Last week, the European Commission agreed to lift the EU’s ban on selling genetically modified food for human consumption by approving the sale of Bt-11 sweetcorn (and there’s a brand name that’ll have tins flying off the shelves).

Much news coverage of this has been slightly misleading as this change in the rules does not affect the planting of GM crops, only their sale. One of the principle arguments against the growth of GM crops is that they may "infect" organic produce and thereby reduce choice for those consumers who wish to be able to purchase "uncontaminated", "natural" produce. But, by the same argument, those who wish to buy GM should be able to do so. GM sweetcorn will be labelled as such and those who are concerned about its effects should avoid it. At the risk of sounding like a free marketeer (and I don’t mean Porthos), if consumers don’t buy GM crops, there will be no point in companies’ producing them. If they do sell, it’s because consumers are happy to eat them, in which case they should be allowed to.

I will be boycotting this Bt-11 sweetcorn myself, as I don’t like sweetcorn.

I’ve finally finished working my way through Day 2 of 24. It may have been full of twists and characters whose motivations wander like mad, but it was excellent. Yes, Kim Bauer does just deliberately get into scrapes to make it more suspenseful, but suspenseful it is. Top notch cliffhangers throughout (that’s the Doctor Who fan in me coming through), and most notably the final shock in the closing seconds.

The last episode of Day 3 is being broadcast in the US tonight. If it’s anything like the finale of Day 2, it will be worth waiting for.

As if coming up with colours for concepts wasn’t enjoyable enough, another excellent game to pass the time (or waste it) is Consecutive Number Plate Spotting, courtesy of TV’s Richard Herring. He has been playing for nearly 18 months and has passed the 700 mark. I’ve been playing for week and have reached 10. I will, of course, keep you up-to-date with my progress. If you’d like to join in, read the rules and get started!

Just in case you visited the eBay link in the previous entry and wondered why on Earth I was drawing attention to it: I visited the auction just after it was mentioned on HIGNFY and noticed the hit counter was then at over a thousand and the bidding had passed five pounds.

A few minutes later, there had been more than ten thousand hits and the bidding had reached several hundred pounds. That’s when I posted my blog entry. Shortly afterwards, a couple of idiots started bidding in the millions. There have now been over seventy thousand hits, but the seller has cancelled the sale. Perhaps they’ve decided the photo is too famous to sell. And who wouldn’t be tempted.