> > ...nobody is at this point actually producing GM honey bees...
> > But I think that it is worth discussing now why they should or
> > should not. It looks as if it is right around the corner, to me...
> > ...Do you think I am speculating too much?
>
> No, at this point it has gone far beyond mere speculation,
> and is well into hallucination.  :)

GM is a serious topic and if we can keep it civil and somewhere close to
our theme -- bees  -- we need to discuss it.  As we are seeing more and
more every day, GM does indeed have very widespread implications, not only
for the bees themselves, but for the crops -- and even weeds and
wildflowers -- that my be affected by GM technology and collateral effects.
Microflora and fauna are also already being affected.  Even as we write,
someone, somewhere is mutating something familiar into something subtly
different without knowing all the possible outcomes, some of which could be
far-reaching.

Perhaps we should even make an exception to our rules and permit the
discussion to veer away from bees a bit as long, as the topic -- GM -- does
not take over the list and displace the one interest we all have in common:
BEES.  At any rate, I personally wish to encourage carefully written
articles on the topic of GM, especially those with well researched facts
and opinions and complete with references to relevant material of interest,
and particularly if they relate to bees and their immediate environment.
At the same time, for the sake of the list and its mandate, I would like to
actively discourage cut-and-paste posting of material from other (possibly
copyright) sources, one liners, personal insults (even those with smilies
following them), nit-picking, cheer-leading, questionable attempts at
humour, and any other content that contravenes our guidelines.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
I don't know how many readers of this list remember tube (valve) radios and
mechanical calculators, or the first transistor radios with an amazing
eight transistors.  (That is 8, not 8,000,000). That was a deluxe model;
some radios worked quite well with only six, or even five.  My first
desktop computer had 8K, (not 8 megs or 8 gigs) and that was only about a
quarter century ago.

Back then nobody would have believed anyone who said s/he would be able,
within a decade or two, to buy -- almost anywhere in the world -- millions
of transistors wired together on one chip for a few dollars.  When the the
laughing was over, the question would have been asked, "What is a chip?".
Even a few years ago, nobody could imagine young kids carrying their own
phones with them everywhere, and that such phones would be cheap or free,
high quality, and work almost anywhere.  Things change fast.  Technology
expands and diffuses rapidly and often uncontrollably.  Once someone
uncorks the bottle and the genie gets out, who can put it back in?

Even in the past few years, GM technology has changed and become more
widespread, more accessible -- and cheaper.  I assume that this technology,
will follow the pattern of many others.  Unless controlled, over time, some
breakthrough discoveries and widespread use will bring prices down, and
before long we'll have kids making up their own lifeforms in the basement
using their home computers and some handy dandy peripheral acquired at
Radio Shack or the local surplus store.  Kids being kids, they'll dream up
some real doozies.

If our western societies do decide to control and either ban or limit use
of the technology, there are still many places on earth where this control
cannot not (yet) reach, and many who will defy any efforts to control their
work.  Consider the number of clandestine drug labs operating quite
nonchelantly in major US cities -- in spite of a longstanding and expensive
"War on Drugs".

This -- GM -- is a big topic, possibly bigger than our list.  We'll have to
see how it develops, assuming it does, and that some good material is
submitted.

Hallucination?  I think not, and the sooner we all take a look at this
technology and its implications (not neccessarily on BEE-L), the better.
That's not to say that anything we say or do will change the course of
fate.

The genie is out of the bottle.

allen
http://www.internode.net/honeybee/diary/