Posted on 08/24/2006 4:18:32 PM PDT by blam
Personally, I love Barry Fell and have all of his books.
I also love the fringe dwellers and heretics of archaelogy, in general.
I've felt that way ever since my 6th grade class went to the C&O canal on a field trip back in the 70s.
My science teacher stood in one of the limestone block tunnels that provide an access path through the mountains to the canal and told the kids to look up at the 2-6 inch stalactites hanging there.
Then, with a completely straight face, he said "Stalactites take millions of years to form".
The portion of C&O canal that we were at had the tunnels built at the same time as the canals themselves, in the mid-1800s.
I haven't taken anything 'scientific' at face value ever since.
People may flame me for saying this and straying from the accepted orthodoxy but remember; today's heretic often winds up as tomorrow's prophet....:)
A less than observant statement by your 6th grade science teacher should not be used as carte blanche to disregard accurate observations by others.
I fear you came away from that experience with the wrong lesson.
*shrug*
I question "accurate observations" all the time.
A *lot* of things I was told were "accurate" years ago have now been roundly disproven.
[scientifically, societally, ideologically, ad infinitum]
That's how I wound up a Republican in spite of generations of my family all being Democrats.
There are very few absolute truths.
"Truth" is like the tail of a salamander; just when you think you've finally grasped it, it snaps off in your hand and a new tail/truth grows in its place, later on......:)
Case in point; last week Pluto was a planet.
This week, it's not.
45 years of learned "truth" gone, just like that.
What accurate observation will fall by the wayside tommorrow?
Next week?
In 10 years?
Life is a joyous, mysterious, endless series of new revelations.
[thank God]....;D
p.s...the 6th grade teacher was no merely mistaken generic science teacher.
He was Dr. Guptill and western MD's resident earth sciences expert.
Love your tagline, btw.
Is that a self-quote?
Found some Creswell Crag thumbnails:
http://www.uned.es/dpto-pha/creswell/fotos.htm
(It's not a cave I would want to live in, LOL!)
Life is a joyous, mysterious, endless series of new revelations.
[thank God]....;D
------
You bet! The moment you think you know it all, your mind has become a fossil.
Loved your story. I read it out to the family, they are all laughing their heads off. Thanks for telling.
"The moment you think you know it all, your mind has become a fossil."
Which some 'expert' will later carbon date to circa. 23,000 B.C.....;D
I'm glad somebody "gets me".....:)
Every single day brings some new wonderment, whether it be great or small.
*That* is one of very few "absolute truths".....:)
Every single day brings some new wonderment, whether it be great or small.
---
You've stolen my motto! I have lived with that knowledge since one fine day by the river when I was a very unhappy ten year old...and a mother-duck with 13 chicks walked across the path in front of me. I told myself then, that every day of my life, if I looked, I would see a miracle. It never fails. I see, hear or read something wonderful every day of my life.
You have the perfect attitude toward life and I'll bet you're a very, very happy man....:)
For my ownself, I've been the bane and frustration of my parent's existence with it.
Countless times I've annoyed my dad because, as a child, instead of dutifully following him closely over ridge and run, I had instead stopped to closely examine and marvel at some heretofore unknown bug, rock or twig along the trail.
I'm 45 and I *still* do it...but now it's my husband I'm driving nuts....;D
Last week, it was *both* of them gritting their teeth simultaneously.
Dad had me take photos of his mountain property marker trees because of a surveying dispute.
I took the [boring] photos as directed but had to be constantly whistled up like an errant hound for lagging behind.
[I'd discovered some strange plant which was at that moment ejecting really neat fuzzy cottonball-like seeds which were wafting about like tiny herds of sheep upon the breeze.]
I'm so hopeless....LOL!
Tagline is from Barry Goldwater.
The nature of Pluto hasn't changed, the definition has changed. It's still there, isn't going anywhere.
Words are poor substitutes for reality, and perception is only an approximation of truth. Human beings are fallible, but reality doesn't change, perceptions change.
Very much so.
Esse est percipi; esse est percipere?
"Reality; what a concept."
[Mork]....:)
We are definitely on the same page...
Thanks for that, maybe a source for GGG topics?
Here is the link: http://radiocarbon.library.arizona.edu/radiocarbon/
Hey, thanks, that goes back a long way, with vol 42 (2000) the only gap (other than the most current stuff). Uh-oh, I'm getting Apache Tomcat error reports when requesting files...
I tried a site-specific Google search:
santorini site:radiocarbon.library.arizona.edu
and that didn't yield stuff in the Radiocarbon archives, but still gave results.
Not sure what the problem is, as I can access files just fine. I tested the link before posting and just now.
Anyway, this is a valuable resource. I have a good collection of the early volumes, but most volumes are very hard or impossible to find on the used book market. Now I can stop searching!
I'll try it with Javascript switched on.
"HTTP Status 500"
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