Roundup Resistance an Increasing Problem

"Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?src=me&ref=business


The larger issue here is how obvious this problem was 15 years ago, to anyone with even a passing understanding of evolution. This should be nothing more than a confirmation of the obvious - providing a selective pressure to a living population will cause that population to evolve in response.

As I have been saying now for years, both online and off, if you spray a field with herbicides, some plants will survive. Due to the randomness of application, the plant's location on the edge of the sprayed area, or a lucky rainstorm, there will be plants that do not receive the full dose of the chemical. Of those, the individual plants who better manage the toxic substance they do receive will more likely survive this reduced dosage and reproduce. Thus, you have created a second generation of plants who are all genetically prepared to better survive exposure to your herbicide.

This is not a war that can be won by brute force, and way too many people are only realizing that now.

Twelve Virtues of Rationality

http://yudkowsky.net/rational/virtues

Equal Rights Under the Law

Not the first, and likely not the last of its kind, but the story of Clay and Harold - two committed gay partners from California together for 20 years, abused by the state while Harold passed away from complications due to a fall - is simply put, horrible.

The couple, 88 and 77, suffered without need after Harold took a fall and was hospitalized. Clay was not allowed to see him in the hospital as he was not 'family' - and then things got bad. The County went to court to take control of Harold's finances in order to pay for medical care and a nursing home, acting as if Clay was not involved. The house they shared was effectively confiscated from them and returned to the landlord, and many of the possessions sold at auction. Clay was forcibly moved to a different nursing home than Harold, and then Harold passed away.

Not only are there some serious property rights questions involved here, two clearly loving partners were kept apart by society during the last days they could have spent together. That is absolutely unconscionable.
http://www.nclrights.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issue_caseDocket_Greene_v_County_of_Sonoma_et_al

President Obama's recent call for improved medical rights for gay couples is a step in the right direction ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/politics/16webhosp.html) but it still doesn't allow committed homosexual partners to be considered "family" - and that too is unconscionable.