With luck, you may soon be able to buy a mythological pet
PAOLO FRIL, chairman and chief scientific officer of GeneDupe, based in San Melito, California, is a man with a dream. That dream is a dragon in every home.
GeneDupe's business is biotech pets. Not for Dr Fril, though, the mundane cloning of dead moggies and pooches. He plans a range of entirely new animalsor, rather, of really quite old animals, with the twist that even when they did exist, it was only in the imagination.
Making a mythical creature real is not easy. But GeneDupe's team of biologists and computer scientists reckon they are equal to the task. Their secret is a new field, which they call virtual cell biology.
Biology and computing have a lot in common, since both are about processing informationin one case electronic; in the other, biochemical. Virtual cell biology aspires to make a software model of a cell that is accurate in every biochemical detail. That is possible because all animal cells use the same parts listmitochondria for energy processing, the endoplasmic reticulum for making proteins, Golgi body for protein assembly, and so on.
Armed with their virtual cell, GeneDupe's scientists can customise the result so that it belongs to a particular species, by loading it with a virtual copy of that animal's genome. Then, if the cell is also loaded with the right virtual molecules, it will behave like a fertilised egg, and start dividing and developingfirst into an embryo, and ultimately into an adult.
Because this growth is going on in a computer, it happens fast. Passing from egg to adult in one of GeneDupe's enormous Mythmaker computers takes less than a minute. And it is here that Charles Darwin gets a look in. With such a short generation time, GeneDupe's scientists can add a little evolution to their products.
Each computer starts with a search image (dragon, unicorn, gryphon, etc), and the genome of the real animal most closely resembling it (a lizard for the dragon, a horse for the unicorn and, most taxingly, the spliced genomes of a lion and an eagle for the gryphon). The virtual genomes of these real animals are then tweaked by random electronic mutations. When they have matured, the virtual adults most closely resembling the targets are picked and cross-bred, while the others are culled.
Using this rapid evolutionary process, GeneDupe's scientists have arrived at genomes for a range of mythological creaturesin a computer, at least. The next stage, on which they are just embarking, is to do it for real.
This involves synthesising, with actual DNA, the genetic material that the computer models predict will produce the mythical creatures. The synthetic DNA is then inserted into a cell that has had its natural nucleus removed. The result, Dr Fril and his commercial backers hope, will be a real live dragon, unicorn or what have you.
Readers with long memories may recall GeneDupe's previous attempt to break into the pet market, the Real Goldfish (see article). This animal was genetically engineered to deposit gold in its skin cells, for that truly million-dollar look. Unfortunately Dr Fril, a biologist, neglected to think about the physics involved. The fish, weighed down by one of the heaviest metals in existence, sank like a stone, as did the project. He is more confident about his new idea, though. Indeed, if he can get the dragons' respiration correct, he thinks they will set the world on fire.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/03/2006 17:35 Comments ||
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#4
Fire-breathing dragons? And I thought Fluffy was hard on the furniture. Mind you, a quick puff on sleepy little Johnny will sure get him out of bed for walkies.
It appears that security has been breached in Operation Dragon.
It is urgent that this security breach be contained immediately. All necessary measures are hereby authorized to insure the security of Operation Monster Division's (OMD) continued secrecy and operational security.
All other operations are to proceed according to our current schedule.
Operation Dagon and Operation Deep Ones will be operational as soon as negotiations with Persian Gulf entities are completed. This requires that negotiations with North Sea entities be completed and negotiated successfully prior to the launch of the aforementioned operations.
The recent tests of Iranian "secret" submarine "missiles" have been duly observed by our informants and agents. Accurate targeting data has been fed into the Persian Gulf sonar arrays and all attack submarine navigational and targeting data has been updated.
We are in debt to our sub-surface "allies" which is not a position I like to see us in...
(2006-04-01) Game wardens from Maine to Pennsylvania issued a Code Red warning today in advance of possible unrest among wild coyotes in the wake of the mysterious death-in-captivity of Hal, a coyote (caninus roaminus impetuous) captured recently by New York City police.
Held in isolation from other coyotes at a now-infamous Department of Environmental Conservation detention facility in Putnam County, Hal died with his legs restrained and his snout muzzled like a dog as Cornell University researchers attempted to tag him before his release.
The New York Times has filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding that the government hand over images that might show evidence of humiliation and discomfort, if not outright abuse.
Authorities refused the Times initial request to release the photos, out of respect for the family of the deceased, officials said.
Even though we did everything according to protocol, said an unnamed conservation agent, were concerned about the reaction on the so-called coyote street if they should see one of their own bound and gagged and about to be tagged.
In coyote culture, being restrained or caged is considered degrading and humiliating, and the Law of the Pack mandates death for the perpetrators.
Ingrid Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), has offered to pay for an attorney to file a lawsuit on behalf of the family.
Hal was guilty of nothing more than loping-while-canine in Central Park, Ms. Newkirk said, but his captors and killers are guilty of invading and occupying land that belonged to Hals ancestors for thousands of years.
#2
"Ingrid, I roamed the wilds with Hal Coyote, I howled at the moon with Hal Coyote, Hal Coyote was a packmate of mine. Ingrid, you are no Hal Coyote."
-- Wile E. Coyote
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Adnan al-Maimani insists he isn't looking to be a pioneer he just dreams of looking down on Earth. So the 40-year-old entrepreneur is paying more than $100,000 to go on the first flight traveling to the edge of space from a Mideast nation. The flight, which will travel about 62 miles toward space and give its passengers up to five minutes of weightlessness, is part of an American company's plan to establish a spaceport in the northern tip of the United Arab Emirates.
Virginia-based Space Adventures the only company to have successfully sent private citizens into space won't say when the flight will take place, only that it will be within a few years. But al-Maimani, 40, already thinks the project will be a boost to his homeland, which has seen a boom in construction and finance the past decade. "It's a great social and economic opportunity for the United Arab Emirates. It will create jobs and open up the economy even further," he told The Associated Press. Al-Maimani, who owns a technology development firm, will ride a Russian-designed suborbital craft called the Explorer to the edge of space, experience weightlessness and return. The craft, capable of carrying five people, is carried first on an airplane, from which it launches on rocket power for the remainder of the journey. "I'm not in it for the adventure. My point of view is exploration. To become richer with experience, look back at Earth and realize the potential," said al-Maimani, who will pay $102,000 for the one-hour flight.
This report is extremely worrisome in such that it deflects our current initiative at establishing a space port at the base of Baja California.
I find it extremely (yes, I said it again - those of you who "do not get it" should at this point) disturbing that our own agents have failed to convince the governments that they have been assigned to to bend their environmental laws such that this division will find a free hand when it comes to building launch facilities.
Indeed! I am forwarding this report and email to CORPORATE head for his advisement.
This cannot and will not be allowed to interfere with current opertions and projects.
The builders of a pair of sail-shaped skyscrapers in Bahrain's capital lost 16 executives and engineers when a cruise ship capsized last week, but the companies said Sunday they will press ahead in finishing construction. Fifty-eight people died 16 of them top executives from Murray & Roberts and the British engineering firm Atkins, including the Bahrain World Trade Center project director. Work has stopped on the World Trade Center site since Friday. But Samir Nass, vice chairman and managing director of Nass Corp., a top partner in the construction, told The Associated Press the $150-million towers remain on schedule for completion later this year. His brother and partner Ghazi Nass said normal construction activity will resume Tuesday.
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela tightened its grip on the petroleum sector after taking control of an oil field from Total S.A. when the French company refused to sign an agreement to turn the site over to a state-run joint venture. State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, "took control of our operations at Jusepin. It was during the weekend," Total spokeswoman Patricia Marie told The Associated Press by telephone from the company's headquarters in Paris.
The move is another step in Venezuela's campaign to take on Big Oil at a time when rising oil prices, political instability in the Mideast and Nigeria and new buyers in Asia have put the world's fifth-largest oil exporter in a winning position. Last week, Venezuela's oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, said of Exxon Mobil Corp. "we don't want them to be here" because the Irving, Texas-based company has resisted tax increases and contract changes that are part of a policy by President Hugo Chavez's government to re-nationalize the oil industry. The government has increasingly sought projects with state-controlled oil companies, including China's CNPC, India's ONGC and Iran's Petropars.
In the case of Total, it operated the oil field independently under a contract with the government. Total was unable to immediately provide further details, including how many Total employees work at the site. The 30,000 barrel-a-day Jusepin oil field was one of 32 in the country that have been run by private oil companies under contract. Venezuela demanded last year those contracts be changed into joint ventures giving PDVSA a minimum 60-percent stake.
On Friday, 17 oil companies including Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and China National Petroleum, signed on to the new legal framework.
"We didn't migrate the field ... and PDVSA took it. That's logical," Marie said, adding the company had not made any formal decision yet on how to proceed.
Meanwhile, Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA said Monday that PDVSA had unilaterally terminated its contract at the Dacion oil field on Saturday.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/03/2006 11:32 ||
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#1
Chavex is certifiable. The French were his most likely non-dictatorial ally.
#2
There is a company that works for us that are experts in running oil operations. Venezuela threw out all western people a few years back and didn't pay them for the work they did. Late last year, they came back, paid up and begged for that company to come back. Seems that Venezuela doesn't have the trained people to run their oil fields.
Stupid little prick....
They only took the job 'cus they didn't want the Chinese in there screwing stuff up even more.
#3
Amazing. Not even the French can work with these dirtbags. Must have floored them that none of usual offers of bribes, kickbacks and Parisian shopping trips for the wives made a difference.
#6
Given the French habit of nationalizing and denationalizing industries at home, Chirac might sound a bit hypocritical to complain about others doing the same to French companies abroad.
Petrobras, the largest international company operating in Bolivia, has suspended plans to invest up to $5bn in the countrys gas sector after it said negotiations with the government of Evo Morales had broken down.
The announcement signals a deterioration in relations between the Morales administration and the gas sector. Within the sector there is complete disappointment and lack of enthusiasm, said an industry insider. Ive never seen anything like it.
Petrobrass change of heart appeared to have come in response to a series of aggressive statements from Andrés Soliz Rada, Bolivias hydrocarbons minister.
In recent days, Mr Soliz has threatened to raise tax rates on some gas fields from 50 per cent to 70 per cent, refused to negotiate with oil companies that are threatening to go to international arbitration. He has also accused Brazil of hardening its attitude in talks and of viewing Bolivia as some kind of semi-colony.
Morales has been spending lots of time with his best buddy Chavez
The industry source said the knock-on effects of Petrobrass announcement could be extremely serious. If Petrobras is saying that, it makes it more likely that the whole sector will just stagnate, he said.
It's not well known but Castro has taken over every key office of the Venezuelan agricultural office. And Castro's special target is Cuban immigrants who made this land in Venezuela flourish.
#2
Bolivia should get some better roads. I travelled this one above 2000 foot sheer cliffs, to the village of Coroico. FYI: it is one way traffic for 2 hours; then they go in the other direction. Just as well, because there were fresh bus-plunge marks on the cliff when I passed it.
INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for a review of all cooperation with Australia, including on illegal migration, amid escalating tensions over Canberra's decision to grant Papuan asylum-seekers temporary visas. "Relations between Indonesia and Australia are entering a difficult time that is full of challenges," Dr Yudhoyono said today.
An infuriated Indonesia recalled its ambassador from Canberra last month after Australia granted visas to 42 asylum-seekers from the remote province of Papua, where a low-profile independence struggle has been waged for decades. The group, which arrived in Melbourne today, has alleged that the Indonesian military is perpetrating "genocide" there. Indonesia strenuously denies the claim.
Dr Yudhoyono also described a cartoon depicting him rutting a Papuan dog published in The Australian on Saturday as "obscene" and said it could spark public anger. "A row over cartoons is not the solution, but is the problem," he said, calling for Indonesians to stay calm.
Dr Yudhoyono said Australia's "inappropriate, unrealistic" decision had prompted the need to review relations between the neighbours. "There is a need for the two governments to conduct dialogue again, serious and intensive diplomatic meetings, to review a strategic and comprehensive framework for cooperation and friendship between Indonesia and Australia for now and for the future," he said. "We should review again the various agreements we have agreed on, for example, cooperation in the field of illegal migration."
Indonesia has frequently been used as a stepping stone for illegal migrants to enter Australia.
Australia has insisted that the granting of the visas did not mean it supported Papuan independence, an extremely sensitive issue in Indonesia after its former province of East Timor voted to break away in 1999. Indonesia took over Papua, a former Dutch colony, in the 1960s.
Dr Yudhoyono thanked Australia for backing the archipelago nation's territorial integrity but said the support needed to be reflected in practice. "The really clear message is that Indonesia wishes and really wants to enter into relations and cooperation with Australia and other countries but without compromising on the sovereignty and honor of Indonesia as a nation," he said. "Indonesia will not tolerate whatever elements, in whichever country, including in Australia, that clearly provide support and play for a separatist movement in Papua," he added.
Prime Minister John Howard, who has built a strong relationship with Dr Yudhoyono - the Indonesian President once cracked jokes about Mr Howard's birthday at an address in Canberra last year - also said Sunday relations were going through a "difficult patch".
The tensions over Papua led to a tit-for-tat cartoon campaign in newspapers, with a drawing in an Indonesian newspaper depicting Howard and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as fornicating dingoes. This was followed by the reply in The Australian on Saturday.
#1
Divorces always get so ugly. But these two don't love each other and have little in common anymore. Best just to admit the relationship is sooo over and move on, something I think Australia is more than happy to do.
#3
MacDonald's wouldn't work any way. The biggest segment of unemployed youth are the muslims. Now, the guys can't work in a store where girls work or where they might have serve infidels. The girls can't work anywhere a guy might work or where male customers can enter the store or where infidels might have to be served.
Can't work in any mixed shop or business. Can't work where alcohol is served. Not a lot of possibilities for that lot, with or without modifications to such a "revolting" law.
#3
That's what I said. That's what he wants us to find out with his publicity stunt. I'm not even going to click to find out who he is, but then, I was never his target audience to begin with.
MUMBAI: Long, twirling moustaches and bejewelled daggers are no longer enough for a man seeking to marry in Indias desert state of Rajasthan, long considered a land of fearless warriors. But if he is lucky enough to have a sister, he can relax. A declining sex ratio in the state is prompting a girls parents to spurn offers of marriage from men unless the potential grooms family also has a marriageable daughter for their son, the Sunday Express said. Around 30 percent of the marriages in the past year in Shekhawati region of Rajasthan were fixed on this swap system, local lawmaker Rajendra Chauhan said.
The sex ratio in many of Rajasthans districts has dropped to 922 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to the last census. In one or two villages, it has plummeted to less than 500, the paper reported. The joint engagement pact, called aata-saata, or the double-couple plan, has emerged as young women find themselves much in demand in a state where the traditional preference, as in much of India, has been for sons. Heavily skewed sex ratios have emerged in several parts of India as couples use ultra-sound technology to achieve their desire for a baby son despite such tests being illegal. A joint study carried out by researchers in India and Canada recently suggested that half-a-million unborn girls may be aborted in India every year.
But now the absence of girls is changing village dynamics, the newspaper said. There are no girls. If there is one in a house, the father is like a king. He can demand anything, said Prahland Singh, the head of Bhorki village in Rajasthan. He said that around 30 families had carried out marriages under the swap system in the village of 3,000 people in the last two years. The report said that dowry, where traditionally a brides father had to bestow riches on a groom to secure a marriage, has completely disappeared from many parts of the state. Rather the grooms families are now offering to bear the cost of finding a suitable bride for their sons.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
...and these primitives took over the world software industry?
#4
This is becoming a problem in China too. One discordant note to the schadenfreude here is that the traditional method of redressing the balance by reducing the number of males is war.
#8
But now the absence of girls is changing village dynamics, the newspaper said. There are no girls. If there is one in a house, the father is like a king. He can demand anything, said Prahland Singh, the head of Bhorki village in Rajasthan. He said that around 30 families had carried out marriages under the swap system in the village of 3,000 people in the last two years. The report said that dowry, where traditionally a brides father had to bestow riches on a groom to secure a marriage, has completely disappeared from many
I predicted that this would happen about 6 years ago to my boys' daycare provider: this imbalance has come about via selective abortion.
Glad to see that the dowery is becoming a thing of the past. The next step is now a REVERSE dowery: "You want my daughter? Fine, here's what I want."
Taking care of excess boys via war OVER THERE isn't a problem with me OVER HERE: I recall that India and Pakistan and China are near neighbors, so let the excess boys kill off the excess boys.
#10
I agree with Ptah on this one. China sees itself as a world player, so plans for war with the U.S. But it will have to deal with its problems with India before it can look further beyond its borders. On the other hand, I suspect, because it's further along in rationalizing its economy, that it has a lot more excess males of a suitable age to dispose of.
#12
The Chinese leadership knows they are a regional power at best for the next 50 years. They can only appear to punch above their weight because the Americans have such defensive public diplomacy. If we were at all aggressive, they would appear the paper tiger they are.
Joe sounds like a wild man on drugs, but he's a PATRIOTIC wild man on drugs. Look for posts spouting lefty cliches: OUR Joe doesn't do Lefty, and he's the antithesis of "cliche".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/03/2006 13:08 Comments ||
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"and these primitives took over the world software industry?"
Rajastan has no software industry to speak of. Most of India's high tech is in the south, where sex ratios are more normal. To best understand India, think of it as a sub-continent rather than as just a country. It has as much linguistic and general cultural diversity as Europe. Parts of India was doing very well -- others are not.
#21
Dowry is being kept alive by another factor - Caste.
Many rural families will pay handsomely to marry their daughter into a higher caste.
But economic growth, rapid urbanization, selective abortion and the laws of supply and demand will all ensure that dowry customs and the low status of women will change.
As for the excess males.. there are a few parts of India where Polyandry is the norm - one female - several husbands.
There are reports from villages (where this custom was never practised) of several brothers now sharing one wife.
Then there is war. The Indian army has always been an all volunteer force. With the various insurgencies around the Indian countryside, this large reserve of manpower might be useful against maoists, seperatists, jihadists and regular Pakistani troops.
It works the other way of course. The jihad in Kashmir, planned in Pakistan during the tail end of the Afghan campaign, coincided with a surplus of muslim males in Jammu and Kashmir.
The majority of those who volunteered to fight the Indian state, who boarded minibuses with conductors shouting Pindi -- Pindi, destined for the terrorist training camps near Rawalpindi, were killed by the Indian security forces over the next decade.
Now the vast majority of jihadists are Pakistanis.
One advantage the Indian state has had in dealing with insurgency is an unlimited supply of males of fighting age.
Posted by: john ||
04/03/2006 17:18 Comments ||
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#22
Well, that should help the status of women for a little while. And the survival rate of female fetus' (fetuses, feti?), as well as the reduction in "honour killings".
I fear an increase in paedophilia tho' and rape and all the other ugly, "got no women" islamomacho urges.
Need to send all the youts off to pointless islamo war.
#26
With cultural-relativism in decline, and the spin-police in deep sleep, let me say it: Western Civilization is superior to Eastern savagery. Of course, I don't lump friendly Hindus with Muslim hot-headed knee-jerks and their dhimmi apologists.
LAHORE: A young salesman died after drinking poisonous liquor in the Nishtar Colony police precinct on Sunday. Waqas, 25, a sales representative in a private company, was drinking liquor with his friends when he fainted. Waqas's friends took him to a nearby clinic where doctors pronounced him dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Took the "Listerine" label off the bottles again, did they?
#3
That's how my grandfather died near a logging camp in 1915. His death certificate stated the cause was "alcholic axcess", but it was really contaminated home brew. #2, grandpa's drinking buddies vomited & so saved themselves, he didn't vomit, passed out and died.
British scientists report observing some of the largest waves ever measured -- reportedly so big, some computer models indicate they shouldn't even exist.
The observations occurred Feb. 8, 2000, aboard the Royal Research Ship Discovery during a scientific expedition to the North Atlantic, 155 miles west of Scotland, when a series of gigantic waves hammered the vessel.
The scientists set to sea because an intense storm was forecast and the researchers from Britain's National Oceanography Center, located in Southampton, wanted to closely observe it, der Spiegel reported.
The scientists' measuring instruments showed the tallest of the waves was nearly 98 feet high and the giant waves shook the ship for 12 hours, said Naomi Holliday, the leader of the expedition.
The Discovery's crew witnessed waves of up to 95 feet from trough to crest -- the highest waves ever measured by a scientific instrument on the open sea, according to an article the scientists published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The new data may be troubling for shipbuilders, said der Spiegel, since the scientists' data suggest giant waves may be much more common than has been thought. I find it hard to even imagine waves of that height. The RRS Discovery is 90 meters in length, and would be heading right towards the incoming waves. This means 95 feet downward at a 45-or-so degree angle, followed by 95 feet upward at a 45-or-so degree angle, FOR TWELVE HOURS. Urp.
Fortunately, most of even our own operatives believe this op is designed to generate massive waves at surface level in oceanic bodies.
Little do they know that our bioengineers have been closely monitoring events in other areas of the world and have been preparing for our aquatic servants.
Reports of the Cthulhu-cult "god" Dagon and mysterious "Deep Ones" attacking and destroying our North Sea oceanic platforms is pure myth. Our platforms that have been lost have been lost to natural phenomena and, although multiple personnel have been reported missing from other platfoms, we are confident that these disappearances are due to the strange weather and other environmental phenomena and not some mythical "god-like" entity.
Operation Kraken is to proceed according to plan. Operations Dragon, Gorgon, and Gryphon are on schedule.
Operation Tsunmi remains on hold until blame can be placed properly on HAARP or another DARPA project.
Operations It Came From Beneath The Sea and Twenty Million Miles To Earth are also on schedule despite the recent "odd" events surrounding the loss of our Mars probes and sub-oceanic exploration of the ruins discovered in the Marianis and Puerto Rico Trench areas.
#8
Science news this week - sunlight getting dimmer, sunlight reaching earth is less, Pacific Ocean gettin' more acidic, and the Artic, or Greenland, will be green and slushy within 50 years, plus PLANET X = X's still approaching. IOW, we're doomed, Doomed, DOOMED, D-O-O-M-E-D, DUUUUUMMMMMEEEDDD they tell ya'.
Nearly 50,000 square miles of the continental US is covered by lawn, according to estimates by ecologists at NASA's Ames Research Center. Using satellite and aerial imagery, the team calculated that irrigated grass covers three times more land in the US than irrigated corn does. That makes turf the nation's most widespread irrigated crop.
Lawn care and gardening is also the most popular outdoor leisure activity in the country, and the global industry supporting it generates an estimated $7 billion a year. ScottsMiracle-Gro accounts for more than a third of that - $2.4 billion in 2005. Numbers aside, though, that neatly trimmed front lawn is a Rockwellian feature of the American landscape. It's safe to say that no other nation commits even a fraction of the land, resources, chemicals, and water that the US does in pursuit of the perfect greensward.
All that vegetation has some environmental benefit. According to the NASA group, lawns collectively absorb some 12 billion pounds of carbon each year - effectively cutting greenhouse gas emissions. And if that grass weren't there, much more soil would run off into storm drains, waterways, and Ârivers, polluting reservoirs and hastening the erosion of hillsides and valuable farmland.
But the great American lawn is not exactly eco-friendly. Lawn mowers cough pollution into the atmosphere, and pesticides and fertilizers trickle into waterways, harming wildlife in wetland and marine environments. Then there's the watering. Pick a rain-starved, water-scarce, growth-crazed state like Nevada or Arizona. All those new subdivisions have lawns, and all those homeÂowners are watering like crazy. A typical one-third-acre lawn receives 10,000 gallons of water a year; in dry places like Las Vegas and other areas of the Southwest, a lawn needs more than 100,000 gallons annually. This huge demand for water means more rivers dammed, more wildlife threatened, and more aquifers drained.
It doesn't have to be that way. Over the past decade, biotechnology has revolutionized agriculture. In 2005, 13 percent of US farmland was planted with biotech crops - primarily corn, soybeans, and cotton - and biotech proponents happily enumerate the resulting environmental advantagesÂ. The Conservation Technology Information Center at Purdue University estimates that 1 billion tons of topsoil per year is prevented from becoming runoff because genetically modified crops allow farmers to reduce how much they plow to kill weeds. (Plowing accelerates the loss of topsoil.) Meanwhile, the amount of pesticide used on crops shrank by 34 percent from 2003 to 2004; that's 15.6 million pounds of chemicals not dousing fields, because biotech crops don't require as much herbicide.
If biotechnology can do all that for farmers cultivating thousands of acres, surely it can do the same for busy suburbanites managing their yards. What if grass were engineered to require less water, fertilizer, and pesticide? What if it required fewer trimmings by toxin-spewing mowers? What if lawns were customizable? For Hagedorn, such bioÂtech turf is a no-brainer. "If we want to keep gardening attractive and relevant in the Internet age," he says, "we have to meet this need." In other words, GM grass is coming, and Hagedorn is hell-bent on being the first to sell it.
#1
Hell, I'm all for it. Make it really green with no fertilizer, little water and fewer mowes and I'll plunk down thousands to get my yard re-soded.
More time to BBQ and drink beer.
Oregon waterfowl hunters might find themselves on the front lines of the fight against an avian flu outbreak in North America.
Birds found in Oregon are known to mix in Alaska with birds from Asia, where the virus is most prevalent, leaving birds migrating through the western United States as one of the virus' possible routes to America.
Waterfowl experts are warning hunters to take precautions as a result, from wearing gloves when field-dressing waterfowl to dousing knives with a bleach solution when done. They are also advising hunters to clean and disinfect decoys and waders if hunting in waters where the virus is found.
Hunters are also being told to provide samples waterfowl they've killed for testing, and to ensure that all waterfowl are fully cooked before eaten.
"It's like (hurricanes) Katrina and Rita," spokesman Gregg Patterson of the Tennessee-based Ducks Unlimited told The Medford Mail-Tribune. "You realize we're not insulated against this kind of stuff. What everybody needs to do is prepare for it."
Avian Influenza, or AI, is a set of viruses that are naturally found in wild birds, particularly waterfowl and shorebirds that normally suffer no ill effects from them. However, domestic birds like chickens are generally more susceptible.
But the H5N1 strain now found in 41 countries in Asia, Africa and parts of Europe is frequently fatal to birds and easily transmissible between species. To date, scientists' ultimate fear is that the virus will mutate into one that can be passed among humans.
The National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin says as of mid-March, the H5N1 virus has sickened 177 people and killed 98, mostly in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey. Most of those were infected from eating or handling infected chickens.
Just the mention of avian flu has scared some Oregonians out of waterfowl hunting, said Brad Bales, waterfowl biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"I got, maybe, a dozen calls (last season) from hunters who said their families won't let them hunt anymore because of avian influenza," Bales said.
Oregon expects to receive about $400,000 in federal funds for various sampling efforts beginning in the fall, Bales said.
Cackling Canada geese, a priority species, will be tested by sampling birds at hunter check-in stations in Northwest Oregon, where they concentrate, Bales said. Other species, such as shovelers, pintails and green-winged teals, could be tested elsewhere in the state, he said.
France-based Alcatel SA has announced it will buy its US-based rival Lucent Technologies Inc to form a new telecommunications equipment manufacturer. About 8,800 jobs will be cut. The combined company, to be based in Paris, expects annual sales of $25 billion - close to the 2005 revenue posted by top telcom equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc - and generate $1.7 billion of savings within three years, the companies said.
The companies said the savings would come from several areas, including consolidating support functions, leveraging research and development and services across a larger base and cutting about 10% of their combined worldwide work force. As of December 31, the companies had about 88,000 employees in total. Alcatel said it agreed to buy Lucent to better combat the intense competition in the telecom equipment market.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Early results have shown a strong protest vote that could keep Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister, from claiming a decisive mandate, after a snap poll following weeks of unrest. Refusing to recognise the election as legitimate, the opposition boycotted Sunday's polls, which Thaksin called three years early to counter the street campaign. The result is that nearly 70% of the 399 seats at stake were uncontested and many will be left empty, according to election rules - preventing a new government being formed. Thaksin's opponents called on voters to tick the "no vote" box on their ballots, a strategy that appeared to work in Bangkok. With half the votes counted in the capital, "no votes" were in the majority, Channel 7 news reported. The city is usually the first to report results.
But Thaksin's main support comes from the countryside and early returns showed he was getting solid support there - enough to hand him another big parliamentary majority. Thai media reported turnout was around 70% of the 45 million electorate, compared with 73% in the last election in February, 2005. Final official results were expected late on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Thaksin's opponents called on voters to tick the "no vote" box on their ballots
They won't dare offer this option to Americans. The powers to be know, that "None of the Above" would get a majority vote. And in the next election some slick Willey will change his name to "None of the Above".
The coalition that organized an estimated 500,000 marchers in Los Angeles to protest immigration reform announced its next mass action is "an economic and labor boycott that will paralyze the U.S. economy."
The radical separatist publication La Voz de Aztlan, the Voice of Aztlan, said the proposed boycott is in response to a "racist" measure in Congress.
The House has passed a bill to tighten border security, but President Bush broadly supports rival legislation being debated in the Senate that contains a guest-worker proposal.
Coalition member Roberto Reveles of "Unidos en Arizona" said his group will host a "summit meeting" April 8 and 9 in Phoenix to work out details of the boycott.
The boycott is scheduled for May 1, the Day of the International Solidarity of Workers, or May 5, the Cinco de Mayo celebration.
Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, said, "We are living through very dangerous times and we must take advantage of the moment. If we just sit and wait to see what happens, everything we have accomplished so far may go to waste. That is why we must continue the struggle to once and for all defeat that racist (House) proposal."
In Phoenix, an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 participated in a march and rally last Saturday.
"What occurred on March 24 is a consequence of the people being tired of the treatment we are receiving," Reveles said. "The first step has already been taken, we organized ourselves and have completed the first phase, now we have to prepare for the second."
Reveles said the activists "will not rest" until they see the House bill defeated.
"We are sure that the preparations we make at the summit will lead us to victory," he said. "We are united and only united will we be victorious."
La Voz de Aztlan said the two-day summit will be attended by Mexican-American and other Latino groups from Nevada, Texas, Wisconsin, Washington, New York, Chicago, California and other states.
Representatives from Mexico, Central and South America also will attend.
Navarro said the "international boycott" counts on the support of the consulates of Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, along with Mexican labor organizations.
"We have to demonstrate to the nation, one more time, that its economic stability depends on us," Navarro said. "I am sure that our sister nations of Latin America, who are also tired of the situation, will unite with us.
The professor concluded: "That is why we will celebrate May 1, 'Day of the Worker,' with labor strikes, no purchases and go out and march. Soon they will see the impact we will have!"
As WorldNetDaily reported, one of the organizers of the L.A. rally was the Mexica Movement, which already has decided it is the "non-indigenous," white, English-speaking U.S. citizens of European descent who have to leave what they call "our continent."
Both Rep. James Sensebrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a proponent of tougher border security, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were caricatured as Nazis by the group on its posters and banners.
The group insists the indigenous people of the continent were the victims of genocide a campaign of extermination that killed, according to one citation, 95 percent of their population, or 33 million people. Another citation on the same website claims the toll was 70 million to 100 million.
The only solution, says the Mexica Movement, is to expel the invaders of the last 500 years, force them to pay reparations and return the continent to its rightful heirs.
The platform of the group illustrates the diverse and sometimes extreme agendas of those participating in the mass mobilizations that have been seen largely as protests against efforts to curb illegal immigration.
The Mexica Movement has big issues with many other equally radical groups participating in the massive, united-front rallies, include the separatist Aztlan Movement.
Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs, is regarded in Chicano folklore as an area that includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas. The movement seeks to create a sovereign, Spanish-speaking state, "Republica del Norte," or the Republic of the North, that would combine the American Southwest with the northern Mexican states and eventually merge with Mexico.
La Voz de Aztlan identifies Mexicans in the U.S. as "America's Palestinians." Many Mexicans see themselves as part of a transnational ethnic group known as "La Raza," the race. A May editorial on the website, with a dateline of Los Angeles, Alta California, declares that "both La Raza and the Palestinians have been displaced by invaders that have utilized military means to conquer and occupy our territories."
Others in the coalition hope to see a "reconquest" of the American southwest by Mexico. This would not likely take place through military action, they say, but rather through a slow process of migration both legal and illegal. Since many Mexicans take May 5th off anyway, why do I think this will be the day? It's also one of the biggest days of the year for Mexican restaurants, who aren't going to be too thrilled with shutting down instead of hosting major holiday parties.
#3
These people are in the same alternate reality that sees the reestablishment of the Caliphate. Why is it that the people with the least power talk the loudest?
#4
Don't fergot about GORBACHEV, whom in TIME.com and other news blogs seems surprised that Fascist = Half-a-Communist/Totalitarian Russia is regressing back into "dictatorship", that somehow a Commie-controlled/domin national Govt.- Bureaucracy is not still a Commie govt!?
#6
I agree with the Mexica movement. We should turn the land over to its original residents.....and all start speaking Apache, Tohono O'odham, or another Native American language.
Oops, sorry, I guess they didn't mean FBI's (full-blooded Indians). My bad!
#8
On the radio in Phoenix, it sounds like the moderates are trying to assert control. For the next protests, they are telling the protestors to get rid of the Mexican flags, no signs in Spanish, enough of the Aztlan bulldada (which is mostly an L.A. thing), and behave themselves. There were also some traffic problems last time, so they are now coordinating with the police.
There are a lot of conservative Mexican-Americans in Phoenix, who are established and prosperous, agree that the flow across the border has to be severely restricted, but are very concerned that they are being singled out for harassment not because they are illegal, but because of their ethnic group.
The thing that really set them off was the suggestion that 11 million people be deported. That would be as violent as trying to force all Mormons out of the US. And there is no way to put a reasonable face on it.
Fortunately, it will not happen, no way. The vast majority are de facto American citizens, whether other American citizens like it or not.
Any arguments about keeping an open border shows the only real split among them. Half want an open border, the other half don't.
Locally, the Mexicans are still agitated because of an insane and illegal "roundup" that went on in the Metro Phoenix city of Chandler some years ago.
Hundreds of local police, INS, and other federal law enforcement did a sweep of the whole city, stopping people on the street to demand papers.
They entered homes and conducted searches without search warrants because a Mexican had been seen in their backyard, usually a gardener. They entered businesses and forced every brown-skinned person out on the street to check their identities. Some people were stopped multiple times.
Anyone found without papers was detained for hours at best, or loaded on buses and driven to the border.
I knew an Irish guy with red hair and a tan who was deported to South Nogales after being held at gunpoint with an M-16, and had to call his father to bring his wallet down so he could get back into the country. He had been picking oranges with some Mexicans when the INS arrived.
The resulting $35M lawsuit was settled for $400K with the agreement of the city of Chandler to totally retrain its police department, and to change all city policies to explicitly follow constitutional procedures in the future.
And yes, out of a city of several hundred thousand people, they did find about 400 illegals. Most of these were clustered in a few public sites, hoping to work as day laborers, as they do every day.
#10
IF they decide to "strike" on May 5, then I really hope that they are looking for a new job on May 6. You can tell this is being pushed by Gringo-Mexicans because May 5 is not a big deal south of the border. I mean really what country hasn't beaten the Phrench in a battle?
#14
"Only the Frogs would celebrate being on the wrong end of a massacre"
With all due respect, mojo, you are a fool.
It was not a massacre. It was a battle. Sixty-five Legionnaires stood off 2,000 Juarists for an entire day, so that a gold train would not fall into the latter's hands. Seven survived.
The French do not celebrate Cameron. The French Foreign Legion does. There is a difference. They do not celebrate being defeated; they celebrate that the legionnaires died doing their duty.
#15
"We May Die, but Never Will Surrender" - The Battle of Cameron "Disasters have a way of spinning noble myths, as if it benefits the survivors to find something worthwhile in the midst of a catastrophe. Sometimes these magnificent moments, if ever they existed at all, have to be dug out of the rubble, and dusted off. At that point they can be held high for everyone to see and proclaim as significant."
"Such incidents fade from memory, pushed off the pages of history books by more monumental occurrences. There is no theme for historians to discuss, and the battle is hardly a watershed as events go. For the Legionnaire there remains a plaque with a few words on it, and a celebration on the anniversary of the battle. Perhaps the Legionnaires understand that such encounters are not usually commemorated outside of the Legion, and therefore people would know very little about Cameron. There is tangible evidence of the day that saw 65 Legionnaires stand off 2,000 Juarists; a relic preserved by the Legion - Danjou's wooden hand found shortly after the battle. It is a reminder of the only theme truly associated with the events of April 29, 1863: courage."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/03/2006 12:54 Comments ||
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#18
i suspect around here most of the folks who work in Mexican restaurants are Salvadorans, or Guatemalans, so it shouldnt slow down the mixing of margaritas at all.:)
1st, plenty of the immigrants, legal and illegal, in the southwest are not hispanic. Certainly LA has plenty of Asian immigrants.
second = as my previous comment points out, many hispanics are NOT Mexican. I doubt the Salvadorans or Guatamalans in LA want to be part of Aztlan, or mourn the defeat of 1846.
Third, most Mexican-Americans arent too keen on it either. The Aztlan/La Raza people are a small group, trying to take advantage of the whole immigration tussel.
#20
Liberalhawk, a "small group" may grow to dominate a Revolution, be they bolsheviks, national socialists, Robespierrists, or Aztlan. Indeed, I would suggest that the most radical rise to the top in a revolutionary setting. Aztlan might have been a joke at one time, the current demographic time bomb makes it demonstrably less so nowadays...
#21
Per the demographic timebomb: the prevalent philosophy of "one man, one vote" will insure the morphing of our political/cultural heritage. En cinquenta anos, la idioma y la cultural del suroeste cambiara...
#22
In cinquenta anuses, the language and the cultural one of the southwest changed...
I still don't understand it.
In most countries one is obliged to learn thew national language and speak it to natives.
Not to use your "home"language as a weapon.
#26
the Aztlanazis are loudmouthed asshole University aides and students. Once tthey're forced into the general world nobody listens to or buys their shit. Only the echo chamber of Academia
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2006 20:19 Comments ||
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#27
FrankG, have you ever thought what Southern California would be like if it had stayed part of Mexico? Without a Mulholland to bring rivers from the desert, LA would still be a little port city like Ensenada. Without a Roosevelt to build an aquaduct to support the Pacific Fleet, SD would still be a desert. These people just want the fruits of other peoples vision, capital, and sweat. If the Aztlan idea is so great, why is so much of Mexico a shithole?
#28
like Israel if the Palestinians had retained control....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2006 21:03 Comments ||
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#29
although Mulholland did do a number on the Owens Valley ranchers....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2006 21:05 Comments ||
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#30
Voz de Aztlan is a bunch of Marxist die-hard loons like ANSWER. Like ANSWER it can mobilize a lot of idiots at first, but soon the idiots catch on and stop coming to the rallies.
Last time they called a strike, it had zero impact. KFI covered it and it was a joke.
#33
Mexicans use the phrase, "Me vale nada," in the same way that we say, "I don't give a shit." If the Aztlanazis use civil war tactics, then a little me vale nada should apply to their lives.
#34
People crap; countries crap. Lefties support the influxers; contrarian doormats delight the influxers. The dhimmis have announced their "Koufax Award" for leftist blogging. Good who's who (or who's fucked) material, but the late, great Southpaw, Sandy Koufax, was Jewish and a supporter of Israel. He wouldn't associate with these life-loser, brain-dead, spin-vomiters. What about Maglite Awards for latch-on WOT peasants (the security guard class) who make the lefties look good? http://wampum.wabanaki.net/vault/2006/04/002603.html
Some zeros crap through their mouths. How many open-minded, threat-abaters will actually read this thread? Half-dozen?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Adnan al-Maimani insists he isn't looking to be a pioneer he just dreams of looking down on Earth. So the 40-year-old entrepreneur is paying more than $100,000 to go on the first flight traveling to the edge of space from a Mideast nation. The flight, which will travel about 62 miles toward space and give its passengers up to five minutes of weightlessness, is part of an American company's plan to establish a spaceport in the northern tip of the United Arab Emirates.
MUMBAI: Long, twirling moustaches and bejewelled daggers are no longer enough for a man seeking to marry in Indias desert state of Rajasthan, long considered a land of fearless warriors. But if he is lucky enough to have a sister, he can relax. A declining sex ratio in the state is prompting a girls parents to spurn offers of marriage from men unless the potential grooms family also has a marriageable daughter for their son, the Sunday Express said. Around 30 percent of the marriages in the past year in Shekhawati region of Rajasthan were fixed on this swap system, local lawmaker Rajendra Chauhan said. 
LAHORE: A young salesman died after drinking poisonous liquor in the Nishtar Colony police precinct on Sunday. Waqas, 25, a sales representative in a private company, was drinking liquor with his friends when he fainted. Waqas's friends took him to a nearby clinic where doctors pronounced him dead.
Early results have shown a strong protest vote that could keep Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister, from claiming a decisive mandate, after a snap poll following weeks of unrest. Refusing to recognise the election as legitimate, the opposition boycotted Sunday's polls, which Thaksin called three years early to counter the street campaign. The result is that nearly 70% of the 399 seats at stake were uncontested and many will be left empty, according to election rules - preventing a new government being formed. Thaksin's opponents called on voters to tick the "no vote" box on their ballots, a strategy that appeared to work in Bangkok. With half the votes counted in the capital, "no votes" were in the majority, Channel 7 news reported. The city is usually the first to report results.
