Theos-Talk Archives (May 2007 Message tt00001)

Sounds reasonable... But I've read that there is a difference between cell 
phone networks and wireless (wi-fi) networks that computer phone systems use 
(Vonage, Skype, etc.).   Their way of modulating, multiplexing, and transmitting 
analog or digital signals may be quite different.   

If those networks use different forms of transmission or change them as new 
services come online, that could possibly be the cause of interference with the 
bees magnetic field locating system -- which could be quite complex as well 
as extremely sensitive.   Apparently, since the bees probably locate their 
hives by reference to the polar magnetic fields... Either recently increased wi-fi 
or cell signal interference might account for why bees in specific locations 
throughout the world, where different wireless and cell phone methods 
predominate in different places, are not returning to their hives.   

Check this web site for an article about these system differences.

www.networkcomputing.com/channels/wireless/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197002836

In a message dated 5/2/07 10:51:47 AM, reginald@pipeline.com writes:


> L;
>   
>  An interesting theory, but I heard a beekeeper/expert interviewed on 
> WNYC-AM a few weeks back and he said, unlike many other places, the honey bees 
> in NYC were doing fine - listen here:
>  www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2007/03/27/segments/76094
>   
>  So, for the Independent article to be true, wouldn't the cell phone 
> system in NYC have to somehow be different than those elsewhere (tho I don't see how 
> or why it would be)?
>   
>  I have a guess that there are many contributers to the problem, but the 
> straw that's breaking the camel's back is GMO crops. As NYC has little or no GMO 
> crops, that's why the honey bee population in NYC is not suffering like the 
> rest.
>   
>  R
> 
> 
>  ----- Original Message -----
>  From: LeonMaurer@aol.com
>  To: undisclosed-recipients:
>  Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 10:47 PM
>  Subject: Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
> 
> The Independent newspaper (London), 15 April 2007.
> Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
> 
> Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony 
> collapse' of bees
> 
> By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
> 
> It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some 
> scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food 
> shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
> 
> They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile 
> phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre 
> mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of 
> the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that 
> the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - 
> was beginning to hit Britain as well.
> 
> The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' 
> navigation systems [cf. the honeybee 'waggle' dance in the psychophysical 
> sixth-dimension], preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way 
> back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back 
> this up.
> 
> Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly 
> disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many 
> apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die 
> singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid 
> the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere 
> near the abandoned hives.
> 
> The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all 
> American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its 
> commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
> 
> CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and 
> Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, 
> announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
> 
> Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west 
> England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: 
> "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
> 
> The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops 
> depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees 
> disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
> 
> No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, 
> global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
> 
> German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power 
> lines.
> 
> Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to 
> return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who 
> carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.
> 
> Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile 
> phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced 
> the possibility is real."
> 
> The case against handsets
> 
> Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is 
> still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, 
> take decades to show up.
> 
> Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official 
> Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 
> 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held 
> the handset. [BEB: from memory, there are more handsets per capita in Finland 
> than anywhere in the world.]
> 
> Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from 
> mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could 
> go senile in the prime of their lives. [BEB: I thought they already were.]
> 
> Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use 
> mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors 
> have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant 
> texting.
> 
> Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned 
> that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety 
> recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.
> 
> 




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