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Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.” Why? Because without bees, plants don’t get pollinated. Without pollination, say goodbye to fruit, nuts, and some vegetables. We also won’t have natural oils (such as olive oil, sunflower oil, hemp oil, etc.). And we don’t have many natural fibers, such as cotton. You can see how important the bee is to our livelihood and existence. Some economists say the bee is worth about $14 billion to our economy. That’s why I was so alarmed to...

Minutes before curtain call, a five-year-old in an over-sized T-shirt sits on a bench outside a Massachusetts Institute of Technology auditorium as his identically dressed parents prep him on their upcoming performance: What do you do on stage? Sing, smile, face the audience. And remember, no hands in your pants, and no fingers in your nose. These three took the stage last Saturday (April 21) in the U.S. premiere of Lifetime: Songs of Life & Evolution at the Cambridge Science Festival, along with dozens of other families, with a mission to spread the good word on evolution. These families, members...

Environmentalism: So global-warming alarmists now want to limit our use of toilet paper. What's next, one-room shacks with bamboo fences? Don't laugh. That's also on their list of recommendations. Singer Sheryl Crow says she's spent most of her save-the-planet tour of campuses "trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming." Eureka! She's found a really practical idea. "I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting," Crow said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Secular scientists who fear allowing the conclusions of creationism into secular universities have good reason to be afraid because they are accountable to the creator, Kurt Wise, professor of theology and science at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said on the Albert Mohler Radio Program in February. “If it’s true that there was a creation, then you realize that means there’s someone in control,” Wise said on the broadcast hosted daily by Southern Seminary’s president. “And if there was a flood -- in other words, a creator who actually judged this creation -- that means we’re in big trouble....

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCERhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/303306_joel12.html Peer into future after car ban -- it isn't prettyMonday, February 12, 2007By JOEL CONNELLYP-I COLUMNISTA longtime friend came up at a party last week, asking what it would take to get me on board the campaign that seeks to tear down the Alaskan Way Viaduct and not replace it.I cited a prediction by Department of Transportation boss Doug MacDonald that the "street option" would mean 12 hours of daily congestion on Interstate 5. "Good!" said my friend, once on the Seattle School Board. "Cars suck," added a woman chiming in on our exchange.Inspired by her persuasive depth,...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The U.N. called Monday for tighter regulation on technology to change or create materials at the atomic and molecular level, a process being used to develop new drugs, foods and other commercial products. In its annual report of the global environment, the U.N.'s Environment Program said ''swift action'' was needed by policy makers to properly evaluate the new science of nanotechnology. Although nanotechnology could transform electronics, energy industries and medicine, more research is needed to identify environmental, health and socio-economic hazards, Achim Steiner, who heads UNEP, said in the 87-page report. The report was released on...

** Board shoots down BLM leasing of 14,000 acres on sensitive lands Environmentalists have won another round in challenging a series of Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease sales in Utah. The Interior Department's Board of Land Appeals this week reversed the BLM's leasing of roughly 14,000 acres for energy development north of Nine Mile Canyon and just south of the Book Cliffs in central Utah. The leases, covering 16 parcels, have been suspended, effective immediately. The agency, the board ruled, failed to adequately identify sensitive archaeological sites before offering the lease parcels for sale in October 2003....

Rep. Cynthia McKinney, in her first public appearance since losing her re-election bid last week, said Tuesday that the black community needs to oppose electronic voting machines, which she warned can be used to steal elections. McKinney also said the state of Georgia should prohibit crossover voting among political parties in primary elections and end its system of runoff elections. You won't know who won as long as we have those electronic voting machines, with the problems that have been manifested by them,'' she said, criticizing Georgia officials for not requiring that paper records be kept of all votes. She...

Light Pollution At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity is losing a valuable and beautiful part of its heritage. For the first time in history, poorly designed and badly aimed lighting is denying vast numbers of humanity a view of the night sky. Urban sky glow now pollutes nearly all of Britain's night skies. As amateur astronomers we have a responsibility to guard our night time environment against light pollution. What is light pollution?  Light pollution is the popular name for sky glow - a brightening of the night sky caused by the scattering of artificial light by aerosol...

Creating 'human-animals' for research Ethics report endorses mingling human cells with lesser beings Sunday, May 1, 2005 Posted: 0316 GMT (1116 HKT) RENO, Nevada (AP) -- On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs. The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can't wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus' brain about two...

SAN FRANCISCO - In its quest to genetically engineer rice with human genes to produce a treatment for childhood diarrhea, tiny Ventria Bioscience has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies spanning the political spectrum. Environmental groups, corporate food interests and thousands of farmers across the country have succeeded in chasing the company's rice farms out of two states. And critics continue to complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops grown for the food supply. "We just want them to go away," said Bob Papanos of the U.S....

SAN FRANCISCO - A tiny biosciences company is developing a promising drug to fight diarrhea, a scourge among babies in the developing world, but it has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies because it grows the experimental drug in rice genetically engineered with a human gene. Environmental groups, corporate food interests and thousands of farmers across the country have succeeded in chasing Ventria Bioscience's rice farms out of two states. And critics continue to complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops grown for food. "We just want...

GENEVA -- The WTO has ruled that the EU broke international trade rules by stopping imports of genetically modified foods, officials said Tuesday. The preliminary judgment by a World Trade Organization panel concluded that the European Union had an effective ban on biotech foods for six years from 1998, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is a confidential report. The report sided with a legal complaint brought by the United States, Canada and Argentina over an EU moratorium on approval of new biotech foods, the officials said. The panel ruled that individual bans in six...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Even with the economy adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty in 2004 rose to 37 million, up 1.1 million from 2003, according to Census Bureau figures released August 29. It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure, indicating that the recovery from the 2000 recession has not "trickled down" to everyone. Indeed, the Census Bureau also reported that "2004 marked the second consecutive year in which real median household income showed no change." These new statistics put a damper on the...

Irked by state Sen. Sam Aanestad's continuing criticism of his wilderness bill, Rep. Mike Thompson Wednesday said the Grass Valley state legislator was ignorant. "He doesn't understand the North Coast or its economy," said Thompson, D-Napa Valley, in a telephone interview. Aanestad doesn't understand his bill, either, he added. Thompson, who represented Butte County in the state Senate before he was elected to Congress, has been promoting legislation to designate as wilderness more than 300,000 acres of land along California's northern coast. After Thompson introduced his latest version of this bill, House Resolution 233, in January, Aanestad attacked it as...

British scientists say they have successfully cloned a human embryo - the country's first. The Newcastle University team took eggs from 11 women, removed the genetic material and replaced it with DNA from embryonic stem cells. Three of the resultant clones lived and grew in the laboratory for three days and one survived for five days. The critical factor for success appeared to be how quickly the egg was collected and manipulated. Patient-specific stem cell first Any longer than an hour and there was no success, Professor Alison Murdoch and colleagues found. The clone that lasted for five days had...

--SNIP-- Mr. Taverne argues compellingly that the conflict over gene-spliced crops is the most important battle of all between the forces of reason and unreason, both because of the consequences should the forces of darkness prevail, and also because their arguments are so perverse and so consistently and completely wrong. In fact, agricultural practices have been "unnatural" for 10,000 years, and with the exception of wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the grains, fruits and vegetables in our diets are genetically modified. Many of our foods (including potatoes, tomatoes, oats, rice and corn) come from plants created by "wide...

Denmark has become so paranoid over chemicals in their food that they are literally taking key nutrients from the mouths of children. A couple of weeks ago, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration actually blocked Kellogg's from selling its breakfast cereals because they are fortified with vitamins and minerals. We simply can't make up stuff this kooky. Denmark has become infatuated with the organic philosophy of chemophobia. In the late 1990s, the government even briefly considered converting the entire country to organic farming over fears of the dangers of pesticides. While the authorities wisely backed off their organic-only scheme-after studies...

BISHA, 5 September 2004 — A female guest at a wedding party in Bisha was beaten up badly after she was caught taking photos of women, Al-Watan newspaper reported. A young girl caught the guest taking photos of other guests with her cell phone. The girl asked her to erase the photos from her cell phone but the guest refused. She tried to flee the hall but the girl would not let her go until she got rid of all the photos from the cell phone. This triggered a fight between the two. When the news reached the men’s section,...

November 28, 2002THE ABSURDITIES OF WATER FLUORIDATIONThis Practice Is Unethical, Unnecessary, Ineffective, Unsafe, And Inequitable. Any So-Called Expert On Fluoridation Who Thinks Otherwise Is Invited To An Open Public Debate On This Issueby Paul Connett, PhDWater fluoridation is a peculiarly American phenomenon. It started at a time when Asbestos lined our pipes, lead was added to gasoline, PCBs filled our transformers and DDT was deemed so "safe and effective" that officials felt no qualms spraying kids in school classrooms and seated at picnic tables. One by one all these chemicals have been banned, but fluoridation remains untouched.For over 50 years...