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Showing posts with the label Botany

Propaganda for Children is a Tree Ring Circus

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In a previous post we saw how naturalists are indoctrinating children . After all, secularists control public thought control systems commonly referred to as schools, so they have their minds captive for many hours in a year. That is not the only method. Credit: Unsplash / Aleksandar Radovanovic Another effective means of propaganda is though storybooks. I was talking with Trevor "Red" Schnapper the other day, and he told me about a book for children that he encountered. It was about counting tree rings. This is, to use the expensive word, dendrochronology. (In case you're curious, you can see the word components. -ology is "the study of", dendron is for "tree", cronos is time — but I see you checking the chronograph on your wrist and know it's time to get back to the subject.) Like many other kids, I was taught that one ring means one year of growth. That seems good on the surface, but there are factors involved that sometimes the s

Carnivorous Plants Trap Evolutionism

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Despite television, movies, and animated shows, the title of  carnivorous plants  is a bit misleading. When I  did a search  for whether or not the things eat animals, results went all the way up to the kingdom level; most carnivorous plants eat insects and only a few eat small mammals. Pitcher plant image by  Elizabeth Hertel  / US National Park Service Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents Many of these plants attract insects with nectar, then they spring their traps. (The New Jersey Pitcher Plant is very brazen, shouting out, "Hey bug! I got yer nectar  right here !") These plants do not rely on prey for nutrients (they do not have a successful capture rate), but it does help photosynthesis in some cases. The digestive enzymes that convert insects to food are used for other things, such as drawing nutrition from "leaf litter" that falls down and other sources. It is interesting that they have symbiotic relationships with other organisms — some

Ancient Seeds and the Master Engineer

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During some archaeology work in Israel, some seeds were discovered dated at about 2,000 years old. Date is the operative word with two meanings because they were date palm tree seeds. Using controlled conditions, some of those seeds were coaxed into growing. Phoenix dactylifera image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Wilfredo R Rodriguez ( CC0 1.0 PD ) An engineer will develop something for a purpose, and more advanced techniques are included to deal with adverse contingencies. The Master Engineer loads a tremendous amount of genetic information into seeds, and they can die and then come back. More than that, the organisms that come from seeds are also designed to reproduce. Dates are popular for their taste and health benefits, and even medicinal qualities; clearly they are one of God's provisions for humanity. The extinct Judean variety of Phoenix dactylifera seeds grew, their genome was sequenced and agricultural processes from way back when were discerned. The clever fol

Evolutionists Disliking Lichens

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We have probably seen lichens in many places in various forms, but tend to pay them no nevermind. Some resemble houseplants, but they are far more complex and have baffled scientists for many years. They are actually different organisms that comprise individual entities. Wolf lichen image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Jason Hollinger ( CC by-SA 3.0 ) In the television show Stargate SG-1 , there was a complicated storyline involving Symbiotes , creatures that had humans as hosts but also gave them strength and healing. However, these things were wicked and took over the hosts' personalities. This is similar to a view that the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae consisted of the fungus dominating the algae. This is not the case. Despite the view of Darwin and his followers that organisms competed, there are many living things in symbiotic relationships — all the way to the beneficial microorganisms living on and in each of us. Lichens not only show symbiosis, but th

Creation Science Research and Fossil Forests

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Creation science is nowhere nearly as well-funded as the secular science industry, but creationists have still managed to do serious work. However, some areas need development, such as stellar astronomy models. Another area of challenge is that of fossil forests, including botany and geology. Fossil forest on Speciman Ridge, Yellowstone National Park Credit: NPS  / Neal Herbert (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Using a Genesis Flood model, it needs to be determined if fossil trees were buried in situ (where they are found) or were transported before burial by the Flood. There are some expensive words in this somewhat technical article, but the two most common are defined for us: " One must keep in mind that the term “autochthonous” refers exclusively to trees that are buried in position of growth and “allochthonous” is applied exclusively to transported, especially Flood-transported, trees. "  To tell the difference in those kinds of trees, severa

Parasites in the Plant Kingdom

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When people mention parasites, various things can come to mind. Pet owners may think of white spot disease in tropical fish or fleas and ticks in furry friends, humans can get lice and internal parasites, and so on. Something that surprised this child is the fact that there are many kinds of plant parasites. Mistletoe image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Pauline Eccles ( CC by-SA 2.0 ) You don't need to worry about a plant attaching itself to you like a leech, however. Plant parasites parasite plants. That is, it is an "in house" thing in the plant world. They are found in many places and there are numerous species. You can ask a Darwinist how parasitic plants came to be, and they will evosplain with convergent evolution and fact-free speculations. Interestingly, parasitic plants are not a problem for creationists who discuss God's very good creation. Parasitism is a subject that not many people think about and even fewer address from a biblical perspective.

Seeds and the Master Engineer

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Our Creator engineered living things to find ways to continue existing, and he equipped them with a variety of methods. Plants have seeds which fall to the ground and they appear to die, but many can lay dormant for long periods, even after disasters. When the time is right, they start reviving and begin replenishing the earth. Credit: CSIRO / Maurice MacDonald ( CC by 3.0 ) A passel of seeds build up over the years in forest soil. God designed seeds that are banked in soil to sense changes in temperature and other aspects of their environments, then respond appropriately. This includes building relationships with soil bacteria, just like their forebears did long ago. It looked more like a war zone than a forest paradise. Nothing but devastation as far as the eye could see. Smoldering ashes and blackened wooden skeletons were all that was left after the inferno. The scene was overwhelmingly bleak. Yet hope for restoration lay dormant in the landscape! This ashen forest had pre

Getting to the Root of Plant Communication

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This post  stems  from a pair of related articles that will be linked below regarding the surprising abilities of plants to communicate. Earlier, we read about some of this in " Tree Mail in the Wood Wide Web ". This  field  is growing, and researchers are conducting some interesting experiments.   Credit: Unsplash /  Lukasz Szmigiel When working on this here post, I commenced to woolgathering about an old  Lost in Space  episode about semi-intelligent plants that were communicating with each other. They had a ruler of sorts, Tybo, who was a giant intelligent carrot, and wanted to turn the Robinsons (the space travelers) into plants.  " The Great Vegetable Rebellion " was considered awful by the actors and even the writer, but the dreadful part of Tybo was performed well by Stanley Adams (who also played the part of Cyrano Jones on the  Star Trek  episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles"). Although that show was chock full of silliness, it hinted at t

Green Beans and Bioengineering

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My mother insisted that I eat the green beans on my plate, but they were not all that thrilling. She would say that they have vitamins and we know much more now than we did back then about the health benefits of green beans . Interestingly, they have an internal mechanism that loosely resembles one of our own. Credit: Pixabay / Sonja Langford  When we have a wound, the blood will clot and the flow will stop (unless someone has a health condition). The Master Engineer also devised something similar for the beans. They need the sap to flow, but if a part is broken, that's where callose plugs come into play. Try to get a disciple of Darwin to evosplain that to you and come away with a satisfactory answer. When bean plants are bruised or bitten by a caterpillar, what if the valuable sap in the plant’s vascular tubing kept flowing to the injury site, leading to an unrestrained loss of sap? That’s comparable to an injured human or animal losing blood. In humans and animals, inju

Neglected Abundance of Food

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It gets a mite difficult for people like me who can place an order for food on the telephone or on a website for delivery — "You do that quite a bit, don't you, Cowboy Bob?" They told me my weight is genetic. Or something. Moving on... Many of us have little worries about getting victuals (correctly pronounced "vittles") at our convenience, so we may have problems understanding or empathizing with those who are desperate for decent food. In other places, people eat and thrive on things that make those of us in the Western world cringe. Then there are various things that people have not considered for sustenance and could theoretically alleviate starvation. Some of the starvation problems are not simply drought, but bad government. Back in 1985 and following, there were rock concerts and such with the noble intention of alleviating starvation in Ethiopia caused by famine. It was not a good idea because distribution and other factors were not considered. E

Evening Primrose Tunes In

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We know that there is more to plants than it seems. In recent years, scientists have discovered that trees in the forest use the wood-wide web to communicate . People believe that talking to plants helps them grow, but there is apparently no evidence to support this. However, an evening primrose may be listening. Credit: Pixabay / Manseok Kim I am not saying that you should talk to a plant and ask for advice in dealing with how evolutionists have hijacked science. The only way a plant could really hear you is if a foreign power slipped a listening device into its pot. An extremely interesting study showed that an evening primrose can sense bee-wing vibrations and quickly sweeten the nectar to attract the bees. Of course, Darwinists just assumed evolution despite no evidence whatsoever. If you study on it, you'll see that proclaiming evolution raises a whole whack of questions. The truth is that there are many interesting mechanisms that the Master Engineer designed; the

Hybridization and the Tree of Life

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As any well-indoctrinated schoolchild can tell you Charles Darwin envisioned a tree of life where life evolved from the simple to the complex, with many branches. Hybridization is problematic for evolutionists, and the branches would wind up fusing back together. Otero Tupac working with orchids Credit: CSIRO / Carl Davies  ( CC by 3.0 ) (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Informed creationists do not believe in the "fixity of species". Not only do we accept hybridization and speciation, but they also support biblical creation science. The Master Engineer designed organisms to adapt, and sometimes hybridization is a way they can survive.  Carl Linnaeus established modern taxonomy and saw that new species could arise through hybridization. William Herbert also saw that the created kinds  referred to in Genesis can diversify. Note that the biblical kinds are considered to be above the species level, more closely aligned with the family  classification.

Field Mustard Plants and False Evolution Claims

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There is a plant known as Brassica rapa , but it has subspecies that have more familiar names including field mustard. Botanists decided to do some experimenting on the field mustard and pollination, and commenced to not only violating evolutionary dogma, but affirming a creation science biological model. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / TeunSpaans ( CC by-SA 3.0 ) The botanists assumed evolution to prove evolution (circular reasoning), but also made untrue statements. There was no evidence of evolution, just small modifications. Magical mystical "environmental pressures" were assumed as well. However, the continuous environmental tracking model that you have been reading about here has been demonstrated in research and is more scientific than Darwinian selectionism. More specifically, instead of external influences, our Creator used engineering principles and designed living things to quickly adapt. A recent study on a plant in the mustard family ( Brassica Rapa ) pr

Evolutionary Circular Reasoning on Carnivorous Plants

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One reason that Darwinian thinking has so many people hogtied is because the non-explanation of " it evolved " is used so freely. Add to this the phrase "scientists say", and too many people will accept such a remark without question. Venus flytrap image credit: CSIRO / Malcolm Paterson   (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) For me, good documentaries on living things are spoiled with assertions of "it evolved", as if homage to the Bearded Buddha somehow provides scientific validation. I'm sure some of you have felt the same way. Why not simply describe what is observed without delving into what is assumed about the subject's history? We have two examples in the article linked below. Folks riding for the Darwin brand commit circular reasoning and other bad logic by assuming evolution to prove evolution. In fact, two carnivorous plants defy evolution. Instead, they show specified complexity that could not have arisen by evolu

Another Plant Evolution Concept

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This is one of those times when a very technical article needs to be presented for people who want more in-depth hard science. It helps to have a background in botany, but if you have some knowledge of science, you can still get something out of it. It involves an area that frustrates particles-to-plant evolutionists, and has some support for biblical creation science models. Credit: Unsplash/ Henry & Co. Usually as a reproduction error, polyploidy is a condition where — "You mean like David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Syd Barrett and those guys, Cowboy Bob?" That would be poly Pink Floydy. Let's hope your lapse of reason is momentary. Moving on. Polyploidy is where organisms or cells acquire additional sets of paired chromosomes. Sometimes organisms are deemed "fit", but controversy ensues. It has been suggested that polyploidy is a means of evolution, but that would mean it happens too rapidly, so the fact-free concept of punctuated equilibrium

Bird-of-Paradise Plant Bothers Evolutionists

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There is a plant known as the bird-of-paradise or crane flower (genus Strelitzia ), which has a passing resemblance to the head of a bird. A bird exists by the same name , but that has no relevance except maybe for some similar color. You can find these perennial plants in South Africa and they can grow rather large. (Two species are hardy houseplants .) Strelitzia have a clever way of pollinating: when sunbirds perch on them to sip on the nectar, the flowers open to cover their feet with pollen. But that's not what bothers Darwinists. Credit: RGBStock / melodi2 The bright orange coloring is due to pigment. In 2009, researchers were finally able to determine the source of the pigment. It is bilirubin, which is not found in the plant kingdom. No wonder the source was elusive. What is problematic for Darwinists is how bilirubin (which gives that yellowish tinge to that place on your arm when your cousin hit you, and also when people have jaundice) came to be in plants. Inste

The Engineered Adaptability of Sorghum

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Many of us are familiar with having syrup on our flapjacks or splurging on the sweeter (but more expensive) real maple syrup. Ever had sorghum syrup? It is similar to molasses and can be quite sweet, to go easy on it until you know what you want. There are other uses for this flowering grain that is in the grass family. Some varieties of this genus can grow as tall as an adult. Sorghum has many uses including cereal and feed for livestock. It also has a way of thwarting evolutionary tales. Sorghum crop near the coastal town of Ayr in central Queensland Credit: CSIRO /  John Coppi ( CC by 3.0 ) This stuff is resistant to drought, which is one reason it is popular in many parts of the world. Research on Sorghum bicolor shows that when it detects a drought coming on, it changes its root system to compensate. Microbes on the roots that have had the pleasure of a mutually-beneficial relationship fade away, and other microbes take over. And back again, as needed. Proselytizers of

The Simple Explanation for Plant Evolution

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When hearing a Darwinist evosplain the process of how something got here, you are going to hear a wagon train-load of arbitrary assertions. Instead of beginning at the beginning and investigating if  something evolved according to their definitions of the word, they skip that step and begin with how  it evolved. That is, they presuppose Darwinism. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Pirex Imagine this scenario where a creationist is having a discussion with Rusty Swingset, the foreman at the Darwin Ranch: Rusty Swingset: Now we'll look at how this plant evolved. Inquirer: How do you know it evolved? Rusty: That's how things work. Inquirer: You have quite a few assertions and tell an interesting story, but do you have a mechanism? Rusty: It evolved the way all things do. Inquirer: Is there any empirical evidence to go with the story? Rusty: It evolved, ya idjit! Now shut up and swallow your propaganda! They get on the prod when people do more than just accept their mate

Waterwheel Plant Traps Evolutionists

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Shut your trap. No, not you. There are two carnivorous plants with snap traps, one of which is the more famous Venus fly trap , which snaps on insects and so forth for supper. Some people have them, but they are endangered, so you can get in a heap of trouble if you dig one up yourself. However, you can get one from a licensed dealer and make it a kind of pet if you give it the proper care . Credit: US Geological Survey (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) There's another trap shutter called the waterwheel plant. This bad little boy is endangered, has no roots, and floats along. When a small critter triggers its mechanism, the hinge snaps shut in as little as a hundredth of a second. Biomimetics research is being conducted for shading systems in architecture. A couple of papers were submitted in the same month about the waterwheel plant. One discussed the biomimetics application, and details on the plant's operation. The other paper had a little inform

Layer Counting Yields Faulty Dating Methods

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Some owlhoots put down the biblical timeline, saying the Genesis Flood could not have happened because some things are dated before it happened. How do they attain such knowledge? By counting things. One popular "refutation" of biblical dating is a thing called dendrochronology.  You may not have known the term as a kid, but remember being shown the stump of a tree that had been cut down and being told that if you count the rings, that's how old the tree was? That is the essence of dendrochronology. The word comes from Greek words for tree  and time, so that works out nicely. This isn't just from cutting them down and counting, they drill core samples so they don't have to bring the whole thing down. But tree growth rings are not consistent. Sometimes a tree will skip a year or more, other times, conditions will influence it to make additional rings in a year. Radiocarbon dating is used to calibrate tree-ring dating, which is used to calibrate radiocarbon