Slashdot Mirror
Cloned Horses Ok To Compete In Olympics
wisebabo writes with the news of a forward-thinking decision handed down by the Federation Equestre Internationale (reversing an earlier ban, so it's been on their minds) to not prohibit cloned horses from competing in the events it sanctions, including the Olympics. "Of course they'll still be restricted to the equestrian events (ha ha). One wonders if they'll be allowed to do the same in say, horse or dog racing. It'll then just come down to the ability of the jockeys I guess (or training). I wonder why they don't make all Olympic athletes use the same exact
'equipment' as their competitors. That would get rid of situations like with those super efficient swimsuits that were banned. Of course they really should return to the spirit of the original Games and compete naked. That would really improve ratings! (But it would make the winter games rather hazardous.) When do you think cloning athletes will become legal?" (Note to those who wish to enter more than one event: ultra-slippery swimsuits are back).
First post says: This is a dupe!
UTF-8: There and Back Again
nothing to prevent (short of lack of funds) trainers from cloning ten animals and taking greater risks with training because they have spares.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
How long before the paralympics become some kind of cyborg olympics? It's like the ban of drugs and performance boosters on athletes. We all want to see what records can be broken, just how far can we push the human body (within limits, I don't want to see lives destroyed for a record).
The olympics has become (or was it always in it's modern form?) a corporate circus. So let's go next step and merge formula 1 with it. /A Londoner not looking forward to public transport soon
Based on the excerpt I am not even remotely tempted to follow the link. Something about preferring coherently written prose.
It seems to me, that by making all the horses a clone of the same original horse (i.e. no clones-of-clones), then the variables will be reduced to the ability of the individual to play, as well as raise/train the horses - more in line with the Olympics, I think, than breeding abilities.
Then again, if they want it to be a test of horse breeding too, then cloning shouldn't be allowed. I guess, what I'm getting at, all competing horses should be cloned from the same original horse (no clones of clones), OR no clones should be allowed.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
That's the way I understand it - as long as there's no genetic engineering going on, just a direct copy, then it's still no different than any other horse.
That's what I'm interested in.
Artificial selection anyone ?
Actually, unless at least a little occurs, there tends to be telomerase shortening and some epigenetic issues - if anything the cloned horse should be less healthy/sturdy than the original. I'm guessing they've made strides to fix this issue. Still, having a cloned horse, to me, says that your groups ability to breed horses is not being tested - so really, everyone should have a cloned horse, all from the same source. Otherwise, if breeding ability is being tested, nobody should have a cloned horse.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
New athletics track suit ...
And presumably new bicycles designs for the velodrome/road, new pistol/bow for the target events, new javelins designs, new discuss, new pole for the pole vault ... etc ... etc ... etc
Oh .. and new designer drugs !!!!
...grabs a shovel and a loan...
> I wonder why they don't make all Olympic athletes
> use the same exact 'equipment' as their competitors.
That'd be frickin' sweet! Like IROC but with horses!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I mean, hell, why not just fill the field of every race with Ron Turcotte clones riding Secretariat clones?
Without the competition of breeding, all horse racing really consist of is a midget and some dirt.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
And no one should copy the source, of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is released as open source!
(It was either Mr. Ed or Queen Chrysalis, and since we all know there was only one Matrix movie, I went with Mr. Ed. What can I say, I wanted this day to be perfect.)
Why clone people (even if it was possible) when it would take 20-25 years for them become (potentially) champion athletes
It's much easier to illegally train (ie drug) unknown athletes for a few years, untested by drug authorities, before making a enormous debut into competition.
History says this works quite well ... Off the top of my head:
- germans in the 70s
- US track in the 80s
- cyclists in the 90s
- chinese swimmers in the 00s
and dare i suggest the current dominance of Jamaican sprinters who have 5 of the fatest 7 male sprinters
For an industry which used to (and for all I know still does) prohibit artificial insemination, that cloning should even be considered seems crazy.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
of course. This hits home in a lot of the cloning arguments. As long as "they" are not selecting genes from multiple horses to create a super horse I don't personally feel as though this would be wrong. Realistically speaking, even if they do clone the horse, there is no guarantee it'll be the same.
Could we clone the Olympics and have an event with the same questionable "sports" but no corporate sponsorship, no control-freaks, no rules-lawyers, no TV commercials by the winners, no idiotic sports announcers (at least in the USA; compare "ninja warrior" as imported from Japan to the tired formulaic coverage on the locally produced shows). Basically clone the olympics, flush the trash down the drain, and try the new improved cleaned up version?
Just a international group getting together and flinging javelins for the heck of it? I'd much rather see a "renn-faire re-enactment of real olympics" than see the trashy modern TV version.
Also could we get rid of non-Olympic events? The ancient Greek biathlon in the winter games complete with high powered target rifles? The ancient greek triathlon in the summer games with bicycling? Come on, get real, just because it involves people sweating doesn't mean its a sport, or I'm going to demand the "oil change competition" or the "lawn mowing competition" be inaugurated next time. OK we can stop slavering olive oil on the athletes, and some "sports" really are safer with clothing, but other than those minor concessions to modernity I think the shot put is more "olympic" than synchronized swimming.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The equestrian sports are not only about the rider but also about the horse.
Like with doping in other sports this should not lead to a competition about who has the best medical support so I think this is a stupid step onto a very slippery slope.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
cloning one animal ten times, and taking chances with the training of the clones.,
because if you take a risk that breaks a leg, you shoot it and have 9 more.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Currently athletes planning on participating in the Olympics are required to participate in biological passport program and be available 24/7 year round for testing.
Wikipedia Biological Passport
... but all they did was change the formatting a little and delete one or two sentences. As my only defense all I can say is I wrote it very quickly because I didn't want to be scooped. Here's my original submission:
Cloned Horses Ok To Compete In The Olympics
"Of course they'll still be restricted to the equestrian events (ha ha).
One wonders if they'll be allowed to do the same in say horse or dog racing. It'll then just come down to the ability of the jockeys I guess (or training).
I wonder why they don't make all Olympic athletes use the same exact "equipment" as their competitors. That would get rid of situations like with those super efficient swimsuits that were banned. Of course they really should return to the spirit of the original Games and compete NAKED. That would really improve ratings! (But it would make the winter games rather hazardous.)
When do you think cloning ATHELETES will become legal? That's something I wouldn't put past the old USSR/East European Block. Remember the "women" atheletes they sent?"
Link to Original Source
Personally, I wish they'd drop ALL restrictions.
Let's see what the best labs, piles of money, human ingenuity, and OCD athletes can accomplish.
I want to see sprinters winning the 10k in under 10m times with spliced cheetah tendons, and hyperoxygenated shrew blood.
I want to see swimmers with shark skin, webbed everything, and re-plumbed breathing holes out the top of their head doing the 1500m without taking 2nd breath.
Screw it, it's all about $$ anyway, and these athletes are already essentially sacrificing a normal existence for their sport. Let's see what we can accomplish when we REALLY try.
-Styopa
Of course they'll still be restricted to the equestrian events (ha ha).
Have gnu, will travel.
Reminds me of the bit from "The Games" where John and Brian are arguing about whether or not genetically modified horses should be allowed to compete in the Olympics... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0pRe4GApTg
it's still no different than any other horse.
not necessarily true: championship winning horses present with advantageous traits, such as huge hearts; increased scope for ventricular hypertrophy could very well be preserved by cloning, as the enlarged heart is a sex-linked trait.
For an industry which used to (and for all I know still does) prohibit artificial insemination, that cloning should even be considered seems crazy.
That's just a Jockey Club rule for thoroughbred racehorses. For other breeds, artificial insemination is common. Horse breeding involves only a small number of stallions; most stallions are gelded and never bred.
It would be like the All Drug Olypmics
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I suggest public attention to Olympics should be diverted to a better place by declaring Olympic games as a form of entertainment.
Why would anyone care about the rules of Big Brother or Jersey Shore?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
It's probably less than any other horse. Clones tend to have more physiological problems than animals produced the old-fashioned way. And what are breeders for if not to improve the stock beyond what is available in past generations?
And it's not all genetics either. There are a thousand variations of development in an animal as complex and intelligent as a horse that will affect how and even whether it can race.
Cloned animals won't all have the same temperament as their progenitor, and that is a very important thing in a racehorse. A horse might be a perfect physical specimen and yet because of some slight variation in temperament (brain development?), he doesn't have the will to win a race. Or an animal that seems physically ordinary (for a racehorse) may turn out to have more energy reserves left in the last quarter mile and pass the field. You just can't tell how a horse is going to race until you've raced him or her a few times. Cloning won't change that.
And how much of winning is the match between a great horse and a jockey who knows her and how she needs to be ridden?
Begun, the Clone Races have!
Where's the money in cloning athletes? Now, if you get some hair from celebrities (say, Marilyn Monroe or any other sex symbol), you clone the celebrity and raise the child in a very protected environment to be sold to a tycoon when s/he matures (although most of the capital would be given in advance, so the clone would be mostly pre-sold), now there's a *lot* of money. Of course, it's most unethical and illegal, but that never stopped supply and demand.
I speak England very best