This certainly comes as a surprise. The Catholic church in not only supporting stem cells research, but it is also now funding it (at least one project). From Science (Nov 23, 2007):

With the support of the pope and the Italian Episcopal Conference, which represents all the bishops of Italy, Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni announced last week that he has provided University of Milan-Bicocca researcher Angelo Vescovi with €380,000 to isolate stem cells from naturally miscarried fetuses and test whether the cells can help people afflicted with multiple sclerosis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

I don't know if there are any additional challenges with this compared to regular embryonic stem cell research. But considering the past opposition of the Church, this is indeed a positive development:

It's the first time Italy's Catholic Church, which has strongly opposed embryonic stem cell work and all in vitro fertilization practices, has funded any stem cell research, says Vescovi, who openly sided against ES cell research in a 2005 referendum in Italy. The overall project will cost about €2 million, and Vescovi says the remaining funds have been pledged by private and public sources. He now seeks regulatory approval in Europe or the United States to start clinical testing of his fetal stem cells in the next few months.

This morning when I went in to get Ava, I picked her up out of her crib and asked, "How are you this morning?"

Her reply (no joke), "Wet. Soaked."

And she wasn't kidding.

Splurge on Soy:

I have only had soy milk maybe once or twice in my life, but I might just have to make the switch. VitaSoy has come up with Peppermint Chocolate Soy Milk. I think I'd even put it on Cheerios.

First a caution: Turkey has NOT taken any action yet. But an Istanbul prosecutor is indeed looking into the matter:

A prosecutor is investigating whether to prosecute the Turkish publisher of a best-selling book by atheist writer Richard Dawkins for inciting religious hatred, reports said Wednesday.

Publisher Erol Karaaslan said Wednesday he would be questioned by an Istanbul prosecutor as part of an official investigation into "The God Delusion" written by the British expert in evolutionary biology.

But how does The God Delusion incite violence? Yes, it is anti-religion and it does point out violence in the name of religion - but does that count as incitement? Ah...there is the issue of the attack on "sacred values":

Karaaslan could go on trial if the prosecutor concludes the book incites religious hatred and insults religious values, and faces up to one year in prison if found guilty, Milliyet newspaper reported.

The prosecutor started the inquiry into the book after one reader complained that passages in the book were an assault on "sacred values," Karaaslan said.

Karaaslan said he will be questioned Thursday and faces prosecution both as the book's publisher and translator. The book has sold some 6,000 copies in Turkey since it was published by his Kuzey publishing house in June.

Lets see if Turkey keeps its sanity. It is one of the more moderate Muslim countries, and it would be a huge step backwards if it gets into this unnecessary controversy. There is always a freedom of not reading a book - just don't buy it. But I'm actually impressed that a Turkish press actually published The God Delusion. I was also surprised to see copies of it in some bookstores in Pakistan this past summer. But it was in English and that is ok. Trouble can start only if it ever gets translated in Urdu.

But Turkey was just involved in another idiotic controversy over author Orhan Pamuk:

Pamuk went on trial over his comments about the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the early 20th century, but the charges were later dropped. Pamuk was later awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 2006.

On, the positive side, who knows Dawkins may also get a Nobel Prize after this.

Thanks to 3quarksdaily for the link, and read the full story here.

I am so excited about this new website that I found, I'm going to keep this post short so that you can spend your time checking it out.

TasteBook.com combines two of my favorite things: books and food; and another thing that I admire but am still working to achieve: organization.

A glimpse:

• An easy way to organize and display all of your favorite recipes (including those you're sure to find at TasteBook)
• Personalization that makes it the perfect GIFT (timely!), the perfect CHRONICLE (legacy!), and the perfect SENTIMENT (a little bit of you!)

I prefer handmade efforts and artifacts, but this product will more than do in a pinch. It's definitely worth a look--and even if you don't buy, you'll have fun designing and delighting in all the options--taste, sight, and touch alike!

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I've been meaning to post a yoga update for a bit (because I know you're just so interested in my progress): I am pretty much a proficient headstander. On demand. Give me carpet, give me a yoga mat, give me grass--I'll give you a wall-free headstand. Really. I don't know what that has to do with stretching but I can do it. I swear.

And if I can do that, then the rest of you can pretty much do anything. So pick it...whatever you want to do and with little steps and a little sweat, you'll be doing it in no time. I promise.

::

Splurge-not, waste-not:

Charity Navigator has posted its highest and lowest rated charities making it easy to give--and guaranteeing that others will get.

Hello Folks! I'm Sheri Burns. David and I are happy to share a little bit about our beekeeping business with you. David asked me to share some things today about selling honey and what I enjoy about our bee business.

I work in the bee yard on occasion, when I'm needed. While the bees did bother me some in the beginning, I quickly got used to them and are not bothered by them at all now. I have never gotten stung by the bees while working with them, but have asked David to sting me at times to help with some occasional joint pain. After the first sting or two, you get used to it! I have learned not to fling my arms around them and never wear perfume or hairspray while working with them. Gentle, purposeful movements are key to working with the bees but no matter how careful you are, you may get stung. Just part of the business!

Regarding selling honey, you have to develop a clientele. There are many ways to develop a clientele, such as posters in area stores, ads in your newspapers, etc. Tell the groups you participate in (community groups, school groups, committees, etc.) that you have honey to sell. Email all your friends about your honey and have them pass it on! We, of course, always have a booth at area festivals and in addition to the honey we sell, we make sure we have magnets for people to put on their refrigerator so they can remember where they got that good honey! We also have small displays we put in some area stores, and most work places allow you to do the same as well. You can also try calling your local newspaper and seeing if they would like to do a newspaper article on your business or farming venture. This will generate a lot of interest.

Another idea is to let scout troops or classes come out for an educational project and make sure you send home literature with them for their folks! If you have teaching abilities, you may wish to consider putting on some "beekeeping" workshops and generate some business at the same time. And of course don't forget to put out a big sign in your yard to advertise so people can stop in and buy!

Mostly we sell our honey from our bee farm, but we do have some displays in area stores. You can also have booths at local fairs. By reading your newspapers, generally you will find articles announcing area events with vendor information. After you are at a festival or fair the first year, the organizing group will typically automatically send you information the following year for vending at their activity again.

It is important to have good presentation by attractively bottling your honey. Bottles can be purchased from any major beekeeping supply house. However, you must take into consideration the price, as well as shipping costs. In addition, many companies will not ship glassware to you but if they do, you will typically take that at your own risk (so in other words, if it breaks the company will not replace it). Plastic can be pricey, especially with the lids so a better idea may be to go with glass canning jars you can buy at your local hardware or Big Lots stores. You can get pint and quart jars which hold 1.5lb and 3lb respectively for sometimes half the cost of the jars you buy in the catalogs and you don't have to pay any shipping! Most customers seem to really like the canning jar look as well.

Labels can be bought from the local beekeeping companies. Make sure the labels will fit the jars you have purchased. And they should say "American Honey" or "made in the USA". You can also tell the company what you want printed on the label, such as the name of your company, your family name, address, phone and website (if applicable). Some companies now provide the ability to purchase a blank back label where you can add information on your business and some personable information about your operation. Labels usually run around ten cents each.

Other products can be made from the hive, such as beeswax and propolis by products. These other products can help to sell your honey as well and are good for customers who may not like honey but would enjoy a different honey product. Research how to make soap --it can be far too pricey to buy the materials to make decorative soap from the hobby store. But making the old fashioned lye soap can be pretty tricky, if not even dangerous thing to do if you don't know how to do it. Better yet, take a class on soap making. Watch your local newspaper or call your local museums and you can find someone teaching a class. Soap made with beeswax can help your honey sales too.

You should also read up and research candle making. There are many good books easily available at the library. You can make candles from either the wax foundation sheets (candles are then called "rolled") or you can melt beeswax to pour into a mold or glass votive for solid "pillar" candles. These projects can be easy and fun to do, but be careful! Hot beeswax can be tricky to handle.

Being part of a family bee business is interesting. It can be very rewarding having your own family business. We homeschool our children, and so our family is home together all day. We can enjoy the time together and also the ability to take off and do whatever else we want to do because we do own our own business. Watching the children learn new skills is a pleasure and I especially enjoy having my husband around during the day!

Be sure and visit our Ebay store and our website shown at the top right side of this blog! Or give us a call if you are interested in starting a beehive.  Our phone is: 217-427-2678

See you at the next lesson and remember...BEE-HAVE yourself!

Davd & Sheri Burns

Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

Remains of a synagogue dating back to 4th or 5th century have been found in the Galilee area.

The synagogue ruins are located at the foot of the Mt. Nitai cliffs overlooking the Sea of Galilee, amidst the remains of a large Jewish village from the Roman-Byzantine period. The first season of excavations there have revealed the northern part of the synagogue, with two rows of benches along the walls. The building is constructed of basalt and chalk stone and made use of elements from an earlier structure on the site.

The dates for the establishment of the synagogue are not settled yet:

Archaeologists differ among themselves as to which period the ancient Galilean synagogues belong. The generally accepted view is that they can be attributed to the later Roman period (second to fourth centuries C.E.), a time of cultural and political flowering of the Jews of the Galilee. Recently, some researchers have come to believe that these synagogues were built mainly during the Byzantine period (fifth and sixth centuries C.E.), a time in which Christianity rose to power and, it was thought, the Jews suffered from persecution. Dr. Leibner noted that this difference of scholarly opinion has great significance in perhaps redrawing the historical picture of Jews in those ancient times.

But the cool part is that of the discovery of a mosaic decoration that shows an artisan working on some project (see the picture with this post):

The excavators were surprised to find in the eastern aisle of the synagogue a mosaic decoration which to date has no parallels -- not in other synagogues, nor in art in Israel in general from the Roman-Byzantine period. The mosaic is made of tiny stones (four mm. in size) in a variety of colors. The scene depicted is that of a series of woodworkers who are holding various tools of their trade. Near these workers is seen a monumental structure which they are apparently building. According to Dr. Leibner, since Biblical scenes are commonly found in synagogue art, it is possible that what we see in this case is the building of the Temple, or Noah’s ark, or the tower of Babel. The mosaic floor has been removed from the excavation site and its now in the process of restoration.

Read the full story here.

And while we are talking about history, there is a story about the Hittites using diseased rams to spread disease (Tularemia or rabbit-fever) amongst the enemy to weaken them (nothing to do with science & religion - but an interesting news story) - thus an early use of biological weapons.

The historical documents hint that the Hittites – whose empire stretched from modern-day Turkey to northern Syria – sent diseased rams to their enemies to weaken them with tularemia, a devastating bacterial infection that remains a potential bioterror threat even today, says the review.

Experts caution that more evidence is needed to firmly establish that the Hittites intended to spread disease using the animals. But they add that if this proves true, it might represent the earliest known use of biological warfare.

Read the full story here.

When I was little, the Christmas season didn't begin the day after Thanksgiving--or even two days after Thanksgiving. It didn't begin 12 days before Christmas or two days before Christmas.

Christmas season began 25 days before Christmas--the very first day of December. December 1.

And to honor it, I would make a red or a green bell out of construction paper and cut 25 strips out of paper--12 red and 13 green (or maybe 13 green and 12 red) and turn them into 25 chained circles using one of the greatest inventions ever after duct tape: glue stick.

Once the chain was complete, I'd staple it to the bell and hang the custom-made Advent calendar to my wall. Every night before bed but after a prayer, I'd nearly squeal in excitement as I slowly and methodically removed the next circle. Christmas was coming, it was coming, it was coming!

I'm not sure when I stopped making it--but I can tell you when I'll start again. I have a date with my daughter on Friday, November 30th--and it involves music and cookies, red paper, green paper, a pair of scissors, and you guessed it, glue stick.

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Thanks to all who participated in the Turkey survey. We had 15 votes (that's three basketball teams, yeah!)--12 voted for turkey; 2 voted for both ham and turkey; 1 voted neither; and 1 voted other.

Check out our new survey on day-after-Thanksgiving shopping! Go ahead, tell us how you REALLY feel!

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I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to formalize traditions with my new family. Like if we didn't have something "meaningful" to do on Thanksgiving we'd just sit around and think about how wasteful we were being on such a thankful day. But I've started to realize that traditions fall into place naturally, the way they are meant to. It's kind of like how when Ava was a week old, I convinced myself that if I didn't turn 12 circles, hop on one foot for 2 minutes, and blink my eyes for three, then she somehow wouldn't figure out how to fall asleep on her own. (Of course, I'm being dramatic). But what I've learned (or am learning) is that with a little effort, a lot of love, and right-sized intentions, everything falls into place exactly as it's supposed to and exactly when it's supposed to--and that even though it feels like eternities are passing while you're trying to figure it out, it's only seconds--and fast seconds at that.

And besides, if her sleep habits are any indication of the meaning and memories we're going to build throughout the years, then there isn't a skyscraper tall enough to hold them all.

25 days of Splurge-ness

If I could get with the program and move beyond my comfort zone of scarves, two sweaters, and an unfinished pair of socks, I'd knit this.

But I'm not holding my breath and I wouldn't recommend any of you hold yours either.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but writing everyday has sparked creativity in other ways.

For example, if you showed up at my house for dinner on any given night a few months ago, you would have sat down to one of the following four options on rotation:

• Egg sandwiches (that is, scrambled egg with Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patties, and a slice of reduced fat swiss cheese on toasted English muffins);
• Turkey chili thawed out from the freezer; (which is delicious, by the way!)
• Green Giant stir fry with tofu; or
• Turkey burgers

Not much variety but at least it was healthy. And not take out.

But if you showed up within the last couple of weeks, you'd sit down to:

• Grilled portobello mushroom sandwiches with roasted sweet potatoes on the side
  
• Sweet potato soup
• Greek pizza
• Spanish rice
• Chicken spiedies (an upstate New York "delicacy") with grilled onions and green peppers
• Southwestern grilled chicken salad
• Potato and bean soup
• Asian salad bowl
  

And our house! Within the last few weeks, I've been inspired with vision, vision, vision (which means my husband has been tasked with work, work, work):

• Completely rearranged the kitchen and great room (pantry is still in holding pattern)
• Installed new lighting in the kitchen, which in and of itself made a jaw-dropping difference to the coziness of that big room!
  
• Spruced things up with new, vibrant curtains
• Completely reorganized and refurnished my office area (for less than $350, pictures to come)
• Put all of our clothes away (hey, we want credit for that!)

And so many other ways...which I'll save for another day.

So, my "splash" to you during this busy time...whether it's writing or singing, playing music or composing it, thinking up recipes or fleshing out an idea--find a little bit of time every day to do something creative. Even better if it's something new to you.

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If you're a TV watcher then even more reason to indulge your creative side: if your show isn't already in rerun mode, it's likely heading there.


::

Splurges and crumpets:
I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to resist this adorable (and so crafty!) tea set. Especially since I introduced the fake tea party concept to Ava yesterday (you know, with invisible tea cups) and she caught right on. She had her daddy sipping at the same time he was seething over the Baltimore Raven's fifth straight loss!

I think this song and these pictures communicate how we spent our day better than any words I could write:

Splurge-ometer:

I knew that my "basically a professional chef" friend Melissa would know what type of oven Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa) uses in her house--but she also passed along a recent splurge of her own, which she rated high on the splurge-ometer: a convection oven roaster.

In case you didn't see Melissa's comment, she reports:

"...the turkey was never better! Moist, and didn't take any of my precious oven space. I cooked ribs a couple of weeks ago...and again...perfection!"

There is an interesting and provocative op-ed piece in Saturday's New York Times titled, Taking Science on Faith. Its written by Paul Davies, who is a cosmologist and an astrobiologist and is the Director of an intriguing/fascinating institute called Beyond, located at Arizona State University. Paul Davies has a regular habit of coming up with interesting questions and is known to think outside of the box. He wrote one of my favorite op-ed piece in NYT after President Bush announced his vision for Moon-Mars exploration. In the Mars article Davies suggested (in all seriousness) that the biggest cost for a mission to Mars is bringing people back to Earth. So we should have a one-way trip! The first batch of astronauts should build a colony up there and spend the rest of their lives on the Red planet. Sign me up!! Its not going to happen - but please read this fantastic article, Life (and Death) on Mars, at least for its out-of-the-box thinking.

Ok...now on to Saturday's article. The main point of the article is that science is rooted in faith - faith that there is an underlying order to the universe.

All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. You couldn’t be a scientist if you thought the universe was a meaningless jumble of odds and ends haphazardly juxtaposed. When physicists probe to a deeper level of subatomic structure, or astronomers extend the reach of their instruments, they expect to encounter additional elegant mathematical order. And so far this faith has been justified.

No argument here. And this is seen in the light of natural laws:

The most refined expression of the rational intelligibility of the cosmos is found in the laws of physics, the fundamental rules on which nature runs. The laws of gravitation and electromagnetism, the laws that regulate the world within the atom, the laws of motion — all are expressed as tidy mathematical relationships. But where do these laws come from? And why do they have the form that they do?

These are tough questions. For Davies, if there is no reason for the laws to be ordered, then this is "deeply anti-rational".

After all, the very essence of a scientific explanation of some phenomenon is that the world is ordered logically and that there are reasons things are as they are. If one traces these reasons all the way down to the bedrock of reality — the laws of physics — only to find that reason then deserts us, it makes a mockery of science.

Thus, scientist's reliance on order is based ultimately on faith. Then he goes on to include religion in the equation (ha ha):

Clearly, then, both religion and science are founded on faith — namely, on belief in the existence of something outside the universe, like an unexplained God or an unexplained set of physical laws, maybe even a huge ensemble of unseen universes, too. For that reason, both monotheistic religion and orthodox science fail to provide a complete account of physical existence.

This shared failing is no surprise, because the very notion of physical law is a theological one in the first place, a fact that makes many scientists squirm. Isaac Newton first got the idea of absolute, universal, perfect, immutable laws from the Christian doctrine that God created the world and ordered it in a rational way. Christians envisage God as upholding the natural order from beyond the universe, while physicists think of their laws as inhabiting an abstract transcendent realm of perfect mathematical relationships.

Sure, but isn't the idea of a rational universe with an underlying mathematical reality traceable to Pythagoreans and Plato, and the notion of an ordered universe tracing back to the pre-Socratics? A lot of this was borrowed by Christianity and yes, Newton and many other scientists of his day, did get the inspiration of their ideas from religion. In fact, they did not have really separate spheres of science and religion - all of their work was to uncover the workings of God. I think Davies is preparing us for his final point:

It seems to me there is no hope of ever explaining why the physical universe is as it is so long as we are fixated on immutable laws or meta-laws that exist reasonlessly or are imposed by divine providence. The alternative is to regard the laws of physics and the universe they govern as part and parcel of a unitary system, and to be incorporated together within a common explanatory scheme.

In other words, the laws should have an explanation from within the universe and not involve appealing to an external agency. The specifics of that explanation are a matter for future research. But until science comes up with a testable theory of the laws of the universe, its claim to be free of faith is manifestly bogus.

Woa?? I'm not sure about his final conclusion. Again we go to the beginning of his article. If by faith, he only means a belief in an underlying order, then I don't think scientists would disagree with that statement. Furthermore, this faith may be quite justified as it (order in nature) has been tested (i.e. there is order on all scales) over and over again and we have no reason to believe that this is not the case.

But if by faith he means something about the particular origin of these laws, then this is parallel to the question of origin of the universe. We can always keep on pushing the origins questions back and back. What was before the Big Bang? If it was Multiverse before the our Universe, then where did the Multiverse come from? Can we come up with a testable theory for answering this question? Does the fact that we do not have an answers to these questions lead to the view that science is not independent of faith? I think Paul Davies has shifted focus from the origin of the universe to the origin of universal laws and he is playing fast and loose with the word "faith", conflating religious usage with everyday use of the word. However, this is not to say that science has (or ever will) answers to these questions. But what does it mean not to have these answers - and this is where Davies' article comes in.

It is a good read, and you can find the full article here.

I happen to think that food tastes better when it is on someone else's plate. I should clarify, just so new friends never want to eat with me: I happen to think that food tastes better when it is on a family member's plate--like my mom's, my husband's, and now, my daughter's.

Similar to what I've learned about food in general over the years (by my own account and many others'): it just tastes better when someone else cooks it.

My pick-from-other-plates tendency annoys every one whose plate I pick. They call it rude, I call it grazing. And interested! I am interested in what they're eating! Isn't that thoughtful?

To be completely honest, most of the time I don't even realize I'm doing it. (Does that make it eat-walking? A term I prefer to "mindless eating".)

So you have to imagine my (delight?) yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner, which included my husband, my daughter, and me feasting on turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and asparagus. After just a few bites of turkey, a fistful of stuffing, and sweet potatoes that I swear were coming out of her ears, my daughter proclaimed, as she does, "All done."

I wiped her face, cleaned her hands, and helped her out of her chair. I didn't return to mine but instead cleaned up some dishes and began to put some extras away. I heard my husband laugh and when I looked to see at what, Ava had climbed up in my chair, pointed at my plate and said, "Mommy's" and proceeded to eat the rest of the turkey off of my plate.

Apparently, she thinks food tastes better when it is on someone else's plate too (though I'll make sure that the clarification I apply to myself applies to her as well).

::

I was very thankful for my mom and my mom-in-law who provided in-a-pinch cooking advice "from a distance" on Thanksgiving Day--especially as they were preparing their own scrumptious meals.

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Finally, I'd love to know what oven Barefoot Contessa uses to cook her turkey in. She reports her stuffed 12 pound turkey to take about 2.5 hours. Fortunately, it was just the three of us for dinner because my stuffed 11 pound turkey took four (though I planned on 2.5!)

Splurge-ilicious:

On a day when the "traffic and weather on the 5's" report in the Baltimore-Washington area has nothing to do with the highways and everything to do with the parking lots, I'm going to reduce my splurge of the day to one word: LEFTOVERS

The stuffing is in the turkey; the turkey is in the oven. The potatoes are next in line; the line is dwindling down.

It's Thanksgiving.

And there sure is plenty of thanks to give.

Hope your day is full of good food, pleasant conversation, and the presence of loved ones--in body or in spirit.

Today's Splurge:

On Thanksgiving, what isn't a splurge?

There is considerable debate amongst researchers about whether there was an actual flood that became the basis of Noah's flood story. One hypothesis is that the Black Sea got flooded about 8000 years ago, and that this may be the source of the legend. Now it appears that the same flood may also have triggered farming in Europe:

The flood believed to be behind the Noah’s Ark myth kick-started European agriculture, according to new research by the Universities of Exeter, UK and Wollongong, Australia. Published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, the research paper assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet, 8000 years ago. The results indicate a catastrophic rise in global sea level led to the flooding of the Black Sea and drove dramatic social change across Europe. The research team argues that, in the face of rising sea levels driven by contemporary climate change, we can learn important lessons from the past.

And its is pretty cool that Black Sea used to be a fresh water lake:

The collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet released a deluge of water that increased global sea levels by up to 1.4 metres and caused the largest North Atlantic freshwater pulse of the last 100,000 years. Before this time, a ridge across the Bosporus Strait dammed the Mediterranean and kept the Black Sea as a freshwater lake. With the rise in sea level, the Bosporus Strait was breached, flooding the Black Sea. This event is now widely believed to be behind the various folk myths that led to the biblical Noah’s Ark story. Archaeological records show that around this time there was a sudden expansion of farming and pottery production across Europe, marking the end of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer era and the start of the Neolithic. The link between rising sea levels and such massive social change has previously been unclear.

The researchers created reconstructions of the Mediterranean and Black Sea shoreline before and after the rise in sea levels. They estimated that nearly 73,000 square km of land was lost to the sea over a period of 34 years. Based on our knowledge of historical population levels, this could have led to the displacement of 145,000 people. Archaeological evidence shows that communities in southeast Europe were already practising early farming techniques and pottery production before the Flood. With the catastrophic rise in water levels it appears they moved west, taking their culture into areas inhabited by hunter-gatherer communities.

Read the full story here.

And while at it, please read this (hilarious) story of Donald Duck being expelled from Noah's ark. Apparently the Ark story in Disney's Fantasia 2000, featuring Donald Duck, strays too far from the Biblical account (watch a clip of Fantasia 2000 showing the ark story - its only six minutes long and is quite entertaining; did Noah really outsource his work to DD??). But may be the criticism is justified - after all, there is no strong evidence that there was indeed a historical Donald Duck. The jury, I think, is still out on this.

Why You, Too, Should YouTube - "Colorado Photographer David X. Tejada takes us along on another location shoot today. Here's a question for you: Why does Dave bother to shoot all of these videos?"

Early this morning, I was in the kitchen getting ready for the day. To be precise, I was standing in front of the refrigerator (don't worry, dad--door was closed) trying to remember what I went over to it for in the first place.

I was distracted first by the sound of screeching tires and then almost immediately the impact of metal on metal. No horn warning.

I ran outside, looked to the dark street and saw a garbage truck's flashing lights. Then I noticed the car that had plowed into the back of it. When I got closer, I saw an unharmed but clearly shaken woman emerge from the car. The garbage collectors and she huddled on a neighbors front porch.

She said she just "wasn't paying attention." Too distracted by something other than what was immediately in front of her (in this case, a garbage truck).

Fortunately, everyone was okay. But it was a screeching reminder that we're at the start of a season when to-do lists and haven't-done lists are huge distractions--at the risk of creating a permanent will-never-do list (for ourself or for someone else). So I'm going to work really hard on staying in the moment every moment, but especially when I'm behind the wheel of my car.

Be Safe!

Splurge-away

Today I'm blowing off some work and a little bit of Thanksgiving preparation to meet a friend and her baby at the park for a run, then, hopefully, a peppermint mocha afterwards.

Sorry for some off-topic posts. But the situation in Pakistan is quite serious and journalists, students, and lawyers need all the help they can get. If you are in the US and are wondering how to help, you can find some suggestions here.

It is time for Musharraf to go! Here is a lead article from the Economist on the subject and an op-ed piece by Pervez Hoodbhoy in the Los Angeles Times. The main question now is how long will he drag this process and how many institutions will he destroy before being forced to leave the office (the judiciary and the press are already experiencing his wrath). And here is an editorial in today's Washington Post on Mush and his personal ambitions:

Like many autocrats before him, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has confused his own fortunes with those of his country. Over the weekend he told a visiting U.S. envoy that only he could save Pakistan from terrorism and lead it toward democracy. In fact, the opposite is true: It is increasingly clear that Gen. Musharraf has become the foremost obstacle to ending Pakistan's state of emergency and revitalizing what has been a losing battle against Islamic extremists. The Bush administration, which has been trying to rescue Gen. Musharraf, needs to accept that Pakistan's rescue can begin only with his departure.

Every major step Gen. Musharraf has taken in the past two weeks has been aimed at preserving his hold on power, at the expense of his country. The state of emergency he declared did not facilitate the army's fight against extremists, as he claimed, but it allowed him to fire a dozen Supreme Court judges who were considering legal challenges to his highly manipulated "reelection" as president. Yesterday the new judges appointed by Gen. Musharraf dismissed most of the challenges; they are paving the way for him to remain president even as they destroy the nascent independence of the Pakistani judiciary.

Gen. Musharraf has sought to appease the Bush administration by announcing parliamentary elections for early January. But he has refused to lift the state of emergency and has suggested several times that he will hold the vote under de facto martial law. That would save Gen. Musharraf from the political and legal challenges that could flow from a restoration of the rule of law, since his actions after he suspended the constitution have been hugely unpopular and blatantly illegal. It could also allow him to control the results of the elections and prevent a strong showing by Pakistan's two largest secular political parties, which oppose him. But it would make a mockery of democracy and ruin the chance for Pakistan's moderate center -- its political parties, jurists, journalists and civil society groups -- to unite with the army against the growing threat of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

You can read the full editorial here.

And to reinforce the point, here is the full story from BBC about journalists beaten by police in Pakistan today:

More than 100 journalists protesting against media restrictions and emergency rule have been arrested in Pakistan, eyewitnesses say.

Most were held in Karachi and several detained in Hyderabad.

Police baton-charged the Karachi journalists after they tried to stage a protest march. Some of them were hurt.

When President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on 3 November, radio and TV news was banned, as was criticism of the government.

Here are some pictures from the protest:

The Discovery Institute is the major force behind the Intelligent Design movement in the US and it is now alleging that the teaching material associated with the recent PBS documentary, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, brings religion into classroom. huh?? Here is the story from New Scientist:

In a bizarre twist to the evolution wars, supporters of intelligent design are accusing the producers of a TV science documentary series of bringing religion into US classrooms. The Discovery Institute, based in Seattle, Washington, alleges that teaching materials accompanying Judgment Day: Intelligent design on trial, broadcast on 13 November, encourage unconstitutional teaching practices.

You may be wondering why. Well here it is straight from their own website:

The PBS teaching guide is a companion piece to the NOVA docudrama about the 2005 Dover intelligent design trial and claims to provide for teachers “easily digestible information to guide and support you in facing challenges to evolution.” The guide instructs teachers to introduce religion into science classes with discussion questions like “Can you accept evolution and still believe in religion? A: Yes. The common view that evolution is inherently antireligious is simply false.”

“This statement oversimplifies the issue and encourages teachers to prefer certain religious viewpoints in the classroom, betraying Supreme Court law concerning religious neutrality,” says attorney Casey Luskin, program officer for public policy and legal affairs at Discovery Institute.

“The Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that the government must maintain ‘neutrality between religion and religion’," says Randal Wenger, a Pennsylvania attorney who filed amicus briefs in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. "Because the Briefing Packet only promotes religious viewpoints that are friendly towards evolution, this is not neutral, and PBS is encouraging teachers to violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.”

Seriously, this is their main argument. So, I guess in a post Dover-trial world, the Discovery Institute is now reduced to fighting these kinds of frivolous battles. Stay tuned - the next big battle will be on the definition of "is".

I listened to my first Christmas Carol of the season today--"Oh Holy Night"--and for some reason, when Josh Groban sings it, I feel like it's Oh Holy Day, Night, Morning, whenever. It's Holy just because he's singing it. (Though I must admit, I prefer listening to him sing it rather than watching him sing it.) Some people (like my husband) aren't particularly fond of him--in fact, come to think about it, I can almost generalize and say that most men I know aren't particularly fond of him. But that's alright--I doubt Josh Groban is short on fondness.

::

It's a little presumptuous of me to put a survey on this blog, considering I know of only about six people who actually read it regularly...but every one of you six count and I'm counting on every one of you to participate! If you haven't noticed it already, the survey is located in the sidebar--we'll start off with something easy and see how it goes.

Today's Splurge:

Listening to Christmas Carols before Thanksgiving has passed.

I will be the first to admit that there was a time when "Christmas in July" was a fun but outlandish thought and that more an more, it's becoming an irritating but widely applied practice. We're "getting ready for Christmas" earlier than I get my one year old ready for bed (and that's pretty early).

But singing along with those Christmas Carols today made my daughter happy. For that, I'll splurge on just about anything, even if it means a hint of Christmas even though it is still November.

Hi, I'm David Burns, and thank you for joining me today for lesson sixteen of our online beekeeping lessons. Our family loves the bee business. My wife, Sheri, handles some of the administration details, produces parts for our frames and hives and oversees our honey bottling process. Our children all work in various areas of the operation too. It's a blast! My father-in-law, Bill Henness is retired and helps keeps our operation going smoothly too, by volunteering his time working the bees, building hives, building our bee-vacs and selling honey.

I've had a busy beekeeping week. Saturday I attended the Illinois State Beekeepers Association in Springfield, Illinois. A few days prior to that, on Thursday, I visited with Gene Killion. Anyone who has been in beekeeping for a while knows the name of Carl and Gene Killion. He holds the world record for the most comb honey produced from a single hive. In the glory days of his work, he had over 1,000 hives with 8 supers on each hive! The Killion family was recently featured in the American Bee Journal. The Killion's have had remarkable success in beekeeping!

While visiting with Gene, he showed me around his place where they processed comb honey and prepared their supers for the next year. Not only that, but he gave me one of his famous 8 frame comb honey supers that he and his dad made and used.
Lots of our customers request comb honey. Some customers are convinced that comb honey helps their arthritis, citing the Bible verse that says, "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones" (Proverbs 16:24). So this Spring, we are gearing up now to produce much more comb honey, which is almost a lost and dying art among beekeepers. It's not easy to do, and some have concluded it is not worth the bother. Liquid honey sells just fine, so many beekeepers no longer produce comb honey.
When I talk to other beekeepers, they too tell me that more and more people are turning to pure, raw honey including honey comb. We find it impossible to produce enough honey to keep up with the demand from our customers. Our comb honey sells out within a few weeks after we harvest it, and our honey sells out in the fall. So, we are constantly considering how to produce more honey.
It is a great joy to any beekeeper to place frames full of honey into the extractor and watch the honey start flowing out. Take a look at the video below and you'll hear our excitement!


Honey bees produce honey and in a good year, they produce lots of it, more than they will need, so the beekeeper can remove the excess. This is why most of us keep bees--for the honey. Although, truth be told, we just love keeping bees!
Let me share with you, two things: First, how to manage a new hive to produce the most honey, and secondly, how to manage established hives to produce the most honey. Also, let me say that sometimes, even after all the right management techniques are followed, bees are insects, and might disappoint you in doing something contrary to what you want them to do. However, bee management is effective for the most part.
HOW TO PRODUCE THE MOST HONEY FROM A NEW HIVE
If you are starting with a package of bees, then you should be happy if the bees only produce enough honey for themselves. This is good and par for the course. However, I always work my packages to produce honey for me my first year, and most do. My success comes from placing my packaged hives on drawn comb. In my opinion drawn comb is the beekeeper's third best friend! The hive tool is first, and a bee-vac is second.
Obviously, a new package or nuc will have to build up their hive. This means they will need to produce a huge amount of new comb on the frames. They need ample amounts of comb for the queen to lay eggs and for the workers to store nectar and pollen. Comb building requires a huge amount of consumed nectar. The bees need a large amount of incoming nectar for their glands to produce wax. In fact, it takes 8 pounds of nectar for the bees to produce 1 pound of wax.
Not only must they produce a significant amount of wax to build their new hive, they also need to increase their population. Typically a package contains 3 pounds of bees, which is roughly estimated to be about 10,000 bees. An established hive will usually have between 40,000-80,000 bees. The difficulty with packages and nucs is that before they develop a large number of foraging bees, some key nectar flows may have come and gone. This is why it can be difficult for a new hive to produce extra honey. They are using the incoming nectar to build comb and feed their growing population and they do not have enough bees of foraging age to get the job done.
To accelerate a package hive, drawn foundation is a huge push. Less wax production is needed and more nectar can be immediately stored. However, rarely does a beginning beekeeper have access to drawn comb. And special care must be taken to ensure that drawn comb is free of any disease, especially American Foul Brood. AFB spores can live in comb for more than 50 years. So, just because a retiring beekeeper gave you all of his equipment, including drawn comb, doesn't mean that you've got usable draw comb. If you have access to clean drawn comb, this is one way to help your package produce honey their first year.
Another way to produce honey from a new hive is to capture swarms and add the bees to the hive. Again, you must be sure that the bees you are adding are free of pests and disease. You will need to lay down newspaper between the two groups so that they can become familiar with one another and not fight. Many beekeepers capture swarms for the single purpose of using them to draw comb. Then, the drawn comb is placed into new hives. Swarms are geared to build comb.
If drawn comb isn't an option, and no one calls you to remove a swarm, what else can be done on a first year hive to produce excess honey to be taken off? Crowd! This is the opposite of what most people will tell you, because crowded and congested hives are more likely to swarm. And, if you are not an experienced beekeeper, purposely crowding a hive can backfire. In the Spring of 2006 I took a brand new 3 pound package of bees and installed them into a 10 frame deep hive body. Accidentally, I failed to monitor the hive as often as I should have--about every two weeks. A month later, I noticed some unusual signs that the hive was crowded, so I inspected. When I did, I noticed that all 10 frames were completely pulled out and excess comb was being built on the top of the inner cover, which is always a sign that you've waited too long. However, in my case, this seemed to work to my advantage. I placed a second deep with foundation on at this time, and it too was drawn out in record time, as if the bees were desperate for the extra space. I waited until the second deep was as packed as the first, then I started placing on supers. They began filling up supers.
Traditionally, and rightfully so, we are told to place the second deep on when about 5-7 frames are drawn out on the first deep. This does prevent overcrowding and swarming. Yet, I have found that if I can keep the hive VERY TIGHT, the bees seem to expand faster and work more productively. I'm not sure why. I suspect that since bees are social, that they are more efficient in tighter quarters. Perhaps the queen's presence and pheromone is more saturable. This was not just a one hive deal. As I practiced it this Spring again, I had the same results. Always better production by keeping the first deep hive packed before adding the second.
In doing this, I did have one package swarm on me, so again, there is a thin line between running at full capacity and for the congestion to produce a swarm.
PRODUCING THE MOST HONEY FROM OVERWINTERED HIVES
TIMING! HEALTHY BEES! A GOOD QUEEN! SUPERS!
It takes 40 days from when an egg is laid for that bee to emerge from her cell, serve in her housekeeping role and finally be old enough to fly out and forage for nectar. Just because you have lots of bees does not mean you have lots of foragers. To gather nectar you need to have a full squadron of foraging age bees PRIOR to the nectar flow. Therefore, beekeepers could produce more honey if they simply counted 40 days backward from when the nectar flow starts, and begin to prepare ahead of time for that flow. Most beekeepers do very little to prepare for the flow other than make sure their bees are alive.
Here in Central Illinois, weather permitting, I usually have a nectar flow as early as May 10th. This means that for me to take advantage of this early flow, I must have a huge number of foragers, 19 days or older, ready to fly out and bring in that flow. Therefore, I need lots of eggs to be laid before April 1st. This means that I need my queens to lay heavily in March. My challenge is that March is still a cold month for me, and my bees are still mostly clustering over very little brood that is being laid. The older workers decide how much the queen should be fed to stimulate her to lay eggs. If these older workers do not see enough nectar or pollen in the hive they hold the queen back from laying.
During the month of February, I will do two things. First, I place pollen patties just above the cluster, usually on the inner cover since the cluster is up high coming out of winter. And I place sugar water just above the cluster as well, one part water, one part sugar. These two food sources are just enough to prove to the older workers that a steady flow of nectar and pollen are available, so that they will stimulate the queen into laying more than she normally would at this time of the year. This helps the hive overall as well, because most hives that starve do so in February and March. The idea is to expand the population of nurse bees so that more eggs can be laid and cared for than what is normally found this time of the year, thus increasing the amount of foragers prior to May 10th.
This is a "common sense" technique. Farmers know when their crops will need harvested, and they prepare in advance to have all of their equipment and workers ready. Beekeepers do this very poorly. Beekeepers must prepare their workers (the foragers) to bring in the harvest! A terrible mistake beekeepers make is that they do not monitor the various ages of their bees. They view all of their bees as foragers. But they are not. Only one fifth of the bees in an entire hive are at foraging age.
You must also make sure your bees are healthy. They need nutrition. They need fattened up so they can remain strong and fight off various diseases. Mite control is essential in keeping healthy bees. The healthier the hive, the better the honey production.
Having a good queen is important as well. It is optimal to replace your queen every couple of years. You certainly don't have to, and often the hive will replace a faltering queen. However, for maximum honey production, you should replace your queen in September. Then, by the time you start stimulating the hive in February with sugar water and pollen patties, this new, young queen can really begin laying. You must see your honey production season as starting in September!

Finally, you need lots of supers! Research has shown that bees with plenty of supers on the hive at one time do better than supering a hive as needed. I always have at least 3 medium supers on all my hives prior to the nectar flow. If some of those supers have been saved from the previous year and have drawn comb, then you're that much closer to an excellent honey producing year.
One final note on honey production. Monitor the location of the queen. Keep the queen down. She moves up as she lays. Therefore, you may have to reverse your brood bodies many times in the Spring. However, be careful while it is still cold in the Spring not to divide the brood nest when rotating the bottom two deeps. But, they will need rotated. Get her down, so that she will see plenty of open cells to lay in. This will help prevent swarming as well.
In our next lesson, my wife Sheri will be sharing about selling honey. I can't wait for her to share her ideas with you. I'll see if I can have her share about the other products she makes from the hive too, such as soaps, candles, lip balm and more.
Be sure to get all of your equipment ready before Spring, and check out our website and our ebay store and auctions for great pricing on beekeeping equipment. You'll see links to our sites on the right hand side of this blog.

See you next time and BEE-Have yourself!

David & Sheri Burns

Yes, the End is near again. This time the prediction is coming from a Russian cult, whose 30 members have barricaded themselves in a cave 400 miles south-east of Moscow, and are threatening to blow it up if approached by the police.

The group calls itself the "True Russian Orthodox Church". Members are waiting for the end of the world, which they are expecting to happen next May.

They say they have enough food and water to last out the winter, as well as large quantities of petrol.

The problem is that this group also includes four small children. But the cult leader did not join them (yes, he was indeed the smart one).

The group was founded by a former engineer, Pyotr Kuznetsov, who had fallen out with the Russian Orthodox Church.

He is thought to have ordered his followers into the cave but did not join them. He is now in custody and is undergoing psychiatric examinations.

Read the full story here. And while at it, here is a brief description of the classic text, When Prophecy Fails, by Leon Festinger about a social and psychological study of a doomsday cult and here is wiki-description of his theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

Not that any of us need to waste another minute at the computer, but I've got to share my latest find.

www.tastespotting.com has inspiration for each of the senses. I'd like to think I'll try one of these recipes, but dreaming about them is probably as good as it will get for me.

:: Odds In End

There are many qualities I admire in my husband. But he reminded me of one this morning while at a new coffee shop we're "taste spotting." Pete knows exactly what he's doing while he's doing it. If he is drinking a cup of coffee he is drinking a cup of coffee. He isn't (often) putting dishes away or thinking about what's next on the agenda or what was already skipped over.

Slowing down is a benefit in and of itself. But there are others, too. I realized that Pete knew exactly what he was doing when he was doing it (in this case, drinking coffee) because he commented that the coffee tasted a little bitter. I, on the other hand, not only didn't notice the bitter taste of the coffee, I almost didn't hear Pete say it was bitter.

And so I stopped to think about other things I don't stop to think about. Could I EVER recall a time when coffee tasted bitter? Could I ever recall a time when it didn't? I'm not sure.

I recently wrote about how I pay attention to things...but I think I need to clarify that a little bit in light of my realization this morning. I pay attention to people--which I think is really important. But I'm not sure how often I pay attention to how or when I experience the not-so-obvious things in life, like drinking a cup of coffee. I know exactly what an obviously bright full moon in a big dark sky looks like. I could even describe what it feels like.

And from now on, I'm going to try and know exactly when I am drinking a great cup of coffee. And when I'm not.

Splurge of the weekend:

The one thing I couldn't resist this weekend was the one thing I was actually in search of: a new doormat.

A simple concept and a very resonant web site:Freerice.comThe Alexa graph shows a very nice spike as people spread the word:Alexa graph of FreeRice.com

If you missed last week's excellent episode of Nova titled, Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, you can now watch all of it online here.

It appears that this question will be addressed at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). (If you don't know about Flying Spaghetti Monster, you can get more information from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster). The annual meeting of AAR in San Diego has a panel that will be addressing the role of parody religions and the definition of religion itself (full story here). The title of the panel is Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody.

The presenters' titles seem almost a parody themselves of academic jargon. Snyder will speak about "Holy Pasta and Authentic Sauce: The Flying Spaghetti Monster's Messy Implications for Theorizing Religion," while Gavin Van Horn's presentation is titled "Noodling around with Religion: Carnival Play, Monstrous Humor, and the Noodly Master."

Using a framework developed by literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, Van Horn promises in his abstract to explore how, "in a carnivalesque fashion, the Flying Spaghetti Monster elevates the low (the bodily, the material, the inorganic) to bring down the high (the sacred, the religiously dogmatic, the culturally authoritative)."

The authors recognize the topic is a little light by the standards of the American Academy of Religion.

"You have to keep a sense of humor when you're studying religion, especially in graduate school," Van Horn said in a recent telephone interview. "Otherwise you'll sink into depression pretty quickly."

But they also insist it's more than a joke.

Indeed, the tale of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its followers cuts to the heart of the one of the thorniest questions in religious studies: What defines a religion? Does it require a genuine theological belief? Or simply a set of rituals and a community joining together as a way of signaling their cultural alliances to others?

In short, is an anti-religion like Flying Spaghetti Monsterism actually a religion?

Joining them on the panel will be David Chidester, a prominent and controversial academic at the University of Cape Town in South Africa who is interested in precisely such questions. He has urged scholars looking for insights into the place of religion in culture and psychology to explore a wider range of human activities. Examples include cheering for sports teams, joining Tupperware groups and the growing phenomenon of Internet-based religions. His 2005 book "Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture," prompted wide debate about how far into popular culture religious studies scholars should venture.

And if nothing else, the panel is doing a fantastic job of bringing American Academy of Religion to popular culture, and vice versa. Read the full story here . (thanks to Jeff for the story)

It doesn't take a whole lot to get me excited. Surprise me with an ice-cream cone or a peppermint mocha once a year and you'll get a glimpse of Christmas morning at my house.

So you can imagine how over the moon I was when I learned about the no-call registry a few years back. My phone rarely rings anymore--and when it does, I know it's either family, a few friends, or the Red Cross. Bank of America was getting a little too comfortable for awhile, but I put an end to that.

Now that unwanted phone calls are taken care of, I've moved onto mail. This time of year, the stack of catalogs that fill up my counter space in a day could wall paper my entire house. So when I heard about this, I nearly turned a cartwheel--and I haven't done that in close to 10 years!

Seriously, Catalog Choice lets you opt out of paper catalogs that you no longer want (or ever wanted) to receive. And it's FREE. So sign up today and use the time you'd spend sorting them (or perusing them) to do something you REALLY want to do. Like turn a cartwheel!

Splurge-out

I don't know, maybe it's the season that's being forced down my throat everywhere I turn (yes, I'm talking about Christmas). But I can't get enough of peppermint and chocolate. Together.

And whoever thought that someone could ever come up with an idea to rival Altoids dark chocolate covered peppermint and cinnamon mints.? (Not me).

Well, someone at Trader Joe's obviously did. Talk about excited--I can't go a minute without thinking about these things. And when I do, they bring one of those deep and wide grins to my face (the one that you can't get rid of and look ridiculous trying to).

So, here's the deal. If you can't get to a Trader Joe's or don't have one where you live, I will send you a box. The first five requests are on me, shipping included. There's only one catch: You have to send me a list of your choice. (I'll post it anonymously if that is your wish).

Now that's a splurge you can't resist.

I was used to hearing about calls for prayer rains in Pakistan. After a drought, the government would request mosques all over the country to offer special prayers for rain. Sure...ok, it is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with a deeply religious society. But I did not expect a prayer for rain from the steps of a state Capitol in the US:

As Georgia descends deeper into drought, Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered water restrictions, launched a legal battle and asked President Bush for help. On Tuesday, the governor called on a higher power. He joined lawmakers and ministers on the steps of the state Capitol to pray for rain.

While public prayer vigils might raise eyebrows in other parts of the nation, they are mostly shrugged off in the Bible Belt, where turning to the heavens for help is common and sometimes even politically expedient.

Hmm...first the Patriot Act and now this. It appears that the US is getting more and more inspiration from Pakistan.

However, here is the Atlanta freethought society:

The loudest opposition to Perdue's move came from the Atlanta Freethought Society, a secular group that planned to protest at the vigil.

"The governor can pray when he wants to," said Ed Buckner, who was organizing the protest. "What he can't do is lead prayers in the name of the people of Georgia.

And if you still don't believe it, watch the video of the Georgian Governor requesting rain and read the full story here. Incredible!