Very nice shot. Love how the trees fade into the mist.

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Well, I had been batting the idea around to blog about the Expelled movie that everyone seems to be talking about, but now I think I will just leave most of the commenting to the other opinionated bloggers on both sides of the debate.

Although, even having said that, I must be slightly appalled at the fact that PZ Meyers was “expelled” from the movie line. I am not sure what crazy logic would suggest eliminating the opposing views from the mix. Richard Dawkins got in (he assumes that it was because he wasn’t named on the guest list), but he has much reason to do a bit of ranting. It seems that the Expelled people are afraid of a little confrontation or in the least want to show only their (our) side of the issue.

Now, anyone who reads this blog or has crossed paths with me online knows I don’t mind a good debate every now and then. What is the point of believing (researching) something if you aren’t prepared to back it up and argue your point? I mean, sure there is some points where I just give up on a specific discussion and move on to a new subject, but I will always post a well-thought out reply. I like the debate and the thought that maybe someday I will change someone’s mind or stumble upon a discovery all my own. errr… something. So, why can’t the producers of the Expelled open up the playing field, risk a few comments by bloggers, and actually invite the other side along for the good times.

Anyway, I still want to see the movie just to know what everyone is gabbing about. If I do see it I will be commenting on it, but for now this may be the only post on Expelled.

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Anyone who knows me well, is aware of my 3 slight obsessions; one of which being Creation cosmology and general interstellar history. Although I am not an expert at this kind of science, I love being the reporter when it comes to stories about gravitational anomalies, spacecraft mysteries and other interesting “final frontier” stuff. So, today my interest was peaked when I came across this article:

A modern space mystery – how some of the recent gravity findings can be nearly completely explained by creation cosmology models. Yeah, Whoa!

Heh, ok I am a geek. (but if you are too, here is another similar article.)

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While shopping for something totally different I wandered into the kids book section at a local Pamida and came across this book. Probably the coolest, most playful looking illustrations of dinosaurs I have ever seen. Definately going to have to venture back there tomorrow and pay the whopping 1.99 price tag.

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This post is for my girlfriend.
We were chatting about this over lunch and she gave me the smile, the nod, and the “I’ll humor you for now” eyes. But see, Lovely, there is some real fun science theory involved after all.

heh.

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Yeah, just because.

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After a surprising number of hits on his 5200-year-old-animation post, Ed makes some very interesting comments on it’s success. Though he is speaking of a single post on his blog, his comments are intriguing on many levels.

So, some observations:

1. Archaeologists and anthropologists need to flack their finds better. The animated .gif was created in 2004 as best I can determine. I picked up the story from a tiny note in a monthly archaeology newsletter from Ask.com, which picked the story up from a note on a piece of controversy about the bowl (regarding whether it was the Assyrian Tree of Life depicted or not). The bowl was found, depending on the source, in the 1970s or 1980s (surely someone knows which date would be correct).

In other words, this “news” has been kicking around for a quarter to a third of a century. What other magnificent archaeological finds would people find fascinating, if they only knew about them?

This is a constant problem. News gatekeepers — editors — generally do a good job, but the volume of news means many things people would find intriguing, get overlooked. Some day I’ll write up my experiences as a press secretary, telling how editors would repeatedly reject tips as “not news,” then run the items months later when the item came in through a different source, or a different route. (”She came in through the bathroom window,” the Beatles sang, and every press secretary understands why; the door and the grand staircase were occupied.)

The problem is compounded by the internet and computers. Most people who looked at the post did not start out the day wondering what had happened recently in archaeological digs in Iran. News reader filters for our “interests” may shut out things we really would be interested to see. I called it “animation,” and 100,000 people crowded to see. There’s nothing like an old fashioned newspaper to pique our interest in odd items we were not looking for at all, on pages where we read other stuff we were looking for.

2. We all need to marry the cyber world to the real world. I still know precious little about the artifact in question. Where can I find information on it? I don’t have access to archaeology journals. Without knowing exactly where to look on the internet, we are all at a loss as to where to turn. What museum is this piece in, if any? (If it’s not in a museum, Iran or its owners could auction it off at a pretty good price right now, I’ll bet.) Who were the Italians who found it? Where can we find the papers describing it? What about the 11-minute film mentioned in the press releases — where is that film, how can we see it? Those people who hold this information appear not to be plumbed into the tubes of the internets, or the spigots are turned off. There is an information vacuum here, and good, real information is difficult to find to fill it.

3. Most of us know precious little about the world; the internet is often limited in the help it can offer to cure our ignorance. Several commenters seemed to have some knowledge about Iran’s archaeological heritage. Most of us had never heard of the Burnt City, most of us still couldn’t find it on a map, and most of us don’t know where to go to get the next chunk of fascinating information. The internet is a great institution, but in these matters, it’s still hit or miss for people who really want to know. We’re missing the boat on using computers and the internet as education tools.

Great stuff. Read the full post here.

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Poking around the internet, I usually perk up at the mention of dinosaurs. I came across this drawing-caption article on MSN. I probably wouldn’t have even posted about it if it weren’t for the great illustrations that it contained.

Check out the rest of the dino-drawings here.

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Heh. Maybe Nessie has been alive after all, but has been hanging on someone’s wall.

Just a funny t-shirt design from Glennztees.

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Whoa. Logging on to WordPress this morning, I saw a post from another WP blog. I don’t have much to say about it right now, because I haven’t had the chance to really investigate. But it seems like it would be another perfect post on this blog. Graphics and history. Very nice.

5,200 year old animation.

I will try to come back to this post and comment more on it soon.

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~~~

On an interesting side note, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub seems to be the perfect Bizzaro World construct of my blog (or mine is to his). I was reading through many of his ideas and he seems to be interested in many of the same things as I am, but with the twist of an opposite view. So, I have definitely bookmarked Ed’s page and will be reading it often. Expect to see some references to his posts.