Slashdot Mirror
Simpsons Fan Creates Real Tomacco Plant
An anonymous reader writes "So, according to a KPTV newscast, a Simpsons fan with too much time on his hands grafted a tobacco plant and a tomato plant and, ta-da: tomacco! Leaves and most likely the fruit (yes, tomato is a fruit technically) contain nicotine. Delicious AND deadly!" Simpsonschannel.com has a small news piece on the breakthrough, but in a Frink-like move, although scientists have found "nicotine in the leaves", it turns out "the lab hasn't tested if the actual tomato has nicotine in it yet, but they say it probably does."
From the article: "The plant grew off the tobacco roots and sucked up the nicotine, just like Tomacco on The Simpsons.
:P
What do you bet that McDonald's will start using these tomatoes to make us all addicted to their salads and burgers?
"This tates like grandma!" Love that episode.
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
I mean, just look at Skittlebrau!!
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
grandma
no i have not shot my gun in the air and gone 'Ahh!'
That's just wrong.
I do find it interesting that the linked site has a retraction of the "Fox News is going to sue us" story. Perhaps a slashback is in order?
Sig under construction since 1998.
As I understand it, evolution/natural selection is the natural effect when beings are subjected to adversity: only the strong survive. Thinking about this, it becomes clear that in a model where evolution is the sole factor traits that affect survival are gradually weeded out over time because those without such traits are more likely to survive. So too beings that experienced beneficial mutation are likely to preserve such traits.
But this article raises an interesting consideration. When I was in junior high, we took a brief field trip to collect pond water to view under microscopes, and one of the most interesting things was how those little critters with the thing called a flagellum would zoom around. This article brings up the point that this device, which is not exclusive to pond scum, is "irreducibly complex": it is made up of several parts, none of which separately would be of beneficial use to the creature employing it (in fact, such a creature would probably die off under natural selection.) The odds of a mutation creating all parts simultaneously are astronomical, and consequently, the only accepted theory that can sanely describe such a thing is intelligent design, which has been hinted at in many different real-life examples as well as probabistically explained by Pascal's Wager.
This theory is currently derided and discriminated against in favor of older theories, mind you, much as Galileo was in favor of the theory that the Earth was flat, because it threatens to dredge up the uncomfortable unknown. But like any theory, the more evidence that is found to support it particularly to the exclusion of existing theories, the more likely it is correct. So as skeptical as I am of intelligent design, I can't help but notice how much of our biological model it predicts. Has anybody heard anything more about this?
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Did I miss something?
Is it the 1st of April?
Surely you are pulling my leg yes?
Splicing/grafting plants together is not that hard, but I thought this could only be done with plants of the same eh..family.
...I feel very safe awarding this individual the Too Much Time on Your Hands Award for this week. Surely, nobody can surpass this.
I wonder where they got the plutonium to grow the crop?
If Phillip Morris starts selling tomatos, I'm not buying.
"Technology.....the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." Max Firsch
I for one welcome my alien tommaco overlords!
spend your mod points NOW
They are actually a type of vegetable called a fruit vegetable. Like a pumpkin.
1. Create Tomacco
2. Profit!
It will be low calorie, high in vitamins and addictive. At least you get something for your nicotine poisoning.
Fight Spammers!
I guess they could use tomatoes as an alternative to the patch now?
funny geek shirt
Everyone seems to set about making the impossible things in TV shows become a reality. Perhaps we need to start a TV show where geeks get laid by hot chicks all the time?
mogorific carpentry experiments
Start them early with Tomacco's! They'll start craving vegetables.. then just give them regular tomatoes. They'll have already made the connection that tomatoes make you feel better!
Also seems like a good way to try to quit smoking?
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
They are both nightshades.
Tomato plants can get the Tobacco Mosaic virus, too.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
yes, tomato is a fruit technically
Yes, botanically the tomato is a fruit. However, legally, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, tomatos are vegetables.
Noone pays any attention to his Mincemeat Pies.
Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear.
Wherein The Simpsons serves as prior art.
They're simply addictive! We hope to have a full line of Tomacco snack food products on the shelves as soon as we can get the pro-forma FDA approval.
-- R.J. Reynolds
Let's get this guy working on the raining donuts!
I can see the crowds at the movie theaters...
Hey, at least now people can poison themselves eating devil fruit instead of smoking and getting lung cancer... this has gotta be highly marketable to those wanting to kick the habit.. easier to kick eating the tomato than smoking a cigarette... and probably hella cheaper too.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Now all we need it caffine infused tomatos!
I'm still waiting for the "tobaccy and clam ice cream" for chain smoking otters.
Setting fire to tobacco leaves and breathing in the smoke gave Nicotine, an innocent bystander (in moderation), with potential for improving the brain's concentration levels, a bad name.
Bad company corrupts good character. And in the case of Nicotine, bad cigarette companies.
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
The odds of a mutation creating all parts simultaneously are astronomical, and consequently, the only accepted theory that can sanely describe such a thing is intelligent design
Intelligent Design is an "accepted" theory?! I think you've been smoking too many tomacco leaves...
Sell the tomatos? Go to jail like the pharmacists who made stop-smoking nicotine lolly-pops.
Somehow he must have violoated some genetic experimentation ban.
What if a child ate the tomato? Child abuse!
Deny anything you are charged with? GUILTY...denial is the first symptom!
...does it smell like Grandma?
Delicious AND deadly!"
this is wrong. nicotine itself has many benefits, including making you think clearer and faster. this is part of the reason it's so addictive.
it's the delivery device (cigarettes) that's the problem.
Tomatos are a fruit, pumpkins are a fruit - both mean absolutly nothing as they are just names we give the object that grows from the flower of plants & holds the seeds. If it makes you feel any better you can call them mushy seed pods... There is also no disco fruit even though you will see ppl use bananas in interesting ways at night clubs.
If The Simpsons has taught us anything, and it hasn't, it's that Tomacco plants aren't a good idea.
I'm so mad that I'm fuming!! Yet another example of science gone awry. I hope to god this doesn't happen, but I have a feeling that I'll be reading a story soon about how this "tomacco" plant has been found growing in the wild, after some seeds escaped from the lab. All of our tomato crops are at risk!! I believe this is the GM plant to be modified with a known poison. How many others currently on the market will be found to be poisonous?? They certainly aren't tested.
First:
I hate to be the one to point this out, but astronomical or not, there are thousands and thousands of these bacteria in every cup of water, and the pond is a lot bigger than that.
And so is the ocean.
And they've had literally millions of years to stumble upon it.
I'm not sure what your definition of Astronomical is, but maybe you don't see what I see.
Second:
The mutations didn't all need to happen at the same time. As long as the original mutations didn't give the organism some disadvantage, there's no reason why it couldn't have spawned thousands and thousands of other organisms with the same oddity, and one of those could subsequently have evolved into the bacteria we see today. Remember, selection pressure works in both directions: unless something is being selected against, it isn't selected out of the gene pool.
the tomato and tobacco are both variaties of nightshade, as is the potato.
All of these plants already contain nicotine, so of course he found them, and various other alkaloids. The only question is the concentration and where that concentration is.
You'll also find nicotine in things you might not expect, like bananas, beef, cow's milk and cottage cheese.
Eat a tomato leaf, potato leaf, or even the wrong parts of a potato and you can end up, very, very dead.
Enjoy your fries and ketchup.
KFG
I've never wanted to go out for a veggie break so bad before.
Oh, that's easy.
It's a can of tomato juice and that clam juice...
oh wait. Nevermind.
Bizarrely enough, there's actually a US Supreme Court Decision on this (Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)). There was a tariff on fruits, but not veggies, imported from the West Indies. Plaintiff claimed that, since tomatoes are fruits, his imported tomatoes should be exempt from the tariff. The Supremes begged to differ:
... all these are vegetables, which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with or after the soup, fish or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert.
"Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans and peas. But in the common language of the people
"The attempt to class tomatoes with fruit is not unlike a recent attempt to class beans as seeds, of which Mr. Justice Bradley, speaking for this court, said: 'We do not see why they should be classified as seeds, any more than walnuts should be so classified. Both are seeds in the language of botany or natural history, but not in commerce nor in common parlance.'"
Hence, tomatoes are legally vegetables in the US, botany be damned.
Would ketchup packets replace nicotine patches?
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
i like wackybrit's idea best
An open plea to the Simpsons writers:
Please, more episodes about cold fusion.
Thank you.
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Clearly, Matt Groening (pronounced: p-uh-mpk-in) is the Isaac Asimov of our time.
I see, so someone at the lab ate them already and is now paying the price.
I know there are several other theories that explain how irreducibly complex structures could evolve through agencies other than "intelligent design". The only one I can think of at the moment is the "scaffolding" theory. According to this theory, there are intermediate elements that are developed during the evolution of the complex organ, but they are lost when the entire organ is created and the intermediate parts become redundant.
In an analogy, the intermediate pieces are the equivalent of the scaffolding that holds up an arch while the arch is under construction. When the arch is completed, the scaffolding can be removed, making it appear to people who don't understand arch-construction (but do understand physics) that the arch must have been created by magic.
I don't know anything about flagelli, so I couldn't give you an example of how there could be intermediate stepping-stones to a completed flagellum.
Also, it doesn't make the resultant complexity any less cool. It probably is even more cool because it was created by evolutionary pressure rather than intelligent design.
Tomatoes are fruits (berries).
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
In this case he has grafted a tomato plant on a tobacco root.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Could appeal to those who are quitting smoking but are also concerned about they weight they will gain because of it.
Like the grapefruit diet, they could eat a salad with these tomatoes, when they get a craving.
(The grapefruit diet also recomends high quantities of caffeine drinks like coffee, which also goes well with cigarettes.)
..."who gives a shit?" category.
Somebody will come up with something with a web site that shows Darl McBride with Hitler, Stalin, Bill Gates, etc. in a parody of the "Evil Bert" campaign of a few years ago.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
how did this guy get the plutonium to do this stuff? Did Lennie send it to him?
We played dungeons and dragons for 3 hours.....then i was slain by an elf
... but with marijuana plants. Tomajuana anyone?
This is a hybrid. It was created by grafting the roots of a tobacco plant with the stem of a tomato plant. Both are in the nightshade genus, so they grafted OK. This is not a seeding, or reproducing plant. It's a single freak. Thereis no genetic engineering involved, just plain old grafting, a practice that has ben practiced safely for over 1500 years. Get a life freak!
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
And fruits, including berries and tomatoes, are vegetables...
Not just McDonalds, but lasagne, linguini, moussaka, taco salsa, et al. - a LOT easier to make restaurants smoke-free.
A BLT with smoked bacon and smokers tomato...
Drinks too - what about the Smokin' Hot Bloody Mary?
The possibilities are endless. Homer is a true humanitarian.
Altria is Phillip Morris... or was, Phillip Morris International changed its name to Altria. Altria owns both Phillip Morris USA (the tobacco company), and Kraft Foods.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
btw, you're wrong.
The Solanaceae family also includes potatoes, chile peppers, and eggplants.
So not just tomacco on your sandwiches, but also tomatsup and a side of potacco fries. A trip to taco bell would be loaded with tobalsa, in addition to tomacco. Tomeggplant parmesan with tomacco sauce would be absolutely loaded with it.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
PATENT IT!!!!
Its common knowledge that tomatos can be grafted on to a wide range of plants in the Solanum family including potatoes, tobacco, Datura, etc. In fact the Russians made a tomacco back in 1956 (See Glavinic, R., 1956 (Vegetative hybridization between tomato and tobacco). Priroda (Nature), Leningrad No. 11: 98-100. (Russian)).
Now if we only had only had slashdot back in 1956.....
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
he guy who grew it thinks the tomatos probably contain a lethal dose of nicotine in them. I don't see this going to market any time soon, but it sure is a fun little story. Now if we can just get Flavin's teleportation machine out of the garage sale and into my living room everything will be good in the world!
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
(-1 Offtopic :-)
Applacco: An applacco a day keeps the cigarette away !
Cabbageacco: There's now a way to make your kids WANT to eat their cabbage soup.
Carrotabacco: It's not a problem if you overcook them !
Maybe we deserve this world ?
And I think that's all that needs to be said.
I'd throw a whole bunch of tomaccos at you for this... but at $379.50 a carton... who would ever do that!!
just need the tomeato plant.
Sig?
Intelligent Design could predict EVERYTHING. That's why it's a useless theory.
If you come up against anything you don't care to analyze, you can lump it in under, "oh-thats-clever-therefore-god-designed-it", and that's the end of it.
So we shouldn't try to figure out how the hell flagellum evolved, and just accept this axiomatic designation of "irreducibly complex"? I think that's a pretty piss-poor attitude.
If you take away any of the parts, it doesn't work. Okay genius... what if there were 4 components before, and one went away... or what if all three were changed from other things in one cataclysmic genetic event that propogated fast down because it was so successful?
I'm not even a microbiologist and this is pretty obvious to me.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Graft a Marijuana plant with all types of vegtables/fruits and grow it. Take the seeds of this plant and plant them everywhere. Make sure to plant them close to large corn fields etc, so when next years crop comes up we are all getting high. This could also be an effective tool for terrorism. Simply graft something toxic with a regular plant and make sure to pollinate it everywhere so hopefully (for the terrorist) people everywhere will eat your food and die.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Unfortunately nicotine is also carcinogenic.
I've often heard about certain soft drinks containing addictive and even illegal substances in the past, so I wouldn't be surprised if soembody takes advantage of this: http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/cocaine.asp But on the other hand, could nicotine-tomatoes, like the patch, become a viable substitute for those trying to quit smoking?
People say "What are the chances this Earth could exist like this?! It must be planned!"
Out of the infinite universe it really isn't that shocking that somewhere in the entire universe a planet with complex life developed.
If the chances are 1 in 500 trillion, well 500 trillion out of infinite is fairly regular then no?
So just be happy that you're on the planet that won the lottery instead of worshipping some make believe superspirit...sheesh...
"Vegetable originally meant any plant, as in "the vegetable kingdom", or Twenty Questions' opening gambit, "animal, mineral, or vegetable?" And fruit meant any edible plant part. With the development of the science of botany, however, the meanings of the words have shifted. Vegetable is now used to refer to herbaceous (non-woody) food plants or their edible parts. Fruits are the reproductive parts of a plant, the ripened ovary of a flower and its contents and related parts; vegetables as well as other plants like trees can have fruits." Source.
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
No matter how hard you ass-rape Timothy, it's not possible to get him pregnat. Sorry, you'll just have to face facts here.
Too bad that won't work with cannabis, despite the old urban myth that it does. Mmmm, I'd be sure to get my daily recommend dose^H^H^H^Hserving of vegetables per day.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 -- Mathematics is the Language of Nature.
In Reality, not everyone lives in the US. Tomatoes ARE a Fruit.
Jonathanjk.com
Tobacco is the easiest plant to use for genetic manipulation, which is why so many genetic hybrids are based on it. Tobacco mutates a lot in the wild. Often a genetic transformation is attempted on tobacco before a more difficult plant is used. This saves on work and expensive ligases. I learned that in my genetic engineering in agronomy class in college. This is interesting, but not nearly as interesting as a few years ago when an FSU professor crossed THC and oranges as revenge against drug policy that led to the family car being impounded due to the son having weed paraphernalia inside.
In general, if what you eat has seeds (or is supposed to have seeds, like bananas and certain grapes), they you are eating fruit. We eat corn and bean fruit by strict botanical definitions. "True" vegetables are when we eat the leaves, roots, stems, or flowers.
We (mankind) have done so much genetic manipulation with our crops (for milleniums, not just from Monsanto) that most would never be able to survive without our continued cultivation.
Whether we domsticated them, or they domesticated us, is debatable. From their perspective, it looks like they have enslaved the human race to do their bidding (spread their genes around the would and into the future).
In order to do something like this with marijuana you'd have to resort to genetic engineering.
Nice try, but anyone who actually holds that opinion is most likely incapable of correctly spelling or using the word 'awry'.
Anyone else getting 404's for the images?
if u watched the newscasts or read the article, you would have seen that one tomacco would be extremely lethal. Go ahead and give that to your kids, they make the connection that tobacco is bad real quick.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
hay doods whats going on in this jesus hating thread? oh wai
I don't know for sure that it's this show. But I heard on radio this morning that the guys finally refused to make the show when they learned that the girl was actually... a transsexual!
Now, what you said about getting laid uh?!?
I'd rather be sailing...
Worst... plant... ever.
Citing e2 is a laughable form of proof. And, botanists have no right to redefine words in the English language.
Specialists in a field often like to create new definitions for existing words when they find more specificity to be convenient. But nobody outside that field is obligated to obey them. "Experts" like to forget this, such as military types who claimed John Allen Muhammad wasn't a "sniper" because he attacked from less than 500 meters. Or computer salesmen who claim a hard disk drive isn't "Random Access Memory".
But I'm still waiting on my hotdog tree to grow. I planted that hotdog years ago, and the tree still hasn't sprouted...
take off every sig for great justice
Looks to me like he only grafted tomatoe on tabaco rootstocks. A hybrid would be an actual genetic cross between the two. I have never done it but have seen in botony books that you can do much the same with cannabis rootstock and hops. Both are a closely related monotypic genus. You would be in deep doo doo if someone caught you growing this kind of hops to brew your beer with. After you harvested the hops and destroyed the hemp roots I do not know what would happen if the FDA or DEA wanted to check your beer! This is a clear case where IANAL. Get competent legal advice before you try such a scheme. You can probably find criminal monkeys in India to do initial testing. don't blame me for any trouble they get into.
heh heh heh...
...but "Seinfeld" was cancelled several years ago.
A round of applause for the Reverend Phelps, please. Now stand under this piano for a moment. Thanks.
The only sane thing I could come up with.
Nicotine is most definately not good for you. It constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. Unless you're shooting for a heart attack I'd avoid nicotine.
Well, would somebody please outline how to go about grafting up a tomarijuana plant, or maybe even a tree of some kind?
Now THAT would be an accomplishment.
Many of the items us humans eat and enjoy are actually designed by the plant to deter or kill insects. Caffeine, THC, opium, nicotene, chilli (hot peppers), black pepper, garlic, onions, etc. all make those chemicals to keep bugs and other stuff from eating them.
Caffeine is used as a topical insecticide spray and will murder many types of bugs in minutes.
So in a sense, they are all posions.
Nicotine (I believe) is actually a carcinogen, but less so than a lot of the other stuff that comes with smoking tobacco. I still wouldnt want it in a food anyway, I have enough additions as it is already. I don't need that one.
Image change in progress. Stay tuned. (Speculation on my part.)
I will have to unfriend all my friends, because "neutrals" look so cool in shades. Nice shades matth.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
As I recall Seinfeld was not cancelled ... he just wanted to do something new. NBC offered him 5 million per episode to stay.
are you _actually_ siding with lusers who say "oh, i have 20 gigabytes of ram, 2.4 ghz hard disk, and a 256 megabyte processor?" that's likely the kind of behavior the computer salesman you criticize was correcting. props to whoever it was for being clueful enough to know that, rather than BEING the salesman who sells a computer with "20 gigabytes of ram", etc
We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
Albeit, in minute amounts. Read the Botany of Desire for more info.
Changingthe value of pi?
Where's my THC tomato?
Goes great with a nicotini!
Garg
Garg
Alumnus, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
The clip mentions this, but nicotine is very hazardous to your health. I distinctly remember one of my crappy college jobs, which involved cleaning and organizing cabinets full of chemical compounds for a lab, filled with acids and toxins (it was a lab that studied pesticides). The container that was the most heavily protected and labelled as toxic? You guessed it, nicotine. It was in a sealed glass jar, containing another plastic container that held the actual container of the nicotine, all labelled as extremely poisonous.
Nicotine is extremely cardiotoxic, and can easily kill you if you took too much of it. The amount in an individual cigarette is pretty miniscule, but the longterm cardiac damage is what winds up killing smokers as often as lung cancer does. Too bad nicotine also happens to be one of the most potent neuro stimulants...
Hops and cannabis are both closely related monotypic genii. My botony text says you can plant cannabis for rootstock then graft hops onto them. Warning soft herbs like hops and cannabis are much more difficult to graft than fruit trees. Your legal liability for use of this technique is on your own head the same as if I told you how to make a dirty bomb.
The big problem with ID is reliance on probability as proof of existence of God. Improbable things happen on regularly, or at least improbable sequences (take lottery winners over a fairly short period (1-2 yr.) in a single state); the probability of a single sequence of lottery winners is on the order of the probabilities quoted for the development of organs such as the eye. Instead of many slightly improbably events, there are a few highly improbable ones - both situations reduce to the same thing. Ultimately, in many situations, all of the events are improbable, so an improbable event must occur. Probability (even of highly improbable events) doesn't distinguish between the existence or absence of God - either the argument becomes circular (highly improbable events are done by God) or falsifiable (how do you distinguish between improbable events facilitated by God and events not facilitated by God?). In addition, the cutoffs for "probable" events are arbitrary - again enters circularity.
Of course, this becomes irrelevant in a religious sense. If God means what science can't explain, you get the "God of the gaps" (see Wired - 2002 -article about the Vatican chief astronomer). Faith isn't determined by proof - if so, it's fact, not faith. ID is an attempt to mandate God - either to support a faith that is weak and needs proof or to force others to believe in a god of your choosing. It is not necessarily Luddite - people want power over others, power that comes from asserting absolute right, although this is destructive to the means (faith) and the ends (choice of individuals to believe and achievement of the results of that belief). I don't think the people asserting ID neceesarily want people to go back - a technologically advanced world might be OK if they could control it. The difficulty in controlling technology makes this hard to do - so they try to get rid of what they can't control, which is ultimately everything.
ID is bad science and worse theology.
Google Search
Obviously, this means we should just eat meat.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
nt
Apples with THC. Talk about forbidden fruit!
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
I went as Duffman for halloween... Where's my news story?
Halloween 2003
Maybe we'll start seeing actors eating a LOT of tomatoes in TV and movies.
http://jesus.everdense.com/
Citing e2 is a laughable form of proof.
And citing a website titled "Crazy English Page" and written by a Korean who appears to have a meager understanding of both English and HTML is somehow less laughable?
And, botanists have no right to redefine words in the English language.
What botanists may or may not do with respect to the English language and its common usage is of no concern to either of us. The fact of the matter is that even in the common usage of English fruits and vegetables are quite different, hence the phrase "fruits and vegetables". So, pray tell good sir, if both botanists and the common layman believe fruits and vegetables to be distinct, why should they be anything but?
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
http://www.nicotinevictims.com/poison.htm
...was that I've been awarded a patent on genetically modified tomato/tobacco plants and am now going to sue him and Fox!
:-)
(And if you knew anything about the US patent system, you'd know that prior art doesn't mean squat!).
-psy
The evil Dr Eugene Cross, takes the final step. His brilliant isolation of the gene group took 10 years. The technique of group splicing, which he introduced at Cal Tech, but for which he was censured and poohooed worked! Now he would get even with the industry and scientific community that rejected him. His 5000 bags full of THC spliced tobbaco seeds would show the world once and for all his genius!
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
Its called MacGyver... or Star Trek (TOS). Take your pick.
I for one welcome our new addicted tomacco worm overlords
I say tobato
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
It was not TOO long ago that two states actually wrote into law the value of pi... and on top of that, an INCORRECT value.
Why would this be different?
Well the traditional definition of fruit is that it should be sweet (for instance in Websters: ..." the usually edible reproductive body of a seed plant; especially : one having a sweet pulp associated with the seed "). The reason a cucumber or tomato or pumpkin or squash etc are not generally considered to be fruits is that they are not sweet enough. Remember, the word was not invented by scientists, it was people who wanted to describe a certain kind of thing, and tomatoes and pumpkins and such probably did not fit what they were talking about.
Yes, grafting would work, but, as THC is produced in the flowers of the cannabis plant, THC and the other cannabinoids would not transfer from the roots to the hops, thereby making the exercise pointless.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 -- Mathematics is the Language of Nature.
It's a perfectly cromulent word, kinda like embiggens.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, giants of litterature dreamed up science fiction foretelling real inventions.
So now, with Skitlebrau and Tomacco, Matt Groening joins their rank.
I wonder if the other two were as appreciated in their own eras?
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
One of my most dearest sci-fi inventions.
Cross Pot with Kudzu.
Suddenly, you have out of control pot plants conquering the landscape. Take that Washington.
God spoke to me
I can't believe no one mentioned this already (I searched the comments page.)
In a graft, which is what has been done here, you stick the stem of one plant (tomato in this case) onto the root of another (tobacco in this case). If the two plants are closely related (as are tomatoes and tobacco,) the hybrid plant will grow and survive; often, chemicals (nicotine in this case) will move in the sap from the roots to the leaves (and presumably fruit.)
This is NOT a genetic change. If you took these "tomacco" seeds and planted them, they'd grow into regular tomatoes. Making the genetic changes required for tomatoes to actually make their own nicotine (which would breed true,) is an entirely different and more complicated prospect.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Could this be used to wean people off of cigarette addictions?
I like my corn popped actually (air popped). But she won't let me have it that way because I guess the body treats popcorn as an almost pure carb.
Though there is something about corn-on-the-cob, grilled slightly. Even without any toppings (butter is anathema) it is DAMN yummy.
I forget...are we at war with Eurasia or East Asia?
Why would this be different?
Because Alabama never changed the value of pi, and Indiana's bill was defeated in the state Senate 106 years ago. In other words, the whole "tomato is a vegetable" declaration actually happened.
For more information, click here.
Story submitted to Slashdot, rejected. Maybe in a Slashback?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
They could still run the risk of getting gum or throat cancer just like it happens with chewing tobacco.
"Tomatsup"? Please post your "D'oh!" now or we will be forced to do it for you.
SQUEAK, the Death of Rats explained.
...or sprinkle cocaine on their bran flakes!
"You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."
mushroom
pron. mush'room
noun
1) Any of various fleshy fungi of the class Basidiomycota, characteristically having an umbrella-shaped cap borne on a stalk, especially any of the edible kinds, as those of the genus Agaricus.
2) Something shaped like one of these fungi.
Unless you're trying to say that portabellas and shitakes are made out of beef, I'm seeing fungus among us. ;)
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
We were promised flying cars by the new millennium decades ago. Any news on grafting automobiles with flight technology? I want my flying car!
Ok, mister poster - I'd like you to cite some published works that conclusively show that nicotine is deadly. No, don't tell me to "do my homework" as doing "homework" is the job of the claimant, not the challenger of said claim. I can't get enough of you slashdot morons that come out and say $RIDICULOUS_CLAIM and then in the same breath "oh it's not my job to support my $RIDICULOUS_CLAIM, that's YOUR job! I don't have to prove shit - I'll just state it as fact and badmouth anyone who says otherwise"...
And I thought K5 was bad... glad to see slashdot turning into just another mindless liberal shitrag...
Nicotine is certainly addictive, but there certainly hasn't been any proof as far as I am concerned that it is deadly.
No kidding. It also damages blood vessels, producing atherosclerosis, and raises the risk of blood clots forming. The best thing a smoker can do to reduce the risk of an MI is to quit smoking, even if he's fat, lazy, with a crappy diet and high cholesterol.
lol ;-)
Ah, so lemons are veggies then....
I hear tail of using pot roots on barley tops. legal enough to pass prying eyes as what is that growning but the THC count will tell your a different story.
Most times its the root system that produces them fun chemicals and the only problem is finding a plantthat will work on top.
Leaves and most likely the fruit (yes, tomato is a fruit technically) contain nicotine. Delicious AND deadly!
I read somewhere that eggplants contained nearly as much nicotine as tobacco. Still, they aren't deadly.
a beowulf cluster of these!
Simpsons did it!
Nicotine is most definately not good for you. It constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. Unless you're shooting for a heart attack I'd avoid nicotine.
Salt is most definately not good for you. It constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. Unless you're shooting for a heart attack I'd avoid salt.
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
it's the delivery device (cigarettes) that's the problem.
So why does chewing tobacco cause cancer? Seriously, I'd like to know.
PI is exactly 3!
--arcades
Homer was eating them a couple of years ago. And no science involved-- just good marketing!
If the FDA doesn't rule it illegal to traffic in these things, the Tobacco industry will pay the government to outlaw it.
Nicotine is their personal profit machine, and only they may benefit from your slow death.
... and give their progeny a chance to evolve?! Hell no!
Just because some moron that works at slashdot can't fact-check another moron's story that was submitted to slashdot doesn't make the tomato a fruit. The tomato is as vegetable as fucking eggplant.
Now I can stop using these stupid nicotine patches and move on to tomacos!
Right, but that's 12 or so geeks laying with one girl. And that's just ew.
Tomacco IS PEOPLE!
I'm still holding out for the "tomijuana".
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
Tomatoes and tomato plants already contain nicotine.
When bananacaine will be made, then I will be more interested in DNA manipulations.
Let's overcome our weakness.
And vegetables, including electromagnetic radiation and Regis Philbin, are matter-energy-information.
This is not my opinion but rather pointing out your own words.
"God created everything."
An inability to explain is not proof of falsehood.
"The underpants gnomes really exist"
An inability to explain is not proof of falsehood.
Do you see the uselessness of that argument? It's almost as bad as "prove God doesn't exist".
Most widely accepted *ny nonscientists*, you mean.
I guess you are saying that 4 billion morons can't be wrong?
- AC
You could probably do a gene splice if you really wanted to...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
That was another show in the UK, made by Sky telivision (AKA FOX)
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Sounds like a Japanese corporation, if ya ask me.
...
Ya didn't, but I'm just sayin' is all
Tomatsup Heavy Industries - we make things with nicotine.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
DH wins
...In English, it only carries the abstract meaning of making ((sb)) feel confused, mentally frustrated, and/or self-conscious.
Check out that guy's definition of "Embarrased"
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I want my Tomeato.
I heard somewhere recently (can't recall where) that if you were to eat the tobacco from three cigarettes, you would die within minutes. Any truth to this? I've routinely smoked more than 3 cigs in an hour's time, and I know people who smoke even more than that.
Is it possible to OD on nicotine from smoking, or only via ingestion?
Yep, a graft is just a "Franken-plant".
Lets graft some fruit and nut plants onto marijuana plants.
* Vegetable has 2 common meanings. One of them includes tomatoes. When a person claims that is incorrect, he is wrong.
* Fruit has a common meanings (culinary) and an uncommon one (botanical). The latter includes tomatoes, the former does not.
So, pray tell good sir, if both botanists and the common layman believe fruits and vegetables to be distinct, why should they be anything but?
The fact of the matter is that in the common use of English, tomatoes are not fruits. So pray tell, if the common layman and the skilled chef alike believe tomatoes to be vegetables, why should they be anything but?
Umm, well, the parent said it was the delivery mechanism that was the problem, not the tobacco.
"Technically sir, tomatoes are fags."
"He means fruits!"
"Yes, fruits!"
Oh, you've been hearing about the "School Lunch" version, have you?
The author was named Glavinic?
"With the smoking and the snacking and the hey-hey-hey is it a fruit or is it a dangerously addicting DRUG glavin..."
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Sage, dude. Sage advice.
Here is a nice link about why they would be toxic: Toxicity
Meanwhile, across the Border in Canada, where they grow tobacco, but AFAIK aren't plagued by kudzu, the Americans talked them into making marijuana illegal, but hemp seeds don't contain significant quantities of THC, so they're not illegal. A couple of years ago, the hemp stores up there figured that they had sold enough seed to grow about 12 million pounds of pot, while their Federal government claimed that police had confiscated about 10 million pounds that year. So the good guys were _winning_, and the amount that was left was about an ounce for everybody. :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If you're trying to behave yourself and not slather the corn with butter and salt, lime juice is pretty nice.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I think they do that with cat food.
Yes, it's a grain. You're not eating the stems or cobs, you're eating a seed with a bunch of seed-growing food attached. Depending on what condition it's in when you eat it, the seed-growing food may be mostly sugars (when it's still young and growing) or starches (after it's either been picked for a while or matured enough on the cob.) So if you want that sweet corn in perfect condition, start the water boiling right when you walk out into the back yard to pick it, and run back inside.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Do Not Try This At Home. You Don't Want To Do This. So he says that basically all the mean nasty things that caffeine abuse does to you happen all at once - headaches, nausea, jitters... This is one of those things that, when your high school teachers were telling you "Don't experiment with Drugs", may not have been quite what they were thinking about but was in fact good advice. Stick to drugs that are known to be safe and effective, like marijuana :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
im still waiting for the THC ridden mango... as much as i love simpsons, why havent they inspired that yet?
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
> ...or sprinkle cocaine on their bran flakes!
Nah, too expensive.
The unofficial
When you graft something, you'r not comgbining those plants are you? I thought grafting was taking a cutting and more or less implanting it into the stalk of another tree..
If you really wanted Tomacco fruits, wouldnt you want to cross polinate or genetically engineer it?
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
Imagine a slashdotting in 1956: overloaded punch card readers causing the walls to vibrate; boffins in white coats clutching their ears in pain at the noise; miles of ticker tape flying around the room; vacuum tubes glowing so hot that the server really would melt.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
The whale is not really a fish. It is in fact an insect.
All things in moderation; including moderation
Haven't you ever read the "About Internet Explorer" box?
Based on NCSA Mosaic. NCSA Mosaic(TM); was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I, for one, welcome our new genetically-engineered plant overlords!
Too bad that the parent comment of a nice /. discussion is modded down....
Someone grafting a tomato plant onto a tobacco plant is hardly evidence for any theory of "intelligent design."
Or of intelligent life on earth, for that matter.
According to the US Department of Education, Ketchuop and Salsa are both vegtables....
The worst part of being athiest.... You don't have anyone to talk to during orgasm!
Especially in the USA, the 'war on drugs' has taken on ridiculous proportions.
This may be a way to counter it, just as continuous P2P networks counter (in practice anyway) ridiculous DMCA-laws and softwarepatents.
Imagine doing this, not with tabacco and tomatos, but with cannabis and tomatos (or tabacco, or some other normal, not-illegal plant or weed). Can you see the ramifications of this? The war on drugs would become like the occupation in Iraq: impossible to hold on to in the long run.
After all, it's not illegal to grow tomatos in your garden, nor to smoke them. This kind of bio-engineering has the potential of making tremendous social shifts. And while some may claim doom, I'm rather optimistic that human society as a whole is not going to be destroyed by social change (history has shown us that much).
It's time someone tried it out.
I've been reading slashdot for over 3 years now and this is without question the best story I have seen so far ;)
Tomacko!
Nicotine is actually a poison . Before downplaying the intake of poison I would learn the facts. As for cigarettes and the diseaes they help bring on learn about how they get those little numbers on their packs before thinking you are any less exposed.
Course, you could just prove it all wrong by soaking a pack or two of cigarettes in 32oz of water and chugging it after cutting off your phone service and access to medical help.
-1 Overrated (Too many big words for me to comprehend)
The translation sounds a little weird. Is it taino for "tube" or "pipe"? To smoke a pipe makes perfect sense also in english.
They're assuming the tomatoes contain a OD quantity of nicoteine - they haven't tested them yet. If each tomato contains the same amount as what's absorbed from the average smoke then the tomatoes are no problem as far as eating are concerned.
Citing e2 is a laughable form of proof.
Wikipedia says: "In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy." (If you don't agree with Wikipedia, you can go in and change it.)
The tomato is a berry, homologous and analogous to the fruits of other plants whose fruit is colloquially called "fruit"; as far as I can tell, the colloquial "fruit" is a botanical "fruit" that is sweet.
Or computer salesmen who claim a hard disk drive isn't "Random Access Memory".
Then would you claim that the Dance Dance Revolution Konamix CD for the PlayStation game console is "DDR memory"?
Will I retire or break 10K?
& News Limited sued them
In the English slanguage, a "fruit" is a homosexual man, and a "vegetable" is a person with severe impairment of mobility.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The bed scene, after the lovin' is done...
"Marinara sauce?"
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Being a scientist, I much prefer the unambiguous language of botany when it comes to fruits and vegetables.
But it makes me wonder, how did it ever come to be in gastronomy that a tomato is a vegetable, or a squash, or a cucumber, but a pineapple, a pear, and a banana are all fruits? What was the original criteria for separating these obviously analogous plant-parts into different classifications?
Yeah, I'll stick with the botanical definitions thanx.
Anything that you can think of has already been thought of.
This idea, combined with perpetual copyright, gives the entertainment industry entirely too much power over society.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Is cannabis a grass? If not, then why do habitual users of MJ call it "grass"?
Will I retire or break 10K?
You[r] body needs carbs anyway
Excess carbs become fat. Remember the recent Atkins article?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Next we need
popplers, Slurm, and solent cola.
TruePunk | Games
The fact of the matter is that in the common use of English, tomatoes are not fruits. So pray tell, if the common layman and the skilled chef alike believe tomatoes to be vegetables, why should they be anything but?
Why do layman call tomatoes fruit? Because the supreme court told them that tomatoes were fruit so they could collect more taxes. See Lawyer's Weekly for more details. It's an old flame, people have sued over these arguments.
I used to wonder what was so holy about a silent night, now I have a child.
Actually a nicotene laced tomato plant may not be such a bad thing. The original use for tabaco/nicotene was actually as a pestacide. Perhaps the tomaco would be naturally insect resistant (and since it isn't a GMO would be acceptable for export to the EU, according to the article it was the result of a tomato plant spliced onto tabaco roots).
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
It's a public health issue due to some people being highly allergic to the stuff. My aunt will start hyperventilating if she eats any MSG. My wife breaks out in hives if she's exposed to any, and my boss at work gets a quick "high".
It's nasty stuff if you are one of the people who's body can't tollerate it. However, if it doesn't bother you, it's a cheap flavor enhancer.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall
So, how long before a tijuana plant is made?
Mike Meyers: "Dad -- how can you hate *The Colonel*?"
Mike Meyers: "Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fort-nightly, smarrrrrrrtass! Oh, I hated the Colonel, with his wee, beady eyes: 'Ooooh, you're goin'ta buy my chicken, oooh!'"
"The Simpsons" are NOT role models! I love the Simpsons, they make me laugh but no one in their right mind would copy what they do!
Ew.
Forget the patch, I'm having spaghetti!
This signature has Super Cow Powers
OK, I meant Tobatsup.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Has any one else heard of a restuarant in NY that is selling dishes with tobacco in them? I thought I heard an NPR artical to that effect once.
Sounds YUMMY!
Come the revolution, the Bourgeois, Capitalistic, "A PARKING STICKER HOLDERS", will be first against the wall!
Jouster
Actually, there have been some studies out (Heard on the Dr. Dean show) that show that nicotine could actually be benefitial to the heart in moderate amounts. Obviously, too much of anything will kill you. Something to check into, maybe these tomacco plants will be healthy as long as the nicotine level is quite low.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
This assumes that blood clotting was always critical to life,rather than merely beneficial. If you assume a primitive organism that merely had slightly enriched sea water running through its circulatory system, then clotting is beneficial, but not crucial to life. It therefore becomes possible to develop a low level clotting factor as a non emergency repair mechanism. I am not saying this is the way it happened, but if I can come up with a possible scenario in 2 minutes, random chance can come up with one given long enough.
Is this an achievement?
People are stupid enough to get (mentally) addicted to anything. It's like banning food to cure obesity.
Of course, all "vegetables" are "technically" fruits. The notion of "vegetable" as distinct from fruit is a cultural construct. Ain't Slashdot great?
P.
I'm incredulous....
/ vg 15.htm
Considering tomatoes are subject to the virulant tobacco mosaic virus (TMV),
see following link
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/oldnotes
I think that tomatoes would object to sex with tobbaco under these circumstances
AudeoJude
Looking at those links (the ones that worked), all of them seem to discuss the effects of consuming too much nicotine. Your example of soaking a pack or two in water does this too. I think we can collectively agree that consuming too much nicotine in a short time is bad for you. However, if I consumed the amount of nicotine in two packs of cigarettes over the period of 3 months, would it be poisonous?
In other words, how is this different from alcohol poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, etc.?
It's a neurotoxin, just like Asparthame (Nutra-Sweet), only more people are affected by MSG than Asparthame.
I call Shenannigans! Shenannigans!
The whole bit about Aspartame being a neurotoxin is an internet urban legend. It has absolutely no basis in science. In particular, the claim about methanol poisoning from digesting the stuff is just wrongheaded since you get far more from drinking an equivalent amount of fruit juice or beer.
Furthermore, the G in MSG is glutamate, an amino acid and is pretty safe. This is the component that people claim is a neurotoxin. It is true that glutamate can do nerve damage in high doses, but consuming MSG in food will not bring blood glutamate levels that high. You get a good amount of the amino acid from just breaking down proteins from plant and animal sources in the body. By the way, the reason that MSG works as a "flavor enhancer" is because the tongue actually has a fifth chemical receptor beyond those of salty, sweet, sour, and bitter -- one that bonds to glutamate.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
"Tastes like...burning" -Ralph Wiggum
Dada ended art.
Hence, tomatoes are legally vegetables in the US, botany be damned.
So is ketchup if you listen to the Reagan administration.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Is cannabis a grass? If not, then why do habitual users of MJ call it "grass"?
Is cannabis cookware? If not, then why do habitual users of MJ call is "pot?"
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hstoma1105,0 ,7531912.story?coll=ny-health-headlines
such ironic irony.
(text below)
To reduce the risk of prostate cancer, it may take the whole tomato.
New research on rats suggests eating whole tomatoes can reduce prostate cancer deaths more effectively than taking supplements of lycopene, a chemical found in tomatoes that has been associated with lower prostate cancer risk.
Several earlier studies in humans had found a link between high lycopene blood levels and a lower risk of prostate cancer, but it was not clear whether lycopene was the effective agent or whether it simply signified tomato consumption.
The new research suggests lycopene acts in concert with other nutrients in the tomato, creating a synergistic effect, said study author John W. Erdman, a professor of food science and human nutrition at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Lycopene is a carotenoid, a type of antioxidant that plays a role in disease resistance and includes beta-carotene, found in carrots and dark leafy greens like kale.
"Lycopene clearly contributes to lower risk, but we never believed it was a magic bullet," Erd.man said. "There are a number of other good things in tomatoes," including other carotenoids and vitamins C and E, to mention just a few.
"This study suggests that taking lycopene as a dietary supplement is not as effective as eating whole tomatoes," he said, encouraging the consumption of tomato products in pasta, salad, juice, even pizza.
The study, co-authored by Dr. Steven K. Clinton, professor of hematology and oncology and nutrition at Ohio State University in Columbus, was published in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a peer-reviewed journal.
It is one of a number of studies that have raised questions about whether the benefits of nutrients like antioxidants can be bottled.
Jeffrey Blumberg, a researcher at Tufts University's The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a self-described "advocate of rational diet supplementation," said the question of food versus supplements doesn't necessarily have an either-or answer.
"No one ever suggested supplements are a substitute for eating whole food. They are what they say they are -- supplements to a diet," he said. It is easier to absorb lycopene when tomatoes are pureed or sauteed, he said.
As part of Erdman's 14-month study, researchers treated 194 rats with a carcinogen to induce prostate cancer, and then assigned them to a diet of either whole tomato powder, pure lycopene or a control group.
The rats that consumed the tomato powder had a 26 percent lower risk of prostate cancer death than the control rats, researchers found. While 80 percent of the control group died of prostate cancer, 72 percent of those on lycopene died, and only 62 percent of rats on tomato powder died.
Half of each group had a diet of 80 percent of the average daily food intake, which also was found to lower the risk of developing prostate cancer.
The sun simply defying every known law of physics and continuing to burn after it has expended all its fuel is impossible.
Like sailing around the flat world is impossible, or warping time is impossible?
For that matter, you have no idea whether the Sun has expended all its fuel. You have a suspicion -- there's a lot of energy hitting us, and people theorize that the Sun has N units of energy left and that it will stop at some point, but we certainly don't know. There are a lot of people wondering how quasars keep blasting out energy after they really shouldn't based on our assumptions. Maybe you're right about the Sun, and maybe not.
In an infinite universe, anything that can happen will happen, somewhere. Does this mean that my chair could possibly convert all of its thermal energy into kinetic energy and go flying around my apartment? No. That's a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
The second law of thermodynamics is a purely statistical law. We have a model of particle motion that says it's pretty unlikely, but certainly possible for the second law of thermodynamics to not occur for a given situation. This is *exactly* the sort of thing that we would predict would fail given an infinite set of attempts at breaking it.
Bullshit. Intelligent design has very specific implications, meaning that we should hold the human body accountable to the same (or higher, if the designer is omniscient) standards that we hold any modern piece of technology to.
I've already said that I'm not arguing in favor of intelligent design or creationism. I *do* like arguing against claims that I feel are definitely too strong. As for your ID claim, that's clearly false -- here's a counterexample. Bob makes an AI (I'll assume that you don't have any problem with him doing that, and that we can treat this as a reasonable working assumption). The AI grows and designs and builds a new computer system beyond Bob's ability to (directly) produce. The AI would be incorrect to believe that it is therefore not the product of intelligent design.
We generally consider a lack of robustness and the possibility of complete destruction when performing a routine task (humans can die from eating because we use the same pipe for breathing as ingesting solid food) to be indicative of total incompetence.
That is one interpretation. However, people rarely simply up and choke to death -- we have pretty hardwired systems to avoid choking to death, including the gag and choke reflexes. There is the problem that growing an extra eating aparatus produces another system that must be cared for, carried around, fed and maintained, and is vulnerable to damage. Who's to say that it's a good decision to avoid using the same orifice to eat and breathe?
Why is this "intelligent designer" held to lower standards than modern-day mechanical and electrical engineers, even though the "intelligent designer" is supposed to be a code-word for God?
When a mechanical or electrical engineer churns out a specimen of homo sapiens, you can then use this argument with justification.
That's thanks almost 100% in part to modern medication, which a good chunk of the world does not have. Without it, we'd be fucked. Without modern medicine, we can die from a common cold.
Yes, and it's also damned unlikely to happen. By avoiding having to attempt to attack the common cold, we retain an extremely effective level of generic ability to fight disease, can reproduce when transferring a smaller set of undamaged DNA (you don't need this "anti-cold code"), and for that matter, are equipped with a brain capable of *producing* said medicines. I mean, I have a good friend that makes robots that explore mines autonomously. It maps them out. The robot's reasonably robust (well, for a modern day robot), since it goes through some pretty unpleasant environments and has some pretty expensive hardware...and if it gets stuck, you can
May we never see th
Kindly leave the stage. Now. ;-)
Chewing tobacco is often prepared with smoke for a few weeks to enhance the taste. That process loads the tobacco with e.g. (carcinogenic) nitrosamines, which would be one source of problems.
Worst...Patent...Ever
"Are you on some kind of medication?"
"No"
"Well, you should be."
--Bean
This was actually done at Texas A&M by a genetics major.
He was legendary for the best spaghetti in the world.
I'd wager it's much easier to kill oneself from paracetamol or aspirine overdose than with a nicotine overdose.
Think about it, everything in "too much" doses is basically toxic. Even water -- ever heard of "drowning"?