10 ms·

Those eradications were paid for by the Department of Agriculture (and equivalent organizations in other regions). Who is going to pay for the mosquito? I'm no

by maaku 10y ago

Those eradications were paid for by the Department of Agriculture (and equivalent organizations in other regions). Who is going to pay for the mosquito? I'm not objecting. I think we should eradicate the mosquito. But as someone who has worked for the government (albeit a different branch) I know that bureaucrats are not being evil or heartless when they don't allocate funds for necessary work that falls outside of their mandate: they could go to jail for misallocation of taxpayer funds. So whose mandate is this?

Avshalom 10y ago
As an Alaskan AND a Floridian: If they wanna auction/raffle off the privilege of throwing the switch I would attempt to give them all my money.
- kls 10y ago
  I am pretty much ground zero of where they want to release them down here in the FL Keys and I am all for it. The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier. When we hear the hum of the mosquito truck we have to yell, to our kids playing outside, to get in the house and stay out of the mist. Most of the other locals are vehemently opposed to their release. I say they cannot release them fast enough.
  - dmd 10y ago
    When my mom was little, "it was very exciting when we heard the DDT truck coming and all the kids would run out of their houses or off the beach and run behind the fogging truck...the smell was kind of sweet and running in the DDT fog was fun."
    - Joof 10y ago
      The solution? Make it smell like ass.
    - hoorayimhelping 10y ago
      My mother and aunt both have fond memories of doing this - apparently the mist was really cool and refreshing. Also they're both breast cancer survivors.
    - adrianN 10y ago
      "The Winged Scourge" is an interesting piece from that time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68F8YwLWdg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68F8YwLWdg
  - coldtea 10y ago
    >The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier. That's the spirit. /s
  - wainstead 10y ago
    Same here: release early and release often. I live in Bahama Village, would be happy to host the trial run. The opposition to the Oxitec project spout the most depressing anti-science nonsense.
- huherto 10y ago
  That is actually a really good idea. A national lottery to decide who presses the switch. Lots of people will enter.
- stickfigure 10y ago
  ...but then Alaska would have to find a new state bird.
nickff 10y ago
>"bureaucrats are not being evil or heartless when they don't allocate funds for necessary work that falls outside of their mandate: they could go to jail for misallocation of taxpayer funds. " Which bureaucrat has gone to jail for making any decision of this sort? The BLM sold ~1700 protected wild horses to a slaughterhouse a few years ago, and I don't think anyone was even reprimanded.[1] EPA allowed 11 million litres of contaminated, toxic wastewater to pollute the a river, and no disciplinary action was taken (that I know of), even though it seems this would be negligence (or a criminal offense) if a private party had done it.[2] [1] http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/17708998-the-case-of-the-missing-mustangs-what-happened-to-1700-wild-horses\ http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/17708998-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_water_spill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_wate...
- jessaustin 10y ago
  Clearly the EPA screwed up, but the BLM should have promoted rather than jailed the bureaucrat who sold the feral horses. That program should be ramped up: it would be better for the horses and for the arid environment that they inhabit if the absolutely necessary regular culling resulted in nutrition rather than thousands of horses penned up to no purpose for the rest of their lives. It's not as though we're going to run out of them, for the several hundred people every year who decide to buy a mustang. Giant ungulates with no natural predators, there will always be more mustangs, at least until irresponsible humans allow them to destroy their habitat completely.
  - nickff 10y ago
    I have heard of equivalent 'screwups' described as horrific criminal actions, described as being done by greedy, stupid, and lazy people who should be sent to federal prison; but alas, those were private parties. My point was that catastrophic negligence goes unpunished when committed by a bureaucrat. Horses were native to North America, and existed on the continent before humans arrived; they were probably wiped out by said humans. These 'giant ungulates' have much the same natural predators as bison and deer, which also happen to be 'giant ungulates', but whose presence I do not believe you would object to.
harshreality 10y ago
Play up the (Zika) birth defect angle. Potential parents will be scared to death and will scream at their legislators to do something. There's all the funding they need.
- ethbro 10y ago
  Think of the children!
- u_me_him 10y ago
  Isn't zika a real danger? From all the news I've been hearing there could soon ben an epidemic in Florida.
myohan 10y ago
"they could go to jail for misallocation of taxpayer funds" can you site a source where this has happened before...
- labster 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal came to mind in less than 5 seconds; I'm sure there are many others.
  - GrinningFool 10y ago
    That's a case of corrupt officials using funds to pay themselves more money and other misuses not in the interests of the city. This isn't in the same category as using funds inappropriately for something that is in the interests of taxpayers.
    - iamdave 10y ago
      I don't think those two statements invalidate each other.
fweespee_ch 10y ago
http://www.hhs.gov/ http://www.hhs.gov/ > Preventing disease, including immunization services This seems to fall under that. xD
skybrian 10y ago
Not really a problem; if everyone is convinced it's safe, the Gates foundation would probably pay for it. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601213/the-extinction-invention/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601213/the-extinction-inv...
technotony 10y ago
I’ve actually wondered if we should create some kind of ‘blackops’ X-prize. Crowdfund a million dollars in bitcoin and release it to someone who can prove they released a gene drive that wiped these monsters out. Obviously this would be a major violation of the democratic process, but I feel like the utilitarian ends here justify the means. Should an individual have the power to take a global decision like this? Probably not, but this action is needed because the current GMO debate is so bogged down in unmovable, politically entrenched positions. The environmental and social justice NGOs who campaign against this technology may be doing the world one of the greatest environmental dis-services we’ve ever seen. Biology is the ultimate sustainable technology, it’s crazy that environmental groups are opposing it’s use so strongly.
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  Of course, the big problem with utilitarianism is that, in the immortal words of Gandalf, "Even the very wise cannot see all ends."
  - lmm 10y ago
    So you make the best decision you can knowing what you know at the time. The non-utilitarian alternative by definition consists of making a decision that you think is worse.
- misnome 10y ago
  I think you are vastly understimating the cost of gene engineering.
tim333 10y ago
YC W17? I mean if they can try fusion who knows.
Qwertious 10y ago
Throw a kickstarter to completely get rid of mosquitoes and you'll have the largest, most successful kickstarter ever seen. Nobody likes mosquitoes, nobody likes malaria.
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by maaku 10y ago

Avshalom 10y ago

As an Alaskan AND a Floridian: If they wanna auction/raffle off the privilege of throwing the switch I would attempt to give them all my money.

kls 10y ago
I am pretty much ground zero of where they want to release them down here in the FL Keys and I am all for it. The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier. When we hear the hum of the mosquito truck we have to yell, to our kids playing outside, to get in the house and stay out of the mist. Most of the other locals are vehemently opposed to their release. I say they cannot release them fast enough.
- dmd 10y ago
  When my mom was little, "it was very exciting when we heard the DDT truck coming and all the kids would run out of their houses or off the beach and run behind the fogging truck...the smell was kind of sweet and running in the DDT fog was fun."
  - Joof 10y ago
    The solution? Make it smell like ass.
  - hoorayimhelping 10y ago
    My mother and aunt both have fond memories of doing this - apparently the mist was really cool and refreshing. Also they're both breast cancer survivors.
  - adrianN 10y ago
    "The Winged Scourge" is an interesting piece from that time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68F8YwLWdg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68F8YwLWdg
- coldtea 10y ago
  >The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier. That's the spirit. /s
- wainstead 10y ago
  Same here: release early and release often. I live in Bahama Village, would be happy to host the trial run. The opposition to the Oxitec project spout the most depressing anti-science nonsense.
huherto 10y ago
That is actually a really good idea. A national lottery to decide who presses the switch. Lots of people will enter.
stickfigure 10y ago
...but then Alaska would have to find a new state bird.

nickff 10y ago

>"bureaucrats are not being evil or heartless when they don't allocate funds for necessary work that falls outside of their mandate: they could go to jail for misallocation of taxpayer funds. " Which bureaucrat has gone to jail for making any decision of this sort? The BLM sold ~1700 protected wild horses to a slaughterhouse a few years ago, and I don't think anyone was even reprimanded.[1] EPA allowed 11 million litres of contaminated, toxic wastewater to pollute the a river, and no disciplinary action was taken (that I know of), even though it seems this would be negligence (or a criminal offense) if a private party had done it.[2] [1] http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/17708998-the-case-of-the-missing-mustangs-what-happened-to-1700-wild-horses\ http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/17708998-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_water_spill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_wate...

jessaustin 10y ago
Clearly the EPA screwed up, but the BLM should have promoted rather than jailed the bureaucrat who sold the feral horses. That program should be ramped up: it would be better for the horses and for the arid environment that they inhabit if the absolutely necessary regular culling resulted in nutrition rather than thousands of horses penned up to no purpose for the rest of their lives. It's not as though we're going to run out of them, for the several hundred people every year who decide to buy a mustang. Giant ungulates with no natural predators, there will always be more mustangs, at least until irresponsible humans allow them to destroy their habitat completely.
- nickff 10y ago
  I have heard of equivalent 'screwups' described as horrific criminal actions, described as being done by greedy, stupid, and lazy people who should be sent to federal prison; but alas, those were private parties. My point was that catastrophic negligence goes unpunished when committed by a bureaucrat. Horses were native to North America, and existed on the continent before humans arrived; they were probably wiped out by said humans. These 'giant ungulates' have much the same natural predators as bison and deer, which also happen to be 'giant ungulates', but whose presence I do not believe you would object to.

harshreality 10y ago

Play up the (Zika) birth defect angle. Potential parents will be scared to death and will scream at their legislators to do something. There's all the funding they need.

ethbro 10y ago
Think of the children!
u_me_him 10y ago
Isn't zika a real danger? From all the news I've been hearing there could soon ben an epidemic in Florida.

myohan 10y ago

"they could go to jail for misallocation of taxpayer funds" can you site a source where this has happened before...

labster 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal came to mind in less than 5 seconds; I'm sure there are many others.
- GrinningFool 10y ago
  That's a case of corrupt officials using funds to pay themselves more money and other misuses not in the interests of the city. This isn't in the same category as using funds inappropriately for something that is in the interests of taxpayers.
  - iamdave 10y ago
    I don't think those two statements invalidate each other.

fweespee_ch 10y ago

http://www.hhs.gov/ http://www.hhs.gov/ > Preventing disease, including immunization services This seems to fall under that. xD

skybrian 10y ago

Not really a problem; if everyone is convinced it's safe, the Gates foundation would probably pay for it. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601213/the-extinction-invention/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601213/the-extinction-inv...

technotony 10y ago

I’ve actually wondered if we should create some kind of ‘blackops’ X-prize. Crowdfund a million dollars in bitcoin and release it to someone who can prove they released a gene drive that wiped these monsters out. Obviously this would be a major violation of the democratic process, but I feel like the utilitarian ends here justify the means. Should an individual have the power to take a global decision like this? Probably not, but this action is needed because the current GMO debate is so bogged down in unmovable, politically entrenched positions. The environmental and social justice NGOs who campaign against this technology may be doing the world one of the greatest environmental dis-services we’ve ever seen. Biology is the ultimate sustainable technology, it’s crazy that environmental groups are opposing it’s use so strongly.

CamperBob2 10y ago
Of course, the big problem with utilitarianism is that, in the immortal words of Gandalf, "Even the very wise cannot see all ends."
- lmm 10y ago
  So you make the best decision you can knowing what you know at the time. The non-utilitarian alternative by definition consists of making a decision that you think is worse.
misnome 10y ago
I think you are vastly understimating the cost of gene engineering.

tim333 10y ago

YC W17? I mean if they can try fusion who knows.

Qwertious 10y ago

Throw a kickstarter to completely get rid of mosquitoes and you'll have the largest, most successful kickstarter ever seen. Nobody likes mosquitoes, nobody likes malaria.

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deleted 10y ago

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