Terminator Gene Ban Suggested in Canada

innocent_white_lamb writes "A member of the Canadian Parliament has proposed legislation to outlaw the development and deployment of 'terminator genes' that would prevent seeds from germinating after a set span of time. This practice would require farmers to re-purchase seed every year instead of saving the seeds from last year's crop. The legislation is not expected to pass due to opposition from the Agriculture Minister. 'There is also an issue with the technology, which is based on a complicated five-gene construct. It is "inevitable" it will fail and could harm biodiversity, said Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, which backs the ban. CFIA argues exactly the opposite, saying "the terminator approach provides an excellent method to protect against transference of novel traits to other crops and plant species."'"

Comments

Comming soon: Sperm that create sterile people!

[denis-The-menace]

Hey, I know I'm off topic but it's the next step.
Big corps have now the control of the following:
-Transportation (gas prices!)
-Water (rain included in some countries!)
-Food
-Seeds (These one-shot seeds that "absolutely will not cross-pollinate with other plants"(tm)) (Dumb F&^Ken $h1ts)

All thanks to the control of: Government

They don't control the following, yet:
-air we breath (pollution is step one, clean air for sale is step 2)
-Procreation:
Once they make most people unable to have kids they will force you to rent a artificial womb and sell you sperm that will one give you a kid, not grand-kids. They'll charge you double if you get twin, too.

No big deal, but cool...

[PhotoGuy]

From the photo and the article someone linked to, it appears this is just another generation of Windows mobile smart phone. The photo shows the today screen which happens to have a today-applet that has big buttons that one can push with their fingers. Handy, yes, revolutionary, no. Head to head with iPhone? No.

I have what I'm told is also made by HTC, the UtStarCom 6700 (a.k.a. the Audiovox 6700, I think). $79 from Telus on a 3 year contract :P

It's a nice PDA, and a half decent phone as well. Gotta use the touch screen to dial the phone, which is slightly awkward; big buttons, which is nice, but no tactile feedback, which isn't perfect in all circumstances. Nice slide-out keyboard for quick messages (although I prefer tapping with FITALY). The apps that are designed well for the unit, work really well, like TomTom Navigator (big buttons, intuitive operation). The more traditional things, require delicate tapping. It's hard to believe WM6 overcomes most of these issues with accurate tapping, etc.. (TomTom pops up a full screen keyboard when it needs, text, does on the fly matching, etc., nice stuff.)

I'm impressed with the phone, bluetooth, wifi, nice PDA, probably one of the better phones/speakerphones I've used. Certainly not up for the droppings my old phones got, but I'll treat it like a PDA, and not a phone (and this one won't end up in the ocean, like my Razr :(

Anyhow, I saw HTC's next generation in between my 6700 and this announced model, and it's even nicer than mine; thinner, feels like magnetic jump when you slide open the keyboard, nice feel (but $200 + 3 year contract). I'm sure this even newer one is even nicer. HTC makes nice stuff. But it's no iPhone killer.

I almost worry about the lack of tactile buttons. Windows Mobile 5 is designed around certain buttons; a four way joystick, start/ok buttons, and left and right menu buttons (and talk/hangup buttons). They are quite handy for their purposes; you can do most anything you need to do on the phone, short of entering text, with just the buttons, which is handy in non-touchscreen moments. I worry that the new model might be a slight step back in that regard.

Anyhow, I'm sure it's a kick ass product, and probably a fraction of the price of the iPhone. But it's not the same thing. Windows Mobile, or people who augment it, are nowhere near on the verge of a UI revolution on the scale that Apple is capable of executing.