[ Dear Perry, this is CYPHERpunks, not WHINERpunks. Please resist the temptation to flame me for being off-topic since flaming for being off-topic is just as off-topic as this is. ] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: Mark Rogaski <wendigo@pobox.com> cc: Cypherpunks <cypherpunks@toad.com> Subject: Better diversity through cages (?!) In-reply-to: Mark Rogaski's message of "Tue, 16 Jan 1996 00:58:49 EST." <m0tc4Px-000jQZC@gti.gti.net> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 00:58:49 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Rogaski <wendigo@pobox.com> - From the node of Timothy C. May: : : Diversity will be enhanced by having the birds in the U.S., and : if left in their native jungles, most will die anyway. Better a : pampered tropical bird in a gilded cage than lunch for some : predator, or starvation as the jungles are cleared by : slash-and-burn farmers. Aside from the amusing belief that caged life is preferrable, let me point out that importation of species can be pretty nasty. Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, Mongooses in Hawaii, those nasty snakes from Guam ... etc, etc. Good point. If you view nature as a market system of survival capital, trying to seriously alter it rather than just living off of it is asking for trouble. This is true for command economy governments, slash-and-burn farmers, and species importers. Nature (the market) will continue, but the meddlers (humans) are risking their chance to be players. Two more reasons why the better-diversity-through-cages is weak: - many (most?) species tend not to reproduce in captivity. - most illegal imported animals die in transit. The tropical bird has better odds of survival against the predator and starvation than it has against smugglers and gilded cage operators. If you consider the odds of reproducing, they're *much* better with the predator and starvation than with the smugglers and cagers. Rick -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMPvhVJNR+/jb2ZlNAQHIvQQApvMNs63M5XRtMvvpKlG7kR6PSF3xUI1r 6yGn6KtMAJKY5vW/bbF7EIo7azakiMein8QGlNdpBXjXfuvBs2RM/oPTq2qcKPQH 7f3DdLYcCmbXwElE35KpowJbqRG7cXpzV426W7YJi3ZuUCBA/uUaISyDMrgCPIVI aquISSze6ko= =fHbg -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Rick Busdiecker Please do not send electronic junk mail! net: rfb@lehman.com or rfb@cmu.edu PGP Public Key: 0xDBD9994D www: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/rfb/http/home.html send mail, subject "send index" for mailbot info, "send pgp key" gets my key A `hacker' is one who writes code. Breaking into systems is `cracking'.