h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sometimes, people just come out with things,away from h2g2, that make you want to nominate them for Quote of the Day.
This was in a response to a Facebook post I did. If it had been on here, I would be nominating it right now for Quote of the Day.
You see, I heard a debate earlier today on Genetic Modification. One of the pro-GM people said that ordinary crops that are known to be dangerous are used all the time, as opposed to GM crops we know are pretty definitely not dangerous. Asked for an example, she pointed out that raw potatoes are toxic! This was news to me, but seemed like the kind of thing everyone else might know but me, so I stuck it on FB.
In the subsequent discussion, a guy I know said that GM crop design was arguably considerably safer than 'natural' hybridisation, because you only changed one thing at a time.
Now here's the zinger. He concluded with:
"In fact, a fair amount of commercial crop species were generated from mutation breeding: basically just bombarding the seeds with radiation and seeing if anything that turned out to be delicious happened."


I really just wanted to share that, but this is Ask, so:
What have people said in your everyday life - that is, not anyone famous, on TV or in a movie or anything - that just needs quoting?

You have to ask them whether they have any conflicts of interest. Generating viable hybrids through normal cross-breeding is different to splicing genes from different species together. There is also consideration of creating farmer dependencies on supplier e.g.
http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/genetically-modified-plants.html

but the actual GM for crops is separate from the shady business practices of the GM companies.

My teenage daughter, who has an extremely varied taste in music, keeps bursting into song all the time. I pointed this out after one totally random outburst. She replied,
"I'm sorry, I can't help it - I have Musical Tourettes!"

I think I have Musical Tourettes, too. Some of the sgene-splicing stuff has been amusing, such as the green rabbit that glows in the dark. A gene from a jellyfish was implanted in the rabbit. You can have one for only $600.00

>> Some of the sgene-splicing stuff has been amusing, such as the green rabbit that glows in the dark. A gene from a jellyfish was implanted in the rabbit. You can have one for only $600.00 <<

According to wiki that was the result of an "art project"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba_(rabbit).

It's good for biotech companies because you can splice a gene into an animal or plant and then patent the entire animal or plant: reap royalties for it's use and take people to court for misuse of your property rights.

With regard the glow in the dark rabbit, it will make it easier for those that go hunting at night.

Gotta love a hootoo thread with two topics running side by each.

I'll forego any comment on GM and the stupidity of messing about
with Mother Nature lest I cause offense to the science-is-a-blind-
faith crowd.

But as for wonderful spontaneous outbursts worthy of quoting and
remembering, let me tell you of one of my all time favourites.

Lo, these many years ago when reputation was still a concern
I found myself on the receiving end of some criticism for my
behaviour and sighed: "I'll never be able to live this down."

To which a brilliant friend responded without taking a beat:
"If you can't live it down, live it up".

Good advice I've never forgotten.
That's what good friends are for!

~jwf~

Post 2 did lead me to wonder just how fast a hootoo thread could go off topic.

As for quotable quotes...a few years back, looking at a statue in Durham, a supposedly intelligent friend, with an A level in Chemistry, said, in all seriousness, "It would be alright if they hadn't painted it that horrid blue-green colour". It was an old bronze statue.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3183/2833094116_52bd34b976_m.jpg

Um, almost *all* bronze turns green. Something to do with oxidation by the air. Europe is full of such things. For what it's worth, I only ever had one chemistry class, and have forgotten almost everything I learned in it. Nowadays, when I want to think about chemistry, I just play Tom Lehrer's song "The Elements," in which [to the tune of the Major General's song] he lists all the known elements, ending with the lines:

"These are all the ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there might be many others but they haven't been discovered."

I get the feeling that you haven't understood my post there, paulh. Yes, I know bronze statues turn green. Europe is indeed full of bronze statues. And even fuller of air. But my friend, who should have known better, *complained* that someone must have painted this statue green.

I was trying to be kind to researchers who didn't realize that, hygienicdispenser. You know about the oxidation, and I know about the oxidation, but there may be people reading this who never took chemistry and never traveled in Europe. If this were Mensa, I would not feel compelled to explain it.

Post 8: "When someone offers up a memorable quote for others to marvel at, as a stimulus for others to suggest other memorable quotes, it is in my opinion on-topic to provide a counter to that memorable quote if one thinks that an alternate view exist that that memorable quote is in fact a bowl of lux or at least misleading." This memorable quote I overheard whilst on a bus journey taking me to a Sonic Hedgehog convention.

>> This memorable quote I overheard whilst on a bus journey
taking me to a Sonic Hedgehog convention. <<

Now there's a QOTD nomination if I ever saw one.
Where's Geggs when ya need 'im.

~jwf~

"Now there's a QOTD nomination if I ever saw one.
Where's Geggs when ya need 'im."
Reading the QOTD nomination that you've just sent him by email, as per the usual procedure?

On GM vs. non-GM food products, "what can go wrong, will go wrong".

Only someone less than honest pretends nothing can.

Nature creates numerous mutations, but most are not viable -- as far as we know. I remember reading about a blue frog. The following year, the frog was gone. Was the frog too easy for predators to spot, or was its demise simply part of the normal perils of life?

Radiation is said to cause mutations, though maybe not as many as was once feared. I read about a guy who survived the nuclear explosions in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He went on to produce normal children. was he extraordinary, or did he prove that the human body is more resilient than was thought?

I'm not thrilled about genetically modified crops, mainly because I've read the stories about butterflies getting killed when they come in contact with modified corn. I haven't figured out why they were bothering with corn instead of milkweed, but they must have had their reasons?

I find the very idea of reasoning butterflies somewhat distressing.


http://youtu.be/7vYkgO8KyvM

They cause hurricanes y'know.

~jwf~

Excellent work from Paulh & ~jwf~ this conclusively proves that GM crops can cause hurricanes

Maybe the reverse is also true.

Hurricanes might very well produce GM crops.

>> Hurricanes might very well produce GM crops. <<
I think that might be forbidden by the second law of thermodynamics (from order to disorder). Maybe ~jwf~ could shed lightning on the matter