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I’m kinda torn on this one. I am not a fan of the flap cats, but boy is he pretty. I think I’ll skip…but if he were a regular cat…I’d be all over him.
Melody wrote:darjeb wrote:A Dragon
But I’ve done lots of dragons!
I will NEVER tire of your dragons, Melody.
Congrats! Looks like a beautiful wedding. I don’t know why, but my favorite picture is of you and your hubby looking around the tree at each other.
I will correct the idea that “genes” are patented. Nothing natural is patentable. Only man-made things are patentable. You can patent a man-made nucleic acid with a certain sequence, or an isolated or purified nucleic acid sample having a specific sequence, but there is no such thing as a patented “gene,” as genes are a product of nature. You can also patent certain methods of detecting, identifying, and testing for a certain nucleic acid or protein sequence. These are all legitimate patents. The purpose of patenting in this country (and others) is to make it profitable for people to invent, research, and use ingenuity to make useful things. Without the patent system, such things would not be profitable, and the tests would probably never have been invented in the first place.
Patents also force people to be creative to get around them. Creativity makes for better technology. And patents only protect the intellectual property for so long. After 17 or 20 years (depending on when the patent application was originally filed), the patent expires, and if there are no other related patents, people are free to use the technology in whatever way they wish. That’s how generic drugs appear. Generic drug companies don’t spend the money and risk bankruptcy by doing the original research and testing of new drugs or tests…that’s a VERY expensive thing to do and only a few drugs and tests are ever found to be useful or get approved by the FDA. Instead, they wait until a patent expires and make generics. Then “big pharma” goes ahead and uses the money they made while the patent was enforcable to research and make the next new drug.
Unfortunately the media uses the confusion about patents and profits to try to incite people. It’s very unfortunate. Patent law is one of the few things for which a basis is set forth in the Constitution. It’s meant to protect intellectual property for a period of time, force further research and ingenuity, and provide for profit for those that do make the effort to invent and improve. Without the intellectual property laws, including patents, it would be impossible to make money as an artist or a scientist, because the things that they have to provide to society are ideas. If the use of these ideas was freely available to everyone, everyone would be able to, for example, copy Windstone sculptures and sell them and there wouldn’t be anything anyone could do about it. Same for drugs. A company could spend millions (not an exaggeration) of dollars making that test for a certain cancer, and in the end without a patent to protect it, all they end up doing is going bankrupt, and the scientists that worked hard to make that test will lose their jobs because the company has no way to profit. And if it’s easy for everyone to use the same test…well, why make a new one or a better one??
As for GMO developers putting small farmers out of business, well that’s part of the free market. A free market that is swinging back toward heirloom-type foods, believe it or not. I’m not talking purely “organic” (a misnomer if ever there was one…and a dangerous one at that), but home-grown and original stock. People that have taken up the banner of “remember how the tomatoes USED to taste” and growing them are doing quite well right now. (Keep in mind, it’s nearly impossible to ship such produce across the country. Heirloom-type foods tend to spoil very quickly without expensive refrigeration.)
The idea that GMO foods are “contaminating” wild stocks is silly, really. Most of those “wild stocks” are genetically modified from true wild foods. Maize grown in Mexico is maize…not wild teosinte. It was heavily genetically modified over generations. Just by a different process. You will also find that in countries that banned GMO crops (MANY in Europe), it was purely for political reasons, not health reasons. Those countries felt the need to be able to control the world’s food supply. Or at least keep the USA from doing so. It has recently been found that if you compare USA-grown GMOs sold in Europe with their “organic” counterparts, the GMO foods are FAR safer, having a much lower mycotoxin load than “organic”. Whether this is an issue of standards not being enforced on the more favored seller (European-based) or if it’s truly related to GMO food safety, isn’t yet clear.
In the end, we have known for some time that “genes” and traits migrate within a species and sometimes between species, naturally. (Some bacteria species can transfer drug-resistance genes to other species, for example.) As long as GMO food research is done responsibly, which it is for the most part, it has the potential for increasing the amount and safety of the world’s food supply, and using less space to do so, providing for better husbandry of our environment. While it is good to be aware of the issues affecting us, especially our health and food supply, it is very important to find all sides of the story and considering them all carefully before forming an opinion.
Huh. Interesting. I have two peacock males. I noticed one was a bit greener (very subtle), but I never really looked at the eyes. I have one with the “open” eyes, and one with the “mean” eyes. The scales on the upper lid of the “mean” eyes are small, like the brown, not large like some of the others or the “open” eyes. I might actually have to keep him. I was going to sell him, as he has a few chips and rubs, and I could use the money, but I kind of like having the different versions.
*groans* Way out of my league. Right now, EVERYTHING’s way out of my league. But I don’t think that AL OW was EVER in my league.
Oh wow. That sucks and a half. I understand how it seems those that deserve it the least get off scot free, while those of us working our butts off all our lives, just seem to have to keep working our butts off all our lives. *sigh* Good luck Drag0n. Just know that you’re not alone in the boat.
