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US Military Program Could Be Seen As a Bioweapon, Scientists Warn (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: A research arm of the U.S. military is exploring the possibility of deploying insects to make plants more resilient by altering their genes. Some experts say the work may be seen as a potential biological weapon. In an opinion paper published Thursday in the journal Science, the authors say the U.S. needs to provide greater justification for the peace-time purpose of its Insect Allies project to avoid being perceived as hostile to other countries. Other experts expressed ethical and security concerns with the research, which seeks to transmit protective traits to crops already growing in the field. That would mark a departure from the current widely used procedure of genetically modifying seeds for crops such as corn and soy, before they grow into plants.
The military research agency says its goal is to protect the nation's food supply from threats like drought, crop disease and bioterrorism by using insects to infect plants with viruses that protect against such dangers. The State Department said the project is for peaceful purposes and does not violate the Biological Weapons Convention. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said its scientists are part of the research, which is being conducted in contained labs. The technology could work in different ways. In the first phase, aphids -- tiny bugs that feed by sucking sap from plants -- infected plants with a virus that temporarily brought about a trait. But researchers are also trying to see if viruses can alter the plant's genes themselves to be resistant to dangers throughout the plant's life.
The military research agency says its goal is to protect the nation's food supply from threats like drought, crop disease and bioterrorism by using insects to infect plants with viruses that protect against such dangers. The State Department said the project is for peaceful purposes and does not violate the Biological Weapons Convention. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said its scientists are part of the research, which is being conducted in contained labs. The technology could work in different ways. In the first phase, aphids -- tiny bugs that feed by sucking sap from plants -- infected plants with a virus that temporarily brought about a trait. But researchers are also trying to see if viruses can alter the plant's genes themselves to be resistant to dangers throughout the plant's life.
Anything might be a bio weapon. this is a bit bonkers. Just as any high energy physics, rocketry, encryption algorithm, or computer could be a weapon and probably is.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
...on the incoming number of "welcoming our insect overlords" jokes?
All the world's an analog stage, and digital circuits play only bit parts.
Politics has always been that way. It is about power and money and control. Politicians don't care about anything else. America isn't defined by our politicians, but our people.
Is this a headline from the 1980's?
Seriously. This is literally the same conspiracy theory the Soviets believed the US was doing in the 1980's. It was even a featured story line in the tv show "the Americans".
I honestly don't quite know what the democrat party is trying to promote.
A large faction seems to be really trying to pull the party WAY left (US left) and that bothers me, there are actual candidates there promoting socialism.
I hope that's not the direction they move.
But that aside, I do long for the old days where both sides could actually work together. I remember how Reagan and Tip O'Neil, tho so far apart politically, could still work together and even have a drink or two when the day was over. The debates weren't personal, and both sides were more respectful of the other side's different views.
I don't know when or if we'll ever get to where each side isn't out to punish the other.
It seems to just keep escalating.
I know I'm a bit biased on the conservative side, but wow....when Obama won, I didn't see the violence and widespread protests that fall into riots like we do with the left since Trump won. It seems to be just escalating and I"m concerned.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
on crop yields pretending to be a "military" project because Americans won't pay for anything that isn't "Defense". Norm Chomsky talked about this, the video's still up on Youtube somewhere. When Reagan hit and began slashing fed money in order to fund his tax cuts the only way to get any basic research done was to find a reason why it was "Defense" spending, since that's a sacred cow here.
Christ but we Americans do a lot of silly things...
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"How dare you risk making our plants more resilient?"
This is appealing to a certain mentality, I suppose, and there are some in our military and government who unquestionably have that mentality.
This is like the massive, impractical MOAB bomb, or reactivating those old WW2 battleships; it's something that has a kind of juvenile emotional appeal because of its sheer destructiveness. But really our needs are served better by precision and control than wholesale destruction. That's because we fight wars to get people do do things, not to obliterate them. A single 500 pound GPS bomb works better than flattening entire cities, like we did to Dresden. If you could somehow teleport a firecracker into a single person's ear that would be even more effective.
That's why nuclear weapons don't really serve our warfighting needs. We have them because once they existed we had no choice, but they're just too crude in their effect to be useful. And if nuclear weapons are crude, something like this, weaponized, would be orders of magnitude worse.
This is a weapon for having, not using. And if we have it, others will want to have it, and proliferation will be a thousand times harder to control than nuclear proliferation.
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If you're able to do something better than someone else, there's probably a way to weaponize that.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
My issue with RC drones is that is lowers the bar to get people to murder other people. But lets be honest, the military is working on AI drones. Automated drone weaponry, automated defenses, attack resistant crops, etc. At what point do we become concerned that the wealthy are holding onto all the property and will soon be able to keep and maintain it without the rest of us? More importantly, they are developing the means to protect it from us without having to rely on us to be the muscle. Do you know what the greedy will do when they can have everything to themselves without consequence? They'll have everything to themselves, obviously.
"A large faction seems to be really trying to pull the party WAY left (US left) and that bothers me, there are actual candidates there promoting socialism."
Socialism doesn't concern me, that is just economic. What concerns me is the rampant racism, sexism, and hate they are promoting. They are promoting a culture of paranoia and fear.
You can build a house with it or bash someones brains in with the exact same hammer.
Does that make it a weapon and not a tool?
who had rings run around him by the Republicans. He was chair when the Republicans began their strategy of "Obstruct anything the Dems want and wreck the country to make them look bad". Tip had no response to that because it was an entirely new kind of politics. One that didn't give a rat's ass about the consequences for the country so long as the party and it's mega-rich donors were taking care of. It's Kleptocracy of the worst sort. Once that started there wasn't a damn thing Tip or the Dems could do.
And yes, we do have right wing "Blue Dog" establishment Dems like Pelosi and Schumer working with the GOP to sell us all out. Folks like Bernie & Liz are trying to shut them down and out and replace them with pro-worker, pro-American candidates, but so far they've buried their competition in corporate money.
I'm not making anything up. Come back to me when you've got people in the GOP above the position of Dog Catcher who refuse corporate & PAC money like the Dems do. Until then please, please, wake up and smell the coffee. You got sold out.
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I haven't seen any of this...where are they actively promoting any of these things?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Hanta virus still killing people as does anthrax.
Small pox, malaria killed more people in the Americas than lived in all the rest of the world
it's not a pointed stick. Disease has killed more people than atom bombs.
But that's not a good reason to say no medical research
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Insects infecting plants with viruses
What could POSSIBLY go wrong???
Racism and sexism had reached a point where they were roughly akin to the measles in this country. Through promotion of the idea that these concepts exist, even on a subconscious level the person isn't aware of, they created an impossible to invalidate bogeyman. Anyone who isn't a straight white male is so sensitized to the idea of discrimination that they see it everywhere, they imagine privilege everywhere.
Women speak in their echo chamber and talk about how a man would get to do this or wouldn't be called out for that. Hell, even those who are straight white men are falsely led to believe they have something in common with other historical people who happened to share a skin tone. We don't agree with racism and or repressing women, we know we don't hold those kind of views but can't be certain about others... all the while initiatives both public and private provide advantage to everyone but us (thereby putting them in the fast lane and us in the slow lane for nothing but the accident of birth) on the presumption we have some magical undefined advantage.
In science men on average require 2-5x the number of citations to get the same jobs as men now. A scientist pointing this out was suspended and presumably will soon be fired. There is a supreme court candidate who may or may not be confirmed today. The fact that he has voiced net neutrality rules that run counter to the Constitution and amount to granting your carrier the authority to read and alter contracts and communications between you and others, including your attorney for instance, not even discussed. Instead we are supposed to support them on the basis of unproven allegations against a court justice in a country with a justice system which holds innocent until proven guilty in a court of law as its cornerstone. On a daily basis history is being rewritten to portray women and minorities as the key players in historical discoveries simply because the key players had the wrong genitals and skin color. Stories and media from our youth are being rewritten and re-characterized. A group that at the time was entirely focused on the importance of words redefined a cause to promote the interests of women as being the movement for gender equality, begging the question. Illegal immigrants have been flooded across our borders, not to allow them a better life, but because they potentially represent voters. Hell, in New Mexico the DMV has been outsourced so they can easily obtain ID and vote.
You cannot cure bigotry with bigotry. All you can do is alienate and breed resentment. This hatred and racism that persists and is drummed up for the purpose of gaining political support only creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. So long as people continue to believe the leaders who tell them they are weak and repressed and to blame it on someone else rather than enrich themselves and grow stronger they will be weak and repressed but by the leaders who claim they represent them. Lost entirely is the concept of philosophical charity.
Define "forward".
I honestly don't quite know what the democrat party is trying to promote.
A lot of stuff, and some of it is sadly simply because the other guy opposes it. But we're largely peacniks, we don't like unilaterally invading other nations. That didn't work out so well. Internationally we're doves and we want everyone to play nice with each other. We like the environment and we're "green". We don't want to exchange our kid's health (and possibly a human extinction event [we... ARE in the middle of a mass extinction event]) for a couple of bucks. We're also massive hypocrites because most of use are still ok with trading with China and exchanging THEIR kids' health for a couple of bucks. We think women are people, gays are people, and even some of the more kookier folk are people. I think some of the party take that WAY too far. To the point where they're attacking freedom of speech, which... man, that USED to be something we were trying to promote. When the jackboots were on hippy's necks. Time change I guess. And we want equality. Some of us also want equity, and I'm not so sure about that, but socialism isn't the boogeyman it used to be.
We bailed out the banks in 2008. That's socialism. We've been in that position before and tried that alternative. It didn't work. 1929 was one hell of a year. And practically any alternative would be better than our current healthcare system.
the old days where both sides could actually work together. I remember how Reagan and Tip O'Neil,
Mighty fine rose-colored specs you've got on there. Politics were vile back then too. You'll always be able to find exceptions. Buuuuuut I have to admit things have gotten worse. This partisanship is tearing our nation apart. Yeah, it just keeps escalating.
I know I'm a bit biased on the conservative side
Trust us, we know.
when Obama won, I didn't see the violence and widespread protests that fall into riots like we do with the left since Trump won.
Stop watching FoxNews, they're pushing an agenda and you're living in a spin-zone. A bubble of hate that swirls into a hurricane. Let me guess, you're very concerned about antifa?
Sadly, a lot of other major news organizations have likewise degraded into partisanship. Just really blatant shit. Turns out that when everyone can get their news for free, the journalists get paid by other people who want it said a certain way. It's not like they were ever saints, but now their whole fucking arm is in the cookie-jar.
Well.... I mean... that nutball's code of conduct got into the Linux foundation. I think that whole crowd comes from SanFran and silicon valley. Ehmke with hat Code Covenant. There's just not two ways about it, they're racist and sexist. And yet they're being defended. It's a sad state of affairs.
But hey, while our fringe might be nuts, your fringe over on the TEA-party wasn't exactly all there in the head either.
The need for really great NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) suits and the skills needed to work with that perfectly all the time is the problem.
The heat and weight of such systems and the need for the best filters that work 100% all the time.
For the USA to use bioweapons would need a very skilled and well trained military.
The average IQ, health, fitness, strength and numbers of a skilled troops the USA cannot cover the skills needed.
The USA cant keep up with the needed numbers of fit smart people to fill its conventional special forces.
The storage of existing bioweapons in labs for "testing" is difficult enough.
Bioweapons don't really give a win needed. A nations own troops will have to move over the same land that "bioweapons" got used in and then risk doing clean up.
Thats a huge waste of time and effort to remove all traces of bioweapons to win. With any break down in protection resulting in a total loss of confidence.
Using economic methods to reduce the productive capacity of a nation would be a use of "bioweapons". That does not need all of a nations troops in NBC suits.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"The fact that he has voiced net neutrality rules that run counter to the Constitution and amount to granting your carrier the authority to read and alter contracts and communications between you and others, including your attorney for instance, not even discussed. Instead we are supposed to support them on the basis of unproven allegations against a court justice in a country with a justice system which holds innocent until proven guilty in a court of law as its cornerstone."
Instead of demanding a bunch of lawyers ignore the principles of law and give them yet more reason under whatever joke of an investigation the FBI can do in a week... we could have focused on the real issue. The big issues that are actually likely to come before the courts.