A man found dead in a churchyard was attacked with a metal object by a friend "in a calculated and brutal fashion", a court hears…. From BBC News. Full story

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Depois de um post da Mac segue um sobre maquiagem mais baratinha.

Acabaram de lançar um rímel novo da Maybelline, que é vendida em farmácias como Drogasil e Onofre. A Maybelline é da Loreal.

O rímel se chama Colossal Volum Express e está sendo elogiado pelas maquiadoras pela internet…e custa apenas R$ 18,00!

E por falar nessa marca, já li várias vezes elogios sobre a base e blush deles. Daí acabei lembrando de um post legal sobre os produtos baratinhos de maquiagem que estão neste link aqui do diadebeauté. Bom pra quem quer gastar menos (ou ter o caro, o barato, todos eles haha).

Bom fim de semana!

Vou contar que AMO experimentar um rímel novo! Quando eu nasci esqueci de entrar na fila dos cílios, então minha vida se resume a abusar de curvex, rímel e postiços! Depois dessa novela toda, consigo até acreditar que meu cílios existem…!

Bom, não tenho preconceito nenhum com marcas de rímel, e também acho que no fim tudo fica meio parecido, mas se a gente pode facilitar o processo, né? Então, minha nova queridinha de paixãoo é essa The Colossal, da Maybelline, que promete 8 VEZES mais volume (hahah quanto maior a promessa, mais prende minha atenção!). E, olha, ela realmente se supera…

Mas como nada é perfeito (e essa já tem muitas qualidades), ela é bem melequenta e forma pelotas na hora de passar, e a duração é não é lá Chanel né… Então o truque que to usando pra fazer minha vida mais feliz é, além do curvex (Obrigada Santo Shu Uemura), aquele primer de cílios da Lancome, que é tipo o Oscillation, só que branquinho.

Bom, ele é tipo um… PRIMER… Ele até dá uma alongada, mas não é essa a função dele, ele realmente funciona pra mim segurando o rímel eternamente (o que é um grande negócio em conjunto com o the colossal)… Não sei se vende no Brasil, mas lá fora ele é o mesmo preço do Oscillation “normal”.

Ah, aliás, prefiro usar o The Colossal marrom, que tinha comprado errado aliás… Tinha preconceito com rímel marrom, mas esse fica lindissimo, natural, (e é escuro viu…) e com cara de que todo aquele cílio é meu mesmo hahaha.

A única coisa é que o The Colossal não vendia no Brasil (?!), porque, segundo a Maybelline, não dá pra trazer todos os produtos, então eles optam pelos que tem mais apelo junto ao consumidor local. Ah………! Mas ouvi boatos de que ele já chegou por aqui… Alguém sabe???? Eu faço estoque desse rímel, em julho trouxe 3, mas já acabaram todos, então acabo usando a escovinha dele em outro rímel da Maybelline… Ah, e o preço dele é ótimo, como vocês já devem ter imaginado… Em Ny eu paguei uns 8 ou 9 dólares!! Tem em qualquer farmácia… Acho que aqui no Brasil vai custar uns 30 reais. (não é quase de graça, mas é barato comparado aos nacionais né…)

My search for a new HG mascara has taken me somewhere I never thought it would: the drugstore.

Now, when it comes to nail polishes and eyeliners, I’m a CVS/Walgreens kinda gal. However, when dealing with foundation, concealer, and mascara, I’ve had far too many bad experiences in the past to consider drugstores an option. Or so I thought.

Then I started seeing Maybelline the Colossal Volum’ Express mascara popping up in beauty magazines more and more often. After finding countless favorable reviews online, despite the fact that I can’t stand its name (why get rid of the e in volume? Why hate on the e??) I decided it was time to take the leap and buy my first CVS mascara in 2 years. It’s been a long and difficult journey, but I think the Volum’ Express may have cured me of my hatred of drugstore mascaras

What it is: Maybelline the Colossal Volum’ Express Mascara ($6.99)

What it’s supposed to do: “Creates 9x the volume, instantly. Plumps lashes one by one.” Delivers “dramatic lashes with no clumps.” [/source]

What it actually does: With one coat (shown below) my lashes were instantly longer and more voluminous. I can’t say they were nine times more voluminous, but to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting them to be. Once you’ve spent 2+ years looking for the perfect mascara, you become a little jaded ;P When I added another layer (while the first layer was still wet), I got next to no clumpage (awesome!). To top the good news off, it lasts allll day long, baby. And at the end of the day, it comes off super easy when I use makeup remover, and fairly easy even when I use soap and water. This is more of what I think of as a day-time mascara – it’s doesn’t deliver especially dramatic lashes. I’ve definitely found my new mascara for school, work, etc. (yay!!), but I’m gonna keep my eye out for something more extreme.

Pros: delivers volume, length; cheap; stays on when you want it on, comes off when you want it off.

Cons: Minor clumping

Overall: 5/5. Awesome day-time mascara, but I’d keep looking if you want one to wear to clubs/dances/parties/etc.

Invisible nekkid lashes

With Maybelline the Colossal Volum' Express mascara

Quick Question:

Sometimes when I come on lately, I can’t see the pictures I posted, or post pictures. So I was wondering, has anyone else encountered that same problem? (If there are any techies, or smart people in general, out there who think they know what could be going on, I’d love an explanation!)

BHUBANESWAR: Scientists and mining experts have called for an end to export of ores and minerals and sought an appropriate national policy for

the efficient management of mineral resources of the country.

Ore Mine

Speaking on the sidelines of a national symposium on “Raw Materials & Energy Management of Mineral Based Industries” organized by Institute of Advance Technology and Environment Studies (IATES), eminent scientist and former director general of Council of Scientist and Industrial Research [CSIR] P K Jena on Thursday said rampant export of raw minerals had been going on since several years and it needed to be stopped forthwith to conserve them for the posterity.

“We need to stop export of raw mineral resources forthwith. Mineral resources are not inexhaustible. If we go on exploiting our mineral resources at the present rate, they will be finished within next few decades and the country will head towards a colossal disaster,” warned Dr Jena.

“Mineral resources are vital for our industrial and socio-economic development. Increase in population along with advancement of industrialization, has resulted in growth in consumption or ore and minerals which are not replenishable,” he said, adding, high grade ores mined from earth’s crust had been exhausted.

“The country must top exports of all types of ores and try to add value for exports. As mineral resources are non-replensible in nature, all grades of ores have to be harnessed with an integrated mine area development programme”.

Mr Jena regretted that there had been no proper implementation of advanced technology and efficient management of mineral resources in the national interest. “China is advancing much faster than India in the industrialization programme, for example like producing ten times of steel what India produces”, he remarked.

Mr Jena further said India’s industrial as well as socio, economic development depends on her capability on judicious utilization and conservation of her mineral resources. The ores and minerals are being utilized in major industries such as thermal power plants, integrated iron and steel plants, aluminium and other non-ferrous metal industries and production of a large number of various types of refractories and chemicals.

“As these natural resources are non-replensible in nature and as the industries based on these are generating a lot of wastes polluting heavily our environment, it is extremely important to develop environment friendly, zero discharge as well as energy efficient processes for the mineral based industries”, he said.

Out dated technology, careless mining and lack of firm policy and mismanagement, a lot of mineral wealth, particularly the low grade ones and also high grade fines are being wasted or being exported at throw away price, according to Mr Jena. Similarly in the areas of mineral beneficiation and metal extraction, a lot of metal values are lost in tailings, slimes, leached residues, slags, flue dust, scarps etc. in addition to this, a lot of energy is spent in different mining, mineral processing, metal extraction activities.

This also has led to inefficient energy consumption, improper quality control, waste minimization and cost escalation. “In order to compete in global market and to improve the living standard of the people actions and remedial measures have to be taken up in the following areas”, he added.

Dr Jena also suggested systematic and sincere efforts to produce non –ferrous metals like copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tin, cobalt etc. and refractive metals like niobium, tantalum, vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum etc, not much available in the country.

“We should make these metals from their indigenously available lean and complex ores as well as from the wastes and by products of other industries. We should also make short and long term plans to import ores and minerals as well as the industrial wastes containing these non-ferrous metals and process those in the country to meet our requirements”, Dr Jena remarked.

Production & Export Data of Iron ore in India (MT)

LEVI FULLER
Colossal

I first time I’d ever heard of Levi Fuller was when fellow Seattleite and Song of the Day good-luck charm, Kate Tucker, sent me one of his ‘Ball Of Wax’ compilation CD’s…a quarterly collection of obscure music that features some of Seattle’s bestest indie bands. BofW Number 17 was released last month, and if you haven’t jumped on the Ball of Wax bandwagon, I suggest you head on over to his site and pick up a few right now. And Levi’s got his own new album about to come out, too. ‘Colossal’ drops October 27th and you can learn more over on MySpace or on The Official Levi Fuller Website !!!

Há uma semana atrás eu sonhei que estava num quarto que não era o meu e de repente todo o ambiente tremeu muito forte e fui parar próximo à janela com o solavanco. No mesmo instante me debrucei no parapeito e vi que era uma rua estreita, ladeada por edifícios de no máximo dez andares, não muito modernos.

O mais estranho era que na esquina eu pude ver um gigante, que vinha caminhando apoiando-se nos prédios, destruindo suas fachadas, janelas e varandas, pisando nas pessoas que estavam nas calçadas. Ele era estranho, porque em tudo se parecia a um anão, não fossem suas proporções colossais.

Tinha a cabeça desproporcional ao seu corpo, e pernas e braços tortos para dentro, com mãos e pés com dedos calosos. Não tinha nenhum pelo no corpo e também não tinha sexo. Seus dentes eram todos podres e tortos, sua pele acinzentada, como os aborígenes australianos, e ele era mau, emanava maldade.

A rua era muito estreita para ele e andava alguns passos e limpava um pé no outro, retirando os restos das pessoas que ele pisoteava, igual quando tentamos tirar areia da praia dos pés. Já muito perto da janela em que eu estava, ele pisou em um carro estacionado, com pessoas dentro, e com o seu peso o carro afundou na calçada e ele ficou com o pé meio preso.

As pessoas na rua e dentro do carro gritavam desesperadas. Como se não quisesse mais ouvir aquilo, empurrou com o pé os entulhos da calçada e que caíam dos prédios para dentro das janelas sem vidro do carro, soterrando as pessoas dentro.

Quando passou por mim, e eu estava mais ou menos na altura dos seus olhos, me escondi atrás da janela, para que ele não me encontrasse, mas ainda assim pude ver que seus olhos eram amarelados, como alguém que sofre do fígado, e em cima de si havia poeira, terra, e pedaços de pessoas.

Corri para a porta, fugindo apavorado e acordei gritando.

Este sonho me lembrou um quadro muito impactante do Goya chamado “O Colosso“.

It’s one colossal misspelling on Yahoo! Food:

and a smaller typo:

Ok! Novidade galeraaaa. MUSE! MUSE!

The Resistance

Essa é a mais nova canção da banda britânica MUSE que vai lançar seu 5º album chamado The Resistance e será lançado no dia 14 de setembro(está ficando próximo).
Uprising é o próximo single da banda e ela está vagando na net já tem umas 7 ou 8 horas.
Confira abaixo a canção.

Muse – Uprising ~ BBC Radio 1 Record

Nota: Nossa muito boa a canção, gostei muito. Achei muito extravagante e da uma sensação de presenciar algo bem futuristico e colossal . Parece trilha sonora de filmes como Exterminador do Futuro, Mad Max, Farscape.

Update: Artwork The Resistance

Peter McDonald,  Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute at the Australian National University, has said that specific immigration policies are shaping the nation’s size.

Answering points raised in the McCrindle report – which said Australia’s population is set to hit 22 million before the end of the year- Professor McDonald talked about how migration to Australia is bringing about colossal social and demographic change.

“Migration to Australia has changed. You know people think about migrants coming to Australia as those coming on the classic government permanent residents program. That’s the skilled migration, family reunion, refugees,” he said.

“Only 30 per cent of the population increase through migration comes through those sources, the rest of it is from people coming in on temporary visas to Australia and the biggest group is the overseas students and overseas students coming in.

“We’re desperately trying to keep them coming at the moment in case they get frightened away because it is a big export earner for Australia.”

Professor McDonald says as the population ages, the birth rate will fall, and Australia’s population growth in 20 years will entirely rely on migration.

You can find out more about migrating to Australia at our Down Under Live show – coming to Birmingham on the 19th & 20th September.

Source  :  www.australiamagazine.co.uk

I was in one of my favorite towns this past week: Annapolis, MD.  And whenever I’m in Annapolis, I make it a point to stop by Chick & Ruth’s Delly for a sandwich and plate of fried potatoes.

There are literally dozens and dozens of sandwiches to order at Chick & Ruth’s – most of them named after politicians and their favorite sandwich.  As I combed thru all of the sandwich options, I noticed that there aren’t too many sandwiches of the Turkey variety, which says a lot about our politicians, right?  So right as I was about to order a Hot Dog, I noticed that they have a category of sandwiches called “Colossals”.  From there I knew that I was going for it.  I was going to order the biggest Turkey Sandwich I have ever had.

Being the Turkey Sandwich hot shot that I am, I ordered off of the menu and went with a Turkey/Pastrami with Swiss.  Bread choice: Rye.

The amazing thing about this Turkey Sandwich is that is was just as good cold (4 hours later) as it was hot.  The chees has coagulated a little and the Rye bread was a little soggy, but it was delicious in a completely different way.

And to answer the question all of you smart asses out there are asking: NO, I did not eat the whole thing.  But you can expect this sandwich to be making an appearance in the Turkey Top 10.

______________________________________________________

FICHA TÉCNICA DA AERONA

- AIRBUS A380 -

O Airbus A380, construído por Airbus S.A.S., é o maior avião comercial da história. O avião, chamado frequentemente de Superjumbo, fez seu primeiro voo experimental em 27 de Abril de 2005 em Toulouse, França. Os voos comerciais iniciam em 2006. Devido ao seu peso, toda a traseira é construída num composto de fibra de carbono que é muito mais leve que o alumínio.

- Dimensões -

Envergadura: 79,8 metros
Comprimento: 73 metros
Altura: 24,1 metros
Área: 845 m²

- Pesos -

Vazio: 280,000 kg
Capacidade Máxima: 560,001 kg
Rendimento: 560.000

Motor
Tendo 4 motores Turbofan Rolls Royce Trent 900, com potência de 311 kN, ou Engine Alliance GP7200 de potência equivalente.

Fábrica
A nova fábrica foi construída em dois anos, numa nova área industrial com 220 hectares junto a um aeroporto, estará exclusivamente dedicada ao AirBus A380. O hangar central tem 490 metros de largura, 250 metros de comprimento e 46 metros de altura

Na sua construção pavilhão foram utilizadas 36.000 toneladas de aço.

Preço
Nenhum preço foi oficialmente anunciado, mas estima-se por volta de $264 milhões de dólares. As grandes companhias de aviação recebem frequentemente grandes descontos, com compras de grandes quantidades.

_________________________________________________________

Acesse o link e tenha uma visão de 360º do cockpit da aeronave:

http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/cockpit1.htm

]]> http://apratcher.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/a-beautiful-creature-called-colossal-squid/ Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:25:28 +0000 labrand http://apratcher.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/a-beautiful-creature-called-colossal-squid/

Who doesn’t remember Jule Verne’s masterpiece “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”? 

Do you remember the monster that he describes throughout the book? What if I tell you that, those monsters actually exist deep below in our oceans? No worries, they won’t come for you, because they live between 200mt-1000mt (656ft- 3280ft)  below the sea level.

One of my hobbies is “science” but along the years I developed a passion for oceanic life. As a result, I fell in love with the Squid. Perhaps my favourite animal above all. I guess it is because we know almost anything about this misterious creature.

Forget about the small squid you eat when you go to a restaurant. The Colossal Squid can be as long as 20mt (65.6ft) or even longer.  have a look at the following chart taken from the BBC website.

So..interested in knowing a little bit more about it? 

then have a look at this interactive website created by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Earth Hour is to be held this Saturday (March 28) between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm. All you need to do to take part in Earth Hour is simply turn your lights off for the hour between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm on March 28.

Earth Hour began as an annual event in Sydney in 2007, when an estimated 2.2 million buildings switched off their lights for an hour. This year Earth Hour is going global for the second year and is giving people the opportunity to ‘vote’ for either the Earth or global warning. By switching off the lights for an hour a person can ‘vote’ for fighting global warning.

Organisers of Earth Hour are hoping some 1 billion people will ‘vote’ for the Earth and hope to be able to give world leaders 1 billion ‘votes’ for the Earth at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. The conference is the forum in which world leaders will determine policy to supersede the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse Gas reduction.

For more on Earth Hour visit the official website at:

http://www.earthhour.org  

However, is Earth Hour a colossal waste of time? What is really being gained by turning the lights off for an hour once a year? All other electrical devices are still on and a lot of people go for alternative lighting devices that also pollute the environment. Other than awareness of global warming (which I would suggest everyone knows about now and either believes or does not believe – turning off some lights won’t change anyone’s mind on global warming), what does Earth Hour really achieve?

The following Blog post makes for interesting reading:

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/earth_hour_crashes_to_earth/

Am I against reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Am I against reducing Global Warming and other associated disasters? Am I anti-environment? The answer to those questions is no! I’m just simply saying Earth Hour is little more than tokenism by most people who are against the Rudd government Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduction policies and other policies that actually aim to make a difference.

The tube and brush.

I do not like this mascara. I really wanted to like it I even bought it in 2 colors. I normally like the Maybelline Volum’ Express and Turbo and this looked like another take on that product but no not quite. It stinks horribly and burns my eyes(I do not have sensitive eyes either). It flakes and smudges. Do not buy this. Also it didn’t even do anything special for my lashes the Volum’ Express is much better for that.

Volum' Express Turbo

On the hand the Volum’ Express Turbo and original are great everyday mascaras. For me I can trust that they are not going to do anything funky like smear or flake. They always give me great definition. This is the mascara if I’m on vacation and forget to pack my mascara or run out I’ll buy because it is cheap and good. Better not to experiment w/ anything new. That said I pretty much try every new mascara that comes out. Ok so anyway I will use this at night for going out but would rather have a more dramatic mascara(if you know of any please let me know?) But I do always have a tube of this for back up in case my newbie isn’t working. Sorry for the ramble.

Dei Look Mexico credo che ne parlammo già nella vecchia versione, ma potrei sbagliarmi. In ogni caso sono pochi i gruppi che nel 2009 tentano di sfondare percorrendo la strada dell’emopop/indiepop fatto come si deve, visto che gruppi come American Football, Ghosts & Vodka, e Colossal (per essere vagamente più recenti) ci hanno lasciato in eredità dei dischi che avrebbero quasi potuto chiudere questo capitolo della storia dell’emo così bistrattato e soventemente dimenticato. L’altra manciata di band che meritano di essere accostati a questi gruppi seminali li conoscete; These Town Needs Guns, Algernon Cadwallader e  Empire Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate). I Look Mexico a differenza di quest’ultimi però, imho, sono quelli che hanno “reinventato”, se così si può dire, lo stile. Le canzoni hanno uno stampo leggermente più pop e commerciale dei rivali appena citati, ed é sempre bello poter sentire degli ottimi spunti e diversivi strumentali. Soprattutto quando si potrebbe recitare a memoria la formula arpeggio-vocals-schitarrata-arpeggio perfezionata nelle camere da letto della famiglia Kinsella.

I riferimenti musicali li avete, il mio consenso pure, dunque sentite, scaricate, comprate e consumatene.

Matteo

i'm not a slug!

I wasn’t feeling OK at all. I over-slept and skipped my Technical Writing class, and now back to blogging, I had just skipped my PE 3 class. I think what I blogged yesterday was already enough [on WHY!!!]. I’m still holding my fingers crossed for anything more horrible to happen. But fortunately, nothing happened. I still can breathe at ease and with confidence that whatever happens, i still (can blog?) live like how I used to, or better.

Anyway, I and my pet Slugger, a zany colossal squid were really having fun. And hey! I just caught him blink! LOL. You can get one, too, HERE. Have fun!

Joseph D’Cunha, Chicalim

A large number of our villages have got up from their slumber. One can see fellow Goans standing up and fighting to save their environment. They may not have succeeded to the desired extent but they have definitely helped to mobilise the usual fence-sitters and naysayers. The protestors have called attention to the wanton destruction of the environment, the lush green hills and valleys, the pristine waters, and the myriad flora and fauna. 
I stay in the idyllic village of Chicalim, which was recently in the news for having scuttled the plans of some individuals and institutions to burden the village with petrol storage tanks, a fishing jetty and even a shipyard. This turmoil gave birth to activists who would have otherwise carried on with their humdrum lifestyles. Special mention must be made of the Chicalim Villagers Action Committee (CVAC) and the Chicalim Villagers Action Committee for Development (CVACD).
Eternal vigilance is the price one needs to pay to preserve our environment. But of late it appears to that the initial enthusiasm displayed by the above-mentioned organisations to safeguard the village is on the wane. How else does one justify the coming of a large number of flats and villas in an evergreen patch of land, right in the heart of the village, behind the local ice factory? 
At the other end of the village, nearly 600 flats are likely to come in a single project. A look at the logistics involved should send a shiver down the spine of the residents near the proposed mega project. According to the grapevine, this project was initially conceived by a local developer, who gave it up after being confronted by hostile protestors. Now, the project has reared it ugly head once again. Rest assured that once this mega project is completed, none of the locals will be able to buy houses there, as all the flats have already been marketed outside Goa. The pristine beauty and natural environment will be destroyed and the damage to the village ecology will be colossal.
Wells in the village are being sucked dry by the hundreds of tankers owned, covertly or otherwise, by prominent citizens. Waterbodies are being given a quiet burial to facilitate the erection of concrete monsters. The deposit of debris under the cover of darkness is a regular exercise and before long you will have a fait accompli.
It is my fervent request to all activists to come together to help to drive away these unwanted developments from the village.

C'mon, you know you want to.

So the holidays are (sort of) over, and my 12-year-old and I are the only ones up and around, clunking about, kicking around holiday debris, enjoying some quality(?) time together, here, on this Saturday morning, around 10-ish, after Christmas.

I’m losing a little bit of patience, however, because I kind of thought we were past the baby-talk stage. Never did I talk to my kids in baby talk. I wanted them to learn to actually say “bottle,” not “bah-bah,” so that’s what I would say to them.

Therefore, they learned to speak, not babble, except for my youngest, who persisted in calling her older sister “Bluh-luh” for the longest time – a sound which doesn’t remotely resemble her true name, which begins with a vowel. Still, it helped – and I felt far less like a fool as I chatted endlessly and hopefully at strollers with belted-in droolers. Yeah, I’m really not a baby person. I just had them, and as I tell them both, I like them better and better the older they get.

I take my duty seriously, though, to teach them. Them, at least – not the whole world. The rest of the world, I simply catalog as stupid, smart or somewhere in between, and I tolerate both with equanimity and relative good humor. The stupid make good fodder for this blog. The smart entertain and teach me – though as I often remind my kids, anyone, however stupid, can teach you something.

Today, however, I felt obligated to teach my 12-year-old.

“Mom, where does ‘I’m not my brother’s keeper’ come from?”

Aghast at my own failing to instill any kind of background in the study of religion, however comparative, I was momentarily speechless. Doesn’t EVERYONE know that? Doesn’t everyone somehow assimilate the story of Cain and Abel?

Apparently not.

Having yanked the poor child out of religious education after she attempted to throw herself from a moving car, rather than endure the misery of Roman Catholic Confession, I realized my child was suffering from large gaps in her education.

“Honey, I’ll tell you what one of my favorite professors in college told me. No educated person has NOT read the entire Bible.”

“WHAT?” she gasped. “The whole THING?”

“Not at a single sitting, goof,” I laughed. “But fear not. It’s just a clump of small books, strung together. You don’t even have to read it in order.”

“Moooom…”

I turned stern. “It’s shorter than ‘Twilight.’ ”  Then I softened. “Come on. I’ll read some to you.”

We read the story of Cain and Abel, and then, for background, we started on the Creation story, which led to some trouble before I even cracked the first “Let there be light.”

I began to mutter something about “Creationists” equaling “lunatics,” forgetting completely that I was talking to someone I’d indoctrinated to have tolerance for all beliefs.

My lack of kindness for folks who ignore the colossal body of fossil records and massive scientific evidence in favor of a version of an earth being created that has trees springing up “bing-bing-bing” in a day really pissed her off.

That is, until I started reading it.

“Wait, Mom – a dome? God created the sky as a dome? So, what is that saying about the earth?”

“That it’s FLAT, honey.”

“So, how big is it supposed to be? And what’s beyond the dome?”

I pointed to the first paragraph. “The abyss, honey.”

We went on.

“A basin? Wait, Mom – the sea is a basin? Like a big bowl?”

I nodded.

“Wait, Mom – sea monsters?”

I nodded.

“Wait, Mom – Adam named all the animals? What, in English?”

“Well, no, wait, I don’t know. Maybe Aramaic.”

“What’s Aramaic?”

“An ancient language.”

She did get excited when the geography part started – when the river in Eden is described, and the Tigris and Euphrates are named. (She’s good at geography.)

The temptation of Eve, however, was unsettling. You see, a lot of misconceptions abound regarding that little tale – but if you read the book, as we did this morning, you learn a lot about who the snake really is.

Sure, it’s Eve who does the talking with the serpent – but it says right there in the book, Adam is with her the whole time. Does he speak up? Say anything like: “Eve – babe – is this really the best idea? Didn’t God say cheese it on that tree?” Does Adam step in front of her and say, “No thanks, leave my wife alone?”

No. The wuss does nothing except grab the apple and munch when it’s his turn.

It gets worse. When God, like an angry dad, comes strolling through the garden, where Adam and Eve are hiding behind a plant (literally), and says: “Hey! You kids, get out here. Who told you that you were naked?”

(At which point my daughter inserted: “Our EYES.”)

Adam, the rat, the snitch, the stoolie, the coward, puts his weak-ass little hand on his wife’s back and shoves her right under the bus. “SHE did it. She ate the apple, and SHE gave it to ME.”

So the Old Testament God, who is, if you notice, a rather moody thing, short-tempered and VERY big on vengeance, doles out THIS punishment:

You: woman – childbirth is going to SUCK.

You: man – no more plucking from the trees. Now you have to sweat and farm.

You: serpent – crawl on your belly, and everyone is going to hate you.

And He locks up the garden of Eden – because there’s one tree left He wants to make sure NOBODY gets a hold of: the Tree of Life. Eat that, and you’ll live forever.

God puts a revolving fiery sword and a band of cherubim at the gate. Nice. Keep in mind, when you hear cherubim, don’t think sweet little cherubs. Every single time an angel appears in sacred texts, the first thing they say isn’t what you see on the Lifetime Channel: “Hey, let me solve your problems.”

It’s: “Be not afraid.”

You think Twilight vampires are scary, exciting reading? Try the Bible. Whether you’re a believer or not, it’s a real page turner, that’s for sure.

From many different sources, I’ve pieced just some of the evidence against the evolutionary process. Bottom line: the earth is created, there is a Creator, and the Bible is true. I won’t add a lot of bantering commentary, but let you jump right into the hard facts. Enjoy. 

-Formation of life

        Dead chemicals cannot become alive on their own. The cell is a miniature factory with many active processes, not a simple blob of “protoplasm” as believed in Darwin’s day. Lightening striking a mud puddle or some “warm little pond” will never produce life. This is another view of the core issue of information as the simplest living cell requires a vast amount of information to be present. The “Law of Biogenesis” states that life comes only from prior life. Spontaneous generation has long been shown to be impossible (by Louis Pasteur in 1859). Numerous efforts to bring life from non-life (including the famous Miller-Urey experiment) have not succeeded. The probability of life forming from non-life has been likened to the probability of a tornado going through a junkyard and picking up all the parts of a house, only the parts of a house, and assembling all the pieces to make a complete home with electricity and plumbing, cupboards and shelving, and everything in working order. Reference: Why Abiogenesis is Impossible, Jerry Bergman, CRS Quarterly, Volume 36, March 2000

-Design of living things

Design is apparent in the living world. Even Richard Dawkins in his anti-creation book The Blind Watchmaker admits “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” The amazing defense mechanism of the Bombardier Beetle is a classic example of design in nature, seemingly impossible to explain as the result of accumulating small beneficial changes over time, because if the mechanism doesn’t work perfectly, “boom” – no more beetle! This is also another view of the core issue of information, as the design of living things is the result of processing the information in the DNA (following the blueprint) to produce a working organism.

-Irreducible Complexity

        The idea that “nothing works until everything works.” The classic example is a mousetrap, which is irreducibly complex in that if one of its several pieces is missing or not in the right place, it will not function as a mousetrap and no mice will be caught. The systems, features, and processes of life are irreducibly complex. What good is a circulatory system without a heart? An eye without a brain to interpret the signals? What good is a half-formed wing? Doesn’t matching male and female reproductive machinery need to exist at the same time, fully-functioning if any reproduction is to take place? Remember, natural selection has no foresight, and works to eliminate anything not providing an immediate benefit. Reference: Darwin’s Black Box

-2^nd Law of Thermodynamics

        The Second Law of Thermodynamics refers to the universal tendency for things, on their own, to “mix” with their surrounding environment over time, becoming less ordered and eventually reaching a steady-state. A glass of hot water becomes room temperature, buildings decay into rubble, and the stars will eventually burn out leading to the “heat death” of the universe. However, the evolutionary scenario proposes that over time, things singlehandedly became more ordered and structured. Somehow the energy of a “Big Bang” structured itself into stars, galaxies, planets, and living things, contrary to the Second Law. It is sometimes said that the energy of the Sun was enough to overcome this tendency and allow for the formation of life on earth. However, application of energy alone is not enough to overcome this tendency; the energy must be channeled by a machine. A human must repair a building to keep it from decaying. Likewise, it is the machinery of photosynthesis which harnesses the energy of the Sun, allowing life to exist, and photosynthesis is itself a complex chemical process. The maturing of an acorn into a tree, or a zygote (the first cell resulting from fertilization) into a mature human being does not violate the Second Law as these processes are guided by the information already present in the acorn or zygote.

-Existence of the Universe

        By definition, something must be eternal (as we have “something” today and something cannot come from “nothing”, so there was never a time when there was “nothing”). Either the universe itself is eternal, or something/someone outside of and greater than the universe is eternal. We know that the universe is not eternal, it had a beginning (as evidenced by its expansion, see ‘Expansion of Space Fabric’, below). Therefore, God (the something/someone outside of the universe) must exist and must have created the universe. Einstein showed that space and time are related. If there is no space there is no time. Before the universe was created there was no space and therefore no concept of time. This is hard for us to understand as we are space-time creatures, but it allows for God to be an eternal being, completely consistent with scientific laws. The question “who created God” is therefore an improper/invalid question, as it is a time-based question (concerning the point in time at which God “came into existence”) but God exists outside of time as the un-caused first cause. Reference: The Second Law of Thermodynamics (www.answersingenesis.org)

-Fine-Tuning of Earth for Life

        Countless parameters are “just right” for life to exist on this planet. For example, if the Earth were just a little closer to the Sun it would be too hot and the ocean’s water would boil away, much further and it would be covered continually in ice, and we’d freeze. Earth’s circular orbit (to maintain a roughly constant temperature year-round), its rotation speed (to provide days and nights not too long or short), its tilt (to provide seasons), and the presence of the moon (to provide tides to cleanse the oceans) are just some of many other examples.
The presence of large amounts of water, with its amazing special properties, is also required. Water is a rare compound in that it is lighter in a solid state than in a liquid state. This allows ponds to freeze with the ice on the surface allowing the life beneath to survive. Otherwise bodies of water would freeze from the bottom up and become solid ice. Water is also the most universal “solvent” known, allowing for dissolving/mixing with the many different chemicals of life. In fact, our bodies are 75-85% comprised of water.

-Fine-Tuning of our Physics

        The fine-tuning of the physical constants that control the physics of the universe – the settings of the basic forces (strong nuclear force constant, weak nuclear force constant, gravitational force constant, and electromagnetic force constant) are on a knife’s edge. A minor change in these or any of dozens of other universal parameters would make life impossible.

The “multiverse” idea that there may be many universes and ours “just happened” to have these proper values is outside of science and could never be proven. Even then we would have to ask “what was the cause of all these universes?”

-Abrupt Appearance in the Fossil Record

        The oldest fossils for any creature are already fully-formed and don’t change much over time (“stasis”). The “Cambrian Explosion” in the “primordial strata” documents the geologically rapid appearance of most major groups of complex animals. There is no evidence of evolution from simpler forms. Birds are said to have evolved from reptiles but no fossil has ever been found having a “half-scale/half-wing”. A reptile breathes using an “in and out” lung (like humans have), but a bird has a “flow-through” lung suitable for moving through the air. Can you even imagine how such a transition of the lung could have taken place? Abrupt appearance and stasis are consistent with the biblical concept of creation “according to its kind”, and a world-wide flood that scoured the earth down to its basement rocks, depositing the “geologic column” and giving the appearance of a “Cambrian Explosion”. Smarter, more mobile creatures would escape the flood waters longer, becoming buried in higher-level strata, leading to a burial order progressing from “simpler” forms to more complex/higher-level forms, which people now wrongly interpret as an evolutionary progression. Reference: Fossils Q&A (www.answersingenesis.org)

-Human Consciousness

        A person is a unity of body + mind/soul, the mind/soul being the immaterial part of you that is the real inner you. Chemicals alone cannot explain self-awareness, creativity, reasoning, emotions of love and hate, sensations of pleasure and pain, possessing and remembering experiences, and free will. Reason itself cannot be relied upon if it is based only on blind neurological events.

-Human Language

        Language is one of the main things that separates mankind from animals. No animal is capable of achieving anything like human speech, and all attempts to teach chimpanzees to talk have failed. Evolutionists have no explanation for the origin of human language. However, the Bible does. It says that the first man, Adam, was created able to speak. The Bible also explains why we have different human languages, as God had to “confuse” the common language being used in Babel after the flood, in order to force people to spread out around the world as He wanted. This was only a “surface” confusion though, as all languages express the same underlying basic ideas and concepts, enabling other languages to be learned and understood.

-Sexual Reproduction

        Many creatures reproduce asexually. Why would animals abandon simpler asexual reproduction in favor of more costly and inefficient sexual reproduction? Sexual reproduction is a very complex process that is only useful if fully in place. For sexual reproduction to have evolved complimentary male and female sex organs, sperm and eggs, and all the associated machinery in tandem defies the imagination.

-The Biblical Witness

        The Bible is true. The history of the Bible is true. The words of the Bible concerning our origins were given to men to write down, by God, who was the only living being present. We were not there! God said He created the universe. God said He created all living things. We know that life is much more than chemicals. God put His life into Adam and that life has been transferred from generation to generation all the way down to us! Reference: The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict(McDowell, and a book I highly recommend)

-Decay of Magnetic Field times in sync with Biblical Creation

        Dr. Thomas Barnes, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at El Paso, has published the definitive work in this field.⁴ Scientific observations since 1829 have shown that the earth’s magnetic field has been measurably decaying at an exponential rate, demonstrating its half-life to be approximately 1,400 years. In practical application its strength 20,000 years ago would approximate that of a magnetic star. Under those conditions many of the atoms necessary for life processes could not form. These data demonstrate that earth’s entire history is young, within a few thousand of years

-Global Flood

        The Biblical record clearly describes a global Flood during Noah’s day. Additionally, there are hundreds of Flood traditions handed down through cultures all over the world. ⁵ M.E. Clark and Henry Voss have demonstrated the scientific validity of such a Flood providing the sedimentary layering we see on every continent. ⁶ Secular scholars report very rapid sedimentation and periods of great carbonate deposition in earth’s sedimentary layers.⁷ It is now possible to prove the historical reality of the Biblical Flood.⁸

-Population Stats

        World population growth rate in recent times is about 2% per year. Practicable application of growth rate throughout human history would be about half that number. Wars, disease, famine, etc. have wiped out approximately one third of the population on average every 82 years. Starting with eight people, and applying these growth rates since the Flood of Noah’s day (about 4500 years ago) would give a total human population at just under six billion people. However, application on an evolutionary time scale runs into major difficulties. Starting with one “couple” just 41,000 years ago would give us a total population of 2 x 10⁸⁹. ⁹The universe does not have space to hold so many bodies.

-Radio Halos

            Physicist Robert Gentry has reported isolated radio halos of polonuim-214 in crystalline granite. The half-life of this element is 0.000164 seconds! To record the existence of this element in such short time span, the granite must be in crystalline state instantaneously.¹⁰ This runs counter to evolutionary estimates of 300 million years for granite to form.

Recently there have been evolutionists online in newsgroups and on blogs that have claimed Polonium 214 doesn’t exist. Main reason being is because they declare the Granite in the earth’s crust took many millions of years to form and finally cool and Polonium 214 takes less then a second to expend all its half-lives. In order to save face, some evolutionists have decided to lie and say Polonium 214 simply doesn’t exist. HOWEVER, if you go to http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/summary.tcl?edf_substance_id=15735%2d67%2d8,you will see one of many online scientific websites that list the element Pulonium 214 to be found on Planet earth. On that page they share evidence that Polonium 214 is in fact a chemical profile that can and has been recorded by many scientists. Praise the Lord we have yet another factoid to prove evolution is a lie of Satan. For a look at how radio halos work, visit http://www.ichthus.info/Creation-Evidence/Polonium-Halos/intro.html

-Atmospheric Helium Content

        Physicist Melvin Cook, Nobel Prize medalist found that helium-4 enters our atmosphere from solar wind and radioactive decay of uranium. At present rates our atmosphere would accumulate current helium-4 amounts in less than 10,000 years.¹²

-Expansion of Space Fabric

            Astronomical estimates of the distance to various galaxies give conflicting data. ¹³The Biblical Record refers to the expansion of space by the Creator¹⁴. Astrophysicist Russell Humphries demonstrates that such space expansion would dilate time in distant space.¹⁵ This could explain a recent creation with great distances to the stars.

-Design of Living Systems

            A living cell is so awesomely complex that its interdependent components stagger the imagination and defy evolutionary explanations. A minimal cell contains over 60,000 proteins of 100 different configurations.¹⁶ The chance of this assemblage occurring by chance is 1 in 10 ^4,478,296 .¹⁷

-Design of Human Brain & Body 

           The human brain is the most complicated structure in the known universe.¹⁸ It contains over 100 billion cells, each with over 50,000 neuron connections to other brain cells.¹⁹ This structure receives over 100 million separate signals from the total human body every second. If we learned something new every second of our lives, it would take three million years to exhaust the capacity of the human brain. ²⁰ In addition to conscious thought, people can actually reason, anticipate consequences, and devise plans – all without knowing they are doing so.²¹ Without giving a single thought to it, we breathe, digest, blink, and our heart beats. We’re made to have and be a completely functional operating system without reflection.

-Biblical Archeology

Here are just a few examples of how archeological discoveries have verified the authenticity of Biblical accuracy:

Ø        Egyptian armor, chariots and human and horse bones found at the bottom of the Red Sea, proving Moses’ exodus from Egypt to Israel. In the image, you see a gold chariot wheel. Since coral doen’t grow on gold, that part remains clear to see. Unfortunately, the wood beneath the gold has deteriorated to the point that the wheel cannot be moved. Visit the web site below for more photos and info.

o       Source: http://users.netconnect.com.au/~leedas/redsea.html

Ø        The discovery of the Ebla archive in northern Syria in the 1970s has shown the Biblical writings concerningthe Patriarchs to be viable. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place names in the Patriarchal accounts are genuine. The name “Canaan” was in use in Ebla, a name critics once said was not used at that time and was used incorrectly in the early chapters of the Bible. The word tehom (“the deep”) in Genesis 1:2 was said to be a late word demonstrating the late writing of the creation story. “Tehom” was part of the vocabulary at Ebla, in use some 800 years before Moses. Ancient customs reflected in the stories of the Patriarchs have also been found in clay tablets from Nuzi and Mari.

Ø        The Hittites were once thought to be a Biblical legend, until their capital and records were discovered at Bogazkoy, Turkey.

Ø        Many thought the Biblical references to Solomon’s wealth were greatly exaggerated. Recovered records from the past show that wealth in antiquity was concentrated with the king and Solomon’s prosperity was entirely feasible.

Ø        It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon’s palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What is more, fragments of a stela memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself.

Ø        Another king who was in doubt was Belshazzar, king of Babylon, named in Daniel 5. The last king of Babylon was Nabonidus according to recorded history. Tablets were found showing that Belshazzar was Nabonidus’ son who served as coregent in Babylon. Thus, Belshazzar could offer to make Daniel “third highest ruler in the kingdom” (Dan. 5:16) for reading the handwriting on the wall, the highest available position. Here we see the “eye-witness” nature of the Biblical record, as is so often brought out by the discoveries of archaeology.

o       Source: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a008.html

-T-Rex: A Vegetarian?

1. The roots of T-Rex teeth were only 2 inches deep. Had he bit into the hide of another dinosaur he would have lost teeth. Hides were thick and animals would struggle for their lives. A two inch root would pull out with little force.
2. They cut a tooth in half of an unearthed T-Rex and found it deeply impureated with CHLOROPHYLL! That’s right, Chlorophyll is the main substance found in PLANTS not meat!

By the way, this discovery validates the Bible once again! How so? See this passage…

Genesis 1:29-30, “Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so.”

Now before proclaiming you MUST eat meat because the proteins in meat will help you to gain weight, look around on planet earth for a moment. Look at all the HUGE animals like cows… horses… Hippos… Elephants… Rhinos… etc. What do THEY eat? That’s right. PLANTS!

-Giants of Biblical Proportion

            According to the Bible, there were once giants on the earth. Goliath, the most famous of the giants, was said to be over nine feet tall (1 Samuel 17:4).  Bones and skeletons have been found of these colossal humans. Some were called the Nephilim, Anakites, Emites, and Amorites. Goliath was a Philistine. (Numbers 13:28-33; Deuteronomy 1:28; 2:10; 9:2) Below is a photo of a man next to a 47 inch human femur. Similar finds have included entire skeletons, most too far decomposed to move. There are a number of skeletons, skulls, and footprints of giants as tall as 30 feet. They appear in almost every culture’s folklore and legend, most of them the “big bully” variety, and a hero dispatches almost all. Theories about the builders of pyramids, stone circles, and other monolithic examples of ancient construction find giants as a possible answer. Big blocks mean big builders.

 A few other minor points to ponder: If we evolved,…

• Why do still get so easily sunburned?
• Why can’t I go outside without a coat on in the middle of winter?
• Were did the gills go? I really could’ve used them when I almost drowned!
• Why lose the tail? I could really use it right now.
• Why can’t we stand being in extreme heat, extreme cold or underwater? If we evolved into a better life-form, we should’ve overcome these huge inconveniences to our everyday existence. To be truly above everything else and focussed on the survival of our species, we’d become a flying, asexual rock.

 ¹Woodmorappe, John, “The Essential Non-Existence of the Evolutionary Uniformitarian Geologic Column: A Quantitative Assessment,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, vol. 18, no.1 (Terre Haute, Indiana, June 1981),pp. 46-71
²Nilsson, N. Heribert, as quoted in Arthur C. Custance, The Earth Before Man, Part II, Doorway Papers, no. 20 (Ontario, Canada: Doorway Publications), p. 51
³Corner, E.J.H., Contemporary Botanical Thought, ed. A.M. MacLeod and L.S. Cobley (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961), p. 97
⁴Barnes, Thomas, ICR Technical Monograph #4, Origin and Destiny of the Earth’s Magnetic Field (2^nd edition, 1983)
⁵Blick, Edward, A Scientific Analysis of Genesis (Oklahoma City: Hearthstone, 1991) p. 103
⁶Clark, M.E. and Voss, H.D., “Fluid Mechanic Examination of the Tial Mechanism for Producing Mega-Sedimantary Layering” (Third International Conference on Creation, Pittsburg, July 1994)
⁷Ager, Derek, The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (New York: John Wiley and Sons) p. 43 and p. 86
⁸West, John Anthony, Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt (New York: Julian Press, 1987) pp. 13-14
⁹ See Morris, Henry, Scientific Creationism(El Cajon, CA: Master Books)
¹⁰Gentry, Robert, Creation’s Tiny Mystery (Knoxville, Tenn.: Earth Science Assoc.,1988 )
¹¹Baugh, Carl, Why Do Men Believe Evolution AGAINST ALL ODDS? (Oklahoma City: Hearthstone, 1999)
¹²Cook, Melvin, “Where is The Earth’s Radiogenic Helium?” Nature, Vol. 179, p. 213
¹³Cowan, R., “Further Evidence of a Youthful Universe,” Science News, Vol. 148, p. 166
¹⁴Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22
¹⁵Humphries, Russell, Starlight and Time (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1994)
¹⁶Denton, Michael, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, Maryland: Adler & Adler, 1986) p. 263
¹⁷Mastropaolo, Joseph, “Evolution Is Biologically Impossible,” Impact # 317(El Cajon, CA: Institute For Creation Research,1999) p. 4
¹⁸Restak, Richard, The Brain: The Last Frontier, 1979, p. 390
¹⁹The Brain, Our Universe Within, PBS Video
²⁰Wonders of God’s Creation, Moody Video Series
²¹Weiss, Joseph, “Unconscious Mental Functioning,” Scientific American, March 1990, p. 103

I read some guy’s blog on here a couple days ago and it was great! I’d like to read more, maybe he writes short stories, or something. He wrote this great piece about being in Seattle, for like, the third time. There was an opportunity to stick up for a little guy and his girl and a colossal punch was involved, too. Just a short little “snippet” of a story, not too long. Will have to ask him about another short story. Looks like he’s in the Army, I’ll send him a message maybe and introduce myself, he must write them, I’m sure. Ability like that must be put to use. Maybe he’s cute, too. Haha! No, adorable. ♦