Japan's Unique Cow/Whale Hybrid Experiments

RemyBR writes "Controversial scientific research happens all the time, but a review conducted by scientists in Japan uncovered a list of 'bizarre' trials - including one program designed to crossbreed cows with whales.'Scientists have analyzed 43 research papers produced by Japan over 18 years, finding most were useless or esoteric. The scientific research included injecting minke whale sperm into cows eggs, and attempts to produce test-tube whale babies.'"

Comments

Where's the beef?

[binaryspiral]

Wow, imagine the size of a T-bone from a whale sized cow...

They got that right

[A nonymous Coward]

TFA says Australia is going to try to end the "scientific research" loophole. These idiotic "experiments" smell of bureaucrats hiring incompetent and/or lazy "scientists" to do useless thumb twiddling just so they can say they need to keep killing whales.

Whether or not there should be a ban on killing whales is another matter altogether. Wasting time and resources in this manner to circumvent public opinion is another. I'd be pretty pissed if I were a Japanese consumer / taxpayer (depending on who pays for these useless "experiments").

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I think the combo makes sense. Japan still hunts for whales, which gets them a lot of bad press. What if, they could grow whale meat on land? You'd want whale flesh in a easily manageable form that lacks the intelligence of a whale, but you already had facilities to breed, slaughter and distribute.

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[Remus Shepherd]

Seems natural to me, from a japanese perspective. Japanese like eating whales. Cows are easy to breed and keep. It would be a terrific thing for Japan if they could make cows that tasted like whales. (It wouldn't be a bad thing from the whales' perspective, either.)

Small problem

[SmallFurryCreature]

Nobody EATS IT! The whole things has become a matter of pride, they japanese can't shift the meat without subsidies. It just ain't popular. Now beef. Good beef? That will cost you a fortune.

The reason whale meat was on the diet (when it hasn't been for ages in the rest of the world) was because post-WW2 japan had a food shortage and whale meat was easily available. For all kinds of reasons Japan just ain't a beef country. But that doesn't mean the meat was popular. Before commercial whaling was banned the consumption was already plumetting.

Japanese politics are EXTREMELY controlled by special intrest groups. Far more so then even the US. Would New York keep valuable land for growing grain just a few miles outside the city center? Hell no. Drive out of tokyo were land-prices are insane and you will land right smack in the rice paddies, rice that is so expensive to grow in Japan it makes no economical sense.

The entire whaling debate is just a product of old elite japanese wanting to say NO to the world. No normal japanese person wants to eat it. It is like those people who claim they hunt seals for historic reasons while wearing synthetic clothing and dining on pizza.

Re:Small problem

[PitaBred]

And my culture includes beating the shit out of anyone that has "borg" in their slashdot user name. STOP OPPRESSING ME!

I don't care what the cultural significance is... the worldwide ecological significance trumps any petty local cultural concerns. If it had no impact on everyone else, I wouldn't give two fucks. But whales are important to everyone, not just the Japanese.

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[Dogtanian]

What if, they could grow whale meat on land? There wouldn't be any point. As this story explains, it's not like the Japanese really like whale meat anyway- the driving forces behind it are political and related to fishing and Japanese sovereignty.

That's why their government is pursuing whaling, trying to get people to eat the stuff and exaggerating the extent to which whaling and whale-meat consumption is a traditional part of Japanese culture.

Personally, the whole thing disgusts me, as does the intelligence-insulting excuse that this has anything to do with science. That includes these bullshit "experiments", which are laughable but (under the circumstances) not particularly funny.

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[nadaou]

probably what has been lost in translation here is that a female whale is called a "cow". While I haven't RTFA, I expect this has nothing to do with bovines and a lot to do with OMG journalism.

Having said that Japan must stop whaling; the rest of the world's govenments must step in and stop the insult to "science" this loophole exploits; stop the IWC 3rd world country votes-for-cash bribery; and the rest of the world's people should boycot her until she does. It's complete and udder bullshit that this $1M industry is allowed to continue (yes, that's "1 Million" with an "M", it hardly even covers the fuel costs to get the whaling fleet into the southern ocean whale sanctuary hunting grounds (yes, that's "sanctuary" with an "i" for illegal breach)).

It's in my cultural heritige to throw rocks at the heads of Englishmen. Well, times change, and we must move on.

Yeah, right.

[Valdrax]

I propose a study of Slashdot memes to figure out which ones actually DO get you modded into oblivion, because from what I've seen Stale Meme + "I know I'm going to be modded down" == Instant +5, Funny.