Ecology
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On violence and gratitude.
Although I consider myself a benevolent tyrant, some of my cells have turned against me. Mutinous, they were swayed by the propaganda of a virus and started churning out capsids rather than helping me type this essay. Which leaves me sitting at a YMCA snack room table snerking, goo leaking down my throat and out…
animal cruelty, animal life, animal welfare, apoptosis, appreciation, autotroph, biology, biology from a cell’s perspective, cancer, cancer biology, cell biology, cell death, cellular biology, cold, competition, consciousness, cooperation, cost, defection, DNA, do plants have feelings, doom, eat more plants, ethics, farming, gamete, genetics, germ cell, herbivore, heterotroph, immunology, inevitable death, irrationality, metastasis, microbiology, molecular biology, multicellular organisms, other perspectives, photosynthesis, plant-based diet, plant-based lifestyle, programmed cell death, psych experiment, psychology, Richard Dawkins, sacrifice, self sacrifice, selfish gene, sick, somatic cell, Suzana Huculano-Houzel, terrorism, The Human Advantage, the inevitability of death, tyrant, value, vegan, veganism, vegetarian, violence, viral infection, virology, virus, we value what we pay for, wine, wine tasting
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On smell (again!).
In our polluted world, animals can’t always find their own kind to mate with. Not that all species barriers are good.
assortive mating, CAFO, CAFOs, chimera, choosing mates, choosing romantic partners, continuing evolution, cultural barriers, evolution, fish, heredity, history of violence in the U.S., human evolution, inequality, Loving, Loving v. Virginia, mating, mating based on smell, melanin, miscegenation, parental education, perfume, persistence of inequality, pollution, poverty, racism, romance, scent, skin color, slavery, smell, speciation, species, stick insects, wealth, wealth inequality, Wedekind
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On genetic inheritance and sexual assault.
Violence flourishes whenever people want control without putting in the work. But humans can stand against injustice.
animal breeding, arranged marriage, CAFO, consent, duck genitalia, duck rape, duck sex, ducks, evolution, factory farming, feminism, feminist, forcible fertilization, freedom, freedom of choice, gender violence, genetic inheritence, injustice, instinct, instinctual behaviors, interspecies sexual assault, lek mating, male feminists, manakin, mate choice, mating strategies, Mean, Myriam Gurba, orangutan, parenting, patriarchy, post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, puppy mill, rape, rape culture, rape in nature, sexual assault, sexual autonomy, sexual violence, slut shaming, smooth guardian frogs, the opportunity to consent is sexy, violative assault, violence, what does evolution want, zoo, zoos
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On animals that speak, including humans.
Tom Wolfe & Noam Chomsky both claim that no other animals are capable of anything like human speech … while scientists are finally learning to listen.
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On Edward Dolnick’s ‘The Seeds of Life’ and artificial wombs.
Among the smooth guardian frogs of Borneo, females croon to the males, attempting to woo a mate. This is abnormal for frogs: usually females are serenaded. But males of this species are the most devoted parents – they guard the fertilized eggs and carry tadpoles from pond to pond after they hatch. Whereas the females…
creator gods, Drona, Edward Dolnick, Egyptian mythology, evolution, feminism, Hindu mythology, Indian mythology, mate choice, mating practices, mythology, myths, parental effort, paterogenesis, pregnancy, semen, smooth guardian frogs, The Seeds of Life, unilateral reproduction, Wendy Doniger, Women Androgynes and Other Mythical Beasts
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On the sounds of aberrant ecosystems
The world humans are born into inevitably seems normal, no matter how hot, or loud, or empty of animals…
acidity, anthropocene, birds, buffer, buffering, climate change, climate destabilization, Collapse, cultivation, cultural extinction, David Haskell, deforestation, depopulation, directed evolution, domestication, Easter Island, endangered species, environmentalism, evolution, extinction, global warming, Goblin Nabob, Herman Melville, industrial revolution, innovation, Jared Diamond, landscape amnesia, loss of diversity, Magic, Magic the Gathering, mass extinction, Michael McCarthy, Moby Dick, natural renewal, noise pollution, ocean, outdoor cats, overpopulation, population crash, progress, renewal, songbirds, sperm whale, Squee, technology, The Moth Snowstorm, The Songs of Trees, vegan, veganism, whale, where have all the insects gone, windshield phenomenon
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On the Tower of Babel and beneficial curses.
Kind-hearted citizens of the United States needed to be saved from our own complacency.
45, Abdelfattah Kilito, attorney general, Avigdor Shinan, Babel, Babylon, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Bible, climate change, climate destabilization, complacency, congress, cooperation, Cugel the Clever, curse, democrat, Democratic Party, diversity, Donald Trump, education, Elif Batuman, English, Eyes of the Overworld, From Gods to God, Gate of the Gods, Gateway to Heaven, global warming, God, God’s Gate, health care, health care reform, Heisenberg, Ismael, Jack Vance, language, linguistics, mass incarceration, monoculture, Old Testament, personal responbility, perspective, politics, PotUS, President, Quran, republican, Robyn Creswell, sentencing reform, tax code, tax cut, Thai, The Idiot, The Tongue of Adam, tongue, Tower of Babel, Trump, Turkish, uncertainty principle, Valerie Zakovitch, Whorf hypothesis, Yahweh, Yair Zakovitch
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On storytelling.
Our myths engulf each other… but some stray remnants live on.
amoeba, animal life, Avigdor Shinan, Baal, Babylonian myths, Bible, biology, cellular biology, Christianity, dragons in bible, Eden, evolution, From Gods to God, Genesis, great whales, Jesus, King James, Marduk, mitochondria, morality, myth, mythology, narrative, Old Testament, origin of Bible, origin stories, paradise, polemic, Quran, reframing, religion, Religion in Human Evolution, Robert Bellah, science, sea dragons, sea monsters, storytelling, teleological misconception, Tiamat, Tower of Babel, Umberto Cassuto, Valerie Zakovitch, Yahweh, Yair Zakovitch
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On naked mole-rats.
Naked mole-rats shrug off pain, & cancer, & even time itself… but can they withstand the curiosity of Homo sapiens?
age-related diseases, age-related mortality, aging, animal cognition, animal research, animal welfare, anoxia, anoxia resistance, apoxia resistance, breeding, caloric restriction, cancer, cancer immunity, cancer resistance, cancer susceptibility, carbon dioxide poisoning, chemotherapy, Christopher Byrd, civil war, compassion, cooperation, cooperative childcare, Creep, cruelty, David Stipp, death curve, Eliot Weinberger, environmentalism, eusocial, eusocial mammals, eusociality, evolution, evolution of eusociality, food insecurity, fructose, Fructose-driven glycolysis, glucose, good stewardship, high-molecular-mass hyaluronan, hit single, hyaluronan, hypoxia, immortality, jail poetry, Jennifer Jarvis, Karmic Traces, lab mice, Laboratory Animal Welfare Act, laboratory animals, laboratory research, lifespan, lifespan elongation, limited senescence, longevity, mating habits, metabolism, mutation, Naked Mole-Rats, naked molerats, New Yorker, Norman Dubie, observation, opiates, Orange and Peanuts for Sale, Oranges and Peanuts for Sale, oxidation, oxidative stress, oxygen deprivation, pain, painkillers, Park et al., poetry, prison poetry, Radiohead, recycling, research animals, Richard Alexander, Selective Inflammatory Pain Insensitivity, Stalin, starvation, stroke, The Biology of Naked Mole-Rats, The Ghosts of Birds, The Marshall Cloud, Thomas Park, Tian et al., tumor, tumor resistance, tumorogenesis, What Happened Here, Xiao Tian
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On elephants.
We humans have treated elephants abysmally — not in spite of their magnificence, but because of it.
animal abuse, animal cognition, Animals Strike Curious Poses, broken families, Ciaran Berry, circus, dance, ecotourism, electricity, electrocuting an elephant, Elena Passarello, elephant brains, elephants, environmental destruction, exploitation, high school, hippocampus, Jumbo II, male role models, memory, post traumatic stress disorder, prom, PTSD, Ringling Brothers, tool use, torture, wayward youth
Frank Brown Cloud 