Grrl Power #199 – Dietary complex
I like how apparently this steakhouse serves all their entrees with sides of bacon.
If you’ve never done it, treat yourself to Churrascaria at least once. (Unless you don’t eat meat obviously.) It’s a style of restaurant where you pay a flat rate, usually quite a bit, like $50-65, and waiters dressed like understated matadors bring you unlimited meat. Quality meat. Imagine all you can eat rack of lamb, top sirloin, bottom sirloin, filet mignon, sausage, rib eye, bacon wrapped, beef ribs, pork ribs, Parmesan crusted pork loin… you get the idea. It’s a lot of money, but it’s great once or twice a year, birthdays and the like. It was at a Churrascharia place that I had Achilles’s exact thought. I freely admit to making nyom nyom sounds and doing orgasm eyerolls. I could go a few days as a pure vegetarian, there’s plenty of delicious non-meat things to eat, but after a 3-4 days, maybe a week, I’d be going spare for a burger or something involving sausage.
I love how writing works some time. The woman on the left in the second panel (named Seneca, even though her name doesn’t appear anywhere in the comic yet, just for reference) has appeared in the background a few times but I didn’t really have a character for her other than “Latina Badass a la Vasquez” but now that I’ve written a smidgen of dialog for her, she’s forever cursed with a sweet tooth. That’s not a bad start.
So next page is number 200, which beyond being one of those round numbers that humans feel the need to make a big deal about. That said you don’t want to miss it. :) It’s too bad it’s landing on a Thursday and not everyone has moved their Grrl Power bookmark from the Monday folder to the probably underpopulated Monday Thursday folder yet. I’ll throw out a little advertising with my new banner which I’ve used to update the vote incentive finally if you’re curious.
Update: The ComicMix tourney had moved to round 3! Again as happened last year we’re up against Order of the Stick, a level boss if there ever was one!
<– If you like supporting things like some sort of anthropomorphized jockstrap, then consider lifting and separating this comic! Assuming that’s what jockstraps do. I’ve never worn one.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
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Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Odd, we have gone up one in the Top Web Comic ratings. Yet the status quo has stayed pretty much the same. I mean, even the new vote incentive only included a close-up shot of Maxima’s boobs.
*rubs paw thoughtfully against chin*
Nope, I just don’t get it.
I do not get it at all. Until Sunday the comic was having around 200 votes a day, with the vote incentive it had over 1.500 within less than 24hs.
Are there actually like 1.300 persons reading this comic for free and not willing to vote unless get paid?
Either I do not understand people or people do not understand the vote thing at all.
All I’m hearing is that we should get tacos
To many comics I am a fan of, and I can’t vote for them all.
Result is I don’t vote for any as only getting one vote at a time.
Unless there is a vote incentive…
What is stopping you from voting for them as you read them?
In my case it was when I was working on trying to keep up with 20+ webcomics at the same time, as you only get 7 votes a week which 7 that I really enjoy should I vote for? It just wasn’t worth it without an incentive.
In relation to Sydney’s diet, she’s not a full vegetarian, she’s just anti red-meat.
1 boob=1 respect
A part of it is just reminding folk’s at a key time. Other than hardcore fans who log in specifically to vote and check comments, many readers will just pop in casually and only vote if they think about it. If something draws it to their attention, it reminds them to do the click. A vote incentive does just that, if they spot it. It does not hurt to draw their attention to the fact that there is a new one mind.
This particular incentive just happened to be medicinal, as well! Human males need at least 10 minutes looking at boobs a day, or their mental well-being starts to degrade. Although it was clearly done for comic purposes, the incentive was also contributing to the mental health of the male readership.
I hope that last paragraph added a couple of hundred new clicks, from folk’s who have logged in early for the new comic, and spotted this comment. Not that it makes much difference this late in the month.
We have a very unfortunate timing now though. The new comic falls on the last day of the month, so whatever votes we get by folks drawn in for the Thursday comic, will be lost for next month. So could slide down ranks compared to Friday and weekend updating comics. And that can have a difference for the floating readership. Folks who pick comics from the ratings lists, rather than by bookmarks or RSS feeds, for instance. If you start the month lower down the list, you can find that you stay relatively lower all month, even if you do regain some ground. All other things being equal, of course.
Ahem, please forget my last paragraph. I think I slipped into some strange world where today was the last day of the month. My computer told me so there! But then I also noticed that the world had no shrimp. Which is always a bad sign. I got out fast.
Just checking, do y’all have tails, in this one, or not?
The voting thing typically requires you to vote daily for a comic. this is a pain in the ass and way too much work when you are following a lot of comics. my active non hiatus webcomic folder has 1151 links in it.
At some point I stopped voting unless incentive. then I stopped voting even if there is incentive. Just not enough hours in a day. Or rather, I stopped the daily voting, I still vote on each comic at least once. but it is rather pointless to revote each every damn day
This^^^ Votes or no votes, I’m a Patreon now (only $1, can’t currently afford more, but still), so I don’t feel that obliged to vote anymore. Though I’ll recommend the hell out of this comic to anyone I think might be interested.
Well, Sidney’s at least nutritionally balanced, and there’s good reason besides “cruelty” to go for free range when considering eggs and milk. (It’s been tested scientifically, and “free range” eggs and milk DO actually taste better, and are better for you.)
I’d LOVE to see the source behind that claim
There is masses of evidence to support the taste issue. It is easy enough to conduct blind taste tests and numerous ones have supported the assertion made above. And, it tallies with simple every-day experience. The ‘better for you’ as a sweeping statement is harder to support, given that you have to measure multple variables to compare the nutrionional value of one to the other. But that can, and has, been done scientifically. I have seen enough reports to corroborate that to my satisfaction. Although food reports generally do not interest me sufficiently to bookmark them.
Likewise, however, it is also backed up by the opinion of food industry professionals. Not to mention common sense. You can visibly see the improvement in product when comparing battery-farm eggs to free range. The latter are bigger, creamier, have a rich golden colour, often a healthy orange, rather than the typical anaemic yellow you get from super-market bought ones. And the taste matches the visuals. There really is no reason to suspect that the nutritional values would not follow suit.
Now, as to whether I would trust that some random box of eggs I saw in a shop with the label ‘organic’ on it was actually from properly reared free-range birds, which had not been subject to contamination from GM foodstuffs, been injected with hormones or other artificial means of increasing egg production or the like, well that is another matter. And I simply could not afford the price differential for the improved product, even if I had the confidence.
Genetic modification is just the new improved way of breeding new species.
Humanity has been doing it since we invented farming by crossing making individuals with preferential traits breed, in order to improve those traits.
I will not take any argument that tries to claim that GM is bad seriously.
That said, I’ll buy the rest of what you said, though I doubt you’d really notice a difference in taste unless you do side by side tests.
You also have to include the amount of money you pay for this improve in quality. Is the improvement enough to justify the increased price?
“I will not take any argument that tries to claim that GM is bad seriously.”
That goes beyond throwing down the gauntlet. That is heating the gauntlet up until red hot, covering it in tar, sprinkling it with broken glass and then slapping it in the face.
In one way you are right to say that it is just an extension of cross-breeding. Which allows me to cite an example of where cross-breeding has gone wrong. And is therefore proving that GM is ‘bad.
Namely the hybridization of the European Honey bee and the African bee, for South American honey production. Except it ended up creating killer bees. Which, when they smell human breath, will attack aggressively and continue until the person is dead. Targeting the face and, in particular, the eyes. If they flee, the swarm will pursue, and far further than other breeds of bee. Plus, even if the victim submerges in water, they will wait above until they emerge, and continue the attack.
Because they proved to be more successful breeders than regular honey bees, they rapidly out-competed all the other bees, killing them off. Spreading throughout South America. And proving to be unstoppable, even with all our modern resources.
Given the hundreds of deaths that resulted, and are still ongoing, that cannot be classed as anything other than bad.
Work has been done to reverse the error, but that does not disprove my point. Humans are crap at things like this and we make mistakes. That is an example of how very badly wrong we got it, just using the crude tools available with cross-breeding. We now have access to the vastly more powerful ones of splicing traits from not just other sexually compatible animals, but from a completely different genus.
And we take inadequate precautions to prevent the errors and to contain them when they do occur.
Am I anti-GM? No. Am I anti-stupidity? Yes. We should be willing to accept slower development times, and higher costs, in order to guarantee safety. Even in Europe we plant GM trial crops far too close to regular crops. And seem to forget that even with massive separation that the GM crops can breed and gradually cover any distance!
All such trials should be in locations that can be totally isolated. Such as islands. That does not happen. So, sooner or later, we will fuck up even worse than with the killer bees.
Plus I do not like the practice that certain GM companies have of making third world farmers dependant on their crops and discouraging diversity. Mono genetic strains being deliberately cultivated in vast tracts around the world are laying the foundations for massive starvation when that strain is devastated by a disease. Do not make the mistake of thinking that putting ‘GM’ on the label makes crops immune to disease, it does not.
I’m sorry, I gues that was abit to strong a reaction.
I’m a little alergic to the whole anti-GM craze thing that the media likes to throw around.
I guess that comes with proper education (I study biomedical science, so I know what genetics are)
*offers some ice to cool down the gauntlet*
Your arguments are not really against GM though, but more against modifying species.
And while it can go horribly wrong, we can not ignore the extreme advantages it has also made to our way of life.
Afrikanized bees, while indeed dangerous, do actually produce way more honey than regular bees, and there are bee farmers (I don’t know the actual word for that in english) that keep them for honey.
I also NEVER heard the human breath thing before. It seems very unlikely that an animal would specificly target a species that’s not it’s actual prey (and bees don’t eat humans).
And the funny thing about those bees is, if they had been made with genetic modification instead of crossing 2 species, it may never have been a problem (note, as far as I know such a complex modification is currently not possible with GM. We have not identified enough genes for it).
The reason they became so agressive, is because they inherinted the agressivness from both species. If we’d been able to specificly modify only the genes that are responsible for honey production, they’d have been as docile as normal honey bees.
There is a geneticly modified bacteria that can produce Human Insulin. Making such a thing would be impossible by any other means, and it vastly improves the treatment of diabetics
On crops, we are actually able to make crops inmune to certain diseases, or paracites, by splicing in genes from completly unrelated organisms (animals, bacteria, you name it).
The effect is that the crop is vastly superior to the older version, in turn producing way more food for us.
The problem is with big corperations patenting genes, and thus blocking further development in favor of cash grab. While these corperations need to make money, cause these developments are extremely expencive, the current procces takes it to far.
‘Fun’ fact: It’s also possible to patent human genes. Any research team that wishes to research a certain gene for it’s potential for curing cancer would than have to pay the owner of this patent
No probs. I enjoyed the challenge :-D
The eyes thing is interesting. A team was investigating why the hybrid bees were so much more deadly in attacking than normal bees. Their aggressiveness was already well documented, but the team wanted to find out what triggered it. As normal bees will ignore someone who is not interfering with them.
They tried a manikin, to see if it was a visual stimulus. Nothing happened. Various other experiments failed to provoke a response. Until they tried the manikin combined with human breath. Which provoked the attack response. Which proved to be repeatable, with the same results every time.
Experimenting with the variables, they found that breath alone caused the bees to be agitated, and search the area, but not attack. For the manikin itself they found that they could reduce it to a basic cartoon image of a face having nothing more than a pair of eyes on a simple head (not even needing to be human shaped). In the trials most of the stings were aimed at the face, with the greatest concentration in the eyes. This matches autopsy results of victims and reports by survivors.
My personal take on it is that this is evidenced as a defence against predation. Humans are not prey of bees but they certainly are predators. Although modern bee-keepers have a symbiotic relationship with bees, prior to that it was not the case. And we have co-existed with the African Honey bee for a couple of hundred thousand years, so plenty of time for a species-specific defence to evolve.
That said though, those trials were focussed on determining why humans were attacked. Not on the wider issue of how those triggers evolved. Certainly the ‘face’ was so basic that it could represent any species with eyes. In the African environment bees are at risk from a variety of mammals, not just humans. Especially some species that prefer eating honey. For instance the Honey Badger.
Hence I think the distinctive markers of mammal breath is more likely to be the hostility trigger, and that human breath works simply because it is a sub-set of that. Once triggered anything in the area that looks like a face with eyes is the target.
I see.
So I’m going to asume than that they react to the CO2 in our breath.
All animals that use oxigen breathe out CO2.
That’s weird though. Don’t bee keepers use smoke to calm down bees? Smoke contains alot of CO2
actually smoke contains a lot of Carbon MONOxide as well as Carbon DIoxide.
They think that bees take the smoke as a fire in progress and engages themselves in an “hive evacuation” procedure that prevent them to attack.
There are theories about smoke interfering the pheromones that trigger the chain reaction of an attack, but there are unconfirmed and anyway it seems a less important effect.
I love the conceptual potential of GMOs, so don’t misunderstand me when I say that, as of right now, the currently available GMOs are genuinely bad for one’s health. While I stubbornly wait for the day that GMOs are genuinely superior to natural foodstuffs, I’ve gotta say, that day’s yet to come. Unfortunately, the media’s generated an awfully strong stigma against GMOs, so it won’t be for a damn long time.
1st Attempt: Failed, got a bad rep.
2nd Attempt: Failed a different way, reinforced the bad reputation.
3rd Attempt: Succeeded at last, but doesn’t sell due to the bad reputation garnered from past experience.
Imho, this is probably what it’s going to look like in the near future. We’re still in the first Attempt, essentially.
Things would be much better off if companies had just taken R&D much slower and cautiously, but that didn’t happen. While it’s true that gene experimentation isn’t morally wrong or anything, and it’s got great potential, proved by the insulin-producing bacteria, GMO’s are still inferior as of right now, unfortunately.
“…It seems very unlikely that an animal would specificly target a species that’s not it’s actual prey (and bees don’t eat humans).”
It’s been proven that mosquitoes target on any animal that exhales carbon-dioxide as a “waste gas.” That’s right, they track down their prey by detecting the higher amounts of CO2 near *any breathing animal.* while mosquitoes do eat humans, it’s only because humans happen to be included with all of the other “prey species” they hunt.
There’s a lot of extremely incorrect information in this post. Speaking as a Texan, who has to live with and actually DEAL with ‘africanized killer bees’, allow me to shed some actual truth into the matter.
First and foremost, they do not attack ‘at the smell of human breath’. That’s absolutely ludicrous. They are an extremely aggressive species of bee, and extremely territorial. Any sort of vibration will set them off. Mowing a lawn within about a hundred yards will bring most of the hive out to you. They actually have LESS venom than an average honeybee, however they tend to swarm by the thousands rather than dozens that normal bees do. They also produce an inferior honey. They are NOT the result of deliberate genetic manipulation, some bees hijacked across from africa and bred with some bees in south america, and the plague started. It’s no more deliberate than the american bullfrog infestation in Australia and other parts of the world.
Furthermore, there is one thing that is more effective than any other at dealing with them: winter. Particularly this year, there have been almost NO reported cases of killer bees in Texas so far, mostly because the record-shattering cold temperatures this year (snow and ice in Houston! On the Gulf Bay!) killed them all off. Granted, they’ll probably come back up from Mexico soon, but they’ve lost all the ground they gained in previous years.
They do not go out of their way to attack the face and eyes, they just cover the whole body with as many stings as possible, the worst ones being on the face and eyes because… well… being stung there really sucks. So those are sensationalized, and they ignore the hundreds or thousands of other stings elsewhere on the body.
The rest of your arguments have nothing at all to do with GM, simply monopolistic practices which no company should be permitted to undertake.
GM has been done since the beginning of time, hybridization is what GAVE us Corn in the first place from the far less productive Maize. Better breeds of chickens introduced into India literally saved a quarter of the population from starvation back before they became independent from GB. Do you drink wine? Because literally every strain of grape that is used in producing wine is a very carefully controlled and hybridized line of grape, and has been so since literally BC.
Hate shoddy corporate practices all you like, I’ll join you on that picket line. But trying to blame GM is like trying to blame farmers for terrorists using fertilizer bombs. It’s not even closely related.
“which had not been subject to contamination from GM foodstuffs”
It is impossible to raise chickens without feeding them genetically modified foodstuffs, such as wheat or corn. Because all cereals are the result of thousands of years of genetic modification by mankind through the method of selective breeding.
Oh, you’re only prejudiced against certain forms of genetic modification? Why is that? It seems a bit close-minded to me. Young whipper snappers and their new fangled ways of doing things better got you down? That doesn’t have to be a part of growing old, it’s your choice to keep up with the times or cling to the past with all your might. But if you chose to cling to the past, just be aware that time waits for no man.
Zack Tilly! Genetic Modification has been going on for thousands of years (the carrot is not naturally orange, that was done to please the Dutch)
Any modification can go wrong, the difference with “GM” is that it can been seen much quicker than every couple of seasons to see if a ‘viable’ strain has been created: the problem comes when the seeds (or whatever) gets released before proper testing/observation (because the Higher Ups want results last month!!!, and because of the activists’ claims that any and all testing is “bad, mkay?”)
Why someone cannot be against certain forms of genetic modification or certain forms of wathever?
That some elements of a set are good do not necessarily imply all them are.
Is it imposible that certain forms of genetic modifications could be bad?
Also, artificial selection and bioengineering are too much different to use one to defend (or attack) the other.
PS: I think you could give your opinion in a bit less agressive style, it could even help your intend.
No they are not. Genetic modification is just the next evolutionairy step in arteficial selection.
The media likes to portray every new fancy technology that people don’t understand as evil.
People who don’t know any better are very easy to scare.
What would you do if I told you that [whatever you just ate] is radioactive? Because it IS radioactive.
So are the walls of your house.
I’m pritty sure I could scare alot of stupid people with that, and I would not even be lieing. I’m just leaving out some information about how this comes from a tiny amount of radioactive carbon isotopes, that are everywhere. Leaving the stupid masses to think of horror scenarios about the goverment leaking plutonium in their backyard
I think one of the problems for a lot of people is with selective breeding you have a fair idea what you’re gonna get. (You don’t cross two tomatoes and get an eggplant). But with GM you’ve got people combining the DNA of, for an example, Wheat with a Fungus by way of a Virus to make it resistant to a DIFFERENT fungus. There seems to be a large window for the Law of Unintended Consequences to rise up and Pimp-Slap the whole mess, like creating a whole different disease that effects both the N-GM AND GM crops.
That’s one of the major misconceptions about genetic modification.
We don’t combine the DNA of 2 creatures. We merge a single gene in the genome of a creature (or crops).
That single gene has been identified, and scientists know what it does (usually it’s a gene that encodes for a certain protein they want whatever they’re modifying to produce).
For example I go back to that bacteria that produces human Insuline. What scientists did there was identify and isolate the gene that encodes for human insoline, and put it in the genome of the bacteria (with a little extra DNA to ensure it gets decoded), and inserted that in the genome of the bacteria.
Same with making crops imune to certain paracites. Isolate a protein that makes an organism imune to the paracite. Now isolate the gene that encodes for this protein. Isolate the protein and insert it in the target’s genome.
There is way more control over the end result with genetic modification than with normal selective breeding
@ the author: I noticed Sidney carrying multiple people with the lighthook while running (she mentioned earlier she can pick up cars too) and wondered, since it spares her from the third law, can she throw and/or carry herself using it? Basically, how is Sidney spared from experiencing the force exerted? Does the orb essentially “fly” in the needed direction to carry the weight while stationary, or maybe the tentacle exerts telekinetic force on the planet along its length? Positions itself relative to Sidney? Some other mechanism? If no spoilers are involved, i would dearly like to know.
@ RobK: First, I am definitely not bashing GMO’s, there is great potential for good, and some small part of it has already been realized. Crops that might have been destroyed by a disease are immune to that specific plague, (not others, though), higher yields have been realized, etc. I am merely advocating caution. Taking a gene from one organism and placing it in another’s genome *is* combining their genes, just because it is not the whole genome of each doesn’t mean it is not a combination. In addition, mammals and other “higher” creatures, in particular, have fewer chromosomal pairs than some bacteria, because our molecular machines use certain sections multiple times for different proteins. Those sections are even sectioned and spliced back together, based on criteria we currently don’t even understand or know the source of. Perhaps those large “non-coding” sections of our DNA have something to do with it. Remember when the tonsils, gallbladder, spleen, etc. were considered “non-functional?” We still have much to learn about genetics, a science still pretty much in its infancy, so the law of unintended consequences still has much rope with which to hang us.
“In addition, mammals and other “higher” creatures, in particular, have fewer chromosomal pairs than some bacteria”
Now the rest of your argument may actually be valid, but if you claim something like that, I simply can not take you seriously.
Bacterial don’t have chromosonal pairs. Let alone more than mammals. They have a single, circular chromosone.
Aditionally they may or may not have plasmids containing a few genes. Usually those provide resitance against certain things, like antibiotics. Plasmis are aquired on an individual level. 2 bacteria with an identical genome can have different plasmids. Plasmids can be intigrated in the main DNA, but are not always.
Only eukaryotic cells (cells with a cell core) have actual chromosonal pairs
Funny thing, that’s pretty much what I was trying to say to you about “We don’t combine the DNA of 2 creatures.”
I was speaking of “base pairs,” only i couldn’t remember the correct name, so i tried to come up with a way of saying the paired monomers that make up the DNA polymer. Chromosomes are sections of DNA, so i figured i would be understood. It probably was, but made me look dumb. I should have waited until i remembered the proper term.
Still, the fact that anything so powerful has potential for both good and ill (incl. honest mistakes/unanticipated results) and should be used cautiously seems like common sense, something that doesn’t require expertise. Look up the comparative lengths of DNA molecules and/or the process for (specifically) mammalian protein replication (plus the factors whlindsa mentioned) yourself if you doubt me.
BTW, I know GMO’s weren’t the point of the comic, but threads run off on tangents all the time. Short version: respect personal choices, so long as they aren’t doing serious harm. That’s the point behind most good laws. Most people are happier with their own mistakes than with a perfect life they are forced into.
To whoever else is reading this discussion, please, do NOT use what we are saying here as source of knowledge, please, please, DO NOT.
Do your own research, there are lots of source of information outside here.
What he said, definitely. You are responsible for your own health, and this info cold be outdated before it is entered here. This is *not* a science journal or health adviser, let alone the Journal of Medicine.
It’s not that.. well, ok, for some people, that might answer their argument, but another part of the anti-GMO debate is that GMOs are considered “unnatural”. Technically, it’s understandable, since the gene-splicing method is unnatural. Having said that, people have been conditioned into considering anything as “natural’ to be superior to anything “unnatural”. Why? There’s not scientific or rational reason as to why a natural or pure product is INHERENTLY superior. Having said that, most natural food products are SCIENTIFICALLY proven to be better than current unnatural additives and the like. While the reason for natural food currently being superior isn’t an inherent, fundamental difference, it’s already been absorbed by the masses as such.
The bigger problem is that people actually get conditioned to asume everything that’s ‘natural’ is ‘healthy’
THAT is complete bogus.
I’ve seen people claim something to be healty with the argument ‘because it’s natural’.
To which I respond ‘Botulinum is also natural’
For those who don’t know: Botulinum is one of the most deadly toxins known to man, and produced by a bacteria. It’s also what you inject in your face when you use Botox.
In fact, if you look up a list of deadly toxins, you’ll find that most of the top is populated by purely natural substances
If ethics didn’t keep getting in the way (Stupidity may be annoying, but it doesn’t deserve death as a punishment), I’d be seriously tempted to set up a stand giving out free hemlock tea (It’s all natural!) and seeing how many people actually drink it based on the assumption that natural=good….
set it up outside Congress!
That deserves a +1. I still think the medieval Chinese had the right idea about politicians and bureaucrats, they require them to be castrated and single with no children from previous relationships before allowing them to enter service/office.
Unfortunately, I have to disagree with you about stupidity deserving death. True, everyone makes mistake and does something stupid now and then. That’s the nature of human beings responding to their emotions. But common and repeated practices of stupidity by the same person over and over should be dealt with quickly and finally. Preferably before they procreate. We already have way too many stupid people in the world.
Ah, but most of the people ‘stupid’ in this wayern’t low-IQ, they’re brainwashed and/or willfully ignorant. Which is a matter of personality and/or societal pressure, not genetics – it won’t effect the children unless they’re raised the same way, and sometimes not even then. Willful ignorance is a choice – one that bugs the bleep out of me, but a choice. And as such it can be reversed – and brainwashing can be cured – given the right circumstances.
Ironically, often brainwashing works best on those who are intelligent. If they don’t know how to watch for and avoid the brainwashing techniques (as I was taught to do), once initially convinced, they’ll start coming up with their own supporting reasons for the idea. And start finding evidence. And all very effectively because they have the smarts to do so.
Once again, intelligence and wisdom are NOT the same thing – and ‘stupid’ in this instance would be better defined as ‘foolish’.
I tend to agree, as people who are repeatedly foolish sometimes do “select” themselves out of the gene pool, simply because of the natural repercussions resulting from their actions. The Darwin Awards website does note this effect of Natural Laws. The big problem is that there’s a lot of “foolish repeaters” that only *think* foolishly…Natural Selection can really only weed out the foolish *doers*
Okay, as somebody who has family in a number of the industries mentioned above (a brother who is a geneticist, a sister-in-law who is a beekeeper, etc), this is something I feel qualified to argue about. Or, at least, to correct a number of misrepresentations on the subject from both sides.
First of all: Yes, genetic modification IS something of an unintended consequences lottery. This is despite scientists having a VERY good idea what a particular gene does before they start playing with it. Why? Because when you change a gene, you’re not just changing that gene: you’re changing over forty thousand multi-gene relationships that interact with that gene. All of this is completely independent of the epi-genetic markers, which are still only very poorly understood, and are apparently extremely difficult to identify with today’s technology (my brother’s thesis is on an effort to better track epigenetic influences). Let’s not even talk about the influences of mitochondrial DNA on an organism’s biology, because they are big, and almost impossible to track. Speaking from personal experience, creating a new computer program is bad, and those tend to be a LOT smaller, less complex, and better understood than the genetic code of even the most basic organism.
Now, that said: you do not ever, ever, ever, ever release a genetically modified crop to public use without over five years and fifty generations of tests. The testing procedure is so elaborate and rigorous that it is being used as a statistical base for the study of aforesaid epigenetic influences. If something passes modern genetic modification standards for crops, it is as close to absolutely safe as either humans, or nature, can make it. Why people continue to distrust this technology is beyond my understanding, especially when many of those same people are willing to turn right back around and accept the internet, nuclear power, electricity, and weather satellites, when all of those technologies are just as new as genetic modification…and a good deal less rigorously tested.
Just to make the frustration even more intense, EVERY PERSON IN THIS FORUM has probably partaken of genetically modified crops, likely without even thinking about it. What the hell am I talking about? Pecans and apples (I do seem to keep coming back to them, don’t I?) are both crops that have a world-wide market, and are among the most popular nuts and fruits in existence…but aside from a few very carefully preserved strains of apples, almost all of the ones you see on the supermarket are genetically engineered using the same physiological-based techniques that have been in use since the time of Mendel. The same holds true for tomatoes, potatoes, corn, lettuce, and others. Percans are perhaps the most notorious examples: pecan trees only produce nuts every other year, which means that today, all trees that have been planted for the last forty plus years have been genetically modified to produce nuts every year.
The belief that genetic engineering is dangerous is a result primarily of ignorance and the reluctance of several nations to accept that, once again, American farmers are simply ahead of their own. This is why the controversy over genetic modification of crops began primarily in Europe, and still holds the most ground there. The reality is that a lot of farmers stand to lose a lot of money to genetically engineered crops, and they resent that.
However, all of that said, many of the complaints about the business practices of the big companies that produce genetically modified crops are completely impossible to deny. Monsanto in particular has used its initial advantage in developing genetically modified staple crops to create a completely legal monopoly that has spent the last twenty years squeezing farmers all over the world for every penny they could get. WHile I don’t object to them making a crapload of money off their success, the lengths they go to in order to maintain their monopoly are indefensible by any stretch of ethics, morality, or even basic human decency. A few companies HAVE made efforts to combat this, but those efforts have been only mildly successful, and have generally been half-hearted at best. And this is a real problem, because without the spread of capable genetics labs, this world could easily find itself looking down the gun of a terrorist group that has decided to trigger the jihad early by using an engineered virus to attack the rice crops in India, China, and the Mekong River Valley.
On other, less panic-inducing issues, killer bees are a problem, yes, but they are one that will have to be solved, and be solved soon, for the simple reason that the European Honeybee, which was the more domesticated version that had been used, is dying out, for reasons that are not even vaguely understood. If this process cannot be halted and reversed, and soon, America will have no choice but to switch to the more aggressive but much more resilient killer bees. This is actually a problem, and not just because of the obvious dangers–killer bees will not, it appears, venture farther north than the Mason-Dixon line, and will likely find themselves limited even more severely in other parts of the country. At last estimate, barely a third of the country could support africanized honeybees, which leaves most of the country’s main agricultural areas completely uncovered by bee populations.
It should be noted, by the way, that the killer bees we know were not created intentionally–they were the product of accidental cross-breeding of European and African honeybees. I have absolutely no clue why this did not happen sooner, to be honest.
“…The belief that genetic engineering is dangerous is a result primarily of ignorance and…”
I can agree with that…It’s dangerous if left in the hands of the ignorant. As in, Those scientists who don’t consider the consequences of releasing a GMod too early, not not strictly following procedure, testing or safety protocols, etc.
Believe it or not, even the best scientists are human too, just as susceptible to making mistakes or taking the wrong tangent with their logic. Then there are numerous documented cases *on the books* where a corporation’s push to get something new cleared through the EPA was accomplished through bribery & fraud.
That talk about 5 years/ 50 generations is not just ‘we hope scientists test it that long’.
That’s regulation. It’s the reason these developments are this damn expencive
Thank you for the information. I found your post a very enjoyable and educational read.
Just the dubiously reasoned and poorly tested GMO’s created by corporations like Monsanto. They insert genes from jellyfish, humans, bacteria, viruses etc. Not what you would find in forced breeding. Unless our ancestors could mix genes from totally different species. They could not.
Testing is nil on effects so our ecosystem and us become the test subjects. And with no compensation or protection either. The modifications benefit Monsanto not us. Their GMOs can take their herbicides, fungicides etc. We can’t.
Have you just rushed to the reply button to sprout your ignorance without reading, or does it just look that way?
OMFG there’s a gene not originally from plants in this plant. It must be evil!!!!11!!!!one11!!
There’s a VERY GOOD REASON that we use those genes from other species. Because those other species produce proteins that would be extremely benificial to the crops.
Prime example in human genes is insuline. Without genetic modification, human insuline would never be so readely available as it is now, and thus diabetus treatment would be way more expencive than it is today.
And proteins that make crops imune to all sorts of nasty things, thus increasing the amount of food that can be produced.
I will beg you to dial down the agressivity. We know you are passionate, but any civilized person can disagree without being disrespectful and insulting.
Please, calm down.
Well, actually our ancestors DID mix genes from different species :)
Recombinant ADN occurs naturally not only at labs. We can’t be sure that the sequences used in labs could naturally be assimilated though, but it is possible.
Inside the ADN of ALL species (humans included) we can find pieces and traces of foreing DNA. We all are chimeras ;)
PS: Just in case this is not an argument against or in favor GM.
“ADN” means “DNA”, sorry too many languages to track.
Interesting thread on GMs. Thank you all. I think that you are all missing the point of the above comic though. It has bearing on not just Vegetarianism vs meat-eating. Or Organic vs GM. It is about an individual’s choice.
This paragraph (amongst many other arguments in the thread, both for and against GM) are ones that I have empathy with, but none the less miss this point.
If I were to say “No, I do not want to have sex with you” but you proceeded to do so, against my will that is rape.
If I say “I want to be able to buy organic food and not have it adulterated by GM contamination”, why do you feel that you have the right to say “No, you must have GM food”?
Stop raping my dinner! I want it GM-less thank you. No argument for how good GM is, takes away my right to say I do not want it.
Likewise vegetarians, vegans and omnivores each have the right to self-determination as to what enters their body.
Every decision made by some faceless bureaucrat which allows unlicensed GM crops to escape, before testing is completed, into the environment, and therefore into the food chain and, ultimately, into my dinner is likewise taking away my right to say “NO!“
+1000000
You good sir have hit the nail on the head.
And have done a veryfine job of defining the point of this comic.
I salute you and would send you 5lbs. Of bacon if i could, so that your BLT cravings were sastified.
Well, probably you are right about the comic but I think that this thread are not missing anything, simply the comic was a start point of a discussion about a couple related interesting topics.
It has happened many times before and honestly I find it positive.
As has already been pointed out several times, you really do not have a choice in the matter.
Just about everything you eat at a restaurant or can buy at the supermarket has been through hundreds or thousands of years of genetic modification by humans. It may not be strictly “GM” food, but it has been selected by man for high yield and survival, and this includes every cereal and all domesticated animals. You can’t even grow your own food and escape this reality, the seeds you would buy to grow on your organic farm would be seeds resulting from thousands of years of genetic manipulation.
Comparing this to rape is the kind of hysterical extremism I would expect from someone without a real argument to make, and who must resort to evoking an emotional response rather than a rational one.
I don’t know, I like bacon wrapped shrimp myself, got hooked on that stuff when I was younger, taste great though…
Sidney is a vegetarian since she likes cute animals.
Maybe she could expand on this to become a veterinarian vegetarian.
And if she moved to Jamaica she could be a Rastafarian veterinarian vegetarian.
And if she was ever elected to office she could be a parliamentarian Rastafarian veterinarian vegetarian.
And if she lived a long time she could be a septuagenarian parliamentarian Rastafarian veterinarian vegetarian.
“Dispatches “THE PENGUIN” to deal with O.B.Juan”
Do you mean “THE PUNGUIN”?
Well, she’ll be out there helping people and saving lives soon. Which would make her a humanitarian vegetarian.
She eats vegetables and humans?
No, she eats humans who act like they have the brain capacity of a vegetable (not to be confused with those who are in a vegetative state)
so congress?
…No reason to exclude the other two Branches of government…
and we haven’t touched on her religion (if any) yet in comic, and i’d like to think it would appeal to her as well… BUT…
unless you’re using the term Rastafarian in a religious context here? (even though wikipedia says it’s more a ‘Way of Life’ than a religion)
if she were a follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, she’d be a Pastafarian, septuagenarian parliamentarian Rastafarian veterinarian vegetarian.
Round 3 vote submitted.
Congratulations on getting through round 2, Dave.
Order of the Stick has some serious followership though folks, we will all need to put our votes in to win this one!
Your comic needs YOUR vote!
Much as I like this comic, OotS is getting my vote this round. This has been a REALLY good year for that comic.
Sorry… Order of the Stick got my vote. As much as I live Girl Power, I like Order of the Stick much more.
Burn the heathen!
Roast the marshmallows!
Rock the Casbah!
It’s 74 vs 70 votes at time of checking
Thanks for the link. I just cast my Grrl vote. It’s 74 to 81, with Grrl Power in the lead by a hair. I’m not sure what the 3% both of the comics also shows next to the count means…
OoTS is on hiatus and their forum is down for upgrades, which should be a significant advantage for Grrl Power.
They are on hiatus since February 18 and yet they had more votes than GrrlPower on round two (210 against 177). It will need a effort to achieve victory.
Its their 148 to our 181 just now. Doing well guys.
Slight ‘boo-badge’ (not as good as the more desirable ‘boob-age): Gaia pipped out Spinny :( (two great comics, but supported Spinny’s “StartKicking”)
Wouldn’t it be interesing if it came down to a battle between ‘Gaia’ and ‘Sandra & Woo’? :P
GP is currently leading 119-94 :D
Actually I follow this and Order of the Stick, mainly because I’m an old school gamer…
And voting is closed: 182 GP vs 148 OotS.
Supposedly they will add all the paying votes now, maybe tomorrow we will know the finals.
Good luck Dave :)
Shawn’s shirt is just perfect with this whole reveal. Just Perfect.
I think we’r going to see him with that shirt alot
The piece of the steak on the fork looks like it has jizz on it.
That would be the aoili (but, fairly sure if you specially request it, or piss off the staff, you could get a heaping helping of mixed jizz)
As Yorp already sort of mentioned – the worst thing about vegetarian food is that omnivorians can eat it, too ;)
(I stopped eating cows for exactly the same reason as Oprah, only many years earlier. Some time later, I stopped eating all meat after a doctor’s advice. I still eat sea food, like Sydney. At that state one can hardly feel being on higher morality than omnivorians, since fish are animals, too.
But.
After a few years without it, meat tastes like something between oddly weird and disgusting to me, whenever I accidently taste it. Unpleasant in any case. Therefore, seeing someone enjoying a piece of meat like Achilles does, that’s like… mmh… perhaps like seeing someone enjoying a hot piece of old tire, seared, with some blue cheese on top. Feel free to imagine that in great detail. Including the smell :D)
What is wrong with the smell of burning rubber? Love the smell of burnt rubber and rubber in general (but then again, tend to get nostalgic when smelling fresh and/or warm tarmac)
Aaa, the smell of burning rubber is one of the best things of a racetrack
Indeed, I find it acceptable on a race track, too… Even though I like the smell of soldering wire with colophony better. Tastes differ. Btw, what about the taste of hot rubber, on a race track or elsewhere… :)
Probably very similar to an overcooked steak.
No thanks
a long time ago when i was still active duty Navy, i went into a Spaghetti Factory restaurant here in Seattle and i vaguely recall that i ordered something spaghetti-ish but when it came i practically puked it up as it tasted EXACTLY how JET_FUEL smells!, and the thing is, it actually SMELLED wonderful!! i have no clue as to how that happened, but ugh!… never been back to that chain since.
I know that smell, bro. On the Sacremento (supply ship) during RimPac ’90 in the area around Hawaii. It’s one of those kinds of smell you can never forget…Like running over a skunk, you can never forget it.
The best vegetarian dish is eggplant lasgna. (Not Vegan)
You take multiple italian eggplants, peel them, then slice them into broad, flat slices. Strips similar to lasagna noodles. Flour them thoroughly. Create a mixture of one egg to 1/4th cup milk and whisk vigorously for a certain amount of air and consistency. Dip the floured eggplants in the mix, then bread them (ideally the bread mix has the correct blend of spices in it). Let them dry on a rack and then fry them in olive oil.
Set aside to let them dry out a little as you create marinara sauce (oregano helps). Mix ricotta cheese with fresh parsley and an egg. Layer the marinara sauce, then the eggplant, then the filling, then the eggplant and so on. The top layer should be just marinara sauce. Then, layer parmesan cheese, and put a generous layer of mozarella cheese on top. Usually takes an hour to bake at a lower temperature. The top should be a wonderful crispy brown. Fresh basil decorating the top is always good.
The best meat meal I have is not what was stated in the comic.
It would probably be a tossup between the kangaroo burger served with wattleseed aioli…
Or the filet minion that was carefully cooked rare, frozen, and then quickly browned in bacon grease and wrapped in hot bacon. The meat was still cold inside which complimented the hot exterior and resulted in each flavor being magnified magnificently in the process.
You need to dry the eggplant first. Salt it and press it (stack a few heavy books on top of the eggplant and paper towel stack) between layers of paper towels for several hours. Then kick off the salt and continue as you have outlined. A huge advantage to this is that not only will your eggplant not be making your lasagne watery and/or watering down your frying oil, but the rather bland vegetable will have absorbed some of that salt.
It really does sound yummy. I would love to try it.
Mind you, I can’t help thinking that it would sound even yummier with some layers of minced beef cooked in between those.
I just don’t anything cute to suffer for my food.
There’s a missing verb in there…
Nope, only a missing CTRL-F5
(DaveB has corrected the missing word, but your screen needs refreshing)
There’s a Churrascaria place near me called Texas de Brasil. Someone up the thread complained about the waiters (gauchos is what this restaurant calls them) hovering too much, which won’t happen at this place. They give you a disk about the size of a drink coaster with red on one side and green on the other. Leave it green side up and the gauchos will come by to serve you, place it red side up when you’re happy with what you have for a while, or when you are done.
And in addition to the meats they have a vast “salad bar” (the term really doesn’t do it justice) with plenty of variety for any vegetarian to enjoy.
My only complaint would be that I find the meats to be too salty. It doesn’t impact the flavor as I’m eating it, but if I don’t drink a lot of water during the meal I’ll be dehydrated the next day. Oh, and that they stopped serving wine in flights. I love Spanish reds, and being able to go there and order a flight of three different wines was a great way to enjoy a lot of variety, especially if my wife got another flight of three and we could share all six. Now I’m limited to ordering a couple bottles for the table, depending on how many people I’m with and how many of them are wine drinkers.
After a couple visits I discerned that there is a pattern to their service. They circulate the more common cuts of meats out first. The flank steak, chicken, sausage, etc. But if you ask for the filet or the bacon wrapped fillet, or whatever you desire, they will have it brought by, no questions asked.
Reading this comic set me on a search for a Churrascaria restaurant, and some time back I got to visit Rioz Brazilian Steakhouse in Myrtle Beach.
“I could go a few days as a pure vegetarian, there’s plenty of delicious non-meat things to eat, but after a 3-4 days, maybe a week, I’d be going spare for a burger or something involving sausage.”
I’m a Soylent drinker, mostly because it cuts my food bills big-time. If I could just develop superhuman willpower, I’d have a food bill of $200 a month. On the other hand, every week or so I do exactly what Dave describes and pig out on any meat I can get my hands on.
That steakhouse was one of the best pig-outs I’ve ever had in my life.
“I freely admit to making nyom nyom sounds and doing orgasm eyerolls.”
Me? I’m surprised I didn’t re-enact the Wafer-Thin Mint scene from Monty Python.
Achilles, your an idiot.
Sirloin beats Ribeye any day.
Addenum: And neither of them stands up to slow-cooked beef ribs marinated in sauce and covered in spices……………..awww crap now I’m hungry
I don’t know why, but now I want spareribs.
Ya know, the really really REALLY good kind.
Where you can tear all of the meat straight form the bone with a single bite. Which than melts on your tongue
NOTHING beats 6-hour slow-cooked Irish beef stew using only new york top sirloin lightly browned with fresh garlic, using a nice good irish whiskey. Your choice of brand.
Eating-age chickens are probably the least cute things you are likely to meet. Trout are far nicer, and better looking.
‘Eating-age’ for chickens is any-age (including pre-chicken stage)
As a confirmed omnivore I giggled more than a little at that statement. About the only chicken I ever refused to eat was one that died of old age at an indeterminate time prior to cooking…
Now I really wanna know what that Shawn lady can do.
Also, meat should be eaten well-done, that`s how I learned it; else you might risk tapeworms and other blind passengers with what you eat.
I would really like to know the 2 space-marines now. They seem to be pretty awesome too (and ofc who really is Shawn!).
Shawn is the former-SEAL, Seneca is the sweetie with the sweet-tooth
Made me think of that one sub-superhero* prison guard from the webcomic (Majellin?).
The ‘flying brick’ hero was giving her grief because only people with third rate powers became prison guards. Unfortunately (for the flying brick), that guard’s “Third Rate Power” was the ability to give anyone the urgent need to use the bathroom.
That argument ended quickly.
*Super powers that may or may not be considered third rate.
Ex; having ONLY thermal vision.
Hahaha Yes I loved that strip :)
The comic is Magellan, I think it is pretty good, it was on hiatus at the end of last year but it is on run since a couple month again.
An interesting aside, relating to the meat vs. veggie discussion: I have found, that, after being out in the field for Army survival training exercises over several weeks to several months, that the food I craved the most was a well-stocked salad bar. Mostly this was due to the fact that I had no problem securing meat in the wild, but finding safe-to-consume vegetation in some of the more hostile areas of the world was difficult. I always came back a little short of those trace vitamins and minerals, even if I did bring multi-vitamins with me.
Isn’t that just a case of you want whatever you have to go without?
I just had a moment of fridge logic/horror…. Sidney orb’s dinged after use during a simulation…. I totally see her as being genre sawwy enough to go level grinding…. just take maxima along to pound on the shield for a couple of hours and dingdingding, halo goes supercritical.
Not quite. Maxima might need some convincing, since (unlike the LV1 rats) she can choose if she wants to help with the farming process.
I think Shawn might be a vegetarian too. He’s the only person who didn’t say his favorite vegetarian dish in the form of a question.
At the least, he’s familiar enough with the subject to converse intelligently, rather than trolling (Achilles is, as his bio indicates, a professional troll). Shawn might have a vegetarian relative or girlfriend (past or present).
I
Stupid glitchy phone
Thanks, Achilles, I’ve been vegetarian since January 2010 and steak has never seemed less appealing than it does right now.
A great comic, one of the best i been folowing/ed.
Love Sidney XD, who have a good point non telling anyone of her food choises.
Too many enjoy the “sacred duty” of violently harassing people for the crime of having different taste in ever the most frivolous topic.
And for Achilles is too easy trolling, but maybe some scorpion of trinidad (1,500,000–2,000,000 scoville) will accidentaly fall in his food… like “sorry i strumbled”.
Not that Achilles will mind too much. What with casually strolling around during Maxima’s show-off explosion.
Or maybe he’s not invincible on the inside?
Caspsin doesn’t actually do damage, it just tricks the nerves into thinking they are on fire.
He may be invincible, but he can clearly taste food. So it’s still unclear wether or not Achilles would feel the effects of hot food
I remember that while the burn sensation of capsaicin is an ilusion, capsaicin is actually neurotoxic. In large dosis it could permanently damage and even kill the sensory neurons.
However, since it was about medicines based on capsaicin I am not sure if that was related to the administration method or not.
Just in case, be careful :)
maybe Achilles is immune to neurons dammage but not to the burning bene-gesserit illusion
Want to know who else is a Super vegan? Thunderbird III (no relation to Thunderbird I & II, TIII is an Indian from India, not a Chiricahua Apache)
Pescatarian. Sydney’s not Vegetarian if she eats fish. Bonus is that when you tell people that you don’t eat meat ’cause you’re Pescatarian, they tend to assume it’s some obscure religious thing and get really hesitant to troll you.
nah!, they’ll just go all “moral majority”, or holier-than-thou-wack-job on you for being Presbyterian, and NOT being of whatever religion they are.. yes I’m deliberately misstating it. :) them wack-jobs are known for their selective hearing vs whatever was ACTUALLY said, in order to continue with their line of thought.
so all thing being equal… you’re screwed no matter WHICH way you go!…
or will go directly to “torch and fork”
GrrlPower is now third in TopWebComics by a narrow margin of 60 votes (0.6%), it would be good to consolidate that position.
A vote?
okay seriously what about Wild Boar Sausage or Venison
wild boars are an ecological blight and venison while cute helps those that survive because they don’t have enough predators to keep there population controlled with out us stepping in
Time for a beef pastry roll! To the oven!
Best vegetarian dish? So many good ones already mentioned, but for someone with sweet tooth like Seneca, it would be hard to beat Baklava.
So she’s a pyrovore and a dolphin?
Not sure if someone has pointed this out yet, but it’s Korma, not Khorma.
I googled it, and while both seem to be correct, Korma seems to be more correct.
I’m so sorry for the randomness, but in any appearance of hers, I can not keep my eyes away from the freckles on Daphne’s breasts. It’s probably some link in my head between freckles and red hair (yes, I’m a cliche, but at least I’m not some asshole that just wants a stereotyped blonde bunny girl), but still, I suppose I wanted to see if anybody else is finding her beautiful assets to be more hypnotic than Dabbler’s.
Blue cheese aioli is so vegetarian. Seriously, what self-respecting meat-eater would put that on a steak? I mean, besides it not being kosher.
BLASPHEMY!!!!!!!!!!! There is no such thing as “JUST BACON”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this restaurant in the same city/town as the Archon building?
Yup.
Thanks.
So, just did a re-read of the comic to see if i missed it, but i’m not finding it.
What’s the name of the city?
I’ve intentionally not named it, not to be mysterious, just because it doesn’t really benefit the story to peg them in one part of the country yet. Probably something central though. I’m leaning toward Dallas just because that’s where I live.
It is kinda quaint the way Americans hype up bacon when American bacon (i.e. the streaky stuff) is so comically inferior to the British standard (i.e. back bacon).
Still though… I’d rather a nice bean-burger.
Is it wrong that anything but well done meat turns my stomach? That fat in my food makes me gag? Cause Achilles whole pro-steak thing just did not appeal to me.
Of course, any and all bacon is good bacon… As long as it’s crispy.
Crispifying bacon ruins it. I like my bacon soft enough to chew. If that shit crunches, it is burnt and gets thrown away.
You know, I actually don’t like steak all that much. I’ve never understood why people go so ga-ga over it, or why it’s considered a ‘treat’ to have.
Give me a good wurst, or properly cooked turkey any day- seafood (tuna steak, now that’s delicious, lobster, scallops, deep-fried clam strips…), fowl, lamb or pork/ham is so much more flavorful and so much easier to eat than steak. Even hamburger isn’t necessarily something to write home about- turkey burgers are delicious while having the same texture.
Basically, what’s the beef about beef?
If you don’t like it then you don’t like it. No big deal…
But steak is a solid winner from my perspective. I don’t touch birds nor fish, though that isn’t to say I never have. I generally only eat mammals.
Lamb is usually good. Ham mostly ends up tasting too sweet for my liking in practice (not sure what it is about ham precisely, since other pig-meat is generally fine). Beefburgers can go either way… BUT a good steak covered in pepper and vinegar (ya rly) is absolutely primo.
Turkey really doesn’t have the same texture as any mammalian meat burger though. I’m kinda aware since turkey is about the only bird meat I’ve ever even been willing to tolerate… and it is kinda dry and peely compared to red meat.
And I wouldn’t touch seafood if paid… unless it was… seal or dolphin or something mammalian. =p
BACON IS THE SNACK FOOD OF THE GODS
Nods
See, this I’m okay with. If you’re just a vegetarian for personal reasons, or health reasons, I’m totally okay with that. You do you. Also, she makes a marked effort to not rub it in people’s faces, and doesn’t act all morally superior.
Respect.
What other reasons would there be aside from personal ones? And I don’t see why it’s respectable to *not* point out that eating sentient creatures when you don’t have to is at best morally questionable. Staying silent when other people engage in unethical behaviour isn’t very respectable. The only reason I stopped doing it is because 1) people hate it, and more importantly 2) it doesn’t work. But that just means a different approach is needed, not that it’s in any way respectable or desirable not to “rub it in”.
I’ve met people who are vegetarian, simply because they don’t think it really harms anything.
Plants can see, hear, smell, feel and taste. In some cases, they can even make decisions. Simple decisions, but they still are such.
Not only that but often, they are still alive in the packaging as you buy them from the store. Like one of those “pick your lobster” fine dining.
It’s creepy when you start to think about eating anything.
So unless you’re trying to be “eco-friendly” by eating plants it’s mostly pointless, as both sides are essentially creepy.
I can’t tell if you’re being facetious or if you’re genuinely one of THOSE people.
I just look at it as “everything is trying to eat me, so I’m biting them first”. Which ESPECIALLY applies to plants. They really want me dead so they can eat me.
Not one person in fifty knows what qualifies a chicken as “free range”. Look it up. It absolutely is not what you think it is.
Well…. actually gluten does taste like meat, and it’s pure protein from non-animal origin.
My best friend has been a vegetarian for like 25 years. The most this has meant for me is that on two occasions I’ve screwed up cooking for her and felt bad. In my travels I have found who actually cannot shut up about their dietary habits is about 70% of people when they find out someone is vegan/vegetarian and act like. . .this.