Newton and Pyewacket were especially resistant to my heading out this morning. Good Snuggle and nap weather.
No Franklin – also due to rainy day.
Came home, dinner of pigs in blankets, and mac & cheese. The boys were happy to see me.
BHK got goodies for the garden and the yard! So far, she’s picked up Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, sugar peas, tulips, radishes, spinach and something else that doesn’t leap immediately to mind. Broccoli will be coming later.
I’m glad BHK has such sharp cooking cred – I’m still not sure how I feel about baby stinkhead sprouts, but I’m sure she’ll make ’em great. (I also used to dislike zucchini, so what do I know?)
Some fires to put out at work, went quickly enough.
BHK fell asleep next to me while watching last restaurant standing. Making an early night of it again – maybe we’ll catch the office tomorrow.
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kottke pointed me to this re: Some answers to the disappearing honeybee problem
In an article for Scientific American, two scientists who are working on the causes of colony collapse disorder (CCD) say that they and other researchers have made some progress in determining what’s killing all of those bees.
The growing consensus among researchers is that multiple factors such as poor nutrition and exposure to pesticides can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse. In the case of our experiments in greenhouses, the stress of being confined to a relatively small space could have been enough to make colonies succumb to IAPV and die with CCD-like symptoms.
It’s like AIDS for bees…the lowered immunity doesn’t kill directly but makes the bees more susceptible to other illness. One the techniques researchers used in investigating CDD is metagenomics. Instead of singling out an organism for analysis, they essentially mixed together a bunch of genetic material found in the bees (including any bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc.) and sliced it up into small pieces that were individually deciphered. They went through those pieces one by one and assigned them to known organisms until they ran across something unusual.
The CSI-style investigation greatly expanded our general knowledge of honeybees. First, it showed that all samples (CCD and healthy) had eight different bacteria that had been described in two previous studies from other parts of the world. These findings strongly suggest that those bacteria may be symbionts, perhaps serving an essential role in bee biology such as aiding in digestion. We also found two nosema species, two other fungi and several bee viruses. But one bee virus stood out, as it had never been identified in the U.S.: the Israeli acute paralysis virus, or IAPV.
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1 year ago – midweek, hummus is the new salsa, john adams card, cute -yet destructive animals, lego plastic man, work
2 years ago – Pictures from lookout point drive, cold/ back issues with bhk and me
3 years ago – made a couple of bucks, Hero dial, tree zoo, ladybug, shin splints, quizzes
4 years ago – danny visit, moskau, balloon wizard doodle, slugbaby snowsuits, Jarvis Sow Bung System Model VC -for the cutting out of sow bungs, Caffeine contents per serving, coconut bonk, taser rick Sanchez, famous homosexual quiz, Jesus-scented candles, finger-wendy’s
5 years ago – Newtie-reaper, policy almanac, GP&K coming to town, Parkland cops bad, cargo ship aground, wandering piccies
6 years ago – Sickies, schoolhouse rock, bro dating
7 years ago – hydrant, alton brown, Halle Barry Freakout, weird emma, annoying cabbie, aa, tcup, Disney/Dali
8 years ago – plh, grumpy at boss, maple cologne, slackerjack, treats
