Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Coffee and Provocation

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Will GMO Mosquitoes Rid the World of Malaria?
The short answer is "maybe."  Malaria kills about 500,000 people a year, but scientists have just figured out how to introduce malaria-blocking genes into the DNA of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. The gene is passed down 99.5 percent of the time.

Water Bears are Genetic Assimilationists
Tardigrades, or water bears, are the only animal that can survive the extreme environment of outer space, and it turns out get a lot of their genome - nearly one-sixth or 17.5 percent - from foreign DNA. In short the Trwdigrade is GMO to the bone (or lack thereof).

The Scottish National Party Are Very Cheap Whores 
They will abandon their fundamemental points and principles for just 10,000 pounds.

Who Are the Crooks Again?
US police seized $4.5 billion through civil asset forfeiture (through which police can take money and valuables away from citizens without charging anyone with any crimes) in 2014; in the same period, the FBI estimates that burglars accounted for $3.9B in property losses.

Robert Mugabe is a Human Rights Icon?
Yes, the government of China is a total joke.

Treat Every Day Like It's April Fools Day
There is an epidemic of bullshit in this world, and skepticism is your intellectual immune system (video).

Snakebite Antivenom Stuck in the 19th Century
A little research money here could save a lot of lives in the developing world.

A Mass Grave of Clowns?
There's a mass grave of clowns and other circus performers in Forest Park, Illinois, the legacy of a 1918 circus train wreck that killed 86.

Have a Pit Bull?
You may need tougher dog toys. This place has them.

The Next Generation Of Robots Will Look Like Animals
Biomimetics 
tells you what works fast, with the least amount of energy, and with the most adaptability. And no wonder.  God's laboratory has been open for business for well over a billion years.

1 comment:

Dan said...

You may just be missing a thing of two with regards the Scottish National Party. The reason is that devolved government in Britain is an unholy mess at the moment, and always has been. Scotland has a slightly different legal system and laws to England, Wales and Northern Ireland (which share one system). Scotland has Members of the Scottish Parliament, a law-making body for Scotland that the others cannot easily interfere with.

As a result, it is possible for Members of the UK Parliament (MPs) to be voting on laws which do not apply in Scotland but do elsewhere; this is effectively power with no responsibility.

Mr Cameron had previously obtained a solemn written promise from the leader of the Scottish National Party (to which all but one of the Scottish members of the UK Parliament belong) that her party would not vote on English-only laws. When an amendment to such a law was proposed, the SNP promptly reneged on their agreement and stated an intention to vote where before they had promised not to do so.

This may have been influenced by bribery, but if so was an act of the greatest stupidity since now a Bill to prevent Scottish MPs voting on English-only matters will be proposed and enacted, thus neutering the SNP of any power it might have had, on a matter which was of no consequence to them at all.

In other words, the SNP just threw away power for no return.

Basically, they just shouted "Hey look at us! We're really, really stupid, we are, and you can't trust us to keep our word!". Demonstrating that they will not keep their word even when it is strongly in their own interest to do so is a really idiotic thing to do, and by smoking this out Cameron has put the SNP back into their own little box.

After this, who will possibly trust them on a voting alliance? They will always have too few votes to influence much by themselves, so hey presto they've just steered themselves into near-permanent political irrelevance.