Posted on 08/12/2018 7:56:38 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
...But Keller doesn’t buy any of it. “It’s like a fairy tale: ‘Big rock from sky hits the dinosaurs, and boom they go.’ And it has all the aspects of a really nice story,” she said. “It’s just not true.”
...Keller’s resistance has put her at the core of one of the most rancorous and longest-running controversies in science. “It’s like the Thirty Years’ War,” says Kirk Johnson, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Impacters’ case-closed confidence belies decades of vicious infighting, with the two sides trading accusations of slander, sabotage, threats, discrimination, spurious data, and attempts to torpedo careers. “I’ve never come across anything that’s been so acrimonious,” Kerr says. “I’m almost speechless because of it.” Keller keeps a running list of insults that other scientists have hurled at her, either behind her back or to her face. She says she’s been called a “bitch” and “the most dangerous woman in the world,” who “should be stoned and burned at the stake.”
...Although Keller’s father enlisted his brood to tend the land—working them so hard that a neighbor once reported him—the family constantly teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. To put meat on the table, Keller’s mother once stewed up one of the cats the family kept on the farm. Another time, she gave an older daughter some fresh “mutton” as a gift—in actuality, Keller’s butchered pet dog.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
He’s the endothermic dinosaurs guy!
What is his boundary theory?
And yes, I read your page.
Correct! But their eggs are buried in a pile of rotting vegetation, an oxygen depleted environment insulated from the surface effects and due to the dampness, relatively fire resistant.
As long as some of the eggs survive, the species survives.
Good catch, I’m glad you’re thinking through the implications and spotting possible errors!
And polar bears don’t eat penguins.
Only because they are GU.
Geographically Undesirable.
Shackleton and crew ate them and burned them for warmth, very oily.
What caused Alverez to focus on the impact clay layer was a vast abundance of foraminifera in their trillions below the layer, and a near total absence above it.
That's why they did a iridium measurement in the first place, if the thin clay layer was deposited in a very short while there would be little micro-meteor deposited iridium incorporated in it.
The more iridium the more micrometeors would have had time to contribute their little bit to the total.
They found a HUGE amount. Why? was the layer billions of years in the making? Or was the iridium delivered in one big lump? The knew from other dating methods that the layer could be no more than a few hundreds of thousands of years.
Right.
DUMBGRUNT on Bakker: "What is his boundary theory?"
Last time I checked he does not believe an asteroid/comet by itself did the job.
He thinks other factors also involved, i.e., new diseases.
DUMBGRUNT: "And yes, I read your page."
Posted in 2004, nothing's changed. ;-)
“When you are hungry enough you will eat dog, and fight over the bones!”-HOMBRE (Paul Newman)
Reminds me of a scene from KING RAT in which the POWs get a dead dog and proceed to cook it, Several are reluctant eat it, but after they taste it, they find it is GOOD, and gobble it down.
Anyone ever read a book titled THE BONE PEDDLERS by William Fix? A rather interesting look at how certain “scientists” rule the roost on what and how various fossil finds are presented.
However, Fix’s own ideas on “evolution” are also strange.
um... the whole thing IS a joke
Mr K: "um... the whole thing IS a joke"
The evidence is not a joke, it is what it is.
Dinosaur fossils disappear from the geological record after the K-T boundary, the serious question is, why?
Some scientists insist that the Chicxulub asteroid explains 100% of the extinctions.
Others like Gerta Keller say there must have been other factors.
Of course scientists are not immune to human nature, but the basic debate is both serious and scholarly, this particular article notwithstanding.
You mean Blazing Saddles was a documentary???
Interesting to see the scientific principles a scientist will jettison if they are sufficiently personally invested in a theory.
The following came from an addled conversation between Nully and myself many years ago... in 2006 or so.
Myself:
I’m still wondering what the odds are on there being a Keller on the ship when it ‘went missing’.
(They stole it and ran off to parts unknown..)
Nully:
The Keller Triangle?
Myself:
“There.. in the dark.. behind glassy seas they await..”
Nully:
Wine dark seas...
Myself:
Inexorably they move closer, soon excited gibbers are heard, suddenly it is too late!
They are aboard and all are doomed!
Nully:
They creep in the shadows on the deck. The faint squelching sounds drowned out by the sounds of wind and wave. Closer they glide, leaving damp trails behind, like an arrow pointing to the heart of the ship...
Myself:
Deep in the bowels of the doomed vessel a wisened figure sits bolt upright.
He knows these waters.
He’s heard the tales.
Instinctively his mind screams at him to abandon ship as all hope was lost.
The mantra playing in his head: Doooomed, doooomed, dooomed, you are doomed.
He shook his head, he knew it was the voices of them.
They who were even now walking towards his position to bring the vessel to.. elsewhere.
Nully:
The captian stared in fascination at the compass needle’s slow even counter-clockwise spin.
He felt a chill as he suddenly realized where ded reckoning said they were.
That chill masked the very real drop in temperature that oozed from the dark shapeless thing approaching his back...
Myself:
Muttering prayers to various dieties, the crew watched the St Elmos Fire creep along the deck plating.
Down in the hold, some crewmen were sleeping, never to awake again as a figure hovered over them.
Doomed, dooomed, dooomed, you are doomed.
The boilerman ran up the stairs, he had to warn them had to tell the Captain to turn..
A dark, damp figure blocked his path as his heart froze.
Slowly the face tilted upwards to look him in the eyes.
Those eyes, those dead eyes!
The scream froze in his throat as he wheeled around to flee.
Back on the bridge, the Captain sensed something, too late, too painfully late..
Nully:
Her lovely face lay alone on a pillow, the halo of shining hair only added to her peaceful angelic expression. She had heard from her husband on the ship-to-shore, the trip was going uneventfully and he missed her terribly, and couldn’t wait to get home in a few days. She couldn’t wait either!
She was dreaming a wonderful but very real dream, Bill had taken her on a surprise romantic picnic. He had found a secluded clearing high on a hillside with a stunning view of the whole river valley spread before them in the jewel-like canvas of a landscape master.
A checked table cloth, and classic wicker basket (Where did he get that?) completed the setting.
Afer a delightful repast of fried chicken, several cheeses, crackers and a few well selected wines they were laying side by side in the warm sun, talking about nothing in particular, and enjoying the occasional passing butterfly or bird.
She closed her eyes, the better to feel the closeness and warmth, and let the sunshine beat redly through her eyelids.
At this exact point a cherub gazing at in her bedroom would have seen the sudden frown.
The redness vanished, had one of the occasional puffy clouds covered the sun? And why was it suddenly cold, so very, very cold?
Her eyes popped open, the dream was gone and she was in her room, but it was still terribly cold. It felt dank somehow.
Dimly she saw a shape at the foot of her bed. She grabbed her glasses. It was Bill!
He was dripping wet and looked terrified! He reached for her, and she saw him mouthing HELP ME! Help Me! help me... as something dark wrapped itself tenticle like around his middle and snatched him away.
Neighbors half a block away heard her scream...
Myself:
Back on the ship, strange figures began a slow circling dance in the forward cargo hold.
The St Elmos Fire crept inexorably outward from the slow milling circling dance.
Shadowy damp hands waved skywards then deckwards, tracing out shapes, motions, meanings.
The boilerman was frozen in place in the center, screaming voicelessly as the din of rain started and drowned him out.
He heard someone above shout, and saw the Captain in the grip of some thing, some indescribable thing.
Cthulus illegititmate offspring with a squid?
Davy Jones unfortunate sister?
Something worse?
“HELP ME! Help Me! Oh GOD Help me!” the grip around his middle looked painful to the extreme as the thing carried him to the side.
It seemed to lean overboard and look for something, if a faceles shape could lean and look, and then kicked the lifeboat cogs free.
The Captain clawed for air as he was hurled overboard.
Doomed, doomed, dooomed, you will come with us.. yooou will all come with usss.
The voices in his head, in his heart, in his soul, rising to a crescendo as the dance became faster.
The St Elmos Fire was covering the entire ship, inside and out.
It was raining, yet the weather had been calm.
The shapeless thing walked up to the circle and pointed at the boilerman.
Yoou shall stay with ussss..
His world faded into oily midnight blackness.
Nully:
When the tentacle like thing released him, as abruptly as a light switch, the Captain’s fear turned to rage. How dare that, uh, thing throw him off his ship!
Help me! turned to DAMN YOU!!!
Half way to the water, instincts and training took over. Like an Olympic high diver he twisted in the air. Feet down and together. Knees slightly bent. Left hand over crotch. Right elbow tucked into solar plexus. Right hand protecting face. Almost enough time for a full breath.
It was like hitting wet concrete. He smashed into the warm surface waters and blew through them into the cold depths. Frantically he clawed for the surface. Must. Have. Air! Up, up, up, then clunk! He hit his head on something hard. Up! Clunk! He felt panic rising. No, that won’t do. Think, man, think! He reached up to feel the barrier. It felt like a giant fluted architectural column. Ah! The bottom of a life boat!
Swim to the side and up. Lungs ready to burst, his face finally broke the water. Coughing and spluttering he reached up and grabbed the gunnels. The boat rocked in the water, could he pull himself up on the side? No, not quite.
With his attention fixed on getting in the boat, he didn’t see the triangular fin approaching him lazily from behind.
Hand over hand he worked himself to the stern of the boat. The fin got closer.
Heave and kick. Not quite enough as he splashed noisily back into the water. The fin twitched at the interesting sounds and vibrations, and started in a bit faster.
Heave and kick kick kick! Sounds yummy. The captain managed to get his center of gravity over the transom and with a final kick/wiggle/slither fell awkwardly into the boat just as a dark shape passed under him.
His ship! Where was his ship? He propped himself up on his elbows then rolled over and sat up. As the shark circled under the now quiet lifeboat looking for that interesting wiggly splashy thing, the captain scanned the horizon. There! half way around he spied the retreating stern of his ship. It seemed to be traveling under it’s own personal rain cloud in an otherwise clear sky.
As he watched it faded from view, almost but not quite, like a ship melting into the mist. The same washing out of colors only more translucent. Then it was gone.
It took the rain cloud with it.
Bored with inspecting nothing, the shark retreated into the depths. The captain never saw him...
Yep. More like geographically unobtainable.
In the case of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (climate change), the controversy may stem from the fact that it’s all made up bullsquat advanced and maintained by humanity haters and their useful idiots.
In the case of Citizens Against Government Waste, its due to the fact that there’s some old school bleeding that needs be done.
And for Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington (Washington, DC), same as for Citizens Against Government Waste.
Sad to see what is probably a whole department (or more than one) at Princeton get dragged down into its grave.
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