I was definitely simplifying the situation some. Thanks for your insightful and nuanced comment! Mind you, I definitely don't think that utilizing GMO crops is the only way to advance our agricultural system; many crops get along fine without being GMOs (I work with wheat and conventional breeding is still the main…

By some of the EU's standards, salt should probably be banned. They're a little weird.

Agreed. GMOs aren't bad. Monsanto, on the other hand, is definitely nasty. Other chem companies (e.g., Bayer, Syngenta, etc) are a lot less secretive about their research and not rabid with their privacy and ownership. Monsanto is.

No it doesn't. Our conventional breeding program, which has reduced genetic variability to very little in major crops, has done that. GMOs have nothing to do with it. They often integrate genetics from largely unrelated organisms, which increases genetic diversity (although on such a small scale in terms of overall…

GMO crops are often sprayed with fewer chemicals (assuming they're Roundup-resistant) because a lot of the crops require one big herbicide spray and the weeds stay controlled all growing season. On occasion, making a genetic modification to a crop has saved it from extinction (see Papayas and resistance to Papaya…

The people who are most vehemently anti-GMO have a very poor understanding of them a lot of the time. Or rather, a poor understanding of how intensive (for lack of a better term, I suppose) conventional plant breeding is. Conventional breeding took us from a 6-8 foot tall wheat plant with about 8 grains on the head…

Same. Mr.Infinium is absolutely infatuated with my super-douchey-asshole cat after starting the relationship thinking he didn't like them. And my jerky cat loves him right back.

OH MY SCONES YOU'RE RIGHT! Every dude I've known who didn't like cats was also, if not a misogynist, guilty of buying into really strict gender roles!

They're such determine little critters. Fun fact: if you see one on a flower, it's a lady-bee. The boys hover way up high and wait for a queen to fly by so they can bone her, then they die. Matriarchy!

Of course he can. And I can think it's silly if I want to.

No worries, sorry if I seemed snippy :)

I'll say what I said to another commenter. He doubled the amount of money he got from other people (which is to say, probably like $200) and donated it. He didn't donate to the needy nearly as much money as he gave to those who could afford to help the needy. It's just a weird thing to do.

Yeah. I did read the fucking article.

It's just a weird thing to do I suppose.

So this happened. Apparently the "how long" was approximately 10 seconds.

So he couldn't have donated the $1000 to a homeless shelter instead? I'm sure they could have used it.

Yes, the point is that the researchers developed mathematical models, which can be pretty iffy when not developed with good data, based on crummy data. And those models are where they got the idea that cats are killng 75% of the North American bird population per year. I was agreeing that they're research was…

Bees are delightful. They were slow to come out last year and I missed them a lot; it was very sad.

Bees are delightful! They're pretty docile, although the behavior of the hive is highly dependent on the personality of their queen. Wasps are pretty nasty, but both I and all of my cats have sat in my garden when it's filled with honeybees and bumblebees, and no one has ever gotten stung.

Oh good, the researchers developed mathematical models. Because those are ALWAYS right.