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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Oil Train Derails in Minnesota; Honey Bees

Reuters is reporting:

Data points:
  • Canadian Pacific; not said whether Canadian oil or Bakken oil
  • western Minnesota, near Parkers Prairie
  • 14 cars of a 94-car train derailed
  • first estimates: 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of oil; field, not water spill
  • CNP says only one car is leaking fuel
  • sheriff: train approx 5,700 feet in length or 1.7 kilometers (to mix units of measurement); hauling up to 2.4 million gallons of crude (2.4 million/94 cars = 25,000 gallons of crude/car, or about 600 bbls/car)
A reader thought it somewhat ironic that the spill took place in a "green" state.
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A Note for the Granddaughters

Regular readers know that my older granddaughter and I love to read about honey bees. And there's an added benefit: she knows I will buy her "specialty" honeys. Wow, she loves honey. And I love to Socratically discuss bees with her. She's a good conversationalist.

So, Don sent me the link to this story, knowing my granddaughter's interest in bees and honey: a human interest story about a man and his sons who "farm" 10,000 beehives in Minnesota / North Dakota and winter their bees northwest of Houston, TX. They live in Clearbrook, MN, which should ring a bell for those who follow the Bakken. Carrington, North Dakota is well east of the Bakken.

I learned about bees, bee-keeping, and honey from Sue Hubbell's 1988 book, A Book of Bees.

It was a real treat to learn the history of African / Africanized bees which I happened to run across in Ring T Carde and Vincent H Resh's book, A World of Insects, 2012.