Episode 48 The Chicken Friend Redemption

Episode 48 The Chicken Friend Redemption


Chickens :"battery", "colony", "no cages" or Friends.  Wild Foods Festivals, The Big Bang Theory, No Agenda Vegan's in Residence, Quotes on Slavery and The Shawshank Redemption.

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http://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/coexisting-with-nonhuman-animals/id334206335




Hello and welcome to another great episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals.

This episode, another protest about Hens being kept in cages, No Agenda and The Big Bang Theory, no, not where a 23 year old Invercargill woodworker explains the origins of life, but that American tv show which is somewhat hard to watch on NZ tv, especially if you boycott the medium of television, but fairly easy to download through bit torrent.




Heres a fun mention of Veganism, on comedian Lewis Black, you might remember him from The Daily Show, the loud cranky guy who always screams at the camera, well, heres a clip from his latest album.



Its always great to hear Veganism mentioned by mainstream celebrities, although we cant all rely on Famous Vegan People to give us all baked potatoes.  Rather than caring about which porn stars are Vegan, or which B grade celebrities would rather have a nude photo taken than wear so called "fur", only to put their skin shoes on, if we promote Veganism on its own merits, to everyone, then we get somewhere. 

My "Grandmothers" Chocolate Mint Mud Cake

As taken from a newspaper cutting by my Grandmother!  She brought down this cake for my 23rd birthday, now its on my blog for you to enjoy :-)

Chocolate Mint Mud Cake

"Eggless, no milk and on butter.  Suitable for vegetarians and Vegans.  Stays super moist for ages.  No eggs or dairy means longer shelf life.  Very cheap and simple to make"

1 and 1/2 cup self raising flour (sifted)
1/3 cup pams cocoa powder (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup veg/rice bran oil
1 cup cold water
1/3 rd tsp peppermint essence
2 tsp vinegar

Method

Preheat oven to 190 C.  Mix all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl (except vinegar).  Pour wet into dry and gently mix.  Add vinegar and stir to blend.  Pour into 240 x 170mm loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes.  Cool slightly, remove from tin with baking paper and cut into 8 squares when cold.  Optional - drizzle with melted dark chocolate.

I enjoyed it most with So Good Vanilla Soy Ice Cream and Chinas finest "Budget" brand Peaches!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaywontdart/sets/72157625090646575/with/5109985550/


*** UPDATE  I've also made this cake myself now :-)  ***

http://www.coexistingwithnonhumananimals.co.nz/2011/08/arrnt-t-shirt-and-mint-chocolate-mud.html

12/7/2012

Even better yet, step by step photos on the Invercargill Vegan Society website :-)

http://www.invsoc.org.nz/jordans-grandmothers-mint-chocolate-mud-cake/

Project APE geocoins arrive, Invercargill, NZ

New geocoins (trackable metal coins) and "cachekinz" (a metal tracking tag in the shape of an animal) arrived from the USA today!

The "Project APE" caches were to promote the launch of the 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes", it was a very good move for a large movie to align itself with a new hobby, geocaching, which had started the year before.

Inside the large ammo tins were props from the movie, as well as the usual log book etc.

This coin and cachekinz tag are made by the local Geocaching group, to celebrate the last Project APE cache remaining in the USA, with just one more left in Brazil.


Mission 9: Tunnel of Light

Washington State Geocaching Association  page with the Geocoin and cachekinz



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaywontdart/sets/72157625982762667/

 With "APE" standing for "Alternative Primate Evolution", it could be a good opportunity to remind people that we too are animals!

Perhaps Invercargill, New Zealand needs a tribute to the APE caches? :-)

Professional use of "Synthetics" for Uniforms

Having been hit with a TOTALLY ORIGINAL instant Vegan-killer, that made me realise the error of my ways, and immediately kill and eat my Chicken Friends,

I replied with how Vegans do not *have* to wear shoes made from flax, although we'd certainly "be allowed to", if we *wanted* to wear flax clothing :-)

Much of it is rather nice, and patriotic for New Zealanders!

I'm currently sporting the "blue" ensemble

Choice is a great thing.  There is much choice for Vegan appropriate clothing, more than just the stereotypical "robes made from sack cloth, and bare feet" look :-)

I'd think we are often not taken seriously when we talk of "synthetic skin" clothing, as it may sound rather odd, to be trying to "rip off nature".

I myself do not like the idea of wearing clothing that looks like the skin of an animal.  For shoes, I most often wear canvas, Chuck Taylors, or similar, which also have an advantage in being dirt cheap, where dirt= ~$15NZD per pair of size 13's amount. 

***UPDATE the Invercargill Vegan Society put in a group order for very nice Etiko shoes, fairtrade, organic cotton and Vegan :-)  Buying together, each pair came out to around $56  Lets support Etiko for being such a great company :-) ***

Why not mention professional uniforms that are turning away from the use of animal skin?

"Many Canadian police departments have had officers complain of having back pain due to their supposedly rigid leather belts and in response, many Canadian departments are now switching to nylon belts because they are considered by some to be more flexible."

"Nylon duty gear is generally less expensive, lighter, and easier to maintain than leather gear of comparable quality. However, leather gear is generally regarded as having a more traditional and professional appearance. To combine the best of both materials, companies like Bianchi manufacture nylon duty gear that has the appearance of leather."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_duty_belt

Or of military dress shoes, often made of "synthetics", as they have a *nicer* appearance to actual animal skin.

"Clarino is the brand name of a synthetic leather-like material, commonly used in gloves, footwear, handbags, and law enforcement duty gear. Versions are made that simulate suede and top-grain leather. It is manufactured by Kuraray Co., Ltd. of Japan.
Being a man-made material, it is washable and retains its softness when wet, unlike natural leather."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarino

"Benefits
There are many benefits to using CLARINO, which makes it one of the world's most popular synthetic leathers.

Stronger and lighter than real leather

Thanks to many innovative technological acheivements, CLARINO manages to be both lightweight and inherently strong, sharing the same tensile strength as genuine leather. However, CLARINO is three times stronger than real leather, requiring only a third of real leather's weight to achieve equal tear strength.

Comfortable and Breathable

Like leather, CLARINO lets your body feel naturally at ease; it is dense yet microporous, allowing water vapor and heat to pass through. And because CLARINO is a breathable material, heat is dissipated in warm weather and retained in cold weather.
For suede material, the nylon composition gives CLARINO the same permeability-to-air and moisture found on high quality leathers. 

More durable and consistant over real leather

CLARINO resists abrasion better than real leather.
This thoroughly tough yet supple material is tremendously resistant to tearing, will not dry out or become brittle, and does not wear down even after many years of use.

Easy to care for

CLARINO/AMARETTA can be washed either by hand or with a machine. Light rain has no effect and will not leave water spots.
For more details on care, please see our maintenance page. 

Excellent versitality, many colors

CLARINO comes in dozens of colors and can be used in an incredible variety of ways: from supple and refined, to waterproof, to anti-bacterial use... the applications are nearly limitless!"

http://www.clarino-am.com/benefits.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_leather

Who'd you rather be, The Stig in MODERN racing gear, demonstrating how "traditional" German sports cars get humiliated by GT-R's several times less expensive:

or some overweight guy on a Hardly-Davidson, trying to relive a macho stereotype from 1950?  Especially when any Japanese bike is far superior, and perhaps half the price!

Lets never be afraid to mention "manly" professions which are turning away from the use of skin, and for technical reasons too, because synthetic is *superior*.

The times, they are a changin', so please, the-use-of-animal-skin, get out of the way if you cant keep up (with cutting edge Vegan appropriate fashion), this is the autobahn mate!

Episode 47 "Free Range is Just Another Word for, Nothing left to Lose"

Episode 47 "Free Range is just another word for nothing left to lose"

The new 2011 "Free Range" "Happy Egg" campaign from local Animal Rights/Welfare group SAFE, how SHOULD we treat our Chicken Friends?  Plus coverage of some movie, "Two Little Boys" ( http://www.facebook.com/TwoLittleBoysfilm )starring New Zealander Brett McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords) and some Australian guy nobodies heard of, Hamish, from "Hamish and Andy"

http://www.hamishandandy.com/

Download here to listen directly to the episode, or better yet, subscribe through iTunes to get each episode automagically!

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals

Recently theres been some kind of a video thing being recorded here in Invercargill New Zealand.  I saw the crew constantly buying furniture from the family Antique and Secondhand store where I work.   Its apparently a big deal.  Heres a clip from one of the Australian stars,  cant be that big a deal if an Australian gets near top billing, they recorded this podcast episode from a nearby radio studio.  Notice how Homo Australis simplify their names, Hamish becomes "hame", Andy, which, you'd think was already simple enough, don't want to blow their minds with the whole "andrew", becomes, apparently, in Australia, "ando".    They're a special lot, those Australians, their mothers love them.

Few rivalries go as deep as the Australio-New Zealandy war



*sigh*, no, we do NOT sound the same, "south-land", "dun-eden", they were trying to say South LIND, Dunedin, Invercargill!

Fair enough about the English guys comment, "like Chernobyl ", we may be a seemingly deserted area compared to the England, our Vegan Societies, and Associations seem to have memberships ranging from 1 up to a maximum of TWO members.  We cant compete with Vegan Ireland, and other Animal Rights groups in the United Kingdom.

With my mind stuck in 1992, it would take too long to sufficiently mock Australia, its pretty difficult to think of material you know, "oh, if you like giant islands colonized by hardened convicts, sent by ship to the other side of the world to hopefully die in the scorching desert heat, who survived by evolving into the missing link, who now drive about crappy Holden V8's and drink VB, come to Aussie, bring the sheila, fair dinkum, struth, stone the crows.  If you're called Bernard, we'll call ya Bazza, if you're called Sharon, ya now Shazza, Gary Francione would be Gazza Frazza… we have a big rock, a big bridge, and a big opera house that looks like its made from big sea shells, sorry cobber, I mean big sea shazzas" 

Meanwhile, my lovely little city ALONE boasts that movie accurately based on our own son Burt Munro, starring Hannibal Lecter as a crackpot who pees on lemon trees and builds world record beating motorbikes, by himself, just like Richard Pearse, the New Zealander who singlehanded built and flew a plane of his own design in the middle of nowhere BEFORE those crappy WRONG brothers, who had a whole factory of bicycle makers helping. Pearse was a little further up the South Island, but we also boast a one man Vegan society, AND our Pak n Save supermarket can offer underground parking.  Come to Invercargill, where dreams CAN come true! (small print disclaimer) as long as those dreams are about patting soft Chicken Friends and promoting Veganism with a secondhand USB microphone.



This episode, New Zealand "Animal Rights Groups" pimping Free Range



Well, promoting "Free Range" sure as heck isn't free, the Chickens enslaved are not free, and neither is the time or money spent by animal activists.   Perhaps this "me and Bobby McGee" we keep hearing about are feeling good, all it takes is a harmonica, or a couple bells and whistles apparently, but nothing is being done for our Chicken Friends.

I know what made me feel good, hearing the soft peeps of day old Chickens, who'd just hatched underneath their mother Hen.



Sadly, Can-Tucky, whatever that is, has more than one export.

SAFE have now forgotten about the Pigs, after claiming victory about one particular type of cage used against Pigs, now they can go on about Chickens in cages for a while.

I like most, almost all animals.  I have nothing against Pigs, I found it very sad to see the same old videos of them screaming and biting bars, covered in wounds over and over.  But if theres one nonhuman animal species I'm particularly close to, it would be Chickens.

And Chickens make up the VAST majority of casualties, when it comes to so called "Animal Agriculture".  Some 49 Billion of the 56 Billion animals we killed in 2007 were Chickens.  Of all the animal we "use", that we kill, perhaps Cows and Chickens are the most loving, the most caring for their own families, for their friends.  We abuse the workings of each species female bodies, of taking their eggs, of taking their milk, of taking their children, of taking their lives. 

Seriously, of all animals we know, who cares for each other more than Birds?  This is not something that can be argued, birds represent love, peace, community, and "tweeting" each other about what you think of the new Lady Gaga song, if it ripped off Madonna or not.

I'm not the only Vegan in Invercargill! PHOTO

There have been two instances in my life when I would have crashed a car, had I been driving.  The first was while visiting Wellington, going past "Magnum Mac", and seeing a Power Mac G5, complete with 30 inch Apple Cinema Display...

Gazing longingly through the shop window

 I'd always just KNOWN I preferred Apple Computers... from growing up with green on black classics, to actually finding Mac OS ... err...6, 7, 8?  more interesting on the ancient primary school computers, rather than the "newer" beige boxes running Windows 95.

But they were very rare in Invercargill!  True, during the early 90's, we had an Apple store here, selling, I dunno, Performas or some crap?  Until Sculley, Spindler, Amelio and co drove the company facedown into the ground.  That's before The Second Coming of Steve of course. 

High end Macs were rare.  I thought I'd never see a G5, they were like Lamborghini's, and I certainly didn't live in LA.

I was excited when my primary school got iMac G3's...the principal got an iMac DV for himself, with black casing...and...coming with an Optical Pro Mouse... the first mouse I'd ever seen without those awful "balls", it was glossy black, and it lit up.  I was in love!

I mean, the computers I used daily had mice with serial ports for crying out loud! They SCREWED IN to the big beige box!

So of course I was infatuated with this, you didn't have no crappy "mousepad", you had a BURNOUT pad! 



Sure, the red glowing "eye" reminded you of HAL 9000, it made you feel like we really WERE living in the future! Exciting times :-)

So imagine how excited I was to see an actual Power Mac G5, in the aluminium, with dual 64 bit Central Processing Units... I thought I'd died and gone to lonely loser heaven!

Check out the price tag for the screen by itself...

The 30 inch screen ALONE cost $6539 NZD....  Thats barely under 5K USD in todays money, I'm sure things have changed since the heady days of 2005, pre iPhone for crying out loud!

I later bought a secondhand Power Mac G5 of my own, with dual 2.3Ghz CPU's, and, fittingly, a 23 inch ACD.  It was marvellous, and to this day, it may be big, it was loud, it got very hot, it may be utterly outperformed by my i7 iMac... but THATS what a workstation SHOULD look like.  Like how broadcasters use the same million year old metal grille microphones, or how shoes like the Chuck Taylor have remained almost unchanged over the decades, thats what REAL computers look like.

I've got my G5 hidden in its original box in my attic.

What other MIRACLE could have me equally excited, as if a lightning bolt had struck?  Why, seeing a car bumper sticker, thats what!

I'm not the only Vegan living here!

And spotted on the SAME street I live on too!

To show what a loser I am, I went and said hello, and gave a couple of my Invercargill Vegan Society cards, along with one from the Auckland Abolitionist Vegan Association 

Vegans were as rare as Power Mac G5's in Invercargill, now I've met another one living here :-)   See, we're not all so lucky as to live in Auckland, where you can prance about handing out Vegan cupcakes with all your Vegan friends before going to a Vegan Restaurant :-)  We dont leave Facebook messages like (well, certainly not "we" when there was only one of you...) "oh, I'm so full from eating Vegan cupcakes!...", no, we cry ourselves to sleep each night, with only The Bottle to console our hurt.

Another Vegan in Invercargill, I hope we can stay in touch!  Maybe the "Invercargill Vegan Society" will soon have a second member?  Or perhaps hearing of how I loved exotic computers, and USB mice will have made me un-friendable?  Hopefully we'll soon see :-)

Welcome to the Otepuni Gardens, Invercargill, New Zealand VIDEO

So you'd like to move to Invercargill, New Zealand huh?

This video might help... or not!

Join me as "we" sit on a park bench, watching local Blackbirds (just missed the wild Rabbits), rubbish bins, and assorted Basilica-i :-)



Just like being here, right?

When our powers unite!

When a "Group", "Society" and "Association" join forces, you KNOW you're in for something good!

Presenting *drum roll please*

ARRNTi AAbVA! "Aunty Abva"

I reckon she'll put out about 1.21 Jiggawatts of pure Vegan advocacy!

Activists from around the world connecting and equally sharing our resources (unlike those CPU hogging Large Welfare Orgs)

 
Animal Rights and Rescue of North Texas

Invercargill Vegan Society

Auckland Abolitionist Vegans Association

---------------------------------------------------

   ARRNT

+ i (like a sniper, one member, one initial)

+ AAbVA

=

ARRNTi AAbVA! "Aunty Abva"

 Its going to be great carrying other "Groups" and "Associations" business cards of honour with me everywhere I go :-)  Very useful to show that Veganism is active, all around the world, even though there's (allegedly) just one active Vegan in Invercargill, New Zealand :-)

My favourite everyday means of promoting Veganism:

Invercargill Vegan Society Business Cards

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/12/invercargill-vegan-society-business.html

Invercargill Vegan Society wallet photos

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-being-walking-vegan-information.html

Zazzle store Coexisting Bags and badges

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-nz-vegan-zazzle-store-bags.html

Work Overalls badges

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/11/work-overalls-im-vegan-badges.html

iPhone use

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/12/iphone-or-ipod-touch-is-activists-best.html

Wild Ducklings VIDEO

I found some Wild Ducklings while visiting my geocache tonight :-)

No match in loveliness for my Black Chicky Wick (I've been listening to the audiobook of A Clockwork Orange too often...), but very nice none the less!

Soon after I took this video on my phone, sorry about the quality, hard to move across the very wet ground and also not disturb the others, some young droogs scared them away.

At first I didnt do anything, there were two of them, and one of me, but as I stood up to go over there, they stopped.

Lets appreciate other animals, not try and scare them, when they are so trusting.

Episode 46 Oprah goes... Vegan, "Veg*n", "veganish"...

Episode 46 Oprah goes…Vegan, "Veg*n", "Veganish" : she came, saw a fad diet, and was "challenged"

Listen by downloading directly here or better yet, subscribe in iTunes and get all episodes automagically, as they come out :-)

http://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/coexisting-with-nonhuman-animals/id334206335

Covering the 1st of February 2011 episode of "Oprah", which was apparently "about Veganism", which is actually a diet you know!  Oh, and "The Veganist", the world authority on Veganism believes that "singing Hens" produce ethical Eggs for our consumption, and that "small scale" raising and killing of Animals is a great thing!  But if you cant find a Hen who sings as she pops out Eggs for your breakfast, you should be Vegan…

You can download the episode of Oprah from a link on my earlier blogpost, its about 350MB and 40 minutes in length.

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2011/02/oprah-on-veganism-at-slaughterhouse.html

This episode of Oprah will no doubt be remembered as an important moment from 2011, for "Veganism".  Whether we agree or not with "The Veganist" and the promotion of a diet, to lose weight, that happens to be "Vegan", it will have been watched by millions of people worldwide, and deserves coverage.

I hope I've done my bit to talk about the episode.

Thank you to Lucas from www.ourveganpregnancy.blogspot.com for a great intro, clip AND rap about Veganism!  Also to the always fantastic Barbara DeGrande ( www.veganacious.com )  for her opinion on this episode of Oprah.

"Its EASY to be Vegan!" shirt PHOTOS

http://www.zazzle.co.nz/nzvegan

NZ Vegan Bags from Zazzle!

My very special NZ Vegan Podcast bags arrived!

Get yours here :-)

http://www.zazzle.co.nz/nzvegan

Oprah on Veganism, at the slaughterhouse VIDEO

** UPDATE **  I've been told the whole Oprah 1st February 2011 show is here, about 350MB, I'm downloading it now


http://hotfile.com/dl/101222783/be01a88/oprah.farewell.2011.02.01.hdtv.xvid-shotv.avi.html

And it turns out it IS indeed the full 42 minute episode without ads :-)

I've also covered the Oprah show on my last episode

http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2011/02/episode-46-oprah-goes-vegan-vegn.html

** UPDATE **


I found the slaughterhouse video section here, I think this is all that was shown, live
animals at a "feedlot", shown on their last day eating ground up corn (looks a lot like dirty hay I guess), before being driven, kept for two hours in tiny
barred in pens "to calm down", and then led to their deaths, a few at a time
through winding corridors.

"we couldnt show you the knocking", .... OH CMON! Surely, if you are Non Vegan,
you can deal with what goes on, right? I mean, "its the circle of life", right?
"its natural"...

Well, we see the camera focus on the reporters face as she watches them get
"stunned", mention of a four inch captive bolt that strikes each animal...

Then we see them hanging from the chain, their skins being taken off, their guts
out, their heads taken off, their heads upside down on conveyor belts while they
sort of "crow bar" their jaw off... while the representative explains this is
"respectful, dignified, we use each part of the animal as respect..."

Watching it, I could physically feel my jaw feel sore! Imagine having someone
snap your lower jaw off with a crowbar...

I'll be sure to include the audio from this clip on a future episode.


http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Inside-a-Slaughterhouse-Video

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this! It makes me all the more determined
to promote *Veganism*, after hearing all the buzzwords we've given them,
"dignity", "respect", "stunning", "we want them to be calm", "humane"...