Free Republic

In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might cause disease in humans. The experiments, reported on Thursday in the journal Science, may make it possible one day to transplant livers, hearts and other organs from pigs into humans, a hope that experts had all but given up. If pig organs were shown to be safe and effective, “they could be a real game changer,” said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer at the United Network for Organ Sharing, a private, nonprofit organization that manages...

Despite what you might've seen in 1950s monster movies, it's difficult to raise mutant ants. For years biologists have altered the genetics of organisms as varied as mice and rice. Mutant fruit flies are a laboratory staple. But ants' complex life cycle hampered efforts to grow genetically engineered ants — until now. On Thursday, two independent research teams described their work deleting ant genes. Two papers chronicling the first mutant ants appeared in the journal Cell, along with a third study that altered ant behavior using an insect brain hormone. Claude Desplan, a New York University biologist and an author...

Fans of Darjeeling might want to find a backup variety for their afternoon tea, because the so-called “Champagne of teas” is suddenly in very short supply. The Telegraph reports that the Indian government calls it “the worse season ever” for the country’s prized tea, thanks to political unrest in the Darjeeling district where it’s grown. The tea comes from just 87 gardens there, and a majority of the 100,000 workers are Gurkhas, a Nepali-speaking group that’s in the middle of fighting for a separate state they propose calling Gorkhaland. They’ve been on strike since June — growers say their gardens...

COLUMBIA, SC — Elephants, flamingos, giraffes and gorillas will share top billing with the darkened sky at Riverbanks Zoo during next month’s solar eclipse. Zoo officials plan to study 12 types of animals and birds to see if they act differently before, during and after the Aug. 21 eclipse. The effort is intended to show what impact, if any, the temporary mid-afternoon blackout has on some of the zoo’s 2,000 animals. Little is know about how animals behave during eclipses, zoo officials say. “It’s an opportunity to do a little bit of science instead of relying on anecdotes,” said Ed...

'Bumbling' Georgia man dramatically sets his house on fire in failed attempt to burn BEES out of their nest Georgia home destroyed in fire after the homeowner lit a stick to a bees nest Home's roof had flames through it after man tried to get rid of bees in the gutter The home was mostly destroyed in the Sunday fire A man's attempt to burn bees out of their nest backfired after the ill-advised extermination method caught fire to a Georgia home, destroying most of it. Fayette County Deputy Fire Chief Tom Bartlett says the homeowner lit a stick on...

Maybe it is Free Republic policy questions and answers. For poeple not allowed to donate cash, can we donate something for sale, or aution? I have lots of daylilies and iris. Look how much some people pay for daylilies... https://www.daylily.com/cgi-bin/auction.cgi?cultivarsaintros Some turmeric have really stunning blooms. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=turmericbloom&&view=detail&mid=AEF794F2366922C70FAAAEF794F2366922C70FAA&&FORM=VDRVRV I could send 3 turmeric roots, or an 8 - 10" plant. Would something like that be possible. I'll be leaving work soon, and then it will hard for me to post, and reply - I'll have to switch to my phone....

It's a Bloomberg story published on the Ag Web site so link only: https://www.agweb.com/article/good-news-for-bees-as-numbers-recover-while-mystery-malady-wanes-blmg/

DULUTH, Minn.—Northern Minnesota's crop of wild rice appears to be in good shape as the annual harvest season approaches. That was the report Tuesday from Ducks Unlimited, the wetland conservation group that monitors and manages wild-rice stands for waterfowl habitat. Wild rice requires optimal water conditions: Too much rain and deep water floods the crop; not enough rain and shallow waters can dry rice plants out. This year, barring any big windstorms between now and the harvest season, the crop looks good across much of region, said Rod Ustipak, Ducks Unlimited’s wild-rice lake management coordinator. A few areas of far...

A 2009 study conducted by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited some alarming facts about Chinese farm-raised seafood.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa farmers received a major boost Thursday after a Chinese delegation in Des Moines signed commitments to purchase nearly all of Iowa’s soybeans. The $4.5 billion deal to buy 460 million bushels of soybeans comes a week before Gov. Kim Reynolds is expected to lead an agricultural trade mission to China and brings tremendous value to the Iowa economy. Advertisement “As an Iowa farmer, this is huge,” said April Hemmes, a farmer who owns a 1,000-acre farm near Hampton in rural Franklin County. “They basically bought the entire production that we have in the state of...

PLANT IDENTIFICATION REQUEST: -------------------------------------- My guess is this is some type of blue lavender. Smells nice but I can't be sure of the exact type. I have to buy one or two and plant them for a relative who is in hospital and doesn't know what the landscaper put in there. Another similar plant I looked up is lavender, but that is purple and smaller, while this grows about 60% larger and is blue, not purple. I included a photo featuring a Home Depot bucket included in the shot to provide a general sense of size of the plant. What...

Monsanto’s legal woes continue to mount as two separate state-level decisions against the agrochemical company’s products were announced this past week. In a first for the U.S., California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) reported on June 26 that it will require Monsanto’s popular weed killer product Roundup to have a label warning stating it contains a known carcinogenic. Beginning July 7, 2017, Roundup’s primary ingredient glyphosate will be added to California’s Proposition 65, a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive damage. Monsanto and other companies that produce glyphosate-based products in the state...

Researchers at Harper Adams University in Shropshire are trying to sow, look after and then harvest a field of barley using only robots and autonomous vehicles. No humans are allowed into the pilot-plot at all. We covered the project when it started and again here. They call it "Hands Free Hectare" and in the office we call it "Robocrop". Long story short the team are actually doing pretty well with a field of barley shoots that looks healthy if a bit patchy here and there. In fact, they're doing so well with their combination of off-the-shelf tech and nifty engineering...

Trump’s Interior Department Secretary, Montana rancher and former Navy Seal Ryan Zinke, is proving to be more than just a dramatic contrast to Obama’s Interior chief, liberal Democrat recreation industry exec., Sally Jewell. Zinke’s getting to work unraveling her legacy–and that of previous progressive predecessors–in short order. Beyond the Obama monument land grabs, which are currently under review as ordered by President Trump, with significant reductions and reversals in the works, Zinke is breaking up the bureaucratic status quo in his department’s upper echelons. On June 16, Greenwire reported: Dozens of Senior Executive Service employees — career officials within the...

Australian tourists are unwittingly eating dog meat in Bali, according to evidence provided to the ABC's 7.30 program. The animals are brutally caught and then butchered not far from the beaches visited by more than 1 million Australians every year. Some of the animals are poisoned, posing a risk to human health, according to a leading toxicologist. Whilst eating dog meat is not illegal in Bali, killing animals cruelly or eating meat contaminated with poison is against the law, Animals Australia's campaign director Lyn White said. "The dog-meat trade breaches animal cruelty laws and food safety laws. That is a...

There's your narrative!

There's your narrative!

Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa has once again defended the chaotic land reform programme boasting that black tobacco farmers are now producing more of the golden leaf than the white commercial farmers during the colonial era. Responding to questions soon after delivering a public lecture on command agriculture at the Midlands State University main campus in Gweru, Mnangagwa said the tobacco production figures justified government's seizure of prime land from the white commercial farmers. "There used to be a man called Ian Smith who used to rule this country. At the height of production of their tobacco they used to produce...

It took some 6,000 years for persons to overcome slavery, serfdom, and oppressive rent and taxation to acquire secure property rights to farmland and to adjacent river water (riparian rights – see Joshua Getzler, A History of Water Rights and Common Law, [2004]). Enter Tim Stroshane, a former Berkeley central planner, activist and environmentalist, who proposes to abolish such property rights because farming monopolists in California allegedly fail to “share” water with the hordes of urbanites that want it. This post revisits Stroshane’s case in his 2016 book, Drought, Water Law and the Origins of California’s Central Valley Project (Reno:...

A forest with beetle-killed trees as seen from Mt. Fraser, British Columbia. Credit: Themightyquill/Wikimedia Commons ==================================================================================================================================== The mountain pine beetle has destroyed more than 40 million acres of forest in the western United States. That amounts to an area the size of Washington state that is strewn with conifers left for dead. The beetles introduce a fungus that prevents critical nutrients and water from traveling within a tree. Beetles also lay their eggs under the bark and the feeding larvae help kill the trees, sometimes within several weeks of the initial attack. These standing dead trees can fall at any...