Searching "comments":
| # | Comment | Survey |
|---|---|---|
| 71 | I had an uncle that didn't believe in signs - he got run over by a truck at an intersection. Bah-Dum-Bum-Crash! Thank you, thank you, please be kind to your waitresses. | Do you believe in "signs"? |
| 72 | Steve, I usually respect your life sciences knowledge, but you are completely off-base when you claim that traditional cross-breeding effects are more uncertain than transgenic ones. On the face of it, you could have no basis for such a bald statement - we have had the capability to create transgenic organisms for a mere handful of years, and have been traditionally breeding plants and animals for millenia. There's almost no historical data available for transgenic risks. I admit that I have a hard time seeing the danger in a StayRipe tomato that doesn't express the proteins that attract the bacteria that help break down a plucked fruit. My concern is that transgenics are being used for far more wide-ranging and potentially dangerous changes. There have already been several potentially disasterous failings with early transgenic pesticides. Monsanto's "Bollgard" Cotton not only failed to deter bollworm infestation in many cases - it has apparently created (or at least greatly expedited) the emergence of a Bt-resistant bollworm population. [Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, btw. It's a naturally occuring bacterium that lives in the soil and produces proteins that are toxic to many insects. Sprays with it are used widely by farmers - including many organic farmers. The inclusion of the Bt genes in crop plants is the most common transgenic alteration being performed today.] The problem with transgenic pesticides is that they expose the target pest population to an unending supply of of the toxin, so the resistant ones are the *only* ones that survive. Using traditional Bt sprays, for instance, a farmer might kill 75% of a pest population and avoid maybe %60 of the crop damage he'd normally see, and do that reliably every year because there was always enough "regular" (ie non-resistant) pests left over to breed a new generation of "regular" descendants. But with transgenics, the crop kills 99.9% of the pests (or they move over to other crops they've shunned in the past) and the farmer avoids almost all damage at first - but after a few years, you've got a resistant population that those quite expensive varieties are useless against. Researchers have found wild populations of Bt-resistant diamondback moths (these guys live *everywhere* and eat *everything*) in Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Florida - associated with the introduction of Bt-producing "super-crops" there, and have produced Bt-resistant tobacco budworms in the lab by exposing several generations to transgenic food supplies. So in a few years, one of the most effective planet-wide controls of insect pests may be rendered useless. The fact that Bt is now produced for free by healthy soil and that sprays using it are non-patentable (and therefore produced by many companies) clearly has nothing to do with the large agricorporations' decisions on which genes to muck around with first. Nah. Sorry, I think transgenics may someday be quite useful, but along with irradiation, I am skeptical that we've taken enough time to fully appreciate the risks. DDT was also touted as "harmless" in it's day. And the Romans (top engineers of their day) were fond of using lead water pipes because they made the water sweet and algae and moss wouldn't grow in them. I'd buy non-transgenic foods labeled as such and avoid those labeled transgenic - at least for several years. And I think that irradiation is ok if there's no way to get fresh food, but I avoid preservative-laden food already, and I suspect that I'd avoid most irradiated food as well. | Would you eat transgenic food? |
| 73 | Actually, many heirlooms are just as resistant to pests and disease, but do far less well with herb/pesticides, and don't ship as well. Most commercial veggie hybrids are consistent-yield (very regular size and shape - supermkt buyers don't like produce that varies a lot or is "bumpy"), off-vine (ie they continue to ripen after being picked) and are herbicide resistant (so the farmer can spray heavier without taking out his own crop - but of course, this leads to more runoff problems - eit!) According to the New England Organic Farmers Assoc, NE farmers who sell locally and use Integrated Pest Mgmt techniques are able to get just as high yields from non-hybrid crops than with common hybrids. And of course - the big agri-companies can't get rich selling non-hybridized seed - so they do their damdest to convince and cajole farmers into buying hybrids. With heirlooms the farmer can make his own seed stock - no profit for big business there! The problem with heirlooms is mostly one of marketing and national distribution. There's no-one supporting them in the mkt, but lots of forces pushing hybrids, transgenics, etc. | Would you eat transgenic food? |
| 74 | I checked the first choice, but it should have included *radio broadcasts* as well - many NPR stations (eg WBUR in Boston) have been carrying the majority of the trial live. That's how I've been listening - although often in the background, and sometimes I've just had to switch it off. I feel that regardless of whether the thing is a legit exercise of government or a completely political farce, it's just too historical and important for me *not* to hear as much of it as I can. When I listen to highlights, et al, so much bias and editing slips in that I just can't trust the reporters/pundits to give me a accurate impression of what's going on. | Have you been keeping track of the impeachment trial of President Clinton? |
| 75 | The potential overturn of the duly elected president of the most powerful nation on earth may be many things, steve (embarassing, hopeful, disturbing, compelling) but it would be difficult for it to be uninteresting, unimportant, or overhyped. The survey seemed (with the slight ommission of radio in the first choice) well formed and topical. And btw, the House impeachment made me want to wring some necks, but the Senate (with a few notable exceptions) has proven itself (suprisingly to this cynic) to actually be making an effort to fulfill its role as an even-handed, sober forum for debate and governing. I'm actually quite impressed with our system - if this were nearly any other country, we'd have settled this whole thing with a coup or a revolution. The founders were freaking geniuses! | Have you been keeping track of the impeachment trial of President Clinton? |
| 76 | I think it's sort of weird that I spend so much time energy and get so much joy out of brewing - and yet I average only one, maybe two beers a week or less. Wish I could show such restraint when it comes to my cooking ;P Hard to believe that I actually brewed almost 50 gallons of beer last year - if I was just drinking it myself, that would last me 8 years! And yet, there's barely two dozen bottles left. Btw pandora, et al, the amount of alcohol in a typical pint of beer is *roughly* equivalent to that in a glass (6 oz) of wine, or a shot of distilled spirits. So Mattias could have just written it as "drinks" and still gotten a fairly reasonable idea of how much alcohol respondents imbibe. Good first survey man. | How much alcohol do you drink? |
| 77 | sex on drugs while in the cinema (but only if there's a really uptight Brit in the seat behind us). HooYA! | Which of these do you enjoy most ? |
| 78 | gilly, I had to call kel over so that she could read your comment and I wouldn't have to explain the goofy grin on my face - now we're both walking around with one. rah rah rah! go team! | Think about what you wanted to be when you were a kid. Have you become what you wanted? |
| 79 | Here's a short version of the menu of Steve's recent Mycophilia Pheast (the phirst of many, I hope). I'm sure I've gotten some of the details wrong, but my main purpose here is to get Steve to fill in the details: *Fresh garden salad with sauteed portabellos *Turnovers with a morel/crimini/ricotta filling *Mushroom soup (assorted varieties) in a roasted vegetable stock *Fresh Sourdough bread with black truffle butter *Hazelnut/dark bittersweet chocolate cake frosted with kaluha-chocolate ganosh decorated with meringue mushrooms *After-dinner coffee and herbs and the destruction of many Martians (with vaguely mushroom-shaped heads) | Mushrooms! |
| 80 | The "breathing thing" is typical of the tryptamines. Since the cubensis fungi contains lots of these, I would expect most but not all users who've taken a significant amount to have encountered this effect at some point. | Mushrooms! |
