BIRDS ARE FLYING REPTILES??

They tell us that warm-blooded birds evolved from cold-blooded reptiles. Well let's take a closer look at some remarkable avian features...

·        Flight feathers are stronger than steel, by weight, and grow from muscle-controlled follicles below the skin (whereas scales are skin cell extensions)

·        Many bones in a bird's skeleton are porous and hollow to reduce take-off weight

·        To facilitate rapid waste removal, birds have a basic digestive system that incorporates a crop, proventriculus and gizzard. (Park your car under a pigeon roost for a liquid demonstration.)

·        Birds have no bladder for storing urine, and no sweat glands

·        A bird's heart rate can reach 20 beats per second and it’s wings can flap at up to 80 times per second! (the hummingbird)

·        Birds sing with their unique double-sided vocal organ called a syrinx

·        Beaks are made of light weight horn - not bone

And here's the feature that is hard to find information on in textbooks (why is that?)...

·        Birds have a totally unique one-way respiratory system that uses air sacs together with a lung.  Have you ever seen a bird 'out of puff' after an aerobatic display or a marathon flight?

Wouldn't you say this animal has been purpose-built for action: fly, swim, walk, or run....rather than hibernation?

The moral of this story? 

Don't stand under a pelican.

Photo credit:
Tony Sullivan

'ROCKY - STILL LONELY'

Here's one for the locals and any tourists heading to Port Macquarie.....                    
“Rocky Beach?...never heard of it!...where’s that?”

You call this a beach?? You might be in the middle of town but you can't swim here, or surf, or picnic, or sunbathe on sand…probably not much good for fishing even and not a place to go on your ‘Molly Malone’ - alone.   About all it's good for is vagrants who sometimes hide in a cave (rent free with a million dollar view!) or for growing special green rocks that look like snake-skin!   
If you ever get to visit Rocky you will no doubt exclaim: “Well, this is different!”

The Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism has this to say about our forgotten beauty:

"Rocky Beach is notable for the presence of well-exposed high-pressure metamorphic rocks and a wide variety of igneous rocks, including pillow basalt and minor matic and intermediate calc-alkaline intrusions, imbedded in lenses of serpentinite melange. Near the north end of Rocky Beach, a 'melange-in-melange' structure contains inclusions of lawsonite eclogite, omphacitite, blueschist and tremolite marble. These exotic rocks are unique because of some of these tectonic blocks, namely eclogite, contain a mineral called lawsonite, which have only been identified in 10 localities worldwide. Lawsonite eclogite and omphacitite are the only occurences documented in Australia. Formation and preservation of these rocks requires cold subduction to mantle depths and rapid exhumation."

Phew! Whatever does all that jargon mean?                                                       
Apparently lonely Rocky Beach is a geologist's gem because it is adorned with volcanic rock such as basalt scrambled with marble and laced with a mineral mixture found nowhere else in Australia and in only 10 sites worldwide. If you really want to know, lawsonite is ‘hydrous calcium aluminium sorosilicate’ and that ‘snake-skin’ serpentinite is magnesium silicate.
"So what?" you say.

How far to the nearest known extinct volcano? Comboyne, 45 kilometres away.

These rocks have travelled.....they have been sucked down to at least 7 kilometres beneath the ocean floor, subjected to extreme pressure at perhaps a mild 700 degrees C, scrambled along the way, then punched up to put Port Macquarie on the map – and it didn’t take millions of years.

Surely this isn’t the result of the Great Flood of Genesis 7 - when ''the fountains of the deep were broken up''?  That's meant to be a myth!                                                  

…or is it?

 

Acknowledgements:                                                                         

Brad McKay, Port Macquarie                                                                        

www.geomaps.com                                                                                       

wikipedia.org

                                                                               

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Born to die

Following ‘the grandkids finding a scorpion’…

Hey Grandad, you promised us a campfire story about the stars.

So I did.  Okay, we saw some constellations last night but the Bible doesn't tell us what they're supposed to look like or what they mean. The best we can do is see if the story in the Bible matches up with what we know as constellations today.        
Tell me - what was the name of the first woman?

Eve. She listened to the serpent and ate the fruit that God told her not to.

Yes, Eve was the mother of everybody and God promised that one of her family would deal with that naughty serpent just like when someone stomps on a snake to kill it but gets bitten. Many years later the people in Israel were told that this special son, who would be really God come to live with us, would be born by a virgin - that's a girl who ….

Yes, I know… it’s a girl who hasn't had sex yet.  The baby couldn’t be more special than that!  Mary was the virgin wasn't she?

Yes, Mary is even called the 'virgo' in the very old Latin bibles.

Really??  So why does Virgo in the sky hold some wheat and a palm branch.

The Branch was a special Jewish name for the coming Saviour that meant He will be a Man…and God…and King, but first He will come peacefully to serve others – that’s why we have four different gospel accounts to tell us about Jesus. Then when He was here He spoke of Himself as being like a grain of wheat producing a lot of fruit by dying in the ground.  

I get it – He’s the Son of God who came here to die.                                                     

So what are the scales for?...weighing something?

Libra was the name for the Roman pound weight. We needed a Redeemer who could buy us lost sinners back but a fair price had to be paid to meet God's demands. Money like silver and gold wasn't good enough - it had to be paid in blood – not from animals but the precious blood of Jesus.

Libra was hard to see but Scorpio was easy with its big long tail and I could pick out the arrow from Sagi....whatever his name is, aimed at the scorpion.

Yes, Scorpio kind of steals the show so far. He gets in his poisonous bite and it looks like he might get away with it.

...except for that arrow aimed at him by the archer!

Do you remember what the Egyptian king ordered for the little Hebrew boys?

Yeah! Throw them into the river with the crocodiles!

And do you remember what happened to the little boys near Bethlehem after Jesus was born?

Herod the king told his soldiers to kill them all.

So when Jesus had finally let Himself be caught and nailed up on a cross to die...

...it looked like the baddies had won! 
Grandad, did Jesus know what was going to happen to Him in the end?                                       

Yes, Jesus knew only too well that the prophets in the Old Testament were talking about Him and how He would die. Moses and Elijah even showed up to talk to Him about it!

Yeah??  Imagine waking up every morning knowing you’re one day closer – no I can’t! - it’s too horrible to even imagine….like being on death row all your life!          

Grandad, I think this first star show tells us that Mary’s special Son came here to pay our penalty with His blood by dying for us.                                       

Yes and when we look at the next four constellations we’re going to find out who really won.                                                                     
In October I’ll show you: Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries.

http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/something-fishy.html

 

Image credit: maristmessenger.co.nz

Grandkids find a scorpion

Following ' Brekkie 'round the campfire'...

Excuse me Grandad, you promised us another star show after tea...so come on!

Righto. Let's head over there, away from the camp lights. Bring the constellation pictures…and that groundsheet for us to lie on. Here’s a torch with some red cellophane over it.

What's that for, Grandad?

If we use a bright torch the light will ruin our night vision, so we look at the pictures using red light and these tiny colour-sensitive cones in the back of our eyes. That saves the tiny rods next to the cones for looking at the stars.

That's clever isn’t it!

Sure is - God is a clever designer.  Now let’s start by finding the first 4 constellations - where did we decide to begin?

You said Virgo.

Okay. Even though Virgo is large she's a bit hard to make out. You can’t miss Arcturus - in the north for us - and higher up, see those two bright lights - the one on the western side is Spica which marks the spike of wheat Virgo has in her left hand and the other light is the planet Saturn on the hem of Virgo's dress at the moment. Of course, the people in the northern hemisphere have to do the opposite to us, so when we look up from Arcturus they have to look down to the south. Remind me sometime to show you the rings around Saturn using a telescope.

Yea, cool!

Now looking down towards the west from Spica, you'll see another brilliant star - that's Regulus on the heart of Leo the lion. Nearly half-way back towards Arcturus there’s a not-so-bright star on Leo’s tail, swishing Virgo's head.

Right...that's Virgo’s left hand and her head. What about her other hand holding the palm branch?

Look a little bit further east from the lion’s tail and you might be able to see another star, nearly under Spica. That's Vindemiatrix on the palm branch, which was named for the women who picked grapes in Ancient Rome.

Really??...except ‘Vinde’ would be above Spica for people up north.                         
Okay Libra is next, Grandad.

True to name, the scales of justice are hard to find, so we'll look for Scorpio first. Can you see a brilliant star to the east of Spica and Saturn?

Yes…hey that star’s not white - it’s red!

That's the gigantic star Antares on the scorpion's head and the big long curve behind him towards the south, is his tail.

Oh yea, that's easy to see.

Now that we've found Scorpio we look for 2 fainter stars half-way between Antares and Spica. The more southern one is on top of the Libra scales and the other is on the left end of the beam.

Mmm ...not much to see there, except...I think I know which star is on the other end of the scales and I can see 3 stars in a line, sort of on top of each other. Where do they fit?

Yes, they’re on the scorpion’s right claw under the base of the scales.                 

Now, the last one for this evening is Sagittarius, the archer on horseback, aiming his arrow at the scorpion. He’s hard to pick out but if you look down to the east from Scorpio’s tail there’s a bright star marking the bottom of the archer’s bow and just north of that there are four stars in a row, pointing to Scorpio – that’s his arm pulling back the arrow. At least he will be the right way up for those people up north.

I think Scorpio’s the best!                                                     

How long will we have to wait to see the next four, Grandad?

We might stay up very late one night during the next school holidays or else we’ll have to wait until December.                                                    
Off to bed now kids….story-time can wait ‘til the morning.

Good night Grandad and thanks for the star show!

NEXT: Born to die

http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/born-to-die.html

 

 

Image credit: abc.net.au

Brekkie 'round the campfire

Following 'Camping with the grandkids'...

Good morning Grandad!  That was a great star show last night.

Eggs a la Grandad

Yes, even Job in the Bible was impressed with the stars ‘down-under’ - he called them the 'chambers of the south'. We’ve even got 21 of the 30 brightest stars!                                                

So can you smell them?

Smell what?...the stars?  All I can smell is yummy bacon and eggs.

No, all the dead animals around us in the bush, lying there for hundreds of years, waiting to be turned into fossils for the museums.

Don't be silly Grandad!  Animals have to be buried very quickly in sand or mud otherwise the bones all get scattered after the body has rotted.

Ah!…so you need a huge flood to make fossils hey?  Oh silly me – I’ve been listening too much to David Attenborough with his ‘millions of years’.  

Uhh!...he’s just guessing like everybody else.                                      

Look, the sun’s coming up!

That’s what it looks like but actually we’re moving towards the east during the day while the sun stays in front of the same stars. As we move around the sun during the year it will seem to slowly move along a line in front of 12 groups of stars called constellations, spending a month in front of each one.

The sun looks like it moves along a line??  That’s probably the line David in the Bible was talking about!  Which constellation is behind the sun right now?

Gemini - the twins.

Gemini?  That’s one of the star signs people believe in!  I bet you don’t find those constellations in the Bible.

The 12 constellations aren’t named in the Bible but guess what?...the twins are – Castor and Pollux. They were the badge on the side of the ship that took Paul prisoner to Rome.

Really??...fancy the Bible telling us that!  What about other constellations?

…in the Bible? Sure.  Job also spoke of the brightest star in the north which we call Arcturus, the Orion constellation, and the Pleaides or Seven Sisters cluster. Remember I showed you Arcturus high in our northern sky last night.

Yes, but that doesn’t mean God recognises constellations.

It does when He answers Job, asking him if he can bind the Pleaides or loosen Orion’s belt. Now astronomers tell us that is what’s happening.

Cool!  God’s must have a sense of humour too.

God also asked Job: “Can you bring out Mazzaroth in his season”, and I know what you’re going to ask - it means ‘distinction’, you know…‘special’.

Hey, that could be the line of 12 special constellations. We could look for them tonight and see if they tell the story of the gospel about Jesus, like Paul said.

We won’t be able to see them all tonight but we could make a start; later in the year we’ll be able to see more and Orion the hunter too. Like the Pleaides he’s mentioned 3 times in the Bible, he represents all constellations, he is the brightest in the sky and he’s right over the equator so everybody gets to see him. He will look upside down to us so we have a funny name for his belt and sword – ‘the saucepan’!

Wow – I can’t wait! When will we be able to see him…and those Seven Sisters?

We’ll see them by December - all except Myrope the youngest sister who’s a bit shy…unless we bring our binoculars.  Did you know?...that’s why Subarus have only got 6 stars on their badge. That’s fair dinkum!

Aw Grandad!  You’ve been doing too much stargazing!                       
Which constellation will we look at first?                                     

I suggest we start with Virgo because that lines up with where the gospel story begins in the Bible and Virgo is high in our northern sky just after tea.

NEXT:  The kids find a scorpion
 http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/grandkids-find-scorpion.html