Texas Tarantula
Indian Ornamental Tarantula
Black Widow
Hissing Cockroach
Giant Cockroach

What's Bugg'n You!

Invertebrates comprise the majority of all living animals on our planet.  We have a love-hate relationship with most insects, arachnids and other creepy crawlies.

They pollinate the plants that produce our food, they bite and sting us, they invade and sometimes eat our homes!!  But at the end of the day we would be in serious trouble without the vast number of insect species that share our planet with us.

Rain Forest Adventures is home to some really creepy looking bugs as well as their eight legged distant relatives the arachnids.

Since our insect and arachnid collection varies from season to season be prepared to see almost anything!!

Hissing Cockroach
Death head Cockroaches
Indian Ornamental Tarantula
Rose Hair Tarantula
Emperor Scorpion

Range: Madagascar

Habitat: Moist regions of Madagascar

Natural Diet: Vegetation , fruit and some protein

Diet at RainForest: Vegetable matter , supplemented with cat food.

Size: 2-4"'

Rainforest Facts: Fossil records indicate the cockroach has been on earth for at least 350 million years, these incredibly successful creatures live in all warm regions of the world.  Contrary to popular myth the cockroach does not spread disease, but is capable of producing allergic reactions in certain people.  The Madagascar hissing cockroach appears to give birth to live babies, in fact the female retains the eggs in her body and allows them to develop there.  Known for their ability to make an audible noise the hissing roach is now commonly kept as a pet!

Status in Wild: Stable

Range: Brazil

Habitat: Forested Regions

Natural Diet: Vegetation , fruit and some protein

Diet at RainForest: Vegetable matter , supplemented with cat food

Size: 2-4"'

Status in Wild: Stable

Range: India

Habitat: Dense RainForest

Natural Diet: Insects

Diet at RainForest: Crickets

Size: 3-6"'

Status in Wild: Declining due to loss of habitat

Range: Chili, South America

Habitat: Desert Regions

Natural Diet: Insects, small vertebrates

Diet at RainForest: Crickets, cockroaches

Size: 2-4"'   Females are substantially larger than males.  Females are capable of living for over 20 years, males average approximately 4-5 years.

Status in Wild: Stable, however continued pressure may result in a serious decline in wild populations.  This spider is still imported in very large numbers for the pet trade.    Captive breeding of this species of Tarantula is rare given the inexpensive cost of wild caught animals.

Range: Africa

Habitat: Forest regions

Natural Diet: Insects

Diet at RainForest: Crickets

Size: 2-4"'

RainForest Facts: Common belief holds that the scorpion is a deadly animal, Hollywood and urban myths have perpetuated this belief.  The truth is the sting of the vast majority of scorpions is equivalent to a bee sting.  While there are a handful of scorpions capable of delivering a serious sting, they are generally not found in close proximity to human habitation.

Status in Wild: Stable

Free Coupon School Programs, Group Event, Shop RainForest, Rainforest  Animals, Smoky Mtn Links,


Science Fiction Futures

Thank you for visiting our page.

This short questionnaire asks you to give an example of one future fiction (novel, short story, interactive fiction, graphic novel, etc....) that has interested you or inspired you. This is an opportunity for you to reflect on science fiction futures and how they make you think about the future and the science that might get us there.

The answer you provide will be used as data for the Prospecting Futures research project. You will remain anonymous in any reports, conference papers or publications resulting from this project. For ethical reasons this survey is only open to over-18s.

To complete the survey give an example of a science fiction text that you particularly enjoyed and give a short explanation of what you found interesting about this example and the future world it imagines:

If you would like to be involved in further research please leave a contact email address in the field provided, and we will contact you with the intention of conducting a more detailed follow-up interview. For further information please contact lead researcher Dr. Amy C. Chambers

Prospecting Futures
(Optional) Male, Female, Other, Prefer not to say

Click here to download our flyer.


You Don’t Have To Live In Fear Of Your Anxiety

People often take stress lightly and say that it’s simply part of life. However, when too much stress turns into anxiety, the symptoms can be overwhelming. If you are feeling overwhelmed by constant anxiety, then this article can help. Here are several easy ways that you can reduce your everyday anxiety.

Manage your daily stress to keep your running anxiety away. The more stress you are under, the more anxiety you will experience. You need to learn how to delegate tasks, which helps relieve the stress and pressures from work and home. Be sure that you also take the time to relax after doing things.

The doctor is a strong ally for anxiety sufferers. With more advanced treatments and medications that you can use, you can deal with anxiety. An appointment with your doctor can be a powerful step in finding an effective treatment.

Anxiety can disrupt your normal breathing, so learning breathing techniques can be really helpful in regaining control. Count to yourself and breathe in as you allow feelings of relaxation to flow inside your body. To get the best results, choose a quiet, relaxing spot to do your breathing exercises.

Think of your worst fear and tell a trusted person about it, exaggerating as much as possible when you tell them. After telling someone your greatest fear, you can sometimes view it from a much different perspective.

Limit the time that you spend reading the paper or watching the news if current events make you anxious. To stay up-to-date on current events without increasing your anxiety, find a news channel that broadcasts positive features in addition to negative stories.

When you wake up in the morning you should take the time to say several positive affirmations aloud to yourself. Tell yourself how you want the day to go. Do what you can to have the day end up that way.

Set goals for yourself every day. Keep focusing on your daily goal. This keeps your mind preoccupied so that you can’t start to think negative thoughts and induce an anxiety attack.

Think about what is positive in your life. Every night and every morning write down some of these things. The positive thoughts will help keep the negative thoughts out of your mind, alleviating some of the negative emotions that feed your anxiety.

When people are anxious, they often crave salt. That is because the body may be telling you to have more salt to satisfy its sodium requirements. Try using sea salt as it is unprocessed, has trace minerals which your body needs and is easy to digest.

To compensate for a tendency to breathe too fast during an anxious period, practice deep breathing exercises routinely so they are second nature when you need them. When anxiety becomes especially intense, the tendency is to hyperventilate, breathing rapidly and shallowly. Instead, you should breathe deeply, from the diaphragm. You can lessen your anxiety by taking in full, deep breaths, and make sure your abdomen rises and falls.

Without proper medical care or support, anxiety may control your life. As you understand that it’s merely a mental state you can adjust by making positive changes in your daily life, you could begin walking the road leading to recovery. Use the advice provided here, and stay positive about your situation.


A Beginners Guide To Origami

Guide to Origami, the Japanese Form of Paper Craft Origami is a paper craft that uses a single sheet of paper to product aesthetically pleasing, three-dimensional pieces. This Japanese form of paper craft is done using a single piece of paper which you need to fold, bend, open so that different forms and shapes are made. The meaning of the word ‘origami’ is simply folded paper. The origin of origami is not known, but it can be traced back to the ancient times in Japan when formal documents were intricately folded. It has taken a passing on of the technique of folding paper from one generation to another that it has reached to this day. IT was the parents who taught their children origami, and when these children grew up, they taught their children also, and so on. And this is why until this day, origami is still around. In order to classify origami, they divided into two which are the traditional origami and the creative origami. Paper is used to create simple forms in the traditional origami, and these shapes include frogs, boats, balloons, insects, and plants. IN creative origami, you create more complex and elaborate designs from paper including buildings, cars, airplanes, dinosaurs, etc. The principles of origami are being used today by architects and engineers in order to build their prototypes of structures or automobiles before they actually makes the real thing. Origami is also used by health providers and clinical psychologists as an art activity for the elderly, handicapped, and mentally deranged persons as an effective tool for rehabilitation. If you are going to produce an origami piece, there are some important points that you need to remember.
Doing Resources The Right Way
An origami piece can be created from a square piece of paper. Adhesives and cutting tools are not necessary. You may use colorful paper to increase the aesthetic appeal of your work. Tolerance and patience should be possessed by the artist when making the art piece The rules of folding a paper should be followed strictly. When folding paper, corners and edges of the paper should match precisely. You should create tight folds. If you are making a triangle, you should hold the two diagonal corners together firmly and exactly between your thumb and first finger and then fold the base with your other hand. Folding and unfolding paper produces crease which are require in some shapes done in the next steps. Sometimes you need to curl the paper, pleat it, rolled, pinched, pushed in, blown open, or turned over to create the shapes.
A 10-Point Plan for Options (Without Being Overwhelmed)
Any type of paper can be used to produce origami art work like newspapers, wrapping paper, bond paper, and other types of paper. The attractiveness and beauty of the final work is not dependent only on the folding technique but also on the type of paper used.


Embodied Leadership Mentoring

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Come stand in your power: Step up into your leadership and full power with moral courage & Big heart. You are here at the greatest time in human history. You must ask why & live into your potential for the good of all.

Countless women are hiding their deep gifts because they're waiting on the weight, giving their power away to others, or not owning their full value. They’re wasting valuable energy and creativity that could be used to serve our world at this time. We're locked in these prisons of our own making, keeping us from living fully. Our thoughts, actions and unhealthy obsessions are keeping us shackled. Imagine if even 10 percent of the time we spent thinking about our bodies, weight, and pleasing others could go towards solutions for healing our world?  What a difference it would make if women started focusing on fulfilling their potential instead. What an uprising of the Feminine that would create!

As my dear soul sister & mentor Rha Goddess has said, “In these tumultuous times, our mother planet is beseeching women of all ages, cultures, and dimensions to awaken, reintegrate, and honor our most precious gifts in service of ourselves and the most high."

The journey of Embodied Leadership Mentoring is about stripping away all the constraints that society, family and others have put on us in order to come back to our bodies' own truth so we can discover what will best serve us, our vessels, and our lives. It’s making a choice to no longer accept the rules as they’re given and instead reinventing them so that ourbodies, hearts and souls can finally be deeply nourished.

Ultimately, it’s a journey to reclaiming our own inherent Divinity and living from a place of deep inner alignment to help heal ourselves and our ailing world. Together we can move towards an embodied women’s leadership that will help us to create the more beautiful world our hearts knows is possible and that our souls are yearning to create.

Deep Dive Discovery

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Come innovate your own life & claim your deep gifts on the forefront of the world stage. Awaken your inner creatrix & come fully ALIVE! Claim your deep gifts to meet the world's deep needs and unleash your full soul expression on the world. You are unique. There will never be another you!

The Deep Dive Discovery Session enables individuals to lead more heart-centered, morally courageous and soulfully authentic businesses and lives. Think of me as your own personal & soulful strategist.  You'll be able to tap into my BIG visionary mind and tough-love, spiritually-minded business & life design consulting -- which artfully combines life-changing rituals, powerful tools and practices, deep inquiry, and compassionate hustling -- to help you align your life with heart and spirit, so you can LIVE, LOVE, LEAD, SERVE & Sparkle SHAMELESSLY® in the world.  You will open up to parts of yourself you may not have even been aware of, discover diverse strengths, realign with your soul's deep longings, and walk away with actionable steps to get started on your journey to living a life you totally LOVE! I invite you to step into your full creative and (r)evolutionary potential for the good of all!

Investment: $399 - This package includes my proprietary Deep Dive Discovery Workbook and a two hour Skype or phone session with me.

Sacred Art Immersion

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Come be fiercely authentic: Speak up with your powerful voice and fierce authenticity. Let your wildness out. Remember that someone out there needs you. You must live your life so they can find you.

Your Life, Your Canvas, Your Masterpiece is a Sacred Art Immersion to Unleash Your Inner Wild Creative Self to Serve the World. I am deeply committed to being a companion on your spiritual journey & serving as an advocate for your personal freedom of expression so you can own your agency in the world. To this end, my spiritual immersions help call you back to your own soul through a combination of expressive art, movement, depth inquiry, sisterhood, soul support & deep ritual. I have been called a 'midwife of the soul' by many. This is a powerful container for your transformation.

I’m translating ancient techniques into modern practices that you can use on a daily basis to transform and live in greater harmony with your soul’s purpose. Overall, each immersion helps you experience your world in a more wildly creative and deeply sacred way so you can live into the fullness of your Being. For I believe that our life is our canvas and it's our responsibility to make it a masterpiece for the good of all.


Wrongness, Rightness, and The Academics who never believed the Earth was flat.

Why should you read this:

This post is going to be a little different. I am going to write this one a bit more casually, and that may mean there will be some pg-13 language involved. If you are offended by that type of thing, I apologize in advance. Disclaimer aside, this article is going to cover a pretty broad range. It is not addressing a single small topic, but instead addresses a common argument I run into while discussing science with the public. I will go through that argument bit by bit and talk about some of the flaws, and provide some insights into the scientific method. Prepare yourself for some verbal adventure, and dive right in!

The Story:

We start this story with you. Not the real you, but the hypothetical You. Got that? Just imagine yourself, but a story version of yourself. A You that is compelled to do what the plot says you are going to do. If ninjas attack the story You, it doesn’t matter what you would do in real life, because the hypothetical You in the story is compelled to do whatever the story says. I think you have it now, so please don’t be offended that I’m going to make story You sound like a total jerk!

Continue reading Wrongness, Rightness, and The Academics who never believed the Earth was flat.

A Man With a Gun – A Man With a Sneeze

Why should I read this:

The Story:

Imagine him harboring no I’ll will against his fellow man.


Saturday, June 21, 2014

Tammuz: Forgiveness (In the merit of the kidnapped teens)

Dear Friends,

This is a post about the Jewish month of Tammuz, as it relates to The Chazak Plan: A 12 Month Journey to Spiritual Strength.

Rosh Chodesh Tammuz begins Friday night, June 27th and lasts for two days, Shabbat and Sunday.

On the 17th of Tammuz we fast to commemorate the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the First Temple. This is the beginning of the period known as The Three Weeks which ends next month on Tisha B’Av, the day we mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The Sages teach that a key reason the Messiah has not yet come to rebuild the Temple is because of the sin of hating one’s fellow Jew.

Especially now, when three of our own are being held hostage by terrorists, we must come together as a people and let go of hatred and infighting.

As a merit for their safe and speedy release, pick one person from whom you are estranged or feel bitterness toward, and take the first step to peace or to removing some of the bitterness from your heart.

The first article below discusses how to forgive others and the second, how to forgive ourselves. If you find one form of forgiveness particularly challenging, start with the other one. The third article is an updated and retitled version of a previous post about how to respond to a crisis.

The Freedom of Forgiveness: 3 Strategies to Letting Go

Discover Your Inner Peace

4 Steps to an Effective Response to Someone Else’s Crisis

Take care, may we hear good news soon and may God grant us success in the coming month,

Please forward this post to family and friends who may be interested in it.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

How to Respond Effectively to a Crisis or Tragedy

Often, when we hear about a crisis or tragedy, we feel helpless. After all, what can we do? But there is a way to respond effectively. Here are three steps how.

1. Do what you can to help. Assistance can be divided into four areas. Sometimes, we can only help in one or two areas, other times, in all four:

a. Spiritual. Choose something to do in the merit of those affected. For example, each day, say an extra Psalm, give extra charity, do an extra mitzvah or be extra careful to avoid a sin.

b. Financial. A crisis can quickly throw a family or individual into debt, with people needing to take time off from work and incurring additional expenses. Offering an interest free loan, a cash gift or directing them to organizations that help people in their circumstance, can be a real lifeline. (As best you can, support those organizations.)

c. Material. Cook or shop for them, or invite them for Shabbat meals. Carpool, offer to watch their kids or take the kids on an outing. If you do not know the people personally, see if you can find someone you know in common to ask them if they are interested in your help.

While giving guidance can sometimes be helpful, do not offer unsolicited advice. First determine if they are interested; people can easily become overwhelmed by an onslaught of well-intentioned suggestions.

Those in crisis are more likely to accept your offer of assistance if you are specific. Say, “Can I do X for you?” instead of, “If you need me for anything, you have my number.” Talk with them to identify the areas that would be most helpful for them, and respect their decision if they are not currently interested in your assistance. You can ask them again at a later date, if you think they may be open to it then.

d. Emotional. Just offering a shoulder to lean on or a listening ear goes a long way. We often overlook the importance of this type of help, but to people going through pain, the emotional support of family and friends is essential.

We need to have two phases of help. The first phase is in the beginning, when we do whatever we can to stabilize the crisis. Then comes the second phase, when we figure out how much help we can offer on an ongoing basis without depleting ourselves or ignoring other responsibilities.

Enlist the help of others and coordinate who does what. This will ensure that no one person is overburdened and that the people receive the help they need for as long as they need.

Our goal is to help people get back on their feet and help themselves, to the extent they can. With our encouragement and assistance, people can often do much more than they or we envisioned.

Some crises are loud – everyone knows about them. Others are silent and are easy to overlook, e.g., a person out of work or chronically ill, a family unable to pay their bills, a single having trouble finding a spouse, a child struggling in school or in a difficult family situation, or a teen at risk. They too require our attention and help. Use a “loud” crisis, especially a distant one that you are unable to be actively involved with, to motivate you to get involved with the “silent” crises taking place locally in your community; choose one and take the first step.

2. Look for ways to grow. No one knows for sure why crises or tragedies happen; only God does. But what we do know is that they are an opportunity for growth. Ask, “How can I grow from this? How can I use this to become a better person and stay focused on what’s really important in life?”

If nothing specific resonates with you, speak to your rabbi or spiritual mentor for guidance.

There is often an area in our lives where we have been sitting on the fence, either something we are doing we know is wrong and want to stop, or a mitzvah observance we want to strengthen. Use a crisis to propel you off the fence and make that one change you have been contemplating.

We frequently stumble in the area of interpersonal relationships. We may make excuses as to why it is okay to gossip about or hate certain people, why it is not a sin to cause them emotional or financial harm. But when a crisis strikes, all those excuses sound hollow and we realize how petty and wrong we were. Use a crisis as a catalyst to reach out to those from whom you are estranged or to those whom you have wronged. Take the first step toward peace or asking for forgiveness.

There are times when we pray intensely but the crisis continues. We cry out (Psalms 44:24), “Awaken! Why do you seem to sleep O Lord?” Often though, aren’t we the ones who are asleep and continue in our misguided ways? We need to wake ourselves up. Once we have changed for the better, we strengthen our prayers that God change the crisis for the better.

If a crisis turns into a tragedy, that does not mean we did not do enough or that our prayers were in vain. God’s ways are beyond us and no prayer is ever wasted. Good will come from those prayers; what and when we do not know.

3. Strengthen your faith. Having faith can help you be appropriately concerned about a crisis, without becoming consumed by it. If you are constantly checking the news, thinking about the crisis all the time, and walking around in a cloud of despair and worry – no one benefits; not you and not those affected.

With faith, we believe that God runs the world and that whatever happens – whether an outcome we want or one we dread – it will be for the ultimate good; everything will work out in the end, whether in this world or in the next (as long as we put in our best effort, especially spiritual ones). With faith, we cannot explain how things will work out, but we know they will. With faith, we know that God is by our side and that if we try to assist those in need and grow from a crisis, He will help us.

Although we may initially feel helpless when we hear about a crisis or tragedy, there is no time or reason for despair. We have work to do, and God will give us the strength we need to do it.


Deduction or construction. SCOTT ROBINSON discusses the pros and cons of generative and usage-based approaches to language learning

Understanding how children come to acquire language has been a great source of debate for many years.  From the nature or nurture debate to the much more detailed ideas on whether children are an active or passive part of language development, there is a lot to be said.  When it comes to language acquisition there are two main approaches, generativist and usage-based. According to the generativist theory, “all human children innately possess a universal grammar, abstract enough to structure any language of the world” (M. Tomasello, K. Abbot-Smith, 2002, p.207).  There are two processes in this model – “acquiring all the words, idioms, and quirky constructions of the particular language being learned; and linking the particular language being learned to the abstract universal grammar” (M. Tomasello, K. Abbot-Smith, 2002, p.207). As this is allegedly innate, grammar develops continually, which is different to that proposed by of the usage-based theorists. Tomasello, who is one of the key exponents of the usage-based theory, points out that in fact “children are not very productive with their early language, suggesting that they do not possess the abstract linguistic categories and schemas necessary to effortlessly generate infinite numbers of grammatical sentences” (M. Tomasello, K. Abbot-Smith, 2002, p.207). These are the differences in the theories which are debated most.

Tomasello assumed a constructivist approach to language acquisition. Ambridge and Lieven (2011, p 123) claim that according to constructivists, “language is an inventory of constructions of various sizes and various levels of abstraction, each of which serves some communicative or socio-pragmatic function”. Constructivism argues language is likely to be acquired through a development of the understanding of forms (syntactic categories such as nouns and verbs) through the function of meaning.  In more detail, the usage-based theory focuses “on the specific communicative events in which people learn and use language” (M. Tomasello, 2000, p.61). He argues that sufficient input is required for a child to acquire language and detracts away from the notion of innateness. This is highlighted in his response to Lidz et al, who argued that input for children does not generate sufficient information to support unaided learning and attempts to support the contribution of innateness. In his response to Lidz et al’s  (2003) study, he highlights that in a forced choice situation, eighteen month old children think the phrase ‘another one’ goes best with another object, near identical to the one they’ve just seen other than one that is a different colour (M. Tomasello, 2004, p.140). By highlighting this he is trying to prove this shows nothing of a child’s understanding of the nested structure of noun phrases or innate linguistic knowledge, and that only non-linguistic experiences are shown in the study (M. Tomasello, 2004, p.140).

The usage based approach can be summarised in two principles, the first being ‘meaning is use’ which “represents an approach to the functional or semantic dimension of linguistic communication” (M. Tomasello, 2008, p.69). This idea stems from philosophers of language who wanted to combat the idea that meanings are things in themselves and focus on how people use linguistic conventions to achieve social ends. The second is ‘structure emerges from use’ which “represents an approach to the structural or grammatical dimension of linguistic communication” (Tomasello,2008, p.69).  The theory places emphasis on pre-linguistic communication. It is important to start by exploring the communicative function in the usage based view. Human infants communicate in rather sophisticated ways prior to acquiring any linguistic conventions: e.g. nearly all infants communicate by pointing before they acquire productive language. For Tomasello this suggests “that all human pointing and other gestures may already embody forms of social cognition and communicative motivation that are unique to the species, and that are necessary as a first step on the way to linguistic conventions both phylogenetically and ontogenetically” (M. Tomasello,2008, p.70). This stands opposed to the generativist approach, which because they believe it is innate, “universal grammar does not develop ontogenetically but is the same throughout the life span…” (M. Tomasello, 2002, p.207).

SCOTT ROBINSON, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Ambridge, B., & Lieven, E. V. M. (2011). Child language acquisition: contrasting theoretical approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tomasello, M., Abbot-Smith, K., (2002) A tale of two theories: response to Fisher’, Cognition 83, pp.207 – 214.

Tomasello, M. (2004) ‘Syntax or semantics? Response to Lidz et al.’, Cognition 93, pp.139-140.

Tomasello, M. (2000) ‘First steps toward a usage-based theory of language acquisition’, Cognitive Linguistics 11-1/2, pp.61-62.

Tomasello, M. (2008) ‘The Usage-based theory of language acquisition’. In Bavin, E, (Ed.) The Cambridge handbook of child language (2008), pp.69-88.

Is grammar squished into our head from birth or built up slowly from usage? HANNAH SADLER gets cerebral

Whether infants learn language from absorbing the chit-chat of their caregivers or from an innate mechanism in those complicated, squishy things in our heads has been an ongoing and baffling debate for centuries. If you take this question to the internet or to the books, they will both come back at you with ample theories and theorists. But before I try to steer you to the empiricist side of the debate, I feel that it is only fair I give you an overview of what the other side is saying about language learning.

Ambridge and Lieven (2011, p. 1) explain that whilst there are many competing proposals, each will generally be aligned with one of two major theoretical approaches. These are: (a) the nativist, generativist, Universal Grammar (UG) approach and; (b) the empiricist, constructivist, usage-based approach. The most appropriate term to use will depend on the precise nature of the proposal.

The (a) approaches are associated with likes of Chomsky who argued that speakers must possess a system or set of rules that allows them to understand and use grammar correctly (1959, cited by; Ambridge and Lieven, 2011, p. 105). He famously illustrated this point with the following pair of sentences:

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
* Sleep green colorless furiously ideas.

Although you have probably never been exposed to either of these sentences before due to their nonsensical nature (unless you are already familiar with this example), your knowledge of English still allows you to determine that the first sentence is grammatical (it is a possible sentence in English despite how bizarre it may sound), whereas the second is not (Ambridge and Lieven, 2011, pp. 104-105). However, I couldn’t agree more with Saxton’s view that ‘[i]f your eyebrows shoot up at this idea, you are not alone.’ He claims that there are many who find this notion deeply implausible (2010, p. 187).

Those in favour of the (b) approaches are not fond of grammar being innate. Instead they believe that it is possible to learn grammar. Ambridge and Lieven (2011, p. 126) explain that learning construction grammar is a gradual process. They propose that the SUBJECT VERB OBJECT transitive constructions do not need to be learned all in one go. The child will learn phrases such as ‘I’m kicking it’, ‘I’m hitting it’ and ‘I’m eating it’  directly from the input and will then schematize to form an ‘I’m ACTIONing it’ schema. Theorists refer to this notion as a lexically specific or item-based construction (Ambridge and Lieven, 2011, p. 126).

This takes me on to my favourite guy in the area of language acquisition, Tomasello. Tomasello is a key thinker when it comes to the usage-based approach to language acquisition. Saxton explains that within the usage-based approach, three stages of early multi-word construction are recognized: word combinations, pivot schemas and item-based constructions (2010, pp. 213-215). Tomasello explains these in detail in his book Constructing a Language: A Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition (2003). Unlike Chomsky, Tomasello has put his ideas in writing in a fashion that has a fighting chance of keeping you awake.

So what is Tomasello saying about grammar? In terms of item-based constructions he explains the what and the why. What are infants doing? They are producing transitive utterances around their second birthdays which are verb specific. He claims that there is abundant evidence to support this and even refers to his own daughter, explaining that all of her early multi-word utterances revolved around specific verbs (2003, p. 117). However, some verbs were used in quite simple constructions (‘cut’____) and some in more complex frames of different types (‘Draw ____ ‘, ‘Draw ____ on ____’ , Draw ____ for ____’ , ‘____ draw on ____’) (Tomasello, 2003, p. 117). Why do infants do this? Because of what they are exposed to linguistically. The usage-based approach assumes that infants will most easily acquire the words and constructions that they hear most frequently (Ambridge and Lieven, 2011, pp. 2-3).

Unfortunately we may never have a certain, flawless answer to how we acquire language. However, to put language learning “on a par with the elements of our common nature that causes us to grow arms and legs rather than wings” (Chomsky, 1988, p. 4 cited by; Saxton, 2010, p. 187) seems a less logical, small-minded and archaic view to have in terms of language acquisition.

HANNAH SADLER, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Saxton, M. (2010). Child language: acquisition and development. London: SAGE.
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. London: Harvard University Press.

Grown-up grammars and creative constructions. RACHEL BREEDON explores modern theories of child language acquisition

Whilst helping children work their way through the early stages of language, we may not recognise the effort that little ones put in to making those wonderful half-formed sentences. They make it look easy, but whilst they’re babbling away, most of us are unaware of the controversy surrounding this verbal miracle. How exactly do these tiny humans piece together and learn a language so fast and efficiently?

It is apparent that the ability to learn language is innate for humans specifically. Without delving too deeply into the realm of animal linguistics, one characteristic that separates human language from animal languages is the ability to make brand new, novel utterances. To do this though, we need some sort of grammar to be able to combine words and express features such as tense (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011, p. 103). This is where theories of language acquisition generally divide into one of two approaches; generative or constructivist, each with their own ideas of what the nature of this grammar is and where it comes from.

According to generative grammar theory, all children have an innate universal grammar. They believe the capacity to learn language is ‘hardwired’ into our brains in what Chomsky calls a language acquisition device (LAD), explaining our instinct for learning language. Generativists also hold the continuity assumption (Pinker, 1984), which suggests that universal grammar is the same throughout people’s life-span, assuming young children have the syntactic competence of adults.  Acquiring language according to the generativist view can be simplified into two processes; learning the words and constructions of the language, then linking the learned language to the abstract universal grammar (Tomasello, 2002, p. 207). Taking an example from Ambridge & Lieven (2011, p. 123), to form the sentence ‘John kicked Bill’ a speaker would retrieve the verb ‘kick’ from their lexicon or mental dictionary and see that it needs a kicker (subject) and a kickee (object). They’d then insert ‘John’ and ‘Bill’ in their subject and object positions and voilà! Sentence formed according to generativists.

However, this theory relying on selection struggles to account for the formation of certain sentence types. For example, “he sneezed the napkin off the table” would mean you would have to have a caused-motion meaning in your mental dictionary for the verb ‘sneezed’, which most of us have only encountered in intransitive sentences with no object, such as ‘he sneezed’ (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011, p.125). We don’t often encounter someone sneezing something to a place, so how would a child work out what that means?

This is where the constructivist approach emerges. A construction according to Goldberg (1995, p. 4) is “a form-meaning pair such that some aspect of the form or some aspect of the function is not strictly predictable from the construction’s component parts”. In simpler terms, the construction or word pattern itself adds meaning. For example, in an English transitive construction such as the kicking example from before, a form (NOUN1 VERB NOUN2) is associated with a function (A acts upon B, causing B to be affected in some way) (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011, p. 124). From the components ‘kicked’, ‘Bill’ and ‘John’ alone it isn’t possible to tell who was the kicker and kickee, but when inserted into the construction the meaning emerges.

Once a child notices that certain forms are associated with particular functions, they are motivated to learn that construction, especially when talking about their own actions. SUBJECT VERB OBJECT transitive constructions can be learned bit by bit, as the first step is to learn simple phrases such as ‘I’m hitting it’ and ‘I’m eating it’ directly from adult input (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011, p. 125). From these, children form an I’m ACTIONing it schema into which they can insert any action they learn the lexical item for. These are item-based constructions and are easily learned from the input of others, relating to simple functions that the child understands. Tomasello found that most of children’s early linguistic competence is item-based and develops in a piecemeal fashion. He provides evidence to contrast the generativist continuity assumption, suggesting there is virtually no evidence of an innate, system-wide adult-like grammar in children and proposing his own usage-based theory of language acquisition (Tomasello, 2000, p. 209).

However, even that study received criticism (Fischer, 2002), and so the dispute continues. It seems obvious that item-based schemas such as ‘I’m ACTIONing it’ could generate children’s early sentences. The challenging part is deciding whether they do, or whether we’re born with these abstract rules and just have to match our experiences up with them. Either way, innate or acquired, baby humans certainly have a knack for grammar.

RACHEL BREEDON, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Ambridge, B., & Lieven, E. V. M. (2011). Child language acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fischer, C. (2002). The role of abstract syntactic knowledge in language acquisition: a reply to Tomasello (2000). Cognition, 82, pp. 259-278.

Goldberg, A. E. (1995). Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.

Pinker, S. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.

Tomasello, M. (2000). Do young children have adult syntactic competence? Cognition, 74, pp. 209-253.

Blank slate or language acquisition device. MADDI SYMES explores the language acquisition battleground

From hair colour to height, gender to complexion – we all have characteristics which have been determined biologically. Whilst these characteristics are undeniably innate, there are many human traits which are not quite so straightforward; aggression, intelligence, our unique ability to communicate through language. This longstanding debate had existed since Francis Galton coined the phrase ‘nature versus nurture’ in 1869 (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013, p. 90). Human beings have come so far in scientific discoveries, from black holes to cancer treatments, so why is it we still don’t know whether language is innate or learnt? Well, allow me to break it all down for you!

Rationalist René Descartes (1641; cited by Hunt, 2003, p. 32) argued that we have ‘innate ideas’ whilst empiricist John Locke (1689; cited by Sherman, 2013, p. 26) famously attacked Descartes claim, stating that the human mind ‘begins’ or enters the world in a blank state (tabula rasa) – knowledge being acquired through posteriori – through experience and observations. From an epistemological point of view, we have capacities to acquire language but clearly have no ability to develop it as we do this in early in life. Tabula rasa, although tenable in this sense, is simply not true. In the light of contemporary science it is evident that we begin life with certain characteristics that characterise ‘human nature’. Evolutionary, biological instincts and that are studied within the discipline of ‘evolutionary psychology’.

When exploring this debate with regards to language we find there are two major schools of thought – nativists and functionalists. Nativists believe that some aspects of linguistic knowledge are innate, meaning they are present at birth (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011, p. 1-3). Holding up a fight for nativism is generativist Noam Chomsky (1976). Generativists believe knowledge of grammar consists of formal ‘rules’ that operate on abstract linguistic categories. Chomsky (1976; cited by Kearns, 2010, p. 174) argues that these rules are innate and that we all have inbuilt, instinctive ‘universal principles’ and rules for grammar. He calls this our ‘Language Acquisition Device’ (LAD) which is activated when children are exposed to language (Chomsky, 1976; cited by Kearns, 2010, p. 174). If only it was that simple, Chomsky!

On the other side of the battle ring is Tomasello (2005; cited by Workman and Reader, 2014, p. 303), a leading figure in the functionalist camp. Functionalists argue that the ability to learn language is innate, but there is no innate knowledge of grammar, and grammatical categories are not a priori. Tomasello, a bit like Locke, believes we learn through exposure to adult speech.  A quote by Tomasello (2008) that I came across reading his chapter, ‘The Grammatical Dimension’ In Origins of Human Communication reads, “[a]lthough many aspects of human linguistic competence have indeed evolved biologically, specific grammatical principles and constructions have not” (p. 313) which I feel summarises the functionalist view well.

So far it seems to be a tie between the two contenders, so let’s step out of the battle ring and look at an experiment famously known as ‘the wug test’. I first came across the research a number of years ago when I was reading Davidson’s (2011) book Planet Worda great read by the way! Jean Berko Gleason (1958; cited by Davidson, 2011, p. 47) presented children with a picture of a ‘wug’, a nonsense word describing the creature in the picture to see whether the children made ‘wug’ into the plural ‘wugs’. The results suggested children’s ability to form such grammatical structures is varied and depends on the individual’s development (1958; cited by Davidson, 2011, p. 49). Nativists argue that this shows children do not simply imitate language as they can produce the correct grammatical forms for nonsense words they have not heard before (Barry, 2002, p. 184). However, there have been many criticisms of the ‘wug’ test, and could it be possible that children have actually acquired these grammatical rules and have learnt to generalise them?

Gleason has quite a middle ground opinion in believing that there are areas of the brain which are specialised for language and through hearing and experiencing language and by interacting with language users, coupled with the capacity for language, language is built in the brain (1958; cited by Davidson, 2011, p 49). Personally, I have to agree with Gleason’s (1958) view. I believe that the difficulty in concluding the on-going debate lies in the fact we cannot (yet) conduct experiments on new-born babies that would provide substantial evidence to prove which aspects of language are innate and which are acquired. Will it take breakthrough research to end this battle, or is it simply unanswerable?

MADDI SYMES, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Ambridge, B., & Lieven, E. V. M. (2011). Child Language Acquisition: Contrasting Theoretical Approaches. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Barry, A. (2002). Linguistic Perspectives on Language and Education. Connecticut, United States of America: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Cacioppo, J., & Freberg, L. (2013). Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind. Belmont, United States of America: Wadsworth.

Chomsky, N. (1976). On the nature of language. In S. R. Harnad, H. D. Steklis, & J. Lancaster (Eds.), Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech, 280, 46–57.

Davidson, J. P. (2011). Planet Word. London, United Kingdom: Michael Joseph.

Descartes, R. (1641). Meditations on first philosophies. In J. Cottingham, R.Stoothoff, & D. Murdoch (Eds.), The Principle Writings of Descartes. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Galton, F. (1869). Hereditary Genius. London, United Kingdom: Macmillan and   Co.

Hunt, S. (2003). Controversy in Marketing Theory: For Reason, Realism, Truth, and Objectivity. New York, United States of America: M. E. Sharpe.

Kearns, K. (2010). Frameworks for Learning and Development. Australia: Pearson.

Locke, J. (1689). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London, United Kingdom: William Tegg.

Sherman, P. (2012). John Locke: Philosopher of the Enlightenment. California, United States of America: Teacher Created Materials.

Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of Human Communication. London, United Kingdom: The MIT Press.

Workman, L., & Reader, W. (2014). Evolutionary Psychology (3rd ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Will we ever solve the language acquisition puzzle? LAURA TALBOT investigates

Language sets us apart. Animals communicate but they do not have anything approaching the sophisticated grammar of human languages. How is it that we learn to speak and think in language so easily? By the time we are five years old we have an, ‘[e]stimated vocabulary of 5,000-10,000 words’ (Anglin, 1993, p.147). But how do we acquire them? Young children become adept in a new language very quickly and since the dawn of philosophy, thinkers have argued about whether or not they are born with innate structures to prepare them for the task. So are children born with blank slates in terms of language or do they have an outline knowledge of how language is structured?

Two key theorists within this debate are nativist Noam Chomsky, who believes that “[c]ertain aspects of our knowledge and understanding are innate, part of our biological endowment, genetically determined, on a par with the elements of our common nature that causes us to grow arms and legs rather than wings” (Chomsky, 1988, p.4). Suggesting that just as children are born ‘innately’ with arms and legs, they are also born with innate structures that allow them to understand and acquire language. The opposing theorist is, constructivist Michael Tomasello, who claims that, “children acquire language first and foremost by understanding how others use language” (Tomasello, 2009, p.86). This posits that children understand and acquire language through the nurturing of the people surrounding them.

Looking firstly at the nativist approach, the key question is whether or not we have ‘innate principles’. Nativists claim that the rules for sentence structure are too complex to be acquired by a learner who comes to the task with no knowledge of the way that language is structured, hence Chomsky’s theory of ‘innate principles’. He believes that “the child is born with some innate principles about language ‘wired in’ to the brain” (Chomsky 1981 as cited in Cattel, 2007, p.82). He posits that this basic innate knowledge of sentence structure and grammar is present in all human children- hence it is a ‘universal grammar’. He states that “[UG] may be thought of as some system of principles, common to the species and available to each individual prior to experience” (Chomsky, 1981, p.7). Could this be possible, when all languages are made up of different grammar rules and structures? Chomsky argues that “individuals in a speech community have developed essentially the same language” (Pinker, 1994, p.23). Nativist Steven Pinker uses the following example to advocate Universal Grammar, claiming “[w]e think children pick up their mother tongue by imitating their mothers, but when a child says Don’t giggle me! or We holded the baby rabbits it cannot be an act of imitation” (Pinker, 1994, p.21). This coincides with the idea that children create their own sentences using their own rules and innate ‘Universal Grammar’ to guide them.

In his book The ‘Language Instinct Debate’ (2005) Geoffrey Sampson directly disputes Chomsky and Pinker’s theory of ‘Language Universals’. He claims that “Nativists have often made authoritative-sounding claims about language universals when it is clear that the claims could not have survived a minimal attempt to check for counter-evidence” (Sampson, 2005, p.138). Sampson believes that nativists, like Chomsky, make claims about language universals and base it on one example, without using further examples or evidence.

So what about the major influence of the child’s surroundings? Surely their environment growing up affects their language?

This takes us to the constructivist approach of language acquisition, which argues that, “[y]oung children must learn during their individual ontogenies the set of linguistic conventions used by those around them” (Tomasello, 2003, p.1). We spend the majority of our first three years of life surrounded by adults, so it makes sense that we are going to pick up their ‘linguistic conventions’ and build upon them. Constructivists fundamentally believe that language develops alongside and in connection with other social and cognitive skills which develop at, “around 9-12months of age” (Tomasello, 2003, p.3). So children will acquire language as they acquire the ability to interact in communication, make gestures, point, share the intentions of others and pursue shared goals. Therefore, language acquisition is part of the development of cognitive abilities and the knowledge of language is arguably derived from experience of the outside world.

After thousands of years of debate, will we ever get a definite answer as to how we acquire language? Aitchison attempts to answer the question by stating that “everyone agrees that human beings bring some innate faculties to the task of learning, and everyone agrees that the mature human’s cognitive world depends in some respect on his experience’ (Aitchison, 2011, p.28). Will theorists like Tomasello and Chomsky eventually join forces and reach a conclusion? The debate continues….

LAURA TALBOT, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Aitchison, J. (2011). The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. London: Routledge.

Anglin, J.M. (1993). “Vocabulary Development: A Morphological Analysis.” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 58(10 (238)): 1-166.

Cattell, R. (2007). Children’s Language: Consensus and Controversy. London: Continuum.

Chomsky, N. ‘Review of Verbal Behaviour by B.F. Skinner’. Language 35 (1):26-58.

Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. London: Penguin.

Sampson, G. (2005). The ‘Language Instinct’ Debate. London: Continuum.

Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing A Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Is language death just an inevitable result of natural evolutionary processes? ZAKA KHALID investigates

In recent times, the English Language has spread across the globe like wildfire, aided partly by its supposed simplicity, partly by its perceived usefulness and partly due to its status as a prestigious language. A language that began its life on a small island in the North Sea is now being taught in schools in far-away lands such as China and India. In fact, the popularity of English is now so high that it is often labelled as a ‘killer language’.  As David Crystal puts it, “English is a vacuum-cleaner of a language” (Crystal, 2000).

Recent estimates suggest that there are over 1.5 billion speakers of English, which equates to one quarter of the total population (Crystal, 2000). Native English speakers benefit greatly from this statistic, as it eliminates the need for them to spend their precious time grafting away learning a new language. Indeed, 75% of Britons are unable to speak a foreign language (Paton, 2013), though this is likely down to complacency, as suggested by recent figures which show a drop in the number of modern foreign languages being taken at A-level (Ratcliffe, 2013). When your language needs are catered for at every airport and every major city across the world, where is the incentive for Brits to learn French, German or Mandarin?

A phenomenon called linguistic imperialism refers to the transfer of a dominant language to other people. Robert Phillipson asserts that imperialism is a key factor in the emergence of English in postcolonial settings such as India and Pakistan. Additionally, he cites linguistic discrimination as another key factor in the prominence of English, (Phillipson, 1992). It is also suggested that  ‘English is the passport to success and upward social mobility’ and ‘English is the key to national progress’ are some common clichés that are interspersed; more importantly, these clichés reflect the perception of many people – both rich and poor – in discussing future life chances for their children (Shamim, 2011).

So whilst the entire world is seemingly rushing to learn English, and native English speakers are happy to rest on their laurels, smaller languages are finding themselves in a precarious position. It is estimated that 3,500 of the world’s languages (that’s around half of the total number of languages in the world!) are spoken by a minuscule 0.1% of the population (Harmon 1995, 2002; data source: Lewis et al. 2013). These languages vary in number of speakers, with the smallest ones being used by less than ten individuals, whilst the biggest are used by no more than ten thousand. According to UNESCO, ‘if nothing is done, half of 6,000 plus languages spoken today will disappear by the end of this century (Unesco, 2016). As the world trends towards cultural and economic globalisation, these languages are being abandoned by their speakers in favour of those which will offer them the greatest opportunities in life, such as English.

UNESCO uses the term ‘endangered’ when speaking about such languages, as if to say that language death is comparable to the extinction of animals. Most people would probably scoff at such a suggestion, but does the death of a language result in the loss of much more than just words?

It is widely agreed that language and culture are closely related, and it has been stated that ‘cultures have evolved in a particular environmental context, so they have an extraordinary amount of traditional ecological knowledge — knowledge of the local species, plants, animals, the medicinal uses of them, the migration patterns of animals behaviour’ (Rosenthal, 2014). This relationship can be given further credence when observing countries such as India, which is said to be home to over 100 million English speakers (The Times of India, 2010). The rise of English in India has paved the way for the rise of Western culture alongside it, with some Indians blaming Westernisation for the increase in single families and a decrease in the showing of respect amongst Indians (Khirbawhani, 2005).

Ultimately, language death could be seen as a form of evolution. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, due in part to economic and cultural trade as well as increasing access to technology, some things are bound to be lost in the transition. Whilst some languages will inevitably be killed off in the process – resulting in the loss of valuable cultural information – the huge array of opportunities that could potentially be accessed by those in possession of an international auxiliary language such as English is too big to ignore.

ZAKA KHALID, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Crystal, D. (2000). Energising Englishes. English Teaching Professional, 1(14),

Khirbawhani. (2005). Impact Of Westernization On Indian Culture. [Weblog]. Retrieved 28 January, 2016.

Paton, G. (2013). Daily Telegraph online Retrieved 28 January, 2016.

Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism . United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Ratcliffe, R. (2013). The Guardian. Retrieved 28 February, 2016.

Rosenthal, M.J. (2014). Public Radio International. Retrieved 28 January, 2016

Shamim, F. (2011). Dreams and Realities: Developing Countries and the English Language. Retrieved 28 January, 2016.

Unesco. (2016). Endangered languages. Retrieved 28 January, 2016.

The Times of India. (2010). Indiaspeak: English is our 2nd language. Retrieved 28 January, 2016.

RHIANNON SHARKEY asks: ‘Will we ever be able to answer the language acquisition question?’

The way children acquire language is a heavily debated topic in linguistics. However is it doomed to be a never-ending battle in which an answer is never found? As Cattell, (2007) states, we cannot begin to know what happens inside a child’s brain and there is no concrete evidence to say which approach pips the other to the finish line.

The empiricist approach emphasises the need for concrete evidence to support theories, which is why empiricists such as Geoffrey Sampson have problems with nativists such as Chomsky. Chomsky’s theories are notorious for only being hypotheses with no evidence to support them. Empiricists seem to contradict themselves because Stemmer, (1987: 100-105) states that they believe we are born with an innate capacity to learn language, but there is no prior knowledge there; we are a blank slate. Chomsky (1977) retaliated with the controversial view that this theory is dangerous, because it represents humans as empty organisms that are easily manipulated. Perhaps this is taking matters to the extreme, and to discuss this theory as being ‘useful’ from a left wing perspective is going off on a tangent.

Sampson (2005: 1-7) supports Karl Popper’s theory that we learn language through a guess and test technique. He uses the metaphor of a baby being a research scientist who accumulates creative ideas from their environment. The baby then sends them into the world to test them out, and this is how they become aware of guesses which are correct. However is this reducing the complex skill of language to basic trial and error? Perhaps it would be better to believe in theories such as Chomsky’s – that humans are unique with this inbuilt knowledge of language locked in our brain until it is triggered. Throughout my research I could not help but compare it to the debate between creation and evolution. Some people are able to have faith in certain ideals without the need for evidence, whereas others are the opposite. Does this determine whether you believe the nativist or empiricist side of this debate?

Furthermore at the forefront of the functionalist approach is the social constructivist, Michael Tomasello. This approach emphasises that “[c]hildren acquire language first and foremost by understanding how others use language” (Tomasello 2009: 86). It states that children learn a set of constructions from their caregiver called ‘frozen phrases’, such as ‘I’m eating it’ and pair it with a function such as ‘performing an action on something’. Over time they start to find patterns, which enable them to develop more complex and abstract constructions, for example ‘I’m ACTIONing it’ and ‘SUBJECT VERB OBJECT’ (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011: 125).

I agree that input is crucial to a child’s language development. Sampson (2005:1-22) sums it up for me in saying that we are able to learn language if we are born into the appropriate environment. There is a substantial difference in language development between children who are born into a normal socially stimulated environment and feral children such as Genie, who unfortunately do not have this opportunity.  This also supports the need for communication by caregivers, and is further supported in a study by Moskowitz. He studied a boy who had deaf parents, but he was not deaf. Up until three years old, the only way of learning English that he had was the television, as he was confined to his house due to severe asthma. It was found that by three years old he could not understand or speak English because this communicative element was missing (Kies, 1991). However the functionalist approach cannot explain everything, such as how organs develop. Nativists believe in the ‘language organ’ and Chomsky, (1977) states that organs develop due to a genetic program not to serve a function, for example the heart.

The two sides do not deny the importance of one another, they just argue over which is weighted more. The question is: will there come a time when both sides are so exhausted they will give in? This may leave the language acquisition question unanswered, much like questions such as the origins of human existence.

RHIANNON SHARKEY, English Language undergraduate, University of Chester, UK

Ambridge, B. & Lieven, E.V.M. (2011) Child Language Acquisition: Contrasting Theoretical Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cattell, R. (2007) Children’s Language: Consensus and Controversy. 2nd edition. London & New York: Routledge.

Chomsky, N. (1977) Empiricism and Rationalism. [Accessed 25th February 2015].

Kies, D. (1991) Language Development in Children. [Accessed on 27th February 2015].

Sampson, G. (2005) The ‘Language Instinct’ Debate: Revised Edition. 2nd Edition. London: Continuum.

Stemmer, N. (1987) The Learning of Syntax: An Empiricist Approach. First Language [online], [Accessed on 28th February 2015], pp. 97-120.

Tomasello, M. (2009) Constructing a Language: A Usage Based Theory of Acquisition.  Harvard: Harvard University Press.


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The Mespotamia Valley where Abraham and Sarah lived before God called them on their journey of faith: Credit: Hassan Janall U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Wikipedia

Faith through doubt: 4,000 year old marriage contract confirms story of Ishmael

Though the patriarch Abraham and wife Sarah ended up in the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’ (Hebrews 11:8-11), their lives were far from a perfect display of faith. God had promised Abraham and his wife Sarah a son out of which would come a great nation (Genesis 17). Though they clung to this promise, there were times when they doubted God and took matters into their own hands. One of these moments involved Hagar, Sarah’s personal maid: Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. (Genesis 16: 1-2 NASV) Sarah told Abraham to impregnate her slave who would serve as a surrogate and have a child that Sarah would claim as her own. The couple went through with this plan with both believing it would fulfill the promise that …

Various images of the Shroud of Turin

Scans of the blood found on Shroud of Turin reveal torture

Early protestant reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) was one of the first to question the Shroud of Turin’s authenticity, that some believe is the burial cloth used to wrap Christ’s body. Burned into the Shroud is an image of a man with long hair and a beard that is the basis of most modern paintings used to portray Christ today. It is believed the image was created when God miraculously raised Christ from the dead. Calvin who was not enamoured with the Roman Catholic church used scripture to refute the claim. He pointed to John 20:6-7 where it says there were two pieces of cloth, one for the body and a smaller piece of linen that the disciples wrapped around Christ’s head. Defending the shroud’s authenticity, some argue that the larger piece could still have covered the full body. And despite the fact Pope Francis prayed before the cloth in June 2015, the Roman Catholic Church has not made an official declaration on the shroud (14 feet 5 inches by 3 feet 7 inches)  kept at the Cathedral of …

Stunning video of baby revived in Jesus’ name

Dramatic video has surfaced of men pulling a man and his two children out of a black truck that had flipped upside down in raging waters near Myrtle Texas on Saturday, April 30, 2017. People came across the vehicle caught up in a storm that hit that part of Texas over the weekend. Several men waded into the rushing water and struggled to open the vehicle doors against the raging current. Finally, they were able to drag a baby and toddler out of the truck. In the video, a man carries a lifeless baby to the shore. In an interview with WFAA-TV in Dallas, Tom Mitchell, who videoed the rescue said, “The infant is white, blueish grey, no color at all and the eyes were not focused when I looked down on her.” Mitchel knew immediately that if they didn’t do something, this baby was going to die. On video you hear him say, “This baby is going to die if we don’t start CPR fast” and then the video goes dark as he sticks …

Credit: Brandon Watts/Flickr/Creative Commons

Post Modernism: The Case for Rachel Dolezal

You might have heard of Rachel Dolezal, also known by her new legal name Nkechi Amare Diallo. She was once the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Spokane, Washington. Her parents, who apparently had been Pentecostal Missionaries in Africa, exposed her as a white woman with Czech, German, and Scandinavian ancestors, and she was forced to resign in disgrace. Today Rachel, or Nkechi, is labeled as a liar and a fraud and life is difficult for her. She is famous enough to have her own article in Wikipedia, and you can read more about her interesting life. Rachel is someone I have never met, and probably never will, but I know there are some lessons for us in her story, and Christians should be careful with their judgment. Rachel Dolezal is an expression of a philosophy called Post Modernism. Most of us live in Modernism, with the idea that people belong to groups, them and us, and the differences between groups never change. With that thinking, …

Left: A model of the Traditional perception of the Tabernacle of Moses (; Right: Andrew Hoy's depiction of a six story Tabernacle (Diagram Andrew Hoy)

Will the real Tabernacle of Moses please stand up

You are probably familiar with drawings and even full-scale models (seen above on the left) displaying the Tabernacle of Moses. When Moses was given the instructions for the Tabernacle, most envisioned it as a small rectangular tent constructed to house the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 36:8 – 39:43). This tent building served Israel for nearly 400 years, sitting for 300 years at Shiloh, until Solomon constructed the Temple. There was just a brief interlude when David constructed a tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant (1 Chronicles 15:1). But recently Andrew Hoy, a mechanical engineer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has challenged this traditional notion of what the Tabernacle looked like by suggesting it was instead a larger tent, nearly six stories high. According to Breaking Israel News, Hoy’s journey started when he left the Lutheran church he was attending in America to study Hebrew at a Jewish seminary in Israel. He wanted to learn the original language to better understand the Old Testament. As he looked at the passages describing the Tabernacle, he began to envision something much different from long-held …

The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (1780-1849)

Study reveals the nature of animals as God created them

A report released by Dr. Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conversation Society says the fear of predators is not a natural instinct in animals. It is a learned behavior. This revelation is a bit of a shock for many evolutionists who believe the fear of predators is a naturally evolving instinct that enabled species to survive. Berger came to this conclusion after studying the relationship between prey and predator in 19 ecosystems in Russia, Greenland, Canada and the US. He focused specifically on elk, moose, bison and caribou and their natural predators wolves, tigers and bears. He compared systems where predators existed with those where they didn’t. He noticed that prey-animals only feared predators, if they regularly encountered them.  Once the predators were removed, prey animals lost a fear of their natural enemies. In his study, Berger played sound recordings of predators around test animals that had no predators in their area and compared their reactions to similar species that regularly encountered predators in their surroundings. Berger said “elk in the mountains of Siberia — who …

Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem Photo: jordan Pickett/Flickr/Creative Commons

UNESCO to vote if Jews have any connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

This week the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced it is postponing a vote that would put Jerusalem’s Temple Mount firmly in the hands of the Muslim. Whether Israel would actually implement UNESCO’s recommendations is anther issue. But if the motion passed it undoubtedly would embolden the Muslims in their attempts to control the site. The vote is part of a Palestinian-Jordanian initiative that would declare the Temple Mount  a “Muslim-only” site. The vote would see the Temple Mount returned to its status before the 1967 Six Day war. Prior to the Israel Arab conflict, the Jordan Waqf that operates the two Muslim buildings on the site — the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock — controlled every aspect of the Temple Mount including who could visit the site. But perhaps the most disturbing part of the motion is that it would deny any historical Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. The original motion also referred to Israel as an “occupying force.” When Israel protested the motion later revisions tried to …

Dr. Michio Kaku speaking in Brazil Photo: by Cristiano Sant' Anna - Campus Party Brasil/Flickr/Creative Commons

World-renown physicist Michio Kaku acknowledges the existence of God

Atheists enjoy mocking Christians accusing them of having a fairy-tale belief in Creation – that somehow there is a God who created heaven and earth. So what happens when a renown scientist, with a Doctorate in Physics, says he believes that there is an intelligent being who created the universe? Not only that, he came to this conclusion after his study of science. Meet world-renown American physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, 69. Born to Japanese parents, for 25 years he has held the Henry Semat Chair and professor of theoretical physics at City College of New York. His journey started as a student at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. Kaku showed up at his school’s National Science Fair with a particle accelerator, an atom smasher, that he made in his parent’s garage. Though most were astounded by what he had created, Kaku looked upon it as a bit of a failure, as he had hoped to create a “a beam of gamma rays powerful enough to create antimatter.” But despite his invention’s shortcomings, Physicist …

Hundreds of Orthodox Jews turning to Christ. Photo: Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem Claudius Prober/Flickr/Creative Commons

Report on Israeli website states hundreds of Orthodox Jews are accepting Jesus

An article published on a Hebrew website, MyNet, intended to warn Jews living in Petach Tikva, Israel of Christians/Messianic Jews preaching Jesus has instead revealed hundreds of Orthodox Jews are accepting Christ as the Jewish Messiah. Kehila News, a Messianic website, was the first to report on the curious article on MyNet which functions as a news portal for the Israeli City of Petach Tikva.  Kehila describes the reaction among Orthodox Jews as a “spiritual meltdown.” Located in Central Israel, Petach Tikva has a population of 225,00, of which 70,000 are considered Orthodox Jews or haredim. The strength of the Orthodox population is seen in the 300 synagogues and eight ritual baths in the city. MyNet accused Christians/Messianic Jews of sharing propaganda. Even the city’s acting Mayor Uriel Boso waded into the controversy voicing his concern. Boso specifically cited Jews for Jesus as one of the main offending groups. According to Kehila, Boso described the number of Jews becoming Christians as a “dire phenomena.” The article on MyNet is in Hebrew, and below is a rough …

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel Photo: Bill Read/Flickr/Creative Commons

Are we hard-wired to believe in God?

According to the Book of Genesis, God created humans in His likeness and image (Genesis 1:26). We were created to manifest in human form the characteristics of God. Along with this humans were created to connect with God allowing us to communicate and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. This is how God intended our relationship to function at the beginning. It took a while, but modern researchers are finally admitting what people have known for centuries — humans are hard-wired to believe in God. Not all scientists are convinced this is the case as it does cause some troubling concerns for those embedded in the evolutionary side of the debate. But nevertheless an increasing number are concluding that humans are built to believe in God. Charisma recently reported on a round table discussion shown on the National Geographic Channel addressing this very issue. On the program, Shaheen Lakhan, who holds multiple doctorates, states: “Psychologists and anthropologists deemed that children left to their own devices would have some conception of God. Some attribute this to our …

A photo taken somewhere in China entitled "Finger of God." Chez Andre 1/Flickr/Creative Commons

The God of atheists?

Elizabeth King wrote an interesting article for The Washington Post in early February 2016. An atheist she states in the title: “I’m an atheist. So why can’t I shake God? King says she grew up in a Christian home with her mom and step dad. She called herself a born-again Christian who went to Church twice a week. But that all changed when she turned 16 and she began to question all things God and Biblical. In the end she seems to blame her youth pastors who were unable to provide satisfactory answers as to why homosexuality was a sin or why premarital sex was wrong. From these unanswered questions, King slowly graduated to becoming a full-blown atheist. But psychologist Paul Vitz has a different opinion on what causes atheism. In 1999, he wrote a controversial book,  Faith of the Fathers: The Psychology of Atheism. He believes that people’s atheism is based on a person’s relationship with their father. Poor or absent fathers create many atheists, he believes. In his book, he delves into the …

Photo of Atlantic ocean off of Brazil by Tiago Fioreze/Wikipedia

Where did all the water come from?

For years, scientists have struggled to explain waters existence on earth. Their best theory is that it was alien — that comets laden with ice hit the earth filling our oceans. However, there is a new theory gaining ground that confirms the Biblical account. Geologists last year found a diamond that suggested deep beneath the earth’s surface there are massive oceans of water. This is exactly what the Bible says. We are told in Genesis 1, that when God formed the earth he created waters above and below (Genesis 1:7). In fact, the water below was a major source of the water used to fill the earth during Noah’s flood when the fountains of the deep exploded gushing water to the earth’s surface. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. (Genesis 7:11 NASV) In 2014, scientists from the University of Alberta were …

Are the remains of the Apostle Matthew at the bottom of Lake Issyk-kul? Photo: Dan Lundberg/Foter/CC BY-SA

What is the Apostle Matthew doing in Kyrgyzstan?

Russian divers from the Tomsk State University in Siberia have uncovered the remains of a lost civilization at the bottom of Lake Issyk-kul in Kyrgystan. Bordering China, Kyrgystan has a population of nearly 6 million people of which 64% are Muslim. Located in the Tian Shan mountains, Lake Issyk-kul is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume. It is the second largest salt lake and never freezes over during the winter and this led to its name which translated means “hot lake.” It has 118 rivers and streams flowing into the lake but with no outlet, it has slowly grown over the years covering a number of ancient buildings and settlements. The divers first discovered the remains of what some believe was an ancient civilization called the Saka buried in the sediment. This group existed about 2,500 years ago and was famous in ancient literature for its strong drink called Soma. They also found more recent ruins on top and in it a piece of ceramic pottery with a stamp written in either …

Gospel of Jesus' wife fragment. Background photo: Jame Marvin Phelps/Foter/CC BY NC

‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ a fake: the murky world of antiquity forgeries

The 2012 discovery of a business-card sized piece of papyrus by Harvard University professor Karen King has led to speculation Jesus was married. King received photo copies of the papyrus along with a second piece that included parts of the Gospel of John from a person who purchased the two papyri several years back. The buyer, who remains anonymous, later provided access to the original papyrus. What caught everyone’s attention was text on one fragment possibly referring to Jesus’s wife. Written in Egyptian Coptic, the text reads “Jesus said to them, My wife….” and then it stops as the papyrus is torn at this point. Since Mary is also mentioned on this same fragment, some concluded this was a reference to Mary Magdalene who they believe was the wife of Jesus. King dated the fragment to the fourth century and believed it was a copy of text written in the second century. She suggested it was evidence that some in the early church thought Jesus had a wife. King does point out that because of …

A medieval prayer circle or magical rite?

[by Dean Smith] The Liesborn Gospel, listed for sale at $6.5 million, contains the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The book, with a cover made of carved oak, was ordered by the Abbess of the Leisborn convent in Germany probably for a wealthy woman who had just taken her vows. These books of the Gospels are extremely rare with only five complete sets known to exist. They were also very sacred and considered mystical as they were thought to be “the physical embodiment of the Word of God.” The books were often elaborately decorated with rare jewels. The one being sold by Les Enluminures Gallery, an ancient manuscript dealer based in Manhattan, dates to around 980 AD and comes with a special added feature — a prayer circle.

Science continues to advance – sort of

Male circumcision: It’s the healthy thing to do

[by Dean Smith] The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sure to rankle a few activists. It has just released a statement providing guidelines for male circumcision that involves the removal of the foreskin from the penis. In the process, the CDC was essentially promoting the procedure. The Jews have practiced circumcision for thousands of years after God instituted the practice with Abraham (Genesis 17:10-14) as a sign of a covenant between God and His people. However, as religious rite it was lacking in some ways. It was largely unseen and only involved half the population. I have always suspected God chose circumcision because it also provided health benefits. I believe many aspects of the law were health related.

It’s so annoying when the facts don’t line up with your theories

[by Dean Smith] The journal Nature Geoscience is reporting more bad news for those promoting man-made global warming. Not only is the size of the ice bed growing in the Antarctic, but using  a robot — an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) —  a group of scientists from the UK, US and Australia have discovered that the Antarctic ice bed is over twice as thick as their global warming computer models said it should be. This is significant as using these same models, scientists were predicting (due to melting ice in the Antarctic and Arctic) rising oceans would sink islands and swamp coastal areas. This fear mongering was just one of the reasons activists were clamoring for governments to  spend billions of dollars to cut C02 emissions.

So how are those global warming predictions coming along?

In an interview with The Independent fourteen years ago, Dr. David Vinner, a leading man-made Global warming scientist from England, predicted: “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” Above is a photo of the snow storm that just hit Buffalo this week. Click here for more photos of this massive snow storm. Related: This photo is a public service announcement The Arctic melt myth: Seven years ago Al Gore predicted the Arctic would be ice-free — he was wrong

Giant Squid attacks submarine in the Bering Sea

[by Dean Smith] This is a cute video of a giant squid attacking a submarine in the Bering Sea. It is the body of water separating Russia and Alaska. The submarine was chugging by underwater when it was suddenly attacked by the squid, which flailed its ten tentacles at the sub. In response, those on board the submarine, owned by Greenpeace, shone a bright light to try to scare off the squid. The light annoyed the squid even more and it attacked again, this time unleashing a massive ink blob at the submarine as well. The squid then swims away with both beast and submarine unharmed.

Antarctic ice cap now at record size

[by Dean Smith] NASA has tracked the ice coverage in the Antarctic since 1979. NASA started tracking the ice bed because it wanted to record the reduced size of the ice cap due to global warming. But despite the continued rhetoric of man-made global warming, there has been a stunning transformation taking place — the Antarctic’s ice bed is growing in size. After years of reduction, the ice cap grew back so quickly, it is now larger than it was in 1979 when NASA started keeping records. It now covers 20 million kilometers (7.8 million square miles) of the Antarctic sea. The record was set on September 19, 2014, during the Antarctic spring.

Scientists see glimpses of life after death

[by Dean Smith] Over the years, there have been many reports of people, who having died and come back to life, claiming they had seen a light or had an awareness they were still alive even though they had died. This always puzzled scientists since 20 to 30 seconds after the heart quits pumping blood, the brain stops functioning. So if a person’s heart has stopped how could they have any sense of consciousness. Researchers at the University of Southampton in England decided to study this phenomena further. In 2008, they analyzed 2,060 cases from 15 hospitals in England, Austria and the US of people who had cardiac arrest.

Expert says Ebola being spread in Africa because of such traditions as kissing corpses

The Center for Disease control has just confirmed the first case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas. The critically ill person, who is in isolation at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, came to the US eight days ago. This is the fist instance of Ebola arriving naturally and not through a person purposefully brought to the US for treatment. The Ebola virus kills between 50% and 90% of the people who contract the disease. It symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea and a rash. It affects the liver and kidneys and causes internal and external bleeding. Peter Piot works for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1976, he helped discover the first case of Ebola in the Congo. He is very concerned about the spread of the disease in Africa and says part of the problem is due to cultural practices. He says:

Ancient Christian ‘good luck charm’ discovered

For 100 years, John Ryland’s library at England’s University of Manchester didn’t realize it had a 1,500 year old Egyptian manuscript that was actually a Christian good luck charm. It was recently discovered by Dr. Roberta Mazza as she searched through the library’s collection of ancient manuscripts. Mazza works for a research institute attached to the library. The charm was written on a piece of papyrus that had earlier been used as a tax receipt for a grain purchase.

The Arctic melt myth: Seven years ago Al Gore predicted the Arctic would be ice free — he was wrong

In 2007 — during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech — Al Gore predicted the ice cap of the Northern arctic would disappear because of man-made global warming. He even went one step further and said the ice would be gone in seven years — by 2014. Ice free according to Gore meant an ice bed of less than 1 million sq kilometers, which means there would be just a fringe of ice along the coast lines. However, in an ironic twist, for a second year in a row the Arctic ice bed has increased in size, not shrunk. This despite record amounts of CO2 being passed into the atmosphere each year, which Gore says is causing the ice melt. The freeze over started in 2012 and in 2013, it caught a number of sailing vessels off guard. They were expecting to sail through the northern Arctic passage way unhindered, but instead were caught in ice forcing them to abandon their ships.

Did finding soft tissue in a dinosaur fossil result in a scientist’s firing?

UPDATED: Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) has announced it is taking on the case of Mark Armitage, a scientist and professor at California State University Northridge (CSUN), who PJI alleges was fired for his religious beliefs. Pacific Justice is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending liberty and religious freedom. According to its news release, Pacific Justice alleges that Mark was dismissed from CSUN because he published an article in February 2013 in a peer-reviewed scientific journal showing dinosaur bones contained non-fossilized organic material. The finding indirectly called into question claims by evolutionists that dinosaurs are millions of years old. Mark was part of dig at the Hell Creek formation in Montana when he discovered what is considered the largest triceratops horn ever found at this dig. The triceratops was a massive animal that according to evolutionists existed 60 million years ago. With features like a modern rhino, it had a massive head with three horns and a large frill. Mark was using a high-powered electron microscope to study the fossil, when he discovered soft tissue inside …

Did massive oceans beneath the earth’s surface contribute to Noah’s flood?

Steven Jacobsen, a geophysicist from Northwestern University, and seismologist Brandon Schmandt from the University of New Mexico believe they have found a body of water far below the earth’s surface. The results of their study were published in Science. This group was sending seismic waves into the ground to discover what lies below. At 700 kms (400 miles) beneath the surface, they ran into a layer of ringwoodite. Their tests suggested it also contained water. The temperature and pressure at this level would cause the water to sweat out of the ringwoodite. Jocobsen said ringwoodite has a unique crystal structure that allows it to soak up water like a sponge.  The two speculated if just 1% of this ringwoodite mass contained water, it would be three times the size of the earth’s oceans.

June 2014 was the coldest June recorded in Antarctic and its ice cap now at record size

A press release by the Meteo France says this past June was the coldest June on record since the its Antarctic Dumont d’Urville Station station was set up in 1952. According to Meteo France, the average temperature in June was -22.4c (-8.3F). This was 6.6c  (11.9F) degrees lower than any previous June. It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Not only that, but June 2014 was also the second coldest month recorded behind only September 1953 which averaged -23.5c (-10.3F).

Learn math the way Moses was taught it

In the West, when teaching our children math we have them memorize endless multiplication tables. Multiplication and long division can be a complicated process. However, there is an ancient way of doing math, that is quite different from the way we do it and in some ways simpler. All you need is the ability to double numbers and basic addition. If you can do that you can easily multiply and divide any set of figures. This video reveals the method that the ancient Egyptians and Chinese used to multiply and divide. Oddly, it is also the way modern computers calculate math. Moses grew up in the Pharaoh’s court. The Bible tells us that he learned the wisdom of Egypt. This was undoubtedly the way Moses was taught to multiply and divide.

The single-celled bacteria that refuses to follow the evolutionary script

Evolutionists want you to believe that when life evolved on earth it started with  a very simple, single-celled bacteria. However, research is revealing that these single-celled bacteria are anything but simple. In November 2012, scientists from Osaka University in Japan and France’s Aix-Marseille Universite released a report showing the results of their study on how the MO-1 marine bacterium is able to move through water. This bacterium was found in rock that evolutionists consider to be three billion years old making it among the oldest forms found (again according to evolutionists who may now be regretting this declaration).

This was the front page of a major English newspaper, The Times, Scottish edition, on May 16, 2014. It features a stunning attack on some of those promoting man-made global-warming, who the article states are trying to cover-up research that suggests things aren’t really as bad as they say it is. According to The Times’ article, global-warming scientists allegedly suppressed research that did not agree with their theory.

Circumcision, a vaccine?

Researchers from Australia and America say circumcision should be offered to parents in much the same way as a vaccination because of significant health benefits associated with the procedure. They said the benefits outweigh any negative effects by 100 to one. The study stated that nearly half of uncircumcised men will endure physical ailments directly related to not having their foreskin removed. This includes urinary tract infection — which can potentially damage the kidneys. Previous research showed nearly 30% of uncircumcised men will suffer from such an infection.

Historians claim to have found the ‘Holy Grail’

Two Spanish historians — Margarita Torres and Jose Ortegel del Rio — believe they have found the ‘Holy Grail.’ The ‘Holy Grail’ refers to the cup Jesus and the disciples drank from at the Last supper 2,000 years ago (Matthew 26:26-30). It has been the subject of legends for centuries. Some like Nazi leader Adolf Hitler believed anyone who possessed the grail would receive supernatural powers. It is reported that Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi S.S. leader, actually visited the Montserrat Abbey in Spain in search of the grail. The two Spanish researchers believe the ‘Holy Grail’ is in an obscure church museum located in the San Isidore Basilica in Leon, Spain. The chalice first showed up at the church in the 11th century.

Physics proves Noah’s ark could hold the animals of the earth

With the controversial movie Noah showing in theaters, their timing couldn’t have been better. Physics students at the University of Leicester decided to test if Noah’s ark could have floated with two of each animal in the world on board. The students were shocked by their results. They found that the ark could have held the equivalent of 2.15 million sheep and easily done the job. Speaking on behalf of the group — made up of students Katie Raymer, Thomas Moore, Oliver Youle, Benjamin Jordan, — Moore, 22, said: You don’t think of the Bible necessarily as a scientifically accurate source of information, so I guess we were quite surprised it would work. We’re not proving that it’s true, but the concept definitely would work.”

God’s Big Bang at creation?

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 NASV) In an article in the New York Times, radio astronomers state they have found gravitational waves rippling through space that confirms the Big Bang theory. Gravitational waves — like waves that form when you throw a rock in a pool of water — are believed to be ripples in the space-time continuum that formed when the universe was first created. Astronomer John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithonian Center of Astrophysics said his team discovered gravitational waves that Albert Einstein predicted would occur if the Big Bang theory was correct. But perhaps more startling is they detected the starting point of the universe. The universe as we know it, did not always exist. Many thought this would be another attack on the Biblical creation account. In fact, the exact opposite has happened.


kept landing critical hits

This is why I cried during DnD last night

Last session, we left off right before entering a sinking swamp temple to fight a chimera. We started this session all pumped to fight this thing, but we then learned from questioning some nearby trees (one of our party is a druid) that there was something…off about this chimera. Like a great sadness to it that the trees couldn’t name.

I’m a human sorcerer with a draconic bloodline, so I decide that I’m going to try to talk to the dragon portion of this chimera, on the off chance that we don’t have to fight it.

We enter the temple. The goat and lion parts of the chimera are hostile af. The dragon is curious, recognizing me and the dragonborn of our group as other dragons. It then speaks to us in a childlike, Barney voice.

“Oh, hullo.”

I respond in Draconic. We have a brief back and forth where I try to convince the dragon head to stop his other heads from attacking, but find that the dragon head can’t overpower the wills of his other two heads.

Then the dragon says this: “Can you help me? I want to become a real dragon.”

My desire to kill this thing dissolves immediately, and I start trying to brainstorm how I could possibly let this baby in a monster’s body become real.

We can’t just cut off the other two heads, because they are all one being and the dragon would die. None of us has any spells that could be helpful. And there’s the other issue of still being attacked by the lion and goat, who control the legs and claws and cast spells.

So then we ask, “If you were a real dragon, what would you do? Where would you live?”

The dragon says, “Um, I would fly around. I would collect my shinies. I would eat so I was never hungry. Would you like to see my shinies?”

“What would you eat?”

“Whatever was around. Whatever I usually eat, I suppose.”

We look around the temple, covered in mangled skeletons from other adventurers who had wandered too close. We realize that even if there was a way to separate the dragon from its chimera body, it would still be a monster. It would still fly around, eating and murdering people.

My party members agree we have no choice but to put it down. I’m already shedding some tears, both IRL and in character, so I’m secretly relieved when my actions keep missing. The only thing keeping me somewhat composed is that the party is mostly focusing their attacks on the other heads, not the dragon, out of pity.

Then the barbarian of our group, Claybourne Curry Jr., who had been raging for like 20 minutes now and pissed because he kept missing his swings, lands a critical hit. He chooses to use that hit to cut off the dragon’s head.

But before he strikes the final biow, he leans in and says in Draconic.

“The thing is, you can never be a real dragon.

Our DM describes in detail the shock and sadness in the dragon’s eyes right before the axe falls. Our entire group starts yelling because of the drama of it all, and I burst into fucking tears.

Literally ten minutes later a party member gets killed (an event planned by the player and the DM, but unknown to the rest of us), and I can’t even be sad because I’m still teary from the chimera. I’m teary writing about it right now.

It was the rawest DnD session I’ve ever had, and I’m still emotionally traumatized from it.