I thought it was an interesting coincidence that I was sent the following two articles, in this order, earlier this morning:
From Josh Schneider: Minneapolis Star-Tribune– disappearing bees means disappearing food supply, and human extinction
From Michelle: Astronomers discover the most Earth-like planet yet, a mere 120 trillion miles away

My brief commentary on each, respectively:
The bees— this shit should scare the crap out of you. Bees = pollination = plant growth = people & animals eating = successful ecosystem. You take out the first step in that process, and you’re basically boned. Big, big, big trouble.

The planet— very interesting discovery. Although it is, of course, impossible to ever visit this place (or the myriad other extra-solar planets being discovered), the fact that so many have been found in so brief a period of time is really exciting to me. It was only 10 or 15 years ago that I was reading articles in which prominent astronomers held a very “solar-centric” opinion: that our planetary system itself was unique and science would be hard-pressed to even FIND A PLANET ELSEWHERE, let alone one that might support life. It really lends a ton of value to projects like the California and Carnegie Extrasolar Planet Search, as well as SETI.