The European Parliament, the governing body of the EU (European Union), met last week to consider (among many other things) a new animal welfare action plan. Last December animal welfare became a core value for the EU, right up there with opposing discrimination, promoting gender equality, and protecting human health and welfare. The new animal welfare treaty states that EU members "shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals." How civilized.

BBC News has a lengthy discussion of the implications of the treaty for animal experimentation. And here's the complete Animal Welfare Action Plan, which was presented on April 19.

Seeking to capitalize on animal welfare sentiment during an election campaign, the UK's Labour Party announced: "And we will maintain our proud record on improving animal welfare, including the ban on fox hunting." How British.

I find these drawings by Jason Whitman, with their accompanying statements, strangely moving. The words are so tender. The animals express their complaints and their wonder about living in a post-modern world.

I've gotten to a point where I don't think we should talk anymore. I've gotten to point where there is no point. I think everything is fine until you throw the past before me like some small animal braving a highway. Do I swerve? Do I close my eyes and hope for the better? Oh, man if I do hit it, please please let me go ahead and help cross to whatever is on the other side.

What were we even talking about? When all is said and done I'm left shaking and unable to make sense of what you just said. I just know someone has been hurt. I'm not so certain as to why.

Ellen O'Neill-Stephens is an attorney in Washington state. Her background includes prosecuting crimes against children - sexual assault, neglect, abuse and other serious crimes.

Back in 2003, her household included her son Sean, who has cerebral palsy, and Jeeter, a trained service dog and companion to Sean. There were days when Sean was with a caregiver, which left Jeeter alone at home. So she started bringing Jeeter with her to juvenile drug court.

One day a fellow prosecutor asked if Jeeter could help calm two young girls. They were scheduled to testify against their father in an emotionally charged sexual abuse case. "During cross-examination the kids and the defense attorney were stroking Jeeter," recalls O'Neill-Stephens. "It was just people having a conversation around a dog, and it worked for everyone." Jeeter made such a difference that the juvenile department decided to add a "full time" service dog to its staff. There are now four courthouse dogs in Washington state.

Penguins, like canaries in coal mines, are a leading indicator of climate change and other environmental hazards. Their frozen habitat is getting smaller. A warmer ocean means the migration patterns of fish have changed, so penguins are forced to travel much farther for food. The Magellanic penguins of South America now need to travel 25 miles farther than they did just a decade ago. Overfishing and oil pollution also contribute to the plight of penguins.

In honor of Thanksgiving - when we eat another bird - the Washington Post featured a story on a penguin rehabilitation center, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). Most of SANCCOB's rescue efforts focus on birds who suffer from oil spills.

Like the appendix , collateral circulation is another part of our anatomy that was more useful to our ancestors. Collateral circulation refers to systems of veins and arteries that allow blood to continue flowing when the main pathway is blocked or damaged.

These extra vessels sometimes develop in response to a circulation blockage. But certain parts of the body - the elbows, knees, shoulders - are equipped with these redundant vessels right from the start.

We're not born with collateral circulation in those really important places like the brain and the heart. Why would we have these surplus vessels in the elbows, but not in the places that keep us alive?

Mascara, eye-liner, and shadow can make the eyes stand out and look much larger than they actually are. Lipstick can make the lips look rounder and puffier. Why do we find this attractive? Properly applied, eye make-up and lipstick will emphasize facial features that make an adult look more like a baby. And we are irresistibly attracted to the faces of babies.

What is it about the way babies look that makes them so cute?

In addition to those eyes that are extra large compared to the size of their heads, babies' foreheads are large for their faces, and their heads are large relative to their bodies. They have soft, round, non-angular features. Their cheeks are large and puffy, with no visible cheekbones. Their little hands and fingers, and the joints on their stubby arms and legs, are soft and dimpled.

If you want to increase the chances recovering a lost wallet, be sure to include baby photos.

Researchers set up an experiment in which 240 wallets were left on the streets of Edinburgh. Some of the wallets had photos, either a baby, a cute puppy, a family snapshot, or an elderly couple. One group of wallets contained a card indicating a recent charity donation. The last group was a control: No photos, no cards. None of the wallets contained money. All of the wallets contained a return address.

42% of the wallets were returned. Did the photos make a difference? Here are the results for the returned wallets:

• Photo of infant - 88% return rate
• Photo of puppy - 53% returned
• Family snapshot - 48%
• Elderly couple - 28%
• Charity card - 20%
• Control group - 15%

Never underestimate a cat. Researchers in Britain have analyzed a special "meow" many cats use when they want something right now: Food, toys, an open door. It's called a "solicitation purr" and combines a high-frequency cry within an otherwise pleasant purr. Insistent meowing might be ignored as annoying, but by embedding the high-frequency sound in a purr, cats can convey a subtle sense of urgency.

According to Dr. Karen McComb, the lead author of the study, "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom."

The experiment was difficult to design, since cats won't exhibit this behavior on demand. Cat owners learned to record the sounds their cats made when asking for food. Normal purring in a non-solicitation context was also recorded. Test subjects, who listened to the recordings, included individuals who had never owned cats. When asked to evaluate what they heard, the 'solicitation' purrs were consistently identified as more urgent and less pleasant.

Source: Gedichten Gedacht

Legally grown opium is used by pharmaceutical companies to make morphine and other pain killers. Fifty percent of that opium is supplied by Australia. According to a BBC News report, a problem has developed with "wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. ... Then they crash." Other animals have also been spotted in the poppy fields "acting unusual."

The story is followed by a number of cute and creative comments. For example:

I've lived in Tasmania for many years. Not only do wallabies congregate in poppy fields, but also on the local golf courses. They do this mainly at night and I can only assume they're playing several rounds of golf while avoiding greens fees. You only need to be really worried when one of the stoned wallabies gets into a golf buggy.

A new movie, Food, Inc., will be in theaters starting June 12. The film documents how industrialized agriculture has changed the food we eat and explores the impact of this change on health, food safety, and the environment. In the movie's trailer (see below), a woman eyeing vegetables in a grocery store says "Sometimes you look at a vegetable and say, well, we can get two hamburgers for the same price." That about sums up the problem with the American diet, a problem directly related to a decrease in health (diabetes, heart disease) and an increase in weight (the so-called "obesity epidemic").

Here's the official description of the film:

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. ... Food, Inc. reveals surprising--and often shocking truths--about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Kenner, the producer/director, and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, started talking about a documentary of Fast Food six or seven years ago. By the time the film was funded, both Kenner and Schlosser were heavily influenced by the ideas of Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food .