But are you arguing that when people believe things that are demonstrably false, like using bleach as a Covid remedy, not because there is any evidence behind them but only because they were uttered by someone they trust wholeheartedly, and this person does not have any hint of medical training, that nobody should say they are stupid, but only quietly believe it in their minds?
According to the article, such patents seem to come with a lot of restrictions and the patent apparently applies to traits of the patented plant:
When a company is granted a utility patent on a type of seed, it doesn’t just own the seed. It also owns its traits (color, texture, disease resistance, the way it was grown), future generations of that seed and all of the rights to research.
So, if a plant breeder like Morton develops his own variety of lettuce and the lettuce matches any of the traits of a patented variety – whether it be color, the curliness of the leaf or a trait that makes it conducive to a particular climate – the breeder is technically in violation of patent law and risks getting sued by the patent owner.
So according to the article, the patent system actually does place heavy restrictions on research in this area.
I searched around and found that "utility patents" are basically the default type of patent (as opposed to design patents or plant patents). Also, contrary to what the above passage might suggest, utility patents expire after 20 years, so it's not like companies will have a perpetual license over a particular trait. Finally, it's unclear how tightly scoped a "trait" has to be in the current patent regime. I would agree that exclusive rights for "heat tolerant broccoli" would be bad for innovation, because it prevents other companies from trying to developing other ways of heat resistance. However, I don't see anything wrong with granting exclusive rights to "heat tolerant broccoli broccoli by modifying this particular gene". Given how bad the Guardian article is with other parts of patent law, I'm somewhat skeptical of their implication that you can patent entire functional categories.
If somebody walks past a shop and does not buy the wares on offer because they are offended by the horrible decor, I assume, under this definition, this will be called coercion in that that they 'coercing' the owner to change the decor?
That seems like a horrible suggestion: That might work for one person but an entire country? That people who have lived their lives for generations in Ukraine simply uproot their entire lives, give whatever wealth they've built up and move to a different country where they speak a foreign language, have different cultures and customs, where they need to integrate and learn the language to have a chance at any semblance of a life. Sorry that sounds like a horrible idea.
Well, the alternative is slow suffering and eventual capture and/or death at the hands of a better-resourced adversary. That sounds like a much worse idea. I'd run away, myself.
A huge percentage of Ukranian women have already fled the country, mostly to Europe. It's legal for them to do so, but not for the men. Russia has so far been unsuccessful in mass murdering the Ukranians who have fled to Europe, so it seems to be working for them.
There is literally zero circumstance that you could put me in that would result in me choosing to fight a war. None.
> There is literally zero circumstance that you could put me in that would result in me choosing to fight a war. None.
Not even to protect your spouse? Children? Family?
Don't try to project your own bravery onto others though. Ukrainians can choose for themselves whether they fight or not.
As for the claims that the male population can't leave the country, there are plenty of exceptions when they can and even then they don't need to become soldiers. I have several team mates who work either from Ukraine or abroad and have no issues.
> Not even to protect your spouse? Children? Family?
Not even to protect myself. I'd exhaust all available methods of avoiding fighting, and I'm sure at least one would be successful. If not, I'd just be captured or die. War is such a bad thing that I would literally rather be killed than participate in one, if those are my only options. (Those are almost never the only options.)
> As for the claims that the male population can't leave the country, there are plenty of exceptions when they can and even then they don't need to become soldiers.
Just because there are exceptions doesn't mean that the vast majority of Ukranian males aren't having their human rights stripped by their government. They are being enslaved in service of a war that many of them would not themselves choose to fight, as plainly evidenced by the fact that double-digit percentages of Ukranian women have fled over the western border of the country. It's shameful.
Your claims about "vast majority of Ukrainian males" and "enslaved" and "would not choose to fight" that should somehow result from double-digit women leaving the country are completely unsubstantiated. You are just making up stuff that you would like to believe.
The reality is that the war has united the nation and given purpose of being to many, to stand up to tyranny and be brave. As they say in the states: Live free or die.
What I find shameful is that someone in a cushy place far from war is telling millions to give up, let them be killed, raped and enslaved by maffia barbars so you would feel just a tiny bit better about yourself.
This suggests that there are AT LEAST around 8M men that would also have liked to leave, but are legally and practically prohibited from doing so, something that is a violation of their human rights.
The vast majority of human beings everywhere recoil from violence and do everything they can to avoid it. It is only when power structures impose harsh physical penalties for avoiding violence do they submit to wars and such.
This is your OPINION it is decidedly NOT a FACT. Which you try to claim.
You are free to hold opinions but I'm also free to reject them.
I am not contesting that most people would like to avoid violence .. but don't assume most people will avoid violence AT ALL COST. Some people might care about their family, friends, home and freedom more than they want to avoid violence.
Some people think differently than you. I think, Ukrainians do, russians do.
I think war is bad but defending yourself against tyranny is not.
russians seem to think that war is good and inflicting violence on others is fine.
You think that war is bad and facing violence is worse than death.
These are demonstrably three differences in thought. Therefore you can't force your mindset as a fact upon Ukrainians.
You can't also just reject reality, war is horrible, but it still exists, I wish it didn't but it does. You can't just tell Ukrainians to give up and either be enslaved or flee. If they did then soon the tyrants would be attacking all the countries and you would actually need to face war.
I have many friends that have joined the local territorial defense here years before the current war and are training themselves for defending the country as volunteers. This is the spirit of defending your homeland.
Also being able to stand up for yourself is a useful skill to be had. I would recommend joining a local Krav Maga group. A very friendly but effective way of getting some self defense skills and confidence.
So the argument is that since this criticism came from presumably a socialist, which we have no evidence for, we should not consider the criticism on its own merit?
I literally responded to the parent argument though. And yes I do assume vocal critics of capitalism online to be socialist, I'm happy for parent to prove me wrong :)
Apart from violating privacy, instilling a culture of fear thereby impacting people's right to free speech and free organization, which is a cornerstone of democracy, making people fearful of saying anything against the government or the police even in private conversation, nothing whatsoever.
Yes, I have definitely experienced this too. I also sometimes get results from websites that seem to be reskins of github (usually issues and pull requests).
While I am by no means an expert user, and I have a lot to learn on how to properly use inkscape, I used it for creating some figures for my thesis and it really came in handy. Congratulations on the release!
This may be a little off topic but your comment piqued my interest: I am currently learning JavaScript and I was wondering if you would like to recommend any of the books you read.
It’s been a while, but I really enjoyed the “You don’t know JS” series by Kyle Simpson. It explained a lot of the details I needed to understand in order to be proficient more consistently. Whether I was working on client or server side code, I felt like I understood my tools well enough to feel a lot more confident than I did before.
Misanthropy is more generalized. And even a misanthrope will engage with people of the opposite sex in lively (though, IME, very depressing) debates, and even be respectful within that context. Many misanthropes I've known will even respect people who are well-educated or otherwise "successful" (by some measure). Most sexists won't. Similar to racists.
If not that, then what were you trying to say?