>that idiots will use this as an argument against gm food in general
But the smart people will use this as one of many arguments against GMO food.
>gm food promises to put vitamin A in rice, develop crops that grow in the desert, etc.: a benefit for mankind
The vitamin A in rice is widely touted (though it's relatively ineffective, you can't process vitamin A without other vitamins, so overloading on it doesn't really help), but isn't the real reason that GMO is being pushed. GMO is all about the patents and owning seeds. And hey, if those patented plants happen to naturally cross breed with your non-gmo plant, the way the law currently stands, you're seen as stealing patented seeds. That's the primary motivator for Monsanto, et al to develop GMO food. So that they can OWN it.
Desert crops are not the goals of GMO companies.
> of course, like any technology, it can be abused and treated neglectfully in a way that might make... hepatotoxic corn for example > but this is an argument against IRRESPONSIBLE IMPLEMENTATION, not an argument against a scientitic concept
I'm not going to trust any GMO food until I see a responsible implementation of it. I agree that GMO may have some benefit to the world, however in it's current implementation, it's a total disaster. And to top it off, there's no way to know or differentiate between GMO, so you can't even pick and choose good from bad. So in my mind the only choice is to avoid it altogether.
I'm not anti-science at all, but at some point you need to see when a particular science has just become politicking/profiteering.
>but luddite idiots won't see it this way >they think they live in the plot of a bad hollywood movie
Oops, gotta go. Bruce Willis just swung by my cube and told me there's a bomb in the building.
>making more efficent crops could free up more space for the growing of bio-fuels.
The main reason GE foods exist is so that the companies that own them can patent the gene and own the plant. They don't increase production of the plant significantly, that is not their desire, as there's plenty off food currently (starvation is primarily a distribution issue, not a supply issue).
The reason that I choose organic whenever it's available, is because I want to vote with my dollars to say that I don't support giant companies owning the plants that we need to survive.
As a disclaimer, my girlfriend was the Narrator (among other tasks) for 'The Future of Food' and it was the research that she came across there that changed how we eat. It's a film that covers the aspects of this discussion quite well, but with a bit of a leftist slant. Not intentionally though, monsanto refused any interview requests to present their side of the story.
Also, if you've got a spare few days, give 'The Omnivores Dilemma' a read. It's long, but not heavy, and a lot of good information. My favorite part is the bit about the "grass farmers".
Way back when they tried to sueNeomail for the rights to the name Neomail, which they were using to brand their webmail service. The basis of their claim was that since they had 'thousands and thousands' of users, they had rights to the name.
"Is there a market for an ISP with a TOS that includes "we dont kneejerk takedown"?"
There already is -- it's the non-budget hosting market. If the hook is 'Support' then you've probably got a company who will stand up for you. If the hook is 'this is absurdly cheap', well, you get what you pay for. The more the company values it's customers, the harder a company will fight.
" Obviously the ISPs and regulators want them to play in the middle somewhere - control without accountability."
It's more an issue of: Once you've been made aware of something, you have to deal with it. We don't check on what our customers do, but when we get a note that one of them is doing something illegal, then we _have_ to take some sort of action. In our case, we call our lawyer and then the customer.
"If they are a common carrier like the phone companies, then they should be barred from monitoring traffic or archiving emails without a court order."
Well if we didn't do that, how would we charge for bandwidth usage, or be able to answer a customers specific question as to why their email wasn't delivered? We do this to make our service better, not just to watch our customers, or protect ourselves from lawsuits. The flip side is that if we have it, they can subpoena it.
Everything has it's shades of grey, but common sense tends to clear things up a good bit.
"I am waiting for the day when people start sending(read: abusing) these kind of take down notices in order to shut down a site they don't like, or even worse, competition."
You don't have to wait. These things already happen.
This is the very reason why we
A. Have a lawyer B. Talk to our customers
Our lawyer gets all correspondence to check on, and the second is to see if the customer can refute the charges (which brings us back to point A).
Most cries of infringement, are usually valid (stealing images is common), but any ISP that pulls down stuff before asking any questions isn't bound to keep it's customer base very happy.
And when we receive fraudulent claims, our customers like to know who is trying to take them down so that they can respond (appropriately, one would hope).
It's a shame this report focuses on the negative, many ISPs and Hosts are very well prepared for these situations. --
What type of connection does he have? If it's a crucial connection why is he not using any QoS server (as mentioned elsewhere), and if he knows it kills his phone, why is he checking his email while he's on the phone (or not setting his email to not download large attachments automatically)? These are pretty simple fixes.
Not to bash the user, but c'mon, he's gotta work at it a little, it's an emerging technology. It's not gonna "Just Work" for everyone right away.
Full disclosure: I have the standard SBC 29.99 DSL and my VOIP (over 802.11b) works just fine. It's the uploads that kill the phone as my DSL upload allowance is teensy -- but I can easily when uploads occur. --
This computer is not authorized to play "I Woke Up Screaming" This song was originally purchased using the account "myaccountname@mac.com"
So they do seem to be checking something. And calling out those who share hymn-ed files. Not sure how the macrumors fellow is getting his to play.... --
I've posted about this before, but, it's even more pressing now. there is a Documentary about to come out called The Future of Food that covers this case (interviews with Percy, his lawyer, footage of his farm, how he works, etc), others like it, and the entire GMO scene in great detail. After seeing the film, knowing that Monsato has won is quite chilling.
The film has made me change what I eat both from political and heath standpoints. It's very sad that Percy lost his case, not jsut for him, but for what it means Monsanto (and Dupont, etc) can do with the full backing of the law.
The film is showing at Silverdocs in DC (June 16, 2:30pm), the Telluride Film Festival (unknown showtime), and a film festival in Hawaii who's name I can't recall. Future showings will be posted on their website, along with DVDs for purchase.
(Disclosure: My girlfriend is the Associate Producer, Assistant Editor, and Narrator)
My girlfriend is just finishing up work on a documentary that deals with this sort of issue in depth:
The Future of Food (site is sparse now, but once they are done working on the film, will have additional video clips and information).
And while I'm not impartial, I think it's a good film that covers the topics quite fairly. The sum of it is that we're not really in control of what's happening with our food supply. As a result of working on this film we now eat organic whenever possible.
GMO has potential, but the science seems to be used to only help the bottom lines of the seed/pesticide companies, and not worry about the consequences. And even in this case, where the rice is being grown with "helpful" drugs, there are risks that are ignored (cross pollination, etc). The quote from the film that got me the most is:
"This is one of the greatest experiments that humanity has ever entered into" -- Ignacio Chapella
But there is very little regulation, and everyone seems to be falling over themselves to get into the biz without any vision of the big picture. If this goes bad, it doesn't mean the drop of the stock market and fiber/datacenters going offline, it means the midwest will become a wasteland. --
along the same lines, I read results from a similar idea earlier today. Much like Friendster, it seems to be more fun to subvert the system, than to actually use it for it's intended purpose.
Just a couple of days ago a station in the area was playing a mix of Hendrix's "Hey Joe" intercut with various sound bites - It was very powerful. It did a good job of putting things in a format that made it almost easier to deal with and understand - if only for a moment.
Music can help you deal with the problem - just avoiding it does not work. If the head of Clear Channel gets dumped by his wife/girlfriend are they then going to ban all sad lonely love songs? Sonn all we'll be left with is endless looping of "Shin Happy People"
But then again, knowing Clear channel, they probably have vendettas against some of these aretists and are using this as an excuse to not play thier music.
It seems that the Offline comics are starting to feel threatened by the online comics. It's a shame that it has to lead to a "confrontation" like this.
I started reading comics as a way to learn about user interface (the ammount of information that they convey in a small space is incredible), and got hooked. I read a steady mix of both paper and online, though the paper comics that I read are mostly illustrated novels. I don't relaly differentiate between the two - same thing (roughly) different medium. If it weren't for illustrated novels, I wouldn't have ever started with comics - but it it weren't for online comics, I wouldn't have stayed.
It's this rush to get things out on the newstand first that drives me nuts. If you wait and put out good, reliable content, people will recognize this quality, and read your magazine.
The web is a good place to get the pre-first-glance-my-brother-told-me-about-it type of reviews that keep the fanboys going. I feel that magazines, perhaps because of the fact that they are "real" should take a little more time and get things right. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
actually, from the picture it appears that the 8mb bit detaches from your keyring. Only the sheath remains attached. No worries about having to go keyless while using it, or the pressure that a full set of keys would put on your USB port.
I'm sure you'll get a ton of posts on this, but start them learning Perl or PHP. Both are nice and platform independent so that when they want they can move to a non-MS system (or they can stay). and plus they can show their skillz off to their friends online. E
Slashdot Mirror
>that idiots will use this as an argument against gm food in general
But the smart people will use this as one of many arguments against GMO food.
>gm food promises to put vitamin A in rice, develop crops that grow in the desert, etc.: a benefit for mankind
The vitamin A in rice is widely touted (though it's relatively ineffective, you can't process vitamin A without other vitamins, so overloading on it doesn't really help), but isn't the real reason that GMO is being pushed. GMO is all about the patents and owning seeds. And hey, if those patented plants happen to naturally cross breed with your non-gmo plant, the way the law currently stands, you're seen as stealing patented seeds. That's the primary motivator for Monsanto, et al to develop GMO food. So that they can OWN it.
Desert crops are not the goals of GMO companies.
> of course, like any technology, it can be abused and treated neglectfully in a way that might make... hepatotoxic corn for example
> but this is an argument against IRRESPONSIBLE IMPLEMENTATION, not an argument against a scientitic concept
I'm not going to trust any GMO food until I see a responsible implementation of it. I agree that GMO may have some benefit to the world, however in it's current implementation, it's a total disaster. And to top it off, there's no way to know or differentiate between GMO, so you can't even pick and choose good from bad. So in my mind the only choice is to avoid it altogether.
I'm not anti-science at all, but at some point you need to see when a particular science has just become politicking/profiteering.
>but luddite idiots won't see it this way
>they think they live in the plot of a bad hollywood movie
Oops, gotta go. Bruce Willis just swung by my cube and told me there's a bomb in the building.
>making more efficent crops could free up more space for the growing of bio-fuels.
The main reason GE foods exist is so that the companies that own them can patent the gene and own the plant. They don't increase production of the plant significantly, that is not their desire, as there's plenty off food currently (starvation is primarily a distribution issue, not a supply issue).
The reason that I choose organic whenever it's available, is because I want to vote with my dollars to say that I don't support giant companies owning the plants that we need to survive.
As a disclaimer, my girlfriend was the Narrator (among other tasks) for 'The Future of Food' and it was the research that she came across there that changed how we eat. It's a film that covers the aspects of this discussion quite well, but with a bit of a leftist slant. Not intentionally though, monsanto refused any interview requests to present their side of the story.
Also, if you've got a spare few days, give 'The Omnivores Dilemma' a read. It's long, but not heavy, and a lot of good information. My favorite part is the bit about the "grass farmers".
StepMania++
It's an excellent two person experience regardless of each players individual skill.
Way back when they tried to sue Neomail for the rights to the name Neomail, which they were using to brand their webmail service. The basis of their claim was that since they had 'thousands and thousands' of users, they had rights to the name.
It worked for me in Safari if I dragged the link to the 'Bookmarks' button all the way on the right. So there's some non IE functionality.
"Is there a market for an ISP with a TOS that includes "we dont kneejerk takedown"?"
There already is -- it's the non-budget hosting market. If the hook is 'Support' then you've probably got a company who will stand up for you. If the hook is 'this is absurdly cheap', well, you get what you pay for. The more the company values it's customers, the harder a company will fight.
" Obviously the ISPs and regulators want them to play in the middle somewhere - control without accountability."
It's more an issue of: Once you've been made aware of something, you have to deal with it. We don't check on what our customers do, but when we get a note that one of them is doing something illegal, then we _have_ to take some sort of action. In our case, we call our lawyer and then the customer.
"If they are a common carrier like the phone companies, then they should be barred from monitoring traffic or archiving emails without a court order."
Well if we didn't do that, how would we charge for bandwidth usage, or be able to answer a customers specific question as to why their email wasn't delivered? We do this to make our service better, not just to watch our customers, or protect ourselves from lawsuits. The flip side is that if we have it, they can subpoena it.
Everything has it's shades of grey, but common sense tends to clear things up a good bit.
"I am waiting for the day when people start sending(read: abusing) these kind of take down notices in order to shut down a site they don't like, or even worse, competition."
You don't have to wait. These things already happen.
This is the very reason why we
A. Have a lawyer
B. Talk to our customers
Our lawyer gets all correspondence to check on, and the second is to see if the customer can refute the charges (which brings us back to point A).
Most cries of infringement, are usually valid (stealing images is common), but any ISP that pulls down stuff before asking any questions isn't bound to keep it's customer base very happy.
And when we receive fraudulent claims, our customers like to know who is trying to take them down so that they can respond (appropriately, one would hope).
It's a shame this report focuses on the negative, many ISPs and Hosts are very well prepared for these situations.
--
What type of connection does he have? If it's a crucial connection why is he not using any QoS server (as mentioned elsewhere), and if he knows it kills his phone, why is he checking his email while he's on the phone (or not setting his email to not download large attachments automatically)? These are pretty simple fixes.
Not to bash the user, but c'mon, he's gotta work at it a little, it's an emerging technology. It's not gonna "Just Work" for everyone right away.
Full disclosure: I have the standard SBC 29.99 DSL and my VOIP (over 802.11b) works just fine. It's the uploads that kill the phone as my DSL upload allowance is teensy -- but I can easily when uploads occur.
--
My hymn-ed songs do not play. They say :
This computer is not authorized to play "I Woke Up Screaming"
This song was originally purchased using the account "myaccountname@mac.com"
So they do seem to be checking something. And calling out those who share hymn-ed files. Not sure how the macrumors fellow is getting his to play....
--
I've posted about this before, but, it's even more pressing now. there is a Documentary about to come out called The Future of Food that covers this case (interviews with Percy, his lawyer, footage of his farm, how he works, etc), others like it, and the entire GMO scene in great detail. After seeing the film, knowing that Monsato has won is quite chilling.
The film has made me change what I eat both from political and heath standpoints. It's very sad that Percy lost his case, not jsut for him, but for what it means Monsanto (and Dupont, etc) can do with the full backing of the law.
The film is showing at Silverdocs in DC (June 16, 2:30pm), the Telluride Film Festival (unknown showtime), and a film festival in Hawaii who's name I can't recall. Future showings will be posted on their website, along with DVDs for purchase.
(Disclosure: My girlfriend is the Associate Producer, Assistant Editor, and Narrator)
My girlfriend is just finishing up work on a documentary that deals with this sort of issue in depth:
The Future of Food (site is sparse now, but once they are done working on the film, will have additional video clips and information).
And while I'm not impartial, I think it's a good film that covers the topics quite fairly. The sum of it is that we're not really in control of what's happening with our food supply. As a result of working on this film we now eat organic whenever possible.
GMO has potential, but the science seems to be used to only help the bottom lines of the seed/pesticide companies, and not worry about the consequences. And even in this case, where the rice is being grown with "helpful" drugs, there are risks that are ignored (cross pollination, etc). The quote from the film that got me the most is:
"This is one of the greatest experiments that humanity has ever entered into" -- Ignacio Chapella
But there is very little regulation, and everyone seems to be falling over themselves to get into the biz without any vision of the big picture. If this goes bad, it doesn't mean the drop of the stock market and fiber/datacenters going offline, it means the midwest will become a wasteland.
--
along the same lines, I read results from a similar idea earlier today. Much like Friendster, it seems to be more fun to subvert the system, than to actually use it for it's intended purpose.
Pootie done did it again! Pootie done did it again!
oooh! me too! Loved that scene.
Check it out
E
If not - note the URL: SATIREwire.com
Music can help you deal with the problem - just avoiding it does not work. If the head of Clear Channel gets dumped by his wife/girlfriend are they then going to ban all sad lonely love songs? Sonn all we'll be left with is endless looping of "Shin Happy People"
But then again, knowing Clear channel, they probably have vendettas against some of these aretists and are using this as an excuse to not play thier music.
*sigh
Photos of your mom
Kinda opens up a new level of humor...
All of your agruments have nothing specific to do with comics, and everything to do with your pessimistic outlook on the world.
With any medium it's that 10% that is what makes the 90% worth it. Or haven't you looked lately?
I started reading comics as a way to learn about user interface (the ammount of information that they convey in a small space is incredible), and got hooked. I read a steady mix of both paper and online, though the paper comics that I read are mostly illustrated novels. I don't relaly differentiate between the two - same thing (roughly) different medium. If it weren't for illustrated novels, I wouldn't have ever started with comics - but it it weren't for online comics, I wouldn't have stayed.
The web is a good place to get the pre-first-glance-my-brother-told-me-about-it type of reviews that keep the fanboys going. I feel that magazines, perhaps because of the fact that they are "real" should take a little more time and get things right. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
I'm sure you'll get a ton of posts on this, but start them learning Perl or PHP. Both are nice and platform independent so that when they want they can move to a non-MS system (or they can stay). and plus they can show their skillz off to their friends online. E