This is just a way to organize my thoughts and make some sense. Enjoy!
npr:
Ooooo.
Genetics of the Beautiful “Glass Gem” Corn
Corn gone viral? You’re looking at an ear of a corn variety called “Glass Gem”, grown by Greg Schoen of Seeds Trust. This is real corn! How does it grow this way?
First you have to understand a few things about corn. Each corn kernel is actually a sort of unique plant. A corn plant’s male parts (the “tassels”) sit at the top of the stalk, and drop pollen downward. Unfertilized ears (the female parts) catch the pollen with the sticky ends of their corn silks. Each corn silk (I hate when that gets in my teeth) grabs a pollen grain, shuttles it allllllll the way down inside the ear, eventually creating one kernel for each pollen-silk-ovum combination. It’s one of the more interesting and inefficient breeding schemes I know of.
If you’ve taken genetics, you know that the parents’ genes will combine by chance, leading to certain ratios of inheritance in the offspring. This is the basis of Mendelian genetics (great Khan Academy video here).
With corn, we’ve simply carefully bred all the interestingness out of them. Native Americans were used to multi-colored corn, because corn plants held many varieties of color genes that could combine at random. Now all we are left with are one-color clones.
This “Glass Gem” corn is the other extreme of the spectrum, a combination of corn color hybrid genes and random pollination. It’s almost too pretty to eat!
(via Discover Magazine)
Hmmm….mating season?
![My beautiful home :]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr7w39uAMm1r2glkso1_1280.jpg)
My beautiful home :]
Red Quinoa, Black Bean & Bell Pepper Salad Recipe for Tasty Kitchen LS
I’m at loss at what to do. Again.
I feel that that has been happening alot this year. It’s not that I wasn’t expecting it, but it was more that I never thought it would be in this context. I thought that I would find the solution soon after the problem. But I’m still stuck, and I can’t do anything. Absolutely nothing. It’s not that I’ve lost help, but it has become outside of my control, and I need to learn to let go and give this to God.
Dear ____,
I can’t even begin to imagine how much pain you’ve had to endure these past couple months. No matter how much I try, I can’t help you more than just sitting here and listening to your breakdowns, your rants, your problems. I will never be able to understand your problems, your emotional state. You even said so yourself.
I wish so much that I could do more for you, I really do. I may not be one of “those girls” that you like to hang out with, and I’m probably awkward and quiet, but I hope I offered an ear at the right time, a tissue when you’re feeling down, or hopefully just being there just in case.
Sometimes I wonder if you do this for the attention. You even said yourself you’ve been overshadowed alot. If this is the case, don’t dig your hole any deeper. It really pains me to see how desperate you are, and sometimes I see through you how loveless the world can unfortunately be.
You know, it kinda sucks having to be near you all the time. I get tired a lot, you take a lot of my energy, and sometimes your burden becomes a burden to me, and I don’t know how to carry it most of the time. In a way, I’m glad that we won’t be seeing each other that often next year. I need time to recuperate from all the time that you’ve taken away from me. I’m not bitter, I’m just stating a fact.
But overall, I’m glad that you gave me a chance to grow. I’ve been forced to grow up and see how lucky I am. I’ve been forced to see that God really does have a plan and everything is in his hands. You’ve forced me to open my eyes to horrors and pains that I would have only heard of in stories or seen in movies. So, I thank you. In the weirdest and most ironic way possible.
I miss Powell’s.
