2 I looked through my cabinets yesterday afternoon for the perfect snack. Lately it has been Goldfish.
3 I have been a closet Cheez-it addict for a few years now.
4 Okay, let us qualify this.
5 I did not have a package next to me when I wrote this yesterday. I DID have a small bowl with Cheez-its, and a small bag of color Goldfish open and on the sink.
6 I also realize that neither is healthy in any way.
7 Tell that to all the sun-worshippers who will crowd the beaches this upcoming Labor Day.
8 Go to any party anywhere and clean up the mess. Generally the veggie/dip tray has a LOT more leftovers than either the Cheez-it bowl OR the Goldfish gallon.
9 Maybe I should qualify that one a little more clearly. The Goldfish gallons never seem to run out, at least not to those who crunch them down.
10 To the guy who BUYS them, they run out constantly.
11 To me it's a no brainer.
12 While I have LOVED Cheez-its for CENTURIES, I have to give Goldfish the edge.
13 Smart packaging, smart marketing, better flavor, and for old geezers, softer on the teeth!
14 Anybody lookin'?
15 <eyes zip this way and that>
16 What's YOUR choice and why?
17 Just thought I'd throw that one out there.
18 Moving on, Part One: While I was busy with so many other things the past few days, a few stories got past me.
19 In fact a LOT of stories got past me.
20 Somewhere in all of that was some story about plants and trees that glow in the dark.
22 I Googled it and they not only exist, but evidently have been around long enough to create issues about genetic engineering. Here is an article about it from Discovery.com. The reference to DNews is Discovery News, not to be confused with the DN. Here's the report:
In a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie set, scientists are working on engineering plants that glow as brightly as your typical household lamp. Their mix of synthetic biology, genetic sequencing and glowing bacteria promises to produce a new kind of sustainable lighting.
Brain in a Dish Controls Power Grid
If getting plants to glow naturally sounds familiar it’s because this has been in the works for decades. A couple years ago Taiwanese scientists successfully implanted glowing gold nanoparticles called bio LEDs into an aquatic plant. They hoped that glowing trees could one day replace street lamps but still needed to overcome key challenges first. A group the State University of New York also got plants to grow, just not very brightly.
The latest effort strikes me as quite promising. Tech entrepreneur Antony Evans, synthetic biologist Omri Amirav-Drory and plant expert Kyle Taylor are leading the Glowing Plant project. Their approach entails creating bioluminescent plants similar to the ones made at SUNY but getting them to glow brighter with better DNA sequencing and printing.
Their bioluminescent system consists of a protein called luciferase that can break down the fuel to produce light, called luciferin. This process is so efficient that it hardly produces any heat, Amirav-Drory recently told DNews’ Anthony Carboni (video).
That luciferase-luciferin system enables fireflies, fungi and some bacteria to glow. Getting that to happen in plants is fairly complicated so the Glowing Plant team used a prototyping method that relies on an agrobacterium. Although this agrobacterium can inject part of its genome into a plant, unfortunately it’s also a highly regulated plant pest.
If you’re worried about this all going awry and creating glowing weeds everywhere, fear not. The team is only using the agrobacterium to figure out what works best in the lab — they’ll use a safer method for the actual production. And Amirav-Drory told DNews that adding bioluminescence removes energy from cells so these plants will be less adaptable than normal ones in the evolutionary sense.
I do have a lot of questions that haven’t been answered yet. Like what happens if you accidentally kill a glowing plant? Will it be compostable? And how do you turn the plant off? Can you put it under a shade? If all the details get sorted out, I’d love to a viable alternative to CFLs. Swirly bulbs might be super-efficient but they’re annoying to recycle.
Tobacco Plants Tapped to Grow Solar Cells
So far the Glowing Plant Kickstarter campaign has blown past its goal to raise $65,000 for getting the project off the ground, and there’s still more than a month to go. This is a bright, wacky idea that I can’t wait to see in action.
Photo: Scientists are actively creating plants that glow, similar to this one created in the 1980s. Credit: GlowingPlant.com.
23 Hey, bring it! Anybody out there have the real story? I'm not buyin' any of this. This stuff has been around for decades? Please advise. Interesting stuff. Luciferin. Sounds pretty grim.Here's the link:
http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/glowing-plants-to-light-up-your-home-130502.htm
24 Moving on, Part Two: If you've been following the trials and tribz of the DN lately then you know my leg swelled up to the size of an over-ripe zucchini the other day and then it turned a burning red.
25 It is with great pleasure that I report this: as of yesterday morning the swelling had almost disappeared, along with most of the redness.
26 When I got home in the early afternoon it had swelled a little, but it looked fine,and almost normal.
27 I raised it, put on an old movie, and dozed. First time I relaxed all week.
28 Moving on, Part Three: What are this? I found out the other day that the Grim Reaper drives an old green Toyota Tercel with multitudinous dents. No lie.
29 No I SAW him. It was the morning following my wacky trip to ER at Santa Clara. I awakened after a six-hour snooze in an utterly surrealistic state, packed my things and took off for school.
30 I found myself traveling along the Capitol Expressway when I looked over at the car next to me.
31 It was this janky Toyota, and the driver was wearing what looked like a black hoodie, only the hood itself seemed about two times larger than a normal hoodie.
32 The driver was in profile so I couldn't see its face. Yes, that was a definite "its." It looked completely like the Grim Reaper, only a reaper that had fallen upon hard times, nothing even remotely resembling the terrifying Reaper of Darby O' Gill fame.
33 I looked again, touched my phone to try to get a video, but backed off at the last moment. I don't need a ticket or a fine, so I failed to seize the opportunity. It would have made a great video!
34 It had a great sequence. This Grim Reaper plodded down the road in a bad robe and black pajamas. He drove a rickety Toyota, signaled left, and at the last moment turned right, disappearing in the dust that seemed to define the Capitol Expressway.
35 He clumsily disappeared, right before my eyes.
36 I paused, and then I laughed. I thought to myself, "That all you got?"
37 Triumphant moment.
38 I was grateful to whomever it was that threw that real-life scene right before me. It was simply too good to be true!
I see you've got your list out
Say your piece and get out
Yes, I get the gist of it
But it's all right
Sorry that you feel that way
The only thing there is to say
Every silver lining's got a
Touch of grey...
Garcia/Hunter/Touch of Grey
39 You gotta love it.
40 Moving on, Part Four: Wound up having a fun day yesterday, even after having delivered a series of boring lectures. My last class of the day stayed polite, but it was obvious by the end of the period that they were pretty bored.
41 I messed with them a little towards the end of the sixth period, my last class of the day. I gave them "The Larry Challenge." Yesterday was a minimum/collaboration day, so they were particularly eager to get out early.
42 I went through each of the answers slowly as the clock approached 12:45 p.m. With about two minutes left in the period, I said, "The answer to "The Larry Challenge" is..." and then I did that overused teevee gimmick of letting the clock tick for fifteen seconds. I continued. "I call this..." ten more seconds of ticking. A four-second shuffling, a turn of the head, and then I quietly said the word "...'Suspense.' "
43 With around ten seconds left I said, "The correct answer...to "The Larry Challenge" is...C!" The class exploded into hoots and hollers. Most everyone got the correct answer, so you heard the words, "YEEEEE-uh!" and "Uh!" The second hand swiftly crossed the 12 on the clock perfectly, signifying the end of the period. Perfect, right? Perfect with the exception of this: nothing happened. The bell didn't ring because the clocks weren't set for it.
44 I waited about ten more seconds and then said, "Well, it looks like our school has been awarded the Nobel Prize!"
45 Massive laughter. I just smiled, and the bell rang ending the day. Music up. Okay. NOW it was perfect!
46 As they departed I promised never to do that again.
47 Ever.
48 Turned out to be a great day. Had a LOT of fun, and appreciated my job more than ever.
49 It's late as I write this.
50 I gotta go. I have a saloon to run.
51 Have a GREAT day. See you again!
52 Peace.
~H~
No comments:
Post a Comment