Quickies

Quickies: Meat for Vegans, Knowing Your Cellphone Rights, and Women in Science Who Died Because of Their Work

  • My Great-Great-Aunt Discovered Francium. And It Killed Her. – “There is a common narrative in science of the tragic genius who suffers for a great reward, and the tale of Curie, who died from exposure to radiation as a result of her pioneering work, is one of the most famous. There is a sense of grandeur in the idea that paying heavily is a means of advancing knowledge. But in truth, you can’t control what it is that you find — whether you’ve sacrificed your health for it, or simply years of your time.” From Donna.
  • This Is America, As It Is – “I never got the handbook on how to raise a black boy in America, but I remember the words my father said to me. I took a deep breath, steadied my voice, and started telling my son what to do when confronted by the police. As I spoke, that uncomfortable feeling in my chest blossomed, squeezing my internal organs, making it hard to breathe. This is America, as it is.”
  • In 1911, Albert Einstein Told Marie Curie To Ignore The Trolls – “On Friday, a digitized trove of Albert Einstein’s writings and correspondence was made available online. While perusing the collection, astrobiologist David Grinspoon found a letter addressed from Einstein to famed physicist, chemist, and two-time Nobel-Laureate, Marie Curie. “
  • If You’re Protesting Today, or Any Day, You Should Know Your Cellphone Rights – “Don’t forget that a fingerprint lock alone may not be enough to secure your phone, because you could be compelled to use your finger to unlock it. Also, messaging with friends on a service that uses end-to-end encryption (like Wickr or now WhatsApp) can help keep the content of messages away from prying eyes.”
  • Siblings Build A Butcher Shop For ‘Meat’-Loving Vegans – “It might seem like a contradiction, but brother and sister Kale and Aubry Walch — yes, Kale — are opening the first vegan butcher shop next spring in Minneapolis, to be called the Herbivorous Butcher. They plan to bring their customers all of those delicious meat flavors, minus the meat. Recreating the taste without the actual ingredient is a challenge worth tackling, the siblings say.”
  • Growing Up Gender-Nonconforming Amid Scolding, Awkward Silences – ” ‘And, as I’m singing along with Mary, my hand is limp. And I remember my mother yelled at me. She was like, “Boys don’t hold their hands like that, girls and sissies hold their hands like that.’ She repeated, ‘Fix your hand, fix your hand!” ‘ Williams says. ‘But I didn’t know that my hand was broken. And I was like, “Ma, I don’t — I don’t know how to fix it.” And so, that was one of the first moments I remember being judged for acting like a girl.’ “

BONUS: The best Christmas songs you’ve probably never heard. I just wanted to add in a shout-out to my favorite Christmas album, Santa God and Other Blasphemies by Dan Hart.

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Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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14 Comments

  1. I find the faux-meat options for vegetarians strange. It’s like someone deciding to use robots on their plantation because of their moral objection to slavery, but then asking “Can you make the robots look like ragged black men?”

      1. TBH, a lot of animal rights activists think of meat as the moral equivalent of slavery, going back to Bentham himself.

        I can’t help but wonder, a lot of vegans are really into natural things. Is there a market for this?

        1. Just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean that you don’t crave the taste or feel of meat. If more vegan products were able to replicate meat well enough, more people might even decide to switch over.

          Also, making vegan food resemble meat does not harm animals. On the other hand, making robots resemble black slaves is racist and unnecessarily hateful.

          1. That’s the theory, but I still don’t see a market. Again, it’s because of the ‘artificial’ stigma.

            But as I said, there is a tendency in animal rights circles to go in offensive directions. (Remember the ‘chicken Holocaust’? There was also trying to get the NAACP to fight for the humane treatment of chickens. And I’ve shared my own experiences before. And yet I’m supposed to be offended that there’s a food item way in the back of the supermarket* that I can’t drink.)

            *It’s always way in the back. All supermarkets have a more or less identical floor plan.

          2. Hey, Jon, did you miss this bit in the linked article:
            “Their Kickstarter campaign has already exceeded its $50,000 goal — the most successful vegan Kickstarter campaign in history”

            That seems like a lot of interest to me. Still, time will tell. Maybe they will come up with something new and delicious so good luck to them, I reckon!

          3. Thanks for the meatsplaining, Jon. Maybe you should be careful about passing out your personal prejudices against vegans as “facts”?

            The only vegan I know who doesn’t eat meat-like products doesn’t because he’s allergic to soy and wheat. Not that there is anything inherently meaty about sausages and burgers, but that’s usually what we’re talking about.

    1. From the analogy you chose, it sounds like there’s a lot of things you don’t get.

    2. It’s really simple. We remove the bad stuff (treating individuals as property) while keep the good parts (tasty food) via vegan meat. You wouldn’t complain about eliminating the bad parts of slavery (treating individuals as property) while keeping the “good” parts (cheap labor) via robots, right?

      Anyway, here is a Swedish vegan”butchery that’s been around since last year:
      http://www.veggokoket.se

    3. Do you eat processed foods? And I mean any processed foods? Yes? Congratulations! You understand “faux-meat options”!

      And the “analogy” you choose here is slavery, out of all the things it could be about, but even more bizarrely, you get even more weirdly specific with your racism by choosing “Can you make the robots look like ‘ragged black men'”? as an example somehow related to … slavery and “faux-meat options”?!?!?!

      Could you explain to me what a “ragged black man” looks like? I’m curious. Wait, no, on second thought: Please don’t.

      In other words: Racist troll, much?

    4. This is eerily just like when assholes have to use bizarre and made-up theoretical analogies to somehow find a way to justify rape or forced birth or … faux-meat options with a side of bizarre fucking racism.

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