Bees

The official mascot of 6channel¹⁾.

Fun fact: meltingwax's fursona is a bee! 🐝

Meltingwax awoke with a cold sweat. That damn dream again. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and sighed. Despite being awake, he still heard the humming. For those who don't know meltingwax well, since the age of 6 he has commonly experienced what we refer to as "the bee dream." We don't know why he has it, but he does. Sometimes the bee dream involves his mother being stung to death by bees with rabies. Sometimes he is a bee-sized human, captured and brought back to the bee hive to dissolve in honey. Other times still, he sees his loved ones transformed to human-size bees.

Bees are tireless workers, always striving to make their environment better, not just for themselves, but for those around them, as well.

Buddhist texts note that from a multitude of living things, bees and other pollinating animals take what they need to survive without harming the beauty and vitality of their source of sustenance. For humans, to act in the manner of bees is an enactment of compassionate and conscious living.

Bees have for a long time been an important symbol and reality for the spiritual life, especially in the Christian tradition. Monasteries are credited for spreading bees throughout Europe, perhaps leading to much of their agricultural success. Many monks are famous beekeepers, as was Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel who is the father of genetics.

The honeybee, depicted on heroic-sized beehives, is seen atop such prominent buildings as the Beehive House and Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City. Smaller replicas of the beehive have been stamped on license plates, park benches, and other objects. Monuments and souvenirs galore tout the beehive as the symbol of Salt Lake City much as Atlanta claims the peach as its symbol. To Latter-day Saint residents of Salt Lake City, the beehive is more than a symbol of the city as a home of hard workers or of industry. The beehive symbol was Brigham Young’s way to remind residents of the Jaredite civilization in America.

To Brigham Young, the honeybees and their hives suggested “cooperative labor and industry.”

Freemasonry teaches: “The Beehive teaches us that as we are born into the world rational and intelligent beings, so ought we also to be industrious ones, and not stand idly by or gaze with listless indifference on even the meanest of our fellow creatures in a state of distress if it is in our power to help them without detriment to ourselves or our connections; the constant practice, – of this virtue is enjoined on all created beings, from the highest seraph in heaven to the meanest reptile that crawls in the dust.”

Beechads are a feared presence in certain IRC communities.

• https://www.wired.co.uk/article/pissky

James Gilpin is a designer and researcher who works on the implementation of new biomedical technologies. He's also got type 1 diabetes, where his body doesn't produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.

So he's started a project which turns the sugar-rich urine of elderly diabetics into a high-end single malt whisky, suitable for export.

The source material is acquired from elderly volunteers, including Gilpin's own grandmother. The urine is purified in the same way as mains water is purified, with the sugar molecules removed and added to the mash stock to accelerate the whisky's fermentation process. Traditionally, that sugar would be made from the starches in the mash.

Once fermented into a clear alcohol spirit, whisky blends are added to give colour, taste and viscosity, and the product is bottled with the name and age of the contributor.