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Greg Utas wrote: I think the article is an April Fool's joke. What poor taste.
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Greg Utas wrote: I think the article is an April Fool's joke. Unfortunately, it's not -- or perhaps I should say fortunately; they may be on to something.
Nicotine kills bacteria, and a huge number of other medicines have come directly from plants (willow bark, anyone?), and growing plants containing toxins to be ingested relatively safely is their field of expertise.
Only a fool is convinced he's smarter than experts in their field.
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The reason I thought it was a joke is
- tobacco companies are always fair game
- the article is short on details
- it seems unlikely that a plant's defenses could easily transfer to humans
- if I recall correctly, The Guardian has done this kind of thing before
But sure, I could be wrong. They claim that a specific tobacco company said this, which could lead to a lawsuit.
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Greg Utas wrote: the article is short on details That could be because they don't want to give too much away, and have some other company steal their thunder, too.Greg Utas wrote: it seems unlikely that a plant's defenses could easily transfer to humans I doubt it's about the plants being immune. Acetylsalicylic acid is present in willow bark, and it's probably the most-used medicinal compound for humans since humans (and willows) were invented.Greg Utas wrote: if I recall correctly, The Guardian has done this kind of thing before The thing I recall the most about the Grauniad is its typos.
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Bears with abscessed teeth have been found with willow shoots wrapped around the affected tooth.
At the end of the article, they describe inserting an antigen into tobacco plants to have it reproduced so that it can be harvested. But it makes no mention of GMO technology, so I wonder why the antigen would get reproduced, and why it wouldn't be easier to reproduce it using an industrial process.
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Greg Utas wrote: it makes no mention of GMO technology, so I wonder why the antigen would get reproduced These guys have spent millions of man-years manipulating tobacco plants to make them produce substances to maximise their profits. They could probably do it with their eyes shut.Greg Utas wrote: why it wouldn't be easier to reproduce it using an industrial process. Simple economics, I imagine. Machines and the setting up of machines are expensive. with "nature's machines", they just get a botany student to spray goop on a few plants, then send him back a few weeks later with a clothes mangle to squeeze out the juice.
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Similar articles show up on other sites, so it seems legit.
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Do you really have to add political garbage to every post?
If you take your political snipe out, the post doesn't lose anything of value -- and actually becomes amusing, rather than tiresome.
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OK, I will bite. How is it political?
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Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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ZurdoDev wrote: Tobacco has valid uses. Smoking it is the problem.
Just like the people who tried to blame trump for ingesting chloroquine. I guess they'll people will read this article and start smoking and then blame the article for getting lung cancer.
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You are suggesting that mentioning Trump makes it a political statement? How very snowflake and woke over you.
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Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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ZurdoDev wrote: You are suggesting that mentioning Trump makes it a political statement? Defending his statements in a challenging way is an attempt to force a political agenda.
Lemme guess: You read the title of the book that was written for his son.
mocking any and all politicians and religious leaders when they screw up or lie is one thing; constantly pushing one political viewpoint is another.
Shall we get some Muslims in here, to constantly push Muslim viewpoints? That should fit in perfectly with allowing people to promote alt-right opinions. Fair's fair, after all.
Or shall we just say no?
I'm not discussing this further.
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Mark_Wallace wrote: Defending his statements in a challenging way is an attempt to force a political agenda. Nope. Wrong.
Mark_Wallace wrote: I'm not discussing this further. Thank goodness. It’s about time you stop trolling.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Mark_Wallace wrote: Shall we get some Muslims in here
Present - and probably not the only one.
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Well, stop talking about it so much! The Trumpites can't get a word in!
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Some people are blaming President Trump for this. The FDA has since approved limited use of chloroquine for widespread trials.
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Yes, the FDA has announced it properly.
Trump knows that there are people whom fanatically hang on his every word, and do exactly as he says. He has to learn to simply repeat what the experts are telling him, rather than make stuff up on the fly to sound impressive.
God only knows how much damage he's done by downplaying the whole thing, but it is pretty much a certainty that it had a bearing on the the unnecessarily high number of infected people in the US.
Countries that locked down quickly, and imposed restrictions on public activities immediately have, for obvious reasons, had far better outcomes.
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0x01AA wrote: Remind me again when I should post in Soapbox Given your record, pretty much every time
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CNN should complain. They're very funny, except when they're tragic.
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I can't tell if these articles are just sarcasm and a joke or serious?
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Too bad, we could use a little laughter this year!
Agreed that corona "jokes" aren't funny, but dangerous and those people were rightfully arrested.
However, I don't think companies such as Google don't do jokes because "it's not funny" or "inappropriate".
They don't do jokes because this whole corona thing is costing them lots of money and there's just no time, budget or people to make jokes this year.
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