7 November 2001

THE REAL CSIRO KID: MORE ON BIOTECH AND PORN

We recently posted an apology that apparently came from the CSIRO scientist behind numerous anonymous pro-GE postings. We now gather that
this was actually a spoof and that CSIRO biotechnologist Dr Roger Morton remains entirely unrepentant. As does Morton's other half in this regard - "Alice Webster" <alwster@yahoo.com>

Below is the latest "Morton" spoof and a piece on Morton's previous activities from the NGIN archive.

We have also received a number of interesting suggestions from subscribers as to why Morton's partner in crime, rumoured to be a male entomologist and biotech regulator based at the University of Adelaide, might have a preference for signing his e-mails 'Alice'.

One subscriber speculates that the 'Alice' alias is, in fact, a tribute to the Rev Charles Dodgson and his notorious enthusiasm for pseudonyms, nonsense and, er... child photography. After all, they argue, the realkids' site run by Dr Morton offers to 'Make Your Kid a Star' - Alice Webstar?

Another subscriber suggests 'Alice' is more likely to be a Neville Shute fan:

'It's railhead of course, for trucking cattle down to Adelaide - that's one thing . But it's a go-ahead place is Alice; all sorts of things go on there.' (from 'A Town Like Alice')

They suggest the "go-ahead" entomologist and the "go-ahead" Dr Morton are actually part of a vicious ring of biotechnophiles that may include CSIRO man, Dr Malcolm Livingstone whose hot response to a passing reference made by Devinder Sharma to the US's ever burgeoning pornography industry we also previously noted. (Devinder's point was that just because a US-led industry was on the up, it didn't mean the rest of the world had to emulate it).

Livingstone's heated response: "I couldn't give a rat's arse whether you like pornography or not. I can however state that if I ever found myself in a culture where the majority held your views on "pornography" I would leave as fast as I could. America doesn't have pornography they have free speech."

What these porno-supporting biotechnophiles all have in common remains a moot point.

***

http://208.141.36.110/listArchive/index.cfm?mthd=msg&ID=39688
Biotech debate (biotechdebate@iatp.org )
whoops
(realkidsau@yahoo.com.au)
Tue, 06 Nov 2001

I just noticed I wrote these two statements in the same post:

1) Suffice to say that the technique of attacking the person rather than his or her ideas is the last bastion of those whose own ideas are indefensible.

2) Dr Ho, do you know anything about science, probablility or horizonal gene transfer? (Note: I sometimes send e-mail with the name "Dr. Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas", pretty funny eh?)

So it appears I contradict myself to suit my purposes, and that applying my own logic, my "ideas are indefensible". I should really stop and think before I write my meandering, incoherent, missplelled posts.

P.S. Did you really believe I was banned from the list before? Ha ha.

Roger "realkids" Morton

***

The Calvinists are coming and a blind spot!

Dr Roger Morton is the zealously pro-GM aussie CSIRO gene-jockey who was recently identified as the source of multiple mails to the biotech-activist list, a public list for GM sceptics, under a 'real_kids" alias!

It was also suggested that he may have been mailing people under the assumed identity of known GM critics. [For more on this see:
https://members.tripod.com/~ngin/224.htm ]

Subsequently Dr Morton posted the following warning to Prakash's AgBioView list:

"The Calvinists are essentially accusing hundreds of scientists of fraud."

The first thought this prompted was that the Pope's recent criticism of agbiotech was triggering a wave of religious persecution mania on the Prakash list - to complement its constantly raging organic paranoia.

However, Dr Morton subsequently clarified his interesting comment, as follows:

...

From: Roger Morton <roger.morton@pi.csiro.au>
Subject: Myths corrections

Due to a spell check error the following sentences in my recent post which read:

"The Calvinists are essentially accusing hundreds of scientists of fraud."

should have read:

"The activists are essentially accusing hundreds of scientists of fraud."
...

Despite this, Dr Morton's, or perhaps his word processor's, playful sense of the absurd is still being given full rein, it seems.

Yesterday Wytze de Lang -- at least one assumes it was Wytze de Lang, as this is, in fact, one of the identities Dr Morton has been known to assume!! -- drew our attention to the following in Dr Morton's latest post to Abiasedview:

...

Edited From Agbioview

From: Roger Morton <roger.morton@pi.csiro.au>

...... in answer to Red's questions.

If this level of vitamin A intake is very low at the moment then shifting the dietary intake to 1.3% [of what is required] may be a
massive improvement.

Activists have a blind spot in their vision which makes them unable to accept the fact that this technology could have some possible use for the poor and will produce any argument they can.............

Just face it - golden rice disproves just about every argument the activists have had on GM foods.

R. Morton

***

Obviously nobody could think that a hi-tech fix introducing unpredictable risks in return for addressing such a miniscule part of the targeted dietary requirement - a requirement which could be much more efficiently addressed by assisting those affected to grow some high Vit A containing vegetables - could make any sense. So a Morton gaff or a Morton spoof?

Long-time Morton watchers are taking the comments at face value.

Greg Todd of BEC New Communities HDFC, Inc. <becnc@igc.org>: writes to the good doctor:

Roger

Is a miniscule increase in vitamin A intake worth the cost [of GM crops in the developing world]? Genetic drift into related plant species, allergic reactions, corruption of non-ge foodsupplies, increased use of pesticide, fertilizers, increase level of farmer bankruptcies due to excessive debt loads, etc.

What arguments does Golden Rice disprove? That foods can be genetically altered to express traits that provide a consumer benefit, as opposed to just a benefit for the producers or growers? That gene giants could do that is obvious, the only question is what took them so long to figure this out. ...

When will Dr Morton and his fellow pro-GM Calvinists hurry up and face the facts?

***

Talking of those famed for their gaffs - quote of the week:

"One could not be a successful scientist without realising that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid."
- JamesWatson

***

> Biotech Activists (biotech_activists@iatp.org)    Posted: 11/03/2001
> By  turtle@westnet.com

> Dear Dr. Anderson,
>
> Here is some info about the anonymous poster to this list who uses the address realkids_au@yahoo.co.uk.
>
> This individual is:
>
> Dr Roger Morton 02 6246 5069 (ph)
> CSIRO Plant Industry 02 6246 5000 (fax)
> GPO Box 1600 roger.morton@pi.csiro.au
> CANBERRA ACT 2601
>
> although for some reason he is not listed on the CSIRO web site.
>
> He is a staunch supporter of agricultural biotechnology:
>
> http://www.netspeed.com.au/ttguy/
>
> He is also a staunch supporter of pornography:
>
> http://www.netspeed.com.au/ttguy/refs2.htm
>
> His site links to this porno site:
>
> http://206.132.234.36/scripts/click.php3?rid=5022&pid=3
>
> and features this charming animation:
>
> http://www.netspeed.com.au/ttguy/safe.htm
>
> His hobby is making and editing videos of small children:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/realkids_au/
>
> If you would like to send Dr. Morton a video of your child, you may reach him at:
>
> ttguy@netspeed.com.au or on
> 02 62784202
>
> Send tapes to:
> RealKids
> C/- Roger Morton
> 44 Chubb St
> Latham ACT 2615
> AUSTRALIA
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> Andy Zimmerman
> turtle@westnet.com
>
> > Biotech Activists (biotech_activists@iatp.org)    Posted:
> 11/02/2001  By  roberta@clear.net.nz
> > ============================================================
> >
> > If  <realkids_au@yahoo.co.uk>  feels he/she can't
> > sign his statements we really don't want to read
> > them.
> > Dr Robert Anderson
> > Member of Physicians and Scientists for
> > Responsible Genetics
> > www.psrg.org.nz
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <biotech_activists@iatp.org>
> > To: <roberta@clear.net.nz>
> > Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 7:17 AM
> > Subject: Re: Biopesticide and Bioweapons
> >
> >
> > > Biotech Activists (biotech_activists@iatp.org)
> > Posted: 10/31/2001  By  realkids_au@yahoo.co.uk