A further comment about the following statement:
 
>  >Gee.....I thought this list was about sharing information and helping each
>  >other.....not shooting holes in other people's posts......sheesh!
 
   In response to the above comment, Andy Nachbauer wrote an extensive
reply, to which I concur.
 
   Honey bees and their colonies are marvelous phenomena, about which many
myths and half truths get perpetuated from generation to generation.  We
can regale the public with innumerable quality items about their life
history --- and keep it as accurate as possible.  The beauty of e-mail
exchanges is that hundreds can become educated all at once about some items
that have been passed on as "truth" for far too long --- that is, an
exchange of this sort IS "sharing information and helping each other."
 
   An example outside the world of bees:  The idea that some flies could
travel as fast as 880 miles per hour lasted a full decade in the 1930s,
until a chemist illustrated the nonsense of that so-called "fact."  Yet,
just a couple of years ago I found that very item treated as news in a
local newspaper (a "filler" someone had pulled from the files).
 
   One problem:  People all too often ask others what they think of one
report or another instead of reading and digesting the original material
for themselves.  (The news media lately seems particularly guilty on this
matter.)
 
                                                Adrian
 
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