The fundamental insight of twentieth century science which has yet to reach the social world is that relationships are more important than things. ‘At all levels of life’, writes Capra, ‘from the metabolic networks inside cells to the food webs of ecosystems and the networks of communication in human societies , the components of living systems  are inter linked in network fashion.’

The slow acceptance of this idea reflects the inevitable delays of a new world view gaining credibility yet the evidence is increasing that the interrelatedness of nature may be far greater than we could have ever imagined…

Random Number Generators are computers that generate random numbers required for research. They are shielded from all external influences – electromagnetism, telecommunications and other forces that could cause systematic biases.

A study of thirty seven RNG’s around the world showed them behaving very strangely on 9/11. And this unusual behaviour happened at the exact time of the terrorist attacks starting around 5.00 am and peaking around 11.000am and continued into the evening.

What caused this unusual behaviour? The authors conclude that it is unlikely that any known environmental factors caused this strange behaviour and it may be directly associated with some (as yet poorly understood) aspect of consciousness attendant to global events.

Hi All ,

A famous travel writer was invited to a meal with a well-known Japanese family. The main course was Blowfish, considered a rare delicacy in Japan, because these fish are fatally poisonous unless the poison is removed by a skilful chef. To be served such fish is a great honour.

As guest of honour, the writer received the fish with great anticipation and savoured every mouthful. The taste was like nothing he had ever eaten. His host asked him what he thought of the fish? The guest was ecstatic. It was the best he had ever tasted. Only then did his host reveal that the fish he had eaten was a common variety.

The important lesson for the writer was how amazing ordinary food could be if he paid close attention to each mouthful.

BOHER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

Boher was buzzing over the June bank holiday weekend due to the packed schedule of events organised by the Boher Community Development Association, for their gathering weekend.  The opening of the refurbished community centre on Friday evening, attracted a large crowd, under beautiful sunshine.  Later that evening Boher Community Development Association and Murroe/Boher GAA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Boher GAA Team’s victory in the 1973 Junior County Hurling Final.  It  was a tremendous success and all had a wonderful evening reminiscing.  On Saturday evening, the largest number of cyclists ever, congregated at Boher Community Centre to raise funds for Cliona’s Foundation, in memory of Ciara McCarthy.   Over 130 cyclists left the community centre on a 33k cycle.  Over €5k was raised on the night with more money pledged.  This exceeded all expectations.  There was a tremendous atmosphere around Boher, following the Cycle.  On Sunday, again a very large crowd attended the GAA pitch for the family fun day.  It was a tremendous success with a significantly increased attendance from last year.  The day commenced with a Fancy Dress competition which was followed by a number of races.  The obstacle and novelty races proved to be very popular. The day concluded with the women’s and men’s tug-o-war.  The emphasis was on fun and a most enjoyable day was had by all who took part.

Boher Community Development Association wishes to thank all who participated in the various events over the weekend.  A very special thanks is extended to the volunteers, stewards, marshals and the Gardai in Caherconlish, Cappamore and Murroe.  Without your help and support, these events could not have taken place.

I have inspected them twice and they are building up nicely but all hopes of splitting them early have gone. I will wait till they show signs of swarming and then artificially swarm them……

22^nd May – I have heard of two colonies swarming in the locality which is a big surprise. My hives have only a very few drones at this stage and don’t look like swarming any time soon.

The last two days have been wonderful – the first real warm days. The bees are pulling in pollen and some small amounts of nectar and my solar wax extractor is working well!

1^st June – a lovely spell of weather and my hives have built up well and bringing in a lot of pollen and nectar. One of my hives is, I imagine, beginning to think of swarming. I plan to split them once I see queen cells with larvae in them.

Now that the stinging season is with us remember that a nettle sting is painful because the sting contains an acid. Rubbing the sting with a dock lead can relieve the pain because dock leaves contain an alkali that neutralizes the acid. Bees and ants also have acidic stings so dock leaves should help but other alkalis such as soap or bicarbonate of soda are usually better.

However a dock leaf is useless for wasp stings which contain an alkali. If you want to neutralise a wasp sting you need to use an acid such as vinegar. The only problem is that you may smell of pickles for the rest of the day!

The Worker Bee.

The bulk of a hive consists of workers females. By diet and accommodation, workers become physically different from the queen although they were produced from the same sort of egg and during the early part of their life they were all potential queens if the adult workers had so desired.

Workers have not lost the power to lay eggs but their eggs are not fertilized and produce drones. This form of birth known as parthenogenesis is shared by queens who have failed to mate within a few weeks of birth and by queens whose store of sperm is exhausted.  They also become drone layers.

All aspects of a colony’s well-being (excluding laying eggs) including making wax to making combs is looked after by the workers.

The worker is the smallest bee with a shorter body than a queen and fewer hairs. Their bodies are designed to carry honey and pollen. Their duties change depending on age and physical maturity – in newly hatched bee her sting and wax glands are not mature.

They begin cleaning and polishing the cells for the queen to lay in. They also lick the queen and in doing so receive a chemical that inhibits the development of their sex organs. After a few days it feeds older larvae with honey and pollen. As soon as her own mandible and mandible gland have developed she will start to feed the younger larvae royal jelly. The next stage in worker maturity is the development of her four wax glands located on the underside of her abdomen. Building comb is hard work. Bees cluster together and hang in strings and pass flakes of wax to the builder at the front of the chain who uses her mandibles to build the comb.

At about two weeks the worker is ready to collect nectar and pollen from returning foragers and place in food cells.

At eighteen days, three days before she starts foraging, it is her turn to guard the hive entrance, keeping unwanted alien bees out. She communicates by using her sense of touch and smell located on her antennae. The Nasonov gland on the upper side of her abdomen, emits a scent that is unique to the colony; worker bees at the entrance of the hive put their abdomens in the air and flap their wings sending the scent into the air to direct fellow workers back to the hive. By this stage her sting has developed completely.

During the first few weeks she may also have to ventilate the hive by beating her wings very rapidly – this fanning also helps to evaporate water from the nectar turning it into honey.

At three weeks she becomes a forager for pollen, nectar and water and propolis.  She first takes a few short orientation flights to fix the position of the hive. In the next three weeks she will travel as far as 3km on each foraging trip covering some thousand kilometres in her short life.

Each flight is very dangerous as she is easy prey for birds. She dies of exhaustion after three weeks. Workers born in the autumn live longer survive the winter in a tight ball eating the stored honey.