Posted on 10/06/2018 2:02:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Pentagon research project called "Insect Allies." Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project involves using gene-editing techniques like CRISPR to infect insects with modified viruses that could help make America's crops more resilient. If a cornfield were hit by an unexpected drought or suddenly exposed to a pathogen, for example, Insect Allies might deploy an army of aphids carrying a genetically modified virus to slow the corn plant's growth rate.
According to the DARPA website, these "targeted therapies" could take effect in a single growing season, potentially protecting the American crop system from food security threats like disease, flooding, frost and even "threats introduced by state or non-state actors.
… Insect Allies, is less concerned. "Anytime you're developing a new and revolutionary technology, there is that potential for [both offensive and defensive] capability," Bextine told The Washington Post. "But that is not what we are doing. We are delivering positive traits to plants… We want to make sure we ensure food security, because food security is national security in our eyes."
Insect Allies is still in the early stages of development, and at least four U.S. colleges (Boyce Thompson Institute, Penn State University, The Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin)have received funding to carry out research. Bextine told The Washington Post that the project recently achieved its first milestone — testing whether an aphid could infect a stalk of corn with a designer virus that caused fluorescence. According to the Washington Post, "the corn glowed."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
...I am curious that we celebrate Jesus death with a food he would not have eaten...
We're not celebrating his death. We're celebrating his resurrection into eternal life.
Leaving quietly, now...
I’m a little slow today, I think.
That’s such a tiny squee! “I comin’ for your lap!”
Good morning.
My blood pressure is extremely normal this morning!
Awww... Fangs!
Well, Ganag, it’s with absolute glee, joy, and effervescence that I get to finally announce this is my last November in the state of Nevada!
I got a call yesterday morning from Hurricane, Utah, saying there would be a vacancy by the end of the month, and that I can move in any time I can pull all this stuff together and get it ready to go.
I’ll get to spend Christmas in a place that’s close to my family! There are no words to tell you all how much it means to me to finally be going after three. long. years. of living among boxes and storage containers! I finally get to unpack them!!!
If anyone wants to come and help with the actual move, let me know! ;o])
We already agree that our calendar is wrong, off by anywhere from 2 to 16 years, depending on who’s doing the reckoning, and further in error because of the absence of a year zero.
The more fundamental point is that God did not intend us to mark His years by the birth of Jesus.
If He had intended this we would have a Biblical fixing of the date.
Further, the day of Jesus’ birth is unremarkable as all men are born.
However, very few return from the dead, that event is remarkable, and it is the defining moment of Christianity, the very moment of proof that his sacrifice was not in vain. And the Bible gives a precise reference for when this happened!
Clearly this was the date the calendar was supposed to start!
For extra points, this makes our calendar off by anywhere from 17 to 30 years. That makes this something like Holy Year 2001 to Holy Year 1988, giving us anywhere from RIGHT NOW to 12 years to get our affairs in order before the real end of the millennium...
WONDERFUL!
If I knew that Saturday was the Last Day, I’d get up tomorrow morning, wash up the dishes from the Overnight People, feed the cats, do more laundry ...
Very Buddhist.
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
Well, I’m inclined to “lean not to mine own understanding,” and instead, pay attention to the fact that no one, on Earth or in the Heavens, knows when Jesus will come again, except God the Father. Even Jesus the Son doesn’t know.
So I’ll just sit here with my popcorn and watch the run-up to His Return, with the fires, the floods, the plagues, and the wars, and remind folks that Islam is the anti-Christ. The “666” was translated incorrectly as a number, but the actual translation is “Allah.” Look it up.
</sermon
Excellent! LOL!
Excellent news.
There’s a bit of an annoyance factor here this morning, with an Adult Houseguest sleeping on the sofa and objecting to the regular, diurnal activities of the organization. I told said Houseguest, when she decided she didn’t want to use her bed, that the work day downstairs starts at 5:15 a.m.
Her other parent has been delegated to explain the situation.
LOL! Good job! No sense in trying to act like the Guest from the West, and sleep on the floor (or sofa) because said Guest was up with the Easterners.
Go, DP! Tell her who’s still the Dad with Time In Grade!
*tagline*
Good tagline. I hope he’ll do what I’ve asked, because if not - having tried the, “Let’s all work together, here ...” approach - I will crank up the Mexican Christian pop music and run the vacuum tomorrow morning about 7:00 a.m.
Morning. This will be my last day for this week so it’s sort of a happy Friday.
I stand corrected. The point is the same.
Congratulations.
Unfortunately, I was moving the car to the alternate side, then packing until about 11:30 last night. I still had to get up to go to work this morning.
So I’m going to delay the ritual dance of congratulations until I’m sure I won’t hurt myself.
I can’t argue, but I’m marking the years until His return, so the actual BC/BCE, AD/CE stuff doesn’t impress me much.
And for those who insist on using BCE and CE, do you think that means it’s any less true that it’s the existence of Jesus that divides time? A rose by any other name.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.