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As More People Lose Their Homes, Banks Are Left Holding The Keys
Acquiring real estate through foreclosures is not exactly the type of transaction banks relish. That's especially true in a down market that is overloaded with raw land and homes — and a paucity of potential buyers.
Estimates of the amount and value of acquired real estate through foreclosures are difficult, if not impossible, to come by, an industry insider says. A lot of the banks don't want to talk about it.
"It's ugly for everyone involved and you can't even get the Federal Reserve to talk about it," the insider says.
Anthony B. Sanders, professor of finance and real estate at Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business, sums up the somewhat dismal situation: "Banks are not in the business of being portfolio managers, either vacant land or housing.
"The way they're trying to get rid of properties is that most banks are doing packaging. They sell packages of defaulted properties to investors around the United States," he continues. "They started with national lenders, but there was very little interest in that. Then they went to regional packaging. That didn't work either. Let's face it, nobody really wants a Detroit-area loan or housing package."
What's happening is that hedge funds and equity funds are looking for very specific types of properties. Raw land value is highly dependent on where the land is.
"That's why they don't want to buy large portfolios," Sanders says. "Because on the urban fringe, when you get way out west or southeast of Phoenix, some of that land they cannot literally give away. The reason is there is no foreseeable development going on in those areas.
"They're looking for anything related to water rights or mineral rights — anything with natural resource implications still has a positive value," Sanders says.
Until housing makes a comeback, banks are not finding a lot of interest in 40-acre tracts of desert that someday could be converted into a housing development, Sanders says. Some banks have defaulted single-family homes, often in remote areas.
"During the boom, and until fairly recently, a lot of starter homes were built in areas near Queen Creek, where land prices were fairly inexpensive for the Phoenix market," Sanders says. "That market has really gotten beaten up pretty hard."
National and regional bidders for those packages are few and far between.
"It brings back the old adage of location, location, location," Sanders says. "If you're planning properties located on major golf courses, or some properties in Scottsdale, there's interest in that. In the classic subprime neighborhoods, which tend to be lower income, there's not a lot of interest."
In the meantime, banks are running around trying to peddle their packages. It's more feasible to sell packages instead of marketing individual properties, because bank real estate portfolios are overflowing.
"Packages provide a good indication of which areas of Phoenix are likely to keep dropping like a rock," Sanders says. "It's those areas where there isn't any interest in bank packages, which means the market doesn't think they're near the bottom. In some areas of Phoenix, the bottom may be a little ways away."
With packaging of perhaps as many as 200 properties at a time, come discounts.
"The nasty part is that some of these properties are being offered at a big discount and they still can't get rid of them," Sanders says.
Even so, there continues to be interest in Ahwatukee, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, which Sanders says means the housing market is showing some signs of life. But he adds this ominous observation.
"This is very reminiscent of the RTC (Resolution Trust Corporation) fiasco after the savings-and-loan debacle. It's just like when the RTC was putting together packages. That's the tipoff. Anytime you see packaging, that should make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck."
At the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, which regulates state-chartered banks and none of the large national ones, Tom Wood, division manager for banks, also recalls the S&L collapse.
"We had a lot of raw land in the 1980s," he says. "Thank goodness we don't have much of that now."
Most of the real estate banks are trying to get rid of consists of single-family homes, Wood says.
"Very rarely do we see raw land," he says. "Some banks don't want to own it because it takes longer to get rid of. If they foreclose on raw land, they probably sell it at a sheriff's sale."
Wood expects a continued uptick in bank acquisitions of real estate, but sees very little of that among state-chartered banks. He suggests that some larger banks might be bundling foreclosed properties and attempting to dispose of their holdings through auctions or developers.
Depending on which economist you talk to, a substantial housing turnaround won't happen until 2010. Some say 2009; and yet, as Sanders says, there are signs of life in 2008.
"For certain areas, recovery is there," Sanders says, "but if I'm sitting in Buckeye, Avondale, Queen Creek and parts of Gilbert, I wouldn't look for a speedy return."


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Bigotry: The Dark Danger
What Darwinists Fail To Consider
Chapter 2: What Darwinists Fail To Consider - 1/3
Thus, if your mind is not submerged in delusions, you will understand that to make a word of power (e.g., a honey-bee) a minute index of most things, and to write in one page (e.g., a person) most of the matters in this Book of the Universe, and to include in one point (e.g., a tiny fig seed), the program of the mighty fig tree, and to display in a single letter (e.g., the human heart) the works of all the Divine Names manifested in the pages of the macrocosm which encompass it, and to place in the human faculty of memory, which is situated in a place the size of a lentil, writings enough to fill a library, and to include in that tiny faculty a detailed index of all events in the cosmos—to do all of these things is most certainly a stamp particular to the Creator of All Things, the Glorious Sustainer of the universe. 3 Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
Darwinists Never Consider the Impossibility of Molecular Evolution
Darwinists never realize how claiming that mutations improve living things, endowing them with new organs and different characteristics, is as irrational as the assertion that an earthquake can improve a modern city. In fact, no useful mutations increasing genetic information will ever take place.
Darwinists cannot explain that an enzyme in tears known as lysozyme can destroy the cell walls of many species of bacteria and kill germs, so that their vision is protected from a range of diseases. Lysozyme is even more effective than the disinfectants used to clean buildings, yet it does no harm to the eyes themselves. That is a great blessing created by Allah for all mankind.
In claiming that life once emerged spontaneously from inanimate matter, Darwinists never recall that back in the 19th century, Louis Pasteur proved the thesis that life comes only from life. He scientifically demolished the idea that inanimate substances can ever give rise to life.
Darwinists never realize that the hypothalamus in the human body, no larger than a lump of sugar, needs to set a time for the human reproductive glands to develop and to release the growth hormone at just that moment. Blind chance cannot account for this piece of tissue with no sense organs or even a brain of its own to keep track of passing time and ready the requisite bodily changes.
Darwinists never realize that functions in the human body take place at just the right speed and time with the help of enzymes, and that these enzymes which are composed of unconscious molecules, cannot learn their duties by themselves.
Darwinists never realize that even though it's impossible for them to copy out a text consisting of billions of letters without errors creeping in, enzymes combine together millions of units of information as they copy DNA, without making a single mistake. This is simply more proof of the existence of Allah.
Darwinists claim that scientific experiments have shown that life can begin spontaneously through chemical reactions. But they never admit that not a single experiment exists to show this or that, furthermore, science proves this to be impossible on even the theoretical level.
Darwinists never admit that Stanley Miller—who conducted the so-called "Miller Experiment" that they present as an important discovery in explaining the origin of life—carried out his experiment under arbitrary artificial conditions that had nothing to do with the primeval Earth's real atmosphere. Nor do they realize that Miller synthesized only an amino acid, and that the emergence of amino acids in any form is hardly the same as the emergence of life.
Darwinists never realize that in order for a single cell to form, a great many complex mechanisms—hundreds of different proteins, the DNA code, the enzymes that interpret it, the cell membrane with its selective permeability, and many other features—all need to appear at once. They claim that "chemical evolution" took place, but this is impossible. Yet they continue to believe in the impossible.
Darwinists do admit that DNA contains information about all the details in an organism. They acknowledge that this giant molecule is made up of consecutive sequences of four different components known as bases, and that these four bases—like an alphabet consisting of only four letters—contain blueprints for all the organic molecules that the body is to manufacture. They affirm that these components are not arranged at random, but in line with specific information, and that this information is further subdivided into genes, and that every gene is coded for different details (for example, the formula for insulin, the hormone that takes the blood sugar into the cells). Yet they do not admit that this sublime encyclopedia of information inside a tiny molecule totally demolishes Darwinists' claims of coincidental evolution.
Each of the chromosomes in the nucleus contains genes that carry all the information regarding a human being. Darwinists never consider that all the organs in the human body are constructed according to a genetic blueprint within the cells. For example, the skin is controlled by 2,559 genes, the brain by 29,930 genes, the eye by 1,794, the salivary gland by 186, the heart by 6,216, the chest by 4,001, and the lung by 11,581 genes.
Darwinists never appreciate that proteins are made up of only 20 of the more than 200 amino acids in nature, and can never account for such an intelligent selectivity.
Darwinists never realize how the shapes assumed by proteins, essential for life, are basically determined by the sequence of the amino acids that constitute those proteins. If one single amino acid fails to bond to the next in the correct sequence, the protein will lose all its functions. The amino acids constituting the proteins manage to arrive at the correct location every time.
Darwinists never realize that in order for protein production to take place, the arms of the staircase-like DNA molecule must be opened up. During the process of separation carried out by the enzyme RNA polymerase, a special enzyme prevents friction by holding onto the two ends of the helix. Other particular enzymes prevent the helixes from winding around themselves, and there is intention in every phase of this process, which involves an enormous number of enzymes.
Darwinists never realize that it is impossible for a protein to emerge spontaneously in muddy water, for others to emerge in its wake, and for these to combine to bring into being a living cell.
Darwinists never realize that one "letter" being wrongly coded in any one of the rungs in DNA could lead to terrible consequences. It is therefore impossible to account for this coding in terms of coincidence.
Even if we assume an environment in which all the necessary nucleotides are present and that all the complex molecules and connecting enzymes needed for these to bond to each other are ready, the odds of these nucleotides combining in the desired order is 1 in 10600, that is mathematically zero.
As science has proven, it is impossible for a single one of the 200,000 genes that make up DNA to form by chance, let alone the whole DNA molecule with its millions of rungs.
Darwinists never realize that with its energy producing stations— factories that produce the enzymes and hormones essential for life—, a data bank in which all the data regarding the products to be manufactured is recorded, complex transportation systems and pipelines for carrying raw materials and products from one region to another, and with its highly developed laboratory to break the raw materials arriving from the outside down into useful components, the cell appears as a marvel of creation too perfect to leave any room for coincidental development.
In claiming that life evolved as the result of mutations, Darwinists never realize that 99% of mutations are harmful.
In claiming that life emerged as the result of blind chance, Darwinists never realize that the odds against a single, average-sized protein molecule forming by chance are 10300 to one.
And the chances of a functional protein forming by chance are 1 in 10950
In analyzing these probabilities, Darwinists never realize that probabilities smaller than 1 in 1050 are mathematically impossible.
Darwinists never realize that the cell, which they maintain came into being by chance and which—given the state of 19th century technology—they regarded as a balloon filled with water, has a structure as complex as that of New York City.
Darwinists never realize that the power station known as the mitochondrion inside the cell, itself no larger than 1/100 millimeters, is far more complex than an oil refinery or hydroelectric station.
Darwinists never realize that an identical DNA molecule exists in every one of the 100 trillion cells that constitute the human body and contains enough data to fill 1 million encyclopedia pages. Darwinists maintain that they came into being as the result of blind coincidences.
Darwinists never realize how the unconscious atoms that comprise DNA determine the specialization of cells in the eye, hair, bones, skin, stomach and other areas.
Darwinists never realize that the amount of information in the DNA of a single bacterium is equivalent to 20 novels of 100,000 words each.
Darwinists never realize how molecules take decisions as if they were conscious entities, engage in division of labor, and perform all their tasks in a highly economical manner.
Darwinists never explain how unconscious blood cells can carry out such vital functions as the expulsion from the body of harmful substances like carbon dioxide and urea, distinguishing between waste and useful substances in the blood and carrying them to their correct destinations.
Darwinists never account for how the molecule albumin, one of the transporter proteins in the blood, can distinguish between fats, toxins, drugs and nutrients.
Darwinists cannot explain how albumin, an unconscious molecule, recognizes the liver, gall bladder and stomach, and always deposits the substances it carries at the right place, in the right amounts, without ever making a mistake.
Darwinists ignore how foreign bodies such as viruses or bacteria entering the body are neutralized by antibodies and leukocytes.
Darwinists never realize that when genetic copying takes place with a cell taken from an animal, nothing new is created during this process, and that this is actually proof of creation.
When they say that everything consists of matter, Darwinists never realize that the information contained in DNA is not matter.
In maintaining that everything formed by chance, Darwinists never acknowledge that even the information in DNA has still not yet been fully unraveled by scientists.
DNA, the cell's data bank, functions just like a planning center, assuming the responsibilities of a large number of expert artists, scientists, architects, engineers, botanists, interior designers, painters, doctors, and many more.
Darwinists never question how proteins can know such vital functions as DNA replication, production of information and cell division.
Darwinists maintain that proteins came into being by chance, and though devoid of any consciousness or intelligence, can construct all the chemical components of the cell by working as a team, break the cell down when necessary and reconstitute these small components as simple compounds for later use.
Darwinists never realize that in order for the countless proteins involved in the process of vision to function, they must have the appropriate molecular structure, which could never have come about by chance.
Darwinists never explain how the molecules in the retina's cone cells come together to constitute proteins that make color vision possible, nor how it is that these proteins have shared the same structure and functioned impeccably in all the human beings who have ever lived over millions of years.
In claiming that molecules came into being by chance, Darwinists never explain how they could have given rise to the protein melanin that protects the eye from the harmful ultraviolet rays.
Darwinists never realize that proteins, made up of only 20 of the more than 200 amino acids in nature, can never account for such an intelligent selectivity.
Darwinists never acknowledge that not a single right-handed amino acid is to be found in living organisms, nor how such an intelligent selectivity could have come about.
Darwinists never realize how 20 from the more than 200 amino acids in nature must be accurately selected in order to form proteins, why they are all left-handed and in the correct sequence, nor how this intelligent selection could have come into being.
The odds of proteins emerging from left-handed amino acids only are 1 in 10210, that the probability of this happening is effectively zero, and it cannot have come about by chance.
Darwinists never recognize how amino acids, made up of unconscious atoms with no ability to see or hear, are able to constitute proteins, which are essential for life and possess the most perfect structures.
Darwinists claim that the amino acids came into existence by chance, yet know how to assume the correct sequence for each protein and do so in an error-free manner.
Darwinists never realize how the atoms in the minuscule protein molecule are arranged according to a blueprint and design, how they fold and bend accordingly, and how this special structure is determined for each and every protein.
Darwinists never explain why the nerve cell—which they claim came into being as the result of blind coincidences—should feel the need to convert an aroma into an electrical signal.
Darwinists never explain how the body can halt production when the level of iron rises, how it is able to behave in a seemingly intelligent manner, which can never be explained by the theory of evolution in any way.
Darwinists never explain how a protein could have formed by chance in muddy water, how a second protein joined onto the first, and then a third, or how this whole impossible system continued. It is impossible for them all to come together by chance, become alive and give rise to a cell.
Darwinists can never explain how the nucleus in the cell, which they claim formed as the result of chance processes, came into being. And even if this happened, how did it become a living entity?
Darwinists never explain how unconscious embryo cells decide to combine together from a dispersed state, how they pack together tightly and constitute very strong veins, through which no blood ever leaks.
Darwinists never account for how the windpipe automatically closes during the act of swallowing, thus preventing food and water from entering the lungs, and how after swallowing, the valve opens again to permit air flow. It is impossible for such a system to arise by chance.
Darwinists never account for saliva, usually thought of as a very simple secretion, but which actually contains a very sensitive balance of chemical components. Molecules dissolve in saliva and attach to the taste receptor nerve endings on the tongue, and only in this way are we able to taste what we eat.
Darwinists never realize that there are no errors in the form or structure of any of the proteins inside the 200 or so types of cell in our bodies. Every protein knows how to perform its own tasks flawlessly, and that this can never be the result of chance.
Darwinists never realize how, when the body needs for any particular protein, some messengers—themselves proteins—know just where to go, in a seemingly conscious manner, can locate the relevant destination in the body, and manage to transmit their message in the correct form.
Darwinists claim that the cells in the human body came into existence by chance. They are unaware of each other's locations, yet are able to establish communications by means of hormones with their own extraordinary chemical structures.
Darwinists never realize how totally impossible it is for the enzyme RNA polymerase to possess the consciousness to select the correct information from the DNA to prevent any interruption to the activities in the cell. How can the cell survive as the result of unconscious, random events?
Darwinists never appreciate how the enzyme RNA polymerase chooses from among the 3 billion letters contained in the extraordinary DNA molecule, and never makes an error in creating the appropriate protein.
Darwinists never acknowledge that for protein production to occur, the arms of the staircase-like DNA molecule must be opened up. During the process of separation carried out by the enzyme RNA polymerase, another special enzyme prevents friction by holding onto the two ends of the helix. Other enzymes prevent the helixes from winding around themselves, and there is consciousness in every phase of this process, involving an enormous number of enzymes.
Darwinists never consider that enzymes are required for DNA replication, and that enzymes also need DNA in order to be produced. For this reason, both must be present in the same place—but this is impossible, according to Darwin's claim of gradual evolution based on chance.
Darwinists never explain how each enzyme in the human body knows that it must go to the relevant location.
Darwinists never realize how newly-manufactured proteins use various molecular motors to move inside the cell. Some of these attach to proteins and carry them to their destinations, with never any confusion regarding that destination.
Darwinists never explain how the protein insulin instructs the body to store excess sugar so that sufficient sugar in the blood is maintained. Otherwise the result would be death when the cells' needs were not met.
Darwinists never acknowledge that the hormone adrenaline can be recognized by muscle, heart and bone cells only when it has exactly the right structure. Then it can stimulate functions inside these cells and thus protect the body against physical stresses.
Darwinists never reveal that to synthesize proteins, some 300 macromolecules consisting of more than 80 ribosomes, more than 20 amino acid messengers, over a dozen helper enzymes, more than 100 enzymes that perform final functions and more than 40 RNA molecules work together in the cell in complete coordination.
Darwinists Never Consider the Extraordinary Qualities and Behavior Displayed by Living Things
Darwinists never realize that the anglerfish has no ability to invent the long rod extending from its head that it uses for hunting. Such a device could not have come about by chance, yet this rod is essential for the anglerfish's survival.
Darwinists never appreciate the self-sacrifice displayed by penguins that live at the South Pole, in an environment covered in ice and where temperatures fall to as low as –40 degrees and wind speeds reach 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hour. They incubate their eggs without eating anything at all for four months.
Darwinists never admit that coincidences can never explain how worker bees cause their own deaths by stinging their enemies as they defend their hive, without ever a thought for their own survival.
Darwinists never realize how crocodiles, whose sharp pointed teeth tear apart the prey they catch can carry their young in their mouths without any harm ever befalling them.
Darwinists never consider how although a dragonfly's wings are only 1/3000 millimeter (1/118 inch) thick, they never tear in flight.
Darwinists never appreciate that thanks to the two diagonal pairs of wings on its body, a dragonfly can fly at 40 kilometers (24 miles) an hour—an astonishing speed for insects.
Darwinists never realize how fireflies, whose luminescence they claim is the result of coincidental developments, manage to produce light at an efficiency of one hundred percent.
Darwinists never ask why the bombardier beetle, which produces a 100-degree chemical weapon in its own body for use against enemies, is never harmed by this corrosive chemical.
Darwinists never realize the impossibility of a butterfly thinking up the idea of mimicking the form of a dry leaf to better camouflage itself, and of converting that idea into a change in its own wings.
Darwinists never realize that the scent perceptions and scent memory system of living things are one example of the sublime creation and perfect order seen everywhere in the universe. They can never account for these flawless systems in terms of chance and coincidences.
Darwinists never consider that to be able to spin its web, a spider needs to possess architectural expertise, the ability to calculate, and a great many details such as the speed and weight of its eventual prey. It is illogical to claim that an entity with no intelligence could acquire all these abilities by trial and error.
Darwinists never realize that chance can never account for the sublimity of nature's creations, the perfect systems that exist, and the scientific intelligence and incomparable artistry they display.
Darwinists never realize how elephants and rhinoceroses have learned to take mud baths to remove parasites on their skin, or how they treat wounds with ash-rich soil containing antiseptic properties. It is impossible for the animals to know about the antiseptic properties of a substance in the earth. All living things in nature act under the inspiration of Allah.
Darwinists never realize the mutual devotion, loyalty and solidarity among elephants. A newborn elephant is welcomed with love and affection. The altruism and co-operation in all living things absolutely refute the claim that nature is simply a battleground.
Darwinists never consider that it is totally impossible for albatrosses that fly for 15,000 kilometers (9,321 miles) on their month-long journeys without ever landing on the ground; for swallows to fly halfway around the world on their migrations, for locusts being able to swarm 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles), and for eels that set off on a 6,000-kilometer (3,728 miles) journey shortly after they are born, if they had to learn the methods of doing so all by themselves.
Darwinists never realize how ants, devoid of any mathematical intelligence or experience, use the position of the Sun to find their way.
Darwinists never consider that the fly's eyes consist of 8,000 cells, divided into 4,000 each on the right and left sides of its head. Each cell contains a lens perceiving an image from a slightly different angle, and that it is impossible for this system to have come about by chance.
Darwinists never explain how, in building their combs, honeybees employ two angles of exactly 109 degrees 28 minutes and 70 degrees 32 minutes. There is never the slightest deviation from these. The openings of the cells are raised by them by 13 degrees, thus preventing honey from running out of them. All the honeybees on Earth know these calculations and implement them with perfect accuracy.
Darwinists never realize how, despite spending all its life under water, the water spider cannot breathe the air dissolved in the water. To survive, it rises to the surface and suddenly dives back down again to make use of the air bubbles suspended from its feet and various parts on its body.
Darwinists never admit how the fibroin proteins in the spider's web have a special flexibility, which prevents prey caught in the web from escaping and increases the strength of the web. This feature cannot be explained in terms of chance.
Darwinists never realize that all frogs have large eyes and eyelids, and that most have a special membrane to lubricate and clean their eyes. Their eyes are sensitive to blue light, making it easy for them to find water while they are on dry land. Again, it is impossible for these features to have come about by chance.
In claiming that life came into being as the result of random coincidences, Darwinists never realize how a light as efficient as that produced by fireflies—which produce the maximum amount of light and lose almost no energy—can still not be reproduced artificially, despite long
In claiming that life came into being as the result of random coincidences, Darwinists never realize how a light as efficient as that produced by fireflies—which produce the maximum amount of light and lose almost no energy—can still not be reproduced artificially, despite long years of research by scientists.
Darwinists, in claiming that the intelligent behavior and altruism in living things—which they refer to as "instincts"—came into being by chance, never realize that they have no explanation for how this concept of instinct first emerged and how living things maintained it over the course of generations.
In claiming that all living things on Earth acquired their characteristics from an imaginary force they refer to as "Mother Nature," Darwinists never realize that this abstraction to which they ascribe divine status actually consists of stone, soil, grass, trees and flowers and lacks any intelligence or consciousness.
Darwinists, who claim that only the strongest survive, never realize how lions, which can be so savage towards their prey, can also treat their cubs with enormous affection.
In claiming that the way living things are able to treat their own disorders is a feature that emerged by chance, Darwinists never realize how the Angora goat knows—without using the-trial-and error method and eating all the herbs around—that the herb spurge will neutralize the effect of the venom when it is bitten by a snake.
There is no creature on the earth which is not dependent upon Allah for its provision.
In claiming that a dinosaur grew wings while trying to catch flies, Darwinists never realize that the fly already had perfected its ability for flight system with wings able to flap 1,000 times per second.
Darwinists never realize that the way birds fly in a "V" formation in order to save energy can never be explained in terms of blind chance.
Darwinists never realize that penguins, with a body temperature of 40oC, can withstand external temperatures of -40oC by making use of a layer of fat under their skins. Thanks to this special provision, which could never have come into being by chance, they are unaffected by the resulting 80oC differential in temperature.
Darwinists are unable to explain how the hummingbird, whose heart beats 500 to 1,200 times a minute throughout the day, is not overheated because of such a rapid heartbeat. At night, it enters a state like hibernation. Its heart rate slows and it even stops breathing—the bird thus almost "hibernates" 365 times a year.
Darwinists never explain how fish living in the icy water at the Poles came to possess a protein that reduces the temperatures of the ice crystals in their skin to -20oC. Thanks to this protein, they can use the oxygen molecules in the ice crystals and thus avoid freezing.
Darwinists never realize how swimming birds have an oil gland where their tail joins onto the body. They are easily able to use their beaks to oil their feathers to keep them water-resistant.
Darwinists never point out that the digestive fluids in the stomachs of animals that feed on plants is insufficient to digest these substances. For that reason, such animals have special bacteria in their stomachs to break down these foodstuffs.
Darwinists never explain how a chameleon changes color to match its surroundings. It assumes the same color even if it cannot see its surroundings, and chance cannot endow an animal with the ability to change its color for defensive purposes.
Darwinists never appreciate how the nitrogen cycle, which makes life on Earth possible, is achieved by bacteria so small that they can be seen only under a microscope.
Darwinists never realize how venom produced by bacteria living in the intestines of the puffer fish extends as far as its muscles, but does not harm the fish itself and simply protects it against predators.
Darwinists never admit that a great many living things, which they claim emerged by chance, use camouflage to protect themselves. With these features given them by Allah, they have survived down to the present day.
Darwinists never admit that their logic can't account for the affection and protection that mothers of many species bestow upon their offspring.
Darwinists never perceive that living things have structures too perfect and flawless to have emerged by chance.
Darwinists never appreciate the superior qualities of ants, which live in colonies, possess a very powerful communications network, produce and store food, protect their young in the event of an attack and fight to defend their colonies.
Darwinists never proclaim that when examined under a microscope, a lobster's eye resembles a flawless piece of graph paper, and that lobsters see using the reflection, rather than the refraction principle.
Darwinists never point out that throughout the winter, bacteria in lakes break down organic wastes that sink to the bottom and convert them into minerals, thus preparing the nutrients for nature to use again in the spring.
Darwinists never consider that the structure of living things is too perfect and complex to come about by chance. They never consider that three of the 23 species of bird capable of learning to sing (the parrot, canary and flycatcher) are far distant from one another, according to evolutionists' imaginary familial relations. This totally discredits their scenarios. It is quite irrational to imagine that such complex abilities could be acquired by chance by even a single species of bird, let alone by 23.
Darwinists fail to consider that in addition to fireflies, various undersea life forms also produce their own light, and that they are completely different to one another in terms of the use they make of this light, its duration and form. The complex structures capable of manufacturing light in living things without harming them can never emerge as the result of chance.
Darwinists never acknowledge that bacteria, too small to be seen with the naked eye, have mechanisms on their surfaces that emit and perceive electrical signals. Thanks to these mechanisms, they transmit information to one another, and it is impossible for such behavior, requiring an intelligent mind, to have come into being by chance.
Darwinists never explain how electric eels, which live in conductive water and emit electric shocks powerful enough to kill a human being, take intelligent precautions to avoid being electrocuted themselves from the instant they discharge their electricity into the water.
Darwinists never realize how a group of shrimps can stun their prey using their pincers, producing a strong sound louder than even the noise of a submarine, yet they remain unaffected by that noise themselves.
Darwinists never explain how certain wasps learned to paralyze a caterpillar rather than killing it, in order that it might remain fresh to feed the wasp's offspring for a long time. The female wasp needs an almost surgical knowledge in order to administer exactly the right dose of venom at the right spot, so as not to kill the caterpillar.
Darwinists never appreciate the astonishing consciousness displayed by the single-celled, microscopic marine algae known as diatoms when they construct shells for themselves made out of silicon, the building block of glass. Only Almighty Allah could have taught this ability to these organisms, which are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
Darwinists never explain how blind termites just 1 to 2 centimeters (0.393 to 0.787 of an inch) long manage to construct miniatured cities up to 4 to 5 meters (157 to 196 inches) in size, several of which may sometimes be joined together, and how they display such a superior level of collective intelligence.
Darwinists never account for the termites' flawless ventilation system, the chambers set out according to function (nurseries, hatcheries, royal chambers, agricultural areas) all built by blind insects which they claim came into existence by chance through natural processes.
Darwinists never explain how the order exhibited in colonies consisting of millions of termites was established, how every termite knows its own task, how they always co-operate together, and how no evolutionary mechanism could ever bring this about.
Darwinists never admit that since the presence of more than one potential king and queen in the termite colony will lead to chaos and a breakdown of discipline, termites take wide-ranging measures to ensure there is only one king and one queen.
Everyone in heaven and earth prostrates to Allah willingly or unwillingly,
Darwinists never admit that just as plants reproduce by pollen, insects are pollen-carriers, and that Allah has created insects and plants in complete cooperation with one another's needs.
In claiming that an animal is concerned solely with its own interests, Darwinists never account for how a penguin endures four months of cold and hunger to protect its egg, and that Allah inspires such self-sacrifice in living things.
Darwinists never realize the care, devotion and self-sacrifice displayed by the parents of newborn storks in the jungles of Thailand. They protect their chicks against the burning heat by sheltering under their wings. This behavior can never be explained in terms of chance.
Darwinists never realize that random factors can never explain how polar birds, which cannot realize the purpose served by camouflage, adjust the color of their plumage to adapt to the changes in their surroundings as the seasons pass.
In claiming that nature consists of little more than conflict and struggle—that living things live savage, selfish lives—Darwinists are unable to explain how animals pretend to be injured or even give up their own lives to protect their young, and display feelings of love and compassion.
Darwinists know that the human eye has only three photoreceptors to distinguish colors, but never realize that the mantis shrimp has 16 photoreceptors and can even perceive ultraviolet light! These creatures could not have come into existence by chance.
Darwinists never realize that worker bees feed the newborn larvae in the most careful and attentive manner, to such an extent that a single larva is visited around 10,000 times by worker bees during the course of its growth. Chance could never make any living thing do this.
Darwinists never realize how all larvae are fed in different ways at different times, and how the bees give their larvae food according to the size they have reached, and never make any mistakes in this regard.
Darwinists cannot account for why the larvae stop eating on the seventh day, how the worker bees learned to seal up the cells containing the larvae with a lightly domed cover of wax, how the larvae spin a cocoon around the chamber containing them using a substance they produce themselves. Thus they pass through the pupal phase. It is essential that both larvae and worker bees, without exception, know all this must take place on the seventh day.
Darwinists never realize that the protein known as fibroin inside the cocoons woven by bees has powerful antibacterial properties, thanks to which the larvae are protected against germs.
Darwinists never explain how a larva devoid of eyes, wings or brain, that has never yet seen the outside world and is unaware of the conditions it will be living under can manufacture a special formula that obstructs bacteria.
Darwinists never marvel at how, during the pupal phase, the bee's wings with their special structure, the eyes ideally suited to the tasks it will perform, the sting it will use against enemies, its glands for the production of wax, the tiny hairs that assist in the collection of pollen—in short, all its bodily systems, will develop perfectly and how at the end of the three weeks, the adult bee is finally ready to emerge from the chamber.
Darwinists never explain how, even though they are all separated by hundreds of miles, bees all over the world build exactly the same combs, collect honey in the same way, have the same communications and colony-building systems and share the identical division of labor. How could this ever have come about by chance?
Darwinists never appreciate how humming birds are able to cross the Gulf of Mexico (1500 kilometers, or 932 miles) on fewer than 10 grams (0.0220 pounds) of fuel.
Darwinists never marvel at the air-conditioning and ventilation systems in termite nests, so perfect in terms of equipment and energy consumption. Living things cannot possibly acquire such a sublime architectural ability by chance.
Darwinists are totally at a loss to explain how polar fish and frogs return to life after letting themselves freeze in the event of unsuitable climatic conditions. Yet they never suffer any damage during their suspended animation.
Darwinists never marvel at how, during the pupal phase, the bee's wings with their special structure, the eyes ideally suited to the tasks it will perform, the sting it will use against enemies, its glands for the production of wax, the tiny hairs that assist in the collection of pollen—in short, all its bodily systems, will develop perfectly and how at the end of the three weeks, the adult bee is finally ready to emerge from the chamber.
Darwinists never explain how, even though they are all separated by hundreds of miles, bees all over the world build exactly the same combs, collect honey in the same way, have the same communications and colony-building systems and share the identical division of labor. How could this ever have come about by chance?
Darwinists never appreciate how humming birds are able to cross the Gulf of Mexico (1500 kilometers, or 932 miles) on fewer than 10 grams (0.0220 pounds) of fuel.
Darwinists never marvel at the air-conditioning and ventilation systems in termite nests, so perfect in terms of equipment and energy consumption. Living things cannot possibly acquire such a sublime architectural ability by chance.
Darwinists are totally at a loss to explain how polar fish and frogs return to life after letting themselves freeze in the event of unsuitable climatic conditions. Yet they never suffer any damage during their suspended animation.
Darwinists never realize that it is Almighty Allah Who inspires bees, turtles and birds with the ability to make their very long journeys.
Darwinists never realize that through photosynthesis, leaves produce 300 billion tons of sugar a year, and that such a process cannot be carried out even under laboratory conditions.
Darwinists never question how the fly species Ornia ochrea can identify the source of sounds better than any other living thing, despite the space between its ears being no greater than half a millimeter. Such an extraordinary ability could never arise by chance. With all its features this tiny fly exhibits the sublime creative artistry of Almighty Allah.
Darwinists never realize that moulds, single-celled fungi used in the manufacture of drugs, could never come into being by chance, but were created by Allah.
Darwinists claim that all the life forms on Earth evolved. They never realize that lichens, the product of symbiosis of algae and fungi that live together, could not have combined by chance.
Darwinists never realize the illogicality of claiming that carnivorous plants, which snap their leaves shut in order to trap insects landing on them, even though they have no muscular systems, and which produce enzymes to digest the insects they catch but have no consciousness, emerged as the result of natural events.
Darwinists never explain how ducks came to be able to float on the surface of the water, how their bodies have air sacs like miniature balloons, that they empty out these sacs out to dive under the surface. These features have been bestowed on ducks by Allah.
Darwinists never acknowledge that half an acre of farm land contains several tons of bacteria and 1 ton (2,205 pounds) of fungi, 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of single-celled protozoan life forms, some 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of yeast and the same amount of algae, that each of these highly complex components is exceedingly beneficial to the soil they live in.
Darwinists never realize how microorganisms manifest Allah's superior intelligence, art and might in creation. They fall into a great dilemma as they try to account for them by means of mere unconscious coincidences.
Darwinists never consider what a brightly-colored world they inhabit, how such a variety of color around them came about, nor what a world without color would be like.
Darwinists fail to consider the way that bacteria take nitrogen from the air and convert it into nucleotides and amino acids, our building blocks for life. This is an amazing process that literally no other life form on Earth, including human beings, can perform.
Darwinists fail to consider how a queen bee with a minute brain consisting of simple neurons can possibly understand, with her own will and intelligence, why the comb's cells are constructed and how she is able to produce the appropriate eggs, with no confusion ever arising among them.
Darwinists never consider how dragonflies, which have remained unchanged ever since they were first created for hundreds of millions of years ago, possess greater maneuverability than even today's best helicopters.
It is He Who created everything on the earth for you and then directed His attention up to heaven and arranged it into seven regular heavens. He has knowledge of all things.
And in your creation and all the creatures He has spread about
Darwinists Never Consider that Plants Were Created through Miracles
Darwinists never realize that coincidences can never account for the way that poppy flowers release their pollen at the exact time when there are the most pollen-bearing insects around and that their biological clocks ensure their own times of blooming.
Darwinists never understand that it is impossible for unconscious plants like maize and beans to have learned to emit a special secretion in their leaves to protect themselves against predators. With those secretions, they can attract the hornets to eat the parasites that feed on these plants. That defense strategy cannot have been developed by a plant devoid of any consciousness.
Darwinists never realize how tiny seeds, the majority of which resemble tiny bits of wood, eventually turn into giant trees 4 to 5 meters tall and weighing hundreds of kilograms.
Darwinists never realize how the information determining the red color of the rose, the folds in its leaves, its petals' velvety softness, and its perfume is all installed inside its genes, and that this applies to all plant species.
Darwinists never marvel at how grapes appear as sweet, water-filled globes from the seemingly dry branches of the vine. Information in the seeds' genes makes grape pith different from the shell of a hazelnut and gives these two fruits their distinctive colors, tastes and smells, and the vitamins inside them. It makes one dry and the other juicy, so that hazelnuts always appear as hazelnuts, and grapes as grapes.
There are seeds that remain dormant for dozens or even hundreds of years if conditions are unsuitable, and that sprout only later. Darwinists never realize how plants know how to survive under even the harshest conditions.
Darwinists never point out that even though microbes in the soil generally have decaying, destructive effects, a seed in the soil and its roots just half a millimeter thick never come to any harm. On the contrary, they use the soil to constantly grow and develop. Darwinists never question how delicate roots can protect themselves.
Darwinists never explain how, if a seed sprouting below the ground is prevented from reaching the surface, it will grow around any obstacles by sending out long shoots, or else will build up pressure from where it is growing to eventually reach the daylight.
Darwinists never point out that a single square millimeter of leaf contains 500,000 chlorophyll molecules. In every leaf there are millions of these glorious molecules, which are essential for photosynthesis and cannot be obtained in any laboratory.
Darwinists never realize that the highly complex process of photosynthesis cannot have come into being by chance. It cannot have been subsequently learned by a cell. The first living plants on Earth were specially designed in order to perform photosynthesis. Almighty Allah has created plants together with that ability.
We will show them Our Signs on the horizon and within themselves until it is clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not enough for your Lord that He is a witness of everything?
In the earth there are diverse regions side by side and gardens of grapes and cultivated fields, and palm-trees sharing one root and others with individual roots, all watered with the same water.
Darwinists never realize that, apart from green plants living on Earth, algae capable of making photosynthesis absorb a 30% level of carbon dioxide and meet 70% of the planet's oxygen needs.
Even though all plants are sown in soil with the same properties, receiving the same sunlight and irrigated with the same water, each has its own unique colors, scents and shapes, and that this alone is a proof of Allah's creative artistry.
Darwinists never appreciate that fruits with just the right level of sugar, unique perfumes and tastes emerge from a seed, and that this information cannot form in a tiny seed by chance.
Darwinists never explain how some tree species, such as poplars, lose up to 265 liters (70 gallons) of water an hour in hot weather, yet they never dry up. How did they come to possess an efficient root system, which cannot be a product of chance?
Darwinists never explain how pollens, essential to the reproduction of various plant species, are able to reach other members of the same species hundreds of kilometers, carried along by the wind.
Darwinists never realize that the outer surface of pollen grains are coated with a resistant substance known as exine, which protects the pollen against high pressure and temperatures. By whichever means it is transported, it can remain alive at a distance of many kilometers from the original plant.
Darwinists never account for the more than 500,000 varieties of plants on Earth, each of which has its own unique features and systems.
Darwinists never realize that plants need a root system to absorb substances they need from the soil, and that it is impossible for plants themselves to have designed this capillary mechanism.
Darwinists never realize that each species of plant has unique features, such as its own scent, taste and color. Moreover, every single plant cell possesses far too complex a system to have come into existence by chance.
Darwinists never realize how it is that even while there is a high concentration of pollen in the air, a plant can transmit its pollen grains to other members of its species without their being caught by other species.
Have you thought about what you cultivate?
Darwinists never understand how the process of photosynthesis, which cannot be fully replicated by scientists in a laboratory, is regularly performed by unconscious plants.
Darwinists never explain how annual desert plants protect themselves against droughts by remaining dormant in seed form, and that once it has rained, these seeds sprout very quickly. How are plants, devoid of consciousness, able to implement this plan?
Darwinists never realize how an apple seed contains all the information about the tree it will grow into, its shape and color, its fruits, the flowers that will bloom, the smell of those flowers and all the other features possessed by that tree.
Darwinists never realize how a single seed will eventually develop into a tree 4 to 5 meters (157 to 196 inches) tall and weighing hundreds of kilos. This growth cannot be explained by any scenario of gradual evolution.
Darwinists never realize that the leaves of coniferous trees possess a special protective coating against the winter cold, and that their waxy surfaces prevent water evaporation to make the leaves more resistant.
Darwinists never realize how all a plant's details—for example, the red color of the rose, the folds in its leaves, the number, the softness and the velvety texture of its petals, its perfume—are all installed inside the embryo. No coincidence has the power to gather together so much detailed information inside that tiny embryo's DNA.
Your Lord revealed to the bees:
Darwinists never appreciate that a seed requires careful protection until the embryo can germinate. This is why seeds have outer casings that vary according to the species and to the conditions under which the plant lives, and that these casings' resistance has been specially regulated.
Darwinists never explain how a seed, which they claim came into being by chance, has been equipped with a special system to keep enemies at a distance. Some are covered with a bitter substance produced by means of the genetic information inside them.
Darwinists never realize how some species of plant seeds have a gelatinous substance made up of complex sugars on their outer membranes, and that this substance swells up in contact with water. This lets the seed easily adhere to moist substances, which play a major role in germination.
Darwinists never realize that this gelatinous substance is produced on the outer membranes of the seeds of certain species in a calculated manner.
Darwinists never realize that a single bean has a special connection known as a micropyle where it joins onto the pod. This structure resembles a baby's umbilical cord and serves to fertilize the female reproductive cell inside the pod. Then later, when the time comes water passes through it from the outside, allowing the seed to sprout.
Darwinists never realize how the center of gravity of the seeds of the plant Zanonia, which float in the air, is based on exceedingly delicate measurements, thanks to which the seeds can be hurled considerable distances. This special creation could never have come about by chance.
Darwinists never explain why seeds of cress and similar plants are covered in a hydrophobic (water-repellent) coating, which allows them to make use of water's surface tension and thus not to sink. Thanks to this system, such seeds are able to cross entire rivers.
Darwinists never understand how some plants realize that they must enter a kind of state of suspended animation in order to survive very arid seasons. They therefore lose the water they contain from their tissues through a genetically controlled process. By means of a hormone known as absissic acid, hormones inside the seed slow into this state of suspended animation, and this takes place in a seemingly conscious manner.
Darwinists never realize how a seed under the ground is aware of worsening climatic conditions and decides to take precautions to delay sprouting.
Darwinists can never realize how the lupine that grows in the Arctic tundra can forecast the weather. If conditions are bad, it enters a kind of suspended animation under the soil and waits for the weather to improve. If necessary, it can wait hundreds of years until the appropriate conditions arise and then begin growing again.
Darwinists never realize that in the roots of a sprouting plant are cells that perceive gravitational pull, and light-sensitive cells in the upward growing tips. Light and gravity determine the direction of growth of the roots and sprouts.
Darwinists never realize that with their photosynthetic systems that convert light into nutrients and break carbon dioxide into oxygen, leaves ensure the ecological balance and could never have emerged by chance.
Darwinists never realize how plants—which manufacture carbohydrates, the fundamental food source of all living things, by using solar energy—manage to carry out this process in as little as one billionth of a second.
We sent down cascading water from the clouds so that by it
Darwinists never appreciate the process by which plants, which have no central nervous systems or any brain to control them, absorb specific quantities of minerals and water from the soil and make use of air and the Sun to produce food for all animal life.
Darwinists never explain that maple trees, which possess no intelligence, protect themselves against harmful pests with the tannin they manufacture. Much more powerful than man-made pesticides, its production can never be explained in terms of coincidences.
Darwinists can never account for the irreducible complexity in all plant systems by the theory of evolution.
Darwinists never appreciate how pollens, essential to the reproduction of various plant species, can reach other members of the same species hundreds of kilometers (miles) away by being carried along by the wind.
Darwinists never appreciate the extraordinary exception of the coconut, the seeds of palm tree. Most seeds that sprout as soon as they come into contact with water. But thanks to its tough shell, coconuts, do not germinate during their 80-day journey in salt water and are thus able to survive.
Darwinists never realize that chance can never account for how trees can supply water to even their uppermost leaves, without the need for any pump or similar system.
Darwinists never realize the intelligence and consciousness with which trees' leaves carry out complex chemical processes in their cells in order to fall only in autumn.
Darwinists never admit that the superior, highly rational system by which the plane tree emits poison into the soil to protect the tree from weeds without damaging the tree itself could never emerge by chance.
Darwinists never realize that plants were created, together with the many various defensive mechanisms they use to protect themselves.
Darwinists' theory of evolution can never account for the way that when attacked, a leaf informs other leaves on the same plant and tells them to protect themselves by emitting jasmonic acid.
It is He Who sends down water from the sky from which We bring forth growth of every kind.
Allah is He Who created the heavens and the earth and sends down water from the sky and by it brings forth fruits as provision for you.
Darwinists fail to consider that plants and their leaves have a sublime evaporative cooling system, a system that can never be accounted for in terms of chance.
Darwinists can never explain in terms of evolution how the impermeable waxy layer covering the leaves' surfaces, known as the cuticle, reduces water loss to a minimum.
Darwinists never realize that chance cannot explain how desert plants "learned" to conserve water rather than allowing it to evaporate, and how they came to possess features ideally suited to harsh desert conditions.
Darwinists never fully understand how trees, despite their outer surfaces being covered in a dry bark can pass many tons of water up through their trunks and in the absence of that mechanism, could never survive.
Darwinists never realize that Allah created plants in such a manner as to give pleasure to humans with their matchless colors and differing tastes and aromas, despite their growing in the same soil and being irrigated with the same water.
Darwinists never realize that the way that cultivated trees absorb into their fruits only those minerals essential for human beings, just like a nutritionist.
Darwinists never explain how certain trees, devoid of any means of planning, adopt the most stunning colors in the autumn. This cannot be explained in terms of evolution.
Darwinists never account for the leaves of trees in cold climates being coated in a waxy substance, for which reason they can survive without suffering water loss. This adaptation cannot be accounted for in terms of blind chance.
Darwinists never admit that architects who design the roofs of houses in sharp peaks to avoid damage from the weight of heavy snow are inspired by the evergreen trees created by Allah. A great many other highly rational structures in nature inspire engineers, none of which can have emerged by chance.
Darwinists never admit that the biological clocks that plants possess in order to survive cannot be accounted for by the theory of evolution.
Darwinists never recognize that their theory is wholly refuted by this admission of Anthony Trewavas, a member of the Edinburgh University Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, that appeared in the 21 February, 2002, edition of Nature under the title "Plant Intelligence: Mindless Mastery": "Internally, plant cells and tissues communicate with each other using proteins; nucleic acids; many hormones; mineral, chemical, hydraulic, mechanical, oxidative and electrical signals; peptides; various lipids; sugars; wall fragments; and other complex carbohydrates. Quite how individual plant cells accommodate this prodigious amount of information is not understood."
Darwinists never realize that the process in which the lotus plant wipes away the dust particles on its flat leaves by using raindrops could never have come about by chance.
Darwinists never think that the theory of evolution can never account for the camouflage ability possessed by many plants to protect themselves from predators and is able to deceive humans as well.
Darwinists never realize the way that the numerical series known as the Fibonacci series, is encountered so often in different plants that it can never be explained in terms of evolution.
3. Said Nursi, The Words, The 22nd Word.
4. Pierre-Paul Grassé, Evolution of Living Organisms, New York: Academic Press, , 1977, p. 88.
5. Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, The Road Ahead, [1995], London: Penguin:, Revised, 1996, p. 228.
6. Davies P.C.W., 1998, The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin of Life, Ringwood, Australia: Penguin, p. 88.
7. "Are We Descended from Martians?", Cumhuriyet Bilim Teknik, (Science and Technology magazine) 13 September 2003.
8. James Crow, "Genetic Effects of Radiation," Bulletin of Atomic Sciences, 14 (1958), pp. 19-20.
9. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, London: Published in Abacus by Sphere Books Ltd., 1984, p. 4.
10. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, London: Burnett Books, 1985, p. 242.
11. Prof. Dr. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim ("Heredity and Evolution"), Ankara, Meteksan Yayinlari, p. 79.
12. Robert Shapiro, Origins: A Sceptics Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth, New York: Summit Books, 1986. p. 127.
13. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim, Ankara: Meteksan Yayinlari, 1984, s. 61
14. Richard Ellis, Aquagenesis, The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Sea, Penguin Books, 2001, p. 7.
15. Christian Schwabe, "On the Validity of Molecular Evolution," Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Vol. 11, July 1986, p. 280.
16. Stephen Jay Gould, Life's Grandeur, London: Vintage, 1996, p. 212.
17. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, pp. 290-91.
18. Leslie E. Orgel, "The Origin of Life on Earth," Scientific American, Vol. 271, October 1994, p. 78.
19. Said Nursi, The Words, The 10th Word.
20. Ibid.
21. Richard Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 40.
22. Said Nursi, The Letters, Fifteenth Letter.
23. Saban Dogen, Risale-i Nur'dan Vecizeler ("Good Sayings From Risale-i Nur Collection"), 2nd ed., Istanbul: Genclik Publishing, p. 161.
24. Prof. Dr. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim, p. 8.
25. Saban Dogen, p. 162.
26. Hoimar Von Ditfurth, Im Amfang War Der Wasserstoff, pp.60-61.
27. Said Nursi, The Words, 10th Word.
28. Ibid.
29. Said Nursi, The Words, 31st Word.
30. Said Nursi, The Words, 32nd Word.
31.Said Nursi, The Words, 22nd Word. 32. Said Nursi, The Words, The 24th Word.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
SORT(1) DragonFly General Commands Manual SORT(1)
NAMEsort - sort or merge records (lines) of text and binary files
SYNOPSISsort [-bcCdfghiRMmnrsuVz] [-k field1[,field2]] [-S memsize] [-T dir] [-t char] [-o output] [file ...] sort --help sort --version
DESCRIPTIONThe sort utility sorts text and binary files by lines. A line is a record separated from the subsequent record by a newline (default) or NUL '\0' character (-z option). A record can contain any printable or unprintable characters. Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys extracted from each line of input, and are performed lexicographically, according to the current locale's collating rules and the specified command-line options that can tune the actual sorting behavior. By default, if keys are not given, sort uses entire lines for comparison. The command line options are as follows: -c, --check, -C, --check=silent|quiet Check that the single input file is sorted. If the file is not sorted, sort produces the appropriate error messages and exits with code 1, otherwise returns 0. If -C or --check=silent is specified, sort produces no output. This is a "silent" version of -c. -m, --merge Merge only. The input files are assumed to be pre-sorted. If they are not sorted the output order is undefined. -o output, --output=output Print the output to the output file instead of the standard output. This file can be the same as one of the input files. -S size, --buffer-size=size Use size for the maximum size of the memory buffer. Size modifiers %,b,K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y can be used. If a memory limit is not explicitly specified, sort takes up to about 90% of available memory. If the file size is too big to fit into the memory buffer, the temporary disk files are used to perform the sorting. -T dir, --temporary-directory=dir Store temporary files in the directory dir. The default path is the value of the environment variable TMPDIR or /var/tmp if TMPDIR is not defined. -u, --unique Unique keys. Suppress all lines that have a key that is equal to an already processed one. This option, similarly to -s, implies a stable sort. If used with -c or -C, sort also checks that there are no lines with duplicate keys. -s Stable sort. This option maintains the original record order of records that have an equal key. This is a non-standard feature, but it is widely accepted and used. --version Print the version and silently exits. --help Print the help text and silently exits. The following options override the default ordering rules. When ordering options appear independently of key field specifications, they apply globally to all sort keys. When attached to a specific key (see -k), the ordering options override all global ordering options for the key they are attached to. -b, --ignore-leading-blanks Ignore leading blank characters when comparing lines. -d, --dictionary-order Consider only blank spaces and alphanumeric characters in comparisons. -f, --ignore-case Convert all lowercase characters to their uppercase equivalent before comparison, that is, perform case-independent sorting. -g, --general-numeric-sort, --sort=general-numeric Sort by general numerical value. As opposed to -n, this option handles general floating points. It has a more permissive format than that allowed by -n but it has a significant performance drawback. -h, --human-numeric-sort, --sort=human-numeric Sort by numerical value, but take into account the SI suffix, if present. Sort first by numeric sign (negative, zero, or positive); then by SI suffix (either empty, or `k' or `K', or one of `MGTPEZY', in that order); and finally by numeric value. The SI suffix must immediately follow the number. For example, '12345K' sorts before '1M', because M is "larger" than K. This sort option is useful for sorting the output of a single invocation of 'df' command with -h or -H options (human- readable). -i, --ignore-nonprinting Ignore all non-printable characters. -M, --month-sort, --sort=month Sort by month abbreviations. Unknown strings are considered smaller than the month names. -n, --numeric-sort, --sort=numeric Sort fields numerically by arithmetic value. Fields are supposed to have optional blanks in the beginning, an optional minus sign, zero or more digits (including decimal point and possible thousand separators). -R, --random-sort, --sort=random Sort by a random order. This is a random permutation of the inputs except that the equal keys sort together. It is implemented by hashing the input keys and sorting the hash values. The hash function is chosen randomly. The hash function is randomized by /dev/random content, or by file content if it is specified by --random-source. Even if multiple sort fields are specified, the same random hash function is used for all of them. -r, --reverse Sort in reverse order. -V, --version-sort Sort version numbers. The input lines are treated as file names in form PREFIX VERSION SUFFIX, where SUFFIX matches the regular expression "(.([A-Za-z~][A-Za-z0-9~]*)?)*". The files are compared by their prefixes and versions (leading zeros are ignored in version numbers, see example below). If an input string does not match the pattern, then it is compared using the byte compare function. All string comparisons are performed in C locale, the locale environment setting is ignored. Example: $ ls sort* | sort -V sort-1.022.tgz sort-1.23.tgz sort-1.23.1.tgz sort-1.024.tgz sort-1.024.003. sort-1.024.003.tgz sort-1.024.07.tgz sort-1.024.009.tgz The treatment of field separators can be altered using these options: -b, --ignore-leading-blanks Ignore leading blank space when determining the start and end of a restricted sort key (see -k). If -b is specified before the first -k option, it applies globally to all key specifications. Otherwise, -b can be attached independently to each field argument of the key specifications. -b. -k field1[,field2], --key=field1[,field2] Define a restricted sort key that has the starting position field1, and optional ending position field2 of a key field. The -k option may be specified multiple times, in which case subsequent keys are compared when earlier keys compare equal. The -k option replaces the obsolete options *pos1 and -pos2, but the old notation is also supported. -t char, --field-separator=char Use char as a field separator character. The initial char is not considered to be part of a field when determining key offsets. Each occurrence of char is significant (for example, "charchar" delimits an empty field). If -t is not specified, the default field separator is a sequence of blank space characters, and consecutive blank spaces do not delimit an empty field, however, the initial blank space is considered part of a field when determining key offsets. To use NUL as field separator, use -t '\0'. -z, --zero-terminated Use NUL as record separator. By default, records in the files are supposed to be separated by the newline characters. With this option, NUL ('\0') is used as a record separator character. Other options: --batch-size=num Specify maximum number of files that can be opened by sort at once. This option affects behavior when having many input files or using temporary files. The default value is 16. --compress-program=PROGRAM Use PROGRAM to compress temporary files. PROGRAM must compress standard input to standard output, when called without arguments. When called with argument -d it must decompress standard input to standard output. If PROGRAM fails, sort must exit with error. An example of PROGRAM that can be used here is bzip2. --random-source=filename In random sort, the file content is used as the source of the 'seed' data for the hash function choice. Two invocations of random sort with the same seed data will use the same hash function and will produce the same result if the input is also identical. By default, file /dev/random is used. --debug Print some extra information about the sorting process to the standard output. --parallel Set the maximum number of execution threads. Default number equals to the number of CPUs. --files0-from=filename Take the input file list from the file filename. The file names must be separated by NUL (like the output produced by the command "find ... -print0"). --radixsort Try to use radix sort, if the sort specifications allow. The radix sort can only be used for trivial locales (C and POSIX), and it cannot be used for numeric or month sort. Radix sort is very fast and stable. --mergesort Use mergesort. This is a universal algorithm that can always be used, but it is not always the fastest. --qsort Try to use quick sort, if the sort specifications allow. This sort algorithm cannot be used with -u and -s. --heapsort Try to use heap sort, if the sort specifications allow. This sort algorithm cannot be used with -u and -s. --mmap Try to use file memory mapping system call. It may increase speed in some cases. The following operands are available: file The pathname of a file to be sorted, merged, or checked. If no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is -, the standard input is used. A field is defined as a maximal sequence of characters other than the field separator and record separator (newline by default). Initial blank spaces are included in the field unless -b has been specified; the first blank space of a sequence of blank spaces acts as the field separator and is included in the field (unless -t is specified). For example, all blank spaces at the beginning of a line are considered to be part of the first field. Fields are specified by the -k field1[,field2] command-line option. If field2 is missing, the end of the key defaults to the end of the line. The arguments field1 and field2 have the form m.n (m,n > 0) and can be followed by one or more of the modifiers b, d, f, i, n, g, M and r, which correspond to the options discussed above. When b is specified it applies only to field1 or field2 where it is specified while the rest of the modifiers apply to the whole key field regardless if they are specified only with field1 or field2 or both. A field1 position specified by m.n is interpreted as the nth character from the beginning of the mth field. A missing .n in field1 means `.1', indicating the first character of the mth field; if the -b option is in effect, n is counted from the first non-blank character in the mth field; m.1b refers to the first non-blank character in the mth field. 1.n refers to the nth character from the beginning of the line; if n is greater than the length of the line, the field is taken to be empty. nth positions are always counted from the field beginning, even if the field is shorter than the number of specified positions. Thus, the key can really start from a position in a subsequent field. A field2 position specified by m.n is interpreted as the nth character (including separators) from the beginning of the mth field. A missing .n indicates the last character of the mth field; m = 0 designates the end of a line. Thus the option -k v.x,w.y is synonymous with the obsolete option *v-1.x-1 -w-1.y; when y is omitted, -k v.x,w is synonymous with *v-1.x-1 -w.0. The obsolete +pos1 -pos2 option is still supported, except for -w.0b, which has no -k equivalent.
ENVIRONMENTLC_COLLATE Locale settings to be used to determine the collation for sorting records. LC_CTYPE Locale settings to be used to case conversion and classification of characters, that is, which characters are considered whitespaces, etc. LC_MESSAGES Locale settings that determine the language of output messages that sort prints out. LC_NUMERIC Locale settings that determine the number format used in numeric sort. LC_TIME Locale settings that determine the month format used in month sort. LC_ALL Locale settings that override all of the above locale settings. This environment variable can be used to set all these settings to the same value at once. LANG Used as a last resort to determine different kinds of locale- specific behavior if neither the respective environment variable, nor LC_ALL are set. TMPDIR Path to the directory in which temporary files will be stored. Note that TMPDIR may be overridden by the -T option. GNUSORT_NUMERIC_COMPATIBILITY If defined -t will not override the locale numeric symbols, that is, thousand separators and decimal separators. By default, if we specify -t with the same symbol as the thousand separator or decimal point, the symbol will be treated as the field separator. Older behavior was less definite; the symbol was treated as both field separator and numeric separator, simultaneously. This environment variable enables the old behavior.
FILES/var/tmp/.bsdsort.PID.* Temporary files. /dev/random Default seed file for the random sort.
EXIT STATUSThe sort utility shall exit with one of the following values: 0 Successfully sorted the input files or if used with -c or -C, the input file already met the sorting criteria. 1 On disorder (or non-uniqueness) with the -c or -C options. 2 An error occurred.
SEE ALSOcomm(1), join(1), uniq(1)
STANDARDSThe sort utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1") specification. The flags [-ghRMSsTVz] are extensions to the POSIX specification. All long options are extensions to the specification, some of them are provided for compatibility with GNU versions and some of them are own extensions. The old key notations *pos1 and -pos2 come from older versions of sort and are still supported but their use is highly discouraged.
HISTORYA sort command first appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX.
AUTHORSGabor Kovesdan <email@example.com>, Oleg Moskalenko <email@example.com>
NOTESThis implementation of sort has no limits on input line length (other than imposed by available memory) or any restrictions on bytes allowed within lines. The performance depends highly on locale settings, efficient choice of sort keys and key complexity. The fastest sort is with locale C, on whole lines, with option -s. In general, locale C is the fastest, then single-byte locales follow and multi-byte locales as the slowest but the correct collation order is always respected. As for the key specification, the simpler to process the lines the faster the search will be. When sorting by arithmetic value, using -n results in much better performance than -g so its use is encouraged whenever possible. DragonFly 5.7-DEVELOPMENT December 2, 2019 DragonFly 5.7-DEVELOPMENT


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TSF was banking on Aravane Rezai to join the ranks of Nadia Petrova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the fashion trenches of Flushing Meadows, but the Frenchwoman instead kept with the same white armadillo Scheyda dress she'd been wearing since the start of the grasscourt season.
Still, her spirit found a way to make a mark: as we roamed the grounds of the 2010 US Open, we ran across this man who'd designed his own Rezai tee. It's not quite the impressive as Nole fan shirts, but "A" for effort.
Meanwhile, just for posterity, here's Rezai playing against American (and wildcard) Beatrice Capra in the second round. Capra won (the hearts of internet users, even) but got a massive spanking from Maria Sharapova in the round after.
(fan photo by TSF; match image via Getty Images)


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Athens, Ga. – Low oxygen levels in cells may be a primary cause of uncontrollable tumor growth in some cancers, according to a new University of Georgia study. The authors' findings run counter to widely accepted beliefs that genetic mutations are responsible for cancer growth.
If hypoxia, or low oxygen levels in cells, is proven to be a key driver of certain types of cancer, treatment plans for curing the malignant growth could change in significant ways, said Ying Xu, Regents-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor of bioinformatics and computational biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
The research team analyzed samples of messenger RNA data-also called transcriptomic data-from seven different cancer types in a publicly available database. They found that long-term lack of oxygen in cells may be a key driver of cancer growth. The study was published in the early online edition of the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology.
Previous studies have linked low oxygen levels in cells as a contributing factor in cancer development, but not as the driving force for cancer growth. High incidence rates of cancer around the world cannot be explained by chance genetic mutations alone, Xu said. He added that bioinformatics, which melds biology and computational science, has allowed researchers to see cancer in a new light. Gene-level mutations may give cancer cells a competitive edge over healthy cells, but the proposed new cancer growth model does not require the presence of common malfunctions such as a sudden proliferation of oncogenes, precursors to cancer cells.
"Cancer drugs try to get to the root-at the molecular level-of a particular mutation, but the cancer often bypasses it," Xu said. "So we think that possibly genetic mutations may not be the main driver of cancer."
Much of cancer research so far has focused on designing drug treatments that counteract genetic mutations associated with a particular type of cancer. In their study, the researchers analyzed data downloaded from the Stanford Microarray Database via a software program to detect abnormal gene expression patterns in seven cancers: breast, kidney, liver, lung, ovary, pancreatic and stomach. The online database allows scientists to examine information from microarray chips, which are small glass slides containing large amounts of gene material.
Xu relied on the gene HIF1A as a biomarker of the amount of molecular oxygen in a cell. All seven cancers showed increasing amounts of HIF1A, indicating decreasing oxygen levels in the cancer cells.
Low oxygen levels in a cell interrupt the activity of oxidative phosphorylation, a term for the highly efficient way that cells normally use to convert food to energy. As oxygen decreases, the cells switch to glycolysis to produce their energy units, called ATP. Glycolysis is a drastically less efficient way to obtain energy, and so the cancer cells must work even harder to obtain even more food, specifically glucose, to survive. When oxygen levels dip dangerously low, angiogenesis, or the process of creating new blood vessels, begins. The new blood vessels provide fresh oxygen, thus improving oxygen levels in the cell and tumor and slowing the cancer growth-but only temporarily.
"When a cancer cell gets more food, it grows; this makes the tumor biomass bigger and even more hypoxic. In turn, the energy-conversion efficiency goes further down, making the cells even more hungry and triggering the cells to get more food from blood circulation, creating a vicious cycle. This could be a key driver of cancer," Xu said.
Xu explained that this new cancer-growth model could help explain why many cancers become drug resistant so quickly-often within three to six months. He stressed the importance of testing the new model through future experimental cancer research. If the model holds, researchers will need to search for methods to prevent hypoxia in cells in the first place, which could result in a sea change in cancer treatment.
Additional authors of this study include Juan Cui, Xizeng Mao and Victor Olman, all of UGA, and Phil Hastings of Baylor College of Medicine. Xu also has a joint appointment with Jilin University in China.


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Study: Old Women Lazy as Hell
It's hard enough being an elderly woman in today's society, what with sexism, ageism, and those bizarre "brooches" everyone expects you to wear. So hey, old ladies: don't make it harder on yourself by being so lazy. Get up and MOVE!
I would never deign to call old women—which both of my grandmothers were—"lazy" merely as a crass (one might say "lazy") pejorative. Not at all. I use this word based upon the most respected and up-to-date science, as published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and reported by Bloomberg News. We all just want what's best for you, ladies.
The study showed that women spent about 66 percent of their waking day in sedentary behavior, totaling about 9.7 hours a day. [...]
About 32 percent of all sedentary time occurred in blocks of at least 30 minutes, while about 12 percent occurred for at least 60 minutes
Great way to be a role model for your no doubt obese grandchildren, ladies. (Sarcasm.) Two out of every three waking minutes of your rapidly dwindling life, spent doing nothing more than sitting in a chair, or sitting in a car, or sitting in a bar—exercising nothing more than your ample patoot. How do you expect to maintain the strength to lift up your hefty grandkids, or the endurance to chase your lumbering grandkids, or the flexibility to bend down and scold your rotund grandkids, if you do not get up off of your backside and hustle? You won't live forever. You might as well live healthy.
No one is asking you to run a marathon. But you're never to old to do sets of burpees every hour on the hour, interspersed with some simple sprints, pushups, and air squats out in the yard. We all know you have the time!


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Here is a summary of the engineering continuing education requirements mandated by the Oklahoma State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers & Land Surveyors.
|No of PDH hours required
|Renewal period
|Biennially, the last day of the month of the initial license date.
|Provider approval
|The Board does not pre-approve course providers, you can choose your course provider.
|Course content approval
|Any program with a clear purpose and objective which will maintain, improve or expand the skills and knowledge relevant to the licensee's field of practice. Subject matter which is technical in nature or addresses professional ethics, codes or other similar topics which facilitate the licensee's professional development as a professional engineer and serves to safeguard life, health and property and promote the public welfare.
|No of PDH hours carry over next year
|A maximum of 15 PDH may be carried over to the next renewal period.
|Online courses
|Accepted, there is no limit on credits earned through online courses.
DiscountPDH credits have been accepted by the Oklahoma State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers & Land Surveyors, as well as all other U.S. state boards that require continuing education for P.E. engineers. Our PDH courses or webinars have never been rejected by a state licensing board.


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AML Foundation
The Acton Memorial Library Foundation was incorporated in 1991 as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing additional funding to supplement the Acton Memorial Library's budget. Since that time, the Foundation has been a critical resource in supporting the Library's mission. For the Acton Memorial Library Foundation website, please click HERE.


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OUR HISTORY IS increasingly hostage to a deep and broad ecological crisis. Stalking us for centuries, it is now upon us in the interlocking catastrophes of climate destruction, habitat degradation, species extinction, and resource exhaustion. Some call it "peak everything."
"All we have to do to destroy the planet's climate and biota and leave a ruined world to our children and grandchildren," concluded environmental policy analyst James Gustave Speth in The Bridge at the Edge of the World, "is to keep doing exactly what we are doing today ... to release greenhouse gases ... impoverish ecosystems and release toxic chemicals at current rates, and the world in the latter part of this century won't be fit to live in."
Our Christian faith and practice now unfold either in light of or in spite of this crisis. Our choice is between discipleship and denial.
Two trends among thoughtful Catholics, evangelicals, and other Protestants in North America over the last quarter century are helping awaken us to "response-ability" in the face of these inconvenient truths. One is the spread of contextual theology, which demands both analysis and engagement with social realities around us. The other is how "creation care" has gained broad traction among churches.
But these trends need to be integrated. Contextual approaches have tended to address social, economic, and political issues apart from ecological ones. And environmental theologies are not contextual enough: often too abstract (debating "new cosmologies"), focused on remote symptoms (tropical rain forests or polar ice caps), or merely cosmetic ("greening" congregations through light bulb changes while avoiding controversies such as the Keystone XL pipeline).
Our "all hands on deck" moment requires a practical approach that challenges and equips our churches to learn how to "serve and preserve" the earth (Genesis 2:15). The best way to do that is to focus on the particular places in which we dwell.


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Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, South Beach Diet, etc., etc., etc. Chances are you have known someone who has tried a high protein diet. In fact, according to the International Food Information Council Foundation, 50% of consumers were interested in including more protein in their diets and 37% believed protein helps with weight loss. In a new study released in the May/June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers found a relatively high proportion of women who reported using the practice of ''eating more protein'' to prevent weight gain, which was associated with reported weight loss.
Among a national sample, researchers from the University of Minnesota surveyed 1,824 midlife women (40-60 years old) to (1) describe perceptions about protein sources and requirements, (2) identify the reported frequency of using the ''eating more protein'' practice to prevent weight gain, and (3) compare reported protein intake to reported frequency of using the ''eating more protein'' practice to prevent weight gain.
Most women correctly identified good protein sources, and the majority could indicate the daily percent of dietary energy recommended from protein. ''Eating more protein'' to prevent weight gain was reported by 43% of women (and more than half of obese women) as a practice to prevent weight gain. Reported use of this practice was related to self-reported weight loss over two years. Two factors associated with effective use of this practice included the level of protein intake and self-efficacy toward weight management.
According to Noel Aldrich, lead author, those participants' who had reported weight loss with "eating more protein" had a protein intake that was consistent with the focus on protein suggested by the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. He said, "Education regarding dietary protein requirements may enhance the use of this practice. Women may need more information regarding protein energy content and effective selection of protein sources to enhance protein intake as a weight management strategy. Given that the majority of Americans are overweight, identifying the most effective practices and related factors surrounding successful weight loss and prevention of weight gain are important."
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Materials provided by Elsevier Health Sciences. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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This easy enchilada recipe is so filling & delicious! Whole wheat flour tortillas filled with ground turkey, black beans and spices, then smothered with a homemade enchilada sauce.
Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas
For the enchilada lover out there, these enchiladas are great tasting, high in fiber and very filling! One filled me up with a salad, my husband with a bigger appetite filled up on two. Top them with a little fat free sour cream, scallions or cilantro on top. Look for half point tortillas that are whole wheat and low carb such as Tumaro's, La Tortilla Factory or Trader Joe's. If you like this recipe you may also want to try one of my favorites, Chicken Enchiladas.
Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas
- 1 lb extra lean ground turkey
- 15.5 can black beans, drained
- 4.5 oz can chopped green chiles
- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1-2 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp chili powder
- salt
- 8 6-inch low carb whole wheat flour tortillas (La Tortilla Factory)
- 1 cup reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese, I used Weight Watchers
- nonstick cooking spray
For the Enchilada Sauce:
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1-2 tbsp chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
- 1-1/2 cups tomato sauce
- 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 cup fat free chicken broth
- kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste
- In a medium saucepan, spray cooking spray and sauté garlic.
- Add chiles, chili powder, cumin, chicken broth, tomato sauce, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Set aside until ready to use.
- In a large skillet brown the turkey and season with salt.
- When the turkey is browned, add onion, garlic, black beans, cilantro, green chiles, diced tomatoes, cumin and chili powder.
- Mix well and simmer on low, covered for 20 minutes.
- Remove lid and simmer an additional 5-10 minutes to reduce the liquid.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Spray a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish with non-stick spray.
- Put 1/2 cup turkey mixture into each tortilla and roll it.
- Place on baking dish seam side down.
- Top with enchilada sauce and cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes.
- Top with low fat sour cream, cilantro or scallions if you wish. (Extra points)