The phenomenon you are describing isn't limited to 'parasitic genes' but is a result of the decline in selective pressure on older organisms resulting from many factors. Let's say you are a rabbit living in the woods, whose specific genes make it much more capable of reproducing (faster, stronger, sexier, whatever). As time goes by, despite these advantages, the chances that the rabbit is still alive (and thus capable of reproducing) diminish on account of causes its genes are no more adept than its peers' in preventing, such as getting killed by a forest fire, earthquake, or some other freak accident (falling tree, tunnel collapse, whatever). Thus because the cumulative chance that one of these causes has killed the rabbit increases over time, it is less likely that its genetic advantages result in greater reproduction the longer it lives, until a point at which this advantage becomes statistically insiginificant (ie, no rabbit lives to 30 years, or whatever the actual number is). Genes that cause problems after age 30 thus do not get selected out of the rabbit gene pool, so even if you take a rabbit out of the real world and put him in a cage, he'll die of old age because there was no selective pressure to force his genes to remain functional for a longer period. In the wild you generally see animals that live in riskier environments have shorter natural lifespans. Over a sufficiently long period of time, natural lifespan will increase as these risks are reduced.
I just read in a book called Parasite Rex a suggestion that senescence may also be caused by the organism's attempts to prevent genetic damage (caused by solar radiation and other sources) from causing cancer. The argument seems to be that because the cumulative damage is greater as the organism ages, altering the lifecycle of individual cells to prevent the possibility of these cells becoming cancerous is worth the detrimental effects such alteration has (ie it is better to look like a wizened prune than be dead). I don't know whether there's any sense to this idea, but the rabbit idea is the way senescence is usually explained.
at yale in the mid 90's someone discovered how to make calls to all the call boxes they have scattered around campus (which were normally for outgoing calls only). you could sit in your dorm room during parent's weekend, watch someone's dad walk by a callbox in the quad, call it up and say "Hey Mr. Smith! You're last tuition check for Jane bounced! Do you expect us to educate her for free, when she shows up to all her classes drunk? Are you on the dole Mr. Smith? Those are mighty fine bermuda shorts for someone who's on the dole. Mighty fine kneecaps you have there too. Would be a shame if something happened to them." The poor guy would apologize and then you'd tell him to "move along and don't make us come find you".
this is actually a great opportunity for some student to undercut him using a cheaper service. If he's arguing that he's charging for the pain of making the recording (not of the lecture contents, which the school already compensates him to provide), then what's stopping an enterprising student from recording the lecture and selling it for $2? He won't be able to prohibit this without looking like a greedy profit monger.
axl rose is a good example because the liner notes for Appetite for Destruction have a picture (originally intended to be the album cover but scotched for obvious reasons) of a woman who has clearly just been raped by some kind of robot. So if this law goes into effect, everyone who owns that album will be going to jail.
Try reading this site at -1 and you'll soon change this theory!
oh they're dead all right... what better place for a zombie than where everyone has big brains and can't run more than ten feet without getting winded?
also, unless she changed the default settings on her P2P so that her download folder and her upload folder are distinct, anything she downloads will get uploaded very quickly.
a "decent competitor" would be one to which a seller could conceivably switch without bankrupting himself. in this regard yahoo/amazon are "legitimate alternatives" to ebay like Esperanto is a legitimate alternative to English.
that ebay is so entrenched that competitors can't become legitimate alternatives (or at least have not yet) does not change the fact that such a legitimate alternative is what is necessary to force them to provide a better service. this fact just makes it unlikely that ebay will do so.
Ebay's management is in serious need of a kick in the pants. More for customer service, support, and the way it deals with fraud (which is all part of the same thing really).
And the best way to kick them in the pants would be a decent competitor. without some legitimate alternative, their focus is going to be entirely on not rocking the boat.
Someone who realises the truth, that the loved CEO of said company is only loved because of the success of his company, and his company is only showing successful because of dodgy accounting.
Aha! I wondered why everybody I know seems to have bought an iPod, and now I know: Apple cooked their books!
maybe instead of setting hard limits, the parent should attach a "value" to each foodstuff, and the kid must do a certain number of minutes on an exercise bike in the gym (hooked up to the internet) in order to earn enough points to purchase food of a given value. Then the kid could eat a hamburger, fries and a shake if he wants, but it'll cost him 90 minutes of hard labor, whereas for only 10 minutes, he can get a nice salad.
The parent could even let the kid run up a balance and then cut him off when he exceeds it. Thus when Junior is four hundred hours of bicycling away from his next meal, he'll learn something about the perils of easy credit as well.
on a more serious note
on
The End of E3?
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· Score: 4, Funny
if there are any out-of-work booth babes out there who need a place to stay while they're getting back on their feet, my basement apartment, several bulk packages of Ho-Hos, and a rack of size-2 Seven of Nine uniforms is available to provide you with shelter, food and clothing during this trying ordeal.
yes, how dare they spend their own money to improve at something they find enjoyable. If they have so much free cash lying around, they should donate it to a worthy cause.
Might I suggest the Self-Important Prigs Appreciation society?
Slashdot Mirror
I just read in a book called Parasite Rex a suggestion that senescence may also be caused by the organism's attempts to prevent genetic damage (caused by solar radiation and other sources) from causing cancer. The argument seems to be that because the cumulative damage is greater as the organism ages, altering the lifecycle of individual cells to prevent the possibility of these cells becoming cancerous is worth the detrimental effects such alteration has (ie it is better to look like a wizened prune than be dead). I don't know whether there's any sense to this idea, but the rabbit idea is the way senescence is usually explained.
at yale in the mid 90's someone discovered how to make calls to all the call boxes they have scattered around campus (which were normally for outgoing calls only). you could sit in your dorm room during parent's weekend, watch someone's dad walk by a callbox in the quad, call it up and say "Hey Mr. Smith! You're last tuition check for Jane bounced! Do you expect us to educate her for free, when she shows up to all her classes drunk? Are you on the dole Mr. Smith? Those are mighty fine bermuda shorts for someone who's on the dole. Mighty fine kneecaps you have there too. Would be a shame if something happened to them." The poor guy would apologize and then you'd tell him to "move along and don't make us come find you".
this is actually a great opportunity for some student to undercut him using a cheaper service. If he's arguing that he's charging for the pain of making the recording (not of the lecture contents, which the school already compensates him to provide), then what's stopping an enterprising student from recording the lecture and selling it for $2? He won't be able to prohibit this without looking like a greedy profit monger.
axl rose is a good example because the liner notes for Appetite for Destruction have a picture (originally intended to be the album cover but scotched for obvious reasons) of a woman who has clearly just been raped by some kind of robot. So if this law goes into effect, everyone who owns that album will be going to jail.
oh they're dead all right... what better place for a zombie than where everyone has big brains and can't run more than ten feet without getting winded?
also, unless she changed the default settings on her P2P so that her download folder and her upload folder are distinct, anything she downloads will get uploaded very quickly.
that ebay is so entrenched that competitors can't become legitimate alternatives (or at least have not yet) does not change the fact that such a legitimate alternative is what is necessary to force them to provide a better service. this fact just makes it unlikely that ebay will do so.
And the best way to kick them in the pants would be a decent competitor. without some legitimate alternative, their focus is going to be entirely on not rocking the boat.
obviously they won, but the useless article doesn't say which virus won! How will I know which is best for my needs?
that will teach those sanctimonious bureaucrats not to "think of the children."
I've always thought Hungary was in dangerous proximity to Turkey.
if he's like the rest of us, he sure as hell doesn't want God looking around on his HD.
I was pro bono until I got sucked into the lucrative practice of defending drug smugglers.
seems like you mean rebutted.
Yet again religion is all that protects the march of scientific progress from obliteration at the hands of destructive ignorance.
Someone who realises the truth, that the loved CEO of said company is only loved because of the success of his company, and his company is only showing successful because of dodgy accounting. Aha! I wondered why everybody I know seems to have bought an iPod, and now I know: Apple cooked their books!
that depends on whether we can bribe the Japanese to plant a US flag up there when no one's looking.
Indeed it is large and hardy: according to the Wikipedia entry on Wikipedia, it's run by a pack of elephants.
do stock certificates count?
The parent could even let the kid run up a balance and then cut him off when he exceeds it. Thus when Junior is four hundred hours of bicycling away from his next meal, he'll learn something about the perils of easy credit as well.
if there are any out-of-work booth babes out there who need a place to stay while they're getting back on their feet, my basement apartment, several bulk packages of Ho-Hos, and a rack of size-2 Seven of Nine uniforms is available to provide you with shelter, food and clothing during this trying ordeal.
and the female gnomes are all FBI agents.
Might I suggest the Self-Important Prigs Appreciation society?