Pork, the other white...fish???

According to an article in Nature Biotechnology, scientists have cloned pigs that are high in omega-3 fatty acids. Well...some of the pigs didn't have the transgenic gene, and some of them had chronic heart conditions, but of the others, they had increased omega-3s. So now, it will apparently be benificial to eat pork, should you select to eat from the cloned transgenic pork. Now there's a conflict for folks, so often the health-conscious who want the omega-3s are the same as the one's who don't want transgenic foods, decisions decisions...



What suprised me, though, is that the acknowledgements mention no evidence of funding from Pork producers. This project was funded by the NIH, the ACS and a Transplant Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. I really expected funding from the National Pork Board or something. Now, part of the funding comes from an 'unrestricted gift' from the Transplant Center, and I suppose that they could have recieved money from Pork.org...someone should look into that, there's got to be pig money in there somewhere that they're neglecting to mention.

Who wants to go hog wild more? Transgenic pigs want to go hog wild more.

-barrett 'n megan

Some lyrics shouldn't be written...or recorded

Surely, someone makes decisions about what songs to record. They tweak lyrics, change chords, say 'I don't think people will like this', etc... Yet plenty of stuff gets by. On my drive home from Chicago late last night, I found Donna Summer's disco re-recording of MacArthur Park. The song is pretty absurd to begin with, but you add disco and the fact that's it's 2:30 am and I start to question the nature of my reality.

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

Do those lyrics make anyone else think of anything in particular? The song was written in the summer of 1967 by Jimmy Webb. The same summer as the first San Francisco Be-In. The same summer that the U.S. Government outlawed LSD.

Did I mention that it was originally the 7 minute coda to a 22 minute long piece? Oh, and did I mention that LSD was popular that summer? I did? Oh, okay, just checking.

So yeah, even with those bizarre lyrics, MacArthur Park was a hit. Even more of a hit when converted into disco. So next time you're getting upset over some of the trash that's out there now just remember that we've been putting...unusual...music out there for decades now. Ashley Simpson is nothing new. I could see a Merry Prankster singing a song called I am Me too.

Who wants a lid for his cake dish more? Jimmy Webb wants a lid for his cake dish more.

- barrett 'n megan