Catching up on a six month stack of Science, I notice that lateral gene transfer between plants also has turned out to happen through the intermediary of common parasites. So it's not just the pollen spreading in the wind from one plant to a related plant.
It's NOT a newly known mechanism, just new to me as a reader --
Google : about 7,560 for "horizontal OR lateral" +"gene transfer" +parasite.
This isn't a surprise to the biotech companies -- they USE the same method to transfer genes, so they know well that it happens without humans stealing the patented seed. Hypocritical lawyers... but I repeat myself.
The worry is that the tool that promptes horizontal transfer may itself have escaped into the wild.
So while the agribiz lawyers are arguing that the patented genes CANNOT spread except by theft, the researchers have been publishing studies showing that in fact, the DO and WILL spread despite attempts to control them.
---- Sample of fairly old news on this that any agribiz lawyer could have known if they'd looked:
http://www.soyinfo.com/haz/horizontal.shtml
"Horizontal Gene Transfer - New Evidence" by Dr. Mae Wan Ho December 4, 1998... reported in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that a genetic parasite belonging to yeast has suddenly jumped into many unrelated species of higher plants recently.... Until 1995, this parasite was thought to be confined to yeast and only one genus of higher plants out of the 25 surveyed had the parasite. But in a new survey of species from 335 genera, 48 were found to have the parasite.
Moreover, all the higher plants that have gained the group I intron has the same one, as the DNA base sequence is more than 92% identical....the researchers are able to conclude that almost all of the horizontal gene transfer events were independent and must have occurred very recently. "This massive wave of lateral transfers is of entirely recent occurrence, perhaps triggered by some key shift in the intron's invasiveness within angiosperms [i.e., higher plants]"
So, what triggered this recent explosive invasion of the higher plants by the particular genetic parasite?.... in order for the splicing gene carried by the parasite to become expressed, it has to have a signal that is recognized by the host.... it was reported in the Journal Nature that genes transferred into transgenic plants can be up to 30 times more likely to escape than the plant's own genes.
Is it possible that the recent massive horizontal gene transfer from yeast to higher plants was triggered by commercial genetic engineering biotechnology itself?
Genetic engineering makes use of artificial genetic parasites as gene carriers, to transfer genes horizontally between unrelated species. These artificial parasites are made from parts of the most aggressive naturally occurring parasites like the group 1 intron discussed here.
The same kinds of explosive horizontal gene transfer have already been documented among viruses and bacteria which are responsible for the recent resurgence of drug and antibiotic resistant infectious diseases (reviewed by Ho et al, Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease vol 10, 33-39m 1998).
...Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on. It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned out....
You've pointed out that I failed in my attempt to be subtle in honoring the cute pun on their page -- where they use "Terrabyte" (instead of "terabyte") as the unit for their earth imaging data storage.
dagnabbit,/. is having quantum observer effects on reality again. The damn cat is _always_ dead when I try to look.
On the bright side, apparently NASA can now do matter transfers; I'm going to go download the Taj Mahal, I've always wanted it to visit me.
"...News & Updates Problem connecting to server...will try again in 2 minutes: This problem, related to downloading LandSat7 imagery and terrain, is a server issue. It is unable to cope with demand, so we are exploring ways on coming up with a solution. Visit the Add-on page to download sections of the world."
"... Access 12+ Terrabytes of aerial and satellite imagery, including international cities (Beijing, Taipei, Havana, Paris, London, Rome, Montreal, Athens, Mexico City, Toronto and more)...."
So when the genes spread into related plants and the soil, after a few generations, when two parents met that both carried them, the offspring would die.
A lawyer's design. Ignorant that mechanisms exist by which the stuff would in fact spread -- laterally. Crop to weed, and back to crops elsewhere.
And several generations later, high rates of sterility emerge wherever the DNA has gotten to both parents. All this to make money faster.
Thank God for the scientists, the better they are the worse names they're called by the agribusiness lobbyists.
You can tell the scientists -- they use footnotes, cite their sources, and put their names with what they write.
Just search for half an hour and read what you find. Yes, there are nutcases all over the subject claiming they know the truth without any experimental evidence. On the 'left' they're in the streets and chatrooms; on the 'right' they're in the law firms and boardrooms and where the money is.
Ignore them. Read the people who publish in refereed journals and give rebuttable evidence.
Think. Why would we have imposed this kind of ruling on Iraq by fiat during an occupation? What help is it to the Iraqui farmers? Who benefits? Who is put at risk?
Read.
Lawlobbybizcritters anonymously declare their faith that whatever pays them must be right.
Nielsen, K.M., Bones, A.M., Smalla, K. and van Elsas, J.D. (1998). Horizontal gene transfer from transgenic plants to terrestrial bacteria - a rare event? FEMS Microbiology Reviews 22, 79-103.
Jain, R., Rivera, M.C. and Lake, J.A. (1999). Horizontal gene transfer among genomes: The complexity hypothesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 3801-3806; Shapiro, J. (1997). Genome organization, natural genetic engineering and adaptive mutation. TIG 13, 98-104; Ho, 1998,1999 (note 4).
Ho, M.W., Ryan, A. and Cummins, J. (1999). The cauliflower mosaic viral promoter - a recipe for disaster? Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 11, 194-197.
Ho, M.W., Ryan, A. and Cummins, J. (2000). Hazards of transgenic plants containing the cauliflower mosaic viral promoter. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease (in press).
Let's go to original from which you cited those words, and look at the context.
The issue for Iraq is whether the farmer can save the seed grown once an agribiz claims they have found their genes in samples from his farm.
The answer was no, in the Canadian case.
He said he didn't buy the GM seed and that pollen spreads. Monsanto claimed it doesn't spread.
Current research says he's right. QUOTE, a couple hits from a Google search:
GENE TRANSFER BETWEEN CANOLA (BRASSICA NAPUS) AND RELATED WEED...... by 30 m. Therefore canola pollen can move at least this distance.... www.isb.vt.edu/brarg/brasym96/brown9 6.htm
Genes From Engineered Grass Spread for Miles, Study Finds...... have been too small to capture the full spread of altered... "It's the longest distance gene-flow study... Most previous studies of gene flow have been done on far... www.onlypunjab.com/ fullstory904-insight-Genes+From+Engineered+Grass+S pread+for+Miles-status-25-newsID-277... - 24k - Cached - Similar pages END QUOTE
Too late for him in this court case though.
Monsanto, because of the legal choice they used, did not get to take his bank account and his farm -- but they did stop him from saving the seeds that grew in his field to reuse.
The rest of the quote you cited is:
"Outcome:The Supreme Court held that the patent was valid and defendant/appellant Schmeiser infringed. However, because Monsanto elected to seek profits as a remedy, and the infringer Schmeiser earned no profit from the invention, plaintiff Monsanto is entitled to nothing."
That's "$Nothing" not "nothing at all" -- and that's the important part.
Schmeiser's neighbors growing the same species bought "Roundup Ready" seed. He did not. They sprayed with Roundup, killing everything but their Monsanto GM plants. He did not. All the plants flowered and set seed (Monsanto should have changed the timing of flowering, to really have some kind of control on genetic movement, eh?)
More from that study:
"Seed movement. Canola plants have small seed (approximately 200 seeds/g). During normal farm operations the seed will inevitably be lodged in farm machinery and transported around the farm and surrounding area. Seed also can be distributed by animals and birds, and seed can be lost while being transported for processing. In the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S.A., spring canola has only recently been grown commercially and already volunteer plants have been observed several kilometers from where they originated."
Remember -- once you know, or have reason to know, that your farm _may_ be producing some seed containing patented material, you're breaking the law if you save the seed growing in your own fields.
Once you know the stuff spreads, goes into weedy relatives of the crop (and back into crops elsewhere), spreads by birds, spreads in equipment tires and harvesting machinery that's taken from one field to another -- well, you know, eh?
fn 159: A truly innocent infringer may be able to rebut the presumption of use. However, that would likely prove difficult once the innocent infringer became aware that the genetically modified crop was present -- or was likely to be present -- on his or her land and continued to practice traditional farming methods, such as saving seed.
Canada >> Supreme Court of Canada >> Citation: Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 902, 2004 SCC 34 Noteup Date: 2004-05-21 Docket: 29437 URL: http://www.canlii.org/ca/cas/scc/2004/2004scc34.ht ml
I bought this when Crayola sold it for kids, after my carpal tunnel got bad, surgery to correct it failed to help, and I had to find "the biggest trackball possible" and "something impossible for you to try to squeeze" -- and it's great.
Use "Froogle" for "Crayola trackball" and it'll also pull up a lot of related or similar devices.
Le rayon cosmique qui a touché la mémoire d'une des urnes électroniques de Schaerbeek, ce rayon cosmique permettra de sensibiliser des députés encore acquis au vote électronique.... An electronic voting machine error in a May, 2003, election in Belgium produced just over 4,100 more votes for the winner than there were eligible voters. The official review reduced this to exactly 4,096 extra votes and was therefore able to conclude that.... a cosmic ray perfectly timed and directed to smite the memory cell holding the 13th bit of the total for the microsecond it was stored prior to printing.
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/general_info/OBPR-01 -245.html
Abstract: Space Radiation and Cataracts in Astronauts
"For over 30 years, astronauts in Earth orbit or on missions to the moon have been exposed to space radiation comprised of high-energy protons and heavy ions and secondary particles produced in collisions with spacecraft and tissue. Large uncertainties exist in the projection of risks of late effects from space radiation such as cancer and cataracts due to the absence of epidemiological data. Here we present the first epidemiological data linking an increased risk of cataracts for astronauts with higher lens doses (greater than 8 mSv) of space radiation relative to other astronauts with lower lens doses (less than 8 mSv). Our study uses historical data for cataract incidence in the 295 astronauts participating in NASA's Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health (LSAH) and individual occupational radiation exposure data. These results, while preliminary because of the use of subjective scoring methods, suggest that relatively low doses of space radiation are causative of an increased incidence and early appearance of cataracts."
debunked almost immediately at dailykos.com and other places. There is an 'odometer' that lists how many times the machine was used; the poll workers assumed it was a vote count and freaked.
See dailykos et al. for the followups which came within an hour of the original report.
The reason voters haven't been given proof of who they voted for is abuses that become possible given such proof -- from pay-per-vote to vote-as-boss-says-or-don't-come-back-to-work.
from www.electoral-vote.com: "... So why am I a happy camper? We survived an unprecedented triple flash crowd and logged it all. As it turns out, two of the faculty members in my Dept., Maarten van Steen and Guillaume Pierre, are doing research on coping with flash crowds. The research issues include how many replicas to set up, where to place them, how fast to deploy them, and how to do it automatically, in real time, and at minimum cost. To simulate proposed algorithms, you need data about real flash crowds and real attacks, preferably at the same time. And boy oh boy do we have data now. Students interested in this and other areas of computer systems might want to check out the English-language Masters program I am running at the Vrije Universiteit."
In other news, yesterday a high energy beam from a mysterious spacecraft impinged on -- and disintegrated -- Titan's Hoarfrost district. The energetic photons swept without warning across a long swath of the oldest residential and commercial district on Titan, causing the ancient complex of slowly-grown crystalline towers and bridges to explode and collapse into dust. The area has been flattened. The unknown source of the destructive beam seems to have left the vicinity of Titan, at least for the present.
Turn off the stupid box that pops up on top of whatever someone's doing and interprets the next "y" or "Enter" as an approval to open the email.
Anyone who types fast where I work -- there are still a few of us -- and who hasn't turned that Outlook option off will often have email open unexpectedly. And, when it's a piece of crap that got past the filter, it'll do something awful.
Email's supposed to be async anyhow; mine now usually has an Out of Office message saying NO, I'm HERE, but I'm BUSY...
Oh, and if you could keep that stupid OOO from replying to spammers (provint it's a good address) you'll be doing better than my office's The-Department-Formerly-Known-As-Tech Services.
As to locking things down -- yes, but.... I went disgrunled for a while referring to them as the "TS Department -- because that's the answer you'll get" after I just happened to luck out and get an honest answer from a new Help Desk person -- I found I had been getting Word VBA errors for NINE MONTHS on a special assigned task, "oh, you're an ordinary user and you don't have the whole VBA package and help installed, oops, I'm new here, I wasn't supposed to tell you that..."
> If this is such a wonderful idea why doesn't he > get a bunch of artists, musicians and writers to > donate their own work to this project and actually > prove the concept works?
It's been done, and the idea worked -- the United States convinced a bunch of artists, musicians and writers to donate their own works to the public domain AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME, THE COPY-RIGHT period.
Well, perhaps not convinced -- but promised and protected the copy-right, so artists, musicians and writers were encouraged to work and publish in the US.
Of course during the same first century or so, the US completely ignored the copyrights of other countries -- arguing it's the right of a poor developing nation to take whatever it needs of the intellectual source material to assure its survival. Only the large, established nations honor copy-rights, historically speaking.
Statement of the National Association of State Fire Marshals on Effective Fire Safety Standards for Computers and Consumer Electronics September 24, 2002
"... I have some questions and concerns that I would like to pose to you.
"In August, I was given a copy of an e-mail circulated within the computer industry about their attendance at this workshop. It outlined a strategy where fire fighters and environmentalists would cancel each other out at this meeting... leaving the industry to proceed as it wishes. But it cautioned companies to stay away - after all, who would want to get caught in the crossfire?...
"Let's get the dead cat on the table.
"A few years back, a newsletter called "CPSC Watch," ridiculed the National Association of State Fire Marshals for raising questions about computer fires. Some of you have used this newsletter to attack us. We know that some of you received copies of it from industry... and have actually used this garbage to criticize us....
"They tried and failed to kill our federal grants last year. For the record, that is where we get virtually all of our funding....
"Is there a problem with computer fires? There is absolutely no question that some popular products ignite very easily and would burn fast enough to engulf a room and then a house faster than a fire department could arrive.
"There have been some tragedies... there is litigation. Underwriters Laboratories and the international standards organizations are taking it seriously - they are now starting to rewrite the fire safety standards for computers and other electronic equipment....
"If someone has told you that this is not a problem... they are not telling you the truth.
"Have there been many of these fires? Every year, we have tens of thousands of electrical fires serious enough to require fire department responses. Most of these fires are not investigated carefully.
"Here in California, there have been entire years when no fire incidents were reported to the national data system. In my own state, I have seen them... and learned that they were classified as just an electrical fire.
"But, with hundreds of millions of computers in homes, workplaces and schools... of course there are fires involving computers.
"With many of these products made with significant volumes of highly combustible plastics... of course there are fires.
"With more than 30 recalls of AC adapters, power strips and computer extension cords considered to be fire hazards... of course there are fires involving computers.
"You want data? Ask the computer manufacturers. Every one of them has data on fires involving their own products.
"But it is a stupid debate.
"How would you feel...
"Well... we are outraged that anyone would put a highly combustible product in a child's room and then have the nerve to say we should wait for some significant number of fatalities.
"You want to see courage? Talk to a teenager who has just undergone a year's worth of surgery and rehabilitation after being seriously burned. Tell me that a manufacturer has a right to place even one child in a hospital bed for two years....
Your response had just scared me there, Doc, I almost thought they'd gotten to you for a moment.
Always, I value nitpicking -- it's the most basic act of primate social kindness to help get the bugs out right at the beginning of each interaction, lest they propagate.
(E.g., the transient effect of volcanos is huge -- but volcanic gas gets used up in chemical reactions in the stratosphere. Very stable CFC molecules persist for decades during which they continue to contribute chlorine to the stratosphere that hangs around and continues to catalyze ozone loss.) You knew that. I worried about your readership maybe not knowing it.
This work began long before the IGY; there was no 'ozone hole' (pronounced change) until the 1970s.
You can look it up, and should. Here's the longest time series of measurements.
"... The key research into this subject was done by Gordon Dobson in the 1920's. He developed the Dobson spectrometer which has been used since 1929 to measure the total ozone column. It is still in use even now.
"One of the first six Dobson spectrometers was used at Arosa in Switzerland by Paul Götz and from there we have the longest time series of total ozone column measurements in the world. The trend shows that the ozone layer has become thinner over time. Values below 300 DU have been measured recently at Hohenpeissenberg in Germany, a critical limit which makes better Sun protection necessary. In the 1930's, Götz showed that the ozone concentration maximum was likely to be below an altitude of 25 km and, as a result of his work, the ozone layer was located and its thickness measured."
Figure along with the text shows the complete record from that site. The change from equilibrium to ozone layer breakdown is easy to identify. The chemistry is explained as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Should be "boron as a heat source" -- no mention of an engine. Kind of like a liquid-oxygen and pellet-fuel stove, but powering an automobile?
Hmmm. Well, this IS an English Composition class exercise, after all.
Maybe the boron-fusion-powered car will be more practical.
Catching up on a six month stack of Science, I notice that lateral gene transfer between plants also has turned out to happen through the intermediary of common parasites. So it's not just the pollen spreading in the wind from one plant to a related plant.
... but I repeat myself.
... reported in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that a genetic parasite belonging to yeast has suddenly jumped into many unrelated species of higher plants recently. ... Until 1995, this parasite was thought to be confined to yeast and only one genus of higher plants out of the 25 surveyed had the parasite. But in a new survey of species from 335 genera, 48 were found to have the parasite.
...the researchers are able to conclude that almost all of the horizontal gene transfer events were independent and must have occurred very recently. "This massive wave of lateral transfers is of entirely recent occurrence, perhaps triggered by some key shift in the intron's invasiveness within angiosperms [i.e., higher plants]"
.... in order for the splicing gene carried by the parasite to become expressed, it has to have a signal that is recognized by the host. ...
It's NOT a newly known mechanism, just new to me as a reader --
Google : about 7,560 for "horizontal OR lateral" +"gene transfer" +parasite.
This isn't a surprise to the biotech companies -- they USE the same method to transfer genes, so they know well that it happens without humans stealing the patented seed. Hypocritical lawyers
The worry is that the tool that promptes horizontal transfer may itself have escaped into the wild.
So while the agribiz lawyers are arguing that the patented genes CANNOT spread except by theft, the researchers have been publishing studies showing that in fact, the DO and WILL spread despite attempts to control them.
----
Sample of fairly old news on this that any agribiz lawyer could have known if they'd looked:
http://www.soyinfo.com/haz/horizontal.shtml
"Horizontal Gene Transfer - New Evidence"
by Dr. Mae Wan Ho
December 4, 1998
Moreover, all the higher plants that have gained the group I intron has the same one, as the DNA base sequence is more than 92% identical.
So, what triggered this recent explosive invasion of the higher plants by the particular genetic parasite?
it was reported in the Journal Nature that genes transferred into transgenic plants can be up to 30 times more likely to escape than the plant's own genes.
Is it possible that the recent massive horizontal gene transfer from yeast to higher plants was triggered by commercial genetic engineering biotechnology itself?
Genetic engineering makes use of artificial genetic parasites as gene carriers, to transfer genes horizontally between unrelated species. These artificial parasites are made from parts of the most aggressive naturally occurring parasites like the group 1 intron discussed here.
The same kinds of explosive horizontal gene transfer have already been documented among viruses and bacteria which are responsible for the recent resurgence of drug and antibiotic resistant infectious diseases (reviewed by Ho et al, Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease vol 10, 33-39m 1998).
...Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.
It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned out....
You've pointed out that I failed in my attempt to be subtle in honoring the cute pun on their page -- where they use "Terrabyte" (instead of "terabyte") as the unit for their earth imaging data storage.
It's all Greek to me.
dagnabbit, /. is having quantum observer effects on reality again. The damn cat is _always_ dead when I try to look.
On the bright side, apparently NASA can now do matter transfers; I'm going to go download the Taj Mahal, I've always wanted it to visit me.
"...News & Updates Problem connecting to server...will try again in 2 minutes:
This problem, related to downloading LandSat7 imagery and terrain, is a server issue. It is unable to cope with demand, so we are exploring ways on coming up with a solution. Visit the Add-on page to download sections of the world."
From the Keyhole page:
"... Access 12+ Terrabytes of aerial and satellite imagery, including international cities (Beijing, Taipei, Havana, Paris, London, Rome, Montreal, Athens, Mexico City, Toronto and more)...."
Yep.
d ay /pdf/020007.pdf
So when the genes spread into related plants and the soil, after a few generations, when two parents met that both carried them, the offspring would die.
A lawyer's design. Ignorant that mechanisms exist by which the stuff would in fact spread -- laterally. Crop to weed, and back to crops elsewhere.
And several generations later, high rates of sterility emerge wherever the DNA has gotten to both parents. All this to make money faster.
Thank God for the scientists, the better they are the worse names they're called by the agribusiness lobbyists.
You can tell the scientists -- they use footnotes, cite their sources, and put their names with what they write.
Just search for half an hour and read what you find. Yes, there are nutcases all over the subject claiming they know the truth without any experimental evidence. On the 'left' they're in the streets and chatrooms; on the 'right' they're in the law firms and boardrooms and where the money is.
Ignore them. Read the people who publish in refereed journals and give rebuttable evidence.
Think. Why would we have imposed this kind of ruling on Iraq by fiat during an occupation? What help is it to the Iraqui farmers? Who benefits? Who is put at risk?
Read.
Lawlobbybizcritters anonymously declare their faith that whatever pays them must be right.
http://www.socgenmicrobiol.org.uk/pubs/micro_to
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/gene.htm
Nielsen, K.M., Bones, A.M., Smalla, K. and van Elsas, J.D. (1998). Horizontal gene transfer from transgenic plants to terrestrial bacteria - a rare event? FEMS Microbiology Reviews 22, 79-103.
Doolittle, W.F. (1999). Lateral genomics. Trends Cell Biol 9, 5-8.
Jain, R., Rivera, M.C. and Lake, J.A. (1999). Horizontal gene transfer among genomes: The complexity hypothesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 3801-3806; Shapiro, J. (1997). Genome organization, natural genetic engineering and adaptive mutation. TIG 13, 98-104; Ho, 1998,1999 (note 4).
Ho, M.W., Ryan, A. and Cummins, J. (1999). The cauliflower mosaic viral promoter - a recipe for disaster? Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 11, 194-197.
Ho, M.W., Ryan, A. and Cummins, J. (2000). Hazards of transgenic plants containing the cauliflower mosaic viral promoter. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease (in press).
Let's go to original from which you cited those words, and look at the context.
... ... by 30 m. Therefore canola pollen can move at least this distance....9 6.htm
... ... have been too small to capture the full spread of altered ... "It's the longest distance ... Most previous studies of gene flow have been done on far ...S pread+for+Miles-status-25-newsID-277... - 24k - Cached - Similar pages
The issue for Iraq is whether the farmer can save the seed grown once an agribiz claims they have found their genes in samples from his farm.
The answer was no, in the Canadian case.
He said he didn't buy the GM seed and that pollen spreads. Monsanto claimed it doesn't spread.
Current research says he's right.
QUOTE, a couple hits from a Google search:
GENE TRANSFER BETWEEN CANOLA (BRASSICA NAPUS) AND RELATED WEED
www.isb.vt.edu/brarg/brasym96/brown
Genes From Engineered Grass Spread for Miles, Study Finds
gene-flow study
www.onlypunjab.com/ fullstory904-insight-Genes+From+Engineered+Grass+
END QUOTE
Too late for him in this court case though.
Monsanto, because of the legal choice they used, did not get to take his bank account and his farm -- but they did stop him from saving the seeds that grew in his field to reuse.
The rest of the quote you cited is:
"Outcome:The Supreme Court held that the patent was valid and defendant/appellant Schmeiser infringed. However, because Monsanto elected to seek profits as a remedy, and the infringer Schmeiser earned no profit from the invention, plaintiff Monsanto is entitled to nothing."
That's "$Nothing" not "nothing at all" -- and that's the important part.
Schmeiser's neighbors growing the same species bought "Roundup Ready" seed. He did not. They sprayed with Roundup, killing everything but their Monsanto GM plants. He did not. All the plants flowered and set seed (Monsanto should have changed the timing of flowering, to really have some kind of control on genetic movement, eh?)
More from that study:
"Seed movement. Canola plants have small seed (approximately 200 seeds/g). During normal farm operations the seed will inevitably be lodged in farm machinery and transported around the farm and surrounding area. Seed also can be distributed by animals and birds, and seed can be lost while being transported for processing. In the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S.A., spring canola has only recently been grown commercially and already volunteer plants have been observed several kilometers from where they originated."
Remember -- once you know, or have reason to know, that your farm _may_ be producing some seed containing patented material, you're breaking the law if you save the seed growing in your own fields.
Once you know the stuff spreads, goes into weedy relatives of the crop (and back into crops elsewhere), spreads by birds, spreads in equipment tires and harvesting machinery that's taken from one field to another -- well, you know, eh?
fn 159: A truly innocent infringer may be able to rebut the presumption of use. However, that would likely prove difficult once the innocent infringer became aware that the genetically modified crop was present -- or was likely to be present -- on his or her land and continued to practice traditional farming methods, such as saving seed.
t ml
Canada >> Supreme Court of Canada >>
Citation: Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 902, 2004 SCC 34 Noteup
Date: 2004-05-21
Docket: 29437
URL: http://www.canlii.org/ca/cas/scc/2004/2004scc34.h
http://www.enablemart.com/productDetail.aspx?pid=6 65&dept=21&store=10
I bought this when Crayola sold it for kids, after my carpal tunnel got bad, surgery to correct it failed to help, and I had to find "the biggest trackball possible" and "something impossible for you to try to squeeze" -- and it's great.
Use "Froogle" for "Crayola trackball" and it'll also pull up a lot of related or similar devices.
Rats, it's apparently not included in OSX.
Well, if there's a competent psychic predator out there, what evidence would you expect?
... about 846
Evidence of absence is not absence of evidence.
Particularly when it's a body gone missing.
Google for "unsolved disappearances":
Results
Nope, I didn't see anything either.
_gulp_ _munch_
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/36324.html/
... An electronic voting machine error in a May, 2003, election in Belgium produced just over 4,100 more votes for the winner than there were eligible voters. .... a cosmic ray perfectly timed and directed to smite the memory cell holding the 13th bit of the total for the microsecond it was stored prior to printing.
Le rayon cosmique qui a touché la mémoire d'une des urnes électroniques de Schaerbeek, ce rayon cosmique permettra de sensibiliser des députés encore acquis au vote électronique.
The official review reduced this to exactly 4,096 extra votes and was therefore able to conclude that
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/general_info/OBPR-01 -245.html
Abstract: Space Radiation and Cataracts in Astronauts
"For over 30 years, astronauts in Earth orbit or on missions to the moon have been exposed to space radiation comprised of high-energy protons and heavy ions and secondary particles produced in collisions with spacecraft and tissue. Large uncertainties exist in the projection of risks of late effects from space radiation such as cancer and cataracts due to the absence of epidemiological data. Here we present the first epidemiological data linking an increased risk of cataracts for astronauts with higher lens doses (greater than 8 mSv) of space radiation relative to other astronauts with lower lens doses (less than 8 mSv). Our study uses historical data for cataract incidence in the 295 astronauts participating in NASA's Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health (LSAH) and individual occupational radiation exposure data. These results, while preliminary because of the use of subjective scoring methods, suggest that relatively low doses of space radiation are causative of an increased incidence and early appearance of cataracts."
debunked almost immediately at dailykos.com and other places. There is an 'odometer' that lists how many times the machine was used; the poll workers assumed it was a vote count and freaked. See dailykos et al. for the followups which came within an hour of the original report.
The reason voters haven't been given proof of who they voted for is abuses that become possible given such proof -- from pay-per-vote to vote-as-boss-says-or-don't-come-back-to-work.
from www.electoral-vote.com:
"... So why am I a happy camper? We survived an unprecedented triple flash crowd and logged it all. As it turns out, two of the faculty members in my Dept., Maarten van Steen and Guillaume Pierre, are doing research on coping with flash crowds. The research issues include how many replicas to set up, where to place them, how fast to deploy them, and how to do it automatically, in real time, and at minimum cost. To simulate proposed algorithms, you need data about real flash crowds and real attacks, preferably at the same time. And boy oh boy do we have data now. Students interested in this and other areas of computer systems might want to check out the English-language Masters program I am running at the Vrije Universiteit."
In other news, yesterday a high energy beam from a mysterious spacecraft impinged on -- and disintegrated -- Titan's Hoarfrost district. The energetic photons swept without warning across a long swath of the oldest residential and commercial district on Titan, causing the ancient complex of slowly-grown crystalline towers and bridges to explode and collapse into dust. The area has been flattened. The unknown source of the destructive beam seems to have left the vicinity of Titan, at least for the present.
I look forward to the software-controlled:
-- Zero Acceleration Panel (ZAP)(formerly known as Cruise Control),
-- Bumper Attachment Module (BAM) (formerly known as the tow hitch), and
-- Primary Optical Window (POW)(formerly known as the windshield).
It'll be so nice to have reliable software controlling all the hardware....
Turn off the stupid box that pops up on top of whatever someone's doing and interprets the next "y" or "Enter" as an approval to open the email.
...
.... I went disgrunled for a while referring to them as the "TS Department -- because that's the answer you'll get" after I just happened to luck out and get an honest answer from a new Help Desk person -- I found I had been getting Word VBA errors for NINE MONTHS on a special assigned task, "oh, you're an ordinary user and you don't have the whole VBA package and help installed, oops, I'm new here, I wasn't supposed to tell you that ..."
Anyone who types fast where I work -- there are still a few of us -- and who hasn't turned that Outlook option off will often have email open unexpectedly. And, when it's a piece of crap that got past the filter, it'll do something awful.
Email's supposed to be async anyhow; mine now usually has an Out of Office message saying NO, I'm HERE, but I'm BUSY
Oh, and if you could keep that stupid OOO from replying to spammers (provint it's a good address) you'll be doing better than my office's The-Department-Formerly-Known-As-Tech Services.
As to locking things down -- yes, but
-- I know why the caged bird sings. -- Angelou
> If this is such a wonderful idea why doesn't he
> get a bunch of artists, musicians and writers to
> donate their own work to this project and actually > prove the concept works?
It's been done, and the idea worked -- the United States convinced a bunch of artists, musicians and writers to donate their own works to the public domain AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME, THE COPY-RIGHT period.
Well, perhaps not convinced -- but promised and protected the copy-right, so artists, musicians and writers were encouraged to work and publish in the US.
Of course during the same first century or so, the US completely ignored the copyrights of other countries -- arguing it's the right of a poor developing nation to take whatever it needs of the intellectual source material to assure its survival. Only the large, established nations honor copy-rights, historically speaking.
The Association of State Fire Marshals -- has been telling the truth about this for some years now.
...
... leaving the industry to proceed as it wishes. But it cautioned companies to stay away - after all, who would want to get caught in the crossfire? ...
... and have actually used this garbage to criticize us....
...
... there is litigation. Underwriters Laboratories and the international standards organizations are taking it seriously - they are now starting to rewrite the fire safety standards for computers and other electronic equipment....
... they are not telling you the truth.
... and learned that they were classified as just an electrical fire.
... of course there are fires involving computers.
... of course there are fires.
... of course there are fires involving computers.
...
... we are outraged that anyone would put a highly combustible product in a child's room and then have the nerve to say we should wait for some significant number of fatalities.
...
Consumer electronics can ignite from as little heat as a candle flame then put out enough volatile gases to cause a rapid flash fire.
This is not theoretical, this is real life and death stuff.
http://www.firemarshals.org/news/pdf/statement_of_ the_nasfm.pdf/
My excerpts, see original for more:
Statement of the National Association of State Fire Marshals on Effective Fire Safety Standards for Computers and Consumer Electronics
September 24, 2002
"... I have some questions and concerns that I would like to pose to you.
"In August, I was given a copy of an e-mail circulated within the computer industry about their attendance at this workshop. It outlined a strategy where fire fighters and environmentalists would cancel each other out at this meeting
"Let's get the dead cat on the table.
"A few years back, a newsletter called "CPSC Watch," ridiculed the National Association of State Fire Marshals for raising questions about computer fires. Some of you have used this newsletter to attack us. We know that some of you received copies of it from industry
"They tried and failed to kill our federal grants last year. For the record, that is where we get virtually all of our funding.
"Is there a problem with computer fires? There is absolutely no question that some popular products ignite very easily and would burn fast enough to engulf a room and then a house faster than a fire department could arrive.
"There have been some tragedies
"If someone has told you that this is not a problem
"Have there been many of these fires? Every year, we have tens of thousands of electrical fires serious enough to require fire department responses. Most of these fires are not investigated carefully.
"Here in California, there have been entire years when no fire incidents were reported to the national data system. In my own state, I have seen them
"But, with hundreds of millions of computers in homes, workplaces and schools
"With many of these products made with significant volumes of highly combustible plastics
"With more than 30 recalls of AC adapters, power strips and computer extension cords considered to be fire hazards
"You want data? Ask the computer manufacturers. Every one of them has data on fires involving their own products.
"But it is a stupid debate.
"How would you feel
"Well
"You want to see courage? Talk to a teenager who has just undergone a year's worth of surgery and rehabilitation after being seriously burned. Tell me that a manufacturer has a right to place even one child in a hospital bed for two years.
"We want bad products -
>whew!
Your response had just scared me there, Doc, I almost thought they'd gotten to you for a moment.
Always, I value nitpicking -- it's the most basic act of primate social kindness to help get the bugs out right at the beginning of each interaction, lest they propagate.
(E.g., the transient effect of volcanos is huge -- but volcanic gas gets used up in chemical reactions in the stratosphere. Very stable CFC molecules persist for decades during which they continue to contribute chlorine to the stratosphere that hangs around and continues to catalyze ozone loss.) You knew that. I worried about your readership maybe not knowing it.
http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/
3 7e addbee0a5ee8331a,55a304092d09/209.html
Then look at the Chlorine Chemistry page (can't link directly to it); it's here:
http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/5c4aa91f52863
It's got the time series, the chemistry, the polar vortex explained more clearly than I've seen done elsewhere.
http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/208.html/
This work began long before the IGY; there was no 'ozone hole' (pronounced change) until the 1970s.
You can look it up, and should. Here's the longest time series of measurements.
"... The key research into this subject was done by Gordon Dobson in the 1920's. He developed the Dobson spectrometer which has been used since 1929 to measure the total ozone column. It is still in use even now.
"One of the first six Dobson spectrometers was used at Arosa in Switzerland by Paul Götz and from there we have the longest time series of total ozone column measurements in the world. The trend shows that the ozone layer has become thinner over time. Values below 300 DU have been measured recently at Hohenpeissenberg in Germany, a critical limit which makes better Sun protection necessary. In the 1930's, Götz showed that the ozone concentration maximum was likely to be below an altitude of 25 km and, as a result of his work, the ozone layer was located and its thickness measured."
Figure along with the text shows the complete record from that site. The change from equilibrium to ozone layer breakdown is easy to identify. The chemistry is explained as well.