honeybees and cell phones

Another example of the distortion of science has recently come to my attention. It's odd how these minor studies are grasped upon by that subset of society that seeks to gain credibility and find supposed authoritative support for their preconceived biases. A very weak and insignificant piece of research is suddenly touted as:

It's Official - Cell Phones are Killing Bees!

Lo and behold, something has actually been published in the scientific literature that SEEMS to support our somewhat wacky fears of modern technology!
In this case it's a study by Favre in Switzerland that showed that if you put active cell phones in honeybee hives they will react.
What a surprise.
Did any bees die?
No.
Did any bees abscond?
No.
Were any ill effects upon the bees observed?
No.
They merely 'piped', meaning they were agitated by the obvious intrusion.
Honeybees don't use cell phones, and bee keepers are not in the habit of rigging their hives with cell phones. This study has been actively promoted as demonstrating that cell phone radiation is the cause of colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that has worried and baffled beekeepers and researchers for the past decade or so. There are many possible causes of this problem but this study in NO WAY says anything about it.
All it says is that if you put cell phones in honeybee hives they will react.
NOTHING ELSE.
That is as far as you can go with these data.
Of course, knowing the limitations of one's data is a hallmark of a good scientist, and Favre himself didn't go too far overboard (maybe a bit too far).
It's a damn shame that people who don't know their asses from a hole in the ground have highly visible venues where their ignorance can be perpetuated and reverberated across the public consciousness.

Read it yourself:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13592-011-0016-x

To Steve Earle

Steve,
Been reading your book of short stories, Doghouse Roses. I like it. I like the grit and focus on the common people. I like that your main character is often a guitar player. I like the drinking and traveling and bad relationships, the hitchhiking and hard work. I like the view from the wrong side of the law. I like the down to earth expression.
But Steve...there's something that really disappoints me.
The thing is, is that you don't have the guts to write in first person, or at least the real kind of first person. I can't tell you how disappointing that is, but I can tell you that your writing would be much better if you did have those kind of guts, the kind of guts to do that. To really lay it down from the heart, rather than just appearing to do so.
There are a number of writers out there who have had such courage. You may know of some of them, and then again you may not. Townes may have done it in song, and Guy Clark certainly has, but here we're talking about prose.
It takes courage, and only a few have had it.
Too bad you're not one of them. It would have been nicer if you were.