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A Chain of Miracles
Chapter 2: The Solar System and The Miraculous Order in The Creation of The Earth
The Location of the Solar System in the Galaxy
The location of our solar system in the Milky Way is the product of awe-inspiring order and flawless design. Its trajectory is far from the center of the galaxy, and outside its spiraling arms.
Stars and planets in a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way are structured around the bloated core. The spiraling arms move away from the center of the galaxy at a consistent angle and plane. The spaces between these arms contain only a negligent number of solar systems—and our own solar system is one of these rare examples.
Is it somehow relevant that our solar system is located between the spiral arms of the galaxy?
First, it means that we are far removed from the gases and other debris contained in the spiraling arms, giving us a clean, clear view of the universe from where we are. Had our solar system been located inside these spiral arms, our view would have been considerably obscured. As Michael Denton writes in his book Nature's Destiny:
What is so striking is that the cosmos appears to be not just supremely fit for our own being and for our biological adaptations, but also for our understanding... Because of the position of our solar system on the edge of the galactic rim, we can gaze farther into the night to distant galaxies and gain knowledge of the overall structure of the cosmos. Were we positioned in the center of a galaxy, we would never look on the beauty of a spiral galaxy nor would we have any idea of the structure of our universe. 25
Normally, stars located between spiral arms cannot maintain their position for prolonged periods of time, since they are eventually absorbed into the spirals. Yet our solar system has maintained its orbit between the galaxy's spiral arms for the past 4.5 billion years.
Our location's stability is due to the fact that our Sun is one of very few stars positioned on the trajectory called "galactic co-rotation radius."
For a star to maintain its position between two spiral arms depends on its distance from the core of the galaxy. In other words, it needs to be on the co-rotation radius, so that it travels around the center at the same speed as do the spiral arms.26 Among our galaxy's billions of stars, only our Sun has both this special position as well as the required velocity.
Our position, outside of the spiral arms where stars cluster, is also the safest place in the universe, since here we are removed from gravitational forces that could destabilize the orbits of planets.
Also, we are out of reach of the deadly effects of supernova explosions. In any other part of the galaxy, our Earth could not have survived the 4.5 billion years it took to make it a place suitable for human life.
Thanks to the creation of our solar system in this special position, life—and human life—can be sustained on Earth. This is the reason why we can investigate the universe we live in and observe the unequalled, supreme, spectacular artistry in God's creation.
The location of our solar system, just like the laws of physics governing the universe, is proof that it was designed for human existence.
The Precise Order In Our Solar System
The solar system that is home to our Earth is one of the best places to observe the universe's precise order and harmony. The unequalled order that controls all planets, large or small, within the solar system has been responsible for its stability over the past 4.5 billion years.
In our solar system, there are nine planets, and orbiting them are the 54 satellites discovered so far. Beginning with the nearest to the Sun, these planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. Out of all these planets and their satellites, Earth is the only one with a surface and atmosphere suitable for life.
The balance between the Sun's gravity and any planet's centrifugal force prevents it from being flung out into space. The Sun's massive gravitational force attracts the planets, which can only withstand this force and not fall into the Sun's nuclear furnace because of the centrifugal forces their motion creates. If the planets' speed were a little slower in their orbits, however, they would be rapidly pulled into towards the Sun, which would swallow them up.
The opposite is also possible. Were the planets to rotate any faster, the Sun's gravitational forces would not be powerful enough to keep them in their orbits and they would be cast out into space. However, a fine balance between these forces exists, and the solar system preserves it.
This balance of forces differs separately for each planet in any solar system, since their respective distances to the Sun vary. Their masses are different too, which means that they must revolve around the Sun at different velocities in order to maintain their equilibrium. The same balanced forces exist for the Earth.
The latest discoveries in astronomy reveal that the existence of other planets in our solar system is vital for the Earth's safety and orbit. The system's largest planet, Jupiter, is a good example. With its exact location within the system, it plays a crucial role in maintaining the Earth's balance. Recent astrophysical calculations reveal that Jupiter's present orbit is partly responsible for the consistency of the other planets' orbits within the solar system.
Huge planets like Jupiter have been discovered in many other solar systems, but they are far from having a stabilizing influence on their systems or from protecting any other, smaller planets therein. Peter D. Ward, a Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Washington, says:
All the Jupiters seen today are bad Jupiters. Ours is the only good one we know of. And it's got to be good, or you're thrown out into dark space or into your sun. 27
Another reason why Jupiter is so important for us is that if it did it not exist, there would be no life on Earth, due to the high number of meteorite impacts our planet would be exposed to. The magnetic field created by Jupiter's huge mass bends the trajectory of comets and meteorites entering the solar system and prevents them from targeting the Earth. Jupiter acts as a protective gravitational shield for the Earth.
Yet another way Jupiter protects the Earth is revealed by astronomer George Wetherhill in his article entitled "How Special Jupiter Is":
Without a large planet positioned precisely where Jupiter is, the earth would have been struck a thousand times more frequently in the past by comets and meteors and other interplanetary debris. If it were not for Jupiter, we wouldn't be around to study the origin of the solar system. 28
It has been calculated that the Earth-Moon planetary system also plays a vital role in preserving balance in the solar system. In the absence of this duo, Jupiter's huge mass would cause great instability to inner planets like Mercury and Venus; with the result that their orbits would approach one another closer and closer. This in turn would force Mercury out of the solar system and alter the orbit of Venus. Scientists developed a computer model of the solar system, clearly revealing that the order and consistency preserved for billions of years was only possible only by the ideal mass and positioning of planets within the solar system. With the slightest change to the existing order within this system, our solar system, including the Earth, could not exist.
The Astronomical Journal described the extraordinary design inherent in our solar system in its November, 1998 issue:
Our basic finding is nevertheless an indication of the need for some sort of rudimentary "design" in the solar system to ensure long-term stability…29
In short, our solar system's structure has been designed specifically for human life. God reveals His miraculous Creation in many verses of the Qur'an and commands us to ponder them:
He has made night and day subservient to you, and the Sun and Moon and stars, all subject to His command. There are certainly Signs in that for people who use their intellect. (Qur'an, 16:12)
The Size of The Earth and The Ideal Proportions in Its Interior
Equally as important as the Earth's distance from the Sun, and rate of rotation is its size and composition, just right for forming and sustaining life.
When we compare the Earth to Mercury (only 8% of the Earth's mass) and Jupiter (318 times the Earth's mass), we see that planets span a wide range in terms of size. Considering this it is obvious that the Earth couldn't be of just the right mass by coincidence.
Investigating the properties of the planet we live on, American geologists Frank Press and Raymond Siever write the following:
And Earth's size was just about right—not too small as to lose its atmosphere because its gravity was too small to prevent gasses from escaping into space, and not so large that its gravity would hold on to too much atmosphere, including harmful gases. 31
Besides the mass of the Earth, its internal composition is also designed specifically to support life. Because of its inner core of iron, Earth has a magnetic field, which is crucial for the preservation of life. Press and Siever explain:
The earth's interior is a gigantic but delicately balanced heat engine fueled by radioactivity …Were it running more slowly, geological activity would have proceeded at a slower pace. Iron might not have melted and sunk to form the liquid core, and the magnetic field would never have developed…if there had been more radioactive fuel and a faster running engine, volcanic gas and dust would have blotted out the Sun, the atmosphere would have been oppressively dense, and the surface would have been racked by daily earthquakes and volcanic explosions. 32
The magnetic field that Press and Siever describe is vital for our survival. It is caused by the core of the Earth which is composed of heavy, magnetic metals like iron and nickel. The inner core is solid and the outer core, liquid. These two layers rotate around one another, and their motion creates the magnetic field, which radiates far beyond the Earth's atmosphere and protects the planet from the dangers of outer space. Deadly cosmic radiation emitted from stars including our own Sun cannot penetrate this protective shield. The Van Allan belts, tens of thousands of kilometers above the Earth, provide more protection from such deadly radiation.
The Earth is sometimes exposed to massive bursts of cosmic radiation. These plasma clouds have been calculated to have energy equivalent to 100 billion Hiroshima bombs, but only 0.1% of it gets past the Earth's magnetic field and that is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere in any case. The electrical energy needed to produce this magnetic field is a current of 1 billion amperes, which is close to the total electrical energy produced by mankind since history began.
If not for the Earth's magnetic shield, life on Earth would be destroyed by deadly radiation or would never have formed in the first place. However, since the core of the Earth has just the right properties, as Press and Siever point out, the world we live in, is protected in this way.
The Earth' S Temperature Is Within A Narrow But Special Spectrum
Frank Press and Raymond Siever also explain the fine-tuning of the Earth's surface temperature. As they say:
Life as we know it is possible over a very narrow temperature interval. This interval is perhaps 1 or 2 percent of the range between a temperature of absolute zero and the surface temperature of the Sun.33
Preserving this temperature range depends as much on the heat emitted by the Sun as on the distance between the Sun and the Earth. It has been calculated that only a 10% decrease in the solar energy reaching the Earth would result in the Earth's surface being covered by a layer of ice covering, many meters thick. Likewise, if a little more energy reached the Earth, all living beings would roast.
The Earth's ideal temperature is as crucial as its balanced diffusion; and this balance is achieved by special means. For instance, the Earth's axis is tilted by 23" 27'. This prevents the buildup of extreme heat that could prevent the formation of the atmosphere between the poles and the equator. If the axis was not tilted by this degree, the temperature difference between the equator and the poles would increase dramatically thus making the Earth an uninhabitable place.
The Earth's rotation around its own axis aids in the balanced distribution of heat. Each rotation takes only 24 hours, which factor is responsible for short days and nights. This is why the temperature difference between day and night is relatively small in comparison to Mercury's, where a single day is longer than one year. In other words, one rotation of Mercury around its axis takes longer than one rotation around the Sun. Temperature can fluctuate by as much as 1,0000 C (1,832 0 F) between Mercurial day and night.
The Earth's shape, too, has been created to aid the heat distribution. The temperature difference between the poles and the equator is approximately 1000C (2120 F). If such a difference were to occur on a smooth sphere, storms at speeds of up to 1,000 km/h (621 miles/hour) would wreak havoc across the Earth. However, the world has been provided with obstacles such as mountain chains and oceans to break up the path of such potential strong air currents. These are, from east to west, the Himalayas beginning in China, the Taurus Mountains in Anatolia, and the Alps in Western Europe; the Atlantic Ocean in the West, and the Pacific in the East. Excess heat produced around the equator is modified toward the north and south as the ocean waters balance temperature fluctuations in a gradual, controlled manner.
There are also self-regulating climate control mechanisms. For instance, if any particular area is exposed to excessive heat, water evaporation increases accordingly. Clouds condense in the sky, reflecting some of the Sun's radiation and thus preventing any further increase of surface temperatures.
Those who reject the notion that the distance between the Sun and the Earth is intentional argue that many stars in the universe, both larger and smaller than our own Sun, have their own planetary systems. If a star is much more massive than our Sun, than any planet ideal for life would need to be at a greater distance than is the Sun from the Earth. For instance, a planet orbiting a red giant at a distance of our Pluto could have a mild climate suitable for life, like the one we enjoy here on Earth.
But this proposition is invalid for one very important reason: It does not take into account that stars of different mass emit different radiation. A star's mass, correlated to its surface temperature, determines the wavelength of its emitted radiation. For instance, our Sun's surface temperature of around 60000C is responsible for the emission of ultraviolet, visible light and infrared radiation. Had its mass had been greater, its surface temperature should have been greater too.
This, in turn, would increase the energy value of the Sun's radiation resulting in higher emission of deadly ultraviolet waves. This reality demonstrates that stars emitting the kind of radiation able to support life as we know it must have a mass very similar to our Sun's. Also, if one of their planets is to support life, it must be at a distance equivalent as the Earth from our Sun. To put it differently, a planet orbiting a red or blue giant, or any other star of noticeably different mass, cannot provide a life-supporting environment. The only source of energy suitable for life is a star like ours, and the only ideal distance is that between us and the Sun.
From what we have related here thus far, you can gather that both Earth and Sun have been created by God, right down to the smallest detail, to support human life in the best possible way. The distance between Sun and Earth is perfect, which in itself is a miracle beside the hundreds, even thousands of other details that are exactly as they need to be. This magnificent life-supporting system exceeds human comprehension. It is impossible to have been the product of coincidences, that all the stars and planets formed by "senseless atoms" could be placed by chance exactly where they have to be, that they could accidentally, all by themselves, establish laws governing their behavior and, accordingly develop the appropriate systems. These flawless systems are all proof of God's unique creation and supreme might.
The Qur'an reveals God's supremacy, his total control over the universe and the Earth, and that mankind should be thankful to him for all this:
Your Lord is God, Who created the heavens and the Earth in six days and then settled Himself firmly on the Throne. He covers the day with the night, each pursuing the other urgently; and the Sun and Moon and stars are subservient to His command. Both creation and command belong to Him. Blessed be God, the Lord of all the worlds. (Qur'an, 7:54)
And He has made the Sun and Moon subservient to you holding steady to their courses, and He has made the night and day subservient to you. He has given you everything you have asked Him for. If you tried to number God's blessings, you could never count them. Man is indeed wrongdoing, ungrateful. (Qur'an, 14:33-34)
Ideal Ratios In The Atmosphere
The Earth's atmosphere is a cocktail of different gases in the proper ratio (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% carbon dioxide and other gases like argon), formed by a combination of extraordinary conditions and designed to support life.
Let us begin with oxygen, the most important gas because life forms from simple one-called bacteria up to complex human beings depend on oxygen for the many chemical reactions that produce their energy. This is why we need to breathe continuously. Interestingly, the percentage of oxygen in the air we breathe is very carefully arranged. As Michael Denton says:
Could your atmosphere contain more oxygen and still support life? No! Oxygen is a very reactive element. Even the current percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere, 21 percent, is close to the upper limit of safety for life at ambient temperatures. The probability of a forest fire being ignited increases by as much as 70 percent for every 1 percent increase in the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere. 34
British biochemist James Lovelock further explores this critical ratio:
Above 25% very little of our present land vegetation could survive the raging conflagrations which would destroy tropical rain forests and arctic tundra alike... The present oxygen level is at a point where risk and benefit nicely balance. 35
The percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere is preserved by a perfect cycle. Animals continuously inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants, on the other hand, absorb carbon dioxide and give out life-sustaining oxygen. Every day, plants release billions of tons of oxygen into the atmosphere, even though they re-absorb some of it at night, when they are not photosynthesizing.
If these two life forms, plant and animal, were to use the same process, they'd turn the Earth into a lifeless planet. If both produced oxygen, for instance, in a very short time the atmosphere would acquire highly flammable properties, and the tiniest spark would cause fires on a massive scale. Most of the dry land would burn. If, on the other hand, both life forms produced carbon dioxide, oxygen in the atmosphere would quickly be used up and all life forms that continued to respire would suffocate.
However, God has balanced life forms so perfectly that the oxygen in the air remains constant, at the ideal ratio crucial to life. According to Lovelock, this ratio is "at a point where risk and benefit nicely balance."
The mix of atmospheric gases is balanced, with each occurring at its ideal quantity. Even carbon dioxide, useless to us, is a very important substance because it prevents some of the infrared sunlight reflected by the Earth from escaping back into space, and thus assists heat retention. Biological and tectonic processes on the Earth preserve the balance of atmospheric gases vital for life, and have done so for millions of years. Yet another fact that proves the existence of God, Who has created this flawless order.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been calculated to increase the average surface temperature by 35 °C (95° F). This means that if there was no atmospheric CO2, the Earth's average temperature would be -21 °C (-5.8 ° F) instead of 14° C (57.2° F). All oceans would freeze over. Most larger life forms would cease to exist.
The Density of Air
The density of air, ideal for respiration, is yet another exactly perfect aspect of the atmosphere.
Air pressure is 760 mmHg, and its density works out to be 1 gram per liter at sea level, where its viscosity is 50 times greater than water's. These values might appear irrelevant, but are actually vital for human life because, as Michael Denton puts it, "The overall composition and general character of the atmosphere—its density, viscosity, and pressure, etc.—must be very similar to what it is, particularly for air-breathing organisms." 36
When we breathe, our lungs use up energy in order to pump the air in and out. Like all forms of matter, air is resistant to movement. But thanks to the properties of the gaseous atmosphere, this resistance is very weak, making it easy for our lungs to inhale and exhale. If that resistance were stronger, our lungs would begin to struggle. You can easily grasp this with an experiment: It's easy to draw water into a syringe, but harder to draw honey, because honey has a higher density and lesser fluidity.
If the atmosphere's values of density, fluidity, and pressure were altered by even a fraction, inhaling would become as hard as drawing honey into a syringe. One could argue that the syringe's needle could be made wider, in other words, the lung's airways could be enlarged. But if we did that in the case of the capillaries in the lungs, the result would be to reduce the size of the area in contact with air, with the result that less oxygen and carbon dioxide would be exchanged in the same amount of time and the respiratory needs of the body would not be satisfied. The air we breathe in has the absolutely right density, fluidity and pressure and fits the bill just fine.
On this subject, Professor Michael Denton states the following:
It is clear that if either the viscosity or the density of air were much greater, the airway resistance would be prohibitive and no conceivable redesign of the respiratory system would be capable of delivering sufficient oxygen to a metabolically active air-breathing organism... By plotting all possible atmospheric pressures against all possible oxygen contents, it becomes clear that there is only one unique tiny area... where all the various conditions for life are satisfied... It is surely of enormous significance that several essential conditions are satisfied in this one tiny region in the space of all possible atmospheres. 37
Our atmosphere's properties must be right not only for respiration purposes, but also to keep our "blue planet" blue. If the pressure were to be decreased by as little as a fifth, water evaporation over the land and oceans would increase dramatically. Higher water vapor content in the atmosphere would create a global greenhouse effect, dramatically increasing the planet's average temperature. On the other hand, if the atmospheric pressure doubled, water vapor in the atmosphere would be greatly reduced, with most of the world's land area becoming desert.
None of these possibilities occur, however, because God has created the world, the solar system, and the whole universe flawlessly. He has created the whole of the Earth in order to provide us with suitable living conditions. God reveals this perfect creation in the Qur'an and demands that we reflect on these examples to appreciate his creation:
The Miracle of Visible Light
Not all the stars and other sources of light in the universe emit the same type of radiation. Different types of radiation are classified according to their respective wavelengths. They fall along a huge spectrum, with gamma rays being the shortest and radio waves the longest. The difference between these shortest and longest waves is 1025(ten times billion times billion times billion). Miraculously, most of the Sun's radiation lies in the same bundle of wavelengths within this vast spectrum, because only that narrow band contains the radiation necessary to support life.
The vastness of this spectrum becomes clearer when you realize that the shortest wavelength is 1025 times shorter than the longest. 10251025 is written out as a 1 with 25 zeros following it, like this: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. To fully comprehend the magnitude of this number, it helps to make some comparisons. For instance, the 4.5 billion years that have passed since the Earth's creation can be converted to 1017 seconds. If you wanted to count to 1025 , you would have to count day and night for a period 100 million times longer than the age of the Earth. If we were to pile 1025playing cards on top of one another, we would leave the Milky Way behind and cover about half the distance of the known universe! 38
The different wavelengths in the universe are spread across that wide a spectrum, but within it, interestingly, our Sun covers only the narrowest bandwidth. 70% of the Sun's radiation has wavelengths between 0.3 and 1.5 microns. Within this narrow bandwidth are three different types of light; visible light, infrared, and some ultraviolet.
All three types of light combined make up an almost insignificant section of the total spectrum. In other words, they would be represented by one of the 1025 cards.
But why does the Sun's radiation lie within this narrow bandwidth?
The answer to that question is extremely important: It's the only type of radiation that can support life on Earth. Addressing this question in Energy and the Atmosphere, British physicist Ian Campbell says that "the radiation from the sun (and from many sequence stars) should be concentrated into a minuscule band of the electromagnetic spectrum which provides precisely the radiation required to maintain life on earth is very remarkable." According to Campbell, this situation is "staggering."39
The Extraordinary Relationship Between Sunlight And Photosynthesis
Plants have been doing something for hundreds of millions of years that no high-tech lab, run by scientific specialists, has yet been able to do: They produce their own nutrition by a process called photosynthesis, using sunlight. A precondition of this process, however, is that suitable light reach the plants in the first place.
Photosynthesis is made possible by the light-sensitive chlorophyll molecules in the plants' cells. But chlorophyll however can make use of light at a certain wavelengths only, and the ones emitted by the Sun are just right. (Interestingly, the one required for photosynthesis is one in the 1025 different wavelengths.)
That sunlight identical to the light necessary for photosynthesis shows its perfect design. In The Symbiotic Universe, American astronomer George Greenstein writes as follows:
Chlorophyll is the molecule that accomplishes photosynthesis... The mechanism of photosynthesis is initiated by the absorption of sunlight by a chlorophyll molecule. But in order for this to occur, the light must be of the right color. Light of the wrong color won't do the trick.A good analogy is that of a television set. In order for the set to receive a given channel it must be tuned to that channel; tune it differently and the reception will not occur. It is the same with photosynthesis, the Sun functioning as the transmitter in the analogy and the chlorophyll molecule as the receiving TV set. If the molecule and the Sun are not tuned to each other-tuned in the sense of color—photosynthesis will not occur. As it turns out, the sun's color is just right. 40
Those who examine this subject of plants and photosynthesis superficially could argue that if sunlight had different properties, plants would have adapted accordingly. But this is most certainly impossible. George Greenstein admits that this is, even though he is an evolutionist:
One might think that a certain adaptation has been at work here: the adaptation of plant life to the properties of sunlight. After all, if the Sun were a different temperature could not some other molecule, tuned to absorb light of a different color, take the place of chlorophyll? Remarkably enough the answer is no, for within broad limits all molecules absorb light of similar colors. The absorption of light is accomplished by the excitation of electrons in molecules to higher energy states, and the same no matter what molecule you are discussing. Furthermore, light is composed of photons, packets of energy and photons of the wrong energy simply can not be absorbed… As things stand in reality, there is a good fit between the physics of stars and that of molecules. Failing this fit, however, life would have been impossible.41
Essentially, Greenstein says that for a plant to photosynthesize, it requires a definite bandwidth of light, which sunlight perfectly fulfills.
Greenstein states that the harmonies between the physical properties of stars and of molecules are so extraordinary that they cannot possibly be explained by coincidences. The fact that the Sun emits light at a certain wavelength from a possible range of 1025 others, and that complex molecules on Earth can absorb this light, most certainly proves that this harmony was created consciously, by God.
The Extraordinary Harmony Between Sunlight And The Eye
Only the "visible light" wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum can enable biological vision. The largest part of the radiation emitted by the Sun falls within this parameter.
For vision to occur, the cells of the retina must be photosensitive, in other words, able to register photons. This requires that photons fall within the visible spectrum, because photons of different wavelength are either too weak or too strong to be registered by retina cells. Altering the size of the eye would make no difference, because what matters is the size of the cells, the harmony between them, and the wavelength at which the photons occur.
Consequently, eyes of living beings register only the visible light emitted by the Sun. These factors combine to create vision. God specifically created both the eye and the Sun that emits light at the proper wavelength for it to perceive.
Professor Michael Denton investigated this subject in great detail in his book Nature's Destiny, concluding that an organic eye could produce vision only within the limits of visible light. No other theoretically conceivable eye design can register different wavelength:
UV, X-ray, and gamma rays are too energetic and are highly destructive, while infrared and radio waves are too weak to be detected because they impart so little energy interacting with matter... And so it would appear that for several different reasons, the visual region of the electromagnetic spectrum is the one region supremely fit for biological vision and particularly for the high-resolution vertebrate camera eye of a design and dimension very close to that of the human eye.42
Taken all together, this all leads to the conclusion that the Sun is carefully designed to emit radiation at a certain bandwidth (1 in 1025), providing heat, supporting the biological functions of complex life forms, enabling photosynthesis and making possible vision for living beings on Earth. This critical balance is certainly not driven by erratic, coincidental processes. All this has been created by God, the Lord and Governor of the heavens, the Earth, and everything in between. Every detail He creates confronts us with a chain of miracles, demonstrating the infinite might of our Creator Who created everything.
The Extraordinary Selectiveness of The Atmosphere
If the Sun's radiation has been designed to support life on Earth, the atmosphere plays an important role in letting through it wavelengths in the right combination and at the right ratio.
In order to reach the Earth's surface, radiation coming from space must pass through the atmosphere first.
If the atmosphere were not of a composition allowing it to filter through, it could be of no benefit. However, the atmosphere has a special filtering property that lets beneficial radiation penetrate.
The atmosphere's truly miraculous aspect is not that it lets radiation penetrate, but that it lets through only beneficial radiation—visible light and infrared radiation, while shielding us from other deadly types of radiation. Thus, the atmosphere is a crucial filter against cosmic radiation reaching the Earth from sources other than the Sun. Professor Denton explains:
Atmospheric gases themselves absorb electromagnetic radiation immediately on either side of the visible and near infrared... The only region of the spectrum allowed to pass through the atmosphere over the entire range of electromagnetic radiation from radio to gamma rays is the exceedingly narrow band including the visible and near infrared. Virtually no gamma, X, ultraviolet, far infrared, and microwave radiation reaches the surface of the earth. 43
It is impossible not to see the detail in this design. Out of a possible range of 1025 different wavelengths, the Sun emits the type of radiation that is beneficial for us; and the atmosphere allows only it to pass through. (All but a fraction of the little ultraviolet radiation the Sun emits is prevented from passing the ozone layer.)
Interestingly, like the atmosphere, water is selective in its penetrability. Only visible light can penetrate it. Infrared radiation (heat energy) can penetrate miles of air, but only a few millimeters of water. Therefore, only the top few millimeters on the surface of the world's seas are heated by the Sun's radiation. Heat absorbed by this layer is then gradually diffused downward, with the result that beneath a certain depth, the water temperature of all the seas is roughly similar, creating an environment conducive to aquamarine life.
Every other type of harmful or deadly cosmic radiation gets caught by this flawless filtering system, letting only beneficial radiations pass through.
These facts are very important. Whichever physical law of light we examine, we see that it is just as needed to enable life. The Encyclopedia Britannica expresses this extraordinary system as follows:
Considering the importance of visible sunlight for all aspects of terrestrial life, one can not help being awed by the dramatically narrow window in the atmosphere absorption and in the absorption spectrum of water. 44
The transparency of both air and water are miraculous phenomena, both designed to support life. Surprisingly, though, it must be said that some people attribute with this flawless design to coincidences, believing that the atmosphere and the seas regulate their own levels of transparency. But neither water nor atmosphere—nor, for that matter, any other senseless thing in the universe—can create such systems. Erratic, coincidental events or unchecked developments cannot make the refined calculations needed to combine living things into a cohesive, harmonious whole.
Flawless design, balance, and order are apparent in the universe, in the world we live in, as well as every physical law. Mankind has existed for hundred thousands of years unaware of this miraculous system and has scarcely begun to learn the details of the universe's magnificence. Man's abilities of comprehension, as the only intelligent being on Earth, are exceeded by these miracles, which clearly prove the existence of the Creator.
It is truly surprising that some people cannot recognize God's existence in all this magnificence. They do not appreciate God's infinite wisdom and knowledge, and do not comprehend that God governs everything and can create and recreate everything. God reveals:
Does not man see that We created him from a drop yet there he is, an open antagonist! He makes likenesses of Us and forgets his own creation, saying, "Who will give life to bones when they are decayed?" Say "He Who made them in the first place will bring them back to life. He has total knowledge of each created thing; He Who produces fire for you from green trees so that you use them to light your fires." Does He Who created the heavens and Earth not have the power to create the same again? Yes indeed! He is the Creator, the All-Knowing. His command when He desires a thing is just to say to it, "Be!" and it is. Glory be to Him Who has the Dominion of all things in His Hand. To Him you will be returned. (Qur'an, 36:77-83)
If you are surprised at their blindness, what could be more surprising than their words: "What, when we are turned to dust, shall we then be created all anew?" These are the people who reject their Lord. Such people have iron collars round their necks. Such people are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. (Qur'an, 13:5)
The Fine-Tuning In The Physical Properties of Water
In his book The Uniqueness of Biological Materials, renowned biochemist Professor A. E. Needham states that liquid substances are necessary for life to form. If the laws of physics permitted only two of the three states of matter (i.e., solids and gases), life could have never existed because in solids, atoms are too closely linked and static. They do not permit the dynamic molecular reactions that living organisms need to perform. In gases, on the other hand, atoms become too unstable and erratic to enable the complex mechanisms of living organisms to function.
In short, a necessary condition for the functions of life is a liquid environment. Water is an ideal or, perhaps, the ideal liquid. Its properties, extraordinarily conducive for life, have long attracted the attention of scientists. Water has thermal properties that appear to contradict some laws of nature but prove that it has been specifically created for life.
All known substances, including liquids, contract as their temperature decreases bar one. Decreasing volume means increased density and increased mass by volume which is why the solid state of liquids has greater mass. Water on the other hand, contracts until its temperature has fallen to +4 0C (39.20 F) where it begins to expand again unlike any other liquid. It expands further when it freezes which explains why the solid state of water has less mass than its liquid state. In other words, whereas ice should sink in water according to "normal" laws of physics, it floats.
This property of water is really crucial for the seas of the world. If it did not have this property, a great part of the water on the planet would freeze and life in lakes and oceans would cease. This fact needs to be looked at in greater detail. In many parts of the world, in cold winter days, temperatures fall below 00C. This coldness affects naturally seas and lakes alike and their temperature decreases accordingly. The cooler layers of water sink and the warmer layers rise to the surface where they are cooled by the cold air and begin to sink again. At 40C (39.20 F) this cycle is broken, because water begins to expand again and becomes "lighter." So, the water at 4o C (39.20 F) becomes the bottom layer and as we move up, the temperature decreases to 30C (37.40 F) and then 20C (35.60 F) and so on. At the surface the temperature falls to 00C (320 F) and freezes but only at the surface. The water below at 40 C (39.20 F) is sufficient to guarantee the survival of fish and other aquamarine life.
What would happen if this were not so? What would happen if water were to behave "normally," and its density were to increase inversely with the fall in temperature—and sink as ice?
In such a scenario, oceans, seas and lakes would freeze from the bottom upwards and keep on doing so, because there would be no insulating layer of ice at the surface. The deepest portions of all lakes, seas, and oceans would become one huge mass of ice, with a layer of only a few meters of water at the top. Even if the air temperature above were to warm again, ice at the bottom would never thaw. In the seas of such a planet, life could not be sustained; and in an eco-system where the seas are "dead," neither could life on land be sustained. In short, if water were to behave "normally," we would have a dead world.
Why does water not contract, but only until its temperature has fallen to 40C? Then it begins to expand again! That paradox has never been answered by anyone.
Thanks to water's unique thermal properties, the temperature differences between summer and winter, day and night remain always within the levels tolerated by humans and other living things. If the world's land area were bigger than its water area, temperature differentials between day and night would increase dramatically. Most of the land mass would turn into deserts, making life impossible or at least, incredibly hard to sustain. Were water's thermal properties any different, we would have a planet extremely unfavorable to life.
Professor Lawrence Henderson, of the Biochemistry department at Harvard University, studied water's thermal properties and made the following comment:
To sum up, this property appears to possess a threefold importance. First, it operates powerfully to equalize and to moderate the temperature of the earth; secondly, it makes possible very effective regulation of the temperature of the living organism; and thirdly it favors the meteorological cycle. All of these effects are true maxima, for no other substance can in this respect compare with water. 45
The Surface Tension of Water Has Been Specifically Adjusted To Support Life
Any liquid's surface tension is created by the forces of attraction between its molecules. Thus, the surface tension of every liquid is different. Water's surface tension is greater than most other liquids', with significant biological effects on plant life.
How can plants possibly transport water from deep underground to branches and twigs many meters high, without the use of pumps or muscles? The answer is that the channels in plant roots and veins have been designed to take advantage of water's surface tension. These channels narrow towards the top of a plant, causing water to "climb" upwards.
What makes this design functional is water's great surface tension. Were it weaker, as in most liquids, terrestrial plants of any size would not be able to exist. An environment without plant life would mean no edible crops, no forage for animals, and thus, no human existence.
High surface tension causes also the breakup of rocks. Thanks to its high surface tension, water can penetrate the smallest crevices in rock formations. When temperatures fall below zero, water freezes and expands, exerting great force against the rock and expanding the crack eventually wedging it wider. This process is crucial in extracting the minerals locked in rock formations and also plays a vital role in soil formation.
The Chemical Miracle in Water
Along with its physical properties, water's chemical characteristics are also extraordinarily conducive to life. For one thing, it's an ideal solvent, in as much as most chemical substances are water-soluble.
One important consequence is that a vast array of beneficial minerals and other substances reach the sea via river systems. It has been estimated that five billion tons of chemical substances, vital for aquamarine life, flow into the seas in just this way.
Water is a catalyst for almost all known chemical reactions, and its ideal tendency to join in chemical reactions is yet another one of its important chemical attributes.
Water is not extremely reactive nor corrosive like sulfuric acid, nor—on the other end of the scale—is it as inert like argon and other "noble" gases. As Professor Michael Denton states, "It seems that, like all other properties, the reactivity of water is ideally fit for both its biological and its geological role."46
New research into water's chemical properties reveals ever more details and aspects of its idealness for life. In this regard, Harold Morowitz, a renowned Professor of biophysics at Yale University, states the following:
The past few years have witnessed the developing study of a newly understood property of water (i.e., proton conductance) that appears to be almost unique to that substance, is a key element in biological-energy transfer, and was almost certainly of importance to the origin of life. The more we learn the more impressed some of us become with nature's fitness in a very precise sense… 47
Water's Viscosity is Set At A Calculated Rate
When we say "liquids," we imagine a highly fluid substance. But in reality, liquids' viscosity rate can vary greatly. For instance the viscosity rates of tar, sulfuric acid, glycerol and olive oil are very different from one another. When these substances are compared with water, this range of differences is more clearly understood: Water is ten billion times more fluid than tar, a thousand times more fluid than glycerol, 100 times more fluid than olive oil, and 25 times more fluid than sulfuric acid.
As this comparison demonstrates, water is a substance of high viscosity. We can state that it has the highest viscosity rate of any liquid, if a few substances like ether and liquid hydrogen—gases at room temperature—are discounted.
Is water's viscosity rate relevant to life? Would it make a difference to us if its viscosity were greater or smaller? Professor Denton answers these questions:
The fitness of water would in all probability be less if its viscosity were much lower. The structures of living systems would be subject to far more violent movements under shearing forces if the viscosity were as low as liquid hydrogen...If the viscosity of water was much lower, delicate structures would be easily disrupted... and water would be incapable of supporting any permanent intricate microscopic structures. The delicate molecular architecture of the cell would probably not survive.If the viscosity was higher, the controlled movement of large macromolecules and particularly structures such as mitochondria and small organelles would be impossible, as would processes like cell division. All the vital activities of the cell would be effectively frozen, and cellular life of any sort remotely resembling that with which we are familiar would be impossible. The development of higher organisms, which is critically dependent on the ability of cells to move and crawl around during embryogenesis, would certainly be impossible if the viscosity of water was even slightly greater than it is. 48
Water's high viscosity rate is vital for us humans, because were it a little less, the capillary network could not transport our blood. The complex network of blood vessels in the kidney, for instance, could never have originated.
Water's viscosity rate is vital not only to processes within cell structures, but also for metabolism as a whole.
All living beings larger than 0.25 of a millimeter have centralized body systems, because in any larger creature, nutrition and oxygen cannot be carried to cells by means of diffusion—that is, they cannot be absorbed directly by the fluids within cells.. Oxygen and nutrition from outside must be pumped by certain "channels" to the countless cells within the body, and waste material removed again. Veins and arteries are these channels, and the heart is the pump that creates the flow within them. The blood circulating around the body, as we know, is composed mostly of water. (When the cells, proteins, and hormones are removed from the blood, plasma remains—which is 95% water.)
This is why water's viscosity is so important to the circulatory system's effectiveness. Were its viscosity rate like tar's, obviously no heart could pump it. Not even a substance like olive oil, with a viscosity rate 100 million times higher than tar, could pass through the body's capillary network, even if the heart could pump it.
Let us inspect this subject more closely. The capillary network's purpose is to supply every cell in the body with oxygen, energy, nutrients and other substances, like hormones. For a cell to be able to receive these deliveries, it must not be further away than 50 microns from the blood vessel (one micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter). Cells at any greater distance could not be fed and, therefore, would die.
This is why the capillary network covers every bit of the human body. It comprises five billion blood vessels with a combined length of 950 kilometers (590 miles). In some mammals, muscle tissue has 3,000 blood vessels per square centimeter. If 10,000 blood vessels of the capillary network were to be placed side by side, their combined width wouldn't exceed the width of a pencil tip. The diameter of these blood vessels is between three and five microns which means three to five thousands of a millimeter. 49 Water's high viscosity rate lets blood pass through fine blood vessels without blockages or slowdowns. Professor Michael Denton states that were water's viscosity rate even slightly less, no circulatory system could preserve its functionality:
A capillary system will work only if the fluid being pumped through its constituent tubes has a very low viscosity. A low viscosity is essential because flow is inversely proportional to the viscosity... From this it is easy to see that if the viscosity of water had a value only a few times greater than it is, pumping blood through a capillary bed would require enormous pressure and almost any sort of circulatory system would be unworkable... If the viscosity of water had been slightly greater and the smallest functional capillaries had been 10 microns in diameter instead of 3, then the capillaries would have to occupy virtually all of the muscle tissue to provide an effective supply of oxygen and glucose. Obviously the design of macroscopic life forms would be impossible or enormously constrained... It seems, then, the viscosity of water must be very close to what it is if water is to be a fit medium for life. 50
In short, like all of water's other properties, its viscosity too is just perfect for life. The viscosity of liquids covers a vast spectrum. But among the billions of different possible rates, water has been created with perfect viscosity.
The Formation of Atomic Bonds Necessary For Life Requires The Temperatures We Have On Earth
The various chemical bonds keeping atoms and molecules together are called ionic, covalent or weak bonds. Covalent bonds join the atoms in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Weak bonds keep the three-dimensional structure of the amino acid chains they form when they fold or twist together. In other words, if weak bonds did not exist, the proteins formed by chains of amino acids could not function, where there are no proteins, there is no life.
Interestingly, the temperatures needed to form covalent as well as weak bonds fall within the range existing on Earth. In reality, covalent and weak bonds are wholly different bonds and there is no natural reason why they should require the same temperatures to form.
Yet both types of chemical bonds occur only within the temperature range existing on Earth. Were they to form at different temperatures, proteins—therefore, life—could not form, because proteins require both types of bonding simultaneously. In other words, if the temperature ranges in which covalent bonds enable the formation of amino acid chains weren't also conducive to the formation of weak bonds, proteins could not develop their three-dimensional structure; and amino acids would remain as purposeless and dysfunctional chains. Likewise, if a temperature range suitable for weak bonds were not conducive to forming covalent bonds, no chains of proteins could form.
This reveals that atoms, as the building blocks necessary for life, are in great harmony with the home of life, the Earth, as Professor Michael Denton points out in his book, Nature's Destiny:
Out of the enormous range of temperatures in the cosmos, there is only one tiny temperature band in which we have (1) liquid water, (2) a great plenitude of metastable organic compounds, and (3) weak bonds for stabilizing the 3-D forms of complex molecules. 51
Denton stresses that all types of physical and chemical bonds necessary for the formation of life can exist effectively and simultaneously only within a very narrow temperature range—which exist only on Earth, among all the other planets in the solar system.
The Solubility of Oxygen Is Ideal For Life
Our bodies' ability to absorb oxygen is due, in turn, to water's ability to absorb it. When we breathe, the oxygen inhaled into our lungs enters our bloodstream almost instantly. In our blood, the protein called hemoglobin transports oxygen to the cells. Enzymes in cells, in turn, use the oxygen to burn carbon compounds called ATP to release energy.
All complex life forms produce their energy by this system, which depends on oxygen's solubility properties of. If oxygen were any harder to dissolve, less of it could enter the bloodstream, and cells would be starved of energy. On the other hand, if oxygen were more readily soluble, its content in the bloodstream would increase enough to cause oxidation poisoning.
Interestingly, the water solubility of different gases can vary a million fold. Carbon dioxide, for instance, is 20 times more soluble than oxygen. Among the vast range of solubility properties of gases, oxygen has just the right solubility properties for us.
What would happen if it were otherwise?
Were oxygen less soluble in water (and therefore, in blood), less of it could enter the bloodstream, and cells would not receive enough oxygen—making survival more difficult for air-breathing creatures. No matter how much we breathed, gradually we would be starved of oxygen because sufficient quantities of what the air contained could not be delivered to the cells.
As stated above, if oxygen were more readily absorbed into the bloodstream, oxidation poisoning would occur. Oxygen can be a highly dangerous gas and deadly if taken in higher doses. When the blood's oxygen ratio increases substantially, oxygen reacts with water to produce highly destructive byproducts. The body has highly complex enzyme systems to prevent or defuse such reactions, but were the body's oxygen content to increase further, these systems could not cope, and every breath we take would quicken death. About this, chemist Irwin Fridovich has this to say:
All respiring organisms are caught in a cruel trap. The very oxygen which supports their lives is toxic to them and they survive precariously, only by virtue of elaborate defense mechanisms. 52
The only thing that protects us from this dilemma—from oxygen poisoning or oxygen starvation—is that oxygen's solubility and our bodies' complex enzyme systems are created just as they should be. Clearly, God has created the air we breathe, as well as the systems that enable us to benefit from it, in perfect harmony.
25. Ibid., p. 9.
26. Michael Denton, Nature's Destiny, p. 262.
27. Y.N. Mishurov and L.A. Zenina, 1999. Yes, The Sun is Located Near the Corotation Circle. Astronomy & Astrophysica 341, pp. 81-85.
28. Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe", www.godandscience.org/apologetics/designss.html
29. G. W. Wetherill, "How Special is Jupiter?," Nature, vol. 373, 1995, p. 470.
30. Innanen, Kimmo, S. Mikkola, and P. Wiegert, 1998, "The earth-moon system and the dynamical stability of the inner solar system." The Astronomical Journal 116: 2055-2057.
31. Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God: Recent Scientific Discoveries Reveal the Unmistakable Identity of the Creator, Oranga, California, Promise Publishing, 1991, pp. 129-132.
32. F. Press, R. Siever, Earth, New York: W. H. Freeman, 1986, p. 4.
33. Ibid., p. 4.
34. Michael Denton, Nature's Destiny, p 106
35. Ibid., p.121.
36. James J. Lovelock, Gaia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, p.71.
37. Michael Denton, Nature's Destiny, p. 127.
38. Ibid., p. 128.
39. Ibid., p. 51, emphasis added.
40. Ian M. Campbell, Energy and the Atmosphere, London: Wiley, 1977, pp. 1-2, emphasis added.
41. George Greenstein, The Symbiotic Universe, p. 96, emphasis added.
42. Ibid., pp. 96-97.
43. Michael Denton, Nature's Destiny, pp. 62, 69, emphasis added.
44. Ibid., p. 55.
45. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994, 15th ed., volume 18, p. 203.
46. Lawrence Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment, Boston: Beacon Press, 1958, p. 105.
47. Michael Denton, Nature's Destiny, p. 32.
48. Harold J. Morowitz, Cosmic Joy and Local Pain, New York: Scribner, 1987, pp. 152-153.
49. Michael Denton, Nature's Destiny, p. 33.
50. Ibid., p. 35.
51. Ibid., pp. 35-36.
52. Ibid., pp. 115-116.


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Through seven games Philip Rivers is the Zen master among Zen masters when it comes to passing accuracy. With an NFL-best completion rate of 73.9 percent, Rivers is outdoing even MVP Watch leader Peyton Manning, who can bend spoons with his mind. The marksmanship beats Rivers' career percentage entering this season by 10.3 points.
You, reader, can decide whether seven games is a small sample size. Without question a 16.2-percent gain in accuracy off a nine-year career mark (63.6 percent) qualifies as more than a bump. Completing 73.9 percent against Palomar College would be nifty.
As Mike McCoy also coached Manning last year, he was the person to ask Monday when seeking insights into Rivers' spiffy completion rate.
Except McCoy didn't see 73.9 percent as a big deal, given the source. Mangling the question's premise, the new ball coach responded with a question.
"My question to you is, why do you think he wouldn't be accurate?"
McCoy followed by saying Rivers "is the guy" that McCoy and his coaches "thought he was going to be" when they arrived last winter.
"You might think that was the wrong response," McCoy said (I didn't), "but that's the confidence we have in him, and the system we put in place. I think that it's a great system that the staff has put together here."
In Rivers, the new Chargers coaches inherited a better-than-average quarterback who at age 31 was still in the prime range. For all his critical turnover problems of 2011-12 that everyone agreed weren't entirely his doing, Rivers continued to show a very quick release while putting up good overall numbers (including a passer rating in 2012 that topped Super Bowl champion-to-be Joe Flacco). Further, he finished the 2012 season on the rise.
But a coach is required to see a player not as he is but also for what he can become – and the guess here is that when the Spanoses and Ron Wolf interviewed him last winter, McCoy sold them on a Rivers renovation.
Weeding out dumb turnovers and reducing sacks was central to the plan. Completing more passes -- lots more -- was an expectation.
Training camp hadn't arrived when McCoy said, via Sports Illustrated's Peter King, that he targeted a 70-percent rate for Rivers.
With nine games to go, Rivers is on track to obliterate his career-high of 66 percent set in 2010. Seems the new ball coach knew something.
But isn't Rivers just dinking and dunking?
While the deep ball is less a weapon than in years such as 2009, he is fourth in the NFL in yards per attempt (8.6 yards) and second in touchdown passes (15).
Getting the ball out fast and on target, Rivers is keeping a thin Chargers defense on the sideline. The Chargers are fourth in time of possession (33:18) and 11th in plays from scrimmage in part because they are second in third down efficiency (49.4 percent) and second in first downs (171) and third in yards (3,285).
Talent drives scheme, and Chargers newcomer Danny Woodhead, described by Jaguars coach Gus Bradley as "Sprolesish," is providing a playmaking option not available last year to Norv Turner, an outspoken fan of Sproles. Upgrades in the line have helped – but are easily overstated given the use so far of five left tackles, four left guards and three right guards.
Teasing out exact cause-and-effect is folly, but it continues to seem the new Chargers system makes better use of Rivers' super-fast release and rare ability to assess and account for everyone on both offense and defense.
There's consistent clarity to Rivers' game. In the seven contests, muddy moments were fewer than in 2011-12.
This has coincided with McCoy and his offensive coaches equipping Rivers with tools similar to those deployed by other veterans such as Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers.
Fast passes are the offense's core. Sometimes Rivers is so rapid, his blockers are still retreating into their set when the spiral whizzes overhead.
Injuries are the norm in the NFL so it's up to coaches to injury-proof their attacks. This often starts with having a franchise quarterback. But that's not enough. Training the quarterback to change in and out of plays at the line, to speed up or slow down tempo, to master the quick pass -- all as integral parts, not merely late-half tools -- seems to be part of making an offense more nimble and better able to weather the almost inevitable injuries.
Take last Sunday's game at Jacksonsville, where the loss of two blockers in the first half made rookie right tackle D.J. Fluker the fifth Chargers player to man left tackle.
Rivers first responded with two Ryan Mathews runs to Fluker's side, where Antonio Gates flanked the rookie. The total gain was 18 yards.
The first pass, a screen to Eddie Royal for seven yards, was out 1.1 seconds after the snap. Next Rivers faked a handoff as Fluker blocked down; the ball was out in 2.8 seconds downfield to Royal, who ran it in for a touchdown.
When Rivers passed again, on third-and-1, the ball was out in 1.2 seconds to Woodhead and moved the sticks. The fourth pass, another completion, good for eight yards to Gates, took 1.8 seconds. Then came a 1.6-second dart to rookie Keenan Allen for five yards.
From snap to release, 2.5 seconds is brisk by NFL standards. Protecting Fluker as much as Fluker protected him, Rivers averaged 1.7 seconds on the initial five throws. The five completions that included a 27-yards score went to four players, none of whom was Malcom Floyd or Danario Alexander, the team's top two wideouts out with season-ending injuries. Next to Fluker at guard was Johnnie Troutman, a backup in his fourth career start. At right guard was another backup, Rich Ohrnberger.
Asked to do more with his mind, a franchise quarterback's body is hit less because he can better control the game.
Rivers, for sure, is absorbing less punishment than he did last year.
He likely doesn't have a Pro Bowl blocker in front of him and is 10th in passes but has taken the fewest hits (18) of any NFL quarterback (source: NFL.com stats). For what it's worth, Norv Turner's Browns quarterbacks, whose protectors include a seven-time Pro Bowler in left tackle Joe Thomas and a top-10 center in Alex Mack, have taken an NFL-high 61 hits. (In fairness, the Browns, since trading Trent Richardson between Weeks Two and Three, lack backs as capable as Woodhead, Mathews and Ronnie Brown, and going from Rivers to Brandon Weeden was bound to make Norv's quarterback tutoring far dicier. It was whimsically suggested here last spring that taking on Weeden called into question Norv's sanity.)
Greater clarity in San Diego's offense, meantime, is evident too in the decline in negative running plays, from 2.1 to 1.3 to per game.
Do seven games constitute a trend? Will coming opponents benefit from film study of this new Chargers offense and its changing personnel? How will Rivers fare against the rival Chiefs, who seem to have the best defense, by far, of any Chargers opponent?
Whatever answers await, the offense's progress beats watching Rivers scramble to beat the play clock or take three sacks per game, as he did last year. Rivers is the franchise quarterback McCoy thought him to be last winter, when the Cardinals also interviewed McCoy, and Rivers, three times a Pro Bowler under Turner, seems to be evolving under coaches McCoy, Ken Whisenhunt and Frank Reich with personnel help from Tom Telesco.

subset: commoncrawl


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No one is a morning person, even if they CLAIM they are. They are probably lying and by "probably…" I obviously mean they are. Who LIKES having to get out of bed, especially when you JUST found the perfect sleeping spot and the open air is frighteningly and shockingly less welcoming than your blanket cocoon?
What could possibly be even worse than that? The traumatic moment where you have actually managed to violently pull yourself out of bed but have yet to consume your morning wake-me-up beverage of choice. All you want is a straight caffeine shot to the face, but noooo you have to wait for water to boil and drinks to steep while making small talk with your roommie, slash bestie, who you love but at that pre-caffeinated moment, can't remember why. Can you tell this is something I am intimately familiar with?
Enter Sharpie mugs who can say it alllll for you and possibly inject a smile into the AM routine we all
love hate while working to get your day started off right. From your personal drink order (like Elsie Larson from A Beautiful Mess), to loving phrases like " Don't talk to me till this is empty" – your morning message is up to you!
All you need is a plain ceramic mug, a couple of Sharpie markers, a toasty oven and you have your own personal warning to the world!
Now, it's your turn, want to see how Elsie Larson made these cheery, daytime beauties? Just pop on over to A Beautiful Mess and check out her much sweeter version of "Good Morning!" and don't forget to comment and let us know what you want to say!
**ALL instructions, tips and images are courtesy of A Beautiful Mess Blog and methods have not been formally vetted by Sharpie.
**TIP from the community: designed items should be hand-washed only in order to preserve the integrity of the work.


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Population Biology
Taking advantage of ConGen's expertise in population biology, the department provides support and advice for population management of endangered species translocation and reintroduction efforts. Research on viability analysis and statistically significant monitoring of wild populations is a component of this program. Recent examples of this research include the development of plans for captive breeding and reintroduction of the Chinese alligator and a new program for scarlet macaws in Guatemala.


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Stars back Canberra bid for international gamesLee Gaskin
Published: February 7 2013 - 3:00AM
Australian captain Michael Clarke has praised Manuka Oval's facilities as world class, as Australian cricket greats have thrown their support behind Canberra becoming a regular fixture on the international calendar.
A capacity crowd at Manuka Oval witnessed the inaugural visit of the national team on Wednesday with the match, which was played under newly-installed lights, getting the tick of approval from spectators, players and experts alike.
The million-dollar question is whether the game is a one-off or the start of a steady stream of international matches.
At the post-match press conference, Clarke hailed the work of Manuka's groundskeepers in putting on "a fantastic batting wicket", and praised the level of support from the Canberra crowd.
"I think conditions were fantastic for one day cricket. I think the people of Canberra have come out to support us, which is really positive. We always love the more support we can get as an Australian cricket team," Clarke said.
"The facilities are as good an anywhere else that we play around Australia or around the world ... I think all the boys have enjoyed playing here."
He was joined by opening batsmen Shane Watson, who posted 122 runs from just 111 balls, who said the big crowd helped lift the team.
"Being able to get out there in front of a crowd that's sold out, it really does make it that little more enjoyable when you're able to go out in front of a crowd like that," Watson said.
"I think it's very exciting for Canberra to show the support they did today. A little nice touch with the fireworks as well in the drinks break as well just to top things off.
"I think it's a really exciting thing for Canberra if they continue to do what they did tonight."
Former Test off-spinner Kerry O'Keeffe, who commentated on the game for ABC Radio, said the immense level of support shown by the Canberra public showed a genuine demand for more games.
''Just talking to Canberra people, they're really enthusiastic about international cricket in the capital,'' O'Keeffe said.
''They've waited for it for a long time and they want it again. The fact they've sold it out means there's a lot of interest.
''This is match three [against the West Indies] and Australia is leading 2-0 and it's the end of a long summer, yet they're still going to fill the house.
''Cricket Australia will be encouraged by that, you'd like to think there's more matches ahead.''
Another 50-over match is the most likely scenario, but former Australian pace bowler Geoff Lawson believes Canberra could host a Test match.
''Ground looks superb. A Test match wouldn't be out of place here,'' Lawson tweeted.
The newest venue to entertain the Australian team after a 100-year absence also got praise from Michael Slater, the former opening batsman and Channel Nine commentator tweeting: ''Manuka Oval looks a treat!''
The installation of floodlights significantly improves Canberra's chances of becoming a more regular player on the international scene.
The state-of-the-art lights made a spectacular debut at last week's Prime Minister's XI game, and came at a cost of $5.347 million, with the federal government contributing $2.5 million and the rest coming from the ACT government.
The inaugural visit of the Australian team was made possible as part of Canberra's centenary celebrations. The ACT government outlaid $591,000 to secure the fixture, with about $300,000 going towards compensating the South Australian Cricket Association for taking the game away from Adelaide Oval.
[ View the story "Manuka Oval shines for ODI" on Storify]
It was just the third one-day international in the national capital, as its bid to host games in the 2015 World Cup heats up, along with the hope of gaining a team in the Big Bash League when expansion is put on the table.
O'Keeffe believes having a Canberra team in the Twenty20 domestic tournament is a must after the short-lived existence of the Canberra Comets in the national one-day competition.
''There's been a lot of hard work done in the meantime to mount another challenge to be included, and you'd like to think they will be at some stage,'' O'Keeffe said.
''They want to be part of that, and they should be. You produce cricketers as well, so it's not a matter that you don't produce anybody.
''It's just that they go and play for somebody else for more opportunities.''
with Hamish Boland-Rudder
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/stars-back-canberra-bid-for-international-games-20130206-2dz4w.html


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Michael Boychuck has taken the title as top Sin City colorist with his signature salon in Las Vegas: COLOR Salon at Caesars Palace by Michael Boychuck
His salons have accumulated an impressive list of clientele including long-time clients and friends Paris and Nicky Hilton, as well as Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, Eva Longoria, Lindsay Lohan, Fergie and many more. Throughout his accomplished career, Boychuck has become the mane man for beauty queens as the colorist for many of Miss USA's best-known winners including former Miss USA, Shanna Moakler.
In recent years, Boychuck and his salons have received commendable accolades as he was named one of the Top 50 Hairstylists in the book by Rick Morton, Las Vegas Colorist of the Decade by leading hair care company Schwarzkopf Professional and COLOR Salon was named Best for Luxury by Spa Finder. COLOR Salon was recognized by Elle magazine as a Top 100 Salon.


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U.S. corn futures are expected to start lower Wednesday on projections farmers will increase supplies in the coming days by accelerating the harvest of the crop.
Traders predict corn for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, will open down 5 cents to 7 cents a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade. In overnight electronic trading, the contract fell 7 cents, or 1.1%, to $6.45 1/4 a bushel.
Driving prices lower are expectations farmers will make good progress on the harvest due to improving weather. Cool and wet conditions in the eastern Midwest will give way to drier weather in a few days, while the western Midwest is already seeing a more favorable weather pattern, said meteorologists for Telvent DTN, a private weather firm.
Traders expect the warmer, drier conditions will speed up the harvest after a slow start. Harvest was 15% complete as of Sunday, one percentage point behind the five-year average for that time of year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"We are heading right into the heart of harvest and the weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is nearly ideal," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa.
Traders are paying close attention to the harvest because it will bring in fresh supplies at a time when inventories are estimated at historically low levels. They are eager to see the results of the harvest amid uncertainty about the impact of hot, dry weather on the crop this summer.
Corn futures have already pulled back almost 20% since reaching a record high in June on concerns about demand outstripping supplies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a quarterly report Friday, will issue its estimate for how much corn was in storage at the start of September. Traders are reluctant to be aggressive buyers amid concerns the government could report supplies were larger than expected, Pfitzenmaier said. That possibility is a seen as a risk after USDA's quarterly stocks estimate in June topped traders' expectations, sending prices sliding.
"Traders are going to wait out that report and then see how things look," Pfitzenmaier said.
Still, demand for U.S. corn has increased since prices fell nearly 8% last week on broad-based selling linked to economic jitters. The USDA confirmed Wednesday private exporters struck deals to sell 124,000 metric tons of U.S. corn to South Korea. South Korean animal feed millers have purchased at least 12 cargoes of corn, totaling 661,000 metric tons, from the global market in the last nine days, trading executives said.


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I know we all love shopping. But, seriously I LOVE SHOPPING! My Valentine's gift from the hubby was shopping this weekend. He's a romantic…I know. It was definitely a great Valentine's Day!
I picked up a lot of great pieces. Including, this sweetheart dress from Forever 21's Faith 21 line. I am going to a 50th Wedding Anniversary and I'm not sure if this is appropriate or not. I love the dress, but the neckline is a little low. If I wear it I am going to add something underneath, so I'm not flashing everyone at the celebration. Lol.
The dress was on the web site last night, but it's not there today. (Good thing I grabbed the image last night) It disappeared.


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I returned the expression and added a double take for good measure.
"You mean, they're working for free?" I asked as we watched more than a dozen volunteers help bottle and label and otherwise prepare Templeton Rye's eagerly awaited Batch 4 for shipment to state regulators and on to retailers like Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits in Carroll for early December sales.
"It's mind-boggling really," said Boersma, Templeton Rye's distillery manager — whom I later learned was the prom king at Manning High School on the company's fun-and-fact filled "Templeton Rye Aptitude Test."
Rye Spirits president and co-founder Scott Bush and his team put the word out in a popular online Templeton Rye newsletter for volunteers to come to this southern Carroll County town to assist with the holiday rush of bottling.
They thought they'd get a trickle of interest. Instead, they've been hit with a squall of support.
"Some people came all the way here, put themselves up for two nights in a hotel in Carroll," Bush said.
So what kind of people volunteer to mass-pour whiskey into bottles? Sad sack rummies jumping from the pages of Dickens novels? Bloat-belly red-facers who would go into a portable toilet at an Iowa State tailgate, find a half-spent can of Milwaukee's Best, and madly down the dregs?
Templeton Rye has developed an affectionate following of professionals, connoisseurs of the finer things.
About 150 people volunteered to help this business, the legal incarnation of the storied Prohibition-era booze, with the bottling. They're coming from New Orleans, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Florida and other points near and far.
Brian Brunk is a consultant for Wells-Fargo Mortgage in Des Moines. But on Monday he was a whiskey bottler in Templeton. For the whole day. And as of about 3:30 p.m., Bunk was far from spent. This isn't painting Tom Sawyer's famous fence.
"It's a great opportunity to help a small-town business get started," Brunk said as he lined up bottles on a conveyer belt and sent them toward the whiskey spigots. "Three-thousand bottles later I'm still having fun."
Steve Ahrendsen, a financial planner in Granger with Audubon roots, came as well.
"We thought it would be cool to come check it out," he said.
Now back to that aptitude test.
What did the priest call Templeton Rye?
A) The good stuff
B) Holy water
C) Cough medicine
D) Communion juice
You know what they say with the ACT: When in doubt, guess "C."
And you would be right on this one.
Betting on Obama and winning …
Timothy Egan raises a great point in a much-passed-around piece in The New York Times:
"Suppose you had $100,000 to invest on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated," Egan writes. "Why bet on a liberal Democrat? Here's why … As of election day, Nov. 2, 2010, your $100,000 was worth about $177,000 if invested strictly in the NASDAQ average for the entirety of the Obama administration, and $148,000 if bet on the Standard & Poors 500 major companies. This works out to returns of 77 percent and 48 percent."


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This year, make a new year's resolution you can keep all year long: Eat more Greek yogurt! It's thick, creamy and tart, high in protein and super-versatile. Here's how to make your own, plus tons of ways to use it.
Greek Yogurt 101
Greek yogurt is one of those delicious foods that's also amazingly good for you. It has twice the protein of classic yogurt, and (if you buy non-fat or low-fat varieties) it's low in calories with a thick, luxurious texture.
It's becoming more and more common in supermarkets (Check out this taste test of popular brands), but you can save some cash by making your own, easily, from regular plain yogurt. Here's how.
Homemade Greek Yogurt
Line a strainer with a coffee filter, 2 thick paper towels or 4 pieces of cheesecloth. Place 4 cups plain, nonfat or low-fat yogurt in the lined strainer over a bowl. Cover the yogurt, then cover with a plate and some type of weight (a 20-ounce can works great here.) Refrigerate for 1 hour. There should be liquid in the bowl; what's left is your strained Greek yogurt (should be the consistency of sour cream.)
It will yield a little over 2 cups of strained yogurt.
Note: If you prefer a super-thick, more tangy yogurt, refrigerate, covered, overnight to extract even more liquid.
What to Do With Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is delicious on its own, with a drizzle of honey or fresh, in-season fruit (right now I like mango and pineapple), but there are so many more things to do with it.
Here are a few ideas from Cooking Channel chefs and the blogosphere:
Add creamy texture to favorite dips, like Hungry Girl's guacamole and Sprout and Pea's Greek yogurt hummus.Hungry Girl's Holy Moly Guacamole Sprout and Pea's Hummus With Greek Yogurt
Use it in place of mayo in creamy salads, like in Ellie's Broccoli Slaw.Ellie's Broccoli Slaw
Garnish soups with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, like in My Life Runs on Food's Spicy Delicata Squash Soup With Lime-Cilantro Yogurt.Spicy Delicata Squash Soup With Cilantro-Lime Yogurt
Sub for some of the butter in baked goods, or mix into cheesecake — yes, CHEESECAKE! Try this Guava Swirl version from The Noshery.Guava Swirl Cheesecake From The Noshery
What do you do with Greek yogurt?
Get more tasty, healthy recipes from our Fresh Start: Healthy Eating page.


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Not Blue, but Green Is the SkyRiddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.
My rings tell such a story
Of years past with gracious glory
Where I live is where I stay
From that spot I cannot stray
From my home man taketh me
So they can erect another home, you see
Many others bore into my sides
These things that crawl and things that glide
I weep with beauty or stand with grace
Every year I shed myself to nourish my place
What am I?
AnswerI am a tree. My rings are produced every year, just one, and how large it is tells a story of how that particular year was. Where I grow is where I stay, as I cannot pick up and move. Men cut me down to make their own homes, and creatures such as birds and squirrels live in me. When I shed my leaves they put nutrients into the ground which keep it fertile.
What Next?
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this riddle, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
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Tag Archives: Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Science You Can Use: Does breastfeeding really cause peanut and tree nut allergies?
A recent Australian study about breastfeeding and peanut and tree nut allergies has caused a big stir in the last week, and for good reason. The authors' head-turning conclusion: exclusive breastfeeding may cause peanut and tree nut allergies in children. … Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Science News Tagged american academy of pediatrics breastfeeding policy, food allergies breastfeeding, katie allen, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, nut allergy and breastfeeding, peanut allergy and breastfeeding 4 Comments
Last revised on 07/19/2012
Last revised on 07/19/2012


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A little holiday gift for you! A couple of times a year, I dig into the web to find free tools that can help nonprofits tell their stories in ever more engaging ways. Each time I do that, the range of options kind of astounds me. This year is no exception,
Not every nonprofit has the resources to hire videographers or even buy and use a video cam themselves. These online tools offer FREE ways to get dynamic content onto your website, blog, and social media without HAVING to use video. Many of these create mash-ups of just photos, text, graphics, and music.
I'm amazed more nonprofits aren't using them because they have so many potential communication applications. They offer interactivity and surprise so they attract and hold people's attention. Plus they're fun! And remember, the web and social media are about entertainment as much as education.
In past posts I've covered some amazing AV tools like Prezi (which still has a free version but charges $59 a year for more capabilities), Glogster, Yodio, and VoiceThread (which now is available at a very low cost). This time I'd like to cover six other storytelling tools–Animoto for a Cause, VuVox, MixBook, SmileBox, ZooBurst, and Masher.
Animoto for a Cause
Nonprofits can get a pro level Animoto account free (worth $249 per year) by applying through Animoto's nonprofit portal. Animoto is a very simple to use animated slide show producer (photos, text, music, various design templates, all animated automatically) that you can share through YouTube, Facebook, etc. Really professional looking and the music is terrific. There are many design templates to choose from and a certain amount of branding can be done. I used Animoto last year to produce a nonprofit annual report and it got great response.
VuVox allows you to create attractive photo collages with text overlays that advance horizontally at the speed the viewer chooses. Here's one example and another. You can also include audio and video, although I was unable to find an example of those in their gallery. If you've got great photos that tell the story of how someone's life was changed, this could be your tool. I think VuVox could also lend itself to policy issue framing.
Using MixBook, you can make very creative free digital scrapbooks customized with your colors/wordmark etc. and share them online. Page-turning is animated. (You can also order printed copies, but that costs.) Here's a generic version of a scrapbook about camping. You can see how easily an environmental group could use this template. But you can also create your own pages from scratch. You can also create digital cards, invitations, and calendars that you can send and share. (I could see creating an event scrapbook with this tool!)
SmileBox covers a lot of territory from creating one-page "newsletters" to photo collages, invitations, ecards, scrapbooks, etc. The animated slideshow option would be great for capturing events. Here's a sample of a SmileBox slideshow for a cancer fundraiser. This tool is free, but like most of these programs, there's a premium level you can buy that gives you many more options. I wouldn't buy into any of these until you'd used the free version and seen how it works for you.
ZooBurst lets you create pop-up books with images, photos, and text. The examples here are from young students, but I can see many nonprofit applications for this tool. For instance, if you run an art program for youth, you could create a book where each page is devoted to one student, showing their art work and a couple of photos of them, with a quote from them at the bottom about how your organization has changed their lives. Or you could create a donor thank you book, with quotes and photos of donors and the people their contributions have helped.
Masher deserves more exploration than I've had time to give it. It lets you create AV mash-ups of not only your own photos and video, but video clips from a large library that includes the BBC. You gather and organize your images, then add special effects and music. Here's one example with a "go green" message. Again, you can share these on social media sites or email them.
It takes a little time to experiment with these tools—as well as to hone your messages and gather your images. But they can add real zip to some otherwise very uninspiring communications, especially if you incorporate music. It adds excitement and can build momentum. As you're thinking about tactics next year, remember these tools. They're not only fun for your audiences, they're fun to use!
UPDATE! Here's another one for you, Projeqt.
If you've got a favorite AV tool not mentioned here, please tell us about it in comments!
Creative Commons photo: mysza831


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Alphabet Letter V Volcano
Preschool Lesson Plan Printable Activities and Worksheets
This activity #3 is part of Impact
Poster Letter V lesson plan.
Here are printable materials and some suggestions to present letter V.
Science > Volcano
1. A volcano is an opening in the earth's crust through which melted rock, ash, and gases are forced out.
2. A volcano is a mountain or hill made from the melted rock that builds up around such an opening.
Online resources:
1. Community Helper and Careers > Volcanologist
2. Videos of erupting volcanoes
Alphabet Activities > Letter V is for Volcano
Present and display your option of alphabet printable materials listed in the materials column.
Present and display the color poster and distribute the coloring page or handwriting practice worksheet.
For children that already have had some practice tracing letter V, distribute story paper. Encourage them to draw a volcano, and practice writing the letter independently.
* Finger and Pencil Tracing:
*Trace letter V's in upper and lower case with your finger as you also sound out the letter. Invite the children to do the same on their coloring page.
Encourage the children to trace the dotted letter with your choice of sharpened crayon, fine tip marker, coloring or regular pencil and demonstrate the direction of the arrows and numbers that help them trace the letter correctly. During the demonstration, you may want to count out loud as you trace so children become aware of how the number order aids them in the writing process.
*Find the letter V's: Have the children find all the letter V's in upper and lower case on the page and encourage them to circle or trace/shade them first. Visit each child to make sure they have identified the letter V's and then discuss the locations with the poster.
*Coloring Activity: Encourage the children to color the image in the coloring page or worksheet.
Letter V words: Letter V Activity Page and Mini Book This page and matching mini book can be used as part of Letter V program of activities to reinforce letter practice and to identify related V words. Read suggested instructions for using the worksheet and mini-book.
Discuss other letter V words and images: First 'brainstorm' and ask the children about other words that have that beginning sound and write them on a board (dry erase board) as the children come up with example. You can print letter V in a different bright color to make it stand out. If you have illustrated alphabet books you can also use images in them. You can also display other V posters and coloring pages or even make a letter V classroom book using coloring images or color posters. Visit Letter V Printable Materials to make your choice.
Letter V Word Search & Handwriting Practice
The four word search game features a volcano and letter V words with pictures and handwriting practice.
Advanced independent handwriting practice:
1. Print your choice of printable lined-paper and encourage children to draw a volcano behind the page or print this volcanologist working.
2. Drawing and writing paper: Encourage children to draw, color and decorate a volcano and write letter V v.
|Alphabet > Letter V> Community Helpers and Careers > Volcanologist | Environmental Education | Science


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WHO: GSP International Airport District Fire Department
WHAT: New Doppler Radar Rescue Plan
WHERE: National Weather Service Doppler Radar
WHEN: Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 1:00pm
The GSP International Airport Fire Department is conducting special training at the request of the National Weather Service. The GSP Fire Department has been asked to create a Standard Operation Guideline in the event that the rescue of personnel from the radar dome is necessary. Equipment that was once housed on the ground level is now located in the dome, and requires service personnel to more frequently enter the dome. Specialized equipment and personnel are now required to make such a rescue so the services of area first responders are required. Varying options for rescue are being tested and once completed the GSP Fire Department's Standard Operation Guideline will be used at National Weather Service Doppler Radar locations across the eastern seaboard at 120 similar sites.


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Full-Width Image
Web Content Display
Metropolitan Chicago is one of the world's great economic centers, but we cannot afford to take our quality of life for granted. GO TO 2040 is the comprehensive regional plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities plan together for sustainable prosperity through mid-century and beyond.
Web Content Display
In October 2014, the GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan was updated in accordance with federal law. It addresses the requirements of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) that was signed into law in 2012. Due to GO TO 2040's long time horizon and positive impacts of plan implementation to date, the plan's themes and recommendations did not change as part of the update.
All GO TO 2040 materials, including the plan update summary and its appendices, a full-length plan that is for policy experts, and a shorter plan that is for a broader audience, are accessible as PDFs. GO TO 2040 calls on local officials, businesses, and other stakeholder groups to implement recommendations that -- while very specific -- have broad implications for residents' daily lives. To illustrate that point, CMAP has also created a series of portraits describing residents whose stories help to bring the plan to life.
READ MORE: A Pivotal Moment
Scroll down to begin exploring our region's comprehensive plan.
Livable Communities
This theme addresses diverse factors that together shape quality of life in terms of "livability" -- what attracts people to a particular community. The chapter on Livable Communities includes four sections of recommended actions: MORE
Human Capital
This theme addresses factors that determine whether our region's economy will thrive due to the availability of skilled workers and a climate in which commercial creativity can flourish. The chapter on Human Capital includes two areas of recommended actions: MORE
Efficient Governance
This theme addresses the need for increased effectiveness of governments in the region and beyond, which is important to meet residents' needs regarding accountability and transparency. The chapter on Efficient Governance includes three sections of recommended actions: MORE
Regional Mobility
This theme addresses the vitality of our region's transportation system, which is crucial for economic prosperity and overall quality of life. The chapter on Regional Mobility includes the following sections of recommended actions: MORE
This chapter also includes descriptions of major capital projects that have been carefully selected to help achieve the GO TO 2040 Regional Vision.
Context and Best Practices
Supporting Materials
Todos los materiales del plan VAMOS AL AÑO 2040, incluyendo el resumen del plan actualizado y sus apéndices, el plan entero (disponible solo en inglés) que es para expertos de política, y el plan corto para un público amplio, estan disponibles como PDFs.


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New Salt & Pepper Shakers from Jonathan Adler
Jonathan Adler spices things up with his new salt and pepper collection based on his pottery lines. He has just released a bunch of new boxed sets that are stoneware and have matte glazes in white and black. The adorable animal options are penguins, whales, fish, birds, or cats. There's little bizarre modern heads from his Muse line, heads from his Utopia line and organic ribbed shapes from his Lantern Line. each set costs $48.00. They make a great gift!


text: Hey i was just wondering if anybody is having the same problem as me, and if you do what your doing about it. Whenever im surfing in a wetsuit the back of my neck always hurts its like im getting a rash from the suit. And i dont think its the suit because my spring, summer and winter suit do it. Any experience with this or solutions to it ? Thanks for the help guys.


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A KILLER'S ex-girlfriend who was convicted of hiding evidence in his murder trial has been released from prison after spending just nine weeks behind bars.
Clacton teen Jay Whiston, 17, was killed outside a house party in Colchester in 2012 after receiving a fatal stab wound to the heart.
Edward Redman was convicted of his murder earlier this year and was jailed for 17 years.
His ex-girlfriend Shannon Fenlon, 19, was also sentenced to nine months in prison for perverting the course of justice after being found guilty of hiding evidence.
But Fenlon has now been released from prison after spending nine weeks behind bars.
Jay Whiston's mum Caroline Shearer said: "This is no punishment and it's no kind of justice after what we've been through."
Read the full story in today's Gazette.