True, to some extent. Most major acts don't tour enough to make much money, and their expensive gigs act as a loss leader, hence the "promotional tour".
Smaller bands( obviously the unsigned ones) make most of their money touring, if they make any money at all.
Okay, not birds or bees, but some desert insects and other arthropods can survive being frozen. I've seen it first-hand when a chum of mine, who kept exotic pets, froze a scorpion for three months and revived it unharmed.
I believe the mechanism involves a hexose sugar, which at low temperatures forms an inflexible polymer thus preserving cellular integrity.
Transfering this to human beans might prove difficult, unless we can gengineer people that produce this sugar.
The good ol' US of A has not paid it UN dues in some years. Anyone notice them suffering from trade restrictions? me either... The UN also didn't(or failed to) sanction the aggressive actions of various states, who see themselves as the world police, against Iraq and Yugoslavia.
I've yet to see a better set of global restrictions on shitty behaviour than those given by the World Court. Yes, I am "up for" the centralisation of Crime & Punishment.
No argument with point 3, the WTO is entirely in the hands of those who shout the loudest i.e. those with the biggest PR budget.
In closing, centralised world government is _inevitable_, but it must be accountable.
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A classic example of why I post so rarely, this. Unfortunately, Peer Moderation depends on the moderator having:
The abililty to make informed value judgements;
A smattering of the language the post was written in;
and, in the case of this post, a discernable sense of humour;-)
--
Genetic Engineering is eminently diferent to selective breeding.
Selective breeding involves cross-breeding members of the same species and selecting offspring according to whatever criteria. This has its own set of problems due to inbreeding causing congenital defects e.g. Red Setters with weak hips, chinchilla cats which can't breathe, etc.
Genetic Engineering involves inserting genes, often from completely different species, in the hope that these genes will still express whatever desirable property the other organism had e.g. Chemoluminescence, disease resistance etc.
The danger comes from the difference. One can be reasonably sure that a hybrid maize will not differ wildly from either of its parents.
A maize with a gene for, say, resistance to herbicides could prove very difficult to control and may pass this gene onto other organisms that we really don't want to have it!
The gene refered to is the "Terminator" gene. Monsanto's (haven't they re-branded recently?) argument was that in failing to reproduce, the seeds would maintain their genetic purity. They have since pulled these seeds...
The point made is at least partially valid. Cross polination from "terminator" seeds could easily introduce the gene into nearby fields. Also, virii have a habit of nicking genes from one organism and introducing them to another.
Theoretically, this would only affect one generation of plants, but with mutations, whats to stop this gene being expressed 2 or 3 generations later? This could affect much larger areas of arable land.
A number of points come to mind.
Most cameras are owned by business protecting their property rather than the public, though the police can acquire any footage if a crime/criminal may be covered by it.
By law you can request a copy of any camera footage covering you, and the owners must supply a complete copy at minimal cost.(see recent Mark Thomas show, CH4).
The fear of crime is much greater than the probability of crime and cctv does much to assuage this, though it actually aids much more in the apprehension of criminals than in crime prevention.
Finally, for interesting speculation on the effects of constant surveillance on a society, I recommend "Oath of Fealty" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
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True, to some extent. Most major acts don't tour enough to make much money, and their expensive gigs act as a loss leader, hence the "promotional tour".
Smaller bands( obviously the unsigned ones) make most of their money touring, if they make any money at all.
Okay, not birds or bees, but some desert insects and other arthropods can survive being frozen. I've seen it first-hand when a chum of mine, who kept exotic pets, froze a scorpion for three months and revived it unharmed.
I believe the mechanism involves a hexose sugar, which at low temperatures forms an inflexible polymer thus preserving cellular integrity.
Transfering this to human beans might prove difficult, unless we can gengineer people that produce this sugar.
I'll take it one point at a time.
The good ol' US of A has not paid it UN dues in some years. Anyone notice them suffering from trade restrictions? me either... The UN also didn't(or failed to) sanction the aggressive actions of various states, who see themselves as the world police, against Iraq and Yugoslavia.
I've yet to see a better set of global restrictions on shitty behaviour than those given by the World Court. Yes, I am "up for" the centralisation of Crime & Punishment.
No argument with point 3, the WTO is entirely in the hands of those who shout the loudest i.e. those with the biggest PR budget.
In closing, centralised world government is _inevitable_, but it must be accountable.
--
A classic example of why I post so rarely, this. Unfortunately, Peer Moderation depends on the moderator having: ;-)
The abililty to make informed value judgements;
A smattering of the language the post was written in;
and, in the case of this post, a discernable sense of humour
--
fp? who cares, as a Brit I'm disqualified from this beta, though I'd love to test it. Ho-hum...
Genetic Engineering is eminently diferent to selective breeding.
Selective breeding involves cross-breeding members of the same species and selecting offspring according to whatever criteria. This has its own set of problems due to inbreeding causing congenital defects e.g. Red Setters with weak hips, chinchilla cats which can't breathe, etc.
Genetic Engineering involves inserting genes, often from completely different species, in the hope that these genes will still express whatever desirable property the other organism had e.g. Chemoluminescence, disease resistance etc.
The danger comes from the difference. One can be reasonably sure that a hybrid maize will not differ wildly from either of its parents.
A maize with a gene for, say, resistance to herbicides could prove very difficult to control and may pass this gene onto other organisms that we really don't want to have it!
That Chickweed better be GM-free; and those bees...where do they gather their nectar?
The gene refered to is the "Terminator" gene. Monsanto's (haven't they re-branded recently?) argument was that in failing to reproduce, the seeds would maintain their genetic purity. They have since pulled these seeds...
The point made is at least partially valid. Cross polination from "terminator" seeds could easily introduce the gene into nearby fields. Also, virii have a habit of nicking genes from one organism and introducing them to another.
Theoretically, this would only affect one generation of plants, but with mutations, whats to stop this gene being expressed 2 or 3 generations later? This could affect much larger areas of arable land.
A number of points come to mind.
Most cameras are owned by business protecting their property rather than the public, though the police can acquire any footage if a crime/criminal may be covered by it.
By law you can request a copy of any camera footage covering you, and the owners must supply a complete copy at minimal cost.(see recent Mark Thomas show, CH4).
The fear of crime is much greater than the probability of crime and cctv does much to assuage this, though it actually aids much more in the apprehension of criminals than in crime prevention.
Finally, for interesting speculation on the effects of constant surveillance on a society, I recommend "Oath of Fealty" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.