The hymen. "To cop the bean." - To have sexual intercourse with a virgin.

- american underworld dictionary - 1950
WARNING: MILD SPOILERS




In Ender's Game, Bean was depicted as more or less Ender's sidekick. However, after reading Ender's Shadow, it is apparent that Bean's potential surpasses even Ender. His drawback is that he is incredibly cold and calculating. This, as well as his age and size, is why Ender's Jeesh mostly held him in contempt. Petra especially despised him because she suspected that after her failure in battle, Ender had assigned Bean to watch her, and take control of her ships if she failed again.

Ender's Shadow:
Growing up as one of the smallest children on the streets of Rotterdam, he is forced to learn to survive not my brute force, but by cunning intellect. This is how he eventually meets Poke. Poke is the leader of the street gang that takes him in. Later we are introduce to Achilles, who ends up being Bean's arch-enemy more or less.

Shadow of the Hegemon:
This book takes place after Ender's Shadow, and is about the destabilisation of earth after ender leaves, and the IF declares non interference with the politics of earth. Most of the story is about various nations trying to employ one or more of the kids from Ender's Jeesh so that they might have a chance in the impending world war.

During the course of this story we find our exactly why it is that Bean is so intelligent, and why his physical proportions are a bit skewed.

Opinions:

I am a big fan of Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Shadow of the Hegemon. I tried to read the other branch of the series, but it just didn't hold my attention at the time.

Suggested reading:

If you liked Bean's half of the series, then you might like to know that Orson Scott Card intends to write another two books that will take place after SotH.
I would also suggest Treasure Box, and Lost Boys, also by OSC.
I swear I am not making this up

Ok, so a castrated male horse (and perhaps other animals, I don't know) tend to not exercise their penises very often. The penis is kept in a pouch like thing called a sheath, where it is safely out of harms way and hidden inside the stomach cavity. Now, when it sits there for a while, sweat and dirt tend to build up and since the non sexually active male horse doesn't air out his manhood much, this tends to be a problem. If you don't clean the sheath out regularly, the crud forms little balls (no pun intended) inside the sheath which after some time and movement form hard little pellets that get rather firmly attatched.

And, coming to the point, these hard little deposits of crud are known as beans.

And now you know...

Phaseolus vulgaris

Also known as kidney bean, common bean, green bean, navy bean, pinto bean, snap bean, string bean and wax bean.

The kidney bean is an annual plant which is said to have originated in South America. It is a twining plant, and is the bean most commonly grown in both Americas. It has alternate leaves, each consisting of three broad leaflets. Sparse clusters of white, yellow or purple flowers bloom before the fruit grows. The colour of the seeds (beans) depends on the variety, but they always grow in yellow or green pods.

Beans have diuretic properties. The pods can lower blood sugar levels and for this reason may be used for mild cases of diabetes. (Medical advice should be sought first). Bean pods are most effective medically before they are ripe, and fresh pods are better than dry. The dried pods, however, can be useful when mixed with other effacious herbs (eg. bilberry, milfoil, dandelion, juniper) and made into a tea. Bean pod tea is also good for dropsy, sciatica, chronic rheumatism, kidney and bladder problems. Prolonged use of a bean decoction can be used for severe cases of acne. Bean meal is good externally on ezcema, skin eruptions and itching.

As a verb, to bean is to hit someone on the head with an object.

As a noun, a bean is a food source. Beans are the seeds of legumes of the family Leguminosae, also known as pulses; peas are also members of this family, and I confess I have been unable to determine the difference between beans and peas. (Peas have round seeds? Though this seems very trivial, and it's just a wild guess.) In any case, beans have edible seeds and seed pods and are a very ancient food source which has been consumed by humans for thousands of years.

Before the "discovery" of America, Europeans didn't have many types of beans except for broad beans; they learned about soybeans from Asians, and most of the rest they got from First Nations people, who had already developed most of them on their own. (Compare corn and squash, also developed by indigenous North Americans, and making up their important culinary trinity, fondly known as Three Sisters.) Most beans grown today are annuals (though some Asian varieties are perennials) and grow erect (bush types) or as vines (running or pole types).

In relation to the culinary arts, the life of the green bean (I'm talking here of that pod and its seeds, not the whole plant) passes through several stages.

In the early days of the bean's life, up until about a week, the pod of the bean is tender enough to be eaten, and the seeds in the pod are so small that they are easily overlooked. Young bean pods generally snap when folded, and so at this stage beans may be called snap beans or just edible pod beans. Varieties include the rounded, skinny French bean or haricot vert; the rounded, thicker string bean, named for the tough string that used to run along its length but which has now been mostly bred out; the broad, flat runner bean; the long, thin Asian yard long green bean; and the wild and wonderful wing bean. On the pea side of the divide (if divide it so is) lie snow peas and sugar snap peas. Though most edible pod beans are green beans, there are also yellow and purple varieties; wax beans, for example, may be green or yellow. Beans grow easily and produce lots, or you can buy them all through the summer; choose crisp, bright-coloured, blemish-free beans and store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Ideally, edible pod beans should be used within a few days. They're great steamed, blanched, or stir fried.

As the bean matures, the seeds inside swell and become visible through the skin; at this stage the pod is tough and leathery but the beans themselves are delicious morsels. These babies are often called shell beans or just shellies. Shell beans include lima beans, butter beans, fava beans, and cannellini and flageolet beans (varieties of kidney beans); on the pea side, it's your basic green peas. Soybeans have become a popular item too as a shellie, steamed in their shells and then shelled and eaten; you'll see them in Japanese restaurants as an appetizer called edamame. Store shellies as for edible pod beans, and note that they'll taste better if you buy them in their shells and extract them yourself. If you buy them shelled, cook them as soon as possible. Shellies are very good braised in broth, butter, or chopped tomatoes and herbs. They are also very nice steamed or blanched; if prepared in this way, you can substitute them for cooked dried beans with delicious results. Shellies have the advantage of freezing well.

As the bean matures nearly all its moisture evaporates; the pod becomes dry and brittle and eventually, left to its own devices, bursts open, scattering the seeds which will become future bean plants. At this stage our friends are known as dried beans. There are many kinds of dried beans available, which isn't surprising considering that they store so well. Don't be fooled, though; they don't keep indefinitely: more than a year and they're stale - throw 'em out and buy fresh. Azuki, adzuki or adsuki beans are small mild beans used to make red bean paste, so popular in Asian desserts; they and black-eyed peas are members of the mung bean family, a group of dried beans that are popular as sprouts. (Dried beans of most varieties make great sprouts, smaller ones working best; ideally the beans should be relatively fresh and, in a perfect world, organic.) Black beans are tasty babies, as are the various kidney bean types: red, cannellini, and flageolet. Chick peas or garbanzo beans, lentils, fava beans, Great Northern beans, pinto beans...well, you get the picture: there's lots of types of dried beans, and the peas are not to be forgotten, with split peas weighing in on their side. Cooking times vary depending on whether or not you soak them first (if you do, they'll cook faster), the size of the bean, the thickness of the skin, and whether or not they're split. Once cooked, they can be braised, baked, stewed, sauteed, or fried (or refried); they're great in soup and can be cooled and served in salads; and they get along well with rice and other grains as well as all types of meat and many vegetables. In a word, and like their fresh predecessors, dried beans are a versatile lot.

I have been asked, but I don't know, how many bean varieties are enjoyed in all three forms. I notice substantial cross-over between shellies and dried beans, though.

Beans are very nutritious. Dried beans are popular with vegetarians because they contain a lot of protein; this makes them good meat substitutes, if you want to look at them that way. Beans are high in fiber, rich in nutrients, and relatively low in calories. Because they are digested slowly, they raise the blood sugar slowly, making them suitable for diabetics. And there's one other thing beans are famous for: flatulence. It's caused by complex sugars that are only present in dried beans; edible pod beans and shellies will not cause this particular problem. (Discarding the soaking water from dried beans, or soaking canned beans for an hour and then discarding the soaking water, will help reduce the flatulence factor.) Still, you gotta love beans, farts or no.

In the Java programming language, an object or class definition that follows some (but not necessarily all) of the recommendations of the JavaBeans specification in order to be more widely applicable.

Typically, the term "bean" can now be applied to almost any object with private data members with corresponding public accessor and mutator methods. Provided the method nomenclature follows the JavaBean specification, e.g. that a field named "xyz" of type "Foo" has an getter method getXyz(), returning a Foo, and a setter method setXyz(Foo), the bean can integrate with a wide variety of tools and application frameworks.

Unfortunately, what began as a somewhat cute pun in the JavaBeans trademark has become quite a thorn in the side of software engineers, with seemingly more and more bean puns appearing on a daily basis. I'm sure most Java developers dread to be asked what they'd like for dinner. The response is invariably "Anything but beans".

Bean (?), n. [OE. bene, AS.be�xa0;n; akin to D. boon, G. bohne, OHG. pna, Icel. baun, Dan. bonne, Sw. bona, and perh. to Russ. bob, L. faba.]

1. Bot.

A name given to the seed of certain leguminous herbs, chiefly of the genera Faba, Phaseolus, and Dolichos; also, to the herbs.

⇒ The origin and classification of many kinds are still doubtful. Among true beans are: the black-eyed bean and China bean, included in Dolichos Sinensis; black Egyptian bean or hyacinth bean, D. Lablab; the common haricot beans, kidney beans, string beans, and pole beans, all included in Phaseolus vulgaris; the lower bush bean, Ph. vulgaris, variety nanus; Lima bean, Ph. lunatus; Spanish bean and scarlet runner, Ph. maltiflorus; Windsor bean, the common bean of England, Faba vulgaris.

As an article of food beans are classed with vegetables.

2.

The popular name of other vegetable seeds or fruits, more or less resembling true beans.

Bean aphis Zool., a plant louse (Aphis fabae) which infests the bean plant. -- Bean fly Zool., a fly found on bean flowers. -- Bean goose Zool., a species of goose (Anser segetum). -- Bean weevil Zool., a small weevil that in the larval state destroys beans. The American species in Bruchus fabae. -- Florida bean Bot., the seed of Mucuna urens, a West Indian plant. The seeds are washed up on the Florida shore, and are often polished and made into ornaments. -- Ignatius bean, or St. Ignatius's bean Bot., a species of Strychnos. -- Navy bean, the common dried white bean of commerce; probably so called because an important article of food in the navy. -- Pea bean, a very small and highly esteemed variety of the edible white bean; -- so called from its size. -- Sacred bean. See under Sacred. -- Screw bean. See under Screw. -- Sea bean. (a) Same as Florida bean. (b) A red bean of unknown species used for ornament. -- Tonquin bean, or Tonka bean, the fragrant seed of Dipteryx odorata, a leguminous tree. -- Vanilla bean. See under Vanilla.

 

© Webster 1913.

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