17 Jun 2005
Insects develop resistance to engineered crops

One more reason not to plant GM crops.

Cornell University entomologist Anthony Shelton finds when engineered crops containing just one Bt toxin grow near modified plants with two toxins, insects may more rapidly develop resistance to all the engineered plants.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Sony's New Nagging Copy Protection

Somebody in management at Sony must've spent some time as a software engineer: this is about all any copy protection scheme can ever accomplish. Their acknowledgment of this simple fact goes a long way towards improving their credibility, in my book.

You can put away your Sharpies, because Sony has launched a new CD copy protection scheme that is actually designed to be easily cracked: 'The copy-protection technology is...far from ironclad. Apple Macintosh users currently face no restrictions at all. What's more, if users go to a Web site to complain about the lack of iPod compatibility, Sony BMG will send them an email with a back door measure on how to work around the copy protection.'

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Virginity study bashed

Why is this listed in my Asatru section? It's true that heathenry has no real problem with premarital sex, or with sex in general. But what we do have a problem with is what was left out of the Heritage Foundation report, and what US News saved for the last paragraph of the article:

For all the verbal barbs exchanged this week, no one is arguing about the fact that somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of teens who take virginity pledges break them.

An oath is a sacred thing, and breaking an oath has serious spiritual repercussions. Encouraging hormone driven teens to take an oath they almost certainly can't keep is only teaching them that pledges and oaths don't matter - which is fine, I suppose, for an "instant salvation" faith like Christianity, even if Jesus himself advised followers to "swear no oath" (Matthew 5:33-37).

But I sometimes suspect that Christians use these kinds of oaths (that they know will be broken) to foster guilt, and then offer redemption. This is often followed in the case of the particular oath under discussion by another required oath, this one to "secondary virginity". And the cycle continues, guilt piling upon guilt, always followed by "salvation" ...

The closest thing we heathens have to a version of the Christian Hell is Nifelhel - which is reserved for murderers, kinslayers and oathbreakers. I'd like to think that those who encourage kids to make false oaths in order to ensnare them in a web of guilt for religious reasons would be consigned to the lowest rung of Nifelhel, if there is such a place.

A report released by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, spurred another skirmish this week in the battle over what teens should be taught in sex ed class. The report criticized a study published in April in the Journal of Adolescent Health, by Hannah Bruckner and Peter Bearman, which found that teens who take virginity pledges have the same rate of sexually transmitted diseases as those who do not take the pledges. Made popular by programs such as True Love Waits, virginity pledges, which encourage teens not to have sex until marriage, are a big component of the Bush administration-backed abstinence-education programs.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Soldier charged with murdering commander in Iraq

When I was serving in the Air Force attacks like this were known as "fraggings", because they were usually done with a fragmentation grenade. Ominous parallel or isolated incident? Only time will tell ...

Reuters - An American army sergeant has been charged with murdering his company commander and another officer in a blast in Iraq this month, in the first case of its kind since the invasion two years ago, the military said.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Trespass Law Helps Nab Illegal Immigrants

Give this cop an "A" for creativity, if nothing else ...

AP - Two police chiefs, frustrated by what they claim is the government's failure to pursue illegal immigrants, are taking a novel approach to homeland security: using a trespassing law to arrest undocumented immigrants.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Lobbyists' Role for Public TV Is Investigated

I have been a fan of PBS, and especially NPR, for a number of years. I have never been a fan of government subsidies to them, however, and have actually made it a point not to contribute to the local public stations because they feed at the public trough, which includes my tax dollars. I may have to rethink this little personal libertarian rebellion in light of what's happening at the CPB under the Bush administration.

If you take a road trip in America nowadays, and turn on your radio to while away the time, you'll soon discover that the AM band is filled with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and other assorted right wing loonies - talk shows all. And "Christian" radio - mostly consisting of a few national radio preachers and the local yokel stuff. The only glimmer of light in this darkness (on the AM side of the dial) is Neil Boortz - he's a libertarian, or at least has sympathies in that direction, but he's a voice in the wilderness - and only for a couple of hours a day. The news broadcasts on AM are hourly three minute briefs - that's all folks.

On the FM side of the dial you have music, music, music and NPR. They offer the only alternative to slobbering right wingers on the radio band - and I wouldn't characterize them as "slobbering left wingers" by any stretch. I believe that they honestly try to present something resembling a cross-section of opinion, but they do get more liberals on their talk shows than conservatives, probably because of the rap they've developed over the years for being the "liberal" network.

I'm convinced that the Bush Administration is out to eviscerate them, given the appointments they've made to the board and the recent actions detailed in the article below. If they succeed, the airwaves will become the exclusive province of their political allies.

Now, the little libertarian in me says that the market should correct this error - if there's a demand for a more liberal talk and news station, the market should fulfill it. But we're dealing with a restricted and heavily regulated market here - and given the way the FCC has allowed "deregulation" to proceed, it is increasingly dominated by a few large corporations. And these are increasingly tied into the Republican Party - will they bite the hand that feeds them by airing liberal shows? Take a drive with the radio on - you can hear the results for yourself.

I'm not sure what the answer is here - but if the plan goes through Congress to slash the budget of the CPB, I'm going to reconsider giving some of my hard earned $$$ to my local NPR station despite their tax funded status, if for no other reason than to keep my blood pressure in check on a cross country drive ...

Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are examining payments to two Republican lobbyists that were not disclosed to the corporation's board.

(link) [NYT > Home Page]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link