Damn Interesting’s article on Meat-o-matic is actually kind of scary. NASA scientists managed to grow artificial fish meat in a vat. They took a few small chunks of fish meat, placed it in growth solution and presumbly use some tumour cells or something to make it divide quickly. To replicate exercise, the meat also needs to be stretched. The main aim is to give astronauts travelling to Mars or people living on the Moon a cost-effective way of eating meat.

I don’t find the idea of test tube meat very appetising and I can’t see myself ever willingly trying or eating it but I can certainly imagine a world where artificially-grown meat is commonplace. The population of the world is growing quickly and there are only a limited amount of resources. It’s said that meat demand in China is doubling every 10 years. Growing edible muscle is a more efficient and effective way of enabling everyone to eat meat without the problems associated with waste, pollution and space.

Artificial meat production could evolve into technologies such as the replicators from Star Trek. Damn Interesting has an alternative vision:

Because the idea of vat meat isn’t particularly appetizing, one has to wonder whether these meat machines will become the source of cheap meat for the massive underclass of the future. The rich will dine on corn-fed Iowa beef while the poor masses slave away in the underground factories, lunching on cultured meat tumor-chow laced with obedience-enhancing drugs. It seems almost inevitable.

Perhaps cultured tumour muscle meat is something that we’ll all have to get used to in a couple of decades. 

Standards Sell

I bought a new camera a few months ago. It threw me into a world of terms such as f-numbers, centre-weighted averages, TTLs, CCD sensors, megapixels, et al.

I’m no camera expert and I had a much harder time selecting a camera than I would have had if I was buying a computer. In the end however, many of the cameras seemed to have pretty similar specs and with cameras there is no end of choice.

You’d think that the most important thing which sells you a camera is megapixel number. I purchased my camera because it used standard batteries and standard memory. I’ve had bad experiences with proprietary batteries and when they run out of power after half a day of shooting, you can’t recharge them or replace them.

Excessive Snapping Syndrome 

When people go on holiday, many of them always have their cameras at the ready and try to capture every single image. Every place they go and walk a few steps they take a new image. Certainly I have had this problem too. Looking at waterfronts, scenes and animals through your camera’s screen is nothing like seeing it with your own eyes.

I guess it’s particularly bad for people who try to record their holiday on a camcorder.

Power Saving

Does anyone have any particular techniques on saving power on their cameras? I’m really talking about the time in between taking photos – when you’ve just taken a photo and you know you might want to take another one very soon.

I’ve tried three things:

• Photo Mode but turning off display: This means the screen won’t have to update whilst your walking about. I’m unsure if the sensor will still be active; it may still be white balancing.
• Display Mode: This will keep the screen on, but turn things like the sensor off, saving power. It will contract the lens, using up power.
• Turning Off: This is a bit slower; it contracts the lens and then has to start up (taking about 3 seconds) which obviously uses power. But it doesn’t waste power doing white balancing, showing display, etc.

Does anyone have any tips for getting the most out of their batteries?