Daily Archives: March 30, 2012

On one hand, Paul Douglas. On the other, Heartland

March 30, 2012UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

I have two only vaguely related items for you, and the first is really two items.

Paul Douglas has written a piece on climate change that you should read. Douglas is the famous Twin Cities meteorologist who worked for several years at our own WCCO. He was a regional celebrity, much loved by all, and a lot of people stopped watching television when he left that station a couple of years back. The blog post is: A Message From A Republican Meteorologist On Climate Change.

Given how sensible and smart he is, one would have never thought Paul was a … oh never mind, that, there is a second thing you should know: Paul Douglas will be one of our guests at two Climate Change panels we are doing this July at CONvergence, as part of the Sketchick-FTB.com organized science and skepticism track. You’ll be hearing a lot more about that later. Maggie Koerth-Baker, whom I shall be interviewing on the radio Sunday AM, will also be on one or both of those panels.

The other item that just came across my desk: General Motors Stops Funding The Heartland Institute. Why? The short answer is that the truth about the nature of the Heartland Institute was exposed by scientist Peter Gleick, and General Motors decided to do the right thing.

Thank you very much, that is all.

Help Shawn Otto get Readers Choice Award!

March 30, 2012UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

Go here and click on the thing. You know Shawn from his book “Fool me Twice.”

Like the page then scroll down a page or two to “Fool me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Lawrence Otto” and vote on that one. Forget about all the other books, they suck. YOU MUST DO THIS NOW.

Do Neonicotinoid Pesticides Contributed to the Complex Thing We Call Bee Colony Collapse?

March 30, 2012Uncategorizedcolony collapse, Environment, honey bee, Insects, pesticideGreg Laden

A commonly used insecticide, and possibly an increasingly widely used form of that pesticide, could be a causal factor in bee colony collapse. It is not 100% certain that this pesticide’s effects can be counted as one of the causes this problem, but there is a very good chance that neonicotinoids can cause a drop in hive population, and thus, should be examined to see if there is a relationship in some cases. From the paper’s abstract:

Nonlethal exposure of honey bees to thiamethoxam (neonicotinoid systemic pesticide) causes high mortality due to homing failure at levels that could put a colony at risk of collapse. Simulated exposure events on free-ranging foragers labeled with an RFID tag suggest that homing is impaired by thiamethoxam intoxication. These experiments offer new insights into the consequences of common neonicotinoid pesticides used worldwide.

Continue reading Do Neonicotinoid Pesticides Contributed to the Complex Thing We Call Bee Colony Collapse? →

Scott Walker RECALLED after weakening Unions, cutting their pay, and threatening them with military action

March 30, 2012UncategorizedProtest, Scott Walker, Union, WisconsinGreg Laden

The Government Accountability Board in Wisconsin voted unanimously to recall Governor Scott Walker following the submission of a petition with 900,000 signatures. (Only 540,208 signatures were required.)

Walker was targeted for recall after he pushed through a law last year that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most state workers. It also forced the workers to contribute more to their pension and health care costs, which amounted to a cut in pay.

Walker told reporters he would be willing to mobilize the National Guard in order to address potential repercussions from unions.

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