Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Show Tours, Reunites Cast

They must be getting on a bit. First broadcast 1978! I remember hearing it, must have been repeated around 1980, one of my first memories

Never have I wanted a demo of a game more than this; it sounds fucking excellent (assuming you haven't actually paid any money for it).

The matchmaking system sometimes works, which is the highest praise anything in this game gets

Never have I wanted a demo of a game more than this; it sounds fucking excellent (assuming you haven't actually paid any money for it).

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – Northern California scientists say they have found a possible explanation for a honey bee die-off that has decimated hives around the world: A parasitic fly that hijacks the bees' bodies and causes them to abandon hives.

Scientists say the fly deposits its eggs into the bee's abdomen, causing the infected bee to exhibit zombie-like behavior by walking around in circles with no apparent sense of direction. The bee leaves the hive at night and dies shortly thereafter.

The symptoms mirror colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly disappear.

The disease is of great concern, because bees pollinate about a third of the United States' food supply. Its presence is especially alarming in California, the nation's top producer of fruits and vegetables, where bees play an essential role in the $2 billion almond industry and other crops.

The latest study, published Tuesday in the science journal PLoS ONE, points to the parasitic fly as the new threat to honey bees. It's another step in ongoing research to find the cause of the disease.

Researchers haven't been able to pin down an exact cause of colony collapse or find a way to prevent it. Research so far points to a combination of factors including pesticide contamination, a lack of blooms — and hence nutrition — and mites, fungi, viruses and parasites.

Interaction among the parasite and multiple pathogens could be one possible factor in colony collapse, according to the latest study by researchers at San Francisco State University. It says the phorid fly, or apocephalus borealis, was found in bees from three-quarters of the 31 hives surveyed in the San Francisco Bay area.

The combination of a parasite, pathogens and other stressors could cause die-off, lead investigator John Hafernik said. The parasitic fly serves as a reservoir that harbors pathogens — honey bees from parasite-infected hives tested positive for deformed wing virus and other pathogens, the study found.

"We don't fully understand the web of interactions," Hafernik said. "The parasite could be another stressor, enough to push the bee over tipping point. Or it could play a primary role in causing the disease."

Hafernik stumbled onto the parasitic fly by accident. Three years ago, the biology professor looked for something to feed a praying mantis. He found some bees outside his classroom, placed them in a vial and forgot about them. When he looked at the vial a week later, he found dead bees surrounded by small fly pupae. A parasitic fly was feeding on the bees and had killed them, he said.

The fly is a known parasite in bumble bees. Scientists used DNA barcoding to confirm the parasite in the honey bees and bumble bees was the same species.

The fly might have recently expanded its host presence from bumble bees to honey bees, Hafernik said, making it an emerging threat to agricultural pollinators. The fact that honey bees live in large colonies placed in close proximity to one another and beekeepers frequently move the hives throughout the country could lead to an explosion of the fly population, he said.

The fly, which is found all over North America, could also become a threat to native bees.

Hafernik plans to expand his research to other parts of the country and to study the parasite's impact on agriculture in California's Central Valley.

Since it was recognized in 2006, colony collapse has destroyed colonies at a rate of about 30 percent per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Before that, losses were about 15 percent per year from a variety of pests and diseases.

You can buy beer in supermarkets in Utah, unlike Wyoming or Pennsylvania.

I'm not saying I totally agree with you, but it's worth noting that the final season was affected by the huge writer's strike of the time so they had to lose a few episodes from the usual series length and, presumably, compress the way they told the story. It's possible that with a couple of more hours of screentime to play with they'd have been able to set things up more believably?

Ultimate Carnage was great fun, a new good one with loads of mini games would have been welcomed as the only other fun looking arcadey racer coming out is that new Ridge Racer one.

I like to travel. Plus Don't you want to know where I have been

I meant the theme tunes.

I meant the theme tunes.

You might want to read my post a bit closer there dude...

I just figured Tammy was keeping an eye on you.

That's what I was replying to, rather than your post directly.

She was impressed with under two keystrokes per second?

Some ladies like you to take it slllloooooowwww.

She was impressed with under two keystrokes per second?

[edit]Now I want to find an online one so we can all have a go.

Anyway... It was rubbish compared to Typing of the Dead.

Last typing test I did showed me as typing at 138 words per minute with 97% accuracy.

I've probably got a bit slower since then.

There used to be an online keypress test thingy with racing cars.. You could race 4 other people at a time and words appeared above your car. Obviously the faster you typed, the faster your car went.

Anyway... It was rubbish compared to Typing of the Dead.

http://play.typeracer.com/

47 wpm
97% accuracy

First!

49wpm
100%

I got some Marmite chocolate for Christmas. I'm not so smitten.

Some one has brought in a box of Green & Blacks Organic Chocolate... I have never tried it before and I think I am in love!!

The butterscotch went quickly and I missed it.. Hazel nut and Current and Dark 85%... yumity yum..