[Wood FT]

But very few pieces of software have passed the Turing test, let alone a personalised version of it.

Not that its not possible I just think there are (quite) a few more corners to go around.

I hope the day never arives

[dave]

Fuck I forgot about black mirror last night.

[shurt]

Thought black mirror was pretty cool this week although wasn't sure if the end was a bit lame? I couldn't decide and still cant.

They'll have to pull something special out to beat 'The Entire History of You' from the last series. I seriously cant remember anything better on TV than that in a very long time. It made my brain melt...

[Pantontino]

I really enjoyed last night's BM. Intriguing one-step-away-from-where-we-are-now stuff with plenty of emotional heft.

(okay, I accept it's a pretty big step...but who's to say what those fiendishly clever boffins will come up with next - probably just another crap phone/ipad type thing but...)

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Fuck I forgot about black mirror last night.

4OD should sort you out

[mark20]

That was intense, the best yet?

[dave]

Totally fucking Mexico.

[Paul B]

That was intense, the best yet?

yes.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Awesome.

[shurt]

This week's black mirror was pretty cool. I wish there were more in a series.

I almost fell off my chair after this from the first couple of minutes of this week's weekly wipe:

'I don't know about you but when I ate a burger I used to think mmm what a tasty disc of compacted tissue scrapings blasted off a cows rotting carcass with a high pressure hose in a fly blown abattoir ringing with the incoherant howls of simple beasts dying from a single boltgun shot to the forehead. But now it turns out it might not be as appetising as that'

Amazing.

[andy_e]

This is a good read on the same subject.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/17/bad-meat-meteors-awesome-footage

[crimp]

 more food for thought on the subject.

CAUTION - GRAPHIC SLAUGHTERHOUSE FOOTAGE. NOT AN EASY WATCH

[slackline]

Watched slaughterhouse stuff at school around the age of 12-13 (in Geography classes if I recall correctly).  Good to know where food comes from and that people have thought about making sure the suffering involved is minimised (unless its halal or kosher ). 

Humans evolved as omnivores.

[crimp]

We were taken on a tour of a slaughterhouse at school. I wonder if that still happens. People should know exactly where food comes from and how its produced, including fruit and Veg.

Someone surveyed a load of inner city kids on a food production, and got responses such as 'where do potatoes come from? ...tesco'.

Agree with you on cruelty for religious purposes.

A big issue with food production is the exploitation of agricultural workers, especially the third world cash crops. Hopefully fairtrade is bringing about change though.

[Plattsy]

Slaughterhouses regardless of M.O. are full of animal welfare issues.
Saying one way is more humane than the other is subjective.
I think it's highly likely the animals know what's coming.
I eat meat.

[shurt]

For the record I am nearly vegetarian but thought the quote was good at highlighting how stupid the outrage at the horse thing is. If you buy 99p lasagne the meats hardly going to be from a good place.
Having said that there's been stuff in the papers about meat labelled organic/free range etc which is slaughtered at terrible places so its all a bit of a minefield. Ultimately unless you raise and kill an animal yourself you'll never know. I think it would be a good thing for meateaters to do. I've not by the way, although my vegetarian partner thinks i should.

[crimp]

A good step in that direction, is i keep rescued battery and barn hens in my garden proper freerange. They have escaped hellish misery and got a good life. They each lay one two eggs a day. They pay for themselves, and cost very little to feed, plus i control what they eat.

If anyone fancies trying back garden hen keeping, happy to help with questions and advice.

[slackline]

Slaughterhouses regardless of M.O. are full of animal welfare issues.
Saying one way is more humane than the other is subjective.

If I were offered the choice between having a bolt shot into the brain that kills me instantly (at least in a very high percentage of times) or the option of being hung up, my throat slit and left there bleeding I know which I'd choose.

Its well worth every single bit of a slaughtered animal being used rather than going to waste.

Its a massive luxury that western societies can even consider the welfare of animals, many countries don't have enough animals (or vegetables) to feed everyone in the first place.

[Stubbs]

Its a massive luxury that western societies can even consider the welfare of animals, many countries don't have enough animals (or vegetables) to feed everyone in the first place.

More people die worldwide from overeating related diseases than famine these days.  The welfare issue is also an interesting one - the goats in the sahel being shepherded and eating what green vegetation they can find (for example) look to live a better life than a lot of animals in western countries.  It's the industrialisation and mechanisation of the meat industry that has lead to welfare problems.

[slackline]

More people die worldwide from overeating related diseases than famine these days.

Really?  I did not know that, do you have a source of statistics on this please?

 

[slackline]

  but the sources Stubbs has provided are...

Lancet Article

Only skimmed the abstract and I'm not sure it actually reports absolute numbers, rather percentages affected by certain risk factors (so you'd need to look up population sizes within each country).

More articles).


I suspect the WHO Global burden of disease might be useful too, as will searching for age-adjusted standardised mortality rates (yet to do this).

Anyway, I'll quit with the 

[SA Chris]

Anyway, I'll quit with the 

Is this worth moving to a seperate topic, I hadn't read it any of this good stuff, as I thought the thread would have spoilers about Black Mirror.

[petejh]

It's a pretty interesting (off) topic. I'd be a little bit amazed if more people really do die from causes related to over-eating than from causes related to under-availabilty of food.

[Will Hunt]

Worth a topic split I think.
I dread to think of the amount of horsemeat that will needlessly go down the pan in the wake of this news story. And all so that those buying a 99p lasagne can breathe easy in the knowledge that they'll be eating their way to sat fat coronary oblivion using only the worst quality meat from animal A rather than animal B.
Agree with Slackers that if an animal is going to be reared and slaughtered then every shred should be put to one use or another. That's what sausages are for!

A friend of mine is (or certainly was when I discussed it with him) of the opinion that those eating meat should be prepared to slaughter and butcher it, if not actually do it. I don't go quite as far as that but I think that all partaking should understand the process and accept that it might not be the prettiest part of the food chain.

[Will Hunt]

It's a pretty interesting (off) topic. I'd be a little bit amazed if more people really do die from causes related to over-eating than from causes related to under-availabilty of food.

It's a grim ponderance. Perhaps most of the starving people died before the study was commissioned.