Colorado State University has received and $8 million grant from the Department of Defense. They’ll use the money in hopes of growing plants to detect explosives in shopping malls or airports.
Which means we’ll all need a license from Homeland Security to purchase Round-Up.
What is this, Mad Libs?
They can detect Capitalist Climate Disruption as well. (if you don’t water them)
Kate, in Ontario we ALREADY can no longer buy Round-Up! Can no longer find it in Cdn Tire, Home Deport, Home Hardware, Lowes, etc.
McGuinty’s Nanny Squad has been ‘protecting us’ from Round-Up for the past 3 years. By this Spring, Ontario’s official flower will have to be the dandelion. The ONLY officially sanctioned consumer weed-killer is digging them out with some kind of hand tool – not practical on larger than a small urban house lot. Every April/May rural Ontario is now a sea of yellow dandelions, followed by clouds of their airborn seeds.
I guess the plants will provide the profiling that the TSA is unwilling to do themselves.
what a great idea…
Here in Canada we already have a plant which detects Liberals, it’s called “stinkweed”.
Davers6, you can take a trip out west and buy some. 🙂
glacierman, that is a good one, but don’t forget Vladimir Layton’s NDP.
It’s hilarious that – in a time-span of less than an hour – kate can post two “articles”: one complaining about money being spent on science, the other complaining about kids not having a good understanding of science.
Tune in this evening, for a segment featuring esteemed host complaining about rising rates of crime while arguing for the disbandment of all police forces.
Migraine coming on….
Must lie down…
Avoid direct light…
Alex, she just does it for you. Aren’t you special?
You should use your full name, Alex, so that your genius may be fully appreciated.
I didn’t quite twig it, at first, but I can only imagine that the proliferation of potted plants at the D. of D. must have become hybridized by cross-pollination with “weed”. Clearly, they have gone hay-wire, can’t cut the mustard and certainly don’t see the forest for the trees.
What this department requires is cutting down to ground level with all the branches and prunings consigned to the compost-bin…….if there’s any room. Otherwise the bon-fire beckons. The plot should then be thoroughly purged with Round-Up and left fallow until the current head gardener is replaced and a new stand of traditional saplings can be planted and cultivated to propagate a culture of reality and accountability. The creeping tendrils of invasive socialism must be pinched-out daily. We must get to the root of the problem and turn over a new leaf.
Above we must become reacquainted with the concept that bullschitt is a fertilizer and not a modus operandi.
Ah, if only that were true! The world would be a far more pleasant place if people like her were nothing more than intentional trolls. No, unfortunately the situation is much more dire; like most of the far-right luddites she likes the IDEA of science and the toys it provides her with, while understanding nothing about how it functions and masquerading her ignorance with rejection and ridicule.
Hey Alex! Kate’s actually got a gun (see pics of her on the deer hunt) while all you can do is shoot your mouth off.
Yes, Alex, we get it. You’re obnoxious.
alex – you are being extremely illogical and unscientific.
It is correct to point out that funding research about plants as bomb signifers is not a scientific activity. Do you seriously support funding research that is based on ‘bad science’? Obviously, you do.
It is equally correct to point out that students are not being taught scientific principles – which include a requirement for axioms based on reality, logic and experiments.
To say that plants can detect bombs is – well, quite the stretch. Of course plants detect chemicals in the soil, in the air, in water. That’s hardly novel. However, it takes time – a lot of time, and there is no way to speed up the process.
After all, if you are going to change the chemical composition of a plant so that it, chemically, will react rapidly to ‘bad chemicals’ around it – why bother with a plant as a container? Why not just have bowls of chemicals that will instantly change colour as the air changes? After all, time is the key value in this experiment.
So, if Mr. X walks through the airport wearing his suicide vest, a dog will pick it up, but those leafy green plants won’t react at all.
I think HarryR must be a plant.
I think Israel might have already mastered the bomb sniffing plant, and I am picturing something like a 60’s tv robot yelling “danger Will Robinson”!
If we are so unscientific, how is it AGW was picked up as a costly fraud long before others? Some media still refuse to see it. What scares me is they do not understand science but what is worse is they do not see fraud. They can whine about the rich but I can assure you that if money were equally distributed, the same people would end up with it.
Conservatives see the fraud ergo they are more logically inclined ergo they are conservative and scientific.
If you doubt that tell me what was accomplished from all the spending in the US? What was the goal? Why?
ET 3:53
Oh I don’t know ET, something like a venus fly trap can catch a fly reasonably quickly. Still the plan doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense in something like a mall because you could have like 50 people walk by the plant before it reacts even if the reaction time was a few seconds. Then the camera alerts security. Then the security responds…. Even if they could get it to work it could never be feasibly implemented.
I suppose getting blown up is just one of the prices we pay for living in a free society :\
M – the fly on the Venus fly-trap has to come into contact with very specific ‘trigger hairs’ for the plant to close. This is a kinetic and not a chemical reaction and can’t be compared to a ‘plant reacting to a chemical in the air’.
And yes, you are exactly right; how does the plant, which (so far) doesn’t move and doesn’t sit down in front of the ‘alleged’ terrorist as does a dog – identify The Terrorist, when 50 people have walked by that stationary plant?
alex; If you think that spending money to grow plants to SEE if they can detect explosives is science,then you missed a few classes.Wheres the money to teach them how to talk? Maybe it would be easier to teach them to write,but I wouldnt guarantee that with a public school.
So the leftards can talk to plants now can they, is that before or after the stoners get high?
Oh geez, they’re planting liberals around airports. Same thing as a plant.
Alex’s less than astute observation, although he probably felt it was quite clever, was comparing apples and oranges. I suppose, in a clumsy sort of way, he was attempting to make a point and was thoroughly pummelled for his efforts when, in fact, he should have been thoroughly ignored.
The level of trolling around here lately is abysmal. They should stick to posting on lefty websites where mindless comments are rewarded with approving nods and chuckles.
Grass that reacts to explosives underground have been used for years to detect mines in old mine fields. Plants in a mall? Bit of a stretch. Might as well breed walking triffids. After all, who can object to being feeled up by a plant. Oh wait, probably on par with TSA IQs. Let loose the dogs of were. After all, nobody really complains when a mutt sticks their nose in your crotch.
The hemp plant will be found to be the most likely candidate for further research.
The “powered by THC” one.
Regarding the argument of spending VS results in public school… here’s a review of those results:
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/09/does-spending-more-on-education-improve-academic-achievement
It seems to be a bit like saying, an expensive car is always better. And leaving it at that… there’s quite a few factors at work pulling at the results.
Sounds like a good story line for a B movie: Triffids from the TSA.
“They can detect multiple substances and they can turn different colors,” Medford said.
There really are a lot of different types of explosives, many of them can be made from common chemicals found in people’s homes and garages.
They only have to be combined to created an unstable chemical reaction that generates heat.
Rather than wasting time replying to the unfortunate Exlax ( ” the ultimate colon cleanser ” ), why not go to a lamestream media site, and blogpost a conservative comment, every time he posts here? Or send a letter to your MP? Or send a check for $5 to the conservative cause of your choice?
Exlax only posts here to spread vitriol, or insult, or distract regular commenters from posting on other political sites, so why accomodate him with a reply?
Quite a few plants react to explosives. If you mix the explosive with soil and water and put the plant’s roots in the mixture the plant thrives. I’m sure some country folk might assume that the explosive is FERTILIZER!
Where’s my $8 million
A plant’s gonna pat me down?
It’s hilarious that – in a time-span of less than an hour – kate can post two “articles”: one complaining about money being spent on science, the other complaining about kids not having a good understanding of science.
How do bomb-sniffing plants help kids understand science better? Or in your fantasy world do kids pop out of the womb with degrees in bio engineering?
Kate’s point is not contradictory. In fact, it proves that our priorities are way out of whack. How many schools have programs about “safe sex” or nutrition or some other liberal social program disguised as a “subject” while actual areas of education – math, science – are being forsaken? How many districts p*ss away money on fringe benefits and other non-essential perks (while hysterically telling us they’ll have to cut athletics, lunches, and bathrooms if we don’t raise taxes again)?
Schools waste money. Education suffers. Period.
Here’s a question, on topic: how long before CAIR classifies the plants as racist after the plants keep identifying the larges demographic to engage in explosive violence?
Once we allowed government (American or Canadian) to be in the business of wealth redistribution, one form of which is grants, it could only go from bad to worse.
Don’t believe a thing that ivy says. It lies all the time.
The terrorist sympathizers will blame the detection of the explosives on the ‘wandering jew’!
; )
http://www.houseplantsforyou.com/wandering-jew/
Well, on the plus side, if a plant detects a bomb on someone passing by, it can always draw its pistil and arrest him!
I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are already plants that turn colors or respond in other ways incredibly quickly, well under a second, to changes in chemical conditions, so this just might work. Even if the airport scenario doesn’t work this is actually a pretty good idea. My first thought that this sort of thing could be very useful in chemical plants and laboratories to detect contamination or spills.
Electronic sensors are not nearly as fine tuned as what nature has evolved, so this really could have huge applications for industrial safety. If the government is going to spend money on scientific research this is actually a pretty good place
Well, on the plus side, if a plant detects a bomb on someone passing by, it can always draw its pistil and arrest him!
Dude…seriously…that…just…oh, can’t you hear me groaning from here? 😉
Amy, no, but I do hear you gowning!
Amy, no, but I can hear you growning.
Ken (Kulak)
“Smuggling” even 24D from the west is not a viable solution.
One rural fellow was charged for illegal “cosmedic chenical weed control”. A passing jogger/cyclist/cell phone user reported his dandelion free lawn.
Ministry of environment, attended with Police, took samples and conducted a search(with a warrent) and seized his sprayer and a small residue of 24D.
It’s almost like they seek weed free lawns like they do MJ…..easier to find too.
The terrorists will just smuggle rabbits into the air terminals and neutralize the bomb sniffing plants.
Then the security people will have to use dogs to deal with the rabbits and the Muslims will complain that dogs are unclean and have to be removed.
I’m afraid it’s going to be checkmate for the security experts until they figure out the problem is Islam, not explosives.
They would be putting foliage in harms way!!!! PETF rules!!!!
sasquatch at January 27, 2011 11:52 PM
The Police have nothing better to do? For that matter what kind of rat sees a lawn & phones the police?
Whats in the water in Ontario?
JMO
In order to do our fair share in this time of economic hardship, and dangerous terrorism, we have a deal that can save the DoD $7 million dollars!
For only $1 million dollars (US), my wife will grow plants to see if she can get them to detect explosives. If that doesn’t work out, we can also go and check out tropical Caribbean plants for another mill.
Just doing my patriotic duty, eh.
Even if this could work, why would we trust the plants? I don’t trust plants and here’s why.
“what kind of rat sees a lawn & phones the police?”
The kind of rat with way too much time on its hands.
Closely related to the rat that phones authorities over a neighbour’s unshovelled sidewalk, bitches and moans over a smoker standing too close to a doorway and generally minds the business of others.
Although I would never condone extermination of such a rodent, I would certainly entertain the prospect of having them neutered.
Landscaping plants, for example, can look really nice, but also be programmed to change color when there’s danger in the air.
What’s next, will they program it to turn white if they detect hate speech, conservatives, jews: the possibilities are endless. I’ll sleep better tonight, that’s for sure.
Kate: no thanks, I have no particular desire to receive death-threats and/or pointless harassment.
roy: bingo. even if they turn out to be useless for this specific application, it’s an extremely promising line of research with dozens of possible real-world applications. at least there’s one reasonable person around here.