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Twelve million honey bees were released along Canada's largest highway in northwest New Brunswick, yesterday after a crashed and flipped over. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the lorry had 330 crates of bees on board when the driver tried to negotiate a ramp. The load apparently shifted inside the trailer, sending the entire vehicle off balance and causing it to overturn. At least 12 million bees escaped as the lorry's container burst open and the crates were tossed around, but police said a downpour Police said a downpour of rain has helped to contain the bees in and around the...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A man in Florida died after being stung more than 100 times by bees that officials think were Africanized honey bees. The man had a fatal reaction to the bee stings, medical officials said. Local 6 reported that it will likely be reported as the first death in Florida caused by the aggressive bees. The victim's name wasn't released. Africanized bee stings are no more potent than an ordinary bee stings, but the bees are far more aggressive and attack in swarms. Experts say they have been in Florida since 2002, and there have been a few...

Mouctika Paluri walked into The Dallas Morning News' 50th annual regional spelling bee knowing more than the two-time defending champion's name. The Carrollton girl had studied Amy's work like a walking Wikipedia. And the only thing sweeter than meeting your role model is beating her.

Forget those canned presidential candidate visits. A different kind of political visit will occur next week, as his Royal Highness Prince Andrew touches down on Arizona soil Tuesday. The details are sketchy, but Notebook hears the prince will be touring Honeywell's facility in Phoenix as well as the offices of Godaddy.com, a Web site where you can register domain names. Prince Andrew — fourth in line for the British throne — is actually best known for his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. You might know her as the redhead in those Weight Watchers commercials. On hand for...

Feb 7 A malady that's killed billions of bees since 2006, threatening about $15 billion in pollinated crops, has been detected again, according to the US Department of Agriculture's top honeybee researcher.

Honeybees will die out in Britain within a decade as virulent diseases and parasites spread through the nation's hives, experts have warned. Whole colonies of bees are already being wiped out, with current methods of pest control unable to stop the problem. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said that if the crisis continued, honeybees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing "calamitous" economic and environmental problems. It called on the Government to restart shelved research programmes and to fund new ones to try to save the insects. Tim Lovett, the association's president, said: "The situation has become insupportable and...

 Dec. 3, 2007... based on the following news stories: "it is aeronautically impossible for the bumblebee to fly. However, the bumblebee, being unaware of these scientific facts, goes ahead and flies anyway." -Mike Huckabee/bumblebee   Huckabee on taking wing high-flying Mike Huckabee likens his political ascension to the flight of a bumblebee   'Bumblebee' Baptist defies political gravity Huckabee coverage in the UK Times...     This cartoon/graphic is free for noncommercial use in emails, blogs, and forums.  iowapresidentialwatch.com

Alright, I am at a loss and am posting my first real vanity post. Stupid I know so try to go easy. I am trying to identify a giant hornet or bee. This thing has been hanging out on our outside light for at least 2 evenings. Tonight I had my better half take photos. In looking at forums, I haven't really been able to identify this other than the frightening Asian Giant Hornet. I really don't want this to be that as it would have a tendency to really freak me out. Whatever this is is about 2 inches...

With calm determination, 14-year-old Caitlin Snaring snared a title on Wednesday that only one other girl in geographic history has held: She won the National Geographic Bee.

As the saga continues, we've got yet another flip-flopped story rolling through in regard to the toxicity (or not) of cellphones to our environment. Just under a fortnight ago, a report based on an (admittedly lacking) research study claimed that Colony Collapse Disorder within bees was being encouraged by cellphone radiation. As expected, the researchers began living a life filled with Q&A sessions about the data, and now the "truth" is coming out. Essentially, the scientists are claiming that their data was "misinterpreted," and that the study actually looked at DECT phones and base stations, which transmit a "different frequency...

Scientists Identify Pathogens That May Be Causing Global Honey-Bee Deaths Scientists Identify Pathogens That May Be Causing Global Honey-Bee Deaths Science Daily — Researchers have identified potential culprits behind the wide-spread catastrophic death of honey bees around North America and Europe. A team of scientists from Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and University of California San Francisco identified both a virus and a parasite that are likely behind the recent sudden die-off of honey-bee colonies. ECBC researchers have identified potential culprits behind the wide-spread catastrophic death of honey bees around North America and Europe. (Credit: Scott Bauer, USDA/ARS) Using a...

More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives. As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines for the disappearances. Or was it...

The Honey Bee Crisis of 2007 Escalating Honey Bee Decline Baffles Scientists Sally Morton Feb 17, 2007 The honey bee crisis in the United States has been escalating for several years, rising to "unprecedented" levels of honey bee losses between Oct 2006 and Feb 2007. The honey bee crisis of 2005, which was blamed on the Varoa mite, decimated as much as 50% of honey bee populations in the US, but was weathered, overcome, and quickly passed out of most people’s vocabulary. I wrote an article about it for Suite 101, which you can read here. In it, I gave...

The Bee has laid off 20 employees following reorganizations in its advertising and circulation departments, the newspaper said Tuesday. The circulation department reorganization eliminated 11 jobs, while the moves in the ad department cut six jobs. Three other jobs were eliminated elsewhere, said Bee spokesman Steve Weiss. The cutbacks represented a little more than 1 percent of The Bee's work force of 1,542 employees, he said. Reacting to falling circulation and ad revenue, newspapers around the country have been trimming their work forces through layoffs and buyouts. But while The Bee's parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, is battling the...

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered the oldest bee ever known, a 100 million year old specimen preserved in almost lifelike form in amber, and an important link to help explain the rapid expansion of flowering plants during that distant period. The findings and their evolutionary significance are outlined in an article to be published this week in the journal Science. The specimen, at least 35-45 million years older than any other known bee fossil, has given rise to a newly-named family called Melittosphecidae – insects that share some of the features of both bees and...

The National Spelling Bee began its first rounds today. All of the action can be followed at: www.spellingbee.com. Also, the championship rounds will be broadcast live on ABC (for the first time) beginning at 8PM EST Thursday evening. I'm placing my guess on Speller #238, Samir Patel, from Fort Worth, Texas. He will be worth the price of admission for you to watch tomorrow evening. He was HILARIOUS last year when we participated in the Bee!

Bees Gain Buzz, but Americans' Spelling Skills Decline BY VICKI HYMAN This year -- in June, in fact -- millions of Americans may be exposed to odontalgia, vivisepulture, xanthosis or succedaneum. The spelling bee, that quaint American folk tradition turned high-stakes Ironman for underage etymologists, has hit the big time. ABC plans to broadcast the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee live in prime time for the first time. Code red for logorrhea (excessive wordiness).Orthographers may one day look back on this as the golden age of competitive spelling. In the last six years, spelling has spawned a well-regarded 2000 novel...

I was reading "Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide" last week on the stationary bike at the Y, and the men around me were sweating even more than usual. "So what's the answer?" one said nervously. Maureen Dowd scares guys, so my familiar comrade in cardio wasn't exactly comfortable with me multitasking with the ultimate alpha female. "I'll let you know next week," I told him. Sure, Dowd and I have a few things in common. We both grew up in working- class families with lots of brothers. We both started college in 1969 and have careers in the newspaper...

Remember that much-publicized Jayson Blair case at the New York Times, in which a coddled reporter was found to have been making up facts for his newspaper stories? Jayson Blair's actions were greatly deplored and led to his firing and the resignation of his editor. Now, the Sacramento Bee in my hometown, finds that it has had on its staff a columnist whose journalistic inventions over her twelve years of employment may dwarf those of Jayson Blair. The liberal Sacramento Bee reported on Sunday, June 26, that its investigation of columnist Diana Griego Erwin's politically correct, three-times-a-week, human-interest columns reveal...

WASHINGTON - Seventh-grader Tyler Curtis says he's never had to worry much about doing well at his studies, and he's not about to start now. That's saying something. Tyler is facing 272 of the country's best young spellers — and the biggest prize ever — at the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee running Wednesday and Thursday. "It would be nice to win," the 13-year-old from Camden, Tenn., said Tuesday. "But I'm not going to get all stressed out over it." His competitors include 145 boys and 127 girls aged 9 to 14, mostly from around the country and U.S....

Muhammad Ali asked Congress on Thursday to create a U.S. Boxing Commission, saying oversight by the federal government is needed to protect boxers from exploitation and injury. Ali's testimony before a congressional panel was read by his wife, Lonnie Ali, because he suffers from Parkinson's disease. As she spoke, he sat in a seat next to her, trembling -- one of the symptoms of Parkinson's. "Reform measures are unlikely to succeed," Ali said, "unless a U.S. Boxing Commission is created with authority to oversee a sport that still attracts a disproportionate number of unsavory elements that prey upon the hopes...

WASHINGTON, June 3 — Akshay Buddiga stood on stage hunched over a microphone, his clenched hands stuffed into his pockets. If he could spell "alopecoid," he would take another step on the way to becoming the second national spelling bee champion in his family. He asked for the meaning of the word, then its origin. Buying a bit more time, he asked for its pronunciation. Then before he could get the "a" out, he fainted, collapsing at the feet of the other spellers. No sooner had the audience let out a collective gasp than they let out a louder one...

Bee blamed for car crash A bee that flew up a motorist's trouser leg is being blamed for a car crash that caused more than £7,000 of damage. The driver, from Mockmuhl in Germany, told police he lost control of the car and swerved into oncoming traffic when he tried to free the bumble bee from his trousers. No one was injured in the crash, but two cars were badly damaged. A police spokesman said, however, that they were still investigating the crash as the bee had "mysteriously disappeared" after the accident. Story filed: 10:16 Friday 20th June 2003

4 of the Last 5 Spelling Bee Champions Are 2nd Generation Immigrants from India Any explanations for this curious occurence? Have American parents given up teaching spelling to their kids? See winners below. Those who were home schooled or went to private school are highlighted in red:   1999 Nupur Lala, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida logorrhea   2000 George Abraham Thampy, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri demarche   2001 Sean Conley, Aitkin Independent Age, Aitkin, Minnesota succedaneum   2002 Pratyush Buddiga, Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado prospicience   2003 Sai Gunturi, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas pococurante

Flight Attendant to Horse: Why the Long Face? Cuddles Caused a Bit of Stir in 1st Class, But One Little Mishap Was Overlooked Air travel can be a messy business, especially if you are flying with a horse. Take the following excerpt from an American Airlines passenger record last week: "PAX WAS TRAVELING WITH A MINIATURE SERVICE HORSE IN SEAT 3A. HORSE HAD A BOWEL MOVEMENT ON THE CARPET OF THE BULKHEAD. CABIN SVC HAD TO DO EXCESSIVE CLEANING IN ORDER FOR AIRCRAFT TO LEAVE FOR THE NEXT FLIGHT. STRONG ODOR ALSO HAD TO BE AIRED OUT.?ORD CSM JP INCUSCI"...

Rally for America on PBS and a hometown hero. Click to play On the Homefront:  Spencer Michels reports from Sacramento on how the Iraq war is affecting veterans. The best we can do here is the audio.It would have been nice to see former Lt. John Kane representing our veterans and police officers so well, and Stephanie Brown with vets at the VA Hospital here.  We found it a balanced report with our side getting the first and last word for a change. We're sure those members of our Armed Services and their families, who may have viewed it tonight, appreciate the brief scenes from our Rally for...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hands planted firmly in his pockets, Pierre Nicholas Thompson stood at the microphone, leaned back and easily spelled "chinoiserie" to survive the first round of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. The national competition began early Wednesday with a record 250 finalists. Only 175 proceeded to Round 2, taking a written, 25-word test designed to cut the number of competitors in half. The results weren't expected until late afternoon. Before most Americans were pouring their first cup of coffee Wednesday, the young contestants, ages 9-15, were fighting back jitters to get through "escabeche,""pultaceous,""farinaceous,""iatrogenic,""psittacism" and "tergiversation." "Chinoiserie," Thompson's...