Author Archives: Norm Benson

Congressman Ted Lieu Makes Statement on His Glyphosate Concerns: The Activist Hobbyhorse Rides Again

Congressman Ted Lieu who represents California’s 33rd district (which includes Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Santa Monica) issued a statement on his concerns about glyphosate. Below is his statement: REP. LIEU STATEMENT ON NEW GLYPHOSATE SAFETY CONCERNS March 15, 2017 Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington – Today, Congressman TedContinue reading “Congressman Ted Lieu Makes Statement on His Glyphosate Concerns: The Activist Hobbyhorse Rides Again”

Cataclysmic Climate Change

Damn, I am pissed. I was supposed to be dead by now. Hell, we all were. Baby-boomers weren’t supposed to live longer than their parents’ generation. Experts expected pesticides and other synthetic chemicals to kill us. We would be killed by the very technology meant to save us—hoisted with our own malathion petards. Rachel CarsonContinue reading “Cataclysmic Climate Change”

Cheering up Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Case of the Mondays

Cheer up Dr. Tyson. In these past forty-five to fifty years…we have landed unmanned probes, one on the planet Mars and one on a motherfucking comet!…raised literacy 50%, lowered infant mortality 60%, increased average world incomes 300%, and raised lifespans 30%.

Make America Plate Again. (Sunday Talk Show Edition)

[Voiceover] Welcome to FFN’s (Food Fetish Network) Sunday talk show, Plate the Nation; where we discuss current food issues on the nation’s plate with movers and salad shakers in the news. And here is the host of Plate the Nation, Bob Sheep-Sheerer. A Photo of Food By Unknown [Camera focuses on  Sheep-Sheerer: a man inContinue reading “Make America Plate Again. (Sunday Talk Show Edition)”

Ramazzini Institute at center of EPA FOIA request

Today the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to force the Agency to begin turning over documents it promised to release under a May 2016 FOIA request. E&E Legal is a 501(c)(3) organization engaged in strategic litigationContinue reading “Ramazzini Institute at center of EPA FOIA request”

Barkbook & Twigger? German Forester Claims Trees Have Social Networks

The Wood Wide Web is in the news. A New York Times article tells of a German forester, Peter Wohlleben, who believes that trees communicate intimately. That they have social networks. What? Barkbook? Twigger? SapChat? Pineterest? Wohlleben wrote a best-selling book in Germany, “Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate — DiscoveriesContinue reading “Barkbook & Twigger? German Forester Claims Trees Have Social Networks”

How do experts determine the safe level of a chemical?

Ames points out that our test for carcinogenicity of feeding animals near-fatal doses of the chemical is flawed because, “High doses can cause chronic wounding of tissues, cell death, and consequent chronic cell division of neighboring cells, which would otherwise not divide.”

Don’t Drink Yellow Tap Water

California, chemaphobia, and the ‘Erin Brockovich chemical’ (Chromium-6) Chromium 6 found in elementary school’s drinking water On March 11, 2016, Coyote Valley Elementary School near Middletown, California (north of San Francisco), started handing out bottled water following reports that the Hidden Valley Lake municipal water supply had levels of chromium-6 higher than were allowed byContinue reading “Don’t Drink Yellow Tap Water”

Flint: In Loco Parentis Knows Best

The troubles with lead in Flint, Michigan’s water grabbed the media’s attention in early 2016. Flint’s switch from using Detroit’s water to drafting from the Flint River changed the pH of the water being treated to the acidic side. Its logarithmic scale goes from 0-14 (0= high acidic and 14 = highly basic). A pHContinue reading “Flint: In Loco Parentis Knows Best”