Thursday, February 23, 2012

What February 23rd Means To Me: Two Fun Links!

Today, I break from the normal BS to bring real life knowledge!

First: Test Tube Hamburgers?   Yes!  Enjoy the cow without the cow!  Haven't people been accusing McDonalds of this for years? Apparently this "in vitro meat" might be available to the market by the fall.  Let's be clear, it's not "fake."  Made from cow stems cells, muscle, and blood, scientists have figured out a way to create cow meat without actually creating the cow.  Animal farming has long been an expensive, land consuming, environmentally dangerous practice, and the "test tube meat" provides an interesting alternative.  Would vegetarians support this meat by the way of eating it?  Does it taste like a real cow?  Could this be a huge answer to our animal farming problems?  Time will tell, though it does sound like something straight out of some dystopian future movie. 

Second:  How much does our language affect the way we budget money?   A new study suggests that people who speak languages that present a clear difference between present and future tenses (Greek, English, French) save less money than people who speak languages that don't (German).  I tend to agree with the skeptics because, even with my uneducated mind, I just assume there are many more factors that go into the suggested behavior than just verb tense, but the study is an interesting read either way.

Enjoy!  Or Don't!

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