The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

Also "Panzer of the Lake" is a wonderful meme template. Unfortunately most memes using it are bad.

[celedhring]

Spanish police have arrested a con man under several charges of identity theft. This is one of the forged ID cards he was using 

[The Larch]

China rules rainbow trout can be sold as salmon
Much of what is sold as salmon in China is reportedly actually rainbow trout, so now the authorities are making it official

The Chinese government has ruled that rainbow trout can now be labelled and sold as salmon.

The seemingly bizarre move comes after complaints earlier this year that rainbow trout was being mislabelled.

In May, media reported that much of what was sold as salmon in China was actually rainbow trout, to widespread consternation from fish-buyers.

But instead of banning vendors from deceiving their customers, the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA), which falls under the Chinese ministry of agriculture, has ruled that all salmonidae fish can now be sold under the umbrella name of "salmon", reports the Global Times.

Rainbow trout and salmon are both salmonidae fish and look quite similar when filleted. However, salmon live in salt water and rainbow trout live in fresh water.

The Global Times reports that the sale of salmon has increased in recent years in China, but that customers had begun complaining that some of what was marketed as salmon was actually trout.

[Josquius]

Well, there goes all rainbow trout in China.

[grumbler]

Don't want to get into the silly "what are trout" debate again, but trout are salmon.  The same salmon species can have saltwater and freshwater subspecies.

And any rainbow trout in China came from North America or was raised artificially.  Rainbow trout are native to western Canada and the western US.

[Richard Hakluyt]

They are best served with a glass of champagne I believe.

[derspiess]

Rainbow trout are delicious.  And fun to catch.

[Oexmelin]

A friend of mine was tweeting his boredom about the slow crawl on the road out of Genoa this morning.

He finally succeeded in getting out of the city. Ten minutes later, the bridge he had just crossed collapsed:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/14/genoa-motorway-bridge-collapses-italy

Death toll is expected to rise.

[grumbler]

A friend of mine was tweeting his boredom about the slow crawl on the road out of Genoa this morning.

He finally succeeded in getting out of the city. Ten minutes later, the bridge he had just crossed collapsed:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/14/genoa-motorway-bridge-collapses-italy

Death toll is expected to rise.

Just heard about this.  I understand that there was some work underway on the bridge at the time.

[crazy canuck]

Interesting piece in the Guardian about obesity.

Here is a picture of a crowded beach in 1976 (no fat people).  just picture in your mind the difference today.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/25/1976-long-hot-summer-political-upheaval

The opinion piece considers what changed.  The conclusion the author draws:

So what has happened? The light begins to dawn when you look at the nutrition figures in more detail. Yes, we ate more in 1976, but differently. Today, we buy half as much fresh milk per person, but five times more yoghurt, three times more ice cream and – wait for it – 39 times as many dairy desserts. We buy half as many eggs as in 1976, but a third more breakfast cereals and twice the cereal snacks; half the total potatoes, but three times the crisps. While our direct purchases of sugar have sharply declined, the sugar we consume in drinks and confectionery is likely to have rocketed (there are purchase numbers only from 1992, at which point they were rising rapidly. Perhaps, as we consumed just 9kcal a day in the form of drinks in 1976, no one thought the numbers were worth collecting.) In other words, the opportunities to load our food with sugar have boomed. As some experts have long proposed, this seems to be the issue.

The solution the piece implies is not a matter of individuals making better dietary choices, but better regulation of the food industry.

I think the piece is a bit simplistic in that it does not address why obese people make poor nutritional choices, it simply blames government for allowing those choices to be made.  But I think it likely that there is another structural problem with food delivery - junk/fast food costs less. So it is not surprising that so many people eat it and get fat.  In fairness the article does mention that obesity is more prevalent in lower socio-economic groups.  But why is that?  The article simply says "lower spending power, stress, anxiety and depression associated with low social status makes people more vulnerable to bad diets".  I don't think that is very helpful.  All that amounts to is poor people are always going to make bad food choices.  Putting aside how demeaning that logic is to poor people, I think we are better off looking at structural causes rather than simply concluding the poor must be protected from themselves. 

I think the issue is the cost and availability of health foods vs unhealthy foods.

Now how does that get addressed?  Not sure.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/15/age-of-obesity-shaming-overweight-people

[The Brain]

At least in Sweden healthy food is a lot cheaper than crap food.

[Valmy]

I mean it is not like being a poor person was less stressful in 1976.

[derspiess]

Food in general is cheaper than it's ever been.  At least it seems so

[mongers]

Food in general is cheaper than it's ever been.  At least it seems so

But at what cost?

[Tonitrus]

I think the issue is the cost and availability of health foods vs unhealthy foods.

Now how does that get addressed?  Not sure.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/15/age-of-obesity-shaming-overweight-people

I think there is a lot of truth there.  Far easier to plug in processed/sugar-loaded snack foods into poorer/urban stores/groceries than what is likely a more supply-chain intense/higher cost infrastructure to supply fresh fruits/vegetables.  And even if available, the latter would likely end up costing more, and thus not be a consumer choice anyway.

And whiny kids will always cry about wanting to get some kind of sugar-frosted wheatie flakes over carrots anyway.