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Oct. 13, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Happiness Quotient

Jonathan Rosenblum: Ignore the Grandchildren

Oct. 10, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The limitations of scientific miracles

Caroline B. Glick: Lebanon on the brink --- and why it matters

Oct. 8, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: The day when the sane talk to themselves

Ana Veciana-Suarez: Many nonobservant Jews are finding religion

Oct. 7, 2008

Gary Rosenblatt: Of politics and prayer

Caroline B. Glick: The ironies of the West's collusion with the Arabs and Iran

Oct. 6, 2008

Rabbi Yitzchok R. Rubin: Mamma to the masses

Jonathan Tobin: Ahmadinejad Isn't Too Impressed

Oct. 3, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The 'living dead' are all around us

Caroline B. Glick: Olmert's parting blows

Oct. 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Often customers looking for our competitor accidentally enter our store. Can we just serve them without comment?

Jonathan Tobin: Jewish pundit quiz on next year's news

Sept. 29, 2008

Rabbi Eli Gewirtz: Lehman Brothers and the Day of Judgment

Rabbi Leiby Burnham: Apples, Honey and You

Sept. 26, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The shofar and the Echo of Sinai

Caroline B. Glick: A road paved on reality

Sept. 24, 2008

Greg Crosby: Home for the Holy Days

Ethel G. Hofman: Rosh Hashanah Favorites: Old-fashioned taste, reduced calories

Sept. 23, 2008

Caroline Glick: Liberalism or lives!?

Michael Ledeen: Dear President Ahmadinejad

Sept. 22, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I gave a check to a local merchant, but it hasn't been cashed in months. Probably they lost it. Do I have to tell them?

Diana West: We are losing Europe to Islam

Sept. 19, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: On harvesting success

Caroline B. Glick: It is time to act

Sept. 18, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Is camping the panacea to save Jewry from self-destruction?

Craig Gordon: Was SNL hilarity too much for Hillary?

Sept. 17, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: The Whole World Is Watching

The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: East meets Southwest in this quick meal: MEXICAN-ASIAN TOSTADOS

Sept. 16, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. : Into the fire

Everything's Relative : Your Official Jewish Guide to the 2008 USA Presidential Election

Sept. 15, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Enabling risky behavior

Diana West: A day that will live in ... accommodating Islam

Sept. 11, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The skeleton in my closet

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein: Persecution and systematic destruction of Christians in the Middle East must be stopped

Sept. 10, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: There's Something About Sarah

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: Who needs Chili's when you have these? Recipes for Mexican that taste great and are dietetic! Our commitment to freedom

Sept. 9, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Must counterinsurgency wars fail?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.:

Sept. 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: How far must one go to help somebody out of a contract?

Barry Rubin: Waiting For Something

Sept. 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : How far must one go to help somebody out of a contract?

Barry Rubin: Waiting For Something

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review

How Colony Collapse Disorder works

By Marshall Brain

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) It sounds like something out of a Science Fiction novel, but in this case we are talking about reality. For some reason, honeybees are vanishing from their hives at an alarming rate. One beekeeper lost 2,000 of his 3,000 hives this spring, and the problem has spread to 24 different states in the United States The problem is called Colony Collapse Disorder, and right now no one knows what is happening.

Here's what we do know. A typical commercial beehive is a wooden cube measuring about 20 inches by 20 inches square. Inside the hive you find a single queen bee who lays all the eggs, and perhaps 50,000 worker bees. In a healthy hive, most of those workers fly around all day collecting nectar and pollen and bringing it back to the hive. Other workers stay in the hive to take care of the queen and help raise new bees from the queen's eggs.

Once a hive is afflicted with Colony Collapse Disorder, nearly all of the worker bees fly off and die in the field. The queen and a handful of workers are left behind. Except for the remarkable lack of worker bees, the hive looks fine. There are no dead bees lying around, there is plenty of honey and pollen in the hive, and there is also plenty of brood (baby bees in different stages of development). But without workers to maintain the hive and feed the babies, the queen and the baby bees cannot survive. The hive collapses.

If you make your living as a beekeeper, Colony Collapse Disorder is obviously a huge problem. You can, in theory, go from "successful beekeeper" to "bankrupt" in just a few weeks, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it right now. That's bad enough, but the reality is that CCD may also become a big problem for the rest of us as well. IF CCD were to kill off all the bees, there are a number of fruits and vegetables that would disappear from grocery store shelves. Almonds, for example, are a $2.5 billion industry in California, and almond growers depend on honeybees to pollinate the crop. No honeybees means no almonds. Many berries (blackberries, strawberries, etc.) need bees, as do vegetables like cucumbers and squash. And don't forget tree crops like apples, oranges and peaches. Watermelon and cantaloupes depend on bees. And cotton ... As you can see, many different crops need the bees.

So why, all of a sudden, is this happening? No one is sure, although lots of scientists are looking at the problem very intensely right now. One theory is that a new breed of nicotine-based insecticides may have something to do with it. These insecticides are systemic, meaning that the plant absorbs the insecticide through the roots and spreads it to every part of the plant. Another possibility that has been suggested is genetically modified crops. These plants have a bacteria gene inserted into the genome that produces a natural insecticide in every part of the plant. Another possibility that has been suggested is cell phone radiation. The problem with all three of these possibilities is that CCD started abruptly in the fall of 2006, and all of these things have been around for some time. Cell phones, for example, have been in use since the 1980s, and they have been widespread for a decade.

The other possibility is that some new kind of disease, mite or fungus is to blame. One of the very odd things about CCD is the condition of the bees left in the hive. They usually are infected with several different viruses and fungi. It looks as though the immune system of the bees is failing. If so, it might be something like AIDS in human beings, where a collapse of the human immune system leaves a person unprotected from a host of diseases. It might also be that a new bee fungus has appeared. One of the very strange things about CCD hives is that other bees leave them alone. In a normal situation, bees from other hives will fly in and rob all of the honey out of a weak hive. In CCD hives, that does not immediately happen.

As you can see, Colony Collapse Disorder is a complete mystery right now. It is a mystery that could, potentially, have a multi-billion dollar affect on many different crops if we don't figure it out soon.

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Previously:


How airbags work
How the U.S. income tax works
How gum works
How caffeine works
How Daylight Saving Time works
How a cruise missile works
How snow making works

© 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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