97% of threatened species likely harmed by 2 pesticides

The EPA recently released its analysis of 1800 species protected under the Endangered Species Act are likely harmed by 2 pesticides: chlorpyrifos and malathion. It appears decades later, that neither government nor industry has learned a thing after the PCB and other fiascos of the 1960s and 1970s.

Source

1. EcoWatch. Jan 19, 2017. EcoWatch did not provide a link to the EPA report.
2. Possible related reports: EPA report on malathion. The date of the report is conspicuously absent. EPA report on chlorpyrifos. EPA report on diazinon.
3. Possible draft of the report from the EPA, April 2016. "As part of the Endangered Species Act consultation process with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), EPA has released for public comment the first-ever draft biological evaluations analyzing the nation-wide effects of chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion on endangered and threatened species and designated critical habitat. Partial evaluations, without the effects determinations, were released in December 2015."

Study shows Roundup causes liver disease

Keep in mind that there's a difference between glyphosate (which is bad enough) and Roundup, which contains surfactants to make it better absorbed by plants. Some studies indicate Roundup to be much more dangerous than plain glyphosate.

The study was peer reviewed at Nature.com.  doi:10.1038/srep39328

The impairment of liver function by low environmentally relevant doses of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) is still a debatable and unresolved matter. Previously we have shown that rats administered for 2 years with 0.1 ppb (50 ng/L glyphosate equivalent dilution; 4 ng/kg body weight/day daily intake) of a Roundup GBH formulation showed signs of enhanced liver injury as indicated by anatomorphological, blood/urine biochemical changes and transcriptome profiling. 

Wow! Damage at parts per billion! Or 4 NANOgrams per kg of body weight! Damage occurs at concentrations far below EPA standards.

This was a 2 year study on female rat liver tissue.  The rats suffered from Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). NAFLD currently affects 25% of the US population. NAFLD can progress to the more serious condition non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Over the 24 months the trigliceride levels rose in the rates. See Figure 1 graph in study.

Danish study: GM soy linked to sick pigs

Don't forget about this one from 2012. Farmers are learning how huge losses are caused by GM feed. But it's not the GM feed that's the problem, it's the pesticides, especially glyphosate, sprayed on the feed. Glyphosate is a systemic chemical, it's in all parts of the plant, and it can't be washed off. Many studies show it's harmful to mammals and mammal cells.

A Danish farming newspaper has caused quite a stir by devoting a sizeable part of its 13 April edition to the discoveries by pig farmer lb Borup Pedersen that GM soy has a damaging effect both on his animals and on his farming profitability. On the front page of the paper there was a lead story under the headline "Pig farmer reaps gains from GMO-free soy". On a sidebar the paper referred to Mr Pedersen's contention that DDT and Thalidomide were minor problems when set alongside GMOs and Glyphosate. In an Editorial Comment on page 2, the paper argued that it would be grossly irresponsible for the authorities to ignore or ridicule the discoveries made by the farmer in his pig farming operations, and it congratulated the authorities for commissioning a new study designed to determine whether stomach lesions and other effects might be associated with GM soy; in the study 100 animals will be fed with non-GM soy and 100 with GM soy in their diets.

Mr. Borup Pederson talked to a mainstream Danish farming newspaper (Effektivt Landbrug).


In his discussions with GM-Free Cymru Mr Pedersen itemised the following effects:

1. Within 2 days diarrhoea virtually disappeared in the farrowing house, whereas before we had used 50-100 ml Borgal / day.
2. Since switching, we have not experienced death from bloat in sows or death by ulcers, as opposed to minimum 1 per month previously. (36 sows died due to stomach related sickness over the last two years before switching)
3. No sows have died through loss of appetite, whereas 2 sows died from this cause last year.
4. Even without washing between farrowings, diarrhoea does not now reappear. Previously when we failed to wash between sows, we noticed more diarrhoea.
5. Previously we have struggled with diarrhoea in first layer sows, we do not have this problem any more!
6. Two years ago when the diarrhoea was as its worst, we had months with nearly 30% dead in the farrowing house. At that time it was impossible to find sows that could nurse piglets.
7. Before it was unusual to have a sow with 13 piglets weaned. The average was about 10.5 per sow plus spare mothers. Now we are getting over 12 piglets on average weaned and 14 piglets weaned per sow is common. We have fewer nursing sows, simply because the sows are milking better and eating more.
8. Sows farrow better and we have 0.3 more live births per sow, of which 0.2 is gained from fewer stillborn. Now we have 14.9 liveborn and 1.6 stillborn, averaged over the past 7 months.
9. The piglets weaned are stronger and more evenly sized.
10. Man-hours are reduced by 20-30 hours per month, partly by washing less and because everything is easier.

 This isn't a full-blown study, but still, it's very telling and should point the way to a larger study.


Links
Post from GMWatch.

Batteroo post updated

The Batteroo post has been updated as people test the device. Read up here.

Basically I thought it was possible to miniaturize a Joule Thief but this device doesn't even do that. It's a total scam.

Testing different electrolytes at home for DIY batteries.

For each DIY battery you make, you have dissimilar metals, like copper and zinc. But sometimes they are not always metal, like the aluminum foil and activated charcoal battery. In order to test the power output of different electrolytes we must make all other variables the same. Here's what you will need:

1. Penny
2. Nickel, post-1964 (1964 was a transition year so some nickels contain silver, get a nickel post-1964 to make sure it has no silver)
3. 2 wires each with an alligator clip.
4. Multimeter. If you want to use a USB meter instead you will need to buy this USB to test hook adapter.
5. 3 beakers or glasses. Plastic cups can work also. 
6. Salt
7. Vinegar
8. Lemon juice
9. Measuring spoon of 1 teaspoon
10. Measuring beaker of 100ml. If you don't have a beaker use a measuring cup for liquid measurements, not dry measurements.

Above: I use different containers, and I found a 60ml measuring cup!

Above: Find some wires with alligator clips on both ends. Hook the red wire to the nickel (+, red) and the black wire to the penny (-, black).

Now put 100ml in a glass, put both the penny and nickel in the water, and turn the multimeter to measure DC voltage. We get about 147millivolts with plain water, that's not enough to even light an LED.

Remove the penny and nickel. Now take the 100ml of water and add one level teaspoon of salt to it. Stir it well. Now put the penny and nickel back into the water. What voltage does the voltmeter read now?

If your multimeter reads a negative voltage it just means you have to switch the probes around. A negative voltage won't harm your multimeter. 

Remove the nickel and penny and add a second teaspoon of salt, stir it well. Put the nickel and penny back into the saltwater. How much voltage is being generated? How many amps?

Discard the salt water and rinse the glass well. Now make these solutions and test the voltage and amps they output. Write each result down.

1. 50ml water, 50ml vinegar. 
2. 50ml water, 100ml vinegar. 
3. Discard vinegar water and rinse glass well. 
4. 50ml water, 50ml lemon juice. 
5. Discard lemon water and rinse glass well. 
6. Add 100ml of soda. Take a voltage reading. Write it down.

What happens to the voltage and amps in each case? By adding more vinegar or lemon juice (both acids), does the voltage go up or down? What kind of voltage does soda give? Sodas are very acidic so they should work very well.

Summary
You can search the internet for different kinds of metals. Certain combinations of metals give higher voltages, and some give more amps, and some give a longer run time. Likewise, the stronger acids can also have an effect on voltage.

"I'm not dead yet!"

"I'm not dead yet!" said a plague victim in Monty Python. Well, we're not dead yet either, we're just busy. If you have an article to submit, please write it up and get in contact with me to have it posted.

Thank you and have a great new year!

Batteroo: voltage booster for AA and AA cells

The Battero is a voltage booster that is a sleeve that goes round your AA or AAA battery cells, very common cells used in the US market. That means it can boost the voltage to your items get more use out of the battery. Normally, a 1.5vdc AA battery is considered dead when it reaches 1.2v. The Batteroo boosts the voltage higher so the device thinks the battery has more juice than it does.

The Batteroo got a lot of criticism because it make outrageous claims like extending battery life 800%. That is not true, but it does extend battery life. The concept of a voltage booster is also called  Joule Thief. The concept is simple, but the key for the Batteroo was miniturizing the components to fit as a sleeve around the AA battery.

More Batteroos scheduled to be sold in Jan 2017. Stay tuned. I'll be testing one of these.

I haven't seen any Joule Thief flashlights out there. Most flashlights concentrate on guzzling power to get a high brightness to blind a UFO. But if you want a power-sipping LED light that works on dead batteries, go here to Etsy.

EDIT: Further Batteroo testing by several people revealed the Batteroo does nothing to improve battery life. So it appears it's not even a tiny Joule Thief.

1. EEVBlog video here, with toy train test.  
2. EEVBlog post about the Batteroo testing. You will need a free account to comment.
3. Wikipedia entry on Batteroo.

I assumed there was some potential here if they really miniaturized a Joule Thief, and improved battery life about 20-40%, but test results indicate that it's a total scam.

San Jose State University's Kiumars Parvin claimed, "We tested the Batteriser sleeve in our lab and we confirmed that the Batteriser taps into 80 percent of energy that is usually thrown away."

Now if you don't know how marketers talk, you will totally misunderstand the above statement. The statement does not say "it uses up all of the other 80% of the battery power". It says "it taps into (uses some of) the wasted 80% of battery power."

In the test by UL (safety organization), a Garmin Golf GPS using Batteriser was shown to have a lifespan of 10 hours and 12 minutes, in contrast to the 1 hour and 43 minutes of operating time without a Batteriser.^[8] However, later the test was independently duplicated by TechnologyCatalyst to demonstrate that Garmin runs OK for over 17 hours on ordinary AA batteries, and the report by UL was based on the sloppy test design.

 Test design matters, quite a bit, apparently. A better test might be how many milliamps the device uses with and without the Batteroo. Power meters on different devices are designed differently and can be misleading.

Monsanto corn damaged intestines

Monsanto's GM corn MON810 has damaged rat intestines, according to a new study stored at the NIH. Damaged intestines can lead to poor nutrient uptake, leading to a host of diseases and conditions, although the symptoms may be subtle. This GM corn contained delta toxins, the same emitted by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

Source
GM Watch. 2016-11-24.
Study at the NIH. 2016-11.

Tiny batteries with nanopores charge in 12 minutes

A new battery type, made with nanopores, could store more energy in a smaller space and improve battery technology.

Highlights:

1. They are 80,000 times thinner than a human hair. I wonder if they could be made flexible.
2. One billion nanoholes could fit on a postage stamp. 
3. Recharges thousands of times. (Not likely, current batteries don't even do that.)
4. It could take 3-5 years to commercialize this product. 
5. These batteries have the potential to triple a cell phone's battery life and give electric vehicles a 300-mile driving range. 
6. It took two decades to bring the initial lithium-ion battery to the market.

Source
National Geographic, 2014.
Follow NatGeoGreen on Twitter.

USDA: 85% of foods tested contain pesticides

The USDA runs a program called the Pesticide Data Program where it tests foods for pesticide residues. The 2015 report (released Nov 2016) says 85% of foods tested contained pesticides. One sample of strawberries contained 20 pesticides. Only 15% of foods were free from pesticides.

1. There were 10,000+ samples collected.
2. Apples, cherries (fresh and frozen), cucumbers, grapefruit, grapes, green beans, lettuce, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, sweet corn (fresh and frozen), tomatoes, and watermelon.
3. Because PDP data are mainly used for risk assessments, PDP laboratory methods are geared to detect the lowest possible levels of pesticide residues.
4. Samples were taken from a variety of US states. Both domestic items and imported items were sampled.

Source
Archive.is backup link to PDF.