Anti-science, anti-government tactics seen at heart of health emergencies

Food defense information from Department of Homeland Security

Are you against vaccinations?  Do you believe the government is hiding facts about disease and related issues or exaggerating claims about it?  Do you deny climate change is in part caused by man's behaviors?  If so, you are among those seen as part of the growth in health emergencies.

It is a world problem, experts say. The growth of skepticism and those who foster beliefs that are contrary to science can hurt many people.

Tony Joe White brings us 'closer to the truth' through his music

Carol Forsloff - American Idol and
America's Got Talent may turn out its fine performers, but the past brought to our future in the person of Tony Joe White brings us closerto the truth through a depth of performance one seldom finds today.

Tony Joe White is the writer and original performer of Poke Salad Annie, he originally recorded in  1969,that eventually made it to #8 on the Top Ten music charts in the United States.  It was his biggest hit, but the song became known more by another more famous musician.

That "another" was Elvis Presley,who owned songs by his personality, his strength of popularity larger than life.  In the meantime Tony Joe White, ruggedly handsome at the time, and continuing to be in fine form, struggled on and off for decades, in backgrounds for the most part, singing and writing music.

His website describes him as "71 years old and still going strong, Louisiana-born Tony Joe White is Nothing Short of a national music treasure."


Few folks might know the range of White's talent, except for the sophisticated and lucky nor know the way his words paint pictures beyond

White doesn't just understand the value of our natural environment, he feels it as well in the music played from a guitar that wails like those on an anxious planet as its water wastes, its resources swept away by greed that takes us to our ultimate truth, spelled out in the lyrics of the song.   


He has done high profile gigs.  He wrote "Steamy Windows," recorded by Tina Turner and went on the road to perform with Eric Clapton and others.  But for the most part, White has been a bit in the background, while the stars were out in front.  That relative background doesn't mean White was off the music scene, as he has continued to be appreciated and had successes both in Europe and the United States.

White virtually gave up singing for awhile in the 1980's, until he seems to have rediscovered himself in some ways via the Internet.  It is there he is experiencing a rebirth of his own and touring so that his music is being taken to different parts of the world..  That renaissance began in earnest  with  The Beginning  from Swamp Records in 2001, followed by Heroines, featuring several duets with female vocalists, from Sanctuary in 2004, and a live Austin City Limits concert, Live from Austin, TX, from New West Records in 2006, all given high marks by the critics.   In 2007 White put out another live recording, Take Home the Swamp, in addition to the compilation Introduction to Tony Joe White.

I grew up listening to Elvis, and now I will grow old listening to Tony Joe White, the man behind the music who is now up front and going strong, they say, and  likely will continue to make music special.

His Australia tour schedule is on his website.

The next generation's warning and plea to save the environment

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Jessi Beyer--     We are the next generation. What exactly does that mean? It means we get to experience the new inventions, fashion trends, and music styles. It means we get to ride the next leg in the roller coaster of Wall Street and choose the next president. But more importantly, we inherit the earth, and all that is in it.  The environmental problems left for us is what worries me.

If we continue in the same direction we have been going,  we could have a giant problem on our hands in fifty years. Forests are disappearing to make room for farmland, and animals are being poached for only one part of them – the rest are left to rot. Those of us who are here now – the current generation – have not only the responsibility to tend for the earth now, but to leave it in a good condition for those of us who will inherit it.

Today is the day to take action. Do not wait for the next generation to step up and do something. If that much time is wasted, so much of the earth may perish and be lost for good. By the time action rolls around, there may not be anything left to save.

Let me elaborate on that. Most everywhere you travel these days, you see big, flashy signs for new housing developments. They are everywhere. Fields that you once knew and cherished are gone, plowed over by the hands of men. Now ask yourself this: how many empty housing developments do you see around? The correct answer is more than you count and more developments built that stand empty. There are millions of empty houses in the US, and the construction companies feel they need to make more developments!

There are almost 6 billion trees cut down every year, which means about 60,000 square kilometers are cleared each year for construction – and that’s only in the US. Trees are good for so much more than wood – they give us oxygen, they provide shelter and a habitat for so many organisms.  A sad fact is that the Amazon Rainforest lost almost 3,000 square kilometers of forest in 2009, partly due to over-logging.  There are many other places where the same problem has occurred. Over-logging is only one of the activities that concern me, as a member of the next generation. But things like pollution, animal abuse, and lack of recycling are just as prevalent and need to be fixed.

So what are we, as the next generation supposed to do about protecting and preserving the natural earth? The small things add up. While it may seem frivolous, recycling and composting – if everyone does it – is one of the best ways to save the earth. Getting the word out to other people about the situation we’re in is another great way. If you can make other people aware and rope them into helping you, there are no limits to how far you can go.

But I truly believe that the biggest thing we need to do is have respect for every living thing on the planet. Friction between people and animals (this comes out as animal abuse and dog and rooster fights) and even different races of people (where land and life is lost to bombs and gases) all cause stress on the environment. There are so many beautiful intricacies on the planet that go unnoticed every day, and we as humans often think we are above it. While we may be the most intelligent race, there is so much we can learn from looking at nature around us. All we need to do is respect everyone and everything around us, and we will have our eyes opened to a new world, a world that we have the responsibility to protect.

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Jessi Beyer is a junior high school student in Oregon who is presently editor of her school paper.  Her interest in the environment, her knowledge of the problems,  reveal how many of our young people are concerned about their future and what all of us need to do to protect the earth for generations to come.

Threatened Species Find Refuge in Natchitoches

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Veronica Sturman - I visited the Natchitoches Fish Hatchery to interview Tony Brady, age 38, propagation biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He has been working at the Natchitoches Fish Hatchery almost a year, and he worked at a fish hatchery in Wisconsin for seven years before moving to Natchitoches. He is a mussel expert. He says mussels are natural filters and help keep our fresh waters clean.

Fresh water mussels are kind of like butterflies. They have a larval stage called glochidia. They cocoon on the gills of fish. Then they drop off of fish as tiny little mussels that you have to view under a microscope to see. During my visit, I was lucky enough to get to see a baby mussel under a microscope.

Grown mussels are very sneaky in how they propagate. Each type of mussel uses a different type of fish to incubate their
cocoons. They grow tissue around the glochidia that looks like a certain type of fish, whatever type of fish their target fish likes to eat. When the fish eat the glochidia, some of them get stuck on the gills of the fish and live there until they have transformed into mussels. Most glochidia do not survive until adult stage. Not only do they have to catch onto the gills of a fish to cocoon, but they also have to land in a good spot to live as young mussels.

Tony Brady specializes in Louisiana pearlshell mussels. He is trying to find out when they develop glochidia and what type of fish they need to cocoon. He goes to the streams every few weeks to check on the Louisiana pearlshell mussels. He is looking for signs that they have glochidia. When he finds the glochidia, he will put them on different types of fish to see which one will grow the cocoons. Louisiana pearlshell mussels are a threatened species and are only found in two parishes in Louisiana.

Mr. Brady enjoys teaching children about mussels. If you’re a teacher, you can bring your class out for a tour and some
classroom activities. I asked Mr. Brady if he liked his job. He replied, “I love my job. I get to play with fish, go swimming, chase mussels and walk through the woods. There are a lot of good things about my job.” I had a lot of fun learning about mussels from someone who is excited about his subject.

Veronica Sturman

Dead birds and fishes and no answers yet. Should we guess?

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Carol Forsloff - There
are dead birds reported from Arkansas to Italy and points in between,
along with dead fish in California and Arkansas, and sure to be other
places, but there are no answers yet.

Every expert and reporter

is guessing, but the range of answers reveals they simply don't know.
So why not say that, when speculation confuses.

The fact is the
air has toxins, and those toxins have been increasing too.  The volcanic
ash created some of that, the toxins in the atmosphere from various
types of pollution are part of the problem as well.  But is this the
answer as well?

No one knows, and everyone guesses with every
article that comes out these days.  In the Huffington Post, a writer
reporting on dead birds in Italy tells us the authorities say the cause
of the deaths is indigestion.

Now all of us could have guessed that.

Someone
asked me last week for the reason, and my theory is air pollution,
because air travels everywhere with the breezes, and there has been
enough trouble in the atmosphere that has impacted the weather and
everything else, it's the only thing that makes sense after all.

I won't theorize further.  I've said enough, likely too much like everyone else.

I
don't know; you don't know, and it is likely those who believe it a
sign of the end times don't know even though they would like.

It's
anyone's guess, so just ask the neighbor, since everyone these days has
opinions on everything, even if he or she hasn't read about a subject
and only has breezed through WalMart discussions or brushed up to Fox
News now and again.  That's the level of reporting on bird news, my

friends, and that is all I too have to report.