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Matt on Not-WordPress, mostly photos
Stuff and things.
In 2002 I started contributing to Open Source software, and life has just gotten better from there. Co-founder of WordPress, founder Automattic. View more posts
Matt on Not-WordPress, mostly photos
what is this exactly??
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I think it’s an oven mitt or similar.
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umm…is it Halloween or Christmas??
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“Oh God, please don’t tell me he ate a %&#%@ owl…” ::click:: “PHEW.”
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Haha, people seemed awfully concerned I’d eat an owl. Not that I was planning on it, but are owls like a forbidden fowl?
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you havent heard of the turduckinowl?
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Owls aren’t fowl! They’re raptors. But more on that later.
Several species of owl are endangered. Many cultures revere them (or fear them), and most people are impressed by their beauty and various fascinating evolutionary adaptations. Also consider that owls are active at night, and are solitary animals — not much chance for a vibrant owl-hunting tradition among humans. So there are some cultural and aesthetic reasons for abstaining from owl meat.
But also consider that we don’t generally eat the meat of carnivores. It’s expensive! Not only do you have to care for the animal, you have to care for their prey, and then care for its prey’s food. It’s really energetically inefficient. There is also an increased risk of contamination due to biomagnification. Carnivores are, at best, third level consumers (they eat animals which eat plants, which get their energy from the sun). The higher you go on the food chain, the more risk that a toxin will have accumulated in a dangerously high concentration. This is why the EPA recommends that you limit your albacore tuna intake to a maximum of 6 ounces per week, and that you avoid shark and swordfish altogether. Fish (some species more than others) accumulate high levels of poisonous mercury due to biomagnification. The same is true of raptors like owls and hawks and eagles.
I also doubt that owl meat is very tasty. Most land-based carnivore meat is greasier and gamier than herbivore/omnivore meat.
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Okay, you convinced me. 🙂 Now if I see owl on a menu I’ll chicken out.
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