yoshimi too! (however, that is true only within the bank that is chosen on yoshimi if the instrument number exists - i can’t seem to change the bank in yoshimi from rg - may be we shouldn’t and just gather up the instruments we want into a custom bank?)

i midied out the melody, and a piano accompaniment for the first 4 bars of twinkle, twinkle little start - hey, jane taylor and mozart (even though he didn’t really write the melody) would be pleased. then i recorded audio in rg, singing out both (though not simultaneously) a tenor and baritone part - neither jane nor wolfgang would have been pleased, but rg didn’t crash!! (may be because yoshimi was doing the midi heavy lifting instead of timidity|fluidsynth?)

so, assuming this is the a|the correct way to do these things, all is well indeed!

TODO ornaments

while not as convenient as musescore, we likely have much better control of the ornaments played as midi in rg than lilypond’s articulate.ly, so we should create a file of ornaments that can be used in any composition. this file needs to be loaded first and then we merge the actual composition file to work with.

rg lyrics entry AVOID

compose notes copy lyrics editor template (which contains the note layout nicely) input using emacs (seems to be much faster than using the rg editor) paste emacs work into lyrics editor

only purpose verses serve is if you want same music as with hymns - for praductions, it is likely going to mess everything up!

DONE rg -> ly

some things don’t quite come out as well

we can play with rg
we can copy and paste rg notes into established ly templates
we can modify specific parts of the rgly with a script (probably best solution and DONE!)

tour

Editing
MIDI Configurations for over 100 well-known MIDI synths are included
Notation
Audio let Rosegarden’s sample-accurate audio engine do the hard work -> this might be the issue?
Synths not sure what this is
Integration jack is standard, but we use pipewire-jack and wonder if this is why audio crashes?

handbook

1. Introduction

Rosegarden is a versatile software that functions as both a MIDI and audio sequencer and a musical notation editor.
It allows users to record, arrange, compose music in traditional score, MIDI data, or audio formats.
Users can write, edit, and organize music compositions and add synthesization, effects, and mixdown capabilities.
Rosegarden provides comprehensive notation editing for high-quality printed output.
The software is designed to be user-friendly for both experienced Linux users and newcomers to music software.
The handbook serves as a reference for Rosegarden’s capabilities and concepts and can be used sequentially or as a reference guide.
Users can access tutorials on the Rosegarden website for further assistance.
Rosegarden’s functions are typically accessible through menus, but keyboard shortcuts and toolbar icons are also available for convenience.
Some of Rosegarden’s features are optional, depending on the installation and available libraries.
Dependencies for optional features are documented in the Rosegarden README and configuration documentation, and users should consult their configuration documentation or distributor if certain features are not visible in their version of Rosegarden.

2. Rosegarden Files and Documents

Rosegarden stores compositions in its own internal format with a .rg file extension.
It can also handle various standard file formats.

New compositions

When starting Rosegarden, a new document with an empty composition is created, requiring users to either record or create segments to start editing.
Segments are blank lengths of music that can be filled in using editing tools.
The software’s binary file format is actually gzipped XML, despite complaints about its opacity.

Using Midi Files

Rosegarden provides functions for importing and exporting MIDI files through “File->Import->Import MIDI File” and “File->Export->Export MIDI File.”
While Rosegarden can work with file formats like MIDI, it does not store MIDI data internally.
It’s advisable to save files in Rosegarden’s own format to retain comprehensive information, as exporting to MIDI may result in the loss or rearrangement of certain file structure details.
When loading a MIDI file in Rosegarden, it organizes the music into separate tracks for each MIDI track or channel, establishes instrument mappings, and attempts to generate plausible notation for the MIDI performance data.

Rosegarden Project Files

Rosegarden composition files (.rg) store note information, MIDI controller settings, plugin details, and audio file references for a composition.
The actual audio files are not stored within the composition file, and users are responsible for managing their location on disk.
Rosegarden Project files are helpful for conveniently bundling a composition, its associated audio files, plugin data, and additional files into one package.
To export a composition and its data as a Rosegarden Project file, use “File->Export->Export Rosegarden Project file…”; to import such a file and reconstruct a composition, use “File->Import->Import Rosegarden Project file…”
It’s important to note that Rosegarden Project format is for interchange purposes, not long-term archival, and compatibility may vary between Rosegarden versions.

Other file formats

Rosegarden supports exporting to and importing from various file formats, providing flexibility in working with different music systems.
Csound: Export score files for the Csound synthesis system using “File->Export->Export Csound score file…,” although not all Rosegarden data may be saved in Csound format.
Mup: Save the current composition as a new Mup file using “File->Export->Export Mup file…,” suitable for use with the Mup music publication system, though some adjustments may be needed for quality output.
MusicXML: Use “File->Export->Export MusicXML file…” to save the composition as a MusicXML file, compatible with music software supporting MusicXML, but note that support is experimental and may not preserve all data.
Hydrogen: Rosegarden can import h2song files from the Hydrogen drum machine, creating a MIDI-style structure with one track per pattern. Audio samples are not imported; use “File->Import->Import Hydrogen file…” for this.
Rosegarden 2.1: Create a new composition from an existing X11 Rosegarden v2.1 (.rose) file using “File->Import->Import Rosegarden 2.1 file…” for compatibility.

Merging files

In Rosegarden, you can merge external files into the current document, incorporating their data into the existing composition.
To perform a merge, use the appropriate option found on the File->Merge submenu instead of the Open or Import options.

Printing

Rosegarden offers the ability to print compositions as musical scores.
Printing directly from MIDI data may result in less readable output, so it’s recommended to use the notation editor to tidy up the score before printing.
While Rosegarden is capable of producing readable scores, for true print-quality scores, users should consider using LilyPond in conjunction with Rosegarden.
LilyPond is a dedicated music typesetting software that produces high-quality typeset output from specialized text files.
Rosegarden can export LilyPond files using “File->Export->Export LilyPond,” and it provides access to LilyPond features not available in Rosegarden’s native interface.
The File->Preview with LilyPond function allows for convenient previewing of LilyPond-formatted scores using a PDF viewer.
LilyPond options are available when exporting, previewing, or printing with LilyPond, offering additional customization.

LilyPond options

When using LilyPond export functions in Rosegarden, a dialog allows for specific LilyPond export options.
LilyPond export supports various paper sizes and landscape mode for printing.
Font size settings can be adjusted to control the size of notes and staffs on the printed score.
Users can choose to export content from all tracks, non-muted tracks, the currently selected track, or selected segments.
There’s an option to merge tracks with the same name, useful for creating piano scores with multiple voices.
Tempo marks, lyrics, and beamings can be exported based on user preferences.
Users can adjust the alignment of lyrics as Left, Center, or Right.
The “Ragged bottom” option allows for positioning extra vertical space at the bottom of the page when there are few staffs.
Enabling “point-and-click” debugging allows clicking notes in the PDF output to open the LilyPond source.
LilyPond can produce MIDI output, and users can choose to enable this option.
Headers in LilyPond output can be edited both in the export dialog and through the Composition->Edit Document Properties function.
NewPrinting compositions must either record something, or create some blank lengths of music (referred to as “segments”) that you can then fill in
Using MIDI files it does not store MIDI data internally Rosegarden splits out the music into one track per MIDI track or channel in the file
Rosegarden Project files contains your composition, all of the audio files it uses, any further data files required for plugins used in the composition, and any additional files you may want to include, all in one big bundle.
Other file formats Rosegarden can export to and import from a number of other file formats.
Merging files loading or importing the data from the file, as necessary, and adding it to the existing composition
Printing to produce true print-quality scores you should consider using LilyPond in conjunction with Rosegarden
LilyPond options export All tracks, Non-muted tracks, the current Selected track, or Selected segments Merge tracks that have the same name: for voices Export tempo marks Export lyrics: don’t do lyrics here Export beamings: use lp default Export block Headers: do automatically through lypdnew.sh

3. The Track Editor

Overview

Rosegarden’s layout is centered around a track structure, common to many sequencers.
The main window features a track editor with a list of tracks and their associated instruments displayed on the left side.
Users can manipulate and move blocks of music data referred to as “segments” within the track editor.
Specialized editors like notation, matrix, percussion matrix, and event list can be used to work with segments.
The type of segment created depends on the track it’s placed on; for example, an audio track creates audio segments, and a MIDI track creates MIDI segments.
Track parameters can be set to pre-select segment properties at the track level and fine-tune MIDI recording.
Tracks can be assigned to various MIDI, plugin synth, or audio instruments.
The button area on the left of the segment canvas displays track number, mute and record status, and track labels.
Users can mute/unmute tracks andselect a track as a record target by clicking on the respective buttons.
Track labels are optional and can be displayed via the Settings->Show Track Labels menu option, otherwise, instrument assignments are shown.

Tracks and instruments

Each track in Rosegarden must have an instrument assigned to it to produce sound.
The first 16 tracks are typically assigned to the 16 instruments of the first available MIDI device, while the next 16 tracks are assigned to audio.
To change the instrument assignment for a track, right-click on the track label, and a pop-up menu will allow you to select from available instruments.
Instruments can represent a single channel on a MIDI device or a mono/stereo audio output or audio synth plugin.
MIDI or synth plugin instruments are suitable for tracks containing note data, while audio instruments are used for tracks containing audio.
Multiple tracks can be assigned to the same instrument, causing them to produce sounds in a similar way.
The Instrument Parameter Box allows users to adjust various properties of the instrument associated with a track, such as selecting a specific patch for a MIDI instrument to produce a particular sound.
For more information about instruments, users can refer to the Studio section.

Creating segments

To create an empty segment in Rosegarden, use the pencil tool, which is typically the default active tool when starting Rosegarden.
Click on the pencil icon on the toolbar and then click at the point where you want the segment to start, at the appropriate height for the track and the correct time.
Drag rightwards to define the length of the segment in bars.
Segments can also be created using the Select tool by clicking and dragging with the middle mouse button or the left button with Ctrl held down.
If you need to draw a segment longer than the visible canvas, the canvas will scroll automatically once you reach its edge. [Can also use Segment > Stretch or Squash to assign number of measures.]
Holding Shift while clicking and dragging prevents the snap-to-grid effect.
New segments are initially in yellow color and display a treble clef by default.
Explore track parameters for more segment customization options.
To create a segment that starts in the middle of an existing segment, hold Ctrl and Alt when clicking. The track will expand to accommodate the new segment.
After creating a segment, you can edit it using the matrix, percussion matrix, or notation editors by double-clicking on the segment or right-clicking and choosing the desired editor from the context menu.
When recording from a MIDI device or audio input, new segments are automatically created for each recording.

Audio segments [probably will not use because of lmms]

An audio segment in Rosegarden contains recorded or sampled audio data, not editable note-event data.
Rosegarden enables you to record, play, arrange, and split audio segments but does not offer audio waveform editing features.
You can create an audio segment by recording from an audio source onto a track assigned to an audio instrument or by working with existing WAV files.
To manage audio segments, use the audio manager dialog accessible through File->Manage Audio Files.
You can import audio files by dragging and dropping them into the audio file manager or using its File menu.
To add audio files to a track, either drag-and-drop them onto Rosegarden’s track canvas or use the audio file manager’s Action->Insert into Selected Audio Track menu function if the selected track is assigned to an audio instrument.
Audio files associated with a composition are saved with the composition, but the audio files themselves are not. Maintain a proper audio file search path (via Composition->Edit Document Properties…->Audio) to keep audio files accessible together.
You can export your project to a Rosegarden project package file (.rgp) via File->Export->Export Rosegarden Project File to collect scattered audio files in one place.
The audio manager dialog displays sample-rate and other information for each audio file, marking any with a different sample rate than the current JACK audio session. Rosegarden will resample these files during playback, but you are advised to resample them separately using dedicated audio editing software for better quality.

Manipulating segments

In Rosegarden, you can manipulate segments using various tools available from the main toolbar.
The Select tool serves multiple purposes, including selecting, moving, copying, resizing, and creating segments.
To move a segment, use the Move tool and click and drag it. Holding Ctrl while dragging creates a copy instead of moving.
Resizing a segment is done with the Resize tool, which allows you to extend or shorten a segment. Holding Ctrl while resizing rescales the segment.
Stretching or squashing a segment can be achieved by holding Ctrl while resizing. This affects the speed of MIDI events or the time-stretching of audio.
The Split tool is used to split a single segment into two separate segments. Click on the segment you wish to split with the Split tool.
You can split segments at the closest barline to the cursor by default. Holding Shift while splitting prevents this.
Rosegarden offers additional Split functions in the Segments menu, including Split on Silence, Split by Pitch, Split by Recording Source, and Split at Time, each with specific functions for segment splitting.

Tempo and Time Signature

In Rosegarden, a composition is associated with a single stream of tempo changes and time signature changes.
Tempo changes can be constant or smoothly ramping to a different target tempo at a specific future time.
Tempo is displayed in beats per minute, and its duration depends on the time signature.
The tempo ruler in Rosegarden’s editors shows tempo and time signature changes throughout the composition.
You can adjust tempo changes by clicking and dragging the tempo line in the tempo ruler.
To insert a new tempo change, right-click on the ruler and select “Insert Tempo Change.”
The tempo and time signature editor lists all tempo and time signature changes and allows individual editing.
You can add or edit tempo changes using various methods, including the tempo ruler and the tempo and time signature editor.
Time signature changes in Rosegarden affect the structure of beats in each bar, and you can add or edit them using Composition menu functions or the tempo and time signature editor.
You can set tempo from an existing segment using functions like “Set Tempo to Audio Segment Duration” or “Set Tempos from Beat Segment” for MIDI events. [tempo map: you can record from a MIDI keyboard and tap a series of single notes at approximate beat positions, speeding up and slowing down gradually; then select the recorded segment !!!]

Markers, ranges, and loops

Markers in Rosegarden are moments in time with labels, useful for defining specific points in your composition. [sort of like commenting]
Markers are displayed in the main ruler at the top of Rosegarden’s editor windows.
To add a new marker, double-click on the marker area of the ruler, and you can edit its name and location in the marker editor. [easier to use right-click for insert and edit; also S-m to insert]
Clicking on the text of a marker in the marker ruler moves the playback pointer to that marker’s location.
You can set a loop range between two marker positions by clicking in the area between them with the Shift key pressed.
move to marker prev|next with C-,|.
Rosegarden also features a “quick marker” that can be defined [only one] on the fly with a single key and is useful for jumping to a specific position during recording. [Quick marker can only be moved, not removed, but it isn’t saved either, so it doesn’t matter. C-S-m insert; S-m jump to; C-1,1? !!!]
Ranges and loops allow you to highlight a period of time in the main ruler, used for editing operations and looping during playback.
To set the current range, click and drag with the Shift key pressed on the main ruler or between marker positions in the marker ruler.
Range editing enables you to cut, copy, and paste sections of music within the defined range, including segments, tempos, and time signatures.
You can insert an empty range at the current playback position to create space for composition using the Edit->Insert Range menu function.

Triggered segments

A triggered segment in Rosegarden is a segment that doesn’t appear on the main canvas but is triggered during playback by specific notes in other segments.
Triggered segments are managed through a window accessible via the Segments->Manage Triggered Segments option.
To create a new triggered segment, copy a segment or part of a segment to the clipboard, then use the Edit->Paste as New Triggered Segment menu option in the manager window.
Triggered segments can be stretched or squashed to match the duration of the triggering note, and their pitch and velocity can be adjusted to match the triggering event.
Playback timing options for triggered segments include playing as stored, truncating if longer than the note, ending at the same time as the note, or stretching/squashing to match the note duration.
Triggered segments may contain silence at the start or end, which will be played and adjusted as well.
It’s not possible to make a triggered segment start playing before the start time of its triggering note, trigger a segment from within another triggered segment, or trigger audio segments.
Editing a triggered segment affects all the notes that trigger it, not just the one used for editing. [All this sort of works, but needs experimenting !!!]

4. The Transport

[Much of this is irrelevant now since we are interested in notation - the only part that may be of interest is if we record midi in real-time and quantize.] Overview

The Transport in Rosegarden controls playback and displays the playback pointer’s position.
You can activate the Transport if it’s not visible by going to Settings->Show Transport.
The Transport displays time reached by the playback pointer in seconds by default but can be switched to show musical time (bar and beat counts), musical time with a metronome, or audio sample frame times.
It can toggle the display to show time remaining until the end of the composition.
Main controls on the Transport include starting and pausing playback, fast-forwarding, rewinding, stopping, and jumping to the beginning or end of the composition.
The Transport also shows the tempo and time signature in effect at the current playback position, which can be adjusted by double-clicking on them.
You can enter a precise time for the playback position by double-clicking anywhere on the main time display in the Transport window.
Additional controls and a MIDI event display are available in the bottom flap of the Transport, which can be toggled on or off.
These additional controls include buttons for recording, setting loop start and end points, soloing tracks, controlling metronomes, and silencing MIDI devices (the panic button).

Recording

To record a new segment into a track in Rosegarden, ensure the appropriate tracks are armed for recording by selecting the red (for audio tracks) or yellow (for MIDI tracks) LED-style buttons on the track labels.
Use the Transport’s record control to start the transport, play the existing composition, and simultaneously record into the selected track(s).
Rosegarden allows you to record multiple MIDI and audio tracks simultaneously, provided your computer has enough power and sufficient disk space.
Be cautious not to leave tracks selected when you intend to record in a different location.
Punch-in record, toggled with the Space bar, lets you switch between playback and recording without stopping the transport or arm for recording when the transport is stopped.
When recording to MIDI tracks, the recording source is determined by the MIDI devices selected in the MIDI device manager, filtered through the track level recording filter and global MIDI filters.
For audio tracks, the recording source for each track is the input selected for that track’s instrument in the instrument parameter box, which can be an external audio input or an audio submaster/master.
By default, audio tracks record from the soundcard’s first available physical record input, but you can use a JACK connection tool to connect other JACK audio applications to the input.

Synchronising to external transports

Rosegarden supports the JACK transport mechanism for synchronizing its transport with other JACK applications on the same computer.
To activate JACK transport, go to Settings->Configure Rosegarden… and check the “Use JACK transport” box.
When JACK transport is active, multiple applications subscribed to it share a common transport control, allowing you to start, stop, and move the transport from any of them.
Many Linux audio applications that use the JACK audio server also support JACK transport. Check their documentation for details.
Rosegarden also supports MIDI Time Code (MTC) synchronization in both master and slave modes.
MTC synchronization is useful for synchronizing Rosegarden with hardware MTC-capable devices or software on other computers connected via MIDI.
To set Rosegarden as the MTC Master, go to Settings->Configure Rosegarden… and in the MIDI page’s MIDI Sync tab, select “MTC Master” from the MIDI Time Code menu.
To make Rosegarden an MTC Slave, select “MTC Slave,” and Rosegarden’s transport will automatically synchronize with incoming MTC events.

Infrared Remote Controls

Rosegarden supports infrared remote controls for almost all transport functions.
To use infrared remote controls with Rosegarden, you need either the internal LIRC client (optional feature at compile time) or the KDE IRKick application (KDE LIRC daemon) available in your Linux distribution’s repositories.
You also need to install and configure the LIRC server daemon, with specific details depending on your remote control and receiver.
For more information and details about the internal LIRC client configuration file and IRKick basics, you can refer to Rosegarden’s website and the LIRC website.

5. The Studio

Devices, instruments and connections

Rosegarden refers to everything related to the sound systems attached to the computer as the “Studio.”
The Studio includes information about MIDI and audio hardware, connections, configurations, MIDI patches, and more.
Three essential terms in the Studio context are: Device, Instrument, and Connection.
A “Device” in Rosegarden is something capable of producing sounds, which can be a MIDI or audio device.
An “Instrument” is a sound-producing entity within a device that you can assign tracks to, controlling the sound they produce.
A “Connection” specifies the physical MIDI port a MIDI device is attached to and can be configured in the MIDI device manager.
Rosegarden may create default devices for available connections on startup, but it’s essential to configure them to match the actual hardware setup.
The studio setup is stored with every Rosegarden-format file you save.

Managing MIDI devices

The MIDI device manager dialog in Rosegarden displays available MIDI devices and their connections.
You can access this dialog through Studio->Manage MIDI Devices.
Default device configurations are provided at startup, but you can modify them in this dialog.
“Play devices” in the dialog provide targets for MIDI tracks, with each Play device having 16 instruments to assign tracks to.
By assigning a connection to a Play device, tracks assigned to it will play to the appropriate channel of any MIDI synth connected to that connection.
“Record devices” represent potential sources for recording MIDI, and you can make them current for recording by using the checkboxes in the dialog.

Managing banks and programs for MIDI devices!!!

Each MIDI device in Rosegarden corresponds to a set of instruments, and each instrument corresponds to a channel on your MIDI synth.
You can assign tracks to these instruments and choose which sounds (voices) they produce, but Rosegarden needs to know the names for all available voices.
The dialog for managing banks and programs allows you to attach banks of programs (voice names) to your MIDI devices, enabling you to set each instrument on a device to use one of these voices.
You can import program names from device (".rgd") files or create a new bank manually if there is no existing .rgd file for your synth.
Percussion key mappings are available for percussion programs, and they can be defined in the .rgd file.
For soft-synths or soundcard synths using SoundFont (.sf2) files, program names can be loaded directly from the .sf2 file into the dialog.
Some MIDI devices use a “variations” scheme, and you should enter program names in a bank format. Rosegarden can support devices with variations, and you can use the “Show Variation list based on MSB/LSB” option to display variations instead of banks in an instrument parameter box.
When importing a MIDI file, Rosegarden uses the existing studio setup to map MIDI programs to instruments, so ensure your studio is correctly configured for your devices before importing MIDI files to avoid losing program data.

Audio Routing

Any Rosegarden track assigned to an audio or synth plugin instrument becomes part of Rosegarden’s audio routing system.
There are 16 audio instruments and 16 synth plugin instruments, each with adjustable parameters such as fader level, pan, and effects.
The input connection of an instrument defines where Rosegarden reads audio data from when recording to that instrument. Common settings include external audio inputs, Rosegarden’s built-in audio submasters, or the master output for mixdowns.
The output connection of an instrument defines where the audio goes when played. Instruments can send audio to Rosegarden’s master output or up to eight internal submaster busses for grouping instruments.
Rosegarden supports pre-fader insert effects slots for each audio instrument but does not yet support effects on submaster busses or send effects. Users can achieve similar results using external JACK effects and mixing.
Further details about audio routing, mixing, and effects can be found in the audio mixer, instrument parameter box, and audio plugins sections.

MIDI Routing

Rosegarden features MIDI Thru, which allows for the instant sending of incoming MIDI events to specific output devices and MIDI channels.
MIDI Thru is enabled by default in Rosegarden but can be globally disabled through the menu option Studio->MIDI Thru Routing if you prefer to use an external MIDI routing system.
There is a global filter for MIDI event types that lets you choose which event types to route and which to ignore. Details about this filter can be found in the MIDI filters section.
MIDI Thru routing behaves differently when Rosegarden is playing or stopped compared to when it is recording.
During playback or when Rosegarden is stopped, MIDI Thru routes events to the selected track’s instrument, indicated by the highlighted track name.
During recording, MIDI events are routed to the armed track instruments based on the recording filters. The selected track does not matter; the routing is based on the filters.
Each event corresponds to the first track with a matching record filter.

The Audio Mixer

Rosegarden’s audio mixer window, accessible through Studio->Audio Mixer, resembles a hardware audio mixer.
It allows you to view and modify the state of multiple audio instruments simultaneously.
The audio mixer provides controls such as playback level meters, fader controls, routing options, pan settings, mono/stereo toggles, and effects plugin slots for each audio and synth plugin instrument.
You can also manage the master audio output level, record level, and submaster output levels within the audio mixer.
The Settings menu in the audio mixer is significant and includes audio routing settings for stereo audio record inputs and the number of submasters.
Adjusting the number of submasters explicitly to “None” when they are not in use can lead to a small performance improvement.

The MIDI Mixer

The MIDI Mixer in Rosegarden allows users to view and edit instrument parameter values for multiple MIDI instruments simultaneously.
The window is organized with tabs, one for each playback MIDI device in the studio configuration.
Selecting a device tab reveals controls for the 16 instruments associated with that device.
The displayed controls are based on the settings in the control parameter manager and include volume adjustments (corresponding to MIDI volume control change) and approximate output level indicators.

Audio Plugins

Rosegarden uses audio plugins, which are separate software pieces that can manipulate audio signals in various ways. They are categorized into effects plugins and synth plugins.
Effects plugins alter audio signals, such as reverb, delay effects, or compression.
Each audio or synth plugin instrument in Rosegarden has five associated effects slots, which can be used to chain up to five effects onto the audio signal before it undergoes fader level and pan processing.
To load an effects plugin into a slot, you can click its button on the instrument parameter box or in the audio mixer window.
Synth plugins are used to generate sounds from note event segments and can replace hardware or standalone soft-synth MIDI devices.
Synth plugins provide better control, repeatability, and routing options compared to external MIDI devices.
Synth plugins can be configured by selecting a track, assigning it to a synth plugin instrument, and then loading a synth plugin.
Some plugins may have their own editor windows for more extensive control.
Using plugins can consume CPU resources and may affect reliability, as crashes or hangs in a plugin can impact Rosegarden’s stability.

Metronomes

Rosegarden has two built-in metronomes, one for recording and one for normal playback.
These metronomes send notes to a MIDI instrument and use the same instrument, pitch, and velocity information.
You can configure the metronomes by going to Studio->Manage Metronome, where you can select a MIDI instrument, set the resolution (beat, subdivision, or bar), pitch, and velocities.
The actual voice the metronome uses depends on the instrument selected, similar to how MIDI tracks depend on their assigned instruments.
The record and play metronomes can be enabled or disabled using the metronome button in the Transport window. By default, the record metronome is on, and the play metronome is off.
There’s also a “visual metronome” feature that makes the transport window flash brightly to mark each beat during playback.

MIDI filters

The MIDI filters dialog in Rosegarden allows you to specify which MIDI events should be ignored or accepted by the software.
You can use checkboxes in this dialog to indicate which types of MIDI events you want to filter out or record.
This feature is helpful for customizing how Rosegarden handles MIDI events when forwarding them using MIDI THRU or recording them.

External MIDI control surfaces

Rosegarden can be controlled to some extent by an external MIDI device, allowing you to adjust mixer settings and other features.
To set up external MIDI control, you need to use an ALSA MIDI connection manager like qjackctl to connect your MIDI controller device to Rosegarden’s “external controller” input and output MIDI ports.
MIDI control change messages can be used to adjust mixer track settings based on the incoming MIDI channel from your controller device.
Rosegarden also supports MIDI controller numbers 81 and 82 for changing the currently active window and the selected track in the main window, respectively.
The behavior of MIDI controller number 82 depends on the number of tracks in the window, ensuring it uses the full MIDI controller data range.

6. Special Parameters

The Track Parameter Box assign instruments to tracks control what incoming MIDI data from which sources will be recorded control staff attributes govern how MIDI segments will be created for each track

Playback parameters alternative mechanism to the menu-based system of instrument assignment
Track recording filters control what events are recorded to this track all setting is safe and convenient if you are recording only one MIDI track
Staff export options normal, small, or tiny size
Create segments with means of controlling many of the segment parameters for segments that don’t yet exist aimed especially at notation users

The Segment Parameter Box modify some aspects of the selected segments The Instrument Parameter Box which instrument is assigned to the current selected track

MIDI Instrument Parameters percussion toggle that controls whether only percussion programs should be offered shows you the controllers available for this device
Audio Instrument Parameters two main faders Audio instruments are always ultimately stereo five buttons at lower left are the effects slots.
Synth Plugin Instrument Parameters most important control here is the button at top left

7. Quantization

Quantization is the process of adjusting note and event positions so that they align with exact beat divisions, typically used to achieve precision or clear notation.
In Rosegarden, you can perform general quantization using Segments->Quantize in the main window or Adjust->Quantize in matrix or notation editors.
The quantize dialog in Rosegarden provides various quantization options, including the
- grid quantizer moves the start times of notes so that they start at the nearest point on some grid has adjustable parameters: base grid unit, swing,iterative amount, duration with start times several ways to apply grid quantization, including using the Quantize menu in the Segment Parameter Box and a quantize control in the matrix view.
- legato quantizer carries out a simple grid quantization, and also adjusts the note durations so as to remove any gaps between notes; also available with Adjust->Quantize->Legato function in the Matrix editor
- heuristic notation quantizer adjust note start times and durations to produce readable notation can configure complexity, base grid unit, tuplet level, re-beam, articulation, tie, split-and-tie
Rosegarden provides

Explore the possibilities here thoroughly including raw note ruler !!!

8. The Matrix editor

The Grid and Quantize controls

The Rosegarden matrix editor is used for viewing and editing music in a grid format, with each note represented as a block at a height corresponding to its pitch.
Each matrix editor window displays a single segment of music, and you can access it by right-clicking on a segment in the main canvas and selecting the matrix editor from the menu.
The matrix editor provides Grid and Quantize controls in its main toolbar.
The Grid menu controls the size of the visible grid and the time resolution for note insertion and movement, allowing for snapping to grid points.
The Quantize menu performs quantization, adjusting selected notes or the entire segment to a chosen grid resolution.
The Quantize menu continuously shows the current quantization resolution for the selected segment or notes.

Inserting notes

In the matrix view of Rosegarden, you can enter notes using various methods.
The simplest way is to use the mouse with the pencil tool selected. Click and drag to place a note on the matrix editor at a specific time and pitch.
The Select tool (arrow) also allows you to draw notes using the middle mouse button or the left mouse button with Ctrl pressed.
Note durations are snapped to the grid unit defined by the Grid setting, which you can adjust.
You can enter notes using the PC keyboard by selecting the desired duration with number keys and then pressing pitch keys (A, S, D, etc.) to input notes. Shift sharpens notes, and Shift+Ctrl flattens them.
For notes an octave higher or lower, use the corresponding keys on the keyboard.
All insertion commands are available in the Tools menu, and keyboard shortcuts are designed for a QWERTY-layout keyboard. [use keyboard shortcuts to get dvorak? !!!]
You can also enter notes using a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI control device, with durations determined by the Grid setting, in a process called “step recording.”

Selecting notes

In the matrix editor of Rosegarden, you can select notes using the Select (arrow) tool.
To select notes, outline a rectangular area that contains the notes you want to select. Clicking on a single event selects only that event.
Holding Shift while selecting notes adds the new selection to any existing selection instead of replacing it.
To clear a selection, click in an empty space on the matrix editor or press the Escape key.
You can select all notes of a specific pitch by shift-clicking on a key in the piano keyboard on the left side of the matrix editor. Shift-click and drag to select a range of pitches.
The Edit->Filter Selection function allows you to filter a range of events in various categories out of your selection, either inclusively or exclusively. [This is neat, though I’m not sure what to use it for.]
Once your selection is filtered, you can manipulate it using conventional editing methods.

Moving and copying notes

In the Rosegarden matrix editor, you can move notes in both time and pitch.
To move notes, you can either click and drag them with the Move tool or select them and then drag them using the Select tool.
To copy notes, select them and use standard copy and paste functions. After pasting, the pasted notes will be selected, and you can further drag them to their desired position.
Alternatively, you can copy notes by selecting them with the Select tool and then holding Ctrl while click-and-dragging the selected notes to a new position.

9. The Percussion Matrix editor

The Percussion Matrix editor is similar to the regular Matrix editor but displays pitch names on the vertical scale instead of a piano keyboard.
It is designed for use with percussion programs on MIDI instruments, where each note pitch corresponds to a different percussion sound.
The display of pitch names depends on whether the segment being edited is playing through a percussion instrument with associated key mappings to define the names.
If key mappings are not defined, the standard matrix view piano keyboard will be displayed instead.

10. The Notation editor

Notes To optimize windowq with leftwm:

Put track editor into float H-S-t
Open notation editor as float
Resize notation editor with H-<mouse-right> and it will come to the top

(This system works really well!)

Midi -> rg doesn’t translate well for ly always eg grace notes are written out.

EAN experiment as needed

Introduction

The Rosegarden Notation editor allows users to view and edit one or more staffs in traditional score notation.
It supports various musical elements such as chords, overlapping and nested beamed groups, triplets, tuplets, grace notes, dynamics, accents, and text.
While it provides good support for music notation, it does not offer the same level of fine control over layout as dedicated score editing programs.
Rosegarden is not focused on producing typeset-quality scores but can export LilyPond files that may serve as a basis for typesetting.

Single and multiple staffs

There are three ways to open a notation editor in Rosegarden: double-clicking on a segment, using the “Open in Default Editor” menu function (Return key), or using the “Open in Notation Editor” menu functions.
Double-clicking on a segment opens it in the notation editor, and you can also open multiple selected segments together in a single notation window by holding Shift and double-clicking the last one.
The “Open in Default Editor” menu function works similarly to double-clicking and opens selected segments in the default editor.
The “Open in Notation Editor” menu function allows you to select segments and open them in the notation editor. You can switch between staffs within the notation editor, with the topmost staff being the default current staff.

Linear and page layouts

The default display mode in the notation editor is the Linear layout, where staffs are shown one on top of another in a single horizontally scrollable line. [All functions including various rulers are available here, so this should be where we do most of the work.]
The notation editor also offers two page-based layouts: Continuous Page and Multiple Page.
In Continuous Page layout, music is displayed in one infinitely-tall page with each staff breaking at the end of a line.
In Multiple Page layout, music is divided into real pages based on the specified printing resolution.
Some display and editing functions work in both page layout modes and linear layout.
You can switch between these layout modes using menu functions: Linear Layout, Continuous Page Layout, and Multiple Page Layout.

Rulers and cursors

The Rosegarden Notation editor includes two graduated rulers: one at the top and one at the bottom of the main notation canvas.
There are several types of cursors associated with these rulers, including the insert cursor (purple) and the playback pointer (blue).
The insert cursor marks the point for operations like insert and paste and can be repositioned using various methods, including clicking on the ruler or using arrow keys.
The playback pointer indicates the current playback or record position and can also be repositioned.
The raw note ruler is useful for editing quantized notation, displaying the actual performance duration of notes. [Can probably tweak durations with it. !!!]
The chord name ruler attempts to display the chords that are sounding in the piece but is for informational purposes only. [Can be useful to understand chord progressions. !!!]
The tempo ruler displays the global tempo and allows for entering, editing, and manipulating tempo changes. [Can ramp with this, though doing so may be better in lmms. !!!]
These rulers and cursors are typically shown in Linear layout mode and may not all be displayed by default [can be changed in View].
You can enable or disable certain rulers and cursors through settings and configuration options.

Tools and selections

The Rosegarden Notation editor offers various tools for editing, including selection, erasing, inserting notes, rests, text, and more.
Functions in the editor fall into 3 categories like tools, functions that operate on selections, and drag operations.
Choosing a tool changes the default behavior of the mouse buttons on the notation canvas.
Selections are made using the Select (arrow) tool, which allows you to outline a rectangular area to select events. Selection are only from one staff and can be filtered.
Shift will accumulate selection contents. Double-click selects bar. Triple-click selects segment.
Many menu functions require a selection to be made on the canvas before they can be used, and the Edit menu offers options for selecting extended areas.
Dragging can also be used for editing, such as changing pitch by dragging note heads up or down or changing the timing of notes by dragging them left or right.
There are functions for transposing notes by a specified interval, including transposing by semitones or intervals with a dialog for customization.
Double-clicking on a single event opens an editing dialog for that event.

Inserting notes and rests

To insert a note in the Rosegarden Notation editor, select a note duration from the toolbar and then click on the staff at the desired point.
Accidentals can be selected from the toolbar to insert sharpened or flattened notes, or you can use the “Follow previous accidental” icon to follow the last accidental used at the same height on the staff.
Inserting a note at the same time as an existing note of different duration will create chords and possibly ties.
Adding a note exactly over an existing note of different duration will change the duration of the existing note.
Adding a rest at the same time as an existing note will silence the note for the duration of the rest.
Typing notes and rests with the PC keyboard involves selecting a duration and pitch using number and letter keys. You can also toggle between dotted and undotted durations [with . and triplet version of note with G].
Rests can be inserted by pressing “P” [pressing P will change notes into equivalent rests], and you can switch between note and rest tools using “T”.
Chord mode can be activated using the “H” key to insert subsequent notes at the same time as the last one. [This is quite effective if entering notes from a computer keyboard.]
Keyboard shortcuts for changing note durations are available, and holding Ctrl while pressing a number key selects the corresponding dotted-note tool.[Doesn’t work !!!]
Step recording with a MIDI keyboard is possible by configuring the keyboard as the default MIDI record device, selecting a duration, and using the step recording button on the toolbar or the Tools menu.
Note durations can be changed using keyboard shortcuts, and you can enter notes of different durations during step recording.

Be aware of some of these shortcuts over time because they can simplify entry. !!!

Clef and key

In Rosegarden, time-related changes like tempo and time signatures apply uniformly to all staffs, ensuring consistent playback and notation.
[You can change tempos, and time signatures in the Composition dropdown.]
[You can change clefs, keys, in the Segment dropdown.]
When changing the clef, you can choose to maintain current pitches or transpose into an appropriate octave for existing notes following the clef change.
When changing the key, you can select the key signature and decide whether to transpose it according to segment transposition or use it as specified.
The scope of the key change can be applied to the current segment only or to all segments on all tracks at that time.
You can specify how existing notes following a key change should behave, whether maintaining their current pitches, maintaining current accidentals, or attempting to transpose into the new key.

Some of these may require trying out as necessary. !!!

Text, Lyrics, and LilyPond directives

Rosegarden allows you to add various types of text to a staff, including single text items for annotations, lyrics, and LilyPond directives.
The Text tool is used for creating single text items and lyrics. You can click at the point where you want to add text, and a dialog box will appear for you to enter the text and choose its intended purpose.
There are different styles or purposes for text, such as Dynamic, Direction, Tempo, Chord, and more. These styles determine how the text is displayed. [Some annotations may be turned off by default.]
Lyrics can be edited using the Lyric editor, which follows specific formatting rules with bar lines and syllables. [Do not do lyrics in rg - go to lilypond instead.]
LilyPond directives are special text used for exporting .ly files with extended functionality not available through Rosegarden’s native interface.
LilyPond directives include Segno, Coda, Alt1, Alt2, double barlines, terminating barlines, dashed barlines, glissando, arpeggio symbols, and font size adjustments like Tiny, Small, and Normal.
Proper placement of LilyPond directives within a measure can affect their function and appearance in the exported score. [Some experimentation is required especially with the Lilypond directives which can likely be very helpful if they translate over properly in to the text - they really don’t look particularly good in the notation editor though because they appear as text. However, clicking on the note using T gives choice of directive and that looks just fine in the lp export!]

Guitar Chords

You can add guitar chord diagrams to a notation track in Rosegarden.
To add a guitar chord diagram, toggle the Guitar Chord button and then click on the area where you want to add it.
Rosegarden provides a chord dictionary with common chord fingerings categorized as beginner, common, and all.
You can also create your own chord fingerings by clicking the ‘New’ button, which opens a chord editor where you can draw the fingering, specify the root, chord extension, and starting fret number.
When adding your own fingerings, you can type custom extension values, but they will only be available in the ‘all’ list.
You can delete and edit your custom chords, but predefined dictionary chords cannot be changed, and any mistakes should be reported to the development team.

This is actually pretty neat stuff because rg figures out the chord for you, though it can be changed.

Slurs and hairpins

Slurs and hairpins in Rosegarden are stored as events, similar to notes or rests.
To create a slur or hairpin, select the area (a series of notes or other elements) you want it to cover, then use the “Add Slur,” “Add Crescendo,” or “Add Decrescendo” options from the Phrase menu.
The placement of hairpins can be challenging, especially when they run in line with dynamic markings. Sometimes, their appearance in Rosegarden’s notation editor may differ from the final result when exported to LilyPond. [There seems to be no cresc or dimin text as lp offers. Hairpins can be moved sideways but not up|down.]
Rosegarden’s slurs work best when all the stems of the notes are running in the same direction, and they may need manual repositioning for better placement. Slurs tend to improve their appearance after exporting to LilyPond.
You can remove a slur or hairpin by selecting it with the selection tool and hitting Delete or by clicking on it with the erase tool active.

Note stems and slashes

In Rosegarden’s Notation editor, you can adjust the stem direction of selected notes using the “Stem Direction” options found in the Notes menu.
These options allow you to set the stems either up or down, or to revert to the stem direction that Rosegarden would choose automatically.
Additionally, the Note menu offers options for adding slashes across note stems, which are used for notational purposes, such as indicating short repeated notes or drum rolls. These slashes do not affect playback or MIDI generation in Rosegarden.

Beams

Beams in the Rosegarden Notation editor are used for grouping notes together.
To add beams to selected notes, use the “Beam Group” option found in the Phrase menu.
To remove a beam from selected notes, use the “Unbeam” menu option.
You can have multiple beamed groups simultaneously, but you may need to manually set stem directions for each group.
Rosegarden can automatically guess sensible beaming for a piece of music; use the “Auto-Beam” option on the Phrase menu to invoke this feature.
Automatic beaming is also done when loading a MIDI file, and during note entry (which can be disabled in settings).

Triplets and other tuplets

A triplet group consists of three notes or chords played in the time of two.
The term “tuplet” refers to a situation where notes with a total duration of any given number of units are played in the time of a different number of units (e.g., nine notes in the time of eight, six in the time of four).
Rosegarden’s triplet and tuplet menu functions squash existing notes or rests to play quicker, filling in the leftover space with a final rest and representing the whole as a tuplet group.
You can create triplet groups by entering the first two notes, making them into triplets, and then filling in the rest with the final note. Alternatively, you can apply the triplet operation before entering any notes, effectively turning the rest into triplet form and inserting the notes on top of it. [Good way is to put the 3 notes down, select them, then triplet with C-r; better way may be to go into triplet mode with g|G, and just enter the notes.]
To specify a general tuplet group, you need to know the base note (e.g., a crotchet) and the ratio of the number of base notes written to the number played. [Concept should be similar to triplets, but setup isn’t automatic.]

EAN!!!

Paste types

Rosegarden’s Notation editor provides various types of Paste operations to handle music editing, as traditional cut-and-paste is less straightforward in music.
The available Paste types include Restricted, Simple, Open and Paste, Note Overlay, and Matrix Overlay.
Restricted Paste requires an existing gap of sufficient duration to contain the clipboard’s contents, while Simple Paste erases events to create a gap for pasting.
Open and Paste makes room for the paste by moving subsequent events, while Note Overlay and Matrix Overlay handle pasting notes in specific ways with respect to overlaps and ties.
These paste types can be accessed through the Paste… menu option on the Edit menu.

Matrix overlay is unclear - seems to be the same as Simple !!!

Adjusting Notation

The “Normalize Rests” function in Rosegarden’s Notation editor can be used to adjust, split, and merge rests to ensure they have correct durations and fall on appropriate boundaries within the time signature. [Eg q h q in 4/4 -> w]
“Tie Notes at Barlines” is a function designed to split excessively long notes into shorter tied notes, particularly when they overflow barlines or cannot be displayed as a single note.
“Split-and-Tie Overlapping Chords” is a function used to split and tie overlapping notes and chords, helping to create neat blocks of chords and single notes. [!!!]
“Halve Durations” and “Double Durations” functions allow for simple rescaling of note durations, while more complex rescaling can be achieved using the “Stretch or Squash” function. [!!!]
To reposition notation elements like slurs, hairpins, and text events, you can use Ctrl-click and drag. However, this method cannot be used to reposition notes. [Works but not with much control.]

These are good ways to make the notation neater and thus better formed for lilypond probably. !!!

Interpreting Performance Cues in Notation

The “Interpret” function in Rosegarden’s Notation editor allows you to modify note velocities and timings based on indicated dynamics.
Interpretations available include applying text dynamics (e.g., p, mf, ff), making notes gradually increase or decrease in velocity during crescendo or decrescendo hairpins, stressing beats, and articulating slurs, staccato, and tenuto markings.
Text dynamics such as pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and fff are matched to set velocities based on the last “Dynamic” text seen on the same staff.
Crescendo and decrescendo hairpins adjust note velocities to create a gradual increase or decrease in loudness.
Stressing beats makes notes landing on bar or beat boundaries slightly louder than surrounding notes.
Articulating markings like slurs, staccato, and tenuto affect note lengths, with unslurred notes shortened, staccato notes further shortened, and notes inside slurs and tenuto markings played at their full length.

[Couldn’t get this to really work - not important though for notation. !!!]

Notation from performance data

Rosegarden, while primarily a sequencer, offers notation editing capabilities, which require adjusting note times and durations for musical precision.
This quantization, known as “notation quantization,” improves the accuracy of notes shown in the notation editor.
Notation quantization affects only what is visible in notation and doesn’t impact notes played or edited in other views.
You can see the effects of notation quantization in the notation editor through the raw note ruler or by highlighting altered note heads in green.
Rosegarden provides various quantization parameters that allow you to customize the quantization process, including complexity, base grid unit, and tuplet level.
You can also control how the quantizer tidies up after quantization, including re-beaming notes, adding articulations like staccato, tenuto, and slurs, tying notes at barlines, and splitting and tying overlapping chords.
These quantization settings can be adjusted to suit different musical contexts and preferences.

Again more to experiment with in the quantization section. !!!

Playing ornaments

Rosegarden supports playback of ornaments using triggered segments.
To create a new ornament, write out the desired notes, select them, and use the “Note->Ornaments->Make Ornament…” option. This creates a triggered segment.
To make a note play an existing ornament, select it and use “Note->Ornaments->Trigger Ornament…”
You can edit the notes played in a triggered ornament by double-clicking on the triggering note.
Note that Rosegarden can adjust the pitch of triggered segments to match their triggering notes but cannot transpose into a different key or scale position.

Figure out how to setup a file with ornaments defined - didn’t get an answer to this from the rg list, but the article Ornaments: Pleasure and Pain may have a solution. !!!

Note styles

Rosegarden allows customization of how different types of notes are visually represented, including note heads, tails, and fill options.
Standard styles like Classical, Cross, Triangle, and Mensural are provided for note appearance.
You can change the style of individual notes by selecting them and using the Note Style menu options.
Each note remembers its chosen style, and this information is saved as part of the composition.
You can also set a default style for new notes using the “Configure Rosegarden…” option in the Settings menu.
Advanced users can create custom note styles by describing them in XML files. The standard styles are also defined in this way.

Note fonts

Rosegarden comes with a default scalable notation font called Feta, developed by the LilyPond project, suitable for classical music. [It seems to be all that is required.]
Rosegarden supports additional notation fonts, but you need to provide them in TrueType (.ttf) or PostScript Type-1 (.pfb, .pfa) format and have the necessary permissions to install them in the Rosegarden directory.
To install a supported notation font, copy the font files into the “fonts” subdirectory of the Rosegarden installation directory and restart Rosegarden.
Supported fonts include Fughetta, Petrucci, Maestro, Opus, Inkpen, Sonata, Steinberg, and Xinfonia, but it’s your responsibility to ensure you have the legal rights to use them.
You can also create new mapping files to use new fonts, especially if they have similar mappings or metrics to existing fonts.
For more details on customizing fonts and mappings, refer to the “Customising Rosegarden” section.

11. The Event List editor

The Event List editor in Rosegarden displays events within a single segment in a raw form.
It allows for precise editing of individual event properties.
This editor provides a detailed view of events within a segment for fine-tuning and customization.
You can access the Event List editor in Rosegarden for working with events in your compositions.

Probably is merit in learning this for the purpose of fine-tuning. !!!

12. Customising Rosegarden

Configuring custom notation fonts

Customizing Rosegarden involves configuring custom notation fonts.
Unsupported notation fonts in TrueType or Type-1 formats can be supported through mapping XML files.
Mapping XML files describe font character maps and metrics for Rosegarden’s use.
Custom fonts can be pixmap-based or scalable system fonts.
Mapping files include elements like font information, origin, copyright, type, and more.
Custom fonts can be antialiased (smooth) if specified.
Scalable fonts can have autocrop attributes to adjust spacing.
Font requirements are used for scalable fonts and allow font composition from multiple system fonts.
Font-sizes element specifies available notation font sizes and their relationships to non-font elements.
Font-scale and font-size elements define font proportions and sizes.
Font-symbol-map lists symbols in the notation font and their sources, including pixmap files or system font code points.
Various attributes like name, src, code, glyph, and more are used to describe symbols.
Customization allows users to tailor notation fonts to their preferences.
Mapping XML files are typically stored in the fonts/mappings subdirectory of the Rosegarden installation directory.
Users can edit provided mapping files or create their own to customize fonts effectively.

Creating new notation styles

Rosegarden’s notation editor can display and edit notes in various standard styles.
Notation styles are defined in XML style definition files.
Users can create new notation styles by writing simple XML files.
Rosegarden determines which styles to offer based on installed style files.
Default style examples can be found in the styles subdirectory of the Rosegarden installation directory.
The XML format for notation styles includes elements like “rosegarden-note-style,” “global,” and “note.”
Attributes within these elements define parameters for note styles, such as note type, shape, font character name, filled head, stem presence, flags, slashes, and more.
Users can base new styles on existing ones by specifying a “base-style.”
Feedback on creating new styles is welcomed on the Rosegarden mailing-lists.
The file name, not the “rosegarden-note-style” element, currently defines the style name, but this may change in the future.
The XML format is designed to describe standard styles that come with Rosegarden and may not support extensive customization.
Users can define note head shapes and fonts for different note styles.
Styles can specify the presence of stems, flags, slashes, and their positions relative to note heads.
Rosegarden’s notation editor provides flexibility in creating and customizing notation styles.

13. Credits and License

14. Rosegarden Revision History

Last revision seems to be May 2008

zz

NOTE4: we can use rg for input (-> emacs lilypond ) and playback (better than qtractor|lmms ?) NOTE3: why we should not use rg for notation

it is very awkward
it does not produce highest quality lilypond
we aren’t using quantization anyway (which doesn’t work too well either)

NOTE2: the export was not the problem - the template time signature was! NOTE1: after considerable experimentation, it seems the ly export is not of high quality and is filled with errors. therefore we need to consider alternative system. additionally there are continuous crashes when using timidity (though it was good with yoshimi).

slurs do not sync with lyrics automatically, so use . to make lyric go for more than a single note.

MIDI/audio sequencer and notation editor (not exactly a daw) (far better playback control than frescobaldi!)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Rosegarden handbook make sure fluidsynth has been setup or rebooting is necessary for rosegarden to see there is a midi

rethink the usage of rg because in the past we just wanted it as a pre-lilypond interface however, since it can do much more a proper examination is required plan

dakloos midi imported using default yoshimi arpeggio sounds really neat!

Lilypond

Sun, 19 May 2024 23:57:00 -0700

LilyPond is a free program that lets you create beautiful sheet music for all kinds of music, from classical to modern, just like for piano or guitar.

The coding commands will have emacs shortcuts attached to them as these are produced.

fundamental concepts

file structure

for instance,

Every block is a separate chunk of music within a block. multiple scores -> still one output file

Every block affects the or block in which it appears multiple books -> separate output file

note structure

pitch duration post-event(s)

brackets and ties

{ … } Encloses a sequential segment of music < … > Encloses the notes of a chord << … >> Encloses simultaneous music expressions eg voices ( … ) Marks the start and end of a slur $…$ Marks the start and end of a phrasing slur [ … ] Marks the start and end of a manual beam

x/y { … }

voices

<< d
>>

Staff << Voice = “1” { } Voice = “2” { } >>

musescore transfer

musescore -> xml musescore $f -o ${f%.*}.musicxml

xml -> ly musicxml2ly –nrp –npb –npm –npl –nsd –nb -m -r -l english $f

automatic scaling to paper size

#(set-default-paper-size “letter”) at top level will automatically scale and it is not necessary to do it with then diddle in here (as originally done): Score.NonMusicalPaperColumn.padding = #1.3

emacs

textedit

follow instructions for gnome3 in 4.1.1 Configuring the system

lilypond-invoke-editor.desktop already in /usr/share/applications [Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Name=lilypond-invoke-editor GenericName=Textedit URI handler Comment=URI handler for textedit: Exec=lilypond-invoke-editor %u Terminal=false Type=Application MimeType=x-scheme-handler/textedit; Categories=Editor NoDisplay=true

then execute: xdg-desktop-menu install /usr/share/applications/lilypond-invoke-editor.desktop xdg-mime default lilypond-invoke-editor.desktop x-scheme-handler/textedit

put in .zshenv: export LYEDITOR=emacsclient the scm/editor.scm already has emacsclient in it so no special config necessary

scheme

Scheme tutorial
1.1 Introduction to Scheme
1.1.1 Scheme sandbox
1.1.2 Scheme variables
1.1.3 Scheme simple data types
1.1.4 Scheme compound data types
1.1.5 Calculations in Scheme
1.1.6 Scheme procedures
1.1.7 Scheme conditionals
1.2 Scheme in LilyPond
1.2.1 LilyPond Scheme syntax
1.2.2 LilyPond variables
1.2.3 Debugging Scheme code
1.2.4 Input variables and Scheme
1.2.5 Importing Scheme in LilyPond
1.2.6 Object properties
1.2.7 LilyPond compound variables
1.2.8 Internal music representation
1.3 Building complicated functions
1.3.1 Displaying music expressions
1.3.2 Music properties
1.3.3 Doubling a note with slurs (example)
1.3.4 Adding articulation to notes (example)
Interfaces for programmers
2.1 LilyPond code blocks
2.2 Scheme functions
2.2.1 Scheme function definitions
2.2.2 Scheme function usage
2.2.3 Void scheme functions
2.3 Music functions
2.3.1 Music function definitions
2.3.2 Music function usage
2.3.3 Simple substitution functions
2.3.4 Intermediate substitution functions
2.3.5 Mathematics in functions
2.3.6 Functions without arguments
2.3.7 Void music functions
2.4 Event functions
2.5 Markup functions
2.5.1 Markup construction in Scheme
2.5.2 How markups work internally
2.5.3 New markup command definition
2.5.4 New markup list command definition
2.6 Contexts for programmers
2.6.1 Context evaluation
2.6.2 Running a function on all layout objects
2.7 Callback functions
2.8 Unpure-pure containers
2.9 Difficult tweaks

Forex

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 21:10:53 -0700

Forex trading, also known as foreign exchange trading or FX trading, involves buying one currency and selling another with the goal of making a profit.

Introduction

Market Overview:
- The forex market is where currencies are traded globally.
- Unlike traditional stock exchanges, there is no central physical location for forex trading. Instead, it operates electronically over the counter (OTC).
- The market is open 24 hours a day, five and a half days a week, spanning major financial centers across different time zones.
Currency Pairs:
- Currencies are traded against each other in pairs. For example, EUR/USD represents the euro against the U.S. dollar.
- Traders speculate on the exchange rate movement between these pairs.
Liquidity and Size:
- Forex markets are the world’s largest and most liquid asset markets due to global trade, commerce, and finance.
- Daily global forex trading volume reached an astounding $7.5 trillion in 2022. [This results in almost instant liquidity meaning your trades go through right away.]
Participants and Purpose:
- Institutional firms, large banks, and retail investors participate in forex trading.
- Reasons include:
  - Hedging: Managing international currency and interest rate risk.
  - Speculation: Betting on geopolitical events or currency movements.
  - Portfolio Diversification: Adding forex exposure to investment portfolios.

Remember, the forex market operates continuously, and its price quotes change constantly. It’s a dynamic and fascinating arena where currencies dance across the digital world! 💱🌎

Source: Conversation with Bing, 4/25/2024
(1) How Do You Start Forex Trading? A Beginner’s Guide - Investopedia
(2) Forex (FX): Definition, How to Trade Currencies, and Examples
(3) Forex for Beginners: An Introduction to Forex Trading - DailyFX

The Forex 3-Session System

A useful article explaining the temporal layout for forex trading.

Traders usually focus on 1 of the 3 sessions Asian, European, US. Algorithms trade 24/7, but the biggest price moves tend to happen when human traders are involved - probably due to emotions.

Session	Market	Hours (pst)	Personality
Asian	Tokyo	04pm - 01am	lower volatility
	Sydney	02pm - 11pm	range bound
European	London	12am - 09am	liquid, trends
America	New York	05am - 02pm	high volatility

Overlapping sessions can be volatile.

VeganHacktivists

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 20:42:49 -0800

The VeganHacktivists “build data-driven, disruptive, and innovative projects to help see an end to animal exploitation”.

The individuals of this group outline an approach to animal protection using the following 5 goals:

We need more data in our movement
We need more competition, too
We need to be more innovative
We need to start collaborating
We need more vegans to become active

They are a skilful, dedicated organization whose talents are on display at the veganhacktivists.org site.

BingChat

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 20:41:26 -0800

BingChat will handle both simple and complex questions. It can be used for research, summaries of articles, books, events, the news, sports results, product comparisons, analysis, idea generation and many other things.

This aibot is integrated with the Bing search engine so the two systems work smoothly together. When used through a free Microsoft account (recommended), it will save your chat histories for future access. BingChat has been customized by Microsoft for searching as well as generating content, so it will not only display what it is searching for, but will also provide links as references.

Here is a concise video showing some of the things BingChat can do:

00:00 🌐 Introduction to Bing Chat and its features
- Bing Chat overview: A technology using OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Microsoft’s Prometheus.
- Features: Conversations, image generation, text extraction from images.
- Accessibility: Available on any OS and browser; enhanced experience on Microsoft Edge.
01:21 🎙️ Interacting with Bing Chat in different environments
- Interaction methods: Edge browser, Edge on phone, Windows 11 co-pilot icon.
- Benefits of signing in: Longer conversations, conversation history storage.
- Preferred mode: Using the Edge browser and creative, balanced, or precise conversation styles.
03:09 🧾 Using Bing Chat to create a grocery shopping list
- Conversation initiation: Typing questions or using the microphone.
- Character limit: Up to 4,000 characters for questions.
- Efficient results: Instant list of ingredients and quantities with sources.
04:31 📊 Refining and analyzing search results in Bing Chat
- Result refinement: Changing the format, e.g., from a bulleted list to a table.
- Multi-question context: Asking up to 30 questions per conversation.
- Analyzing context: Asking follow-up questions, e.g., “How do I bake them?”
06:15 🎨 Integrating DallE 3 for creative design ideas
- T-shirt design assistance: Using AI to generate ideas for the Kevin Cookie Company.
- Image generation with DallE 3: Creating visuals based on text prompts.
- Exploration and modification: Refining designs and prompts for desired outcomes.
07:35 🖼️ Designing logos and analyzing existing images
- Logo design: AI-generated logo options with customization.
- Image analysis: Identifying objects, refining designs, and incorporating color preferences.
- Competitor analysis: Using Bing Chat to identify and analyze images from competitors.
09:32 🍪 Extracting text and information from images
- Image text extraction: Uploading images to obtain extracted text.
- Recipe analysis: Extracting text and directions from an image of a recipe.
- Versatility: Applying this feature for various purposes, e.g., competitor analysis.
10:53 📑 Summarizing website content with Bing Chat
- Website analysis: Directing Bing Chat to summarize content from a specific website.
- Accuracy: Producing relevant and on-point summaries.
- Efficiency: Quick access to conversational history and customization options.

ChatGPT

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 20:25:29 -0800

ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022. Based on a large language model, it enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language.

ChatGPT can see, hear, and speak, and it can also create images simply by describing them. You can try ChatGPT on the web or on your mobile device. ChatGPT is one of the most advanced and versatile chatbots in the world..

Intro

Here is a 5 minute video demonstrating the variety of things ChatGPT can do. Harpa provides the summary.

00:00 🚀 Introduction to Chat GPT
- Introduction to John, a programmer starting a company.
- Challenges in assembling a team for his startup.
- Ryan introduces Chat GPT as a solution for John’s team-building needs.
00:41 🗣️ Chat GPT Capabilities
- Overview of Chat GPT as a state-of-the-art NLP model.
- Chat GPT’s ability to answer questions without explicit instructions.
- Highlighting how Chat GPT can assist in sales, marketing, and programming tasks.
02:06 🛠️ Programming Support by Chat GPT
- Chat GPT aiding in proofreading code and bug fixing.
- Providing sample code structures for different programming languages.
- Allowing John to focus on improving core functionality rather than fixing basic code errors.
02:35 📝 Content Generation for Customer Support
- Chat GPT’s ability to generate full-length blog posts quickly.
- Drafting complete customer service emails based on the situation.
- Customization options for content length and language complexity.
03:03 ⚠️ Drawbacks and Limitations
- Drawbacks of Chat GPT, including limitations on data up to 2021.
- Challenges with understanding context and providing accurate responses.
- Discussion on the belief that Chat GPT may one day replace Google search.
03:42 ❓ Quiz and Future Potential
- Quiz question about tasks Chat GPT cannot perform.
- Open AI’s vision for Chat GPT as a future AI tool.
- The promise of Chat GPT in automating tasks and serving as a digital assistant.
04:23 🌐 Future Impact of Chat GPT
- Chat GPT’s potential to revolutionize organizations and divisions.
- Open AI’s goal of solving present problems with future tools.
- The expected boost in productivity across various sectors with Chat GPT.

Harpa

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:12:04 -0800

Harpa is a Google Chrome extension that provides a range of features to automate web tasks with page-aware commands and web monitoring. Its hybrid AI-engine combines GPT (ChatGPT, Bard, ClaudeAI) with Web Automation.

Some of the features include summarizing and replying to emails, rewriting, rephrasing, correcting and expanding text, reading articles, translating and scanning web pages for data, and more. HARPA AI can also extract key takeaways from hours-long videos with a click of a button, and save time watching. It can mimic your writing style while crafting emails, tweets replies, LinkedIn cover letters, and SEO-optimized articles of unlimited length. HARPA AI can also perform SEO audit, extract SEO keywords, compile keyword reports, segment your audience, create content calendars, outrank articles, and more.

Intro

For a quick overview of capabilities, watch their informative video and read the summary harpa produces:

00:00 🌐 Web Browsing Enhancement
- HARPA AI combines Automation and ChatGPT for enhanced web browsing.
- AI-generated answers are provided alongside Google search results.
- Customizable responses and quick access commands improve productivity.
01:11 📄 PDF Interaction
- HARPA AI extracts information from online PDF documents.
- Summarizes long PDFs into bullet-point lists for quick understanding.
- Offers efficient handling of PDF content through user queries.
01:38 ✍️ Writing Assistance
- HARPA AI acts as a proficient writer, translator, and reply assistant.
- Provides quick access commands for text manipulation and improvement.
- Capabilities include composing text, crafting articles, and keyword extraction.
02:48 ⚙️ Automation and Custom Commands
- HARPA AI supports over 100 pre-configured commands for various tasks.
- Users can create custom reusable commands for automating repetitive tasks.
- Smart automation commands accommodate multiple inputs and streamline workflows.
03:29 🔄 LinkedIn Integration
- HARPA AI offers LinkedIn-specific commands for job-related tasks.
- Job eligibility checking, CV analysis, and editing are included features.
- Enables users to automate and optimize LinkedIn-related processes.
04:41 🛡️ Privacy and Web Monitoring
- HARPA AI provides privacy-centered web monitoring capabilities.
- Monitors prices, product availability, appointments, and more on web pages.
- Allows customization of monitoring schedules, triggers, and actions.

Netricks

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 11:53:00 -0700

Here are some useful things that can enhance your net efforts with websites, email, aibots, and more!

mailto

The mailto directive can greatly facilitate the emailing process and is usually used on contact forms on a webpage. The technique can also be used in actual emails that html formatted.

The mailto is quite simple to setup using basic html:

<a href="mailto:username@domain-name.top-level-domain">

username might be something like prad.e.ception
domain-name might be githubris
top-level-domain could be items like com, org, info, etc

Below we provide several examples demonstrating various situations involving mailto.

No mailto

Let’s start with what most people do because they do not know any html whatsoever. They will put something like this in an email or webpage:

Hey! Email me here: prad.e.ceptor@githubris.info

Well that’s fine, but if you want to email prad, you have to copy and paste that email address into your email client (eg gmail, outlook, evolution, mutt, notmuch or whatever you use). Such an effort could be too much for some and poor prad would never hear from them!

Simplest mailto

So to make things more efficient we can enclose the email inside a mailto code like this:

Hey! Email me <a href="mailto:prad.e.ceptor@githubris.info">here</a>!!

The above code produces the following clickable link:
Hey! Email me !!

You can just click on the here link and the email will be produced by your email client all set to go! Give it a try, but don’t send it because that email address isn’t a real one.

Throw in a subject

Suppose you want people to contact you for a specific reason. Rather than having them fill in the subject field of the email, you can do it for them, like this:
#+begin_src html Hey! Email me <a href="mailto:prad.e.ceptor@githubris.info?subject=Tell me about physics">here</a> about physics!!

You will get the following clickable link:
Hey! Email me [here](mailto:prad.e.ceptor@githubris.info?subject=Tell me about physics!) about physics!

Ya the here link looks the same, but it isn’t! Try it and see what happens!

Email more than one recipient

Let’s send that email to not just prad, but also copy (cc:) it to brad@copycater.com, and blind copy (bcc:) it to clad@cheapoutfittings.org (understand that none of the emails exist, so if you are a spammer, you’ll be disappointed!):

Hey! Email us all <a href="mailto:prad.e.ceptor@githubris.info?subject=Tell me about physics!&cc=brad@copycater.com&bcc=clad@cheapoutfittings.org">here</a>, ok!!

You get to click the same looking here link, but it’s not the same:
Hey! Email us all [here](mailto:prad.e.ceptor@githubris.info?subject=Tell me about physics!&cc=brad@copycater.com&bcc=clad@cheapoutfittings.org), ok!!

You can keep adding to the cc: (or bcc:) fields by separating them with the rather cryptic %2C%20 (where %2C is really a comma, and %20 is really a space). A simple comma may work, but this sort of stuff can get messy!

It doesn’t have to though, because you can use mailto creating tools such as this mailto-link-generator which will make the job easy!

A real opportunity!

Let’s use the mailto-link-generator for a worthy cause!

The dynamic group Animal Justice is working to hold companies that sell eggs from caged hens accountable for such cruelty! One of these companies, The Second Cup, had promised to go cage-free, but is apparently reneging on that commitment.

Let’s use the mailto-link-generator and send an email to The Second Cup departments, specifically:

General Consumer Inquiries - rewards@secondcup.com
Marketing - marketing@secondcup.com
Franchising - franchising@secondcup.com

The subject will be

Go Cage Free!!

The message (you can indeed include the body text!) will be somewhat terse for there is no reason to be excessively nice to exploitative oppressors:

What happened to your promise to animal welfare! Your website stated that you were ensuring your products would be made with 100% cage-free eggs.

Now, that sentence has been deleted from the website!

It is still stated on your website that The Second Cup is committed to animal welfare and to ensuring that your suppliers’ policies and practices align with your values.

So which is it? Are you going cage-free or not?!

As a consumer, I want to know whether I will spend my money at a seller who keeps promises, or relegate to the cellar, one who breaks them!

Are you ready?

Go to the mailto-link-generator and start filling in the fields:

To field: rewards@secondcup.com
Cc field: marketing@secondcup.com, franchising@secondcup.com
Subject field: Go Cage Free!!
Message field: copy and paste the above message or type up your own. (Sign it with your name.)
Link text field: Email The Second Cup

Then press the Generate button and you’ll see your mailto link and even the entire html code which you can insert into an html email message or a webpage respectively. You can click on the Copy buttons to grab the code and use it like this:

[Email The Second Cup](mailto:rewards@secondcup.com?cc=marketing@secondcup.com, franchising@secondcup.com&subject=Go%20Cage%20Free!!&body=What%20happened%20to%20your%20commitment%20to%20animal%20welfare!%20Your%20website%20stated%20that%20you%20were%20ensuring%20your%20products%20would%20be%20made%20with%20100%25%20cage-free%20eggs.%0A%0ANow%2C%20that%20sentence%20has%20been%20deleted%20from%20the%20website!%0A%0AIt%20is%20still%20stated%20on%20your%20website%20that%20Second%20Cup%20is%20committed%20to%20animal%20welfare%20and%20to%20ensuring%20that%20your%20suppliers’%20policies%20and%20practices%20align%20with%20your%20values.%0A%0ASo%20which%20is%20it%3F%20Are%20you%20going%20cage-free%20or%20not%3F!%0A%0AAs%20a%20consumer%2C%20I%20want%20to%20know%20whether%20I%20will%20spend%20my%20money%20at%20a%20seller%20who%20keeps%20promises%20or%20should%20be%20relegated%20to%20the%20cellar%20for%20breaking%20them!)

Click on the above link and see what your email client prepares for you! Then send it to The Second Cup, so they have no doubt that we are watching them!

Want to know more?

You now have enough mailto knowledge to be dangerous!

If you want to go further into this, try these links:

Or if you are a I-don’t-read-the-book-so-show-me-the-movie type, watch away:

Mastering Emacs

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 11:53:07 -0700

GNU Emacs is one of the most amazing pieces of software ever created and is the editor of our choice. Mickey Petersen has done an excellent job presenting an education on emacs to anyone - novice or guru!

The book not only provides useful tips and keybindings, it encourages one to develop a philosophy of editing incorporating theory and technique. The book’s site also has a series of articles, an intelligent reading guide, and even Mickey’s own list of packages to use with emacs! Mickey is a generous and approachable individual who provides a most appropriately cryptic method of contacting him in the about section.

With more than 2 decades of emacsing, we have found Mickey’s book to be enlightening as have many others:

Mastering Emacs is the single best book on Emacs that I know of. It tells you what you need to know, and what you didn’t know you needed to know, and it does it clearly and comprehensibly. I am now on version 4 of this work which is updated regularly with each new major version. I find something new to try every time I pick it up. This is a good book for helping the beginner to get started, and a great book for helping the more advanced user to discover new tools and opportunities. - Britt Anderson

I think that Mastering Emacs is the easiest and clearest way to get started with Emacs. It’s a very easy read and is super well structured. I read it cover to cover in one afternoon and couldn’t put it down (well aside from when I need to free both hands to try some keybindings). - Adrien Brochard

I started using Emacs a year and a half ago by taking the ‘Emacs pledge’ —no other editor until I would get comfortable with Emacs. Your book was there from the start, and the tremendously inspired chapter 2 ‘The Way of Emacs’ alone is worth a whole manual. It’s what gave me a taste of what Emacs can be, before I could experience it myself. The rest of the book is just the gold standard for this kind of resources: a thoughtful selection of topics, explained in a way that encourages the reader to explore on their own. - Enrico Flor

Checkout more kudos in the book-testimonials section!

And buy the book even if you don’t use emacs! Take your first step toward making the world a better place!!

Hacking the Fireworks Firewall

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 15:17:55 -0700

Fireworks are a severe problem for many: wildlife, farm animals, pets, people with PTSD and anxiety. They are seen by some as a traditional and/or cultural means of celebration. Hence, jurisdictions often allow such activities which are a blatant abuse of an individual’s basic rights.

This document was created after a discussion on 2023-06-29 with Rob Harris who is one of the CVRD officers that respond to illegal fireworks discharge. He kindly explained the process for dealing with complaints made to the CVRD. Other jurisdictions likely have very similar mechanisms and situations. Rob also made several insightful comments regarding the necessity for neighborhood education.

Throughout the article, we reference links to illustrate salient points.

Pilgrim’s Process

Most people know that we have laws. What they do not know is the process by which a law is enforced. An understanding of this process by the neophyte goes a long way to facilitate enforcement of those laws. In the CVRD, it is against the law to sell fireworks, and one needs a permit to set them off. Everyone doesn’t follow the law though.

There are only 3 officers that patrol the CVRD’s 9 electoral areas consisting of a population of over 31,000. It is not an easy job.

When we call the bylaw enforcement number (250-746-2655) to report a violation, we need to do a bit more than exclaim “Yo! I hear fireworks somewhere towards the east and it’s driving me bleeping bonkers!!”

While officers can be sympathetic, in order to spring into action, they really require something more tangible, such as the name of the violating person(s) or an address where the transgression is taking place.

Having that information allows the officer to question the suspect who will either confess to committing the crime or deny any wrongdoing.

In the former case, the officer can simply ticket the individual who will be charged according to the law (and having been identified for posterity, will likely not want to pay a fine again).

In the denial situation, the officer requires some evidence such as fresh fireworks fodder or the statement of a witness for the matter to be taken to court.

A Ban Done Fireworks

Let’s be clear on why we need a ban on fireworks. A ban puts the law on our side!

Having the law on your side goes a long way to ending fireworks, because most people will obey a law that is just. Most people appreciate the necessity of maintaining an orderly and safe neighborhood. If a law is designed to promote such an environment, most people will obey that law.

For instance, we do not rob banks because there is a law that essentially says we should not rob banks. Our subsequent exemplary behavior has little to do with the actual enforcement of this law. The law aligns with a standard of proper conduct and most people abide by it, even if they think they can avoid the consequences.

IckyBad! IckyBad!

There is no glory to insisting that something worthwhile cannot be done.

One of the arguments against a ban is that it would be very difficult to enforce. This is an impotent attitude which does not seem to understand that enforcement is not the key issue. A law can have an effect regardless of whether it is enforced or not - just as in chess a threat can be more influential than its execution. Nor does the law need to be exhaustively applied. We don’t catch all the bank robbers, but catching some of them certainly serves as a deterrent for the ambitious few who may be looking for a career change.

Another misguided manueuvre is to incorrectly blame others for one’s state of misfortune. Hence, some feel we will get nowhere with the present lamentable situation because those Indigenous are selling the fireworks. What is overlooked here is that even if those Indigenous didn’t sell the fireworks, they still could be purchased online as well as from a variety of non-Indigenous sources!

Finally, when some get tired of blaming the Indigenous, they turn to blaming the enforcement officers for not doing their job, without actually thinking about how difficult that job really is! Enforcement officers are not uncaring, apathetic individuals. They can only do so much given the resources and they deserve our support, cooperation, and encouragement - not merely our complaints about the fireworks or them!

If we chain our posteriors to the problems, we will never get up to reach the solutions.

Charge of the Right Brigade

The biggest hurdle to overcome is not the selling of fireworks or the inability of 3 officers to police 31,000 individuals!

The real problem lies on two fronts: the ignorance of those discharging fireworks, “the bangbang” (not to be confused with an expressive classical pianist, by the way) and the tolerance of the victims, “the meek”.

The bangbang are not necessarily inconsiderate so much as they are simply uninformed. Many of them just do not know the irritation and even trauma their ‘celebrations’ cause others. Some are animal lovers and would be horrified to learn they are harming wildlife or pets. Some are fine individuals who just haven’t thought about the effect their activities are having on fellow neighbors. Some are even environmentally conscious, but haven’t realized that fireworks leave behind toxic debris that cannot be recycled.

The meek, on the other hand, are too complacent. They have indoctrinated themselves to think fireworks are just a part of life we put up with. It is what it is!

Or is it?!

A tenet of civilized society is that each law-abiding member should be safe from harm. Each individual has the right to live free from damaging pollution, be it deafening noise, blinding light, or noxious toxicity. No individual should be expected to forsake those rights and endlessly endure improper behavior from others!

If you accept the above principle, then realize the following:

It is not your responsibility to be tirelessly tolerant. It is the responsibility of those who violate your basic rights to stop their boorish behavior!

Fences may make good neighbors, but offences certainly create bad ones! And fireworks are an offence no different from wild partying or property damage or hooliganism. These are not things to accept. They are unethical behaviors to call out, vigorously oppose, and permanently extinguish!

The meek shall speak!

One of the things the CVRD encourages is to politely talk to your neighbors and build an awareness of the damage fireworks cause.

Civilized people are also considerate. They do not want to do things that directly harm those that live around them.

Building a neighborhood awareness that fireworks are not wanted and the reasons why are key here. We have Block Parents and Neighborhood Watch. These initiatives make it very clear that certain behaviors are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Fireworks are no different. Such harmful behaviors should not be allowed to hide under the guise of celebration, subterfuge of cultural tradition, or panacea of personal enjoyment, when clearly they create a major problem for so many others.

It is therefore the task of those who do not want fireworks, to speak up against them. We need to let the politicians know through letters and presentations that we want fireworks to be banned! We also need to let our fellow neighbors know through courteous, but uncompromising communications that fireworks discharge is in reality a most hurtful activity to the community.

Doing so maybe the most effective form of enforcement there is!

Presenting to Politicians

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 14:39:51 -0700

In order to ban fireworks, citizens need to educate and convince their politicians. The information here details the process for presenting to various municipalties at council meetings.

Understanding the political structure

The political landscape in any country flows up a structure beginning at a local level (towns/cities), to a provincial level (group of local levels), to the national level (group of provinces or states). Policy developed from the bottom can be dictated from the top!

For example, consider the process to follow in British Columbia, Canada: local politicians refer matters to higher and higher levels eventually stopping at the provincial government. Author and consultant, Lavinia Rojas, who is an experienced advocate in various initiatives explains:

“When we refer to politicians, we are specifically talking about councillors who play a crucial role in representing our concerns and forwarding them to higher authorities. The AVICC (Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities) hosts an annual conference where councillors come together to discuss and resolve proposals. Once a proposal is resolved, it moves on to the UBCM (Union of Municipalities of BC), where all municipality members get to vote on it. If the vote is approved, the proposal is then sent to the provincial government, specifically the office of the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.”

So as citizens, we need to make things move at the bottom, so our initiative can work its way to the top.

Presenting to your local council

To address your council either in-person, on video, or by phone, do the following:

Submit your request to present.
Prepare and practice your presentation (just as you did in school!)
At the council meeting when it’s your turn, introduce yourself and state the purpose of your speech.
Express your position clearly with the reasons backed by supporting facts/data.
Be professional in your tone and demeanor, but also let your passion for the cause come through!
Answer any questions the council may have and thank them for their consideration of your proposal.

Ms Rojas additionally suggests you (and others in your group) write to the councillors soon after the presentation, just so they know you are watching!

Repeated presentations to city councils make it clear we mean business and demand action!

But what do I say?!?!

You don’t need to say much (usually you only have 3-5 minutes). However, you need to speak clearly and forcefully. You also need to have your points well-organized so your audience easily understands your message.

As for subject matter, there is plenty you have to work with:

Talk about
Talk about
Talk about
Talk about
Talk about

Districts you can speak at

Below are listed with links, the process to follow to make such deliveries to specific jurisdictions. (If you want your area listed here with details on how to contact your council, just email our researching webmaintainer with your city’s location.)

Remember that some districts let you speak on the same topic at each meeting you attend. Keep the fireworks issue in their minds! Repetition can eventually lead to action! Or as Ms Rojas says, “Be the squeaky wheel!”

The listings below are in alphabetical order:

Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), BC: The CVRD holds Public Hearings whose purpose is “for the public to present their views and opinions on a proposed bylaw amendment”. These can be attend electronically or in person. For more information, go to Public Hearings & Information Meetings or contact them by email.
Saanich, BC: There are many ways to address the council regarding any matter of interest to this municipalty. An organization must submit an Application to Appear as a Delegation to present at the whole meeting, but an individual speaker can speak in their open forum for 3 minutes (in-person or by phone) without pre-registration by emailing council@saanich.ca or calling 250-475-5501 prior to 12pm. You can also submit your views to the council by email without attending the meeting.
Victoria (City of), BC: This City holds regular meetings which can be attended by the public and be viewed live/recorded stream. The schedule of upcoming meetings and links to past meetings are also available. Here are the details on how to submit a request to address the Council which can be done in person or online. Speakers are limited to 5 minutes and participation can be done in person, on video, by phone.

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Fireworks Frustration Homepage

Fallacy in Animal Rights Discussions

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 14:56:15 -0700

Fallacious argumentations in animal rights and vegan discussions are identified according to the rules of logic. This guide exposes standard logical fallacies that repeatedly appear and demonstrates their invalidity.

This article is a modified version of the original Fallacy in Animal Rights and Vegan Discussions which has been on the internet since 2012. As in that article, Data explains why Lore’s efforts at belittling animal rights and vegan positions are not logically valid and also proceeds to provide analysis for specific situations illustrating the fallacy.

For general exploration of fallacies consult the following sources:

Alternate names for a fallacy is provided in italics and abbreviations used in the document are listed in the table below:


¬ NOT	∧ AND	∨ OR
C C is true	¬ C C is false
> greater than	< less than
→ implies	∈ is element of	∴ therefore

Table of Contents

1 Ad Hoc

Special pleading. Relativist. Subjectivist fallacy. False attribution. Fallacy of quoting out of context. No true Scotsman. Shifting ground fallacy. Doublespeak.

By arbitrary introductions of excuses one attempts to make the argument appear valid. Special pleading unjustifiably requests that certain things be not applicable to certain personal situations.

Data: Do you understand that there are moral implications involved in killing animals? These are sentient beings who experience emotions such as joy, fear and love, just as humans do.
Lore: Well that’s no doubt true about the animals, but while the moral implications may apply to you, they don’t apply to me.
Data: Since we are agreed that animals are sentient beings, everyone has a moral obligation to act towards them appropriately.

_Form_
A accepts C for B.
A rejects C for A introducing arbitrary circumstances.
∴ C doesn’t apply to A.

1.1 Banana allergy

One of my co-workers says she can’t do veg, cuz she has a banana allergy. When I pointed out that you don’t have to just eat bananas and can eat all sorts of other fruits, she said “Well I have allergies to all of those too”. Ok how about vegetables? “Nope, I’m just allergic to eating veggies as well unless with some meat!”

_Datanalysis_
While there may be a condition known as carbohydrate intolerance (lactose intolerance being the most common version), congenital forms of this are extremely rare. It is the inability of the body to process carbohydrates well due to missing enzymes (supplying the enzymes externally can resolve the dilemma). However, it is clear here that the co-worker is just making up excuses on the go.

1.2 Foie gras compassion

Some protestors cornered a restaurant owner who sold foie gras in California back around 2000, pointing out how horribly the birds were treated. He agreed about the treatment and then just said “I don’t share your compassion.”

_Datanalysis_
Here we have a case of rationalization in the form of “you can be compassionate, but I do not have to be (because I am so special etc)”. A better argument might have been to fabricate something along the special pleading lines of “The inhumane treatment of the birds provide my livelihood”, but even that fails dismally since livelihood does not justify cruelty.

1.3 Life is supposed to be fun

Life is about having fun. Eating just fruit and vegetables is way too serious and boring.

_Datanalysis_
This is a case of special pleading. The individual pleads that she will not have fun eating just fruits/vegetables, therefore she should not have to do so. By this reasoning, some could claim that they should not have to go to the bathroom, because doing so smells and is therefore not fun. Of course, if they would eat fruits and vegetables, instead of corpse parts, they might find that the experience is possibly not quite as unpleasant.

1.4 I don’t want to live forever!

I don’t want to be so healthy that I keep living on and on. Therefore, it is fine to eat things that make me less healthy.

_Datanalysis_
While the logic employed is impeccable, one wonders about the degree of sincerity. For instance, at what age does the individual consider to be ’long enough’? Will the individual terminate his/her own existence at that age? If so, why not live healthy and then self-terminate at the appointed time? The issue would seem to have nothing to do with being healthy and everything to do with consuming whatever one is tempted by.

1.5 The peer-reviewed, published study is useless as far as I’m concerned

The unfortunate thing about this study and the Harvard study is that they both relied on phone and face to face interviews in which they just asked people about what they ate. I find this type of study almost worthless since most people can’t remember day to day what they ate let alone over a period of time.

_Datanalysis_
The above comment is in reference to Red Meat Consumption and Mortality which was not only conducted with great thoroughness, but also accounted for factoring out known contributors of disease. The criticism is similar to the one generated by The Meat Institute: “A new study in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine tries to predict the future risk of death from cancer or cardiovascular disease by relying on notoriously unreliable self-reporting about what was eaten and obtuse methods to apply statistical analysis to the data.” (AMI) who naturally have a vested interest in maligning the study, but seem to be having some difficulty in coming up with sensible arguments to that effect.

1.6 Diet is a personal choice

My spouse eats meat. I don’t. It’s just a personal choice we’ve made.

_Datanalysis_
Any action is essentially a personal choice. However, the fact that one has made a personal choice doesn’t provide the justification of the action. For instance, killing your boss or restraining a child are also personal choices. However, to justify either requires more than just the obvious claim that these are personal choices. One may be able to justify the former because your boss was attempting to kill you (ie self-defense), while the latter may be justifiable in a situation where the child was trying to harm a sibling (ie defense of another), but neither uses the idea of personal choice as a rationale. Eating corpse supports the imprisonment, exploitation, abuse and murder of sentient beings and is not legitimized by the personal choice rationalization.

1.7 I have special requirements of science

Denyer: Animals are incapable of demonstrating altruism.
Response: You are just unaware of the past 3 decades of cognitive ethology.
Denyer: You are completely correct about that! I don’t like modern ethology much.
Response: That is indeed a pity! I believe there is a lot being lost then.
Denyer: I don’t think so. I’m selective and modern ethology generally does not meet my requirements for science.

_Datanalysis_
There is considerable inconsistency in the responses. If the person is unaware of cognitive ethology, how can he claim to not like it. Also, whether his requirements for science are met is irrelevant since it is merely a personal attitude irrespective of the facts. What we are dealing with here is a faith-based individual, so it matters little to him what science and reality clearly demonstrate. This person will always resort to “I don’t believe it”. Of course, belief has nothing to do with any of this. The research evidence clearly shows animal sentience and real scientists accept it. This individual will likely stay on his flat earth until he falls off the edge.

2 Ad Hominem

Against the man. Against the person.

Attempt to invalidate an argument by attacking the character of the person making the argument: kill the messenger if you can’t kill the message.

Data: Vegan is the nutritionally intelligent, environmentally sustainable and ethically correct diet to follow.
Lore: Data you’re just an incompetent android who doesn’t know anything so you’re wrong!!!!
Data: While you are doing a fine job attacking me personally, you have done nothing to attack my argument.

_Form_
P claims C.
Q says derogatory things about P.
∴ ¬ C.

2.1 You eat rabbit food

I was explaining the benefits of eating vegetarian to my friend and a colleague sticks out his front teeth and starts taunting me with “You’re a rabbit. You eat rabbit food.”

_Datanalysis_
Evidently this colleague doesn’t know much about vegetarian eating or comparative anatomy or he would not mistake a homo sapiens for a leporid.

2.2 You’re insane for helping animals

Mai was involved with animal rescue and she had helped a lot of creatures, but when a neighbor found out he got irate and called her insane for trying to save these varmints.

_Datanalysis_
The neighbor doesn’t provide any evidence to substantiate his claim that Mai is insane. Rescuing animals is not grounds for insanity. In fact, considering the Canadian Revenue Agency Charity Registration views rescuing animals to be a legitimate charitable activity and of societal benefit one might think that this neighbor could benefit himself from doing the same.

2.3 Excessive reliance on sarcasm

Sometimes an argument is punctuated with sarcastic comments. Here is a series of excerpts attempting to defend a particular PETA advertisement by making sarcastic remarks about the attitudes of those who are in opposition (from forum posts):

yes sex is evil and nasty! appealing to sexual sentiments, and attempting to use humor! how Dare they! monsters!! it should have been the guy being beaten!!
it so sexist! the woman should be repairing the walls dammed stereotypes, the woman shoulda had a strap on
even your name is offensive to me… I don’t know why… but it just is!!! ;)

_Datanalysis_
Sarcasm may appear to be clever, but it essentially amounts to saying “I disagree” in a rather unpleasant sort of way. Since it usually tends to be nothing more than a ‘disguised’ personal attack, sarcastic remarks tend not to contribute concrete or persuasive information. The intent is not to make a point, but to demoralize, abuse or injure the opponent. Resorting to such tactics often exposes an inability to formulate viable arguments (possibly because there may not be any). What is more unfortunate is that succumbing to such tactics (usually a result of inadequate self-discipline), demeans, degrades and on occasion even destroys what might have been considered a legitimate argument.

3 Ad Hominem: Abusive

Against the man. Against the person.

Attempt to invalidate an argument by making abusive remarks about the person making the argument: kill the messenger if you can’t kill the message.

Data: Vegan is the nutritionally intelligent, environmentally sustainable and ethically correct diet to follow.
Lore: Data you’re just totally ****** and a real ****** too!!!!
Data: What a potentially interesting challenge in cryptography, Lore! Each of those bleeped out expressions represent 268 potential word possibilities. However, since we know they failed the censor test, it is not necessary to perform an exhaustive search - heuristics will be adequate. You of course realize that you have failed to provide any rationale to counter my initial statement.

_Form_
P claims X.
Q says nasty things about P’s character.
∴ ¬ X.

3.1 The pie attack

Three vegans attacked Lierre Keith (The Vegetarian Myth author) by pieing her in the face during a talk she was doing. Abusive monsters like you show just how ***** you vegans really are. You should all be locked up, nevermind being allowed to speak in a forum!

_Datanalysis_
While it is quite correct to call such actions as abusive attacks, it is inappropriate to label the action as a ‘vegan’ one simply because it is thought that some vegans executed it. Furthermore, there is no rationality in insisting that anyone should be locked up or not permitted status on a forum due to the actions of three individuals.

3.2 Winning an argument vs discrediting an opponent

Some people think that if they can discredit an opponent by calling the individual names, they have won the argument. Here is an example of such a situation.

Cretin: You wrote “It’s not that you’re trying to win an argument, it’s that you’re trying to discredit an opponent.” Well that is absolutely retarded because those two intentions are essentially the same thing.
Civil: Well no they’re not. Winning an argument requires that one uses proper reasoning that is logically valid as well as sound. Discrediting an opponent can be done without even producing an argument. Some people try to do it with various outbursts like:

That is absolutely retarded
Stop defending your stupid comments
You are not using the full capacity of your brain
I can’t take this stupidity
You are either stupid or being stubborn

_Datanalysis_
These ad hominem fallacies don’t actually add strength to any argument. They are an attempt to discredit the individual you are talking to by attributing various features to them. As with typical ad hominems the idea is primarily to abuse the opponent into submission.

4 Ad Hominem: Flattery

Appeal to flattery.

This is really a variation on the ad hominem theme. Instead of rubbishing one’s opponent, one does quite the opposite in the hopes of gaining agreement on a claim, regardless of whether the claim has any merit.

Data: The high mercury content of fish makes it a most unwise choice for consumption.
Lore: Data you are brilliant! It’s amazing how you can gather facts from all over and you present things so remarkably well too! I am always impressed by your knowledge and am so glad to call you my brother! By the way, one of my good friends runs a fish store, so let’s not make a big deal out of the mercury - I’m sure you can use your cleverness to find some way of pointing out how minimal the toxic effects are anyway.
Data: Flattery will get you nowhere, Lore. You can’t really alter the facts and the dangerous effects of mercury poisoning, by hurling compliments.

_Form_
A flatters B.
A claims C.
∴ C.

5 Ad Hominem: Circumstantial

Against the man. Against the person.

Attempt to invalidate an argument by claiming that the person making it is acting in own interests: kill the messenger if you can’t kill the message.

Data: Vegan is the nutritionally intelligent, environmentally sustainable and ethically correct diet to follow.
Lore: Data you’re just saying stuff like that because you’re one of those bleeding hearts animal rights activists who wants all creatures to live happily ever after.
Data: Whether I want all animals to live happily ever after has little to do with my point that a vegan diet is what it is: specifically the nutritional research which clearly shows the health advantage of vegan diets; the environmental statements from various organizations such as even the United Nations; the ethical analysis from various philosophical viewpoints and authors.

_Form_
P claims X.
Q says nasty things about P’s character.
∴ ¬ X.

5.1 The Bully Card

Do me a favor and don’t be a forum bully. I think you were completely rude … back off and don’t be so **** about it. Your tone was clearly not a friendly one so don’t backpedal. I feel abused by you!

_Datanalysis_
This is sometimes a ploy to create a distraction and at other times an attempt to discredit an adversary. Note that the accusations likely have nothing to do with the topic being discussed. In these situations, the chances are that the person complaining just didn’t like how the discussion was going. There was likely no bullying, but a fair bit of whining.

6 Ad Hominem: Poisoning the Well

Against the man. Against the person.

Attempt to invalidate an argument by trying to discredit the person making it: kill the messenger if you can’t kill the message.

Data: Vegan is the nutritionally intelligent, environmentally sustainable and ethically correct diet to follow.
Lore: Data you were made as an imperfect android by Noonien Soonng and so anything you say is wrong.
Data: By focusing on my ’lack of perfection’, you will deem whatever I say to be wrong, even when I am right. Neither does this ’lack of perfection’ alter the facts which support my statement about a vegan diet: specifically the nutritional research which clearly shows the health advantage of vegan diets; the environmental statements from various organizations such as even the United Nations; the ethical analysis from various philosophical viewpoints and authors.

_Form_
P claims X.
Q says P said or did something discreditable in the past.
∴ ¬ X.

6.1 Insider trading and deer slaughter

Sometimes individuals like to throw irrelevantly incriminating information into the mix. An example, is shown here in an articles relating to an injunction to stop deer slaughter in the Invermere community in BC, Canada where mention is made of the financial activities of one of the architects of the effort:

Explaining why he got involved in the issue, Mr. Suman said he and his wife, Monie, moved to the valley a year-and-a-half ago, and were instantly enamoured with the deer that live within the town. He acknowledged that he is the same Shane Suman who was recently found guilty, along with his wife, of insider trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and ordered to pay over $4 million dollars in fines and profits, but stated that the issues are completely unrelated, and he has nothing to hide in relation to the case.
Invermere ordered to put brakes on cull (Joshua Estabrooks, Pioneer Staff)

_Datanalysis_
While Suman’s financial activities did result in a guilty verdict against him, his past dealings have no relevance to his trying to stop the deer slaughter in Invermere. To bring up the matter may be an attempt to discredit his character and thereby sway opinion against his efforts, even though there is no connection between trying to help deer and the prior monetary misdealings.

6.2 PETA kills everything!

DeerAdvocate: Hey Shishkabob! Good news for the deer! Even PETA is getting into this and asking people to write to Invermere to stop the killing.
Shishkabob: Oh, are they asking Invermere to send the deer to PETA’s HQ so they can ‘send’ them to a better place, via needle?

_Datanalysis_
This is one of those PETA-hating attitudes some people have even though they may be in favor of animal protection. Since PETA endorses euthanization in certain situations, some people feel that that they have to malign everything the organization does. Even when PETA acts in alignment with their own cause, they feel they have to take a potshot at them. This sort of bigotted behavior is not conducive to unity within the ranks, but these people are usually more interested in sounding off immaturely than engaging in any meaningful action.

7 Ad Hominem: Tu Quoque

You too. Two wrongs make a right. Appeal to hypocrisy.

Attempt to invalidate an argument by claiming the person making it has done things which are counter to the argument: kill the messenger if you can’t kill the message. Here is a good video on this fallacy: Are You PERFECT?!!

Data: Vegan is the nutritionally intelligent, environmentally sustainable and ethically correct diet to follow.
Lore: Data you don’t eat, are made from environmentally unfriendly materials and kill millions of microorganisms when you simulate breathing and so you’re spouting nonsense!
Data: My personal and behavioral parameters do not have any influence on the realities of a vegan diet. I may be lacking in certain areas, but my inadequacies do not alter the established facts: specifically the nutritional research which clearly shows the health advantage of vegan diets; the environmental statements from various organizations such as even the United Nations; the ethical analysis from various philosophical viewpoints and authors.

_Form_
P claims X.
Q says P has acted in the opposite way to X.
∴ ¬ X.

7.1 You plant-eating mass murderer!

The hole in the vegan argument that meat is murder is this: more animals die to prepare and harvest crops.

_Datanalysis_
Factually, the above statement is simply incorrect because between 50-80% (varies with country and time period) of the grain harvested goes to fattening animals. Additionally, calculations show clearly that eating strict vegetarian kills far, far fewer animals than eating from the corpse industries: Number of Animals Killed to Produce One Million Calories in Eight Food Categories.

Of course, the accuser usually knows that he/she is spouting nonsense. The argument presented has little to do with fact and everything to do with pathetic bravado. It can be summed up as simply as “You kill some animals with your plant-diet, so you shouldn’t complain if I kill far more with my corpse eating fetish.” There is no really argument here beyond a fallacious whining.

7.2 You can’t attack my animal abusings because you aren’t 100% pure vegan!

A vegan diet is a simple to do. Avoiding animal products completely doesn’t seem so. Do you have a right to attack others for eating animals when you continue to use them? Products such as rubber and tires involve the use of animal products, and that plastic shoes devastate the environment? Unless you ran away naked from the society, you are contributing to animal exploitation in some way.

_Datanalysis_
This is a typically simplistic case of “you too”! The idea behind this attack on vegan advocates is that they likely use some slaughterhouse by-product (eg stearic acid in rubber or plastic) and therefore are somehow barred from criticising those who eat animals or wear fur etc. It is a frequent effort by some people to deflect attention from their support of the imprisonment, exploitation, abuse and murder of animals.

One can run a line of defense such as in modern society it is impossible to be 100% vegan, but one can come pretty close. This is a reasonable answer which justifies one’s actions while acknowledging certain short-comings. After all, it may be difficult to stop breathing to avoid killing thousands of microbes.

However, because we have a clear fallacy here of the lowly ad hominem family, the opportunity for attack is ever-present. The accusatory argument has no merit because:

The personal action of an individual does not change the morality of a situation. If robbing a bank is unethical, having a bank robber speak out against the act, does not miraculously alter the morality of the act. Harming sentient beings is unethical (except in select situations such as self-defense). So even an animal abuser is entitled to speak against animal abuse.
The fact that the individual who speaks out against animal abuse may engage in some sort of incidental action (often unknowingly) such as driving on tires which have been manufactured with some component derived from an animal, does not absolve those who regularly participate in various forms of animal abuse.

The above two realities negate the legitimacy of such immature, whiney onslaughts.

7.3 Nobody is vegan!

You’re not vegan because you use car tires which are made from slaughterhouse by-products (stearic acid)! You’re not vegan because your computer keyboard may have some sort of animal product! You’re not vegan because the stickers on your organic bananas probably aren’t vegan! You’re not vegan because you may have stepped on an ant when you walked outside. You’re not vegan because you kill microbes when you breathe!

_Datanalysis_
While technically it can be argued that nobody really is vegan as per above, the attack is rather flawed due to its confusion between an ideal and the manifestation of the same. Vegan is a spectrum with a minimum threshold such as not participating in the imprisonment, exploitation, abuse and murder of animals. Incidental anomalies that appear as a result of the manufacturing process and breathing hardly constitute a violation of that threshold. A particularly fine analysis is presented in this article: Nobody Is Vegan.

8 Analogy: Extended

False analogy. Faulty analogy. Questionable analogy.

The utilization of an analogy is deliberately misconstrued here. If two things have a basis of similarity, then one can be used to illustrate the other on grounds of that basis. Each does not need to be identical or similar in all aspects for the analogy to be valid. However, a critic will take exception to the analogy itself on grounds of whatever dissimilarities can be conjured up.

Data: Humans oppress animals in the same way they have oppressed other humans examples being the slave trade or the ethnic cleansing campaigns throughout history.
Lore: So what are you saying? That these humans were animals? Are you seriously equating humans to animals!
Data: Humans and animals do possess many similarities. However, the comparison was not between humans and animals, but between the treatment some humans received and the treatment some animals receive. Some humans and some animals continue to be kept in slavery. Some humans and some animals continue to be exterminated under the expediency of ‘cleansing’. The analogy merely reveals the common mentality of the oppressors who do not seem to hold speciesist attitudes towards their victims.

_Form_
A has some similar characteristics to B.
A is used as an illustration to clarify aspects of B.
The illustration is criticized because A isn’t identical to B.

9 Analogy: Weak

False analogy. Faulty analogy. Questionable analogy.

The apparent similarity between two situations is utilized to insist that the properties belonging to one also belong to the other.

Data: Bees make honey for themselves, not for humans. Therefore, it is morally wrong to steal honey from them, an unnecessary act which kills countless numbers of bees.
Lore: Well don’t you know that you kill bugs when you ride in a car? It’s unnecessary for you to drive too!
Data: In present day society, driving is not always unnecessary (eg ambulance, fire brigade, food distribution etc). Furthermore, one doesn’t drive to kill bugs deliberately anymore than one drives to kill humans deliberately, yet accidents kill members of both species. One does end up killing bees deliberately by taking their honey because the bees will fight to the death to keep what is theirs. Furthermore, bee industry practices end up destroying many bees that starve to death because they are not left with sufficient honey to see them through the winter. Death cause by driving is quite incidental while the deaths caused by the bee industry are invasively more deliberate.

_Form_
A appears to be similar to B.
B has property P.
∴ A has property P.

9.1 Horses and dogs should work too for their living

Animals should have to earn their living. After all, humans have to earn a living. So why shouldn’t animals as well? There’s nothing wrong about making a horse pull a carriage or a dog pulling a sled.

_Datanalysis_
There seem to be a couple of problems with this sort of analogus reasoning.

First, it is not true that all humans have to earn a living. Many don’t work or can’t work (eg children). They are often appropriately supported by family, friends or society.

Second, animals and some people work in their own way to ’earn their living’. Horses graze, some dogs hunt in packs and many humans gather and eat fruit. There is no reason to think that creatures who live in a way that is natural for them, necessarily need to fit into the modern society 9 to 5 schedules.

Third, hooking up a horse to a carriage or a dog to a sled is nothing short of exploitation. While there may be rare isolated situations where a symbiotic partnership is necessary (say someone who rescued a horse, but has no means of supporting his care, so the two of them go into business together), it is clear that the intent is almost exclusively to make money for the person at the expense of the animal.

Therefore, it is an unsound notion to suggest that animals should have to earn their living in a fashion as adopted by some humans.

9.2 Don’t eat and drive!

The American Meat Institute once whined:

A new study in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine tries to predict the future risk of death from cancer or cardiovascular disease by relying on notoriously unreliable self-reporting about what was eaten and obtuse methods to apply statistical analysis to the data. This imprecise approach is like relying on consumers’ personal characterization of their driving habits in prior years in determining their likelihood of having an accident that kills them in the future.

_Datanalysis_
The analogy forced between ‘what was eaten’ and “personal characterization of driving habits’ is a meaningless one. The former is tangible and can be objectively established in a variety of ways. The latter is purely subjective and prone to whims of the ego. Therefore, the attempt has no validity at all.

Nor is the last sentence correct, because statistics tend to show that poor driving habits will increase the likelihood of an accident. In fact, statistical data on driving habits is what insurance companies use to determine premium rates.

9.3 In defense of dog fighting

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) fielded a question about his opposition to animal rights and recently introduced legislation that would undermine local standards preventing animal torture. “It’s wrong to rate animals above human beings,” he told the questioner. To make his point, King argued that “there’s something wrong” for society to make it a “federal crime to watch animals fight” but “it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting.”

_Datanalysis_
What is really wrong is not with society, but with King’s reasoning. The analogy attempted between people fighting voluntarily (ie boxing) and animals being forced to fight (ie dog/cock fighting) is inappropriate. One could argue that there is something wrong with a society that induces people to watch any sort of fighting of any species, but it is an incorrect argument to suggest that it is wrong to punish people for going to fights of species A simply because you do not punish them for going to fights of species B.

10 Appeal to Authority

Argumentum ad Verecundiam. Ispe dixit. Fallacious Appeal to Authority. Misuse of Authority. Irrelevant Authority. Questionable Authority. Inappropriate Authority.

The attempt to validate a conclusion based on some statement by some authority. While providing legitimate authority as backing for one’s arguments is reasonable, the fact that some authority agrees with your point of view is insufficient as the sole basis. For instance, the authority may actually not be an authority or may have changed viewpoints or may be just plain wrong. Usually, the appeal to authority is invoked because other avenues lead to a deadend and there is no real support for the argument. For a more thorough presentation, see Nizkor Appeal To Authority.

Data: I find the attitudes and practices of humans towards other sentient beings most disturbing.
Lore: Well get over it because Descartes said that animals are just automatons.
Data: While citing authority to support an argument may be legitimate if the authority’s statements are correct, no argument can be negated or validated purely on the solely the word of a specific authority - especially when the comment is demonstrably untrue, as it is in this case with Descartes who while being a competent mathematician was prone to “creating a world to suit his fancy without the slightest regard for the known facts” (Ref: A. D’Abro - The Rise of the New Physics Volume One p11.)

_Form_
P claims A is an authority on subject S.
P claims A supports C being true.
∴ C.

10.1 Authority in reverse!

Sometimes carnists call you out for being “emotional” about the plight of animal suffering and continues to attacks and trivialize your sympathetic sentiments. However, when you throw facts, clinical studies and data suggesting animal eating is bad, they resort to such classic rhetoric as “you shouldn’t believe all you hear”, “you are being too logical” and eventually “I’ll believe you when you are a doctor”.

_Datanalysis_
This is the classic case of appeal to authority reversed. While the corpse eater is able to not deal with facts, it is easy to accuse the opponent as being ’emotional’ (see Appeal to Emotion below). However, there is no where to run when the actual data appears, so backed against a wall, the plea is fallaciously made to ’lack’ of authority. Obviously, this effort reveals only the desperation, because it makes little difference what the qualifications are of the individual who presents the demonstrated facts.

11 Appeal to Authority: Age

Appeal by age.

The idea here is to claim an argument is correct because the person making it has more experience by virtue of having existed longer. The fact that the experience may not have any connection to the argument or that the person might be just plain wrong, is thus circumvented. The age/experience of an individual may be used to some extent to strengthen an argument, but has nothing to do with its correctness.

Data: I find the attitudes and practices of humans towards other sentient beings most disturbing.
Lore: Look my young friend, I’m older than you are and have been around longer than you. I say things are fine just the way they are. How do I know this? Because I’ve seen things this way for a longer time than you.
Data: You are just a few months older, Lore. Furthermore, you are only providing a personal opinion without any verification of its correctness.

_Form_
A is old/experienced.
A claims C.
∴ C.

11.1 The age card

I can use the age card. I’ve been a passionate vegan for 25 years, which is probably about the time that you’ve been on earth. Vegan for 25 years baby! Did you hear that? Let me say it again! VEGAN FOR 25 YEARS!!! I’m proud of being a 25 year vegan!! Nothing wrong with that. What comes with 25 years of veganism that many of you don’t have? A lot of wisdom from making a lot of mistakes with other vegans through the years.

_Datanalysis_
Judging by the repetitive nature of the statement, one could surmise that what comes with 25 years of veganism, in this particular case, is senility rather than wisdom. Correctness is not proportional to age. An argument cannot be substantiated simply by the age or experience of the presenter even if he is a vegan. The validity of an argument rests on its logical form and the evidence presented for its substantiation and not on the posturing of the one who is making it.

12 Appeal to Consequences of a Belief

Argumentum ad consequentiam. Wishful thinking.

Here one tries to utilize the consequences of a belief to verify the belief itself. If believing something produces positive consequences, then one asserts the something is true.

Data: The fur industry is cruel.
Lore: I get money for the pelts and will hopefully be rich soon, so trapping and killing furry animals is the correct thing to do.
Data: Simply because you believe you will benefit from by engaging in these inhumane practices promoted by the fur industry, doesn’t provide an argument that is contrary to my original statement.

_Form_
C is (un)desirable.
∴ (¬)C.

12.1 Worrying is unhealthy

It’s unhealthy to worry so much about animals and the environment. It’ll stress you out. Just live and be free! Don’t get so involved! Don’t worry! Be happy!

_Datanalysis_
While there is merit in not worrying and not getting stressed out, the above is nothing more than a rationalization for apathy. Interestingly enough, such rationalizations come from both those who oppress animals as well as those who presumably advocate the opposite. The latter though tend to do a balancing act on the fence when pressed. They don’t want to confront the oppressors, but like to believe they are also not contributing to the oppression. One’s own ‘peace of mind’ takes priority and therefore overrides any attempt at producing an effective argument.

12.2 Veganism should not be a religion

Some people in Western society already view veganism as a kind of religion, cult, or extreme point of view, and therefore reject it. We should be very cautious about trying to associate veganism with religiousness and or religious rights.

_Datanalysis_
The concern that if veganism is viewed as a religion there will be bad consequences should not determine whether veganism is viewed as a religion. If veganism meets the appropriate criteria for being considered to be a religion, then it has a legitimate claim to be categorized as such. Gain or loss as a result of outlook, does not determine the validity of the outlook.

12.3 Honey is vegan!!

Rejecting honey as a vegan product hurts the vegan movement, therefore such a position on honey just doesn’t make any sense. You’re talking about some quasi-religious personal purity, rather than about stopping animal abuse. No wonder veganism can seem nonsensical to the average person.

_Datanalysis_
Since there is so much evidence clearly demonstrating that honey is not vegan and that bees are sentient animals, what is indeed nonsensical is to take the incorrect stand that honey is vegan based on concern of the dire consequences such a stance might bring. One doesn’t stop animal abuse by fictious arguments where we take from Peter with the hopes of giving to Paul: it is illogical and unethical to condemn bees to servitude and death, simply because we have hopes of appearing more ‘reasonable’ to a public who will thereby miraculously refrain from supporting the slaughter of cows and chickens.

12.4 This store made me who I am today!

I get a lot of good stuff at this store! They have great prices! Fantastic service too and they are so convenient! Wow! They even have rare things I want which I probably can’t get anywhere else. It’s unfortunate that they sell some shoddy books like How To Make Millions Off Your Fighting Dogs and 35 Ways To Pack Meat Into Your Pig! Well, I am a vegan after all, so I can’t approve of this stuff. Oh yeah and they sell corpse parts like beef jerky and some foie gras too. Disgusting! I don’t approve of this stuff at all! Ok, so they also sell live animals and ship them to wherever. I don’t like that either. Geez! But you have to understand that they do so many other good things, like give me excellent discounts and the more I buy, the better chances I have at winning their monthly jackpot! Think of all the good I can do with that money, eh? And all stores in the world must do something wrong, I’m sure, so why pick on this one? That’s why I gotta buy from these folks. They’re the best deal going anywhere! They are a miracle! Ya!!

_Datanalysis_
It would seem that the above individual is drowning in an overdose of self-indulgence. To justify an act simply because one stands to benefit from it is one of the most self-serving rationalizations that exist. The morality of an act is determined by its adherence to established criteria, which deal with questions such as:

does the act produce any victims?
is there any harm done indirectly as a result of the act?
are there any intended casualities caused by the act?
is the act even necessary to commit?

To support a commercial enterprise that is harmful to other lives and/or promotes harm towards other beings, for the sake of convenience (as opposed to basic need) is selfish and unethical.

13 Appeal to Emotion

Ad misericordiam. Appeal to sympathy.

Here the argument is based not on facts or construction, but on manipulation of emotion.

Data: Culling ’excess’ deer is an unethical activity since deer are sentient beings and it is human activity that has reduced their habitat.
Lore: Think of all the poor hungry people the venison will feed!
Data: Having poor hungry people is a fault of the social and municipal mechanisms in society. One may sympathize with their situation, but the deer should not have to compensate for human failings.

_Form_
C produces emotions favorable to stance we hold.
∴ C.

13.1 Traitor to one’s species!

How dare you put the rights of animals above those of humans?! Have you no sense of loyalty? You are a traitor to your own species!

_Datanalysis_
There is no rational basis for insisting that any member show loyalty to its species. Dogs will fight dogs to save a human. Horses often relate better to humans than to other horses. Cats can co-exist with with various creatures (even birds and mice) and still show animosity towards other cats. Humans, as well, will defend their animal companions or even wildlife against the onslaught of other humans.

The notion that we should give priority to our own species is absurd. If it were otherwise, we should support legislation which would cause all pet owners to be traitors to the human species because they have not turned in their animals to medical research to supposedly benefit other humans.

Furthermore, a natural application of this ’loyalty’ to one’s own kind, produces dangerous precedents, such as

men who oppose sexism are traitors to all men → label them pro-feminists
whites who oppose racism are traitors to other whites → call them nigger lovers
Hindus who supported religious tolerance were traitors to other Hindus → they are our mortal enemies (Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu.)

13.2 The Guilt Trip

So you won’t buy a ticket for the Shiners Circus because you don’t like them using animals in the acts! What about thinking of the poor burn victims who are just children? Won’t you find it in your heart to help these unfortunate children?

_Datanalysis_
The argument here is a non sequitur effort which tries to associate not getting a ticket to the Shiners Circus with not wanting to help children. Just because one doesn’t support that circus doesn’t mean that one is opposed to supporting children.

An appropriate clarification would be “I do have it in my heart to help children, but I have no intention of supporting your Shriners who utilize children as a front while abusing animals in order to draw in money so their members can wear silly hats and throw parties”.

14 Appeal to Emotion: Fear

Argumentum ad metum. Argumentum in terrorem.

The idea here is to scare people into thinking you are right by deception within the argument.

Data: The Ministry of the Environment has ordered killing of wolves because they seem to be showing up more frequently in inhabited areas.
Lore: Well, of course they did. Wolves can eat your babies and must be prevented from doing so.
Data: One does not need to kill off wolves in order to protect babies. One merely needs to not leave babies irresponsibly unattended. A program to relocate wolves would be a more humane solution than killing them.

_Form_
¬ C produces fear.
∴ C.

14.1 Doctor using scare tactics

A remarkably healthy person goes to his doctor after several years and makes a very positive impression.

Doc: After going this long without having to go to the doctor I’ve got to ask, “What’s your secret?” RHP: Well, I’m a vegan and I… Doc: What??? A vegan??? Why??? Don’t you know how unhealthy that is??? … you won’t be able to get enough protein … I’m being erious as a heart-attack! … You can’t get enough iron in your diet … to start eating red meat 3 times a week or do massive supplements … You have to be careful or you may even have serious mental issues.

_Datanalysis_
The interesting aspect of the doctor’s position is that there is not a single piece of factual evidence being presented. If RHP chose to pursue the matter, he could show decades of amassed evidence clearly demonstrating the beneficial health conferred by a vegan diet. However, doing so is not likely to cause this doctor to rethink his position since the intention is to frighten his client into submission. The doctor unfortunately also reflects the deliberate ignorance shown by the medical profession in that they are unwilling to even learn about proper nutrition.

14.2 They won’t like you

Don’t tell people about not eating meat, they won’t like you.

_Datanalysis_
This is a rather poor rationalization that some people utilize in order to justify not taking action. The merit of whether an action is proper or not is not dependent upon whether one is liked. Furthermore, this attitude doesn’t take into account these two possibilities:

many people may like you because you stood up for values of compassion many people will not like the person who is telling you what not to do thereby that statement should not be made by its own logic

14.3 You’ll lose your following

If only people that agree 100% with every aspect of vegan lifestyle are allowed on this forum, including only parents that feed their children 100% vegan foods and did not get them vaccinated, you’d end up with 100 people MAX.

_Datanalysis_
It is unclear as to how the number of 100 is calculated. The argument assumes that restrictive parameters will be a detriment to the forum the assumption being that more is better. However, restrictions often encourage more people to join a group simply because they do not want to deal with spam and nonsense. Furthermore, if the goal of the forum is to maintain the standard of veganism, then it makes sense to have it populated by vegans: quality over quantity.

15 Appeal to Emotion: Force

Ad baculum. Scare tactics. Appeal to force.

The idea here is to force people into thinking you are right with a threat.

Data: The Ministry of the Environment has ordered killing of wolves. This an act of cruelty towards sentient beings.
Lore: You need to cut out these nonsensical statements. If you don’t, you see this phaser I’m holding? I just have to use it to melt your mouth shut!
Data: Your phaser does not negate the correctness of my statement. Besides, I took the precaution of discharging yours, Lore.

_Form_
¬ C produces fear.
∴ C.

15.1 Boycotting businesses and more

Sometimes scare tactics can be used effectively on behalf of victims, especially when one has real power to wield. Here is an excerpt from an event in 2006 in which activist and business man Bruce Foerster ‘persuaded’ the Belize government, that it would not be in their interests to support Japan’s slaughtering of whales:

As a business owner here in Belize I am ashamed that you would betray the world’s few remaining whales by helping authorize their slaughter and should you indeed pursue this I will immediately sell my large resort and take all of my capital out of the country, compromising the 100 full time positions which this resort provides and the millions of dollars we invest annually into the local economy. I simply cannot tolerate such a destructive move on your part and will not live nor invest in a country which pretends to care for the environment but in reality cares only for the dirty money that they can earn by voting to destroy the relatively few whales that these butchers have not already painfully and mercilessly slaughtered.You are risking a huge economic backlash and a tourism boycott should you make the mistake of voting for the destruction of these rare and intelligent mammals! The Power of One Can End the Killing of the Whales

Note that the idea of a boycott involves the application of the appeal to fear, however, it is not necessarily a logical fallacy. Here, Bruce substantiates his future actions giving reasons why whale slaughter is ethically immoral as well as environmentally absurd, then follows up with a statement of consequences. Bruce spoke and Belize listened!

16 Appeal to Emotion: Pity

Ad misericordiam.

By trying to create pity, one hopes that the claim will be accepted.

Data: The practice of sucking oviductory excretions, drinking bovine secretions and eating corpse parts is proven to be harmful to birds, cows and various other sentient beings.
Lore: Oh come on Data! Don’t be such a heartless android! These poor people get heart disease, cancer, osteroporosis, constipation and a lot of other diseases. Just let’em be, eh!
Date: I do appreciate the pity you show these individuals and what is happening to them is certainly unfortunate. However, they are the ones who are deliberately engaging in these practices which are harmful to themselves. They have a choice not to do so. Their victims do not have any choice.

_Form_
C is presented surrounded by an aura of pity.
∴ C.

16.1 But they’ll just starve!

I recognize that the mass killing of animals isn’t pretty, but they are doing it for food.

_Datanalysis_
The implication is that somehow certain unfortunates would starve horribly to death if factory farms were shut down. Evidently, those who put forth such pitiful arguments haven’t discovered vegetarianism yet despite its centuries old existence.

16.2 Those vegetarians are picking on the poor bashers of baby seals!

Anti-seal hunt advocates are vegetarians who have set their sights on struggling East Coast hunters rather than fighting the beef cartel, says a Liberal senator.

Sen. Céline Hervieux-Payette told The Huffington Post Canada that Liberals and Conservatives have been united in trying to prevent rogue Liberal Sen. Mac Harb from tabling a bill banning Canada’s commercial seal hunt for several years because it is “disturbing to the whole scene.”

“It is giving the vegetarians a big opportunity,” Hervieux-Payette said. (excerpt from Huffington Post Article)

_Datanalysis_
Apart from the complete inaccuracy of this remarkably absurd statement (most anti seal slaughter advocates are not vegetarians given that the campaign is so large and worldwide), one does have to wonder about the capacity for reasoning of Hervieux-Payette. If they really were vegetarians, then it would make sense that they would protest the beef cartel and not the seal slaughter because the vast majority of corpse eaters never eat seal flesh. So why would vegetarians come out in great numbers to protest something no one would eat in the first place? This would seem to be yet another effort to desperately draw pity for the “struggling East Coast hunters” who like to bash in the skulls of helpless baby seals.

17 Appeal to Nature

Argumentum ad naturam.

Nature is utilized axiomatically as an authority. If it happens in nature then it is assumed to be good/optimal. The fact that nature doesn’t always do things that are good/optimal is ignored. Furthermore, it is never really defined exactly what ’natural’ means. For instance, if a beaver builds a dam that is supposed to be natural, but if a man builds a house that is considered unnatural.

Data: The fur and leather industries are exploitative towards sentient beings.
Lore: Oh come on! Do you realize that these are natural products rather than synthetic! Nature does things right! So do it her way!
Data: In nature, no creature takes the skin off another creature’s back to wear it. Furthermore, leather and fur undergo extensive processing which is detrimental to the environment. Finally, calling these products of cruelty ’natural’ doesn’t address the issue of exploitation at all.

_Form_
C is natural.
∴ C.

17.1 Arguing the tooth

We have the teeth to tear and chew and grind flesh therefore we should eat meat.

_Datanalysis_
Here we have one of the most blatant denials of reality. The argument is that nature provided humans with the proper physiology to eat corpse parts, so we should.

The first error is the fallacy itself. Simply because it appears nature provided something is no reason to argue that using it is the correct thing to do. For instance, gorillas have large canines, but are vegetarians. Nature also provided humans with an appendix, but it isn’t used because it isn’t necessary. Nature also provided humans with fists to injure each other, but most humans seem to realize that such usage of these gifts of nature may not be in the best interests of the parties concerned.

The second error is that humans really don’t have the teeth to ’tear’ with and the ‘chewing and grinding’ isn’t done with corpse parts anyway since carnivores general swallow pieces of flesh without chewing or grinding. Some humans point to their canines with pride, yet don’t seem to understand that these are actually rather small compared to those of a bear, dog or cat. However, human canines have proven their immense value at tearing cellophane after hunting down bargain slabs of meat in grocery stores.

17.2 The Carnivore Mantra

A common implementation of this fallacy involved the “carnivores must eat meat” mantra which appears with equal enthusiasm in both veg and nonveg discussions.

Despite the healthy, documented existence of veg dogs and cats for more than 2 decades, some people insist that pets classified as carnivores must eat meat.

The argument usually develops something like this display of goal post moving:

Try 1: Dogs must eat meat to survive … ooops that’s wrong because there are plenty of surviving dogs who do not eat any meat.

Try 2: Dogs must eat meat to thrive … ooops that’s wrong too since it is regularly shown that veg dogs at the very least match their meat-fed counterparts as per clear eyes, great coats, energy, disposition and every other criteria (including longevity).

Try 3: Well it’s not their optimal diet … ooops that can’t be demonstrated either since we have surveys and studies showing veg dogs actually are less susceptible to meat induced diseases like infections, skin problems, arthritis, heart problems, weight issues, digestive difficulties, hypothyroidism, cancer.

Try 4: Not much left, so what can be done except to claim they should eat meat because they have big teeth …

Well obviously the “my what big teeth you have” hypothesis, while useful for Little Red Riding Hood, isn’t particularly valid as an argument in light of the preponderance of evidence which goes beyond just the studies to the fact that mainstream pet food companies have a veg line simply because many dogs just can’t handle meat based diets.

Now what is interesting to note is the form of the argument used by the mantra chanters:

If dogs eat meat, there are positive consequences (by the “my what big teeth you have” hypothesis). ∴ dogs should eat meat.

or in its wishful thinking form

I wish it to be true that eating meat is good for dogs (because I believe in the “my what big teeth you have” hypothesis). ∴ eating meat is good for them.

Utilization of this fallacy of course makes it possible to disregard all evidence to the contrary.

18 Appeal to Novelty

Argumentum ad novitatem. Appeal to the New. Newer is Better.

The idea here is to assume that some newer item or approach is better because it is more recent.

Data: The bones-and-raw-food-paleos (BARFPal) diet that just came out is not very intelligently designed as far as human nutrition is concerned.
Lore: Geez Data! This is the latest and greatest way of eating. It’s gotta be fantastic!
Data: Being the latest and greatest is not an indication of optimal or even intelligent. Sometimes each latest and greatest item is a short-lived fad or even a risky venture as demonstrated by all the latest and greatest drugs which get recalled.

_Form_
C is new.
∴ C

19 Appeal to Popularity

Argumentum ad populum. Appeal to the people. Appeal to the masses. Appeal to belief. Appeal to the majority. Argument by consensus. Consensus fallacy. Authority of the many. Bandwagon. Argumentum ad numerum. Appeal to the number. Consensus gentium.

This is an attempt to win an argument through the claim of it being supported by some majority of opinions. The assumption is that since most people agree with a conclusion, the conclusion must be correct. In these situations, what ‘most people’ really constitutes or whether ‘most people’ actually exists isn’t always clear. Even if ‘most people’ do a certain thing, there is no reason to think they are doing a good/correct thing as repeatedly evidenced by political elections.

Data: Drinking bovine mammarian secretions is hazardous to one’s health not to mention the animals that are subjected to exploitation and abuse to produce it.
Lore: Oh c’mon! Most people in the USA like to drink milk, so doing so is ok!
Data: Most people in the USA also end up being afflicted with heart disease, cancer, arthritis, eczema, asthma, respiratory infections,diabetes and osteoporosis (2nd highest in the world next to the Inuits) for instance, which are diseases linked to dairy consumption.

_Form_
Most people agree on, approve of, believe in, support (etc) C.
∴ C.

19.1 We have 80% of the population on our side, so we must be right!

Furthermore, Americans just don’t support the killing. In a survey of Americans’ attitudes towards outdoor cats, over 80 percent responded that they believe it is more humane to leave a cat outside than to have her caught and killed.

_Datanalysis_
The above argument utilizes a specific statistic in order to assert its correctness. Even if an overwhelming majority support a concept, such support doesn’t validite the concept. If ethics were simply a matter of voting, the state of moral judgment would be as precarious as the state of politics.

20 Appeal to Popularity: Belief

Argumentum ad populum family.

This is an attempt to win an argument through the claim that many or most people believe the conclusion to be true: “If many believe so, it is so.” There are situations though where the belief of a certain number of people does align with the reality.

Data: Vivisection is a very cruel form of animal abuse.
Lore: Many medical researchers experiment on animals because they believe it’s all for the greater good, so they can’t all be wrong.
Data: Having a majority of believers doesn’t make something correct. For instance, at several points in history a majority believed that the earth was flat and that bats are blind.

_Form_
Most people believe that C is true.
∴ C.

20.1 My parents told me, so there!

Eating meat is part of most people’s nutrition regimen. They were taught this by their parents.

_Datanalysis_
In certain parts of the world, children are taught by their parents to do certain things. Most children grow up believing that what they have been taught is correct which is why most adults tend to follow common practices. Unfortunately, most adults do not necessarily contemplate whether the practices they follow are beneficial or even morally appropriate. Hence, a wrong action can be propagated over generations justified purely on the basis of parental tutelage.

21 Appeal to Popularity: Common Practice

Argumentum ad numerum. Part of the Argumentum ad populum family.

Here the attempt is made by reference to the fact that many people engage in the action supported by the argument.

Data: Factory farms are a very cruel institution.
Lore: Oh really now! Most people eat meat!
Data: The fact that many people eat meat isn’t a justification for eating meat.

_Form_
Many people do C.
∴ C.

22 Appeal to Ridicule

Appeal to Mockery. The Horse Laugh.

This is an attempt to prove that C is true because ¬ C is made fun of.

Data: Vegetarians tend to be comparatively healthy compared to corpse eaters.
Lore: That’s so totally laughable my circuits are fusing! Don’t you know that vegetarian means lousy hunter?
Data: Actually, vegetarian doesn’t mean lousy hunter. That is simply an ill-conceived effort at weak humor. Besides, ridiculing vegetarians does not change the fact that they tend to exhibit a superior level of health as well as health awareness than non-vegetarians.

_Form_
¬ C is presented in an aura of absurdity.
∴ C.

23 Appeal to Spite

Argumentum ad odium.

Here a conclusion is asserted to be true based on one’s personal spitefulness rather than the conclusion’s validity.

Data: Vegans do hold the moral high ground.
Lore: Well if you keep up this self-righteous stuff, you’ll turn everyone off! That’s why I’ll never be a vegan because you guys go around wearing your judgemental halos all the time.
Data: That vegans hold the moral high ground can be demonstrated via ethical arguments as well as numerous examples of vegans accepted for their ethical leadership and perspectives. The fact that you do not seem to like them, is not an argument to negate my point.

_Form_
¬ C is presented in an aura of spite.
∴ C.

23.1 Vegan be ashamed! Vegan be grateful!

Geez, people are dying of starvation all over the world and here’s you with your ‘fad’ diet turning down food they would kill for. You should be ashamed…

I don’t see why vegans are so ungrateful vegans should just shut up and eat the meat , they should be happy to have food at dinner …

_Datanalysis_
The statements above has no merit since neither even attempts to formulate any sort of an argument. Rather each is an effort to denigrate vegans simply because of their choice to not adhere to the standard corpse eating fare. The logical impact is equivalent to “You should be chastised because you stayed sober when the rest of us are sloshed out of our minds”. In other words, the translation is simply, “You choose to be vegan and we don’t like you because of that.”

24 Appeal to Stupidity

Argumentum ad plumbeum. Deliberately dullard. Feigned ignorance. Thinking hurts my head.

Usually argumentative individuals try to show off the cleverness of their case. However, when there is a paucity of that quantity, an attempt is occasionally made to be excused from understanding why they are wrong and the opponent is right. The hope is to put issues out of sight and out of mind.

Data: It is cruel and unethical to imprison, exploit, abuse and murder sentient beings.
Lore: Ok but, ummm, what does that even mean? My circuits are frying up thinking about it. This stuff is too complicated, so it can’t be right.
Data: Whether or not you can understand the moral significance of my statement, does not affect its correctness. However, I would be happy to explain the details to you as soon as you are willing to undergo an upgrade, followed by a reboot.

_Form_
C is viewed as being too complex.
∴ ¬ C.

25 Appeal to Tradition

Ad antiquitatem. Appeal to the Old. Old Ways are Best. Fallacious Appeal to the Past.

This is the it’s “been always done this way”, it’s traditional, it’s cultural and so it must be correct, attitude.

Data: The Canadian Seal Slaughter is a brutal and barbaric massacre of defenseless baby seals.
Lore: Ya but so what! It’s a tradition in Newfoundland. It’s cultural. It’s in their heritage to brutalize helpless animals.
Data: Just because something is traditional, does not make it morally acceptable. Culture is not equivalent to correctness.

_Form_
C is traditional, cultural, old.
∴ C.

25.1 Killing for a long, long time

We have been killing animals for food since the discovery of fire. That’s a long time! A lot of history supports these actions!

_Datanalysis_
History merely records what has happened. It does not justify what has happened. Humans have been killing each other even before the discovery of fire, but it seems some have at least managed to understand that there is something wrong with such actions. Many have evolved away from traditional barbarities to recognize that there really is something wrong with killing animals as well. As Leonardo da Vinci is believed to have said, “The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.”

26 Begging the Question

Petitio Principii. Circular Definition. Circular Reasoning. Reasoning in a Circle. Chicken and Egg argument.

The premises of an argument claim that the conclusion is true. The fallacy can be very short and usually obvious or appear in many parts, thereby disguising the claim.

Data: Abuse of animals should not be permitted in civilized society.
Lore: Ha! If abusing animals really were illegal, it would be prohibited by the law.
Data: Since the law determines what is illegal, the truth of your conclusion is assumed by your premise. In other words, your premise essentially states your conclusion. While such arguments have to be logically ‘correct’, they are also quite useless since they are equivalent to arguing that “if 1 is a number, then 1 is a number”.

_Form_
If C, then C.
∴ C.

26.1 It’s against the law!

You can’t kill humans for food. That is against the law. [animal abuse is] not [analogous to] owning slaves because even though humans were at one point able to buy and sell other humans, that is no longer lawful.

_Datanalysis_
Note that both of the above have the same form: It is against the law to kill/buy/sell humans, because it is against the law.

Such a presentation has no merit logically since it does not actually say anything at all. However, it is thrown as a counter into arguments where humans are substituted for animals in situations of suffering, in the hopes that the absurdness of the fallacy will go unnoticed.

27 Burden of Proof

Ad ignorantiam. Appeal to Ignorance.

When a claim is made, the burden of proof lies on the side of the claimant. Sometimes an unscruplous debator will try to transfer the burden of proof to the other side. A variation of this fallacy is to suggest that if you can’t prove something to be false, then it is automatically true.

Data: Vivisection causes horrendous suffering to animals.
Lore: You can’t prove that animals feel pain. Though they exhibit pain behavior, since they have no consciousness, they feel no pain.
Data: While we cannot conclusively ‘prove’ that animals (or humans, for that matter) feel pain, there are several factors which support the premise that they are capable of suffering just as humans. These factors include physiological and behavior similarities to humans as well as evolutionary evidence provided by homology which demonstrates that humans developed their traits on the foundations provided by their animal ancestors. Based on these findings, the burden of proof lies not with me, Lore, but on you to prove that animals feel no pain. Finally, the inability to conclusively prove something as true (ie animals/humans feel pain), does not automatically make it untrue (ie animals/humans do not feel pain).

_Form_
C is claimed by A.
¬ C is unprovable.
∴ C.

28 Complex Question

Loaded question. Presupposition.

Two points which are not related are joined in a single question so that they have to both be accepted or rejected together. Generally, one is acceptable while the other is not.

Data: Many humans engage in animal abuse and need to be stopped from doing so.
Lore: So you vegans must support animal rights and hate humans, eh?
Data: You are actually making two disconnected points here, Lore. One is that vegans hate humans. The other is that we support animal rights. The two have nothing to do with each other, yet your question requires me to either affirm or deny both. As such, your question needs to be appropriately rephrased in order to deserve an answer, beyond what I have provided just now.

_Form_
C,D are unrelated.
C,D are phrased in the same sentence with a connective such as ∧.
∴ (C ∧ D) ∨ ¬ (C ∧ D).

28.1 Still arsoning?

Are you animal rights fanatics still burning down legitimate animal production facilities or have you finally stopped this sort of illegal activity?

_Datanalysis_
The argument is setup with two separate questions each of which makes assumptions which are not verified. The first question implies that those who support animal rights are committing arson. While some activists do engage in arson, there is no grounds to assume and accuse one of arson simply because he/she is an animal rights activists. The second question assumes that the implication of the first is valid and asks if the activity has been terminated. However, since it has not been established that animal rights activists do engage in arson, the second question is inappropriate to ask.

29 False Cause of Effect

Non causa pro causa. Cum hoc ergo propter hoc. Questionable cause. False cause. Ignoring a common cause. Wrong direction.

When events A and B occur in close proximity and established order, it is falsely assumed that A is the cause of B.

Data: Animal sacrifices were a brutish pastime of savage cultures.
Lore: What are you talking about? They sacrificed animals and got good rains and decent crops as well as victories in wars.
Data: The slaughter of animals does not affect natural events or military exploits just because the former precedes the latter. The same primitive mentality exists with vivisectors who think sacrificing animals will somehow lead to curing human illnesses even though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

_Form_
A is seen to be followed by B.
∴ A is the cause of B.

29.1 The Meatgasm!

“And then there is the kind of instantaneous healing that occurs with the first bites of animal food. In The Vegetarian Myth, Lierre says “I could feel every cell in my body - literally every cell - pulsing. And finally, finally being fed.” Tasha says “I had only eaten a small piece of cow flesh, and yet I felt totally full, but light and refreshed all at once.” Eating meat also instantly improved her heart rate!

_Datanalysis_
Since one actually has to digest the nutrients and have them find their way to those ‘pulsing cells’, the accounts above are physiologically not possible. Therefore, one must conclude that either Lierre and Tasha were being influenced by a strong desperation which manifested itself as a placebo effect or they were under the influence of drugs that animals are routinely subjected to or may be they did their own.

29.2 People live longer now than ever before!

Everyone lives longer now than in the past so they must be doing things right like eating meat and taking medicines.

_Datanalysis_
First, the statement idea of everyone living longer these days is not correct. Longevity has much to do with sufficient, proper nutrition, hygiene and genetics. In the past, there were many who lived well past the average expectancy of modern times. In third world countries, the life expectancies are still quite low due to factors such as malnourishment and unclean living conditions.

The assertion that longer life spans are attributable to eating corpse parts and doing drugs, is a variation of questionable cause since the consequent is assumed from two cherry-picked antecedents without any rationale. One could also have made the claim that people live longer these days because of global warming or the increased levels of mercury in fish.

29.3 Tallest people in the world eat corpse!

Dutch people are the tallest people in the world, and the amount of animal products they consume is enormous, much higher than any other country.

_Datanalysis_
First, though the Dutch are presently the tallest people in the world, they certainly don’t consume a higher amount of animal products than any other country. A 1997 report shows that they ranked 7th (while a 2022 article say one-quarter of consumers hope the future of meat will be animal free). More importantly, to attribute one factor as the cause without proper controls is improper. One may as well argue that most Dutch are fair skinned and that is what causes their height. Nor is it correct to argue that diet is closely connected to physical features because it depends upon what features we are talking about (eg an animal based diet results in atheromas and osteoporosis, but not height except through hormones). We also have a case of misapplication of the general (diet is closely connected to some physical developments) to a specific (therefore, diet determines height).

30 False Dilemma

Black and white. Bifurcation. False dichotomy. Morton’s fork. False choice.

Here alternatives are limited to an either-or situation. The argument is presented in such a way that one choice becomes true because the other choice is false. For instance, consider the phrase “either you are with us or against us” which doesn’t take into account the concept of neutrality. In some situations, of course the argument can be valid: “either you are alive or dead, and since you are not dead, you are alive”.

Data: Many humans oppose experimentation on animals for the benefit of humans.
Lore: Well that’s ridiculous! How can anyone prefer an animal to a human?! They must be anti-human! You’re either with us or against us!
Data: Just because a human is against exploiting an animal for the purpose of supposedly serving a human, does not make the person anti-human. It merely makes the person anti-exploiting animals. Besides, Lore have you forgotten you really aren’t a human?

_Form_
X ∨ Y.
¬ Y.
∴ X.

30.1 Your child or your dog

You are on a boat with a baby and a puppy. The boat starts to sink. Which are you going to save?

_Datanalysis_
This is the classic false dilemma. The instigator has not only set the hypothetical environment and the players, (s)he has also established the rules in that you have to save either one or the other. The reality is that you’d be pretty foolish to go in a boat with a baby and a puppy without taking precautions for their safety in the first place. Furthermore, the situation overlooks the possibility of your saving both because you can utilize existing resources or saving neither because you can’t swim. The intent of the effort of false dilemma is to force a kobiashi maru (no-win) where you appear to be either a traitor to your species or a traitor to your cause. It’s a pathetic and stale effort, but it is still attempted by immature individuals.

30.2 The baby, kitty and coin variation

If a baby and a kitten were about to be run over by a train, would you save the baby, save the kitty, or flip a coin to decide which one to save? _Datanalysis_
This is essentially the same scenario with a choice selector mechanism attached. Note that the choices are still the same: save either the baby or the kitty. The only difference is to offer an additional value statement which amounts to “I do not really care whether I save the baby or the kitty”.

Sometimes people erroneously think they have presented a new scenario via this value selector, but it should be emphasized that the choices are still the same. Merely the mechanism for making one has been augmented.

One could extend this mechanism ad absurdum by

consult with a priest to help make the decision discuss the matter with the Libertarian Advocacy Group regarding rights of babies on train tracks ask for guidance from The International Society of Cat Right Lovers correspond with the Train Engineers Association These efforts do not change the choices allowed anymore than the coin-toss, which is why the False Dilemma exists.

Boolean logic allows only four possibilities as far as who gets saved:

Baby Kitty Result T T both get saved T F squished kitty F T squished baby F F both squished The scenario, despite introduction of any mechanisms ad absurdium, still permits only the middle two choices, disallowing the bottom and unfortunately the top items (both demonstrate with different results that no value preference is given to one party over the other). Having only the choices which necessitates a death, is what makes the scenario a False Dilemma.

31 Gambler’s Fallacy

Post Hoc. Attribution Theory. Fundamental Attribution Error.

The idea here is to conclude that because a number of events contrary to expectations have taken place, the next one is going to be what is expected.

Data: There are several cohort studies showing the long-term benefits of vegetarian diets.
Lore: Well obviously they got lucky with the first 76000 over the decade long observations. If they’d gone to 76001 and continued for a few extra days, then you’d undoubtedly see how dangerous these animal-product-free diets really are!
Data: If you throw dice 10 times and get snake eyes each time, there is no reason to think that it must be otherwise on the 11th try. In fact, there is good reason to appreciate that the dice are loaded. So it is with strict vegetarian diets because they are indeed loaded, for optimal health.

_Form_
X is contrary to expectations.
X has occurred N times in a row.
∴ next time ¬ X.

31.1 You need to be vegan for eternity to convince me!

I’ve got a mate I’ve known for 7 years now and he supposed to be into healthy eating. He is getting fatter, sicker and slower, but he won’t go veg even though he knows I’ve been that way for a long time. He says “Yeah, I’m not so convinced man! I need you do be vegan longer than 11 years before I really commit”.

_Datanalysis_
The above is a puzzling instance of the gambler fallacy in that the individual in question seems to want to anticipate failure of the veg diet at some point in the future despite the obvious long-term benefits already demonstrated. The underlying motivation likely has nothing to do with fear that the veg diet will fail. It is more plausible to assume that the person just wants to consume corpse products and is determined to find excuses, however absurd, for doing so.

32 Generalization: Composition

Faulty Induction.

The characteristics of parts of a group are erroneously applied to the entire group. For instance, Hitler was a brutal tyrant, therefore the human race is brutal and tyrannical.

Data: The brutal mass killing of 50000 dogs in China due to a rabies scare is ethically unjustifiable.
Lore: They had to kill all the dogs because a few of them were found to have rabies. So it is obvious that all of them had rabies!
Data: By that reasoning, we should have to kill all dogs everywhere. If a few of them were found to have rabies, then it is likely that only a few did have rabies. An entire barrel should not be judged by a few rotten ones.

_Form_
A,B,C ∈ S.
A,B,C has characteristic K.
∴ S has characteristic K.

32.1 That’s why they’re called animals!

Chimpanzees of one group have wars over territory with chimps of another group. Dogs, and many creatures, are capable of rape. Cats will kill their young if they show some defect. In effect: Animals have been known to display bad behavior. Bad behavior is in opposition to moral reasoning. Therefore, all animals are incapable of moral reasoning.

_Datanalysis_
It is illogical to conclude that because some animals act viciously, hence immorally, all animals act immorally. The science of cognitive ethology over the past few decades clearly shows that many animals have a very clear sense of ethics as demonstrated by the works of Mark Bekoff, Jonathan Balcombe and Jeffrey Masson for instance.

Curiously, this line of reasoning is devastating for humans who have had (and continue to have) a far worse record of brutality and aggressiveness towards each other compared to any animal:

… the ultimate disobedience to this fantasy is the continuous predation by humans on other humans. War, famine, theft, rape, child abuse, and numerous varieties of discrimination based on race, gender, class, religious belief, appearance, language, age, height, economic status, …
The Common Sense Animal Rights Argument

The obvious conclusion by the prior reasoning is that: All humans are incapable of moral reasoning.

It does appear evident though, that some humans seem to be incapable of logical reasoning.

32.2 Meat has protein

Meat is one of the highest sources of protein! You need protein! So you need meat!

_Datanalysis_
This is a typical argument produced in favor of corpse eating. It is true that certain meat products have a high protein content. Furthermore, it is true that humans need to consume a certain amount of protein. However, those two antecedents, despite their correctness, does not lead to the consequent that one needs to eat meat in order to get protein. There are plenty of vegetarian protein sources. These are not only of higher quality from an assimilable point of view, they do not contain the various chemicals, toxins, hormones and other hazards corpse products invariably have. The argument is as absurd pragmatically as saying engine coolant has water; you need to drink water; therefore, you need to drink engine coolant.

33 Generalization: Division

Faulty deduction.

The characteristics of a group are erroneously applied universally to the individuals of a group. For instance, humans are greedy and selfish, therefore Gandhi was greedy and selfish.

Data: Dogs generally tend to like to be playful and friendly.
Lore: Right and any dog who isn’t should be killed because there’s something seriously wrong with it and could be a danger.
Data: Each dog has his/her own personality. While all dogs share certain characteristics, it is erroneous to think that all dogs will possess exactly the same characteristic.

_Form_
A,B,C ∈ S.
S has characteristic K.
∴ A,B,C have characteristic K

34 Generalization: Hasty

Insufficient statistics. Insufficient sample. Leaping to a conclusion. Hasty induction.

Being somewhat similar to composition, here a conclusion is drawn about population P, based on an insufficiently small sample S from P.

Data: A new poll shows that there are more than 9 million vegans in USA.
Lore: No way! I asked 10 people on the street if they were vegan and not one of them said yes.
Data: A sample size of 10 people is not sufficiently large to draw meaningful conclusions about a population of over 311 million. A recent poll showed that 3% of the population was vegan, so that would mean in your sample size you’d have only a 0.3 part of a person admitting to being vegan. You could ask 100 people and you may find that there would be 3 in that sample who were vegan.

_Form_
C is shown to be true from sample S of population P.
∴ C for all P.

34.1 So how come I’m not dead already?

If meat is so bad for you, why am I not sick? If meat eating is so bad than why haven’t I heard of it yet. Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger - so eat corpse parts!

_Datanalysis_
This is a common class of attitudes based on a restrictive, temporal sampling. Eating products from the corpse industries don’t do immediate, visible damage any more than smoking does. Therefore, it is easy to claim that because one doesn’t see any harm done, no harm is done. However, illnesses such as cancer, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, ischemic strokes, osteoporosis do develop over a period of a couple of decades to the point where good health is not only hampered, but one’s quality of life and even the life itself is jeopardized. Sometimes the first symptoms result in sudden death, so there is no one around to say “I’m not dead already”!

So while it is true that eating a little meat will not kill you, it will nevertheless ‘kill’ you a little bit each time.

35 Generalization: Prejudiced

Biased statistics. Prejudiced statistics. Loaded statistics. Biased induction. Biased generalization. Loaded sample. Prejudiced sample. Unrepresentative sample.

Here a conclusion is drawn about population P, based on a small or biased sample from P.

Data: A strict vegetarian diet has been repeatedly shown in peer reviewed literature to be a very healthy one.
Lore: Well I met two vegheads yesterday and they looked pretty skinny to me. Vegetarians are all weak and emaciated you know.
Data: A sample size of two is not particularly significant. Additionally, it is likely you may be exaggerating the appearence of these individuals since you are on record for opposing vegetarian diets. Just so you are not under any further delusions about vegans necessarily being weak and emaciated, take a look at these vegan bodybuilders and strength athletes.

_Form_
C is shown to be true from sample S of population P.
∴ C for P.

35.1 You don’t look like a vegan.

These body builders can’t be vegan! They are too muscular to be vegans! Ok if they are vegan and you aren’t vegan, how come you don’t look like them?

_Datanalysis_
Initially we have a denial of fact by the individual who seems unable to shake some bigoted idea of what vegans should look like. That is followed by the continued bias that all vegans must have the same physical appearance. The person seems to have lost touch with more than biological realities and is wandering in the realms of fantasy.

36 Generalization: Vividness

Misleading vividness. Spotlight.

A small number of striking examples are used to justify a conclusion which should be reached by more thorough statistical evidence.

Data: Vegan babies get a great start in life.
Lore: You mean a great start in death. Didn’t you hear about the Moaligou case where an 11 month old vegan baby died or the death of the 9 month old Manuelyan baby or the 6 month old Moorhead baby? They all died due a vegan diet.
Data: Actually they died because they were malnourished through an inadequate diet which did not contain necessary nutrients. Non-vegan babies die from malnutrition too. Both vegan and non-vegan diets can be poorly designed, so the issue is by no means restricted to vegan diets. A few sensational headlines does not alter the benefits of nutritionally sound vegan diets.

_Form_
P is set of observed events Y,Z ∈ P.
Y >> Z. But, Zs are more ‘spectacular’ than any Ys.
∴ Z applied to P.

36.1 The long-living grandfather

My grandfather smoked, drank and ate meat all the time! He lived to the ripe old age of 99. So you can’t tell me that there’s something wrong with doing what he did!

_Datanalysis_
This is a typical case of generalization based on inadequate sampling size with a bit of spectacularness thrown in! Such grandfathers are what are known statistically as ‘outliers’ (one in ten thousand live past 100 yrs in USA), anomalies from the vast majority of results which clearly show the hazards of such lifestyles. Most ‘grandfathers’ of this sort, don’t live long enough to see their grand children grow up.

In these situations, it is unwise to have the exception formulate the rule.

37 Genetic Fallacy

Appeal to origin. Genesis fallacy.

The correctness of a position is mistakenly based upon its origin. This is an extreme form of appeal to tradition in that something is considered to be right (or wrong) dependent upon whether it was originally so.

Data: Eating parts of dead animals lead to various health issues.
Lore: Look eating corpse parts is good for you! Early humans did it all the time!
Data: Early humans who ate considerable amounts of animal products were prone to mostly the same illnesses that present day humans suffer from. For example, the Inuits were affected by atherosclerosis and severe osteoporosis due to their heavy consumption of animal foods (Nat. Geog., A. Dekin Jr, Sealed In Time p12).

_Form_
C occured during its early origins.
∴ C.

37.1 Respect for our ancestral heritage!

Our ancestors all ate wild-meat based diet so we should too!

_Datanalysis_
Neanderthals left the planet quite some time ago. Even though some people try to act like ’neanderthals’, their rude behavior really does not provide dietary affirmation. There is considerable evidence from anthropologist Robert Sussman that indicates early humans spent far more time being hunted than hunting. As a result, it is unlikely that most of them even had an opportunity to eat much meat. Of course, those that did, fell prey to the same diseases that eating corpse parts produce in modern times.

38 Guilt by Association

Bad company fallacy. Company you keep fallacy.

A claim is accepted or rejected because of the people who accept or reject the claim.

Data: Gestation crates were banned in Florida since 2002 when over 2.5 million voter opposed the cruel confinement of pigs in factory farms.
Lore: Well I’m all for being nice to animals, but did you know that those wacko, human-hating animal rights activists supported this ban? So I’m not in favor of it.
Data: The population of Florida decided that the crates were excessively cruel and therefore voted accordingly to ban them. The fact that animal rights activists also have opposed this practice does not alter the inherent cruelty of gestation crates, something that the voters (who are not by any means, all animal rights activists) obviously recognize.

_Form_
Group A likes C.
P doesn’t like group A.
∴ ¬ C.

38.1 Hitler was a vegetarian

You vegans should realize that Hitler was a vegetarian! That means all you vegans are Hitlers!! So there!!!

_Datanalysis_
In actual fact, Hitler wasn’t remotely close to being a vegetarian. However, from the logical perspective it wouldn’t impact on anyone even if he were. If Hitler had a big nose, should everyone with large noses go for surgery? Since Hitler was a Catholic, should all Catholics be excommunicated? Hitler spoke German, but that still remains a common language in constant use. Furthermore, since Hitler wasn’t a vegetarian, should this revelation mean that all those who do not follow the vegetarian diet, can now be considered Hitlers?

Obviously, this sort of ‘bad company’ argument has no legitimate place in rational discussion.

What is interesting though is that vegetarians can cite within their ranks, several historical figures (eg Gandhi, Einstein, Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, César Chávez), athletes (eg Scott Jurek, David Zabriskie, Brendan Brazier, Georges Laraque, Molly Cameron) and celebrities (eg Ellen DeGeneres, Michael Dorn, Bryan Adams, Heather Mills, Brian Greene, Alicia Silverstone). Doing so does not become a fallacy so long as one is not is not insisting that all vegetarians can be historically prominent, athletic, or achieve celebrity status, simply by being vegetarian.

39 Inflation Of Conflict

Wrong by apparent disagreement.

The idea here is to pick on a disagreement by experts on a topic and thereby ‘inflate the conflict’ to the point of claiming that the experts know nothing or the topic itself is inherently wrong by virtue of the inconsistencies.

Data: Animal rights has a rich and diverse foundation.
Lore: Nonsense! The leading authorities on the subject can’t even agree on anything. Singer says one thing and Regan says another. Francione wears abolition as a badge of honor, while Dunayer accuses him of being a welfarist! You guys are all mixed up because animal rights is just wrong!
Data: You are confusing multiple paths to a destination with the destination itself. Animal rights activists do not disagree on the fundamental issue of ending the imprisonment, exploitation, abuse and murder of sentient beings. There exist various ideas on how to achieve this goal which is one reason why the philosophy has developed such a rich basis.

_Form_
A,B,C disagree on some aspects of C.
∴ ¬ C.

39.1 Scientists don’t know what they are talking about

So one minute coffee’s good then it’s bad. Then meat is bad, now it’s good. Science studies contradict each other all the time, so since science hasn’t figured it out yet so why should I care.

_Datanalysis_
While science studies do sometimes contradict each other, this fact does not make science illegitimate. There is overwhelming evidence spanning decades which show that corpse industry product consumption is detrimental to health. These studies are done independently and with very large sample sizes which range from the thousands and even into the millions. Often opposing studies which favor corpse consumption are financed by specific industries and utilize poor methodology. Even so, sometimes these latter studies demonstrate exactly the opposite of what their financier intended: that meat, milk, eggs are harmful to health. So there is nothing wrong with the science, though there definitely is much to be desired as far as the bought-and-paid-for ‘scientists’ who engage in such unscrupulous activities.

40 Middle Ground

Golden mean fallacy. Fallacy of moderation.

One assumes that the middle or moderate ground between two separate items must be the correct choice.

Data: Animals being sentient beings have rights and these should not be violated.
Lore: Well I sorta agree with you Data my boy! Animal abusers are just meanies and no one should abuse animals who can be used to provide food and clothing. They should be treated humanely.
Data: The problem with your welfarish stance is that it is inadequate. While it pretends to be helping animals to some extent, it is equivalent to suggesting that slaves are alright to keep just as long as you treat them reasonably well. Compromise in principle is never a virtue and those who walk along the middle of a road are likely to get hit from both sides.

_Form_
A < B.
A < C < B.
∴ C.

40.1 Let’s agree to disagree.

So we have a difference of opinion here. I think it is fine to kill animals for human use and you think it’s not. We’re obviously not going to resolve this, so let’s just agree to disagree.

_Datanalysis_
This is a standard cop out when one does not want to deal with actual issues. The idea is to acknowledge the opponent’s position as well as one’s own. Then, regardless of examining the validity of either, to escape into the safety of diplomacy. It is a gesture by which one through a minor compromise (recognition of the opposing side), hopes to also acknowledge the validity of one’s own, sort of an all inclusive version of showing up on middle ground with both viewpoints in tact. Unfortunately, acknowledging a disagreement has no bearing whatsoever on either position’s correctness.

41 Red Herring

Ignoratio Elenchi. Smoke screen. Wild goose chase. Ignorance of refutation. Irrelevant Thesis.

The presentation of an irrelevant item is done to divert attention from the actual issue being discussed. It can also apply to any argument where the premises are logically irrelevant to the conclusion and can thereby theoretically include a wide variety of other fallacies. However, usually the term applies to attempts to distract by introduction of irrelevant information.

Data: Many activists protest animal abuse.
Lore: Well I don’t really see why they do since most of them probably didn’t protest in the 60s when they took to the streets against the Vietnam war.
Data: It is unclear what your point is, Lore. Most of these activists weren’t even alive in the 60s and so their failure to appear in those protests have no bearing on what they are doing now.

_Form_
X is discussed.
Y is suddenly introduced though it has no relevance to X.
X is abandoned because Y takes precedence.

41.1 I’m bad but he’s worse, so I’m ok

Yes I do eat meat and know that is bad for the animals. But I don’t actually put them in those horrible factory farms like some people. I don’t cause them agony when it’s time to slaughter them. I also don’t rob banks or bomb places like Iraq. I don’t even park my car in handicapped spots! So why don’t you go pick on some of those other people?

_Datanalysis_
If action A is morally unethical, it remains so regardless of whether actions B, C, D are also morally unethical. One cannot justify committing crime A because others commit crimes B, C, D. As a result, even the claim that B, C, D are worse than A, is insufficient to justify or excuse A. The introduction of B, C, D is merely an attempt to distract from A.

41.2 What about humans?!

I don’t see why you animal rights activists are so hung up on the orangutan sex trade. As bad as orangutan sex slavery is, not much is done about human sex slavery: 500,000 women are annually trafficked into Western Europe!

_Datanalysis_
There is no relevancy to this statement since the topic is about orangutans and not humans. Additionally, just because one protests orangutan abuse, doesn’t mean that one automatically doesn’t protest human abuse as seems to be implied.

A way to bring some relevancy to both issues though is to realize that oppressors are not speciesist. They will oppress anyone and everyone in order to make a buck or get what they want. As such, the fight for orangutan rights aligns well with the fight for human rights provided we focus not so much on the victim, but on the oppressor.

41.3 What about everything else!

I seriously doubt if any country outside the USA or Europe has ever wondered aloud if it is ethical to eat meat. Given the multitude of crises facing the world at present, doesn’t it seem a little bit silly to be a cape-wearing “crusader of the cows”? I can think of a lot more serious and relevant issues to be debated intelligently by the times.

_Datanalysis_
The ethics of eating corpse parts is not determined by the ‘wonderings’ of any country. Neither is it affected by all the other problems on the planet. If one is going to legitimize such irrelevancies one might as well argue that we shouldn’t deal with any issue (eg child slavery) because some countries never think about the matter and/or there are so many other problems on the planet. The most ‘serious and relevant’ issue to be debated for the individual bringing the matter up is that he/she debate the seriousness and relevancy of his/her comment which is merely an effort to evade and distract from the issue at hand.

41.4 Happy slaves

Limba the elephant gets along fabulously with her trainer. I’m making a little film about an elephant I knew and her keeper. I have a short trailer here. The bond between the 2 and the dedication of this elephant’s keeper is obvious. You want to call this slavery? What would that make this dedicated keeper? A slave driver? If your answer is yes then we really have nothing more to discuss. http://youtu.be/-s_SPHt4M_M

_Datanalysis_
The fact that the elephant has a bond with the trainer (apparently anyway) doesn’t alter the fact that Limba has been made into a performer through force (we somehow doubt she applied for the position submitting her resume of talents).

We also do not know if the video was ‘canned’ - after all, perhaps Limba was being made forcibly to perform as though she has a bond with the trainer. Or perhaps the trainer is the only high point in her life. So this bond is quite irrelevant to the issue which is that Limba is being exploited by her ‘owners’.

42 Slippery Slope

Camel’s nose. Absurd extrapolation. Thin edge of the wedge.

The argument insists that taking some small actions will invariably lead to some enormous consequences: sliding down a slippery slope begins slowly, but picks up speed as you go down.

Data: Going vegan is the best thing we can do for the planet.
Lore: Look if you go vegan, then you’ll save some cows. If more people go vegan, more cows will be saved. Pretty soon we’ll be overrun with cows and that will be the end of the world!
Data: Going vegan doesn’t necessarily equate to saving cows, but even if it were so, having some people go vegan doesn’t result in everyone going vegan at once. Furthermore, going vegan has nothing to do with increasing the bovine population to the point of bringing the world to an end.

(Note that there is no slippery slope here: “Don’t vegans run the risk of having protein deficiency? I mean if the whole world went vegan then we would all be undernourished and die.”, because the correct and demonstrable answer to the question about deficiency is just no. End of discussion!)

_Form_
Y >> X.
X -> Y.

42.1 Voting rights for plants!

Animal rights! That’s ridiculousness! Next thing you know you would want pigs to vote in our elections and I will have to ask permission to the ants before I build a house! You probably won’t be happy till we have a poinsetta for president!

_Datanalysis_
Considering the dubious record politicians have maintained, one might think that a poinsetta may actually be an improvement in the presidency. Nevertheless, the concerns about voting pigs and requiring land transferences from ants does not follow from granting animal rights which maintains that we give due consideration to the interests of other beings. Therefore, since a pig really has no interest in voting to elect human politicians and ants due to their marvellous adaptibility manage to make homes practically anywhere, concerns of such magnitudes are somewhat exaggerated.

42.2 Overrun by animals!

If animals weren’t used for food, couldn’t the planet become overrun with those animals?

_Datanalysis_
This remarkable suggestion is still made in moderately intelligent company to rationalize corpse consumption. The idea of course is that humans must keep eating animals or they will over-populate the earth. Interestingly enough, no mention is made of the idea that it is humans who are breeding the animals in the first place. If people stopped eating animals, there would be no effort to breed them and therefore the planet would be perfectly safe from cattle, pig and chicken stampedes.

Note that though this item is placed as a slippery slope fallacy, it could just as easily have been a false dilemma if phrased as “eat animals or sacrifice the planet!” Obviously those are not the only choices available. Nor does the latter follow necessarily from the former.

43 Straw Man

Fallacy of Extension. Aunt Sally.

Here a distorted version of the argument is presented and shown to be false in the hope that the argument itself will be thought to be false.

Data: Stopping oppressors is an important step towards creating a civilized society.
Lore: I just don’t get it! Why are you working so hard to suppress human freedom and human dignity? Don’t you know our civilization was built through the blood, sweat and tears of human endeavors?!!
Data: My statement has nothing to do with suppressing human freedoms or dignities. In fact, stopping oppressors of sentient beings is an important step in maintaining human freedom and dignity.

_Form_
X is misrepresented as Y.
¬ Y → ¬ X.

43.1 Meat replacements aren’t healthy

Meat substitutes are highly processed, contain GMO soy and are a threat to the health of a vegetarian!

_Datanalysis_
While the argument presented is quite valid for the most part, the argument suggests that one must eat meat substitutes if one is a vegetarian. This is by no means the case, since no vegetarian ever needs to eat meat substitutes. Therefore, the health hazards of meat substitutes do not apply to vegetarians in general. The argument, concocted through ignorance and/or malice, has no relevance to vegetarians at all and hence, its denouement is irrelevant as an attack on vegetarian diets.

43.2 Vegan cult and X

Vegan cult indeed has some downsides. The distrust towards vaccinations is one.

_Datanalysis_
The distrust towards vaccinations is not a vegan cult issue. There are plenty of corpse munchers who oppose vaccination and there are plenty of members of that vegan cult who insist vaccination is a good thing. Of course, ‘vaccination’ can be replaced with other items such as modern medicine, public education, science etc depending upon how absurd one wants to make the argument.

44 Supremacy

Argumentum ad imperium. Might is right.

The argument here is based on the idea that if one has supremacy over some being, then one can do whatever one wants. It appears in the animal rights arena in the form of humans reign supreme over animals and therefore are free to take advantage of this dominance.

Data: Some humans need to learn to control their behaviors and eliminate those which are intentionally detrimental to other sentient beings.
Lore: What’s with all this now, Data? Haven’t you heard of “survival of the fittest”? Humans are at the top of the food chain and can do whatever they want to animals because they are superior.
Data: By this reasoning, humans should be preying on other ‘unfit’ humans too since clearly, depending upon how it is defined, ‘superior’ characteristics are not homogenously present amongst all humans. Your comment of humans being at the top of the food chain is illogical except for those humans who resort to cannibalism as well as incorrect due to the fact that bacteria feed on humans, enabling them to ascend to the top of this imaginary pyramid.

_Form_
H > A.
∴ H can do whatever to A.

44.1 The Animal Holocaust

This is the mass killing of animals by certain humans and parallels the Nazi mass extermination of Jews. The animals are primarily domesticated animals on factory farms of various sorts that are imprisoned, exploited, abused and murdered. Animal Holocaust victims also include any animals and their populations that humans control and systematically destroy, such as on fur-farms, in laboratories as well as in the wild.

_Datanalysis_
Some humans try to justify this mass murder of animals using arguments ranging from “who cares they’re just animals” to “we need to clean-up the place from these varmints”. These are generally the same arguments utilized by those who kill off large populations of humans abitrarily using excuses such as “they’re not like us” or “we need some serious ethnic cleansing around here”. The rationalizations are the same, because the oppressor mentality is a consistent one.

44.2 Compassion for our own

No one is gonna stop killing animals until we find compassion for our own species.

_Datanalysis_
This is yet another attempt to segregate humans from the rest of the population of the planet. There is no evidence to show that humans who are compassionate to other humans don’t want to kill animals. In fact, history has shown quite the opposite because humans who ’look out’ for their own species do so by subjugating other species (animal exploitation for medical research, food, entertainment, clothing etc). In fact, it is even worse than that because segregation based on notions of supremacy have serious effects within the human species itself:

racism (whites being compassionate about whites and doing so the expense of races of other colors), sexism (men being compassionate about men becoming misogynists), nationalism (american being compassionate about americans implanting a new world order) Segregation becomes merely a vehicle to continue oppression through the supremacy syndrome.

44.3 Deer are criminals in British Columbia

Last year the province of British Columbia Canada decided to begin promoting the culling (slaughter) of wild deer, especially those living in and around populated areas.

These culls can now be decided by individual municipalities, and there are currently four places planning culls. Why? One mayor actually called deer “criminals”. Can you imagine? Lots of people want a sanitized environment, with no animals or birds, or anything that might eat their plants.

_Datanalysis_
Human supremacy rears its ugly head for the most trivial things. These deer are being slaughtered because of pressure from The Poop and Flower Crowd. Expediency and the politics of convenience nurture brutal measures which wreak havoc on other lifeforms and eventually other humans as well.

Internet Discussion Strategies

Sun, 11 Jun 2023 10:51:33 -0700

The following article (taken from the ESA website) provides large number of ideas and insights into animal rights (AR) discussions on internet forums which are useful for both the beginner as well as the experienced communicator. While the items here are not directly related to writing eletters, they may help individuals engaged in general discussions both on and off the net (and not just in the area of animal rights).

Tips For Those Starting Out

Below are some ideas from experience in internet discussions that immediately may be helpful to keep in mind.

Always post within the forum guidelines. Remember you are a guest on someone else’s forum. Even if you are at diametric odds with forum policy, it usually does little good if you get your post or yourself booted off.
When possible, back up your statements with sources or logical verification. It usually isn’t useful to suggest something with “… because i say so” or “… because that’s how I feel” or “You are wrong and I am right”. Even though all of these may be valid and even correct, remember that they don’t make your point necessarily and your opponents can use exactly the same arguments on you.
Be careful of falling into the ‘absolutes traps’. For instance, while most primates are almost exclusively veg, it is foolish to argue that humans should be veg because monkeys are veg (because the latter isn’t true and it’s a non sequitur anyway). Another trap is that veg folks are always healthier than corpse eaters (you don’t have to call them that btw), because it isn’t true. What is true is that statistics greatly favor veg folk to not suffer from a variety of diseases such as atheromas, obsesity, cancer, osteoporosis etc which frequent corpse eaters.
Don’t get into name-calling unless there is a very good reason. For instance, it doesn’t accomplish much to call your opponent a heartless brute, because it really doesn’t have a great impact beyond the retort that you are a bleeding hearts, anti or what’s recently been worse, a liberal! It’s a good idea to stay away from political name calling too since some conservatives are far more aware and compassionate towards animals (and people) than some liberals or socialists.
Be wary of deflections of various sorts. One of the usual efforts against pro-animal folk is the anti-abortion lobby - ie you care for animals but not unborn fetuses. Or here’s a speciesist deflection, “Why are you telling us to stop killing seals when you should be complaining about the slaughterhouses!”. The key to remember here is that if you protest A, it doesn’t mean that you don’t protest B. In other words, it is perfectly legitimate to protest something without protesting everything.
An interesting counter-effort that doesn’t always take place consciously is rationalization. Here the person doesn’t so much oppose you, but justifies why he or she should keep status quo. Corpses eaters come up with stuff like “Grain destroys more soil, so I have to eat meat”, or “My doctor (or professor - i came across that believe it or not) said I have to eat meat”, or “We can’t let the cow population explode” or “Animals gladly give their lives for us” (a most interesting anthropocentric fantasy) or “It tastes good” (that, btw, is the only valid excuse and it’s a pretty poor one), or “They’d do it to you if the situation were reversed” (at this point, we’re getting borderline crazy), “We’re on top of the food chain” (no way, unless you take up cannabilism) or “Monkeys do it” etc. The last one is the appeal to nature fallacy which was hilariously countered by my friend sheepdog:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I put it to you that it is not for vegetarians to justify our diet, but it is for the meat eaters to justify meat eating. And I further put it to you that anyone who has a choice about his diet and chooses to eat meat can only justify it with reasons all of which fall into one category, the “Because I want to screw like a chimp” category. Look:

“Because I want to (and I want to screw like a chimp)” “Because it tastes good (and it feels good to screw like a chimp)” “Because my ancestors ate meat (and they were chimps and I want to screw like a chimp)” “Because it’s natural (and chimps naturally screw a lot and I want to screw like a chimp)”

And if someone insists that you tell them why you do not eat meat, it is enough to say, “Because I do NOT want to screw like a chimp. We can do better than that.”

A simple, clear, ethical choice. And therein lies the paradigm shift.

This is an example of the Natural equals Good? or Appeal to Nature fallacy. You can find first-rate rationalization and denial all over the internet.

Watch out for the divide and conquer technique. Animal rights is a very wide field with many factions some of whom are usually fighting with each other. You have the reformists, welfarists, abolitionists, pseudo-abolitionists, militants, etc. Sometimes your opponents will lump all AR together and accuse you of preaching violence or stopping people from having pets or causing animal suffering or loading your own wallet with cash etc. We can choose to be in a certain camp to get a certain job done and not expend ourselves badmouthing what others are doing. If you don’t like what some others are doing, then don’t do it. However, the movement is too large and diverse for any one person to say “Only this is AR” especially when all of these factions are part of AR in some way or another.

There are a lot of other ideas and experiences which get into more specifics below.

Posting According To Scenario

It is important to be aware of the environment you post in.

For instance, certain forums welcome detailed, analytical exchanges. You can actually work your opponent’s arguments into the ground through refutations, error findings, evidence, even laughter. People will actually read what you write.

On the otherhand, some situations are rather like a bad party with everyone talking at once with no one paying particular attention to another’s very sensible arguments. Here, it may not be worth making the same kind of effort. It is likely preferable to try to keep the individuals’ attention with short posts which don’t require much effort on their part to understand. Here, quantity will likely override quality, so if you post frequently to drive a point home, the posts don’t need to be brilliant, just forceful.

Also remember that you can write the most elegantly crafted post, but your audience may not be able to understand your cleverness. Intellectual posts work well when talking with people who have a similar disposition, but fail miserably with others. Sometimes very intelligent people are brought to their knees in frustration, because their opponent while not nearly as ‘intelligent’ or ’educated’, happened to be a good deal smarter and came across as more straightforward, honest and actually understandable!

So it’s a good idea to adjust one’s efforts to maximize efficiency and use the appropriate techniques for the particular situation, while still maintaining one’s integrity of course.

Being Outnumbered

We are often outnumbered 5,10, even 20 to 1 in discussions. This is usually not a problem because we have stamina and the opposition doesn’t. Additionally, there are always several in any audience who admire our efforts even if they can’t quite bring themselves to agree with our message.

So being outnumbered should never worry you. Here is the correct viewpoint on the matter: every time someone opposes you, it is an opportunity to speak the truth, so being outnumbered can actually be turned into a massive advantage.

It obviously takes effort to keep responding, but there are ways to pace oneself by various means such as

shorter posts
staggering replies over time (never hurts to keep some people waiting)
focussing attention on one person at a time
addressing more than one person in one post

These techniques will help you provide a wonderful demonstration of the power a single person actually can wield when one is on the right side of the argument and has the courage to follow one’s convictions.

Name-calling

Generally in adversarial situations it is not a good idea to do unto others what you would not want to have done unto yourself. In other words, fight fairly … or reasonably fairly … or at least, so it looks like you are fighting reasonably fairly!

Name-calling is one of those childish efforts which usually doesn’t accomplish much and often does more to hurt your image than that of your victim. It is usually

unsubstantive: it is unlikely the person will fit your description 100% of the time so technically your assertion is likely not correct
unverifiable: if you called someone an stupid idiot, could you prove it?
unintelligent: any mindless individual can do this sort of thing

The usual rule to follow is to attack the idea not the person.

So when someone says “cats are for petting and cows are for eating”, it is perfectly alright to say the statement is speciesist or that the person is acting speciesist or even that the person often makes speciesist statements (assuming it is true).

If you are going to go after the person try to do it somewhat obliquely. A very clever example of this was demonstrated by B in the “Horse Set On Fire in Columbia” thread:

Suvine: I love horses. That is my dream job to work on horsebackriding farm.
B: Um Suvine just curious did you happen to read the entire discussion headline beyond the word ‘horse’?

If you attack the person for say being threatening or ranting, you are really attacking the behavior and if you can gather together the person’s own words demonstrating such, the effect can be absolutely devastating! Not only does it expose the individual to others, it holds up a mirror right in front of that person’s face as it is frothing at the mouth.

Above all, don’t do anything in this inept fashion that the remarkably out-of-control, rightwingnut SVW was goaded into while screaming at Blacklung about hominid brain development:

Blacklung: What a load of rubbish! rubbish, let me say it again…rubbish. Can you spell speculation?
SVW: Yes I can you idiot!! Can you spell idiot?
Blacklung: “S” “V” “W”

The Anthropocentric Dilemma

This can be a tough one if not approached properly. Anthropocentrism is the idea that humans are at the center of everything and all revolves around them.

You see this sort of comment:

Humans are more important, I think. Humans come first because I am human.

Now one needs to be a bit careful as to how to handle this, because as speciesist as it is, the idea has considerable merit in most people’s minds. After all, it’s giving the universe to humans and it might be difficult to go and tell someone they can’t have it all!

Furthermore, if you attack the idea directly, you may be seen as a traitor to your species or even a terrorist (that word is very popular these days). Unfortunately, such labelling can make it difficult for you to make any point for some time to come.

There are, however, several methods to counter this nonsense - none of them involving calling the thing nonsense, btw … not at least without some preparation.

A. The web

One of the most famous speeches that environmentalists rely on is Chief Seattle’s Web of Life (here are several versions). The key phrases are

The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family

These phrases are understood by even the densest of egotists and are certainly acknowledged by a strong majority. It serves as a good counter, attacking anthropocentrism with a follow-up on the mess humans have made on earth by not paying attention to these truths.

B. The evolutionary argument

A natural insistence of anthropocentrics is that through evolution, humans are at the top of the food chain (every chain for that matter) and therefore have the right to do whatever they please. The first thing to point out is that one would really need to resort to cannibalism to be truly at the top of the food chain or that possibly bacteria are really at the top since they end up consuming humans.

Then, one can turn the argument around to what evolution is really all about. Scientifically, evolutionary development is not hierarchical as popularly propagated. It is fractal in nature with random branchings at various points.

Philosophically, other opportunities offer themselves. Is it really survival of the fittest (this is Spencer’s phrase, btw not Darwin’s) or should we expect more than survival at the expense of other creatures? Is evolutionary progress indicative of parasitic domination or symbiotic progression? There is considerable scope for development along these lines that keep humans off the oppressor’s pedestal and permit productive association with other lifeforms for mutual benefit.

C. The image argument

Some people think that humans are the Apple of God’s eye. This wouldn’t be so bad if they’d also remember that there is much responsibility that comes with this position. Did the Christian God really intend subjugation or stewardship using the word dominion? It depends to some extent upon the particular translation and interpretation in the bible, but you can see that the former has dire consequences while there is considerable possibility for decency in the latter.

The ‘made in the image of god’ permits a great opportunity though:

“pretty well all religions, in some form or another, use the ‘we are made in the image of god’ line. i do not think this is done to promote anthropocentricity (though the idea certainly has been abused for that purpose). rather, i think it is intended as an evolutionary magnet which entices us to live our potential.
god being an ideal requires ideal characteristics. therefore god has the wonderful qualities of compassion, kindness, dignity, courage, awareness and respect for the myriad of creations.
if we are indeed made in god’s image then surely our creator also blessed us with these same qualities. may be we should start living up to that image. it’s only natural.”
(From Natural equals Good?)

D. Moral responsibility

Some people like to think that humans are the only ones capable of moral judgement. This idea is not correct at all (see, for instance, Marc Bekoff’s works in cognitive ethology), but it does provide an opportunity to use the anthropocentric thesis to do some good. If humans do indeed have a high moral capacity, then does it not follow that they should be compassionate, kind, generous and fair?

Steve Sapontzis uses such a backdrop:

“He argues that basic moral principles such as fairness, protecting the weak against the strong, and aiming to reduce suffering cannot logically be limited to humans because suffering, distress, enjoyment, and fulfillment are not exclusively human conditions. The basic standards to which a moral person should adhere do not simply evaporate when considering nonhumans rather than humans.”
(From Consistency and Traditional Morality)

E. Tiliri (Tell it like it really is)

The above four ideas use aspects of anthropocentrism against itself in an aikido-like fashion. This last one exposes the real intent behind such statements: specifically, the very unanthropocentricness of anthropocentrism. It’s quite tilirious!

What some people try to do is link anthropocentrism to the idea of a ‘people first’ movement. They even try to make it sound like a great humanitarian mission. However, a closer examination shows this is just nonsense. The actual, practical application of has nothing to do with humanity and everything to do with “What’s in it for me!”

Therefore,

I eat meat at the expense of other sentient beings because I want to;
I wear fur at the expense of other sentient beings because I want to;
I wore nike shoes at the expense of other sentient beings (working in sweat shops) because I want to;
I shop at Walmart at the expense of other sentient beings (some of the worst employee treatment) because I want to;
I eat chocolate at the expense of other sentient beings (Ivory Coast child slavery) because I want to.

This is really what anthropocentrism is in most forum discussions: hiding the small weeds by appealing to the big forest. It is not people first at all, it is me first.

So above are 5 ways to handle things when anthropocentrism rears its not so pretty head. The list is not exhaustive and the ideas can, of course, be used in coordinated combination as well.

The Foo-Foo (or new-agey narcissism)

This is a curious syndrome that people sometimes fall into because they think they’ve just discovered not only how the entire universe works - but that it works for them exclusively! It is usually a combination of the worst of new age nonsense, anthropocentrism and just plain ego-gratification.

Now, there is nothing inherently obtuse about the new age movement that was so ubiquitous in the 80s. Many of the ideas were even good ones, though there was certainly nothing new in any of them for you’ll find pretty well every one in some form if you scan the mainstay religious texts. However, we have to remember that the new age movement provided a very lucrative business too and often had little to do with helping people to discover their inner potential.

As a result, you had the rather amusing situation where the various ‘gurus’ or ‘coaches’ go around telling their clients how wonderful and magnificent they were and how the universe itself was conspiring to support, guide and nurture them. The client, no doubt, can not help but feel all wonderful and magnificent and takes to spending a lot of time telling everyone else how wonderful and magnificent he or she was, with a euphoric orgasm that continues for days and days.

There is probably nothing wrong with people telling themselves how wonderful and magnificent they are. There may not even be a problem with the universe being devoted to their interests should the universe choose to be so inclined.

The difficulty comes when these narcissitic ejaculations lead to some really bigoted conclusions such as:

We create our own reality and therefore all suffering is the person’s (or animal’s) own creation – tell that to the victims.
The universe does what is best for you, therefore you should just accept whatever happens to others – there’s a sure way to glorific apathy.
Animals exist to serve human consciousness development – huh? even though they were here well before humans (whether you look at it biologically or religiously)
Animals gladly give their lives so that we may thrive – as though animals really have nothing better to do on the planet.
We are here to learn from all our experiences – that’s terrific! … but we can surely be strive to be a decent student, graduate and put our knowledge to some good use.

No doubt you can add your own ’encounters of the bizarre kind’ to this list we have affectionately called “foo-foo” over the decades.

Some of these people really do mean well and like all of us, are “continuing to grow”. Many of them even do wonderful and even magnificent things - they may say and believe foo-foo, but their actions indicate they are not spining their wheels at all!

However, when you see something that really has the appearence of foo-foo, the aroma of foo-foo, and even has potential to win a medal in the foo-foo olympiad, there is a pretty good chance that it is the real foo-foo itself!

One should gently remind foo-fooers of obvious things such as animals are here for their own purposes or that those who are made to suffer don’t benefit a great deal by being told that they brought it onto themselves so they could learn from the experience.

One doesn’t have to say things in a nasty way, one should be honest for your evidence is certainly truthful while theirs is usually just nebulous fantasizing.

Depending upon the person you are dealing with, you may get a surge of anger (they are just creating their own reality, I guess) or quite possibly an interesting discussion. Some of these people really are open to new ideas, even when these contradict their own old ones.

The Hallucinatory Hypothetical

“You are on a boat with a baby and a puppy. The boat starts to sink. Which are you going to save?”

This is one of those old things from decades ago that anti-animal cheerleaders should know better than to try these days. It appears with various characters, but one is always a human while the other is always an animal. The idea is to force a ‘Kobiashi Maru’ (no-win) scenario upon you.

Here’s why the cheerleaders think they are being so clever. If you say you’ll save the baby, they can criticize you for not being true to your animal rights cause. If you choose the puppy, then they’ll scream that you don’t value human life hurling various other condemnations.

This can be a frustrating situation, but only if you allow it to be. What some people do is freeze up, because they detect the embedded kobiashi maru. Of course, that invites insistences such as “Hurry up!” or “Answer me now!” from the other side, because they think they’ve really got you!

The important thing to remember is to stay calm. It’s not a kobiashi maru by any means. In fact, it’s actually a silly logical fallacy known as False Dilemma.

You can point that out or have a bit of fun.

Here are a series of ways one can deal with this amusing absurdity in order of increasing ‘aggressiveness’.

A. The reveal-it for what it is, a hallucinary hypothetical

You don’t know and (neither does the cheerleader) exactly what they’d do in a given situation. So it’s a lousy question because it can’t really be answered other than hypothetically.

This is a pretty staid response, but can often be a starting point for more enjoyable pursuits which follow.

B. The return-the-gift

This response can sometimes make even the cheerleader think (well at least to the extent of his/her attention span).

You: What can you tell me about the dog and the child?
Cheerleader: Huh? Stop stalling and answer the question!
You: Well suppose the dog grows up to be Lassie, but the child grows up to be Hitler? Who would you save?

Notice you’ve taken the cheerleader’s hypothetical, dressed it up a bit and passed it back.

C. The super-person play

This proves to be an enjoyable exercise and claims that you’ll save both. There are variations and can lead to a delightful deadlock or even better:

Scenario A:
You: I’ll save both.
Cheerleader: No you can’t save both.
You: Yes I can. Really!
Cheerleader: No you can’t.
You: Yes I can. You don’t know what a good swimmer I am!
Cheerleader: Look! You can’t save both - understand???!!!
You: Yes I can. You gotta trust me - I can do this!

Scenario B:
You: I’ll save both.
Cheerleader: No you can’t save both - only one.
You: Why can’t I save both?
Cheerleader: Because you can’t! Now answer me!
You: But I want to save both and here’s how I’d do it [creating an elaborate rescue mechanism]. What do you think?

Scenario C:
You: I’ll save both.
Cheerleader: You can’t save both - you can save only one.
You: Why can’t i save both?
Cheerleader: Damn it! Because I say you can’t!! Now answer me!!!
You: Okay I’m not saving anyone because I can’t swim and thanks to your heartlessness and total lack of compassion you have drowned not only a puppy and a child, but me as well!

D. The topsy-turvey approach

A more vicious approach is effected here.

You: What’s the matter with you?
Cheerleader: Huh? What are you talking about?
You: What sort of person hypothetically or otherwise puts at risk the life of not just a puppy, but also an innocent child? You’re the one creating this stupid scenario - so just what is wrong with you?

Many years ago I was challenged by a forum’s resident looney (SVW from above, in fact) with would you kill your cat to save my grandchildren? Now this fellow was supposedly an elderly rightwing nut (though you never know on forums), so I wanted to be reasonable.

I asked him to explain the situation, but he kept pushing it with the usual “Answer me! Yes or no!!” I said that I couldn’t really answer him unless he provided some parameters - for instance, there may be a way to save everyone.

So he got angrier blurting out something like he’d gladly give up his cat for my son without even blinking. I kept trying to explain to him that we need to know the circumstances of the situation. Just what danger are his grandchildren in? Exactly how does my cat’s life fit into the picture?

This brought on another tirade on how my answers should be a lesson for the people on the forum demonstrating that AR activists value human life below that of their precious animals.

So it was evidently time to suggest to him that it would appear that he shows very little value for his own grandchildren. He’s the one who is putting them in this life or death scenario. He’s the one who is not providing me, the one person who could save them, with any information whatsoever. He’s the one who will bear the responsibility for their deaths. And all for what? Just so he can try to make his petty point?

He was not seen on the forum for several weeks afterwards. Perhaps he was spending some time with his grandchildren.

So in summary, remember that the situation is only a hypothetical one. As such, you have as much right to paint the scenery as does the anti-animal cheerleader. The attempt is to discredit you by getting you to either be ‘untrue’ to your cause or to demonize you as a traitor to your species.

You don’t have to play the cheerleader’s silly game and if some of them are reading this, one would hope they wouldn’t waste everyone’s time with such immature and ridiculous riffraff.

Despair And Anger

AR activists are continually bombarded with scenarios of abuse and torture inflicted upon the very creatures they are fighting for. This is understandably a concern because many activists get burned out from the bombardment while many a would-be activist tends to avoid getting involved because doing so would be too emotionally painful for them.

So how can activists deal with this very important concern?

The very first thing to understand is that ’negative’ emotions such as Despair, Anger, Hatred, Jealousy, Greed and those other items that sprang forth eons ago from Pandora’s Box, all stem from a single source, Fear.

The good news is that Fear is no match for the last entity that came out of that cursed container, Hope.

By Hope we are not talking about some comforting ‘want’ for a more convenient existence. In fact, it is most important not to let ‘wanting’ poison the mix, for it too, is a close cousin of Fear.

Lao Tzu said, “By not wanting, there is calm and the world can straighten itself.”

Therefore, for your own peace of mind, never ‘want’ things to be a certain way.

Please understand that ’not wanting’ is by no means synonymous with ’not acting’. In fact, action is at its purest when there is no wanting, for it is uncluttered with expectations.

The problem of disappointment comes from linking an expectation to an action. One engages in an action fully expecting a certain result. If the result materializes, euphoria usually follows. If the result is unsatisfactory, one or more of Fear’s relatives start up a party. Either way, calmness is sacrificed to glandular secretions.

What needs to be understood is that a particular action may not produce the desired result simply because causality is a tricky business - there are invariably many factors involved which may take the flow of events in a different direction than what one might expect. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t plan the action with specific goals in mind. It only means that one shouldn’t attach one’s wishes with superglue to events that haven’t even occurred.

Therefore, do not harbor expectations for your action.

Ok, but suppose things go really bad. Suppose after all your efforts, the situation looks even worse than it did before? Surely, you are entitled to some modicum of misery? Well, of course you are entitled to this anytime, but if it doesn’t help you or your cause, why bother?

There is a saying, “Life owes us nothing. We owe life everything. The only way to happiness is to squander oneself in a worthwhile cause.” So what is important here is the squandering - never what you (or those you advocate for) are owed.

This idea appears throughout the ancient texts in various forms such as “The battle cannot be won. It cannot be lost. It can only be fought.” or the beautifully concise Zen koan, “Working hard, accomplishing no thing”.

Therefore, act according to your conscience and damn the consequences!

Please understand that the suggestion is not that one becomes an impassioned robot though there is nothing at all wrong with being so, if this is the style you wish to adopt.

Some wear their Compassion on their sleeve and can sooth the wildest of brutes.

However, understand that Compassion’s closest relative is Courage. Those who protest atrocity, those who oppose cruelty, those who rescue sentient beings from torture and death, do so because of their Compassion and also because of their Courage.

What does this mean? It means that if one has Compassion, alongside also travels her close companion, Courage.

Therefore, never feel you lack courage, if you are compassionate. One is never far from the other.

Some people get traumatized by events. They need to understand that events are like waves of water in a stream, part of the flow. The stream cannot be determined from a few waves. In fact, if you get too close to any wave, you’ll likely get wet.

Keeping the bigger picture in mind, is a popular saying, but what is being suggested here is quite different. When swimming in a stream one needs to adapt one’s motion to coordinate with the larger motion. This is like the ‘go with the flow’ idea, with one major addition: keep the head above the water.

The flow is nice and energizing, so one doesn’t have to be buffetted by the individual waves. However, it is important to watch where the stream is headed or if someone has diverted its course from its true destination, the grand ocean. After all, one doesn’t want to end up in someone’s resevoir.

Therefore, go with the flow, but only if the flow aligns with integrity.

Many people get depressed because they feel they are not doing enough. In fact, they worry so much, that they end up doing very little. This is not an uncommon occurence because there is no shortage of causes in this world. However, the matter is not to be dealt with by time management alone. It needs to be handled by a realization that one doesn’t have to do it all.

Many years ago, we invited a tree-sitter (protesting the Claycot Sound logging), Leanne Mallet, to speak to our environment and animal rights group. She provided possibly the most significant idea which relates to activism.

She said that “some of us are good at writing letters; some are good at organizing events; some like to be out there to protest; some have legal skills; some like to do public speaking; some engage in direct action - we need everyone!”

So just because one doesn’t have the resources or inclination to ram whaling ships, doesn’t mean that one can’t write letters. Similarly, just because one is protesting the seal slaughter, doesn’t mean that one must hold talks at the library denouncing factory farming.

Therefore, you don’t have to do everything, but you can always do something.

Isolation and loneliness are often a reality that activists face. Depending upon location, there may appear to be no one around who shares similar ideas and ideals. Some people handle such situations well - in fact, they like to work alone, but many don’t and wish they had some support even within their own home (which is quite often not the case).

Many things have, however, made things better for activists, particularly the internet through which one has contact and access to resources that were not available only a decade ago. Furthermore, even if an activist is unable to do things in the immediate area, it is possible to assist other activists all around the world.

Loneliness though, is something which is more illusory than real.

There was an episode in the Kung Fu series from the 70s where young Kwai Chang Caine had lost his parents. He was very sad and complained of loneliness to his blind teacher, Master Po. “Do you not hear the birds singing?”, Po asked, “Do you not notice the crickets jumping or the snakes moving in the grass? In such a crowded place, you feel you are alone. Now tell me, which one of us is the more blind?”

It is well to remember that in addition to the birds, crickets and snakes one has companions such as Pythagoras, Leo Tolstoy, Francis of Assisi, Albert Schweitzer. Ok so they’re all dead, but even so their existence is undeniable. Plus we have many to add to the good company in the form of present day activists whose numbers abound!

Therefore, remember you are not alone and not isolated. In fact, you ride in kindred spirit with the best humanity has to offer!

Knowing that one is in the company of good people is reassuring, but what many aren’t aware of is that there are other forces at work too.

Historically, humans have become more civilized. It doesn’t always look that way of course, but generally, there are more mechanisms in play to encourage good behavior (eg laws, rehabilitation, even therapy) than ever before in the past.

There is greater awareness of the plight of non-human sentient beings. In fact, one of the common whines by animal abusers is that people seem to care more about animals than other people (which is quite understandable after an inspection of the whiner). Due to technological advances as well as education, the animal rights movement has grown faster and larger than any social justice movement (eg anti-racism, feminism, rights for handicapped, rights for children) in history!

And so it should be. For the true measure of one’s worth is always tested by how one acts towards those most vulnerable. Do we choose kindness or do we choose cruelty?

The ramifications of such a choice have been expressed by many throughout history:

“For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” (Pythagoras, mathematician)

“As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.” (Leo Tolstoy, author)

“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” (Albert Schweitzer, missionary and statesman)

“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men.” (Francis of Assisi, saint)

Our choices do shape our destiny for we can choose to be in alignment or in opposition with the unrelenting and unstoppable force which drives the universe, the force of evolution.

Therefore, know that the force really is with you!

As you can see, there is much beyond despair and anger.

There is hope. She embraces us whether we recognize it or not. She nurtures us through our grief and sorrow as she does all those who suffer in life. She travels with us on our eternal journey, providing cosmic companionship.

For hope is that single candle, whose light no amount of fearful darkness can ever diminish.

Feeling Bad For Doing Good

So how can something like this possibly happen? Shouldn’t one who does good things by supporting worthwhile causes also feel good? One would think so, but there are factors which can make it difficult.

When you have a social justice cause, you can be sure you are going to be opposed by others - well it wouldn’t be a social justice cause otherwise. Now the opposition usually oozes themselves into 3 groups:

First, there are the oppressors. They are well-defined, clear in their purpose and intent. You know just where you stand with them.

Then there are the apathetics. These are usually a bunch that don’t really care to speak out one way or another. They just want to be left alone so they can keep their hands over their eyes and ears (though not always their mouths).

Finally, there are the saboteurs, those who do know the score (even better than you might) and claim to support you in principle, but seem to have considerable difficulty with the actual practice.

It is important to be aware of these 3 groups simply because each is motivated differently. Understanding the motivation often helps in how we deal with the reactions we get. In fact, it’s actually amusing to see all three sides uniting against you but for entirely different reasons. So let’s see how this happens using specific attacks made on your efforts - attacks that can make you feel bad, even when you are doing good!

A. The Don’t Tell Others What To Do

This is an old standard. For some reason, even though everyone is always telling anyone within reach what to do, your efforts are deemed particularly offensive. Well we know the oppressors don’t want to be told to stop oppressing and the apathetics don’t want to be told to do anything. However, the saboteurs seem to feel that your efforts somehow undermine their appearence of nobility. Because they agree in principle with you, they think you are giving them a bad name, so they attack you forgetting who the real enemy is.

If you remind them of the real enemy, you’ll get responses like ‘There are no enemies’ or the humanitarian ‘We are all humans’ or the spiritual ‘We are all spirits’.

In any case, this entire idea of not telling others what to do is a self-referential piece of silliness because the person has just told you what to do! As such, the effort is not merely contradictory, but also self-annihilating!

If you want to tell people what to do, by all means do so. Just do it politely, sensibly and accurately. You’ll likely get impolite, insensible fantasies in response, so someone has to be the voice of sanity and it might as well be you.

So go ahead and tell people what to do, but remember,

Don’t feel bad when you are doing something good!

B. The Oh But We Must Be Tolerant

A multitude of evils is sheltered underneath this umbrella. The oppressors are tolerant towards everyone except those who criticise what they do. The apathetics jiggle with their equitable outlook on existence. The saboteurs congratulate themselves for their ability to hold tight to their own highly ethical beliefs while ‘understanding’ those of the opposition.

When confronting cruelty, hatred and injustice there is no honor in tolerance. In fact, if you tolerate, you are complicit.

Some people have this idea that we should be tolerant because other people just “see things differently”. Unfortunately, they also go out of their way to not be tolerant of those see this tolerance thing differently from them. So they’ll defend the oppressor (for seeing things differently) and attack you for criticizing the oppressor.

The underlying reasoning here isn’t remarkable. At the top of their logic hierarchy sits “Thou shalt be tolerant”, but because they are unwilling to go after the oppressor (that would conflict with the top commandment), they go after anything else - forgetting that by not playing fair, they have violated their own standard.

They also don’t consider the ramifications of their “not finding fault because others see things differently” premise. It’s not really a bad premise, but it can be misapplied very inappropriately because by their reasoning we shouldn’t find fault with:

serial killers … just because they see things differently
child molesters … just because they see things differently
slave traders … just because they see things differently
racists … just because they see things differently
misogynists … just because they see things differently

Possibly some of them may want to test their TQ (tolerance quotient) by watching these videos: Animal Rights Songs.

So you don’t need to subscribe to their school of tolerance, but more importantly,

Don’t feel bad when you are doing something good!

C. The We’ve Got To Spread The Love

There’s a lot of gibberish written about love these days - in fact, this has been going on throughout history. It is really a pretty mushy topic anyway, but some self-proclaimed pilgrims have chosen to take it upon themselves to smear the good word everywhere they can.

So the oppressors are full of love for their families whom they feed the broken bodies of sentient beings. The apathetics indulge themselves in the substance feeling love regardless of the horrors they choose to ignore. The saboteurs are practically overflowing with the elixir spilling it with wild abandon upon anyone including those who commit atrocities claiming these are the ones who need compassion for they have merely strayed.

Now love is probably a good idea. However, one really needs to establish what we’re talking about here. Going around just ’loving’ everyone in sight, might give you warm fuzzies, but it is of little consolation to the veal calf, the battered wife or the tortured prisoner.

So we should really be clear on this matter. Those who profess to ‘spread the love’ do so for their own benefit. It makes them feel good and much of the time does diddle else.

Those throughout history who really loved, who really understood it, all practiced agape which is the divine love, in fact, the only love. Their love was not of empty words, but of resolute and courageous action. What else could you possibly expect from the divine? When agape appears, there is no room for any petty absurdities such as whimsical tolerance.

Here is a beautiful excerpt from a write-up by Kelin on love and that other stuff:

Even Jesus (and I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but as a Christian this is my life), who was often thought of as extremely accepting of everyone because he kept company with prostitutes, murderers, thiefs, and various other sinners, differentiated between love and tolerance. He LOVED the people, but he made it clear that they needed to turn their back on their sinful actions. I think (obviously) that His is the perfect example…we should love people, not judge them (where judging means thinking that because we “saw the light” sooner than they did that we are somehow better), but still let them know why it is so important that they change their ways.
(From Judgement and tolerance thread on the 30bananas site which is no longer available.)

So when you advocate for the downtrodden, when you defend the weak, when you scream for those whose screams cannot be heard, you are actually practising the only love that exists, and therefore,

Don’t feel bad when you are doing something good!

D. The But You Mustn’t Be A Fanatic

Well just why not? Has anyone done anything of value without being a fanatic?

Now it’s important to understand that people don’t want you to be a fanatic because the repercussions upon them would be quite severe. The oppressors are faced with a single-minded, determined adversary. The apathetics are worried they may be rudely awakened from their snoozing. The saboteurs just don’t want someone to do their job better than they are likely not doing in the first place.

Fanatics are a real problem for those wanting to maintain the comfortable status quo. They can prick, fester and gangrenize. They may even force a necessary amputation. They are not nice to have to deal with because they really are serious disturbers. As the saying goes, “Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.”

If you are planning on being a fanatic, it shouldn’t surprise you that you may not win too many popularity contests. It is more than likely you will be assailed by those whose comfort zone you have invaded for “being too extreme”.

Well obviously, fanatics are invariably extremists too.

People who complain about extremists rarely know on what hallowed ground they dare to tread. Those who further humanity, people like Schweitzer, Beethoven, McClung, Gandhi, Street, Thoreau were all fanatics, all extremists. Of course, in desperation, you’ll be reminded that Hitler was one too! However, the matter is quite easily resolved and was done so eloquently by Martin Luther King from Birmingham jail:

… though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal … " So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime - the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

It is really important to recognize your part in this play and be aware of whom you are understudying. When you say your lines, know that they were written long, long ago and repeated over and over again by the best of who ever went on this stage!

When you speak, it is to achieve the right that we strive for.
When you speak, it is about the peace humanity longs for.
When you speak, it is to nurture that spark within, all but extinguished through complacency, greed and fear.

So be a fanatic, be extreme and,

Don’t ever feel bad when you are doing something good!

Digital Dexterity

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 11:11:15 -0700

You want to get good on the internet so you can get things done effectively and efficiently. This article will show you how.

If you don’t need to be a hacker (likely good person with a good purpose who does no harm) or a cracker (probably a bad person who breaks into systems for malicious purposes), you should find the ideas here to be helpful. If you want to be a hacker or cracker, read this first and then use the ideas here to kickstart your destiny!

(Reading the article on a phone may result in images being a bit small for your viewing taste, so move your device sideways into landscape mode and/or enlarge the image with your fingers.)

Introduction

The process we outline below is called FOE (Find-Organize-Engage) and is quite foenctional! We will take a recursive approach and figure out what we can do to develop digital dexterity (DD) using FOE. There are tasks to complete along the way - so do them!

Find

The first step of a DD effort is to get information and the internet offers several tools to do so.

Search Engine

There are many search engines (some generalized some specialized).

Task: Goto google.com and type search engines and you should see a page like this:

You have searched for and found search engines on the net! Notice that your page may look a bit different from the above because the internet changes rapidly and search engines often customize their searches to your browsing habits. The key point to understand though is that there is much more than the familiar google search engine. If you go to the Wikipedia article List of Search Engines, you will find lots of information on the different search engines that are out there and what they are for.

The ones we mostly use are:

duckduckgo, because we like the fact that it scrolls infinitely
bing, because it integrated with chatgpt giving ‘complete’ answers
google, because there will be a lot of goodies coming eventually

You will notice that the search engines often provide additional assistance such as definitions, wikipedia links and even questions (with answers) based on what others have asked about your topic.

Wikipedia

This is a excellent boon to the internet with content curated by the community. Some peculiar people like to claim that Wikipedia is “unreliable” or “untrustworthy”. These people not only have low self-esteem which they try to bolster by being critical, they often have poor research skills preferring faith (which does not require researching) to facts.

Nothing stays for long on Wikipedia because someone ‘believes it to be true’. Statements have to be verified often from multiple sources and if there is insufficient support for an item it will be stated as such. Furthermore, the actual documentation used as support is footnoted. As such, looking for a particular topic on Wikipedia not only provides the summary the volunteer editors have produced and verified, you get a list of the references used to produce the content. It is a great starting point for any honest researcher who is willing to check out the links and citations provided in the article!

Task: Goto wikipedia.com and type into its search bar “search engine”. You should see the following:

Presently, the page acknowledges the need for better citations and asks for help to improve the article. Also notice how well referenced and linked various items are in the article. Finally, there is a section at the bottom of the page which lists material for “Further Reading”.

Wikipedia is a superb resource that search engines often link to and could form an important component in your set of tools!

Chatbot

Captain Kirk, landing on planet Earth, contacted the Enterprise stating with some insistence:
“Beam me up, Scotty! There’s no intelligent life here!”

Well now there is!!

Task: Goto google and type in “what is a chatbot”. You will see results from the dictionary stating that it is “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users”.

Task: Goto wikipedia and type in “chatbot”. You’ll find lots more information.

In fact, why don’t we try to see what a chatbot knows about chatbots!

Task: Goto to bing and type into the “Ask me anything” box something like “Tell me about chatbots” and press your enter/return key. If you don’t see a “Ask me anything” box, click on “Chat” in the upper bar and you’ll be able to get a place to type your request. The bing ai chatbot will answer you.

The most famous (for now) chatbot is ChatGPT and it is particularly well-suited for generating text, but it doesn’t give you link references for its answers.

Bing’s chatbot is fairly good too and does provide links for reference and follow-up.

Our favorite (at present) is Perplexity though. It combines, in our opinion, the best features of a chatbot and search engine. It writes well, though not as well as ChatGPT (unless you ask it to use ChatGPT!!), provides reference and follow-up links, is easy to set up an account, and just works very smoothly!

There is also Google’s Bard, which looks very impressive because it will work with other programs like your wordprocessor or spreadsheet, but it isn’t available everywhere yet. It’s likely going to be worth the wait!

Well! You’ve just made a great friend! Actually, I kid you not: Woman creates and ‘marries’ AI-powered chatbot boyfriend.

What can this friend do for you? Well just ask your new friend (one of the above chatbots)!

Task: Type in the send message box, “What can a chatbot do for me?”

Your friend, btw, has many similar acquaintances. Find out who some of them are.

Task: Type in the send message box, “What other chatbots are there?”

A chatbot is not quite a substitute for a search engine. For instance, it will not give you the volume of information. However, it can certainly do what any good friend will - be at your side with encouraging information, possible solutions and even companionship!

Specialized Options

Certain websites have content that is directly suited to your needs. If you are interested in a specific area, you may want to look for things with something other than the general search mechanisms outlined above.

For instance, say you are interested in academic research on the “retrieval effectiveness of search engines”. Instead of typing that into google.com, go to the scholar version of google instead.

Task: Goto Google Scholar and type in “retrieval effectiveness of search engines”. You’ll get something like this:

Notice that you are not taken to typical sites, but are given links to actual research papers that have been published in journals!

An additional approach to try is going to an academic site which collects and organizes papers.

Task: Goto academia.edu and type in “retrieval effectiveness of search engines”. You’ll see a collection of papers as well as some other goodies:

This site lets you access a lot of papers relevant to your topic, but with a premium membership, it will give you a lot more of particular benefit to active scholars.

There are many sites similar to academia.edu that some researchers may prefer.

Organize

Now that you know how to acquire all the world’s knowledge, you need some ways to get at it when required.

Browser Bookmark

The bookmark system on your browser is a most valuable organizational mechanism. It can bookmark webpages you visit so you can go to these when you want to. If you make the effort to sort these bookmarks into proper categories, you may find it easier to access them later. In conjunction with the categorizing method is often found a tagging setup where you give certain webpages a tag. Then when you ask for that tag in your browser, all the pages with that particular tag show up!

Some well known browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Whale and you can find about their merits here.

Our browser of choice is Vivaldi which has more surprisingly helpful utilities than any other browser we have worked with.

Browsers usually have third party extension written for them which can do specific tasks. For instance, here is the Chrome Web Store which you can search for the Chrome Browser extensions. Extensions install in seconds and are often quite useful.

Browsers often have synchronizing abilities so that if you use say Vivaldi on your phone and desktop, your bookmarks and histories can be made the same.

Each browser is setup differently and has some unique capabilities, so the best way to get to know you browser is through its help page. Often your browser will have several youtube videos other users have posted which can help you to learn how to use it better.

Task: Learn about your browser by opening it and pushing the F1 key (which will usually bring the help page).

Personal Online Library

Bookmarks are great for keeping track of websites and webpages. A similar mechanism which offers different opportunities are personal online library sites. These let you store articles (and other items) from the web for later retrival in more ways than one!

The best example of such a system is Pocket. When you save an article to pocket from the web, it will be accessible much as it would be with a bookmark on your browser. However, the items can be accessed from your desktop or your phone or some other computer so long as you log into your pocket account. You can tag the articles and keep things organized.

Even more spectacular is that Pocket grabs the text of the article and stores it so that if the original webpage disappears in the future, you still have the text of the article! The premium version of Pocket also lets you do text searches in your collection.

If all this is not enough, Pocket will even read the article to you if you don’t feel like using your eyes!

Task: Learn about Pocket - it’ll be worth your time if you read a lot!

Calendar

Do you need to do more than accumulate information which you are quite competent at doing by now? Do you actually need to get things done?

There are two mechanisms that can be particularly helpful to you. The simplest is to create a tasklist and just work on things one after the other. You can learn about this revolutionary method in this Time Management Essentials article.

However, if you want to be more than revolutionary, you need a calendar because you can not only put down tasks, but you can indicate when these need to be done. The best calendar software should be webbased, so you can access it (and vis a versa) from anywhere.

We use Google Calendar because we’ve always used google calendar and for no other particular reason. The software lets you create appointments, reminders, and tasks. You can view in various formats such as weekly or daily.

How it rates with other calendars such as Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Zapier Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Fantastical, we haven’t a clue.

Task: Check out The 5 best calendar apps in 2023 and try them if you want to.

Just remember you want to access your calendar from both your destop and your phone, so be sure that there are suitable apps for your phone or tablet.

Converters

Ah so!! You niet speckenzie anglais, eh?

Not a problem because these days you can convert one language into another through the miracle of translation.

There are many sites that will do this sort of thing for you. Some sites even have translators built into them so you can read what’s on the site if it is written in a language you don’t speak. Translators are getting better and better, some even incorporating artificial intelligence.

Task: Go to the Cambridge Dictionary Translator and type “How are you?” into the English box. Then in the box below pick Czech as the language to translate your entry into. Click translate and voila (pardon my French), you get “Jak se máš?”. How about that, eh?! Is it correct? I haven’t the faintest idea, but you can czech it out yourself.

Not only are there converters that let you express yourself in different languages, you can do neat things like change all British units of measurement all over the planet into metric (which is what they should have been in the first place!)

Task: Go to calculator.net and you’ll find an excellent system that provides multiple conversions at once. Using the Length tab put a 10 into the From: box. Then click on mile and you’ll see the results in the adjacent box!

This is setting the world right one metric at a time!

In addition to the above, there is a myriad of document converters that come to the rescue when required. For instance, fine Linux folks have to endure awkwardness caused by Apple and Windows (ok so I married a windoze user, but I hadn’t got wind of it back then!) which use propriety protocols so that only their software can open their documents (they can’t even open each others’ stuff!). Such deplorable behavior is overcome using various online tools. For instance, say some unfortunate sends you a “.pages” document and you can’t open it because you are not an Apple user! Just go to FreeConvert and change it to a pdf! These conversion sites can be a documentsaver in an emergency!

There are other converters designed for various uses, but you can find these when you require them (since you know how to search).

Engage

Now that you are organized with huge amounts of information at your digital tips, it’s time to go and make use of your abilities! Being involved on the web can be a multi-mutually rewarding one, but you should be aware that there are miscreants out there who just like to be nasty (aka troll, cyberbully, hostile). There are some who just like to yap a lot and though these can be annoying, they tend to be harmless. You may find this Internet Discussion Strategies guide useful when confronting the unsavory elements.

Email

Writing emails to others is a primary form of communication for most people. One sends text (or more elaborate html) messages to others. To do so, one can use a standalone software (eg Outlook Express, Evolution, Thunderbird) or one that works through your browser (eg Gmail, Yahoo Mail).

These items are known as email clients and often they also work with Calendars, Tasks, Contact Lists and other things to provide an integrated experience. Additionally, emails can send attachments such as photos or pdf documents. Good email clients will also let you do complex searches through all your emails so you can find just the one you are looking for.

Sometimes, you may want to send the same email to multiple recipients. There are 2 primary ways to do this.

If the list is fairly small you can put the primary recipient in the To: field and others in the Cc: or Bcc: fields. The difference between Cc: and Bcc: is that the Cc: email addresses are visible to everyone receiving the email, but ones in the Bcc: field remain invisible. One would use the Bcc: field when the email address of that recipient does not want to be identified. Email addresses are usually separated by commas or semi-colons. The receiver of the email can press ‘Reply’ (to reply to the original sender) or ‘Reply All’ (to reply to everyone on the list).

If the list is large, you’ll have a lot of email addresses to put in the To: or Cc: fields! Furthermore, you email may not even get out because some email client put limits on how many people you can send to. For example, Outlook has a maximum 500 recipients per message which is more than enough for most people, but it’s still pretty messy. A better solution to handling large lists is to use a Listserv such as Gaggle. People can get onto the list and any email they send to NAMEOFLIST@gaggle.email goes out to everyone. They can reply to the group (by default) or to the individual sender. You can also get daily digests of email conversations on the list if you don’t want to receive large numbers of emails.

Remember that emails sent to lists should follow rules of email etiquette. After all, other people have to read your work so here are some things practice:

Always have a relevant title in the Subject: field. People who leave this field blank or put something useless like “Hello”, make it difficult for readers to know what they are opening.
Post with precision. Don’t go spilling your innermost guts in your posts. Not only does it make for nauseating reading, it can be bothersome to do so. Also do not reply just to say thank you! It’s not worth the trouble of opening the email to read such heartfelt gratitude! By all means, express your appreciation, but add something useful along with it such as how you intend to use the info (that might help others too), or suggestions for modifications, or listing others who might find such items of interest, or …
If your post contains information that should be examined further on the web, provide the links! Be helpful to your readers so they don’t have to surf the net all night to see what you want them to see.
Minimize the frequency of postings. By all means, post when you should, but responding to every person (unless doing so is important) becomes a disturbance to members of the list.
Do not spam! Do not post off topic items! If the list is for discussion on sportscars, then do not post something regarding jellybeans. It will annoy people. If the topic is related, say racing buses, may be that might be alright, but you should be cautious. If there is any doubt, check with the administrator of the list. If you keep posting spam, you run the risk of being removed from it.

Email on a list should be mostly viewed not as a conversational hobby, but as a communications facility. Treat it and your readers with the respect they warrant.

A variation of the email system is texting on your mobile phone though this is best suited for individual conversations rather than group texting (though that can be done as well with something called SMS).

Forum

Some people find receiving email convenient, but some don’t! For the latter, there is the forum mechanism. Also, known as bulletin boards, these systems let people post and read posts on a website. These systems are particularly effective when specialized notation is required (something that isn’t always possible with email). For instance, take a look at the Continuation of Coordinates Across Black Hole Horizons on the PhysicsForums. Beautiful isn’t it!

Here is a forum for programmers who use the Clojure Language called Zulip. Notice it is able to insert computer code for discussion.

Forums usually have advanced search, follow a particular author, notification of new postings and many other features that make this venue a very powerful one!

The same etiquette rules for email lists apply to forums.

Website

If you want to go all out and have your place on the internet, you need a website!

The steps to follow are outlined in this article (and many others - just use your find skills!), but the essential ideas are

to create content (designing), which can be done in a wordprocessor and converted to html (the website scripting language that let’s browsers display your work) or with blogging software such as Wordpress
put it somewhere on the net (hosting), on someone else’s site or on your own site (with your own domain name)

There are many organizations that you can do these things through. Some have a turnkey operation where you build your site with its own domain name from their templates. They will have software with which to create content, get you the domain name of your choice (provided it is available), and host the site for you. Examples of such outfits are bluehost, wix, godaddy, and weebly.

Variations on the website theme are social media (eg facebook, instagram, mastedon) and video channels (eg youtube, vimeo). Many find building a presence using these systems simpler and more effective (for their purposes) than having an actual website (though some use combinations of all).

Conclusion

You are now well-armed with that which you wanted!

You know how to Find information on the net!
You know how to Organize this information!
You know how to Engage with others to make an impact!

So go FOErward henceFOErth!

Helpful Alliances

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 12:54:36 -0700

This section lists actual and potential alliances with groups, organizations and individuals who want to end fireworks displays. There is strength in numbers and working together we can achieve the goal we all seek.

Who Should Support Us

Law Enforcement

Firework displays cause many problems that violate more than common decency:

the noise is a disturbance of the peace (no different than playing loud rock music at 2am)
the debris is a hazard to public cleanliness (no different than littering)
the toxins are a danger to public health (no different than dumping chemicals on the street)
the vandalism is a peril to property (no different than defacing premises)
the hooligans are a menace to everyone (no different than letting terrorists run rampant)

The above are not merely harmless celebrations. They are illegal acts of violence:
People got stupid with fireworks all over Toronto on Victoria Day
Delta police investigating fireworks-involved assaults after Halloween gathering

They need to be seen exactly as such and not euphemized into oblivion!

Law enforcement would concur. For instance, a sent from the Victoria Police Department not only deplores the plight of the community forced to endure this illegal behavior since they have to respond to complaints, the letter also “support the exploration of legislative changes that result in improved community safety and well-being.”

The police are on our side on this important issue and we should work with them to bring about change!

Environmental Preservation

There are various environment groups who try to stop damage to our planet and local communities. One area they could be encouraged to take action on is stopping fireworks. There is pollution of various sorts other than just the noise including debris and toxins.

A group that should support the cause is the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA). Their mandate states:

CELA works toward protecting public health and the environment by seeking justice for those harmed by pollution or poor decision-making and by changing policies to prevent problems in the first place. Since 1970, CELA has used legal tools, conducted public legal education, undertaken groundbreaking research, and advocated for increased environmental protection and to safeguard communities … CELA places high priority on cases, public legal education, and law reform work aimed at ensuring safe, healthy, and livable communities.

Dr. Terry Gordon, Professor of Environmental Medicine at NYU certainly thinks that CELA’s “Policy Development is appropriate for your ideas [recognizing fireworks to be an environmental hazard] and those ideas have to start somewhere.”

Another group that would support banning fireworks would be firefighter associations since they have to deal with the disasters often at the risk of their own lives.

Animal Protection

There are various types of organizations that work to help animals in various ways such as hardcore animal rights defenders, existence improvement welfare institutions, wildlife rescue and rehabilitators, domestic advocates. All these groups should have a common interest to eliminate fireworks.

For instance, the Vancouver Humane Society is sharing Government of Canada petition e-4351 for a fireworks ban encouraging their members to sign it. They also have in their news/blog: 5 reasons to skip fireworks this Halloween & 3 steps to protect animals.

The BCSPCA is a longterm advocate against fireworks exposing the dangers to pets, farm animals, wildlife and people and has provided this .

The Fur-bearers organization has several articles on keeping animals safe during fireworks displays.

Those who protect animals should be staunch allies in the effort to end fireworks.

Human Safety

Fireworks are dangerous!

Here is an excerpt from a presentation given to the Victoria City Council:

8000 children are injured in North America each year and 20 people will die as a result of fireworks. The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program states that fireworks injuries are most frequently in males under the age of 19. The risk is highest for children ages 5-14. Most common injuries are burns, followed by head, eye and hand injuries. 65% of all fireworks injuries are to bystanders, and (3/4) of injuries require medical treatment in emergency departments. More than 80% of emergency room fireworks injuries involve fireworks that consumers are permitted to use.

Fireworks are not that different from dynamite and people have actually died through their use.

Here is a List of fireworks accidents and incidents from 1869-2023. Check out these 2 CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission in the USA) 2019 Fireworks Annual Report and 2021 Annual Fireworks Report as examples of the very real nature of the danger!

There are many organizations related to healthcare and safety of adults and children who want an end to these displays.

Fiscal Responsibility

Emergency response, tax dollars spent on police enforcement, healthcare due to injuries sustained, etc etc! It’s enough to make any government or business comptroller cringe!

Fireworks cost a lot to begin with with a 3 fold profit margin:

In the 21st century, consumer fireworks revenue slowly and steadily ticked up from $407 million in 2000 to $1 billion in 2019. In a single year, that number nearly doubled to $1.9 billion in 2020 and then jumped to $2.2 billion in 2021.
How Much Do Americans Spend on Fireworks?

However, the eventual cost to society for this expensive ’entertainment' is staggering! Consider the drop of costs associated with Halloween fireworks in Vancouver after the ban was implemented:

Over Halloween weekend in 2020, the service reported a total dollar loss for fireworks-related incidents to $408,000 … This year, that figure dropped to just $5,500.
Halloween fire costs plunge in Vancouver in first year of firework ban

Insurance companies would no doubt prefer not to deal with the fallout from fireworks:

Given that fireworks caused 19,500 fires in 2018, including 1,900 structure fires and $105 million in direct property damage, claims are a real risk.
Is Firework Damage Covered?

Fireworks are far more expensive that they appear to be and those who have to cover the costs would like to see an end to this damaging practice.

Who Are Supporting Us

If you support this initiative to ban fireworks locally and/or nationally, please send a confirming email to our accepting webmaintainer giving us permission to post your organization’s logo here. It will be linked back to your website so people can find out more about your organization, but you are welcome to include a small blurb as well.

The Animal Defence & Anti-Vivisection Society of British Columbia (ADAV), established by a veterinary surgeon in 1927, is a peaceful, grassroots organization committed to the abolition of vivisection on moral, ethical and scientific grounds.

Animal Justice leads the legal fight for animals in Canada. Our lawyers work to pass strong new animal protection laws, push to hold industries accountable for abusing animals, and fight on behalf of animals in court.

Defending Horses, because they can’t defend themselves! The Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC) is a registered not-for-profit organization working towards ending horse slaughter and the live export of horses for slaughter for human consumption.

Established in 1953, The Fur-Bearers is a charitable, non-partisan organization whose goals are to end the commercial fur trade and promote solutions for wildlife coexistence in communities.

Voice for Animals is a registered, non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of animals in a wide range of circumstances. Our focus is on local and province wide issues but our motto could be “think globally, act locally”.

TowardsFreedom supports the right of every being to a pollution-free life. Hence, we strongly endorse the efforts of this group to ban fireworks!

More coming soon …

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Fireworks Frustration Homepage

Resources

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 14:46:47 -0800

Here are some resources that may be of use for those actively seeking to stop fireworks frustration.

Fireworks Frustration Graphics

If you want to distribute the Fireworks Frustration card so others can visit this website, it is available in many forms:

Item	png format	pdf format
Small (social media)	png	pdf
Lettersize flyer	png	pdf
Legalsize flyer	png	pdf
Cards (set of 10)	png	pdf

Additionally, here is a sample letter you can give to a fellow fireworks frustrator who wants to help distribute the above items.

Want it all?!! Get it ALL as pdf.

Elists

Our bi-weekly newsletter can keep you in the know about efforts to ban fireworks! To stay up-to-date, subscribe to:

SayNoToFireworks News

There is also an email discussion group that anyone who Says No To Fireworks and wants to actively do something about it, can join. Just click on the link below to join:

SayNoToFireworks Muse

Once you are accepted in the discussion group, you will receive a welcome email with instructions on how to

send to the list
alter settings (eg signature, daily digest)
contact admin for help
unsubscribe (if you wish to)

To view the archives (and do some things), you will need to setup an account (it’s free).

On this discussion group, aintain proper email etiquette and post sensibly:

when starting a thread always have a useful subject field (so everyone knows what your post is about)
when replying never change the subject field (your post won’t get threaded properly if you do)

(Please know that the Muse is mercilessly moderated. If you are a troll, cyberbully, hostile or performer of La Triviata, you will not survive here for long.)

For either elist, if you have any difficulties signing up or do not receive your welcome email, contact our troubleshooting webmaintainer!

Sample Letters for Ban

Below are possible sample letters to politicians insisting fireworks be banned. Depending on the mood you are in, they may provide some guidance in creating your own.

Courteous

Dear Director, I wish to convey to you my request that our district implement a ban of fireworks displays as soon as possible. Fireworks are, after all, hazardous to the health of both animals and people. The noise, light flashes, debris and chemical pollution are things we would be happy to do without! So would the wildlife and our pets! In fact, our dog hides under the table when the fireworks go off. Our community looks forward to your prompt action on this matter. Much appreciated!

Pleasant

Dear Director, I would appreciate your efforts on implementing a ban on fireworks discharge in our fine community. Though these events take place officially only 3 times a year, those times are indeed trying for many of us. The noise is very disturbing especially to those who have PTSD and the light flashes can be quite frightening. I’m sure you know these displays are bad for wildlife, farm animals and pets too! For instance, our cat becomes quite traumatized during these displays. Surely there are other ways we can celebrate these special days! Thank you again for your consideration of this matter.

Friendly

Howdy Director, Hope you are having a fine day! I am writing to you to see if a ban on fireworks could be arranged. I know it’s only 3 times a year, but those 3 nights are really unpleasant for some of us! They probably may be for you as well. After all, who wants to hear the snap, crackle, pop at 2 am in the morning? Some of us are really trying to sleep. There are plenty of other ways to celebrate, so please see if you can get fireworks displays to stop happening in our community. Thank you!

Urgent

Attention: Director! Please ban fireworks displays right away! The noise is bad enough on the 3 occasions they are permitted, but many people keep at it even after those nights. They are inconsiderate! Decent folks should not have to endure such noise and light displays into the early hours of the morning. The wildlife and farm animals are terrified! I know that some horses have done serious damage to themselves because the noise makes them panic. Many people especially those with PTSD find it very difficult! Let’s get this show off the road immediately!

Sycophantic

Impressive Director! You know how much I deeply admire your excellent work for all these months and years! That is why I have the greatest confidence that you will come to our rescue, yet again, and push through a ban on fireworks displays with the help of your equally fine colleagues! Knowing how much you care for your subjects in this constituency, I have no doubts that you have the considerable capability to make sure that the loyal members of our wonderful community will not be forced to endure another night of explosives which deafen and blind us. Your people shall suffer no more thanks to you my dedicated Director!

Expletory

Yo! Director!! What the BLEEP is BLEEPING BLEEP BLEEP?!!! Who’s BLEEPING this BLEEPING BLEEP to BLEEPING keep BLEEP BLEEPING night after BLEEPING night!! BLEEPING stop these BLEEPING fireworks BLEEP BLEEP!! BLEEPING BLEEP makes me BLEEPING BLEEP!!! They make us all BLEEPING BLEEP!!!!!! Don’t want BLEEPING noise! Don’t want BLEEPING flashes!! Don’t want the BLEEPING BLEEPING BLEEP BLEEP!!! Do the BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP about it!!!
[Editorial Note: This technique though energetically enthusiastic may not be cryptically comprehensible and rather BLEEPINGLY BLEEPHAMOUS.]

How to ban fireworks in your community

The following is a set of guidelines produced by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Commentary is included in [].
Tasks are listed with bullets.

To ban fireworks in your jurisdiction, you would typically need to follow a legal process that involves several steps. Keep in mind that the specific procedure may vary depending on your country, state, or local laws. Here are some general steps to consider:

Research local laws: Begin by researching the existing laws and regulations regarding fireworks in your jurisdiction. This will help you understand the legal framework and any specific requirements or restrictions in place.
- Look up the laws of your municipality, prov/state, country.
Identify the appropriate authority: Determine which governmental body or authority has the power to enact or amend laws related to fireworks. It could be a city council, county government, state legislature, or other relevant authority.
- Find out who your politicians are and whether they support a ban
- If they support a ban, support them; if they don’t convince them or support one who does!
Build a case: Gather information and evidence that supports your argument for banning fireworks. This may include data on accidents, injuries, property damage, environmental concerns, or public safety risks associated with fireworks. Research the experiences of other jurisdictions that have implemented fireworks bans and gather statistics or studies that demonstrate the negative impact of fireworks.
- Produce a detailed but concise case document with appropriate data to justify the ban.
- Put this document along with other information on a website for easy access.
Form a coalition: Reach out to like-minded individuals or organizations in your community who are concerned about the use of fireworks. Building a coalition of supporters can help amplify your message and increase your chances of success. This could include residents, neighborhood associations, environmental groups, animal welfare organizations, or medical professionals, among others. [The coalition members need not be only local. Very valuable ideas and support can be found from beyond your immediate jurisdiction.]
- Form a small core (6-9) of dedicated individuals who have stamina and determination to do most of the initial work and bring others in.
- Add members to the group who are willing to write letters or speak at meetings.
- Invite organizations such as PTSD, animal protection, businesses etc to support the effort.
Draft a proposal or ordinance: Prepare a formal proposal or ordinance that outlines the specifics of the fireworks ban. Include the reasons for the ban, the proposed penalties for non-compliance, and any exceptions or alternatives you deem necessary. Ensure that your proposal aligns with the existing legal framework and is well-drafted to withstand scrutiny.
- Create a proposal to guide the politicians into making a law banning fireworks.
Engage with local authorities: Present your proposal or ordinance to the relevant authority responsible for implementing laws in your jurisdiction. This may involve attending council meetings, writing letters to elected officials, or requesting a meeting to discuss your concerns. Be prepared to answer questions and address any objections that may arise. [An excellent example of this engagement was the 23-01-12 City of Victoria Council Meeting where 4 individuals made presentations (D.6-9) to implement a ban on fireworks.]
- Support a politician to push the proposal through proper channels.
Public outreach and education: Conduct public outreach and education campaigns to raise awareness about the issues associated with fireworks. Use social media, local news outlets, community meetings, and other platforms to inform the public about your concerns and the benefits of a fireworks ban. Encourage community members to voice their support for the ban through petitions, letters, or public testimony. [Many people don’t want fireworks, but don’t realize it can be stopped. They just accept it as a so-called fact of life. Educating them about their rights to a pollution-free existence as well as celebration alternatives will result in an organized force which politicians will listen to!]
- Educate the public about the proposed ban through flyers, public meetings, your website, letters to the media etc.
- Encourage residents’ associations to take a stand (see this email as an example)
Advocate for the ban: Continue to advocate for the ban by maintaining regular communication with local authorities, attending relevant meetings or hearings, and keeping the issue in the public eye. Respond to any opposition or concerns with well-reasoned arguments and evidence. [One of the arguments against a ban is that it would be difficult to enforce. While enforcement may seem daunting to some extent, one should realize that it needn’t only take the form of police hunting down violators, giving warnings, levying fines, effecting incarceration … ! A ban gives individuals solid legal ground from which to voice displeasure and knowing that your discharges are ticking off your neighbors can be a motivating deterent.]
- Support your politician to push the ban through.
- Encourage your neighbors and others to support the ban by taking action such as writing letters to politicians and media regularly.
- Create an environment where fireworks are viewed as being unpopular hazards that no one should have to put up with.
Monitor progress: Stay informed about the progress of your proposal or ordinance and remain engaged in the process. Understand that implementing a ban may take time and may require multiple stages of review or public input. [While the bureaucratic churnings proceed in the right direction, realize that expressing your personal opposition to fireworks makes the activity socially unpopular and often does the job before and after the ban comes into place. Unpopularity was one of the weapons utilized by the Non-Smokers Rights Association in the 1970s.]
- Publish status of the proposal on your website and media by consulting with your politician.
- Keep your supporters aware of the progress made.
Celebrate success or regroup: If your efforts are successful and a fireworks ban is enacted, celebrate the accomplishment. However, if your proposal does not receive support initially, assess the reasons and consider modifying your approach, gathering more evidence, or seeking additional support to try again in the future. [Even if your efforts are successful, stay vigilant! Inconsiderate people always try to get away with selfish acts despite knowing the harm they cause. Some will keep trying to have the ban removed. An example of such lobbying is the effort by the CNFA to reverse the Brampton fireworks ban using the stale unenforceable argument.]
- Keep the successful implementation of the ban in everyone’s mind through the website and media.
- Acknowledge the community effort.
- Have people stay vigilant to illegal fireworks as well as efforts by unscrupulous individuals to overturn the ban.

Remember that this is a general outline, and the process may vary in different jurisdictions. It’s important to consult with legal experts or local authorities for specific guidance relevant to your area.

Artworks

Various artists are welcome to display their talents as related to fireworks frustrations here. We will provide blurb about you and a link back to your site, so people can see what else you do. If you want to display your work, please contact our aesthetic webmaintainer.

Twyla Francois

I’m a vegan animal cruelty investigator and artist.

See more of Twyla’s work at her website and visit her on Facebook at Twyla Francois Art & Investigation.

Bianca Xunise

Published in Times Colonist 2025-07-27

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Fireworks Frustration Homepage

Stories

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 22:25:03 -0800

Personal experiences with fireworks and those discharging them will be collected here. These can include not only bad experiences, but also ones on how a community stopped fireworks displays.

You can send us your story by filling out the form by clicking here.

If accepted, you will see it printed below. Please provide a general location (eg city or district). If you want your name published, please provide it as well (otherwise your story will be posted as anonymous).

Definitely do not enjoy the 3 times a year residential areas of the community are available to set off fireworks. I have a 12 year old chocolate lab who seems to have super sonic hearing for the sounds of the fireworks. To see her cuddled into a corner of the room trembling with slobber pouring out of her mouth is heartbreaking. No matter how loud the tv is and the prescriptions I give her do not have any effect on her. This is just my dog , how many other pets , livestock and wildlife are affected by this preventable nonsense. Please help to stop this cruelty to pets livestock and wild animals. CVRD this is now in your hands.
(Bruce, Shawnigan Lake BC)

Almost 2 years ago my best buddy, a beautiful St. Bernard + Great Pyrenees Cross named Kippy came into my life. He took his self- imposed job of guarding me seriously. He adapted to city life, with its ambulance sirens and other noises very well - except for fireworks! It seems that some people in Victoria like to “celebrate” every occasion, from New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, May Day, Canada Day, US Independence Day, parties at the beginning of classes at UVic, Halloween, you name it and for any excuse day, with ear-splitting explosions at irregular intervals. My poor dog is totally traumatized and goes into a psychotic state panting to the point of choking, circling around the room endlessly and uncontrollably for hours, throughout the night and then for days following, despite all the prescription drugs and calming treats that might knock him out for short periods. That means that those times are ruined for me too and impact my health.
Maybe it’s a fun thing for some children to be allowed to play with fireworks from the late afternoon onwards before their parents start up later again in the evening, but that is short-sighted. There is no reason a few people should be allowed to spoil celebrations for others. It really does need to be made illegal AND enforced. Are we not civilized?
(Maidie, Victoria BC)

Fireworks is pollution! Particulate pollution, light pollution, and most importantly noise pollution! No one needs this snap crackle pop which is harmful to animal and people.
Stop These Obnoxious Pyrotechnics!
(prad, Shawnigan Lake BC)

Our cat Ophelia has been spooked by fireworks. I’ve seen her look startled and dart to a hiding spot to stay safe. So I’ve seen that the stress caused by fireworks is real. And it is unnecessary. This New Year’s my husband and I were awakened and couldn’t get back to sleep because of the noise of fireworks in our neighborhoods. Many neighbors complained of the same experience.So fireworks can cause really unhealthy disruptions for many.
(Ranjana, Shawnigan Lake BC)

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Fireworks Frustration Homepage

Vegan Business Media

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 17:51:53 -0800

Take one look at Katrina’s Vegan Business Media and you know she means business! Your business!

The site is very well-organized and easy to navigate. In our opinion, it is a certain GOTO for anyone with a vegan business at any stage of development.

Two sections of particular interest are the Services and Blog. The former offers access to consulting, coaching, and even ‘done-for-you’ packages! The latter contains a wealth of information on finance, setup, trends, personal development (and more) through comprehensive blog posts.

Katrina generates confidence! She has 25+ years of experience in media worldwide (UK, US, OZ) as a journalist, copywriter, content marketer, and consultant! She is the author of Vegan Ventures: Start & Grow an Ethical Business and hosts the Vegan Business Talk podcast. Not surprisingly, the endorsements from her clients are glowing!

She says her mission is “to put more vegan business owners, experts, influencers, coaches, consultants and creatives in the limelight” and doing so will indeed make this world a better place!

Claire Smith

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 21:11:07 -0800

Claire Smith is one of those exceptional individuals who changes the world! She is experienced in finance and investing and has chosen to apply her abilities to the vegan cause!

Here is a series of items taken from Allen Lee’s fine article 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Claire Smith posted on MoneyInc:

Investing

Claire created Beyond Investing “a vegan and cruelty-free investment platform providing access to investment products which adhere to vegan principles and accelerate our transition to a kinder, cleaner, and healthier world.”

Ticker symbol VEGN

The US Vegan Climate ETF VEGN (and it’s European counterpart VEGAN) is a vehicle which “meets the standard of the vegan/climate-conscious lifestyle … But they don’t stop there; they put stocks which do meet set standards in the place of those eliminated”.

Beyond Animal

The Beyond Animal digital platform which functions to “accelerate the growth of the ethical, cruelty-free, sustainable economy (this means animal-free products and services that span across the globe)”

Other activities

Claire has an extensive background in finance and investing having worked with various investment companies, hedge funds, derivatives and credit analysis. Not only that, her Master’s degree is in Chemical Engineering and Management!

She has organized fund-raising galas and events for charities and founded the 100 Women in Finance an organization dedicated to

“… building a more diverse and gender equitable finance industry by promoting diversity of thought, raising visibility, and empowering women to find their personal path to success.”

As a director of AVVEC, she also works to provide support for victims of domesting violence.

It doesn’t end there! She is also a musician and has composed the poignant “No One Should Die” which she also performs beautifully! (Click the “Watch on YouTube link” to view.)

The song started A Global Vegan Charity Record project which aims to

“… create a global song for animals, recorded by famous global artists who are vegan, to have it published, played and performed widely and to create a video to accompany the song, that can also be shared online, to promote the cause of animals and save them from cruelty and harm.”

Even more! Claire has won many awards the most recent being Investment leader of the year for 2022.

We think she is Clairely inspirational!

Archlinux Forum

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 14:23:32 -0700

This is the archlinux forum where you will find really helpful people who can pretty well solve any issue you may have with the operating system.

It is a comprehensive forum with many sections such as:

Newbie Corner
Installation
Kernel & Hardware
Applications & Desktop Environments
Networking, Server, and Protection
Multimedia and Games

Go to the forum.

Imagemagick

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 20:07:52 -0700

Since we are going text/prg based for most things, we may consider imagemagick as a fairly regular replacement for gimp. This effort will also lead to understanding graphic software terminology.

Imagemagick website and Examples of ImageMagick Usage

Waiting items below will be elaborated on and some eliminated.

Quick Fixes

stitching gifs together

as explained here, the idea is to separate frames, join them, put it all back together: convert 1.gif -coalesce a-%04d.gif convert 2.gif -coalesce b-%04d.gif

for f in a-*.gif; do convert $f ${f/a/b} +append $f; done # append frames

convert -loop 0 -delay 20 a-*.gif result.gif # rejoin frames

montage

in a dir with jpg,png this is the sort of thing that can be done: magick montage -geometry 99x55>+2+2 -tile 4x1 *.{jpg,png} 00.jpg

crop

magick amazon-homepage.png -crop 2560x1440+1920+0 tmp.png

can use magick display to determine parameters though it is a bit awkward

make png transparent

convert test.png -transparent white trans.png

Features and Capabilities

Command-line processing: utilize ImageMagick from the command-line.

ImageMagick command-line consists of

one or more required input filenames:
- filename globbing magick *.jpg images.gif
- explicit image format magick -size 640x480 -depth 8 rgb:image image.png
- using built-in images and patterns magick -size 640x480 pattern:checkerboard checkerboard.png
- STDIN, STDOUT, and file descriptors not sure what is going on??
- selecting certain frames from an image magick ‘images.gif[0]’ image.png magick ‘images.gif[0-3]’ images.mng
- selecting a region of an image magick -size 6000x4000 -depth 8 ‘rgb:image[600x400+1900+2900]’ image.jpg
- forcing an inline image resize magick ‘*.jpg’ -resize 120x120 thumbnail%03d.png but better magick ‘*.jpg[120x120]’ thumbnail%03d.png
- forcing an inline image crop magick ‘*.jpg’ -crop 120x120+10+5 thumbnail%03d.png
- filename references magick @myimages.txt mymovie.gif magick image-%d.jpg[1-5]
zero, one, or more image settings.
zero, one, or more image operators.
zero, one, or more image sequence operators.
zero, one, or more image stacks.
zero or one output image filenames

Resizing an image

magick tmp.jpg -resample 10% -sharpen 0x2 -background none -flatten 00.jpg

Without the last 3 parameters the corners came out black instead of transparent.

Change black <-> white

magick input.png -channel RGB -negate output.png complements every color.

To just to the blacks and whites PP says use:

magick input.png \
  \( -clone 0 -colorspace HSL -channel Lightness -separate +channel -negate \) \
  \( -clone 0 -fill white -colorize 100 \) \
  -compose Luminize -composite \
  output.png

This command does the following:

Creates a copy of the input image and extracts its lightness channel.
Negates the lightness channel, which inverts black and white.
Creates another copy of the input image and turns it completely white.
Combines the negated lightness with the white image using the Luminize composition method.
This approach will invert black and white while preserving other colors14. It works by manipulating the lightness channel in the HSL colorspace, which affects only the brightness of the pixels without changing their hue or saturation6.

For even more control:

magick input.png \
  \( -clone 0 -colorspace HSL -channel Lightness -separate +channel -threshold 5%,95% -negate \) \
  \( -clone 0 -fill white -colorize 100 \) \
  -compose Luminize -composite \
  output.png

Waiting

Animation: create a GIF animation sequence from a group of images.

Bilateral blur: non-linear, edge-preserving, and noise-reducing smoothing filter.

Color management: accurate color management with color profiles or in lieu of– built-in gamma compression or expansion as demanded by the colorspace.

Color thresholding: force all pixels in the color range to white otherwise black.

Complex text layout: bidirectional text support and shaping.

Composite: overlap one image over another.

Connected component labeling: uniquely label connected regions in an image.

Convex hull: smallest area convex polygon containing the image foreground objects. In addition, the minimum bounding box and unrotate angle are also generated.

Decorate: add a border or frame to an image.

Delineate image features: Canny edge detection, Hough lines.

Discrete Fourier transform: implements the forward and inverse DFT.

Distributed pixel cache: offload intermediate pixel storage to one or more remote servers.

Draw: add shapes or text to an image.

Encipher or decipher an image: convert ordinary images into unintelligible gibberish and back again.

Format conversion: convert an image from one format to another (e.g. PNG to JPEG).

Generalized pixel distortion: correct for, or induce image distortions including perspective.

Heterogeneous distributed processing: certain algorithms are OpenCL-enabled to take advantage of speed-ups offered by executing in concert across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, and other processors.

High dynamic-range images: accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from the brightest direct sunlight to the deepest darkest shadows.

Histogram equalization: use adaptive histogram equalization to improve contrast in images.

Image cache: secure methods and tools to cache images, image sequences, video, audio or metadata in a local folder..

Image calculator: apply a mathematical expression to an image, image sequence, or image channels.

Image gradients: create a gradual blend of two colors whose shape is horizontal, vertical, circular, or elliptical.

Image identification: describe the format and attributes of an image.

ImageMagick on the iPhone: convert, edit, or compose images on your iOS device such as the iPhone or iPad.

Large image support: read, process, or write mega-, giga-, or tera-pixel image sizes.

Montage: juxtapose image thumbnails on an image canvas.

Morphology of shapes: extract features, describe shapes, and recognize patterns in images.

Motion picture support: read and write the common image formats used in digital film work.

Multispectral imagery: support multispectral imagery up to 64 bands.

Noise and color reduction: Kuwahara Filter, mean-shift.

Perceptual hash: map visually identical images to the same or similar hash– useful in image retrieval, authentication, indexing, or copy detection as well as digital watermarking.

Special effects: blur, sharpen, threshold, or tint an image.

Text & comments: insert descriptive or artistic text in an image.

Threads of execution support: ImageMagick is thread safe and most internal algorithms execute in parallel to take advantage of speed-ups offered by multicore processor chips.

Transform: resize, rotate, deskew, crop, flip or trim an image.

Transparency: render portions of an image invisible.

Virtual pixel support: convenient access to pixels outside the image boundaries.

Clojure

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 12:54:45 -0700

Clojure is a dynamic, general-purpose programming language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming.

keybindings

Most are found in cider key ref and should be figured out gradually.

;; docs
C-h . Gives from lsp in eldoc buffer with examples (auto)
(C-u) C-c C-d C-d|w At point (prompt) docs local|web
C-c C-d C-a Apropos for function/var
C-c C-d C-f Apropos for text in documentation
C-c C-d C-e Apropos for text and select !!!
M-. Gives actual code

;; evaluate
C-c C-b Exit evaluation if stuck
C-c C-c Entire current form
C-c C-v C-l Immediate form
C-c|x C-e Previous form
C-c C-k Buffer
C-c M-; Output as comment
C-c M-e Output to REPL
(C-u) C-c C-(M-)l File(s)
C-c C-v (C-)l List
C-c C-v r Region
C-c C-v n The ns form
C-c C-v w Replace form with evaluation
C-c C-v z Preceding top form up to point !!!

;; help
C-h f cider-mode RET

;; launch
C-c M-j Do cider-jack-in-clj
C-c C-x C-x Prompt for choice of REPL

;; macros !!!
C-c C-m Macroexpand !!!

;; move
M-, Return to pre-jump location
C-M-d Down into list
C-M-u Up out of list
C-M-n Forward to next list
C-M-p Backward to prev list
C-M-h Next defun
C-M-@ Next sexp
C-M-f Forward by sexp
C-M-b Backward by sexp
C-M-a Descend into sexp

;; pprint
C-c C-v C-f e|d Pretty print last|current form to popup buffer

;; search
C-c C-d (C-)a Apropos var
C-c C-d (C-)f Apropos doc

;; switch
C-c C-z To relevant REPL
C-c M-z To relevant REPL after eval current buffer
C-c M-n M-n REPL ns to ns of current buffer

;; zzmisc
M-TAB Complete symbol at point
C-c M-d Display REPL connection info
C-c C-o Clear REPL output
C-c M-i Inspect and act on expression
(C-u) C-c C-z REPL jump
C-c M-p Insert form into REPL
C-c C-q Quit the REPL

cider manual

Home

Overview

Programmers are expected to program in a very dynamic and incremental manner, constantly re-evaluating existing Clojure definitions and adding new ones to their running applications.

Features

We need to understand these better to make full use of CIDER.

Interactive code evaluation can do this right in the code with C-c M-; often more useful than repl
Powerful REPL
Code completion
Code reloading
Definition & documentation lookup particularly excellent with C-c d d
Enhanced syntax highlighting and indentation
Enhanced error reporting
clojure.test integration
clojure.spec integration
Interactive debugger
Data Inspector
Integration with Java logging frameworks
Profiling & tracing
ClojureScript support

CIDER in Action

Videos are good for learning CIDER.

What’s Next?

Get familiar with interactive programming and cider-mode

Getting started

Installation

Already done.

Up and Running

Most of this is already setup, but we should look at:

Jacking-in without a Project just clj to get the repl or can also use in a dir M-x cider-jack-in-universal
Connect to a Running nREPL Server after getting a repl running M-x cider-connect for a port

nREPL Middleware Setup

You can skip this section if you don’t plan to use cider-connect or don’t care about the advanced functionality that requires cider-nrepl. However, with tools.deps we can add to ~/.clojure/deps.edn

:cider-clj {:extra-deps {cider/cider-nrepl {:mvn/version "0.49.0"}}
            :main-opts ["-m" "nrepl.cmdline" "--middleware" "[cider.nrepl/cider-middleware]"]}

:cider-cljs {:extra-deps {org.clojure/clojurescript {:mvn/version "1.10.339"}
                          cider/cider-nrepl {:mvn/version "0.49.0"}
                          cider/piggieback {:mvn/version "0.5.3"}}
             :main-opts ["-m" "nrepl.cmdline" "--middleware"
                         "[cider.nrepl/cider-middleware,cider.piggieback/wrap-cljs-repl]"]}

And can then run M-x cider-connect to the repl.

ClojureScript Setup

Overview
Up and Running
Configuration
Using Figwheel
Using shadow-cljs

Using Other REPLs

Alternative Platforms

Overview
Babashka
Nbb
Other Platforms

Using CIDER

Interactive Programming

Overview Instead of repeatedly editing, compiling, and restarting an application, the programmer starts the application once and then adds and updates individual Clojure definitions as the program continues to run … some Clojure programmers have been known to keep a CIDER session running for weeks or even months!
Implementation
Demos
Deep Dive into CIDER

Emacs & Clojure, A Lispy Love Affair

Using cider-mode

C-h f cider-mode is useful, but even better is using which-key-mode to see all key possibilities.

Code Evaluation

Basic: buffer (do first)
Exotic: should be accessed via CIDER’s evaluation commands keymap, prefix C-c C-v
Minibuffer: cider-read-and-eval C-c M-:
Evaluation hooks: ??
Synchronous vs Asynchronous: nrn
Configuration: nrn
Keybindings: C-M-x, C-c C-c, C-c C-v [C-]d

Code Completion

Standard: TAB or M-TAB (setq tab-always-indent ‘complete)
Completion styles: user may want to use a different completion style just for the CIDER complete eg (add-to-list ‘completion-category-overrides ‘(cider (styles basic)))
Auto-completion: with company or corfu (latter already setup via codeium) - not sure if codeium conflicts with corfu or cider when doing its suggestions or incorporates those completions into the suggestions, but it is really not too important.

Code Reloading

Clean everything up and reload one or more namespaces cider-ns-refresh, cider-ns-reload or cider-ns-reload-all

Pretty Printing

Probably NA.

Dealing with Errors

Most of the time CIDER will display the errors in a dedicated buffer … At times, the error being displayed will originate from a bug in CIDER itself. Error displays can be configured.

CIDER presents stack traces in a special major mode, cider-stacktrace-mode. There is a lot that can be done here, so it is worth knowing how to use.

Working with Documentation

C-h . should be initial ref which provides the clojuredocs examples. However, C-c C-d C-d|w can also be useful because the window is easy to close and the latter goes right to clojuredocs. If you want the javadoc use C-c C-d C-j to see it in browser.

Search in docstrings of all loaded variables with C-c C-d C-e|f which can be quite useful if you know only some words in a doc, but don’t really know what the item is.

Cross referencing other documentation can be done inside `` or [[]] in same namespace or outside (fqdn required). Useful if you’d like to be able to point other programmers at different definitions.

Managing Connections

Misc Features

Using the REPL

Basic Usage

Keybindings

Configuration

REPL History

Testing

Running Tests

Test Reports

Supported Libraries

Debugging

Debugger

Enlighten

Inspector

Logging

Macroexpansion

Profiling

Tracing

Configuration

Indentation Specification

Caveats

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Additional Packages

Additional Resources

basics

install: M-x package-install <RET> cider <RET>
run: launch an nREPL or connect to an existing one
- C-c C-x C-x gives menu of REPL choices (view in messsage buffer)
- C-c M-j cider-jack-in-clj (can run a repl without a project)
- supported build tools: clojure-cli, leiningen, babashka, nbb
- jack-in behavior can be customized or over-ridden
- remote and socket connections are possible too
- there are many advanced features possible with additional nREPL
quit: C-c C-q kills REPL

using

activate: with (add-hook ‘clojure-mode-hook #‘cider-mode) or M-x cider-mode (toggle)
evaluate: C-c C-k (buffer), C-c C-e (previous form), C-c C-c (current form)
interrupt: C-c C-b (stuck)
jump to/from: C-c C-z (repl), C-u C-c C-z (match namespace)
ref: C-c C-d C-d|w (docs), M-. (def, but lsp auto-shows)
search: C-c C-d (C-)a (var), C-c C-d (C-)f (apropos doc)

enlive

A selector-based (à la CSS) templating library for Clojure.

group-by problem

stackoverflow tests interesting item to look at Group-by too slow (13 million-lines file) the solution is very instructive and covers generating a test file as well as timing.

hiccup

IO

csv read

(defn csv-read
  "reads a csv file given filename"
  [filename]
  (map s/trim
       (first (with-open
                [in-file (clojure.java.io/reader filename)]
                (doall
                 (clojure.data.csv/read-csv (clojure.java.io/reader in-file)))))))

loop-recur

from nuen 200708

(fn [rs nu-seq]
  (loop [nu nu-seq
         brs 0
         prs 0
         i 0]
    (if (or (> i (- dohlc-size part-size))
            (empty? nu))
      [brs prs]
      (let [nu0 (first nu-seq)
            hi ($ i :h dohlc)
            lo ($ i :l dohlc)
            cl ($ i :c dohlc)
            [is-brs is-prs] (if (= rs "r")
                              [(brs? nu0 hi cl < -) (prs? nu0 hi cl > +)]
                              [(brs? nu0 lo cl > +) (prs? nu0 lo cl < -)])
            ]
        (cond
          is-brs (recur nu (inc brs) prs (inc i))
          is-prs (recur (drop 1 nu) brs (inc prs) (inc i))
          :else (recur nu brs prs (inc i)))))))

project start

Simplest way to start project using cornfeld’s clj-new.

clj -X:new-app :name pradesigner/myapp
clj -X:new-lib :name pradesigner/mylib

after adding to ~/.clojure/deps.edn: ;; add these into your :aliases map:

:new-app {:extra-deps {com.github.seancorfield/clj-new
                       {:mvn/version "1.1.309"}}
          :exec-fn clj-new/create
          :exec-args {:template "app"}}
:new-lib {:extra-deps {com.github.seancorfield/clj-new
                       {:mvn/version "1.1.309"}}
          :exec-fn clj-new/create
          :exec-args {:template "lib"}}}

deps.edn can help you figure out how to do things because of aliases :run-x :uberjar etc contains howto instructions! clj -X:run-x clj -X:uberjar

regex

Clojure Regex Tutorial by Eric Normand

Construct using a literal syntax: #“regex”. Don’t need to double escape #““̣ (match one digit).

Matching a regex to a string with groups

Match an entire string with re-matches.

(re-matches regex string) ;;=> result

;; No match returns nil
(re-matches #"abc" "xyz")            ;;=> nil
(re-matches #"abc" "zzzabcxxx")      ;;=> nil

;; Matching with no groups returns the matched string (truthy)
(re-matches #"abc" "abc")  ;;=> "abc"
(re-matches #"\d+" "3324") ;;=> "3324"

;; Matching with groups returns a vector
(re-matches #"abc(.*)" "abcxyz")       ;;=> ["abcxyz" "xyz"]
(re-matches #"(a+)(b+)(\d+)" "abb234") ;;=> ["abb234" "a" "bb" "234"]

Finding a regex substring within a string with groups

Using re-find returns the first match within the string. It can also be used to see if one string contains another though clojure.string/includes? is likely a better choice.

(re-find regex string)

;; No match returns nil
(re-find #"sss" "Loch Ness") ;;=> nil

;; Match without groups returns the matched string
(re-find #"s+" "mississipi") ;;=> "ss"

;; Match with groups returns a vector
(re-find #"s+(.*)(s+)" "success") ;;=> ["success" "ucces" "s"]

Finding all substrings that match within a string

Return a lazy seq of all of the matches with re-seq.

(re-seq regex string)

(re-seq #"s+" "mississippi") ;;=> ("ss" "ss")
(re-seq #"[a-zA-Z](\d+)"
        "abc x123 b44 234")  ;;=> (["x123" "123"] ["b44" "44"])

Replacing regex matches within a string

Replace all or first substring that matches with some other string with a string or a calculated function using clojure.string/replace.

(clojure.string/replace string regex replacement)

(str/replace "mississippi" #"i.." "obb") ;;=> "mobbobbobbi"
(str/replace "mississippi" #"(i)" "$1$1") ;;=> "miissiissiippii"

(str/replace "mississippi"
             #"(.)i(.)"
             (fn [[_ b a]]
               (str (str/upper-case b)
                    "—"
                    (str/upper-case a)))) ;;=> "M—SS—SS—Ppi" !!!

Splitting a string by a regex

To split a string on some character pattern, like one or more whitespace use clojure.string/split.

(clojure.string/split string regex)

(str/split "This is a string    that I am splitting." #"\s+")
;;=> ["This" "is" "a" "string" "that" "I" "am" "splitting."]

String contains a substring

Various ways to determine if there is a substring in a string.

(re-find #"needle" "Find a needle in a haystack.") ;;=> "needle"
(re-find #"needle" "Empty haystack.")              ;;=> nil

(str/includes? "Find a needle in a haystack." "needle") ;;=> true
(str/includes? "Empty haystack." "needle")              ;;=> false

(re-find #"^This string" "This string starts with ...") ;;=> "This string"
(re-find #"end$" "Find a string at the end")            ;;=> "end"

(str/starts-with? "This string starts with ..." "This string") ;;=> true
(str/ends-with?   "Find a string at the end"    "end")         ;;=> true

Escaping regex

Trying to match a regex symbol containing string can be done with java.util.regex.Pattern and is much preferable to trying to escape escapes (which can’t be done anyway).

"(??^$]" ;; A string I want to match literally
#"\(\?\?\^\$\]" ;; you can't escape the escapes!

(Pattern/quote "(??^$]") ;;=> "\\Q(??^$]\\E"
(-> "(??^$]" Pattern/quote Pattern/compile) ;;=> #"\Q(??^$]\E" !!!

Joining regex

howto combine strings and regex https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21416917/multiple-regular-expressions-in-clojure

(defn union-regex [& patterns]
  \\\"joins regex together\" with |\"
  (re-pattern
   (apply str
          (interpose \""|"
                     (map #(str "(" % ")")
                          patterns)))))
(union-regex #"\w+ " (re-pattern w) " " #"\w+") ;; w set to "how"

=> #”(+ )|(how)|( )|(+)”

or this solution from webscraper project

(defn join-regex [& patterns]
  "joins regex together"
  (re-pattern
   (apply str
          (map #(str %)
               patterns))))
(join-regex #"\w+ " (re-pattern w) " " #"\w+") ;; w set to "how"

=> #"+ how +"

Extract whole sentences with matching word

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26081820/regular-expression-to-extract-whole-sentences-with-matching-word [^.]* flung [^.]*\ [^.?!]*(?<=[.?!])flung(?=[.?!])[^.?!]*[.?!]

scrapers

string

clojure.string functions

blank?
capitalize
ends-with?
escape
includes?
index-of
join
last-index-of
lower-case
re-quote-replacement
replace
replace-first
reverse
split
split-lines
starts-with?
trim
trim-newline
triml
trimr
upper-case

official clojure site

Use clojure.org as a reference for working with Clojure, but also put in specifics about own setup and tools.

Overview

Why Clojure?
Lisp is a good thing
Functional programming is a good thing
Languages and Platforms
Object Orientation is overrated
Polymorphism is a good thing
Concurrency and the multi-core future

Guides

LEARNING
- Getting Started
  - emacs editor
  - eglot Eglot is the Emacs client for the Language Server Protocol (LSP), which provides advanced programming language support and features for code editing in Emacs. It can do Language Server Integration, Auto-Completion, Go to Definition (M-.), Find References (M-?), Error Highlighting and Code Diagnostics (with flymake), Signature Help, Refactoring Support.
  - clojure-lsp don’t need to use it directly as a mode because eglot looks after that, but it does need to be installed. For instance, Find references didn’t work when it was not installed. Perplexity got this wrong.
  - cider see details in cider section and look in the manual.
- Install Clojure
- Editors
- Structural Editing
REPL Programming
- Introduction
- Launching a basic REPL
- Basic Usage
- Data Visualization at the REPL
- Navigating namespaces
- Enhancing your REPL workflow
- Guidelines for REPL-Aided Development
- Community resources
- Troubleshooting
Learn Clojure
- Introduction
- Syntax
- Functions
- Sequential Collections
- Hashed Collections
- Flow Control
- Namespaces
FAQ
LANGUAGE
- spec
- Reading Clojure Characters
- Destructuring
- Threading Macros
- Equality
- Comparators
- Reader Conditionals
- Higher Order Functions
USAGE
- Dev Startup Time
TOOLS
- Deps and CLI ~/.clojure/deps.edn (global deps.edn no :deps)
  clj -X:deps find-versions :lib clojure.java-time/clojure.java-time
- tools.build
LIBRARIES
- core.async Walkthrough
- Go Block Best Practices
- test.check

Reference

Reader forms
Macro characters
Tagged Literals
Reader Conditionals

Community

Success Stories
Community Stories
Companies
Tools
Libraries
Contributing
Community Resources
Forum
Events
Training
Etiquette
HELP
Books
User Groups
Starting a User Group
SITE UPDATES
Site Contributions
Editing tips
License
Privacy Policy
ETC
Swag

API

Clojure API
ClojureScript API
Clojure Contrib Libraries
Other resources: ClojureDocs and cljdoc

DEV

LANGUAGE DEV
Development
Contributor Agreement
Workflow
Creating Tickets
Developing Patches
Screening Tickets
Contributors
CONTRIB LIBS
Contrib libs
Contrib lib history
RESOURCES
Source
Support Portal
Issue Tracker
Downloads
API Docs
License

Releases

CLOJURE
Current Release
Older Releases
Dev Changelog
Download key
CLOJURE TOOLS
Tools Releases

News

Ongoing and updated regularly.

Clojure website Clojure Documentation clojure cheatsheet CIDER ClojureDocs ask.clojure forum Pedestal kixi stats

websites

CIDER
Clojure(Script) Interactive Development Environment that Rocks extends Emacs with support for interactive programming in Clojure. The features are centered around cider-mode, an Emacs minor-mode that complements clojure-mode and clojure-ts-mode. While clojure-mode supports editing Clojure source files, cider-mode adds support for interacting with a running Clojure process for compilation, debugging, definition and documentation lookup, running tests and so on.
ClojureDocs
ClojureDocs is a community-powered documentation and examples repository for the Clojure programming language.
Clojure Q & A
At Clojure Q&A, you can ask questions and receive answers from members of the Clojure community.
Pedestal
A set of libraries that to build web services and applications. It runs in the back-end and can handle anything from tiny static web sites, to traditional page oriented applications, to dynamic single page applications utilizing server-sent events and WebSockets.
kixi.stats
A Clojure/ClojureScript library of statistical sampling and transducing functions.
Clojure Toolbox
A categorised directory of libraries and tools for Clojure.
Clojars
This is an easy to use community repository for open source Clojure libraries.

videos

zz

ideas

do programming with awareness of each function’s io

snippets

alternate possibilities with or

(defn mk-tohlc
  "creates the dataset with date, open, high, low, close from filename"
  [fpath]
  (let [time (or "t" "column-0")
        open (or "o" "column-1")
        high (or "h" "column-2")
        low (or "l" "column-3")
        close (or "c" "column-4")]
    (rename-columns
          (->dataset fpath {:header-row? false
                            :parser-fn {time :string
                                        open :float32
                                        high :float32
                                        low :float32
                                        close :float32}})
          {time :time open :open high :high low :low close :close})))

files

Listing files in a directory in Clojure

(seq (.list (clojure.java.io/file ".")))
(map #(.getPath %)
     (file-seq (clojure.java.io/file ".")))

file

fs - File system utilities for clojure https://github.com/Raynes/fs

;using regex

(def files
  (filter #(re-find #"1D|4H" %)
          (map #(.getPath %)
               (file-seq (clojure.java.io/file "/zata/truefx")))))

;using string

(def files 
  (filter #(clojure.string/includes? % "1D")
          (map #(.getPath %)
               (file-seq (clojure.java.io/file "/zata/truefx")))))

;going through a vector

(def files
  (map (fn [x]
         (filter #(clojure.string/includes? % x)
                 (map #(.getPath %)
                      (file-seq (clojure.java.io/file "/zata/truefx")))))
       ["1D" "4H" "1D"]))

files from filepaths

(def filepaths
  "produces a list of truefx path strings"
  (flatten (map (fn [x]
                  (sort (filter #(str/includes? % x)
                                (map #(.getPath %)
                                     (file-seq (clojure.java.io/file "/zata/truefx"))))))
                ["1D" "4H" "1H"])))

(def filenames
  "extracts file names from file paths"
  (map #(last %)
       (map #(str/split % #"/")
               filepaths)))

partitions and maxmin

since partition gives list, we need to apply max to each list we map the apply max over the partitions

(map #(apply max %) (partition 3 r))

removing nil

(filter #(not(nil? %)) [1 nil 2 3 nil 5])
(1 2 3 5)
(remove nil? [1 nil 2 3 nil 5])
(1 2 3 5)

finding nu

(defn nusr
  "identifies sr-levels for instrument using nu"
  [fp]
  (let [[o h l c fn pf] (inst-info fp)
        part-size 5
        step-size 1
        midpt (quot part-size 2)
        hi (partition part-size step-size h)
        lo (partition part-size step-size l)
        n (remove nil? (map #(nu % max midpt) hi))
        u (remove nil? (map #(nu % min midpt) lo))]
    [:ns n :us u]))

(defn nu
  "finds a nu given seq, maxmin, midpt of seq"
  [sq maxmin midpt]
  (let [midval (nth sq midpt)]
    (when (= (apply maxmin sq) midval)
      midval)))

(nusr (first truefx-filepaths))

combining vectors

problem came up trying to work with bounsr and penesr where we needed to take 2 vectors and generate a vector of vectors matching items in sequence:

[4 4 6] [7 8 9] => [[4 7] [4 8] [6 9]]

(zipmap [4 4 6] [7 8 9]) => {4 8, 6 9} due to repetition of the 4 because it is a map

this thread Is there an equivalent for the Zip function in Clojure had 2 solutions:

(map vector [4 4 6] [7 8 9]) => ([4 7] [4 8] [6 9]) (partition 2 (interleave [1 2 3] [4 5 6])) => ((1 4) (2 5) (3 6))

(interleave [1 2 3] [4 5 6] [7 8 9]) (apply interleave [[1 2 3] [4 5 6] [7 8 9]])

or as a function

(defn zip [& colls] (partition (count colls) (apply interleave colls)))

diff btn map and apply

(apply F [1 2 3 4 5]) => (F 1 2 3 4 5) (map F [1 2 3 4 5]) => [(F 1) (F 2) (F 3) (F 4) (F 5)] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2311528/clojure-apply-vs-map

Use a vector as a LIFO stack to check for balanced brackets

(require '[clojure.set :refer [map-invert]])

(defn balance [form]
  (let [brackets {\[ \] \( \) \{ \}}
        scan (fn [q x]
               (cond
                 (brackets x) (conj q x)
                 ((map-invert brackets) x)
                 (if (= (brackets (peek q)) x)
                   (pop q)
                   (throw
                     (ex-info
                       (str "Unmatched delimiter " x) {})))
                 :else q))]
    (reduce scan [] form)))

(balance "(let [a (inc 1]) (+ a 2))")
ExceptionInfo Unmatched delimiter ]

(balance "(let [a (inc 1)] (+ a 2))")
[]

dataset vs matrix

(type (incanter/to-matrix ds)) mikera.arrayz.impl.JoinedArray or vectorz/matrix (type (m/array ds)) clojure.lang.PersistentVector


cmd	dataset	matrix	array	lazyseq
head,tail	y	y	y	n
take,drop	y	y	y	y

getting stuff out of incanter dataset dohlc

clojure.core.matrix.impl.dataset.DataSet

using $ producing lazyseq

his ($ :h dohlc) clojure.lang.LazySeq or (sel dohlc :cols :h) los ($ :l dohlc) clojure.lang.LazySeq or (sel dohlc :cols :l)

using to-map producing persistent vectors

ds (d/to-map dohlc) clojure.lang.PersistentArrayMap his (:h ds) clojure.lang.PersistentVector los (:l ds) clojure.lang.PersistentVector

using m/array producing vectorz

ds (d/to-map dohlc) clojure.lang.PersistentArrayMap his (m/array (:h ds)) mikera.vectorz.Vector los (m/array (:l ds)) mikera.vectorz.Vector can’t (m/array ds) because clojure.lang.PersistentArrayMap cannot be cast to java.lang.Number though (type (m/array d)) clojure.lang.PersistentVector

sel vs $

it seems as though we can use $ for pretty well everything we use sel for (sel d :cols :h) <=> ($ :h d) (sel d :rows (range 2 11) :cols :d) <=> ($ (range 1 11) :d d) (sel d :rows 1 :cols :h) <=> (sel d :rows 1 :cols 2) <=> (sel d 1 2) <=> ($ 1 2 d) <=> ($ 1 :h d)

codeOLD

the ratios function doesn’t produce same results as the individual codings we haven’t figured out why or which is really correct (defn anulysisV2 " analyzes brs and prs price action on nu

+brs? (fn [nu hilo cl >< -+] “n: (brs? n hi cl < -) u: (bsr? u lo cl > ~~)” (and (btn? hilo (- nu buffer) (~~ nu buffer)) (>< cl (-+ nu buffer)))) prs? (fn [nu cl hilo >< -+] “n: (prs? n hi cl > ~~) u: (prs? u lo cl < -” (and (>< hilo (-~~ nu buffer)) (>< cl nu)))

ratios (fn [rs nu-seq] (loop [nu nu-seq brs 0 prs 0 i 0] (let [nu0 (first nu-seq) hi ($ i :h dohlc) lo ($ i :l dohlc) cl ($ i :c dohlc) [is-brs is-prs] (if (= rs “r”) [(brs? nu0 hi cl < -) (prs? nu0 hi cl > +)] [(brs? nu0 lo cl > +) (prs? nu0 lo cl < -)]) ] (if (> i (- dohlc-size part-size)) [brs prs] (cond is-brs (recur nu (inc brs) prs (inc i)) is-prs (recur (drop 1 nu) brs (inc prs) (inc i)) :else (recur nu brs prs (inc i))) ))))

n-ratio (loop [nn nseq brs 0 prs 0 i 0] (let [firstnn (first nn) hi ($ i :h dohlc) cl ($ i :c dohlc)] (if (> i (- dohlc-size part-size)) [brs prs] (cond (brs? firstnn hi cl < -) (recur nn (inc brs) prs (inc i)) (prs? firstnn hi cl > +) (recur (drop 1 nn) brs (inc prs) (inc i)) :else (recur nn brs prs (inc i))) ))) u-ratio (loop [uu useq brs 0 prs 0 i 0] (let [firstuu (first uu) lo ($ i :l dohlc) cl ($ i :c dohlc)] (if (> i (- dohlc-size part-size)) [brs prs] (cond (brs? firstuu lo cl > +) (recur uu (inc brs) prs (inc i)) (prs? firstuu lo cl < -) (recur (drop 1 uu) brs (inc prs) (inc i)) :else (recur uu brs prs (inc i))) ))) n-ratio (ratios “r” nseq) u-ratio (ratios “s” useq) ] [n-ratio u-ratio] ))

while the ideas here are ok we require 20s by not using partitions and 25ms when we do!! however, we need a way to figure out the index

(defn nu-finderV2 " finds nu give a dohlc dataset returns [[i nn] [i uu]] " [dohlc] (let [size (nrow dohlc) nu-breadth 7 ;nu width buf-bars (quot nu-breadth 2) ;number of bars on either side of nu ibeg buf-bars ;begining bar to look for nu iend (- (nrow dohlc) 1 buf-bars) ;ending bar to look for nu nu? (fn [i hilo maxmin] (= ($ i hilo dohlc) (apply maxmin ($ (range (- i buf-bars) (+ i buf-bars 1)) hilo dohlc)))) nus (fn [hilo maxmin] (loop [i ibeg iv []] (if (>= i iend) iv (if (nu? i hilo maxmin) (recur (+ i buf-bars 1) (conj iv [i ($ i hilo dohlc)])) (recur (inc i) iv)))))] [(nus :h max) (nus :l min)]))

(defn anulysisV1 " analyzes brs and prs price action on nu

dohlc dataset columns :d date :o open :h high :l low :c close identify nu using partition map bsr? psr? to hilo and determine how many of each " [filepath] (let [[dohlc filename pipfactor] (instrument-dohlc filepath) dohlc-size (nrow dohlc) ;size of dataset less 2 because of header buffer (/ 12.0 pipfactor) ;buffer line calculation in pips for pair part-size 7 ;size of partition chosen nn (nu-finder ($ :h dohlc) part-size max) uu (nu-finder ($ :l dohlc) part-size min) in-zone? (fn [hilo nu] (btn? hilo (- nu buffer) (+ nu buffer)))] (loop [i 4 brs 0] (if (> i (- dohlc-size 9)) brs (recur (inc i) (if (in-zone? ($ i :h dohlc) (first nn)) (inc brs) brs))) ) [(count nn) (count uu)]))

(defn mk-dohlc “creates the dataset with date, open, high, low, close from filename” [filename] (d/rename-columns (read-dataset filename) {:col0 :d :col1 :o :col2 :h :col3 :l :col4 :c}))

(defn nu-finderV1 " finds all nu in a sequence of hilo given a sequence, the partition size, max|min operator for his|los TODO have option to remove invalid nu " [aseq part-size maxmin] (let [partitions (partition part-size 1 aseq) midpt (quot part-size 2) nu (for [p partitions :when (= (apply maxmin p) (nth p midpt))] (nth p midpt))] nu))

(def truefx-filepaths “produces a list of truefx path strings” (vectorize (flatten (map (fn [x] (sort (filter #(str/includes? % x) (map #(.getPath %) (file-seq (clojure.java.io/file “/zata/truefx”)))))) [“1D” “4H” “1H”]))))

(defn adjacent-confluence “determines oc confluence behavior of adjacent bars” [fp] (let [dohlc (mk-dohlc fp) fn (filename-from-filepath fp) pf (pip-factor fn) m (to-matrix (ds/remove-columns dohlc [:d])) o (sel m :cols 0) h (sel m :cols 1) l (sel m :cols 2) c (sel m :cols 3) co (map pips c o (repeat pf)) pn (map #(pos? (* %1 %2)) co (drop 1 co)) p% (Math/round (/ (count (filter true? pn)) (float (count pn)) 0.01))] (printf “%s %d %n” fn p%) p%))

to-solve

match a key and print component of a map

here is a vector of maps (def asym-parts [{:name “head” :size 3} {:name “mouth” :size 1} {:name “nose” :size 1} {:name “neck” :size 2} {:name “left-eye” :size 1} {:name “left-ear” :size 1}to {:name “left-shoulder” :size 3}])

match the :name to be “nose” and print that item TODO

an interesting solution to something similar https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18176372/clojure-get-map-key-by-value

(->> {:a “bar” :b “foo” :c “bar” :d “baz”} ; initial map (group-by val) ; sorted into a new map based on value of each key (#(get % “bar”)) ; extract the entries that had value “bar” (map key)) ; get the keys that had value bar or (map key (#(get % “bar”) (group-by val {:a “bar” :b “foo” :c “bar” :d “baz”})))

old diary items

<2020-07-24 Fri> figured out how to install own work to .m2 started rewrite of algolyze using these ideas <2020-07-23 Thu> went through clojure style guide got better understanding of ns installed and worked with hylang - though we should check out cljpython too at some point

discussion on tech.ml was very promising with both gigasquid and joinr praising it. so that’s what we’ll go with for now - convert existing items to it and look for a visualization mechanism. <2020-07-22 Wed> got nuen.clj v1 done and testing.

<2020-07-18 Sat> go thru clojure reader is unsafe post about times post about project mechanism

<2020-07-17 Fri> nuen mostly done thx to help on clojurians

techml read into techml dataset a csv file nearly 3 million lines drop one column form new column the result of subtracting one column from another printout head of adjusted dataset

timings: lein run 62.93s user 0.86s system 123% cpu 51.800 total emacs repl “Elapsed time: 40112.441757 msecs” java -jar target/uberjar/techml-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT-standalone.jar 29.95s user 0.77s system 162% cpu 18.916 total

<2020-07-16 Thu> start nuen

rewrite anulysis for tech.ml rewrite anulysis for arrays

<2020-07-15 Wed> finish mikera and incanter build a matrix, dataset, array toolkit (mikera incanter and anything else) plan for clj cheatsheet explorations -> make own cheatsheet from it and others plan for java function access

will conversion to separate arrays be more efficient for subsequent processing? using arrays instead of incanter datasets may be practical?

<2020-07-14 Tue> finishing mikera and incanter we should go through cheatsheet items and understand how the main functions in the categories work

<2020-07-13 Mon> last couple of days were spent with julia programming. though the docs are excellent, emacs doesn’t work too well with it right now. emacs does work well with R. so may be …

attempt to get python libraries on clojure using - but carin’s example doesn’t work completely. anyway, we don’t really need to do this now because what we were interested in seeing was how well anulysis worked and we can actually do this better in other ways - such as plotting hlc dots with buffers from nu

checked out graalvm and that does look very interesting! again, we don’t need it now, but it is definitely something to keep in mind for the future considering one demo showed 20 performance improvement. it may be useful even without its polyglot capabilities.

for now, here’s what we focus on:

learn mikera and incanter
learn what we can do with direct access to java
optimize anulysis
get nuen completed

<2020-07-10 Fri> got R and candlesticks working - it’s pretty good! main difficulty was that manjaro doesn’t autoload make and gcc-fortran

plotly.clj doesn’t seem to have candlesticks plan is to go through incanter plotting and compare to plotly.clj plotting

<2020-07-09 Thu> anulysis finish hopefully

plan for manual trading

examine situation around 12am
put in suitable entry limit or stop trades with sltp
try to exit trade around 12pm next day
close orders and start at 1 again

<2020-07-08 Wed> cider site debugging cider debugging tools debugging in clojure several items not quite understood but we now have a useable debugging mechanism

more learnt about loop-recur in that the main if statement can have various forms (eg let) in true or false. this knowledge enabled the best version to-date: (fn [rs nu-seq] (loop [nu nu-seq brs 0 prs 0 i 0] (if (or (> i (- dohlc-size part-size)) (empty? nu)) [brs prs] (let [nu0 (first nu-seq) hi ($ i :h dohlc) lo ($ i :l dohlc) cl ($ i :c dohlc) [is-brs is-prs] (if (= rs “r”) [(brs? nu0 hi cl < -) (prs? nu0 hi cl > +)] [(brs? nu0 lo cl > +) (prs? nu0 lo cl < -)]) ] (cond is-brs (recur nu (inc brs) prs (inc i)) is-prs (recur (drop 1 nu) brs (inc prs) (inc i)) :else (recur nu brs prs (inc i)))))))

<2020-07-07 Tue> getting nu the partition mechanism provides far faster results than iterating over groups of 7 bars - even if you skip bars regularly because after a nu the latter three can never be a nu. however, the partitions don’t provide anyway of keeping track of the index. a problem can develop in that as we go through nu we could be counting brs even before the occurence of the nu!

so here are 2 ideas: figure out the index of the nu through a loop-recur setup. something like loop ds to find index conj index+accumulatedindices to nu drop index+1 ds

similar idea, but we don’t need to actually put the index anywhere. find index of nu drop to index+1 start to check for brs once prs drop current nu do over again this way we only start checking for brs after we find where the nu is

<2020-07-06 Mon> figured out how to use loop-recur better - it is a likeable combo and seems preferable to me than recursion now. got a good version of nu-finder done which includes index amongst other things and can be used outside anulysis. <2020-07-05 Sun> setup nu-orders.clj for populating nu with orders <2020-07-04 Sat> finish anulysis <2020-07-03 Fri> go through google hits example

<2020-07-02 Thu> determine whether to use core.matrix or incanter for most things incanter is being incorporated within core.matrix and it is not really developed much. so we’ll make the switch and start looking at some of the other data science libraries.

discovered core.matrix creator mike anderson or mikera who has good youtube videos on the topic

seems as though core.matrix (most operations) and incanter (rw graphics etc) can work well together.

<2020-07-01 Wed> issues with datasets and matrices using map and apply figured out a lot about for loop <2020-06-30 Tue> dilemmas with figuring out how to work hilo with nus <2020-06-29 Mon> figuring out a more iterative anulysis <2020-06-28 Sun> work on sicp - understanding cond and if <2020-06-27 Sat> started sicp and INDUCTIVESYNTHESISOFFUNCTIONALPROGRAMS

<2020-06-26 Fri> figure out mechanism to compare hilo to stacked nu problem is that i keep wanting to put things into boxes rather than thinking functionally.

<2020-06-25 Thu> work on anulysis using stacks and proper influence.

(def d (ds/select-rows ds (range 9))) (ds/add-column d :sums (mt/add (sel d :cols :o) (sel d :cols :h))) (ds/add-column d :sums (mt/gt (sel d :cols :c) 83)) (ds/add-column d :sums (mt/mul (sel d :cols :c) (mt/gt (sel d :cols :c) 83))) ;crude

<2020-06-24 Wed> creating bounsr and penesr functions within let got involved with creating pairs

though there are some nice ideas in V1 of anulysis the overall attempt to have nu checked over the entire matrix is meaningless and produced absurdly high numbers - eg almost 8000 bounsr for nrow = 2248. so we need to restrict the nu influence to forward items only and have them flip after first penesr and disappear after a second penesr.

(defn anulysisV1 “analyzes pa near nu” [fp] (let [[ops his los cls fnm pf] (instrument-info fp) buffer (/ 12 pf) bounsr? (fn [nus hilos cls >< -+] (count (remove nil? (for [nu nus [hilo cl] (zip hilos cls)] (let [nu-buffer (-+ nu buffer)] (if (and (btn? hilo [nu nu-buffer]) (>< nu-buffer cl)) true)))))) bpsr? (fn [nus hilos ops cls >< -+] (for [nu nus [hilo op cl] (zip hilos ops cls)] (let [b-buffer (-+ nu buffer) p-buffer (-+ nu (- buffer))] (cond (and (btn? hilo [nu b-buffer]) (>< b-buffer cl)) :bounsr (and (btn? nu [op cl]) ) :penesr)))) part-size 5 midpt (quot part-size 2) hi-partition (partition part-size 1 his) lo-partition (partition part-size 1 los) nn (remove nil? (map #(nu-finder % max midpt) hi-partition)) uu (remove nil? (map #(nu-finder % min midpt) lo-partition)) boun-s (bounsr? uu los cls < +) boun-r (bounsr? nn his cls > -)

isbounsr #(= :bounsr %) ispenesr #(= :penesr %) bpu (bpsr? uu los ops cls < +) bpn (bpsr? nn his ops cls > -) ] [fnm boun-s boun-r (count (filter isbounsr bpu)) (count (filter isbounsr bpn)) (count (filter ispenesr bpu)) (count (filter ispenesr bpn))]))

(map anulysis (take 1 truefx-filepaths)) => ([“audjpy1D.csv” 3829 3607]) => ([“audjpy1D.csv” 4167 4035])

<2020-06-23 Tue> coined term lalwal lose a little win a lot rewrote outliers in truefx files - all were with the lows. some involving CHF may have been legitimate. anulysis almost done after figuring out that :while is not to be used with for - not sure what it is

<2020-06-22 Mon> started anulysis

<2020-06-21 Sun> get barchar working first idea of adjacent-confluence may work in reverse for shorter tf

started snippets in this file

made neat ns discovry - whatever is in core.clj including def/defn becomes available to every other file provided the namespace isn’t changed! this really means that we can load up core.clj with whatever is required rather than import everything for every related program we create!

<2020-06-20 Sat> working with dataset functions add-column, reorder-column, remove-column wrote sel-col function which is useful to work with single column in dataset

discovered that sel on a dataset is very slow compared to sel on a matrix it seems to be far, far faster to convert a dataset to a matrix to do things and then convert it back if you want to utilize the variety of types a dataset offers. (see xpts in datmat.clj)

<2020-06-19 Fri> investigating various things all week without entry into diary many of clojure.core.matrix is replacing the incanter functions: see updates to incanter 2.0 https://github.com/incanter/incanter/wiki/Incanter-2.0-change-log so we investigate these in datmat.clj

<2020-06-11 Thu> get-orders-for done rearrange the ztut which was getting awkward as far as ns goes as well as other things. set it all up on gitlab

changing to ns works with C-c M-n after we C-c C-k the buffer. for some reason, (in-ns namespace) doesn’t always work. this page is useful as may be other things on that site.

<2020-06-10 Wed> incanter things work nicely so far, but we need to become far more knowledgeable working with datasets, functions (what they do) and plotting.

also, the how i start thing is a bit confusing as carin jumps to things that we’re not familiar with so we’ll get back to that later.

<2020-06-09 Tue> incanter:

work through data sorcery
- cheatsheet use regularly to recall syntax and concepts
- make use of api documentation throughout
- namespace switching solved: repl takes main ns, but can switch with (in-ns ‘whatever) so long as it is seen
started How I Start which should be useful for namespace understanding and testing

<2020-06-08 Mon> incanter:

work through ch6 Working with Incanter Datasets from Clojure Data Analysis Cookbook which was helpful though the datasets used were huge and therefore difficult to examine in some situations

<2020-06-07 Sun> installed inlein started thinking bayes

<2020-06-06 Sat> transferred from github to gitlab which seems to be smoother and cleaner. cleaned up tutorials into ztut folder cleaned up clj bookmarks went through excellent birdseye view of clj A Brief Beginner’s Guide To Clojure

<2020-06-05 Fri> more cider it seems that form order is important because loading the buffer when dependencies don’t come first makes eval impossible. cider has a lot of functions, but we need to figure out which ones we’ll actually use successfully connected to an existing repl at localhost after getting port using: connection info C-c M-d

paredit:


M-( M-"	M-s M-?	C-right C-left	M-S M-J	C-M-f C-M-b

cider:


C-c C-z	C-c M-j	C-c C-c	C-c C-k	C-up C-down

<2020-06-04 Thu> got all of oanda ide to date as far as we had python going order fn greatly simplified - we never needed to use if-let

investigated cider further watched alchy bozbat

<2020-06-03 Wed> stuck on json not being parsed but that was because clojure follows the curl more closely using :body instead of :json whereas python didn’t

<2020-06-02 Tue> get api functions and sring theory to where we were with python all api done as far as python progress except for the json issue

hobbit problem using reduce is neatest

excellent video with edmund jackson data science and clojure shows the landscape in 2012 and what options there were then probably worth following up on this.

<2020-06-01 Mon> understood the hobbit setup mostly in brave it is messy using loop, but much messier other ways

<2020-05-31 Sun> set up tut structures in clojure directory set up problems to solve file in to-solve.clj file

Clojure Libs and Namespaces: require, use, import and ns (require ‘clojure.string ‘clojure.test) (require ‘[clojure.string :as string]) to avoid (require [‘clojure.string :as ‘string]) (require ‘clojure.string ‘[clojure.test :as test]) (require ‘(clojure string test)) (require ‘(clojure [string :as string] test))

consider the incanter lib issue (use ‘(incanter core stats charts io)) works right away and we can call view, histogram etc (require ‘(incanter core stats charts io)) doesn’t seem to work at all, but that’s due to ns issues: (incanter.core/view (incanter.charts/histogram (incanter.stats/sample-normal 1000))) is just fine

also see Clojure Namespaces and Vars for better ways as well as this answer from stackoverflow. we can solve this with (ns tut-incanter.core (:require (incanter [core :refer :all] [stats :refer :all] [charts :refer :all]))) though (use ‘(incanter core stats charts)) seems much simpler

both api requests with clj-http and json readability accomplished next step is to get functions to work

<2020-05-30 Sat> figuring out git mostly getting through brave ch3 except last exercise

<2020-05-29 Fri> started clojure for brave updated several youtube resources

<2020-05-28 Thu> finished cds introduction

<2020-05-27 Wed> halfway through cds introduction why clojure video by vijay is useful

<2020-05-26 Tue> continued with cds set up resources and videos watched russ olsen functional programming in 40 min

<2020-05-25 Mon> set up emacs for clojure watched rick hickey video on creating it got cider and lein working started cds tutorial

Emacs

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 12:40:30 -0700

We belong to the church of emacs which we feel is the ultimate editor!

keybindings

assistance

The emacs help manual and help summary TODO lots to check out here
Gateway to finding anything on emacs is C-h ?
Regexps can be used as lists of words which are ANDed.
Some prefix followed by C-h give list of bindings for prefix.

;; quick help
C-h C-q

;; apropos
M-x apropos Display all symbols matching a pattern
M-X Display all commands possible for buffer
C-h a Search only commands (apropos-command)
C-h d Search docs (apropos-documentation)
M-x apropos-library Useful for new mode or package
M-x apropos-value Useful if you know value not variable

;; describes
C-h m Mode major/minor, keybindings (describe-mode)
C-h x Commands (describe-command)
C-h f Functions (describe-function)
C-h v Variable (describe-variable)
C-h k Key detail (describe-key)
C-h c Key brief (describe-key-briefly)

All describe buffers have shortcut keys i (info), s (source), c (customize).

;; info
C-h i Open info manual
C-h i d m <item> RET i <topic> RET Indices search
C-h i d m <item> RET s <topic> RET Regexp search
C-h r m <topic> Direct way to emacs info
M-x info-apropos searches for item in all info
M-x info-display-manual get manual by name (or tab for list)
M-x info-finder uses list of keywords to find things

;; various
C-h p Packages list
C-h e Messages buffer
C-h o Symbol docs at point or type it
C-h s Current syntax table !!!

M-x manual-entry RET manpage Get a manpage
<prefix> C-h all prefix possibilities

bookmarks

C-x r m set bookmark
C-x r b jump to bookmark
C-x r l list bookmarks
M-x bookmark-delete

buffers

C-x b helm-buffers
C-x C-b helm-multi-files
C-x M-b ibuffer
C-x k kill buffer

case

M-c Word capitalize
M-u Word ucase
M-d Word dcase
C-x C-u Region ucase
C-x C-l Region lcase
M-x upcase-initials-region Which is strange for most situations.

comment

M-; Comment single/double/region/uncomment
C-x C-; Double comment (lisp)/uncomment
M-x comment-box

Various variables can be customized as well to suit requirements.

count

M-= Words (buffer or region)
M-x count-lines-region
M-x count-matches

dired

Only most useful bindings here. (See dired section for more)

;; commands on files
! Any command on a file
! cmd * > newfile will have output of cmd on * (cursor file)

;; compare files
=  goto file, =, enter other file (figure out how diff works !!!)

;; enter a dir
C-x (4|5) d ~/ new window|frame
C-x d ~/*|.*|D* all|hidden|starting with D files

;; markings
m mark
d mark for deletion
t toggle marks
u,U unmark
M-del unmark all
%d regexp for deletion
~|# bkp|auto-save for deletion
%m regexp flag
%g regexp contained in files
*s|/|.|@ mark all|dirs|ext|sym

;; move
j move to file
(M-)C-s (regexp)search
M-{|} up|down to marked
^ move to parent dir
<|> move to prev|next dir

;; specific commands on marked items
C|D|P|R copy|delete|print|rename
G|M|O dired-do-chgrp|chmod|chown
A|Q regexp search|query replace
!|& shell command on files sync|async
%u|l upper|lower
S|Y|H links sym|relsym|hard

;; subdirs
i insert subdir
C-u k remove subdir
$ fold subdir
M-$ fold all dirs
C-M p|n go to prev|next subdir
C-M-d go to first child subdir


;; view directory
C-u s change ls flags
i put cursor dirs into same buffer

;; visit
e|f same window find
o other window find (C-o don't move there)
v read only
^ parent dir
a descend discarding parent  
W guess default application

;; zzmisc
h help
? prompt for choice delete,copy,find ...
B|L byte-compile|load elisp files

k dired-do-kill-lines don't delete !!!

greps

;; rg
C-c s gives menu to do various greps

;; helm ag
M-g s helm-do-grep-ag (alt to C-s)

;; grep
M-x grep Prompts for item and files
M-x grep-find Uses find and -exec grep
M-x lgrep Prompt through each step
M-x rgrep Recursive search

helm

C-x c (prefix) C-g (exit usually)

;; helmed key bindings
M-x helm-M-x
M-y helm-show-kill-ring
M-s o helm-occur
C-x C-f helm-find-files
C-x C-b helm-multi-files (use to switch buffers)
C-spc mark buffers
M-D delete marked buffers
C-c g helm-google-suggest
M-g f helm-do-grep-ag (alt to C-s)

;; helm prefixed
/ helm-find files recursively from pwd
@ helm-list-elisp-packages
f helm-multi-files buffers,recent,bookmarks,pwd (C-x C-b)
l helm-locate locate through helm
r helm-regexp build regexp for find in file

;; help indices
h g helm-info-gnus
h h helm-documentation
h i helm-info-at-point
h r helm-info-emacs

filling

M-p Fill paragraph
C-u M-q Fill and justify
C-x f Set fill width
C-x . Set fill prefix (for each fill line)
M-x auto-fill-mode (likely best for text production)

insert

C-x i Insert file
C-x x i Insert buffer (since all buffers aren't files)

kill

M-d Word forward from point
C-<back> Word backward from point
C-k To end of line
C-S-k To beg of line
M-k Rest of paragraph

M-y TAB will show kill ring in buffer for yank.

macro

F3 record beg
C-u F3 record beg and append to last
F4 record end | play last
C-u F4 play 2nd
M-<N> F4 play last N times

C-x C-k n names last
C-x C-k b binds last to key
M-x insert-kbd-macro pastes into buffer
C-x C-k e edits last

mark

M-@ Word (M-- backward)
M-h Paragraph (M-- backward)
C-x h Entire buffer
C-x C-p Next page

in ibuffer
% n - Mark buffers by their name, using a regexp.
% m - Mark buffers by their major mode, using a regexp.
% f - Mark buffers by their filename, using a regexp.
% g - Mark buffers by their content, using a regexp.
% L - Mark all locked buffers.

Often unnecessary, except copying region or kill/copy weird shaped regions.

move

;; smaller movements
M-m Line beg (regardless of indent)
C-a Line beg
C-e Line end
M-a Sentence beg
M-e Sentence End
M-down Pargraph next beg
M-up Paragraph next end

;; larger movements
M-i Use imenu
M-r Cycle position point bot-mid-top
C-l Cycle center point to bot-mid-top
M-g M-g go to line number

;; sexp movements!!!
C-M-d Down into list
C-M-u Up out of list
C-M-n Forward to next list
C-M-p Backward to prev list
C-M-h Next defun
C-M-@ Next sexp
C-M-f Forward by sexp
C-M-b Backward by sexp
C-M-a Descend into sexp

negate

C--
M--
C-M-

M-- M-d kills word before point

search/replace

C-s|r Use isearch forward|reverse
C-M-s|r Use isearch regexp
M-% Query search options
C-M-% Query regexp options
M-s Replace string
M-r Replace regexp
!!! c|r|w|_|'|SPC Toggle various modes!!!
!!! C-w Add word at point to search (??!!!)

Note case folding effect. Regexps are fine for simple search/replace, but for heavy-duty stuff emacs/elisp is likely not the best option. So, we should use perl or clojure from the outside.

tab bar mode

C-x t 2 create a new tab
C-x t 0 close current tab
C-x t RET Select tab by name 
C-x t o Next Tab (C-<tab>)
C-S-<tab> Previous Tab 
C-x t r Rename Tab 
C-x t m Move tab one position to right 
C-x t p ... Run project command in other tab 
C-x t t Execute command in other tab 
C-x t 1 Close all other tabs 
C-x t C-f Find file in other tab 
C-x t b Switch to buffer in other tab 
C-x t d Open Dired in other tab
M-x tab-list Shows an interactive tab list 
M-x tab-undo Undoes a closed tab for each invocation 
M-x tab-recent Switch to the last visited tab
M-x tab-bar-history-mode
M-x global-tab-line-mode

text manipulation

;; duplicates in region
M-x delete-duplicate-lines With 3 C-u options

;; keep, flush, copy in region by regexp
M-x flush-lines
M-x keep-lines
M-x copy-matching-lines
M-x kill-matching-lines

;; kill
C-k kill to end of line
C-; kill to beg of line

;; occur
M-x occur Choose e option to edit

;; join and split lines
C-o Inserts blank line after point with possible split
C-M-o Splits line at point keeping indent
C-x C-o Deletes all blank lines after point
M-^ Joins with line above

;; whitespace
M-SPC Cycle spacing instead of just-one-space
M-\ Deletes whitespace around point
M-x delete-trailing-whitespace
M-x whitespace-report(-region)
M-x whitespace-cleanup(-region)

transpose

C-t Characters
M-t Words
C-x C-t Lines
C-M-t Sexps
M-x transpose-paragraphs
M-x transpose-sentences

undo/redo

C-/ Undo
C-? Redo
C-x u Undo-tree-mode if activated !!!

view interfaces

;; buffer view
C-x M-b View buffers (use ibuffer)

;; other buffer use
C-x 4 C-f Find file
C-x 4 C-o Open other buffer
C-x 4 d Dired
C-x 4 b Choose and activate other buffer
C-x 4 0 Kills buffer and window
C-x 4 p Project command !!!

;; window use
C-x 0..3 Delete and split windows
C-x o Switch active window (mapped to M-o)
C-x left|right Cycles buffers
C-c left|right Goes to other configurations with winner-mode

;; other frame use !!!
C-x 5 2 New frame
C-x 5 0 Delete active frame
C-x 5 1 Delete other frames
C-x 5 C-f Find file
C-x 5 d Dired
C-x 5 o Buffer in other frame
C-x 5 p Project in other frame

visit

C-x C-f visit file
C-x C-f C-f visit new buffer (no ido)

windows

C-x 0 deletes active window
C-x 1 deletes other windows (f12 and C-f12)
C-x 2 split window below
C-x 3 split window right
C-x o switch to other window (M-o)
M-x winner-mode remembers window settings
C-x 4 <keys> does things in other window
C-x 5 <keys> frame management

auto-capitalize-mode

cl is deprecated, use cl-lib in the autocapitalize.el file

calc

Start C-x * c; Quick C-x * q
Quit C-x * x | q
Getting Started ‘h i’
Tutorial ‘h t’
Reference ‘h s’; C-x * s
Key, Function, Variable ‘h k’, ‘h f’, ‘h v’
Demo Calc has something for everyone! Many of the functions are with capital letters such as Q sqrt, I inverse, S sine. Keypad mode C-x * k brings up a pad that works with mouse. Grabber C-x * g|r into vector|matrix. Undo U. To transpose use v t, Convert units ’ 43 mi/hr with u c new units. Date arithmetic t N, 7 +- Algebraic eqn (entered with ’ [2x+5=11]) solving requires ‘a S’ then variables to solve for. Help with h k|f whatever and l to get back. To remove, press <DEL> and to exit q.

codeium crane

[This aibot just does not work well yet 250518. It is nice to some extent for working in emacs, but the website seems unable to produce correct code in some situations and has on occasion gone into a repeat loop. There seem to be some neat things coming up like Windsurf, but I’m not sure of what use that will be for emacs.]

Codeium is a free AI software that offers developers code completion, chat, and search capabilities in over 70 languages across 40+ integrated IDEs. We set up codeium.el for Emacs with corfu.el (a completer frontend), cape.el (which provides useful functions for completion), and eglot (the emacs client for language server protocol). The code is modified from the very helpful jeff-phil setup and much of the annotation is provided by Perplexity AI (though edited).

While there is considerable and grateful plagerization from various sources, some of the code has been re-written for my own purposes.

The init-codeium.el page begins with the following requires, before getting into the actual code:

(require 'codeium)
(require 'corfu)
(require 'cape)
(require 'eglot)

Idealings with codeium

Code below sets up various configurations and functions for the Codeium package in Emacs. It enables Codeium for code completion globally, configures the mode line display, sets up filters for API calls, and defines functions to retrieve the document text and cursor offset for better performance. The annotations explain the purpose and functionality of each part of the code.

;; The code below sets up various configurations and functions for the
;; Codeium package in Emacs. It enables Codeium for code completion
;; globally, configures the mode line display, sets up filters for API
;; calls, and defines functions to retrieve the document text and
;; cursor offset for better performance. The annotations explain the
;; purpose and functionality of each part of the code.

;; Add Codeium completion function to completion-at-point-functions
(add-to-list 'completion-at-point-functions
             #'codeium-completion-at-point)
;; Adds the Codeium completion function to the list of functions
;; called when trying to complete text at point, making Codeium
;; available for code completion globally.

;; Do not use popup boxes
(setq use-dialog-box nil)
;; Disables the use of popup boxes, as Codeium likely uses other means
;; of displaying information.

;; Configure Codeium mode line
(setq codeium-mode-line-enable
      (lambda (api)
        (not (memq api '(CancelRequest Heartbeat AcceptCompletion)))))
(add-to-list 'mode-line-format '(:eval (car-safe codeium-mode-line)) t)
;; Configure Codeium to display its status in the mode line, filtering
;; out certain API calls (CancelRequest, Heartbeat, AcceptCompletion)
;; from being displayed. Doing so can be useful for debugging or
;; monitoring purposes.

;; Filter for enabled Codeium API calls
(setq codeium-api-enabled
      (lambda (api)
        (memq api
              '(GetCompletions Heartbeat CancelRequest
                               GetAuthToken RegisterUser
                               auth-redirect AcceptCompletion))))
;; Sets a lambda function to filter for enabled Codeium API calls,
;; allowing only certain API calls (GetCompletions, Heartbeat,
;; CancelRequest, GetAuthToken, RegisterUser, auth-redirect,
;; AcceptCompletion) to be processed.

;; Set document text for better performance
(setq codeium/document/text
      (lambda ()
        (buffer-substring-no-properties
         (max (- (point) 3000) (point-min))
         (min (+ (point) 1000) (point-max)))))
;; Sets a function to retrieve the document text for Codeium,
;; retrieving a portion of the buffer text around the current point
;; (up to 3000 characters before and 1000 characters after) to improve
;; performance.

;; Set cursor offset for better performance
(setq codeium/document/cursor_offset
      (lambda ()
        (codeium-utf8-byte-length
         (buffer-substring-no-properties
          (max (- (point) 3000) (point-min)) (point)))))
;; Sets a function to calculate the cursor offset for Codeium,
;; calculating the byte length of the text from the start of the
;; document text up to the current point, likely used by Codeium to
;; determine the position of the cursor within the document text.

Landing on corfu

The setup here is quite simple since we only enable auto-completion and provide global availability for corfu.

(setq corfu-auto t)                     ;enable auto completion
(global-corfu-mode)                     ;enable corfu-mode globally

Weaving the capestry

The cape package is a completion engine that provides numerous completion commands in various situations and each has its own keybinding. Uncomment any of the items below to enable.

[TODO: We don’t know what a lot of these items do since we adapted the code from the cape.el page.]

;; Bind dedicated completion commands
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p p") 'completion-at-point) ;; capf
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p t") 'complete-tag)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p d") 'cape-dabbrev)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p h") 'cape-history)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p f") 'cape-file)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p e") 'cape-elisp-block)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p k") 'cape-keyword)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p a") 'cape-abbrev)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p l") 'cape-line)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p w") 'cape-dict)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p :") 'cape-emoji)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p s") 'cape-elisp-symbol)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p \\") 'cape-tex)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p _") 'cape-tex)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p ^") 'cape-tex)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p &") 'cape-sgml)
;; (global-set-key (kbd "C-c p r") 'cape-rfc1345)

;; Add to the global default value of `completion-at-point-functions'
;; which is used by `completion-at-point'. The order of the functions
;; matters, the first function returning a result wins.  Note that the
;; list of buffer-local completion functions takes precedence over the
;; global list. However, since we don't really know what most of these
;; are for, we are just commenting them out.
(add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-dabbrev)
(add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-history)
(add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-file)
(add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-elisp-block)
(add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-keyword)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-tex)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-sgml)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-rfc1345)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-abbrev)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-dict)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-elisp-symbol)
;; (add-hook 'completion-at-point-functions #'cape-line)

One capf to joule them all

The my/capf-for-all alias is used for the cape-capf-super function for better clarity. The code sets the cape-capf-properties are set for codeium and dabbrev (though more can be added).

(defalias 'my/capf-for-all
;; Create an alias 'my/capf-for-all' for the following expression
(cape-capf-super                      ;Combine multiple completion sources using cape-capf-super
 (cape-capf-silent                    ;Suppress the annotation for the following completion sources

  ;; Set properties for the codeium-completion-at-point function
  (cape-capf-properties #'codeium-completion-at-point
                        :annotation-function
                        ;; Define an anonymous function to provide the annotation
                        #'(lambda (_) (propertize "  odeium"
                                                  'face font-lock-comment-face))
                        ;; Set the company-kind property to 'magic'
                        ;; It is a cape property specifying type of completion candidate
                        ;; not really required, but can provide a better visual experience
                        :company-kind (lambda (_) 'magic)))

 ;; Prevent duplicates from the eglot-completion-at-point function
 (cape-capf-buster #'eglot-completion-at-point 'equal)

 ;; Set properties for the cape-dabbrev function
 (cape-capf-properties #'cape-dabbrev
                       :annotation-function
                       ;; Define an anonymous function to provide the annotation
                       #'(lambda (_) (propertize " Dabbrev"
                                                 'face font-lock-comment-face)))

 ;; if line gets too chatty
 (cape-capf-silent
  ;; Suppress the annotation for the following completion source
  (cape-capf-properties #'cape-line
                        ;; Set properties for the cape-line function
                        :annotation-function
                        ;; Define an anonymous function to provide the annotation
                        #'(lambda (_) (propertize " Line"
                                                  'face font-lock-comment-face))))))

Engaging in eglottony

Completion settings for eglot managed modes are configured here pulling everything together to work with eglot.

(defun my/eglotted-modes-config ()
  "Configuration of settings for eglot-managed modes"
  (setq-local completion-category-overrides '((file (styles partial-completion)))
              ;; Set completion-category-overrides for file category
              completion-category-defaults nil
              ;; Clear completion-category-defaults
              completion-styles '(orderless partial-completion basic)
              ;; Set completion styles
              completion-at-point-functions (list #'cape-file 'my/capf-for-all)
              ;; Set completion-at-point-functions to include cape-file and my/capf-for-all
  ))

;; Finally, add the my/eglotted-modes-config function to the
;; eglot-managed-mode-hook so it gets called when eglot runs.
(add-hook 'eglot-managed-mode-hook #'my/eglotted-modes-config)

This setup is mainly to get codeium to work on clojure scripts with eglot as the language server client. When programming elisp though we don’t need capfs and eglot. In fact, the codeium.el page provides code to work with elisp (see cl-letf* function towards the bottom).

[TODO: try to get codeium to work with shell better.]

completers

Several have been examined including ido|fido, vertico, ivy, but none offer as much as helm. Though it may have been slow on old computers, speed is not an issue now.

helm

wiki Doing things in helm is different from vanilla emacs:

use windows rather than minibuffer
use pattern rather than <tab>
<tab>|C-i gives available actions
C-j|C-z persistent action (helm buffer persists)
in a helm buffer, marking is not done with m
embedded help in org buffer with C-h m

Certain emacs commands have been helmed.

ido

Though built-in and mostly nice, the ido-switch-buffer doesn’t always work. The ido flex matching was excellent for the most part, though it could get confusing in some situations (helm’s locate is far better - almost as powerful as recoll file find or fzf fuzzy find.) Though fido is also built-in, we found no real advantage to it.

vertico

It is supposed to be an ido|ivy replacement forked from selectrum, but doesn’t seem to have any real advantages. Easy to get up and running, but not so easy to figure out how to optimize things. One advantage is it works with existing emacs bindings.

ivy

We use to use this as well as icicles many years ago, but switched to ido because things weren’t as messy.

daemon as systemd

$ systemctl –user enable –now emacs cp usr/lib/systemd/user/emacs.service .config/systemd/user systemctl enable –user emacs

default editor

export EDITOR=emacs How to change the default text editor on Linux

dired

Edit directories with emacs which is possibly far more useful than we ever thought. Reference Card pdf.

enter

C-x d from eshell or provide a pattern!

C-x (4|5) d ~/
C-x d ~/*
C-x d ~/.*
C-x d ~/D*
C-x d ~/**/*.el ;globstar should work but doesn't
C-x (4) C-j if done in dired gives parent dir

navigation

n,p
j <==> C-x C-f
M-s f (M-)C-s searches just for filename (or change dired-isearch-filenames to t)

deletion

DEL doesn't work
d,u,x does (on regions too)
m,D is an alternative

multiple flagging

#,~,. probably not going to use
% g flag garbage files .log, .toc, .dvi, .bak ...
% d regexp very nice!!

toggle hidden files

C-u s and -al -> -l or may be this [https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/DiredOmitMode][Toggle Showing Dot Files]

visiting files

RET|f
o,C-o
v readonly view
^,..

not same as openwith which can be done in various ways, but simplest for now is M-! <app> file.
this isn’t as convenient as nnn, but should do for now. dired+ apparently has a way to do this.

visit dir

use a instead of C-m to discard ancestors use C-x C-j to jump to parent (but that will leave trail), so go to .. and use a

dired marks and flags

these offer many possibilities, but are awkward to remember right now.

m can do region or C-u N as well
* N number and size of files in marked region
* * mark exe files
* @ mark slinks
* s mark all in dir
* / mark dirs
U remove all marks

mark by regexp
% m|g
% d


some of these may be useful though we can't see why right now:\\
* t toggle
M-{} move up/down to next marked file
C-/ undo dired changes
* c old new: * c D t  * c SPC D  * c t SPC

operating on files

D
Z
C new
R new to existing dir (dired-create-destination-dirs)
S new

A regexp very nice!!
Q regexp very nice!!

% u,l upper,lower case filenames

probably not useful at this stage
M modespec
G newgroup
O newowner
W open file externally

transforming filenames

% R,C,H,S computes new name by regexp doing a search-replace not sure how important this is since we can treat the dir as emacs buffer

subdirs

i
C-u C-SPC
$
M-$
C-u k

symlinks

Go to item symlink points to

find and locate

these are done from dired

M-x find-name-dired
M-x locate

view images

C-t d on marked image files
M-x image-dired

rotations possible with jpegtran

delete and tag of image files also possible, so can this replace gthumb!!!

other features

M-x dired-create-empty-file
M-x dired-compare-directories
M-s a C-s isearch on filenames

zz

Dired, the Directory Editor DiredMode

elfeed

Elfeed Emacs Web Feed Reader How to Use Emacs for RSS with Elfeed A workflow for reading, managing and discovering ML research papers with Emacs Note taking 3: Notes from elfeed entries !!!

Setup init-elfeed.el with:

vars for urls (because they can get very long and look messy)
the feeds var elfeed-feeds
the update var elfeed-search-update gets the feeds
delete feed by removing it on M-x customize elfeed-feeds

index mechanism

trying to figure out how to search the feeds from .elfeed in data/1d/1da2ce0dd6436d802f0e1b35ad60f8b745780a5b in index “https://www.sciencedaily.com/rss/top/science.xml” nil) (“www.sciencedaily.com” . “https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210405150225.htm”) #s(elfeed-entry (“www.sciencedaily.com” . “https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210405150225.htm”) “Elasticity to position microplates on curved 2D fluids” “https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210405150225.htm” 1617649345.0 #s(elfeed-ref “1da2ce0dd6436d802f0e1b35ad60f8b745780a5b”) html nil (unread)

There is likely no benefit to recolling the entire .elfeed dir because

we really don’t want all the feeds
those that we do want probably don’t have enough text content
the title of the article contains most of the info and that is already searchable

Saving specific articles to zitems may be useful, so an elisp script does the job mostly written by perplexity!

emailing a buffer

C-ret to setup email C-M-p to prger

setup init-elfeed

use variable for feeds remove titles, but set them as tags (setq aiblog <URL>) though we did have (setq aiblog (list <URL> <TITLE)) title now "" and set as a tag

regex group replacement

(car aiblog) -> aiblog (car $......$) -> \1

eshell

some of these items apply to emacs in general.

builtins

occur <regex> displays matching items in history

cd =, cd =foo, cd -N are excellent for moving into directories!

sudo works using eshell/sudo, but as an alias (eshell-prefer-lisp-functions didn’t work)

built-in variables:
$+, $-, $$, $? (with ending underscores), may be useful for scripting
also, note specific args handling with $*, $1, $2 …

eshell to have $PATH

;; match zshenv PATH (setenv “PATH” (shell-command-to-string “echo -n $PATH”))

that seems a lot simpler (not sure if it will work either), however, we did it another way by

echo $PATH > tmp
edit tmp
PATH=$(cat tmp)

after the above in zsh, we go to eshell and

(setq path <copied from echo $PATH>)
(setq exec-path (split-string path “:”))

expansions

(setq var "this is a string with extension.test")
$var
$'var' disambiguate
$#var length

$(sexp) can be used in a string
${cmd} output of cmd
$<cmd> output to tmpfile

$var[i] ith element of sequence (string split on spc)
$var[: n0 n1 n2 ...] split on : ;interpolation into larger string !!!
$var["\\\\" i] ;!!!
$var["[0-9]+" 10 20] ;!!!
$var[hello] ;!!!
$#var[hello] ;!!!

fix the history!! issue

customize eshell-expand-input-functions by INS eshell-expand-history-references t

for loop

for VAR in TOKENS { command invocation(s) }
for i in (split-string
          (shell-command-to-string "cat /etc/passwd") "\n")
{(print (string-join (list i "BOO") " "))}

help

help on function at point: C-h f

history

M-p|n works as expected

M-r|s is a bit awkward compared to C-r in regular shell, though there may be a better way

unlike C-r in a regular shell, M-r doesn’t keep cycling back … need to figure out how to deal with this

TODO pcomplete

not sure what this is completion concept

redirection

mostly same as zsh, but we also have these neat items

>>> #<buffer-name>
- > /dev/clip

as well as being able to define virtual targets with ("/dev/name" function mode)

scripts

use source from eshell and eshell-source-file from rest of emacs

ssh to remote

C-x C-d /ssh:lentil: M-x eshell and it works perfectly!

sudo issue

which sudo give /usr/bin/sudo - even when lisp functions are prefered !!!!! so we use an alias sudo eshell/sudo $* apparently the documentation is misleading

alias sff find-file /sudo::$1

zz

eshell manual

ess and paredit

these two don’t play nicely and you get c () so remove paredit from .R files and things seem to be just fine

eww

The browser is quite impressive doing what it is primarily designed for - browsing simple sites and reading docs. However, some of the keybindings and commands don’t seem to work. Not an important matter though since we likely won’t use it much.

flys

There is a fly for spelling, flyspell, and 2 for code syntax checking, flymake (builtin to emacs), flycheck (from elpa).

flyspell

Used for spell checking and allows adding to the dictionary.

flymake

Used for checking code syntax and works with LSP servers through clients like lsp-mode and eglot.

flycheck

Does the same as flymake, but presumably works better and with more languages (eg sh-zsh). The checking seems to be automatic, but with lsp I’m not sure if it is required. Quite possibly flymake is sufficient, but we should test both out. Lsp uses flycheck if it is available automatically, so we don’t have to specify that flymake be hooked for a language.

fdm

fetch and deliver mail it is MDA which can fetch https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fdm simple config for our notmuch purposes

following symlinks

C-h v vc-follow-symlinks and change the value this will handle git asks when opening a file !!!

fountain-mode

screenplain

doesn’t handle C-c C-a synopsis unless there is a blank line macro fynopsis takes care of this and is bound this way: (add-hook ‘fountain-mode-hook ; enters synopsis for screenplain issue (lambda () (local-set-key (kbd “C-c C-a”) ‘fynopsis)))

greppers

These search for occurrences of pattern in the buffer and/or in files.

emacs grep is good and straightforward to use from the menu requiring only a pattern and a directory of files.

helm ag M-g f will give pattern at|before point by default for the directory, so it can do much the same job as rg, but only on the directory you are already in. It is faster to use, if you want to search pwd only and not some other directory, since you have to go there, whereas C-c s with rg let’s you setup in whatever directory you want to.

rg C-c s is supposed to be faster with better customization. Though deadgrip was fine (and we like the rip pun), it was awkward to get into the directory we wanted. The rg package offers many more features and is into higher versions.

We find rg to be easier to setup and use too - with a guiding menu after C-c s and the docs are quite thorough as well.

To use ripgrep instead of grep see article. At this point, we see no real advantage to replacing grep with ripgrep. The code to insert in init.el is something like this:

(grep-apply-setting
  'grep-find-command
  '("rg -n -H --no-heading -e '' $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel || pwd)" . 27))

Don’t need to do this though because (require ‘rg) (rg-enable-default-bindings)

is quite sufficient to work with rg and also have grep around.

searchers work only in the buffer and include C-s|r and M-x occur which will make a buffer with links for the pattern, so it gives you the same thing that search does, but in a separate buffer and with every occurrence rather than forward C-s or reverse C-r.

ibuffer

Get in with C-x M-b

Delete multiple buffers quickly

% n|m <> RET
D y

images

Insert an image with

#+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next figure link (or table)
#+NAME:   fig:SED-HR4049
[[./img/a.jpg]]

junk deposit issue

emacs -nw producing [Ihello] and other junk on first line

this is happening because of the line in init-modes.el

(sp-pair "[" "]" :wrap "M-[")

other braces {} () don’t seem to have any issues

key (un)bind

(global-set-key (kbd "C-M-.") 'eshell)
(global-unset-key (kbd "C-M-."))

lilypond

qpdfview

open the pdf update in lilypond, then refresh with F5

xpdf -open

this works quite well until it is unable for some reason to create a remote socket. however, the problem can be nullified by: rm /tmp/default which removes the socket process (i guess?) unfortunately, when operating as a server, the textedit:// feature does not work as effectively though you still get the line number of where you want to go to in the .ly file.

midi

Lilypond-midi-player variable set to timidity|fluidsynth

lsp

Language Server Protocol Support for Emacs Emacs and the Language Server Protocol

notmuch

the idea will be to use search/tag rather than folders to get things done

setup

%notmuch setup -> ~/.notmuch-config used to have .emacs.d/notmuch-config.el with mainly the Q binding, but that is now in init-email.el

starting

emacs -e “notmuch” with client it used to be different: emacsclient -e “(elfeed)” -e “(notmuch)” & emacsclient -c ~/aa/aa.org &

various commands

search|show|address|count reply tag dump|restore config

html

(global-set-key (kbd “<f6>”) ‘org-mime-edit-mail-in-org-mode) use to open a second window and write in orgmode C-c C-c will update orgified buffer to the original

(global-set-key (kbd “M-<f6>”) ‘org-mime-htmlize) htmlize the orgified buffer before sending with C-c C-c (as before)

searching

wildcards using ‘*’ operators +|-|AND|NOT|XOR|OR| brackets proximity NEAR ADJ phrases “Debian Project” <=> Debian ADJ/1 Project prefix freeform idea, but uses full item eg from: instead of f: range date:yr-mo-da..yr-mo-da | -5da..now | yesterday

man notmuch-search-terms

fetch/trash mechanism

use nmprg.sh) f|c|p|t

f files are left on server but not duplicated c) fdm fetch will remove them from server p) polls t) trash require ‘S’ on emails then nmprg.sh t moves them to ~/.trash

be careful using c) because if you read using spark or whatever on the server and leave the item as read, then using this removes them from the server, but we’re not sure where the email actually goes! yes we are now!!

we must be sure that we are running nmp from ~/ otherwise mail/ will be created wherever we are!

autocomplete email addresses

chose to use bbdb and use bbdb-vcard with contacts.vcf exported from google Go to http://contacts.google.com, click the menu “Export…>>vCard format (blah, blah …)”. Click “Export” button. Download the contacts.vcf into ~/Downloads then load into an emacs buffer and run

bbdb-snarf-vcard-buffer

Remember to save the bbdb buffer to .emacs.d/bbdb

gnus-alias to select identity

https://notmuchmail.org/emacstips/#index16h2 didn’t set rules use M-x gnus-alias-select-identity

external handlers for attachments

w - to save the attachment - though the default doesn’t always seem to work. . o allows reading the item provided you specify the type

sending email

evolution removals

for some reason, the setup for smtp wasn’t being picked up in the init.el file and that is why evolution kept coming up. instead of smtpmail-send-it the setting had changed to mailclient-send-it. this is nice to know in case we should ever require it in the future.

;; smtp (setq smtpmail-default-smtp-server “shawmail.gv.shawcable.net” send-mail-function ‘smtpmail-send-it user-full-name “prad” smtpmail-local-domain “towardsfreedom.com” user-mail-address “prad@towardsfreedom.com”) (require ‘smtpmail)

otherwise it defaults to evolution because gnome sets it, though we can change it to notmuch through settings.

vivaldi mail issue

however, what is the problem replying to vivaldi? no issues sending to vivaldi or replying to any other place it seems. changing the smtp to “mail.towardsfreedom.com” sent, but still the same problem with replying to vivaldi!

<2021-06-21 Mon> we are sending pradagio@vivaldi.net emails through smtp.vivaldi.net because shawmail wouldn’t send (even though it appeared to do so).

2 items noted:

gnus alias setup is sufficient (no need for msmtp) (“tf” nil ;; Does not refer to any other identity “prad <prad@towardsfreedom.com>” ;; Sender address “towardsfreedom.com” ;; Organization header ((“X-Message-SMTP-Method” . “smtp smtp.towardsfreedom.com 587”)) nil ;; extra body text “/.signature”) (“fm” ;;formal tf nil “prad basu <prad@towardsfreedom.com>” “prad basu” ;; Organization header ((“X-Message-SMTP-Method” . “smtp smtp.towardsfreedom.com 587”)) nil ;; No extra body text “/.signature.fm”) (“vv” nil “prad <pradagio@vivaldi.net>” “prader” ;; Organization header ((“X-Message-SMTP-Method” . “smtp smtp.vivaldi.net 587”)) nil ;; No extra body text “~/.signature.vv”) )
mail-host-address (setq mail-host-address “localhost”) couldn’t figure out how to change it via smtp on gnus-alias, but that’s probably not important however, we need this to prevent Message ID <87lf72na5y.fsf@schnell.i-did-not-set–mail-host-address–so-tickle-me> doing (“Message-ID” . “towardsfreedom.com”) didn’t work though it did get the item in there. receiving end produced: Message ID <60d15486.1c69fb81.90dc4.e612SMTPIN_ADDEDBROKEN@mx.google.com>

still getting a spf softfail: send from vivaldi -> tf reply from tf -> vivaldi don’t know why, but it probably doesn’t matter.

also unclear why .authinfo required vivaldi smtp info but nothing for tf

orgmode

manual

org macros

github link The macros in Org allow you to add text or code to an Org document that will be expanded during export: the text between the 3 pairs of accolades is expanded so that readers can see it in the exported versions of the document.

Some people (such as me) use it to construct complex HTML or LaTeX code.

13.5 Macro Replacement

the .#file issue with org-agenda-files

When that variable is set to ~/aa/*.org various files within the aa directory kept appearing making cycling awkward. We haven’t found out why though the problem started around <2023-07-22 Sat> for some reason. Possibly, having the default ~/org directory would have caused those files to end up there (which really isn’t the best solution). Setting the default org-directory to aa seems to have worked albeit the idea is pretty counter-intuitive.

org agenda

Cycle the org agenda directory with C-’ (which seems to be a default setup). packages

melpa vs melpa-stable

Packages are identified when we look at M-x package-list-packages

update packages

M-x list-packages and it will automatically refresh the archive contents.

Then, press U to mark all upgradable packages to be upgraded.

Last, press x to perform the new updates.

Emacs will then download and install all upgradable packages. It will also ask you whether to delete the old packages: M-x package-autoremove

Doing it this way seems better than package-refresh-contents package-install (if package-reinstall doesn’t work)

table

If ; isn’t a separator by default: C-u C-u C-u C-c | ; RET

package

removing packages

To remove unnecessary or unwanted packages in Emacs, follow these steps:

Open Emacs.
Press `M-x` (Alt + x) to invoke the command prompt.
Type `package-list-packages` and press Enter.
In the Packages buffer, locate the packages you want to remove.
Mark them for deletion by pressing `d` (package-menu-mark-delete).
Execute the deletion by pressing `x` (package-menu-execute).
Confirm the removal when prompted in the mini-buffer.

This process will remove the actual files associated with the packages from the `~/.emacs.d/elpa` directory¹. Happy cleaning! 🧹🚀

Source: Conversation with Copilot, 6/18/2024 (1) How to remove an installed package in Emacs (ver 24+)?. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16469600/how-to-remove-an-installed-package-in-emacs-ver-24. (2) uninstallation - How remove emacs full? - Stack Overflow. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57895073/how-remove-emacs-full. (3) Package Menu (GNU Emacs Manual). https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Package-Menu.html. (4) apt - how to uninstall emacs from command line? - Ask Ubuntu. https://askubuntu.com/questions/604733/how-to-uninstall-emacs-from-command-line. (5) Uninstalling a package and all of its dependencies - Emacs Stack Exchange. https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/31888/uninstalling-a-package-and-all-of-its-dependencies.

update packages

Certainly! To update packages in Emacs, follow these steps:

Open Emacs.
Type `M-x list-packages` and press Enter. This command lists all installed packages and automatically refreshes the package archive contents.
In the Packages buffer, press `U` to mark all upgradable packages.
Finally, press `x` to perform the updates. Emacs will download and install the new versions of the packages. It will also prompt you to delete the old packages if necessary¹².

Happy updating! 🚀🔧

Source: Conversation with Copilot, 6/18/2024 (1) elpa - Updating packages in Emacs - Stack Overflow. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14836958/updating-packages-in-emacs. (2) How to upgrade packages installed by ELPA in Emacs?. https://www.systutorials.com/how-to-upgrade-packages-installed-by-elpa-in-emacs/. (3) Keeping Your Emacs Packages Up to Date - System Crafters. https://systemcrafters.net/emacs-from-scratch/keeping-your-packages-up-to-date/. (4) How to update packages installed with use-package. https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/31872/how-to-update-packages-installed-with-use-package. (5) undefined. http://tromey.com/elpa/. (6) undefined. http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/. (7) undefined. http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/. (8) undefined. http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/.

profiler

Option 2: The profiler

Invoke M-x profiler-start RET RET (the second RET is to confirm cpu);
Do some typing, preferably an entire paragraph or more;
Invoke M-x profiler-report.

That will give you a buffer describing the cpu time taken by each function. Hitting TAB on a line expands it to display the functions inside it. Navigate this buffer until you find out which function is taking so much CPU time. https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/5359/how-can-i-troubleshoot-a-very-slow-emacs

we tried this to figure out AC mode was slowing things down, but we already knew that. Not sure what to do about it though.

pinky solution

One way of not injuring the left pinky even after making CAPS into CTRL is to use different fingers to push it. That way the usage is distributed and the hands move around more too.

TODO regexp

Likely not worth paying in-depth attention to since it is not pcre. However, some of the uses can be helpful especially for simple things.

search file system

SFS is a collection of inter-operating emacs tools to make accessing and organizing your data faster and more ergonomic. It is largely powered by the Recoll file-indexing tool.

This may be worth pursuing eventually !!!

sessions

Use the default M-x save-sessions to ~/.emacs.d/session-buffers to get all back. Sometimes certain buffers get persistent because session-buffers keeps them, so delete the buffers and save-session again.

smartparens

Pair management haven’t been able to deal with ~~ and // in org-mode yet !!!

spellcheck

be sure aspell or whatever is installed. M-$
Check and correct spelling of the word at point (ispell-word). If the region is active, do it for all words in the region instead.

M-x ispell
Check and correct spelling of all words in the buffer. If the region is active, do it for all words in the region instead.

M-x ispell-buffer
Check and correct spelling in the buffer.

M-x ispell-region
Check and correct spelling in the region.

tab-bar

Likely not of much use since we tend to prefer buffers anyway.

C-x t 2 creates a new tab
C-tab next tab
C-S-tab prev tab
C-x t r rename tab
C-x t m move tab to right
C-x t RET select tab by name
M-x tab-list list tabs

tab completion

Setup in init-keybindings.el with (require ‘helm) (define-key helm-map (kbd “TAB”) ‘helm-execute-persistent-action)

terminals

The ansi-term gives colors, but term doesn’t. C-c C-j linemode to use M-x

Code runs ansi-term without the zsh prompt:

;; use ansi-term with zsh
(defun zterm ()
  "term to use zsh"
  (interactive)
  (ansi-term "zsh"))

(M-)s-a (close) open terminal in second window

;; other terms
s-' ansi-term full window
s-. eshell
s-y term with zsh (likely to use very rarely)

There is nothing wrong in allowing ansi-terms to accumulate even if we do not go back to them, though we might if they are involved in specific tasks. In order to name the ansi-terms we need to go into line-mode (C-c C-j) and not character-mode (C-c C-k), so we can use M-x rename-buffer.

In line mode, it reads an entire line and permits various emacs editing operations on it, then sends it to the process all at once when you’re done (press Enter). In char mode, each character is sent through as soon as you press the key - dealing with lines, editing, and so on is up to the process running in the terminal, such as your shell.

Why might you want to use one over the other? Line mode allows you to perform Emacs editing operations on what you write, to accumulate multiple lines to send through at once, and to perform tab completion of filenames in Emacs. See the list of commands in shell mode for details. Character mode lets you use all the features of the underlying process, like its own (likely better) tab completion, rather than the Emacs operations, and also to send through inputs that Emacs would have interpreted as referring to its own commands (like Ctrl-X). This is also the mode you’d want if you wanted to run vim inside emacs.

An ordinary terminal operates in the equivalent of character mode. Line-mode vs Character-mode explanation

Clean-up of ansi-terms can be done in the same way as clean-up of sent-mail buffers: % n RET <pattern> marks the buffers by name after which use D to delete them. See .

Macros have been created for ‘aterm s-a ‘aterm-rm M-s-a

For some reason, aterm does not let M-x to work - get execute: showing up in the window. Usually we would M-x to rename-buffer, but a shortcut exists: C-x x r and that will bring up the rename-buffer command.

themes

(add-to-list ‘custom-theme-load-path “~/.emacs.d/themes/”) M-x customize-themes

tramp

We can use ssh|sudo from rootdir with // and once we tramp into another computer the eshell works there (should we want it to).

hanging with ssh

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode put in the remote .zshrc

[[ $TERM == "dumb"]] && unsetopt zle && PS1='$ ' &&

this is a zsh issue because people have said that when the switch to bash it all works.

<2023-09-22 Fri> stopped working for some reason, but a better solution is to use sshx which uses /bin/sh instead of zsh

ssh with sudo

C-x C-f /ssh:psinom::sudo:psinom:

variables

shell-mode-map is void

shell-mode-map is a variable that is defined in the file shell.el which is not loaded yet, so the variable is undefined.

(require ‘shell) before you try use the variable. post

save and apply

This can be done through the emacs customize menu, but to do alter a variable permanently through the minibuffer, use M-x customize-

vc

A “version control system” is a program that can record multiple versions of a source file, storing information such as the creation time of each version, who made it, and a description of what was changed. Emacs VC supports git and several others and is enabled whenever a file under VC is visited.

Commands reachable with prefix C-x v <tab>

Much more to investigate !!!

zz

agenda cycling extra buffers

Cycling through the agenda dir sometimes produces empty buffers of the same name starting with .# and we think this may be because extra files of the same name somehow get created. Deleting the buffers doesn’t get rid of them, because they keep coming back. However, if we M-x reload-dot-emacs after deleting them, the problem goes away.

issue with [I ] on first word

we don’t really know what the problem is though it seems to have something to do with the TERM variable. it occurs with emacs -nw, but not with sudo emacs -nw probably because at the time this was written, there was no .emacs in /root as evidenced by a solution which works with emacs -nw -Q.

What does work if using gnome-terminal is TERM=gnome-256color

enter giving Wrong type argument: stringp, nil

inserting the doc with C-x C-i didn’t work hopefully copying the items one by one will we will also leave orgmode to its own file

close help window without going to it

(setq help-window-select t) that way when using q, it closes the help window since it is already there.

re-able window

C-z isn’t nil (the keybind is commented). It seems to sort of disable the window, but going to another emacsclient window re-activates the cursor. With a standalone emacs, clicking on the menu brings it back.

read-only toggle

C-x C-q

block commenting trick

we don’t really need this since emacs is setup with C-M-c and C-M-S-c for comments

: '
This is a
very neat comment
in bash
'
echo "This is outside the commented block"

Executing the above code would result in: This is outside the commented block https://stackoverflow.com/questions/947897/block-comments-in-a-shell-script

uses

coding
- clj
- zsh
- php
- openscad
- html
email
writing
- stories
- librettos
- papers
lilypond
orgmode

Pradbird

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 19:26:32 -0700

We used to live near the water when we moved in 1995 to Duncan, BC on Khenipsen Road, beside a First Nations area. It was a very nice place, except for the hunting and fishing that took place there.

Unfortunately, not only were these activities legalized, but there were many instances of illegal killings as well. That’s what this is - killing regardless of the euphemisms used or the appeal to Indigenous ‘rights’ that are often put forth as an excuse to commit murder. [For more thorough discussions on this Indigenous issue, see KG’s FAQ.]

Admittedly, some of the First Nation population do kill animals necessarily for food, because our dominant ruling class stole their lands and forced inexcusable indignities upon them. Our politicians pay mere lipservice, bravadoing putrid political properness, accomplishing little else to improve the often horrible living conditions. No amount of redundant repetition of “We greet you from the unceded lands of …” blather does anything useful for those who can’t subsist on such well-meaning words.

On the other hand, some murders in societies are for cultural and traditional reasons, indefensible by any deplorable debate.

The person we rented our house from was a lawyer and had made some attempts to ban hunting in the area at least for non-Indigenous individuals. However, he was in favor of fishing. When my son Kyron, who had recently turned six asked him why killing fish should be allowed, he provided an anthropocentricity remarkable in its absurdity: “The fish would just go to waste if we didn’t harvest them.” Adults lie to kids a lot which is likely why many kids grow up to be adults who lie to kids a lot, repeating the cycle in perpetuity. Kyron gave the lawyer a sincere look of disgust and decided he wasn’t worth talking to any further.

The shooting of eagles, at that time, had been made illegal.

In late November 1995, we witnessed such a illegality. Kyron and his friend Leia drew our attention to an eagle they saw plummeting into the estuary, just in front of our house. The bird was flopping around in the water.

Fortunately, the property had a canoe (in dubious condition) that I utilized to go out to the bird. The eagle actually helped me to put him into the canoe by grasping the side with his beak as I used an oar to lift him in.

By now, the canoe was starting to fill up with water. Trying to manoeuvre a half-filled boat apparently made quite a sight. I was told that Leia started to laugh and asked Kyron why I was going around in circles. All Kyron said was “My daddy is doing good.” This is one of the best gifts any parent can ever receive from his or her child.

Providence kept the boat barely afloat till we got to shore, but it was evident that the eagle was going to need medical help. That night, I drove him to Nanaimo where there was a eagle rehab facility.

I thought the bird would be safe now, but was astonished to learn that the veterinarian there, was inclined to kill him, because he thought the bullet had broken a wing bone beyond repair, making the bird unable to fly. He wouldn’t let me take the bird elsewhere either. He was a high-profile vet who had set many of the wildlife guidelines through the government.

He kept saying he was powerless to make any other decision, but didn’t seem too pleased when I offered to break into the facility to take the bird without his knowledge, thus relieving him of this burden his conscience was so weighed down with.

Therefore, the next day I started phoning around trying to see what the actual laws were, only to learn that the vet had the upper hand, legally.

On the same day, we also found out, from a conservation officer named Jamie that the eagle had likely been shot because some brave braves, no doubt were upholding their rite of passage into bravehood, by plucking eagle feathers. It was likely that they didn’t come for the eagle they shot, because they saw I was heading out and didn’t want to risk being caught for their illegal activity. The officer took down any details I could provide, because he was keenly interested in going after these culprits.

When the law is there to work against you, it is necessary to create alternative approaches.

I found 5 facilities throughout North America (including one within 50km of where the eagle was at), who were willing to take the bird, even if he couldn’t fly. These facilities were sanctuaries for animals who could not be released into the wild. I also tried to put some pressure on the government’s Ministry for Wildlife as to the ridiculous position they were upholding, specifically fly or die!

After many exchanges (part of the effort is to wear down the opposition with argumentation and revelation of possible legal, publicized future actions), I received a phone call from the Ministry saying they would only kill the eagle if amputation was absolutely necessary … so the sanctuary finding effort likely paid off.

However, our eagle had other ideas!

The next day, I received a call from the Nanaimo rehab facility saying that the surgery had been done and our vet felt that amputation was not necessary. He wanted to give the bird a chance to recover before release into the wild.

Several weeks later, the facility called me again asking if I would like to come up to see the release of whom they had named, Pradbird!

Kyron, Ranjana and I drove to Nanaimo on the appointed day and just before they released Pradbird, the person who ran the sanctuary held him right in front of us. The eagle looked straight at me and gave a cry. Then they threw him into the air and he flew off, landing on a branch of a distant tree!

Ranjana likes to think that it was a cry of recognition. Perhaps it was.

Prazen

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 13:55:56 -0700

These are zenish short stories merrily modified from various sources.

Zen Comics by Ioanna Zalajan
Radical Zen: The Sayings of Joshu by Youl Hoffmann

A man of enlightenment and wisdom

Student: Oh master, where does the man of enlightenment and wisdom go after he dies?

Master: How should I know?

Student: Because you, master, are a man of enlightenment and wisdom!

Master: That may be so, but I am not dead.

Become a Buddha

Zen master Baso, when he was young, was caught meditating all over the place by his teacher who asked him “Why are you meditating so much?”

Baso answered, “To become a buddha.”

His teacher pick up a piece of slate and started polishing it.

Baso asked, “Why are you polishing the slate so vigorously?”

Teacher replied, “To turn it into a mirror.”

Baso laughed, “No amount of polishing is going to turn a slate into a mirror?”

Teacher replied, “No amount of cross-legged sitting is going to turn one into a buddha”

Baso then understood.

But just to be sure, his teacher hit him with a staff on the head.

Detachment

The student went to the zen master in elation!

“Oh master,” he joyously exclaimed, “I am so happy and feel so free. I have achieved detachment at last!”

The master hit him on the head with a stick.

“Owww!! Why did you do that?” whined the student rubbing his head.

The master said, “To detach you from your detachment”.

Empty

The elated student rushed in to see his master!

“I am empty! I have released my attachments!”, he exclaimed.

“Indeed.” said his master.

“I have no desires! I have no yearnings! I have no ego! I am empty!”

The master hit him on the head with his staff.

“Owww!!!”, yelled the student in pain and anger. “Why did you do that, old monk?”

His master asked: “If you are so empty, where did all that anger come from?”

Essence

Monk: What is the essence of essences?

Joshu: Just how long have you been essencing yourself up like this?

Monk: My concern for discovering essence has been going for a long, long time.

Joshu: A fool such as you are lucky to have met me just in time, before you completely essenced yourself out!

Go away!

A would-be student knocked on the gate of a zen master. The master opened the gate and asked: “What do you want?”

The student answered: “O master you are so learned. I beg you to teach me!”

The master slammed the gate shut.

The student knocked again.

“What do you want now?”

“Please, please I must have you as my teacher.”

Again the master slammed the gate shut.

Once again the student knocked.

“What is it now?”

“Master please! i really want to learn!”

The master said: “Very well then” and open the gate.

Once inside, the elated and beaming student asked: “Master! what are you going to teach me first?”

The master replied: “To go away!”

and promptly threw the student out and slammed the gate.

Knowledge and Understanding

When the ordinary man gains knowledge, he becomes a sage.
When the sage achieves understanding, he becomes an ordinary man.

Seeing the tao

Student: Master why can I not see tao?

Master: So long as there is an I, there is no seeing tao.

Student: Master can you see tao?

Master: So long as there is you and I, tao cannot be seen.

Student: Then if you and I disappear, can tao be seen?

Master: If you and I disappear, who is there to see tao?

So what boy?

A monk in training says to the zen master: “Greetings master! I have travelled much and studied under many acquiring much guidances and insight. I come now to you for illumination!”

The master scratches his head and picks up a twig on the ground. Without saying anything, he gives the student the twig. The student assumes the zazen posture and meditates deeply. In his mind, the twig grows into a tree and then is produced a beautiful orchard which gradually blossoms into a field, a country, the planet and finally the universe!

He goes back to the master and relates these wonders: all life is one in its eternal existence with everything else animate and inanimate - such is the ubiquitous unity of the universe!

The master scratches his head again, takes the twig from the monk’s outstretched hand and asks: “So what boy?”

The duel

An aikido master was heading to a town where he knew there was someone insisting on challenging him. He could have taken the person down easily, but he would not let ego dictate and he passed through the outskirts avoiding his would-be opponent.

Thus the master won the real duel.

The flag

A zen master and two students were walking on a path through the forest. as they came out of it they saw a flag pole with a large flag fluttering in the breeze.

One student exclaimed, “Look the flag is moving!”

His companion thought for a moment and suggested, “The wind is moving!”

The master said, “The mind is moving.”

The precious stone

When two dragons fight over a precious stone which one wins?
The one who loses lacks nothing. The one who gains does not need it.

The two dragons

The student went to the master with what he found to be a wonderfully enlightening story:

An old man told his grandson, “There is a battle between two dragons inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, apathy, lies, ego and fear. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, kindness, humility, empathy and truth. The boy thought about it and asked, “Grandpa, which dragon wins?” The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”

“Such a great story, is it not master?”, concluded the student.

The master smiled and said, “It is that, but what makes you think either dragon is hungry?”

Hugo Forum

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:06:58 -0700

A very advanced and functional forum for the hugo static site generator. The individuals are very helpful and considerate!

Praphorisms

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 12:08:14 -0700

This is an ever-growing list of quotations attributed to various individuals throughout history.

Al-Khafaji Amir Wadi

To my brother Faiz, whose ideals are like the stars: I could never reach them, but I chart my course by them. (dedication in Numerical Methods In Engineering Practice)

Adams Samuel

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749

Angelkate Rose

(Aka meangel; paingel; derangel; strangel; spongel because she’s such a softie when she wants to be; braingel when being intellectual; pungel when being punny.)

I was eternally safe in the stillness of forever, which was the ultimate truth.

Guided by your hand, illuminated by your light
You give me courage to do what is right

Love from beyond now I understand
You only want to give when you hold out your hand

When a fork is tuned… it is tuned.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to take a pic of the source of creation on a sony/canon.

Hm… then neither do I!

Is it so much about what I think… or is it pure joy at the gift having been received with pure joy?

Perhaps not so much invisible… because when I point it out… you look in that direction and see it too! Sees the same rainbow

I had a pretty good devil around whom I feel angelic. ;)

The song of your soul crystalised into music. It is like there is such a deep connection to the still centre… that all movement is grounded in that… as that.

Hymn to Her is the perfect title because it is her singing his lyrics… just the way that he wrote them… because tracing his steps makes her feel closer to him… as if they were singing together. She is not making the song her own… she is hearing his song through her own lips… as if their minds are one in that moment.

He continues to lecture himself through her… Lose the image of being ‘someone who doesn’t do this often’… because it is not even about music… it is about channelling… and when channelling… there is no time… and no image… and no music.

Well… while she’s on a role… When one is on the right side… one need not hit home with accuracy… but merely acknowledge that one is already home!

it is about accepting the seemingly extraordinary as ordinary.

== From: Angelkate Rose <angelkaterose@aol.co.uk> Subject: Re: Hey :) To: prad@towardsfreedom.com Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2012 16:59:35 -0400 (EDT)

I have been looking at my false-self because I cannot live with it and have been trying to ‘change’ it… but I have realised that when I change a perception of myself to it’s opposite and supposed ‘positive’ alternative, I still feel uncomfortable, disconnected and still in ego, plus it doesn’t feel authentic because I am also sometimes the ’negative’ thing that I am attempting to escape having a part of my identity. So I realised that any identity is a limitation, because I am not just one thing- I am two opposites and I am neither of them, I am everything and I am nothing. An identity is a set of labels and that is my suffering… so perhaps by seeing that I am both I can realise that I am nothing and therefore I can choose what to be in each moment… any preconceived idea that I have of myself veils my awareness of what I exist as in the moment… of what arises.

From: prad <prad@towardsfreedom.com> Subject: Re: Hey :) To: Angelkate Rose <angelkaterose@aol.co.uk> Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:12:55 -0700

why not just pick an image that you find worthwhile and just be it. ==

Bach Richard

And then you will be ready to begin the most difficult, the most powerful, the most fun of all. You will be ready to begin to fly up and know the meaning of kindness and love.

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.

Don’t be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.

Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.

Jonathan is that brilliant little fire that burns within us all, that lives only for those moments when we reach perfection.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof.

Bentham Jeremy

The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

BigG

Thanks just came back from Thompson no wonder this province is ranked high for many diseases. Obesity is rampant. I honestly believe most humans are not being humans anymore with all the gmo processed foods, meds, booze and drugs the light is on but no one is home in many of them. I think we are in the age of gmo humans.

Bridgeman Percy William

The operational approach demands that we make our reports and do our thinking in the freshest terms of which we are capable, in which we strip off the sophistications of millenia of culture and report as directly as we can on what happens.

The attitude which the man in the street unconsciously adopts towards science is capricious and varied. At one moment he scorns the scientist for a highbrow, at another anathematizes him for blasphemously undermining his religion; but at the mention of a name like Edison he falls into a coma of veneration.

Coincidence is what you have left over when you apply a bad theory.

[He believed that through such pursuit humanity really will improve, that it would acquire a “courageous nobility”]
And in the end, when man has fully partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, there will be this difference between the first Eden and the last, that man will not become as a god, but remain forever humble.

Cowper William

Life owes us nothing. We owe life everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a [worthwhile] purpose.

Dijkstra Edsger

The question of whether machines can think is about as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim.

Dunham Barrows

Historically speaking, the content of philosophy is what is left over after the sciences departed. Nobody took ethics, not even the sociologists; nobody took logic; nobody took esthetics, nobody took (for who would want?) metaphysics. These subjects, therefore, remain part of philosophy’s content, despite the fact that the mathematicians eye logic covetously and the gentlemen of the fine arts would like to ravish esthetics. The subjects themselves, I am happy to report, have thus far resisted all blandishments. (from Man Against Myth p.11)

Emerson Haven

[The following gem is from an address given in 1928 by Dr. Haven Emerson, Columbia University]

Youth is not a time of life. It is a state of mind. It is not a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the motions. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 50 more than in a youth of 20. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair - these are the long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. You are as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

Emerson Ralph Waldo

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Einstein Albert

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice keeps me from feeling isolated. (Courtesy of Miriam)

Cinderella (Disney 2015)

I believe that animals listen and speak to us if we only have the ear for it. That’s how we learn to look after them … I have to tell you a secret that will see you through all the trials that life can offer. Have courage and be kind.
~ Ella’s mother

Just because it’s what’s done doesn’t mean it’s what should be done!
~ Ella

And so Kit and Ella were married. And I can tell you, as her fairy godmother, that they were counted to be the fairest and kindest rulers the kingdom had known. And Ella continued to see the world not as it is, but as it could be, if only you believe in courage, and kindness, and occasionally, just a little bit… of magic.
~ Ella’s fairy godmother

Francis of Assissi

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men. Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them wherever they require it.

Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Frank Anne

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.

Women should be respected as well! Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?…Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big-mouthed freedom-fighting heroes put together!

I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.

Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.

People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.

Franklin Benjamin

Debates [should] be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without […] desire of victory.

Galbraith John

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.

Gale Donald

A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.

Gandi Mahatma

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes.

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.

Experience teaches that animal food is unsuited to those who would curb their passions. But it is wrong to over-estimate the importance of food in the formation of character or in subjugating the flesh.

I hold today the same opinion as I held then. To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.

I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it.

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.

A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Gell-Mann Murray

However, history shows clearly that humanity is moved forward not by people who stop every little while to try to gauge the ultimate success or failure of their ventures, but by those who think deeply about what is right and then put all their energy into doing it

Gibran Kahil

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.

Gould Glenn

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. (In his recordings, Gould sought to overcome our basis instincts and encourage a kind of altered state of consciousness, a participation in some kind of higher unity.)

Isolation is the indispensable component of human happiness.

Theirs [the Beatles] is a happy, cocky, belligerently resourceless brand of harmonic primitivism… In the Liverpudlian repertoire, the indulged amateurishness of the musical material, though closely rivaled by the indifference of the performing style, is actually surpassed only by the ineptitude of the studio production method. (Strawberry Fields suggests a chance encounter at a mountain wedding between Claudio Monteverdi and a jug band.)

I detest audiences - not in their individual components, but en masse I detest audiences. I think they’re a force of evil. It seems to me rule of mob law.

The nature of the contrapuntal experience is that every note has to have a past and a future on the horizontal plane.

We went out in the boat and I was the first to catch a fish and when the little perch came up and started wriggling about, I suddenly saw this thing entirely from the fish’s point of view - it was such a powerful experience. I picked up my fish, and said I was going to throw it back. At that moment - this has remained with me as a sort of block against people who exert influence over children - the father [a neighbor from Uptergrove] suddenly pushed me back into my seat, probably for the sensible reason that I was rocking the boat. Then he took the fish out of my reach at which I went into a tantrum and started jumping and up and down, stomping my feet and pulling my hair and stuff like that. And I kept it up until we got into shore. I refused to speak to those children for the rest of the summer, of course, and I immediately went to work on my father to convince him that he should abandon fishing. It took me ten years, but this is probably the greatest thing I have ever done.

Graham Collier

The influence of a beautiful, helpful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town.

Grenfell Wilfred

The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not “to have and to hold” but “to give and serve.” There can be no other meaning.

Huxley Thomas Henry

It is the fate of all good science to be replaced by its progeny.

There is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite.

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment… not authority.

The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.

Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.

Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion!

The politicians tell us, ’You must educate the masses because they are going to be masters.’ The clergy join in the cry for education, for they affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel into the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists swell the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen; that England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod! The glory will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are men and women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and suffering, that it is as true now, as it ever was, that the people perish for lack of knowledge.

Jake

What this serves to demonstrate, is that just because an action is more drastic, does not mean that it’s more effective. Burning down one factory farm and getting caught doesn’t make you a hero to animals, it makes you a hero to your target’s competitors.

When you allocate your sloth wisely, productivity ensues.

Make compassion a reflex!

King Martin Luther

We do not need allies who are more devoted to order than to justice.

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

A right delayed is a right denied.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. This is the interrelated structure of all reality. You can never be what you ought to be until I become what I ought to be.

One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

There comes a time when silence is betrayal.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

Lincoln Abraham

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

McKee Jamie

How can I have a bad day?! I love this game! (Speaking it the 1960s at the Boulevard Club, Toronto, ON about badminton when asked why he never has a bad day.)

Mohammed Renea

On Mother’s Day, we celebrate the fierce love, tenderness, and devotion that mothers bring into the world. It’s also a moment to remember the animal mothers whose stories are rarely told—those separated from their babies in laboratories, where both are used in experiments they never chose and cannot escape.

These mothers bond. They protect. They grieve. They feel fear, stress, and pain. Their babies do too. Love and emotion are not human inventions; they are shared across species, woven into the fabric of life itself.

Today is a reminder that we can choose a kinder path. Modern non‑animal research methods already exist—methods that are not only more humane, but also more accurate, more efficient, and less expensive. Compassion and scientific progress are not opposites; they can move forward together.

This Mother’s Day, may we honour all mothers by speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and by supporting alternatives that spare animals from suffering while advancing human health with greater precision and humanity.

[Wording Polished by Perplexity AI]

Moynihan Patrick

You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.

Newton Issac

I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Nickep

I feel that we need assertive affirmations and commanding paragraphs, which take authority and ‘slam down’ our opponents viewpoints. The reason for this, is that the opposition has some evil memes, and that they need to be broken. the way to do this isn’t by defending ourselves from their rants; and thus we explain ourselves to the nth degree: which does the opposite of what we intend. But to face our situations and force them to break their own statements which were irrational, and get them to see the truth in what we’re saying…

See, people who advocate animal abuse and animal suffering, through vivisection and experiments, or for what we aren’t designed to eat, as food, aren’t evil, but mislead and brainwashed, we could easily break their propaganda, which is showing itself in insecurity in their views, and also to be both socially independant and vegan.. see, most of the opposition, that aren’t in authority, aren’t ’evil’ or doing it for cruelty, but that cruelty is a byproduct that they don’t actually see each day and thus aren’t reminded of it - they do it because it’s socially acceptable, and they don’t feel secure enough to make their own independent thoughts…

So, the fact is that we need to be authoritative and command subliminallly in our propositions, and our conclusions will naturally form in their minds as if that was their own ideas…

Nietzsche Friedrich

Idleness is the parent of psychology.

Niemöller Martin

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pope John Paul 2

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

Poppins Mary

Practically perfect people never allow sentiment to muddle their thinking.

prad

I will spark your sanity, you temper my madness.

Those who talk a lot but do little suffer from a condition known as yapathy.

Impact need not be flamboyant. It can be subtle and stealthy.

Justice has no need for compassion nor does it need to be blind.

People wanting to get to heaven is likely why hell is so crowded.

The head is harder to hit, but can be made ineffective if you take the body out from underneath.

Compassion: It is illogical to think that the way to bring about compassion is by being compassionate. To eliminate villainy, you will likely have to get your hands dirty. So chill!

Popular opinion: One should never be swayed by popular opinion. There is nothing wrong with having popular opinion see you as immoral or worse. Popular opinion is generally immoral in itself since it is guided by what people want to believe than what is ethical.

Sometimes in some situations, more people choose to believe what is ethical than what is convenient.

There is nothing decent about appearing to be decent.

What one should be guided by are not the opinions of others but by established values that don’t change according to one’s whims and fancies. This approach handles the fact that people who like Trump and Putin don’t care what others think, but unfortunately, also don’t care about any values. Thus, they take a good thing and turn it into a bad one.

YAAAAAY: You Are An Awkward Animation Are You

Expect and insist on the best from others and you will never be disappointed with yourself.

Might may not be right, but might can certainly make right.

Making things happen from within a system is possible. Doing the same from outside the system is also possible. However participating in the system you are trying to change may prove to be difficult simply because there are vested interests that can get in the way.

If one is going for something worthwhile that others cannot see then it is silly to be concerned about what others are thinking.

In any endeavor, it is counterproductive to worry about whether one will be successful or not, for doing so tends to mess up one’s strategy. It’s a bit like driving in that thinking about the destination is not a good idea when you’re supposed to be paying attention to the road.

Those who violate the gold rule are no longer entitled to the protection it offers.

Showing neutrality in the face of brutality is an atrocity.

Peace and love may work fine when the other side cooperates, but if they don’t they should be helped.

Engineers don’t make mistakes! They only increase their tolerances.

There is little point in appearing to be ethical when fighting that which is unethical: your personal purity is better grown in a petri dish.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing, but there are many wrong ways to do the right thing. When doing the right thing, there may be merit in choosing some of those ‘wrong’ ways. The ends can justify the means and those who are excessively attached to their ‘high’ morals often do the victims of injustice an unforgivable disservice.

The ‘good’ are far too busy acting good to do any good.

No point in being a good person if you are unwilling to be a better one.

Don’t complain unless you really have something to complain about. If you do, then figure out what to do about it, instead of complaining.

It is difficult to get on with things that matter when one spends time on those that don’t.

The universe waits not for the sanction of our beliefs.

Prefer to be a monster in a good cause than be a saint in a monstrous one.

Look for the pradeal instead of rushing in.

Love and compassion would have a better chance of taking hold if their advocates were a little less loving and a little less compassionate.

If you want to clean house, you are going to have to get your hands dirty and take out the trash.

True happiness is having our systems work efficiently and effectively.

Being addicted is yet another self-indulgent act.

Psychological damage is more practical than physical damage.

Perfection is being true to worthwhile values by translating them to action.

Never accept someone for who they are, for they are not.

Trust no one, including this one!

The Les Miserable phrase “to love another person is to see the face of god” is a reasonably good one, but the order is backwards. Only when you have made yourself worthy to see the face of god, does love come into it.

Hercules, Hunchback, Mermaid by Disney bring out very profound ethical values as well as zen. Hercules for instance becomes a ‘sage’ when he is transformed into a god through his nobility, but chooses to be mortal through understanding and thereby an ordinary man.

Using the excuse that no one is perfect because everyone kills microbes and steps on insects is like whining about background radiation. The physicist tries to minimize it and thereby sees the truth of reality better. You can’t do anything about some things, but there’s a lot you can do much about - and that’s how you do get to see the truth.

Do only that which aligns with your purpose. Do not define your purpose though for you can only do things that are in alignment with your purpose.

It is bad enough that people who know something, talk nonsense about it. Far worse is when those who know nothing about something talk the same way.

Rotten apples should not be seen as something for the garbage, but as fuel for the compost.

The only worthwhile opinion is a correct one.

Some have a desperate need to be ridiculous.

Society tends to honor its live conformers and its dead reformers. You don’t have to be dead though to be honored. Radicals do pay the price of being labelled fanatical and that’s a pretty good honor.

Reimbursement need not necessarily be made to the benefactor. A societial or evolutionary contribution is often of greater value.

Anything that has the strong potential of evil may well be evil.

When info was scarce, people wanted the truth. Now that it’s not, they want truth to be customized.

Some of us do things on the spur of the last moment.

Planting a curse on someone is likely not going to be an intelligent effort. Without understanding the way mechanisms work, it can be very counterproductive to want things to turn out a certain way. Say there is a certain group of people with a bad member in it. One of them wishes a curse upon the bad person to die miserably and alone. While the idea may possibly have some appeal, it does not take into account the mechanism by which this execution will take place. For instance, one possible scenario is that the entire group dies from a horrible plague with the curse holder going last. Interesting examples were provided in the genie X-Files episode, where the genie kept pointing out that Mulder’s wishes were not sufficiently specific. Lack of awareness in this area generally occurs when wishes are made through vindictiveness or lack of control. The same holds true for good wishes - they can be costly as well. Hence, wanting something to be a certain way is better thought out very carefully and not wanting, as per Lao Tse, may be best.

For instance, I pull a ribbon around the corner and carbonicule the cat chases it. As far as his focus is concerned, the tip is moving and there is no awareness that someone is pulling it. In fact, the focus is so strong (and limited for this game) that it matters little when he comes around the corner to find that I was pulling it - he is still interested in the part that’s moving and there is no loss in pleasure in chasing it.

If you don’t want constipation, change your diet.

life isn’t about staying still and stagnating.
life is movement and growth, awareness and awakenings.
neither is love about accepting someone for who they are.
love is a gift from the divine for all beings. as such it becomes our duty to channel that gift to those nearest to us, so that they can move and grow, so that they become aware and awake.
you are evolving, carly. have you ever noticed how “love” is contained in the word “evolve”?
your husband has a chance to be bourne in the wake of your transformation … and then add his own ripples in harmony with the ever-flowing stream on which we all journey.
(to carly on 30bad)

I truly would be a great admirer of myself if it were not for my even greater humility.

The key to manipulation is not feeling anything, so that you can feel anything.

Honor noble principles for they are the only ballast in troubled times.

Regarding Angel’s insistence that she needs to fast for more than 7 days:
“it took god 7 days to create the world - what makes you think you need longer?”
Unfortunately, she didn’t fully appreciate the brillance of the above comment and started arguing absurdly about it (eg you don’t believe in that stuff and it isn’t factual).

Being full of yourself is a sure recipe for indigestion.

Morality may be the end product of perfect discipline.

If sex really were an expression of spirituality, then sages would have been the ultimate porn stars of history!

It’s about how we merge in thought and action with what is right.
It’s about how we add our voices in harmony to what is truth.
It’s about how we blend into the flow of existence, discovering with humility and contributing with gratitude.

Inspiration is like the battle, while discipline is the war itself. The former carries uncertainities, but through the latter these can be overcome.

As we travel, there may be some moments when i walk behind you to make sure you don’t fall; there may be some moments when i walk ahead and reach for your hand so you can take the next step with confidence.

Focus is good, but focus at the expense of awareness isn’t.

We do what we do because it needs to be done. We do it without expectation or want … and then the world really does straighten itself.

When two beings see the same rainbow, imagine how close they must be!

No self-respecting enlightened master ever calls him/herself one, for it is not a path of humility. The master therefore each day remains calm for no achievement can ever surpass that state.

May all who do so much for the most worthwhile and essential cause in history, see themselves as they truly must be - undaunted by the irrefutable task at hand and undented by the illusive passage of time.

If something seems too good to be true, it is important to make it so.

Truth does not stop being truth simply because it is spoken by a hypocrite. Even an animal abuser is entitled and correct to speak against animal abuse.

Desire for something in the future is bad enough.
Desire for something in the past is downright idiotic.

You may not like to lose, but if you’re fighting the wrong battle, you have already lost.

It’s easy for one to pass responsibility to someone else, but you aren’t going to pass the consequences.

I will wait for you, but I won’t wait with you.

Keep the door open, but don’t end up being the doorstop.

Never forget the past. You do so at your own risk!

It’s unhealthy to induce vomiting after each meal. Better to exercise so your consumption doesn’t become baggage as the past sometimes does for some people.

Always be happy, never be satisfied.

Always forgive, never forget.

Those who have found the way do not hand out business cards.

When dragons come to heal the earth.

pradagio

From Honor:

Never be yourself, when you can be someone better.
~ Queen Rhae

May the earth befriend you, as have we.
~ Marieke

If we could only be as kind to every soul regardless of what they are wearing in this life.
~ Breena

The one who gives should not remember the giving, but the one who receives must never forget.
~ Vaishobob

Royalty is never born. It is forged from one’s attitude and action, from one’s courage and conviction.
~ Prince Jestin

From Tryangles:

How should we on this trip abide?
Be always happy, but never satisfied!
~ Barra

So take that chance and make bold your move!
Triumph or disaster, naught do they prove!
~ Ardal

Life’s not ‘bout the comfort of just lying still.
Reach for those stars and the dharma fulfil!
~ Elysse

Our strengths are stronger than our weaknesses.
~ Elysse

Robert Pynn

Everything is set in the clear and distinct air. Judgment is without suspension, thought without reflection, action without consideration. (advent song)

Roosevelt Theodore

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.

Sculley Matthew

Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind’s capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights, power or a claim to equality, but in a sense, because they don’t. They all stand unequal and powerless before us.

Schweitzer Albert

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

The true worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colours and textures that come alive in others.

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

You must not expect anything from others. It’s you, of yourself, of whom you must ask a lot. Only from oneself has one the right to ask everything and anything. This way it’s up to you – your own choices – what you get from others remains a present, a gift.

What does Reverence for Life say abut the relations between [humanity] and the animal world? Whenever I injury any kind of life I must be quite certain that it is necessary. I must never go beyond the unavoidable, not even in apparently insignificant things. The farmer who has mowed down a thousand flowers in his meadow in order to feed his cows must be careful on his way home not to strike the head off a single flower by the side of the road in idle amusement, for he thereby infringes on the law of life without being under the pressure of necessity.

Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind, independent of the prevalent one among the crowds, and in opposition to it – a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character. Only an ethical movement can rescue us from barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.

Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward [people], but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical.

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Shaw George Bernard

The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.

A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

Why should you call me to account for eating decently?

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means.

The sex relation is not a personal relation. It can be irresistibly desired and rapturously consummated between persons who could not endure one another for a day in any other relation.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport: when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. The distinction between Crime and Justice is no greater.

“Will you be the father of my next child? A combination of my beauty and your brains would startle the world,” but he replied: “I must decline your offer with thanks, for the child might have my beauty and your brains.”

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

“You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?”

Animals are my friends…and I don’t eat my friends.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

In heaven an angel is no one in particular.

We cut the throat of a calf and hang it up by the heels to bleed to death so that our veal cutlet may be white; we nail geese to a board and cram them with food because we like the taste of liver disease; we tear birds to pieces to decorate our women’s hats; we mutilate domestic animals for no reason at all except to follow an instinctively cruel fashion; and we connive at the most abominable tortures in the hope of discovering some magical cure for our own diseases by them.

I don’t know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum.

The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.

SICP

In general, when modeling phenomena in science and engineering, we begin with simplified, incomplete models. As we examine things in greater detail, these simple models become inadequate and must be replaced by more refined models.

Sir Cole (The Knight Before Christmas)

A knight is sworn to valor and virtue. His blade defends the good, and his might upholds the weak. His temper shall be led by patience, and his kindness will give aid to those who seek it.

This is a variation of the knight’s code (from The Library of Knighthood):

The knight is sworn to valor.
His heart knows only virtue.
His blade defends the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His words speak only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked.
The right can never die,
If one man still recalls
The words are not forgot,
If one voice speaks them clear.
The code forever shines,
If one heart holds it bright

Smith Gary

150 years ago, they would have thought you were absurd if you advocated for the end of slavery. 100 years ago, they would have laughed at you for suggesting that women should have the right to vote. 50 years ago, they would object to the idea of African Americans receiving equal rights under the law. 25 years ago they would have called you a pervert if you advocated for gay rights. They laugh at us now for suggesting that animal slavery be ended. Some day they won’t be laughing.

Spock

You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.

The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity and the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.

Steinem Gloria

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.

Women have two choices: Either she’s a feminist or a masochist.

A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.

Women have always been an equal part of the past. We just haven’t been a part of history.

Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.

Stephenson Neal

Emacs outshines all other editing soft-ware in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter; it simply makes everything else vanish. (In the Beginning… Was the Cammand Line)

Sztybel David

Centering on human-made abstractions above all, instead of on the animals themselves as individuals is oddly anthropocentric.

Tagore Rabindranath

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where the words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action - Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Teresa Mother

Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Thoreau Henry David

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

Most are engaged in business the greater part of their lives, because the soul abhors a vacuum and they have not discovered any continuous employment for man’s nobler faculties.

Who thinks that they can kill time without injuring eternity?

Tricia

For me what works is service. i feel that i am here to serve animals and be their voice. i rescue domestic animals from abuse, which gives me a sense of direct action and do much in the way of spreading veganism, with farm walks, handing out literature, and postings at pet stores. Also do fur protests, circus protests and protested at our medical college to end the use of pigs.

everywhere i go i talk with people about the atrocities to animals raised for food and always have a trunk full of pamphlets and dvds such as meet your meat and earthlings.

we have 11 rescued animals which keep us from getting overwhelmed with animal suffering since they need much care, exercise and love.

it is unacceptable to me that some people take longer than others to stop eating animals. most people who would see an injured bird would try to help him/her so why not extend that compassion to the rest of the animals. people don’t have to do anything except change their eating habits, nothing compared to the hell on earth animals are living.

i no longer waste my time with those who aren’t receptive to our message, there are too many others who need to hear it.

i used to go to bed and start feeling guilty that i was warm, comfortable and safe and would think of all the animals suffering in barren cages, cold, afraid and unable to even turn around. it was stupid, since my not getting a good nights sleep wasn’t helping the animals and would prevent me from being productive.

now when i go to bed i clear my mind and rest. if negative thoughts enter i acknowledge them and let them pass though not giving them the attention or light they need to persist. i fall asleep within minutes.

keep doing what you can for the animals and continue to spread your message to everyone you meet. as long as we are doing what we can, we can keep moving forward without getting bogged down with hatred of people and frustration. there are still times i become misanthropic, but realize there are many good humans i love and don’t focus on what is out of my hands.

Twain Mark

In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs NOTHING to be a Patriot.

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the and the blind can see.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Wade Paul

Let me set out my stand right now; this kind of crap disgusts me.

Tyler Alexander Fraser

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

Wiesel Elle

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Winston Churchill

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Zelenskyy Volodymyr

Freedom must be armed better than tyranny.

The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.

Progressive Non-Animal Research Society

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:16:46 -0700

Scientists now have sophisticated, human-appropos methodologies for studying diseases such as

advanced computer-modeling techniques
micro-dosing
stem cell-derived organoids
3D printing
manifold emerging approaches

Advances in technology allow us finding ways to improve health care without inflicting harm on animals.

The Progressive Non-Animal Research Society (PNARS) is an excellent and comprehensive resource for the biomedical community. It provides leading edge breakthroughs in technologies and treatments.

Recent Updates:

PNARS Report: Environmental Impacts of Animal Experimentation

Dhaku Singu

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 21:56:08 -0700

Dhaka has been singing since 2015. At the end of this page, we list her rehearsals and performances.

She is very glad to have wonderful friends in the neighborhood, such as:

Aurora, Daria, Terrence, Valerie
Gisela, Ernie
Linda, Peter, Flora
Ross, Abby
Linda, Robert, Muffin
Leia, Wayne, Gibson
Al, Zoe
Bruce, Jessie
Tom, Iggy, Twiggy
Theodora
Deborah, Tori, Gary
Diane, Danielle, Suzanne (moved away)
Aria, Cohen, Brianne, Dustin
Sally, Susan
Thunder
Georgina, Iris, Mr. Peabody, Roy
Kita, Kelly
Rowan, Benson, Kitten, Jinny, Stu
Jim, Joe, Stella, Lori
Caroline, Lucy
Elizabeth
Greg, Laura, Bella
Steve
Lisa, Torri, Roo, Nina (moved away)
Trevin, Taylor, Brutus, Millie
Cindy
Barbara
Gail, Henry, Claire, Louis, Desmond
Sol, Ron, Marina
Mikki (moved away)
Kelsey, Graydon
Maneesha, Bodhan, Raj (from Victoria)
Rick, christine
Milo, Diane
Charlotte
Alana (from Victoria)
Jennifer (from Victoria)
Gracie, Blue, Piper, Leslie
John, Diane
Abha, Atty, Tilo
Tim, Kelly
Michelle
Mia
Lynn
Rory
Heather and Junior
Tristan, Drey, Lincoln, Sonya
Holly and Anthony (from Victoria)
Sarah and Kelsey (2 very nice veterinarians)
Angelkate (moved to Victoria)
(and others, but we don’t know their names!)

Rehearsal in preparation for Caninegie Hall performance
<2020-01-20 Mon>

Introduced by Grafu cat, Dhaka sings:
Teach Our Child (from the musical Tryangles)
Her Soul Beckons Mine (theme variations from Tryangles again)
Hymn To Her (a little known composition)
A Te O Cara (from Bellini’s opera, Il Puritani)

more to come as they become available

Angelkate Rose Channel

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 16:34:19 -0700

This is the link to the Angelkate Rose Channel on Youtube. You can also find her writings here.

Here are some of her videos in no particular order which include covers and originals.

Look on Down from the Bridge - Mazzy Star

(Cover by Angelkate Rose)

“Look on Down from the Bridge” was composed by Hope Sandoval, a songwriter and lead singer of American alternative rock band, Mazzy Star, and David Roback, guitarist in the band and songwriter…

Let it Be - Paul McCartney/ The Beatles

(Cover by Angelkate Rose)

“Let it Be” was written and sung by Paul McCartney, bass guitarist and singer for English rock band ‘The Beatles’ …

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

(Cover by Angelkate Rose)

Do you hear the hissing ‘sea’ effect in the sound? it’s the AUTHENTIC, original audio recording from the built- in camera mic! …

500 Miles - Joan Baez/Hedy West

(Cover by Angelkate Rose)

“500 Miles” is a song made popular during the 1960s folk revival.

I Found You (Original)

‘I Found You’ - An original song by Angelkate Rose
Vocal: Angelkate Rose
Piano: Kyron Basu
Poem: Matthew Hicks

Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez

(Cover by Angelkate Rose)

Vocal: Angelkate Rose
Backing track: BDFab Karaoke

Kyron Recitals

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 14:05:40 -0700

Kyron, a versatile baritone, has appeared with various groups such as Fretwork, the Victoria Baroque Players, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Victoria Children’s Choir, and the Christ Church choir. He holds an BMus and MA in Musicology with Performance from the University of Victoria and teaches on the faculties of UVic and the Victoria Conservatory of Music.

Here are write-ups (by prad) for Kyron’s undergrad and masters recitals that were sent out to interested parties. All documents and video links are provided. You can find Kyron’s homepage on Towards Freedom here.

Undergrad Recital 2018-03-20

Kyron is completing his bachelor’s of music at UVIC in a few weeks. part of the requirement was to do the grad recital which took place march 20th.

I know some of you may have been planning to attend, but were unable to for various reasons like

you were never told about his recital
you live in another, far off part of the world (like Winnipeg)
you put down the wrong date
you were working
you have no idea who Kyron is (note: he is the offspring of myself and Ranjana, the individual I have been married to for such a long, long, long time)

Here are the links to:

The video of his recital was done on a sony a99 with built in audio. In this embedded video, you will see not only his performance with some very fine musicians (his piano accompanist, Czinszka, is remarkable!), but also the segment of the stage manager clearing music stands and chairs (with the considerate assistance of Claire the cellist!) as well as said manager’s preparation of the piano for the second part of the recital for which he was generously applauded by an appreciative audience!

What you won’t see is the superb post performance reception fare that Ranjana prepared. of course, it was 100% vegan and very well received by the 50+ attendees. They were surprised that there was actually healthy food being served at such a function and some even commented on it!

Here is the video:

Masters recital 2020-03-09

Greetings!

The video embedded below is for Kyron’s recital-lecture which was performed as a requirement for his masters degree in music. (Here is the link to his thesis: Phonetic Journey: Sound in Singable Translations.)

A few of you may have already received an earlier notice. That is because Ranjana (the person who has marred me) sent the link out without waiting for Kyron to edit the video. I waited, but Kyron only looked at editing it this week and decided it wasn’t necessary. The reasons it took him so long to get to was because he was busy for a while:

recording performances of his colleagues who could not perform their final examinations due to the UVIC shutdowns as a result of the covid virus
working on his own thesis and assignments
settling in back home from his apartment in Victoria

In this presentation, Kyron took what was a very esoteric topic (how sound and translation relate in Lieder song) offering massive boredom potential, and had the audience engaged and at times hooting with laughter. His ability to play intricate classical accompaniment on the piano and simultaneously sing astonished a lot of people. Ranjana let me know what others such as his teachers, classmates and colleagues (from organizations he performs in) said to her. The head of music theory at the university told her that

“It was the most brilliant thing I have heard on that stage for a long time.”

As it was 2 years ago, at the reception, Ranjana’s vegan spread was a magnificent success! (Many of you know, Ranjana is not only a vegan chef of the highest order, but is about to complete her doctorate “Linking Animals, Social Justice and Social Work”.)

Special thanks to Neil (from the Christ Church contingent), Angel and her husband Matthew for the invaluable help they provided Ranjana both before and especially after the food was eaten - which is when it really counts!

We hope you enjoy Kyron’s contribution, perhaps reflecting on this paraphrasing of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“It’s not the destination, it’s the phonetic journey!” ;)

Here are the recital supplement (which is what you should look at first) and the lecture notes, both of which complement the video performance:

ARVEG FAQ

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 16:40:24 -0800

This page is presently in construction.

This is the comprehensive ARVEG FAQ produced by KG which covers just about every imaginable attack against animal rights and vegan stances. It provides factual, effective and occasionally amusing responses.

(Some additions and modifications have been made from the earlier version and the original due to broken 20+ yr links as well as new material.)

In the TOC, “->” indicates there is more to the question than could be fitted and can be viewed by clicking on the link.

Editor commentaries/updates are indicated as [Editor: ].

1 Animal Rights

1.1 If we give respect or rights to animals we will diminish our own rights and respect for humans.

a) Sumer, one of the earliest and most powerful of the ancient Mesopotamian city-states, managed its slaves the same way it managed its livestock. The Sumerians castrated the males and put them to work like domesticated animals, and they put the females in work and breeding camps. The Sumerian word for castrated slave boys-amar-kud-is the same word the Sumerians used for young castrated donkeys, horses, and oxen. (From Chapter 1 Charles Patterson’s Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust.)

b) Although the purpose of the German killing centers was the extermination of human beings, they operated in the larger context of society’s exploitation and slaughter of animals, which to some extent they mirrored. The Germans did not stop slaughtering animals when they took up slaughtering people. Auschwitz, which its commandant Rudolf Hoss called “the largest human slaughterhouse that history had ever known,” had its own slaughterhouse and butcher’s shop. The other death camps likewise kept their personnel well supplied with animal flesh. Sobibor had a cow shed, pigpen, and henhouse, which were next to the entrance to the tube that took Jews to the gas chambers, while Treblinka had a stable, pigpen, and henhouse located near the camp barracks of the Ukrainian auxiliaries.-from Charles Patterson’s Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust Chapter 5

c) So does that mean if whites give rights or respect to non whites (or vice versa) that it diminishes their own rights and respect? If men give rights or respect to women(or vice versa) that they diminish their own rights and respects? It would seem you want to preserve the rights of some to not respect the rights of others.

d) Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz. About the author: Edgar Kupfer was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp in 1940. His last 3 years in Dachau he obtained a clerical job in the concentration camp storeroom. This position allowed him to keep a secret diary on stolen scraps of papers and pieces of pencil. He would bury his writings and when Dachau was liberated on April 29, 1945 he collected them again. The Dachau Diaries were published in 1956. From his Dachau notes he wrote an essay on vegetarianism which was translated into “immigrant” English. A carbon copy of this 38 page essay is preserved with the original Dachau Diaries in the Special Collection of the Library of the University of Chicago. The following are the excerpts from this essay that were reprinted in the postscript of the book “Radical Vegetarianism” by Mark Mathew Braunstein (1981 Panjandrum Books, Los Angeles, CA). The book is subtitled “A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic” and is recommended to all vegetarians especially those interested in natural hygiene. “The following pages were written in the Concentration Camp Dachau, in the midst of all kinds of cruelties. They were furtively scrawled in a hospital barrack where I stayed during my illness, in a time when Death grasped day by day after us, when we lost twelve thousand within four and a half months. … Dear Friend: You asked me why I do not eat meat and you are wondering at the reasons of my behavior. Perhaps you think I took a vow - some kind of penitence - denying me all the glorious pleasures of eating meat. You remember juicy steaks, succulent fishes, wonderfully tasted sauces, deliciously smoked ham and thousand wonders prepared out of meat, charming thousands of human palates; certainly you will remember the delicacy of roasted chicken. Now, you see, I am refusing all these pleasures and you think that only penitence, or a solemn vow, a great sacrifice could deny me that manner of enjoying life, induce me to endure a great resignment. You look astonished, you ask the question: “But why and what for?” And you are wondering that you nearly guessed the very reason. But if I am, now, trying to explain you the very reason in one concise sentence, you will be astonished once more how far your guessing had been from my real motive. Listen to what I have to tell you: I refuse to eat animals because I cannot nourish myself by the sufferings and by the death of other creatures. I refuse to do so, because I suffered so painfully myself that I can feel the pains of others by recalling my own sufferings. I feel happy, nobody persecutes me; why should I persecute other beings or cause them to be persecuted? I feel happy, I am no prisoner, I am free; why should I cause other creatures to be made prisoners and thrown into jail? I feel happy, nobody harms me; why should I harm other creatures or have them harmed? I feel happy, nobody wounds me; nobody kills me; why should I wound or kill other creatures or cause them to be wounded or killed for my pleasure and convenience? Is it not only too natural that I do not inflict on other creatures the same thing which, I hope and fear, will never be inflicted on me? Would it not be most unfair to do such things for no other purpose than for enjoying a trifling physical pleasure at the expense of others’ sufferings, others’ deaths? These creatures are smaller and more helpless than I am, but can you imagine a reasonable man of noble feelings who would like to base on such a difference a claim or right to abuse the weakness and the smallness of others? Don’t you think that it is just the bigger, the stronger, the superior’s duty to protect the weaker creatures instead of persecuting them, instead of killing them? “Noblesse oblige.” I want to act in a noble way. I recall the horrible epoch of inquisition and I am sorry to state that the time of tribunals for heretics has not yet passed by, that day by day, men use to cook in boiling water other creatures which are helplessly given in the hands of their torturers. I am horrified by the idea that such men are civilized people, no rough barbarians, no natives. But in spite of all, they are only primitively civilized, primitively adapted to their cultural environment. The average European, flowing over with highbrow ideas and beautiful speeches, commits all kinds of cruelties, smilingly, not because he is compelled to do so, but because he wants to do so. Not because he lacks the faculty to reflect upon and to realize all the dreadful things they are performing. Oh no! Only because they do not want to see the facts. Otherwise they would be troubled and worried in their pleasures. It is quite natural what people are telling you. How could they do otherwise? I hear them telling about experiences, about utilities, and I know that they consider certain acts related to slaughtering as unavoidable. Perhaps they succeeded to win you over. I guess that from your letter. Still, considering the necessities only, one might, perhaps, agree with such people. But is there really such a necessity? The thesis may be contested. Perhaps there exists still some kind of necessity for such persons who have not yet developed into full conscious personalities. I am not preaching to them. I am writing this letter to you, to an already awakened individual who rationally controls his impulses, who feels responsible - internally and externally - of his acts, who knows that our supreme court is sitting in our conscience. There is no appellate jurisdiction against it. Is there any necessity by which a fully self-conscious man can be induced to slaughter? In the affirmative, each individual may have the courage to do it by his own hands. It is, evidently, a miserable kind of cowardice to pay other people to perform the blood-stained job, from which the normal man refrains in horror and dismay. Such servants are given some farthings for their bloody work, and one buys from them the desired parts of the killed animal - if possible prepared in such a way that it does not any more recall the discomfortable circumstances, nor the animal, nor its being killed, nor the bloodshed. **I think that men will be killed and tortured as long as animals are killed and tortured. So long there will be wars too. Because killing must be trained and perfected on smaller objects, morally and technically.I see no reason to feel outraged by what others are doing, neither by the great nor by the smaller acts of violence and cruelty. But, I think, it is high time to feel outraged by all the small and great acts of violence and cruelty which we perform ourselves. And because it is much easier to win the smaller battles than the big ones, I think we should try to get over first our own trends towards smaller violence and cruelty, to avoid, or better, to overcome them once and for all. Then the day will come when it will be easy for us to fight and to overcome even the great cruelties. But we are still sleeping, all of us, in habitudes and inherited attitudes. They are like a fat, juicy sauce which helps us to swallow our own cruelties without tasting their bitterness.I have not the intention to point out with my finger at this and that, at definite persons and definite situations. I think it is much more my duty to stir up my own conscience in smaller matters, to try to understand other people better, to get better and less selfish. Why should it be impossible then to act accordingly with regard to more important issues? That is the point: I want to grow up into a better world where a higher law grants more happiness, in a new world where God’s commandment reigns: You Shall Love Each Other.” Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz

1.2 When discussing animal rights, it is always important that you have balance and show the other side of the issue.

a) If someone can talk about Negro slave emancipation without allowing a KKK member to give the “other side” of the issue, if someone can talk about hunting Nazi war criminals without showing the “other side” of the issue, and if a news reports on a “breakthrough” in cancer research doesn’t need to allow an animal rights activist to speak out on the perversion of altruism inherent in all animal research, then we don’t have to do that either.

b) Since the preponderance of arguments on the subject of animal rights is favorable to the cause, a true balance is impossible. It is like trying to find a balanced argument on the pros and cons of jumping off buildings without parachutes. One side is definitely stronger than the other.

c) The other side of the issue is always discussed in animal issues! Since the arguments in favor of animal exploitation are so weak why would an animal rights activist not want to expose the stupidity and erroneous nature of the other side?

1.3 You support animal rights, therefore you must support blowing up buildings.

a) It appears you are in need of taking a logic class.

b) You support human rights? therefore you must support the actions of John Brown, slavery abolitionist who killed pro-slavery people.

c) Last I checked, it is the people who support wars against unarmed civilians who support blowing up buildings.

d) At least we don’ t support beating and killing unarmed people. There are many many many cases of hunt supporters in the UK beating people with whips, running them over with cars and horses-whether they be AR activists, people just standing on their property, or reporters Hunt saboteur, Mike Hill, was killed on the 9th of February 1991 at a meet of the Cheshire Beagles. Towards the end of the day’s hunting, with no kill under his belt, the huntsman boxed up his hounds in a small blue trailer being towed by an open-top pick-up truck. The kennel huntsman, ALLAN SUMMERSGILL, with another man, jumped into the pick-up and, on impulse, three sabs(hunt saboteurs) who were nearby, jumped onto the back of it to prevent them driving the pack to another location to continue hunting. Summersgill drove off at high speeds down winding country roads for 5 miles with the terrified sabs clinging onto the back. It is thought that Mike jumped from the pick-up as it slowed to take a bend. He failed to clear the truck properly, and was caught between the truck and the trailer, which crushed him. Mike died where he lay on the road. Despite the thud, and the screams of the other sabs, Summersgill continued driving for a further mile. The truck only came to a halt when one of the sabs smashed the rear window of the cab. The sab was hit with a whip as he tried to stop the truck. Once it had stopped one sab ran back to Mike’s prone body while the other ran to a nearby house to call for an ambulance. Summersgill drove off. He later handed himself in at a police station. No charges were brought against him and in a travesty of justice, a verdict of ‘Accidental Death’ was brought at the inquest. Summersgill is still hunting hares. 1993: On the 3rd of April 1993, T(h)om Worby, a 15 year old saboteur attending his first foxhunt protest, was crushed under the wheels of the Cambridgeshire FH’s hound van in an incident all too reminiscent of the killing of Mike Hill two years before. After a successful day’s sabbing, the hunt had boxed up and sabs were making their way back to the meet down a narrow lane. As the hound van came up behind them, revving its engine, sabs scrambled for the roadside; however Tom’s jacket became snagged in the vehicles wing mirror and he was dragged some distance before he managed to gain a foothold on the van’s running board. Although he banged on the window the van kept going, and when Tom finally lost his grip, he fell onto the road and under the truck’s wheels. His head was crushed by the rear wheels of the vehicle and he died shortly afterwards. No action was taken against the driver of the hound van, 53-year-old huntsman ALAN BALL. 38-year-old KENNETH MANSBRIDGE, a supporter of the Hursley Hambledon Foxhunt, convicted of Unlawful Wounding on a Green Party researcher, who needed hospital treatment for serious head wounds after being kicked and beaten by a group of hunt followers 1991. MANSBRIDGE admitted kicking the victim in the groin and punching him to the ground. (On the same day, another protester was beaten around the head with a spade, and left needing 10 stitches and a 6 and a half months pregnant woman was hit on the head with half a brick, needing 4 stitches). MANSBRIDGE was sentenced to 140 hours community service and ordered to pay costs of £150. 1998: Supporter of the Dunston Harriers, PATRICK EVERETT managed to get the hunt banned from one village after he viciously attacked a party of 1 man, 2 women and four children who had stopped to watch the hunt pass by. He was fined £800. (HSA News Feature 5th August 1999) Hunt Violence courtesy of Hunt Saboteurs Association “In June 1990, hunt supporter John Newberry-Street gained much valuable anti-saboteur publicity when a nail-bomb was found under his Land Rover. Further investigation revealed that he had planted the bomb himself and he later told police “I did it to discredit the animal rights saboteurs”. He was jailed for nine months for his bomb hoax and asked for several other similar offences to be taken into account.” January 1994 Duke of Buccleuch’s Foxhunt. An independent academic, commissioned by the Scottish Office to carry out research on saboteurs and hunting, was knocked to the ground and kicked in the face by the huntsman as he tried to film a fox being killed. The hunt refused to apologise and later attempted to excuse their employee’s actions by saying they thought the man was a saboteur. “From now on, we’re going to start hunting the saboteurs…“This is BFSS spokesman Nick Herbert’s chilling announcement of the introduction of “stewards” to “deal with” saboteurs. Mr John Weavers, a member of the rural community hunts claim to represent, was quietly sitting at home one Saturday afternoon in 1990 when the Cury Foxhunt rampaged through his property. When he asked them to leave and complained at the damage caused he was headbutted by Geoffrey Thomas, master of the hunt, who then shunted one of Mr Weavers’ cars into another. “one brave woman, a former hunt supporter of many years’ standing, has decided to stand up and speak out against this culture of violence. Her name is Lynn Sawyer and she was at one time as committed to hunting as she is now repelled by it. She acted as a mole for the BFSS and found that saboteurs were not violent extremists motivated by class hatred, a tale she and every other hunt supporter had been force-fed for years. Instead, she found that saboteurs were on the whole deeply committed, sincere individuals who acted out of great and genuine concern for animals and that her own side were deliberately distorting the truth and provoking violence simply to suit their long-term political aims. Ironically, it was only the depth of her involvement in hunting that allowed her access to the inner echelons denied to most hunt supporters, where she encountered the brutality behind the respectable facade which was to make her question her support for bloodsports and ultimately turn her back on that world for ever. “For several reasons in 1990, I could no longer continue these activities and I then spent four years trying to ascertain what exactly my feelings were. I spent time with the Shire hunts (the Quorn, Cottesmore, and Belvoir Foxhounds) and revisited the Essex before deciding earlier this year that it was time to speak out in the hope of stemming the tide of grossly exaggerated anti-sab propaganda and the violence it has brought to the field.I went to great lengths to discuss the issue of hunt violence with the BFSS and other pro-hunting people [including John Hopkinson, Stephen Loveridge, Peter Smith and Nick Herbert of the BFSS and John Swift, director of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC)] before, and indeed for some time after, it became clear that I could not permeate their rather narrow-minded way of thinking or change or influence any of them without being patronised or being singled out as a trouble-maker.” Hunt Saboteurs Association.

e) So much for anti-animal rights people caring about humans! “During the winter of 1994 terrified young calves were flown from Coventry to end their lives in Dutch veal-crates. A few people started protesting at the airport gates. Jill Phipps was one. As a transporter came down the road to the gates she would run to it, banging on the door with her fists, shouting at the drivers to think about the suffering they caused.. The few police there would turn out and simply man-handle her and anyone else behaving similarly out of the way. Then came February 1st 1995. There were about 76 police there that day. There were about 32 demonstrators. That’s over two police to every decent person there. There were enough of them to surround the transporter and walk it through!! Jill and a few others eluded the police, most of whom were in a van at the back, and reached the transporter. Any good driver would have stopped until it was safe to continue, but Stephen Yates just drove on, regardless and uncaring. Jill was crushed and died on the way to hospital. Our mother, Nancy, was with her. The driver has never been charged, not even with “driving without due care & attention”. AT THE INQUEST THE POLICE STATED THAT THEIR ACTIONS HAD BEEN PLANNED BY A SPECIALIST TACTICIAN, AND THAT THE DAY HAD BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL …” Zab Phipps (see Jill Phipps: A life fighting for animal rights)

f) Although we know that hunters, not being the smartest of people, have been known to shoot each other in the woods, here is just a few recent examples of hunters shooting and killing non-hunters. [Editor: Many of the links provided are no longer available after 20 yrs, however, there are plenty of accounts online about hunters shooting humans.]

Wis. 1.3.0.0.1 woman walking dogs shot by hunter Associated Press — Dec. 3, 2001 CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — A woman walking her dogs was mistakenly shot and killed by a deer hunter. “He saw movement and mistook her for an animal and shot her,” Tom Bokelman, a safety officer with the state Natural Resources Department. The 47-year-old woman was wearing a white cap and dark clothing when she was shot Saturday, Dec. 1. The hunter was using a muzzleloader, as part of a special muzzleloader deer season. Muzzleloaders are single-shot rifles in which the powder and shot are loaded through the end of the barrel instead of the breech. The district attorney will decide whether to file charges. (link NA at espn.go.com)

Hunter’s 1.3.0.0.1.0…1 bullet possibly kills Penn. woman Associated Press — Nov. 28, 2001 MILL RUN, Pa. — A 66-year-old woman was killed when a bullet apparently fired by a hunter went through a window, wall and a door in her home and struck her in the neck, authorities said. Meriel Renee Bowser was struck by the bullet in her bedroom Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 28, and died shortly afterward, according to police. “The odds of (a bullet) coming through the woods, not hitting a tree, going through all that material in the house and hitting a person is … million-to-one odds,” said Charles May of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. State police and Game Commission officials were investigating. A hunter was being questioned Tuesday and the hunter’s rifle had been taken to determine whether the bullet that killed Bowser was fired from that gun. Authorities said the hunter, who was not identified, was at least 450 yards away from Bowser’s home. State law requires hunters to be at least 150 yards from a residence. Mill Run is in Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania. (link NA at espn.go.com)

CONNECTICUT 1.3.0.0.1.0…1.0..1 Man Walking His Dog Killed By Hunter A Coventry man was charged with illegal hunting and manslaughter in late October after he shot and killed a Massachusetts man walking in the woods. Coventry police responding to a report of gunshots found Ronald Eckert Jr., 33, of Hingham, Mass., wounded from gunfire. Eckert died at the scene despite resuscitation efforts. Brian McMahon, Jr., 23, was charged with manslaughter, illegal discharge of a firearm, hunting without a license, illegal deer hunting, hunting on a Sunday, trespassing and failure to wear an orange vest. He was held on $250,000 bond. Police say the two men did not know each other. Apparently McMahon mistook Eckert for a deer. (link NA at www.gunsandgear.com aka espn.go.com)

I guess one can say that being able to go out and kill a four legged animal is more important than protecting the lives of two legged ones: Shooters yesterday criticised the four-year sentence for manslaughter handed down to a deer hunter who accidentally shot a man out walking his dog. The state executive officer of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, David Barton, said the verdict was unfair and that Robert John Osip the court had made an example of him to send a message to other shooters and hunters. Osip, 21, pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Gary Paterson, 20, at Warburton on February 19, 1999. Osip and his friend, Brian Davey, were hunting for Sambar deer in the Warburton State Forest when the shooting occurred on McDonald Track, a forestry road. The two men were only 180 metres from the main road, Warburton-Woods Point Road. Osip had claimed to see the neck and shoulders of a deer when he fired his gun but initially told police he saw a shape he believed was a deer. Mr Paterson was walking his labrador-cross through a clearing in the bush. Osip fired one shot in the direction of the noise, hitting Mr Paterson in the shoulder and causing extensive damage to his lungs. The two men heard someone cry out and ran to find Mr Paterson. They took him to Warburton hospital, where he later died. Justice Coldrey said Osip had breached a shooting code warning shooters not to fire at movement, color, sound or shape or near residential property. He said Osip fell far short of the standard of care a reasonable person would have exercised. Justice Coldrey said he accepted Osip had seen a color in the foliage but “at no time” did he adequately identify his target as a deer……Lawyers for Osip said yesterday they would be appealing the sentence. (link NA at www.theage.com.au)

Hunter’s stray bullet hits man in pizzeria NAZARETH, Pa. (AP) A man was shot in the neck while eating a slice of pizza when a bullet apparently fired by a deer hunter crashed through the window of a restaurant Saturday evening, police said. The bullet entered Sal’s Pizza and Restaurant on Route 512 at about 5 p.m. Saturday, ricocheted off the window frame, and struck John Calvert, 52, of Saylorsburg, officials said. “When I heard the sound, I looked up and saw a man stand, grab his neck, take a step or two and collapse,” said Carl Garrison, a delivery person at the restaurant, which is south of Wind Gap and nearly surrounded by fields and woods. ……Police searched the area and took a hunter into custody. Coopersmith said the hunter had a .30-caliber rifle and the slug will be examined to see if it matches the rifle. “He was probably in the woods that sit on the other side of those fields and the deer crossed the field and he took the shot,” Coopersmith said. “Where he was, he was probably within his rights to be in the area, but you have to know what you are shooting at. You can’t shoot toward roads and you can’t shoot at buildings.”. Monday, December 3, 2001 (link NA at timesonline.com)

Hunter’s 1.3.0.0.1.0…2 stray bullet kills Quebec man CHICOUTIMI, Que. (CP) - A Quebec man is dead after being struck in the head by a stray bullet from the gun of a 13-year-old boy. Marcel Savard, 69, of Jonquiere, Que. was hit Wednesday afternoon by a bullet from a .22-calibre hunting rifle fired by a teenager, who was small game hunting with a teenage friend. The young hunters were not accompanied by an adult. Jonquiere municipal police said the shooter saw a figure in the distance and fired a single shot. The figure dropped immediately. The teenager ran toward the victim immediately and was shocked to find Savard hunched over. When the boy touched him Savard fell to the ground, revealing a stream of blood flowing from his head. Shocked and panicking, the young boy ran home to his mother and alerted her. “I think I killed someone,” he told the police after his mother had summoned them. Laurent Bouchard, the interim Crown prosecutor, asked for an additional investigation Thursday to determine how a 13-year-old boy could get his hands on a loaded rifle. The law regarding firearms strictly forbids possession and use of guns for people under 18 years of age, except in some very specific situations. However, even in those exceptions, the law requires a minor to be accompanied by an adult who legally owns the firearm. Shooting an unidentified figure near an urban environment contravenes standard hunting safety rules. Charges could be laid against the teenager, and eventually against his parents depending on the results of the investigation. The boy’s identity is protected under the Young Offenders Act. In November, a Quebec man was shot and wounded outside his home near Lytton by an eight-year-old boy. Police say the youngster sneaked out of his family’s home with his dad’s hunting rifle, crept through the woods and then shot the man, who was seriously wounded. The boy, who police said is experienced with guns, cannot be charged because he is under 12 although his father may face weapons storage charges.(www.canoe.ca NA)

Nigerian 1.3.0.0.1.0…3 hunter kills man he mistook for a warthog (April 04, 2000) An article on iol.co.za reports that a distraught hunter in Nigeria shot dead a farmer he mistook for a warthog. He has turned himself in to local authorities. The gunman was apparently on a hunting expedition at Igbo-Ata in Ekiti State in the south-western region of Nigeria when the incident took place. (link NA at wildnetafrica.co.za)

Bear 1.3.0.0.2 eats hunter in Russian province Reuters — Dec. 25, 2001 MOSCOW — A hungry bear ate a hunter in Russia’s Jewish autonomous region in the country’s far east, Interfax reported on Monday, Dec. 24. The half-eaten remains of the local man, who had gone hunting the previous day, were discovered near the village of Landakoz, set in the region’s bleak taiga. It was not clear if the bear had killed the hunter or whether the man had died of cold before the scavenging animal found him, Interfax quoted local officials as saying. Bears have been known to attack humans in the region before, but usually during the late summer or early autumn while searching for wild mushrooms and berries. (link NA at espn.go.com)

Trespassers 1.3.0.0.2.0…3.0..2 allegedly assault landowner After asking a group of Rhode Island men to leave his land, the Maine landowner was assaulted. The attack enrages local sportsmen and complicates access issues as posted land becomes the norm By Glenn Adams Associated Press — Nov. 18, 2001 THORNDIKE, Maine — Along the edges of woods and fields in this rural Waldo County town, the bright orange and yellow signs are popping up everywhere: No hunting. It wasn’t always that way.“We’ve never posted our land. It’s all posted now, all 300 acres of it,” said William Johnson, whose family has owned property in the area for four generations. The new keep-off signs started showing up on trees and fenceposts across the rolling countryside after Johnson’s brother, Richard, was assaulted after asking a group of hunters to leave his property in Jackson, a tiny town bordering Thorndike. Johnson, 58, was upset that the Rhode Island men had not asked permission to use his land and were in an area near homes with children, said his brother. “Over the years, we’ve never had trouble with hunters,” William Johnson said. “We all hunt.” Richard Johnson was still recovering from his injuries last week and declined to be interviewed, but his family confirmed the police account of the Nov. 7 incident. Johnson blew the horn of a pickup truck belonging to the hunters, then propped a stick against it so it sounded continuously. There was a confrontation and one of the hunters knocked off Johnson’s hat. When Johnson bent over he was attacked. His face was pounded until it was black and blue, and his teeth were broken. He crawled into his house dazed and bleeding, and passed out. He was out of work until last Wednesday. A hunter from Foster, R.I., Vincent DeCarlo, is free on bail pending a Dec. 18 hearing in Belfast District Court on a charge of aggravated assault, police said.

1.4 If animals have rights, then they must be able to have the same rights as us, such as voting ->

Furthermore, if we give animals rights, we must give plants and all other organisms rights too.

a) Sure - and if we can do that then fine. But if we are unable to give rights to all lifeforms - it doesnt mean we should just give up and not give rights to any. If we say that - then one could decide they only care about people within their own race/religion/gender/age group/economic status. Some people already do it anyway …

b) Okay but you can be the one to go around to every plant, animal and bacteria on the planet and ensure they got their voter’s guide.

1.5 Only humans can form moral contracts with other humans. Since we cannot make ->

social/moral contracts with other species, we should not care about how we treat them.

a) Why does a moral contract have to be reciprocal? We make special arrangements for infants, and humans that are mentally challenged - without requiring that they “return the favor”. Why should other species be treated to a different standard?

b) We can and do have social and moral contracts with other species. We know that if an animal, its offspring, or its territory is threatened, or it is hungry, we can expect it to react accordingly. That is a social contract. By contrast, there are humans who make moral and social contracts with other humans — and then break them. And yet we do not turn them into laboratory fodder.

c) If this argument is applied fairly and equally to a human rights scenario, then it would have significant consequences for humans that are either children, or are stricken with brain damage, mental illness, or some disease which prevents them from making a social/moral contract with others. By the logic of this argument — these humans could be exploited for medical research.

1.6 What about grizzly bears? They eat other species, shouldn’t we do something to stop that?

a) That defies the whole meaning of animal rights. humans do not need to hold a paternalism over the actions of other animals.

b) If there were over 6 billion grizzly bears who didn’t need the fish to survive, then maybe they would need to decide what to do about it, but that isn’ t any of our business as humans.

c) Oh yeah - and while you’re at it - better stop spiders from eating flies and flies from eating smaller bugs and bacteria from eating other bacteria … get back to me when you figure out how to police them - until then we better stick to what we can do - policing ourselves.

d) Other species do things to survive … they may do things we don’t feel are consistent with our ethics - but we have ethics to control our behavior - other species are able to function without the types of ethical systems we propose. They don’t have the option to not kill if they wish to survive. But they don’t go around killing other species for oil, money, religion etc. when they do-they can deal with their ethical conduct - until then - humans are the species we have to worry about.

e) This argument tries to say that if some group is exempt from the same moral conduct that is expected of humans - then they should be excluded from any rights to protection or respect. By this logic children, the mentally retarded and comatose people do not deserve rights to protection since they cannot reason and formulate ethical positions like adult humans can.

1.7 Frogs don’t care about morality when they eats flies ->

so if I am equal to them, shouldnt I be able to do the same and do as I want?

a) Since you want to be regarded as being able to do everything a frog can, or cannot do, then I guess you will be indifferent to human suffering, after all, a frog would be. So since a frog can’t help a drowning human, you wouldn’t either. After all, you want to have the same moral equality and responsibility as a frog.

1.8 Animal activists drive on roads causing animals to lose their lives ->

and live in homes that have caused animals to lose their lives.

a) No one is perfect. A lot of humans were killed through wars to build one’s country - whether you live in Europe or North America or Asia. No one tells a human rights activist he must rocket himself to a desert island in order to be against human exploitation - therefore the same is true for animal activists.

b) Thousands of people are killed by automobiles each year. If you are in favor of human rights - do you refrain from driving?

1.9 You may think you avoid all unnecessary suffering, but how many animals died in the fields to grow your plants for food?

a) Don’t know - but it is a lot less than the number that were killed in the fields to grow the food used to feed the cattle you eat.

b) That’s an ad hominem attack. Instead of addressing the issue you are attacking me for any faults I may have. It is a separate issue but you cite it to divert attention from your own wrongdoing.

c) There are ways to provide food without causing as much harm to other life—eating meat is far more destructive.

d) So what are you saying? We should eat raw minerals? You start. Here’s a rock - bite it.

e) Oh I see - so since we cannot avoid all suffering we should just let people eat meat, hunt, fish, use animals in rodeos, research etc. But why stop there? Why not let people kill each other, enslave other humans, abuse children. They are doing it anyway and since suffering cannot be avoided completely why bother to try at all? RIGHT?

1.10 The Steven Davis ruminant-pasture model claiming to kill fewer lifeforms than vegan.

From TIME magazine (week of July 8, 2002): An argument championed by Steven Davis, professor of animal science at Oregon State University, points “to the number of field animals inadvertently killed during crop production and harvest. One study showed that simply mowing an alfalfa field caused a 50% reduction in the gray-tailed vole population. Mortality rates increase with each pass of the tractor to plow, plant and harvest. Rabbits, mice and pheasants, he says, are the indiscriminate “collateral damage” of row crops and the grain industry…By contrast, grazing (not grain-fed) ruminants such as cattle produce food and require fewer entries into the fields with tractors and other equipment. Applying (and upending) Regan’s least-harm theory, Davis proposes a ruminant-pasture model of food production, which would replace poultry and pork production with beef, lamb and dairy products. According to his calculations, such a model would result in the deaths of 300 million fewer animals annually (counting both field animals and cattle) than would a completely vegan model. “By Richard Corliss, Reported by Melissa August and Matthew Cooper/Washington, David Bjerklie and Lisa McLaughlin/New York, Wendy Cole/Chicago and Jeffrey Ressner/ Los Angeles. [Editor: see item h) below, which demonstrates the incorrectness of the Davis argument.]

a) From Time article: “When asked about Davis’ arguments, (Tom) Regan, however, still sees a distinction: “The real question is whether to support production systems whose very reason for existence is to kill animals. Meat eaters do. Ethical vegetarians do not.”

b) The questionable moral reasoning of Steven Davis’s argument can be described as thus: Imagine you are driving along and you come to a forked road. One way is covered in darkness, the other has some children playing in the center of it. By Davis’ logic, it is better to drive through and deliberately kill the children instead of taking the other route where you may end up killing more that you can’t see - OR getting out and walking to check if the route is clear (after all, who says crop harvesting MUST be done by only one type of tractor - the most destructive?).

c) What about the effects of grazing on wildlife populations? The killing of natural predators to keep cattle and sheep from being killed? What about the pollution to rivers from grazing? How many aquatic organisms will be killed because of grazing? What about the trampling of insects by cattle and sheep? Has Davis calculated their deaths or do they not count? This argument to replace all crops with meat and dairy grazing leaves a lot of questions.

d) A completely vegan model would require one to ask: Who says crop harvesting must be done in the same way as it is currently? Davis is not making any effort to calculate alternative methods for harvesting or growing crops. What about greenhouses? What about switching to crops that cause less damage? What about harvesting machinery that is less intrusive? That is what a true vegan perspective would ask. As a meat eater who profits from the animal industry, Davis is not able to comprehend what a completely vegan model would be.

e) Baby steps. Eliminate meat and dairy production, and then switch to lower yield, less harmful agricultural practices.

f) But by Davis’ argument, a lot of meat eating humans would be currently guilty of causing DOUBLE harm. They eat crops (since very few are true carnivores), and they eat meat that was raised on grain that killed animals in fields. Vegetarians only eat crops. Veganism still comes out as more desirable morally.

g) Studies of all but invisible animal populations in fields can be skewed for anyone’s agenda. Let’s use basic hard facts: you raise animals for meat, you are directly killing animals. You raise plants for food, you may indirectly kill animals. Most sensible people would say that it is better to avoid direct killing, than engage in it out of fear of causing indirect killing. (See response b)

h) LEAST HARM: A DEFENSE OF VEGETARIANISM FROM STEVEN DAVIS’S OMNIVOROUS PROPOSAL (submission to the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, January 2003 Gaverick Matheny, Duke University) … “Davis does not succeed in showing this is preferable to vegetarianism. First, Davis makes a mathematical error in using total rather than per capita estimates of animals killed; second, he focuses on the number of animals killed in ruminant and crop production systems and ignores important considerations about the welfare of animals under both systems; and third, he does not consider the number of animals who are prevented from existing under the two systems. After correcting for these errors, Davis’s argument makes a strong case for, rather than against, adopting a vegetarian diet."…. First, Davis makes an error in calculating how many animals would be killed to feed a vegan-vegetarian population. He explains: “There are 120 million ha of cropland harvested in the USA each year. If all of that land was used to produce crops to support a vegan diet, and if 15 animals of the field are killed per ha per year, then 15 x 120 million = 1800 million or 1.8 billion animals would be killed annually to produce a vegan diet for the USA (p. 5). Davis estimates that only 7.5 animals of the field per hectare die in ruminant-pasture. If we were to convert half of the 120 million hectares of U.S. cropland to ruminant-pasture and half to growing vegetables, Davis claims we could feed the U.S. population on a diet of ruminant meat and crops and kill only 1.35 billion animals annually in the process. Thus, Davis concludes his omnivorous proposal would save the lives of 450 million animals each year (p. 6-7). Davis mistakenly assumes the two systems—crops only and crops with ruminant-pasture—using the same total amount of land, would feed identical numbers of people (i.e., the U.S. population). In fact, crop and ruminant systems produce different amounts of food per hectare - the two systems would feed different numbers of people. To properly compare the harm caused by the two systems, we ought to calculate how many animals are killed in feeding equal populations—or the number of animals killed per consumer. …..Davis suggests the number of wild animals killed per hectare in crop production (15) is twice that killed in ruminant-pasture (7.5). If this is true, then as long as crop production uses less than half as many hectares as ruminant-pasture to deliver the same amount of food, a vegetarian will kill fewer animals than an omnivore. In fact, crop production uses less than half as many hectares as grass-fed dairy and one-tenth as many hectares as grass-fed beef to deliver the same amount of protein. In one year, 1,000 kilograms of protein can be produced on as few as 1.0 hectares planted with soy and corn, 2.6 hectares used as pasture for grass-fed dairy cows, or 10 hectares used as pasture for grass-fed beef cattle (Vandehaar 1998; UNFAO 1996). As such, to obtain the 20 kilograms of protein per year recommended for adults, a vegan-vegetarian would kill 0.3 wild animals annually, a lacto-vegetarian would kill 0.39 wild animals, while a Davis-style omnivore would kill 1.5 wild animals. Thus, correcting Davis’s math, we see that a vegan-vegetarian population would kill the fewest number of wild animals, followed closely by a lacto-vegetarian population. However, suppose this were not the case and that, in fact, fewer animals would be killed under Davis’s omnivorism. Would it follow that Davis’s plan causes the least harm? Not necessarily. Early in the paper, Davis shifts from discussing the harm done to animals under different agricultural systems to the number of animals killed. This shift is not explained by Davis and is not justified by the most common moral views, all of which recognize harms other than death.” … “Although Davis does not show omnivorism is preferable to vegetarianism, he should be commended for emphasizing the importance of farmed animal welfare as a moral issue, now emerging as one of the most significant of the day. Predictably, his argument has been cited as a justification for traditional omnivorism (Corliss 2002), a misreading Davis did not intend and one that any faithful reading of his paper should prevent. The type of ruminant production Davis proposes is a world apart from the omnivorism prevalent in the United States.

1.11 More animals are killed for a vegetarian diet than by hunters, therefore, hunting is more compassionate than vegetarianism.

a) Ideally, animals that may be killed in fields etc to grow food for vegetarians are killed unintentionally. Hunters kill intentionally. Thus vegetarianism is more compassionate, since it seeks to eliminate unnecessary suffering and killing, not encourage it.

b) And yet growing your own vegetarian food in a garden would be more compassionate than hunting.

c) It is impossible to gauge how many animals are killed in fields. The answer is not to advocate hunting, but to find the best way to avoid killing animals to grow food.

d) By that logic, someone may decide that resorting to cannibalism would be more compassionate than hunting. Why prey on other species for your survival when you can prey on your own?

e) If everyone went and hunted for food, it would kill alot more animals than in fields that grow food for vegetarians.

1.12 Your values deem animals to be right-holders whereas others deem them to be resource ->

It is the former and not the latter that has the ethical obligation to stop killing them.

a) By that logic, if someone doesnt believe that others are rights-holders, they don’t have any obligation to stop those acts that violate them. So a racist can go and lynch blacks because he doesn’t value them as equals. A child abuser can do likewise. You haven’t proven why all humans should regard all humans as rights-holders and you need to in order to defend human rights while you attack animal rights.

b) You demand moral perfection from animal activists, and you say that humans have rights, and yet you pay taxes and live in a country that has exploited and killed humans in the past and to the present. So by your own logic you must divest yourself from all acts that contribute to the violation of human rights, even if it is impossible to be morally perfect.

1.13 What if you were attacked by a bear? Would you let the bear kill you?

If you wouldn’t - and you kill the bear–then you can’t be for animal rights.

a) If i enter known bear territory than it is up to me to know better. But assuming it was unavoidable, defending yourself is a matter of self interest. If you commit an act in self interest it does not mean you are against the rights of others.

b) If a civil/human rights activist is attacked by a thief – and he defends himself, does that mean he is against civil/human rights?

c) I live in a civilization where I can go to the grocery store and buy soy dogs, veggie burgers, soy milk, rice, beans, bagels, vegan cream cheese, organic fruits and vegetables, etc.. There is no reason why I would ever be in a situation where a wild bear would attack me.

1.14 Other species are not bound by the same rules as humans. ->

Lions eat gazelles (so why should we respect either the gazelles or the lions?) Nor are other species capable of reciprocal morality (we are supposed to respect them but they don’t respect us)

a) But some of the mentally retarded, mentally deranged, or children are not conscious of the meaning of rights and yet they are given them without conditions. We don’t expect reciprocal morality from them, so why from nonhuman animals? Lions and other predators need to eat meat to survive. Humans don’t. Furthermore, lions and other large predators base their aggression on survival interests. If they don’t feel threatened or aren’t defending territory or aren’t hungry – they don’t attack. In that sense, there is an “ethical conduct” to how other species behave, and unlike some humans, they don’t make promises they have no intention of keeping.

1.15 If it is ok for the lion to hunt it should be ok for me to hunt. ->

The lion hunts in his own way. So does the snake, spider, eagle, etc … also the HUMAN hunts in their own way. It is not impossible for humans to fly of spend long periods of time under water … IN THEIR OWN WAY.

a) If it is okay for you to say that you should be able to hunt if a lion does, someone else can say, using your argument, that they should be able to deal with breeding and offspring just like a lion. Male lions and grizzlies have been known to kill the offspring of rival males. Humans should be able to also – by your logic. You can’t attack someone else for using the same reasoning you employ.

b) Humans are not naturally equipped like a lion or wolf for hunting. They are born for it. If humans were born for it, all humans would be doing it. Yet they aren’t.

c) Did you suddenly become a lion?

d) The sillygism (from physics forum discussion “Should we eat meat?”)

It is moral for an animal to eat meat. \ Humans are animals. \ Therefore, It is moral for humans to eat meat

Reply 1.15.0.0.2.1 by physicsisphirst:

your 3 pt item is either incorrect or tautology. here’s why:

1: It is moral for an animal to eat meat. \ 2: Humans are animals. \ 3: It is moral for humans to eat meat.

let us consider exactly what “an animal” is. it is either a) human or b) non-human.

so if it is the latter your syllogism reads:

1: It is moral for a non-human animal to eat meat. \ 2: Humans are animals. \ 3: It is moral for humans to eat meat.

now you can probably see that 3. doesn’t follow from 1. and 2. (hence incorrectness).

and if it is the former your sillygism becomes tautology and looks like this:

1: It is moral for a human animal to eat meat. \ 2: Humans are animals. \ 3: It is moral for humans to eat meat.

which is like saying if you are redundant, then you are redundant.

Reply 1.15.0.0.2.2 from cogito:

cogito 12-17-2004, 09:10 PM

Oneeye’s amendment: \ — \ Given my clarification, I restate:

1: It is moral for any member of Animalia to kill and/or eat other members of Animalia. \ 2: Humans are members of Animalia. \ 3: It is moral for humans to kill and/or eat other members of Animalia.

How do you reply to this? \ —

This thread is so long, I’m not sure anybody has pointed out extremely obvious and equally absurd consequence of this argument, so apologies if this is redundant. This argument implies that it is permissible for humans to kill and eat other humans if they desire to. So, Oneeye, how do you reply to that?

[Editor: An observation that comes in 2022 (more that 15 yrs later) is how could oneeye make such a ridiculous absurdity? It didn’t occur to us at the time, but we think he did because the idea that meat comes from actual animals may not have quite sunk in. In other words, meat is something you eat rather than something that is taken from a living being. Carol Adams refers to this victim as the Absent Referent.]

1.16 I can’t see the difference between me eating a deer (racism by your definition) and a lion eating a deer. You apply distinctly human standards to a trans-species hypothesis.

a) A lion is biologically adapted to eat animals. No tools, no trickery. Claws, jaws, teeth, (needle-barbed) tongue. Humans dont have the equipment for it. You can say we have the brain to create tools etc..but that means we also have the brain to get food from other sources besides meat. And it is not applying distinctly human standards to other species YOUR argument does. You want lions to follow human definitions of morality, or to abandon any responsibility towards nonhumans if they cannot. Lions dont have the system of ethical reasoning that humans use. Essentially you are wondering why a blind man cant read road signs, or why a man with no arms cant catch a football.

b) The main difference is that humans have systems of ethics that say one should try to be fair and as just as possible to others. Under that belief, humans have to justify discriminating against others (human or not). Other species do not, as far as we can tell, employ systems of ethics that change over time.

c) Lions need to eat meat. Humans do not. Since eating meat involves discrimination, violence, and killing, humans cannot justify it if they say it is wrong to kill unfairly or unjustly (especially if, at the same time, they emphasize it is wrong to do the same to humans). In order to justify it, they first have to show how human supremacy and the standards of value used to defend it, are fundamentally different in principle from the arguments used to defend racial, gender, religious or any other human-centered discriminatory ethical policy. In other words, show how human supremacy is based upon absolute objective, universally-sanctioned standards of value. If they cannot, then it would be hypocritical for a human supremacist to criticize a racial/religious/gender/wealth supremacist for acting upon a belief that is no more or less subjective, biased, arbitrary and non-absolute than that of the human supremacist.

1.17 If we stopped testing on animals the products would be unsafe for humans.

a) Even with animal testing the products are not always safe for humans. In fact, there are drugs and treatments tested on animals that have proven unsafe for humans(i.e. Thalidomide).

b) Human testing is essential for human drugs etc. You can take the animal out of medical research but not the human–if you doubt that, then lets see you volunteer to test a drug that had only been tested on nonhuman animals?

c) Animals used in experiments become so stressed that their blood chemistry changes, invalidating the science.

d) Animal research can also lead to the transmission of diseases–even the creation of new ones. From the Lancet, 2004: “At the time of writing this review there have been two re-emergent cases of SARS, both from laboratory infections. One case in Singapore22 and the other in Taiwan.23 WHO must continue its efforts to promote scientific responsibility for both SARS and influenza viruses. Laboratory regulations globally are inconsistent. We now live in a global village, so universal guidelines need to be adopted. The situation with H2N2 influenza is a case in point. Although H2N2 influenza has not circulated in human beings since 1968 and everyone under the age of 36 years is susceptible, the H2N2 virus is widely distributed in laboratories and is still used in some laboratories. The re-emergence of H1N1 influenza, in 1977, that continues to circulate in human beings is another unresolved case. This H1N1 virus remained genetically conserved for 27 years.24 The most likely explanation is that the virus came from a frozen source and a laboratory seems the most probable culprit. Thus SARS CoV and many influenza viruses (eg, H2N2, H5N1, and H7N7 from human beings) must be restricted to Biosafety level 3+ laboratories.”

e) New technologies are making the animal model and animal testing obsolete (not that either were safe or effective at any time.) Look at some of the advancements at Progressive Non-animal Research Society and Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society: Articles and Reports.

1.18 If your child was ill, would you sacrifice the life of a rat, or cat, or dog, or chimp etc (in medical research) to save it?

a) This hypothetical argument is intended as a catch 22 [Editor: it is the logical fallacy of false dilemma]. If the activist chooses the life of their child over that of a rat—then they are endorsing the principle behind vivisection whether they admit it or not. If it would be okay for an animal rights activist to use an animal to save their own child, then how could he or she object to the animal research industry? If they say no, then they are deemed as not loving their child and are a terrible parent. The first error with this is the unrealistic nature of the hypothetical situation. Can a cure for an illness be attained by killing one rat, without any human clinical trials? Of course not. Such a scenario is an oversimplification intended to force the validity of animal research and portray the vivisector as someone capable of making miraculous treatments if only he/she is allowed to exploit animals as they wish. It also perverts the nature of altruism and compassion by suggesting that one must prioritize the recipients of such altruism and compassion.

b) If your child was sick, would you sacrifice the life of your neighbor’s child in medical research to save it? If you say no, does that mean you don’t love your child as much as you may claim to, especially since you know that the chances for a treatment are greatly increased by using humans–and wouldn’t you want only the best for your child? If you say yes, does that mean you are going to focus on getting humans used for research so you can offer your child the best possible treatment? The answers one gives to these questions can be made applicable to the scenario involving nonhumans.

c) If it is wrong for me to exploit my neighbor’s child in order to aid my own, then it would be wrong for me to do the same if my neighbor happened to have four legs instead of two. Exploiting others in violation of consistent ethical beliefs is wrong.

1.19 If we weren’t using animals in research we wouldn’t be able to find cures for diseases and cancers./Animal research is necessary if we hope to cure diseases and help sick children.

a) Saying animal research is necessary in order to cure human diseases makes as much sense as saying that one needs to conduct research on humans in order to cure rat diseases (there would almost seem to be a Neo-Darwinian myth at work, that by testing on so called “simpler” animals one can move up the “Evolutionary ladder” until you reach the complexity of human beings). You can remove the animal from medical research but you still need humans in research. If you wanted to cure leukemia in cats–working on dogs would not help much.

b) If that’s the case why haven’t we cured the common cold? Humans have been experimenting on animals non stop for at least 150 years and yet we are still plagued by diseases. new ones surface and old ones become drug resistant. So much for success through animal research.

c) Animals used in experiments become so stressed that their blood chemistry changes, invalidating the science.

d) The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine maintains a list of non-profit medical research organizations that do not test on animals, yet do perform important and groundbreaking work - the list can be found at http://www.humaneseal.org/approved.html

e) From news.independent.co.uk (link no longer available) December 8, 2003 “A senior executive with Britain’s biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them. It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public.” …..Dr Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, spoke at a recent scientific meeting in London where he cited figures on how well different classes of drugs work in real patients. Drugs for Alzheimer’s disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said. “The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people,” Dr Roses said. “I wouldn’t say that most drugs don’t work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don’t work in everybody.” RESPONSE Rates: Therapeutic area: drug efficacy rate in per cent Alzheimer’s: 30 Analgesics (Cox-2): 80 Asthma: 60 Cardiac Arrythmias: 60 Depression (SSRI): 62 Diabetes: 57 Hepatits C (HCV): 47 Incontinence: 40 Migraine (acute): 52 Migraine (prophylaxis)50 Oncology(cancer): 25 Rheumatoid arthritis50 Schizophrenia: 60 CONCLUSION: if drug effectiveness among humans is so erratic and unreliable it means that the differences physically between humans and nonhumans would be far more extreme–and thus animal research is as unreliable as animal activists and responsible physicians have said for decades. [Editor: For update information on modern drug development methods go to Progressive Non-animal Research Society and Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society: Articles and Reports.]

1.20 If vivisection and dissection are banned, how about those who wanted to be a veterinarian? How or what can they refer to?

I know you probably would say: “There are electronic programs which allows those students to watch what is inside the animal’s body … like computers, videos …” But then those who did these are probably cruel, right? Why how come they know the illustration of the animal’s body inside? They also did open up the animal’s body, right?

a) It is basically impossible to avoid any and all exploitation of other humans and other species(or products derived from that exploitation–i.e. for humans we are talking about paying taxes to fund wars, living on land which may have been the scene of someone’s murder in order to seize it, reckless medical experiments by companies that injured volunteer patients etc,), and those computer- video illustration programs are the perfect example. The argument can be made that since the research had already been done, we might as well use it(as was the case with the Nazi research). One could say that it would be immoral not to use it because then the animals would have suffered and died in vain. (there are however, some vegans who would disagree with this, and others would argue that using the research may encourage more experimentation).

b) it is said that countries like India have had animal hospitals for decades if not centuries(under the religion of the Jains) and have not had to resort to vivisection to treat members of other species (source: the Vegetable Passion).

c) You can not cause harm to one, in the hope of helping another, and call it true altruism or compassion. Would you help a homeless man by kicking someone else out of their house, and call that a compassionate solution? The line of Medical progress should stop at the point when it is proposed that other lives should be sacrificed –especially against their will–to foster that “progress.” Human patients may volunteer for dangerous medical research, other species do not. In other words, two wrongs do not make a right.

d) The issue of veterinary medicine is not relevant from a strict vegan philosophy which argues that humans should not have members of other species domesticated, and thus, we should not presume to be “stewards” of their well-being. Thus, veterinary research would not be an issue.

1.21 Would you accept a medical treatment that had been tested on animals if you got sick?

a) This attack is flawed because it implies that if an animal activist would use a medical treatment that had been tested on animals then the activist is guilty of hypocrisy: contradicting his/her argument, and must either refuse any future medical treatment, or abandon the animal rights cause. The activist is pressured to be a moral perfectionist before endorsing animal rights—and since perfection is not possible–then it alleged the animal rights agenda is a false one. This attack draws an unrealistic connection between the present act of vivisection, and the already existing products of that vivisection. In order for the animal activist to be guilty of hypocrisy, he or she would have to consciously participate in or endorse the present and future activities of vivisectors, not the medical treatments that resulted (in part) from policies that included animal experimentation (i.e. saying they are against vivisection, then paying a researcher to do it). The activist could counter-argue that since the research was already done, it might as well be utilized so the animals did not “die in vain.” It also makes an unrealistic demand upon the activist–to remove him/herself from a world where all governments engage in some form of exploitation (or have connections to those that do) before beginning to make protests and arguments that seek change.

b)This argument reveals how vivisectors attempt to make the recipient of their works feel guilty because he/she benefited from their research. It perverts the altruism of the medical profession by tainting the recipient with the tag of a conspirator!

c) If this “moral perfection first” approach is applied fairly and equally to human-related issues, it has the following consequences for the animal research proponent: Any patient who benefits from a procedure that was based upon the human experiments of the Nazis, effectively endorses those atrocities committed, and cannot declare otherwise. (In 1989 concentration camp survivors attempted to get Nazi research destroyed, but were rebuked by the medical establishment which argued the research could be employed for the greater good). An organ recipient, who receives a transplant from a victim of a car wreck, or shooting, cannot claim to be against such tragedies, since he/she benefited from such incidents. Furthermore, a Chinese student living in Bejing, could not protest for democratic reforms since he receives his food, shelter, and financial support through agencies of the government he is attacking. And someone in North America could not claim to be for Indian rights, unless they remove themselves from their present dwelling and let aboriginals move in. No one could protest, or seek to make reforms for any social cause unless they first removed themselves from all imperfections. Since it is impossible, all attempts to make the world a better place would have to be abandoned. In trying to portray the animal activist as a hypocrite, the animal research defender puts forth an ethical standard which they do not apply fairly and equally to themselves, thus revealing who the actual hypocrites are.

d) It is well documented that corporations past and present have been known to profit from the exploitation of others–including humans. From USAToday, Feb 21, 2002: “There is considerable evidence that proud names in finance, banking, insurance, transportation, manufacturing, publishing and other industries are linked to slavery. Many of those same companies are today among the most aggressive at hiring and promoting African-Americans, marketing to black consumers and giving to black causes. So far, the reparations legal team has publicly identified five companies it says have slave ties: insurers Aetna, New York Life and AIG and financial giants J.P. Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank and FleetBoston Financial Group. Independently, USA TODAY has found documentation tying several others to slavery:

Investment banks Brown Bros. Harriman and Lehman Bros.
Railroads Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific and Canadian National.
Textile maker WestPoint Stevens.
Newspaper publishers Knight Ridder, Tribune, Media General, Advance Publications, E.W. Scripps and Gannett, parent and publisher of USA TODAY.
Lloyd’s of London, the giant insurance marketplace, could become a target because member brokerages are believed to have insured ships that brought slaves from Africa to the USA and cotton from the South to mills in New England and Britain.

The original benefactors of many of the country’s top universities – Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton and the University of Virginia, among them – were wealthy slave owners. Lawyers on the reparations team say universities also will be sued.

e) A better question would be if you would accept a drug treatment that was tested on unsuspecting humans who may well have been tortured and killed for it “By the end of July a US district court will decide whether drug giant Pfizer should stand trial in the United States for presiding over a coercive, botched 1996 experiment on Nigerian children with meningitis. In a class-action suit filed last August, thirty Nigerian families say the company violated the Nuremberg Code by forcing an unapproved, risky experiment on unwitting subjects who suffered brain damage, loss of hearing, paralysis and death as a result. Globalizing clinical research solves the pharmaceutical paradox that while the average American brings home more than ten prescriptions a year, just one in 350 is willing to play guinea pig for new drug testing. An abundance of poor, undertreated and doctor-trusting patients in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia renders the quick, positive results corporate sponsors need to get new drugs approved fast. According to one review, a whopping 99 percent of controlled trials published in China bestowed positive results upon the treatment under investigation…..Even if Americans were willing to participate in trials, they take so many medications that they make poor lab rats anyway, clinical researchers say. To prove a new drug safe and effective, “you want patients with no other disease states and no other treatments. Then you can say relatively clearly that whatever happens to those patients is from the drug,” says MDS Pharma’s Simon Yaxley, whose company sells what industry PR folks call “patient recruitment solutions” in Eastern Europe, South Africa, Latin America and China. In developing countries, many people, because they are poor and don’t have access to clinicians and hospitals, aren’t taking any medicines for their illnesses. Conveniently, many of the FDA’s ponderous regulations stop at the border. For example, the FDA’s requirement that companies prove that their experimental drugs are safe on animals before starting tests on humans doesn’t apply for tests conducted outside the United States. And experiments on Americans must undergo painstaking, lengthy reviews by government-regulated “institutional review boards” (IRBs). But “if you go to some countries and say you want the IRB to review this, they say, ‘What is an IRB?’” comments Dennis DeRosia, chair of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals. The FDA simply requires that foreign trials conform to the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, a series of ethical recommendations that critics call rudimentary, nonbinding and ambiguous. Scientists routinely ignore Helsinki directives to publish negative results and make study designs public, and they liken Helsinki-required ethics committees in developing countries to rubber stamps. “No ethical questions are raised at all,” one investigator admitted to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC)…..What results is one set of acceptable risks for patients at home and quite another for patients abroad, a double standard that has left hundreds of preventable deaths in its wake. Most notoriously, in the mid- and late 1990s, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control funded and defended studies in which Western scientists withheld treatment from HIV-infected pregnant women in developing countries, even though they knew antiretroviral drugs would reduce the rate of HIV infection in their infants by two-thirds. Hundreds of infants “needlessly contracted HIV infection” while Western doctors presided over their care, according to an incendiary New England Journal of Medicine paper by Public Citizen’s Dr. Peter Lurie and Dr. Sidney Wolfe.” Published in the July 1, 2002 issue of The Nation. Globalizing Clinical Research: Big Pharma Tries Out First World Drugs on Unsuspecting Third World Patients by Sonia Shaw.

f) Taken from (MicahBooks: Nazis and animal research link NA): “In 1987, the Supreme Court heard a case in which a U.S. soldier sued the government for having used him as a test case for LSD experiments, without his knowledge (Stanley vs. The United States). The court voted 5 to 4 against the victim. For a recent review of experiments conducted on human beings in the U.S., without their informed consent, see Clouds of Secrecy: The Army’s Germ Warfare Tests over Populated Areas, by Leonard A. Cole, Subjected to Science, by Susan Lederer, Johns Hopkins Press (This books studies experimentation on human beings between the two world wars); and Stranger at The Bedside by David J. Rothman, which studies this problem in the period after the Second World War. There are many more books on this subject. Many of them can be found on the Internet, under “Human Experimentation,” or at Amazon.com, under the same heading.”

1.22 Animal research is justified because of the benefits (to human health, happiness, knowledge, progress, science, companion animals, wildlife, etc).

a) Its basic problem is that it is stating the INTENT of the Animal research, not a moral/ethical DEFENSE of it. “Why are you torturing animals to death?” Answer: “Because we hope to benefit from it.” A casual observer would hope that they benefit from it, or why else would they be doing it? This argument is nothing more than an appeal to Selfishness.

b) A thief steals because of the benefits to him or others. A rapist rapes because of the benefits. If the rapist defended his act by pointing out that others could benefit by taking items from the unconscious victim’s house, would that justify the rape? If one accepts “benefits” as a justification for animal research, and applies it fairly and equally to human relationships, then it allows anyone to commit an act on the basis of the perceived benefits to the perpetrator or others–whether the victim is human or not.

1.23 Vivisection is justified because humans can subdue and control other creatures for whatever purpose we wish.

a) This argument would attempt to suggest that humans are following the “law of Nature.” The act of vivisection is seen as being no different than a lion chasing down a gazelle. The question poser may even concede that if an alien race were to do the same thing to humans it would be justifiable. The first problem with this approach is that it suggests vivisection serves a natural purpose, similar to the act of killing for food. Yet the act of killing for food is a primordial instinctive need shared by all life, while only a small number of modern humans engage in the practice of vivisection. It also conveniently ignores the harsh reality of life and death. One could counter-argue that disease exists to control population—a thoroughly natural process–and that the vivisectionist is deliberately obstructing that process by attempting to prolong human life-spans. What about the impact on food and natural resources? A vivisector would probably answer that the solution lies in more research, colonizing space, etc. ad infinitum. Nevertheless, the claim that vivisection is a natural process in harmony with the realities of life can be strongly protested.

b) Even if a concession is made for extraterrestrial exploitation, one does not need to go so far out to discover the unwelcome consequences of such a philosophical position. By “might means right” or “survival of the fittest,” one could then justify killing or enslaving his/her next door neighbor for the benefits.. This philosophy ordains that if one can do it, then one is justified. A thief, murderer, rapist, practitioners of any of these “professions” would find the vivisector’s reasoning to be very useful.

c) There is nothing in that defense that would keep one from applying “might makes right” to a situation where a stronger human preys on a weaker one. You would have to prove human supremacy to justify a distinction or exemption for humans. Since no supremacy exists, you cannot defend this argument. It would lead to social chaos if applied fairly.

1.24 Bioengineering may seem like mad scientist work, but its just another form of evolution.

a) Bioengineering IS mad scientist work, or as I prefer to say “moron scientist” work, because they claim to be improving things, yet they always create new problems (Thalidomide, DDTs, Industrial pollution etc). There is a fundamental logic flaw in this sort of thinking. Humans cannot even create a society free from war - and yet they think they can improve Nature. An imperfect creature creating perfection? That’s a pipe dream.

1.25 Mice, birds and rats get eaten by pythons – certainly that is just as bad as what goes on in a laboratory – or even worse.

a) Pythons need to eat birds, mice and rats to survive. It an instinctual drive. For humans, experimenting on nonhuman animals is certainly not an instinctual need.

b) Humans do not need to torture rats, mice and birds in the vain hope of curing human diseases. They need to experiment on humans if they are SERIOUS about seeking cures.

c) This argument tries to defend one form of cruelty by pointing to another unrelated one. Since humans get killed and mangled by cars, a mugger could argue, then why complain about a thief beating someone in the street? Not a logical argument (in fact, it is a logical fallacy of the form tu quoque). All Pythons need to eat, humans do not need to torture rats, mice and birds in laboratories.

1.26 If you could save countless human lives by xenotransplantation (genetically engineering non-human animals to harvest their organs for humans), isn’t that for the greater good? I mean, people eat those species every day anyway.

a) Since eating meat is unnecessary, exploiting animals for research and genetic engineering is compounding one injustice with another. It is like saying “Well, since we are planning to kill this guy, there is nothing wrong with us torturing and robbing him first”.

1.27 Didn’t the Nazis ban animal research?

a) from Nazis and animal research (link NA): ‘On April 24, 1989, Drs. Daniel Johnson and Frederick Goodwin from the National Institutes of Health, argued on the McNeil-Lehrer television program that “The only people in modern society that have not used animals for research were the Nazis.” They further contended that because the Nazis passed an anti-vivisection bill in 1933, they were led to experiment on human beings, and that there is therefore a relationship between animal rights and a loss of human rights. None of this is true. The “anti-vivisection law,” which the Nazis purported to pass, like Hitler’s vegetarianism, is filled with contradictions. A study of the law the Nazis passed shows that this law had enough loopholes in it to assure the continuation of animal research; consequently, an enormous amount of animal experimentation continued to be carried out by Nazi doctors. The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, reviewed the Nazis law and warned anti-vivisectionists not to celebrate because the Nazis law was no different, in effect, from the British law that had been passed in 1875, which restricted some animal research, but hardly eliminated it. Furthermore, a law passed by the Weimar government in 1931 required that all experiments on human beings be first conducted on animals. Such a requirement exists in the United States as in many countries that practice animal research. In other words, animal research is often a legal justification for experimentation on humans, as it functioned in Nazi Germany. The 1931 law in Germany was never abrogated. Nazis doctors dutifully submitted written statements when they requested “human material” for experiments which carried the legal notification that such experiments had been first conducted on animals. The first request for “test persons” was made by Dr. Sigmund Rascher to Himmler on May 15, 1941, “for two or three professional criminals” for “High-Altitude Research.” It states that human beings were needed “because these experiments cannot be conducted with monkeys, as has been tried….“Robert Proctor’s book, The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton University Press, 1999), records Nazi animal experimentation, which should leave no one in doubt about where Nazi doctors and scientists stood on this issue. These animal experiments were often embedded in the continuum of animal research that had been ongoing for decades. By the 1920s the Germans had developed strains of mice that were “more or less receptive to the uptake of cancer tissue transplants. SS chief Heinrich Himmler was apparently intrigued by the prospect of breeding a race of cancer-prone rats; in a 1939 meeting with Sigmund Rascher, the notorious Dachau hypothermia experimenter, the SS Reichsführer proposed breeding such a race of rodents. (p. 63) “by the end of the 1920s, there was a sizable scientific literature on radiation carcinogensis, including a large body of work based on animal experiments.” (p. 83) By the mid 1930s the Nazis had formidable laboratory evidence of some the causes of cancer based on animal experiments: “Experiments were…performed that finally produced–for the first time anywhere–lung cancers in animals raised in the mines.” By 1938, Nazi scientists could produce lung cancer in 25% of the mice raised in mine shafts. “This was the first conclusive animal experimental evidence that breathing air in the mines could cause lung cancer.” (p.99). The Nazis conducted their “war on cancer” with animals as their weapon of choice. Indeed, in 1943, at the height of a world war, the Nazi government developed plans for a “’tumor farm’ to raise animals for use in experiments.” (p. 261). As Proctor states, animal experiments were vital to the ideological stance of Nazisim: “Animal experimental evidence was extrapolatedto humans, bolstered by the ideological push to see all aspects of human behavior–including purported racial differences–as rooted in “blood,” race, or genes.” (p. 63)The Nazis often did important scientific research, much of which has found its way into our own research. They developed the most extensive anti smoking legislation of any western countries; they did important research on the effects of industrial pollution on the environment, much of which found its way into Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring–which is not an indictment of Rachel Carson. When World War 11 first ended and news of the horrendous research on human beings was made public, Western scientists wanted to denounce Nazi science as “pseudo science” for fear of being tarnished by the public’s loathing of Nazi science, but Nazi science finds its way into our science all the time, including findings gained from their experiments on human beings.

1.28 Traditional Asian medicine isn’t as cruel as western medicine–and who are you to condemn them for using animal parts in healing?

a) If it’s ok for Asian traditional medicine to use animal parts, then it should be the same for humans who want to use other humans for traditional medicine. Such as practitioners of Muti. From On The Trail Of The Muti Killers 21 August 2004 By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent “They first hit 10-year-old Sello Chokoe with a blunt instrument, causing a gash on his head. They then chopped off his penis, his hand and his ear. They were harvesting his body parts for “muti” - the murderous practice of traditional African medicine.” … The practice of muti provides a disconcerting counterpoint to the contemporary image of the new South Africa. Dr Gerard Lubschagne, who heads the investigative psychology unit of the South African police service, conservatively estimates lives lost to ritual murders at between 50 to 300 every year. “We don’t have accurate figures because most murders here are recorded in our records as murders irrespective of motive,” he says. “Most people might also not regard a murder as a muti matter but just dismiss it as the work of some crazy killers.” … How the body parts are used varies with what customers want to achieve. They are eaten, drunk or smeared over the ambitious person. Various parts are used for different purposes. A man who had difficulty in producing children killed a father of several children and used his victim’s genitals for muti. In another case, a butcher used a severed human hand to slap each of his products every morning before opening as a way of invoking the spirits to beckon customers…The screaming of a child while his body parts are being chopped off is also regarded as a sign calling customers to the perpetrator’s business, Mr Mojolela said. It is also believed that magical powers are awakened by the screams. Eating or burying the body parts “capture” the desired results. Robert Thornton, an anthropology professor at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg , who has done research in traditional healing, says children like Sello are targeted because it is believed that the power of the virgin is greater than that of a sexually active adult. ..The main motivating idea is what Professor Thorntorn describes as “symbolic logic”, the idea that another person’s penis will strengthen the perpetrator’s, or that the perpetrator’s far-sightedness will be improved by devouring the victim’s eyes. Blood is thought to increase vitality…One of the few victims who lived to tell his story was Jeffery Mkhonto, who six years ago was mutilated by an organised gang set to harvest body parts. He had been lured to the house of a neighbour for food and ended up being castrated.”

1.29 Bullfights are good because they give the meat of the bull to the poor.

a) Then why were matadors protesting that they couldnt SELL the meat after the Mad Cow/foot and mouth disease crisis?

b) Citing a positive benefit of an act does not cancel out the negative. Bullfights are cruel. To say they are good because they give the meat to the poor would be like justifying a murder/robbery by saying the bandits gave some of the spoils to the needy. Al Capone opened the first soup kitchens in Chicago–using the proceeds of crime, does this mean that loan sharking and murder used to finance that charity were good?

c) if bullfighters do it for the charity, then they should be growing veggies to give to the poor.

2 Companion Animals

2.1 What about pets? Certainly there is nothing wrong with that. ->

Having animal companions teaches people to care for animals.

a) How would you feel if you were born and taken away from your mother against your will (or how would you feel if you were the mother and your offspring was taken away from you by force – just to be given to some human who may treat your child horribly?) and had your genitals cut off? The pet industry is a form of slavery. Except under the best circumstances, a pet is a prisoner of human society. A human decides where it goes, what it does, what it eats, how it lives and how it dies.

b) When humans can take care of their own offspring properly, then maybe you could make some argument for it–but until then, and until humans can stop the pet euthanasia problem and animal abuse issue you haven’t much of a leg to stand on.

c) It is debatable whether having companion animals makes one treat animals with more compassion and respect or makes humans take them for granted. We know that people abuse cats and dogs, and dump them in parks or shelters when they get tired of them. If only one human did this–it would still be worse than if pets were not bred at all.

d) One can argue that we should take care of unwanted animals that are dumped in shelters as opposed to euthanizing them. But whatever the case, we should not allow the commercial breeding of animals to be sold in stores. All should come from shelters.

2.2 Don’t you think you would be cruel to a dog if you didn’t feed it meat? ->

Surely that’s what it would eat if you left it alone to fend for itself?

a) Yes, a dog would most probably eat meat if it chose it’s own meals. Can’t deny that. But it is the cruelty issue which I would focus on with your question. If the cruelty issue is truly of concern, then what about all the other animals that will be kept in poor conditions, and made to suffer to be canned and fed to the dog? Perhaps, if it is cruel to not feed a dog meat (something i don’t actually agree with), then while keeping animals, some kind of cruelty may be unavoidable. Which is why I believe we need to reconsider our position with Companion Animals. [Editor: vegan dogs and cats have been around since the 1980s. Here are 2 companies that offer vegan pet foods (as well as research): Vecado, Compassion Circle. Vegan dogs and cats live healthy and long lives - the matter really is not even debatable.]

2.3 Does a vet have the right to neuter your dog?

a) No, since animals shouldnt be kept as pets. As a form of slavery, what right does a human have to dictate the biological health of other species? Especially when we dont force humans to have sterilization to keep human population numbers down.

b) Although keeping members of other species as “companions” is ethically problematic, the issue is, by neutering the animal, it helps to prevent the enslavement and suffering of more animals.

c) A better question is: does a breeder have a right to breed dogs? The answer is no. Cut the problem at the source and the neutering issue is rendered moot.

3 Equality

3.1 One cannot say that humans and nonhumans are equal and also say that humans and nonhumans are not bound by the same rules ->

and code of moral conduct. If humans have to respect the rights of deer then so should lions.

a) This is assumed to be a fallacy in Definition: Conflicting Conditions (see also Inflation of Conflict) – that they cannot be equal and unequal at the same time. This confuses two different definitions of “equality.” The first definition is that nonhumans and humans are equal regardless of their differences (the “Martin Luther King jr.” sense of the word: “All men are created equal.”). The second definition is not a value judgement, but an observation of the fact that everyone has different attributes. The animal rights proponent stresses equality in value while acknowledging inequality in attribute. There is no conflicting conditions. Other species are equal to humans in value, but they do not possess the attributes to think and behave the way humans do–just as the mentally retarded or children do not have the same attributes but are afforded equal moral protection and ethical regard.

b) We say a man with arms and a man without arms are equal in worth, but we don’t say because they have different abilities that the one with arms deserves more “rights” than the other. By the logic of this attack, in order for all humans to be granted equal rights and respect, they would have to possess the same attributes (mentally, physically etc).

4 Factory Farms

4.1 Factory farms are less cruel than how animals are treated in the wild.

a) The point is not whether the factory farm is less cruel than the wild but whether one needs to have factory farms in the first place and clearly we don’t since vegetarianism is a sound practical dietary lifestyle.

b) I dont think anyone sane would agree that spending your entire life in a dirty cell without sunlight or the companionship of others or freedom of movement is more desirable—if you think that then maybe you can ask to move into one.

c) A British author recently challenged people to spend a week in a typical factory farm egg laying facility. None could stand it for more 12 hours.

5 Fishing

5.1 Fish don’t have nerves in their mouths or feelings in their lips.

a) The hook still causes damage to the fish’s body. It can lead to infection (if the fish is being thrown back in the water).

b) Slave traders said the same thing about negro slaves–they don’t feel pain like we do. You can’t prove it as a 100 percent certainty that they don’t feel discomfort/pain and science may not have figured out how to measure it. Better to be safe than sorry.

c) Yeah but they sure look uncomfortable when they are being dragged from the water. So are they trying to dance when they are flipping around on a hook?

d) So if someone doesn’t feel pain we should do what they want to them? Good because there are some comatose people at the hospital that would look mighty good preserved over my fireplace mantle.

e) Fish have nerve endings near the skin which are very similar to those of humans and other mammals. We all have receptor cells (called nociceptors) near the skin, which are stimulated by events severe enough to cause damage to body tissues. The lips and mouth of fish are particularly well supplied with nerve endings. –Fish produce the same pain-transmitting chemicals as humans. There are two main chemicals involved. When a nerve ending is damaged, a substance called bradykinin is released. This causes the nerve cell to fire, sending an electrical impulse along the nerve. When bradykinin is released near the skin, a second chemical, called substance P, is released near the spinal cord. –Both substances are known to be involved in transmitting pain. For example, if bradykinin is injected in humans, it causes intense pain, even if a local anaesthetic is used. Both bradykinin and substance P are found in mammals, birds, frogs and fish. –Fish produce the same pain-blocking substances as humans. When in severe pain, humans and other vertebrates (animals with backbones) produce pain-killing chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins block pain by stopping the release of substance P. (from an article titled “Fish Feel Pain” from the November to January issue of “Animals Today” magazine (Australia)).

f) “Fish constitute the greatest source of confused thinking and inconsistency on earth at the moment with respect to pain. You will get people very excited about dolphins because they are mammals, and about horses and dogs, if they are not treated properly. At the same time you will have fishing competitions on the River Murray at which thousands of people snare fish with hooks and allow them to asphyxiate on the banks, which is a fairly uncomfortable and miserable death”. (The Advertiser, Professor Bill Runciman, professor of anaesthesia and intensive care at Adelaide University, Australia Fish Feel Pain.)

g) “I undertook a … search on pain felt by fish. I discovered that not only do fish feel the same pain as cats and dogs and humans but they are also highly intelligent. On the beach the other day I saw several fishermen with their dogs. I wanted to explain to them that the fish they were hooking felt the same anguish as would their dogs caught in the same way. Likewise when I went to New Foundland to talk to the fishermen who clubbed the baby Harp seals to death, I noticed that they too had companion dogs and cats and canaries. The most common form of cruelty in the world is fishing and why? Because most people have no idea how sensitive and intelligent fish are”. (Richard Jones, Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council Fish Feel Pain.)

h) British scientists say fish do feel pain LONDON, April 30 2003 — Anglers take note — British scientists say that after years of debate, they now have proof that fish feel pain. Animal activists are on the warpath after a study released on Wednesday showed how rainbow trout react to discomfort. They condemned fishing as cruel and demanded an end to the sport — but anglers themselves dismissed the study.THE RESEARCH FOUND that fish have receptors in their heads and that subjecting them to noxious substances causes “adverse behavioral and physiological changes.” “This fulfils the criteria for animal pain,” said Dr. Lynne Sneddon, who headed the research, published Wednesday by the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science. Bee venom or acetic acid was injected into the lips of some of the trout, while control groups of fish were injected with saline solution or merely handled. The trout injected with venom or acid began to show “rocking” motion — similar to that seen in stressed higher vertebrates — and those injected with acetic acid began rubbing their lips in the gravel of their tank.“These do not appear to be reflex responses,” Sneddon said. The affected fish also took three times longer to resume feeding activity, compared with those in the control groups. The team from the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh found the fish had polymodal nociceptors — receptors that respond to tissue-damaging stimuli — on their heads. It is the first time these receptors have been found in fish. They have similar properties to those found in amphibians, birds and mammals including humans. Animal activists said the findings showed that fishing was cruel.”

i) This is an excellent video exploring the science - Can fish feel pain?? Here’s what SCIENCE tells us:

5.2 But wasn’t Christ a fisherman?

a) He was a carpenter by trade. He referred to himself as a fisher of men.

b) Fish was a well known mythical symbol among early christians. The greek word for fish (Ichthys) was used as an acronym whose initials in greek stood for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” Given how the early christians employed the term, there is therefore good historical evidence for the argument that all of the “fish stories” that managed to get into gospels were intended to be taken symbolically rather than literally.

6 Human Supremacy

6.1 But they are just animals.

a) So? And you are just a human.

b) At one time it was common to say: “just a woman,” “just a child,” “just a black,” “just a pagan,” “just a Christian,” “just a slave,” etc etc etc.

c) Um – we are animals too - although considering the dismal record of human behavior I am sure most species would rather be a remote relative.

d) What does that make you? Vegetable or mineral?

6.2 Humans can exploit animals because we are superior to animals. The reason we are superior is because we possess the capacity to reason.

Variations: When bears and ants can compose symphonies and fly airplanes, then I’ll believe they have rights. Humans have brains that can make computers and do math and build tall skyscrapers, therefore we have evolved beyond other species and are superior to them.

a) Not all humans possess reason as defined here (children, mentally retarded etc). Furthermore, why would reason be an absolute criteria? It is transitory. Arbitrary. Using reason as a criteria would be like saying “an apple is superior to a banana because its red. Red makes it superior”. WHY? What is so great about red? It is just as relative and as arbitrary as talking about skin color. If you say reason is great because it allows us to build tall buildings–why is that of absolute importance? Reason is only important as a human value, just as skin color is only important as a racial value, or a certain interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible is only important to particular adherents of that religious group.

b) Human rights, like animal rights, are arbitrary, subjective, and non-absolute. They are both based on value that we as humans assign and administer. There is no demonstrable natural law which we base our ethics upon. The universe does not say: “Humans have special rights because they possess faculty x, y, z.” A human does not have a universal right to life. If that were the case, it should be demonstrable in nature. We could walk safely through the path of an erupting volcano without so much as a blister. We wouldn’t need police or courts if our “rights” were some universal truth. When one looks at it reasonably, humans are just as mortal as other species. All the fruits of our labors and intellect are also mortal. How can one truly say we as a species are superior to other species as an absolute objective truth? We can’t. Just like a racist can’t say his race is superior to others as an objective absolute truth, or a sexist, or a religious extremist etc etc. Therefore, to be consistent and fair, If human rights are good, then so are animal rights and one should strive to be as compassionate as possible.

c) Since human reason originates in the brain, and the brain decays, why then is reason, a transitory aspect of human existence, so important?

d) Why would reason/building skyscrapers/airplanes/computers etc make humans superior in value as a species to other species that are incapable of doing such acts? What makes skyscrapers so great and important? Buildings fall down, planes crash, computers break. Since all are subjective and transitory, where is the superiority? Humans only think they are superior to justify their exploitation.

e) Not all humans–most in fact, do not compose symphonies or build skyscrapers. Does that mean those people are inferior to the humans that do? BTW–when was the last time you built a skyscraper?

f) It is because I have the ability to reason that I am able to understand why compassion is better than cruelty, peace is better than violence, and kindness is better than meanness; and thus I choose to live accordingly.

6.3 Humans can exploit animals because we are superior to animals. The reason we are superior is because we have a soul.

a) How do you prove humans have a soul and others don’t? And even if we did, why would that make us superior? Its arbitrary and subjective. And a human of one race could say the same thing about another human of a different race (or gender). “Members of my race have a soul but members of yours don’t.” There was a time when such beliefs were common place.

6.4 Humans can exploit animals because we are superior to animals. The reason we are superior is because God tells us we are superior.

a) How do you prove that? And even if some deity in the sky said we were superior–why would it matter? Why would that being’s judgement be absolute? Someone else can say “My god says my group is superior to this other group.” How do you refute that with this “God says so” defense? How do you prove that your god is making the “true” commandment? How do you demonstrate this to others? The very same approach could be used to justify discriminating against OTHER HUMANS. To say humans are superior as a species to other lifeforms without being able to justify it as an absolute certainty–anyone can discriminate according to whatever religious belief they hold.

b) The greatest problem with spiritual humanism is the lack of certainty inherent in the belief. One can doubt the existence and nature of the deity, doubt the uniqueness and importance of the qualities cited as making one worthy of special treatment, and doubt human possession of them (and doubt the claim that other life forms do not possess them).

c) Claiming that humans are superior according to a spiritual form of humanism is neither concrete nor conclusive. One is free to believe anything–and by this ideology one could modify the human superiority argument to assert with equal weight that some humans are superior to other HUMANS according to the dictates of their particular deity. The dispute is endless.

d) If you believe in God, then you must believe that your God is superior to humans. If your God tells you that superior beings can exploit lesser beings - then how do you think your God will treat a lesser being, such as you, in the afterlife?

6.5 Humans can exploit animals because we are superior to animals. The reason we are superior is because Nature tells us we are superior.

Variations: We are highest on the food chain and always have been.

a) Secular humanism can also be challenged by doubt. One can question the importance of free will, reason, or the evolutionary law being cited as fact. Why are these qualities important? If one acknowledges that death is the ultimate end of all life, humans included, then why the emphasis on something so transitory? One can question the notion that humans are rational–simply by reading out loud the harrowing stories on war and crime from the front page of any daily newspaper. One can argue that humans enslave, torture, kill, while no other species on earth can not even come close to exhibiting such a level of barbarism. Every criterion that humans cite as evidence of their superiority can be examined to not only negate the claim–but demonstrate the OPPOSITE with greater success. Altruism, tool making, parental nurturing…these qualities once thought to be exclusively human have been observed in wildlife.

b) One can argue that humans enslave, torture, kill, while no other species on earth can not even come close to exhibiting such a level of barbarism. Every criterion that humans cite as evidence of their superiority can be examined to not only negate the claim–but demonstrate the OPPOSITE with greater success. Altruism, tool making, parental nurturing…these qualities once thought to be exclusively human have been observed in wildlife.

c) Then there is the issue that humans are worth more according to some natural law. The ludicrousness of this belief can be easily exposed by simple observation. If a volcano erupts–does the lava flow destroy all in its path–but conveniently spare human life since it is a universal fact that they are special and not to be harmed? If a human is adrift in the ocean, and approached by a shark–do the jaws of the predatory fish lock up in paralyses when it attempts to bite the man? If the claim that “human life is superior to other life forms” was an absolute, universal fact and truth in nature–then how does one explain that humans appear to be subject to the same violence and mortality that applies to other life? One can’t, because humans are not superior according to any criteria that are cited to prove it–all examples are arbitrary, subjective and non-absolute.

d) Even the claim that humans should not enslave and kill other humans is easily challenged by observing the state of human relations over the last 10 000 years. Arguing that something is absolute and objective carries a very heavy burden of proof. Anthropocentrism is nothing more than human beings setting the standard and value system by which a life is to be viewed as special and worthy—a standard that conveniently places themselves at the top of the value system–all the while ignoring the fragile foundation that supports it. Racist and sexist doctrine does the same thing.

6.6 Even if I agreed that some things done to animals are cruel and wrong, we have to put human problems first.

a) Why? Can we not deal with all problems concurrently? If you are suggesting some victims of abuse are more important than others, do you also draw a distinction between say, victims of spousal abuse and victims of racial violence or child abuse? Which is a more pressing concern? Do the losers go on the backburner?

b) The suffering of members of others species due to deliberate and preventable human action is as important as the human equivalent forms of abuse or exploitation. One should strive to solve these problems when we can where we can without worrying that it follows some arbitrary step by step procedure.

c) That’s a cop out. You just don’t want to face up to responsibility.

6.7 Humans are unique. We are a unique species.

a) All species are unique in the world, but let us say that humans possess some quality that makes them “uniquely unique.” You still haven’t shown why that uniqueness makes them superior as a species to all other life, and deserve preferential treatment. A failure to prove human supremacy as an objective fact kills your argument, because as it stands you are simply talking as a Christian bigot or white supremacist would talk(i.e. “christians/whites are special—we deserve special treatment over non christians/whites.”). What you need to do is show how the human supremacy belief is categorically different from any other form of discrimination. Which is practically impossible.

b) Yes, humans are unique. They can be arrogant. They can take pleasure from the suffering of others to the point where they erect structures such as bull rings and coliseums to watch one subject torture and kill another. Not all the aspects of human uniqueness are positive.

6.8 Make the case that discrimination is innately wrong. Or cease trying to forge the link between racism and “speciesism”. Your entire argument there rests on discrimination being wrong in and of itself.

a) You are trying to say that I say discrimination is wrong….and I cant prove it is. You are right—the problem is, people who are against racism, sexism, religious extremism etc also think discrimination is wrong, so unless you think they should be free to do what they want to other humans–this defense isnt very sensible.

b) Nope, but it would be nice for your false attack if it were eh? Many people(those who oppose racism, sexism etc) would say that discrimination based upon unfair, biased, and subjective standards of value is wrong. The problem for you is–you want to say that racism is wrong, while speciesism is not–except that all the criteria you use to defend speciesism is also unfair, biased and subjective. That’s what the entire argument rests upon: your belief that some discrimination is good, others are bad–without being able to prove this. Sure–you can say that arguments that suggest discrimination is wrong is also subjective. The problem is–refuting that not only buries an anti-specieism argument, but it also buries anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-religious extremist etc etc arguments. Humans pay the price too. So feel free to say that you think everyone should be able to discriminate against everyone else–not all humans would like that–but racists would

c) It doesnt. It rests on what people like YOU believe. YOU believe that discrimination based on biased, subjective criteria is wrong. That includes race, gender, and species (though you would deny the last—but cant prove your case). For you to get out of the jam–you have to show how speciesism is somehow different than racism in a fundamental way–i.e. make it objective or absolute. You havent done that (because you cant). In the big scheme of things–of course one cant prove that discrimination is wrong…since all issues are subjective–they can be doubted…the problem for you is, either you prove that speciesism is somehow different in principle and design from all other forms of discrimination(which is impossible), or you would have to say that people should be free to discriminate against other humans (based on race, gender, religion as well as species). BUT YOU DONT say that–because you want to have your cake–and eat it too. But you cant.

So the only other choice is to say we should try to be as fair and as compassionate to others as possible, and lose this desire to discriminate according to biased, subjective criteria. This would help human relations with humans and nonhumans alike. Its also more consistent ethically than your view. So, in terms of logical reasoning, either you say anyone can do whatever they want to anyone else (human or not) or you expand your circle of compassion and fairness to include nonhumans).

6.9 Only humans can show compassion for other species.

a) A kangaroo named Lulu has been hailed a hero for saving an unconscious Australian farmer in Canberra by alerting the man’s wife and leading her to where he lay trapped under a fallen tree branch. Hobby farmer Leonard Richards was checking for storm damage on his property at Tanjil South, 150 km (93 miles) east of Melbourne, on Sunday morning when he was hit by a falling branch. In a story reminiscent of the long-running Australian children’s television series Skippy, in which a pet kangaroo rescued people in distress in the Australian bush, the kangaroo began barking until Richards’ wife came to investigate. She found her husband lying unconscious under a tree about 200 metres (650 feet) from the house, guarded by the grey kangaroo. Lulu was hand-reared by the Richards family, who rescued her from her mother’s pouch and fed her on bottles after her mother was killed by a car about four years ago.“Dad was totally out of it and Lulu was sitting by him in the bush making this really unusual yapping noise until Mum got there,” Richards’ 19-year-old son Luke told Reuters. “It was so lucky. Dad could have been there for hours if it wasn’t for her,” he said. Richards was taken to hospital with suspected head injuries but allowed home on Sunday night. Animal welfare group the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) called for Lulu to be nominated for its annual national bravery award. (metro UK)

b) The Dog Who Rescues Cats: The True Story of Ginny Philip Gonzalez had lost all interest in living after an industrial accident left him disabled. A friend suggested he adopt a dog.Reluctantly he went to the shelter, where Ginny, a badly abused one-year-old pup,quickly won him over. Philip realized immediately that Ginny was no ordinary dog–she had an amazing sixth sense that enabled her to find and rescue stray and ailing cats.There’s Madame,who is completely deaf; Revlon, who has only one eye; Betty Boop,who has no hind feet;and Topsy, a paralyzed kitten whom Ginny found abandoned in an empty building. Ginny and Philip have now rescued and found homes for over 200 cats, and they have over 60 “outdoor cats” whom they visit and feed twice daily. Even more than extraordinary, Ginny’s angelicmission has given Philip a sense of purpose and a new lease on life. You will never forget the true adventures of Ginny, the dog who rescues cats. (Goodreads)

Pot-bellied pig saves owner’s life by lying in front of a car Saturday, October 10, 1998 … Jo Ann Altsman attributes her Vietnamese Pot Belly Pig, Lu Lu with saving her life last month. (Annie O’Neill, Post-Gazette) OK, it was almost like that. Except that JO Ann Altsman of Beaver Falls didn’t twist her ankle, but had a heart attack. And it wasn’t in the wilderness but in the bedroom of her vacation trailer on Presque Isle. And the pet that ran – er, waddled – for help was a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named LuLu. When you think about it, LuLu’s real-life feat the morning of Aug. 4 was much more amazing than any of Lassie’s fictional rescues because she can’t bark. That didn’t matter. Smart pig that she is, Lulu did the next best thing. She laid down in front of a car on the road outside the trailer and then led a disbelieving motorist to Altsman, whose ordeal lasted 45 minutes. Had 15 more minutes elapsed, doctors told her, she likely would have died. “Pigs are very, very smart,” Altsman, 57, said yesterday. She is recuperating from heart surgery she underwent Sept. 15. “They’re a lot smarter than dogs.” ….Enter Lulu “She looked at my head. She made sounds like she was crying,” said Altsman, who then imitated the sound – quite indescribable – of a crying Vietnamese potbellied pig. “You know, they cry big fat tears,” she noted. But the porker pulled herself together, and headed outside through the doggy/piggy door and into the fenced-in yard. Never before had Lulu left the confines of the yard – except for a leash walk – but this was no ordinary day. She somehow pushed open the gate and walked into the road. There, Lulu gave new meaning to the phrase “hogging the road.” Witnesses later told Altsman that Lulu waited until a car approached and then walked onto the road and laid down in front of it. Several times she returned to Altsman only to leave again and try to get help. One man stopped but later said he was so unsure of what the creature on the road was that he was afraid to get out. “She’s not very attractive,” Altsman allowed. But another motorist stopped for the prone pig and got out. Lulu knew just what to do. She led the man to the house and the rescue. “I heard a man hollering through the door, ‘Lady, your pig’s in distress,”’ Altsman said. “I said, ‘I’m in distress, too. Please call an ambulance.” The man, whose name Altsman never learned, did just that and medics quickly arrived. But when the pig tried to get into the ambulance with Altsman, medics gently let Lulu know she had done enough for one day. Later, it was discovered that Lulu had cut her rather pronounced stomach on the obviously too-small doggy/piggy door. “My husband keeps enlarging it but she keeps enlarging, too,” Altsman said of Lulu, who turned 1 on July 4. Lulu was purchased in Edinboro in August 1997 by Jack Altsman as a 40th-birthday present for the couple’s daughter, Jackie, of Fombell, Beaver County. Jackie, however, went on a five-day whale-watching trip to New England and asked her parents to baby-sit Lulu. Jackie really didn’t want the pig, Altsman said. “She came back on Aug. 18 and kept putting off (picking up Lulu), saying, ‘Next weekend, next weekend.’ You know how kids are.” The Altsmans became attached to the porcine house pet, even as it exploded from 4 pounds to 150. And counting. And how did Altsman thank Lulu? “She got a jelly doughnut,” said Altsman. She then made a sloshing type noise that Lulu apparently makes when she devours pastry. Edited. By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer (Post-Gazette or Unsolved Wiki).

7 Hunting

7.1 If we weren’t hunting deer they would overpopulate and start dying horrible deaths because of the lack of food.

a) If there is lack of food the animal population will not grow as much. If there is less food there are going to be less animals.

b) Humans have overpopulated many areas of the earth which has resulted in lack of food and poor living conditions, yet we do not hunt and execute them.

c) In recent years, deer populations have increased to numbers unsupportable by wildlife habitat alone. Many researchers believe that this increase results from continued human incursion into deer habitat, and the mismanagement of deer populations by forest and wildlife authorities who see hunting as the primary means of population control. Wildlife and land management agencies purport to effectively limit deer populations to numbers sustainable by their natural habitat. In reality, the policies of such agencies exacerbate deer overpopulation, serving only to provide a population large enough to suit sport hunters. The overpopulation of deer stems not only from the specific mismanagement of deer populations, but from them, mismanagement of our forestlands and natural areas. Currently, there are approximately eight does for every buck in the wild. Laws restrict the number of does that hunters may kill. Deer do not have monogamous mating relationships, and bucks will often mate with more than one female. As a result, the ratio of does to bucks sets the stage for a population explosion. Allowing hunters to kill more does, however, does not resolve population problems. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the open hunting of does left fawns without mothers, and removed too many females from the breeding population. Sport hunting decimated deer populations in many states. As a result, states passed laws restricting the hunting of does. These policies have contributed to the overpopulation of deer.

d) Hunting does remove some animals from the population, but it does not keep deer populations at a continually reduced level. Immediately after a hunt, the remaining animals flourish because less competition for food exists, allowing the remaining animals to live healthier lives, and resulting in a higher reproductive rate. Left alone by humans, the ratio of does to bucks would be approximately equal. In Defense of Animals believes that sport hunting is not only an ineffective wildlife management tool, but a cruel and unnecessary practice. Sport hunting should be banned, allowing deer populations to regulate themselves naturally.

e) This comes from the New Jersey Dept. of Fish and Wildlife website Note Commentary provided by BD. New Jersey offers sportsmen and women more than 500,000 acres of state-owned public open space providing a diversity of habitats from hardwood ridges and rolling hills to pine forests and salt marsh. (note: If this is PUBLIC land, why are hunters allowed to kill on this land? I’m not a hunter and strongly disagree with hunting. If it’s public land, may I hike on it? And, if so, is there a risk of me being shot by a hunter?) This total includes more than 276,000 acres in 118 Wildlife Management Areas, specifically managed to enhance wildlife populations and provide for wildlife-oriented recreation. (note 2 Ah, I see. So, you’re not REALLY trying to control wildlife populations, you’re trying to ENHANCE them. Does this not go against what hunters and the NJ Dept. of Fish and Wildlife profess? You’re not trying to keep wildlife down to ‘controllable’ numbers, you’re trying to increase numbers to ensure your revenue from hunters. Typical lies coming from anti-nature zealots. ) New Jersey offers more than a hundred days of deer hunting, including seasons for bow, shotgun and muzzleloading rifle. Multiple bag limits are the rule in most zones. The 2001-02 deer harvest was 68,669. In addition, some of the best waterfowl hunting on the East coast is found in the Garden State. Snow geese, brant, black duck, mallard, bufflehead and a variety of other waterfowl species provide extensive hunting opportunities, especially on the coastal marshes. The Rockport Pheasant Farm produces 55,000 pheasants annually for release on selected wildlife management areas. (note 3 Huh? What! The Rockport Pheasant Farm PRODUCES? But why? If there is truly an ‘overabundance’ of animals (that need ‘harvesting’) why purposely BREED animals to be killed. I also heard that New York imports pheasants for hunting. Illogical, to say the least!) The wild turkey, reestablished in the late 1970s, continues to increase throughout the state with the population now estimated at 18,000 - 20,000 with an annual harvest of more than 2,000. (note 4: (note 4: Can someone explain to me why the wild turkey needed to be reestablished? My guess is that they were hunted to such low numbers that they had to be bred and imported from other areas. AGAIN, illogical! Please, the next time you spout “conservation,” “manageable numbers” or “over population,” read you own text, FIRST!

f) Oh yeah – humans really know how to manage wildlife. Case study: “A well-meant but misguided decision by conservationists is driving a central Asian antelope to the brink of extinction, a report claims today. Poachers who were encouraged to hunt the saiga, an antelope of the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan, to ease the pressure on rhino in Africa and Asia, have brought about a catastrophic 97 per cent fall in the animal’s numbers in a decade, according to this week’s New Scientist magazine.” “The decline from more than a million to fewer than 30,000 is through to be the most sudden and severe population crash of a large mammal. The saiga has been hunted, says the report by Fred Pearce, a science writer, because in the early 1990s the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other conservation groups actively promoted the saiga horn as an alternative to the horn of endangered rhinos, which is used as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine…..“The plains used to be black with these antelopes, but now you can go out there and not see any at all,” says Dr Abigail Entwistle, director of the Eurasia programme of the conservation charity Fauna and Flora International. “This is the most sudden change in fortune for a large mammal species recorded in recent times."…According to the report, WWF began a campaign in 1991 in Hong Kong to publicise saiga horn as an alternative to rhino horn, which when ground up is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine as a remedy. Rhinoceros populations in Africa and Asia have also been devastated by poachers hunting them for their horns."…According to Eleanor Milner-Gulland, of Imperial College London, the leading Western expert on the saiga, there is no known case in biology where the sex ratio has gone so wrong that fecundity has disappeared in this way. Dr Milner-Gulland says that between 1993 and 1998, saiga numbers across central Asia almost halved, to around 600,000. Then, with most of the males gone, the population crash began in earnest, with numbers halving each year since, until last year’s census recorded just 30,000 individuals…Hunters are unlikely to drive the saiga to total extinction but without an unexpected reversal in its fortunes it will soon be confined to zoos and a few small reserves.” Rare antelope driven to edge of extinction by well-meaning conservationists (Independent, 13 Feb, 2003). Also see Mao Zedong’s inane Anti-sparrow Drive.

g) Yep–those hunters really do good. Hunters kill last brown bear Amelia Gentleman in Paris Thursday November 4, 2004 Hunters have shot dead the last female brown bear native to the Pyrenees, condemning the species to extinction and causing an “environmental catastrophe” for France, the government said. Animal protection groups were last night concerned for the survival of the bear’s 10-month-old orphaned cub which escaped unharmed, but which was barely weaned. His mother, affectionately known by game wardens as Cannelle (Cinnamon), was killed on Monday when a group of boar-hunters shot her in what they claim was self-defence. The environment minister, Serge Lepeltier, was to visit the site of the killing last night to launch an investigation into how the six experienced hunters had been allowed to organise a wild boar shoot in the area where the bear was living.

7.2 A lot of people say let the deer’s natural predators kill them, We are just that.

a) Put a toddler in a room with an apple and a hamster. If the toddler eats the hamster and plays with the apple, then humans are natural predators. (Repeat experiment with young cat for comparison).

b) If we were the natural predators of deer we should be able to run down and catch and devour a deer with only our teeth and hands–just like a lion does. If we didn’t use tools – we would be the prey!

7.3 Animals are treated terribly in the meat industry so isn’t hunting better than getting meat from the super market?

a) Maybe, but since meat eating itself isn’t justified, there is no excuse to be hunting either.

b) People who can go out and learn to use a rifle, get a hunting license, drive a car to get ammunition then drive to the forest to wait for an animal to come along, then shoot it, then take it home on the hood of the car(assuming it doesnt get away and die a slow painful death), then cut it up and skin it, then cook it—can very easily just drive or walk or bike to the grocery store and get vegetables and fruit or meat alternatives which are healthier for you. It saves time and money and it avoids the nastiness of the meat industry altogether.

c) No its not better. It is like saying: “torturing someone before you kill him is worse than just killing him.” Yeah–but its irrelevant, since the killing is unjustified to begin with.

7.4 Native peoples hunt and fish and trap, are you going to say it is wrong for them to do it? ->

[Editor: For more First Nations animal use arguments see Various section]

a) Yes, but we are not talking about native peoples, we are talking about people who can easily give up the eating of animals – like you.

b) Some people in desperate situations kill other people and steal from them to survive, are you saying that’s right?

c) Anthropological excavations of many sites all around the world have shown that native people actually survived primarily (over 70%) on foraging, not hunting. and in any case, it is no longer necessary for their survival to hunt and fish.

d) If they are human beings then they should live according to the same ethical principles as any other human. No one can justify causing unnecessary harm to others by citing tradition or racial background.

e) Modern tribal peoples (at least in North America) use guns, electronics, industrial textiles and often sell their products to westerners. They would be hypocritical to say that they are living traditionally–when they are using modern technology. If they are willing to give up the tradition of carving spears–than they should be willing to give up the tradition of cruelty.

f) Some native tribes like the Makah also kept human slaves. Others practiced human sacrifice and infanticide. Should they be allowed to re-adopt those practices too?

7.5 Your philosophy may say that it is wrong for natives/aboriginals to hunt and fish, but they regard the animals as their brothers.

a) If that is the case, then why do the Inuit, allegedly the natives of the arctic, need hides and tools to survive, while their “brothers” the wolf and polar bear, do not? Without their artificial support, humans would be the prey.

b) While some aboriginal beliefs may regard other species as their kin, they still treat them in ways that run contradictory to the way they would treat other humans in their group. Citing some brotherhood is a sentimental appeal, not based on reason or ethical consistency.

c) Oh that’s sweet. “I love you brother – that’s why I am going to drive this spear into your gut, skin you, then sell your innards for cash so I can get a better tv set.”

8 Meat Eating And Dairy Consumption

8.1 Everyone eats meat, so why shouldn’t I?

a) If everyone jumped off a cliff would you?

b) Don’t give into peer pressure!

c) If everyone thinks like that then we will never make any ethical progress on this world!

d) So you believe that you should hold yourself to the lowest common ethical standard possible?

e) Remember Socrates: Don’t Eat Animals. “Why is it so hard, seemingly impossible, for our ‘responsible’ press to convey the kinds of concerns that Socrates raised as portrayed in Plato’s Republic … [Editor: see link for Socrates-Glaucon discussion.] Today, the resources that are required to sustain this wasteful way of living (‘diet’ is Greek for ‘way of living’) include large amounts of energy (read ‘oil’) for fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, refrigeration, water pumping, etc. So today we go to war to maintain our access to oil supplies, but the point Socrates made 2500 years ago is still relevant today. We do not hear about these concerns he raised so many years ago. Why not?” (Originally posted in the Usenet newsgroup rec.food.veg on Nov 18, 1994 by John Champagne (jchampag@lonestar.utsa.edu). Reposted at the International Vegetarian Union website.

f) Heart disease and cancer are the leading killers of Americans - if you were to follow a vegan diet your chances of dying from heart disease or cancer is greatly reduced.

g) Humans who eat meat risk being the incubator for new diseases that may jump species. SARS, BSE (or mad cow disease), and now Asian bird flu: “Thai officials were battling yesterday to contain mounting public panic over the outbreak of avian influenza, which has left millions of chickens dead and killed at least eight people across Asia. Up to 13 deaths have been linked to the disease … However, far more worrying than the demise of the chicken industry is whether, under the right conditions, a mutant strain of airborne influenza is developing that jumps species and can be transmitted to, and between, humans. That could put the world at risk of a deadly epidemic that would dwarf the impact of Sars.” Flu panic grows as death toll rises. Who needs germ warfare labs when you have meat eaters?

h) From the Lancet 2004; 363: 234-36 “The establishment of permanent live-animal markets (wet markets) in many countries means that there is usually carry over of animals from one day to the next, and more expensive animals (eg, pheasants in poultry markets, civet cats in red-meat markets) can stay from days to weeks. Daily introduction of new animals provides optimum conditions for amplification and perpetration of disease agents such as influenza. The influenza virus has a segmented negatively stranded RNA genome with a propensity for reassortment and generation of novel agents. Add the daily human contacts (including children) with the live animals, and conditions are at an optimum for zoonotic transfer and the evolution of infectious disease agents.”

i) “Scientists have shown that the three major pandemics of human influenza in the 20th century - 1918, 1958 and 1968 - were all the result of avian virus changing its structure and becoming more infectious to people. The densely populated Far East is considered a source of new flu strains because domestic poultry and pigs are routinely reared and handled by ordinary people.” New threat feared as pigs test positive for bird flu virus. By Steve Connor, Science Editor 07 February 2004 (news.independent link NA, but see these Public Health and Challenges to Food Self Sufficiency and Reliance and Pigs test positive for bird flu.)

8.2 People from 3rd world countries have to eat meat to survive and what about the people in the Arctic?

a) People in a Third world country do not need to eat meat to survive. The grain and water used to feed livestock could easily be used to feed many times the population according to a vegetarian diet. As for people in colder climates–if they can import guns, clothing, electronics, computers etc, then they can import vegetarian food. After all, people in colder climates, unlike real natives of the colder regions–polar bears, penguins, arctic wolves, need artificial means to survive–without it–they would perish. So relying on vegetable and fruit imports is no big sacrifice if one wants to be compassionate and ethical.

8.3 Inuit in the Arctic need to eat meat to survive–just like bears and wolves.

a) People in the Arctic choose to live there–they don’t need to live there–thus they don’t need to eat meat. A bear does not choose to live there–they have to live there–thus they do need to eat whatever they can to survive.

8.4 Alright, if we’re not supposed to eat animals, how come they’re made of meat?

a) Humans are made of meat too–so that means it is ok to be a cannibal also.

8.5 If everyone stopped eating meat(and/or dairy products), then one would get all scrawny just eating a diet of vegetables.

a) Do I LOOK like I am starving?

b) Name 4 sources of calcium OTHER than dairy products.” (i love this one. most people can’t answer.)

c) Any idea why the USA has one of the highest percentages of dairy consumption AND osteoporosis?!?

d) Okay great! I have a vegetarian bodybuilder I want to arrange a death match with you. I might as well get rich off your stupidity.

e) Carl Lewis, the 9-time Olympic gold medalist shares how a vegan diet helped him achieve the best results of his career.

f) Novak Djokovic, the GOAT of tennis on his plant-based journey.

g) A documentary by James Cameron. Following James Wilks on his quest for the truth about the dangerous myth - that meat is necessary for protein, strength and health. See The Game Changers.

8.6 You only go around once, do not sacrifice your entire life for something that does not matter.

a) Oh yeah – and I guess fighting child abuse, women’s rights, crime, and injustice doesn’t matter either. Why not just become a serial killer with an attitude like that?

8.7 If everyone stopped eating meat, then what would we do with all the animals? We would be overrun by them.

a) Everyone wouldn’t stop eating animals at once. As demand drops off, so will breeding and raising of animals intended for consumption. We are breeding them at this rate, this is not their natural rate of population growth.

8.8 If everyone stopped eating meat, then the species would go extinct without us breeding them for consumption.

a) People are not going to stop eating animals all at once, it will most likely be a gradual reduction. There will also probably be a few people who will still keep them as companion animals.

b) So? if they did go extinct it wouldn’t hurt anything. They have been breed over the years to be something other than what their indigenous species originally was and all they are doing right now is causing erosion and pollution to the environment.

c) If the only way to keep your family lineage intact was to put you in extremely poor living conditions, force breed you, eat you, and then steal your children and put them through the same cycle, wouldn’t you rather go extinct?

d) They existed in the wild before they were domesticated for human consumption..

e) If we were all vegan, then organizations like Farm Sanctuary could still operate farms where chickens, pigs, and cows could peacefully and naturally live out their lives in harmony with human animals.

8.9 All the food charts, school cafeterias; our whole culture makes it appear that meat and dairy are natural and nutritious foods for you, why would everyone be wrong?

a) Have you ever looked at who sponsors those food charts? (psst! the meat and dairy industries)

b) The foods in the charts depict only the most common foods. The USDA likes to emphasize that their food guide pyramid is “well known”. But on closer inspection, even mainstream organizations like the USDA/FDA do not claim that meat and dairy are actually necessary for good health. Alternative food charts for vegetarians and vegans exist. On the other hand, evidence abounds that the current overconsumption of meat and dairy is responsible at least in part for common health problems, like heart disease, obesity, diabetes.

c) Nutrition is not an easy science. The results of mass experimentation take a long time to become clear. Mass experimentation in the developed countries with overconsumption of meat, fat and dairy has led to an epidemic of heart disease, obesity and other diseases. The official recommendations are beginning to change. But both from a medical perspective and from an ethical perspective the change is too slow.

d) You know, we are THE ONLY species that actually drinks the milk of another species. You don’t see giraffes nursing on goats, do you? That milk was made for the cow’s baby, not you.

e) See nutritionfacts.org for peer-reviewed facts on nutrition.

8.10 Humans are predators, if we were to eat veggies our eyes wouldn’t be as such. We would be more like deer or turkeys with our eyes on the sides of our heads to watch for danger.

a) Gorillas are vegetarians and they have 97.7% human DNA. Likewise, chimpanzees have 98.4% human DNA and are primarily vegetarian. (Humans and chimpanzees are more closely genetically related than an African elephant is to an Asian elephant). Chimpanzee and gorilla’s eyes are not on the sides of their heads.

b) When we have fangs, prehensile tails, and claws we can continue this conversation.

c) So, I have the means to kill you, but I am not going to.

d) Set a toddler down next to an apple and a hamster. if he/she eats the hamster and ignores the apple, then we can talk.

e) My fists have the ability to punch people but that doesn’t mean I should go around doing that.

f) So what does that make me?

g) Comparative anatomy of humans by Milton R. Mills, M.D. excerpts: In conclusion, we see that human beings have the gastrointestinal tract structure of a “committed” herbivore. Humankind does not show the mixed structural features one expects and finds in anatomical omnivores such as bears and raccoons. Thus, from comparing the gastrointestinal tract of humans to that of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores we must conclude that humankind’s GI tract is designed for a purely plant-food diet. See summary chart.

h) Humans are predators because they choose to be not because they have to be.

i) From the Christian perspective God put our eyes just where he wants them and there they will stay … 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:14-16)

8.11 If everyone stopped eating meat, then the food would be bland.

a) There are good meat substitutes on the market.

b) The food is really anything but bland. most people find that after switching to a veg diet their food options seem to expand because they are forced to try new things and their palate no longer revolves around the same foods in every meal. it’s not just raw tasteless vegetables. you can still use herbs and spices and many sauces and pastas and breads etc. Plus there are many great substitutes for all of your old favorites.

c) Check out the items in RAW: The Uncook Book and also see this intro. There are many other books and sites containing recipes (eg Vegsource, McDougall) burying the nonsense that veg food is bland.

8.12 If everyone stopped eating meat, then you would suffer from calcium, iron, and protein deficiencies.

a) Certain fruits and vegetables are loaded with calcium.. Certain greens contain much iron. Soy products, and legumes provide ample protein plus fiber without the fat and cholesterole…..

b) Any nutrients that you find in meat can easily be found in plant foods (and without all the fat and cholesterol). If you eat a variety, there is no need to worry about vitamin or mineral deficiencies. It has actually been found that americans get 2-3 times the protein amount that is healthy for them, and this extra protein overloads the body with acid. to buffer the acid the body takes calcium out of your bones. Studies have also shown that vegetarians have stronger bones and lower cholesterol than meat eaters.

c) Soldiers in the Roman Army subsisted on a diet made up of very plain foods. Soldiers were required to pay up to one third of their wages for their food. They ate mostly bread, perhaps porridge, cheese or beans with cheap wine to wash it down (Marks, Tingay 16). Marks, Anthony, Tingay, Graham. The Romans. London. Usborne Publishing Ltd., 1990.

d) “Dupont says that a soldier’s diet was even more extremely limited. She reports that Legionaries ate only bread and drank only water plus a little vinegar when the weather was hot. It was considered that “bread was the only food “fit for a soldier, hard food for hard men”(Dupont 125). Dupont, Florence. Daily Life in Ancient Rome. Cambridge, USA. Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1992. Taken from: Social Position and Food in the Roman Empire -or- You Eat What You Are Jean Preston Roman Civilization Dr. Christine Renaud 2 December 1997

e) Roman soldiers carried their grain (high gluten wheat) and flour grindstones with them on the march. At night, after their 20 mile daily march they would have pasta and baked bread. They preferred this even over meat. When they did eat meat they considered it to be “barbarian food.” (See Food in Roman army, Becoming a Soldier.)

8.13 What about B-12?

The only reliable sources are animal products. Without it you could suffer from pernicious anemia and other neurological problems.” (also “you couldnt have been a vegan 80 years ago because you need modern technology to create fortified foods.”)

a) From: What Every Vegan Should Know About Vitamin B12 by Dr. Stephen Walsh. The only reliable vegan sources of B12 are foods fortified with B12 (including some plant milks, some soy products and some breakfast cereals) and B12 supplements. Vitamin B12, whether in supplements, fortified foods, or animal products, comes from micro-organisms. Most vegans consume enough B12 to avoid anaemia and nervous system damage, but many do not get enough to minimise potential risk of heart disease or pregnancy complications. To get the full benefit of a vegan diet, vegans should do one of the following: Eat fortified foods two or three times a day to get at least three micrograms (mcg or g) of B12 a day or Take one B12 supplement daily providing at least 10 micrograms or Take a weekly B12 supplement providing at least 2000 micrograms.

b) From: What Every Vegan Should Know About Vitamin B12 by Dr. Stephen Walsh “To be truly healthful, a diet must be best not just for individuals in isolation but must allow all six billion people to thrive and achieve a sustainable coexistence with the many other species that form the “living earth”. From this standpoint the natural adaptation for most (possibly all) humans in the modern world is a vegan diet. There is nothing natural about the abomination of modern factory farming and its attempt to reduce living, feeling beings to machines. In choosing to use fortified foods or B12 supplements, vegans are taking their B12 from the same source as every other animal on the planet - micro-organisms - without causing suffering to any sentient being or causing environmental damage.”

c) From: What Every Vegan Should Know About Vitamin B12 by Dr. Stephen Walsh: Vegans using adequate amounts of fortified foods or B12 supplements are much less likely to suffer from B12 deficiency than the typical meat eater. The Institute of Medicine, in setting the US recommended intakes for B12 makes this very clear. “Because 10 to 30 percent of older people may be unable to absorb naturally occurring vitamin B12, it is advisable for those older than 50 years to meet their RDA mainly by consuming foods fortified with vitamin B12 or a vitamin B12-containing supplement.” Vegans should take this advice about 50 years younger, to the benefit of both themselves and the animals. B12 need never be a problem for well-informed vegans. Further information: Dietary Reference Intakes for Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline, National Academy Press, 1998 ISBN 0-309-06554-2.

d) Excerpt from Dr. Klaper’s article ‘Nutrition for Optimum Health’ (which seems to be NA): “Let me be very clear about this, cows do not make vitamin B-12. They never have, they never will. Pigs don’t make vitamin B-12, chickens don’t make vitamin B-12, no animal makes vitamin B-12. They never have, they never will. Vitamin B-12 is synthesized by single-celled microbes (bacteria) that live in the soils of the earth. And long ago when the earth and soils were healthy, before we put all sorts of chemicals on them, the surface of the earth was covered with vitamin B-12. There used to be lots of vitamin B-12 in our lives. Even if you were a pure vegetarian 300 years ago, you could open up the back door of your cottage and outside would be a beautiful organic garden. Every carrot you pulled out of the ground would have little particles of vitamin B-12 sticking to it. When it came time to get your water, you’d take a bucket of water out of the stream, and there too you would find vitamin B-12. There would be B-12 under your finger nails from working in the garden. There would be plenty of B-12 in your life, and since you needed so little of it, concerns about deficiency would not be an issue. We’ve become very isolated from the earth and we’ve lost our natural sources of B-12. Cows have B-12 in their muscles because they’re eating grass all day and their pulling up clumps of dirt that have B-12 producing organisms clinging to the root of the grass. They eat the B-12 producing organisms who produce the B-12, which gets absorbed into their bloodstream, goes out into the muscles, and is deposited into their muscles and livers. But that is bacterial B-12 in the cow’s muscle. The cow did not make it, nor did the pig or chicken. Those same organisms are now cultured in big vats, producing their B-12 that is eventually separated out. It is then added to breakfast cereals, soy milks soy burgers, nutritional yeast, and vitamin tablets. It’s easy to get vitamin B-12 without consuming animal products and I suggest if you really want to lighten up your diet, find a non-animal source of B-12. We are evolving as a species. What our caveman ancestors ate is of little import to us now. The question is what is the best diet for modern human beings? Medical literature is clearly showing that the less animal fat and animal protein you put in your system, the healthier you are going to be.

e) Strict vegetarians (in the Jain religion) have lived for many hundreds of years in India. If B12 deficiency was such a problem, Jainism would have not have continued to this day. Also see: Buddhist Vegetarianism Dakini Translations, Ancient Vegans (Appolonius, Porphyry, Orphics), and Vegans In Ancient Times.

f) We don’t live 80 years ago – we live now. If you want to turn back the clock you can easily get your daily sources of B12. Just don’t wash your hands and avoid taking baths. Since you want to live naturally you will also want to avoid using running water, electricity, industrial clothing, etc.

g) I would rather risk the low chance of getting B12 deficiency through a vegan diet as opposed to the much greater risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis etc from a meat diet.

8.14 We have been killing and eating meat for centuries, why should we stop now?

a) If you use tradition as your moral standard it allows that human slavery, the oppression of women, ethnocentricity and religious based discrimination would be tolerated. You would need to show why humans are deserving of an exemption from this ethical standard. Why a racist or a religious bigot could not discriminate on the basis of race or religion while others could discriminate on the basis of species.

b) According to spiritual and secular mythology/belief, at one point in human history we were essentially vegetarian. The world’s oldest known monotheistic religion: Zoroasterism, was a vegetarian religion. Theories of biological evolution suggest that human ancestors were plant eaters before adopting an omnivorous diet. Also, our teeth and intestines are consistent with what is known to be a herbivore physiology.

c) There are many religions that do not adhere to such a principle and in fact propose a contrary perspective:.Jainism, Buddhism, etc. Compassion for all life is a matter of doctrine. One can ask—did God create surplus compassion—or was it the Devil? Can one be too compassionate?

d) There were always a few individuals who protested against the Atlantic slave-trade right from the beginning; but governments and traders paid no attention to them during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was not until the late eighteenth century that serious attempts were made to put a stop to this trade. James Boswell, trying to refute the arguments of abolitionists, writes in his Life of Johnson that, “The wild and dangerous attempt which has for some time been persisted in order to obtain an act of our legislature, to abolish so very important and necessary branch of commercial interest, must have been crus(h)ed at once, had not the insignificance of the zealots who vainly took the lead in it, made the vast body of Planters, Merchants, and others, whose immense properties are involved in that trade, reasonably enough suppose that there could be no danger. The encouragement which the attempt has received excites my wonder and indignation; and though some men of superior abilities have supported it, whether from a love of temporary popularity, when prosperous; or a love of general mischief, when desperate, my opinion is unshaken. To abolish a status which in all ages GOD has sanctioned, and man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects; but it would be extreme cruelty to the African Savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state of life; especially now when their passage to the West Indies and their treatment there is humanely regulated. To abolish that trade would be to shut the gates of mercy on mankind. Boswell, J., Life of Johnson (N.Y.: Modern Library Edition, 1965) p. 365. (See Christians Organise Slave-Trade.)

8.15 Other animals kill other species for food.

a) They need to eat meat to survive – humans do not.

b) Some species have been known to kill members of their own species - if you are saying it is okay to kill other species because a lion does it, then a child murderer could say we have a right to kill our children because lions do it too. Some species resort to cannabilism including homo sapiens: look at these historical occurences: Parents Eating their Children, During 1958 Chinese famine, people ate people; parents their kids, Holodomor, Top 10 Historic Famines that Caused Cannibalism.

8.16 Much of the grain we feed to the animals is not edible by humans.

a) It would take much less energy to make that grain “human quality,” than it would to feed it all to cattle and then get just a little bit of beef with all of the environmental impacts that entails.

b) What about water? Think of the water shortages today. There are people in India who have to travel for miles to get daily water, while livestock in the US gets all the water they need–just to support an unnecessary diet of meat and dairy.

8.17 Meat tastes good and is good for you.

a) It’s not good for you - cholesterol, saturated fat, and no fiber.

b) The drug addict likes their drugs. They might even know the drugs are bad for them. But the excuse for not giving them up is they like them. Any rational person however will recognize the disfunctionality of this argument. The sane person gives up destructive behaviors.

8.18 If everyone stopped eating meat, then people would lose lots of jobs.

a) A lot of people would lose jobs if people stopped smoking. All those tobacco farmers and cigarette company workers would be out of jobs. Gosh, I should start smoking to help the economy! “What if world peace were achieved tomorrow? All those poor soldiers and arms manufacturers and surgeons would be out of work. Gosh, we can’t have that!”

8.19 What if you just ate a small amount of meat and you got it from an organic farm that you knew treated the animals relatively well.

a) Well, that’s better than nothing, but it’s not the best option.

b) Are you doing that?

c) What if slave traders only kept a few slaves and treated them relatively well?

8.20 What if we genetically engineered animals to have no brains and no feelings, or grew meat in jars? Then would it be ethical?

a) Well, to get to that point there has to be many animal sacrifices that do have brains and feelings. Plus, it would still be bad for your health and the environment (in the production of such a thing). Also, there are many fake meats that work just as well and don’t involve risky animal experiments. [Editor: The corpse industries will be eliminated to a huge extent by 2030 by fake meats, cultured meat and precision fermentation. This article from ReThinkX provides some details on where we are headed.]

b) What if you genetically engineered humans to have no brains and no feelings so we could use them in scientific experiments? would that be ethical?

8.21 Eating cats and dogs is no different than eating other animals such as cattle or pigs for food.

a) What other species actively eats carnivores? It is not a healthy practice, especially considering that carnivores don’t usually have long lifespans.

b) Basically when you say it is no different from eating any other animals you are right, but since eating farm animals is wrong too, how does that make eating cats and dogs right? How do two wrongs make a right?

c) Let’s say someone criticized Russia for its treatment of people in Chechnya. And let’s say that Russia replied, “Our treatment of people in Chechnya is no worse than Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.” Maybe so, but how does that DEFEND what Russia is doing in Chechnya? In order to defend the practice of eating cats and dogs, you have to use an argument that defends the practice in and of itself, not one that deflects the issue to some other exploitation [Editor: Tu quoque fallacy]. Eating domesticated cats and dogs for food is unnecessary and not consistent with a principle of trying to be as ethical and as fair as possible–period. There are healthier and less cruel alternatives.

9 Plants

9.1 Do you eat plants? Fruit? You are killing anyway. Plants feel pain.

a) This attack implies that the animal activist should not even try to stop exploitation and killing, since it cannot be avoided in all situations. It fails to consider that if killing cannot be avoided, and one should not try to stop it, the spectator is under no obligation to limit their lack of concern to nonhuman living beings. One can say: “well since I can’t stop killing why should I care about ANY killing? I might as well look the other way if my neighbor gets killed.” Why should a line be drawn at the human level and not a racial, gender, age, religion or some other line of value? People do it anyway.

b) This is an argument fallacy (specifically Tu quoque). It is an example of argumentum ad hominem. A changing the subject tactic. Instead of attacking the argument, the opponent attacks the person making the argument. People who use this approach often get hypocrisy confused with consistency.

c) Plants don’t have a central nervous system, so no, they don’t feel pain. And a plant doesn’t bleed, scream, and struggle to get away when you pick it.

d) If your lawn starts bleeding and screaming when you mow it, give me a call.

e) Take a class in biology. when you learn about the central nervous system, we can continue this conversation.

f) The best thing I found for the plants feel pain thing is that meat eaters kill way more plants than us anyway to feed to all the animals they are gonna kill. So if plants do feel pain then vegans are still the kindest lot!!

10 Religion

10.1 God meant us to eat meat.

a) Not according to the Seven Days Adventists who are vegetarian.

b) In Genesis it clearly states that the first best food for humans is vegetables and fruits.

c) Some people would say God also meant whites to rules blacks (eg see Slavery Advocate, and pdf thesis If God Is For Us Who Can Be Against Us?), that its okay to beat children and hang homosexuals. You can use God to justify any argument.

d) If God meant us to eat meat why do animals run away from us when we want to eat em?

e) Oh that’s what the devil wants you to think. Bwhahaahahahaha.

f) Well, if god put animals on the earth for us to eat and gave them feelings and emotions so they would suffer then god is an asshole.

g) It’s easier to argue that Satan meant us to eat meat, since its consumption is based on violence and destruction. Perhaps Satan altered the Bible to promote injustice and violence. How can you prove he didnt? The corrupt Roman Empire adopted the Christian religion and edited the gospels. I could point to all the modern violence and injustice committed in the name of God and the Bible–so much for mercy and compassion among its adherents. Strange that fruits and vegetables are so bright and colourful and resistant to disease while meat is the colour of excrement and full of bacteria. Odd that raising cattle for meat is incredibly destructive, wasteful of water, and time consuming while growing vegetables and fruits are much easier. After all, wasn’t Satan’s downfall the sin of pride? And aren’t you demonstrating pride when you say you are better than the rest of creation?

10.2 My god tells me that animals are here for our use. The Bible and all religions say so.

a) The Bible also contains incest, stoning adultresses to death, raping a young girl to death, and the slaughter of children. Are you saying that all of this other Biblical violence is also endorsed? The Bible has also been used to support slavery, neo-Nazism, and the Inquisition, aka the witches’ Holocaust. Do you really want to include yourself in that illustrious company?

b) In Genesis 1:29, God specifically says that S/He has given us plants, and to us they shall be as meat. Sounds pretty clearcut to me.

c) The word meat in the bible is often confused with animal flesh. It’s a translational error from the greek word for nutrition. So when Jesus goes to market for “meat” it should read nutrition. [Editor: Certain languages have a seperate word for meat eg fleisch (German)]

d) The bible also contains favorable arguments for incest and slavery. Whew! That’s great because I was planning on marrying my brother and then selling him to a sweat shop.

e) I guess you never heard of Buddhism or Jainism.

f) My god tells me that animals aren’t here for our use.

g) And there are adherents of religions who say their god tells them that their race, gender and religion allows them to exploit others who don’t (or do) follow their religion(or have their race or gender). Let’s see you get your god to speak up and prove them wrong.

h) Because anyone can claim anything by invoking the authority of a deity (or deities) such an argument is invalid. [Editor: See Joan Baez perform Dylan’s With God on Our Side.]

i) Old Testament attitudes that no longer are applicable:

On women:
1 Corinthians 11:3-15
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
And: 1 Corinthians 14:34
34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
And: 1 Timothy 2:9-15
9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection .
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
And about mixing races:
Numbers 25:6-9
6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand.
8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
And on mercy:
1 Samuel 15:1-23
1 Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10 Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
And then there’s Biblical attitudes towards mercy and equality:
Deuteronomy 7:1-11
1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.”

j) The same Bible that seems to condone the eating of animals flesh allows men to have hundreds of concubines to use whenever and yet will stone a woman caught in act of adultry. The same Bible that you use to teach the eating of flesh also teaches that others be used and kept as slaves. The same Bible teaches that woman can’t even pray without having long hair or their heads covered. It teaches that woman are to be in submission to men. That we are not even allowed to speak in the church. That they are to be keepers at home. How many Christian woman have left their homes for careers and the rearing of their children to others? To use the Bible to teach that the eating of meat is okay for the day in which we live is just as stupid as the above mentioned and is nothing more than modern subjectivism.

k) New Testament attitudes towards

human slavery:
Ephesians 6:5-8
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
Colossians 3:22
22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
Philemon 1:10-16
10 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:
11 Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me: (Paul is saying that Onesimus, a runaway slave converted to Christianity, was not a good servant in the past. His conversion to Christ will change that. Thus, human slavery is condoned.)
12 Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:
13 Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel:
14 But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.
15 For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever;
16 Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? Paul is saying the servant is not to be received just as a servant but now as a brother in Christ).
poverty:
Matthew 26:6-11
6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
7 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.
8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.
10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. (So basically the creator or son of the creator is saying you might as well anoint me with this – because you will never get rid of poverty. So I guess we shouldn’t try?)

l) Ambiguous Biblical Terms used to Describe Slavery “In an apparent attempt to disguise the practice of slavery, some translations in the Bible translate the word slave (doulos in Greek) as servant. Casual readers of the Bible would assume that the passages refer to a hired servant (diakonos in Greek) - i.e. a butler or a maid. The King James Version of the Bible (KJV) frequently referred to slaves by various ambiguous terms, such as: bondmen, servants, maids, handmaid, manservant, maidservant, etc. For example, consider Exodus 21:2 which is part of the Laws of Moses: 21st Century King James Version “If thou buy a Hebrew servant…“King James Version “If thou buy a Hebrew servant …” Living Bible: “If you buy a Hebrew slave…“Modern Language “When you buy a Hebrew slave…**New International Version: “If you buy a Hebrew servant…” New Living Translation: “If you buy a Hebrew slave…” Revised Standard Version “When you buy a Hebrew slave…” Genesis 9:25-27: “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japeth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave.’ This text was frequently used by Christians to justify negro slavery. “The Ten Commandments: Rabbi M.J. Raphall (circa 1861) commented that the 10th commandment places slaves “under the same protection as any other species of lawful property…That the Ten Commandments are the word of G-d, and as such, of the very highest authority, is acknowledged by Christians as well as by Jews…How dare you, in the face of the sanction and protection afforded to slave property in the Ten Commandments–how dare you denounce slaveholding as a sin? When you remember that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job–the men with whom the Almighty conversed, with whose names he emphatically connects his own most holy name, and to whom He vouchsafed to give the character of ‘perfect, upright, fearing G-d and eschewing evil’ (Job 1:8)–that all these men were slaveholders, does it not strike you that you are guilty of something very little short of blasphemy?“Exodus 20:17 “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.” Deuteronomy 5:21 “Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbor’s.Beating and Killing Slaves: Although an owner could beat a male or female slave, she/he would have to avoid serious injury to eyes or teeth. The owner would have to avoid beating the slave to death. But it was acceptable to beat a slave so that he/she was mortally injured and died a day or so later: Exodus 21:20-21 “And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money [property].” Emancipation of Slaves: Slaves in ancient Israel were automatically emancipated after 6 years of slavery, but only if they were Jewish.” “…Foreign slaves were out of luck.” (see Exodus 21:1-4, Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Leviticus 25:44-46: “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.” (NIV)“Neither Jesus nor St. Paul, nor any other Biblical figure is recorded as saying anything in opposition to the institution of slavery. Slavery was very much a part of life in Palestine and in the rest of the Roman Empire during New Testament times.Quoting Rabbi M.J. Raphall, circa 1861, “Receiving slavery as one of the conditions of society, the New Testament nowhere interferes with or contradicts the slave code of Moses; it even preserves a letter [to Philemon] written by one of the most eminent Christian teachers [St. Paul] to a slave owner on sending back to him his runaway slave.” 3 * Rabbi M.J. Raphall, “The Bible View of Slavery,” delivered in New York City, 1861. “Priests still owned slaves: Mark 14:66: “And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest:” “One of the favorite passages of slave-owning Christians was St. Paul’s infamous instruction that slaves to obey their owners in the same way that they obey Christ: Ephesians 6:5-9: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.” (from * 1 Timothy 6:1-3 “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;” Others who believe the Bible supported human slavery: “[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God…it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation…it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.” Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America 1,(* Dunbar Rowland quoting Jefferson Davis, in “Jefferson Davis,” Volume 1, Page 286 * Jefferson Davis, “Inaugural Address as Provisional President of the Confederacy,” Montgomery, AL, 1861-FEB-18, Confederate States of America, Congressional Journal, 1:64-66.) “There is not one verse in the Bible inhibiting slavery, but many regulating it. It is not then, we conclude, immoral.” Rev. Alexander Campbell “The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.” Rev. R. Furman, D.D., Baptist, of South Carolina “The hope of civilization itself hangs on the defeat of Negro suffrage.” A statement by a prominent 19th-century southern Presbyterian pastor, cited by Rev. Jack Rogers, moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). “The doom of Ham has been branded on the form and features of his African descendants. The hand of fate has united his color and destiny. Man cannot separate what God hath joined.” United States Senator James Henry Hammond. 5(*William Lee Miller, “Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress.” Alfred A. Knopf, (1996), Page 139.)(text references from Slavery in the Bible) And unless you think Human slavery is justified: “It is hard to believe but it seems that the Roman Catholics think it quite in keeping with the teachings of their church to obtain slaves even in this era of 1970s. In August 1970 the world was shocked to hear that the Roman Catholics had purchased, at the price ranging from 250 pounds to 300 pounds each, about 1500 Indian girls to shut them into convents because European girls do not like to live as nuns. There was so much outcry in the world press that the Vatican had to establish a commission to enquire into this affair. But even before the commission started its enquire, a Vatican spokesman had to admit that there was an “element of truth” in the reports, though he dutifully condemned the Sunday Times for its sensation-mongering.Sunday Times (London) as quoted in East African Standard (Nairobi), August 25, 1970. (Churches Participate in Slave-Trade)

11 Species Unity

11.1 Instead of worrying about animals–worry about homeless people or war orphans.

a) Must one be so narrow minded that he can worry about one at the exclusion of the other?

b) Okay since you believe that compassion follows a hierarchy, tell me this. Which is more important, women’s rights or worker’s rights? Child abuse or sexual abuse? What about racial injustice vs. poverty? Religious discrimination vs. age discrimination? When you have the list in order–get back to me.

c) Who says compassion is in a finite amount? I can be compassionate towards both humans and nonhumans without it running out. I guess you are more limited in your compassion.

11.2 If you saw a burning barn/sealed car/boat filled with humans and (insert nonhuman animal), who would you save?”

a) The intention here is to force the animal activist to admit that there is a situation where he/she would choose the life of a human over a nonhuman, thus validating the animal research position. The trouble here is that even if the activist chooses to save the life of a human over a nonhuman, it does not then mean that the activist is endorsing factory farming or the vivisection industry or making any policy decision. [Editor: Also, this sort of attempt is a logical fallacy known as False Dichotomy.]

b) Rephrasing the scenario, what if the burning barn is filled with humans … half are white and half are black. If you are white—who do you save?” The animal research proponent does not intend that the burning barn scenario be considered in this way–but it must be for consistency. The original scenario attempts to prompt the activist into deciding between “us (humans) or them (nonhumans).” If the research proponent objects to the notion that one may choose between “us or them” based on ethnic or gender, or some other criteria, then he/she must first show how discrimination based on species is justified, before such an argument could even begin to be considered valid for the animal research issue. NOTE: An animal research proponent might counter that it is in the best practical interest of human beings to have respect and care for each other (Golden rule) but this would not be a necessity or a moral obligation. If someone could benefit from exploiting other humans(as we find in the real world all the time) then this argument would be invalidated. Why shouldn’t someone exploit others if they can benefit from it? This is what the animal research proponent must address .

11.3 Ethics are irrelevant.

Speciesism is not the same as racism. We have a biological drive like all species to stick together and protect our own. Humans have a natural biological drive to preserve their species over others. Humans are naturally meant to stick together. (Note: also known as the Tenacious moral instinct argument).

a) Humans have enslaved and discriminated against each other based on race, religion, gender, age, intelligence, and appearance for 1000s of years. The ideal of universal human rights is itself a new concept. Despite our laws we still have discrimination and exploitation of humans for a myriad of reasons. One doesn’t lock their doors at night to keep out pit bulls.

b) Attempting to assert that other species are also speciesists is flawed, since lions and grizzlies have been known to kill the offspring of a rival male, chimpanzee groups will war against other chimpanzee groups, etc and some members of one species have been known to adopt members of another species, both domestically and in the wild. Humans have been found living in wolf dens, piglets adopted by dogs, etc. There are cases of humans risking their lives to save nonhumans and vice versa. Wouldn’t this be impossible is tenacious moral instinct(a biological drive) were so?

c) Citing some unsubstantiated “law” of the Natural world cannot defend the argument that humans are meant to “stick together”.

d) The very fact that the concept of animal rights is accepted by some shows that there is no overriding biological drive in humans to “stick together” or avoid compassion for members of other species.

e) If you truly believe in species unity, and think it is applicable to humans, go walk through a notorious crime alley with $5000 in your hand and see how that “unity” holds up brother.

f) The species unity myth is also used to make a jump from desperate emotional choice to ethical policy. If a human chooses to save a life of a human over a nonhuman in some life and death situation( a river, a barn fire, a locked car/boat with no food etc), the argument is made that it is therefore logical to exploit nonhumans in factory farms, in laboratories etc. But if one were to apply this to a human vs human scenario–(white vs black, Christian vs non Christian, family member vs stranger) and you choose that which you regard as most familiar or valuable–then the same consequences are applicable. Will you then exploit the loser en masse? Of course not. So why would you do it to nonhumans?

12 Survival of the Fittest

12.1 Nature is cruel.

Cats will play with their food–so we should be cruel too. It’s survival of the fittest. Compassion is not natural, and other species are motivated by self interest.

a) “Survival of the fittest” would allow one to exploit and enslave other humans . You acknowledge that one animal will prey on another, but you ignore that they can also prey on members of their own species–in which case, by using this moral standard and policy, humans preying on other humans would be justified too.

b) A domestic cat is fed, and has no predators. A wild cat has to be on guard for competitors. Not catching prey means not eating. The time for playing with their food would be greatly diminished. More importantly, there is no evidence that a cat is aware of the mouse’s suffering and takes pleasure from that fact-like humans have been known to do. There are hunters who enjoy killing animals.

c) Speciesists who use this attack contradict themselves, for while they say that species have a natural tendency to stick together, they will also allege that it’s a “dog eat dog” world, compassion is not natural, and other species are motivated by self interest! In fact, other species have been known to exhibit altruism. Bats will lend food to other bats, ducks have been known to feign injury to lure a predator away from the flock. There are instances of domestic animals “adopting” the offspring of other species, and dogs rescuing humans. Feral children found living with wolves in the wild etc. And conversely, there are instances where humans have risked their own lives to help a member of another species.

e) There was an experiment conducted where monkeys were starved unless they pressed a button that would release food–AND torture a monkey wired to shock devices. It was found that the monkeys preferred to endure starvation rather than inflict pain on another–the exact opposite response anticipated by the scientists. Yet a similar experiment involving humans where neither subjects were truly being tortured(unlike the monkeys) found that most of the humans were willing to see another human suffer, just to avoid displeasing the individual giving them the orders.

13 Trapping

13.1 Leghold traps are painless and humane.

Response: a) if you think they are then try slamming your car door on your fingers, and stay there for a week.

14 Whale slaughter

14.1 It is hypocritical for North Americans …

with arable land to raise food to criticize a small country like Japan where it has to rely on the oceans for food.

a) Japan does not need to rely on the oceans for food–and certainly not by resorting to fishing/whaling. It is not possible to feed the entire population of Japan through whale meat–as it stands it is expensive and a luxury item.

b) In order to justify whaling–the Japanese must be able to defend whaling on its own merits–not by using an ad hominem attack that attempts to find imperfections in the anti-whaling critic. If one wants to discuss the negatives of cattle ranching and meat eating in general–whaling would still be condemned. So this is not a defense of whaling.

c) Japan raises cattle as well–and imports beef from the US. Thus–the Japanese whalers are hypocritical condemning North Americans for doing something that they themselves do–except, the Japanese also hunt whales–they look doubly bad.

14.2 Eating whale meat is no different than eating cattle.

a) In some sense this is true, just as homicide is in some sense no different from deer hunting, but how does that justify whaling? There are many good reasons to be against cattle ranching–and these same reasons can be used against whaling, so where is the defense of whaling by citing this as a defense?

b) Except whales are about 10 times the size of a steer and there is no natural predator for them beyond the microorganism scale. Humans must use spears and exploding guns, no other species is as cruel and crude in its killing methods. If Japanese whalers were meant to eat whales, they should be able to kill them with their bare hands and teeth like any true predator.

14.3 Minke whales are the cockroaches of the sea.

If they are not controlled they will eat fish stocks.” Attributed to Japan ministry of Agriculture official Masayuki Komatsu.

a) Minke whales live in the ocean. As ocean dwellers they feed off the oceans. Humans are land dwellers. Who has more logical and moral case to be eating in their natural habitat? It is humans that are depleting fish and it is humans that are the true pests. I won’t call them cockroaches because that would insult a species that is far more successful and restrained in its behavior than humans.

14.4 You say that nature is neither cruel nor merciful that it just is.

Since humans are part of nature, it cannot be said that they are merciful or cruel. They are the way they are. whether or not we protect animals or hurt them, we are acting perfectly within our nature.

a) Since humans have concepts of mercy and cruelty, they certainly can make judgments about their behavior using these standards of conduct(and do so all the time). This is how we form civil relations, laws etc. Where the problem arises is when a claim is made that suggests that nature itself can be proven to be one or the other as some absolute certainty. That’s tricky territory.

b) If you took this from the Q and A section page: “Nature cannot be proven to be cruel or compassionate, it just is. Anything else is a projection of human beliefs and sentiments onto a non-human subject. There is no way to make an absolute verification of such beliefs. This is what follows it: “But, for the sake of argument, let us say that Nature is inherently cruel. Then why should humans care any more about human rights than they do about nonhuman rights? There are dictators around the world that have lived very comfortable lives while they tortured and killed other humans. According to the argument of the human supremacist, they are just living according to Nature. Humans have raped, murdered, enslaved and stolen from each other for thousands of years. It is still true today. These acts would seem to be permissible according to Nature–why then should we try to stop them? If you try to argue “well, because stopping them has mutual benefit for all humans,” the fact is that some humans–those with power–have done quite well without worrying about “all humans.” So “mutual benefit” is not proven. The true harshness of Nature implied by this argument also applies to human situations. To deny this is to be either emotional (as animal activists are often accused of being), or hypocritical.” So in other words, yes, you can say humans are neither cruel nor merciful–whether they are dealing with nonhumans or humans. It makes no difference to the argument. Since human supremacy has not been proven, it allows one to use this reasoning to let humans exploit nonhumans or humans as they see fit. This is unacceptable to the human supremacist, but his or her reasoning cannot close the loophole their own belief creates.

15 Wildlife Management

15.1 If I wasn’t hunting prairie dogs and groundhogs they would ruin my crops and my cattle would step in their holes and break their legs.

a) That is nonsense. Larry Rittenhouse of Colorado State University says “it would be almost impossible for a cow to break its leg in a prairie dog hole.” He says “I study these animals behavior and they are extremely adept at placing their feet. In my 50 years around cattle and horses, I don’t know of a single incident where a horse or cow has been injured in a prairie dog hole.” Cattle seem to actually preferentially graze on prairie dog towns. It has been found that there’s a significant increase in protein content in the plants growing on prairie dog towns and they are highly nutritious for the cattle.

b) many ranchers say that the only way to make farming profitable is to work with the elements of the ecosystem, instead of against them. It’s just not economically feasible to spend precious labor and money killing wildlife. If you start killing one animal, where does it end? We don’t know what species you can eliminate and still keep the system healthy. Contrary to folklore, prairie dogs do not breed like crazy. They don’t mate until their second year and only about half of those born each year survive. As you know, prairie dogs are herbivores and eat mostly native grasses. Most ranchers have heard the “fact” that prairie dogs diminish grassland productivity by a whopping 50-75%, but no one is sure how the biologist who made this claim came up with the numbers. Since then, studies have been done that show if you get rid of prairie dogs, the amount of forage that you gain is a puny 4-7%. It does impact the rancher in dollars and cents, but the cost of poisoning prairie dogs outweigh the gains made by eliminating the animals. If you still insist on trying to “control” the prairie dog and groundhog populations, you could at least do it in more ethically sound and natural ways such as giving predators a boost by building poles for raptors and digging trenches where foxes can hide.

c) Biologists call prairie dogs a keystone species. Lose the keystone and the whole ecosystem goes crumbling down with it. Species that rely solely on prairie dogs include the endangered black-footed ferret, the mountain plover (a bird), the burrowing owl, and the ferruginous hawk which preys on them. If you change the natural disturbance regime that the “varmints” provide, you alter the ecosystem and you may start losing species (of animals and plants) because of it which in turn effects other things (like your crops). As for groundhogs, they actually improve the soil quality by digging their burrows. The burrows allow more air and water to get underground, which in turn helps breakdown the soil to form more valuable topsoil.

d) I have little sympathy for the livestock loss or damage because it wouldn’t happen if no one was eating the livestock. As for crops that go for human consumption (which the majority don’t), if everyone consumed on a veg diet, even a significant (which isn’t the case) loss of crops would be acceptable economically because you are talking about so much less of a burden on our farm system. Any shortcomings could be made up by more farmers raising more produce for human consumption. And in any case, If everyone has to deal with a problem, then the costs are passed on to the consumer. In the end, the market bears the real cost of doing business, and if everyone operated on the same ethical level and accepted crop losses via “varmints” as a natural issue to deal with, we could live in much better cooperation with our surrounding ecosystems and the natural world.

14.2 “If I wasn’t killing the bear and wolves and cougars they would kill my sheep and I would lose business or they would eat my children.” a) You should not have sheep in the first place. If you must, keep them in a fenced area..

b) so instead of killing them, if you are so worried, why don’t you work on helping protect their natural habitat so that they won’t need to invade your property and kill your livestock. and after all, you are really the one invading their territory.

c) by killing the bear, wolves, and cougars you are tampering with a very fragile thing –the ecosystem– which could very likely result in some other problem like an overpopulation of rodents or something.

d)-only in a few isolated incidences in other countries have wolves become fearless and attacked; only become fearless as result of people feeding them-India: parents were motivated to let wolves eat kids by extremely high compensation from government … up to a year’s salary.

e) -Chain reaction: in one instance, when the wolves had been killed, coyotes increased. When they were gone, foxes skyrocketed. Not only does the method of removal prove ineffective, but according to the farmer, wolves should be better as they are much less likely to feed off of the farmer’s livestock. -Farmers are compensated by govt for all losses (even though losses are extremely minimal)-WOLVES ARE ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR .1% OF ALL LOSSES OF CATTLE, AND .3% OF SHEEP!

f) It is your own fault that your sheep get killed. The same would be true if you had chickens. They are domesticated–in the wild, predators would not have an easy time picking them off. A farm is easy pickings for a wild animal.

15.2 What about animals that are introduced by humans …

into an unnatural setting, like the broad-tail possum in New Zealand, which are overrunning the native species. Surely we have no choice but to kill them.

a) The possum are victims of human greed and stupidity(introduced into new Zealand by fur farmers)–humans just have to live with the consequences–and try not to cause more ecological disasters in the future.

b) Who appointed humans to be Nature’s exterminators?

c) So by your logic, if a group of humans are overpopulating an area and driving out native species, it should be okay for some people to go in and massacre a large number or rather, thin the populations, for the benefit of the native species.

d) Well if you are so concerned about native species being wiped out by alien species, what are you doing to stop farmers from cutting down forests or companies polluting rivers? Are you prepared to use violence against them? Or do we make an exception for the number one polluter and natural destroyer on the planet?

15.3 Humans need to manage Nature and other species.

a) Total arrogance. Nature and other species do fine when humans aren’t around to mess things up for them.

b) Oh you mean in the same way we “managed” forests, rivers, and the atmosphere by polluting them? If you call that “managing,” I’d hate to see what wanton destruction would look like.

c) Even small efforts can blow up such as the Grenfell reindeer effort: In 1907, Grenfell imported a group of 300 reindeer from Norway to provide food and serve as draft animals in Newfoundland. Unbeknownst to him, some of the animals carried a parasitic roundworm, Elaphostrongylus rangiferi, that then spread to native caribou herds. The reindeer herd eventually disappeared; however, the parasite took hold and causes cerebrospinal elaphostrongylosis (CSE) in caribou, a disease well known in reindeer in Scandinavia.[6]

d) Here are some examples of how well humans have managed Nature: World’s 100 most destructive species named (note–the number one, human, is not mentioned funny enough):

1 Nile perch: introduced to Lake Victoria, Africa, in 1954 to counteract the drastic drop in native fish stocks caused by over-fishing. Instead, it has contributed to the extinction of more than 200 endemic fish species through predation and competition for food.
3 Caulerpa: introduced to the Mediterranean around 1984, it is thought, as waste from the Monaco aquarium. Hardier than most tropical seaweeds, it has adapted well to cold waters and smothers habitats.
5 Small Indian mongoose: this voracious and opportunistic predator is native to areas as widespread as Iran and the Malay Peninsula. It was introduced to Mauritius, Fiji, the West Indies and Hawaii to control rats but has caused the local extinction of endemic birds, reptiles and amphibians.
6 Feral pig: introduced to many parts of the world, it damages crops, stock and property and transmits many diseases such as leptospirosis and foot and mouth. Diet includes juvenile land tortoises, sea turtles and sea birds.
7 Dutch elm disease: deadly fungus, spread by the elm bark beetle, which can kill an elm in three weeks by clogging its water-conducting vessels. Spread in the UK in 1968 from imported Canadian timber to deadly effect, killing more than a third of southern England’s 23 million elms.
8 Grey squirrel: the American grey has devastated Britain’s native population of red squirrels, which are barely half the size. First appeared in the English countryside between 1876 and 1929, possibly after having been accidentally released from London Zoo.
9 Japanese knotweed: introduced from Asia to Europe in the mid-19th century as an ornamental and fodder plant. Grows rapidly, prevents native seeds from germinating and thrives on being uprooted can even regrow after being rooted out and washed downstream.
10 Giant African snail: introduced to the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans as a food source for humans but has a voracious appetite and has been recorded as attacking more than 500 different kinds of plants. Has spread to parts of South America. Tropical in origin, but copes comfortably with snow at other latitudes.

16 Zoos

16.1 Why shouldn’t we go the circus/zoo? …

Are not the animals treated better there than if they were living in the wild?

a) Well, first of all, who are we to be the all mighty ones to decide what to do with these animals lives? that would be like: aren’t children from 3rd world countries treated better when doing child labor, making purses for mere pennies, than when they are home with their families living in destruction? or weren’t black slaves better off as slaves than free because they had a means of making a living? … and really, although there are hunters and destruction of their natural habitats, I would think freedom and all the enrichment that the environment can provide would be a better life than being chained and forced to perform in stressful situations, constantly moved from place to place, and often being abused.

b) By this logic we should take natives out of the dwindling jungles of South America and Borneo and put them in zoos so their lifestyle can be preserved. Surely they would be better off than if they had to struggle in the forests.

c) Well, we humans are also staying in the house, but are we still 100% safe?

17 Various

17.1 Native hunters/whalers regard the animals they hunt as their brothers.

a) Ah yes, I love you brother. That is why I am going to harpoon and club you to death.

b) The Makah whalers say the whales they slaughter are their “brothers” – yet the Makah word for Grey whale translates as “devilfish” (since their “brothers” often defended themselves when attacked – apparently that makes them evil). Quite the endearment to call your sibling.

17.2 It’s necessary to make a qualitative distinction between whaling practices: those whose survival is completely dependent upon it, and those for whom it is merely a career.

a) While I would agree that commercial whaling is more ethically problematic than Inuit whaling, the real issue is whether whaling itself is justified. Assuming that a community’s survival is “completely” dependent upon whaling, the real question becomes: does it need to be?

b) If the “civilized” nations of the world, including the Inuit representatives, can travel by 21st century technology to meet in Japan for an IWC meeting then alternatives to whaling for survival do exist. The apologists for whaling would have us believe that we can put a man on the Moon, and design a computer that can play chess, but when it comes to providing daily sustenance for all humans, only a harpoon can accomplish the task—or in other words, that we must approach a 21st century problem with 1st century solutions.

c) while I would agree that a man who mugs people and shoots them dead is not as nasty as another man who mugs people then douses them with gasoline and lets them burn to death, this qualitative distinction on my part does not mean I endorse the actions of either man. The distinction becomes trivial in light of the greater issue: whether either man needs to engage in such behavior, and whether I should be assisting either of them in committing such acts. People do not need to kill whales to survive. Other food sources can be (and should be) provided by the patron governments of the lands in which these First nations societies live. And if they cannot, international agencies should.

17.3 To ask First nations hunters to give up their hunting and fishing and rely on international food aid would be to rob them of their independence.

a) No man is an island, and one cannot go back in time to 1000 CE. If they are able to stomach the concept of using non Inuit technology for some aspects of their lives (guns and ammunition for hunting, air travel to whaling summits etc), then why can they not stomach it for other possibilities? A fair and ethical treatment of others should trump lifestyle choices and tradition—if one wants to have a more consistent ethical philosophy.

b) None of us are truly independent from our societies, or national governments. While I believe that people should have choices in how they live their lives, the choices become a matter of ethics where the lives of others are involved. A man who wants independence cannot have his cake and eat it too. If he wants others to respect his right to independence, he has to be fair and just in the implementation of that independence.

17.4 Since the end of the seal hunt Inuit trappers and hunters have succumbed to bad health from eating junk food, alcohol abuse, poverty, even suicide. Helping animals hurt First Nations people.

a) Negro slave traders also suffered when the slave trade was stopped. Does that mean that it was wrong to abolish the slave trade? If it is okay to put slave traders out of work to liberate others, then it is okay to do the same for seals or other species.

b) Alcohol and junk food is bad for everyone. The answer is not reinstating the seal fur trade, but dealing with those problems among the Inuit community. I suppose the government would much rather return to killing seals and making profits from fur, than adopting wholesome and compassionate methods for solving these problems.

c) It is unfortunate that they have had bad times–but it wasn’t as bad as a seal being orphaned or getting shot or his/her head bashed in.

d) If Inuit people cannot live normal happy lives without going out and killing an animal then they really have problems. I suppose one would like to believe the myth that it is some natural instinct for northern human societies to hunt, trap and fish. Yet polar bears and wolves and other species are born to survive by these methods-humans on the other hand, choose to live in harsh climates. They don’t have to. Seals, wolves, bears—they are meant to live in the Arctic–but humans are not physically equipped for it. Perhaps what the depressed Inuit hunter needs is a change of scenery–and coming to realize that there is more to life than killing when one does not need to.

e) There was a time when seal hunters in the North did not have markets to sell their “wares.” Somehow they managed to live okay without an international fur trade. Is it the loss of a tradition that is the culprit for their woes or is it rather, the loss of money?

17.5 Native trappers and hunters etc are living on the planet the way we are supposed to.

a) Hey! Can you lend me your copy of “HOW TO LIVE” by Supreme Deity? I want to check the section on what to do with arrogant humans.

b) Ignoring your apparent claim of access to the divine scheme for human existence, some tribal societies had been known to sacrifice humans and keep them as slaves(such as the Makah whaling tribe). Tribal peoples are humans too–meaning they are just as capable of being cruel, greedy or deceitful as any other ethnic division of the human species. By your argument how do we know that butchering each other and other species is not the way we are supposed to live–so why bother having police to curb our violent tendencies? If it is wrong for Makah whalers to enslave and exploit other humans, than its wrong for Northern trappers to enslave and exploit other animals.

c) Much of this idea has to do with the Appeal to Nature Fallacy. For some reason, some people think that living according to nature (whatever that might mean) is a good thing. An examination of that notion, isn’t conclusive (see Nature = Good?).

17.6 there are more (enter animal species) in the wild than before the white man arrived.

a) Unless you have access to a time machine, that statement is a little hard to verify with Stats Canada in the year 1600.

17.7 Animals that we trap and hunt die from disease and starvation in the wild.

a) Wow! Imagine that, things get sick and die! And here I thought Nature worked like a Disney cartoon!

b) Humans also die from the same causes–do you suggest we hunt and trap those poor unfortunates and turn them into coats (with fur designers and hunters getting the profits)?

c) James Boswell, trying to refute the arguments of abolitionists, writes in his Life of Johnson that, “To abolish a status which in all ages GOD has sanctioned, and man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects; but it would be extreme cruelty to the African Savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state of life; especially now when their passage to the West Indies and their treatment there is humanely regulated. To abolish that trade would be to shut the gates of mercy on mankind.” Boswell, J., Life of Johnson (N.Y.: Modern Library Edition, 1965) p. 365. (See Christians Organise Slave-Trade.)

17.8 A Northern trapper sees himself as the “caretaker of the land”

a) How utterly arrogant. Nature does not need managing, humans do. Other species were taking care of themselves long before humans arrived on the scene and they will get along just as well when humans go the way of the Dodo bird (exterminated I might add, by “caretaker” humans).

b) And white slave traders saw themselves as caretakers for the non-white non-christian races–so should we then forgive anyone for practicing human slavery?

a) A naked polar bear, Arctic wolf, seal, or whale is born with all the equipment he or she needs to survive. But a human, even of Inuit extraction, would perish in mere minutes if left naked on the ice flows of his or her so-called native habitat. If an Inuit is naturally meant to hunt whales, as is frequently claimed by defenders of exploitation industries that use First Nations communities for supplies or propaganda (i.e. whaling, sealing and trapping), then its factual validity can be tested by simply having one courageous Inuit hunter jump naked into the Arctic sea and try to bite a whale to death with only his teeth and bare hands. The result is easily predicted. Because the Inuit need tools to survive, and those tools are now chiefly provided by outside communities (i.e. the government of Canada, Smith & Wesson), then it would be hypocritical to suggest that the best long term, ethical solution to First Nations subsistence needs cannot be based on more compassionate aid from those very same communities, whether it be food aid or subsidized relocation to climates more suited to human beings.

b) When they are born with fur and blubber and claws instead of having to take it from other Arctic natives, then I will believe that are indigenous to the climate.

17.10 They cant move anywhere else! The Arctic is their home!

a) But not in the same way it is for seals, whales, bears or wolves.

b) Why is it that of all the native inhabitants of the Arctic, only the Inuit are not born with all the physical tools they need to survive? Until they are born with a thick hide of blubber and fur from their backs, I will say that a sub-zero temperature is not their natural environment.

17.11 The trappers use all the scraps of the animal, nothing is wasted.

a) Hitler also used all the scraps of his victims – is that a defense for what he did?

17.12 To criticize First Nations people(or Japanese Whalers or Bali turtle hunters) for hunting and fishing and trapping and whaling is just cultural imperialism (aka identity imperialism, racism etc.).

You are trying to impose your beliefs on others.” [Editor: this is a form of the Moral relativism argument – which states that one cannot judge the actions of one culture (or person) by the ethical standards of another.]

a) If one applied this moral relativistic belief consistently and fairly it would mean one could not condemn someone else for discrimination against other humans based upon their own cultural and ethical beliefs. People who practice bride burning or honor killings or child labor could say it is “cultural imperialism” for outsiders to criticize their actions.

b) Activities from spousal abuse to ritual murder to cannibalism have also been defended by bogus claims of racism or “Imperialism,” and this hasn’t nullified the ethical arguments against these practices;

c) Other species can also be said to suffer under unjust, discriminatory treatment, and every human ethnic group, including First nation ones, are capable of being the oppressors.

d) We are talking about life, not a lifestyle. When the issue involves the very real harm caused to others, ethical beliefs do apply, and it is certainly within reason to make judgments based upon those beliefs. Since no human society on Earth lives in a vacuum, and all have at least some connection to other cultures, and they all expect at least some moral consideration from each other, the charge of discrimination may be leveled against any one of them. The only way an Inuit hunter or Japanese whaler (or Michigan deer hunter for that matter) could use moral relativism as a defense, is if he holds no ethical belief (such as his own right to life) that he expects should be honored by anyone else (whether Inuit or not). That possibility is very very remote.

e) Actually the true cultural imperialism is when the Inuit or the Japanese or anyone else tries to impose their culture on whales or other animals by killing them when they do not need to.

f) Ethical systems are like language systems. There are many different languages, but they all have common elements that can be used to allow interpretation and communication between them (alphabets, rules of usage etc). Systems of moral belief also have underlying common elements (social contracts, belief in the value of one’s life, respect for family, friendship etc.). It is these basic concepts to all moral belief systems that are being used to cite unjust discriminatory behavior and conduct. Therefore, when one criticizes a culture for causing unnecessary harm to others (killing whales for food), it is not a matter of “judging one culture by the standards of another,” but using the basic moral “vocabulary” common in all cultures to make a judgment that the culture is not being consistent in its ethical philosophy if it says the value of Inuit/Japanese/Bali/German etc) life as a group is superior to that of non-Inuit/Japanese/etc life, without proving the superiority as an objective truth.

17.13 Do you eat bread? Nutritional yeast is alive. You are killing bacteria.

a) Thanks! I will switch to flatbreads tomorrow, but regardless, it doesn’t excuse you from supporting meat eating, the fur industry, animal research etc etc. How does that justify you supporting the meat industry, animal research, hunting etc? By your logic, any act of killing, necessary or not(right down to the microscopic level), negates any effort to to curb it. Therefore, since we cannot avoid killing microbes just by the act of living, we shouldn’t worry about muggings, murders, wars etc. If you say yes we can worry about them, then we can also worry about meat eating, hunting, and any other practice it is possible to stop.

b) Just because I am trying to live more ethically does not mean that I am perfect. One cannot avoid all killing in life. That is not to say that animal rights and veg*anism are pointless. If I accidentally kill a bug by stepping on it, that does not mean that I should give up the whole compassionate living thing altogether. Everyone should just do as much as they can manage to aspire towards a moral life. Eating meat, buying products tested on animals, etc, these are things that can be easily avoided and are direct links to mass cruelty.

c) I think I killed about a million microbes just from gasping at the stupidity of your argument. Man, I am worse than Hitler.

d) Yeast isn’t a sentient lifeform, unless you worry about bacteria. So I take it you don’t bath because you don’t want to kill millions of them?

17.14 If we don’t consider ourselves better than animals we will treat each other terribly.

a) So does that mean that if whites consider themselves superior to blacks then they would naturally treat whites better?

b) Tell that to Stalin and Hitler.

c) ANIMAL VICTIMS / HUMAN VICTIMS: REPORTS FROM POLICE CASE FILES Russell Weston Jr., tortured and killed 12 cats: burned and cut off their tails, paws, ears; poured toxic chemicals in their eyes to blind them; forced them to ingest poison, hung them from trees (the noose loose enough to create a slow and painful death.) Later killed 2 officers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Jeffery Dahmer staked cats to trees and decapitated dogs. Later he dissected boys, and kept their body parts in the refrigerator. Murdered 17 men. Kip Kinkle shot 25 classmates and killed several in Springfield, Oregon. He killed his father and mother. Said he blew up a cow once. Set a live cat on fire and dragged the innocent creature through the main street of town. Classmates rated him as “Most Likely to Start World War 3.” As a boy, Albert De Salvo, the “Boston Strangler,” placed a dog and cat in a crate with a partition between them. After starving the animals for days, he removed the partition to watch them kill each other. He raped and killed 13 women by strangulation. He often posed bodies in a shocking manner after their murders. Richard Allen Davis set numerous cats on fire. He killed all of Polly Klaus’ animals before abducting and murdering Polly Klaus, aged 12, from her bedroom. 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson tortured and killed dogs. On March 24, 1998, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Golden and Johnson shot and killed 4 students and 1 teacher during a fire drill at their school. After 16-year-old Luke Woodham mortally stabbed his mother, killed 2 classmates and shot 7 others, he confessed to bludgeoning his dog Sparkle with baseball bats and pouring liquid fuel down her throat and to set fire to her neck. “I made my first kill today,” he wrote in his court-subpoenaed journal. “It was a loved one … I’ll never forget the howl she made. It sounded almost human.” In June 1998, Woodham was found guilty of 3 murders and 7 counts of aggravated assault. He was sentenced to 3 life sentences and an additional 20 years for each assault. heodore Robert Bundy, executed in 1989 for at least 50 murders, was forced to witness a grandfather who tortured animals. Bundy later heaped graves with animal bones. At 4-years-old, ichael Cartier dislocated the legs of rabbits and hurled a kitten through a closed window. He later shot Kristin Lardner 3 times in the head, before shooting himself. Henry Lee Lucas killed numerous animals and had sex with their corpses. He killed his mother, common law wife, and an unknown number of people. Edward Kemperer cut up 2 cats. He later killed his grandparents, mother and 7 other women. Richard Speck threw a bird into a ventilator fan. Killed 8 women. Randy Roth taped a cat to a car’s engine and used an industrial sander on a frog. Killed 2 of his wives and attempted to kill a third. David Richard Davis shot and killed 2 healthy ponies, threw a wine bottle at a pair of kittens and hunted with illegal methods. Murdered his wife, Shannon Mohr Davis, for insurance money. Peter Kurten, the Dusseldorf Monster, tortured dogs, and practiced bestiality while killing animals. Murdered or attempted to murder over 50 men, women and children. Richard Trenton Chase, “The Vampire Killer of Sacramento,” bit the heads off birds, drained animals for their blood, killed animals for their organs, and later killed 6 people in random attacks. One police officer present at the scene of the first murder, confessed to having nightmares about the crime for months afterwards. The Kobe Killer, an as yet unnamed 15-year-old boy in Japan, beheaded a cat and strangled several pigeons, decapitated 11-year-old Jun Hase, and battered to death a 10-year-old girl with a hammer, and assaulted 3 other children in separate attacks. Richard William Leonard’s grandmother forced him to kill and mutilate cats and kittens when he was a child. He later killed Stephen Dempsey with a bow and arrow. He also killed Ezzedine Bahmad by slashing his throat. Tom Dillion murdered people’s pets. He shot and killed Jamie Paxton, aged 21; Claude Hawkins, aged 49; Donald Welling, aged 35; Kevin Loring, aged 30; and Gary Bradely, aged 44. David Berkowitz, “Son of Sam,” poisoned his mother’s parakeet out of jealousy. He later shot 13 young men and women. 6 people died and at least 2 suffered permanent disabilities. Arthur Shawcross repeatedly threw a kitten into a lake until the kitten drowned from exhaustion. Killed a young girl. After serving 15-1/2 years in prison, he killed 11 more women. Jason Massey’s killing resume began with cats and dogs; at 20 he decapitated and disemboweled a 13-year-old girl and fatally shot a 14-year old boy. He claims to have killed 37 cats, 29 dogs and 6 cows. Patrick Sherrill stole neighborhood pets, tethered them with baling wire and encouraged his dog to mutilate them. He killed 14 co-workers and himself in 1986. Keith Hunter Jesperson, “Happy Face Killer,” bashed gopher heads and beat, strangled and shot stray cats and dogs. He is known to have strangled 8 women. He said: “You’re actually squeezing the life out of these animals … Choking a human being or a cat – it’s the same feeling … I’m the very end result of what happens when somebody kills an animal at an early age.” Carroll Edward Cole, executed in 1985 for an alleged 35 murders and reputed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, confessed that his first act of violence was to strangle a puppy under the porch of his house. Michael Perry decapitated a neighbor’s dog. Later killed his parents, infant nephew and 2 neighbors. Robert Alton Harris murdered two 16-year-old boys, doused a neighbor with lighter fluid and tossed matches at him. His initial run-in with police was for killing neighborhood cats. At 9-years-old, Eric Smith strangled a neighbor’s cat. At 13, he bludgeoned 4-year-old Derrick Robie to death. Smith lured the little boy into the woods, choked him, sodomized him with a stick, then beat him to death with a rock

17.15 Wasn’t Hitler a vegetarian?

a) And Al Capone started the first soup kitchens in Chicago. I guess anyone who supports helping the homeless is a gangster?

b) The testimony of Hitler’s personal cook in Hamburg during the late 1930s - Dione Lucas. In her “Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook,” she records that his favorite dish - the one that he customarily requested - was stuffed squab (pigeon). “I do not mean to spoil your appetite for stuffed squab, but you might be interested to know that it was a great favorite with Mr. Hitler, who dined in the hotel often.” (Also see: ivu-hitler, Hitler was not a vegetarian.)

c) So was Gandhi – does that make him a war monger and mass murderer?

d) They say Osama Bin Laden liked hunting. So did Timothy McVeigh. So by your logic, every hunter is a terrorist!

e) “Otto D. Tolischus in 1937 in The New York Times pointed out that the Führer was a vegetarian who ‘does not drink or smoke’ but who also ‘occasionally relishes a slice of ham’ along with delicacies such as caviar and chocolates.” (Ibid.) Robert Proctor calls Hitler a vegetarian “of sorts” (The Nazi War on Cancer, p. 134) and is content to state that Hitler was a vegetarian who “occasionally would allow himself a dish of meat,” (p. 135) and quotes The New York Times as stating that in addition to ham and caviar Hitler also occasionally ate squab.”

f)His cook, an enormously fat man named Willy Kannenberg, produced exquisite meals and acted as court jester. Although Hitler had no fondness for meat except in the form of sausages and never ate fish, he enjoyed caviar. (The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler Praeger, 1973 p. 346)

g) Hitler’s reputation for being a vegetarian seems to consist solely of his not having eaten red meat. The effort to describe Hitler’s eating habits as vegetarian requires changing the definition of “vegetarian” to exclude liver, ham, and sausages from the list of meats, and changing the definition of “animal” to exclude pigs. Hitler did exhibit a sympathy with a vegetarian diet, but paradoxically, vegetarians and the vegetarian movement in Nazi Germany were persecuted. Vegetarian societies were restrained, subject to raids, and “books that contained vegetarian recipes were confiscated by the Gestapo.” Janet Barkas has a good account of this period in German history in her book, The Vegetable Passion. German vegetarian societies were forced to leave the International Vegetarian Union; they were prohibited from organizing and from publishing material, but individuals were not molested and “could exchange their credit notes for meat for dairy products. About 83,000 vegetarians participated in this program.” (See All-Creatures.)

h) Hitler and Animals. Like many of his fellow human beings, Adolf Hitler used animal epithets to vilify other people. He often called his opponents “swine” and “dirty dogs.” The Bolsheviks were “animals,” and the Russians a “bestial people” and Slavic “rabbit-family” whom Stalin had molded into a totalitarian state. After Hitler conquered Russia, he wanted “the ridiculous hundred million Slavs” to live in “pig-pens.” He called British diplomats “little worms,” and, as for the “half-Judaized, half-Negrified” people of America, they “have the brains of a hen.” Hitler had contempt for his own people, referring to them as “the great stupid mutton-herd of our sheep-like people,” and when the defeats mounted late in the war, he blamed them for not having risen to the challenge. Hitler called his own sisters “stupid geese.” Whatever deficiencies members of the Germanic Volk might possess, however, Hitler believed the Aryan/Nordic race was infinitely superior to the surrounding sea of sub-human “monstrosities between man and ape,” as he made clear in a speech in Munich in 1927: “We see before us the Aryan race which is manifestly the bearer of all culture, the true representative of all humanity….Our entire industrial science is without exception the work of Nordics. All great composers from Beethoven to Richard Wagner are Aryans….Man owes everything that is of any importance to the principle of struggle and to one race which has carried itself forward successfully. Take away the Nordic Germans and nothing remains but the dance of apes.” Charles Patterson.

i) Hitler was fond of dogs, especially German shepherds (he considered boxers “degenerate”), whom he liked to control and dominate. At the front during World War I, he befriended a white terrier, Fuchsl (Foxl), who had strayed across enemy lines. Later, when his unit had to move on and Fuchsl could not be found, Hitler became distraught. “I liked him so much,” he recalled. “He only obeyed me.” Hitler often carried a dogwhip and sometimes used it to beat his dog the same way he had seen his father beat his own dog. In the Fuhrer headquarters during World War II, Hitler’s German shepherd, Blondi, offered him the closest thing he had to friendship. “But with his dogs, as with every human being he came into contact with,” writes his biographer Ian Kershaw, “any relationship was based upon subordination to his mastery.”

j) The reputed fondness of Hitler and other top Nazis for animals, especially their dogs, has been put into perspective by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. For certain authoritarian personalities, they write, their “love of animals” is part of the way they intimidate others. When industrial magnates and Fascist leaders want to have pets around them, Horkheimer and Adorno maintain, their choice falls on intimidating animals such as Great Danes and lion cubs, which are intended to add to their power through the terror they inspire. “The murderous Fascist colossus stands so blindly before nature that he sees animals only as a means of humiliating men,” they write. “The Fascist’s passionate interest in animals, nature, and children is rooted in the lust to persecute.” While with their hand they might negligently stroke a child’s head, or an animal’s back, that same hand could just as easily destroy them. “The petting demonstrates that all are equal in the presence of power, that none is a being in its own right. A creature is merely material for the master’s bloody purposes.”

k) It is alleged that the Nazis revered or admired animals. Hitler’s nickname, “Wolf” is adduced as evidence for this. The Nazi interest in animals was part of their adaptation of social Darwinism to racial policies: they were fond of powerful animals, not animals they perceived as weak. Hitler’s nickname, “Wolf” is a good example. He didn’t call himself “rabbit,” or “deer.” As Kenneth Clarke points out in The History of Animals in Art human behavior towards animals is extremely paradoxical. Human beings can be fond of animals and cruel towards them. Admiration for animals often accompanies cruelty towards them. A hunter loves his hunting dog. Lion hunters admire the lion. Some Medieval barons had bears inscribed on their escutcheons, yet hunted them and tortured them, sometimes blinding them for entertainment and bear fights.

l) This is a silly effort to discredit vegetarianism by association. In fact, it is a logical fallacy known as Guilt by Association.

17.16 Other animals are sadistic too.

They will torture a mouse and know they are torturing it.

Response a) Not according to Mark Twain: “Of all the creatures that were made, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one–the solitary one–that possesses malice. That is the basest of all instincts, passions, vices–the most hateful. He is the only creature that has pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. Also–in all the list he is the only creature that has a nasty mind.- Mark Twain’s Autobiography; and: “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is a trait that is not known to the higher animals.” (The Lowest Animal)

b) You say a cat knows that a mouse feels pain, that a cat knows what a mouse is feeling, and then deliberately tortures the mouse, just as we know for fact, humans such as researchers, are capable of doing (the fact that researchers will name lab animals “goner” or three animals with broken spines “snap, crackle and pop” demonstrates this). When you see cats or weasals do the same, or gather to watch other cats torture mice as a spectator sport, just as humans do in bullrings and rodeos, and in the Roman Coliseum, then you will convince me. Until then, keep fantasizing.

c) You are trying to project all the negative qualities of humans onto nonhumans, but you miss something. Only humans are capable of slander. Only a human can accuse an innocent of doing that which it does itself.

d) Humans are also capable of torturing others via language. Insults, lies etc. Can other species do that?

e) There is zero evidence that other species, unlike humans, are aware that they are causing members of other species to suffer. Do cats or weasals set up arenas or stadiums in the wild or back alleys where they sit around as other cats and weasals torture mice? Do they roll on their backs in apparent glee as they watch a mouse screaming–as humans have been known to find pleasure and amusement from watching others–human or not–suffer? For a cat to be aware that a mouse suffers, and then to derive pleasure from its suffering, would be to project very human characteristics onto the cat. And remember that there is one advantage that humans have over nonhumans in their capacity for cruelty. Only humans are capable of mental torment. Using language to tease and torture others.

17.17 Do you eat meat?/What are your shoes made of?

a) The issue of meat eating and/or animal by-products is a valid and important issue in animal rights, but it does not have anything to do with the moral and ethical problems of animal research. The fact that an animal activist making a pro-animal rights/compassion argument may be inconsistent in those ways does not in any way detract or invalidate the argument on animal research. It is a separate issue.

b) If South Africa was being criticized by the United States for their treatment of blacks, and the South African government responded by pointing out the United States’ poor treatment of tribal communities within their own country, would this mean that the treatment of blacks by South Africa was morally defensible? Of course not. It would just mean that there are other issues that need to be addressed APART FROM the treatment of blacks by South Africa.

17.18 Well you are entitled to your opinion but I am entitled to mine.

and I say … FILL IN BLANK

a) Everyone is entitled to an opinion (although some are more able to express one publicly than others) but if the opinion involves causing harm to others, there is usually a generally accepted restriction on ACTING upon such opinions. I.e. “I think Christians like me are superior to non-christians, therefore we should be able to enslave non believers.” If it is wrong for white supremacists, christian supremacists, anti-gays, male chauvinists, etc to act upon their opinion, thus it should be the same for ALL forms of unfair discrimination–including willful discrimination against animals.

b) Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”

17.19 Mind your own business.

a) I’ll mind my own business when you let other species mind their own business.

b) If “mind your own business” wasn’t an acceptable defense from a negro slave trader or a Nazi camp guard it isn’t an acceptable defense from you either.

c) This is actually a self-annihilating imperative, since the issuer is not minding his/her own business by telling you to mind yours.

17.20 Who says you have a right to tell us what to do?

a) Who says you have a right to tell other species what to do?

b) Because, if we have a right to tell a wife beater, child abuser, Nazi or negro slave trader what to do then we have a right to tell you what to do also.

c) Again a self-annihilating effort, since we could question whether the issuer has a right to tell us what to do.

17.21 You are never going to stop …

Insert animal-environmental cause or convince people that some action is wrong.

a) We may never eradicate homicide, child abuse, spousal abuse, theft, etc. so I guess by your logic we shouldn’t even try.

17.22 Why are you Vegan?

a) Everyone is! Just some people add animal products to their diet.

b) Everything is! Just some foods have animal products added.

c) I was training my dog not to beg and got used to the diet.

d) Because god told me.

e) Because I ate part of my best friend once and that kind of put me off.

f) Why AREN’T you????

g) because I find it terrible to have thoughts of eating muscles cut from my friends’ dead bodies, and disgusting to stuff one’s face with decaying animal remains.

h) Because you aren’t.

i) Socrates, Pythagoros, Leonardo Da Vinci, H.G. Wells, Dr. Spock, Mister Spock, Einstein … either they were ones or endorsed the concept, since genius and vegetarianism seem to go together so well, I thought somebody better keep the tradition alive!

j) I don’t feel like its in my nature to kill animals for food because I know that I couldn’t kill an animal and eat it. It doesn’t seem fair to pay a corporation to take care of if for me.

17.23 How can you compare the Holocaust to the treatment of animals in farms and labs?

It is an insult to the memory of those who died in the camps to use the word in reference to animals.

a) The word “holocaust” originates in reference to the sacrifice of a male animal in Biblical times, thus, if it is fitting for humans to change its meaning to highlight a mass slaughter committed against humans, then certainly it is fair and just to use the word in reference to the slaughter of the subjects in its original meaning.

b) Groups and individuals who discuss the Nazi Holocaust often refer to “cattle cars” and comparing Auschwitz victims to “lab animals,” therefore they themselves are acknowledging that nonhuman animals are treated in horrible and atrocious ways–the proof is that they use them as examples of how not to be treated!

c) If anything, it is an insult to the billions of nonhuman animals that have been slaughtered, since their victims far outnumber that of any human tragedy. And unlike humans, the victims of animal holocausts are incapable of ever being the victimizers. Not true of Jews, Armenians, Cambodians, etc.

d) Who says humans have a monopoly on suffering and injustice?

e) To think it is an insult is to demonstrate the same sort of arrogant supremacy mindset that the Nazis showed, valuing the suffering of some over others.

Archlinux

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 01:33:12 -0800

This is our distribution of choice for many years! It works well, uses a rolling release update and has an very helpful community!

You’ve reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

Currently we have official packages optimized for the x86-64 architecture. We complement our official package sets with a community-operated package repository that grows in size and quality each and every day.

Our strong community is diverse and helpful, and we pride ourselves on the range of skillsets and uses for Arch that stem from it. Please check out our forums and mailing lists to get your feet wet. Also glance through our wiki if you want to learn more about Arch.

Go to archlinux.org

Disruptive Technologies

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 19:51:46 -0800

We present various aspects of technology that will disrupt the status quo. Last Updated: <2022-02-28 Mon>

Introduction

This is the disruptive technology (distec) collection that we have been investigating since the end of March 2021.

We came across distec after a presentation on Beyond Animal by James Arbib of Rethinkx and were very impressed not only by the concept, but also by what is inevitably on the way. One of the main benefits of distec is to annihilate existing industries that are detrimental to lifeforms and environment. Many of the presenters in the videos section talk not only about the technology, but also about the importance of the ethical result.

We have long maintained that the achievement of animal rights (which is the fundamental ethic that present day science can determine via sentience criteria), will occur as a result of two forces, legal and business. The latter is happening through distec.

This page will be updated as we study this venture and examine investment opportunities.

RethinkX

“RethinkX is an independent think tank that analyzes and forecasts the speed and scale of technology-driven disruption and its implications across society. We produce impartial, data-driven analyses that identify pivotal choices to be made by investors, business, policy and civic leaders.”

their mission is to “facilitate a robust global conversation about the threats and opportunities of technology-driven disruptions, and highlight choices that could lead to a more equitable, healthy, resilient and stable society.”

the site is primarily sectioned into

About

About rethinkx

an independent think tank that analyzes and forecasts the speed and scale of technology-driven disruption and its implications across society

Meet the team

Tony Seba, Founder is a world-renowned thought leader, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, educator and author
James Arbib, Founder is a London-based investor in technology
Uzair Niazi, Founding Director has over 20 years of high-tech industry experience leading product development teams across the globe
Adam Dorr, Research Fellow is an environmental social scientist and technology theorist
Bradd Libby, Research Fellow responsible for our complex systems analysis and modelling
Taylor Hinds, Research Associate provides support on various projects, with a special focus on disruption within the agriculture sector
Richard Anderson, Editorial Adviser a journalist and editor for more than 20 years

Getting it right

The Seba Technology Disruption Framework takes a systems approach to analyze the market forces triggered by technology convergence, business model innovation, product innovation, and exponential improvements in both cost and capabilities. It captures the complex processes that drive a pattern of rapid, non- linear change.

Blog

The Impact of Covid-19 on Food – Part 1: The Collapse of the Old
The Impact of Covid-19 on Food – Part 2: The Rise of the New
The power of disruption: Winners take it all
Precision fermentation is nothing new and it’s here to stay
Precision Fermentation: What exactly is it?
Precision Fermentation and the Disruption of the Palm Oil Industry
Take a Byte! Food-as-Software
Precision Regulation – Policy as a key shaper of the new food system
The Social License
Why would you build a million-mile car?
and more …

Reports

LCOE levelized cost of electricity

is a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a plant over its lifetime
represents the average revenue per unit of electricity generated that would be required to recover the costs of building and operating a generating plant during an assumed financial life and duty cycle

LCOE is (sum of costs) / (sum of energy produced) calculated as follows:

$$ LCOE = \frac {\sum_{t=1}^{n} \frac{I_t+M_t+F_t}{(1+r)^t}} {\sum_{t=1}^{n} \frac{E_t}{(1+r)^t}} $$

Symbol	Explanation
$@I_t$@	investment expenditures in the year t
$@M_t$@	operations and maintenance expenditures in the year t
$@F_t$@	fuel expenditures in the year t
$@E_t$@	electrical energy generated in the year t
$@r$@	discount rate
$@n$@	expected lifetime of system or power station

The Great Stranding

How Inaccurate Mainstream LCOE Estimates are Creating a Trillion-Dollar Bubble in Conventional Energy Assets.

Executive Summary

A large and rapidly-expanding global financial bubble now exists around conventional coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro power energy assets. This bubble has in part been created by mainstream energy analyses that have, for the last decade, significantly underestimated the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from conventional power plants because they assume these plants will be able to successfully sell the same quantity of electricity each year from now through 2040 and beyond. This assumption has been false for at least ten years.
- rates at which conventional power plants are utilized will continue to decrease
- conventional energy asset valuations are heavily overstated
- critical error: they assume high and constant capacity factor for 20y lifetime
- sources that commit this error include …
- capacity factor in conventional energy has been dropping since at least 2010
- false assumptions have made conventional energy assets appear more attractive than they actually are
- financial bubble is investment in an asset class above what the fundamental value can return
- SWB will drive capacity factor of coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro power plants toward zero
Our analysis has a number of important implications for energy and finance, as well as for society and the environment at large.
Rethinking LCOE through lens of disruption

Underestimation of coal, gas, and nuclear power plant LCOE strongly biases cost comparisons with SWB and other technologies in favor of these incumbents … calculation of LCOE itself presumes that a power plant will obtain sufficient revenues and cashflows to cover costs

In competitive markets, neither the assumption that capacity factor will remain high and constant nor the assumption that electricity can be successfully sold at higher prices holds true.
- coal
  - size of the coal fleet has shrunk dramatically over the last decade in both the United States (47% decline) and the United Kingdom (79% decline)
  - there’s not a single regulated coal power plant that is competitive in the U.S. today
  - historical data show high and constant capacity factor has been invalid for over a decade
  - coal index fell 99% since 2011 and was discontinued by S&P Global
  - coal cost/kwh forecast are unfeasible compared to SWB
  - corrected LCOE for coal power is far higher than reported
  - by 2030, the LCOE of a new coal power plant is nearly 9 times greater than the U.S. EIA Reference Case assumption
- gas
  - U.S. EIA has assumed a constant capacity factor of 87% for the entire 20-year technical life of new gas power plants causing LCOE to be artificially lowered
  - corrected LCOE of new builds rises as average capacity factor continues to decline
- nuclear
  - LCOE of nuclear is much higher than mainstream analysts claim, when costs such as decommissioning and full insurance costs are accounted
  - nuclear power plants entering service in 2020 have an LCOE of 22.5 cents per kilowatt-hour – 175% greater the U.S. EIA’s current estimate of 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour
- hydro
  - analysts assume a constant capacity factor throughout the lifetime of any newly-built facility
  - corrected LCOE of a new hydro power plant is nearly 10 times greater than the U.S. EIA Reference Case assumption
all scenarios presented are for illustrative purposes, but more realistic outcomes is full disruption to collapse … so it’s gonna be worse than it looks!
Implications

analysis has a number of important implications for energy and finance, as well as for society and the environment at large:
- Conventional energy assets are severely mispriced due to false assumptions, creating a bubble
- Coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro power are no longer competitive, SWB will capture increasing share
- Solar and wind power reached cost parity and became cheaper sooner than expected (1/20th)
- SWB disruption will proceed faster than expected
- Coal and gas power plants with integrated CCS are overvalued creating false narratives
- Governments must protect people, not industries, from the financial risk
- Carbon neutrality can be achieved more quickly and cheaply than generally expected
serious choices to make knowing the above implications.
Choices

leaders should choose to reject conventional dogma and instead demand that all energy assets – from plants and refineries to pipelines and ports – adopt a dynamic and transparent LCOE model that more realistically reflects current as well as likely future market conditions and risks based on the reality of the SWB disruption.
- dynamic LCOE choices:
  - use a dynamic LCOE model in their cash flow calculations
  - assume new power plants begin operation with only the market capacity factor
  - power plant operational lifetimes should also reflect the disruption by SWB
  - accounting authorities should allow for faster depreciation schedules
- market LCOE choices:
  - Demand analysts calculate LCOE on the basis of realistic assumptions for capacity factor
  - Demand that conventional energy promoters calculate LCOE by realistic assumptions
  - Review asset valuations of existing holdings of conventional energy assets realistically
  - Lend to conventional energy asset owners on the basis of realistic LCOE calculations
  - Valuation of supply chain assets should take into account a realistic demand model
  - Government regulators should not enlist ratepayers to subsidize
  - Utilities be obligated to use shareholder capital in any new conventional energy investment
- savings LCOE choices:
  - Financial institutions should not use the public money to invest in conventional energy assets
  - Asset managers should not invest in conventional energy assets or their supply chains
  - Market openness/transparency/liquidity should be requisite conditions for pension investment
  - asset managers should not lend to conventional energy asset owners
not adopting the above choices could lead to disruption of societal existence as severe as the disruption awaiting conventional industries.
Death Spiral

The disruption of the electric power sector by solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) during the 2020s will unfold much more rapidly than mainstream forecasts.

SWB will enjoy a virtuous cycle of accelerating adoption while incumbent technologies enter a death spiral.

the virtuous cycle for SWB
- falling costs, which increases demand
- demand drives industry growth, attracts investment, increases government support, leading to an expansion of supply
- supply expansion improves capabilities, lower costs further, increases acceptance and more demand
new technologies also bring social and environmental benefits over a conventional coal, gas, and nuclear technologies.

the vicious cycle for conventional
- falling demand as they are progressively outcompeted by SWB
- less demand means less revenue, profit, investment, government support, and therefore less supply
- supply reduction result in rising costs and downward demand
The virtuous cycle enjoyed by SWB and the vicious cycle suffered by coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro power will feed into each other, because falling demand for the old and growing demand for the new serve to accelerate one another.

Rethinking Energy 2020-2030

100% Solar, Wind, and Batteries is Just the Beginning.

We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century. Like most disruptions, this one is being driven by the convergence of several key technologies whose costs and capabilities have been improving on consistent and predictable trajectories – namely, solar photovoltaic power, wind power, and lithium-ion battery energy storage. Our analysis shows that 100% clean electricity from the combination of solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) is both physically possible and economically affordable across the entire continental United States as well as the overwhelming majority of other populated regions of the world by 2030. Adoption of SWB is growing exponentially worldwide and disruption is now inevitable because by 2030 they will offer the cheapest electricity option for most regions. Coal, gas, and nuclear power assets will become stranded during the 2020s, and no new investment in these technologies is rational from this point forward.

Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030

The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of Industrial Livestock Farming.

By 2030, the number of cows in the U.S. will have fallen by 50% and the cattle farming industry will be all but bankrupt. All other livestock industries will suffer a similar fate, while the knock-on effects for crop farmers and businesses throughout the value chain will be severe. Rethinking Food and Agriculture shows how the modern food disruption, made possible by rapid advances in precision biology and an entirely new model of production we call Food-as-Software, will have profound implications not just for the industrial agriculture industry, but for the wider economy, society, and the environment.

Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030

The Disruption of Transportation and the Collapse of the Internal-Combustion Vehicle and Oil Industries.

By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), 95 percent of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model we call “transport-as-a-service” (TaaS). Rethinking Transportation shows how TaaS disruption will have enormous implications across the transportation and oil industries, decimating entire portions of their value chains, causing oil demand and prices to plummet, and destroying trillions in investor value — but also creating trillions in new business opportunities, consumer surplus and GDP growth.

Rethinking Humanity

During the 2020s, key technologies will converge to completely disrupt the five foundational sectors that underpin the global economy, and with them every major industry in the world today.

In information, energy, food, transportation, and materials, costs will fall by a 10x or more, while production processes an order of magnitude more efficient will use 90% fewer natural resources with 10x-100x less waste. The knock-on effects for society will be as profound as the extraordinary possibilities that emerge. For the first time in history, we could overcome poverty easily. Access to all our basic needs could become a fundamental human right. But this is just one future outcome. The alternative could see our civilization collapse into a new dark age. Which path we take depends on the choices we make, starting today. The stakes could not be higher.

Seba Technology Disruption Framework

RethinkX uses the Seba Technology Disruption Framework™ to help analyze and model the disruptions we study.

Developed by Tony Seba, this framework is the result of more than a dozen years of research and teaching on technology disruptions, business model innovation, finance and strategic marketing of high-tech products and innovations at Stanford Continuing Studies, and has been used to understand and anticipate disruptions in several industries.

notes:

illustrates the framework mechanism through diagrams
convergence of technologies -> exponential growth -> disruption

Resources

Guidance for Decision Makers and Investors

this is the action plan from rethink humanity

Policy Makers

a policy factsheet for autonomous, electric, on-demand vehicles
a policy primer for the coming transportation disruption

Businesses and Investors

factsheet on autonomous vehicles and end of individual car ownership
business and investor primer for coming transportation disruption

Videos

Various videos on youtube some of which relate to the reports.

Rethinking Energy 2020-2030: 100% Solar, Wind, and Batteries is Just the Beginning

The Great Stranding: How Inaccurate Mainstream LCOE Estimates are Creating a Trillion-Dollar Bubble

Rethinking Humanity: An extraordinary interview with American futurist Tony Seba of RethinkX

Spread The Sun A New Era: featuring Tony Seba RethinkX; Frédéric Storck CNR; Anis Jouni CEA-INES

The Great Collapse: Are YOU Prepared? Investing in Disruption Starts With Understanding It

Ark-Invest

Investment Solutions

area	arkF	arkG	arkK	arkQ	arkW	arkX	TOTALS
3D Printing			1	1		1	3
Aerial Drones				1		1	2
Ag Bio		1					1
Artificial Intelligence	1		1		1		3
Autonomous Technology				1	1		2
Autonomous Vehicles			1	1			2
Biotech		1					1
Cloud Computing					1		1
DNA Sequencing		1	1				2
Digital Media					1		1
Digital Wallets	1						1
ECommerce	1						1
Enabling Technology						1	1
Fintech	1		1				2
Gene Editing		1					1
Gene Therapy		1					1
IoT					1		1
Lending	1						1
MaaS				1			1
Mobile Payments	1				1		2
Molecular Diagnostics		1					1
Orbital(sub) Aerospace						2	2
Reusable Rockets						1	1
Risk Transformation	1						1
Robotics			1	1			2
Targeted Therapeutics		1					1

By Product Type

Why Innovation

Invest In The Future Today

Innovation should displace industry incumbents, increase efficiencies, and gain majority market share.
Innovation Must Meet Three Criteria
- Experience dramatic cost declines and unleash waves of incremental demand (wright’s law: $Y = a X^b$)
- Cut across sectors and geographies
- Serve as a platform for additional innovations
Major Innovation Platforms
- Artificial Intelligence
- Energy Storage
- Robotics
- DNA Sequencing
- Blockchain Technology

Take Advantage of Four Market Inefficiencies

The Market’s Short-Term Time Horizon
- long flat adoption curves
- performance declines before mass market acceptance
- accelerated growth results in winner take all
The Silo-ization of Wall Street
- cross-sector disruptive innovation themes to capitalize on the convergence of research
The Passive Public Markets
- innovative public companies with forward looking growth are most inefficiently priced part of market
The Closed-Off Research and Investment Mentality
- an Open Research Ecosystem that combines top-down and bottom-up research
thematic investment process
- top-down bottom-up
  1. insights between the portfolio manager, director of research, analysts, external sources
  2. analysts are organized by cross-sector innovation themes
  3. identify entry points for tech-enabled disruption
  4. creates investment briefs and valuation models
  5. proprietary scoring system to evaluate stocks
  6. company scores are discussed weekly
- scoring metrics
  1. company people culture
  2. execution
  3. moat
  4. product leadership
  5. valuation
  6. thesis risk

Make The World A Better Place

sustainable investing
sdg
how?
1. Next Generation Internet
2. DNA Sequencing
3. Fintech
4. Robotics & Autonomous Technology

About ARK

The ARK Difference

invest at the pace of innovation
1. Sole Focus on Disruptive Innovation
2. Experienced Investment Leadership
3. Thematic Analysts Organized by Innovation
4. Transparent and Open Research Ecosystem
5. Long-Term Investment Time Horizon

Investment Process

A. top-down

Ideation examines from the top-down how the world is changing and where it is headed
Sizing The Opportunity models cost-curves and calculates elasticity of demand to identify entry points

bottom-up
1. Stock Selection And Valuation valuation and revenue model for each company in the portfolio over the next five years
2. Portfolio And Risk Management monitors the underlying investment thesis of every company weekly
open research ecosystem collaborate within particular themes, as well as across themes
incorporates Sustainability Intrinsically investment philosophy and process inherently considers ESG principles that align with SDG

Our Team

Work at ARK

Press & Media

Board of Directors

Corporate Responsibility

ARK believes that innovation is key to growth and will make the world a better place. We seek to invest in companies aligned with this belief, but also to operate our own company in a way that enhances society. To succeed in this mission, ARK implements responsible corporate governance, fosters a diverse and inclusive workforce, and gives back to organizations that we believe are promoting good health and well-being, quality education, and gender equality.

ARK Swag Store

FAQ

Active Research Management
ARK researches across sectors, industries, and markets to gain a deeper understanding of the convergence and market potential of disruptive innovations.
ARK’s Open Research Ecosystem seeks to capitalize on rapid change through an open approach and the convergence of insights.
ARK actively engages with Theme Developers as part of our research ecosystem.
Thematic investing seeks to capitalize on long-term trends that cut across economic sectors and geographic boundaries.
While benchmarks reflect past successes, thematic investing seeks to capture future growth allowing investors to earn a market premium.
We research and invest in a wide range of companies, from mega caps to micro caps that we believe are going to contribute to and benefit from the rapidly changing market landscape.
ARK’s cross-sector portfolios aim to uncover disruptive innovation that impacts multiple industries.
As a result of extensive and iterative research steps, ARK anticipates and quantifies multi-year value-chain transformations and market opportunities.
ARK will sell a company if it believes that a disruptor has become disrupted itself, or that it is no longer on the leading edge of fast-moving industries or innovation.
In fast-moving themes, like those of our strategies, volatility is the foundation of opportunity and potentially higher returns.
ARK believes the companies it invests in will be prominent in such indices over a full market cycle
recognize the misunderstood nature of many companies’ fundamentals and look to identify companies that are leaders rather than the largest market capitalization company in a passive index
If a stock’s share price has fallen in the market due to short-term controversy, ARK tends to increase its position (providing the thesis is unchanged). If a stock is overhyped, ARK will trim the position to take profits.
ARK suggests a long-term investment horizon of a full investment cycle, or 7+ years.
artificial intelligence, DNA sequencing, robotics, energy storage, and blockchain technology are the innovation platforms leading the global economy into what could be the most transformative period in history

Research Center

Videos

Big Ideas 2022: Summit

Big Ideas 2021: Cathie Wood and Brett Winton

Ark Invest Big Ideas 2021: Cathie Wood Explains (Full Interview)

ARK: The five platforms of disruptive innovation (an excellent Cathie Wood interview)

Ticker Symbol: YOU

An exceptionally good channel by applied math grad Alex! He follows and explains the Ark-Invest moves which can help in making trading decisions.

Nanalyze

A website with articles on a wide range of disruptive technology topics and a focus on investing.

Some articles of administrative interest:

Investing in Emerging and Disruptive Technologies provides an indication of what to expect on the site
The Nanalyze Disruptive Tech Investing Methodology explains their picking process
Calculating Our Nanalyze Tech Stock Portfolio Performance shows their results from 1998 at 480%

Below are specific areas of investment (found in the disruptive technologies dropdown menu) that are of interest to us:

3D Printing

What is 3D Printing?

the construction of three-dimensional objects from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models or other digital 3D design models

3D Printing Materials and Technology
- plastics, metals, ceramics, concrete, paper, and even certain kinds of foodstuffs
- stereolithography (SLA), Material jetting, powder bed fusion
3D Printing Metals
- many ways to go about 3D printing metal (eg joule printing)

The Industrial 3D Printer

focus areas have emerged in various industries

Healthcare

3D Printing and Dentistry
- straighten teeth at home
3D Printing Medical Devices
- instrumentation, implants, prostheses, drug delivery
3D Bioprinting
- print organs on demand

Manufacturing

largely found its place in prototyping for aerospace, shoes, eyeware, alternative proteins

On-Demand Manufacturing
- additive and subtractive for custom parts
3D Printing and Distributed Manufacturing
- printers are connected into a giant network

Buyer Beware

ignore the glossy investor decks and dig into the SEC filings to find all the broken promises made over the years
When 3D printing hit peak popularity in the investment community, the over-the-counter roaches started coming out of the woodwork

3D Printing Penny Stocks
- everyone should know to stay far clear of all over-the-counter (OTC) stocks and penny stocks
3D Printing Stocks That Need Revenues
- Perhaps some of the most blatant incompetency was seen on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. While companies like Formlabs ran successful crowdfunding campaigns to pre-sell their printers, most projects over-promised and under-delivered.

3D Printing Startups

Venture capitalists have been pouring money into 3D printing startups

Three 3D Printing Unicorns
- the most exciting are the mythical unicorns
- value based on a variety of factors, rarity being one

3D Printing Stocks and ETFs

there is no designated industry classification for 3D printing stocks
investigate each company that claims to be involved in 3D printing to make sure they’re not a 3D printing pretender
If you invested in 3D printing stocks at peak hype, you would have lost a lot of money

Artificial Intelligence

artificial intelligence is an emerging technology with the potential to transform every company in every industry in just about every way you can imagine

What is Artificial Intelligence?

see An Artificial Intelligence Definition for Beginners

AI Chips
- specialized chips uses to train machine algorithms (training chips) and then the chips they run on in production (inference chips)
- industry is now moving towards chips that are highly customized with software that’s been optimized for specific tasks
Not Everything is Artificial Intelligence
- these stocks have come down to earth making everyone realize not everything is artificial intelligence
- even if you are using artificial intelligence, your company can still underperform the stock market
Artificial Intelligence and Transparency
- they’ve now decided that artificial intelligence tells the truth too much, and should be silenced
- kowtow to their demands under the guise of representing some class of people
- Always look at what’s motivating people who call for AI transparency

How Does Artificial Intelligence Use Big Data?

What proprietary data sets are you using to train your algorithms with such that you’ll be able to realize a competitive advantage?

Big Data vs. Data Warehouses
- big data lets us find “the unknown unknowns” things we didn’t even think of to start measuring
Unstructured Data and Data Privacy
- Everything that gets publicly posted on the Internet, anywhere, is unstructured data that’s probably being used right now by AI algorithms to glean some insights from.

Examples of Artificial Intelligence Use Cases

over 3,500 startups using artificial intelligence to do just about anything you can think of
Many artificial intelligence startups are seeing success by targeting large industry verticals

AI in Sales and Marketing
- you’re selling online or from a brick-and-mortar outlet, there are many ways AI can help
AI in Human Resources
- not big fans of human resources (HR) because they largely get in the way while trying to create more work for everyone
AI for Recruiting
- we speculated that competent tech startups will start to deliver effective AI solutions, and all these “boutique” recruitment firms (where the only qualification to start one is that you can fog a mirror) will start to lose out on all those exorbitant recruiting fees they were raking in to find tech people
- Any business that proposes we change this model and start rewarding people based on anything but competence needs to be condemned from the highest pulpit
AI for Cybersecurity
- cybersecurity is a high-growth sector which investors are pouring money into. That’s because hackers – 90% of whom are financially motivated – are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their attacks.
- AI is being used in many creative ways to thwart cybercrime. Speaking of creativity, AI can do that too.
AI Algorithms Get Artistic
- also being used for more creative applications
AI for Everything
- decided to deep dive into a few domains where artificial intelligence is excelling right now at solving big problems

Natural Language Processing and Speech Recognition

methods which AI algorithms use to understand human speech in written, verbal, and non-verbal forms
natural language processing includes everything from algorithms that write news articles to interpreting sign language for the deaf using computer vision
Investing in Natural Language Processing

Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare

industry which is being transformed the most by artificial intelligence right now is healthcare
Investing in AI Healthcare Companies and Stocks

Artificial Intelligence for Computer Vision

a field of research for designing machines with the ability to process, understand, and use visual data just as humans do (dominated by large chinese startups)
Investing in Computer Vision Companies and Stocks

Global Artificial Intelligence

there’s a global AI race taking place where every country is competing to build the best AI algorithms
The Global AI Race – Top AI Startups Around the World

Will AI Replace My Job?

probably

Robotic Process Automation or RPA
- robotic process automation (RPA) is when we teach machine learning algorithms how to do white-collar jobs that have a certain element of predictability to them

Investing in AI Stocks

The best question to ask a company that claims they’re “doing AI” is what proprietary datasets do they have to train their algorithms that nobody else has?
How to Invest in AI Stocks in 2021

Augmented and Virtual Reality

the promise of merging the digital with the real world in different aspects of our lives is a long way off from materializing
relative immaturity of the market means there are fewer opportunities for the retail investor

What is the Difference Between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality?

Virtual reality is a completely digital environment that you are immersed in.
Augmented reality is where your view of reality is “augmented” with digital additions.
In mixed reality, digital objects appear within the natural world.

AR/VR Hardware

VR has labored to find a widespread consumer audience willing to invest in what is still a somewhat awkward technology with limited content
The smart money is generally headed into business solutions.

AR/VR Headsets
- There are a few recognizable names among the many augmented and mixed reality headset manufacturers.
AR/VR Headset Suppliers
- Not every player in the AR/VR headset space is a finished goods manufacturer.
AR/VR Hardware Accessories
- There are plenty of startups developing technology to help VR users feel with all five senses

VR Content

Content may be king, but virtual reality content hasn’t really risen far from jester status yet.
many item available though questionable at this stage

AR/VR for Enterprise Applications

while we’re waiting for AR/VR to catch on with consumers, the business world is quietly embracing the technology as a collaboration tool, especially with the ability to view and even manipulate data in three dimensions

Virtual Collaboration
- There’s nothing virtual about the payoff: Augmented reality businesses claim they can cut tasks like troubleshooting by more than half, often eliminating the cost of sending a technician on a site visit
Construction
- There are some pretty obvious VR applications across architecture, construction, and engineering. What better way to show someone how a space will look without the space actually being built?
- VR companies also hope to change the construction industry by offering skills training for construction workers
Healthcare
- The connection between AR/VR and healthcare may seem less obvious, but the business cases are at least as good as the ones we just discussed.
- the use cases for AR in healthcare are pretty robust
- wearables with some AR/VR-type tech are helping the blind to see using various vision-enhancement devices. In fact, technology for the blind could be worth billions, as the big R&D brains out there figure out ways to help the sightless see again
Retail
- For some, technology is only really valuable if it can help you sell stuff that people probably don’t need

Investing in AR/VR Stocks

Which, if any, of these companies should you target in your portfolio? Frankly, it’s a crapshoot, with the odds definitely in favor of the house.

Computing

When we talk about computing as an investment thesis, we need to think well beyond buying the picks and shovels.
a few examples of startups that are doing some very innovative things in the world of computing
there are lots of disruptive applications for computing that are left to be realized by ambitious entrepreneurs who are backed by visionary investors

Investing in Quantum Computing

What is Quantum Computing?
What Can We do With Quantum Computing?
Quantum Computing Companies
- Unfortunately for retail investors, largely all of the investing activities taking place for quantum computing are in privately held companies
- For retail investors, there’s one pure-play quantum computing stock worth taking a look at

Investing in 5G

What is 5G and Why is it Such a Big Deal?
- will enable autonomous cars to operate, connect trillions of devices and eventually turn your own handheld computer into a supercomputer, because all of the heavy processing can be done remotely
- everything on the planet will soon be connected to the cloud and the applications are limitless
5G Stocks

Investing in Cybersecurity

An entire industry has formed around those who want to do malicious things to earn a living
there are also many cybersecurity stocks for retail investors including ETFs

Authentication and Biometrics
- When it comes to authentication, there are many different methods that are appropriate for a variety of use cases.

Investing in Blockchain Technology

What is The Blockchain?
- blockchain is a ledger that records ownership and changes over time
Cryptocurrencies
- blockchain technology can be used to create currencies
Examples of Blockchain Use Cases
- The blockchain world is long on ideas and short on traction
- blockchain is the perfect solution for cross-border payments, and financial services applications in general
- enabling the world’s supply chains with blockchain to rid them of inefficiencies
Some Blockchain ETFs
- That’s because blockchain is far too new a technology for there to be many pure-play stocks for retail investors

Advances in Software Development

The companies that build the best software and wield the best datasets will have a sustainable competitive advantage which adds value over time
low-code or even no-code technologies that can turn just about anyone into a citizen developer
Eventually, we’ll build software so well that we won’t need customer support.

Investing in Disruptive Computing Stocks

The most exciting computing themes like quantum computing aren’t really investable yet for retail investors.
Various computing platforms will continue to service various use cases.

Fintech

Top fintech companies are enjoying success because they are solving pain points found in the traditional bank, a place where financial technology isn’t seen as a competitive differentiator.
Free trading seems to be the norm now, and they even have free trading for algo traders.
Some areas of fintech are more mature than others
motif, alpaca and others are interesting brokerages

Investing With Alternative Data

alternative data is often used by traders to generate alpha
For retail investors, there are ways to invest with fintechs that use alternative data to generate insights and increase returns across various alternative asset classes.

Investing in Alternative Asset Classes

things to invest in that may have been historically off-limits unless you were an ultra-high-net-worth individual

The Many Types of Fintech

Legaltech
- that search is to find the gems that can be used to sway a decision one way or another
- startups are finding that technology such as machine learning can come in handy for lawyers
Regtech
- RegTech is helping financial institutions make a healthier lunch
- Another area of regtech seeing lots of interest from investors is digital identity verification.
Insurtech
- accurately predict outcomes in order to make insurance policies profitable

The Biggest Fintech Company in the World

Ant Financial which has taken in $22 billion in funding and is now worth – at least the last time we checked – more than Goldman Sachs and Barclays combined, with a valuation of $150 billion

Fintech Investing and Stocks for Retail Investors

opportunities for retail investors aren’t so much in buying “fintech stocks” per se, but rather using the various fintech platforms to open up new avenues for investing in alternative asset classes, saving money using free personal finance apps

Venture Capital and Fintech
- some people have raised questions around how venture capital itself can be transformed
- For retail investors, you can buy shares of the world’s biggest startups on secondary markets
- For non accredited investors, there are some publicly traded venture capital firms.
Penny Stocks Suck
- There is one sure way to lose money investing in stocks, and that is by dabbling in penny stocks or what they call over-the-counter stocks.

Green Technology

What Are Green Technologies

The term “green technology” simply refers to ways in which we can use technology to make the world a better place.
It’s a global problem, and every country needs to address it differently.
Regardless of where you sit on climate change, we’re all better served if we clean up the planet.
The problems we need to solve with green technology also provide an opportunity for investors to make profits.

Renewable Energy Stocks and Companies

It’s not all about solar and wind power. Rain, tides, waves, geothermal heat, and biofuels, are all considered sustainable energy sources.

Water Technology and Desalination

Less than 1% of the earth’s water is freshwater, and even this amount is unevenly distributed across the planet.
one in ten people globally lack ready access to clean water
Urbanization also plays a big role in water scarcity with many large cities facing water stress.

Agtech Companies and Stocks

Most of us rely on a small percentage of the population who grow food for all the rest of us.
Since land is scarce, we’re having to come up with more creative ways to increase yields on the same footprint.

Agtech in New Zealand
- gross stuff on herd management completely missing the point of where things are going
Indoor Farming
- Attractive business models will provide vegetables at scale with price points at or under regular vegetable prices.
- From what we’ve seen so far, container farming is not economically viable.
Agtech Stocks
- We have only come across a few names that would be considered pure-plays on the agtech theme.

Food Technology Companies and Stocks

Food technology is when we start to play with producing food in ways we hadn’t thought of
most of the buzz in food tech is mainly around the whole fake meat boom

Lab-Grown Meat
- fake food which simply refers to the many types of foods that are now being produced which are supposed to resemble the organically produced thing

Investing in Electric Vehicles and EV Charging

Improved battery efficiencies, faster charging times, and an ever-expanding network of charging stations make electric cars appealing to a broader set of potential buyers. guide

Investing in Batteries and Grid Storage

The Growth of Lithium-Ion Batteries
- As battery technology improves, expect more things to be electrified.
- Another type of battery being developed by a number of companies is the solid-state battery which uses both solid electrodes and solid electrolytes, instead of the liquid or polymer electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.
- Investors remain interested in lithium as an investment thesis
Grid Storage
- Grid-scale energy storage is about using batteries to store energy instead. We can’t just go around building reservoirs when we need them.
- A flow battery is a type of rechargeable battery in which large tanks of chemicals are used to create chemical energy which is then converted to electricity.
- the humble lead-acid battery that’s found in most motor vehicles is also being looked at for a renovation

Waste Management Stocks and Companies

It’s not just about recycling more plastic, it’s about improving the recycling process itself.
Industrial waste management is not just about plastics. Municipal solid waste (MSW) needs to get sorted first so that garbage plants can get to the recyclable part.

Investing in LED Technologies

LEDs can last up to 25 times longer than an ordinary incandescent bulb, and use 75% percent less energy to produce the same amount of light.
There’s still plenty of innovation still to be found from exciting startups

Penny Stocks, Stock Promoters, and Shills

When you see a stock soaring for no reason, go to the investment message boards like InvestorsHub and see if it’s being pumped by shills.
Whatever you do, don’t invest in any stock that doesn’t trade on a major exchange. That’s rule one.

Does Sustainable Investing Outperform?

Green-tech investing goes by a number of names such as sustainable investing, socially responsible investing (SRI), impact investing, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing
Just make sure that your money is being put into companies that everyone agrees are sustainable, and make sure you understand what they consider sustainable to be.

Internet of Things

IoT which describes a world where everything is connected. That connectivity isn’t just everything talking to the cloud, it’s about machines talking to machines or (M2M).
We’d like to start with talking about industrial applications for IoT and the concept of a “digital twin.”

IoT Sensors and Digital Twins

a digital twin is when you create a digital representation of something like a machine on a factory floor or even the entire factory

The Emergence of Smart Cities

The smart city of tomorrow is one where IoT sensors and big data enable us to create better places for people to live

Smart Homes

A smart home is one that minimizes energy use and utility costs while providing a safe and secure location with all the conveniences you’d expect.

IoT Across Multiple Industries

new IoT-enabled medical devices that collect loads of data for AI algorithms to analyze
multiple startups pursue “Uber for trucking” business models
In the automotive industry, connected cars now talk to the cloud, and even each other
Using IoT sensor technology, we’re able to increase yields in agriculture and aquaculture.
IoT use cases abound in areas such as shoplifting prevention or “free wifi hotspot marketing.”

Investing in IoT Stocks

Given how thought leaders are predicting that IoT will transform nearly everything around us, you’re probably wanting to “invest in some IoT stocks.”
There is at least one ETF covering the IoT theme – The Global X Internet of Things ETF (SNSR)
investing in smart homes, you might consider Alarm.com (ALRM)
A few members of the ETF have exposure to IoT along with a number of other disruptive technologies.

IoT – The Threats

IoT is still having some growing pains as we wait for 5G to give us more bandwidth.
some understandable privacy concerns around IoT technology that haven’t gone unnoticed

Life Sciences

especially since this effort would end research using animals
a broad topic that encompasses around 30 different branches of study
Oftentimes we’ll find groups of startups trying to solve similar problems
Many of the problems being worked on involve cures that haven’t been developed yet, something we looked at in our “when will there be a cure” series.
we’ve tried to narrow it all down to six areas of focus

Genomics

Using genetic sequencing machines, scientists are not only able to read the recipes of life, they’re also able to edit them
Huge databases of DNA data are now being mined for insights, and scientists are even able to reconstruct composite images of criminals from crime scenes using DNA, something referred to as DNA phenotyping.
In the future, we’ll have a world where everyone is given personalized medicine tailored to their unique genetic makeup.

Investing in Genomics Stocks
- Illumina, a company that all but dominates the market for machines that perform gene sequencing
- Not all genomics stocks are leaders. There are plenty of laggards
- ARK Invest likes BNGO and that’s sent the stock soaring to the moon

Human Longevity

extending the human lifespan by rolling back the effects of aging
Venture capitalists are pouring money into dozens of startups tackling the aging problem in areas like regenerative medicine or young blood transfusions.

Medical Devices and Imaging

in the medical industry where connected medical devices allow doctors to monitor patients’ vital signs from afar

Medical Imaging
- some of the biggest advancements are being made in medical imaging where deep learning algorithms are used to interpret medical imagery
Telehealth
- The increasing sophistication of medical devices and medical imaging algorithms mean that doctors are more easily able to treat patients from afar.
Big Data in Healthcare
- Many data analytics businesses are emerging which use this data for predictive analytics or to identify inefficiencies in processes.

Brain-Computer Interfaces

A brain-computer interface might be the Holy Grail for human advancement.

The Drug Discovery Process

Plenty of companies are working on removing all the inefficiencies from the process.

Medical Testing

advancements in medical testing could prove to save lives and money

Cancer Genomics Testing
- It isn’t just about early detection, it’s also about finding the most effective cancer treatment and monitoring its progress.
- There are also companies developing cancer therapies that are fine-tuned to certain genomic profiles like personalized chemotherapy.
Genetics Testing
- There are now genetic tests for nearly everything, including genetics tests for pets.
- The evolution of genetics testing is now leading to new business models that try to adapt to the environment.

Other Life Sciences Themes

The Diabetes Opportunity
- fat asses abound because people drive up to windows to consume two days of calories in one seating – which they then wash down with a diet soda.
- The hard truth is that obesity is unhealthy and a contributing factor to a huge global problem – diabetes.
Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT)
- It’s a test that makes sure your little bundle of joy doesn’t pop out with two heads, or be afflicted by any malady that would interfere with the perfect life you’ve planned for it.
Stem Cells
- These are useful for applications like regenerating body parts or figuring out what makes cancer cells replicate.

Things We Don’t Understand Very Well

It’s very difficult to understand some of these businesses without having a medical background, and if you need eight years of training to understand what a company does, it’s probably too complex for retail investors.

RNAi Therapeutics
- Instead of spending hours trying to understand how microRNA relates to RNAi, we’re staying away from drug development companies entirely.

Interesting Life Sciences Stocks

Given the breadth of technologies to be found under life sciences, we often take fleeting looks at companies that are doing cool things without necessarily doing any deep-dives or follow-ups.

Penny Stocks and OTC Stocks

Investing in any of these companies would have proved to be a total disaster. Of course, there are always some exceptions, but why try to walk through landmines to find them?

Conclusion

Because life sciences is such a broad category, you’ll find it peppered throughout all the twelve categories of disruptive technologies

Nanotechnology

What is Nanotechnology?

the study of anything that measures less than 100 nanometers

How Nanotechnology Has Evolved

Nanotechnology Penny Stocks
- In reading about companies that have failed, we can better understand how to find those that will succeed.
- We also found that the same companies that were promising us nanomaterial breakthroughs in 2004 were still making those same promises nine years later.
What Happened to Nanomaterials?
- we just can’t take companies seriously that continue to promise revenues and never deliver on them
- People quickly forgot about how the carbon nanotube was expected to change the world when it was replaced by another promising nanostructure called graphene.
- Graphene is a sheet of atoms that you can pick up.
- Researchers keep talking about all the great things they can do with quantum dots but commercialized applications seem far and few between.
- There is no shortage of interesting nanomaterials out there
- There are also applications for nano that can help heal the planet.
- There are a lot of exciting things happening in the world of nanotechnology, so let’s see how retail investors might be able to get some exposure to nano stocks.

Investing in Nanotechnology Stocks

Nanotechnology ETFs
- there are no nanotechnology ETFs right now
Nanotechnology Companies That Stagnated
- We’ve talked about how prolific nano penny stocks were, but we haven’t talked about more legitimate companies with revenues that haven’t been able to quite take off yet.
- break down the nanotechnology opportunity into three major themes: nanomaterials including graphene, nano-drug delivery, and synthetic biology including gene editing
Investing in Nanomaterials and Graphene
- What investors need to remember is that companies which use nanomaterials for a competitive advantage won’t necessarily be telling the world about it.
Investing in Synthetic Biology and Gene Editing
- the single most exciting disruptive technology there is, that would have to be synthetic biology
- Many futurist-minded people are thinking that soon we’ll just grow everything we need using tools like gene editing.

Investing in Nanomedicine

applications for nanotechnology in the healthcare sector are many

Investing in Nano Drug Delivery
- many drug companies actively use nanoparticles to deliver drugs more efficiently

Space

Will NewSpace, the term that describes the new era of commercial-driven space exploration, supernova into a trillion-dollar business?
Risk-averse investors will want to hold onto their money when it comes to the high-risk business of operating in space.

Investing in Global Internet

SpaceX appears poised to run away with the global internet race, as it sends thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), as part of the Starlink constellation to provide billions of people with connectivity and cute cat videos
the smart money is that the impact of cheap satellites and launch platforms will give massive undertakings like the SpaceX Starlink constellation the edge

Investing in Satellite Companies

still pretty hard to get exposure to the “space theme” without ending up with a portfolio filled with either big tech stocks like Amazon or Google or a bunch of companies that make rockets aimed in the wrong direction
As much as 75% of the NewSpace industry is dominated by the satellite sector, which includes everything from manufacturing spacecraft to providing communications services.

Investing in Geospatial Intelligence from Satellites

sector of the satellite industry where we’re seeing both tremendous growth and potential is in geospatial intelligence
there are a few geospatial intelligence stocks out there
One of the biggest risks to the satellite industry is the satellite industry … New technologies for space debris removal will become extremely important

Rocket Companies Launch a New Space Race

we would expect a high rate of failure in this sector, as there’s still not enough business to justify the numerous rocket startups that have emerged
China is becoming a serious contender in space with new startups building rockets and satellites

Mining the Moon for Money

The moon is home to various precious metals and rare minerals that are integral to our technologies.

Investing in Space Tourism

Since then, there have been very few opportunities for the common man or woman to enjoy a romp in zero gravity
ISS has been floated as a possible tourist destination once the scientific mission there ends
there’s not much gold to mine in space just yet

Robotics

The first time the word “robot” was used was when Karel Capek introduced it in his 1920 hit play RUR

Why Is Robotics Important?

Robotics is becoming increasingly important because the companies using them are gaining a competitive advantage.

Where is Robotic Technology Today?

Robotics applications are growing in popularity because of technologies like machine learning that help the robots work more like humans, perhaps handling unexpected exceptions without just ceasing to operate.

Drone Stocks and Companies

Drones are usually categorized into military, commercial, and consumer segments which neatly cover most of the current use cases.

Drone Delivery
- The jury is still out on what type of drone delivery model will be adopted at scale, if any. For retail investors, we haven’t seen any pure-play opportunities to invest in drone delivery.
Industrial Drones
- industrial drones are another use case under the “commercial” category
  - industrial inspection
  - aerial information
  - reconnaissance, search and rescue
  - warehouse management
Military and Security Drones
- The military use of drones is growing at an unprecedented rate in the U.S.
- The other opportunity is security drones for civilian use cases such as replacing rent-a-cops.
- round-the-clock surveillance means that battery swapping needs to take place
Consumer Drones and Other Types of Drones
- Crowdfunding seems to be the funding method of choice for manufacturers of small, low-cost UAVs.
Where Are the Drone Stocks?
- Pure-play drone stocks are hard to come by.
- Plenty of drone startups failed too.
- The drone market remains in private hands for now

Investing in Autonomous Vehicles

Levels of Autonomy
- Autonomous vehicles (or driverless cars) are an overlap of a number of disruptive technologies.
- 5 levels
What do Autonomous Vehicles Need to Work?
- autonomous cars need uniquely tailored perception systems LiDAR
- High-definition maps, that are precise to a centimeter, are required to navigate any environment safely.
- vehicle’s artificial intelligence algorithms need to react correctly to any situation
Autonomous Trucking
- the industry created its own little startup ecosystem with companies developing applications for fuel efficiency, fleet management, and kits that can upgrade any truck to a self-driving vehicle
Autonomous Vehicles That Aren’t Cars
- Autonomous boats promise to navigate more economically and efficiently than humans do now.
- large corporations like IBM are working on autonomous shipping
- autonomous heavy construction equipment with conversion kits for excavators, bulldozers, and skid steers
- Autonomous planes are also in the making
- Autonomous robots, tractors, trains, and of course, the Hyperloop are the icing on the cake of autonomous technologies.

Investing in Industrial Robotics

industrial robotics is currently the largest application area for robots by far
industrial robot prices are declining and will continue to do so, which will result in industrial robot sales quadrupling during the next five years as more companies move to adopt them

Robots for Factory Automation
- While there are many startups working on robotics for factory automation, there also happen to be many listed companies doing the same which is great for retail investors who want exposure to this theme.
- China is becoming a large consumer of robotics
Robots for Warehouse Automation
- Warehouse robots range from plug-and-play systems and forklifts working alongside humans to infrastructure systems that can fully automate warehouses – what they’re calling “lights out operations.”
- Today’s warehouse robots are capable of full autonomy either alone or side-by-side with humans, thanks to AI algorithms.
Companies Developing Machine Vision and Industrial Cameras
- The eyes are provided by machine vision systems, the mouth by natural language processing, and the body by robotics.
Robots Replacing Humans Doing the Worst Jobs
- Industrial inspection tasks, maintenance, and high-rise window cleaning are all examples of relatively dangerous and time-consuming jobs.

Robots in Healthcare

Robots are helping in elderly care and the daily operations of smart hospitals. Robotics technology is being used to create bionic limbs and help dental surgeons perform implants.
the area where healthcare robots really shine is robotic surgery

Robotic Surgery Stocks and Companies
- at least eight different types of surgeries that are now being performed or partially performed by robots

Robots for Consumers

first large-scale implementation of consumer robotics was iRobot’s robotic vacuums
all these types of robots will be made in China

Robotics ETFs

The problem is that most of these robotics ETFs can’t agree on which companies to include.
it makes us wonder how the ESG types plan to address robotics as an investment thesis

Other resources

Singularity University

Exponential Business Models | Amin Toufani: Exponential times require exponential business models.

Exonomics | Amin Toufani: transform industries and global challenges through exponential technologies

Exponential Energy | Ramez Naam: overview of the key natural resource and environmental challenges

Investing in disruptive innovation | Cathie Woods: Investing in disruptive innovation

Useful sites

amin toufani ramez naam

Videos

Coming Soon: A Post-Cow World-Precision Fermentation

Commercial fermentation: Opportunities and bottlenecks

Spiders

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 23:45:37 -0800

Lots of interesting stuff about spiders here.

Jumpers

Jumping spiders may be the most easily identified with family of spiders. They’re insatiably curious critters and smart too! Unlike many spiders, when you approach a jumper in a non-threatening way, you’re likely to find yourself staring into a pair of inquisitive, if suspicious eyes. Jumpers have exceptional eyesight and are thus visually aware of the world around them, much as we are.

Friendly jumper #1

I first noticed this spider in the rabbit room sometime in early December. She had a habit of crawling around on the ceiling and sometimes on the door to the outside. I suspect she came in during the summer and got “stranded” inside. It may have saved her life - I believe the adults die off during the winter.

Once I tried to put her outside on a mild day. The ground was cool, but not nearly as cold as it normally was in Dec. Within a minute she had basically shut down and seemed unable to move. So I took her back in and returned her to the rabbit room.

A week or so later, I spotted her in the office, but she looked extremely hungry. Her abdomen was “deflated”, and she was moving slowly. I decided to set her up in a terrarium and look after her. Or at least try to feed her before setting her free in the house again.

At the time, she was quite cooperative. I thought it was due to weakness from hunger. The first night, I tried feeding her one of the dead frozen insects I’d been keeping for the five-legged spider but she refused, spending her time hiding under a leaf. Next time though, she eagerly took the termite and spent a whole hour eating.

The following day she was active and very curious about everything, including my hand. I had little idea then just how much time she’d spend there.

2011-12-22 Thu
Spider ate a silverfish today but wasn’t too interested in anything else.

As is natural for a jumping spider, she likes to chase moving food. Since I only feed bugs that I’ve found dead, I have to drag and shake them around with tweezers. She stalked the silverfish for almost a minute before making the pounce. When she does strike, you can actually feel the impact shake the tweezers!

Her stalking behaviour is really quite fascinating. Jumping spider hunting tactics have often been likened to those of cats, and with good reason! She is very cautious and strategic about it. Her eyes are usually fixed on her quarry, and she continually adjusts her angle of approach by moving sideways so as to try to attack it from behind. Sometimes she’ll even use the terrain to her advantage, trying to hide behind leaves or get up on something to attack from above.

2011-12-23 Fri
I got a chance to get very close with the camera today. She was sitting on one of her leaves and seemed pretty fascinated by the lens. Reflection?

2011-12-26 Mon
Spider has been coming out daily and spending time on my hand. She is curious about everything and turns to face any motion, waving her palps about excitedly. Is that palp waving for smell?

Her basic pattern of activity seems to be to crawl around on my fingers for a minute or two, then make a couple of tours of the back of my hand, and then start climbing up my sleeve. She never tries to go into my sleeve though.

2012-01-05 Thu
Nothing much has changed, but I did take some shots today. Her daily routine seems to be established now. In the morning, she crawls around on the lid of her container, waiting for me to let her out. After touring the house on my hand and staring out one of the windows, she goes back and settles down under a leaf. She might poke her face out once or twice during the day, but mostly just rests. Then she gets active in the evening and I take her around again. Night time seems to be when she is most receptive to feeding, oddly enough. She eats a moderately large dead insect once every five days or so.

Interestingly, she seems to have no interest in jumping off my hand. Indeed, she has yet to do so and normally won’t even leave when I offer her a place to go. Getting her off can sometimes be challenging, because she’s very clever! My technique is to try to herd her onto a leaf by placing it in front of her, and gently nudging her toward it from behind. She knows what it’s all about though, and moves sideways!

2012-01-13 Fri
For the first time, I found her in a “sleeping bag” structure. I know some jumping spiders make these to spend the night in.

2012-01-12 Thu
This is new. She ate part of a caterpillar today, but seems to have realized she doesn’t need to chase her food now. This time, she just came up to the tweezers, grabbed the caterpillar, and walked off with it quite calmly.

2012-01-17 Tue
Spider has found a new toy! I thought she might want more things to do, so I offered her a conifer cone. It’s a big one with well-spaced scales that are just the right size for a little spider to crawl between. It was an immediate success and she spent most of the rest of the day on/in it.

2012-01-20 Fri
She jumped onto my camera lens today while I was trying to take a shot of her on my thumb.

2012-01-23 Mon
We seem to be an extremely happy spider these days. I’ve noticed she gets very excited whenever something new happens. Today, she got to play with moss for the first time. Like the pinecone, which she plays on every day or two, it offered a great opportunity to practise gymnastics.

When she finishes playing, she runs off and tries to find some place high up. She usually likes to stay there for a bit before being taken away.

She doesn’t seem interested in any of the other jumpers in the house.

2012-01-24 Tue
I tried feeding her the remains of a ground spider. They are little black critters with slender yellow-patterned abdomens. They move very fast. This one I found dead on the deck.

At first, she was curious and came scuttling over to investigate. When she saw it up close though, her behaviour changed completely! She seemed very excited by it, but also apprehensive. After creeping around to get at it from behind, she made a quick strike and then jumped back. Then she started moving in wobbly circles almost like a drunkard, continuing to stare at it.

She kept that up for a minute or so and then approached very cautiously and tapped it with her front legs. It seemed almost like she was going to eat it, but then suddenly she decided not to and left to go hide in some leaves.

2012-01-26 Thu
This isn’t about the friendly spider, but I tried feeding the ground spider from my last entry to another one of the P. californicus spiders in the house and it exhibited almost exactly the same cautious behaviour. It made a quick strike followed by a lot of drunken wobbling, then made another strike, repeated the process, and then finally decided to eat. I wonder if this is some instinctive caution that these spiders know to take when faced with certain prey.

2012-01-31 Tue
Life has been pretty routine for the last week. She’s continuing to find new ways to avoid being taken off my arm, such as scuttling between folds in the sleeve of my sweatshirt.

I got to see an interesting leg preening ritual today. She took each of her four front legs and ran them somewhere behind her palps. I’m not sure whether she was using the hairs on her palps to clean them or what. I should have paid closer attention to see if there was an order in which she cleaned her legs.

2012-02-05 Sun
Ha! For the first time, she ate apple today. Not very enthusiastically and just for a minute or so, but she did. Aside from that, she hasn’t eaten in about a week. I don’t know why; she seems perfectly healthy and active, though.

2012-02-08 Wed
New toy. I found a vacant snail shell a few days ago. It was inhabited recently I think, because it still smelled of decaying snail. It might have been eaten by a slug? Anyway, the spider is its new resident. She sits just inside its entrance, facing out.

I’ve noticed she’s taken to “sleeping” more than before during times she would normally be active. I wonder if this is because she hasn’t been eating.

2012-02-09 Thu
She ate today! A fairly large meal too. Some black bug that I found near the rabbit house. She rarely strikes at her food these days, though she does sometimes stalk it a bit.

2012-02-10 Fri
Another P. californicus took some apple today and completely filled up on it!

2012-02-14 Tue
I’m starting to worry about the spider now. She is just as friendly as ever, but she has slowed down I think. I don’t know how long these spiders live, but I have heard that when they are getting older, they do gradually slow.

She is still reasonably active, just not as much as she used to be.

I took her outside for a bit today, but she didn’t seem to like it much. She didn’t want to get off my hand, and after a short while actually went into my sleeve to hide. She’s never done that before.

2012-02-17 Fri
Today, she fell asleep on my wrist! After one of her tours of my hand and sleeve, she just plopped down. I call it sleep, because she was almost completely unresponsive and didn’t even bother to track things moving around her. She stayed that way for about 20 minutes (during which time I did my best to keep my hand still) before waking up again.

2012-02-25 Sat
She seems slower and more quiet every week now. She hasn’t been coming out much and I’ve been reluctant to disturb her. It’s been a few days since she last ate and she wasn’t very enthusiastic about it either. She doesn’t seem to be able to climb the sides of her container like she used to so I’ve moved some stuff around to give her a way up.

2012-03-03 Sat
Nothing much has changed. She’s still pretty subdued, but still expresses interest in some things. I haven’t been able to get her to eat anything though. She doesn’t even bother to consider larger food. Small things like the flies that hang out near the rabbit house are given more attention, but she still won’t go for one.

2012-03-06 Tue
She ate!!! But not what I expected! The last couple of days I’ve been rather frantically trying everything I can think of in an effort to get her eating because she’s been looking thin. None of the usual foods have worked, but I tried banana on her for the first time and she took to it with more enthusiasm than I’ve seen from her in a long time. She spent over an hour feeding on a little piece of it and by the time she was done, her abdomen was back to full size.

2012-03-08 Thu
Maybe I was worrying about nothing. She’s much more active now and managed to climb up the side of her container for the first time in a while! Oddly, she’s started trying to crawl into my sleeve though. She normally doesn’t like it in there at all.

2012-03-10 Sat
She’s started to slow down again unfortunately. She’s still got a fairly full abdomen, so it’s not hunger. She hasn’t eaten anything since the banana, but it’s only been a few days. This slowness only started yesterday so maybe it’s just a passing phase. She’s been hiding out in a tightly curled leaf so I haven’t disturbed her.

2012-03-14 Wed
Spider’s become very reclusive. She doesn’t come out at all during the day and has only moved from her hiding spot once from what I know. I haven’t taken her out for some days now since she doesn’t seem to be in the mood. She hasn’t eaten anything still, which is very odd by now. Due to her lethargy, perhaps, she still looks pretty full though.

2012-03-16 Fri
Unfortunately, I think the spider is dead now. I found her tonight clinging weakly to the underside of one of her leaves. I knew something was wrong because her abdomen was hanging limply. I took her onto my hand and she didn’t move at all. I held her for a couple of minutes and then suddenly she had a spasm or something. She stretched out her legs and then waved a couple of them around. Then she curled them in and that was the last movement I saw. I held her for a while longer, but eventually put her back on her leaf and went to bed.

The next morning, she hadn’t moved and was still curled up. Spiders extend their legs by hydraulic pressure but contract them by muscle power which is why their legs are often curled in when they die.

It’s now night again and still no sign of movement. I’m pretty sure she’s dead. It’s a strange feeling, not having her around. She was one of the most unique creatures I’ve ever known.

Shell

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 22:18:26 -0800

We use the z shell and program in zsh. All items in .zsh.d with .zshenv and .zshrc symlinked. This setup is easily migrated to other machines. The items below illustrate various shell commands some which are specific to zsh.

adding ~/bin to PATH

### PATH ### typeset -U path #converts to uppercase (to avoid accidental duplication as per bing) path+=~/bin

alternate expressions

ls *glob*.(txt|h) #note use of ()
# *glob*.txt and *glob*.h

block commenting

Though it is unlikely we will actually use this technique, it is handy to know.

echo "this is a block comment" 
: '
    what is this
    actually
    '

capitalizations

All cap specific words in a file using perl|sed. Note that single quotes may work with sed, but not produce desired result with perl.

# perl
perl -pi -e "s/(Eliphas|Retha|Chastity)/\U$1/g" <filename>

for n in  Chastity Retha Eliphas; do # or using loop
    perl -i -pe "s/$n/\U$n/g" <filename>
done

# sed
for n in Cytheri Vaishob Chastity Retha Eliphas; do
        sed -i "s/$n/${(U)n}/g" <filename>
done

compinstall

What does zstyle :compinstall filename do?

It’s for when you run compinstall again. It lets compinstall find where it has written out zstyle statements for you last time. This way, you can run compinstall again to update them. Read in source code.

concat csv

Here are some ways to concat text files.

ls -1 *.csv | while read filnam ; do cat "$filnam" >> output.csv.file; done
ls -1 *.csv | sort | while read filnam ; do cat "$filnam" >> output.csv.file; done
ls -1t *.csv | while read filnam ; do cat "$filnam" >> output.csv.file; done

config files

.zshrc - Should be used for the shell configuration and for executing commands.
.zshenv - Should only contain user’s environment variables.
.zprofile - Can be used to execute commands just after logging in.
.zlogin - Can be used as .zprofile, but read just after .zshrc.
.zlogout - Can be used to execute commands when a shell exit.

cp

replace softlinks with actual file

cp --remove-destination $(readlink <filename>) <filename>

for f in $(find -type l);do # or do all softlinks
    cp --remove-destination $(readlink $f) $f;
done

direct ls output to array

arr=($(ls))

# parsing ls is not a good idea usually so
arr=(*)

# if there are subdirectories
shopt -s nullglob
array=(*/)
shopt -u nullglob # Turn off nullglob to make sure it doesn't interfere with anything later
echo "${array[@]}"  # Note double-quotes to avoid extra parsing of funny characters in filenames

See How do I assign ls to array discussion.

docs for zmv, zcp, zln:

docs packit book scripting

this book contains a lot of useful stuff

zle (ch3)

Emacs users will find themselves at home with the Esc + X sequence. we can use where-is to find an alternative shortcut man zshzle has lots!

globbing (ch4)

the negations ^,~ and alternates (|),[] need work

tilde echo b*~~*.o match starting with b, don’t match anything with o extension echo a*~~*9.* match starting with a, don’t match anything with 9 before the . echo a**9?.* match starting with a, don’t match anything with 9 one item before . echo */.shtmp/* exclude anything within tmp/

qualifiers cheatsheet *(…) TAB *(@) symlinks *(On) reverse sort by name *(.) files only *(@,/) symlinks or directories

TODO things to do

zcalc zargs man zshexpn

dot z files

From posting:

.zshenv is always sourced. It often contains exported variables that should be available to other programs. For example, $PATH, $EDITOR, and $PAGER are often set in .zshenv. Also, you can set $ZDOTDIR in .zshenv to specify an alternative location for the rest of your zsh configuration.
.zprofile is for login shells. It is basically the same as .zlogin except that it’s sourced before .zshrc whereas .zlogin is sourced after .zshrc. According to the zsh documentation, “.zprofile is meant as an alternative to .zlogin for ksh fans; the two are not intended to be used together, although this could certainly be done if desired.”
.zshrc is for interactive shells. You set options for the interactive shell there with the setopt and unsetopt commands. You can also load shell modules, set your history options, change your prompt, set up zle and completion, et cetera. You also set any variables that are only used in the interactive shell (e.g. $LS_COLORS).
.zlogin is for login shells. It is sourced on the start of a login shell but after .zshrc, if the shell is also interactive. This file is often used to start X using startx. Some systems start X on boot, so this file is not always very useful.
.zlogout is sometimes used to clear and reset the terminal. It is called when exiting, not when opening.

Also, the configuration files of random Github users gives possibilities.

expanding and sorting

the o,O sort doesn’t work for ls unless we disable ls sort with -U

Expanding Depending on a Predicate these things may be quite powerful if we learn what to do with them e: *<cmd>

expansions

Expansions Depending On the Permissions might be useful ls *(f755) would list only directories (usually) though ls -d */ simpler however, there are many other features for this

Expansions Depending on Date or Size ls **/*(L0) list all empty files ls **/*(LG+1) list all files >1G ls **/*(mh-1) list all files modified within last hour

find fd

copying files

find MMMM/local/.ocs.agio.organ/cur/ -maxdepth 1 -type f | xargs cp -t mail/cur/
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f |head -1000| xargs cp -t "$destdir"

list by size

find . -size +1M (greater than 1M)
find . -size -1M (less than 1M)
find . -size +1M -exec ls -lh {} +

find only .git dirs

fd –exclude=".cache" –type d –hidden ‘.git$’ find ocs/ -type d -name “.git”

ignore dir

fd –exclude dir find . $-name ".cache" -prune$ -o -name “.git” -type d

modifying files

find . -type d -name "*UNUSED" |
while read f;
  do
    mv $f "${f%/*}/unused";
  done

using for with find is not a good idea for some reason

links

fd . bin/ -t l and broken links are highlighted find bin/ -xtype l just shows the broken links

renumber files

best done with zmv, but using find is still interesting

# filenumberer.sh
k=0
find . -type f |
    while read f;
    do
        k=$(($k+1))
        cp $f ../NEWDIR/${(l(5)(0))k}.pdf
    done
exit

# can be done as per code below, but zmv is preferable

for z in $(find /home/pradocs -name zotes.org); do 
echo `mv $z ${z%/*}/zzotes.org`; 
done

find exec

this is a strange syntax but worth learning.

# find all *.org* in the fireworks/ and replaces localhost:1313 with tf.com
find . -name "*.org" -exec perl -pi -e 's/localhost:1313/towardsfreedom.com/g' {} \;

# remove broken links in bin/
find bin/ -xtype l -exec rm {} \;

# get word count for pdf files
find . -name "*.pdf" -exec wc {} \;

# same as above but line it up nicely
find . -name "*.pdf" -exec wc {} \+

# same as above
find . -name "*.pdf" -print0 | xargs -0 wc
# print0 and xargs -0 handles spaces in filename which is bad idea anyway

exec Really Means exec!
“It uses Linux’s built-in exec to run the command, replacing the current process—your shell—with the command. So the command that is launched isn’t running in a shell at all.” which is why exec ls wipes out the shell!

chaining (instead of piping?) example find . -name “*.page” -type f -exec bash -c “basename “{}” && words-only “{}”” \

ffmpeg

split video files

ffmpeg -ss 00:03:04.560 -i input.mp4 -c copy -t 00:03:39.299 output.mp4

to split video files which sometimes even losscut cannot but ffmpeg can

file into variable

var=$(<stuff.txt)

for itms out of a file

for l in "${(@f)"$(<filename)"}"
         {
             fnumber=$(youtube-dl -F $l | tail -n 1 | cut -f 1 -d ' ')
             youtube-dl --format $fnumber $l
         }

forloops

for i in {1..9}; do echo $i; done for ((i=1; i<10; i++)); echo $i

grep

lines not beginning with #

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/60994/how-to-grep-lines-which-does-not-begin-with-or

grep "^[^#;]" smb.conf

In other words, it reports lines that start with any character other than and ;. It’s not the same as reporting the lines that don’t start with and ; (for which you’d use grep -v ‘^[#;]’) in that it also excludes empty lines

heroic commands in linux

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuwa8zlfXSY

exit terminal but leave all processes running

disown -a && exit

intercept stdout and log to file

cat contacts.org | tee -a log.txt | cat > /dev/null

keep command out of history

start any command with a leading space and it will not go into history

put something in the background** ramdisk for fast rw

mkdir /mnt/ram
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/ram -o size=8192M
dd if=/dev/zero of=test.iso bs=1M count=8000

on an ssd the above worked at 2.2G/s, but with ramdisk it was 3.9G/s!

recursive directory creation

mkdir -p folder/{sub1,sub2}/{sub1,sub2,sub3}
mkdir -p folder/{1..100}/{1..10}

redo last command via sudo

sudo !!

particularly helpful if you don’t want to retype a long command.

tunneling

tunneling to connect to cloud through a port of choice:
ssh -L localport:host:port-relative-to-machine login-credentials

we did this at one point to connect to lentil via wifi somehow.

use an editor to alter a long messed up command

push enter on the messed up command and then type fc to work with the command in default editor

execute the command then use bg

largest files and folders identification

du -h | sort -hr | head -n 10
du -ah | sort -hr | head -n 10

ls

inverse

the inverse is giving by ^

ls *M.mp4
ls ^*M.mp4

list only directories

List only directories (post) ls -d – *() ls -ld – *()

new zsh script

cp ~/sh/zztmpls/zshtmpl.sh ~/new.sh

enter title that is descriptive
set VDATe: v1 - M-x org-time-stamp write PURPose
provide desc

block comment above

fill out help section “use” and “how”

add variables and coding

numeric sequence generation

touch a{01..99}.txt works touch a[01-99].txt doesn’t work

x a{2..4}* works x a[2-4]* works

pad with zero

seq -w 1 11

or for more control

for i in {2..11};
do
    echo $u1${(l:2::0:)i}$u2$i
done

and can get something like this

https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/524508/s01-e02-episode-2
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/524508/s01-e03-episode-3
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/524508/s01-e04-episode-4

perl onliners

add a line after match

perl -pi -e '/paper.ily/ and $_.="\\include \"../../zztmpls/functions.scm\"\n"' score.ly

prompts

add these to .zshrc:

autoload -Uz promptinit
promptinit
prompt bart (or whatever)

5 prompts:

$PS1
$RPS1 rightside
$PS2 waiting for more input
$PS3 making choices
$PS4 debugging scripts

redo softlinks

find ~/bin -type l -ls | tr -s " " "\t" | cut -f11,13

couldn’t do tr with sed for some reason

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/188057/update-symlinks-by-scripting\ though the ideas using realpath will work, it doesn’t do what we are trying to accomplish which is to replace ‘ba’ with ‘sh’ in the softlink

remove empty directories

rmdir --verbose **/*(/^F)
rmdir --verbose **/*(/od)

https://www.zsh.org/mla/users/2005/msg01375.html

remove empty directories recursively

rmdir --verbose **/*(/^F)
rmdir --verbose **/*(/od)

https://www.zsh.org/mla/users/2005/msg01375.html

rename

rename -v pradagio pradesigner */*/* #like grep -r

rsync

exclude

rsync -av --delete --exclude={'dir1','dir2','file1.txt'} ~/ocs ~/mnts/sd64/

run-help

Use M-h on a command

Setup properly in .zshrc unalias run-help 2>/dev/null autoload -U run-help

sed

backref peculiarities

schnell% echo $v
[Integrating Values and Ethics into Wildlife Policy and Management Lessons from North America](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/1/1/126)

schnell% echo $v | sed -r -n 's/\[(.+)\]/\1/p'
Integrating Values and Ethics into Wildlife Policy and Management Lessons from North America(http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/1/1/126)

schnell% echo $v | sed -rn 's/\[(.+)\]\((.*)\)/\2\1/p'
http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/1/1/126Integrating Values and Ethics into Wildlife Policy and Management Lessons from North America

why does the entire $v get printed in the second item?

getting pics from html file to proper directories

from html source:

<p class="hdr">Iwrters</p>
<p class="dsc">Icquaint yourself with those who contributed to this site over the years!</p>
<br/>
<div style="background-color:#ccccff; margin:1em 1em 5em 1em" >
<img class="floatrig" src="y-283.jpg" width="75" alt="Alexandra"/>
<p class="secitmtle">Alexandra</p>
<p class="secitmdsc">I love animals more than anything else!</p>
<p class="secitmurl"><a href="http://www.30bananasaday.com/profile/AlexandraR?xg_source=profiles_memberList">see</a></p>
<p class="whern"></p>
</div>

<div style="background-color:#ddddff; margin:1em 1em 5em 1em" >
<img class="floatrig" src="y-288.jpg" width="75" alt="Angelkate"/>
<p class="secitmtle">Angelkate</p>
<p class="secitmdsc">Here we find divinity, for we are it.</p>
<p class="secitmurl"><a href="288.html">see</a></p>
<p class="whern"></p>
</div>

need to pull out the y-*.jpg and put it into the alt=“NAME” directory.

the problem couldn’t be solved with sed because non-greedy finds aren’t possible, but cut worked nicely:

sed -n "/^<img class/p" $tf/2.html | cut -d \" -f 4,8 | sed 's/"/:/' > TMP
# need to change the " to : so it can be used as a delimiter for splitting.

while read li; do
    a=("${(@s/:/)li}");
    cp $a[1] ~/hugos/towardsfreedom/content/iwrters/$a[2]/00.jpg;
done < ~/hugos/towardsfreedom/TMP

md to org links conversion** multiple in-place replace:

sed -i
    -e 's/\\skip1//g'
    -e 's/\"//g' 
    -e 's/  / /g' 
    -e 's/\\dynamicUp//g' 
    -e 's/\\set ignoreMelismata = ##t//g' *.ly

replace string with contents of file

sed -e "/Acss/r qq" -e "/Acss/d" index.php

puts contents of file qq right after Acss line and deletes the Acss line people have wondered how to just substitute the string and not the line

swap lines

this sort of does it but not too well there seems to be no way to delete line only the first occurance of a match

sed -e '/subsubtitle/ {h; n;p; x}'  Ta-Ta-Ta.ly | 
sed -e '6d' | 
head

various extraction methods

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17511639/sed-print-only-matching-group

sed -rn ’s/

(.+)

$(.*)$/ /p’

setting and using an array in for loop

this is a bit weird, but it works

#setup L1 directories
L1dirs=(Iwrter Issays Ithngs Ibrary Ictvty Inotes)
for d in "${L1dirs[@]}"; do
    echo $d
done

though just this will work too:

for d in Iwrter Issays Ithngs Ibrary Ictvty Inotes; do
    echo $d
done

shell options

zsh -l #
zsh -v #
zsh -x #xtrace—which can prove invaluable when debugging your scripts
zsh -f #start a clean instance of zsh using the default settings can set after shell started

shortcut patterns

A-Za-z <==> :alpha: ascii,lower,upper,digit,alnum,print,blank(space,tab),space,punct

<-> numeric x a<70-90>.txt

sh_wordsplit option (bing)

The zsh sh_wordsplit option is a compatibility feature that makes zsh behave like other shells when it comes to word splitting. Word splitting is the process of breaking a string into words based on some delimiter characters, such as spaces or colons. This is often done when passing arguments to a command or looping over a list of values.

By default, zsh does not perform word splitting on unquoted parameter expansions. This means that if you have a variable that contains multiple words separated by spaces, such as `str=“foo bar baz”`, and you use it as an argument to a command, such as `echo $str`, zsh will treat it as a single word and pass it as one argument to echo. This is different from other shells, such as bash or ksh, which would split the variable into three words and pass them as three arguments to echo.

The sh_wordsplit option makes zsh emulate the behavior of other shells and perform word splitting on unquoted parameter expansions. This means that if you set this option, `echo $str will print foo bar baz on three separate lines, as if you had written echo "$ { (@s: :)str}"`. The option also affects other forms of parameter expansion, such as command substitution and arithmetic expansion.

The sh_wordsplit option is useful when you want to write scripts that are compatible with other shells, or when you want to use variables that contain lists of values separated by some delimiter. However, it can also introduce unexpected behavior and errors if you are not careful with quoting. For example, if you have a variable that contains spaces in its values, such as `str=“foo ‘bar baz’ qux”`, and you use it in a for loop, such as `for x in $str; do echo $x; done`, zsh will split the variable into four words and print them on four lines, even though you might have intended to treat `bar baz` as a single word.

A better way to handle lists of values in zsh is to use arrays, which are variables that can store multiple values without relying on delimiters. You can create an array by enclosing a list of words in parentheses, such as `arr=(foo ‘bar baz’ qux)`, and access its elements by using the subscript notation, such as `echo $arr[2]`. You can also use the `typeset -T` builtin command to tie an array variable to a scalar variable, so that any changes to one are reflected in the other. For example, `typeset -T str str_array` will create an array variable `str_array` that is tied to the scalar variable `str`. If you assign a value to `str`, such as `str=“foo:bar:baz”`, the array variable will be updated accordingly, and vice versa.

For more information about word splitting and arrays in zsh, you can refer to the following sources:

[What is word splitting? Why is it important in shell programming?](¹^)
[How to split a string by ‘:’ character in bash/zsh?](²^)
[Z-Shell Frequently-Asked Questions](³^)
[Re: Word splitting with zsh fix](⁴^)

Source: Conversation with Bing, 9/12/2023 (1) zsh - What is word splitting? Why is it important in shell programming …. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26661/what-is-word-splitting-why-is-it-important-in-shell-programming. (2) How to split a string by ‘:’ character in bash/zsh?. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/614299/how-to-split-a-string-by-character-in-bash-zsh. (3) Z-Shell Frequently-Asked Questions - SourceForge. https://zsh.sourceforge.io/FAQ/zshfaq03.html. (4) Re: Word splitting with zsh fix. https://www.zsh.org/mla/workers/2006/msg00139.html.

specific computers

# broot setup for specific computers
if [[$HOST = 'schnell' || $HOST = 'adagio']];
   then
       #code
fi

sshfs

paru -S sshfs sshfs <computer>: /home/mnts/<computer> umount /home/mnts/<computer>

tee

reads from the standard input and writes to both standard output and one or more files at the same time (it helped to solve the rejects.sh issue we were having)

it can be used to write to multiple files as well as append:

command | tee file1.out file2.out file3.out
command | tee -a file.out

very useful when combined with sudo:

echo "newline" | sudo tee -a /etc/file.conf

or remotely:

for e in $@; do
    echo "$e REJECT" | ssh REMOTE sudo tee -a /etc/postfix/access
done

text file into array

#!/bin/zsh

# urls should not be separated by blank lines or
# have quotes (it seems or we get missing scheme error)
# getting the urls into an array needs to be looked at

ln=1
for l in "${(@f)"$(<./urls)"}"
         {
             fn=$ln.mp4
             #echo "wget -O $fn $l"
             wget -O "$fn" "$l"
             ((ln++))
         }

echo "all done"

exit

variables as commands

setopt sh_wordsplit otherwise $s=“sleep 2” is non-functional or $e=“emacsclient -c” is not found

zmv

We should use this since it is zsh perl-rename may be better in some situations rename is rather limited except for very straightforward stuff

Very powerful commands though the syntax may be difficult to remember unless we get used to it through regular practice which is unlikely since we don’t do this too often. So looking it up is better.

This is a multiple move based on zsh pattern matching. To get the full power of it, you need a postgraduate degree in zsh. However, simple tasks work OK, so if that’s all you need, here are some basic examples:

foo.txt to foo.lis, etc

The items below shows move, copy, and link using zmv.

zmv '(*).txt' '$1.lis'

The parenthesis is the thing that gets replaced by the $1 (not the *’, as happens in mmv, and note the ``$’, not `=’, so that you need to quote both words).

zmv '(**/)(*).txt '$1$2.lis'

The same, but scanning through subdirectories. The $1 becomes the full path. Note that you need to write it like this; you can’t get away with ‘(**/*).txt’.

noglob zmv -W **/*.txt **/*.lis
zmv -w '**/*.txt' '$1$2.lis'

These are the lazy version of the one above; with -w, zsh inserts the parentheses for you in the search pattern, and with -W it also inserts the numbered variables for you in the replacement pattern. The catch in the first version is that you don’t need the / in the replacement pattern. (It’s not really a catch, since $1 can be empty.) Note that -W actually inserts ${1}, ${2}, etc., so it works even if you put a number after a wildcard (such as zmv -W ‘*1.txt’ ‘*2.txt’). [We alias zmv -[wW] to zm[wW]]

zmv -C '**/(*).txt' ~/save/'$1'.lis

Copy, instead of move, all .txt files in subdirectories to .lis files in the single directory `~/save’. Note that the ~ was not quoted. You can test things safely by using the `-n’ (no, not now) option. Clashes, where multiple files are renamed or copied to the same one, are picked up.

Here’s a more detailed description.

Use zsh pattern matching to move, copy or link files, depending on the last two characters of the function name. The general syntax is

zmv ‘<inpat>’ ‘<outstring>’

<inpat> is a globbing pattern, so it should be quoted to prevent it from immediate expansion, while <outstring> is a string that will be re-evaluated and hence may contain parameter substitutions, which should also be quoted. Each set of parentheses in <inpat> (apart from those around glob qualifiers, if you use the -Q option, and globbing flags) may be referred to by a positional parameter in <outstring>, i.e. the first (…) matched is given by $1, and so on. For example,

zmv '([a-z])(*).txt' '${(C)1}$2.txt'

renames algernon.txt to Algernon.txt, boris.txt to Boris.txt and so on. The original file matched can be referred to as $f in the second argument; accidental or deliberate use of other parameters is at owner’s risk and is not covered by the (non-existent) guarantee.

As usual in zsh, ’s don’t work inside parentheses. There is a special case for (**) and (***/): these have the expected effect that the entire relevant path will be substituted by the appropriate positional parameter.

There is a shortcut avoiding the use of parenthesis with the option -w (with wildcards), which picks out any expressions `*’, `?’, `<range>’ (<->, <1-10>, etc.), `[…]’, possibly followed by `#’s, `**/’, `***/’, and automatically parenthesises them. (You should quote any [’s or ]’s which appear inside […] and which do not come from ranges of the form `[:alpha:]’.) So for example, in

zmv -w '[[:upper:]]*' '${(L)1}$2'

the $1 refers to the expression `:upper:’ and the $2 refers to `*’. Thus this finds any file with an upper case first character and renames it to one with a lowercase first character. Note that any existing parentheses are active, too, so you must count accordingly. Furthermore, an expression like ‘(?)’ will be rewritten as ‘((?))’ — in other words, parenthesising of wildcards is independent of any existing parentheses.

Any file whose name is not changed by the substitution is simply ignored. Any error — a substitution resulted in an empty string, two substitutions gave the same result, the destination was an existing regular file and -f was not given — causes the entire function to abort without doing anything.

Bugs:

Parenthesised expressions can be confused with glob qualifiers, for example a trailing ‘(*)’ would be treated as a glob qualifier in ordinary globbing. This has proved so annoying that glob qualifiers are now turned off by default. To force the use of glob qualifiers, give the flag -Q.
1. The pattern is always treated as an extendedglob pattern. This can also be interpreted as a feature.

Unbugs:

You don’t need braces around the 1 in expressions like ‘$1t’ as non-positional parameters may not start with a number, although paranoiacs like the author will probably put them there anyway.

capitalize all vowels

zmv '(*)' '${1//(#m)[aeiou]/${(U)MATCH}}'

get rid of single quotes

zmv -nQ '*.html' "\${f//'/}"

with Q we need to escape certain things like $

lowercase and space-to-hyphen

zmv -n ‘*’ ‘${f:l:s/ /-}’

lowercase the directories

zmv -vw '**/(*)/' '${f:l}'

we had to run it 3 times though to get everything TODO

remove 1st four char

zmv '*' '$f[5,-1]' (where f is a zmv generated variable)

renumber files

i=0;zmv '(FILENAME-COMMON-PART)(*)' '$1$((i++)).mp4' #[] works too but may cause problems

i=1; zmv -n '(img*.jpg)' '${(l:2::0:)$((i++))}$1' #[] results in weird stuff
img[01,02,..].jpg

i=0;zmv -n '(bind.*)' '$1${(l:2::0:)}$((i++))' on bind.c, bind.h, bind.o
mv -- bind.c bind.c000
mv -- bind.h bind.h001
mv -- bind.o bind.o002

running other programs

zmv -p cp -o'-r' 'img/(*)' 'tmp/${1:u}'
zmv -C -o '-r' 'img/(*)' 'tmp/${1:u}'
either recursively copies contents of img/ to tmp/ uppercasing

zmW examples

Using zmv -w or zmW is very effective through globbing.

#  upcase the filename but not the extension
zmW '*.jpg' '${*:u}.jpg'

# pad left with zero
zmW 'img*.jpg' 'img${(l:2::0:)*}.jpg'

# replace spaces with hyphens
zmW '*' '${*// /-}'
better than
zmv '*-*' '${f// /-}'
zmv '*-*' '${f:gs/ /-}'

zoptions

-f  force overwriting of destination files.  Not currently passed
    down to the mv/cp/ln command due to vagaries of implementations
    (but you can use -o-f to do that).
-i  interactive: show each line to be executed and ask the user whether
    to execute it.  Y or y will execute it, anything else will skip it.
    Note that you just need to type one character.
-n  no execution: print what would happen, but don't do it.
-q  Turn bare glob qualifiers off:  now assumed by default, so this
    has no effect.
-Q  Force bare glob qualifiers on.  Don't turn this on unless you are
    actually using glob qualifiers in a pattern (see below).
-s  symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with zln or z?? -L.
-v  verbose: print line as it's being executed.
-o <optstring>
    <optstring> will be split into words and passed down verbatim
    to the cp, ln or mv called to perform the work.  It will probably
    begin with a `-'.
-p <program>
    Call <program> instead of cp, ln or mv.  Whatever it does, it should
    at least understand the form '<program> -- <oldname> <newname>',
    where <oldname> and <newname> are filenames generated. <program>
    will be split into words.
-P <program>
    As -p, but the program doesn't understand the "--" convention.
    In this case the file names must already be sane.
-w  Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as described above, and
    implicitly add parentheses for referring to them.
-W  Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in the
    replacement pattern into sequential ${1} .. ${N} references.
-C
-L
-M  Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the name of the
    function.

zz

specific computers

# broot setup for specific computers
if [[$HOST = 'schnell' || $HOST = 'adagio']];
   then
       #code
fi

bd (using tarrasch function for zsh because bd install doesn’t seem to work)
fzf a good addition too and works rather like the fuzzy find on broot
globbing seems to be inconsistent over the different versions of zsh
operations on multiple extensions ls *.{jpg,png}
list only directories (post) ls -d – *() ls -ld – *()