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 ...
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Your laundry sounds like Tom’s.
Missed it by *that* much.
It’s been a little sore. Stitches come out Wednesday, Physical Terrorism starts Thursday.
Do you have a storage unit or do you just keep your possessions pared down to a manageable mass.
I’m working on the slip for my friend here, but tomorrow, before I start making phone calls, I’ll take the truck down to Casey and see if he can give me an estimate on the defroster.
It’s too scary to drive in the early morning without it working. It’s not too bad if there is no oncoming traffic, but when there is, I can hardly see. Not good for a ol’ granny crikety back.
Sounds like a plan. James is nagging about going to the library (where he plays computer games), but I have a cold, and I don’t have any reserve books in. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow afternoon.
We have a storage unit. It’s a house we never sold and may one day move back to.
I saved that so I could read it later. :o])
It’s not the washer I worry about...its my phone. It has a life of his own.
Is maintenance an issue? We had planned to keep the house in Phoenix, but it finally became such an inconvenience after allowing an economically-disadvantaged family to live in it for a year and then converting it to a rental. We finally sold it to get rid of the annoyance factor.
No idea how to address an aggressive phone. My fingers are so fat that the smart phone hubby gave me refused to recognize my password, I use a flip phone and turn it off.
It has unusual wildlife.
I cut up a canteloupe DP bought the other day. I could almost smell it through my congestion. The kids will eat it.
Right now maintenance is not an issue. A youth pastor who lives nearby mows and does some basic upkeep as a way to supplement his income. It’s fairly new construction so we don’t have to do repairs much.
I’d love to find a management company and rent it out, but it would take as much effort to rent it as it would to sell it so that would be a real conversation between me and Mrs. ArGee. While we own it, it’s “her stuff” so renting would be painful.
Renting is painful on either side of the payment.
I have a “sneeze” as my text alert, but my ring tone is a jaunty rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama.” Alabama has no significance for me, and, in fact, I’ve never been there. But I fell in love with the song several years ago (nine?) when I saw a YouTube rendition of it by the Leningrad Cowboys. They were accompanied by the Soviet Army Chorus, and I could never NOT listen to them.
I don’t have a password on my phone. I don’t go a lot of places, and my phone is usually in my bag if I’m going or coming, since NV has a “hands-free” law. I just got used to not answering it while I drive.
For us, the key issue is that both homes are 1800 miles apart. Your situation is well in hand.
Yes. That.
My ringtone was “Gunpowder and Lead” by Miranda Lambert.
Being a good Christian is too expensive. What the market needed was low-expense housing so we allowed a family we knew who had fallen upon hard times to move in in exchange for property upkeep, paying for their own utilities, and a monthly payment equal to property tax and home insurance. They weren’t able or weren’t willing to honor the agreement, allowed the fruit trees, shrubbery and other trees to die, and their moving out necessitated professional cleaning, repainting and fumigation. Then we turned to a property management company to assume the responsibility for rentals. We tried to accommodate a few renters but it became impractical (give ‘em an inch and they take a yard). It was a huge relief to get rid of it.
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