Slashdot Mirror
Coming Back Soon... The Tasmanian Tiger?
adoll writes: "Melbourne's The Age is reporting that DNA has been extracted from a 110 year old Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) bone. Scientists are now wondering if genes can be implanted into eggs of an existing species and born to surrogate mothers (numbat and Tasmanian devil are mentioned as possible hosts). The last tiger died in Hobart, Tasmania on September 9, 1936. It was believed the tigers were hunted to extinction (CD: Thems was good eatin) on Tasmania, but unconfirmed sighting have persisted to this day".
For years now, the common American penis bird has been a staple of every American's daily diet. Whether it be penis bird sandwiches, fried penis bird, or perhaps penis bird under glass (for the rich), we all have penis bird at least once a day. Many Americans have no clue how the penis bird became so important in the pyramid of a balanced diet, so in this article I will attempt to explain its history and why it is so useful.
In the early 1870s, Francis Zefran became the first penis bird breeder in North America. He started his famous Penis Bird Ranch in Canton, OH. At the time, not much was known of the penis bird's nutritional value, but the Penis Bird Ranch changed all of that. Not only did Francis Zefran raise penis birds to sell their colorful plumes (a VERY lucrative business), he also set up the world's first research lab dedicated solely to the study of the penis bird.
The lab found many interesting things. First, it was discovered that the penis bird was actually semi-sentient. Second, the scientists found that the meat of the penis bird was high in protein, vitamin A, vitamin B, and calcium, while low in fat, cholestorol, and sodium. Never before had such a nutritious meal been had without supplement or fortification. The scientists of the lab recommended immediately that the penis bird become a part of every American's daily diet.
When the news of the penis bird's usefulness reached president Rutherford B. Hayes, he was absolutely ecstatic. You see, President Hayes owed a number of favors to Francis Zefran because as I said earlier, the penis bird plume trade was an extremely lucrative business and Mr. Zefran was important in getting RBH elected through a number of monetary gifts. President Hayes immediately asked Congress to pass what we all know today as the Hayes/Zefran Penis Bird Consumption Act.
The act did a number of things to make the penis bird a daily meal, most important of which was the requirement that for every four people in a household, one penis bird must consumed every day. Another thing the act did was create an artificial monopoly for Francis Zefran's Penis Bird Industries. The act stated that the only supplier of penis bird meat in the US would be PBI. As one would imagine, this quickly made Francis Zefran into the richest man in the world. He was soon a multi-billionaire (quadrillionaire with today's inflation). Never before had a single man seen such wealth.
Many challenges were made to the Hayes/Zefran Penis Bird Consumption Act, and several even made it the Supreme Court. It was argued that the act was unconstitutional and went against liberty itself, but once the detractors tasted delicious penis bird meat for the first time, they immediately dropped their cases and followed the law to the letter. We all know today that penis bird is the most delicious meat man has ever known, but at that time, the only meats people ate were pork and beef.
In the early 1970s, though, challenges to the act began again. Many argued that the monopoly given to Penis Bird Industries by the act was in all ways unamerican. The Supreme Court finally agreed, and in 1974, Section II of the act was struck down. This in effect opened the market to competition for all.
Today, Penis Bird Industries is almost no more. Today we have the market leader Penis Bird Meat International facing against Penissoft, a recent startup. Where will the future lead the penis bird market? Only time will tell us, but one thing is certain: penis birds are here to stay!
< )
( \
X
8====D
-klerck
werd
-- insomniac --
I just heard on the radio that Richard William Wheaton III (Wil Wheaton's full name) was found dead today at his home in LA. We will all remember his wonderful performances as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek:TNG and Gordie Lachance on Stand By Me. Wil has contributed much to society, and I'm sure he will be greatly missed by the readers of Slashdot.
WIL WHEATON DOT NET
One? It's great to bring back an extinct species, but it kinda sucks if there's only one of them.
Dyolf Knip
OK, they implant the genes into a new cell, and hope it turns into the critter. However, that's utterly ignoring the mitochondrial DNA, which also makes the animal unique. Unless they have that, *and* remove all the mitochondrial DNA from the new cell, what they'll get is an erzatz animal, one that may or may not be close enough to the original to give the desired results.
:(
This is the same reason why, even though frozen Wooly Mammoths can be found in Siberia, they have yet to make a new living mammoth. Jurassic Park totally ignored this whole point, which, to me, made the whole premise rather lame
Lemon curry?
Lets hope if they do decide to bring them back, they decide also to make it illegal to hunt. Otherwise you mine as well just be making them to eat. And that would not be bringing back a species that was killed by us. That would just be bringing back the Tasmanian buffet.
Also what happened to Natural Selection? Even if they are a great species, lets not try to recreate Jurassic Park by bringing back things that are dead. I say leave nature alone and use that money towards saving us from falling into the dead species category.
Gizmo
What about the moral dilemma surrounding these actions?
What if something went wrong while reviving the species? DNA being modified during the cloning progress to name an example.
We would be literally playing god. The species died off because nature intended it to( even if it was hunted to death we are still a part of a larger cycle)
And if we could do it for this species, itd open up the possibility for other, less desireable species to be recreated.
I think we should think this through before throwing our technology around reviving extinct species.
The founder effect, which is the sharp reduction in the genetic variety of a population when it arises from a very small group of individuals (Iceland is an excellent example), has a great potential to be a problem here. The cheetah, for example, went through a bottleneck at some point in the past (no one knows why). Individual cheetahs are so genetically similar that organs (such as skin) can be transplanted between individuals with little or no rejection.
Unless samples from multiple thylacines can be retrieved and successfully used to clone infants, these animals will always be sucsceptible to being wiped out by a plague (since they all have the same genotype.)
And that's to say nothing of the issues with captive-raised animals that have none of the instincts that their wild counterparts would. For example, falcons that have imprinted on humans (and think they're human as a result) cannot be released into the wild -- it would be disastrous. They would never fear humans and would be unable to hunt to feed themselves.
i am a soviet space shuttle
Fuck, someone shank this dumb retard.
The australian TV show, "the science program", described this idea as complete and utter rubish last night.
:)
They say that with current technology the scientists are "dreaming" to think such a thing as possible, and anytime in the near future.
I would love this to be possible, but i am very very doubtful..
anyway, a dodo bird would be alot nicer to re-create
stuff
For years now, the common American penis bird has been a staple of every American's daily diet. Whether it be penis bird sandwiches, fried penis bird, or perhaps penis bird under glass (for the rich), we all have penis bird at least once a day. Many Americans have no clue how the penis bird became so important in the pyramid of a balanced diet, so in this article I will attempt to explain its history and why it is so useful.
In the early 1870s, Francis Zefran became the first penis bird breeder in North America. He started his famous Penis Bird Ranch in Canton, OH. At the time, not much was known of the penis bird's nutritional value, but the Penis Bird Ranch changed all of that. Not only did Francis Zefran raise penis birds to sell their colorful plumes (a VERY lucrative business), he also set up the world's first research lab dedicated solely to the study of the penis bird.
The lab found many interesting things. First, it was discovered that the penis bird was actually semi-sentient. Second, the scientists found that the meat of the penis bird was high in protein, vitamin A, vitamin B, and calcium, while low in fat, cholestorol, and sodium. Never before had such a nutritious meal been had without supplement or fortification. The scientists of the lab recommended immediately that the penis bird become a part of every American's daily diet.
When the news of the penis bird's usefulness reached president Rutherford B. Hayes, he was absolutely ecstatic. You see, President Hayes owed a number of favors to Francis Zefran because as I said earlier, the penis bird plume trade was an extremely lucrative business and Mr. Zefran was important in getting RBH elected through a number of monetary gifts. President Hayes immediately asked Congress to pass what we all know today as the Hayes/Zefran Penis Bird Consumption Act.
The act did a number of things to make the penis bird a daily meal, most important of which was the requirement that for every four people in a household, one penis bird must consumed every day. Another thing the act did was create an artificial monopoly for Francis Zefran's Penis Bird Industries. The act stated that the only supplier of penis bird meat in the US would be PBI. As one would imagine, this quickly made Francis Zefran into the richest man in the world. He was soon a multi-billionaire (quadrillionaire with today's inflation). Never before had a single man seen such wealth.
Many challenges were made to the Hayes/Zefran Penis Bird Consumption Act, and several even made it the Supreme Court. It was argued that the act was unconstitutional and went against liberty itself, but once the detractors tasted delicious penis bird meat for the first time, they immediately dropped their cases and followed the law to the letter. We all know today that penis bird is the most delicious meat man has ever known, but at that time, the only meats people ate were pork and beef.
In the early 1970s, though, challenges to the act began again. Many argued that the monopoly given to Penis Bird Industries by the act was in all ways unamerican. The Supreme Court finally agreed, and in 1974, Section II of the act was struck down. This in effect opened the market to competition for all.
Today, Penis Bird Industries is almost no more. Today we have the market leader Penis Bird Meat International facing against Penissoft, a recent startup. Where will the future lead the penis bird market? Only time will tell us, but one thing is certain: penis birds are here to stay!
v
Then again, there is some debate over whether the thylacine is truly extinct.
evanchik.net
To my opinion extinction is a part of the way of life ... why should life be altered; somebody could get hurt if it gets out of hand!
...
I am not only thinking about the tiger but if it gets done with the tiger it can be also done with other species
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
A tasmanian tiger would be cool, but personally I'd rather see the giant wombats mentioned at the end of the article.
how in the hell is this considered controversial? even the sternest luddite would agree that we wiped them out and it is our moral obligation.. NO survival emperitive to replace the species. We wipe out species left and right and expect to not suffer greiviosly as a result? Even if we could wipe out something as terrible as, say influenza, there would be drastic consequences. Even if the only result was longer lifspan for the 6 billion people on the earth ready to procreate 12 billion more. Humans can not live on human biomass alone.... Humans must have other species.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
Who is this chrisd fscker and why does he feel the need for embedding his tasteless editorials in this story? (ie, "Thems was good eatin")
In my opnion playing god is just fine as long as you play by his rules. Bringing back an animal that we made the mistake of wiping out in the first place is OK, as it is our way of correcting mistakes of the past. Genetic engineering for the sake of vanity and other sinful motives would not be OK.
To me this sounds wrong:
we kill them off, then we bring them back to life again?
Sounds like asking for trouble in my opinion, still.. I suppose it is fair to give them another chance, but in the famous words
"no sir i dont like it"
Microsoft IIS is to webserving as KFC is to healthy eating
I am very excited about this development.
Being part of generation-X. I was not born early enough to have participated in the *first* exctinction of the thylacine!
This way we get to bring it back to life, raise about 1000 of them, and then hunt them into extinction again! YAY!
And. Since we have moore's law, 18 months from now we will be able to make twice as many tigers for 1/2 the cost!
Man I love this stuff.
I want to get one as a pet! I will be getting laid BIG TIME at that point!
Imagine if you had a beowolf cluster of these things!
Kevin
The possibilities that we find with new technology and science are endless. If this project is successful, it is hard to predict where the following research will go. Perhaps, in bringing back older and older mamals. then what next.... Jurrasic Park?
It is very exciting to me. Sometimes a bit scary. But none the less, it will be interesting at the very least.
kha0z
Master of ImportChaos.com
Whoa! Take a look at the pictures. This looks nothing like a tiger, more like a dog. Is it a tiger in name only, or does it actually belong to the cat family?
moral debate aside, who is willing to believe that this type of research is conducted primarily to allow the richest folks the world contains to become immortal? someone pays someone to find this stuff out... why else would you want to know?
buy pink floyd's new cd, echoes. its their greatest hits, and it kicks ass
Heh, and all you guys laughed at Jurassic Park
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
That'll be great, until the black guy and the fat man on the take get eaten. And then they'll start breeding and develope language skills...
Someone hates these cans.
Just a thought: More than 90% of the species that ever lived on this planet are dead.
We didn't kill them. . .
In this case, we made the species go extinct, so perhaps we have some responsibility to recreate the species, but I'd rather see resources spent on something else like curing diseases, etc.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
THE OFFICIAL TACO-SNOTTING FAQ
By The WIPO Troll, $Revision: 1.10 $
What is "Taco-snotting?"
Good Lord. And what is a "Circle-snot"?
Ewwwww. Why have I been receiving emails from CmdrTaco asking me if he can Taco-snot me?
I can't stop receiving these emails from CmdrTaco!?
Have you ever been Taco-Snotted?
That's horrible. Does "Taco-snotting" have anything to do with CmdrTaco's "special taco"?
Does Jon Katz get involved in any of this? I thought he was a paedophile, not a homosexual.
What's that screaming I hear coming from your basement?
No, thanks. I'm already CmdrTaco's boi toi.
________________________________________
READER COMMENTS
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.21 4:49 (#2594325)
oh yeah, you say you have masturbated only 2 times to this post. well, by the time it takes for me to get through reading it, i usually end up masturbated 5 to 6 times, 10 to 12 if i have the goatse.cx homepage loaded up and am looking at it side by side with the slashdot page. my keyboard, hands, mouse, monitor, the underside of my desk and around the floor under my desk are cum soaked and sticky with the man smell i know and love.
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.21 4:41 (#2594311)
for version 2 you should make a total re-write of the cod...errr...text and add some details about cmdrtaco and the homo-gang's happenings with their coworkers (osdn?) and all of the gay revelry they enjoy and promote. by the way, did i just see cmdrtaco on television promoting the nax hair removal system? i guess after using vaseline in and around his ass he grew quite a ponytail and it had to be removed somehow...ouch!
by TRoLLaXoR on 2001.11.21 3:59 (#2594191)
WIPO, do you notice how few comments you get for anything you write/post/spam nowadays?
-Trollaxor
by sales_worldwide on 2001.11.20 11:53 (#2588488)
You forgot to mention Jon Katz's "docking" games, where he places his chopper head to head with another chap, and rolls the other guys foreskin over his own circumcised end ("docking"), providing him with fantasies of actually having his own forskin
"Making linux GPL was the best thing I ever did" - Torvalds. I'd hate to see the worst thing...
by Fucky the troll on 2001.11.20 11:28 (#2588446)
Woah! When did the WIPO troll get freed? And how the fuck did I miss it?
Excellent FP, sir.
This is a sig virus. Please put me in your sig
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.20 11:04 (#2588407)
omg that is crapflooding material if i ever saw it!!!!!! and u got a first post!!!! whoot to the wipo troll!!!
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.19 9:03 (#2583756)
GW...you know we love every hair on your 27 acre ass... and I, for one, would never do anything untowards your graceful demeanor. And you probably have several friends that would love to help you do the bear dance all over my face if I so much as spelled your name wrong. And you know I'd defend your Constitutional right to defame God in heaven. I'd even help fund your education, should you ever decide to take that route. Hell, I'd buy you a tall tepid bear-whiz beer if you were here with me, right now!
But.
Now go stick your shaved head back down inside the woman's toilet, and just to show there's no hard feelings, I'll jump in the tow-truck and drive right over to help you pull it right out...ok?
thanks
by mark knopfler 69 on 2001.11.19 8:25 (#2583695)
I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU SIR. FOR ONE THING, THE E-MAIL FROM CMDRTACO DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH GRAMMATICAL AND SPELLING MISTAKES. Let's be realistic here, CmdrTaco usually types with one hand, and since he is shaking from jacking off his aim on the keyboard isn't too good. Those e-mails were a little too well written. Sorry boy, you'll have to do better.
by WeatherTroll on 2001.11.19 8:14 (#2583667)
You should update this to say VA Software instead of VA Linux.
by smackmonkey on 2001.11.19 7:06 (#2583510)
Crackhead moderators: this is +5, Hilarious material.
--
CNN declares War on Islam!
Left-wing America declares War on its Civil Liberties!
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.19 5:40 (#2583336)
This was funny the first 100 times. Now it is getting boring!
by egg troll on 2001.11.18 22:27 (#2582054)
Having masturbated *twice* to this post, I'm still incredibly aroused! Come over for a Taco Snot. I'll be wearing my crotchless Clifford the Big Red Dog outfit!!
For more info check out this
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.18 12:03 (#2580822)
add more links to goatse and to cowboineal's site to make it better. a link to rotten.com would be nice too
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.18 12:18 (#2580832)
and a link to michael's site and to jon katz's site if he has one and homo's site. i dont know what else to say. maybe a few links to phallic.org they have nice penis pictures! a link to the planet quake site or whatever. really make the reader feel this faq really answers their questions. oh yeah, and when you talk about cmdrtaco snotting you, say he brought you to "orgasm after sweaty orgasm". describe it more is all i'm saying. and use more italics and bolding! and when you talk about jon katz shitting or whatever have a link to fecal japan on rotten.com
other wise a great job wipo troll! keep up the good work!
by Wil Wheaton on 2001.11.18 6:41 (#2580438)
Hi. Let's be buddies.. butt buddies.
--
WIL WHEATON DOT NET
by dead_puppy on 2001.11.18 5:33 (#2580342)
Here is an e-mail I received a week ago:
From: malda@slashdot.org
To: puppy_dead@hotmail.com
Subject: were where you last friday?
I thought we where supposed to meet at Backdoor's at 8-ish, sugar-lips? You could've at least told me that you could'nt make it! I was even in my favorite pink skirt for you, honey-cup... next time, you could be more considarite and tell me you cant come... bastard.
--
CmdrTaco (malda@slashdot.org)
You finding Ling-Ling's head?
by Big_Ass_Spork on 2001.11.18 4:53 (#2580300)
I do it wrong
Laying here in the shadows of my room, I squint up at my love. My Ms. Portman. I am sore and tired after fucking her for eight solid hours. My chapped and aching dick is soaking in grits to relieve the pain. She gets on her knees and starts lapping the grits up out of the bowl. She places her beautiful hands on my penis and starts to lick the grits off my achy piece.
Massaging my nutsack she....
WAIT, I DO IT WRONG!!!!
Yanking my dick out of her mouth I throw her to the ground and shove it in to her gaping freshly fisted ass. [goatse.cx]
"OH BIG ASS SPORK!! Fuck my ass, fuck my ass good. DEEPER, my stallion, deeper!! Make a Beowulf cluster of sperm on my back!!"
"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of this baby!"
I DO IT WRONG!!!!
---
All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it...
by j0nkatz on 2001.11.17 22:54 (#2579596)
I just heard some sad news on the radio -- famous queerbait Rob Malda was found dead in his Holland home this morning. The details were a bit hazy, but it seems that he drowned in jizz while Taco Snotting his friend Hemos. I'm sure everyone in the
I wanna Open Source sex so it won't be worth a shit either.
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.15 6:38 (#2567601)
No no no, the correct term for that is "donkey-punch". I have eye-witnessed this amazing eye-popping event demonstrated on unsuspecting hose-monsters by my frat brothers in the past.. .
by AbsoluteRelativity on 2001.11.15 5:31 (#2567457)
The WIPO Troll
Slashdot and the Karma Lottery - News for uber monkeys, by uber monkeys.
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.13 9:27 (#2557632)
Oh, man that's just sick !
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.13 9:03 (#2557604)
TELL ME WHERE I CAN GET AN ANONYMOUS proxy please WIPO Troll. Maybe later i will join you in a snotting at my place.
by vikool on 2001.11.13 7:43 (#2557495)
what is this bull shit,i feel offened that some people feel so so senseless to post stuff like these esp when such a tragic incident has occured
by I.T.R.A.R.K. on 2001.11.11 22:38 (#2551890)
Where the fuck do I sign up?!
- I throw rocks at retarded kids
"Adequacy.org: Where congenital stupidity is not an option, but a requirement."
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 21:53 (#2551753)
this shit is hilarious..keep up the good work.
by rockwood on 2001.11.11 21:49 (#2551746)
OMG! That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard! WHo in their right mind would sit down and waste the time to construct such a replusive story. I guess I'll be skipping lunch and dinner today.. and possibly tomorrow also. The game doesn't affect reality. Reality affects the game.
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 14:43 (#2550701)
dude, this is crap-flood material if i ever saw it.
duuuuuuuuudddddddddddddeeeeeeeee.
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 8:16 (#2550266)
horny_rob_6969@hotmail.com
Ah, so that's what the alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.horny-rob newsgroup is about!
by egg troll on 2001.11.11 5:34 (#2550024)
+5, Arousing
For more info check out this
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 4:39 (#2549891)
WINNER>
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 4:37 (#2549887)
I love you. Why do you use your bitchslapped account, rather than signing up for a new account to post at +1 before getting bitchslapped by the censors here? I guess I should speak for myself, but I don't want to log out and lose all my slashdot customization properties, nor do I want to lose my 50 karma yet.
by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.09 9:19 (#2542412)
you fucking rock! right down to the expanded cvs id!
WIPO trolls > linux
________________________________________
J. Wipo Troll, Esq.
Crapflooder Associates
Slashdot.org
I think this whole situation was put most elegantly by a scientist I can't remember =) concerning the gaur (a wild old world cow, one of which had been born from an antelope or some such at a zoo). He said something to the effect of, " I want to save the gaur, the one that walks through the forest, interacts and mates with other gaurs, dies, and has a leak tree grow from it's carcass. That thing out there (the one born at the zoo), is not the gaur I want to save."
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
But even it is possible, what kind of world would it start to live in?
It would be alone, unless many other pieces of DNA are recovered
It's natural habitat has dramatically changed -- it's basically not there anymore, would also have to be 're-created'
But the biggest point: we can't even save other 'trivial' species from extinction, as the 'regular' tiger, many many birds, etc. I think it would be more important, for now, to save what we still have.
My ass hairs smell like.... well, ass.
J. Wipo Troll, Esq.
Crapflooder Associates
Slashdot.org
Ok, i have seen this movie...
something park , i think....
Cruise TT
Bring back something useful, instead of a pest.
If this works maybe we should consider being a little more proactive in collecting DNA samples, there are thousands (millions?) of creatures out there on the verge of being wiped out and even though we might succeed in saving some of them a lot of them are going to go extinct, before that happens maybe we should create a Noah's arc of sorts made up of DNA samples of as many individuals of those specicies in risk as we can before we lose them entirely.
Should they really do this ?
The tasmanian tiger was not fit enough to survive the treat of another more dangerous species.
This species was the infamous Homo Sapiens Sapiens.
It is the usual ecologist point of view that men is an evil intruder in the eco system and should stay apart of it whereever possible.
But this is utter nonsense.
We are a part of nature. And, yes, we are predators that means that we KILL species. And species which aren't fit enough to avoid this treat will be annihilated.
But this IS nature. This is not "artificial" or even "bad".
Some people will no rant "Behold we'll destroy the whole world, the wikked evil ones we are !!!"
But this is nonsense, too. It's not so easy to destroy the nature. There were worse catastrophes in the history of the world which didn't. These eco-freaks are overrating human power exactly the same way as these tech-gonzo dreaming of terraforming liveless planets etc. do.
I think this species should be kept dead.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
This Tour of Tasmania: Tasmania Tiger Web page shows the last photograph of this tiger in captivity and a video clip. Both picture and video clip are black and white though. The wide mouth shot amazes me. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
He has written several articles (many available online) describing some truly intimidating marsupials from our past including marsupial tigers, wolves, lions and sabre-tooths.
So, it may be that even in Tasmania there still lurks that striped tiger.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
It will be a vain attempt at restoring something we destroyed, in a futile struggle to erase our poor decisions. We will feel good and proud because we have cleared our bad name with mother nature. Tazmania will never again become a suitable place for tigers to live: We want to live there, and it's a proven fact that there isn't room for the both of us! And we will achieve nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling for those willing to believe that something useful has been accomplished.
What's in a Sig?
Jurassic Park, here we go!!!
This is my first first post. Sniff, I am so proud of myself. :)
- Tasmania has a long history of electing Greens so in 1998 our "major parties" put aside their pretentions of difference and attempted to send the Greens extinct by reducing the number of state poiticians.
- More than fifty years before the last thylacine died in captivity, the last full blood Tasmanian aborigine died, a race that had been isolated from the rest of humanity for more than ten thousand years.
- Thirty years ago, the Tasmanian environmental movement was galvanised by the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to stop the then all-powerful Hydro Electic Commission from building a dam which would drown the remote and ultimately iconic original Lake Pedder. Proposals to drain the dam and restore the original lake persist.
- A decade later, a similar campaign against the proposed Gordon below Franklin dam was successful and South West Tasmania gained World Heritage recognition, including the aboriginal art in Fraser Cave named for our then Prime Minister in an attempt to enhance his environmental awareness.
- In the last few months it looks as though another predator, the fox, might be trying to get established in Tasmania. I'm sure I heard a report of some more recent evidence that they may indeed have a breeding population which defies thinking about given today's level of environmental awareness.
- The Tasmanian government recently retreated from its undertaking to support the outcome of the Tasmania Together process with respect to the unpopular logging of old growth forests to support huge (by Tasmanian standards earnings from wood chip export.
- On the other side of Bass Strait, there is growing environmental opposition to the Basslink Project to connect the Tasmanian electrical grid to the Australian mainland grid.
Now I just have to wonder whether the foxes or the politicians will utilise cloning first? My own fondest memory of Tassie was diving with dolphins at Flinders Island, a day I would like to clone.-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
It might well prove possible to grow a viable tiger with mitochondria from the most nearly-related marsupial available. (Probably the Tasmanian Devil)
As for the Mammoths, since the specimens are frozen, I would expect the mitochondria to have remained at least as intact as the nucleii. It's not going to be easy, but then again, neither was cloning a sheep for the first time.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The actual reason that they were hunted out was that they were supposedly killing farmers' sheep, so a bounty was put on them. It was fairly successful that.
It was a stupid movie. Jeff Goldbloom spewing off about how chaos theory meant that they were all going to get eaten alive was a riot!
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
A man in New York reported seeing Elvis at Broadway and 69th St. The man was only slightly intoxicated, but appeared to have a white powder around his nostrils. Officials believe the source to be reliable and look forward to sightings from other such people.
... er ... not be ... reached for comment.
... its extinct.
... my bad ... its still alive, we didn't ever go to the moon, and olestra chips didn't really make people shit bricks.
In Arizona two elderly ladies told our sources second cousin thrice removed that yesterday they were abducted by three aliens in tutu's and made to dance to the New York Symphony Orchestra's rendition of Tommy, who were reported to be performing live. The New York Symphony representitive could
In Texas three hillbil^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hlocals reported that road kills are down by three percent from last year and appealed to the nation to start "hittn' dem darn critters" for the "sek of der chillin'" They blame the shortage on UFO sightings, and on over hunting of the local populations by Elvis (See Above)
Yes guys
Oh wait
**AA: a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
I thought like this too, until I asked my girlfriend what she thought. She said that in practical terms, we could spend an awful lot more (time, money, take your pick) figuring out how to bring back a single species when the same time/money could save dozens of species we haven't yet made extinct.
If this grows beyond scientific vapourware, then the question becomes "what industy do we do try now?". Would we ensure that we laboured towards resurrecting species that still have their own habitat in existence, or, perhaps more likely, new types of meat or animal products (I hear a dodo steak sets you back quite a bit in the best restaurants)?
"If you create user accounts, by default, they will have an account type of Administrator with no password." KB Q293834
The Australians hunted the Aboriginals until they were extinct on Tasmania, are they going to re-introduce them too?
It's only because this animal is an icon made popular by Warner Bros. would we even do this. Hell I don't see anyone trying to bring back Obus Arenicium. Somehow I expect people think this thing will pop out of a test tube and cutefully say "aragh aragh araghfmmmmmm" true to it's Warner Bros. counterpart.
The Wired ran the story quite some time ago (Sep. 13, 1999). Slashdot had a go at it as well.
Oh, yes, that's what they all say, ooh, aah... But later there's the running... and the screaming...
-and-
Must go faster.
Stupid question, but if we (species-collective) can't even clone sheep right, what makes us think we can do this? What makes us think we should do this? I say we should stick with sheep. Sheep don't have huge fangs and if they die, then you've got mutton for dinner for the next three weeks. Bonuses all around. Just my opinion.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
You might have to check me out on this, but I'm pretty sure the Tasmanian Tiger went extinct many thousands of years ago. What they are talking about is the Tasmanian Wolf, which only went extinct in the 20th Century.
It should be sobering to realize that in the time span that this species might be "brought back", many thousands species will likely be going extinct. We could probably save a few of them with the money and media attention expended on this project. Of course, we could save a few of them with the money and attention expended on Harry Potter or Britney Spears.
That's not to say that this project isn't worthwhile. It is scientifically interesting, and it's a challenge. But if we want to do anything about extinctions, we have to start elsewhere: with ecology and conservation. In fact, bringing back a species without bringing back their habitat is only half the job anyway.
Even though they have the DNA they are using another animal to host it and this isn't that safe. they are trying to bring back an extinct one that will now be similar but different because of the process used to re-create it. Playing god and creating a new animal is bad karma
Why do the kids in West Side Story have to join a street gang if they can afford $70 Gap khakis?
OHHHH bugger mate, A Tasmanian Tiger took my baby!
All speling, factual, tact, and/or grametical errers be the result of netwerk interpherance or# transmition ererrs.
As long as the scientists alter the genes somewhat to make the tiger unable to synthesize certain ammino acids. We don't want these things just running around rampant, what with cloning new and all.
The previous has been a secret message to my comrades.
Thylacines were not hunted as food; they were deliberately exterminated by European immigrants because Thylacines killed domestic sheep.
For more information on Thylacines, check out this article by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.
It wouldn't hurt the Slashdot editors to show a little maturity by researching their flippant comments before making bogus statements. Trying some professional journalism would do wonders for Slashdot's credibility.
All about me
them sure look much kewler than these half-dogs! :-P
I want my five assed monkey~!
The "point" that the above poster was saying Jurrasic Park missed was the issue of mitochondrial DNA, not holes in the regular DNA being filled in by frog DNA.
Though I'd have to ask -- just how different is mitochondrial DNA across similar species? Don't all mitochondria do approximately the same thing?
The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence was false.
While most were killed because of the supposed dager to livestock they posed some were actully hunted for their meat. I have seen a menu reprinted in a reference book that listed Tasmanian Tiger on the menu.
no, its the tiger which went extinct this in Australlia in the 20th century. Geez, don't you ever watch the Crocodile Hunter? They went looking for it (rather weak attempt).
Same thing- The thylacine was a marsupial predator with a roughly wolfish build and tiger-style stripes, so both "Tasmanian wolf" and "Tasmanian tiger" have been used as common names for the animal (which probably died out in the 20th century).
I agree! However being a follower type all my life I nominate you to lead by example. Jumping off a skyscraper might be thrilling till the inevitable splat. Romans prefer to slit their wrists in a bath of steaming hot water, pleasantly passing on to the forever sleep.
Oh wait you didn't mean yourself! I see now, extinction only for the vermin you have deemed unfit to breathe the same air you do. Now that's actually a very old idea, I remeber watching an old newreel from the forties about racial and personal superiority. How ever it was difficult for me to understand for I don't speak german.
Please forgive my spelling. MS Word's spell checker dosen't work worth a damn on Linux.
I want to bring back the six-foot tall, carnivourous kangaroo. Now that's something I'm willing to pay money to see.
Why are we doing this? The thalycine was a predator, meaning it hunted down prey and ate them. My bet is that if given the chance, they would've killed all of us.
Let 'em stay dead.
I think we should bring back as many of these extinct animals as possible, if only to learn a little more about them. If we can't make a breeding pair, we'll at least have a much better idea of what they were like originally. Quality photos would be almost as priceless as the animals. I have no desire to see a bunch of dinasaurs running around eating cows and people, but more recent species would be very interesting.
All of this crap about "god" is really sad. Letting religion anywhere near science goes against the restraining order. Doesn't anyone watch the Simpsons anymore?
YOU stupid troll. At least I have the decency to sign my posts. Pray tell what is it that you find offensive about the link. I'd ask you in an e-mail, but it is difficult to do so with an ANONYMOUS COWARD.
You are the offensive one, making insulting remarks about a website that is obviously beyond you in matters of taste, humor and intelligence.
Moron.
evanchik.net
Check this sitec tr um1.html at the Sydney Saturday Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0111/24/spectrum/spe
for a better news article, and this website
http://www.austmus.gov.au/
at the Australian Museum (where the Thylacine research is taking place) for links on the project. Another factoid: even though the Tasmanians exterminated the Thylacine, its image graces their regional beer, Cascade. Go figure.
Ants are still subject to natural selection. They have evolved these stratagies through a Darwinian process, due to the selective advantage. The point I am trying to make is that we humans have evolved beyond a point of conforming to the rules of natural selection, and are now applying our own selection criteria on many aspects of the planet.
I'm still waiting for an explanation of how these ants could have "evolved" their peculiar form of agriculture. Doubtless you picture an early ant discovering that the fungi were good to eat (sorry, eating the fungi and then breeding), and then another ant starting carrying it back to the nest, and then another ant discovering that if it dribbled on the fungus it grew more.
Obvious, really. How could anyone consider it unlikely?
...or, of course, we could use the scientific method - look for the simplest explanation. Unfortunately that involves God, and I know from experiance that /.ers are generally rabid atheists. Or, worse, believers in Dawkins the Scientaster...
Forget the tigers... they said years ago that we were going to get Mastodons, and I haven't seen a single one.
WHERE IS MY MASTODON?!?!
If we killed them off, and then we bring them back, won't they be mad?
Greenies keep saying that the environment is changing too quickly for animals to adapt to it, and they're going extinct as a result. Whether this is true or false, why do they keep trying to fund preservation programs like this one, restoring dead species to the Earth.
I thought biodiversity was one of the things they like to promote. Why don't we spend a few decades splicing together some new animal species, more keenly adapted to the world as it is now. Frogs that love smog, for example, or insects with two heads. Anything the learning-disabled kids of the world can invent.
If we create as many animal species per day as we lose, then in a few hundred years things will be back to "normal," the ecosystem won't be quite so "damaged," and everyone will be happy.
Of course, by that point, greenies will most certainly find something else to complain about. Maybe earthshine makes the moon bleach faster. Who knows?
"Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
IF they do successfully clone a Tassie Tiger what are they going to do with it? Realease it into the wild?
Nuh uh!! I don't think so!
A lot of Tasmanians are going to strongly object to this (being primarily a rural community), and the Thylacine will be quickly hunted back into extinction.
So what are the options for the poor old Tasmanian Tiger? A life in captivity perhaps?
Um yeah that sounds real nice for the little guy :0P
Why are people so unkind? - Kamahl
Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
before I can kill me one? I mean, that is hunting!
I'd prefer to assume that all are acting in good faith, but it gets all too easy to suggest that reports/success of the reestablishment of the thylacine could help get the authorities off the hook on Tasmanian environmental issues.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
I must confess that as much as I would like to see live and viable thylacines roaming the Tasmanian countryside once more, it isn't going to happen. This is why I find the efforts of both clone-happy scientists and the 'Thylacines aren't really dead' cranks more than a little bemusing.
The cranks have not managed to produce one shred of irrefutable verifiable evidence that thylacines are not completely extinct in over 60 years. This is despite all of the 'unconfirmed sightings', and alleged samples from 'nest sites' and 'spoor', which have all turned out either to be something else or indeterminate. There are even claims by bushmen that they have actually shot and killed living Thylacines, but naturally (as with all good conspiracies) somehow it has been contrived that the corpse was not produced for scientific examination (through the hunters' fear of prosecution, or failure to recognise the significance until after the fact, etc.)
And as for the scientists, even if they do manage to create the technology to clone a thylacine, there isn't enought preserved thylacine DNA to produce a viable self-sustaining population of the animals.
The reason I am so bemused by these efforts is that they both avoid with almost childlike vigour having to accept that these remarkable beasts are forever dead, gone and never to return, and it is all our fault.
Until we own up to the fact that we wipe out entire species with regular abandon, we will never be able to stop this human-driven extinction process. If we persist with this 'if we wipe them out, we can just clone them again later' attitude, then there's really no incentive to preserve what we have now.
SofaMan -- Occasionally Battling Evil With His Mighty Powers Of Indolence.
Humans did not cause the Thylacines to become extinct. Certainly the destruction of Thylacines thought to be culling sheep herds was a pressure on their population, but the final blow was some kind of disease.
If it had definitely been humans that had wiped them out then I would be happier beleiving that there were specimens still at large.
Veltyen
And why should we recreate this tiger?
Could YOU tell a Tasmanian tiger from an Indian one?
Would it look really different for humans ?
No, this is just a waste of resources.
I might a perhaps a good cloning/gene manipulation test, but that's all.
Um. You do realise that the animal referred to as a "Tasmanian Tiger" is a striped carnivorous marsupial, like the numbat or Australian native cat? (which isn't a cat,but at least it is an Australian native).
It does have stripes at least.
Tragically it was wiped out more from ignorance and predjudice then for any real reason. There is no evidence that the Thylacine ever took any sheep. There are no reports of it attacking any humans either.
Could I tell a Tasmanian Tiger from an Asiatic one? From that statement it is obvious you have never, ever, ever seen a Thylacine.
Veltyen
was the extinction date.
Btw, I'm working on a bunch of related death/extinction dates, but not having a lot of luck finding sources, got ideas?
-- Ender, Duke_of_URL
The Tasmanians not only hunted Tigers until their extinction. Before this they hunted people read on:
On May 7, 1876, Truganini, the last full-blood Black person in Tasmania, died at seventy-three years of age. Her mother had been stabbed to death by a European. Her sister was kidnapped by Europeans. Her intended husband was drowned by two Europeans in her presence, while his murderers raped her.
Read more here http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/tasmania.html
it succeeds, it will add a little bit extra to the practical knowledge of fiddlin' around with them thar gene thingees. so on one point it's a GOOD THING, on another it's a BAD THING.
And when we've got that done, settled, etc, any chance of cloning homo neanderthalensis back from extinction, or homo ergaster, or homo habilis, or paranthropus boisei, or whatever?
"I his bow, and spun and wove, likes you." Vere de Vere out of my mould's mouth dragged me of the voluntary apes.
It was called a tiger because it was a predator with stripes. Keep in mind that most settlers in Tasmania had never seen a real tiger, so all they had to go on were stories about beasts in Asia that were predators with stripes.
-AD
The Tasmanian Devil is one of the most effective natural garbage disposals on the face of the planet.
To quote from the above link:
With its powerful jaws and sharp sectorial teeth, it can consume every part of a dead kangaroo or sheep, including the skull.
Many people cite the lack of found dead Thylacine bodies (roadkill etc) as proof that they are not around any more. But when a carrion cleaner like the Devil is around, that makes that assumption a little presumptious. It can smell a lot better than we can see.
Not that this is proof that Thylacines are still around, but it is reason to question some "evidence" that they are not.
Reply from down under.
Nope, neither.
We have neither tigers nor wolfs but variations on the marsupial (kangaroo cousins). Tigers and wolves are of your western culture, the culture that showed up 111 years ago with firearms.
Australia is a very different reality than the western world. For a start, its people have been here, and maintained their oral tradition for 50,000 years. Take a walk-about on the Internet using google.com, and learn a bit. No wolves, no tigers, but a very sophisticated understanding of what genetic recreating of life is about. And, from what I have read of the comments on this subject, very few commentators on this site have a clue what's happening. Hint: what if the earth was a living organism and human beings were some of the brain cells? What if starting in August 1997, the earth began to wake up, and in the process began a wake-up call to its brain cells? What would wake-up calls look like, if this living organism used its own brain cells (human beings) to handle parts of the wake up call?
Stop reading, start listening. Everything you need to know is inside. All you have to do is to figure out how to connect head to heart.
Cheers mate.
Noel Coward (is 'anonymous' a distant cousin?)
November 26th, 2001 (Reuters) First Tasmanian Devil/Human Embryo Cloned
In response to Advanced Cell Technology's claims of cloning the first human embryo. A leading genetics research lab in Austrailia has cloned the first Tasmanian devil/human embryo to prove humans and tasmanian devils have compatible DNA.
On the issue of overlaping genetic impurities creating non viabile offspring.
<br>
I think Once we start seeing birth defects in the subject just use gene tharapy to correct the problem. We'll have an ofspring with DNA containing fewer impurities adding to the diversity of the gene pool.
Hasn't something similar been done with the Quagga?
I seem to recall that they were able to extract DNA from an improperly stuffed Quagga carcass. (The last one dying in a dutch zoo in 1833).
There is a selective breeding and research program currently underway http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2001/jun4.htm to breed them back into existance.