Interesting Links for 18-11-2022

[andrewducker]

1. "When We All Have Pocket Telephones": A 1920s Comic Accurately Predicts

(tags:mobile_phones comics predictions )

2. Stirling University Students' Union votes to go 100% vegan

(tags:vegan scotland university food )

3. Edinburgh's 20mph roads: Plans to expand speed limit to 90 per cent of Edinburgh roads

(tags:speed driving edinburgh )

4. Artificial meat has been greenlit in the United States for the first time

(tags:meat Technology usa regulation )

5. The world needs more derpy cat dragons

(tags:cats dragons art )

6. Cambrian Explosion Lego!

(tags:Lego paleontology life )

7. The history of Irish/Native American mutual aid

(tags:support Ireland USA history )

8. How to stay warm in extremely cold temperatures

(tags:cold weather clothing advice )

9. How to Post to Mastodon From Anything Using IFTTT

(tags:automation links )

Comments

[lilysea]

Cambrian Explosion Lego!

This is EXACTLY my thing! ^_^

[andrewducker]

Yay!

[lilysea]

Stirling University Students' Union votes to go 100% vegan

*sigh*

I am 100% supportive of having LOTS of vegetarian options and LOTS of vegan options,

and I am 100% supportive of people eating less red meat for climate change,

but venues going 100% vegan makes life very hard for those of us with multiple food allergies and multiple food intolerances :(

I say this as a long-term vegetarian who would be unable to meet my food needs without eggs/cheese.

Also a lot of vegan "fake meat" is full of gluten, soy, vegetable gum and other problem ingredients.

[original_aj]

So a majority of the 1/170th of the student population who attended were in favour. Reminds me of my experience of student politics in the 80s, when a very small minority of the student body were involved and most of us paid no attention to what they did. Once in a while a pressure group had packed a meeting enough to get their favoured motion passed and it annoyed the main student body enough that ae EGM was called shortly thereafter, at which enough people turned up to reverse the decision then went away again. I suspect this will have a similar result. Apart from anything else, you don't change people's minds by antagonising them like that. Provide cheap, attractive vegan options and people will be more likely to partially or fully switch. Tell them they have to and they will go elsewhere rather than buy food they don't want, probably to cheap fast food places with less healthy offerings.

I'm an omnivore who is happy to eat meals without meat but not with fake meat, as they have always been in my experience a goood simulation of the sort of cheap processed meat I don't eat either. I'm married to a vegetarian who became one cecause she doesn't like meat, so it's no good for her either. There's plenty of interesting vegan food without using fake meat, so it's not difficult. We've been unable to eat in some vegan places because they only did fake meat things.

[cmcmck]

2. Fine except for those who don't want to and I speak as a veggie and I agree with the comment about fake meat- I don't use it, so who is the more 'authentic' vegetarian? I also became veggie because I simply don't like meat so why would I want to eat fake meat?

[calimac]

Antagonizing people seems to be the principal way that pressure groups operate. I'm thinking of a lot of superior-minded moralizing groups in US history, from the (slavery) abolitionists to the (alcohol) prohibitionists, all of whom managed to make things worse for their cause.

[alithea]

Yeah, we quite often eat vegan veggie options but bulgar wheat really doesn't agree with me, tofu makes Kev really ill, and my nephew is extremely allergic to soy.

#8

[lsanderson]

Please define 'extremely cold temperatures' -- Not to say the advice is bad, but somewhere between 0 and -40 it seems inadequate.

Re: #8

[adrian_turtle]

It seems to be written for people who don't have a whole lot of good options. It's great if you can afford silk long underwear, or good breathable synthetic. It's great if you can afford actual snowpants, or a long heavy coat. But someone who is trying to live with a small budget and a smaller living space may need to make do with the clothes they wore in the milder winter of the year before. (Or they figure the really severe cold snap will only last 2 or 3 days, so why spend money they'll need for the electric bill?)

[zz]

Edinburgh's 20mph roads: Plans to expand speed limit to 90 per cent of Edinburgh roads

oh ffs. there really aren't enough guillotines in the world.

[andrewducker]

Yes, and we're not allowed to use them on people who insist on driving quickly in cities, so we're forced to make them drive at a safer speed instead.

[channelpenguin]

It's the drop to 40 on rural roads that I would find most irking. I don't suppose the city traffic gets much above 20 in busy times anyway. Plus lots of people and that 10mph really does make a difference in crash injury outcomes esp to kids. But 40 on a back road with fewer to no hazards and probably no pedestrians seems less logical.

[bens_dad]

probably no pedestrians
That is the tricky bit.

Most narrow rural roads have stretches with no walkable off-road so the rare pedestrian *has to* walk on the road. 40mph gives the driver a little more time to avoid them.

Frequent non-trivial cost versus rare life v death benefit is the hardest risk and cost/benefit assessment.

[channelpenguin]

Yeah, it's a tricky one.

(I guess you can guess I live in the countryside... Though not in the UK)

[calimac]

1) That cartoon hasn't "not aged well," it's fulfilled its function: it has accurately predicted what would/will happen in the circumstances.

[calimac]

The one thing I was going to criticize the cartoon for is failing to anticipate ring tones: but sure enough, the mobile that interrupted Brahms's beautiful Adagio at the concert last night went "ting, ting, ting."

[andrewducker]

Why do people in 2022 still do this?

[calimac]

Do what? Have phones that go "ting, ting, ting"? Or do you mean, not turn them off during classical music concerts? Because they forget. Because they think their phones are off and don't double-check. Most concerts I go to now have a pre-concert "turn your phone off" announcement. But no matter how clever they may be, half the time a phone still goes off.

[danieldwilliam]

It's a rare journey in Edinburgh where our car gets the opportunity to go faster than 20 mph. I think for the journeys we make the existing 20 mph limit has probably increased our average speed very slightly but making traffic flows smoother.