Decimal Time

In a metric world of kilograms and centimetres – a world which includes almost all countries save for the international backwaters of Myanmar and the United States – what’s up with time? Sixty seconds make a minute, sixty minutes make an hour, twenty-four hours make a day, seven days make a week, while around thirty days make a month and twelve months together make a year, after which we finally begin to work consistently in powers of ten. It’s a mess, in other words. We’ve tried to clean up more than once, and it’s hardly the only system that’s been developed over history, but we seem to be stuck with a chaotic and unintuitive system for the measurement of one of the most fundamental quantities we experience. What a strange world we live in.

According to the Institute for Creation Research’s now two months old video, Seven-day Week, the sticking power of just one of these divisions – the week, and it’s seven-day length – is evidence for young Earth creationism. Or, at least, a “testimony,” which may not be quite the same thing.

T & C:

So, a day is how long it takes for the Earth to rotate once on it’s axis, and a year is how long it takes for Earth to orbit once around the Sun.

The problems with expanding the metric system to time begin with an embarrassment of riches.

Dinosaurs on the Ark

A new That’s a Fact video, Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark, jumped today to the head of the short queue of episodes that I have yet to present to you. This is a topic we’ve seen many times before (e.g. two days ago), but it’s always fun:

Here’s your transcript and commentary:

Taking Job Literally

This That’s a Fact video was a long time coming, so I probably shouldn’t delay further in showing it to you. It’s called Dinosaurs and Humans, a title which says everything you need to know, really.

The Fall of Babel

Languages: there are thousands of the things, although you may only encounter a handful in your everyday life – they’re a bit like religions, in a way. Languages are related to each other and can be grouped into “families,” and it’s this concept that a recent (approximately a month old) That’s a Fact video, Language Families, alludes to:

It looks like it’s been so long since I last tried to embed these that they’ve forgotten to prevent me. Use the link if it stops working.

Playing Rounders

There are three That’s a Fact videos to catch up on. The first, Throwing a Strike, appears to be on the least interesting topic. Here’s a transcript:

Summertime in the US can mean a few things: grilling outdoors, road trips, and of course baseball. Great pitchers make throwing a ball look easy, but there’s a lot more to it than you might think. It all starts in the premotor cortex of the brain, where thousands of plans are stored, plans that coordinate whole groups of muscles. Those plans go to the motor cortex. They also go to the cerebellum, which is like a gatekeeper which sorts out data from the tendons, muscles, eyes, ears, and skin.

Not So Giant

As I said, there’s a new That’s a Fact video out: Biblical Giants. For the June Acts & Facts edition Randy Guliuzza wrote an article called “Did Giants Ever Exist?“, and this video examines the same issue.

The point of the video is apparently to prove that the giants referenced in the bible are perfectly believable – they were just tall people! The obvious, but perhaps unintended effect of this strategy is to make them seem not all that impressive.

Breaking Eggs

A new That’s a Fact video has at last arrived. It’s called Jurassic Omelette – or, according to their website, “Jurassic Omemette.” They have at least fixed that now, though they’re yet to change the URL.

The subject matter should be broadly familiar. The video starts off with asking “which came first – the chicken or the egg?” before moving on to the dinosaur egg protein issue from the other week. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, however.

80% Fish

It would appear that the ICR’s That’s a Fact video series also chose to take the last few weeks off, with only one video being posted in my absence – the next one is due next weekend. The now month-old latest video is called Missing in Action and it’s subject – so-called “missing links” – ties in nicely with the catchup post that will appear next.

The term “missing link” is a misleading descriptor, which is unfortunately commonly used in the media when discussing fossils. It invokes the image of a broken chain, now mended, and that’s not how evolution works. The creationist (mis)conception is even worse – the picture above, of what is supposed to be a literal half-dog, half-bear creature, is not some parody of how they misunderstand the idea but instead the main image for this very video. If it comes down to it they probably do know better than that, but they’re not about to give it away in their two-minute “science” videos.

The Triune Universe

Moving backwards, last weekend the ICR released a new That’s a Fact video: Three in One. The premise of the video is that the structure of the universe somehow reflects the trinity.

For centuries philosophers and theologians have tried to explain the Trinity. Some have tried but our attempts often fall short. However, God in His wisdom provided an example in creation that is a parallel to His own Triune existence—the universe.

Here’s a transcript of that video, with commentary interspersed to show why this is one of the ICR’s sillier ideas:

Samson’s Ears

Late last week That’s a Fact video #26, Muscle Man, was released. As I said on Friday, much of the text is taken from the portion of this article that I didn’t cover at the time, and there is a good reason why I didn’t do anything with it – it’s just not very interesting. I offer you the transcript below more out of completeness than any necessity, and after that we can look at something else.