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Turborama's JournalLOL! Good One From The Rachel Maddow FB Page
"Like and share if you agree $1 is far too much!"
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=492655280792046&set=a.440029042721337.78452508.438956182828623&type=1&ref=nf
Hillier Lake: A Beautiful & Mysterious Pink Lake In Australia
From: I Fucking Love Science
Bernie Sanders: "You have given the wealthiest [portion] of the population a break...
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Why Beef Is Becoming More Like Chicken
A new cattle drug called Zilmax is being widely used in the industrial feedlots where most of America’s beef comes from, but not because it produces a better sirloin. In fact, it has been shown to make steak less flavorful and juicy than beef from untreated cattle. Many feedlot owners, big meatpackers, and at least one prominent industry group resisted the drug, worrying that the beef industry would turn off consumers if it started churning out lower-quality steaks.
So what accounts for the sudden popularity of Zilmax? Zilmax is a highly effective growth drug, and it makes cattle swell up with muscle in the final weeks of their lives. And despite concerns within the industry, the economics of modern beef production have made the rise of Zilmax all but inevitable.
The beef industry has been shrinking for decades, a problem that can be traced to cheap chicken. Poultry companies like Tyson Foods figured out in the 1930s and ’40s how to raise chickens in a factory-like system. Using a business model called vertical integration, poultry companies like Tyson began to control every aspect of animal production, from the hatchery to the farm and the slaughterhouse. After the dawn of vertical integration, chickens were raised in barn-like warehouses on the farm, killed and butchered along assembly lines nearby, and, later, shipped out to big customers like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart—with every step of the process dictated by the same company. In the 1990s, the same model was widely applied to pork production, cutting out the middlemen and leading to a drop in pork prices (after adjusting for inflation).
As chicken got cheaper, it took top billing on fast-food menus. Beef got pushed aside. Some companies have tried to vertically integrate cattle production, but it has never panned out economically, thanks to the stubborn biology of cows. Chicken and pigs have offspring in big numbers, which lends itself to industrial-sized barns. (Hens lay a steady supply of eggs that yield full-grown chickens in about two months; sows bear big litters of piglets that reach maturity in about six months.) But a cow can only have one calf at a time, and the gestation period lasts nine months. After that, a calf suckles from its mother for about four months. It would be exorbitantly expensive to confine that life cycle in a warehouse, since the cow and calf would have to be sheltered and fed for over a year, just to get one full-grown heifer out of the deal. As a result, the vast majority of calves are still born and reared on wide-open ranchland, where herds of them eat free grass and stick by their mother’s side.
But cattle producers still imitate the heavily industrialized chicken industry to compete. Zilmax is part of a new regime for raising cattle that emphasizes higher production and cost-cutting wherever possible. This regime is what created the modern-day feedlot, where thousands of cattle, after being raised on open ranchland, are corralled on muddy hillsides to spend the last few months of their life eating corn. It is also what necessitates the battery of pharmaceuticals and feed additives that cattle must consume to stay healthy and gain weight—as Michael Pollan and others have noted, cattle didn’t evolve to digest corn, so they easily become sick on feedlots without careful monitoring.
Continues: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/food/2013/02/zilmax_the_cattle_growth_drug_that_s_making_beef_more_like_chicken.single.html
This Week In Science...
For more on what happened in the world of science this week, check out TWIST (This Week In Science and Technology), ScienceAlerts new series with Carin Bondar and Phil Plait: http://bit.ly/XzHago
Gold nugget forming bacteria: http://bit.ly/14C1QIK
Bionic eye: http://bit.ly/WTitKo
Sea urchins: http://bit.ly/WbLZNl
Mammal ancestor: http://bbc.in/YZKkie
Stem cells: http://bit.ly/Y3s94C
Earth like planets: http://hvrd.me/12iA29h
Courtesy of: I fucking love science
The Worst Online Dating Site In The History Of The World
Say you really want to hate everyone AND find the love of your life. Westboro Match is here to help, from the fine folks at Westboro Baptist Church, the people with the awful signs who picket soldier funerals and stuff.
http://www.upworthy.com/the-worst-online-dating-site-in-the-history-of-the-world-4?c=bl3
The Guardian: How Disco Dancing Aims To Crush The English Defense League (EDL)
Online version of the article (with some great comments below): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/shortcuts/2013/feb/01/disco-dance-edl-google-facebook
Their FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/englishdiscolovers
Re Juries: How would you like to see "Things that increase a member's chance of serving" altered?
There seems to be a lot of consensus here that, after the 1st year's trial period, the jury system is broken and that the best way to fix it is to redefine the method in which jurors are given the privilege to serve.
As a reminder, below is the current equation that works out a member's chances of serving...
Increase 1 percentage point for each 100 posts (up to 20 percentage points max = 2,000 posts)
Increase 1 percentage point for each 10 days of membership (up to 20 percentage points max = 200 days)
Increase 1 percentage point for each post in the last 90 days (up to 20 percentage points max = 20 posts)
Increase 40 percentage points for Star Membership
Things that decrease a member's chance of serving:
Decrease 5 percentage points for each hidden post in last 90 days
From: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=modsystem#juries
If enough DUers give their suggestions and an agreed upon consensus is reached, maybe the Admins will take the suggestions seriously and fine tune the selection process accordingly?
Rawlemon’s Spherical Solar Energy-Generating Globes Can Even Harvest Energy from Moonlight
Rawlemon’s Spherical Solar Energy-Generating Globes Can Even Harvest Energy from Moonlight
The solar energy designers at Rawlemon have created a spherical, sun-tracking glass globe that is able to concentrate sunlight (and moonlight) up to 10,000 times. The company claims that its ß.torics system is 35% more efficient than traditional dual-axis photovoltaic designs, and the fully rotational, weatherproof sphere is even capable of harvesting electricity from moonlight.
The ß.torics system was invented by Barcelona-based German Architect André Broessel. He sought to create a solar system that could be embedded in the walls of buildings so that they may act as both windows and energy generators. But the project isn’t only noteworthy for its solar efficiency capabilities - the ß.torics system is designed to generate lunar energy too!
The spheres are able to concentrate diffused moonlight into a steady source of energy. The futuristic ß.torics system is catching a lot of attention for its clean and beautiful design. (Despite solar power’s huge potential, we haven’t seen too many beautiful solar power technologies). We’re excited to see how architects will incorporate these energy generating orbs into alternative energy agendas and future building designs!
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/rawlemon%e2%80%99s-spherical-solar-energy-generating-globes-can-even-harvest-energy-from-moonlight/
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Member since: Fri Sep 12, 2008, 12:43 PMNumber of posts: 22,109
