BRING BACK THE SMOKE FILLED ROOMS

SHAMS

       With apologies if I start sounding like an old goat, but the political conventions today are nothing like they used to be.
        Coming of age as a journalist when I did gave me a chance to cover conventions with things like floor fights, battles over credentials, platform debates and open challenges.  A generation before me there was actual suspense about who'd get the nomination and on what ballot. I saw that at the state level, but the drama at the national conventions was about issues. At least when I started.  
       The last national convention I covered was the start of what they have now become, staged, public relations spectacles.  I remember grousing about it with Larry King and Peter Jennings as we took hallway breaks outside the "Skyboxes".   Our body clocks must have been on the same time zone because we headed to the men's room about the same time. "Here we go again," King would intone.
         At my first convention I had pretty much free access to the convention floor and all of the delegations for the whole week.  By the time of the last "coronation" as they were called, the media was kept in a building a block away, allowed only timed and limited access to the floor, and moved in sequestered zones. 
        In the early days we could see and hear protest demonstrators.  By the last convention they had been moved so far out of sight none of the candidates or delegates might even know they were around.  These events have become managed to the point it is a sham to call them a convention.
        At one of the mid 70 conventions, it might have been the issues convention in 75 or the New York gathering that nominated Jimmy Carter in 76, there was a lot of speculation about the intentions of the Black Caucus headed by Ron Dellums and a feminist contingent headed by Bella Abzug.  The question was about what they would vote on a particular plank.  Delegates and the media were speculating about what Dellums and Abzug would do.  I was walking through the lobby of the hotel where a meeting was scheduled. I spotted a delegate credential, on a chain,  laying on the floor.  I picked up the credential and started toward the desk where I intended to turn it in.  However on the way through the lobby I spotted Dellums, Abzug and others marching into a salon meeting room.  I squeezed into the pack, holding the delegate credential in the air, while trying to cover my own media credential. The caucus was "closed" to delegates only.  
      I stood there listening, and was obvious about making notes on my reporters notebook.  No one seemed to take offense. They decided they would be united on the issue and that both would have a chance to speak.  The caucus adjourned.
      I almost sprinted back to the working news center-in those days almost all of the media was housed in the same large working space, with little warrens of feed centers and edit spaces off to the side in cubicles. I was reporting for a group of radio stations and I filed my report into a special phone line.  I remember Jack Nelson, who went on to win a Pulitzer, asking me  "Where'd you get that?"
       I told him the circumstances.  By this time Walter Mears, also now a Pulitzer winner, seemed interested. In those days, for many of us, the story didn't really register with our headquarters until it appeared on the AP wire with a Walter Mears by-line. His putting it on the wire gave an event a kind of sanction with editors and producers miles away and out of touch.  Nelson asked me to repeat how I got it.  I did.  He and Mears smiled.  They were the big boys, I was just a kid, but I beat 'em that day.
       Chance of that sort of thing occurring again?  Nada.  The Republicans wont even let one of their own, Ron Paul, address the convention.  Despite winning about 8-10% of the Republican Primary votes, he's being shut out.  That wouldn't have happened, back in the good old days, when conventions were really conventions!
       

DAY FILE

THE QUEEN'S CHAMBER

     A few of you have asked about the bees.  They appear to be prospering with their new young queen.  When Michael did his last check of the frames he spotted the queen's chamber.  It looks a bit like a thrown earthen ware vase or jug.

    Now that our bee keepers have found the queen and are pleased with the latest inspection, your reporter is waiting for the honey to appear!

      See you down the trail.

LIFE, DEATH, POWER

LESSONS OF THE HIVE

     You may have noted the questions raised in The Weekender :) by a friend who was fascinated with the succession issues involved with a queen bee.
      He is an exceedingly bright guy with a philosophical depth and curiosity. A life of government, politics and power gives him a particular skew and I was as intrigued by his questions and observations as I was by the incredibly fascinating and complex nature of the bee hive.
      It was fun when he moved to summary pondering with implications for the human animal.

Doesn't it make you consider nature's apparent ambivalence to violence?  There is no negative stigma attached to the murder of the queen.  We see drama there and have feelings about it, but these "feelings" have no place in nature, at least not in a bee hive. 

When was it that human consciousness crossed this line  -- before which "we" had no emotional or psychological reaction to violence and the death or ostracization of a "fellow" man.   And how long after that did we rationalize these "feelings" with a philosophy or code that held that each life was valuable for its own sake -- and is this good?  Or was it just a rationalization of emotions?  (Surely the intellectual philosophy did not precede the emotional.)

The God of the old testament certainly wasn't big on the value of each individual life.  He wipes people off the planet regardless of individual culpability in the flood.  Or perhaps everyone WAS culpable -- as in Sodom and Gomorrah.  But the Israelites go around surprise attacking every other people of the Levant until they control the ground.  And in these battles, (not to mention the ones between Israel and Judea later, the men of whole towns were killed willy nilly just because they were there -- the only practical thing to do.

The development of conscience in this matter is just fascinating.     

    This sort of gets the brain in gear doesn't it?  I wrote back to him that we obviously part ways with the instinctive order of succession, probably by virtue of something in our DNA.
     Do you think we are born with an aversion to killing or with some "code" wired into us that values life or navigates us to considering life sacred? Or is it all learned?  Or both?
     Next time you see a bee hive, consider the rather matter of fact, by the book, order of power underway inside. Bet they don't debate philosophy.
     And another thought on this matter.  This blue planet is dependent on bees being true to their nature.  You can't say that for humans.  In fact the planet would do just fine without us. We need the bees.  They don't need us.

     

DAY FILE

ART SALON AT WISE OWL

   Our friend Paulo, impresario of the Wise Owl, turned his wine bar patio over to local artists this weekend.  Champagne, Proseco, sparkling wine flowed as tourists and Cambrians enjoyed blue skies, sunshine and a wide array of California art.  In the frame below a group of friends and artists "hold forth."

Another adventure in the eclectic village.
See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) OF NATURE & HUMANS

ABOUT THIS THING OF 'NATURE'

AND PATHS TAKEN

    The WEEKENDER:) ponders the path we choose.  Given choices, we decide which way to go, or what to do.

   Here's an amusing example, forwarded by old pal and longtime social observer =w=.  He is a frequent contributor to our comments section.

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?

FOR THE MORE ESOTERIC

     The recent posts regarding the bee hive and the status of the Queen, brought an interesting set of questions from a  friend, who has spent a career around power, politics and government.  His is the small print questions in white blocks.  The answers are from Michael Reddell, the beekeeper extraordinaire here on the Central Coast.

 Would like to know more about how Queens are "made"

When one of three things happen, the bees begin to produce queen cells in the brood nest. When worker eggs are laid, they are fed royal jelly for a couple of days. After that, workers are then fed honey and fermented pollen. When they decide it's time for a new queen, they choose up to a dozen normal worker eggs and feed them royal jelly exclusively for their entire development. This is the single factor that distinguishes infertile workers from fertile queens in their development. The three things that trigger queen-making are:

• Loss of the existing queen
• Infertility or drone-only egg production by the existing queen
• Over-crowding. This triggers the preparation for the division of the crowded hive into two hives. In order to have two hives there must be two queens, thus a new one is grown by the dietary change described above. This division process is known as swarming, and there's a whole separate discussion around that.

and how the hive knows to "kill" its queen -- who decides?  does she go gracefully -- Inca style.   Or kicking and screaming?

Anytime two queens encounter each other face to face, a deadly battle ensues. Usually the younger of the two prevails. In the case of overcrowding, about half the bees leave the hive with the old queen a few days before the new queens begin to hatch. If they stuck around, the new queen would kill the old queen and the swarm would not be able to leave.

In the cases where swarming is not the goal, the new queen kills the old queen. New virgin queens are relatively small and nimble compared to old laying queens and always prevail in battle. Also, the early age developmental task of a new-born queen is killing other queens. For the older queens that impulse is less intense, although always present to some degree.

Is there only ONE descendant candidate to replace the Q?

OR is their War of the Roses-style regicide in store for competing claimants?

Whenever the bees make a new queen, they grow around a dozen candidates. Usually, but not always, the first to hatch prevails, but when two or more hatch at about the same time, it's a bit like a wrestling match. The first to get an advantageous position in the struggle wins. Due to issues of anatomy, it's nearly impossible for two queens to sting each other simultaneously, meaning someone always prevails. Queens that are still in their queen cells are usually attacked and killed before they have a chance to get out of the cell.  After all this, the new queen settles in for around 5 days before going on mating flights. She mates with several drones high in the air, then returns to the hive, never to leave again unless with a swarm.

    So, is there something to take from this as regards
human behavior and motive?  The comments in response 
from my friend turn some difficult questions of their own.
That, in a future post.
     See you down the trail.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN

QUEEN FOUND

MYSTERY SOLVED

     As you may recall when last we left our bee hive there

was concern that no Queen was in residence.  The colony appeared healthy and vibrant, but no queen even though there was evidence that larvae might be present.  "Odd" is how bee expert and advisor, Ian left things, "really odd."

     Well, Ian and his mentor, 30 year bee keeper Michael, paid a visit to look things over.  They even brought a Queen, in the carrier below.

   Michael confirmed Ian's assessment, there indeed had been a Queen's cell, now abandoned.  It is now useless.

    As they continued to study the hive, they saw more signs of a Queenly presence, but not until they were well into the 

hive did they make the great discovery.  

   There was Queenie-a nice sized and young queen. She is the large bee in the center of the frame.  Though partially covered by wings, you can see she is larger than the others.

   She is the large bee, again just below the middle of the frame. She is also more blond. 

  She's in the same relative location in both of the remaining frames.  

  Ian and Michael say she is "a good looking queen."   Further inspection found more evidence of larvae, so the colony should be fine.  But there is a fascinating back story.

  They speculate this hive just recently, in the last day or two, made this queen. On first inspection we could not find her, because she is brand new, just born.  

   One of two things probably happened, the old queen either died, or quit producing off spring and was killed, so a new fertile Queen could take over. Both experts say it is better for a hive to produce its own Queen rather than bring one in from the outside. That is true to a point.  After 3 or 4 generations, apparently the DNA or gene pool can be over drawn and you can begin to experience problems.  More Bee drama in that case.   

   As the distant observer, I'm waiting for this hive of Blond Italians  to start making enough honey that their documentarian can share the sweet goody.  

   BTW, I'm told they are a different group from our original Blond Italians who simply disappeared. They either were weakened from with in and were overpowered by marauders or simply swarmed away, for any number of reasons.  Who knew the Bees were so much like human Royalty.  Intrigue, inbreeding, palace coups, roaming bandits.

    The drama buzzes here on the ridge.

    See you down the trail. 
    HERE IS A LATE POST SCRIPT-NOTICE THE COMMENT BELOW FROM MICHAEL, WITH SOME CLARIFICATIONS.

THE BEE MYSTERY

WHAT'S WITH THE HIVE?

      Regular readers of Light/Breezes may recall earlier postings about our hive of Blond Italian Bees from Glenn California.  These are the same gentle bees that suddenly disappeared after apparently being attacked by interlopers. 
      All at once we had an empty hive, our Blond Italians no where to be found.  We waited a while, but the hive remained quiet.  Lana was tipped by George, a northern California bee keeper to put out a little lemon grass oil to see if it would attract a swarm.  It did indeed, some of these guys are included in that number.

    We asked Ian, a local bee keeper and expert to take a look at our new swarm and to check out conditions in our re-located hive.

     Ian found a full and productive hive. Evidence of honey being made, but mysteriously no sign of a queen.  He found
the beginnings of a queen's "condo", but no sign of a queen.

 In his Kiwi accent, he noted a couple of times that it was
"odd."  So now the mystery has taken another turn, an odd turn.  A busy and seemingly productive hive without a queen in command. What does that mean?  Stay tuned.

See you down the trail.