Time to talk of other things ...

The Macabre World of Figs and   Parasitic Pollinating Wasps Credit: Bon Appetit (no pun intended!) The lifecycle of the fig wasp reads like a macabre horror tale, yet it is often cited as a premier example of mutualism (the scientific name for plants that trade insect development for seed production). BBC Video by David Attenborough (not for the faint-hearted) Sometime back, I came across the intriguing snippet from the second episode of the BBC TV Natural History series Perfect Plant by the eminent British biologist and natural historian, Sir David Frederick Attenborough detailing the unique mutualism of figs and wasps - this prompted me to take a closer look at this unique relationship. Fig trees ( Ficus, Moraceae ) are tropical plants with numerous species around the world - so it might come as a surprise that all fig trees are pollinated by minuscule host-specific parasitic wasps of the family Agaonidae , each uniquely attached to one and only one type of fig, yet so small and i

 Fourteen Stations of the Mass Credit: Church of Jesus Christ Colorado Introduction ; We've all heard of the 14 Stations of the Cross repaying the passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross but have you wondered what the 14 Stations of the Mass might look like if someone were to map Scripture in support of our belief that Jesus Christ is the true Lamb of God who was sacrificed in the cross for the salvation of mankind ...  Credit: Redeeming God Station #1  Cain and Abel : The sacrifice of a lamb by Abel, not the harvest from the field by Cain, is the one favoured by God (Genesis 4:3-9), foreshadowing Jesus the Lamb of God as the perfect sacrifice re-enacted in the form of a Mass. Credit: HPR Web Station #2.  Melchizedek, Priest and King of Salem , offers a gift of bread and wine to win favour from Abraham who then shares his bounty with him (Psalm 76:20) - Jesus was from the tribe of Judah not the priestly tribe of Levi yet he is the perfect sacrifice favoured by God w

 Come, let's get to know the inspirational lives of the Twelve Apostles (and then some more) Credit: Believers Eastern Church   The word " Apostle " is derived from the Greek " Apostello "  which translates to “ to send forth ” or “ to dispatch ”, to spread the Gospel (literally 'good news' that Jesus is our saviour).  The twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ were hand-picked by him. ' You didn’t choose me. I chose you . ( John 15:16 ) And again , " It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named apostles ." ( Luke 6:12-13 ).  We find the names of the disciples in the Gospel books of Matthew 10:2-4 , Mark 3:14-19 and Luke 6:13-16 .  Why Twelve Apostles?  In the Bible, certain numbers, like three, seven, twelve and forty, have a special meaning.  The number twelve in Scripture symbolizes the