Month: October 2009
Artificially Reconstructed “Ardi” Overturns Prevailing Evolutionary Hypotheses of Human Evolution
The missing link presently being touted in the media, Ardipithecus ramidus, has had more reconstructive surgery than Michael Jackson. Assuming that their “extensive digital reconstruction” of its “badly crushed and distorted bones” is accurate, what does A. ramidus (or “Ardi” as the fawning media is affectionately calling it) really show us that we didn’t already know? We already knew of upright walking / tree-climbing, small-brained hominids–that’s what Lucy, an australopithecine, was. We already knew that there were australopithecine fossils dating back to before 4 million years, and this fossil is only a little bit older. So what does this fossil teach us? Assuming all the reconstructions of Ardi’s crushed bones are objective and accurate, this fossil teaches us at least Read More ›
Bones of “Ardi,” New Human Evolution Fossil, “Crushed Nearly to Smithereens”
Another new alleged missing link has been found, if you consider something discovered in the early 1990’s new. This fossil seems to have spent almost as much time under the microscope at Berkeley as it did in the ground in Ethiopia, when it was first buried about 4.4 million years ago. Why did it take over 15 years for the reports on this fossil to finally be published, besides the fact that it allowed more time for planning the now-customary PR campaign? A 2002 article in Science explains exactly why: the bones were so brittle, “squished,” “chalky” and “erod[ed]” when cleaned such that many of the bone fragments had to be “reconstruct[ed]”–and that took a long time. Here’s the story Read More ›
Spending the Public’s Money: It’s a Tough Job
Seeking relief from the demands of geschaeft, The Washington Times reported recently, senior officials at the National Science Foundation routinely spend a great deal of their time (and our money) visiting pornographic sites on the Internet. Just possibly, I suspect, they spend all of their time on stress relief and none on the public’s business, stress relief so striking as to cancel its cause entirely. “The problems at the National Science Foundation (NSF) were so pervasive,” the Times reported, “they swamped the agency’s inspector general and forced the internal watchdog to cut back on its primary mission of investigating grant fraud and recovering misspent tax dollars.”
Los Angeles Premiere of Darwin’s Dilemma at California Science Center on Oct. 25
The Los Angeles premiere of Illustra Media’s new science documentary Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record will be held on Sunday, October 25th in the IMAX theater of the prestigious California Science Center, which describes itself as “the West Coast’s largest hands-on science center.” Sponsored by the American Freedom Alliance, the premiere starts at 7:00 pm and will also include a showing of the IMAX film Born of the Stars as well as a post-screening discussion of Darwin’s Dilemma featuring the film’s director Lad Allen; David Berlinski, author of The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions; and biologist Jonathan Wells, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. For tickets or more information, Read More ›