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[The last hour would not come]

#91

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Razgovory - May 14, 2024, 09:22:36 PM

You have it backwards.  The Jews need to be destroyed before the end of days.

That is not my understanding.

But hey there can be multiple interpretations

The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah!, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!" – But the tree Gharqad will not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

https://sunnah.com/muslim:2922

#92

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Valmy - May 14, 2024, 09:05:12 PM

You have it backwards.  The Jews need to be destroyed before the end of days.

That is not my understanding.

But hey there can be multiple interpretations

#93

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by Valmy - May 14, 2024, 09:02:23 PM

Oh fuck. This is coming to Texas soon isn't it?

#94

Off the Record / Re: 2024 US Presidential Elect...

Last post by Jacob - May 14, 2024, 08:49:11 PM

Interesting article on Trump's plans if he loses the election: https://www.salon.com/2024/05/13/ready-for-a-loss/

Crazy to think we could be witnessing the death of American democracy.

#95

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by Admiral Yi - May 14, 2024, 08:17:04 PM

 

[Florida bans lab-grown meat, adding to similar efforts in three other states]

#96

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by Tonitrus - May 14, 2024, 08:13:30 PM

Perhaps only tangentially related to climate changed...but still a great example of anti-environmental lunacy from parts of the right-wing:

Florida bans lab-grown meat, adding to similar efforts in three other states


May 2, 2024, 1:33 PM PDT
By Natalie Kainz
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday banning and criminalizing the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat in the state.

The legislation joins similar efforts from three other states — Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee — that have also looked to stop the sale of lab-grown meat, which is believed to still be years away from commercial viability.

"Florida is fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals," DeSantis said. "We will save our beef."

Lab-grown meat, also known as cultivated meat, has attracted considerable attention in recent years as startups have raised millions of dollars to improve the technology meant to create a climate-friendly alternative to traditional meat sources. Cultivated meat is usually grown in a metal vessel from a sample of animal cells. They multiply in a container called a bioreactor while being fed with water, amino acids, vitamins and lipids — a process that can be difficult to do at scales large enough to create enough food for commercial sale.

Still, some companies have made strides, with two California startups receiving approval from U.S. regulators last year to sell lab-grown chicken.

Those companies said Florida's bill stifles innovation in a space that is becoming competitive globally.

"The United States has a tremendous lead in terms of alternative proteins right now. We have 43 cultivated meat companies in the world. But this kind of political rhetoric and these laws put that in jeopardy," said Tom Rossmeissl, the head of global marketing at Eat Just Inc., the company behind cultivated meat brand Good Meat.

Upside Foods, another cultivated meat startup, said the ban could put the resilience of Florida's supply chain at risk by hindering the state's ability to address the projected doubling of global protein demand by 2050.

"This type of discriminatory legislation jeopardizes the United States' leadership in biotechnology and enables countries like China to gain unfair advantage," Upside Foods said in an email to NBC News.

The main competitor in the cultivated meat industry is China, which included the technology in its latest five-year agricultural plan as a way to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and stave off food scarcity.

Lori Berman, one of 10 Florida Democratic senators who voted against the bill, expressed similar concerns about China. She called the bill "shortsighted," seeing cultivated meat as a solution to future food shortage problems.

"The cattle industry lobbied against cultivated meat, so we are now banning an entire industry in our state," Berman said. "We're just short-changing an entire industry."

Dean Black, a cattle rancher and one of the Republican Florida representatives who pushed for the bill's passage, told NBC News that cultivated meat is a national security concern. He fears concentrating protein production in factories could lead to famine if those facilities are struck by a missile.

At the bill's signing, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said the ban was meant to protect "the integrity of American agriculture."

Advocates say the ban is pre-emptive because cultivated meat is still far from competing with regular meat. Good Meat's product is still more expensive than even high-end organic meat products. It may take decades before production can be scaled up to reach price parity.

Paul Shapiro, author of the book "Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World," likened Florida's bill to banning video streaming to try to protect Blockbuster video stores. Shapiro is the CEO of The Better Meat Co., which makes plant-based "meat" from fungi.

"The legislation that was enacted in Florida is seeking to kill this industry while we're still in the cradle," Shapiro said. "Even under the most optimistic estimates, meat grown from animal cells is not going to be on the market in any meaningful way for another five to 10 years."

Good Meat spent three years working with federal regulators to ensure food safety, but the ban's supporters still have health concerns. Black said more research is needed to assess whether lab-grown meat contains the same micronutrients as real meat.

"Although the FDA has said that this type of product is safe, that doesn't mean it's healthy," Black said. "In Florida, we don't want our citizens used as guinea pigs."

Justin Tupper, president of the United States Cattlemen's Association, called the bill a "win" for similar reasons. Although he said he doesn't fear competition, he is concerned about chemicals in the new product.

"We don't want lab-grown meat weighing on the backs of our good reputation of the safest, best protein on the planet," Tupper said.

But Rossmeissl and Shapiro said there's little merit to health concerns, because cultivated meat has near identical nutritional value to real meat. Furthermore, conventional meat often has fecal and intestinal pathogens, and antibiotic residues, that need to be cooked out for safe consumption, Shapiro said.

"With clean meat, you don't have to worry as much about intestinal pathogens when you're not growing intestines at all," Shapiro said.

Rossmeissl added that consumers should be free to choose whether they trust the product.

"This isn't about safety. This is a culture war," Rossmeissl said.

#97

Gaming HQ / Re: STELLARIS: New Paradox Gam...

Last post by Tonitrus - May 14, 2024, 08:06:11 PM

One of the things I've also noticed in my Stellaris playthroughs, is that even a massive military tech advantage (in weapons/shields) will never seem to scale well to overcome a significant numerical advantage.

This may be by design, but hits hard against tech-heavy, "tall" playthroughs.

#98

Gaming HQ / Re: STELLARIS: New Paradox Gam...

Last post by Tonitrus - May 14, 2024, 08:03:23 PM

Did space combat ever get better, or is it still blobs of ships chasing other  blobs of ships?

The "Doomstack solution" is something that has always interestingly evaded strategy computer gaming AI.  Either from a structural/design flaw, lack of care about the AI, etc.

You'd have thought our recent evolutions in AI would have solved it...but it may just be a structural problem (e.g. the rules applied to large fleets, use of the hyperlane system) that ties down the alternatives. 

The AI would need a reason to NOT use a doomstack...and none seem apparent. And that the AI uses a doomstack seems to essentially force the human player to respond in kind.

#99

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Admiral Yi - May 14, 2024, 06:13:06 PM

As to Hamas not being a genocidal threat just because they lack the power... If the Palestinians were in a position where such an idea was remotely within the bounds of possibility then it's unlikely Hamas would have prospered as they did.

This is kind of weird, Jimmy Carteresque claim.  You're in effect saying as power increases so does empathy.  History shows that is not a universal correlation.

Again Hamas are dicks. You'll not get many with the remotest understanding of the situation that doubt this. What has people upset is not Hamas fighters being killed but civilian neighbourhoods being levelled, children blasted to bits, and artificially imposed famine.

Your argument contains the seeds of its own undoing.  Hamas are angry enough about something, whether it's Jews still being alive, or living on their sacred land that extends from the river to the sea, or Israel not negotiating a two state solution in good faith, to stuff Israeli babies into ovens.  Western protestors are angry too, whether about university endowments that include Israeli stocks, or US weapons sales to Israel, or whatever, to occupy university grounds and buildings, and to sometimes chant violent slogans and sometimes threaten Jewish students and sometimes destroy university property.  To my eyes the implied violence of the protests is increasing.  So if the trend line of implied violence moves closer to actual violence, what does it mean to support Palestinian civilians and oppose Hamas?

#100

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Zoupa - May 14, 2024, 04:36:59 PM

Incredibly rare Brexit win:

UK law to ban live animal exports clears parliament