Ram Bahadur Bamjan has been in deep meditation for six months, according to his family and friends. He has neither eaten nor drunk water, some say.

Scientists want to check him out. Local officials have agreed to an examination, but the scientists are not sure how they will proceed without interrupting the meditation.

A journalist travels to Abkhazia, where Stalin spent his holidays. And where, perhaps, the dictator sometimes returns.

But the dander remains. For those who suffer from cat allergies, the troubling particles remain for up to 22 hours after the animal has departed.

We all know it’s good for us. Isn’t it?

Depends. Apparently, some farmed salmon from Europe has such high toxin levels that it should only be eaten every five months.

It’s all about the feed. More here.

Uprighting overturned pots, which they somehow manage to do even with heavy rocks inside. Pound for pound, they could probably outpush the Beckham of sumo. ) Filling holes dug among the Iceland poppies and scallions. Putting more rocks in pots that look vulnerable. Tending wounded plants.

I looked up once last week to see a squirrel embracing one of my potted hibiscus. A sight to make my blood run cold. The chewed up remains are now atop one of the covered garbage cans until I can decide on a safer spot.

From Thais.it, some colorful ones. Click on each picture to see details and a high-res image.

Does our soil become hard to penetrate? Driving past the McDonald’s, I spot two men planting flowers. One is loosening up the dirt with a hand axe. It’s a shame I can’t take pictures when I’m driving.

Sometimes the machinery distracts. But in a good way.

The birds are starting to fly into the windows - the berries must be fermenting.

There are fewer cats in the neighborhood. When a bird knocks itself unconscious, I put it in a nearby bush to recuperate without worrying that it will be eaten.

For many years at our house, the Berenstain bear books were as much a part of naptime and bedtime as blankets.

Stan, who created the series with his wife, Jan, died Saturday of cancer.

At last count, there were 250 daffodils and tulips chilling in the garage. Maybe I should get started this afternoon. It’s been hard to plant bulbs with a cold, so there’s the excuse. In Calif., if they go in too early, there’s a big show in January, then nothing in the spring but the dying foliage.

About 40 genes is all.

The 6′ 8″ wrestler towers over his opponents, and is the first European to attain sumo’s second-highest rank.

Pictures and more info here. Fans are taken with his looks and call him the ‘Beckham of sumo’.

Got someone on your list that needs a bit of help in the kitchen or elsewhere? How about an electric jar opener, or a talking clock and calendar? Microwavable slippers to warm up cold feet?

Some of the ideas work for others too. The sonic boom clock will flash a lamp and vibrate the bed to awaken sound sleepers. That I could have used when my sons were teens.

A second Chinese city near the Songhua River has cut off the water supply due to massive contamination from the benzene plant.

A reservoir supplying water to 70,000 households contains cryptosporidium, which causes diarrhea and vomiting. Residents have been asked to boil their water before using.

It smelled of stale cinnamon rolls and sweat, but I had to return a lamp whose pull chain fell out. The returns clerk broke herself up asking if I had pulled too hard.

I approach lamps from across the room, usually with a full body tackle.* Funny she should ask.

*a phrase borrowed from my sons, who use it in regard to job interviewers. (We’re a strange group.)

Another visit to the library, a different one, where I found

Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cooks Illustrated
Feast, by Nigella Lawson
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
French Cooking in 10 Minutes by Edouard de Pomiane

The recipe involves tossing the nuts with an egg white, then sprinkling cinnamon sugar over, and mixing. I wish I could find it. But winging it wasn’t so bad, the nuts look right but are too hot to taste just yet. Last year I left a batch in the oven too long.

Some years I make peanut brittle, cashew brittle, fudge, nut clusters, and once, chocolate-covered cherries. Some years I try to lose weight.

Amazing detail from the gallery of the Micro Archiving site.

The pan flute music from Picnic at Hanging Rock by Gheorghe Zamfir.

Preservationists are concerned that the 16th-century cathedral will suffer structural damage from the onslaught of vibrations from nearby rock concerts and sports competitions.

Now in the French Quarter and the Central Business District. In a year, all of New Orleans.

It’s the country’s first free wi-fi owned and run by a big city.

The Big Easy will rise again.

At the Lenin Museum, somebody’s been sleeping in his bed, making coffee in his old coffee machine, and sneaking in apple cake, his favorite. So say museum officials, who have smelled the evidence, heard the footsteps, and seen the indentations in his bed.

A new species of box jellyfish has been found on the outer portions of the Great Barrier Reef. This is an area where snorkelers and divers congregate.

Box jellies are one of the deadliest creatures we can encounter. Its sting brings on Irukandji syndrome, a particularly traumatic series of reactions that include severe back, chest, and abdominal pain, sweating, a racing heart, high blood pressure, and vomiting.

Currently, no anti-venom exists.

A young woman is the usual target. It begins when the lungs are invaded by a muscle cell. As these cells grow, they form cysts, which eventually block the function of the lungs. The only hope is a lung transplant, but half the LAM patients receiving one will die in three years.

This hurricane season is going down to the wire, and it may linger past the official end date of Nov. 30.

So far, Epsilon does not seem to threaten much more than shipping interests. But late storms can sometimes pack an unexpectedly hard punch.

Cue the fat lady. It’s time.

N-hydroxylamine quickly arrests the enzyme in the anthrax bacterium that makes it multiply. At Stockholm University, the researchers say that their discovery will pave the way for more chemically simple substances that can counterattack other pathogens.

Brian Fisher, an entomologist, named a new ant species Proceratium google, in appreciation of Google Earth.

An Elvis Christmas village (with Hound Dog diner), a teddy bear dressed in a fringed white jumpsuit, and an Elvis tea set.

From Field & Stream. Includes a bobblehead buck rubbing its antlers on a tree, an alarm clock that wakes the recipient with a gobble call, and if that fails, a shotgun blast is next. But the one that will call to your silly gifting instincts is the deer that sings ‘Suspicious Minds’.

If Elvis only knew.

From Scientific American. Includes Freudian slippers, apothecary jars, a moon globe, and a ceramic egg birdfeeder that might just baffle your squirrels.

Can’t tax a brain with a cold that won’t leave.

The Kitchen Detective by Christopher Kimball
Here in America’s Test Kitchen by Christopher Kimball
Nobu the Cookbook, by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa

I can hardly wait to check my mailbox in the morning after spammers take a look at that line.

In a recent study, researchers attempted to inject 50 patients with a drug. Two-thirds did not receive the expected dosage due to the sheer mass of buttocks presented. Injections were supposed to go into muscle, but landed in fat instead.

The researchers concluded that longer needles are needed.

Crispy catfish served at the Taylor Grocery is accompanied by scallions and Dickey sauce (named for poet/novelist James Dickey, who had his way with a bowl of tartar sauce once).

Bach Sonatas, which are holidayish without being too Christmasy.

This golden beetle from the scarab family is found in Costa Rica.

In order for them to become attached to the tongue, the user must suck on the tiny studs. Kids view the positive aspect, which is coolness without piercing. The negative aspect, sadly, is an object lodged deep in the lung that requires very serious surgery.

A Wikipedia entry about the phenomenon.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, residents celebrate Hurricane Thanksgiving Day on the third Monday in October.

The Atlantic hurricane seasons lasts from June 1 - November 30. But storms that form after mid-October usually move away from the Virgin Islands.

After the 2005 season, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to observe such a holiday in other parts of the world.

Batten’s disease was mentioned here earlier in regard to stem cell treatment.

In a recent news release, researchers are studying the Tibetan terrier, which can also be afflicted with Batten’s. Because the pedigreed dog has a well-documented history, they are regarded as an ideal target for DNA study. Researchers hope to learn how to recognize the rare disease in its early stages. At present, it is often not diagnosed until the devastating symptoms have appeared.

Astronomers continue to be baffled by the mysterious outermost ring of the planet. The most recent images from the Cassini spacecraft show that the ring is actually a spiral, which is undergoing rapid changes.

Putting its best face forward for the world to see, China will be using fuel-cell cars from Daimler-Chrysler at the 2008 Summer Olympics. All public transport facilities will have hydrogen refilling stations.

Razor blades, air fresheners, cosmetics, lingerie, CDs, DVDs, alcohol, cheese, meat, because they are easily hidden and easily resold.

It would be interesting to collide with someone with pockets full of blades and fresheners.

An article from the Epoch Times that tells of events related to the explosion Nov. 13, with photos of the smoke and damage to buildings over a mile away.

By Alberto Iglesias. I’ve not seen the movie yet.

Amniotic fluid and breast milk transmit the flavors of Mom’s meals to the developing fetus and infants, says nutritionist Julie Mennella. Babies of breastfeeding mothers who ingest strong flavors such as garlic or aniseed tend to accept such flavors without balking.

That doesn’t explain why one son seems to be afraid of meringue. His dessert plate would come back to the kitchen empty except for that neatly isolated, still perfect layer of pouf.

Listening to German electronic music courtesy of the son’s Shuffle. It was much better than listening to the repetitive but highly stressful slap of a tire coming apart on the journey to Berkeley Wednesday night.

Next to the regular macaroons, which are the same size and shape. If they were solid chocolate, I would have ordered one.

Perhaps there will be fresh Dungeness crab on the menu very soon.