DJP
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Kevin M. Folta wrote:It’s particularly paradoxical that we can take two plants that are almost not related, and we can cross them together, to generate a next-generation which then can be marketed in organic markets, it can be cerrtified as organic no problem. We can mix forty thousand genes with forty thousand genes from these two different species maybe and that’s perfectly acceptable. We have no idea what genes are mixing, we have no idea how to trace their products, we have no idea what allergens may be produced, what other toxic compounds may be produced… but still this is fine. (Here I'm just talking about) standard traditional breeding. Wide crosses. The whole idea in breeding is to incorporate new variation that the consumer may find acceptable or preferred. So many breeders go out into the wild and find plants that could never cross with cultivated materials naturally. That’s the idea – bring in something really unique. Other laboratories – and this is another major thing that’s been done throughout the last century – was mutation breeding, where you could treat seeds or plants with chemicals, you could treat them with radiation and generate variation that way, just by damaging genes or causing chromosome rearrangements – sometimes whole genome duplications – and that’s perfectly acceptable. But if you want to improve a plant by introducing one gene, and by doing it in a way where you can trace how that gene is going to behave in the plant, you can trace its products, you understand what it does, you understand how this protein that’s eventually produced is interacting with other parts of the plant’s biology, that’s UN-acceptable.And so it’s that paradox that if we want to use a sledge-hammer, it’s perfectly allowed – but if we want to use a scalpel, it’s not allowed. [from the SGU (The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe) Podcast].Vin wrote:What about the obnoxious sticker at HO and the 'hateful **** from a worker very close to our views
How do you know she was "very close to our views"? Most likely the work of a lone nutter who felt their holy cow had been criticised…
Vin wrote:We don't even want to give a friendly smile to them, they are either clowns or anti-working classThis is just not true. When was the last time you actually went on a demonstration or sat on a stall with fellow comrades?
jondwhite wrote:I am optimistic about materialism replacing determinism.All 'determinism' means is 'every event has a cause'.All 'materialism' means is 'everything is matter'.So I don't know what you where trying to say above and I don't think you said what you thought you where saying…
Vin wrote:So members are in favour of the party marching with a banner at an anti-austerity march alongside their fellow workers?No I'm not in favour of that. Practically, if you do that it's only those around you in the march that see you. It's better to wait enroute and then disemenate literature as the march passes. I've been on demos with only one other comrade and have given pamphlets to pretty much all the people on the march that way. If we where walking with the block we would not have been able to do this.Secondly, our job is not to cheerlead but to offerr critical support. More like deSade's "Frenchmen, one more try if you are to be republicans" or updated for the present day.. "Militants, one more try if you are to be revolutionaries"
SocialistPunk wrote:I'm no pessimist, far from it. I have every confidence the fortunes of the SPGB/WSM could be improved. The first step is to recognise a change is long overdue.I appreciate the sentiment but I really don't think you're suggested anything that is that original or would be particularly effective. Of the problems the Socilaist Party face one isn't a lack of people offering opinions on what they think other people should be doing….Our problem is essentially an educational one, to do with changing the boundaries of what ordinary people think is possible or desirable. It takes longer to do this then it does to take a walk around Clapham Common.
SocialistPunk wrote:What I'm suggesting is quite simple, at least it would have been some years back, that the SPGB use tactics such as anti-capitalist demo's, events, etc to gain publicity.Members and branches do regularly hand out leaflets and sell the Standard at events like these, plus we have stalls at all the major TU rallies…
Not sure if anyone else caught this in the FT about YPG, PKK, Bookchin and Ocalanhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/50102294-77fd-11e5-a95a-27d368e1ddf7.html
SocialistPunk wrote:The point here is, that the interest in alternatives to capitalism long predates Corbyn's arrival on the Labour leadership scene. The opportunity spoken of by ALB has been around for seven years now.Bear in mind though that these news articles are probably the result of savvy left wing publication sellers sending press releases to the media…Though I do agree, since the slump "capitalism" does get talked about more prominently and since "Corbynmania" possibly even more so…
robbo203 wrote:I put forward the idea of a socialist research centre or website which could engage the collective efforts of many dispersed members but no one seems to have taken up the idea.How is that any different to what is in the education section of this website? And if you're so enthused by the idea why not rejoin and make it a reality? After all, it seems that "World in Common" is now defunct?
Vin wrote:Perhaps we can compare these figures with figures from public meeting attendances and responses from flyers and the Socialist Standard.Apples and pears. We should still be doing physical meetings and publications regardless.
Since the website was modernised visits have been increasing at a rate of at least 40% per year.This site went live on October 16th 2011 and between that date and October 15th 2012 the amount of sessions served was 204,583This year between October 16th 2014 and October 15th 2015 the amount was 631,997.That's a growth of 209%
