Soap Box Day Today

[Bullwinkle]

      Unbelievable.
   
An eighth grade Connecticut kid is claiming he was "cheated" on Jeopardy. He gave the correct answer, but he spelled it wrong, so Alex disallowed it.

     Front page of Yahoo news.

    He was behind about $60,000 , so he had no chance.

    His mother said it was, "hard to watch". Hundreds on Facebook admonished the show for being too strict with their rules.

    Ridiculous.

     I guess I'd be upset too if I lost by $60,000. 

   

[Bullwinkle]

     More craziness.

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - A corner of west London will see culinary and scientific history made on Monday when scientists cook and serve up the world's first lab-grown beef burger.

The in-vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, the first example of what its creator says could provide an answer to global food shortages and help combat climate change, will be fried in a pan and tasted by two volunteers.

The burger is the result of years of research by Dutch scientist Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht, who is working to show how meat grown in petri dishes might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock.

The meat in the burger has been made by knitting together around 20,000 strands of protein that has been cultured from cattle stem cells in Post's lab.

The tissue is grown by placing the cells in a ring, like a donut, around a hub of nutrient gel, Post explained.

To prepare the burger, scientists combined the cultured beef with other ingredients normally used in burgers, such as salt, breadcrumbs and egg powder. Red beet juice and saffron have been added to bring out its natural colors.

"Our burger is made from muscle cells taken from a cow. We haven't altered them in any way," Post said in a statement on Friday. "For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hopefully taste like the real thing."

VIABLE ALTERNATIVE?

Success, in Post's view, would mean not just a tasty burger, but also the prospect of finding a sustainable, ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to meat production.

According to a 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), industrialized agriculture contributes on a "massive scale" to climate change, air pollution, land degradation, energy use, deforestation and biodiversity decline.

The report, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, said the meat industry contributes about 18 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions and this proportion is expected to grow as consumers in fast-developing countries such as China and India eat more meat.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), annual meat production is projected to rise to 376 million metric tons by 2030 from 218 million metric tons in 1997-1999, and demand from a growing world population is expected to rise beyond that.

Post cites FAO figures suggesting demand for meat is expected to increase by more than two-thirds by 2050.

Animal welfare campaigners applauded the arrival of cultured meat and predicted a great future for it.

"In vitro technology will spell the end of lorries full of cows and chickens, abattoirs and factory farming," the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaign group said in a statement. "It will reduce carbon emissions, conserve water and make the food supply safer."

A study published in 2011 comparing the relative environmental impacts of various types of meat, including lamb, pork, beef and cultured meat, said the lab-grown product has by far the least impact on the environment.

Hanna Tuomisto, who conducted the study at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, found that growing meats in-vitro would use 35 percent to 60 percent less energy, emit 80 percent to 95 percent less greenhouse gas and use around 98 percent less land than conventionally produced animal meat.

While Monday's fry-up will be a world first and only an initial proof-of concept, the Dutch scientist reckons commercial production of cultured beef could begin within the next 20 years.

"What we are going to attempt is important because I hope it will show cultured beef has the answers to major problems that the world faces," he added.

[Wilma]

Good morning, all.  I remembered this thread this morning while ruminating about some of the spectacles that I have seen while watching the basketball games.  Namely, grotesquely painted bodies and faces.  I think I have commented about this before concerning football games and my opinion has not changed.

This time it concerns not only the spectators, but the schools themselves or more accurately, representatives of the schools.  The pep bands.  A bunch of young people with their faces so obliterated with paint that their own mothers would not recognize them.  Not to mention outlandish costumes and kindergarten behaviour.  This is definitely not a positive image of the school.  This old grandmother would not even consider sending a high school graduate to this school for preparation to live in the real world.  Wait!  Maybe this is the real world.  God help us.

[Diane Amberg]

There was a time when this was the gripe thread wasn't it? Now they are almost all gripe threads.
    As far college behavior, much has changed. One was considering the kids adults at 18 instead of 21.They don't have to behave for anyone now, as long as no one is injured or killed. There is no such thing as shame. I'm not talking about everyone, but in certain segments, they are bright kids who just don't care. We  had two here caught having sex behind The Galleria on Newark's Main Street,up against a fence....totally smashed and caught on camera across St. Patrick's Day weekend. It went viral and was all over face book. Our police will prosecute for public lewdness if they can get positive ID. The rest ...just hysterically funny... after all, everybody does it. Isn't it sad?"

[Wilma]

Yes, Diane, I started this thread seven years ago because there was some talk about being on a soap box when someone needed to get something off their chest and mind.  There have been some interesting subjects broached.  And without grinding it into the ground.

My favorite one right now is the body painting being displayed in public places.  It makes me think that the painted people don't want to be recognised because they are secretly ashamed of taking part in whatever it is that they are doing.

[larryJ]

Wilma, do you think the American Indians were "secretly ashamed of taking part in whatever it is that they are (were) doing?"

Hee hee!  Just razzin' ya.

Larryj

[Wilma]

The American Indians, Africans, Aborigines and others painted their faces as part of a ritual of their lives or religion.  Oldest daughter says it was also used as identification and/or protection of the skin from the elements or insects.  I suppose that you could say that today's face and body painting could be called a ritual even if it does appear to me as a means of not being identified.

[Bullwinkle]

       Anyone else noticed a change in some of the billing practices used today?

      For example, AT&T has been billing for a 29 day period instead of month by month. In essence cheating you a day or two each month and making the due date constantly change. Makes me furious. The city also does something that irks me. One month they show me using 0 water, or gas, and so I am charged the minimum use rate. Then the next month I am charged for 2 units. One of which should have been on the previous bill. So I pay for that unit twice, basically.

      Just one of those things that make you say , Hmmm.