The Bad News Thread

[Dirtbag59]

A reason millions of bees are dying - The Washington Post

I had heard of Colony Collapse Disorder before but right now its freaking me out because I'm not sure if I'm witnessing it first hand. The other day outside a super market there was a swarm of bees next to my car. Pretty much all of them seemed like they were dying as there were at least 20 dead bees in the middle of the swarm.

Then today when I get back to my place there's what appears to be a dead queen right next to where I park my car (seriously maybe its my car). And I'm pretty sure its a queen because it looked a lot like the queen in this picture.

For those who might think this is a good thing keep in mind bees play a vital part in the eco-system:

Globally there are more honey bees than other types of bee and pollinating insects, so it is the world's most important pollinator of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats

Basically there are farmers in Asia that are having to pollinate plants manually. A process which is extremely time consuming and ineffective especially compared to the rate bees are able to complete the same task. Of course when you're out of options, well beggars can't be choosers.

Regardless its still way to warm down here for the Bee's to start dying off. Personally I'm not the biggest environmentalist but this issue definitely has my attention.

In other bad news:
North Korea sentences American Matthew Miller to 6 years at hard labor - The Washington Post

Just a terrible story.

Originally Posted by punch it in

Unreal. This is fantastic bad news .... Wait - nevermind.
I once had dinner with the hare krishnas in Atlanta.
Edit: that is seriously scary shit. This world is effed up.

Funny thing is next to Greece, the Ottoman empire particularly around Istanbul used to be one of the more forward thinking and open civilizations in the ancient world. Sad to see it reduced to this.