A Guide to Adventure

When it comes to wasteful government spending, the Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most wasteful of all. One example is the Clear Air Act, which sounds harmless enough. Only a jerk wouldn't want clean air, right?  Well, according to experts Diane Katz and James Gattuso,  "The benefits are highly questionable, with the vast majority being unrelated to the emissions targeted by the regulation. The costs, however, are certain: an estimated $9.6 billion annually. The regulations will produce a significant loss of electricity generating capacity, which will undermine energy reliability and raise energy costs across the entire economy." Another example of our tax dollars being put to not-so-good use at the EPA is one of their more recent policies regarding methane emissions. While being politically driven, and lacking scientific facts, the EPA is on a road to setting America back 50 years in the energy revolution. In 2015, the EPA reported that since 200...

When I walk my dogs late at night before we all go to bed, I can hear the eerie sounds of Coyotes howling in the fields behind my house. It can be a bit unnerving at times, especially when both of my dogs are very nosy, and will chase after almost anything. I worry one will catch their eye one night and will only end in terror. I always walk them on a leash at night, especially when I can hear they are really active. I have even had a Coyote run out in front of me cruising through my neighborhood one evening . That is the closest I ever hope to get to one of the feral dogs.  That being said South Carolina has been devising a plan to create a "Coyote Lottery" in hopes of reducing the amount of predator species in our state. The plan is still in the works, but here is what I know so far:  Lawmakers want to pass a law that allows the state Department of Natural Resources (SC.DNR) to capture 16 Coyotes, mark them someway, and release them into the wild . A h...

On the last Sunday of August in South Carolina death came quickly, and in unbelievable numbers to the Honey Bee population in Dorchester County, SC . The bees fled their colonies leaving behind clumps of dead bees at hive entrances, and became littered across the farms they were raised on. What could caused such destruction and chaos? Something not so mysterious it turns out, ACUTE PESTICIDE POISONING. At Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply located in Summerville, SC reported 46 hives died on the spot, totaling about 2.5 MILLION bees. A scientist from Clemson University collected soil samples from Flowertown on Tuesday morning to investigate the cause of death, although it was clear to the bee farmers what had happened to their bees. The bees had been poisoned by Dorchester's insecticide efforts, causalities in the war against disease-carrying Mosquitoes . On Sunday morning, parts of Dorchester were sprayed NALED, a commonly used insecticide that is known to kill mosquitoes on...

The highly secretive arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture known as Wildlife Services killed more than 3.2 million animals during fiscal year 2015, according to new data released by the agency. The total number of wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, beavers, foxes, eagles and other animals killed largely at the behest of the livestock industry and other agribusinesses represents a half-million-animal increase over the 2.7 million animals the agency killed in 2014. Despite increasing calls for reform a century after the federal wildlife-killing program began in 1915, the latest kill report indicates that the program’s reckless slaughter continues, including 385 gray wolves, 68,905 coyotes (plus an unknown number of pups in 492 destroyed dens), 480 black bears, 284 mountain lions, 731 bobcats, 492 river otters (all but 83 killed “unintentionally”), 3,437 foxes, two bald eagles and 21,559 beavers. The program also killed 20,777 prairie dogs outright, plus an unknown nu...

Today's random fact is more about awareness than randomness. Ever since the movie 'Jaws' aired, and the more recent 'Shallows' movie, there has been a misconception that sharks kill hundreds of people per year. That is simply not the case. In recent years the South Eastern Coast of the United States has seen a rise in shark attacks, although not many were fatal, it is still enough to bring about the fear that sharks are just waiting in the shallows for their potential prey.  Sharks have a PR problem that might be hurting their chances of survival. A study from two years ago found that a majority of the media coverage sharks get involves attacks on humans, and doesn't reflect how rare these encounters actually are. In 2012, there were 80 confirmed shark attacks worldwide, but only seven of them were fatal, according to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File. Sharks have very slow reproductive cycles, having babies once every two y...