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2PM at Moscone Center

by jake a. scout
Report from Moscone Center
Just got back from Moscone Center. LOTS and LOTS of conference attendees everywhere -- maybe going to lunch? Many attendees who seem to have come from overseas. I saw large groups of Indians and Arabs conference attendees.

Right now, there is a group of pro-biotech protesters outnumbering the few anti-biotech protesters right outside the main entrance. There were 5-6 people holding signs that read "biotech saved my grandmother's life" There was one person holding a sign about GMO food and they were arguing with one conference attendee who was saying that the biotech conference is only partly about GMO food and mostly about medical and pharmaceutical research.

I saw another funny exchange a few blocks away from Moscone. A punky looking kid was trying to explain why he thought there should be protests to an Indian conference attendee. It began because the Indian guy is a research with stem cells and he was confused because he thought only the fanatic right-wing conservatives in the USA opposed biotech research like this. The punky kid was trying to explain that it all "boiled down to nanotech" and that nanotech would kill everything. The researcher guy kept saying that nanotech was a small, academic part of the biotech field and not too much industry stuff revolved around it. I think the punky kid didn't really know what stem cell research was. It was a humorous exchange because the Indian guy was obviously extraordinarily intelligent and understood the science and this kid with a Social Distortion t-shirt was trying to convince him of some kind of nanotech conspiracy that must be stopped at any cost.

This is just what I saw. Not sure if I'm going to any more events.
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Tue, Jun 8, 2004 6:40PM
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Tue, Jun 8, 2004 3:24PM
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