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Shrinking The Watermelon
Makarand writes "Scientists who have already eliminated seeds and sweetened the watermelon
have now
miniaturized this fruit to the size of a cantaloupe. Only the outer speckled shell looks give a clue to what fruit it really is. Syngenta, a Swiss agribusinesses' North American subsidiary has brought this minimelon to the market in 30 states to satisfy
customers who favor something that is easier to store and less troublesome to prepare for consumption. No biotech or genetic engineering at work here - the company merely crossed different
breeds of watermelons to produce the minimelon."
Here
Selective breeding sounds a whole lot like genetic engineering to me.
In any case, I bet these will be popular in Japan, if the stories I have heard about watermelons and Japan are true.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Who cares about small watermelons when you can have square watermelons?
Thoughts on stocks, markets and trading
Seedless, five pounds, and perfectly spherical, Syngenta's patented minimelon
â" under the brand name PureHeart â"
Just to let you know, I've patented DNA.
I expect you all to send me 5 Euros or be killed.
Genetic Engineering: Creating a new organism by directly altering its genetic code (most notably by 'splicing' code from other organisms into it). Understandably, this idea freaks people out. I must say it doesn't make me particularily comfortable. Selective Breeding: Overriding the subtle hand of Natural Selection in species' evolution with human choice; ie. hand-picking which organism will breed with which. It's the origin of just about every 'domesticated' species, such as wheat, dairy cattle, and (er, I think) brewer's yeast. Selective Breeding is where Chihuahuas, Pekes and Devon Rexes come from, so it's not entirely in my good books either.
What's the big deal?? They have those small watermelons in Japan for many years (some watermelons are as small as a softball). I know this, as I worked in watermelon shipping warehouse in Japan for a while.
Excuse me, but what do you think cross-breeding is?
Crossbreeding IS genetic engineering - just because no gene splicing is involved does not change that.
www.eFax.com are spammers
This does not mean that there is less risk, 'normal' plant breeding is quite capable of producing something toxic on its own
That's the problem with the Simpsons. You never know when something is real. Of course it's not real that it would pop back to a spheroid shape. But I think even in the show it cost 10,000 Yen.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
Even the store clerks at Vons seemed taken with the little melons.
"Those are the cutest baby watermelons," one said on a pass through the produce section. "Aren't those like little babies?" said another.
The real news here is the shocking news that Vons employees like to eat babies. Compared to the image of grocery store checkout workers huddled around cute little baby-sized spheres, cracking them open and eating the sweet, sweet red insides, tiny watermellons just doesn't sound all that disturbing.
Of course, maybe you think tiny watermellons aren't supposed to be disturbing, but that's just because you're tiny fruit desensitized.
Narrative
I think that reducing the size of the watermelon would dramatically increase the flavour, considering it's the same amount of fruit and juice, but compressed into a smaller space. You can achieve the same effect by "super-ripening", a process whereby a melon is over-ripened. Melons which have been super-ripened have superior flavour - though this is something I read somewhere, I have yet to see such a melon should it exist.
Can anyone confirm this??
From the linked BBC article:
Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon.
So a normal watermelon costs $28 in Japan??? I'm guessing they are imported and not common in that country.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Bill
bamph
and less troublesome to prepare for consumption
I never knew it was that hard to cut a watermelon into quarters and put it on a plate.
I saw these at the local market about a month ago, and I impulse bought one. It was a little on the watery side (in other words, the flavor wasn't terribly intense), but then that wasn't exactly the best time of year for watermelon, so it's not exactly a definitive taste test.
Just because it works, doesn't mean it isn't broken.
Softball sized? much too large.
We had spherical watermelon seeds ordered from catalog in (circa) 1975. We were on the borderline of their recommended growing climate in Maine, so they grew to merely baseball to softball size by autumn. Tasty, but small -- single-serving size. Many of them fit in my windbreaker pocket, for eating after school while scoring a soccer game. Much amazment from folks who'd never seen a tiny, round watermelon.
Bill
wdr or n1vux as appropriate
I would have thought the American consumer would have wanted larger melons. That's the impression I get from The Man Show, anyway.
Actually, I remember a story on BBC news that some researchers had discovered that women prefer buying smaller melons because it makes them feel less nervous about their chest size.
Curiously, this psychological phenomenon doesn't seem to stop men buying foot-long hot dogs or subs.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
My roomate and I grew a watermellon in our backyard last summer. It was the size of a golfball. Then the slugs ate it--since one slug stayed out in the middle of the yard until midmorning and risked being eaten by the crows it must have been darn tasty. Stupid slugs.
So, um, take THAT!
I have seen these at our local Supermarket for about the last 6 months, but only last week my roommate and I bought one. The size was definitely easier to handle (you can just halve it and scoop out the flesh like a grapefruit) and no seeds was nice, but frankly, I didn't think the taste was up to par. My parents have a normal watermelon and the flesh is very sweet with a sugary consistency, but this was quite bland with a stiffer consistency in your mouth. I guess we'll just get used to the sub-par flavour from these in the same way as the tomatoes and bananas we get from the large supermarket chains.
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
How to recognize real news from Public Relation:
The PR stuff is usualy better written and more funny. The smarter journalist often end up in better-paying jobs at agency, writing the "news" for their lazy colleagues at newspaper.
I loved the Vons clerk story, though.
[I may be little paranoid, but that does not mean that nobody is trying to shrink me with these mutant melons]
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
That's EXACTLY what I meant to say slashfag.
Ever since I switched to Linux I've had to coanstantly visit my local LUG's to help with even the most simple tasks.
All that KY that I'm forced to use to get some help, has really loosened up my stools.
My nigger nuggets are so soft now that I was asking for someone to iron and starch them so I can go back to haveing my normal tight and tanned popcorn morsels.
Selective breeding is why we have Super Athletes the likes of Michael Jordan. Centuries of slavery wherein the strong survived, and bred, have created strong, coordinated black people with good rhythm.
Unfortunately for a white folks, we group together differently: fat people marry, smart people marry, and athletes marry, and so it is we're developing 3 separate subcultures (the largest one by far being the largest one by far: that fatty's).
It will be interesting to see where these trends take us.
In a related story, Monsanto today announced its patenting of MegaMelanogaster (branded "MegaMel"), a genetically-engineered fruit fly about the size of a Volkswagen. The fly, which was specifically designed to thrive on fruits not under Monsanto patents, has been in field testing just east of San Diego for the past year.
Heralding both the patent development and the initial results of the field trials. Monsanto spokesperson I.C. Bucks said the company is now positioned to more aggressively police their intellectual property rights. Bucks added that Monsanto has applied to the FDA and the FAA for approval to expand the field tests to include the entire San Diego metropolitan area beginning early next month.
Duh!!! It's fucking prior art. You can't patent something that has been discovered in nature. That would be like having a patent on atoms. Now, if you engineer a DNA sequence, then you can patten that. Just not the function or creation of something already in existance.
Life is not for the lazy.
Just cut what you can't eat from a normal watermelon into ice-cube sized pieces and freeze them on a cookie sheet. Place in ziplock bag when they're frozen. Then, later, take a handful of pieces, put them in a blender with some sugar syrup, grenadine, and a dash of salt. Blend and serve - mmmm...
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)