2 Minutes of Silence

It’s the 22nd of February. 365 days since since the earthquake in Christchurch. At time of writing it’s getting closer and closer to 365.25 days, as it happens.

The Student Council at my school decided to hold two minutes of silence to commemorate the anniversary. This was thoroughly mucked up.

For one, they got the wrong time: the quake happened at 12:51 pm, and not 12:57 as they thought. Secondly – due, ironically, to earthquake strengthening – parts of the school are inaccessible and various bells aren’t working. Thus, much of the school did not hear the bell ringing to signify the beginning and end.

But it still happened, albeit as much as 10 minutes late in my Chemistry class.* And that’s all that matters.

Dumb Luck

Yes, it’s finally time to return to the ICR’s That’s a Fact videos, before Dr Shorey catches up to me. The next of two is Dumb Luck:

[It was working a minute ago...] As you can tell merely from the title, this video is all about the supposed improbability of abiogenesis.

Cavefish; Kimberlite Pipes; and the Joke’s on Frank Sherwin

Here’s the three (technically four) DpSU’s that I didn’t cover prior to the last one I did. Surprisingly, there has only been the one since the Peruvian Mummy, but I’ll get to that later.

Gaint? Alien? Or Perfectly Normal?

Jumping to the head of the lengthening queue comes Is Peruvian Mummy a Giant Toddler?

ATP Synthase and Joseph Kuhn

The most recent two DpSU’s can be covered fairly quickly. The first, from the second of Feb, was called Sophisticated Protein Motor Defies Evolution.

IEE: George Washington Carver

The week of Science Essentials posts from… I’m not actually sure at this point, it’s been so long, was on the subject of the aforementioned scientist and inventor. In other words, this was another ‘man of science, man of god’ week.

Frustrating Year for Evolution

That’s what the most recent DpSU from Frank Sherwin says: 2011 Another Frustrating Year for Evolution

Molecules; Paddlefish; Whale Brains; and Dog Paws – the week of Jan 23

Yes, I haven’t posted in a week. Here’s what you missed from Mr Thomas, all in one go. See your doctor if adverse reactions persist.

WednesdayThursdayFriday

It’s happened again – I’m a good week behind in DpSUs, so it’s a good thing there’s not much to them. First, Marine Reptile Fossil Rewrites Evolution.

Speedy Selection

The DpSU for last Tuesday was called Researchers See Fish Adapt in One Generation.

The source is a paper – you can see the full text here – that details an experiment investigating the speed at which fish adapted to breeding in hatcheries. They found that the fish managed to do so in a single generation, but that this came at a cost to their survivability in the wild. Mr Thomas, author of the DpSU, expresses his incredulity at this being the result of natural selection, as was credited.