FTFA: "Deputies have used the database since 1989 to collect and share intelligence gathered during the course of police work. It contains 200,000 names — Mesa County's population is about 150,000 — and includes investigative files from a local drug task force.
The information included data about Mesa County employees, information from the nearby Fruita and Palisade police departments — and possibly information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Grand Junction police."
It wouldn't be very hard to have 200,000 entries in 21 years. Police investigations take in info on friends of friends and acquaintances. The data set likely includes most of the Mexican drug cartel's known players.
This is very accurate. I happen to work with our city's GIS director. Some local governments are better than others at keeping accurate and up to date GIS data. Trying to coordinate GIS efforts between neighboring cities is sometimes frustrating due to the availability (or lack there of) of recent information. Then factor in making the data available to the commercial interests such as Garmin, Tom Tom etc. Some government bodies are not very forthcoming with their GIS data at all.
With all the sharing/copying other's maps, it's no wonder there are many inaccuracies in map products.
Not long ago I helped an Australian tourist navigate around the local area. He was relying on Microsoft's mapping solution to get around. Unfortunately, it had indicated that about 2 miles of major road did not exist. I have seen some small inaccuracies in several map products but was shocked to see so much road missing from his map. That 2 mile stretch of road has been in existence over 40 years.
"The software will be called ALTLinux. It is the typical lack of the use of articles in Russian which seems to be confusing the submitter. If written by an English author, the article would have started "A Russian OS..."
TFA actually says:
"The Ministry of Communication Press Service explains the Ministry plans to install Russian OS and alternative program package in every Russian school. The dates to carry out tenders for OS development have not been announced yet, but the tenders are to be held in the near future, the Ministry of Communication informs."
And then introduces this hopeful contender for the development of the software applications to be geared towards classroom use.
"Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux which has already announced its desire to put in a bid for the tender to develop alternative software package considers the given terms reasonable."
I've got a little story to share, a real world, actually happened example.
Just a few years ago I was working as desktop support at a manufacturing plant. Facilities maintenance decided to place a web cam on top of the building so anyone could "check the weather." This was part of some project where environmental status of different parts of the facility was available through an internal website.
Who knows why they thought this was necessary but, they did it anyway without much consultation with the IT department. [red flag #1]
They published their little website where you could check out the air conditioner status and temperature of the various parts of the building and view the webcam. To see the webcam you had to logon with a specific username/password combination which they announced to everybody via email. [red flag #2]
Curious, I checked out the site and looked around. I found that the webcam had a different URL than the rest of the site so, being curious, I shortened the URL down one level at a time and ended up at a system administration logon page. [bad sign #1] Surely the username/password for the webcam wouldn't work there so I tried it and promptly logged onto the facility controls console. [bad sign #2] Surely I would only have limited or read only access so I checked out some of the features and areas of the console. I was able to access everything from heating/cooling, water, lighting and the factory waste handling system controls. [very bad sign #3]
Again, surely I had read only access so I tested one of the settings for the air system in our area of the building. I incrimented the value by 1 and clicked "save". It accepted my change. I changed the value back to it's original setting and saved it again. [VERY bad sign #4]
At this point I notified my supervisor that there may be a problem and showed him what I was able to do with the username/password that everybody in the company now had. A hasty meeting was called that day with myself and the head of facility management. I told him what I had found and we had a meeting with the vendor who installed the systems the next day.
In between the meetings, I checked out some more features of the controller system and found that I could ssh into it with the same password and username. The system ran a very stripped down Linux kernel and only had a few applications but I was able to add or remove or edit files from any directory on the system. So basically, the webcam username/password was effectively root on the whole system.
The installer was a typical heating/cooling installer type of guy. [red flag #3] Computers obviously weren't his area of expertise. I understand that the company has people who "should" know about these sort of security measures, their developers. Why they sent a mechanical type of guy when they were told what our concerns were, I don't know. [red flag #4]
The scary and probably typical reaction I got from the vendor's installer was that there wasn't much of a problem because nobody in the factory would surely think of shortening a URL and find the main systems control login. [big red flag #5]
I finally got my point across and the vendor agreed to work with their developers to figure out a more secure setup. Fortunately the facility manager fully understood the consequences and wouldn't accept the vendors attempts at suggesting that it wasn't an issue.
Most everybody would think that simply changing the password would do the trick but apparently their setup was hard coded to only accept the one username and password for the whole system! At least that's what we were told at our meeting. To access the published webcam that was tied into this mess, you had to use the same credentials, otherwise none of this little setup of theirs would work and the administrative console would loose it's ability to monitor and control the factory systems. Brilliant! Absolutely genious.
Well, at the end of it all, apparently their developers had some sort of actual CLU
Oh quit with the "killing the little farmer in India who saves back seed rather than using hybrid seed." routine.
One of the reasons the little farmer who saves back some seed for next year is poor is because the seed he saves back doesn't perform as well as hybrid or modified seeds. It's the nature of hybrid vigor also known as heterosis. If you're not familiar with the terms or concept, look it up on Wikipedia or Google.
I'm not an apologist for mega-corp agriculture companies. I don't whole-heartedly agree with what's going on with agriculture today. Legislation, farm programs and politics over the past 25-30 years have probably played more of a role in today's situation than the scientists.
People (not directing this at you) who use the term "frankenfood" are just showing how uninformed they really are about the food they eat.
Many, if not most, of the traits that have been developed in genetically modified crops address most of the issues all the frantic uninformed people rant on and on about. Genetically Modified (GM) crops typically have natural traits such as higher yield per plant; higher nutritional content; resistance to disease, drought, pests and chemicals introduced or usually just enhanced. "Genetically Modified" DOES NOT ALWAYS equate with "inserted genes from a bacteria into a pineapple" sort of thing. If more people realized that the goals of hybrid and GM crops are actually working towards more food availability for the world population, it would be a good thing.
More food for the population is one thing but politics and logistics of food distribution is another subject all it's own.
The "modified" portion of "genetically modified" usually is in reference to speeding up the process of bringing out desirable traits by injecting desirable genes rather than strictly using traditional breeding methods. Yes, sometimes it does mean introducing genes from other plant or animal species.
Crops that are enhanced to be drought resistant for example, can result in a more dependable crop for the local population. The "little farmer in India" can raise more of their own crop and be less dependent on foreign imports. Disease, pest and chemical resistance means that fewer chemicals need to be used to ensure a better crop. That's good for the environment and the people.
Personally I'm glad to hear Monsanto is getting hit on this, yes, they have not been playing nice with farmers for years. Good to hear that some of "what goes around , comes around."
I wonder how many organizations (like the one I work in) are "buying" Vista licenses but then actually installing XP because downgrading is allowed.
Same thing for Microsoft Office licenses. We've already purchased a dozen or so Office 2007 licenses but downgrade install Office 2003.
Statistics can be manipulated to validate almost anything. I don't totally trust any of these numbers until I see where the numbers came from and what they include.
AC is just trolling or is uninformed.
My connection to the Internet through DSL actually uses one of those 4 prong connections at the wall, is converted to RJ-11 and then makes it's way to my modem then to the rest of my network.
That 4 prong connector is at least 34 years old (original equipment with the house) and still works. I'm in N. America. I haven't had a pulse style phone for a few years but the one I did have worked on this same phone service about 7 years ago. Of course that was before I ponied up for the DSL service too. Have no idea if one would work now.
I guess when you live in the new urban sprawl that AC must live in, everything is shiny and new and nothing old exists, therefore nobody else "surely" could have a usable device that uses older connectors etc.
To answer your questions in order:
I defrag hard drives because my job is user support, and my users are on Windows computers and machine policy locks them out of defragging the systems themselves. (I would like to let them do so but, I don't get to make those decisions here.)
Don't know, haven't experienced Vista for myself yet.
Yes.
Fragmentation is a problem on Windows 2000 and XP with NTFS. In the environment I support, all our users store files on the network but somehow Windows still manages to get severe disk fragmentation after only a few months. Windows seems to do a good enough job of creating it's own headaches by creating enough misc temp files along with all the Internet Explorer caching to bog itself down. It doesn't require users to create/edit/delete files locally to do the same damage.
I was just telling someone the other day that I've been treating the same symptom (sluggish performance on Windows) since Windows 95 with the same treatment (clean temp files off drive and defrag). From my perspective, things haven't improved with Microsoft OS in 12 years, I don't hold much expectation that Vista will magically be much better.
There was a recent story here on Slashdot about how to collect and install Windows updates for a "not on the Internet situation."
Check out info from http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682 for how to go about it. Haven't tried it myself yet but looks to be useful.
"Plus, U3 doesn't work on probably 50% of the machines"
I totally agree, in many Corporate environments these are going to be functionally useless. A recent helpdesk case I worked on involved one of these U3 drives. Because U3 basically creates a partition that tells Windows that it is a read only CDROM format, CD burning software would not function at all and Windows (Win2000 in this instance with limited user rights applied) totally locked up until the U3 drive was removed. Management gave me a 1GB version to use on the job. I was annoyed with the auto-launch feature it provided and promptly searched for and downloaded the U3 removal utility. I gained the space that U3 occupied on the drive and can use it on any computer in our environment w/o problems.
I predict that the definition of "breach" is being redefined in boardrooms across the land. If it doesn't meet the new definition, they won't have to report it.
Same old song and dance.
That was my first reaction to the headline as well.
Holy-can-of-worms Batman!
It's not just a gov't subpeona that businesses or persons need to worry about.
Another post I've read here talks about the disgruntled insider who dumps the information out on the the Internet or what about blackmail?
Could happen, did happen at AOL recently.
Google may have their stuff together security-wise today, but how about the future?
I agree with parent post, I can see corporations adding Google Desktop to the banned list pretty quickly.
With Sarbanes-Oxley, corps can't afford the risk.
Having spent a considerable amount of time employed in the seed industry, I'd like to add a little info to the mix.
The BBC article is a little light on specific details and judging by some of the comments thus far, some of the Slashdot crowd would benefit from more detail no doubt.
TFA does mention the fact that there are some 1400 seed banks in the world. I would venture to guess that this is rather accurate. This isn't going to be the only repository in the world. Maybe a little unique in that it is wanting to store a wider variety of germplasm samples than many of the existing collections contain individually.
Various organizations, governments and companies maintain genetic material for a variety of reasons. One reason that I have been close to involved re-introducing native genes into the gene pool in zea mays (what Americans would refer to as corn.) Plant breeders and geneticists aren't all blind to the reality of too much inbreeding, too little diversity in a gene pool is a Bad Thing(tm). In fact, the re-introduction of some traits from native varieties has helped produce higher yeilding corn by shoring up some hybrid lines by strengthening their stalks. It's hard to put grain into the food chain when you can't harvest it because it has blown down/broken off due to storms or other stresses.
This Norwegian based seed bank looks to be yet another redundancy in the efforts already in place throughout the world. Don't store all your backups in one place.
Another diverse, secure repository of gentic material for crops we consume is a Good Thing(tm).
Just in the USDA's realm, there are many locations in the US that are involved in this sort of genetic backup program. For example: http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/locations.htm http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/Research.htm?mode code=53-48-15-00
and http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecod e=36-25-12-00
Some posters mention global warming and "shelf life" of germplasm, what TFA doesn't mention is that these existing seed banks are using environmental control systems to maintain optimal temperature and humidity conditions to promote longer storage times for the seeds. Undoubtedly seed is taken from the bank and grown out periodically to maintain a fresh sample in the repository. This is all standard and customary practice.
As some others have commented, I wonder what "unstable" countries in particular are being referred to also. The reason I wonder why it is of much concern is because many seed collections are not limited to only the "local" crops. It's not unusual to have sources of seeds from all over the world in many of the existing seed banks already. If some collection is lost due to "unstable" situations, so what, that gentetic line may be being maintained elsewhere too.
"I wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans every Friday.
So far, no one else has gotten the joke.:("
I wear Hawaiian/Tropical inspired shirts almost everyday EXCEPT Friday because all the wannabe geeks/marketdroids/middle managers here wear their Hawaiian shirts ONLY on Friday.
Recently I ran across the link for The Scene, http://www.welcometothescene.com/
Yeah, I know I'm a bit slow on some things and this has been out for some time (9 episodes already available with #10 coming out very soon)
It is a "made for the Internet series" whose storyline revolves around this very topic, distributing pirated movies.
Available by bittorrent. Check it out.
The point I am going with is to shut the M$ fanboys up at the place I work. They think they are pretty spiffy with their crudely slapped together version of Bart's PE they made recently. Although handy, and practical for working on borked Windows formatted hard drives only, it's basically useless beyond that. They stood with their mouths gaping open when they saw me runnning Damn Small Linux off a mini-disc and with all it can do, this should get a good reaction as well. Running Linux while in a Windows session AND being able to have access to the many tools/apps available on Knoppix/Linux that absolutley kick Win apps all to heck will be satisfying.
*I'm stuck in DeactiveDirectory Hell with a bunch of flaming fanboys, well, except for that 1 Linux savvy apps developer a couple of cubes away.
I carry a disk folder full of various live cd distros to help me save the day in recovering "lost" data, sniff out malicious network traffic and other tasks the M$ fanboys can't even begin to touch with their so-called "tools".
I'm grabbing the torrent and will keep it going as long as I can.
Slashdot Mirror
I already live in a "relatively crime free area" without being chipped and tracked.
Stop looking for some conspiracy.
FTFA:
"Deputies have used the database since 1989 to collect and share intelligence gathered during the course of police work. It contains 200,000 names — Mesa County's population is about 150,000 — and includes investigative files from a local drug task force.
The information included data about Mesa County employees, information from the nearby Fruita and Palisade police departments — and possibly information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Grand Junction police."
It wouldn't be very hard to have 200,000 entries in 21 years. Police investigations take in info on friends of friends and acquaintances. The data set likely includes most of the Mexican drug cartel's known players.
Amen, it reminds me of a little saying, "There's nothing as permanent as a temporary solution."
Well put. Where I work, we observe the same user behavior and struggle to try to get a change to occur. It's an uphill battle.
This is very accurate. I happen to work with our city's GIS director. Some local governments are better than others at keeping accurate and up to date GIS data. Trying to coordinate GIS efforts between neighboring cities is sometimes frustrating due to the availability (or lack there of) of recent information. Then factor in making the data available to the commercial interests such as Garmin, Tom Tom etc. Some government bodies are not very forthcoming with their GIS data at all.
With all the sharing/copying other's maps, it's no wonder there are many inaccuracies in map products.
Not long ago I helped an Australian tourist navigate around the local area.
He was relying on Microsoft's mapping solution to get around. Unfortunately, it had indicated that about 2 miles of major road did not exist. I have seen some small inaccuracies in several map products but was shocked to see so much road missing from his map. That 2 mile stretch of road has been in existence over 40 years.
direct link to the link referenced in the blog. http://www.speedcam.co.uk/index2.htm
Incorrect, you say:
"The software will be called ALTLinux. It is the typical lack of the use of articles in Russian which seems to be confusing the submitter. If written by an English author, the article would have started "A Russian OS..."
TFA actually says:
"The Ministry of Communication Press Service explains the Ministry plans to install Russian OS and alternative program package in every Russian school. The dates to carry out tenders for OS development have not been announced yet, but the tenders are to be held in the near future, the Ministry of Communication informs."
And then introduces this hopeful contender for the development of the software applications to be geared towards classroom use.
"Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux which has already announced its desire to put in a bid for the tender to develop alternative software package considers the given terms reasonable."
I've got a little story to share, a real world, actually happened example. Just a few years ago I was working as desktop support at a manufacturing plant. Facilities maintenance decided to place a web cam on top of the building so anyone could "check the weather." This was part of some project where environmental status of different parts of the facility was available through an internal website.
Who knows why they thought this was necessary but, they did it anyway without much consultation with the IT department. [red flag #1]
They published their little website where you could check out the air conditioner status and temperature of the various parts of the building and view the webcam. To see the webcam you had to logon with a specific username/password combination which they announced to everybody via email. [red flag #2]
Curious, I checked out the site and looked around. I found that the webcam had a different URL than the rest of the site so, being curious, I shortened the URL down one level at a time and ended up at a system administration logon page. [bad sign #1]
Surely the username/password for the webcam wouldn't work there so I tried it and promptly logged onto the facility controls console. [bad sign #2]
Surely I would only have limited or read only access so I checked out some of the features and areas of the console. I was able to access everything from heating/cooling, water, lighting and the factory waste handling system controls. [very bad sign #3]
Again, surely I had read only access so I tested one of the settings for the air system in our area of the building. I incrimented the value by 1 and clicked "save". It accepted my change. I changed the value back to it's original setting and saved it again. [VERY bad sign #4]
At this point I notified my supervisor that there may be a problem and showed him what I was able to do with the username/password that everybody in the company now had. A hasty meeting was called that day with myself and the head of facility management. I told him what I had found and we had a meeting with the vendor who installed the systems the next day.
In between the meetings, I checked out some more features of the controller system and found that I could ssh into it with the same password and username. The system ran a very stripped down Linux kernel and only had a few applications but I was able to add or remove or edit files from any directory on the system. So basically, the webcam username/password was effectively root on the whole system.
The installer was a typical heating/cooling installer type of guy. [red flag #3]
Computers obviously weren't his area of expertise. I understand that the company has people who "should" know about these sort of security measures, their developers. Why they sent a mechanical type of guy when they were told what our concerns were, I don't know. [red flag #4]
The scary and probably typical reaction I got from the vendor's installer was that there wasn't much of a problem because nobody in the factory would surely think of shortening a URL and find the main systems control login. [big red flag #5]
I finally got my point across and the vendor agreed to work with their developers to figure out a more secure setup. Fortunately the facility manager fully understood the consequences and wouldn't accept the vendors attempts at suggesting that it wasn't an issue.
Most everybody would think that simply changing the password would do the trick but apparently their setup was hard coded to only accept the one username and password for the whole system! At least that's what we were told at our meeting. To access the published webcam that was tied into this mess, you had to use the same credentials, otherwise none of this little setup of theirs would work and the administrative console would loose it's ability to monitor and control the factory systems. Brilliant! Absolutely genious.
Well, at the end of it all, apparently their developers had some sort of actual CLU
Thank you! You have typed very eloquently. Someone mod this post up, +5 insightful!
Oh quit with the "killing the little farmer in India who saves back seed rather than using hybrid seed." routine.
One of the reasons the little farmer who saves back some seed for next year is poor is because the seed he saves back doesn't perform as well as hybrid or modified seeds. It's the nature of hybrid vigor also known as heterosis. If you're not familiar with the terms or concept, look it up on Wikipedia or Google.
I'm not an apologist for mega-corp agriculture companies. I don't whole-heartedly agree with what's going on with agriculture today. Legislation, farm programs and politics over the past 25-30 years have probably played more of a role in today's situation than the scientists.
People (not directing this at you) who use the term "frankenfood" are just showing how uninformed they really are about the food they eat.
Many, if not most, of the traits that have been developed in genetically modified crops address most of the issues all the frantic uninformed people rant on and on about. Genetically Modified (GM) crops typically have natural traits such as higher yield per plant; higher nutritional content; resistance to disease, drought, pests and chemicals introduced or usually just enhanced. "Genetically Modified" DOES NOT ALWAYS equate with "inserted genes from a bacteria into a pineapple" sort of thing. If more people realized that the goals of hybrid and GM crops are actually working towards more food availability for the world population, it would be a good thing.
More food for the population is one thing but politics and logistics of food distribution is another subject all it's own.
The "modified" portion of "genetically modified" usually is in reference to speeding up the process of bringing out desirable traits by injecting desirable genes rather than strictly using traditional breeding methods. Yes, sometimes it does mean introducing genes from other plant or animal species.
Crops that are enhanced to be drought resistant for example, can result in a more dependable crop for the local population. The "little farmer in India" can raise more of their own crop and be less dependent on foreign imports. Disease, pest and chemical resistance means that fewer chemicals need to be used to ensure a better crop. That's good for the environment and the people.
Personally I'm glad to hear Monsanto is getting hit on this, yes, they have not been playing nice with farmers for years. Good to hear that some of "what goes around , comes around."
I think you mean VirtualBox.ORG, not com.
I wonder how many organizations (like the one I work in) are "buying" Vista licenses but then actually installing XP because downgrading is allowed.
Same thing for Microsoft Office licenses. We've already purchased a dozen or so Office 2007 licenses but downgrade install Office 2003.
Statistics can be manipulated to validate almost anything. I don't totally trust any of these numbers until I see where the numbers came from and what they include.
AC is just trolling or is uninformed. My connection to the Internet through DSL actually uses one of those 4 prong connections at the wall, is converted to RJ-11 and then makes it's way to my modem then to the rest of my network. That 4 prong connector is at least 34 years old (original equipment with the house) and still works. I'm in N. America. I haven't had a pulse style phone for a few years but the one I did have worked on this same phone service about 7 years ago. Of course that was before I ponied up for the DSL service too. Have no idea if one would work now.
I guess when you live in the new urban sprawl that AC must live in, everything is shiny and new and nothing old exists, therefore nobody else "surely" could have a usable device that uses older connectors etc.
To answer your questions in order:
I defrag hard drives because my job is user support, and my users are on Windows computers and machine policy locks them out of defragging the systems themselves. (I would like to let them do so but, I don't get to make those decisions here.)
Don't know, haven't experienced Vista for myself yet.
Yes.
Fragmentation is a problem on Windows 2000 and XP with NTFS. In the environment I support, all our users store files on the network but somehow Windows still manages to get severe disk fragmentation after only a few months. Windows seems to do a good enough job of creating it's own headaches by creating enough misc temp files along with all the Internet Explorer caching to bog itself down. It doesn't require users to create/edit/delete files locally to do the same damage. I was just telling someone the other day that I've been treating the same symptom (sluggish performance on Windows) since Windows 95 with the same treatment (clean temp files off drive and defrag). From my perspective, things haven't improved with Microsoft OS in 12 years, I don't hold much expectation that Vista will magically be much better.
There was a recent story here on Slashdot about how to collect and install Windows updates for a "not on the Internet situation."
Check out info from http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682 for how to go about it. Haven't tried it myself yet but looks to be useful.
All the way down here near the bottom of the comments. Someone finally hit the nail squarely on the head. Thanks for you insightful comment.
"Plus, U3 doesn't work on probably 50% of the machines"
I totally agree, in many Corporate environments these are going to be functionally useless. A recent helpdesk case I worked on involved one of these U3 drives. Because U3 basically creates a partition that tells Windows that it is a read only CDROM format, CD burning software would not function at all and Windows (Win2000 in this instance with limited user rights applied) totally locked up until the U3 drive was removed.
Management gave me a 1GB version to use on the job. I was annoyed with the auto-launch feature it provided and promptly searched for and downloaded the U3 removal utility. I gained the space that U3 occupied on the drive and can use it on any computer in our environment w/o problems.
Hate to burst any bubble. If you knew what you are talking about, you would know that the Midwest has a very large immigrant population.
I predict that the definition of "breach" is being redefined in boardrooms across the land. If it doesn't meet the new definition, they won't have to report it. Same old song and dance.
"This is going to be a nightmare for businesses."
That was my first reaction to the headline as well.
Holy-can-of-worms Batman!
It's not just a gov't subpeona that businesses or persons need to worry about.
Another post I've read here talks about the disgruntled insider who dumps the information out on the the Internet or what about blackmail?
Could happen, did happen at AOL recently.
Google may have their stuff together security-wise today, but how about the future?
I agree with parent post, I can see corporations adding Google Desktop to the banned list pretty quickly.
With Sarbanes-Oxley, corps can't afford the risk.
Pidgeons with cell phones and GPS!
Where's the Sharks with Friggin lasers on their heads ! ! !
Dammit! and where's my flying car while you're at it.
Having spent a considerable amount of time employed in the seed industry, I'd like to add a little info to the mix.
e code=53-48-15-00 d e=36-25-12-00
The BBC article is a little light on specific details and judging by some of the comments thus far, some of the Slashdot crowd would benefit from more detail no doubt.
TFA does mention the fact that there are some 1400 seed banks in the world. I would venture to guess that this is rather accurate. This isn't going to be the only repository in the world. Maybe a little unique in that it is wanting to store a wider variety of germplasm samples than many of the existing collections contain individually.
Various organizations, governments and companies maintain genetic material for a variety of reasons. One reason that I have been close to involved re-introducing native genes into the gene pool in zea mays (what Americans would refer to as corn.) Plant breeders and geneticists aren't all blind to the reality of too much inbreeding, too little diversity in a gene pool is a Bad Thing(tm). In fact, the re-introduction of some traits from native varieties has helped produce higher yeilding corn by shoring up some hybrid lines by strengthening their stalks. It's hard to put grain into the food chain when you can't harvest it because it has blown down/broken off due to storms or other stresses.
This Norwegian based seed bank looks to be yet another redundancy in the efforts already in place throughout the world. Don't store all your backups in one place. Another diverse, secure repository of gentic material for crops we consume is a Good Thing(tm).
Just in the USDA's realm, there are many locations in the US that are involved in this sort of genetic backup program. For example:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/locations.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/Research.htm?mod
and
http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modeco
Some posters mention global warming and "shelf life" of germplasm, what TFA doesn't mention is that these existing seed banks are using environmental control systems to maintain optimal temperature and humidity conditions to promote longer storage times for the seeds. Undoubtedly seed is taken from the bank and grown out periodically to maintain a fresh sample in the repository. This is all standard and customary practice.
As some others have commented, I wonder what "unstable" countries in particular are being referred to also. The reason I wonder why it is of much concern is because many seed collections are not limited to only the "local" crops. It's not unusual to have sources of seeds from all over the world in many of the existing seed banks already. If some collection is lost due to "unstable" situations, so what, that gentetic line may be being maintained elsewhere too.
"I wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans every Friday. So far, no one else has gotten the joke. :("
I wear Hawaiian/Tropical inspired shirts almost everyday EXCEPT Friday because all the wannabe geeks/marketdroids/middle managers here wear their Hawaiian shirts ONLY on Friday.
Recently I ran across the link for The Scene, http://www.welcometothescene.com/ Yeah, I know I'm a bit slow on some things and this has been out for some time (9 episodes already available with #10 coming out very soon) It is a "made for the Internet series" whose storyline revolves around this very topic, distributing pirated movies. Available by bittorrent. Check it out.
The point I am going with is to shut the M$ fanboys up at the place I work. They think they are pretty spiffy with their crudely slapped together version of Bart's PE they made recently. Although handy, and practical for working on borked Windows formatted hard drives only, it's basically useless beyond that. They stood with their mouths gaping open when they saw me runnning Damn Small Linux off a mini-disc and with all it can do, this should get a good reaction as well. Running Linux while in a Windows session AND being able to have access to the many tools/apps available on Knoppix/Linux that absolutley kick Win apps all to heck will be satisfying. *I'm stuck in DeactiveDirectory Hell with a bunch of flaming fanboys, well, except for that 1 Linux savvy apps developer a couple of cubes away. I carry a disk folder full of various live cd distros to help me save the day in recovering "lost" data, sniff out malicious network traffic and other tasks the M$ fanboys can't even begin to touch with their so-called "tools". I'm grabbing the torrent and will keep it going as long as I can.