Monday, March 29, 2010

BEE truthful and BEE honest

I realized, while reading yesterday's Part One of my Bee experience from 1972, that I wasn't BEEing totally honest. (At this point you need to read yesterday's post before reading this one)

I haven't told the story in a few years and realized that I was putting some words into the Bee's dialogue that MIGHT not have been present in 1972.

I did write everything down a few days after it happened but that was done in the form of a three page poem and I was freakin flipped out at the time and thought I was Walt Whitman and Timothy Leary combined. I interpreted everything as a metaphoric allegory translucent hallucination, and then started using the story to impress girls. In 1972, in Marin County, there were so many girls and so few rules. By the time I left Marin in 1976 the BEE Experience was probably semi-responsible for five or six sexual encounters. A smart guy would have used the information to start a Bee farm but I've never been accused of BEEING a smart guy.

Somethings the BEE shared...might be forgotten and somethings might be remembered slightly different.

Somethings are the exact words that came into my left ear.

For instance I'm not sure he ever referred to paint as "paint." I think he kept calling it "this stuff."

He did ramble on a few times during the three days and lots of that stuff was simply to make a point on how misunderstood the Bee population was to the general human population.

One thing he told me to do was go to the market and look at the jars of honey. I went and came back and told him that the honey in the market had Bears on the jars....and no bees.

I distinctly remember him telling me that Bears on the honey jars....
"really bothered the entire collective consciousness of the Bee Kingdom but especially bothered the Honey Bees."

I THINK it was the first time I had ever heard the words
COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS.

I do know that there were three days of communication with another life form
and
I'm pretty sure it wasn't suppose to alter my life at the time....even though it expanded a part of my brain that needed expanding.

What I'm trying to say is that I think the BEE Experience I had in 1972....took place because of the present situation and the overall lack of understanding that still exists regarding the importance of Bees to our well beeing.

I have noticed that our species can take a long time in accepting certain realities....especially if those realities are going to alter our lifestyles.

COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER can be neutralized by individual Beekeepers.....and small neighborhoods can be sanctuaries for the Bee Kingdom.

The PESTICIDE PROBLEM extends far beyond the death of millions of Bees but their elimination should be AND PROBABLY IS a WARNING BEACON to our species.

THE TRUTH IS....WE KNOW, WITH OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS, THAT PESTICIDES ARE DANGEROUS and yet we continue to purchase products that are grown by corporate farms.....both domestically and internationally.

A SINGLE BEE WAS TELLING ME SOMETHING IN 1972

AN ENTIRE SPECIES IS TELLING US SOMETHING IN 2010

It doesn't matter if I can't remember everything that was said in a three day period in 1972 and it doesn't matter that I add a few extra words here and there to the story.

THE STORY THAT COUNTS IS TODAY

A SOLUTION MUST BE ACHIEVED
NOW

FACT: THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ENCOURAGE REDUCED USAGE OF PESTICIDES

FACT: THIS IS A PROBLEM THAT MUST BE ADDRESSED
INDIVIDUALLY.

FACT: LOCAL FARMERS MARKETS SELL FOOD GROWN WITHOUT PESTICIDES.

FACT: BACKWARDS BEEKEEPERS WILL RESCUE ANY SWARM AND THEY WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO BEE INVLOVED IN SAVING A SPECIES THAT WORKS FOR OUR WELL BEEING.
213-373-1104
http://beehuman.blogspot.com/s.

BEE NOW

Human beings have always been able to tell great stories......

It will always be an immense pleasure, for me personally, to know that I heard a story from another source.

BEE AWAKE

I've decided to write a script detailing the entire three day experience in 1972, so I'm not going to reveal anymore details at the present time.

Michael Timothy McAlevey















Friday, March 26, 2010

The Backwards Beekeepers AND 1972 B and Me

There's a good article in BRAND X ( a small LA entertainment weekly newspaper) this week about some people who are doing something about CCD. (Colony Collapse Disorder)

Whether it's enough to offset the tremendous loses due to CCD will only be determined by how individuals react.

THE BACKWARDS BEEKEEPERS have a plan that if individuals respond, could offer a solution. Which means that waiting for the government to get involved might not be our only option.

My personal experience regarding the life of bees goes back to the summer of 1972 and it's a story that a some people in my immediate family have heard, along with a few very close friends.

When I used to tell the story I could feel the listener suddenly looking for a door or reassuring themselves that they always knew there was something a bit off center in the Michael Timothy McAlevey reality agenda.

To this day I can't really say if I was in an extended hallucination created by the chemicals (thinners and strippers) I was working with, or a true epiphany delivered by the very essence of Mother Nature and her amazing little honey creating creatures....better known as BEES.

I was 26 years old at the time and even though that was 38 years ago....there are moments of the experience that seem like they happened yesterday.

I have a feeling that most mystical experiences have a tendency to stay vivid throughout one's lifetime.

And this story is indeed one of the more amazing mystical experiences I have encountered in my lifetime.

Go make a nice cup of tea....make sure you add a big lump of fresh honey and read

BEEEEEEEEs in my ear!

Summer of 1972

I was working on a 60 foot yacht docked on the San Rafael canal in Marin County, Ca. The boat was owned by William Penn Patrick, an odd sort of celebrity millionaire who died the next year in a private plane crash, a few years after trying to defeat Ronald Reagan for Governor.

I had been prepping the area in front of the wheelhouse for a few days. It's a six by eight foot section that is painted a high gloss white. The preparation includes a lot of sanding and priming and sanding and priming and sanding. Anyone who knows about high gloss finishes knows that extensive preparation is mandatory.

The weather was nice and calm so I didn't have to worry about wind. When one works on a high gloss finish it's very important to work fast and there are certain techniques used to create a nice even finish...but the weather must corporate in order to achieve a smooth surface with no lines or orange peeling.

It took me about an hour or two to completely finish painting the area and as I stood back to admire my work I heard a small buzzing sound in my ear and looked up as a single tiny bee slowly came down and landed right in the middle of my new paint job.

I looked down and of course was upset because now I'd have to redo an entire section and there would be a high possibility that lines would show and then I'd have to redo an even larger section. I think I might have said a few dozen swear words. I then noticed the bee flapping it's wings and trying to lift off but of course that wasn't going to happen. The white paint was now on both wings and they were not moving anymore. It was a a quiet moment for both the bee and me. All sounds seemed to disappear and everything became very very still.

I remember looking at the situation and then saying the following words......"I can't believe you fucked up my paint job."

THIS IS THE EXACT MOMENT THAT THINGS GOT.......SHALL WE SAY........DIFFERENT.

In my left ear, but not outside of my ear, I heard a small voice say.......

"You think I want to be stuck in your paint."

I looked around quickly thinking someone had come onboard but of course I was standing quite alone....except for a small creature lying in the middle of some high gloss white paint.

I looked at the bee and started to laugh, thinking of course that flashbacks were a rumored effect of certain chemical experiences, and although I had yet to have a flashback in 1972 ( I was still participating in actualities at the time) I was pretty sure that's what this was.

Please note that I was working and had not indulged anything Learyish for a few weeks.

As I laughed a little harder I once again heard that same little voice in my left ear......

"I would appreciate a little hand here and please be very careful when you lift me out.....just grab one wing very gently and toss me onto a dry spot."

I stopped laughing!

I slowly sat down on the teak deck and was pretty sure the next thing would be a self induced coma followed by a nice small funeral.....but the only thing that happened was one more left ear sound experience.....

"Hey, I need your help now. I can't breath in this stuff......hurry."

Forgetting that perhaps I was having a nervous breakdown, I jumped up and reached over and gently picked the bee out of the paint and tossed it on the deck.

(I DO REALIZE THAT TELLING THIS STORY IN DETAIL MIGHT HAVE SOME EFFECT ON HOW PEOPLE PERCEIVE NEO-ILLUMINATION BUT SINCE THE BOOK HAS NOT YET BEEN PUBLISHED IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME. IN FACT THIS ALL SEEMS TO TIE IN RATHER NICELY WHEN ONE CONSIDERS THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE)

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND

"THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE FAR OUT NUMBER THE KNOWN REALITIES"

I sat back down on the deck about five feet from the bee and noticed immediately that it was working feverishly with it's legs to try and remove the paint from it's wings. I watched for about a minute and then realized that I still had to repair the bees original landing spot. I jumped up and grabbed my brush and started feathering the area. I think I was able to fix the spot but it's been 38 years and that part of the story simply doesn't matter compared to the rest of the story. (Do you think the Paul Harvey estate owns that line?)

I do remember continuing to work on other parts of the boat that day and occasionally would walk by the bee and notice that it was still trying to remove the paint. Its little legs were really moving fast.

At the end of the day I put everything away and as I was walking on the pier to leave, I looked back one more time and saw it still working like only a bee knows how.

When doing independent contracting work on a boat one usually hopes to get two or three weeks out of any single job. Exterior boat work never stops and once you get to one end of boat with painting and varnishing it's usually time to start back at the other end. Owners with lots of scratch have permanent workers on their boats while some owners only pay for occasional labor and that's what I was doing in the summer of 1972.

The next day I got to the boat about 7:30 am. In my mind I still considered the previous day to be some strange hallucination brought on by certain experiences started in the summer of 1969.

As I walked down the pier to board the boat I glanced over and immediately noticed the bee still working his little legs like a blur. I boarded the yacht and walked over to the area where the bee was laying, which happened to be the same spot where he landed after I picked him out of the paint, and got down on one knee and examined his situation. Tiny white flakes of paint were laying next to him and one of his wings was almost back to normal. I went to get some paint remover to clean the deck and when I came back the bee had rolled a few feet away.

As I bent down to clean the white paint off of the deck with my paint thinner soaked rag I heard the same little voice in my ear......

IT IMPORTANT THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE SOUND WASN'T COMING FROM OUTSIDE MY EAR....IT SEEMED TO BE ORIGINATING FROM INSIDE MY EAR....CLOSER TO MY BRAIN THAT MY EAR DRUM......

OBVIOUSLY HARD TO EXPLAIN SINCE IT'S THE ONLY THING LIKE THIS I'VE EVER HEARD....UNTIL FEBRUARY 5 1994 WHEN SEAN TOLD ME TO HAVE A PARTY AT SEAMUS'S HOUSE AND HAVE SEAMUS PLAY THE PIANO....but of course that's really another story.

'Don't get that stuff near me......it's dangerous."

I looked down at the bee and at the same time tossed the rag off the boat and onto the pier.

I decided that if I was going to be hallucinating that perhaps it would be a good idea to participate in the hallucination as an active player....so I bend down and said, "Are you really talking to me?" in a little louder voice than I would normally speak.

"It's not the same as talking and have you seen the size of my ears.....you don't have to raise your voice....and in fact you can talk in a soft whisper and I'll still hear you.

What do you mean, it's not the same as talking? I'm talking, aren't I? What are you doing?

"I'm communicating"

Can I communicate the same way?

"You might get lucky from time to time, but I doubt it."

I'm little nervous that I'm actually having a conversation with a bee."

I'm a little nervous that I won't be able to get all this stuff off my wings."

Why did you land in the paint?

"I thought it was another bee and was just landing next to him."

The reflection of the high gloss paint!

"Sometimes we smack into glass if we aren't paying attention. This is the first time I have seen stuff called.....paint."

Do bees communicate with people on a regular basis?

"We have our ways and from time to time we make ourselves understood."

Why do you sting people?

"It's not something we do on purpose. It's usually a reaction to an aggressive moment. Remember our ears are very small and vibration is the key to most things in the universe.
When someone sees a bee at a picnic and screams 'WATCH OUT IT'S A BEE' the vibration hits our ears and spins us around and we sting.....and then of course after we sting.....we limp away and find a place to fall asleep.....forever.

Of course at lot of stings are pure accidents caused by someone stepping on us while we are working, or swinging at us while we are flying too close. We don't have an intrinsic fear of humans so we aren't programmed to be looking for trouble. We have been known to sacrifice some soldiers when a bear moves close to one of our hives. A major part of our destiny is to create food for human beings, and those bears are really big bully's and they eat way more than they should."

I don't see too many bears anymore.

"All part of the bigger plan."

The bigger plan?

"The expansion of the things that matter."

At that point I had to stop and take a deep breath and I stood up and realized that I had to get back to work. I looked down at the bee and it was still frantically working to remove the paint from it's other wing.

"I'll probably still be here when you get back."

END OF PART ONE

I'VE DECIDED TO TELL THIS STORY IN TWO PARTS BECAUSE YOU NEED TIME TO DIGEST THE CONTENT.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW..........................

Michael Timothy McAlevey








































Wednesday, March 24, 2010

CCD is getting worse

STORY FROM AP

MERCED, Calif., March 24, 2010

Bad Winter Deepens Disappearing Bee Crisis

Survey Indicates Heavy Bee Die-Off while Study Shows Honeybees' Pollen and Hives Laden with Pesticides

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  • In this photo taken Monday, March 22, 2010, Workers, from left, Johan Du Preez, Susan Dupreez and Rouxle Crafford clear honey from dead bee hives at a bee farm east of Merced, Calif.

    In this photo taken Monday, March 22, 2010, Workers, from left, Johan Du Preez, Susan Dupreez and Rouxle Crafford clear honey from dead bee hives at a bee farm east of Merced, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

  • Play CBS VideoVIDEOWhat's Happening To The Bees?

    "Colony Collapse Disorder" hit bee keepers in more than half the country last spring. Now, it has spread to nearly every state. What's causing healthy hives to go dead? John Blackstone reports.

  • VIDEOBeekeeper Suffers From Loss

    "Only On The Web": John Blackstone speaks with beekeeper Louise Rossberg about how dying bees are affecting her livelihood and the battle she has faced to raise awareness of the current crisis.

  • PHOTO ESSAYAnimal Instincts

    Photos: Take a gander at some of our favorite critters.

(AP) The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.

Two federal agencies along with regulators in California and Canada are scrambling to figure out what is behind this relatively recent threat, ordering new research on pesticides used in fields and orchards. Federal courts are even weighing in this month, ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overlooked a requirement when allowing a pesticide on the market.

And on Thursday, chemists at a scientific conference in San Francisco will tackle the issue of chemicals and dwindling bees in response to the new study.

Scientists are concerned because of the vital role bees play in our food supply. About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini.

Bees have been declining over decades from various causes. But in 2006 a new concern, "colony collapse disorder," was blamed for large, inexplicable die-offs. The disorder, which causes adult bees to abandon their hives and fly off to die, is likely a combination of many causes, including parasites, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition and pesticides, experts say.

"It's just gotten so much worse in the past four years," said Jeff Pettis, research leader of the Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. "We're just not keeping bees alive that long."

This year bees seem to be in bigger trouble than normal after a bad winter, according to an informal survey of commercial bee brokers cited in an internal USDA document. One-third of those surveyed had trouble finding enough hives to pollinate California's blossoming nut trees, which grow the bulk of the world's almonds. A more formal survey will be done in April.

"There were a lot of beekeepers scrambling to fill their orders and that implies that mortality was high," said Penn State University bee researcher Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who worked on the USDA snapshot survey.

Beekeeper Zac Browning shipped his hives from Idaho to California to pollinate the blossoming almond groves. He got a shock when he checked on them, finding hundreds of the hives empty, abandoned by the worker bees.

The losses were extreme, three times higher than the previous year.

"It wasn't one load or two loads, but every load we were pulling out that was dead. It got extremely depressing to see a third of my livestock gone," Browning said, standing next to stacks of dead bee colonies in a clearing near Merced, at the center of California's fertile San Joaquin Valley.

Among all the stresses to bee health, it's the pesticides that are attracting scrutiny now. A study published Friday in the scientific journal PLOS (Public Library of Science) One found about three out of five pollen and wax samples from 23 states had at least one systemic pesticide - a chemical designed to spread throughout all parts of a plant.

EPA officials said they are aware of problems involving pesticides and bees and the agency is "very seriously concerned."

The pesticides are not a risk to honey sold to consumers, federal officials say. And the pollen that people eat is probably safe because it is usually from remote areas where pesticides are not used, Pettis said. But the PLOS study found 121 different types of pesticides within 887 wax, pollen, bee and hive samples.

"The pollen is not in good shape," said Chris Mullin of Penn State University, lead author.

None of the chemicals themselves were at high enough levels to kill bees, he said, but it was the combination and variety of them that is worrisome.

University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum called the results "kind of alarming."

Despite EPA assurances, environmental groups don't think the EPA is doing enough on pesticides.

Bayer Crop Science started petitioning the agency to approve a new pesticide for sale in 2006. After reviewing the company's studies of its effects on bees, the EPA gave Bayer conditional approval to sell the product two years later, but said it had to carry a label warning that it was "potentially toxic to honey bee larvae through residues in pollen and nectar."

The Natural Resources Defense Council sued, saying the agency failed to give the public timely notice for the new pesticide application. In December, a federal judge in New York agreed, banning the pesticide's sale and earlier this month, two more judges upheld the ruling.

"This court decision is obviously very painful for us right now, and for growers who don't have access to that product," said Jack Boyne, an entomologist and spokesman for Bayer Crop Science. "This product quite frankly is not harmful to honeybees."

Boyne said the pesticide was sold for only about a year and most sales were in California, Arizona and Florida. The product is intended to disrupt the mating patterns of insects that threaten citrus, lettuce and grapes, he said.

Berenbaum's research shows pesticides are not the only problem. She said multiple viruses also are attacking the bees, making it tough to propose a single solution.

"Things are still heading downhill," she said.

For Browning, one of the country's largest commercial beekeepers, the latest woes have led to a $1 million loss this year.

"It's just hard to get past this," he said, watching as workers cleaned honey from empty wooden hives Monday. "I'm going to rebuild, but I have plenty of friends who aren't going to make it."


AT LEAST GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ARE GETTING INVOLVED AND PESTICIDES MIGHT NOT BE THE ONLY PROBLEM BUT THEY ARE A
HUGE
PART

We need to put as much energy into this problem as we do trying to make Afghanistan into something it can't be.

CCD concerns our food supply.

Simple and clear problem.....not so simple and clear solution.....but The United States government needs to put 100 percent of it's energy into this situation
and they need to do it
NOW

Michael Timothy McAlevey


Monday, March 22, 2010

People seem to have different priorities

While Americans are intently debating how health insurance should work, the people of India are trying to figure out where to pee and poop.

A March 15th report issued by the United Nations stated that approximately 638 million people in India do not have basic sanitary facilities.

No toilets for 638 million people!

Imagine twice the population of America not having any place to go number one or number two.....except the street and the bushes next to the street.

Talk about something that would really affect our already slumping housing market.

I would think the Andy Gump corporation would read that report and go crazy. Imagine how many portable green toilets could be sold to India? They seem to have enough money to build certain weapons of total annihilation.

Did you forget for a second that India is a Nuclear Power?

Somewhere along the highway to insanity the priorities of Gunga Din's homeland got a bit twisted.

Back to our Health Care situation.

I'm not sure this entire fiasco wasn't planned by the Insurance companies.

Now 38 million more people will need to get insurance.

And it won't be through a government plan so therefore the insurance will have to be bought from......

INSURANCE COMPANIES

THERE WILL BE SOME NEW REGULATIONS REGARDING HOW THEY OPERATE BUT EACH AND EVERY PERSON IN THIS COUNTRY KNOWS THAT ONCE THE FINE PRINT IS READ, ON A POLICY, MOST LIKELY THE MAIN BENEFICIARY WILL BE THE COMPANY ISSUING THE POLICY.

There is an art to conducting business in corporate America and companies have figured out a long time ago how to manipulate the system.

I just find it hard to believe that there wasn't one Republican in the House or the Senate that thought this Health Care Reform Bill was worth a try.

NOT ONE!

34 Democrats were not sure and voted against it......but not one Republican thought health care reform might be a good idea.

I think that says a lot about the two parties and perhaps a whole lot about the middle of the road mentalities that don't seem to exist in the political arena.

I do wish Ted Kennedy had been alive to see this historic vote....but in the non-physical reality arena he's probably toasting one with his brothers right now.

NOT ONE REPUBLICAN!

Odd.....or typical behavior?

638 million people with Nuclear weapons but no toilets?????????????????

Odd....or typical behavior?

Michael Timothy McAlevey