[Whipple Obit]
In an independent defense of David Morrison’s ham-handed screed in the (giggle) Skeptical Inquirer challenging the science of the YDB event, respected British astronomer Bill Napier invokes some greats of the past — in particular, Fred Whipple of Harvard, the grandfather of American comet science — in support of his central claim that the Taurid complex of…
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TEXT OF BILL NAPIER’S REPLY to the [Morrison paper in Skeptical Inquirer] forwarded by Leroy Ellenberger:
“It is too late to add anything on Napier’s paper. My colleagues who do dynamics are unimpressed with this work, however, and they consider it to be almost as unreasonable as the original Firestone et al. impact hypothesis.”
David Morrison, NASA, Addendum to…
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From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: 4/6/2010 7:33:33 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time
Subj: Re: No YDR? An Apology to Dave Morrison
Dear David,
Sorry to have used words that you find offensive and to which you object
understandably. You have my sincere apology for having overstated things.
My choice of words betrayed my own inner biases, unfortunately.
On this…
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Unfortunately, the overcrowded session ran late, and there was no time for discussion or questions. Even when their conclusions were challenged, most of the scientists in the audience chose not to respond. The result was a lost opportunity for real debate. Perhaps not surprisingly, the AGU session received very little press attention. Indeed, following the AGU and GSA meetings, the…
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When I worked in politics, we won a primary — and knew we would beforehand — when the opponent became, as was noted in the newspaper, “Shrill and Hysterical.” To us, that meant we were doing something right because the opponent was losing her grip as the evidence of the pending loss mounted.
We see much the same dynamic today in the email chatter of Leroy Ellenberger, a…
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Napier paper: Palaeolithic extinctions and the Taurid Complex
When the story books are re-written, the increasing — but uncoordinated — coherence between the Brit Neo-Catastrophists and the American YDB team will make interesting study for students of science history. These two groups have no overlap but the facts are leading them to the same place. Ditto for the Holocene Impact…
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