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POPSScientists urge policymakers to rethink biofuel policy Monoculture is not healthy. It is not natural and it will lead to a de-verisification of insect life and everything that depends on insects. In addition, corn requires high nitrogen fertilizer that is typically made from chemicals and petroleum. Most of this inorganic fertilizer gets washed off into the Gulf of Mexico where it depletes the water of oxygen which is reducing biomass and diversity. Here’s a pretty informative website that explains the process http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/. Besides, using corn for biofuel diverts it from food processing which further drives up the cost of food. Plus a monoculture can be easily wiped out by one insect. This is what happened in the early 1900s to the U.S. cotton crop. http://outreach.lib.uic.edu/www/issues/issue7_2/quarterman/index.html
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POPSLearning about Forensics Part I Elyse's Site is a good general review of forensics and the application of the science in all it's myriad forms. This part was clipped as a basic primer on the different branches. Part II (Yes, another Multi-part Clip!) will focus on the different applications of the science and some very good links to high-end Forensic sites. The Site owner definitely loves CSI and you will see that if you go there...
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POPSForensics Link Page I checked all the links I clipped on this page and they are all good and solid links... One will redirect you to the new home of the page but worry not, you will get there. This is technically Part III of the Forensics article I posted yesterday and I hope to receive some feedback. Thank you.
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POPSExquisite Butterflies I have always wanted to collect specimens of butterflies but simply don't have the heart to kill these perfect little jewels. (A couple of pictures are of moths and not butterflies)
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POPS Scientists Research Disappearance Of Bumblebees Thorp, an emeritus professor of entomology from the University of California at Davis, found one solitary worker last year along a remote mountain trail in the Siskiyou Mountains, but hasn't been able to locate any this year He fears that the species — Franklin's bumblebee — has gone extinct before anyone could even propose it for the endangered species list. To make matters worse, two other bumblebee species — one on the East coast, one on the West — have gone from common to rare. Honey Bee Die-Off-Alarm Beekeepers http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/05/bees_ani.html?category=animals&guid=20070205144500
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POPSThreats to Bumblebees Fly Under Radar But if bumblebees were to disappear, farmers and entomologists warn, the consequences would be huge, especially coming on top of the problems with honeybees, which are active at different times and on different crop species. 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. Demand is growing as honeybees decline. In the wild, birds and bears depend on bumblebees for berries and fruits. There is no smoking gun yet, but a recent National Academy of Sciences report on the status of pollinators around the world blames a combination of habitat lost to housing developments and intensive agriculture, pesticides, pollution and diseases spilling out of greenhouses using commercial bumblebee hives.
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POPSThe Mystery of BedBugs What's the mystery? Millions of filthy illegal immigrants flooding into our country and they can't figure out where the bedbugs are coming from???
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POPSPictures - Picasso Bug These are the only pictures I can find on the net for the lovely Picasso Bug (Sphaerocoris) - a stink bug - from South Africa.
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POPSBaboon Spiders of Africa Bombing down the freeway a few years ago, a movement caught my eye, it was a baboon spider emerging from underneath my dashboard. Imagine my surprise! I couldn't stop and had to keep driving, praying all the while that it did not venture up the steering column. Fortunately it sat on the speedometer and started at me with malevolent eyes. I screamed into the nearest turnoff which happened to be a service station, leaped out and danced around as if I were on fire. Fortunately for me a man of some guts and substance took control of the situation and gently coaxed it out. Generally I'm not averse to spiders, but that 'up close and personal' was more than I could bear. It looked like the spider in the last picture. Very beautiful - at a civilized distance.
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