Archive for January, 2011
The Bee Crisis
Over a million people have signed this petition calling on governments to ban pesticides that kill bees:
We call on you to immediately ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until and unless new independent scientific studies prove they are safe. The catastrophic demise of bee colonies could put our whole food chain in danger. If you act urgently with precaution now, we could save bees from extinction.
If you are curious as to just why this is so important, here’s Tom Theobald, the whistleblowing beekeeper who “leaked” an EPA memo about the systemic pesticide Clothianidin. EPA scientists do not approve of the use of this toxic poison because of the damage caused to honeybees and other insects and invertebrates. Yet the EPA proposes the sale will simply continue. Here he discusses the EPA and the bigger picture problems that allowed this toxic chemical to be released onto the market – despite concerns of the EPA scientists.
Man Demoted For Failing To Pray
Religious discrimination and sexual harassment are, sadly, nothing new to the workplace. When your boss tells you “to attend the prayer meetings or find another position,” getting transferred may be the best opportunity. Unless your personal medical information is leaked to your new co-workers. Courthouse News Service reports:
A BNSF Railway worker claims he was demoted because he declined to join his supervisor in prayer meetings at work. James Dunkin claims his boss proselytized on the job, handed out booklets that contained “instructions for raising ‘masculine sons and feminine daughters,’” and says that when he objected to the coerced prayers, the boss told him that “he needed to attend the prayer meetings or find another position.”
To top it off, Dunkin says that the offensive boss, Jeff Kirby, once “stood in his office with his door open and pants down” staring at him suggestively.
In his federal complaint in Kansas City, Kan., Dunkin says…
U.S. Combat Troops Taking 6-Month Supply Of Psychotropic Drugs To Wars
Fox News reports:
As U.S. military leaders gathered Wednesday to give their latest update on the rash of Army suicides, new questions are being raised about a U.S. Central Command policy that allows troops to go to Iraq and Afghanistan with up to a six-month supply of psychotropic drugs.
Prescription drugs have already been linked to some military suicides, and a top Army official warned last year about the danger of soldiers abusing that medication. Psychiatrists are now coming down hard on the military for continuing to sanction certain psychotropic drugs for combat troops, saying the risk from side effects is too great.
“There’s no way on earth that these boys and girls are getting monitored on the field,” said Dr. Peter Breggin, a New York-based psychiatrist who has extensively studied the side effects of psychiatric drugs. “The drugs simply shouldn’t be given to soldiers.”
Anxiety, violent behavior and “impulsivity” are all side effects of…
George Lucas Believes World Ends In 2012
George Lucas. Photo: Nicolas Genin (CC)
Having produced a feature-length documentary film and edited a book on the topic, I thought I’d interviewed or researched most of the important public figures who have something interesting or informative to say about everyone’s current favorite end-times date, December 21, 2012.
Unfortunately I didn’t know that George Lucas is one of the many people who think the end of the current 5,125-year cycle of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar on that date will mark an apocalyptic event. The Toronto Sun is reporting that Lucas revealed his fears to Seth Rogen of all people:
Funnyman Seth Rogen was left stunned by a recent encounter with his moviemaking hero George Lucas — because the Star Wars director spent 20 minutes telling him the world would end in 2012.
Rogen was left speechless when Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined a movie meeting he was a part of – but the encounter has left…
Iran On ‘Execution Binge’ With 57 Executions In 2011
CNN reports:
Iranian authorities hanged 10 convicted drug smugglers early Wednesday morning, according to state media.
The 10 men were executed at a prison in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, according to IRIB news agency.
They were charged with smuggling, storing, and selling narcotics, charges that have lead to the majority of the reported executions in Iran.
The latest executions brings the total number to 57, since the beginning of 2011, according to a human rights group.
The New York-based group, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, says the Iranian regime has been on an “execution binge”, hanging on average one person every eight hours…
Suicide Rate Doubles For Army National Guard
Some disturbing news out of Washington. CNN reports:
The U.S. Army announced Wednesday that the number of suicides rose again last year to almost one a day, despite major efforts to identify and help at-risk soldiers.
Suicides among active-duty soldiers actually declined for the first time in six years but the numbers increased among other soldiers, doubling in the Army National Guard.
The overall number of suicides for the 2010 calendar year was 343 — an increase of 69 over the previous year — and included self-inflicted deaths among active-duty soldiers, the National Guard, the Army Reserves, civilian employees of the Army and family members. The Army reported 156 active-duty suicides last year and 112 in the National Guard.
“The bottom line is this is a significant issue and clearly there is much to be done,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said in a Pentagon briefing.
While active-duty and deployed soldiers are under…
Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” Censored In Canada
Normally I’m against censorship for almost any reason, but now that Canada has found a way to censor Dire Straits I’m having second thoughts … Reuters reports:
Canadian radio stations have been warned to censor the 1985 Dire Straits hit “Money for Nothing,” after a complaint that the lyrics of the Grammy Award-winning song were derogatory to gay men.
The Best Comedian Of Our Time? (Video)
Many on the interwebs lately have been discovering (remembering) the comedy of Dave Chappelle, with this clip in particular:
Sega’s ‘Toylet’ Turns Japanese Bathrooms Into Arcades
Discovery News reports:
Japanese toilets are famed for functions such as posterior shower jets and perfume bursts, but entertainment company Sega has gone a step further by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals.
Four types of “Toylets” games are available to be played during a test period ending this month at four male bathrooms in pubs and game arcades, in a project aimed at drawing attention to digital adverts.
Each urinal is fitted with a pressure sensor, and a small digital display is placed at eye level. Digital adverts are shown after the games.
Games include “Graffiti Eraser” in which a user tries to aim at the pressure sensor in the urinal to erase virtual graffiti on the display.
Or there’s “Mannekin Pis” — named after a Brussels fountain depicting a urinating boy — which measures the volume of the user’s stream.
Another is called “The North Wind and The Sun and Me,” in which the strength…
Over US$100 Trillion Additional Credit Needed to Support Global Growth
The World Economic Forum reports that:
Credit levels will need to double over the next 10 years, growing by US$ 103 trillion, to support consensus-projected economic growth. “This doubling of credit could be achieved without increasing the risk of major crisis, finds “More Credit with Fewer Crises: Responsibly Meeting the World’s Growing Demand for Credit,” a report released by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with McKinsey & Company. The study develops a detailed global credit model using historical credit volumes and forecasting potential credit demand to 2020 across 79 countries, representing 99% of world credit volume. The study applies a sustainability methodology to the projected credit demand, using newly developed metrics to answer the following two questions: Will credit growth be sufficient to meet demand? Is there a risk of future credit crises and, if so, where?”
That is, we have to hand out $10+ trillion dollars every year until 2020 in…
When Body Fat Affects Report Cards
If you were an elementary school student, which would upset you more: being picked on as the fat kid in class or having the teacher mention it on your report card? The Chicago Tribune reports:
Elmhurst students have long been checked on how long it takes to run a mile or whether they can do a pushup. But another physical fitness assessment tool has some parents fuming — one that aims at finding out whether their kids are too hefty.
A child’s “body mass index,” a computation of body fat based on height and weight, was one of six tests used at Hawthorne Elementary School to determine the physical fitness grade on a student’s progress report.
But that practice ended abruptly Tuesday after about 25 parents met with school officials to express their displeasure with how the BMI data were being used. One mother broke into tears as she described how it affected her…
2011: We’re Living In The Future, For Good
Imagine if in 1995 someone had described to you what life would look like in fifteen years. It certainly sounds like “the future” that was long promised by twentieth-century science fiction, Discovery argues:
The year is 2010. America has been at war for the first decade of the 21st century and is recovering from the largest recession since the Great Depression. Air travel security uses full-body X-rays to detect weapons and bombs. The president, who is African-American, uses a wireless phone, which he keeps in his pocket, to communicate with his aides and cabinet members from anywhere in the world. This smart phone, called a “Blackberry,” allows him to access the world wide web at high speed, take pictures, and send emails.
It’s just after Christmas. The average family’s wish-list includes smart phones like the president’s “Blackberry” as well as other items like touch-screen tablet computers, robotic vacuums, and 3-D televisions. Video games…
Peace Corps Founder, Sargent Shriver, Dies At The Age 95
Via Discovery News:
Sargent Shriver, the founder of the Peace Corps and a former vice presidential candidate, died on Tuesday in suburban Washington surrounded by his children and grandchildren. He was 95.
On learning the news, President Barack Obama called him “one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation.”
“Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service,” he said. “Of his many enduring contributions, he will perhaps best be remembered as the founding director of the Peace Corps, helping make it possible for generations of Americans to serve as ambassadors of goodwill abroad.”
[Continues at Discovery News]
Latest Mass Animal Death: Crickets
I’m not sure how many signs of the apocalypse we’ve now experienced this season, but it’s a high tally. In the latest disturbing mass wildlife die-off, MSNBC reports that a paralyzing virus is killing crickets by the million:
A virus has killed millions of crickets raised to feed pet reptiles and those kept in zoos. The cricket paralysis virus has disrupted supplies to pet shops across North America as a handful of operators have seen millions of their insects killed.
Some operations have gone bankrupt and others have closed indefinitely until they can rid their facilities of the virus.
Cricket farms started in the 1940s as a source of fish bait, but the bulk of sales now are to pet supply companies, reptile owners and zoos, although people also eat some. Most U.S. farms are in the South, but suppliers from Pennsylvania to California also raise crickets.
The virus had swept through European cricket farms…
Alabama Governor Tries To Evangelize State
Robert Bentley
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
New Alabama Governor Robert Bentley wants his citizens to be part of his family – his Christian Family.
The Birmingham News reports that in a speech to a crowd at a church where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was once pastor, Bentley told attendees:
“…if you’re a Christian and your saved…It makes you and me brother and sister.” He went on to add “’Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”
After some questioned the Governor’s words, his press handler said: “He is the governor of all the people, Christians, non-Christians alike.”
Later, when asked if he meant to be insulting to people of other…
Solar Roads Can Beat Peak Oil And The Icing Over Of America
This is a pretty amazing idea — the roads might even be able to charge electric cars while they travel using mutual induction! Check out Solar Roadways:
Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to “paint” the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.
In 2009, we received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype. During the course of its construction, we learned many lessons and discovered new and better ways to approach this project. These methods and discoveries are discussed throughout this website…
U.S. Balks At International Effort To Destroy Smallpox Virus
Bangladeshi child with smallpox.
Citing the “war” on terror is a useful catchall for the U.S. government to do anything distasteful that it desires, even in defiance of the rest of the world, it seems. Betsy McKay reports for the Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. and Russia will fight international efforts this week to set a deadline to destroy the last known stocks of smallpox, saying the deadly virus is needed for research to combat bioterrorism.
Members of the World Health Organization meet on Wednesday to begin debating the future of what is left of what was one of the world’s most lethal viruses before it was eradicated more than 30 years ago: samples kept in tightly guarded freezers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a Russian government lab near Novosibirsk.
The U.S. says it needs to maintain the virus samples to develop new drugs and vaccines to counter…
Suicide Tourism Booming In Switzerland
If you’re desperate for assistance in ending your life, Switzerland is your best bet, per this report from Bloomberg News:
Switzerland is the destination of choice for people from abroad who want to die. The office of the country’s top legal official is pushing to change that.
While assisted suicide is permitted in the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Montana, only Switzerland allows doctors to help foreigners end their lives. More than 25 percent of the 380 assisted suicides in Switzerland during 2009 involved foreigners, most of whom died after drinking water laced with a lethal dose of barbiturates.
Former Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, who was replaced by Simonetta Sommaruga in November, has proposed making the practice more difficult by demanding oversight by doctors who aren’t connected with one of the country’s four right-to-die organizations. Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942.
“Those Swiss politicians who want…
Nebraska Senator’s Bill Would Allow Teachers To Carry Guns
The Lincoln Journal Star reports:
On the heels of the fatal shooting of an Omaha-area school administrator by a despondent student, Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial introduced a bill Tuesday to allow teachers, administrators and school security guards to carry concealed guns.
The bill (LB516) would allow local school boards to choose by a two-thirds vote whether to allow such weapons on their property. The bill also applies to colleges and universities.
Christensen said he introduced his bill in response to the Jan. 5 shooting at Millard South High School, where 17-year-old student Robert Butler Jr. shot Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar and then shot Principal Curtis Case. Kaspar had suspended Butler from the school earlier that morning. She died of her injury; Curtis has been released from the hospital.
Police found Butler about 45 minutes after the shooting in a parking lot about a mile from the school, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot…
For more information,…
