Stephan: In addition to pesticides and herbicides apparently the frequencies of cellphone transmission are part of what is killing the bees. Just remember that of the 100 crops humanity depends on for its food 71 of them could not exist without bees.
Thanks to Deborah Admiral and Debra Katz.
Scientists may have found the cause of the world’s sudden dwindling population of bees – and cell phones may be to blame. Research conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that the signal from cell phones not only confuses bees, but also may lead to their death. Over 83 experiments have yielded the same results. With virtually most of the population of the United States (and the rest of the world) owning cell phones, the impact has been greatly noticeable.
Led by researcher Daniel Favre, the alarming study found that bees reacted significantly to cell phones that were placed near or in hives in call-making mode. The bees sensed the signals transmitted when the phones rang, and emitted heavy buzzing noise during the calls. The calls act as an instinctive warning to leave the hive, but the frequency confuses the bees, causing them to fly erratically. The study found that the bees’ buzzing noise increases ten times when a cell phone is ringing or making a call – aka when signals are being transmitted, but remained normal when not in use.
The signals cause the bees to become lost and disoriented. The impact has already been felt the world over, as the […]
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, - Agence France-Presse (France)/Raw Story
Stephan: Just as in the Ukraine there is going to be a part of Japan that will not be inhabitable for years or there may be a zone functionally off-limits to humans forever.
TOKYO - Japan on Sunday started the first evacuations of homes outside a government exclusion zone after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled one of the country’s nuclear power plants.
Some 4,000 residents of Iidate-mura village as well as 1,100 people in Kawamata-cho town, in the quake-hit northeast, began the phased relocations to public housing, hotels and other facilities in nearby cities.
Their communities are outside the 20-kilometre radius from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, officially designated as an area of forced evacuation due to health risks from the radiation seeping from the ageing and damaged plant.
The government told people in communities such as Iidate-mura they had to leave, but authorities are unlikely to punish those who choose to stay.
‘I am sure all of you have lived in Iidate-mura all your life and never moved,’ mayor Norio Kanno told a group of residents preparing to leave their homes.
‘Considering the future of our children and young people, as well as the health of our village residents, we have no choice but to go ahead with the village-wide evacuation,’ he said.
‘I will do whatever I can so that you will be able to return home as soon as possible.’
The first batch of evacuees […]
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DAVID LEONHARDT, - The New York Times
Stephan: There is a correlation between conservative religious beliefs and spousal abuse, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, literacy, and educational level. Now here is the not surprising data showing that the willful ignorance of the Religious Right also correlates with its failure to find financial success. Rather than examine this it is much easier to strike out with anti-semitism, racism, and resentment. This is part of what drives the Tea Party.
Thanks to Russell Donda.
The economic differences among the country’s various religions are strikingly large, much larger than the differences among states and even larger than those among racial groups.
The most affluent of the major religions – including secularism – is Reform Judaism. Sixty-seven percent of Reform Jewish households made more than $75,000 a year at the time the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life collected the data, compared with only 31 percent of the population as a whole. Hindus were second, at 65 percent, and Conservative Jews were third, at 57 percent.
On the other end are Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists. In each case, 20 percent or fewer of followers made at least $75,000. Remarkably, the share of Baptist households making $40,000 or less is roughly the same as the share of Reform Jews making $100,000 or more. Overall, Protestants, who together are the country’s largest religious group, are poorer than average and poorer than Catholics. That stands in contrast to the long history, made famous by Max Weber, of Protestant nations generally being richer than Catholic nations.
Many factors are behind the discrepancies among religions, but one stands out. The relationship between education and income is so strong that you can almost […]
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Stephan: I use this story not because I think Burr's bill will pass and become law, but because it is a datapoint -- an actual fact -- on the Denier trend. Compare this with the report from the National Academy of Sciences. This is purchased, or willful, ignorance as political expression.
Brad Johnson blogs at the Wonk Room on the climate crisis, energy policy, and building a green economy. Brad holds a bachelor's degree in math and physics from Amherst College and master's degree in geosciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the co-author of Technomanifestos, a history of the Information Revolution, and the founder of HillHeat.com, which covers climate policy in our nation's capital.
Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, established 40 years ago by President Richard Nixon to give Americans clean air and water. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department of Energy, which manages nuclear energy and energy research, into one department.
In January, Newt Gingrich proposed abolishing the EPA, and several House Republicans have supported that goal, while making numerous attempts to hamstring limits on industrial polluters. Burr’s statement announcing his bill to eliminate the EPA argues that ‘duplicative functions’ can be eliminated, even though the two departments are completely different:
Burr introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach.
Burr’s bill has 15 cosponsors, all of them global warming deniers: Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ariz.), […]
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JOHN AVLON, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: Partly this shift in radio is a matter of fad and culture. This isn't the first time in American history there has been a virulent Right, and it won't be the last. But the culture wheel is moving on and, I think, there is also amongst the more rational right a dawning realization that what the extremists are proposing doesn't work.
John Avlon's most recent book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the Web and in paperback. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics and a CNN contributor. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
Since he gave up his Philadelphia morning drive-time slot in January to focus solely on his nationally syndicated radio show, Smerconish has been seeing startling success: ‘I’ve been letting my Independent freak flag fly and people are responding.
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