In the news: another representation of Jesus is bleeding. This time in a policeman's house in India. Officials say that the red paint is probably melting from humidity.
"This is indeed a miracle and shows that Jesus was in pain because of our sins," said John Chrysostom, a priest at the Anglican Church of Port Blair.Dude, for once, can it not be about you and the entire human race? Thanks. I'd like to entertain the fact that there might be some underground society painting Jesi(?)(never thought about plural jesuses...makes you think don't it? It's all very complicated.) And these men (Jesus painters are way into sausage parties. Didn't you know?) had the foreknowledge to paint the blood with red paint...the likes of which would melt in extreme conditions.
I bet they are Irish. Swashbucklers.
However, that being said, I'm trying not to discount the fact that Jesus indeed has had a huge impact on my life. And yours. Jesus has been the port in the storm on so many occasions in the trials and tribulations that develop over daily life. The ones that usually are followed by "Perhaps that was a bad idea."
He tells me that in a reality that says influential people of all colors at some point will probably be portrayed as white.
He tells me "You're not a very good person and since I have a strong hold on just a wee population (in comparison to the global population) they all be chilling in my crib in the clouds. No room for you, sucka."
He backtracks and tells me that if I do start believing, and repent all my sins, and start being good, and stop wearing a condom (or if you do, poke a hole in the tip of it and continue full force with the unsuspecting victim), then maybe, I just might be able to climb on board. Jesus's reach is a Greek hazing.
He tells me that if I do horrible things and feel really sorry for myself afterwards, I'm golden.
He tells me that wearing women's underwear is okay.
He tells me that leadership isn't an easy task. Control your disciples, keep your sects in order. At least try. And if you can't hack it, martyrdom is the way to go. Absolves you from everything.
He tells me "Ah'll be bahk."
He tells me people are created in his image. Have you looked in a mirror recently? That's Jesus talking.
Or it could be the fact that all God's children have fucked shit up a whole lot. Yeah that might be it. Jesus, you a'ight in my book. No. It's not the Bible. Oh. Right. Hmmm. Well, sure, that might be true...but have you licked an eyeball? I highly recommend it. No? Right...White Castle? Now? Uhm. Yeah, ok.
Sorry, I apologize. He does that sometimes. You just have to humor him. Anyway, continuing on...I realize that what I've been writing is perhaps a showcase of my infinite unintelligence and shallowness. If only I can find a way to dig deeper and sink my teeth into something that is underneath the surface. If there is anything there. Its a crap shoot really.
Burrowing dinosaur unearthed
Fossilized family broadens picture of extinct reptiles.
John Whitfield
The discovery of a dinosaur family fossilized in its burrow could make us rethink where the animals lived, how they behaved, and even what wiped them out, say researchers.
Well, just hold on to your britches for one second...Dino goes off and digs a little deeper and is still fuckin' extinct? Shit then. So, shallow or deep, you're fucked in the end. I'll just stop obsessing about it.
David Varricchio of Montana State University in Bozeman and his colleagues found the jumbled remains of two juveniles and an adult together in what looks to be the remains of a custom-built hole in southern Montana.
The discovery provides the first evidence that dinosaurs could burrow, and the best evidence yet for long-term parental care in dinosaurs, says team member Anthony Martin, an expert in animal traces at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "I imagine that two juveniles curled up in a small space with an adult," he says.
The team has named the beast Oryctodromeus cubicularis, meaning 'digging runner of the lair'. It belongs to a group of small herbivorous dinosaurs, and lived 95 million years ago during the mid-Cretaceous period.
The skeletons are incomplete, but they show that when fully grown, the animal was about 2.1 metres long, of which more than half was tail. The dinosaur had a broad snout and powerful shoulders well adapted for digging, and sturdy hips that would help it to brace itself as it dug. It could also run on its back legs.
Secret entrance
The burrow's presence was betrayed by a patch of rock that differed from its surroundings, in an area known to contain dinosaur fossils. The burrow seems to have been dug on the edge of a river flood plain and filled with mud during a flood, burying its occupants, the researchers report in Proceedings of the Royal Society1.
The den was just over two metres long, with a pronounced s-bend — making it harder for predators to enter — opening out into a terminal chamber. The close fit between the sizes of burrow and beast convinced the team that Oryctodromeus had dug its own den, rather than simply displacing a previous occupant. "It's not just a random attempt," says Martin. "It's very well constructed."
"It was generally assumed that dinosaurs wouldn't dig — they tend to be either runners or very large," says palaeontologist Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum, London. "This is quite a departure."
Varricchio and his colleagues had previously found what seemed to be a family of dinosaurs in what could have been a collapsed burrow in China (see 'Fossil hints at devoted parenting in dinosaurs'), but no one had seen an actual tunnel space until now.
Safe underground
Burrowing may have helped dinosaurs to survive in harsh climates, increasing the range of habitats available to them. No one knows exactly what the environment of this part of the world was like when these dinosaurs lived there, although it was probably semi-arid.
Related dinosaurs are known to have lived in southern Australia, which was close to the South Pole at the time, and South Africa, which was hot and dry. These species and locations would be good places to look for further evidence of burrowing, says Barrett.
The lack of an ability to burrow has also been suggested as a factor in the demise of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous. Many of the mammals, reptiles and amphibians that survived a mass extinction at this time could burrow, perhaps sheltering them from whatever catastrophe caused the massive cull.
"The absence of burrowing has been proposed as one reason why dinosaurs didn't make it," says Martin. "You can't use that as a reason now."
Using one specimen to speculate about the dinosaurs' extinction is "quite a big inference", says Barrett. "It might be taking the data too far," he cautions.
Ah but a guy can dream can't he?
1 comment:
FYI, there are more Catholics than any other religion, including Hindu.
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