Posts by Vidqun

37

Largest Genome Ever Sequenced - and it's 82% Junk

by cofty in

by developing new techniques, a team of scientists led by david neale at the university of california have succeeded in sequencing the genome of the loblolly pine pinus taeda.. the genome is 16 billion base pairs long - 7 times larger than the human genome.

so why does it take so much dna to make a tree?

well it turns out it doesn't.. the new sequence confirmed that the loblolly genome is so large because it is crammed full of invasive dna elements that copied themselves around the genome.

Vidqun

Quite a few studies have indicated that "memory" is retained by genes and is then passed on to their offspring. Here’s a few thoughts from an article published in the journal Science. They worked with genetic switches:

Epigenetics concerns the inheritance of gene expression through the passing on of DNA. A chemical tag, known as an epigenetic mark, is attached to DNA that subsequently tells a cell to use or ignore a particular gene. The most common of these marks is known as a methyl group, an alkyl derived from methane. When it binds itself to DNA, by a process called methylation, it prevents protein from being added to the gene, and as a result, turns it off. Epigenetic marks are usually erased between each generation due to the way in which primordial gene cells (PGCs, precursors to sperm and eggs) restructure the genetic information ready for the next generation.

The Cambridge study, led by Jamie Hackett, discovered how the methylation marks were erased by the PGCs, resetting them for the next generation. As the PGCs divided, they broke down the methylation marks and diluted them with each divide. The study claims that such an understanding of epigenetic resetting "could be exploited to deal with adult diseases linked with an accumulation of aberrant epigenetic marks, such as cancers, or in 'rejuvenating' aged cells."

This is important because aberrant methylation could accumulate at genes during a lifetime in response to environmental factors, such as chemical exposure or nutrition, and can cause abnormal use of genes, leading to disease. If these marks are then inherited by offspring, their genes could also be affected.

37

Largest Genome Ever Sequenced - and it's 82% Junk

by cofty in

by developing new techniques, a team of scientists led by david neale at the university of california have succeeded in sequencing the genome of the loblolly pine pinus taeda.. the genome is 16 billion base pairs long - 7 times larger than the human genome.

so why does it take so much dna to make a tree?

well it turns out it doesn't.. the new sequence confirmed that the loblolly genome is so large because it is crammed full of invasive dna elements that copied themselves around the genome.

Vidqun

Cofty, interesting articles. I personally don't like the term "junk" DNA. It's called "junk" because we don't know why it's there. Is this not a case of DNA cell memory? Trees have longer lifespans than humans, so it woud make sense that more information is stored in their genomes.

22

....and the deaf will hear again!

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

the moment a 39-year-old deaf woman hears someone for the first time, thanks to cochlear implants......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ueo9itfxic.

.

enough said..

Vidqun

It took an engineer to design the implants, a factory to build them. It took a surgeon and his team to put the electrodes in exactly the right place. So what do we have here? Design, dare I say a creator? All of this will not happen by chance, not in a millions years!

19

Finally free of JWs!

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

we moved house and no active jw knows we live there.

it's in another congregation territory too so when they finally come knocking, they won't know i'm a dirty apostate when i tell them to put me on the do not call list.

problem is, the local discount supermarket across the highway is frequented by jws from my previous previous congregation!.

Vidqun

You and hubby are an inspiration to us all. Good on you mate!

17

What do you think happens when we die?? Is there a heaven, for instance....

by quellycatface in

always wanted to ask you guys this question..

Vidqun

Quellycatface, here’s my take on it, for what it’s worth. Don't know whether you watched Dr. Oz recently when he did his show on out-of-body-experiences? All those he interviewed had similar experiences. Pleasant thoughts, out-of-body senstation (watching yourself from afar), tunnel, bright light, etc. Researchers ascribe these sensations to a lack of oxygen as the brain is starting to die. But they emphasize that not all parts of the brain die immediately. Some last longer than others. They tested whether these people, e.g., those that had cardiac arrest on the operating table, have a real out-of-body experience by putting a picture of someone famous on top of the surgical lights. No one reported the picture, so they concluded that it was not a real out-of-body experience, but only the sensation of an out-of-body experience.

I compared above to what the Bible had to say:

Then the dust returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to the [true] God who gave it. (Ecc 12:7 NWT)

And during that time your people will escape, every one who is found written down in the book. (Dan 12:1 NWT)

And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work that they used to have. (Rev 6:9 NWT)

For here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. (Isa 65:17 NWT)

So, for God to be able to resurrect you, he needs a back-up of you (as you regularly need to back-up the work on your computer in case of a hard disc failure). In the Bible, death is compared to sleep. When you sleep, your brain does a back-up of your day’s activities and thoughts. As the Creator he would have access to your back-up. When you die, a back-up is made of your life and personality. This back-up he then transfers and stores in heaven. If you die a horrible death and your brain is damaged, he takes the previous night’s back-up. In that case you will not remember how you died. That part is not recorded in the back-up.

This is what I believe in a nutshell. This I will continue to believe until I am proven wrong, which won't happen in my lifetime...

55

What Ailed Those Pilots ... ?

by snowbird in

the pilots and crew of the missing plane, was something wrong with all of them?.

sylvia.

Vidqun

Sylvia, over the news it was reported that they are reasonably sure (according to radar data and wreckage spotted by the planes and satellites) the plane crashed west of Australia, in the Indian Ocean. They also announced this to the family members of those missing people. An Australian navy ship is on the way to the area. But like you say, a lot of questions need to be answered.

41

Discussion with some elders

by GoUnion in

hello everyone just wanted to relate a situation that occurred a few days ago.

so i have quit going to meetings for a few months now based on some issues i have with the explanations of current doctrines.

my wife is none too happy with this but over the last few months we have had some date nights and have tentitively agreed to disagree.

Vidqun

I am sorry to break the news. If you disagree with the Organization, you're out. Next step is a JC. The big question is then posed: "Do you believe the Organization (=GB) represents God's interests on earth?" If you answer in the negative, you will be DF'd. At the hall, the classic announcement: "So-and-so does not want to be a JW anymore," or somethng to that effect. From that moment on you will be dehumanized, as though you don't exist. I am sorry about your wife.

132

the bible and its prophecies

by Crazyguy in

i have been doing a lot of research on the bible and its roots so to speak and its becoming clearer that the jews like other races took gods and stories from others and made them their own.

its also become clear that many of the books were written later then stated, like daniel probably written about a hundred years before christ and some of it maybe even after.

but what i don't get is the prophecies.

Vidqun

Okay, let me spell it out for you. The prophecy is mainly about the fate of “the holy city” and Daniel’s people (v. 24).

What city is being referred to? In v. 25 it is identified as Jerusalem. Are you still with me? V. 26 continues: “As for the city and the sanctuary, the people of the coming prince will destroy them.” So, the city and the sanctuary are going to be destroyed.

This is quite straightforward. No esoteric waffle here. Even if one dates the book of Daniel to 165 BCE, above prophecy is remarkably accurate, don’t you think?

132

the bible and its prophecies

by Crazyguy in

i have been doing a lot of research on the bible and its roots so to speak and its becoming clearer that the jews like other races took gods and stories from others and made them their own.

its also become clear that many of the books were written later then stated, like daniel probably written about a hundred years before christ and some of it maybe even after.

but what i don't get is the prophecies.

Vidqun

Kate, I don't understand your gripe with Artaxerxes becoming king in 465 BCE and sending Nehemiah away to build Jerusalem's walls a few years later. He became king in 465 BCE and in his 20th year he sent Nehemiah to rebuild the walls. That brings one to 445 BCE, give or take a few months. This date corresponds to the calculations done by Hoehner and Feinberg.

Few historians question the authenticity of the book Nehemiah/Ezra, originally one book. Some of the edicts contained in Ezra were written in Aramaic and are viewed as originals. So whether you calculate the 70 weeks as lunar or solar years, you still come out to Jesus' ministry and death. This is what Paul Tanner had to say about Dan. 9:

Daniel 9:24-27 is “a glorious messianic revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, announcing among other things the time of His coming and His death before the cataclysmic events of A.D. 70. The passage remains a bedrock of prophetic revelation.”1

Tanner reviewed the literature, especially the Church Fathers, even that of Jewish scholars, and this was his conclusion:

Yet from the literature that is available some vital conclusions can be drawn. All the early church fathers, along with Jewish scholars, interpreted each “week” as a period of seven years and applied this quite literally (though Origen took the final week as seventy years, i.e., a week of decades rather than years). Significantly, of the eleven early church fathers surveyed in this study all but one of them held to some form of messianic interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy (the lone exception being Hilarianus who held to a fulfillment in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the second century B.C.).2

1. J. Paul Tanner, “Is Daniel’s Seventy-Weeks Prophecy Messianic? Part 2” Bibliotheca Sacra Vol. 166 (July 3009): p. 339. Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary.

2. J. Paul Tanner, “Is Daniel’s Seventy-Weeks Prophecy Messianic? Part 1” Bibliotheca Sacra Vol. 166 (April–June 2009): p. 198. Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary.

But of course it's your choice what you want to believe. Bart Ehrman concentrates on NT textual criticism, which is negative and subjective to the extreme. If you do not supplement it with some objectivity and historical reality, your faith will be destroyed in no time. That means you have to allow for the benefit of the doubt until such time as something is proved wrong. At least Ehrman believes that Jesus did exist, but not as what he is portayed in the NT. But where do you draw the line?

132

the bible and its prophecies

by Crazyguy in

i have been doing a lot of research on the bible and its roots so to speak and its becoming clearer that the jews like other races took gods and stories from others and made them their own.

its also become clear that many of the books were written later then stated, like daniel probably written about a hundred years before christ and some of it maybe even after.

but what i don't get is the prophecies.

Vidqun

Here’s a few different takes on the calculation of the seventy weeks. All of these scholars apply it to the Christ. The phrase “to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan. 9:24 ESV) can only refer to the Christ. Applying this to Antiochus IV Epiphanes is ridiculous:

Those who take the messianic view of this prophecy and who understand the time reckoning literally do not all hold to the same method of calculation. Gleason Archer and Stephen Miller believe that the sixty-nine sevens extended from the decree of Artaxerxes with Ezra about 457 BC to the commencement of Christ’s public ministry in 26/27 CE, based on solar year calculations (Gleason Archer, “Daniel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 7 [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985], pp. 114-116; Stephen Miller, Daniel, New American Commentary [Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994], pp. 263-265). But Harold Hoehner and Paul Feinberg believe that the sixty-nine sevens extend from the decree of Artaxerxes with Nehemiah in 444 BC to the passion week of Christ in 33 CE, based on prophetic or lunar years of 360 days. With either view the effect is the same: the calculations are literally true of Christ (Hoehner, “Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ; Part VI: Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology,” pp. 47-65; and Feinberg, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Daniel 9:24-27,” pp. 189-220).