Permaculture Blog

A team of scientists from Germany’s University of Tübingen has discovered a novel and unusual sugar molecule that shows great potential as a natural herbicide. It is harmless to animals and humans but can effectively disrupt the growth of various plants and microorganisms.

Source: Promising sugar-based natural herbicide targets same pathway as glyphosate

Arrrrggggggggg. Many microorganisms produce toxins. Staphylococcus necrotizing fasciitis bacteria produce toxins that destroy human tissue. It’s natural but you wouldn’t want to use it on everyone. Some bacteria can degrade Mercury and produce mercury vapor. They _produce mercury vapor_.
The mercury vapor is “natural”. Neem oil is natural–it kills _everything_ –but it is natural. People, if it kills living organisms there is a reason for it. And that reason may not be good for us.

There are 20,000 approved pesticides in the USA. Do you think that is enough? Maybe we should get it down to where we have any hope of identifying dangerous and harmful cross reactions. Something on the order of 1000 toxic biocides might be enough you think? Maybe we could take one _off_ the aproved list before adding a new one.

You think?
Maybe something that kills many plants _and_ bacteria — think soil food web- is not the best idea for the next glyphosate relplacement.

You think?

And just because some genius in a white lab coat tells you it is safe because it “is natural” maybe you should be worried.

The best to those of you in Germany.

Wildlife officials in Tennessee are implementing an emergency plan after at least 13 cases of chronic wasting disease were discovered in deer.

Source: Deer disease found in Tennessee counties

I realize that I have “Spread the Good News” and “Permaculture” at the bottom of each of these posts. And I have been criticized for being on the negative side with things. But I also believe that information is not always positive. And I may post too much on pesticides but that’s just my personal focus.

The disease mentioned above is mad cow disease but in deer. It was introduced to deer in cattle feed that was put out to help the deer survive harsh winters. It is a prion disease and we know very little about it. About how it is spread, about what the inoculating dose is, about the time required for it to manifest symptoms, about how similar it is in many ways to alzheimer’s disease, etc etc. It is particularly bad up in the Midwest and that’s where most of the news articles I look for come from. This one is as far south as Tennessee.

Some of you with kids who are bright, intelligent, and interested in biology –encourage them to go into research on prion diseases. They will be increasing in severity in the next few years.
And if you live in the midwest or in Tennessee now. I might think hard before eating wild venison unless you think that evolution should not be taught in public schools :-)

Source: New discovery pushes origin of feathers back by 70 million years

Have I mentioned that I love dinosaurs ☺
http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/wordpress/?s=Dinosaur

PuraVidaAquatic.com (310)429-8477

Global team of scientists find ecosystem below earth that is twice the size of world’s oceans

Source: Scientists identify vast underground ecosystem containing billions of micro-organisms

There is just so much we don’t know about microbial ecology. Many people now know that the microbes on us and in us outnumber our own cells nearly 50 to 1 but they don’t translate that knowledge into the realization that all other animals are most likely similar and have incredibly complex microflora as well. All the animals that you believe should be protected bats, owls, hummingbirds, compost worms, bees, even black soldier flies and their larvae :-). Most of the microbes in these systems are in close contact with their neighbors and the other organisms in their environment. They often form what are referred to as biofilms. Biology is awesome!

“If we could knock down viruses in honey bee colonies, it could lead to greater health in other pollinators.”

Source: A new study shows how mushrooms could save bees. Yes, mushrooms.

Cool article, cool idea from a great guy. It is a positive action rather than a negative one (killing things that you don’t like). Some of us could buy an extract to put out for the wild bees :-)

He or she hopped in and out of my filters several times while I watched! I’m such a voyeur. laughing. Shaking its feathers dry as it got out. We have had a lot of wind and dust in the last couple of days. Santa Ana winds. My car is covered in dust and needs a bath too :-) Happy to provide non-toxic algaecide free water for this particular bird’s feathers.

Think about this my friends: anything that’s in the water that a bird bathes in stays with the bird. When the bird gets out it doesn’t towel off. It dries out which concentrates any toxins that were in the water. The bird then grooms and ingest the toxins or the toxins enter its skin.

Why wouldn’t you want to filter your pool or pond in a way that looks good and benefits animals? — Instead of toxic chemicals and a big plastic canister?

Just a thought.
😉

I went looking for the latest information on Fukushima. How many of you are still watching Fukushima? The last I saw 6 months ago the radiation was still so intense that it “melted” the robot they were trying to send down. As far as I know they still haven’t found the lost core material.

But what I came across was a lot of non-scientists claiming that the salmon collapse on America’s North West Coast this year was due to the radiation plume coming across the ocean.
(They are still pumping a lot of water through Fukushima and letting it carry the radiation out into the ocean)

Salmon collapse? What salmon collapse? I haven’t seen any news stories on salmon collapse and I look at news stories from Al Jazeera, the BBC, Reuters, ….

So I looked for 2018 salmon articles.
These are all different articles on different salmon fishing areas.

First article:

Commercial sockeye fishing in Yakutat has been closed due to historic low returns, leaving set-netters in a bind until coho and chum season later in the summer. Unlike other salmon fisheries around the Southeast, biologists never saw this coming.

Source: Yakutat sockeye fishery blindsided by historic low return

Second article:

Because of dramatic declines in salmon returns this year, Governor Walker declared an economic disaster for the Chignik fisheries region today. Current harvest rates are low enough to threaten the communities of Chignik, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake, Perryville, and Ivanof Bay, which depend on the subsistence and commercial availability of salmon.

Another quote from this story:

Chignik is used to catching more than a million sockeye every year. This year, they caught 128 fish,” said Governor Walker.

Source: https://gov.alaska.gov/newsroom/2018/08/governor-walker-declares-economic-disaster-for-chignik-fisheries/

Third article:

Alaska’s salmon fisheries continue to lag alarmingly in several regions, with overall catches down by a third from the same time last year.

The single exception is at the unconquerable Bristol Bay, where a 37 million sockeye catch so far has single-handedly pushed Alaska’s total salmon harvest towards a lackluster 60 million fish.

Source: Alaska salmon catch down by a third in most regions | National Fisherman

Oh my freaking… The one place that the Fisheries haven’t absolutely crashed (Bristol Bay) they fish them heavily to make up for the lack of fish in other areas.

It must be that the political puppy scientists know that this isn’t just insanity right?

Oh and by the way back to Fukushima, I wouldn’t be eating any food that comes from Japan. Oh wait we can’t know where it comes from.

Sorry.
But don’t panic!
Do what you can to live the best way possible.
Try to minimize your impact on the world which is having a tough time.
And think about what you do!
The best to you all!
Bob

Awesome!
This is the best permaculture garden that I am aware of anywhere! Live with the world not against it.

And from their recent news letter….

Not only finches frolic here… Our new game camera…

…discovered who was responsible for pushing down the bog grass and irises around the Finch Frolic Garden Permaculture pond: a mother raccoon and her three naughty babies. They are there every night, hopefully hunting the invasive bullfrogs. The glowing eyes from a rabbit are to the left, and the eerie glow from under the overturned boat is just a metallic reflection. The camera has also picked up lots of ducks, a coyote, the backside of a snowy egret, a neighbor’s cat (keep your cat indoors!), and a red shouldered hawk who likes to come walk in the grass!

If you have never been here I highly, highly recommend it.
Best to you all.

The Centers for Disease Control hasn’t reported any deaths in 2018 from acute flaccid myelitis, the polio-like illness which paralyzes healthy children, but CNN has learned of two children who passed away from the disease this year.

Source: Parents accuse CDC of not reporting children’s deaths from polio-like AFM

People, especially in the US, throw the word “lying” around today as if it is a badge of honor. They wave their flag of proudness claiming to have recognized someone else’s lie.
In most cases using a specific choice of words is not a lie. Deliberately not reporting complete information is a Lie By Omission but there are those that claim that that is not specifically lying.

However, the United States Congress passed a law that states that when testifying, if your intent is to deceive Congress that it is perjury AKA a lie. What is good enough for our government to ask of us is good enough for us to ask of them. After all something they don’t seem to remember very often is that we are their boss.

Every time I hear or see a story linking the micro encephaly outbreak in South America to zika I know that my government specifically the CDC is lying to me again. Because their intent I believe is to deceive. And one way of looking at it is that every day that goes by where they do not correct their story is a Lie By Omission.

I have to ask is the CDC lying to protect me from a “panic”? Or is it to protect the companies that are doing business in the biomedical area.

The Big Brother idea of government where it chooses to lie, cheat, and steal in order to protect us is unacceptable if one is trying to live with the world and not against it.

I am worried that the AFM virus outbreaks are in part because of our mandatory vaccination policies and are likely to get worse.

I also believe that:
The molt inhibitor pesticides that target zinc finger DNA regulatory systems are not a good idea for us.

Xenografts are not a good idea for us.

Antibiotics in cattle feed are not a good idea for us and they are morally reprehensible.

The best to all the vegans out there who are vegan _not because it’s healthier for people_ but because it’s a kinder unselfish world view.
Bob