On this weeks episode of Expanded Perspectives the guys start the show off talking about how bee populations around the world have been in decline for years due to a number of reasons that make it extremely difficult to fix the problem. Urban development, insecticides, fungicides, illness, climate change, and many other factors have been determined to be responsible for the decline in bee populations. This week, the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership and the Apiary Inspectors of America published their annual survey of 4,963 beekeepers in the United States and it seems that we still have a problem. But it was a slightly better year for our vital pollinating friends. Then, millions of Americans say they engage in extreme binge drinking — or downing at least eight to 10 drinks containing alcohol on a single occasion — and the behavior appears to be on the rise in the U.S., according to a new report. The findings are concerning because this high level of drinking is linked with health and safety risks, including an increased risk of injury or even death, according to the researchers, from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The study "reveals that a large number of people in the United States drink at very high levels and underscores the dangers associated with such 'extreme' binge drinking," George F. Koob, director of the NIAAA, said in a statement. The researchers analyzed information from more than 36,000 Americans ages 18 and older who completed a survey about their alcohol consumption in 2012 to 2013. The researchers asked the participants to report the maximum number of alcoholic drinks they consumed on a single day in the past year. Binge drinking was defined as consuming four or more drinks on a single occasion (for women), or five or more drinks on a single occasion (for men), while extreme binge drinking was defined as consuming double those amounts, or more.

Then, for years, scientists have debated whether heavy inland snowfall on the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet — Earth’s largest — balances out the rapid melting in West Antarctica. Given enough snowfall, the continent might not yet be contributing to sea level rise. Most research shows the melt rate is so high that the continent is indeed losing ice. But in 2015, a group of NASA scientists published a controversial study that found Antarctica was instead gaining ice. The NASA team combined space- and land-based measurements and found so much snow dropping in East Antarctica that even with drastic melting elsewhere, the continent was adding some 80 billion tons of ice annually. It contradicted prominent previous findings — including reports from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The result drew global headlines and excited climate change skeptics. That’s despite warnings from the study’s lead author, NASA Goddard’s chief cryospheric scientist Jay Zwally, who predicted that melting would outpace increased snowfall in a decade or two. Then, An Arizona witness traveling by train through Apache County reported watching and photographing six hovering, “two-story” objects beaming light to the ground level.

After the break Cam brings up the incredible tale of "The Black Flash". Shadowy figures have long haunted the pages of history. From ghosts to goblins to things less mentionable, the human psyche has a habit of inventing monsters to inhabit the dark reaches of the unknown. Several such figures have been chronicled: the Halifax Slasher, the London Monster, and Spring-Heeled Jack, to name a few. Today, we’ll be adding another cloaked and hooded terror to the rogue’s gallery, this one known by a name straight out of a comic book: the Black Flash. All of this and more on this weeks episode of Expanded Perspectives!
Show Notes:

A Third of America's Bee Colonies Died Last Year and That's Good News
Extreme Binge Drinking Is On the Rise in the US
Is Antarctica Gaining or Losing Ice?