No, no, that is the aquarium.
"Bee population collapse appears to ebb; US report says 23% of managed colonies failed" by John Schwartz | New York Times May 16, 2014
Honeybees could be on their way back, according to a new federal report.
So what is the buzz now?
The collapse of bee populations around the country in recent years has led to warnings of a crisis in foods grown with the help of pollination. Over the past eight years, beekeepers have reported losses over the winter of nearly 30 percent of their bees on average.
The new survey, published Thursday, found that the loss of managed honeybee colonies from all causes has dropped to 23.2 percent nationwide during the winter that just ended, down from 30.5 percent the year before. Losses reported by some individual beekeepers were even higher. Colony losses reached a peak of 36 percent in 2007 to 2008.
Umm, I don't want to bother the captain of the Titanic here -- a.k.a. the federal government and it mouthpiece purser -- but WATER STILL COMING INTO the BOAT! Less water, yes, but.... SIGH!
The LYING and DECEITFUL HEADLINES are really starting to STING!
The survey of thousands of beekeepers was conducted by the Department of Agriculture and the Bee Informed Partnership, an organization that studies apian health and management.
“It’s better than some of the years we’ve suffered,” said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a director of the partnership and an entomologist at the University of Maryland. Still, he noted, a 23 percent loss “is not a good number.” He continued, “We’ve gone from horrible to bad.”
But the bees are ON THEIR WAY BACK!!!!!
He said there was no way to say at this point why the bees did better this year.
Jeff Pettis, the co-author of the survey who heads the federal government’s bee research laboratory in Beltsville, Md., warned that “one year does not make a trend.”
Pfft!
A prominent environmental group found “an urgent need for action” in the new report. Lisa Archer, director the food and technology program for the organization Friends of the Earth, said, “These dire honeybee numbers add to a consistent pattern of unsustainable bee losses in recent years.”
While much attention has been paid to colony collapse disorder, in which masses of bees disappear from hives, that phenomenon has not been encountered in the field in the past three years, vanEngelsdorp said. Instead, what has emerged is a complex set of pressures on managed and wild bee populations that includes disease, a parasite known as the varroa mite, pesticides, extreme weather, and poor nutrition tied to a loss of forage plants.
Blaming an Asian parasite that first reached the United States in 1987?
Related:
The Boston Globe's Carp Conspiracy
Glass of GMO Orange Juice
Yeah, blame anything but those.
Insects in the mail: Let the buyer beware
No sign of beetle; wood can be moved
Let the celebrating begin!
****************
The new report will not satisfy those who argue that the loss of bees can be traced to a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, especially one manufactured by Bayer.
Are you really sure what is in that aspirin?
Those views are supported by papers such as one published this month in the journal Bulletin of Insectology that found that 6 of 12 previously healthy colonies exposed to the pesticides died.
I'm not saying they are good for the bees; I'm saying it may be part of it. Maybe it is interacting with the GMOs like the chemicals in Iraq interacted with the pills given the military for safety(?).
Bayer attacked that study, saying that the lead author, Chensheng Lu of the Harvard School of Public Health, “greatly misdiagnosed colony collapse disorder” in the colonies.
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Related(?):
"An adult bald eagle found sitting on a Bangor sidewalk has been taken to an avian rescue center in Waldo County. The Maine Warden Service said many residents of the neighborhood called about the bird, which was spotted about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. The eagle did not have any sort of obvious injuries, but specialists suspect it is suffering from lead poisoning and possibly poisoning from some other toxin. The eagle is being treated at Avian Haven in Freedom, but it is too soon to say whether the bird will recover."
Fry like an eagle?
I'm sure there is a rescue plan in place.
Related(?):
"An adult bald eagle found sitting on a Bangor sidewalk has been taken to an avian rescue center in Waldo County. The Maine Warden Service said many residents of the neighborhood called about the bird, which was spotted about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. The eagle did not have any sort of obvious injuries, but specialists suspect it is suffering from lead poisoning and possibly poisoning from some other toxin. The eagle is being treated at Avian Haven in Freedom, but it is too soon to say whether the bird will recover."
Fry like an eagle?
I'm sure there is a rescue plan in place.
"Fatal bat disease is now in half of US; Fungal illness has no cure and spreads rapidly" Associated Press April 11, 2014
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A fungal disease that has killed millions of North American bats is spreading and now has been detected in half of the United States, officials said Thursday.
Wildlife agencies in Michigan and Wisconsin confirmed diagnoses of white-nose syndrome in tested bats, further evidence of the ailment’s rapid expansion since it was first documented in a cave near Albany, N.Y., in 2006. Cases have turned up in most states east of the Mississippi River, and as far west as Missouri and Arkansas.
Officials said the latest discoveries were no surprise but a cause for sadness, acknowledging they had no cure and could take only limited steps to protect the winged mammals that provide an enormous economic and ecological benefit by feasting on nuisance insects that gobble crops and trees.
Between them and the bees, there will be NO FOOD to EAT -- especially since the Pacific and Gulf have been spoiled!
‘‘We face the loss of multiple bat species and the benefits they provide to our ecosystems and our people,’’ said Erin Crain of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
White-nose syndrome is named for the fuzzy spots it plants on victims’ muzzles, wings, and tails. It doesn’t affect people or other animals but repeatedly interrupts bat hibernation, sapping their energy and fat stores, which can cause starvation and dehydration.
More than half of the 45 bat species in the United States hibernate during winter. Many seek caves or mines, an ideal environment for spreading the killer fungus as bats clump together on the moist walls.
Some survive if they contract the illness late in winter. But the refuge could be a death trap for those that return the following year. And some will move on to other enclosures and infect them — particularly during fall mating season, said Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University scientist.
No one has come up with a treatment that would kill the fungus but not the bats, said Dan O’Brien, a wildlife veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Another challenge would be producing enough medication and getting it to the animals.
‘‘You’d have to have enough to treat all the bats,’’ he said.
Crain said researchers are looking into disinfecting hibernation spots, making them cooler or drier to prevent the fungus from blooming, and even cleaning individual bats.
One step that can be taken is to prevent humans from spreading the fungus, officials said. When people explore caves and abandoned mines, the spores often stick to their clothes and climbing gear.
That could explain how the disease reached the United States, O’Brien said. It is believed to have come from Europe, which has different bat species that are not greatly affected. The New York cave where it first appeared is popular with explorers.
The disease has been confirmed in 25 states and the fungus has been found in three others, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which estimates that more than 6 million bats have died.
Wow! That's a Holocaust™!
--more--"
Time to turn on the bat signal.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A fungal disease that has killed millions of North American bats is spreading and now has been detected in half of the United States, officials said Thursday.
Wildlife agencies in Michigan and Wisconsin confirmed diagnoses of white-nose syndrome in tested bats, further evidence of the ailment’s rapid expansion since it was first documented in a cave near Albany, N.Y., in 2006. Cases have turned up in most states east of the Mississippi River, and as far west as Missouri and Arkansas.
Officials said the latest discoveries were no surprise but a cause for sadness, acknowledging they had no cure and could take only limited steps to protect the winged mammals that provide an enormous economic and ecological benefit by feasting on nuisance insects that gobble crops and trees.
Between them and the bees, there will be NO FOOD to EAT -- especially since the Pacific and Gulf have been spoiled!
‘‘We face the loss of multiple bat species and the benefits they provide to our ecosystems and our people,’’ said Erin Crain of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
White-nose syndrome is named for the fuzzy spots it plants on victims’ muzzles, wings, and tails. It doesn’t affect people or other animals but repeatedly interrupts bat hibernation, sapping their energy and fat stores, which can cause starvation and dehydration.
More than half of the 45 bat species in the United States hibernate during winter. Many seek caves or mines, an ideal environment for spreading the killer fungus as bats clump together on the moist walls.
Some survive if they contract the illness late in winter. But the refuge could be a death trap for those that return the following year. And some will move on to other enclosures and infect them — particularly during fall mating season, said Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University scientist.
No one has come up with a treatment that would kill the fungus but not the bats, said Dan O’Brien, a wildlife veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Another challenge would be producing enough medication and getting it to the animals.
‘‘You’d have to have enough to treat all the bats,’’ he said.
Crain said researchers are looking into disinfecting hibernation spots, making them cooler or drier to prevent the fungus from blooming, and even cleaning individual bats.
One step that can be taken is to prevent humans from spreading the fungus, officials said. When people explore caves and abandoned mines, the spores often stick to their clothes and climbing gear.
That could explain how the disease reached the United States, O’Brien said. It is believed to have come from Europe, which has different bat species that are not greatly affected. The New York cave where it first appeared is popular with explorers.
The disease has been confirmed in 25 states and the fungus has been found in three others, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which estimates that more than 6 million bats have died.
Wow! That's a Holocaust™!
--more--"
Time to turn on the bat signal.
If you didn't like that maybe you will like the circus:
"Animal groups agree to pay nearly $16m to Ringling Bros." Associated Press May 16, 2014
McLEAN, Va. — The parent company of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has received a nearly $16 million settlement from a number of animal rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle initiated over unproven allegations of mistreated elephants.
Vienna-based Feld Entertainment said Thursday’s settlement of the long-running case in the US District Court in Washington is a vindication of its animal care, while the animal rights groups said the settlement ends a legal quagmire that had spiraled well beyond the core question of how the circus treats its elephants.
Kenneth Feld, chief executive of the privately held company that also produces Disney on Ice and other shows, said the animal rights groups abused the legal system, and the settlement allows the company to focus on producing family entertainment.
‘‘That we could get dragged through this for 14 years . . . It is very clearly a public vindication for our company that these people really misused the judicial system,’’ Feld said.
He's trumpeting the decision.
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Related: Circus $uit
How about a petting zoo then?
Also see: Dog bites on decline nationwide for letter carriers
They have other problems now, but why would a dog want to do that?
Related:
Proposal would stop door-to-door mail for millions
Jackie Kennedy letters to priest pulled from auction
Wednesday Morning Yik Yak
"The same old script about a gender double standard; What do Godzilla and female politicians have in common?" by Joanna Weiss | Globe Columnist May 23, 2014
I saw “Godzilla” this week. So did everyone, it seems.
I have been mulling it over and fighting the urge because I don't want the Hollywood imagery bringing back bad memories. Hate to say it, but I like the Matthew Broderick remake. They murdered him.
And one moment, midway through, almost made me spill my popcorn in a fit of feminist pique. The scientists, on the trail of a gigantic primordial insect, discovered another gigantic primordial insect, bigger than the first — and realized, with horror, that it was female.
I assume because of the reproductive capability, right?
Instantly, I sensed where this was going: This lady monster would be a stereotypical villainness, Leaning In and being bossy and pushy and all, attacked with awesome force by the military brass while the male monsters went off and played golf.
I turned out to be wrong; she was just taking part in an especially destructive mating dance. But forgive me for assuming. So many news and cultural events these days get wrapped up in the same conversations, littered with the same catchphrases, that it’s hard not to get caught up.
Well, things like that seem to happen a lot -- almost as if it were on purpose in some way.
Jill Abramson gets fired from The New York Times; is it a textbook case of gender bias and pay inequity, or a complicated story about flawed individuals and the management of an industry in turmoil?
See: Abramson Leaves 'Em Lying
Yes, the pay gap is real (and far worse outside the rarefied realm of executive bonuses and stock options). Yes, stereotypes persist. Still, it’s depressing when every situation gets whittled down to buzzwords and generalities, like watching endless remakes of the same old movie.
I have been reading the Globe for decades, yeah.
And what happens when conventional wisdom turns out to be wrong?
Well, I'm sure it was with the best of intentions.
What happens is you become a "conspiracy theorist!"
I admit it, I tried to save America these last eight years, and I failed miserably.
Take, for instance, the matter of women in politics....
Let's not.
--more--"
I'm all done yakking.
Lizards, and tigers, and bears, oh my!
Better make sure you are wearing ruby slippers.
