Noted: The Pet Overpopulation Myth

As someone who spent 3+ years as a volunteer for the SF SPCA, I am a strong supporter of no kill shelters. There’s a great piece in the SF Chronicle today that addresses some of the issues around why there aren’t more no kill shelters in the US. Here’s an excerpt. Go read the rest:

“If a community is still killing the majority of shelter animals, it is because the local SPCA, humane society, or animal control shelter has fundamentally failed in its mission,” he writes. “And this failure is nothing more than a failure of leadership. The buck stops with the shelter’s director.”

Redemption makes the case that bad shelter management leads to overcrowding, which is then confused with pet overpopulation. Instead of warehousing and killing animals, shelters, he says, should be using proven, innovative programs to find those homes he says are out there.

[snip]

“If … motherless kittens are killed because the shelter doesn’t have a comprehensive foster care program, that’s not pet overpopulation. That’s the lack of a foster care program.

“If adoptions are low because people are getting those dogs and cats from other places, because the shelter isn’t doing outside adoptions (adoptions done off the shelter premises), that’s a failure to do outside adoptions, not pet overpopulation.

And yes, I’m aware that calling a shelter “no kill” is somewhat of a misnomer. Incurably ill or incurably aggressive animals are put down even in no kill shelters, and I’m completely OK with that. It’s the killing of otherwise adoptable animals that I have an issue with.

Twitter: 90 Day Review

I signed up for Twitter some three months ago. Unlike some of Twitter’s more rapturous fans (like Scoble), my feelings are more mixed. On the one hand, I “get” Twitter. I like the idea, I think there’s a lot of uses for the service, and I’m pretty happy with the feature set. I’ve found some people who are using Twitter in interesting ways, and two real-life friends also Twitter. When it’s good, Twitter can be a lot of fun.

On the other hand, using Twitter feels like shouting down a well most of the time. I can count on the fingers of one hand the people who’ve actually had any interaction with me on Twitter (including the friends). It’s hard to stay enthusiastic about something when you get so little feedback.

All in all, I’d give my first 90 days with Twitter a B. I’m not inclined to stop Twittering, but it’s in no danger of replacing my blog any time soon.

50 Years Later: The Sputnik Backstory

This caught my eye tonight: the backstory of the Sputnik launch that kicked off the “space race” between the US and the USSR is finally coming out. Here’s a snippet, click through for the rest (it’s worth a read):

When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph.

But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age.

And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket.

Shame On Us

It’s bad enough that the US is involved in a massive, costly and ultimately unwinnable war. It’s even worse that, despite the lessons learned from Vietnam, we don’t take good care of the ones who pay a fearful price when fighting that war.

Read this rundown on returning vets.

“Your broke it, you pay for it” is the rule at Pottery Barn, shouldn’t it be the rule for the Army too?

Good Things Coming: The Next Iron Chef

As I slowly made my way through my much-neglected feed reader this morning, an offhand link from Ruhlman’s blog caught my eye: a short interview with Alton Brown to help promote “The Next Iron Chef”. It’s a fun read.

Along with The Barefoot Contessa, Alton’s one of the few people still watchable on the Food Network. I loved his two “Feasting on Asphalt” specials. His goofiness can occasionally be a little annoying, but given how FN has eviscerated nearly all their real cooking shows, I suppose it’s the price he has to pay to keep “Good Eats” on the air.

At any rate, “The Next Iron Chef” has been added to the TiVo. I really hope it doesn’t suck.

Scott and I watched the Tuscany episode of “No Reservations” last night and got into a discussion of some possible options for homemade pasta this weekend. If we do haul the much-neglected pasta machine out of the closet today I may get a blog post out of it.