Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

At this site you'll be able to click on newspaper/internet articles regarding the situation, its possible causes, and the potential effects.

It's just a BIZARRE story, I thought it was science fiction/a joke at first. Particularly the finger pointing at cellphone radiation the grid of which, planet wide, supposedly interferes with the ability of a honeybee to find its way back to the hive, so it dies, lost, enroute. You'll find links here to articles that support, and mock, this theory. But something is killing the bees. Bandied about, heavily, is Einstein having said, 'If honeybees die humanity has only four years left'. BAD humanity for killing off hard-working, honest honeybees with inane, incessant cellphone use (like we need it, anyway). Everyone, humanity, spank yourself immediately. Feel better?

http://tailrank.com/1730603/Are-cellphones-killing-bee-colonies

[bixlerscott]

Gee, why is honey so expensive in South Korea? Too many cellphones? Like human over-population, can radio signals foul up insects and the natural environment? Who knows. Many parts of the USA where everyone talks on cell phones, such as in Missouri, are still gifted to have affordable high quality honey, but it is reported that unprecidented change is taking place, including decreasing counts in bee colonies so that honey may be a gift here today and gone tomarrow when I return. I look at the honey here in Korea and it looks like it needs serious help. (guess it's the best they can do) Not a pretty rosy picture when you have seen real honey produced from fields of real wild flowers with busy bees and no industrialization present to foul it all up. I think the artificially manufactured chemicals and mad money industralization is ruining life on Earth. Serious. Our quest for money and technology is a real big big fallacy.

[VanIslander]

i did it

i'm sorry

i have been having fantasies about the annihilation of honeybees since i discovered as a teenager that i'm highly allergic to them and two stings could be lethal

must have been dream brain waves or something like that...

i guess maury povich is next

[JeJuJitsu]

Global warming.

[Rteacher]

I'm too tired to comment now - so I'll just copy from this article:

Apr 16, LONDON, ENGLAND (INDEPENDENT) � Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees.

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously home-loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

60-70% of U.S. commercial bee stock already missing

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly bandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real...
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/04-07/news1171.htm

[khyber]

No it was me.
During my month working on a honey farm, I explicitly said, "I want to kill every F***ing bee on the planet!!!

That was right after I got stung on my eyelid and the palm of my hand at the same time.

I hated that job.

Seriously though....this could be terrifying.

[gsxr750r]

Waiting to see how long it will be before someone blames it on GW Bush and the USA.

[captain kirk]

[nautilus]

Have any of you been lucky enough to see this rare and endangered species? Long time since I saw a bee.

[kimchi_pizza]

[RACETRAITOR]

[brento1138]

Perhaps it's just karma? After all those evil bee stings!!

[cbclark4]

Simple etiquette.

Please put your phone on buzz mode.

cbc

[kermo]

That's the first I've heard of the radiation theory. I've also read a little about how genetically modified crops may make bees more susceptible to pesticides, but it hasn't been conclusively shown yet. It's not out of the question, though. It's that sort of possibility that really makes me question the Western slice-and-dice discrete reasoning that over-simplifies this giant organism we call ecology.

[Ryst Helmut]