Piltdown Superman

You have probably heard about our inner clocks called the circadian rhythms  — "You mean those bugs in North America that go zzzzzzzzzzzz up in the trees, Cowboy Bob?" Uh, you may be thinking of periodical cicadas that appear at 13 or 17 year intervals, or the regular ones that are found in many parts of the world. I hear them in August for the most part. And I see you've distracted me again. Credit: Pixabay /  Wilfried Pohnke We have the circadian rhythms inside us, sometimes waking us up before the alarm goes off. They get disrupted by jet lag and Daylight Savings Time, and some people compensate by taking an over-the-counter melatonin hormone supplement. We've heard about that inner clock. It's not found only in humans, and circadian rhythms are important for many life forms. See " We All Have Rhythm " for information about that. I was surprised to learn that we have evolution-defying tiny timekeepers within us. These include communication

Secular astronomers are excited about exoplanet PDS 70b, which they say is a "newborn" planet. This is because they are basing all their calculations and interpretations on naturalistic presuppositions. One of these is accretion.  Since none of the planetary origins ideas are effective, accretion (planetesimals stick together because of gravity and form big planets) is the best of the worst, and therefore the most popular. (After all, it is anathema to admit that the evidence favors recent creation.) The dust ring supposedly formed a planet around PDS 70, which was romantically named PDS 70b. Credit: ESO / A. Müller, et al The black spot is where the star was hidden, and the planet is just to the right (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) The biggest problem with secular planet origins speculations is that they defy the laws of physics . In this case, we have dust and rings and stuff. Add the deep time guesswork, subtract observable evidence (no one r

No need to be intimidated by the expensive words in the title. Break it down. First, paleo. People who study ancient things are paleontologists, and you read about them here quite often. It comes from Greek words that basically mean ancient being study.  Bio, meaning life, such as biology, the study of life. Geography, the study of the earth, environments, and people. So, put it all together.  Green Turaco image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Ian Wilson  ( CC BY 2.0 ) Both creationary and evolutionary scientists have worldviews, speculations, hypotheses, and models. Creationists have differing views on the mechanisms (but not the biblical reality) of the Genesis Flood. Evolutionists are constantly flustered by discoveries that don't comport with their belief system. This includes biogeography — "How did that  get there "? One such recent discovery helps creationary paleontological research. It also helps these creationists develop their paleo-biogeography model about o

There have been occasions where we have examined the use of science, between their  science and our science, and how the interpretations of facts are the important factor. Now we need to ride up yonder hill and look back for an even bigger picture. That is, who owns science itself? Credit: CSIRO /  Frank Filippi  ( CC BY 3.0 ) This raises many questions and "on the other hand" thoughts. People who do the research and produce valid papers (there is now considerable doubt that papers are useful ) deserve to be paid. Does the public have the right to access the papers, especially if our taxes paid for the research? The secular science industry makes this very expensive in many cases, although hackers can still get in. Other people can look at summaries and abstracts, which make promises that may not be fulfilled in the content.  Some creationist organizations have peer-reviewed journals that are only accessible to members, with some articles available on the web. Anoth

There are several words used to describe the how humans copy things in the natural world for our own use. I use biomimetics, others use biomimicry , and today I learned a new one: bioinspiration. Has a nice sound to it, don't you think? Today, we take a lesson from Bicycle Repairman . First successful flight of the Wright Flyer by the Wright brothers Image via Wikimedia Commons I was getting a mite playful for a moment. This is about Wright brothers, who had several interests, including bicycles. They were firm creationary Christians, and wanted to know how to fly. The Wrights were right in studying birds, and they were very meticulous and scientific in their studies of how the Master Engineer created flight.  They also looked at the failures of their contemporaries. Ever see old videos of "early flight attempts" or "flight failures"? Some were just weird, and many seemed to think that flight is a matter of flapping up and down, sometimes with paddles

Instead of Darwinism, we almost had Wallacism. Alfred Russel Wallace was a contemporary of Darwin, and arrived at very similar ideas on evolution by natural selection. Perhaps they were both influence by Comte de Buffon . Like other evolutionists at that time, he had little or no formal scientific training (Darwin studied theology), but Wallace did a passel of fieldwork and did some real science. When Chuck found out about Alfie's ideas, he hurried up and had his book published first. Alfred Russel Wallace, circa 1895 via Wikimedia Commons One major difference between Wallace and Darwin was the teleological (purpose and design) views of Wallace. For Darwin and his disciples, any hint of a Creator was bad medicine. Don't be disunderstanding me now, the two gents rode for the evolution brand for the most part, but Wallace was not an atheist. Although Darwin and Wallace had some disagreements, I am not aware that they went on letter-writing campaigns to discredit each oth

Ever notice how some mountains are not pointy on top, but look like a giant sander came down and flattened them out? Those are planation surfaces . They span large areas in many cases. Geologists reckon that huge amounts of sediment has been removed from the mountains, but secular scientists have no idea how — and why it is not happening today. Cape Breton Highlands National Park Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Dr. Wilson ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) Geomorphology (the way the land gets shaped) of planation surfaces is very pronounced up in Canada, eh? Cypress Hills have a very big and very flat plateau, and they provide useful information about the Genesis Flood. Uniformitarian geologists say that something "looks old", but that is not science, that is opinion. After all, they have nothing with which to compare something and choose "young" or "old". Hint: the earth is young. During the Recessive Stage of the Flood the mountains rose up and the valleys sank