Tragic. I like bees. They pollinate. They produce honey. They are vastly important. I like honey – a lot.

A lot of bloggers and journalists have been using a statement (but unproven) – from Albert Einstein, in which he claims that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

I’ll do the math for you: 2012.

We don’t need an Albert Einstein quote to know that we are in trouble.

Nobody seems to know why this is occurring and there has been speculation that cell phones are to blame. Apparently, the frequency interferes with the bees� natural navigation system causing them to get lost and they are subsequently unable to find their way back to their hives.

Not Good.

Bees are one of the MOST Essential pollinators on the planet.

Can things get any worse?

*4/702/13*

Article via [via the latimes]

Advanced Medical Optics Inc. is recalling its Complete MoisturePlus contact lens solutions and is calling on consumers to stop using them after data showed a higher risk of eye infections.

The announcement late Friday followed AMO’s recall of the same product last year because of bacterial contamination, and a recall by rival Bausch & Lomb Inc. after its contact lens solution was linked to infections.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention interviewed 46 patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare but serious cornea infection, and found that of the 39 who wore soft contact lenses, 21 used Complete MoisturePlus.

The CDC estimated that risk of infection was at least seven times greater among users of the Complete MoisturePlus solution compared with those who were not, the company said.

“As patient safety is paramount to AMO, the company is taking decisive action to stop shipments, recall product from the marketplace and encourage consumers to discontinue the use of AMO Complete MoisturePlus until further information is available,” the Santa Ana-based company said.

AMO said there was no evidence to suggest that the recall was related to a product contamination issue.

The company did not give an outlook for the financial repercussions of recalling the product, one of its top-selling items.

Last November, it recalled almost 3 million units of the Complete MoisturePlus solution because of sterility problems and lowered its earnings forecast.

*5/702/13*

[via]

SAN FRANCISCO – Maverick airline Virgin America plans to begin selling tickets Thursday, giving travelers their first chance to book a trip on planes equipped to pamper passengers even when they aren’t flying first-class.

The airline’s inaugural flights are scheduled to take off Aug. 8 from Los Angeles and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and arrive at roughly the same time late that morning in San Francisco, which will serve as Virgin America’s hub.

Tickets for the flights were expected to go on sale Thursday around 3 a.m. PDT through Virgin America’s Web site and customer service number, 877-359-8474 877-359-8474. A one-way ticket between Los Angeles and San Francisco will start at $44, while one-way tickets for the San Francisco-New York flights will start at $139.

Burlingame-based Virgin America also will sell tickets for flights to Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., scheduled to start in September and October.

Conceived by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin America is promising to shake up the U.S. airline industry by making flying a more luxurious experience at affordable prices. The airline has raised nearly $300 million from investors, led by Branson’s Virgin Group, which controls the British-based Virgin Atlantic airline.

*19/702/13*

Update: John just told me that it woke him up. It woke my housemate up, too. It was jarring enough that we are going to have a house meeting to discuss safety issues. It looks like we’ll be putting aside some water and other essentials just in case…

[via]

A magnitude 4.2 quake struck a couple miles northeast of the center of Oakland at 4:42 a.m. today, causing power outage for almost 5,000 customers in the East Bay.

The early morning quake jolted and damaged a switch that controlled the flow of power to homes, said Susan Simon, spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric. The outages were scattered across Oakland.

By 8 a.m., PG&E workers were working to restore power to the remaining 300 of the 4,600 customers who were affected, Simon said.

One Berkeley resident said the quake woke her up and that she felt about 30 seconds of strong shaking. Her porch light on a pendant swung after the rumble subsided, but the quake caused no damage.

There were no reports of serious damage, an Oakland Police dispatcher said.

Berkeley dispatchers said that while police have not been out on any earthquake related calls, they received reports of broken glass and cracked cement.

People reported feeling the temblor as far west as Half Moon Bay, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

*6/702/13*

A federal judge in Vermont today ruled against the U.S. auto industry’s attempt to block California and 14 other states from setting tough new limits on global warming pollution from automobiles.

Our own general counsel Jim Tripp presented arguments in the 16-day trial this spring. He worked closely on the case with state officials from Vermont and New York and several other environmental groups, including the Conservation Law Foundation, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

In the ruling, Federal Judge William K. Sessions found that the auto industry had failed to prove that it could not meet the tailpipe standards, that the new standards would endanger drivers or that Congress had forbidden states from setting their own pollution limits.

This ruling comes less than six months after a historic Supreme Court decision in early April that the Environmental Protection Agency has an obligation to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.

These are huge victories. Today’s ruling not only puts us on solid legal ground for a parallel case in the California courts this summer, but, combined with the Supreme Court’s April decision, adds enormous momentum to our efforts to cap and reduce America’s global warming pollution.

We are still waiting on the EPA to grant California its waiver request under the Clean Air Act to regulate global warming pollution from cars. We filed a notice of intent to sue EPA if they do not rule on the California waiver request by November 2007. And Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) has introduced legislation in Congress to require EPA to grant the waiver.

While we await EPA’s decision, Judge Sessions’s clear and unambiguous ruling today is a huge step forward and sets the stage in our favor for the global warming fights ahead.

*7/702/13*

CLARK: There’s no problem. I was just hoping you could give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the early colonies. My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War the economic modalities especially of the southern colonies could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre- capitalist and…

Will, who at this point has migrated to Chuckie’s side and is completely fed-up, includes himself in the conversation.

WILL: Of course that’s your contention. You’re a first year grad student. You just finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison prob’ly, and so naturally that’s what you believe until next month when you get to James Lemon and get convinced that Virginia and Pennsylvania were strongly entrepreneurial and capitalist back in 1740. That’ll last until sometime in your second year, then you’ll be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood about the Pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.

CLARK: (taken aback) Well, as a matter of fact, I won’t, because Wood drastically underestimates the impact of–

WILL: –”Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth…” You got that from “Work in Essex County,” Page 421, right? Do you have any thoughts of your own on the subject or were you just gonna plagiarize the whole book for me?

Clark is stunned.

WILL: (cont’d) Look, don’t try to pass yourself off as some kind of an intellect at the expense of my friend just to impress these girls.

Clark is lost now, searching for a graceful exit, any exit.

WILL: (cont’d) The sad thing is, in about 50 years you might start doin’ some thinkin’ on your own and by then you’ll realize there are only two certainties in life.

CLARK: Yeah? What’re those?

WILL: One, don’t do that. Two– you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you coulda’ picked up for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library.

Well, you don’t even need to worry about that $1.50 in late charges. The University of California at Berkeley has its own YouTube channel, with over 300 hours of video already available. Currently dominating the content are biology and physics (above clip is the first lecture of “Physics for Future Presidents.)

*8/702/13*

Radiohead have told fans they can pay whatever they want for it. Nice.

I guess Radiohead is “getting it.” EMI’s new owner told the music industry it will not survive if it continues to rely on CD sales alone.

“The recorded music industry… has for too long been dependent on how many CDs can be sold,” he wrote. “Rather than embracing digitalisation and the opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution through multiple channels, the industry has stuck its head in the sand.”

Many record label bosses believe it is the duty of successful bands to stick with the companies that nurtured them so that their earnings can subsidise new talent. However, bands complain that too much of their money is used to subsidise lavish lifestyles for label bosses.

[via telegraph.co.uk]

I LOVE Radiohead!

*9/702/13*

The Washington Post reports that Flexcar, which is led by America Online founder Steve Case, is merging with Zipcar, which is the larger of the two firms. The idea, Case said, is to quickly expand the market for car-sharing and position the new company — which will be called Zipcar — to go public.

“They’re both in turbo-growth mode,” Case told the Post. “We think the companies combined will be on a path to profitability in the next year or so, and with rapid and significant expansion will be ready” for an initial public offering of stock.

The two companies were founded in 1999 and lead a field that has grown to include two dozen competitors. The new Zipcar will serve some 50 cities in 23 states, two Canadian provinces and London. When the deal is done, the merged companies will have 180,000 members and a fleet of more than 5,000 cars.

*10/702/13*

Attention San Francisco shoppers: Plastic grocery store bags are going, going, gone.

Starting Tuesday, large grocery stores in the city can no longer use the traditional plastic bags that are a staple of the supermarket checkout line, as a city ordinance passed earlier this year to ban the bags takes effect.

“People are used to getting free bags and thinking there is no real consequence to them, but there is a cost,” said Jack Macy, commercial recycling coordinator for the city’s Department of the Environment, which is implementing the new policy.

The 180 million plastic bags city officials estimate are handed out in the city each year end up as litter on city streets, clog storm drains, harm wildlife, and contaminate and jam machines used in recycling, Macy said.

And then there is the giant patch of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean that scientists are monitoring, estimated to weigh 3 million tons and cover an area twice the size of Texas. The patch is about 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, but plastic dumped in the ocean here can end up there.

*11/702/13*