My problem with GMO crops has got buggerall to do with gene manipulation itself. The current GMO foodcrops are being genetically manipulated not for higher yields, but for greater resistance to frighteningly strong pesticides. Quite predictably this particular regime of blasting weeds with weedkiller that left "most" of the weeds dead have also now bred "superweeds" which need multiple times the originally recommended dose of GMO-crop pesticides to keep them at bay. The worst-case scenario is that this arms-race against nature is probably going to end up with some version of Paolo Bacigalupi's "windup" universe. At best we can look forward to an increasingly toxic food supply.
Politicians love to use the hot-button topic of oursourcing to pretend like this is a zero-sum game. i.e. a job outsourced is a job lost domestically. Americans have to choose: Do you want your companies to have access to cheap callcenters so you can grow your core business and create more jobs, or do you want to pay high local callcenter rates just so you can brag that "we buy american", while possibly stiffling growth.
I've found a solution of sorts for my pump problem. See Air Lift Pumps. There are already commercial windmill-powered systems for drawing well water so the problem is well understood. I've even seen people experiment with these in aquaponics using aquarium pumps (massively underpowered).
I now think that a cheap $50 diesel air compressor might be made to run using biodiesel produced from duckweed.
I'm currently running an AC waterpump capable of delivering 3000liters per hour at pump exit, and less than half of that at 1.5 m head height. This pump uses a whopping 40W of electricity. I think that a windmill is an excellent idea, however since the wind can be rather fickle, I don't know how one would keep the nutrient-rich water flowing, and the fishtanks aerated. An alternative is to have a biodiesel pump. There is a particular waterplant called "duckweed" which makes an excellent fish food, and also just so happens to have enormous potential as a biodiesel. Estimates are of delivering 200L of biodiesel from a modest planting of the stuff.
It certainly is a sticky problem and one which I've wrestled with for some time now.
I have recently started an aquaponics system at home. I'm African, but an expat living overseas. I am massively impressed with the potential for this particular technology to allow for microfarming on small tracts or even in your backyard. Benefits I persieve so far:
a) High yields over comparable soil-based techniques
b) Allows for both protein and carbs to be sourced from one system
c) Staples like corn have been successfully grown on *very* short cycles
d) Small family-sized setups can be built to supplement a small family's needs or large "community systems" can be built to leverage economies of scale.
e) Highly efficient water use compared to soil-based methods with only losses due to evaporation.
f) Once it gets started the system is self-stabilising
Challenges I see:
g) Technically not the easiest thing to get started
h) Cycling the system to establish the nutrient and bacterial load can take up to a month
i) First fish harvest can take up to 9 months (Tilapia)
j) A typical flood-and-drain system needs a waterpump running 24/7 as well as potentially an airpump for the fishes. Electricity !?
I would be very much in favour of aid which goes toward establish self-sustaining community farms. I'm not a fan of aid which breeds dependency.
I was at the keynote for the devcon in Singapore today. I was surprised to note that the OS version seemed to jump from the up-and-coming 7.1 to 10 next year. Then while queuing up for the free playbook, we had to sign a "license agreement" for the 2.0 beta OS loaded on some of the devices.
On a sidenote the keynote and all other opening prezzies were delivered using a Macbook pro which had the back covered to obscure the apple logo. I would have liked it better, seeing how much they were loving the HTML 5 on stage, if they'd actually eaten their own dogfood and delivered an awesome HTML5 prezzie using the Playbook+HDMI
Actually, there is nothing wrong with the word Mashup. I've seen several people now complaining that yet another neologism has creeped into the already crowded web vernacular. It's just a "relatively" new word that means something "relatively" new. It's not even indicative of the web being overrun by the mindless masses and buzzword junkies, that happened long ago.
I've got an Nokia E61 with WiFi and a 2GB MiniSD card. With a brilliant 320x240 screen and RealPlayer, viewing mini videos is a treat. I especially love TinyTube.net for when I'm bored and in a WiFi hotspot.
Now, if only someone will make a generic mash-up like YouTube or Google video that will transcode CNN, BBC etc. in the same way TinyTube does...
I've disabled 3G on my sim altogether. Don't need it, won't pay for it.
Yeah right. I noticed the blatant deliberate Aussie boot digging into Ronaldo's leg. I'm sure down-under the best defence is to take out a striker with a thinly veiled foul.
- Primary school kids in developing countries with cellphone bills to pay
- Pay a tax to MS instead of using that money to buy RAM/CPU etc.
- Take a great idea and through some FUD slow down adoption (governments are
primary takers on $100 laptop. This sort of FUD might sow enough
doubt to make those governments think twice)
When developing countries start to roll out cheap WiMax, VOIP will become the primary communications medium in developing countries. Cellular technology is on it's last legs.
Actually I think you are missing my point. I know the difference between HIV infection and AIDS. I was refering to the "artificial" link between HIV and AIDS. i.e. if I show up in hospital with a severe case of tuberculosis and my bloodtest reveals HIV, I will be diagnosed as having AIDS.
If I were to try and make an independent determination about whether HIV causes AIDS, there will be overwhelming "evidence" that HIV causes AIDS 'cause all collected data will show that 100% of AIDS patients are HIV+.
It is perfectly possible to "acquire" immunodeficiency through recreational drug use and chemotherapy (AZT e.g.) as you point out. At present it is impossible to tell for certain whether AIDS patients are indeed dying from HIV-induced immunodefiency simply because the data is messed up.
To put it another way, tying HIV to AIDS by definition creates an artificial causal link between the two, which messes up all current statistics related to AIDS. This is especially so because it became politically incorrect way back in the eighties to suggest that "lifestyle" (e.g. recreational drug use amongst at-risk groups) could be related to AIDS.
How come AIDS targets homosexuals in the West, but heterosexuals in Africa?
... because recreational drug-use amongst homosexuals in the USA induces immuno-deficiency. ... because malnutrition in Africa induces immuno-deficiency.
Once you are immuno-deficient and HIV+, you are diagnosed as having AIDS.
-- "The shit-apple does not fall far from the shit-tree"
- Mr. Lahey - Trailer Park Boys.
Thus: HIV attacks immune system. Patient is uprotected against opportunistic infections. Patient dies.
Actually, HIV could be an opportunistic infection, since the test for AIDS is
a) Whether you are dying from a list of "known" opportunistic diseases
b) Whether you also have HIV immunity
The truth is, yes, most antiviral drugs have side-effects
I'm sorry, but if one of those side-effects is actually to cause the very disease that it said to prevent then what's the point? Btw, it is a myth that people who take supposed HIV-suppressant drugs like AZT actually live longer. There are plenty of documented cases where people are living with HIV without taking any immuno-suppressant medication.
"HIV can be detected in virtually everyone with AIDS."
Actually HIV is detected in EVERYONE with AIDS. This is because by definition you have AIDS if HIV is detected in your system. If you're dying from an immuno-deficiency and HIV is not detected, you are diagnosed as not having AIDS!
-- "My mind plays tricks on my all the time 'cause it's way smarter then me"
- Ricky - Trailer Park Boys.
The reason their experiment only works "sometimes", is because the US Military Industrial Complex is in cahoots with Big Oil and is using alien technology from the Rosswell crash to constantly alter the laws of physics in close proximity to any attempted Cold Fusion reactions.
At the end of the day you're still playing loose-and-fast with Other People's Property. By law you're NOT allowed to freely copy and redistribute copyrighted materials. If you have such a moral outrage against the system, then don't buy the music, and don't download it either.
Just because we can all agree that music industry is evil and stacked against the artist, does not mean you're helping the artist by denying them even the measely few cents they would have earned on a CD sale.
If you really want to support artists, throw your financial support behind internet-based MP3 and CD initiatives that have direct fair compensation for artists.
This is FUD of the most insidious nature. This is especially true when you consider that if the ECMA accepts these doc formats as standards, we'll only see a solid standard emerge 18 months from now? How long after that before OpenOffice officially supports it?
This will potentially preempt the planned OASIS switch by MA and other government agencies. At the same time, as others have pointed out, eventually we might still end up with embraced or extended formats.
--- It's your fault for believing me when I said I don't lie. You *know* I lie.
Oh my god! I'm flushing Privateer and Myst down the toilet as I type this (don't ask). Once the Singapore government reads this post we'll all be hanged for sure!
Slashdot Mirror
Why the hell are people still planting almonds in California ? 1.1 gallons of water to grow 1 nut FFS!
My problem with GMO crops has got buggerall to do with gene manipulation itself. The current GMO foodcrops are being genetically manipulated not for higher yields, but for greater resistance to frighteningly strong pesticides. Quite predictably this particular regime of blasting weeds with weedkiller that left "most" of the weeds dead have also now bred "superweeds" which need multiple times the originally recommended dose of GMO-crop pesticides to keep them at bay. The worst-case scenario is that this arms-race against nature is probably going to end up with some version of Paolo Bacigalupi's "windup" universe. At best we can look forward to an increasingly toxic food supply.
Reference : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19594335
There is something very fishy about this guy's sudden "enlightenment".
Politicians love to use the hot-button topic of oursourcing to pretend like this is a zero-sum game. i.e. a job outsourced is a job lost domestically. Americans have to choose: Do you want your companies to have access to cheap callcenters so you can grow your core business and create more jobs, or do you want to pay high local callcenter rates just so you can brag that "we buy american", while possibly stiffling growth.
I've found a solution of sorts for my pump problem. See Air Lift Pumps. There are already commercial windmill-powered systems for drawing well water so the problem is well understood. I've even seen people experiment with these in aquaponics using aquarium pumps (massively underpowered).
I now think that a cheap $50 diesel air compressor might be made to run using biodiesel produced from duckweed.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions !
I'm currently running an AC waterpump capable of delivering 3000liters per hour at pump exit, and less than half of that at 1.5 m head height. This pump uses a whopping 40W of electricity.
I think that a windmill is an excellent idea, however since the wind can be rather fickle, I don't know how one would keep the nutrient-rich water flowing, and the fishtanks aerated.
An alternative is to have a biodiesel pump. There is a particular waterplant called "duckweed" which makes an excellent fish food, and also just so happens to have enormous potential as a biodiesel. Estimates are of delivering 200L of biodiesel from a modest planting of the stuff.
It certainly is a sticky problem and one which I've wrestled with for some time now.
This is also well worth a read :
How to Grow More Vegetables: Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine - John Jeavons
I have recently started an aquaponics system at home. I'm African, but an expat living overseas. I am massively impressed with the potential for this particular technology to allow for microfarming on small tracts or even in your backyard.
Benefits I persieve so far:
a) High yields over comparable soil-based techniques
b) Allows for both protein and carbs to be sourced from one system
c) Staples like corn have been successfully grown on *very* short cycles
d) Small family-sized setups can be built to supplement a small family's needs or large "community systems" can be built to leverage economies of scale.
e) Highly efficient water use compared to soil-based methods with only losses due to evaporation.
f) Once it gets started the system is self-stabilising
Challenges I see:
g) Technically not the easiest thing to get started
h) Cycling the system to establish the nutrient and bacterial load can take up to a month
i) First fish harvest can take up to 9 months (Tilapia)
j) A typical flood-and-drain system needs a waterpump running 24/7 as well as potentially an airpump for the fishes. Electricity !?
I would be very much in favour of aid which goes toward establish self-sustaining community farms. I'm not a fan of aid which breeds dependency.
I was at the keynote for the devcon in Singapore today. I was surprised to note that the OS version seemed to jump from the up-and-coming 7.1 to 10 next year. Then while queuing up for the free playbook, we had to sign a "license agreement" for the 2.0 beta OS loaded on some of the devices.
On a sidenote the keynote and all other opening prezzies were delivered using a Macbook pro which had the back covered to obscure the apple logo. I would have liked it better, seeing how much they were loving the HTML 5 on stage, if they'd actually eaten their own dogfood and delivered an awesome HTML5 prezzie using the Playbook+HDMI
... with apologies to Hustle and Flow.
Actually, there is nothing wrong with the word Mashup. I've seen several people now complaining that yet another neologism has creeped into the already crowded web vernacular. It's just a "relatively" new word that means something "relatively" new. It's not even indicative of the web being overrun by the mindless masses and buzzword junkies, that happened long ago.
S.
> George Bush didn't cause the submerging of this island.
Yes, and fifty years from now the US Administration of the day is going to throw their hands in the air and claim "It was'nt US! ".
Nice try. We blame you *now* for Kyoto.
Hans Rosling dispels some interesting myths about poverty and health in the following talk
y =hans_rosling&flashEnabled=1
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?ke
S.
I've got an Nokia E61 with WiFi and a 2GB MiniSD card.
With a brilliant 320x240 screen and RealPlayer, viewing
mini videos is a treat.
I especially love TinyTube.net for when I'm bored and in a WiFi hotspot.
Now, if only someone will make a generic mash-up like YouTube or Google video
that will transcode CNN, BBC etc. in the same way TinyTube does...
I've disabled 3G on my sim altogether. Don't need it, won't pay for it.
Yeah right. I noticed the blatant deliberate Aussie boot digging into Ronaldo's leg. I'm sure down-under the best defence is to take out a striker with a thinly veiled foul.
Just what we need.. :
- Primary school kids in developing countries with cellphone bills to pay
- Pay a tax to MS instead of using that money to buy RAM/CPU etc.
- Take a great idea and through some FUD slow down adoption (governments are
primary takers on $100 laptop. This sort of FUD might sow enough
doubt to make those governments think twice)
When developing countries start to roll out cheap WiMax, VOIP will become the primary communications medium in developing countries. Cellular technology is on it's last legs.
AFAIAC this is just shameless on MS's part.
Actually I think you are missing my point. I know the difference between HIV infection and AIDS. I was refering to the "artificial" link between HIV and AIDS. i.e. if I show up in hospital with a severe case of tuberculosis and my bloodtest reveals HIV, I will be diagnosed as having AIDS.
If I were to try and make an independent determination about whether HIV causes AIDS, there will be overwhelming "evidence" that HIV causes AIDS 'cause all collected data will show that 100% of AIDS patients are HIV+.
It is perfectly possible to "acquire" immunodeficiency through recreational drug use and chemotherapy (AZT e.g.) as you point out. At present it is impossible to tell for certain whether AIDS patients are indeed dying from HIV-induced immunodefiency simply because the data is messed up.
To put it another way, tying HIV to AIDS by definition creates an artificial causal link between the two, which messes up all current statistics related to AIDS. This is especially so because it became politically incorrect way back in the eighties to suggest that "lifestyle" (e.g. recreational drug use amongst at-risk groups) could be related to AIDS.
Check out the following site:
http://www.aliveandwell.org/
--
How come AIDS targets homosexuals in the West, but heterosexuals in Africa?
... because recreational drug-use amongst homosexuals in the USA induces immuno-deficiency.
... because malnutrition in Africa induces immuno-deficiency.
Once you are immuno-deficient and HIV+, you are diagnosed as having AIDS.
--
"The shit-apple does not fall far from the shit-tree"
- Mr. Lahey - Trailer Park Boys.
Thus: HIV attacks immune system. Patient is uprotected against opportunistic infections. Patient dies.
Actually, HIV could be an opportunistic infection, since the test for AIDS is
a) Whether you are dying from a list of "known" opportunistic diseases
b) Whether you also have HIV immunity
The truth is, yes, most antiviral drugs have side-effects
I'm sorry, but if one of those side-effects is actually to cause the very disease that it said to prevent then what's the point? Btw, it is a myth that people who take supposed HIV-suppressant drugs like AZT actually live longer. There are plenty of documented cases where people are living with HIV without taking any immuno-suppressant medication.
--
"HIV can be detected in virtually everyone with AIDS."
Actually HIV is detected in EVERYONE with AIDS. This is because by definition
you have AIDS if HIV is detected in your system.
If you're dying from an immuno-deficiency and HIV is not detected, you are diagnosed as not having AIDS!
--
"My mind plays tricks on my all the time 'cause it's way smarter then me"
- Ricky - Trailer Park Boys.
...Silicon Valley bedfellows.
Don't you people juuudge Apple. They've got to get while the gettin's good.
--
The reason their experiment only works "sometimes", is because the US Military Industrial Complex is in cahoots with Big Oil and is using alien technology from the Rosswell crash to constantly alter the laws of physics in close proximity to any attempted Cold Fusion reactions.
--
Don't believe the hype; Tinfoil hats work.
At the end of the day you're still playing loose-and-fast with Other People's Property. By law you're NOT allowed to freely copy and redistribute copyrighted materials. If you have such a moral outrage against the system, then don't buy the music, and don't download it either.
Just because we can all agree that music industry is evil and stacked against the artist, does not mean you're helping the artist by denying them even the measely few cents they would have earned on a CD sale.
If you really want to support artists, throw your financial support behind internet-based MP3 and CD initiatives that have direct fair compensation for artists.
Windows Cluster Edition System Requirements:
... and they will still claim it has lower TCO then Linux!
- 128 CPUs
- 100 GB RAM
- 30 square metres of floorspace
- Liquid Nitrogen cooling system
--
Don't read between the lines, the real interesting stuff
is below the line you just read.
This is FUD of the most insidious nature. This is especially true when you consider that if the ECMA accepts these doc formats as standards, we'll only see a solid standard emerge 18 months from now?
How long after that before OpenOffice officially supports it?
This will potentially preempt the planned OASIS switch by MA and other government agencies. At the same time, as others have pointed out, eventually we might still end up with embraced or extended formats.
---
It's your fault for believing me when I said I don't lie. You *know* I lie.
Oh my god! I'm flushing Privateer and Myst down the toilet as I type this (don't ask). Once the Singapore government reads this post we'll all be hanged for sure!