Genetically Modified..............PEOPLE.

I recently picked up "The Lab" by Jack Heath again. It follows a secret agent-type character, called Agent Six of Hearts, in a world where one company controls an entire city and has encased it in an enormous wall. Six, as I'll call him for lack of a better nickname, was a genetic experiment carried out by a division of the same company that controls the city, ChaoSonic. He has no idea of his origins apart from that fact and would like to learn more about himself, but ChaoSonic is seeking him so he can be vivisected, assessed, psychologically tested, etc. by the people who created him. Fun stuff.
Six is a great agent, always brings in the bad guys, does crazy stunts, can't die easily, and all that jazz, but primarily because of the fact that he was engineered, so to speak, for the task at hand. This fact spurred my thinking onwards towards the genetically modified foods movement, and the controversy surrounding it. So I began to separate the pros and cons of GMOs and compare them to the book's insight on Six. On the positive side, GMOs can be altered for resistance to insects, temperature, pH, pesticides and herbicides, really anything that would normally kill a plant. Also, more and more nutrients can be added to GMOs to make people healthier. GMOs can also be produced in larger quantities. However, GMOs also have a severe downside. Some genetically modified components of different plants can harm or kill animals, insects, or plant species unintentionally. Genetic modifications can unwittingly transfer to other plant species as well. Increased allergenicity is also an issue, and the fact that since GMOs haven't been fully researched, nobody knows the full range of effects they could have over time.
Six also has special genetic resistance to all sorts of things: pain, decreased visibility, cuts and wounds and broken bones, etc. He can also be cloned repeatedly in his futuristic world, and then his clones can be sold off to be employed elsewhere as bodyguards and assassins and the like. Those are the more desirable qualitites of his modifications. The less desirable qualities of his modifications are that he has practically no social interaction, no strong emotions, and avoids long conversations at all costs. So like GMOs, It's hard to tell what negative effects he'll have on the city in the future as a result of his modifications.
Personally, I don't really like the thought that my food has been specifically grown with genes from different animals and custom fit to look a certain way or grown twice as large. For instance, GM tomatoes were created to be more resistant to cold temperatures by inserting a gene from flounder. Yes, the fish. There is fish in your tomato.
I'm not quite sure where I was going with this discussion, but I think I've mapped out my thoughts quite a bit.

Kool and the Gang is what I'm listenin' to.

I am currently reading Crispin on a whim, as I had no book and decided to pick it up. I remember reading it in sixth grade, and being satisfied with it, but now that I am getting somewhere with the plot, I'm a little dissapointed in my sixth grade thoughts of a good novel. Anyways, in Crispin, a boy with no name's mother dies. She wasn't liked at all by anybody in their community, so, neither was her son. Once she dies, the evil landlord guy comes and yells at the kid for a bit, pushes him around, and then burns down his house and all of his belongings. I don't believe I mentioned this earlier, but this book takes place during medieval times. Otherwise this story would sound a bit ridiculous. After being declared fair game, No-Name-Boy runs away and continues to find comfort in two things: his only friend, who is a priest, and his prayers.

Now this got me thinking a bit. I only wonder, what are the forces that cause people to believe in one deity or another, or a lack thereof? Is it your upbringing? But if it is, then where did your parents receive their faith from? I suppose some people may have had miraculous occurrences in their lives that spurred on their beliefs. Or maybe they read a holy book and decided upon that particular religion. But if I had never been told that the Bible was a holy book and the truth, I would've mistaken it for a work of fiction. I'm only asking, where does this deep-rooted belief come from? Some religions don't fit in with people's morals and ethics either. I suppose that's a factor that can be set apart from the rest, as it doesn't tie in with history or other people's thinking, only your own.

If anyone else can think of a title, just tell me.

In the book "Small Miracles" by Edward M. Lerner, one of the main characters continually wears glasses that give him the illusion he is on a virtual island where everything goes his way and he has a nice pet cat that lulls him to sleep. Why, you may ask, is this important? Because you know such people that are always in their little worlds, thinking of their special hypno-cat thing and swaying palm trees. I think Lerner is trying to represent these types of people in his books, and also is making a very general stereotype. The character, whose name evades me right now, is continually in his own little world, plotting to murder people and perform crazy medical experiments on people. Lerner seems to also associate the character to radical groups, as the character wants to rebuild society, change humans into some sort of super-race, yadda yadda yadda. Lerner may not have been intending to associate the two, but his is my interpretation at 10:40 on a Thursday night.