They may have found out what's really killing the bees.

I never bought the cell phone theory, anyway. I know that those things have been getting smaller and smaller, but I don't know how they would have gotten the bees to use them, or sign up for a twelve-month plan.

A virus or parasite? You mean it's one o' them natural things? Also known as 'stuff happens'?

Oh noes what will we do without ourselves to blame!?

"Oh noes what will we do without ourselves to blame!?"

Do we know for sure that we're not?

'Scientists have termed this phenomenon "Colony Collapse Disorder" and fear that without honey bees to pollinate crops like fruits, vegetables, and almonds the loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact around the world."

I'm sure it's just a vast left-wing conspiracy. The economic implications are pretty scary, though...

Surely the left wing is to blame for this. After all, aren't they anticolonialists?

But can they prove that cell phones aren't responsible for the growth of the parasites and the virus?

I blame Bush

Ok Andy, we blame you.

This may add some detail.

The pathogens killing off the bees has been around for awhile, but has become active in the last few years. Its interesting that the rapid detection instrumentation designed for detecting bioterrorism was used to detect these pathogens. This means that rapid detection works, although the response time can be improved.

The story about cell phone transmissions killing off our bees came from one of the U.K. newpapers, which made me suspect it right from the beginning. The Brits (along with the rest of the Europeans) seem to be obsessed with all kinds of fears and limitations of technology. Everything from global warming to the bees.

The Europeans seem to have a dark, negative view of technology and progress, in general. Its well known that if you bring up a discussion about something like nanotechnology or life extension, an American will ask about what he or she can do with this technology to make life better. The European almost always asks, "How can we prevent people from doing such and such with this technology".

This is the most irritating aspect of European culture to me.

It is the consensus of the global scientific community that the deaths are caused by cell phones. The right wing uses denialists to make people believe there is disagreement among scientists when in fact there is none. Let the witch hunt begin.

From the NYTimes piece:

Mr. Hackenberg, the beekeeper, agreed to take his empty bee boxes and other equipment to Food Technology Service, a company in Mulberry, Fla., that uses gamma rays to kill bacteria on medical equipment and some fruits. In early results, the irradiated bee boxes seem to have shown a return to health for colonies repopulated with Australian bees.

“This supports the idea that there is a pathogen there,” Dr. Cox-Foster said. “It would be hard to explain the irradiation getting rid of a chemical.”

Thank God the Luddites haven't been able to ban all nuclear technology.

Conspiracy theory? Here's one I heard on Coast to Coast AM. One of the big conag companies was poisoning the bees so they could sell their self-pollinating seed at a premium. Of course, I guess they could have introduced the pathogen as well...

Do we know for sure that we're not?

You don't need human interference to evolve germs. Thriving and growing is what they do. In the course of that they make their hosts sick. The host population dies off, the survivors come back with immunity. Lather, rinse, repeat.

"Cotton Mather" said:
"It is the consensus of the global scientific community that the deaths are caused by cell phones. The right wing uses denialists to make people believe there is disagreement among scientists when in fact there is none. Let the witch hunt begin."

Except that there hasn't been any consensus about bee deaths. You've gotten it completely backwards.

There's a thosand weeping tort lawyers tonight.

It might not have been the cell phones this time, but it probably WAS cell phones that caused the big bee die off in 1896.

Most medical problems are multifactorial. There is a reason, for example, why some people exposed to a virus - even something as trivial as a cold - catch it, and are quite ill with it, and some may get nothing worse than the odd sneeze.

Is it not a possibility that the (pulsed) microwaves from the towers reduce the bees' immunity?

Fletcher, sure, it's a possibility, but where's the proof? As an open minded, rational, scientific thinker you don't necessarily want to rule out any possibility just because it doesn't fit your preconceptions. On the other hand, you don't want to rule in everything without evidence. What is the proposed mechanism for cell phones being a major contributor to bee die offs? Where is the laboratory evidence proving this mechanism is real? Where is the field data showing this mechanism to be the actual major contributor to bee deaths?

There are many reasons to be enormously skeptical about the idea that an increase in cell phone usage could be harming bee populations. Firstly, cell phone usage is highest in cities, whereas bees do not tend to live in cities. Secondly, an increase in cell phone usage does not necessarily mean that there has been an increase in the exposure of bees to microwave band radiation. Consider that prior to modern fiber optics technology, most long distance "land-line" telephone traffic was routed through microwave radio relay networks. Additionally, modern wireless communication sensor, processing, and encoding technologies such as digital spread spectrum encoding are vastly more energy efficient than previous technologies. Given these two factors, it's possible that the average bee is actually exposed to less microwave radiation today than it was in, say, 1960.

More importantly, there are many more mundane explanations for these bee die offs so the question is, why believe some speculative explanation with little to no evidence behind it instead of more mundane explanations with plenty of evidence behind them? The correct answer, though few will admit it, is that believing the more speculative explanation is, to some people, more interesting, whether or not it has evidence behind it, and for some that's more important than the truth.

Uh, mz, "Cotton Mather" was employing 1) irony and 2) a pseudonym.

Rand, I want compensation for assisting the irony-impaired in your comments section. How about Transterrestrial Stamps, redeemable for prizes? ;^)

That's a good idea. You could start an on,line store Rand...with coffee cups. The Swiderski cup, with the opening on the bottom where the coffee spills out everywhere. The Mac cup that jitters and shakes, eventually shaterring every which way. The CJ cup, that is invisible until it shows up for a stab at humor, then mysteriously vanishes again. And ballcaps that say, "You're wrong you idiot!" You could make a mint here.

How about a signed Jon Goff limited edition propellant depot thermos?

Anonymous brand diaper's and assorted baby care products?

Bill White edition legal pad with assorted logos?

Or my very own signed and limited edition cluebat for application to unreconstructed trolls?

Offer me an acceptable royalty contract and then go for it -- Cheers!

:-)

Gosh, Mike, I forgot to mention that the Jon Goff thermos bottle idea was very well done. Thermos bottles for storing cyros in LEO? Yes indeed, very very nicely done.

Cheers, again!

:-)

Kurt9,

Given what Europe suffered through in the First World War and the Second World War when technology enabled killing on a mass scale. And then the Cold War when the Soviets industrialization turned huge area of Eastern Europe into hazardours waste zones, its not surprising they see the dark side of technology.

Considering plate tectonics and the linear no threshold hypothesis, colour me skeptical about any form of 'consensus science'.

The human race has made recent leaps and bounds in nano-technology and micro-machines. I suggest they design a mini cellphone to be attached to each bee of the control hive... and put another hive in a cell phone free area.

If the bees with cellphones make alot of calls and get lost then they'll know that the cell phones are the problem.

Hello everyone:

Seems that all possible causes of the problem need to be looked at completely before ruling out any.

Microwave exposure may not have increased but it may be the growing number of cellphone users is causing the bees to get disoriented. Consider for a moment the millions of frequencies in use & that the bee has unique navigating ability. We still dont know how the bee finds it`s way. Nor do we know how the flood of environmental changes made by humans affect the balance of biology in nature.

It can be assumed that it`s not a "NATURAL" cause.

Some sources I~ve read suggest it`s mites. Others say it`s fungus. Others say a virus. All those are historically valid causes. But the current problem is much larger than it`s ever been recorded. So why is it that large now as compared to then?

Some consider the reason is the way we feed bees.
High Fructose content Corn Syrup is not a natural
source of food for bees & it`s doubtfull the bees are getting all their basic & required needs.

Well...Blah Blah...

I think Bush did it for our national security.
He`s using bees to find binladen & WMDs in Iraq.