Oh look, it's the apocalypse! LOL.

Still no love for the bees in the Northwest. Colony Collapse Disorder is still affecting beekeepers. This is problematic in the extreme because, you know, no bees, no flowers. On the upside, bees managed in a non-industrial manner tend to be less affected by CCD. I'm not entirely convinced as the beekeepers on our island are still reporting problem and are responding with Russian bees and, according to the nice lady at the nursery, treating their hives with ever increasing doses of antibiotics. I'm certain that this will not result in hardier mites.

Annnnd, the salmon are dying. And not in the delicious way. Stocks of chinook are pretty much depleted and it looks like the season is going to be called off. "This will be devastating to the communities and families on the coast that rely on salmon fishing for their livelihood,” Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski said. While true, I can't help but think about how similar this situation sounds to the ecological disasters I read about as a child in even-then-dated books on futurism (remember that?) from the 1970s. Seems like a bitter victory for them long-haired treehugger types, doesn't it?

The New York Times reports that survivalism is quite the thing nowadays. I can't say that this is a bad thing, especially in light of the response to Katrina. Anecdotally, I know that at an assembly of librarians in my grad school cohort, five of twenty-five people in attendance were making plans for some degree of social or infrastructural collapse. The winners were Lauren and I and a buddy of mine who's a big fan of Burning Man.

I am, it seems, a little cranky. Fortunately, we've recently added a new book to our library that makes me happy. Also, the chickens have moved outside and having fewer livestock in the house will definitely improve my mood. Also, I got rid of the option to have my browser render all web pages with an enormous picture of Jakob Nielsen to every page I look at. It's better this way.