> He spent a sabbatical conducting field work on Trinidad and Tobago and in Suriname. What a great example for why we need the Oxford Comma.
Did he meet any interesting Trinidad and Tobagoans? Or is it Trinidadian and Tobagon?
Where have all the insects gone?
151–160 of 299 posts
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#152Where I live there are termites flying around everywhere today, its a banner day for termites all over town.
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#153Sometimes I don't know what to believe. Wasn't there a counterpoint posted here on HN a while back? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24133315
And with the global greening trend too... https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3004
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#154The loss of pollinators is scary. blueberries, cherries, every brassica (broccoli, cabbage etc), carrots, squash, melons, and many more are insect polliated.
A few other plants can also self pollinate, but with reduced yields.
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see you’re more interested in hashing out the communism vs. capitalism thing. I am not. Frankly it’s the internet’s most overwrought and under productive argument. All I want to see is industries pay according to the impact that they have on society. This isn’t an inherently socialistic idea, but it would require a change in the way that we currently conceive of capitalism[0]. 0 - Economists generally think that re…
> "I see you’re more interested in hashing out the communism vs. capitalism thing." No, I just think that most of your previous post was wrong. edit: I see that you added to your post: > "0 - Economists generally think that removing these externalities are good for the market. But this runs contrary to the anti-regulation attitude currently in vogue. " Where have regulations decreased over the medium to long-term (5+…
> Where have regulations decreased over the medium to long-term (5+ years)? I can't think of any (stable) country which has acted in an anti-regulatory way; do you have any specific examples?
This is genuinely quite baffling to me. Ignoring the fact that de-regulation has been an explicit plank of the GOP for my entire life, the US deregulated a ton of stuff since the Reagan era. Airlines, trucking, labor, and the financial industry all saw significant cuts to their regulatory rules. Anti-trust laws have been re-interpreted to be less aggressive[0] leading to more mergers, and regulation of various services have been weakened[1]. Environmental regulations have been a bit of a back-and-forth with executive orders changing things often, but at the state level de-regulation and willful non-enforcement is the norm in some areas. Texas is generally the go-to here, with willful non-enforcement of EPA rules around fracking and the (disastrous) deregulation of the energy market. Trump in particular made industrial de-regulation a goal, and tried to de-regulate a ton of stuff and lock out his successors from changing the rules back.
https://climate.law.columbia.edu/climate-deregulation-tracke...
The UK is now finally starting up their deregulatory processes again, now that they're no longer restrained by the EU. They've been greenlighting new pesticides for use, eliminating EU rules around used plastic exports, and allowing private water companies to dump their untreated sewage into the ocean. Personally I'd keep my eye on them the most for de-regulation, because their anti-regulation party has effectively no electable opposition, leaving them entirely without political restraint. Although given the current status of their import woes, I think they might end up not being sufficiently stable for your requirements.
0 - Anti-trust used to be about whether or not a company was "anti-competitive". The new rules determine whether or not a monopoly reduces consumer prices. Whether or not this is good or not, this is effectively a deregulation.
1 - I'm specifically thinking of the end of the fairness doctrine and the deregulation of ISPs.
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#156I feel like if this were true we would be seeing a major decline in the sales of pesticides, at least on consumer-level volume. Has anyone dug into those numbers?
The observed decline in total insect population is collateral damage and not the driver of pesticide sale.
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference between a nationalised industry and a publically-offered industry is that the nationalised industry has a chance of properly dealing with externalities, treating workers properly, ensuring safe long-term functionality, and, y'know, prioritizing the service they're there to provide. This situation is covered by the first, though I bet the things that are killing the insects are hurting us, too.
>nationalised industry has a chance of properly dealing with externalities Do you know the history of the Soviet whaling program? They killed more whales for industry than the West.
Do you know the early history of the US post office when it was considered a wonder of the world?
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#158In my neighborhood, there were 2 cases of West Nile virus detected in humans in June/July. Since then, the city have contracted a corporation called BugStars to drive down every street in my neighborhood (downtown, 10k population) and the four around it releasing poison directly into the air every Wednesday night. There was no notice given to any of us, and only after investigating were we able to figure out why ever…
Doesn't it concern you that you're poisoning the public discourse with this false claim that looks plausible?
The only thing that gives away that you're talking about some side quest in the video game grand theft auto is googling "BugStars".
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#159Last year I had a jarring experience driving through some of the agricultural land near the Salton Sea en route to Bombay Beach coming down from JTNP, taking back roads. The general region is desert, water and food is scarce, but through this agricultural zone there's this dense pocket of food and water on the surface. I was in a Miata with the top down, and the amount of chemicals they were using to keep the pests/i…
Drove through Texas agricultural land in spring of 2016. Windows up, not a convertible, and I was still horribly affected for 2 weeks. My eyes and nose burned the moment we started driving by the fields, and my nose continued to run and drain for 2 weeks after.
I believe it, but being Texas I imagine you drove through a much larger area.
The distance I traveled through this poison was relatively little:
https://goo.gl/maps/v7MQNgpffP2wNCrc7
It was Box Canyon S down to 111E, stair stepping a bit through the fields...
Re: Where have all the insects gone?
#160Anecdotally, while driving along Minnesota's segment of I94 in the '90s, one would have to stop and scrape the bugs off the front window and grill. Today, this is no longer a problem.
Same here, but in California's Central Valley.
Remember need to scrape off bugs from windshield after each trip thru I5 ~10 years ago. No need to do that anymore.....
On the other hand, in my back yard, I grow a lot veggi, strawberry with worm casting from kitchen scraps. I do still lot of insects. A lot of birds nested around my house. Produce 10-15 young birds. I found a very cool looking giant tomato worm a size of my biggest finger. It ate half of (7 ft height ) tomato plant in 2 days.
The Strawberry, cucumbers, other veggies grow with worm casting taste SO much better than from anything store .