Rachelleea is Right: "Why I Can't Stand Vegans"

28 February 2016 [YT link]

Two sources are cited in the video. Rachelleea herself is here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/justsugarandspice/videos



And we have a memorable guest-appearance from "thatistheplan", the largely-satirical side-project of a well-known (and vegan!) music critic (name Anthony Fantano); you can see more of that here: https://www.youtube.com/user/thatistheplan/videos

Veganism is not a philosophy; vegans are not a community.

28 February 2016 [YT link]

And this is not bad news. Really. "It's better to be a praxis in search of a philosophy than it is to be a philosophy in search of a praxis." (I say that around the eight-and-a-half minute mark.)



For a more in-depth discussion of these issues (with many practical examples concerning activism and organization), 30 minutes long, you can see my "advice" video, on "activism and ambition", here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlDRJ8SPZjM

Beauty ≠ Advocacy ≠ Activism (Vegans & Animal Rights)

27 February 2016 [YT link]

Durianrider's Vegan Diet Delusion

26 February 2016 [YT link]

Here's a relatively brief breakdown of the main delusion that defines the (Freelee and Durianrider) diet. Eat more, even if you exercise less (or not at all!). Is it a scam, sham, or just sincere incompetence? You decide!



The other sources quoted in the video are,

(1) Supreme Banana: https://www.youtube.com/user/MsSupremeBanana/videos

(2) Unnatural Vegan: https://www.youtube.com/user/FitOnRaw/videos

Tess Begg vs. Joe Best ("Lifestyle Veganism" vs. Real Politics)

24 February 2016 [YT link]

"London Vegan Actions" (one of the youtube channels mentioned as an example) is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/veganactivistsisters/videos



Tess Begg (who inexplicably has more viewers than the link above) is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBCiDM0WrCAvTHmdVz_GDzQ/videos



Check out my earlier video on Freelee's clones (mostly discussing the extent to which Thailand itself is misrepresented by this vegan sub-culture), here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziD7SUGI7QI



Joe Best's channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BestTransformation



And, in the distant past, I wrote a letter to Joe Best, when he was going through his very-public sex scandal in "the vegan community", and I discuss it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faonFwL0lOE

筆ペン, Learning Japanese (or Chinese) with "Paintbrush-Pens".

24 February 2016 [YT link]

Practical advice for learning/studying/practicing Japanese (although the advice would be the same for Chinese).

"A Privileged Vegan" is a Coward and a Hypocrite.

23 February 2016 [YT link]

Sources mentioned in the video:

(1) Karl Popper (philosopher of science, etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper

(2) "Bite Size Vegan" defending her character against accusations of racism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxyK8p7WfVE

(3) Unnatural Vegan explaining that she's not a racist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULXwiR3DKrI

(4) Unnatural Vegan explaining that she's anti-Eugenics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHfxoUpgwgo

(5) Yeah, I guess I have to provide a link to the "A Privileged Vegan" channel, too: https://www.youtube.com/user/Highonfruit1/videos

Any Idiot Can Go Vegan (Taxstone, Russell Simmons, John Salley)

22 February 2016 [YT link]

…and Styles P, too.



You can see my earlier video, "Styles P is Vegan (Elon Musk is NOT, Sam Harris is NOT, Richard Dawkins is NOT)", here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRrc7HXQuzA



Taxstone interviewing Russell Simmons (about veganism) is here: https://soundcloud.com/taxseason/the-russell-simmons-episode

Vegan Neo-Nazis Actually Exist (Beneath Contempt).

20 February 2016 [YT link]

CFAT Preparation/Analysis (Canadian Forces Aptitude Test)

19 February 2016 [YT link]

DISCLAIMER: this video is NOT based on classified information, and reflects only an analysis of the data that the military makes publicly available so that you can prepare yourself (and it is, also, to some extent, a critique of some of the "promotional" information about the test, but, again, none of this stuff is classified, none of it is data from "within" the testing procedure). Basically, the level of advice offered here is possible because the "practice test" (publicly available) tells you everything you need to know, if you take an analytical view of it, and see how it pertains both to yourself and to the hiring/evaluation process (again: none of this being classified information).



It should be obvious, also, that the video reflects my personal opinion, and what I consider to be useful advice: please do not bother to send me hate-mail if you happen to have a different analysis of the bureaucratic process involved. You're entitled to your own opinion: make your own video.

Herbivore Man (草食男子) Does Not Mean Vegan (in Japanese).

18 February 2016 [YT link]

Vegan Gains is WRONG about "Canada Goose".

17 February 2016 [YT link]

"What a tangled web we weave…"



You would expect to see a clear statement from Canada Goose boasting that their products are 100% goose down from geese raised in Canada, etc., in the same way that wool companies boast about being 100% wool, from a particular breed of sheep, in a particular location. Instead, the company makes a vague claim about being created from, "poultry by-products", and to me that suggests chicken-feathers… or, at least, a mix of chicken feathers, and whatever the cheapest by-products of the poultry industry may be that month (down on the factory-room floor).



A viewer wrote in with further information, suggesting that Canada Goose is using the term "poultry by-product" in an even more peculiar way than my video supposes. Although "down" isn't supposed to include "poultry", the word "poultry" can (in fact) be used to include ducks and geese; and this viewer reports, "[Canada Goose specifies that] their sole supplier of down is Feather Industries Canada. If you go to the Feather Industries Web site, you can see a list of their feather products, and none of them are from chickens…". The link to that website is here, although I still would not regard this as a clear (legally-binding) indication that they aren't using chicken-feathers (i.e., I think the Canada Goose company would be clearer about this, if it were in their interest to be so, and for all I know Feather Industries Corp. could be shipping chicken-feathers via their Toronto warehouses, despite what's stated here): http://www.featherind.com/Product.htm



Although they may sound like a heartless corporation, the even-more-bizarre fact is that "Feather Industries" is religious foundation, operated by-and-for a Hutterite colony: http://www.featherind.com/hutterite-gallery.html



Some websites claim that the down is… uh… "more ethical" because of the religious nature of the people plucking the ducks and geese. The opposite point-of-view is easy to imagine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite



So… have we been deceived, or have we been doubly-deceived? And does the phrase "poultry by-product" legitimately (and legally) mean "duck down", or does it mean chicken-feathers from the killing room floor?



Cf. the industry's (standard?) use of these terms, here: "Down and feathers are normally obtained from goose and duck farms as a by-product of the poultry industry. Birds are not raised for their down, but rather for their meat - just as leather is a by-product of the beef industry." (*Ahem*… right… just like the leather industry.) http://downmark.com/consumer_information/down_feather_quality.htm



Peculiar. The matter seems to be intentionally unclear, in claiming to both be "down" and "a poultry by-product".

What is the Future of Buddhism? (ex-Pali scholar)

17 February 2016 [YT link]

"But have you been to a farm / factory?" (Human Rights, Veganism & Labor)

17 February 2016 [YT link]

Activism & Ambition: Advice Nobody Wants to Hear [Ep. 002]

14 February 2016 [YT link]

This is episode #2 of, "Advice Nobody Wants to Hear".



For a list of earlier videos (on this channel) discussing the methods of DxE ("Direct Action Everywhere"), click here: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeiJinZhengZhi/search?query=DxE



At the start of the video, I encourage you to take a look at my (recent) comments on Gandhi, non-violence, and methods-of-activism, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXk1qv5Sfto



The video also alludes to some earlier comments made on practical action/methods possible for vegans currently in Chiang Mai, Thailand (following after a number of videos on related themes). The emphasis is considerably different from this video, but you may be interested to have a glance at, "Veganism as Digital Activism: Moving Beyond Bikinis & Bicycles", here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCzPmf96pAk



Eisel Mazard, Feb. of 2016.

Freelee is Wrong, Unnatural Vegan is Right (and it's a problem)

13 February 2016 [YT link]

It's a problem because people really do get burnt out and drop out of the fad-diets that attract them to veganism… and people start to confuse the fad diet with the basic principle of veganism.

Vegan "activism": Gandhi & DxE (Direct Action Everywhere)

12 February 2016 [YT link]

Is it really "effective activism" to break down weeping in a restaurant? Why does DxE claim that these "methods" are derived from historical examples such as Mohandas Gandhi, the abolition of slavery (in the U.S.), and so on?



This link will show you a listing of my prior videos on Direct Action Everywhere (at this point they add up to a considerable critique, cumulatively): https://www.youtube.com/user/HeiJinZhengZhi/search?query=DxE



The article mentioned on Gandhi is here: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-gandhi-nobody-knows/

Noam Chomsky Supported the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot, etc.)

10 February 2016 [YT link]

The article I encourage you to read on this subject is by Ear Sophal, available here: http://jim.com/canon.htm

On the specific issue of U.S. support for the Khmer Rouge (in Cambodia, via Thailand) I can provide a relatively entertaining link here, starting at the 27 minute mark of John Pilger's documentary "Cambodia: The Betrayal": https://youtu.be/k2oTl51a3HM?t=25m35s



You can also google around to find my article (published in two parts), titled "American wars, French borders: Thailand’s acrimonious adjacency to Cambodia." That article deals with the question of when precisely the U.S. started supporting the Khmer Rouge.



If you were trying to get a better look at what the thumbnail for this video shows (and says), the full image is posted on my blog, here: http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.ca/2016/02/noam-chomsky-supported-khmer-rouge-deal.html



I commented (at some length) on the implications of U.S. support for the Khmer Rouge in an earlier youtube video, roughly the second half of the one titled, "Cold War Consequences…": https://youtu.be/Z5LyxuKy-GU?t=20m1s



The two other names mentioned (for those wanting to google them) are (i) Judy L. Ledgerwood, and (ii) Michael Vickery.

Applying for Jobs… Moving to Japan?

07 February 2016 [YT link]

Talking about my life (at a crossroads) in 2016, and, yes, inexorably, this involves anecdotes about war, poverty, atrocities, and political history.

Why Kevin Smith is not Vegan.

06 February 2016 [YT link]

Yeah, it's the same reason why Noam Chomsky is not vegan.

Vegan vs. "What about Farm Workers?"

03 February 2016 [YT link]

If you're vegan you've probably heard the question, "Well, what about the human rights of farm workers?", and the question is --more often than not-- just an excuse for eating meat. But it's still a legitimate question: what about labor conditions on the farms that produce vegetables, fruit and so on?



However, it is a false assumption that workers on fruit-farms are in a condition of exploitation equivalent to cows awaiting slaughter, and, "therefore" that you should eliminate strawberries from your diet by the same logic that you would eliminate beef and dairy:

http://vegan-mind-tricks.tumblr.com/post/55548055982/picking-strawberries-is-an-honest-living-cutting



The documentary film mentioned here is, "China Blue": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478116/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

No Utopia, No Vegan Revolution.

03 February 2016 [YT link]

Vegan vs. Michael Shermer's Moral Philosophy

02 February 2016 [YT link]

Michael Shermer is not vegan, but he wouldn't eat a dolphin… y'know… for philosophical reasons.

Sources quoted:

(1) http://www.michaelshermer.com/2005/06/why-i-am-an-atheist/

(2) http://www.michaelshermer.com/2014/01/confessions-of-a-speciesist/

Why I Am Not French

01 February 2016 [YT link]

Politics: Israel, Ignorance and Activism.

29 January 2016 [YT link]

When you're talking about politics, try to be honest about the limits of your knowledge; you can't be an expert about everything, and you can't be an activist "about everything". Conversely, I do start to wonder if some of these voices (within the vegan "intellectual ghetto") have expertise on anything… or if they have real experience with activism on/with/about anything.



#socraticmethodisdead

Sam Harris, "Waking Up", Book Review.

28 January 2016 [YT link]

"Someone on the internet called this Cargo Cult Science, but I can't really get behind that term, because Cargo Cults get results… Cargo Cults are based on empirical experience… Cargo Cults… compared to this, are not that bad!"



This is not the first video on my channel discussing Sam Harris. It may not be the last. You can click through to a list of the other videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeiJinZhengZhi/search?query=sam+harris



Below is a reply to some questions I received, and I recognize that other people had the same (or similar) questions, so I post my comments here, for those who are interested:



Yeah, I could say more about it, but I tried to keep that video RELATIVELY short, given that my prior video on Sam Harris & Buddhism ran to a full hour. The short answer is: no. No, you can't "move the goalposts" and say, e.g., "Well this method of ancient birth-control doesn't actually prevent pregnancy… but it has this great effect for your hair, so we're going to endorse it as medicine anyway". Even that example, however, would be more honest than what Sam Harris does (assuming you're labeling the medicine as a hair-tonic, and not as a birth-control pill). What Harris is doing is more like simultaneously claiming all of the contradictory benefits (birth-control and shiny hair) for a number of contradictory reasons: he characterizes orthodoxy as if he had authoritative opinions on what it is (and means) --e.g., just making up his own definitions of nirvana & the philosophy-of-self out of thin air-- and he uses orthodoxy to stamp legitimacy on "modern" methods (from Vipassana meditation to getting high on party drugs, etc.). In short: it's a complete mess. It's worse than the blind leading the blind. It's a flaky, true-believer, cult-member pretending to be a skeptic and an atheist, and pretending to be an expert on Buddhism at the same time. It's really that bad. It's as bad as a skeptic/atheist claiming to have informed opinions on the spiritual significance of Santa Claus based on his interpretation of the Bible (i.e., Santa Claus does not appear in the Bible) --really, his work contains errors of chronology that crude, along with all the absurd redefinitions of terms he indulges in, etc. Finally, what S.H. is doing DOES NOT have legitimacy as a secular/skeptical exercise: he has been writing about Buddhism, as a true-believer in Buddhism (even if it is very much an ersatz, California-based Buddhism); he makes dogmatic claims, as in that short quotation about Buddhist scripture providing a completely scientific (and "empirical") description of consciousness and what to do with it (not a "myth"); he isn't skeptical even in establishing what the scriptures say in the first place, much less is he ever skeptical in establishing their scientific validity. As I've reflected in other videos, I don't think that Buddhist philosophy should be dismissed as mythology any more than Shakespeare should be dismissed as mythology; however, IT IS MYTHOLOGY. What the scriptures (suttanta) say about meditation really is a sort of mythology, heavily magical, and reflecting an ancient world-view (e.g., meditation can cause earthquakes, and this is explained because the world is believed to be a flat mass floating in a rather unstable situation, cosmologically speaking… any comment on how empirical and scientific this is, S.H.?). In his book, S.H. does not even show a familiarity with the range of already-existing attempts to "scientize" Buddhism, and their critics; he seems to be genuinely writing out of complete ignorance of Buddhist scholarship of any kind --even of scholarship in exactly the niche he's trying to occupy. If you find this interesting, you might take a look at my earlier video, "Buddhist Meditation is NOT a Science of the Mind" = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZZZFk3pYa0.

Gary Francione is Wrong (Vegan / Vegans / Veganism)

26 January 2016 [YT link]

Communism, Mass Starvation and Agriculture.

22 January 2016 [YT link]

When you have a chance, please take the time to watch my more formal video on mass starvation in China (under Mao Zedong), this is a tremendously important chapter of the world's history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rtfadswTdw

Why I don't have a PhD [Pt. 2 of 2]

20 January 2016 [YT link]

Watch part 1 first (if you're going to watch part 2 at all), here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t59W4mgg2gM

The U.N. on Meat, Ecology and Veganism

17 January 2016 [YT link]

Many vegans would be surprised to see this U.N. report that gives a voice to so many of their own ecological concerns… and yet, in its conclusions, recommends the very opposite course of action. And here are the links to the sources mentioned (in order):



"Livestock's Long Shadow", the U.N. F.A.O. report: http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM



The F.A.O.'s "nutritional guideline" that you should "increase" your meat-consumption to 20 g of protein per day:

http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/...



Here's Wikipedia's list of countries by meat-consumption:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...



And here's a webpage showing you what 20 g of protein actually looks like, from various animal (and non-animal) sources:

http://www.fitnesstreats.com/2012/04/...



Oh, and the famous book mentioned on the way the U.N. is organized (and operates) is titled "The Lords of Poverty", by Graham Hancock.

Is Veganism a Cult? Not Yet.

10 January 2016 [YT link]

Veganism is not a cult, but, TBH, it is inevitable that we're going to see cults come and go within Veganism. If we're really being honest about it, most of the fundamental requirements are already there (ready to spin out of control, one way or another, sooner or later).



If you'd like to see an example of my writing about cult-theory (e.g., how do we define the concept of "cult" and apply it to diverse political and religious situations… Buddhism, Communism, etc.) you can click through to my blog, here:

http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.ca/2012/07/Robert-Jay-Lifton-and-the-self-directed-cult.html

Cocaine & the Philosophy of Science

10 January 2016 [YT link]

Anecdotes about Buddhist Monks, Pythons, Wild Monkeys, Veganism, etc.

09 January 2016 [YT link]

As the last of the jungle is cut down, and old traditions are dying out… a viewer wrote in to "fact check" my anecdote about the monk having his hand devoured by a python (and other anecdotes ensue). Incidentally, you might want to check out my video, "Why I am not a Buddhist", as I openly identify as an ex-Buddhist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOx95uYACuk



For a long article about the status of vegetarianism within Theravāda Buddhism, you can find my thoughts either on my blog, or as re-formatted (with a few more illustrations) on medium.com:



http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.ca/2012/06/vegetarianism-and-theravada-orthodoxy.html



https://medium.com/@eiselmazard/vegetarianism-and-theravada-orthodoxy-c636fa4f37dd



Just about everyone (within Buddhism) found that article dis-satisfactory, because it neither tells them what they want to hear, nor tells them what they ought to believe, but instead sets out the nature of the problem, and allows you to draw your own conclusions.

Riding a Bicycle is Not the Meaning of Life.

08 January 2016 [YT link]

No, not even if you're riding up a mountain in Thailand (Doi Suthep, etc.). Riding a Bicycle is Not the Meaning of Life.



If you're wondering about the image in the thumbnail, click on the links below to see it with Lao and Chinese vocabulary (respectively):



http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.ca/2012/09/lao-pali-french-english-vocabulary-01.html



http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.ca/2012/10/Catalan-Chinese-French-English-Vocabulary-01.html



I can remember struggling to pronounce the Lao words for bicycle parts (partly to request repairs, etc.) as one of my first challenges in the language.

Freelee: Attack of the Clones.

06 January 2016 [YT link]

In this video, I may have coined the phrase, "A bimbocentric world view", although google shows a few precedents for "bimbo-centric".

Advice Nobody Wants to Hear [Ep. 001]

04 January 2016 [YT link]

"On Youtube, everyone's a protagonist and everyone's a fan: the audience is the artform." —Eisel Mazard, 2016. ;-)



"Advice Nobody Wants to Hear" is filmed before a live studio audience. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of à-bas-le-ciel, its board of directors, or affiliated holding companies.

Veganism: Compassion, Contempt and Loathing.

30 December 2015 [YT link]

Real Talk. Veganism isn't just a doctrine of compassion; it involves some of the ugly aspects of human nature (including a great deal of contempt and loathing for "our fellow man"). @ Zahria 269



"There's a struggle to determine what the culture of the 21st century is going to be. And veganism is one ideology in that struggle."

Is Youtube a Waste of My Time? (Hint: No.)

30 December 2015 [YT link]

The answer is "no", and this video provides 10 minutes of reflections on the relative meaningfulness of the digital monologue (in my life and, perhaps, in yours?).

What does it mean when people say, "I love Thailand" or "I love Japan"?

28 December 2015 [YT link]

It often means, "I don't want to know"; but for me (for many years) the first place I visited would be the archives and national libraries, everywhere from Bangkok to Kunming, with Vientiane and Phnom Penh in-between, and --as the video reflects-- I was often seeking out the aspects of history that tend to be omitted from "national history" (sensu stricto).



And, yeah, this is the world's most indirect swipe at my fellow vegans in Chiang Mai. It's a bit strange for me to reflect that Thailand was a huge part of my life from 2004 to 2011… and today I have no contact with it at all (whereas Japanese is, now, presumed to be my language-of-scholarship for the future).

[政治学] Crime and Punishment in Japan [日本での罪と罰]

27 December 2015 [YT link]

The Japanese government uses torture against its own citizens, as a routine part of its criminal justice system. Discuss.



Sources mentioned:

(1) http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21679489-overreliance-confessions-undermining-faith-courts-extractor-few-fans

(2) http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.de/2015/05/the-acquittal-rate-in-japan-china-and-canada.html

(3) http://a-bas-le-ciel.blogspot.de/2015/06/in-japan-almost-nobody-is-ever-not.html



One footnote: the reason why some sources say 99.8% and others say 99.9% (etc.) is simply that the data being cited represents different years (2013 vs. 2014, etc.).

Why I don't have a PhD

26 December 2015 [YT link]

Universities are by no means universal: you can't expect them to create all kinds of opportunities for all kinds of people… they create some opportunities for some people, and what they can offer changes over time, in response to a variety of arbitrary and shifting factors (including the success, fundraising-ability and charisma of particular professors, as well as broader institutional considerations).



This video does have a sequel ("Part 2 of 2") that you can get to from the end of the first video, or by following this link, here:

https://youtu.be/KbaZvTPeHDI

From Göttingen to Nice, Côte d'Azur, France.

24 December 2015 [YT link]

14 hours on a train; 4 minutes on video-tape. And, yeah, if you're vegan: pack food. They've got a specialized foie-gras restaurant at Paris's main train station, but you ain't gonna find a damn thing to eat: this is a country where they even put cheese in sushi. I wish I was joking: I've now seen "vegetarian sushi" that has CHEESE in it.



And, once again, shout out to Lil B. #TYBG

Water Scarcity, White Guilt & You (Vegans)

24 December 2015 [YT link]

People talk a lot about water scarcity. They don't like to talk so much about development economics. I can understand why: the simple, symbolic image of absolute water-scarcity (in a desert) is emotionally moving. The detailed study of how local governments cope with collecting rain-water, purifying ground-water, plan for population-growth, etc., just doesn't capture the imagination in the same way.

Visiting my two-year-old daughter in France.

23 December 2015 [YT link]

December of 2015.

Sanity, Insanity & Political Isolation

21 December 2015 [YT link]

"Human nature is flexible; frighteningly flexible even. The same people who, in Cambodia, would go to watch two men kill each-other in a public battle to the death, on another day of the week would go to a Buddhist monastery… and chant a sutra about how you shouldn't even kill a mosquito… human nature is malleable. And that is probably what makes us so uncomfortable when we're confronted with the reality of personality disorders and compulsive behavior, because that is exactly an exhibition of an aspect of human nature that is not malleable, that people are powerless over, that refuses to change, and refuses to be changed, even when the person is aware of it, and even when they're sincerely trying to improve."



This video manages to cover the full remit of "related" (viz., unrelated) issues, from Cambodian history to Canadian politics, in responding to a specific issue on mental illness; and, yeah, I think I manage to paraphrase both Marcus Aurelius and Francis Bacon. #unscripted #nomakeup #notsellingdietbooks #notsellingyogaDVDs

Political Action, Guanxi & Vegan Social Networks

18 December 2015 [YT link]

This video is not about the meaning of life, but about friendship as the smallest unit of social organization, and as crucially important to political action of any kind. It offers some reflections on how my background in political philosophy actually shapes my (current and ongoing) engagement with the world --in everything from academic publications to vegan-activism (and even with reference to business prospects).

Buddhist Meditation, Pseudoscience & Sam Harris

18 December 2015 [YT link]

I can't noticing (in "the lab report") that the meditating students (in contrast to the control group) took considerably more time to answer the questions: their "processing speed" is stated as 130.03 seconds, in contrast to 104.71 seconds for the non-meditators. This suggests the very real possibility that the meditating students got SLIGHTLY better scores in the cognitive tests simply because they were taking SIGNIFICANTLY more time, i.e., perhaps because they were motivated to make a greater effort (i.e., as they knew they were engaged in a test to prove the efficacy of meditation, and they were selected as students who were already "interested in" meditation, i.e., quite likely motivated to make the effort). This difference in "processing speed" (ca. 130 vs. 104 seconds) is a large gap, in contrast to the tiny difference of 10.88 vs. 10.84 in the "forward digit span", i.e., the measure of how well the student could remember and recite a sequence of (up to) 16 numbers. Even this tiny difference in "cognitive measures" is confounded by the fact that the same test in reverse (the "backward digit span") had the opposite results: the meditators did worse than the non-meditators (6.58 vs. 6.72). Although this is not a thorough critique of the report, I've already stated several good reasons as to why we might expect someone like Sam Harris to treat such findings WITH SKEPTICISM, instead of citing the article (uncritically) as evidence that "Cultivating this quality of mind has been shown to […] improve cognitive function."



I'm quoting Sam from here:

https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/how-to-meditate

(Title, "How to Meditate", by Sam Harris.)



And the article that he's citing (and that I'm skeptical about) has its abstract here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20363650

Title: "Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: evidence of brief mental training."



The implications of the other numbers seem baffling, if they have any validity at all. The score assigned for "anger" (using the "Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory") dropped from 4.0 to 1.91 for the meditating students; however, for the non-meditators (the control group) it dropped from 3.8 to 1.2. What, really, does this prove, indicate, or even insinuate? Is meditation actually less effective at reducing anger than listening to J.R.R. Tolkein as an audiobook? (That's not a joke: the control group listened to The Hobbit, instead of meditating.)



The score assigned for "confusion" (another interesting thing to quantify) dropped from 6.92 to 5.46 for the meditators, but for the non-meditators the change was from 6.6 to only 4.88! Again, if these numbers prove anything, should we take these as indications of the value of NOT meditating?



For the meditators, "tension" (however that may be quantified) dropped from 8.5 to 2.91. For the non-meditators? The change was from 6.28 to only 2.6. The implications would be baffling, if we really wanted to take this seriously as evidence of… well… anything at all. And why would we?



I do not have unrealistic expectations here: not everyone can be an expert on everything, and Sam Harris is legitimately NOT an expert on Buddhism. However, everything I've seen from Sam on this subject (in writing and in podcasts) is really very shameful, and just reflects an extremely low standard of scrutiny (on Sam's part) even relative to what's readily available (via google) in terms of English-language academic scholarship on Buddhism (and/or Theravada meditation specifically).

FAKE VEGANS (Andy Warski & Tobias Leenaert)

17 December 2015 [YT link]

Why do vegans hate those who eat less meat, rather than none at all? ("Reducetarian" and "Fake Vegans") Well… uh… lack of time and the meaning of life both have something to do with it (watch the video, antics ensue).

This video has a sequel (responding further to Tobias and expanding on some of the key concepts), here: https://youtu.be/7UezI3u8iXA

I start talking about Tobias Leenaert @5:00, for those who want to jump to that point in the tape (but, really, it isn't so long to wait).

The TPP is Good for Vegans (Trans-Pacific Partnership)

16 December 2015 [YT link]

Admittedly, this is a bit of a simplified treatment of the issue, within a ten-minute limit. Currently (at the dawn of 2016), diverse voices are making directly-contradictory claims about the same facts; for example, I saw a pro-meat-industry report claiming that that Canadian beef exports to Southeast Asia will increase so dramatically that they'll offset other losses. To discuss this sort of claim, you'd then have to ask yourself a set of (surreal but serious) questions, as to whether or not you believe that the future of Canadian agriculture is in producing meat cheaply enough to sell it to Cambodians (whereas, I note, Cambodia produces rice cheaply enough to export it to Africa, etc.). There are also arguements circulating that attempt to "reassure" the industry that dairy supply-management will remain fundamentally unchanged. There will be genuinely contradictory indicators in both projections and actual economic changes, as with any sudden reduction in trade barriers. There are also seemingly-contradictory contrasts within government policy that can distract from fundamental changes in direction (e.g., providing subsidies to tobacco-agriculture, while at the same time heavily taxing it, and directing the public to quit smoking). However, the simplest and most serious point is probably what I mention near the start of the video: that supposedly-ecological advocacy groups (like the Green Party itself) see their role as supporting the meat and dairy industries in opposing the TPP agreement.

From Victoria to Göttingen (Airplane, Boat, Bus, & Train)

15 December 2015 [YT link]

In terms of the reasons for the trip, there's a five-minute monologue (honest… just five minutes long this time) that I uploaded a few days earlier, just before getting on the airplane:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWQuZ...



Spoilers: there is only one vegan restaurant in Göttingen.



Shout out to Lil B (#TYBG). I remember listening to a stack of his (free) music while we were all together in the hospital (for the birth of my daughter), and in the weeks of cooking, cleaning and washing dishes that followed thereafter. Of course, at the same time, I was gradually deleting all of the tracks I disliked from the same stack… but that seems to be his method (i.e., releasing everything he records, and letting the listener be the editor).