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Old 05-04-2021, 05:54   #1261
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Re: Science & Technology News

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Originally Posted by Dockhead View Post
Animal husbandry has gigantic harmful effects on the environment, land use, fresh water. It's responsible for nearly 20% of greenhouse gasses (in CO2 equivalent), as much as cars.
Want To Combat Climate Change? Feed Seaweed To Cows
  • The majority of human-induced methane emissions comes from livestock
  • Reducing enteric methane can be done by changing cows’ diets to more digestible feed or adding more fat, but are not cost-effective
  • The study added 1.5 to 3 ounces of red seaweed (Asparagopsis) per animal per day for beef cattle
  • It took a few weeks for the animals to get used to the taste of seaweed
  • The steers released a lot more hydrogen – up to 750% more – as their systems produced less methane.
  • Methane emissions from cattle on high-forage diets decreased by 33% to 52%. Emissions from cattle fed low-forage diets fell by 70% to 80%
  • Steers in the study converted feed to body weight up to 20% more efficiently than cattle on a conventional diet
  • A panel of consumers did not detect any difference in tenderness, juiciness or flavor in the meat
The study was published in PLOS ONE

PS
I'm a vegetarian, except for ice cream.
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Old 05-04-2021, 09:45   #1262
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Re: Science & Technology News

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Originally Posted by Mike OReilly View Post
Yes indeed, the story is always more complicated, isn't it.

I wonder though... is it the "vaunted democracy," which from this uninformed outsider's perspective doesn't really appear very democratic? Or is it the realities of unfettered (or less fettered) market capitalism? Or as I suspect, a combination of both these, plus a lot more factors.

Well, democracy is messy, and often puts in power people who are not competent, not nice, corrupt, whatever. There was a lot of hope for democracy in the former Communist world which was largely disappointed. I think most people in all the former Communist countries support democracy (it's the worst system, except for all of the others, right?) but I can't say that anyone is very happy with it. Some places are better than others. Estonia has done the best among all the former Soviet republics, I think, in building a pretty decent political system and mostly stamping out corruption. Other former countries have done horribly -- Hungary has become more or less a fascist dictator, Russia is still nominally a democracy but has a strong man president-for-life, Poland has a quasi-fascist party (PiS) in power; Latvia has a clownish government ("Cabinet of Potato-Heads").



Likewise with market economy. In Russia, it is often said that the "era of market romanticism" ended about 2000. But like with democracy -- there doesn't seem to be any other viable alternative to market capitalism, so that's the only way it's done anywhere. And no one expects the welfare state to develop until economies develop and countries get rich. The big success story -- again, Estonia, which has joined the ranks of high income highly developed countries. Poland has also done pretty well economically, if not politically. Russia was doing really well economically until the 2014 debacle and sanctions.
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Old 05-04-2021, 10:00   #1263
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Re: Science & Technology News

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WAIT a MINUTE HERE!! Isnt Denmark one of those enlightened "NORDIC COUNTRIES " who are the be all--- end all of Socialism and fighting GLOBAL WARMING tooth and nail???? But when it comes to making big dough off industrial farming animals they get a pass??????
Denmark is indeed an enlightened Nordic country, one of the most successful societies in the world, and has made great strides in fighting climate change and has a very good carbon footprint compared to other developed countries -- 5.9 tonnes per capita p.a. compared to 7.0 for Europe as a whole and 15.7 for the U.S.. Denmark for example has almost completely decarbonized its power grid with 80% of power coming from renewables, fully 77% wind power (note however that this is possible only because Denmark, which has no nuclear power of its own, buys a huge amount of power from Sweden produced by hydro and nuclear).

Denmark is NOT a socialist country -- where in the world did you get that kind of nonsense? Denmark is more capitalist than the U.S., ranked #10 in the world for economic freedom by the Heritage Foundation https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking (the U.S. is #20).

As to industrial meat farming -- Denmark doesn't do so well, and no one "gives them a pass", but they are working on it, and as I said, Denmark ranks high for percentage of vegans.
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Cushion me soft . . . . rock me in billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet . . . . I can repay you."
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Old 05-04-2021, 10:24   #1264
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Re: Science & Technology News

The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual guide, published by The Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative* Washington think tank.
2021 Index https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

* On its website, Heritage states:
For almost 50 years, The Heritage Foundation has advanced the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. We’ve led the way for reforms in every policy area—from taxes and regulation to crime and national defense...
https://www.heritage.org/about-heritage/impact
The Heritage Foundation website does not report straight news, but rather provides commentary by conservative writers. They are known for promoting misleading claims regarding global warming, and the health dangers associated with tobacco.
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Old 05-04-2021, 10:28   #1265
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Re: Science & Technology News

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"Without exception " I have heard from all those who have ever lived under Communism that it is horrible. Especially those from Cuba and Venezuela and East Europe. Could it be that is why they fled their homelands???
You should read more carefully before responding. I was writing about people comparing their lives during Communism with their lives IN THOSE COUNTRIES after Communism.

Naturally people who emigrated can't compare, because they left, nor are those likely to be the ones who had a decent life back then, or they wouldn't have left.

And you don't have to take my word for it -- there have been a lot of opinion polls. E.g. https://www.levada.ru/en/2017/12/25/...-for-the-ussr/

Just one figure -- 58% of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union, compared to 26% who do not. Note, however, that this doesn't mean necessarily that one regrets democracy or capitalism -- a democratic, capitalist Soviet Union is what some Russians wish for.

In polls taken around the former Soviet Union, asking people old enough to have experienced life in the USSR, whether life was better in the USSR or now, the following results were obtained:

Russia 64%
Ukraine 60%
Belarus 53%
Kazakhstan 60%
Azerbaijan 69%
Armenia 71%
Moldova 60%

In only two of the non-Baltic former republics consider life to be better now -- Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

See: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...y-four-percent

In another poll, residents in ALL of the non-Baltic former Soviet republics expressed regret that the USSR collapsed, by a margin of more than 2:1: https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/...m-breakup.aspx
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Old 05-04-2021, 10:30   #1266
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Re: Science & Technology News

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Originally Posted by GordMay View Post
The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual guide, published by The Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative* Washington think tank.
2021 Index https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

* On its website, Heritage states:
For almost 50 years, The Heritage Foundation has advanced the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. We’ve led the way for reforms in every policy area—from taxes and regulation to crime and national defense...
https://www.heritage.org/about-heritage/impact
The Heritage Foundation website does not report straight news, but rather provides commentary by conservative writers. They are known for promoting misleading claims regarding global warming, and the health dangers associated with tobacco.

Indeed, and they rank Denmark far higher than the U.S. in capitalism, i.e., economic freedom. Kind of my point!
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We must have a turn together . . . . I undress . . . . hurry me out of sight of the land,
Cushion me soft . . . . rock me in billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet . . . . I can repay you."
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Old 05-04-2021, 14:51   #1267
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Re: Science & Technology News

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You should read more carefully before responding. I was writing about people comparing their lives during Communism with their lives IN THOSE COUNTRIES after Communism.

Naturally people who emigrated can't compare, because they left, nor are those likely to be the ones who had a decent life back then, or they wouldn't have left.

And you don't have to take my word for it -- there have been a lot of opinion polls. E.g. https://www.levada.ru/en/2017/12/25/...-for-the-ussr/

Just one figure -- 58% of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union, compared to 26% who do not. Note, however, that this doesn't mean necessarily that one regrets democracy or capitalism -- a democratic, capitalist Soviet Union is what some Russians wish for.

In polls taken around the former Soviet Union, asking people old enough to have experienced life in the USSR, whether life was better in the USSR or now, the following results were obtained:

Russia 64%
Ukraine 60%
Belarus 53%
Kazakhstan 60%
Azerbaijan 69%
Armenia 71%
Moldova 60%

In only two of the non-Baltic former republics consider life to be better now -- Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

See: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...y-four-percent

In another poll, residents in ALL of the non-Baltic former Soviet republics expressed regret that the USSR collapsed, by a margin of more than 2:1: https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/...m-breakup.aspx
You sound like you very much regret the demise of Communism and the USSR--pretty weird for a guy running around in a fancy yacht. Now tell us about how Putin polls.
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Old 05-04-2021, 16:48   #1268
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Re: Science & Technology News

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You sound like you very much regret the demise of Communism and the USSR--pretty weird for a guy running around in a fancy yacht. Now tell us about how Putin polls.
You are not getting anything I say. The nuances are flying right over your head.

I have written that I consider Communism to be an evil, oppressive system (did you get that? in this very thread).

I have written that I agree with Ronald Reagan's statement that the USSR is an "evil empire".

HOWEVER, the real life story of the fall of Communism turns out to be a lot more complicated than going from the dark evil days of Communism and the USSR to the sweetness and light and happiness of democracy and capitalism.

I was there; I saw it with my own eyes. Our system also has drawbacks. It's a lot better than Communism -- there can be no question about that. But those people who were "liberated" from Communism aren't nearly as happy about it, as we might have expected (and not nearly as happy about it, as I expected -- I turned out to be totally wrong about it).

Now have I laid it out clearly enough for you?
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We must have a turn together . . . . I undress . . . . hurry me out of sight of the land,
Cushion me soft . . . . rock me in billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet . . . . I can repay you."
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Old 05-04-2021, 17:32   #1269
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Re: Science & Technology News

It's pretty easy. Most people are opportunistic, they arrange with the system they live in, learn to play it, are fed by it. They had a miserable life, can't buy stuff they need, can't travel, but have enough Vodka, can be lazy - cannot get fired and know how they lives will be the next decades until they die. The neighbors have the same miserable lives, no matter what profession or education they have. Everybody suffers equally - except the party members and deep state. They are miserable too, but have some privileges, like a car or a datscha, and a little more money for booze and woman.

There are people who expect more from life, than just craving in the hamster wheel without any improvement, they tend to leave the system for a better life, are more ambitioned.

When the system changes the ambitioned ones run businesses and use the opportunities - the lazy ones get fired, stay miserable, wait for help instead of starting something new, booze is more expensive and worst thing ewa - the neighbor is better off and more fortunate, has a better car, a younger wife, a nicer home. The state does not longer provide and cover them like in the good old days, many jobs simply no longer exist. Life becomes uncertain and that sucks.
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Old 06-04-2021, 03:27   #1270
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Re: Science & Technology News

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It's pretty easy. Most people are opportunistic, they arrange with the system they live in, learn to play it, are fed by it. They had a miserable life, can't buy stuff they need, can't travel, but have enough Vodka, can be lazy - cannot get fired and know how they lives will be the next decades until they die. The neighbors have the same miserable lives, no matter what profession or education they have. Everybody suffers equally - except the party members and deep state. They are miserable too, but have some privileges, like a car or a datscha, and a little more money for booze and woman.

There are people who expect more from life, than just craving in the hamster wheel without any improvement, they tend to leave the system for a better life, are more ambitioned.

When the system changes the ambitioned ones run businesses and use the opportunities - the lazy ones get fired, stay miserable, wait for help instead of starting something new, booze is more expensive and worst thing ewa - the neighbor is better off and more fortunate, has a better car, a younger wife, a nicer home. The state does not longer provide and cover them like in the good old days, many jobs simply no longer exist. Life becomes uncertain and that sucks.
That's mostly true, especially the underlined part.

But people got along under Communism not just because they had vodka to drink their way through miserable lives (there was prohibition in the USSR in the 80's, so for some time they didn't even have that).

They couldn't buy a lot of consumer stuff, but must people didn't care all that much about that. It's our mistake based on our own intensely consumerist mentality, to think that this was the main problem with Communism. After horrible times in the 30's and 40's things got better by the late 50's so people were not nearly as unsatisfied, as we think.

They had no freedom of speech or freedom of the press, but they could read mostly what they wanted through samizdat, and after the death of Stalin there was not all that much repression of people just because of their opinions.

The economy was relatively good in the 60's and 70's, at least, it was growing every year and people felt optimistic. People had much more security in those days than they have now. This period, during Brezhnev's rule, referred to as the "time of stagnation" (for some reason), is considered the golden age, and there is a lot of nostalgia for it, a lot of movies and tv set in that time, lot of music from that time still popular.

The main freedom by far, the lack of which galled people, was the lack of freedom to travel abroad. Poll after poll confirm that this is the new freedom which people got after the fall of Communism, which people value the most, and by far.

Among intellectuals the best thing was that knowledge-based jobs were mostly undemanding, leaving huge amounts of time and energy for private interests, sports, hobbies, projects.

Most people lived in fairly crowded but still fairly decent city apartments, but almost everyone also had a place in the country where people spent much of their leisure time.

Reading Tom Clancy and so forth we grow up imagining that there was a lot of ethnic hatred in the USSR of that time, but that is not quite true -- there was some of that like everywhere but mostly there was a strong shared identity as Soviet people and feeling of solidarity. This is something people in that part of the world really miss today.

Despite different conflicts in the former USSR, and especially the ghastly conflict in Eastern Ukraine initiated by Russia, attitudes between peoples of the former USSR are mostly warm. Even now in Ukraine people with favorable attitudes about Russia outnumber those with negative attitudes, by nearly 2:1. See: https://www.kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=795 -- study by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology. Prior to 2014, attitudes were overwhelmingly favorable, much more favorable than towards Americans.
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We must have a turn together . . . . I undress . . . . hurry me out of sight of the land,
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Old 06-04-2021, 05:45   #1271
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Re: Science & Technology News

These fish stole an antifreeze gene from another fish and became natural GMOs
Millions of years before scientists created genetically modified Atlantic salmon. with genes from two other fish, nature created genetically modified smelt, with a gene from herring, growing evidence shows.
A new study [1], by Queen's University researchers, Laurie Graham and Peter Davies, finds "conclusive" evidence for the controversial idea that the antifreeze gene, that helps rainbow smelt survive icy coastal waters, originally came from herring, and was somehow stolen by smelt about 20 million years ago.
They propose, in their new paper in Trends in Genetics [1], that this could have happened through a process quite similar to the way genes are sometimes transferred from one species to another, by scientists in the lab today, a process called horizontal gene transfer or lateral gene transfer.
Fish and many other marine animals have external fertilization, where eggs and sperm [milt], are released into the water at the same time, in massive quantities during spawning, and some of them combine to produce offspring. The sperm breaks apart, after a few hours, releasing DNA into the water. And the researchers proposed that, during one of these events, herring DNA may have found its way into rainbow smelt eggs or sperm.
However, there’s no way to prove that. But, if that is the way the genes were transferred, it has probably happened with other fish genes also.
The other implication is that genetically modified organisms, which have been characterized by activists as "Frankenfoods", might not be so unnatural.

It's something that happens frequently among microbes such as bacteria. So frequently that Canadian scientist W. Ford Doolittle suggested it might explain a big part of life's history on Earth. [2]

[1] “Horizontal Gene Transfer in Vertebrates: A Fishy Tale” ~ by lLaurie A.Graham & Peter L.Davies
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...68952521000512

[2] “Phylogenetic Classification and the Universal Tree” ~ by W. Ford Doolittle et al
https://science.sciencemag.org/conte...5423/2124.full
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Old 06-04-2021, 06:47   #1272
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Re: Science & Technology News

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You are not getting anything I say. The nuances are flying right over your head.

I have written that I consider Communism to be an evil, oppressive system (did you get that? in this very thread).

I have written that I agree with Ronald Reagan's statement that the USSR is an "evil empire".

HOWEVER, the real life story of the fall of Communism turns out to be a lot more complicated than going from the dark evil days of Communism and the USSR to the sweetness and light and happiness of democracy and capitalism.

I was there; I saw it with my own eyes. Our system also has drawbacks. It's a lot better than Communism -- there can be no question about that. But those people who were "liberated" from Communism aren't nearly as happy about it, as we might have expected (and not nearly as happy about it, as I expected -- I turned out to be totally wrong about it).

Now have I laid it out clearly enough for you?
What is clear is that you are a wealthy leftist and a communist socialist sympathizer--possibly a trust fund baby.
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Old 06-04-2021, 06:54   #1273
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Re: Science & Technology News

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What is clear is that you are a wealthy leftist and a communist socialist sympathizer--possibly a trust fund baby.
Man, have you got him wrong [just as you do most things]!
I'm quite certain that Dockhead is a highly accomplished, (relatively) wealthy, Conservative, Libertarian, Capitalist, if one can simply label him or [anyone].
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Old 06-04-2021, 06:59   #1274
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Re: Science & Technology News

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Man, have you got him wrong [just as you do most things]!
I'm quite certain that Dockhead is a highly accomplished, (relatively) wealthy, Conservative, Libertarian, Capitalist, if one can simply label him or [anyone].
Iirc he is a retired trauma nurse as is his wife .
Or am i tjinking of another of our med cruisers
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Old 06-04-2021, 07:04   #1275
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Re: Science & Technology News

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Iirc he is a retired trauma nurse as is his wife .
Or am i tjinking of another of our med cruisers

You are DEFINITELY thinking of someone else. Starts with a K... And i think they were psychiatric nurses.
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