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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

Niman’s suggestion that the findings do not apply to smaller farms, the United Nations and the University of Chicago reports demonstrate the inefficiency of beef “production” because a cow must be fed to convert grass or grain calories into protein before a human can consume even “humane” or grass-fed beef. James Siegel Portland, Me.,

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Here’s the new bird family tree. It’s amazing.

10,000 Birds

Ratites, Tinamous, and Fowl. It’s an intriguing proposal — none of these birds had belonged much of anywhere before (heck, bustards were dumped in Gruiformes with cranes and rails) — and it means that birds adapted either to arboreal or to ground-dwelling lifestyles more than once within the clade. Open Jarvis et al.’s

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