Randall Parker has a list of consequences when the cost of individual gene sequencing comes down (as it inevitably will). I found this one interesting:
Discovery of genetic variations that contribute to appearances such as genes for eye and hair color, complexion, hair texture, facial shape, and other attributes that contribute to visual desirability.
Physical desirability is a two-way street. We are bred to appear desirable, but we’re also bred to view desirable people as desirable. I wonder if some people might not figure out how to rearrange their genes to change what is desirable to them? That’s probably a much tougher problem, though.
I’ve said this many times before, but apparently it needs to be chronically restated. What most people object to in media is not the biased reporting per se, but biased reporting masquerading as objectivity. We’d just like a little truth in advertising, but too many liberal reporters are unable to even see their own bias. Even when their own organization points it out.
I’ve said this many times before, but apparently it needs to be chronically restated. What most people object to in media is not the biased reporting per se, but biased reporting masquerading as objectivity. We’d just like a little truth in advertising, but too many liberal reporters are unable to even see their own bias. Even when their own organization points it out.
I’ve said this many times before, but apparently it needs to be chronically restated. What most people object to in media is not the biased reporting per se, but biased reporting masquerading as objectivity. We’d just like a little truth in advertising, but too many liberal reporters are unable to even see their own bias. Even when their own organization points it out.
…recycling is no way to reduce global warming. In fact, by increasing energy use, it worsens it.
[Update mid morning]
Someone asked in comments in this post if I made up the phrase “Green Man’s Burden,” and if it was the first usage. Well, it turns out that I wasn’t first (though I did come up with it independently). Here’s an instance of it at the Competitive Enterprise Institute back in 2000. And here’s an instance on Usenet from 1991. Great minds think alike, I guess.
A quote from The English Patient, that I happen to be watching tonight. “You can’t explore from the air, Maddox. If you could explore from the air, life would be very simple.”
Probably not, despite the fact that two Katyushas launched from Lebanon fell near Kiryat Shmona. So far, the Israeli government is downplaying it as not being the work of Hezbollah. I think that Hezbollah and Iran are preparing for war, but they’re not ready yet. They probably want to consolidate things in Gaza and arm Hamas first, so they can attack on two simultaneous fronts.
[Update after noon]
This report from the Jerusalem Post says that there were four rockets.a
Charlie Stross isn’t very sanguine about the prospects for space settlement. My main criticism of his argument is that it seems to assume that all materials will come from earth, and that there are no resources available in space. When he writes, for instance:
Optimistic projects suggest that it should be possible, with the low cost rockets currently under development, to maintain a Lunar presence for a transportation cost of roughly $15,000 per kilogram. Some extreme projections suggest that if the cost can be cut to roughly triple the cost of fuel and oxidizer (meaning, the spacecraft concerned will be both largely reusable and very cheap) then we might even get as low as $165/kilogram to the lunar surface. At that price, sending a 100Kg astronaut to Moon Base One looks as if it ought to cost not much more than a first-class return air fare from the UK to New Zealand … except that such a price estimate is hogwash. We primates have certain failure modes, and one of them that must not be underestimated is our tendency to irreversibly malfunction when exposed to climactic extremes of temperature, pressure, and partial pressure of oxygen. While the amount of oxygen, water, and food a human consumes per day doesn’t sound all that serious
, that I happen to be watching tonight. “You can’t explore from the air, Maddox. If you could explore from the air, life would be very simple.”