Philadelphia Phillies Fans Chant "USA" After Hearing About Bin Laden's Death

In the major news story of the day, Osama Bin Laden is believed to have been killed by a small team of United States Armed Forces.

When the news reached Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia, the USA chants started to pour in....



(Courtesy of Mock Session)

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Soccer Fever Down Since The World Cup

Soccer reached its highest interest in the United States during the middle of the 2010 World Cup.

When the red, white and navy blue jerseys drew a 1-1 tie with England at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa on Saturday, June 12th 2010, 17 million viewers tuned in to watch the match on ABC.

That total was topped on the final game that the United States would eventually play in the 2010 World Cup as 19.4 million viewers went on to watch Ghana beat the Americans in overtime by a score of 2-1.

The statistics of the viewership in the United States appears to illustrate how soccer has become a hit in America similarly to how other nations love and watch soccer themselves.

Despite the high ratings, the love and the popularity of the sport appears have returned to what it once was since the end of the World Cup. Soccer still has a long road ahead to reach the pedestal that sport is placed on by other countries.

Soccer has a variety of reasons for its lack of popularity among sports that are popular and being played in America. The sport is lacking in a variety of dimensions necessary to become a signature sport in America similar to what baseball, basketball and football are now.

First Dimension: Soccer Stars In Other Countries Are Gods. Soccer Stars In America Are Mere Mortals.

In every continent, soccer athletes are prominent and followed with god-like awe by the nation they were born in.

South America is filled with countries who have numerous stars, such as Brazil (who have Ronaldinho, Robinho and Kaka) and Argentina (who has superstar midfielder Lionel Messi). European countries are filled with stars, such as Portugal, who has probably the most popular soccer star in Cristiano Ronaldo, and England, who have Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.

Countries in Africa have household names like Ivory Coast does with Didier Drogba and Cameroon does with Samuel Eto’o. The Asian nation also has countries with soccer stars such as South Korean Midfielder Park Ji Sung and Japanese Midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura.

These players are prominent among the upper echelon of players who are worldwide superstars and are extremely popular for their own countries.

As American footballers go, they are not even popular in their own countries.

Current stars like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Oguchi Onyewu, have become prominent in the United States because of their participation in the World Cup. Despite being involved in the cup, their popularity has diminished since the conclusion of the tournament.

Their popularity and ability of staying on the radar as superstar athletes in America are pedestrian when compared to sports gods like Lebron James, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter and Tiger Woods.

Second Dimension: Soccer’s low scores and statistics is not what America is used to seeing.

When most soccer matches are shown, sometimes the audience spends ninety minutes watching players running up and down the field only to end up seeing a tie. This concept is foreign to America in regards to enjoying sporting events.

When it comes to expectations Americans have of their sports superstars, it’s statistics and high scores.

America loves people who can put up high numbers. Whether it’s hitting homeruns like Alex Rodriguez, putting up a triple double like Rajon Rondo, or throwing deep touchdowns like Drew Brees, the public is in awe of seeing their superstars with mind-boggling stats and putting points on the board.

For soccer to rise in popularity, America must be able to accept the fact that in soccer, statistics mean nothing.

According to the FIFA.com website, four players tied for the most goals in the tournament with only five goals. Between superstars Ronaldo, Rooney, and Messi, they have played in a combined total of 13 matches but only have one goal between them.

While not scoring is acceptable to nations outside of the United States with their soccer superstars, America would have difficulty going to games and watching all of the best players not score.

Third Dimension: Major League Soccer has many barriers to overcome to become prominent in the United States and the World.

The professional soccer league in America has come a long way from where it first started in 1996.

The league was actually losing attendance in its first years and had trouble being profitable. Although MLS has improved their attendance records and increased the number of teams in the league, the league has a long way to go from becoming what the NBA, MLB and NFL is in America.

One of the biggest reasons is the lack of popular players in the league. Within the list of the top 50 players in the World Cup (according to ESPN.com), only one player is in the American professional sports league (Donovan) and he is ranked at number 50. The other 49 players play in more challenging leagues outside of the United States.

Until elite talent joins the MLS, the league will continue to have difficulty marketing their limited talent.

Along with the inadequate talent comes the limit of dramatic rivalries and moments that define a league. For all the professional leagues to grow in America, the most necessary ingredient to have after talent is drama.

For the MLB, it's the Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry. The rise of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the NBA created the rivalry of the Celtics vs. the Lakers. The NFL was able to become prominent because of Joe Montana and his ability to lead San Francisco with a last minute touchdown to win their first super bowl.

Without talent and dramatic moments, the MLS will struggle to make soccer prominent in the United States.

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BEE Afraid, Be Very Afraid! (UPDATED)

One of the most familiar insects in the world is the Honeybee. This member of the insect order Hymenoptera plays a key role in the human and natural world. More has been written about honeybees than any other species of insect. The human fascination with this insect began thousands of years ago when people discovered what wonderfully tasty stuff honey is! Image Credit: Carl Hayden Bee Research Center

BEE Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

Here is an item that is really troubling, in that, we here on Earth do not know what may get to our human population first - famine (lack of food) or disease (animal flu crossover).

The bee populations throughout the world are in decline. This phenomenon was first observed last autumn, but is being observed in many places throughout the world.

The many theories as to why this is happening include climate change/global warming, chemical pollution, and parasite mites - but the chief cause may end up being our increased radio frequency technology use and density.

Excerpts from the Independent News and Media Limited -

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross - Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The central feature of the bee hive is the honeycomb. This marvel of insect engineering consists of flat vertical panels of six-sided cells made of beeswax. Beeswax is produced from glands on the underside of the abdomens of worker bees when they are between 12 and 15 days old. House bees take the beeswax and form it with their mouths into the honeycomb. The cells within the comb will be used to raise young and to store honey and pollen. Image Credit: Carl Hayden Bee Research Center
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The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
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The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
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German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."
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Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.
Reference Here>>

Additional resource information HERE.

UPDATED - April 28, 2007:

It turns out that bee experts meeting this week in Washington D.C. have come up with an alternative and more credible answer to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Excerpts from the Los Angeles Times -

Experts may have found what's bugging the bees
A fungus that hit hives in Europe and Asia may be partly to blame for wiping out colonies across the U.S.
By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writers - April 26, 2007

A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out bees across the United States, UC San Francisco researchers said Wednesday.

Researchers have been struggling for months to explain the disorder, and the new findings provide the first solid evidence pointing to a potential cause.

But the results are "highly preliminary" and are from only a few hives from Le Grand in Merced County, UCSF biochemist Joe DeRisi said. "We don't want to give anybody the impression that this thing has been solved."

Other researchers said Wednesday that they too had found the fungus, a single-celled parasite called Nosema ceranae, in affected hives from around the country — as well as in some hives where bees had survived. Those researchers have also found two other fungi and half a dozen viruses in the dead bees.
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Cox-Foster was one of the organizers of a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday where about 60 bee researchers gathered to discuss Colony Collapse Disorder.

"We still haven't ruled out other factors, such as pesticides or inadequate food resources following a drought," she said. "There are lots of stresses that these bees are experiencing," and it may be a combination of factors that is responsible.

Historically, bee losses are not unusual. Weather, pesticide exposures and infestations by pests, such as the Varroa mite, have wiped out significant numbers of colonies in the past, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.

But the current loss appears unprecedented. Beekeepers in 28 states, Canada and Britain have reported large losses.
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Dr. Charles Wick of the center had used a new system of genetic analysis to identify pathogens in ground-up bee samples from California. He found several viruses, including members of a recently identified genus called iflaviruses.

It is not known whether these small, RNA-containing viruses, which infect the Varroa mite, are pathogenic to bees.

Skowronski forwarded the samples to DeRisi, who also found evidence of the viruses, along with genetic material from N. ceranae.

"There was a lot of stuff from Nosema, about 25% of the total," Skowronski said. "That meant there was more than there was bee RNA. That leads me to believe that the bee died from that particular pathogen."

If N. ceranae does play a role in Colony Collapse Disorder, there may be some hope for beekeepers.

A closely related parasite called Nosema apis, which also affects bees, can be controlled by the antibiotic fumagillin, and there is some evidence that it will work on N. ceranae as well.
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Brazil On Collision Course: Ethanol & Environment

Deforestation in Brazil: This image of the southern Amazon uses satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite collected in 2000 and 2001 to classify the terrain into three separate land surface categories: forest (red), herbaceous (non-woody) vegetation like grasses (green), and bare ground (blue). The Amazon’s numerous rivers appear white. Image Credit: Mongabay.com

Brazil On Collision Course: Ethanol & Environment

Ethanol production, "the renewable fuel resource", requires fiber (lots of fibre) and water (lots of water) to become the bio-replacement fuel of the future. If Brazil has its way, it plans to expand its capacity to produce Ethanol by 12 times over the next eighteen years and eclipse all other nations ability to supply the world demand for energy based on something other than petroleum.

This expansion is expected to place additional stresses on the ecosystems that surround the populated portions of Brazil. The decades old practice of slash & burn clear-cutting of the forests may now come full circle to slash & convert putting any vegetation on the production line for Ethanol.

Wither the land is cleared for sugarcane or just being cleared for the fibre due to advances in technology to convert more types of fibre ... rain forests are at a greater risk over the next 20 years.

Excerpts from Tierramérica via Inter Press Service News Agency -

Brazil Aims to Dominate World Ethanol Market
Mario Osava - Tierramérica network (Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 31 (Tierramérica) - Brazil is working towards producing enough ethanol to substitute 10 percent of the gasoline consumed worldwide within 18 years. That would mean increasing its current production of 17.3 billion litres a year by a factor of 12, without sacrificing forests, protected areas or food cultivation.

The government called on a group of experts to study the possibilities and impacts of a sharp increase in fuel alcohol production from sugarcane.

The group led by the Interdisciplinary Group for Energy Planning of Campinas University, and coordinated by physicist Rogério Cerqueira Leite, concluded that Brazil could produce 205 billion litres of ethanol by 2025. A comparable volume will be produced by the rest of the world, predict experts.
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Increased ethanol production is essential. The experts' report says there will be a 40-percent hike in output per hectare of sugarcane through a new technology based on hydrolysis. The United States and Brazil agreed to cooperate in developing this approach during the Mar. 8-9 visit by President George W. Bush in Sao Paulo.

Potentially, hydrolysis, which can take advantage of any cellulose material, could double productivity, but the goal was set at 40 percent based on known technologies and because part of the sugarcane waste (pulp and straw) is used in generating electricity, not ethanol, explained Carlos Rossell, a researcher with the group.

Rainforest cleared for maize - Location: Puerto Maldanado - Image Credit: Mongabay.com

This technology involves some complicated challenges, such as breaking down very tough plant structures, which will require a great deal of effort to make it viable on an industrial scale, Rossell told Tierramérica.

U.S. and European scientists are farther along in this research and benefit from much bigger investments, but Brazil has the advantage of the immediate availability of the sugarcane, ready to be processed. The others will have to go into the fields to bring in the stalks and other bio-material, mostly from maize, with additional costs, he said.

For the same reason, the expertise that can come from the United States, whose ethanol production is based on corn, doesn't resolve the Brazilian problem. The raw materials are different, the researcher said.
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For now, the United States produces a little more ethanol than Brazil does, but production costs are 40 percent higher, according to industry leaders in Brazil. The U.S. tariff barrier of 54 cents on the dollar per gallon (3.8 litres) did not prevent the northern giant from importing 1.6 billion litres of Brazilian fuel alcohol last year, when increased demand drove up maize prices.

In addition to destabilising the international market, increasing maize prices and soybean prices (the former's replacement for animal feed), U.S. ethanol is hardly environmentally efficient.

Each unit of energy used in U.S. ethanol production generates just 1.3 to 1.8 units of renewable energy, while sugarcane reaches a minimum of 8.3 units. As such, U.S.-produced ethanol does little to curb emissions that cause climate change, which, along with high-priced petroleum are the main reasons biofuels are being promoted.

In Brazil, ethanol also faces limitations. Peasant farmer movements and many social activists condemn the growth of agro-energy that hurts food production. Environmentalists fear further expansion of the farm frontier into Amazon forests, especially as land prices increase.

Fuel alcohol production has "negative environmental, social and economic impacts for the communities," it generates few jobs, and "consumes a lot of natural resources -- each litre of ethanol requires 30 litres of water," criticises Temístocles Marcelos, environmental policy director at the labour union CUT.

Virtually all forest clearing, by small farmer and plantation owner alike, is done by fire. Though these fires are intended to burn only limited areas, they frequently escape agricultural plots and pastures and char pristine rainforest. Image Credit: Mongabay.com
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The experts' study, however, points to the creation of five million new jobs if the ambitious production plan is implemented.
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In Sao Paulo state, home to more than half of Brazil's ethanol production, 60 percent of the sugarcane fields are burned in order to facilitate cutting, polluting the air and causing a number of illnesses. The sugarcane industrialists are also accused of subjecting their workers to unhealthy and exhausting work conditions, which, according to reports, have also led to death.
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The burns are also legal, and are to be abolished by 2020, he said. The solution would be accelerated if cellulose ethanol production were further advanced, because it uses sugarcane leaves.

Furthermore, ethanol benefits all of humanity by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Its incorporation into Brazil's national energy matrix and its international marketing -- which should be unrelated to that of petroleum -- "depends only on political will," said Ribeiro.
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