PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet 64/2002 - 30 May 2002
---------------------------
"Just to recap; tree-rings and bits of human history tell us
there
was a catastrophic environmental event around AD 540 and probably
better defined as a two stage event in the window AD 536-545.
Virtually
no-one disagrees with that statement. Ice-core evidence for
volcanic
acid does not give definitive evidence for a major volcano or
volcanoes in
that time window."
--Mike Baillie, 30 May 2002
(1) SEISMIC STATIONS RECORD USEFUL INFORMATION ON TERRORIST
BOMBINGS &
IMPACTS
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(2) ROSETTA BREAKS THE SOUND BARRIER
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(3) ODYSSEY FINDS WATER ICE IN ABUNDANCE UNDER MARS' SURFACE
NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
(4) ENOUGH WATER ON MARS TO SUSTAIN HUMAN EXPLORATION
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(5) MINOR PLANET NAMED AFTER RUSSIAN COMEDIAN
Space.com, 29 May 2002
(6) TEACHING ALTERNATIVE TO EVOLUTION BACKED
Washington Post, 29 May 2002
(7) 6TH CENTURY CATASTROPHE: WELSH DRAGONS PROBABLY COMETS
Mike Baillie <m.baillie@qub.ac.uk>
(8) AND FINALLY: BEING WIRED HELPS YOU CONNECT
BBC, 29 May 2002
==============
(1) SEISMIC STATIONS RECORD USEFUL INFORMATION ON TERRORIST
BOMBINGS &
IMPACTS
>From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
News Services
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Contact Information:
Terry C. Wallace, 520-621-4849, wallace@geo.arizona.edu
29 May 2002
Seismic Stations Record Useful Information on Terrorist Bombings
The growing world network of seismic stations is increasingly
useful for
monitoring more than earthquakes, say university geoscientists
who are
developing a new specialty called "forensic
seismology."
They study seismograms as records of industrial explosions,
clandestine
nuclear weapons testing and terrorist bombings.
"Forensic seismology has its roots in the verification of
small nuclear
explosions," says University of Arizona seismologist Terry
C. Wallace. "But
it clearly is also useful in putting constraints on terrorist
bombs."
Wallace discussed the topic this past Tuesday afternoon, May 28,
at the
American Geophysical Union meeting in Washington, D.C.
AGU meeting organizers describe the scientific community as
"a largely
untapped resource for detecting the signatures of terrorist
activity.
Researchers operate networks of sensors, and if terrorist
activity is
detectable, it is quite likely that the evidence will first
appear on a data
collection system operated for other purposes. Scientists are
therefore
strongly positioned to serve as the technological equivalent of a
neighborhood watch. "
Wallace, his former post-doctoral associate Keith D. Koper, who
is now on
the faculty at St. Louis University, and van der Vink a few years
ago
collaborated in research on how seismic records might be used to
monitor
small or moderate-sized secret nuclear weapons tests. They
conclude that the
worldwide seismic network has been proved both extensive and
sensitive
enough to monitor violations of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty
(CTBT).
More recently, Wallace and Koper collaborated with Dirk Hollnack
of the
University of Nairobi in a seismic analysis of the Aug. 7, 1998,
truck-bomb
blast at the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The bomb
seriously damaged
a dozen buildings, injuring more than 4,000 people, 220 fatally.
The Nairobi attack was recorded by a broadband seismometer
operated by the
geology department of the University of Nairobi at a site 3
kilometers (less
than 2 miles) northwest of the blast. This seismic station was
the only
station that recorded the embassy attack, but Wallace, Koper and
Hollnack
used its high-quality data in an analysis that found precisely
when the
explosion occurred, at 10:39:19.8 local time -- plus or minus
two-tenths of
a second, and the size of the bomb. The Nairobi bomb was deadly
but fairly
small, equivalent to 3 metric tonnes of TNT.
"Sometimes what seismology can contribute is the only
information we have on
the bomb," Wallace said. "That was the case in Nairobi.
This was in another
country, emergency response was immediate, and by the time the
FBI arrived,
the crater had been filled in. So it was impossible for the FBI
to do its
usual forensic analysis.
"In this case, the FBI actually came to us before we had the
seismic
records. We had to find the records and then do the analysis the
FBI needed
for their investigation."
"What made it more interesting is that in an effort to fully
use seismic
recordings from such attacks, we participated in a series of
controlled
truck bomb explosions conducted at White Sand Missile Range in
New Mexico,"
Wallace said. "The idea was to learn if the type of truck
used in the
bombing made a difference in the size of the explosion. As a
result, we
developed a new set of scaling laws that relate seismic and
acoustic
observations directly to the explosive mass, or bomb
'yield'," he said.
"Now expert seismologists can use these s caling
relationships in analyzing
any truck bomb explosion and give investigating agents very
useful
information on the size of bomb. If authorities also know
something about
the truck, they can then begin to speculate on the type of
explosive used,
who had access to such explosives, and so on."
The terrorist bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma
City on
April 19, 1995, was also seismically recorded. The first seismic
records
looked unusual, and prompted some researchers to conclude two
separate
blasts -- that is, two separate bombs -- were involved, Wallace
said. But
when the Murrah Building later was demolished, the seismic record
was
identical leaving experts to conclude there had been a single
terrorist
bomb. "In some sense this is derivative, but it's really
important for
providing independent constraints on what happened," Wallace
said.
"One of the most remarkable things is -- and it's hard for
people to
visualize -- but there's a huge number of seismometers out there,
our ears
to the ground. They are needed for earthquakes, but anything that
makes a
thump is going to be recorded," Wallace said.
Geophysicists are increasingly confident when it comes to
interpreting
curious signals that are unrelated to earthquakes, he added.
"But the most dramatic difference is that we now retrieve
most of this data
via the Internet. The Internet has provided an incredible
pipeline to bring
back this information and make it available to anyone. In my lab
across the
hall we bring in about 550 seismic stations. I look at the record
where
there's some specific event or region I'm interested in. But I
can also get
data from places where 1,500 seismic stations report in."
Wallace has built a search engine that uses keywords like
"explosion" to
electronically glean news from several newspapers each morning.
He then
checks the seismic network to see which stations might have
recorded events
of special interest. In this way he is building a
portfolio of seismic signals that can be used to identify mystery
events.
He'll know if a mystery event is an illicit nuclear weapons test,
a coal
mine collapse, a pipeline explosion, an airplane crash, some
fiery meteor
explosion or other occurrence.
On his web site,
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geophysics/faculty/wallace/Wallace.html
Wallace
describes what he and his colleagues have learned from seismic
analysis
about major news events. These include:
* The accident that sunk the Russian submarine Kursk in the
Barents Sea on
Aug. 12, 2000
* The Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center terrorist attack
* An alleged secret 1989 Iraqi nuclear test, reported in the Feb.
25, 2001,
Sunday Times (London)
=============
(2) ROSETTA BREAKS THE SOUND BARRIER
>From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
ESA Science News
http://sci.esa.int
23 May 2002
Rosetta breaks the sound barrier
Europe's comet chaser has not yet left the planet, but the
Rosetta
spacecraft has already broken the sound barrier during
preparations for its
launch next January.
At the beginning of May, the spacecraft was subjected to a series
of
deafening acoustic tests that would impress even the most
dedicated fan of
heavy metal music. Placed in a giant chamber, a barrage of sound
was
directed at Rosetta from a huge amplifier in order to simulate
the noise
expected during lift-off.
Soaring to a maximum of 135 decibels -- many times ouder than
Concorde at
take-off -- the sound levels were so severe that anyone straying
within the
chamber would have been killed within seconds.
Following these not-so-good vibrations, Rosetta returned to the
clean room
to complete a rock and roll turn on a giant shaker in order to
simulate its
ride into orbit aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.
Attached to a table capable of moving the 3 tonne spacecraft from
side to
side like a metallic rag doll being mauled by a mastiff, Rosetta
was
severely shaken, first vertically and then horizontally over a
wide range of
frequencies. Over two hundred accelerometers on the structure
were used to
monitor the spacecraft's performance during each one-minute
simulation.
"These environmental tests were essential to show that the
spacecraft will
survive the stresses of launch," explained John Ellwood,
Rosetta project
manager.
"The spacecraft was powered in its launch mode with the
Lander, the high
gain antenna and the solar arrays all in their launch
configuration," he
said. "Even the propellant tanks were filled
with 'dummy fuel'."
"I'm pleased to say that the spacecraft performed very well
and no
significant problems were identified," he added.
Once the engineers at the European Space Research and Technology
Centre at
Noordwijk in the Netherlands have verified that all of the
spacecraft's
electronics were still working nominally, they will prepare for
this week's
deployment test involving Rosetta's huge and unique solar arrays
and booms.
This check-out will show whether each of the two 15-metre-long
arrays and
the delicate instrument booms have survived their potentially
shattering
ordeal intact.
Rosetta is expected to be shipped to the spaceport in Kourou,
French Guiana,
during September 2002. The launch is scheduled for the night of
12-13
January 2003.
USEFUL LINKS FOR THIS STORY
* More about Rosetta
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/
* Rosetta runs hot and cold - thermal vacuum tests at ESTEC
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=13&cid=36&oid=29695
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
[Image 1:
http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12&oid=30007&ooid=30017
]
The Rosetta spacecraft, pictured here in the acoustic chamber,
was subjected
to a series of deafening acoustic tests at the European Space
Research and
Technology Centre in May 2002.
[Image 2:
http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12&oid=30007&ooid=30018
]
As part of its preparations for launch in January 2003, enginners
ready the
Rosetta spacecraft for a series of deafening acoustic tests in
the acoustic
chamber at the European Space Research and Technology Centre at
Noordwijk in
the Netherlands.
[Image 3:
http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12&oid=30007&ooid=30019
]
Rosetta on the giant shaker at the European Space Research and
Technology
Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This shaker will simulate
the effects
of a ride into orbit on an Ariane 5 rocket.
Rosetta will be launched on an Ariane 5 from the spaceport in
French Guiana
in January 2003.
==============
(3) ODYSSEY FINDS WATER ICE IN ABUNDANCE UNDER MARS' SURFACE
>From NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
Donald Savage
Headquarters,
Washington
May 28, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Mary Hardin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-0344)
Heather Enos
University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
(Phone: 520-621-8279)
RELEASE: 02-99
ODYSSEY FINDS WATER ICE IN ABUNDANCE UNDER MARS' SURFACE
Using instruments on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft,
surprised
scientists have found enormous quantities of buried treasure
lying just
under the surface of Mars-enough water ice to fill Lake Michigan
twice over.
And that may just be the tip of the iceberg.
"This is really amazing. This is the best direct evidence we
have of
subsurface water ice on Mars. We were hopeful that we could find
evidence of
ice, but what we have found is much more ice than we ever
expected," said
William Boynton, principal investigator for Odyssey's gamma ray
spectrometer
suite at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Scientists used Odyssey's gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite
to detect
hydrogen, which indicated the presence of water ice in the upper
meter
(three feet) of soil in a large region surrounding the planet's
south pole.
"It may be better to characterize this layer as dirty ice
rather than as
dirt containing ice," added Boynton. The detection of
hydrogen is based both
on the intensity of gamma rays emitted by hydrogen, and by the
intensity of
neutrons that are affected by hydrogen. The spacecraft's
high-energy neutron
detector and the neutron spectrometer observed the neutron
intensity.
The amount of hydrogen detected indicates 20 to 50 percent ice by
mass in
the lower layer. Because rock has a greater density than ice,
this amount is
more than 50 percent water ice by volume. This means that if one
heated a
full bucket of this ice-rich polar soil it would result in more
than half a
bucket of water.
The gamma ray spectrometer suite is unique in that it senses the
composition
below the surface to a depth as great as one meter. By combining
the
different type of data from the instrument, the team has
concluded the
hydrogen is not distributed uniformly over the upper meter but is
much more
concentrated in a lower layer beneath the top-most surface.
The team also found that the hydrogen-rich regions are located in
areas that
are known to be very cold and where ice should be stable. This
relationship
between high hydrogen content with regions of predicted ice
stability led
the team to conclude that the hydrogen is, in fact, in the form
of ice. The
ice-rich layer is about 60 centimeters (two feet) beneath the
surface at 60
degrees south latitude, and gets to within about 30 centimeters
(one foot)
of the surface at 75 degrees south latitude.
"Mars has surprised us again. The early results from the
gamma ray
spectrometer team are better than we ever expected," said R.
Stephen
Saunders, Odyssey's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory
(JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "In a few months, as we get into
Martian summer in
the northern hemisphere, it will be exciting to see what lies
beneath the
cover of carbon dioxide dry-ice as it disappears."
"The signature of buried hydrogen seen in the south polar
area is also seen
in the north, but not in the areas close to the pole. This is
because the
seasonal carbon dioxide (dry ice) frost covers the polar areas in
winter. As
northern spring approaches, the latest neutron data indicate that
the frost
is receding, revealing hydrogen-rich soil below," said
William Feldman,
principal investigator for the neutron spectrometer at Los Alamos
National
Laboratories, New Mexico.
"We have suspected for some time that Mars once had large
amounts of water
near the surface. The big questions we are trying to answer are,
'where did
all that water go?' and 'what are the implications for life?'
Measuring and
mapping the icy soils in the polar regions of Mars as the Odyssey
team has
done is an important piece of this puzzle, but we need to
continue
searching, perhaps much deeper underground, for what happened to
the rest of
the water we think Mars once
had," said Jim Garvin, Mars Program Scientist, NASA
Headquarters,
Washington.
Another new result from the neutron data is that large areas of
Mars at low
to middle latitudes contain slightly enhanced amounts of
hydrogen,
equivalent to several percent water by mass. Interpretation of
this finding
is ongoing, but the team's preliminary hypothesis is that this
relatively
small amount of hydrogen is more likely to be chemically bound to
the
minerals in the soil, than to be in the form of water ice.
JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of
Space
Science, Washington. Investigators at Arizona State University,
Tempe, the
University of Arizona, Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center,
Houston,
operate the science instruments. The gamma-ray spectrometer was
provided by
the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Russian
Aviation and
Space Agency, which provided the high-energy neutron detector,
and the Los
Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the
neutron
spectrometer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, developed and
built the
orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed
Martin and
from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.
Additional information about the 2001 Mars Odyssey and the
gamma-ray
spectrometer is available at /is available on the Internet at:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/
and http://grs.lpl.arizona.edu.
===========
(4) ENOUGH WATER ON MARS TO SUSTAIN HUMAN EXPLORATION
>From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
Public Affairs Office
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Contact:
Shelley Thompson, shelley@lanl.gov,
(505) 665-7778
02-057
Mars Odyssey quenches researchers' thirst for water data
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., May 28, 2002 -- Researchers with the Department
of
Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory have determined that Mars
has enough
water to sustain human exploratory missions.
A neutron spectrometer, designed and built at Los Alamos and
flown aboard
NASA's Mars Odyssey, has been mapping the Red planet for the past
three
months for hydrogen, an indicator of water-ice. This week Bill
Feldman, Los
Alamos' principal investigator for the neutron spectrometer,
unveils data
and detailed maps of the hydrogen-rich Martian terrain at the
American
Geophysical Union conference in Washington D.C.
The results also appear in the May 31 issue of Science magazine.
"The surface soils of Mars are rich in hydrogen," said
Feldman. "Soil
extending 60 degrees from the Martian poles contain from 35
percent to 100
percent of water-ice buried beneath a shallow
overburden of hydrogen-poor soil. Although scientists have known
that water
ice is stable close to the surface in these regions, our new
measurements
are the first to give the amount of near-surface water on Mars.
"The amount of water present on Mars is sufficiently large
that it can
support future human exploration activities," Feldman
continued. "We have
anticipated these results for 17 years and are excited that all
of our
wishes and hard work have been fulfilled."
The neutron spectrometer maps show that the large region that
extends from
the poles to within about 50 degrees of the equator contains
Mars' most
abundant reservoirs of hydrogen, or water ice. The large expanses
at low to
middle latitudes of Mars also contain significant amounts of
hydrogen, which
are most likely deposits of chemically and/or physically bound
water and/or
hydroxyl radicals -- one hydrogen atom bound to one oxygen atom.
The neutron spectrometer data are supported by simultaneous
measurements
made using Mars Odyssey's gamma-ray spectrometer, operated by the
University
of Arizona.
Los Alamos' neutron spectrometer began mapping the Martian
surface while it
was summer in the south and winter in the north. It revealed the
extent to
which the northern and southern polar caps are covered in a thick
layer of
carbon dioxide, or dry ice. During winter, the carbon dioxide
layers extend
from the poles to within about 60 degrees of the equator because
the dry ice
frost settles out of the atmosphere when temperatures fall about
186 degrees
below zero
Fahrenheit. During the warmer summer the carbon dioxide layer
evaporates
completely in the north but remains as a thick cover of the
residual polar
cap in the south.
The first successful attempt to measure the global distribution
of neutrons
about a planetary body was made using a similar neutron
spectrometer aboard
Lunar Prospector. Comparisons between the lunar and Martian
neutron
spectrometer data reveal that Mars' soil is richer in hydrogen
than is the
moon's soil by more than several factors of 10 to several factors
of 1,000.
Los Alamos neutron spectrometer will continue to measure neutrons
that leak
outward from the upper meter of the Martian soil for several more
years.
Mars Odyssey's orbit is such that the entire planet's surface is
sampled in
four-degree longitudinal increments weekly.
Scientists will use these data not only to determine the amount
of water on
Mars, but to map the basaltic lava cover, measure the seasonal
variation of
dry-ice frost that covers both poles during their winter months
and help
interpret data from the gamma-ray spectrometer to determine the
quantity and
composition of the most abundant elements on the planet.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of
California
for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the
U.S.
Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia
and
Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its
mission.
Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring safety and
confidence in the
U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats
from
weapons of mass destruction and improving the environmental and
nuclear
materials legacy of the cold war. Los Alamos' capabilities assist
the nation
in addressing energy, environment, infrastructure and biological
security
problems.
EDITORS' NOTE: Photographs for news use are available online at:
http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/MarsOdyssey.html
===========
(5) MINOR PLANET NAMED AFTER RUSSIAN COMEDIAN
>From Space.com, 29 May 2002
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/russian_comedian_020529.html
By Interfax
KYIV. May 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) - During his summer tour of the
Crimea,
Russian comedian Mikhail Zadornov will receive a diploma from the
International Astronomical Union saying that a minor planet
discovered by
scientists from the Crimean astrophysical observatory has been
named after
him.
"There are not so many witty people, they are always
loved," leading staff
member of the observatory Nikolai Chernykh told Interfax giving
the reason
for the choice of the name.
Chernykh said that Lyudmila, his wife and colleague, had
discovered the
planet.
It is the prerogative of the discoverer to name a new planet and
the idea
came from the son of the astronomers. In 2001 their choice was
approved by
the International Astronomical Union commission that comprises
scientists
from 10 countries, including the United States, Japan, Russia,
Germany,
Britain, Austria and the Czech Republic.
The minor planet Mikhail Zadornov has been registered in the
international
catalogue of minor planets with a stable orbit as No. 5043. It
has a
diameter of 12 kilometers, makes one revolution every five years
and is
visible from the earth once every 15 months.
Chernykh said that the Crimean observatory is the only place in
the former
Soviet Union where minor planets are discovered. Out of the 5,000
planets
discovered by the photographic method, 1,270 were discovered in
the Crimea.
Copyright 2002, Interfax
============
(6) TEACHING ALTERNATIVE TO EVOLUTION BACKED
>From Washington Post, 29 May 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23887-2002May28.html
Teaching Alternative To Evolution Backed
Ohio Lawmakers Cite Reform Legislation
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Two House Republicans are citing landmark education reform
legislation in
pressing for the adoption of a school science curriculum in their
home state
of Ohio that includes the teaching of an alternative to
evolution.
In what both sides of the debate say is the first attempt of its
kind, Reps.
John A. Boehner and Steve Chabot have urged the Ohio Board of
Education to
consider the language in a conference report that accompanied the
major
education law enacted earlier this year.
"Where topics are taught that may generate controversy (such
as biological
evolution), the curriculum should help students to understand the
full range
of scientific views that exist," the lawmakers wrote in
aletter to the Ohio
board, quoting the conference report language.
That language was crafted with the help of a leading proponent of
"intelligent design theory," which contends that the
very complexity of life
is evidence that the world was organized by a guiding
intelligence.
The growing movement behind that theory, which does not attribute
the
world's creation to God, is supported by conservative Christian
groups,
whose drive to include the teaching of Bible-based "creation
science" in
public schools was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in
1987.
David Schnittger, a spokesman for Boehner, stressed that the
conference
report language cited in the March 13 letter to Ohio's state
board "does not
endorse the teaching of any particular topic or philosophy or
curriculum."
While conference report language does not have the force of law,
it has in
the past been used as the basis for regulations that guide how
laws are
enforced.
But many officials from science and education groups, most of
whom back
teaching only evolution, call the language part of a wider
campaign to force
intelligent-design theory into the nation's science classrooms.
They fear
that the congressional language will be used to challenge the
teaching of
evolution across the country.
"When language like this is included on the national level,
it provides
ammunition that people use in local battles," said W. Eric
Meikle, outreach
coordinator for the National Center for Science Education, a
nonprofit
organization that defends the teaching of evolution.
Similarly, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the
Senate's
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a supporter
of the
conference report language, said he opposes the teaching of
intelligent
design.
"I believe that public school classes should focus on
teaching students how
to understand and critically analyze genuine scientific theories.
Unlike
biological evolution, intelligent design is not a genuine
scientific theory,
and therefore, has no place in the curriculum of our nation's
public school
science classes," he said in a statement.
The Ohio school board has been embroiled for months in a
controversy over
whether to include intelligent-design theory, along with
evolutionary
science, in a revised science curriculum scheduled to be approved
later this
year. Evolutionary science holds that all existing organisms
developed from
earlier life forms through natural selection.
Proponents of the intelligent-design theory have cited language
in the
federal law as the basis for including lessons on the theory
wherever
evolution is taught. The letter from Boehner and Chabot was
written in an
attempt to clarify how federal law affects the debate in Ohio.
Still, the
head of the Ohio Board of Education is not sure what impact the
House
members' letter may have.
"[It] seems to suggest that science should be taught in the
spirit of free
inquiry, including the discussion of the pros and cons of
theories," said
Jennifer L. Sheets, the board's president.
Other board members say, however, that the letter could be
interpreted as
supporting intelligent design. "Supporters of that viewpoint
will use that
letter to bolster that point of view," said Virgil E. Brown,
a Cleveland
lawyer who sits on the state panel.
"I look at the letter as misleading," said Cyrus B.
Richardson Jr., the
board vice president. "It makes it sound like the law says
you have to teach
intelligent design, when that isn't in the law."
For that reason, science groups had opposed the conference report
language,
which was approved late last year.
"The apparently innocuous statements in this resolution mask
an
anti-evolution agenda that has been repeatedly rejected by the
courts," said
a joint letter signed by 80 educational and scientific groups,
from the
American Anthropological Association and the Society of
Protozoologists to
the National Association of Biology Teachers.
The nation's leading science organizations generally view
intelligent-design
theory as a pseudo-scientific way to teach creationism, the
latest front in
a battle that dates to the well-known 1925 conviction of
Tennessee science
teacher John T. Scopes for teaching evolution.
But intelligent-design theory apparently resonates with the
public. In their
letter to the Ohio board, Boehner, chairman of the House
Committee on
Education and the Workforce, and Chabot cited a 2001 Zogby poll
that found
that 71 percent of those surveyed supported offering students the
"scientific evidence against evolution." The two
lawmakers suggested that
the exclusion of such evidence would amount to a "censorship
of opposing
points of view."
While Ohio is now the main battleground, in recent years
legislatures or
school boards in such states as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Hawaii,
New Mexico,
Kentucky, Oklahoma and Kansas have also been wrestling with the
issue.
Intelligent-design proponents -- such as Phillip E. Johnson, a
University of
California at Berkeley law professor whose 1991 book "Darwin
on Trial"
lifted the fledgling intelligent-design movement from obscurity
-- hope to
bring the concept to other state curricula.
"If you are going to teach the Darwinist view that organisms
may look like
they were designed but weren't, then you have to allow for the
possibility
that they look like they were designed because they were
designed," said
Johnson, who helped draft the language that was eventually
distilled into
the conference report.
Johnson's writings make clear, however, that his aims extend into
the realm
of religion. "When people are taught for years on end that
good thinking is
naturalistic thinking, and that bringing God into the picture
only leads to
confusion and error, they have to be pretty dense not to get the
point that
God must be an illusion," he wrote in another book,
"Defeating Darwinism by
Opening Minds."
The language that Johnson helped craft was originally introduced
as a
nonbinding resolution by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). The
resolution passed
the Senate last June in a 91 to 8 vote. Eight Republicans,who
considered the
measure an unwarranted intrusion into local curriculum matters,
voted
against it.
Senate supporters shrugged off the concerns of science groups,
calling the
measure an innocuous statement of the elements of good science
education.
"We want children to be able to speak and examine various
scientific
theories on the basis of all of the information that is available
to them,"
said Kennedy, who backed the Santorum measure.
Federal law has long barred Washington from controlling state and
local
school instructional content -- a prohibition that has been
guarded by GOP
lawmakers through the years. With little attention, however, that
outright
prohibition was weakenedby Congress in 1994 when it barred the
federal
government only from controlling "specific" state or
local instructional
matters.
The education bill enacted earlier this year also suggested that
Washington
could exercise some general control over state and local
curricula but not
require the teaching of specific subjects. Federal education
officials,
however, said they have no intention of interpreting the language
as
requiring local school systems to teach alternatives to
evolution.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
============================
* LETTERS TO THE MODERATOR *
============================
(7) 6TH CENTURY CATASTROPHE: WELSH DRAGONS PROBABLY COMETS
>From Mike Baillie <m.baillie@qub.ac.uk>
Benny,
I much enjoyed Melfyn Thomas' discourse on Welsh dragons and the
sixth
century (CCNet 24/5/02). I would just correct one minor error.
Gibbon
discusses comets in 531 and 539, the former being Halley.
AD 539 is a more
interesting date than 537 (as given) because the Irish oak
chronology shows
its worst effects in 540/541. I have argued for some time that
the AD
536-545 episode is a two stage event, with something in 536 and
something
else in the vicinity of 539/540/541/542. To give an example, new
tree-ring
information from Mongolia indicates, yet again, that the most
severe part of
the event was not around 535-536 but in the early 540s (D'Arrigo
et al.
2001).
It is interesting to see what they say about the event:
"In AD 536 the Index value is 0.645, relative to the
long-term mean of 1.0.
Standard deviation (SD) is 0.204 over the full length of the
chronology.
This low growth value signals the onset of an unusually cold
decade (AD
536-545) in which the mean ring-width index is 0.670 (SD 0.240),
with a
minimum of 0.37 in AD 543. AD 538 shows a brief recovery with an
index value
of 1.223. As noted, this two stage pattern is also evident
in the European
oak and other tree-ring series and may signify a delayed climatic
response
to one event (as is typical for many volcanic eruptions - e.g.,
Stothers
(2000) or possibly two separate events (Baillie, 1994,
1999b)"
Baillie, M.G.L. 1994 Dendrochronology raises questions about the
nature of
the AD 536 dust-veil event. The Holocene 4 (2), 212-217
Baillie, M.G.L. 1999b Exodus to Arthur: catastrophic encounters
with comets
Batsford, London
D'Arrigo, R., Frank, D., Jacoby, G. and Pederson, N. 2001 Spatial
Response
to Major Volcanic Events in or about AD 536, 934 and 1258: frost
rings and
other dendrochronological evidence from Mongolia and Northern
Siberia.
Climatic Change 49, 239-246
The other significance of AD 539 is that in N Ireland we have
trees
physically affected in the sixth century, one was damaged and
pushed over in
539. It is illustrated in Current Archaeology 174 (June 2001)
page 268. N
Ireland is not a million miles from Wales so the idea of Welsh
observers
recording the events of that time is not too far fetched;
particularly if a
cosmic swarm was involved a la Clube and Napier.
I'd like to add one piece on Taliesin. It became obvious to me
when writing
Exodus to Arthur that, given who Taliesin is, the list of places
he had
known (as detailed by Melfyn Thomas), suggested he was describing
himself as
a comet. Later, as I read the other famous Taliesin poem,
ironically, in the context of this note, entitled, "The
Battle of the Trees"
the answer was presented on a plate.
In this poem Taliesin tells us among other things that "I
have been in many
shapes" i.e. he is a shapeshifting god; "I have been a
shining star" i.e. he
has been something bright in the heavens, and "There shall
be black
darkness, there shall be a shaking of the mountain, There shall
be a purifying furnace, There shall first be a great wave"
i.e. associated
with him are all the symptoms of something environmentally
unpleasant, and
then he gives the answer overtly.
Finally, Taliesin tells us "I have been an evil star
formerly". The only
definition of an evil star that I know agrees with that given by
Sagan and
Druyan "Everywhere on Earth, with only a few exceptions,
comets were
harbingers of unwanted change, ill-fortune and evil". The
sixth century
Welsh Taliesin was an evil star, therefore he was a comet.
I think we know the answer on this one. Of course someone will
write in to
tell me, as they do evey time, that really the descriptions
relate to a
volcano and by implication Taliesin was really a Welsh volcano!
Just to recap; tree-rings and bits of human history tell us there
was a
catastrophic environmental event around AD 540 and probably
better defined
as a two stage event in the window AD 536-545. Virtually no-one
disagrees
with that statement. Ice-core evidence for volcanic acid does not
give
definitive evidence for a major volcano or volcanoes in that time
window.
However, mythology gives us Taliesin in Wales (as above), the
death of
Arthur in Britain (which can be linked through Celtic gods to
Lugh/Finn and
their comet associations, see Current Archaeology 174), Gibbon's
reference
to a terrible comet in 539, Roger of Wendover's reference to a
vast comet
seen from Gaul in 540/541 (disallowed by historians as medieval
fantasy).
The answer is self evident. I just hope those acquainted with
Celtic and
other mythology will keep working on these early stories to see
how much detail
of the events they can tease out. In my view the ancient
druid/poets/astronomers
encoded these stories because they thought the information they
were encoding
was important. Our current recognition of the hazards posed by
comets fully
justifies their concern.
Mike Baillie
===========
(8) AND FINALLY: BEING WIRED HELPS YOU CONNECT
>From the BBC, 29 May 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2010000/2010672.stm
People who spend time online are not sad, lonely individuals with
no social
life.
Quite the opposite, argues Professor Keith Hampton, an expert in
cyber-sociology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"The social impact of new communications technologies is a
greater number of
social ties, more diverse social ties, more support," he
said.
"It doesn't cut into your phone communication. It doesn't
interfere with
your face-to-face contact. It just increases communication,"
Professor
Hampton told the BBC programme, Go Digital.
Binding communities
Various studies have suggested that people who spend time online
are more
vulnerable to unhappiness and loneliness.
One report by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University suggested
that even
spending an hour a week surfing the internet could increase
depression.
But in his research on the relationship between technology,
social
relationships and the urban environment, Professor Hampton has
found that
the internet can serve to bind a community together.
"It's all garbage," he said of studies labelling net
users as depressed or
lonely individuals.
He argues that the key difference between his research and other
studies is
that he sees the internet as part of people's everyday lives.
"The internet is just another communication medium that any
of us use to
communicate with friends and family," he said.
"If you look at it as just another technology that provides
you with access
to people, you see that communication online leads to more
communication, in
person or on the phone."
Unique neighbourhood
Professor Hampton is a pioneer of cyber-sociology.
For his doctorate, he spent two years as a member of the Netville
project, a
wired neighbourhood in the suburbs of Toronto.
The community was built from the ground up with a high-speed
computer
network - offering fast internet access - a videophone, an online
jukebox,
online health services, local discussion forums and entertainment
and
educational software.
Professor Hampton found that living in a wired community
encouraged greater
community involvement, strengthened relationships with neighbours
and
family, and helped maintain ties with friends and relatives
living farther
away.
"Netville was a unique situation," he said. "It
allowed people to form
social relationships when they moved in and solve all sorts of
problems you
encounter when you move to a new suburban community.
"When you move into a new home, one of the first questions
is where can I
find a babysitter, where can I find the best pizzeria? All these
questions
were answered online with information by existing
residents."
Ironically, once the research project was over, the companies
that had
provided the technology that went into people's homes decided to
take it all
out.
Faced with the loss of their technology infrastructure, the
residents pulled
together to replace what they had lost.
"They now all have cable modem access and they have
replicated their
neighbourhood e-mail list," said Professor Hampton.
"These were the most important technologies to them -
broadband access to
the internet and simple e-mail technology that allows you to
communicate
with your neighbours."
Copyright 2002, BBC
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