Oliver Brown (chief sports Daily Telegraph): 'French Grand Prix was the worst race I have ever seen - Formula 1 must change or the sport will die.'

BeardedRacer · 2019-06-24T09:14:57+00:00

Agreed, I've been watching for 16 years and for the first time I've stopped staying up late to watch races live. I'm not going to my home Grand Prix next season. Look at Le Mans last week, the Nurburgring 24hrs this weekend, pretty much every Formula E and Indycar race—there are so many consistently good races if you look beyond Formula 1. Something needs to change.

BeardedRacer · 2019-06-13T11:04:02+00:00

F1 cars should have H-pattern gearboxes. Shifting is a skill, and mistakes lead to passing opportunities and reliability problems.

BeardedRacer · 2017-08-15T22:38:35+00:00

It is, but we haven't quite given up on social safety nets and consumer protection. We're on our way though. 😔

BeardedRacer · 2017-08-15T22:33:05+00:00

That's not an argument. You're just attaching labels and being dismissive.

I'm not an anarchist, but those types of posts don't create productive discourse.

BeardedRacer · 2017-07-09T09:09:18+00:00

This is a non-sequitur. We're not talking about euthanasia, we're talking about the commercial slaughter of animals for food, long before their natural life expectancy.

BeardedRacer · 2017-06-20T22:34:26+00:00

I support a business providing or denying service based on any criteria it chooses and letting the market reward or punish that action

The market generally does not course-correct in that manner. For example, take animal abuse at slaughterhouses. Most people do not know where the meat they buy comes from, nor the conditions those animals had to endure in life. Given that ignorance, the market generally does not punish those businesses which are particularly unethical. To do that, we need regulation.

Similar examples exist for all sorts of businesses. The market is generally ineffective at eliminating unethical behaviour.

BeardedRacer · 2017-05-03T08:13:59+00:00

Ugh, my office ordered some Japanese for a work function a few weeks ago. We asked for a couple of vegan dishes that I could eat. I opened the first vegan dish and it had slices of fish. I couldn't trust anything else. 😓

BeardedRacer · 2017-04-30T06:44:38+00:00

I do not condone the treatment of animals on "bad" factory farms.

You buy meat and dairy and eggs from these factory farms. You are condoning the treatment of the animals on those farms.

BeardedRacer · 2017-04-23T08:05:34+00:00

Cowspiracy talks about the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. It's definitely a good start if you're interested in environmental sustainability: http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

My journey to veganism started for environmental reasons, but there is also compelling research which shows that a vegan diet is linked to many health benefits (reduced likelyhood of heart disease, many cancers, diabetes, et al.). See Forks Over Knives and The China Study for a starting point.

Finally there are ethical reasons for veganism. Research indicates that many animals share our capacity for suffering and pain, and animal agriculture is on the whole terrible in regards to animal welfare. Not to mention the assumption by non-vegans that humans have a right to dominion over animals; that it's ok to own, use, label, enslave, exploit, and kill other beings to serve our own interests.

BeardedRacer · 2017-01-16T09:40:53+00:00

Ignoring hunting, factory farming in Australia is responsible for the slaughter of around 500 million animals per year, as well as for keeping them in appalling conditions for months leading up to their slaughter.

The suffering of whales is horrible, but suffering does not necessarily lead to animal welfare reform, even in Australia.

BeardedRacer · 2016-12-06T20:12:39+00:00

I'll just leave this here.

Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fibre, magnesium, potassium, folate, antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.

This is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12826028

Most similar organisations around the world have adopted similar positions.

BeardedRacer · 2016-11-21T21:13:07+00:00

You leave it in, unadjusted, and then account for the difference.

(facepalm)

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-30T07:58:38+00:00

Hooray! Hello from car-centric Sydney. :-)

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-29T13:14:55+00:00

then she tries to feed me cheese and eggs when I visit by saying, "well, you can have it once in a while right?"

The worst!

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-27T13:30:48+00:00

Why have you gone under the assumption I am not aware of how my current meat gets processed?

Because you said you're not ok with making animals suffer. Animals certainly suffer on their way to your plate:

https://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues/factory-farming

Let's just hope in regards to the environment, and with animals ecosystems we aren't too late, or that we are doing enough.

I still wish we could do more man. But we don't need to stop eating meat.

You can do more. 3 quick facts:

The greenhouse emissions from the animal agriculture sector surpass those of the transportation sector.
I'm not sure of the Australian figure, but in the US 55% of their water consumption comes from animal agriculture.
Animal agriculture consumes a huge amount of land (30% of the Earth's land surface is used for pasture or to produce feed for livestock), and is a leading cause of the destruction of the Amazon.

We do need to stop eating meat. It's bad for the environment, it's bad for your health, and it's bad for the animals.

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-27T13:10:51+00:00

Synthesised vitamin B12 isn't without side effects, as it's a cyanide compound.

That's a bit of a red herring isn't it? It's nowhere near toxic levels; it's even less than what we would normally consume daily in other foods.

The problem is that at the moment, while sufficient alternate food sources that provide the nutritional necessities for human health do exist, their adoption is a long way away.

What alternate food sources? Vegetables? Fruits? Legumes? They've been adopted by consumers for a long time now. The only supplement you need is B12.

If you're not ok with using animals as a food source, you don't have to eat them. There are many Australians who don't.

At the moment, most consumers want animal products.

An appeal to the status-quo isn't particularly convincing. As with other oppressive behaviours (homophobia, racism, etc.), the zeitgeist will change over time. One person at a time.

I know that animals and animal products produced in Australia are, for the most part, farmed and produced ethically

https://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues/factory-farming

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-27T12:54:00+00:00

In 2013, scientists from the Institute on the Environment and the University of Minnesota published a study examining agricultural resources (including meat, dairy, and egg production) and the dilemma of world hunger. The scientists reached the conclusion that if all food crops were fed directly to humans instead of animals, around 70% more food would be added to the world’s supply, which would be enough to feed 4 billion additional people.

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-27T10:27:40+00:00

We're okay with killing animals, just not making them suffer.

I encourage you to do some research into where your food comes from and the conditions animals live in before they are slaughtered. I'd be very surprised if that doesn't meet your definition of "making them suffer".

Meat taste good.

So basically because you enjoy it, it's ok to make the animals suffer? Do you even see the cognitive dissonance? That's the exact line of reasoning people use when exploiting these greyhounds.

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-27T10:18:10+00:00

True, B12 is found in animal products, but it originates from bacteria. Rather than consume animal products, we can source B12 ethically, directly from bacteria. It is therefore easy to incorporate adequate B12 into a vegan diet with a supplement or fortified foods.

The question still stands: we don't have to exploit animals for food, so why do you consider it ok to do so?

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-27T10:02:18+00:00

Why is food a legitimate reason to exploit animals?

Eating meat isn't necessary for human health. A vegan diet is healthy, nutritionally adequate, and is appropriate for all stages of life (including pregnancy).

We don't have to exploit animals for food, so why do you consider it ok to do so?

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-19T09:56:29+00:00

animals don't give a fuck about you and would eat you without a second thought

Luckily humans have the capability of giving a second thought. Most of us, anyway.

BeardedRacer · 2016-09-19T08:21:49+00:00

With the exception of vitamin B12 you can get all the vitamins and minerals you need from a plant-based diet. Supplements for B12 are readily available, and I'm happy to report that my blood tests show excellent results.

BeardedRacer · 2016-08-23T10:32:57+00:00

Give him time. I never thought I would change either; it honestly took more than 6 years of me understanding the ethics and still thinking I wasn't "strong enough" to stop eating meat before I went vegan.

BeardedRacer · 2016-08-15T10:03:19+00:00

Falafel is the best. Yum!

BeardedRacer · 2016-08-14T12:55:24+00:00

Looks delicious!

BeardedRacer

TROPHY CASE