Wednesday, 30 September 2020

Sahara Was Once Wet

 



Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Joel Kontinen

The Sahara was once wet.

 

 “Sometime between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, after the last ice age ended, the Sahara Desert transformed. Green vegetation grew atop the sandy dunes and increased rainfall turned arid caverns into lakes. About 9 million square kilometers or 3.5 million square miles of Northern Africa turned green, drawing in animals such as hippos, antelopes, elephants and aurochs (wild ancestors of domesticated cattle), who feasted on its thriving grasses and shrubs. This lush paradise is long gone, but could it ever return? 

 

However, a much better explanation is the flood of  Noah’s time roughly 4,500 years ago

Evolutionist claim that” the Green Sahara, also known as the African Humid Period, was caused by the Earth's constantly changing orbital rotation around its axis, a pattern that repeats itself every 23,000 years, according to Kathleen Johnson, an associate professor of Earth systems at the University of California Irvine.

This is based on the faulty teachings  of  Milankovitch cycles(i.e. changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun), They are unable to explain why our planet would have had an ice age.

Source.

Coffey, Donavyn, 2020. Could the Sahara ever be green again.?  Live Science  28 September

 

Monday, 28 September 2020

Leftist Want To Divide America

 


Image Courtesy Of Values Voter Summit / screen grab.

 

Joel Kontinen

 Dr. Ben Carson has been a Trump supporter for ages. Now, it a speech in Washington, he considered how leftists are trying to divide America.

 Dr. Ben Carson said that despite the astonishing progress made in race relations during his lifetime, people are being divided during this election season in every way possible in order to create chaos as a means to force change.   

Dr. Carson this election season, everything is race and, obviously, it’s being manipulated along those lines, said Dr. Carson, the Trump Administration’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, at the Sept. 24 Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. 

In order to create the kind of chaos that’s necessary to make people want a change, you divide them,” said Carson.  “You divide them in every way you possibly can, by race, by gender, by age, by income, and you see that happening.” 

We, the American people, are not each other’s enemies,” he declared, “and if you really were to sit most people down side by side and start talking about a lot of issues, you would find for the vast majority of people you agree on probably 90% of stuff.”  

But what they want to do is they take the 10% that you don’t agree on and they just try to foment that into the biggest thing in the world and keep throwing it in front of your face night after night, day after day,” he explained of the leftist-induced destructive urban civil unrest that has rocked the country in recent months.  

Look at corporate America —you know how they kind of fall in line and submit to Black Lives Matter and whoever else is holding the big stick over their head,” said Carson.  

Well, guess what?  If people of faith and people of principle begin to stand up for what they believe in, they will also start catering to them,” he asserted.

For the nation to move forward, “People of faith really need to ask themselves, what do they believe?” said Carson. 

In particular,

Do you believe … , in killing babies? Is that consistent with your faith

“Do you believe in destroying someone else’s livelihood because you disagree with them?  Is that something that’s consistent with your faith?”  

“Do you believe in calling people nasty names and making their lives difficult?  Is that the kind of love that the Bible tells us about?”

“We say we are one nation under God, and the real question is, is that true?” he continued.  “And are we a nation of faith?”  

“Do we believe in godly principles of loving your fellow man and caring about your neighbour and, you know, developing your God-given talents to the utmost so that you become valuable to people around you having values and principles that guide your life?” he asked.  

So, if these things are not rectified America will go the way every other nation that has rejected God.

Source: Mainwaring.Doug  2020.   Life Site News 25 September


Saturday, 26 September 2020

A Newfound Earth-Size Exoplanet Is Rocky And Hot



I

Joel Kontinen 


Astronomers have found a new exoplanet, that has the name Pi, because it orbits its sun every 3.14 days.

Named K2-315, as it was the 315 exoplanet found by NASA's  Kepler space telescope. 

Its host star is just one-fifth the size of our sun and not nearly as hot. But the newfound exoplanet's extreme orbital proximity still makes its surface quite toasty — about 177 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit, the research team estimated.

"This would be too hot to be habitable in the common understanding of the phrase," Prajwal Niraula said in the statement.


Some exoplanet are just weird.  

Wall. Mike. 2020.  Live Science 23 September

 

Thursday, 24 September 2020

No Hints Of Life On Venus, Sceptics Say


 

Image courtesy of NASA. 




Joel Kontinen

Last week, the blogosphere and some journals were full of the story that life was found on  the upper layers of  Venus that only living creatures on Earth could produce, .”At the centre of this debate is the molecule phosphine, or PH3, which is made from one phosphorus atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms. Phosphine is a nasty and poisonous gas for many creatures, including humans, but is produced by bacteria living in rotting sewage and swamps where oxygen is lacking, as well as in the intestines of some animals

Here on Earth, phosphine is associated with living organisms, but Venus is quite literally an alien planet, and scientists don't yet fully understand its many complex details.”

Now, some scientist doubt the results they have achieved. And some doubt the result they have made. In any case, the Venus has life is in not in the clouds but in deep water.

Source:

Mann, Adam. 2020. 'Grand claims' of life on Venus lack evidence, skeptics say. .Live Science.23 September


Monday, 21 September 2020

Search For Alien Life In The Solar System

 


Enceladus, Image courtesy of NASA, public domain.


Joel Kontinen

When the creation account  in Genesis is discarded, scientists have a find novel ways to discover where life came from. The Earth's biosphere contains all the known ingredients necessary for life for instance liquid water, at least one source of energy, and an inventory of biologically useful elements and molecules.

But the recent discovery of possibly biogenic phosphine  in the clouds of Venus

Reminds us that at least some of these ingredients exist elsewhere in the solar system too. Here are the other most promising locations for extraterrestrial life.

Mars

Mars is one of the most Earth-like worlds in the solar system. It has a 24.5-hour day, polar ice caps that expand and contract with the seasons, and a large array of surface features that were sculpted by water during the planet's history.

The detection of a lake beneath the southern polar ice cap and methane in the Martian atmosphere (which varies with the seasons and even the time of day) make Mars a very interesting candidate for life. Methane is significant as it can be produced by biological processes. But the actual source for the methane on Mars is not yet known.

It is possible that life may have gained a foothold, given the evidence that the planet once had a much more benign environment. Today, Mars has a very thin, dry atmosphere comprised almost entirely of carbon dioxide.

OUND

Europa

Europa  is slightly smaller than Earth's moon and orbits the gas giant at a distance of some 670,000km once every 3.5 days. Europa is constantly squeezed and stretched by the competing gravitational fields of Jupiter and the other Galilean moons, a process known as tidal flexing.

The moon is believed to be a geologically active world, like the Earth, because the strong tidal flexing heats its rocky, metallic interior and keeps it partially molten.

The surface of Europa is a vast expanse of water ice. Many scientists think that beneath the frozen surface is a layer of liquid water — a global ocean — which is prevented from freezing by the heat from flexing and which maybe over 100km deep.

At the bottom of this ocean world it is conceivable that we might find hydrothermal vents and ocean floor volcanoes. On Earth, such features often support very rich and diverse ecosystems.

Enceladus

Like Europa, Enceladus is an ice-covered moon with a subsurface ocean of liquid water. Enceladus orbits Saturn and first came to the attention of scientists as a potentially habitable world following the surprise discovery of enormous geysers near the moon's south pole.

These jets of water escape from large cracks on the surface and, given Enceladus' weak gravitational field, spray out into space. They are clear evidence of an underground store of liquid water.

Not only was water detected in these geysers but also an array of organic molecules and, crucially, tiny grains of rocky silicate particles that can only be present if the subsurface ocean water was in physical contact with the rocky ocean floor at a temperature of at least 90˚C. This is very strong evidence for the existence of hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, providing the chemistry needed for life and localized sources of energy.

Titan

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere. It contains a thick orange haze of complex organic molecules and a methane weather system in place of water — complete with seasonal rains, dry periods and surface sand dunes created by wind.

The atmosphere consists mostly of nitrogen, an important chemical element used in the construction of proteins in all known forms of life. Radar observations have detected the presence of  rivers and lakes s of liquid methane and ethane and possibly the presence of cryovolcanoes — volcano-like features that erupt liquid water rather than lava. This suggests that Titan, like Europa and Enceladus, has a subsurface reserve of liquid water.

At such an enormous distance from the Sun, the surface temperatures on Titan are a frigid -180˚C — way too cold for liquid water. However, the bountiful chemicals available on Titan has raised speculation that lifeforms — potentially with fundamentally different chemistry to terrestrial organisms — could according to evolutionists exist there.

 But not according to the Genesis view.

 

 Source:


Dorrian, Gareth. 2020. The four most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system.  Live Science. 18 September.


Saturday, 19 September 2020

A Mummified Cave Bear With Soft Tissue Found In Siberia

Image courtesy of North-Eastern Federal University, fair use doctrine. 

Joel Kontinen 

Siberia seems to be a treasure drove for ancient animals. Scientists have found wolves, a burly unicorn and a horse with blood flowing from it and cave lions that were not able to be fossilised despite being 10,000 years old

 Now, they have discovered a mummified cave bear, It has soft tissue, including its fur and even its black nose. 

Reindeer hunters have found the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) mummy on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky island, in the East Siberian Sea brown bear (U. arctos) and the polar bear (U. maritimus). 

 The article in live science also brought to live the fact that they were there for almost a million years: After living in Eurasia since at least 300,000 years ago, cave bears mysteriously went extinct some 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, Humans likely hunted the bears to extinction, a 2019 study in the journal Scientific Reports found. 

Source: 
Geggel, Laura. 2020. Cave bear mummy discovered in Siberia still has its internal organs, fur and black nose.  Live Science 15 September.

Tuesday, 15 September 2020

Life on Venus?

 

Image courtesy of NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, public domain.


Joel Kontinen

Astronomers have detected gas in the clouds of Venus.

 That gas is phosphine - a molecule made up of one phosphorus atom and three hydrogen atoms.”

Now, here on earth “phosphine is associated with life, with microbes living in the guts of animals like penguins, or in oxygen-poor environments such as swamps.”

 But there are no penguins or even factories on Venus, so why does the gas be there, 50 kilometres above the surface. The scientist can be sure.

 We can be sceptical, as most scientist are. There are too many hurdles for life to have emerged, from the clouds that hang over our sister planet, and life has to be created it does not just appear in places that are inhospitable to life.

 

Source:

Amos,Jonathan, 2020. Is there life floating in the clouds of Venus? .BBC.News. 14 September.




Sunday, 13 September 2020

Why Do Dogs Have Cold Noses?

 



Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Joel Kontinen

Why do dog’s noses feel cold and wet?

When a  dog is satisfied, it may bump its nose into a human, as a way of saying thanks.

But then the owner will wonder whether it is all right for a dog to feel like it.

It is normal, said Anna Bálint, a researcher who studies animal behaviour at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary.

In a study published in February 2020 in the journal Scientific Reports ,tested 13 pet dogs trained to lie still in a functional MRI scanner.

"A heat signal could help the dogs," she said.

The article does not indulge in evolution, but on reporting facts as such.

Source:

Leviss, Dani. 2020. Why do dogs have cold noses? Live Science 12 September.


Friday, 11 September 2020

'Oumuamua is not a space invader, sent by aliens to spy on Earth

 




ESO/M Kornmesser, nagualdesign, CC BY-SA 4.0

Joel Kontinen

Ever since it floated into our system, the interstellar visitor Oumuamua has intrigued and perplexed scientists. Now, a new theory has said that the cigar shaped space rock might actually be a DUST BUMMNNY,

The study, led by Jane Luu, an astronomer at the University of Oslo in Norway, was published  'Oumuamuaon September 4 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that the ”interstellar space rock could have formed from dust blown off the nucleus of a comet outside of our solar system. This rock, an accumulation of rock and dust from the comet, would be pushed through space by solar radiation and eventually take a short tour of our solar system.

The cigar-shaped interloper ”could have formed from dust blown off the nucleus of a comet outside of our solar system. This rock, an accumulation of rock and dust from the comet, would be pushed through space by solar radiation and eventually take a short tour of our solar system.”

Some early texts supposed that 'Oumuamua was a space invader, sent by aliens to spy on Earth.

Source:

Gohd, Chelsea. 2020. Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua could actually be a cosmic dust bunny   Live Science 9 September.


Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Chinese Texts Predate Greek Texts On Anatomy


Image courtesy of the History Collection / Alamy Stock Photo, Fair use doctrine.


Joel Kontinen

Darwinism has for long made clear that humans were very unsophisticated in the beginning, but more and more  texts and artefacts that propose the contrary have been discovered.

 

A research term has found 2,200-year-old Chinese texts that likely pertain to the human body. The texts were discovered in the 1970s.

 

In a paper recently published Sept. 1 in the journal The Anatomical Record, a research team led by Vivien Shaw, an anatomy lecturer at Bangor University in Wales in the United Kingdom, argues that these texts "are the oldest surviving anatomical atlas in the world."

The team concludes that the texts "represent the earliest surviving anatomical atlas, designed to provide a concise description of the human body for students and practitioners of medicine in ancient China.”

Source:

Jarus, Owen, 2020. 2,200-year-old Chinese text may be oldest surviving anatomical atlas.  Live Science 8 September