> Federal economic stimulus money is being used to finance University of Hawai'i research into how honeybees learn, the evolution of moths and Icelandic geology. So far, UH has secured 62 competitive stimulus-related research grants worth $42 million, according to federal filings. The research projects — including the $210,000 grant to study bee learning behavior — have been criticized as a sign of waste and mismanagement within the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment program. The UH honeybee grant made it onto a list of 100 projects identified as "silly and shortsighted" by Republican Sens. Tom Co-burn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona.

> Mark Anderson, a deputy director in the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism who tracks stimulus funding for the state, said spending on UH research helps promote the state's technology industry. "Part of the promise of the stimulus is this investment in what they call science and technology," he said. "We need to invest more in research and development, and that's going to create new ideas that are going to be products that we can sell to the rest of the world and that will make us more competitive. ... You hope it's important research," Anderson added. "We do realize it's taxpayers' money."

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