see we already HAVE the problem, you spout about human rights yet you basically saying you have no problem having these people die of famin.
You know what how about this then as a solution to world hunger, all that grain and produce the US pays its farmers not to grow, why don't you just give it to the poorer countries. Oh look a simple solution, the shock the horror.
For the last time Selective Breeding is not Genetic Engineering. Selective breeding is basically assisted evolution. Genetic Engineering involves fucking around with the genetic base of each organism directly instead of having to wait around for each generation to see what the changes are going to be.
The other thing about Selective Breeding is that almost without exception you cannot create a viable new species through selective breeding. Sure you can get mules or ligers but you can't selectively breed cats and dogs together. With Genetic Engineering you can add dna from completely different species, hell even different families and still turn out new species that are viable.
You have yet to prove to me that GE is going to be problem free in the area of food production.
Im sorry, but what you describe with the corn is called evolution, not genetic engineering. One is the result of random mutations within the parent plants and the other is the deliberate modification through artificial means of the underlying genetic structure of an organism.
As for your tirade about chemicals versus natural foods, I am completely in agreement with you. There has been by far way to much reliance on chemicals in the production of our food, however the answer is not the tinker with the genetic structure of the plants themselves.
I read the article about the rice and it appears that the resultant plant that saved Asia was actually developed through traditional methods of cross breeding, not through genetic engineering.
Ooh looks like Im going to have some fun with this one.
Listen oh yee of little knowledge, surprisingly enough people were growing enough food to support themselves without the aid of genetically engineering, they had figured out their own methods of tackling issues such as disease and environmental factors, its called Selective Breeding.
Genetic Engineering has the potential to do a hell of a lot of good in the medicine/health however in the food production area it has the potential to do a hell of a lot more harm than good. Genetic disorders can be wiped out. Food on the other hand is a different kettle of glowing fish.
You site Africa and the middle east as prime examples of the good that GE foods can do, site some examples, give us some facts, and not those as posted by GE companies like Monsanto. As I said before, prove to me that it is not dangerous. I think in this case I would rather not eat GE foods until it can be conclusively proven that introducing fish or animal genes into plants is not going to produce problems.
Okay I'll bite, their is a big difference between selective breeding and actively mucking around at the genetic level. Try as much as you like but you can't get fish genes into plants through selective breeding but you can with GE.
Organic shit sucks? Well without the amount of preservatives people eat, I would say only about sixty to seventy percent of shit is organic anymore. Anyhoo, your advisor is talking out of his arse. If he did any research he would find that it is quite possible to produce enough food to feed the globe using organic methods, hell before the industrial revolution and the introduction of pesticides it is how the world operated.
Until you can prove to me that introducing foreign (read from another species or genus) DNA into an organism isn't going to cause problems I'll keep eating food that hasn't been spliced thanks.
Anyways, long story short: The Lord of the Rings movies is a franchise that proved to be a let down from the beginning. To say anything else, in my opinion, is to confuse the franchise of the books with that of the movies.
Ah personal opinion, don't you just love it when
people trot it out as some sort of fact. Thats what gets me about this whole discussion, it is all about perception.
I think the worst mistake people can make when seeing LOTR is to constantly be comparing the films to the book. Take each as a seperate entity, and enjoy or hate it as such.
So no, IT doesn't matter, or it matters - the way electricity matters.
So what you're saying is that IT doesn't matter in that it is absolutely vital to the continued operation of the business world as we know it and the sudden lack of it would lead to catastrophic collapse?
His lack of knowledge regarding the larger world makes me believe he is a liberal.
Of course it all makes sense now, George W is a liberal trying to bring down the republican party. If lack of knowledge about the world outside the US makes a person a liberal, W must be smoking the happy weed while listening to old sixties peace songs in his spare time.
Sheesh, ignorance doesn't make you anything but stupid, a condition that afflicts people regardless of political persuasion.
Okay I'm neither European nor British, I'm Australian and I think that playing the "their just as bad as we are game" is stupid and infantile. The US has been pushing globalisation for the last twenty years, but only on its terms. Other countries are declared to be agaisnt the free market if they protect their local producers however the states slaps massive tariffs on imported steel, lamb, agricultural goods etc etc and everything is fine??
Yep Europe is just as bad, so what, to paraphrase my mother "If Europe jumped off a bridge would you do it as well?"
So MS bad if screwing over local companies/organisations but MS good if screwing over foriegn companies/organisations? Sorry buddy but you can't have it both ways.
Its called a global economy, something the US has been pushing hard over the last couple of decades. Mind you the US version of the global economy seems to think that everyone else should play by the rules except the US.
God yes, seeing the Daleks trundle around that old Welsh pit again brings back fond memories, and what is even better, is I can now introduce my five year old son to the wonders of $2.00 special effect supporting million dollar actors.
The only thing I am waiting for is Tom, bring on Tom Baker!!!!
Yes, damn those legislators, how dare they try to ensure a level playing field, I mean come on isn't it the capitalist dream to completely dominate your market and foist inferior products on the prols for outrageuos prices?
Just on a technical note, how do you figure the hardware would have to be replaced?
Sure on the software side, there would have to be a lot of re-writing done, but with the hardware, especially on the server side, Linux could quite happily run on the average setup.
I hate to break it to you but an OS is just that an Operating System. It is the underlying platform upon which all other applications rest. At no point should crap like Web Browsers, Movie Players or any other APPLICATION be considered part of the OS.
If you don't want an empty shell of an OS, don't use MS products, you got far more advanced OS tools with any of the *nixs than windows.
On a purely subjective note, I find both Xine and MPlayer to be oh so superior to MP9. Not only can you play a much wider range of codecs, but you also have support for VCDs and DVDs, and of course these are free applications, developed with no ties directly into the OS beyond API calls.
Okay just a personal view, but I've got a RH9 machine running as server on my home network and I have not had a problem with it besides hardware issues.
I use RH8 on my main machine and I can quite happily do everything I need to do, including development, graphics, browsing and whatever.
I'm not saying RH is any better that say Debian or Mandrake, what I am saying is that it can be as stable or unstable as the user will make it, just like every other distro out there.
Ummmmm huh? Define exactly which commercial software you mean and which "free" software?
I agree some "free" software sucks big time, Internet Explorer springs to mind, however I think you will find that, especially for a lot of the bigger OSS projects, they are more secure and better designed than equivelant commercial products.
Justice for the small companies that got stomped into the ground by Microsoft illegally using its monopoly position on the desktop to move into other areas.
The agreement that was reached on the penalties MS had to suffer as a result of being found guilty is a joke.
Just keep in mind that MS was found guilty, they had broken the law of the land, they were in the wrong.
Okay I'll bite, I think that most of the European business people are pissed at the US because they preach "free-market" and then hike up tarriffs and barriers to free trade.
SuSE is going to suffer as a result of this buy out, but it will allow other OSS companies in Europe to come to the fore, which I suppose is a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
see we already HAVE the problem, you spout about human rights yet you basically saying you have no problem having these people die of famin.
You know what how about this then as a solution to world hunger, all that grain and produce the US pays its farmers not to grow, why don't you just give it to the poorer countries. Oh look a simple solution, the shock the horror.
For the last time Selective Breeding is not Genetic Engineering. Selective breeding is basically assisted evolution. Genetic Engineering involves fucking around with the genetic base of each organism directly instead of having to wait around for each generation to see what the changes are going to be.
The other thing about Selective Breeding is that almost without exception you cannot create a viable new species through selective breeding. Sure you can get mules or ligers but you can't selectively breed cats and dogs together. With Genetic Engineering you can add dna from completely different species, hell even different families and still turn out new species that are viable.
You have yet to prove to me that GE is going to be problem free in the area of food production.
Im sorry, but what you describe with the corn is called evolution, not genetic engineering. One is the result of random mutations within the parent plants and the other is the deliberate modification through artificial means of the underlying genetic structure of an organism.
As for your tirade about chemicals versus natural foods, I am completely in agreement with you. There has been by far way to much reliance on chemicals in the production of our food, however the answer is not the tinker with the genetic structure of the plants themselves.
I read the article about the rice and it appears that the resultant plant that saved Asia was actually developed through traditional methods of cross breeding, not through genetic engineering.
Ooh looks like Im going to have some fun with this one.
Listen oh yee of little knowledge, surprisingly enough people were growing enough food to support themselves without the aid of genetically engineering, they had figured out their own methods of tackling issues such as disease and environmental factors, its called Selective Breeding.
Genetic Engineering has the potential to do a hell of a lot of good in the medicine/health however in the food production area it has the potential to do a hell of a lot more harm than good. Genetic disorders can be wiped out. Food on the other hand is a different kettle of glowing fish.
You site Africa and the middle east as prime examples of the good that GE foods can do, site some examples, give us some facts, and not those as posted by GE companies like Monsanto. As I said before, prove to me that it is not dangerous. I think in this case I would rather not eat GE foods until it can be conclusively proven that introducing fish or animal genes into plants is not going to produce problems.
I think this is Linux's answer to the Matrix Spoof.UF
Okay I'll bite, their is a big difference between selective breeding and actively mucking around at the genetic level. Try as much as you like but you can't get fish genes into plants through selective breeding but you can with GE.
Organic shit sucks? Well without the amount of preservatives people eat, I would say only about sixty to seventy percent of shit is organic anymore. Anyhoo, your advisor is talking out of his arse. If he did any research he would find that it is quite possible to produce enough food to feed the globe using organic methods, hell before the industrial revolution and the introduction of pesticides it is how the world operated.
Until you can prove to me that introducing foreign (read from another species or genus) DNA into an organism isn't going to cause problems I'll keep eating food that hasn't been spliced thanks.
Oooh what a wonderful idea, indefinite incarceration with freedom at the whim of the authorities. No checks and balances, goody goody.
I'm sorry aren't US forces currently fighting to 'liberate' Iraq from exactly this sort of thing? Or is it a case of "do as I say not what I do"?
But if you go back and stop yourself from being born, how are you going to go back and stop your self being born?
My apologies, I didn't see that part of the post. I blame lack of sleep.
Anyways, long story short: The Lord of the Rings movies is a franchise that proved to be a let down from the beginning. To say anything else, in my opinion, is to confuse the franchise of the books with that of the movies.
Ah personal opinion, don't you just love it when people trot it out as some sort of fact. Thats what gets me about this whole discussion, it is all about perception.
I think the worst mistake people can make when seeing LOTR is to constantly be comparing the films to the book. Take each as a seperate entity, and enjoy or hate it as such.
So no, IT doesn't matter, or it matters - the way electricity matters.
So what you're saying is that IT doesn't matter in that it is absolutely vital to the continued operation of the business world as we know it and the sudden lack of it would lead to catastrophic collapse?
His lack of knowledge regarding the larger world makes me believe he is a liberal.
Of course it all makes sense now, George W is a liberal trying to bring down the republican party. If lack of knowledge about the world outside the US makes a person a liberal, W must be smoking the happy weed while listening to old sixties peace songs in his spare time.
Sheesh, ignorance doesn't make you anything but stupid, a condition that afflicts people regardless of political persuasion.
Okay I'm neither European nor British, I'm Australian and I think that playing the "their just as bad as we are game" is stupid and infantile. The US has been pushing globalisation for the last twenty years, but only on its terms. Other countries are declared to be agaisnt the free market if they protect their local producers however the states slaps massive tariffs on imported steel, lamb, agricultural goods etc etc and everything is fine??
Yep Europe is just as bad, so what, to paraphrase my mother "If Europe jumped off a bridge would you do it as well?"
So MS bad if screwing over local companies/organisations but MS good if screwing over foriegn companies/organisations? Sorry buddy but you can't have it both ways.
Its called a global economy, something the US has been pushing hard over the last couple of decades. Mind you the US version of the global economy seems to think that everyone else should play by the rules except the US.
This is something you would actually admit to???
God yes, seeing the Daleks trundle around that old Welsh pit again brings back fond memories, and what is even better, is I can now introduce my five year old son to the wonders of $2.00 special effect supporting million dollar actors.
The only thing I am waiting for is Tom, bring on Tom Baker!!!!
Yes, damn those legislators, how dare they try to ensure a level playing field, I mean come on isn't it the capitalist dream to completely dominate your market and foist inferior products on the prols for outrageuos prices?
Just on a technical note, how do you figure the hardware would have to be replaced?
:)
Sure on the software side, there would have to be a lot of re-writing done, but with the hardware, especially on the server side, Linux could quite happily run on the average setup.
Am I being picky today or what
I hate to break it to you but an OS is just that an Operating System. It is the underlying platform upon which all other applications rest. At no point should crap like Web Browsers, Movie Players or any other APPLICATION be considered part of the OS.
If you don't want an empty shell of an OS, don't use MS products, you got far more advanced OS tools with any of the *nixs than windows.
On a purely subjective note, I find both Xine and MPlayer to be oh so superior to MP9. Not only can you play a much wider range of codecs, but you also have support for VCDs and DVDs, and of course these are free applications, developed with no ties directly into the OS beyond API calls.
Okay just a personal view, but I've got a RH9 machine running as server on my home network and I have not had a problem with it besides hardware issues.
I use RH8 on my main machine and I can quite happily do everything I need to do, including development, graphics, browsing and whatever.
I'm not saying RH is any better that say Debian or Mandrake, what I am saying is that it can be as stable or unstable as the user will make it, just like every other distro out there.
Ummmmm huh? Define exactly which commercial software you mean and which "free" software?
I agree some "free" software sucks big time, Internet Explorer springs to mind, however I think you will find that, especially for a lot of the bigger OSS projects, they are more secure and better designed than equivelant commercial products.
But this will be perfect because it will introduce the Chewbacca defence.
Justice for the small companies that got stomped into the ground by Microsoft illegally using its monopoly position on the desktop to move into other areas.
The agreement that was reached on the penalties MS had to suffer as a result of being found guilty is a joke.
Just keep in mind that MS was found guilty, they had broken the law of the land, they were in the wrong.
Okay I'll bite, I think that most of the European business people are pissed at the US because they preach "free-market" and then hike up tarriffs and barriers to free trade.
SuSE is going to suffer as a result of this buy out, but it will allow other OSS companies in Europe to come to the fore, which I suppose is a good thing.
You might want to check out the article here. Its open source and the developers seem to have the right attitude.