You probably heard or saw the coverage a few months ago about how honeybees are mysteriously dying off in such large numbers. Since there hasn’t been much, if any talk about it in the mainstream media lately, you could be excused for thinking that the bees are on the comeback trail. However, you’d be wrong. Unfortunately, the problem continues.

If somehow you missed the original stories about the problem, which has been named colony collapse disorder (CCD), you might be wondering why we care. Less bees, fewer stings, right? Well, maybe, but the honeybee does more than poke us with that stinger. A quote from no less than Albert Einstein might explain the gravity of the situation “”If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

There have been a number of reasons postulated for the decline, but no firm conclusions. People have theorized that it could be cell phone radiation, genetically modified crops, pesticides, Varroa mites, and the feeding of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to the bees, among other things. Additionally, the practice of beekeepers trucking their bees thousands of miles around the country to pollinate crops has been implicated by some as a source of stress that could eventually result in this problem.

Note that all these possible reasons, with the exception of the mites, are things that have been introduced by man. It’s beginning to look like our incessant need to mess around with the natural world is finally coming back to bite us. I’m not sure what it will take before we can step back and realize that things like large-scale industrial livestock production, genetically modified crops, excessive use of HFCS, all kinds of radiation bouncing around, and so many of the other things we do without ever thinking about the ramifications are messing up the balance of our environment. Add global warming to the mix and it doesn’t look good. Since we can’t seem to do something as simple as pass a law to stop routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock, even after we’ve seen the advent of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections such as MRSA, I’m not real hopeful that we’ll get our act together in time to make a difference.

Technorati Tags: bees, honeybees, bees dying, colony collapse disorder, CCD, HFCS, cell phone radiation, beekeepers

This is pretty hard to believe even after you see it - but I guess the Guiness Book of World Records would have made sure he didn’t have any wires attached to his feet!

Technorati Tags: pushups, exercise, world record, fitness, amazing workout, strength

Just in case you haven’t heard, Nintendo is releasing their Wii Fit exercise game in the US this week. The software has already been released in Japan and has been a raging success. The key to the Wii Fit experience is what’s called a “balance board”. It’s about the size of two bathroom scales joined together. Supposedly, the idea for the balance board came from watching Sumo wrestlers being weighed. As you might expect, they’re too heavy and too big to stand on a typical scale. So they usually put two scales together and place one foot on each.

The user does most of the exercises on the board, either with their feet or (in the case of an exercise like pushups) their hands. The Wii Fit also accomodates jogging, which you do with the regular Wiimote (Wii remote) in your pocket. You can jog in place or run around your living room - but you need to be careful not to stray out of the remote’s range. The game judges users by whether or not they have an acceptable BMI (body mass index). However, the American version is more tactful than the Japanese, which tells overweight users “you’re fat”!

So how does the Wii Fit do at getting people into shape? Well, from the reviews that have already come in, it looks like it won’t replace a personal trainer any time soon, but it does seem to be a viable option for people who prefer to work out at home, or even gym goers who might want the occasional change of pace. However, that all assumes you actually have a Wii to hook the Wii Fit up to. Unbelievably, even a year and a half after the Wii was introduced to the USA, they are still in short supply. It’s not likely you’ll just sashay into your local store and pick one up off the shelf. You’re going to have to be creative. When retailers feature one in their ads, the line usually starts to form a couple of hours before the store opens on the day the ad begins. So one option is to be the early bird. Another tactic is to buy online. There are a lot of Wiis available on ebay, but you’ll likely pay more than list price. You can also find Wiis off and on at online stores like circuitcity.com or toysrus.com. The catch is that when you do find a place that has stock, you’ll most likely have to buy a “bundle”, which includes games you may or may not want in addition to the Wii console.

All in all, I think this is a great idea. Anything that gets couch potatoes up and moving has my vote. The Wii Sports games that come with the Wii were an excellent first step in this direction, and the Wii Fit takes it to the next level.

Technorati Tags: Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit, fitness, Wii available

Different areas of the United States have markedly different rates of three kinds of heart disease, according to a recent study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention which was published in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The types of heart disease studied were coronary heart disease, heart attack and angina. Rates for any of the three conditions ranged from 3.5 percent in the U.S. Virgin Islands to 10.4 percent in West Virginia. For heart attack specifically, rates ranged from 2.1 percent in the U.S. Virgin Islands to 6.1 percent in West Virginia.

Areas with the lowest levels of all three heart problems were Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The highest occurrences were in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

Study lead author Jonathan Neyer, an epidemiologist in CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, said “We hope this report will help states and U.S. territories better tailor their heart disease prevention efforts,”

Technorati Tags: coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack, health, heart disease study