Speaking for myself, it's not defensiveness as much as frustration with those who have become focused on the means of their protests rather than the ends. The author here seems to be an example; I can find no explanation of the beliefs for which he was willing to be arrested. Why do you assume he was protesting for social justice? Perhaps it was against pollution, or against genetically-modified foods.
It often seems like many protesters today look back to the 60s and confuse their tactics with their goals. Back then people got arrested because they were protesting unjust laws. Conducting a sit-in at a lunch counter to protest the fact that it is illegal for you to sit there is effective, and getting arrested for violating an unjust law is an effective protest. Conducting a sit-in to block traffic because you think all Repuplicans are Fascist Pigs, or even because you think large corporations have too much political clout, and getting arrested for it may be mediapathic, but carries far less weight, and has nothing to do with the message you are trying to convey.
Now I'm not saying every protester in Philly was as clueless as the above author seems to be. But don't expect me to have a lot of respect or sympathy for someone who was is focused on getting arrested that he can't even explain to me why he is willing to do so.
First of all, every city has laws and permits governing where and when people can gather en masse to protest, speachify, or otherwise make their voices heard. Did any of these groups actually try to get a permit to parade and/or demonstrate and get turned down? Doesn't sound to me like any of them were organized enough to try to work with the city, so Philly has the right to try to keep traffic flowing downtown on a workday.
Second, and more important, people like this author are the number one reason that the media didn't provide more protest coverage. If he had been interviewed by CNN, do you think he could have given a coherent explanation for why he was protesting? Other than a willingness (even eagerness) to get arrested? Obviously, everyone has a right to demonstrate for causes they believe in, but if you can't explain to me what you want me to do about it, other than agree with you, don't expect me to pay attention.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that sequencing DNA was a destructive process, essentially involving tearing lots of strands into itty-bitty pieces, then doing some cool computational analysis to figure out what the full sequence looks like from where the strands overlap. This works because all of the multitudinous strands you started with are identical.
However, the technique here is burying one modified strand in with a bunch of others, which seems to me makes it essentially the same as a one-time pad. The interceptor gets one shot at guessing the pair of primers, and if s/he is wrong, the strand is gone, and it won't be possible to figure out which pieces came from the target strand.
It's not unbreakable, you just have to steal the manual which tells the technicians which primers to use. =)
For those of you in San Jose, I would advise either seeing F2K somewhere other than the Tech, or getting to the theater very early. If you haven't been there, the IMAX theater at the Tech is a Dome; interesting idea, and probably pretty cool if you're lucky enough to get seats in the middle, but at the edges the experience is less than pleasant. The seats don't let you lean far enough back to be comfortable, so you have to crane your neck for 1.5 hours. In addition, the angle made it hard to focus on some parts of the movie. Agree that F2K is worth seeing, but try to see it somewhere else, if you can.
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It often seems like many protesters today look back to the 60s and confuse their tactics with their goals. Back then people got arrested because they were protesting unjust laws. Conducting a sit-in at a lunch counter to protest the fact that it is illegal for you to sit there is effective, and getting arrested for violating an unjust law is an effective protest. Conducting a sit-in to block traffic because you think all Repuplicans are Fascist Pigs, or even because you think large corporations have too much political clout, and getting arrested for it may be mediapathic, but carries far less weight, and has nothing to do with the message you are trying to convey.
Now I'm not saying every protester in Philly was as clueless as the above author seems to be. But don't expect me to have a lot of respect or sympathy for someone who was is focused on getting arrested that he can't even explain to me why he is willing to do so.
Second, and more important, people like this author are the number one reason that the media didn't provide more protest coverage. If he had been interviewed by CNN, do you think he could have given a coherent explanation for why he was protesting? Other than a willingness (even eagerness) to get arrested? Obviously, everyone has a right to demonstrate for causes they believe in, but if you can't explain to me what you want me to do about it, other than agree with you, don't expect me to pay attention.
However, the technique here is burying one modified strand in with a bunch of others, which seems to me makes it essentially the same as a one-time pad. The interceptor gets one shot at guessing the pair of primers, and if s/he is wrong, the strand is gone, and it won't be possible to figure out which pieces came from the target strand.
It's not unbreakable, you just have to steal the manual which tells the technicians which primers to use. =)
For those of you in San Jose, I would advise either seeing F2K somewhere other than the Tech, or getting to the theater very early. If you haven't been there, the IMAX theater at the Tech is a Dome; interesting idea, and probably pretty cool if you're lucky enough to get seats in the middle, but at the edges the experience is less than pleasant. The seats don't let you lean far enough back to be comfortable, so you have to crane your neck for 1.5 hours. In addition, the angle made it hard to focus on some parts of the movie. Agree that F2K is worth seeing, but try to see it somewhere else, if you can.