Large areas of our agricultural and ecological systems are reliant on bees. On a truly massive scale, bees are used and relied upon to pollinate our crops. The worlds bees, most notably in the US and the UK, have been in serious decline for the past thirty years. In these countries alone, the population of bees has almost halved in that time.

Scientists in Switzerland may well have found the cause. Our ever expanding use of mobile/cell phones. Research in Lausanne has indicated that mobile/cell phone signals have a considerable, detrimental effect on the bees behaviour, which may well be the cause for their extremely rapid decline in numbers.

Daniel Favre, studying the bees reactions to mobile/cell phones in over 80 separate experiments, found that the bees react significantly to the phones when they are in call mode, i.e. when they are transmitting or receiving a signal.

Their reaction is to emit a particularly heavy buzzing, ten times the usual noise level, which, in the environment of a hive, is a warning to other bees to leave, or in effect an evacuation signal. The frequency of the signals also apparently affect the bees in other ways, causing them to behave and fly erratically leading to them becoming lost and disorientated.

It seems that this research would link mobile/cell phone usage and popularization over the last thirty years with the decline in numbers of bees over the same period.

The way forward if these results are proved conclusive is unclear. In the US and UK, and increasingly the world over, the mobile or cell phone has become almost a necessary convenience which it is unlikely will be given up lightly.

Silver spirit rises and falls on thermals of air to lift them up, up to the light of blinding white.

Why are bees so important? I mean, come on, they’re just bees!

In order to appreciate this subject, you have to understand the significance of bees and how they make our lives easier. Some may think of bees as an invasive species that stings on sight but they’re actually a vital part of our agricultural system. One reason for this is that they pollinate plants that produce foods many of us eat.

In fact, over 80% of the food we eat require pollination and bees happen to be one of the best pollinators. This includes foods like nuts, vegetables, and alfalfa. In fact, in 2005 the economic role of honeybees was estimated to be valued at around 12 billion dollars. And on an unrelated note, even cotton plants require pollination. Without cotton, you wouldn’t have the shirt on your back, towels or the bed sheets you sleep on.

Image via Wikipedia

Background

Cell phones are the most convenient way to get in touch with our friends, relatives and even co-workers. It should come as no surprise that they’ve replaced once common household items like cordless phones. In fact, just five short years ago there were an estimated 57 million cell phone towers in the United States alone, so you can imagine just how many towers are in operation as of today.

However, this convenience brings many issues along with it. Cell phone towers emit radiation, which is associated with things like nuclear power plants and weapons. The main difference here is that the RF waves emitted from cell phone towers are uncontrolled which poses numerous risks to health and animal life, namely bees.

Image via Wikipedia

Could that cell phone call be interfering with bees?

It’s a known fact that bees use earth’s magnetic field in order to navigate. Studies have suggested that these RF waves interfere with bee’s navigation systems, causing disorientation and distress for as long as 12 hours. This is further amplified when any given cell phone has a weak signal. When this occurs, the phones have to work harder to locate a closer tower, thus more radiation is emitted.

Over the years, the disappearance and death of bees, known as colony collapse disorder has become a more prevalent issue with no seeming cause in site. Are cell phones to blame for this mysterious breakdown? In 2009, a swiss researcher by the name of Daniel Favre conducted an experiment in which cell phones were placed in an active bee hive. When the cell phone was active, it was found that the radiation caused bees to emit the worker piping signal. The worker piping signal is the bee’s method of announcing that the colony has been disturbed.

Furthermore, a study conducted at Punjab University found that when a cell phone was placed in a bee hive and activated, the radiation resulted in a decrease in the production of both honey and eggs laid by the queen bee. For the sake of comparison, these numbers were doubled in a test that done on a cell phone-less hive.

Do these studies provide conclusive proof that cell phones are the main culprit in bee death?

While the two studies mentioned above showed obvious harmful effects of cell phone radiation on bees, they do not conclusively prove that mass colony death was a result. In fact, the Swiss study even notes that bees didn’t swarm as many articles have argued.

But this also raises other questions like, how far away do you have to be in order for the radiation to be ineffective to bees? And does it matter just how much radiation a phone gives off? Researches have yet to answer this. Until proper experiments are conducted that can conclusively determine whether or not cell phones play a role in the death of bees, this subject remains up in the air.

Please

First it was the migrant workers

Then it was the bees

Next came the deadly drug smugglers

Now it is the sewage

Come on, give us a break

Oh please

The migrant workers

Did not bother folks too much

They just come and go

The killer bees

Are over breeding ours

You just don’s know

If the buzzing is

From friend or foe

The desert tunnels & hidden paths

Transport everything from

People to cocaine to grass

Them that make it to the city

With illegal goods in tow

Get to meet that national terror

Called, sheriff Joe Arpio

Now their sewer lines have broken

And like an angry ghost

That nasty filthy waste

Is creeping up our coast

On the bombardment from the south

Please heaven, put a freeze

We need a break

Even if it’s just a pause

Oh pretty pretty please

Top 10 Global  2011 Predictions

Here comes a new year and new predictions of the future. In my stumbling around the world via the web, I found these strange predictions for 2011. Take a look and wonder.

1.       Space “tourism” will expand and grow quickly.

2.       More world natural disasters will occur with more frequency: floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and more.

3.       India’s world popularity will continue to grow.

4.       More public revolts will happen across Europe and Britain.

5.       UFO’s will be verified and actual Alien contact will happen at the UN.

6.       Mars will put stress on the Earth’s orbit and cause it to change.

7.       Bees will go extinct, wiping out most of the earth’s vegetation

8.       A huge asteroid will collide with earth.

9.       The Yellowstone volcano will erupt.

10.   Jesus will return…. and a lot of people will be in trouble.

Here are 2 more strange predictions for 2011—

11.   WalMart Stock will start to skyrocket as they expand in China and other third world countries…buy now or you will never own it.

12.   Crude oil will zoom to over $100 a barrel.

Want one more prediction for 2011?

13.   Bimini will reveal her Atlantis secrets.

Might be an interesting year if all these things come true!

• Wear light colored, smooth-finished clothes, it is especially important not to wear wool, leather, or suede when stinging insects are active.
• Don’t wear hair spray, lotions, perfumes, or other sweet smelling scents that may attract stinging insects. Insects that feed on sweet smelling flowers will be attracted.
• Wear clean clothing and bath daily: sweet seems to irritate stinging insects.
• Cover the body as much as possible and reasonable. Ankle-high shoes or white cotton socks should be worn when walking in fields. Covering the head with a straw hat or light colored kerchief may prevent insects from becoming entangled in the hair.
• Run if you are attack by several stinging insects at once. The only time many wasps or bees will attack simultaneously is when the nest is disturbed or broken. It is best to run indoors or wooded, shady area. If there no other place to escape, jump into the water.
• If a wasps or bee flies in through a window while you are driving, it is best to remain as still as possible while slowing the car. When the car stopped in a safe place, open all the windows, and the insect soon will escape.

We tower above them, yet still find an odd pleasure in killing them. We tell big kids to “pick on somebody your own size” yet we step on ants.

Our lifespan is 80 years, more or less, yet we relish squishing something with a fraction of that. The worst thing a wasp can do to us, is to sting us, so we kill it in anticipation of something so simple as the threat of a sting. I have been stung many times, including once as a two year old when I was stung in the mouth after biting an apple with a wasp on it. Some time ago I realized the truth in that if you do not hurt them, they will not hurt you, and do not fear bugs really at all.

Now I practice a “Catch and Release” program at work and in my home. Basically if I am not going to eat the bug, and so far I haven’t taken to eating bugs intentionally, if we are not going to feed it to our Anole, or Chickens, the insect gets set free. At work a lot of insects, mostly grasshoppers and flies, get into the store. Flies are tricky, they move too much, but grasshoppers are an easy catch and I toss them out the door.

Occasionally a bee or wasp finds its way into the store, they usually buzz around the front window trying desperately to get out. Why should I not sympathize with them just as any other living creature stuck, confused, trying to get back to the wilderness? So, yes, I offer the bees and the wasps my finger to climb up on to.

Did you know that without bees, the human race might only last another four to five years? Did you know some wasps only live a few months? Never once have I been stung, most of the time the little insect rides my finger to the door where I release it back outside. Some times they resist, forcing me to use Rescue Plan B.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lepidophora_lepidocera.jpg

Rescue Plan B involves getting a cup or glass and putting it over the little insect friend, then sliding paper underneath the opening, careful not to pinch any feet in the process. Then the paper can be held against the cup and used to trap the insect inside while taking it to the door for release.

We should have sympathy for other living things. This is not even about being vegan (I am not) its just about having compassion. Remembering that other things want to live just as bad as us. Sometimes more, after all, there are no EMO insects.

I think of it this way, myself as a human will do more harm to the world in one month of my existence than an insect will do in its entire life. This is indisputable. I will eat more plant matter than any grasshopper, I will cause the destruction of more trees than any pine beetle, I will eat more animals than any flea. I still want to live too though…. It can even be argued that I will do more damage to the world than an insect that spreads disease to people, after all, we cannot assume that the end all, be all of the planet, relies on humans existing, it does not.

We can be sympathetic to other living things, we just have to see that we are not the center of the world.

Living totally cruelty free is impossible, but every step helps.

http://socyberty.com/lifestyle-choices/cruelty-free-living/

Over the past few weeks at school me and a few friends have started a Club to save the bees. We called our group Be Bee Wise!

We did alot of research on our chosen topic and found out many different ways that you can help save the Bees

One way you can chip in to help is by  putting up a ‘Bee Box’ in your garden. This is a box with lots of holes in it that Solitary bees will go and shelter in. Many people have worries about sheltering Bee’s in their garden as they think that they will swarm on them (resulting in some Naaaasty injuries) but that is not the case for Solitary bees as they cannot risk stinging someone or something, as it will result in their death. Whereas with swarming Bees, their sole desire is to protect the other bees in their swarm.

Another way is to have one area of your garden grow wild, many Solitary  bees burrow and a wild area of the garden gives them shelter and protects their burrows.

Thirdly, you can always put a nice upturned flower pot in an area of your garden where bee’s gather, make sure their is a way for the bee to get into the Flowerpot! (i.e a tube)

If there is anything in this article that you do not understand then by all means search for pictures or other articles on google

Remember, this is for the bees! Bees are dying out and we can do something to save them. It is fact that Bees are the main source of pollination for flowers and plants, without bees we would not have as much fruit available to us as we do today.

Imagine a world without fruit, without trees or plants. Then decide whether you want to what to us, is a tiny act. But to the bees, could save their little lives!

Well… England has always had a lot of history, especially when it comes to dealing with other countries, that’s why some of these laws do include the rest of Britain. The reason these laws are still around is simply because it is too much effort to erase them, it is a lengthy process involving 4 stages of approval.

There are a lot of these funny laws still about too many to mention, so I am going to include 10 of the ones I think are the funniest. Sit back and let history teach you…hehe.

1. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is illegal throughout England. Oops! Lock me up, maybe the only day where pretty much everybody will break the law.
2. If a postage stamp with the Queens head on is placed upside down it is counted as Treason, which still carries the death penalty. Hmm do you think the Queen knows of this law?
3. In the lovely place which is York it is still legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow, on all days except Sundays. The Scottish best stay away.
4. It is still very much legal to shoot a Welshman with a crossbow, only after midnight and if done within the city walls. Hmm looks like the Welsh should stay away too.
5. It is very illegal to stand within one hundred yards of a ruling Monarch if you are not wearing any socks. What is they smell really bad dose that count.
6. It is illegal for an MP to enter Parliament, wearing a suit of armour, this obviously stops duels from happening. Doesn’t seem to stop the shouting though.
7. Interestingly enough it is illegal to die within the houses of Parliament. What’s the court hearing going to be like if that happens?
8. The law allows any pregnant women to relieve themselves in public. The law sure is disgusting.
9. It is illegal to wrestle an untrained bull in public. I would certainly like to ask them why they would want too.
10. It is against the law to allow your pet to get it on with any pet of the Royal House. This carries the death penalty and you will be executed. Not your pet YOU!.

That’s the ten, but I do have one more which I think is hilarious.

It is in fact illegal in Ireland for Bee’s to trespass. Yes that’s right those insects which fly around everywhere. I would certainly like to meet the person who is able to train Bee’s to intentionally trespass.