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 ...
Thanks, T-C. We went up to the in-laws but were actually back for Christmas Day. Surprisingly, the roads were fairly empty when we were out and about. Except going to Wal-Mart to get my F-I-L a gift card. That parking lot was jammed.
Good morning. It’s Monday/Wednesday.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.
Good morning, my dears. Elen has to be at the Marines office at 9:00, so we’re all going to drop her off and then go to the gym, except for Tom and Sally, who are still in bed, and their electronic devices have been zotted from our wi-fi network, and I’ve secured the keys to all the vehicles so that nobody goes anywhere until they’ve completed the kitchen tasks they were supposed to have completed last night before they went to bed.
If anyone says, “I thought I did!” I will hand him or her an eviction notice.
I think we’re going to Asheville with Anoreth and Bill tomorrow. I’ll leave Pat in charge. He is chronologically 17 earth years old, after all, although I’m not sure how that compares to maturity on his homeworld.
Happy Trash Day! Fortunately, the Upnorth People next door hadn’t filled their recycle bin.
Interesting! From 1970, when I got my first copy (a four-volume boxed set) in an office supply store (the trilogy was 'underground' at the time) I read the entire sage from The Hobbit on, every year beginning in November, and then the movies of LOTR came out. The math on those years works out to about 40 +/-.
And then, I began packing things up for an eventual move to get away, literally, and the books were the first things to be packed. And almost the first things to be unpacked. And now, I think it's time once again to read the saga. Thanks for the reminder!
As for Christmas in my new digs, it was like most of the Christmases I've had in the last 30 years -- it was celebrated by me and a phone call from my son. But I will not complain. Christmas is joyful, and I have lots of Nativities to remember the Reason for the Season, and even teary movies like, "Mr Kreuger's Christmas."
(And all this, just because you mentioned LOTR!!)
A very good morning to you!
I slept in about 20 minutes, but I was still able to accomplish a few things. I had a little “silent butler” in the truck and decided it would be a good thing to have in the house with the parakeet things, but I went out to get it this morning and it was gone.
No clue where it went. So its back to a small brush and the dustpan. I need to order a skirt for the cage so the seeds and feathers stay pretty much in the cage until cleaning time, but this morning I decided I couldn’t wait. The Bird Muppets are molting. I reeled off a couple of yards of paper toweling and got some clothes pins and made my own cage skirt.
I’m going to try and get the paintings hung today, as well as specific things in frames, and the few plates that I really want to keep.
Maybe tomorrow, I can start weeding out the clothes and getting them into Space Bags. I’m thinking of putting the storage tubs on the Hurricane and St George yard sales as I can get $3 a piece for the standard sized. I was thinking of $2.50 to start, but three is better. Especially since they’re $6 at Wally’s now.
Its coming together, slowly but surely. I need to get some brackets for the curtain rods so I can feel like I’m finally home!
It sounds like you have internal discipline well in hand.
If you get any grief from the eviction notice you an always tell them that Elen has given you all the tips you need about how to be a Drill Sergeant and that’s how things will be run starting tomorrow.
Cat’s name must be Juan.
He has a Juan on his forehead...
Shhhh. Don’t tell any Juan.
Ooh, you’re sharp!
Beautiful—thank you!
So, in the latest on the job front, the client at the Department of Social Services says I can start. Now all I have to do is await the actual offer with the actual hourly rate in it so I can discuss said actual offer with my wife and finalize.
I probably won’t announce anything here until 1/2 as my boss is out. Then I will have 2 weeks before starting at DSS.
G’daft ernoon.
Daft. That’s me.
Goodaftanoon to you, too.
Wow. I learn something new every day, and this day was no exception. I had to go to the office to ask if my “cable/internet” bill was accurate, and while I was there, I asked the question that was on my mind since before Thanksgiving:
How did I go from Number Five in nine weeks to Number One? The answer? “Welcome to Hurricane!”
It seems the two top contenders were eliminated because the one in Number One has been there for eight years, and it sounds like she doesn’t want to move from her daughter’s house, and the second couldn’t pass the background check. The two others evidently weren’t ready to move in the winter. So I got the short straw.
When I told him the circumstances of the “why” of the move, he repeated his original answer - Welcome to Hurricane.
Yep. When I’m supposed to move somewhere, the way opens up for me. And I’m so very grateful!
That’s like the ‘wuh’ for Juanda, right?
:ducking and running:
It just goes to show ya.
I’m not exactly sure WHAT it just goes to show ya, but it does.
Yepper. Life is like a box of chocolates. Sometimes hard, sometimes messy, but always good!
And now, I’m taking my aggravating bundle and going to bed because that’s where I need to be, I think. The ‘Face is very tired.
Well..
There’s the oven in the kitchen and a 10k BTU propane heater in the far end of what is now kitchen but once was a porch (there are no heat ducts running to that end of the kitchen). Of course that doesn’t do much for the rest of the house but that would be sufficient to keep the pipes from freezing due to their location in the walls. The upstairs bath is directly over the kitchen and the plumbing runs up through the kitchen wall..
I have no idea how long five gallons of fuel lasts here or I could gauge it better. Ages ago when we lived in New Jersey the house had oil heat also with the hot water coil in the furnace so our hot water used fuel oil also. We found by experience that five gallons would last a day under those conditions. We have not run that ‘test’ here so there is no empirical data..
The last time we got low and put in a fuel order we ran out a day before the projected delivery so we made the trek for 10 gallons of off-road. When we arrived back here the delivery truck was pulling up in front as we entered the driveway. In other words, he got here a day ahead of what we were told. Hopefully a similar happening will occur this time.
In the meantime I will trundle down to the basement and see what the gauge has to say then make a decision as to whether another trek for off-road is required.
Evening/afternoon, all! I’ve been reading a book in the Real World, occasionally lying down with a cat, and other restful activity.
For those of a musical bent, today is the Feast of Stephen, famed for its deep, crisp, and even snow, upon which Good King Wenceslaus (St. Vaclav of Bohemia) and his hapless page took firewood food, and wine to a poor peasant. Makes a person happy she doesn’t live in Bohemia, I say, and Yay! Global Warming!
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