Graphic credit: PCRM Health vs Pork. Repeat after me: Social welfare—bad… industrial agri-biz corporate welfare—good…

A farmer was so inspired by the bizarre outfit Lady Gaga wore to the Brit Awards, he decided to honour it in his own special way. Photo credit: News:lite.tv

A farmer was so inspired by the bizarre outfit Lady Gaga wore to the Brit Awards, he decided to honour it in his own special way.
Nigel Britten, from Surrey, says as soon as he saw Lady Gaga’s scary outfit and bizarre make-up, he thought how good it would look on one if his scarecrows.
Helped by his wife, he set about creating the 7ft tall Worzel Gaga – which comes complete with a crazy towering wig and flowing white gown.

The real Lady Gaga and the outfit she wore to the Brit Awards which inspired the Lady Gaga scarecrow. Photo credit: News:lite.tv

Over recent years he says bird have become more audacious and
less scared by the tradition scarecrow, but this one seems to be doing the trick. We think the only thing more scary would be if he actually got Lady Gaga to stand they herself… or maybe played her music into the field.
Britten, who grows 100% British wheat for bakers Hovis, said: “I was watching Lady Gaga at the Brits with my wife and the idea suddenly came to me.
“I know it’s not the most traditional scarecrow, but I suppose we have to move with the times.
“I don’t know whether it’s the dress or the hair but the birds are terrified – they daren’t approach the field anymore. Though I suppose she does look pretty scary.”

For more photos click HERE.

Photo credit: Todd Huffman's Flickr photostream

From the University of Leeds in England,

The number and diversity of male partners a queen honeybee has could help to protect her children from disease, say University of Leeds scientists, who are investigating possible causes of the widespread increase in bee deaths seen around the world.
The researchers are working on the theory that the reason some colonies are wiped out while others remain healthy could be down the genetic diversities of the hives.
Dr Bill Hughes, from the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds, says: “By making sure queens mate with enough genetically variable males, we may be able to boost resistance levels and so protect our honeybee populations from disease attacks like the ones we have seen hitting the US.”
One possibility is that the loss of honeybees means that the number and variety of potential mates for a queen is becoming too low to maintain genetic diversity and therefore disease resistant populations.

Click to read the rest of the Sex Life May Hold Key To Honeybee Survival story.

This iPhone game is addictive. Up until now, the game has been available as a PC game and the developers have ported it over to the iPhone with many of the same features. Plants vs. Zombies requires you to defend your house from mobs of raging zombies by placing various sorts of projectile-emitting, exploding, and zombie-eating plants between them and your front door. There are 49 powerful perennials to chose from to fight the 26 different zombies trying to invade your home. Having played a game on my iPhone for the first time (after two and a half years of owning my iPhone) I must say they are addictive when you have nothing else to do. Available at the iTunes store for $2.99.

The hoop houses measure 14 by 16 feet and each one can house 4-5 people. Photo credit: Esbenshade’s Greenhouses

Esbenshade’s Greenhouses and Youth with a Mission International (YWAM) are teaming up to provide temporary housing to the homeless people in Haiti. As many as one million temporary housing units may be needed for Haiti earthquake survivors. Recognizing this great need, a team from Esbenshade’s Greenhouses has designed and constructed a temporary housing structure resembling a greenhouse. The 14- x 16-foot structure can provide a temporary home for a family of five with room to spare.
These custom-made homes use proven technologies and components implemented in successful greenhouse construction, including pre-fabrication for quick and easy assembly. The pieces for these homes are being customized by local volunteers at Esbenshade’s Greenhouses in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
Two hundred homes are set to leave a Florida port on Monday, February 8. Upon arrival in Haiti’s port of St. Marc, local YWAM personnel and a team of construction volunteers from the Ephrata, Pennsylvania area will meet the shipment of homes when they arrive. The plan is to construct 100 homes per acre. While this will only provide homes for about 1,000 of Haiti’s homeless, those volunteering believe it’s a good start.
Click to read more about Hoop Houses For Haiti HERE. Click for more photos in a slide show of the hoop houses HERE.

You can take your tools to the office with this baby if you wanted to. Photo credit: Ricardo Gomez

Industrial designer Richard Gomez, working out of Mexico City, has generated a modern interpretation of gardening tools for the iconic American agri-industry brand John Deere . Taking inspiration from the increasing prevalence of environmental consciousness within society, and the modern movement of urban-gardening, this tool bag, designed in collaboration with Veronica Heredia Otero, represents an elegant and practical approach to urban

Photo credit: Ricardo Gomez

gardening; emphasizing functional tools and materials with a nod to urban aesthetics and high design.

The Raw Story is reporting,

The Pentagon’s advanced research division has set aside $6 million from its next budget for research on the creation of “synthetic organisms” whose DNA can be altered to make them live forever, or die on command, and even keep a genetic record of what they have been doing.
In its 2011 budget (PDF, 522 pages), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency lays out its intention to create “BioDesign,” a project to create artificial life, presumably with military purposes in mind.
“BioDesign eliminates the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement primarily by advanced genetic engineering and molecular biology technologies to produce the intended biological effect,” the DARPA document states.
The agency says it wants to develop “a robust understanding of the collective mechanisms that contribute to cell death” so as to “enable a new generation of regenerative cells that could ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

There is a related story on Wired.com. DARPA’s desire to eliminate “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement” and override natural evolution is even more weird than GMOs. Combine this news with the robots (robot submarine hunters, lightning harnessing, and robot insects spies) DARPA are building and the movie Terminator is not so far fetched after all.

The web site Zeer displays the nutritional labels for every kind of packaged food you can buy, then lets users rate and comment on their favorite items. Zeer is unlike any food information resource out there. Built upon a database of over 30,000 food items, Zeer is not a stagnant list of safe foods, but a resource that is continually updated so people can discover new food and stay safe.
Do you have diabetes, a nut allergy, or food intolerance? Looking for a healthier diet? With Zeer you can join communities that match your needs and interests and get advice that’s relevant to you. These communities include Allergies, Food Intolerance, Lifestyle, Diets, Health, Religious and Cultural. Click to go to the Zeer web site. Click to go to the Zeer blog.

This green slug, which is part animal and part plant, produces its own chlorophyll and so can carry out photosynthesis, turning sunlight into energy, scientists have found. Photo credit: Nicholas E. Curtis/Ray Martinez/LiveScience.com

Clara Moskowitz writes in LiveScience.com,

A green sea slug appears to be part animal, part plant. It’s the first critter discovered to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll.
The sneaky slugs seem to have stolen the genes that enable this skill from algae that they’ve eaten. With their contraband genes, the slugs can carry out photosynthesis — the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy.
“They can make their energy-containing molecules without having to eat anything,” said Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Pierce has been studying the unique creatures, officially called Elysia chlorotica, for about 20 years. He presented his most recent findings Jan. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle. The finding was first reported by Science News.

Click to read the rest of the Sea Slug Is Half-plant, Half-animal story.

This is indirectly related to gardening since gardening information will be delivered this way. For those futurists who are interested on how magazine, newspapers and books will change in just the next couple of years, watch this… With the anticipated announcement in two weeks of Apple’s 10 inch iTablet or iSlate or whatever they are going to call it, the printed medium will be drastically changed just like music was with the iPod and phone calls with the iPhone. Sports Illustrated shows a sample of how they will deliver their magazine… Growing Edge may be resurrected by this… who knows?

Hat tip to Jeff Lowenfels for the story.