Johannes has a better metaphor, but the photo is from iStock. - Ed. The Bumble Bee Effect. Different to the Butterfly Effect because they haven't made a movie of the same name with at least two sequels. The Bumble Bee effect is all about buzz and pollen. It's about being talked about. We successfully did so by putting on an earthquake (a really big one). There are other ways to create a buzz that are much more positive. Obvious buzz topics are awards, photographing the wedding of Kate and Prince William, standing tall in the face of adversity, scandal, heroism, and achievement. (Actually 'scandal' might not be considered as a positive buzz.) Pollen is the haploid male gametophyte generation of the plant and is produced in both angiosperms and gymnosperms through the process of meiosis. Pollen is produced in the male cones of gymnosperms and in the anthers of angiosperms. This is important stuff (thank you Wikipedia). Plants produce microscopic round or oval pollen grains to reproduce. In some species, the plant uses the pollen from its own flowers to fertilize itself. Other types must be cross-pollinated; that is, in order for fertilization to take place and seeds to form, pollen must be transferred from the flower of one plant to that of another plant of the same species. Insects do this job for certain flowering plants, while other plants rely on wind transport; agents that effect pollination are also known as vectors. The Pollen is really a metaphor for the fertilisation, and spreading of, ideas. Ideas are the buzz. When you think about it, The Bumble Bee Effect is straight out advertising, but in this age it includes being in places where people talk, like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc (the vectors). The Bumble Bee Effect is about the information and the way it gets around. A side effect of the pollination process is the gathering of honey (rhymes with ????), a sweet reward for the passing on of the message (pollen). This is the way of it all really. We are the often-inadvertent carriers of other people's buzz, but, if the world were a hive, we wouldn't mind because a smart bumble bee knows that it is all for a greater good. So here's the guts of it. Become talked about. Allow others to carry the message and be happy to carry the message of others. Cheers, Johannes PS On average a Bumble Bee flaps its wings 150 times a second.