Vacation Mode, On!

The Now I Know Week in Review

Monday: Why “1984” Debuted in 1983: The pre-history of an iconic advertisement. 

Tuesday: The Musician Whose Big Break Was a Broken Instrument: The story behind the viral hit "United Breaks Guitars."

Wednesday: Münchausen by Internet: On the Internet, no one can tell you're a dog. Or if you really even exist.

Thursday: How To Get Your Customers Drunk and Take Them for a Ride: Welcome aboard the gin train.

And some other things you should check out:

Flying under the radar of the United States National Highway System is a parallel yet equally intricate and perilous transport network, one focused on the humble honey bee. 

Every February, hundreds of thousands of domesticated honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies are shuttled on flatbed trucks from the Northern Great Plains, an area stretching from Minnesota to Montana, to California. After the bees pollinate key crops like almonds, they get sent back up North to access high-quality forage for the summer. Pre-pandemic, the honey bee pollination industry was an annual 300 million USD business, nearly as much as the honey industry; however, during an average winter, around one out of every three of these colonies will entirely die off. Why?