Interesting Links for 01-06-2022

[andrewducker]

1. Switching to plant-based cheese can reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent compared to the dairy version

(tags:dairy cheese co2 )

2. After millennia of agricultural expansion, the world has passed 'peak agricultural land'

(tags:agriculture farming viaDanielDWilliam )

3. How a Glaswegian responds to a killer whale

(tags:Scotland water animals )

4. Biden's top Middle East adviser has a history of cosying up to autocrats

(tags:middle_east USA diplomacy OhForFucksSake )

5. The Telegraph doesn't pay its contributors

(tags:telegraph newspapers money UK OhForFucksSake )

6. Artist who made Nazi art turns out to be a Nazi

(tags:nazis art )

7. Don't Wordle - can you avoid winning?

(tags:language games )

8. Prince Rupert's Drop Exploding in Epoxy Resin at 456,522 fps

(tags:slowmotion video glass explosions )

9. The Tories gave Boris Johnson the power to call an election whenever he likes. Now they're worried he'll use it.

(tags:elections BorisJohnson conservatives )

10. After Xinjiang Revelations, Germany's Ties to China Are Under the Microscope

(tags:germany trade rights )

11. New rules ban many single-use plastics in Scotland

(tags:plastic environment scotland )

Comments

[lilysea]

The cheese one made me *sigh* -

all the plant-based cheeses that I have tried are VERY bad for people with Irritable bowel syndrome / sensitivity to FODMAPs [fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols]

I would love to reduce my carbon footprint, but cheese isn't it.

On the other hand, I haven't eaten meat for 32 years

and the last time I was on a plane was 2011...

[nancylebov]

I wonder whether anyone should worry about calamityware undercutting people's reactions to the bombing of Dresden? To hand grenades? Possibly they should.

[calimac]

9) So how does the 2010 tenure of parliament act relate to this, or is it the dead letter that the last two general elections have suggested it is?

[andrewducker]

The Fixed Term Parliament Act was replaced in earlier this year.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9308/

(Which was why I phrased it that way)

[calimac]

Wow, I hadn't heard about that at all. From the description, it appears that - apart from the redefinition of how the 5-year term is counted - it merely returns the procedure to the previous custom.

And the Fixed Term Act recedes into a quirk of history.

[naath]

1) or eat less cheese. Vegan 'cheese' is not cheese though it is sometimes a nice food.

[lilysea]

1) or eat less cheese

Sadly, cheese is one of my few allowed sources of protein -

I've been vegetarian for 32 years

I can't eat fish

and I'm supposed to strictly limit
chickpeas;
soy;
and nuts
because of Irritable bowel syndrome / sensitivity to FODMAPs [fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols] :(

[naath]

does fake cheese even have protein? obviously you gotta eat enough of everything to be healthy, and it could be a lot worse than cheese

[cmcmck]

Such a shame plant based cheese tends to be horrible.

[channelpenguin]

And expensive. Way beyond poor peoples budgets. Though cheese is probably unfairly cheap due to supermarket pressure on dairy farms.

I feel it's better just to eat the (less processed) beans nuts and oils that these "substitutes" are made from...

[calimac]

In the US, dairy farming is government-subsidized, in one of those customs that once made sense but is now impossible to get rid of, as cries of putting the cost of schoolchildren's milk out of the reach of their families would ensue, whether that was true or not.

[cmcmck]

I agree- I'm veggie rather than vegan and we live rural in north Shropshire close by the Welsh border in an area where cheese (blue cheese in particular) is produced using good farming methods so I'm less guilt struck about using it.

I particularly love cashew nuts and our local artisanal nut butter maker, Zoe, makes a fabulous cashew nut butter (and a cashew and tiger nut one)- so much better than all your fake cheeses!

[cellio]

Yeah. It usually tastes bad and the stuff just will not melt in, say, an omelette. I'll happily cook with soy milk in place of cow milk, but cheese needs to come from actual animals, it appears.

I eat cheese -- just not a lot of it, because cholesterol is a concern. I eat very little meat -- mostly fish and vegetarian -- so I figure that can offset my small cheese consumption.

[qilora]

"1. Switching to plant-based cheese can reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent compared to the dairy version"

and earn you undying love from us wannabe-vegans <3


"2. After millennia of agricultural expansion, the world has passed 'peak agricultural land'"

i am actually studying the history of agriculture in my work on my master's... can't discuss it yet, i am still on the scratching-seeds-into-the-ground part of our evolution...

[andrewducker]

Let us know what you learn :-)

[bens_dad]

1. Switching to plant-based cheese can reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent compared to the dairy version.
There are better figures in the article, but my first thought was "only 50% ?"
Calorie for calorie, beef has a lot more than twice the carbon footprint of the grain the cows are assumed to have eaten, though I doubt I could get many calories from the grass the cows I see eating.

I have problems with FODMAPS too; thanks for the warning about vegetable cheese-substitions lilysea. When I was avoiding dairy to discover which ones caused my problems I discovered:
1) many dairy substitutes are low in calcium; I'm borderline osteoporosis so that matters to me.
2) I react badly to soya spreads. Turns out that sensitivity to soya is more common than some more well known food sensitivities.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I have FODMAPs issues also. And have to keep an eye on some things.

Including milk, actually, but lactase really helps with that.

[booklectica]

Wow, Don't Worldle is hard!

[andrewducker]

I didn't manage it!