The Cosmic Tusk

May 14, 2010

Journal of Cosmology (Part I): Napier

Crumbling Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Approaches Today I added a link to the ‘Great Link’s on the right sidebar to a fine ET extinction and Younger Dryas Boundary round-robin thrown last year by the Journal of Cosmology. The Journal solicited a number of distinguished contributers both supportive and dismissive of the idea the earth encountered a game-changing cosmic…

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Random Tusks

May 8, 2010

Blinded By Debate: Steve McIntyre's Climate Audit and AGW Skeptics direct fire on friendly Baillie

I often find myself privately obsessed with comparing the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) debate with the far more obscure ET Climate Catastrophe (ETCC) debate — particularly the nature and role of The Skeptic of Mortal Peril in each. The Skeptic of Mortal Peril in the AGW debate is defined by the fearless pajamaed retirees like Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit. While The Skeptic of…

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Random Tusks

May 4, 2010

Deep-time Impact Induced Volcanism: A Colloquy

The Tusk is going slightly off-topic to cover the fascinating discussion of Citizen Castastrophists Hermann Burchard and Han Kloostermann concerning their belief that volcanic hot-spots are caused by impacts in deep time (deep time being the off-topic part). I’m in Austin, Texas all week at the national swamp swappers conference, which makes me a busy bee. So please excuse the formatting…

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Random Tusks

April 27, 2010

Guest Blog: Rodney Chilton author of 'Sudden Cold: An Examination of the Younger Dryas Cold Reversal'

Rod Chilton, author of the most recent (and perhaps only) comprehensive review of Younger Dryas science, was kind to contribute this fine critique of David Morrison’s recent paper in Skeptical Enquirer. I am reading Rod’s excellent book and look forward to reviewing it soon: The debate continues as to the cause of the more than 1,000 year-long cold interval known as the Younger Dryas.

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Random Tusks

April 27, 2010

Adults in Charge?: NASA #2 Lori Garver published Neo-Catastrophist!

The frequency of impacts of objects of various sizes is known only to limited precisions. In particular, objects up to several meters in diameter explode in the atmosphere without reaching the surface. Although the energy released in these explosions may be many times greater than that released by the Hiroshima bomb, they most frequently occur over the ocean or sparsely inhabited regions of Earth…

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Random Tusks

April 26, 2010

Smoke Linked to Gun: Napier upheld by Nesvorný and Jenniskens on Zodiacal Cloud and short-period Comets

Richard Kerr, the oldest rat in the barn over at Tusk competitor Science Magazine, has written a disturbingly matter-of-fact piece reporting the myth busting work of David Nesvorný and Peter Jenniskens (hereafter N&J) on the source of Interplanetary Dust and the Zodiacal Cloud. N&J are the same fellows who last month deduced massive ancient meteoritic airburts in Antarctica from ice…

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Random Tusks

April 25, 2010

Creepy notes: E.P. Grondine fingers Obama Asteroid Mission as reaction to comet Schwassmann Wachmann's next pass

I’ve asked Ed Grondine to put some more some flesh on these bones, but he recently sent me some notes with background on the lead up to Obama’s bold asteroid mission. One can devine his drift — but the Tusk needs more…. BTW, Ed’s “Dead Car Book Special” is still underway, I recommend his Man and Impact in the Americas. WILL PASS THROUGH INNER SOAR SYSTEM…

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Random Tusks

April 21, 2010

Wisconsin fireball causes....fires?

Bob Kobres is a good friend and a peer when it comes to finding intellectually provocative information about strange things from space and posting or reposting the info and speculation regarding it on the Internet. In addition, Bob has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things bolide. Gene Shoemaker among others has appreciated Bob’s contributions to the study of impact phenomena. For…

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Random Tusks

April 19, 2010

Obama whipsaws nation from Moon to Asteroid: Is he WISEing up?

You’ve got to wonder sometimes what could be going on behind the scenes. Could it be that the early results of the WISE mission and other disturbing government science projects are encouraging the bold (but not entirely unexpected) move of the White House to ditch the return to Moon in order to land on an Asteroid, or — dare we say — a Comet!? It could be. I think the…

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Random Tusks

April 14, 2010

Oldie but Goodie: The 2350 BC Middle East Anomaly Evidenced By Micro-debris Fallout, Surface Combustion And Soil Explosion

Abstract of talk by Marie-Agnès Courty CNRS-CM. Lab. de Science des Sols et Hydrologic, INA P-G, 78850 Grignon, France. email: fedoroff[at]diamant.jouy.inra.dr Presented at the SIS Conference: Natural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisations (11th-13th July 1997) Further investigations allow to re-examine the nature, age, causes and effects of the third millennium catastrophe identified from…

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The archives

Journal of Cosmology (Part I): Napier

Blinded By Debate: Steve McIntyre's Climate Audit and AGW Skeptics direct fire on friendly Baillie

Deep-time Impact Induced Volcanism: A Colloquy

Guest Blog: Rodney Chilton author of 'Sudden Cold: An Examination of the Younger Dryas Cold Reversal'

Adults in Charge?: NASA #2 Lori Garver published Neo-Catastrophist!

Smoke Linked to Gun: Napier upheld by Nesvorný and Jenniskens on Zodiacal Cloud and short-period Comets

Creepy notes: E.P. Grondine fingers Obama Asteroid Mission as reaction to comet Schwassmann Wachmann's next pass

Wisconsin fireball causes....fires?

Obama whipsaws nation from Moon to Asteroid: Is he WISEing up?

Oldie but Goodie: The 2350 BC Middle East Anomaly Evidenced By Micro-debris Fallout, Surface Combustion And Soil Explosion

Archive

Don’t miss

The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis: A Guide for the Perplexed: Marc Young provides a six-part counter-gallop

NYT: 6000 word Sunday feature article on the YDI and Comet Research Group