I'm frightened that they'll turn comatose/brain-dead people into locked-in people. I consider the latter a fate worse than death.
I was thinking something similar. What exactly happens if they get this person 10% functioning again?
I am going to have gaddamned nightmares about this!
I wonder what the "screening" is going to be? Familes deciding they want to take the chance that they might send their dearly departed into a world of non-concious screaming pain and agony? The locked in example? Horrors!
Ethics? Was Josef Mengele on the ethics committee?
You are attacking the Catholic (universal) church but not making any attempt to deny the facts stated.
The "facts stated"" are that Christianity is responsible for civilization, because some monks copies manuscripts.
Perhaps, for extremely small values of civilization.
You could argue that the total destruction of ALL civilization would have been good and you might be right to argue that.
I could, but I'm not
There is no question that the church is almost entirely responsible for preserving European society.
Considering that the church controlled European society, no question at all. And I wonder, is the entire world European-centric? Was Europe the zenith of civilization during that time? Were asians living in caves due to the lack of Christianity in their systens?
It is also responsible for many wrongs, but you might be careful if you assume that the demise of Christianity would have prevented these.
To your point, I had damn well better be careful, as there was a time that I would have been killed for my heresy. Thanks for the warning!
But - Far be it from me to assume or even want the demise of Christianity. I'm a long time proponent of people being allowed to have their own opinions, but opinions stop where fact begins. And when religious opinions start to assume life or death to people because of thoughtcrime. I for some reason find that objectionable. YMMV.
The fear of witches and demons was common to all cultures of the time and this predates by centuries the founding of the Christian church. Killing those believed to have "super-natural" powers has gone on throughout early and pre-civilization. Xenophobia was pretty universal and being different invited hatred and often, death.
Do you really believe that in a complete anarchy things would have been better for anyone who was seen as different?
Well, that escalated to 11 real quickly. First, I don't think that it was such a digital situation, a choice between the Catholic church and complete anarchy.And there are examples of pre middle age systems that do not require Christianity to function, and some that appear to be at odds, certainly Pope Theophilus had an issue with the Libraries of Alexandria. He wasn't the only one, but just imagine what they would have had to "preserve" if they hadn't burned it first.
I live in Kansas an hour and a half from the Nebraska border and have family in Omaha, for the past couple weeks have been under flash flood, severe thunderstorm, and tornado warnings which is normal for this time of year. 500 mm is nearly twice as much rain as what we would usually call a desert would get in a year and we've gotten nearly half that in the past two months and the annual rainfall for the state is closer to 36 inches.
Come on, do you really think that I was saying it is a desert now? Or that 500 mm is the maximum run that could ever fall? It's an average annual rainfall for the sandhills.
For an example much or most Texas was in a horrible drought a few years back, and now they are suffering under flooding conditions. Mother nature is a bitch some times.
Religion and its attendant discipline kept civilization alive in Western Europe after the fall of Rome. I suspect it would do the same again.
That's the nicest description of the dark ages I've ever seen.
Nice or not, it is accurate. Virtually all knowledge that survived for several centuries did so in the hands of the church.
And that is because literacy was reserved for the church. Tell me, did the church in it's wisdom hand copy anything that they disagreed with? I suppose the witch and fagot burnings, and the inquisitions were really nice as well. Unfortunately, the church didn't keep them up, but fundamentalists will probably claim that as a right that they are being deprived of soon. You know, the war on religion and all.
Do you have the cites for all of the old knowledge they preserved, and their largesse?
I might point out that places like Nebraska are not far from becoming desert
As apposed to what, how close they were in the dirty 30s?
I think a plague could be much worse than those in the past, as we travel much farther, faster, and more frequently than during the last couple plagues. Regardless of the technology we have or improved skill in medicine it wouldn't take long to spread.
Much of Nebraska is an inactive paleodesert. Underlain by an inactive dune field, It gets around 500 MM of rain a year. Nebraska wasn't as affected by the dustbowl years as some places. It is a different situation, in that farming was doing alot of deep plowing at the time, so when the drought hit, there was a lot of dust blowing around. If enough years of drought occur, the dune fields will re-emerge, as the thin surface layer is eroded away.
Mankind survived actual ice ages (well, glaciation in the current ice age) with no technology. The species is more than 100 k years old, after all. If we can do it with stone knives and bear skins, we're hardly at risk for extinction today.
Wow - just wow. Pretty impressive that humanity is beyond extinction.
You are correct about runaway greenhouse effect - the earth has endured much higher CO2 and perhaps methane levels in the past. That's how we got geologic ages where the average temperatures were warmer than the present, even though we had less insolation due to the dimmer sun of the times.
But given that almost all species that ever lived have gone extinct, I don't think we are immune.
There were many close calls during the cold war, roughly 10 to 20 serious ones, depending on how you score them.
I suspect we are still here out of a kind of anthropic principle luck: if those close calls triggered WW3, the vast majority of us wouldn't be here pondering our good luck. Dead people don't ponder.
I just have an issue with trying to connect AGW and the cold war. In either event, it isn't likely that humans would go completely extinct - keep in mind I'm talking about extinction, not decimation.
Probably the only way that humans can be driven near extinction via AGW is if the likely instability of resources like water and food ends up enabling an excuse for everyone to nuke their neighbors. But there would still be a lot of survivors.
What I am more interested in is a global havoc event like the Siberian or deccan traps. Some constant and massive scale volcanic activity like that could take humanity and most other life off the "here" list.
The instability caused by AGW is more likely to be shifting centers of global power. As agriculture sources change - I might point out that places like Nebraska are not far from becoming desert - the powers that be may shift.
At one time "Starve the Beast" (don't provide money for the government to spend and thus force it to shrink) was a theory one could argue was worth trying. However over the years liberals have responded with "Starve the Children" (take the money from our children by borrowing it so that our children will have to pay off the debt). As such Starve the Beast is a failed technique and should be abandoned because it cannot work in the face of Starve the Children.
Sorry, but your futile attempt at trying to turn the argument arund so that these librerals that you hate so much is that Republicans, when they are in power, spend liike drunken sailors, and hey, isn't that emergency appropriations technique awesome?
They spend it differently, but just as well.
And I'm so glad you brought up "Strve teh Children". The abstract concept that high spending liberal assholesl are taking the food out of future children's mouths pales in comparison the easily researchable proof that Republicans are trying quite hard to do just exactly that, and right now.
Offshore wind farms are growing in popularity as energy providers look for different ways of harvesting power from the sun without using valuable land resources.
Which is why coastal states are now experimenting with offshore nuclear reactors, to harness the geothermal energy derived from burning coal.
A compromise in DC is when the Tax and Spend crowd gets together with the Don't Tax and Don't Spend crowd and they agree to Don't Tax but Spend Anyway. I would rather have no compromise than that compromise.
That is a tactic called "Starving the Beast, and it is a time honored operation of those who would call themselves conservatives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....
And its a train wreck of a philosophy, because those who would call themselves conservatives are engaging in deliberate sabatoge. As well, since they have shown that they are at least as incapable of fiscal restraint as the "tax and spend" crowd they castigate, they have given rise to mutant offspring like the tea party, with it's hilarious "Keep your Government hands off my Medicare" oxymoronic outlook, and finally to the weirdness of this season's leading candidates, either Trump - who isn't remotely conservative, or Cruz, a man so patriotic and conservative that he quite on purpose brought the government to a stop.
Give me Barry Goldwater any time, a conservative that actually believed in the principles of conservatism, and who knew that it takes compromise to run a country. We so badly need to get back to that sort of conservative it makes my heart ache.
Of the last 25 years, arguably the best president was Bill Clinton. Why, what did he do? Not much, he pretty much stayed busy getting laid and dealing with the consequences of getting laid. He didn't have a lot of time to screw things up.
Jacking around voting a "national mammal " may be the best thing for our politicians to do.
There is some wisdom to that. While his opponents wasted a lot of our tax dollars in a stupid chase trying to find somethinganything to pin on him, he just managed to keep the train on the rails.
A blowjob! Think about it. The fixation on a normal act, something that people seem to do pretty regularly, and badgering him about it until he slipped, perhaps ignited a storm of stupid that continues to this day, and unlikely reportage comes from characters like Larry Flynt now on the transgressions of people who might set themselves up as moral police.
Heading down this road of perfection will end up netting us pure candidates, who's qualifications are that they have never done anything.
I remember when during the 2008 DNC, Bill came out and gave a particularly adroit speech full of rich details and insight. I sat enthralled, and reflected on the previous 8 years of Nook-Ya-Lerr public speeches, where it seemed we were trying to show the world we were near-illiterates.
Hey look, another "systemd horror story" with no distro, no release, no hardware specifics and no bug#
0/8, lrn2troll.
This should be modded up. Meanwhile, I have installed and used Ubuntu and Mint, and Lubuntu and and UMate and Xubuntu on a lot of computers (I didn't keep count) with only one problerm - which turned out to be a dd bug that was fixed in a couple days.
Including my latest personal project, a Raspberry Pi that I'm on right now, with Ubuntu Mate running happily, systemd and all.
so instead of growing large enough to push the Goldfinch chicks out of the nest, it ends up expiring due to lack of nutrition.
That does not really make sense.
The question is not if you are an omnivore, herbivore or eat meat. The question is: does the food contain the essential stuff.
Hm... perhaps it makes a little sense.
Humans can live perfectly fine as vegetarians, however they have to make sure to get those essential amino acids.
In your story, I wonder why the seeds lack the amino acids the other bird needs. That is unusual. It would imply that the Cowbirds also can not produce all the amino acids they need and that as a rare exceptions seeds don't provide them either.
Quite possibly - I haven't investigated too far. It might be something a little bit like Humans not producing their own vitamin C.
There is a difference between eating gras or seeds... seeds are usually very powerful food, e.g. lentils, beans, rice or most grains.
Anyway I'm not a vegetarian. I can not walk away if I see a steak or a nice fish on the grill or some oysters:D
As an alpha and predator species, that is completely understandable for humans. Meat simply tastes darn good to us.
Otherwise, we could all exist on a nice diet of canola oil. 2000 calories a day, and we're set.
Hmm, no. I used simple calorie restriction to drop 70 lbs (I'm not saying that it will work for everybody, mind you) but even I know better than to assume that all of your macronutrient needs can be found from just one thing.
Of course not. I was using that obviously ridiculous oil example against the calories in versus calories burnt = weight loss or gain. I suspect using the toilet would be quit ethe experience on an oil diet.
And yes, you can do a control of weight by restricting your caloric intake. But it really isn't as simple as some people portray. I can eat a lot more calories of meat than of potatoes and maintain my weight. Even a high carb breakfast is an issue for me. If I eat cereal, I'm ravenous by 10:00 AM. Eggs and bacon? I can go until dinnertime, skipping lunch because I'm not hungry. A carbish lunch, and I'm ready for a nap at 3:30.
The problem with vegetarian diets are that many people still eat the wrong stuff, e.g. to much raw vegetables. Depends on the person though, for some it is no problem, for others it is.
Also if one is a novice and has the wrong books/receipts it is easy to have an imbalance of nutrition, e.g. lack of essential proteins.
And there is where the problem lies with un-natural diets, at least for omnivorous animals such as ourselves. It's so very difficult to get enough nutrition if we cut out a major naturall source of what we need.
Here's a weird example I found a month or so ago. Goldfinches, are a vegan bird. The pretty much live on seeds, and during the summer, eat things like lettuces. Hence the nickname "salad birds".
There is also a bird called a Cowbird, that lay's it's eggs in other bird's nests, and it's chicks hatch and are fed by the host - or victim birds, if you will. Cowbird chick gets big enough, and it pushes the other chicks out of the nest,killing them. But Cowbirds are omnivorous.
So Mom and Pop Goldfinch do feed the Cowbird chick, but it doesn't get the nutrition it needs, so instead of growing large enough to push the Goldfinch chicks out of the nest, it ends up expiring due to lack of nutrition.
We westerns had been eating processed foods for centuries as well. Pickling, Smoking, Dehydrating, Salting, Fermenting.... However for westerners as well obesity is also still a rather modern problem.
The issue I expect is beyond food. But lack of exercise.
Lack of exercise is one culprit. There are others as well. The push to cut out proteins and fats is one, and of course sugar intake.
Even then, there is a darker element. We are undertaking a sort of econo-social experiment by making huge increases in the amounts of phytoestrogens in our diets. As well, we have been dosing ourselves with Bisphenol A and pthalates. There is even a group word for these chemicals - obesogens.
And in the world of bizzare studies, feral rats living in close proximity to humans are becoming obese along with us: http://www.the-scientist.com/?...
Thermodynamics isn't, but the simplistic method of determining caloric content is ignorant shit.
Otherwise, we could all exist on a nice diet of canola oil. 2000 calories a day, and we're set.
Eating food in excess of needs does NOT cause weight gain ???
That's a different argument. And no where near as simple as mere caloric intake. Proteins and carbohydrates affect the body in different ways, and in different individuals.
Long ago, I discovered that I need to limit my carbohydrate intake, when I tried out a vegetarian diet. Completely wrecked my metabolism. Felt like crap, and talk about food induced irritable bowel syndrome. While on the vegetarian train I did lose weight - about 5 pounds. Oddly, my caloric intake was way down. By limiting carbs, I eat many more calories, and while as an ex-jock, I have to watch my eating, my weight is much more stable.
Other people might thrive on a vegetarian diet.
tl:dr version is that people's metabolism and carbohydrate and protein dietary needs make simple calorie/weight expressions useless.
What? The deficit was almost 100% from the Bush era tax cuts (Republican policy) and waging two wars (neo-Con Republican policy).
That's part of the strategy. Declare war as a economic stimulus package, and through the magic of emergency appropriations, move the payback to another administration.
Which for all of the dehumanizing of Democrats, all of the hardly veiled racist hatred of the Kenyan terror baby, What happened from 2008 to now is amazing.
The real estate meltdown, the credit card debacle, coupled with the two front war, waged on the layaway plan, and payoff day arriving - and we were poised to make the 1930's look like good times for all. It took smart, cool heads to avoid a US led greater depression.
I'm no Democrat, but I give credit where credit is due.
Only in slashdot world, can a person present actual history, and be called a troll
Slashdot Mirror
I'm frightened that they'll turn comatose/brain-dead people into locked-in people. I consider the latter a fate worse than death.
I was thinking something similar. What exactly happens if they get this person 10% functioning again?
I am going to have gaddamned nightmares about this!
I wonder what the "screening" is going to be? Familes deciding they want to take the chance that they might send their dearly departed into a world of non-concious screaming pain and agony? The locked in example? Horrors!
Ethics? Was Josef Mengele on the ethics committee?
At Spencers gift stores everywhere.
You are attacking the Catholic (universal) church but not making any attempt to deny the facts stated.
The "facts stated"" are that Christianity is responsible for civilization, because some monks copies manuscripts.
Perhaps, for extremely small values of civilization.
You could argue that the total destruction of ALL civilization would have been good and you might be right to argue that.
I could, but I'm not
There is no question that the church is almost entirely responsible for preserving European society.
Considering that the church controlled European society, no question at all. And I wonder, is the entire world European-centric? Was Europe the zenith of civilization during that time? Were asians living in caves due to the lack of Christianity in their systens?
It is also responsible for many wrongs, but you might be careful if you assume that the demise of Christianity would have prevented these.
To your point, I had damn well better be careful, as there was a time that I would have been killed for my heresy. Thanks for the warning!
But - Far be it from me to assume or even want the demise of Christianity. I'm a long time proponent of people being allowed to have their own opinions, but opinions stop where fact begins. And when religious opinions start to assume life or death to people because of thoughtcrime. I for some reason find that objectionable. YMMV.
The fear of witches and demons was common to all cultures of the time and this predates by centuries the founding of the Christian church. Killing those believed to have "super-natural" powers has gone on throughout early and pre-civilization. Xenophobia was pretty universal and being different invited hatred and often, death.
Do you really believe that in a complete anarchy things would have been better for anyone who was seen as different?
Well, that escalated to 11 real quickly. First, I don't think that it was such a digital situation, a choice between the Catholic church and complete anarchy.And there are examples of pre middle age systems that do not require Christianity to function, and some that appear to be at odds, certainly Pope Theophilus had an issue with the Libraries of Alexandria. He wasn't the only one, but just imagine what they would have had to "preserve" if they hadn't burned it first.
I live in Kansas an hour and a half from the Nebraska border and have family in Omaha, for the past couple weeks have been under flash flood, severe thunderstorm, and tornado warnings which is normal for this time of year. 500 mm is nearly twice as much rain as what we would usually call a desert would get in a year and we've gotten nearly half that in the past two months and the annual rainfall for the state is closer to 36 inches.
Come on, do you really think that I was saying it is a desert now? Or that 500 mm is the maximum run that could ever fall? It's an average annual rainfall for the sandhills.
For an example much or most Texas was in a horrible drought a few years back, and now they are suffering under flooding conditions. Mother nature is a bitch some times.
Religion and its attendant discipline kept civilization alive in Western Europe after the fall of Rome. I suspect it would do the same again.
That's the nicest description of the dark ages I've ever seen.
Nice or not, it is accurate. Virtually all knowledge that survived for several centuries did so in the hands of the church.
And that is because literacy was reserved for the church. Tell me, did the church in it's wisdom hand copy anything that they disagreed with? I suppose the witch and fagot burnings, and the inquisitions were really nice as well. Unfortunately, the church didn't keep them up, but fundamentalists will probably claim that as a right that they are being deprived of soon. You know, the war on religion and all.
Do you have the cites for all of the old knowledge they preserved, and their largesse?
The medieval period ("dark ages") was not dark.
The ‘Dark Ages’ were a lot brighter than we give them credit for
So you would approve of a return to those bright days?
I might point out that places like Nebraska are not far from becoming desert
As apposed to what, how close they were in the dirty 30s?
I think a plague could be much worse than those in the past, as we travel much farther, faster, and more frequently than during the last couple plagues. Regardless of the technology we have or improved skill in medicine it wouldn't take long to spread.
Much of Nebraska is an inactive paleodesert. Underlain by an inactive dune field, It gets around 500 MM of rain a year. Nebraska wasn't as affected by the dustbowl years as some places. It is a different situation, in that farming was doing alot of deep plowing at the time, so when the drought hit, there was a lot of dust blowing around. If enough years of drought occur, the dune fields will re-emerge, as the thin surface layer is eroded away.
Mankind survived actual ice ages (well, glaciation in the current ice age) with no technology. The species is more than 100 k years old, after all. If we can do it with stone knives and bear skins, we're hardly at risk for extinction today.
Wow - just wow. Pretty impressive that humanity is beyond extinction.
You are correct about runaway greenhouse effect - the earth has endured much higher CO2 and perhaps methane levels in the past. That's how we got geologic ages where the average temperatures were warmer than the present, even though we had less insolation due to the dimmer sun of the times.
But given that almost all species that ever lived have gone extinct, I don't think we are immune.
Religion and its attendant discipline kept civilization alive in Western Europe after the fall of Rome. I suspect it would do the same again.
That's the nicest description of the dark ages I've ever seen.
Even in the US in areas with low population. Make nearly no sence to drop a bomb on a mid western ranchs covering hundreds of miles.
We took care of their low target value by placing ICBM's there. Now they are of extreme value in pre-emptive strike scenarios.
There were many close calls during the cold war, roughly 10 to 20 serious ones, depending on how you score them.
I suspect we are still here out of a kind of anthropic principle luck: if those close calls triggered WW3, the vast majority of us wouldn't be here pondering our good luck. Dead people don't ponder.
I just have an issue with trying to connect AGW and the cold war. In either event, it isn't likely that humans would go completely extinct - keep in mind I'm talking about extinction, not decimation.
Probably the only way that humans can be driven near extinction via AGW is if the likely instability of resources like water and food ends up enabling an excuse for everyone to nuke their neighbors. But there would still be a lot of survivors.
What I am more interested in is a global havoc event like the Siberian or deccan traps. Some constant and massive scale volcanic activity like that could take humanity and most other life off the "here" list.
The instability caused by AGW is more likely to be shifting centers of global power. As agriculture sources change - I might point out that places like Nebraska are not far from becoming desert - the powers that be may shift.
At one time "Starve the Beast" (don't provide money for the government to spend and thus force it to shrink) was a theory one could argue was worth trying. However over the years liberals have responded with "Starve the Children" (take the money from our children by borrowing it so that our children will have to pay off the debt). As such Starve the Beast is a failed technique and should be abandoned because it cannot work in the face of Starve the Children.
Sorry, but your futile attempt at trying to turn the argument arund so that these librerals that you hate so much is that Republicans, when they are in power, spend liike drunken sailors, and hey, isn't that emergency appropriations technique awesome? They spend it differently, but just as well.
And I'm so glad you brought up "Strve teh Children". The abstract concept that high spending liberal assholesl are taking the food out of future children's mouths pales in comparison the easily researchable proof that Republicans are trying quite hard to do just exactly that, and right now.
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headl...
Please, if you are just going to regurgitate Fox News hate propaganda, you ain't worth aguing with Comrade.
Offshore wind farms are growing in popularity as energy providers look for different ways of harvesting power from the sun without using valuable land resources.
Which is why coastal states are now experimenting with offshore nuclear reactors, to harness the geothermal energy derived from burning coal.
WAT? no wind powered cold fusion?
A compromise in DC is when the Tax and Spend crowd gets together with the Don't Tax and Don't Spend crowd and they agree to Don't Tax but Spend Anyway. I would rather have no compromise than that compromise.
That is a tactic called "Starving the Beast, and it is a time honored operation of those who would call themselves conservatives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....
And its a train wreck of a philosophy, because those who would call themselves conservatives are engaging in deliberate sabatoge. As well, since they have shown that they are at least as incapable of fiscal restraint as the "tax and spend" crowd they castigate, they have given rise to mutant offspring like the tea party, with it's hilarious "Keep your Government hands off my Medicare" oxymoronic outlook, and finally to the weirdness of this season's leading candidates, either Trump - who isn't remotely conservative, or Cruz, a man so patriotic and conservative that he quite on purpose brought the government to a stop.
Give me Barry Goldwater any time, a conservative that actually believed in the principles of conservatism, and who knew that it takes compromise to run a country. We so badly need to get back to that sort of conservative it makes my heart ache.
Of the last 25 years, arguably the best president was Bill Clinton. Why, what did he do? Not much, he pretty much stayed busy getting laid and dealing with the consequences of getting laid. He didn't have a lot of time to screw things up.
Jacking around voting a "national mammal " may be the best thing for our politicians to do.
There is some wisdom to that. While his opponents wasted a lot of our tax dollars in a stupid chase trying to find somethinganything to pin on him, he just managed to keep the train on the rails.
A blowjob! Think about it. The fixation on a normal act, something that people seem to do pretty regularly, and badgering him about it until he slipped, perhaps ignited a storm of stupid that continues to this day, and unlikely reportage comes from characters like Larry Flynt now on the transgressions of people who might set themselves up as moral police.
Heading down this road of perfection will end up netting us pure candidates, who's qualifications are that they have never done anything.
I remember when during the 2008 DNC, Bill came out and gave a particularly adroit speech full of rich details and insight. I sat enthralled, and reflected on the previous 8 years of Nook-Ya-Lerr public speeches, where it seemed we were trying to show the world we were near-illiterates.
Hey look, another "systemd horror story" with no distro, no release, no hardware specifics and no bug# 0/8, lrn2troll.
This should be modded up. Meanwhile, I have installed and used Ubuntu and Mint, and Lubuntu and and UMate and Xubuntu on a lot of computers (I didn't keep count) with only one problerm - which turned out to be a dd bug that was fixed in a couple days.
Including my latest personal project, a Raspberry Pi that I'm on right now, with Ubuntu Mate running happily, systemd and all.
So, doomed to failure, then?
Well , as much failure as any Linux distro has. The best thing about this is it's one more solution for those who really hate systemd.
However, this dislike has a life of it's own, so I don't expect any diminishment of the complaining.
so instead of growing large enough to push the Goldfinch chicks out of the nest, it ends up expiring due to lack of nutrition. That does not really make sense. The question is not if you are an omnivore, herbivore or eat meat. The question is: does the food contain the essential stuff. Hm ... perhaps it makes a little sense.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...
Humans can live perfectly fine as vegetarians, however they have to make sure to get those essential amino acids. In your story, I wonder why the seeds lack the amino acids the other bird needs. That is unusual. It would imply that the Cowbirds also can not produce all the amino acids they need and that as a rare exceptions seeds don't provide them either.
Quite possibly - I haven't investigated too far. It might be something a little bit like Humans not producing their own vitamin C.
There is a difference between eating gras or seeds ... seeds are usually very powerful food, e.g. lentils, beans, rice or most grains.
Anyway I'm not a vegetarian. I can not walk away if I see a steak or a nice fish on the grill or some oysters :D
As an alpha and predator species, that is completely understandable for humans. Meat simply tastes darn good to us.
Otherwise, we could all exist on a nice diet of canola oil. 2000 calories a day, and we're set.
Hmm, no. I used simple calorie restriction to drop 70 lbs (I'm not saying that it will work for everybody, mind you) but even I know better than to assume that all of your macronutrient needs can be found from just one thing.
Of course not. I was using that obviously ridiculous oil example against the calories in versus calories burnt = weight loss or gain. I suspect using the toilet would be quit ethe experience on an oil diet.
And yes, you can do a control of weight by restricting your caloric intake. But it really isn't as simple as some people portray. I can eat a lot more calories of meat than of potatoes and maintain my weight. Even a high carb breakfast is an issue for me. If I eat cereal, I'm ravenous by 10:00 AM. Eggs and bacon? I can go until dinnertime, skipping lunch because I'm not hungry. A carbish lunch, and I'm ready for a nap at 3:30.
The problem with vegetarian diets are that many people still eat the wrong stuff, e.g. to much raw vegetables. Depends on the person though, for some it is no problem, for others it is.
Also if one is a novice and has the wrong books/receipts it is easy to have an imbalance of nutrition, e.g. lack of essential proteins.
And there is where the problem lies with un-natural diets, at least for omnivorous animals such as ourselves. It's so very difficult to get enough nutrition if we cut out a major naturall source of what we need.
Here's a weird example I found a month or so ago. Goldfinches, are a vegan bird. The pretty much live on seeds, and during the summer, eat things like lettuces. Hence the nickname "salad birds".
There is also a bird called a Cowbird, that lay's it's eggs in other bird's nests, and it's chicks hatch and are fed by the host - or victim birds, if you will. Cowbird chick gets big enough, and it pushes the other chicks out of the nest,killing them. But Cowbirds are omnivorous.
So Mom and Pop Goldfinch do feed the Cowbird chick, but it doesn't get the nutrition it needs, so instead of growing large enough to push the Goldfinch chicks out of the nest, it ends up expiring due to lack of nutrition.
"News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters."
This is like browsing the front page of yahoo.com or something. WTF? Why is this even here?
There are technological aspects to the issue, such as what we ingest - and it isn't all just the food, it's what it is packaged in.
We westerns had been eating processed foods for centuries as well. Pickling, Smoking, Dehydrating, Salting, Fermenting.... However for westerners as well obesity is also still a rather modern problem.
The issue I expect is beyond food. But lack of exercise.
Lack of exercise is one culprit. There are others as well. The push to cut out proteins and fats is one, and of course sugar intake.
Even then, there is a darker element. We are undertaking a sort of econo-social experiment by making huge increases in the amounts of phytoestrogens in our diets. As well, we have been dosing ourselves with Bisphenol A and pthalates. There is even a group word for these chemicals - obesogens.
And in the world of bizzare studies, feral rats living in close proximity to humans are becoming obese along with us: http://www.the-scientist.com/?...
Some interesting links:
http://loe.org/shows/segments....
http://loe.org/shows/segments....
Gluttony and sloth leave a mark people can see.
And so does self righteous and ignorant condemnation.
Thermodynamics is "ignorant shit"??
Thermodynamics isn't, but the simplistic method of determining caloric content is ignorant shit.
Otherwise, we could all exist on a nice diet of canola oil. 2000 calories a day, and we're set.
Eating food in excess of needs does NOT cause weight gain ???
That's a different argument. And no where near as simple as mere caloric intake. Proteins and carbohydrates affect the body in different ways, and in different individuals.
Long ago, I discovered that I need to limit my carbohydrate intake, when I tried out a vegetarian diet. Completely wrecked my metabolism. Felt like crap, and talk about food induced irritable bowel syndrome. While on the vegetarian train I did lose weight - about 5 pounds. Oddly, my caloric intake was way down. By limiting carbs, I eat many more calories, and while as an ex-jock, I have to watch my eating, my weight is much more stable.
Other people might thrive on a vegetarian diet.
tl:dr version is that people's metabolism and carbohydrate and protein dietary needs make simple calorie/weight expressions useless.
What? The deficit was almost 100% from the Bush era tax cuts (Republican policy) and waging two wars (neo-Con Republican policy).
That's part of the strategy. Declare war as a economic stimulus package, and through the magic of emergency appropriations, move the payback to another administration.
Which for all of the dehumanizing of Democrats, all of the hardly veiled racist hatred of the Kenyan terror baby, What happened from 2008 to now is amazing.
The real estate meltdown, the credit card debacle, coupled with the two front war, waged on the layaway plan, and payoff day arriving - and we were poised to make the 1930's look like good times for all. It took smart, cool heads to avoid a US led greater depression.
I'm no Democrat, but I give credit where credit is due.
Only in slashdot world, can a person present actual history, and be called a troll