IS IT A FLOWER ? ?

No, it's not a flower -- it's a sponge. Not just any sponge it's a predator, a carnivore. Light, feathery and colorful, what better way to capture your prey then to look like a harmless flower.

Once again more finds in the dark waters around Antarctica.

But the article says it better then I can, so read their words here:

'Carnivorous sponges, 585 new species of crustaceans and hundreds of new worms have been discovered in the Antarctica, suggesting these depths may have been the source of much marine life, European researchers reported on Wednesday.
The team, who scooped samples from as deep as 20,000 feet , found unexpectedly rich diversity of animal life.

Many belong to species found around the world, notably in the Arctic, while others appear to be unique to the deepest Antarctic waters, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.

The unique species tend to be the kind that do not spread easily, which suggests the deep, cold southern oceans may have been the source of many types of marine life, the researchers conclude.

"The Antarctic deep sea is potentially the cradle of life of the global marine species. Our research results challenge suggestions that the deep sea diversity in the Southern Ocean is poor," said Angelika Brandt of the Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum at Germany's University of Hamburg.

"We now have a better understanding in the evolution of the marine species and how they can adapt to changes in climate and environments," Brandt, who led the expedition, said in a statement.

Among the new creatures they documented are a gourd-shaped carnivorous sponge called Chondrocladia; free-swimming worms and 674 species of isopod, a diverse order of crustaceans that includes woodlice, also commonly called pillbugs, sea lice or sea centipedes.

Of the isopod crustaceans, 585 species had never been seen before.

Between 2002 and 2005, researchers sampled water and the sediment from 2,500 to 20,000 feet in the deep Weddell Sea and adjacent areas.

Their catch was surprisingly rich.

"What was once thought to be a featureless abyss is in fact a dynamic, variable and biologically rich environment," Katrin Linse, a marine biologist from the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.'

In the last few years I have been reading about new ocean finds more then ever before.
Looks like we are finally getting around to exploring our oceans. Maybe some day we will find that Mermaids and the Loch Ness really did (or do) exist.

I LOVE YOU MA

If you are still a lucky one
Who has your Mother near,

Then put your arms around her neck
And show her that you care.

For there will only be for you
One Mother that you'll know,

So tell her every single day
Of how you love her so.

Don't be like me so quiet and shy
That you can't say the words,

Of love that helped you round the clock
And carried you through the years.

I know I said a million times
I love you, deep inside

But never said it to her face
So she could fill with pride.

And now I rush there to her side
To say the words out loud.

I love you Ma, but it's to late
She can not hear a sound.

And to this day I wonder
If she ever knew,

That all the love I feel inside
She made, so pure and true.

COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET

I was in my kitchen and my TV was on. I heard something that caught my attention in a big way. The narrator said something about parents using computers to keep their small children occupied (babysit), so they could do other things around the house.

What?

Then I heard the age group, four, five and six year old children and I dropped everything to see this show.
There they were showing segment after segment of different family homes, each with a tiny little person sitting at a computer, with short little legs dangling from a big chair clicking away playing computer games.
And they know how to get on the computer find their game and do their own thing. Then the narrator said that there is going to be a new 'My Space' just for four to six year old children, of course he mentioned that it would have to be closely monitored.
Ya right.
The more I watched this show the more upset I became. Maybe I'm just an old dinosaur in a fast pace world, but I found the whole idea disturbing and alarming, not at all healthy and dangerous.

What happened to just playing with a toy when mommy is vacuuming the floor?
What happened to talking to the child or playing a word game with the child while you're doing the dishes? Your mouth doesn't effect your dish washing does it?

And most alarming of all, how long before these internet predators find a way into this new 'My Space' site that they a thinking of making for these tiny little people.
What then Mommy?

When my grandson was a preschooler, I was always worried about him getting to close to me when I was cooking, so I bought two sets of the alphabet, magnetized and I let him put one of those sets on the refrigerator. Then I showed him some one and two letter words and when I would cook I would ask him to pick out the words that I would ask for and we progressed from there. It wasn't long before we needed the second set of the alphabet.

He loved it. For him it was a game, for me it was a blessing. We talked we laughed a we were both benefiting from it. I got my work in the kitchen done and he learned to identify words long before he started school. What more can I say.

Well I can think of one more thing to say, he is now fifteen and I sometimes have to ask him how to spell a word or two.