Okay, so, I'm aware that this is the vegan comm, and I'm vegan myself, but the report is mostly focused on sustainability, and is in no way binding. Transitioning away from meat is just a small part of it, and the actual policy and legislation is still to come. I'm going to be looking at it from a public health / food policy perspective, because I'm halfway thru a masters in that general vicinity.

I had a look through the links posted by @whogivesashit@lemmygrad.ml and a few things stuck out at me immediately:

From: https://portside.org/2024-09-04/europes-farming-lobbies-recognise-need-eat-less-meat-shared-vision-report

The stakeholders also agreed on the need for a major rethink of subsidies, calling for a “just transition fund” to help farmers adopt sustainable practices, and targeted financial support to those who need it most.

This reeks of grift. Hard to say for sure without seeing the actual policy that results from this report.

The report did not set targets for meat production, such as culling herds, but called for support to help shift dietary habits, such as free school meals, more detailed labels, and tax reductions on healthy and sustainable food products.

Yep. No real numbers, no real targets. This basically amounts to lip service. Again, we'll have to see how the policy actually shakes out, but it doesn't fill me with hope. Also, "help to shift dietary habits" is code for "blame the consumer". Free school meals are great but watch who gets the contracts to provide said meals. My gut says it'll be the same manufacturers. Tax reductions also sound great in theory, but I want to know what metric they're using for "healthy and sustainable". I can see this being gamed by manufacturers to get the tax breaks with minimal effort.

The recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas pollution within farming focus on technological solutions such as new feed and better management of manure. The report also called on policymakers to define the agri-food sector as a “critical entity”, increase financial support for the sector and give it preferential treatment.

Technical solutions are a stop-gap at best, if they ever even appear. This is just like the pie-in-the-sky "carbon capture" solutions other industries keep proposing. It's right around the corner guys, I promise. It's an exuse to keep the status quo. Second sentence just reads like more grift.

From: https://worldbriefings.com/news/eu-farm-lobbies-embrace-less-meat-consumption-in-historic-agreement

One was a call to better target Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding, which at €378bn representing nearly a third of the EU budget for the period 2021-7 – payments to farmers should be based on genuine need, not area farmed. Moreover, the portion of direct payments linked to environmental measures should see a “substantial annual increase” from the current 32%, the report stated.

Bit more detail on the numbers, which is nice. I'd really like to know what form the payment agreement takes, and how exactly they define "environmental measures".

The traditional opponent of the green camp – the powerful farming lobby groups Copa and Cogeca – commended the “deliberative approach” to producing the report, one that involved all stakeholders. They welcomed in particular the recommendations for a ‘temporary Just Transition Fund’ and ‘a well-resourced nature restoration fund’ outside the scope of CAP funding to support farmers in the transition.

Hmmm, what a surprise. Lobbyists approve of allocating funding to the groups they represent. Reeks of grift.

They also called for a review of EU food labeling legislation and urged that food marketing to children be addressed, while advocating tax reductions and other social and fiscal incentives.

They're talking about food labelling again. Industry is typically very much against labelling so I'm interested what direction this will take and what tradeoffs they'll demand. I can see it ending up as another voluntary scheme where the labels only end up going on the products with the best ratings. Also, "other fiscal incentives." Hmm.

And finally;

The report’s recommendations are not set in stone. Von der Leyen has committed to include the results of the stakeholder dialogue in a Vision for Agriculture and Food, to be put together during her first 100 days.

Because of course they're not. We'll have to see what form the policy and legislation actually take, but with the amount of money and special funds being set up, industry is going to find a way to game it.

I also went and tracked down the exec summary of the dialogue (here: https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/document/download/c9fdbb7b-10c9-405f-9be8-427ef6ad7614_en). Oh look;

To ensure a sufciently funded transition, both public and private capital needs to be mobilized. A Temporary Just Transition Fund should be established outside the CAP to complement support for the sector’s swift sustainability transition.

Yep. It's a fucking public-private partnership.

The European Investment Bank should implement a specifc group loan package for the sector.

With special loan categories! Can't see that getting abused.

There is actually some stuff in the exec summary that sounds half decent. Like, from an environmental point of view, having a legally binding land take target seems pretty neat. It's probably not enough, but having it binding is really nice. From what I've encountered in passing, my general opinion of EU governance is that they tend to get a lot right when it comes to food. I'm not from there though, so I don't have as much firsthand knowledge or experience with their legislation.

TL;DR: Sounds nice. Ripe for exploitation by industry. And I guarantee you the reason they were at the table in the first place is to defend their own interests.

Unknown. Don't have time to research right now, but if it is true it's probably a grift. They'll be angling for funding for some kind of public-private partnership with voluntary targets and no accountability.

I'll look into it properly when I get back from class in a few hours.

Be cool if they could do something about the amount of gambling ads attached to sports. But no, it must be video games that are bad.

Tbh I'm glad they're recognizing loot boxes as a problem, but this feels backwards. Like, a single, completely optional slot machine in an RPG that only takes and pays out in in-game currency gets you an R rating, but a predatory real-money gatcha mechanic is only worth an M.

You can get out of your ship in Elite now.

I just recently decided to get into the lore myself, from my research the three consistent recommendations on all the lists are (in no particular order):

Eisenhorn

Horus Heresy

Gaunt's Ghosts

As an old school doom mapper from the 90s, it absolutely isn't. You build a room, apply F_SKY1 to the ceiling, and that's it. The engine renders it more like a wall, but it's not a traditional skybox in that it doesn't exist in the level geometry outside of the room it's applied to.

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Sky

I seem to recall somebody made up a promo for a social network that only allowed emoji years ago. It was quite clearly parody, but they still got VCs calling them about it.

I think Speed Freeks is still free. Orks vs Orks combat racing game. I haven't played in a couple months so IDK what direction its taking but last time I dropped into a game it was fun as fuck.

Not really. They have a lot of bits and in-jokes which are going to seem incomprehensible to anyone from the outside, but most of them are pretty chill if you engage in good faith. It's like a lot of tech communities; if you don't do your research and ask intelligent questions, you're likely to get told to RTFM.

Sorry to necro the thread but I ended up getting one of these and it's great so thanks for the recommendation. Recently switched to Linux and found Rivalcfg supports aerox 5. Terminal only, but worth checking out if you're still searching.

Seeker is still around, and available via Izzy on Droid f-droid repo if you don't want to go the gplay route.

Strictly speaking this is a subset of what the food industry calls reformulation. They'll also reformulate a product for other reasons (eg to reduce sugar/fat/salt or add a vitamin so they can make a health claim, tweak the flavour if it isn't performing well, etc) but reducing materials and manufacturing costs is a big part of it. Maybe we can coin the term "deformulation".

It was done at a reputable local piercing studio, by a well-known body mod expert who happened to be on tour at the time. No medical degree that I'm aware of, but a ton of experience and more than a little self-experimentation.

What compelled you do get this and what’s the procedure for getting it put in?

CW: Surgery

I got it done back in 2010 or so. At the time I was working in I.T., and spent a lot of time in underground electronic music circles. Goth / cybergoth / cyberpunk and underground rave culture, and I grew up on the internet in the '90s with a lot of transhumanist influence before it got co-opted by tech bros. I'd heard of the procedure a few years before and somehow the opportunity to get it done crossed one of my social feeds. It felt like something that would be useful and also fun to have. Me and a couple of friends were really interested in it so we all went and did it together. I'm not sure I'd have done it just on my own. The procedure itself is actually pretty brutal so the CW applies from here. There are a couple different ways to do it depending on the shape of magnet. For a flat one (like a coin cell battery) they cut a flap of skin, stick the magnet in and stitch it back up. For the long ones they basically stab a deep slit in your fingertip alongside the bone with a long scalpel blade, jam the magnet in there and stitch it closed. I have a long one, it's a little bit shorter and fatter than a grain of rice. I got it done under local anaesthetic, which isn't strictly legal here, but I'm sure glad they did it.

Has it ever caused any problems?

Yes. I got it in my left ring finger because I'm right handed, but it's decreased the grip strength in that hand a bit. Too much pressure on that fingertip just hurts. I couldn't really do rock climbing if I wanted to, and I can't play a steel string guitar any more for the same reason. Nylon strings I can just about get away with but it takes a lot of practice to get the finger positions right that I just haven't put in. 99% of the time in daily life I just work around it though. Other things that people mentioned to me like setting off metal detectors or killing hard drives haven't happened to me. Never had to get an MRI, but I suspect that would be an issue too. It also sometimes aches in the cold.

Was it difficult to get used to?

Sort of? The first six months were definitely a learning experience. I found myself sticking to metal stair rails, accidentally picking up spoons with it, generally getting it caught on things. I suppose that's not -that- different from a new piercing in a prominent location though. I also found myself getting surprised by magnetic fields, but now I'm just kind of used to it. I suspect the sensation has dulled a bit over time, too.

What does it feel like when you feel the magnetic fields?

A lot of people have said things along the lines of "oh, like a sixth sense?" But it's not. It's more like being able to see in infrared; it's not an extra sense, just an extension of an existing one. Probably the best way to explain it is; if you ever caught a fly or buzzing insect as a kid, and felt it buzzing against your hand. It's kinda like that but from under the skin. Definitely a bit icky to feel something moving under your skin until you get used to it. The sensitivity is -really- variable because the implant procedure is pretty far from an exact science, or it was back then, anyway. The people I got it with had very different results; one was a lot more sensitive and could feel fields from much further away, one was much less sensitive. It's probably to do with how deep the implant is, the sensitive one couldn't pick up much more than a paperclip, whereas the less sensitive one could pick up an entire dessert spoon. I feel like a person might be able to train themselves to recognise different types and strengths of fields depending on their sensitivity, but I never bothered trying.

EDIT: formatting, detail

If this is where I think it is, I know a lot of it is to do with the freeway, but there are also some pretty significant upgrades to the cycling infrastructure going on. Fuck cars, of course, but its not all bad.

Yeah, for sure. I don't mind answering questions about it.

Dado(tm) brand Succulent Cultivation Pot.

Not an electrician but I have one of these. While I have used it to troubleshoot electrical problems on occasion (eg- this thing doesn't have a power LED but I can tell it's getting power), it's far more useful for locating and holding small screws. The field sensing bit is somewhat hit and miss. Mine works on microwave ovens, most transformers, some models of anti-theft gate, an electric tram once or twice, and on one occasion, a laptop WiFi card.

Batch cooking my breakfast for the next four days, hugging my cat and going to bed early because I work weekends. Might get some gaming in if I have the time and concentration.

This is impressive, what software / hardware are you using?

Installed this on my Legion Go today. Took about an hour, all hardware supported out-of-the-box. Hardest part was mapping the controller. Haven't actually played much on it, but I'm very impressed with the experience so far.

Soulseek. I'll search a band I like, then browse the directories of other people with similar taste.

Your description made me think of The Golden Palominos.

Because Bethesda can't stop making it.

The sauce itself is vegan, you can definitely still use it.

Maybe Pixel Starships? You can actively do missions or PvP, but resources accrue automatically. Crew training, building modules and ships is time gated so you can just wait it out. The PvP piece is interesting too, you can only be attacked when you're offline so you have to use the built-in scripting to manage your ship unattended.

Getting bad '90s FMV vibes

Speed Freeks is extremely underrated. Multiplayer only. It plays like Unreal Tournament x Twisted Metal.

Granted. Your teapot now always has an entire lemon inside. It's not clear how it got in there.

Just waiting for Elon offer to fight her

I was, but that's still really useful to know.

Yep. I suspected something like this. Either from the voice rec or the way it emulates keypresses. Good to know, thanks!

The LeGo built-in controllers. They get a lot of shit for being weird and tbh I get it, but they suit my cartoonishly large hands. The detachable feature is pretty useful too since I can use it for Actual Work(tm) in public without getting looked at like a freak.

Tonight we riot is fun as fuck. I got it in an itch.io bundle and forgot about it until earlier this year.

Because they had no budget and used z-list actors or whatever staff were in the office that day.

.mod files for music. 3-5mins+ of music a piece with a storage footprint in the KB range. Mostly free, tons available online. Check out Mod archive for an easy web interface or ZXTune if you're on android.

I don't know how to feel about this.

I have had this happen. Mostly with weird, old, or cheap (or some combination thereof) hardware. Like sometimes the connection will hitch for a moment then three or four letters will come out backwards. Couldn't say for sure what the cause is but I suspect either the controller in the board itself is jank, or there's some kind of protocol / buffer mismatch. I have no solution, but it's not just you.

I switched to Kvaesitso from Nova. It takes a lot of getting used to because it does most stuff differently, but I'm finding it light, efficient and functional.

Not sure it strictly counts as Grand Strategy as it's more of a sandbox, but X4 might be up your alley on the sci-fi front. Build a galaxy spanning empire from a single ship; complete missions, mine, trade, explore. You -can- fly the ships, but you don't have to. You can just sit in a station issuing orders.