I'm in Connecticut. It's my state. In third grade I did a report on Connecticut and I memorized all the state facts. Before this report, I had not heard of Connecticut before. I kind of think it's an ugly name, and there's not an amazing landmark here I've always wanted to see, but it's my state that I had to research and I'm very happy to FINALLY be visiting it. Yes, this week I've been to Rhode Island and Connecticut, two states I've never been to before. It reminds me of the book, A Wrinkle In Time, and of all things New England. I unfortunately can't eat any of the clam chowder because it is thickened with flour.
Today on my phone I read two different articles at Yahoo News about people in Connecticut and very large lobsters. One woman won a 29 lb lobster in an auction and she donated it to an aquarium. Then another dude purchased a 19 lb lobster named Lucky Larry and set him free in the ocean. What's with all of the lobster sympathy all of a sudden?
When I lived in Mt Pleasant, MI, I would pick out the lobsters in Meijer that I wanted to buy and tell Josh that I wanted to set them free in the Chippewa River. That'd never work! The river isn't salty.
Do you know what one of the best parts of travelling is? It's sitting at the hotel bar and talking to whatever stranger is also sitting there. I don't do it every time, but when I do, I always have a great time. It's sort of like a mini-adventure. Who's going to be there? What's their job? What will they teach you? Today I met a pretty boring guy who is a software consultant and knows about building parts for airplanes. He was very nice, but none too interesting.
I toured a Monsanto Seed Transformation Laboratory today. It was pretty darn amazing. I think since I was with the government, they tried very very very very very very ( I can't stress how hard they tried) hard to seem legit and responsible and good. Not that I dont' think they aren't. Their work wouldn't turn out right and they wouldn't be as powerful as they are without their strong sense of responsibility, but I still don't trust them. They are responsible in their science...very excellent lab procedures. But science doesn't work with ethics. You can not apply the scientific method to ethics. And ethically, is genetically modified seed good? I don't know. In some ways yes. They mentioned in their pre-tour talk all the things I've been reading about, lack of water, less space, and growing population. Farmers are going to have to produce twice as much food in less land than they are now by 2030 to sustain Earth's human population. Without Monsanto and their technology biology, farmers wouldn't be able to do that. But they don't factor taste or nutrients into their seed modifications.
Honestly, do you know what it was like at the Monsanto Lab? The best way to describe it is like Jurassic Park. Everything from replacing parts of the DNA to sitting down and watching hi-tech videos. There was even a really tall skinny guy who is just as attractive as Jeff Goldblum, and an old man who was in charge of everything and ever so slightly annoying because you didn't trust him farther than you could throw him with your pinky finger.
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