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 ...
The Morning Floof looks very pensive today. I like the gold in his fur!
Good morning.
Two calls came in last night, one just as I was falling asleep and one about two hours later. They were both about my brother with dementia. I think no one has expected him to last the night. One niece is flying down from Idaho, and I don’t know about the rest of them, but none of my siblings are going. I want to, to represent them for his kids, but my tires aren’t good enough and I don’t have the money to rent a car or fly.
So I’ll go take a shower and wash my head out and maybe things will look better. My eyeballs feel like sandpaper from being awake so long during the night.
LOL!
Will try that on my cardio guy.
LOL! That’s great!! Thanks!
LOL!
I love pangolins. I didn’t even know they existed until Anoreth saw one sitting in a tree in Singapore, which is also where you could find today’s kitteh.
Anoreth was over last night for a late birthday celebration. I gave her a dog book.
Why didn’t you just give the dog the book, since its probably written in Dog?
:ducking and running:
Happy late birthday, Anoreth!
Anoreth reads Dog. It’s raining here, and I’m super annoyed.
I’m super annoyed by about fourteen other things, too.
Yes, I thought you might be when I saw your weather on my beeber-like debice. Henderson will be 80° today. *whine*
I need to write a letter to Charlie, so no movies for a while. I’ve already had to shut down for an update, which means my printer probably won’t, again.
(I feel bad for anyone who has a “death watch.” My poor niece is trying to hold down her job and take care of my brother when his wife can’t sit with him.)
I feel for your niece and the rest of the family. I would be very hard.
It, I mean.
Happy Friday, everyone.
This has been a week from a very hot place, but it is almost over. YAY!
You can hook at TV up to a DVD Player and the cable company won't know a thing about it.
If you are hooking the DVD Player into the Cable Box which is hooked into the TV, or the Cable Box into the DVD Player which is hooked into the TV, you might face this issue.
Howsomeever - if the TV has two different inputs you can hook the DVD Player into one and the Cable Box into the other and it will be just as if you had no cable company when you select the DVD Player input on your TV.
Happy Friday. I made brownies. Now I’m going to the car wash.
This is the hook-up. At the wall (almost) is a splitter. There is a co-ax that goes from the wall to the modem and a second one that goes from the wall to the box. There is a third co-ax that goes from the box to the TV. There is also an HDMI cable from the box to nothing. No DVD player to hook it up to, so I can't check it.
So it would appear that when I call the cable company to drill into the bedroom wall to hook up the TV in there, I will have him check to make sure DVD players can be hooked up and USED. In the meantime I will watch the DVDs on my newly acquired VCL program.
There are A/V hook ups on the TV but those didn't work, either, when I tried them as well. So I'm out of my elephant, here. Igor passed away before the advent of the HDMI cables, or he would have taught me about them as well as the A/V.
Two things I didn’t get to do this payday, and one is more important than the other: Send to South Dakota for the birth and death certificates for my son’s father and get the truck washed and cleaned inside and out. They won’t happen next month, either as I have to take Beaker in for her nose job and get Gonzo in to have a check-up and get a pedicure. *sigh* My poor truck. :o[
Does your TV have a remote? Does that remote have an "Input" button? If you press it, does your TV display a list of choices?
If the answer to all 3 is yes, then one of the choices is currently selected to show the cable, and there's another choice for the A/V input. If you select that with the remote and select OK you won't be watching cable any more. At that point, the A/V inputs are being used by the TV.
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