Scientists have dug up a fossilised hadrosaur which includes fossilised skin and soft tissue as well as bones.

The odds of such an intact dinosaur being found are extremely slim, Manning said. The dinosaur body must have somehow escaped predators, scavengers, and degradation by weather and rivers, he said.

Earlier this week, I also read an article about the work of Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist who discovered the presence of haemoglobin and red blood cells in dinosaur bones. A more complete record of this discovery and subsequent research is available here, and the article I read in discover magazine is available here.

I have a huge amount to be thankful for. Four brilliant universities have made me offers. So here’s the rundown, in no particular order.

Imperial College London

MEng Mechanical Engineering with a Year Abroad or MEng Mechanical Engineering

Offer: AAA

Photo: Nuno R.

Loughborough University

MEng Civil Engineering with Sandwich Year

Offer: BBB

Photo: robep

Manchester University

MEng Mechanical Engineering with Sandwich Year

Offer: AAB

Photo: magutosh

Christ’s College, Cambridge

MEng Engineering with Gap Year in Industry

No Offer

Photo: sparkypics

Bath University

MEng Mechanical Engineering and German with Sandwich Year

Offer: AAA

Photo: Nitin Parmar

As you can see, that’s all my unversities accounted for, and I’ve officially been rejected for Cambridge. I am actually quite thankful for that. If God had wanted me in Cambridge, I’d have got an offer. It’s less complicated now, and I don’t have to weigh up Cambridge/Imperial College. I am incredibly keen on ICL at the moment. And God timed me getting an offer from ICL before my rejection from Cambridge. If it had been the other way round, I’d have probably been a bit depressed.

For the first time ever I am proud to be English. This is due to a wonderful book called “Set in a Silver Sea” by Arthur Bryant.

Today I was musing on why university learning has no appeal to so many people. It occured to me that nobody loves wisdom any more. She is like a desperate wife who sees her husband visiting prostitutes and starts to dress like one to draw him back. This country has fallen in love with trivia and raw knowledge. These things are hollow and empty without wisdom, and a love for truth itself. Our educational system has prostituted itself. Education is not about the knowledge received but the man created. We go to school to get a job. We go to college to get a slightly better job, we go to university to get a job that will pay us enough to get a big house and a fast car. There is no longer joy in the creation. In an atheistic society, we all focus on an end goal that doesn’t exist. We do not know where our lives are going, and yet we live in a future that will be every bit as disappointing as the present.

The virtue of the age is originality. The acheivement of a nation means nothing to you unless you are personally involved in it, and it changes your story. Only those who are happy are successful, and a pursuit that no longer feels right must be abandoned.

About.com gives you advice on evaluating relationships:

Is this relationship worth the amount of work required to maintain it?
Is this a person I would choose to have in my life if we just met today? Or have I been holding onto this relationship out of habit?
Does this person make me feel good about myself? Am I uncomfortable around them?
Is this friend competitive with me in a negative way?
Do I like who I am when I’m with them? Or do we seem to bring out the worst in each other?
How deeply can I trust this person? Could I count on them if I needed to? Could I share my feelings freely?
Do we have common interests and values? If not, do I benefit from the differences?
Am I receiving as much as I give?
If I gave this relationship the effort it deserves, would it benefit me and enrich my life?
After answering some of these questions, you should have a clearer picture of whether this relationship is positive or negative for you.
Circle the person’s name if you believe that the relationship is positive and supportive, or if it could be, given an appropriate amount of time and energy. Otherwise, cross off the name.

Well, I hope Jesus isn’t reading that article and thinking about me, that’s all I can say. My old maths teacher had a quote above his board that said,

The Mark of a man is how he treats someone who can be of no possible use to them.

Here’s a recent picture that I drew. I like it, it’s nice.

Here’s an alternative version of Seven Nation Army you might like.

What is Grace?

Grace is to see what’s in my heart, my motives, my desires, to look beyond what I say and do, and still forgive me. It is not that the more you understand me, the easier it would be to forgive me, it is precisely the opposite. God gives wisdom freely, He gives His Holy Spirit freely. I have His scriptures freely, and in them is contained all that is necessary for life and Godliness. I have everything I need, yet still I sin.

The sheer amount God has fed me, the sheer amount He has given me. I have everything I need, and much more, and yet so often I despise that.

One of my friends was once struggling with the amount he had hurt his girlfriend, the things he had said to her, the way he broke up with her, and he knew it could never be the same. Yet, in all this, the only one we can be sure is not ashamed of us is the very one who sees more of our sin than anyone else.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

I’m currently celebrating Mark’s acquisition of a 2-1, and my dad’s birthday.
It’s great having Mark back, he really is a legend, and it’s also fun messing w/ his blackberry. I think Mark’s done very well for himself really: straight out of uni and he has a job with accomodation, travel, and a company car all built in, even if the first car was a ‘94 ford sierra, and managed to break down so spectacularly it broke down an AA van.
God Bless

The living water flows into the valleys. In the mountaintops you will find an energetic spring which flows away quickly, but only in the valley will you find a great flood.

Mary’s most treasured possession spilled out over the feet of Christ. Those who had never loved Him scorned her, not seeing a broken and contrite heart, the most fragrant burnt offering of all. As the fragrance of fine perfume filled the room, so did the fragrance of Christ. All things would be crushed under his feet, but there and then she placed herself willingly under His feet, and in Her brokenness, beautified the Temple of God.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Disconnected quotes? Not to my mind. Everything is empty without Christ. If I try to ‘find myself’ in anything other than a relationship with Christ I will find myself more lost than ever. My death was nothing less than a complete separation from the world. If I seek his face, I will lose myself, only to find my true self on the other side. If my love for the world is still alive, it is as it were, a zombie, because it was put to death on the cross 2000 years ago.

Becoming a Christian is nothing less than the ultimate act of trust. It is a death sentence on your very soul. If Christ died and did not rise, then your soul was put to death for nothing, and you are still dead. If I do not allow Christ into some aspect of my life, I will not find that part of my life unsatisfactory, but completely dead. The only way for us to live is in the Spirit. We are either in the Spirit or we are dead.

What we once found to satisfy us, we will not find satisfying again, whereas we could once work by ourselves, we can no longer. It is Christ himself who lives in us, or we are dead, and can do nothing. We can’t turn back, because there’s nothing to turn back to. It’s gone. Dead and buried. The branch which does not abide in the vine is dead, not sick.

God Bless.