Permaculture Blog

Why wetland environments are important.

microbiologist Jillian Banfield and her colleagues started combing through samples of mud from wetland environments three years ago

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We are destroying wetland habitats right and left. They are flat, easy to drain, and build on. California has destroyed 98% of its freshwater wetlands. When I was growing up the tropical rainforests were being decimated and there were nightly news broadcasts about the dangers of destroying them when the biodiversity they contained could contribute so much to medicine and science. Where are the nightly news shows about the destruction of our wetland environments.

Microbiologists looking at these organisms from wetland environments

have reported large DNA structures in some archaea that defy easy categorization.

Source: Plasmid, Virus or Other? DNA ‘Borgs’ Blur Boundaries. | Quanta Magazine

other scientists …. agree that even the more mundane interpretations show how little is known about the categories of genetic diversity in nature.

(In this case wetland mud!) The scientists say that

It highlights a need “to start thinking about different genetic entities [on] a continuum,” said Cédric Feschotte, a molecular biologist at Cornell University who was not involved in the new work. This kind of thinking could open up a world of possibilities for what we understand about the nature of the genome, how microbes function, and where to look for potential biotechnological applications.

So if this hasn’t convinced you that wetland environments are important on so many levels, beauty, animal habitat, and if you just want to be selfish then I guess I will just have to keep trying.

A new analysis of more than 50 previously secret, corporate-backed scientific studies is raising troubling questions about a history of regulatory reliance on such research….
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In a 187-page report released on Friday, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria said a thorough review of 53 safety studies submitted to regulators by large chemical companies showed that most do not comply with modern international standards for scientific rigor….
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Of the 53 studies submitted to regulators by the companies, only two were acceptable, according to current internationally recognized scientific standards….

Source: Corporate studies asserting herbicide safety show many flaws, new analysis finds

My friends, this article about the pesticide industry illustrates the same problems as the oil industry, and the medical pharmaceutical industry. We need to encourage our governments to stop allowing these mega company groups to write their own laws and submit only the documents they want to submit.

The sentence I find most horrifying in all of this is “A new analysis of more than 50 previously secret, corporate-backed scientific studies”.

Why in the world should a company that wants to spray toxic chemicals over 90% of the Earth, or a company that wants to mine material or use it in a process that is hazardous if it leaks (I’m thinking about Fukushima too), or a company that wants to inject chemicals into over half the human race be allowed to have secret information about those processes?!?!

In my opinion none of those processes should have any secret parts. If you want to have secrets with a consenting partner in your bedroom that’s fine by me. More power to you :-). But not if it affects more than 10% of the human race. In fact thinking about it, it shouldn’t be allowed if it affects more than 5% or even 1%. If it does — _no secrets allowed_.
All the best to you my friends.

With urban nature threatened by pollution, climate change, and habitat loss, the city is making a push to preserve its beautiful biodiversity

Source: L.A. Is Now a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Here’s Why It’s a Big Deal

What a wonderful thing, an entire city. There are probably other cities but I am unfortunately unaware of them. I am focusing on LA. And it is wonderful that the National Wildlife Federation has made this push. Native wildlife really needs clean water too. And in addition LA has plowed under more than 99 percent of its freshwater wetlands in order to build high-rise. La Cienega (one of the major thoroughfares in LA) means the swamp, bog, or wetland. It is gone!

All that freshwater wetland habitat is gone!

Converting your backyard, toxic, chlorinated, chemical cesspool of a swimming pool to a green clean wildlife machine would be an awesome thing to do.

Best to you all.

another excellent video that illustrates why I love biology.

www.PuraVidaAquatic.com 310-429-8477

Please! be carefull out there with your used masks. And share this if you can.
Best to you all

Evolution is _bloody and gory_ .When we look at a beautiful Cheetah cub we never ever see the thousands of cubs dying in the last stages of starvation because they were a hair slower than their brothers or sisters. Social evolution is just as bloody and just as gory.

Source: DESC1 and MSPL Activate Influenza A Viruses and Emerging Coronaviruses for Host Cell Entry

The viral hemagglutinin (HA) and spike (S) surface proteins are responsible for host cell entry of FLUAV (6) and CoVs (7, 8), respectively. Both proteins use their N-terminal surface units, termed HA1 (FLUAV) and S1 (CoVs), to engage cellular receptors, while the C-terminal transmembrane units, termed HA2 (FLUAV) and S2 (CoVs), facilitate fusion of the viral membrane with a host cell membrane—processes that are essential for infectious entry (6,–8). Notably, the HA and S proteins are synthesized as inactive precursors in infected cells and acquire the ability to drive membrane fusion only upon activation by host cell proteases (9, 10).

Take out “host cell” in the last sentence. Almost certainly it doesn’t have to occur in tbe infected host cell.

“Vaccines are miracles,” said Pedro Alonso, the director for the Institute for Global Health of Barcelona, and another stakeholder in the “Decade of Vaccines” program. Yes. And for certain folk, certain insider folk, vaccines are also great economic and political investments.

Source: Anthony Fauci sets stage for mandatory — lucrative! — vacc

Enjoy! Wear a mask. Wear gloves. Don’t worry at all about the state mandating medical procedures. You are all they care about — your safety from the dark unknown. Do not be afraid, you can trust someone else to protect you from the dark unknown.

There is no worry for _your_self, _your_ kids, your_ toilet paper, _your_ food, _your_ livelyhood, _your_ friends, and especially _your_ country. Be proud to be an American . . . . . . . . puppet.

Here is an idea. Any mandatory vaccine can have _no_ associated _proprietary_ research, period, no exceptions. If the state is going to inject anybody against their will, the state and associated industrial minions have to fully disclose every study, every bit of chemical information, every question that shows any problems with it _to everyone_, not just a few industry insiders posing as regulators.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the same idea would apply to any chemical sprayed on more than a hundred acres?

Best

It’s totally unnecessary—and it may even be bad for you.

Source: You Shouldn’t Be Wearing Gloves to Go Grocery Shopping

This novel coronavirus doesn’t enter the body through your hands, so you don’t need any kind of barrier there. If you touch a contaminated surface with gloves, and touch something else, you’re as likely to spread it as you are if you touch things with your bare hands. Maybe even more likely: “The adhesive properties of viruses differ among viruses; it’s possible the coronavirus could adhere to the latex gloves better than it could adhere to your own skin,” says Reynolds. And hands can be effectively washed and used again right away.

The idea that gloves may actually increase the spread hit me like a ton of bricks! Our skin has evolved for Millions of years to protect us against these very viruses. In microbiology classes students are taught that the skin is a microbe defense system on many levels. Much is focused on the actual mechanical and structural components of the skin providing a chainmail armor type defense.

But our skin also extrudes oils and enzymes. The idea above fits in with the concept of the skin being a defense system. And my head exploded when I realized that the enzymes and oils your skin secretes could potentially destroy virus particles.

Therefore, gloves may protect virus smears from our own skin degradation systems and actually increase the spread. In addition many people would be far more careless since they believe that they are protected, and not follow good behavior patterns that would decrease the spread of the virus.

Simply washing your hands kills viruses. Washing your hands washes soap destroyed viruses down the drain. I’ll bet you nobody washes their gloves as often as they would wash their hands. In fact, I’ll bet nobody uses hand sanitizer on their gloves when going between stores or getting into their car. People wearing gloves are potentially making the problem much worse.
People please: slow down, quit thrashing around, and just wash your hands. And if you are me, stop putting your reading glasses in your mouth to hold them after they have slid off the top of your head several times in a row. Handle the ear pieces multiple time while shopping and then stick them in your mouth :-) sheesh, I can be an idiot too. Thank goodness I have an immune system that has spent half a billion years fighting for me.
Best to all.

Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers.

Source: Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases