Good Ear Candles Rely On High Quality Beeswax

By Simone Kaminaris

So how exactly how are ear candles made? We here so much about them, the pro's and cons etc and races varying perspectives naturally but how are they made? The majority of ear candles are and could be made with pure beeswax. Beeswax is naturally made use of by all the large major beauty offerings that we now purchase and is a commodity in itself, perhaps nearly as sort after as gold or silver in some respects.

Part of the reason that beeswax is so sort after comes down to quality but lets take a moment to consider the poor old bees! What exactly is beeswax and how do we end up with such a pure gorgeous smelling block of beeswax? If you have smelt the beautiful aroma of a block of beeswax it is quite incredible if delicious so much so that you want to eat it! It's yummy! But it took an inordinate amount of effort to become it's final product thanks to the power horse work ethic of the bee colony.



Beeswax is actually a by-product of the beehive itself. The bees that have worked so hard are only 12-18 days old and they secret beeswax from wax glands which are six to nine segments beneath the abdomen. the bees use beeswax to form a new comb capping off their ripened honey. Humans of course now use beeswax in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, candles, polish and general waterproofing. Humans will also use the beeswax to form an initial foundation comb for beehives themselves to assist with the production of honey.

The composition of beeswax is complex, but contains hydrocarbons, straight chain monohydric alcohols, acids, hydroxy acids, oils and other substances. Its specific gravity is less than one, so it floats on water. It melts at 63 C to 65 C and solidifies at 60 C to 63 C, depending on purity. Bees collect nectar, pollen and water each day to take back to the hive so that future generations can live. The raw nectar comes from flowers. They mix this with secretions from their glands, thereby transforming it and after it is deposited in the comb, it ripens into honey.

It is generally believed that for every 60kg of honey roughly 1kg of beeswax is produced so you can see why it is a rare commodity. Recently there has been a plague of disease within bee colonies worldwide and the number of countries now able to produce the finest honey and beeswax is diminishing fast. You can quite easily see how the impact on the environment affects nature so quickly - the bees are struggling to find good quality nectar and pollen form our forest areas. This is why countries such as Australia and New Zealand are still able to produce some of the finest honey and beeswax available.

So for ear Candle makers the supply and quality of beeswax is supreme and not regarded lightly. Quality ear candles are made form the very best quality beeswax and this is set by where the beeswax is sourced and from which country. So the next time you use your ear candles spare a moment for the way the candles were made, their ingredients and particularly the additional standard lengths the bees went to to gather the nectar! We have got a lot to thank them for, they're almost a protected species!

About the Author:

Times have changed and modern Ear Candles respect the desire for safety. These Ear Candles perform well.

Immanuel Kant and Critical Thinking

By Holly L Wilson

Immanuel Kant articulated his primary position on critical thinking in his essay "What is Enlightenment?" In there he defines enlightenment as "man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity" and he defines immaturity as "the inability to use one's reason without the guidance from another." What he means by this is that critical thinking is thinking for oneself and so he affirms the Latin term "Sapere Aude!" which means to have the courage to use one's own understanding.

The problem is according to Kant that people are reluctant to use their own understanding and are afraid to think things through for themselves. They would rather have other people think for them. So they go to their doctor for a diet or prescription. They demand that their pastor serve as their conscience. They memorize what books say. They don't ever question the authority of their doctor or pastor or books. Books have unquestioning authority because they are in print. It isn't just that people believe they don't have the expertise that the pastor or doctor has, it is that they are not willing to use their own thoughts to question that authority. People don't want to use their own reason. They want others to tell them what to do.

The solution to this problem is not to avoid doctors, the church, or refrain from reading, but rather to let the expertise of one's doctor, pastor, or books come into question. One needs to be open to opposing explanations and instruction. One should think about the alternative and reflect on what the doctor, pastor or books says. People need to seek a second opinion. People should always be open to the opposing thought. And this is precisely the work of scholars.

However, when using one's private reason, one isn't required to be free in one's thinking. For example, a pastor must adhere to dogmatic beliefs because they are required by his denomination. If he were to give us these dogmatic beliefs he would no longer fulfill the requirements of the position. A pastor who doesn't claim to believe the propositions of the Apostle's Creed is not really a Christian. The same thing holds for soldiers in the military; a soldier must obey his orders. A soldier who doesn't obey but calls the orders into question by his own understanding is going to disrupt the battlefield. These are private uses of one's understanding and it is right to hold to unquestioning beliefs in these cases.

Nonetheless, the public use of one's understanding must be liberated from these restraints. Scholars have this requirement. The number one example of using one's own reason, for Immanuel Kant, is the scholar in academia. The scholar requires freedom from authority so that she can use her own reason. For example, it was traditionally believed that Moses was the author of the five books of Moses. Scholars who began to see contradictions in the text and entertained the idea of multiple authors faced expulsion from their jobs. It was first in the 20th century that scholars were finally given permission to entertain a position in opposition to tradition. This freedom is not extended to students however who often are required to regurgitate a professor's opinions instead of being permitted to question those opinions. In a university a scholar and her students need to be able to entertain new ideas and call traditional beliefs into question so that new truths can be discovered.

Although Immanuel Kant is right that the private use of reason restricts thinking for oneself, it is not true that pastors and soldiers and patients don't need to think for themselves. Pastors will meet people, circumstances, and issues that are not dealt with in the bible or the tradition. Soldiers still need to think how best to carry out the orders given to them. Patients may need to trust the expertise of their doctors but they should also seek a second opinion or research the issue on the internet for themselves. So everyone needs to be like a scholar in some sense. We all need to see ourselves in the pursuit of the truth. So good critical thinking is necessary for everyone in every circumstance in life, not just for the scholar.

About the Author:

Looking to find information on Immanuel Kant, then visit www.kantianschool.blogspot.com to find the best advice on critical thinking and how it can help you.