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 have several certificates from my GED, diploma from business college, awards for donating blood (before CFIDS) one for winning a Greyhound Bus essay contest, and a couple of proclamations, and trying to fit any of them on the wall is going to make this place look like its inhabited by an eccentric. But since I’m not rich enough for that, the peeps that see all of it will consider me crazy.
I’ll just try to compose what I feel are the most important into a pleasing-to-look-at group and let the critics go away wondering.
Frappy Hiday!
Typical in your industry.
Howyaz! I did another jigsaw puzzle: only 300 pieces, so it could be finished before we need the table for a meal.
I hope Anoreth’s hair is done soon.
The problem is, the dog was trained on a Mac. That’s a Windoze laptop. So he’s really lost.
LOL!
Don’t you get interrupted a lot? Kudos re: jigsaw puzzle! Here, the cats would scatter the available pieces to kingdom come and the smaller kleptodog would steal the pieces and hide them in places where they’d be vacuumed up. Some venues aren’t favorable for doing jigsaw puzzles....
???
WOW. I was going to go to Walmart, and stop along the way to take a couple of pics of the fresh snow on the mountain, but the temp was 30° and the wind was out of the north at 7 mph, gusting to 10+.
No picture-taking for me, today!
I also learned that the oven doesn’t work. Before I moved, I bought a pan of enchiladas with Mexican rice and refried beans, thinking it would be good to eat when I got semi-settled and could invite my grandson and his wife over.
I don’t know when that’s going to happen as they seem too busy to visit (as do the rest of my family in St George) but I had a hankerin’ for some Mexican food. Right. Put the pan in the oven, turned the oven on and no light displayed, but thought maybe it had burned out. Ten minutes later, I checked and the oven is cold. *sigh*
I settled for a Dollar Tree cheeseburger.
I wonder where the sign painter is from?
That’s why a counter-top toaster oven can be handy to have around even if you don’t use it much.
The E.U.?
Electric oven or gas?
I’m probably going to wind down for 2018 with this lovely reminder of my youth, when my hopes, dreams, and aspirations were high and the universe was laughing behind my back.
“Deteriorata” - National Lampoon
You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here.
Deteriorata. Deteriorata.
Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss, and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
and despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
Remember The Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you -
That lemon on your left, for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore. It will stick to your face.
Gracefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan.
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
Hire people with hooks.
For a good time, call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.
Take heart in the bedeepening gloom
That your dog is finally getting enough cheese.
And reflect that whatever fortune may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Milwaukee.
You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.
Therefore, make peace with your god,
Whatever you perceive him to be - hairy thunderer, or cosmic muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate.
Give up!
It's a stress-filled job.
Some children “helped.” Jake hopped up a couple of times, but I shooed him off.
I have a toaster oven and I use it almost exclusively, but this enchilada meal was made in a very large 9X11 pan and it won’t let the oven door close. I even use the toaster oven for cookies, but this didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.
I’m very tired and somewhat cold and as soon as I finish drinking this tea (for coughing and congestion) I’m going to go to bed. Tomorrow is another day and maybe the DD will be in and I can go pretend I’m reasonably wealthy. I just hope the wind isn’t blowing in the morning.
Perhaps I can also figure out what to do about the stuff that needs to be hung up. Right now, my thinker’s busted. (Momism.)
I just realized I have to order new checks. I’m nearly out of the ones with the Henderson address, which is good, but I still have to write a few checks whenever the money comes in because it takes about two weeks for them to come from the printer.
It would seem I’ve lost track of time here. Hours are different as well as the days. I hope it doesn’t last too much longer, because I feel a little unsettled.
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