Bee gone dull cares.

I keep hearing about this thing about bees disappearing,

and this article gives us the skinny on the latest theories. It's a bit worrying, being as how they are major players in pollination and thus some of our food supply (remember ecology? -How things work together for good?). Here's my favourite silly theory: "'My favorite theory, which I throw out, is that the bees are out there creating their own crop circles, working very hard, physically pushing the crops down with their little legs. It fits. It explains the loss of bees and crop circles at the same time.'"
The article also looks at some of the metaphoric uses being made of the phenomenon.
Before we get too 'doomsday' about it though, ""From an ecological standpoint, it is opening up the possibility for local pollinators like the mason bee to come back." Honeybees, after all, are an introduced species. They were brought here by European explorers and settlers. The Indians called them "white men's flies.""
Honey, I'm Gone - washingtonpost.com:

Why post-secularist might be mindful of Buddhism

When I've led workshop/lectures on post-modern spiritualities, I've quite often cited the rapid growh of Buddhism in the west and the connections it seems to make with 'new age' stuff, and invited students to reflect on what about Buddhism might be attractive to post-secular spiritual seekers. I've not fully named it for myself, even, but I suspect that this quote puts us in the right vicinity to answer the question. "Buddhist-influenced cultures understand adaptive self-deception; they view human cognitions, emotions, and preferences as self-interested illusory constructs that may serve biological goals, but that do not reflect objective reality". I think that these things are being seen from a reflective post-modern mindscape and that are then being seen in Buddhism. Perhaps. This is certainly one area I'd like to be able to research if my new post allows it.
Mindful Hack: Evolutionary psychology :Goodbye cruel US - prof claims EP's future is Asia :

Britishness and community cohesion

In this opinion-piece an intriguing thought reflecting on second gen children of immigrants from Pakistan: "They felt negligible pride in their Pakistani heritage but had never seen much reason to affirm their Britishness: after all, the people around them didn't seem so keen on it. 'If you denigrate your own culture you face the risk of newer arrivals looking for one elsewhere,' wrote Taseer. Into that hole where Britishness should be, an Islamist identity had flowed instead. The obvious contrast was with the United States, where Muslims felt both strongly Muslim and strongly American - and where there was no homegrown jihadist movement."
And a bit later, a wider contextual reflection: "Britons are retreating into niches, rather than spending time with those around them, the way they once did. Now a 14-year-old can play World of Warcraft with a pal in Seattle as easily as kicking a football with the kids next door. It's not so much Britishness which is fraying, but the very idea of a society defined by the place where we live."
Worth pondering.
OK, let's have a Britishness test. But it must be for everyone, migrant or not | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited:

Is your brain really necessary?

Maybe not, lookee.

The student in question was academically bright, had a reported IQ of 126 and was expected to graduate. When he was examined by CAT-scan, however, Lorber discovered that he had virtually no
brain at all. Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity, some 4.5
centimetres deep, the student had less than 1 millimetre of
cerebral tissue covering the top of his spinal column. The student was suffering from hydrocephalus

Actually this is not so much of a surprise in the light of the kind of thing that Antonio Damasio says in 'The Feeling of What Happens'. What it may do is undermine a kind of 'physical basis' for anthropoligical dualism where 'mind' is secreted by brain. It may be that mind is better thought of as an emergent quality of humanity (including the social aspects); a view more in consonance with alleged Hebraic modes of thought on related matters and certainly likely to be grist for the mill of cultural uptake of holistic thinking.

Now, I'm must admit that I'm not sure I can go as far as Rupert Sheldrake, but it certainly makes you think. And on the basis that an extreme idea is good for shaking our thinking up ...

what on earth is the brain for? And where is the seat of human intelligence? Where is the mind?
The only biologist to propose a radically novel approach to these questions is Dr Rupert Sheldrake. In his book A New Science of Life Sheldrake rejected the idea that the brain is a warehouse for memories and suggested it is more like a radio receiver for tuning into the past. Memory is not a recording process in which a medium is altered to store records, but a journey that the mind makes into the past via the process of morphic resonance.

Intriguing, though, at present, very 'out there'. For a less esoteric approach, Mindful Hack draws our attention to some musing of AJ Meyer:

A static hologram basically can be thought of as a global associative read only memory.[1] That is, the data are not stored at specific addresses as in the digital computer, instead they are stored globally. Much of human memory also appears to have a similar global character. Studies done by Adey with rabbits seemed to indicate that there appeared to be some sort of globalized phase modulation in the rodent's brain waves as they learned mazes. In my talk I made a presumptuous jump and suggested that human memory might have a dynamic holographic structure, that is, a global associative read and write memory.

And, in fact, if Damasio is right, we have to take in not just the brain but the whole nervous system and endocrine system, in crude; the whole body.

Is your brain really necessary?
Technorati Tags: brain, mind, anthropology, culture, morphic_resonance

Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America

Please note that this is flagged: "Just for Fun - Outlandish Statements" nevertheless, there is the occasional good point; I refer particularly to the stuff about football, beer and spellings. Oh and point 10; on chips. I note too that point 16 has a lexical error: 'driving us crazy' in the sense used there should be Anglicised as "driving us to distraction". Although I would have to ask 'who -or what- is JFK?'

My face-to-face USAmerican friends will recognise that this is precisely the kind of ribbing I tend to go in for. And I would take this opportunity to mention, again, that the Commonwealth of Virginia still hasn't concluded a peace treaty with the UK following the hostilities of the 1770's, so actually is still technically part of the UK ...

Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America
To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair MP, for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. Popular British films such as the Italian Job and the Wicker Man should never be remade.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There are other types of football such as Rugby, Aussie Rules & Gaelic football. However proper football - which will no longer be known as soccer, is the best known, most loved and most popular. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2008.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of North America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. The 4th of July is no longer a public holiday. The 2nd of November will be a new national holiday, but only in Britain. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From the 10th of November the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until the 1st of April) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

Facebook | Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America

Shell’s sponsorship of the wildlife photographer of the year competition

"Shell should not be sponsoring the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. We call on the Natural History Museum to end its sponsorship deal with Shell."

SAY NO TO SHELL’S SPONSORSHIP OF THE WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION | Rising Tide UK:

Eta to end ceasefire at midnight

Well, I can understand their frustration to some extent; I have an impression that it wouldn't be hard to interpret some of what has been happening over the last year or so as foot-dragging on the part of the Spanish authorities. Though on the other hand I do think that ETA might do well to think about how their actions and words are likely to come over to those they need to persuade. Indeed, it should reflect on this:

There was little surprise in Spain about the end of the ceasefire. Most Spaniards had felt that it came to an end in December

Clearly ETA have a problem persuading people that they are trustworthy which is a problem for negotiating settlements; after all

When Eta declared the cease-fire last year, it called the truce permanent and said it wanted a negotiated end to the nearly 40-year conflict,

(source: Independent report), . On the other hand, probably that is true of the Spanish government; I can't help thinking that banning Batasuna is a bad idea and that letting elections include such a party (like Sinn Fein in northern Ireland in days gone by) at least gives an idea of strength of feeling. We need some kind of creative, daring way forward out of this impasse. In the mean time, I hope that this prognostication may prove the true one of the alternatives.
"Some have predicted it will opt for a low-scale campaign, perhaps aimed at the tourist industry. This would be designed to avoid killings and so leave the door open for a return to a peace process after next spring's general election in Spain."
Eta to end ceasefire at midnight | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited: