I haven't independently verified this but found it very interesting.

http://bee-quick.com/reprints/udunno.pdf

So, you wanna know about beekeeping? These days, it’s really all about almonds.

They make us do insane things. No, that's not right, the money makes us do insane things. But the almonds are where the money is.

Almonds have done to beekeeping what cocaine did to Miami.

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To read the whole posting, click on the above link.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1194497715108680.xml&coll=7

CHICAGO -- In a bold move to curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions from the Portland area, city officials plan to charge builders hundreds of dollars for each new home that is not extremely energy efficient. And it would require, as part of every existing home sale, that an energy efficiency report be done by home inspectors.

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I'm wondering if it is strange that I bought a new MacBook and 20 pounds of bananas (for drying) on the same day.

[rant]

Mother of god I have never hated a website as much as I hate Bank of America's website. Since they consumed MBNA it has never, repeat, never worked properly. Every single time I have tried to pay a bill online the interface has been different, the website has been different, the questions I need to answer are different and I'm usually dumped out into a 'we're sorry' screen. I have an auto pay of $45 a month that I can't turn off so I just get a $300-ish check every couple of months from BoF because I just can't turn the !@$#! off.

I should note that, in some small degree I have to thank BoF into helping me with getting out of debt because I was so irritated by them that just the mere site of the BoF card in my wallet reduced the urge to buy anything with plastic.

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For any history buffs out there, listening to a podcast of 'Byzantine Rules: The History of the Byzantine Empire' would be worthy your time. It is interesting to know that in the day of the Byzantine's empire, no one would know the empire by that name, they would refer to themselves as Romans. Historians took to referring to the eastern Roman Empire as Byzantine (after the name of one of the cities) as the western Roman empire had fallen and it is difficult to continue to all an empire by the name of a city that they no longer controlled. It is interesting to know that the reason Romans called the soon to be conquering German tribes as Barbarians because to the Roman ear, they sounded like they just said 'barb barb barb barb' constantly.

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