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Conservation Biologist Thor Hansen explains why feathers matter  »

This week on Fresh Air, Terri Gross interviewed Thor Hanson, a conservation biologist and author of the newly published Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle. As part of his research, he plucked a dead wren to count its feathers. It had 1,500. A tiny wren, like the Australian white-winged fairy wren in the photo!

In the interview, which you can listen to on NPR, Hanson discusses the biological makeup of feathers, why he thinks birds evolved feathers, and how they adapted them to flight. The first feathered animals might’ve used them primarily for insulation, and now, every single individual flight feather is an airfoil, while being part of the airfoil that is the bird’s wing. Double-airfoil action for maximum flight!

Animals are amazing! So is science!

[white-winged fairy wren photo by David Cook Wildlife Photography, via Flickr]

Guest contest: Donate to win a beautiful portrait of a farm sanctuary animal!  »

Sharon Lee Hart is the author of the photography collection Sanctuary: Portraits of Rescued Farm Animals, and a participant in this year’s Farm Sanctuary Walk for Farm Animals, for which she’s asking for your help fundraising. If you help, you could win a 16-by-16-inch photograph of your choice from Sharon’s book. Take a look—they’re beautiful!

Sharon says it’s as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Donate $10 or more to support me in the Walk for Farm Animals; 100 percent of the funds raised go to Farm Sanctuary. Make sure you include your email address so I can contact you if you win.
2. Wait: I will chose one winner at random from those that donate between today and Sept. 30. I will contact the winner no later than Oct. 5 and ask them to select the photograph they would like from my website.
3. I will print your chosen photograph with the finest archival materials, expertly package it up, and ship it off to you in a timely manner.

Want to know more about the book? Sharon can tell you all about it!

This first monograph by Lexington–based photographer Sharon Lee Hart is a book of dignified black-and-white portraits of rescued farm animals, accompanied by handwritten stories by sanctuary workers. A long term vegetarian turned vegan, Hart considers farm animals “some of the most abused, overlooked animals on the planet.”

For this project, she traveled to sanctuaries in Virginia, Florida, Maryland, Michigan and New York State to document “the lucky few who are free to live out their lives in peace.” Not surprisingly, after spending time with the animals she discovered that each had its unique personality. “Some are quirky or funny, while others sensitive, shy, playful, intelligent, mischievous, or inquisitive. And all seemed to have complex emotional lives.”

These characteristics come through in Hart’s poignant photographs. Essays are by Karen Davis, president of United Poultry Concerns; Kathy Stevens, founder of the Catskill Animal Sanctuary; and Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary.

So donate some money and try to win a photo! Megan Rascal loves this photo of Dee Dee the donkey, of Star Gazing Farm; I’m partial to this portrait of SASHA Farm’s Rainy. I love a shaggy horse!
 

Check out all the photos in Sharon’s book! Best of luck to Sharon and all the participants in the Walk for Farm Animals, and everyone who donates to win a portrait.

ONE DAY Left to Get in on Awesome Vegan Comics Anthology  »

You guys. I am legitimately pretty excited about this book.

The original idea behind this anthology was going to be half vegan cartoonists, half omnis. But it got bigger and started including vegetarians and otherwise. So now it’s just a big, huge, food-themed anthology full of awesome.

The vegans contributing include:

• Berkeley Breathed
• Neil Brideau
• J.T. Dockery
• Nicole J. Georges
• Adam Hines
• Jonas Madden-Connor
• Hazel Newlevant
• Dan Piraro
• Aron Nels Steinke
• James Turek
• J.T. Yost

J.T. Yost, who we have interviewed here before, has been doing the good work of editing, organizing, and general wrassling-of-folks to make this whole thing happen.

Yeah, the funding goal has already been met, but this is your chance to get extra goodies like minicomics, t-shirts, signed prints, and good feelings. Also: what if you tell yourself you’ll get it later but then you just forget, like you always do?

The disclaimer here is that I also have a comic in it myself. I think it’s pretty good, though, and my drawings look nice. It’s based in part on this rad Quasi song. Last night I had a dream where I met Sam Coomes and told him about it and he seemed pretty cool with the whole thing.

You can read more and fund the project on the Kickstarter page.

The NYC Vegan Bookswap is back!  »

Our pal Jamie Hagen wants you to come to the next NYC Vegan Bookswap!

This round they’re back in Manhattan at Sustainable NYC. As always, they’ll have a raffle to raise some money for Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Jamie wants you all to know that Jenny Brown of WFAS fame will attend! I don’t know what that means but I’m excited that Jamie’s excited!

Bring up to five of your vegan books (fiction, nonfiction, cook-, comic, etc.) to Sustainable NYC,  139 Avenue A at E. Ninth St., from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, April 16! Sustainable NYC will have a special used book sale for donations to Woodstock, which as you know is a wonderful place. Get more info about the event on Facebook, and the Bookswap page. See you there, New York vegans!

[photo by Andreas Levers via Flickr]

Guest post: Second NYC vegan and animal rights book swap happening Saturday! Be there!  »

The first vegan and animal rights book swap was such a hit, we are gearing up for Bookswap 2.0 on Saturday, Dec. 10! At the first swap, we raised $124 to donate to Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, with about 20 swappers donating $62 dollars, which got a matching donation. All books that weren’t swapped were donated to nearby thrift stores. Success!

For the second swap we’re moving to Brooklyn’s community space Launchpad, with raffle prizes from local Mexican restaurant Chavela’s, a $20 gift certificate from the vegan restaurant Terri, and donations from local shops Owl and Thistle General Store and Raganella, which makes handmade body care products.

Once again, the swap is free, and all money raised will be donated to Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. What’s more, through the end of the year, all donations made to Woodstock through Dec. 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000! Your money is going even further! Read an FAQ about the event, find out about volunteer needs, and keep updated on further swaps with our mailing list. Come and swap me your books, won’tcha?

Jamie Hagen makes money by walking dogs in Manhattan while her blog posts and political science M.A. lounge around reaping the rewards. Some places she currently blogs include the Line Campaign, Autostraddle, and Persephone magazine. Twitter tags frequently used by Jamie include include #feminist #vegan and #lesbian.

[photo courtesy Jamie Hagen via Flickr]

Book review: Out of Breath, by Blair Richmond  »

I love books! Lucky me, Ashland Creek Press recently sent me Out of Breath, which is a novel by “Blair Richmond” about runners, vegans, and vampires living in the Pacific Northwest.

This is the second first-of-a-series novel about vegans and vampires that we’ve come across; recall Merlene Alicia Vassal’s The Vampire and the Vegan, which Jenny reviewed back in May. I think Out of Breath is the superior work; there’s no grody “love-making” and the characters are all clearly drawn.

I love a teen novel almost as much as I love a teen television dramedy, which is to say, passionately, but Out of Breath had difficulty balancing its message with its plot, so I feel like a lot of the hilarity was unintentional. Maybe I’m not the ideal audience, who I think is actually a teen-novel reader who is vegetarian and/or hasn’t considered a vegan lifestyle before. The “why veganism is really the only choice” arguments are compelling, but not very deftly incorporated into the plot. The action would be zipping along—I read the 263 pages in about an hour—and then our hero, Kat, would drop a big old paragraph of “Meat Is Murder” on us, like, way to ruin the mood, lady.

The plot is rather formulaic, but although Richmond telegraphs the twist before it comes, you won’t guess its scope until the author drops it on you, and it’s pretty good. I laughed with disbelief and appreciation for the shocking ridiculousness of it. Don’t take that the wrong away: It’s AMAZING; it’s silly and it’s weightless and soap operatic and wonderful. I mean: It’s set in a town called Lithia, and everyone’s supposed to be happy because THERE’S NATURALLY OCCURRING LITHIUM IN THE WATER. So much wtfuckery! You will probably love it.

Despite its heavy-handed deployment, the vegan message is refreshing to read. Better “Don’t eat animal products” than “alcohol/drugs/premarital sex KILLS,” by a million; at least the information is truthful and useful, and might positively influence the young readers of Out of Breath. Presumably. I wouldn’t argue that any one YA novel would have measurable impact on even the most impressionable readers, but as part of a series of pro-vegan novels, it could make a positive difference. I realize this is the same sort of thing that evangelists of all beliefs say about their niche literature, but unlike the Left Behind people, vegans are actually right, and I know that begs the question but shut up it’s true and you know it.

If you want to read the book—and believe me, you do—the Kindle version of Out of Breath is on sale for $2.99 throughout the month of October. That is cheap! Ashland Press will also hold an online book-release party on Oct. 31, which will involve an author Q&A, giveaways, and tips and tricks for vegan trick-or-treating. Because “Blair Richmond” is a pseudonym, the author won’t make any physical appearances to promote the book, so this internet party will be your sole chance to interact with this person. I recommend you drop the three bucks, read Out of Breath, and visit the Halloween party to ask the questions you will doubtless have about it afterward. Actually, read it while eating some vegan Halloween candy. It’s like a vegan marshmallow in literary form, anyway: you love it while you’ve got it, though the enjoyment is fleeting, but it’s better for you (and the animals!) than the standard fare.

Thanks so much to Ashland Press for sending me a review copy of Out of Breath. I really enjoyed it!