Skeptical News for 5 November 2002Skeptical News for 5 November 2002Archive of previous NTS Skeptical News listings
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY NEWS RELEASE
Posted: October 5, 2002
A team of UK astronomers, led by postgraduate student Ed Hawkins, has made a decisive step toward resolving an argument that has rumbled on in the astronomical community for decades. The scientists from the University of Nottingham have been investigating the properties of quasars and nearby galaxies. As part of this study, they have overturned previous analyses which suggested that these two classes of object are physically associated, thus confirming the alternative, more widely-held view that quasars are some of the most distant objects in the Universe.
Quasars are star-like in appearance, but seem to be flying away from Earth at velocities comparable to the speed of light. The majority of astronomers believe that this high speed is a result of the expansion of the Universe, and that the quasars are traveling so fast because they are at enormous distances. However, a vociferous minority, including such notable figures as the great astronomer Fred Hoyle, has argued forcefully that quasars are much closer by. In particular, they have pointed to apparent associations between quasars and nearby galaxies, suggesting that the quasars have somehow been ejected from these galaxies in the recent past.
One of the pieces of evidence to support this idea was the tentative discovery that quasars only seem to move away from galaxies at particular speeds: for example, a surprisingly large number of quasars seem to be moving relative to neighbouring galaxies at speeds of 59% of the speed of light. If the quasars were actually on the far side of the Universe, how would they know to move at exactly 59% of the speed of light relative to a completely unrelated foreground galaxy?
Very little progress has been made toward resolving this controversy, essentially because there just hasn't been enough data to tell whether the apparent associations between galaxies and quasars are real or just coincidences. However, this has all changed with two newly-completed huge surveys undertaken with the Anglo-Australian Telescope, one measuring the positions and velocities of 200,000 galaxies, and the other measuring the same quantities for 25,000 quasars. "These enormous new data sets offered a great opportunity to take another look at this question," said Hawkins. "To do as fair a test as possible, we discussed with the supporters of both theories what they would expect to see before we analyzed the data."
By carefully sifting through these datasets, Hawkins and collaborators found 1647 examples of quasars that appear close to galaxies, and hence might be associated. Sadly for the nearby-quasar supporters, there was no excess of quasars moving at 59% of the speed of light, or any of the other "magic speeds" that had previously been tentatively identified. Without this evidence to support an association between quasars and galaxies, the case for quasars being flung out of nearby galaxies is much weakened.
Hawkins concluded "it's a shame, as it would have been great to find that the conventional view of quasars is all wrong. However, it's also something of a relief to know that most astronomers have not been barking up completely the wrong tree for the last thirty years."
The analysis, by Ed Hawkins, Steve Maddox and Michael Merrifield, will appear in the October 11th issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moon rocks weren't enough. Neither was testimony from astronauts or even photographic evidence. So NASA (news - web sites) has commissioned a mini-book to show that yes, indeed, Americans did land on the Moon.
Most humans on Earth accept that U.S. astronauts first got to the moon aboard the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. But those who don't believe have created a sort of cottage industry of doubt, and that is what NASA wants to combat.
"I'd been concerned for some time that there was this story that's circulating about how we never landed on the Moon and we would get, periodically, calls from people about how to respond to that, especially from teachers," said Roger Launius, NASA's former chief historian.
Launius had long wanted to put together an educational aid for teachers and others who wanted to counter the doubters, and in September, NASA agreed to pay aeronautics engineer James Oberg $15,000 to write a monograph gathering up materials answering the skeptics, point by point.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has dealt with the controversy for decades, without much fanfare, but Launius said the questioning intensified in 2001 after the Fox television network aired "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?"
This program gave another voice to the doubters, whose arguments are scattered broadly over the Internet and have even spawned a backlash from scientists who view the doubters' contentions as simply ridiculous.
Those who doubt the Apollo moon landings maintained the United States lacked the technology to send humans to the Moon and was so desperate to appear to win the space race against the Soviet Union that it faked the moon mission on movie sets.
The doubters said the fake was done so poorly that there is ample evidence of fraud, including a picture of astronauts planting the American flag that allegedly shows the flag rippling in the wind. The skeptics contended there can be no breeze on the moon, so the picture must have been faked.
On its own Web page debunking the Apollo doubters -- http:/liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2001/news-moonlanding.asp -- NASA agreed that there is no Earth-type breeze on the moon, and there is no atmosphere either.
DID THE FLAG WAVE IN THE WIND?
But when the astronauts struggled to plant the U.S. flag in the lunar surface, they twisted it around a bit before it stuck, and that naturally created ripples in the flag.
The ripples would have dissipated within seconds on Earth, where the atmosphere would have stopped them. But on the Moon, the rippling went unchecked, making it look as if it were being carried by the wind.
There are other sites, including www.badastronomy.com, that take aim at the substance of the doubters' claims. The site's creator, astronomer Phil Plait, was blunt in his condemnation of the doubters, whom he calls conspiracy theorists.
"The craziness involves people who think that the NASA Apollo Moon missions were faked," Plait said on the site. "There are lots of rumors spreading around about this, and rest assured they are all completely false. The claims made by these conspiracy theorists are actually all wrong, sometimes laughably so."
The controversy recently emerged from cyberspace in the person of Bart Sibrel, who has made a film questioning the Apollo Moon missions and who confronted astronaut Buzz Aldrin at a Beverly Hills hotel on Sept. 9 and demanded that Aldrin swear on a Bible that he had in fact walked on the moon.
The 72-year-old Aldrin, the second man ever to touch the lunar surface, punched the 37-year-old Sibrel in the face. Sibrel asked that assault charges be filed, but Los Angeles County prosecutors declined. A videotape of the incident showed Sibrel following Aldrin on the street with a Bible and calling him a "thief, liar and coward," one prosecutor said.
Launius, who recently moved from NASA headquarters to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, said he has no illusions about whether the upcoming monograph, which he describes as a short book, will change every doubter's mind.
"We know that there are groups of people out there, individuals out there, that you're never going to convince of something like this," Launius said. "That's not the audience.
"The audience are those who are basically coming to NASA, looking for information, and obviously they'll make up their own minds, but we'll try to put the best possible information in their hands," Launius said.
Society members: I have just sent you information in a packet as to the Debate we are having on Nov. 11, 2002 at The University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Michael Shermer and Dr. R. Douglas Geivett will be debating this contraversial issue at 7:30 pm in the Bluebonnet Ballroom, located in the University Center, 301 W 1st in Arlington. The event is sponsored by EX.C.E.L. Campus Activities and the Liberal Arts Constituency Council. Parking is available around the building and tickets will be sold at the door and are on sale now in the Department of Student Activities or the Mav Express Office, both located in this building. Please call us at 817-272-2963 for more information. We hope you all can come to this event. Susan English Associate Director Student Activities
Review of In Defense of Miracles: A Comprehensive Case for God's Action in History (Douglas Geivett and Gary Habermas, eds., InterVarsity Press, 1997)
(1999)
Richard Carrier
Going Too Far
Douglas Geivett's basic conclusion that it is possible to use miracles as evidence for the existence of God is formally correct (as is his reversed version of the argument, which I address in my conclusion below). I have acknowledged and expanded on this in my review of Corduan and Purtill. But it simply does not work when given the actual evidence that we have. Geivett tries to defeat this problem with an unusual rhetorical tactic: constant repetition of ridiculous exaggerations. Since I will be addressing the actual evidence in my reviews of Newman and of Craig and Habermas, and have already covered the relevant historiographical issues in my review of Beckwith, and since I already agree with Geivett that the argument from miracles is at least logically sound, I will use this space here to exhibit his strange penchant for hyperbole. For there is no better sign of a man's desperate situation than a resort to a blatant overstating of his own case.
The Argument from Miracles
First, I will describe where Geivett is basically correct. Given that an event is accepted as having no explanation in natural causes, he describes the logical dilemma that arises: either there is no cause at all, or the cause is nonnatural (i.e. "supernatural"). The problem of defining "natural" is something I address in my review of Nash, but the dilemma here is linguistically correct, whatever the definition of "natural" may be. Of course, if it means what most scientists actually use the term to mean (i.e. anything that can be observed is a part of this universe and hence "natural"), then the dilemma collapses into a single option (the absence of any cause). But what Geivett has in mind is what would be better stated as follows: Given that an event is accepted as having no unintentional cause, either there is no cause at all, or the cause is intentional. This would divide all events that "merely" follow the laws of physics from all events which proceed from an intentional agent, namely humans and, in his argument, God.
By Susanna Loof
The Associated Press
Published October 29, 2002
KLAGENFURT, Austria -- There's no abracadabra or broom-flying at Andreas Starchel's School of Witchcraft.
Instead, there's astronomy, botany, anatomy and other scientific subjects, along with classes in oracles, tarot cards, horoscopes, dowsing and magic. Today's witchcraft, the teachers say, is just mainstream science applied in a different way.
"A witch is someone who looks holistically on life, who does life-counseling things. A witch serves to help humans," said Sonja Kulmitzer, 28, who runs the school with Starchel.
Their witches-in-training are far removed from the spell-casters of Harry Potter and Snow White, or the ghoulish decorations for sale in shops ahead of Halloween, now a popular holiday in Austria.
by Kevin Christopher, CSICOP PR Director
Contact: mail to: [email protected]
October has been an excellent month for CSICOP PR.
Of course, you've probably already heard about "Critical Eye," the news series on the Discovery Science Channel which debuted on Monday Oct 28 at 8pm. See http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00377.html for more information on upcoming air dates.
We have several print and radio appearances to mention, many of them dealing with Halloween, most are listed below.
Joe Nickell will be making some notable radio and TV appearances on Halloween:
The Ricki Lake Show. Visit the Ricki Lake Show site at http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/ricki/index.htm to find the right station and time for your area.
ABC Prime Time. Joe discusses spirit communications and the Amityville Horror. (See http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/Primetime/.) Airs Halloween night, 10pm Eastern US.
The Mike Reagan Show. 9:00 pm Eastern US (See http://www.reagan.com/).
Other scheduled CSICOP Halloween radio interviews:
KRCS Rapid City, SD 9:00 CT, 10:00 EST
Benjamin Radford
KWHL Anchorage, AK 7:05 Arctic, 11:05 EST
"Family Values Morning Show"
Benjamin Radford
WXNT Indianapolis, IN 9:10 am EST
"The Morning Line"
Joe Nickell
SUMMARY OF OTHER APPEARANCES for
CSICOP In the News October 2002
PRINT:
October 2002
Coloradan, University of Colorado
"Frazier fights pseudoscience"
by Jason Smith
Skeptical Inquirer editor Kendrick Frazier is the subject of a feature story in his alma mater college magazine. Smith reports on his work for SI and CSICOP and the mission to combat pseudoscience and misinformation.
October 7, 2002
The Morning Call, Allentown, PA
"Ancient practice offers spiritual, psychological benefits"
by Joanna Poncavage
ARCHIVED
Poncavage discusses the revival of walking labyrinth mazes for contemplation, meditation, and prayer. Skeptical Inquirer managing editor, Benjamin Radford quoted: he notes that labyrinth walks may be relaxing and help meditation, but there's nothing mystical or supernatural at work.
October 12, 2002
wired.com, San Francisco, CA
"Nasdaq Down, Psychic Readings Up"
by Ned Randolph
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54997,00.html
Randolph discusses the new disturbing increased trend of using tarot readers and mediums in the wake of new uncertainties in lives. Quotes CSICOP PR Director, Kevin Christopher.
October 13, 2002
Sunday Mail
Queensland, Australia
"Can this man talk to the dead?"
by Damon Johnston
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5267866%255E5422,00.html
Johnston reports on John Edward's lucrative career based on people's personal loss. Quotes remarks from CFI-West Executive Director James Underdown.
October 13, 2002
News & Observer
Raleigh-Durham, NC
"Ghost busters"
By TRISH WILSON, Staff Writer
http://www.newsobserver.com/features/story/1812258p-1810917c.html
Wilson visits an allegedly haunted farmhouse in Chatham County, NC, and reports on the alleged ghostly activity observed by the owners. Quotes CSICOP fellow Robert Baker, who says "After 50 years of investigations, I haven't found anything I wouldn't attribute to natural causation."
October 13, 2002
The Observer/Guardian
London, UK
"Mediums of the masses"
by Lawrence Donegan
http://www.observer.co.uk/screen/story/0,6903,810654,00.html
Donegan looks at Miss Cleo, the Psychic Network, the rise of TV mediums, and America's gullible fascination with all things psychic. Quotes Kevin Christopher.
October 14, 2002
Toronto Star
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
by Jay Ingram
Article by purchase only at
http://www.thestar.com/static/archives/search.html
Ingram notes the arguments for a more rational approach the the terrorist threat in the article by Clark Chapman and Alan Harris for the Sep/Oct 2002 issue of Skeptical Inquirer.
October 14, 2002
CNNMoney
New York, NY
"Hosts little more than hoaxers?"
Reprint, London Observer
http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=33609017&ID=cnniw &scategory=Entertainment&
October 15, 2002
Florida Today
Melbourne, FL
"Shroud of Turin advocate makes his case Friday in Melbourne"
by Billy Cox
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/peoplestoryA32568A.htm
Cox examines the claims of the Turin Shroud's authenticity in anticipation of a talk by Shroudie John Iannone at a local church, taking note of the various criticisms of skeptics. Cites and quotes articles by Joe Nickell (CSICOP Sr. Research Fellow) and Steven Schafersman (Rice Univerity, CSICOP Sci Consultant); quotes remarks by Schafersman and CSICOP PR Director Kevin Christopher.
October 17, 2002
Associated Press
Savannah, GA
"Ghost Hunters Seek Paranormal Proof in Savannah"
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=976364&nav=0RYv8SlG
AP writer follows Andrew Nichols, ghost hunter from the American Institute of Parapsychology (AIP) to an allegedly haunted Georgia brewery built on the location of an 1820 hotel. Quotes Robert Baker on the pseudoscientific use of thermometers, EM meters and other gadgets to detect ghosts.
October 20, 2002
St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg, FL
"Phantom or phenomenon?"
by DAVID BALLINGRUD
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/10/20/Worldandnation/Phantom_or_phenomenon.shtml
Ballingrud comes up to Buffalo to interview Paul Kurtz and Joe Nickell about the work being done at CSICOP. Reports on what transpired when he accompanied Joe Nickell on an investigation of alleged haunting at Old Fort Niagara, an old 18th century fortress guarding the Niagara River that divides New York's border with Canada. Paul Kurtz also interviewed.
October 25, 2002
Sun-News
Myrtle Beach, FL
"In search of ghosts"
by Kent Kimes
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/4368115.htm
Kimes offers a (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek guide for would-be ghost hunters. Quotes Joe Nickell on the abject lack of evidence for such entities, but suggests that readers dispense with serious things like reason and evidence to savor the full scariness and spookiness of Halloween.
October 28, 2002
Tech Central Station
"The Limits of Rationality"
by Iain Murray
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?PID=1051-350&CID=1 051-102802B
"For all those infuriated by scientific scams, junk science and pseudoscience," writes Murray, " Skeptical Inquirer is a godsend. The magazine of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) takes a rational look at some of the sillier ideas humanity wraps in pseudo-intellectual clothing. UFOs, mysterious beast, psychics and miracles are their stock-in-trade, all investigated with close attention to detail and, often, a sense of humor. Occasionally, however, the magazine allows strict rationality to drive out other important considerations." You're too kind!
October 29, 2002
Press-Enterprise
Bloomsberg, PA
"Skeptic debunks reports"
by Peter Kendron
Kendron reports on the unexplained death of a Northumberland, PA, man that UFOlogists are attributing to alien abduction. Joe Nickell debunks.
NOTE: Interesting follow-up in the October 30, 2002 Press-Enterprise: county coroner finds that the death was caused by a cocaine overdose. Looks the nation's War on Drugs will have be taken to Mars...
October 31, 2002
Hartford-Courant
Hartford, CT
"Americans Haunted By Belief In The Paranormal"
By JOHN JURGENSEN
http://www.ctnow.com/features/lifestyle/hc-para.artoct31.story
Jurgensen interviews Joe Nickell and Paul Kurtz about America's fascination with all things paranormal.
October 31, 2002
Sacramento Bee
Sacramento, CA
"Ghosts making contact via computer? Stories abound"
By David Hoye
http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/5011823p-6019855c.html
Hoye examines the claim that you can contact the spirit world through electronic hardware. Quotes Joe Nickell and Kevin Christopher on the skeptical view.
October 31, 2002
Savannah Morning News
Savannah, GA
"Savannah's Unseen Inhabitants"
by Jennifer Marino
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/103102/LOCghosts.shtml
Marino reports on Savannah new alleged status as the most haunted city in America, a certification bestowed by the American Institute of Parapsychology. Marino quotes Joe Nickell at length on the whole foolishness of the AIP and its ghost hunting shtick.
October 31, 2002
Commercial-Appeal
Memphis, TN
"A business contact to the spirit world"
by Linda Moore
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/business/article/0,1426,MCA_440_1514139,00.html
Moore looks into the activities of a local medium's business. Quotes Kevin Christopher. Not very skeptical and Moore (or her editor) worked hard to undermine Christopher's skeptical remarks.
RADIO:
October 2, 2002 WKVL Knoxville, TN 8:30 am EST
"Walker Johnson"
Joe Nickell
October 14, 2002 WLRQ Lite Rock Melbourne, FL 7:45 am EST
"Dave and Mindy in the Morning"
Kevin Christopher
October 29, 2002 WPYX Albany, NY 9:10 am EST
"Wakin' Up with the Wolf"
Joe Nickell
October 30, 2002 WSSS Charlotte, NC 9:10 am EST
"Morning Show with Sander Walker"
Kevin Christopher
2) NASA to Respond to Moon Landing Hoax Story
NASA hires writer to debunk Apollo theory
By Ted Streuli, The Daily News Published October 31, 2002
http://www.galvestondailynews.com/report.lasso?wcd=5535
DICKINSON -- Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, was harassed in Los Angeles last month by a man who claims NASA faked the six manned lunar landings.
Videographer Bart Sibrel, 37, was four years old when Aldrin walked on the moon; his own tape of the incident showed him poking Aldrin with a Bible, demanding that the 72-year-old swear he really walked on the moon. It also showed Sibrel calling Aldrin a thief, liar and coward. Aldrin punched him in the face.
The Sept. 9 incident mimicked a broader topic: Sibrel and others had their theories boosted to a new level of public awareness when the Fox television network aired its Apollo speculations nationwide two years ago. Now NASA, with the help of a local author, journalist and Mission Control veteran, is planning to land a punch of its own.
Dickinson resident James Oberg, a 22-year Mission Control veteran, is at work on a 30,000-word monograph to be published next fall. The monograph will not merely try to debunk the theories of those who claim NASA faked the six manned lunar landings, it will also examine how such theories take hold, gain popularity and spread.
See website above for continuation of this story.
CSICOP is pleased to announce a new monthly column available only on the CSICOP website: www.csicop.org. Doubt and About will focus on current events from the worlds of popular culture, news and entertainment. New CSICOP Columnist Chris Mooney premieres with a look at Harry Potter and the new film to be released November 15th.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Skeptics
Why doubters should celebrate J.K. Rowling's tales of magic and wizardry.
Chris Mooney
A warning to readers: this essay reveals parts of the plot of the upcoming November 15 film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. However, if you see a black space here: spoiler! then read on, because the spoiler will be hidden, and can be revealed by use of your magic wand!) When it comes to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, it's probably fair to say that card-carrying skeptics, not all but certainly many of them, have tended to view the books with…well, skepticism. My good friend Matt Nisbet's "Generation sXeptic" column on this website, for instance, once mentioned the Harry Potter "fantasy yarns" in the same breath as the New Age self-help manual Who Moved My Cheese? The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal's Young Skeptics Program, meanwhile, emphasizes that children should learn to distinguish between "the people, places and things" within the imaginary world of Rowling's books and "those that can be found within reality." The underlying concern here seems to be that there's something amiss with our culture if even our most popular and dominant fictional narratives so heavily emphasize the supernatural. See the whole column at: http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/harrypotter/
Doubt and About
Doubt and About is a new monthly column written by Chris Mooney, a former CSICOP public relations director and currently a freelance journalist living in Washington, D.C. Chris grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated from Yale University with a degree in English in 1999. After working for CSICOP out of college and contributing an op-ed to USA Today about Halloween and Harry Houdini, he launched a freelance writing career with a cover story about the meaning of the Second Amendment for Lingua Franca magazine.
Chris then won a writing fellowship at The American Prospect magazine, and was later hired to work there as a staff writer and as online editor. Now he's pursuing a freelance journalism career and has contributed to such publications as The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Slate, Salon, The American Scholar, and The Washington Monthly.
Some of the highlights of Chris's skeptic-oriented journalism include an August 2002 column in the Washington Post Outlook section, an American Prospect article on the cloning debate, a Washington Monthly expose/essay on the National Institutes of Health's lavish federal funding of alternative medicine, and an article for Slate about a recent PBS series on Charles Darwin and evolution. To see more of Chris's articles you can visit his website here.
LINKS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A1136-2002Aug9¬Found=true
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/13/mooney-c.html
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0204.mooney.html
http://slate.msn.com/?id=115965
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_702872.html?menu=news.quirkies
The parents of three Peruvian teenagers say their children have been possessed by a Japanese TV cartoon show.
Christian Vilchez, who's 16, and 19-year-olds Jorge Vela and Edy Frank Castillo are fans of Dragon Ball Z and never miss an episode.
But, according to their parents, since watching it last week they have gone mute, had convulsions and lost their memories.
One of the teenager's fathers told Terra Noticias Populares: "It is all Dragon Ball Z's fault. My son is numb. I beg the authorities and the church to support me."
Doctors on the town of Tarapoto have examined Edy Frank Castillo and have not yet come up with an explanation for his condition. They continue to study the cases.
One of the cartoon's characters is Babidi, a mind altering wizard who uses his powers to "bring out the evil in people's hearts and control them".
For accurate instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe to the listserv, follow this link: http://www.mediaresource.org/instruct.htm
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IN THE NEWS
Today's Headlines � November 5, 2002
GOVERNMENT LABS URGE MORE WORK ON NONLETHAL WEAPONS, CHEMICALS
from The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (November 4, 2002 4:16 p.m. EST) - Development of nonlethal weapons such as bad smelling chemicals to control crowds or psychological methods to calm them, energy beams to stop vehicles and underwater barrier systems should be given a high priority by the Navy and Marine Corps, the National Research Council recommended Monday.
"In particular, nonlethal weapons are an additional way to provide greater security for military bases and protect our security," said Miriam E. John of Sandia National Laboratories, chair of the committee that prepared the report.
The recommendation comes just over a week after about 120 captives died when Russian forces pumped incapacitating gas into a theater where about 40 Chechen separatists had taken more than 750 people hostage. Russian officials said the gas was not supposed to cause deaths.
The goal of nonlethal weapons is to incapacitate people or equipment while minimizing unintended fatalities and damage, the Research Council said.
ALASKA QUAKE'S RIPPLE EFFECT
The powerful earthquake that rattled Alaska's remote interior Sunday
triggered temblors in California and Montana and rippled lake waters as far
away as Texas and Louisiana, scientists reported Monday.
The 7.9-magnitude quake centered 75 miles south of Fairbanks ranked ninth
among the biggest quakes in U.S. history. By comparison, the San Francisco
earthquake of 1906, which destroyed much of the city, is estimated at 7.7
in magnitude.
The epicenter of the Alaska quake was so remote, though, that only one
community, the small town of Tok, saw damage, and it was limited to falling
grocery shelves. Only one minor injury was reported -- a woman who broke
her arm in a fall when she fled from her home.
Engineers inspected the trans-Alaska oil pipeline Monday to determine the
extent of the damage. The quake ruptured support beams beneath sections of
the pipeline, and officials shut it down as a precaution. But oil analysts
had little concern that the shutdown would dramatically affect supplies or
prices.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/05/MN241315.DTL
NASA'S GALILEO TO FLY PAST JUPITER MOON IN END TO SCIENCE MISSION
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- NASA's workhorse spacecraft Galileo is making one final
flyby of Jupiter's moon Amalthea in what is expected to mark the end of the
science-gathering portion of its 13-year mission.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said Galileo was on
course to fly within 99 miles of Amalthea, a brilliant red, egg-shaped
moon, at 10:19 p.m. PST Monday. About an hour later it was to make its
closest-ever approach to Jupiter, coming within 44,500 miles of the tops of
the brilliant clouds that shroud the planet.
But flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wouldn't know
until sometime Tuesday how well Galileo fared.
Galileo was to use instruments to measure Amalthea's gravitational tug,
which should allow scientists to calculate the moon's mass and density,
providing important clues about its composition.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/11/05/state0314EST0004.DTL
THE EVE OF A NEW ERA IN PHYSICS
Upton -- After two years of operation, the huge Relativistic Heavy Ion
Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory is providing tantalizing hints
that re-creation of the hot, dense form of matter that existed in the first
micro-seconds after the universe's birth is at hand.
Cautious physicists are not ready to make any definitive claims. But some
involved with the collider experiments say their goal - creation of a state
of matter called the quark-gluon plasma - already may have been achieved,
although it will take additional experiments to prove it.
"We're not ready to raise the flag that this is it, this is the quark-gluon
plasma," said Tim Hallman, spokesman for the STAR detector group, one of
four collaborations of scientists taking data at the collider. Hallman
said, however, there is a lot of excitement among the researchers. They
have seen some phenomena that theorists had predicted would be signs of the
primordial quark-gluon soup.
"All the signs point in that direction, but we are being very cautious,"
said William Zajc, a Columbia University physicist and spokesman for the
PHENIX detector group. "We are trying to assemble the case very carefully."
NEW THEORY ON DINOSAURS: MULTIPLE METEORITES DID THEM IN
For more than a decade, most scientists have believed that the extinction
of the dinosaurs was caused by a single event: the crash of an immense body
from outer space, its explosive force like a hundred million hydrogen
bombs, igniting firestorms and shrouding the earth in a dense cloud of dust
that blocked sunlight and sent worldwide temperatures plummeting.
The theory gained wide acceptance in 1991, after the discovery of a crater
buried under the tip of the Yucat�n Peninsula. The giant gash stretched 110
miles from rim to rim, and its age was found to be 65 million years, the
same time as the death of the dinosaurs.
Now, however, scientists working in Ukraine have discovered that a well-
known but smaller crater, some 15 miles wide, had been inaccurately dated
and is actually 65 million years old, making the blast that created it a
likely contributor to the end of the dinosaurs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/05/science/life/05CRAT.html
THE IMPORTANCE OF GRANDMA
Grandma, what a big and fickle metaphor you can be! For children, the name
translates as "the magnificent one with presents in her suitcase who thinks
I'm a genius if I put my shoes on the right feet, and who stuffs me with
cookies the moment my parents' backs are turned."
In news reports, to call a woman "grandmotherly" is shorthand for "kindly,
frail, harmless, keeper of the family antimacassars, and operationally past
tense."
For anthropologists and ethnographers of yore, grandmothers were crones, an
impediment to "real" research. The renowned ethnographer Charles William
Merton Hart, who in the 1920's studied the Tiwi hunter-gatherers of
Australia, described the elder females there as "a terrible nuisance"
and "physically quite revolting" and in whose company he was distressed to
find himself on occasion, yet whose activities did not merit recording or
analyzing with anything like the attention he paid the men, the young
women, even the children.
But for a growing number of evolutionary biologists and cultural
anthropologists, grandmothers represent a key to understanding human
prehistory, and the particulars of why we are as we are � slow to grow up
and start breeding but remarkably fruitful once we get there, empathetic
and generous as animals go, and family-focused to a degree hardly seen
elsewhere in the primate order.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/05/health/aging/05GRAN.html
X DOESN'T MARK THE SPOT
When the e-mail came, I had been expecting it for weeks.
The e-mail's author said her brother had heard that a rogue planet
called ''Planet X'' was going to pass by the Earth in May of 2003. When it
did, it would cause massive damage: floods, volcanoes, death on a global
scale. Her brother was so worried that he was planning on putting his house
in coastal Maine up for sale. He didn't want to be anywhere near the ocean
come May, when the Earth's axis shifted due to the gravity of Planet X.
Sighing, I composed a reply. There was nothing to fear, I wrote. Planet X
is just another in a long line of mythical astronomical death sentences
that somehow always fail to materialize. The month of May will come and go
next year, I wrote, just as it always has, and Planet X will be relegated
to the junk pile along with countless other breathlessly prophesized
deadlines.
That was the first Planet X e-mail I received, but I've answered dozens
more since. It's part of my job. I'm an astronomer.
Years ago I was training as a scientist, well on my way to becoming a rank-
and-file researcher with a middling-to-fair career. But over time I
realized that a lot of people had some pretty basic misconceptions about
astronomy. I started to write about them, putting them up on my Web site.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/309/science/X_doesn_t_mark_the_spot+.shtml
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For feedback on In the News,
November 10th-13th
Hillsdale, Michigan
Is design detectable? Is there design in nature?
Should scientists be allowed to even ask these
questions? At this conference, ID proponents
Michael Behe, William Dembski & Jonathan Wells
will defend the right to investigate the question of
intelligent design. Darwinists Niles Eldredge,
Michael Ruse, Mano Singham & Larry Arnhart
will argue to the contrary.
Presented by Hillsdale's Center for Constructive
Alternatives. E-Mail or call 517-607-2507 to
register.
The Texas Freedom Network (http://www.tfn.org), based
in Austin, is circulating an "Action Alert" about Texas's current
adoption of schoolbooks in history and social studies. I haven't
verified any of TFN's statements. Here are some excerpts from
the "Action Alert."
Bill Bennetta
[EXCERPTS]
Texas textbook publishers have made public the changes they
agreed to make to Social Studies texts in response to comments
during this year's public hearing process.
Changes made at the request of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum
and Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy members, for example,
will delete passages that describe Islam positively, eliminate
scientific dates so as not to conflict with Biblical timelines, delete
sections on other cultures, and eliminate critical thinking exercises
that discuss social issues. . . .
****************************************************
PROMOTE CHRISTIANITY:
* Publisher agreed to "eliminate the references to fossil fuels
being formed millions of years ago" so as not to conflict with
Biblical timelines. (Harcourt response to Margie Raborn, Texas
Citizens for a Sound Economy, 8/23/02)
* Publisher agreed to ADD "information about the resurrection
of Jesus...[as well as] Christianity's appeal." (Prentice Hall
response to Becky Armstrong, Eagle Forum, 8/7/02)
* Publisher agreed to ADD text reading "Locke believed that
God created people who all, equally, had certain rights. To
deny people these rights would be going against God....Thomas
Jefferson added these ideas to the Declaration of Independence."
(Macmillan/McGraw-Hill response to Carl Schlaepfer, 9/11/02)
. . . .
CENSOR SCIENCE:
* Publisher agreed to DELETE sentence reading "Acid rain that
is produced in the United States and carried north by wind is a
major environmental problem for Canada." because critic
objected to the negative impact of acid rain being stated as a
fact, and to the implication that America was responsible.
(Glencoe/McGraw-Hill response to Robert Raborn, Texas
Citizens for a Sound Economy, 8/23/02)
* Publisher agreed to CHANGE sentence from "Acid rain
damages trees and harms rivers and lakes" to instead read
"Many scientists believe that acid rain harms trees, rivers and
lakes." (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill response to Robert Raborn,
Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, 8/23/02) . . . .
For accurate instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe to the
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If you experience any problems with the URLs (page not found, page
expired,
etc.), we suggest you proceed to the home page of "Science In the News"
http://www.mediaresource.org/news.htm which mirrors the daily e-mail
update.
IN THE NEWS
Today's Headlines � November 4, 2002
CLIMATE TALKS SHIFT FOCUS TO HOW TO DEAL WITH CHANGES
The global climate is changing in big ways, probably because of human
actions, and it is time to focus on adapting to the impacts instead of
just
fighting to limit the warming. That, in a nutshell, was the idea that
dominated the latest round of international climate talks, which ended
on
Friday in New Delhi.
While many scientists have long held this view, it was a striking
departure
for the policy makers at the talks � the industry lobbyists,
environmental
activists and government officials. For more than a decade, their single
focus had been the fight over whether to cut smokestack and tailpipe
emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
Many environmentalists had long avoided discussing adaptation for fear
it
would smack of defeatism.
Experts espousing the views of industry were thrilled with the shift in
New
Delhi.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/03/science/03CLIM.html
FBI SECRETLY TRYING TO RE-CREATE ANTHRAX FROM MAIL ATTACKS
FBI investigators and federal scientists have been secretly working for
months to replicate the type of anthrax used in last year's deadly mail
attacks, as part of a previously undisclosed strategy designed to
determine
precisely how the spores were manufactured, officials said yesterday.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who revealed the experiments in
remarks
to reporters here, said that using such "reverse engineering" could help
investigators narrow the list of possible suspects.
"We're replicating the way or ways it might be manufactured, but it is
not
an easy task," Mueller said. "We are going into new territory in some
areas."
The ambitious strategy underscores the continued lack of information
available to FBI investigators, who have not succeeded in identifying a
culprit more than a year after the first letters containing deadly
anthrax
spores were mailed. The bacteria, accompanied by threatening notes,
killed
five people and infected 13 others in the fall of 2001. The incidents
also
disrupted the mail system and highlighted its vulnerability.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54295-2002Nov1.html
HEALTH DEPARTMENTS AIM TO SPOT BIOTERROR
NEW YORK -- Public health officials have developed an odd interest
lately
in the mundane and arcane.
Epidemiologists are tracking orange juice sales at the local Safeway and
poring over school attendance data. They're mapping every case of the
sniffles they can find and watching surveillance videos to count how
many
times people sneeze.
The idea is that a sudden spike in everyday aches, pains, sniffles and
coughs could signal the earliest stages of a health commissioner's worst
nightmare -- a massive biological attack. So in the last few years, an
increasing number of health departments have started collecting
electronic
data from hospital emergency rooms, pharmacies and other sources in an
effort to gauge the overall level of illness in the population.
Epidemiologists call their new strategy syndromic surveillance, because
it
looks for increases in clusters of symptoms -- "syndromes" in medical
jargon -- rather than particular disease diagnoses. In September, public
health officials from around the country met at the New York Academy of
Medicine to explore the potential of using syndromic surveillance as
part
of a bioterror alarm system. The conference was organized by the New
York
City health department with help from the Centers for Disease Control
and
funding from the Sloan Foundation.
NEW VA FUNDS FOR STUDY OF WAR ILLNESS WELCOMED
A plan by the Department of Veterans Affairs to sharply increase funding
for research into Gulf War illnesses marks a turning point in how the
government perceives the problem, the leader of a veterans group says.
"We've had to fight tooth and nail to convince people that Gulf War
illness
was more than stress," said Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War
Resource Center, an umbrella group of 60 veterans organizations.
The department announced last week it would make up to $20 million
available for research in 2004. That is more than double the amount
spent
by the department in any previous year, it said. By comparison, the VA
spent $8.4 million in 2001 and $3.7 million in 2002. .
VA spokesman Jim Benson said he doesn't view the funding as a change of
direction noting that more than 200 research projects have been funded
by
the VA and other agencies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64534-2002Nov3.html
FROM BOYHOOD CURIOSITY TO SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Tyrone Hayes may not fit the stereotype of the big-time scientist. But
he
figures it doesn't hurt that he sometimes stands out in a crowd of his
peers.
"I give a talk at a meeting, and everybody remembers the black guy in
the
braids," he said. "They may not remember what I said, but they tend to
remember me."
Now, it's not his braids but his work that is starting to draw most of
the
attention.
Hayes, 35, an African American biology professor at UC Berkeley, has
produced a series of high-profile studies challenging the ecological
safety
of atrazine, the most widely used pesticide in the United States.
His latest research suggests that the weed-killer may be
short-circuiting
the reproductive machinery of amphibians exposed to farm chemicals in
spring runoff. A summary of the latest findings appears in the Oct. 31
issue of the journal Nature
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/04/MN46892.DTL
SOCIAL FACTORS MAY DEEPEN CHRONIC PAIN
Orlando, Fla. -- Brain researchers revealed some surprising new clues
about
the nature of chronic pain Sunday, suggesting that subtle changes in
nerve
endings, early life experiences and social factors -- even the mere
presence of an overly solicitous spouse -- can make the problem worse.
Chronic inflammation, migraines and other pain syndromes afflict as many
as
97 million people in America, making chronic pain by far the most
widespread disorder of the brain and nervous system.
Some of the most provocative findings from the frontiers of pain
research
kicked off the annual meeting of the 31,000-member Society for
Neuroscience, the world's largest gathering of scientists who study the
brain and nervous system.
Pain experts underscored the difficulty of unraveling syndromes that are
driven partly by the physical systems that transmit sensations and
partly
by emotions that color how the brain interprets pain signals.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/04/MN30599.DTL
ANTENNA SYSTEM IS SAID TO EXPAND WIRELESS INTERNET USE
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 � A start-up company plans to announce new antenna
technology on Monday that it says can expand the limits of a popular
wireless Internet format, providing access to hundreds or even thousands
of
portable computer users at distances of more than 2,000 feet within
buildings and about four miles outdoors.
The antenna uses the 802.11 technical standard, also known as Wi-Fi,
which
is currently limited to providing wireless Internet access to several
dozen
users within a few hundred feet of the transmitter. Wi-Fi is
increasingly
common in offices, airports, places like Starbucks shops and even in a
growing number of households.
Executives for the start-up company, Vivato, based here, said they
expected
their technology to be especially suited to office buildings because it
would enable so many more people to use a single Wi-Fi Internet
connection
simultaneously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/04/technology/04WIRE.html
HANDWRITING SAMPLE A TREASURE TROVE FOR SCRIPT SLEUTHS, BUT SKEPTICS
SCOFF
The hand-printed letter tacked to a tree near the Ashland, Va., sniper
shooting site is known for its chilling postscript -- "Your children are
not safe anywhere at any time." But among those who study handwriting,
it
has had even more interesting things to say.
The world of graphology has been buzzing since last week, when the
letter
was distributed over the Internet after the arrests of two suspects in
the
string of shootings in the Washington area. Handwriting chat groups have
been busy as people swap theories about the writer's personality. For
those
who practice handwriting analysis, this is bigger than big.
"We're always excited to see handwriting," said Ted Widmer, a New Mexico
graphologist and author of two books on the subject. "I love to see this
guy's handwriting to see where he is at."
...To skeptics, the idea that personality can be predicted through
handwriting is ludicrous. Barry Beyerstein, a biological psychologist at
Simon Fraser University in Canada who co-edited a book critical of
graphology, called it "scientific bunk, no better than palm-reading or
tea-
leaf reading."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54971-2002Nov1.html
Please follow these links for more information about Sigma Xi, The
Scientific Research Society:
Sigma Xi Homepage
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For feedback on In the News,
Petroleum Geology
Jim Cooke is a professional Geologist, a seismologist retired from
Mobile
Oil, with more than twenty years experience. He has led hikes into Grand
Canyon for the Institute of Creation Research. Twice he has conducted
amazingly informative tours for MIOS through the Arbuckle Mountains of
Oklahoma, presenting powerful evidence for a universal flood.
The training of most seismologists is dominated by the religion of
naturalism, consequently they interpret geological formations in terms
of
slow gradual development over millions of years. It doesn’t work very
well
but it's the best they can do when they refuse to consider the
alternative.
Mr. Cooke is thoroughly familiar with the evidence and will demonstrate
that
rapid catastrophism, consistent with a universal flood, explains the
evidence
simply and directly without the tottering towers of assumptions so
common to
this field.
Bucky Auditorium
As the November elections approach, Utah politics are unique. The full
force of attack politics in Utah is directed at an unopposed candidate
who
wants to introduce a bill to stop practices such as "holding therapy"
that
coercively restrain children.
Sources in Utah report that Attachment Therapists have given a PR firm a
lot of money to make their state safe for "holding therapy." Their
public
tactics have included so far:
* Intimidating Rep. Mike Thompson (R-Orem) whose anti-restraint bill
has
already been unanimously positioned by committee for the fast track
through
the Utah legislature early next year.
* Pressuring Rep. Thompson to reach a "compromise" with Attachment
Therapists (it's already a compromise).
* Threatening Rep. Thompson with bogus ethics charges, claiming he has
conspired with state officials to put the Cascade Center
out-of-business.
* Proposing to counter Rep. Thompson's efforts with a joke bill to be
introduced by Sen. Parley Hellewell (R-Orem) that would "get rid of bad
therapy and keep good therapy."
* Holding weekly "town meetings" at Utah high schools to "inform" the
public about how Rep. Thompson has persecuted Attachment Therapists.
* Pressuring client families into action to promote AT's unvalidated
and
dangerous practices. (In particular, Colorado's AT "parenting expert"
Nancy Thomas is at it again!) The Cascade Center has a new, slick
website
up with frequent calls to action and press releases:
The article from this week's Deseret News (below) shows that
Attachment
Therapists in Utah are getting personal and nasty. That shouldn't
surprise
those familiar with how they abuse children. They only have one method
to
deal with all problems -- abuse. If you have a moment, a letter to the
editor and/or a note of encouragement to Rep. Thompson would help a
great
deal.
Please send to:
To contact Rep. Mike Thompson:
**************
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,415016303,00.html
"Orem center stands by its practices: 2 lawmakers clash over the
controversial practice"
By Geoffrey Fattah
OREM - With a state senator standing by their side as an ally to protect
holding therapy, the owners of the Cascade Center for Family Growth
fired
back Monday at accusations that their form of child therapy is harmful
to
children.
At a news conference they called, therapists Larry VanBloem and Jennie
Gwilliam gave a brief look at what might become a heated political
battle
in next year's legislative session.
The Cascade Center for Family Growth was thrust into the spotlight after
a
Springville couple, charged with the water overdose death of their
adopted
4-year-old daughter, alleged they were acting upon advice given to them
by
a Cascade therapist. Shortly after, state licensing officials filed an
action to attempt to yank the therapy licenses of VanBloem and Gwilliam.
State investigators contend in their report that the type of
"compression
holding therapy" done at the center posses a danger physically and
emotionally.
In Monday's press conference, the two embattled therapists accused Rep.
Mike Thompson, R-Orem, of conspiring with state officials to put them
out
of business. Thompson has publicly come out against holding therapy as a
dangerous form of alternative therapy that should be banned among
licensed
therapists. To that end, Thompson pushed a bill last year that said just
that. Although the bill passed the House, it later died in Senate
committee.
Gwilliam said Thompson was quick to focus blame on Cascade shortly after
the the Springville girl's death. Gwilliam pointed out that ultimately
investigators found no criminal connection between the girl's death and
Cascade.
Sen. Parley Hellewell, R-Orem, called Thompson's statements and actions
against Cascade "unethical behavior."
"It's malicious and it's political," Hellewell said. Hellewell said he
has
seen children in his neighborhood "healed dramatically" by therapists at
Cascade.
Although they said they cannot prove it, VanBloem and Gwilliam both said
they believe Thompson somehow orchestrated an investigation by the state
division of professional licensing to put them out of business.
Hellewell said he plans to go to the Utah Attorney General's Office to
start an inquiry into the extent of Thompson's involvement in the
professional licensing investigation against Cascade.
Contacted the by the Deseret News Tuesday morning, Thompson denied all
allegations, calling them character assassination.
"This is how these people have operated the whole time. The personal
attacks and attempts to assassinate somebody else rather than sticking
with
the issues."
The issue, Thompson said, is the practice of a therapy that has been
condemned by national psychiatric groups as not effective and possibly
dangerous. Thompson himself calls holding therapy "child abuse." He has
vowed to push his bill banning holding therapy next year.
But Hellewell said he plans to sponsor a bill of his own that would "get
rid of bad therapy and keep good therapy."
The bill, which will be authored by VanBloem and Gwilliam, is seen as a
preemptive political strike at Thompson by legalizing an appropriate
form
of holding therapy. VanBloem said such techniques as screaming,
swearing,
slapping and covering with a blanket are dangerous to children and
should
be outlawed. VanBloem stressed that Cascade has never done those things.
"I have a big problem with our state being the first state in the nation
to
legalize what many consider child abuse," Thompson said. "The American
Psychiatric Association came out in June against holding therapy."
Thompson claims he has enough support in the Legislature, as well as
leaders in the local psychiatric community, behind his bill to get it
passed.
Hellewell appears ready for a fight. "I don't think the house will pass
it
again because I'm going to make sure they know the truth," he said.
In the meantime, VanBloem pointed out that there has been no proof that
any
of their clients have been directly hurt by Cascade.
"The results that we have achieved in the lives of many of these
children
have been remarkable," Gwilliam said.
Numerous parents have come to the defense of the center, attributing
dramatic positive changes in their children to Cascade therapy.
Both VanBloem and Gwilliam still face state action against their
license.
Both said their official reply to the state's action is due at the end
of
the week.
E-MAIL: [email protected]
[AT NEWS sends the latest news to activists and interested organizations
about the many abusive, violent practices inflicted on children by the
fringe psychotherapy known as Attachment Therapy, aka "holding therapy"
and
"therapeutic parenting." Attachment Therapists work with the most
vulunerable of children, e.g. minority children, children in foster
care,
and adoptees.]
Contact: Linda Rosa, RN
Scott Minnich
Dr. Minnich presented some interesting features in the flagella machine that he studies:
-2 gears: forward and reverse
-operates at both 6,000 and 17,000 rpm
-can reverse direction within 1/4 of a turn
-the rotary engine itself contains 30 structural parts
He pointed out that molecular geneticists BANK ON IC (irreducible complexity) in their day
to day work. In order to discover the purpose purpose of each protein in the molecular
machine, scientists indivdiually isolate the parts and mutate them beyond repair. In order
to rely on this, the scientist must invoke the property of IC.
Dr. Minnich also discussed the incredible effeciency of the flagella system. When being
built, the flagella is constructed as if it were in a factory, level by level, teir by teir, part by
part, in a chronological fashion. It was suggested by a member of the audience that this
adds a new for of complexity (a chronological development constringency) to this already
IC machine.
It is estimated that 10% of the cells energy is required to build and run the flagellum.
However, in building the system, the cell has a "check-point regulator" so that if at any
point the cell encounters a mutation, it shuts down the development of the flagella system.
This is highly efficient, and yet another added level of complexity.
Interestingly, Dr. Minnich pointed out that flagella development does not occurr above 37
degrees C. Actually, it is at this temperature that Type III Secretory organelles develop,
which use the same genes as the flagella. This is an example of two uses for the same
genes. Some would argue that this is an example of evolution taking one system, and
using it for another purpose. Interestingly, it is the flagella (more complex), according to
Minnich, that came first. The secretory system appears to be some form of degeneration.
The design theorist however, can marvel at the effeciency of using the same set of genes
for two different purposes.
Response to critics concerning peer-review
Michael Behe, Discovery Institute
Introduction
Much of the material shown posted as "responses to
critics" on this website was originally submitted to
several science journals for consideration for
publication. In every case it was turned down.
Below I have included the correspondence between the
journals and myself. Names of journals and individuals have
been omitted. The take-home lesson I have learned is that,
while some science journal editors are individually tolerant and
will entertain thoughts of publishing challenges to current
views, when a group (such as the editorial board) gets
together, orthodoxy prevails. Admittedly the conclusion is based on a small number of experiences,
yet years go by while the experiences accumulate. So far my experience with philosophy journals
has been quite different, and I have published a reply to specific criticisms in Philosophy of Science
(Behe, Michael J. (2000). Self-organization and irreducibly complex systems: A reply to Shanks and
Joplin Philosophy of Science 67, 155-162.)
A Brief Response
I initially emailed the editor of a journal in the field of evolution about the possibility of publishing a
full-length reply-to-critics paper. As seen below, he suggested a very much-shortened paper. The
shortened version essentially consisted of section II from the article "In Defense of the Irreducibility
of the Blood Clotting Cascade" on this website. I argued that Darwinian scenarios need to include
more than just a general invocation of gene duplication to be justified. The correspondence includes:
(1) an email from the editor to me; (2) my letter back to him; (3) his letter rejecting the manuscript;
(4) the criticisms of the reviewer; (5) a response letter from me.
A behe fan showed up at another BB (P.O.D.) and wanted to argue the "Darwin's Black Box" chapter 4. This
is the idea that the blood clotting cascade is IC, and so could not have evolved. This seems to me to mean
that IC systems can't evolve! So I wrote the following, and welcome critical response:
Lets look back to 1996. In an article on the molecular comparison of the modern genes
that produce a milk protein, casein, Gatesy et al concluded that whales and hippos
were related. Gatesy et al Evidence from milk casein genes that cetaceans are
close relatives of hippopotamid artiodactyls Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol
13, 954-963
http://www.molbiolevol.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/7/954?ijkey=3sZ4.YhxIB9Nc
There had been earlier molecular evolution studies that had made some similar
arguments based on different genes, and with different animals in the data group. But,
the paleontological data, actual fossils available at the time, didn't indicate that whales
were closely related to hippos, but instead were more closely related to a different group
of extinct animals. Even better, Gatesy in 1997 authored More DNA Support for a
Cetacea/Hippopotamidae Clade: The Blood-Clotting Protein Gene Gama-Fibrinogen
Molecular Biological Evolution 14(5):537-543 (1997).
http://mbe.library.arizona.edu/data/1997/1405/8gate.pdf
This really excited the good folks at the Institute for Creation Research. Frank Sherwin,
who is identified as a biologist at the ICR wrote Scientific Roadblocks to Whale
Evolution ICR IMPACT No. 304 October 1998
http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-304.htm
Sherwin cites Gatesy with great approval, partially quoting his 1997 abstract pointing to
the apparent conflict between the molecular evolution data, and the "stones-n-bones"
paleontology.
Below are links to articles on the paleontology of the early whale ancestors- the ones that
still had legs and feet and walked on them. Notice that these were reported in 2001. It
won't matter if you don't want to read them. The point is that two groups of workers
found fossils which strongly indicate that whales are artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates).
Almost like a whale
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010920/010920-11.html
This is the full article:
Thewissen et al Nature 413, 277 - 281 (2001) agree that the whales evolved from
artiodactyls, but stop short of joining then into the hippo group, arguing instead that the
cetaceans diverged from still earlier animals.
ScienceDaily News Release: New Fossils Suggest Whales And Hippos Are Close Kin
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/09/010920072245.htm
BBC News | SCI/TECH | When whales walked the land
The original article can be read if you register (free!) with Science Magazine published
by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Origin of Whales from
Early Artiodactyls: Hands and Feet of Eocene Protocetidae from Pakistan Gingerich
et al Science, Vol. 293, Issue 5538, 2239-2242, September 21, 2001
Now, Gingerich et al do think that the fossils they found not only join the whales
(cetaceans) with the even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), but converging with the DNA
studies of the evolution of Blood Clotting, they are most closely related to the
Hippos. It has only been a year, and as far as I know Thewissen isn't budging, but
personally I'm betting on Gingerich. Maybe because the "imposible" to understand
evolution of the "irreducibly complex" blood clotting cascade has predicted the
Cetacea/Hippopotamidae Clade for years.
The evolutionary behavior of blood clotting proteins was used to make a specific,
testable prediction. Behe claims that the blood clotting cascade didn't evolve, indeed that
it can't have evolved. Thus, in Behe's terms the evolution of blood clotting can't make
predictions.
The paleontological confirmation of the relationship of hippos and whales is also the
confirmation of the analysis demonstrating the evolution of blood clotting proteins
which had reached the same conclusion.
The "take home message" is that this is an irrefutable demonstration that blood clotting
evolved, and the genes for blood clotting evolved. Consequently the blood clotting
cascade is not 'irreducibly complex' in either Behe's 1996 formulation of in Bill
Dembski's recent re-formulation.
Now, the IDistas will either deny the existance of cetacean evolution, or the relevence of
paleontology to the evolution of biomolecules. And/Or they might might just charge on to
the next molecular system that is not well understood.
Here is the point: Behe claims the blood clotting cascade can not evolve, the whale/hippo data show that
the blood clotting cascade did evolve.
Weellll, I showed this to a few colleagues, two responded one a geneticist and one a biochemist. They both
independently told me (more or less) why hadn't I merely sent a copy of the following paper:
Evolution of enzyme cascades from embryonic development to blood coagulation Maxwell M. Krem and
Enrico Di Cera
The recent discovery of molecular markers of protease evolution suggests that enzyme cascades evolved
from an ancestral developmental/immunity cascade before the protostome/deuterostome split. Trends in
Biochemical Sciences, 2002, 27:2:67-74
Abstract
Recent delineation of the serine protease cascade controlling dorsal�ventral patterning during Drosophila
embryogenesis allows this cascade to be compared with those controlling clotting and complement in
vertebrates and invertebrates. The identification of discrete markers of serine protease evolution has
made it possible to reconstruct the probable chronology of enzyme evolution and to gain new insights into
functional linkages among the cascades. Here, it is proposed that a single ancestral
developmental/immunity cascade gave rise to the protostome and deuterostome developmental, clotting
and complement cascades. Extensive similarities suggest that these cascades were built by adding
enzymes from the bottom of the cascade up and from similar macromolecular building blocks.
I had to admit that I hadn't read it even though it had been recommended to me months ago. OH WELL. I
have read it now, and I doubt that Behe will be using either the clotting cascade, or the adaptive immunity
(complement) cascade. Krem and Di Cera show very clearly that the all of the serine proteace cascades
derived from the same precursers, and that "step by step" modifications can account for the results. I can't
post the whole article, but I will email the PDF version to you if you send me your email address by PM. Or,
you can email the corresponding author Dr. Di Cera, [email protected] and request a copy.
Matt Inlay in an article titled Evolving Immunity
pretty well demolished Behe's Chapter 6. I have recently read that the bacterial flagella has been shown to
have evolved from virulence factors, and a recent discussion at the ISCID - International Society for
Complexity Information and Design (or maybe it was the ARN) board on the
organization of intracellular transport, IMO, left the IDistas gasping and grabbing at straws. I can't imagine
what the next edition of Behe's book will have left in it.
I expect that Behe or some other IDista will try to maintain that the serine protease cascades from both the
blood clotting cascade and the complement cascade are the IC parts of the system. And then they will
retreat to the next hole.
The Register 02 Nov 2002
The physics establishment appears to be unable to decide whether papers submitted by two former French TV presenters are a scientific breakthrough or an
elaborate hoax. The debunking to date has been done on Usenet groups and informally, over the Internet.
The pranksters evaded the rigorous peer review process employed by scientific journals, and have succeeded in publishing four physics papers. The pair even won
themselves PhDs into the bargain.
Grichka and Igor Bogdanov succeeded in having Topological field theory of the initial singularity of spacetime published in the journal Classical and Quantum
Gravity 18, Spacetime Metric and the KMS Condition at the Planck Scale in the Annals of Physics, and a Russian journal, and Igor - this time flying solo -
persuaded the Czechoslovak Journal of Physics to publish the Topological origin of inertia.
But curiously, so arcane and abstract is the world of theoretical physics, that the work has yet to be repudiated.
Usenet posters describe the papers as "laughably incoherent". A fascinating thread on Usenet begun by John Baez brought the hoax to light, and persistent
questioning by Arkadiusz Jadczyk on his website has done much to expose the pair.
The Bogdanovs apparently foxed a New York Times reporter curious about the case, who after an angry denial from one of the hoaxers - denying that he was a
hoaxer - dropped his investigation.
"Does no one have the courage of his convictions to stand up and declare an opinion one way or the other, or is it simply that no one has bothered to actually spend
the time to acquire an informed opinion (i.e. more than just skimming the papers for a few choice sentences)?", asks Kevin Scaldeferri from the California Institute of
Technology.
So, the only respectable branch of physics in which the Bogdanov's operate appears to be, umm ... pataphysics.
The terrible, terrible conclusion some might draw from the episode is that string physics is no more a "science" than a social science. Several years ago physics
professor Alan Sokhal hoaxed the cultural theories establishment with a delightful pastiche that suggested recent quantum theory work proved aspects of Lacanian
psychoanalysis, as he explained in his paper A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies:-
"While my method was satirical, my motivation is utterly serious. What concerns me is the proliferation, not just of nonsense and sloppy thinking per se, but of a
particular kind of nonsense and sloppy thinking: one that denies the existence of objective realities, or (when challenged) admits their existence but downplays their
practical relevance," he wrote.
But if the establishment is so reluctant to expose the prank, is it the fault of hoaxers or the scientific method? The work of many of our most important scientists has
been conducted in the margins, contrary to orthodox scientific opinion. Occam's Razor is not only a wonderful thing for debunking junk science, but a terrific way to
cut your own arms and legs off. And scientists must eat, so grant-funded research necessarily follows the orthodoxy.
So which is it? Go gentle with us, dear readers, for when it comes to physics I'm as thick as too short Plancks. ®
Thanks to the ever-wonderful RobotWisdom for the link - ao
Original article at: http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=1872057
By William A. Dembski
Keynote address delivered at RAPID Conference (Research and Progress in Intelligent Design),
Biola University, La Mirada, California, 25 October 2002. The aim of this conference was to
examine the current state of intelligent design research.
Recently I asked a well-known ID sympathizer what shape he thought the ID movement
was in. I raised the question because, after some initial enthusiasm on his part three years
ago, his interest seemed to have flagged. Here is what he wrote:
Two animating principles drive intelligent design. The more popular by far takes
intelligent design as a tool for liberation from ideologies that suffocate the human spirit,
such as reductionism and materialism. The other animating principle, less popular but
intellectually more compelling, takes intelligent design as the key to opening up fresh
insights into nature. The first of these animating principles is purely instrumental -- it
treats intelligent design as a tool for attaining some other end (like defeating
materialism). Presumably if other tools could more effectively accomplish that end,
intelligent design would be abandoned. The second of these animating principles, by
contrast, is intrinsic -- it treats intelligent design as an essential good, an end in itself
worthy to be pursued because of the insights it provides into nature.
By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
IN THE SISKIYOU MOUNTAINS, Ore. � There are times
in life when we must summon every shred of courage to stand
tall and unflinching in the face of fear. This is not one of them. It
is 2 a.m., and outside a flimsy tent lit by a full moon something
stirs in this primeval forest.
Crack! goes the twig. "Deer, right?" asks a visitor, who is about to tick away the nerve-wracking night
one snap, crackle and pop at a time until dawn breaks with a harrowing howl.
"Nah," replies local Matthew Johnson, sliding a hand onto his .44 Magnum. "That wasn't a twig; it was a
thick branch. Whatever's out there is bigger. Much bigger."
Bigger as in Yeti and Sasquatch.
Bigger as in Bigfoot.
That's right, the hairy, smelly lunk is still with us. Pick any name you want � Asian, Native American or
tabloid � he hasn't changed from the 10-foot-tall, half-ton, mannish ape whose star turn in a 1967 home
movie launched thousands of sightings.
Make no mistake. Bigfoot and his kin remain part of a freaky family of Charlie's Angels-era fads (think
poltergeists and UFOs), and the scientific community at large remains amused. But the faithful hope
Bigfoot may yet make a monkey out of non-believers. For decades now, a small but loyal legion of
Bigfoot hunters has spent countless weekends prowling forests in nearly every state, piling up evidence
such as alleged footprints and hair samples that now has a handful of animal experts willing to at least
entertain the possibility of his existence.
"I've gone from being a raving skeptic to being curiously receptive," says Robert Benson, director of the
Center for Bioacoustics at Texas A&M. He appears in a new documentary, Sasquatch: Legend Meets
Science, critiquing taped Bigfoot calls. While many of those recordings "could be human" (i.e. hoaxes),
others left him puzzled.
In Sasquatch, which airs in January on Discovery, a small cadre of scientists pore over audio, video and
the Holy Grail of molds called the Skookum Cast, a plaster impression taken in 2000 from a muddy
Mount St. Helens meadow that purports to capture a Bigfoot sitting on his oversized derri�re.
Sasquatch producer Doug Hajicek is mum on the film's "important revelations" but is confident viewers
will tune in. "I'll tell you why this fascinates people," he says "We're the only bipeds (animals who walk on
two feet) here. Imagine the primordial fear a competing biped species produces."
Spare me, says Russ Tuttle, professor of evolutionary morphology at the University of Chicago.
"I could be interested, but first get me a skeleton or maybe a Bigfoot trapped in my basement," Tuttle
says, echoing the prime criticism of Bigfoot skeptics � habeas corpus, produce the body. "It's interesting
that something allegedly that large has never been found."
The same issue concerns the Wildlife Conservation Society's Alan Rabinowitz, an Indiana Jones figure in
the world of animal anthropology. "It is very rare, once you've been told about an animal and its habits, to
then never find anything tangible," he says.
But the mere possibility of an elusive ape-like creature has an almost primal allure, as evidenced in the
hundreds of reports filed each year with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. That he's been
spotted in almost every corner of the USA makes Bigfoot rival Elvis in terms of sightings, but that doesn't
bother the committed.
"He's out there," says Johnson, a clinical psychologist in Grants Pass, a town about an hour northeast of
his Bigfoot stomping grounds.
Johnson had no interest in finding the beast until the beast found him. He spied his personal Moby Dick
while on a family hike two summers ago and was reduced to tears by its size � impressive considering
that Johnson is 6-foot-9, weighs 250 pounds and wears size 16 shoes. Now he's leader of the Southern
Oregon Bigfoot Society, a ragtag but dedicated assemblage of sleuths who typify the breed.
"Once you hear him scream at you, you're hooked," he says. "Some people play sports or fish. Others,
well, we go Bigfootin'."
Just call him 'sesqec'
Bigfoot's legend dates back to the earliest campfire gatherings.
Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest had stories about encounters with sesqec, from which the term
Sasquatch emerged, and the pioneers had their own run-ins with the woolly misfit.
But what really launched Bigfoot into a Loch Ness Monster orbit was the amateur film shot in northern
California by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. The upright beast with gorilla looks and human gait loped
past their lens; for maximum spook, the creature � dubbed Patty � glared at the camera. The hunt was
on.
As age has crept up on the folks who made Bigfoot the stuff of pop legend more than 30 years ago, their
passion has been passed on to next-generation faithful like Jeff Meldrum, associate professor of anatomy
and anthropology at Idaho State University.
Once a skeptic, Meldrum was in Washington state in 1996 when he saw dozens of footprints and "felt the
hair stand up on my neck." Today, he oversees an extensive collection of footprint casts amassed by the
late Grover Krantz, anthropology professor at Washington State University and author of Big Footprints:
A Scientific Inquiry into the Reality of Sasquatch. Meldrum's analysis of the trove: The feet are variations
on a human theme.
"I hope we're at a turning point," says Meldrum, who notes that his university presentations on Bigfoot no
longer receive sideshow status. "Now I see a different reaction. Maybe it's tougher to say all these
sightings are hoaxes than to consider that something is out there."
Or, as believers argue, could so many be so loony?
"Think about it: If illusion alone could generate such devotion, you'd have a Unicorn Society and a
Leprechaun Society. But you don't," says Matthew Moneymaker, founder in 1995 of the Orange County,
Calif.-based Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, which boasts 100 "researchers" and whose Webby
Award-winning site gets 300,000 hits a week.
"Bring in top scientists and we'll solve it," Moneymaker insists. "It's tough. Go try and find it. The
creatures are rare, the forests are thick, and the night is dark."
Town hints at mystery
Grants Pass is a bucolic town ringed by wooded hills. It's perfect, in a Stephen King way.
There are hints that something otherworldly may dwell in the hills: The town is near the valley of a river
called the Rogue, and a club-wielding brute, the Caveman, is the high school's mascot.
Matt Johnson, 40, loves it here. A longtime resident of Alaska � where he was a standout basketball
player � he and wife Rochelle, 43, and their kids Levi, 11, Hannah, 9, and Micah, 7, moved to get away
from endless winters.
During one of their first hikes, out near the Oregon Caves, the family noticed a smell that made a skunk's
offering seem tame.
When Johnson stepped away to relieve himself, he caught sight of a gigantic hairy creature across a
clearing. It was staring at his family.
"I froze, but finally my instincts kicked in. I raced over to my wife and kids, and without looking back, we
got out of there," he says.
Only Johnson saw the creature. He debated reporting the incident, then opened up to park officials. His
family now passes on day hikes.
"I used to feel safe, because, you know, Dad was normally the biggest thing in the forest," says Levi.
"Now, I'm not sure."
Johnson is determined to find out what lurks in these forests. He's already dedicated dozens of weekends
and "thousands of dollars in bait and other equipment," and laughs when people suggest he's in this for the
publicity.
"Oh, sure," he sighs. "Come see the therapist who saw Bigfoot. That's great for business."
At nightfall at least once each month, he hops in his Bigfoot hunting vehicle � a 1995 baby blue Cadillac
Sedan DeVille � and escorts the dedicated and the curious into the Siskiyou Mountains.
This night, as with every trip, he brings bags of bananas, watermelon and pastries as lures, a tent and
sleeping bag, and his .44 � to protect against bear or cougar, not Bigfoot. ("We don't want it harmed,"
he says emphatically.)
At the campsite, he checks on a deer camera nailed to a tree on a previous outing, which is set to shoot if
anything passes by. So far, the camera's shutter hasn't fired.
As the moon rises, he knocks on rocks (no response), blasts classical music (no fans) and checks the bait
piles (no takers).
Johnson is an unfailingly polite and openly religious man. And yet he decides to spin tales just before
turning in about another Bigfoot hunter who let his dog race off to the woods, only to find him
dismembered in the morning. As bedtime stories go, it's a downer.
The twig-snapping night is interminable; sunrise is a gift.
And just as the coffee is brewing, it happens. From up a winding fire road come sounds: the high-pitched
chatter of a chimp, suddenly intercut by the low groan of a scream in slow motion.
Ears prick up. Breathing becomes optional. For 15 seconds, this unearthly racket floods the camp. Then
it vanishes. Other than humans, most animals known to man are incapable of such broad sound ranges.
Bigfoot or not, something odd has spoken.
"Hmm, not a bear, not a cougar," says Johnson. "You ever hear anything like that before?"
Johnson's visitor, suddenly busy taking down the tent, offers to discuss his myriad theories in town.
The tall man in search of an even taller thing smiles and pops open the Caddy's trunk.
"You have to admit," he says. "This sure beats golfing."
Rona K. Johnson
Published Nov. 3, 2002
MOORHEAD, MINN. -- If a bigfoot is living in the dense, wooded areas of
Minnesota, Mike Quast hopes to be the one who finds it.
Quast, 34, who lives in Moorhead and works for a custodial company, has
his work cut out for him.
First of all, most people scoff at the existence of such a creature. And second,
most of the people who believe in the existence of a bigfoot-like creature are
searching for it in the Pacific Northwest.
Quast's belief stems from his own sighting. It happened in 1976, when Quast
was 8 years old. He was in a car with his parents when he saw what he
believes was a bigfoot. or sasquatch. They were driving near Strawberry
Lake, on the White Earth Indian Reservation north of Detroit Lakes.
"I was kind of stunned and didn't say anything for a while," Quast said. "I told
my parents later, and they didn't take it too seriously."
His mission began when he graduated from high school in 1986. Since then,
he's collected stories from people who claim to have seen a bigfoot, and he's
hunted for the creature. He's collected his observations and reports in a book
called "The Sasquatch in Minnesota."
"When I first started looking into it and reading all the books, there were nine
reports of sightings in Minnesota, but the official records were really
incomplete," he said.
Car attacked
The first story he ever investigated was about a creature that was seen in the
Vergas, Minn., area.
"There was an urban legend story going around there about the hairy man that
I heard about from my brother-in-law," Quast said. "He said he knew
someone who had seen it."
Quast tracked down a mechanic who told him that when he was a teenager in
1968 he and his brother and his brother's girlfriend were driving around in a
wooded area near Vergas and that a creature leaped out at them. When they
turned the car around to get another look at it, it attacked their car.
They later found a large dent in the trunk lid. They described the creature as
weighing about 300 pounds and standing 7 or 8 feet tall.
"He said it had a face like a gorilla and an upright body like a man, and it was
covered with hair, a standard bigfoot description," Quast said.
The townspeople built a story around it, saying that it was some crazy hermit
who lived in the woods.
"They started to hunt for the thing over the next few months, and they saw it a
couple of more times, running at night," he said.
They never saw the creature in the winter, so they figured it was hibernating.
Then one spring, they found a shack with a hole dug under it. It smelled like a
dead animal so they burned the shack down.
"I heard about other stories, and I started searching the area," Quast said.
Different sizes
Quast spent much time searching the Vergas area.
"In August of 1989 I found what I believe were bigfoot tracks."
The tracks were 16 inches long with three toes. He made plaster casts of the
tracks. In August 1970 he found a set that was 20 inches long, and, over
time, he's found three different sets of tracks, one only 12 inches long.
"I thought it might have been a small family group that passed through the area
once in a while," he said.
"I haven't found anything there in recent years because there's been a lot of
development out there," he said. "It's still a woods, but it isn't as wild as it
used to be."
Then, in the early 1990s, Quast met a trapper who lived near Zerkel, east of
Mahnomen in Clearwater County.
"He found some tracks on his property that he couldn't explain," Quast said.
The tracks were of a two-legged creature, but they weren't typical bigfoot or
human tracks. The tracks were circular with two large toes and, where the
three other toes should have been, there was an impression of hair growing
under the toes. Tracks were found of slightly different sizes, and Quast
speculates the tracks were from a subspecies of bigfoot.
"The DNR suggested he get in touch with me," Quast said. "It became a
fascination with him too."
The trapper found the first set of tracks in December 1990 and more tracks in
March 1991.
"The tracks turned up again, and there were a lot more of them the second
time," Quast said. "He thought he saw close to 2,000 tracks that day."
The trapper put up notices around town and started asking people in the area
if they had seen anything.
"Other people had seen tracks, and there were sightings over the years,"
Quast said.
Scream in the night
The trapper became the best source of information Quast ever had, and
Quast spent a lot of time searching on the trapper's property, even after he
died more than a year ago.
"During the time I knew him, there were occasional reports, and he found
more tracks," Quast said. "After a while, he started finding the more common
type of tracks with the more human type of foot. Many of the tracks were
smaller, indicating they were from a young bigfoot."
Since then Quast has concentrated his bigfoot hunt in the White Earth State
Forest in Clearwater County in a heavily forested area the locals call the
Buckboard Hills.
One night when Quast was camping on the trapper's property he heard what
he believes was a bigfoot.
"If you study the bigfoot literature, they describe the sound as a scream, and I
think that I heard it one night when I was camping there," he said. "At about
10 at night, this noise just came out of nowhere. It was so loud, the woods
just shook with it, and I remember feeling very alone and very vulnerable out
there, at that time. I think there were two of them calling back and forth to
each other, because I heard it come from two different areas."
Quast said he will keep searching until he has proof that bigfoot exists.
"I think one of the main reasons why science doesn't take this animal seriously
is because we have labeled it a monster, and nobody is supposed to believe in
monsters," he said. "If it had just been thought of as a new species of wildlife,
there would have been scientists out there looking for it."
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_701672.html?menu=news.quirkies
Television viewers watching a ghost hunt live from a castle have been
shocked when the show was abruptly cut off and replaced by a pornographic
film.
The pictures appeared without warning on Telewest's analogue cable service
on Halloween.
The company has apologised for the error after they received complaints
from parents who were watching Living TV's paranormal experiment Most
Haunted.
The programme was about the ghosts of Dudley Castle.
Many had watched Most Haunted for almost three hours, only to miss the end
when the switch happened.
Pensioner Joy and Gordon Norris, of Oak Park Road, Wordsley, in the West
Midlands, were watching the programme with their son, when it suddenly
switched to the film.
Mrs Norris, aged 72, told The Express & Star : "They had built up the
excitement to midnight and then it was as if a switch had been pulled and
the sex film came on."
A Telewest spokesman told the paper that Living TV was supposed to finish
at midnight to be replaced by TVX, but Most Haunted went on until 12.30am.
Scientists Puzzled by Extent of Seismic Impact in West, on Lakes in South
from The San Francisco Chronicle
from The San Francisco Chronicle
from Newsday
from The New York Times
from The New York Times
Commentary from Phil Plait of The Boston Globe
http://www.sigmaxi.org
http://www.mediaresource.org
http://www.americanscientist.org
[email protected]
The Intelligent Design Debate at Hillsdale College
http://www.hillsdale.edu/cca/2002/IntelligentDesign/default.htm
Monday, November 04, 2002
Textbooks in Texas
From: The Textbook League [email protected]
LIST OF CHANGES PUBLISHERS AGREED TO MAKE�.
* Publisher agreed to CHANGE any references to events "millions
of years ago" to instead read "in the distant past" or "over time" so
as not to have ancient geological events predate Biblical timelines.
(Glencoe/McGraw-Hill response to Robert Raborn, Texas
Citizens for a Sound Economy, 8/23/02)
* Publisher agreed to DELETE "entire box called 'Changing the
Earth's Environment' " because critic objected to the discussion
of global warming as a fact. (Prentice Hall response to Margie
Raborn, Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, 8/23/02)
Science In the News
The following roundup of science stories appearing each day in the general
media is compiled by the Media Resource Service, Sigma Xi's referral
service
for journalists in need of sources of scientific expertise.
from The New York Times
from The Washington Post
from The Associated Press
from The Washington Post
from The San Francisco Chronicle
from The San Francisco Chronicle
from The New York Times
from The Washington Post
http://www.sigmaxi.org
http://www.mediaresource.org
http://www.americanscientist.org
[email protected]
MIOS MEETING Metroplex Institute of Origin Science
Hear
JIM COOKE
Present
Consistent With A Universal Flood?
Medical Office Building
2126 Research Row, Dallas, TX
Tuesday, November 5th, 7:30 PM
AT NEWS: AT Gets Nasty in Utah
*** AT NEWS COMMENTARY ***
http://www.attach-bond.com
[email protected].
(Letters must include a full name, address, city and telephone number.)
[email protected]
Deseret News staff writer
October 29, 2002
===================
Corresponding Secretary
Loveland, CO
(970)667-7313
[email protected]
Intelligent design URC
http://www.idurc.org/yale-minnich.html
Bacterial Flagella: Spinning Tails of Complexity and Co-Option
Correspondence w/ Science Journals
http://www.trueorigin.org/behe07.asp
behe-01.htm
http://www.discovery.org/viewDB/index.php3?program=CRSC%20Responses&command=view&id=450
� 2000 Michael Behe. Originally published at the Discovery Institute's website.
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. [Last Modified: 28 May 2002]
Topic: Jo Que, Behe, and a Whale walk into a bar ....
http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=001638
Dr.GH
IIDB Regular
User # 3443
posted November 03, 2002 01:25 AM
Skeletons of terrestrial cetaceans and the relationship of whales to artiodactyls
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v413/n6853/full/413277a0_r.html&filetype=&dynoptions=
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1553008.stm
Sunday, November 03, 2002
Physics hoaxers discover Quantum Bogosity
http://www.online.ie/technology/viewer.adp?article=1872057
Becoming a Disciplined Science:
http://iscid.org/papers/Dembski_DisciplinedScience_102802.pdf
Prospects, Pitfalls, and Reality Check for ID
or
Dembski_DisciplinedScience_102802.pdf
An enormous amount of energy has been expended on "proving" that ID is bogus,
"stealth creationism," "not science," and so on. Much of this, ironically, violates
the spirit of science. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. But on the other
side, too much stuff from the ID camp is repetitive, imprecise and immodest in its
claims, and otherwise very unsatisfactory. The "debate" is mostly going around in
circles. The real work needs to go forward. There is a tremendous ferment right
now in the "evo/devo" field, for instance. Some bright postdocs sympathetic to ID
(and yes, I know how hard a time they would have institutionally at many places)
should plunge right into the thick of that. Maybe they are at this very moment: I
hope so!
Every now and again we need to take a good, hard look in the mirror. The aim of this talk
is to help us do just that. Intelligent design has made tremendous inroads into the culture
at large. Front page stories featuring our work have appeared in the New York Times, L.A.
Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and so on. Television, radio, and
weeklies like Time Magazine are focusing the spotlight on us as well. This publicity is at
once useful and seductive. It useful because it helps get the word out and attract talent to
the movement. It is seductive because it can deceive us into thinking that we have
accomplished more than we actually have.
Bigfoot's indelible imprint
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-10-31-bigfoot-cover_x.htm
Moorhead man has been hunting
bigfoot for 16 years
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3404980.html
Grand Forks Herald
BIGF03
Viewers outraged as porn film interrupts TV ghost hunt
From Ananova at:
The North Texas Skeptics
P. O. Box 111794
Carrollton, TX 75011-1794
214-335-9248 Skeptics Hotline (current information)
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