Control of the biotechnology involved in producing genetically modified crops is concentrated in the hands of a few multinational companies, in part because of the complex web of patents involved. A group at CAMBIA, the Center for the Application of Molecular Biology for International Agriculture...

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Two readers (a triumph in itself) have informed me that my site now looks terrible on their browsers. One even sent a screenshot, which suggests that the browser is not seeing the stylesheet. The trouble is, on my PC (at work) the site looks just fine in Explorer. So I am at a loss. I know I haven’t...

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6 October 2016: Putting this up purely for historical larfs. For me, del.icio.us went the way of all "free" services. I'm now a much happier camper paying for Pinboard.

I have taken the plunge and dived into del.icio.us. The problem was access to bookmarks. I have two desktop machines and a la...

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At work on a Saturday, reflecting on the fact that when things here are at their busiest, I probably have most to say on the blog, but don't say it for two reasons. After an entire day processing words and staring at a screen, the last thing I want to do is more of the same. And then there is the qu...

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A new strategy beats tit-for-tat at the Prisoners' Dilemma. Southampton University's approach was pretty sneaky, essentially allowing its prisoners to recognize one another and cooperate. Up against a non-Southampton opponent, prisoners deliberately throw their own chances to make life easier for...

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