Lan(r)12

GM of crops is basically speeding up natural selection. On our farm, we grow tobacco and hay. The tobacco has been GM to resist blackshank, which is a horrible virus that can literally wipe out your entire crop. we grow GM hay that prevents it from heading out too soon, so as to allow us a more flexible window of cutting and cruing and raking and baling.

Most of these people know nothing about farming and how difficult it would be to keep up with the world's demand for food without utilizing science. Im not saying GE is perfectly safe or that we know all about it, but seeing as how its not hurt us yet, it seems fairly safe.

The FDA has opted to regulate tobacco, and as such, the tobacco companies will be required to list alot more of the ingredients within cigarettes.

Id like to ask all of the biochemists or chemists out there if the tobacco plant contained any more of those crazy sounding chemicals (like hydrooxytetra-ect ect) than any other organic plant that went through the same curing process and was smoked.

Or do almost all plant contain them, its just that not all plants are inhaled like tobacco is?

Thanks for the help

I don't even know how to use the blogs....How do you blog? I've never blogged.

Its like twitter, but less extemporaneous and no referencing the third person.

An HBomb exploding into the magnetic anomaly is what happened all along...you cant change the past, and that leak is what causes desmons to have to push the button, which he one day fails to do...causing the crash...the island has a way of course correcting...

And Jacob isn't really dead =)

Oh, and Juliette is WAAAAYYYY hotter.

stupid sqirrels...trying to kill me with their Ayn Rand inspired objectivistic egos...I see you you filthy little elightened monsters

I disagree with those guys. I can empathize...I mean...I live on a farm where all the land around us has been bought by developers and suburbs built. They complain about the tractor noise, they complain about my fields. I can just see one of their trees falling and us having to build a new fence with no help from them at all.

Do you use barbed or straight wire? Barbed is a pain in the ass to rebuild.

Man, if it were me, I would've rolled every single limb and branch into the road and let them try and figure out how to move it without my loud loader tractor.

Im a bit bitter against city people too

Good Luck, and sorry you had to go through all that.

Wow Cameron, that is quite a complex molecule for you to be trying to name right off the bat.

I agree with the above posters in that you should just pick up a basic organic textbook.

And hermanntrude has done an excellent job in describing that molecule for you.

Organic textbooks will teach you all about aromatic and aliphatic compounds, benzene rings, isomers, and tons of other stuff you'll wish you've never even heard of when you have to remember IUPAC nomenclature

But it's great that you want to learn more. Just pick up a textbook and start reading.

Good Luck

If science were about explanations, there would not be any need for experiments to verify the predictions.

Why do you think the earliest scientists even bothered to use *science* in the first place?

To EXPLAIN something previously unexplainable.

What you are arguing is semantics at best.

I certainly see your point as it pertains to modern science, but I do not think Galileo or Copernicus did all the stuff they did to make predictions. I think that their hope was to EXPLAIN something so that they would BE ABLE to make predictions on other matters as they arose.

While your intentions are noble, you are naive in your thought that if we begin total disarmament, other countries would follow.

MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction) is the only thing that keeps some countries from blowing us off the face of the Earth.

It would be amazing to not have ANY weapons on Earth, but that is a childish, inconceivable dream.

I hope you understand.

If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand yet, do so this summer. Talk about a crazy book.

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker is another good, is somewhat elementary, book.

This may sound odd, but you could play Bioshock for the PS3 or Xbox 360. Its an incredibly stark portrayal of what our world could become with regards to both Orwellian and Rand outcomes.

Yeah...but when Im rocking "Rock You Like a Hurricane" on Guitar Hero and singing like a drunken loon...well...thats just fantastic musical entertainment.

It can go either way IMO.

Should I just erase my whole comment and leave it you all?

But thanks for the correction iNow.

"They" were offered all the rights of a married couple and recognition of their status as being together...but they still want it to be called marriage.

So no, its not all about their wanting equal rights.

Sand Tiger sharks' eggs hatch inside the mother and then proceed to kill one another until there's only TWO left standing, one per uterus...and those two are the ones that are birthed.

Edit: Thanks Mokele

Edit 2: Thanks iNow

I'm not saying it's going to happen, I'm not criticizing Obama, and I certainly wouldn't complain if he did pick a woman, since there would be no way to tell if her ovary-having was a factor unless he explicitly said so. And if he did explicitly say so, I wouldn't hold it against her, only him. She could easily be the best pick anyway, after all.

 

What I am doing is arguing against those who want him to do that, which I think is valid, especially inasmuch as at the very least our resident giant atomic reptile is one of them, and I'm guessing he's not alone. I don't think I'm really getting "worked up," though. When you're imagining my voice saying these things, just think Barry White.

A perfect articulation of my sentiments.

And I'd prefer Trace Adkins' voice, but oh well.

...since women are a majority now of our population, yet the court is loaded with old dudes.

See Mokele, as iNow pointed out, women are NOT a minority, and thus, your basic premise is incorrect.

Edit: Dang, Sisyphus beat me to it.

One need not be a minority to understand what equality is. I know its wrong to have a slave, but I'm a white male, a supposed "majority".

Gender should not be an issue, nor should race, in the nomination of a SC justice.

Merged post follows:

How is the SC supposed to defend the rights of the minority when only 2 of them *are* minorities? That's putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.

It truly saddens me to think that you have this little faith in humanity. To think that we must be personally affected by something to understand or have feelings for that something, is an inherently flawed perception.

Can't be another white guy - anything but that. When he does select a woman or other minority, I am sure they will be more qualified than GW's first pick. Hopefully, it will be easier to find someone without tax or babysitting problems than his other picks.

If the white guy is more qualified than the other candidates, then he should absolutely be picked. It is about their ability to serve in one of the most powerful entities in all of the US. Just because they are a minority or something does not entitle them to extra points.

It is about their MERITS.

Yes, a judge should be appointed based on their merits and control of personal ideology. Their superficial qualities should hold no bearing in their nomination.

Wow...Megabrain you have officially lost that argument.

I don't see Flu Preparedness as Stimulus in the most conventional sense. Yes, it would creat jobs, but only if the pharmacuetical companies expanded to cope with the larger client number.

Im all for Flu Preparedness, and people that know me know I am uber-scared of viruses and pandemics (like in 28 Days Later and Quarantine).

But there was a LOT of social spending in the "stimulus" bill...and I think this is one of them.

I can certainly see both sides, and I think they both have valid arguments. A devastating flu would impact our economy, but are precautions a way to provide economic recovery?

Im more leaning into the "no, it's not" territory.

If I go there must I read the 18,000 posts? Or can I just go on and smack you around a little?

I understand that we cant hijack the thread, but just let me know if you feel like losing an argument.

Sisyphus:

That is nowhere near to being the focal point of my thoughts. I wanted Santa Claus to be real, yet I acknowledge he's not. My wants do not override my knowledge. But thanks for your politeness.

I will watch it after my classes and then I'll comment.

And youre right, when Im insulted I usually type a two page editorial in word and then post it lol

That was always my opinion...that the two need each other...but my psych prof said it was an all or nothing deal...I KNEW i didnt like him lol .

Your position is certainly understandable iNow....but what if everyone in history had taken that approach to the world? Researching something that is unknown isn't a waste of time, rather it seems to be the very foundation of science.

They said in the '20s that we would never put a man on the moon...but we did. Yes, its not the same in an analagous sense, but it's all about having a "closed-open-mind". Only accepting verifiable things, but not discounting everything because you don't agree with it, or because its cause is unknown.

From the bit I watched, it did seem to be a very-well put together presentation. Hopefully I can watch the full thing later. I just hesitate tho, to acknowledge anyone that claims to fully understand "the human equation". Nuerosciences and psychology have a LONG way to go before telling me why I believe in an admittedly illogical deity.

I think they should settle the Nature vs. Nurture thing first, and then go from there

Yeah, I minimized the risk of toxoplasmosis (which after some research is a bad little bugger). I hereby withdraw my statement with respect to this topic.