EPA Should Scuttle Anti-Science PFAS Claims

EPA Should Scuttle Anti-Science PFAS Claims

Hank |
PFAS, called "forever chemicals” by activists, are about 12,000 compounds, 11,993 of them found in nature, yet environmentalists in their Forever War On Science have been targeting them based on epidemiological correlation. You know, that same "science" that claimed chocolate is health food, butter is bad and trans fats are good, and that a parasite medication cured COVID-19. Why should you not trust their claims? Because they said PFAS is in 48% of water. Maybe you think that is really high, but the reason not to trust their manufactured correlation is because it's actually far too low. It…
Kennedy's MAHA Is A Solution With No Problem

Kennedy's MAHA Is A Solution With No Problem

Hank |
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his Children's Defense Fund and his work as a trial lawyer for Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has always been in a war against science. He has been at war for decades. He sued over the COVID-19 vaccine, as you'd expect from his wealthy white perch where organic food and supplement shoppers also reside, but really only shot to prominence outside the anti-vaccine and organic food industry when he abandoned his presidential campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump. His goal, he claimed, was a spin on Make America Great Again - Make America Healthy Again…
No, Trump’s Executive Orders Can’t Cancel Your Rights.

No, Trump’s Executive Orders Can’t Cancel Your Rights.

Science & Society Hontas Farmer |
Donald Trump does not have the power to rescind either constitutional amendments or federal laws by mere executive order, no matter how strongly he might wish otherwise. No president of the United States of America has that power. The media and public need to understand that anything he signs in that way is basically on par with a social-media post ranting about what he thinks should happen. At most, he can direct how the executive branch enforces existing laws and the Constitution, but if any order violates those higher authorities, it’s automatically invalid. Anyone who tries to carry it…
The US Discourages Pregnant Women From Drinking Alcohol - Vegetarian Diets Are Worse

The US Discourages Pregnant Women From Drinking Alcohol - Vegetarian Diets Are Worse

Public Health Hank |
The Biden administration recently issued a new report showing causal links between alcohol and cancer, and it's about time. The link has been long-known, but alcohol carcinogenic properties have been waved away with 'use in moderation' rhetoric. We don't tell young people to use cigarettes 'in moderation', even though nicotine doesn't cause cancer, only cigarettes smoke does, so that alcohol has gotten political free pass shows science is always second to politics. Realistically, while any cell mutation can happen any time, you are unlikely to get cancer caused by an occasional drink, but US…
In British Iron Age Culture, Margaret Thatcher Was The Norm

In British Iron Age Culture, Margaret Thatcher Was The Norm

Anthropology News Account |
In British Iron Age society, land was inherited through the female line and husbands moved to live with the wife’s community. Strong women like Margaret Thatcher resulted. That was inferred due to DNA sequenced from members of a single community, over 50 ancient genomes from a set of burial grounds in Dorset, that were in use before and after the Romans tried to do in AD 43 what they did to Israel a few decades later. They reconstructed a family tree with many different branches and found most members traced their maternal lineage back to a single woman from centuries before while…
Bathynomus Vaderi: The Sea Bug Of Your New 'Star Wars' Nightmare

Bathynomus Vaderi: The Sea Bug Of Your New 'Star Wars' Nightmare

Ecology & Zoology Hank |
If a giant bọ biển (“sea bug”) in Vietnam hasn't been 'named' by an academic in a journal, does it really exist? Yes, because they are impossible to miss. Isopods of the genus Bathynomus are 10 inches long so they are hard to miss, but discovery is a lucrative business in academia so a new one has been named and because the authors say it looks like Darth Vader from "Star Wars" they have deemed it Bathynomus vaderi.  The Vietnamese have been eating them forever but only recently did it get the 'lobster' treatment, where it pivoted from cheap bycatch to expensive delicacy. This…
Optimizing Nature: Biological Mechanism Could Lower Nitrogen Use

Optimizing Nature: Biological Mechanism Could Lower Nitrogen Use

Genetics & Molecular Biology News Account |
Production of most major foods involve nitrate and phosphate fertilizers, but excessive fertilizer use is bad for the environment.  That is why scientists came up with modern technologies that use less fertilizer and, on the other end, fewer pesticides. But some countries or processes like "organic" ban modern products, so their nitrogen runoff is excessive. Perhaps a new form of genetic engineering will be the first product to be allowed under their marketing guidelines since Mutagenesis.   If we could use mutually beneficial relationships between plant roots and soil microbes to…
California Safety Issues Lead To Starbucks Changing 'Non-Customer' Policy Natonwide

California Safety Issues Lead To Starbucks Changing 'Non-Customer' Policy Natonwide

Hank |
In 2018, two black men were arrested in Philadelphia because that Starbucks store had a policy that did not allow people to use their facilities without purchasing something. Social Justice Warriors declared that racist and Starbucks changed their policy. Anyone could use the restrooms and anyone could take up seats, or smoke, or drink alcohol out of a paper bag. Now, in places like California, where the Governor declared the state a Statue of Liberty for the homeless, people openly panhandle in the stores. Crime is again being enforced in California so there will be more safety for employees…
If You Don't Read Nutrition Labels On The Back, Will You Read Them On The Front?

If You Don't Read Nutrition Labels On The Back, Will You Read Them On The Front?

Hank |
In a world where food is affordable and choice is high, some people will not have impulse control. Forget conspiracy mumbo-jumbo about corporations and ultraprocessed foods and addiction, some human somewhere will have fetishized everything so such an "addiction" means nothing, what is true is that foods are more delicious than ever and some people will eat too much. When your evolutionary mandate is to eat as much as you can while you can because you don't 'know when your next meal will be', it takes cultural maturity for food to become an affordable commodity like a washing machine that…
Honeybees Are Boutique Agriculture: Here's What Keepers Want Almond Farmers To Do

Honeybees Are Boutique Agriculture: Here's What Keepers Want Almond Farmers To Do

Ecology & Zoology Hank |
Despite nearly two decades of marketing campaigns insisting bees are in decline and science is to blame, the data show otherwise. Bees are not entirely irrelevant in the food supply, and do valuable pollination work in nature, but there are 25,000 other species of bees that are important also, it is only in boutique agriculture that honeybees are meaningful to our food supply. For crops like almonds, bees are rented. They are flown on planes or shipped on trucks and do their work and then go somewhere else. California only has 1.3 million acres of almond trees, which means about 2.6 million…