A Clam the Size of Your Head

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/10/a-clam-the-size-of-your-head.html

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I’ve got some shells for a clam more like the size of your torso. I don’t think Monteray Bar Aquarium approves the consumption of giant clams though. I could be wrong.

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The only “icky” thing I can see in that video is that I think they may be endangered, otherwise, delicious.

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The sharp knife up its sphincter to make it let go gave me a twinge.

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All I could think of during the whole first minute was “Don’t put your finger in it. Don’t put your finger in it. Don’t put your finger in it.”

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Clams got legs!

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This was cool until I realized that I was watching something die, and not quickly.
Rather, it was being sliced into food while still alive and awake.

I know, it’s a step away from a plant, but still…you know?

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Avid fisherman here.

I try to be careful in methods to ensure I return fish I am not eating alive, to treat fish I am eating well until it is time to take them home, and to kill them swiftly and humanely when it is time to do so.

All that said, wild animals with lesser cognitive capabilities don’t seem to experience pain and fear like we do.

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The “size of your head”. Per Kliban, that should be okay then.

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Yeah, still. I mean, people here go lengths to defend every human right possible (thankfully).
But when it comes to animals, the game is on again.
That same video with an alligator brain?
That same video with a cat’s brain?
I suppose there’s an invisible chart floating around in the readers’ kitchens with the latest scientific research on levels of cognitive capabilities of each animal known…

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Definitely made me consider being a vegan again.

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Kinda sad to see something that old cut up to be eaten. It’s not like there is a sustainable clam fishery. We’ll just eat them until they’re all gone, if past practice is anything to go by.

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Newsflash for you seafood eaters. Unlike cows or pigs or chickens which are usually quickly killed at a processing plant, sea food usually is frozen to death or near death then hacked up. Even when processed fresh it is usually a knife jab to get them to stop moving…ish where the brain is, or boiled alive, or just processed still alive.

Granted crabs and shrimp and lobsters are just giant bugs in the sea, and fish are pretty primitive as far as life goes, but still. I dunno if that is cruel or not. If something at it in the ocean they are often eaten whole, so that can’t be fun either.

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I was under the impression it’s already been shown enough times to debunk that assumption as
“wishful thinking”.
I guess one can at least argue about the scientific measure of “quickly”.

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Depends which method you are referring to, and some times the quickest ones don’t work right.

Still, just like with seafood, its quicker than most deaths in the wild where you are either stalked and eaten, or die from disease and sickness or elements.

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It’s not the quickness of death that most concerns me - it’s the quality of life beforehand.

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So nature is cruel and merciless. Thing is, I’m not a lion. I get to decide about what I do.
Actually, I have to decide, what I do. My instincts may help my decisions, but it’s a good thing,
they can be overruled by rational thinking.
And deciding doing bad things is ok, just because worse stuff happens, just doesn’t sound 2017 to me.
Besides, that factory farmed pig, wouldn’t even die “in the wild”, because, well, it wouldn’t exist.

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You can decide what you want to do, that’s great.

My point was, eating other living things isn’t necessarily bad, and part of the natural order. Life feeds on life. Though they aren’t mechanical machines and lack an easy “off” switch.

Great point. So one could argue these creatures owe their brief existence solely to be used by their creators (breeders?)

This is especially ironic given your username.

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Sure. Basically what slaveowners thought. Difference of course was slaves were humans, so at some point the cognitive dissonance of the privileged masters thankfully became unbearable at some point (besides of course the active roles slaves could take in their liberation) .
(At this point I feel the need for a disclaimer: No, I don’t think animals are equal to humyns. No, I don’t think being a slave and being a factory farmed animal is the same. No, I don’t say slaves are animals).

This “natural order” quotes I hear oh so often. You do not refuse to use planes or get MRIs I hope, fearing to unsettle that natural order?
But that’s harsh, you grant them more than Descartes did (but still draw the same conclusions I have to suppose.)

The irony of my user name is lost to me, considering it shows my (theoretical) fondness even of non-biological life.

Sooo, why use a flimsy strawman you don’t believe in? Its like a Godwin… Good-ol’-boy-win?

Tools and progression of technology is part of the natural order as well. Humans aren’t the only ones who get a leg up with employing tools and tactics to live longer. One doesn’t have to be Amish to feel ok about eating things.

I get your point you don’t find it a compelling argument (I think is your point), and that’s fine for you personally. I think others who do find it compelling are ok too.

I guess it’s not irony, coincidence then. Roy was basically disposable like cattle, but to fulfill a short term purpose. Of course a sentiant replicant is a whole 'nother basket of philosophical arguments.

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