That would be pretty cool wont lie.  I'm curious if we could genetically modify those same pigs though so that they could be big and we could ride them.
And then have a greater bacon per pig-unit ratio! And maybe the pigs wing muscles would be another delicious type of meat!
hahaha that would be awesome. Pig wings.
Hahaha too bad that probably wont ever work :/
I think it would cause some issues though having these big fat "birds" flying around everywhere from landing on things and damaging them to getting in the way of planes
Yeah... it would make raising livestock more difficult And imagine getting pooped on by a big flying pig!
Genetic editing is pretty legit though. I wouldn't be suprised if they make pigs the size of cows some day
What real genetic editing do you know about? is genetic modification technology that advanced already??
They've modified sheep and cows to be resistent to certain diseases and to produce more edible meat for poverty stricken countries Almost all food you eat has come from cows and other animals that have been modified to grow fatter than regular
Really? How do you even go about modifying animals like that? Its not selective breeding is it? Do scientist actually go in and splice the genes of the cows and sheep themselves?
Honestly I haven't thought much into how or what they do to them.  I'd have to look into it.  But I do know for sure that they've genetically modified animals. Utah State University has actually done this with sheep that they've been sending to africa for food.
Wow. Science is advancing at an incredible rate So are you a proponent or opponent of GMO's?
dang I wish I could send hyperlinks.  So there is a pig project called TALEN that has changed pigs genetic makeup to make them super muscular I am for GMO.  I get why people are concerned.  But, if we can modify our food to make it more resistent to diseases and to be healthier and give us better nutrients, ... ... why wouldn't we do that? But I do understand peoples arguments against GMOs but for plants there really shouldn't be an argument as it's near impossible to grow crops without them now a days.
I just googled TALEN pig muscle and briefly perused a couple articles and saw some pictures, and WOW. That's some pretty crazy stuf
yeah so just imagine cow sized pigs! That would be awesome!
And I haven't really formed any real opinion of GMO's myself. From what I hear though, they seem like a great thing Isn't the biggest concern just that they might react poorly with our bodies and give us new diseases or something along those lines? That would be pretty awesome! haha. Imagine how large the strips of bacon would get!
yeah that's one concern so chipotle had issues with this a couple years back.  They started serving non-gmo foods because that's what their customers wanted and some of the food ended up carrying ... ...ecoli because it was very succeptable to disease. So in trying to give customers healthy food they ended up poisoning lots of customers and having lawsuits
Oh wow! haha. That's terrible, but actually kind of funny too... The irony is remarkable!
So if a commercial company could overlook that sort of thing, I would imagine that your everyday consumer may end up eating things with diseases and stuff without realizing it
So in that way, GMO's are actually super beneficial to us Let me just say, I'm incredibly impressed at how well-versed you are with such a broad set of topics and current issues!
yeah, and there are dozens of studies that prove they are in no way harmful for us.
You watch the news much? Read scientific articles and studies? Or do you just have diverse interests?
hahah, I honestly peruse books and news articles like 24/7 I get really into things when I take an interest haha Question:  Do you know how many points we need per entry for the prizes in the chitchatchallenge? I am really curious as to the breakdown of how the prizes and entries are done.
That's awesome! I love reading about studies and science and stuff like that too, but don't really know where to turn to find anything Any good recommendations of websites or scholarly journals, or apps where one can find fun facts and cool studies? And honestly... I don't really know anything about the point breakdowns or how prizes will be distributed! haha They just announced this challenge in one of my classes and I thought I'd give it a shot! I'm pretty sure the main page of the website has some information on all of that though. The website says "The more you talk and the more interesting your conversations are, the more points you earn" So maybe those rankings we give the conversations at the end also affect how many points we receive in addition to how many words and turns we take in the dialogue
I like futurism.com they typically have very up to date technology and science articles on current issues. techcruch singularityhub I'm a CS major so i'm naturally drawn to more tech related stuff hahaa.
Thanks for all the references! I'll have to give them all a look!
yeah!  they're pretty neat
And if you still have questions about the scoring and prize allotments for this challenge, the challenge homepage has a link to a page of FAQs that answer pretty much anything And you've said you're interested in research and articles on technology and science. Do you read any fiction? I'm a pretty avid reader myself, and am always looking for good authors and series to try out!
aH SWEET I like some sci fi.  I was really into the Enders Game series and like Lord of the Rings a lot too
YES! Same! I loved reading Ender's Game. I should probably go back and reread it soon I read Lord of the Rings at the beginning of the summer, and I enjoyed it a lot but... I think I liked the movies better