Insects As Weapons 160
An anonymous reader writes "Timothy Paine, an entomologist at the University of California-Riverside, recently 'committed to the scientific record the idea that California's eucalyptus trees may have been biologically sabotaged, publishing an article [in the Journal of Economic Entomology] raising the possibility of bioterrorism.' Specifically, Paine argues that foreign insect pests have been deliberately introduced in the Golden State, in hopes of decimating the state's population of eucalyptus (especially the two species regarded as invasive, which 'are particularly susceptible to the pests.') In California's Bioterror Mystery, Paine (and scientists who are skeptical) make their arguments. What isn't in dispute is that the insect pests have already inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, making the story a cautionary tale about what might happen if a food or crop were intentionally targeted."
Abuse of the word terrorism (Score:5, Informative)
TFA appears to be trolling for search engine hits with the use of "terror" or "terrorism" in the article and the title itself (California's Bioterror Mystery). Really, terrorism should be something that at the very least causes you to have qualms, if not outright fear, about your safety.
For example, you might have second thoughts about riding an airplane because of some extremist hijacking it and blowing it up. Ditto for visiting the mall or drinking tap water because somebody might have laced the water supply. But this one? The only terror I see is of the trees falling over and crushing the poor pedestrian standing right next to it. I'm not a koala, so I'm not going to be losing sleep over the loss of my favorite supply of mint.
To be sure, the title of the scientific paper on which the article is based sounds less sensationalistic (unfortunately, a subscription is necessary to read the paper itself):
Re:Eucalyptus trees are a bio terror weapon (Score:5, Informative)
Eucalyptus foilage is highly flammable when green; the oil in the leaves is the thing. Fire tends to strip the tree, but leaves the acorns able to sprout. The only thing that seems to kill them here in Aus is a grub infestation followed by a small flock of rather large black cockatoos. Those birds will tear the tree completely apart; they usually fall over a day or two after the birds arrive. I've seen this happen a couple of times myself, down in our old property in Tasmania.
Re:The government does this all the time (Score:3, Informative)
It looks like at least one of the people they interviewed is more sensible:
Ted Center, an entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Invasive Plant Research Laboratory in Fort Lauderdale, Florida agrees. Globalization has ratcheted up the chances of importing pests and diseases from everywhere. Furthermore, he says, there are now more direct flights between Los Angeles and Australia than ever before, and pests entering the cargo holds of passenger planes need only survive fourteen or fifteen hours in order to reach California. Other destinations where eucalyptus occurs receive fewer flights or are less directly accessible, requiring connections. “In my opinion, the [Journal of Economic Entomology] paper is far too speculative,” he says.
This is nothing (Score:2, Informative)
Every aspect of life is now theoretically weaponizable. The fact is that the number of people it takes to do very big damage to large numbers of people is trending down, has been trending down for centuries and will continue to trend down ever more rapidly.
Basically your freedom and privacy are inversely proportional to the number of people it takes to hurt large number of people in very bad ways. At one end of that scale is the lone nut with a doomsday weapon. In that world, your freedom and privacy go to zero because society will not permit that lone nut to act unobserved.
Getting more realistic doesn't really bring much comfort. A few people working to weaponize some bacterium in some way is not much better. Now we need to watch everyone who orders X from company Y (or worse , didn't) or who went to grad school for major Z (or worse, didn't) .
If you look at Ted Kaszinsky , he already understood that to hide his tracks, he had to make his own shit from everyday things found just everywhere. It's not like this type is so crazy they can't think straight and plan.
Here's an equation that describes the relationship between technology, terrorism and your privacy and freedom as you now know it.
loss of freedom . = the number of people they can do those bad things to ^ (the level of badness they can achieve ) / number of people needed to achieve bad things
So for instance,
virus writer:
number of bad people =1
number of people hurt =10,000,000
level of badness = inconvenience and some money
result- lose just a little freedom
Kazsinski:
number of bad people =1
number of people hurt =10
level of badness = death, dismemberment
result: lose no freedom
9-11 hijackers
number of bad people =19
number of people hurt =3000
level of badness = death
result - lose a lot of freedom
WWII
number of bad people = 18 million
number of people hurt = 60 million
level of badness = death
result - no permanent loss of freedom
So what we see is the three numbers interact strongly and it really takes all three approaching their bad poles for things to really change.
But that's where we're headed now.
Nothing that we've constructed either in law or human conduct or organizing principles for society has prepared us for this.
We have to expect that everything will be and somewhere right now, on paper at least, is being tried.
You don't like it when the phone companies turn over your records to the FBI , but that's the LEAST of what you have to get used to in the face of what progress in technology is going to deliver to your door. All private companies help the intelligence agencies any way they can because the key players understand what's happening. They understand the above even if not explicitly. It's not about enslaving hapless masses; it's about survival and how we're going to be able to achieve that as those three number race towards their respective poles.
No one wanted this, it's no one's fault and no one really knows what to do. Keep that in mind when you're reading tomorrow's headlines. We never evolve to wield the capabilities we are acquiring. It's no one's fault.
Really I only see one way out of this, and you're not going to like it any better than you like any other part of this. We need to genetically engineer people so they don't want to do bad things. We need to genetically engineer people so they are much less greedy, much less anti-social, much less religious, much less concerned with acquiring positions in dominance hierarchies for the purpose of monopolizing resources and access to female reproductive rights. That's what drives most of the world's badness now and throughout history. It's really just that simple.
Our genes evolved to compete fiercely for those limited resources - food, shelter, power and s
Re:Nazi's, post war America, and Ticks (Score:5, Informative)
Right across the channel is the town of Lyme where the first people developed a strange disorder later called "Lyme Disease." Incidentally, ticks were Trabe's favorite pet project.
That does not appear to be true. [wikipedia.org]
Re:could be eco terrorism (Score:5, Informative)
Um, it's not true. Look a little closer:
Obama became president in 2008. Most of the planes were eliminated between 2002 and 2008.
The further reductions came in 2010 when congressional Republicans cut 25% of the Forest Service's budget.
You've got to remember, Michelle Malkin is a serial liar. She's been caught so many times it's not funny. You would think at some point that she'd stop out of shame, but no.
I've got a link to a list of Malkin's greatest hits of lies. Let me know if you'd like to see it. And she NEVER updates her posts when they are proven false. Never retracts, never apologizes.