Photography with Joe

  CLASSIFIED DOSSIER – EYES ONLY AGENT FILE:  CODE DESIGNATION: Agent Northstar CLEARANCE LEVEL: 00 Diplomatic 🔷 IDENTITY PROFILE Name:   Cover Role: Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to India Nationality: Canadian Languages: English, French, Hindi (conversational) Known Affiliations: Global Affairs Canada, High Commission of Canada in India 🔷 FIELD OPERATIONS Operation Codename: SAFE RIDE MERA PRIDE Mission Type: Civic Safety Initiative / Public Diplomacy Operational Theater: New Delhi, India Objective: To enhance women’s safety and accessibility in public transport systems through partnership, public awareness, and targeted community engagement. Results: Successful coordination between Canadian and Indian civic authorities. Campaign highlighted in Tatsat Chronicle , Times of India , and India Today . Publicly credited with improving discourse around gender safety and mobility. Strengthened Canada’s reputation for promoting gende...

  What the Hell is Red Meat – or Purple Meat, for that Matter? Scholz Journal, Rewritten and corrected by AI When people say red meat , they usually mean beef, lamb, or pork. But why “red”? The answer lies in myoglobin — a protein in muscle that stores oxygen for use during activity. More myoglobin means darker meat. My doctor told me to eat more red meat. Call me a philistine, but I had to admit — I wasn’t exactly sure what counted as red meat . On the plate, if my steak looked like a stoplight — bright and glowing red — I’d be worried, not reassured. Why do some animals have more myoglobin than others? It’s evolutionary biology. Myoglobin works like a tiny oxygen tank inside the muscle. Animals that use their muscles for long, steady effort need more oxygen on demand, so they pack those muscles with myoglobin. Cows and sheep spend much of their lives standing, walking, or chewing. Their muscles are built for endurance. High myoglobin lets them keep moving for hours witho...

  Our Cousins, the Proto-Philosophers By Scholz It started with a television show. While watching  Humans , the sci-fi series on Amazon Prime, I was struck by a scene where synthetic beings — robots with human-like intelligence — calmly argued for their rights. Not just to move freely, but not to be  owned . Their communication was articulate, emotional, even moral. They weren’t asking for upgrades. They were asking for dignity. The scene lingered in my mind. What makes someone a person? Is it intelligence? Language? The ability to feel, or to make ethical claims? That’s when my thoughts turned not to machines, but to something far more real — our evolutionary cousins. Bonobos pressing symbols for “sad,” gorillas signing their names in mirrors, orangutans telling small lies. These aren’t imagined sci-fi futures. These are scenes from the lives of great apes. For centuries, philosophy has been framed as a distinctly human pursuit. To wonder, to reason, to ask “why” — these...

 S elf-awareness in animals is usually tested using the mirror test , where an animal is marked with a visible dot or sticker on a body part they can only see via a mirror. If the animal tries to investigate or remove the mark, it suggests some level of self-recognition . 🪞 So... are Japanese macaques self-aware? ❌ No strong evidence (yet) Japanese macaques generally fail the mirror test . They often treat their reflection as another monkey — showing aggression or social behavior rather than recognizing themselves. That said, some individuals have shown ambiguous behavior, like using mirrors to look at body parts — but these are inconclusive and rare. BUT — it's complicated. Scientists are rethinking the mirror test as the only measure of self-awareness. For example: Some animals may understand the reflection but not care about a mark. Others may be self-aware in different ways — like having theory of mind , deceptive behavior , or long-term planning ....