Hilarious--but sad...

[Anne Kilmer]

Ayiyi! I hate it when the dummies are on my side. Makes me rethink my
position. 

In other news, are other fans of the funny papers enjoying Baby Blues?
The parents of the two toddlers have sent away for caterpillars, which,
they promise their children, will "spin their cocoons" right there in
the butterfly kit. 
After much eager waiting, the caterpillars have arrived. "I thought
they'd be cuter," says the girl. "Let's stomp them" says the boy. 
I can't wait to see whether they do indeed spin cocoons. 
Still ... such as it is, it's a gesture in favor of our friends the
bugs. 
Anne Kilmer
South Florida 

Doug Yanega wrote:
> 
> >        I was listening this morning to 'Science Friday' on NPR, which
> >was focussed on genetically-modified crops, when a woman called in to say
> >that there was a lot of corn being grown in her area--and she had just
> >noticed a terrible effect that the bt-laced pollen was having on Monarch
> >butterflies: they now had only four legs (!!). Clearly this was a
> >bt-induced mutation...     :-)
> >
> >        No one on the panel knew the facts about Nymphalidae, and I was
> >in my truck without access to a phone. I now have a vision of people across
> >the country looking at their local nymphalids and concluding that the corn
> >pollen is being blown hundreds (or thousands) of miles and causing
> >'mutations' everywhere. If anyone on leps-l hears about this, you now
> >know where it started...
> 
> We all heard the same thing here, and were standing around with our
> collective jaws on the floor. We, too, envisioned the panicky public
> running aorund and checking their monarchs, and freaking out when they find
> they all have four legs. ARGH.
> 
> Ah, blissful ignorance...
> 
> Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
> Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
> phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
>                 http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82