Something fishy in the air!!!!!!

Who you looking at!!!!!

The fish with an invisible head!!!!!

Today there's a new addition to the "real life is stranger than fiction" category. Check out the fish Macropinna microstoma. It has tubular eyes and a see-through head.

Image: © 2004 MBARI



Barreleye1-350

These photos blew me away today. Here's another:



Image: © 2004 MBARI

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The common name for the fish is "barreleyes." Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute investigators recently figured out why this species has such an unusual head. Its eyes can actually rotate within its "skull," so the transparency allows the wary swimmer to keep a literal eye on happenings above it, as well as to the sides and directly in front.

Using video cameras, MBARI researchers Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler revealed the fish's eye movements. When remotely operated vehicles approached the fish, its eyes glowed a vivid green shade in the bright lights of the ROVs. Usually the fish were just hanging out motionless under the deep waters offshore California's central coast.

Here's a "face-on" view showing the green glow.


Image: © 2006 MBARI
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Although the fish has a tiny mouth, it possesses a large digestive systems. Two net-caught individuals contained fragments of jellyfish, which must have been their last meal.

A siphonophore jelly


Image: © 2001 MBARI
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Such a potentially painful dinner requires incredible stealth, so it's now thought that barreleyes carefully maneuvers its body near such stinging organisms, keeping its "eyes on the prize," as the researchers said, throughout the entire hunt. Its tiny mouth then picks at the victim while a transparent shield protects the fish's eyes.

Is it a chicken or a duck?

Vatican endorses Darwin, slights intelligent design

Here's an interesting article that shows how theology "evolves" over time, how crazy is that????

Creationism is a cultural phenomenon - like Paris Hilton

By Joe Fay

Posted in Biology, 11th February 2009 13:02 GMT

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The Vatican gave the Creationist lobby a left right sign of the cross today, announcing it would stage a conference on Darwinism next month and declaring that it was one of the Fathers of the Church that thought up the idea in the first place.

At one point the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University wasn't going to give Creationism or Intelligent Design a hearing at all. But apparently the organisers have relented, and will consider Intelligent Design as a "cultural phenomenon" rather than as a valid scientific theory, giving US-based IDers the chance to be smirked at by a room full of Monseigneurs, Cardinals and Bishops.

Previewing the conference yesterday, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Church's Pontifical Council for Culture, conceded the Church had been hostile to Darwin on occasion. But, he said, the Church had never formally condemned Darwin, and he noted that in the last 50 years a number of Popes had accepted evolution as a valid scientific approach to human development.

Indeed, he said, evolution could be traced back through Scholastics such as St Thomas Aquinas to St Augustine in the fourth century, who had noted that "big fish eat smaller fish".

Augustine is probably more famous for praying "God, make me good - but not yet." Which also has some evolutionary overtones if you think about it.

Marc Leclerc, a natural philosopher at the University went further, saying Creationists were mistaken in arguing that that Darwinism was "totally incompatible with a religious vision of reality".

The conference, and the Church's endorsement of Darwin, represents another curve ball from the Holy See at other, arguably more fundamentalist, streams of Christianity. In December Pope Benedict tipped his hat to Galileo - who definitely was condemned by the Church - while simultaneously going all New Age by blethering on about the Solstice.

Last May, the Vatican astronomer really went out on a limb, claiming there was nothing incompatible between being a Catholic and believing in Aliens. He even suggested Aliens could be free of the stain of original sin, the stubborn blemish that has condemned humanity to a progressive decline from the Garden of Eden, through slavery, the dark ages, religious strife, atomic war, and now, the credit crunch and Simon Cowell.

But a wholesale worldview rejig this is not. Other branches of modern science get shorter shrift, with genetic manipulation fairly high on the Vatican's current don't-like list. ®

When you're not exactly sure!!!!!

Sometimes the majority is wrong!!!!!

Belief in creationism seems to be quite popular among British people, the article in the link below suggests that the theory of evolution is not as persuasive as some scientist would have us believe. What do you think? lets run our own little poll and see.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4410927/Poll-reveals-public-doubts-over-Charles-Darwins-theory-of-evolution.html

Wha you say?

In Vincy, o'level exams are known as CXC/GCSE examanitions, they are generally the same age group as those who take exams here in the UK.
The following questions were set in last year's CXC/GCSE examinations

These are genuine responses from 16 year olds

Geography
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Sociology
Q: What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on?
A: If you are buying a house, they will insist you are well endowed.

Q: In a democratic society, how important are elections?
A: Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.

Biology
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.

Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.

Q: What is artificial insemination?
A: When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow.

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow. [He got an A]

Q: How are the main parts of the body categorised? (e.g. abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts - the brainium, the borax, the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels, A, E, O,U, and I.

Q: What is the Fibula?
A: A small lie.

Q: What does 'varicose' mean?
A: Nearby.

Q: What is the most common form of birth control?
A: Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.

Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean Section.'
A: The caesarean section is a district in Rome .

Q: What is a seizure?
A: A Roman emperor.

Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: When you are sick at the airport

English

Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Technology
Q: What is a turbine?
A: Something an Arab or Sheik wears on his head

Hmmmm where's the spy?

So lets talk about it

Atheist buses denying God's existence take to streets
Atheist adverts declaring that "there's probably no God" have been placed on 800 buses around Britain after an unprecedented fundraising campaign.


By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:27AM GMT 07 Jan 2009
Richard Dawkins on the atheist bus denying God's existence
The campaign's modest £5,500 target was met within minutes and more than £140,000 has now been donated Photo: PA



Organisers originally hoped to put the message on just a handful of London buses, as an antidote to posters put up by religious groups which they claimed were "threatening eternal damnation" to non-believers.

But after the campaign received high-profile support from the prominent atheist Prof Richard Dawkins and the British Humanist Association, the modest £5,500 target was met within minutes and more than £140,000 has now been donated since the launch in October.

Enough money has now been raised to place the message – "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" – on 200 bendy buses in the capital for a month, with the first ones taking to the streets .

A further 600 buses carrying the adverts will be seen by passengers and passers-by in cities across England, Wales and Scotland, from Aberdeen and Dundee to York, Coventry, Swansea and Bristol.

In addition, two large LCD screens bearing the atheist message have been placed in Oxford Street, central London, while 1,000 posters containing quotes from well-known non-believers will be placed on Underground trains for two weeks starting on Monday.

They feature lines doubting the existence of God, and celebrating the natural world, written by Albert Einstein, Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Adams and Emily Dickinson.

It is the first ever atheist advertising campaign to take place in Britain, and similar adverts are now also running on public transport in America and Spain.

Ariane Sherine, a writer who first thought of the atheist bus adverts, said: "You wait ages for an atheist bus, then 800 come along at once. I hope they will brighten people's days and make them smile on their way to work."

The campaign has even been welcomed by religious groups for increasing the profile of debate about faith, and although there was tight security outside the launch event by the Royal Albert Hall, the campaigners have not received any threats from fundamentalists.

Paul Woolley, director of Theos, a theology think tank which donated £50 to the cause, said: "The posters will encourage people to consider the most important question we will ever face in our lives."

Some atheist supporters of the campaign were disappointed that the wording of the adverts did not declare categorically that God does not exist, although there were fears that this could break advertising guidelines.

Prof Dawkins, the renowned evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, said: "I wanted something stronger but with hindsight I think it's probably a good thing because it makes people think. It's just food for thought – people will have conversations in pubs when they see these buses."

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said the adverts were "overwhelmingly positive" and were intended to reassure agnostics and atheists that there is nothing wrong with not believing in God.

Mind control games.... bring it on......

Mattel bemuses gamers with 'brainwave' toy

By James Sherwood

6th January 2009 13:19 GMT

As Emotiv Systems’ Epoc neuroheadset is currently going through a rocky patch, Barbie maker Mattel has stepped in with what's rumoured to be a similar type of brainwave toy.

Mattel’s keeping mum about the technology behind its Mindflex game, but – according to several online sources – the game requires the user to wear a headset equipped with sensors that measure brainwave activity.

This ‘activity’ is then used to guide a small foam ball through an obstacle course of hoops, which can be customised by the gamer.

It’s still unclear how the ball is kept in the air throughout its journey around the obstacle course. Some reports have claimed that a fan’s used, whilst other sources have said that Epoc-esque technology is the key to Mindflex’s power.

What we do know is that Mindflex will be paraded by Mattel at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is about to kick-off in Las Vegas.

Mindflex is expected to fly onto the market later this year for around $80 (£54/€59). It’s suitable for children aged eight and over. Small parts should not be ingested.

Bible discussion anyone????

So what do Christians get up to in Wycombe? According to the Bucks Free Press:

Church-goers meet for "Beer and Bible"

2:52pm Monday 5th January 2009

PARISHIONERS from a High Wycombe church will be meeting at their local for an informal “Beer and Bible” session.

The event has been organised by Canon Tony Dickenson so that he can meet his flock to discuss faith over a pint.

Reverend Tony will be at the Terriers pub in Amersham Road from 8pm on January 13.

He said: “Basically a group of us get together in our local pub and we talk about almost anything and everything, but it's usually church or faith related – the meaning of life, the universe and everything.”

Reverend Tony, who is vicar of St Francis of Assisi Church in Amersham Road, High Wycombe, added: “It does help. It's a nice sort of friendly thing and we all talk on the same level.

Waterworld

The article below sounds a lot like what the Bible say:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.


Ancient Earth was a barren waterworld

* 30 December 2008 by David Shiga

DRY land may be something of a novelty. Until around 2.5 billion years ago our planet was almost completely covered by water, a model of the early Earth suggests.

Today, some 28 per cent of Earth's surface is above sea level. Exactly how the ratio of land to sea has varied through Earth's history is unclear, but it is generally agreed that the amount of continental crust has increased over time.

Now, calculations by Nicolas Flament of the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues suggest that Earth was a water-world until about 2.5 billion years ago, with land making up only 2 to 3 per cent of its surface (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.08.029).

The team assumed that back then Earth's mantle was up to 200 °C hotter than it is now, mainly because there was then a larger quantity of radioactive elements decaying and producing heat. A hotter mantle would have made the crust beneath the oceans hotter and thicker than it is today, buoying it up relative to the continents. The resulting shallower ocean basins would have held less water, leading to the flooding of what is now land. In addition, the hotter mantle would cause the continental crust of the time to spread laterally, making it lower-lying and flatter than today, and so more likely to flood.

Then, as the mantle cooled, land would have gradually appeared as the oceans became deeper and regions of high relief on the continental crust formed. The team believe that this transition may help to explain why levels of oxygen in the atmosphere rose around this time. During the water-world period, any oxygen produced by photosynthesising bacteria would have been quickly used up through reactions with decaying organic matter in the oceans. When the newly emerged land eroded, it produced sediment that, once washed into the oceans, would have buried the organic matter, preventing any further reactions with oxygen, and so allowing it to build up in the atmosphere.

This would have allowed oxygen-breathing organisms to flourish, say the team. The eroded sediment would also have caused an explosion in life by fertilising the oceans with phosphorus - an important nutrient. And newly formed coastal regions would have provided plenty of shallow habitats for photosynthesis.

Stephen Mojzsis of the University of Colorado, Boulder, agrees that the early continental regions could have been mostly flooded at this time. However, he suspects the land fraction was not quite as low as 2 to 3 per cent because many rocks of this age appear to have formed from sediment washed off dry land.