> As the dust settles, it seems pretty clear that 
> CCD was/is a chimera and I am surprised that 
> the term is still used with a straight face

I don't think the above shows enough compassion for the research community.
The photo below:
http://www.beetography.com/Honey-Bees/CCD-Meeting-DC/DSC2733/146733652_iy4QR
-L-1.jpg
or
http://tinyurl.com/kblwtta

is a rare thing.  A photo of nearly everyone who was anyone in US bee
research circa 2007. These people did not drop whatever they were doing for
a 4 day meeting in scenic Beltsville, MD over a chimera, or on the chance
for funding and notoriety, as at that time, all we had was a confirmed
serious problem with what seemed to be fairly clear symptoms, based upon the
findings of the February Florida meeting.  Also, no one had any idea that
this issue would gain any traction outside of the beekeeping community, and
there was no reason to suspect it might.  It was just another thankless
burden, something to pull people away from their actual areas of interest,
and into more study of pests and pathogens, rather than bees themselves.

> it seems clear that the term 'CCD' 
> was used as a convenient catch-all 
> for more than few different phenomena.

This is simply incorrect. There was a firm consensus among people who had
spent their careers looking at bee health problems that this was a specific
thing, with a set of symptoms that seemed consistent and compelling.  One
can play Monday-morning quarterback and critique with the advantage of
hindsight, but based upon the information at hand at the time, we had a
sobering problem that was following the plot of the book "The Andromeda
Strain", wiping out multiple commercial operations as fast as the beekeepers
could count their deadouts.

> It has been pointed out more than once 
> that 'non-CCD' colonies in at least some 
> cases were never confirmed not to be 
> in the process of collapsing shortly after 
> the researcher passed by

While one  can critique the methodology for sample collection for a lack of
follow-up to confirm "healthy", this does not imply that the criteria for
designating "sick" was unclear, misunderstood, or open to flexible
interpretation.   I think Dick Marron was one of the guys who collected
samples, and he had some pretty clear guidelines, as I recall.

> it was the best thing to come
> along in quite a while for anyone 
> wanting to do some research on
> anything even remotely to do with bees.

If so, show me the money.  
There certainly was a lot of fundraising done by charlatans to "ban the
bee-killing pesticides", and so on, all of them tying their wagons to the
problem, and profiting off the misery of beekeepers and bees.  But actual
additional funding for research on bees?  Not so much.  I think the total
appropriated by congress was about $4 million.  What mostly happened was
that existing money was DIVERTED from other work to CCD-related work.

Regardless of the nomenclature used, there are still people asking for
specific steps they can take in "Avoiding CCD", the most recent inquiry to
this list only a few days ago:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=BEE-L;d9ae7c10.1
309
or
http://tinyurl.com/n7z944n

And there are others who have very recently said things like:

"I can't say that all the money allocated to CCD research was well spent,
but a great deal of it was.  I myself have benefited greatly from the
findings of much of the research, now understand what happens in colonies
prior to the sudden collapse, and now manage my colonies to minimize the
occurrence of collapse/dwindling symptoms."
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=BEE-L;99d22ceb.1
309
or
http://tinyurl.com/m9o63j5

So, call it what you like, but it still seems to be "a thing".

In general, over time, perspectives change. 
I remember a time some 4 or 5 years ago when I was roundly booed here for
daring to firmly state that Nosema certainly did "infect comb", and could be
transmitted by infected comb.  Several USDA employees were canvassed, and
none of them were they willing to speculate for the person asking them, but
by now, the issue is the stuff of common knowledge, and comb decontamination
methods are compared for their ability to kill Nosema.  In hindsight, my
acetic acid fumigation rig and $5 less-than-4% oxygen detector was something
that could have saved many hives, had anyone listened (not that this had
anything to do with "CCD", of course).

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