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User: RavenousBlack

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  1. Re:Did they study the health effects of starving? on Roundup Tolerant GM Maize Linked To Tumor Development · · Score: 1

    If the prime concern is really to feed people them I'm sure we could take away a good amount of land used for producing corn to feed livestock to feed people and just devote it to growing various produce crops to directly feed people.

  2. Re:Did they study the health effects of starving? on Roundup Tolerant GM Maize Linked To Tumor Development · · Score: 1

    And what do you know! This is just in time for them to be coming out with their new strains that are resistant to their other herbicide products which are much more potent and environmentally problematic.

  3. Re:Genetically encoded thoughts? on Switching Tasks Changes Worker Bee DNA · · Score: 1

    such a mechanism would give the species possessing it a huge advantage, therefore by the law of evolution it almost has to exist.

    The theory of evolution implies no such thing.

  4. Re:Weaknesses on Researchers Engineer Light-Activated Skeletal Muscle · · Score: 1

    Don't fear the Cyborgs. Natural selection teaches us there are higher rungs on the evolutionary ladder than ours, we have but to reach.

    Natural selection teaches us no such thing. There are no higher or lower rungs in evolution, there's just adaptability.

  5. Re:3 on-site interviews means a FAIL on Google Vs. Microsoft: a Tale of Two Interviews · · Score: 1

    I work 40 hours a week in Portland for around $20k, and I have pretty good time. I could only wonder how much fun i could be having making more money and working less hours.

  6. Re:Choice B has worked before on Earth Approaching Tipping Point Say Scientists · · Score: 1

    Actually, it would be more like: lately you've been degrading your coordination because of some drug you're taking that you know is bad, but it feels really great so why should you stop? Then someone says you're likely going to trip while walking, and then you try and be more careful while walking, and perhaps stop taking this drug.

  7. Back to the drawing board on Machine-Guided Learning Matches Teachers In Study · · Score: 1

    Seeing how a lot of kids come out from our teachers, I would say they need to make a bit more progress in machine-guided learning.

  8. Re:Stop using gate at the end of 'scandals' on Resumegate Continues At Yahoo: Thompson Out As CEO, Levinsohn In · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think the feeble mind is the one that ignores an argument, attacks the one making the argument, and repeats the original line of thinking being argued against. The suffix adds plenty to the base word. If the title was just "Resume Continues at Yahoo: Thompson Out as CEO, Levinsohn In" then it wouldn't be clear what was meant. Adding -gate makes it apparent that there was some sort of scandal involving something about a resume. While it's not the only way to express that information it's one that has been adopted as understandable by a large enough population. Also, while it isn't true to what Watergate originally was: It. Doesn't. Matter. Meaning is not static. I would say that it takes a good mind to accept and adapt to the constant changes of language. And even further, you can't nitpick such a thing because you're guilty of it yourself! You used the word "orchestrated" in your post. The earliest origin of the word orchestra was used to refer to the area in a theater where the chorus was positioned. It has nothing to do with your use of it. You still used it fairly successfully though.

  9. Nicholas Carr Foresees Obvious: on Nicholas Carr Foresees Brains Optimized For Browsing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do something more often and your brain will become optimized for it. I think they call it learning.

  10. Re:Fascinating! on Possible New Human Species Discovered In China · · Score: 1

    Maybe we should find some caves and start marking them up with our strange symbols that make up wikipedia articles or something like that.

  11. Re:And culture is largely defined by ..... on New Study Concludes Math Gender Gap Is Cultural, Not Biological · · Score: 1

    As I pointed out elsewhere: Once culture became more important to our survival then there were traits that became selective and culture largely defined how we developed biologically, not just our biology defining our culture. And I would even say that environmental factors were more important in our tendency toward culture than our biological makeup.

  12. Re:And what might influence culture? on New Study Concludes Math Gender Gap Is Cultural, Not Biological · · Score: 1

    Actually, the formation of our modern human brains had a lot to do with our adoption of culture. After it became advantageous to have culture then there were particular traits that obviously would've been more selective that would've enhanced culture such as your ability to remember more, use representative language, and just be social in general. So in a way our brains are created by culture, definitely not directly, but we definitely wouldn't be the same without it.

  13. From The Article... on US Scientists Invited To Russian Yeti Hunt · · Score: 1

    "When Homo sapiens started populating the world, it viciously exterminated its closest relative in the hominid family, Homo neanderthalensis..." If by viciously exterminated you mean viciously had sex with.

  14. Come on on Vatican To Digitize Prohibited Archives · · Score: 1

    This one's not even believable in the least bit. If you're going to do April Fools at least make me wonder if it's true or not.

  15. Sure... on Scott Adams Says Plenty Would Choose Life In Noprivacyville · · Score: 1

    People would want to live in this relatively crime free area until they find out that something they do behind closed doors is considered by someone else, immoral, a crime, undesirable.

  16. Re:One thing... on Mozilla Announces Game On Competition Winners · · Score: 1

    With Flash I can play games for a reasonable amount of time, at a reasonable fps, with reasonable load times, and a reasonable quality before my computer slows considerably. With these games it's the contrary.

  17. One thing... on Mozilla Announces Game On Competition Winners · · Score: 1

    They all slow my computer down to a halt.

  18. Re:This should have never made the front page on Model Says Religiosity Gene Will Dominate Society · · Score: 1

    I think the scientists would truly have to look at what they mean by religious. Does the gene make you tend toward religion, or could it also make you tend toward anything resembling religion under specific definitions of religion. In many ways the way people view science could be considered religious. Just pulling a sample wouldn't be enough. Research should be based on a very specific definition of what they mean by "religion" which is then used in surveying people to find a sample that shows what would be expression of that gene, and then another that shows what wouldn't be expression of the gene, and then a random sample of people. Then they could possibly start to pinpoint this religious gene, if it were to exist.

    I think the way this work is being formed right now is mainly in a phase of "We're really trying to pinpoint the discrete tendencies this gene would create so we can further refine how to pinpoint it."

  19. Where's all the melted ice going? on Greenland Ice Sheet Melts At Record Rate In 2010 · · Score: 0

    So far the data for this year has shown that the sea level has receded a significant amount. I wonder what is happening to all of this melted glacier ice.

    http://sealevel.colorado.edu/

  20. Re:Hypocrites on Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers · · Score: 2

    I know this may be a slippery slope, but it seems like if it was decided to monitor those with power 24/7 to make sure they aren't abusing that power at any point, then that would mean that you're giving someone else power by having them monitor those with power. So then it would seem that eventually we would need to monitor those monitoring others to make sure the monitors aren't abusing their power, and this would just continue until everyone's being monitored because who knows when anyone will abuse any amount of power that they could possibly have. Admittedly the power of any normal person is much different than that of a government official, but it doesn't seem like a very big stretch could be made from monitoring one to make sure they don't abuse their power to monitoring the other for similar reasons.

    I think the idea that "If you haven't done anything wrong, you shouldn't have anything to hide" isn't particularly true. You have to understand that everyone has a different concept of when something's "wrong." And some people respect others' beliefs in what is wrong enough to want to hide some parts of their lives that don't necessarily need to be out in the open in order to avoid unnecessary conflict.

  21. Uh oh... on France Planning Non-Windows Tablet Tax? · · Score: 1

    Sucks for TENQ's new Ubuntu powered tablet.

  22. Screw Movies, Go for TV on Can Movies Inspire Kids To Be Future Scientists? · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't try to inspire people through movies that you watch maybe in the theater once, maybe rent it once, possibly see it a grand total of two or three times. People aren't always watching movies. However, a lot of people watch a generous amount of television, something where you get a persistent storyline that spans seasons. You don't just get into the characters for an hour or two, you get into them several times a week. Just think, how many people wanted to get into forensics, much less learned that forensics existed, after shows like CSI got really popular? I can't count the number of people in my anthropology department that joined because they started watching Bones and really wanted to be a forensic anthropologist.

  23. Conflicts with previous studies? on Structure In Brain Linked To Varied Social Life · · Score: 1

    Previous studies have tried to link social network size to the size of the neocortex. Through this it was estimated that humans have social networks upwards near 150 people. This was further backed up through other research.

    http://www.springerlink.com/content/pphfpu3c39ee9009/

    This study, however, doesn't seem to address the neocortex since they only checked for links among different subcortical structures. The journal article itself doesn't even address the neocortex. In fact the article claims to be in accord with the "social brain hypothesis" which was formulated by Dunbar who developed the idea that the neocortex could be linked to social network size, which is in complete contrast to a belief that social network size can be calculated from the amygdala in the limbic system.

  24. Language Learning Tool on 'Reading Level' Filter Added To Google Search · · Score: 1

    I feel like this could be pretty nifty if you're trying to learn a language by using the internet and you want to make sure that what you're looking at isn't going to go over your head for sure. However, while looking at google.de, it seems like the reading level isn't an option in advanced search.

  25. First good argument against wikileaks. on Digging Into the WikiLeaks Cables · · Score: 1

    This is the first time I've seen something that was published by Wikileaks that I don't think should have been. The summary refers to a cable documenting vital points to America's overall infrastructure. Most of the arguments for Wikileaks seem to say that the government should take responsibility for whatever bad things its representatives have communicated to others. However, this leak is something that I don't see as whistleblowing, or showing the government caught saying something they might regret. No, this is an outline of points of interest to keep the country running smoothly, important facilities spanning the entire globe. I can't see any actual good coming from the leak of this particular document.

    When I see people saying the publishing of the cables is compromising US security, this is the first thing I have seen where I would agree.