Week 5 Bio Post

Can diversification save species?

I think so! A couple years ago I visited the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and aside from being inspiring, fulfilling, and idyllic, it was a great learning experience.  They discussed the need to grow varieties of each type of veggie, fruit, herb, etc., as doing so means that if a particular blight or pest kills off one of the varieties, the rest can survive.  Think of it as bacteria creating resistances to antibiotics except that the tomatoes are the bacteria, or something.  But it's just so much more complex than "saving species", it's like, biodiversity is thriving.  Think about it-variety in diet means getting all the nutrients we all need.  And we all eat each other.  The same tomato day after day?  No thanks.  According to Wiki-you know what, "greater biodiversity implies greater health."

Do you vote for the chicken or the egg?


I vote for the egg, sure.  Sounds good.  I really like how the explanation is linked to evolution--I think I finally understand the spirit behind the debate now--it's like the evolutionists argue it was the egg because the little chicky inside it had evolved different DNA, characteristics, etc., from it's parents.  And the fundamentalists argue that all the chickens were put here at the same time when the Lord said, "Om" and such, so they just kind of materialized.  Wow, I always thought it was just a question to make your head spin, but it's actually political.  Because if you're a fundamentalist, you want to have a big church and to be able to control people's lives and have power (think Vatican Bank and how they don't have to get audited).  So it's important that you keep everyone busy arguing that the Bible is the word.  And if you're a scientist, it's important that everyone believes science so the corporations can continue to rule under the pretense that they aren't actually harming the environment, etc.

I always eat my broccoli


I do, when I make it, and don't know if eating it will help with cancer since I'm sitting like 4 inches from my laptop and one foot from my cell phone right now.  Plus I grew up in the area of town with 34 of the EPA's 36 hazardous waste sites.  And downstream from Sandia National Labs, where all that radioactive waste is buried in the ground.  I also travel through Richmond sometimes, and I'm wondering if living there nullifies the effects of brocoli.

But I will say that I love how cauliflower demonstrates fractals and chaos theory---I just got the most beautiful brocliflower I've ever seen from the farmer's market--light green, this pretty pattern between brocoli and cauliflower.  I can't talk about it anymore, it was so good, except the man and the kid didn't like it which made me sad.  I think just looking at it prevented me from getting cancer.  The studies are so flippant, you know.