Me: I am not at all sure what you are trying to say

Charles: Come on Pete,  don’t twist it around.   Not a battle.  Never was.  But there is a chasm between research and real life.

Me: I was trying to be polite when I said: "I am not at all sure what you are trying to say" but the fact is, most of the time it is very difficult to follow what you write here. However, this is quite clear: "there is a chasm between research and real life."

In my opinion, this is a clear example of a false dichotomy. What does research look at? Another planet where there are other bees and keepers? The research into honey bee health focuses on actual honey bees, in the field -- as well as lab studies where some of the confounding variables can be minimized. 

Nobody supposes that a tiger in a cage represents the tiger in the wild. Unfortunately, tigers in the wild are getting scarcer by the minute. Honey bees, on the other hand, thrive in the wild and appear to suffer under "domestication." Straw dog argument: research is not useful because researchers don't study real world.


PLB

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