This. I have a friend in his mid 20s who has never driven a car without voice GPS, has never navigated in a car using only road signs and/or physical map, and wouldn't feel confident to drive anywhere he has never been before unless the GPS is working. I was shocked when he admitted this. It seems that giving control of something so fundamental as knowing where you are going over to something as inherently unreliable as a computer is dangerous, and I think the same is true of the vital mechanical functions of a car such as acceleration, deceleration and steering.
Commonly, GMO's currently in use are resistant to herbicides, so will outcompete native species under pressure of herbicide spraying, even though the native species contain resistance to many other stresses, which are not contained in the GMOs. As the herbicide resistance spreads through a native species, the diversity of the native species is reduced, in favour of the few offspring which are derived from a cross between the native species and the GMO. In this way, many useful alleles for resistance to all kinds of stresses are lost from the native species, and all is left is a very small subset of diversity, from the few native individuals which originally inherited the herbicide resistance from the crop, due to this polluting effect. Although the native species are far removed from our modern crops, it is perfectly possible to bring useful alleles from native species into a cross with a crop plant, then repeatedly backcross the cross to crop plants to remove the rest of the native allesles, but leave in the one for the desirable trait (stress tolerance). In this way, although native plants are far removed from crops, useful variation from the native species can be brought into the crop in a controlled manner. If the crops pollute the native species in an uncontrolled manner, then the genetic engineers will have lost most of their raw materials.
Your comment about native species of grains shows you know nothing about this. Native species are capable of surviving the worst nature can throw at them - pests, diseases, droughts, shitty soil - and still reproduce. If we want our crops to survive the coming changes, then we need to mine the native stuff to bring in genes and alleles which are capable and adaptable. That is why we need to preserve the native stuff and not contaminate it with GMOs. The native stuff is what will help our crops survive the next century, with our help.
0.1% seems a reasonable estimate. So in every field containing more than 1000 plants (all of them) it is likely to happen every year. This is how I have heard Monsanto work - they plant a crop, it spreads to the neighbours, they sue the neighbours, the neighbours can't afford to defend, so Monsanto takes their farm, rinses and repeats with the next set of neighbours, spreading like cancer. I can completely understand why China are trying to keep this out of their country.
I see what you mean, but I think that Anonymous refers to the 99%, rather to an individual group of people. When it is said that Anonymous attacked a website, I think what is meant is that the attack originates as an expression of the frustration often felt by the 99%, the people who are anonymous and so generally irrelevant to those in power. I haven't seen any evidence that there is a group 'Anonymous' which organises these things.
This. It is a rule of organisations that a new person has magical unknown powers, and an existing person has a number of well-known weaknesses. Whatever happens the person who just left gets some blame for anything that goes wrong - this is in everyone's interests - the new person gets to keep their halo shiny, the bosses and users get to keep their illusions that they have done a great thing by getting the new person. You, as the person who just left, get the blame, but this is how life in organisations works. In your new network role you are the new person, full of magical unknown powers. This phase only lasts from 3-6 months so make the most of it. After that everyone realises that it's all much of a muchness in any case.
Is 34 times daily load really a massive challenge? Presumably 'normal traffic' has peaks and troughs, and infrastructure ought to be able to overdeliver at the peaks if it is fit for purpose. A sustained attack would probably have a different peak profile, so a daily average during the attack of 34x normal daily average might mean attack peak of much less than 34x normal peak. I'm not that surprised their site stayed up, especially given how rich they are.
When you say 'Wild transgenic Canola is not persistent in the environment' you are misquoting the research you referenced. In the very first paragraph, this article says the transgenic weeds are not a persistent problem 'if the volunteers were carefully managed in the first year following the canola crop'. That's a pretty big IF right there. It is basically saying something more like, if someone goes through the field the next year, picking out all the weeds by hand before they get a chance to flower (i.e. doing it repeatedly through the growing season) then the weeds won't get established. When I read that article I come to the opposite conclusion, that in fact they are very likely to be a real and persistent problem.
This is wrong. A corporation is not a car, it is a person. If you buy a corporation you buy its assets and you buy its liabilities. If Dow didn't buy the liabilities, who owns them now?
When I was at University the way to get things changed was to get a group of people who were interested enough, and then go and occupy something inconvenient to the administration to get the message heard.
If a GPS is under a car how does it get line of sight to the satellites? Are these devices just security theatre to frighten people into conforming for fear of being tracked?
Cancer is not really important in the grand scheme of things, Better to put some serious money into conserving biodiversity and exploiting it for bioengineering and development of crops that can survive the climate apocalypse, and feed the hungry. I guess most people in the world don't survive long enough for cancer to be much of an issue either way, and most people spend most of their lives trying to get enough food to subsist. Free the world from hunger and you suddenly have 6 billion new consumers who can afford to buy things other than just food.
I agree, they can install speed cameras or whatever, but a large proportion of the population continues to ignore the speed laws and speed in between the cameras. Similarly with tracking, the more corporations try to track people the more people will try to jam GPS, and undermine it for everyone. You can install whatever ou want but you can't stamp out natural human behaviour when it is driven by stronger forces such as emotion or greed.
University is supposed to be big school where undergrads learn to learn; spoon-feeding is for little school. The faculty are supposed to be at the top of their game, whatever field they are in, so the students can get a sense of the cutting edge, not to tell students what to do or to care about them (although good teachers will provide a sense of support and being cared for obviously).
Novel method papers only really get published if you can show an application though, and demonstrate some difference between the novel method and previous ones, at least in bio.
Slashdot Mirror
This. I have a friend in his mid 20s who has never driven a car without voice GPS, has never navigated in a car using only road signs and/or physical map, and wouldn't feel confident to drive anywhere he has never been before unless the GPS is working. I was shocked when he admitted this. It seems that giving control of something so fundamental as knowing where you are going over to something as inherently unreliable as a computer is dangerous, and I think the same is true of the vital mechanical functions of a car such as acceleration, deceleration and steering.
Isn't it cheaper to just buy USB memory (or disks or..)?
This
Commonly, GMO's currently in use are resistant to herbicides, so will outcompete native species under pressure of herbicide spraying, even though the native species contain resistance to many other stresses, which are not contained in the GMOs. As the herbicide resistance spreads through a native species, the diversity of the native species is reduced, in favour of the few offspring which are derived from a cross between the native species and the GMO. In this way, many useful alleles for resistance to all kinds of stresses are lost from the native species, and all is left is a very small subset of diversity, from the few native individuals which originally inherited the herbicide resistance from the crop, due to this polluting effect. Although the native species are far removed from our modern crops, it is perfectly possible to bring useful alleles from native species into a cross with a crop plant, then repeatedly backcross the cross to crop plants to remove the rest of the native allesles, but leave in the one for the desirable trait (stress tolerance). In this way, although native plants are far removed from crops, useful variation from the native species can be brought into the crop in a controlled manner. If the crops pollute the native species in an uncontrolled manner, then the genetic engineers will have lost most of their raw materials.
Your comment about native species of grains shows you know nothing about this. Native species are capable of surviving the worst nature can throw at them - pests, diseases, droughts, shitty soil - and still reproduce. If we want our crops to survive the coming changes, then we need to mine the native stuff to bring in genes and alleles which are capable and adaptable. That is why we need to preserve the native stuff and not contaminate it with GMOs. The native stuff is what will help our crops survive the next century, with our help.
0.1% seems a reasonable estimate. So in every field containing more than 1000 plants (all of them) it is likely to happen every year. This is how I have heard Monsanto work - they plant a crop, it spreads to the neighbours, they sue the neighbours, the neighbours can't afford to defend, so Monsanto takes their farm, rinses and repeats with the next set of neighbours, spreading like cancer. I can completely understand why China are trying to keep this out of their country.
I see what you mean, but I think that Anonymous refers to the 99%, rather to an individual group of people. When it is said that Anonymous attacked a website, I think what is meant is that the attack originates as an expression of the frustration often felt by the 99%, the people who are anonymous and so generally irrelevant to those in power. I haven't seen any evidence that there is a group 'Anonymous' which organises these things.
This. It is a rule of organisations that a new person has magical unknown powers, and an existing person has a number of well-known weaknesses. Whatever happens the person who just left gets some blame for anything that goes wrong - this is in everyone's interests - the new person gets to keep their halo shiny, the bosses and users get to keep their illusions that they have done a great thing by getting the new person. You, as the person who just left, get the blame, but this is how life in organisations works. In your new network role you are the new person, full of magical unknown powers. This phase only lasts from 3-6 months so make the most of it. After that everyone realises that it's all much of a muchness in any case.
and corrupt public officials can get away with taking bribes from the media for years http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17173438
Approximately the same number of bankers have been arrested as media company directors who profited from bribery of public officials.
Anonymous is an adjective describing the 99%. Lots of people try very hard to leave anon and never succeed.
Is 34 times daily load really a massive challenge? Presumably 'normal traffic' has peaks and troughs, and infrastructure ought to be able to overdeliver at the peaks if it is fit for purpose. A sustained attack would probably have a different peak profile, so a daily average during the attack of 34x normal daily average might mean attack peak of much less than 34x normal peak. I'm not that surprised their site stayed up, especially given how rich they are.
When you say 'Wild transgenic Canola is not persistent in the environment' you are misquoting the research you referenced. In the very first paragraph, this article says the transgenic weeds are not a persistent problem 'if the volunteers were carefully managed in the first year following the canola crop'. That's a pretty big IF right there. It is basically saying something more like, if someone goes through the field the next year, picking out all the weeds by hand before they get a chance to flower (i.e. doing it repeatedly through the growing season) then the weeds won't get established. When I read that article I come to the opposite conclusion, that in fact they are very likely to be a real and persistent problem.
You raise a very good argument for a) less nuclear power stations and/or b) more electric cars.
When you can't actually see the road as far as your stopping distance, you are probably going too fast.
This is wrong. A corporation is not a car, it is a person. If you buy a corporation you buy its assets and you buy its liabilities. If Dow didn't buy the liabilities, who owns them now?
When I was at University the way to get things changed was to get a group of people who were interested enough, and then go and occupy something inconvenient to the administration to get the message heard.
welcome our new dark overlords.
If a GPS is under a car how does it get line of sight to the satellites? Are these devices just security theatre to frighten people into conforming for fear of being tracked?
>small compared to FB's 400+mil daily users. which is nothing compared with China's 1.3 billion people
Cancer is not really important in the grand scheme of things, Better to put some serious money into conserving biodiversity and exploiting it for bioengineering and development of crops that can survive the climate apocalypse, and feed the hungry. I guess most people in the world don't survive long enough for cancer to be much of an issue either way, and most people spend most of their lives trying to get enough food to subsist. Free the world from hunger and you suddenly have 6 billion new consumers who can afford to buy things other than just food.
I agree, they can install speed cameras or whatever, but a large proportion of the population continues to ignore the speed laws and speed in between the cameras. Similarly with tracking, the more corporations try to track people the more people will try to jam GPS, and undermine it for everyone. You can install whatever ou want but you can't stamp out natural human behaviour when it is driven by stronger forces such as emotion or greed.
University is supposed to be big school where undergrads learn to learn; spoon-feeding is for little school. The faculty are supposed to be at the top of their game, whatever field they are in, so the students can get a sense of the cutting edge, not to tell students what to do or to care about them (although good teachers will provide a sense of support and being cared for obviously).
Novel method papers only really get published if you can show an application though, and demonstrate some difference between the novel method and previous ones, at least in bio.
You can't download any tools if the ISP has effectively cut you off for abuse.