The Cosmic Tusk

December 25, 2013

Nice Dice?: The Bos disputes Harvard

It is safe to say The Bos is becoming obsessed. Someone please count and let me know, but I believe he has four publications this year seeking to undermine the Younger Dryas Boundary Hypothesis. Over time he has published more than a dozen. Today he is back in PNAS — alone — and in the face of Harvard scientists who independently discovered to their surprise an extraordinary spike…

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Random Tusks

December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas from the Cosmic Tusk

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Random Tusks

December 20, 2013

Halley's Comet lays waste: Abbott at AGU on the 530's Event

Dallas Abbott Grail Tale? Live Science article Baillie Year Did a 6th Century Comet Bring Global Famine? Evidence from tree rings and ice cores suggest that parts of Europe, Asia and North America saw protracted cooling in the 530’s, which has been linked to drought and famine. Some scientists hypothesize that Halley’s Comet may have caused this, by leaving a dust trail that the Earth…

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December 14, 2013

Broecker to Kunzig: This Deal is Real

Readers will recall the awkwardly titled September post, “NatGeo actually calls Wally Broecker to discuss evidence for cosmic impact at Younger Dryas start.” The Tusk was trying to convey there my astonishment that a thoughtful and thorough article was written on recent advances in the study of the Younger Dryas Boundary. Only later, with very little digging, did I realize this was…

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December 7, 2013

Fair Enough: Van Hoesel breaks down YDB science in critical review

Annelies Van Hoesel (Dr. Van Hoesel yet?) recently published an overview of Younger Dryas Boundary Hypothesis in Quaternary Science Reviews. I hear at least one of the YDB authors found it terribly biased against the impact. But it seems to me that she is implicitly admitting that the many obituaries of the YDB impact have been premature. In this game that counts as a win. View The Younger Dryas…

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December 5, 2013

Heinrich disputes Burchard

Clarifying note: The Tusk, not Dr. Burchard, suggested the name Crater Burchard for this feature. And yes, I know. Craters are named for nearby geographic features, not people. The always smug but relatively well informed Paul Heinrich had a post on the Meteorite-list serve today disputing the cosmic origin of circular features identified by Hermann Burchard in the South China Sea and posted last…

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November 9, 2013

Crater Burchard?

View Larger Map Subject: Australasian Tektite Impact 780 Ka Crater Identified in Spratly Islands From: Hermann GW Burchard To: XXX Date: November 3, 2013 There seems to be a recent update to Google Earth,– apologoizing for over-reliance on this dubious source — the ocean between Vietnam and the Phillipines, the South China Sea. At least, I have not seen this much detail on earlier…

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October 31, 2013

Love Notes: Napier takes down The Bos on disintegrating comets in space; Tusk lends hand

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October 10, 2013

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick: 60 Minutes' Cooper nails NASA's Yeomans and Chodas on common asteroid threat

We all know the Tusk enjoys the study of past catastrophes but is less interested in blogging on space borne threats to our future. The intellectual real estate of future apocalypse — Repent! — is too well populated on the internet for us. But great TV is great TV and Anderson Cooper did a surprising and praise worthy job last Sunday with a couple of Tusk-worthy follow-up questions…

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October 5, 2013

Faye Flam?: Knight Science Journalism Tracker gets nearly everything wrong in a single blog

Faye Flam Flam responds in KSJT comments? Below is a link to a very poorly written, intellectually depressing and kinda mean press blog out of MIT. Flam does not distinguish Dartmouth’s Markul Sharma et al. from the original Firestone authors despite the point of her lede. Later she updates her blog to correct another less significant — but also easily discoverable &#8212…

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Latest Posts

The archives

Nice Dice?: The Bos disputes Harvard

Merry Christmas from the Cosmic Tusk

Halley's Comet lays waste: Abbott at AGU on the 530's Event

Broecker to Kunzig: This Deal is Real

Fair Enough: Van Hoesel breaks down YDB science in critical review

Heinrich disputes Burchard

Crater Burchard?

Love Notes: Napier takes down The Bos on disintegrating comets in space; Tusk lends hand

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick: 60 Minutes' Cooper nails NASA's Yeomans and Chodas on common asteroid threat

Faye Flam?: Knight Science Journalism Tracker gets nearly everything wrong in a single blog

Archive

Don’t miss

Marc Young to Holden Thorp: Retract Sun et al.

Journal of Academic Ethics: Data vs. Derision: The Ethics of Language in Scientific Publication. The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis as a Case Study