OT How old is the grand canyon? Simple question you'd think...

It's old yes. Really old. Lots of lovely strata showing rock formation
over lots of millions and at least a couple of billion years. But the
park service aren't allowed to discuss this according to the article
below. I've not followed this up for accuracy but it was so boggle
worthy I thought I'd share.

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801

"HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY

Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on
Geology

Washington, DC Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an
official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to
pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a
prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was
created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than
three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on
sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

'In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National
Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,' stated
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. 'It is disconcerting that the
official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the
Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’ "


I did a quick follow up, there's a bit about the book here, I beg
forgiveness for using wikipedia as the main reference source but it's
bedtime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon:_A_Different_View

 

Didn't they work out that Jesus lives about 250 years ago or something
ridiculous? Surely they could simply say that it was created about 600
years ago. Job done!

 

As described in the Bible, presumably. That Flood must have had one
hell of a tide.

 

Has to be said again. Read Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion".
He talks about the situation in the US and the absolute impossibility of
getting elected to government office if you 'come out' as an atheist.

Want to borrow - good section on the origins of religion ?


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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
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<patient mode>

That's why they call it The Flood, innit. Capitalised and everything.

"God's Flood. More interesting than the Severn Bore".

 

Did it have a good surfing wave? How about the Red Sea when Moses
released the water?

 

To be a flood though, does the water actually have to be moving
particularly rapidly? My dictionary gives several definitions. An
excess of water in, say a valley, might be described as a flood and
might have happened quite fast, but that doesn't necessarily mean it
flowed in any particular direction; rain could simply fall into the
valley and still count as a flood. In fact, the Flood was IIRC
attributed simply to rainfall.

Or was that a whoosh?

 

On Sat, 06 Jan 2007 03:48:59 +0000, Work in progress

snip

snip

Scary stuff and these people are a superpower...

 

Hmm , the first page of the GC webpage says "The Grand Canyon is more than a
great chasm carved over millennia".
Even thousands of years clearly rules out it happening during Noah's
lifespan
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

Dr Zoidberg ([email protected]) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying :

Noah was Old Testament, right?

All the action in the New Testament happened, allegedly, two millenia
ago...

 

I'm waiting for MattG to give in and buy it. Much as I admire Dawkins'
intellect his fundamentalist atheism is just as irritating to me as

It's all a bit fucked up. To put it mildly.

Stop tempting me. I've still not got round to the articles you
recommended, my backlog of research stuff is ridiculous, I have 6
years worth of long hand writing I want to type in and see what's
there that's worth finishing with a view to sending off for
publication and every time I go on the net I find something else shiny
that distracts me.

I'm in the process of rearranging the library and my bedroom so I can
reclaim the upstairs desk from under a pile of books. Then I'm going
to source an old pentium one or two and *not* network it so I can work
up there with no distractions.

 

Got an old Zydec (Evesham Micros super budget) Win98 box gathering dust
here. Not certain of the spec except that I upgraded it to 256 RAM.
Everything there except the monitor.

Yours if you want it. Shall I see if it will still boot up?


--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

"Bay of Fundies"

 

Look on the bright side, at least they're admitting that water caused the
canyon, which is slightly more scientific than their usual claim that "god
did it".

 

Oh yes please, that will save me sorting through all the bits and bobs
of computer bits and seeing if there's enough to make a whole one.

I can now see the library floor, triple stacking the shelves for now.
I'll reorganise it all next week. I may actually have to get rid of
some books. Radio 4 is now working in the bedroom and all my suit
jackets are with their respective skirts/trousers.

 

Action this day .... oh well tomorrow morning at least as I just heard
the pop of a cork from downstairs.

--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Work in progress wrote:
[...]

Very little the septics do in this area surprises me anymore.
They invented everything, they had the first everything, they
have the biggest everything, and God made them first and spoke
only American English.

<shrug>
With neighbours like that pushing the envelope on "pig headed
idiots", one ceases to be amazed.

 

Excellent. Thank you.

All I want to do is type on it, so that should be fine.

Apparently there's "a piddly amount of RAM with the old connectors"
in a box somewhere. It's just been shoved in my hand, 3 strips with
64Mb on each. Pah, teenagers, I used to dream of 64Mb of RAM. You can
tell he's never had to listen to the whine of a tape loading.

I've never had partitions is it painful?

I'm sure one of the Derby geeks will oblige if I promise them sex or
pizza (dependent on geek)

Yes please. Would Sir like a bottle of red or white as a thank you?
Are you around this week? I can head down and pick it up any day apart
from Tuesday and Thursday.

 

If you insist a drop of red would be most welcome. Make it Italian
though as it will make a nice change from my usual diet of French
supermarket plonk.

OK. Friday would work if you give me an idea of ETA. Drop me an email.
<mumbles out of side of mouth in a surreptitious Brando manner - want
any ripped CDs accidentally left on it ?>
--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

It's a bit more specific than that:

[q]
How old is the Canyon?

That's a tricky question. Although rocks exposed in the walls of the
canyon are geologically quite old, the Canyon itself is a fairly young
feature. The oldest rocks at the canyon bottom are close to 2000
million years old. The Canyon itself - an erosional feature - has
formed only in the past five or six million years. Geologically
speaking, Grand Canyon is very young.

http://www.nps.gov/grca/faqs.htm#old