EARTHLINGS– an award-winning documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research. Considered the most persuasive documentary ever made, EARTHLINGS is nicknamed “the Vegan maker” for its sensitive footage shot at animal shelters, pet stores, puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, the leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses and research labs. The film is narrated by Academy Award® nominee Joaquin Phoenix and features music by platinum-selling recording artist Moby. Initially ignored by distributors, today EARTHLINGS is considered the definitive animal rights film by organizations around the world. “Of all the films I have ever made, this is the one that gets people talking the most,” said Phoenix. “For every one person who sees EARTHLINGS, they will tell three.”

In 1999, writer/producer/director Shaun Monson began work on a series of PSAs about spaying and neutering pets. The footage he shot at animal shelters around Los Angeles affected him so profoundly that the project soon evolved into EARTHLINGS. The film would take another six years to complete because of the difficulty in obtaining footage within these profitable industries. Though the film was initially ignored by distributors, who told Monson that the film would “never see the light of day and should be swept under the rug,” today EARTHLINGS is considered the definitive animal rights film by organizations around the world.

Nation Earth was established to produce documentary films on socially urgent issues. EARTHLINGS, released in 2005, was the company’s first feature film and is the first of a documentary trilogy. The company is currently at work on the second installment, UNITY, which will explore the unifying force of consciousness found in nature, animals and humankind. UNITY is scheduled to be completed in 2010. For more information please see www.unitythemovie.com.

ALTERNET– According to a new study released this week, caffeine turns human beings into efficient worker bees. Led by Katharine Ker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the study found that caffeine “significantly reduced the number of errors” made by workers in a series of 13 trials. “One trial comparing the effects of caffeine with a nap found that there were significantly less errors made in the caffeine group,” reads the official report.

What? Coffee beats naps?

“The results of the trials suggest that compared to no intervention, caffeine can reduce the number of errors and improve cognitive performance in shift workers. … Based on the current evidence, the review authors judge that there is no reason for healthy shift workers who already use caffeine within recommended levels to improve their alertness to stop doing so.”

The study focused on “shift workers” — that is, those who work at times other than 9-to-5. Granted, sleeping by day and working by night can throw body clocks off-kilter, so such workers are atypical. But the LSHTM report was picked up and spread so quickly by the mainstream media as to confirm that caffeine is America’s favorite legal high because it fuels capitalism. Not that capitalism totally sucks, but still: It’s good to know why you’re being sold central-nervous-system stimulants. Crack users aren’t good workers. Neither marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, nor LSD increase workplace efficiency. (Neither does alcohol, yet alcohol is just as cheap and legal as caffeine. But alcohol has been ingrained in human culture for too long to yank it out, as Prohibition proved.)

“Caffeine Drinkers Make Fewer Mistakes,” blares the Web site for Denver’s ABC station, KMGH. Other headlines capping the same story in other mainstream venues include “Study: Caffeine Makes You Do Better Job,” “Morning cup of coffee can increase workplace performance,” and “Caffeine Helps Shift Workers Avoid Mistakes.” “Caffeine may curb errors,” asserts the UK’s Guardian. “Coffee is best perk for sleepy workers,” confides India’s national daily paper The Hindu. “Shift workers knew it, researchers confirm it: Caffeine helps,” roars the Los Angeles Times.

Well, that’s convenient.

Continue reading about Why Caffeine is the Perfect Addiction for a Worker Bee Society.

© Alternet, 2010

Photo by flickr user pete simon

REALITY SANDWICH– Is Activism a natural outgrowth of yoga? Isn’t yoga all about focusing inward?

When journalists ask me what my message is or what I am teaching, I reply: “Vegetarianism, environmentalism and the need to take political action.” This response is generally met with bewilderment and another question like, “What are the physical benefits of yoga?” I like to answer, “What could be more physical than what you eat, where you live, and what kind of world you share with others?”

I believe that the growing popularity of yoga at this time of global transformation and overall shift in consciousness is not a coincidence. A yogi, by definition, is someone who strives to live harmoniously with the earth. Through that relationship the yogi seeks to purify his or her karmas so that enlightenment arises. Enlightenment is a state in which “Oneness of being” is realized, the interconnection of all beings and things in our world–yoga teaches that we are inseparably woven into the great web of life, matter, and cosmic space.

We are responsible for the health and well being of our world. But even though it seems that the world needs us more than ever before, it is actually we who need the world for our own salvation–not only as physical beings who require air and water and nutrition, but also in a metaphysical sense. Mother Nature does not require us for her existence, but we need her: this earth provides us with life, and, according to yoga teachings, life gives us the opportunity for enlightenment by giving us the means to work out our past karmas.

Continue reading about Yoga as Spiritual Activism.

© Reality Sandwich, 2008

Photo by Rick Pickett

HUFFINGTON POST– This study was just routine,” said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

Continue reading about Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility and Infant Mortality.

© Huffington Post, 2010

Photo by flickr user foto3116