...and other stuff, INSIDE THE BOOK, THE OZ FACTORS, UNIVERSES

99% of MUNCHKINS ARE EXTINCT (Beetles not)

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HOW MANY SPECIES OF MUNCHKINS ARE IN THE LAND OF OZ?

“We represent the Lullaby League …”–The Munchkins

“We represent the Lollipop Guild …”–The Munchkins in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

On this planet, there are five major kingdoms of life forms categorized as follows:

1/ Bacteria

2/ One-Celled Organisms

3/ Mushroom, Molds, Fungi

4/ Multi-Cellular Plants

5/ Multi-Cellular Animals

The number of different forms of life–the tremendous variety of life on this planet–is virtually beyond comprehension. Think of how many different kinds of birds you’ve seen. Take a wild guess as to how many species of fish swim in the waters of the world. How many mammals or reptiles might there be, not to mention plants and insects?

Biologists are still trying to count the number of different life organisms on the planet. Consider the probability that an estimated TWO BILLION SPECIES have lived on Earth, of which as many as 99.9 percent are now EXTINCT! So, there probably aren’t that many left, right?

Wrong.

There are still estimated to be about 30,000,000 (thirty million!) different species of organisms still living on Earth. There are estimated to be more than 400,000 species of plants, alone. Do you like bugs? There are more than 1,000,000 species of insects (yes, that’s one million). There are 30,000 different subspecies of spiders! Not to mention the 30,000 species of beetles, 20,000 species of moths and 20,000 species of ants, bees and wasps. Researchers have estimated that for every human being there are one billion insects on Earth!

There are more than 9,000 species of birds, 4,000 species of mammals (1,700 are rodents), 10,000 species of roundworms, 4,000 species of amphibians, 21,000 species of bony fish and 6,000 species of reptiles. Don’t even think about the nearly unfathomable variety of invertebrate life in the oceans. Scientists will be working for a very long time to identify everything that lives in the waters of the world.

That’s just life in the macrocosm of Earth; i.e., just those life forms that we can see easily with the naked eye. How does this apply to the microcosm of relatively invisible animals?

80-beetlesThere are 4,000 known species of bacteria. On the average human body, about 600 million bacteria live on the skin. The skin under your arms carries close to 500,000 bacteria and your forearm is a thriving metropolis that is home to over 12,000 bacteria per square inch! The bacteria population INSIDE your body is too numerous to count.

Then there are all the species of protozoa, algae, fungi and bacteria that eat carbon dioxide and hydrogen and produce methane as a byproduct.

In addition to the vast number of species, consider the fact that each individual cell in any complex organism is, in fact, a separate, distinct life entity. There are about 75 trillion cells in the average human body. The size of a single cell varies from the thickness of a few thousand atoms, to the largest single cell (an ostrich egg), measuring about 20 inches in diameter.

Oz Factors_LULUThe sheer volume and diversity of life forms would seem to defy the probability of any coincidental, circumstantial, accidental or spontaneous development of the unthinkably vast, complex, intricately coordinated, precisely structured, cooperatively balanced, and yet, ingeniously bizarre, incongruously grotesque and downright peculiar variety of life on Earth. (Remember, we aren’t even counting the 99 percent of life forms that USED to live on the planet, which are now extinct!)

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In the 150 years since Darwin and others have re-proposed the Theory of Evolution, no one has ever demonstrated it to be true. Not a single one of any of this immense number of species have ever successfully interbred and created a fertile reproductive combination of two different species.

The point is this: Darwin’s theory does not provide us with a workable solution. The missing pieces of the puzzle are still missing, namely: where did man and the other life forms on this planet come from?”

_______________________________

— Excerpted from the book, THE OZ FACTORS, by Lawrence R. Spencer

ART, FREE ADVICE, LOUD ZOO, MOVING PICTURES, READING MATTER, SOUNDS

ADMIRE YOU

Video

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Admiration is the most desirable form of energy one being can give or receive. Everyone is seeking admiration, knowingly or not. When we are admired, or admire others, we feel uplifted and expanded. When our actions, thoughts, or emotions are NOT admired we feel rejected and depressed.  It has been said that the universe consists of creations that you not been admired and are still waiting to be admired.  So, if you’re not getting the admiration you KNOW you deserve, don’t wait for others to give it to you!  Give it to yourself.  Here is 12 minutes of applause and cheering you can use to admire YOU!

ADMIRATION

Respect and warm approval: their admiration for each other was genuine

1.1  (the admiration of) Something regarded as impressive or worthy of respect: her house was the admiration of everyone

1.2  Pleasurable contemplation: they were lost in admiration of the scenery

Origin:   Late Middle English (in the sense ‘marveling, wonder’): from Latin admiratio(n-), from the verb admirari

...and other stuff, FREE ADVICE, LIVES, MOVING PICTURES, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

WATER BEARS CAN SURVIVE IN SPACE

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In the microscopic world beneath our feet, where there lives what is perhaps the toughest creature on Earth: the tardigrade. Also known as the water bear (because it looks like an adorable little many-legged bear), this exceedingly tiny critter has an incredible resistance to just about everything. Go ahead and boil it, freeze it, irradiate it, and toss it into the vacuum of space — it won’t die.

Water Bear

READ THE ARTICLE ABOUT AN “ALIEN” CREATURE WHO COULD SURVIVE ON OTHER PLANETS!

Absurd Creature of the Week: The Incredible Critter Thats Tough Enough to Survive in Space – Wired Science.

...and other stuff, LIVES, UNIVERSES

PLANTS ON MARS NORTH POLE?

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NASA photo of North Pole of Mars

TENDRILS FROM POLAR DUNES
This isn’t a microscopic photograph of a bacterial culture! It’s actually of rolling, hummocky dunes near the north pole of Mars. Taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s powerful HIRISE camera, the normally grey basaltic sand of the dunes is covered with pinkish dust literally made of rust – iron oxide.

What makes this image so bizarre, though, are the dark, parallel tendril-like features scattered throughout. What the heck are those? One clue is that they always seem to stretch downhill, as if something is flowing. Another can be found in the tendrils located left of center and down a bit: there’s a fuzzy pink oval emanating from one of them. Under magnification, you can see it’s a dust cloud… the debris raised up after an avalanche of sand on the Martian surface!

Those tendrils are from the darker material under the pink sand. When dry ice under the surface warms up in the summer, it disturbs and dislodges the gray basaltic sand around it. This slides downhill, creating these weird, hair-like features. It’s no surprise that some people mistook them for some form of life on the Red Planet! But I don’t see the need to make up fantasy-based scenarios for pictures like this one, when we can see that Mars is fantastic enough.