by Jason on April 8, 2010
Longtime readers may recall that I’ve posted a link or two to Penny Arcade in the past, and longtime internet users might expect that “in,” “the,” and “past” would be hyperlinks to actual evidence of such a claim, but I don’t want to wreck it for when I use my time machine to republish VP in the year 1955 as a series of commemorative postcards, where links won’t work. (The time machine’s the easy part; deciding what the postcards will commemorate is the tough one.) Suffice it to say that I don’t play a lot of video games, and I don’t think Gabe and Tycho eat much tofu, but I feel like we’ve got a lot in common, somehow.
Exhibit R:
(The original can be found here)
And I’ve probably told this story before, but probably not to you, because you just got here (and the Google search you used will remain between us, at least until you achieve a major political office,) and it’s important to realize that most people still don’t know where gelatin comes from. Also, this is a chance to point out that I’ve dated at least two people.
Years ago, my girlfriend at the time, who is not Angela, was vegetarian, not vegan, and couldn’t figure out how to make me a birthday cake, but then she told me she’d made something really special. Cool! I get to her place, and there it is: a Jello cake. Made of Jello. Which is, as the internet is constantly trying to tell us, powdered bone slime.
The explanation phase was delicate, to say the least, though I’m not sure if she flushed it because she got the message about Jello being really really gross, or if she just felt bad about the incident. We, er, didn’t really stay in touch.
(Wow, most upbeat ending to a post EVER! Here, enjoy some NSFW Penny Arcade TV to cheer you up. It involves Chat Roulette. And penises, but you probably already guessed that part, what with Chat Roulette and all.)
by Jason on March 30, 2007
Dagda Samildanc reports that if you want to get fashion designers to drop fur from their lines, the secret isn’t to tell them that it’s cruel, or that it clashes with red paint, but rather that it’s boring. That’s the message that Prada is now pushing, and their autumn 2007 line will be fur free. I know next to nothing about fancy pants fashion (which is a more literal term in this context, I suppose), but Prada’s announcement is expected to have ripples in the industry, because what is and isn’t boring isn’t, uh, boring to those who track such things.
So is boring the new cruel? Maybe. Whenever I’m at a restaurant and need to order off the menu, the table is usually interested (in more than a polite way) with whatever special unique dish I’ve managed to get from the kitchen (tip: call ahead and give them advance notice), and their chunk of flesh with a side of starch doesn’t seem as exciting. Yo know what else is boring? Lying in a hospital bed after eating too many big macs, which, really, stopped being exciting themselves around the time in your life that The Grimace went from fun to kinda creepy. So yeah, maybe “boring” has its uses. Remember, you didn’t go vegan to give things up, you did it to make more room for the good stuff.
by Jason on February 26, 2007
Many vegans don’t have a problem with synthetic leather products, but fake fur can be a little more controversial, since it’s hard to distinguish from the real stuff and can send a message that fur is fashionable. What’s more, as AimeeLeigh79 reports, reading the label isn’t enough, and you might find yourself wearing the real thing without knowing it. The Humane Society of the United States recently tested 25 items from higher end fashion labels. 24 of the items were mislabeled or misadvertised. In some cases the products were marked as fake but weren’t, and in others the fur came from dogs. Most labels and stores, when contacted, pulled the items immediately, with the exception of Andrew Marc, who’re sticking their guns and disputing the HSUS findings. Someone (Stitches?) posted a guide to detecting fake fur a while back, but I think one of the best ways was to burn some of it, which might not fly inside a store. What’s your take on fake fur – if you knew 100% that it was fake, would you wear it? Link.
by Jason on February 16, 2007
abbienorml sent in the strangest companion animal memento you’ll see, well, this week, anyway: diamond rings formed from the ashes of Fido and Fifi. LifeGem UK performs the service by taking carbon from the ashes and compressing it at high temperatures to form diamonds, and yes, they do this with human remains as well. The service isn’t cheap (the example was 3,200 pounds), but it sure is weird. I really don’t have any commentary on this one, but it’s the kind of story that you just can’t look away from. Now, if the company could make rings out of the leftovers of great meals, or better still, out of pie, that’d be something I’d be totally into. Link.
by Jason on February 12, 2007
animalfriendly reports that scientists are working on a new type of fiberboard that’s primarily made of manure, versus the sawdust that’s currently in use today. Why the focus on manure? Well, it has something to do with “the [US] nation’s 1.5-trillion- to 2-trillion pound annual farm waste disposal problem.” While the mental imagery of this much manure and its effect on the environment is frightening, researchers are working on many initiatives like this that may, one day, if everyone’s really lucky, enable farmers to engage in cruel practices with relatively little environmental impact. Of course, that’ll involve finding a lot more places to put the waste. Forget Soylent Green – some day we might be looking at Soylent Poo. Link.
by Jason on February 8, 2007
Someone made a comment elsewhere that the balls used in the NBA and NFL weren’t leather anymore, but the thread got a little busy and I figure it might be a common misconception, hence the front page post. While the NBA did make a switch to a synthetic ball, the leather one returned on Jan 1. As for football, they’re all made by Wilson Sports, and as you can see on their website, they’re leather as well. Now for the quiz of the day: what’s the most major sport with the least animal products used?
by Jason on January 10, 2007
porkypunk found a Chinese pig-related invention even weirder than yesterday’s glow in the dark pig: flavoured stamps to celebrate the upcoming year of the pig. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the stamps don’t taste like pig manure or antibiotics, with authorities opting for a sweet and sour pork flavour instead, accompanied with a picture of a cartoon sow and her piglets. Our stamps are sticker-based now, so I don’t have to worry about ingesting any flavoured glue anytime soon, but technically, since tofu tends to taste like whatever it’s cooked with, modern stamps all taste like tofu-glue casserole. If you had to choose a flavour for a stamp, which one would you pick? Link.
by Jason on November 22, 2006
lizziebee reports that the EU has proposed a ban on items made with dog and cat fur. Unlike some directives I’ve seen that only block production or local sale of offensive items, which effectively turns it into a “we’re better than you” posturing move, this ban would block import, production and sale of anything with dog or cat fur (except, I suppose, live dogs and cats) in any of the 25 EU nations. The move stems from the fact that most EU citizens view dogs and cats as companions rather than as raw materials, which isn’t really fair to rabbits, ferrets, possums, and giraffes, if you ask me. Still, “pet” status is increasingly becoming mutually exclusive with “food” or “hat” status, which is a step in the right direction (though some would say it’s a bit of a detour). Maybe it’s time to challenge people’s perceptions of what constitues a companion animal. Call your pet store today to ask them if they have any specials on cows. Link.
by Jason on October 11, 2006
If you haven’t heard of an LED throwie before, it’s basically something that combines lights and magnets so you can throw it at something metal and it’ll stick and glow and stuff. Now, an LED throwie rat, as found by many pornstars including vegandinner, is basically the same thing stuffed into the body of a dead rat, and someone out there has decided not only to make one, but to post (very graphic) instructions on how to do it yourself. I expect that this wouldn’t appeal to most readers of this site, both vegan and omnivore, but the author’s defense of the concept is worth repeating: “I have two questions for you: do you wear leather, and do you eat meat? If you answered yes to either, can you/would you kill and prepare the animals necessary to procure this meat and leather? Willfully ignoring the source of your food and clothing hypocritically outsources the ethical questions and is ultimately disrespectful to the animals involved.” Of course, I don’t think that people who eat meat should start carving up dead rats, but people who eat animals yet are disturbed by this “invention” might want to stick around VP for a while and see if there isn’t a better way to go. Link (warning: graphic and disturbing)
by Jason on September 22, 2006
True story: the last eggs I ever ate were fertilized. There wasn’t anything other than the usual yolk and white in them, and maybe it was because they were from a different kind of bird, but they tasted somehow… thicker, and it made it a lot easier to drop the stuff. This all came home to me when Ange sent me a link to some content from Attila, one of our MySpace friends: Link (warning: very very gross)
