Honey, run to the lab and pick up steaks for dinner.

A lot of things don't surprise me. I live by the "anything is possible" rule. If someone said a UFO full of other-worlders showed up for a Sox game, I'd be down with that. It would be surprising but in the sense that a statistical improbability occurred: there are no aliens on surrounding planets (that we can see, hah!) and they've never come here (that we know of!). So if they showed up during my lifetime I'd think "Gotta go buy a Mega Millions ticket immediately" while jotting down the alien spaceship's license plate number.

But THIS left me a little shocked. It's not everyday that your average carnivore sits and mulls over where the meat came from (probably a conscious decision. Denial when eating a dead animal is the key to many people's enjoyment of meat.). Soon we may be able to eat real animal flesh without the guilt. No more brutal slaughters. No more cruel living conditions of animals. No more thinking about the fact your ingesting a once living, breathing, feeling creature. Just meat! Woo hoo go science!

William Saletan, over on Slate, discusses a contest run by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). From the contest rules:

To receive the $1 million prize, the successful candidate must be the first to do both of the following:
a) Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture
indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike
b) Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold
commercially, and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 U.S.
states

I'm just not sure what to say. Other than the fact I know it will probably cause cancer and I'd eat it anyway (if it was truly indistinguishable). Then I can have my fillet mignon and eat it, too. <-- That one was too easy.