Feds Award Million-Dollar Grant to Study Sex Habits of Mud Snails

[TemplarKormac]

What's wrong with multi-tasking? I prefer an administration which can handle many issues big and small at the same time.

What? Our economy deserves our undivided attention. What good is a love life if you can't afford it?

It's a relatively small amount, it's been in the pipeline for a while and if cancelled would mean more people out of work.

Bullshit. The public sector is booming.

 

[TemplarKormac]

Yeah right, and the rest of society's issues grind to a halt? Typical conservative tunnel vision. Can only focus on one thing at a time.

Oooh, since when does snail sex get me or anyone else here a job? Care to answer that my liberally myopic friend?

Why is this person so stupid?

What are you talking about?

 

[BallsBrunswick]

Oooh, since when does snail sex get me or anyone else here a job? Care to answer that my liberally myopic friend?

Why is this person so stupid?

What are you talking about?

Well first, you hold some of the most bullshit beliefs of anyone on this board. Second, you're clearly a puppet who just signed up a puppet account after your last account either got banned or you ran off this board in shame. Third, you're retarded if you can't comprehend the possibilities DNA research will unlock for virtually every aspect of our reality including the economy.

 

[TemplarKormac]

Why is this person so stupid?

What are you talking about?

Well first, you hold some of the most bullshit beliefs of anyone on this board. Second, you're clearly a puppet who just signed up a puppet account after your last account either got banned or you ran off this board in shame. Third, you're retarded if you can't comprehend the possibilities DNA research will unlock for virtually every aspect of our reality including the economy.

So, am I the only one with bullshit beliefs here on these boards? Actually, I am new, this is my only account and your deductive reasoning skills need work. We've already mapped the entire human genome, that is the pinnacle of DNA research right there. What good is DNA research if there is no money to fund it?

You can't see an inch past your own nose to know that there are way more important issues to be taken care of. Exploratory science is great, but not when WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!

 

[konradv]

What? Our economy deserves our undivided attention. What good is a love life if you can't afford it?

Yeah right, and the rest of society's issues grind to a halt? Typical conservative tunnel vision. Can only focus on one thing at a time.

Oooh, since when does snail sex get me or anyone else here a job? Care to answer that my liberally myopic friend?

It's not about the snails. That's just the animal model. Perhaps it couldn't get you a job, but it could get me a job. It's all in the qualifications you've got.

 

[numan]

'
I am outraged that this money was spent studying the sex life of snails!!
It should have been spent studying the sex life of fungi !!!

So A Fungus Walks into a Singles Bar....

The trickiest concept for discussing fungal sex is “gender.” In humans, there are men and there are women (from a strictly reproductive point of view), and it takes one of each to make a baby....

Among fungi, any individual can donate or receive genetic material–so you can already see we need to let go of the concept of gender. Let’s talk instead in terms of what mycologists call mating types. A fungus simply needs to find a mate of a different mating type. Of the fungi you might be familiar with, hmm, most species have only two mating types (they’re bipolar), and some have four or more possible mating types (they’re tetrapolar). Any particular individual of a species is just one mating type, of course. Most molds have two; many mushrooms and bracket fungi have four or more. A few fungi, like the unassuming split gill, Schizophyllum commune, have more than ten thousand....

emphases added · ·

Now here is where it gets really crazy. If you haven’t shed your attachment to gender, now’s the time. In many large, charismatic fungi, genes at two different locations on the chromosomes control what’s called a tetrapolar mating system. In these fungi, two individuals must differ at both loci to make a good match. Now let’s say you’re one of these fungi. If at location MAT-A you have the A2 mating type allele, and at location MAT-B you have the B1 mating type allele, then your mating type is A2B1. You must find a partner who is different than you at both locations (may I suggest A1B2?). Your beautiful baby spores will be this mix: A1B1; A2B2; A1B2; and A2B1. If your babies should get together and try to mate (perish the thought), they will only succeed 25% of the time. Hello? You with me?....

It's not that difficult. After all, if a fungus can deal with it, surely you can, too ?

The other kink of fungi (best friends forever?) is that even if they are not sexually compatible (because they are of the same mating type), different individuals of a species may be vegetatively compatible. An entirely different genetic compatibility system dictates whether they can fuse their mycelia to share resources, even though they’ll never have sex. Intriguingly, there are no sexually transmitted diseases among fungi, but there are myco-viruses that can be spread through vegetative compatibility. I’m sure there’s a “nonsexual STD” joke trapped inside this paragraph….

 

[DiamondDave]

I'm supposed to be mad about the government investing in science?

Yes... it is not a type of spending charged to the fed by the constitution... this is not a study on weaponry by the DoD.. this is not a study in road engineering.. this is a study that someone just wanted and the fed funded, when it should not have... if it were truly something that could yield real benefits and gains, a private investor or private company would have funded it

 

[ABikerSailor]

I'm supposed to be mad about the government investing in science?

Yes... it is not a type of spending charged to the fed by the constitution... this is not a study on weaponry by the DoD.. this is not a study in road engineering.. this is a study that someone just wanted and the fed funded, when it should not have... if it were truly something that could yield real benefits and gains, a private investor or private company would have funded it

Got news for you, both the Internet and GPS were government developed programs that couldn't have been funded by a private company.

And then................there's also NASA.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

You Lefties will instantly claim how this is a lie because it comes from a Breitbart site. Yet, here's the university press release announcing it @ Researchers receive NSF grant to study evolutionary consequences of abstinence. So, try to refute it!

by William Bigelow28 Mar 2013

The National Science Foundation has given a grant that could wind up totaling almost a million dollars to a University of Iowa study researching which is better for New Zealand mud snails: reproducing sexually or asexually. The grant, awarded in 2011 to last until 2015, has already cost $502,357, and could wind up costing taxpayers $876,752 before all is said and done.

Read more @ Feds Award Million-Dollar Grant to Study Sex Habits of Mud Snails

So, sequester is so devastating? Why can't King Barry scrap garbage like this?

Could there possibly BE anything more-amusing, than watching....

....Stephen Moore gettin' SLAPPED-AROUND??!!!!

.

.

.

 

[konradv]

I'm supposed to be mad about the government investing in science?

Yes... it is not a type of spending charged to the fed by the constitution... this is not a study on weaponry by the DoD.. this is not a study in road engineering.. this is a study that someone just wanted and the fed funded, when it should not have... if it were truly something that could yield real benefits and gains, a private investor or private company would have funded it

That's really hard to predict in advance. Most companies wouldn't invest in all the blind alleys that basic research goes down. However, they do benefit when something commercially worthwhile is discovered, often without the intention of producing a product. A good case in point is military research into radar leading to the invention of the microwave oven.

 

[auditor0007]

You Lefties will instantly claim how this is a lie because it comes from a Breitbart site. Yet, here's the university press release announcing it @ Researchers receive NSF grant to study evolutionary consequences of abstinence. So, try to refute it!



Read more @ Feds Award Million-Dollar Grant to Study Sex Habits of Mud Snails

So, sequester is so devastating? Why can't King Barry scrap garbage like this?

This is a repeat thread.

The broader aim of the study is to find out why sexual reproduction and males exist, arguing that sex is biologically inefficient for females. Because an asexual organism can simply clone itself faster than it can reproduce if it finds a mate, the study seeks to see if there are other benefits to sexual reproduction that outweigh this ‘cost’ of finding a mate.

In other words, the study seeks to see if there are genetic advantages to sexual reproduction that justify its evolutionary costs, advantages such as avoiding genetic mutations or gene loss.

Feds Spending $880,000 to Study Benefits of Snail Sex | CNS News

As I said in the other thread, can you imagine the implications of this kind of research for the future?

But don't we have more important things to worry about? Like say, the economy? North Korea? Where are your priorities right now, may I ask?

Let's look at what we did in the past when we had big downturns in the economy. In fact, let's look at what Ronald Reagan did. Over eight years, Ronald Reagan increased federal spending by 68%. Fiscal year 1981 shows outlays of $678 billion. Reagan's final fiscal year would have been 1989. In 1989 federal outlays were $1.143 trillion.

Now let's think what would happen if Obama followed the same course. In fiscal year 2009, federal outlays were $3.5 trilliion. To follow Reagan's course, federal spending should be close to $6 trillion in Obama's final fiscal year, which will be 2017, yet we are nowhere near to being on track for that kind of spending. Maybe that's why the economy sucks so bad? Maybe we need more government spending? It worked for Reagan, but you guys are just dead set against it. But hey, it's all Obama's fault, lol.

 

[Clementine]

You Lefties will instantly claim how this is a lie because it comes from a Breitbart site. Yet, here's the university press release announcing it @ Researchers receive NSF grant to study evolutionary consequences of abstinence. So, try to refute it!

by William Bigelow28 Mar 2013

The National Science Foundation has given a grant that could wind up totaling almost a million dollars to a University of Iowa study researching which is better for New Zealand mud snails: reproducing sexually or asexually. The grant, awarded in 2011 to last until 2015, has already cost $502,357, and could wind up costing taxpayers $876,752 before all is said and done.

Read more @ Feds Award Million-Dollar Grant to Study Sex Habits of Mud Snails

So, sequester is so devastating? Why can't King Barry scrap garbage like this?

Well, since we all have money pouring out our asses, why not? Never mind that a million dollars could keep the White House tours going. I am seriously beginning to think that Obama just doesn't want people in his White House anymore.

 

[konradv]

You Lefties will instantly claim how this is a lie because it comes from a Breitbart site. Yet, here's the university press release announcing it @ Researchers receive NSF grant to study evolutionary consequences of abstinence. So, try to refute it!

by William Bigelow28 Mar 2013

The National Science Foundation has given a grant that could wind up totaling almost a million dollars to a University of Iowa study researching which is better for New Zealand mud snails: reproducing sexually or asexually. The grant, awarded in 2011 to last until 2015, has already cost $502,357, and could wind up costing taxpayers $876,752 before all is said and done.

Read more @ Feds Award Million-Dollar Grant to Study Sex Habits of Mud Snails

So, sequester is so devastating? Why can't King Barry scrap garbage like this?

Well, since we all have money pouring out our asses, why not? Never mind that a million dollars could keep the White House tours going. I am seriously beginning to think that Obama just doesn't want people in his White House anymore.

Government job vs. a real job. I don't think you've really thought this one out.

 

[ABikerSailor]

I'm supposed to be mad about the government investing in science?

Yes... it is not a type of spending charged to the fed by the constitution... this is not a study on weaponry by the DoD.. this is not a study in road engineering.. this is a study that someone just wanted and the fed funded, when it should not have... if it were truly something that could yield real benefits and gains, a private investor or private company would have funded it

That's really hard to predict in advance. Most companies wouldn't invest in all the blind alleys that basic research goes down. However, they do benefit when something commercially worthwhile is discovered, often without the intention of producing a product. A good case in point is military research into radar leading to the invention of the microwave oven.

The government created computers (thanks to the U.S. Navy), the internet, and GPS. All of them were in use, and doing pretty well, and then the private interests saw what was happening.

They saw the tech had already been developed, and had been proven, and decided to ask the government to release it to them so they could sell it to the civilian public.

Sorry...............but there is no way in hell that a private company could have developed any of those.

And.......................if you bring up Apple, remember, they were working with stuff the Navy had already gotten to work. They didn't develop it, they just commercialized it and found a way to bring it to the masses while making a profit.

 

[FA_Q2]

Yes... it is not a type of spending charged to the fed by the constitution... this is not a study on weaponry by the DoD.. this is not a study in road engineering.. this is a study that someone just wanted and the fed funded, when it should not have... if it were truly something that could yield real benefits and gains, a private investor or private company would have funded it

That's really hard to predict in advance. Most companies wouldn't invest in all the blind alleys that basic research goes down. However, they do benefit when something commercially worthwhile is discovered, often without the intention of producing a product. A good case in point is military research into radar leading to the invention of the microwave oven.

The government created computers (thanks to the U.S. Navy), the internet, and GPS. All of them were in use, and doing pretty well, and then the private interests saw what was happening.

They saw the tech had already been developed, and had been proven, and decided to ask the government to release it to them so they could sell it to the civilian public.

Sorry...............but there is no way in hell that a private company could have developed any of those.

And.......................if you bring up Apple, remember, they were working with stuff the Navy had already gotten to work. They didn't develop it, they just commercialized it and found a way to bring it to the masses while making a profit.

The government did not create computers, sorry. I assume that you are talking about the UNIVAC 1101 but that is in no way shape of form the ‘first’ computer. Not even close. Here is an interesting site that covers some of that and even includes the Navy’s project:
When was the first computer invented?
At a minimum, the ENIAC beat the navy by 4 years and it took several just to build the damn thing. The internet had its roots in the government but those roots do not resemble what the internet is today (nor could the military even come close). Now the military uses the internet as it was developed by the private sector. Rather interesting that it made that loop. GPS is almost entirely government though, I’ll give you that.

I have no idea how you made the jump from the navy to apple! You are missing SEVERAL iterations of the computer along the way, not to mention the basic changes that IBM made with the original true digital computers. The computers we have today are not just faster than the ENIAC and the Navy computers; they operated under entirely different concepts.

So, no. Your assumption that the private sector cannot come attain these things is ludicrous. Almost all new tech comes from the private sector and when it does not, it is still usually the private sector under contract with the government. I do believe that the government has a place in RESEARCH though. It is not because the government can do it better but because the government can afford to do it worse. IOW, a company can’t afford a billion dollar loss on a failed idea where the government can afford this. This grand though is rather inane, it belongs in the research that colleges and the like do. A research project that has no tangible goal other than furthering knowledge that, in some tangential way in the distant future, MIGHT have some benefit. The government on the other hand, would be investing in far more tangible and real concepts.

This type of tripe should not be happening.

 

[konradv]

That's really hard to predict in advance. Most companies wouldn't invest in all the blind alleys that basic research goes down. However, they do benefit when something commercially worthwhile is discovered, often without the intention of producing a product. A good case in point is military research into radar leading to the invention of the microwave oven.

The government created computers (thanks to the U.S. Navy), the internet, and GPS. All of them were in use, and doing pretty well, and then the private interests saw what was happening.

They saw the tech had already been developed, and had been proven, and decided to ask the government to release it to them so they could sell it to the civilian public.

Sorry...............but there is no way in hell that a private company could have developed any of those.

And.......................if you bring up Apple, remember, they were working with stuff the Navy had already gotten to work. They didn't develop it, they just commercialized it and found a way to bring it to the masses while making a profit.

The government did not create computers, sorry. I assume that you are talking about the UNIVAC 1101 but that is in no way shape of form the ‘first’ computer. Not even close. Here is an interesting site that covers some of that and even includes the Navy’s project:
When was the first computer invented?
At a minimum, the ENIAC beat the navy by 4 years and it took several just to build the damn thing. The internet had its roots in the government but those roots do not resemble what the internet is today (nor could the military even come close). Now the military uses the internet as it was developed by the private sector. Rather interesting that it made that loop. GPS is almost entirely government though, I’ll give you that.

I have no idea how you made the jump from the navy to apple! You are missing SEVERAL iterations of the computer along the way, not to mention the basic changes that IBM made with the original true digital computers. The computers we have today are not just faster than the ENIAC and the Navy computers; they operated under entirely different concepts.

So, no. Your assumption that the private sector cannot come attain these things is ludicrous. Almost all new tech comes from the private sector and when it does not, it is still usually the private sector under contract with the government. I do believe that the government has a place in RESEARCH though. It is not because the government can do it better but because the government can afford to do it worse. IOW, a company can’t afford a billion dollar loss on a failed idea where the government can afford this. This grand though is rather inane, it belongs in the research that colleges and the like do. A research project that has no tangible goal other than furthering knowledge that, in some tangential way in the distant future, MIGHT have some benefit. The government on the other hand, would be investing in far more tangible and real concepts.

This type of tripe should not be happening.

A) There's no fool proof way of knowing which research will lead to useful inventions ahead of time.

B) Colleges would not be able to afford basic research on the scale we have today without government support.

 

[FA_Q2]

A) There's no fool proof way of knowing which research will lead to useful inventions ahead of time.

B) Colleges would not be able to afford basic research on the scale we have today without government support.

1 – who said there was? Never made that claim. I can GUARANTEE though that this particular endeavor will not.

I specifically stated that the one reason I think government should be into research is because they can lose when they get it wrong.

2 – Your point? THIS research, which I find really dubious that it cost this much, is specifically what universities should be doing. Research just for the sake of research. That is not what the government should be spending our money on. They should be focusing on things that are closer to application but cannot be realized OR surmounting obstacles like the space program was designed to do.

 

[nodoginnafight]

Anyone here know how big an industry snail farming is in Austrailia? Aren't you guys always harping that Obama isn't doing enough to create jobs?

Look before you leap.

 

[Dutch]

I'm glad you guys were not around to bitch in the 80s. "Global Positioning System,(GPS) we don't need that we've got maps."

 

[konradv]

A) There's no fool proof way of knowing which research will lead to useful inventions ahead of time.

B) Colleges would not be able to afford basic research on the scale we have today without government support.

1 – who said there was? Never made that claim. I can GUARANTEE though that this particular endeavor will not.

I specifically stated that the one reason I think government should be into research is because they can lose when they get it wrong.

2 – Your point? THIS research, which I find really dubious that it cost this much, is specifically what universities should be doing. Research just for the sake of research. That is not what the government should be spending our money on. They should be focusing on things that are closer to application but cannot be realized OR surmounting obstacles like the space program was designed to do.

1- You have absolutely NO basis for making a guarantee like that, unless you can foresee the future.

2- Research isn't just done for the sake of research. There has to be some ultimate goal or it wouldn't have been funded in the first place. For example the study mentioned in the OP is about finding ways to alleviate the danger of infection by said snails. As things get closer to application, THAT'S when private enterprise comes in. You have the cart before the horse!