Category: Video

The Largest Land Mammal Ever

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From the BBC series, “Walking With Beasts”

Hi! Mr. Nature here, with the biggest, hugest land mammal ever to live–Baluchitherium. It’s also known as Indricotherium or Paraceratherium, but I’m sticking with the old name as I first discovered it in Roy Chapman Andrews’ books.

Anyhow, this baby is a whopper. The males were 18 feet high at the shoulder. This animal was a member of the rhinoceros family. So where’s the horn? You ain’t gonna tell me a Baluchitherium needs a horn, are you?

This is the great beast that King Ryons rode to the rescue of the city in Lee Duigon’s immortal classic, The Thunder King. Uh, wait a minute… that’s me. And it’s bad form to brag. Sorry! I seem to get carried away whenever I think about Baluchitheres.

No one has ever found a trace of any mammal bigger than this one, except for whales and they don’t count because they don’t live on the land. Baluchitherium was big enough to be a dinosaur. Big enough to squash your car like a bug.

Behold the works of the Lord, what wonders flow from His hands! Bob Bakker, the famous dinosaur scientist who, more than anyone else, convinced us that dinosaurs were active, warm-blooded creatures and not overgrown stupid mountains of flesh that had to float around in swamps, once told me it was one of his greatest pleasures to contemplate the joy and pleasure God receives from His creation.

There are still some scientists with their heads screwed on straight.

Hymn, ‘He Hideth My Soul’

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This beautiful, hundred-year-old hymn is one I never heard before. My friend, Susan, who is also my editor, suggested it to me.

I must thank her–this is just lovely.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands…

Hymn: ‘I Love to Tell the Story’

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Start your day with Jesus and His love. This old hymn was a favorite in our church, when I was a boy.

I don’t go to that church anymore because it has been changed, and not for the better. But it was a wonderful church to grow up in, before it got changed, and I find that the older I get, the fresher are my memories of it.

This hymn has been with me all week. It’s a good companion.

Some Harmless Fun

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I don’t know about you, but I need some comic relief, and I need it now.

What happens when you toss some pieces of Mentos candy into a bottle of Diet Coke? The above video will show you what happens. There is a very violent reaction–which is still perfectly safe as long as you avoid doing certain idiotic things.

Don’t try this indoors.

Don’t put Mentos in your mouth and then pour in some Diet Coke. Please do not do this. They’re calling it a “challenge” and filming themselves doing it. If you insist on trying this, remember–this blog told you not to.

Don’t do this inside your car.

These mistakes are very easy to avoid–and you can still have fun with this simple, albeit simple-minded, home science experiment.

Happy landings.

Bonus Hymn: ‘One More River to Cross’

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My wife and I have been trying to nail down this old hymn for quite some time. Let’s see if it works.

There are other versions, but they’ve all been hillbillied to death. I like to keep it simple.

Okay, here goes… One More River to Cross.

A Bird With Claws

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We can worship God in many ways; and one of those ways is by enjoying and marveling at His handiwork. No matter which way we turn, the work of His hands is in front of us. It testifies to Him, and we do well to listen.

Hi, Mr. Nature here. Behold the hoatzin, a bird that lives in the Amazon rain forest. Its babies are like no other bird in the world–baby hoatzins have claws on their wings, which they can use to climb and crawl and grasp, and sometimes get themselves out of trouble.

Oh, but we’ve seen birds with claws! Well, fossils of ’em. Archaeopteryx had claws on its wings. It also had a beak full of teeth, which the hoatzin doesn’t have. But maybe the hoatzin is the last of the Archaeopteryx tribe.

(If you look closely at this famous Archaeopteryx fossil, you’ll be able to see it had claws on its wings, just like a baby hoatzin.)

Yes, I know, the Evolution crowd will climb all over this. “See! See! Birds evolved from dinosaurs!” Please ignore the perfectly modern-looking bird tracks discovered in Argentina in rocks supposedly dating from the very beginning of the age of dinosaurs. And under no circumstances trouble yourselves with the Protoavis bird fossils from the early Triassic.

We are at liberty to ignore those people.

As we are at liberty to enjoy the Lord Our God in his handiwork.

Hymn: ‘How Firm a Foundation’

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For many Christians this hymn has another tune. But in the church I grew up in, which no longer exists, How Firm a Foundation was sung to the tune of a Christmas carol, O Come, All Ye Faithful.

This, above, is the only example of it I could find. Yes, it’s only a piano playing. There is something to be said for simplicity: I believe the Lord likes it.

So find a magnifying glass for the lyrics, and sing along.

More of God’s Handiwork: The Archer Fish

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Hi, Mr. Nature here with more of God’s stuff that really works, even if our stuff that we invented hardly ever works properly.

Behold the archer fish, a native of Australia and Indonesia. How does he get at the tasty bugs crawling out of reach, out of the water? He folds his tongue into a tube and knocks ’em down with a jet of water. As you can see from the video, he’s very accurate.

I wonder… If you had an archer fish in your aquarium, could you train him to squirt people? But that’s an idle thought.

God’s works are all around us, everywhere we look, all testifying to His glory.

Hymn: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’

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I didn’t understand, when I was in Sunday school, that the imagery of the second verse (“all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea”) comes directly from the Book of Revelation. The rest of the lyrics also arise from the Bible.

I used to think this was just one of those tedious hymns adults liked to sing when they were showing off.

Now I know better; and as this hymn has been playing itself in my mind these past few days, I thought I’d like to share it with you.

Another Thing God Thought Of, But We Wouldn’t Have

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Behold the chuckwalla, a nice big lizard. The one in the video is enjoying a feast of chopped vegetables and cheeses that some thoughtful human provided him.

The chuckwalla lives in North America’s hottest deserts, where it eats bits of cactus. The chuckwalla is edible for human beings, a fact which has occasionally saved a life. When threatened, this lizard ducks into a crack in the rock and inflates himself, making it just about impossible to pull him out.

God creates the darnedest things. He creates them for His own pleasure. There aren’t enough people who get lost in the desert to justify the trouble of creating the chuckwalla. This lizard can be domesticated, but then you have the trouble of keeping him hot enough. Like most members of the iguana family, the chuckwalla is smart enough to adjust to you and become friendly with you.

No scientific committee would have ever conceived of a large, edible lizard whose primary defense is self-inflation. Science fiction writers never thought of it. For really cool ideas that no one else ever had, you have to go to God.

And this is Mr. Nature signing off… Enjoy your Sabbath rest, everybody.