Crossroads News – Events in our changing world and our place in it – Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a “fake disease!”

Now That We Know Who Killed the Honey Bees, Will They Replace Them?

Dan Eden
View Zone

The Missing Bees: Now that we know who did it… Will BAYER Replace Them?

Honey bees are dying all over the globe. Here’s why!

Since 2007, the media has been reporting about the dramatic loss of bees in Europe and North America. As many as 50% to 90% of the bee populations have simply vanished, leaving their hives empty and forcing farmers to demand investigations to determine the cause.

At first it was only the honeybees that were decimated — then the bumblebee populations began to disappear. Bumblebees are responsible for pollinating an estimated 15 percent of all the crops grown in the U.S., worth $3 billion, particularly those raised in greenhouses. Those include tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. The crisis was eventually given a name: Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD.

CCD is a “fake disease!”

The most popular theory, aside from the varroa mite [right] and cellphone RF radiation, has been the belief that a virus — similar to AIDS — has infected the bees. A team led by scientists from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Pennsylvania State University, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, University of Arizona, and 454 Life Sciences found a significant connection between the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) and colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees.

A team of scientists from Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and University of California San Francisco identified both a virus and a parasite that are likely behind the recent sudden die-off of honey-bee colonies. Using a new technology called the Integrated Virus Detection System (IVDS), which was designed for military use to rapidly screen samples for pathogens, ECBC scientists last week isolated the presence of viral and parasitic pathogens that may be contributing to the honeybee loss.

But it now appears that a much more basic culprit has killed the bees — Bayer Corporation. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a known insect neurotoxin called Clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer, which has been clearly linked to massive bee die offs in Germany and France.

UPDATE: April 8, 2012

The current issue of Science Daily publishes solid proof that Bayer’s Imidacloprid is the latest culprit. This, after initial findings that their product, Clothianidin, cause widespread bee deaths and was banned in several European countries. Farmers were apparently encouraged to switch to a similar pesticide, Imidacloprid, which as now been found to be even more deadly. Read about HERE

“Lu and his co-authors hypothesized that the uptick in CCD resulted from the presence of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid introduced in the early 1990s. Bees can be exposed in two ways: through nectar from plants or through high-fructose corn syrup beekeepers use to feed their bees. (Since most U.S.-grown corn has been treated with imidacloprid, it’s also found in corn syrup.)In the summer of 2010, the researchers conducted an in situ study in Worcester County, Mass. aimed at replicating how imidacloprid may have caused the CCD outbreak. Over a 23-week period, they monitored bees in four different bee yards; each yard had four hives treated with different levels of imidacloprid and one control hive. After 12 weeks of imidacloprid dosing, all the bees were alive. But after 23 weeks, 15 out of 16 of the imidacloprid-treated hives — 94% — had died. Those exposed to the highest levels of the pesticide died first.

The characteristics of the dead hives were consistent with CCD, said Lu; the hives were empty except for food stores, some pollen, and young bees, with few dead bees nearby. When other conditions cause hive collapse — such as disease or pests — many dead bees are typically found inside and outside the affected hives.Strikingly, said Lu, it took only low levels of imidacloprid to cause hive collapse — less than what is typically used in crops or in areas where bees forage.”

On January 21, 1986 a patent was filed, and granted on May 3, 1988, for imidacloprid in the United States (U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,060) by Nihon Tokushu Noyaku Seizo K.K. of Tokyo, Japan.[6] On March 25, 1992, Miles, Inc. (later Bayer CropScience) applied for registration of imidacloprid for turfgrass and ornamentals in the United States. On March 10, 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the registration of imidacloprid. It is one of Bayer’s top agricultural products.

Here’s the situation…

One of the most important crops is corn. It’s used as a feed for chickens and pigs and cattle. It’s used in flour and in the production of high fructose corn syrup. Just about everything we eat depends on corn. Recently, with the energy crisis, corn has also been pressed to make ethanol to run our cars. But corn has an enemy called the root worm.

(E)-1-(2-chloro-1,3-thiazol-5-ylmethyl)-3-methyl-2-nitroguanidine
Trade named: Poncho 600, Prosper and Elado, a Nitroguanidine subgroup of nicotinoids produced by Bayer Corporation and registered in 2003.

This pesky bug, called diabrotica vergifera vergifera, [right] burrows in the newly forming roots of the corn plant and causes the plant to wither and eventually die. Farmers have long sought some type of pesticide to kill the bug and, in 2003, Bayer Pharmaceutical introduced a new products called Clothianidin and Imidacloprid. Their own studies showed that these pesticide were highly toxic to bees but justified the widespread use because it could be applied to corn seed and would be buried in the soil where it would presumably be harmless to other creatures.

In theory, farmers were instructed to buy special machines that would coat their seeds multiple times with clothianidin and a special adhesive, dry the seeds, and then plant them. The poison is supposed to stick to the seed coat and to be toxic to the rootworm as it attempts to burrow in to the newly forming roots.

Bayer, who make the pesticide, and Monsanto, who make the adhesive, have patented the method of coating their proprietary seeds with clothianidin and imidacloprid, which are now growing all over the globe.

Oooooops!

The first clue that Colony Collapse Disorder was a simple case of poisoning — similar to the DDT bird kill-off decades ago — was when clothianidin was used on corn crops in Germany’s Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

In July of 2007, the German crop was infested with the rootworm. The German government ordered that every possible method should be used to eradicate this pest, including the use of clothianidin (and now Imidacloprid). Shortly after the seeds were planted, in May of 2008, some 330-million bees abruptly died! The global phenomenon of has continued to this day.

According to the German Research Center for Cultivated Plants, 29 out of 30 dead bees had been killed, in the 2008 study, by direct contact with clothianidin.

Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the German-based Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, said: “We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn’t be on the market.”

An investigation revealed that the seed coating did not stay in the soil but was introduced to the air (and the rest of the plant) by simple abrasion — the rubbing together of seeds — as they are stored, moved and injected in to the soil by farming machines.

German authorities suggested that the seeds were not treated with a special polymer, called a “Sticker,” which makes the pesticide adhere to the seed. But it is noted also that the formulation of clothianidin does not require this “sticker” in typical applications and most farmers find this additional coating too cost prohibitive.

The German government quickly banned this pesticide and gave compensation to the farmers and issued a strong warning against using this chemical in agriculture. According to the German Federal Agriculture Institute,

“It can unequivocally be concluded that poisoning of the bees is due to the rub-off of the pesticide ingredient clothianidin from corn seeds.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (May 30, 2003):

“Clothianidin has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other nontarget pollinators, through the translocation of clonianidin redidue in nectar and pollen.”[In the same report] “The fate and disposition of clothianidin in the environment suggest a compound that is asystemic insecticide that is persistent and mobile, stable to hydrolysis, and has potential to leach to ground water, as well as runoff to surface waters.”

“Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees on an acute contact basis (killing 50% of tested populations at greater than 389 mg/kg). It has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other nontarget pollinators, through the translocation of clothianidin residues in nectar and pollen. In honey bees, the effects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal and/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects in the queen.”

Clothianidin & Imidacloprid = neurotoxins

The cigarette industry used to brag that one or two cigarettes doesn’t give a person lung cancer. Likewise, the pharmaceutical companies are quick to show that feeding bees a specific amount of neurotoxins, like clothianidin and Imidacloprid, doesn’t kill the bees. And, of course, this is true.

While small traces of clothianidin or imidacloprid may not kill bees outright, it can and apparently does interfere with their ability to navigate to and from the hive. The pollen that they manage to bring back to the hive is then further concentrated and exposed to the entire colony, causing suppression of their immune systems and subsequent infection by any number of parasites and pathogens. This is exactly what beekeepers and farmers have been reporting — half empty, infested bees or abandoned hives with no dead bodies to be found anywhere. It has also been noted that the empty colonies are absent the usual parasitic bugs that typically take advantage of an abandoned hive. The colonies appear sterile.

People dressed as bees demonstrate against pesticides 21 April 2007 in front of the Bayer headquarters in Brussels. Three millions bees have been dying each year since the introduction on the market of the pesticide manufactured by Bayer. Poster reads :’Gaucho Bayer, only kills if one uses it.’

Not Just Corn

The tragedy in Germany and France showed that bees who became exposed to clothianidin also infected bee colonies that were not harvesting corn pollen, thus spreading the toxin to regions at some distace to areas cultivating corn plants. It is theorized that they could have become disoriented and mingled with bees from other colonies or contaminated the pollen of plants where other bee colonies were also pollenating.

Then there is this new evidence that a similar chemical, imidacloprid, also marketed by Bayer, can produce colony collapse at levels far below those used in agriculture! What’s going on here?

Same old story… Will they ever replace the bees?

Money talks. Agro-business is huge and their influence is deep in the sciences and politics. Their own scientists must know very well that their product has threatened the global population of bees, yet they allow the conspiracy theories of a mysterious “Colony Collapse Disease” to endure. Clothianidin and imidacloprid (another pesrticide also banned by Germany and France) account for much of Bayer’s agrochemical profits.

I used to think of Bayer as the company that made aspirin and medicine, but I recently saw a list of poisons that they made and marketed to kill everything from microbes to insects. It seems odd to me that a company that makes poisons also makes medical cures… Is there a link there? Perhaps it’s just different sides of the same dollar or Euro. And then there is the Nazi connection to Bayer’s “mother” corporation, IG Farbin. That will open a few eyes if you bother to do the research.

We need justice. Bayer developed, manufactured, experimented and lobbied to get these pesticides on the market and they hindered their recall when proof was known about how damaging they were. Years passed as the bees around the globe have died in large numbers. Bayer killed the them. Will Bayer replace all the bees?

UPDATE 

(08-18) 18:37 PDT — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to disclose records about a new class of pesticides that could be playing a role in the disappearance of millions of honeybees in the United States, a lawsuit filed Monday charges.

The Natural Resources Defense Council wants to see the studies that the EPA required when it approved a pesticide made by Bayer CropScience five years ago.

The environmental group filed the suit as part of an effort to find out how diligently the EPA is protecting honeybees from dangerous pesticides, said Aaron Colangelo, a lawyer for the group in Washington.

The EPA granted conditional registration for clothianidin in 2003 and at the same time required that Bayer CropScience submit studies on chronic exposure to honeybees, including a complete worker bee lifecycle study as well as an evaluation of exposure and effects to the queen, the group said. The queen, necessary for a colony, lives a few years; the workers live only six weeks, but there is no honey without them.

“The public has no idea whether those studies have been submitted to the EPA or not and, if so, what they show. Maybe they never came in. Maybe they came in, and they show a real problem for bees. Maybe they’re poorly conducted studies that don’t satisfy EPA’s requirement,” Colangelo said.

~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with the buttons below…

shareshareshare   share

Related posts:

1. Mystery of the Disappearing Bees: Solved
2. The Study of the Life of Bees from the Standpoint of the Soul
3. Monsanto Shareholder Meeting Infiltrated by Activist (Video)
4. 11 Steps for GMO Eradication: Help Grow the “GEM”
5. The Future of Food (Video)

Related articles

• Vanishments (onelookout.com)
• The Disappearance of the Honey Bee (foodservicewarehouse.com)
• | Sowing the Seeds of Destruction: Killing the Birds and Bees! (truthaholics.wordpress.com)
• Hila Science: Honeybee Colony Collapse Hypothesis (milkandcookies.com)
• Death of the Birds and the Bees Across America (spiritandanimal.wordpress.com)
• Birds & Bees (theburningplatform.com)
• Death of the Birds and the Bees Across America (blacklistednews.com)
• Water supplement for bees is claimed to prevent Colony Collapse Disorder (gizmag.com)
• What’s Behind Illinois Stealing Local Hero’s Bee Hives? (articles.mercola.com)
• Illinois State Department of Agriculture (IDofAG)i illegally seizes local man’s bee hives : Ingram believes the destruction of his bees and hives is more likely to be related to his research into the effect of Roundup on honey bees. (familysurvivalprotocol.com)

Crossroads News – Events in our changing world and our place in it – Monday May 28th, 2012

Environmental

We’ve Lost 30% of Our Wildlife Since 1970

Published on May 25, 2012 by TheDailyConversation

A new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that in the past few decades, wildlife populations have declined by about 30 percent.

Read the full story here:
http://grist.org/list/weve-lost-30-to-70-percent-of-our-wildlife-since-1970/

Check out the study here:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/2012%20Living%20Planet%20Report/WWFBinar…

 

 

 

Long-predicted GM crop’ superweeds’ have arrived

By Ethan A. Huff,
(NaturalNews) It has been nearly two decades since widespread plantings of genetically-modified (GM) crops in the U.S. first began, and the prevalence of chemical-resistant “superweeds” has skyrocketed as a result. And according to a recent writeup by Marion Nestle, professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University (NYU), the industry’s answer to the problem is actually the cause of it. Having served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Food Advisory Committee…

Read Full Article Here

50 years on, coal seam ablaze underneath Centralia

Michael Rubinkam/Associated Press

David DeKok, author of “Fire Underground,” a book about the town, poses Thursday on abandoned Route 61 in Centralia, Columbia County.

By Michael Rubinkam / The Associated Press

CENTRALIA, Pa. — It’s an anniversary the few remaining souls who live here won’t be celebrating.

Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam and still burns today. It set off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.

All these decades later, the Centralia fire maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that’s warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built. It’s a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays — the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York.

Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It’s home, and they’d like to keep it that way.

“That’s all anybody wanted from day one,” said Tom Hynoski, who’s among the plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit aimed at blocking the state of Pennsylvania from evicting them.

Centralia was already a coal-mining town in decline when the fire department set the town’s landfill ablaze on May 27, 1962, in an ill-fated attempt to tidy up for Memorial Day. The fire wound up igniting the coal outcropping and, over the years, spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes.

After a contentious battle over the future of the town, the side that wanted to evacuate won out. By the end of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people had moved and 500 structures were demolished under a $42 million federal relocation program.

But some holdouts refused to go — even after their houses were seized through eminent domain in the early 1990s. They said the fire posed little danger to their part of town, accused government officials and mining companies of a plot to grab the rights to billions of dollars’ worth of anthracite coal, and vowed to stay put.

After years of letting them be, state officials decided a few years ago to take possession of the homes. The state Department of Community and Economic Development said Friday it’s in negotiations with one of the five remaining homeowners; the others are continuing to resist, pleading their case in federal court.

Residents say the state has better things to spend its money on. A handwritten sign along the road blasts Gov. Tom Corbett, the latest chief executive to inherit a mess that goes back decades.

“You and your staff are making budget cuts everywhere,” the sign says. “How can you allow [the state] to waste money trying to force these residents out of their homes? These people want to pay their taxes and be left alone and live where they choose!”

Whether it’s safe to live there is subject to debate.

Tim Altares, a geologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said that while temperatures in monitoring boreholes are down — possibly indicating the fire has followed the coal seam deeper underground — the blaze still poses a threat because it has the potential to open up new paths for deadly gases to reach the remaining homes.

“It’s very difficult to quantify the threat, but the major threat would be infiltration of the fire gases into the confined space of a residential living area. That was true from the very beginning and will remain true even after the fire moves out of the area,” Mr. Alteres said.

Nonsense, say residents who point out they’ve lived for decades without incident.

Carl Womer, 88, whose late wife, Helen, was the leader of a faction that fiercely resisted the government buyout, disagrees the fire poses any threat.

“What mine fire?” Mr. Womer asked dismissively as he hosed down his front porch, preparing, he said, for a Memorial Day picnic. “If you go up and see a fire, you come back and tell me.”

Author and journalist David DeKok, who has been writing about Centralia for more than 30 years, said that while he believes Mr. Womer’s house is too close to the fire to safely live there, Mr. Hynoski and his neighbors are far enough away.

“I don’t think there’s any great public safety problem in letting those people stay there,” said Mr. DeKok, author of “Fire Underground,” a book on the town.

Many former residents, meanwhile, prefer to talk about the good times, their nostalgia taking on a decidedly golden hue.

“I loved it. I always liked Centralia from the time I was old enough to understand what it was,” said Mary Chapman, 72, who left in 1986 but returns once a month to the social club at the Centralia fire company.

“If you came out of your house and you couldn’t get your car started, the neighbor would come out and he’d help you. You didn’t even have to ask,” Ms. Chapman continued. “Of course the neighbors knew your business, but they also were there to help you, too.”

 

 

 

Pesticide kills bee colonies by turning insects into ‘picky eaters’ who crave sweeter nectar – and ignore nearby food

• Tiny dose of pesticide considered ‘safe’ can lead bees to ignore nearby food
• ‘Navigation errors’ can impact health of whole colonies
• Ignore foods that could help colonies to survive

By Rob Waugh

Even a tiny dose of a popular pesticide has the effect – hindering bees from leading nestmates to the nearest food

Pesticide turns bees into ‘picky eaters’ who seek out sweeter nectar – and ignore perfectly good sources of food.

Even a tiny dose of a popular pesticide has the effect – hindering bees from leading nestmates to the nearest food.

The research could shed light on one of the main culprits suspected to be behind the recent declines in honey bee colonies.

Amounts of pesticide considered ‘safe’ to use could affect the health of entire bee colonies.

It could also offer insight into what pesticides should and shouldn’t be used on bee-pollinated crops, say University of California San Diego biologists, writing in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Since 2006, beekeepers in North America and Europe have lost about one-third of their managed bee colonies each year due to ‘colony collapse disorder.’

While the exact cause is unknown, researchers believe pesticides have contributed to this decline.

One group of crop pesticides, called ‘neonicotinoids,’ has received particular attention from beekeepers and researchers.

The UC San Diego biologists focused their study on a specific neonicotinoid known as ‘imidacloprid,’ which has been banned for use in certain crops in some European countries and is being increasingly scrutinized in the United States.

‘In 2006, it was the sixth most commonly used pesticide in California and is sold for agricultural and home garden use,’ said James Nieh, a professor of biology at UC San Diego who headed the research project with graduate student Daren Eiri, the first author of the study.

‘It is known to affect bee learning and memory.’

Amounts of pesticide considered ‘safe’ to use could affect the health of entire bee colonies

The two biologists found in their experiments that honey bees treated with a small, single dose of imidacloprid, comparable to what they would receive in nectar, became ‘picky eaters.’

‘In other words, the bees preferred to only feed on sweeter nectar and refused nectars of lower sweetness that they would normally feed on and that would have provided important sustenance for the colony,’ said Eiri.

‘In addition, bees typically recruit their nestmates to good food with waggle dances, and we discovered that the treated bees also danced less.’

The two researchers point out that honey bees that prefer only very sweet foods can dramatically reduce the amount of resources brought back to the colony.

Further reductions in their food stores can occur when bees no longer communicate to their kin the location of the food source.

‘Exposure to amounts of pesticide formerly considered safe may negatively affect the health of honey bee colonies,’ said Nieh.

To test how the preference of sugary sources changed due to imidacloprid, the scientists individually harnessed the bees so only their heads could move.

By stimulating the bees’ antennae with sugar water, the researchers were able to determine at what concentrations the sugar water was rewarding enough to feed on.

Using an ascending range of sugar water from 0 to 50 percent, the researchers touched the antennae of each bee to see if it extended its mouthparts.

Bees that were treated with imidacloprid were less willing to feed on low concentrations of sugar water than those that were not treated.

The biologists also observed how the pesticide affected the bees’ communication system.

Bees communicate to each other the location of a food source by performing waggle dances.

The number of waggle dances performed indicates the attractiveness of the reward and corresponds to the number of nestmates recruited to good food.

‘Remarkably, bees that fed on the pesticide reduced the number of their waggle dances between fourfold and tenfold,’ said Eiri. ‘And in some cases, the affected bees stopped dancing completely.’

The two scientists said their discoveries not only have implications for how pesticides are applied and used in bee-pollinated crops, but provide an additional chemical tool that can be used by other researchers studying the neural control of honey bee behavior.

The study was funded by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the National Science Foundation.

 

 

 

**********************************************************************************************************

Cyber Space

FBI secretly creating Internet Police?

Published on May 25, 2012 by RTAmerica

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has just launched a secret surveillance program called the Domestic Communications Assistance Center. The purpose of the DCAC is to spearhead the invention of technology that would outpace local law enforcement’s wiretapping capabilities. Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent for CNet, first broke the story and joins us for more.

 

 

Inside Facebook’s IPO: From Darling to Disaster – Decoder

Published on May 25, 2012 by ReutersTV

It seemed the perfect combination. Social phenomenon Facebook taken public by white shoe firm Morgan Stanley on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Instead, it turned into an embarrassment. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of the fumbled IPO. (May 25, 2012)

 

 

Did Sabu Burn Assange Through Anonymous-LulzSec? 

Flier sent by publisher with the review book emphasizing the LulzSec and WikiLeaks discussions. (cryptome.org) 25 May 2012 The following passage is from ‘We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency‘ by Parmy Olson. ‘Also in the IRC channel with Topiary and q was Sabu, now likely with very interested FBI agents monitoring the discussion… It is unclear if Sabu was in reality haunted by the fact that he was now also helping to implicate Assange… Another possibility: the FBI was encouraging Sabu to reach out to Assange to help gather evidence on one of the most notorious offenders of classified government data in recent times. It seems probable that if Sabu had helped, for instance, extradite Assange to the United States, it would have improved his settlement dramatically.’

 

 

Twitter admits to tracking users’ activities across Internet

Science & Tech World — 26 May 2012

NewKerala

Micro blogging website Twitter has revealed that it tracks its users’ movements across the Internet in order to suggest relevant content to tweeters.

The company made the disclosure in an email sent to its users today about changes to its service and privacy policy.

“We’ve provided more details [in our new privacy policy] about the information we collect and how we use it to deliver our services and to improve Twitter,” the email read.

“One example: our new tailored suggestions feature, which is based on your recent visits to websites that integrate Twitter button or widgets, is an experiment that we’re beginning to roll out to some users in a number of countries,” it added.

The company further explained the collection of users’ data across third party websites that have a Twitter button installed in its updated privacy policy, The Telegraph reports.

“We may tailor content for you based on your visits to third-party websites that integrate Twitter buttons or widgets… While we have the widget data, we may use it to tailor content for you, such as suggestions for people to follow on Twitter,” it said.

“Tailored content is stored with only your browser cookie ID and is separated from other Widget Data such as page-visit information,” it added.

According to the paper, Twitter also offered its users the chance to turn off this feature. After a maximum of 10 days, Twitter begins the process of deleting or “aggregating widget data, which is usually instantaneous, but in some cases may take up to a week”.

The update to its privacy policy comes after Twitter came under fire earlier this year for copying the content of peoples’ entire address books from their mobile phones and storing the information on its servers, without many of its users realising.(ANI)

 

 

**********************************************************************************************************

Survival / Sustainability

Survival Kit: Potassium Permanganate

Published on May 3, 2012 by TheModernSurvivalist

WARNING:Potassium Permanganate can be very dangerous and fatal, avoid direct contact with skin. It is deadly if you eat the crysals directly or drink large quantities. KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN!!!!
Potassium Permanganate can be used for:
Water purification (slightest visible purple tin coloration in water is enough)
Desinfecting wounds and fungal infections (add crytals until you have pink colored water)
Yes, fingernail fungus as well … http://www.tipking.co.uk/tip/5988.html
Emegency Singals in snow or clear water (making a purple solution and spreading it in a distress signal patter such as an X or SOS.
http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com

 

 

Repurposing your life to make prepping easier

by M.D. Creekmore (a.k.a Mr. Prepper)  

What we can all do this week is inventory. It helps list making easier. We clutter our basements and lives with useless stuff. If we need to find shelter, bug out, what will you bring in the car? what could you carry from the car once out of gas? Cleaning the basement is a chore usually, but realistically weeding out the chaff is important and simplifies you life. Once your basement or shed is cleared from clutter you have room for that shelf of sugar, coffee or the 100 pack of TP. We may not need as much TP when the dollar is worth less and can be used to augment your toilet paper supply.

There are trucks canvassing my neighborhood for scrap metal let them take your trash away or better yet you take it to get scrap metal money. I bribed the guy in the trash truck recently( bribed is kind of harsh, I augmented his income lets say) He obliged me in taking large useless stuff from my curb. we usually need to pay the municipality to remove some items. I made a friend , one who comes weekly and takes my trash away. Not much gets wasted tho. food scraps go in the compost, paper gets burned and heats my home.

I love the word repurposing. Finally a way to describe my frugality. This week a bag once used for shipping a new mattress found its last life. It covered stuff I hauled to my retreat in the back or the truck It covered a pile of milk in the yard( I’ll get back to the milk) and now is a tent for my new raised beds. Hopefully I’ll get the courage up to put it in the recycle bin and let someone else reuse it in what ever they do with old plastic.

While buying food for a local food pantry a store owner offered me some milk. I agreed to take it to the local shelter for distribution to the needy. The proprietor of the food pantry said we don’t take food past the sell by date. It was 2 days past. What to do with a truck load of milk? My friends, neighbors and family got cases, we froze what we had room for and I piled it neatly under its mattress bag in the yard. 6 weeks later its still not sour smelling. Its organic cartons half gallon containers, usually pretty expensive. When I started dumping it in the yard My son said he knew a guy who grew giant pumpkins and used milk to help them grow. I googled it and sure enough its good for the garden. I now have a huge area of tall grass, very green and healthy. the rest went to my crock pot yogurt and the raised beds as well as all over my lawn. It was 100′s of gallons left over. It didn’t go to waste.

While we still have trash trucks taking away our leftovers load them up and go thru your treasures to see what’s useful. If I cant use it maybe someone else will. a lot of places online let you post stuff for sale or free stuff and someone will come pick it up. I mostly use those sites to gather free stuff. I’ll need to make more space in my shed tho. We live in a land of milk and honey I have had near hoarding tendencies, possibly from doing without as a kid. Its good to weed out the true trash.

Read Full Article here

 

 

Fukushima radiation cover-up continues – here’s how to protect yourself

By PF Louis, 
(NaturalNews) It’s not just Fukushima, though that may be enough. The northern hemisphere especially had been inundated with radioactive fallout by atmospheric nuclear weapons testing from 1950 to 1963. The Nevada testing area alone produced 1200 nuclear explosions that emitted radioactive particles across the USA. The Chernobyl incident in 1986 affected hundreds of thousands throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia. The boom in nuclear reactor power plants had already started and was constantly…

Read Full Article Here

Rense & Dr Blaylock – Radiation What We CAN Do

Uploaded by JRense on Apr 24, 2011

World famous Dr Russell Blaylock gives real advise on how we can protect ourselves from radiation, and a sober assessment of how our governments go for “covering up” the reality.

 

 

***********************************************************************************************************

Activism

Mexican natives slam ‘protection’ measures for their sacred lands

Published on May 25, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish

Mexico’s government says it will protect thousands of acres of land considered sacred by the Huichol Indian tribe, which inspired a protest movement against a Canadian company’s silver-mining concessions in the northern desert area called Wikiruta.

The land became a focal point for environmentalists and indigenous activists after First Majestic announced plans to drill there. The natives’ cause received backing from a wide variety of Mexican artists, intellectuals and civic groups objecting to the mining.

Despite being hailed as a victory by the government, Huichol leaders have severely criticised the measures as a “media ploy”, saying their holy land is still under threat.

Rachel Levin reports from Mexico City.

 

 

Montreal Mayhem: ‘Protests grow beyond just student issue’

Published on May 25, 2012 by RussiaToday

Student protests in Canada escalate as nearly 700 people were arrested on Wednesday night alone. The rallies against the proposed tuition fee increases have been going on for over a 100 days in Quebec. Many of those detained were carted off in public buses, which police converted into temporary holding pens. The demonstrations swelled after Quebec’s government passed emergency laws last week to make the protests more difficult to organize. For more on the situation RT talks to Corey Pool, news editor of Concordia University’s The Link, newspaper.

 

 

70 reports of police misconduct on Sunday at NATO protest, says National Lawyers Guild

 

By YanaKunichoff,

Now that the barricades are cleared from the streets, downtown traffic has resumed its sluggish pace and thousands of workers in the loop no longer have an excuse to take a day off, what is the legacy of the massive Sunday protest that brought out an estimated 15,000 people?One lasting effect, on both the city and the protesters, is how the Chicago Police Department behaved over the much-hyped weekend.

According to Sarah Gelsomino with the National Lawyers Guild and the People’s Law Office, the NLG received 70 separate claims of police misconduct from Sunday’s events.

“The majority of those incidences are baton strikes to the head and face,” said Gelsomino. “We saw broken collar bones, broken arms, teeth knocked out, heads bashed in, lips busted and a numbers of concussions.”

The National Lawyers Guild says that 100 protesters were arrested altogether over the weekend and during the week of action, with the “vast majority”–60 people–being taken into police custody on Sunday.

A total of 6 protesters were charged with felonies–one for attempting to break through a line of police on bicycles Sunday night.

What actually took place Sunday after the march ended has been highly debated, but the general outline compiled from numerous eyewitness reports goes like this: while the speeches from the main stage were ending, a crowd of ‘black blocers’ began advancing east toward McCormick Place.

As the group started pushing forward, rows of police in riot gear formed a square, with a small outlet at the cross section of Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road. However, also in the crowd, and at points sandwiched between the black bloc and the police, were journalists and marchers who were unable to leave the scene because of the surrounding police presence.

From this reporter’s view, there were at least 30-50 people in the square surrounded by police that were not dressed in black or pushing east towards McCormick Place. Soon after, this reporter saw people being taken out of the crowd with bleeding heads and, in one case, a bleeding eye.

Read Full Article Here

***********************************************************************************************************

[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]

USDA Admits Exterminating Birds, Crops, and Bees

I  would like  to make  clear  that  I  did  not  write  nor did  I   incorporate  any  information  towards the  writing  of these  articles.  Eddie  Sage of Consciousness TV  / World Truth TV  (http://worldtruth.tv/) encourages  his  readers  to  share and  so in light  of the importance  of this information.  I  think it extremely  important  to pass on the articles you  will find here.

The  lack of  coverage in the mainstream  media is appalling .  The  egregious lies and crimes  being   perpetrated against us  and   our  environment can  no longer be  ignored  or  chalked up to honest  mistakes.  These  are serious issues  that  affect all of us in ways  that  can  only be measured with time.  However  once  the  damage  has been done   the  necessary  steps to correct  and repair said  damage  must  be taken.

Instead  we  are  lied  to and  the  crimes  covered up.  How  long  will we  allow  this  to continue without  and  outcry of  outrage and a  call to stop these criminals from their  actions?  If they are  allowed  to continue what  will be next?  They  have already   poisoned our children’s food  supply  with  GMO’s.   They have  already  poisoned our  water  with  Fluoride  and all manner  of  chemicals  that  play  no  role in said  waters  safety.  They  have  already poisoned our  children’s  vaccines  with  Mercury and all manner  of  poisonous adjuvents.  How  much  more   will we  allow them to get  away  with?

Countries around the   world  are  saying , “No to GMO”.  Yet we  sit  idly  by  and  allow   the poisoning to continue  here  at  home.  Monsanto is  suing anyone  that  stands in it’s  way.  So  we  cower  and  look the other  way.  No matter  how  powerful they  cannot  possibly  sue  all of us  if  we  stand  together. When  will Enough be  Enough?  We  must  stand up and  stop this  madness now before it is  too late  for our  children  and  our environment!

We  have  the power to  vote with our  hard  earned  dollars.  We have the  power  to  voice  our  displeasure and  our  disagreement.  We  have the  power to let  them  know  just  how  disgusted  we  are with their  corrupt , inept  and   calculated  ways.  We are  the only  ones  that  can exact a  change that  will benefit  not  only our  children  but  our  world.  The  power of  the people  is not  dead is is merely sleeping after  so many  years of disuse.  It is  time to  wake  her  up and set her in motion for all our  sakes!

Share this  with as  many  people  as  you  can.  Knowledge  is power !  Pass it on and  take a  stand  today !!

Or  sit  back and do nothing.  So when  the  damage  can no longer  be  reversed you will  know in  your heart that  you could have  done  something about this  and  never  lifted  a  finger……. Which will do  no one  any good, including our  children.

************************************************************************************************

USDA Admits Exterminating Birds, Crops, and Bees

By Eddie Sage on 08 April 2012

 

http://worldtruth.tv/usda-admits-exterminating-birds-crops-and-bees/

 

 

The USDA has been under fire recently for its admitted assault against nature, after multiple investigations have uncovered its deliberate tampering with both plants and animals alike. One such investigation has put an end to the mystery surrounding the death of millions of birds, with USDA documents revealing the organization’s role in the massive slaughter. In addition to the mass bird killings, it turns out the USDA was fully aware that a highly-popular herbicide chemical was a known bee-killer, which may have aided the bee decline. The USDA has also threatened the genetic integrity of the nation’s crops. Information has surfaced regarding the USDA’s illegal approval of Monsanto’s biotech crop, sugar beets. These crimes are simply an excerpt from the long list of USDA crimes that are continually being exposed.

In December of 2010, mystery struck the world. Reports of mass fish and bird die-offs were coming in from Texas to Sweden. The first occurrence in the series of strange events started in Arkansas, where 3,000 birds fell from the sky. In the following days and weeks, similar incidents were reported with no solid explanation. The reason has now been found, thanks to documents found on the USDA’s website. Claiming to be protecting farmers from predators, the birds were victims of a little-known government program. Like millions of other animals since the Bye Bye Blackbird program was created in the 1960′s, the birds were poisoned and killed for being considered a nuisance to farmers. It is important to take note that many of these animals don’t pose any immediate threat to farmers.

In the 1960′s the USDA established a program referred to as the Bye Bye Blackbird program. This program is solely responsible for the mass killings of what could ultimately be millions of birds across the nation. In 2009 alone the USDA poisoned and killed over 4 million birds. The documents state whether or not the deaths were intentional or unintentional on the government website. You can find extremely large numbers, such as 22,276 blackbirds marked as intentionally euthanized. Here is some data from the USDA itself:

Brown-headed cowbirds: 1,046,109

European Starlings: 1,259,714

Red-winged blackbirds: 965,889

Canadian Geese : 24,519

Pigeons: 96,297

Grackles: 93,210

Starlings European: 1,259,714

These numbers are simply the top for 2009. Let us not forget about all the other years animals have been killed since the 1960′s when the program was first created.

According to Natural News :

A Nebraska farmer was apparently complaining that the starlings were defecating in his feed meal. The answer to this conundrum apparently isn’t to cover your feed meal but rather call the USDA and ask them to poison thousands of birds. The USDA complied, apparently agreeing this was a brilliant idea. So they put out a poison called DRC-1339 and allowed thousands of birds to feed on that poison.

“Cows are supposed to eat grass. If you are running a cow operation where the birds are eating your grain and you think the birds are the problem, the real problem is that you’re feeding cows the wrong food! If you raise your cows on grass, the birds don’t get into the grain and you don’t have to poison the birds.

“You see, when one ecological element gets out of balance (feeding grain to cows, for example), it then causes another problem that must be dealt with in some other destructive way (such as poisoning the birds). This cycle of disharmony continues and escalates until entire ecosystems are out of whack. Then the USDA shows up with a pickup truck full of poison bait and goes to work poisoning animals. The solution isn’t to keep poisoning animals and trying to control populations through toxic chemicals but rather to return to holistic web-of-life farming methods that work in harmony with nature rather than treating nature as the enemy.”

The government is committing what many people would call a crime. Killing mass amounts of animals via poison is a flagrant act of violence against nature that should not be tolerated or encouraged. People aren’t allowed to hunt in certain regions of the United States, but the government is allowed to kill off animals by the millions. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.

In recent years the world honey bee population has plummeted in North America. This is important because bee pollination is crucial for the fertilization of many crops. Just as many potential explanations arose over the mysterious bird deaths, many different theories have been proposed to explain the bee decline. Electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, and climate have all taken the heat of critics looking for answers. Recently, however, a document was leaked revealing that a bee-killing pesticide put in use by the EPA may be to blame. Adding to the controversy, more records have emerged showing that the USDA was fully aware of the pesticide’s threat to not only bees, but humans. The two-month-old report released by the USDA itself unveiled that the toxic insecticide used on plants are not only a threat to insects’ central nervous systems, but are also a threat to the internal systems of humans.

Imidacloprid, one of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides introduced over the past 15 years, is likely to be responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the recently observed phenomenon in which bees abandon their hives en masse, according to the study by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States.

The study, to appear in the June issue of The Bulletin of Insectology, provides “convincing evidence” of the link between imidacloprid and CCD, claim the authors, led by Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the school’s Department of Environmental Health. It follows two other widely publicised studies, from Britain and France, published last week in the journal Science, which strongly suggested that neonicotinoids were linked to the declines in bees and other pollinating insects seen in Europe and the US.

Neonicotinoids, which attack the central nervous system of insects, are considered by some scientists as dangerous to species which are not the compounds’ principal targets, because they are “systemic” – meaning they do not just sit on the surface of a plant but are taken up into every part of it, including the pollen and nectar, where they can be ingested repeatedly by bees and other pollinating insects.

Twice in the past three years, the Government has been asked, on the basis of compelling evidence, to suspend the use of the new generation of neonicotinoid pesticides, until the increasingly worrying evidence that they are extremely harmful to bees and other pollinating insects has been shown to be unfounded.

The first occasion was in 2009, by a coalition of environmental groups led by Buglife, the invertebrate conservation charity; the second was in 2011 by the Labour MP Martin Caton, after  paper’s disclosure that America’s leading bee scientist had found a harmful link. On each occasion the request was ignored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Sugar Beets created by corporate giant Monsanto Company, who is leading the genetically modified food market, make up for about half of the nation’s sugar supply. The approval of these beets was initially made in 2005, granting Monsanto the right to plant genetically modified sugar beets that could withstand sprayings of the herbicide marketed as Roundup. The entity responsible for the approval? The USDA. Unfortunately, the USDA hadn’t conducted a thorough review of the biotech crop, making the approval flagrantly illegal. To make matters more complicated, the USDA issued permits which allowed companies to plant seedlings that would later produce seed for future sugar beet crops. Judge White, the federal judge who deemed the approval illegal, issued that the seedlings be removed immediately. The immunity that the sugar beets possess against the herbicide being used on them is not exhibited by any other plant, or even humans. With excessive herbicide use comes more poisoned organisms consuming the sugar beets and thus becoming sickly. Additionally, conventional and organic crops are subject to contamination from an overflow of pesticides.

If you thought Monsanto’s lack of testing on their current GMO crops was bad before, prepare to now be blown away by the latest statement by the USDA. Despite links to organ damage and mutated insects, the USDA says that it is changing the rules so that genetically modified seed companies like Monsanto will get ‘speedier regulatory reviews. With the faster reviews, there will be even less time spent on evaluating the potential dangers. Why? Because Monsanto is losing sales with longer approval terms.

The changes were expected to take full effect in March when they’re published in the Federal Register. The USDA’s goal is to cut the approval time for GMO crops in half in order to speedily implement them into the global food supply. The current USDA process takes longer than they would like due to ‘public interest, legal challenges, and the challenges associated with the advent of national organic food standards‘ says USDA deputy administrator Michael Gregoire.

This is just a small fragment taken from a list of . The USDA seems to be recklessly endangering life on this planet with its disregard for what it was created to protect. The reports and documents revealed in this article may very well be the tip of the iceberg. The recently-released document unveiling the bee decline is two years old, and is most likely not the last to be uncovered. It is only a matter of time before more secretive documents come out highlighting the USDA’s shameless lack of respect for life. The USDA has not been forced to openly admit to these claims due to a lack of mainstream media attention. It took investigative journalism to discover these documents and it will take future investigation to oust even more of the USDA’s corruption.

USDA Has Been Found To be Poisoning Bird Populations

By Eddie Sage on 27 December 2011

 

http://worldtruth.tv/usda-has-been-found-to-be-poisoning-bird-populations/

 

Not all the mysterious bird die-offs that have been witnessed around the globe recently are due to unexplained causes. A recent mass die-off event witnessed in Yankton, South Dakota was traced back to the USDA which admitted to carrying out a mass poisoning of the birds.

After hundreds of starlings were found dead in the Yankton Riverside Park, concerned citizens began to investigate. Before long, a USDA official called the local police and admitted they had poisoned the birds. “They say that they had poisoned the birds about ten miles south of Yankton and they were surprised they came to Yankton like they did and died in our park,” says Yankton Animal Control Officer Lisa Brasel, as reported by KTIV (http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.as…).

The USDA then confirmed the story and explained it was all “part of a large killing” in Nebraska. Some of the birds that ate the poison apparently flew all the way to Yankton before succumbing to the poison.

Watch the video yourself, as reported from KTIV:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=19157…

USDA mass-murders birds on a regular basis

So why was the USDA poisoning birds in the first place? A Nebraska farmer was apparently complaining that the starlings were defecating in his feed meal. The answer to this conundrum apparently isn’t to cover your feed meal but rather call the USDA and ask them to poison thousands of birds.

The USDA complied, apparently agreeing this was a brilliant idea. So they put out a poison called DRC-1339 and allowed thousands of birds to feed on that poison.

Carol Bannerman from USDA Wildlife Services ridiculously claimed the bird kill was also to protect “human health.”

“We’re doing it to address, in this case, agricultural damage as well as the potential for human health and safety issues,” she said. That’s just a lie, of course. In what universe do starlings pose a threat to human health and safety?

The USDA Wildlife Services website, by the way, ishttp://www.aphis.usda.gov

The USDA even has a name for this mass poisoning program: Bye Bye Blackbird. Through the use of poisons such as DRC-1339, the USDA has killed more than four million birds over the last several years, reports Truthout (http://www.truth-out.org/bye-bye-bl…).

They even proudly publish an online spreadsheet showing just how many they’ve murdered with poison:http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_…

Remember, these are mass bird killings that are funded with your tax dollars. It all makes you wonder whether the government is, in fact, responsible for many of the other mysterious animal deaths that have been reported across the country (and around the globe).

It also makes you wonder: If the federal government thinks nothing of murdering 4 million living, breathing birds, then what else might they be capable of doing out of a total lack of respect for wildlife?

And if the USDA poisons birds because certain groups become too populous, what do you suppose is planned for when human population grows too large?