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I think lab-grown meat sounds like a good proposition because the labs will (presumably) not be reservoirs for disease the way that slaughterhouses and concentrated animal feeding operations are. (Plus, they'd be cruelty-free and more resource-efficient).

However, I think most people in this thread are underestimating the extent of the general population's fears of "unnatural" food. When Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to just KFC, rumors sprang up… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:20 AM on August 6, 2013

That is to say, there's a powerful fear of unnatural or adulterated food, although those fears are frequently misplaced.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:22 AM on August 6, 2013

Joe in Australia: I think the confusion comes from the fact that there's Dracunculiasis in dogs and other animals, but they're not the same worm species that infects humans.

Dog Dracunculiasis:
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-27119--,00.html

Human-only Dracunculiasis:
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/9/09-010909/en/index.html

[The World Health Organization says]… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:13 AM on August 6, 2013

Hold on. Apparently D. Medinensis can infect and live in other mammals: it is likely that infection is much more common in many countries than is currently recognized. This is well illustrated by the situation in North America, where there are one or two reports of infection in wild carnivores and domestic dogs each year

But:

There is no evidence that animals act or have ever acted as reservoir hosts of human guinea worm infection, but the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:45 AM on August 6, 2013

Thanks for posting this, homunculus.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:06 PM on August 2, 2013

Yeah, I'd like to hear what makes it so ambitious up front.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 6:11 AM on July 26, 2013

The "Evolution Always Wins" thing was pretty awful. It didn't even make any sense, in context or out.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 4:08 AM on June 15, 2013

Oops. Yes, sorry. By their standards.

I use those terms quite a bit as shorthand to describe levels of observance by a given sect's standards. I should probably find a better way to describe it.
posted by zarq at 10:50 AM on June 10 [+] [!]

Maybe say "have different ways of observing" or "different types of observance" instead of "less observance" and "levels of observance".… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:24 AM on June 10, 2013

That sounds pretty awful.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:46 AM on June 10, 2013

Goddammit it's almost 2 AM here and I just read this entire thread
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:59 PM on May 8, 2013

quidnunc kid: Dammit, you stole the Simpsons joke before I could get to it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:08 PM on May 8, 2013

My favorite part so far about Allie coming back is just everybody's joyous reactions to it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:05 PM on May 8, 2013

I noticed that neither the Rolling Stones article, the Weekly Standard piece, nor the Salon article mention Alex Jones's kookiest assertions.

My hope is that someday soon it will become rare to mention Alex Jones without also mentioning that he thinks the world is run by drug-addicted cultists who worship a race of interdimensional aliens called "clockwork elves."

But that's the kind of stuff I never even get into because you're not… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 3:57 AM on May 8, 2013

Charlemagne in Sweatpants: Yes, it's the same thing. Jones just made up a new name for them, "clockwork elves" instead of "machine elves".
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 4:43 AM on May 8, 2013

I've read suggestions elsewhere that a nuclear submarine is a good starting point for a model for a Mars colony.

Of course, nuclear submarines rely on ocean water for cooling. On Mars, you'd first need to make sure we've got literally tons of water we can dedicate to cooling the colony's reactor.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 3:23 PM on May 7, 2013

That's a good idea, treepour, though it's not as exciting as a Mars colony. China, Japan, and India have current plans for manned Moon missions. (One healthy effect back on Earth might be that it'll finally shut up the conspiracy people who claim the Moon landings were faked.)

BTW, thanks for linking that podcast. I'm going to become a listener.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 3:32 PM on May 7, 2013

I won't have time to do this for the next few days, but it sounds awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 4:00 PM on May 6, 2013

Betty Boop, here.
posted by Melismata at 10:29 AM on May 6

Same here.

Betty Boop would really make sense here, given the line "Those roles were deforming, and, sure enough, they’ve deformed Betty." Go Google up a picture of the shape of Betty Boop's head. Definitely deformed.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2013

Bill the Cat's acks are more meaningful and heartfelt than Cathy's.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 2:00 AM on May 6, 2013

I'm a little surprised. Does nobody here know of the Comic Book Universe Battles database?

It's an awesome collection of matchups with accompanying commentary and fight write-ups that's every bit as hilarious and awesome as WWWF Grudge Match.

Beetle Bailey vs. Gomer Pyle
Scarface vs. The Godfather
The Punisher vs. Boba Fett

Indiana Jones vs. Mordor
Can Indiana Jones get the One Ring to the fires of Mt. Doom?
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:26 PM on May 5, 2013

Galactus vs. Galactus' Weight in Krypto the Super Dogs

Spaceman Spiff vs. Stupendous Man

I enjoy the reader commentary.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:31 PM on May 5, 2013

"This makes me want to punch weddings," pretty much sums it up for me.
posted by kinetic at 3:21 PM on May 1 [4 favorites +]

I gave in to that same temptation once and wound up on the evening news.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 4:40 PM on May 1, 2013

Lots of other people have pointed out that this "report" is propaganda.

It's definitely true that the US isn't spotless and isn't the world's moral exemplar.

But reports like this one aren't useful for anything to anybody except the Chinese government.

For reports that ARE good, useful reminders that the US isn't spotless, there are sources with a less dictatorship-serving agenda: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:05 AM on April 29, 2013

Good points, Sangermaine.

Also: Does the Chinese government put out human rights reports for every country in the world, or just the US? The US government (despite its many flaws and failings) has for a long time been doing human rights reports on just about every country where human rights is a concern. That's an important difference between what China's doing here and the what the US is doing.

I wish the US had an in-house independent group… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:48 AM on April 29, 2013

This made me wonder why geologists divided the eons as they did. I haven't yet found the answer.

Anybody?
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:22 PM on April 28, 2013

Oh yes, and another peaceful but possibly not sensible use of drone technology has already been attempted: In 2011 the TacoCopter would have delivered fast food via drone if the FAA ban hadn't been in place.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:57 AM on April 27, 2013

(addendum to my previous comment: "And also if TacoCopter hadn't been just a perfectly silly idea they weren't serious about.")
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:12 PM on April 27, 2013

DirtyOldTown, Ghostride The Whip beat you to it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:35 PM on April 27, 2013

Thanks for the perspective, russilwvong. I agree. Global warming is critical, but we don't need to automatically just start bemoaning how doomed we are. We need to figure out what to do about it and start bugging people to at least acknowledge the fact that we're making large-scale changes to the planet itself.

Humanfont: Awesome and well-written. Very poetic. But I think you inappropriately mixed the metaphors in the last sentence there: To "cast a die"… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:44 PM on April 26, 2013

I find this interesting and think it deserves an FPP. I said as much in the comments of the post two doors down.

I'd heard of Wakefield and his sparking of baseless vaccine fears, but I didn't know that he also apparently is accused of putting children through unnecessary medical tests:

Children were enrolled in the study who should not have been and were subjected to tests including brain scans, colonoscopies and spinal taps, that were not… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:23 PM on April 23, 2013

"...By now, Shiva was very angry and started to dance furiously. Everybody, including the sages, was charmed and stopped to watch the dance."

I don't get it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:14 AM on April 20, 2013

Sleeper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMjgSkfQPSY

Ooooohhhhh.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:55 PM on April 20, 2013

This is getting fairly little coverage.
Is the New York Times no longer considered a Major News Provider?
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:36 PM on April 20

I meant that there are relatively few sources talking about it. Yes, the New York Times is a major paper (and to their credit, this was on the front page).

But the apparent backsliding to the precarious 2008 position is still somehow escaping from being… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:06 PM on April 20, 2013

I'll be doing both this and the "glow sticks in a waterfall" thing in the near future.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:32 AM on April 19, 2013

Man, biology is so frickin' weird and awesome

On top of the siphonophores being "multi-organism organisms" as described in the OP, they're also, like all other life-forms except bacteria and certain other germs, endosymbiotic with another ancient life-form that long ago became incorporated into their basic cell structure. Mitochondria first appeared hundreds of millions of years ago when a pair of cells united instead of consuming one another.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 4:27 AM on April 19, 2013

"Self-improvement is masturbation."

--Tyler Durden
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:19 PM on April 18, 2013

I've heard conservative radio types drawing a dichotomy between Texas and California, saying that California's budget crisis brought about by wasteful handouts contrasts with Texas's responsible budget trimming, low taxes and low unemployment. These statistics give better context to those assertions.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:33 AM on April 16, 2013

Jedicus: Why is there a judicially-created exception for the chemical elements?

It seems like discovery of elements is a good analogy for discovery of genes. They're both natural phenomena, and some don't occur by themselves in nature. Americium is a synthetic element, not found in nature, yet useful for household objects (smoke detectors).

Genes are not naturally found in isolated form. Calcium is not naturally found in its elemental state.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 2:49 AM on April 13, 2013

I could have sworn we already had a thread just like this.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 7:35 AM on April 12, 2013

Nick Russell, thanks for the thoughtful comment. But I think you're mistaken about the IRS's ability to infringe on citizens' rights. Snooping in a person's private communications without explicit legal authority to do so is an infringement on citizens' rights regardless of whether it's done by the IRS or FBI.

(The IRS also is not as weak and separated from enforcement capabilities as you seem to think. The agency employs about 2,725 armed agents. The agency in fact… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 6:43 PM on April 11, 2013

So what are the names of some of the critics of Cosma Shalizi's thesis who are not associated with "Human BioDiversity"?
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:26 AM on April 11, 2013

Seasparrow, it's awesome that your parents read you intelligent essays when you were a kid. That there's good parentin'.

About what age were you when they started? (or what age were you when the one that stands out most in your memory happened?)
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:43 PM on April 8, 2013

whoa, I have totally not been paying attention. I thought she was already dead.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:44 AM on April 8, 2013

Man, stupid babies
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:41 AM on April 8, 2013

The article does not mention that the Red River Valley Women's Clinic is literally four blocks from the border with Minnesota, which is solidly pro life. There is a Planned Parenthood a couple of miles away on that side of the border. While I believe every state should have good women's health care, this might not be the best hill to die on.
posted by miyabo at 4:05 AM on March 30

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you clarify?
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 4:24 AM on March 30, 2013

Ghidorah: I think it was actually a goat chicken, not a lizard chicken. Note the chicken's eyes look just like goat eyes.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:18 AM on March 19, 2013

CBrachyrhynchos: I didn't understand that ad. Why is the guy a pig? I'm missing something, but it seems like it would work if it was just a guy.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:17 PM on February 26, 2013

I read at the time about the discovery that Sparkman's death was actually a suicide instead of a homicide. That made it even more tragic, especially for his son.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:09 AM on February 23, 2013

Whedon's style of complicated characters and found families shows through here because he doesn't really have another layer beyond "God-like characters are actually quite human and most are basically good but a few are evil. Observe."

Good reviews, Vysharra.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:59 PM on February 7, 2013

30 years ago, charlie.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:15 AM on February 3, 2013