Comments on: Argumentum ad Farkam http://thenonsequitur.com/?p=1200 A Logical Analysis of Political Media Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:07:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Robert Nagle http://thenonsequitur.com/?p=1200&cpage=1#comment-79756 Robert Nagle Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:49:12 +0000 http://thenonsequitur.com/?p=1200#comment-79756 I’m generally not a fan of subsidizing the agriculture industry. But are you aware there is a crisis epidemic about honeybees worldwide and that about 30% of American produce is dependent on honeybee pollination? See the  wikipedia article about colony collapse disorder.

From Wiki: “In the winter of 2008 a survey by the US Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Services (USDA-ARS) and Apiary inspectors showed that 36% of America’s 2.4 million hives were lost to CCD. The survey covered almost 20% of America’s 1,500 commercial beekeepers, and suggested an increase of 11% over the losses of 2007, and 40% over the losses of 2006.”

]]> By: Dagon http://thenonsequitur.com/?p=1200&cpage=1#comment-79643 Dagon Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:19:09 +0000 http://thenonsequitur.com/?p=1200#comment-79643 I'm a scientist, and I hate, hate when Republicans pick on specific research items. McCain did this all last year with his awful bear DNA joke ("was it a paternity issue?"), and Krauthammer seems to be doing this with bees and fish. Bees are important. Most of us like to eat fruit; most fruit trees need pollinator services provided by bees. There was a lot of news over the last few years about a mysterious massive die-off of honeybees. There is always an easily-uncovered, logical, prosaic reason to conduct the research that gets mocked in this way... I’m a scientist, and I hate, hate when Republicans pick on specific research items. McCain did this all last year with his awful bear DNA joke (“was it a paternity issue?”), and Krauthammer seems to be doing this with bees and fish.
Bees are important. Most of us like to eat fruit; most fruit trees need pollinator services provided by bees. There was a lot of news over the last few years about a mysterious massive die-off of honeybees.

There is always an easily-uncovered, logical, prosaic reason to conduct the research that gets mocked in this way…

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