The Non-GMO project specifies that ingredients derived from GMOs are considered GMOs. I know you like to see dunks, but try to at least do a little reading and not get your opinions from a Bayer employee half-assedly spouting talking points that are twenty years old.

Furthermore, he’s actually published articles on white supremecist websites. Specifically VDare. They’re popular in ag circles because they also discuss vaccines and GMOs (their articles on these topics are fine…actually well researched).

Either way, the document mentions potential effects on nontarget organisms as a concern. Nontarget effects are why caffeine is no longer used as a frogicide(?) in Hawaii. So, like, it's not approved here either. At least, there's no EPA RED that I can find.

Yes there's an actual moth/lamp joke immortalized in MTG, and it's a GREAT combo!

My second favorite insect commander in Magic: The Gathering has to be The Wise Mothman from the Fallout series. TWM scales up insanely fast, especially when paired with Mesmeric Orb. #MagicTheGathering

Cobra handlers have to be mindful when milking snakes or cleaning enclosures, because the venom from these animals can really get everywhere. Small, nonlethal exposures, can turn into whopping allergies relatively quickly. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1594…

My main issue with the paper (as well as the meme) is that it puts these compounds into distinct categories, when the reality is that many of these compounds can pull double-duty. Spitting cobras would be another example.

Tetrodotoxin does not need to be injected in order to be fatal. Pufferfish, for example, produce tetrodotoxin in their tissues...similar to blue-ringed octopusses. If you eat improperly prepared fugu, you could die from this toxin. Thus, it is not advisable to eat the BROctops

Blue-ringed octopi (octopusses? @SarahMackAttack? What's the plural?) produce the very potent tetrodotoxin in their salivary glands, and bite to introduce it to predators when they're in trouble. It's also found in patches throughout their body, in the mantle, arms, etc.

These are all well and good on a theoretical level, but fail once you actually take into account the ecology/physiology of the chemical compounds themselves. So let's take the blue-ring octopus, an organism they explicitly mention as being 'venomous'.

In the paper, they lay out their definitions like so:

So grammatically speaking, venoms are poisons. Like, by definition. They're introduced via injury. This part is correct. So far as I can tell, the meme is based off this paper which can be found via Sci-Hub. Give it a quick read, and then come back to this thread.

Note the use of the word 'toxin' here. A toxin generally refers to a poison produced by a biological organism, with the definition of poison being a substance which causes harm in a biological system. I'm not really into grammatical arguments, but wanted to address it.

First, we really need to get into the definitions here because 'what is a venom' has been the subject of considerable debate. One definition from the lit: Arbuckle, K. (2017). Evolutionary context of venom in animals. Evolution of venomous animals and their toxins, 24, 3-31.

For tonight's #DeepDive, let's talk about this meme popularized by folks like Casual Geographic and Wild Green memes. Once you dig into the biology of poisons, it begins to fall apart pretty quickly. More importantly, it's actually dangerous to people who work with animals.

Awesome new video from @zefrank! youtube.com/watch?v=ANyJVMhO…

One thing I've gotten into over the past two years is Magic: The Gathering. I only play insect commanders, and my favorite is The Locust God. Image credit: EDHRec

One observation in support of this idea is the fact that spores of psilocybin producing species can survive double-digestion. If something eats the spores, and then gets eaten by a predator, the spores can still germinate after being pooped out. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

Regardless the fact that it's produced by Massospora, which needs to keep its hosts alive to complete its lifecycle, implies that the compound isn't actually used to kill animals. Massospora hollows out its hosts, and relies on mating attempts to spread in cicada populations.

Halloween is spooky season; a time when all of our perceptions are a bit altered. A lot of critters produce mind-altering substances, chief among them fungi. So why do they produce these substances? #DeepDive Image credit: Mushroom Observer via Wikipedia