Phi for All

Well, I'd need to taste it first, before making any kind of judgement, but I remember back when CDs first came out to replace vinyl and tape for recording. I was blown away by the high quality sound, and I couldn't understand why there were those who thought vinyl was better. The argument always seemed to me like an Appeal to Tradition fallacy. No one could make me understand why hearing all the reality on vinyl was preferable to the clarity on compact disc. This lab grown meat only needs to be as good as regular meat in order to be immensely better. I do think about humane treatment of livestock and also accept the consequences of being an omnivore, and I would welcome an alternative that made economical sense (whoops, not quite yet) and removed the ethical objections. Since I think taste is probably a factor that's somewhat controllable in a lab situation, I'll bet the tough part is texture. A good piece of beef has to feel right as you chew. It can't be stringy or too chewy, although not enough chew makes it seem processed. There could be a lot of factors involved that make a piece of meat off the hoof better than lab grown meat. It could be that the act of walking that meat around for a few years on a live animal before it's eaten makes all the difference. But I think they'll be able to tailor this lab grown meat and improve on the original. Muscle cars may have been cool and fast, but they broke down a lot and didn't have as many cool features as modern cars. Lab grown meat, engineered just the way you want it, could solve a lot of problems.

There is a third possibility. You aren't explaining yourself well enough to be understood. I also can't figure out where you could see 27 people on your Last Visit list.

I doubt this is aimed at those vegetarians. There are plenty of vegetarians who's objections to meat are the sustainability issues and the slaughterhouse process. They'd love a steak if the fear, pain and other moral issues are removed. It's hard to see lab generated meat as something that needs us to act as its voice. It's tasty protein, with the potential to be whatever we want it to be. Another step towards being able to feed ourselves and operate offplanet, or in places on Earth that are inhospitable to livestock and farming.

Good point. I forgot about the ACME Effect, Wiley.

! Moderator Note Warning point issued for persistent thread hijacking after being warned.

I don't understand the "God is a myth that refers to something that is real" part. How are you determining "real"? Can you give me an example of something else that is a myth that refers to something that is real? Hearsay. A "real" man who is several centuries old? A ship big enough to accommodate more animals than any ship could structurally hold, built for a storm that's going to kill all the water fowl because somehow there will suddenly be enough water to cover the land right up to the tops of the mountains? A tower that reaches to the heavens but leaves no traces of it's existence? The pyramids are real buildings, and we know they were because of the evidence they leave behind.

I don't know why other similar coastal regions are different. Typically, cooler air from offshore mixes with the warmer air inland, which condenses to form fog. Southern California has the Santa Ynez mountains that trap the fog to make it linger, so maybe it's all about the geography. I remember hearing that the inland fogs are different from the "marine layer" that forms over the water when warm winds from inland get trapped over the cooler offshore winds. That can also travel inland, but it forms over the water first.

I was waiting for someone to suggest this. I never could have afforded to rent alone while going to school and working part time. I rented with two friends, and we handled the bills just fine. Get a Costco membership and split everything evenly. The tiny home thing is cool, but it will still be more expensive than three roommates sharing costs. And something about living alone in a place like that doesn't sound like much of an improvement socially from living with your parents. It's good to be with people your own age who have similar problems.

Absolutely not.

I really hope the name "schmeat" doesn't stick. I think that would stop many people who might otherwise think this is a pretty fantastic idea. The prefix just makes it sound bad, schlock means low quality, shyster means disreputable, sham, shitty, it's not a prefix you want ahead of your meat. I think it's a great idea. I want to know how to grow my own. Others can make beer and wine, I want a home meat growers vat. This can be grown just the way you want it to be, and nobody from PETA will be frowning at you through the window while you eat it. There will be those who claim it isn't as good as meat off the hoof, and that's fine, they can worry about whether their burger was humanely slaughtered as they listen to their vinyl records and drive their muscle cars.

In that regard, cold fusion is MUCH safer than nuclear power. Current cold fusion technology will never result in even a single catastrophe on a Chernobyl scale.

We will forever be grateful to the man who applied the Cattle Prod of Justice to the unworthy buttocks of the Evil League of Spammers.

I think that in dietary terms, if someone is eating 6oz of fish, it's considered a serving of protein. In technical terms, by the Nutrition Facts label, only a quarter of the serving is considered actual protein, at least in the case of tuna fish.

Oh, those are great, I bought a four-pack recently. Loved them! Lost them all within two days.

"Professional journalist" these days means working for a corporation that is at odds with journalistic integrity. You don't get to dig for the truth on the Burger King horse-meat story if you work for Clear Channel Radio. The powers that be at Bain can blackmail you with your job.

Actually, it's more like our lawyer steps in to prevent a liability for the site. If you prefer, you can picture him descending a rope from a black helicopter.... Well, that's definitely one way to make a first impression. We prefer to attack the arguments here, and leave the people alone. It's possible to make a mistake in English while being fluent in it. I can cite precedence.

! Moderator Note Moved from Modern and Theoretical Physics to the Lounge.

I, on the other hand(foot), want to test this idea, so I'm going out to buy more pens and socks. Now where did I put my sunglasses?

Well, I can't find a pen. However, I'm using my car, which is filthy because I bought a car wash last time I filled up with petrol, but the line at the car wash was too long. Now that there's no line at the car wash, I can't find the gas receipt with the car wash code on it. I'm writing in the dirt with an old single sock I found. For the small black hole hypothesis to work, there must be something intrinsic to both socks and pens that causes them to be preferentially absorbed. They share no common materials. They serve completely different functions. But a pen and a sock are both appendage-oriented, so what if the key lies in their placement? What would happen if you put socks on your hands? Or wrote with a ballpoint pen gripped in your toes? Perhaps an alien living in the black hole is trying to stop us from discovering the ultimate power source, using a ballpoint pen with socks on your hands!

Well, yeah! Why would you want a pen to run out of ink more quickly? I love it when a favorite pen seems to last forever. I'm glad pen manufacturer's aren't emulating the computer printer manufacturers. Then the ink would cost a fortune and run out quickly. When I buy a really great pen, I always buy some extra refills. Trouble is, by the time the original barrel runs out, I forget where I stored the refills.

We should test that. I could add a poll.

Thanks. Using the Report Post button really is the best solution. I've been on the road a bit more lately, but I get reported posts sent by email, and I try to get to them when I reach my computer. We broke something strange, because this new filter is letting the Vi@g@r@ and Goochiebag crap through. Something isn't set correctly, and it will get fixed, and it's overdue and we will rejoice when it happens. Summer, busy, sorry, patience, thanks.

Why? What force is acting on them?

I think most of the claims about toxins being excreted through the skin are bogus. There's really not much of a mechanism for this in the body. Stuff we don't need is mostly evacuated through urine and feces. I think our skin would look pretty bad if we were constantly pushing toxins (poisons?) through our pores. I know those detoxifying foot baths are a scam, claiming to pull toxins through the bottoms of your feet and into the water, making it cloudy. The electrolysis process is merely coloring the water brown or orange due to corrosion of the iron electrodes in the bath. It's not toxins you see in the water, it's rust. It would still do that even if your feet weren't in it. I think if there is any efficacy in mineral oil helping to "detoxify" your body, it would be in helping soften and break up debris clogged in pores. That's not really toxins coming from inside your body, unless you consider dead cells, oils and dirt toxins. Perhaps that's where we'd need to start this discussion, defining exactly what is meant by "toxins".

! Moderator Note Moved to Chemistry for a more comprehensive response. And welcome to SFN!