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Genetic Modification

 What's it all about?
  (+5, -6)
(+5, -6) 		  [vote for,
against]

Well may you ask.

My team of scientists is working on a snake which, every day in summer, hies hither to a rail over a huge vat. It slides itself through a narrow ring (a washer welded to the rail), squeezing a small quantity of oil from its tissues, to fall into the waiting vat below.

We plan to have 15-20 million of these creatures by 2010.

—UnaBubba, Jun 01 2002

Snake Oil http://www.csicop.o.../9812/snakeoil.html
Among the most fascinating peddlers were one-time preacher Fletcher Sutherland and his seven daughters, whose hair had a collective length of thirty-seven feet... [thumbwax, Jun 04 2002]

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       They'll have to be going pretty fast through that ring then.
—drew, Jun 01 2002
   

       Oh, they're *very* slippery customers indeed. They'll go so fast that it's likely you'll never actually see one of them, unless you catch some of them asleep in their cryosuspension tanks at the lab.
—UnaBubba, Jun 01 2002
   

       So, whataya gonna use the snake oil for?
—drew, Jun 01 2002
   

       oil his hips?
—po, Jun 01 2002
   

       // So, whataya gonna use the snake oil for? //   

       Think about it. I'm surprised *you* would need to ask.
—UnaBubba, Jun 01 2002
   

       I have carefully thought, for an entire beer.   

       I've come to the conclusion, that while I didn't need to ask, I stupidly did. Now, having laid bare my ignorance of the commercial uses of genuine snake oil (snakes? snakes? no snakes here mate - too cold) and having started on yet another beer, I'm gonna need some help. Animal, vegetable or mineral?
—drew, Jun 01 2002
   

       We're going to sell it off, to fund further research into genetic modification of foodstuffs and useful critters.   

       Need your scones to be lighter and fluffier? Just splice in a gene from a baby duckling.   

       Cattle drowning in floods? Pop in a gene from a Copper River salmon, to add extraordinary swimming capabilities.
—UnaBubba, Jun 01 2002
   

       UB, please delete my inanity if I've gotten this wrong, but if I'm right, perhaps I can help drew out.   

       I think Mr. Bubba's idea is a rather less-than-direct way of comparing the "promise" of genetic modification to the empty promises of the proverbial snake oil mongers of lore. The value of the circuitous route is the satisfaction one derives from having completed it without getting lost.   

       If I'm right, it's really just an elaborate pun. Not that I'm complaining; I love elaborate puns. I did (or tried to do) something like it with Lawn Guy Land. The problem with something like this, though, is that if you get a tepid response (as I did) it can be hard to know whether you need to be less subtle so people will understand that it's a pun, or if you just need to come up with less lame puns.
—beauxeault, Jun 01 2002
   

       I got the snake oil part, but didn't connect it directly with GM because I thought the GM referred to the snake.   

       Anyway, why the rant? You don't believe in GM? What is GM? Is this a religous issue? Ethical? Moral? Are you beginning an early campaign for the annual referendum on the ban of GM ideas?
—phoenix, Jun 02 2002
   

       [phoenix], Wouldn't that qualify as a 'ban all people who do X' then?   

       UB? Religious issue? You haven't spent much time talking with the man then...
—RayfordSteele, Jun 02 2002
   

       All clear now. Many thanks. I wasn't expecting a rant, so I thought I'd missed something deeper.   

       FWIW, I'm not convinced about these dark arts either.
—drew, Jun 02 2002
   

       Ask the journalists who don't understand the practical limitations of GM. They'll print anything you tell them, if it sounds exciting.   

       What this world really lacks is a good chimaera.
—UnaBubba, Jun 02 2002
   

       Pal of mine has a TVR Chimera. That's pretty damn fine...
—drew, Jun 02 2002
   

       I sense a conspiracy.
—po, Jun 02 2002
   

       Oy! Next thing you know they'll be trying to tell us they've put a man on the moon.
—phoenix, Jun 02 2002
   

       nah, we did that last week. Came to the conclusion that it was just the french trying to make Australia looking bigger than it actually is.
—yamahito, Jun 02 2002
   

       Don't mention the French. The bastards have been testing their fucking nukes in our backyard for the last 50 years.   

       GM? OK, but not *that* way, please.
—UnaBubba, Jun 02 2002
   

       As opposed to the British, who tested their nukes *in* Australia.
—pottedstu, Jun 03 2002
   

       Yeah, well... we don't talk about that anymore. Not since we elected a Prime Minister who hopes one day to shed his toadying ways and become a prince. If only he could get a queen, any queen, to pay him some attention.
—UnaBubba, Jun 04 2002
   

       How about Boy George?
—thumbwax, Jun 04 2002
   


 

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