Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Discovery, once suppressed by Puritans, overturns our understanding of human history.
Simply fascinating. Today's online edition of Archaeology has an article about the discovery of an ancient pyramid in New England. It'll reshape your thoughts on the origin of human settlement of the continent.
Jim Downey
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Vermont Pyramid
I read that story and kept enlarging the pictures to try to see the 200-foot-tall obelisk described in it. I kept going back and reading the story, then enlarging the pictures. I could see the Bennington Monument, but I couldn't see the obelisk. Finally the April 1 aspect dawned on me, and I realized they meant the Bennington Monument WAS the jokey obelisk.
Bearing that in mind, I remembered the April 1995 story that soured me on Discovery Magazine some years back, about the ice moles in Antarctica. They showed picture of the ugly little things that burrow under the ice by heating up a bony plate on their heads. They congregate under penguins and pull them down to feast on.
I already know I'm a doofus. And I have an extremely broad sense of humor about it. But here was this magazine that I TRUSTED, amusing themselves by deliberately making me -- and other readers -- look stupid.
I have never since trusted Discover as a source of reliable scientific news.
I know that feeling. This
I know that feeling. This April's edition of Electronic Gamer Monthly had a story about how there was going to be a new Kingdom Hearts for the Wii, but it turned out to be a joke (fooled a lot of people too, Kingdom Hearts is really popular). They do this every year with the most popular game they can find, but it still throws me when I open the magazine and see the thing.
That being said there were some things about the article that just looked bogus. The statement that the pyramid would prove that Europeans came to America to first colonize it alone looks bogus. Also the statement that they can estimate the amount of time it took for the pyramid to degrade looks bogus for two reasons 1) Reguardless of whether you're using the Egyptian Pyramids or the Mayan Pyramids your rate of degradation is based on a different climate and 2) Archeologists would never say "we know X because of Y" they would say something like "Based on initial observation it is estimated that the structure is roughly X years old."
God does not play dice with the universe. - Albert Einstein
But the Dungeon Master does! - me
really so odd?
Is this story really so odd when you consider the pyramid investigation going on in Bosnia? There was something about it in Science a month or so ago, and a post at Archaeoastronomy. This bit of nonsense has some serious impacts--real archaeological sites may be getting screwed up as pseudo-investigators dig around this rock.
Come on Jim
When April Fool's Day falls on Sunday, there's no need for more jokes!
Heheheheehe...
...but I thought that was really well done. I got it as a link from a friend yesterday morning, before I had my first cuppa, and it had me going for a minute.
Jim Downey
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