21st Century Lab Rats!

So this Kony Bullshit, ay?

So..I haven’t really posted in a while and I have to say it was for selfish reasons. I guess, I am rather protective of my work and after writing a film review as part of my coursework, I was rather disappointed when I was told it was boring. I beat myself up for a while about that, but anyway. Films aren’t my thing, so let’s get back to business!

As you all know, this “Kony 2012” video went viral this week. The charity, Invisible Children, run by a group of hipsters, wants to raise awareness of Kony the Barbarian. Now, as far as I know, “raising awareness” isn’t actually a cause. Not one that should involve money, at least. Raising awareness for your cause, well that’s fine. That is just dandy. Except, their cause is a little strange. 

Now, if you haven’t paid attention to the shit storm that ensued after the few intelligent humans of the world actually did their research before jumping on the band wagon of love, IC aren’t exactly a reputable charity.

They claim to be non-profit, which is just fine. However, only 31% of their earnings actually went to helping people last year. Where did the other 69% go?  By the looks of things, marketing. Have you seen the video? I haven’t seen all of it, as I don’t have enough bandwidth, however, from what I did see and what I have heard, it was pretty flash. They must have paid Trent Reznor a hell of a lot for the music..not to mention just the general fanciness of the thing. Surely human nature is pure enough to not need to resort to expensive tactics for such a great cause? Well..Clearly not..

Something you probably didn’t know..IC actually fund the Ugandan military.  
WAIT WHAT?!
Yeah. Their proceeds help the Ugandan military, as well as other anonymous military organisations…
Which means that the poor enslaved child soldiers, (assuming you actually have a clue about the whole situation) who IC are claiming to want to rescue are actually also being killed by the money sent in by IC. So really..the money you send in to help these children is probably going to kill them. Isn’t that fun? 

You see, before I knew that, I just thought that it was a group of pretentious hipsters wanting to make a small change. However, now, I think that they should be arrested. What they do doesn’t solve anything. In fact, it more likely exacerbates the entire situation and really? Who wants that? 

Now, let’s move on to the sheep who get caught up by the fold….  

Okay. Now, yes, at first, many people just went along with the movement and sent in for much of their products to help the noble cause. After watching a thirty minute video showing the horrors of this man, most people would..as this shows. 

So yes, there is a great sentiment there for those people, I mean, they do want to do the best. However, it really is like one of those banner ads, isn’t it? They are making promises for your money that you secretly know are hollow. I mean, the way these things were worded..It’s truly despicable. They treat it like the end game. As if, catching this guy will end ALL TROUBLES IN AFRICA. Hah. Right. See, killing him, sure, gets rid of one corrupt guy. Except not, because as soon as he’s gone, a new guy will turn up and could be worse. At the end of the day, to solve the problems in Africa, you would need to reinstate a WHOLE new government which would take time and many lives. Not to mention can you guarantee that they would also be non-corrupt? 

At the end of the day, Africa was a major colonial fuck up and it is going to take a long time before it is stable. Getting rid of this guy really won’t do anything. Nothing at all. Especially with such a corrupt charity in charge. 

Then, I thought more about the people jumping up and down to give their money to the cause…Did they support getting rid of Gaddafi or Mugabe? Did they rush in with that too? Probably not. These guys were probably worse. Okay, they didn’t, as far as I know, make child soldiers, however, they killed a hell of a lot of people, too.

Would they still care about Africa after this movement? Would they continue to give their money to help out? Probably not. Would this even be mentioned after? No.
See…To me, it all seems pretty hypocritical.. “Oh yeah, what’s going on here is really bad sooo terrible and I feel so bad for how well off I am, I’m going to give a small amount of my money to show that I care. Oh wait? You want me to give up my iPad and computer and expensive clothes to help them out more? Oh no man..I neeed these.”  Of course, this is just me talking about hipsters. I am sure many people did donate legitimately and do empathise properly, however the idea is still the same. 

Donating a small amount of money makes the donor feel good about themselves. In some cases, it does actually make a difference. For example giving money to help a kid get an operation. However, this really won’t. Not at all.

I guess, what I really hope people start to do is actually research things. Research counter arguments to what they believe in and research counter documents to the causes they support. It’s all very well to be swayed by a convincing video, but by not actually researching the backgrounds on information given, you’re leaving yourself open to getting ripped to shreds…or your money taken.

In a profession of vast debating, I have learnt that it really is important to try to find the flaws of your argument, so that you can back them up and counter them, before the opposition actually catches you off guard. It also shows that you know what you are talking about and that you don’t just jump on the band wagon in good faith, before blindly agreeing to things.

It’s how many dictatorships happen. People get swept in the moment and vote the wrong guy in, or end up killing the wrong people, all because they didn’t think. THINK guys. Really.

It actually scares me how many people didn’t think about this at all…

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-PnDZmngAhM/Sa_KBGNySiI/AAAAAAAAAJY/uBOfiAysghs/s1600/IMG_2941.JPG  This is a photo of the founding members of IC posing with guns….How humanitarian. 

Finally, this is an extract of a status I agree with:

“You kids do realise that getting rid of Kony won’t solve the problem, right? He’s just one guy in an entire system of corruption. It’s not like the films where you get rid of the head honcho and the issue goes away. There are plenty who will take his place. Instead of raising awareness of a well known cause, find the solution to the entire problem, as killing lots of trees in order to show you know about the problem is just creating a whole new problem. In fact, it highlights the throw away culture of our society. While you waste lots of paper which will be thrown away and not used after, you contribute to the destruction of habitats of various endangered organisms and probably many indigenous tribes, also. How humanitarian….“ 

My post is really more about trying to get people to think, rather than convince them one way or another. There are plenty of people doing so already. Hopefully, if people think, we can avoid the problems of yesteryear. History only repeats because we allow it to. 

However, I do not dispute that Kony is a terrible being. What he does to those children and just generally killing people is not to be forgotten not forgiven. He should definitely be stopped, as with all corrupt leaders, but getting rid of him is just a step in the right direction. Not the end. Simulating an “Occupy” type movement really isn’t going to solve anything and IC really aren’t the charity to do so. These movements really only benefit the people on the outside. They make them feel as though they are doing good and that makes them feel better. I haven’t elaborated much on IC, because I want the readers to actually find out things for themselves. 

The NOT so Iron Lady?

Brain or no brain? Part five.

So finally, we get to vegetarianism. I was a vegetarian for a while. Yeah. It was fun. Then I nearly died from every deficiency in the world. Nah. I just got severe iron deficiency. Now, I wasn’t crazy. I ate Quorn, a meat subsitute made form a form of fungus. It was really nice. However, it didn’t have iron in it. I got the right amount of protein, and all good stuff from vege, but not enough iron. Spinach isn’t actually that high in iron. Couldn’t eat herbs, because they make me ill. Liver? It’s meat. So I had sun dried tomatoes. 200 grams of sun dried tomatoes a day. Yeah. You try that. 

See, it’s very easy to suggest vegetarianism, and in the western world it is a lot easier, as we have many substitutes. However, those who can only afford to eat vegetables are malnourished. You just can’t get the protein that you need. You can’t get much really. So in the western world, where we can readily afford cheese, quorn, tofu, it’s all good. In poor countries, well they won’t be as well fed..which is what we tend to see. 

Okay then, everyone who can afford to, become a vegetarian. Yeah. It’s not going to happen.  People like meat. Although in an idealistic world, we would all do what we can for other people, only the minority of people are really altruistic. It makes sense, from an evolutionary point of view to be selfish. Altruists are recessive because they benefit the group, not themselves. People, out of greed, out of free will, won’t do it. Then you have the people like me who get sick from it. Buy substitute pills. Yeah..Dude those are expensive. I’m not paying for that. 
Okay then, everyone who can afford to and won’t get sick, become  vegetarian. Oh? He can eat meat because he gets a little pale? I’m going to eat meat because I want to.

 From a biological point of view, it doesn’t work. Okay, we are omnivorous, but our stomach is more designed for breaking down animal protein than it is meat protein. Hence pepsin, it breaks down meat protein. That’s the enzyme in our stomach. We can’t digest chlorophyll, or the sugar in plant protein which I have forgotten the name of. Not to mention the whole appendix thing. Basically, although we are technically omnivorous, we are more carnivorous than we are herbivorous. 

A more realistic option is that we force people to limit their meat intake. If people only eat 50grams of meat a day, which is enough to get the protein needed,(Especially if 25grams white meat and 25 grams red meat)  then we would save a lot of wasted and excess that goes to people who don’t need it because they are greedy. The extra could be put to better use, meaning we would all have more. Not to mention the fact that that limitation could help to slow the increase in carbon emissions and therefore slow the rising temperature of the world. 
However, when you limit something through rationing, such as in the Great War and WWII, the black market rises. People would exceed their daily quota through greed. Those intelligent enough to realise and understand the reasoning behind the quota would be all right and would probably stick to it. Then you get those who think they are much more intelligent than they really are. They would see this as a direct attack on them, their rights being quashed and the government generally being dickish. Finally, you get those morons who believe that the rules are not made for them and they will do what they want because they can. These are both two types of very ignorant people. Unfortunately, ignorance will be our downfall.

In conclusion, we need to do something. We can’t just ignore the problem, because it won’t go away by itself. The moral issue behind  brainless chickens, it would be hard for some to go with, and so I reckon more would go with the whole stem cell meat thing, after a while..maybe some blind taste tests to prove it tastes the same or better. Making the whole world veggie, just isn’t going to work. It’s not healthy for us and people won’t do it. Limiting the intake is a good start and would have the added bonus of helping emissions slightly. Personally, I think that limiting meat and the majority of meat being stem cells is the way to go.

Just remember, that if you have an opinion, please back it up. Don’t be a hypocrite. If you truly believe in something, make sure you stand by it. If you don’t like cruelty to animals, don’t eat animals that have had a bad life, even if it is the only meat available. If you want people to be vegetarian, you better bloody be a vegetarian.
Please. It makes your argument stronger and will make more people likely to listen to you for that and in future. Not to mention the fact that it saves the sanity of people like me, who hate people like you. (Assuming that you are one of those people who do that.) 

I hope that this has been interesting for you. Feel free to feedback with your ideas, as I would be happy to hear them.

Backward!                                                                  

Brain or no brain? Part four.

Stem cell research. Again. I have no qualms with. With stem cells, we can find cures for debilitating genetic diseases, such as Huntington’s, (I had many family members suffer terribly and die painfully from that), Multiple Sclerosis, (I used to want to cure that), Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancers. Straying from that, advances mean that we can and are developing ways to regrow limbs and organs, so that people do not have the troubles of getting used to a biotic limb, or the rejection that can go on with transplanted organs. 

However, this form of stem cell research is developing ways to grow meat, so edible protein, from stem cells. They basically take the stem cells of a pig and force them to grow into muscle tissue. It’s been going on for years but only now is it really hitting public knowledge, because it could be hitting the stores soonish… I believe that currently, they are able to grow it and some have even eaten tiny kidney bean sized lab grown steaks, (half did not like, half did not necessarily not like it).  At the end of the day, once perfected, which shouldn’t take too long, as it takes only two weeks to grow myoblasts into the muscle fibre. However, the main problem is texture. Muscle that has never been used, isn’t the nice, taut meat we eat now. It’s gooey and meat just shouldn’t be gooey. So, to remedy this, it appears that they will grow the muscle on a small mechanical thing that will expand and contract, this giving the meat a kind of work out.

Another point is that growing them this way, the meat will be technically hormone free. There is no need, as once perfected, the meat can be grown cheaply and quickly as big as possible, so no need for those health damaging hormones. Not to mention the fact that these cells never eat, so no risk of that pesky Bovine Spongiform Disease (Mad cow disease). I suppose, due to the controlled environment and non exposure to other beings, flu and other disease wouldn’t really be contracted, as these are just muscle tissues.

Currently however, this lab grown meat is veeerry expensive. Stem cell research is a sketchy subject and the lack of research and people doing it causes the price to be US$100,000 per kilogram! However, as more people get used to the idea and when it is possible to get good meat quickly and in high amounts, then the price will plummet and people will buy. Even if people in western world turn their noses up at it, those in developing countries who need that extra nutrition could be given this meat a lot cheaper, or even free in cases of charity, (this is an idealistic view in the sense that the charities are actually allowed into the country to help) , but of course, also those who cannot afford to be choosey. 

I think this is probably the way to go. It will be cheaper than unsensitive chickens, there is no sentient or partial sentient life going on and so for those who are against brain-empty chickens because it is cruel, well there is no sentient life here. They are just cells. Unless you believe that cells also have feelings too. They don’t. If you think they do, and you’re against this because of that reason, well, you know that time you had the stomach bug and you killed it? Yeah. You hurt it. You destroyed it so that you could feel less ill. What’s that? You had to so you would be okay? But it was just trying to live and you deprived it of that. -.- No. It doesn’t work like that. They are cells. They do not have the capability to have feelings.

Others will be grossed out by the idea of lab meat. I totally understand that. The idea of the meat being grown from cells is a little weird. However, think of the benefits. Probable lack of hormones and chemicals, like with the idea of golden rice, things could be added to make them more useful for those who don’t get enough of something in their diet. Also, I worked in a butchery for a while. The things people do..It’s disgusting. At least in a lab, it would be clean.

At the end of the day, it is a good way to hinder the kind of animal cruelty that can come about in farming. It will become cheap and plentiful, it will be healthier and more pure than  meat you buy and it means that food shortages will not necessarily be so much of a problem. Although the world cannot sustain 7 billion people with many other things, at least this would mean that food would be less of a problem.

Backward!                                                       Onward!