Ongoing research

When the week is about butterflies instead of guerrilla attacks, murderous rampages, measles outbreaks, and deflated footballs, it's a good week. Butterflies draw smiles instead of scowls, pleasure instead of pain, glee instead of grief. So, here's Part 1 of the good news.

From Sam: Clark Labs is shipping their new software: TerrSet. They say: TerrSet - a new name, a new concept and a wealth of advances. Clark Labs is pleased to announce that the TerrSet software is now shipping.

From Live Science. Two new maps released Jan. 16 considerably improve estimates of the amount of land farmed in the world one map reveals the world's agricultural lands to a resolution of 1 kilometer, and the other provides the first look at the sizes of the fields being used for agriculture.

Where, oh where, is that first bumble bee of the year? It's about this time of the year when the queen black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, and the queen yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, emerge.

Included is the Home Ec Review entry form, schedule of events, rules, and scoresheets. Entry deadline is February 13th to the 4-H Office.

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A local Santa Barbara backyard grower has been experimenting with many different apple varieties and has found some unusual success at growing a wide variety of them that according to their published chilling hours requirements should not do well in Southern California.

They say: With the launch of this new journal, Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment focuses on providing a platform for describing innovative methods and scientific results from the application of remote sensing technology to a wide range of societal and environmental relevant topics...

The honey bees are hungry. Those venturing out from their colonies as the temperatures edge toward 55 degrees or more aren't finding much. It's the dead of winter. Spring seems so distant. But wait, the flowering quince is blooming.

"Helping Bees Stand on Their Own Six Feet." Yes, honey bees have six feet, and that's the title of a keynote speech to be presented May 9 at the University of California, Davis by Distinguished McKnight Professor and 2010 MacArthur Fellow Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota.