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Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

cnn.com

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Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#131

Post by bavell »

fullstop wrote: post #24
johnisgood wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My love for bees is more about their behavior (similar to how I find ants fascinating), and their "products" that is honey, propolis, beeswax, and so on. I am simply fascinated by their behaviors, and propolis is very healthy!

I have always been enamored with "social" insects like bees, wasps, and ants. I _loved_ SimAnt as a child. It also blows my mind that I utterly balk at eating insects but bee vomit is totally cool.

SimAnt and SimEarth were my faves as a kid!

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#133

Post by xnx »

sitkack wrote: post #4

We are learning so many wonderful things about Bees! They can count https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21222227 Bees play https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33369572 https://www.science.org/content/article/are-these-bumble-bee... All of this reinforces my belief that nearly everything is conscious and aware, we differ in a capabilities and resolution but we are all more similar than we are different. Spider Cogni…

This is also what upsets me most about habitat destruction (aka global warming). We're burning books (making species extinct) that we haven't even read yet.

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#134

Post by Loughla »

dhosek wrote: post #72
Loughla wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing up on a farm taught me that animals are absolutely able to think and learn. Not in the same way as humans, but I'm fully convinced there are degrees of consciousness. Watching new calves play in spring meadows is one of the most purely joyful things you can ever see. They have best friends and will avoid playing with other calves until their friend comes to play with them.

There’s a part of me that speculates that the kashrut laws are meant to rule out eating the most intelligent animals (pigs, cetaceans, cephalopods).

I had a college professor who steadfastly believed that pork was a no go because pigs get sunburned. Not because they're resource and time intensive. Not because they're intelligent and weirdly similar to humans.

Sunburns.

I have no idea

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#135

Post by Loughla »

aunty_helen wrote: post #68
Loughla wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing up on a farm taught me that animals are absolutely able to think and learn. Not in the same way as humans, but I'm fully convinced there are degrees of consciousness. Watching new calves play in spring meadows is one of the most purely joyful things you can ever see. They have best friends and will avoid playing with other calves until their friend comes to play with them.

Or that cows can quickly determine when an electric fence isn’t working and rampage a winter feed paddock in an hour.

Cows seem to inherently know when it's down, and choose rainy nights exclusively to go on a tear around the neighbor's fields instead of my own.

We had pigs for one terrible year. Pigs know when the electric fence is down because the sociopaths regularly push each other into it. I think they do it to a) test the defense and b) because they're bastards that enjoy watching other creatures suffer.

I hate pigs entirely, by the way. We raised them for one year and decided they weren't worth the hassle. They're the worst.

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#136

Post by nextaccountic »

ilt wrote: post #20
sitkack wrote: post #4

We are learning so many wonderful things about Bees! They can count https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21222227 Bees play https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33369572 https://www.science.org/content/article/are-these-bumble-bee... All of this reinforces my belief that nearly everything is conscious and aware, we differ in a capabilities and resolution but we are all more similar than we are different. Spider Cogni…

Consciousness is a spectrum.

Then maybe orcas are much more conscious than us?

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#137

Post by angiolillo »

MangoToupe wrote: post #125
angiolillo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "tastier" do you mean more physically pleasurable because you could ensure the animal's good health, ethically preferable because you could ensure a (mostly) good life, emotionally enjoyable because you can fondly remember interacting with them, or something else?

I mean the goats I have today I only have because we bred them to be useful to us, and that being neurotic about the food we eat rarely helps any living thing. Of course I treat my goats well, and I love them. But this doesn't factor much into the ethics of why we eat them in the first place. If I didn't eat them they wouldn't exist. The entire problem is close to nonsensical.

I'm still not sure how that makes them "maybe even tastier" when you raise them yourself?

> If I didn't eat them they wouldn't exist.

Does that mean that if I bring something into existence that anything I choose do to it is therefore ethical, or is eating special? (To be clear, I think there are a number of solid arguments for eating animals, I just don't think that's one of them.)

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#138

Post by aunty_helen »

Loughla wrote: post #135
aunty_helen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or that cows can quickly determine when an electric fence isn’t working and rampage a winter feed paddock in an hour.

Cows seem to inherently know when it's down, and choose rainy nights exclusively to go on a tear around the neighbor's fields instead of my own. We had pigs for one terrible year. Pigs know when the electric fence is down because the sociopaths regularly push each other into it. I think they do it to a) test the defense and b) because they're bastards that enjoy watching other creatures suffer. I hate pigs entirely,…

Dangerous too. Pigs and bulls, not worth the risk.

Give me a dumbass sheep any day over something that with chase you from one side of a paddock to the other trying to kill you the whole time.

Re: Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

#139

Post by uslic001 »

I started beekeeping with my first hive in April this year. I find it very fascinating. It has helped me control my emotions as you have to be calm around them. Knock on wood, I have not been stung yet (I always suit up when I open the hive). My hive is thriving, but I did not harvest any honey to make sure they make it through their first winter. I have been fighting small hive beetles but so far have not had any significant infestation of varroa mites.
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