Baby turtles at Malaysia's Ma' Daerah Turtle Sanctuary Centre and Green Turtles from Tanzania

Baby turtles crawl to the sea during their release at Malaysia's Ma' Daerah Turtle Sanctuary Centre in Kemaman, in the northeastern state of Terengganu, in August 17, 2004 . Leatherback turtles that survived the age of the dinosaurs face extinction across the Western Pacific today, even though rescue strategies could be as simple as saving their eggs from fishing nets.

(Photo: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters)

One of 154 Green Turtles recently hatched from a single nest is seen on a beach in Rad Dege, 24 km (15 miles) south of Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam, July 28, 2007. The Green Turtles are one of five turtle species, all globally endangered, that are found on the east African coast. Their nests are protected by local villagers, who work as part of a project that has been implemented by Sea Sense, a local Tanzanian NGO. REUTERS/Sala Lewis (TANZANIA)

After Won over Saudi Arabia of 1-0, Iraqi People Celebrate Their Soccer Team

Soon after got a winning over Saudi Arabia in Asia Cup, Iraqi people celebrate their soccer team victory. Various ways the people do to celebrate this rare moment. In this fight within gelora bung karno, Younis Mahmoud was been the hero for the team after made one goal-determination.

In baghdad, Reuters said :

"Volleys of gunfire rang out across Baghdad on Sunday as Iraqis celebrated their soccer team's Asian Cup victory, a rare moment of joy and unity in four years of relentless strife."

Residents celebrate in Baghdad July 29, 2007, after the Iraq team won the final game of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament against Saudi Arabia in Jakarta.

REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen

















Iraq's captain Younis Mahmoud lifts the trophy after their win
over Saudi Arabia in the final match at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta July 29, 2007.

REUTERS/Russell Boyce

Group of Prehistoric Fish

Prehistoric fish are various groups of fishes that lived before recorded history. A few, such as the coelacanth still exist today and are considered living fossils.

The first fish and indeed the first vertebrates, were the ostracoderms, which appeared in the Cambrian Period, about 510 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Devonian, about 350 million years ago. Ostracoderms were jawless fishes found mainly in fresh water. They were covered with a bony armor or scales and were often less than 30 cm (1 ft) long. The ostracoderms are placed in the class Agnatha along with the living jawless fishes, the lampreys and hagfishes, which are believed to be descended from the ostracoderms.

The first fish with jaws, the acanthodians, or spiny sharks, appeared in the late Silurian, about 410 million years ago, and became extinct before the end of the Permian, about 250 million years ago. Acanthodians were generally small sharklike fishes varying from toothless filter-feeders to toothed predators. They were once often classified as an order of the class Placodermi, another group of primitive fishes, but recent authorities tend to place the acanthodiaes or that both groups share a common ancestor.

The placoderms, another group of jawed fishes, appeared at the beginning of the Devonian, about 395 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Devonian or the beginning of the Mississippian (Carboniferous), about 345 million years ago. Detailed anatomical studies of fossil remains by the Swedish scientist Erik Stensiö strongly suggest that the placoderms were closely related to sharks. Placoderms were typically small, flattened bottom-dwellers, however, many, particularly the arthrodires, were active midwater predators. Dunkleosteus was the largest and most famous of these. The upper jaw was firmly fused to the skull, but there was a hinge joint between the skull and the bony plating of the trunk region. This allowed the upper part of the head to be thrown back, and in arthrodires, this allowed them to take larger bites.

The cartilaginous-skeleton sharks and rays, class Chondrichthyes, which appeared about 370 million years ago in the middle Devonian, are generally believed to be descended from the bony-skeleton placoderms. The cartilaginous skeletons are considered to be a later development.

The modern bony fishes, class Osteichthyes, appeared in the late Silurian or early Devonian, about 395 million years ago. The early forms were freshwater fishes, for no fossil remains of modern bony fishes have been found in marine deposits older than Triassic time, about 230 million years ago. The Osteichthyes may have arisen from the acanthodians. A subclass of the Osteichthyes, the ray-finned fishes (subclass Actinopterygii), became and have remained the dominant group of fishes throughout the world. It was not the ray-finned fishes, however, that led to the evolution of the land vertebrates.

The ancestors of the land vertebrates are found among another group of bony fishes called the Choanichthyes or Sarcopterygii. Choanate fishes are characterized by internal nostrils, fleshy fins called lobe fins, and cosmoid scales. The choanate fishes appeared in the late Silurian or early Devonian, more than 390 million years ago, and possibly arose from the acanthodians. The choanate fishes include a group known as the Crossopterygii, which has one living representative, the coelacanth (Latimeria). During the Devonian Period some crossopterygian fishes of the order (or suborder) Rhipidistia crawled out of the water to become the first tetrapods.

The story of vertebrate evolution started in the seas of the Cambrian period, when jawless, toothless, soft-bodied fishlike creatures wriggled through the water, sucking up microscopic food particles. Only after tough, non-decaying bone was developed (initially as a scaly outer covering and later within the body) did fossils form and become preserved in the rocks. And only then could paleontologists take up the story with any certainty.

The earliest traces of bony scales are found in rocks of the Late Cambrian period, and the first recognizable vertebrate fish has been found in Australian rocks of Early Ordovician age. So, the first chapter in the vertebrate evolution starts with the ancient Arandaspis, a fish about 6in/15cm long with no jaws, no teeth and no fins other than a tail. It did, however, have gills and a stiffening rod of cartilaginous material (the notochord) that served as a backbone.

Indonesian coelacanth Make Scientists be Exciting

Ronan Bourhis said :

French experts equipped with sonar and GPS try to reconstruct trough asked an Indonesia (Manado) Fisherman how to catch a rare coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world's oldest. This Full Article can read in Yahoo Tech News



A very rare coelacanth fish as Indonesian, Japanese and French specialists (unseen) carry out an autopsy of in Manado, North Sulawesi, in June. Coelacanths are among the world's oldest fish species. Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest the animal has changed little in that time.(Photo credit : AFP/File/ Ronan Bourhis)





Second Indonesian coelacanth known to science, later to become holotype of new species, Latimeria menadoensis. Photograph by Mark V. Erdmann, July 1998





Relate Article :

• The Coelacanth: More Living than Fossil (http://www.mnh.si.edu/highlight/coelacanth/)
• NOVA's "Ancient Creature of the Deep" site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fish/
• A general information site about the coelacanth: http://www.dinofish.com/
• South African deep water dives and the coelacanth: http://www.coelacanth-diver.co.za/

From Poverty to Power-The Way Out of Undesirable Conditions

Tittle : From Poverty to Power-The Way Out of Undesirable Conditions
by : James Allen

From the most trivial thought, word, or act of man, up to the groupings of the celestial bodies, law reigns supreme. No arbitrary condition can, even for one moment, exist, for such a condition would be a denial and an annihilation of law. Every condition of life is, therefore, bound up in an orderly and harmonious sequence, and the secret and cause of every condition is contained within itself.

The law, "Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap," is inscribed in naming letters upon the portal of Eternity, and none can deny it, none can cheat it, none can escape it. He who puts his hand in the fire must suffer the burning until such time as it has worked itself out, and neither curses nor prayers can avail to alter it.

All these conditions of mind are rightly called "evil," for they are the efforts of the soul to subvert, in its ignorance, the law, and they, therefore, lead to chaos and confusion within, and are sooner or later actualized in the outward circumstances as disease, failure, and misfortune, coupled with grief, pain, and despair. Whereas love, gentleness, good-will, purity, are cooling airs which breathe peace upon the soul that woos them, and, being in harmony with the Eternal Law, they become actualized in the form of health, peaceful surroundings, and undeviating success and good fortune.

A thorough understanding of this Great Law which permeates the universe leads to the acquirement of that state of mind known as obedience. To know that justice, harmony, and love are supreme in the universe is likewise to know that all adverse and painful conditions are the result of our own disobedience to that Law. Such knowledge leads to strength and power, and it is upon such knowledge alone that a true life and an enduring success and happiness can be built. To be patient under all circumstances, and to accept all conditions as necessary factors in your training, is to rise superior to all painful conditions, and to overcome them with an overcoming which is sure, and which leaves no fear of their return, for by the power of obedience to law they are utterly slain. Such an obedient one is working in harmony with the law, has in fact, identified himself with the law, and whatsoever he conquers he conquers for ever; whatsoever he builds can never be destroyed.

The cause of all power, as of all weakness, is within: the secret of all happiness as of all misery is likewise within. There is no progress apart from unfoldment within, and no sure foothold of prosperity or peace except by orderly advancement in knowledge.

Perhaps the chains of poverty hang heavily upon you, and you are friendless and alone, and you long with an intense longing that your load may be lightened; but the load continues, and you seem to be enveloped in an ever-increasing darkness. Perhaps you complain, you bewail your lot; you blame your birth, your parents, your employer, or the unjust Powers who have bestowed upon you so undeservedly poverty and hardship, and upon another affluence and ease. Cease your complaining and fretting; none of these things which you blame are the cause of your poverty; the cause is within yourself, and where the cause is, there is the remedy. The very fact that you are a complainer, shows that you deserve your lot; shows that you lack that faith which is the ground of all effort and progress.

There is no room for a complainer in a universe of law, and worry is soul-suicide. By your very attitude of mind you are strengthening the chains which bind you, and are drawing about you the darkness by which you are enveloped, Alter your outlook upon life, and your outward life will alter. Build yourself up in the faith and knowledge, and make yourself worthy of better surroundings and wider opportunities. Be sure, first of all, that you are making the best of what you have.

By so ennobling your present surroundings you will rise above them, and above the need of them, and at the right time you will pass on into the better house and surroundings which have all along been waiting for you, and which you have fitted yourself to occupy.

Even poverty and lack of time and leisure are not the evils that you imagine they are, and if they hinder you in your progress, it is because you have clothed them in your own weaknesses, and the evil that you see in them is really in yourself. Endeavor to fully and completely realize that in so far as you shape and mould your mind, you are the maker of your destiny, and as, by the transmuting power of self-discipline you realize this more and more, you will come to see that these so-called evils may be converted into blessings. You will then utilize your poverty for the cultivation of patience, hope and courage; and your lack of time in the gaining of promptness of action and decision of mind, by seizing the precious moments as they present themselves for your acceptance. As in the rankest soil the most beautiful flowers are grown, so in the dark soil of poverty the choicest flowers of humanity have developed and bloomed.

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Staying Calm and Cultivating Poise

Marcus Aurelius practiced psychotherapy in the more pretentious and stilted style appropriate, perhaps, to his time and position. From this philosopher-emperor each of us will do well to absorb the following quotation: "Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil."

Why shouldn't we be prepared beforehand to view all these people with pity instead of resentment? Their attitude toward us and their abuse of us has really nothing to do with us, but means merely an exploitation of their peculiarities. To prepare ourselves in this way to meet ridicule, abuse, and the like means no more than for a sailor to be ready to put down the helm in a squall. If we should set about learning to sail a boat, this is one of the first things we should do, but we pay very little attention to learning how to run ourselves. On this point Epictetus says, "Cease to make yourselves slaves. Is there not some advantage to be gained from this man? From all: even a reviler. Does not the wrestler gain advantage from him with whom he exercises before the combat? The greatest. And just in the same manner I can exercise myself with this man - and the heavier he is the better for me; and it is surely an advantage to me when I am exercised in gentleness of temper. This is knowing how to gain an advantage from men."

The brief maxim should be constantly at command to clench such suggestions. Try keeping these in mind as you go about your daily live. "These are the annoyances incident to my business. To fret when they occur means that I cannot manage my business without friction." Another is this (for use when subordinates show stupidity), "If he had my brains he'd have my job". And finally (as a shield against everyday annoyances and resentments), "Never touched me."

I can think of no better illustration of the way such maxims should be ready for immediate use than the following instance, in which the laugh, by the way, was on me. I was walking with a friend one day when an automobile came up behind us, announcing its approach by one of those peculiar notes so far from the honk of a self-respecting goose that it can be described neither as a groan, grunt, growl, nor scream, but rather as possessing the discordant elements of all four. " Don't you hate those freak horns!" I exclaimed, rather petulantly. "I used to," he said, "but since reading your book I say to myself, 'Never touched me!'"

This incident marks the progress respectively of my friend and myself in mental training. For I have no hesitation in presenting myself, not as a past-master, but rather as a student-instructor in this branch of practical philosophy.

One of the principal depressing emotions we have to curb to preserve our poise are anger. And under anger we must include the moderate degree of anger known as fret. What makes us fret? We all know the expression "Mad as a wet hen". Suppose you were asked what makes the hen mad, you probably would answer, "Why, because she is wet"; but for the real reason we must go further back - she is mad because she insists on being dry. If she could forego that insistence she would remain unruffled, wet as well as dry.

Similarly, I think I am mad because so-and-so has called me a liar, a coward, or a what-not. But the underlying cause of my anger is that I can't stand being called such names. If I took a notion to practice philosophy to the extent of seeing how much instead of how little I could stand, I might finally be wishing some one would try it on, to see if I couldn't remain cool under the provocation, and simply say to myself, "Never touched me." "Any one can stand what he likes; it takes the philosopher to stand what he doesn't like."

There is no sharp line of division between the legitimate airing of a grievance and going into a state of fret. Nor is it fretting quietly to go about the adjustment of the grievance. Fret means internal turmoil externalized, not by effective work, but by wailing and gnashing of teeth.

You can spot a fretter from the tone and pitch of his voice. This test is not infallible but as a rule you can spot a fretter by his voice. When someone frets, his vocal cords tighten and produces a high-pitched, disagreeable tone which merges into the whine of chronic discontent.

I heard such a high-pitched voice inquiring the waiter one morning at breakfast, "How many eggs are there in this bacon and eggs?" "I don't know, sir, I think two... that is the usual number." "Well, I wish you would go and see"; and the waiter did so, returning shortly to announce with beaming face, "There are three, sir; they generally put in two, but this time they put in three." But even this cheerful news produced no change in the expression or the voice of the fretter, who despondently observed, "I knew the proportions were wrong." If you ever find yourself getting into this state of mind try the experiment of saying to yourself, " Don't pitch your voice so high!"

I once knew a man who was so obsessed with dust. If you inquired about his health, he would answer, " Pretty bad, thank you, and the dust is something awful!" If you admired a picture, he would say, "The composition may be good, but the frame is the kind that catches the dust." If you mentioned the Arctic regions, he would wish himself there to be out of the dust. When we finally had a fall of snow that covered the dust, I expected to find him beaming, but no - with the same tried expression and the same high-pitched voice he said the dust would be as bad as ever in a little while.

It is surprising how many things we can't stand if we cultivate our "can’t-standability." The degree of anger known as getting mad may be dismissed with an appeal to our vanity, thus: Consider the very angry woman. How unbecoming it is - how it lacks in dignity! Why, she is almost black in the face because her emotion interferes with her circulation, and causes a stasis of venous blood in the superficial vessels of her countenance! If she could look in the glass now, and if she knew enough physiology to realize that controlling the emotions also controls the circulation, she would wish never to be angry again.

It is worth while for us to profit by this observation; and if it chances that we are the object of her wrath, we shall do well to curb the natural reflex which will make our face as black as hers, and we shall maintain the role of spectator, disinterested and unaffected.

When real improvement has taken place in these directions there is not only a change in the manner of thinking, but a noticeable change of personality, which includes control of the body likewise. Indeed, to control the body or mind alone is to manage only one horse of a team.

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3 laws of memory or of thinking that you must know

There are 3 laws of memory or of thinking that you must know if you are serious about developing a sharp memory.

The first and principal thing the pupil requires to do in this lesson after learning the definition of thefollowing Three Laws - is to be able to clearly understand the examples under each Law, and whether they verify or illustrate that Law.

LAW I
INCLUSION indicates that there is an overlapping of meaning between two words, or that there is a prominent idea or sound that belongs to both alike, or that a similar fact or property belongs to two events or things as, to enumerate a few classes:- Whole and Part -

(Earth, Poles) (Ship, Rudder) (Forest, Trees)
(Air, Oxygen) (House, Parlor) (Clock, Pendulum)
(Knife, Blade) (India, Punjab) (14, 7) (24, 12)
Genus and Species. - (Animal, Man) (Plant, Thyme)
(Fish, Salmon) (Tree, Oak) (Game, Pheasant)
(Dog, Retriever) (Universal Evolution, Natural Selection)
(Silver Lining, Relief of Lucknow)
(Empress Queen, Victoria) (Money, Cash)

Abstract and Concrete. [The same Quality appears both in the Adjective and in the Substantive.] -
(Dough, Soft.) (Empty, Drum.) (Lion, Strong.)
(Eagle, Swift.) (Courage, Hero.) (Glass, Smoothness.)
(Gold, Ductility.) (Sunshine, Light.) (Fire, Warmth.)

Similarity of Sound.
(Emperor, Empty.) (Salvation, Salamander.)
(Hallelujah, Hallucination.) (Cat, Catastrophe.)
(Top, Topsy.)
[Inclusion by sound is not punning.]

Simple Inclusion embraces cases not found in either of the foregoing classes, but where there is something in common between the pairs, as
(Church, Temple.) (Pocket, Black Hole.)

LAW II
EXCLUSION means Antithesis. One word excludes the other, or both words relate to one and the same thing, but occupy opposite positions in regard to it, as

(Riches, Poverty.) (Hot, Cold.) (Old, Young.)
(Damp, Dry.) (Life, Death.) (Love, Hate.) (Joy, Sorrow.)
(Courage, Cowardice.) (Health, Sickness.)
(Righteous, Wicked.) (Beauty, Ugliness.) (Peace, War.)

LAW III
CONCURRENCE is the sequence or co-existence of impressions or ideas that have been either accidentally or causally together. It is either the accidental conjunction of experiences or the operation of cause and effect; since even in the latter case, it is merely the sensuous facts of immediate succession that we know about, as

(Gravitation, Newton, Apple.)
(Dives, Lazarus, Abraham, Bosom.) (Pipe, Tobacco.)
(Michaelmas, Goose.) (Columbus, America.)
(Bartholomew Diaz, Cape of Good Hope.)
(Grandmother, Knitting) (Socrates, Hemlock.)
(Bruce, Spider.) (Nelson, Trafalgar.)
(Demosthenes, Seashore, Stammering, Pebbles.)
(Job, Patience.) (Wedding, Slippers, Cake.)
(Wellington, Bonaparte, Waterloo.)
(Depression, Fall of Silver.) (Lightning, Thunder.)

In the case of the following pairs, one word has been so often appropriated to the other, that there seems to be something in common in the meaning of the terms - but it is not so, they are mere cases of Concurrence, but of almost indissoluble Concurrence.

For instance, a man might examine a "spade" in all its parts and might even make one after a model, and not even know what "dig" means. The mention of "dig" is as likely to make us think of pickaxe as of spade. "Spade" does not mean "dig" nor does "dig" mean spade. "Dig" merely means the action of the "spade," or the use to which it is put. Hence this pair of words does not furnish an example of Inclusion. But as "dig" is frequently appropriated to "spade" - as we have often thought of those words together - this is a case of strong Concurrence. The term "swoop" is almost exclusively applied to "eagle."

A certain action or movement of the eagle is termed swooping. But "eagle" does not mean "swoop," nor does "swoop" mean "eagle." We always think of "eagle" when we think of "swoop," but we do not often think of "swoop" when we think of "eagle." It is not In, but Con.

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