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I for one have had it with the 'elitist' act LW.  You don't know any damn better than the rest of us, so kindly fuck off telling us how things should be.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10598926

Source: BBC News
Published: Jul 14, 2010
Author: Victoria Gill

Plants, scientists say, transmit information about light intensity and quality from leaf to leaf in a very similar way to our own nervous systems.

These "electro-chemical signals" are carried by cells that act as "nerves" of the plants.

In their experiment, the scientists showed that light shone on to one leaf caused the whole plant to respond.

And the response, which took the form of light-induced chemical reactions in the leaves, continued in the dark.

This showed, they said, that the plant "remembered" the information encoded in light.

"We shone the light only on the bottom of the plant and we observed changes in the upper part," explained Professor Stanislaw Karpinski from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland, who led this research.

He presented the findings at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in Prague, Czech Republic.

"And the changes proceeded when the light was off... This was a complete surprise."

In previous work, Professor Karpinski found that chemical signals could be passed throughout whole plants - allowing them to respond to and survive changes and stresses in their environment.

But in this new study, he and his colleagues discovered that when light stimulated a chemical reaction in one leaf cell, this caused a "cascade" of events and that this was immediately signalled to the rest of the plant by via specific type of cell called a "bundle sheath cell".

The scientists measured the electrical signals from these cells, which are present in every leaf. They likened the discovery to finding the plants' "nervous system".

Thinking plants
 
What was even more peculiar, Professor Karpinski said, was that the plants' responses changed depending on the colour of the light that was being shone on them.

 
"There were characteristic [changes] for red, blue and white light," he explained.

He suspected that the plants might use the information encoded in the light to stimulate protective chemical reactions. He and his colleagues examined this more closely by looking at the effect of different colours of light on the plants' immunity to disease.

"When we shone the light for on the plant for one hour and then infected it [with a virus or with bacteria] 24 hours after that light exposure, it resisted the infection," he explained.

"But when we infected the plant before shining the light, it could not build up resistance.

"[So the plant] has a specific memory for the light which builds its immunity against pathogens, and it can adjust to varying light conditions."

He said that plants used information encrypted in the light to immunise themselves against seasonal pathogens.

"Every day or week of the season has... a characteristic light quality," Professor Karpinski explained.

"So the plants perform a sort of biological light computation, using information contained in the light to immunise themselves against diseases that are prevalent during that season."

Professor Christine Foyer, a plant scientist from the University of Leeds, said the study "took our thinking one step forward".

"Plants have to survive stresses, such as drought or cold, and live through it and keep growing," she told BBC News.

"This requires an appraisal of the situation and an appropriate response - that's a form of intelligence.

"What this study has done is link two signalling pathways together... and the electrical signalling pathway is incredibly rapid, so the whole plant could respond immediately to high [levels of] light."

The real mystery, to me at least, is Eddy.  Unless I am literally 'the last to know', and am not supposed to know, in that case, fine.  Otherwise, what happened to him? Last I heard from him, we were talking about me and some other folks moderating the news threads on the old spiritplants website, then he just let the website expire and never came around again.  Did he die or what?

hello there!

Does anyone here have any other good indian food recipes?  I make chicken tika masala sometimes, but it is a poor imitation of the real thing, no matter what ingredients I experiment with.

Thanks, ray.  good issue, Im halfway through it right now.

Ingesting mescaline-containing cactus is illegal in the jurisdiction where the SPF server resides, and we do not encourage our readers to engage in illegal activity.  Maybe bluelight.ru can answer your question.

I do not want to tangle with you, LW.  I have no power here.  You do.  I wanted to interact with cenacle in his thread, but you made it your business and you seem to be spoiling for a fight for some reason.  After reading posts here for years, I pretty much know each persons personality.  Without personally insulting anyone, I will just say, fine, you win LW.  Just say the word and I am gone like the wind.   There is no alternative but for me to just let you have your way.

That is a good thing.  The Fed needs to be put in its place, which is far, far in the background.

"and started attacking the "seekers" at this site."

Hey, I AM one of the 'seekers' at this site.  I have been here for years before you came around.  I wasn't attacking anyone, just bemoaning the rampant partisanship of an old friend.  You attacked me by calling me a 'hater'.  I was posting in Cenacle's thread not one of yours, so whats the deal?  I won't attack anyone's viewpoint, why would I do that?  I will say what I want, and I did, and you don't like what I had to say, apparently.  You seem to think that I jumped onto a thread uninvited and unwanted, and started spewing right-wing rhetoric around.  Well, fuck, I probably would not have even posted if I wasn't the moderator of the topic.

'I saw and ad on Drudge earlier today paid for by a politician running on the platform of repealing "ObamaCare." Tow buttons were presented. One, bright and bold for those to push wishing to repeal the health care measure just passed. The vote yes for ObamaCare button was about the same color as the rest of the ad. Kind of camouflaged. So I just had to push that button in opposition of the candidate in question.'

So, you based your decision on...what?  The underdog, or the least flashy button? And then, when I disagree with cenacle poking fun at the Tea Party in another thread, you label me a right winger....What is the deal?   I could just as easily assume that you are an Obamabot.  Either I am confused, or else I am just not following 'the party line' that I am supposed to fit in with.

I've always figured that if there was a one world government, and one happened to dislike the current regime, there is no where to go, no where to move to change the scenery.  If said government became corrupt or fascist or whatnot, there would be no alternatives.

What exactly is so wrong with sovereignty?  Each country should be proud to stand up and 'be itself'.  Whole cultures could be lost, and all individuality squelched if everyone conformed to the 'diversity stew'.

LW I could care less who you think is a wacko.  Conservatives are greedy, repressive pricks, and liberals are elitists and communists.  All wackos as far as I am concerned.  Just because I hate to see old friends here at SPF fall under the 'us vs them' spell, does not make me a 'Tea partier' or a 'hater'.  I would be just as concerned if you guys were all gung ho about the tea parties.

Oh yeah, you all are right.  I am sorry.  If CA polls that way, the rest of the US falls right into lockstep.  My mistake.  I also thought that the silent majority consisted of the conservative, but not necessarily politically active, common, average people of the US.  I must be wrong about that, too.

Ever get the feeling that the Powers That Be have us right where they want us: fighting each other, as usual.