hi everybody....just stopped by to say i love you, but as i have but fleeting internet access, and the thieves took my computer with my all my money, i'm on a wee sabatical from dear tribe right now. i shall return, and miss you all... bev

from Scientific American: 60-Second Science - August 25, 2009

Disappearing Bees Have Devastated Ribosomes

A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by May Berenbaum and colleagues finds that bee colony collapse disorder seems to be related to bees' ribosomes breaking down, which keeps them from making the proteins they need to deal with stress and disease. Steve Mirsky reports :

A big clue about what’s behind the disappearing honeybees, also known as colony collapse disorder, or CCD: May Berenbaum’s team at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign found that bees’ ribosomes were torn up.

“The ribosomes make the proteins that allow bees to respond to pesticides, to respond to diseases, to respond to poor nutrition. So the ribosomal fragments that we were finding explain a lot of things, explains among other things the observation that CCD seems to be caused by everything. And in fact it very well might be that once the ribosomes cease functioning properly, then anything can cause bees to go under.”

A possible cause is multiple viral infections. “So the bee apparently has the capacity to deal with one or two of these, but multiple viral infections, basically the whole system breaks down.” The finding, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doesn’t pinpoint a cause or cure for CCD. But “we now have an explanation for what went wrong.”

—Steve Mirsky

For more on this work, check out the August 25th episode of Science Talk, the weekly Scientific American podcast to be posted later today.


www.youtube.com/watch

I love getting my weekly Harper's Magazine on-line newsletter. Its a round-up of the news of the world. Written to inform, and I am convinced, to tickle MY particularly ironic sardonic philosophic sophomoric funny bone. I like the way they put it all out there to you in a skinny in-your-face column...sweet...Here's and example of what awaits you in your in-box:

HARPER'S WEEKLY
August 18, 2009
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Weekly Review

The Obama Administration abandoned its quest for a public,
government-run health-care option for the
uninsured. Protesters waved signs that read "Death to
Obama" and depicted the president with an Adolph Hitler
mustache at "town hall" meetings hosted by senators; at
one such event, a conservative University of Colorado
student challenged President Obama to an "Oxford-style"
debate. Obama declined the invitation but did grant an
hour-long interview on bullying and school lunches to an
11-year-old named Damon Weaver, ultimately agreeing to be
Weaver's homeboy. Senator Arlen Specter arrived at his
town hall meeting with extra security to guard him from
irate Pennsylvanians, one of whom compared complicated
reform proposals to "a Russian novel"; others said that
Specter was inviting God's wrath and that the health-care
plan was a step toward socialism. Missouri Senator Claire
McCaskill, faced with a jeering crowd, threatened to use
her "mom voice" to settle them down. "Irony," she said,
"seems to be lost on people." Thousands of Californians
lined up for as long as two days to receive free physical
exams and dental care.

The Federal Reserve said the slumping U.S. economy was
"leveling out," while France and Germany (both of which
enjoy some form of national health care) reported growth
in the second quarter of 2009. Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO
of the Blackstone Group, whose salary last year was $702
million, was named the highest paid executive in America.
U.S. income inequality was at an historic high. New York's
Westchester County agreed to desegregate its
overwhelmingly white towns and build 750 units of
affordable housing in areas where the population is less
than 3 percent black or 7 percent Hispanic. Officials in
Harrison, New York, said there was no room for such
housing. The Venezuelan government planned to turn two
golf courses into public parks and housing after President
Hugo Chavez declared golf to be "bourgeois." Scottish gem
dealer Campbell Bridges was murdered near his 1,500-acre
mining concession in Kenya by dozens of men carrying
spears and machetes. A mob in Gojra, Pakistan, killed six
members of a Christian family after Christians in a nearby
town were falsely accused of tearing up a Koran; a Muslim
woman was banned from a French swimming pool for wearing a
full-body "burkini"; and a British water park requested
that male visitors not wear Speedos, which the management
deemed "more suited to Spain than Staffordshire."

Mudslides and floods caused by Typhoon Morakot killed 500
people in Taiwan. International aid for the victims was
delayed because countries did not want to offend China,
which claims dominion over the island, and because
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou initially refused foreign
aid (a situation he blamed on a "typing error").
Scientists said that East Asians misinterpret some
emotions in Westerners because they typically focus on
just the eyes instead of whole faces, which may explain
why East Asian emoticons tend to have expressive eyes. In
Afghanistan, where the Taliban threatened to chop off the
fingers of anyone who votes in the upcoming elections, the
government passed a law allowing men to starve wives who
refuse sex. Les Paul died, and police in New Jersey
admitted that they detained Bob Dylan last month when
responding to a call about an eccentric-looking old man
wandering alone in sweatpants in the rain. Tom DeLay was
scheduled to appear on "Dancing with the Stars." A woman
in France drowned her two children "to protect them from
mafia threats," and a man in Australia was sentenced to
six years in jail for pouring boiling oil on his
roommate's head as a punishment for buying a whole chicken
instead of a quarter chicken. A 13-year-old girl in
Milwaukee stabbed her grandmother's boyfriend in the
throat over spilled milk.

-- Rafe Bartholomew

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WHY SUBSCRIBE TO HARPER'S MAGAZINE?

Because every Harper's Magazine ever published--from June
1850 through today--is now online and comes free with your
regular print subscription. Search and browse through
essays and fiction by Mark Twain, Edna St. Vincent Millay,
William Faulkner, Graham Greene, Lewis H. Lapham, Annie


p.s. the cover is from their 1896 issue...by Edward Penfield. You can find lots of cool posters of his work at the website art.com

i never saw a cockroach til in my thirties, when i followed my (then) love-of-my-life to manthattan. his room in an ancient brownstone was alive with the lil suckers. the toilet, in a tiny little room by itself, was down the hall. step in, sit down, bump your knee against the toilet roll, shudder as the roaches scurried out of the hidden fluffy folds.

a screeching sound would go off in my head, like the violin squeeks in the shower stabbing scene in Psycho....

well i married the bloke and moved to the city. our liil love nest in chelsea was less inhabited, but far from deserted by the primeavel insects. they know when you are looking at them, and you can feel their little minds 'thinking'. really, you can....

luckily it was my mellow meditation time, and i would practice clearing my mind to perfect harmony, and become one with the universe and at peace with the lil cockroach. then .... SLAM !!! while he was all tranced out, i'd move him along in his evolutionary path and send his little soul to roach heaven, and his crushed body to the trash drop.

fun times.

The Mistle Thrush had built her nest on top of a downpipe, blocking the water's passage and causing the gutter to flood.

But desperate to protect her young, she puffed herself up to twice her size and sat in the drainpipe to stop the tide of rain water swamping the nest.

She was so occupied with her task that her mate was left to feed her and their young.

The images were captured by amateur wildlife photographer Dennis Bright at a house in Fareham, Hampshire.

Mr Bright said he was astounded by the female bird's behaviour.

"The nest was tucked away from the weather in the shade of the roof but it was so close to the downpipe the gutter flooded when it rained.

"It was only a matter of seconds before the pipe flooded, and water cascaded over the sides."

Mr Bright said he was amazed by the bird's ingenuity.

"She had to come up with a solution so she puffed herself up so she was twice the size of her mate and used her body as a cork to stop the water - it was absolutely amazing.

"She was very dedicated, sitting there even when the rain was hammering down. Then every half an hour she would get out, dry herself off and come back.

"The male was doing most of the work - feeding her and the chicks when she was sitting in the pipe. I feel so lucky to have witnessed something so rare and unique."

Hester Phillips, from the RSPB, said she had never seen such a situation.

"We've heard of them nesting in some unusual sites before, namely on the top of traffic light, but we've certainly not come across anything like this before.

"Birds can be amazingly hardy creatures, their endurance is incredible - especially when protecting their young."


[hi everyone ! i've been away from tribe a while now, but just HAD to share this with you guys!]