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Bees are capable of social learning to solve new problems. Social species of bees show the ability to learn from each other. In fact, a bee that's new to a particular pollen-retrieving problem, for example, will learn faster from an experienced fellow bee than it will on its own. [more inside]
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 11:27 PM PST - 4 comments

The worker bee has been a symbol of Manchester (England) since it attained city status in 1842. Does it represent the diligent productivity of the city's mill workers during the Industrial Revolution, the solidarity and committment to the common good of the Co-operative Movement, or something else? One thing's for sure, there are lots of them around. [more inside]
posted by sudasana at 11:18 PM PST - 1 comments

Among the virtues of bees you may not be aware of is their knack for detecting bombs. How? Science! Also: Pavlov
posted by chavenet at 10:52 PM PST - 1 comments

Painting Wind Turbine Blades Black Helps Birds Avoid Deadly Collisions. A recent study found the simple intervention reduced bird mortality by 72 percent. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Thanks to it's long storage life and medicinal properties, honey has long been a staple "luxury" for humanity featuring in countless recipes across the globe. Again, as with all things culinary, this is woefully incomplete, short sighted and missing a bunch of other uses for the wonder product! [more inside]
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?
posted by crazy with stars at 8:13 PM PST - 58 comments

... the bee-52s in 1978!! This is a grainy black and white video, but the sound's decent and the vibes come right through
posted by pyramid termite at 6:47 PM PST - 10 comments

"Telling the bees is a European tradition in which bees are told of important events, including deaths, births, marriages and departures and returns in the keeper's household. If the custom was omitted or forgotten and the bees were not "put into mourning" then it was believed a penalty would be paid, such as the bees leaving their hive, stopping the production of honey or dying." The most high profile recent practice of this was last year at about this time but it's also historically been the subject of poetry and paintings. More about John Chapple, who was the royal beekeeper until retiring in May. [via]
posted by jessamyn at 5:30 PM PST - 21 comments

CT scanning could help researchers understand how pollinators benefit soil, find new ways to protect them
posted by Etrigan at 5:22 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the September 11, 1973 Chilean coup that ended the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, and inaugurated the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Pablo Larraín's newest film, El Conde, satirizes the life of Pinochet as a 250-year old vampire and swindler suffering an existential crisis, receiving both accolades and critique. More below the fold for a history and docu-binge before the film is release on Netflix September 15th. [more inside]
posted by rubatan at 12:47 PM PST - 6 comments

Apiary is a worker-placement game in which players choose one of twenty unique factions of hyper-intelligent bees to gather resources, develop technologies and explore new planets. [more inside]
posted by vverse23 at 12:08 PM PST - 10 comments

I Killed My Southern Accent and a Piece of Myself With It (slJezebel) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 11:38 AM PST - 108 comments

In an excerpt from his biography of Elon Musk, Walter Issacson recounts how the mercurial owner of Twitter and his supporters personally went to Sacramento to decommission the company's server farm collocated there. (SLCNBC)
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:33 AM PST - 90 comments

Thank God for Worker Bees is a song by Seattle-area mathcore band Botch. [more inside]
posted by saladin at 10:40 AM PST - 4 comments

Ask A Bee!!! In other buzz Queen Reminds Worker Bees - Declining Bee Population Linked To - Bee Wishes It Could Hang Around Open Soda Can - Bee, Man Allergic To Bees [more inside]
posted by lalochezia at 10:25 AM PST - 2 comments

Blode and the Giant Bee (SLYT) It seems like a good day to repost this classic song, as it's been over 20 years since the last time it was on the front page.
posted by moonmilk at 10:07 AM PST - 3 comments

Here's a bee. It's a freebie, like this free thread. That is all. [more inside]
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:50 AM PST - 107 comments

Michael Bush has a website about bees. Bush is an opinionated apiarist who espouses natural beekeeping, and has the kind of old school website you might expect.
posted by zamboni at 8:53 AM PST - 7 comments

It's that time of year again. A.R. Moxon reflects, 22 years later, on the World Trade Center attack's enduring legacy of jingoism, tacky commemoratives, and giving liars a pass on their abuses of power. (SLSubstack)
posted by jackbishop at 8:49 AM PST - 54 comments

Getting to Genius, Part I (NYT gift link, here's Part II) On improving one's skills in Spelling Bee, the New York Times daily word puzzle. [more inside]
posted by box at 7:57 AM PST - 28 comments

The Bees of Childeric I "The 27th May 1653 likely started as any other for mason Adrien Quinquin. A man working on a construction site in Tournai, modern-day Belgium, he was several feet under the ground swinging his pickaxe when he hit something unusual. A glint of gold shimmered up at him. After gathering the attention of nearby people, the rest of Quinquin’s hole was dug up. Inside was a real treasure trove: human bones, hundreds of silver coins, a highly decorated sword and scabbard, and many more gold items including buckles, rings and brooches. Key for us, there were also 300 little bees made from gold. " [via]
posted by dhruva at 7:03 AM PST - 13 comments

It took three years for Colin Hay's band to rise from playing pubs to being the biggest band in the world. Three more years, and Men At Work was over, as was all the momentum for Colin Hay's career. Colin Hay: Waiting For My Real Life [1h24m, 2015] documents the rise, fall, and continuing lingering legacy of one of Australia's biggest musical heroes.
posted by hippybear at 6:17 AM PST - 25 comments

Yesterday (September 10th) was the 30th anniversary of the premiere of The X-Files, the paranormal-sorta television phenomenon starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. To mark the occasion, Rolling Stone has posted its ranking of all 217 episodes, worst to best.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:02 AM PST - 77 comments