I was on a road trip recently, and while driving I saw a large, gleaming tanker truck with the words "Inedible Pork Plasma" on the side.

What is Pork Plasma? And why would I even think it was edible?

The secret ingredient in Sporkle(tm)?
Some sort of liquid meat byproduct of pig fusion?

Enquiring minds want to know...

Wow, I learned something today thanks to you, satanic lemur. Large quantities of non-food grade plasma actually make sense.

Plasma is the component of blood that helps form clots when you get a cut. Hemophiliacs have very little plasma (or none, I can't recall) in their blood. This is why a tiny cut may cause them to bleed a dangerous amount.

I turned to Google to find out why anyone would be using large quantities of plasma. These people [proliantinc.com] use it for edible elastic gels that hold meat products (hotdogs) together. I'd imagine inedible pork plasma is slightly cheaper and used to make very thin barriers that are not eaten.

A related bit of useless information: bones are used to bleach sugar.

In Response to Oedipa_Maas (#8802):

I'm confused... but then, this is nothing new.

Still, I was under the impression (from biology class) that platelets are what cause blood to clot, and the plasma is the liquid within which the platelets, red and white blood cells are suspended.

In Response to Clan_Hanna (#8804):

I'm confused...

Rightfully so. I wasn't very clear.

Clotting proteins, like Prothrombin and Fibrinogen, are components of the plasma. When a cut occurs, a chemical is produced that converts Prothrombin to Thrombin, which in turn converts Fibrinogen to Fibrin. Fibrin forms a sort of web in which platelets get caught and form a barrier/scab.

A correction about Hemophilia: certain clotting proteins are missing from the plasma not the plasma itself. Hemophiliacs would be in a horrible state with no plasma at all.

In Response to Oedipa_Maas (#8806):

Hemophiliacs would be in a horrible state

Delaware?

In Response to zamphir (#8808):

What's wrong with Delaware? I'd be afraid of California. We might soon have the Govenator.

In Response to TheEmma (#8830):

Delaware's great!

As long as you like chickens.

And tax free mega corporations.

In Response to zamphir (#8832):

Dude, where can I pick up one of those Tax-free mega corporations? I've been through Delaware, and none of the convenience stores really had'm...

In Response to mcgrue (#8834):

Here ya go! [msn.com]
  Delaware-based, In bankruptcy, and best of all... They deal in Pork Plasma!

All you can't eat of the goey, homey goodness (just like mom used to buy!) of Inedible Pork plasma...

The mind boggles.

In Response to lemur666 (#8842):

Now that is bringing this discussion around to a full circle. Good job.

Since you did so well, I'm going to derail this conversation with another random tangent to see if you can knit it all back together again.

A good thing about Delaware is the 90 Minute Imperial IPA [dogfish.com] from Dogfish Head Brewery. [dogfish.com] I haven't seen the 120 minute IPA here yet. The 9% alcohol content of the 90 Min. IPA has forced me to adopt a beer strategy when we visit the jazz club [citysearch.com] where it is served. The most recent strategy was to start with a beer with a lower alcohol content like Guinness or Pilsner Urquell [pilsner-urquell.com], move on to a slightly higher alcohol beer like Terminal Gravity Porter [celebrator.com], and finish with Dogfish's IPA.

In Response to Oedipa_Maas (#8802):

As a hemophiliac, I can assure you that we have plasma in our blood. In fact, plasma is nothing more then blood from which the red blood cells have been extracted. Everything left over is "plasma".

Hemophiliacs lack one or more proteins that are used in the creation of a blood clot. Most of us are missing either factor 8 or 9 in a series of 118 protein "factors" that must link together in order for a clot to form and then remain stable.

We used to get our blood factors from various animals, especially pigs, because their protein forms are very close to the human form, and they will work correctly when injected into our blood. These days, much of the protein is created by genetically modified animal cells (my last injection was with a protein that was made in the ovarian cells of chinese hamsters - go figure). GM proteins are now favored because they can be significantly cleaner than those extracted in the wild, particularly from other humans. While not as publicized as the health crisis in the Gay community, the hemophiliac community was slaughtered by the advent of HIV, with over 75% of hemophiliacs becoming infected through contaminated blood, or blood products (like plasma).

The "inedible" pork plasma is most likely expired, in that it's either too old or hasn't been refrigerated/preserved correctly. It's likely to go to a rendering plant where it will be broken down further, and turned into everything from glue to cosmetics.

In Response to maldrich (#8853):

It's always a good idea to read the whole thread [goats.com] before responding.

In Response to maldrich (#8853):

Oh the humanity! your first post, such a long one at that, and it merely gets marked as redundant.

Welcome to Goats: the Forums.

I've seen something ever more strange (though rather less now..) on the side of a truck parked in front of a grocery store:

Meat-Type Pork

Jubilee from xmen could shoot plasma out of her hands. Doesn't seem very effective....

sun plasma?

We get fusion energy from pigs?

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#8960):

So could Havok, and he turned into a star in one of the comics. Therefore, I guess it depends on if its edible or inedible.

In Response to kornz (#8999):

No...

Plasma, otherwise known as the 4th state of matter (after solids, liquids and gases) is a super-hot gas in which most of the atoms are ionised, (such as the deuterium and tritium) used in fusion reactors...

Entirely different from this "inedible pork plasma", though if the pork plasma really WAS a super-hot ionised gaseous form of pork, it'd sure explain why it was inedible...

In Response to snipergirl (#9063):

Actually, I heard (from a mates mates girlfriend) that plasma is really the fifth state of matter because theres another state at 0-1K, which has been dubbed something like a superatom.

It's where the atom itself doesn't have enough energy to sustain its structure, and kinda 'falls' into a globby mess of bits of matter.

Maybe I should've zombiised that old 'Useless trivia' thread from a while back for this, as zombiising threads seems to be all the rage at the moment.

In Response to unFalln (#9070):

i know the one you're talking about... it's called a bose-einstein condensate.

which basically means that the atoms all fall into their lowest quantum state, the same one and act like one big particle. it's been demonstrated in several types of matter, including helium. in that state, you can actually make liquid helium climb up the walls of its beaker all by itself, demonstate the weirder aspects of quantum theory on a macroscopic level and all kinds of nifty stuff.

actually i'd call plasma the 4th and the bose-einstein condensate the 5th 'cus plasma was created in the lab first

In Response to snipergirl (#9075):

I think what you're thinking of with liquid helium is not actually a Bose-Einstein condensate.

It's superfluid helium. They've known about getting liquid helium to do funny things when it's really really cold (and for liquid helium, that's really cold) for quite a while.

Unless maybe they decided that "superfluid" was the same as "Bose-Einstein condensate".

But they were still calling it superfluid when I was a lad, working in the cryogenics lab at NASA. (No, really. Well, okay, I was 19 which is not exactly a lad. And I was a contractor, doing helldesk and a little programming. But still, my desk was three linear feet (about six if you walked) from the big Dewars where they kept the superfluid helium)

In Response to snipergirl (#9063):

I understand that, but plasma (the non-blood stuff) is the only way (currently) that we can come up with to even attempt at fussion power. (in a contained magnetic field)

In Response to snipergirl (#9075):

If you go in order of discovery, I'd say plasma is the 4th. But I've always thought of the numbering system going from coldest to hottest. making solid, liquid and gas 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively.

In Response to zamphir (#9076):

From my understanding:
A superfluid is a liquid with no viscosity
A Bose-Einstein condensate is when all the quantum states of the atoms merge into one
Supercooled helium i believe is both...

Refer to the 3rd paragraph here: An article on superfluid helium... this clears it up [physicsweb.org]

So i think we're both right!