The Lizard that doesn't Drink, or so you think

This fascinating and frightening looking reptile will have you staring in awe at the way it lives.

Although it appears aggressive this lizard prefers the peaceful way out of things.

• Camouflaging with its surroundings
• Taking refuge in bushes low to the ground
• Tucking their head under their front legs and revealing their 'other' head
• They can puff up and appear larger than they are
• Jerking like a leaf in a breeze or just freezing in mid stride

It can also drink through its feet. When the dessert sand gets too hot, the thorny devil lifts two of its feet diagnoly and that keeps enough mousture in its body until it has a chance to find another water source. The devil is the only species in its genus.

After mating, the female has 3-10 eggs and lays them underground between September and January and they hatch 3-4 months later. Thorny devils are believed to have a life span of 20 years!

When sleeping, the thorny devil burrows in the dirt to stay warm. And their tounge is sticky which enables it to eat so many ants in one meal. Think about trying to eat ants! I am sorry, but that's a no can do!

God gave us so many amazing animals in the world that never cease to amaze me.

Observing Leonids-Want to see a Show?

This week we get a chance to see meteors!!! You can go HERE to lean all about them and when they occur. Tonight is one of them!

Fun facts about the Body

People that use mobile phones are 2.5 time more likely to develop cancer in areas of the brain that are adjacent to the ear they use to talk on the mobile phone.

Two million red blood cells die every second.

There are approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

Seven percent of a humans body weight is made up of blood.

Many cancer patients that are treated with chemotherapy lose their hair. For some when the hair grows back, it can grow back a different color, or be curly or straight.

A person that is struck by lightning has a greater chance of developing motor neurons disease.

The smile is the most frequently used facial expression. A smile can use anywhere from a pair of 5 to 53 facial muscles.

The slowest growing finger nail is on the thumb nail and the fastest growing is the finger nail on the middle finger.

The same amount of calories are burned by doing 6 sessions that are 5 minutes each of an activity and doing 1 session of that activity for 30 minutes.

The pectin that is found in apples aids in lowering cholesterol levels.

The longest hiccups on record was by an American pig farmer whose hiccups persisted from 1922 to 1987.

The length of a human esophagus is 25 centimeters.

The human liver performs over 500 functions.

The feet have approximately 250,000 sweat glands.

The early occurrence of a fetus yawning is at eleven weeks after conception.

The average ear grows 0.01 inches in length every year.

An Eternal Glow

You can tell I am a little hooked on Fungi. It is so fascinating! Though I say that about everything.

This new species of mushroom found in the forest of Brazil is always glowing. The tiny specimen is one of 7 new glow-in-the-dark fungi found around the world.

Dennis Desjardin and colleagues scouted for mushrooms during new moons, in rain forests so dark they often couldn't see their hands in front of their faces,

he said---

"When you look down at the ground, it's like looking up at the sky, every little 'star' was a little mushroom--it was just fantastic.

"Mycena luxperpertua mushroom--which translates to perpetual light," part of a verse in Mozart's "Requiem." From National Geographic

How do you think these fungi glow?

2008 Movie 'Knowing'

I just recently saw this movie. It was in between a very tense action film, and horror. Everyone has a different opinion. Mine was not in the positive genre.

If you have seen this movie, I would love to hear your opinions.

"The movie is about a MIT astrophysics professor (Nicholas Cage) who comes across numerological material that predicts the future. The professor comes across a piece of paper that was kept in a time capsule at a local elementary school about fifty years ago. By using numerology, the professor is stunned by the accuracy of the predictions, two of which he witnesses first hand.
Images are placed in the movie purposely at the ‘end of the world’ showing a Christian Van with a ‘Jesus is the Truth’ sign in the midst of New York, with individuals preaching the gospel yet oblivious to the fact that their end had come.
In the movie ‘Knowing’, the astrophysics professor is stunned at the propinquity of the planet Earth in terms of distance to the Sun to allow for life yet this relationship is not duplicated in the solar system. At the end of his class the agnostic professor shocks students when he tells them how he does not know the answer as to if Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Big Bang theory are responsible – he does not know…at least humble enough to tell his students that he does not have the answers. I wonder if the Mainstream Media will ‘harass’ Nicholas Cage for that statement as they did to Ben Stein…

However, the movie took synchronized punches at both evangelicals and secular academia to place a point across that none knows what the future holds. To evangelicals, it seems that they were ignorant that there existed some other forces in outer space that seemed superior to God of the Bible…and that they did not have it all together when it came to knowing the future. Yet to the Academia, the movie paints a picture that most have cast aside spirituality and relied on science and reason alone which cannot explain the predictions about the future.

As if to make mockery of the popular Rapture teaching, the professor’s son is among those chosen by some spiritual entities to be “raptured” out of the earth before the destruction. The professor now ‘believing’ in Bible Prophecy returns to his Dad, a Bible Prophecy teacher and they all embrace each other as they are destroyed in the fire – None is Left Behind.

Jesus Christ is put out of the picture and not seen as the Alpha and Omega to all Bible Prophecy – an assailing of the Jesus Christ of the Bible who alone holds the keys to Life and Death. Of course we don’t expect the opposite from Hollywood but have we as Christians contributed to the growing antagonism towards Christianity today?

From Yesu

"Obviously the movie poses great philosophical and theological questions. There is the arbitrary line of dialogue about “sciences” versus “faith” (a false argument set up by secularists) and in an early scene John Koestler discussed the theories of determinism and randomness. He eventually reveals that he believes there is “no purpose” to life.” By movies end John has had a transformation, but the Christian viewer needs to realize that it is not a Biblical one, but a vague (pan)theistic one. I will discuss the theological implications below, but since it will involved spoilers, I will not recite it here. It is an entertaining movie and thought provoking, but seems unevenly paced, plodding at times, and offers an unsatisfactory ending.

Some have called Knowing a secular version of the Bible Code theory, but it is really more like what Von Däniken would have thought of the Bible Code had he heard of it."

This review is by David Criswell, if you want the spoiler article I can give you the link.

Knowing trailer

Lost Sleeping Beauty

This is a little creepy to me!

January 26, 2009--She's one of the world's best-preserved bodies: Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old Sicilian girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. "Sleeping Beauty," as she's known, appears to be merely dozing beneath the glass front of her coffin in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy.

Now an Italian biological anthropologist, Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, has discovered the secret formula that preserved Rosalia's body so well.

Piombino-Mascali tracked down living relatives of Alfredo Salafia, a Sicilian taxidermist and embalmer who died in 1933. A search of Salafia's papers revealed a handwritten memoir in which he recorded the chemicals he injected into Rosalia's body: formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin.

Formalin, now widely used by embalmers, is a mixture of formaldehyde and water that kills bacteria. Salafia was one of the first to use this for embalming bodies. Alcohol, along with the arid conditions in the catacombs, would have dried Rosalia's body and allowed it to mummify. Glycerin would have kept her body from drying out too much, and salicylic acid would have prevented the growth of fungi.

But it was the zinc salts, according to Melissa Johnson Williams, executive director of the American Society of Embalmers, that were most responsible for Rosalia's amazing state of preservation. Zinc, which is no longer used by embalmers in the United States, petrified Rosalia's body.

"[Zinc] gave her rigidity," Williams said. "You could take her out of the casket prop her up, and she would stand by herself."

Piombino-Mascali calls the self-taught Salafia an artist: "He elevated embalming to its highest level." From National Geographic.