Slashdot Mirror
Cloning Cows for Cuba
AVIDLY INTERESTED writes: "You've got to hand it to the Cubans. They have been surviving by hook or by crook since the collapse of Communism without the subsidies the USSR used to afford them. Now, according to this article at The Age they are using the ingenuity of their scientists to clone White Udder, the cow of all cows, that will cover an entire nation in healthy milk moustaches."
...so it can't be tipped.
My grandfather used to work on cross breeding plants to have weak genes.
If you cross bred a weak gene plant with a normal plant then the offspring will inherit nearly all genes from the second plant.
This way when he found a particular wheat plant with very high level of protein he would cross breed it with the weak gene plants in order to reproduce it nearly intact.
This research was quickly forgotten when cloning came along.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
http://www.milksucks.com
Don't support the dairy industry it's trying to kill you.
The vitamins are added, the anti-biotics attack your immune system and to top it all you run the risk of Crohns Disease [and that aint nice - from one who knows].
Skip the cows and grow earth sapping mono-cultures instead
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
They're tasty! They're good for you! they will help you defend your socialisty people from being conquered by the evil capitalist governments who want to destroy the last bastion of freedom and crush the socialist dream which will live on forever and ever and ever and... (snipped 4 hours of speech)
Plus, each Cloned Cuban Cow(tm) comes with it's own Fidel-like beard! Get them while they're new!
(Gloria Estefan and Celia Cruz do not speak for The Cloned Cuban Cow Company)
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
Cow's milk is good for baby cows, but not so good for humans. Human milk has substantially different nutritional profile. Plus, in nature, milk is not consumed by mammals past puberty. There is no such thing as a dairy "food group" (there is a dairy lobby , however).
So, by all means, let's encourage Cubans to consume dairy products, so that they will develop some of the same nutritionally-connected diseases that we have. While we are at it, let's export the whole USDA "food pyramid" myth.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
Apples are very different from cannabis so they won't cross breed.
I have heard of gene labs which produced THC in eadable forms (eating leaves is not very good).
But this method would be used in making a weak gened cannabis plant then if you are lucky enough to find a high yeild plant you cross it with your weak one and you have a forest of very good crop plants.
Although original application was to make high protein wheat which can survive in Africa.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
When they outlaw in the US it will still be available abroad. Here we see an example of where the US has outlawed cloning, but they are doing it in Cuba. So you want to clone your child, I'm sure if you have the funds then you can go to cuba and have it done. (well maybe not now, but when it is possible and tested it will happen outside the US).
Only 'flamers' flame!
From the article: Dr Jose Morales, the head of the White Udder cloning project at the Havana Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, is confident a breakthrough is imminent. "We're very close," he said. "We have big things coming. This project is very important to Commandante Castro."
I bet some appropriate technology measures would fit the situation better than this. Or even just the old cure-all: training and education. Cuba overcame illiteracy. Surely they could also provide county agent-like services to their farmers to overcome the described decline in cattle health and performance. Here's a description of county agents from 1925. This sounds like exactly the kind of thing that Communists would be good at--government paternalism. Paternalistic or not, extension agents vastly improved the practices and lifestyle of rural Americans for the better during the mid-20th century.
On the question of whether milk is good for you, it's got a lot of protein, calcium, and fat that you need when you're very young. And fortunately children aren't generally lactose-intolerant. That sets in, when it does, after puberty usually.
P.S. Slashdot meetup URL
It's very possible and doable. But no, it would take a lot of money and time to do it. Far from kitchen chemistry. Maybe not billions, but millions. First, you'd need to determine the metabolic steps between water and CO2 to get to delta-9-tetrahydracannibol. [1] Figure out all the enzymes and proteins involved. Figure out where they are in the genome. Spice forever.
[1] Also, you must consider, do you want just D9-THC? Imbibing Cannabis is different than just taking a D9-THC injection or pill; there is a lot of other minor cannaboids (D9-THC is the most abundant) that add to the 'stoned' experience. You'd have to repeat this for each cannaboid!
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Mmmmm.....
Daisy Fuentes with a milk moustache.
Now *that's* what Cuba's good for!
Cuba has enough economic problems without wasting it's money on cloning. It'll probably cost them as much to develop a cloning program to clone this one cow as it would to begin fixing the root problem: lack of good nutrition for the cattle. That would be money much better spent. After all, no matter how wonderful this "White Udder" is, without adequate food, it's not going to be any healthier then any of the other cows, and it sure as hell won't improve Cuba's economy and quality of life by itself.
"They do not sin at all, who sin for love" -Oscar Wilde
...about "mad clone" disease?
-- Terry