From DailyKos

It's Official: The HoneyBees are Gone [Congressional Testimony] Hotlist
by jhritz [Subscribe]
Mon Apr 23, 2007 at 03:09:39 AM PDT

Experts are gathering outside Washington, D.C. today for a two-day meeting to collectively scratch their heads about the Colony Collapse Disorder, aka 'Where have all the honeybees gone.'

The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.

Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.

CNN Story

There's been a lot of speculation about this lately. Others have diaried extensively on their ideas as to the cause. I don't know the cause, so I thought I'd write a diary that addresses what we do know, what questions are being asked, what is being done, and what has been reported, so far, in Congressional testimony.


Much more here

fuel efficiency in automobiles

does anyone have any good thoughts on automobile fuel efficiency?
I see that the "SMART" Mercedes is pretty good, albeit tiny car.
supposed to be selling for abour 25K, but 60-70 mpg.

I'm mis? remembering the Honda CVCC in the 70's that had a fuel efficiency of about 52 mpg
Honda

Then VW is working on even more fuel efficiency, though what will be given up remains to be seen.

I've got a sneaky suspicion that fuel prices will not be going down soon...

from What We Now Know

The Codex Noose Tightens--Time to Act
By Shannara Johnson

We usually don't play the activist part here at WWNK--we inform our readers, but rarely call for action.

This, however, is different.

A few months ago, we alerted you to the potential dangers and pitfalls of the Codex Alimentarius, the planned WTO-enforced, strict regulations of foods, vitamins and dietary supplements.

As we go to print, we just learned about a new proposed FDA regulation that could render the DSHEA Act null and void--and this time, we urge you to do something about it.

Last December, the FDA secretly put a document on its website titled "Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration."

The new "guidance" declares that any and all foods or supplements which are claimed to alleviate or cure any kind of ailment might be (at the FDA's discretion) considered drugs and subject to appropriate regulation.

In other words, you might soon need a prescription for your 1,000 mg of Vitamin C. Heck, even chamomile tea could be a drug; after all, doesn't it help with your upset stomach?

The document is open to public comments until April 30--
so hurry up and send your comments via this link

forever connecting the dots. Kurt Vonnegut RIP

It is beginning to seem to me that connecting dots is one of the most unproductive ways to spend my time.
not that it does not need to be done, but what to do once enough dots are connected.

standing on a street corner, raising a finger to the stone cold criminal powers that be, will not suffice.
working through the appropriate channels of electing new people to congress is almost as unsatisfying as it is dicey.
there always seems to be a need for compromise of this or that, can't get there from here, and so on.

Now I hear that Kurt Vonnegut is dead.

I hate to even begin to think what a force he was. to me, to my thinking and to my worldview.

In honor of his memory, i will now reread his books. to see if they stand up to time and experience, to see if they still carry the humor, the tragedy, the farce of our human existence. so it goes.
so he goes.
a comet in the cosmos.