23 April 2018
More thoughts on "GMO"
21 April 2018
C4 photosynthesis and GM
Science types may be familiar with C4 photosynthesis (look it up in Wikipedia). It evolved about 30 million years ago and has in the last 5-7 million years become important in, especially, grasslands, where drought tolerance and efficient carbon fixation are important adaptations. Essentially, it's a major upgrade in one of the most important "Good Tricks" in the evolution of life, namely photosynthesis, the ability to turn sunlight into food.
Several important food crops, including corn (maize) and sorghum, use C4, but rice, wheat, rye, barley, and oats do not. There is now important and very promising research going on to introduce the genetic modifications to these grain species that would enable them to make use of C4 photosynthesis to (1) fix carbon from CO-2, thus helping to ameliorate climate change; (2) survive with much less water; and (3) greatly increase their efficiency at producing human usable food (their seeds). Kneejerk opposition to genetic modification aside, this is very promising for making sure the Earth is capable of feeding the 9+ billion people who are expected to inhabit it before the population peaks sometime in this century or early next.
20 April 2018
Fighting Dirty
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Kaine, AUMF 18, and Clinton's loss... a rant
If you kinda wondered about Tim Kaine (a horrible Veep choice in '16 who helped Clinton lose, just a little, but maybe just enough). He just co-sponsored a bill, the AUMF of 2018, that essentially reverses permanently the Constitutional provision for war powers, giving the war power fundamentally to THIS PRESIDENT (!!) and all future presidents, with only very unlikely Congressional veto as a check. What a horrible, terrible, really bad idea, Mr. Woulda-been Vice President! Sheesh. With Democrats like this no wonder we've been losing everything. But the winds of change are upon us. No one like Kaine will be running in 2020, I'll guarantee that.
Y'know, contrafactuals are dumb, OK, sure. But I SWEAR. Clinton made a LOT of mistakes. And it's she, not Comey, who is primarily responsible for losing the election to Trump. But I honestly think if she'd chosen Bernie, or Sherrod Brown, say, as a running mate, that alone would've been enough, and this national nightmare would've been averted. Yes. I DO blame her. We would not be in this mess if she hadn't been so ineffective a campaigner; hadn't been so unwilling to embrace the Progressive energy of the party base. Kaine sent exactly the wrong signal. Having good policies on a website is not enough; you have to live and breathe progressive ideas and be truly invested in the well being of your constituency. And people just did not believe that about Clinton.
But that's all water under the bridge. Now we must pull together, vote for people even like Conor Lamb, and form strong coalitions that will defeat this existential threat to our republic. So I'll shut up about blaming Democrats. But I just had to get that off my chest.
11 April 2018
Ryan will not run
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Those who are governed by reason desire nothing for themselves that they do not also desire for the rest of humankind.
--Spinoza