7 ways pesticide companies are spinning the bee crisis to protect profits ...

Bees and other pollinators are essential for two-thirds of our global food crops, from apples to watermelons.1 Bee pollination of crops has
been valued at $20 billion in the United States2 and $217 billion globally.3,4 Unfortunately, bees and other pollinators are in great peril, with
populations rapidly declining worldwide. A strong and growing body of evidence points to exposure to a class of neurotoxic pesticides
called neonicotinoids–the fastest-growing and most widely used class of synthetic pesticides–as a key contributing f actor to bee declines.5,6,7

Neonicotinoids (also called neonics) are used as seed treatments on more than 140 crops. Virtually all corn and a large percentage of soy, wheat and canola seeds planted in the U.S. are pretreated with neonics, despite research finding that this practice usually doesn’t increase crop yields or benefit farmers.8
Neonics are systemic pesticides that are taken up through roots and leaves and distributed throughout the entire plant, including pollen and nectar. They are persistent and accumulate over time in the environment.

Numerous studies reveal that neonicotinoids can kill bees outright by attacking their nervous systems, while low levels of exposure have been
shown to disrupt f oraging abilities,9 navigation, learning, communication, memory10 and suppress the immune systems of bees, making
them more vulnerable to disease and pests.11 While other factors have been identified as possible contributors to bee declines and
hive failure–such as pests,12 diseases, loss of forage and habitat13 and changing climate14--neonicotinoid pesticides are a core problem
that must be addressed. Science shows that exposure to neonics is a compounding factor that increases bee vulnerability and decreases
natural resilience to external stressors such as varroa mite pests and pathogens.15,16,17,18,19

http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/f0/f/4656/FollowTheHoneyReport.pdf

The Forever Battery

Imergy Power Systems’ headquarters in an office park in one of Silicon Valley’s less glamorous precincts is the type of place where the future used to be invented. There are no Beats headphones-wearing 20-somethings on scooters. No foosball tables, rooftop beer garden or ironically named conference rooms. No birdhouses. Just a sea of drab, blue-gray cubicles. The median employee age appears to be around that of the typical software engineer who files an age-discrimination lawsuit. There are scientists wearing white lab coats. Some have white hair. The chief executive is 61 – that’s 120 in Silicon Valley years.

Needless to say, Imergy is not developing the next $19 billion app that Facebook will acquire, but the startup could end up powering Facebook.

"Basically, our battery lasts forever."

Imergy has spent years perfecting an energy storage device that, if it lives up to its billing, will help accelerate the big green future by allowing companies and homeowners to pull the plug on their local utility by banking electricity from solar arrays and wind farms for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. A 250-kilowatt battery system installed in a 40-foot container, for instance, could store solar energy from the rooftop arrays of a 40-home neighborhood for later use.

This magic box is called a Vanadium redox flow battery. The heart of a flow battery are two electrolyte solutions – one positive, one negative – contained in separate tanks. When the solutions are pumped through a power cell containing a membrane, a chemical reaction takes place that generates electricity. When the process is reversed, the electrolyte stores energy.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/the-forever-battery/361167/

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The Forever Battery

Imergy Power Systems’ headquarters in an office park in one of Silicon Valley’s less glamorous precincts is the type of place where the future used to be invented. There are no Beats headphones-wearing 20-somethings on scooters. No foosball tables, rooftop beer garden or ironically named conference rooms. No birdhouses. Just a sea of drab, blue-gray cubicles. The median employee age appears to be around that of the typical software engineer who files an age-discrimination lawsuit. There are scientists wearing white lab coats. Some have white hair. The chief executive is 61 – that’s 120 in Silicon Valley years.

Needless to say, Imergy is not developing the next $19 billion app that Facebook will acquire, but the startup could end up powering Facebook.

"Basically, our battery lasts forever."

Imergy has spent years perfecting an energy storage device that, if it lives up to its billing, will help accelerate the big green future by allowing companies and homeowners to pull the plug on their local utility by banking electricity from solar arrays and wind farms for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. A 250-kilowatt battery system installed in a 40-foot container, for instance, could store solar energy from the rooftop arrays of a 40-home neighborhood for later use.

This magic box is called a Vanadium redox flow battery. The heart of a flow battery are two electrolyte solutions – one positive, one negative – contained in separate tanks. When the solutions are pumped through a power cell containing a membrane, a chemical reaction takes place that generates electricity. When the process is reversed, the electrolyte stores energy.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/the-forever-battery/361167/

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One more nail in the coffin of dinosaur fuel

Afghanistan can go Fxxx itself ....

""

You might want to look for No GMO Soy ....

""

In 1999, Monsanto defined an “extreme level” of its Roundup herbicide as 5.6 milligrams per kilogram of plant weight.

So imagine how alarmed scientists were to find, on average, nine milligrams of Roundup per kilogram on 70 percent of the genetically engineered soy plants they recently tested. (At least 85 percent of all soy grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered).

The scientists studied 31 different soybean plants on Iowa farms. They compared the accumulation of pesticides and herbicides on plants in three categories: genetically engineered "Roundup Ready" soy, conventionally produced (non-GMO) soy, and soy cultivated using organic practices.

And the results were extremely disturbing.

The study will be published in June, in Food Chemistry, but it’s available now online.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob422.html#article6

U.S. Daily Temperature Anomalies 1964-2013 ... WOW . !!!

What is an anomaly?

Every day, the Global Historical Climatology Network collects temperatures from 90,000 weather stations. Dating back as far as the late 1700's, the records provide an incredible source of insight into our changing climate.

Using this data, we can determine what the weather is normally like for most places on Earth. We can tell you that the average low temperature in New York City on January 11th is 29°F and that the average high temperature in Los Angeles on July 24th is 80°F.

Once we know what temperatures to expect on any given day with a certain degree of confidence, we can sift out the uneventful days, leaving only anomalous weather events.

http://labs.enigma.io/climate-change-map/#b04g25t20w14

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Report: SEC investigating Chris Christie’s use of $1.8 billion for state projects

Source: Raw Story

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal securities regulators are probing whether New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration improperly diverted funds from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for use on transport projects in New Jersey, the publication Main Justice reported on Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into New Jersey’s use of up to $1.8 billion in tax-exempt bond financing from the Port Authority to fix a bridge and roadways feeding into the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel, Main Justice reported, citing unnamed sources.

The SEC’s inquiry follows several other probes launched after the so-called Bridgegate scandal, in which operatives loyal to Christie’s administration are accused of causing traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge in September in retribution for a New Jersey mayor not endorsing Christie’s re-election.


The controversy has prompted scrutiny of nearly every aspect of the Christie administration and his Port Authority appointees. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is looking into the use of Port Authority funds by New Jersey. Federal investigators and a New Jersey special legislative committee are also probing the bridge incident.



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/25/report-sec-investigating-chris-christies-use-of-1-8-billion-for-state-projects/

Republicans Say No to CDC Gun Violence Research

After the Sandy Hook school shooting, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) was one of a few congressional Republicans who expressed a willingness to reconsider the need for gun control laws.

"Put guns on the table, also put video games on the table, put mental health on the table," he said less than a week after the Newtown shootings. He told a local TV station that he wanted to see more research done to understand mass shootings. "Let's let the data lead rather than our political opinions."

For nearly 20 years, Congress has pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to steer clear of firearms violence research. As chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that traditionally sets CDC funding, Kingston has been in a position to change that. Soon after Sandy Hook, Kingston said he had spoken to the head of the agency. "I think we can find some common ground," Kingston said.

More than a year later, as Kingston competes in a crowded Republican primary race for a US Senate seat, the congressman is no longer talking about common ground.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/republicans-say-no-cdc-gun-violence-research

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I wonder what Republicants really care about ... ?

Oregon going to the Feds ...

The TPP Must Come out of the Shadows for General Scrutiny

The Trans-pacific partnership is a “free trade” agreement that would encompass the U.S. and a dozen other countries in the Pacific region. It would be massive in scope, around 40% of our global economy. The agreement includes 29 chapters of which only 5 deal with trade. What this agreement would do is sign our nation’s sovereignty over to corporate control.


These negotiations have been held in secret and the text has been labeled top secret by the US Trade Representative. So who is seeing these documents? The Obama administration has included 600 “trade advisers” in the negotiations, many of whom are corporate lobbyists and none of whom are elected officials. Among these “advisers” are corporate lobbyists for companies such as Monsanto, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and media companies like Disney.

With corporate lobbyists in control it is certain the deal will focus on one thing: increasing profits for large multinational corporations.

http://economyincrisis.org/content/34202