Michael

Nah, you’re good. Thanks for responding. Yeah, I agree some projects are better than others when it comes usability or asking for reasoning for design choices, and the like. Sorry that mods deleted your post - I didn’t report it.

Have a good one!

It’s ALMOST like factory farming isn’t a profitable or a sane practice. /s

Unsurprising that he uses slave labor, too.

Why would Islamic countries not condemn China? They certainly seem to condemn the genocide of the Palestinian people. Somebody please enlighten me.

Edit: According to Business Insider, they might fear China’s retaliation (e.g. economic vengeance). How reliant are these Islamic countries on exports from China and how reliant are these countries on China importing their resources (e.g. oil)?

Why would any of that matter when people of their religion are being genocided? Fear of retaliation from a nuclear-powered state and facing consequences in regards to western trade doesn’t seem to deter them from taking a stance on Palestine.

If these countries were given the ingredients to be able to develop and there was no outside demand for mined materials, these children wouldn’t be in the mines.

Big if, but less of an “if” if more people are made aware. It’s absolutely sickening how much we rely on lithium considering how it is sourced.

We are collectively enabling modern slavery and child slavery. These corporations prefer to act innocent because they aren’t sending the children themselves into the mines, but they buy the materials they mine regardless (and there’s no way that they don’t know the reality). Many corporations profit off the back of these people and children and they should be required to pay significant reparations.

What is in our power to stop this? We can spread the awareness of our exploitation of third-world countries - including their children, we can develop technologies that don’t rely on rare materials or difficult to mine materials, we can employ automation to mine what we do need in first-world countries, and we can hold the corporations that profit from these supply chains accountable.

There are battery technologies (e.g. sodium-ion) that we could grasp and avoid mining altogether for energy storage. China is proving that sodium-ion batteries are a very promising technology, even in cars, and the sodium can be sourced from seawater or from the byproducts of desalination (the latter which likely needs to be very quickly scaled considering the fresh water crisis).

When you put it that way, I guess we better hand over thousands every year to Apple for the new iPhone. Wouldn’t want a child slave to be unemployed.

Buy 10,000 disposable vapes every year while you’re at it (if you really care). Maybe a couple cents will trickle down to the children you claim to care about.

If you’re worried about these children losing their wonderful life in the mines, feel free to support them through other means.

Make it your life’s work to spread awareness, bring aid to the affected countries, and support their development - you only enslave yourself by learning to do absolutely nothing against what you see as oppressive.

And getting companies that profit off of these children to support them would likely be fair. Apple, Google, and many others can handle the hit.

Your trolling aside, we all share a personal responsibility to not buy from companies that e.g. utilize cobalt/lithium in their products - slavery/child labor is rampant in those supply chains and Apple et. al are responsible for supporting it.

If there was no demand, these children wouldn’t be forced to work in mines - it’s that simple.

You enslave others by consuming most common products on the shelves. Modern slavery (and child slavery) is more expansive than most know and third-world exploitation is rampant - western supply chains are not immune.

While you support the enslavement of others with your consumption, corporations continue to become more and more powerful.

We didn’t have internet or the means to properly educate ourselves (at least to today’s standards) for much of the 20th century. And now, we’re finally at the point where laypeople anywhere can simply look this stuff up with relative ease. Though, few do or are aware that common corporations are responsible for atrocities.

Thanks for doing your part in spreading that awareness, even if that’s not the point you were trying to make.

The company did not answer whether it or the outside firm it hired communicated or consulted with the Israeli military as part of its internal probe.

In its statement, the company also conceded that it “does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.” The company added that it could not know how its products might be used through other commercial cloud providers.

Microsoft said the Israeli military, like any other customer, was bound to follow the company’s Acceptable Use Policy and AI Code of Conduct, which prohibit the use of products to inflict harm in any way prohibited by law. In its statement, the company said it had found “no evidence” the Israeli military had violated those terms.

Those three quotes stick out to me as proof that they are pleading ignorance.

A military is not “like any other customer”. Forbid access and fact-find some more or stop pretending that you aren’t complicit in AI being used for harm.

Nobody wants to live in an age of unregulated AI use besides the power-hungry and the short-sighted — and even those people probably won’t like the consequences once the boomerang comes back.

Let’s not throw the boomerang, please. Do better.

Just because protests aren’t being covered by the mainstream media doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And a significant portion of liberal spaces are becoming radical in sentiment, even if some are still constrained to hoping Bernie and AOC will save them in 2028. You aren’t going to hear me praise anything going on as being sufficient, though.

It’s definitely warmed my heart hearing your thoughts and insights.

I do actually think Quorn is around in some retailers, but it is expensive - it’s not terribly expensive though. I liked it when I consumed it in the past and it agreed well with me. Beyond/Impossible have a small amount of amount of problematic ingredients (like avocado oil in one of them - which I am allergic to, not just sensitive to), but the main issue I simply can’t afford them.

I recently moved back to a rural area and I don’t access to a Kroger/Whole Foods/Wegmans (not that supporting any chain is really something I’m proud of), so admittedly my options are limited. This interaction prompting me to find out that chickpea tofu is available locally and that pumfu is available (though a bit far from my location) is completely life-changing.

I’ll have to get nutritional yeast, I didn’t realize it was an (albeit small) protein source - it’s a great seasoning. The defatted peanut powder seems very good to order in bulk. I had no idea about lab-grown dairy protein, it sounds great and I will consider it as well. I didn’t realize quinoa had a modest amount of protein, so I will have to incorporate that. And I’ll have to trial oats to see if they bother me. I take a plant-based multivitamin for vegans (Ora) already so I should be good to transition over anytime I want to a fully plant-based diet.

I have always aspired to go vegan, and was a practicing vegetarian for many years. It was wrecking my health, and I really almost didn’t know what to do. It took me a while (and many years in denial) to realize wheat and soy were the culprits that were specifically bothering me. So for many years, I have mainly ate fish, a moderate amount of beans, some cheese, or ate some free-range eggs, and small amounts of poultry (which does not bring me any joy to admit). None of the aforementioned (besides beans) are things I’m particularly fond of consuming for various reasons (which we likely are 110% on the same page on), but I admit on some levels I’d had given up on trying to find what agrees with my body.

Our interaction has renewed my interest in exploring my options though. I probably misread your intent too, I know I err on the side of naive optimism and that usually doesn’t result in the best interactions with people who are informed on the state of the world, but damn it, I’m just tired of giving up and seeing others give up.

Thank you for exposing me to your knowledge once again. I am sorry to have reacted strongly earlier too. It was unfair to you.

Thank you. I am very grateful for your insights. I haven’t asked for help much at all in my life and I appreciate it more than you know.

I am unsure what generally causes my discomfort in the bean department. Soy and tofu cause very awful non-allergic reactions, but I will look into this further. As for wheat, I highly suspect it’s more than a sensitivity, though I don’t particularly want to pursue a diagnosis for celiac disease if I can just avoid it.

I tend to do fine with moderate amounts of pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, and a few others, but admittedly it seems like there are more beans that I can try and vary. Lentils seem to give me some trouble though, which is unfortunate because I like them more than most beans.

Pea protein and peanut butter seem to be fine. I will look into pumfu (sounds life-changing) and defatted peanut butter and incorporate those into my diet. I tend to do fine with pumpkin seeds and peanuts, but I also have issues with high fat content food. Great suggestions, I had no idea they were a thing. I don’t really care about taste, I just want to be healthy and make choices that align with my ethics.

You put a smile on my face. Sorry to be perceivably negative, the situation on this planet is incredibly frustrating for everybody with a desire for a better future and I don’t want to alienate anyone. Thanks once again.

Edit: Apparently chickpea tofu is a thing too. I will have to try that because chickpeas are a bean I tolerate the most. I just never shopped at the local retailer that stocks it. Pumfu is proving hard to find near me unless I go 36 miles to obtain it, but maybe I can stock up if I ever have to go that way.

Could you please help me figure out protein sources that are non-meat and don’t include wheat or soy? I have trouble digesting large quantities of beans. It’s affecting my health.

And of course I greatly appreciate you. I realize you aren’t seeking approval. I think wanting to ease the suffering of others that exist is also admirable. People like us are attempting to trailblaze a better future and of course it’s worthy of recognition.

Well, as it stands the vast majority of the world is coerced or propagandized into consenting to governments and regulators for them to do nothing and let disaster manifest. They are mostly all blissfully unaware.

Give it a couple years of Trump’s reign to see how people react to somebody taking away their rights before you completely give into cynicism and close yourself to the possibility of garnering hope.

Your personal choices are your own decision, but I do think it’s admirable for you to claim personal responsibility.

Though, shaming or judging others for wanting to have a family and continue their genetic line is not something I advocate for.

Your small steps to reduce your impact simply aren’t enough. Even if they were bigger than they are, it still doesn’t put you on a pedestal to look down on others for their decisions. You are free to do so, but you won’t get my approval.

We need worldwide change. Vastly reducing animal agriculture and non-essential industry is imperative.

Choosing to not consume meat doesn’t solve the major issue. It doesn’t make even make a small dent and virtue signalling about your choices doesn’t do anything either.

People buy this stuff because it’s usually cheap and readily available. It’s cheap and readily available because there is almost no regulation.

Slowly phasing out factory farming and animal agriculture and replacing it with lab-grown meat is necessary. We also need to explore non-meat protein sources more seriously, the options that exist just suck, they are expensive (besides tofu), and many products contain common allergens, like soy and wheat.

Well, fortunately Trump is doing a pretty good job at radicalizing everybody in the US (and outside the US) against the status quo/world order and those who uphold it.

Hopefully we will never resort to that sort of violence to address our problems though.

If this was about what personally upsets or offends me, and not the fate of the world and everybody who lives on it, maybe I’d agree with you.

I don’t block others, just block me if I bother you so much to accuse me of stalking you.

It’s the same thread. I’m not following you. I have never talked to you before the past hour to the best of my knowledge.

I’d like to kindly request that you not drag anyone down with you in the process. I respect your right to feel the way you do though, and I wish suicide was more accessible and humane for individuals to explore.