A bumper sticker on a sign on the Mt. Evans Highway, Colorado: Grace and Peace
Month: August 2008
Hurricane Gustav
Speaking of New Orleans, here is the NOAA prediction for the most likely path for Hurricane Gustav (actually, it is Tropical Storm Gustav right now, but it should strengthen and become a hurricane again soon). It is unlikely that Gustav will be a category 4 or 5 hurricane like Katrina, but it could still do …
India’s Katrina
Heavy monsoon flooding in India has claimed close to 1000 lives, and millions more have been displaced. The most dramatic event has been the abrupt change of course of the Kosi River in northern India. The Kosi River flows from the Himalaya Mountains into the Indian state of Bihar. The flood-swollen river has broken through …
Cell transformation
Once again, news reports are showing that using human embryonic stem cells for research is not only immoral, but perhaps scientifically unnecessary. An article in the science journal Nature reports that ordinary pancreas cells in adult mice have been transformed into cells that produce insulin. Here are the first few paragraphs from an article on …
The Bible Rocks
Back in the 1980s, a key book providing both Biblical and geological evidence for an old age for the Earth was Christianity and the Age of the Earth by Davis Young, professor of Geology at Calvin College. It is still a useful book, but it is about to be superseded by The Bible, Rocks, and …
Albert Mohler on “Nature-Deficit Disorder”
Albert Mohler writes about "Nature-Deficit Disorder" on his blog: Aliens in Creation -- A Generation of Nature Know-Nothings. Here are a few quotes: BBC Wildlife Magazine reports this month that only half of a sample of nine to eleven year old children in Britain could identify a daddy long-legs. A mere 62% rightly identified a …
49 F in August. Ahhhhh.
After a long streak of days in the 90s here in Denver, it is 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9 C) at noon, and raining. Ahhhhhh.
Is that Georgia or Georgia?
Oops. Someone in the news business doesn't know the difference between Georgia and Georgia. This is from a news report about the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia. Take a look at the accompanying map: The story is reported here. HT: The Map Room Grace and Peace
X-ray of a cat’s eye
Yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day: a combined visible light/x-ray image of the Cat's Eye Nebula. This is a planetary nebula (which has nothing to do with planets). A sun-like star (in the center) is in its dying phase, and is expelling large amounts of extremely hot gas. The purple areas in the center are …
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dead at 89
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died yesterday, at the age of 89. I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich back in high school and volume one of The Gulag Archipelago in college. These books portray the savage brutality that is all too common in human experience, and yet offer glimpses of hope as well. Here …
Quotes on atheism 2
I posted "Quotes on atheism" a few days ago, and it has generated a good discussion in the comments section. If you are all interested in atheism in light of the Christian arguments for the existence of God, take a look at the string on comments, and feel free to jump in. Here are some …
Water vapor distribution
From NASA's Earth Observatory, a global (or at least oceanic) water vapor distribution map: Dark blue areas have high levels of water vapor in the atmosphere. As expected, these areas are primarily over warm tropical oceans. This satellite-derived data is used to correct sea level information determined by radar from space. I include it here …