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Space Potato Hits the Streets
gasmanpopey writes to tell us that sweet potato seeds sent to space as a part of China's Shenzhou VI mission are hitting the streets as a part of special Valentine's day meals. While supporters are trying to claim better flavor and better nutrition there doesn't seem to be anything beyond a pure novelty angle.
Officials from the space programme, which creates enormous national pride in China, say it has produced a number of mutated fruit and vegetables.
Could it be that Mr. Potato Head is really just an incredible tuber of a cultivated Chinese plan come to spy on US, and Canada?
Have you read my journal today?
welcome our mutant space potatoe overlords...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Heh, when I first read the summary, I thought they were saying that the seeds they sent into space were plummeting to Earth and hitting the streets. Then I realized that makes little to no sense and I need a coffee.
Otherwise, I'd think that potatoes were literally hitting the streets. Valentines day or not, carpet potato bombing is not recommended!
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
And here I was buying the gf jewelry like a sucker, when I could have been getting her tubers.
Space Potato Hits the Streets
In other news, everyone in China ate mashed potatoes for dinner.
Have you read my journal today?
An hour later and I was hungry for starch again.
They sent twinkies into space too and they came down with a higher nutrional value as well as better taste
So, Genetically Modified for taste, color, growth characteristics (immunity of insects instead of having to use pesticides, large yeild, etc) is BAD.
Randomly irradiated by extraterrestrial radiation: GOOD.
Actually it's probably a way for the average Chinese to participate in national pride - kinds of like kids in the 60's US drinking Tang and eating those small cubes of freeze dried ice cream.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I can just imagine cracking a tooth on the ceramic tiles these seeds must use for reentry.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
A chance to use a Futurama quote that I never would think would come up on slashdot...
"I thought you were some outer space potato man."
...are being overlooked by the naysayers. For those of you in the alternative foods community, it's quickly apparent as to how these space seeds will be superior to the earth bound ones on many levels.
1. Space is this really mysterious and amazing place that only a very small segment of the population have been to. Because of that, space has naturally mystical properties which are imparted to any object that leaves or comes into the earth's atmosphere.
2. Cosmic rays. Yeah, we get hit with cosmic rays on a daily basis, but not as much as you would in space. That simple fact alone means that anything that goes into space got more cosmic radiation induced and is therefore more spacey. The main reason we don't have that much of a bombardment of cosmic rays on earth is so that the bears don't get mutated into giant killing machines that go on a rampage throughout our city streets. I'm trying to work on a solution to this though because I'm bored.
3. Dark matter. You know when you look up at the sky at night and you see all that blackness between the various objects in the sky? That's dark matter. I think. At least that's what someone told me on the bus the other day. So when the seeds go up into space, they wind up going through vast clouds of dark matter which increases their dark matter content. I've heard that this can help aid digestion. So again another plus for space poptatoes!!
4. Space is a vacuum. While a lot of people are aware of this fact, what they tend to forget is that vacuums suck everything around them up. That means that space has a high concentration of matter in it and all that matter is bound to contain a lot of healthy nutrients in it for space potatoes to grow in. So when the chinese grew their space potatoes in the vacuum of space, they grew ultra-fast. Not only that, but there's also a lot of solar radiation in space which means that stuff grows at like one hundred times the rate in space as it would on good old earth.
5. The ancients knew of the secrets of space and used their hidden spaceships (the pyramids and the sphinx) to travel into space for high quality food cultivation. This is why people lived longer back then. People used to live to be like 900 years old and stuff. If you want more authoritative information on the subject, go rent the movie Zardoz. It tells you all you need to know about the ancients.
So I'd say buy these space potato seeds because they will improve your health, make you look better, allow you to "score", increase your intelligence and memory, and turn all fabrics in your house into rich Corinthian leather. There's going to be a run on the seeds anyway as soon as word gets out. At the very least, even if it doesn't work out, you'll be able to sell the seeds for an amazing return as they are guaranteed to become even more valuable than gold bullion.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
The LADA program has grown many things including cabbage, peas, radishes, etc. http://www.sdl.usu.edu/programs/lada/
Space Potato Hits Streets
There were no survivors.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
In communist China potato mashes you!
Rocket Scientist + Brain Surgeon = Rocket Surgeon! (Let's get this O.R. in orbit!)
NASA has been sending seeds to space for a long time. In 1989 I, and all my classmates, received packages of tomato seeds as part of LDEF Experiment P0004-01. A little bit of Googleing turned up Park Seed SEEDS project which nicely describes the project. Most of my classmates killed their plants. I planted mine in the family garden and bore fruit. That was quite tasty. As I recall there was some legalese that said don't eat the fruit that the plants bear lest you turn into a tomato based superhero.
The Long Duration Exposure Facility project main page.These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based upon the order I joined. -Homer Simpson
If you are going to go through the trouble of sending seeds into space, you're also likely to do two things: choose a good varietal and take extra care when raising the plants. So I'd be surprised if these weren't tastier and more nutritious compared to the average tuber stock grown in the average field.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Chinese space officials claim that after being exposed to cosmic radiation in space, the potatoes display unusual, even bizarre characteristics. "Some are as hard as a rock, while others are transparent. We've seen a few that can stretch to unbelievable lengths, and at least one that seems to undergo spontaneous combustion."
Asked if the resulting tubers were good to eat, they replied, "Oh yes! They make fantastic fries!"
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
I know you are cracking a joke, but the whole 'potatoe is not spelled with an e' is a scary example of revisionist history. The scary part is how quickly it took hold, and the entire population accepted a revision to history as fact. Before the whole Quayle incident, teachers, dictionaries and potato farmers (not all of them, but many) spelled potato with an 'e' at the end. It is scary that someone made a spelling mistake by saying that Quayle spelled the word wrong, and it was repeated by a bunch of reporters that also did not know how to spell, and withing hours history was rewritten. What Quayle did do wrong was not know that there was more than one accepted spelling. So, when he told the student that they misspelled potato, THAT was wrong.
When are they going to make broccoli and Brussel sprouts taste better? I say take those seeds up to space and leave 'em.
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