Where's the Buzz?

For a while I’ve been seeing reports of disappearing honeybees. Scientists and beekeepers have seen US bee colonies decline by half in the last 35 years. This vanishing bee syndrome is notable considering that a third of US food crops rely on bees for pollination.

Al Qaeda has used the honey trade as a moneymaker and smuggling network. This made me wonder if those Wahhabi SOB’s were cooking up an attack on our food supply by somehow removing these essential bugs. Now I read it’s again possible that we have met the enemy, and he is us. From Earthweek:

Studies conducted by German researchers indicate that the growing use of cell phones could in some way be responsible for the sudden disappearance of bees seen across America and parts of Europe since last fall.
A limited study conducted at Germany’s Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby.
Lead researcher Dr. Jochen Kuhn said this could provide a “hint” to a possible cause of what has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The phenomenon has seen entire bee colonies disappear from their hives, leaving only the queen, eggs and a few immature workers.
Kuhn cautioned that his research was on how cell phone signals might affect learning, and not on CCD.
Dr. George Carlo, who headed an extensive study by the U.S. government and mobile phone industry on the hazards of mobile phone use during the 1990s, told Britain’s Independent newspaper the “possibility is real” that the use of cell phones could be contributing to CCD
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A story line in Dilbert last week had his company coming up with a new product that was so much fun that the focus group would rather play it than eat, and so; starved. The next killer app, you might say. Is Scott Adams on to something here?