Well spoken.
 
Personally, I think you can write as much as you like and post it -
*especially* seeing as most of this months BEE-L log (565K) is made up of
headers, long signatures, Ridiculously long quotes, flames, etc. ;-)
(For the humour impaired:  I'm trying to be funny here).
 
It's nice to have a good debate on a central issue.
 
As a beekeeper. I feel that the belief that bees can find anything
anywhere and communicate the news of it it efficiently and quickly
enough for maximum  exploitation of the resource has served us
extremely badly and cost us all a lot of money.
 
Understanding how bees really find things is very important.  I'm
just getting involved with pollination and am amazed at the chances
people take that the bees will actually work the target crop.
Believing in the dance theory excuses negligence, I think.
 
Don't get me wrong: the bees are obviously doing *something* on the
comb, it does look like dancing and and it does appear to relate to
the location of food source, or a new home in the case of a swarm,
but I don't think we understand the linkage.
 
I'll allow that there is reason to suspect that there *is* some
realtionship.  Proof is the problem.  The theory fails us far too
often IMO.
 
Cause and effect are sometimes hard to prove - especially if the
linkage is weak, occasional, or dependant on other factor(s) outside
the field of observation.