Cell Phones could end civilization..

[waltky]

Wonder if cell phone waves are interfering with bats' echolocation?

Why are thousands of bats dying in New York?
Thurs., Feb. 14, 2008 - Mysterious ‘white nose syndrome’ spreading at alarming rate

Bats in New York and Vermont are mysteriously dying off by the thousands, often with a white ring of fungus around their noses, and scientists in hazmat suits are crawling into dank caves to find out why. "White nose syndrome," as the killer has been dubbed, is spreading at an alarming rate, with researchers calling it the gravest threat in memory to bats in the U.S. "This is definitely unprecedented," said Lori Pruitt, an endangered-species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bloomington, Ind. "The hugest concern at this point is that we do not know what it is."

A significant loss of bats is chilling in itself to wildlife experts. But —like the mysterious mass die-offs around the country of bees that pollinate all sorts of vital fruits and vegetables — the bat deaths could have economic implications. Bats feed on insects that can damage dozens of crops, including wheat and apples. "Without large populations of bats, there would certainly be an impact on agriculture," said Barbara French of Bat Conservation International of Austin, Texas. White nose syndrome has afflicted at least four species of hibernating bats, spreading from a cluster of four caves near Albany last winter to more than a dozen caverns up to 130 miles away.

Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, said he fears a catastrophic collapse of the region's bat population and is urgently enlisting experts around the country to find the cause. It is not even clear if the fungus around the bats' noses — something scientists say they have never seen before — is a cause or a symptom. It may be a sign the bats are too sick to groom themselves, said Beth Buckles, a veterinary pathologist at Cornell University.

More Why are thousands of bats dying in New York? - Science - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Need bees for ice cream...

Disappearing bees threaten ice cream sellers
February 17 2008: Premium maker Haagen-Dazs says vanishing bee colonies in the U.S. could mean fewer flavors and high prices.

Haagen-Dazs is warning that a creature as small as a honeybee could become a big problem for the premium ice cream maker's business. At issue is the disappearing bee colonies in the United States, a situation that continue to mystify scientists and frighten foodmakers. That's because, according to Haagen-Dazs, one-third of the U.S. food supply - including a variety of fruits, vegetables and even nuts - depends on pollination from bees. Haagen-Dazs, which is owned by Nestle, said bees are actually responsible for 40% of its 60 flavors - such as strawberry, toasted pecan and banana split.

"These are among consumers' favorite flavors," said Katty Pien, brand director with Haagen-Dazs. "We use 100% all natural ingredients like strawberries, raspberries and almonds which we get from California. The bee problem could badly hurt supply from the Pacific Northwest," Pien said Pien said Haagen-Dazs is hoping scientists get a breakthrough in this mystery soon. Otherwise, she said, the company may have to "re-examine the flavors that we currently offers our customers." "We have to ensure that we have enough supply to maintain our variety," she said.

Additionally, a supply shortage of key ingredients could push up retail prices for its products, she said. Pien said the company is donating $250,000 to both Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Davis to fund research into the bee colony collapse disorder (CCD). She said Haagen-Dazs is also rushing to raise consumer awareness about the problem by launching a new flavor this spring called Vanilla Honey Bee. "We'll use part of the sales from this flavor help the honeybees," she said. "This is the first time that Haagen-Dazs has adopted a cause like this," said Pien. "We are taking this very, very seriously because it impacts not just our brand but the entire food industry."

Source

[waltky]

Leave it to Congress to come up with a counter-productive solution...

Report: Bill could bring honeybee disaster
WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- The farm bill being negotiated in the U.S. Congress could speed the extinction of honeybees and other pollinators by encouraging crops in areas now wild.

There are a number of suspects in the search for the cause of colony collapse disorder, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. They include pesticides designed to be safe for humans that disrupt insects' nervous systems and monoculture, in which huge fields devoted to one crop deprive insects of food for most of the year.

The final bill is expected to provide incentives to grow grain in high prairie areas where farmers are now paid to keep land wild, the Chronicle said. Many beekeepers send their hives to the Dakotas to rest when crops that need pollinating in California are not in bloom.

Jim Ringelman, director of conservation for Ducks Unlimited in North Dakota, said the result could be the loss of much of the protected land to agriculture. He said the result could be a disaster for native pollinating insects and birds as well as bees. "Most birds won't use cropland to reproduce in," he said. "It's just not habitat that works for them."

Source

[waltky]

Maybe its bee rapture...

Survey: U.S. honey bee deaths on rise
Wed., May. 7, 2008 - 'Astonishing' 36.1 percent of hives lost due to disease, pesticides, enemies

A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year. Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent. As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal. About 29 percent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't. "What's frightening about CCD is that it's not predictable or understood," vanEngelsdorp said.

More Survey: U.S. honey bee deaths on rise - Environment - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Gov't. wantin' to end cell phone stop fees...

FCC Reviews Cell Phone Terminations Fees
Jun 13, 2008 - FCC Chairman Kevin Martin favors federal oversight of cell phone cancellation fees rather than a patchwork of policies from the 50 states.

The early termination fee hanging over the heads of most cell phone users was thoroughly reviewed by the FCC Thursday, but the review was upstaged by a jury in California that ruled in favor of Sprint Nextel's early termination fee policies. No matter, said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin who noted that he has long argued for federal oversight of the cell phone cancellation fee issue, favoring a nationwide policy over a patchwork of policies from the 50 states. "While I'm respectful of state regulators, I have been skeptical that lawsuits are a good way of ensuring protection for all consumers," he said. Martin noted that all consumers don't benefit from class action lawsuits. Such suits often result in huge paydays for attorneys and small awards for consumers.

Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel hailed its victory. "We're pleased that upon hearing all the testimony and examing all the evidence, the jury recognized that Sprint makes a significant investment in its customers through reduced handset prices and discounted monthly rates," a company spokesman wrote in an e-mail to reporters. Similar litigation is pending against Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Martin and the other FCC commissioners focused on several issues involving the early termination fees. "Too often consumers are surprised that the amount they owe on their first bill is not what they expected, only to then learn that their 'trial' period already ended and cancellation will result in paying the early termination fee."

Martin suggested that fees to be charged consumers track the actual cost of the phones involved -- for instance, a fee for a $50 phone would be lower than the fee for a $250 phone. Commissioner Michael Copps, citing a possible penalty of $800 for a family of four callers wishing to cancel a cell phone contract, suggested that the FCC needs "to better understand how state consumer protection laws affect carriers and consumers." Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein pointed to recent consumer surveys, which place cell phone service as "among the lower-rated services" reviewed.

MORE

[waltky]

Missing bees, biofuels, maybe its the hand of God...

Vanishing Honeybees May Mean Costly Food
WASHINGTON June 26, 2008 - Honey Bee Crisis Could Lead to Higher Food Prices

Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. "No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.

"If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation's farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. "This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore." Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.

Edward R. Flanagan, who raises blueberries in Milbridge, Maine, said he could be forced to increase prices tenfold or go out of business without the beekeeping industry. "Every one of those berries owes its existence to the crazy, neurotic dancing of a honey bee from flower to flower," he said. The cause behind the disorder remains unknown. Possible explanations include pesticides; a new parasite or pathogen; and the combination of immune-suppressing stresses such as poor nutrition, limited or contaminated water supplies and the need to move bees long distances for pollination.

More ABC News: Vanishing Honeybees May Mean Costly Food

[waltky]

Missing bees turn up in Canada...

Millions of bees buzz Canada's main highway
June 30, 2008 -- 12 million bees released after transport truck overturned in New Brunswick; Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Truck carrying 330 crates of bees; Bee experts from Agriculture Canada called in to help deal with the accident

Twelve million honey bees have been released onto Canada's largest highway in northwest New Brunswick after a transport truck overturned.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that a truck carrying 330 crates of bees was traveling on a ramp on the highway when the load shifted and the truck overturned shortly after 1000 GMT.

Police said a downpour of rain has helped to contain the bees in and around the truck. Bee experts from Agriculture Canada were called in to help deal with the accident.

Millions of bees buzz Canada's main highway - CNN.com

Granny says she always suspected dem Canadians was bee rustlers.

[waltky]

Somethin' killin' the bats...

Die-off of bats mystifies experts
7 July `08 - Bats are dying off by the thousands as they hibernate in caves and mines around New York and Vermont, sending researchers scrambling to find the cause of a mysterious condition dubbed "white-nose syndrome."

Biologists are stumped by a plague that has killed tens of thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands, of bats this year in Northeastern states. The cause of "white-nose syndrome," so named because of the white fungus that appears on bats' noses and wings, remains a mystery. And the plague is still killing bats, alarming scientists who had considered it a winter syndrome.

"The surprise for us has been finding out that bats are still dying," says biologist Susi von Oettingen of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service office in Concord, N.H. Biologists combing summertime roosts report finding six species of bats affected by the syndrome in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, she says.

"I'm continuing to get calls on a daily basis from cities and residents reporting dead bats," says Scott Darling of the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife. Spot surveys are being done in the five states, but conservation officials won't get a solid sense of further losses until later this month when male bats begin returning to caves, Darling says. One bat can eat more than a pound of night-time insects in a week. White-nose syndrome threatens the endangered Indiana bat, Darling says, and agricultural pest numbers may explode without bats.

More Die-off of bats mystifies experts - USATODAY.com

See also:

Northeast bat population is in its own hell
7 July `08 - The deaths started in a few caves, with hibernating bats dying in place and falling in charnel heaps to the floor. Others, emaciated and starving, fled their roosts to freeze in the chill of winter.

Deepening the mystery: The dead and dying bats had a white fungus on their faces, giving the name "white-nose syndrome" to a plague killing thousands of bats in five Northeastern states.

"Our guys went in and reported thousands of dead bats," says Alan Hicks of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. "Immediately it was clear this was very bad." Perhaps 11,000 bats eventually died in four nearby caves in 2007; tens of thousands died this past winter in five states, and the deaths continue.

The true death toll could be even higher, says biologist Susi von Oettingen of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service office in Concord N.H., because more bats may have died in uncharted cave roosts.

MORE

[waltky]

New kinda police sting...

Bees join hunt for serial killers
Wednesday, 30 July 2008 - Studying the way bumblebees search for food could help detectives hunt down criminals, scientists believe.

Just as bees forage some distance away from their hives, so murderers avoid killing near their homes, says the University of London team. This "geographic profiling" works so well in bees, the scientists say future experiments on the animals could now be fed back to improve crime-solving. The team's work is reported in the Royal Society journal Interface.

"We're really hopeful that we can improve the model for criminology," Dr Nigel Raine, from Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), told BBC News. "Understanding how bees are recruited to flowers is much easier than understanding the complex thoughts of a serial murderer" - Dr Nigel Raine

The scientist is working with colleagues Steve Le Comber and Kim Rossmo, a former detective in the US, to tag bees with tiny coloured numbers and follow them from their nests to flower patches. The researchers' analysis describes how bees create a "buffer zone" around their hive where they will not forage, to reduce the risk of predators and parasites locating the nest. It turns out that this pattern of behaviour is similar to the geographic profile of criminals stalking their victims.

"Most murders happen close to the killer's home, but not in the area directly surrounding a criminal's house, where crimes are less likely to be committed because of the fear of getting caught by someone they know," Dr Raine explained.

Food importance

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says ya gotta do more than just talk to dem womens...

Mobiles in pockets hit fertility
22 Sep 2008, An Indian American fertility expert has warned men that keeping their cellphones in pockets and belts while talking on hands-free could affect their fertility.

In a study published on in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility, Ashok Agarwal, lead author, says men who keep their cellphones in their pockets or clip them to their belts while using an ear piece to chat may be compromising their sperms. An earlier study conducted on some 361 men, he said, had found a significant relationship between cell-phone use and sperm quality, especially among men who used mobiles for more than four hours per day. -We wanted to find out what was going on," he added. The researchers, he said, took sperm samples from 23 healthy men, and from nine men with known fertility issues. The samples were then divided into two portions to make a control group and a test group.

-We exposed the test group sperm to a cellphone in -talk" mode with a radiation of 850 megahertz, the frequency most often used by cellphones in the US. We exposed the sperm for about one hour," he told Newsweek. The researchers, he said, looked at several markers, including mobility, viability and cellular or molecular changes. -There were 85% more free radicals generated by the exposed sperm samples in both healthy and infertile specimens versus the control group, and a 6% decrease in antioxidants in the exposed samples, the chemicals that fight free-radical damage", he said.

-Motility, or what proportion of sperm are moving, decreased by 7%, and the viability, or the percentage of sperm that is alive decreased by 11%. That was for both groups, the healthy men and men with fertility problems, as compared to a control group that had no exposure", he added.

Mobiles in pockets hit fertility-Health/Sci-The Times of India