See item 7 for image link.1) I won't give identifying details, but I do adore it when postings for editorial positions at enormous publishing houses contain sentences like this one: A college-level understanding and use of the English language, attention to detail, self-motivated, well organized and team oriented. Wha...? Yuck.
No, I wasn't planning on applying. Candidly, I'm too obsessive, indolent, unfriendly, and impatient for that kind of gig, though I consider myself a rare variety of overachiever in search of the right market niche. I'm a divine curmudgeon.
2) The deadly Nile Monitor, cousin to the insatiable Komodo Dragon, has been seen swimming toward the nature sanctuary of Florida's Sanibel Island. If we sent Godzilla to roast all the invading hostiles, I think you can see we'd just compound the problem with a bigger rapacious reptile. Therefore, I'm calling for lizard-attacking (and marinating and roasting to crispy succulence) robot armies fueled only by our gratitude and used diapers. Get on it, capitalists and enginerds! I already did the idea part.
3) In deep space, who can protect the junk in your trunk? Mmmm, marrow...
4) Aubrey de Grey has a short list of big goals that will "murder death." He seems brilliant and slightly mad, although all visionaries smack of insanity. But really, is this what we want? Don't weep, but I'm sick of most of the jamokes I know already. If you're planning on lingering another century or two to vex me, I'm gonna start a skydiving school with swiss cheese parachutes. Free passes, ya'll.
5) I love the KMMN (Kill Malarial Mosquitos Now) Coalition. There are other voices saying it, and I've bored you with it about a million times, but I STILL HEART DDT!
6) Have you forgotten to call someone a Walloon today?
7) Yeah, so I knitted you a digestive system. So what about it?
5 comments:
I don't heart DDT. There are other pesticides that can be used against mosquitoes that are not so environmentally unfriendly. BT comes to mind, I use it in my pond. Also...a very,very light coating of vegetable oil will also do the trick. They both kill mosquito larvae quite nicely, at minimal/no cost to the surrounding wildlife.
Even Safer's Soap is better than DDT.
DDT's cheap to make, not harmful to the environment, effective on a wide spectrum of beasties as we proved by eradicating tremendous health hazards here, and a long-mischaracterized actor which would by today have saved millions of lives around the world if not prematurely damned by reactionism and junk science.
DDT is harmful to the environment, IMO.
BT costs absolutely nothing to make, I can make it myself, and do. Kills mosquito larvae dead. It's a naturally occuring bacterium that exists everywhere on earth. It's short acting and local.
The problem with DDT is that it also kills beneficial insects that feed on Mosquito larvae. So will BT, but a lot less of them. Bt is really specific to soft bodied larvae, and you have to use it in high concentration to have it work. I can't get behind the broad spectrum insecticides, herbicides, whatever. They kill EVERYTHING buggish or herbish, harmful to us or not.
Fireflies are rare in my neighborhood now...because everybody uses insecticides on their lawns in spring. Fireflies start their lives as grubs in our lawns. Skunks have become rare because they eat grubs out of the lawn. Owls eat skunks....it's all connected.
We don't use pesticides on our lawn. So...once in a while, I can tell when a skunk has been grubbing.
And I personally don't believe that the science that showed DDT to be a menace was "junk science". I think it was science that inconvenienced the long term profit margins of chemical companies.
I don't believe that the uptick in numbers of large raptors(bald eagles, ospreys)and passerines in this country after DDT was banned was a coincidence.
The only bummer about banning DDT that I can think of is that it was really effective against the dutch elm beetle.
It is extremely interesting for me to read this blog. Thanx for it. I like such themes and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more soon.
Best wishes
Alice Tudes
DEET is a very effective repellent from my experience. As for killing mosquitoes, Mosquito Magnets seem to be most effective from these independent tests I found:
http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/advice/how-it-works/how-it-works-independent-testing
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