A Scientific Explanation of Joshua 10:11–14?

You know the Biblical story. Joshua leads the Israelite army to destroy the city of Jericho. The walls came tumbling down, and as the inhabitants tried to escape, stones fall from the sky and the Sun stood still in the sky so Joshua could pursue his enemies.

The book Ancient Mysteries by Peter James and Nick Thorpe has a possible scientific explanation of what happened that day. It is one of those rare times you are reading a book, and you sit up straight, the hair on the back of your neck bristles, and you think to yourself, did I really read what I think I just read. You go back and read it over a few more times.

The explanation involves a Tunguska-like event. Over a remote part of Siberia called Tunguska in 1908, a mysterious fireball exploded, destroying 830 square miles of trees. Today, most scientists believe that a part of a comet entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded above Tunguska.

Think linking Tunguska to a Biblical event is crazy? I can understand that, but read on and think about the explanation before dismissing it.

From the Bible, we know that the walls of Jericho crumbled, stones fell from the sky and then the sun apparently stood still in the sky. A comet similar to the Tunguska event could certainly explain the walls of Jericho crumbling (an earthquake cause by the cometary impact). A comet similar to Tunguska could certainly explain stones falling from the sky. But how would a comet explain the sun appearing to stand still in the sky?

The evening following the Tunguska explosion, a very unusual phenomenon was observed and documented all over Europe. According to British archaeologist John Phythian-Adams:

The weather was very fine and hot and feeling disinclined for sleep, we strolled for a considerable time about the town. It was then that we noticed the night was strangely light. It was near midsummer, but this fact could not account for the illumination. At 11:30 P.M. one was able to read the print of a newspaper without any difficulty…

So a Tunguska-like explosion could also account for the appearance of continued daylight, long after the sun should have set. It accounts for all the elements of the story of Joshua. The authors conclude: “The Sun and Moon did not actually ‘stand still’ in the sky, but it may well have seemed to Joshua’s army that they did.”

A Terrible Idea

AP reports: “A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the GOP: a call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but not until President Bush is out of office.”

A few months ago, we were told by many Republicans to “wait until September” before we judged whether or not the surge is working. We need to evaluate the evidence, they said! Now they want us to wait another 16 months until President Bush is out of office and only then pull the plug, without any more blather about evaluating the evidence at that time?

If Iraq is seen to be a bad idea 16 months from now, it is an equally bad idea today. In fact, it is a terrible, horrendous, disgusting idea today.

The hypothetical Republican legislation reported above leaves the Decider guy (that’s President Bush, you know) to mismanage the war for another 16 months. It sends another thousand or so Americans to their death. It will result in thousands more American injuries, and some of those injured in the next 16 months will be maimed and require life-long medical care. It disrupts the lives of our 150,000 troops for 16 more months, whose families and personal lives have been horribly disrupted already. It wastes (as a guess) 200 billion dollars more, money that is desperately needed at home. It decimates our armed forces and makes us unresponsive to other global threats, for years to come after we finally get out of Iraq. It does not make us any safer. It does nothing to stop terrorism (as Iraq was never about terrorism). It does nothing to catch Osama bin Laden. It does nothing to make things better in Iraq.

I suppose, however, this new legislation would allow Republicans to sound like they want to get us out of Iraq, but without having to challenge the Decider guy or to hurt his feelings. What cowardly Republicans they are. This is why I said the idea of waiting 16 months to stop the war is disgusting. It is apparently more important to not cross the President and provide some cover for themselves when they run for re-election than to save the lives and health of our troops.

What is even more frustrating is that Democrats should be chanting the above criticisms of such an approach today. And tomorrow. And every day. Democrats need to tell the American public, every single day, what the true costs of the Iraq war are. We don’t see them doing that, but we keep hoping that one day the Democrats will actually lead on these issues, and shape the narrative. Until then, I shall write more letters to my Congressmen, and hope and pray.

The Lament Goes On

I have long lamented the fact that the United States has some of the best athletes in the world, but recently we seem unable to win world championships in team sports. The list of recent losses is long and horrifying.

Today, the United States women’s soccer team took the filed against Brazil in the semi-finals of the World Cup. USA was ranked 1st in the world, Brazil was ranked 8th. United States coach Greg Ryan replaced goalie Hope Solo, who had not allowed a goal in over 300 minutes in the tournament, with Brianna Scurry, who at one time in her career, was undoubtedly the best goalie in the world. The result: Brazil dominates the United States, winning 4–0, and the United States is eliminated from gold medal contention and will have to compete for the Bronze. ESPN’s announcers were all very critical of the move and suggested that this move caused a major disruption to team chemistry. But to be honest, Brazil was the better team, and their 21 year old forward Marta’s second goal was so brilliant that it made watching the two hour game all worthwhile.

While the United States continues to struggle, one can hope that these defeats will lead to the appropriate changes that will propel our teams to Olympic gold medals in 2008. In the meantime, I once again am left to revel in USA Women’s Softball World Championship last year (there is no World Championship tournament this year), the only USA team to win a gold medal in a team sport in the last two years. Cat Osterman’s one-hitter and Jessica Mendoza pumping her fist after hitting a two run homerun in the sixth inning of the championship game are indelible images in my mind. Let’s hope the other USA teams provide some new indelible images soon.

Toby Keith Is A Democrat

I’m sure a lot of Republicans and conservatives are surprised and upset, but Toby Keith says he is a lifelong Democrat, and never supported the war. How about that!

What Chris Said

Why can’t the United States learn from other countries?

Chris in Paris:

Having used the health care system both in France (WHO ranked #1 in the world) and the US (WHO #37) I know I would never want to go back to the high cost and miserable process in the US. The system in France is not perfect but for the bulk of the population it is easy to use and costs are less than in the US, for medical visits, out of pocket expenses and cost to working families. We have a combination of both national insurance as well as private insurance and between the two most costs are covered. National insurance in France does not mean everything is automatically covered, though costs are much more contained. In France I have more choices for medical care than I did with a lousy HMO in the US and again, my costs both in terms of out of pocket deductibles as well as taxes/monthly payments are considerably less.

So will the French system work in the US? Maybe, maybe not. Each country has different dynamics so there is no “one size fits all” solution. Could the US learn something from the WHO #1 health care system? Learning from success and failure in other countries seems like such a sensible idea and in my mind much could be learned though all too often in the US, we ignore what other countries have done whether it’s health care, fighting terrorism, etc. but it would be a valuable lesson to study plans that work and that fail and examine how those successful ideas could be Americanized. As a country, America deserves better.

Things That Scare Me, Part 5 (Global Warming Edition)

Lakes in Alaska and Siberia have been boiling with methane gas recently. One likely cause is the thawing of permafrost, causing methane gas to be released into the water. According to scientist Katey Walter from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, “Should large quantities of methane be released from methane hydrates, for instance, in association with permafrost thaw, then we could have large sudden increases in atmospheric methane with potentially large affects on global temperatures.” Oxon at DailyKos has an overview of this topic.

SCHIP and Good Government

Bill Scher is on fire today, speaking about President “Uncompassionate Conservative” Bush’s threat to veto an expansion of the SCHIP program, which provides health insurance for children.

Bush and fellow conservatives are just fine with government subsidies to prop up Medicare Advantage private plans, even though they cost taxpayers more than the traditional Medicare public plan.

They are just fine keeping the children’s insurance program, so long as we underfund it and millions remain uninsured.

As Robert Borosage commented earlier: “faced with a choice of providing children with health care or protecting the profits of private insurance companies, the president chooses the latter.”

Conservatives fear losing the SCHIP debate, because they fear losing the entire health care debate. This fear is unchanged from 1993, when they decided they had to kill universal health care, because “[i]ts passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party.”

Politics over policy. Party over people. Bad government over good government.

More of The Same for the Buffalo Bills

It has been several years since the Buffalo Bills have seen a team that rises above sub-mediocrity. Year after year, we see the team is not competitive, and likely to wind up out of the playoffs. Year after year, we suffer through poor quarterback play (this yaer, J. P. Losman has thrown for only 210 yards in the first two games. Year after year, we see a team that can’t seem to put up big numbers on offense (1 offensive touchdown in the first two games this year). Year after year, we see a team that cannot protect the quarterback. Year after year, we see a team whose defense isn’t quite good enough to shut the opponents down to make up for the lack of offense.

And year after year we see the same poor coaching decisions, one of which might have cost the Bills a win in their season opener. In that game, Buffalo lost on a last-second field goal, but earlier, Buffalo had a chance to run 40 seconds off the clock by choosing a running play, and instead they tried to throw a bomb, a play that might succeed about 5% of the time. Of course, the pass was incomplete, meaning that less than 10 seconds ran off the clock. Had another 30 seconds run off the clock on a running play, Denver would not have had time to kick that field goal to win the game.

I can recall several years ago calling then coach Gregg Williams’ radio show to ask him why Buffalo threw three successive incomplete passes with a small lead late in the fourth quarter. Is it possible that no coach learns from these mistakes? Certainly, there seem to be many fans and sportswriters who have learned why you don’t pass when you are ahead late in the fourth quarter.

Same old, same old. And I don’t know how much longer I will be watching the Buffalo Bills.

New England Patriots Caught Spying

The New England Patriots were caught spying on the New York Jets in Sunday’s game, by videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals. Mark Schlereth explains in this video how this creates a huge unfair advantage for the Patriots. Furthermore, the Patriots had been caught doing this once before, and certainly a warning was not sufficient to stop them from repeating this illegal spying.

So what should the penalty be? I favor forfeiting the game, instead of less severe punishments, like a fine or taking a draft choice away.

Reason #1: In sports, you often have the opportunity to apply a penalty that negates the potential advantage of the illegal act. If a lineman holds, the penalty negates any advantage the holding may have gained. If a basketball player commits a foul, the free throws negate the advantage gained by the foul. And so, if you violate a rule during a game that could give you a huge unfair advantage in that game over your opponent, then to negate that advantage you would forfeit the game.

Reason #2: Illegal spying on an opponent threatens the integrity of the game. People (and the league) need to be sure that games are being won fairly and on the basis of what happens on the field. Whenever the integrity of the game is threatened, this is the worst threat possible to a league, and extremely severe penalties are warranted. They are warranted not only as a deterrent to prevent others from breaking the same rule, but because the offender needs to be punished. The integrity of the game needs to be maintained.

Reason #3: If you punish the Patriots by taking away a draft choice or two, that may in fact be a severe punishment, but please remember this is the first game of the year. Suppose it is the last game of the regular season, and a win for a team would mean that the team makes the playoffs. Is the threat of losing a draft choice or two sufficiently severe to prevent the illegal spying in that instance? For most teams, it probably is severe enough, but I want a penalty that is severe enough to prevent all teams from breaking the rules.

The Internet Is Amazing — Baseball Edition

I can remember attending a Mets game at Shea Stadium when I was about 13 or 14 (that would be 1968 or 1969). The Mets were playing the San Francisco Giants (my favorite team) and the two best pitchers in baseball were facing off against one another — Juan Marichal versus Tom Seaver. My father kept commenting on what a great pitcher’s duel we were going to see, but I really wanted to see homeruns from sluggers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.

I remember there was no pitcher’s duel that day. The Giants won 9–5, and I spent the entire ride home teasing my father about what a great pitcher’s duel we saw. I vaguely remember a home run by future Hall-of-Famer McCovey, but since we saw the Giants every year, I couldn’t be sure the home run by McCovey was in that particular game.

Now, thanks to the amazing Internet, I have an answer. Here is the box score and play-by-play of that game on June 15, 1968. Yes indeed, McCovey did hit a home run that afternoon, which actually knocked Seaver out of the game.

Even more amazing, the folks at Baseball Reference have posted the box score and play-by-play of every single baseball game played since 1957. Wow!

Virus Causing Bee Disappearance?

Many people have been very concerned about the sudden disappearance of bee colonies. Humans depend upon healthy bee populations in many critical ways. So the discovery that some of the disappearances of bees might be due to a rare virus gives some hope that this bee-related catastrophe can be averted.

But I’m still holding my breath …

Another Wrong Direction for America

Survey after survey confirm that the American public thinks America is headed in the wrong direction.

Today, we learn of another wrong direction America is headed in. Apparently, China, and other Asian countries and spending more on science research than the United States is. Their research programs are growing faster than ours, and they are publishing more as well.

It is a sad commentary that we have been the world leader in scientific research for many years. But we are poised to surrender that title. And in doing so, we give up not just the mythical “world leader” position, we also give up the benefits of scientific research, specifically, we give up high technology to use for the benefit of our society, we give up high paying jobs, we give up medical advances, and so on.