Subject: Re: Pope votes for Evolution (was Re: Creation VS Evolution)
From: cc16712@cdsnet.net
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 12:51:39 GMT
mkluge@wizard.net (Mark D. Kluge) wrote:
>In article <326F27EA.78BC@eurocontrol.fr>, Steve.Jones@eurocontrol.fr says...
>>Well now the Pope comes in .. this article from the Newspaper
>>
>> THE POPE said yesterday that Christian faith and theories about
>> evolution were compatible, providing these were spiritual as well
>> as material in nature.
>> The acknowledgment, made for the first time, was contained in a
>> message sent by the Pope to a convention on evolution in Rome
>> Scientists welcomed it as a major step forward in the Church's
>> project to close the centuries-old gap with the study of science.
>What acknowledgment was "made for the firsst time"? Catholic acceptance of
>evolution has been widespread for many years. The problem was Church
>insistence on monogenesis, the belief that humanss are descended from a single
>pair, rather than polygenesis, which is favored by most scientists.
>Monogenesis is easier to reconcile with the doctrine of original sin. I didn't
>see anything on monogenesis in the article summary. So what exactly was
>acknowledged for the first time?
>Mkluge
Do a web search for 'vatican information service'. The pope's message
can be seen in the area for Oct. 23.
Regards,
Stoney
Subject: Re: Magnetic symmetry supports new ocean ridge model
From: john@mail.petcom.com. (John S.)
Date: 28 Oct 1996 02:13:16 GMT
In article , skrueger@arco.com says...
>
>
>Jupiter is an enormous gaseous planet with a nuclear furnace in it's core
>(hence the radiation). What's this got to do with the Earth?
>
If Jupiter has a nuclear furnace at its core, then maybe Earth does too!
After all, we're not seeing any neutrinos from the Sun's 'nuclear furnace'-
so why would we see any from Jupiter's- or Earth's?
Hey, my watch is powered by the same kind of non-neutrino producing nuclear
reaction. (That was neat how that 'gas' splashed when the comet hit it, eh?
When we were proving what's happening at Jupiter's core, did we also prove
what kind of gas forms long-lasting craters?)
Actually, the extinctions happened at intervals over a long period of time,
corresponding with the ice ages. The Saber-toothed Tiger didn't go as early
as T. Rex did he? The mammoths were around until just before the last Ice
Age, not?
Subject: VOLCANIC ERUPTION ON ICELAND: ERS-SAR-IMAGE
From: Dr.Turi@worldnet.att.net (drturi)
Date: 28 Oct 1996 06:02:02 GMT
In article <3270FC08.178B@dfd.dlr.de>, ellis@dfd.dlr.de says...
>
>VOLCANIC ERUPTION ON ICELAND: ERS-SAR-IMAGES
>These images show the newest eruption on Vatnajökull, Europe's
>largest glacier, which started on October 1.
>
>This page is available both, in English and German language, and
>will be updated as soon as new SAR data are processed and analyzed.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>This is a service of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD).
>For further information, please contact
>
>boehm@dfd.dlr.de
>mueschen@dfd.dlr.de
>roth@dfd.dlr.de
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>George Ellis
>DFD Operation Control
Note to those interested only.
This volcanoe eruption started on the window posted for Sept. 29th,
1996-
Next possible eruption will be on the window of Oct.1st, 1996.
Please make a note, and thank you for your observation.
Dr. Turi
Subject: Re: Creation VS Evolution
From: Volker Hetzer
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 13:46:43 +0100
Kris Schumacher wrote:
>
> On Wed, 23 Oct 1996, Volker Hetzer wrote:
>
> > All right, I will confess my sins to him as soon as I'm dead and
> > standing in front of him.
> > I'll even admit of having been wrong about his nonexistence.
> > However, until I am dead, I don't think, it is worth bothering whether
> > your christian or any other gods exist.
>
> I have to interject, sorry. Even though I agree with both sides in my own
> way, I just have to say that your argument here is very weak. How could
> you repent when you're dead? The very nature of dead is not-alive. In
> order to speak or to think, you must be alive, because thought is life.
> So you can't even think in order to confess once you're dead. But that
> doesn't mean you won't exist eternally, in relation to how you lived your
> life.
I meant dead AND seeing god. Assuming the nonexistence of god or an
afterlife
I would regard it as impossible. But under the condition that I stood in
front of
god (after having experienced dying) I would be sure that an afterlife
exists
and I was wrong about the nonexistence of god.
I hope this makes it clearer.
Volker
Subject: Re: Environmental Careers????
From: eesa@cadvision.com (Dana Naldrett)
Date: 28 Oct 1996 16:11:34 GMT
With all the discussion of how the environmental business is
going, I can't help but put in my own opinion. As the CEO and main
organizer/promoter of a small environmental consulting company,
I may be able to give a "realistic" view of the business.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with those who say that the environmental
business isn't very rosy. However, having said that, there ARE some
bright spots. The trick is to know where they are, and this only comes
with experience. I would also warn people of being too "overeducated".
Although I have a Ph.D., it has done me little or no good in the business-
what has done a lot of good is experience. If you get into some companies
and get the exposure to various aspects of environmental work, then
you may be able to see a niche that will grow (and give you a job).
One other warning about something they never teach you in school- it is
VERY, VERY difficult to compete with the large companies for environmental
jobs. WHY? Because of the legal system. Many clients want a consultant to
have a large amount of liability insurance so that if anything goes wrong,
they can sue the company and recover some money. This just won't happen
with a small company or an individual, because they don't have the real assets
to seize.
It may sound cynical, but that's the way the real world is!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dana Naldrett, Ph.D., P.Geol., President email: eesa@cadvision.com
Environmental Earth Science Associates Inc.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
"applied environmental research"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: What is the source of geothermal energy??
From: Greg Wimpey
Date: 28 Oct 1996 09:55:56 -0700
ba137@lafn.org (Brian Hutchings) writes:
> the moon does have residual vulcanism, seen histroically, as well
> as'quakes, implying some residual decay of mass; likewise, as
> Earth's tectonical system is pickled in hydrogen,
> it isn't untoward to imagine fusion,
> both cold & hot (depending upon location,
> location,
> location .-)
I think moonquakes result from the tidal forces exerted on the Moon as
it revolves around the Earth. I don't think that the Moon has an
internal heat reservoir.
As to what the phrase "pickled in hydrogen" means, I have no idea.
And the idea that the fusion of hydrogen occurs naturally anywhere on
or within the Earth would certainly be considered novel (to be
polite).
--
Greg Wimpey Western Geophysical, Div. of Western Atlas Intl, Inc.
greg.wimpey@waii.com Denver Processing Center
Subject: Re: Three Mars Missions to Launch in Late 1996
From: twister@river.it.gvsu.edu
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 17:44:22 GMT
>>Infact increasing the rotation will slightly decrease the gravity.
>Well, to be really, really pedantic changing the rotation wouldn't affect
>the gravity at all.
Acutally according to what scientists are saying by increasing the total
rotational velcity of a planet you would also increase its total gravitational
force as well. Another way of increasing its gravity would be to gather up as
many heavy metals as possible and bury them under the surface. This would
both increase the total mass of the planet (yeah I know that would be an awful
lot of heavy metals to haul over to mars) and it would also increase its total
specific gravity.
>--
>-- BEGIN NVGP SIGNATURE Version 0.000001
>Frank J Hollis, Mass Spectroscopy, SmithKline Beecham, Welwyn, UK
>Frank_Hollis-1@sbphrd.com or fjh4@tutor.open.ac.uk
> These opinions have not been passed by seven committes, eleven
>sub-committees, six STP working parties and a continuous improvement
> team. So there's no way they could be the opinions of my employer.
Subject: Re: Brunton Help
From: MSM
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 07:52:05 -0400
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER HILL wrote:
>
> I am in need of a Brunton Pocket transit. I have one catalog listing them
> for $245 "Sale price." Somebody, somewhere has got to be able to beat
> that price for a palm sized hunk of metal and plastic in a nice leather
> case. Anyone willing to point me in the direction of what they consider a
> good deal would forever have nothing less than my gratitude and a hearty,
> well meant, Thank you very much.
> Sincerely,
> Joe Hill
> jchill@utkux.utk.edu
That does seem high. Try Forestry Suppliers, Inc. (800-647-5368). They
have Bruntons listed from $175 to $215.
Kind regards,
Scott
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
M. Scott McQuown, P.G.
Regional Manager & Principal Geophysicist
Bay Geophysical Associates, Inc.
206 Cambridge Way
Coatesville, Pennsylvania 19320 U.S.A.
Phone: (610) 384-6772
Fax: (610) 380-0612
msmcq@chesco.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The great tragedy of science:
the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis
by an ugly fact.
- Thomas Henry Huxley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: Re: Mars life: First a few things need explaining...
From: bcohen@lpl.arizona.edu (Barbara A Cohen)
Date: 28 Oct 1996 19:35:36 GMT
tadchem (tadchem@arn.net) wrote:
: On Sun, 11 Aug 1996 05:00:17 GMT, Alan Douglas said...
:
: >From what I've heard from those who know of such things, there has
: >been work done on this, but the results suggest Earth's gravity is too
: >great and the atmosphere too thick to make it likely that an impact
: >could propel a rock to escape velocities without vaporising it.
: There is a theory running around that, in the early years of planet Earth, a
: Mars-sized object struck it, seriously rearranging the crust, mantle ,and
: even the core, and splashing a lot of mantle rock up into high orbit, Thos
: rock eventually cooled and solidified into the Moon. I've even seen video
: of a computer simulation of this. Didn't get out of the gravity well,
: however.
:
: >Theoretical arguments aside, the question has been floated on usenet
: >as to whether there has ever been a meteorite found which was known to
: >have come from Earth in the first place. I've not seen an answer to
: >that yet, but I strongly suspect it would be "no".
: Would you accept tektites (terrestrial impact ejecta that achieves
: sub-orbital trajectories like Alan Shepard's)?
At the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences meeting last week here
in Tucson, there was a fair bit of this kind of discussion. There is no
meteorite in our collections (that we know of) that originated
on the earth, got blown into interplanetary space for a few Ma,
then came back down to earth. Tektites aren't classic "meteorites"
in that sense. Most people attribute this fact to the Earth's thick
atmosphere and it's comparatively large escape velocity. There
should be even fewer Venusian meteorites.
There's also the queston of orbital dynamics, where it is much easier
for material to go towards the sun than away from it, so Mars ejecta
has an easier time getting to the Earth, Venus, Mercury, etc. than
Earth ejecta (if any) has of getting to Mars. Perhaps we could sample
the entire inner solar system by roving around Mercury for a while? :)
Barbara Cohen
Cosmochemical Cocktail Mixer, PhD to be
---------------------------------------
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
Subject: New Technology to Help Measurement and Study of Earthquakes
From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Date: 28 Oct 1996 22:36 UT
Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC October 28, 1996
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Mary Hardin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)
Cheryl Dybas
National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA
(Phone: 703/306-1070)
Don Kelly
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
(Phone: 703/648-4466)
RELEASE: 96-218
NEW TECHNOLOGY TO HELP MEASUREMENT AND STUDY OF EARTHQUAKES
Scientists have begun installing a network of 250 Global
Positioning System (GPS) receivers that will continuously
measure the constant, yet physically imperceptible, movements
of earthquake faults throughout southern California. This
information, which in many cases will be gathered and
analyzed with the help of local students, should help
researchers forecast future earthquake hazards in the greater
Los Angeles area.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin dedicated a new site
in the Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN)
today at Rialto High School, before a demonstration of the
technology to science students from the school. Goldin was
accompanied by U.S. Representative George Brown (D-CA), the
ranking minority leader of the House Science Committee, and
representatives from the National Science Foundation and the
U.S. Geological Survey.
"This network is a tremendous example of how technology
developed for space benefits life on Earth. This interagency
project will give us detailed information never before
available to track the invisible geologic strains and
stresses that lie beneath the California landscape," Goldin
said. "Such data should give us fresh insight into the
forces that produce earthquakes, and could one day help
reduce the loss of life and property from such disasters."
GPS uses data transmitted from a constellation of 24
Earth-orbiting satellites that are jointly governed by the
departments of Defense and Transportation. The satellites
are arranged so that several of them are "visible" from any
point on the surface of the Earth at any time. A user on the
ground using a GPS receiver can determine the site's precise
location by coordinating the signals from the satellites.
"The surface of the Earth is constantly moving and
southern California is being squeezed in the process. The
GPS network will continuously measure movements of the
Earth's crust with a precision of one millimeter per year,
which will show us where strain is building up," said Dr.
Andrea Donnellan, a member of the SCIGN coordinating
committee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, CA.
"GPS is the most important new technology to emerge for
the study of earthquakes in decades. This information will
permit us to improve our estimates of the regional earthquake
hazard in southern California and to prioritize earthquake
mitigation activities, including emergency preparedness and
retrofit strategies," said Dr. Tom Henyey, director of the
USGS-NSF Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) in Los
Angeles. "Continuous GPS measurements also will allow for
more rapid regional damage assessment following large earthquakes."
The earthquake network began in 1990 with only four GPS
receivers as a prototype project funded by NASA. It detected
very small motions of the Earth's crust in southern
California associated with the June 1992 Landers and the
January 1994 Northridge earthquakes. "The GPS receivers
operating during the Landers earthquake were able to detect
for the first time a subtle change in the regional
deformation pattern, which is potentially of great importance
for studying the physics of earthquakes and hazards
mitigation" said Dr. Yehuda Bock, a SCIGN executive board
member from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University
of California, San Diego.
Currently, the SCIGN has 40 GPS receivers up and
running, with the remaining receivers scheduled to be
installed over the next three years.
"With data from the 40 receivers, we have determined
that southern California has continued to move since the
Northridge quake in 1994. This may mean that stress is being
relieved in part without earthquakes, which may reduce the
overall earthquake hazard," JPL's Donnellan said. "We will
try to determine if other faults have been loaded as a result
of the earthquake."
"The survey data are particularly important for
identifying active buried faults that do not reach the ground
surface. Such faults may be common in the Los Angeles
metropolitan region," said Dr. David Jackson, science
director of SCEC.
The GPS measurements also will be useful to characterize
earthquake damage. "The network will help agencies monitor
important structures. GPS receivers placed on or near dams,
bridges and buildings would allow off-site detection of
probable damage to those structures. We are collaborating
with Los Angeles County in a pilot study of continuous GPS
monitoring of Pacoima Dam," said Dr. Ken Hudnut, SCIGN
executive board member at the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena.
Many of the receivers are being placed at schools so
that students can be involved in the experiment. SCEC's
"Global Science Classroom" at the University of Southern
California has formed a partnership with JPL, several school
districts and educators' groups to develop a science unit for
use in schools. The unit, titled "The Elastic Planet," will
give students access to the data being gathered by the network.
"This network is a model of interagency cooperation
between NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National
Science Foundation, as well as with local governments and
schools," Goldin said. "Students will get hands-on science
experience in using real data. It should ignite their
enthusiasm for science while providing a genuine public service."
SCIGN is a consortium of institutions with a common
interest in using GPS for earthquake research and mitigation.
The consortium is coordinated by the SCEC, a National Science
Foundation Science and Technology Center headquartered at the
University of Southern California. The lead institutions in
the installation and operation of SCIGN are: JPL, the
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics-Scripps
Institution of Oceanography at the University of California,
San Diego, the United States Geological Survey, the
University of California, Los Angeles and USC.
-end-
Subject: Re: (Raptors) Aliens killed the dinosaurs on a hunting vacation.
From: lamaster@viking.arc.nasa.gov (Hugh LaMaster)
Date: 28 Oct 1996 21:55:05 GMT
In article <32694E3E.3A77@pcix.com>, West writes:
|> Due To The Beliefs Of Many Moviegoers and Stores nationwide ,
|> Velociraptor was a 3 FOOT Tall SCAVENGER!!! The Dinosaur they used in
|> Jurassic Park was Denonicus, a close reletive, but 3 feet TALLER. They
|> probably called it a Velociraptor because the name sticks in your head.
|>
|> Just Clearing this up.
For the usual reasons, I have made a study of dinosaurs of late,
and historically there seem to have been many opinions about the
proper classification of Velociraptor vs Deinonychus and the
appropriate sizes thereof. Some authorities classified them
as one species, some as two species, and the size ranges greatly
overlapped. I don't know if there is a consensus at present
or not regarding the appropriate size range for "Velociraptor",
or even whether or not they were distinctly separate species.
And, Deinonychus was plenty big to fit the Jurassic Park dino-
if, indeed, there was a consistent size. If you look at the
scenes where adults were present, it appeared (to me) that
smaller models were used than in the "kitchen" scene with
the children. In that scene, the size is difficult to figure,
and I assumed that either the models were larger or the shots
were taken to make the dinosaurs appear as they would to
children.
--
Hugh LaMaster, M/S 233-18, Email: Please send ASCII documents to:
NASA Ames Research Center Internet: hlamaster@mail.arc.nasa.gov
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 Or: lamaster@george.arc.nasa.gov
Phone: 415/604-1056 Disclaimer: Unofficial, personal *opinion*.