What we choose to eat makes a potent statement about our ethics and our view of the world -- about our very humanity. Whenever we choose not to buy meat, and eggs, we withdraw our support from cruelty to animals, undertake an economic boycott of factory farms, and support the production of vegetarian foods.
Regardless of any other beliefs we hold and however else we choose to lead our lives, each of us can decide to act with kindness and empathy. Making humane choices is the ultimate affirmation of our humanity and compassion. Ultimately, living with compassion means striving to maximize the good we accomplish. It is all very easy to say that individuals must wrestle with their consciences--but only if their consciences are awake and informed. I feel that industrial societies today hide animals’ suffering. For modern animal agriculture, the less the consumer knows about what’s happening before the meat hits their plate, the better.
Is this an ethical battle? Should we be reluctant to let people know what really goes on?
Generally when I speak to meat-eaters about this topic, I used to tell them that there are two counters to the human vs. other predator comparison: humans know that their actions cause pain and suffering (although there is a tendency toward denial), and humans have a choice between eating plants and animals (many predators do not). Of course the answers that I get back are that humans are allowed to participate in the ecosystem just as wolves or cats would.
But there is big difference between a band of hunter gatherers and modern human civilization. We have moved outside of any natural position in the Earth's ecosystem. Yes, in the Earth’s naturally existing eco-system, some animals will die as prey of their predators, but they have the opportunity to survive and flourish based on their skill and luck, not to mention how spectacularly hearty and different their environment is, when they are in their original natural surroundings. They are obviously the most happy in that natural eco-system where they are supposed to be!
Today Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and fish have no choice but to live a fore-ordained course from birth to the dinner plate. They are quartered, bred, and slaughtered for food in ways that are strikingly different from their natural lives. They live their entire lives in slavery, without any chance of a natural life; their existence is often miserable, amounting to torture; and then they are killed. The lack of opportunity; opportunity to compete, breed, evolve and express themselves - things that they would have done in their natural habitat is unacceptable!
They are fed growth hormones so that they grow unnaturally fast and fat. They are fed food that they would not naturally eat (e.g. herbivores are fed slaughterhouse remains). Pigs and chickens are raised in metal cages their entire lives; in some cases they grow large enough that their bodies strain the wire mesh of the cages. Male chicks are thrown in plastic bags when they hatch and smothered because only a few roosters are needed; female chickens are debeaked without the use of painkillers. Cows are kept pregnant most of the time for their milk; their calves do not receive their milk, but are fed less nutritious substitutes, kept crated and chained for immobility, and then killed and sold as veal. Fish are nearly extinct in the oceans as the result of over fishing.
A PLEA TO YOU: The immeasurable suffering of animals today can be most effectively diminished whenever people stop eating meat or stop supporting any other causes that would augment their suffering/killing. I and my entire family invite you to help us help the animals and put an end to their suffering. Please also visit www.meat.org. It has a very graphical and emotionally disturbing video but will really put into perspective all what I am talking about.
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Sometimes they fly so
low that you can almost touch them, especially if you are on 237 next to the Sunnyvale golf
course. No kidding! I've been to the old Sunnyvale Mall to see the C-130s up
and close...what an awesome sight to behold when they pass literally a few meters
above you.
Before this
acquisition, I have used Hertz’s popular Neverlost many times. In Hertz rental
cars, the Neverlost system is usually located right next to the gear shifter
and is a tad bit hard to look at. But it has a big screen and makes up for the inconvenience.
The i3 can be positioned anywhere on the car’s windshield or the dashboard. I
really would like to position it on the windshield, but
Each time I
use the GPS – it amazes and delights me! This wonderful invention offers ultra convenience
of not carrying paper based maps in the car anymore. Not to mention the amount
of clutter, printer ink and paper it saves. It also offers a great deal of spontaneity
on the road which otherwise would not be possible - unless one is familiar with
the area being cruised around. Besides the fact that some satellite many miles
up is having an active downlink to the little device gets me giddy each time I
think about it!
After Labor Day, the holidays seem to approach us faster and faster, YIPEE! Can you believe that another year is almost over?
We just returned from our amazing trip to the
We made one fun visit to
While we were there, we also made a point of visiting the downtown area of 
Such a treasure our precious Nivi is,
Who will thrive on every hug and kiss.
We want to hold her close and sing her songs,
For she will only be a child so long.
I know that as parents we are like a beacon guiding her all along which makes me nervous. In all my modesty I sometimes wonder am I the best role model for her? I am not sure, but I know for sure that I will do my very best to love her boundlessly, share stories about courage, kindness, humor and determination and then let her explore her own identity! I will always promise to hold her but not hold on to her as parenting is a continual process of letting go, a series of gains and losses metered out over months and years. At least, that's been my experience so far. I came across a beautiful poem on how our kids absorb so much from parents and would like to share it.
To Every Parent:
There are little eyes upon you,
And they are watching night and day;
There are little ears that quickly take
In every word you say;
There are little hands all eager to do
Everything you do,
And a little child who's dreaming of
The day she'll be like you.
You're the little child's idol,
You're the wisest of the wise,
In her little mind about you,
No suspicions ever rise;
she believes in you devoutly,
Holds all you say and do;
she will say and do in your way when
she's grown up to be like you.
There's a wide eyed little child who
Believes you're always right,
And her ears are always open and she
Watches day and night;
You are setting an example
Everyday in all you do
For the little child who's waiting
To grow up to be like you.
Author Unknown
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So, while tea drinking is embellished with great ceremony in such places as India, China, and Great Britain, I think that in the more hurrying culture of the U.S., tea is viewed as just another beverage. Americans drink mostly iced tea. And as you would have guessed, the brew is much less popular than soft drinks, beer, coffee, milk, fruit beverages, or bottled water. I want to raise awareness that drinking tea-hot or iced-may be an easy, pleasurable way to get some serious health benefits. A number of recent studies add support to earlier findings about the benefits of tea and reveal some possible new ones. The evidence for those benefits is strongest for green tea.
Some obvious benefits include,
Me and my husband now love Indian tea and drink a lot of it. At the same time I would like to throw some light on green tea. The several health benefits of green tea have been attributed to the antioxidants it contains, which are largely destroyed when green tea leaves are processed to produce black tea.
Okay, let me backtrack here. There are three types of tea Black, Oolong, and Green tea. The difference between the Green tea and the others is that green tea is not fermented, thus keeping in the powerful antioxidants lost in the fermenting process. Sometimes I just sip Green tea all day at work and enjoy that experience equally as our Indian chai.
Summing Up
Tea components clearly influence many cellular functions. Green tea contains a higher concentration of, and resulting protective effect from polyphenols than fermented black or partially fermented oolong teas. But nevertheless, evidence of tea’s beneficial properties continues to accumulate. We should consider tea as an important part of a healthful diet.
When I was a little girl, I always used to do star gazing with my dad. I only saw a small amount of stars (which can be seen by the naked eye). In fact it is an amount so small that it is a comparable to a handful of sand on the beach. While the exact number can't be known just yet, many estimates have been given. Most of them, with the exception of the Sun, are trillions of miles away and because they are so far, they seem to us like little specks of light, but in actuality they can be millions of miles wide in diameter. Stars are located in galaxies, but a galaxy contains more than just stars. Clouds of dust and gas, called nebulae, are where stars are born.
In our galaxy alone, the Milky Way, there is a predicted 3 billion to 100 billion stars. So while the stories and myths live on about the night sky, the exact number of stars is still not known, as space is truly and absolutely the final frontier.
"The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination."
There you have it -- space is big, probably too big for us to be messing around in its dark expanses. Nonetheless, authors and filmmakers have devised countless adventures that take place far from our world. In many of these stories, the sheer bigness of it all doesn't seem to present a great obstacle to travelers. No one has much trouble getting across the universe in the Star Wars or Star Trek movies, what with modern conveniences like warp drives and light speed. Teleportation devices are also handy, provided you don't go in the pod at the same time as an insect.
Is there a humbling religious perspective on the exploration of outer space? What about the questions that drive our imaginations - the possibility of life on other planets -- even to consider going there? What about other questions involving our comprehension of the immensity of the universe and humanity's tiny place in it? The universe to me is profoundly humbling, and the vastness of the creation a testimony to the infinite power and majesty of the one who called it into being. This sense of our smallness and God's unlimited magnificence is important for us to realize.
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