Check out this TED Talk by video game designer David Perry for a special clip of an excellent video by Michael Highland, As Real As Your Life:

Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, Chef Ann Cooper

In this December 2007 talk given by Ian Dunbar, he discusses his observations on human-to-animal and human-to-human interaction.

He relates an experience of boarding a plane and witnessing a father disciplining his child and remarks that if the child had been a dog, he would have acted to intervene. I, too, have been met with this situation and have always done the same as Dunbar: contemplated but not acted. While I hold to the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”, I find myself feeling highly uncomfortable when I see a parent behaving irrationally or otherwise unkindly towards a child. What do I say? Who am I to intervene? What if they tell me it’s their child and I should keep out of it, mind my own business? I can’t count the number of times I’ve chided pet owners for mistreatment, or offered ways they can better train their dog, or told them about the benefits of a harness over a collar.

Dunbar suggests we view the world through the dog’s eyes to better learn how to interact with them. I’d say the same goes for interacting with children.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been regaling The Partner with my desires to grow fungi for the pure awesomeness of their mycelium.

Did you know mushrooms could save the world?