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 ...
Don’t call her a floofy squee: look at her claws!
I need to go make a second try at getting Kathleen up. Frank turned up on the first call because there’s leftover chicken-noodle casserole for breakfast.
Okden. A floofy squee wif pointy-scratchy fings!
I just got the birds up, but they are ignoring me. They were surprisingly quiet when I took the cover off. (A throw that matches my Blue Willow dishes, that is only temporary!)
There’s a good possibility that they will molt from the stress, so I keep looking for little feathers...
After running around most of the night, Shannon is asleep on my bed, and Jake’s in my closet in a box of clothes. I should start pulling myself together (and getting the clothes repacked and the lid back on the box after removing Jake): I have to leave 10-ish to pick PatJamesVlad up from camp.
Wow. Well, Bird 1 and Bird 2 are making a few little bird noises, and eating a little. I haven’t seen them drink anything, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t. They began to chirp a little when they heard the rain, but they’re quiet, now.
I’ll bet PatJamesVlad are suffering the after effects of being wet and cold all night. Or damp and chilly as the case may be.
I will pack up some things this week, just to get rid of the clutter. Its bad enough to have everything in boxes, but when anything is added to the top of the boxes (books, file folders, miscellaneous trinkets...) I feel very claustrophobic.
Thank you for “The Paws of Fury—Stage I”! (Common usage has changed since elementary school days here. Should the exclamation point go after “I” and should there be a comma after “for”? Etc.
In my usage, avoiding confusion is at least as important as alleged propriety, so yes, put the exclamation point away from the capital i.
And again, in my usage, use the comma to separate the object of the quotation. It's optional, particularly in this instance, but it also helps to distinguish that you're taking the comment in a different direction.
Writing is different from speaking, but we get our clues from the way we speak. If a minor hesitation improves clarity, then it's useful.
Thanks for the assist, Bob!
LOL! Your overthinking is a great blessing!
Now it's clear that the exclamation point would go outside the quotation marks. That's a difference between indicating a title and recording a quotation.
"Today we saw The Paws of Fury - Stage I!"
Never would have thought of it that way—thanks!
I don’t know who they are, but I went to school with a girl whose last name was Stahli! Weird.
Tiny squee wif fangs!!!
Good morning.
Another thunder clap at midnight, but I was able to go back to sleep. It’s nice and wet outside. Nothing but the sound of the dripping eaves.
The laundry has been sorted (I first wrote “sordid” and wonder if that was Freudian) and I need to have the infamous breathing treatment.
It was very nice out yesterday afternoon, and I had the door open for a while. Bird 1 and Bird 2 look to be a male and a neuter. It could be a female, but they came from a breeder who was not selective, and this one (green) has a beak that is too long and has been trimmed the wrong way by someone who had no idea what he was doing. I’ll call today to the vet up the street.
This little green one looks to be the “runt” of the litter. The blue one, (Bird 1) is definitely male.
They are settling in, without too much in the way of molting. They still get a little flighty when I go to cover them (never in the last five years have they been covered) but I try to do it slowly to cut down on the fright factor.
I found some flannel on eBay, (free S&H) for $13 that will be perfect for their cover. Payday.
Poor little things. GAH!!!
Too long a beak, unless an early unknown injury to the “cuticle” sent the beak growing at a bad angle where the bird cannot easily grind it against the other mandible in its sleep, or if the bird were caged without anything to grind its beak on by a previous owner, can be indication of a liver issue like fatty liver disease. If so you may have to watch its diet carefully.
Thank you. I had not known about the liver issue.
The beak has been trimmed bluntly. They had no cuttlebone. They chewed the wood of the perches. There was no gravel paper but newsprint and there was no gravel as a “side dish” to help them digest.
I’m not an expert on parakeets but I’ve rescued enough to know abuse when I see it. I think the previous owners were just ignorant and not necessarily cruel. But at any time in those five years, they could have bought books to learn how to care for their little charges.
I don’t know as much as I want to, but I’ll buy as many books as I need to in order to learn as much as possible.
Actually, all I can prove is that I’m posting with ArGee’s credentials.
Then again, this is the 21st Century. I don’t need proof to claim to be whatever I want to claim to be.
I believe in you, ArGee.
Top of the week to everyone.
That just seems like a better greeting than some reminder of the actual day on the calendar.
On a work related note, I can’t find Mutt, Jeff, Lum, or Abner in our address book, but I am certain I am working with all of them.
Then I worry about you, T-C. ;)
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