December 1, 2023

Overview for this week.

1. We are starting a new series on the early history of the Middle East. Over the next few weeks, we will look at the great civilizations to emerge from this region. This week, we start with the Sumerians. 

2. Next, I have a fun map quiz where you can test your knowledge of the current geography of the Middle East.

3. I often include meditations, poetry and insights from DR. Hayward Fox, this week you can learn a little about the man himself.

4. Make Elections Fair, led by Flock friend, Sarah Smallhouse, has kicked off their push to bring open primaries to Arizona.

5. With Christmas around the corner, we look at some of the unusual ways the holiday is celebrated around the world.

6. It wouldn't be the holidays without a sweet potato casserole, I have a recipe for a healthy take on this holiday staple.

7. In Travel, we look at the 54 towns that The United Nations World Tourism Organizations rates as the best to visit worldwide.

8. Henry Kissinger, who played a major role in US. foreign policy over the last half-century passed this week at the age of 100.

9. In The Heavens we look at the best way to observe the last full moon of the year and provide a guide to help identify the 10 seas of the moon.

10. In our Kid's Corner we meet the team behind one of the newest Sesame Street characters.

11. In the book Corner we feature the story of a group of strays and rescue dogs rehabilitated into disaster rescue hero dogs.

12. Finally we look at some facts about rescue dogs and what makes these dogs that we rely on in emergencies so special.

Now, to this week's Flock.

The Fertile Crescent, via Wikimedia Commons

This week we are starting a new series on the early history of “the cradle of civiliazation,” the Middle East. The region of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent spans modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, and southeastern Turkey. Some of the world's first city-states would grow into great kingdoms here. Three of the world's major religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, originated in this part of the world.

From: US History.org

The Fertile Crescent is the region in which humans first began farming and herding around 8,000 B.C.E. This dramatic change from nomadic hunting and gathering allowed early humans to settle into permanent villages and to begin accumulating a surplus of food.

With such a surplus, early villagers could begin to focus on developing the skills associated with civilization. Some of them became priests, scribes, merchants, artists, teachers, and government officials. They began to build cities, and before long, they were establishing empires. The Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, and Phoenicians all built great empires, each of which rose to glory in the Middle East.

The Ancient Middle East: Every Year

Ziggurat of Ur by Hardnfast, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sumerians were one of the first great societies to arise in the Middle East. The Sumerians were innovators in language, architecture and civil organization. They and are credited with a long list of societal firsts including the first written language, the first schools, and the first bicameral congress.

From: World History Encyclopedia

The Sumerians were the people of southern Mesopotamia whose civilization flourished between c. 4100-1750 BCE. Their name comes from the region which is frequently – and incorrectly – referred to as a “country”. Sumer was never a cohesive political entity, however, but a region of city-states each with its own king.

Sumer was the southern counterpart to the northern region of Akkad whose people gave Sumer its name, meaning “land of the civilized kings”. The Sumerians themselves referred to their region simply as “the land” or “the land of the black-headed people”.



The Sumerians were responsible for many of the most important innovations, inventions, and concepts taken for granted in the present day. They essentially “invented” time by dividing day and night into 12-hour periods, hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds. Their other innovations and inventions include the first schools, the earliest version of the tale of the Great Flood and other biblical narratives, the oldest heroic epic, governmental bureaucracy, monumental architecture, and irrigation techniques.

Take this quiz of Middle East Countries to see if you can identify each of the 16 countries that make up the modern Middle East.

From: Seterra

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have some of the highest per capita incomes in the world. The Middle East is also the heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which are three of the world’s major religions. Since it is such a pivotal place, knowing its geography is an important part of any educational curriculum. This map quiz game on the countries of the Middle East makes it that much easier to study this engaging region.

I frequently include Dr. Fox's meditations, poetry and wise insights in The Flock. This week I would like to share something from Dr. Fox's website about just who Dr. Fox is.

From: haywardfox.com

I am a clinical psychologist and long-time student of Tarthang Tulku’s vision of Time, Space, Knowledge. I have held academic appointments at the University of Arizona in both the Department of Psychology and the Department of Psychiatry. I have been a psychotherapist for fifty years and live in Tucson, Arizona, with my wife Cynthia. My long-held interest is in integrating the TSK vision into my active clinical practice, teaching, and workshop experiences.

You can read my curriculum vitae here

Friend and contributor to The Flock, Sarah Smallhouse updated us this week about the launch of a campaign by Make Elections Fair Arizona to bring open primaries to Arizona. Sarah is the chairman of this bipartisan political action committee. Back in October she was kind enough to provide some clarification and to add her own input to an item we had posted on open primaries.

From: Arizona Capitol Times, By:Jakob Thorington, November 28, 2023

A bipartisan political action committee announced the launch of an effort to change Arizona’s primary election system, proposing a third potential item that could be on the 2024 ballot related to how the state’s primary election is conducted.  

Organizers from Make Elections Fair Arizona said Tuesday they are officially launching efforts to collect signatures for a November 2024 ballot initiative that would open Arizona’s primary elections if approved by voters.  

The Make Elections Fair Arizona Act would create a single open primary election where all candidates appear on the same ballot and all voters select from that ballot if approved. Taxpayer funds would also be prohibited from being used in any partisan primary election including presidential preference elections unless they are open to all voters. 

From eating a Christmas dinner of KFC fried chicken in Japan to celebrating with fried caterpillars in South Africa, many countries have Christmas traditions that may seem odd to us. Dutch children leaving their shoes filled with carrots for Sinterklaas' white horse Amerigo in hopes that they will be filled with gifts in the morning is not that different from leaving milk and cookies for Santa and hanging stockings from the mantle. Follow the link below for a list of unusual Christmas traditions from around the world.

From: Holiday Extras

While Christmas may have started as a Christian holiday, and is often still celebrated as such, people from all over the world have embraced the festive season and added their own traditions along the way.

Manger scenes, Santa Claus, and smiley snowmen still reign supreme, but if you look hard enough, you'll discover some very different takes on December's most famous day. Here are some of the most unusual Christmas traditions around the world.

Sweet potatoes can be a healthy holiday treat that contains important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. The following recipe is a healthier alternative to the traditional holiday sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows and loaded with brown sugar.

From: Erin Lives Whole, By:Alex Cagan September 7, 2021

Dive into Healthier Sweet Potato Casserole for a lightened version of the Thanksgiving classic. Made with oats, pecans, and maple syrup, it’s complete with a crispy crumble topping and flavors that are to die for!

Ingredients in healthier sweet potato casserole

For this dish we’re using two groups of ingredients: those for the base, and those for the topping! Though, a few of the ingredients (maple syrup, salt, and cinnamon) will be used in both portions.

Sweet Potato Base:

• Sweet potatoes: It’s no surprise that this recipe features a whopping four cups of mashed sweet potatoes! You can’t have the casserole without this star ingredient.
• Egg: One egg will be used as part of the base. It works as a binding agent and contributes to the texture.
• Maple syrup: All-natural ingredients for the win! This sweetener adds the perfect amount of flavor to the sweet potato base.
• Vanilla: Use a dash of vanilla for taste.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon is the perfect ingredient for this sweet potato casserole recipe! Plus, it fits right in with the whole “fall dish” thing.
• Salt: Finally, add a pinch of salt, because obviously.

Crumble Topping:

• Rolled oats: We’re adding protein, fiber, and healthy carbs to this dish by using rolled oats as one of our topping ingredients!
• Pecans: For a sweet, nutty flavor, chop some pecans into very small pieces. Use 3/4 of a cup for all of the nutty goodness.
• Oat flour: Next up, oat flour will help bring all of the topping ingredients together.
• Cinnamon: Whip that cinnamon back out, because we need some for the top layer too!
• Salt: Add another dash of salt!
• Butter: We’ll use 3 tbsp of melted butter in the topping mix. You can also use coconut oil or vegan butter if that’s more your thing!
• Maple syrup: Finally, we’ll use maple syrup again to add a bit of sweet flavor.

Forbes has published a list of the best towns to visit in the world compiled by The United Nations World Tourism Organization. I've been to a few of these, have a look and see how many you have visited.

From: Forbes, By: Laura Begley Bloom, November 26, 2023

Searching for the best places to visit that promote cultural diversity and sustainable travel? The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recently released its third annual list of the Best Tourism Villages for 2023, a compilation of authentic, lesser-known places to travel. Consider this your new travel bucket list.

This year’s report showcases the 54 best villages and towns across five continents that have met a number of criteria, including economic sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability, conservation of cultural resources, tourism development, connectivity, safety and more.

I think it is impressive that Henry Kissinger continued to work well into his 100th year.

From: Reuters, By: steve holland and Arshad Mohammed, November 30, 2023

Henry Kissinger, the most powerful U.S. diplomat of the Cold War era, who helped Washington open up to China, forge arms control deals with the Soviet Union and end the Vietnam War, but who was reviled by critics over human rights, has died aged 100.

Kissinger, a German-born Jewish refugee whose career took him from academia to diplomacy and who remained an active voice in foreign policy into his later years, died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday, his geopolitical consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, said.

The next and last full moon for 2023 will be on Tuesday Dec. 26 at 10:33 pm, but the moon will still appear full the night before and after its peak to the casual stargazer. December's full moon, is also known as the Cold Moon.

From: space.com, By: Daisy Dobrijevic, August 24, 2022

Reaching a maximum brightness of -12.92 magnitude, it's hard to miss as it boldly takes center stage and washes out any celestial object that is unable to challenge its brightness.

Its unmistakable entrance is marked by lighting up the sky as a curved sliver of light— the waxing crescent — before revealing its entire face as the full moon. Despite its beauty, this chunk of rock that has accompanied our planet since its formation is something that many take for granted. 

This is because it always seems to be there. We see it on a nightly basis and, with the naked eye, we are able to pick out the craters, volcanoes, ridges, and basins that plague its terrain. We suspect that we've seen all that our moon has to offer. But have we?

[1] Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers), [2] Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), [3] Mare Humorum (Sea of moisture), [4] Mare Serenitatis ( Sea of Serenity), [5]Mare Tranquillitatas (Sea of Tranquility), [6] Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises), [7] Mare Fecunditas ( Sea of Fertility), [8] Mare Nectaris ( Sea of Nectar), [9] Mare Vaporum ( Sea of Vapours), [10] Mare Nubium ( Sea of Clouds)

From: findatopdoc.com

Sesame Street is a wildly popular educational TV series that began to shape our culture on November 10th, 1969. Since then, it has been a long-time favorite of both children and adults. The show combines puppetry, dialogue, and comedy to help educate children on topics such as the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes. Sesame Street’s main characters include Big Bird, Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Grover and Oscar the Grouch, among others.

The powerful effect Sesame Street has on children

For years, the show’s creators have been introducing interesting content on the show, including life lessons, birthdays, injuries, families with loved ones in the military, marriage, grief, and more. Yet, one of the greatest innovations made in the long history of story-telling took shape in the late 1990s. Leslie Kimmelman, editor of Sesame Magazine at the time, began to notice that some of her colleagues who brought their children to work had autism. Knowing how the characters on Sesame Street had an immense impact on children. “There was a small group of us, parents with kids on the spectrum, who knew how powerful the show’s effect was on our children. Leslie wanted to raise awarenes

Bringing Julia to Life

All dogs are good dogs, this book confirms that.

Lola was a buckshot-riddled stray, lost on a Memphis highway. Cody was rejected from seven different homes. Ace had been sprayed with mace and left for dead on a train track. They were deemed unadoptable. Untrainable. Unsalvageable. These would become the same dogs America relied on when its worst disasters hit.

From: International Search and Rescue Dog Organization

Open-minded, obedient & eager to learn. 

Basically, almost every dog can be trained as a search and rescue dog, regardless of breed. It must be healthy, resilient, willing to learn, interested in solving tasks and have strong nerves. In addition, the dog should be of medium size and not too heavy in weight, as it must be carried by its handler in some places. 

Search and rescue dog work is teamwork. 

Together with its handler, the search and rescue dog forms a well-coordinated team. Mutual support and trust during training and in case of an emergency are vital in search and rescue dog work. The dog handler must be physically and mentally resilient, have empathy for the dog, be ready for deploy­ment and a team player, and be able to in­ter­pret the dog's body language correctly. Expertise in first aid for humans and dogs as well as operational logistics are also required. 

Training to save lives. 

Mission teams trained by the IRO have com­plet­ed two to three years of intensive training – both the dogs and their handlers. Young dogs start playfully with easy search and alert exercises, while experienced dogs must face complex scenarios in terms of nose and obedience work as well as dex­ter­ity. Latter is the ability of the dog to move calmly on difficult ground, which may also be un­stable, and to over­come obstacles independ­ently. 

600 training hours per year. 

Search and rescue dog work is a time-con­sum­ing but fulfilling voluntary work. On av­er­age, up to 50 hours of training are re­quired in some months to maintain a high edu­ca­tion­al level. The training of the dogs often begins at the age of eight weeks. The cost of training a single search and rescue dog for at least two years amounts to about 20,000 Euros.  

Leisure time of search and rescue dogs. 

In their free time, dogs may be dogs: long walks in the countryside, digging holes in the sand, swimming or lying lazily in the sun and doing nothing at all. Of course, they are also kept busy on a small scale, they de­mand that. But the basic rule is leisure time must remain leisure time and the dogs should be able to rest. A healthy balance between work and rest is very important, especially for search and rescue dogs.

photo credit: Alexander, lead security guard: cat 10

Don't Be Shy: Share Your Stories!

I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our second year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story.

Holualoa Ed Fit Wellness & Culture 2

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