No need to jump off of your phone call the next time you see a bee buzzing by. Phone use, or more specifically, cell towers are not what is decimating the US bee population. According to a new study, the cause is a disease called Israeli acute paralysis virus. The bug bug didn’t come from Israel though—and its cause is pretty damn ironic.
The virus is believed to have come from US agricultural firms importing bees from Australia to beef up pollination efforts in America. According to Canada’s Globe & Mail: The discovery of the virus has raised speculation that the United States inadvertently allowed it into the country through the import of Australian bees. This was allowed in 2004, at the urging of the agricultural industry, to boost the number of hives available for pollinating high-value crops such as almonds…The import of the bees coincided with the first reports of unusual problems in bee colonies.
It is clear that the bee importers never saw the Australian vacation episode of The Simpsons.
As tragic as the problem is, it’s good news for gadget lovers: our beloved phones are, well, off the hook. [Globe & Mail] More »
We’ve posted a lot of gadget cakes in these parts, which is precisely why we’re so excited when someone takes it “to the next level.” In avant garde fashion, the likes of which we will not wrap our head around for years (possibly decades), Cakes By 2 Moms has created Apple-themed cupcakes—cakes that fit in a cup—cake nanos, if you will.
In full disclosure, writing this post prompted me to make eggs for breakfast (a rarity in these parts). And for those who may not already know, eggs do little to counteract the craving of a shiny, sloppy chocolate cupcake along with a frosty glass of milk. [geeksugar via shinyshiny] More »
A 250m by 30m LED screen has been installed in the ceiling of a new mall in Beijing. That’s an impressive 7,500 square meters of viewable area, and comes with an impressive $32 million price tag to match. It hangs 80 feet in the air, and is actually five screens combined. Check out a video after the jump.
It’s a mouse. It’s $15. It’s not really geeky, but I guess Linux fanatics might want to gift it to their kids. Stats below. More »
Air Musician is some sort of Air Guitar toy, courtesy of those nice people at Sega. Not quite sure how it works, but who cares when it plays Deep Purple, Lenny Kravitz and (sic) AaroSmith? Fun, 15 bucks and three colorways *twiddles left-hand fingers in air and makes O-face*. [Megahouse via TokyoMango] More »
Vista’s ReadyBoost feature is a great way to cheaply upgrade your computer, but for laptop users it’s not so convenient. Having a flash drive constantly plugged in is awkward because they stick out at a right angle to the case. These new drives from Apacer can twist to lay flat against the laptop, which is far tidier. They come in different sizes, but the 4GB model will cost you $84. [SciFi.com] More »
Some people are just too clever—like this man, who modded his MOTOROKR E6 into no less than a Transformer. And the killer fact is that the phone still works. Check the gallery below.
Perhaps if I ask him nicely, he’d be able to transform my cruddy RAZR into an iPhone for me. [PhoneDaily via New Launches] More »
