Month: May 2011

Nicola Jones reports on attempts to make sausage "by growing animal muscle cells in a dish":

[Scientist Mark Post's] ultimate goal is to help rid the world of the wasteful production of farm animals for food by helping to develop life-like steaks. In the near term, he hopes to make a single palatable sausage of ground pork, showcased next to the living pig that donated its starter cells—if he can secure funds for his research. … Largely because of the inefficiency of growing crops to feed livestock, a vegetarian diet requires only 35 percent as much water and 40 percent as much energy as that of a meat-eater. Future “in-vitrotarians” should be able to claim similar savings.

(Photo via Flickr user ClintJCL)

So fashion forward.

A reader gives a heads up:

Just wanted to let you know that NPR is streaming the music from "The Book of Mormon" for today only.  It's a riot and might be of interest to other readers of the Dish.

Some songs NSFW, of course.

First, Ben Cohen, rugby star. Now Sean Avery, hockey legend. The endorsement of marriage equality by leading straight sports figures is a huge cultural shift. As, of course, are military same-sex marriages on bases in states where marriage equality is already the law.

[Update: I am fully persuaded by the passion of various emailers that Sean Avery is not a legend. But he's now a hero in my book.]

That's Goldblog's well-sourced view of the former Israeli intelligence chief's public warning about striking Iran. Not exactly reassuring.

“Listen, waterboarding and/or other coercive techniques did nothing to contribute to our attempts to track down OBL (Osama bin Laden). What did succeed was weeks, months and years of diligent, laborious, and dedicated work – all within the bounds of legal and ethical boundaries … No torture, no waterboarding, no coercion – nothing inhumane – is considered a useful tool in our work…

I cannot even count the amount of times that I personally have come face to face with detainees, who told me they were primarily motivated to do what they did, because of hearing that we committed torture.

Even the rumor of torture is enough to convince an army of uneducated and illiterate, yet religiously motivated young boys to strap bombs to their chests and blow themselves up while killing whoever happens to be around – police, soldiers, civilians, women, or children. Torture committed by Americans in the past continues to kill Americans today," – a senior US interrogator in Afghanistan.

Think about this for a minute. Dick Cheney, having presided over the mass murder of 3,000 Americans, launched a war on false pretenses, and failed to capture Osama bin Laden is now prepared to put even more American lives at risk in order to save his war criminal skin. Shameless doesn't capture his mentality.

Pretty damn impressive for a congressman. I don't see why a handsome young man with huge pecs and ripped abs has to be gay. And it's a little heterophobic to assume so.

"Santorum’s assertion [on the primacy of social issues], quite frankly, reflects a certain constitutionally illiteracy and is at odds at a fundamental level with modern conservatism. Indeed, since the presidency requires that the chief executive “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” — which presupposes one understands what’s in it — Santorum has in the most concise way possible demonstrated his lack of qualifications to serve," – Jennifer Rubin.

A tribute to cinematic moms:

(Hat tip: TDW)

The NYT hosts a debate. Among Lawrence J. Korb's recommendations:

About 80,000 active-duty personnel are stationed in Europe.

Given improved U.S. capabilities for troop transport and long-range strikes, as well as the diminished threat, we can reduce this commitment substantially without compromising critical security interests. When we are out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we can also cut the size of our ground forces, which were increased by 92,000 in order to sustain deployment in those regions. Finally, we can regain a fair cost-sharing balance between taxpayers and working-age military retirees, whose health care enrollment fees ($460 a year for family coverage) have not been raised since 1995.