A bunch of new stores will open to serve our needs: RNA Shack, Best Bio, and Home DNA-pot.

Posted at July 1, 2007 8:06 AM in response to "Species Other Than Our Own Will No Longer Exist"

I read Dyson's article when the magazine first arrived and found it extremely interesting. But I didn't remember that one phrase.

After re-reading in context, I think that lampwick's comment above is perfectly accurate. "Species other than our own will no longer exist" means "the evolution of life will once again be communal, as it was in the good old days". That second phrase comes from the next sentence. After all, half the article is how biotech tools in the hands of everybody will create an explosion of new species! Just that all the genes will be getting mixed. Possibly he could have phrased it better to avoid misunderstanding.

Posted at July 1, 2007 6:45 AM in response to "Species Other Than Our Own Will No Longer Exist"

lurker here.

I had a lot of trouble signing up for TPM in the first place so never got into comments. Tried it right now and it was easy so maybe I will comment more.

On the popular blogs and threads, when there are plenty of comments, close to the whole range of opinion is represented. I sometimes read the comments just to find the one closest to my own opinion -- the one that makes the best sense within the ecology of the whole set of comments. I wouldn't have recognized it as my opinion (I wouldn't have a firm sense of its strength) if I hadn't already seen it butt heads with a bunch of other opinions.

And once I've done that, what's the point of further commenting?

Posted at April 16, 2007 5:00 PM in response to Open Thread

Stirling, what do mean by this: he was manchurian in his subtle balancing of war stances and dramatic military gestures.

Is this a typo for Machiavellian? It can't have anything to do with the Manchurian Candidate, who was a brainwashed assassin.

On the other hand, I'm sure the Manchu emperors were pretty Machiavellian themselves!

Posted at August 11, 2006 8:15 AM in response to Reality Based Prognostication

I'm having trouble understanding this paragraph from Arnold Evans:

"Blowback? The point was never to install an Islamist or Nationalist government. The point was to breath during the window that the new government of whatever ideology is too weak to pursue a mainstream foreign policy."

Who or what is doing the breathing here? The US? The US wants to take a breather while the new Iraqi government is too weak to pursue a mainstream foreign policy? What is 'mainstream' in this case?

Posted at November 19, 2005 9:23 AM in response to The Devil's Game: As Applied to the United States, Israel, and Iran