This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.
It is Ramadan, so Muslims tend to spend an inordinate amount of time watching TV, partly because they need to “kill time” waiting for sunset to break their fast, and partly because TV channels in this part of the world often present their best programming (historical series, comedy shows, and others) during the holy month. And Muslims tend to get large doses of preaching from the TV set.
I spend much less time in front of the TV set than the average person, and my viewing habits are quite different than the typical guy, but during Ramadan my TV time increases substantially. And so the other day, as I was flipping between channels, I caught one female preacher (Dr. Lina Al-Himsi on Iqra-TV), and so I recalled a news item I had read several weeks ago about a Malaysian reality-TV program which, through auditions, aims at selecting the best female Muslim preacher, or proselytizer (“da`wa” in Islamic parlance).
The recordings of this reality-TV show started a few months ago, but the program itself will not air until October 2011. The program, titled “Solehah” (from an Arabic word meaning “pious female”), has 13 episodes, through which the candidates are judged by a panel of clerics for their religious knowledge, their oratory skills and charismatic personality.
A previous show, “Imam Muda” (Young Imam), on another Malaysian channel, had been very popular among the public on the selection process for the best Imam. The show is now going into its second season.
Now, how prevalent, accepted, or shunned, are female preachers in the Muslim world? First, it must be stated, for those who may not realize this, that in mosques, ladies, however knowledgeable or scholarly they may be, are never allowed to preach to men; they can, however, conduct sessions to a female-only audience, completely segregated, out of sight and out of hearing from the male section. And except for a few cases here and there, most famously that of Dr. Amina Wadud conducting prayers to a mixed audience a few years back, Muslim women are not allowed, by the tradition, to lead the prayer when men are present or available.
But this does not apply to the TV and Radio media, where women now quite routinely appear on air and on screen and preach to whoever will listen. And a number of them have become media stars, for example: Magda Amer, who preaches in one of Cairo’s leading mosques; Soad Saleh, who is considered as one of the world’s leading female scholars of Islam and who has a TV show titled “Women’s Fatwa” on an Egyptian satellite channel; Neveen El Guindy, who has a call-in show titled “Qadaya al-Mar’ah” (Women’s Issues) on Iqra, one of the region’s top Islamic satellite channels.
Not everyone is thrilled to see female preachers on TV. A few years ago, a heated debated broke out in Saudi Arabia (as usual between traditionalists and “liberals”) about whether women should be allowed to conduct such shows on TV. The liberals were arguing that it is important to let women at home hear one of their own explain issues in ways they can relate to; some even accepted the idea that those preachers be required to wear niqab (face-veiling). The traditionalists were invoking the same argument they hold about the prohibition of women driving, namely local tradition and not letting men watch women for hours under the pretext of religious learning…
But not all female preachers are TV or Radio personalities; many work on the ground: they go out and spread the word, presumably to female audiences (in hospitals, community centers, etc.). In Egypt, crowds of women have been reported to assemble to listen to talented female preachers.
In Morocco, for example, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has been supporting a curriculum for women preachers (“murshidat”), and indeed tens of them have graduated and taken jobs in various provinces over the past several years.
Female Qur’an reciters have also become popular, and indeed in Algeria, a popular TV show has for several years now conducted a competition of Qur’anic recitation for both young men and young women, who appear on the same stage but compete within their own gender group.
As to what kind of discourse is propagated by these female preachers, there have been reports of concern by governments that these preachers do not get used to spread a jihadi ideology. Indeed, the Palestinian Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs in the West Bank warned women preachers to stay away from issues of politics and activism and to concentrate only on domestic and daily life affairs.
It would be very interesting to hear from readers of Irtiqa about female preaching practices in their parts of the world and which Muslim women preachers, scholars, or personalities they may be familiar with or have seen become famous, whether deservedly or not.
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So you are wondering what to do with all those composition books you just bought at Staples? So you are not ready for Science? I have the answer... Science Notebooks! This is just the perfect size for little hands to observe and record all of their Scientific findings. First, you need a label to make it look like something a Kindergarten Scientist would carry. If you need labels I have them here for a small fee and the best part is you can save and print these year after year. Second, you need a Science Contract to keep everybody safe. You can get that here for FREE. If you are using spirals you can just staple it inside the cover after the children get it signed. If you are using composition books, you will trim on the dotted line and glue or staple inside. Third, if you would like to add ribbon so your little Scientist can keep his place, you simply hot glue ribbon inside the back cover. I believe I saw this great idea on faithfulinfirst.blogspot.com and I thought this was perfect for keeping your place. And last, you staple in some stickers so that each time you are conferencing with a student and notice something fantastic, you will have them right where you need them even if you are outside in the school garden. So that's a Science tip in a snap, so how bout that?
PS
Staples has composition books right now through Wednesday for .10 cents with a $5 purchase! The labels you see above were purchased at Staples and what you are looking for is half sheet labels and sometimes they are called shipping labels. And if you are looking for spirals you can get them now at Wal Mart for .20 cents with lots of color options.
If you need some inspiration...
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by Salman Hameed
There you go. Here is a new book, Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden, that chronicles the recent history of people searching for the Garden of Eden on Earth. I think some of these searches must have been inspired by the 19th century 'discoveries' of new lands and new people by European voyages. I don't know if there have been any comparable efforts by Muslims in the past couple of centuries. Does anyone know of any such efforts? Nevertheless, this looks like an interesting and entertaining read, and here is an excerpt from NYT review:
There you go. Here is a new book, Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden, that chronicles the recent history of people searching for the Garden of Eden on Earth. I think some of these searches must have been inspired by the 19th century 'discoveries' of new lands and new people by European voyages. I don't know if there have been any comparable efforts by Muslims in the past couple of centuries. Does anyone know of any such efforts? Nevertheless, this looks like an interesting and entertaining read, and here is an excerpt from NYT review:
It seems there have always been — and continue to be — little armies of Eden chasers who take this quest very seriously, carrying their search to the most unlikely places. Wilensky-Lanford carries the reader along on some of these journeys, from the North Pole to rural Ohio, evoking the lives and characters of a collection of eccentrics that includes a professional archaeologist and a preacher, as well as a Chinese businessman and a British irrigation engineer. What these disparate types have in common is their insistence that they have finally and truly cracked the biblical code.
They all begin with the verses in Genesis. “A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches” — namely the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris and the Euphrates. But while it’s easy to find the Tigris and the Euphrates, which run from Turkey through Iraq into the Persian Gulf, the locations of the Gihon and the Pishon remain distinctly murky. A further complication is the theory that today’s Tigris and Euphrates are not the same as the biblical ones, a notion that allows, as Wilensky-Lanford puts it, room for a more “fanciful geography.”
“Fanciful” might be putting it mildly. William Fairfield Warren, the first president of Boston University, published a book in the late 19th century in which he argued that Eden was located at the North Pole — or, at least, that it had been there before the Flood. The river that watered the Garden, Warren proclaimed, was not a river at all but rain. Eden, he added, was populated with people “of giant stature” and its landscape dotted with enormous trees closely related to the California redwoods. (Conveniently, sequoias can reproduce asexually, making them perfect for an Eden before the Fall.)There are other weird stories as well, but I like this one connected to political ideology:
Although some kept to the biblical location of the Tigris and Euphrates, others, like a staunch Republican named Elvy Edison Callaway, placed Eden as far away as Florida.
Callaway turned his religious vision into a political manifesto. Believing in women’s suffrage but realizing he couldn’t just drop the idea of Eve’s original sin, he gave his Eve the choice between immortality (which would lead to her living, he declared, “as a beast or a totally insane person”) or eating from the Tree of Knowledge and thus jump-starting humankind’s progress. God, he argued, had actually wanted Eve to eat the fruit, and the serpent was not a serpent at all but, rather, “a Communist or a welfare-statist.” Because eating from the Tree of Knowledge empowered Eve, Callaway said she should be blessed “forever for her great decision.”Read the full review here.
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The hardest part of math or literacy center time is to keep the students on track, focused, and working while they are at their designated center. I have the students fill these out during the week while they are attending their centers. Not only does it keep them accountable for their center work, but I staple this sheet on top of all their center work and send it home with them. It really helps the parents see how independently their child works during center time.
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PTP4ever adalah sebuah situs penghasil dollar. Program yang ditawarkan adalah PTP atau Paid To Promote. Situs ini berdiri sejak 5 Agustus 2007. Pada awalnya situs dicuriai sebagai spam, namun karena kredibilitasnya yang tinggi, akhirnya situs ini resmi dinyatakan sebagai situs yang legitimate alias membayar.
Situs ini akan membayar kita sebesar $0.4 untuk 1000 kali tayang serta 30% dari
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Kali ini saya akan share sebuah tool yang akan merubah tampilan Windows 7 kita menjadi Windows 8. Nama toolnya adalah Pulmon. Langsung aja buat sobat pengguna Windows 7 yang ingin merubah tampilan desktopnya seperti Windows 8, silahkan download disini. File berbentuk .rar. Ukuran file 812kb. Cara penggunaannya pun cukup mudah. Berikut langkah-langkahnya :
Setelah sobat selesai mendownload
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Twitter Symbol adalah sebuah aplikasi web gratis yang akan membiarkan kita memasukkan simbol dan karakter ketika kita ber-tweet ria.
Berikut langkah-langkah memasukan symbol pada twitter :
Klik disini
Klik pada tombol "Connect with Twitter" di sudut kanan atas.
Kita akan diminta untuk memasukan username dan password Twitter.
Setelah terhubung dengan Twitter, maka kita sudah siap untuk
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Internet Download Manager atau lebih dikenal dengan IDM adalah sebuah tool untuk mempercepat proses download. Nah untuk memaksimalkan kinerja dari IDM maka kita membutuhkan suatu tool yang bernama IDM Optimizer. Cara pakainya mudah. Sobat tinggal menjalankan aplikasi ini lalu klik "Maximize Now". Lalu restart IDM. Untuk sobat yang ingin mendownload IDM Optimizer, silahkan klik link Download
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You know how I love quick and easy recipes that travel well.....here is another one.
Ingredients:
1 lb thin spaghetti
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 cup edamame, cooked and shelled
1 Tablespoon white sesame seeds (optional)
1 Tablespoon black sesame seeds (optional)
Preparation:
Cook spaghetti according to package directions, drain and set aside. Combine, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil in a large bowl and whisk until completely combined. Add hot pasta into soy sauce mixture and toss until coated evenly. Add in scallions, edamame and sesame seeds, Toss. Refrigerate to allow flavors to meld together. Serve, cold or room temperature (I prefer room temperature)
Linked to Totally Tasty Tuesdays
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This week theme for Sharing Sundays is SANDWICHES! I just found out that August is National Sandwich Month! A sandwich is anything served between 2 slices of ........well.....anything...... so your options are endless. You can link up both savory and sweet sandwiches of any kind. BE CREATIVE! So let's see your best SANDWICH recipes!
Our Rules:
1. Please become a follower of our blog.
2. Please share a link back to your actual recipe post, not to your main blog page.
3. Please link back to our blog so others can join in the fun.
4. Leave us a comment about what recipe you are linking up.
5. Have fun!
Now let's see the featured CITRUS recipes from last week.
Pink Lemonade Bars by Piece, Love, Cooking
Key Lime Pie Milkshakes by Crumbs and Chaos
Strawberry Lemonade Floats by
Sugar & Spice and All Things Iced
Lemon Glazed Party Cake by Concetta's Cafe
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Zucchini Lemon Cookies by Cook Lisa Cook
Now let's see all those yummy Sandwiches!!
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Our Rules:
1. Please become a follower of our blog.
2. Please share a link back to your actual recipe post, not to your main blog page.
3. Please link back to our blog so others can join in the fun.
4. Leave us a comment about what recipe you are linking up.
5. Have fun!
Now let's see the featured CITRUS recipes from last week.
Pink Lemonade Bars by Piece, Love, Cooking
Key Lime Pie Milkshakes by Crumbs and Chaos
Strawberry Lemonade Floats by
Sugar & Spice and All Things Iced
Lemon Glazed Party Cake by Concetta's Cafe
Zucchini Lemon Cookies by Cook Lisa Cook
Now let's see all those yummy Sandwiches!!
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by Salman Hameed
Paul Bloom has been a speaker at Hampshire College couple of times. In fact, he was the inaugural speaker in our Science and Religion lecture series. Unfortunately, we do not have a video of his talk. He is a fantastic speaker, and here he is talking about The Origins of Pleasure as part of TED talks. Enjoy!
Paul Bloom has been a speaker at Hampshire College couple of times. In fact, he was the inaugural speaker in our Science and Religion lecture series. Unfortunately, we do not have a video of his talk. He is a fantastic speaker, and here he is talking about The Origins of Pleasure as part of TED talks. Enjoy!
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There is still time to enter and we have a few spots left. You do not have to have a blog to participate in this fun exchange. So come on friends, what are you waiting for? Hop on over to Barrow's Hodgepodge to join!
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I saw a Whole Brain Teaching video clip on on of my favorite blogs the kinder polka dot patch and I had to look this up and post this for future reference. I love how Whole Brain Teaching incorporates the ELL strategy of Total Physical Response and I was immediately hooked.
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A different twist to your classroom management systems…
3 Color Light System
Here I use a colored ice-cream cone system. When a student displays negative behavior they have to move their spoon to a different color.
Monopoly Game Board
Here I made a life-sized Monopoly game board that has places on it that are relevant to our hometown area. Groups of students earn tally marks for positive behavior. Tally marks earn them rolls to play the game.
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Well look what came in the mail today and isn't it a beauty? Thank you so much Lil' Country Kindergarten!
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Untuk seluruh sobat yang membaca artikel ini, atau para sobat yang nyasar dari SE. Bagi sobat yang ingin uang tambahan dari Internet, atau memang bermata pencaharian dari internet. Satu lagi sebuah bisnis online yang menguntungkan. Tanpa modal dan tentunya 100% gratis. Karena sudah menjadi komitmen saya bahwa seluruh isi dari blog ini, gratis.
Dalam bisnis ini, tidak diperlukan website/blog.
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Dalam bisnis ini, tidak diperlukan website/blog.
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The blog is still alive. It is just that I was in the middle of a move (from Northampton to Amherst - all in Massachusetts) and there was no internet for couple of days (oh the horror - the horror!!). Now it seems that the sun is again rising from the east again. The birds are singing. The universe is now expanding as usual.
Pent up posts coming up.
Pent up posts coming up.
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Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, sliced
2 overripe bananas, mashed
1 box of fat free/sugar free vanilla pudding mix
1/3 cup of fat free cream cheese, softened
2 cups of light cool whip
1 low fat graham cracker pie crust
Preparation:
In prepared graham cracker pie crust arange slices from one banana in one layer on the bottom of crust. Next, mix together mashed banana and vanilla pudding powder until combined. With hand mixer beat cream cheese into mashed banana mixture and beat until smooth. Fold in 1 cup of cool whip into mashed banana mixture until combined and pour into pie crust. Take slices from 2nd banana and arrange in one layer ontop of banana cream mixture. Lastly, take additional cup of cool whip and spread evenly on top of sliced bananas. Refrigerate pie for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving.
Linked to Sweets for Saturday
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I AM EXTENDING MY SALE!
Teachers pay Teachers is having a sale from August 1-6! If you are shopping use code B1T1S to get 10% off everything. Additionally, all items in my TpT store are on sale too! What a double savings!
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Hello we are David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in Central Illinois! LESSON 108: SMALL HIVE BEETLE – YOU GOTTA LOVE ‘EM
(All small hive beetle and sap beetle photos in this lesson are provided courtesy of my friend Alex Wild. Alex is a biologist at the University of Illinois where he studies the evolutionary history of various groups of insects. He conducts photography as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work. Be sure to look at his honeybee photography at: www.alexanderwild.com
Today, I’d like to teach on the small hive beetle. We’ll take a look at: What does it look like? Where did it come from? What does it do to a hive? How to check for it. What to do to help prevent it and how to reduce their numbers.
Summer is the time to take special precautions in dealing with SHB especially since this is the season to remove and extract honey supers. Small hive beetles are waiting for you to make a mistake so they can take over your supers in and out of the hive. SHB can ruin your honey and destroy your colony.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE A SMALL HIVE BEETLE The SHB has has the typical clubbed antennas but can retract all appendages. When you become familiar with identifying the SHB you’ll easily recognize it if you see one in your hive. So become familiar with these great photos.
There are lots of beetles in our world. Around the hive, especially when using entrance feeders, sap beetles can help themselves to the dripping sugar. Some people cannot tell the difference between sap beetles and small hive beetles.
The sap beetle to the left is different than the SHB above and below this photo. The sap beetle has a noticeable white mid section whereas the SHB is one solid dark color, appearing dark brown or black.
Typically the SHB is about the length of a cell in the comb around 5 mm. When you open your hive by removing the inner cover SHB will scurry quickly across the top bars of frames to flee from the light. Adult beetles like to hide down in a cell when exposed to light.WHERE DID IT COME FROM? The small hive beetle is officially called Aethina Tumida. It is native to Africa but entered the US in the late 1990s. Since that time it has crippled the beekeeping industry mainly in southern states that have longer tropical summers.
Another challenge in identifying SHB is knowing the difference between SHB larvae and wax moth larvae. This photo shows that the SHB larva (bottom larva) has numerous spines along the body as well as three distinct pairs of legs. The wax moth larva (top larva) lacks spines and has an additional four pairs of short, less developed prolegs. Both SHB and wax moth can be found in a hive at the same time. (Larvae photo from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences webpage)HOW DOES IT EFFECT A HIVE? It flies into the entrance of a hive and lays eggs. The larvae feed on pollen and honey and defecate when eating honey and a slimy mess is left in the hive, even fermenting and ruining all honey. The larvae exit the hive and enter the ground around the hive to pupate, then emerge from the soil as an adult SHB capable of flying 5-12 miles to find a weak colony. A severe infestation can even cause the bees to abscond, that is, to totally leave the hive.
HOW TO CHECK FOR SHB. The practical way to check to see if you have SHB is to lay your top cover upside down on the ground. Then place your honey super or top hive box flat inside your top cover and smoke the box. Now, lift it out of the top cover quickly and see if any small hive beetles are left in the top cover. They are fast, so have your hive tool ready to smash them. Smashing them with the blunt end of the hive tool is the best natural treatment :)
HOW TO PREVENT AND REDUCE SHB
Since SHB seeks out weak and distressed hives, keep your colonies strong and healthy. SHB can also be reduced through trapping and keeping the apiary and honey house clean.
NEVER…cut out stray comb and throw it on the ground.
NEVER…leave honey supers or frames laying around.
NEVER…give your bees more space than they can patrol in the hive.
NEVER…place colonies in full shade as beetles love shady areas. Place hives in full sun when possible.
If you live in an area heavily infested with the presence of SHB be very cautious in using bee-escapes as a means to empty bees from your honey super. As the bees are trapped out of the super, the beetle can have unprotected free-range of the super. A bee escape is a small plastic gadget with small metal pieces that is placed in the oval shaped hole in an inner cover. The inner cover is then placed under a super allowing the bees to walk out of the honey super, but not back in.If you do have beetles and suspect that eggs are on your frames, freeze honey supers for 24 hours to kill all stages of SHB.
There are many traps available: West Trap, Freeman Trap, Hood Trap, Cut Beetle Trap, AJ’s Beetle Eater, and Sonny-Mel Trap. These are very effective at reducing overall SHB infestation in the hive. When you have a severe infestation, a ground drench is often suggested. Permethrin as a ground drench that will kill the pupating SHB in the soil. Sold as GardStar, mix 1 teaspoon (GardStar 40% EC) into one gallon of water. Carefully follow label directions and precautions. It is toxic to you and your bees if misapplied. Do not use a sprayer as the vapors can kill bees. Instead use a watering can. Drench a two foot area around and under the hive to adequately kill SHB beetle larvae entering the soil.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SMALL HIVE BEETLES:
First found in South Carolina in 1996.
SHB will not hatch when humidity below 49%.
SHB vector diseases such as Deformed Wing Virus.
Attracted to stressed hives and other beetles.
Attracted to bee alarm pheromones.
Females lay 4,000 eggs a month for 2 months.
LIFE CYCLE OF SHB:
Egg 19-24 hours
Pupae 5-14 days (Soil temps must be 70-80 to survive)
Adult 100-540 days.
Now for the pep talk. SHB are everywhere. Do not panic when you see them in your hive. It does not mean you are a bad beekeeper or that your hive is ruined. Not at all. Look at beetles as just another insect in the insect kingdom. Learn to keep bees among the SHB. It means keeping a better eye on your bees and modifying your management styles, but it will be okay.
Thanks so much for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. We hope you’ll consider making a purchase from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We need your business. Buy a hive or two from us. Attend one of our classes. Your future business helps us raise our family, enjoy life and pay bills. Or consider making a donation so that we might continue our work and research on the honey bee. These lessons are free and will provide you with as much if not more information than you would find in a $30 book. So if you are so inclined to make a $30 donation so that we might continue these lessons, CLICK HERE TO DONATE $30 Thank you in advance.David and Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms www.honeybeesonline.com
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I have to admit, after all of the emails I probably should not hold on to this post. I am starting to feel guilty that I have found these aprons and that people are running around trying to find stuff posted. And just like you I am starting to think of different ways to tell the family where I am going instead of saying Dollar Tree again. To make matters worse, nobody will endure this trip with me again.
If you are going to my Back to School Science training, I just hope you act like this is the best idea around and you have never in your life seen this post. And if a facilitator is in the room or walks by, just shout out what a brilliant idea this is and how affordable! I am planning on some messy things this year and I need smocks. Sure I could ask the children to bring in an old shirt but from my experience, that has not always been the best idea... You can figure that one out. Anyway, for a dollar I am using these. Yep, they are thin and I do not care because they will be covered in paint before you know it and that just might make the fibers a little stronger... Now if you get to Dollar Tree and these are gone this is what you do. You grab about five or six of your best teaching friends and you order a case and have it sent to the store for free! If they are on back order this is what you do... You save the messy stuff until they come in!
As far as what to tell your family? I am not sure. I am brainstorming different ways to tell my family that I am on my way to Dollar Tree again!
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