Itty Bitty Site stores a whole (short) website in the actual URL.

Go to https://itty.bitty.site/. Now type something in the box, like a message to your friends. It will change the URL to encode and contain the actual site data.

The limit of data an URL can store is about 2000 characters for most browsers. 

Study: Glyphosate in human urine increases 500% over 10 years

A study published in JAMA tracked people over the age of 50 in Southern California from 1993-1996 to 2014-2016. Urine samples were collected over the time period to measure levels of glyphosate and its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). They found that the percentage of people who tested positive for glyphosate increased over 500% in that time period. Glyphosate usage also increased by 1208% during this time period, making it very unlikely that this was just a coincidence. (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2658306)

Crops sprayed with glyphosate may surprise you: almonds, avocados, cherries, corn, grapes, grapefruit, peanuts, pecans, rice, soy beans, spinach, sugar beets, walnuts, wheat. (https://www.cornucopia.org/2016/05/widespread-use-glyphosate-food-supply/)

There are no known safe levels of glyphosate a person can eat.

This link also shows what percent of crops are sprayed with glyphosate: https://livelovefruit.com/what-crops-are-sprayed-with-glyphosate/. There are 70 crops here sprayed with glyphosate. Organic crops can also be tainted by overspray from a neighboring field, or from water used by the organic farm that is downstream from a non-organic farm that uses glyphosate.

Here are the results of studies listing which percent of people tested positive for glyphosate in their bodies. (https://www.moyoway.com/europes-top-5-glyphosate-herbicide-toxic-countries.html) Malta (90%), Germany (70%), Great Britain (70%) and Poland (70%) had the most percent of people with glyphosate in their bodies. They don't have to grow crops that are sprayed with glyphosate, crops that are tainted can be imported from other countries.

Animal tests show that up to 30% of glyphosate is absorbed into the body. A week later, there is still about 1% remaining.

Incidence of GMO corn, cotton and soy updated

As of July 2018 the average incidence of food crops grown in the US.

Corn:
All GE varieties: 92%

• Herbicide tolerant only: 10%
• Produces Bt (insect resistant): 2%
• Stacked gene: 80%

Soy:
All GE varieties: 94%

• Herbicide tolerant only: 94%

Source: USDA.gov.

Iowa will soon charge you if you have solar panels

Deeming solar owners to be leeching off of existing utility infrastructure, the Iowa Senate has passed a bill which would allow utilities to establish a monthly charge on PV system owners.

That's ridiculous. Nothing a PV system uses is owned by the utility company. All wiring inside the house is owned by the homeowner and the homeowner must do repairs to wiring inside the house.

Source
PV Magazine. March 2019.

Monsanto defrauding consumers since at least 1969.

As a plaintiff, in 1969, Monsanto sued Rohm and Haas for infringement of Monsanto's patent for the herbicide propanil. In Monsanto Co. v. Rohm and Haas Co., the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Monsanto on the basis that the company had fraudulently procured the patent it sought to enforce.

Monsanto argues, the principle behind a farmer’s seed contract is simple: a business must be paid for its product., but that a very small percentage of farmers do not honor this agreement. While many lawsuits involve breach of Monsanto's Technology Agreement, farmers who have not signed this type of contract, but do use the patented seed, can also be found liable for violating Monsanto's patent. Monsanto has stated it will not "exercise its patent rights where trace amounts of our patented seed or traits are present in farmer's fields as a result of inadvertent means." However, history shows this is not true as Monsanto has sued farmers, and won, when pollen from nearby GMO seed mixed with the farmer's plants, the seed of which had some patented genes. These farmers had to sell their whole farm to pay fines, and court costs.

Monsanto has also been sued for effects from Agent Orange, pollution from dioxin, polychlorinate biphenyls (PCBs), alachlor (a common pesticide), and dicamba.

Source
Wikipedia.

700+ cases in US federal court alone over glyphosate

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup weed kill.

FEDERAL COURT – More than 760 lawsuits are pending in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The cases have been combined for handling as multidistrict litigation (MDL) under Judge Vince Chhabria. The lead case is 3:16-md-02741-VC and the first trial, the case of Edwin Hardeman V. Monsanto, began Feb. 25, 2019. The judge approved a motion by Monsanto to bifurcate the trial, limiting evidence jurors will hear during a first phase to causation only. Update March 19: a unanimous jury decision handed a first-round victory to plaintiff Edwin Hardeman, as the six jury members found that Hardeman’s exposure to Roundup was a “substantial factor” in causing his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

STATE COURT – Thousands of plaintiffs have made similar claims against Monsanto in state courts. The first trial in the Roundup litigation concluded on Aug. 10 with the jury ruling that Monsanto’s weedkiller was a substantial contributing factor in causing DeWayne “Lee” Johnson’s cancer, and ordering Monsanto to pay $289.25 million in damages, including $250 million in punitive damages. The judge reduced the punitive damages to $39 million in an order dated Oct. 22, 2018 which put the total verdict at approximately $78 million. Monsanto declared it would appeal and Johnson has cross appealed, seeking to reinstate the jury award.The appeal is filed in the California State Court of Appeals, case number A155940. Appellant’s opening brief due April 22, 2019.


Sources
US Right To Know, Monsanto Papers.
DDG search for more lawsuits against Monstanto.

Monsanto lawsuit update, $289 million payment

Monsanto ordered to pay $289 million in cancer lawsuit. A recent Monsanto lawsuit outcome feels like a win for the people. Finally. More than two years after the World Health Organization labeled the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” the court system ruled the billion-dollar company is liable for its product’s potentially cancer-causing effects.

On August 9, 2018, a San Francisco jury found Monsanto liable in the first of more than 800 cancer-patient cases against the agricultural giant. Dewayne Johnson, 46, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a term that’s used to describe a group of cancers that develop in the lymphocytes, or white blood cells that make up the immune system. His case was the first to go to court because of his terminal condition, which granted him an expedited trial.

Atrazine can change gender of frogs

From 2010. Sometimes people reference this study, or Alex Jones takes it out of context.

Atrazine, one of the world’s most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists.

The 75 percent that are chemically castrated are essentially “dead” because of their inability to reproduce in the wild, reports UC Berkeley’s Tyrone B. Hayes, professor of integrative biology.

“These male frogs are missing testosterone and all the things that testosterone controls, including sperm.

Source: http://news.berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/

Review of Ebay Solar panels

I bought 2 solar panels on Ebay. The dimensions of each are 55x80mm. These are both encased in clear resin. I connected them in parallel and got 7vdc, and 60ma from both of them combined. This is pretty respectable seeing how it was a sunny but winter day about noon. Each is rated for 6vdc 0.6w, so that's 10ma max. But solar panels don't ever get the output they are rated for due to how they are rated in the lab.

For $1usd with free shipping, that's enough to charge a small battery, like an AA, but not really a powerbank.

Update June 2019: The epoxy-coated solar panels get cloudy the more they are in the sun, thus reducing their effectiveness. Caution is advised when using these. 

Example here.

Pesticides found in 207 food samples by FDA study.

The FDA's Pesticide Monitoring Report from 2015 contains a report on what pesticides were found in foods. It's a good idea to show these studies to show how dangerous some of the pesticides are, and how widespread they are. Organizations have known this for quite a long time. But some organizations that claim to protect your health are bought out by industry.

Excerpts:

In FY 2015 (October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015), FDA analyzed 5,989 samples in its regulatory monitoring program: 5,572 human foods and 417 animal foods.  Because the violation rates of import samples are generally higher than for domestic samples, FDA tests more imported than domestic commodities (4,737 import and 835 domestic samples).  We collected imported human food samples from 111 countries and domestic human food samples from 39 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

75% of food samples were found to be contaminated.

Source
FDA PDF from 2015.
More FDA Pesticide Monitoring Reports.

Glyphosate Use and Cancer Incidence in the Agricultural Health Study

Gabriella Andreotti Stella Koutros Jonathan N Hofmann Dale P Sandler Jay H Lubin Charles F Lynch Catherine C Lerro Anneclaire J De Roos Christine G Parks Michael C Alavanja 

JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, djx233, https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djx233

Published: 09 November 2017

 

There is strong evidence of glyphosate exposure linked to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL).  The study did not links between glyphosate exposure and NHL, but did find some links between glyphosate exposure and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) compared with people who never used glyphosate.

The study covered licensed pesticide applicators from North Carolina and Iowa. This graph shows some correlation between glyphosate exposure and NHL, but not with other cancers.

 

Sources
Journal of National Cancer Institute. (Not related to National Cancer Institute!)

Some EU members say no to glyphosate 5 year renewal

Some EU members, realizing the danger glyphosate puts humans and wildlife in, have voted no to renew Monsanto's 5 year license in their areas.14 countries voted for the renewal, 9 against, 5 abstained, including Germany. France has already agreed to a 3 year renewal so the deadly chemical can be sprayed on GMO and non-GMO crops. For the vote to pass, two conditions must be met.

1. 55% of EU countries must vote in favor, and
2. countries that support the vote must represent at least 65% of the total EU population. So larger, more populous countries have an advantage in voting.

14 countries voted for the renewal, 14 countries did not. That's only 50% of countries voting for  passing the renewal.

Source
Sustainable Pulse.

UK will support ban on pesticides that harm bees

This reverses an earlier decision by the UK government, because new evidence has appeared that shows neonicitinoids have contaminated the whole landscape.  75% of all flying insects have disappeared from Germany.

Read more at The Guardian.

For more information on neonics click here.

Can Tesla help rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid?

Tesla (maker of electric cars) wants to help Puerto Rico rebuild their power grid. The hurricane destroyed most of the power grid, and in some areas, 100% of people were out of power for 2 or more weeks.

Tesla wants to help build a new solar power grid by storing power in giant battery banks, and distributing that power over power lines. This would be a networked design so there would be solar collectors and battery banks in several different cities. The PR power company was on the verge of bankruptcy when the hurricane hit so the power infrastructure was already poor, damaged, and need of repair at best.

Tesla has already sent hundreds of Powerwalls to help people, but those need electricity to recharge.

Sources
Youtube video.

1985 EPA memo says glyphosate causes kidney tumors

A recently found archived document form 1985 shows, before the EPA was bought off by Monsanto, that the EPA thought glyphosate caused kidney tumors. Monsanto claims tumors are unrelated to glyphosate exposure by showing past studies. EPA claims past studies have too much variation to nullify the no tumor claim.

Sources
PDF here. Get it before it's taken down! Alt link: https://web.archive.org/web/20180131074049/https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-170.pdf

RMS wants to get into the battery business

Robert Murray-Smith created his own company, FWG, with 2 partners. He is working on making a better battery. He already has a test format for powering an electric bike. Initial tests are promising. His videos are very open and he gives you recipes and instructions for making your own graphite capacitors and other energy-related items.

Sources
The FWG website.
RMS Youtube channel.
Article: http://revolution-green.com/fwg-battery-sale-robert-murray-smith/

NEW Hair test checks for pesticide exposure over long term

The Detox Project has a new hair test that can test for pesticide exposure over the long term.

Hair testing shows your exposure to pesticides over a period of 90-120 days, whereas urine only shows your exposure for approximately 14-21 days and blood testing shows your exposure for 2-3 days.

Hair is easy to collect, easy to ship, and easy to store. Their kit is $199. One kit tests for household pesticides, another kit tests for agricultural pesticides, and there are more kits. The lab work is done by Kudzu Science.


Source
Detox Page.

DelMonte to eliminate BPA and GMOs

Del Monte, a major US food producer, announced that it would be eliminating BPA in can liners. But they must use another phthalate, which has not been shown to be safe. They also want to eliminate GMO foods in their products. But Roundup is not just used on GMO food, it's used on all crops to kill it all at the same time, whether the crop is GMO or not.

Links
Article: http://www.organicauthority.com/Del-Monte-Eradicate-BPA-GMOs

BPA found in 16,000 foods and beverages

EWG now has a database showing 16,000 foods contaminated with the endocrine-disrupting chemical BPA. BPA (bisphenol A) can disrupt hormones in the human body creating a host of problems. BPA is a one of a class of chemicals called "phthalates". BPA makes plastics softer so they don't crack. So they are used in plastics for can liners, plastic containers, and just about every plastic. Plastic without phthalates is brittle and breaks easily. Plain plastic is simply not usable in everyday life.

Containers that are BPA free are not safe. Manufacturers simply replace one phthalate with another, which would be even more damaging to people and animals.

How to avoid exposure to BPA

1. In most cases it's impossible to completely avoid exposure to BPA. Food ingredients are shipped to factories in plastic wrap or plastic containers. But the longer the food sits in contact with the BPA, the more BPA it likely has.
2. Buy food sold only in glass jars. 
3. Store food in glass jars. The resealable glass jars with a latching lid and rubber seal are more and more common in the US these days. 
4. Most cans have plastic liners, but especially for acidic foods like tomatoe products and green beans. Avoid canned foods.
5. Avoid freezing food in plastic bags unless the food is wrapped in waxed paper. 
6. Do not allow food to come into contact with plastic for long periods of time. 
7. Plastic syringes and IV drip bags also contain BPA.

U.S. experts doubt EPA curbs on Monsanto, BASF herbicides will halt crop damage

US specialists doubt that reducing the sale of dicamba, sold by Monsanto and BASF, will actually slow down crop damage. Monsanto is releasing dicamba-resistant soy beans. Does dicamba get into every cell, so that it ends up in the food system?

Overspray of dicamba, trade name Xtend, to neighboring fields is responsible for millions of dollars in crop damage. Depending on soil conditions, Roundup can remain in the soil for up to 4 years, damaging future years of crops. Does dicamba do the same?

Links
Article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-agriculture-dicamba/u-s-experts-doubt-epa-curbs-on-monsanto-basf-herbicides-will-halt-crop-damage-idUSKBN1CI21K