July 19, 2011
Hrrm. I don’t know about this. On the one hand I can see the advantages to knowing where your dinner came from. On the other hand there are hot dogs, and some things we are better off not knowing.
I love steak but all I really need to know is that it came from a cow and not a giraffe or an okapi. (Endangered species meat is tough and stringy.) I suppose if you pin me down I’d like to know that my meal came from a cow that grazed on grass as opposed to manure. Of course, with all the steroids, hormones, and bizarre chemical cocktails that go into animal feed the manure might be preferable. Unless it came from a cow fed on steroids, hormones, and bizarre chemical cocktails so the point is really moot. I guess the bottom line is that you never really know what goes into your food unless you grow your own. And since I live in apartment I am not raising my own cattle. I tried that with bacon and it didn’t work.
Unless your name is Watson or Crick (google ’em) what do you know about DNA? “Say, that cow has a mighty nice double helix to its molecular DNA structure.” There is a point, and this is it, where you are a pretentious dwad if you need to know something as esoteric as your dinner’s chromosomal history. Right now there are people who insist on knowing what herd the cow came from, what county, what it ate, if it was left out in the rain, and really, why? Look I get that some cows eat better than others and that affects what goes into your body. Fine. But do I really need to know the genetic pedigree of my cheeseburger? The cholesterol will kill me first.
I prefer my steaks medium-well and anonymous. All this madness about knowing your meat’s pedigree, combined with the further and continued use of genetic modifications to cattle can only end badly. Sure, those cows are content now, but what happens when Aldo the cow says “no”? I have seen Planet of the Apes. Soon we may all be mute lab rats to a race of talking, horse riding, human-enslaving cows. Life will be one big Gary Larsen Far Side gag. I only pray that none of this comes about before next week. I have a reservation at Peter Luger’s.
I think Chick-Fil-A knows something...
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
If this reminds you of the talking cow that Ford and Arthur eat at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ditto for me. In fact, before I did a last minute edit this blog ended with a legnthy excerpt. So if you go back to the last sneak peek you can edit out the Douglas Adams stuff, he got cut.
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You are too polite. This is BS and another example of just because technology lets you do something doesn’t mean it’s necessary or a good idea. Have you heard that now you can get a DNA test on your newborn baby to see if he/she has a gene that might make them an Olympic medalist? Just what we need.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/06/29/testing-kids-for-sports-gene-would-do-it/
http://www.marketpressrelease.com/Dna-Test-helps-to-choose-the-right-Sports-1308891362.html
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You are so right. Just because you can do something it doesn’t follow that you should do it. I guess I was “polite” because I didn’t follow it past the food implications. It goes along with that beautiful people site you’ve written about. Society is on a slippery slope and science just makes it slicker.
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BTW- you are also right about me being polite. I’ve shied away from rants lately and tomorrow’s post about pedophiles had me hitting delete a lot.
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Thomas Stazyk is correct, but I have also been a willing participant in a genetic survey re. : people with predispositions to cardio – pulmonary conditions. It’s not all ” Boys From Brazil ” stuff. I sincerely doubt that my DNA is prime genetic engineering material ( I can’t imagine a member of Khan’s crew from ST II with my features, either, really….. ).
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There are good and serious uses for everything but for every potential cancer cure there are a thousand potential uses like testing your cheeseburger’s DNA or checking to see if your fetus could outswim Michael Phelps.
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Designer children – There are both sides to that issue, like creating a ” master race ” of ” perfect ” people, while eliminating all ” imperfect ” people or maybe giving them 2nd or 3rd class status, & sterilizing them. There is also ” tweaking ” DNA to make sure future generations don’t develop Asperger’s / Autism, cancer, heart problems, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s. I like to look at both sides as much as POSSIBLE.
Groundbreaking science – Thanks to Oppenheimer & others, we can either generate electricity in a clean, efficient manner ( ideally ) or nuke some country – like Iran – back to the Stone Age.
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I think you take the right path by looking at both sides, and I try to do that too, but making fun of curing Autism makes for a horrible, horrendus blog 😉
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I can ponder the pro’s & con’s of cannibalism or child labor in Third World countries in the right venue 😉 Actually, child labor gets a big THUMBS DOWN from me, but that’s beside the point.
Genetic analysis of Egyptian mummies has told scientists what diseases were deadly back then or even if there were conditions like Alzheimer’s or ALS back then.
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Topic: Cannibalism is a good thing. Go!
I wonder what you will think of tomorrow’s blog, touching upon pedophilia and murder? (Not that I am saying you are either one, but I find it hard to see a pro to the former.)
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Cannibalism can solve a food shortage – Re.: The movie ” Soylent Green “, especially where Charlton Heston sees the Edward G. Robinson character get taken to processing after death.
That movie actually foresaw the effects of global warming before Al Gore even coined the name.
Pedophilia : I have a very JAUNDICED view of any practitioners. I think the Catholic Church needs to grow a pair, admit that they have a ” problem ” & maybe allow their priests to marry.
Murder : Is ” assisted suicide ” murder ? Think about it.
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I was about to complain about the lack of a Milliways callback, but that’s why it’s always worth reading the comments, I guess.
“A burger, by any other name…”
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Milliways, from the cow to Hotblack to the Asgardians, is my favorite part of the entire series.
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Milliways – I almost forgot about that. ” Is everyone having one last wonderful time ? “, ” Let’s hear some applause for the Great Prophet Zarquon. Wherever he’s got to “. The movie completely ignored that except for a mention at the end.
Ghastly, isn’t it ? 😉
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This is just plain WEIRD!
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