BEE Vaccine???

Bees all over the world have been dying off at an alarming rate, due to some sort of virus that spreads among hives like wildfire. They have no antibodies to fight it off. The vaccine was developed in Germany and had been tested there and proven effective.  

Watching a show on PBS called “Impact”, about important stories around Montana - and the world. It has been known for some time now, that a virus that targets bees has been spreading like wildfire, and our bee population has been declining at an alarming rate. Bees have no immunity (which is very odd, because honey is very anti-viral), and when the virus finds its way into hives, entire hives have been killed off. Bees are the most important pollinators we have, and without pollinators there will be no food. No vegetables, no fruit, not animal feed... nothing. 

Now, scientists, I believe in Germany, have created a vaccine for bees!  Not injected into the bees them selves, but into the royal jelly that is fed to the queen. The queen herself does not become immune to the virus, but instead passes the immunity on to her offspring. A bee’s life cycle is very short, and by the time the previous adult workers die off, the young bees will be adults and will have immunity against the virus!

Apparently this has been tested, and it works. 

I let the dandelions grow all over my yard in the spring, because the bees need them until other flowers begin to bloom, but each year there are fewer and fewer bees. The neighbor’s apple trees used to be covered with bees every spring, but for the past three years has had only a few bumble bees, very few flowers and little fruit. It's frightening. Without bees to pollinate crops, we will all die of starvation.

I wonder how long it will take to get the vaccine to the US (if they even consider using it), and how long will it take for the bees to recover??  

CRAZY DRIVERS!!

I swear, people in this town drive like idiots. I have never seen such a disregard for speed limits, stop signs and traffic lights as I have here. I have seen people blatantly run stop sighs without even slowing down!  In fact, just the other morning there had been a truck behind me that gunned it and passed me as I moved into the turn lane from Reserve Street onto Palmer, and a little car just completely ran the stop sign without even slowing down! Thankfully there was no one in the left lane and the driver in the truck was able to swerve into the left lane without hitting the car, or it would have been a huge mess.  Had the truck not been able to move over he would have hit the driver’s side of that car dead on. I have no doubt that the car would have been crushed and the driver killed, and I would have had the best vantage point of what had happened, and quite possibly would have been their only witness.

The three-way behind Best Buy and the four-way behind Target are terrible too. I guess some people have this unwritten rule that says if there are no other cars at the stop signs then you can just ignore yours.  If I lived in one of those apartments at the three way, I’d put up a camera pointed at the intersection, and record the traffic activity all day for a couple of weeks, and then send it to the police station. Let them see how it really works when they are not present.

The really sad thing is that the schools don’t teach driver’s education anymore, and you don’t even need to take it to get a driver’s license!  All that is required is that you pass the written test (which is ten very easy questions), and drive around the block once. Do these new drivers even KNOW road etiquette??  There have been so many times when I’ve flashed my headlights at oncoming drivers (a signal to tell them to turn off their high beams), and they do absolutely nothing. Do they know that when someone turns their headlights off and on at them, it means ‘turn your lights on????  Does the though even come into their heads NOT to fling open the driver’s side door when they’re parked on the curb and a car is coming up behind them, or to not only check your side mirror but also look over your left shoulder before pulling out into traffic from a parallel parking spot?? 

Don’t even get me started about using your cell phone while driving.