Unknown Illness is Killing Bats and Bees
Colony Collapse Disorder has killed millions of bees and was first noted in 2006. Some colonies saw losses of about 90% of their populations. The bees are important because they are needed to pollinate certain crops. They have already experienced serious losses financially and scientists are at a loss to find the cause.
Bats are dying by the thousands also, but from a separate cause. In 2006 a cave had a population of 1300 was found to only contain about 470 in 2007, and recently the count dropped to only 38.
There is real reason for concern according to people who study the bats. They say that extinction is a very real possibility.
Concern Over Tainted Medicine
A large pharmaceutical company in China is being blamed for selling contaminated leukemia drugs that affected over 200 people. This drug came out of one of the plants that this company owns. The reason for concern is that the same company has a plant only an hour away that makes all the abortion pills that the U.S. uses. In fact they export many drugs that are shipped to many countries. The FDA in China says that the other plants that this company owns are clean and have passed inspections, however this company has been tied to complaints about their practises before.
The thing I find interesting is that our FDA was asked what other drugs are produced by this company and they declined to answer and did not even say why they would not release this information. I find that very troubling.
New Vending Machines In L.A.
There are now a couple of vending machines in L.A. that are dispensing medical marijuana. The machines are in rooms with guards and you must have a prescription, you also need to be photographed and fingerprinted. The marijuana comes in capsule form and you are limited to one ounce per week.
They are also planning to have vending machines that will have things like Viagra, antidepressants, and other medications.
I’m sure it won’t take long before there are protests to eliminate the machines as the feds still want to override states rights on this issue. What side are you on?
Double Dipping
A study was done by undergraduate students to see how much extra bacteria was added to a dip by people double dipping. They found it adds about 10,000 more bacteria to the dip. According to the article I read it seems equivalent to kissing someone and the transfer of the bacteria from one mouth to another.
You can relax about this study, the main purpose seemed to be to teach the students how to do research of this kind. Still if you are sharing dip, chances are you are also sharing someone else’s saliva. Not a great ingredient!