Snowfall in Kinshasa is a weblog written by Kevin Cannon, who also designs websites and helps people calculate the golden ratio.
This is version 2.0 of the blog. Version 1.0 was a cataclysmic failure and is not to be spoken of. Articles, links and photos will be posted sporadically.
Copyright © 2009 Kevin Cannon.
Scientists Grow Meat in Laboratory. I’ve been waiting for/predicting this for years. They’d better get bacon right.
Conspiracy theorists can be hilarious. We mostly think of them as harmless, mentally unstable imbeciles who spend their time on the internet “doing their own research,” which amounts to reading the unfounded opinions of others like them. But they’re starting to get dangerous.
Digg.com usually represents a minority on the internet. The young, left of centre, scientifically minded people of above average intelligence. If you look closer though, there’s something foul lurking under that facade. View the comment thread for any climate change article, and you’ll find nothing but deniers. People who actually think that the hacked climate change emails disprove global warming. What’s worse is that these comments are dugg through the roof. Anyone who posts anything resembling reason is quickly buried into oblivion. This is positively fucking despicable.
I’d like to think that this is a coordinated and organised effort, run by the pants-on-head retarded people who plaster pictures of Ron Paul to their walls when not attending tea parties. And then I see comments like this:
“I can’t decide if the world is warming or not, if it’s our fault or not, or wtf.
Seems to change every day, and each side is SURE they are right”
And that’s when I know they’ve won. Because these people don’t have the science or credibility to back up their delusion. That isn’t their goal. All they want is to inject doubt and confusion and controversy where there is none. They’re succeeding beyond belief. The public needs to learn to protect themselves against this.
Science isn’t a democracy. I don’t care how many “scientists” they got to sign a petition denying global warming. It doesn’t mean shit. Just because an email is private and wasn’t meant to be released doesn’t make it incriminating. If you want facts, read peer-reviewed reputable scientific journals; Not anonymous websites and popular science articles.
Remove yourself from your computer and look outside. In Ontario, we’ve just officially had the first November in 70 years without snow. Seventy. Fucking. Years. Polar bears are resorting to cannibalism. Glaciers that have been around for thousands of years are almost gone. This shit is real, and we need to start fighting back.
Scientists are continually improving artificial organs. From the very simple jellyfish-like bladder, to things as complex as the beating heart. Of course, we’re not there yet, but it’s starting to get close. And that got me thinking; What does that mean for the future of eating?
When an artificial organ becomes more efficient, more powerful, and more long-lasting than its biological counterpoint, it only makes sense to swap out your organs. The new ones wont break down and wont give up. Eventually all the organs in the body except for the brain will be replaced. I’m not sure that we’ll ever fully solve that one, but I’ll remain optimistic. Even bones will be replaced by unbreakable alloys.
As time goes on, a digestive system becomes more unnecessary. An energy source can be injected directly into the body, through some kind of port system. Maybe we’ll be run on solar power. Whatever the case, the only use for food will be to fulfill a culture driven by ingesting the stuff. And that makes me very happy.
Because it means that we’ll be able to separate digestion from absorption. When that happens, “you are what you eat” no longer holds true. You can eat thirty six chocolate cakes, followed by a spit roast apple-in-mouth hog. For breakfast. Praise science.
In the near future though, I’m hoping for something else. A complete separation of nutrient value and taste. Vegetarian food is healthy, but who are they trying to kid? It tastes like shit. All of it. Hopefully using food chemistry, we’ll be able to create something packed with vitamins and other goodies, but tasting like a hamburger with donuts for buns. Nom.