121–130 of 135 posts
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This isn't on topic and has been discussed many times before
This comment is also off-topic.
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It's more that NPR's write-ups are usually quite good.
Seems like whenever NPR reports on subjects I happen to know really really well I find myself disappointed. Makes me wonder about the rest of their reporting.
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It's more that NPR's write-ups are usually quite good.
Seems like whenever NPR reports on subjects I happen to know really really well I find myself disappointed. Makes me wonder about the rest of their reporting.
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You don't even need to wipe out all mosquitoes - just a few species (something like 6 out of 300) account for the vast majority of disease transmitted.
Agreed. Mosquitoes are important pollinators and necessary members of our food chain, we would be hurting without their help. Only reproducing females require a blood meal, further complicating the issue. To that end, check out this [0] anti-mosquito laser weapon, which they claim can be tuned to target only females based on wing beat frequencies. While I disagree with the principal, a laser mosquito defense system g…
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As in the do more harm than good to the ecosystem.
So just like humans?
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"their legal fiduciary duty is to maximize profits" actually is not true. Although it's of course a very common motive.
I would tone the statement down, but it's still true that the number one purpose of a for-profit business is to generate profit. All other activity, in general, is secondary to profit. It's like saying a human doesn't need to eat. Sure, sometimes healthy people go without food to achieve a goal, and a few rare people sacrifice themselves for the common good. But these people are exceptions to the rule. It might more…
If you know of anything to the contrary I would be very interested to hear it!
Why if instead of spending money researching the diseases that mosquitos could transmit to humans on the future we spend all that money into figuring out a way to exterminate all mosquitos from the surface of earth once and for all? As someone who lives on a tropical country and had have both Dengue and Chikungunya I can attest mosquitos are pure evil, and there are several researchs suggesting they serve no purpose…
Yes, after the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, we need a War on Mosquitoes. It'd be a much better allocation than the other wars and much more beneficial for humanity. I can already picture the SWAT teams running with their electrical mosquito swatters :-)
We almost won the war on mosquitoes but our allies the birds would have been wiped out if we'd kept fighting :)
Why if instead of spending money researching the diseases that mosquitos could transmit to humans on the future we spend all that money into figuring out a way to exterminate all mosquitos from the surface of earth once and for all? As someone who lives on a tropical country and had have both Dengue and Chikungunya I can attest mosquitos are pure evil, and there are several researchs suggesting they serve no purpose…
We generally arent trying to cure diseases. I mean, individual researchers want to find cures (e.g. the dedicated clinician who went to med school because her mother had breast cancer, the passionate hacker who eschewed private buses and free lunches at some startup to work at a research institute) Generally though, the pressure of the overall system is to make as much money as possible. If you cure someone's disease…
Exactly. Now consider that a vaccine is a medicine for a healthy person.
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Agreed. Mosquitoes are important pollinators and necessary members of our food chain, we would be hurting without their help. Only reproducing females require a blood meal, further complicating the issue. To that end, check out this [0] anti-mosquito laser weapon, which they claim can be tuned to target only females based on wing beat frequencies. While I disagree with the principal, a laser mosquito defense system g…
I've seen it firsthand. It's not very impressive, sadly.