Friday, December 02, 2005
Honeybees are smrt
Australians believe bees are so important that they built the bees their very own flight facility, curiously named the All-Weather Bee Flight Facility. The cows in India don’t even have their own flight facility. At that flight facility is where scientists from the Australian National University and Würzburg University in Germany have recently discovered something that surely has the potential to net them a Nobel prize; Honeybees have an amazing short term memory. They don’t seem to be smart enough though to realize that their so-called flight facility is merely a large climate-controlled greenhouse where scientists just use them to do research. In this case they had the bees flying through patterned tunnels after which they gave them a chance to pick a matching chamber. Their paycheck? Nothing if they didn’t pick the right chamber, but when they did–even Bill gates’ daughters would be envious–they got to taste some sugar water. If humans got sent spelunking through patterned tunnels for research, they could pick the wrong tunnel all they want, but they would still get payed a rhinoceros’ weight in gold. With such extraordinary wages I wonder if any of those scientists ever fear that the bees might revolt, kill them, and perform their own tests on wild marsupials. Or worse; they could pick the wrong chambers on purpose rendering the scientists’ valuable research results completely useless. I’m not saying the research was very useful to begin with, but someone obviously thought it was. Someone felt it more important to support the abuse of these bees–I’m surprised Greenpeace hasn’t organized a big campaign to stop this madness yet–, rather than to spend it on charity, research on Aids, or even better, a make over for Martha Stewart. What is it about this discovery that makes it so important?
Closing Prayer
Loving God,
we lay these prayers in at your feet,
combining our songs with those
who worship you and rely alone on you.
We anticipate the coming day when we will all
be present in heaven: worshiping and praising the name of Christ.
As we await that day, grant us an enduring spirit and expectation of your coming
built on Christ alone, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
#27 on p.24 of the Worship Sourcebook
Aaah! Talking Elephants!
Overseas in Kenya, zookeepers have noticed something about their elephant, Mlaika, which has never before been heard from an animal: it can make noises. (R) This breakthrough observation is very important because it solves a problem that scientists have been working on for years. That problem is our difficulty in communicating with elephants. (R) These mammals obviously have a great deal of intelligence; just look at the size of their heads! Zoologists have spent countless man hours studying these complex creatures and their amazing actions. (R) An elephant is able to eat, drink and even swat away annoying flies with a flick of its tail! (E) Now that we have broken the communication barrier, humans must begin mimicking the actions of this amazing creature. (E) Also, in order to obtain a society like that of the elephants, we should begin by modeling our lives after theirs. (E) We must learn how they walk on all fours, eat so much, and get such big feet. (E) Only after we have achieved these things can we say that human society is the most advanced. (E) It is hard enough now to go through a day knowing that the elephants have tusks and us humans are stuck with the most advanced brains in God’s creation. (E) Leave it to God’s chosen people to get the short end of the stick. (E)