Today is the birthday of Charles Darwin. Despite those intellectuals like Sarah Palin who believe that Earth is only a few thousand years old and deny evolution as a “theory,” Darwin continue to rack up proof of his work. With perfect timing for the great man’s 205th, American and European researchers have confirmed the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction during which roughly 75% of the planet’s species were killed, including almost every dinosaur, by an asteroid impact. The result was the evolution of species best suited to deal with the aftermath of the explosion 66 million years ago. Of course, for creationists, the dating of material from 66 million years ago may be rejected as simply biblically inaccurate (if not immoral), but for the rest of us it is an important new development. While Darwin did not know of the asteroid theory or the demise of the dinosaurs, he knew a lot about adaptation and survival of the fittest. Dinosaurs went from being the dominant creatures to the least competitive in the new environment.
The asteroid that hit Chicxulub, Mexico released 420 zettajoules of energy — 100 teratonnes of TNT. The resulting dust cloud blocked out the Sun and triggered the die out — further accelerated by massive global fires. The problem is that previous attempts to date material showed that the asteroid impact occurred up to 300,000 years before the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, scientists decided to return to the site and use more modern equipment. The difference was considerable. The modern equipment reduced the gap to a period of 11,000 years or between 66.03 and 66.04 million years ago. The would make it almost simultaneous with the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
Those that could adapt then survived. Those who could not died off. Then 205 years ago, a man named Charles Darwin came along and explained it to the rest of us.
Source: Extremetech
Darren,
“Playing the fool” ??????
🙂
I’ve found some common ground here.
Astrophysics and Fat Parents / Scientific observation and playing the fool
Ooo. And my experiment repeats. Science. I’d say you gotta love it, but you don’t even understand it. Would you care to keep proving my hypothesis?
That’s great, Gene, if you happen to believe that the observations of hemorrhoids are meaningful.
My observation holds.
Gene, you might be interested to know that the makers of Preparation H had an earlier formula named in your honor called Preparation G, but the company’s scientists found that wherever there were large hemorrhoids like you that were obstinate, resistent, and unresponsive, they decided to change their strategy. As a consequence, they went for the broader market that would address more normal hemorrhoids, and developed the formula that ultimately came to be called Preparation H. And, as radio legend Paul Harvey would have put it, “Now you know the rest of the story.”
Yo Ralph: Yo’ mama is so stupid, she raised you and you’re pretty much an irrational partisan theocratic zealot hack who’s understanding of science seems to be pieced together by reading men’s room graffiti while smacking yourself in the head with a hammer.
Doh! My bad. I was supposed to make a joke, not an observation. Coincidentally, they can be one and the same. So . . . nevermind.
Yo, Gene: Yo’ mama is so fat they have to call the Fire Department to cool down her inflamed hemorrhoids.
“Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.” 😀
Finally, we’re making progress in this thread…
Asteroid = relatively small rocky, metallic, and/or sometimes icy bodies left in the solar system after the formation of the planets, means “starlike” from the Greek asteroeidēs.
Meteoroid = Any asteroid under ~30m that would turn into a meteor upon striking the atmosphere.
Hemorrhoid = A generic pain in the ass not to be confused with . . .
Constipated = Ralph (Not from New Orleans) Adamo
Bob Kauten, you say: “Of primary importance is the question of why hemorrhoids are not instead called “asteroids.””
The answer to your question is that they are called asteroids when they are outside the hemisphere, but they are called hemorrhoids when they are inside your hemispheres.
Idealist, you would make a superb spokesperson for Preparation H.
“Bob Kauten1, February 14, 2013 at 1:40 pm
Silly Ralph.
Of primary importance is the question of why hemorrhoids are not instead called “asteroids.”
Thank God the filter here is not intelligent. But just remember, the programs the gov has available and scanning you now ARE “intelligent”. Just so you know.
🙂
Thanks for the laugh. The thanks are directed to Bob, not Ralph. Not that Ralph is not a laugh in himself. Snark???
“That is the essence of religion … making things up as you go.”
You mean making things up like believing viruses are directing evolution, Dredd?
Yeah. That would be a religion.
And what Bob K. said (both times).
9 members of COngress supported and sponsored or co-sponsored a resolution in honor of the greaet Charles Darwin. ON the other hand, members of Congress trip over themselves affirming how much they want a god in the Pledge of Allegiance or tellign their fellow Americans they should pray.
Silly Ralph.
Of primary importance is the question of why hemorrhoids are not instead called “asteroids.”
The latest scientific ruminations about hemorrhoids being the cause for the extinction of dinosaurs proves nothing, and certainly doesn’t validate any of Darwin’s theories. If the fittest are the survivors, then how would Darwin explain that the population of cretinoids today now exceeds the population of rational, intelligent people by better than a margin of 372 million to 1? This dinosaur “example” is simply a tautological exercise in circuitous “reasoning.” For a clear illustration of the failures of the Darwinian theory, see this game between Dawrin and Huxley, in which, incidentally, Huxley won:
Dredd,
“The law, the truth, the theory … all illusion.
There is not singular theory for any of that.
A CNN anchor asked Bill Nye The Science Guy if global warming is causing tomorrow’s near miss of the Earth by an asteroid.
The lack of understanding of a lot of science may be because the attitude of a lot of pop scientists and real scientists are strange.”
Wrong. The Theory of Evolution is quite succinct. Because it is based on scientific observation and experiment, the small details change constantly. That’s why it isn’t a religion. The impact of an asteroid is a small detail, compared to the entire process of Evolution on earth.
The lack of understanding of a lot of science exists because people are too lazy to read and think about it.
Any misuse of the term “natural selection” does not redefine it. The phrase means the same thing as when Darwin wrote of it.
Your misuse of the term “Evolution” likewise does not redefine the Theory of Evolution.
Gene H. 1, February 13, 2013 at 4:33 pm
“That is why I say Darwinism is a religion to a lot of people” thus proving you don’t truly understand natural selection. It’s not a religion and by your own admission (“They are not attacking Darwin, nor are they saying his ideas about adaptation are invalid to explain what has happened, they are simple saying it is not adequate to explain origins.”) natural selection is a fact. If you doubt a fact? You’re a fool. Darwin’s work isn’t on the origin of life and it never was. It’s about the mechanics of speciation that drive adaptive evolution. It is an observable demonstrable quantifiable and testable fact of nature.A fact, especially one that withstands the scientific method’s interrogation, is a fact, not a belief.
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The elastic “natural selection” is a be all catch all phrase that stretches and stretches and stretches as the years go by.
When Darwin used “natural selection” he did not know of how much catastrophe, such as asteroid impacts, play in life on Earth.
And just as importantly he did not know about genes.
Yet the mouthiness of religiously fanatical nerds like Dawkins (who feathures prominently in the books concerning On the Origin of A**holes) act as if those two issues (and many more that Darwin was unaware of) is exactly what Darwin was talking about.
Darwin was so infallible that “natural selection” in the late 1800’s meant everything and anything any pop or real evolutionist since then has said it means.
That is the essence of religion … making things up as you go.