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Comment: clever slopes (Score 1) 527

by epine (#40172873) Attached to: Red Hat Will Pay Microsoft To Get Past UEFI Restrictions

You don't get the 'slippery slope' thing, do you? Or are you one of those 'slippery slopes don't exist' bozos?

Says user "0123456" who couldn't slide all the way to seven. Not even "0123456etc". From the later username it would be right and proper to dish this kind of abuse.

I was about nine years old when I saw my first picture of Beautiful Asian Rice Terraces. I went "wow, it's amazing how anyone ever thought of that". And now those clever slopes rule the world.

Comment: Re:Don't bet on it. (Score 1, Insightful) 1146

by epine (#40143779) Attached to: Debate Over Evolution Will Soon Be History, Says Leakey

More evidence isn't likely to get change people's beliefs.

Welcome to the club of people proclaiming in the late nineties that Microsoft Windows would immediately grow to fill any conceivable hard drive capacity gains. I couldn't disagree with you more.

People believe stupid things until they don't. The heliocentric theory ultimately made it over the bar. I guess the ignoramuses eventually defined this small distinction as unimportant; perhaps instead they all switched over to belief in the egocentric theory of celestial creation. Nevertheless, heliocentrism is rarely contested in the modern age.

The genetic tsunami is going to trigger a massive denialhood exodus. What's the stupidest thing you can believe after conceding that life appears to have deep generational linkages? I don't know yet, but have no fear we won't find out.

The gene sequencing situation has gone from discovering one alien transmission with a blueprint for one giant machine, to discovering five billion sub-channels of situation comedy featuring a taxonomist's fantasyland of busty green mermaids. Sometimes quantity prevails over quality in herding the dipshits from one grassy knoll to another.

Comment: Re:socialized abortion (Score 1) 149

by epine (#40143445) Attached to: The Race To $1,000 Human Genome Sequencing

Continuing with another thought after racking my wine: it wouldn't surprise me that some sub-cohort of the ubermensch aspirant class actually does go on to achieve fame, prosperity, and eternal death tax exemption--more by luck than good management (see Columbus, Christoper) but then again, you can't win if you don't try. According to a popular Christian doctrine, success and prosperity are evidence of God's blessing. God means us to behave this way.

In mathematics, you need to test your infinite series for convergence before making grand claims. With eugenics, the discriminating mind tests whether the starting assumptions are invariant under the conclusions reached. Given human nature during a land grab, I suspect that any gene that correlates with careful thinking is just as likely to fall under the stampede to riches as to excel on merit.

Comment: socialized abortion (Score 1) 149

by epine (#40141741) Attached to: The Race To $1,000 Human Genome Sequencing

advantageous at the point in time the selection occurs

Mais non! We select genes that are advantageous in whichever frame of reference occupies our tiny little brains in the social context around making the decision. The easy cases are defective genes that severely incapacitate. Every other decision can go any number of different ways depending on how the deciding group integrates over a contingent future.

Perhaps a broad consensus emerges that certain genes are linked to sexual predation, at which point advantageous becomes self-referential: any gene with a high coefficient of socialized abortion is disadvantageous by definition. Call these the pariah genes or genoma non grata.

An entrepreneurial eugenicist might soon begin to speculate which genes are at risk of becoming genoma non grata. It would be advantageous to jump the gun to give your progeny an early advantage on convergence to the genetic ubermensch. We can make some early guesses already. Genes correlated with success at calculus in kindergarten are likely to appeal to people with this mindset. A helicopter parent is going to select genes that predispose the offspring to thriving under the rotor wash.

This is more of a social construct than a rational assessment of advantage. Post ante, the genes winnowed out of the population were clearly disadvantageous. Just look at the results.

Comment: Re:A lot of words (Score -1) 310

by Lars T. (#40135829) Attached to: Apple Fires Back At DoJ Over eBook Price Fixing

It's the latter. You cannot sell your book cheaper anywhere than iBooks - it must be your cheapest price (or the same as everywhere else). Where I live, the government would call that a clear cut case of collusion, and they would get that contract clause smacked down so hard they'd be reeling for years. Not so coincidentally, Apple doesn't offer iBooks here.

I didn't hear you complain about Amazon having the exact same clause in their contracts for longer than Apple.

Comment: aging aircraft links the Pope to Elvis Presley (Score 2) 114

by epine (#40134423) Attached to: Key Gene Found Responsible For Accelerated Aging and Cancer

Most wide-eyed researchers started off expecting 60,000 genes in the human genome yet we found something closer to 20,000 when the mist settled.

By my early childhood instruction in improper fractions, it's not impossible that all 20,000 genes are holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet.

If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk!

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