Stuff
My writing is moving slowly. Right now I am describing for the first time the use of at least one weapon in the personal arsenals my alien TeLaxaudin carry on them. Hinted at, but not yet seen, they are based on Babylon 5's idea of techomages, but with less of the magic. Maybe that's why I've been needing to play Torchlight the last couple of evenings! It's a Diabloesque dungeon crawl game, and great fun.
It's difficult to concentrate on writing so it kinda gets done as I curl up in bed. Right now I am job hunting, have been since Dec 12th when I finished my Associate's in Administration of Justice, Forensic Technology. Cut backs around here mean I will prolly have to look further afield, but right now I need a job, any kind of job. Which is why yesterday I was out at Seaworld for an interview as a photographer. Could only take a few of my college pix with me as they are all of mock crime scenes! Pictures of inelegantly posed mannequins on the floor, or behind a driving wheel are just not what would give a good impression!
Which brings me to something I read in the news - scientists are looking to have dolphins and whales declared sentient non-humans, so preventing them from being kept in captivity, doing tricks - and will put a spanner in their military use too, unless I am mistaken. Call me suspicious, but I wonder why this has suddenly become important. And I don't think it has to do with PETA's latest folly of a court case claiming killer whales are being "enslaved" by Seaworld.. Is this a step toward opening the door to having "rights" for other non-humans? Have my Sholans actually landed?? Dammit, Kusac, you should have told me! :)
This all begs the question on how you quantify intelligence, culture, a society that is very different from what we understand those concepts to be. I feel we need to respect all life, but at the same time, there are people needing "human rights" and we should be addressing that first. Where do you draw the line? Ants have communities and a culture of their own - they feed the young, communicate, have a social structure. Cats can recognize themselves in a mirror, chimps too, and can learn human words, and perhaps even sign language, though the jury is still out on that.
I used to believe in a global community but seeing the EU in action and how the common currency is doing badly, I think we should concentrate on things like stopping the killing of dolphins and whales. There is the whale/dolphin killing festival in the Faroes. I've read articles where they argue they need to do this as it is a staple food source, yet journalists and photographers have seen them tossing old meat out of their freezers uneaten so there is room for the current year's kills!
While we are at it, let's do something about policing fishing styles and nets so fish aren't being fished to death by too small a net, or the wrong kind of fishing. Cod, which was plentiful around the UK has been fished almost to death by EU policies that are wrong.
And most important, let's make it painful financially for all those firms who illegally dump waste out at sea and pay the pathetically small fine as it is cheaper than making their industries create less toxic waste! Let's also put real pressure on countries to respect actual Human Rights! Gender freedoms too, women's rights, the right to be gay. Those are all causes more important than granting "non-human" rights to dolphins and killer whales.
It's difficult to concentrate on writing so it kinda gets done as I curl up in bed. Right now I am job hunting, have been since Dec 12th when I finished my Associate's in Administration of Justice, Forensic Technology. Cut backs around here mean I will prolly have to look further afield, but right now I need a job, any kind of job. Which is why yesterday I was out at Seaworld for an interview as a photographer. Could only take a few of my college pix with me as they are all of mock crime scenes! Pictures of inelegantly posed mannequins on the floor, or behind a driving wheel are just not what would give a good impression!
Which brings me to something I read in the news - scientists are looking to have dolphins and whales declared sentient non-humans, so preventing them from being kept in captivity, doing tricks - and will put a spanner in their military use too, unless I am mistaken. Call me suspicious, but I wonder why this has suddenly become important. And I don't think it has to do with PETA's latest folly of a court case claiming killer whales are being "enslaved" by Seaworld.. Is this a step toward opening the door to having "rights" for other non-humans? Have my Sholans actually landed?? Dammit, Kusac, you should have told me! :)
This all begs the question on how you quantify intelligence, culture, a society that is very different from what we understand those concepts to be. I feel we need to respect all life, but at the same time, there are people needing "human rights" and we should be addressing that first. Where do you draw the line? Ants have communities and a culture of their own - they feed the young, communicate, have a social structure. Cats can recognize themselves in a mirror, chimps too, and can learn human words, and perhaps even sign language, though the jury is still out on that.
I used to believe in a global community but seeing the EU in action and how the common currency is doing badly, I think we should concentrate on things like stopping the killing of dolphins and whales. There is the whale/dolphin killing festival in the Faroes. I've read articles where they argue they need to do this as it is a staple food source, yet journalists and photographers have seen them tossing old meat out of their freezers uneaten so there is room for the current year's kills!
While we are at it, let's do something about policing fishing styles and nets so fish aren't being fished to death by too small a net, or the wrong kind of fishing. Cod, which was plentiful around the UK has been fished almost to death by EU policies that are wrong.
And most important, let's make it painful financially for all those firms who illegally dump waste out at sea and pay the pathetically small fine as it is cheaper than making their industries create less toxic waste! Let's also put real pressure on countries to respect actual Human Rights! Gender freedoms too, women's rights, the right to be gay. Those are all causes more important than granting "non-human" rights to dolphins and killer whales.