Technology

annak writes: “Laser beams on their heads! From the wacky creepy wish it were sci-fi department, the US military is planning to implant electrodes into sharks’ brains to control their minds and make them follow ships for surveillance. I’m not sure whether I find this more disturbing from an animal rights perspective or from the ‘how long until they’re trying to control humans’ minds?’ perspective.” Of particular irony is the paragraph voicing the government’s concern for the sharks’ health. Link.

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It might seem like we post a lot of stories about biodiesel here which at first glance don’t appear to be vegan-related, but that’s just because a lot of the stories we don’t post have disturbing news about using waste products from slaughterhouses to power the cars. We think that nightmarish scenario deserves fighting with a few pixels here and there, so we’ve been writing about the occasional car or bus that runs on vegetable oil. The one theme that seems to resonate in the comments is “where can I get one,” and we’ve finally got an answer for you, courtesy of kunsjoi: LAX airport in Los Angeles, where Bio-Beetles Rental Cars will rent out their modified Volkswagens (they have Jettas and Passats too) for $199 a week. Unfortunately, you can only fuel up at one pump in Culver City right now, but the cars can do between 400 and 800 miles on a tank, so that might work out, especially if your knowledge of geography is as stellar as mine – hey, how big could a city be? Link.

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Dave Noisy sent in a story about bio-diesel, and this one’s purely about soy, which is cool, and it’s about a car that was displayed at the recent Philadelphia Auto Show, which is cool, and the car was built by a group of high school students who previously had bad grades and were prone to dropping out, which is, again, cool. Do you suppose that Disney’s optioned the movie rights yet? This isn’t the first story we’ve run about a high school making a vehicle that runs on plant-based energy sources, and I doubt it’ll be the last. With 80% of soybeans currently fed to cows, it’s nice to see that soy farmers won’t be out of work (if anything, they could be richer) when vegetarianism gets more widely adopted, although it’s going to take some adjustment to get used to the phrase “big soya.” Link.

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phatvegan sent in a new Japanese trend (2 of the last three words are probably redundant): fake sweets disguised as fast food. Supposedly Japanese businessmen find elaborate cakes embarrassing to eat, so the disguised treat make the snacks more respectable (although I’d be embarrassed to be seen eating french fries, personally). We really need this concept extended to tofu. The veggie burger has helped a lot of people adopt a veg diet without standing out in a crowd, but I think there’s a clear need for more stealth offerings for the stuff that society still thinks is a little unusual. And yes, I’m looking at you, wheat grass juice. Link.

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Nessie wrote in to let us know that scientists have managed to derive human stem cells without the use of animal products. In the past, various hormones and animal serums (I prefer “juices” to “serums”) have been used in the process, but the new technique developed by a Wisconsin-based company appears to be a purely human endeavor. This is important for two reasons: 1st, from a vegan perspective, it’s not animal based (beyond human-animal, anyway, but I think I’d be more terrified if the stem cells were derived from soy), and 2nd, this reduces the threat of animal-based retroviruses from entering the mix. Now if scientists could just stop inserting human stem cells into mice… Regardless of your thoughts on stem cell technology in general, this is a decent piece of vegan news.