the world cannot afford to let the tragedy of nato ’ s war against yugoslavia be forgotten due to the silence of those who were actors and accomplices of that brutal genocide. president clinton, national security advisor sandy berger, secretary of state madeleine albright and other close collaborators of the president, including the person who was ordered by berger not to take notes when cuba was discussed, were at the meeting clinton held with aznar in the white house on april 13, 1999, where the decision to intensify the bombings was made, and aznar suggested that serbian television, radio and other facilities be bombed, in actions that would take the lives of innumerable defenseless civilians. some of them, through press statements or in a book or memoir, may have individually written about the adventure, but none focused on the real danger and suicidal wars that the united states is leading the world to. the publication of the existing secret documents could be the legacy of a president in 200 years from now, when, judging by the pace we ’ re going at, there will no longer be any publicity or readers. less than ten years have since gone by. in europe and elsewhere they have many accomplices keeping silence. after my third message was sent to milosevic, italy ’ s minister of transportation visited cuba. i met with him on march 30, 1999 and directly discussed the issue of the war against yugoslavia. what follows is a summary of what i said to him, according to the notes taken during our conversation, in the presence of my office staff and officials from the ministry of foreign affairs : “ i began by asking why they had invaded serbia and how they were going to reach a settlement. i told him that, in my opinion, it had been a great mistake and that, were the serbs to offer resistance, they would run into a cul - de - sac. why did europe need to dismantle yugoslavia, which had implemented many reforms and which, strictly speaking – the cold war having ended – could not be labeled a communist state and, much less, an enemy of europe? i explained that, in order to satisfy the german government ’ s demand, europe had encouraged and supported the separation of croatia, where, during world war ii, nazi germany organized the fearful chetniks, groups which perpetrated countless crimes and massacres against the serbs and the liberation movement headed by tito. “ due to this complacency and lack of political foresight, in the prevailing euphoria of the days when the socialist block and the soviet


perpetrated countless crimes and massacres against the serbs and the liberation movement headed by tito. “ due to this complacency and lack of political foresight, in the prevailing euphoria of the days when the socialist block and the soviet union were in a crisis, europe dismantled yugoslavia. this resulted in bloody episodes and, specially, in the long and violent war in bosnia and, ultimately, in nato ’ s current war against serbia. by then, macedonia ’ s separation had also taken place, which meant the mutilation of the greater part of the yugoslav federation. only serbia, montenegro and kosovo remained. “ as everyone knows, for decades kosovo ’ s population of albanian descent grew uninterruptedly until it became the broad majority. in tito ’ s lifetime, long before his death, many serbian families left kosovo seeking safety faced with the numerous acts of violence that extremist groups from kosovo committed against them. at that time, in kosovo, the serbs were subjected to what today is called ethnic cleansing. “ yugoslavia ’ s unnecessary and bloody disintegration encouraged and unleashed the underlying conflicts between the majority, of albanian descent, and kosovo ’ s serbian minority, conflicts which are at the root of the current problem. “ the serbian people are the essential core of what remains of the former yugoslavia. they are a combative and courageous people who have been profoundly humiliated. i was convinced that, offered ample autonomy, serbia would have accepted an honorable and peaceful settlement of the conflicts in kosovo. “ kosovo ’ s moderate groups, acting in an intelligent and constructive fashion, supported this settlement, as the presence of a broad majority of albanian descent would, sooner or later, make the peaceful emergence of an independent state possible. europe knows perfectly well that kosovo ’ s extremist groups did not want this settlement ; they demanded immediate independence and, because of this, wanted the intervention of nato forces. “ it is unfair to lay all of the responsibility on serbia. serbia has not invaded any sovereign country. what it has done, in essence, is oppose the military presence of foreign troops in its territory. for months, in recent weeks particularly, it has known nothing but constant threats. its unconditional surrender was urged. no country can be treated like that, let alone the people who, in the days of europe ’ s occupation, fought most heroically against the nazis and have ample experience in irregular warfare. “ if the serbs resist – and i am convinced that they will resist – nato will have no other option but to commit


who, in the days of europe ’ s occupation, fought most heroically against the nazis and have ample experience in irregular warfare. “ if the serbs resist – and i am convinced that they will resist – nato will have no other option but to commit genocide, but such an action would fail, for two reasons : “ firstly : they would be unable to defeat the serbian people if the latter applied all of its experience and irregular warfare doctrine. “ secondly : public opinion in nato member countries themselves would not allow such an action. “ armored divisions, stealth bombers, tomahawk, cruise missiles or any other so - called intelligent weapon would not suffice. a missile or bomb would have to be launched for every person capable of carrying a rifle, a bazooka or a portable anti - aircraft weapon. all of nato ’ s power would, in this case, be useless. there are star wars and there are ground wars. all high - tech equipment notwithstanding, individual combatants would be the most important element in this type of war. “ beyond kosovo, a much more serious problem is emerging, to the detriment of europe ’ s and the world ’ s interests. russia has been humiliated terribly. nato has already advanced to the borders of what was once the soviet union and it is promising to include other states of the former socialist block, and even baltic countries that were part of the soviet union. russians have every reason to think they will not stop until they reach the walls of the kremlin. “ like the serbs, the russians are a slavic people and this sense of identity is very strong among these peoples. the attacks on serbia are profoundly humiliating for them and, more than any other action, they have produced deep and justified feelings of insecurity, not only among the russians but in india and china as well, and these countries will undoubtedly attempt to ally themselves to russia to guarantee their security. i doubt the russians would cease to do whatever is necessary to retain a response capability which would be their sole guarantee in this situation. “ neither europe nor the world, with their current and overwhelming economic problems, would gain anything through such a course of action. “ a few days ago, in the early morning of march 26, while returning from colombia to russia before schedule, the president of the russian federation ’ s state duma, guennadi selezniov, made a stopover at havana ’ s airport. i took up these issues with him of my own initiative. i told him no military solution was possible, that, without


russian federation ’ s state duma, guennadi selezniov, made a stopover at havana ’ s airport. i took up these issues with him of my own initiative. i told him no military solution was possible, that, without a doubt, any effort to offer serbia military aid would inevitably lead to a general war, as the only means available to wage such a war today are not conventional. i said also that the battle was of a political, not military, nature. “ selezniov publicly expressed this point of view i shared with him. “ both, europe and the world are duty - bound to find such a settlement, which, though difficult and complex, is perfectly possible. if, rather than devote all their efforts to threatening serbia with terrible bombings, they had brought pressures to bear on extremists in kosovo, such a settlement could have been reached. only nato can contain extremists in kosovo through frank and uncompromising efforts. it is not a question of using weapons to achieve this, but, rather, of warning the extremists in such a way that they will be certain, beyond all doubt, that they do not have nato ’ s support. there is no question that the bombs that have been dropped on serbia for a week now will never contribute to these dissuasive efforts. “ in addition to this, i believe it is a serious political mistake that the united states and europe should try to keep russia on the edge of the precipice in economic terms by imposing it the international monetary fund ’ s unviable formulas. “ the west makes no mention of the 300 billion dollars that have been stolen from russia and relocated to portugal, spain, france, italy, austria and other countries. this is fifteen times the miserable 20 - billion - dollar loan that the international monetary fund has been discussing for months now. the west, which recommended or imposed these models and policies on russia, shares in the responsibility for this ruthless plundering of russia ’ s wealth. “ an internal explosion in russia would be catastrophic. this is coupled with nato ’ s encroachment, which i ’ ve already mentioned, the proposal to cancel the strategic anti - missile defense agreement and, now, the incredible humiliation surrounding the attack launched by nato ’ s powerful forces against a small country like serbia. “ i told him i was against all kinds of genocide or slaughters, regardless of the perpetrator, and that all ethnic groups and religions, without exception, are deserving of


by nato ’ s powerful forces against a small country like serbia. “ i told him i was against all kinds of genocide or slaughters, regardless of the perpetrator, and that all ethnic groups and religions, without exception, are deserving of the right to life, culture and peace. “ if i have taken the liberty of explaining this, it is because i feel it is my duty to warn you of these dangers and of the need to solve them. to lay these issues on the table does no harm to anyone and can, on the contrary, benefit everyone. i again expressed my conviction that the serbs would resist, and that a peaceful settlement was, in my opinion, feasible, even though negotiating with a country on which thousands of bombs had been dropped and whose honor, dignity and economy had been dealt a harsh blow was by no means easy. “ nato has practically no more military targets to strike, perhaps only concentrated or moving troops remain, and the easiest thing for these troops would be to split up to wage another type of war in which they cannot be destroyed by air strikes. “ europe knows that ground combat would be very costly in terms of human lives and, what ’ s more, futile. i added that, were the serbs to deploy the strategy we would use in our country in the event of an invasion by the united states, an area in which they have already shown extraordinary experience, nato ’ s war would be futile and repulsive, an act of genocide in the heart of europe destined to be condemned everywhere ”. today is a glorious day for our country, the day on which carlos manuel de cespedes began cuba ’ s war of independence against the spanish metropolis. he was a source of inspiration for the generations of cubans who came after him. what he taught us was the duty to reflect on and confront the dangers that menace the human species today. fidel castro ruz october 10, 2007


the namespace contains windows desktop speech technology types for implementing speech recognition. the windows desktop speech technology software offers a basic speech recognition infrastructure that digitizes acoustical signals, and recovers words and speech elements from audio input. applications use the namespace to access and extend this basic speech recognition technology by defining algorithms for identifying and acting on specific phrases or word patterns, and by managing the runtime behavior of this speech infrastructure. you create grammars, which consist of a set of rules or constraints, to define words and phrases that your application will recognize as meaningful input. using a constructor for the grammar class, you can create a grammar object at runtime from grammarbuilder or srgsdocument instances, or from a file, a string, or a stream that contains a definition of a grammar. using the grammarbuilder and choices classes, you can programmatically create grammars of low to medium complexity that can be used to perform recognition for many common scenarios. to create grammars programmatically that conform to the speech recognition grammar specification 1. 0 ( srgs ) and take advantage of the authoring flexibility of srgs, use the types of the system. speech. recognition. srgsgrammar namespace. you can also create xml - format srgs grammars using any text editor and use the result to create grammarbuilder, srgsdocument, or grammar objects. in addition, the dictationgrammar class provides a special - case grammar to support a conventional dictation model. see create grammars in the system speech programming guide for. net framework 4. 0 for more information and examples. manage speech recognition engines you can use the speechrecognizer class to create client applications that use the speech recognition technology provided by windows, which you can configure through the control panel. such applications accept input through a computer ' s default audio input mechanism. for more control over the configuration and type of recognition engine, build an application using speechrecognitionengine, which runs in - process. using the speechrecognitionengine class, you can also dynamically select audio input from devices, files, or streams. see initialize and manage a speech recognition engine in the system speech programming guide for. net framework 4. 0 for more information. respond to events speechrecognizer and speechrecognitionengine objects generate events in response to audio input to the speech recognition engine. the audiolevelupdated, audiosigna


net framework 4. 0 for more information. respond to events speechrecognizer and speechrecognitionengine objects generate events in response to audio input to the speech recognition engine. the audiolevelupdated, audiosignalproblemoccurred, audiostatechanged events are raised in response to changes in the incoming signal. the speechdetected event is raised when the speech recognition engine identifies incoming audio as speech. the speech recognition engine raises the speechrecognized event when it matches speech input to one of its loaded grammars, and raises the speechrecognitionrejected when speech input does not match any of its loaded grammars. other types of events include the loadgrammarcompleted event which a speech recognition engine raises when it has loaded a grammar. the statechanged is exclusive to the speechrecognizer class, which raises the event when the state of windows speech recognition changes. you can register to be notified for events that the speech recognition engine raises and create handlers using the eventsargs classes associated with each of these events to program your application ' s behavior when an event is raised. see using speech recognition events in the system speech programming guide for. net framework 4. 0 for more information. | audiolevelupdatedeventargs | | provides data for the audiolevelupdated event of the speechrecognizer or the speechrecognitionengine class. | | audiosignalproblemoccurredeventargs | | provides data for the audiosignalproblemoccurred event of a speechrecognizer or a speechrecognitionengine. | | audiostatechangedeventargs | | provides data for the audiostatechanged event of the speechrecognizer or the speechrecognitionengine class. | | choices | | represents a set of alternatives in the constraints of a speech recognition grammar. | | dictationgrammar | | represents a speech recognition grammar used for free text dictation. | | emulaterecognizecompletedeventargs | | provides data for the emulaterecognizecompleted event of the speechrecognizer and speechrecognitionengine classes. | | grammar | | a runtime object that references a speech recognition grammar, which an application can use to define the constraints for speech recognition. | |


. | | speechhypothesizedeventargs | | returns notification from speechrecognitionengine. speechhypothesized or speechrecognizer. speechhypothesized events. this class supports the. net framework infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from application code. | | speechrecognitionengine | | provides the means to access and manage an in - process speech recognition engine. | | speechrecognitionrejectedeventargs | | provides information for the speechrecognizer. speechrecognitionrejected and speechrecognitionengine. speechrecognitionrejected events. | | speechrecognizedeventargs | | provides information for the grammar. speechrecognized, speechrecognitionengine. speechrecognized, and speechrecognizer. speechrecognized events. | | speechrecognizer | | provides access to the shared speech recognition service available on the windows desktop. | | speechui | | provides text and status information on recognition operations to be displayed in the speech platform user interface. | | statechangedeventargs | | returns data from the statechanged event. | | audiosignalproblem | | contains a list of possible problems in the audio signal coming in to a speech recognition engine. | | audiostate | | contains a list of possible states for the audio input to a speech recognition engine. | | displayattributes | | lists the options that the speechrecognitionengine object can use to specify white space for the display of a word or punctuation mark. | | recognizemode | | enumerates values of the recognition mode. | | recognizerstate | | enumerates values of the recognizer ' s state. | | subsetmatchingmode | | enumerates values of subset matching mode. |


huntsman spiders are commonly encountered in all sorts of situations – gardens, houses, and even under the sun visor of your car! the reason you tend to find a huntsman rather than a red - back spider walking around inside your car can be explained by how they catch their prey. generally, the ways spiders catch their prey divides them into two categories : web - builders and vagrant hunters. a web - builder spins a web, then sits in or near the web and waits for the prey to come to them. a vagrant hunter such as a hunstman does not use a web to catch its prey ; instead it roams, stalks and runs down its prey. the wandering habit of hunting spiders is the reason you are more likely to find them indoors. there are three groups of huntsman spiders in victoria. they all have the following characteristic, which distinguishes them from other spiders : the front two pairs of legs are noticeably longer than the back or hind two pairs of legs. the front two pairs of legs of a huntsman spider are much longer the rear two pairs. artist : graham milledge / source : museum victoria this is not something you would need to measure. the difference in leg lengths is very obvious. these brown or grey huntsmen are the ones most commonly found in houses, where they hunt at night on walls and ceilings. they also occasionally enter vehicles, causing much alarm. in the bush, holconia species can be found sheltering during the day beneath the loose bark of eucalypts. they are large spiders and, when alarmed, are capable of moving sideways very rapidly. food consists of insects and other invertebrates. huntsman spider, holconia montanaphotographer : alan henderson / source : museum victoria their flat, oval egg sac is constructed of white papery silk. it is most commonly deposited beneath the bark of trees. the lifespan of these spiders is about two years. these spiders are usually orange or pink, and have a distinct dark mark on their abdomen. they are active at night and occasionally come into houses, but less frequently than other huntsman spiders. outside they can be found hunting for prey on the trunks of trees or in foliage. during the day they shelter beneath the bark of trees, where they may build a silken retreat for moulting and egg laying. some species of neosparassus build a silken retreat in foliage by gluing several leaves together, and others construct shallow burrows. badge huntsman spider, neosparassus dianaphotographer : alan


moulting and egg laying. some species of neosparassus build a silken retreat in foliage by gluing several leaves together, and others construct shallow burrows. badge huntsman spider, neosparassus dianaphotographer : alan henderson / source : museum victoria their flattened circular egg sac is guarded by the female. during this period she can be quite aggressive and will rear up in a defensive display if provoked. young neosparassus are often green in colour. this huntsman is the largest of the huntsman spiders, measuring 35 mm or more in body length. it is a very flat spider with a dark orange head and black fangs. it is not often found indoors, but it is common under pieces of flat metal sheets, fibro - cement or roof tiles left lying around in the backyard. in the bush, it can be found if you peel back loose bark on eucalypt trees. sometimes hundreds of individuals of this species may be found living together under the loose bark of trees and within logs. they feed on insects and other invertebrates. the female lays the eggs in a flattened circular egg sac constructed of papery white silk. once the young hatch, they do not disperse as with other species of huntsmen, but remain and grow within the colony. communal huntsmen usually live for one or two seasons. social huntsman spider, delena canceridesphotographer : alan henderson / source : museum victoria huntsman spiders are timid spiders and bites are infrequent. symptoms are usually minor, including local pain and swelling. some neosparassus species can give a painful bite. brunnet, b. 1994. the silken web – a natural history of australian spiders. reed books : melbourne. lindsey, t. 1998. spiders of australia. new holland publishers : sydney. walker, k. l., yen, a. l. and milledge, g. a. 2003. spiders and scorpions commonly found in victoria. royal society of victoria : melbourne. hi vicky and thanks for your question. your bright orange huntsmans sound to me like what are commonly called badge huntsmans. these spiders are mentioned in the information sheet that you have commented on however i have also seen badge huntsmans much more orange in colour than the image we have on our information sheet. there are a number of different species of huntsman spiders and some of them do have a white patterning on their legs. if you still have the image the museum offers a free identification service. you are welcome to


we have on our information sheet. there are a number of different species of huntsman spiders and some of them do have a white patterning on their legs. if you still have the image the museum offers a free identification service. you are welcome to e - mail the picture to email @ example. com and we can confirm if it is a huntsman and try and put a species name to it. hi thanks for your enquiry. normally we do need an image or the specimen itself to do an identification. but we have passed this on to our entomology team for their opinion. we ' ll get back to you as soon as possible hi again nicholas. as suspected our entomologists are unable to provide an identification without the specimen or an image. there are a number of species that are similar so it ' s hard without an image. meanwhile, our victorian huntsman infosheet and victorian spiders website may possibly help you out. the ' badge ' on badge huntsmans is located on the underside, ( or ventral surface ) of the abdomen and so can be hard to see unless the spider is sitting on glass. please feel free to take some images of the spider and e - mail them to firstname. lastname @ example. org and we will attempt to identify the spider for you. hi trish, our live exhibits team are interested in seeing your photograph to help explain this interesting behaviour. hi trish. the response from live exhibits is as follows : what you have witnessed is huntsman courtship ( and possibly ) mating. the male must firstly introduce himself as a mate ( not food ) through a series of bodily shudders and vibrations, which culminate in him tapping and caressing her. if successful, he will then proceed to mate by leaning underneath her abdomen and engaging his feelers ( palps ). the bulbs at the end of his palps are where he stores his sperm. he may mate for quite some time, swapping sides intermittently. prepare for the pitter patter of many little feet! please feel free to take some digital images of the spider and e - mail them to email @ example. com and we will try and confirm for you if you have a badge huntsman or a different species. i would be surprised if the same huntsman keeps climbing from the ground back to your appartment each time, but it is possible. the important thing to remember is that whether the spider is the same one or whether your appartment block has a few that the spiders are not at


vast majority of huntsman spiders are solitary animals, and keep to themselves. the exception to this is the social huntsman. they will breed up into large groups which shelter together under the loose bark of acacia and eucalypt trees. although they shelter together, they still tend to wander around individually. hi cath, we think it would take about 3 or 4 months, depending on how much food it gets. their development is reasonably slow over cooler months, particularly if food is scarce. hi john. see some of the comments above for general advice about keeping spiders away from lived - in areas. also bear in mind that spiderlings tend to disperse quite quickly. however, if you need to remove them immediately, you might need to vacuum them up! hi stacey, if you can safely collect one of the spiders, place it in the freezer overnight to humanely kill it, put it in a container such as a pill jar and post it to discovery centre po box 666 melbourne 3001, we will happily look at it for you and let you know if it is a juvenile huntsman. no spiders feed on people or seek them out to bite but if you step on a spider or if one is trapped in your clothing and being squashed it may bite. hi greg, the museum does have a free identification service. if you can safely obtain some images of the spiders please feel free to e - mail them to firstname. lastname @ example. org and we will try and have them identified for you. hi rebecca, huntsman spiders usually come inside looking for food. they do not build a web and wait for their prey to come to them, but rather hunt for it as their name suggests. try not to be too alarmed at their presence, they have no interest in people. it is likely that they are also in other peoples ' units, but you could try to minimise their numbers in your unit by making sure no vegetation is touching your windows or walls and try to find and block any gaps around windows and doors. hi nerissa, i ' m glad you and the kids are getting along well with your lodger. to be able to sex your spider you really need to be able to get quite close to the spider. please see our information click here on how to determine if the spider is a boy or girl. your spider may be quite mobile during the night searching for food and is probably helping keep your household insects under control while you sleep. if the spider is female and she has an egg sac the majority


to determine if the spider is a boy or girl. your spider may be quite mobile during the night searching for food and is probably helping keep your household insects under control while you sleep. if the spider is female and she has an egg sac the majority of these spiders upon hatching would leave the house as there is likely to be more food outside than inside. hi kate, from your description the spiders are most likely what are commonly called huntsmans. this term applies to a large number of species ranging in colour from orange to grey. these spiders are not considered highly dangerous and are unlikely to bite unless you step on one or handle one and they feel threatened. hi laura, huntsmans are common in most houses throughout spring and become more common in summer, when young ones start to appear. huntsmans don ’ t build a nest – instead a female will produce an egg sac, generally wait until the eggs have hatched, then abandon the young spiders to their own devices. you can rest assured that 99 % of these young spiders will die of natural causes before reaching adulthood. so the appearance of young spiders is a natural occurrence at this time of year and may or may not have anything to do with the adult spider you removed. if you don ’ t mind living with huntsmans, the best thing to do is let the majority of them disperse and enjoy the company of the few that remain. alternatively, you can catch them as you find them to be taken outside ( like the original spider ), but you don ’ t need to worry about being overrun with huntsmans if you leave them in place. hi terri, the young huntsmans will begin leaving the female over the next few weeks, it is quite common for young spiders to stay close to the egg sac for the first little while. they have energy reserves in their bodies already so they don ’ t start getting hungry for a while. once those energy reserves are used up they will disperse away from one another and catch small invertebrates like flies to feed on. hi sacha, lots of questions about your spider. let ’ s see how many we can answer! it is quite common for huntsman to return to the same resting place during the day, especially if it is a protected private spot like a disused letter box. spiders have fine hairs all over their body that can detect the slightest movement around them. they are very good at keeping out of each other ’ s way and if they do ‘ stumble ’ across one another it is normally a big run to escape from each other – unless it is for


their body that can detect the slightest movement around them. they are very good at keeping out of each other ’ s way and if they do ‘ stumble ’ across one another it is normally a big run to escape from each other – unless it is for mating purposes in which case they will caress each other to make their intentions known. once huntsmen emerge from their egg sac they will disperse away from one another ( unless they are social huntmen ). if they find a position that is suitable – plenty of food and shelter it is quite likely that they will choose to stay there until their food supply runs out. if huntsman spiders roam, what distance do they typically travel. do they stay in a general area or move continually? this is a question that i can ’ t answer. i ’ m sure some spiders roam widely – some even hitch rides in cars! it is quite common for people to mention a spider that has been hanging around in a certain place of an extended period of time. when the spider moults it is very soft and a cream colour. the process to moult does not take all that long as spiders are very vulnerable while they are hanging and removing their old exoskeleton. for the next day or two the spider sits quietly and allows its new exoskeleton to harden. when they are young, spiders moult quite often. if there is lots of food around then the spider eats rapidly and grows out of its old exoskeleton. as they get older the rate of moulting decreases. hi rebecca - huntsmans live under bark and have flattened bodies, they are able to squeeze throughcracks and get into your house. they do this nocturnally. there are a number of traditional remedies to keep them out, including lemon oil – i ’ ve never known them to work but there ’ s no harm trying. huntsman populations vary from place to place and year to year. in bushy suburbs they will be more common and during warm wet summers their populations will also increase. this summer is a particularly good one, as the rain has brought out flushes of new growth on plants, which has boosted the insect numbers, which in turn has meant a massive increase in spiders, including huntsmans. huntsmans have adapted well to living inside houses. without sealing all external cracks, removing foliage from around eaves and sealing all doors and windows, i ’ m afraid there ’ s not much else you can do but to live with them. they will treat you when stationary


well to living inside houses. without sealing all external cracks, removing foliage from around eaves and sealing all doors and windows, i ’ m afraid there ’ s not much else you can do but to live with them. they will treat you when stationary as part of the furniture, so there is a chance they will crawl on you. huntsmans also have the bad habit of dropping on people ’ s heads who walk underneath them, which i suspect is part of their evolutionary adaptation to spreading the species around ( they are just hitchhiking in this case ). the good news is that huntsmans generally are very reluctant to bite ( i ’ ve inadvertently walked around all day with one inside my boot and was not bitten, for example ) and the bite is no worse than a bee sting. one reason huntsmans are so at home in our homes is their ability to squeeze through the smallest gaps with their flat legs and bodies, and this also enables them to hide away in places where airborne insecticides can ’ t reach them. the other option is a more residual, more penetrating insecticide but these are considered more harmful to the human inhabitants than the spiders are. and when the insecticides wear off, the huntsmans will just reinvade. the other type, the ‘ electric repellent ’ you mentioned, has no effect on spiders at all. some people use natural remedies such as lemon oil but these generally don ’ t do a sufficient job for most people ’ s satisfaction, if they work at all. the best way is to block the spiders ’ entry points ( around doors and windows, and particularly from foliage touching the house ’ s eaves ), learn to love them even more, and things might return to normal next year. hi hal, hunstmans, like all spiders, do indeed produce threads which they lay down at regular intervals as a safety line in case they lose their footing. when this happens, the spider will dangle from the thread and climb back up to safety. similar to the way rock climbers attach ropes to the cliff face, so that if they fall it is not too far. additionally, huntsmans moult out of their old skins by hanging from a thread, and these empty skins are often seen dangling from these threads for months afterwards, usually under the roof of a shed or empty cupboard. because huntsmans don ’ t build a web to catch prey, their silk is not so obvious, but for all the other reasons spiders use silk ( mating, producing an egg sac, safety line etc )


the roof of a shed or empty cupboard. because huntsmans don ’ t build a web to catch prey, their silk is not so obvious, but for all the other reasons spiders use silk ( mating, producing an egg sac, safety line etc ), huntsmans use it too. hi karra, huntsmen dropping legs is not generally a sign of starvation, more commonly a sign of old age or aggression from other animals in the house. here at the museum we keep lots of huntsmen in captivity and one of the first things for them to do before dying of old age is to lose all the fine delicate hairs on their backs and then drop a leg or two. hi jordan, it is possible that the huntsman you keep on finding is the same specimen. there is an even greater likelihood if the only shelter in the paddock is the shed. it will head towards somewhere it can hide away – it certainly does not want to be caught out exposed to predators in the open space. to get rid of it from the shed the best thing you can do is find it a place that provides the same type of shelter that the shed does – under the bark of a tree is often a good place to leave him. hi victoria, i have spoken with the entomologist and he has advised that there are a few things you can do to deter spiders from coming in, but unfortunately, you cannot spider proof your home! go outside and make sure there is no foliage coming into contact with the house, and block up any visible holes around windows and doors. you should also remember that they are not interested in you, they are coming inside looking for food and shelter. hi audrey! the number of eggs produced by huntsmans depends on which huntsman species you have, but the more common species will produce 150 - 200 eggs. the good news for you, but not for the huntsmans, is that they have a 99 % mortality rate before reaching adulthood. so out of the 200 ( at most ) that emerge from the egg sac, only about 2 will survive and reproduce. these 2 replace their parents, which keeps the population relatively stable over time. there are many nooks and crannies around the average house into which huntsman spiderlings can disappear. with holes in the wood panelling there are even more escape routes and there ' s probably not much benefit in trying to track them all down. the best thing is to let them be and let nature remove the great majority of spiderlings. hi john, huntsman spiders tend to mate


there are even more escape routes and there ' s probably not much benefit in trying to track them all down. the best thing is to let them be and let nature remove the great majority of spiderlings. hi john, huntsman spiders tend to mate in the warmer months of the year when they themselves are more active. there is very little evidence to know if spiders have mated. generally they will join together for a few minutes to up to an hour while the male transfers a sperm package into the female. once that is completed you often only know that it was successful by the female putting on condition and her abdomen enlarging. you often find females sitting with egg sacs this time of the year – or earlier. hi natasha, your female spider has chosen to lay her egg sac within your bedroom. she must think that it is fairly good conditions to incubate those eggs. as long as you stop any chemicals such as pesticides from being sprayed near her she should quite happily sit and do her thing. if you do feel you need to relocate her to a place away from the house. you need to carefully disconnect the silk threads connecting her egg sac to the wall and transfer her and her eggs to a dry secluded spot. good luck. hello astrid! our entomologist says that this is most likely to be a pseudoscorpion, which are often found under bark or in leaf litter. they eat even smaller invertebrates ( see melbourne ' s wildlife for more information ). they ' re not normally found inside, but might have been brought in on another larger invertebrate, as they hitch rides, or perhaps on some plant material. female huntsmans mature at about eight months of age and then mate with a male, generally a couple of weeks after maturing. she will then produce a flat, oval egg sac containing up to 200 eggs, and stand guard continually over it for about three weeks. when the eggs hatch, depending on the species of huntsman, she will often continue to guard them until they disperse. females produce egg sacs during summer and, although the records are not readily available, there appears to be a maximum of two egg sacs per summer. the timing of the egg sacs is determined by when she mates ( depending on availability of suitable males ), how long the eggs take to develop, and whether she gets the opportunity to produce a second egg sac ( both of which depend on environmental conditions ). as females can live for two years, they have the potential to produce another two eggs in


), how long the eggs take to develop, and whether she gets the opportunity to produce a second egg sac ( both of which depend on environmental conditions ). as females can live for two years, they have the potential to produce another two eggs in the second year. so to summarise, our experience suggests that a female huntsman can produce up to four egg sacs, mainly during the summer months, but the timing is dependent on a number of environmental factors. hi anthony, you can send images to the discovery centre, email @ example. com hi courtney, museum victoria offers a free identification service, but in order for the entomologist to make an accurate identification, a clear image is required you can send images to the discovery centre via the ask the experts page. hi joe, all australian spiders are venomous - that is, all australian spiders produce venom to assist them to kill and digest their prey. only a small proportion of spiders have venom that is strong enough to make a human sick. no spiders prey on humans ; their first response is to run away from you. people are only bitten when a spider feels threatened. if you wear gloves while gardening and moving items outside, it ' s highly unlikely that you will be bitten. museum victoria has a free identification service. we would be very happy to identify your spiders for you. the answer to your question depends on the species of huntsman. some species lay their eggs into a silken egg sac that is either attached to a rock or tree root inside a brood chamber. some species carry or attach the egg sac beneath their body when moving about. when the spiderlings emerge from the egg sac, they may swarm over the female huntsman ’ s body, but she does not carry them around on or in its body. museum victoria does not provide eradication advice. although keeping an area free of spiders is difficult ; there are many precautions that can be taken to avoid bites. avoid walking outside with bare feet, especially at night. when gardening, wear shoes, long trousers and thick gloves to guard against any spiders. this link from the australian museum will provide you with some tips to minimise spider numbers in the home and garden. charlie - it isn ' t possible for an identification to be made from you description - we would need to see the specimen itself, or at least a clear photograph of it. you can find out more about our identification services here, or you might want to try to identify what you saw using our victorian spiders website here. hope this helps huntsman spiders


to see the specimen itself, or at least a clear photograph of it. you can find out more about our identification services here, or you might want to try to identify what you saw using our victorian spiders website here. hope this helps huntsman spiders can indeed produce silk thread, in order to move around, however they do not create an actual web. so it is quite plausible that they are creating the silk threads in your car. if what is on your steering wheel and windscreen is in a distinct web formation, a different spider may be creating these. hi andy, before we can advise you about the eggs on your clothes line, we would need to identify them. museum victoria has a free identification service. you can either send us some photos of the eggs via our ask the experts form, or bring them in to the discovery centre at melbourne museum. hi michael, museum victoria ' s live exhibits team provided us with the following information that may assist you : like many insects and spiders, huntsmans can store enough sperm from a single mating to last them the rest of their lives. most insects and spiders that do this tend to mate with multiple partners so they have a mixture of genes in the stored sperm, but queen termites, for example, may mate once and have enough sperm to produce tens of millions of offspring over the next 20 years. your female ate tonnes of crickets in between because she was building up sufficient protein to produce further egg sacs, and will continue to do this until she dies. thanks for your comment. we have received your email with a photograph of the huntsman you wish to identify, which we will forward to museum victoria ' s entomologists for assistance. yes the huntsman spider will eat other insects including invertebrates and daddy long - leg spiders ( pholcus phalangioides ). i guess it just depends on how hungry he is! further information on daddy long legs can be found here hi, hello ( 25th of february )! we forwarded your enquiry to museum victoria ’ s live exhibits team, our animal keepers, who responded with the following information : huntsmans can move considerable distances when they feel the urge, particularly if they find themselves in an unsuitable location. your bedroom appears to be a suitable location so when taken outside a huntsman will have no hesitation returning inside via the same route it originally used. another possible explanation is that when you remove a huntsman, another takes its place. they are at their largest size at this time of year, and often look very similar to


) by the huntsman itself to allow it to escape from a predator. perhaps your spider is having regular near misses with a predator of some kind. legs may also be lost during the moulting process, particularly if the environment is too dry, and the legs fail to emerge from the old skin properly. loss of legs may also be a sign of old age or extremely poor health. your spider may be ok - we ' ve seen huntsmans in the wild that have lost all their legs from one side of the body and these individuals can often move almost as fast as they would with the full complement of legs using the palp ( a small appendage near the mouth ) as a substitute. hi allie, thanks for the question. we have contacted the live exhibits team with the details of your enquiry, and they have advised that in most cases when an insect or spider is found in a package sent from overseas, it turns out the creature entered the package after it arrived in the country of destination, and so is not a cause for concern! we have sent you come further information and details via email. spiders usually lose strength and condition towards the end of their lives and may not be able to reach the heights they did earlier in life. orbweavers will die at the edge of the web or, more commonly, hanging from a thread in the middle of the web. the behaviour you observed is typical of a spider nearing the end of its life. in both cases it sounds like your spiders had fulfilling lives and you should be pleased with your care of them. hi laurence, there are a couple of thousand different types of spiders in australia and without a photo it ' s difficult to determine what it would be. but here are some options. there is a family of spiders called jumping spiders but these tend to be small ( the largest are less than 1cm long ). some huntsmans will jump when being chased and can move with remarkable speed, but they are usually flat - bodied and unmistakenly huntsman - like. a subgroup of huntsmans called badge spiders are not particularly flat but are usually coloured yellow or orange. wolf spider are a ground - dwelling family that also move with speed but they are not known to jump. wolf spiders are round - bodied and do superficially resemble small mice. there is also a spider species called the mouse spider ( missulena bradleyi ), which is very mouse - like but is large and black and also does not jump. trapdoor spiders sometimes enter houses and fit the


superficially resemble small mice. there is also a spider species called the mouse spider ( missulena bradleyi ), which is very mouse - like but is large and black and also does not jump. trapdoor spiders sometimes enter houses and fit the physical description but again do not jump. you can search the museum ' s website for the common names of the spiders listed above and see if any match the physical description, but your description of the spider ' s behaviour does not match any species we ' re aware of. hi tanya, check out the answers above, particularly the comment from the discovery centre dated march 13th 2011. hi sarah, it is possible to have more than one species of huntsman in your home. you have been unlucky in terms of bites, we get large numbers of enquiries regarding these spiders and very few bites are reported to us. spiders do not seek us out to bite so unless you grab one or stand on one they generally move out of the way. they can be hard to keep out of the house as they can flatten themselves and get through some quite small cracks and crevices. try to make sure that there are no obvious cracks around your windows and doors ; also that flywire on windows isn ' t loose or doesn ' t have any holes in it. having said that if the spiders do want to come inside looking for insects to eat they can usually find a way, the best you can hope for is to minimise their numbers. the australian museum has some information on how to minimise spider numbers in the home and garden. six to eight badge huntsmans per night does sound like quite a lot, if you can safely get some good quality images feel free to send them to firstname. lastname @ example. org we can have a look and just confirm that is what you are getting. there is no record of male huntsmans physically fighting over females. many male spiders will have showdowns with other males that don ' t involve physical combat, rather it ' s a competition over size or strength or the best display. however, huntsmans have a wide range of prey that includes any moving animal within a certain size range, and when other huntsmans fit that criteria they become potential prey themselves. so the spiders with missing limbs may have had close calls with larger huntsmans, both males and females. the dried - up spiderlings are in fact, as you suggested, empty skins. spiderlings moult as soon as they leave the egg sac and generally disperse by ballooning on a


of all of the places on earth to visit, the galapagos islands have been rated one of the top 7 and the trip is said to be a life - changing experience. with so many beautiful places to visit on earth, what makes these islands so special? the native species of plants and animals have remained relatively the same since the days of charles darwin ’ s visit in 1835 as the islands are located 600 miles from the mainland. so, in a world that is filled with constant change and the creation of new things, these islands present the rarity of the unchanged. visitors are limited to itineraries that are set by the ecuadorian government. in fact, many areas of the galapagos national park are not available for visitation to help manage the impact of people on the ecosystem. and in the areas where visitors can roam, no one is allowed to touch, feed or harass the wildlife. before leaving one island and travelling to another, visitors must clean off the soles of their shoes to eliminate the transfer of any plant or animal species from one island to another, as the flora and fauna of each island is unique to that island. seem like a lot of rules? maybe. but it ’ s these set of rules that make the islands so fascinating. it ’ s conservation in its truest form. in june, the national aquarium will embark on an 8 day cruise led by a naturalist and will visit 9 of the 13 main islands of the galapagos. for more information on how you can join this excursion, click here!


in recent years, interest in increasing the use of technology in elementary and secondary education has grown. numerous initiatives - both public and private - have provided discounted or free computers and internet access to schools and have encouraged the provision of technology - focused teacher professional development and training ( trotter 1999 ). these initiatives were predicated on the expectation that the use of technology in education can lead to a number of beneficial outcomes. in getting america ' s students ready for the 21st century, for example, the u. s. department of education ( 1996 ) asserts that technology has the potential to enhance the achievement of all students, increase families ' involvement in their children ' s schooling, improve teachers ' skills and knowledge, and improve school administration and management. to track changes in the availability of and access to technology, the national center for education statistics ( nces ) since 1994 has conducted a series of surveys of public and private elementary and secondary schools. this issue brief provides results from the most recent survey of technology in private schools, focusing on trends in the availability of and access to technology from 1995 to 1998. 1 in addition, this issue brief reports on the future connectivity plans of private schools not connected to the internet and on the advanced telecommunications training opportunities private schools offer their teachers. the number of students per computer is the measure commonly used to provide an indication of the prevalence of computers in schools. in 1998, there was an average of six students per computer in private schools, down from nine students per computer in private schools in 1995 ( table 1 ). in 1995 and in 1998, nonsectarian schools reported fewer students per computer on average than did catholic schools and other religious schools, and the student - to - computer ratio was lower on average in private secondary than in private elementary schools. another common measure of the prevalence of computers in schools is the number of students per instructional computer. 2 this measure excludes computers that may be used exclusively for administrative or other noninstructional purposes. in 1998, the average number of private school students per instructional computer was eight ( table 1 ). in public schools, there was an average of six students to each instructional computer in 1998 ( rowand 1999 ). non - sectarian private schools had a lower average student - to - in - structional computer ratio ( 6 : 1 ) than did catholic schools ( 8 : 1 ) and other religious schools ( 9 : 1 ). in addition, the student - to - instructional computer ratio was higher in private elementary schools ( 8 : 1 ) than in private secondary


you are here montana ' s house bill 183, which purports to " encourage critical thinking regarding controversial scientific theories " such as " biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, random mutation, natural selection, dna, and fossil discoveries, " was tabled in the house education committee on february 5, 2013. a montana legislator is preparing a bill to require the teaching of " intelligent design " along with evolution. house joint resolution 21, introduced by representative robin hamilton ( d - district 92 ) on january 26, 2007, in the montana house of representatives and referred to the committee on education, would, if enacted, express the montana legislature ' s recognition of the importance of separation of church and state and support of the right of local school board trustees to adopt a science curriculum based on sound scientific principles. two evolution - related measures have failed to progress through the montana legislature and are dead for this session. march 1 was the deadline for bills to pass in their first house. one potential bill, known by its draft number of lc1199, was never formally introduced. sponsored by rep. roger koopman, the bill had a short title reading : " allow teaching competing theories of origin ". this bill apparently never completed the drafting process. following last year ' s debate over evolution education in the small montana town of darby, two bills have been proposed in the montana legislature which take diametrically opposed stands on the place of evolution in the science classrooms of the state ' s public schools. on july 5, 2004, the school board in darby, montana voted 3 - 2 not to adopt a proposed " objective origins policy " on its second reading. the policy had been tentatively approved on february 2 at its first reading, but is now rejected. the proposal sparked intense local controversy and national media attention earlier this year. the fate of the policy became the central issue in the may school board election, where two policy supporters were decisively defeated by opponents, resulting in the change in board majority from " pro " to " anti ". after the may 4, 2004, school board election in darby, montana, the proposed " objective origins " policy is likely to be dead in the water. roxanne cleasby, a parent in helena, montana, was attempting to have a book about horses ( juliet clutton - brock ' s horse ) removed from her local elementary school library because it devotes two pages to discussing equine evolution. a parent in helena, montana, is attempting to have a book about horses removed from her local


the icm and the igm show metal lines in the x - ray spectra. these metals cannot have been produced in the gas, but they must have been produced in the galaxies and subsequently transported from the galaxies into the icm / igm by certain processes like e. g. ram - pressure stripping, galactic winds, galaxy - galaxy interaction or jets from active galaxies. the metallicity is the best indicator for finding out which of these processes are most important. of special interest is the distribution of metals. so far there are only few examples of measured metallicity variations in real 2d maps and not only profiles. in cl0939 + 4713 we find different metallicity in the different subclusters ( de filippis et al. 2002 ). in the perseus cluster also clear metallicity variations were found ( schmidt et al. 2002 ). 1d profiles are not very useful in this context because photons from regions in the cluster which are very far apart are accumulated in the same spectrum. apart from the metallicity distribution also the evolution of the metallicity is interesting. as soon as enough xmm and chandra observations of distant clusters are available we can compare the metallicities in these clusters with those of nearby clusters. this is another way of distinguishing between the enrichment processes as different processes have different time dependence. in addition element ratios can be derived, e. g of fe and - elements to get information on the different types of supernovae that have contributed to the metal enrichment. various processes have been suggested for the transport of gas from the galaxies to the icm / igm. 30 years ago gunn & gott ( 1972 ) suggested ram - pressure stripping : as the galaxy moves through the cluster and approaches the cluster centre it feels the increasing pressure of the intra - cluster gas. at some point the galaxy is not able anymore to retain its ism. the ism is stripped off and lost to the icm and with it all its metals. many numerical simulations have been performed to investigate this process, first 2d models ( takeda et al. 1984 ; gaetz et al. 1987 ; portnoy et al. 1993 ; balsara et al. 1994 ). with increasing computing power also more detailed 3d models could be calculated ( abadi et al. 1999 ; quilis et al. 2000 ; vollmer et al. 2001 ; schulz & struck 2001 ; toniazzo & schindler 2001 ). in fig. 6 such a simulated stripping process is shown for an elliptical galaxy. figure


1999 ; quilis et al. 2000 ; vollmer et al. 2001 ; schulz & struck 2001 ; toniazzo & schindler 2001 ). in fig. 6 such a simulated stripping process is shown for an elliptical galaxy. figure 6. gas density ( grey scale ) and pressure ( contours ) of a galaxy moving downwards towards the cluster centre. the arrows show the mach vectors ( white when m > 1, black otherwise ). the gas of the galaxy is stripped due to ram pressure ( from toniazzo & schindler 2001 ). another possible process is galactic winds e. g. driven by supernovae ( de young 1978 ). also for this process simulations have been performed on order to see whether only winds can account for the observed metallicities. the results were quite discordant as the following two examples show. metzler & evrard ( 1994, 1997 ) found that winds can account for the metals, while murakami & babul ( 1999 ) concluded that winds are not very efficient for the metal enrichment. in the simulations of metzler & evrard quite steep metallicity gradients showed up which are not in agreement with observations. a third possible process is galaxy - galaxy interactions, like tidal stripping or galaxy harassment. also during these interactions a lot of ism can be lost to the icm and igm. this process is very likely more efficient in groups of galaxies, because in these systems the relative velocities are smaller and therefore the interaction timescales are longer. the ram - pressure stripping on the other hand is probably less efficient in groups because not only the pressure of the igm is lower than that of the icm, but also the velocities are smaller. this is also very important as the stripping is about proportional to gas v2. a forth possible mechanism is jets emitted by active galaxies. these jets can also carry metals. fig. 7 shows the interaction of jets with the icm as it was discovered by x - ray observations. in the cluster rbs797 minima in the x - ray emission have been detected in a chandra observation ( schindler et al. 2001 ). the x - ray depressions are arranged opposite with respect to the cluster centre. it is very likely that the pressure of the relativistic particles in the jets push away the x - ray gas. preliminary radio observations with the vla confirm this hypothesis. figure 7. chandra image of the central part of the cluster rbs797 (


that the pressure of the relativistic particles in the jets push away the x - ray gas. preliminary radio observations with the vla confirm this hypothesis. figure 7. chandra image of the central part of the cluster rbs797 ( from schindler et al. 2001 ). there are depressions in the x - ray emission which are located opposite to each other with respect to the cluster centre ( see arrows ). these depressions can be explained by an active galaxy in the centre of the cluster, which has two jets. the pressure of the relativistic particles in the jets push away the x - ray gas resulting in minima in the x - ray emission. simulations with different enrichment processes were also performed on cosmological scales. also here quite discordant results have been found as the two following examples show. gnedin ( 1998 ) found that galactic winds play only a minor role, while galaxy mergers eject most of the gas. in contrary to these results aguirre et al. ( 2001 ) concluded that winds are most important and ram - pressure stripping is not very efficient. the reason for these differences are probably the large ranges in scale that are covered by these simulations, from cosmological scale down to galaxy scales. therefore only a small number of particles are left for each single galaxy and hence galaxies are not well resolved. this can be the reason for the discordant results. in order to clarify this we are currently performing comprehensive simulations, which include the different enrichment processes.


the factors behind the calving process were not well understood us researchers have come up with a way to predict the rate at which ice shelves break apart into icebergs. these sometimes spectacular occurrences, called calving events, are a key step in the process by which climate change drives sea level rise. computer models that simulate how ice sheets might behave in a warmer world do not describe the calving process in much detail, science journal reports. until now, the factors controlling this process have not been well understood. ice sheets, such as those in antarctica and greenland, spread under their own weight and flow off land over the ocean water. ice shelves are the thick, floating lips of ice sheets or glaciers that extend out past the coastline. timelapse footage of an iceberg breaking away from a glacier in july 2008. the event took approximately 15 minutes ( video : fahnestock / unh ) the ross ice shelf in antarctica floats for as much as 800km ( 500 miles ) over the ocean before the edges begin to break and create icebergs. but other ice shelves may only edge over the water for a few kilometres. a team led by richard alley at pennsylvania state university, us, analysed factors such as thickness, calving rate and strain rate for 20 different ice shelves. " the problem of when things break is a really hard problem because there is so much variability, " said professor alley. " anyone who has dropped a coffee cup knows this. sometimes the coffee cup breaks and sometimes it bounces. " the team ' s results show that the calving rate of an ice shelf is primarily determined by the rate at which the ice shelf is spreading away from the continent. the researchers were also able to show that narrower shelves should calve more slowly than wider ones. ice cracking off into the ocean from antarctica and greenland could play a significant role in future sea level rise. floating ice that melts does not of itself contribute to the height of waters ( because it has already displaced its volume ), but the shelf from which it comes acts as a brake to the land - ice behind. removal of the shelf will allow glaciers heading to the ocean to accelerate - a phenomenon documented when the larsen b shelf on the antarctic peninsula shattered in spectacular style in 2002. this would speed sea level rise. the un intergovernmental panel on climate change in its 2007 assessment forecast that seas could rise by 18 to 59 cm ( 7 - 23ins ) this century. however, in giving those figures, it conceded that ice behaviour was poorly understood


the two - week expedition in january encountered new species of fish, seaweed and other ocean life at little - studied saba bank atoll, a coral - crowned seamount 250 kilometers southeast of puerto rico in the dutch windward islands. in a series of dives buffeted by high winds and strong currents, scientists from conservation international ( ci ), the netherlands antilles government and smithsonian institution ' s museum of natural history found scores more fish species than previously known in the region and vast beds of diverse seaweed, including a dozen or more possible new species. " we discovered a new species literally every day we were there, " said michael smith, director of ci ' s caribbean biodiversity initiative. among the apparent new fish species found were two types of gobi, while the total number of fish species recorded reached 200, compared to fewer than 50 before the expedition. the unprecedented richness of marine life and vulnerable status of the atoll ' s coral beds make saba bank a prime candidate for designation as a particularly sensitive sea area ( pssa ) under the international maritime organization ( imo ). mark littler, marine botanist of the smithsonian institution ' s national museum of natural history, declared saba bank the richest area for seaweeds in the caribbean basin, including as many as a dozen new species along with commercially valuable species that will facilitate the creation of economic activity zones under pssa designation. paul hoetjes, marine biologist with the ministry of nature affairs for the netherlands antilles ( mina ), called the expedition crucial to getting the area protected to benefit local populations.


this might be a rare case about which einstein was wrong. more than 60 years ago, the great physicist scoffed at the idea that anything could travel faster than light, even though quantum mechanics had suggested such a condition. now four swiss researchers have brought the possibility closer to reality. testing a concept called " spooky action at a distance " - - a phrase used by einstein in criticizing the phenomenon - - they have shown that two subatomic particles can communicate nearly instantaneously, even if they are separated by cosmic distances. alice ' s wonderland had nothing on quantum physics, which describes a bizarre state of matter and energy. not only can the same atom exist in two locations at once, but merely attempting to observe a particle will alter its properties. perhaps least intuitive is the characteristic called entanglement. as described by quantum mechanics, it means that two entangled particles can keep tabs on each other no matter how far apart they are. physicists have been trying for decades to determine whether this property is real and what might cause it. in the process, they ' ve uncovered evidence for it but not much about its properties. physicist nicolas gisin and colleagues at the university of geneva in switzerland split off pairs of quantum - entangled photons and sent them from the university ' s campus through two fiber - optic cables to two swiss villages located 18 kilometers apart. thinking of the photons like traffic lights, each passed through specially designed detectors that determined what " color " they were when entering the cable and what color they appeared to be when they reached the terminus. the experiments revealed two things : first, the physical properties of the photons changed identically during their journey, just as predicted by quantum theory - - when one turned " red, " so did the other. second, there was no detectable time difference between when those changes occurred in the photons, as though an imaginary traffic controller had signaled them both. the result, the team reports in tomorrow ' s issue of nature, is that whatever was affecting the photons seems to have happened nearly instantaneously and that according to their calculations, the phenomenon influencing the particles had to be traveling at least 10, 000 times faster than light. given einstein ' s standard speed limit on light traveling within conventional spacetime, the experiments show that entanglement might be controlled by something existing beyond it. gisin says that once the scientific community " accepts that nature has this ability, we should try to create models that explain it. " although the research doesn ' t demonstrate spooky action


( make sure to watch this full - screen with the sound on! ) it ’ s cold, it ’ s dry, the air is thin. the nearest city is miles away across a barren landscape of boulder - strewn hills. at night, the only lights to guide you are the stars in the sky. astronomers, welcome to paradise. known as the driest place on earth, chile ’ s atacama desert has long been recognized as an ideal spot for ground - based telescopes. the skies are free of light pollution, and the high plains enjoy long stretches of steady atmospheric conditions, allowing astronomers to peer deeply into the cosmos without having to worry about turbulence distorting the data. ( related blog : “ the dry edge of life — studying ‘ martians ’ in chile. ” ) in the new time - lapse movie above, photographers christoph malin and babak tafreshi ( founder of the world at night, or twan, program ) offer a rarely seen glimpse of cerro paranal, one of the high hills in the atacama that houses instruments for the european southern observatory ( eso ). made by invitation from the eso, the video includes more than 7, 500 still images taken between october and november 2011. it shows the beauty of the dark atacama skies, sometimes framed by the four main domes of the very large telescope, as well as a brief “ behind the scenes ” look at what telescope operators see from inside one of the domes. in an email to national geographic, tafreshi says of the atacama : there are not many locations left on this planet where you can still experience a dark sky like this. i have been to similar dark skies in other continents, from the heart of sahara in algeria to himalayas or islands in the pacific. but what makes atacama beat others is being dry and clear for so many nights per year. it ’ s not permitted for tourists and regular visiting groups to stay on paranal at night time, as it might affect the expensive work time of the ultrahigh - precision telescopes. however, to enjoy the stunning night sky of atacama it ’ s not necessary to be on this mountain or exactly this region. … [ you ] just need to be far from the few main cities in the area and the dusty mine industry. some of our footage in this video is also made from mountains and desert areas some kilometers away from paranal. walking on the desert near paranal between the scattered stones and boulders on the pale red dust feels


in the area and the dusty mine industry. some of our footage in this video is also made from mountains and desert areas some kilometers away from paranal. walking on the desert near paranal between the scattered stones and boulders on the pale red dust feels like being on mars, but under the earth sky. one of the most astonishing experiences under such a starry sky is the view of the milky way. in several scenes of the film, the setting arc of the milky way is captured over the cloud - covered pacific coastline. the band of the milky way is bulged and becomes most brilliant toward the galactic center in the constellation sagittarius, which is prominent in these scenes. watching the arc of the milky way near the desert horizon is a true scene of science fiction. it is of course kind of sad that paranal is not open to the public, but it is a remote place, operated in a very extreme desert environment. … safety precaucions are omnipresent at paranal — the place is extremely well organized. … paranal is organized down to the minute for every day and hour, 365 days per year, to utilize the instrument research time the best possible. that said, it is still sad, because this magic place shows … how the nights on our planet can truly look like if there is no light pollution. those are silent, peaceful nights. in pauses when all equipment is running, and you have a moment off, you get immediately thrown back to yourself and to your role in the universe, in a direct, straightforward way just by watching that beautifully glowing night sky. in fact, if you stand there, you see a shadow of your feet just from the light of the milky way. in europe you have to climb some remote, distant peaks, hike into the most remote, hidden valleys, search for dark places in national parks, fly to the islands to experience such a raw, unspoiled beauty of the starry skies. in this respect, it is a good movement that the chilean government / tourism board is actively marketing their beautiful night skies and trying to protect them at the same time. i hope that other countries will also start to work on those topics. astronomer ’ s paradise is just the first installment in tafreshi and malin ’ s “ atacama starry nights ” series. the next time - lapse movie, to be released in march, will focus on the northern atacama, the valley of the moon, and another major observatory, the atacama large


yahweh had forbidden israel all kinds of oracles in vogue among the pagans. if, for a time, he consented to reply by urim and thummim ( apparently a species of sacred lots which the high - priest carried in the cincture of his ephod, and consulted at the request of the public authorities in matters of graver moment ), yet he always abominated those who had recourse to divination and magic, practiced augury and enchantment, trusted in charms, consulted soothsayers or wizards, or interrogate the spirits of the dead ( deuteronomy 18 : 9 sqq. ). speaking of orthodox yahweism, balaam could truthfully say " there is no soothsaying in jacob, nor divination in israel. in their times it shall be told to jacob and to israel what god hath wrought " ( numbers 23 : 23 ). for the absence of other oracles, the chosen people were indeed more than compensated by a gift unique in the annals of mankind, to wit, the gift of prophecy and the prophetic office. ( 1 ) general idea the hebrew prophet was not merely, as the word commonly implies, a man enlightened by god to foretell events ; he was the interpreter and supernaturally enlightened herald sent by yahweh to communicate his will and designs to israel. his mission consisted in preaching as well as in foretelling. he had to maintain and develop the knowledge of the old law among the chosen people, lead them back when they strayed, and gradually prepare the way for the new kingdom of god, which the messias was to establish on earth. prophecy, in general, signifies the supernatural message of the prophet, and more especially, from custom, the predictive element of the prophetic message. ( 2 ) the hebrew names the ordinary hebrew for prophet is nabi '. its etymology is uncertain. according to many recent critics, the root nabi, not employed in hebrew, signified to speak enthusiastically, " to utter cries, and make more or less wild gestures ", like the pagan mantics. judging from a comparative examination of the cognate words in hebrew and the other semitic tongues, it is at least equally probable that the original meaning was merely : to speak, to utter words ( cf. laur, " die prophetennamen des a. t. ", fribourg, 1903, 14 - 38 ).


, it is at least equally probable that the original meaning was merely : to speak, to utter words ( cf. laur, " die prophetennamen des a. t. ", fribourg, 1903, 14 - 38 ). the historic meaning of nabi ' established by biblical usage is " interpreter and mouthpiece of god ". this is forcibly illustrated by the passage, where moses, excusing himself from speaking to pharao on account of his embarrassment of speech, was answered by yahweh : " behold i have appointed thee the god of pharao : and aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. thou shalt speak to him all that i command thee ; and he shall speak to pharao, that he let the children of israel go out of his land " ( exodus 7 : 1 - 2 ). moses plays towards the king of egypt the role of god, inspiring what is to be uttered, and aaron is the prophet, his mouthpiece, transmitting the inspired message he shall receive. the greek prophetes ( from pro - phanai, to speak for, or in the name of someone ) translates the hebrew accurately. the greek prophet was the revealer of the future, and the interpreter of divine things, especially of the obscure oracles of the pythoness. poets were the prophets of the muses : inspire me, muse, thy prophet i shall be " ( pindar, bergk, fragm. 127 ). the word nabi ' expresses more especially a function. the two most usual synonyms ro ' eeh and hozeh emphasize more clearly the special source of the prophetic knowledge, the vision, that is, the divine revelation or inspiration. both have almost the same meaning ; hozeh is employed, however, much more frequently in poetical language and almost always in connexion with a supernatural vision, whereas ra ' ah, of which ro ' eh is the participle, is the usual word for to see in any manner. the compiler of the first book of kings ( ix, 9 ) informs us that before his time ro ' eh was used where nabi ' was then employed. hozeh is found much more frequently from the days of amos. there were other less specific or more unusual terms employed, the meaning of which is clear, such as, messenger of god, man of god, servant of god, man of the spirit, or inspired man, etc. it is only rarely, and at a later period,


or more unusual terms employed, the meaning of which is clear, such as, messenger of god, man of god, servant of god, man of the spirit, or inspired man, etc. it is only rarely, and at a later period, that prophecy is called nebu ' ah, a cognate of nabi ' ; more ordinarily we find hazon, vision, or word of god, oracle ( ne um ) of yahweh, etc. ( 1 ) the first person entitled nabi ' in the old testament is abraham, father of the elect, the friend of god, favoured with his personal communications ( genesis 20 : 7 ). the next is moses, the founder and lawgiver of the theocratic nation, the mediator of the old covenant holding a degree of authority unequalled till the coming of jesus christ. " and there arose no more a prophet in israel like unto moses, whom the lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which he sent by him, to do in the land of egypt to pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land, and all the mighty hand, and great miracles, which moses did before all israel " ( deuteronomy 34 : 10 sqq. ). there were other prophets with him, but only of the second rank, such as aaron and maria, eldad and medad, to whom yahweh manifested himself in dreams and vision, but not in the audible voice with which he favoured him, who was most faithful in all his house ( numbers 12 : 7 ). of the four institutions concerning which moses enacted laws according to deuteronomy ( 14 : 18 - 18 ), one was prophecy ( 18 : 9 - 22 ; cf. 13 : 1 - 5, and exodus 4 : 1 sqq. ). israel was to listen to the true prophets, and not to heed the false but rather to extirpate them, even had they the appearance of miracle - workers. the former would speak in the name of yahweh, the one god ; and foretell things that would be accomplished or be confirmed by miracles. the latter were to come in the name of the false gods, or teach a doctrine evidently erroneous, or vainly endeavour to foretell events. later prophetic writers added as other signs of the false prophets, cupidity, flattery of the people or the nobles, or the promise of divine favour for the


a doctrine evidently erroneous, or vainly endeavour to foretell events. later prophetic writers added as other signs of the false prophets, cupidity, flattery of the people or the nobles, or the promise of divine favour for the nation weighed down with crime. balaam is both a prophet and a soothsayer ; a professional soothsayer it would seem, of whom yahweh makes use to proclaim even in moab the glorious destiny of the chosen people, when he was about to lead them into the promised land ( numbers 22 - 24 ). in the time of the judges, in addition to an unnamed prophet ( judges 6 : 8 - 10 ), we meet with debbora ( judges 4 - 5 ), " a mother in israel ", judging the people, and communicating the divine orders concerning the war of independence to barac and the tribes. the word of god was rare in those days of anarchy and semi - apostasy, when yahweh partly abandoned israel to render it conscious of its feebleness and its sins. in the days of samuel, on the contrary, prophecy became a permanent institution. samuel was a new but lesser moses, whose divine mission it was to restore the code of the elder, and to supervise the beginning of the royalty. under his guidance, or at least closely united to him, we find for the first time the nebi ' im ( 1 samuel 10 : 19 ) grouped together to sing the praises of god to the accompaniment of musical instruments. they are not prophets in the strict sense of the word, nor are they disciples of the prophets destined to become masters in their turn ( the so - called " schools of prophets " ). did they wander about spreading the oracles of samuel among the people? possibly ; at all events, in order to waken the faith of israel and increase the dignity of divine worship, they seem to have received charismata similar to those bestowed upon the early christians in the apostolic days. they may not ineptly be compared with the families of singers gathered around david, under the direction of their three leaders, asaph, heman, and idithum ( 1 chronicles 25 : 1 - 8 ). doubtless the bene - nebi ' im of the days of elias, and eliseus the " disciples of the prophets ", or " members of the confraternities of the prophets ", forming at least three communities, domiciled respectively at gilgal, bethel, and


' im of the days of elias, and eliseus the " disciples of the prophets ", or " members of the confraternities of the prophets ", forming at least three communities, domiciled respectively at gilgal, bethel, and jericho, must be regarded as their successors. st. jerome seems to have understood their character aright, when he saw in them the germ of the monastic life ( p. l., xxii, 583, 1076 ). are we to consider as their degenerate and faithless successors those false prophets of yahweh whom we meet at the court of achab, numbering four hundred, and later very numerous, also fighting against isaias and micheas and especially against jeremias and ezekiel? a definite answer cannot as yet be given, but it is wrong to consider them, as certain critics do, as authentic as the true prophets, differing from them only by a more retrograde spirit, and less brilliant intellectual gifts. after samuel the first prophets properly so called who are explicitly mentioned are nathan and gad. they assist david by their counsels, and, when necessary, confront him with energetic protests. nathan ' s parable of the little sheep of the poor man is one of the most beautiful passages in prophetic history ( 2 samuel 12 : 1 sqq. ). the books of kings and paralipomenon mention a number of other " men of the spirit " exercising their ministry in israel or in juda. we may mention at least ahias of silo, who announced to jeroboam his elevation to the throne of the ten tribes, and the ephemeral character of his dynasty, and micheas, the son of jemla, who predicted to achab, in presence of the four hundred flattering court prophets, that he would be defeated and killed in his war against the syrians ( 1 kings 22 ). but the two greatest figures of prophecy between samuel and isaiah are elias and eliseus. yahweism was again endangered, especially by the tyrian jezabel, wife of achab, who had introduced into samaria the worship of her phœnician gods, and israel ' s faith was tottering, as it divided its worship between baal and yahweh. in juda the danger was not less menacing, king joram had married athalia, a worthy daughter of jezabel. at that moment elias appeared like a mysterious giant, and by his preaching and his


, micheas, nahum, habacuc, sophonias, aggeus, zacharias, and malachias. the book of baruch, which is not included in the hebrew canon, is united in our bibles to the book of jeremias. the ministry of amos, the most ancient perhaps of the prophetic writers, is placed about the years 760 - 50. osee follows him immediately. next comes isaias ( about 740 - 700 ), and his contemporary micheas. sophonias, nahum, and habacuc prophesied towards the last quarter of the seventh century. jeremias about 626 - 586 ; ezechiel between 592 - 70. the prophecy of aggeus and in part that of zacharias are dated exactly in 520 and 520 - 18. malachias belongs to the middle of the fifth century. as for daniel, abdias, joel, baruch, as well as portions of isaias, jeremias, zacharias, their dates being disputed, it is necessary to refer the reader to the special articles treating of them. ( 3 ) the prophetesses the old testament gives the name nebi ' ah, to three women gifted with prophetic charismata : mary, the sister of moses ; debbora ; and holda, a contemporary of jeremias ( 2 kings 22 : 14 ) ; also to the wife of isaias meaning the spouse of a nabi ' ; finally to noadia, a false prophetess if the hebrew text is accurate, for the septuagint and vulgate speak of a false prophet ( nehemiah 6 : 14 ). ( 4 ) cessation of israelitic prophecy the prophetic institution had ceased to exist in the time of the machabees. israel clearly recognized this, and was awaiting its reappearance. its necessity had ceased. religious revelation and the moral code expressed in holy writ were full and clear. the people were being instructed by the scribes and doctors — a living magistracy, fallible, it is true, and bound overmuch by letter of the law, but withal zealous and learned. there was a feeling that the promises were about to be fulfilled and the consequent apocalypse increased and intensified this feeling. it was not unfitting, therefore, for god to allow an interval to elapse between the prophets of the old covenant and jesus christ, who was to be


were about to be fulfilled and the consequent apocalypse increased and intensified this feeling. it was not unfitting, therefore, for god to allow an interval to elapse between the prophets of the old covenant and jesus christ, who was to be the crown and consummation of their prophecies. ( 1 ) the prophetic vocation " for prophecy came not by the will of man at any time : but the holy men of god spoke, inspired by the holy ghost " ( 2 peter 1 : 21 ). the prophets were ever conscious of this divine mission. i am not a professional or a voluntary prophet, amos practically said to amasias, who wished to prevent him from prophesying at bethel. " i am a herdsman plucking wild figs. and the lord took me when i followed the flock, and the lord said to me : go, prophesy to my people israel " ( vii, 14 sq. ). again " the lion shall roar, who will not fear? the lord god hath spoken, who shall not prophesy? " ( iii, 8 ). isaias saw yahweh seated on a throne of glory, and when a seraph had purified his lips he heard the command " go! " and he received his mission of preaching to the people the terrible judgments of god. god made known to jeremias that he had consecrated him from his mother ' s womb and appointed him the prophet of nations ; he touched his lips to show that he made them his instrument for proclaiming his just and merciful judgments ( i, 10 ), a duty so painful, that the prophet endeavoured to be excused and to conceal the oracles entrusted to him. impossible ; his heart was consumed by a flame, which forced from him that touching complaint : " thou hast deceived me, o lord, and i am deceived : thou hast been stronger that i, and thou hast prevailed " ( xx, 7 ). ezechiel sees the glory of god borne on a fiery chariot drawn by celestial beings. he hears a voice commanding him to go and find the children of israel, that rebellious nation, with hardened heart and brazen face, and without prevarication deliver to them the warnings he was to receive. the other prophets are silent on the subject of their vocation ; doubtless they also received it as clearly and irresistibly. to the preaching and predictions of the false prophets uttering the fancies of


them the warnings he was to receive. the other prophets are silent on the subject of their vocation ; doubtless they also received it as clearly and irresistibly. to the preaching and predictions of the false prophets uttering the fancies of their hearts and saying " the word of yahweh " when yahweh spoke to them not, they fearlessly oppose their own oracles as coming from heaven and compelling under penalty of revolt against god. and the manifest sanctity of their lives, the miracles wrought, the prophecies accomplished demonstrate to their contemporaries the truth of their claims. we also separated from them by thousands of years should be convinced by two irrefragable proofs among others : the great phenomenon of messianism culminating in christ and the church, and the excellence of the religious and moral teaching of the prophets. ( 2 ) supernatural knowledge : inspiration and revelation ( a ) the fact of revelation the prophet did not receive merely a general mission of preaching or predicting in yahweh ' s name : each of his words is divine, all his teaching is from above, that is, it comes to him by revelation or at least by inspiration. among the truths he preaches, there are some which he knows naturally by the light of reason or experience. it is not necessary for him to learn them from god, just as if he had been entirely ignorant of them. it suffices if the divine illumination places them in a new light, strengthens his judgment and preserves it from error concerning these facts, and if a supernatural impulse determines his will to make them the object of his message. this oral inspiration of the prophets bears an analogy to the scriptural inspiration, in virtue of which the prophets and hagiographers composed our canonical books. the entire contents of the prophetic message is not, therefore, within the compass of the natural faculties of the divine messenger. the object of all strictly so - called prediction requires a new manifestation and illumination ; unaided the prophet would remain in more or less absolute obscurity. this, then, is revelation in the full sense of the term. ( b ) manner of the revelatory communications ; canons for the interpretation of the prophecies and their fulfilment in the words of st. john of the cross and the doctors of mysticism have a special right to be heard in this matter " god multiplies the means of transmitting these revelations ; at one time he makes use of words, at another of signs, figures,


st. john of the cross and the doctors of mysticism have a special right to be heard in this matter " god multiplies the means of transmitting these revelations ; at one time he makes use of words, at another of signs, figures, images, similitudes ; and again, of both words and symbols together " ( the ascent of carmel, ii, xxvii ) : to grasp accurately the meaning of the prophets and judge of the fulfilment of their predictions, these words must be remembered and completed : the material element perceived in the vision may have a strictly literal meaning and simply signify itself. when micheas, the son of jemla, beholds " all israel scattered upon the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd ", and hears yahweh say " these have no master ; let every man of them return to his house in peace " ( 1 kings 22 : 17 ), he sees exactly what will be the outcome of achab ' s expedition against the syrians at ramoth of galaad. again, the meaning may be entirely symbolic. the almond branch shown to jeremias ( i, 11 sq. ) is not shown for itself ; it is intended solely to represent by its name vigilant, the divine watchfulness, which will not allow the word of god to be unfulfilled. between these two extremes there exists a whole series of intermediary possibilities, of significations imbued with varying degrees of reality or symbolism. the son promised to david in nathan ' s prophecy ( 2 samuel 7 ) is at once solomon and the messianic king. in the last verse of aggeus zorobabel signifies himself and also the messias. neither the prophets nor their clear - sighted, sensible hearers were ever misled. it is wronging isaias to say he believed that at the end of time the hill of sion would physically surpass all the mountains and hills on the earth ( ii, 2 ). examples might be multiplied indefinitely. yet we are not forced to believe that the prophets were always able to distinguish between the literal and the symbolical significations of their visions. it was sufficient for them not to give, and to be unable to give, in the name of god any erroneous interpretation. it has likewise been long known that the vision very frequently disregards distances of time and place, and that the messias or the messianic era almost always appears on the immediate horizon of contemporary history. if


of god any erroneous interpretation. it has likewise been long known that the vision very frequently disregards distances of time and place, and that the messias or the messianic era almost always appears on the immediate horizon of contemporary history. if to this we add the frequently conditional character of the oracles ( cf. jeremiah 18 ; 24 : 17 sqq. etc. ), and remember moreover that the prophets convey their message in words of eloquence, expressed in oriental poetry, so rich in striking colours and bold figures, the pretended distinction between realized and unrealized prophecies, predictions substantially accurate but erroneous in detail, will disappear. ( c ) state of the prophet during the vision ordinarily the vision occurred when the prophet was awake. dreams, of which the false prophets made ill use, are scarcely ever mentioned in the case of true prophets. much has been said about the ecstatic state of the latter. possibly the soul of the prophet may have been at times, as happened to the mystics, so absorbed by the activity of the spiritual faculties that the activity of the senses was suspended, though no definite instance can be cited. in any case, we must remember what st. jerome ( in isaiam, prolog. in p. l., xxiv, 19 ) and st. john chrysostom ( in i cor. homil. xxix in p. g., lxi, 240 sqq. ) remarked that the prophets always retained their self - consciousness and were never subject to the disordered and degrading psychic conditions of the pagan soothsayers and pythias ; and, instead of enigmatical and puerile sybilline oracles, their pronouncements were often sublime and always worthy of god. ( 1 ) the exterior form they usually taught orally. to this they often added symbolical acts which accorded with oriental tastes and caught the attention of their hearers. jeremias, for instance, wandered through jerusalem under a wooden yoke, symbolizing the approaching subjugation of the nations by the king of babylon. the false prophet hananias, having taken this yoke and broken it on the ground, receives this answer, in the name of yahweh " thou hast broken chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron " ( xxviii, 13 ). jeremias and ezechiel make frequent use of this method of instruction. amos


yahweh " thou hast broken chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron " ( xxviii, 13 ). jeremias and ezechiel make frequent use of this method of instruction. amos was probably the first who was inspired to unite the written to the spoken word. his example was followed. the prophets thus exercised wider and more lasting influence, and left moreover an indisputable proof that god had spoken by them ( cf. isaiah 8 : 16 ). some prophecies seem to have been made exclusively in writing, for instance, probably the second part of isaias and all daniel. the greater part of the prophetic books is couched in rhythmic language perfectly adapted to the popular and, at the same time, sublime character of the oracles. hardly any kind of hebrew poesy is absent ; epithalamia and lamentations ; little satirical songs ; odes of wonderful lyrism etc. the fundamental law of hebrew poetry, the parallelism of the stichs, is usually observed. the metric seems to be based essentially on the number of accents marking a raised intonation. most exhaustive researches upon the construction of the strophes have been made, but without many definitely accepted conclusions. ( 2 ) the teaching ( a ) preaching : religion and morals, in general samuel and elias sketch out the programme of the religious and moral preaching of the later prophets. samuel teaches that the idols are vanity and nothingness ( 1 samuel 12 : 21 ) ; that yahweh alone is essentially true, and immutable ( xv, 29 ) ; that he prefers obedience to sacrifice ( xv, 22 ). for elias also yahweh alone is god, baal is nothing. yahweh chastises all iniquity and punishes the injustices of the powerful for the feeble. these are the fundamental points emphasized more and more by the prophetic writers. their doctrine is based on the existence of one god alone, possessing all the attributes of the true divinity sanctity and justice, mercy and fidelity, supreme dominion over the material and moral world, the control of the cosmic phenomena and of the course of history. the worship desired by god does not consist in the profusion of sacrifices and offerings. they are nauseous to yahweh unless accompanied by adoration in spirit and in truth. with what greater indignation and disgust will he not turn away from the cruel and unclean practice of human sacrifice and