It's at Pooflingers anonymous.

I found some neat new blogs I didn't know about there. You should check it out.

Labels: skepticism

Bees!

Won't someone please think of the bees! Watching my Tivo this morning and Bill Maher, departing from some really excellent analysis, fell for the cell-phone causes bee death silliness.



Really. People actually are worried that cell phone towers are causing massive bee die-offs. And every article about it has to quote Albert Einstein saying something he never said about how if bees die all humans die too (honeybees aren't the only pollinators people).

Yes there are studies that show if you essentially build a cell phone tower on top of a bee hive the bees get confused. But these studies are torn apart by actual keepers of bees as being poorly designed, and largely irrelevant since apiarists don't keep bees under cell phone towers.

Then there is the problem that this is just the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Really, think about it. If cell phones were the cause of bee die-offs why would the problem suddenly appear this year? Apiarists aren't reporting a long decline that began in the 1990s. They are reporting a sudden die-off, this year.

For some actual data on bees consider this report from the National Academies. Here's what managed colonies have looked like since 1945.


To me this study would indicate a long term decline in the US with, if anything, an anti-correlation with widespread cell phone use (I modified it slightly to correspond to what I think may be influencing bee populations). The study describes the cause of most declines as being due to imported pests and mites which are parasitic to bee populations. Further, take a look at Canada.


Again, an anti-correlation with increased cell phone use.

Environmentalism is not aided by hysterical articles based on weak and non-generalizable science that defy common sense, perpetuate Einstein myths, and are destroyed by about 10 seconds of googling. The authors of these articles need to do a better job of researching the subject before they make total asses of themselves (and Bill Maher) and damage environmental causes through incautious alarmism.

Labels: bad science, skepticism