Michael Skinner, WSU

From Washington State University’s press office: “PULLMAN, Wash. — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Washington State University have seen an increased reaction to stress in animals whose ancestors were exposed to an environmental compound generations earlier.
 
The findings, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, put a new twist on the notions of nature and nurture, with broad implications for how certain behavioral tendencies might be inherited. The researchers—David Crews at Texas , Michael Skinner at Washington State and colleagues—exposed gestating female… “ READ THE REST HERE.

O.K., readers. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Stress reactions won’t ever be the only toxic effects passed along to your great grandchildren. Low-level toxicity is a pernicious, subtle problem. For starters, visit the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Website and get involved with your own voice.

“APRIL 27, 2012, APPLE RIVER, IL – The little town of Apple River in northeast Jo Daviess County, Illinois is the hometown of a big man – Terrence Ingram. Though not big in a physical sense, when it comes to saving the American Bald Eagle, there is hardly anyone in the United States held in higher regard than Ingram. His years of documented research and expertise regarding eagles and the work of the Eagle Nature Foundation, founded by Ingram, is in great part responsible for the bald eagle being removed from the “Threatened Species List “ in the United States.

Unfortunately, it was not his knowledge of eagles that the Illinois Department of Agriculture sought when they paid an unannounced visit to his home in March. It was his bees.” Read the rest here.

The article says that Ingram has 58 years beekeeping experience. From the article:

” ‘Is Illinois becoming a police state, where citizens do not have rights?’ Ingram asked in desperation. ‘Knowing that Monsanto and the Dept. of Ag are in bed together, one has to wonder if Monsanto was behind the theft to ruin my research that may prove Round-Up was, and is, killing honeybees. Beekeepers across the state are being threatened that the same thing may be done to their hives and livelihood. I was not treated properly, I don’t want to see this happen to anyone else in this state, and I want this type of illegal action to end.’

What is most disturbing to the Ingrams is that the State Department of Agriculture came in and inspected their hives when they were not home and without due process, took their bees and hives. At the time of the theft the Ingram’s had not yet had their day in court to prove that their hives did not have foulbrood. Ingram knew that the inspectors could not tell what they were seeing and had warned the Department that if any of them came back it would be considered a criminal trespass. Yet they came back when he was not home, stole his hives and ruined his 15 years of research.”

This article in Northwest Illinois’ Prairie Advocate by Tom Kocal was brought to my attention by Mike Adam’s NaturalNews.

Companies that we trust with our personal information, like Microsoft and Facebook, are key supporters of this bill that lets corporations share all user activity and content with US government agents without needing a warrant in the name of cyber-security — nullifying privacy guarantees for almost everyone around the world, no matter where we live and surf online.

If enough of us speak out, we can stop companies that profit from our business from supporting cyber-spying. Sign the petition now!“

"Signs of the impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and scientists and fishermen point fingers towards BP's oil as being the cause." photo Keath Ladner

From the Al Jazeera article: “Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause. ‘The fishermen have never seen anything like this,’ Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. ‘And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.’

Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.

Cowan’s findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP’s oil and dispersants.

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP’s 2010 oil disaster.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp – and interviewees’ fingers point towards BP’s oil pollution disaster as being the cause.” Read the rest here.

Image from Alternet

Many years ago when an attorney “voir dired” me, asking if I had any problem with unlimited liability for corporate mistakes, I answered something like, “No. And in fact with an example like the Price-Anderson act, it’s an especially irresponsible idea to limit corporate liability.” I was politely excused from the jury selection and returned to work. In essence, I was being asked if I might provide a vote in favor of the private party plaintiff in an accident.

Get this excellent evaluation of corporate welfare for facts by the numbers. See Ryan Anderson and Senator Bernie Sanders article for honest facts, “It’s Time to Stop the Nuclear Energy Welfare Program: After 60 years, the taxpayer should not continue to subsidize multibillion-dollar corporations in the nuclear energy sector. None of us want another Fukushima, and literal nuclear fallout has already started to visit the west coast of North America.

Life takes curious turns, we would all agree. So, although it shouldn’t surprise me that I would finally meet guest of Blue Planet Almanac radio, Eric Herm, at the 2012 Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo – it did. You find some of the wackiest, waaay-out souls you’d meet anywhere, at just such an event. But you also find many of the souls who are most connected to reality on Earth. Eric’s such a “connected” example, to put it in friend Alys Dayton’s terms.

If you haven’t yet read Eric’s book, “Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth,” you should. Eric’s perspective as a farmer, father and activist is one of the most important of our era, because his voice is simultaneously scientific, experiential and mystical. The book’s title can be your clue. Did you know that GMO seed bags can contain a skull and crossbones? Did you know that 50 countries – not including the U.S. and Canada have banned or labeled the use of GMO seeds as dangerous? I thank Eric’s publisher, Dreamriver Press’ owner Theodore Poulis, for finding me and bringing Eric’s work to my attention; not all the requests I received from aspiring guests on Blue Planet Almanac were so timely and á propos.

While Eric was in town for the 2012 Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo, he was also interviewed by KCAL and KTLA, local LA television stations. Of course, Eric has been on television before in other areas of the country.

Drinks and dinner with Eric and two of my friends, Jayc G. Ryder and Alys, took pleasant philosophical turns I never expected. And we also laughed our guts out because we all love ribald stories. Eric’s a very down-to-Earth kind of person, so I was surprised by his normally hidden proclivities as a mystic. Maybe he’ll write about them some time. For the moment, you can read between the lines of his excellent book and watch these interviews of him. ;) Both interviews are quite good; the one by KTLA is little lighter with a little fun at the end, the one from KCAL is about sober facts.

And, here’s Eric’s interview on KCAL-TV. The fuzzy bits are from KCAL’s Website:

Informal photo of the April 26, 2011 annual luncheon of the Radiation and Public Health Project. Yes, that's Alec Baldwin.

This morning in his peerless SchwartzReport, long-time friend Stephan A. Schwartz mentioned a study from the nonprofit Radiation and Public Health Project. Their study shows an “extra” 14,000 deaths in the United States are tied to Fukishima. Here’s the Radiation and Public Health Project’s press release announcing the results. From the press release, “The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one.”

If you nose around at the Radiation and Public Health Project site, you’ll see names mentioned who include Dr. Helen Caldicott, Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley. Also take a look at Caldicott’s editorial about Fukushima, “Unsafe at Any Dose,” from the April 30, 2011 New York Times’ Opinion pages. Her lead sentences: “Six weeks ago, when I first heard about the reactor damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, I knew the prognosis: If any of the containment vessels or fuel pools exploded, it would mean millions of new cases of cancer in the Northern Hemisphere.” Caldicott also reminisces: “… it didn’t take long for the early nuclear physicists in the Manhattan Project to recognize the toxicity of radioactive elements. I knew many of them quite well.”

Do you still think we can safely handle nuclear power? The sum total of this scenario should compel you revisit the idea that we – and Gaia – can handle low-level toxicity.

In the distance: Palos Verdes Peninsula left. Catalina Island center.

Someone I’ve yet to meet, but about whom I’ve grown fond, just punctuated their latest missive to me with, “P.S. Holy f*** 4 weeks until we (text removed ;) – I’m scared!” I truly understand that feeling. They teach, as have I. Here’s what I’d reply to them from my own experience, in appreciation and camaraderie:

Lately I’ve been compelled to drive to the tallest nearby mountains on the coast. There’s lots of fairly quiet, open space at the boundary of the two counties I straddle. Some huge, astronomically expensive homes with spectacular views, which I find *very* inspirational. I’ve driven into the sun and air several times in the past few days.

There’s one little road I’ve just found, Cotharin, which meanders across the ridge and valley of one mountain. When I discovered its name derives from old Greek, meaning, “lover of horses,” I wanted even more to explore its length. Moonroof open and windows down in a Prius, I crawled it slowly like a rancher. If you enlarge the map for this Panoramio photo by clicking this link, you can see the road’s location. On my descent an equestrian and I passed and waved at each other. Before I found the summit and took any photos, I drove as far as I could in my Prius.

The photo of Palos Verdes and Catalina, above, was taken at the spot shown below in the road photo. However, it wasn’t a simple matter to get up the side of Clarks Peak (1,965′) and back. The stretch of Cotharin Road I traversed is mostly dirt and quite one-lane. The Prius handles O.K. for a street car. At one point in the ascent I had to drive up onto the outside, dirt shoulder to let a Jeep pass. I tilted the Prius about 15 degrees to do it. Its 6″ wide tires remind me of the skinny fronts on drag cars, and even at a svelte 3,300 lbs. weight with its driver, its tires made furrows in the soft shoulder. Compared to my old, roadrace-prepped Ford Mustang Cobra with 11″ wide tires, the Prius feels much less sure-footed.

The 125′ length of tarmac you see in the photo is past Cotharin’s summit. It’s a small, apparently un-named offshoot of Cotharin after its road sign says quite clearly, “End.” At my furthest point that day, I stopped at the downhill slope shown below; I was quite afraid I’d never be able to turn around. Barely one lane it is. A full-sized luxury Hummer’s wheels would ride on the dirt shoulders. You can also see that the road ahead is blind and looks like it drops into air.  If I were an owner there, I’d want these features, too. Less visitors ;) If a first-time driver wants to ensure a place to turn around, you have to get out, walk and reconnoiter. So I did.

But first – with a steep mountainside next to me of averaging 50 degrees slope – I had to back up for 75 feet to reach a place where I could safely turn around. Yup, it was scary. Yet, to my friend, I’d say it won’t be nearly as scary the second time I go there.

Road's end.

Denial of anthropogenic change is an emotionally retarded behavior, and eventually diminishes your family’s gene pool. Deniers should receive medical treatment for their condition under insurance plans. Here’s an article from the Washington Post, “Virginia residents oppose preparations for climate-related sea-level rise,”  describing the attitudes of a friend’s cretinoid countrymen. The United Nations and environmentalists are out to confiscate their land. ;)

Eva Bulling-Schröter, a Left party politician and chairwoman of the Environment Committee in the German parliament. Photo via Deutsche Welle.

Who allowed North America to fail at the Durban climate talks? Anyone in North America can find that out by looking in the mirror. The Earth is coming to reclaim its children in a most unpleasant manner – yours included – and most of us are acting as if we don’t care.

From this 12-1-11 Deutsche Welle news article: “Eva Bulling-Schröter, a Left party politician and chairwoman of the Environment Committee in the German parliament, said she found the results shameful.

‘The UN conference is being sold as a last-minute success, but it’s really a defeat,’ she said, adding that the roadmap to implementation of a new deal in 2020 is not enough to stop global warming. ‘The peak of emissions has to be overcome by 2017 in order to reach the two-degree goal.’

Bulling-Schröter said the second, extended phase of the Kyoto Protocol is a weak temporary solution, and that without the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and New Zealand the treaty would only cover a ‘laughable 15 percent’ of worldwide emissions. It will be ordinary people, who carry the least amount of responsibility for climate change, who suffer the consequences of the summit’s ‘grandiose failure,’ she added.”