Saving our Bumblebees

Lecture on Tuesday 31st January at the Dalhousie Building Lecture Theatre 1, University of Dundee :

Bumblebees are amongst the most important of wild pollinators; many wildflowers would not set seed without them, and they are the main pollinators of crops such as tomatoes, blueberries and raspberries. Concerningly, many bumblebees are in decline, with 3 species now extinct in the UK and the first global extinction recently occurring in USA.

Dave Goulson, Professor Of Biology (Evolution, Behaviour and Environment) at the University of Sussex, will discuss the drivers of these declines, and the many things we can all do to halt and reverse them, at the Biochemical Society sponsored lecture.

Dave has published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, and is author of ‘Bumblebees; their behaviour, ecology and conservation’ (2010, Oxford University Press) and ‘A Sting in the Tale’ (2013, Jonathan Cape), a popular science book about bumblebees.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2010 he was BBSRC “Social Innovator of the Year” and in 2013 he won the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology from the Zoological Society of London.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception from 5-6pm, giving the opportunity to meet with Dave in a more informal setting.

Tickets are free but should be booked in advance here.

Mahatma’s Samadhi gets a make over after 15 years for increased visitor engagement

For more than 10,000 domestic and foreign visitors who visit Mahatma Gandhiji’s Samadhi at Rajghat in the national capital every day, there is nothing

Text of PM’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on All India Radio on January 29, 2017

China launches emergency measures over missing boat in Malaysia

File photo shows the port in Kota Kinabalu (KK). [Photo/Xinhua]

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) on Sunday activated emergency measures after a boat carrying mainly Chinese tourists was reported to have gone missing in Malaysia.

An emergency team led by a deputy chief of the administration has been set up to deal with the incident, according to a CNTA statement.

The administration is checking the information of the tourists, and the staff in its Singapore office are preparing to search the area where the boat went missing, the statement said.

A boat carrying 31 people, among them more than 20 tourists from China, lost contact with marine authorities after it left a port in Kota Kinabalu (KK) in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah to Pulau Mengalum, a popular tourist island 60 km west of KK, on Saturday, the Consulate General of China in KK said Sunday.

It is not clear yet what caused the disappearance of the boat, but an official from the Chinese consulate said there was unfavorable weather condition Saturday.

Beijing parks receive 180,000 tourists on Spring Festival

Beijing’s 11 municipal parks and the Museum of Chinese Garden and Landscape Architecture received a total of 180,000 tourists on Saturday, the first day of the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival.

During the Spring Festival public holiday, a string of events and activities, such as winter sports and flower exhibitions, are being held across Beijing’s parks. Many Beijingers have said that visiting parks is on their holiday “must do” list.

Taoranting Park reported 40,000 visitors, while the Temple of Heaven Park and the Summer Palace saw 30,000 tourists each, according to the Beijing parks office.

Spring Festival is the most important festival in China.