Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com (via Drawn!)
After a fight led by Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte, Jr., the University of Hawaii has given up all rights and royalties on patents of three disease-resistant varieties of taro. Controversy arose when it was discovered that researchers at the university were doing genetic modification to produce a better taro plant. The taro is considered sacred by some Hawaiians because they believe that the taro is the ancestor of the Hawaiian people. There doesn't seem to be objection to breeding new varieties of taro, but genetic engineering is upsetting:Kahakalau and Ritte said that using genetic-engineering techniques to insert foreign genes into the taro plant is wrong. "You can't change our ancestors without our permission," Ritte said.They also objected to the possibility that farmers might have to pay a royalty to use the patented breeds of taro. The three patents in question are plant patents PP12,772, PP12,361, PP12,342 obtained by Eduardo Trujillo throughout 2002 for taro plant varieties named Pa'akala, Pa'lehua, and Pauakea. His intention was to produce disease resistant higher yielding taro as a food plant for Pacific islanders who grow it natively.
Serendipity happens all the time. After my tirades about weeds, suddenly there appears DNDELYN, a dandelion license plate. One must always be prepared to take advantage of serendipitous events, so I whipped out my trusty ( but crappy) Treo camera to immortalize the event.
After this gardening season of heavy rain followed by bright sunshine I have had it with the weeds in my garden. Some of them are my own fault, the rain washed newly spread grass seed into the vegetable garden where it grew well until I pulled it out. The other weapon in my arsenal, but not for the vegetable garden, is Roundup. Weeds in cracks, weeds in the mulch are dealt with mercilessly and chemically.
A recent short report on NPR and an article on the possibility of a microbial basis for some types of obesity both comment on the number of cells in the human body as well as the numbers of our microbial passengers. The amounts are surprising. There are 100 trillion, (10 to the 14) cells in the human body, but we carry 10 to 20 times more microbes than that. It seems we are more them than us (or me). If that doesn't start the itching and turn you into a recluse a la Howard Hughes I don't know what will.
Zees
Bees
Tips
Flips
You flesh out a plan. Building the plan is akin to putting flesh on a skeletal frame. Fleshing out is building up not searching out.
Your hunting dog flushes out the pheasants from the tall grass so that you can get a good shot at them. You flush out things that are hidden.
In August 2001, one terrorist to another:
T1 - I bet you I can get boxcutters, letter openers, pocket knives and even nail clippers banned from all flights in the US. Think of all of those aggravated passengers with annoying hangnails.
T2 - OK, you're on.
T1 - If I win the bet I want the money to go to my surviving relatives.
In November 2001, Richard Reid to his terrorist cell controller:
Rich - I bet you I can make everyone have to take their shoes off to fly in an airplane.
Terrorist - OK, you're on.
Richard - If I win the bet and survive I want my winnings in cigarettes, since they are the only fungible currency in prison, otherwise just give it to my surviving relatives.
In August 2006, Overheard at the terrorist water cooler.
Terrorist A - I bet you I can get airline passengers even crankier than that show bomber guy by getting all water and soda (they'll get thirsty), perfumes and deodorants (they'll get smelly), toothpaste (their breath will smell), suntan lotion (sunburned in August!) and every other liquid and gel banned on airplanes.
Terrorist B - Oh, yeah. I'll do you one better by also getting every electronic device larger than a watch banned also. Without laptops and iPods they will go insane on those long flights.
Terrorist A - OK, you're on, but if they allow breastmilk and baby formula I'm only paying you or your surviving relations half the bet.
Has anyone figured out that the terrorists not only want to cause spectacular loss of life to get noticed and forward their cause but also all of the inconvenience they cause gets them in the news just as well? Today's latest scare has us now banning all liquids from airplanes,because some bombs can be made from liquids that are explosive. The electronic devices are banned because they can be used to detonate these liquid explosives. Everything must be checked into baggage, so you can take them, but the business traveler who was savvy enough to avoid bag check is now thwarted.
I understand that loss of life is incalculable, but hypothetically speaking, how would one balance prevention of an attack against all of the cost, time lost and inconvenience of security measures that are intended to catch highly unlikely, rare events. Some econometrician somewhere is doing this calculation and I would love to see their results.
In my daily travels I have been walking past some piles of mulch around some shrubs wondering what animal had vomited up some disgusting crunchy white stuff on the mulch and hoping someone would clean it up. It was disgusting, especially when I thought it was vomit. Coincidentally, the article above appears in Science News and they describe a lumpy yellow crust on mulch in flowerbeds that is sometimes called "dog-vomit slime". I finally made the connection to my unpleasant mulch experience. That wasn't dog vomit, it was nature, right there in front of me. That particular slime mold is called Fuligo septica.
When it dries out it is sometimes called scrambled-egg slime due to its consistency. I took a picture of an example of that form I found on the opposite side of the shrub from the slime above. Isn't it great when book learning (in this case science magazine learning) impacts practical experience. There is biodiversity to be measured all around you, even in your yard.
