I was just riding my ridgeback...

(a ridgeback is a bike), and I heard this middle-aged couple talking. The woman said, "He doesn't seem at all gay. He's had plenty of girlfriends but none of them seem to work out...". Hahaha, she sounds like a clueless mother from a sitcom or something. Anyway... on to my main point...


AN INTERESTING THING ABOUT CACTI

I had a tutorial yesterday, and one of the third-year students was talking about his work. What he's doing sort of mocks all those hardcore enviromentalists who are obsessed with keeping things green. Part of his project will include fake science journals that investigate cruelty to plants (as opposed to cruelty to animals). Instead of comparing a battery chicken farm with a free-range chicken farm, he will be looking at... I dunno... good crop farmers and bad crop farmers.
During his research, he actually discovered a man who ran an experiment to see if plants really do have feelings of any kind. He took a cactus, and put it in a lab, keeping the conditions perfect for the cactus to thrive. Eventually, the cactus lost its thorns, for the was nothing to protect itself against. The man would treat it well and talk to it as if it were human. The cactus was content. Then, one dark day, the scientists' cat managed to get into the lab. Fearing for its life, the cactus began growing thorns again. For the few days after this unfortunate incident, the scientist re-assured the cactus that everything was alright, and the new thorns began to drop off again. Soon the cactus grew little cactus babies around it. The babies were already thornless, for the world they were growing up in was indeed a safe one.

I don't know if this proves anything about whether plants have feelings, but cacti seem to know when danger is afoot...