EVERY TUESDAY
Bees
This week I have been somwhat obsessed with bees. I don't know why. But every once in a while I think about them. "Bees." I'll think.It's probably due to the rumoured "Why are all the bees dissapearing?" plot strand in Doctor Who. According to Google there was a bit of a fuss about bees dissapearing year.
This is from an article in the Independent on Sunday, 15 April 2007:
"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 [Colony Collapse Disorder] 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."
and
"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"."
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/are-mobile-p
hones-wiping-out-our-bees-444768.html
I like bees. As insects go they are quite cute because (1) they are furry (2) they have a cool black and yellow colour scheme (3) they make honey and (4) they go 'buzz' which is rather endearing.
They're also know as "bumblebees". Which is nice isn't it? Little yellow and black furry fellas bumbling through the air. Aah.
This is from the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center (sic) - "Fun facts about bees!"
The first fun fact is…
"Bees maintain a temperature of 92-93 degrees Fahrenheit in their central brood nest regardless of whether the outside temperature is 110 or -40 degrees."
Fun!
What's more:
"Honey bees can fly up to 14 kilometers from their nest in search of food. Usually, however, they fly one or two miles away from their hive to forage on flowers."
and
"Honey bees fly at 15 miles per hour."
Which means it would take them less than an hour to get the furthest they want to be. An hour into most of my journeys I am normally only as far as Victoria tube station trying to work out what line I should take to get to the gig.
"Honey bees are almost the only bees with hairy compound eyes."
"Almost!" Almost. That must be annoying:
"I am a honey bee! I am the ONLY bee with hairy compound eyes!"
"Yeah? Well, I am a… er, marmalade bee. And I have HAIRER comound eyes.
"So fuck you."
"The brain of a worker honey bee is about a cubic millimeter but has the densest neuropile tissue of any animal."
Which is interesting.
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/ic/trivia.html
Peter Cook was obsessed with bees wasn't he? It had something to do with some early bee-related childhood experience of his, I think. I don't have his biography to hand.
In actual comedy news…
I went up for a gig in London yesterday which was cancelled for the third time. I am stepping in at the last minute to do Comic Boom this Thursday and a gig at the Price Arthur in Brighton tonight.
Bees.
23/04/08
Hello. I'm Jim. I like to talk to people. About stuff.
