This Honeybee thing is creepy...

Hi friends and family. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Busy with work, with Toastmaster's, with singing at church, with knitting for super friend Carol's grand baby on the way... still loving you all, thinking of y'all, just not posting the photos and words in the blog. Here's what I've been thinking and talking about in April....

Honeybees, Knitting and Light Pollution... separate entries follow:

DISCLAIMER: A list of sources consulted prior to preparation of this speech appears at the end of the document. The speech-writer is not an expert in the field of entomology, agriculture or biology. Opinions expressed within the speech are solely the opinion of the speech-writer and should not be used as a basis of fact or decision for any reader thereof. Facts and figures presented within the speech were obtained from documents and publications listed in the sources section of this document..

NO BUZZZZZZZZZZZ?!?!?!?!
Speech Prepared by Melissa King Stansbery
For Toastmaster’s Club Presentation
Competent Communicator Track
Project #4 – “How to Say It”

April 11, 2007

Imagine a world without honey,

Spring gardens and backyards SILENT

Void of the pleasant, monotonous drone of tiny winged creatures, nervously dancing from bloom to bloom, dancing the merengue of life,

lulling nappers swinging in hammocks to soft summer slumber…

terrifying toddlers, trembling and screaming from stings born of innocent curiosity.…

Imagine a summer with no cherries, no apples, no pears, no almonds….a world where our food choices are severely limited.

Is this Fiction? Or a real-life episode of CSI playing out all across America?

What’s Happening?

Beekeepers in 24 States across America report an alarming mystery. Colonies of bees which seem healthy days earlier, are abandoning their hives. Millions of the insects are reported lost, vanished, nowhere to be found.

Unsure what is causing this alarming development; scientists are naming the phenomena Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD.

Honeybees have been threatened over the years by various parasites and maladies; however, the characteristics of Colony Collapse Disorder have never been observed before.

Honeybees are essential for the pollination of over 90 fruit and vegetable crops worldwide. The economic worth of the honeybee is valued at more that $14.6 billion in the U.S. alone.

The current Honey bee population is less than ½ of the size of 25 years ago

Reports over the last few months of losses from individual beekeepers are staggering.

1 lost 11,000 of his 13,000 colonies,

Another lost 700 of 900 colonies

Another lost 2500 of 3500 colonies

Another lost virtually all of his 10,000 colobies

What are the Symptoms?

Reports say that the colony looks healthy and a few days later, the hive looks empty. There are capped broods which under normal circumstances would be tended by worker bees. There are no mature adults in the hive. Many times the Queen remains. There are no dead bodies at the entrance of the hive.

And what is particularly peculiar is that in what is a considered“normal” hive demise there seem to be no opportunistic insects entering and stealing honey, using the combs. With other diseases and infestations, wax worms and other insects quickly enter the hive.

In all of the CCD situations insects are eerily staying away, which might indicate contamination of some sort.

The few remaining bees dying within the colony are found to overwhelmingly be suffering from a variety of common maladies, but most markedly suffering from severe Fungal overgrowth which indicates suppressed immune response.

Scientists have found undigested pollen crystals in the digestive tract, which is unusual, as well.

Possible Causes (?)

Pesticides(?) – particularly newly introduced Nicotine based insecticides.

Genetically Modified Crops(?)

Viral or bacterial infection or a pathogen not yet identified(?)

Possible Cost to Farmers/Beekeepers/consumers

Cost to farmers short term might be a 50% increase in the cost of pollination.

Cost for some beekeepers is the loss of an entire livelihood, or devastating change in lifestyle

Cost for consumers, short-term might be higher food prices and potentially loss of food sources.

What can You do to help?

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, helpless and do nothing because of the difficulty of the situation. What can you and I do when bees are disappearing faster than the experts can learn the cause? It might seem hopeless, but there are a few suggestions:

1. Don’t use pesticides. Learn about natural and alternative methods of controlling pests with natural predators and deterrents in your lawn and garden.

2. Learn about and lobby against the use of Genetically Modified Crops before extensive, sustained, long-term testing of the effects on the entire food chain are determined.

3. Demand enforcement of restrictions to segregate Genetically Modified Crops and prevent cross pollination to native species.

4. Plant Native Plants and flowers which attract and sustain native bee populations.

Hopefully, we will all experience the joy of honey on hot buttered biscuits fresh from the oven, and ripe sweet cherries, crunchy almonds and crisp tart apple pies, followed by naps serenaded by our honeybee friends in our backyards and parks for countless Springs, Summers and generations to come.

Additional Notes and Sources:

“In addition to agricultural crops, honey bees also pollinate many native plants in the ecosystem. Populations of honey bees are in jeopardy due to the 1988 introduction of varroa mites, recognized previously as a major threat to bee colonies in the US.. Increased deaths in bee colonies with unique symptoms (termed Colony collapse Disorder) seriously threaten the ability of the bee industry to meet the diverse pollination needs of fruit and vegetable producers across the US. The same symptoms have been reported across 24 states.. In Pennsylvania, beekeepers have regularly inspected colonies for disease and have kept records since 1930.”

DISCLAIMER: The following sources were consulted prior to preparation of this speech. The speech-writer is not an expert in the field of entomology, agriculture or biology. Opinions expressed within the speech are solely the opinion of the speech-writer and should not be used as a basis of fact or decision for any reader thereof. Facts and figures presented within the speech were obtained from the sources below.

Sources Section:

“Prepared Testimony of Diana Cox-Foster, Professor Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and organic Agriculture on Colony Collapse Disorder in Honey Bee Colonies in the United States, March 29, 2007”.

“Bee keepers hope to find answers for ailment killing the insects”, By Genaro C. Armas, Associated press Writer, March 17, 2007

American Beekeeping Federation News - http://abfnet.org/news/honey-bee-die-off-alarms-beekeepers-crop-gro..

“Summary of Research on the Non-Target Effects of BT Corn Pollen on Honeybees”, by Galen P. Dively, Professor and Pest management Specialist, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

“Fall Dwindle Disease: Investigation into the causes of sudden and alarming colony losses experienced by beekeepers in the fall of 2006. Preliminary Report: First Revision”, by Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Diana Cox Foster, Maryann Frazier, Nancy Ostiguy, Jerry hayes, December 15, 2006, Revised January 5^th, 2006.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=191246

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder

http://www.bumblebee.org/helpbees.htm

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/bees_honey_gm_crops.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4621184.stm

http://www.mercola.com/2007/mar/22/ar-gm-crops-killing-honeybees.htm

http://www.baynature.com/2003janmarch/bees_2003janmarch.html

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3446

http://www.ento.vt.edu/Fruitfiles/bees.html

http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/list.html

http://english.pravda.ru/print/world/americas/88467-honey_bees-()

Also of interest:

http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/newsletter/2007/AgSciNewsMar07.pdf

Light Pollution

So here's the other thing I've been thinking about for a few years and finally shared with my Toastmaster's Club. Following are my notes. which are obviously incomplete, because I can ad lib and talk on and on and on about portions of this subject..... but hopefully there is enough detail to create some interest and then maybe you will follow the links and see what you can do to save money, the environment and our night sky all at the same time! =)

LIGHT POLLUTION
By Melissa King Stansbery
Toastmaster's International Project #5
Speak with Your Body

Presented April 18, 2007

NO DOUBT - Everyone in this room is familiar with AIR POLLUTION..... we live in L.A.!!!

And I'm certain, that everyone in this room if familiar with WATER POLLUTION.

if you are of my generation and grew up with a TV as entertainment, you remember the striking television commercial featuring a tall, proud Native American looking at trash washing up on the shore of a river. The camera zooms in to close-up and you see ONE SAD TEAR falling across his stern countenance. It was deeply moving.

But what is Light Pollution? And how did I become aware of it?

How can light be pollution? What's the real harm? It's only light, right?

Money Wasted - (Show photo of United States) - Millions of dollars are spent to light the sky instead of lighting the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Earth_night.jpg

Unable to see the stars.

Soon after moving to LA, the first time I was outdoors on a cloudy night, I was amazed! at the way clouds look at night. You can see every curve, shadow and bump... and I thought, that's eerie.... I've never seen that type of detail at night...

- First civilization in thousands or possibly millions of years to not be familiar with the night sky. I moved to LA shortly after the Northridge Earthquake, and I've read accounts that 911 calls were coming in from all over the area with people describing a strange milky trail high in the sky and they were wondering if could be connected to the earthquake. These wonderful people were observing the Milky Way for the first time.

Navigation – I’ve been told stories by friends who have traveled in the desert and come upon places in the sand that were huge intersections, with camel tracks intersecting from all directions.

Warning of Meteors

Effect on Wildlife

A few years ago I read a story in a magazine about a flock of migrating birds, looking for a place to spend the night, mistook a well lit asphalt SuperStore parking lot for a lake and the consequences were not pretty. Hundreds of birds landed at a rate appropriate for water but not for asphalt. Needless to say, when workers reported to work the next morning there was a really sad mess to clean up before customers arrived.

Effect on Plants

Tree - Show Photo

What I was most surprised about in my research was light pollution's

Effect on people.

Who hasn't noticed how much longer and better we sleep in a dark room? Have you ever overslept for a business meeting while traveling and sleeping in a hotel with those wonderful blackout curtains?

Are there security lights or street lights that shine into your home at night that make it difficult to sleep?

Scientist and medical researchers believe that sleep loss contributes to depression, diabetes, weight gain to name a few, and the most surprising link I found was research done by Dr. ____Richard Stevens, an epidemiologist. In 1985 puzzling over the increased rate of breast cancer in developed countries and the amazing increases over the past 50 years…___________ which, believe it or not links nighttime light exposure to the increase in Breast Cancer rates. What Dr. _Stevens_________ found in his research is that melatonin, very strong hormones, is only produced when we sleep and exposure to lights at night severely limits our production of melatonin. Even exposure to ambient light from a television or a night light, inhibits the production of melatonin. Our bodies seem to produce the most melatonin around the hours of 2 and 3 am.

He studied nurses and noticed those nurses working the night shift experienced breast cancer at rates 36% than those who worked days.

As part of his research, he took blood samples from his study group. Some were taken from people who were awakened and samples taken in a dark room, some were awakened and exposed to bright lights for an hour and a half and samples were taken. and some samples were taken from people working shift work. Melatonin was much more scarce in those subjects exposed to light at night. He injected those blood samples into lab mice that had been implanted with cancerous breast tumors, and found that those mice receiving blood with higher melatonin levels tumors either made no change or grew very slowly, but those mice receiving low melatonin levels tumors grew at an increased rate.

Scientist and Medical researchers more and more learn the importance of sleep.

SECURITY ARGUMENT:

Many argue the bright lights outdoors are necessary for security purposes. In reality this might not be true. The glare of overbright outdoor lighting can actually inhibit security, offering criminals dark places to hide in the shadows. The glare of misdirected security lights can blind drivers and innocent people alike, making it more difficult to see in shadows. The human eye is just amazing to me. have you ever noticed how when we first flip off the lights at night that we can't see a thing? But if we happen to awaken in a dark room, we can see every surprisingly well with no artificial light? That is called dark adaptation. The human eye becomes completely dark adapted after only 30 minutes in a dark place.

Because so many security lights are installed poorly, meaning pointed outward or at a 45 degree angle, they are mostly ineffective at lighting the area we most need to see. Simply installing shielded lights pointing downward, our vision is actually improved. Often lower wattage bulbs can be used, so there is a cost savings associated too. A very effective alternative is motion sensitive lighting....

a 150 watt floodlight operating from Dust to Dawn is operating for 4170 hours per year at a cost of $115. CO@ emitted per year is 8/10 of a ton, Sulfur dioxide emitted is 10 pounds, and Nitrogen oxide emitted is 6.5 lbs.

a motion sensor light on the other hand might only be on for one hour per night or 365 hours for the year. At a cost of only $10. CO2 emitted is <>

the cost and environmental savings of replacing just one 150 watt floodlight significant!

And Taxpayers are footing the bill for the majority of inefficient lighting. I'm told there are mercury vapor street lamps still in use that were installed in the 50s. The unique thing about MV bulbs is that they almost never die... they just get dimmer and dimmer, but they are using the same amount of energy to burn. Replacing Mercury Vapor floods should make a very positive environmental impact.

considering that Municipalities, States and the Federal Govt. are routinely running in deficit spending situations, I'm thinking more efficient lighting is a pretty good idea for all taxpayers.

So, wrapping up, it looks like there are many possible benefits to cutting back on light pollution:

• Environmental impact in energy savings.,

• Benefits to Plants, Wildlife,

• even significant health and security benefits....

To end,my speech, I would like to circle back to the subject of Astronomy, which is what initiated my awareness and research on the subject (Driving for hours and hours to shiver on top of a mountain for a glimpse at a large meteor shower tends to make one think... “gee, I wish I could do this in my backyard, where I can go in periodically to warm my fingers and toes.”)...

My husband and other astronomers speculate that if our skies were darker, it might be easier to monitor the skies and maybe see a meteor as large as the one that put an end to dinosaurs and possibly do something about it before it hit.

My view is, maybe we could do something, maybe we couldn't, but if our night skies were darker, at least we would have a front row seat to a REALLY big show!

For more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution

http://www.darksky.org/

Knitting News!

This homespun baby blanket was a joint-effort, prepared with love by me and my fabulous friend, Carol. What is SO impressive, is that Carol had never knit a stitch prior to this project. We are both pleased and hope that baby Reese (when she decides to arrive) enjoys our homespun blanket of hugs as much as we enjoyed knitting it and thinking of her!

If you're interested in the pattern, here's the link:

http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/60160-1.html?noImages=

I will say, that while the pattern is very simple, if it is your very first knitting project, you might want to choose a yarn that splits a little less. I love homespun, I love the look of the results, but at times it can be "trying" to work with. We made this blanket in two weeks time with very busy schedules, if that information helps you at all. We were egged on, of course, by frequent questions by Chase sounding something like, "Do you think you can really finish this before the baby is born?" =) Yep, we did! Blanket delivered 4/22/20007!