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[Josephus]

Ah. Well, I don't use it much myself, but it's worked pretty well the last few times I tried.

Also, gargling warm water with dissolved salt is supposed to do wonders for a sore throat.

[SHAD0Wdump]

Also, gargling warm water with dissolved salt is supposed to do wonders for a sore throat.

I've done this myself, and it indeed works.

[Euld]

GMO plants don't bother me much, I haven't had any yet though because nobody dares sell them... as far as I know.  Last time I checked, GMO plants aren't that different from normal ones, except for a different gene or two.  So what if evolution is supposed to do the same thing but take longer, we can get a far more exact result with much less time.  After all, the difference of a GMO and a normal organism is a few genes (genes in their proper places of course).

[DJ]

The difference between you and a chimp is a few genes.

[kilakan]

Canola oil that you can buy at stores is GM, quite heavily too.

[DJ]

I use lard for cooking ^_^

[Nikov]

Mmm. Lard.

[Virex]

If you want to freak her out, show her this

[kilakan]

wait so it it's contaminated most water sources, and you can become addicted to it, so we could become addicted to water and need it to live!?

[Bauglir]

-snip-

[G-Flex]

Once again, both true and false : ephedrine, legal in the US last time I've checked, may have severe side effect, way worst than your small flu. Antibiotic induce germ resistance. A root may be better for your cold than antibiotics and ephedrine because a) you don't suffer the side effect of ephedrine b) cold is caused by a virus, the antibiotic won't have any effect anyway. Even if the root is useless.
Placebo effect is potent and may be all you need.

However Ephedrine will get you back on your feet so it may be useful.

An antibiotic will do nothing for your cold, because colds are viral. You're very right that they're overused, though; doctors will often prescribe them when unnecessary, even if it's just to satisfy the patient, and antibiotic soaps/detergents are very rarely justified in the home.


Pseudoephedrine (the decongestant) messes me up, for what it's worth. Makes me unable to sleep and anxious. Weird. Unfortunately, no other oral decongestant I've tried actually works very well (although nasal sprays do).



Regarding ginger, I've found ginger tea to be pretty decent at quelling nausea. I know people use ginger ale for that too, so there's some consistency there. I've used saltwater for a sore throat before, and that can work (it's a good debriding agent).

GMO plants don't bother me much, I haven't had any yet though because nobody dares sell them... as far as I know.  Last time I checked, GMO plants aren't that different from normal ones, except for a different gene or two.  So what if evolution is supposed to do the same thing but take longer, we can get a far more exact result with much less time.  After all, the difference of a GMO and a normal organism is a few genes (genes in their proper places of course).

A few genes can be very, very important. Also, it's not guaranteed to give the "exact same result" as evolution because you're not breeding it within the ecosystem to begin with; you're making arbitrary changes that you hope will work once introduced.

[Phmcw]

On Gm in food, there is a few annoying loophole in the law right now, and of course the whole patent and intellectual property problem. There is also the problem of proper usage and that Monsanto is know for it's very unethical policies.

Also the problem of cross species genes transmission, which is not impossible a all between micro organism, and between closely related vegetables. Could be very annoying.

[Eagleon]

There is also the problem of proper usage and that Monsanto is know for it's very unethical policies.

I hate when this is used to oppose genetically modified food. It's about the equivalent to opposing water because of an example of an ecologically disastrous dam.

Seriously, it's straight-forward enough to test GM foods for safety. Hell, we haven't tested most normal foods as thoroughly as we do with the smallest modification of anything that ends up on your dinner table. Our bodies can process a lot more than we give them credit for.

What I'd like to see is more efforts towards modifying fruit and nut trees. Most trees have a long reproductive cycle, which makes them less attractive for these efforts but simultaneously very safe and controllable. It's straightforward to cull unwanted trees - ask any logger. If you have a genetically flawed tree, you can almost be lazy about tracking down and eliminating any of its offspring - they aren't going anywhere any time soon. And they could be engineered to make more valuable wood, concentrate various minerals from their environments (though that might require engineering the fungal colonies integrated with their root system, which is a whole different can of worms), have bigger and more nutritious fruit, grow with more or less water, more or less sunlight, etc. etc.

SCIENCE!

[Phmcw]

Yes, but what is it used to?
make round up resistant plant and pesticide plant.

Seriously, it's straight-forward enough to test GM foods for safety.

Not the least bit. It's very hard, actually. And the actual toxicity of the plant isn't the only problem.

Actually : "Much of Monsanto's seed products are genetically modified, often to make them immune to Monsanto's "Round Up" herbicide. In a study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences, researchers applied a different statistical analysis on raw data obtained from Monsanto and concluded that these GM corn (maize) varieties induced a state of hepatorenal toxicity.[26] They suggested that the presence of the new pesticides associated with the inserted genes were responsible, although the possibility that this could be due to a mutation during the transformation process was not excluded.[26]" Wikipedia

We banned them for a reason.

[G-Flex]

Molecular nutrition and toxicology is actually fairly difficult, particularly when it comes to long-term/subtle effects.

And we're not just talking nutrition anyway. We're talking ecology, we're talking intellectual property rights, and we're talking the ethics of making strains of plants that are resistant to the type of herbicide you just happen to sell yourself.