Monday, December 21, 2009

"Snow, man"

"Snow, man" is a mixed-media collage by Morris Armstrong Jr. proudly a.k.a. "Little Mo" author of the new prose+scrapbook novel now previewing at http://TheConcreteJungleBook.com. Original page 9 X 12" in spiral-bound sketchbook; scrapbook papers; disposable dark plastic glasses from eye doctor. (This photo is not a final version for publication.)

Friday, December 18, 2009

The lure of illustrated children's books | Books | The Guardian

Guardian: The lure of illustrated children's books:
"…Experts distinguish between "illustrated books", where the picture complements the text, and "picture books", where the pictures come first. But in reality the two often overlap, and words and pictures cast a combined spell.… Each new generation has embraced new writers and artists. And in the past 50 years, the qualities of the book as a three-dimensional object have also been increasingly exploited, from the advent of board books and textured, 'feely' board to the use of cut-outs and pop-ups (a return to a device popular in Victorian nursery rhymes and fairytales). Sometimes I feel that the realm of children's picture books is the one place that 'book art' – playing with a book as a visual, tactile object – has found a home in the commercial world."

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

"he undeniable parallels between human and nonhuman animal exploitation and enslavement"

…from: Direct Action, Liberation and the Need to Persist

…Nearly defenseless against humans, the most dangerous and destructive species ever to stalk the planet, nonhuman animals suffer egregious exploitation. Circuses, rodeos, vivisection labs, factory farms, zoos, puppy mills, public and private areas where hunting and fishing are permitted, and numerous other entities and places objectify living, sentient beings, using and abusing them as they see fit to derive profits and pleasure. It is morally abhorrent that our species subjugates, tortures, and wantonly massacres millions upon millions of individuals from other species day after day—and we could readily live without the benefits that we derive from these heinous acts or we could attain those benefits in other ways.

Animal liberation naturally aligns with other liberation movements because the exploitation and oppression of nonhuman animals occur to such a broad extent and because humans are able to perpetrate these reprehensible acts so readily—due to the defenselessness of the animals and because law, culture and society endorse, condone, and promote these abject cruelties. Slavery, exploitation, and oppression of humans trace their roots to the objectification and subjugation of nonhuman animals that began some 12,000 years ago when we started “domesticating” them. Many of the tools (i.e. shackles and branding) we used to enslave people are still in use today for enslaving “farm” animals. To learn far more about the undeniable parallels between human and nonhuman animal exploitation and enslavement, I highly recommend Marjorie Spiegel’s book entitled “The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery.”

If we are to break the chains of economic tyranny, patriarchy, racism, classism, imperialism, and other forms of human oppression, we need to get to the root of dominionism and liberate nonhuman animals—allowing them to live free of human-inflicted enslavement, torture, and death…

"the undeniable parallels between human and nonhuman animal exploitation and enslavement"

…Nearly defenseless against humans, the most dangerous and destructive species ever to stalk the planet, nonhuman animals suffer egregious exploitation. Circuses, rodeos, vivisection labs, factory farms, zoos, puppy mills, public and private areas where hunting and fishing are permitted, and numerous other entities and places objectify living, sentient beings, using and abusing them as they see fit to derive profits and pleasure. It is morally abhorrent that our species subjugates, tortures, and wantonly massacres millions upon millions of individuals from other species day after day—and we could readily live without the benefits that we derive from these heinous acts or we could attain those benefits in other ways.

Animal liberation naturally aligns with other liberation movements because the exploitation and oppression of nonhuman animals occur to such a broad extent and because humans are able to perpetrate these reprehensible acts so readily—due to the defenselessness of the animals and because law, culture and society endorse, condone, and promote these abject cruelties. Slavery, exploitation, and oppression of humans trace their roots to the objectification and subjugation of nonhuman animals that began some 12,000 years ago when we started “domesticating” them. Many of the tools (i.e. shackles and branding) we used to enslave people are still in use today for enslaving “farm” animals. To learn far more about the undeniable parallels between human and nonhuman animal exploitation and enslavement, I highly recommend Marjorie Spiegel’s book entitled “The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery.” If we are to break the chains of economic tyranny, patriarchy, racism, classism, imperialism, and other forms of human oppression, we need to get to the root of dominionism and liberate nonhuman animals—allowing them to live free of human-inflicted enslavement, torture, and death.

…from: Direct Action, Liberation and the Need to Persist

sale on avacados 1220091-2


sale on avacados 1220091-2
Originally uploaded by Regorio

Saturday, December 5, 2009

eatyobaby propaganda!


eatyobaby propaganda!
Originally uploaded by newmind!

Rue Dénoyez 20è - Dash & Esty


Featured: Two Recent Books on Animal Morality [Vol. 2, #47]

Two Recent Books on Animal Morality
…Few people today would question that many nonhuman animals have rich cognitive and emotional lives, but the assertion that animals also exhibit morality is still guaranteed to raise some hackles. Nonetheless, the evidence is growing, and two recent books present highly readable, entertaining, and informative surveys of the expression of morality in nonhuman animals: Frans de Waal’s The Age of Empathy, and Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce’s Wild Justice.…

The Chimpanzee – A Pre-Religious, Highly Social Species | the evolving mind

the evolving mind: The Chimpanzee – A Pre-Religious, Highly Social Species |

While chimpanzees build no churches in which they bow down to an invisible alpha, they do engage in some behaviors that could be considered pre-religious. For example, chimpanzees will make threat displays at an approaching thunderstorm, as if attempting to bluff it away. In this case they have extended a natural propensity beyond the domain of real agents, where a threat might produce results, to the domain of non-agents (storms), where the threat will absolutely not produce results in the form of influencing the behavior of the target entity.

I will develop and discuss this aspect of chimpanzee psychology — and possibly our evolutionary heritage as it pertains to superstitious and religious behavior — in a future series of posts in my Almighty Alpha project. The title to that series: “The Buds of Religious Behavior.”

In the near term, we will continue our examination of whether or not the chimpanzee deserves identification as the truest proto-human and thus legitimate focus of evolutionary psychology.…