Despite the hype, there’s still no bee-pocalypse. Two weeks ago, the U.S. Department Agriculture released its latest count of commercial honeybee hives, and although the figure dipped 2.9 percent from the 20-year record-high set in 2014, the overall count of 2.7 million hives in 2015 remains strong. You wouldn’t know it from the news coverage.

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This is where the bait-and-switch comes into play. It’s absolutely true that there were more managed honeybees in the 1940s. Bees were part of the war effort, producing wax used to coat guns and ammunition. So when the war ended, subsidies were introduced to prop up the beekeeping industry.[3] Thanks to Uncle Sam’s support, bee populations peaked at around 5.5 million in the 1950s, then gradually dropped to around 2.6 million in the mid-1990s.

None of that drop can be attributed to neonics, because they only came on the market in the mid-1990s, and didn’t exist in that five decade period of decline.

Now, the national bee numbers did decline at bit around the year 2005 -- to 2.4 million. That was the year in which colony collapse disorder (CCD) struck. The term that describes the unexplained death or disappearance of a hive’s adult bees.

As USDA puts it, “No scientific cause for CCD has been proven.”[4] Activists see the lack of a clear cause as a wide-open opportunity to come up with their own explanation. So they blame neonics.

Calmer minds reflecting on the evidence conclude that the CCD phenomenon existed long before the scientists who invented neonics were even born. Indeed, the November 19, 1868 edition of the Louisville Democrat described CCD-like symptoms with the headline: “Extraordinary exodus of honey bees—They abandon their winter stores and disappear.”[5] Throughout history, CCD has come and gone, and right now, it has gone. There hasn’t been a case in four to five years.[6]

Pesticide seed treatments didn’t exist in the middle of the 19th century, but disease did ravage hives, just as it does now.[7] The USDA has already identified the primary suspect that has been spreading disease: “The parasitic mite Varroa destructor remains the single most detrimental pest of honey bees.”[8] This blood-sucking creature latches onto young bees, injecting over a dozen types of debilitating viruses that can devastate entire hives.

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, February 8th, 2016 will mark the start of the Year of the Monkey and one Japanese aquarium's celebrating in a floral fashion. The Aquamarine Fukushima recently opened up an exhibit featuring the rare Dracula simia flower—which is also known as a Monkey Orchid. Within its vibrant petals, visitors can observe features that strikingly mirror those that can be found on a primate's face. Certain Monkey Orchids even display a furry appearance, a brown coloration, and a tail-like structure, making the resemblance even more uncanny!

Monkey Orchids most commonly grow in parts of Ecuador and Colombia, which adds an extra element of uniqueness to the Japan-based exhibit. Up until January 12th, the Aquamarine Fukushima will continue to delight visitors with these apish flowers as they pay homage to the upcoming Year of the Monkey.

Photographed for google’s new website, 'where the internet lives', images capture a never before seen behind-the-scenes glimpse into their high-tech data centers. The pictures demonstrate the complexities involved in securing and hosting data for the world's largest search engine browser. Featured are google's eight data centers, including those in Belgium, Finland and the United States.

This Uber-Wealthy Venture Capitalist Gave A TED Talk Saying Rich People Don't Create Jobs — And TED Is Refusing To Post It


As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs. The position is controversial — so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject.

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In an email obtained by the National Journal, TED curator Chris Anderson told his colleagues that Hanauer's speech “probably ranks as one of the most politically controversial talks we've ever run, and we need to be really careful when” to post it. He added: “Next week ain't right. Confidentially, we already have Melinda Gates on contraception going out. Sorry for the mixed messages on this.”

TED regularly posts speeches about sensitive political issues, including global warming and contraception, so it's not clear why Hanauer's talk would be singled out for censorship.

We've emailed Hanauer to see what he thinks, but in the meantime, here's an excerpt for you to judge for yourself:

I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is a "circle of life" like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.

So when businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it's a little like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it's the other way around.

Anyone who's ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a capitalists course of last resort, something we do only when increasing customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling ourselves job creators isn't just inaccurate, it's disingenuous.

That's why our current policies are so upside down. When you have a tax system in which most of the exemptions and the lowest rates benefit the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-billionaire-venture-capitalist-gave-a-ted-talk-saying-rich-people-dont-create-jobs--and-ted-is-refusing-to-post-it-2012-5?utm_source=inpost&utm_medium=seealso&utm_term=&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=recirc#ixzz1v8r46Xx2