Strongly Disagree: It bothers you a long time when someone is unfair to you. Other people's feelings are their own business. When people make mistakes, you correct them. You are a fairly private person. You don't believe a lot of what people say.
Strongly Agree: Any trouble you have is your own fault. It is maddening when the court lets guilty criminals go free. When someone treats you badly, you ignore it. You agree with people more often than you argue. You are careful not to offend people. You can wait patiently for a long time. You finish your work no matter what. You know when someone is in a bad mood, even if they don't show it. Your friends and family approve of the things you do. Your moods are steady from day to day.
....the expected answers... are always "Strongly Agree" or "Strongly Disagree." You actually have four options to choose from, when asked whether a statement applies to you or not... [but] "Disagree" or "Agree" are NEVER the right answer to any question, even though any sensible person will have mixed feelings about all these questions. [more inside]
posted by orthogonality on Aug 24, 2009 - 147 comments

In a surprise move, Anheuser-Busch has gone up against some of the biotech firms that would like to grow genetically-modified (GM) rice containing human DNA. The biotech firm that grows it says that their rice contains synthetic human genes which the company hopes to harvest and refine for use in medicines to fight diarrhea and dehydration.

Anheuser-Busch's concerns are not with the science of biotech, but rather the risk of crop-contamination, as has happened with farmers not only in the U.S. and Canada, but all over the world. The USDA has issued rice-tweakers Ventria Bioscience and 300 other biopharmers permission to plant various augmented plants around the country since 1995, but Anheuser-Busch is the first large corporation to threaten a boycott - unusual, because poultry and beef stock (PDF) are fed this kind of thing every day, and have been for the past 20 years. I guess the Budweiser brewers just don't want to see 'dead people' in their suds...

On the flip-side of this occurrence, the response of the anti-stem cell activists has been nothing short of sensory-deprivation. Shouldn't six-packs, cornfields and Porky be given the same human rights as the unborn?

Also related: Contaminated: The New Science of Food (quicktime movie)
posted by vhsiv on Apr 14, 2005 - 31 comments

The Hedonistic Imperative. David Pearce wants to promote paradise-engineering and abolish the biological substrates of suffering in all sentient life. A brave new world? What would Buddha do?
posted by homunculus on Nov 8, 2004 - 17 comments

SOMA, Orgy-Porgy, Centrifugal BumblePuppy help!
posted by Capn on Jun 18, 2004 - 17 comments

If Pascal Smet has his way you will be fingerprinted and registered in a world wide database of every human alive. [Via DR]
posted by HoldenCaulfield on Dec 17, 2001 - 13 comments