Permaculture Blog

This is very intriguing!
phys.org/news/2021-12-scientists-minimized-synthetic-carbon-fixation.html

Source: $86M to California couple upheld in Monsanto pesticide case

Bayer, announced that it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use in U.S. stores, starting in 2023.

Bayer said it would replace the herbicide’s main ingredient, glyphosate, with an unspecified active ingredient, subject to federal and state approval, while continuing to sell Roundup with glyphosate for farm use.

1 “Unspecified active ingredient” Thank you _so_ much Bayer.
2 “continuing to sell Roundup with glyphosate for farm use”
Thank you _so_ much Bayer.
3 “unspecified active ingredient, subject to federal and state approval”
Wait: isn’t that what got us glyphosate in the first place?
4 “U.S. stores, starting in 2023”
Wow 2 years to _stop_ selling something. Thank you _so_ much Bayer.

Sigh!

But I did just get two new clients that want to get the chlorine out of their backyards. And are really excited about contributing to the habitat for native wetland animals such as dragonflies, damselflies, Pacific chorus frogs, ducks, etc, etc.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research and medical training.

Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

I believe that anybody who calls themselves a permaculturist should watch this.:-)

Most of his opinions and interpretations are in my opinion scientifically correct and I understand if you can’t stand to watch it :-)

Why wetland environments are important.

microbiologist Jillian Banfield and her colleagues started combing through samples of mud from wetland environments three years ago

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We are destroying wetland habitats right and left. They are flat, easy to drain, and build on. California has destroyed 98% of its freshwater wetlands. When I was growing up the tropical rainforests were being decimated and there were nightly news broadcasts about the dangers of destroying them when the biodiversity they contained could contribute so much to medicine and science. Where are the nightly news shows about the destruction of our wetland environments.

Microbiologists looking at these organisms from wetland environments

have reported large DNA structures in some archaea that defy easy categorization.

Source: Plasmid, Virus or Other? DNA ‘Borgs’ Blur Boundaries. | Quanta Magazine

other scientists …. agree that even the more mundane interpretations show how little is known about the categories of genetic diversity in nature.

(In this case wetland mud!) The scientists say that

It highlights a need “to start thinking about different genetic entities [on] a continuum,” said Cédric Feschotte, a molecular biologist at Cornell University who was not involved in the new work. This kind of thinking could open up a world of possibilities for what we understand about the nature of the genome, how microbes function, and where to look for potential biotechnological applications.

So if this hasn’t convinced you that wetland environments are important on so many levels, beauty, animal habitat, and if you just want to be selfish then I guess I will just have to keep trying.

A new analysis of more than 50 previously secret, corporate-backed scientific studies is raising troubling questions about a history of regulatory reliance on such research….
….
In a 187-page report released on Friday, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria said a thorough review of 53 safety studies submitted to regulators by large chemical companies showed that most do not comply with modern international standards for scientific rigor….
….
Of the 53 studies submitted to regulators by the companies, only two were acceptable, according to current internationally recognized scientific standards….

Source: Corporate studies asserting herbicide safety show many flaws, new analysis finds

My friends, this article about the pesticide industry illustrates the same problems as the oil industry, and the medical pharmaceutical industry. We need to encourage our governments to stop allowing these mega company groups to write their own laws and submit only the documents they want to submit.

The sentence I find most horrifying in all of this is “A new analysis of more than 50 previously secret, corporate-backed scientific studies”.

Why in the world should a company that wants to spray toxic chemicals over 90% of the Earth, or a company that wants to mine material or use it in a process that is hazardous if it leaks (I’m thinking about Fukushima too), or a company that wants to inject chemicals into over half the human race be allowed to have secret information about those processes?!?!

In my opinion none of those processes should have any secret parts. If you want to have secrets with a consenting partner in your bedroom that’s fine by me. More power to you :-). But not if it affects more than 10% of the human race. In fact thinking about it, it shouldn’t be allowed if it affects more than 5% or even 1%. If it does — _no secrets allowed_.
All the best to you my friends.

With urban nature threatened by pollution, climate change, and habitat loss, the city is making a push to preserve its beautiful biodiversity

Source: L.A. Is Now a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Here’s Why It’s a Big Deal

What a wonderful thing, an entire city. There are probably other cities but I am unfortunately unaware of them. I am focusing on LA. And it is wonderful that the National Wildlife Federation has made this push. Native wildlife really needs clean water too. And in addition LA has plowed under more than 99 percent of its freshwater wetlands in order to build high-rise. La Cienega (one of the major thoroughfares in LA) means the swamp, bog, or wetland. It is gone!

All that freshwater wetland habitat is gone!

Converting your backyard, toxic, chlorinated, chemical cesspool of a swimming pool to a green clean wildlife machine would be an awesome thing to do.

Best to you all.

another excellent video that illustrates why I love biology.

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com 310-429-8477

Please! be carefull out there with your used masks. And share this if you can.
Best to you all

Evolution is _bloody and gory_ .When we look at a beautiful Cheetah cub we never ever see the thousands of cubs dying in the last stages of starvation because they were a hair slower than their brothers or sisters. Social evolution is just as bloody and just as gory.

Source: DESC1 and MSPL Activate Influenza A Viruses and Emerging Coronaviruses for Host Cell Entry

The viral hemagglutinin (HA) and spike (S) surface proteins are responsible for host cell entry of FLUAV (6) and CoVs (7, 8), respectively. Both proteins use their N-terminal surface units, termed HA1 (FLUAV) and S1 (CoVs), to engage cellular receptors, while the C-terminal transmembrane units, termed HA2 (FLUAV) and S2 (CoVs), facilitate fusion of the viral membrane with a host cell membrane—processes that are essential for infectious entry (6,–8). Notably, the HA and S proteins are synthesized as inactive precursors in infected cells and acquire the ability to drive membrane fusion only upon activation by host cell proteases (9, 10).

Take out “host cell” in the last sentence. Almost certainly it doesn’t have to occur in tbe infected host cell.