Oregon is one of the states with the lowest per capita COVID-19 infection rates. However, despite our best efforts, we are still seeing about 50 new cases per day (down only a little from a high of about 70 cases per day five weeks ago). Nothing much has changed for the last two or three [...]
Category: Ideas
Quick COVID-19 Math
Due to the scarcity of tests across the country, hospitals usually only test those cases that they need to admit to the hospital. The hospitals are not testing the majority of people complaining of symptoms, nor the many possibly infected asymptomatic people. We need to keep this fact in mind when looking at the statistics [...]
The Climate Train Wreck – A Review 2019
After decades of complacency, climate change is rearing its ugly head and people are taking notice. Political will, if not quite yet possible, is nigh, so it is time to make an overall climate assessment. Let's see where we are, where we are going, and what we can do about it. Our global response to [...]
Twinning Intelligence
We have entered the age of "pretty smart" machines. There have been some showpieces in the form of Jeopardy's Watson and recently the game playing AlphaGo and AlphaZero machines that far and way bested the best human players at their game. Notably, unlike previous game playing machines, AlphaZero was never programmed on how to play [...]
States Must Adopt EU Pesticide Regulations to Stop Insect Extinction
The world is in the midst of an insect extinction crisis. We've all heard about the plight of bees, but the plight of all insect fauna is much less widely appreciated. The figure below is from a report in Science a few years ago showing the precipitous decline in insects worldwide.[1] What beekeepers and naturalists [...]
Metamodern Meditation
I only recently ran into metamodernism, the new kid on the block ready to sweep postmodernism into the dust bin of intellectual movements. This isn't my usual bailiwick, so it took me by surprise that I was pulled into this obscure corner of cultural criticism. What's brought me here is the paucity of reasonable discussion these [...]
Threshold mechanisms in acetylcholine pathway insecticides and environmental safety
Overview Previously we looked at some of the basic principles of nervous system function and how chemicals from several pesticide classes disrupt normal function. This time we will look in detail about what we can expect for a dose-response characterization of acetylcholine pathway insecticides based upon their mode of action and properties of the nervous system. [...]
EPA’s Proposed Imidacloprid Exposure Limitations are Not Strong Enough
Our comment letter to EPA follows below. OPP Docket Environmental Protection Agency Docket Center (EPA/DC), (28221T) 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Washington, DC 20460-0001 Re: Pollinator Ecological Risk Assessments: Imidacloprid Registration Review EPA-HQ-OPP-2008-0844 To whom it may concern, We would like to offer some comments on the regulatory endpoints that are proposed in [...]
The Mechanisms of Neuro-toxic Pesticides
Agricultural pesticides have become part of the chemical landscape that we all live in. To be able to make intelligent decision about the use and regulation of these chemicals, it's important to understand how they work. Almost all modern pesticides are chemicals that interfere in some way with the nervous system. The characteristics of the [...]
Environmental Implications of Pesticides with Delayed Toxicity
The debate about the environmental safety, or lack there of, for the neonicotinoid insecticides begs us to ask what would be the characteristics of an environmentally safe or benign pesticide? Despite a growing and flourishing organic agriculture movement, industrial agriculture is not going away any time soon. Hence it is important to understand how to [...]
