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The Arctic Doomsday Seed Vault
Anonymous Cow writes "A giant refrigerated genetic bank built into the island of Svalbard has been brought online. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is designed to house up to 4.5 million seeds in the case of a catostrophic event. The bank is funded by the Norwegian government, Monsanto Corporation, and the Gates, Rockefeller, and Syngenta Foundations. The Global Crop Diversity Trust has completed construction of the doomsday vault and is getting the facility ready to preserve the genetic heritage of the world's agriculture for future generations. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault's relative inaccessibility will facilitate monitoring human activity. Spitsbergen was considered ideal due to its lack of tectonic activity and its permafrost, which will aid preservation. Locally mined coal will provide power for refrigeration units which will further cool the seeds to the internationally recommended standard 20 to 30 C."
Yeah, but they counterbalanced it by involving Microsoft. Because in a program implemented to avoid a single-point-of-failure, you do NOT want Ubuntu, known for saying "It's HIGHLY recommended that you install grub [without having the tools you'd need to prevent it from locking you out of all operating systems]".
You have my permission to mod me down. Believe me, it's worth it.
(Note: either Ubuntu has a) corrected that, vindicating me against all those who flamed me for my criticisms of its design, or b) not corrected that, in which case it has obviously poor design for newbies and its designers have effectively conceded they don't want them.)
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
hCG is used medically in women for a number of purposes - it's great for inducing ovulation, but it's also used to maintain pregnancy. How do I know? Mrs Roadkill had it administered, and the two BoFHlets owe their existance to hCG and a *very* generous public health system that funded their conception to the tune of a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
Neonatal tetanus is *really* nasty, and occurs in a lot of developing countries. In those places, tetanus boosters during pregnancy make a lot of sense and can help protect both mother and child - as does something to help make the body more likely to maintain the pregnancy, despite the immune response brought on by the tetanus booster itself, so it makes sense that hCG may be a suitable additive that could reduce the spontaneous abortion rate following vaccination.
As for why it's probably not a good idea to give that particular hCG-laced vaccine to men... well, hCG can boost testosterone production and boost fertility. Don't know about you, but if I was going in for what I assumed was a tetanus booster I wouldn't want something that would also mess with my gonads. If I was female and pregnant, though, and lived in slums full of tetanus spores, I'd want the vaccine that would not only protect my child after my midwife cut the cord with a rusty knife, but which would also have a lower risk of spontanous abortion than the plain-vanilla vaccine did. This combined vaccine seems to fit that bill very nicely.
Oh, and Mr Engdahl, if you ever see this, my Kool-Aid is just fine thanks... how's yours?
The linked article states:
"In the 1990's the UN's World Health Organization launched a campaign to vaccinate millions of women in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines between the ages of 15 and 45, allegedly against Tentanus, a sickness arising from such things as stepping on a rusty nail. The vaccine was not given to men or boys, despite the fact they are presumably equally liable to step on rusty nails as women.
Because of that curious anomaly, Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization became suspicious and had vaccine samples tested. The tests revealed that the Tetanus vaccine being spread by the WHO only to women of child-bearing age contained human Chorionic Gonadotrophin or hCG, a natural hormone which when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier stimulated antibodies rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy. None of the women vaccinated were told. "
A quick search on google for "Comite Pro Vida de Mexico" brings up a JSTOR abstract: Damage to Immunisation Programmes from Misinformation on Contraceptive Vaccines.
Whoops, wouldn't want think about immunizing against neonatal tetanus in developing countries. Seems like this author wants to assume there's a sinister plot to take over the world population. Where's James Bond when you need him?
The weakness of your answer indecates that *in fact* you are not a "plant biologist" but probably some undergrad with grand ideas about your knowledge. Which is small.