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Genetic Improvement of Honey Bee Output

The worldwide threat to the survival of honey bees is still here, but work on improving honey production continues. Selection of the best queen bees ironically has not been done in the past. If breeding queens only of the highest yielding hives is done, output per hive could increase by a kilogram a year. Genetic improvement in cattle has not been a one-off. The gain is cumulative each year. For this gain to be achieved small producers will have to come on board so old poor stock will not be "kept alive". Tests show that the queen bee is the main depository of better genes. Input from males is relatively stable with little change. External factors such as hive location and length of season do affect the quantity of honey, but gene selection would raise output overall. The Genetic Evaluation of Australian Honeybee report recommends the method of data collection and evaluation. Breeders must get into the habit of keeping data. The industry needs to be reformed away fr

Being Overweight Makes You Shorter

Young women are becoming shorter. This not just from the weight pulling one down and stooping, i.e., bending over at the shoulder. It is because girls have a poor diet and are overweight. They do not grow to their full potential height. Women in the 18 to 24 are 1.1cm shorter on average than their mothers. Oddly, young men have "shrunk" by only 0.2xm when compared to their fathers. The reason for this discrepancy is not yet known. Today this age group of women is 27 per cent fatter than the same age group in 1995. This is a larger gain than people of all other groups. The main problem is that young women do not eat foods that contain calcium - thus the spine bends and compresses. They eat "on the run", consuming just about anything that is tasty and fills them up. Preparing meals is not something young women do. Furthermore, fad diets are notoriously lacking in essential vitamins and minerals. It is older women who are doing the exercise. The