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Mystery of the Dying Bees Solved
jamie points out news of a study attempting to explain the decline of honeybee populations across the US. As it turns out, the fungus N. ceranae that was thought to be killing off bee colonies had a partner in crime — a DNA-based virus that worked in tandem with N. ceranae to compromise nutrition uptake. From the NY Times:
"Dr. Bromenshenk's team at the University of Montana and Montana State University in Bozeman, working with the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center northeast of Baltimore, said in their jointly written paper that the virus-fungus one-two punch was found in every killed colony the group studied. Neither agent alone seems able to devastate; together, the research suggests, they are 100 percent fatal. 'It's chicken and egg in a sense — we don't know which came first,' Dr. Bromenshenk said of the virus-fungus combo — nor is it clear, he added, whether one malady weakens the bees enough to be finished off by the second, or whether they somehow compound the other's destructive power. 'They're co-factors, that's all we can say at the moment,' he said. 'They're both present in all these collapsed colonies.'"
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No, it's not.
Does this mean when Wesly Snipes gets out of jail, we have to freeze and then thaw out Sylvester Stalone?
Shooting them in the head would be even cheaper, and would create only a slightly lower probability of them being revived.
Why waste bullets? Do them like we do cattle in the beef industry, and just use a nail gun that doesn't let go of the nail.
What, it's not sterile? So what? It's being used to KILL YOU.
I have the same argument against using sterile medical equipment when administering the death penalty. I'm willing to bet that dragging someone kicking and screaming into a room with windows and video cameras, strapping them to a gore-stained chair, then holding a nail gun against their forehead and pulling the trigger would be a helluva lot more effective deterrent then the current method.
And before you argue against me, consider this:
It is just as humane, the actual death is just as fast as current methods, if not faster.
It's less wasteful of resources, both materials used and energy used are less.
If publicized, capital crime rates would drop among any of those who could be considered sane.
Compare the following statement:
"If I perform this act, I will be put in a cage, cared for for many years, and then quietly euthanized."
with this one:
"If I perform this act, I will be dragged into a room and have my head cracked open by a high-velocity hunk of metal as soon as the trial is over."
Yes, this seems to be quite a grisly and gruesome fate. If we believe that it is right and proper to remove someone's life, why hesitate? Why be nice to them? Why go to the extra time, trouble, and expense of feeding them 3 times a day, caring for their medical problems, etc, for years, even decades? The only thing better to do with someone who committed a capital crime, in my opinion, would be to use them for medical experiments. At least then they'd be good for *something*.
"Ok, the jury found you guilty of premeditated murder. Come with me, we need to shave your head so we can get a good view of the nail coming out the back..."
This leads into a huge off-topic rant (like this whole thread hasn't been off-topic, right?) about how we shouldn't be locking up people who haven't harmed other people, victimless crimes aren't crimes, etc... or it can wander off into a discussion of exactly how bad for society someone needs to be before we decide they're not able to be rehabilitated, and just chop off their heads or splat them open or whatever.
Locking someone up has been proven to not only *not* be a deterrent, but to produce hardened criminals from those who otherwise would never have done anything worse than consume substances some people choose to consider "evil" (drugs), or pay for something that is perfectly legal to give away for free (sex).
Man, I oughta write an essay, or something; I appear to have quite an opinion on this topic.
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