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 ...
Actually, (if I haven’t said it before) 333 was my employee number at Signetics and also my VFW Ladies Auxiliary membership number. So I like it!
I need to call Hurricane tomorrow as well as the doctor’s office to see if she will give me a letter for the parakeets so I can have them without being evicted. Thanks to the new owners of the place.
My son said they were not coming out for either of the holidays, but James and Abbie will be going to AR for Christmas. That leaves me with a dilemma of my own to deal with.
It’s possible that there is a mouse in my kitchen. I found some little paper scraps that look like mouse chewings, but nothing in the way of droppings. Still, I need to get a mouse trap ASAP, and today’s trip to Walmart took care of going back after a trap. I really do want to go away from here.
Poor mouse. He’s so destitute that he has to make his own toilet paper.
Boy did he show up at the wrong address.
Since I never expect to win the thing I have not thought about the ‘what if’ scenario much beyond the don’t cash it in right away, get a lawyer and financial consultant, and set up some kind of trust thing. Hadn’t thought along the lines of a non-profit but that’s also a thought.
If I should ever win, which most certainly would fall in that Proverbs 16 realm, I’ll let you know what I do.. ;-)
Actually on Nov. 4 DST will be evicted until next March. Railroad time will return.. ;-)
Face, direct the mouse to your next door neighbor's place. You know, the one who does construction projects at midnight.. ;-)
I had one check into my hotel two nights ago. I evicted it into my garden plot where it can become useful organic material..
The tile was less than 18 months old when I moved in, and the original background is a cream color with beige-to-gray flecks. I'm thinking its just this awful Las Vegas water with its high alkali and calcium content.
That or some kind of ugly seepage from the asbestos-laden insulation. Needless to say, this place is killing me. (Remember, until about 10 months ago, sprinklers were wetting down the front and back sides of my apartment.)
Oh, no, actually, I have plenty of toilet paper for me and the mouse and lots of his buddies. It’s food they won’t get, here. Most of it is in the fridge, except for spices, which are in jars. About the only other thing they could eat would be ramen, and if I see any more signs of mice, those food items will go in the freezer, which has been unplugged for 10 months or more. Because, moving. Eventually.
We probably got the idea from CIA monitoring China....
Yes, NoC, and he also does the finishing with a drill at 0420.
I suspect the mouse, if it is here, will have come from Cindy1’s apartment, to the south. The construction crew is in the apartment to the west.
I don’t know whether to get a mousie motel so they can rest easy or a Victor, so they can go out with a bang. Either way, I have to wait for payday.
OK: It’s official. There is a MOUSE in my kitchen, and I want him out of there post haste. I don’t know how much a Victor or a Mousie Mausoleum is, but whichever is cheapest is the one I’m going to get. As soon as I count out the nickels and dimes in my piggy bank, that little critter is gonna DIE! I don’t have peanut butter but I have cheese. The nasty thing has eaten its way through the VERY. LAST. Garbage bag ever!
Sorry, but there isn’t enough money in the piggy bank to get a trap. Dang it! Walmart wants a fortune but I think any other store would be much more.
Thanks! My apartment is small, and the recent “visitor” is because of the deconstruction and reconstruction that is going on. (Changing from HUD property for seniors and disabled to “affordable housing” with a private entity.) They don’t care how we feel (we’ve lost two to death because of this “change” we didn’t want) because they are in it for the money.
I plan to move out of state ASAP, so all I need is one or at the most, two traps.
I just hate cleaning up their nasty little messes.
Yes, that’s what I meant.
This trap got good reviews.
My mom has mice at her place.
She set it up in a place they were frequenting-the stove-and didn’t get anything right away.
I advised her to make sure there are no food crumbs whatsoever throughout the entire house and keep the pet food dishes in the fridge overnight.
As soon as she started doing that she got one.
Turned it loose hopefully far enough away that he doesn’t come back.
Read all the reviews there’s a lot of handy hints and good information in there.
And the best thing is they're dead. Humanely and really sincerely dead. So you don't have to worry about taking them out in the back yard and letting them go so they can come back inside tonight..
We should bring back the adult version to the State Pens nation wide. It would cure recidivism..
The construction is causing the field mice to look elsewhere for their food and shelter, and even though my apartment is a couple of buildings removed from the construction, the mouse finally found me. I think it’s because of my next door neighbor. (I’ll just leave it at that.)
At any rate, I suspect this won’t be the last visitor of that ilk, and I don’t want to turn them loose to infest someone else. Some people here can’t function very well and would have to have maintenance come to remove the animals. That would interrupt their pool games.
Dat floof is sleeping in the warm bright stuff!
Good morning. I remembered to turn the heat lamp on in the bathroom but forgot to shut the door. *sigh*
The mouse has discombobulated my thingamajig to the point that I can’t hear myself think.
Good morning. It’s a little chilly here.
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