Looking up at the swarm buzzing my ornamental crab last week, I considered going back to the house to get my camera.
"Hey, guys - I think I found those bees you were looking for."
There are some 20,000 species of bees in the world, and many thousands more types of pollinating insects. What you're hearing about, "colony collapse disorder," affects one species of bee – the European honey bee. [...] The "significant percentage" of failing hives is still a drop in the bucket when viewed against the global population of honey bees, and there are lots of beekeepers (even in the U.S., which appears hardest hit) who have not had, and may never have, significant losses of colonies. Plenty of honey bees remain to replace the ones that have died. It's not yet time to scream that the sky is falling.
And, oh boy - where have we heard this before?
Sixth, it's never a good idea to trust what the media are telling you. At least once in the present case the media got something completely wrong and created a huge mess: The story about cell phones was basically a misrepresentation of what one pair of reporters wrote about a study that they misinterpreted. In a nutshell, the original research didn't involve cell phones, and the researchers never said their research was related to honey bee colony die-offs. Even details like the alleged Einstein quote are dubious. No one has yet found proof that Einstein said anything about bees dying off – the earliest documented appearance of the "quote" is 1994 and, yes, Albert was dead at the time.
As I've said in the past - if you believe everything you read in the newspaper, try getting interviewed sometime.
At any newspaper I've worked at in 30 years, nearly all the decisions are made by editors, at editors-only meetings. No one in the room is accountable by name to the public for the choices they make.
Reporters' names go on the stories they are told to write. Reporters are mostly young. If they don't do what they're told, they get nuked.
End of Media 101. Capeesh?
Einstein was a well-informed as well as very intelligent man but I have yet to run across any evidence that he knew anything about bees in particular or entomology in general. Physics yes, Kantian philosophy certainly, electrical engineering certainly (that was his father's business), sailing certainly, but I would doubt that he could go any further than being able to distinguish between a honeybee and a housefly.
Suzuki might know something about bees...
Enough to blame Harper!
People often think that we, the readers/watchers/listeners of advertising-supported popular media, are the "customers". In reality, we are the product that the publishers are selling to their advertisers.
The MSM in general is more than willing to lie, deceive, misinform and sensationalize in order to get (or claim to get) more eyeballs.
One well-known Canadian news aggregator site has auto-refresh set to reload the page every six minutes. Since many net users now have tabbed browsing, many people leave favourite webpages open in the background. The issue here is that sites that do this can claim wildly exaggerated page views statistics in order to bump up ad rates. It's just as dishonest as claiming "hits" vs. actual page views for counting a site's popularity.
Anyway, sorry for the mini tech rant.
Might I add TV? One cool day in S'toon I was walking down the street and was asked by the local CTV crew what I thought of the weather. Hint too cold for polar bears. I suggested that it wasn't too bad but it would be nice if it warmed up a bit. Funnily enough that evening only "its cold enough to freeze the butt off a brass monkey" comments made it to air. Never looked at ANY media reports the same again.
colony collapse disorder," affects one species of bee, -- yes, and is related to the continuing decline of everything European, including their culture
Ummmmmm.....so you mean the nasty cell phone is not killing off the bees? It could just be a natural cycle? Sorta like rabbits,which go through a seven year boom/bust cycle? Nah. That can't be right. We as humoons have the ability to control nature! So I guess we are to blame,or so the socialists would have us believe.
Whew! That's a relief,... last theory I heard was that a "folding space vortex" was killing them off..that seemed worrysome to me
Personally I go with the fungus theory...I had athelete's foot once and know the "stress" the bees are under. ;-)
"if you believe everything you read in the newspaper, try getting interviewed sometime."
Ain't that the truth! I had no idea of how corrupt and thoughtless of their interview subject these people were until I did a couple of interviews some years back. The most trivial side-issues became the main focus of the print version, and the reason why the interview was ostensibly requested was trivialized.
Many, probably most, interviewers need an "angle" for the interview, otherwise it's just a series of boring questions and answers. These days it seems like the angle is always something political, and naturally things will be twisted to favour the interviewers own bias. I wonder how many MSM interviewers (note that I don't use the term journalist) have a conservative bias?
:-(
There is a reason historians never bother to look at period newspapers in their research. The information is completely unreliable. That hasn't changed today.
What ever became of the killer bees we were suppost to be have invading our country not a thing more
Find a calamity, any calamity will do. Create one, even.
Give it mega-tonnes of air-time and saturation coverage.
Create the impression that the public is dependent on the media for the "News".
Impress upon the people that only the govmit can 'save-the-day'. (With taxes, of course.)
Govmit and the media. Scratch each other's back.
The scam has been working for centuries. Brick wall ahead --- the Internet and quality blogs.
"What ever became of the killer bees we were suppost to be have invading our country not a thing more
Posted by: spurwing plover at June 3, 2007 10:35 AM "
KILLER BEES......NOOOOO...can't report on them spurwing...that would be profiling!! And what happened to the killer ants moving north from Maine????
Interviews! I'm so happy I'm just a little fish that no one wants to interview. At my work a couple of our people are interviewed almost weekly (got to keep the identifying info to a minimum :-) and it is so funny talking to them afterwards, especially after the interview airs.
I also have a brother in the RCMP, so I know some of the story that the reporters don't report or just get plain wrong. Comparing a story to my Brother's version I have absolutely no faith in a reporter's ability to get the facts straight.
Finally, I think I know why. It's not as much biased viewpoint as just plain ignorance. Your average reporter has, at best, a BA in English and some J school. They haven't the first clue how science really works or a basic background in it. Neither do they understand the Police or their training, or weapons. How often have reporters (and average Joes) asked why a cop didn't "just shoot him in the leg?" Having fired a pistol a few times, it's hard enough to hit the target when I'm calm and collected. Pity the poor cop under stress, afraid for his life, facing a guy with a knife, who has to aim for a freakin' leg that's moving!
The problem will manifest itself in crops such as Alfalfa which are fertilised mainly by bees. A failed Alfallfa crop will put up the price of animal feed and meat prices go through the roof. Now PETA would like that but ordinary people will not.
The European Honey Bee was INTRODUCED into North America; it is NOT native to North America. ALL introduced species experience this kind of decline.
But, exaggerating the bee decline as a disaster sells newspapers, TV and radio time.
I have had first hand experience with the silliness that passes as reporting, too. While I was in university, a speaker who was out of favor with the media gave a lecture on campus. The “coverage” was funny. The media said he had a hostile reception; he got polite, but not enthusiastic, applause; no one so much as booed. They even said someone threw a chair at him. But what happened was that someone tripped on a chair on stage, and the chair fell over; this happened AFTER the speaker had left the stage. I have disregarded the media since then.
I kind of remember one of those killer bee movies where the bees invade NEW ORLEANS they bees swarm on a VW bug they drive the car into the SUPERDOME and they turn down the tempeture to make the bees dorment wasnt that the movie THE SWARM?
Lets get one thing straight.Alfalfa is NOT pollunated by honey bees and never was.Alfalfa is pollunated by leaf cutter bees.Leaf cutter bees,if they produce honey at all,dont do it in commercial quantities.If you drive past a field of seed alfalfa and you see bright colored huts in the field,that is where the leaf cutter bees are residing and they arent making honey.Honey bees HATE alfalfa.
Several of the bees have invaded my home. Killed 4 yesterday. I also have been interviewed by the media. Once was for opinion on the signing of the Charter. The camera was turned off after my first words,- This is the worst thing-. I followed the crew around the mall for 30 minutes, and they only got one positive remark. That night, the news carried an across Canada street interviews. Not one negative remark made it. I knew then, that I was right, it is the worst piece of legislation ever introduced by PET, and there were many.