Polling, columns and Out of Sight

I’m not someone whose activism is defined by polls. At the end of the day, those numbers represent a snapshot in time, and my job, as a campaigner, is to help move them in a progressive direction. Still, I’d be curious to see some polling about what messages are most effective with the public in terms of how the government should pay for cultivated-meat research.

For example, is it best to say the funds will be taken from existing subsidies for factory farms? Would it be better to say the funds will come from taxing the rich or corporations? Maybe it’s best to not bring up the issue of where funds will come from at all. I suspect focusing on existing subsidies would be most popular, but I’d be interested to see numbers there.

This week, I’m going to send out that column about the Trump regime. If you’d like to submit your own writing, feel free to use the newspaper email lists I’ve compiled: https://slaughterfreeamerica.substack.com/p/how-to-write-letters-to-newspapers-6eb

Anyway, let’s do (Cell) Culture Talk. Here’s what I’ve been watching, playing and listening to recently.

Movie — Out of Sight. I’ve read some of Elmore Leonard’s novels, but they kind of blend together for me. I’m not sure if I’ve read the book this Steven Soderbergh crime film is based on. Regardless, the 1998 adaption is an enjoyable mix of action, humor and romance. George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez star as a bank robber and federal marshall who fall in love.

Movie — Empire Records. It’s a pretty bad comedic drama, directed by Allan Moyle, about a group of music store employees who try to prevent their place of work from being sold to a large corporation. The 1995 film is perhaps most interesting as a Generation X cultural artifact. It includes early performances from future big-name actresses, like Renée Zellweger and Liv Tyler.

TV — When Calls the Heart. My wife and I are heading back to Hope Valley to catch up on the latest season of the Hallmark show. It’s about life in a Canadian frontier town in the early 20th century. I appreciate the series’ upbeat tone but sometimes this commitment leads to what seems like a bizarrely ahistorical depiction of the era. For instance, racism doesn’t appear to exist.

Game — Ocarina of Time Randomizer. I fiddled some more with my vegan settings. For example, as far as I can tell, the easiest way to guarantee you don’t need to use Epona to jump over Gerudo Valley is to pre-equip the longshot. Similarly, I pre-equipped the second bomb bag, because, unlike the first, the text doesn’t explicitly say it’s made from animal-based materials.

I tried to figure out a way for Jabu Jabu’s mouth to start open, so you don’t have to feed him a fish, but I’m not sure it’s possible. I’ve used glitches to work around this in prior vanilla vegan runs. However, that was pretty tough for me, and I’m not sure I could manage the trick with iOS controls. So I just made it so Jabu Jabu doesn’t have any important items inside him.

Music — Greatest Hits by The Jackson 5. My dad had a two-disc Motown compilation which I enjoyed as a kid, but I don’t think I really got into the family group until college. As far as I’m concerned, I Want You Back is a near perfect pop song. Of course, my feelings about the band are complicated by the later trajectory of Michael Jackson, who was deeply troubled.

Sports — Knicks lose to Celtics, 119-117. New York needed the win to show they could actually defeat Boston, a team they might face in the playoffs. I didn’t know how seriously the defending champions would take the match, considering their place in the standings was basically locked up, but they seemed to be playing hard. Unfortunately, New York lost in overtime.

Sports — Knicks lose to Pistons, 115-106. New York began the process of putting their players in bubble wrap in anticipation of the postseason. For instance, 39-year-old PJ Tucker, who up until this point had played just two minutes for the Knicks, got significant time on the court. Because of that, the loss didn’t mean a whole lot to me. Let’s keep everybody healthy.

Sports — Knicks lose to Cavaliers, 108-102. Cleveland was sitting more players, so New York should have taken this one. It’s hard to go into the playoffs feeling very confident, given the Knicks were swept in the regular season by the Celtics, Cavaliers and Thunder. Results from out of town clinched the third seed and a first-round matchup with the Pistons for New York.

Sports — Knicks beat Nets, 113-105. New York’s final outing of the regular season was the definition of a meaningless game. Mikal Bridges played mere seconds to keep his iron-man streak alive. All of the other starters sat. Landry Shamet put up 29 points. Now the Knicks have some days to rest before the playoffs begin this weekend. Hopefully, they don’t fall out of rhythm.