Random Tusks

Comet ISON, Newton's Great Comet of 1680, Solar Flares, and the 775 AD Eichler Event

Newton’s Great Comet of 1680 Update: A couple of useful links and a popular article on the subject. I just learned of the discovery of Comet ISON which has apparently electrified the astronomy world for months. What then caught my eye was a paper from David Eichler of Ben Gurion University published just two months later and curiously does not mention the newly discovered…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

Mayan Match: Baillie discovers correlation between ice core chemistry spikes and Mayan Long Count Calendar

Mayan Calendar A Mike Baillie fan passed along this fascinating discovery last week and I hoisted the paper to the Tusk immediately.  Mike is on to something mighty interesting. Nowhere has anyone noted the corellation between the two early Mayan “Baktun” transitions and spikes in ice core chemistry from Greenland. Calendrical genius that he is, Mike even reverse engineers the…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

Clovis Comet paper #1 read article in Geology

The wisdom of crowds is comforting. Despite the near total news blackout of the recent developments related to our subject, readers have shot Anders Carlson’s 2010 free paper, What Caused the Younger Dryas Cold Event?, to the top of the Most Read articles in the journal Geology. I am not surprised. This is an absolutely fascinating subject and normal people are roaming around reading all…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

Honorable Mention: Clovis Comet in Natural History

Nice blurb in Natural History Magazine this month. Still not sure if there is a longer article behind it in the print or on-line editions. Perhaps not, which would be a shame because Natural History is a fine magazine. It was one of those magazines you could buy when there were still bookstores where you browsed them. Since that is over in our neighborhood these days, with the closing of the…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

Exaggerated Reports of My Demise

E.P. Grondine was kind to contact me this morning with a thoughtful “Is everything OK?” query.  Emphatically yes, and that is the problem.  My business and civic life, as balanced with young family, have been all consuming for me of late. Our company just signed a very, very large contract and I have recently been appointed Vice Chair of the newly formed North Carolina Mining and…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

2012 Slow Green Fireball Train in UK: Satellite or Meteor Break-Up?

I hate being dragged into these “modern” reports, since the Tusk specializes about this kind of stuff in the ancient past. But the UK event yesterday was really, really cool and I have posted before on these slow greenish fireballs. Because of the unusually long duration and slow movement, some people have suggested the possibility of a satellite reentry. For various reasons, this is…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

Unfiltered: Surovell - Holliday in PNAS, 2009

To a great degree the Tusk itself was a response to my frustration with Todd Surovell and Vance Holliday’s botched 2009 PNAS journal article, “An independent evaluation of the Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact hypothesis,“ published three months before this blog began. Despite my early understanding of the sloppy work of the authors, however, I did not have the data or…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

Breaking: Ducks join Gamecocks with press release calling out Surovell, et al. 2009

Today’s press release from the University of Oregon complimenting yesterday’s from the University of South Carolina. Surovell, et. al 2009 has another serious challenge here. Challengers to Clovis-age impact theory missed key protocols, new study finds EUGENE, Ore. — (Sept. 18, 2012) — An interdisciplinary team of scientists from seven U.S. institutions says a…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

PNAS: Five-Year study rips spear from back of YDB hypothesis

https://cosmictusk.com/wp-content/uploads/Independent-evaluation-of-conflicting-microspherule-results-from-different-investigations-of-the-Younger-Dryas-impact-hypothesis.pdf Working on getting the paper. [Update: Got it above} This appears to be the long hoped for independent, intentional, blind, professional and reproducible confirmation of the original 2007 findings of the…
Read more

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question