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Comment: Re:Goodwin be Damned (Score 1) 214

by Sique (#39092377) Attached to: Human Rights Groups Push To Save Condemned Programmer In Iran

So are all religions which are proselytizing. They see world domination as their goal. And they count every other belief or the lack of any belief as inferior. Christianity currently has about all of the most powerful countries on their side (with the exception of China), so Christianity can have a pretty laid back attitude right now. Islam is not in that position, so it tries more aggressively to gain power.

Comment: Re:I hate to defend Monsanto somewhat, but (Score 1) 613

by Sique (#39072281) Attached to: 300k Organic Farmers To Sue Monsanto For Seed Patent Claims

Are there any examples of that kind of GM organism making it to the field? There are plenty of examples in the lab, but I thought none of them were used where they can spread.

Monsanto and their "RoundUp Ready" line of plants are the prime example here.

The gene that allows for glyphosate resistance (glyphosate being the actual weedkiller in RoundUp) was taken out of the Salmonella genus of bacteria, and transferred into the plant by using the Agrobacterium tumefaciens bacterium as the gene shuttle.

Comment: Re:I hate to defend Monsanto somewhat, but (Score 4, Informative) 613

by Sique (#39053103) Attached to: 300k Organic Farmers To Sue Monsanto For Seed Patent Claims

Not exactly.

Breeding only selects on the allele level (except for the seldom situation of an actual and not life threatening gene mutation). That means you don't get any new genes into your lifestock, you just recombine the alleles and then select for the best combinations.

There is a way to actually get new genes into your lifestock, it's called hybridization. It works pretty well for plant species that are closely related, so are most citrus fruits actually hybrids. It does not work so well for animals, the few wellknown examples of hybrids are almost all sterile, like the mule.

Genetic engineering puts genes that come from completely different livings into the genome, e.g. bacterial genes into plants, vertebrate genes into bacteria etc.pp. You don't get that type of modifications with breeding.

Comment: Re:The real questions should be different (Score 1) 376

by Sique (#39044285) Attached to: Is Agriculture Sucking Fresh Water Dry?

You are talking like someone living in a region with regular rainfall (e.g. like someone with not much of a clue about water).

Otherwise you would know that in regions with long dry periods, if you get too much water from wells, the wells fall dry. If you irrigate too much by dropping water from above, the earth starts to collect salt, because all natural water contains at least a little bit of salt, and if you just drop it onto the earth and let it evaporate, the salt starts to form a small crust on top of the soil - rendering your farmland worthless.

There are large regions already fallen to this, around the Lake Aral in centra asia, most of the land is now a salt desert, while about 20 years ago, it was either lake, or cotton and wheat fields.

Comment: Re:Water is not consumed (Score 5, Insightful) 376

by Sique (#39043375) Attached to: Is Agriculture Sucking Fresh Water Dry?

Not exactly. Agriculture can consume locally available water. And that's all what counts.
If you pump water from ground depots which are not fully refilled, then most water used in agriculture ends up as clouds which the wind blows somewhere else. This water is completely lost for local use. For most of the Central U.S., the amount of water that comes in via rain or rivers, is less than the amount of water lost due to evaporation. And most of the water gets lost due to the amount of water used for agriculture. In this case, agriculture literally sucks the earth dry, because ground water, water from lakes and water enclosed in the last ice age in natural reservoirs below the surface is pumped up and evaporates. Those resources are not unlimited, and they will dry up sooner or later.
The case is different for the East Coast or for most of Europe, where more fresh water comes in via rainfall or rivers, than gets lost due to evaporation. Here you can use as much water as you want, the resources will never dry up, you just have to make sure that used water will not intoxicate fresh water wells, so you have to build an extensive drainage system and water treatment plants.

Comment: Re:Savage is anti-bullying? (Score 5, Insightful) 775

by Sique (#39018963) Attached to: Is Santorum's "Google Problem" a Google Problem?

I don't understand the problem. The status quo is maintained with the gay marriage too.

The same people that were allowed to marry before, still can marry. The benefits from marriage have not changed to them in any way. So for them, nothing changes. The status quo is upheld.

Why are they making a fuss about something what in no conceivable way has anything to do with them? They weren't interested in having a gay marriage before, they still don't want to be married to someone from the same sex, gay marriage does not affect them in any way. They are just trying to meddle in other peoples life with for no reason.

PS: I come from a country where a religious marriage ceremony is not recognized anyway. If you want your marriage to be recognized, you have to show a governmental certificate of marriage. Anything else is invalid. So any argument about how some religions define marriage is completely beside the point here.

I don't believe there really IS a GAS SHORTAGE.. I think it's all just a BIG HOAX on the part of the plastic sign salesmen -- to sell more numbers!!

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