The deadliest natural disaster in US history was the Galveston hurricane of 1900 (they didn't name hurricanes back then). The storm surge from this category 4 hurricane washed over much of Galveston Island, killing 6,000 to 12,000 people. Galveston is now protected by a seawall, and much of the city has been raised to a …
Continue reading Hurricane Ike — headed for Galveston & Houston
I received my copy of The Bible, Rocks, and Time yesterday (I thought I wouldn't get it until October!). Here are some of the endorsements from inside the front cover: What an enjoyable tour of the history of geology, the interaction between geological study and biblical exegesis, and the current field of geology itself! Professors …
Thank you to geoberg.de for listing The GeoChristian as part of their geoblogosphere (their list of significant geology blogs). The GeoChristian von Kevin Nelstead - verschiedene Geothemen, die sich auch mit Kreationismus aus der Sicht eines Christen befassen My translation: The GeoChristian by Kevin Nelstead -- different geology topics, concerned also with creationism from the …
I was unaware that the International Space Station flew over New York City on September 11, 2001. Here is an image taken by a member of the space station crew: The NASA Image of the Day Gallery site (which is different than NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day) has this image at a variety of …
The five-day forecast for the path of Hurricane Ike (presently a category 4 hurricane), from the National Hurricane Center: Pray for the people in the path of this storm, in the Bahamas, Cuba, and the US Gulf of Mexico coast. Grace and Peace
America's largest oil spill wasn't the Exxon Valdez in Alaska, it is in Newtown Creek, in New York City. Earth Magazine has the article: New York's Dirty Secret: The effort to clean up America's largest oil spill.Wedged between the hard-bitten boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y., lies a six-kilometer-long slip of sickly green water called …
Earth Magazine (formerly GeoTimes) has an article on coprolites (fossilized dung): It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Gotta Do It. The article goes into a little history of coprolitology (my word), how to tell if a rock is a petrified turd, and how to tell "who dung it." Image: a foot-long carniverous dinosaur coprolite from …
I am somewhat cautious about fission nuclear power and its role in America's energy future. It may play a temporary role, but it is not a long-term solution to our energy needs. There certainly are advantages to fission power, such as no emissions of greenhouse gases or other pollutants. Those opposed to nuclear power often …
Continue reading The role of fission nuclear power in our energy future
I wrote a few weeks ago about the Picken plan (which is being promoted extensively by T. Boone Picken, oil and gas billionaire). Basically, Picken's proposal is to use natural gas for automobiles rather than for generation of electricity, and to use wind power to replace gas-powered power plants. There are many merits to this …
The Wesley Ministry Network (associated with Wesley Theological Seminary) has created a new DVD course entitled Religion and Science: Pathways to Truth, hosted by Dr. Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. I have not seen this …
A bumper sticker on a sign on the Mt. Evans Highway, Colorado: Grace and Peace
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
After a long streak of days in the 90s here in Denver, it is 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9 C) at noon, and raining. Ahhhhhh.
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
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 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 …
