Comments for James and the Giant Corn

Comment on Completion by Kurt Kiesling

Kurt Kiesling — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 14:23:53 +0000

The transition from graduate studies to “the real world” is next on your agenda. I recall when I was interviewing after getting my Chemical Engineering degree, that I gravitated towards the academic areas of engineering when considering job offers. After a few years, I realized that the jobs that I had originally considered to be suitable for those in the bottom half of a graduating class, were often the ones with the most potential, and rewarding. So if I might suggest a blogging topic — transitioning to the real world.

Comment on Completion by James

James — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:50:28 +0000

Thank you Kurt. I am also really hoping to I can get back in the habit of updating, I’ve missed it. -J

Comment on Completion by Kurt Kiesling

Kurt Kiesling — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:43:18 +0000

Congrats. Hope you find life outside the University to be rewarding and full of challenges to be conquered. And I hope you are able to resume your blogging — always enjoyed reading it.
KK

Comment on Completion by James

James — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 08:32:38 +0000

Thanks EJ! My thesis is going to be available online through ProQuest but I think it is still being processed at the moment. I’ll definitely throw up another post when I get the notification that it is up online.

Comment on Completion by EJ

EJ — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 08:28:27 +0000

Congrats! Is your thesis published online? Would be nice to read during the christmas holiday

Comment on One MORE reason pineapples are awesome by Various Developments – 11/30/2012 « Homologus

Various Developments – 11/30/2012 « Homologus — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:39:09 +0000

[...] is a good suggestion from an old (2010) blog post by James and the Giant Corn blog said – One MORE reason Pineapples are awesome Pineapples use CAM photosynthesis. Normally plants have to open tiny holes in their leaves (called [...]

Comment on The Domestication of Maize by Anna

Anna — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:58:30 +0000

cool,
i’m doing a school presentation on selective breeding right now thanks

Comment on Genetically Engineered Crops: Sugar Beet by Kaitlyn Horn

Kaitlyn Horn — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:59:17 +0000

Franz is/was my (5th) Great Granddad on my mum’s side! So glad to know he actually known by people out there, I don’t know many people where I live that have heard of him, nor Anton (he came over to Saginaw, Michigan and started the beet factories over here after Franz shared his work. Anton is also the grandson of Franz. His full name is Anton William Waldemar Achard.) Anyways, I just thought it was really neat to see him mentioned somewhere where I didn’t expect someone to know of him!

Comment on qTeller: an easier way to find candidate genes by Bhavani

Bhavani — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:32:15 +0000

Its very informative tool. Please let me know how to cite this tool.

Comment on Why a Monoculture of Corn isn’t like a Monoculture of Bananas by Kendall

Kendall — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:12:57 +0000

That’s wonderful. It doesn’t address the now more indirect results of massive farming based around a few select crops. I wouldn’t fear corn disappearing in the first waves of climate change, or suddenly contracting a blight akin to bananas. Frankly, corn is too important for that. There’s too great an economic investment in corn for the great financial powers to allow it to become as fragile as, say, cocoa trees.
I understand that your thesis is based around combating the comparison made to bananas, and for good reason. It’s a badly-informing comparison. However, there’s a much bigger picture. The growth of monocultures completely wipes out an area’s ability to retain ecological integrity for native plant, insect, fungal, and animal species, the values of which are vastly ignored and largely not understood. Simple soil bacteria is able to fight cancer. What could the rest of it do?
The by-products of growth based around these very important plant species (fertilizer) spurn algae blooms. Blue-green algae, which is spurned by fertilizer use, has been linked to ALS (Lou Gherig’s disease). When crops aren’t rotated, soil degrades quickly and so come erosion problems and everything they bring to surrounding communities.

Other things to consider include vital kinds of bacteria that help keep soil from turning into unmanageable, sterile dust, and where our nation’s corn is going to. Much of it goes to our meat industry, which in turn breeds e-coli that runs off onto crops through waste. Of course, that’s not only happening here, and e-coli isn’t only strong here. I believe that it was last year that an e-coli outbreak killed almost fifty folks in Germany, and infected thousands. Fifty is a high number for those familiar with outbreaks of e-coli. Drinking water is also contaminated by herbicides, and current GMOs aren’t proving adequate reassurance because of the resistance they breed in everything their modifications were set to kill, not to mention that independent research on them is all but banned.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-seed-companies-control-gm-crop-research

Overall: great, you killed a metaphor. I honestly congratulate that.