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GiantEvil

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Meson

Meson (3/13)

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  1. This doesn't really have anything to do with anybody who is likely to read this, and is wholly of a personal context which will not be explained. I felt like declaring eternal and infinite personal bitterness, I have before, and having lived long enough, that too faded. But really, I'm just terribly sad.
  2. Poor people do have guns sometimes. I think richie rich trying to exclusively sit on a youth formula would end up on the wrong end of the gun. It's certainly something I would fight over. If you have a device with internet, you have educational access; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooc
  3. Google "birth rate vs education". Education is the single biggest correlate to low birth rate. Population control plan, lot's of books and computers for everyone. Live young for a long time? Hell yea! And don't get in my way!
  4. There are many Linux kernel OS's available, for free. I'm not sure why, but Linux systems are considered pretty virus proof. When I ran windows it was always getting blown up by malware and whatnot. I use Ubuntu now, no third party virus protection, been working great. Sometimes my Chrome settings get changed, but that's easy to fix.
  5. I considered young Wesley to be quite foolish for his unconditional conformity to the "As you wills" of the apparently bratty Buttercup, and then there was that exquisite sword duel with Inigo Montoya. Perhaps some movies would be more realistic with a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ending? @OP; Just because scientists seek a logical model for the human experience it doesn't mean that they are dismissive of the vitality and beauty of that experience.
  6. The Michigan site is going fine now. That's some cool stuff, open source distributed manufacturing. The democratization of obtaining stuff. Open source desktop molecular printing is hopefully coming some day.
  7. I just realized that I don't know any more about Nepal than its name and that it is proximal to China. That Buddhists might drag their feet about building a giant temple complex doesn't seem that strange. Mindfulness and causality. Maybe they will restore the area of the first shrine, no shrine, plant a tree.
  8. Unless a crop species is a "mule" incapable of reproduction or incapable of survival outside intentional cultivation, then once introduced to an environment that species will continue to reproduce until intentionally eradicated. Do crops stray from their fields? I don't know. I suppose I should do a little research. Just as I cant say "definitely will", you can't say "definitely will not". Non modified stocks of a crop species could also be unintentionally pollinated by the GM version. From your own reference in post #24 it is unknown whether or not transgenes have spread to native Mexican maize. Use less fertilizer. What GMO does that? I know Monsanto has engineered corn to be resistant to their own brands of pesticides. It seems that pesticide use has gone up in conjunction with GMO use; http://www.enveurope.com/content/24/1/24 According to your own reference in post #24 it is true that "superweeds" have appeared in conjunction with GM crops. Snakes are a good GMO metaphor. Some people hate and fear all snakes regardless, which is a shame. Rat snakes are unobtrusive and useful. Some people might be inclined to go handle just any old snake whatsoever, which is a good way to get envenomated. GMO is in and of itself merely a label, like the word "snake", and not indicative of either harmfulness or safety. All of that aside, current GMO's have not been found to be directly harmful to consumers. So telling people they are just scared and ignorant is probably a good PR campaign. And while you are at it, blatantly spend millions to defeat regulation and labeling efforts, that looks good. Be sure to not mention the ONE GMO ever developed as a non profit humanitarian effort; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice. Because profit motives are distinctly trustworthy, and the only reason every other GMO in existence has been developed.
  9. Apparently when a male Drosophila is exposed to certain female Drosophila pheromones it triggers an increase in a certain neuropeptide. If the male manages to mate then the neuropeptide levels return to normal. If the male doesn't get to mate then the levels stay high, in which case the male is observed to go sickly. Sounds kind of like stress in humans, physiologically useful in the short term, long term stress responses tend to be physiologically harmful. Who would have thought that sexual selection and mating ritual could be so complex in Drosophila, and would include oral genital stimulation. Here's another article about Drosophila, sex, and alchoholism; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17357560 Once again neuropeptide F is implicated as a behavorial mechanism. It seems reasonable to me to suppose that given other equal circumstances, humans who experience more satisfying sex lives probably do live a little longer than otherwise.
  10. Add on edit; Here is a repetitive example of why any non native species introduction is not necessarily reversable; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species I agree, political alignment is rarely based on a reasonable assessment. One of the main problems here is the presence of for and against camps, and a dearth of careful consideration of consequence. Fear is after all a useful genetic adaptation and doesn't necessarily imply incorrectness. I like what this article has to say; http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/genetically-modified-foods-what-is-and-isnt-true/2013/10/15/40e4fd58-3132-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html
  11. Perhaps when the male is primed to mate they don't eat? Don't get un-primed, don't eat?
  12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species Here is a PDF of the text of the GMO labeling initiative from Washington State (10 pages total.); http://sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/initiatives/FinalText_285.pdf And 21 million spent against the labeling initiative. Also the State has sued one of the largest contributing lobbying groups for violation of campaign contribution disclosure regulations. ;http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/28/food-fight-bringsinthebigbucksinwashingtonstate.html Why wouldn't a corporation want a brand name on their product? The insulin I use is a direct result of recombinative DNA technologies, but the prices currently charged are prohibitive exclusively from a cause of corporate greed. (I'll provide a more detailed explanation on request) GMO and other recombinative DNA technologies are tools, and depending on the hands into which any particular tool is delivered, creation or destruction may result.
  13. You're supposed to unwrap it before eating... DUH! And the BLUE ones taste best.
  14. I find that with many oft said assertions that there is no particular reasoning involved. What exactly is self love? And where do we draw the line between an altruistically useful self love and narcissism? I think that things people say is like a stopped clock, mostly wrong except for twice a day. What about Romeo and Juliet?
  15. Yes, the concept of my own death is much less disconcerting compared to the loss of someone I know and care for. If I were to die it's not as if I could be ass'ed to even notice. However if someone I care about were to die, I got to live with that for as long as I live. Definitely solutions and positive effort are preferable to emotional flailing. And really, the problems of living are far more profound than the possibility of dying. Biomed is a worthy front against death. I would like to get into the electric vehicle market, I would hope to save some lives and grief there.
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