Category Archives: Cloning

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first episode of The Mandalorian, now streaming on Disney+.

The Mandalorian's premiere on Disney + was chock-full of Easter eggs, small homages and surprises for Star Wars fans of every era. The series presents a fascinating look at the decade after the Battle of Endor, as it takes place 8 years after the Rebels destroyed the second Death Star.

One of the sneakiest ones was the blink-and-you-miss-it emblem on Doctor Pershing's sleeve. This sign, which can be better seen in the official pictures, is, according to The Attack of the Clones visual dictionary, a Kaminoan emblem worn by all clones, as noticed by Twitter user MarvelSW.

RELATED: Star Wars: The Mandalorian Release Schedule, First Three Synopses Revealed

In The Mandalorian, Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) works with the Client (Werner Herzog), an older man who dresses, acts and sounds like a remnant of the fallen Empire. The Client hires Dyn Jarren, the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) to find "a 50-years old asset," and offers to pay him with Beskar, a legendary alloy that can deflect almost any hit from any weapon, and seems to be an essential part of the Mandalorian culture.

However, the Client also makes it clear that, if the mission gets complicated, he would still pay the Dyn Jarren half of the agreed Beskar for proof of termination of the asset. This is where the Client and Doctor Pershing differ: Pershing seems disgusted at the idea of terminating the asset, and his behavior wanes dramatically from his enthusiastic entrance.

Viewers who have watched the first episode know that "the asset," despite being 50 years old, is a baby from the same unknown species as the Jedi Masters Yoda and Yaddle. After he finds the relatively young alien, Jarren seems taken with it, for lack of a better word, going so far as to shoot IG-11 (Taika Waititi), a fellow member of the Bounty Hunter's Guild who had received the unequivocal order to terminate the alien. The last shot of the first episode shows Jarren reaching out his hand to the baby while their crib floats mid-air, possibly indicating a levitating connection with the Force.

RELATED: Star Wars: Rogues, Scoundrels, and Bounty Hunters Is a Must-Have

That short sequence of events is packed with meaning that sets up an arc that could extend through the first season and even the entire series. Although Dr. Pershing doesn't look like Boba Fett, the "doctor" shares his complexion and origin, as well as sinister-looking spectacles, so there's a chance that he might be the nerdier iteration of the same genetic stock or a descendant of one of the Fett clones who remained in Kamino. In any case, the fact that a scientist linked to a cloning facility is interested in acquiring a potentially Force-wielding infant points to the idea that some remnants of the Empire would still like to experiment on Force-sensitives.

As a curiosity, in The Force Unleashed tie-in comic books, Boba Fett found out long after the Clone Wars that the Empire had been doing terrible experiments with his "brothers," so there is a chance that The Mandalorian's showrunners might be scavenging some threads from that plotline.

RELATED: The Mandalorian: Favreau Interested in Tapping Into Star Wars Legends

However, whether the Client or Dr. Pershing or the seed of the First Order wants to clone enough Yodas to spam the entire halaxy with strange grammar is not as important as how the end of the first episode sets up the Mandalorian's internal conflict.

On the one hand, Jarren feels strongly about protecting Mandalorian children, particularly foundlingsg. The first thing that he does after getting paid is to visit the Armorer, a Mandalorian priestess-smith who forges a Beskar pauldron for his armor and rejoices in the idea that the leftover riches will "sponsor many foundlings."

"Good. I was once a foundling," Jarren answers, as he flashes back to the hovel where he was locked up in the middle of a battlefield, hands reaching up for his parents. However, the payment in Beskar for delivering baby Yoda would be enough not just to forge an entire armor, but an entire ship and to set up his Tribe for life.

RELATED: Star Wars: What Are Imperial Death Troopers Doing in The Mandalorian?

After the Client hints that Beskar is a powerful incentive, the Armorer expresses a similar sentiment; she is surprised that an Imperial sympathizer would be returning Beskar stolen during the Great Purge. This payment would mean a lot for the Mandalorians in exile, particularly because money is hard to come by and the Mandalorians have been unrooted for such a long time. To forgo the prize could be considered tantamount to failing his Tribe and all those Mandalorian foundlings.

There's a chance that Jarren could have shot IG-11 because he wanted the whole payment and not a quarter of it, but from what we have seen in the first episode, that doesn't seem to be in character. So this means that if the Mandalorian chooses to protect the baby, he will be risking his professional reputation as well.

RELATED: Star Wars: Aliens, Creatures and Droids Is Charming But Hardly Essential

Even if The Mandalorian is sold on the action-filled promise of its bounty-hunting star, the first episode's most powerful image involves its heavily armored lead simply reaching out to the crib that's filled with the hope that (relatively) new life always presents.

Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte. New episodes arrive each Friday on Disney+.

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Fallen Angels Reveals Who's Really Running the X-Men Now

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The Mandalorian Hints at the Return of Kamino Cloning | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2019 by Ben Pearson

The first episode of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian features a surprising reveal, one that ties back to the prequel trilogy and may have significant implications for the rest of the Star Wars franchise moving forward. There will be spoilers ahead as we dig into that last minute discovery.

A majority of the first episode of The Mandalorian is spent following the title character on a hunt for a target that is 50 years old. At the end of the episode, he discovers that his target is a creature of the same species as Yoda. Since the actual Yoda died after living for more than 900 years, the different aging process of this creature makes sense. (George Lucas has always been incredibly protective of all information about Yodas origins and his species, so its interesting that Lucasfilm is finally able to start playing in that corner of the sandbox all these years after the sale to Disney.) But how does this impact what might come next?

The insignia on the sleeves of the characters in the image above is seen in Attack of the Clones as an emblem worn by all of the clones on the planet Kamino. And wouldnt you know it? Someone on Twitter noticed the same emblem on the sleeve of Doctor Pershing, the guy who nearly got blasted by The Mandolorian in Werner Herzogs sketchy meeting room in the pilot episode.

Pershing made it very clear that he wanted The Asset (aka Baby Yoda) brought in alive, and his uniform seems to imply that hes associated with the remnants of the Empire in some way. Could it be that Baby Yoda is a clone of the little green guy we know and love? That emblem certainly points to cloning as being something this series is almost certainly going to tackle down the line, and there are a few reasons why a Yoda clone might be a gamechanger for the Star Wars universe. Well get to those in just a second.

As the Still Watching podcast reminded me, Freddie Prinze Jr.s rant on the beliefs of Dave Filoni and George Lucas made it clear that Star Wars is all about the concept of balance. Anakin Skywalker was born in 41 BBY (which stands for Before the Battle of Yavin, the climactic confrontation at the end of A New Hope), and since this show is set nine years after the fall of the Empire (read: the Battle of Yavin) and Baby Yoda is actually 50 years old, that means Baby Yoda was born in the same year as Anakin.

Anakin was said to be The Chosen One, apparently born from the Force itself, but he was corrupted and went to the Dark Side, ultimately becoming one of the most fearsome people in the galaxy. Was his journey predetermined by the Force? Does the franchises overarching idea of balance indicate that this Yoda baby was born as a positive counter to Anakins eventual evil? Or was Anakin intended to be good all along and this creature was intended to be his negative counterbalance? Food for thought.

How exactly Baby Yodas appearance will affect the rest of The Mandalorian remains to be seen, although I personally hope it results in at least one scene that serves as the Star Wars version of John Woos Hard Boiled finale, in which Chow Yun-Fats character blasts his way through baddies at a hospital with a baby in his arms.

But assuming Baby Yoda survives the events of this series, whats the endgame here? Is there a chance an older version of that character shows up in The Rise of Skywalker? Ive seen some speculation that Emperor Palpatine may be behind the bounty, potentially so Palpatine could somehow leave his old body and take over this new possibly Force-sensitive new one. (It seems that a species with a long lifespan might interest the Emperor, whos obsessed with the concept of immortality.) And since Yoda was one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, the Emperor could think that inhabiting a clone of him might be just what the doctor ordered.

Personally, I doubt that will happen.J.J. Abrams has talked about that movie serving as a conclusion to the entire Skywalker saga, and it would be strange to introduce this character so late in the game.Then again, Kevin Feige has said that audiences will need to watch the Disney+ Marvel shows in order to fully understand whats happening in the Marvel movies going forward, so Disney clearly isnt above implementing that cross-platform tactic. I cant fathom how that characters appearance in The Rise of Skywalker would be satisfying, but I also think including the Emperor in the new movie at all sounds like a terrible idea. Maybe Abrams and the Lucasfilm Story Group have cooked up a scenario in which all of these puzzle pieces fit perfectly, but I think they probably have enough on their plate without adding yet another character into the mix.

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Here's a The Mandalorian Clone Theory and What It Could Mean - /FILM

Global Voice Cloning Market: Snapshot

The demand within the global market for voice cloning is expected to experience a sturdy rise in the years to come. Voice cloning has multiple applications across a wide array of industries which has played a key role in the growth of the global market for voice cloning. Several industries and sectors including banking, electronics, healthcare, and entertainment use voice cloning technologies. Voice cloning is used in electronic devices to run automated audios for giving out instructions. The rise in the demand for electronic device with audio assistance has played a major role in market growth.

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The entertainment industry frequently uses voice replication to generate video clips, audios, podcasts, and movies. This factor shall also emerge as a key driver of demand within the global market for voice cloning in the years to come. Voice cloning is also used in the healthcare industry to create automated voice assistance for high-end healthcare products. Use of voiceovers for creating explainer videos and digital collaterals has also played a major role in the growth of the global market for voice cloning. There is a stellar need for improved voice cloning to create better audio impact in animated movies and films.

The market for voice cloning in North America has been expanding at a stellar rate. This is attributed to the presence of a starry entertainment industry in the US and Canada. Moreover, the market for voice cloning in Asia Pacific is also growing due to the same reason. Other regional segments in the global voice cloning market are Europe and Latin America.

GlobalVoice Cloning Market: Overview

The demand within the global market for voice cloning has been rising on account of the need to replicate voices for various applications in industrial processes and entertainment activities. Voice cloning has enabled successful execution of text-to-speech applications in mobile phones, desktops, and laptops which has played a key role in the growth of the global market for voice cloning. The advent of several software applications that involve the use of voice cloning have given an impetus to the growth of the global market. Furthermore, voice cloning was considered to be a complex process a few decades ago due to technological limitations. However, with advancements in software and hardware capabilities, it has become extremely easy to effectuate voice cloning in hardware devices and software applications. Furthermore, the advantages and agility served by voice cloning is expected to be a key parameter for growth within the global market for voice cloning. It is also true that the global market for voice cloning would expand as new entertainment avenues take shape across the world.

The global market for voice cloning may be segmented on the basis of the following parameters: component, application, deployment mode, vertical, and region. It is vital to get a thorough understanding of these market segments in order decipher the market dynamics.

A report on the global voice cloning market sheds value on some of the key standpoints for market growth. The report is a representation of the trends, opportunities, regional dynamics, and restraints that have housed in the global market for voice cloning in recent times. The regional segmentation has been distinctly highlighted in the report to give a wide purview of the market.

GlobalVoice Cloning Market: Trends and Opportunities

The demand within the global market for voice cloning has been rising on account of the tremendous technological advancements that have offset in the electronics and communication industries. New software tools that are equipped with voice feedback and other features relating to artificial voice have given an impetus to the growth of the global market for voice cloning. Moreover, the presence of multiple providers of voice cloning services has also led to the generation of voluminous revenues in this market. Wireless assistants such as Alexa, Siri, and other modes were possible only due to the presence of voice cloning. Furthermore, chatbots are other amongst others software applications that have played a pivotal role in enhancing the growth prospects of the global market for voice cloning. Besides this, the popularity of digital games, accessibility options, and interactive learning has also created tremendous demand within the global market for voice cloning in recent times.

GlobalVoice Cloning Market: Regional Outlook

The technological revolutions that has birthed across the US has resulted in the development of several specialised hardware and software capabilities in the country. For this reason, the growth of the global market for voice cloning in North America is expected to trace an ascending path in the years to come. The market for voice cloning in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America is also expected to grow at a robust rate in the years to come.

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GlobalVoice Cloning Market: Competitive Landscape

Microsoft, AWS, IBM, AT&T, Nuance Communications, Baidu, and iSpeech are some of the key vendors operational in the global market for voice cloning.

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Voice Cloning Market Industry Insights, Top Trends, Drivers, Growth and Forecast to 2028 - Downey Magazine

Sources speaking with Bloomberg and Buzzfeed report that Facebook hoped to acquire Musical.ly to break into the Chinese market. According to those sources, the talks in the second half of 2016 were serious but nothing ever came to fruition.

ByteDance eventually acquired Musical.ly in 2017 merging the app with Douyin to create TikTok.

Bloomberg reporting adds an additional angle to the reason why the deal never went through. Facebook walked away from the deal over concerns of the apps young userbase and Chinese ownership.

Thats a concern that landed TikTok in hot water over child safety concerns. Lawmakers in India briefly banned the app prompting a look at how TikTok moderates itself. The U.S. Treasury Department is currently investigating ByteDances acquisition of Musical.ly.

Leaked audio from a meeting this summer revealed that Zuckerberg plans to move fast and copy things when it comes to TikTok. That strategy worked once before when Instagram cloned the Stories feature from Snapchat so why wouldnt the plan work again?

In true copycat form, Instagram recently unveiled a new feature called Reels in Brazil. Reels is a TikTok clone with fewer video editing features, but Instagram is huge in Brazil. Last year, Facebook launched a separate TikTok clone app called Lasso but it hasnt caught on anywhere but Mexico.

Facebook has never been shy about cloning apps if they cant acquire them. Zuckerberg offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion before Facebook and Instagram cloned its most popular features.

But when it comes to TikTok, it looks like Facebooks copy-to-complete game plan isnt quite panning out at least not yet. Sources speaking to BuzzFeed say TikTok has become a personal bugbear for Zuckerberg. One former high-ranking Facebook official said:

Facebook is so pissed that TikTok is the one thing they cant beat that theyve turned to geopolitical arguments and lawmakers in Washington to fight their fight.

Just recently, Zuckerberg excoriated TikTok for censorship and other political abuses. While our services like WhatsApp are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the China-based app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these same protests are censored, even here in the US, Zuckerberg told an audience last month at Georgetown University.

Of course, Facebook itself has been accused of destroying democracy in realtime and radicalizing users en-masse. All of which probably makes TikTok a pleasant distraction for Zuckerberg.

Continued here:

Facebook Tried to Acquire Musical.ly For Six Months In 2016 - Digital Music News

Cannabis cultivators need a clean, reproducible growing process that can cater to high demand and create consistent product.

Enter large-scale, plant tissue culture propagation. Using practices adopted from orchid farming, plant cells are taken from a mother plant and grown using a specific regimen of nutrients, hormones, and light under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium.

The tissue culture process involves test tubes, sterile labs, and technicians wearing clean suits, so its a far cry from the country farm atmosphere. But if any crop is accustomed to artificial conditions its cannabis, and tissue culture holds a lot of promise for growers who want consistency and vigorous, disease-free plants.

However, its not a simple or easy process and definitely not cheap. Here well cover the process, its advantages, and disadvantages.

There are four basic steps to the tissue culture process.

Why would this method replace conventional methods of cloning cannabis? There are numerous advantages:

Theres less environmental waste with this process. According to Fred Green, a horticultural consultant in Princeton, Massachusetts, Eliminating the mother room reduces the need for a significant amount of water because you dont have to keep those plants alive. And in terms of energy, the number of watts per square foot required for tissue culture is just a fraction of what it is to keep a mother plant growing and healthy.

Additionally, the space required is far less than growing seeds, mother plants, or clones. In an average facility, 15-17% of space is used for mother plants and vegging clones. If you use tissue culture, almost all of that can be converted into flower production, said Green.

The tissue culture process is not quick or easy. Plants grown in a lab cant just immediately go into a greenhouse or field; its a delicate process.

It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a tissue culture operation. It requires highly skilled technicians, and in the current market, producers are largely untrained. Clean rooms are expensive to build and run, and they need special equipment to filter air to reduce the risk of contamination.

About that contaminationin the beginning of their lives, plantlets grown from tissue culture are much more vulnerable to disease than plants grown from seed or clone. Spores, bugs, and viruses can quickly wipe out a crop. According to Green, All tools have to be sterilized between each use. If you get disease spore on a tweezer and then you handle 20 plants, all 20 of those plants will certainly have disease.

While plantlets grow fast, putting a new crop into a clean stock program can take years. For example, it takes a minimum of six to nine months to get a new strain clean and stable enough to go into production. It can then take years to get it into large-scale production with thousands of plants.

Marketing for tissue culture often claims that growers will have consistent outcomes because plants start out disease- and pest-free. According to Jeremy Plumb, Director of Production Science at Pruf Cultivar in Oregon, thats only the beginning of the journey. You still need good growers and a stable growing environment to control temperature, lighting, humidity, nutrients, and more. Unless you can execute those variables, its very unlikely tissue culture is going to make any difference, said Plumb.

Today, very few companies in the US are jumping into tissue culture. This is partly because the legal market is still young and businesses are still figuring things out.

Because markets are limited at the state level, the consumer base is small, making this practice unviablebut California may be an exception. Green estimates that only a small amount of cannabis growers in the US use the process, but in Canada, where the legal market is the entire country, its much more. Canada is much further ahead than the US because you can ship it anywhere in the country.

So until the market expands, you may want to keep your aspirations for this high-tech process on hold.

Christine Giraud, a freelance writer in Boston, has been writing about cannabis for publications like The Boston Globe, Overture Global Magazine, Dig Boston, Civilized, Her(b) Life, and Foottraffik.

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Is tissue culture the future of growing cannabis? - Leafly

Tom Brady throwing passes to Odell Beckham Jr.? It was the dream of the occasionally mercurial wide receiver.

Beckham told reporters Wednesday he heard the talk of a potential trade to New England a few years back, and he was pretty psyched about it.

Two, three years ago, there was speculation that was going on, he said. I was willing and ready to go over there at any point in time. That was always a dream of mine to play for Tom Brady.

Instead, Beckham was dealt from New York to Cleveland last offseason, ending up with Baker Mayfield and the Browns. But while Beckham took care Wednesday to say how much hes enjoyed playing with Mayfield in Cleveland, it doesnt mean his feelings toward Brady have changed. Beckham said he has a pair of goat-hair cleats he wants to present to the New England quarterback this weekend.

Tom Bradys the GOAT. I know weve done some goat cloning. ... I think theres something going on, Beckham told reporters. Hes not human to be playing the way hes still playing. Mentally prepared every single game. Decisive decisions. Knows how to manage a game. Plays offense and defense with the way that he plays. Hes just very smart. Hes the best to ever do it. I dont think anybody could really argue it. Hes just the greatest. I definitely want some of the water that hes drinking.

He also has plenty of respect for Bill Belichick -- even though the receiver said he expects to hear some barbs from the New England sideline on Sunday.

He tells me the same thing every time, Beckham said of Belichick. Hes like, I hope you enjoy today, because theres not gonna be much for you. And thats what hes told me, and thats what he does every single time. Its just tough. Hes going to coach it up, and theyre going to be ready and prepared.

With the Giants, Beckham has played one regular-season game against the Patriots, and had four catches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

Sundays game at Gillette Stadium begins at 4:25 p.m.

Christopher Price can be reached at christopher.price@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cpriceNFL.

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Browns Odell Beckham Jr. said it was his dream to be teammates with Tom Brady - The Boston Globe

A new study submitted by an astrophysicist claimed that Earth may have already been invaded by aliens using tiny self-cloning probes. According to the studys author, even though the probes are too small to be spotted, they leave behind traces that can be detected.

Astrophysicist Zaza Osmanov from the Free University of Tbilisi in Georgia claimed in a new study that a race of extraterrestrial beings is using self-replicating probes to explore the universe and its planets, including Earth.

Osmanov explained that these probes are based on the Von Neumann concept, which was theorized by mathematician John Von Neumann. By being able to clone themselves exponentially, these probes are capable of covering and observing vast regions in space.

All the results indicate that if one detects a strange object with extremely high values of luminosity increment, that might be a good sign to place the object in the list of extraterrestrial Von-Neumann probe candidates, Osmanov wrote in his paper.

We have considered the scenario when the Type-II civilization needs to invade the interstellar clouds by means of the self-reproducing robots, he continued. And it has been shown that this process will inevitably lead to the observational consequences.

Since these probes are capable of cloning their selves, the scientist noted that there may already be billions to trillions of alien probes flying in space and on Earth

Despite the huge number, these probes still remain unseen because they are too small to be spotted by the human eye. According to Osmanov, each of the probes are only about a nanometer in size, which is equivalent to a billionth of a meter.

Although these probes are almost invisible due to their size, Osmanov noted that there are still ways to detect them. According to the scientist, these probes rely on photons or light particles to sustain themselves. In turn, these probes produce small amounts of light as they travel across space. When viewed through infrared light, these light streams would appear like the traces left behind by comets.

Osmanovs study regarding the existence of self-replicating alien probes is currently available through the website ArXiv.org.

An illustration of an alien. Photo: Pawel86/Pixabay

Originally posted here:

Aliens Already Invaded Earth With Tiny Probes, New Study Claims - International Business Times

Its no secret that Texans like tequila. In fact, its a point of pride. Between patio margaritas, rooftop palomas and late-night shots, we consumed a little more than 18 million liters of the agave-based spirit in 2018. That accounts for a respectable one-ninth of the entire countrys consumption, according to data from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.

Of course, like all things delicious and from the earth, sustainable agricultural practices are key to ensuring that its still around for us to enjoy long term.

The future of agave depends upon genetic diversity, says Grover Sanschagrin, the Jalisco, Mexico-based co-founder of tastetequila.com and the Tequila Matchmaker app. Right now, the entire industry is using blue agave with the exact same genetic code, because they are harvesting the hijuelos, baby plants that are clones of the mother.

The clones are an efficient means to an end. If allowed to flower and sexually reproduce on their own a process that often takes as long as 12 years agave plants wont have enough juice left to distill. To combat this dilemma, growers clone the agaves, ensuring theyre able to harvest the plants when perfectly ripe, usually between six and eight years of age. But, while efficient, the practice is inherently risky. If one gets a disease, it could wipe out all of the plants, Sanschagrin says.

Its a risk that some tequila producers are hoping to mitigate. And the steps they choose to take now will affect tequilas availability and quality in the future.

One brand at the forefront of progressive sustainability practices is El Tesoro, which is made at the La Altea Distillery located in the Jalisco highlands, about 6,000 feet above sea level. Led by master distiller Carlos Camarena, El Tesoro does things the old way the hard way. Agaves are grown entirely on the familys estate, hand-harvested after seven to eight years, slow-cooked in brick ovens and then crushed with a 2-ton stone called a tahona.

But even a brand steeped in tradition knows that it must look toward the future to ensure its success. Thats why Camarena is part of the Bat Friendly Tequila and Mezcal Project, which promotes biodiversity among agave plants. Today, El Tesoro allows between 2% and 5% of its plants to reach full maturity and bloom. For tequila producers, setting aside even a small percentage of the crop represents a substantial financial hit, as those plants cant be harvested, distilled and monetized.

Its good news for the bats, though. They are natural pollinators of agave plants, feeding on the nectar of mature plants and cross-pollinating from field to field. Its a symbiotic relationship. Formerly endangered species like the lesser long-nosed bat have more food to eat now, and their pollinating efforts promote biodiversity among the agaves.

Its too soon to know exactly how successful the project will be in the long run. Many scientists believed that, after so many years of cloning, it would be impossible for the blue agaves to reproduce sexually. But the results have already defied expectations. Camarenas team has been nurturing seedlings in a greenhouse, and roughly 5% have yielded sprouts, potentially representing a new genetic wave of agaves.

Camarena is playing the long game. Maybe well see results in 80 or 100 years, he says, but this isnt something were doing for our own lifetime.

While El Tesoro is one of the innovators leading the sustainability charge, its not alone. Ubiquitous giant Patrn commissioned a study at the National Center of Genetic Resources, Mexicos biodiversity bank in Jalisco, to analyze blue agaves genetics in hopes of establishing future recommendations for the industry that will promote long-term sustainability. And even smaller producers such as Ghost are playing a part.

People in the industry tend to look at agave sustainability as an issue that should be addressed by the large tequila companies, says Chris Moran, founder and CEO of Ghost Tequila. I dont agree at all. This is a matter of importance that every tequila producer needs to take seriously, to share in the responsibility to ensure the longevity of this crop.

He notes that they control their own agave fields, which allows them to institute responsible agronomy practices, such as planting alternate crops after agave harvests to allow the soil to regenerate.

But its not just the distillers who have a say in the matter. Bars, restaurants and retail shops can make an impact via the products they choose to carry.

According to Chris Dempsey, a bartender at Atwater Alley and the mezcal- and tequila-focused La Viuda Negra, its important for bars to consider how spirits are made when deciding what to stock and pour. He notes that his bars wont carry any products made with a diffuser, a machine that significantly shortens the harvest-to-bottle timeline and strips out a lot of the agaves character. He prefers to support the people who put in the time and effort to produce the best possible products, noting a few favorite brands, including Siembra Valles, Tequila Ocho and El Tesoro.

Camarena has been instrumental in sustainability and biodiversity, Dempsey says. He is the leader to watch when talking about and practicing sustainability with agave and Mexican spirits.

Spirits right now have the ability more than ever to be responsible, not just in production, but socially, says Jose Gonzalez, a bartender at Midnight Rambler inside the Joule hotel. It says a lot for a company when they put their money and their plants on the line.

He adds that Camarena is a guardian of agave plants, not just an owner, and that mindset impacts everything from the distillerys light environmental footprint to the quality of the product.

People should care about what they put in their bodies as well as who it affects, like the producers and farmers, Gonzalez says. As much as we go to the farmers market to grab local produce, we should know who grows the agave.

Dempsey also urges consumers to fight the good fight.

Think about it, he says. You want to work out and eat all this amazing organic food, but then you go and drink some subpar spirits just because of marketing and a low price. That defeats the purpose of being healthy. If you really want to help the cause, dont drink diffuser tequila, and help support any sustainable agave program.

According to Sanschagrin, at todays market prices, each 1-liter bottle of traditionally-made 100% agave tequila contains about $10.70 worth of agave inside. So, while we consumers dont have a hands-on impact on the plants growing in Mexico, we can exert our influence with how we choose to spend our hard-earned tequila money.

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The future of tequila: How clones, bats and biodiversity will help agave survive - The Dallas Morning News

Of course, Tom Terrific wouldnt. Instead, heres what his cameo was really about: solidarity with his boss. The short scene reduces Krafts prostitution charges at the Orchids of Asia Day spa to a punch line in a TV show. As if to say: no big deal.

Bradys cameo is yet another example of how the NFL in general, and the Patriots in particular, just dont get it. They dont get how their actions reveal a deep lack of respect for women.

The similarities between the fictional spa and the scene of Krafts alleged crime are unmistakable. Brady emerges from a sketchy strip mall store with blinds partially drawn and Asian lettering. In a later scene without Brady, lead actor Paul Rudd returns to the day spa and knocks on the door. A guy smoking a cigarette nearby wonders if Rudd is desperately seeking a sexual favor.

Kraft the billionaire who can afford the best lawyers money can buy has denied the allegations and is this close to having the misdemeanor prostitution charges in Florida dropped. Nothing to see here, just a cultural sideshow to Brady and Krafts six Super Bowl championships together.

Yet its not. Kraft is guilty in the court of public opinion. He already apologized publicly for his bad behavior when it looked like there was admissable video of his illicit massages.

Brady professes the scene was an innocent coincidence, written four years ago and shot on a green screen this year after Kraft was charged with prostitution. So let me get this straight: One of the worlds most famous athletes who fiercely guards his brand didnt know he was walking out of a storefront spa that is central to the plot of the Netflix series?

Brady appears in the first episode of the series, which is a sci-fi dramedy about human cloning. Rudd plays a character named Miles Elliott who wants to become a better version of himself. At a co-workers suggestion, he checks out the Top Happy Spa.

On his first visit, Rudd runs into Brady exiting the spa.

First time? a glowing Brady asks Rudd.

Uh-huh, answers a star-struck Rudd. You?

Six, Brady replies as he steps into a black SUV and is whisked away.

If Brady didnt know the hornets nest he was about to step on with his cameo, Rudd and show creator Timothy Greenberg surely did. Brady was the shows top choice for the role, and he himself credits his real-life regimented diet with prolonging his NFL career. The show implies that the fictional Brady, played by the real Brady, has cloned himself six times, once before each Super Bowl win.

After Kraft got busted in February for allegedly patronizing an illicit massage parlor, Greenberg thought Brady would back out of the appearance.

Once that happened Paul texted me or I texted him, and we were like, Oh my God, can you believe this? Theres no way Bradys doing it now, Greenberg told Entertainment Weekly.

And then eventually he agreed. And I dont know why. [Laughs] I dont know if people wont make the connection; maybe nobody cares anymore. But he did it. So we didnt ask him why.

Heres why: The cameo is yet another example of the boys closing ranks.

Weve seen this before, when the Patriots defended its decision to pick up wide receiver Antonio Brown in September, even after his former personal trainer accused him, in a lawsuit, of sexual assault and rape.

The Patriots could have benched the star player to signal to the world that it takes sexual assault allegations seriously. Instead, the champions made sure Brown played a key role in what would be his first and only game in a Patriots uniform. Brady connected with him four times, including a touchdown, on their way to a 43-0 trouncing of the Miami Dolphins.

(The Patriots released Brown a few days later, after a second woman accused him of sexual misconduct and intimidation.)

Some of you may be thinking: So what? This is Hollywood, and this is football. This has nothing to do with how anyone treats or perceives women.

But it does. After Kraft was charged with prostitution, three young female leaders at My Life My Choice, a nonprofit that works to end the sexual exploitation of children, wrote a Globe op-ed titled Dear johns an open letter to sex buyers. Kraft and the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation have provided financial support to the nonprofit.

Whether you use words like prostitution or trafficking, exploitation is exploitation so dont kid yourself one isnt a victim, wrote H., J., and P., whose full names were not disclosed because they are victims of sex crimes. You may be able to convince yourself that this is a choice or what a woman wants but whether you are in the Life because someone is forcing you, someone is pretending to love you, or you have nowhere else to turn, it is all trauma, and it is degrading. Even more than that it is dehumanizing.

When you are as big a star as Brady, your words and your actions matter. And Tom Brady, in this brief appearance, helps trivialize prostitution.

There are some things bigger than football, and this is one of them. Brady should have turned down the cameo, and let the show go on without him.

Shirley Leung is a Globe columnist. Matthew Gilbert of the Globe staff contributed to this article. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @leung.

Original post:

Tom Brady and Bob Kraft get the last laugh with quarterbacks cameo in Netflix series - The Boston Globe

Nice Knowing You

Season 1 Episode 8

Editor's Rating 3 stars *****

Photo: Eric Liebowitz/Netflix/Eric Liebowitz/Netflix

Let us not, in the final episode of the season, lose sight of the fact that this show is called Living With Yourself. It could be easy to forget because the two versions of Miles havent spent much time together, and many of the episodes have been structured around keeping them apart showing a set of events from one perspective, then coming back around to show the other. Whats been a little bit lost is the conversation that Miles is having with himself, which is the benefit and curse of hanging out with your own clone. Miles has learned about himself through his confrontations with Miles 2.0 as the more defeated and ill-kempt of the two, hes had to step up his game a little but there hasnt been much sustained Miles-on-Miles (and Rudd-on-Rudd) action.

Nice Knowing You finally delivers on that promise, but not before getting sidetracked by the least compelling subplot of the series. It turns out that the two Mileses threatened call to the FDAs criminal division was accidentally a real alert, one thats had two FDA agents following Miles around in a station wagon. So when Miles was kidnapped at the end of the last episode, he comes face to face with those investigators, who want to get to the bottom of this human cloning operation. Or they might. Its curious that Miles is treated as if hes the perpetrator of a crime rather than its beneficiary. They seem to have no interest in going after this network of cloning spas and a keen interest in determining whether Miles is who he says he is. And really, a lie detector test (on defective equipment) wouldnt reveal anything about whether this is new Miles or original flavor. They share the same memories.

But these opening minutes press on, pushing the thin joke that Miles is being kept in the FDAs lactation room rather than a proper holding facility, because there isnt any money available for cloning probes. This leads to the odd spectacle of Miles plundering the refrigerator for breast milk while working his way through stacks of parenting magazines. The room allows him to refocus on the possibilities of fatherhood after years of withering interest, but its a contrived and unfunny situation, made worse by an investigators inexplicable line of questioning. (Have you ever engaged in sodomy?) When Miles manages to escape the lactation room and wander out into the office area, his release is such a big shoulder-shrug that you wonder why his confinement was necessary at all.

Nice Knowing You improves when Miles comes back home to find Kate waiting for him on the stairs, ready to confess her shame in cheating on him with his clone. Before she can, however, Miles feels he has some apologizing to do. (His sputtering about reading a parenting article and drinking breast milk is funnier in the telling. This is coming out all wrong! he says in frustration.) After Miles 2.0s excruciating attempt to coax Kate into re-creating their wedding dance, its a huge pleasure to see them cut a rug to Rick James Give It To Me Baby, falling into step with ease. They are the right couple they like pia coladas and getting caught in the rain and its obvious to them and to Miles 2.0, whos spying from upstairs. His Miles ruse gets sidelined before it ever gets started. All he gets out of it is toothpaste stains on a ratty sweater.

Back at his apartment, Miles 2.0 contemplates suicide though, again, such an extreme act seems out of character, even for a guy who has no purpose. One important thing to note about Miles 2.0s feelings for Kate is that theyre not as lived-in as his counterparts. Just as their years as a couple wind up mattering to Kate more than she anticipated, it follows that Miles 2.0s memories bring him up short of the deep feeling that shes a lost soul mate. Miles 2.0 putting a gun in his mouth isnt convincing, and even he seems to realize that when he cant pull the trigger. The entire sequence plays like a silly pretext to a physical confrontation between the two Mileses.

Once Miles and Miles 2.0 finally square off, the metaphysical battle promised with the shows title bears some fruit. Theyre equally incompetent fighters, which leads to some quality slapstick, but the point of the sequence is to bring out their similarities and differences at the same time. Its a metaphor for the complicated feelings people have about themselves, the self-love and self-hatred that coexists within the same being. They try to murder each other and Miles succeeds, briefly but theyre united in their hatred of that horrible credenza, and theyre united again when Kate announces her pregnancy and both can serve a unified purpose.

There may be no childrens book about a baby having two dads and a mom, so it will be the task of next season to see if theres room for all three to play their part. (Speaking from experience, if the three of them can get together on feeding schedules during those sleepless first few months, it will be a revolution in parenting.) It wouldnt be a show if this wasnt a tenuous arrangement, from the issue of paternity to the perpetually unsettled matter of whos entitled to Miles life. But the fundamentals of Living With Yourself Rudds dual turn, Aisling Beas refreshing saltiness, creator Timothy Greenbergs insight into middle-aged suburban malaise are enough to keep it rolling for a while, so long as it doesnt get sidetracked by the cloning police. Cloning works great on the show on a character level; the ethics of the actual practice mean less than nothing here.

Despite this supersize episode 36 minutes! its still possible to get through this entire first season of Living With Yourself in four hours. Very binge-able. (Though binging may be coming to an end.)

It really looks like the show used the set from the original Saw for its lactation room. How is this FDA-approved?

Maybe somethings coming next season, but after using the pig carcass as the framing device for an entire episode, it seems like Miles 2.0 running it over with his car isnt enough of a payoff.

That final look from Kate as all three are locked into a hug is something much worse than the famously ambiguous final shot in The Graduate.

More here:

Living With Yourself Finale Recap: Me, Myself, and You - Vulture