>> ^pipp3355:
#43 A cat's lower jaw cannot move sideways

sure it can - you just have to break it first.


#65 A one-day weather forecast requires about 10 billion math calculations

Wrong. I live in southern california, and it requires only one. What day is it? Today? I predict sunshine.


#78 Alaska is the most eastern and western state in the US

so is every other state.


#89 The average American walks 18,000 steps a day

Somebody is walking a ridiculous amount to make up for me.


#94 Lizards communicate by doing push-ups

This is also the funniest known form of communication.


#95 Squids can have eyeballs the size of volleyballs

except, of course, those squid which are smaller than volleyballs.


#102 A one-minute kiss burns 26 calories

That's some weak kissing.


#118 Honeybees are the only insects that create a form of food for humans

Wrong - cows create beef. And, of course, pigs create pork, lambs create veal, deer create venison, etc.

i prefer john mccain sneering at money for "honeybees".

WE NEED BEES ASSHOLE!

You are very welcome This is a fascinating video!

In reply to this comment by Gratefulmom:
Thank you

In reply to this comment by mintbbb:
*promote

Thank you

In reply to this comment by mintbbb:
*promote

Kurt Vonnegut (RIP) said the following:

And now I want to tell you about my late Uncle Alex. He was my father’s kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, ''If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.''

So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ''If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.''

That’s one favor I’ve asked of you.

Now I’ve got another one, a show of hands. How many of you have had a teacher at any point in your entire education who made you happier to be alive, prouder to be alive than you had previously believed possible? Now please say the name of that teacher out loud to someone sitting or standing near you.

OK? All done? ''If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.''

#36 A duck's quack doesn't echo

#37 A snail breathes through its foot

#38 Fish cough.

#39 An ant's smell is stronger then a dog's

#40 It is possible to lead a cow up stairs but not down

#41 Shrimp can only swim backward

#42 Frogs cannot swallow with their eyes open

#43 A cat's lower jaw cannot move sideways

#44 The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps

#45 Elephants are capable of swimming 20 miles per day

#46 Elephants are the only mammal that cannot jump

#47 Giraffes have no vocal chords

#48 Cats can hear ultrasound

#49 Despite its hump...camels has a straight spine

#50 Mosquitoes have 47 teeth

#51 There is 63,360 inches in a mile

#52 11% of people in the world are left-handed

#53 The average women consumes 6lbs of lipstick in her lifetime

#54 The average smell weighs 760 nanograms *

#55 A human brain weighs about 3lbs

#56 1/4 of the bones in your body are in your feet

#57 You blink over 10,000,000 times a year

#58 A sneeze travels out of your nose at 100mph

#59 Brain waves can be used to power an electric train

#60 The tongue is the fastest healing part of the body

#61 Pigs get sunburn

#62 The lifespan of a taste bud is 10 days

#63 The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime

#64 Strawberries contain more Vitamin C then oranges

#65 A one-day weather forecast requires about 10 billion math calculations

#66 Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza a day

#67 There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal cracker zoo

#68 The longest one syllable word is "screeched"

#69 No word in the English language rhymes with month

#70 A "jiffy" is actually 1/100 of a second

#71 There is a town called "Big Ugly" in West Virginia

#72 The average person uses 150 gallons of water per day for personal use

#73 The average person spends 2 weeks of its life waiting for a traffic light to change

#74 You share your birthday with 9 million others in the world

#75 The average person makes 1,140 phone calls per year

#76 The average person spends 2 years on the phone in his/her lifetime

#77 No piece of paper can be folded more then 7 times

#78 Alaska is the most eastern and western state in the US

#79 There are 119 grooves on the edge of a quarter

#80 About 18% of Animal owners share their bed with their pet

#81 Alaska has more caribou then people

#82 August has the highest percent of births

#83 Googol is a number (1 followed by 100 zeros)

#84 Oysters can change genders back and forth

#85 The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows

#86 Until the 19th century solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia

#87 A mile on the ocean and a mile on land are not the same distance

#88 A ten gallon hat holds less then one gallon of liquid

#89 The average American walks 18,000 steps a day

#90 The average raindrop falls at 7mph

#91 There are more telephones than people in Washington D.C.

#92 Fish can drown

#93 A Kangaroo can jump 30 feet

#94 Lizards communicate by doing push-ups

#95 Squids can have eyeballs the size of volleyballs

#96 The average American will eat 35,000 cookies in his/her lifetime

#97 A turkey can run at 20mph

#98 When the moon is directly over you, you weigh less

#99 You burn 20 calories an hour chewing gum

#100 In a year, the average person walks 4 miles making their bed

#101 About half of all Americans are on a diet at any given time

#102 A one-minute kiss burns 26 calories

#103 Frowning burns more calories then smiling

#104 There are more then 30,000 diets on public record

#105 You will burn 7% more calories walking on hard dirt then pavement

#106 You way less at the top of a mountain then sea level

#107 You burn more calories sleeping then watching TV

#108 Licking a stamp burns 10 calories

#109 Smelling apples and/or bananas can help you lose weight

#110 Frogs never drink

#111 Only male turkeys gobble

#112 At birth, a Dalmation is always pure white

#113 The fastest recorded speed of a racehorse was over 43 mph

#114 The oldest known animal was a tortoise, which lived to be 152 years old

#115 Bamboo makes up 99% of a panda's diet

#116 The largest fish is the whale shark - It can be over 50 feet long and weigh 2 tons

#117 The starfish is the only animal that can turn its stomach inside out

#118 Honeybees are the only insects that create a form of food for humans

#119 The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards

#120 The only continent without native reptiles or snakes is Antarctica

#121 The only bird that can swim and not fly is a penguin

#122 A duck can't walk without bobbing its head

#123 Beavers were once the size of bears

#124 Seals sleep only one and a half minutes at a time

>> ^Farhad2000:
>> ^Doc_M:
People like to blame humanity for a lot of nature's ails, but there are a million ways for nature to kick its own ass.
Viruses are a biggy. Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Forest Fires from lightnight, comets, etc. I think humanity has an inflated opinion of how important we are in all of nature.

That kind of attitude is the same reason most of the world is still sitting on it's hands while huge swathes of biospheres are disappearing.
Am fairly convinced that I have seen things in the wild I know my grand children will not.


Recognition of relative insubstantiality is no excuse for abuse. We are still the stewards of the Earth. No argument there. I just see people panic and overestimate their effect and their ability to control an eco- and geological system as complicated and enormous as this planet. Smells a bit too much like fear-politics to me.

As for the possibility of overpopulation? America fortunately has a pretty low concentration of people in general. Canada even more so. And we're not really growing that fast, numbers-wise. China's laws will likely decrease its crowding eventually. Japan is relatively stagnant, as is western Europe. My population concerns would have to focus on India, Africa, and perhaps Arab and Persian nations. Not sure about those last two... or Russia. Would have to research it. Perhaps rising energy costs will encourage urbanization and less sprawl. Building projects in a good number of global cities is booming at the moment. See Dubai, Chicago, NYC... and quite a number of Arab/Persian cities or so I'm told. It's harder to get information for those in English.

BTW, the suspect honeybee virus is called Israel Acute Paralysis Virus. "IAPV was first described in 2004 in Israel (21), where infected bees presented with shivering wings, progressed to paralysis, and then died outside the hive." There are several pockets of it in America, Canada, France, and Israel.
http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/82/13/6209?view=long&pmid=18434396

Soooo, you can feel ok about your Cell phone for now. Save that fear at least for cancer. lol.

From their website:
Every year, hundreds of professional beekeepers forklift their wooden hives onto 18-wheel semis, strap down the loads, and head out on the highway.

Across the country - from the Imperial Valley in California to the Florida panhandle and the hills of Maine – farmers rely on honeybees to pollinate crops worth $15 billion every year.

But parasites, pesticides, and modern agricultural practices are making it harder and harder for beekeepers to keep their bees alive, and the crisis could affect what shows up on all of our dinner tables.

wow, this video was facinating. great post! here is one more theory to add to the list.

• July 11, 2007 - EPA failed to consider the "high" toxicity to bees by contact (not dietary) exposure to the insecticide INDOXACARB

http://www.fluorideaction.org/pesticides/indoxacarb-page.htm

when it approved approximately 130 new food tolerances.
(See EPA's Fact sheet on Indoxacarb for toxicity to bees, pp 14-15).
http://www.fluorideaction.org/pesticides/Indoxacarb.EPA.Oct.2000.pdf

Indoxacarb is a potent neurotoxiicant. On July 23, FAN asked EPA for its reasons why it didn't consider indoxacarb's effects on bees. Also, a 2005 study reported that indoxacarb was harmful to the Asian lady beetle, which is considered a beneficial insect in agriculture.


• May 28, 2007 - Neonicotinoids, such as fluorinated fipronil, a suspect in honeybee colony collapse disorder.

http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/fipronil.bees.may%2028.2007.html


• Catastrophic Bee Colongy Collapse may not be affecting organic hives. Researchers are struggling to find the causes of this mysterious collapse. A crucial element of this story, missing from reports in the mainstream media, is the fact that organic beekeepers across North America are not experiencing devastating colony collapses...
SEE: "Organic Bees Are Thriving While Pesticide Intensive Conventional Bee Hive Colonies Are Collapsing."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5194.cfm

Note from FAN: The media reports that intensive tests are underway to find the source of the honeybee "colony collapse disorder." Theories for this devastating collapse range from the use of pesticides to cell phones. If it were a neurotoxic pesticide (disrupting the neurons that enable bees to find home) it would have to be in wide-spread use across the country. Some have mentioned the rise in cell phone towers and cell phone use: radiation from mobile phones may interfere with the bees' navigation systems.

MachineGunrock: From my forum, "Drone is not a myrmecological term, which is to say it has no formal use in regard to ants. As an entomological term the word refers only to the males of honeybees. In non-entomological language as applied to humans, drone refers to the concept of a mindless, duty-bound laborer, and there is a military use of the term as an unpiloted spy plane. Neither has anything to do with the apiarist's meaning of the word, though the first is somewhat similar to the way workers in a social insect colony are viewed. Either way, you won't see the word drone used in any scientific, or even in well-written popular writing on ants."

Those hornets are so badass, but I gotta say, the Japanese honeybee adaptation to them is even more remarkable.

SOMEONE'S GON GIT COOKED!