Where Have All The Bees Gone?

Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists

POSTED: 0140 GMT (0940 HKT), April 22, 2007

Story Highlights

• Billions of bees have mysteriously vanished since late last year in the U.S.
• Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil
• One-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination, mostly by honeybees
• Some beekeepers are losing 50 percent of their bees to the disorder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Go to work, come home.

Go to work, come home.

Go to work -- and vanish without a trace.

Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.

The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.

Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.

If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.

H1 and I figure they've gone here, most likely:

Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet
POSTED: 11:58 a.m. EDT, April 26, 2007

Story Highlights
• NEW: Planet could conceivably house life outside our solar system
• NEW: Discovery a "significant step" on way to finding possible life in universe
• NEW: Planet, dubbed 581 c, orbits red dwarf star Gliese 581
• NEW: Newly found planet full of liquid water, scientist believes

WASHINGTON (AP) -- European astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our solar system, and here's what it might be like to live there:

The "sun" wouldn't burn brightly. It would hang close, large and red in the sky, glowing faintly like a charcoal ember. And it probably would never set if you lived on the sunny side of the planet.

You could have a birthday party every 13 days because that's how fast this new planet circles its sun-like star. But watch the cake -- you'd weigh a whole lot more than you do on Earth. (Learn more about exoplanets)

You might be able to keep your current wardrobe. The temperature in this alien setting will likely be a lot like Earth's -- not too hot, not too cold.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Notes on this:

1. This new planet probably has bloggers and scientists talking smack about us right now.

2. The bees are probably absconding from a threat - yeah, it's called the Queen! That's why she's there without her slaves!

3. Awww, my bees.

Some People Found Out About Pluto A Little Too Late

Because then they too could have joined the 50 who protested the scientists' decision - making the grand total of 51:

From an ITV Interview with my Matt from MUSE:

Rumour has it you're fascinated by space. Is that true?

I think everyone is. I think most people think about what is out there and everyone has a curiosity about the unknown.

So what do you make of what's happened to Pluto?

We've been on tour so I don't know. What has happened?

It's been downgraded - it's not a planet anymore…

So what is it?

A Pluton…

That's a bit sad really – it's like the Universe is shrinking.

Ok Matt, there's no more Universe. If Pluto's not a planet, then it's all gone to hell.

But I don't blame you, Matt, for being a tad bit special. Like me, I'm sure the change in Discovery Channel's programming has made you burdened with stoopid as well. "Entertain Your Brain", what kind of slogan is that?! I blame the Discovery Channel for my lack of knowledge about the important things. I used to be smarter than I am now. Curses!

Currently Listening To: "Moth" by Audioslave. I can't say much about this album yet because on first quick listen I was not incredibly impressed. It's going to have to simmer. I'm not ready to give it a real good listen yet because I've been stuck on OK Go. This track has a really good sound though and not even a major guitar solo. Tom?! WDA?!

And now listening to (because the title is so fitting): "Shrinking Universe" by Muse. Har Har.

And the one that is hurt by this the most is Charon...

So here's an update and it's really just horrible but...

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

The new definition of what is -- and isn't -- a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

Pluto is no stranger to controversy. In fact, it's been dogged by disputes ever since its discovery. ( Watch why some think planet size doesn't matter -- 3:39)

Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh of Arizona's Lowell Observatory, Pluto was classified as a planet because scientists initially believed it was the same size as Earth. It remained one because for years, it was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt, an enigmatic zone beyond Neptune that's teeming with comets and other planetary objects.

Pluto got an ego boost in 1978 when it was found to have a moon that was later named Charon. The Hubble turned up two more, which this past June were christened Nix and Hydra.

But in the 1990s, more powerful telescopes revealed numerous bodies similar to Pluto in the neighborhood. New observations also showed that Pluto's orbit was oblong, sending it soaring well above and beyond the main plane of the solar system where Earth and the other seven planets circle the sun.

That prompted some galactic grumbling from astronomers who began openly attacking Pluto's planethood.

At one point, things looked so bad for Pluto, the international union said publicly in 1999 that rumors of Pluto's imminent demise were greatly exaggerated and there were no plans to kick it out of the cosmic club.

A year later, the Hayden Planetarium at New York's American Museum of Natural History was accused of snubbing Pluto by excluding it from a solar system exhibition.

Pluto took another hit after Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology discovered 2003 UB313, a slightly larger Kuiper Belt object. What's the point, some astronomers wondered, in keeping Pluto as a planet?

Its future brightened earlier this year, when NASA sent the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto to get a closer look at the ball of rock and ice. The Hubble has managed to glimpse only its most prominent surface features; New Horizons, if all goes well, will arrive in 2015.

Pluto... Charon. Send your ice minions to 'change' the minds of the scientists. Yes...
Yes...