Mobile phones are ‘to blame for the sudden decline in the world’s bee population’

For some, the mobile phone is the bane of modern life even as it .

But for bees it could be more than just an irritation.

Scientists claim to have proved that signals from mobile phones are behind the sudden decline of the world’s bee population, which plays a vital role in both agriculture and horticulture.

Lead researcher Daniel Favre from Lausanne, Switzerland, placed phones in a series of hives under controlled conditions and monitored the results.

The study – published in the beekeepers’ magazine Apidologie – found that the phone signals confused the bees who began to fly erratically before suddenly dying.

The scientists carried out 83 experiments in hives and recorded the bees’ reactions to mobile phones in off, standby and call-making modes.

The noise produced by the bees increased more than ten-fold whenever a phone made or received a call – the noise dropped to normal level when the phone was off or on standby.

Mr Favre explained: ‘The bees’ noise drastically increases as soon as the phone rings – the rays from the phone and the noise clearly disturbs the bees.

‘This gives the bees the signal to leave the hive. But often they are so confused they fly to their death.

‘Mobile phone technology is fateful for bees. The study definitely proves that.’

The study isn’t the first to link mobile phones with the death of bees.

In 2008, a German researcher found that bees refuse to return to their hive when mobile phones are placed alongside it.

Lost and disoriented, they die. The result is abandoned hives, a possible honey shortage and, most gravely, a lack of pollinators for our flowers and crops.

In March, a UN report warned that a perfect storm of perils and threats is behind the disastrous decline in honeybees over the last few years.

Scientists identified more than a dozen factors – from chemical pesticides to the loss of wild flowers – which are conspiring against one of the world’s best loved, and most useful, insects.

In Britain the number of bees has halved since the mid-1980s, while in America honey producers have been badly hit by colony collapse disorder – a mysterious condition in which entire hives vanish.

via Mobile phones are ‘to blame for the sudden decline in the world’s bee population’ | Mail Online.

‘JetMan’ Yves Rossy makes 8-minute flight over Grand Canyon

It was a feat that would have made Buzz Lightyear proud…or extremely envious.

But for Yves Rossy, who finally completed his flight over the Grand Canyon in a jet suit, it must have been a relief.

For the Swiss adventurer, dubbed JetMan, was forced to cancel his daring spectacle at the last minute on Friday due to red tape and safety issues.

Despite the setback Rossy did not give up and on Saturday strapped on his wings and took to the skies for a spectacular eight-minute flight over a five-mile radius.

The custom-built jet suit that Rossy wears on his back weighs 120lb and has a 79″ wing span.

It averages speeds of 125mph and has four engines.

The 51-year-old had stepped casually onto the side of a helicopter before it took off and into the sky above Guano Point on the Hualapai Indian Reservation

Once it had reached 8,000 feet Rossy, who flew fighter jets for 17 years in the Swiss Air Force, simply let go, plummeting to the earth below before firing up his engines.

Then, looking like a high-tech, Lycra-clad Icarus, he soared 200 feet above the canyon rim reaching speeds of up to 190mph before opening his parachute and landing safely on the canyon floor.

Rossy said the flight, which was his first in the U.S., was among the most memorable experiences of his life.

Previously he has flown his jet suit across Lake Geneva in 2002 and the English Channel in 2008.

His U.S. flight had taken two years to plan but was held up at the last minute because the final Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval had been given just 30 minutes before he was due to take off on Friday.

via ‘JetMan’ Yves Rossy makes 8-minute flight over Grand Canyon | Mail Online.

Awesome.

Duluth ‘ball slasher’ arrested again

The Duluth man known for having a sexual fetish of slashing exercise balls with a knife allegedly attempted to strike again on Sunday.

This time, Christopher Neil Bjerkness, 33, was arrested at Chester Creek Academy, a Duluth school at 714 W. College St., according to Jim Hanson, Duluth police information officer. The school is for children in treatment through Northwood Children’s Services.

Bjerkness reportedly gained entry through a window about 1:30 p.m. Sunday into a room used for physical and occupational therapy. As he entered, an alarm was triggered and staff located him in the room shortly thereafter. Bjerkness was compliant and waited with staff members until police arrived, according to Richard Wolleat, president and CEO of Northwood Children’s Services.

Inflatable exercise balls were in the room but none were damaged, Hanson said. There was no other damage except to the lock and window used by Bjerkness.

He had no connection to the school and had not been there before, Wolleat said.

In 2009, Bjerkness was convicted of third-degree burglary after he admitted breaking into the SMDC-Duluth Clinic West building and slashing balls there.

He was also convicted of first-degree criminal damage to property in 2005 after getting into the Sports and Health Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth on several occasions and damaging exercise balls. He also admitted at the time to slicing into exercise balls at the SMDC Center for Personal Fitness, the Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center and St. Luke’s hospital, according to criminal complaints. …

via Duluth ‘ball slasher’ arrested again | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota.

169 years after its discovery, Doppler effect found even at molecular level

“There is plenty of evidence of the rotational Doppler effect in large bodies, such as a spinning planet or galaxy,” Thomas said. “When a planet rotates, the light coming from it shifts to higher frequency on the side spinning toward you and a lower frequency on the side spinning away from you. But this same basic force is at work even on the molecular level.”

In astrophysics, this rotational Doppler effect has been used to determine the rotational velocity of things such as planets. But in the new study, scientists from Japan, Sweden, France and the United States provided the first experimental proof that the same thing happens even with molecules.

At this tiny level, they found, the rotational Doppler effect can be even more important than the linear motion of the molecules, the study showed.

The findings are expected to have application in a better understanding of molecular spectroscopy, in which the radiation emitted from molecules is used to study their makeup and chemical properties. It is also relevant to the study of high energy electrons, Thomas said.

“There are some studies where a better understanding of this rotational Doppler effect will be important,” Thomas said. “Mostly it’s just interesting. We’ve known about the Doppler effect for a very long time but until now have never been able to see the rotational Doppler effect in molecules.”

via 169 years after its discovery, Doppler effect found even at molecular level.

Deaf Men Stabbed Over Sign Language

Two deaf men were stabbed in a Hallandale Beach bar Saturday night when another patron mistook their sign language for gang signs.

31-year-old Alfred Stewart, who is deaf and mute, and three others including a bouncer are recovering in hospital from non-fatal wounds suffered at the Ocean’s Eleven Sports Lounge and Grill on Federal Highway, where Stewart and his friends were celebrating a birthday.

Police say Barbara Lee became angry when she thought Stewart’s party, all of whom are deaf, were throwing gang signs at her.

The 45-year-old confronted Stewart and his friends and made gang signs to them. Witnesses say they motioned for the “aggressive” woman to leave them alone.

Instead, Lee left and then shortly returned to the bar with a juvenile and 19-year-old Marco Ibanez, who is accused of pulling out a knife and stabbing the men.

In the ensuing melee, the deaf men suffered stab wounds to the torso and back while the intervening bouncer whas struck on the head with a bottle.

Lee and Ibanez were taken into custody and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

via Deaf Men Stabbed Over Sign Language | NBC Miami.

Make them learn ASL as part of their rehab.

British Ice Cream Parlor To Resume Making Breast Milk Ice Cream

a London ice cream parlor has vowed to resume making breast milk ice cream.

Earlier this year, the Icecreamists parlor introduced “Baby Gaga,” an ice cream made from a recipe that included 75 percent human breast milk combined with 25 percent cream from cows and some Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest.

Each scoop sold for a whopping $22 U.S., but despite the high price, “Baby Gaga” was a big with most people. … Right after the product was introduced, the local town council banned the ice cream over health concerns.

However, Newslite reports the wacky product will this week once again go on sale in London’s Covent Garden at a new political ice cream installation.

The recipe is the same, but the name has been changed to “Baby Goo Goo” in hopes of avoiding a hassle with the pop star.

via British Ice Cream Parlor To Resume Making Lady Gaga-Inspired Breast Milk Ice Cream.

To maintain the highest standards, health checks for the lactating women are exactly the same used by the NHS to screen blood donors.

Ms Hiley added: ‘It wasn’t intrusive at all to donate – just a simple blood test. What could be more natural than fresh, free-range mothers milk in an ice cream?’

Victoria works with women who have problems breast feeding their babies.

She said she believes that if adults realise how tasty breast milk actually is, new mothers will be more willing to breast feed their own newborns.

‘You can kid yourself that its a healthy ice cream!’ said Victoria.

via Daily Mail

How Zombie Ants Lose Their Minds

New gruesome details have emerged explaining how a parasitic fungus manipulates an unfortunate ant, filling its head with fungal cells and changing its muscles so the ant can grab a leaf in a death grip just when and where the fungus wants it.

Research in a Thai rain forest has shown the fungi, a species of Ophiocordyceps, forces an infected ant to wander drunkenly over the forest’s low leaves before clamping its jaws around the main vein on the underside of a leaf in an ant zombie graveyard. [Mind Control: Gallery of Zombie Ants]

By watching 16 infected ants bite down, the researchers found that their last bites took place around noon, indicating they are synchronized to either the sun or a related cue, like temperature or humidity.

“Synchronized arrival of zombie ants at the graveyards is a remarkable phenomenon. It adds a layer of complexity on what is already an impressive feat,” wrote David Hughes, a study researcher from Pennsylvania State University, in an email to LiveScience. “However, although ants bite at noon they don’t in fact die until sunset. Likely this strategy ensures (the fungus) has a long cool night ahead of it during which time it can literally burst out of the ant’s head to begin the growth of the spore-releasing stalk”

The bizarre sequence that leads up to the ant’s death is completely out of step with its normal behavior and appears to be a way for the fungus to get itself to the perfect spot to spread its spores, according to the researchers.

The ants, a species called Camponotus leonardi, live in the canopies of trees, but come to the ground occasionally, where they contract the fungus. Healthy ants travel on trails unlike infected ones, which zigzag in a drunken walk over low vegetation, sometimes falling and convulsing before taking their final bite. ..

Hughes and colleagues observed a total of 42 infected ants, some of which they dissected. While holding its death grip, the ant’s head was filled with fungal cells and the muscles that operated the ant’s mandible, or jaw, was atrophied, they found.

“In the context of biting, it allows the mandibles, we feel, to work in one direction and one direction only,” Hughes told LiveScience. “Normally, they open and close, but in this case they can only close.”

This keeps the dying ant from losing its grip. The fungus also appears to suck all of the calcium out of the muscles, causing a condition similar to rigor mortis, he said.

Fungi have been observed to manipulate the behavior arthropods as well, including crickets, bees, wasps and perhaps even spiders. …

via How Zombie Ants Lose Their Minds – Yahoo! News.

Man airlifted to hospital after fight with cat

Rick Chandler – This is a black day for Texas. How could an adult male get so totally owned by a housecat that his injuries would require an air ambulance evacuation? Is this the same state that fought in the Alamo?

No, this has nothing to do with sports. But read the account below and then tell me you’re not glad I included it:

A Cleveland (TX) man was attacked by a housecat Friday afternoon and the man’s injuries are so severe that he had to be taken by air ambulance to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

The altercation between the man and the animal occurred at a home on CR 3182 a few miles south of Cleveland in Liberty County.

At some point during the attack, the man and the cat reportedly were injured by a knife the man was holding. The man was taken to Cleveland Regional Medical Center before being transported to Houston.

Yes, the man was armed with a knife, and still could not fend off Mr. Whiskers. He was rushed to Memorial Hermann, of course, because of its internationally renowned Cat Trauma Ward.

And that’s it, Texas. Rangers lose World Series to team from California, Obama captures bin Laden when Bush couldn’t, and now this. Time to change state slogan to “Some Messing With Texas Now Allowed.”

via Man airlifted to hospital after fight with cat | Off the Bench.

Bah ha ha.

Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion

Updated Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it would buy Skype Global for $8.5 billion in cash, in its largest acquisition ever.

In Skype, Microsoft is buying the leader in Internet voice and video communications, with 107 million users per month connected for more than 100 minutes a month on average. That large and active user base represents a major asset, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in an interview. “It’s an amazing customer imprint,” Mr. Ballmer said. “And Skype is a verb, as they say.”

In an interview Mr. Ballmer never mentioned Google, Microsoft’s archrival whose name is used as a verb in Internet search — a market where Microsoft is spending heavily to try to catch Google, making some recent progress, but at great financial cost.

Buying Skype, analysts say, gives Microsoft the upper hand in the fast-growing market for Internet communications, both for consumers and businesses.

“Google is way behind Skype, and getting ahead of Google in this market was certainly an incentive for Microsoft,” said Leif-Olf Wallin, an analyst for Gartner in Sweden.

Mr. Ballmer emphasized that Microsoft plans to expand Skype’s business and inject its voice-and-video technology across the spectrum of Microsoft products, from consumer offerings like Xbox to its Office productivity software. “There are a lot of great opportunities to optimize Skype services in Microsoft products,” Mr. Ballmer said.

Despite its popularity, the service has struggled to maintain profitability. Since most of its services are free, Skype makes much of its income from a small group of users who pay for long distance calls to telephone numbers. In 2010, Skype recorded $859.8 million in revenue but reported a net loss of $7 million, according to a filing. …

via Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion – NYTimes.com.

The Commodore 64, that ’80s computer icon, lives again

It was chunky, a hideous tan color, and, by today’s standards, ridiculously feeble.

It was limited to 64 kilobytes of memory — about the equivalent of one long e-mail.

And yet 25 years ago, almost everyone seemed to have one.

It was the Commodore 64, an 8-bit, mass-produced machine that brought personal computing into the home for millions of users in the early- and mid-1980s. People used their C64s, as they were known, for everything from basic office functions to primitive games like “Impossible Mission.”

Commodore sold more than 17 million of its C64 systems, according to the company. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Commodore 64 as the best-selling single computer model of all time.

“Spent hours and hours writing little programs for my then very young kids …. happy days,” wrote Ian Mumby last month on a Commodore 64 Facebook page. “Still have the c64 in the loft, may have to go dig it out and play.”

Now, nearly three decades after it debuted in 1982, the Commodore 64 is making a comeback. The company that built it, Commodore International, went bankrupt in 1994. But a revived outfit, Commodore USA, plans to release a line of retro-looking Commodore computers this month that have modern components inside.

On the outside, these self-contained “keyboard computers” will look as they did back when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and “Miami Vice” was bringing moody pastel hues to TV. Under the hood, however, they will be very up-to-date.

The new Commodore 64′s hardware includes a dual-core 1.8 Ghz Atom processor, Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset, up to 4 GB of RAM and HDMI output for desktop viewing on TV. It also features USB connectivity, a multi-format memory card reader and Wi-Fi capability.

Prices start at $595 — the same as the original machine. A monitor and mouse are sold separately. Pre-sales are under way, and Commodore is promising delivery by early June.

Commodore USA President and CEO Barry Altman said he sought out the owners of the defunct Commodore brand and acquired the licenses to the name. He wasn’t planning to reproduce a Commodore 64 model at first, but changed his mind after being flooded with requests on his website …

via The Commodore 64, that ’80s computer icon, lives again – CNN.

Ha! I totally want one.