Healthy skepticism

I know, I break my own record and post twice on the same day, but I can’t help it.
From the cycle ” Idiots among us” I am bringing you two examples:

First example : From the projects in Brooklyn to a mansion in Atlanta, introducing the Harper family

By the Associated Press LAKE CITY, Ga. - More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” team demolish a family’s decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
After the Harper family used the two-storey home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it’s set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.
The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighbourhood. The home’s door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.

Materials and labour were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes’ employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple’s three children and a home maintenance fund.

Now the house is in foreclosure and the idiots should go and work as volunteers on other Extreme Makeover projects. To gain experience construction related if nothing else.

Second example: Winner of $3.6 million jackpot kept the secret for almost a year
We have to be proud with our local celebrities, so, drum roll please: introducing the young realtor who won $3.6 million on 6/49 and kept it secret for 49 weeks…. Ladies and gentlemen… here is Peter Dushop.

Seriously, what was in his freaking mind? He signed the winning ticket and left it in safe deposit box at the bank because he could not make up his mind about what to do with the money. Duh!!!!! This guy does not seem to be very bright if it took him almost a year to figure out something. And the supreme ‘duh moment’: he decided to leave the money in the bank!!!

That mucho intelligent idea needed almost a year to navigate through the emptiness of his skull. In the mean time he lost about $100,000 in interest.

I found as well some pretty disturbing comments congratulating the guys for not making his mind for almost a year.
Seriously? Congratulating him for being an idiot? Definitely the idiots outnumber us.

I am getting dizzy already rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

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“If the bee disappears off the surface of the globe, then man would have four years left to live.”- Quote attributed to Albert Einstein

If the above quote is really coming from Einstein or not, it does not matter. What matters is that the silent cataclysm is happening.
According to reports and studies, in the U.S and Canada the losses of domesticated bees are up to 90% and in U.K and the Netherlands wild bee population have declined 80%. Losses were reported as well in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Austria and Spain.
In many cases no bees were found dead, just gone from the hive. It’s called: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Searching for nectar, bees travel from blossom to blossom transferring pollen from plant to plant, thus fertilizing and enabling them to bear fruit.
Hence: no bee, no pollination of crops, orchards or home gardens. Affected will be: apples, blueberries, cantaloupes, cranberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, beans, peas, strawberries and many other crops.

According to a study from Cornell University, the direct value of honey bee pollination to U.S. agriculture is more than $14.6 billion.

What is the cause of the death of bees?

- Some people came up with the theory that bees were being affected by the increased electromagnetic activity from mobile phones and wireless internet access, interfering with the bees ability to navigate.
- Others say it’s because of various pathogens, old and new
- The most popular hypothesis seem to blame it on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in combination with various insecticides
- Or all of the above

Genetically modified seeds seem to be the root of all evils. Watch the movie ‘We feed the world’ and you are going to discover lots of frightening aspects, not so well known, related to our food. The way I see it, our future is doomed.
It makes lots of sense.
Genetically modified seeds are produced and distributed by powerful biotech conglomerates (Monsanto being one of them), capable to manipulate government agricultural policy to support their agenda.
They came up with the modified seeds that must be used with their brand of fertilizers and pesticides in order to gain the maximum yield.
But the genetic modification of the plant leads to genetic modification of the flower pollen and the bees would potentially die of illness due to the lack of nutrients.
Another disturbing aspect related to modified seeds is that they are infertile meaning that the farmers can not replant.
Infertile seeds can not be good news for bees, don’t you think?

Of course you are going to find lots of studies (founded by whom I wonder) showing that there is no link between GMO and the death of the bees.
Personally, I trust these studies as much as I trust the TV commercials.

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