Wisconsin Designates State Microbe 102
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that state legislators in Wisconsin raced against the clock to pass a bill designating Lactococcus lactis as Wisconsin's official state microbe. 'The first time I heard the idea, I thought, I've got more important things to do than spending my time honoring a microbe,' says Gary Hebl, a Democratic state representative who proposed the bill which, he says, would make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to grant such a designation, 'but this microbe is really a very hard worker,' added Hebl, referring to the bacterium supported by the Department of Bacteriology at UW — Madison used to make cheddar, Colby, and Monterey Jack cheese. The proposal faced only one detractor in committee ('the opponent was clearly lactose-intolerant,' says Hebl), and there was no sign of a last-minute campaign from other bacteria, so by evening, the Assembly had approved the measure, 56 to 41. In case there were any doubts about Wisconsin's priorities, a separate bill also awaits consideration in Madison, declaring cheese Wisconsin's state snack."
State microbe ... (Score:4, Funny)
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Fromage neral point of view, I wonder whey they decided to do this.
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This will go well with the official state parasite: politicians.
Re:What? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well at least they're just engaging in harmless silliness - they could be screwing things up like most politicians seem to be good at.
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Well at least they're just engaging in harmless silliness - they could be screwing things up like most politicians seem to be good at.
Like everything else that ends up going horrible awry, this is starting "small" and "innocent". Just give them enough time and encouragement.
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It costs money to print up stuff to tell people about this nonsense. They'll have little fliers or somesuch detailing all the official state things, and now a new run will have to be made up for this addition.
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Texas attempts (seriously) to solve that problem by only allowing its legislature to meet every other year. Unfortunately, the governor works overtime in the off-years to make up for the stupid-government shortfall (and he can call the legislature into special 30-day sessions even in the off-year, if he needs their approval for something.)
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What is this "tator" addendum you speak of? BYT, I live in Houston.
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Being from Wisconsin, I can tell you that they definitely find the time to screw things up. This is just a diversion. But really it is a diversion that gets attention for one of our state's largest industries. You're reading about Wisconsin cheese right now, and that's kind of the point. Free publicity.
We actually take a lot of pride in the state in our dairy industry, and many of artisan cheesemakers in the state win awards and prizes at a national and even international level every year. We still proclaim
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Somehow I would have thought that Saccharomyces cerevisiae would have been a better choice for Wisconsin's state microbe. I'm only 2 states away from WI and I don't see much Wisconsin cheese on the shelves. Plenty of Wisconsin beer however.
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I think the most serious issue they have is high cholesterol.
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At least, unlike most state's official state birds, this microbe has a direct effect on the state's economy.
Legislatures do a hell of a lot of purely laudatory actions, we only hear about them when they're strange or funny. For example, Michigan's no-meat Saturday [livingstondaily.com], responded to by a US Representative from MI proposing National Meat Appreciation Day [mlive.com]. Sure, it's also a bit of political wrangling, but it's still equally a waste of elected official's time.
Kansas: (Score:1, Funny)
Salmonella
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No. The hospital super-bugs - staph or strep. Because they show evolution in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_bug_(bacteria) [wikipedia.org]
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No. The hospital super-bugs - staph or strep. Because they show evolution in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_bug_(bacteria) [wikipedia.org]
Actually that'd be natural selection unless a new, never-before-seen species is created. That's not how superbugs originate. Instead, antibiotics kill less than 100% of an existing species of bacteria. Let's say antibiotics can kill 99.5% of them. The 0.5% that survive the antibiotic continue to metabolize and reproduce until they replace the numbers that were lost to the antibiotic (and bacteria can often reproduce very quickly). Now you have a resistant population that originated with those individua
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None of this is the "amoeba to human" (to use a figure of speech) evolution that explains the appearance of highly complex organisms on Earth.
No-one makes claims about "amoeba to human" (to use a figure of speech) evolution, except Creationists.
In fact I've never seen a scientific, proven example of a mutation that added new genetic information that did not previously exist.
This [talkorigins.org] should get you started.
None of this proves or disproves the concept of evolution, but it does make it a much more mysterio
Boy Am I glad (Score:2, Funny)
What's next, Michigan delcaring Fe(OH) their state mascott?
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If you can change he value of pi by legislation, altering the oxidation state of an element should be trivial.
And in every other State (Score:1)
i declare this travesty of waste of taxpayers time (Score:4, Funny)
delicious
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Yes, we shouldn't ever focus on anything like "local culture" or find things to be proud of as residents of a certain place, or promote anything that isn't monotonous, requisite, fiscally appropriate. We ought to be freaking out and struggling to keep our heads above water at all times. There's no time to be human beings, we have drudgery to deal with!
For Our Non-United States Friends (Score:4, Informative)
Wisconsin is the state synonomous with cheese. Nothing else, really. Just cheese. Everything they do, seemingly, is cheese-related. Oh, yeah, they have a pretty good football team from their city Green Bay. The team's fans are called "cheese-heads," and attend games wearing giant wedges of cheese as hats.
Seriously. [blogspot.com]
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We have beer, too.
A former legislator used to love this sort of thing. As the State Legislature was considering making the tuba the State Instrument, which came to pass, she said this type of silliness takes time away from passing more bad laws.
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Re:For Our Non-United States Friends (Score:5, Informative)
That's not true. We're also really good at beer and fireworks.
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Really.
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I went this weekend to the Struise Brouwers in Vleteren. What I tasted there has not been made or tasted by many. A variety of Black Albert, a stout ripened in oaken whiskey caskets, and Pannepot Wild, a beer variety enhanced with gueuze yeasts.
Yeah, I know, off-topic, but worth mentioning I think.
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Thanks for mentioning. I'll add it to my itinerary.
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Not really true anymore (Score:3, Insightful)
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There are both national and local brands... (Score:2)
available nationwide:
Local choices will vary by location, but most mid-sized and larger towns have a
True... (Score:2)
When I was a kid, I grew up hearing my dad and all his friends refer to Leinenkugel (Chippewa Falls) as "squaw piss". And it really was back then. Since then, they've made huge strides in making the brand an upscale brand now.
I know that there are many craft breweries around Wisconsin. I visit many of them. But Wisconsin has never particularly been known for them.
I spend my springs/summers in NW Wisconsin and enjoy this part o
Re:For Our Non-United States Friends (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but our non-US friends would say that our beer is swill.
They would be wrong.
Seriously, with the possible exception of Belgium, the shear variety and quality of beers produced by the hundreds of micro-breweries and brew-pubs in Wisconsin tops anything I've experienced in the last 10 years in Europe. Anyone who has had the privilege of coming to the "Great Taste of the Midwest" knows what I am talking about.
That said, volcano permitting, I'm traveling to Belgium next month to work on a book about monasteries and "exotic" beers.
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How about Pilsen in the Czech Republic? You know. The city that Pilsener beer is named after. They certainly one of the best, if not the best beer in the world.
Or Germany, with its insane amount of breweries. We got two dozen different types of beer of one type brewed in my city alone.
But of course I don’t want to make Belgium or small American breweries look bad. They are a bit more open to new things or experiments. It depends on you, if you consider this a good or a bad thing.
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I'm a HUGE fan of German beers of all kinds, Bavarian beers especially. I've spent many many hours sitting in beer gardens there. I personally consider German beers to be among the best in the world. I don't think I would ever get tired of German styles if that was all I could drink. And you get the wonderful bonus of being next to Belgium!
But I can drive 15 minutes and find wonderful examples of pretty much every German style. I happen to have a keg of fantastic Hefeweizen from a local brew-pub that is a n
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Wisconsin is only known for fireworks because they are illegal in some of the adjacent states. The fireworks sold in Wisconsin are all made in China.
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Let's not forget summerfest! It combines all of the best parts of Wisconsin and occasionally adds good looking boobies. Check it out: www.summerfest.com
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Does that make Wisconsin the Holland of the USA ?
Might be missing the windmills and the tulips.
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Wind farms are growing in popularity around the state. Seems like a couple hundred went up around my parent's house over the last few years.
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B.t.w. I see that Wisconsin produces about 600 varieties of cheese, but what varieties ? Do they have the same amount of variety that exists across Europe ? Fresh cheeses, soft cheeses, half-hard cheeses, hard cheeses, runny cheeses, chewy cheeses (like halloumi), big wheels of cheese, small pungent cheeses (I am from Belgium b.t.w.)?
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More importantly, is it actually cheese or is it that strange American rubber? I may be British and not keen on soft cheeses (like Brie) but the Americans seem to find it hard to do a decent cheddar.
I think Wisconsin might be good, but I can't remember. I do rememb
Re:For Our Non-United States Friends (Score:4, Informative)
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I hope by rubber cheese you aren't referring to the crimes against humanity that are Velveta and Kraft American "Cheese" as they are mostly cheese flavored vegetable oil. I'm pretty sure they even claim on the packaging that they are "Processed Cheese Food", not really cheese.
In Britain that's normally what we understand to be "American Cheese" (blame McDonald's), although we tend to call it "processed 'cheese'" or "plastic cheese". I don't think I've ever seen anyone use it except on a burger; if you're really lazy you buy pre-sliced/grated actual cheese rather than the plastic stuff. (Going by what's available, most people buy blocks of cheese.)
Example [mysupermarket.co.uk] -- clearly they aren't allowed to call it "cheese". (Here's the rest of the packaged cheese "shelf" [mysupermarket.co.uk].)
The only American cheese
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Yes, we do. Our cheeses are as diverse as our beers. I recently attended a cheese and beer pairing where there were a dozen wonderfully "stinky" cheeses paired with some fine Belgian-style strong beers - all made in Wisconsin.
It's one of the reasons I've stayed here for almost 20 years, despite hating the long winters.
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Oh, yeah, they have a pretty good football team from their city Green Bay. The team's fans are called "cheese-heads," and attend games wearing giant wedges of cheese as hats.
Seriously. [blogspot.com]
Only on /. does a reference to the Packer's 'Cheese-heads' require a link to photographic proof that you aren't joking...
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Seriously. [blogspot.com]
Only on /. does a reference to the Packer's 'Cheese-heads' require a link to photographic proof that you aren't joking...
Some of us aren't aware of every aspect of American culture, and appreciated the link ;-).
Maybe you don't know about cheese rolling [google.co.uk].
and badgers (Score:3, Informative)
i'm not really sure why, but in my mind, wisconsin means cheese and badgers
i'm not sure if that association is normal or random
PANIC! A SNAKE! SNAKE, AUGH SNAKE.... Aaargh, it's a Snake!!!
Mushroom Mushroom!
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Is that real cheese? With those holes, is it Emmentaler?
--
Mac and Lac
Cheese to be the official State snack? (Score:2)
Something tells me that Wisconsin will be Jamie Oliver's next destination.
lactose (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, lactose intolerant people often appreciate it when bacteria break down the lactose before they eat the food.
In Alabama... (Score:3, Funny)
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if you get illinois, kentucky and tennessee to legislate over something silly, that's a time zone time wasting bingo you know
is kentucky the free space?
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Haha (Score:5, Funny)
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The Onion was started in Wisconsin. We commemorate that by creating real events to emulate Onion parodies.
I know this is off topic, but... (Score:1)
Actually, lactose intolerant people often appreciate it when bacteria break down the lactose before they eat the food.
brought memories of an old SNL skit - Pre-Chew Charlie's - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xas2fz_saturady-night-live-pre-chew-charli_fun [dailymotion.com]
Funny how associative memory works....
WI should have motto "Eat Cheese or Die" (Score:5, Funny)
Unfortunately this suggestion did not survive. I believe the time is ripe to try again to implement this new motto.
If you think I invented phony "facts," see http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/08/us/wisconsin-s-license-plates-won-t-say-eat-cheese-or-die.html [nytimes.com]
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Logic error. The "OR" should have been an "AND"
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The more popular slogan was, "Come and smell our dairy air!"
If you know any French at all, you'll get the joke.
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Very punny.
(I had mod points a small number of minutes ago, and I would surely have modded this up [despite knowing almost no French], but they're all gone now. So rather than getting +1, you instead shall be the recipient of this useless acknowledgment.)
this is stupid (Score:1)
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I'm also from Texas and I'll have you know that I honor microbes daily!
Thanks for looking at the important bills! (Score:1, Interesting)
Angry Wisconsin Resident here.
So they're willing to look at a bill for a microbe, but won't even touch an important bill such at the medical marijuana one.
http://www.immly.org/index.html
Absolutely.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps UW should change its mascot? (Score:1, Funny)
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A: Have you ever seen what a Badger does to a Gopher hole?
I just love to see our taxes hard at work.
While I think that's good, what about the RTA? (Score:1)
Not a waste of time (Score:3, Insightful)
While the bill is campy and fun, it does promote science and learning in an interesting way. You can bet that hundreds of science teachers will do a quick lesson on this microbe and why it's so valuable to their state economy.
Other states to follow (Score:2)
Where's the T-Shirt ? (Score:1)
Tax Dollars at Work (Score:2)
So this is what one of the nation's highest tax rates goes to pay for.
:(