Tarume - Untitled

Iroh: People work their entire lives to find spirits and access the spirit world. It has taken years of dedication and study for me to reach the small part of it that I’m able to find.

Sokka, who accidentally steered a canoe to where the Avatar had been frozen for a century and then fell in love with the moon and also spent 24 hours in the spirit world that one time and was the only one who the hallucinations flat-out spoke to in the magical swamp: what, like it’s hard?

Good News Network

Scientists Grow Tree from 1,000-year-old Seed Found in Cave–May Be Lost Medicinal Plant in the Bible

Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but it turned out to be something called Tsor

"During an archaeological dig in a desert area north of Jerusalem 40 years ago, a seed was discovered which was determined to be in pristine condition but had obviously seen many a year.

Now, despite falling from its parent 1,000 years ago, it has grown into a mature tree, and botanists examining it believe it may be an extinct species that was used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years—even receiving a nod in the Bible.

Neither Israeli botanists, nor Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, could determine what species it was from simply from the seed covering. So they did what nature intended—they planted it.

Using a well-documented technique that saw 2,000-year-old date palm fruit pits germinate, Dr. Sallon soaked the seed in hormones, liquid fertilizer, and water, and then planted it in a pot of sterile seed; then waited.

Despite its genetic code being exposed to environmental stressors for over 1,000 years, the seed sprouted after 5 weeks. The shoot was protected by a caplike feature called an operculum. As the shoot grew, the operculum was shed—leaving something for the team to radiocarbon date. It narrowed down the age of the almost 10-centuries-old seed to between the years 993 an 1202.

Fast forward 14 years and the plant has become a 10-foot-tall tree. Dr. Sallon shared images of the tree, its bark, and its leaves with botanists around the world. One expert suggested it belonged to the genus Commiphora, found across the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa. A genetic analysis subsequently revealed this was the case, but a perfect match was lacking.

Pictured: The tree, now 14 years old.

Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but the best way to confirm that suspicion would be to have some aromatic traces similar to the resins of the myrrh tree to which it is related. However, no such fragrant compounds were detected.

Instead, the chemical analysis of the leaves identified a group of phytochemicals known as guggulterols which have been observed in a related species called Commiphora wightii that’s known to possess certain cancer-fighting properties in its resin.

A medicinal balm, the origin of which is not known, is mentioned in multiple historical texts including the Bible as ‘tsori,’ and rather than the fragrant Judean Balsam, it’s this tsori that Dr. Sallon and her team believe they have found.

They must wait until the tree, now 14 years old, produces flower or fruit to know for sure if it’s an extinct species, and if so, how to perhaps keep it alive.

Dr. Louise Colville, senior research leader in seed and stress biology at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN that it was a major accomplishment to grow a seed that old and possibly lead to a resurrection of this Biblical botanical.

“What’s surprising in this story is it was just a single seed and to be able to have one chance for that to germinate is extremely lucky,” she said.

“Working in a seed bank, seeing the potential for that extreme longevity gives us hope that banking and storing seeds that some at least will survive for very long periods of time.”"

-via Good News Network, October 8, 2024

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Note: This is such a good demonstration of why seed banks are so important!! They give us such real and massive hope for deextinction and the revival of endangered species.

If you're asking then you should take it. The optimal amount of pain is none. And you should have an ice cream cone too. Meds for the body and sugar for the heart.

to take ibuprofen or not to take ibuprofen, that is the question

The bible is incredibly edited. If it fits together, which is heavily does not, it's because someone arranged it to be that way. Books that didn't match up were discarded. It's nothing more than a collection of short stories, cultivated in a vain attempt to convince generations of people to pass judgement on others. There's not a shred of evidence a word of it is anything more than personal delusion. Believing is just buying into that delusion.

Actually, the Bible is the most authenticated ancient text known to man. What does that mean? A lot of things actually…

The Bible has the smallest time gap between the time it was first written and the earliest manuscripts we have. That is VERY important when we are dealing with ancient documents because it greatly increases probability of reliability. We are going to take a few moments to compare the New Testament to other ancient historical accounts that are considered trustworthy and reliable. I usually just link to this whole video but I felt like throwing in pictures this time because I’m Extra like that

By historical comparison, the earliest manuscripts we have of the New Testament were written in a shockingly short time span from when the original document was penned - a mere 50 years. But there is so much more…

Every single manuscript out of the 24,633 we have of the New Testament alone matches up virtually perfectly, which means they were copied, not edited. They were not perpetuated like a game of telephone, they are true to their original content. How does that compare to the works of other ancient text? Look how many we have of Caesar, Plato, and Tacitus in comparison to the New Testament:

The next closest in regards to the number of manuscripts we have would be Homer’s Iliad with a total of 643 manuscripts

That still leaves the Bible leading by 23,990 manuscripts.

The foundational points of Caesar’s life, the preservation of the Iliad, and the reliability of Tacitus’ writings are considered rock solid. We believe those events happened, we believe the stories told are ones the authors wrote. So why do we doubt the Bible which is FAR more trustworthy than anything else we have? 643 x 38.31 to be exact.

So internally it’s accurate, but what about externally? How do we know it is not simply the writers perpetuating a lie? Glad you asked! Next slide…

Apart from the Bible, we have 9 non-Christian outside sources and 33 Christian outside sources. That brings us to a total of 42 outside sources affirming the events and authenticity of the Bible. Compare that to the second place who would be Caesar of which we only have ten outside sources documenting his life.

We don’t doubt the events of Caesar’s life, we don’t say that there is no evidence to prove the words about him are true, we don’t claim that these other books are so heavily edited that we can no longer believe anything they say is accurate. So why do we doubt the Bible is true?

The Bible blows everything else away. It passes every test of authenticity by a massive amount. If we disregard the validity of the Bible, we have to discard everything we claim to know about ancient history because the Bible is the absolute highest standard for historical accuracy. That’s a fact. (You can watch the whole video including why the four eye-witness gospel accounts are important here)

Chapter Three of As If All I've Ever Said Were Goodbyes

It’s in Shadow’s PoV: (1) Sonadow cuddling on the ARK, (2) Shadow and Maria learn about Sonic’s ‘death’, (3) Shadow is imprisoned to account for his energy, and (4) scene one but on Earth and Shadow struggles with deciding if he should tell Sonic the truth

I’ve thought like really long and hard about all the male characters presented in Remarried Empress and, might as well do a blurb on Heinley… err Heinrey I’m still flip flopping between the translations for the name

I’ve done previous breakdown on my opinion of Sovieshuu here if anyone’s curious. The reason why I love Heinrey so much is not so much to do with the fact that he’s the classic good looking male lead or whatever but because he is honest. And that really is what makes it or breaks it imo when it comes to Navier’s relationship. Prior to the divorce it’s really hard to see this!!! Because of the whole bird thing, it really covers up why their relationship works!!! This honesty doesn’t even manifest until after they go to the Western Kingdom!

(mild spoiler warning as most of this is post-divorce, i tried to keep it light)

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With @staff 's recent post saying 1/4 of this site is LGBTQ going around, I'd like to see what the actual demographic is

So!

Please reblog for bigger sample size!

don’t ever put ideas in my head or I will draw and ruin them… i wonder why anyone would wanna talk to me 

It's amazing how Fellowship of the Ring, a movie released in 2001, has scenes that are in extreme darkness (like the giant squid fight at the gates of Moria) and I can still easily tell what is going on. It's amazing how Fellowship of the Ring, which once again is from the year 2001, has quiet dialogue scenes and loud action scenes and yet I do not constantly have to mess with the volume to hear what is being said and avoid having my ears blown out, respectively. Why is this remarkable again

NASA released the clearest pictures yet of our neighbours in the solar system

Oh and of course us

Honourable mention