What is Digg?196 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -13/+195Bees have cellphones now?
- geoboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+135@fontoon
Just click the digg button. Doing so will dispatch what is called a "digg gnome". Digg gnomes will begin to pull the rope that is attached to the story you dugg using a pulley system. The more diggs a story has, the more gnomes are dispatched and the faster they can pull the story to the top. - Bael, on 10/12/2007, -7/+134Everyone know that it's the bee rapture. Only the bad bees have been left behind.
- SaxxonPike, on 10/12/2007, -13/+129It's obviously got nothing to do with the ***** of ***** we put in the air every day.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -17/+100"It's obviously got nothing to do with the ***** of ***** we put in the air every day."
Exactly.
Cell phones have been around for a while. Only the new models hurt the bees?
And radiation hurting the bees? Hmm... it's a good thing we don't have a gigantic nuclear furnace only 8 light-minutes away ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun ) irradiating the planet day in and day out with fluctuations over several thousands of years that the bees would have had to cope with and survive. Good thing such a thing doesn't exist, because that mysterious thing 'radiation' can cause anything!
Here is more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health
Bottom line, that soda is more harmful to you than the cell phone. And I would be willing to bet money that my drive home killed more bees than all the cell calls I'll make in my lifetime. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -18/+101That stings.
- geoboy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+84No, that wouldn't be ironic. Irony would be trying to thwart global warming, but then the method of doing so unexpectedly ends up killing all the bees and humanity is doomed moreso than before..
- EmperorAwesome, on 10/12/2007, -8/+78I think it would be ironic if we were all made of iron.
- mikehager66, on 10/12/2007, -14/+80"The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left"."
Man that is some scary thought...wouldn't it be ironic if the downfall of man was not global warming but cell phones. - domomike, on 10/12/2007, -6/+53Change the "is" in the article title to "may be."
I'm sick of these freakin' misleading articles that are mistitled to gain shock value attention.
If I were a jerk I'd bury as inaccurate. - Dezmodium, on 10/12/2007, -3/+48It is interesting to see just how much SPECULATION is actually contained in this story. First they state their main premise, then they go on about CCD, then they mention "a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby."
Notice how the study doesn't claim it is because of radiation. Notice how the study is limited. Notice the lack of any other studies supporting the main premise.
"Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking..." Trust me, I AM noticing. "Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive." Consider it duly noticed. I believe the Finnish study was shown to be flawed.
The fact here is that there may be some correlation, but that doesn't mean it is from radiation. It is like these scientists heard that radiation from cell phones may cause cancer, and they went ahead and jumped to a conclusion. Now they are trying to prove that conclusion is true. I'm sorry, that's not how science is done. - drag0ns1ayer, on 10/12/2007, -5/+48Gotta tell those bees to get off the phones!
- jsp123, on 10/12/2007, -2/+45Dang, if it were mosquitoes dying I would buy a bigger plan...
- mutatron, on 10/12/2007, -15/+43Why do people quote Albert Einstein about bees and crops? He was neither an apiarist nor a farmer.
- SultanTravi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+29The same reason an article would cite a study about brain tumors when the vast majority of others disagree. The same reason that people immediately assume this is the problem despite any actual evidence.
I guess this would be a good place to post the FSM idea that a lack of pirates is causing global warming. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27If this were even REMOTELY true, the phenomena would not have started in the S where cell towers are MUCH more sparsely located than in Europe.
There are a lot of stupid scientists in the world. - inactive, on 11/07/2007, -5/+27Holy ***** people...this is what the study ACTUALLY says...
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."
A LIMITED study supposedly shows that bees don't return to their hives when a cell phone is nearby? And this is extrapolated to the entire population of bees? Ummmm, OK. Anway you look at it, this submission is INACCURATE. Not only is it a TINY amount of "scientists", but even those are just theorizing that it is POSSIBLE that MAYBE cells phones MIGHT POSSIBLY be the cause. - johnblac, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24Food or mobile phone? Tough call.
- catalysis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Sadly, we know what the answer is for most of modern society..
- bronstad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21but, its got what plants crave...electrolytes...
- ht40, on 10/12/2007, -5/+22I am so tired of the Cell phone BS, we are not going to get cancer from cell phones, it is a urban myth.
Here is more on this story:
Here is an update to the brief bee story we did a few weeks ago. I’ve been keeping an eye on the Colony Collapse Disorder phenomenon that is causing a lot of furrowed brows in the U.S., as this may well become the biggest issue of 2007.
Things are getting dire on the U.S. agricultural front, and there are similar reports beginning to filter through from countries in Europe.
Disappearing by the billions, on a
worker strike we do not know
how to negotiate
The sad mystery surrounding the humble honeybee - which is a vital component in $14bn-worth of US agriculture - is beginning to worry even the highest strata of the political class in Washington.
“Hillary Clinton’s got interested in this in the last week or so,” said David Hackenberg, the beekeeper leading the drive to publicise their plight.
“And she’s not alone,” he said. “There’s a lot of Congressmen have called…wanting to know what’s going on. It’s serious. - BBC
There’s still no concrete evidence about what is killing the millions and billions of bees around the country, but there are a lot of guesses.
The phenomenon is recent, dating back to autumn, when beekeepers along the east coast of the US started to notice the die-offs. It was given the name of fall dwindle disease, but now it has been renamed to reflect better its dramatic nature, and is known as colony collapse disorder.
It is swift in its effect. Over the course of a week the majority of the bees in an affected colony will flee the hive and disappear, going off to die elsewhere. The few remaining insects are then found to be enormously diseased - they have a “tremendous pathogen load”, the scientists say. But why? No one yet knows.
… The disease showed a completely new set of symptoms, “which does not seem to match anything in the literature”, said the entomologist.
… the few bees left inside the hive were carrying “a tremendous number of pathogens” - virtually every known bee virus could be detected in the insects, she said, and some bees were carrying five or six viruses at a time, as well as fungal infections. Because of this it was assumed that the bees’ immune systems were being suppressed in some way. - The Independent
There are as many theories as there are members of the panel, but Mr Hackenberg strongly suspects that new breeds of nicotine-based pesticides are to blame.
“It may be that the honeybee has become the victim of these insecticides that are meant for other pests,” he said. “If we don’t figure this out real quick, it’s going to wipe out our food supply.”
Just a few miles down the sunlit road, it is easy to find farmers prepared to agree with his gloomy assessment.
… Dennis van Engelsdorp, a Pennsylvania-based beekeeper and leading researcher… is adamant that it is too early to pin the blame on insecticides.”We have no evidence to think that that theory is more right than any other…” - BBC
Urban sprawl and farming also have taken away fields of clover and wildflowers, as well as nesting trees.
Pesticides and herbicides used in farming and on suburban lawns can weaken or kill bees.
Caron said a new class of pesticides used on plants, called neonicotinoids, don’t kill bees but hamper their sense of direction. That leaves them unable to find their way back to their hives.
… Because these bees aren’t returning to their hives, researchers don’t have a lot of evidence to study.
Those dead bees that have been found nearby have only deepened the mystery.
“They are just dirty with parts and pieces of various diseases,” said Jim Tew, a beekeeping expert with the OSU Extension campus in Wooster. “It looks like a general stress collapse.”
Similar disappearances have occurred over time. Tew said he remembers a similar phenomenon in the 1960s. Then, it was called “disappearing disease.”
“It was exactly the same thing,” he said.
But this one, Caron said, apparently causes hives to collapse at a much quicker rate and is more widespread.
Cobey said it could be from too much of everything: bad weather, chemicals, parasites, viruses.
“If you give them one of these things at a time, they seem to deal with it,” she said. “But all of these things, it’s too hard.
“I think the bees are just compromised. They’re stressed out.” - Columbus Dispatch
Whatever the cause, some farmers are getting desperate, to the point of not bothering to plant their crops.
“The squash crops that we grow have a male and female bloom, and the bee has to visit…to make it pollinate and produce,” he said.
“We’re going to have a hard time finding rental bees to aid in this pollination and if it’s as critical as it looks like it will be, I probably won’t even plant anything this spring.” - BBC
Huge monocrop farming systems and specialisations, and the spread of suburbia across natural habitat, are removing natural diversity. Bees have been lumped together in the millions, in a factory farm type environment not so unlike that of our chickens and other livestock animals. Many of these bees are transported across several states to perform pollinations in orchards and farms around the country. Today they are in contact with substances they shouldn’t have to deal with - pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and pollen from genetically modified crops. Researchers are scrambling to find answers, and as the spring season is upon us, time is running out.
Honey bees, which are not native to the U.S. incidentally (they were imported for crop pollination), are tasked with the pollination of approximately one third of all U.S. crops.
… scientists are very worried, not least because, as there is no obvious cause for the disease as yet, there is no way of tackling it. - The Independent - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -15/+30I guess the iPhone really is the worst gadget in the world...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15maybe we should start eating mobile phones then
- cvrefugee, on 10/12/2007, -35/+50OH THE BEEMANITY!
- PsychoticClown, on 10/12/2007, -7/+21WHY BEES? WHY NOT FLIES?
Hopefully radiation can also kill neo-cons. We can only hope. - SultanTravi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19Thank you! Alarmist crap like this needs burying.
Correlation =! Causation - i4mt3hwin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18Pretty much the best example of the digg system. Pretty much.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18Cell towers and phones have been around for more than 2 decades now..
More likely something else, more recent, like the increased use of bio fuels and blends.
The Iraq war.
Increased number of 9/11 conspiracy blogs.
Toxins from things being blended that shouldn't.
Hybrid vehicle use, smug?
Sun spots?
I have no evidence to back any of these up, as I am sure no one has any real evidence it is cell phone either. - fredricko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14"No. No. Bees!"
- Daniel001, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Could someone invent a cell phone that kills wasps instead please.
- sinembarg0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Irony can also be an unexpected outcome.
From dictionary.com: (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=irony )
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. - SultanTravi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I think you forgot that the quantum computer was recently tested. Perhaps it is emitting b-waves that kill.. bees...
- AKBryant54, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14what does that even mean...
- lagrange, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Its the decline in Pirates thats killing off the bees. Studies have suggested bees need Pirates in order to reproduce.
Prove its not true! - DooDahMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I googled Dr. George Carlo, Ph.D, M.S., J.D. He is rabidly opposed to cell phones, and he doesn't really care why.
- jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9***** oh *****, we are *****...
I think its the GM crops...
How could microwave radiation have anything to do with it? We've been using cell phones for a while now and it would not trigger the problem _suddenly_. And it doesn't explain how some of the bee's found have all sorts of diseases.
It's like they have bee HIV. - jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Actually, I have a new hypothesis. The death of these bees seem to coincide with the release of the PlayStation 3. Coincidence? I think not!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12So, some scientists theorize this. Many, many more disagree. And suddenly it is fact?
- Dormammu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8While this story may be somewhat speculative, people should note that the story doesn't say radiation kills the bees. It says it confuses their navigation. It's not claiming that the actual radiation levels are harmful.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@dezmodium Absolutely right, you can't base science on anecdotal evidence.
- EztliNahua, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The lack of pirates is causing global warming. Global warming is causing more and more people to forgo traveling to a friend's house for a chat. Normally this would not be a problem; see letters and home telephones. However, there is more and more of a demand for instant communication, instant gratification. This leads to faster and faster modes of communication; see cell phones, instant messaging, and especially shorthand. However, the cell phone companies want to make money. Instead of making lots of low-power cell phone towers, they make a bunch of extremely-high-powered cell phone towers, and make all cell phones put out huge amounts of power (4W+. My wi-fi is 65mW). The electrical fields, getting stronger and stronger, are messing with the honeybees' brains, causing them to be unable to find their way back to their hive. The only solutions to this are: 1) Stop using cell phones. 2) Get Superman to bring us a lot of ice and cool the world off, so we stop using cell phones. 3) Use lots of low-power towers. 4) Genetically engineer bees so they have forty legs and rely on GPS for navigation.
- Skates, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I have to debunk this conspiracy, as a summer college job I traveled to Verizon cellphone towers throughout the Midwest and performed maintenance on their A/C units. Each cellphone tower had at least one bee hive, and I had to have been stung at least 20 times. The bees are not being killed off by radiation, since the cellphone towers put off more radiation than a cellphone.
- Darph.Bobo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10RF of the entire spectrum has been around for nearly a century, but now the very low power cellular band all of sudden is killing bees. Highly improbable.
- kurttrail, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7So long . . . . and thanks for all the pollen.
- jayman187um, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10 I am much more convinced that it is the GMO crops doing it. They are made to grow and emit pesticides... I guess that it's killing the bees... it makes sense.. either way, sh*t gets f**ked when the bees die off..
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/11/26/millions_of_bees_dead_bayers_gaucho_blamed.htm
that link talks about the pesticide/ dead bee thing.. - Murdats, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9you *might* be a moron, give me lots of money because this warrants more study, your existance *might* be hazardous to those around you
- mt4055, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8... and after all these years it is now happening everywhere at once? I don't think so. The bee hives are not even near where a cell phone would be. They are out in fields and orchards and woods and meadows.
really slim evidence, not impossible but this is not very scientific. More like running around crying "the sky is falling".
Bury! - Philhellene, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5forget the mobile (cell) phone link in this story - the loss of huge numbers of bees is my main concern. It will cause widespread devastation if this continues unchecked, whatever might be causing it, never mind if it spreads to even more countries.
- decruncher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"ay, no me gusta! no es bueno”
- pastasauce, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I can go for a banana phone right about now.
/waits for someone to go "ring ring ring ring ring ring ring..." -
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