"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.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The disconnect between science and the public
The disconnect between someone in a given professional field, familiar with the topics of discussion around the water cooler, and those who are on the outside, are fairly universal.
Electricians know about electrical wiring protocols, I do not.
Car mechanics know about engine hose manufacturer types, I do not.
However, the overarching field of science effects the quality of life of a very large section of western society; from medicine to computers, science helps us to both build tools, and how best to apply those tools.
Thus, the suppression of scientific data when it goes against a pre-determined political or social mindset, effects everyone one of us, inside or outside the profession.
It is therefore worry some that the normal divide between scientist and non-scientist extends to the stories about political pressure placed on scientists during the Bush Administrations 8-year tenure. Threats of firing, edited reports, and more, are both alleged and admitted to have occurred; and yet only a fraction of the general public is even aware of it!
http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1549
Electricians know about electrical wiring protocols, I do not.
Car mechanics know about engine hose manufacturer types, I do not.
However, the overarching field of science effects the quality of life of a very large section of western society; from medicine to computers, science helps us to both build tools, and how best to apply those tools.
Thus, the suppression of scientific data when it goes against a pre-determined political or social mindset, effects everyone one of us, inside or outside the profession.
It is therefore worry some that the normal divide between scientist and non-scientist extends to the stories about political pressure placed on scientists during the Bush Administrations 8-year tenure. Threats of firing, edited reports, and more, are both alleged and admitted to have occurred; and yet only a fraction of the general public is even aware of it!
http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1549
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Patience
Lots of action going on in the government at the moment. Lots of projects, lots of experiments. I'm not educated enough on the items at hand to really have a serious opinion about the details of these plans, so I won't jump at a guess.
Doing nothing will likely result in the markets correcting themselves, likely at a great cost to many who had nothing to do with this situation. Possibly, if things were actually as bad as some thought 6 months ago, at the cost of the modern economy itself. Some form of Keynesian government spending seems to be a good idea - investment which will pay for itself down the line is 100% a good idea.
However, many people, Germany in particular, are very concerned about hyper inflation from the Fed printing money to pay for this work; and given Germany's experience between the world wars, they have every right to be concerned. They know the dangers of trying to simply print your way out of debt.
The US Dollar may be entrenched enough to survive a massive increase in available notes through sheer inertia, but if too much money is printed, the US dollar can plummet in value just like any other currency.
So, while I still support demand-side stimulus, I am going to be patient to see how this all plays out. Hopefully, there will be caution along with the action.
Doing nothing will likely result in the markets correcting themselves, likely at a great cost to many who had nothing to do with this situation. Possibly, if things were actually as bad as some thought 6 months ago, at the cost of the modern economy itself. Some form of Keynesian government spending seems to be a good idea - investment which will pay for itself down the line is 100% a good idea.
However, many people, Germany in particular, are very concerned about hyper inflation from the Fed printing money to pay for this work; and given Germany's experience between the world wars, they have every right to be concerned. They know the dangers of trying to simply print your way out of debt.
The US Dollar may be entrenched enough to survive a massive increase in available notes through sheer inertia, but if too much money is printed, the US dollar can plummet in value just like any other currency.
So, while I still support demand-side stimulus, I am going to be patient to see how this all plays out. Hopefully, there will be caution along with the action.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Obama Begins the Process of Fixing Gov't Accounting
At the cost of looking like he is increasing the deficit by an additional $70 million dollars, President Obama has banned certain accounting tricks, started by the Carter Administration but brought to an art form during the last Bush presidency. In particular, the AMT is going to see an overhaul, bringing its account in line with its reality.
This is a great step forward in fixing our overall economic crisis: properly recognizing our debts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
This is a great step forward in fixing our overall economic crisis: properly recognizing our debts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Congressional Budget Office sees Overall Growth due to Stimulus
From the Feb 11 Congressional Budget Office, an independent group the oversees gov't actions and proposals:
"Taking all of the short- and long-run effects into account, CBO estimates that the
legislation implies an increase in GDP relative to the agency’s baseline forecast of
between 1.4 percent and 3.8 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009, between 1.1 percent and 3.3 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010, between 0.4 percent and 1.3 percent by the fourth quarter of 2011, and declining amounts in later years (see Table 1). Beyond 2014, the legislation is estimated to reduce GDP by between zero and 0.2 percent....
Correspondingly, the legislation would increase employment by 0.8 million to 2.3
million by the fourth quarter of 2009, by 1.2 million to 3.6 million by the fourth quarter of 2010, by 0.6 million to 1.9 million by the fourth quarter of 2011, and by declining numbers in later years. The effect on employment is never estimated to be negative, despite lower GDP in later years, because CBO expects that the U.S. labor market will be at nearly full employment in the long run. The reduction in GDP is therefore estimated to be reflected in lower wages rather than lower employment, as workers will be less productive because the capital stock is smaller."
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9987/Gregg_Year-by-Year_Stimulus.pdf
The last sentence of each paragraph is critical, and is what is being taken out of context all over the place. In both cases, the CBO is saying that in the long-term, the effects of the stimulus will taper off to eventually be effectively unnoticeable; that in the long-run, the economy will recover from this downturn on its own.
Assuming that we are not actually facing the leading edge of a complete failure of western society right now, that should be a given.
The GDP numbers do suggest that in the mid-term, we may actually see a 0.0 to 0.2 percent decrease in annual GDP (which, according to other sources, would even out by 2019), but they are *not* saying that the stimulus will "cause a reduction in our economy" as a whole, despite what some senators and journalists are currently claiming.
In the end, the report suggests that in exchange for a combined 2.9 - 8.4% GDP increase over the baseline forecast for the next 3 years along with increased employment in the millions, we may see a <1% decrease in total GDP spread over the years between 2014 and 2019.
"Taking all of the short- and long-run effects into account, CBO estimates that the
legislation implies an increase in GDP relative to the agency’s baseline forecast of
between 1.4 percent and 3.8 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009, between 1.1 percent and 3.3 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010, between 0.4 percent and 1.3 percent by the fourth quarter of 2011, and declining amounts in later years (see Table 1). Beyond 2014, the legislation is estimated to reduce GDP by between zero and 0.2 percent....
Correspondingly, the legislation would increase employment by 0.8 million to 2.3
million by the fourth quarter of 2009, by 1.2 million to 3.6 million by the fourth quarter of 2010, by 0.6 million to 1.9 million by the fourth quarter of 2011, and by declining numbers in later years. The effect on employment is never estimated to be negative, despite lower GDP in later years, because CBO expects that the U.S. labor market will be at nearly full employment in the long run. The reduction in GDP is therefore estimated to be reflected in lower wages rather than lower employment, as workers will be less productive because the capital stock is smaller."
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9987/Gregg_Year-by-Year_Stimulus.pdf
The last sentence of each paragraph is critical, and is what is being taken out of context all over the place. In both cases, the CBO is saying that in the long-term, the effects of the stimulus will taper off to eventually be effectively unnoticeable; that in the long-run, the economy will recover from this downturn on its own.
Assuming that we are not actually facing the leading edge of a complete failure of western society right now, that should be a given.
The GDP numbers do suggest that in the mid-term, we may actually see a 0.0 to 0.2 percent decrease in annual GDP (which, according to other sources, would even out by 2019), but they are *not* saying that the stimulus will "cause a reduction in our economy" as a whole, despite what some senators and journalists are currently claiming.
In the end, the report suggests that in exchange for a combined 2.9 - 8.4% GDP increase over the baseline forecast for the next 3 years along with increased employment in the millions, we may see a <1% decrease in total GDP spread over the years between 2014 and 2019.
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