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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Aaron Morris <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:12:03 -0500
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I almost didn't approve this post, the article is so bad!

Note the lessening degree of severity, font size, and boldness from the
headline, to tag line, to actual article.  
Bold headline, font size 12: "Colony Collapse Disorder Blamed on Bee
Malnutrition"
Bold tagline, font size 10: "Malnutrition May Have Helped Wipe out 750K
Bee Hives"
No bold, font size 8: "Area researchers believe bee malnutrition
contributes"

"Blamed"
"May Have"
"contributes"

Give me a break!  If you were actually there and heard Gloria speak, she
said (and please note I am not putting quotes around what she said, read
it as Aaron remembers Gloria Degrandi-Hoffman saying something alone the
lines of...) honey bees may not be getting the kind of nutrition they
need from their diet these days, and a poor diet may be a possible
contributor to the decline in honey bee populations noted these days.
There was puzzling speculation that possibly pollen may not be as
nutritious as it once was decades ago, for unknown reasons that might be
explained by the undeniable environmental changes that are evident in
our ecosystems.  

I am not purposely trying to add vagueness to these statements!  Gloria
was very careful not to state conclusions, she was merely commenting on
data she has collected.  The thing I most appreciate about Gloria, is
she is a mathematician/statistician first, who also happens to work at
the Tucson Bee Lab.  She was challenged by someone in the audience who
noted that some of her statements may be jaded because she has a vested
interest in the Megabee diet that has been such a focus at the Tucson
Bee Lab.  Her response was she didn't have a vested interest in the
diet, per se, she was only presenting data that has been collected at
the lab regarding said diet.  She stated further that if the data had
pointed to different conclusions (for instance that the diet was a
lesser performer that their data shows) that she would have presented
those numbers too.

I am always wary of reporters who interpret what they think they heard
and attribute it to what someone else said.  I was there!  What was
written in the Tucson Citizen was not what was said in Sacramento.
Coincidently, similar scenarios attributed to the same researcher have
taken place here on BEE-L.  I would like to have BEE-L informed, but
readers should always beware that written words come from the author's
interpretation and may not always be correct.

Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!

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