A long and thorough piece on bee colony collapse disorder in the LA Times. “This does imply there is something biological.”
Those missing bees: a round-up
Over at The Daily Kos Devilstower has produced an entertaining and (I think) fair and honest appraisal of the hypotheses swirling around colony collapse disorder. What I found most interesting about the summary is that Devilstower gives his/her own estimates of each one being right or wrong and then offers a poll where readers can give their own estimates. When I voted, the results were:
- The way commercial hives are handled 10% 785 votes
- Infection & Infestation 22% 1731 votes
- Pesticides 19% 1487 votes
- GM Foods 9% 741 votes
- Drought & Bad Weather 4% 324 votes
- Global Warming 12% 946 votes
- Electromagnetic pollution 14% 1134 votes
- Other 6% 499 votes
That strikes me as eminently sensible (because it fits with my own prejudices, obviously). But what would have been really neat — though perhaps impossible to do on Daily Kos — would have been a before and after poll. Give and estimate before reading the piece, then after reading the piece, and see whether all that fine work by Devilstower had any impact. I would hope it did, but a skeptical voice deep within whispers “no”.
Wheat & rice systems
Improving productivity of rice-wheat cropping system does not mention CGIAR research. Odd.
Workshop on knowledge management and communication
From IAALD, news of a workshop sponsored by GTZ and FAO, on “Communicating Knowledge: From good practice to systematic change.” The conference web site gives access to the Agenda and Papers, and at first glance there doesn’t seem to be anything about blogs or blogging. Maybe the participants will raise the topic. It does seem an odd omission, but maybe I’m biassed.
Perennial wheat
Breeding perennial wheat: the search continues.