On Bees And Health Care

Well, we know Madeleine not a morning person and her mood not really made better by me standing above her and taking pictures. I only snap this one, for the record.

Today I am on the Eurostar to Paris for meetings and to see friends. Same difference. I wonder why travellers talk on the phone when there is the privacy of email or SMS via smart-phone or Blackberry?Take the women in the row behind me who discusses her love affairs, which would otherwise be irritating accept that they are kind of "R" rated. Young people just don't seem to mind who's doing what and where and who knows about it. To distract myself, I read about Cyprian honeybees, who defend themselves from hornets with a mass defence that relies on heat and carbon dioxide. Seriously. When Oriental hornets (giant wasps with a powerful sting) attack, the Cyprians mob them in a huge ball that targets the breathing apparatus in the hornet's abdomen. The hornets cannot breathe without expanding their abdomens and with sheer numbers, the bees strangle the hornets to death. And check this out: Asian honeybees defend themslves against the local hornet, Vespav velutina, by 'heat balling' where a giant ball of bees piles on the hornet, weighting it down while vibrating their wing muscles furiously. The frenetic activity greatly increases the temperature inside the ball to about 46C - hot enough to cook the hornet alive. Anyway this about half as good as what I am hearing from behind me but I can't that here.

Here is something to ponder: one in every five dollars spent in America on health care. This while 50 million Americans do not have medical coverage. Tick... tick.. tick.. . .