If you were engaged in a fight for your life, what would be your best strategy for prevailing? If you could convince your enemy you either don't exist, or you infiltrate his group and convince them you're his friend, that would be successful. Remember The Wooden Horse with thirty men hidden inside? It was the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict.
This is the tactic used by the microorganism responsible for the potentially fatal tropical disease, Misidentificationleishmaniasis. The disease is spread by a number of species of tropical blood-sucking sand flies. When they attack, they inject some of the microorganisms into the bloodstream.
Infection can cause painful skin sores. If the protozoans migrate to internal organs, they can fatally injure the liver or the spleen. The result, then, is a fatal disease called the black sickness.
Normally, the organism that causes the disease would be consumed and destroyed by the white blood cells as part of the normal working of the immune system. However, the bugs actually live within the white blood cells that have consumed them and subvert the cells themselves. They take over a cell's chemical machinery and prompt it to make a growth factor called TGF-beta.
This chemical neutralizes the chemical that white cells use to kill the microorganisms. It's normally made by the white cells only after an infection has been stopped. In other words, the proteins fool the immune system into giving the all-clear.
This is analogous to our spiritual lives. We are most spiritually vulnerable when we think that we have lived such good lives that we are in no need of having our sins forgiven. That is a dangerous place to be. I know because I used to live there. But no more!
Were I a betting person, I would bet you didn't know you had two noses. Would I win? In fact, most animals and humans have two noses!
Most animals and humans have two very separate systems for detecting scents that work very differently from one another. These two sensory systems even detect very different types of scents.
We are all familiar with the smell of dinner cooking. However, scientists are making some surprising discoveries about our other system for detecting scents. This second system uses an organ called the vomeronasal organ, or VNO, in the nose. Rather than smelling dinner, the VNO detects pheromones. Among animals, pheromones are important for mating behavior. Mouse studies show that the VNO is wired into the brain with its own set of neurons. The research shows that mouse VNO neurons are up to 10,000 times more sensitive to pheromones than nasal neurons are to other scents. This amazing sensitivity rivals that of insects' abilities to detect pheromones. While your nose uses many receptors to detect scents, your VNO apparently works quite differently.
The ability to detect scents is amazing! But two very different systems that fulfill very different purposes? What a tribute to God's creativity!
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Revelation 4:11
I grew up in New Mexico, a state that is classified as 'desert'. True, it's not as dry as a Middle East Desert, but it's dry and full of lizards - and canteens you can't buy! (Many lizards were my 'pets' when I was a child!) I have written much about New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment.
We hiked in the REAL desert areas, and we always had a canteen of water for each person. (This was a canteen you can buy.) It's simple wisdom, aka 'common sense'! Our Creator applied that same simple wisdom when he designed the Yarrow's spiny lizard.
Like many desert dwellers, Yarrow's spiny lizards are well designed to conserve water in the dry desert climate. For example, they don't even have a urinary bladder!Their bodies are designed to remove water from their waste before it is released. The water is recycled within the body, since water is a precious resource in the desert.
Unlike many reptiles, Yarrow's spiny lizard bears live young. The two-inch-long newborn lizards can dry out quickly in the desert, poor little things. To increase their ability to survive, the Creator gave the newborns a built-in canteen of water.
At birth, a full canteen makes up 10% of the lizard's weight. After the first month of life, the canteen shrivels and is no longer used. This, too, is a wise design, since the growing lizard has learned the ways of the desert and now has a greater need for speed than it has for a bulky water reservoir.
None of us can fully appreciate God's limitless imagination and creativity that we see in the living world around us. However, we can appreciate the fact that He is willing and able to provide practical and workable solutions to every problem that we face. His solutions are found in the Bible, particularly in the book of Job where nature is concerned.
Learning about God's provision for the spiny lizard makes me wonder how many times God has created a solution for my problem, and I have decided to do things my way. I have always regretted making that decision.
"The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen." Isaiah 43:20
What are the odds you have a talking ear? And if your ear does talk, can you hear your ear talking to you? New research seems to show that your ear actually generates sound that echoes whatever you hear.
Startled scientists are making new discoveries that appear to show that we have 'hearing aids' built into our ears. Yes, our ears do produce sounds.
When sound hits the eardrums, the vibrations move bones within the ear, causing a bone called the stapes to vibrate. These vibrations are translated to pneumatic pressure within the cochlea.
The oscillating pressure is picked up by tiny inner hairs in the cochlea that vibrate with the sound. These vibrations generate an electrical signal that is sent to the brain.
Now here's the kicker: Researchers have learned that outer hair cells within the cochlea respond to the incoming signals by generating audible sounds that can be picked up by tiny microphones.
The sounds are generated as the hairs dance up and down in time with the incoming sound, just like the cone of a loudspeaker. The effect is that the ear echoes the incoming sound a few thousandths of a second after it enters the ear.
The echo generated within the cochlea is not necessary for hearing. However, scientists suspect that this feedback system helps people smoothly hear sounds that range from soft to loud. Some scientists have voiced their skepticism about these astonishing findings.
Our ability to hear sound is much more elegant in design than scientists ever expected. The technically precise details of the ear's design makes one wonder how on earth this could have evolved. I have a sneaky suspicion God had something to do with its marvelous design!
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Revelation 4:11
What's green, has three eyes and is one of the rarest animals on Earth?
The answer: the tuatara. This reptile is found today only on a few small islands off New Zealand. Its home on the islands in the Bay of Plenty and Cook Strait has no mammals at all.
The tuatara was once also found in New Zealand. However, when settlers introduced mammals, the tuatara became extinct, probably because it could not compete with the mammals.
The tuatara is a reptile that is the only surviving species in its order. That means it's so different from other creatures that science knows of no similar creatures living today. It grows to a length of about two feet. The chunky reptile has a dark olive green body with light-colored spots. Its eyes are like those of the cat, except for one thing – it has three of them.
Besides the eyes you would expect on each side of its head, it has a third eye on top of its head. Scientists don't believe that this third eye actually works. That's because its structure does not seem to be that of a complete, working eye. However, this third eye does have a retina and other eye structures. A nocturnal animal, the tuatara eats insects, worms and small animals. It buries its 12 to 14 eggs in a shallow hole in the ground where they take up to a year to hatch.
In 1839, an explorer named Ernst Dieffenbach, visiting New Zealand, was told of a peculiar lizard that the natives called tuatara. The familiarity of the people to this animal indicates that it is common in all the islands. When a native handed him a specimen, Dieffenbach returned home and presented it to the British Museum.
The tuatara looked like a lizard with an oversized head. Its tail is short and thick, its eyes are huge, and a crest of spines ran down its neck, back, and tail. Rough, sand-feeling scales cover it, and its rumpled, wrinkled skin seems to be too large for the animal inside.
A zoologist named John Edward Gray examined it and gave it the scientific name of Sphenodon punctatus (“pointed wedge-toothed reptile”). Looking closely, Gray saw a ring of scales on the crown of the head surrounding a single transparent scale – a kind of peephole. Underneath the transparent scale, Gray discovered an organ that looked very much like an eye.
Not a lizard, though it looks like one, the tuatara is the last of the rhynchocephalians, the beak-headed, three-eyed reptiles. They lived before the dinosaurs.
Unlike all other living reptiles, it has teeth that grow right out of its jawbone, with thick, unusual ribs, and vertebrae with hollow sides. It also has that third eye.
The extra eye does not really see. It is smaller than the other two, and is covered by the transparent scale that almost entirely hides it. However, there is a nerve leading from the eye to the tuatara’s brain. Probably the eye can register changes in light and dark, if nothing more. In the years since the other rhynchocephalians died out, the tuatara’s third eye has lost most of its function, though not all.
The tuatara is a special example of God's creativity and His care for His creatures. It certainly isn't the fittest creature, yet God seems to have taken special care to preserve this unique animal.
His name is Ethan Bortnick and he is nine years old. Ethan has incredible music ability. Watch the video and ponder these questions.
Where did Ethan's musical ability come from?
And is there any 'purpose' to it?
There are those who say the answer to the second question is 'no'. They also do not agree with me that it was a genetic gift from our Creator, passed down to him through his family - maybe a Grandma! God's Word tells us to praise the Lord with music. Why would we be told to do something for which we are not equipped?
Unfortunately, some of us who enjoy music cannot carry a tune, while other people can play or sing a piece without even looking at any music after hearing it once. The scientific study of musical ability has become an important area of study as a result of some recent discoveries. Researchers have discovered that it's true that some people have natural musical ability and some don't.
They have found that some people have perfect pitch, even if they have no musical training, while those who are tone-deaf remain tone-deaf despite musical training. Studies show that only about one person in 2,000 has perfect pitch.
Researchers were shocked to find solid evidence that musical ability is genetically inherited. Studying musical ability in both musically trained and untrained families, they found that musical ability follows a dominant inheritance pattern. Sons or daughters have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene from a parent who carries it.
How could evolution develop a gene that codes for musical ability? Even evolutionists appear to be puzzled by this. But those of us who believe in the Creator praise Him with music, even those who have no 'ability' whatsoever. Hey, we can all play the tambourine!
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn—shout for joy before the LORD, the King. Psalm 98:4-6
Midwives have been helping mothers during the birthing process for thousands of years. They are especially valuable should there be difficulties since they not only offer an extra set of hands, but experience in dealing with common problems. Some of the scientists who were studying amoeba behavior observed some very strange behavior which suggests that some amoebas, too, need midwives.
The scientists were studying an amoeba that lives in the digestive tract of reptiles. As all amoebas, they reproduce by splitting in half. Scientists noted, however, that this particular species is not very good at it. Up to a third of the time, the amoebas fail to split.
Amoebas begin the process but never manage to complete it. When that happens, the amoeba is doomed to exist as long as it can with two sets of genetic information.
But as scientists watched, when an amoeba had difficulty dividing, other amoebas would move in on it and help the division process, thereby serving as a midwife.
Further study revealed that the amoeba having difficulty dividing releases a chemical which apparently summons help to finish the process.The midwife amoeba have been seen traveling up to 40 times their own length to help in the birthing of a new generation. That's incredible!!
The Bible teaches us that God cares for all of His creatures. Here we see that He provides even for the needs of the lowly amoeba. How much more does He love us and provide for our needs?
If you wake up when it's still dark, you know how overwhelming it can be to turn on the light. Your eyes may even hurt at first. If you've had this experience, you can understand one of the problems that had to be solved when radar was developed.
Basically, radar is made up of two parts. The transmitter sends out a powerful beam of radar waves. But the other part of the radar system is a very sensitive receiver that cannot stand the powerful outgoing signal.
One of the major technical problems to be overcome in developing modern radar involved sending out this powerful signal without overwhelming the sensitive receiver. What scientists finally developed was a fast switch that turns the sensitive receiver off every time a radar pulse is sent out.
Bats, who have their own sonic radar, had this problem solved from the beginning. They have muscles in their ears that are the receivers for the echoes. These muscles close the ears for split seconds when the bats are sending out their high pitched signals.
Without this feature, the bat's navigational system would be useless. How could a bat figure out that it needed this ability and then decide to grow the muscles and related tissue to do the job? When one decides to say that creatures, instead of the Creator, have made themselves, one can end up with some very silly conclusions!
"Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Matthew 6:27-29
You might think this creature is a reptile, but you would be wrong. It's a mammal!
Its long, slender, scale-covered body glides along the ground on four short legs, each of which has sharp claws. Its slender head has no teeth. It will not seek to hurt you, but if it feels threatened it will lash out with that scale-armored tail. While this creature sounds very much like a reptile, it is, in fact, a mammal called the pangolin. There are seven species of pangolins scattered through Africa and Asia. Typically, the female pangolin will give birth to a single young one after a 140-day gestation period. When full grown, the young one, like its parents, will be almost two feet long and weigh about 20 pounds.
In addition to using its tail for defense, it can also spray a bad-smelling liquid like a skunk. If all else fails, it can roll into a tight armored ball. Its feeding behavior is similar to a nocturnal anteater.
The pangolin's highly developed sense of smell can actually sniff out ant and termite mounds. When it finds a nest, it uses its long, sticky tongue to collect a meal. Unfortunately, the endangered pangolin is prized as a delicacy as well as a medicine among the hill tribes where it lives. Lions and tigers also feed on pangolins.
Pangolins are another example of God's unlimited creativity and His power and wisdom which allows Him to bring about whatever He desires. His greatest desire is for our salvation through the innocent suffering of Jesus Christ. Notes:"Pangolin," World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia (2001).
Would you be surprised to hear stone-age artists existed? I have seen prehistoric, stone-age art, and it is very sensitive. Let's 'dig up' the real story.
Which is more likely to be last buried in the ground for a few thousand years, a wooden spoon or a stone hammer? Since the hammer will last long after the wood has decayed, the further back we go in human history, the more likely we are to find only the most durable things humans left behind.
This general principle explains why those who believe in evolution talk about "stone age" people. They often portray so-called "stone-age" people as primitive brutes who carried clubs around, grunted a lot and were definitely in need of a bath. Those of us who know that humans have always been human know that this picture is inaccurate. It is unfortunate that, for example, the literature of our earliest ancestors, or the toys they undoubtedly made for their children, have not been preserved to our day.
Do you think it sounds strange to talk about the literature of "stone age" people? Yet modern science does recognize their art. So-called prehistoric people have left us hundreds of beautiful paintings in caves around the world. Over 220 paintings are found in Lascaux, France alone.
Research reveals that the painters who created this beautiful and sensitive art did so using artificial lighting, palettes and scaffolding. They carefully milled and mixed minerals to create a variety of colors that remain bright and rich thousands of years later.
As we look at the paintings left by so-called "stone age" painters, we can clearly see that the claims that humans have progressed up from the brute animal stage are false.
A series of unlikely discoveries has scientists shaking their heads. They have discovered the smallest creatures ever seen three miles below the Earth's surface, happily living where the temperatures go as high as 338 degrees.
The creatures were discovered as part of the Deep Subsurface Microbiology Program. This scientific effort is searching for subsurface microbes which might feed on and break down underground pollutants. At 20 to 150 nanometers in length, they seem too small to be alive. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The average human hair is 10,000 nanometers across.
Atoms average 3-5 nanometers in size. So a creature only four or five times the size of an atom doesn't seem as though it should be alive. After all, a cell wall is five to seven nanometers thick. DNA alone is five to six nanometers thick. So, with just two cell walls and a little DNA, the smallest of these creatures – called "nanobes" – seem too small to be living creatures. For this reason scientists decided they can't be alive.
But... after study, scientists have found that these creatures do indeed have DNA and are made of the elements of life – carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. And they do grow like other living things.
Nanobes are another demonstration that nothing is too hard for God, nor is there anywhere He is not. This is a comfort for us since God has spared nothing, including the life of His own Son, to bring about our salvation.
"It is a big discovery and will be very important in testing potential anti-cancer drugs."
A tumor cannot grow to a large size or spread until it has developed its own blood supply and leading research has looked for a way of halting capillary formation to stop tumors from taking hold.
But new findings published recently in the Journal of Cell Science have shown that scientists testing such treatments may not have been studying exactly what they thought they were.
The research proves that cells are able to switch their genetic profile—turning off genes expressed by blood vessel cells and turning on genes specific to lymphatic cells. (Photo: UEA.AC.UK)
This "switch" was previously thought to be impossible and means that scientists may have been researching lymphatic cells, rather than blood vessel cells. It is hoped the discovery will propel the race to find revolutionary new treatments.
Lead author Dr Lin Cooley, said: "It has always been thought that cells could not change from blood to lymphatic vascular cells.
"Other researchers have been doing experiments thinking they were looking at blood vessel cells, when in fact they were looking at lymphatic vascular cells. This breakthrough is important because they have not been studying what they think they have been studying.
"It is a big discovery and will be very important in testing potential anti-cancer drugs."
Researchers used human vein cells in experiments where they form capillaries—the smallest of the body's blood vessels—when cultured in various environments similar to the body.
The human vascular system is made up of two separate circulatory networks—the blood and lymphatic vasculature. Blood vessels and lymphatic vessels are structurally similar, but have very different roles, and are made up of two distinct cell types.
Dr Cooley said: "We have discovered that when vein cells form tube structures, they appear to "switch" their genetic profile, turning off genes expressed by blood vessel cells, and turning on genes specific to lymphatic vessels.
"This change can be reversed, and is dependent on the particular environment they are cultured in.
"We have also shown that their identity changes in response to the cell's environment rather than only being specified by signals during early embryonic development."
Noah saved a pair of each kind of unclean creature, and seven pairs of every kind of clean creature on the Ark. Generally speaking, the classification of "kind" is broader than today's species. Creationists believe that today's species developed from those creatures, staying within the kind. For example, while there are many species of fruit flies, they are all of the same kind.
But how could all the species we know today have developed so quickly? In 1978, a few European fruit flies were accidentally introduced to Chili. They have now spread their population over much of North America's west coast. In that short time, they differentiated within their kind.
For example, those found in more northern latitudes have the longer wingspans, while those in the more southerly latitudes have shorter wingspans. Tests have shown that these differences are due to differences in genetic makeup.
Amazingly, the same pattern of longer wing spans in more northerly fruit flies is very much like the pattern observed in European fruit flies. Even more astonishing is the fact that the American fruit flies achieve the longer and short wing spans through the lengthening of a different part of the wing than their European cousins.
That these differences, down to the genetic level, have developed in a mere quarter of a century illustrates how, in the few thousand years since the Flood, the various species we know today could have easily developed from their basic kinds.
You're not feeling well and you have a fever. Is your increased body temperature good for you or should you try to lower it?
Medical researchers are learning what happens in the body when we develop a fever. They say that the body's fever response is usually a very important part of our body's defense against disease.
Normally the body's temperature varies through the day. If the body's temperature drops below 80° or climbs higher than 108° for a prolonged period, death usually results. Your body has a thermostat, called the hypothalamus, to keep its temperature within that range.
When disease germs are detected in your bloodstream, your white blood cells release a chemical called EP. EP quickly makes its way to the hypothalamus, where it raises the setting of your thermostat.
This increase in temperature can make your body increase its production of T cells by 20 times or more to fight bacterial infection. It also increases the production of blood chemicals that fight viruses. EP also blocks bacteria's ability to make use of the free iron in your blood at just the time bacteria are most in need of that iron.
Even iguanas and fish are known to raise their body temperature when ill by moving into warmer environments.
Does the fever response just accidentally happen to help fight infection, or was it designed to work the way it does? Clearly we must thank God for this cleverly designed defense against disease.
There are those who believe there are no 'havesting ants'. Well, there are! It is written in the Bible, and in one part of our world, they do exist.
Those who don't believe the Bible is the Word of God have in the past pointed out 'an error', as they call it, in Proverbs 6:8 where it talks about the wisdom of the ant in gathering and storing food for the winter.
Skeptics said this must come from some ancient myths about ants because there are no ants known to gather and store food.
In the last few years, however, their laughter has stopped. We now know of three different species of ants that gather and store food. And guess what? Two of these species are native to Palestine!
Evolutionists tell us that they are sure the first real human beings weren't even smart enough to gather and store grain and seeds. It is obvious that ants who gather and store grain and seeds are totally unexpected by evolution. But we know that we have a Creator who provides for all the needs of all His creatures – even ants.
The Bible shows itself to be true in all earthly things it tells us about. This is God's way of impressing upon us the accuracy of His Word so that we might believe when it tells us about spiritual things like our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8
For those who lack the funds for a traditional home mortgage, Dan Phillips is doing his part to make their homeowner dreams come true—in a very creative and eco-friendly way.
Phillips has created a model of building homes from mostly recycled and discarded materials. In fact, his unique homes consist of about 75 percent recycled materials, with the wiring and plumbing being new, according to a recent video interview by KTRK.
Some of the materials include used wine corks for floors, cow bones, old relish dishes, even a ceiling made completely from discarded frame samples.
Phillips is trying to help those who could never afford a typical mortgage or the accompanying property taxes. He builds his homes—using the potential homeowner's labor—specifically for single moms, low income families and for artists.
The innovative homes meet all building codes, are energy efficient, and usually carry a mortgage payment that is well below what someone would pay to rent a one-room apartment.
Kristie Stevens is a single mom, whose home was designed and built by Phillips and her own hands. "It's about $368 for the mortgage," Stevens told KTRK. "The insurance is about $50 and the taxes roughly $60 per month."
Phillips has constructed 14 structures so far, and with each project, he requires the potential homeowner to help build. That way, according to the dancer-turned-builder, they know how to maintain it, and take more pride in it.
The use of recycled and discarded materials means they are free—keeping the overall cost of the home very low—and helping the planet at the same time by using what would normally find its way to a landfill.
"I grew up under parents that went through the depression and they saved everything so when I went to the landfill, it was like a candy store," explained Phillips in an interview. "I'm not a wild-eyed 'greeny' with ammo welts criss-crossing my chest and a red bandana. But we're clearly in trouble. We need to do something."
Phillips hopes that ultimately, his ideas will catch on, helping the less fortunate to own their own homes in other areas. Indeed, in 2003, the Institute for Social Invention in London named Dan Phillips' homes the "Most Innovative Housing Worldwide."
To watch the full interview with Phillips by KTRK TV click on the source link below. You can find out more about Phillips' building projects at his website by clicking here.
To recap the secrets we learned in Part One, we learned about seven different intelligences and the particular Brain Secret for each one:
Suzie’s Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence
Monica’s Naturalistic Intelligence
Janet’s Body-Kinesthetic Intelligence
Matthew’s Logical-Mathematic Intelligence
Adriana’s Intra-Personal Intelligence
Marilyn’s Inter-Personal Intelligence
Cesar’s Musical Intelligence
We learned that music is brain exercise and as such, literally transforms the brain much as physical exercise transforms the body. It makes it stronger, more agile, and more equipped to withstand pressure.
As a result of technology, we now have the ability to see the brain while it is in the process of thinking! We can observe, for example, that when people listen to melodies with a variety of pitch and timbre, the right hemisphere of the brain is activated. It also "lights up" when people play or sing music by ear.
However, when people learn to read music, understand key signatures, notation, and other details of scores, and are able to follow the sequence of notes, then the left hemisphere "lights up." Significantly, it is activated in the same area that is involved in analytical and mathematical thinking!
The limbic system in our brain is so powerful that it can literally facilitate or inhibit learning and higher order thinking. Positive emotions, such as love, tenderness, and humor, can facilitate higher order thinking skills; whereas negative emotions, such as anger, hostility, and fear, can literally downshift the brain to “basic survival thinking". Are you listening, parents?
Dr. Marian Diamond, Berkeley neurophysiologist, offers information that the brain changes physiologically in relation to learning and experience -- for better or worse. I have observed how differently children respond to my emotions. It is because of this knowledge that I always use humor, play-acting, pantomimes, and sometimes even "silly" behavior with my younger students. Once they see me taking the risk of acting silly, their reticence fades. This is especially beneficial in the bilingual Kindergarten and First Grade Classes.
My goal for my students is always performance! Students will go to considerable effort with little immediate reward if they know they will be held accountable, through ultimate performance, for what they have learned. They also know they're accountable to the rest of the group. They develop both independence and collaboration.
And their self-perception soars when they're part of something bigger than they are! Music is a thinking activity of the highest level, and if it is taught with enormous passion and enthusiasm, it will spark a student towards high achievement for life!
There is nothing like showing 4th, 5th, and 6th Graders how to compose their own music! It empowers them at a time in their life when they are feeling powerless. They're neither children nor adults, and they have not yet figured out what they are.
Teach them to channel their "angst" into music and lyrics they can then share with the other students, and they now have a powerful, effective tool for communication. (One of the funniest musical numbers was written and performed by two 5th grade boys. One sang the love song while the other provided rhythm with burping! It wasn't bad!)
The 4th - 6th Graders know, from the beginning of the year, they are preparing for a huge concert with the High School Choirs. This excited fear (adrenaline) keeps them motivated, even through the rough spots. Every class, including all the Kindergarten Classes, knows they are "in training" for a performance. It's the only way to teach!
Working with students on a long-term basis provides them with the opportunity to experience processes from beginning to end. Music becomes its own reward!
I come from a long line of teachers, and it's gratifying to know I'm making a huge difference in these kids' lives! I had a special teacher in the 8th grade that changed my self-perception from negative to positive. She was not blind to my faults, but chose, instead to "accentuate the positive." I remember Margaret Oliphant every day of my life.
Whether you're a teacher or a parent (or grandparent), these secrets of how the brain works will prove to be invaluable as you deal with your young ones. We would all love to see our children excel towards their natural bent!
Like dinosaurs, whales are huge and wondrous creatures whose sheer size and majesty glorify the Creator. Some whales are even larger than were any of the dinosaurs.
Whales were hunted for generations for processing into a variety of products. It was not until they were hunted to near extinction that governments began to work to prevent this from happening. Much of the hunting was justified on the grounds that whales were ruthless killers.
After that perception of whales was proven wrong, the pendulum swung the other way. As a result, the public – and even many scientists – began to romanticize whales. They were presented to the public as gentle, benevolent giants. It became stylish to talk about the whale as an intelligent creature, rivaling and perhaps surpassing humans.
Now more objective research into whale behavior shows that whales, while magnificent creatures, are nothing more than wild animals.
Researchers have learned that while whales can be gentle, they can also be terribly violent. They have documented males in vicious battles for the attentions of females. Sometimes as many as 10 males will be involved in a free-for-all. Their fighting tactics include ramming each other at full force with their 40-ton bodies.
Whales are not very loyal, either. Males will mate with several females. Worse, they will attack females to force them to mate.
Unlike humans, whales are animals, and only humans were created to have an intimate relationship with their Creator.
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" Genesis 1:26
Some frogs are regular little drug factories. Their skins produce a wide range of powerful alkaloids, which are a large family of chemicals usually produced by plants. Familiar alkaloids include quinine, caffeine and morphine. Different alkaloids have different effects, usually on the nervous system.
The poison-arrow frog may be the most famous alkaloid-producing frog. South American natives simply rub their arrows or darts on the frog's back. One species of this frog contains enough poison to kill 100 people! WOW!
Another frog, native to Ecuador, produces an anesthetic more powerful than morphine. South American natives rub another frog on their wounds. Researchers discovered that the frog's skin makes a powerful antiseptic. Yet another frog alkaloid will change the colors on parrot feathers. Some of the alkaloids produced by frogs are so complex that it takes years of study, using modern science's most sophisticated equipment, to discover the active chemical.
Researchers in this field are only beginning to learn about the alkaloids produced by frogs. They have yet to research a frog that natives claim to use to heighten their senses for the hunt. What puzzles scientists who believe in evolution is that the frogs' exotic skin chemistries don't follow the patterns they anticipated based upon expected evolutionary relationships.
This means that these frogs have one more exciting purpose. They cast serious doubts on the theory of evolution. Seems to me only the Creator could have pulled this off!
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. Matthew 13:22
The study of plants' abilities to protect themselves from insect attackers is a fairly new and rapidly growing area of research. It seems that new and even more amazing discoveries are appearing every month.
Let's imagine that you are a nice little beetle looking for a tasty tomato plant. Soon after spotting a juicy looking tomato, you are happily munching away. However, before you can finish your meal you are in trouble. da da da dum!
Every leaf on the tomato has started turning out chemicals that will, at the least, give you serious indigestion and possibly kill you. At the same time, the plant has warned its neighbors of your presence, and the other tomatoes, too, are turning out the same nasty chemicals. Your very act of eating has made it impossible to get a decent meal in this garden!
The latest research suggests that the tomato under attack communicates with its neighbors by releasing a chemical called methyl jasmonate. (This chemical is commonly found in perfumes.) Methyl Jasmonate warns neighboring plants that hungry insects are in the neighborhood. On receiving the news, they begin producing the two chemicals that prevented you from digesting the protein in your lunch. This reaction has been seen among a number of plants, including cotton plants and various trees.
Who would ever have imagined that plants warn each other about attack? Who would have guessed that they know enough chemistry and insect biochemistry to mount such a clever defense? While even we who believe in creation are amazed, we know that the Creator can and did equip plants with these abilities.
Did you know there are secrets to how the brain works? It's true! And because I am a teacher and a musician, I have had to learn them and live by them.
I consider teaching -- actually, I call it "training" -- to be a calling of the highest order. And music is, by far, the best way to reach all children because music is the most effective means of communication.
A person may be a musical artist and great performer, but that does not mean he (or she) is a "communications artist." An effective Teacher (or a parent) must possess the natural ability to communicate on her students' levels!
Because music reaches the emotions so profoundly, few teachers of other subjects have the opportunity to reach their students on such a personal level.
Also, music is a universal language, transcending all cultural, language, socio-economic, racial, and educational barriers.This is especially important for the younger bi-lingual children. Music equalizes everyone in the classroom!
While music enriches and enhances cultures, in my mind music is never music for music's sake. Yes, it's important for holidays, represents cultures, and even memorializes a person's life after they leave this earth. But music is brain exercise! It's enhancing for the performer's self-perception! It's a vehicle for many other kinds of learning!
The learning of music enables children to develop strong skills in other disciplines. Music uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science and engineering!
Involvement in a music education program improves concentration and lengthens attention spans; it improves memory and retention; and it improves interpersonal skills and abilities to work with others in collaborative ways.
My enthusiasm spreads like wild fire, captivating and engaging my students, even at the Kindergarten level. I am a musician, yes; however, I have two specialized skills: I am a musical artist and I am also a communications artist. I know how to get through to students, no matter how their brain works! And I know how to get them excited and engaged.
To the kids, I may appear to be a light-hearted, humorous, musical "Mary Poppins". But I am dead serious about communicating to them on their own level, through their individual personal combination of intelligences.
These kids learn about the environment, math, history, music history, teamwork, cognitive stimulation, and right-left brain transfer. And I take care to teach the same lesson several different ways, in order to reach a multiplicity of intelligences.
Susie is strongest in her Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence. She learns best with the stories I tell, the inflections of my voice ("music in the voice"), the meter of my words, and all the sounds we do together.
She has other intelligences, but it is this particular one which will enable her to "get it" more quickly and with a deeper understanding. Susie will probably grow up to be a writer or an effective communicator through another media.
Secret: I would pick Susie out in class to explain concepts to the other students.
Monica is strongest in her Naturalistic Intelligence. She learns best with my analogies of nature and the drawings she does of "Nature's Music." She's conscious of the world around her, and will always be a "nature child" even in her old age.
She will respond to rhythms similar to her heartbeat, and will use classical music for "atmosphere" as she's studying and concentrating.
Secret: Have Monica draw or paint while she's listening to music.
Janet is strongest in her Body-Kinesthetic Intelligence. She must have muscle involvement in her learning process. She learns best with "hands-on" experience. It would start early with clapping, marching, simple choreography, or building a project.
Secret: Janet is the child I would pick out to be the class choreographer. She would stand in front of the class and teach all the other students how to "act out" the words of the song, or how to dance to the rhythm.
Janet will probably grow up to be a physical therapist, or she'll represent the US in the Olympics! (Boys typically have strong intelligence in this area and can be prevented from "acting out" in disruptive ways if they are given the opportunity to lead the class in physical movement.)
Matthew is strongest in his Logical-Mathematic Intelligence. He has to learn with problem-finding, problem solving, order and sequence. (Music is, after all, only math set to music!) He constantly tries to figure out how something works, why it works (or doesn't work), and his curiosity will drive him to seek out the answers on his own.
Secret: Matthew's learning time will be cut in half if he's exposed to Baroque and Romantic Period music early in his development. He will probably grow up to be an engineer, math teacher, or be a technical designer. But whatever he does, life will have to be "logical" for him to succeed.
Adriana is strongest in her Intra-Personal Intelligence. She has the self-knowledge necessary to know when it is time to withdraw from a situation. Through her involvement in our music program, she develops the ability to act adaptively on the basis of that knowledge. This particular knowledge is invaluable in this era of pedophiles because it teaches her to trust her instincts. She'll know when it's time to withdraw from a situation, and she'll have the ability to act on her knowledge.
She'll likely grow up to become a novelist, therapist, psychologist or philosopher.
Secret: I must be very sensitive to Adriana's feelings, but not allow her to hide in them. I would ask her to write a song about them, and then share it with the class.
Marilyn is strongest in her Inter-Personal Intelligence. She has natural ability to detect and discriminate the various moods of those around her. She can read people's intentions and desires, even when hidden, and has great intuitive powers.
Marilyn will, most likely, work in one of the "helping" professions. One thing for sure: she'll make a warm, sensitive parent! She's the student I can always count on to let me know when any other student is sad, sick, or shy.
Secret: Marilyn will learn best when in a loving, supportive, and encouraging environment.
Cesar is strongest in his Musical Intelligence. He has a natural capacity to perceive, discriminate, transform, and express musical forms.
Secret: Cesar needs early private music lessons! He could easily be another Mozart, or Beethoven! He thinks in music! Teach this kid anything set to music!
With the right encouragement and some coaxing out of his inner world, I can instill confidence in Cesar, and he'll succeed at anything he tries. His future will, most likely, be evident to his parents at an early age. He'll show uncanny abilities musically. They will know they have a musician in the family!
In has a bulky, humped body like a bear. Its hindquarters slope downward like a hyena. It has legs like a cow. Its tail looks as if it were borrowed from a goat. It has the horns of a wildebeest and a face like a moose with mumps. Some scientists think the golden fleece Jason brought to Greece in classical times was from a takin.
One scientist commented that if the camel was designed by committee, the same committee designed the takin from the parts that were left over.
The takin is a large, hoofed animal that can weigh up to 650 pounds and stand five feet high at the shoulders. It lives in China's remote, rugged mountain forests, where it is protected. Takins are herding animals that eat plants. Scientists have noted over 100 species of plant that the takin eats. One scientist suggested that it might be easier to put together a list of the plants takins don't eat.
Standing on their hind legs, takins can reach branches eight feet high. They will push over thin trees to get at the leaves. And they're large enough to straddle a five-foot tree and bend it down until they can get at the leaves.
Scientists were puzzled because for some time they never saw any young takins in the grazing herds. Then they discovered that the young are often tended in the takins' version of a day care center, while the rest of the herd goes off to socialize and feed.
Our Creator's imagination knows no limits! In its uniqueness, the takin glorifies our Creator God.
Did you ever wonder how much 'science theory' is merely assumptions by men who had no concrete proof? Like, where did the human brain start? Who had the first brain? Was it Adam, or was it assumed his brain was evolved from fish, reptiles, then monkeys millions of years ago?
According to evolutionary thought, humans came from ape-like creatures. These ape-like creatures came from reptiles through many steps. Likewise, reptiles ultimately came from fish, through many steps. Evolutionists say that with each major stage, more parts were added to the brain. The final development, and the greatest of all, is the cerebral cortex.
According to this theory, one of the oldest parts of the brain is the part deep inside. Evolutionists claim that this part of the brain, called the basal ganglia, comes from our 'reptilian past'. They have described this part of the brain as "primitive." It controls such simple things as movement and spatial memory. These are basic functions needed by reptiles. Of course, the evolutionary view that the basal ganglia is primitive was never scientifically researched.
Then - da da da dum! - researchers started to examine the workings of the basal ganglia. They have concluded that the deep structures of the brain that are supposed to be primitive are actually quite sophisticated. In fact, these so-called reptilian structures rival the cerebral cortex in sophistication. These structures receive input from all parts of the cortex.
And all the neurochemicals found anywhere else in the body are also found in these structures. In other words, there is absolutely no evidence that they are primitive.
Once again, scientific research has not found what evolutionists expected. The human brain has not developed by adding parts to reptile brains. It was specially created just for human beings.
Wouldn't it be less embarrassing to just believe God's Word?
"Scientists have known for decades that time passes faster at higher elevations."
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the results of a study which used atomic clocks to measure the passage of time at different elevations. I have always found the concept of time to be not only fascinating on a scientific level, but on a spiritual level as well. After all, what is eternity?
II Peter 3:8-9 says: "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." That's mind-boggling stuff. It makes us realize time is not on our side; it's on God's side. In addition, the Bible refers to time travel (Philip - Acts 8), Jesus rose UP into the sky, and Revelation is full of surreal pictures of the City of God measuring 1400 miles, etc.
Bearing all that in mind, the following are excerpts from that report: "Scientists have known for decades that time passes faster at higher elevations—a curious aspect of Einstein's theories of relativity that previously has been measured by comparing clocks on the earth's surface and a high-flying rocket.
Now, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have measured this effect at a more down-to-earth scale of 33 centimeters, or about 1 foot, demonstrating, for instance, that you age faster when you stand a couple of steps higher on a staircase. (Illustration Credit: Loel Barr for NIST)
Described in the Sept. 24 issue of Science, the difference is much too small for humans to perceive directly—adding up to approximately 90 billionths of a second over a 79-year lifetime—but may provide practical applications in geophysics and other fields.
Similarly, the NIST researchers observed another aspect of relativity—that time passes more slowly when you move faster—at speeds comparable to a car traveling about 20 miles per hour, a more comprehensible scale than previous measurements made using jet aircraft.
NIST scientists performed the new "time dilation" experiments by comparing operations of a pair of the world's best experimental atomic clocks. The experiments focused on two scenarios predicted by Einstein's theories of relativity.
First, when two clocks are subjected to unequal gravitational forces due to their different elevations above the surface of the Earth, the higher clock—experiencing a smaller gravitational force—runs faster.
Second, when an observer is moving, a stationary clock's tick appears to last longer, so the clock appears to run slow. Scientists refer to this as the "twin paradox," in which a twin sibling who travels on a fast-moving rocket ship would return home younger than the other twin.
The crucial factor is the acceleration (speeding up and slowing down) of the traveling twin in making the round-trip journey.
In one set of experiments, scientists raised one of the clocks by jacking up the laser table to a height one-third of a meter (about a foot) above the second clock. Sure enough, the higher clock ran at a slightly faster rate than the lower clock, exactly as predicted."
This is the tactic used by the microorganism responsible for the potentially fatal tropical disease, Misidentificationleishmaniasis. The disease is spread by a number of species of tropical blood-sucking sand flies. When they attack, they inject some of the microorganisms into the bloodstream.
This is the tactic used by the microorganism responsible for the potentially fatal tropical disease, Misidentificationleishmaniasis. The disease is spread by a number of species of tropical blood-sucking sand flies. When they attack, they inject some of the microorganisms into the bloodstream.
