jamiethekiller wrote:best video you'll watch all day

http://vimeo.com/48544219

Woody wrote:

jamiethekiller wrote:best video you'll watch all day

http://vimeo.com/48544219

Amazing what the new iPhone can do

Thousands of scientific sleuths have been on this case for the last 15 years trying to determine why our honey bees are disappearing in such alarming numbers. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” according to Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program.

Until recently, the evidence was inconclusive on the cause of the mysterious “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that threatens the future of beekeeping worldwide. But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.

In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products.

Research published last month in the prestigious journal Science shows that neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

phatj wrote:"exotic matter"

td11 wrote:

Thousands of scientific sleuths have been on this case for the last 15 years trying to determine why our honey bees are disappearing in such alarming numbers. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” according to Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program.

Until recently, the evidence was inconclusive on the cause of the mysterious “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that threatens the future of beekeeping worldwide. But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.

In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products.

Research published last month in the prestigious journal Science shows that neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2 ... es-solved/

cshort wrote:

td11 wrote:

Thousands of scientific sleuths have been on this case for the last 15 years trying to determine why our honey bees are disappearing in such alarming numbers. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” according to Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program.

Until recently, the evidence was inconclusive on the cause of the mysterious “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that threatens the future of beekeeping worldwide. But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.

In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products.

Research published last month in the prestigious journal Science shows that neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2 ... es-solved/

I'll admit to listening to Coast to Coast at night, and the program gets poked fun at because of all of the talk about space aliens, etc. Have to give them credit though - one of the contributors, Linda Moulton Howe (who believes in some off the wall stuff), was all over this back in 2007.

WheelsFellOff wrote:WARP SPEED AHEAD

WheelsFellOff wrote:WARP SPEED AHEAD

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) in California and South Dakota have been observed acting zombielike, wandering away from their hives at night and crawling around blindly in circles.

These insects have been rendered insensate by a parasitizing fly that lays eggs in the bees’ bodies. After the bee dies a lonesome death, pupae crawl out and grow to adult flies that seek new bodies to infect.

...

Honeybee colonies have been collapsing at an alarming rate in the U.S. for the past several years. And without these important pollinators, many of our favorite foods, from almonds to zucchini would be difficult to produce. Scientists have implicated viruses, fungi, mites and other invaders in colony collapse disorder, but Hafernik suspects this parasite is a new villain on the scene. “Honeybees are among the best-studied insects,” he said in a prepared statement in January. “We would expect that if this has been a long-term parasite of honeybees, we would have noticed.”

Houshphandzadeh wrote:gonna be hard to eat in 20 years

Midwest running out of water, too

SK790 wrote:

Houshphandzadeh wrote:gonna be hard to eat in 20 years

Midwest running out of water, too

Phan In Phlorida wrote:zombie bee apocalypse!!!

Monkeyboy wrote:

SK790 wrote:

Houshphandzadeh wrote:gonna be hard to eat in 20 years

Midwest running out of water, too

even without the drought, they were going to empty the huge underground aquifer that supplies much of the agricultural water. We're doomed. Same thing is happening in China, only faster.

This is why aquaponics is going to big, imho. I guess there could be some other big technological advancement(s), like what drove the green revolution, but my money is on aquaponics. It uses 2-10% of the water of traditional agriculture, no need for pesticides or fertilizers (many come from petroleum products), can be grown locally (also saves fossil fuels), and you get to eat the fish as bonus protein. You can feed the fish a diet or duckweed, earthworms, and black fly larvae, all of which can be grown for next to nothing. Throw some solar panels or other electricity-generating device on it and it's completely sustainable. Fuck Big Ag.