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The Grain and Grain Processing Information Site
There is no doubt that the Internet is becoming more central to the way we live, work and play.
A scant eight years ago, fewer than 100,000 people worldwide used the Internet on a regular basis. Today, more than 300 million people around the world go online for business, research, shopping, correspondence or entertainment, according to the U.S. Internet Council's 2000 State of the Internet report. By 2005, the number of Internet users is expected to surpass 1 billion.
The web has grown at an incredible rate, doubling in size in the first six months of 2000. There are an estimated 1 billion unique, indexable pages and nearly 10 million "dot-com" domain names have been registered.
For business and industry, the Internet provides an entirely new way of conducting business, offering a direct portal to millions of users and potential customers. "E-commerce has exploded with online retailing and industry marketplaces," the report said. "Business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce promise to continue seizing an increasingly larger share of the goods and services market in the coming years."
B2B e-commerce, the online purchase of products and services between companies, is the fastest-growing segment of e-commerce activity, the U.S.I.C. report said. B2B revenues could reach U.S.$10 trillion by 2003.
For those of us in the grain and grain processing industry, the Internet is a valuable tool for communication, information and, increasingly, business transactions.
A recent Internet usage survey conducted for World Grain by Sosland Publishing Co.'s Research Services Department shows that 82% of respondents have access to the Internet at their company. An overwhelming majority of those people are involved in company or operations management.
The survey was mailed to all World Grain subscribers and received 562 responses.
Of those who do not have access to the Internet, more than half said there were no plans to provide access while about one-third expected to be online in a year or less than a year.
How are we using the Internet? While a substantial portion of time is spent visiting industry-related web sites, gathering company information or reading industry news, most of us are using the Internet to send or receive e-mail. According to the survey, 64% of online business activities in our industry involves e-mail.
This is true outside the grain industry as well. According to a report in eMarketer, 84% of all Internet users send and receive e-mail on a regular basis. Another 1999 study indicates that e-mail is becoming the dominant mode of business communication, and is becoming even more important as a business tool than the telephone.
Only 17% of our survey respondents are using the Internet to conduct business or for e-commerce, but that number will grow rapidly, experts say.
Alan Wood, vice-president of ICEcorp.com, an Internet cash grain exchange in the U.S., said everyone thought the industry would be further along in terms of e-commerce. "We're comfortable and content with the growth in e-commerce," he said. "But we're thrilled with the response we've seen, in terms of actual traded bushels, since we've begun focusing on the private network model."
Steve Dunn, president of A2B, Inc., a U.S.-based application service provider for the bulk transportation market, said the reduction of transactional costs is the value-driver in e-commerce. "Web applications are being built that address those issues, and within a short amount of time, the industry will be pushing data via the web rather than using the postal service or fax machine," he said.
World Grain's Internet usage survey also showed that nearly half of the respondents who are online live in the U.S. or Canada, with the next highest region being Europe.
This mirrors overall Internet usage worldwide. The U.S.I.C.'s 2000 State of the Internet report showed that the greatest number of Internet users live in the U.S., and that the Internet continues to be heavily influenced by American culture. Still, the diversity of users is growing. Personal use and e-commerce initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America have "surpassed expectations," the report said, and India and China are quickly coming online.
The outlook for continued Internet usage worldwide is bright, despite a significant "global digital divide" between developed and developing nations, the latter of which are still hampered by poverty and an inadequate telecommunications infrastructure.
Interestingly, our survey found that when the number of respondents living in North America are excluded, the Internet access percentage remains similar, with 81% of respondents in all other regions having access to the Internet in their companies.
Trends show the ability of business and consumers to connect to the Internet is expanding rapidly, and the choices of access, content and e-commerce are growing every day. All data suggest that this growth will continue, and in many cases accelerate, well into the next century.
1CHS appoints senior VP of human resources
2Perdue acquires Cargill grain elevator
3Saudi Arabia stops buying Canadian wheat
4BayWa's earnings buoyed by ag segment
5Cimbria to install ECO-Logic dryer
( more )
1Numerous factors contribute to wild swings in U.S. wheat futures
2Cargill looks to connect, nourish and grow
3The Andersons seeks stability through change
4U.S. on pace to beat ethanol export record
5Understanding the potential benefits of traceability systems
to the PRINT edition, or click below for free, INSTANT ACCESS to valuable news & insights in the Digital Edition.


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Who can enter this contest
1. To be eligible to participate in this contest, entrants must be residents of U.S. who are 18 years of age or older and reside in Illinois or Missouri and be existing users of Facebook.
2. Employees of ETC ComputerLand, Vervocity Interactive, Media Development, Facebook, Inc., Facebook.com and the immediate family members of each are ineligible. The term "immediate family" includes spouses, grandparents, parents, siblings, children and grandchildren. ETC ComputerLand will honor only one winner per household.
How to enter
1. No purchase is necessary and only one entry is allowed per Facebook account holder.
2. Log onto http://www.facebook.com to like or comment on the contest post on ETC ComputerLand's Facebook page to enter.
3. The contest starts on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 10 a.m. and all entries must be received by Monday, November 23, 2015 at 3 p.m. ETC ComputerLand is not responsible for server unavailability, computer or other electronic malfunction if entry is not received.
4. On Monday, November 23, 2015 at 3 p.m., one (1) winner will selected randomly from the entries and the announcement of that winner will be made on ETC ComputerLand's Facebook page by 5 p.m. the same day.
The prize
1. One (1) winner will be selected to win a $50 Gas Card from ETC ComputerLand.
2. The winner will be notified in the Facebook thread and via private message on Facebook. To claim their prize, the winner must provide his or her correct name, address and phone number, sign a release of eligibility and show photo I.D.
3. The prize may be claimed at ETC ComputerLand from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday (with the exception of Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26, 2015, Thursday, December 24, 2015, or Christmas Day on Friday, December 25, 2015) and must be claimed by the deadline of Thursday, December 31, 2015 at 5 p.m. unless other arrangements are agreed upon by ETC ComputerLand.
4. If the winner cannot be notified within two weeks (by Tuesday, December 8, 2015) or does not sign the release to claim the prize, then that prize will be forfeited and, if time permits, will be awarded to an alternative winner selected randomly from the remaining valid entries.
5. The winner is responsible for paying all local, county, state and federal taxes on prizes based upon the estimated retail value of the prizes set forth in the rules posted here.
6. ETC ComputerLand, Vervocity Interactive and Media Development are not responsible for any liability arising directly or indirectly from the award or use of the prize.
7. By claiming your prize, you acknowledge that ETC ComputerLand, Vervocity Interactive and Media Development have the right to publicize your name, character, likeness, photograph, voice and the fact that you are the winner for promotional purposes without financial remuneration.
Odd of winning/other
1. The odds of winning depend on the number of valid entries received.
2. The contest rules are available Monday through Friday during normal business hours at ETC ComputerLand.
3. This contest is subject to all applicable laws and regulations and is void where prohibited. ETC ComputerLand, Vervocity Interactive, Media Development, Facebook, Inc. and Facebook.com accept no responsibility or liability in connection with any injuries, losses or damages of any kind caused by or resulting from the acceptance, possession or use of any prize awarded hereunder.
4. ETC ComputerLand cannot be held liable for any lost or stolen entries, prizes, or contest information.
5. ETC ComputerLand reserves the right to make rules and contest changes, and change the aforementioned contest dates.
6. By entering this contest, each entrant waives any and all claims of liability against ETC ComputerLand, Vervocity Interactive, Media Development, Facebook.com, and their respective parents, affiliates, officers, directors, employees and agents, for any and all claims, loss, damage or injury which may occur as a result of entrant's participation in this contest.
7. Facebook, Inc., and www.facebook.com (collectively, "Facebook") are not affiliated with ETC ComputerLand nor this contest. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by or associated with Facebook.

subset: commoncrawl


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"The guaranteed payments from BlueTarp are one of the best aspects of the program."
Jené Hallenbeck
Accounts Receivable, GNH Lumber
About the Author
BlueTarp helps B2B suppliers fund the growth of their business by paying them upfront for their sales and protecting them from credit risk. Customize your program by choosing to manage customer interactions as you do today, while we stay behind the scenes. Or, select a full-service option where we handle customer service and collections for you.More Content by BlueTarp Financial


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NYCC: Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn
Ever since the decision was made at Marvel Comics to give the Ultimate Comics line and universe a strong reboot, the watchword set by Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso was "connectivity." With three ongoing titles -Â Brian Michael Bendis' "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man," Jonathan Hickman's "Ultimates" and Nick Spencer's "Ultimate Comics X-Men" -Â and a rotating slate of mini series which right now showcases Hickman's work on "Ultimate Comics Hawkeye," the mission has been to present fans with a unified lineup of stories that play off each other and build to a complete picture of a vibrant world.
So as Marvel brought the Ultimate U to the stage of the 2011 New York Comic Con on Friday afternoon, the plan was to assemble as many voices taking part in the line as possible. Joining Alonso on stage was "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" artist Sara Pichelli, "Ultimates" artist Esad Ribic, Editors Sana Amanat and John Moisan and Director Of Communications, Publishing & Digital Media Arune Singh.
Singh got the ball rolling by annocing that Ultimate line Senior Editor Mark Panniccia was unable to attend as his wife just had a new baby, earning a healthy round of applause.
The discussion got underway with a look back at the book that drew many eyeballs to the Ultimate U, "Ultimate Comics Fallout" #4 – the introductory issue for new Ultimate Spider-Man Miles Morales. Singh said he always appreciated that Marvel "brought the real world to you" and that Marvel has been proud of the discussion surrounding the half-Black, half-Latino character. Preview pages showed off scenes from an upcoming issue where Miles encounters the Ultimate U's Spider-Woman.
"With Ultimate Comics Reborn, I've been able to work with some of the most talented artists imaginable," said Amanat, praising Pichelli's nuanced take with Morales as a character who displayed equal parts innocence and strength. Pichelli joked that she "sounded smarter in Italian" but soon explained, "When I create a character, the first thing I do is look for a real personality. I think of a real person I know – the way they move or the dress they wear. I go around the room doing life drawings and looking for interesting faces or bodies for an idea or inspiration. It could [come from] a child or a woman…that's the first step toward the final result."
Amanat praised colorist Justin Ponsor for his work completing the vision of the series. According to the editor, the line artist spoke often about the physical reality of the new Spider-Man and making the way Miles leaps and swings through New York very distinctive from Peter Parker. "In the first issue, the way he's looking at the other children when they lost the lottery, you can see in his eyes that he's got an innocence and a real heart," she said before Pichelli said "I think Peter Parker was more comfortable jumping. This was just a kid. I thought [of the character as if] I were a kid -Â being less relaxed in the action. During the time [of the book] he will grow up.
"Often I look at me in the mirror for inspiration," she continued. "That's my approach to the character…to imagine that a child could do something like that. In [the book], I added padded knees and elbows. Many people got upset for that. 'Why would the new suit have pads?'"
Designs were shown off for Morales' look as a spin on the original. "As soon as the black and red came to us, it was a natural response from everyone from Axel to Joe [Quesada] to Brian that said 'Yes,'" Amanat explained, saying it made Miles his own hero. Pichelli started out with a more trendy hairstyle for Mile's look, but ultimately the decision was made to keep him simple and classic.
Amanat teased future issues, saying, "You're going to be seeing some old characters, some new characters, and the Prowler is obviously going to play an important role…over the next few issues, you'll see who Miles become, and every issue I read, I realize how much more I dig this kid."
"It was a little more than ten years ago that Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley launched a book called 'Ultimate Spider-Man,' and the response was skepticism," Alonso said about the initially overpowering and negative response to the death of Peter Parker and Miles' introduction from certain factions online. "So we didn't kill Peter Parker easily…we realized that 'Death of Spider-Man' would complete Peter's arc…I think it's beautiful now that ten years later we have a new launch and a new guy on his own journey of self discovery…we're peeling back the mask to reveal a new face, and that's what comics is all about…Peter Parker has been around for decades, and he's got fans who are all colors. At the end of the day, Miles also transcends race, and that's all I'll have to say about it."
The discussion moved to "Ultimate" as Alonso noted that the artist never uses photo reference. "The evidence speaks for itself. It's like seeing a beautiful person. You either appreciate it or you don't…there's an energy on every page that brings excitement," he said recalling that Alonso initially signed Ribic to Marvel years ago after seeing his portfolio once.
"It's obvious to me that we have to build the scale up," Ribic said of the action in the book. "The book [has been] very much focused on characters…but I tried to add some focus back to the world and the action." Amanat referenced "The City" which is a major set piece in the story and where his inspiration came from. "The dome is like a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion, so that's the inspiration in it. I'm a big fan of Moebius and a fan of Japanese artist Shiro, so I tried to steal a lot from them. But the results feels like it's organic enough for me that it really stands on its own."
As for future issues, Thor's return to being fully powered will make for "a lot of crazy action scenes and a surprise character by issue #5 or 6," Amanat said.
Speaking on "Ultimate Hawkeye," the editor called it "the lynchpin between what's happening in 'Ultimates' and 'Ultimate X-Men'…everything that happens in one book will have an impact on the others." In Hawkeye's solo adventure to a South American republic, two characters will be introduced who impact the X-Men's story in a big way in the months ahead.
Speaking of which, "Ultimate Comics X-Men" earned some applause from the fans in the room. "It's the return of a team book," Amanat said. "'Ultimate X' was a more slow, reintroduction of the idea, which I loved as Art Adams and Jeph Loeb did a wonderful job…but this is the return of the team trying to decide who they are, what they will do and whether they'll fight back." Part of the books personality is based on the question of "What is a mutant?" with former Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm allying himself with the mutant cause since it was revealed that mankind created the Ultimate Children of the Atom.
The future of the book will see "events that do link into 'Ultimate Hawkeye.' There will be a return of an old character who's kind of a dick, and it sets up a conflict…it really becomes a story about faith and what that means and why people are motivated to do the things they do. When you're trying to figure out who you follow and who you believe in, the world becomes a murky place when the world is full of illusions. I know that's a bit cerebral, but that's where we come from sometimes," said Amanat.
The floor opened up to fan questions with one reader wondering about the early years in the Ultimate Universe from being about a kind of "genetic arms race" where all the books were built on a military science idea and whether a new theme exists for this new line of comics. Amanat said that it wouldn't be right to put one label on them all, but a general idea was identity exploration with characters coming into their own from Miles Morales' personal journey to Nick Fury figuring out where to go without Captain America. "But I think it's mostly about the characters. All the books are very character-driven, which is what I think makes them so successful." She noted that part of that journey would involve characters falling out with one another and building their own path in the wake of interpersonal battles.
A fan confused by the status of Orson Scott Card's "Ultimate Iron Man" series and the original origin of Iron Man in "Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special" and what version would count as the actual origin of the Armored Avenger was looking for answers. "While the Orson Scott Card series was great, it didn't match up with where we were going," Amanat said. The just arrived C.B. Cebulski admitted that in the early days of the Ultimate Universe, Marvel "didn't always know what we were doing" and that the specific origin was one place where things didn't match up. "We used to have No Prizes to figure this stuff out," he added.
Alonso initially just said "Oops!" to the question, but soon got serious noting that one of the challenges of the early Ultimate line was that between the very regular "Ultimate Spider-Man" being lighthearted and "The Ultimates" being very cynical and erratic in its shipping, the pieces of the world never quite fit together. Part of his goal in bringing the line together in a way where things would make sense going forward and leading to events and other big stories.
The longstanding Marvel Comics idea of "Dead Means Dead" came up as it would apply to the Ultimate Universe, to which Amanat said "Yes yes yes! This is the Ultimate Universe, and it's different from the regular Marvel Universe…we love being in this world where everything looks like it should look" although the editor dropped the slightly spoilery hint that "If you see another character that looks like they might be dead, you should think that's a little fishy."
A fan wondered if "Community" actor Donald Glover's quest to be cast as Spider-Man influenced the creation of Miles Morales. "We discussed the idea of a black Spider-Man a long time ago, and in and of itself it's not that groundbreaking an idea…it could be said that it's about time," he explained. He said that Bendis and Glover have had contact about the character and that the Twitter campaign to cast the actor as Spider-Man may have helped Bendis get over any trepidation to the idea. "We're taking the world's more recognized superhero and peeling back his mask to reveal a very different face…that was a big risk…until it's on paper, it doesn't mean anything. It's all talk."
The Editor-in-Chief also joke that Glover would have to look out now in case "Jaden Smith is out there doing crunches and getting ready."
Stay tuned all weekend for more on Marvel and all the news from New York Comic Con right here on CBR!
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About Kiwanis Club of Shorewood
The Mission Statement of Shorewood Kiwanis Club
Improving the World, one Community, one Child at a time, since 1959
The Mission Statement of Kiwanis International
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world "one community....one child at a time."
The Six Objects of Kiwanis:
The six permanent objects of Kiwanis International were approved by Kiwanis CLub delegates at the 1924 Kiwanis International Convention in Denver, Colorado. Through the decades, they have remained unchanged:
History of Kiwanis International:
Kiwanis was born in Detroit back in 1915. It began as a businessman's club – what we call "networking" today. Within a year, it became international in scope with the addition of some clubs in Canada.
Thousands and thousands of clubs were subsequently added under the Kiwanis banner and further refined their mission to a primary focus on children. That focus attracted community leaders and businessmen who built the international organization and propagated its influence across the world. Ladies were admitted to Kiwanis beginning on July 7th, 1987.
They worked on World Service Projects such as the elimination of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD). IDD is the leading cause of preventable mental and physical retardation. As many as 1.5 billion people are at risk, especially young children. The initial fundraising goal was surpassed in 2001. IDD projects have now been funded in 95 nations.
History of Shorewood Kiwanis:
In 1959, some members from the St. Clair Shores Kiwanis Club joined friends of theirs from Grosse Pointe Woods to form the Kiwanis Club of Shorewood. By that time, over 5100 other such clubs had already joined the Kiwanis Organization. Shorewood quickly grew and gained prominence within the communities of St. Clair Shores and the Grosse Pointes.
Business and community leaders gravitated to Shorewood and, each using their particular expertise, guided the club as many important programs were established to benefit the community at large. By 1980, the club's effectiveness and commitment to the "Objects of Kiwanis" helped make it possible for Past President Bill Hershiser to become Governor of the Michigan District of Kiwanis – a very significant milestone.
By that time, Shorewood was very active thanks to recurring fund-raisers, graciously supported by the community at large. These were events such as pancake breakfasts, Kiwanis peanuts and the legendary Gourmet Nut Sale at Christmas time. These collected funds made possible the annual ice show for mentally and physically challenged children from across the Metro Detroit Area; scholarships for graduating seniors from each of the St. Clair Shores school districts; support for culturally rich programs presented by the (now) Lake St. Clair Symphony Orchestra and the S.C.S Civic Chorus.
Now, Shorewood helps support young readers with pre-school books purchased for the S.C.S. Public Library; distressed families with Thanksgiving Baskets; the Trauma Related Injury Prevention Program of Children's Hospital; the "Read to Me Roscoe" program of the Macomb Literacy Partners; and many, many more such programs aimed primarily at children and their families.
Shorewood Kiwanis is proud to serve our community and fully support and enact the motto, which guides all Kiwanians: "Serving Our Communities, One Child at a Time"


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Secluded from the street and embraced by lush, private surrounds, this exemplary home offers tranquil family oriented living with expansive al fresco entertaining areas and a sensational locale convenient to rail and outstanding schools
Celebrating the iconic cool of Pettit and Sevitt style with a split level layout, soaring raked ceilings and superb connection to the outdoors from living areas
Living and dining with high quality carpet and custom joinery, flow to terrace and a beautiful forested outlook
Family living and meals open plan to kitchen and enjoying effortless access to fabulous poolside entertaining across exquisite Brushbox floors
Richly toned timber kitchen, stone bench tops, 800mm Ilve range and range hood, gas cooktop, electric oven, microwave, dishwasher, pass to outdoor servery
Five bedrooms all with built in robes and views of the reserve, master with sleek contemporary bathroom with heated rails and luxurious freestanding bath
Two renovated contemporary bathrooms plus a powder room handy to pool, fitted internal laundry with chutes
Multiple al fresco dining and entertaining areas drinking in the beauty of the private setting and adjoining a peaceful reserve renowned for its birdlife
Large pavilion perfect for parties in lush landscaped surrounds with an easy care resort feel
Sunny in ground pool relishing the north to rear aspect, pool garden enclosure ideal for sunbeds and catching a nap
Lock up garaging for three cars, reverse cycle air con, instant gas hot water, wine cellar, storage attic, workshop/garden shed
Stroll to Warrawee Public School, walk to rail and Knox, close to Abbotsleigh, Wahroonga village and Turramurra shops, Turramurra loop bus around the corner
Open Home Times: Please note that open times are subject to change. Please confirm on the day via our website McConnellBourn.com.au
Disclaimer: All information contained herein is gathered from sources we believe reliable. We have no reason to doubt its accuracy. However, we cannot guarantee it. All interested parties should make & rely upon their own enquiries.


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Bookbug Sessions are free, fun and friendly events for babies, toddlers and their
families to enjoy together.
Our sessions are suitable for ages 0-3. There's gentle songs for bouncing babies
and loads of chances to move for toddlers who've found their feet! There are also
stories and probably a few rhymes you'll remember from your own childhood.
Each session lasts around 30 to 45 minutes and is usually weekly. The atmosphere
is relaxed and friendly and they're the perfect chance, not only for you to spend
quality time with your wee one, but to meet other mums, dads, grandparents and carers.
Bookbug sessions promote a whole host of emotional, social and educational benefits
for your child:
Most Bookbug Sessions are weekly, with the exception of Falkirk Library. You can
usually just walk into a session, but some libraries require booking as they fill
up quickly!


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January 13, 2014
More Ranbaxy woes
The FDA has put Ranbaxy Laboratories on notice.
Bloomberg reports that the US regulator says a recent inspection shows a Punjab, India, plant that makes 60% to 70% of the company's active ingredients is failing to make the grade.
The company agreed to shell out $500 million over fraud allegations in May, and Bloomberg notes that the US has already banned items from three Ranbaxy plants from entering the country.


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At heart, I'm a full out geek. I like technology…sometimes too much. I need to warn you from the beginning, that this post is a bit "techy". If that's not you, feel free to swiftly close this window and get back to your day. :)
Recently, I posted some thoughts on the importance of writing. Whether you consider yourself a "writer" or not is irrelevant. Nearly every expression of creativity starts with getting our thoughts out of our brain and on to paper. Or as Dawson Trotman says, "letting your thoughts pass through your lips and fingertips". We all have things in our gut that we need to let out. And when we do it's important we have the right tools on hand.
When writing, I've found there are times when the mojo is just there. I sit down and can't write fast enough to capture everything my heart is singing about.
But more often are the times where I'll stare desperately at the blinking cursor not remembering how it is that sentences are formed. These are the times that can lead to frustration and the occasional questioning of the purpose of life. In these moments, the last thing I want to do is write, so I'll distract myself with ANYTHING I can possibly justify. My eyes will constantly wander to new email notifications and social media icons. Even with other applications closed, I waste time changing fonts, sizes, and margins of the document I am working in.
Sound crazy? I'm hoping you know what I'm talking about.


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Foundation nightclub, Seattle's #1 EDM format luxury nightclub, is looking for talented, dedicated and socially active dancers to join our resident team. Foundation features world-renowned DJs & industry-elite staff, fusing together multiple elements to create the perfect dance music atmosphere.
Think you have what it takes to be a Foundation dancer? Bring your energy, skill, and come ready to entertain!
-Must be 21+
-Greater Seattle area resident
-Fit and healthy
-Positive attitude
-Available on Wednesday nights and weekends
-Active online network and willingness to promote Foundation Nightclub events
What to bring:
– Valid photo ID
– Performance resume (If you have one)
– Water bottle
What to Wear:
-Crop top/ fitted tank / dance top
-Booty shorts (Nylons and fishnets welcome in nude/black)
-Black flat boots (knee high/thigh high)
What to Expect:
7:00-7:15 – Registration
7:15-7:30 – Stretch/Warm
– Auditionees will dance in groups, to 3 different genres of electronic music.
– Each applicant will also be interviewed
Feel free to tag, share and invite anyone who may be interested!
Questions or concerns? Email: [email protected]


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Each year we need to raise thousands of pounds to fund our research and monitoring of Britain's bird populations. The data obtained from our work provides crucial evidence for the conservation of bird species and habitats.
Ways to donate
Choose to support a specific appeal or the whole breadth of our work via the methods below.
Set up a regular donation by Direct Debit
You can set up a regular Direct Debit payment to us online. You can choose monthly, quarterly or annually. Regular donations really help us to plan our work in the future. It's fast, easy and secure and you can cancel at any time.
Make a single donation online today
Make a single donation online today using our secure payment system.
You can also:
Make a donation through Paypal
A donation made via Paypal incurs no fees for the BTO - your whole donation contributes to our work.
Pay by card over the phone
You can also choose to make a card payment over the phone by calling our headquarters on 01842 750050.
Send a cheque
Or you can send a cheque made payable to the 'British Trust for Ornithology' to The Fundraising Team, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU
Thank you for your support.


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SAN DIEGO – Alexandros Araouzos had two match point opportunities but was unable to finish off San Diego State's Ignacio Martinez and San Diego fell, 4-3, to the Aztecs Friday afternoon at the Hogan Tennis Center.
With the match tied, 3-3, Araouzos trailed Martinez, 4-3, in the third set. Araouzos won the next two games to take a 5-4 lead. However, Martinez was able to fend off an aggressive Araouzos, who held leads in ensuing games, and won the next two games to secure a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, victory and claim the day's deciding point.
The Toreros (4-3) fell behind early in the match dropping the doubles point, giving the Aztecs (2-7) a 1-0 lead. David Norfeldt and Garrett Kurtz fell to Arnaud Restifo and Joel Popov, 6-3, while August Holmgren and Joel Gamerov fell to Rafael Gonzalez Almazan and Santiago Cevallos, 6-4.
The deficit doubled when Cevallos defeated Gui Osorio, 6-2, 6-4, in the No. 2 singles spot to give SDSU a 2-0 advantage. The Aztecs went up 3-0 when Gonzalez Almazan defeated Norfeldt, 6-4, 6-3.
The Toreros rallied to take the next three matches. Gamerov made quick work of Popov, 6-4, 6-3, while Nico Borter took down Sander Andersen, 6-1, 2-6, 6-0. Holmgren leveled the match at 3-3, picking up a 6-4, 7-5, result against Restifo.
The match came down to Araouzos and Martinez. Araouzos had come up clutch in similar positions multiple times earlier this season but could not produce the result Friday as the Aztecs claimed the victory.
USD will look to rebound next Thursday when it takes on USC in La Jolla, California.
Building a Home in Mexico
One day, seven student-athletes, impact for a lifetime
Baseball: Final Series
Toreros end their season against No. 2 Oregon State
Celebration of Excellence Recap
Toreros dress to impress for the end of year banquet
It's Tricky
San Diego Athletics' staff makes home made version of Run DMC's hit song
USD Athletes Lip Sync
12 sports teams show off some skills in a new genre
USD Athletics Blooper Reel
What it sometimes takes to get that perfect shot
All Sport Highlights 2017-18
17 sports - infinite highlights
Baseball: Day in the Life with Jay Schuyler
The real-life baseball experience
Golf: WCC's
Inside look at WCC competition
Men's Tennis: Sweep
San Diego defeat Pepperdine 4-0
Softball: The Win
Toreros defeat Saint Mary's in weekend series
Men's Basketball: Tuber
Coach Scholl introduces "Tuber" - the on campus Torero Uber
Men's Basketball: Barista Scholl
Coach Scholl gets students ready for class by helping out at Aromas Cafe
Football: Pro Day
Toreros submit their resumes to the NFL scouts
Men's Basketball: Portland State Win
Toreros move on to next round in CIT
Football 2018: Spring Game
Toreros play spring football game for family and friends
Baseball: Toreros vs. Aztecs
USD take on cross-town rival SDSU
Men's Basketball: Post Season Run
USD vs. Hartford highlights
Women's Basketball: WCC Championship Game
Toreros end the 2018 season against Gonzaga in the WCC finals.
Women's Basketball: WCC Semifinals
Women's win send them to the championship game
Men's Basketball: WCC Quarterfinals
Toreros close out 2018 season against BYU
Men's Basketball: "Off Day"
Toreros prepare for the WCC quarterfinals against BYU
Women's Basketball: WCC Quarterfinal Highlights
USD defeats BYU in quarterfinal of WCC Tournament
Women's Basketball: Day in the Life with Myah Pace
Freshman guard knows how to prep for a win
Women's Basketball: Vegas Bound
Toreros travel to Vegas for the WCC Tournament
Baseball: Defeating No. 4 Arkansas
Toreros edge out top five team
Men's Basketball: Rock the House
Toreros played No. 6 Gonzaga in a fight to the last minute
Men's Basketball: Day in the Life
Guard Olin Carter III knows the games starts long before tip-off
Winter Saturday
Rowing, tennis, basketball and baseball, a winning day in the books
Baseball: For the Love of the Game
Baseball celebrates 60 years
Women's Basketball: Women in Sports Day
Julie Foudy spoke to student-athletes and guests for National Women in Sports Day
Men's Basketball: At LMU
Men's basketball on the road
Women's Rowing: Day in the Life
Senior Lizzie Bader shows how three-a-day practices are done
Men's Basketball: Youth Basketball Clinic
Toreros lead clinic in local community
Men's Rowing: Winter Camp 2018
There are plenty perks to being the early bird
60 Years of USD Baseball
Milestones on the road to Omaha
USD Honors Local Military Members
Toreros showed their support and hosted local military members at the men's basketball game
USD Athletes Sing "Santa's Coming to Town"
Toreros show their talent out of uniform
Basketball: City Championship
Toreros play SDSU Thursday night at 8
Football: Week Fourteen
Football preps for second round of playoffs at NDSU
Football: NAU From the Sidelines
Toreros win in first round of playoffs at NAU
Football: Week Thirteen
Football travels to NAU for the first round of the FCS Playoffs
Torero Tuesday
A day to give to Torero Athletics
Football: Week Twelve
Toreros gear up for last game of conference play
Football: Week Eleven
Toreros prep for game day
Torero Timeout with Summer Mason
USD junior women's soccer player takes a timeout during a study break
On Saturday We Dominate
Big wins for both USD Football and USD Volleyball Saturday afternoon
Torero Timeout with Henry Lander
Men's soccer sophomore Henry Lander takes a Timeout between classes
Football: Week Ten
Toreros gear up for home game against Drake
Halloween Hoopla
Men's and women's basketball teamed up to host a Halloween event
Football: Week Nine
Big day in the weight room for the Toreros
Seamus McFadden's Legacy
39 years in review by former players and coaches
Seamus Night
Alumni, staff and the San Diego community gathered to celebrate Men's Soccer Head Coach Seamus McFadden
Sixth Man Night: The Event
Recap video of the October 12 fundraiser event
Women's Basketball: WCC Hoops Tip-Off
Coach Fisher and Maya Hood attend media day in Las Vegas
Men's Basketball: New Heights
Men's basketball celebrates the third era of the program
Alumni and family gathered together for an eventful Homecoming weekend
Torero Timeout with Kristen Gengenbacher
Take a Timeout with the senior setter at her house in South Mission Beach
Football: Week Seven
Football preps for this Saturday's Homecoming game
Torero Timeout with Jonathan Petersen
USD Football's Petersen strolls through Belmont Park during his bye week
USD Basketball: Practice No. 1
Check out what practice looks like for the Torero ballers
Football: Week Five
Toreros prep for big game against Dayton
Football: FaceTime with Lion's Jamal Agnew
USD Head Coach Dale Lindsey congratulates Torero alum Agnew on his first NFL touchdown
Football: Brian Fogarty PFL Classic
From tailgates to touchdowns, we got it all
Football: Week Four
Hard work follows these Toreros on and off the field
Cross Country: USD Invite
Missed Saturday's race? Don't stress, we have it right here
Football: Week Three
Sights and sounds of USD Football at work
USD Invite: Take a Lap
Men's and women's cross country host the USD Invite: the only home race for the Toreros
Football: Week Two
Football hard at work for their first away game at UC Davis
Three Games - One Day
Ole Weekend was one to remember for USD Athletics
Football: Week One
Toreros preps for their home opener against Western New Mexico
2017 Football Season Preview
Head Coach Dale Lindsey and Senior Ray Clark discuss upcoming season
USD Athletics Highlight Video 2016-17
Don't miss the best highlights from this past year in USD Athletics


text: News NEWS Air France launches Glasgow route By admin4493 - December 21, 2015 Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest WhatsApp Air France will launch a new service between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Glasgow next summer. From March 27, the airline will operate a daily service, using a 131-seat A318, on the route. Details Loading... Download AIRLIVE app


text: This teen romantic comedy is a modern-day re-telling of the classic fairy tale. Hilary Duff stars as Sam Martin, a sweet but awkward high-school girl who has been suffering since the death of her father: the diner he owned now belongs to his thoroughly wicked widow, Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge), a former waitress who now makes Sam do all the hard work, mopping floors and washing dishes. School is no picnic for Sam, either: the most popular girl, the rich, pretty and bitchy Shelby (Julie Gonzalo) makes her life a misery. Things take a turn for the better when Sam loses her mobile phone and it is found by a mystery guy. The pair embark on a romance conducted entirely by text message and email. But who is the guy - and what will happen when Sam finally gets to meet him in person at the Hallowe'en school dance?


text:
Embodied Communication in Humans and Machines
The challenge to develop an integrated perspective of embodiment in communication has been taken up by an international research group hosted by Bielefeld University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF -- Zentrum fur interdisziplinare Forschung) from October, 2005 through September, 2006. An international conference was held there on 12-15 January, 2005 to define a research agenda that will explicitly address embodied communication in humans and machines.
Full Text:PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v26i2.1815
Copyright © 2018, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.


text:
July 12, 2007
ST Marine wins Ropax order
Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd reports that its ST Marine unit has been awarded a contract to design and build a 4,000 dwt Roll-on/Roll-off Passenger ferry (Ropax) for Louis Dreyfus Armateurs S.A.S. (LDA) of France.
The contract is worth approximately S$168 million (US$111 million) includes an option to purchase a second vessel.
The 4,000-dwt Ropax ferry will measures about 161 m long and 25.6 m wide, and will operate in the English Channel for day and night crossing. Equipped with passenger lounges and cabins, restaurants and bars, and a summer deck, the 930-passenger vessel is also designed for the carriage of trailers and cars, which will be accommodated by a RoRo lane capacity of approximately 1,500 m and car lane capacity of about 2,290 m.
Design of the vessel will start immediately and construction is expected to commence in the first half on next year, with delivery expected in the first half of 2010.
The Ropax is the third newbuilding order from LDA at ST Marine, following the order of two Rollon/ Roll-off vessels (RoRo) in association with Norway's Leif Hoegh & Co. AS (LH) for the transportation of Airbus A380 aircraft components in February last year. .ST Engineering says the Ropax is a first for Singapore's shipbuilding history. and that it "involves complex and meticulous designs, state-of-the-art technologies and exacting engineering applications to build."


text:
IBRI Research Report #15 (1982)
Robert C. Newman
Biblical Theological Seminary
Interdisciiplinary Biblical
Research Institute
Copyright © 1982 by Robert C. Newman. All rights reserved.
|Although the author is in agreement with the doctrinal statement of IBRI, it does not follow that all of the viewpoints espoused in this paper represent official positions of IBRI. Since one of the purposes of the IBRI report series is to serve as a preprint forum, it is possible that the author has revised some aspects of this work since it was first written.
Cosmology is the study of the known parts of the universe in an attempt to describe the universe as a whole. It is the interpretation of that information presently reaching the earth with a view to reconstructing the entire history of the cosmos. With limitations such as these, we should not be surprised that cosmology is still more speculation than it is science, and that a great variety of cosmological models are proposed and defended.
Like physicist Hannes Alfven, we may wish to throw up our hands and dismiss cosmology as a waste of time.1 Yet the questions it deals with are too important to be safely ignored. The Bible warns us that the universe is created and that its Creator will one day call us to account for our every thought and action (Rom 2:15-16; Rev 20:11-15). However unlikely we might think it that the Bible is really a message from God or that Christianity is true, the stakes are so high if we are mistaken that it would be foolish for us to live like the universe is eternal without carefully examining whatever data may bear on the subject.2
Not only are questions of cosmology personally important for each of us (whether we realize it or not), but the scientific material available to answer these questions is more extensive today than ever before. With the development of ever-larger optical telescopes, or radio telescopes since World War 2, and most recently of artificial satellites which make observations above our obscuring atmosphere, we now have enormous amounts of new data. Earthbound work in physics has given us greatly increased understanding of the atom, its nucleus and elementary particles, and of the gravitational, atomic, and nuclear forces at work in the universe. Therefore we are responsible to press on in this "sore travail" that God has given us, "to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven" (Eccl 1:13).
In this paper, we shall sketch the scientific data relevant to cosmology, including such items as the nature of stars and their distances from us, galaxies and their redshifts, Olber's paradox, cosmic distance scales, quasars, and the so-called three-degree blackbody radiation. At convenient points in this discussion, we shall examine various cosmological models, some proposed by secular scientists, others by various Bible-believers. In the end, we shall summarize our findings and propose a best model on the basis of present scientific knowledge.
The Nature of Stars
Although astronomers are interested in planets, asteroids and comets as well, cosmologists tend to confine their study to stars and galaxies, since these alone have been seen beyond our solar system.3 Let us first look at stars.
What is a star? We have one nearby -- the sun -- about 93 million miles (or eight light-minutes)4 away from us. The next nearest is about four light-years away, over a quarter of a million times further. Our sun is a huge ball of gas, mostly hydrogen, held together by its own gravity. The temperature at its visible "surface" is several thousand degrees. As we calculate the temperature inward, it rises to about ten million degrees at the center, so that the sun remains a gas all the way through in spite of enormous densities deep within. At such high central temperatures, hydrogen undergoes a nuclear reaction, converting itself to helium with the release of enormous amounts of energy. This energy, equivalent to the explosion of about two-billion 50-megaton hydrogen bombs per second,5 provides all our sunlight and keeps the sun from collapsing under the force of its own gravity. A mass of hydrogen equal to that of the sun should be able to keep burning by this reaction for perhaps ten billion years.
That, in brief is what the sun is like. Why do we believe the sun is a star, or equivalently, that the stars are suns? There are several reasons. First of all, we can measure distances to about a thousand of the nearest stars by a rather direct method of triangulation called parallax. This method is most easily illustrated by holding your finger up at arm's length and looking at it first with one eye and then with the other. Your finger appears to jump back and forth against its background. In astronomy, your finger corresponds to a nearby star; the background to the more distant stars. Your eyes are photos taken six months apart at opposite ends of the earth's orbit -- about 186 million miles apart instead of two inches. Measuring the amount of jump for each star, we find that the nearest stars are about four light-years (25 trillion miles) away. For stars beyond about 100 light-years, the jump gets too small to measure. Only about a thousand of the billions of stars visible in our telescopes show measurable jumps.
What does this have to do with whether the stars are suns? Well, when we allow for the geometrical dimming of light due to distance, we find that the brightness of our sun is the same as that for stars of the same color. Bluer stars tend to be brighter; redder ones dimmer. We can even make a graph, plotting star brightness opposite star color, and show that most of these stars lie near a single line (called "the main sequence") and that our sun lies on this line, too.
A second argument that stars are suns comes by measuring their masses. We can do this whenever stars occur in pairs or groups (called binary or multiple stars) rotating around one another. If we know the size of the orbit and the time it takes the stars to circle each other, we can immediately compute the sum of their masses. For main sequence stars, those with the same color as our sun have the same mass; bluer stars are heavier, redder ones are lighter.
In these and many other ways, stars show themselves to be the same kind of object as our sun. Of course, stars differ considerably among themselves: some are 100 times heavier than our sun, some 100 times lighter. Some have surface temperatures twice as cool; others, ten times hotter. Some expend their energy a million times faster; others a million times slower. However, there does appear to be a minimum size for stars. Observations agree with calculations that if an object is less than about 1% of the sun's mass, the central temperature will not be high enough to have a nuclear reaction, and the object will be a large planet like Jupiter rather than a star.
Camping's Physically Small Universe
At this point we are ready to consider the proposal of engineer and radio Bible teacher Harold Camping,6 that the whole universe is really very small, only a few light-years across. Camping argues that the parallax method described above merely shows us that the thousand nearest stars are closer than the background stars, but it doesn't tell us how far away these background stars are. All distance measurements used on the background stars, he says, are unreliable, being based on false assumptions. Instead, these stars lie in a thin spherical shell only a short distance further away.
This view is mistaken, as can be shown by several simple arguments based upon proportions, each of which is no less reliable than the parallax method which Camping accepts. First, we can measure the motion of stars toward or away from us by a shift in the frequency of light coming from them, using a technique like that of police radar for catching speeders. For those pairs of binary stars that are far enough apart to appear as separate stars in our telescopes, we measure the angular size of their orbits and the speed at which the two stars move around each other. If they are only a few light-years away, as Camping claims, then the physical size of the orbits must be relatively small, and the stars should complete a roundtrip in just a few days. In fact, however, many such stars take years to make a circuit, showing that those stars are actually many hundreds of light-years away.
Second, according to Camping's view, the dimmer main sequence stars must appear to be dim because they are very small rather than because they are very far away. For the billions of very dim stars we observe in large telescopes, most of these would have to be so small that gravity could not hold them together.
Third, these dimmer stars often form clusters. If we make a separate graph for each cluster, plotting star brightness opposite star color, a pattern is obtained which is similar to that of the thousand nearby stars. Each such graph has a main sequence line. If we assume that the main sequence in each cluster has the same actual brightness for each color as does the main sequence in our nearby stars, then these clusters are much further away from us -- some a hundred light-years, some a thousand, some even further. These assumption made here is very reasonable, since computer calculations of star structure show that stars on the main sequence are merely those which get their energy by turning hydrogen into helium, in contrast to (say) red giant stars, which have used up all their hydrogen, and are now turning helium into carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Thus the view that the universe is much larger than a few light-years across is able to explain the energy source of stars in clusters by the same mechanism that explains the energy source of the sun and nearby stars.
Such examples could be multiplied easily. They show us that the universe is really much bigger than the distance to the nearest stars.
As we look further out into space, we see that most stars occur in clusters of hundreds or thousands of stars. These clusters, together with much gas and dust, form far larger collections of stars we call galaxies. The galaxy in which we are located is called the Milky Way, since its more distant stars form a "white road" across the sky to which the ancient Greeks gave this name. Our sun and the nearby stars are also a part of this galaxy, though they seem separate to us because we are among them. This is like the view we might have in a large city, where nearby lights are distinct from the glow of the more distant parts of the city.
Our galaxy is thought to have 100 to 200 billion stars. It is shaped like a spiral as viewed from above, or like a pair of marching-band cymbals placed face-to-face. The whole galaxy is some 100,000 light-years across, and we are about two-thirds of the way out from the center. Not far beyond our galaxy are two much smaller irregularly-shaped galaxies which we call the Magellanic Clouds since they were discovered (for Europeans) by Ferdinand Magellan on his voyage around the world. They cannot be seen from places as far north as the US. The nearest galaxy larger than ours is the Andromeda galaxy, containing some 200 to 300 billion stars and located about two million light-years away. Some galaxies are spirals, like the Milky Way and Andromeda. Some are ellipticals, like Andromeda's small companions. Others are irregulars, like the Magellanic clouds. The smaller galaxies have hundreds of millions of stars, the larger ones hundreds of billions.
How do we know the distances to other galaxies? Obviously not by parallax, since this method only works for the thousand or so nearest stars, all well within our own galaxy. The answer is that astronomers have developed a number of longer-range techniques for measuring distances. Each longer-range method is calibrated by using a technique that is good for shorter distances and which overlaps the range of the other. Techniques good over the same range are also checked against one another.
What are these distance-measuring techniques? Most of them depend on some method of calculating the actual or absolute brightness of a star, star cluster or galaxy. Then the apparent brightness of the object is observed. Since apparent brightness decreases with the square of the distance from object to observer, the distance of the object can then be calculated. We have already looked at one such method for determining absolute brightness main sequence stars of the same color have the same brightness. Another method depends on the fact that certain types of variable stars also have a definite average brightness which is related to the rate at which the star varies. Main sequence stars and these variable stars are used to measure distances within our galaxy and out to several nearby galaxies, to a distance of a few million light-years. In nearby galaxies, we notice that the brightest stars in a galaxy and the brightest (globular) clusters tend to have a fixed brightness, by which distances can be measured out to a hundred million light-years. Beyond this distance, measurements are less certain, though it appears that the brightest galaxies in large galaxy-clusters also have a fixed brightness. This gives very rough distance measurements out to the most distant known galaxies, over a billion light-years away.
Moon and Spencer's Optically Small Universe
Two secular scientists, Parry Moon and Domina Spencer,7 have proposed that certain phenomena of binary stars usually explained by Einstein's theory of relativity could be explained without using relativity if we assume that light travels in circles of radius five light-years rather than in straight lines. In such a cosmology, the universe may be arbitrarily large in actuality, but an observer could never see objects more than ten light-years away, since light from more distant sources would curve back on itself before reaching us. Yet though there exist only a dozen or so stars within ten light-years, these might be supposed to appear to us as billions of stars as we see their light on its first, second, third, or even millionth circuit around the heavens.
This suggestion seems to have attracted little interest in secular circles, but a number of young-earth creationists have spoken favorably of it.8 These creationists see such a model as a possible explanation for how light from apparently distant objects could reach us in just a few years, thereby avoiding the problem of having God create light already on its way to us for objects over 10,000 light-years away. Unfortunately, the cosmology of Moon and Spencer will not solve this problem, and it is hardly likely to be the actual state of affairs in any case.
In the first place, this model does not solve the problem of light travel-time. Even though the apparently brightest stars might be those we are seeing directly, and the dimmer ones might be light from the same stars which has made many more trips around the "universe," this dimmer light must still have travelled a long way and taken a long time to do it. Only the light from the first, direct images of the stars would reach us in less than fifteen years. The second-image light would have had to make an additional circuit, arriving about thirty years later (circumference of circle with diameter ten light-years). Light which by dimness and other distance-measuring techniques appears to have come from more than 10,000 light-years away would actually have made several hundred circuits and taken over 10,000 years to do so. It therefore does not appear that the optically-small universe of Moon and Spencer is any help for young-earth creationists.
Nor is the model at all likely to be true. Since the radius of curvature for light rays in this model is five light-years, we would see nothing that is actually further away than ten light-years. This would mean that our sky has only a handful of real stars and all the rest of the star images are multiple "reflections" of these. This would be very much like looking into one of those "wrap-around" mirrors sometimes found in clothing stores or amusement parks, in which we see many images of ourselves. It should only take a few minutes' study of astronomical photographs to convince us that we are not merely looking a multiple reflections. The images of globular clusters and galaxies, for instance, are too coherent with centers, rotational motion, and such to be the multiple images of only a dozen stars! Then, too, there are far more than a dozen different star colors, sizes and densities which we observe.
Galactic Redshifts
Since the 1920s we have known that (except for a few galaxies in our local group) the light coming to us from all the galaxies is redshifted. This means that the dark lines in the spectrum of each galaxy (caused by the various chemical elements in the cooler outer atmospheres of each star absorbing the light passing through) are located at longer wavelengths (corresponding to redder light) than they are for absorption by the same elements in a laboratory on earth.
Not only is the light redshifted, but the amount of shift is larger for more distant galaxies, increasing in an approximately linear way with distance. There are only three known mechanisms that redden light: (1) scattering by dust and gas, (2) gravity-reddening, and (3) motion-reddening. The first of these is what causes the sun to look red near sunset when its light passes through many more miles of atmosphere to reach us than it does when overhead. For galaxies, though, this reddening would be due to gas and dust in outer space between us and the galaxies. This kind of reddening would increase with distance like the redshift does, but it wouldn't shift the spectral lines. Therefore, this cannot be the proper explanation.
Gravity-reddening is due to the energy lost by light as it fights its way out of a strong gravitational field. It does shift spectral lines toward the red, but there is no reason why it should produce more reddening for more distant galaxies. This explanation, too, is inadequate to explain the galactic redshifts.
Motion-reddening is a shift in light-frequency due to the movement of the light source and observer away from one another. More commonly known as the Doppler shift, it also allows for blueshifts when source and observer are approaching one another. Most of us have observed the Doppler shift of sound waves in noticing the change in pitch of a train whistle, auto engine, or siren when the vehicle passes us. The tone is higher-pitched as the vehicle approaches and suddenly drops as it passes and begins to move away. For light waves, it is color, not pitch, which we observe, and the color seems bluer for approaching objects and redder for receding ones. The effect for light is not noticeable at ordinary speeds without special equipment, and we do not commonly see objects travelling at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. This explanation will fit the observed galactic redshifts if we assume that all galaxies except a few in our local group are moving away from us. This assumption, known as the expansion of the universe, is generally accepted by cosmologists today.
A Static "Tired-Light" Universe
Some cosmologists, however, prefer to postulate some unknown mechanism to produce the galactic redshifts rather than to accept the strange idea that all the galaxies are moving apart. Cosmologies which deny an expanding universe are called "static" universes (not to be confused with the "steady-state" universe which we will discuss later). The various mechanisms proposed for reddening are usually called "tired-light" theories.
French physicist Jean-Pierre Vigier,9 for instance, proposes that an otherwise unknown lightweight elementary particle exists which scatters light in such a way as to redshift the spectral lines in proportion to the distance the light has travelled. Such a cosmology cannot be ruled out under present knowledge as far as I know. However, scientists are reluctant to postulate unknown forces or particles without some more definite evidence. Such a large static universe created at some finite time in the past could fit the observed data.
If, however, one proposes a static universe which is uncreated and therefore eternal, several other problems arise. Since gravity is only an attractive force, such a universe would not remain static unless another unknown force is postulated to balance gravity. This is what Einstein did by adding his "cosmological constant" to his equations. He was not willing at the time to have a universe with a beginning.10
Another problem for a static, eternal universe is that stars have a fixed amount of hydrogen fuel and a substantial rate at which they burn this fuel. Therefore no star burns forever. Since stars are still burning today, proponents of an eternal static universe must postulate some unknown mechanisms to "recycle" fuel. Such a process would presumably use considerable energy itself, or violate the principle of entropy by which energy tends to disperse.
Eternal static universes of infinite size are also troubled by Olber's paradox. Named for a 19th century astronomer, this paradox arises from the obvious fact that the sky is dark at night. An eternal universe filled with stars should have a bright sky. Let me explain. The brightness of a light diminishes as the square of our distance from its source. If (in our imagination) we divide up the universe into spherical shells of equal thicknesses centered on ourselves, each shell increases in volume as the square of the distance from us, exactly canceling the diminishing of the light from each star in the shell. Therefore, each shell having the same density of stars will give us the same amount of light no matter how far away it is!
For an infinite universe, the sky should be infinitely bright, or allowing for stars to block the light coming from stars behind them the sky should be as bright as the surface of an average star! Obviously this is not the case. The paradox can only be avoided if one of the following is true: (1) the universe is finite in size, so that there is no light provided by shells beyond a certain distance; (2) the universe is finite in age, so that no light has yet reached us from shells beyond a certain distance; (3) the universe is expanding in such a way that shells beyond a certain distance are travelling away from us faster than the speed of light, and their light will never reach us; or (4) the universe is organized in a spatial hierarchy11 such that more distant shells have less and less stars in just such a way that the total sky appears dark compared with daytime.
Only the last of these four cases permits an infinitely large and infinitely old static universe, and this is such a peculiar special case that few would be willing to defend it. Since it still fails the problem of gravity and fuel that trouble other static cosmologies, we conclude that a static universe, eternal or not, really doesn't fit the known scientific data without very specialized assumptions about the existence of unknown laws.
A Young "Created Light" Universe
Many young-earth creationists believe that our universe is very large (whether static or expanding) but very young, no more than about 10,000 years old. Since most of the objects visible in our larger telescopes give every indication of being more than 10,000 light-years away (which distance is still inside our galaxy), many proponents of this view claim that the light from these distant objects was created on its way to us and never actually left the objects which the light represents.12
Such a view is defended on the grounds that God created objects with apparent age that Adam, for instance, looked full-grown, say 25 years old, only a moment after he was created; that newly-created trees had growth rings in them; that the wine Jesus created at Cana tasted like it had been grown on vines and aged. There is certainly some merit to the idea of a fictitious apparent age for objects brought into existence suddenly. However, not being present, we can only speculate on whether or not such an apparent age would be indistinguishable from actual age. Would newly-created trees really have growth rings? Would Adam have a navel (say), even though he was never born? Would he have toughened or baby-soft skin? We don't know.
But this view, when applied to cosmology, must take an additional and substantial step from apparent age to fictitious history. Let me explain. When we look out into space (with or without a telescope) we are effectively looking back into history because light takes time to travel. Looking at the sun, we see events that happened there about eight minutes ago, since we are about eight light-minutes away. When we observe the star alpha Centauri (about four light-years away), we see what was happening there four years ago. Similarly, for more distant stars, we see their radiation, flares, variation, rotation, position, etc. the events occurring on them when light left these stars, whether 10, 100 or 1000 years ago. But according to the theory of a young "created light" universe, when we reach (say) a distance of ten thousand light-years, we suddenly shift from real history to fictitious history without any seam (say, some sort of flash or discontinuity) to indicate that anything unusual happened. Thus the phenomena we see in the Andromeda galaxy, for example, represent merely the galactic rotation, stellar positions, supernova events (stellar explosions), expanding gas clouds, etc., that would have happened had the galaxy existed two million years ago. Yet these events didn't actually happen because none of these things existed. Such a view bristles with both scientific and theological problems far more severe (it seems to me) than the suggestion that the Bible does not narrate a recent creation.
Another way to have a large, young universe which is less troublesome theologically is to assume that the speed of light was very high or infinite at creation, so that light from all the distant reaches of the universe reached the earth immediately or soon after creation; thereafter the speed of light decreased to its present value. This proposal was first made by Barry Setterfield, and has been entertained with favor by others.13 Unless the speed of light immediately dropped to its present value, it should (on this proposal) be higher as we look back into the past.
There is no observational evidence for this from sources at astronomical distances. Some important constants occurring in spectroscopy involve the speed of light (e.g., the fine-structure constant, and the proton magneton related to hyperfine structure).14 If this proposal were valid, we should be able to detect it by observing the fine and hyperfine structure in the spectra of stars and interstellar gas. This would be difficult at optical wavelengths because the detail gets lost in the motions of the gas. But at radio wavelengths the radiation is often due to transitions between fine and hyperfine energy levels. Thus the so-called 21-centimeter spectral line of hydrogen is a hyperfine transition, but it gives no evidence for a change in the speed of light as far out as we can detect it (several million light-years so far).15
It is true that Barry Setterfield has argued that measurements of the speed of light done on earth have decreased over the past couple of centuries. But this decrease (which is disputed in any case) amounts to a few percent at most, so he must assume that the speed was much faster early in earth's history than it is now in order to bring light here from the most distant objects in just a few thousand years.16
But if the speed of light was only thousands of times faster early in earth's history than it is now, then Einstein's famous equation E = mc2 means real trouble. With c (the speed of light) only a hundred times larger in patriarchal times, c2 will be 10,000 times larger than now. Thus the sun, converting mass to energy at the same rate as today will fry the earth with 10,000 times the radiation. Alternatively, masses were 10,000 times smaller to compensate, and neither humans or air molecules were massive enough to keep from floating away from the earth. Obviously neither of these were the case, so it does not appear that the speed of light has changed in such a way as to avoid an old universe.17
The Isotropic Radio Background
Let us continue with our discussion of cosmological data. The development of radio telescopes (powerful receivers with giant antennas) after World War 2 led in 1964 to an important discovery by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. At radio wavelengths, the sky is not black but gray. Some sort of radio radiation is coming to us from all directions. It is very uniform in intensity, and is thus called "isotropic." It does not vary in intensity daily or seasonally. Therefore it must not originate in our solar system, galaxy, or even galaxy cluster, as we are off-center in all of these structures.
The spectrum of this radiation has been measured over a wide range of wavelengths, from just under a meter to well under a millimeter, more than 500 times the range of our visible spectrum. Throughout this range, the spectrum conforms almost exactly to that of a so-called "blackbody" (an object that perfectly absorbs all radiation falling on it, and re-emits radiation in a spectrum that depends on the body's temperature only) at a temperature just below three degrees above absolute zero. This radiation is therefore commonly known as "the three-degree (cosmic) blackbody radiation."
The isotropic nature and spectrum of this radiation fit very nicely into the scheme of the "big-bang" cosmologies to be discussed later. In such cosmologies, the radiation is seen to be the remnant of radiation from the universe as a whole at a time shortly after the big bang, when the universe first became transparent. The radiation has subsequently cooled due to the enormous expansion of the universe since that time. Cosmologist George Gamow predicted such radiation on the basis of big-bang cosmology some twenty years before it was actually discovered.
Early in the 1960s Maarten Schmidt and other radio-astronomers discovered a new class of astronomical objects which they named quasi-stellar radio sources, or "quasars" for short. The longer name tells us a bit about them: the objects look like stars through an optical telescope, and they probably would never have been noticed had it not been for their unusual brightness at radio wavelengths.
But it is the spectra of quasars that reveal their significance for cosmology. Quasars have redshifts which are greater than those of the most distant known galaxies. If these redshifts are due to the expansion of the universe, and if the expansion rate is linear with distance, then the furthest known quasars are about ten billion light-years away. Furthermore, if quasars are as far away as their redshifts indicate, then they are the most powerful objects in the sky, somewhat straining our imaginations to dream up energy sources for them. Present proposals include matter- annihilation, stellar collisions, or enormous black holes to provide their energy.
Of course, it is possible that quasars are not really so far away, but that their redshifts have another explanation. Astronomer Halton Arp has suggested that quasars are fragments blown off by exploding galaxies, but so far he has been unable to locate any blueshifted quasars to represent fragments blown in our direction. This is a serious problem for his view. Moreover, a number of quasars show secondary, smaller redshifts in their spectra, suggesting that some of their light has been absorbed by gas clouds between us and them. Since these smaller redshifts are still quite large, it looks like the quasars really are at the enormous distances that their redshifts indicate.
The Steady-State Universe
Shortly after the end of World War 2, the English cosmologists Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle proposed what has come to be known as the steady-state cosmology. Accepting the evidence we have sketched above for a finite lifetime for stars and for a universe which is expanding, they yet claimed that the universe was infinitely large and had always existed. Instead of being static (like the model mentioned previously) or thinning out (like the big-bang cosmologies we will discuss below), the universe was proposed to be in a dynamic "steady state" in which the density of matter is kept constant by the expedient of adding new matter as the old matter moves away. This new matter is continually being added by a process of creation not the supernatural act of God, but the natural workings of an impersonal force. The new matter also serves to fuel new stars which are continually forming. Thus the stars we now see are only some billions of years old, but at any time back in the past (no matter how far) there have always been stars burning. The debris from burnt-out stars does not clog up the cosmos because the universal expansion carries it away.
Bondi, Gold and Hoyle claimed their cosmology was philosophically more satisfying than cosmologies with some sort of beginning (such as the big-bang cosmologies) because their theory satisfied the Perfect Cosmological Principle. This principle states that the universe, viewed on a sufficiently large scale, looks the same at all times, in all places, and in all directions. Competing cosmologies only satisfied the Cosmological Principle -- that the universe looks the same in all places and in all directions, but its appearance may change with time.
In spite of the fact that the steady-state theory postulated the violation of virtually every conservation law in physics (though all on a scale too small to detect locally), it enjoyed a considerable vogue until about 1965, when new observations began to press it severely. The most important of these observations were: (1) the three-degree blackbody radiation mentioned above, which was predicted by big-bang cosmologies but unexpected by the steady-state theory; (2) there are more quasars per unit volume at great distances (i.e., far back in the past) than nearby (recently), violating the Perfect Cosmological Principle.
Since 1965 Hoyle has retreated to a modified version of the steady-state theory which is beyond empirical test: we are in an expanding part of a universe that is steady-state on a scale so vast that we will never be able to observe it; other parts of the universe beyond observation are collapsing.18 With such a non-testable modification, few cosmologists are enthusiastic about the steady-state theory today.
Varieties of the Big-Bang Universe
Since the mid-sixties the big-bang theory has held the field as best fitting the available data of cosmology. Yet the big-bang theory is actually a group of several alternative theories. One way to sort them is: (1) the oscillating cosmology; (2) the single-bounce big-bang; and (3) the no-bounce big-bang. All three versions agree that the universe is presently expanding from an event which occurred some ten to twenty billion years ago the big-bang. At that time the universe began to expand from a highly compressed state with very great temperature (perhaps both density and temperature were infinite). Since then, the universe has been expanding and cooling. The quasars are some sort of object -- perhaps a special sort of galaxy -- that formed more easily earlier in the expansion. The blackbody radiation comes from even earlier, a remnant of the fireball at the time radiation and matter separated and the universe became relatively transparent.
The three varieties of big-bang cosmology differ on what the big bang was and what happened before it. The no-bounce theory was proposed first, in the 1920s, by George Lemaitre, a Belgian Roman Catholic astronomer, who apparently envisioned the big bang as the creation event. George Gamow later removed creation by suggesting that the big bang was rather a "big bounce." His one-bounce version proposed that the universe was a thin hydrogen gas from eternity past which gradually pulled itself together by gravity and then bounced; it has been expanding ever since, and will continue to do so forever. This theory was later modified into the oscillating cosmology, which sees the universe alternately expanding and contracting, with a big bang (bounce) every hundred billion years or so. It is this last version which is most popular today [1982], both among cosmologists and in popular presentations, where Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have been especially active in promoting it. Let us examine these varieties in reverse order.
Problems with the Oscillating Cosmology
Since the oscillating cosmology sees the universe as alternately expanding and contracting forever, its problems (naturally enough) involve: (1) making an expanding universe stop and begin contracting; (2) making a contracting universe bounce and begin expanding; and (3) doing both forever. As the oscillating cosmology shares problem (2) with Gamow's one-bounce cosmology, let us look at the other problems first.
Forever is a long time! If there is any process in the universe as a whole which causes it to lose energy at a non-vanishing rate, the oscillating universe would long ago have ceased to oscillate. So for this model to work, the universe cannot be a finite amount of matter in an open, infinite space; otherwise the radiation will be lost on every oscillation. If, then, we assume that the universe is a finite amount of matter in a closed 3-D space, which expands and contracts in a 4-D space, we must also assume that none of the energy of expansion "leaks away" into the 4-D space. This seems to be a very unlikely assumption; we have no examples of energy confined to a 1-D or 2-D space which do not leak into 3-D.
Can the universe, then, have an infinite amount of matter? Perhaps. But getting an infinite amount of matter which is spread over an infinite volume of space to coordinate its activities so as to expand and contract in unison seems to be a tall order for natural laws to accomplish! And if we postulate a Coordinator, we might as well have a Creator.
So much for problem (3). Problem (1) is easily solved theoretically; all we need is a sufficient density of matter for its self-gravity eventually to overcome the expansion and turn it into a contraction. This is like throwing a ball up in the air and waiting until gravity pulls it back to earth. On earth, however, we have plenty of gravity but not much velocity for a hand-thrown ball; so naturally, the ball soon stops rising and begins to fall. If, however, we increase the velocity sufficiently by (say) shooting it up in a rocket at a speed faster than seven miles per second, it won't come back. Alternatively, if we throw the ball up from the surface of a small enough planet (say, at 70 miles per hour from the surface of an asteroid less than 20 miles in diameter), the gravity won't be strong enough even to stop a ball moving that slowly.
Well, which is the case for our universe? Is the matter density high enough to stop its expansion eventually or not? At present, it looks like the answer is that the expansion will not stop. We have only been able to locate something like one to ten percent of the density needed to stop the expansion, and astronomers have counted the visible stars, the total matter in and around galaxies, and the invisible hydrogen gas between galaxies. About the only candidates left are black holes between galaxies, the possibility that neutrinos are not massless, or undiscovered elementary particles with certain exotic characteristics.
For the oscillating cosmology, problem (1) may therefore be soluble, though it looks bad at present. Problem (3) seems insoluble without making very special and unlikely assumptions. As Jastrow suggests, the favor that the oscillating cosmology presently enjoys is probably more the result of a "religious" motivation -- a desire to eliminate creation -- than to any evidential merit of the theory.19
Problems for the One-Bounce Cosmology
Gamow's one-bounce cosmology postulates that the universe has always existed. From eternity past to about 10 to 20 billion years ago, it was rather dull a mass of hydrogen gas gradually pulling itself together by means of gravity. At the big bang it bounced, and since then it has been expanding, forming galaxies, stars, planets, life, etc., all of which will one day "die," though the universe will continue to expand forever as a collection of dark and lifeless cinders. This theory has not been nearly a popular as the oscillating model, though perhaps it is reflected in T. S. Eliot's poem about the world ending, "not with a bang but a whimper."
The one-bounce theory avoids the oscillating cosmology's problem (3) with energy loss, as no eternally-repeating cycle is envisioned. It does have a problem of its own with eternity. It also avoids problem (1), as the one-bounce universe never stops expanding once it starts. It does share problem (2) with the oscillating cosmology, which we must examine.
Let us first look at the one-bounce theory's problem with eternity. Gamow postulates that for an infinite period of time the universe is contracting towards the big bounce. This involves a contraction rate that is zero at eternity past and gradually increases in just such a way as to take an infinite time to accomplish a finite action. This is easily arranged mathematically by means of an asymptotic function, but it is questionable whether it could ever be arranged physically without a supernatural Arranger. The slightest non-uniformity in the mass distribution will produce local contractions at a substantial rate instead, breaking the universe into smaller and smaller contracting regimes.
On to problem (2): can a contracting universe "bounce" so as to begin expanding? More seriously, can a universe which must contract to such high densities and temperatures as will produce the big-bang fireball, subsequently bounce? The cosmological equations of Einstein and Friedmann have a mathematical singularity at the hoped-for bounce point, indicating the temperature and density would go to infinity. Is this over-idealized? Attempts to avoid this problem by introducing irregularity do not appear to work.20 This agrees with our present knowledge of physical forces, where at very high densities gravity (which is only attractive) overcomes the repulsive elements in the nuclear and electromagnetic forces and pulls everything into a black hole from which there is no escape. Asimov would like to think that our whole universe is a black hole, but he has still not succeeded in explaining why its matter should "bounce" when highly compressed rather than forming still another black hole.21
Of course, one can postulate some unknown force that saves the theory just in the nick of time, like the old melodramas! by introducing a repulsion strong enough to overcome gravity but which comes into play only at densities and temperatures high enough to produce the big-bang fireball. Jastrow, however, argues that even this is insufficient.22 Such a repulsive force, he says, will have an equivalent potential energy E, and this energy, by Einstein's equivalence formula E=mc2, will function like a mass m. This mass, when added to the mass already present, will strengthen the gravitational force enough to overcome the repulsive force, so that the whole will still collapse into a black hole! Thus big-bang cosmologies employing a bounce seem to be fatally flawed unless one postulates a very special repulsive force that does not obey Einstein's mass-energy equivalence principle.
Lemaitre's No-Bounce Cosmology
The original form of the big-bang theory avoids the problems discussed above. By having creation at the big bang, neither a contraction nor a bounce is needed. The theory has enough flexibility to fit an ever-expanding universe or one which eventually contracts. Eternal activity is transferred "outside" the universe to God the Creator rather than remaining in the physical laws and causing the problems faced by the various non-supernatural cosmologies we have discussed.
A Note on the Gott-deSitter "Big Bubble" Universe
Just this January (1982) J. Richard Gott of Princeton University proposed a radically new cosmology which he hopes will replace the big-bang model as standard.23 As yet it is too early to tell whether his hope will be realized. Gott agrees that our "universe" began at the big bang without a previous contraction. But he suggests that our universe is only an expanding "bubble" in an infinitely old and large deSitter universe. This larger "outside" universe is postulated to contain nothing but radiation, but the radiation is at an unbelievably high temperature and pressure (5x1031 deg K and 3x1093 g/cm3). The matter in our universe, Gott says, condensed out from radiation entering the bubble at its beginning. The bubble will continue to expand forever. The high temperature and pressure of the big bang is a reflection of the conditions in the "outside" universe. The isotropy of our universe and its big bang is also a reflection of the isotropy of radiation in the deSitter universe.
The mathematics and geometry of this proposal are sufficiently complex to make physical intuitions and quick critiques difficult. For instance, it would seem to me that the enormous external radiation pressure would inhibit expansion of the bubble; perhaps this could be solved by having the bubble boundaries be relativistic horizons. Nevertheless, let us note that to avoid a Creator, this cosmology must postulate the existence of an infinite and eternal exterior "force" to explain our visible universe. The big difference between this model and creation is the impersonal nature of its "creator," the deSitter universe. But it is just this impersonality which raises the question of whether an isotropic and energetic radiation field can really explain the organized complexity that we know exists in our actual universe.
We have completed our rather sketchy survey of the data and theories of modern cosmology. What can we say in conclusion?
What does it mean to choose the simplest hypothesis? Surely, not to choose one so simple that it doesn't fit the data. And the data of cosmology cannot finally exclude the fact that the universe we actually inhabit contains life, and humans, and the Bible. The evidence of extremely complex design found in living things25 (especially in the human mind), and the evidence of the moral sphere in humans,26 argue that this infinite, eternal power behind the universe is more like a mind than a force. Though well outside the scope of this paper, there is quite adequate evidence that this mind is the God of the Bible.27
How do our conclusions square with the Bible? Like the cosmological evidence, the Bible pictures the universe as immeasurably large (Jer 31:37; 33:22; Ps 8:3-4) but apparently finite (Ps 147:4). It is also described as created by the infinite, personal God of the Bible (Gen 1:1 and elsewhere) and running down (Ps 102:26-27; Heb 1:10-12). The major problem regards the age of the universe. The Bible has been traditionally understood to teach a recent creation, and this is the main reason for the strength of the young-earth creationist movement in evangelical circles today. Yet it is imperative that we realize that the Bible itself nowhere indicates that the earth is young, that the days of Genesis 1 are literal and consecutive, or that the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 should be added up to give a complete chronology. As I have sought to deal with these matters in my book Genesis One and the Origin of the Earth (see endnote 24), I refer the reader there for a more detailed discussion. An earth and universe some billions of years old is not taught explicitly in the Bible, but it is not in disagreement with a fair and reasonable interpretation of the biblical creation account.
Note added in 1997 reprint: I have made little attempt
to update this discussion, and a lot has happened observationally and
in 15 years. The accumulation of further evidence for a big bang has
well dispatched the steady-state theory, and the oscillating and
big-bang models have been abandoned. Some variety of a big bang in
our universe started 10-20 billion years ago now dominates the field,
many cosmologists seem to be hoping it is some kind of bubble in an
eternal universe. Excellent discussions of this material can be found
two recent books by Hugh Ross.28
Reference Notes
1. Hannes Alfven, "Cosmology, Myth or Science?" in Cosmology, History and Theology, ed. Wolfgang Yourgrau and Allen D. Breck (New York and London: Plenum Press, 1977), pp 12-13.
2. Robert C. Newman, "Pascal's Wager Re-examined," Bulletin of the Evangelical Philosophical Society 4 (1981), 61-67; tract You Bet Your Life! (Hatfield, PA: IBRI, 1991).
3. Excepting luminous gas -- which occurs in galaxies -- and quasars, which may or may not be a special type of galaxy.
4. A light-minute is the distance light travels in one minute, about eleven million miles. A more common unit for measuring distances in astronomy is the light-year, about six trillion miles.
5. The explosive power of nuclear weapons is measured by the equivalent weight of TNT needed to produce an equal blast. A megaton is one million tons.
6. Harold Camping, "What is the Size of the Universe?" (Oakland, CA: Family Radio, 1981).
7. Parry Moon and D. E. Spencer, "Binary Stars and the Velocity of Light," Journal of the Optical Society of America 43 (1953), 639.
8. Harold Slusher, Science and Scripture (Mar-Apr 71), 22; John C. Whitcomb, Jr. and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1961), 369-70; Robert E. Kofahl and Kelly L. Seagraves, The Creation Explanation (Wheaton: Harold Shaw, 1975), 154.
9. Jean-Pierre Vigier, "Cosmological Implications of Non-Velocity Redshifts A Tired-Light Mechanism" in Cosmology, History and Theology, 141-57.
10. Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978), 27-28.
11. Robert C. Newman, "Hierarchical Cosmologies: A New Trend?" Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 24 (1972), 4-8; judging from the 25 years since this article appeared, they didn't become a trend!
12. Whitcomb and Morris, Genesis Flood, 369; Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976), 65-66; Kofahl and Seagraves (Creation Explanation, 154) recognize problems here; so does Paul M. Steidl, The Earth, the Stars and the Bible (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1979), 222-23.
13. Trevor Norman and Barry Setterfield, The Atomic Constants, Light and Time (Australia: Flinders University, 1987); Steidl, Earth, Stars and Bible, 223-24.
14. Donald H. Menzel, Fundamental Formulas of Physics, 2 vols. (New York: Dover, 1960), 1:149, 151; 2:454, 460, 545.
15. Fred Hoyle, Astronomy and Cosmology (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1975), 586-87.
16. Norman and Setterfield, Atomic Constants, Light and Time.
17. Robert C. Newman, "An Ancient Historical Test of the Setterfield-Norman Hypothesis," Creation Research Society Quarterly 28 (1991), 77-78.
18. Fred Hoyle, Galaxies, Nuclei and Quasars (New York: Harper and Row, 1965).
19. Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, 27-28, 111-16.
20. Robert H. Dicke, Gravitation and the Universe (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1970), 66-67.
21. Isaac Asimov, A Choice of Catastrophes (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 68-69.
22. Robert Jastrow, Until the Sun Dies (New York: W. W. Norton, 1977), 28-29.
23. D. E. Thomsen, "Cosmic Cauldron Bubbles Up Universe," Science News 121 (1982), 116; M. Mitchell Waldrop, "Bubbles Upon the River of Time," Science 215 (1982), 1082-83.
24. Some of the considerations for a detailed age are discussed in chapter one of Robert C. Newman and Herman J. Eckelmann, Jr., Genesis One and the Origin of the Earth (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1977; reprint Hatfield, PA: IBRI, 1991).
25. e.g., Encyclopaedia Britannica (1970) s.v. "Life" by Carl Sagan, notes that the information content of the simplest living cell is equivalent to 100 million pages of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
26. On brain complexity, see the concessions by Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden (New York: Random House, 1977), 46, 212; on the moral sphere in humans, see C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1953), book I: "Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe."
27. See, e.g., John Warwick Montgomery, ed., Evidence for Faith: Deciding the God Question Dallas: Probe/Word, 1991); Robert C. Newman, ed., The Evidence of Prophecy (Hatfield, PA: IBRI, 1994).
28. Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, 2nd ed.
CA: Promise Publishing, 1991); The Creator and the Cosmos, 2nd
(Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1995).
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Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization/ Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometer
An Ion Spec HiResMALDI-FTMS was installed at Bowdoin January 24, 2002. Bowdoin is the only undergraduate institution with a high field FTMS
What is it?
A Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTMS) is a high resolution instrument that traps ions in a magnetic field. The ion cyclotron frequency, which is a function of the ion's mass and charge, can be measured with high precision and accuracy. The high resolution mass measurements can be used to identify compounds based upon their elemental composition. The ion trapping capabilities of an FTMS instrument can be used to study gas-phase ion-molecule reactions and probe molecular structures using ion dissociations (MS/MS).
Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) is a technique used to ionize very small quantities of biomolecules (peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides) and polymers. When coupled with an FTMS, these materials may be characterized using the high resolution, MS/MS, and ion-molecule reaction capabilities of FTMS.
More Product Information from the Manufacturer>>
Example project using this instrument:
Noah Paul Gardner, '05
The Development of a Microscale Tissue Extraction and Delipidation Procedure for the Analysis of Crustacean Neuronal Tissues using Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry
An Honors Paper for the Department of Chemistry.
Matrix assisted laser/desorption ionization (MALDI) Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) has been used to study the neuropeptide distributions in nerve cells from the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) of the Maine lobster, Homarus americanus. Previous studies were conducted using direct tissue analysis involving peptide extraction on the face of the ionization surface. In this study, a microextraction and delipidation procedure was designed to improve signal intensity and remove contaminants (phospholipids and salts). Two different microextraction and delipidation procedures were attempted during the course of the project. The second procedure, which used a tissue extraction solvent of methanol, nanopure water and acetic acid and a delipidation solvent of chloroform, resulted in efficient extraction of neuropeptides from both the sinus gland of H. americanus and the pericardial organ of Pugettia producta. Analysis of one-twentieth of the total extract resulted in spectra with signal-to-noise ratios comparable to or better than direct tissue spectra. Permethylation reactions conducted on dried extracts showed a reduction in Asp-Xxx cleavages, which were abundant in direct tissue and extract spectra. The permethylated extracts showed a complete permethylation of all known neuropeptides in the H. americanus sinus gland.


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MANTOLOKING, N.J. - March 7, 2013 --Gov. Chris Christie says the latest winter storm to hit New Jersey wasn't nearly as bad as had been feared.
He says there were no reports of major damage.
But the storm did flood hundreds of homes in Atlantic City, and forced road closures in many shore towns. Between 400 and 500 homes in the gambling resort suffered flooding, many of which had still not been repaired since Superstorm Sandy hit in October.
Pounding surf broke through a temporary dune in Mantoloking during the early-morning high tide, closing Route 35 for eight hours.
And a downed power line touched off a fire in a vacant store in Sea Bright, which also flooded.
Northern New Jersey could get 2 to 4 inches of snow from Thursday night into Friday morning.