A theory on prions

I've been thinking about the subject a bit... and the following occurred to me:

Prions are an extinction mechanism. Assuming that cannibalism is not a normal behavior of a "healthy" species, the prion proteins that are generated in aged members of the species would never enter into younger members. But if cannibalism is the only way that the species can survive, a negative feedback loop is created that spirals the species into non-existence, essentially a check against species that can no longer flourish in the environment. The effects of prions become inherited, basically inserting a "time bomb" into the genetic legacy of the species.

In a normal evolutionary situation, we would never see the effects of prions because they would play out over many, many generations making the species "weaker" overall with a series of different malfunctions until it finally dies out. But since we are artificially accelerating the effects of prions by essentially forcing species into non-healthy behaviors (feeding domestic animals their peers), we get to see it happen much more quickly.

So why are prions so easily spread across species? Because what we are seeing is essentially a closed loop system - predators that depend on the non-healthy species to survive are also taken out of the system when they eat the non-healthy species. It's a very elegant mechanism for natural selection if you think about it this way.

Community Farming

I think I'm going to be signing up for this for 2004:

Heirloom Harvest Community Farm

It costs $550 for 20 or so weeks of harvest, and a minimum of 6 hours of volunteer work at the farm. For a cost of less than $30 a week, I can get a ton of fresh, local, organic produce. They encourage additional volunteer time if possible... I was thinking that I could go for an hour or two on Sundays and work before picking up my produce for the week.

Here's an example of what one can get during a week:

Sunday, June 30th
3 pounds summer squash
1 head green cabbage
1 bunch Hakurei turnips
1 head cauliflower
8 sprigs basil
1 bunch beets
1 head green Romaine lettuce
1 head summer crisp lettuce
1 bunch mustard greens
4 garlic scapes
1 quart sugarsnap peas (pick-your-own)

Sunday, September 15th
2 small, 1 large watermelon
2 pounds carrots
3 leeks
1 pie pumpkin
1 acorn squash
4 pounds heirloom tomatoes
2 eggplants
3 Bell peppers
2 heads lettuce
hot peppers (take some)
3 sweet ethnic peppers
1 bunch Swiss chard
basil (pick-your-own)
flowers (large bunch)


All that for $30? That's got to be way less expensive than the supermarket. And you get to do work in the dirt growing stuff... sounds cool to me. :)

Heh

Someone ought to get these guys and these guys together...

Shieldmaidens gone WILD!