I posted this about GMO foods, and out of nowhere a Monsanto employee shows up to announce how GMO foods are the only salvation for our planet.

The thread is http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=37176&cid=3996143

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  All the fuss is because if the trojan corn somehow gets planted and grows, then that represents unlicensed used of the product and Zimbabwe's corn can't be sold because the crop was "stolen" from Monsanto or Ortho or whoever's GM seeds it came from.

Even if the corn manufacturer didn't come after them for theft, Zimbabwe still wouldn't be able to sell ANY of their corn to countries that don't accept GMO food becuase they're very picky about tiny amounts of contamination. It's kinda like to be "organic" fruit or the fields have to have been free of pesticides for thee years -- only then do they say it's organic. Before that it's transitional.

Now, I have strong feelings about GMO foods. It's one thing to cross this rose with this rose and make a new rose. It's something else when you splice a gene from a salmon into a strawberry. Maybe it's no different from a functional biology perspective but to me, selective breeding is very different than molecular level manipulation of DNA.

The other thing is: how do we know this stuff is safe? Who tests it? What is so wrong with non-GMO food that it's reached the end of its useful lifespan and needs to be "overclocked" to provide any value?

And this whole concept of the "terminator" seed, one that only grows once, and the seed it produces is sterile. I don't think I'm being alarmist whey I say I'm very concerned about those kinds of seeds being introduced in the wild. Who is to say it wouldn't cross-breed with "normal" plants and keep them from reproducing? Don't many of the variations in life around us stem from mutations or genetic mishaps of one form or another?

If you want me to believe that GMO food is just fine, then I need to see empirical data. Show me leukemia rates for children who eat "normal" crops and ones who eat GMO. No such studies exist, to my knowledge. I'm not going to just take the word of the salesman that the product is safe, and the USDA shouldn't either.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=37074&cid=3983848

  Imagine this:

"Somebody" writes a virus, let's call it Rhinovirus 31337. The "source code" is copywritten and encrypted in such a way as to be a technological means to protect the information. In this case, the entire workings of the virus are contained in this string:

ATAGGCAGAGATCAGGCTATACGGCGCCTTATCG...

Pharm-O-Leetica "discovers" the "cure" for Rhinovirus 31337 and launches a multi-million dollar ad blitz, softening the market for deep penetration. They buy up a few Congressman along the way.

Meanwhile, back at 2600 Headquarters, Bruce "Emacs" Perens and Leonard "Vi" Felten have teamed up to discover a cure for the 31337 virus. They easiliy de-sequence, or "reverse engineer," the threat. They hire Russian programmer Dmitry "Acrobat" Sklyarov to announce their findings at the World AIDS Conference.

Just before Dmitry takes the stage, the Feds, led by John Ashcroft and Hillary Rosen, storm the Convention and Dmitry is hauled off and thrown in Camp X-ray for overstaying his visa. Hackers find a backup copy of his work and quickly discover that the files are encrypted with the password "voraylkS." It takes another six weeks to decode the archaic Visicalc format.

In the meantime, millions have become infected with 31337. The cure costs about $1000 per month, but rumors begin surfacing that all you need is a glass of warm milk at bedtime and you'll be fine! Brazil announces that they intend to provide free milk to their suffering populous; pharmaceutical companies around the world cry foul. "That's OUR cure!"

A clueless Pharm-O-Leetica VP, dazed from the fast pace of mergers and layoffs, announces "You reverse engineered our virus; only WE are allowed to do that!!!"

(sound of gauntlet falling)
I dare you to come up with a better analogy!

By the way, Neal Stephenson should write a book based on my post, and I'm not just saying that because I'm an egomaniac who is going to accept the +1 Bonus for this diatribe.