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 ...
We’ve got snow.
“Turn on the dawnzer!”
Nertz.
Thank you for the astonished morning kitteh!
Ti pi?
G’orning, y’all!
You’re welcome. Perhaps he saw Tom the Son walk into the room carrying a large, plastic tub of chocolate-peanut butter pretzels. Tom the Son is the devil.
A being bringing a tub of chocolate pb pretzels is an angel in my book.
It’s still down. I couldn’t even get a balance print-out at the ATM, though I did get laundry money.
The payday biz is all that’s going to get done today. Tomorrow, I’ll turn to and give the kitchen heck. The bathroom will be the easiest because everything in there is in small crates and last year I found a box that is the right size to hold most of them. YAY!
I decided to cook up the country ribs for one more meal for Charlie, and when I wash the crock, I’ll pack it. Those ribs sure smell delicious!
From the research I did this morning, my TV and Interwebs will be about the same as it is here, so there’s no break on that front. However, with the reduction in other areas, I’ll be OK. I also found a vet that is literally a block away from my apartment!
Good morning to all of you!
It will be interesting to actually be in a place I’ve only ever driven through, so I suspect for the first week or two, I’ll be babbling about my misadventures.
If I only had helpers as reliable as my FRiends are, I’d have this place packed up, loaded up and me on the way in a heartbeat.
At least I’ll have interwebs!
Nope.
ATTORNEY’S ADVICE - NO CHARGE
Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:
1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put ‘PHOTO ID REQUIRED.’
2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the ‘For’ line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.
3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have It printed, anyone can get it.
4. Place the contents of your wallet on photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place.
I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards..
Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.
But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.
The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
by the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:
1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything.
If you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone that you care about.
Wonder where they found that Gateway computer.. ;-)
Amazingly logical. Noted, copied and saved. Thanks, Nully!
Going to bed because I’ve done enough Adulting for one day. ‘Night, guys! :o])
LOL! I like a stew, myself.
Of course, it's stew so all the recipes are basically the same. Except for that last one. They toss in a rutabaga.
Of course on Mr. Moose's side of the salty pond it's called a swede.. You can ask him to explain. ;-)
I could never get past the gamey flavor of venison, but you can have my share! :o]
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