"Animals in Human Society" Course at UIS

Your daily ravens

The other day, my wife and I saw an entire flock of ravens on a bank of the Hudson near Peekskill. It was a very windy day, and they would ride the upward drafts, and then plunge downward, engaging in aerial acrobatics as they fell. Some were in couples, while others were by themselves, but all were playful. This reminds me a bit of them.

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This contains some interesting information, but it uncritically repeats the fakelore about the ravens at the Tower of London being domesticated by Charles II.

'Sacred' raven inspires myths, legends Since time immemorial, the raven has had a special place in the hearts and minds of humanity.

Suggested by Jeremy Thomas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M

Before the Flood - Full Movie | National Geographic Join Leonardo DiCaprio as he explores the topic of climate change, and discovers what must be done today to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our pl...

I was pretty startled at the number of birds killed by the Department of Agriculture, because farmers claim they eat grain and are pests. This does not even include the numbers killed by the farmers themselves, which might be far larger still.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/sunday/americas-wildlife-body-count.html

America’s Wildlife Body Count We kill millions of “pest” animals each year, without the science to justify it.

The Animals and Human Society course is in the catalog at State University of Illinois at Springfield in the fall semester for the first time in over a year. Those of you who have taken the course in the past and enjoyed it are encouraged to recommend it to your friends.

I am happy to announce that the "Animals and Human Society" course will run again next fall at the State University of Illinois at Springfield. As you may possibly know, it won a national award form the Center for Respect for Life and the Environment in 2007 as "the best new course." For a few years, it was so popular that three sections would fill up almost instantly, but when it was changed from an interdisciplinary course to a philosophy one, it was impossible to get sufficient interest to run it every semester. It has not run for about a year or more, so I am delighted that, at least for a while, it is back.

http://stanfordpress.typepad.com/blog/2015/10/plants-are-the-new-animals.html

Plants Are The New Animals

This forum was originally started in large part so that students who had taken this course might continue their discussions or perhaps begin new ones. This is an invitation to all of them to revisit some of the questions that were discussed or simply to offer whatever reflections they are moved to share.

Are plants intelligent? New book says yes Jeremy Hance: A new book, Brilliant Green, argues that not only are plants intelligent and sentient, but that we should consider their rights, especially in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction.

Hi! This site was started in large part as a place where those who had taken the Animals in Human Society course at State University of Illinois at Springfield could stay in touch. You are all more than welcome to post here and let others know what you have been doing. Looking back, do you have any thoughts about the course? Have the things we studied proved useful?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/boria-sax-/what-is-it-like-to-be-an-_b_7445980.html

What is it like to be an Octopus? To imagine yourself an octopus, you must perhaps divide your very consciousness into at least seven parts, six arms or more and a head. To imagine this, you might think of seven friends or brothers, so close that they seem to be "inseparable."

http://boriasax.tumblr.com/post/120039154390/the-most-fantastic-monsters-from-literature?og=1

The Most Fantastic Monsters From Literature The Most Fantastic Monsters From Literature http://www.huffingtonpost.com/boria-sax-/post_6574_b_4532345.html

This was written a decade ago, and, while I still agree with the conclusions, I might express them differently today. I am no longer immersed in the material. The topic that continues to preoccupy me, however, is the way we edit, censor, and mythologize the past, especially traumatic episodes such as the Third Reich. I would be especially interest on any thoughts you might have on that larger theme.

Konrad Lorenz and the Mythology and Science An invitation to join Boria Sax's session on Academia.edu.

Smithsonian Digitizes & Lets You Download 40,000 Works of Asian and American Art Art lovers who visit my hometown of Washington, DC have an almost embarrassing wealth of opportunities to view art collections classical, Baroque, Renaissance, modern, postmodern, and otherwise through the Smithsonian’s network of museums.

Is the Environment a Moral Cause? Why left and right respond differently to climate change.

Happy Year of the Ram, everyone! (It is also called the "year of the sheep," "year of the goat," and "year of the deer.") Linda and I will go to Manhattan's Chinatown this weekend, to see the dancing rams, dragons, lions, and unicorns.

The Primordial Alliance of Sheep, Man and Dog: Thoughts on the Year of the Ram The occasion of this article -- the beginning of the Year of the Ram. The placement of the ram in the Chinese zodiac reflects not only the cooperative disposition of domestic sheep, but also the agility, balance and sagacity of wild ones....

Animal Fact Monday: Wild Turkey Edition

1.Turkeys can run 12 mph and fly 45 mph. They can also swim.

2. They are one of the US's greatest conservation success stories, returning from the brink of extinction thanks to game laws and habitat restoration.

Learn more >> http://nature.ly/1yFgsoT

Gorgeous photo of a Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) from Gujarat, India by Tejas Soni. More photos and information about this species here --> http://owlpag.es/11

Grandville : Les métamorphoses du jour Gravures extraites du livre de Grandville (Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard) : Les métamorphoses du jour - 1854 Retrouvez les gravures à cette adresse : http://www...

The 1,300 Bird Species Facing Extinction Signal Threats to Human Health Birds, the most watched nonhuman creatures on the planet, tip us off to threats to human health.

Artist Creates Digital Life-Forms that Respond to Archival Birdsongs Australian artist Andy Thomas creates what he describes as “audio life forms,” specifically 3D animations that respond to audio input. For these latest pieces he used archival recordings of birds from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (in addition to one of his own recordings)

Animal Tales: literary creatures Are stories featuring talking animals about us or them?

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/488653/Royal-prerogative-The-strange-and-real-rules-of-the-monarch

Royal prerogative: The strange and real rules of the monarch AS the annual swan upping ceremony begins we look at some of the monarch's other special rules and privileges.

This article contains some rather profound insights into human-animal relations. Like, for example, the Victorians, we have many contradictory attitudes towards predators. There is no shame in being confused, but the first step in addressing any problem is being honest with yourself about it, and, in my opinion, we are not very honest about this one. The Victorians were a good deal more so.

Streaming Eagles A drama in a Minnesota nest reached millions online. Then things got really wild.

Plants Talk. Plants Listen. Here's How

Our Triumphant March towards Humility It is odd how triumphalist rhetoric pervades campaigns against anthropocentrism. Every perceived strike against human exceptionalism, for example the Copernican universe or Darwin's Theory of Evolution, is presented as one more step in human progress...

J. J. Grandville and His Fantastic Creatures They give new dimensions to what might otherwise be stereotypes. People are be***al while animals are human. Comic characters are sad, and tragic ones are funny. Nothing is ever what you expected....

Medieval Pet Names Medieval pet names: What did people in the Middle Ages name their dogs and cats?

OH HAI :3

'Hours of Joanna the Mad', Bruges 1486-1506 (BL, Add 18852, fol. 412r)